a. Two reasons why I approach this topic with fear and trembling
i. This is my last time to preach at ABC before we leave.
ii. The loftiness of this passage
1. NT scholars don’t begin to study John until the end of their career
2. All passages are inspired, but some are like soaring peaks in the mountain range of Scripture
3. Topics discussed: The Trinity, the ultimate goal of human life
b. J. I. Packer, preface to Knowing God, two kinds of interest in Christian theology:
i. Sitting on the balcony of a house overlooking a road below. Those on the balcony can have a theoretical conversation about what the road is made of, who built it, where it might be going (merely onlookers)
ii. Walking on the road itself as a traveler. All the theoretical problems are practical. Does not deny the validity of the theoretical questions, but it means that they are not merely theoretical questions. All of the questions have practical implications.
c. John 3:16 – Everyone has heard of this verse, but how many people know what eternal life is?
a. In the garden: Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; AND the Tree of Life
i. Knowledge and life are both present side-by-side
ii. Adam and Eve have access to eternal life (the tree) and they have intimate knowledge of God (relationship)
b. Adam and Eve were not content with their knowledge of God, and instead sought forbidden knowledge
c. They did receive the knowledge they sought: they knew what good and evil were, but . . .
d. The word of the Lord came true: “on the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17)
i. Spiritual death occurred immediately – cut off from God’s presence and henceforth unable to keep His commands; lost knowledge of God
ii. The process of physical death started immediately but was not completed until years later
iii. God sends the man and the woman out of the garden so that they will not eat from the Tree of Life and so live forever (Gen 3:22)
e. The entire Bible is, in one sense, the story of the return back to the place of perfect knowledge of God and eternal life
a. The Lord revealed himself to Israel and allowed them to know Him
i. At the foot of Sinai: “you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples . . . and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:5-6)
b. The Lord promised even greater knowledge of Him in the new covenant
i. “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord” (Jer 31:33-34)
c. Habakkuk spoke of the same time:
i. “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14)
a. Jesus has given various signs to reveal His identity, and now with His ministry complete, His “hour” has finally come
b. At the Last Supper Jesus announced the beginning of the “new covenant” (Synoptics)
c. Also, at the Last Supper, Jesus gives His “farewell discourse” (John 14-17)
d. John 17 is his “high priestly prayer” as the conclusion to the farewell discourse
i. Jesus prays for Himself and for His followers
ii. It is as much revelation as it is intercession
a. Jesus defines eternal life: Read John 17:3
b. Jesus announces that because of what He has done and will do, mankind can once again enjoy “eternal life” as a result of “knowing God”
c. Knowledge and life are once again brought back together.
d. Carson: “Eternal life is not so much everlasting life as personal knowledge of the Everlasting one.” What makes it eternal life is the nature of the one who is known.
e. Twin character of this knowledge
i. Knowledge of God is Propositional
1. Involves believing correct truths about God
2. Ex.: John says that those who do not believe that Jesus has come in the flesh do not know God (1 John)
ii. Knowledge of God is Personal
1. Hebrew: sexual intercourse = “to know”
2. Mere intellectual knowledge is not true knowledge of God (even the demons know that He is God)
3. Loving God, pouring out to Him your griefs, sharing with Him your joys, realizing that He is always near you
f. Eternal life is something that we can know now, not just something that awaits us: like a river that widens and deepens as we go along (so Spurgeon)
g. Application
i. Knowing God is essential to enter into eternal life (the way that we are saved)
1. Faith in God is the beginning of our eternal life
2. Those who persist in unbelief remain in a state of death
3. Believe in Christ today so that you may live!
4. Some people want the gifts of God, but they don’t want God. They want eternal life but they don’t want God. Imagine if a girl went out with a guy not because she liked him but simply because she wanted a free meal. If someone I didn’t like gave me a boat, I could use the boat and enjoy it whether I liked the person or not. But eternal life is not a gift that can ever be separated from God, because the essence of eternal life is God Himself. So if the idea of knowing God does not interest you then there is a good chance that you don’t have eternal life.
ii. Knowing God is essential to growing as a Christian
1. Paul: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord . . . I consider them rubbish” (Phil 3:8)
2. “Rubbish” = “dung”
3. Not pining away after those things that we have lost or that we want.
4. Rather, we don’t even think about them because we are so taken by the joy of growing in our knowledge of God. It gives us a secret happiness, a sense of purpose, to be rightly related to our Creator.
a. Who is this God whom we know?
b. Trinity:
i. There is only one God. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not the Father.
ii. There are three persons, but only one essence
c. “the only true God” = the Father
i. The Father’s nature
1. “True” – Not vain speculations about God; must be in accordance with the truth He has revealed about Himself
2. “Only” – Faith is satisfied with God alone
ii. The Father’s role:
1. The Father “sent” the Son
2. He instructs the Son what to do and what to say (functional headship; ontological equality) (John 8:28)
3. Stayed with the Son during His earthly mission (John 8:29)
4. He raised the Son from the dead (Rom 8:11)
d. “Jesus Christ whom you have sent”
i. Before the world began, the Father begot the Son
ii. The deity of the Son is evident because He is placed here alongside the Father (elsewhere John is also very clear on this point)
iii. “whom you have sent”
1. The Son willingly forfeited His divine glory by emptying Himself and becoming a servant as a man
2. The One who is life subjected Himself to death as a man in order that man may not have to die.
3. The One who had been worshipped by hundreds of thousands of angels in splendor was spat upon by crude Roman soldiers.
4. The One who knew no sin was made sin itself so that we might be saved from God’s wrath.
5. The degree of His abasement was matched only by the degree of His glory and exaltation when He arose on the third day victorious over sin, Satan, and death.
e. The Holy Spirit
i. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son
ii. Where is the Spirit in this verse?
1. A main theme in John 14-16 is the sending of the Holy Spirit
2. The Spirit is the One who gives this life: “It is the Spirit who gives life” (John 6:63)
3. The only way one can be a child of God is by receiving the Spirit: we receive “the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15-16)
iii. The role of the Spirit
1. The Spirit brings new life to dead men.
2. The Spirit empowers the followers of Christ to obey Him.
3. The Spirit works in our hearts so that we cry out to God as Father.
4. The Spirit guides the followers of Jesus into the truth.
5. The Spirit glorifies the Son.
f. Application
i. Because God is a Trinity he does not need us
ii. Because of the gospel, we are able to share in the fellowship of the eternal Godhead (1 John 1:3)
iii. The reality of the Trinity should shape our worship and the way that we relate to God
1. No confusion of roles: The Father did not die for us; the Spirit did not send the Son; etc.
2. We do not pray to a generic deity. We pray to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit
3. Meditate upon the role of each of the persons of the Trinity
4. John Owen’s Communion with God
iv. God exists as a single essence of three persons; so also the church exhibits unity in diversity (17:11, 22)
a. The Son does not give eternal life to everyone
b. Jesus gives eternal life only “to all whom you [the Father] have given him” (17:2)
c. John 3:16 declares God’s love for the “world”
d. But God’s love is specific to a certain people
e. Before we ever know God we are first known by God (Gal 4:9)
f. Application
i. The text does not say
1. “give eternal life to all who were good people”
2. “give eternal life to all who had worked hard enough”
3. “give eternal life to all who were smart enough to choose God”
ii. Who are those whom the Father gives the Son? Only those who have been chosen by Him from eternity to receive eternal life.
g. Application
i. There is no room for boasting. Your salvation, your knowledge of God is not the result of anything you have done to earn it. It is purely of grace.
ii. Marvel at the grace of our God
iii. Rest in His certain love. If He has set His love upon you, nothing else matters.
a. The logic of the petition:
i. The Son’s prayer is that the Father would glorify Him, so that the Son can glorify the Father.
ii. Explanation of the request in v.2
b. Question:
i. How does the son giving eternal life glorify the Father?
i. How does the son giving eternal life glorify the Father?
ii. How can the Father be glorified when it is impossible to add to His glory?
c. Answer: Someone is glorified when their majesty or fame is both known and praised [or loved?].
d. Therefore, as Jesus’ followers know God more, they praise God more, and so the Father is glorified.
e. Application
i. Does increasing in knowledge of God cause you to praise God more?
1. Pursuing theological knowledge for its own sake is bound to go bad (Packer, Knowing God, 21).
ii. What is the biggest reality in your life?
1. How well you do in school? Your success in your business? How smart your kids are? How many people greet you at church on Sunday? The fact that your marriage is falling apart or has fallen apart? The fact that you have lost your job? The fact that you are stricken with a lifelong debilitating disease?
2. There are legitimate concerns we can have in life, but the biggest reality that should face us daily is that we have the privilege to be in relationship with the God of the universe and thereby bring Him glory.
iii. Do you desire to know God more so that you may glorify Him more?
a. Our knowledge here is only in part; at the resurrection/return of Christ we will know Him perfectly
i. Paul: “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor 13:12)
ii. John: “When he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2)
b. For all eternity we will be increasing in our knowledge of God and thereby glorifying Him more
a. Psalm 73:26 – “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
b. The good news of the gospel is that we can now know God. He has given us Himself so that we might know Him. Do you know Him?