John 17:1-5

Turn in your Bibles to John chapter 17, please

In my last sermon two weeks ago I introduced what I hope, Lord willing, will be a series of sermons from John chapter 17. Two weeks ago I went into some detail on why I would do that and what John 17 is. Since there may be some people who did not hear that sermon, I will summarize briefly. For those of you who were there two weeks ago, maybe a little repetition will be good, and I’ll throw in a few new bits. See if you can spot them.

John chapter 17 is a precious chapter, in a precious book. The gospels tell us that Jesus prayed a lot. He seems to have spent a good portion of his nights praying. This chapter is precious because, unlike almost all of His other prayers, what Jesus said to God in this prayer was written down for us to read. It is said that this is the chapter that John Knox would ask to have read to him when he was on his deathbed.

Here in this chapter, Jesus our High Priest prayed for His disciples (and also explicitly for us who come later) so that they could hear Him pray for them. We can read this as an example of how Jesus is praying for us, as our intercessor, right now in the presence of God the Father. We can assume that the thing He prays here is what he has continued to pray through the generations.

This chapter also gives us a glimpse into the relationship between two of the persons of the Godhead, Jesus and the Father. We will see today, how this prayer makes the doctrine of the Trinity, so crucial to our lives as Christians now.

All of this makes studying and drawing deeply from this chapter something that I desire to do more of. I want to be able to say something similar to what John Knox said of the chapter, “Read where I first put my anchor down, in the seventeenth chapter of John.” I can’t say where I “first” put my anchor down, but I do want to consciously put my anchor firmly into this ground.

The chapter has four sections: verses 1-5 are an opening petition for HImself, that God would glorify Him now that His hour had come, verses 6-19 contains three petitions for His disciples, verses 20-24 include us “for those also who believe in Me through [the disciples] word[s]” into the petitions of verses 6-19, and verses 25-26 are a closing reaffirmation of what he said in the whole prayer.

I think that gets all of us ready to hear the first section. I’ll read verses 1-5. Let’s pray.

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This morning I’m going to dive in depth into verse 3. From what we just read, in verse 1, Jesus asks the Father to glorify HIm for three reasons, because of their relationship, because Jesus’s hour had come, and so that Jesus would have what he needed to glorify the Father.

Then in verse 2 Jesus recounts to the Father how He gave Jesus three gifts: first, power and authority over all flesh, second, a particular people out of the whole of humanity, and third, eternal life to be given to His particular people.

Then verse 3,

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Today we will look at three points from this verse:

  1. How does Jesus define “eternal life”?
  2. What does He mean by “know”? And
  3. What is the significance of Jesus saying “know You, and Me”?

These are all interrelated of course, so I may repeat myself some this morning.

Imagine you are having a conversation with someone. What would you expect as their answer if you asked “Do you want to live forever?” I would expect the answer to be “yes”. There will be some cases where they might answer “No.” Maybe if they are in the midst of terrible pain or struggle or in the midst of defeat to addictive behavior. But I think generally the answer would be, “Sure, I don’t want to die, if my life would continue to be good.”

When we lived in San Francisco, Jenelle worked with a number of elderly ladies who needed companions for going to the store, or a restaurant, or just to have someone who would listen. And I think they would all say at times “Don’t get old.” I think that is a comment about the “life” (I’m using air quotes there) the “life” they find themselves in. Often their daily lives could be distressing and dehumanizing. Their friends are gone, they can’t take care of themselves, they are in constant pain, people are constantly trying to take advantage of them, etc. etc. It isn’t that they don’t want to live. It is that sometimes their specific life looks so bad that death seems like it might be better.

But, let’s step back from our hypothetical question for a moment. What do we as Christians actually believe happens after our death? Revelation 20:11-15 describes the great white throne judgement. The sea, Death and Hades gave up their dead to walk before the throne of judgement. Everyone will be conscious/alive for judgement. But those whose names are not in the Book of Life, Revelation 20:15 says will be thrown into the lake of fire which verse 14 calls “the second death,” but that doesn’t mean that the people in the lake will just end. They will be in the lake, consciously, forever. Jesus in parables often talk about being thrown in the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth forever. So we actually know two things. Everyones “number of days” will last for eternity. But, as Jenelle’s ladies warned her, “life” can seem like life or “life” can seem like death. Those in the lake of fire have it infinitely worse than those ladies saying “don’t get old,” but I think we can learn from them about the nature of life.

Life, the eternal life that Jesus is talking about here, is not about quantity. It is not about the number of days. We all will have an infinite number. Jesus is talking about life in terms of quality. “Quality of life” is a common phrase when we are talking about things like cancer and illness. We make decisions about trading quality of life for length of life or maybe we decide not to make that trade.

I’m here to say that this passage says we have a decision to make now about when we will start living a life of better quality. In verse 2 Jesus said that God had given him a particular people for him to give eternal life. Did he mean in the future? Or did he mean now? I have trouble distinguishing present and future tense in English. But I don’t think we will be too wrong to think that Jesus is giving eternal life to his disciples in his presence. Right then.

We do not have to wait for the eternal life, the good quality life, that Jesus promised. The Christian life does not have to be about holding on with white knuckles until the real good thing comes. The Christian’s life is not about being grim and stoic. The Christian life is not about marking time waiting for good quality life to come - in the future. I am not saying that our life will be without trouble. I am not saying that life will be heaven on earth for us. What I am saying is that we can choose to have a better quality life. Now.

If eternal life is about quality, and I think this passage says that it is, we can take advantage of that quality now by listening to what Jesus says next.

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

“That they may know You”

Normally when we think of eternal life we think of “going to Heaven.” Heaven is not JUST a place of Peace, Purity and Joy. It is all of those things. But, that is not all. It is also the place where we will be in God’s presence. In fact, it will be a place of Peace, Purity and Joy specifically because God will be there. And when we get there we will be in the same place as God. And when we are there we will get to be around Him, and see Him, and know Him more and more.

That is in fact what this verse says. It doesn’t matter how good things are around us, knowledge of God is the best. It is what makes eternal life have quality.

We were given the Bible and the Holy Spirit so that we can know God now. Not later but now. That is why we have the Bible. It isn’t just a rulebook. I might go farther and say that it isn’t a rule book. It is the revelation of the character of God. God wants us to know Him. When we study His commandments we will learn His character and when we follow his commandments we will have His character.

But what does it mean to know God. I pulled a few texts from different places in the Bible to help us see the range of things the knowing God means.

Let’s start in the prophets. Habakkuk 2:12-14, reads

12Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed
And founds a town with [injustice]!
13Is it not indeed from the Lord of hosts
That peoples toil for fire,
And nations grow weary for nothing?
14For the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea.

If a person builds a life on sin (bloodshed, violence, injustice) rather than the knowledge of the Lord, then they will grow weary chasing after nothing. Toiling for nothing is not what the Lord of hosts intends for his creatures. Toiling for nothing is the opposite of a quality life. The world is headed toward being filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. If you wear yourself out over things that are not knowledge of God then whatever you build will crash down because there is an unstoppable march toward God’s kingdom. Or in the language from our John verse, living to know the glory of God will guide you away from toiling for nothing, and toward a good quality life - eternal life.

On the flip side Hosea talks about how lack of knowledge leads to a poor quality of life, Hosea 4:6 reads

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being My priest.
Since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.

Here is a frightening prophetic word. If you forget (or lack knowledge) of the law of your God, God will forget your children (or God will not know your children). Hosea says that knowing the law of your God is the key to good or poor quality of life. If you know the law of God you will be remembered and so will have eternal life.

And if you reject knowledge (of God) He will reject you from being His priest. Last time we talked about our reason for living is to glorify God. That is what priests do. But if you reject knowledge of God he will reject you as a priest and so you will not be able to live out your reason for living. That is the opposite of eternal life, not even having meaning.

In Jeremiah 31:34 we get another example of the interplay between knowledge and eternal life:

“They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Isn’t that a great picture of good quality life, for I will forgive their iniquity? And what does it look like? They will all know the Lord. No one will need to be told to, because they all will. And they will all know the Lord because He will forgive their iniquity. Did you notice that? It is a causal chain. They will not need to teach “know the Lord” FOR (because) they will all know FOR (because) I will forgive them.

I see this when Jesus says “This is eternal life, that they may know You,” he is saying both that eternal life is the result of knowing God, and eternal life also causes knowledge of God. It is both.

But what are we talking about when we say know God? Are we just talking about knowing information about Him? Is it just about knowing he exists? Is it just about being able to quote the commandments? Is it just about knowing what He did?

The apostle Paul has an answer for that. In Romans 1:21 he writes.

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Knowing apparently isn’t just knowing. Paul is talking about people who have clearly seen the creation and the creation reveals God. So they know God through the creation, but they did not honor Him.

Paul here is saying just because you know what God has done, just because you’ve seen His creation, that doesn’t mean that you “know” Him and honor him. You may still speculate about other ways the creation could have happened, or look for other meaning out of the creation. You may still have a foolish heart that is not interested in seeing the light.

Knowing God is not just about information and facts. That is definitely part of it. Memorize scripture, learn what He did in scripture, learn his commandments. But also honor Him by caring who he is. Honor Him by caring WHO he is. Know Him.

And what does the Bible say about how we can know God?

John 1:18:

No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

I’m going to have a number of texts here from John. He is quite adamant about this idea. The idea that we can know the Father, only through knowing the Son. No one has seen God at any time. But Jesus has seen the Father and Jesus is the Word. I love John 1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. Wow!

We talk about two kinds of revelation. General Revelation and SPecial Revelation. General Revelation is that God revealed himself through the creation that He made, Special Revelation is that He revealed Himself through His words that are here in scripture.

But we have both because of Jesus. Without Jesus neither revelation would exist. God spoke and the world came into being. God spoke. He said words. Jesus is the Word. Without Jesus nothing would have been created. God spoke and His Word is here in Scripture. His Word, Jesus.

Without Jesus we cannot know God. There would be no revelation without Jesus. From verse 18 He (Jesus) has explained Him (the Father)

Jesus himself says in John 14:7:

“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”

Jesus is saying that because he came down we have witnesses that have seen God. God can be known because Jesus became man. Otherwise no one ever would have seen God.

Earlier Jesus had just finished a particular sermon and He had said some things that caused a lot of people to leave. And Jesus turned to His disciples in John 6:67–68:

67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” 68 Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.

You have the words of eternal life. Jesus’s words make it possible to know God and so they are the words that can give eternal life.

From 1 John 5:20:

And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

Jesus has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. And again in this verse we see that equation that God, knowing him, this is the true God and eternal life. Eternal life is when we know God and we can only know God if we know Jesus.

And let’s be clear. In John 17:3 Jesus is clearly claiming to be God.

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Jesus is God. Knowing Him is critical to having eternal life. If he was not God we would not need to know Him, but we do need to know him or we cannot know the Father. This is where we differ from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. There is no room for compromise on this.

I want to end by looking at one more text from the prophets that I think summarizes what I am trying to say this morning. From Jeremiah 9:23–24

23 Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; 24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.

Don’t boast in wisdom or strength or riches. Not because these are bad things. Wisdom and strength and riches are all excellent things, until they are things that you boast in. God says boast in this, that you understand and know Him. That he is the LORD. That he exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth. Wouldn’t receiving the benefits of lovingkindness, justice and righteousness make for a quality life. God delights in these things. Know God. Delight in these things. Live in these things and you will be able to begin living eternal life today.

But don’t get too far ahead of yourself. We will not truly know everything there is to know about God while we are here on earth. But even that bit, that little bit, we are able to know will improve our quality of life today. And even that little bit that we can know about God is worth more than any amount of personal wisdom, strength or riches, so concentrate on that little bit you know about God, so he will delight in you.

I’m going to close with one of Paul’s benedictions from the end of Romans 11.

33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! 34 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? 35 Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? 36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever.

Amen.

Preached at Holiness Fellowship on April 11, 2021.