Read: John 17, focus is on 1-3; Sing: We Long for that Day
John 17:1-3.
Again, I find myself at a loss as we study this text together. The hallowedness felt is...overwhelming. The Lord communing with the Father. We will never even be able to full comprehend the sacredness of the truths being shared as we study this passage. We are finishing the portion that would be considered within Jesus praying for Himself.
v3 All of my study notes point to the fact that this truth needs to push us past an intellectual knowledge but an experiential knowledge of Christ. A note in my study bible reads, " The Puritans and Reformers loved to preach on John 17:3...they understood that this word "know," as used in this context, meant an intimate kind of knowledge that involved a deeply personal and abiding relationship with God in Jesus Christ."e
Augustine has expressed it this way,"who created us for Himself, so that our soul is restless unless it finds its rest in Him."
This is a perfect play to pause for reflection today. To asks ourselves do we know the Father? Do we know the Son? Not know because we go to church, and grew up in a Christian family, or listen to christian music or attended a christian college. That means nothing. KNOW, because we have come to abide in Him and He is us. We have become grafted into His vine, we are His sheep, and He knows us by name?
I love the saying going to church makes you as Christian as sitting in a garage makes you a car. You can do all the things, but it doesn't make you a child, because only Christ's blood can do that! Oh what lavished love and grace on us! That He would die for us while we were yet sinners so that we could be His.
Jesus points out what eternal life is here, "that they would know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Not one or the other, both and.
I am including 2 sermons today, one on this passage and then one we heard Sunday on 1 John 2 about how to understand if you are in Christ.
May we take the time in this broken, weary world; to rest in His presence. To be faithful in Him who is able. And to know Him more.
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