The High Priestly Prayer (3)
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Right now we are doing a series on what is known as the high priestly prayer.It is found in John chapter 17.It is the prayer Jesus prayed right before being arrested, put on trial and crucified.We are looking at this to see how and what Jesus prayed.This morning in this prayer we are going to see some of the most important truths that every Christian should learn.Those are the truths about Eternal Life and Knowing God.I am curious as we get started.When you hear the about Eternal Life or living forever is that something that kind of makes your ears perk up.The thought of living forever has always interested mankind?We don’t like the thought of death.So People have tried for ages to learn how to extend life.Here is the real question. What if you could live forever, but had to live just like you are right now, would that be enough?I’m not so sure that it is.Honestly I love life, I love my life but if I had to live just like this right now for hundreds or thousands of years, NO THANK YOU.See if you just live forever but don’t have quality of life then I’m not so sure that is so great. Miserable forever doesn’t interest me.That is what we will focus on today.Jesus is going to teach us about Eternal Life and we will see the Jesus makes it very clear it’s not just about living forever.Even in John 10:10 Jesus said:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
And our take home for today will be to see what it takes to get that quality of life or the abundant life.If you want quality of life you really want to learn this truth today.
Read John 17:1-5
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.
I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
If I was to say what one verse teaches us what the Christian Life is all about I would say this is it.We will look at these verses in two sections.#1 is to look at what point Jesus is praying when He mentions giving eternal life to all whom the Father had given Him.#2 Our main focus for today: See what eternal life and knowing God is all about and how to get it.I believe with all my heart that most people who come to church have this deep down desire to want to know God but maybe just need a little understanding what that is and how to get there.They hear things like just spend time with God and you will know Him and so they try all kinds of things to spend time with God but still feel empty.We learn about this today.But first lets look at John 13:2
During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
This is a verse that has caused a lot of confusion when people read it.It can be misunderstood that since Jesus has authority over all flesh, meaning authority or control over all people, then because it says: He only gives this eternal life to those that the Father has given Him.People will wonder does that mean me?Or when they look at their friends and family members they think well maybe they are not the chosen ones.Where the confusion comes is they think this is talking about that there are only a limited amount of people that will be given eternal life and that it is all up to God.They use this as kind of there are some that are in and some that are out.That actually isn’t the point here.Jesus is praying about Himself and His mission at this point.Jesus’ mission was to come and reveal God and as we learned last week from Clayton it’s to restore our relationship with the Father.That was and is Jesus’ mission. Jesus came to heal and restore our relationship with God.That’s what He had just taught in John 14:6 on this same night that He prayed this prayer, He taught: I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but through me.If we want a relationship with God it has to come through Jesus.That is the main pointAt the same time this also shows how involved, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are in our salvation.See our salvation is the work of God.He is the One that saves us.He gives us the hunger for Him, He opens our hearts to see the truth of who He is, He is the one that causes us to be Born Again so that we can experience Eternal Life not in a fallen sinful place but with new life.This is great news.God is working with you on your salvation.And God never starts something that He doesn’t finish.If you are here today it’s because God wants you here.We are told why He wants you here.It’s to give you Eternal Life.So don’t think that verse 2 is about limiting the amount of people who will be saved.Just know where your salvation comes from. It’s a gift and work of God which we will see in two weeks.From there we get to this gift of Eternal Life.What should we know about this Eternal Life that Jesus wants to give us?The first truth we have to learn about brings us back to this question I asked earlier.If you could forever just like you are now is that a good thing?The answer for most would probably be no. I want better.That is the very thing that makes most of us not content and start looking for things that will make us happy.We want better.That is part of what this Eternal Life means.The word Eternal Life here is referring to real life.It’s quality of life not just eternal life. It’s that Abundant Life that Jesus talks about.God’s desire is for Life to keep getting better and better.This is where some real tension comes in.Some will think but I have been a Christian for a real long time and not feeling much of that abundant life, what’s wrong with me?Do you ever feel like that?Jesus tells us what we may be missing here.It’s knowing God and Knowing Jesus.HEAR THIS TRUTH REAL CLEAR.Our quality of life, that abundant life is tied to our knowledge of God.The more you know God the better quality of life you will have.So what does this knowing God mean and how do we get to do it.First of all we need to understand this is not talking about just knowing about God.It’s not just about learning the facts about God.That is very important to learn the facts about God.That’s doctrine. When that is wrong everything else is a problemThis is talking about experiencing God.Where God is not just a historical being talked about in the Bible but that you start to know and experience this God.It’s where He becomes very real to you in your day to day life.You know what, God puts this hunger in us to experience Him in this way.So how do we start experiencing Him?This is where our application comes in for today.Throughout the Bible how did people come to experience God?What I mean what was their life like when God showed up and the experienced Him the most?Was it when everything was going good for them or when they were facing difficult times?You will find that most of the times it was when they were facing very difficult times. Let me just give you a few examples.You all know the name Hagar right. She was the woman that Sara gave to Abraham to help God fulfill His promise of them having a child.What is amazing about that story is once she got pregnant Sarah started to abuse her.None of us like being abused right? Not exactly what you would call the abundant life.If you had to live forever in an abusive life or an oppressed life that wouldn’t be all that much fun at all.Well what she did was ran away.But in Genesis 16 you find that God went and found her.God spoke to her about her situation and told her everything was going to be ok.She was so amazed that God found her like this and said:
So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”
From that hardship she learned that God had His eyes on her and was always watching out for her even in the difficult times.Now if she didn’t have the hard time, she would never have experienced God this way.From that she grew in her experiential knowledge of God.Now how many of you would love to know that God is watching you?And how many would love to know that God takes care of you?Guess what you may have to go through to see it? You may need to be put in a place where you need to see Him like that.I have told the story before but one of the single most life changing experiences I have had in my life was when I was 21 years old and had Meningitis. A terrible disease.My knowledge of God was changed through this.After being in the hospital for a week one of the elders of my church came in and said that God spoke to him to come and pray for me.The second He prayed all my pain went away and started to heal.But what blew me away was that here I was in the hospital feeling pretty neglected by GodAnd yet God spoke to someone to come pray for me.That day I experienced God in the most real way where I learned like Hagar that God watches me. I wouldn’t trade that for the world.Let me give you another one in the Bible.You all know the the song Jehovah Jira? What does that mean?God my provider.In the Bible God reveals Himself as the God who provides.There is story after story of God providing.When did God do amazing things to show that He could provide?Was it when everything was real good or real hard?It’s when they had nothing.Like when the children of Israel were in the desert and needed water.That is a real problem. Well God led them to the place where there was no water.Why so He could bring water out of a rock. Ever tried that before?They would never have seen such an unbelievable miracle is they were not in an impossible situation.We could go on and on with stories like that in the Bible.While it’s in the Bible it’s just very important head knowledge.God wants you to experience Him as the provider.Guess how you will experience Him that way.When you have no way to provide for yourself.That’s when He can reveal Himself as your provider.So in my opinion right now in Zimbabwe we have the greatest opportunity they we may ever get to get to know in an experiential way.Because we need Him right now.My caution is don’t become like the children of Israel that just complain about the situation rather than getting to know God in the situation.Because each time He reveals Himself you experience Him and get to know Him more.The more you know Him the better the QUALITY OF LIFE you will have.That’s how you experience the abundant life.That is the eternal life that Jesus is praying about.That from this day on you will start to experience the growing quality of life that He offers through experiencing Him in such a way that you truly get to know Him.Where you can say: I just saw God.My belief is that throughout eternity we will keep growing in this experiential knowledge of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.And When we understand that Jesus is committed to this process, because V2 tells us: He has the power and mission to reveal God to us. We should be excited to seek Him even more.