Judas had gone. Only those disciples who would become the apostles of the early Church remained with Jesus. His ‘last words before death’ (John 13:31-17:36) would be etched into the apostles’ minds and hearts. Jesus started by talking about glory. The glory of God is the ultimate effect of God in all He does. It is the goal of His nature and the pleasure of all that He has created. In these verses Jesus said that the glory of God is clearly seen in His glorious atonement on the cross and at the resurrection. Although Jesus had laid aside His eternal glory in order to be crucified (Philippians 2:7-8), He was still God and that would be seen on the third day after His death.
 
Although we may think of Jesus dying for our benefit, His ultimate reason was to glorify the Father: so that every person and all of creation might see how great God is (Romans 8:19-21). It is no accident that Jesus uses the word ‘glory’, in its various forms, 5 times in these two verses. He wanted the apostles to start their task as church planters with the confidence that He is forever the glorious God, and that the gospel most clearly displays His glorious nature. Without that glory ahead of them, the church could never have sustained persecution nor would its message be any better than pagan ideologies or obsolete religion. If Jesus were only a mere man, there would be no gospel to proclaim, but if it was obvious that God had glorified Him as Divine, then the apostles would know for certain that He was the ever living God. It is the glory of God which gives us confidence and a totally non-self-centred goal for our living and dying. The realisation of the glory of God is the goal of the church (1 Peter 1:7; 4:13).
 
Our Christian lives can hardly function when we forget that God’s great plan is centred on the revelation of His glory and not on meeting our needs. It is God who is the focus of His creation and not the creation itself. The apostles would understand that as time went on. Probably only two of them died a natural death; the Apostle Paul was spurred on in his ministry by knowing ‘that I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.’ (Romans 8:18). Whatever your present joys or sorrows, God’s ultimate purpose is to display His glory so that everybody will be able to see how great God is. The alternative is that we proclaim our own joys and sorrows and encourage everybody to think how great we are. The difference is determined by a sight of the glory of God.