“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17: 3
This text talks about Eternal Life, about knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ.
What can we take from this text about eternal life, about knowing the One true God, and about Jesus Christ?
Jesus said that Eternal Life, or salvation, consists of two things. What are they?
1 ° Knowing God, the only true God.
2 ° Knowing Jesus Christ, the One sent by God.
The question is: How can we know God? And how can we get to know Christ? Another question: Do you know God? Do you know Christ?
How many of you here know an old Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone? Or Tom Cruise, or Leonardo Dicaprio, or the famous top model Gisele Bundchen, or the president of Russia Vladimir Putin?
Maybe you say you do, but you don’t really know them. You know about their “Existence”. It is different knowing a person and knowing they exist.
You may have heard about a person, or read in the newspaper about them, on the Internet, but you cannot claim to know them personally. For if no one has introduced you to this person, if you have not been personally with them, then you cannot claim to know this person, because you do not have a personal relationship with them.
Can you see the difference between “knowing” someone and knowing they exist?
So it is with some Christians, they have been in the Church for years, but they don’t know God personally, they hear about God but they don’t have a personal relationship, because they don’t spend time with God, they don’t listen to God, they don’t talk to God and many have never had an encounter with the person of Christ.
Many hear about God, know about the existence of God, they even read in the Bible that speaks of facts and accounts the existence of God, but they only know of Him, they know that God exists but they do not literally know him!
In the verse we read, the word “To Know” has three different meanings, which are: Partnership, Intimacy and Companionship.
My intention today is present Jesus Christ and challenge you to get to know Him personally as the only Lord and Saviour of your souls.
I want to challenge you to live in partnership, to have intimacy, companionship, alliance with the Lord Jesus.
The first thing we must understand is:
A – To know him as “The One” true God is to remove other false gods, sculpture images and idols from your life which are called gods but are not the Eternal God Himself.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
Deuteronomy 6: 4
“I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is in God. I will strengthen you, although you have not acknowledged me,”.
Isaiah 45: 5
How to know God?
The Bible tells us that God has never been seen by anyone.
“No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” John 1:18
We can find three references about God the Father and three references about Jesus Christ, the Son in the word of God.
God the Father
1st – God is Spirit
“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. ” John 4:24
2nd – God is invisible
“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. ” 1 Timothy 1:17
3rd – God is infinite, God fills heaven and earth.
“Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declare the Lord. ”Jeremiah 23:24
We will now look at references about Jesus Christ the Son.
B- How to get to know Jesus?
1st Jesus is the revelation of the Father.
God revealed Jesus Christ and made him known.
“No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” John 1:18
2nd Jesus is the image of the Father. He is the image of the invisible God.
“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” Colossians 1:15
3rd Jesus is God with us.
The son of God dwelling among men.
“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” ”Matthew 1:21
Although there is this difference between the father and the son, this does not mean that they are separate.
Jesus says:– I and the Father are one. John 10:30
He is One God with different personalities and different manifestations, but they are one and there is no division between them.
God who is, Spirit, invisible and infinite, He manifested in the flesh, becoming visible; Apostle Paul tells us that God is a mystery, just as Christ is a mystery.
Christ is the mystery of God that has been revealed.
“Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory . ” 1 Timothy 3:16
The Eternal God was made in time and was subject to time, the Infinite became finite, the Immortal became mortal and God became man.
That is why Jesus is a mystery that was hidden in the Old Testament, but was revealed for our Salvation, deliverance, healing and transformation.
We need to understand that the Old Testament God is the same as the New Testament.
“Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. ”
Deuteronomy 4:12
In the old testament, they heard the voice of God but saw no form, but in the new testament God assumes a human form.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. ” John 1:14
Jesus is the one who reveals the Father
For Jesus said, whoever sees me, sees the Father, who knows me, knows the Father.
Jesus is Emmanuel, “The God with us”, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”, “The Word that became flesh”, the one in whom all biblical prophecies are fulfilled.
Today we can only know God through Jesus Christ.
And eternal life is in knowing Jesus and God is hidden in Christ Jesus!
God is “hidden” in Christ. The Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son, and only God knows who has a personal relationship with Jesus.
8 “Philip said,“ Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. ” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ”
John 14: 8-10
Here Jesus reproaches Philip, I have been with you for so long and still you don’t know me? We may commit the same mistakes as Philip. For how long have you been serving God?
How long have you been in the church? Do you know Jesus? Do you have a personal relationship with Him? Do you talk to him every day?
Whoever does not have a personal relationship with Jesus will never know the Father, whoever does not look at the Son will never be able to see the Father, whoever does not know Jesus will never understand the work of Redemption and the Revelation of the Cross.
That is why we have to love Jesus, follow Jesus and be Jesus’ disciples, because whoever knows Jesus, knows God and has Eternal Life.
Jesus explains to Philip: The Father and I are one. God and Jesus are distinct and different in personality but inseparable.
We now see that through Jesus, the invisible God, who cannot be seen, took on a corporeal form so that his person could be manifested in the person of Christ. Jesus is 100% God and 100% Man.
Let’s see other texts.
“Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:“ Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; ”
Hebrews 10: 5
“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,”
Colossians 2: 9
Lastly, we will look at another text which shows us God being revealed through Christ reconciling man with God.
“That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ” 2 Corinthians 5:19
It is clear then that the God who had never been seen by any “man”, who had been heard but not shown any form, He assumes a corporeal form, dwells in a body; the verb becomes flesh and lives among men.
John says, we saw his Glory, of the only begotten from the Father. God in Christ revealed his person through His Son, not taking the sins of men into account, entrusting us with the word of reconciliation.
Do you want to have Eternal Life?
Eternal life is this: to know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom God sent.
To complete:
How should we know Jesus? Who is Jesus?
Jesus is God, He is the image of God.
Hebrews 1:13 says “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.”
Jesus came to reveal the exact image of God, his character, and his existence.
Do you know God? Do you know Christ?
How is your relationship with the person of Jesus?
Your eternal life is conditioned on knowing and having an intimate relationship with Jesus.
I challenge you to spend time with God and time with the word because eternal life is only through knowing Jesus Christ.