Father, we so desperately need your Holy Spirit to work in the depths of who we are,
to bring your word to the depths of who we are,
to help us to understand the gospel at the very depths of who we are.
And so we ask that you would do that ongoing wonderful work in our lives
so that we might be free and we might glorify you and enjoy you forever.
And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
I'm actually a pretty quiet guy, but I get paid to speak on Sundays and other types of times.
And of course, in a sense, I get paid, so to speak, to speak to people.
So there's lots of times that without intending to, I offend people.
I'm going to share a story of a friend of mine who was speaking to a group of people,
and he was under the impression that everybody who was there was a Christian.
And what he didn't know was that there were four or five Orthodox Jews who were there,
or at least very conservative Jews.
They didn't have the, you know, all that stuff that some Orthodox Jews wear,
but they were very conservative Jews.
And they were wearing kippahs, but he didn't notice this.
And he was actually reading a text from John's Gospel.
And some of you might be familiar that in John's Gospel,
one of the ways that John refers to Jewish people is as the Jews.
And it's, in a sense, the job of the pastor or the Bible study leader or the preacher
to help people to understand what that particular word means.
It's a literal translation of a word that John uses.
But this fellow, he didn't do that.
And he kept reading the text.
It was a good expository thing of the text.
And he kept using the word the Jews, the Jews, the Jews, the Jews, the Jews,
all the way through without helping the congregation,
and especially without helping the four or five Jewish people who were there
understand what was being said.
So it actually sounded, the whole point of the sermon to them
was that it was as if we Christians were blaming the Jews
on every bad thing that happened to Jesus.
And they were quite offended.
They were very, very bothered by it.
It was a real, just unfortunate, missed opportunity.
And especially because with a couple of simple things,
the speaker could have clarified, amongst other things,
that Jesus was Jewish, that John was Jewish.
I'm surprised how many Jewish people are surprised to find out
that every book in the New Testament, with the exception of Luke and Acts,
was written by a Jewish man.
And it catches them by surprise when you tell them that.
And it just, it brought needless offense.
And I'm sure I could have also, I'm sure you could probably give me examples
of times that I spoke and I offended you without realizing it,
or I offended one of your friends.
The text of Scripture that we're going to be looking at today,
it's something I've almost talked about quite a few times,
but there's a way that Jesus talks and prays
that Christians find very precious,
but that is deeply offensive to a lot of people in Canada.
And it's going to come up very, very powerfully in this prayer,
especially at the beginning, at the end,
but the verses that we're going to look at right now.
So it'd be a great help.
We're going to look at the text, and then we're going to sort of,
just a very short text this morning,
and then we're going to sort of camp in it,
look at it a little bit more deeply as to why it is that Jesus used this language,
and whether there's a way that we could get around it
to make it a little bit less offensive.
And so John chapter 17, it's verses 1 to 5,
and I think Andrew's going to have the text up on the screen.
You know, we put the text on the screen
because it's very helpful for a lot of you,
but I really want to encourage you to bring your own Bibles to church.
You know, if you're the type who likes to make little notes in them,
it's just there's something about having your own copy of the word
or your own version that you can refer to,
but the words are going to be on the screen.
So it's just five verses, and it goes like this.
And so just if you remember, if you're a guest, you might not know this,
we're coming to the end of John's Gospel.
Judas is left to betray Jesus.
Probably even as Jesus is speaking,
the troops are getting their swords and their stuff on,
and they're heading to where Judas knows that Jesus is going to be in a short while,
or some time that evening he knows that Jesus is going to be in a certain garden.
And so even as Jesus is talking,
the troops and the betrayer are moving ahead of Jesus to wait for Jesus to capture him.
And Jesus knows that this is happening.
He knows that he's going to die on the cross the next day.
And this is, in a sense, his final prayer of consecration of himself, of his disciples,
and he's also praying for you and me.
And these three sort of elements of praying in terms of just consecrating himself
this prayer for the disciples who are literally right in front of him.
And literally, I believe this very literally,
literally Jesus is looking down the ages and he sees you and me
sitting here on a Sunday morning in an ice storm in postmodern, post-industrial,
advanced capitalist Canada.
And he's praying for you and me as well.
And those three types of things weave in and out of this prayer in a very, very beautiful
and complex way with very simple childlike language.
And here we'll just look at the first five verses, the first sort of grouping of the text.
And it goes like this.
When Jesus had spoken these words, these words of comfort and challenge and exhortation,
these words that he is having victory over the world,
when Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and he said,
Father, the hour has come.
Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.
Now just sort of pause.
Here's the thing which all the way through John's Gospel,
one of the main ways that Jesus refers to God as his Father.
And that's very simple and not that controversial in a room like this for most of us.
But you could well imagine that if you got invited by some friends to maybe lead a Bible study
for some inquirers at church,
and you would have many, not just women but men,
wonder why it is that you call God Father.
And why is all this masculine imagery?
And maybe there would be a time when you're leading a Bible study at a university,
at your workplace,
and you come to this and you happen to know that maybe there's a woman or a man in the group
who aren't Christians who were terribly abused by their dad,
that were sexually abused by their father.
And you'd come to say this,
and it might very well be if you have emotional intelligence,
and you're just conscious of this big issue of abuse in the person's life,
and you come to the word father,
and you might hesitate in saying it.
You might wish that you'd chosen another text.
You might wonder, like I said to you,
my friend, there was a simple way that he could have used,
every time he said the Jews,
there was a simple explanation he could have done
to bring the meaning of the text out
in a way that wouldn't offend Orthodox Jewish
or just any Jewish person.
It wouldn't offend them.
with a couple of simple explanatory things.
And you might wonder if this is a place where you should say,
mother, the hour has come.
And maybe to substitute child for son.
Because it's not just amongst people who've been sexually abused by their dad,
and it's not just in the queer studies or feminist studies
or women's studies departments.
It's a very, very common thing in our culture
to be just deeply bothered by using this language of father.
And I just want to highlight it for you.
And I'm going to circle around.
We're going to return to it.
There's been quite a few times I thought I wanted to talk about it,
but we need to grasp this.
And actually, believe it or not,
if we grasp why it is that Jesus is saying father,
it actually helps us to enter into, in a far deeper way,
everything that's going on in this text.
All of the theology, all of this whole thing about the gospel,
which is just so wonderful,
that actually fulfills the longings and yearnings of feminists,
of social justice warriors, of capitalists,
of the broken, of the successful.
The gospel is the end of the longings and yearnings,
the true deep longings and yearnings of our hearts.
It is an answer to the hurts and the wounds and the brokenness.
It is the answer to our sins.
And I just want to highlight to you that this is such a hard term for people
and say, but if we're going to circle back and we're going to look at it,
and as we start to pierce into the heart of Jesus in the language,
we realize that it's revealing the heart of Jesus.
In a very powerful way.
You just said right now, we'll come back to it.
Don't worry about it.
Well, I'll read that last part of verse one again.
Father, Father, the hour has come.
Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,
for 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 may know you, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Now just pause here for a second.
There's a very, very wonderful little contrast here in the verse.
If you look up at verse two,
since you have given him authority over all flesh
to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
It's a very, very wonderful little contrast here
between these two things,
because even in our language,
the word flesh tells us about something very earthy and physical.
Flesh.
It doesn't say you've given authority over all spirits,
or all minds, or all consciousnesses.
It uses this word flesh.
And in John's language,
in the Gospel of John,
whenever John uses this word flesh,
he wants us to understand fully the frailty
and the weakness
and just the ordinary aspect of human life.
You know, I don't know if they give,
I'd never tell this to my interns, you know,
but I've heard supposedly that they tell people,
like, if you're worried about speaking,
just imagine all the people with no clothes on, so to speak,
that they're just ordinary people underneath maybe their $4,000 suits
and their $3,000 handbags.
Could be this person with the suit has the handbag
or it could be different sexes.
And you just try to get at the ordinariness of them.
But this, I don't know if that is something,
the advice that they give,
I don't know if it would help if you did give that advice,
but there's this wonderful contrast here in John
about the fact that Jesus,
God the Father,
has given authority over all human beings.
And human beings are flesh.
We are born,
babies are spectacularly demanding
and spectacularly helpless.
And we're just frail.
I drove Barbara Allen home.
If I move my arm a certain way
and I look like I'm wincing,
I had a really bad fall, actually, coming in here.
Many of you may be,
some of you may be had a bad fall.
I think I might have actually bruised a rib
because I really fell hard.
And it's,
I was just thinking about that
while I was praying before the service
that in some ways God wanted me to remember
that I'm flesh
as I get to speak.
I'm frail.
I'm one virus away from death.
I am one car accident or slip away from death.
We are flesh.
But it's flesh that gets eternal life.
This wonderful contrast,
eternal life to flesh.
And verse 3,
verse 3,
and this is eternal life,
that they may know you,
the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
In some ways,
that's the,
my main point for the whole sermon
is just for you folks and myself
to grasp the wonder and the beauty
and the power
and the relevance of that line.
At first, it sounds kooky.
Like,
it sort of sounds like,
okay, George,
you're saying something like
if you know that 2 plus 2 equals 4,
you have eternal life?
If you just know Jesus and God,
you have eternal life?
Like, that doesn't seem to make any sense.
It sounds like it's a bit of a kooky type of thing.
Like,
why on earth would eternal life
depend upon knowing a couple of things
about Jesus and God?
But once again,
in that which looks like
it's sort of very confusing
and doesn't actually make much sense
and just looks ridiculous,
when we pause
and actually listen to what Jesus is saying,
we see how,
in fact,
this text is,
it is the end of our longings
and our yearnings,
and it is better than religion,
it's better than spirituality,
and it's better than irreligion,
and it's just very powerful.
But let's finish the verse,
this section.
I'll read verse 3 again,
and this is eternal life,
that they may know you,
the only true God and Jesus Christ,
whom you have sent.
It's the only time in the Bible,
by the way,
that Jesus refers to himself
as Jesus Christ.
Only time Jesus refers to himself that way.
Verse 4,
I glorified you on earth,
having accomplished the work
that you gave me to do,
and now,
Father,
see,
once again,
he uses that word,
glorify me in your own presence
with the glory that I had with you
before the world existed.
It's a very,
very,
you know,
very,
very powerful text.
Now,
so here's the,
here's the problem,
you know,
right off the,
we'll go right back to the problem.
I mean,
there's just so much problem
around this text,
right?
Like,
why is it that Jesus calls God Father?
Like,
doesn't Jesus know,
like,
if Jesus is God,
shouldn't he know that even back in his day,
there were dads who were sexually abusing
or physically abusing their kids?
Like,
even in Jesus's day,
didn't he know that there were just terrible,
horrible,
absent dads?
And even if he didn't know that that was there,
if he's God,
like,
wouldn't he know that that's going on right now?
And,
and why would he choose a word that's so offensive?
And what about all that other stuff?
Like,
I already mentioned,
like,
why is it that our eternal destiny just hangs on whether or not we know something?
Like,
that just seems,
like,
odd.
Like,
it sounds like,
I don't know,
like,
there's a secret handshake to get into a certain organization,
and if I teach you the secret handshake,
then you're part of this inner club and inner circle that other people can't be,
and maybe is it the same thing?
You get to know the code word,
the password,
and those select few who know the password,
they get in,
and it has nothing to do with anything else.
And why is this,
all this stuff about,
excuse me,
glorifying?
Like,
why is it that God seems to be addicted to getting said,
you're really good,
you're really good?
Like,
it just sounds like lots of this text,
you can just,
like,
a lot of this text is just,
it seems a bit odd.
It would seem very odd to Canadians.
And,
and,
and part of the problem for many of us who've been Christians for a long time,
the text is so wonderful to us,
we don't realize how weird it sounds to others.
So,
let's just begin with,
with one of them.
If you could put up the,
the,
the text,
Andrew,
my,
my big point,
you're going to see this like four or five times throughout the rest of the,
the,
my time up here.
This is eternal life,
that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ,
whom,
whom you,
whom you have sent.
So,
how about this language of God and calling God father?
And,
and all this other talk about knowing.
We just need to actually just pause for a second and just think about a little bit about what it means to know something.
And,
and it's very,
very helpful if you think in a sense of types of things that you know by types.
And so,
if you think about the difference between knowing a rock or a pebble,
let's,
we'll use the word pebble,
knowing a pebble,
knowing a bug,
knowing a dog,
knowing a person,
and knowing God.
And if you think about these things a little bit,
you'll start to get a little bit of an understanding and appreciation for what it is that Jesus is doing all the way,
all the times that he talks.
Now,
I'm not a science type here.
There might very well be somebody here who has a degree in geology,
or a degree in physics,
or a degree in chemistry,
or,
or something like that.
But basically,
if you want to know a pebble,
if you want to know about a pebble,
the pebble is,
well,
the pebble is a pebble.
It can't run away.
It can't hide.
It can't pretend.
In fact,
you know that everything about knowing the pebble all comes from you.
And,
and so,
you know,
and it can't,
the pebble can't resist you knowing about it.
All of the,
all of the effort of knowing flows from you.
And so,
you know,
if you,
you,
you really want to understand the pebble,
you might bring in some geologists to identify the pebble,
and you might,
you know,
you might subject it to x-rays or other types of things to see,
what's inside of it.
And,
and you could maybe see if there's some metal in it by waving a metal detector over it.
And you could weigh it.
And,
and you could take photographs of it.
And all of the effort of knowing the pebble,
it all flows from you.
And the pebble is just,
it's just a pebble.
Now you take something a little bit different.
Take something like a bug.
And once again,
when it comes to knowing a bug,
almost everything,
virtually everything about knowing the bug comes from you.
The bug contributes nothing.
The only difference is,
well,
you might have a hard time catching the bug.
Because bugs move,
generally.
It might be that some people want to know the bug,
are afraid of bugs,
and,
and that,
that's not really the bug's fault.
But the main thing is the bug can move and a bug can die.
And they do die.
But apart from those simple things,
once you catch the bug,
and,
and then you might actually catch three or four bugs,
and a couple of them you kill,
so you can rip them apart and see what they're like inside.
And,
and others you just study how they move.
And it might be that they're hard sometimes to study in their movement,
because they don't move if they think they're being watched.
But fundamentally,
like,
virtually everything about knowing the bug,
all comes from you.
The bug does some things without being conscious of it,
that frustrates your knowledge.
But,
but fundamentally,
everything that comes from you,
about the knowledge,
comes from you.
The bug doesn't know you at all.
The bug is just a bug.
Now we move to a dog.
And now dogs are a little bit different than this.
I don't know how many of you are dog people,
but I know there's at least a couple of dog people in the room.
And,
and,
and everybody will tell you,
like,
you know,
I,
I know people who'd say,
why do I want a boyfriend?
Like a dog is a lot better.
Dogs always happy to see you.
They never get into arguments with you.
They're always friendly.
And there's all these wonderful things about,
about dogs that are just so,
just so wonderful.
And,
and,
and you can get to know the dog,
but there really is a sense that the dog also plays some role in you getting to know the dog.
I mean,
the dog could bite you or run away.
You know,
you could get a dog that's been physically abused and you've,
you've,
you've rescued the dog.
And it's going to take you a lot to really get to know the dog,
because the dog has been so terribly wounded.
And,
and still most of the knowing of the dog comes from you,
but still the dog has an actual role in being known.
And the dog actually,
in some ways can reveal himself or herself to you.
And there actually is a different relationship that can develop between something like a dog and a human being.
And the same could be said about a cat or a horse or some of the higher animals,
that there is really,
in a sense,
something that is in that other,
that dog that has to be open to being known,
that is necessary for you and me to know the dog.
Now we move to human beings.
Human beings are very,
very different than knowing a bug,
knowing a pebble,
and knowing a dog.
I,
when I was the first 10 or 15 years,
because I'm a very slow learner,
I,
I sort of felt that I had to go to every wedding.
When I did the wedding and I got,
you know,
I could do the wedding and they invite me to the reception.
And,
and for the first 15 years or so,
because it was how I was trained,
I went to every wedding reception when I did the wedding.
It took me a while to realize I said,
I should stop doing that.
Because,
you know,
a lot of times,
because I was doing a lot of weddings for people who didn't go to the church and they didn't know me,
they liked the building or whatever,
and I would do the wedding.
And it took me a long time to realize that on one level,
they were actually happier if I didn't go to the wedding.
Because,
like,
you go to the wedding reception,
what do you do with the priest?
Like,
oh,
dear,
he's coming.
I was hoping he wouldn't.
I mean,
they say,
oh,
we really hope you come.
We'll be so sad if you don't.
But then when you don't,
they forget that you said no,
and they're actually probably happy.
So what would often happen?
Well,
I think there was a movie a few years ago about all the rejects,
like the people they hoped,
they wouldn't come to the wedding and they all get to sit at a table.
Anyway,
I go to that table.
That's who the minister goes to when it's a secular wedding and I did their ceremony and they want me to go.
And I'm at that table,
right?
And so sometimes what it means is they pick the kooky people that nobody wants to sit with,
and I sit with them.
Nothing personal.
The kooky people are the hyper charismatic aunt,
or maybe the fundamentalist uncle,
or the person who's really into crystals or talking to ghosts or,
you know,
whatever.
And,
or often it's the 90 year olds who haven't brought their hearing aid,
who just sort of sit there,
you know,
95 year old,
and they're drooling.
And I'm,
I'm with them,
right?
Because I'm at the table where they don't want to put all the people they wished had said,
no,
I'm at that table,
right?
And,
and so sometimes I'm at these table,
I was at these tables.
And,
and the reason I'm there isn't because I actually thought when I met what they thought was a kooky,
charismatic,
we'd have a great time.
Like that was spectacular.
Or the fundamentalist that they didn't like.
And I sit with them,
I'd have a spectacular time with them,
right?
They didn't know I'm like a kooky,
charismatic fundamentalist.
They didn't know that about me,
right?
But I am by their definitions.
That's what I was.
So I was actually with a brother or a sister,
but sometimes it would be with the people who had like zero social skill.
In fact,
their social skills were in the negatives,
not the naughty.
Zero would be a step up,
five steps up from where they were.
And so you're sitting at this table with these people who are unbelievably introverted or whatever,
and you try to start a conversation with them.
And they give grunt answers or don't answer at all,
or every answer is a no or a yes.
And I'm here trying to make conversation with them,
getting completely and utterly exhausted,
looking at my watch,
wondering,
what on earth can I leave politely now that I'm here?
I don't go to,
you know,
I only go to weddings with people I know now,
even if I've done the wedding ceremony.
Anyway,
but the point of all of this is this,
other than you think,
George,
why did you go to so many wedding receptions like that?
But the point is this,
if I'm sitting beside somebody at a wedding reception,
and they don't want to be known,
I cannot know them.
I can know a few superficial things about them.
I might be able to tell a police officer afterwards,
you know,
whether they were African American,
or whether they were Asian,
or,
you know,
whether,
you know,
whether they were tall or short or old or young.
I might know a few,
like,
irrelevant things about them,
but if they don't want me to know them,
I cannot know them.
They can ignore me.
They can tell lies to me.
They can,
I need them to reveal themselves to me,
if I'm going to know them.
That's how it is with people,
isn't it?
I need them to,
I need to reveal some things about myself.
They need to reveal some things about themselves.
There has to be this,
in a sense,
opening of ourselves to each other,
a giving of information,
and a willingness to be known for me to know another,
human being.
So remember where we've gone.
We've gone from the pebble,
to the bug,
to the dog,
to the person.
Now we go to God.
And if there is a God who really does exist,
who is anything at all,
like the way Jesus describes him,
then you'll see,
well,
actually,
you know what you'll see?
Here's the hard thing to think about.
I have more in common with a pebble
than I have in common with God.
I'm finite.
God is not just big.
He's infinite.
I live in time.
God created time
and doesn't live in time.
I need an environment to live in.
God doesn't need any environment to live in.
I have a beginning and an end.
God has no beginning and no end.
I can only know a few types of things,
very limited.
God knows everything.
And you could go on and on and on and on.
I am physical with a soul.
God,
well,
God is God.
Doesn't have a body part,
body or parts.
Doesn't have passions.
The fact of the matter is,
is that there is more in common
between me and a pebble
than there is between me and God.
And if that is the case,
then if,
if just to merely know another human being,
I need that human being
to reveal
something about themselves to me.
They need to be willing to be known
if I am to know them.
And I have to be willing to be,
I have to be willing to know them
and to be known myself
if there's going to be any real knowledge
that goes on.
In the case of God,
at a most fundamental level,
everything about knowing God
has to come from God.
Everything.
And when I mean everything,
I mean literally everything.
With nothing left out,
it all has to come from God.
None of it can come from me.
And in fact,
actually,
if God was a very,
very cruel God,
he could just sort of
force openness in me.
It's only because
it's something about
the nature of God
as revealed by Jesus
that we'll talk about
in a couple of minutes
that the fact of the matter
is that God actually wants me
to know him.
He doesn't force me.
It's not like a demonic,
possession.
He's made me to be free.
He's made me to have a will.
He's made me to want to know him.
But unless God reveals himself
to me
and to you,
I can't know anything about God
without him revealing himself to me.
And so I guess what I want to say
about this is this.
If you could put up
the first point,
Andrew,
it is because God is personal
that you cannot invent
ways to address him.
It is because God is personal
that you cannot invent ways
to address him.
I could call a rock
anything I want.
I could call a bug
anything I want.
I could step on the bug
if I wanted.
I could call a dog
anything I want.
Actually,
I can't call a human being
anything I want.
I mean,
if I called Daniel
a girl,
he'd be offended.
And he's way bigger
and stronger than me as well.
You know,
and if I called him,
I don't know,
Betty
or something like that,
he wouldn't answer.
If he did,
it would be very rude
or something like that.
And he should do
something like that.
You know,
I'm limited in that.
But it's precisely
because God is God
and the way that Jesus
is trying to reveal
who God is,
he's revealing a God
who is infinite,
who is a person.
It's precisely
because God is personal.
That we are completely
and utterly dependent
upon God
to reveal himself to us.
And I can't just
take the words of Jesus
and say,
I'm going to substitute
mother every time
he says father.
And I'm going to substitute
child every time
he says son
because then
what I'm doing
is I'm just in,
I can't,
if God is personal,
you can't,
you get the point,
you can't do it.
Now,
some other point in time,
we,
not now,
we can talk,
all we can do
is try to guess
why it is that Jesus,
I mean Jesus,
Jesus lived at a time
when there were
goddesses everywhere.
Like it wasn't as if he went,
as if you could go up
to Jesus now
and he'd go,
oh,
duh,
there's goddesses?
I didn't know that.
You mean I'm permitted
to call God?
Oh,
no.
Goddesses were everywhere.
And he just even
had to read his Old Testament
to have language
of goddesses.
He knew that,
but God,
why did God choose father?
I don't entirely,
I don't know.
I just know that he did
and he did it
because he knows you
and me
and he knows,
and I could give you
some guesses
as to why God
used this language
to reveal it,
but it's a very,
very personal word.
It's even more personal
because father
is a very,
very good translation,
but the actual word
is the adult word,
the adult intimate word
that a child would use
of their,
like an adult child
would use of their father.
Actually,
I shouldn't say adult.
It's what anybody
at your stage of life
would use
to address your father.
father.
And the translation
is right to use
the word father
because for some of you,
I mean,
I would call my dad,
dad.
And some of you
might call your dad,
daddy.
And some of you
might use other types
of language,
but it's actually,
the word is actually
the intimate,
personal form
of private address
between a child
and their father.
That's actually
the Greek word
that's used.
And it's a word
that beckons us
into a relationship
with God.
And we can't correct it.
All we can do
is say,
Jesus,
you knew,
for some of us,
all we can say
is,
Jesus,
you knew
what my earthly father
was like.
And I don't know,
I don't know,
Jesus,
why you use this language,
but I know
that you know me
and you know me
so well
that you died
on the cross for me,
you love me so much
you're willing
to die for me.
And I don't know
why you use this language
and I'm willing
to walk with you,
Jesus.
I ask that you
would reveal this to me,
that you would bring
healing so that
I could use this word.
I understand why
some of us
have to pray that prayer.
That's fine.
But we can't replace it.
Jesus gives this language
because he loves us.
Well,
in some of your case,
George,
well that's very interesting,
but what about
this whole problem
with glory?
Like,
why is it that
we've seen that?
Like,
if you could put up
the scripture text again,
Andrew,
I'll just say
that the main point here,
this is eternal life
that they may know you,
the only true God
and Jesus Christ
whom you have sent.
But if you look at
all the language around it,
like,
those of you
who have your Bibles,
you know,
verse 1,
glorify your son
that your son
may glorify you.
You've given him
authority over all flesh.
You know,
in verse 6,
verse 5,
Father,
glorify me
in your own presence
with the glory
that I had with you
before all of the world
was,
you know,
before there was world.
And all this language
of authority
and glory
and all that,
like,
does God have
some type
of a problem
that he needs
to always be,
like,
using language
like this?
Andrew,
if you could put up
the next point
that would be helpful.
And it's this,
actually,
my last four points,
I have to be,
well,
I'm going to really
have to rush.
Sorry.
They're going to be questions.
If living
an impersonal life
is to be avoided,
why do you want
to live
with an impersonal God?
If living
an impersonal life
is to be avoided,
why do you want
to live
with an impersonal God?
I almost wanted
to name this point,
who would choose
to live with a toaster
rather than a person?
Who would choose
to live with a toaster
rather than a person?
You see,
this language
of the point
that it is,
this is eternal life
that they may know you,
the only true God
and Jesus Christ
whom you have sent.
Most of the analogies
that our culture
uses for God
are basically
impersonal images.
The Star Wars movies,
it talks about the force.
Most Buddhism
and Eastern religions,
the analogy
that will be used
for who God is
is that God
is like all things
which is impersonal.
That when you finish
the cycle
of reincarnation
and reincarnation
and reincarnation,
what happens
is that a human being
is like a drop
of water
and the drop of water
finally merges
with the ocean
so the ocean
is the image of God
and the fundamental image
of a human being
is like a drop of water
which is impersonal
and the impersonal
drop of water
gets merged
with the impersonal ocean
and most of the images
that we use
in our culture
about God,
we use language
of like it's
that God is like light,
God is like a force,
God is like all of nature
and it's all impersonal,
impersonal language.
Yet the problem is
that none of us
wants to live
like if we had everything,
if we were stuck
in solitary confinement
and all of the food
that just came to us
just came by a machine
through the door,
we would experience that
as cruel and unusual punishment.
We would understand
that if you were
to completely
and utterly lost
to dealing
and spending
the rest of your life
without any type
of human contact
or personal contact
and all you had
were walls
and all you had
were things
and there was
no human being
to talk to,
not even a dog
to give you some comfort
but completely
and utterly impersonal,
we wouldn't want that.
But at the same time,
we have this image
of God
as if it's something
like a pebble,
like a thing,
not even a bug
but like a pebble.
But,
and this is,
by the way,
all the way
through the Old Testament
a constant thing
about idolatry.
There's these wonderful texts
that happens a couple of times
where the prophet says,
like,
don't you folks
understand what you're doing?
You go to a tree
in the forest
and you cut down the tree
and out of the tree
that you cut down,
part of it
you make a fire out of
and the other part
you make an idol out of it,
this dead wood
you make an idol out of it
and you bow down
and worship dead wood.
Like,
what's wrong
with this picture
of you thinking
that God
is something
like a rock
or dead wood
that you would bow down
to worship?
And the wonderful thing
about Jesus here
and about the gospel
is that
if we think about it
nobody would want to have
such an impersonal future.
We would really think
it was cruel
and unusual punishment
if there was a prison
that you sent somebody to
that meant
they would never even have
a single word,
a single human contact
for the entire rest
of their life
until they died.
All of the food
would be brought
by machines
in a room
without ever seeing
a human being
and we would view that
as cruel and unusual punishment
because it's a completely
impersonal future
yet we desire
as a culture
an impersonal God.
Why does that make any sense?
Because we understand
the value of a person
and Jesus is revealing
a God
who is a personal God
who loves you
and wants to be known.
Could you put the scripture
text up again please Andrew?
I have to go through
these far more quickly
than I thought.
This is eternal life
that they may know you
the only true God
and Jesus Christ
whom you have sent.
But what about this problem
of God wanting
to be glorified
and God wanting
to be praised?
Could you put up
the next point Andrew please?
Here's in terms
of a question.
If you look down
on a person
who always needs
to be praised
how can you look up
to a God
who always needs
to be praised?
Now this is
what's so wonderful
about what Jesus
is saying
and what he is revealing
about the nature of God.
To our Jewish friends
and our Muslim friends
I do not know
how they would
answer this question.
Because the fact
of the matter is
is if you had
a child or a friend
and they came
to the point
where you always
had to praise them
they always had
to be praised
time and time
and time
and time and time
again you would
look down your nose
at them.
And I don't know
how Jewish people
and how Muslims
would answer this
but you see
here's the wonderful
thing about the gospel.
And if you look
back in the text
Jesus describes
how from all eternity
the Father
was glorifying
the Son
and from all eternity
the Son
was glorifying
the Father
and they don't need
any human being
to give them praise.
It's not because
God has a lack
it's not as if
God the Father
is saying
dang it
Jesus doesn't
give me enough praise
like I want more
like come on
give more
Jesus just isn't
doing
the Son of God
isn't giving me
enough praise
I think I'm going
to create George
and Daniel
and Anne
and a few other people
so they can top up
what Jesus
God the Son of God
just isn't able
to give
no that's not
how it works
at all.
Even the language
of glory
the language
of glorifying
is about a matter
about honoring
it's a matter
about recognizing
worth
it's a matter
of recognizing
just this profound
value
that when
we want to glorify
something
we want to praise
something
it's because
there's a depth
a wonder
a value
and so from
all eternity
the God
the Father
was saying
that the huge
value of the
person of God
the Son of God
and how worthy
he was to be
honored
and he said
you are
just to be
praised
and to honored
and glorified
and the Father
doesn't view this
as a lack
that all of eternity
he is glorifying
the Son
and the Son
doesn't view it
as any type of
lack
or need
in him
that from all
it just seems
that God
the Father
is so worthy
he is so
wonderful
and is so
worthy
for the Son
to say
to glorify him
and so from
all eternity
the Father
is glorifying
and giving
worth
and honor
and praise
to the Father
and the Father
to the Son
and then
God the Father
God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit
three persons
one God
from all eternity
they create
human beings
and human beings
are meant
not just to live
all by themselves
but to live
male and female
and to have families
and to live in communities
and to have churches
and have organizations
and God the Father
God the Son
God the Holy Spirit
is not saying
oh I am so needy
I am so needy
he's saying
no
from all eternity
there's this fullness
of love
this fullness
of praise
this fullness
of giving
of glory
and we want you
flesh
to come
and enter into this
out of our fullness
we desire you
to enter
into this
you could put up
the scripture text
again
Andrew
this is eternal life
that they may know you
the only true God
and Jesus Christ
whom you have sent
well
what about this whole
problem of knowledge
if you could put up
point number four
the problem is
that when
remember I went
through the beginning
about the whole thing
about the difference
between knowing a pebble
and knowing a bug
and knowing a dog
and knowing a person
and knowing God
and you realize
that in knowing
a person
you're changed
if knowing a person
changes you
how much more
must knowing
the personal God
I can't even
begin to count
the different ways
that my life
is different
from knowing
my wife
it would be
impossible
for anybody
to trace back
we've been married
37 years
what George
would be like
without knowing
having ever met
Louise
than it would be
to know him now
for me to have
spent 37 years
knowing her
like you can't
know a person
without being
changed
and if knowing
a person
is all about
opening yourself
to the other person
and at the same time
the other person
opens themselves
to you
and in some way
you enter into
the other person
in some way
they enter into
you and you're
changed
and as I've
shared with you
before
that's why
it is so common
when a loved one
dies
whether it's
a child
or your wife
or your husband
it often
feels for people
as if there is
now a hollow
spot inside
of you
that something's
left you
because you're
changed by
knowing a person
and so what
Jesus is saying
here is once
again just
helping us
to understand
this personal
God
and it just
makes sense
if knowing
Louise
changes me
how much
more must
knowing God
change me
you could put up
the scripture
text Andrew
this is eternal
life
that they may
know you
the only true
God
and Jesus
Christ
whom you
have sent
and now
if you could
put up the
point again
Andrew
the final
point
if knowing
a wonderful
person
feels like
a gift
how much
more must
it be
a real
and true
gift
to know
God
if knowing
a wonderful
person feels
like a gift
how much
more must
it be
a real
and true
gift
to know
God
I'm not
just talking
about some
famous people
that I've
known
I
you know
I've been
at some
gatherings
and you
see this
person
you can
just tell
maybe they
just radiate
goodness
or they
just radiate
wisdom
and then
they say
want to
have coffee
and I
I'll tell
you this
I just
feel so
unworthy
I'll call
up Louise
and say
I just
feel so
unworthy
that they'd
actually want
to talk
to me
like it
just feels
like this
act of
grace
or gift
that they
would want
to spend
time with
me
and get
to know
me
and not
just to
spend
time with
me
so they
could talk
about their
accomplishments
or how
wonderful
they are
but here
this person
whether it's
a person
of great
accomplishment
or just a
person of
great goodness
or great
holiness
or great
wisdom
and they
want to
actually spend
time with
me and I
feel like I
have been
given a
profound
gift
and if
that is
true just
with a
person how
much more
true must
it be of
God
and that's
what Jesus
means by
saying that
only he
can give
this eternal
life only
he can give
this knowledge
of God
you know by
our normal
ways of
thinking about
things as I've
already shared
we tend to
think of God
as an
impersonal
force
and often
when we
think of
God in
personal ways
we get
very very
frightened
we worry
that God
is going
to hurt
us
we worry
that he's
all about
ego
and the
fact of
the matter
is that
no train
of secular
thought
no train
of secular
wisdom
no train
of ordinary
religion
no train
of ordinary
spirituality
will ever
say that
the way
that God
is going
to fully
reveal himself
and make
himself
known
is by
setting aside
his honor
and glory
and splendor
and divine
prerogatives
and entering
among us
to live a
fully human
life
and then to
die upon
the cross
bearing in
his person
your sin
and mine
your shame
and mine
your death
and mine
your doom
and mine
no train
of natural
thought
would ever
lead us
to understand
that that
is the
revelation
of the
glory
of God
only Jesus
reveals
the God
that really
does exist
and it is
not in
keeping
with any
train
of spiritual
thought
or rash
or wisdom
and so
this wonderful
thing is
that when
I reach
out with
my mind
or my
heart
or my
arm
to recognize
that Jesus
is the one
who can reconcile
me to God
and I need
him as my
savior
and my
mind
cannot reach
Jesus
my heart
cannot reach
Jesus
my will
cannot reach
Jesus
my hand
cannot reach
Jesus
because there
is an
infinite distance
between me
and him
but the
wonder of the
gospel is
that Jesus
crosses that
infinite distance
that I
cannot cross
and he
comes to
my mind
he comes
to my
heart
he comes
to my
will
he comes
to my
hand
he comes
to my
body
and as my
hand
touches
his hand
that is
crossed
to come
across
such
infinite
space
and I
touch
him
there's
not only
the sense
that he
becomes
in a sense
my
substitute
it's
not just
that he
becomes
in a sense
where I
exchange
my doom
for his
destiny
it is
also a
touching
of him
by which
I now
start to
know
God
and to
be known
by him
and to
know God
is a gift
of the
grace of
Jesus
and it
is
this knowledge
of him
is eternal
life
that is the
change that
it works
within me
that even
though I
walk around
right now
even as I
stand with
normal earthly
human life
when I
put my
hand in
the hand
of Jesus
when I
put my
mind
on Jesus
when I
give my
heart
and my
will to
Jesus
and he
really always
takes any
offer to
give ourselves
to him
he always
takes it
that at the
same time
that I have
an earthly
life
I now
have received
an eternal
life
which means
a life
that only
comes from
God
that begins
now
and at
the moment
of my
death
what my
family and
my friends
will see
as my
death
is actually
the moment
that eternal
life
swallows my
earthly life
so that all
that I have
left is this
eternal life
of knowing
God
and being
known by
him
I invite you
to stand
and
you know
here's the
wonderful thing
about this
image
that eternal
life
if you could
put up the
scripture text
perfect Andrew
this is eternal
life that they
may know you
the only true
God and
Jesus Christ
whom you
have sent
salvation
begins when
you know
God for the
first time
I've been
married to
Louise for
37 years
I'm still
learning to
know her
and
and so
this is a
time for
God's people
to cry out
and say
father
I don't
want to
just know
about you
but I do
want to
know about
you
but I
want to
know you
and I
want to
be known
by you
and I
want to
know you
more and
have you
know me
more and
more in
the power
of the
Holy Spirit
and this
is the
time for
us as
God's
people to
call out
to God
just to
ask to
know him
more and
to be
known by
him more
and to
know that
we have
a dad
in heaven
who loves
us who
hears our
prayers who
answers our
prayers as
we pour out
our hearts
to him
let's pray
father if
there are
any here
who are
hesitating
to call
out to
you for
the first
time to
have
Jesus as
their
Lord and
Savior
to come
and to
touch
them and
to help
them to
know you
and to
know him
father I
ask that
your Holy
Spirit would
move in
their hearts
and lives
that this
might be
that time
when they
say Jesus
I'm here
I want
to be
yours
I want
to know
you
and be
known by
you I
want to
know the
father and
be known
by him
and father
if there
are any
here who
are really
struggling
with abusive
dads and
have problems
with the
language I
ask that you
would pour
out the
Holy Spirit
with might
and power
and deep
conviction
upon us
that we
might pour
out our
hearts
father to
you we
might know
healing
and father
for every
one of us
we know
how in
our
personal
relationships
there's
times when
we can
just be
indifferent
and we
can take
people for
granted
and we
know that
can happen
with our
relationship
with you
we thank
you father
you never
let us
go
we ask
father that
you would
pour out
the Holy
Spirit
upon us
with might
and power
and deep
conviction
to fan
into flame
within us
a longing
and yearning
to know
about you
and to
know you
and to
be known
by you
to know
you
not just
the appearances
but to
to know
you in
reality
not just
in make
believe
but to
know you
in reality
and to
know you
more and
fan into
flame within
us father
such a
desire in
the midst
of our
earthly life
in the
midst of
our jobs
and our
tasks
and our
chores
and our
relationships
to know
you
to be
known by
you
father
pour out
your
Holy
Spirit
upon
us
that we
might know
the
father
you
and we
might know
Jesus
more and
all of
God's people
said
Amen