John 17:1-5 “This is Eternal Life”

1:10And for many people, they don't know where to find the answers. They don't know where to look. And for many of us in the room today, we were in that place at one point. We had those kinds of questions, maybe those exact questions. We wanted answers to them. And in God's providence and his wonderful grace, he revealed those answers to us. But for others, they're still looking. And if that's you today, I'm so glad you're here. Because in the passage that we're going to explore this morning, Jesus tackles that very question: what is eternal life?

1:51How can we have it? What is it like? For the last four chapters, Jesus has been preparing the disciples for the reality that he is going to be leaving them soon. He's going to be leaving the world and returning to the Father. And because he knows everything and never fails, his words were perfect. There was nothing that he said to the disciples in chapters 13, 14, 15, or 16 that he could have said better. And yet, and yet, after saying all of those things, he doesn't just end his long section of teaching in the upper room and then move on to the next thing, even though the next thing is the most important event in the history of the world.

2:37His death in the place of sinners and his resurrection from the dead. No, after he wraps up this long section of teaching, he prays. And this prayer isn't just a brief sentence or two addressed to the Father. This is the longest prayer of Jesus recorded in the whole Bible. It's known as the high priestly prayer. And in this prayer, Jesus is going to spend a significant amount of time praying for himself and then his disciples. And then, and this part is truly amazing, he's going to pray for you and me.

3:12That's right, he's going to spend a significant amount of time praying for us. You may not have known that, but Jesus prays at length in great detail for future believers that are to come, including people like us. And so, friends, after the holidays, we're going to consider Jesus' prayer for his disciples and his prayer for us. But today, in verses one through five, we're going to cover his prayer for himself. And in this section, Jesus prays for God to be glorified through him, which happens as he gives eternal life to his people.

3:49But that brings us back to the question: What is eternal life? What is eternal life? Is it simply life that never ends? Well, thankfully, it is more than that, and it's something far better than that. We're going to learn in these verses that eternal life is knowing the only true God who sent his only son to save us. You look here in chapter 17, verse 1, you see that Jesus begins praying. And the first word of this prayer is the word Father.

4:30Now, there are 21 recorded prayers of Jesus in the Bible. And in 20 out of those 21 prayers, he always addresses God as Father. The only time that he doesn't call God Father is when he is hanging on the cross. When he says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That is the one and only time that he does not address God as Father. And so when Jesus teaches us to pray, it's significant that he doesn't teach us to pray, our God who is in heaven.

5:05He teaches us to pray, our Father who is in heaven. Because by teaching us to pray in this way, Jesus is reminding us that we have been adopted into God's family through faith. We no longer have the same relationship that we did with him before, merely as creator in creation. We have a new relationship with God, and that is father and child. And so he instructs us to pray in that way. So remember, when we are speaking to God, we are speaking to our heavenly Father, who does everything that he does, providing for us and teaching us, and yes, even disciplining us out of love for us as his beloved children. So never forget that.

5:51So he prays, Father, and then he prays, the hour has come. Notice he says, the hour has come. It's not an hour. Has come, but the hour has come, the most important hour in all of human history. The hour that the prophets foretold, the hour when the perfect, spotless lamb would be sacrificed once and for all. The hour when the veil which symbolized our separation from God and our inability to approach the throne of grace with confidence, the hour when that veil would be torn in two, reminding us and demonstrating for us that we can now, through faith in Christ, approach the throne of God with confidence. That hour had finally come.

6:40After thousands of years of watching and waiting, hoping and praying, that hour has finally come. I want you to listen to this beautiful summary in Galatians chapter 4. Take a look. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. When the fullness of time had come. Here we are celebrating at Christmastime the reality that God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under law.

7:27The incarnation of Jesus Christ, him taking on flesh. And adding humanity to his deity is the greatest miracle and the greatest mystery of all time. But, friends, we mustn't forget that the reason that Jesus was sent forth, born of woman, born under the law, was to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. That is the whole purpose. Christmas is not the purpose. It's not the entire story. Without Christmas, the whole story couldn't have come to fruition. But Christmas is just the beginning.

8:07The fullness of time came, and Jesus was sent forth, born of woman, born under law, but it was so that Easter could be achieved, so that he could redeem those who were under the law, so we could receive adoption as sons. Jesus is saying here in this prayer that that hour, that hour of redemption, through his perfect sacrifice, that hour had come. And in God's perfect timing, it was time for Jesus to lay down his life for his people. And so look what he prays.

8:41He says, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you. Now, I want you to notice a couple of things here. And the first is that Jesus asks the Father to glorify Him. Jesus asks the Him. Asks God to glorify him. Now, that's the kind of statement that many of us would just read and pass over really quickly because we're so used to the assumption that Jesus is God. We've been believers maybe for a long time, so we read statements like that. We're like, of course he says that, but friends, that is an unmistakable claim to deity.

9:24He says, glorify your son. That's one of those words that we don't stop and think about the definition of very often. You see the word glorify, but just now in your head, try to define glorify. What does it mean to glorify? It's not a word that you think about the definition of very often. And when I was looking up the definitions of the Greek word that's translated here and English definitions of this word, it's pretty dodgy. There's not a great definition out there. And so I wrote one. You may like it or not like it, but this is the best I came up with.

9:59To glorify is to reveal striking beauty or impressiveness. To reveal striking beauty or impressiveness. A lot of you know that over the summer we were in Washington, D.C. for a few weeks and we got to go to the Smithsonian Museum. And one of the beautiful pieces that they have in one of the many museums is the Hope Diamond. So there it is behind me, the Hope Diamond. It is. Incredible. If you are engaged or married, you either have bought and given or have received a ring, and the diamond in that ring is probably somewhere between a half of a carat and a carat.

10:45The Hope diamond is 45 carats. The cut and the clarity are unmatched. It's this beautiful blue color. Technically, it's priceless, but I asked around because I was curious, because nothing's priceless. You can buy anything. They said $350 million. $350 million. It's kept in this really dimly lit room. It's in this glass case. I'm sure it was bulletproof. Yes, I thought about stealing it. If you know my testimony, I was just curious. What would that be like to take that, to attempt that?

11:21You can walk all the way around it, and it's got the lights shining on it just so that you can appreciate its striking beauty and impressiveness from every angle. In other words, the entire room, the entire display, is set up to glorify the Hope Diamond. So here in John 17, Jesus prays that the Father would glorify Him to reveal His striking beauty or impressiveness. But that is significant because if you remember Isaiah 42:8, take a look at this verse. God says through Isaiah, I am the Lord. That is my Name, my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.

12:09God says he will not give his glory to anyone else because he is God alone. And yet, here in John 17, Jesus is praying that the Father would glorify him, which is only okay for him to pray because he himself is God. So I want you to see this is yet another claim to deity. But the second truth I want you to see here is that Jesus asks God to glorify him so that he can glorify the Father.

12:41I want you to think about that for just a moment here. The hour of Jesus' betrayal and arrest and trial and suffering and death, that hour is upon him. And in this hour, Jesus' greatest concern is for his father's glory. You know, when we go through hardships, we're often preoccupied with how it's affecting us or how that trial is going to affect us. At least I can speak for myself in that instance. It's very rare that I ask, how will this trial result in God's glory?

13:20Normally, when I'm going through a hard time in my life, I'm asking the question, how will this trial affect me? How will it affect my hopes, my plans, my joy? Dreams, my ambitions, but not Jesus. In this most difficult hour of his life, the hour that he's going to bear the full weight of his people's sin and the full weight of the wrath of God, in that hour, he and his attention are fixed on the glory of God. How can the Father be glorified through him?

13:55All throughout his life, and especially here at the end, when the hour of his greatest trial is upon him, Jesus is most concerned that his Father be glorified. So, how is that going to happen? Let's pick up in verse 2: since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. So, how exactly will the Son glorify the Father? Well, according to this verse, it's by giving eternal life to all that the Father has given him.

14:36And you see, Jesus has that authority because God the Father gave him that authority. I want you to think back to John 10. Take a look at the screen. Jesus said, For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority. To lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.

15:07Now, if it's true that Jesus has authority from the Father to lay down his own life and take it up again, then it follows that Jesus also has authority to give eternal life to others. And that is exactly what he says in John 10 later in the chapter. Look on the screen. He says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one.

15:51So Jesus has authority to grant eternal life. And because that's true, I want you to look at the second half of verse 2. Jesus can do what? He can give eternal life to all whom you have given him. That phrase reminds us that eternal life is the gracious gift of our heavenly Father. Jesus says, give eternal life. Give. Eternal life is a gift, it is not a wage that we earn through our works or through our work. Through our religious efforts. It is a gift. Remember Romans 6, 23, that well-known verse. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

16:48We have all sinned, and the wages that we have earned from our sin is death. That is what we deserve. That is what we've earned. Paul writes, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, the free gift of God. Eternal life is a gift from God that is freely and graciously given to us. It is not something that we earn. So back in John 17 here, Jesus said the Father gave him authority to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

17:24Now, when you understand that eternal life is the free gift of God that you did not earn, you are unlikely to stumble over the second part of that phrase, that he gives eternal life to all whom you have given him. When you understand that it's a gift of God, it changes the whole way you read that statement and many other statements in the Bible. Because if you think that eternal life can be earned, you will think that it's unfair that God has appointed many for eternal life instead of every. For eternal life.

18:03But remember, what have we earned because of our sin? Death. The wages of sin is death. And so, fairness, if God treated everyone with fairness, that means that everyone dies for their sin. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So the question really isn't how come everyone isn't saved. The question really is, how come anyone is saved? And the answer is right here at the end of verse 2. Jesus has authority to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

18:49God has graciously chosen to save many sinners who deserve death. And Paul talks about this at length in Ephesians chapter 1. Take a look on the screen. He writes, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will. Will to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

19:38Jesus says something similar to this back in John chapter 6. Look what he said. All that the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. All that the Father gives me will come to me. What we're talking about in this section of Scripture is known as the doctrine of election. God graciously choosing to save many undeserving sinners from his wrath. And it's worth mentioning that every time the doctrine of election comes up in scripture, and it comes up quite a bit, every time it comes up in scripture, it is meant to comfort us and to move us to worship.

20:23God chose to save us long before we were born, and so that was long before we had done anything good or evil. Our salvation is not based on our works. That means that we can't lose it. And it's the free gift of God, meaning that he won't take it back. If salvation were based on works, we're in trouble. Our works are not good enough. Our resolutions are so fickle. But thankfully, God chose to save us. Our salvation is a free gift of grace. And so that should. Comfort us and move us to worship.

21:04So Jesus has been given authority to give eternal life to all that the Father has given to him. And now we come to the climax of this passage, what this passage is all about, and that is answering the question before us this morning: what is eternal life? Look at verse 3. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. What is eternal life? Very simply, eternal life is knowing God.

21:52Eternal life is knowing God. It is to know the eternal one, the one who has life in himself, who has existed from all eternity. Eternal life is knowing God. Now, there's a big difference between knowing God and knowing about God. You notice that Jesus does not say here that eternal life is knowing about God. Now, to be sure, knowing God is not less than knowing about him. You cannot know someone if you know. You don't know about them. So, eternal life is not less than knowing about God, but eternal life is more than knowing about God.

22:40So, I want you to think about famous people. If you were to ask their fans, they could tell you about them. They could tell you maybe where they were born and grew up, where they went to high school, what their favorite food is, what their hobbies are. They could tell you about that famous person. They know about them, but they don't know them in the same way that their friends and their family members do. Their friends and family members know them at an entirely different level because they are in relationship with them.

23:20They know all the same facts that their fans do, but they know much more than facts about that famous person they're friends with or are related to because they are in relationship with them. You see, many people know about God, especially in a culture like ours, where they've been exposed to the Bible, exposed to church, exposed to Christians maybe for most of their lives. They know about God. But, friends, so many people know facts about God, just like many non-Christians do. They do not know Him on a personal and relational level.

24:00And to know God on a personal relational level, we have to come to know the right God in the right way. The right God in the right way. That's what Jesus says about eternal life. He says that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So, first, eternal life is knowing the right God. Jesus says, it is to know you, the only true God. If you grew up in ancient Israel, then you grew up reciting what is known as the Shema. It's found in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

24:47That was a part of their daily life, reciting the Shema. Every time they went to worship, every time they worshiped as a family, they would recite the Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. That can also be translated, the Lord is Lord alone. It was a statement and confession of faith. And it was very important for the Israelites to remind themselves and to remind each other that the Lord is Lord alone because they lived among a people all around them who worshipped thousands, even millions of false gods. There were gods of the air and the ocean, gods of the mountains and the valleys. Valleys, there were gods of fire and wind and water. There were all kinds of gods around them, worshipped by all kinds of peoples around them. And so every day they would remind themselves and remind each other: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

25:50If we are going to have eternal life, it starts with knowing the right God, the only true God, who has revealed himself to us graciously all throughout history and who continues to reveal himself graciously to us today through his word and his spirit. So eternal life is knowing the right God. But second, Jesus says, eternal life is knowing the right God the right way. As we've seen the past several weeks, Jesus has been abundantly clear on this point. Back in John 14, 6, he said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

26:39He says, I'm the way. There are not multiple paths to God. There is only one and I am it. I am the way. And then just a few verses later, Philip, one of the disciples, said, Lord, show us the Father. And what did Jesus say? Philip, if you've seen me, you have. seen the Father. Jesus is the way, and to see Jesus is to see the Father because he and the Father are one. So we come to know God the Father as we come to know God the Son. And we come to know God the Son, Jesus, through the Word of God, the Bible.

27:23Now, you might say to me, Pastor Alan, You just said that knowing is different than knowing about. And then you just said that we know Jesus through the Bible. But that sounds like a path to knowing about Jesus. That does not sound like a path to knowing Jesus. And I understand that question. But remember, knowing isn't less than knowing about. Knowing is more than knowing about, but knowing is not less than knowing about. We have to know about someone in order to know them. So as we study the teachings and the work and the person of Jesus as recorded in Scripture, we come to know about him.

28:09And then this is the great wonder and mystery of the Christian life. As we come to know about him, if and when we place our faith in him, Jesus says that he comes and reveals himself to us. He comes and makes his home with us. Look at these verses. John chapter 14. If you love him, Me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. Now, listen to this. You know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.

28:54Look at verse 21 of the same chapter. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my father. Listen to this. And I will love him and manifest myself to him. John 14, 23. Jesus answered him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him. Hear this. And we will come to him and make our home with him.

29:28Do you see that? The mystery of the Christian life is that as we come to know about Jesus and we believe in him, then he actually begins a living and active relationship with us. We have a living and active relationship with the God of the universe through faith in Christ. We speak to him in prayer, and he speaks to us, most often through his word. Word and his spirit and his people, the church. We bring him joy, and we can also grieve him, just like we do with friends and family members that we're in relationship with.

30:16We come to know and enjoy him more over time, just as we do with people that we love and spend time with. Friends, that is eternal life. It is knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ, whom he sent. And so, if you're here today and you've known about God for a long time, maybe your whole life, but you recognize that you don't know God, you are not in a personal living and active relationship with Him, well, the way to start that is through knowing about Jesus and then placing your faith in Him. When you place your faith in Jesus, His life, death, and resurrection, then your relationship with God is completely transformed. Like we talked about at the beginning of the sermon, the veil that is in between you and God, that barrier that exists, is torn down. Because now you have a mediator, now you have a high priest, now you have someone who is interceding for you that allows you to interact directly with the God of the universe. But that only comes through faith.

31:27And so, you may need to start a relationship with Christ. Today, by putting your faith in Jesus and what he accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection. That is eternal life. It is knowing God and knowing Jesus, whom he sent. Verse 4. Jesus prays, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. Jesus prayed that the Father would glorify him so that he could glorify the Father. And as we saw, he glorified the Father by accomplishing the work that God gave him to do. Now, isn't that interesting that right here at the end of this upper room discourse, he's beginning to pray, Jesus has not yet gone to the cross, Jesus has not yet been killed or buried or risen from the dead. He's done none of that, and yet he says, past tense, it's perfect in the Greek, it's a completed work.

32:28I have accomplished the work you gave me to do. Well, how can he say that he's accomplished the work that he gave him to do at this point? One of the great gifts that the church has given to us over the centuries is known as the Apostles' Creed. And the Apostles' Creed is a confession of faith. It's a statement of belief. It's a summary of what we find in Scripture. And so here's the first part of the Apostles' Creed on the screen. I believe in God, the Lord. Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and crucified, died, and was buried.

33:18Now, not long after I came to faith in Christ, and I've been reciting that for a long time, something began to stand out to me in the Apostles' Creed. And it's this section here: born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate. In the Apostles' Creed, Jesus lives the shortest life in human history. He goes directly from the manger to the cross. And there is nothing in the Apostles' Creed about his sinless, miraculous, and obedient life.

33:56But friends, that is critically important because Jesus himself said, take a look at Matthew 5:17, do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Listen, if Jesus did not live a sinless life of obedience to God, if he did not come and fulfill all of the law, then he was not qualified to be our substitute. He couldn't stand in our place as A righteous one, the righteous one, and could not give himself up as a sacrifice for our sins. His sinless and perfectly obedient life is critical.

34:42And I think for a lot of us as Christians, when we share the gospel with others, when we think about the gospel ourselves, we often think of it only in terms of Jesus coming to die for our sin, which was absolutely necessary. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. That's what Hebrews says. But, friends, if he did not first obey God perfectly in every area, if he wasn't tempted in every way and yet without sin, then there was no way for him to be our perfect sacrifice and stand in our place.

35:16See, Jesus kept the law perfectly. We did not keep it. We failed to accomplish the work that God gave us to do. But not Jesus. He did accomplish the work that God gave him to do. He fulfilled the law perfectly and completely. And if you believe that Jesus accomplished that work, you will be able to rest in your life because you know that the work is accomplished. It is finished. There's nothing more to do. Jesus has done everything required to reconcile us to God.

35:51But friends, if you do not believe that Jesus accomplished that work, then you can never rest. You will spend your entire life. Trying to work to earn God's favor, trying to be a good enough person, trying to do enough religious works. But that will never be enough because you cannot earn forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Only Jesus did that through his perfect life of fulfilling the law in our place. And so, again, if you haven't done so, I want to urge you to look to Jesus and place your faith in him once and for all, the one who accomplished the work that God gave him to do.

36:34Let's finish in verse 5. He prays, and now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. So, in this last verse, you have yet another claim to deity. Jesus is asking God to glorify himself as he did before, but now he's saying, Glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. Before anything was created, before anything was made, Jesus is saying that he had glory along with God the Father. He is eternal and created the world right alongside the Father.

37:20But in love, he humbly laid aside the glory that he had with the Father and He took on flesh to save us. This is what Paul writes about in Philippians chapter 2. Take a look. He says, after that first phrase, he says, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

38:00And since Jesus did that, since he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross, God answered Jesus' prayer here in John 17 and restored the glory that he had with him before the foundation of the world. Look at the rest of Philippians chapter 2, verses 9 through 11. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

38:44The very first Christian martyr was a man named Stephen. He was a deacon in the early church, and he proclaimed the gospel boldly, proving from Scripture that Jesus was the Christ. And when his opponents couldn't withstand the wisdom with which he was the child, Which he spoke, they instigated men to say that he had committed blasphemy. They put him on trial, and he again gave powerful testimony to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And at the end of that testimony, this is how it ends in Acts chapter 7. Take a look on the screen. It says, But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

39:41Now, I share all of that with you because I want you to see that Paul didn't just assume when he wrote Philippians 2 that God answered Jesus' prayer and that he restored him to the glory that he had with him before the foundation of the world. Because you may also know that when Stephen was killed, a young man named Saul was standing there, watching over the cloaks of the men who were stoning him to death and giving approval to Stephen's death while Stephen saw the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing there at the right hand of God.

40:22Paul was there. He was there when this great Christian martyr. Jesus standing there next to God in answer to the prayer that he prayed back here in John 17. God restored the glory that he had with him before the foundation of the world because he was perfectly obedient to the Father, because he accomplished the work that God gave him to do. Because he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. God exalted him and restored him to that place that he had with him before the world was founded.

41:00That brings us to the end of the first part of the high priestly prayer. And church, there is so much to celebrate in these first five verses, particularly Jesus coming to give us eternal life as a free gift because he accomplished the work that God gave him to do. And at the same time, God has given us work to accomplish as well. After Jesus rose from the grave, he spent time with his disciples, revealed himself to hundreds of people. And before he ascended into heaven, he gave what is known as the Great Commission. And in the Great Commission, he told his disciples, Go, therefore, and make disciples, more disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

41:52See, before he left, Jesus gave us work to accomplish. The work of being restored. Restored to the Father, the work of earning forgiveness and reconciliation, that has been completed by Jesus. But the work of making disciples of all nations has been given to us to accomplish. We have work to do. And when we stand before God one day, those of us who believe in Christ, we're not going to answer for our sin. Jesus has already answered for us.

42:29But we will give an account for our lives and the work that God gave us to accomplish. You will not answer for the work that anyone else was given to accomplish. You will only be giving an answer for the work that God gave you to accomplish, your role in fulfilling the Great Commission. Every one of us is called to pray that many would come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Every one of us is called to share the gospel with others. Some of us to go across the world, some of us merely to go across the hall in our office, or across the classroom, across the dorm, across the street to our neighbors.

43:11But we are all called to pray and plan and go to make disciples of all nations. We all have work to accomplish, and we will give an account to God for that. And so I don't want you to be frozen, as tends to be the case with Christians when we think about the great. Commission because the work seems so enormous. How could we possibly make disciples of all nations and so we get frozen into doing nothing? Don't think of it in those terms. Think of it in terms of the work that God has called you to accomplish. Who has he put into your life, your family, your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers and classmates? Who has he put in your life?

43:54Those are the people that you are called to go to and make disciples of for the glory of God. That is the work that he has uniquely given you to accomplish. And for some that are here today, he will call you to go, to go further away, even across the world, to accomplish that great work. But friends, for us to be excited about the work of the Great Commission, we have to see it as an awesome privilege to tell others about eternal life, to tell others about the joy of knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Because that's what eternal life is. That is what it's all about.

44:36Let's pray. Father, eternal life is such a big concept that it is very hard for us to wrap our minds around it. Even when here in John 17, verse 3, you give us such a clear definition. But if eternal life is knowing you, And you are, in fact, the infinite, eternal God of the universe, then we should expect that knowing you is going to require work and effort, just like every other relationship. So I pray that every one of us would be willing to put in that work to know you.

45:50We will all see you face to face one day, but we want to know you now. Jesus didn't talk about eternal life as something that starts in the future. He talked about it as something that starts today. So I pray this morning for those who have wondered about eternal life and may want it, but just don't know what it is or how to get it. I pray that today they've seen what it is, that you would put in them a desire to have it, and that you would grant them repentance and faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

46:30God, for those of us who have already come to know Jesus, I pray that we would make it our life's aim to know him, to worship him, and to make him known. Help us, Father, to accomplish the work that you gave us to do, knowing that we won't answer for the work that you gave other people to do. We will only answer for the work that you gave us to do. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

47:02Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.