We're listening in again on Jesus' prayer in John 17. Today,
I'll be limiting myself to the first little bit of His prayer. What I want to
do is to take a closer look at what Jesus has to say about eternal life. So,
first, listen.
When Jesus had spoken these words,
he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, 'Father, the hour has come; glorify
your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over
all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.' (John 17.1-3)
Jesus explains why He was sent. It's 'to give eternal life'.
Jesus' coming isn't about being saved, having your sins forgiven, getting to
heaven or any of that. Those are all secondary matters, means to a greater end.
Jesus' coming is about life, giving life to people who don't have it, the life
of eternity.
Jesus' gift of eternal life is intended to undo the evil
that death has caused. Death is not about biology. Death is about destroyed
relationships. A person under the curse of death has his relationships with
God, with others and even with himself destroyed. That doesn't mean that he has
no relationships. But it does mean that those relationships just don't work,
not the way that they are supposed to. One result of this is a loneliness that
just doesn't go away. That's what death is about.
Jesus has come to change that. So, this eternal life isn't
about something that happens later. It's about something that starts now and
only gets better. The person who has been blessed with this new life is a
person whose relationships are changing, growing, developing.
In this part of the prayer Jesus focuses on the source of
all of that. The heart of eternal life is getting to know God.
And this is eternal life, that they
know you the only true God.
Eternal life is about getting to know this other person,
God, better, more deeply, as you walk together day by day dealing with what
comes at you. It starts in the here and now, and it never ends.
So, how does this work? How does someone get to know God in
the way that Jesus' intends? The first thing to understand is that you cannot
get to know God unless He lets you. He must reveal Himself to you. Now, that
shouldn't be all that surprising. The same is true of any relationship. So,
consider marriage. A wife can glean some things about her husband by simply
watching him. But, she won't understand him, not really, unless he explains why
he acts in the way that he does. He needs to reveal himself, his inner self, to
his wife if she is to know him, if the relationship is going to be real and
satisfying. In this we imitate God. He needs to reveal Himself, His inner self,
if we are going to enjoy a real and satisfying relationship. He must reveal
Himself if we are going to get to know Him.
So, just as a husband and a wife in a good marriage will
both watch each other and explain themselves to each other, we need to do the
same in getting to know God. So, first, we need to watch God as He acts. The
Bible is the record of some of what God did in the past. It is an important
resource, but it's not what I'm talking about here. Our God still acts. You
need to see what He is doing now. You need to notice what He is doing in your
life. He is revealing Himself to you when He does these things. This is a plea
for a little reflection. In different ways you need to be asking, and then
answering, a simple question as you experience life. 'What is God doing?'
Whatever it is, you need to be watching Him.
Now for the second step. And this is where the Bible fits.
Scripture is important if you are going to get to know God. In fact, it is indispensable.
In the Bible, God explains Himself. Just like that good husband, He explains
why He acts as He does. And He does that in lots of different ways. Sometimes
He just comes out and gives a list of things. Consider this where God describes
Himself to Moses.
The Lord,
the Lord, a God merciful and
gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth
generation.
But God doesn't just give a list of qualities about Himself.
He also shows us those qualities in action. We've been reading about David.
Why? God is revealing His character in the events we've been reading about. So,
we can get to know God by watching Him in action and listening to His
explanation of why He acts in the way that He does. It's all in the Bible. And
that's why learning what's in that book is so important.
But even the Bible alone is not sufficient. It's important,
indispensable but not sufficient. You need more. You need the Spirit. Watching
God at work in your life and applying what you learn from the Bible will result
in some understanding, but there will still be lots of gaps, large and
significant gaps. So, you need to pray. As you do that, the Spirit will clarify
things. He will help you to understand what God is doing and why. He will fill
in the gaps. As you pursue these things - watching, learning, praying - you
will come to know God better.
Getting to know God is a gift. We know that it's a gift
because eternal life is a gift. And yet, getting to know God calls for a good
bit of effort. Watching God. Working to understand what God is doing by using
what you know from the Bible. Praying so that the Spirit will make it clear.
Eternal life is a gift that requires some effort if you are going to enjoy it.
Again, it's like being married.
Now, a question. Why bother? Why invest the effort to get to
know God well?
Well, there are different answers to a question like that. I
could opt for the good, old fashioned standby. You do it because you are
commanded to do it. But, there are problems with that. Opting for the 'do it
because it's commanded' answer says something about God. It makes Him into
someone who just gives orders and arbitrary ones at that. Is He really like
that? I don't think so.
Here's a better answer. According to what Jesus prayed,
getting to know God is the point of His coming, the point of our religion. So,
being a disciple of Jesus must include working to get to know God. To act
otherwise is to say, 'I'll be satisfied with just the getting into heaven part,
thank you. You can keep the rest.' But can you do that? Can a person pick and choose
what parts of the Gospel he wants and chuck the rest? Somehow that sounds
really wrong.
Here's what I think is an even better answer to our
question, 'Why bother getting to know God?' It has two parts. Here's the first
part. Knowing God means understanding life. And the person who understands life
handles it better. He responds better to what happens, both the good and the
bad. Here, I will speak out of my own experience. Most of you will remember
this. After Linda died, I stood before you and told you that her death was part
of God's good and wise and loving plan for my life. I said that because I
believed it. I could have responded very differently. I could have responded
with lots of confusion, saying something like, 'Why is this happening to me? What
is God doing? I don't understand.' It's possible that I wouldn't have said that
but rather tried to hide my confusion from you, covering it over with some
religious‑sounding words. But my confusion would have revealed itself to you
one way or other. Then, as I tried to be your pastor I would have been a
hypocrite. And how would that have been good for your souls? How would it have
been good for my soul? I could have skipped the confusion phase and gone
directly to being angry at God for what He had done. That could have very
easily developed into a deep bitterness. Or I could have been so overwhelmed
that I gave myself over to despair. But I did none of those things. There was
pain to be sure (and there still is), but I was able to say what I did instead.
And there is a reason why I could. Here's a favorite verse from Daniel.
… the people who know their God
shall stand firm and take action.
I was able to stand firm and take that action of believing
and saying what I did, because I knew God. That's why investing the time and
effort getting to know Him makes sense. Knowing God means understanding life.
And the person who understands life handles it better.
But that's only the first part of this answer. The second
part is simply this. Those who know God and show that in their actions make Him
look as good as He actually is. A Christian who is overwhelmed by confusion,
bitterness or despair doesn't do that. How we live is the most important and
most powerful evangelistic tool that we have. We need to work at living well so
that we will be effective before the watching world. We need to work at getting
to know God.
So, to put these two parts together, and to steal something
from the Catechism, it makes sense to work at knowing God because that's how we
are able to enjoy Him and thus to glorify Him.
For some of you what I've done is simply to remind you of
what you already know and are working at. You are investing the effort and
therefore are getting to know God. Good. Keep at it so that you will enjoy and
glorify Him. But for some of you this sermon is a call from the Spirit to re-evaluate
your priorities. You're not working much at getting to know God. That's not
good. Failure here could be fatal. So, if this is you, repent and believe the
Gospel, including the part about the point of the Gospel, that you would know
God.