Sermons
from Lone Rock Bible Church “It’s Who You Know” This final set of verses in Jesus’
prayer of John 17 is something of a summary. Not surprisingly, we are pointed to Jesus as
the pivotal person for our eternal well-being. The question: Do you know Him? Here are
three points to ponder:
In my view it has been a rewarding
time taking a close look at the prayer of Jesus as He was preparing to walk out the door,
down the steps, into the garden, be betrayed, arrested, tried, executed, and raised from
the dead. This prayer was designed to be heard not only by the Father but by the disciples
and by you and me. John 17 In May of 1966, I was in the fifth
grade. I lived in Spokane. The previous October the Los Angeles Dodgers had defeated my
Minnesota Twins in the World Series. The Spokane Indians were a farm club of the Los
Angeles Dodgers and the Dodgers were coming to town to play an exhibition event against
the Spokane Indians. I am sure every kid I knew wanted into that game, but tickets were at
a premium. They were gone quickly, not only because we had a major league team coming to
town but this was the world champion Los Angeles Dodgers coming to town. I was somewhat of a baseball nut at
that stage of my life. I knew a lot about the game and played the game a lot. Probably
there was no fifth grader alive who wanted to be at that game more than I did. I knew that
my chances were slim to none because the tickets were gone. Within a day or two of the
game, my dad came home and he had two tickets. To make a long, and to my way of thinking,
blessed story short, we went to the game. I reflect on that. That was, without
question, the highlight of my childhood. It was the most wonderful day in my life as a
kid. What actually got me there? Was it my exhaustive knowledge of baseball lore, my
loyalty to the Spokane Indians, my respect for the Los Angeles Dodgers despite their
previous victory over my Twins? It wasn’t “what” that got me there. It was
my Dad who got me there. I could not have gotten to the game because I could afford a
ticket. I could not have gotten to the game because I won a contest or because I had any
sort of outstanding or sterling qualities. It was not in any sense what I knew; it was
only who I knew -- it was who my Dad knew. I think about that with regard to
heaven and to being right with God. The prayer comes to a conclusion in verse 25 with
Jesus’ words, “righteous Father.” The key to heaven is being right with
God. That’s how we get there. Being right with God or getting to heaven has very
little to do with what I know. It doesn’t have a whole lot to do with my experience,
my pedigree. “Well, my grandpa was a preacher and my dad after him.” It doesn’t
have anything to do with that. It doesn’t have anything to do
with my behavior. “I’ve been a good guy.”
“My sins aren’t that bad and they aren’t that many.”
“I’ve done a lot of good things; therefore I should get to heaven.” It isn’t what I know or what I’ve
done or not done. This prayer, if it comes down to anything at all, it comes down to the
very simple fact that to be right with God has everything to do not with what we know or
what we have done but with who we know and what He has done. That is so beautifully
fundamental and powerfully simple that none of us should leave this room without it. It’s who we know and what He has
done. If that does not draw us to His side, I really don’t know what will. He is the
draw. He is the attraction. He is the wonderful, wonderful One. These last verses are a little bit
different, I’ll admit. So we shall do the sermon a little bit differently. We will
talk first of all about the verses themselves, the text, and say a word or two about how
these verses fit in with the rest and bring out a point of emphasis or two. Then we will
take a closer look because a contrast is drawn in these verses between the world on one
hand and believers on the other. Let’s see what else this gospel
has to say about the world and what else this gospel has to say about believers because it
is very valuable to read a particular passage of Scripture and compare it with other
Scriptures from the same author. We can get some good insights that way. Here is my suggestion as we look at
the text. I believe the observation is true that John 17, those 26 verses of Jesus’
prayer, is very much an elaboration of chapter 16, verse 33. Everything we read about in the prayer of John 17,
Jesus introduces in that last verse of chapter 16. John 16:33 From there, He prays a prayer that
parallels the truths in that verse. These last verses begin in an unusual
way: “Righteous Father.” Father, we know that you are always, every time,
perfectly right. No deviation. No gray. God, You are just right. And You are righteous and
You are perfectly justified in your decisions and in Your actions and pristine in Your
character and as perfect as perfect can be. Righteous Father, the world does not
know You. Obviously the world and righteousness are not on the same page. The world does
not know You, but by contrast, I know You and I have brought these guys in on what I know.
These have come to know that You sent Me. They have made that connection, that
heaven/earth connection that is so elusive to the world at large. But these disciples, and
by extension, those whom they influence, will come to understand that indeed there is a
link between heaven and earth. Father, You have initiated it and I am the key to it. They
are then left with the best they can do in this life and some sort of vague, misty hope
for the hereafter. It has become very clear, Father, because You sent Me. The Bible says no one has seen God at
any time. He is elusive that way. He is beyond our physical ability to see, not to mention
His perfect purity that precludes fleshly presence. But, the Bible says in John 1:18, the
only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, that is, Jesus has thoroughly
explained Him. Jesus came and did exactly that and these disciples picked up on it while
the world remained in ignorance. The world does not know You. You are righteous and the
world is in the dark. But these do know that You sent Me. These have made that connection.
I have made known to them Your Name. I
have thoroughly explained to them by My life and My Words, Your character, what You are
like, what You are doing, what You intend and where this is going. They have got it, Lord.
The world does not, but they do. I have made known to them Your Name and I am not finished
yet. I shall continue to make known in order that the love that You have given Me, might
be something they know as well. “that the love with which You
loved Me may be in them, and I in them." Jesus, in these words, is inviting
those who listen, those who get it, those who understand and those who choose to follow.
He is inviting us into a fellowship with the Father that we can hardly even begin to
comprehend in this life. It has everything to do with love. It has everything to do with
God putting the interest of the creature ahead of His own and drawing us to heaven to be
with Jesus. The emphasis, in these verses, is not
on what the believer does. It is on who the believer knows and the position that leads him
to. They have come to know this and because of what they have come to know, they have
surrendered. They have done what really they ought to do. It is like, perhaps, being on
the field of battle. The Bible depicts quite a number of battles in which one side is
obviously superior, greater in number and greater in power and the other side is seeking
to fend them off. It is as though, in somewhat of a crass perspective, the defenders are
looking the situation over and realize “we aren’t going to win this.” My
way is not going to prevail. This is not going to happen. That’s the knowledge.
“I can do the math. I can count the cost. I can see which way the wind is blowing. I
know what is going to happen. The only thing that makes any sense at all is to surrender
and join forces.” That’s what Jesus is describing
here in a sense. They have seen it. They have come to some sense of understanding of the
vastness and the power and the love of the Father and rather than choose to ignore it or
to resist it, they are saying, “I surrender to it. Make me a part of who You are and
what You have done.” That is what Christians do. We come to faith that way, deciding
we are done resisting. Let’s just join. Let’s surrender. Let’s capitulate.
Let’s throw in our lot. Let’s jump on that only bandwagon that is really going
anywhere at all -- that of the Lord. I think the most simple explanation is
found in I John 5. If we had to find parallel verses, these will work. If we have to
simplify John 17:25 and 26, these are perfect verses to help us do that. I John 5 It is not he who has the knowledge,
not he who has the experience. It is not he who has the pedigree and not he who has the
behavior. It is he who has the Son. What sets true Christianity from every rival belief
system is this. It is personal. It is relational. It is dynamic. It is alive. He who
has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. There are the believers and there is the
world. You have the Son or you do not have life. 13These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the
Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. I really like that -- “that you
may know.” That you may have assurance
in your mind and in your heart. The world Let’s go back to John’s
gospel and move from the text to a discussion of the “world.” We have to pick
out an example in order to do that. In John’s gospel, just a quick reference to the 1st
chapter explaining the arrival of Jesus to earth and His travels among people, it says
that He was in the world and the world was made through Him but the world did not know
Him. The world did not know Him. As we look through some of the verses that lie
ahead, we are going to see this word “to know” a lot. Who do we know? The Bible
says the world did not know Him. Did the world know about Him in a certain sense? Yes.
That’s available in the created order. That’s available in the conscience. There
are facts. The Bible says the demons believe. They have that head knowledge. They know of
Him. But they do not know Him in any saving sense whatsoever. Neither does the world. John
16:33 says the world, you who do not know Him, have tribulation. Look at the 8th chapter of
John, one of the liveliest chapters in all Scripture. If we could have been present in the
8th chapter of John as Jesus was dialoguing with a group of Pharisees, I think
we would have been electrified by what we saw and by what we heard. In John 8, beginning
with verse 12, Jesus says words that get Him in hot water with the Pharisees. In verse 55
of John 8, just parenthetically here, describes the Pharisees very well as their argument
comes to a culmination. 55and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say
that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. What the world doesn’t know! Who
the world does not know, according to Jesus’ prayer. “Righteous Father.”
The world does not know the Father. The world does not have a handle on the Father. These
Pharisees didn’t have it. Their view of God was different from that of Jesus. They
did not know the Son. It escaped them. They did not realize that the Father sent the Son
to be the Savior of the world. They did not realize that this Jesus, fleshed out before
them, was God almighty. They didn’t get that. They didn’t know. He says “I have made known your
name,” to the believers (John 17:25). The name, the character, what God is truly like
and the believers got it. The Pharisees already had their own ideas and they were not open
to it. The Pharisees knew nothing of the love of the Father toward the Son . The fact that
Jesus would pay the penalty out of the loving disposition from the Father to the Father’s
people and that they would be in Him and He in them, this idea of spiritual union -- they
had not a clue. The Pharisees suffered from a lack of
knowledge. That comes through so clearly in the 8th chapter of John’s
gospel. The Pharisees were special people in their day. They had a few distinctives that
set them apart. For one, they were unashamedly self-righteous. In our day, if someone
calls you self-righteous, that means they consider you are set on a life course to make
yourself better than anyone else. “Who do you think you are, you self-righteous . . .”
They mistakenly label Christians as
self-righteous. No, Christians are not self-righteous. There is no way. Those are
absolutely contradictory concepts. A true Christian is one who admits he or she has no
righteousness and who borrows it from Jesus. No self-righteousness there. Unfortunately,
that attitude may sometimes come through, but it shouldn’t. The Pharisees on the other hand were unashamed of it. Oh, you are a Pharisee. You are trying to present yourself as better than the rest of us. They would say, “Yes -- I am, and I’m doing pretty well, aren’t I?”. If you were smart, the Pharisee would say, you would listen to me. Why? Because the Pharisees not only were self-righteous, they were very religious. They had, in their own minds at least, a handle on God that was exclusive. Because of that, they were viewed as leaders and as examples. They were in the world and that is how they thought. Jesus engages them in conversation.
Speaking of Himself, he says: John 8 It’s not what you know, it’s
Who you know. “He who follows Me.” 14Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I testify about
Myself, My testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you
do not know where I come from or where I am going. “I know where I came from and
where I am going and you don’t have a clue of either one. I know -- and you don’t
know at all where I come from or where I am going and you don’t know that of yourself
either.” 19So they were saying to Him, "Where is Your Father?"
Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My
Father also." It’s not what you know, it’s
Who you know. You don’t know Me and you don’t know the Father either. Verse 27 tells us that He had been
speaking to them about the Father and they didn’t know that either. There is what I call a pocket of belief beginning
in verse 30. There were others listening as He basically was arguing with the Pharisees.
It says many came to believe in Him. 30As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. “I am the way. I am the truth,
and you shall know the truth.” It’s Who you know. And then the argument
continues. 33They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have
never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, 'You will become free'?" Jesus said you are wrong. You don’t
know this. You are enslaved to sin. In verse 39 they say, “Abraham is our father.”
Jesus said you are wrong, you don’t know Abraham. If you did, you would do the deeds
of Abraham. 48The Jews answered and said to Him, "Do we not say rightly
that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?" Nothing else will work here. You must
be second class demon-possessed. That will cover just about any problem. 49Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon; but I honor My
Father, and you dishonor Me.” “You don’t know what you are
talking about.” 52The Jews said to Him, "Now we know that You have a demon.
Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, 'If anyone keeps My word, he will never
taste of death.' They obviously did not understand
eternal life for those who believe. They are not dead, they are just transitioned. 53"Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The
prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?" As this conversation heats up and
closes in on the end, Jesus answered: 54Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing;
it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, 'He is our God'; Jesus answered, “Truly, truly”
-- in other words, don’t miss this: 58Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before
Abraham was born, I am." He declares His eternality as God.
“I am ever existent.” That was the name of God in the Book of Exodus. Jesus
said, “That is My name and before Abraham was born in 2,000 B.C., I am already.” They picked up stones to throw at Him
because they didn’t know. Probably their most pointed accusation was when they said
in verse 48, “You are a Samaritan and you have a demon.” They are wrong on both
counts, obviously. But people do not know Him today either. But rather than being so crass
as to say that Jesus is a Samaritan or that Jesus has a demon, we have gotten a little
more subtle and little kinder and maybe a little nicer about it and simply say, “Jesus
was a good man” or “He was a prophet.” That sounds religious. Or, “He
was not just a good man, He was the best man, the best moral example.” People will take the Person of Jesus
and misapply labels to Him because people do not know. I am not sure which is worse, but
this I do know -- not knowing Him, whether we label Him a Samaritan or whether we label
Him a prophet, our destination in eternity is the same because we do not know Him.
It’s not what we know. It’s not what we say about who we do not know. It is Him
-- the One we need to know. That’s the world. The world does not know and Jesus
acknowledged that in His prayer in John 17. 3. The believer In John 1:10 He says the world did not
know Him. The world was created by Him but the world did not know Him. He goes on to say
in verse 12: 12But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become
children of God, even to those who believe in His name, To them that received Him, who touched
base with Him, who trusted Him, who knew Him -- He adopts them into His family. Jesus had
several encounters with people who became believers in John’s gospel. A couple of
them are noted. I am going to mention two. In the fourth chapter of John, Jesus was in the
region of Samaria, which is north of Judea and south of Galilee in the Promised Land. A conscientious Jew would have no
dealings with Samaritans because Samaritans were half breeds, mixed breeds. A little bit
of Jewish blood, a little bit of Assyrian and a whole lot in between. They were looked
down upon by the Jews and yet Jesus did not seem to care about that. He went right to
Samaria, sat down for a rest near the current town of Nablus (which is a real hot spot for
Palestinian activity), at Jacob’s well. There came a woman of Samaria to draw
water (verse 7). A woman comes to draw water
right in the middle of the day. So we immediately know she is an outcast. She has
problems. She is one of the downtrodden, hurting, lost. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a
drink.” His disciples were not there. The Samaritan woman said, “Why would you
even speak to me? You are obviously a Jewish man. I am a Samaritan woman. Why would you
cross this taboo? 10Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of
God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He
would have given you living water." He says, “If you knew.” He
gets to the point and the point is not “what.” He does not explain to her why it
is that He is in Samaria, He goes right to who He is and what she needs. By the end of
this she will be a believer. She said let’s talk about water, how are you going to
get it? It’s a deep well. Jesus answered in verse 13: 13Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this
water will thirst again; Jesus now tightens the noose a bit and
said, “Go call your husband.” He knows. She has already sensed there is
something special about this guy. She hadn’t ought to pull the wool over His eyes.
She answered, “I have no husband.” Jesus, who can read the inside as well
as the out, said you have well said I have no husband. You have had five husbands. That
explains her solo trip in the middle of the day. That explains why, in a few verses, when
she heads back to town, she goes to the men. She is among the hurting lost. She has a
terrible reputation and she knows it. She doesn’t like it. 18for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is
not your husband; this you have said truly." She hung her head. She said, “I
perceive that you are a prophet,” then changes the subject. Are we going to get
religious, then let’s talk about religion. “Our fathers worshipped on this
mountain, but you people say it ought to be Jerusalem.” She is changing the subject.
She is trying to sidestep His spiritual scrutiny into her checkered past. Jesus answered,
“Believe me, woman, an hour is coming where it will not matter.” 22"You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know,
for salvation is from the Jews. How did she know this, I wonder. She
is a Samaritan, not a Jew. And yet, she is sensitive and perhaps she suspects that she is
in the presence of a very significant individual. Could it be God’s anointed
deliverer? Jesus confirms it with these words: 26Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He." Lady -- it’s not what you know,
it is Who you know, and I am standing here in front of you. So the woman went to town and
said to the men, “Come see a man who told me all the things that I have done.”
It says they all went running out to see Him. I
love how Pastor Fister puts that, “Half of them are curious and half of them are
scared.” 39From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him
because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all the things that I
have done." They wanted Him. They did not say,
“Could you leave us a brochure, a doctrinal statement, something about what you
teach.” No, they wanted Him. They did not want Him to leave. He stayed two days and
many more believed because of His word. 42and they were saying to the woman, "It is no longer because
of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One
is indeed the Savior of the world." “We now know Him.” One more among the hurting lost was
one who has gone down in Bible history as the man born blind. That’s all we know him
as. This is the one who everybody just knew was a sinner. The question even comes to
Jesus. Here is this guy blind from birth. His disciples asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who
sinned?” They just knew somebody had to have sinned or this guy would not be blind.
“This guy or his parents?” Jesus
answered, “That’s not how it works.” Their understanding of God and how and
why He does what He does was wrong. The disciples were just parroting the mentality of the
day. Somebody had to have sinned -- him or maybe his parents. We will meet him and we’ll meet
his parents in the course of this story. John 9:3 While I am in the world, I am the
light of the world.” He spits on the ground, made clay of the spit, applied the clay
to his eyes and said, “Go wash in the pool.” He went and washed and came back
seeing. Now the big question is who is responsible for this turn of events? It is very
interesting. The neighbors saw the guy who had previously been a beggar and said, “Is
this the guy?” Some were saying yes, others were saying no, it just looks like him. But he kept saying, “No, it’s me. I am
the one.” They asked “How were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The
man who is called Jesus” pointing not to a what, but to a who, “made clay,
anointed my eyes, said to go to Siloam and wash. I went away, washed and received my
sight.” “Where is he,” they asked. “I do not know. It had to have been on a Sabbath that
this occurred. The Pharisees take a dim view of anything going on, on the Sabbath, of
which they do not approve and they have to investigate. The Pharisees were asking how he
received his sight and he told them. The Pharisees said, “This guy can’t be
legitimate. He shouldn’t do stuff like this on the Sabbath.” But others
struggle, for how could it be that a sinner could perform signs like this. There was
division among them. 17So they said to the blind man again, "What do you say about
Him, since He opened your eyes?" And he said, "He is a prophet." The parents said this because they
were afraid of the Jews. The Jews had already said if anyone should confess Jesus to be
the Messiah they would get kicked out of the synagogue. That why his parents kind of
sloughed it off. “Ask him.” 24So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said
to him, "Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner." You are wrong. You think you know.
There are countless myriads of folks out there in the world like these people who think
they know and they are wrong. All the thinking we do in the world does not make us right.
Just because an individual is sure of himself does not make it right. 25He then answered, "Whether He is a sinner, I do not know;
one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." It’s because of Him. The
Pharisees are getting more irritated all the time. They go back and forth. They accuse Him
of collusion with Jesus. They put him out of the synagogue. Jesus heard they had put him out. He
found him and said to this man -- who had not seen him, who had not laid eyes on Jesus
before Jesus had put the clay and said to go wash -- “Do you believe in the Son of
Man?” He answered and said, “Who is He
that I may believe in Him?” Who is He? Not what did He teach, what does he represent,
what are his views but who is He? 37Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him, and He is the
one who is talking with you." This business of being a Christian is
all about who and a relationship with the eternal Son of God who offers it to us. Those last two verses of John 17: 25"O righteous Father, although the world has not known You,
yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; They are believers. They are trusting. 26and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known,
so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." That we might have a relationship. I will close with verses from Matthew
11, verses we have heard many times, verses that also include a prayer from Jesus to the
Father. Matthew 11 “Come to Me.” It’s Who you know. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2006, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |