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The Blue Letter Bible

Chuck Smith :: Sermon Notes for John 17:25

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I. O RIGHTEOUS FATHER, THE WORLD HAS NOT KNOWN YOU.
A. The world does not know God.
1. Man has his many concepts of God.
2. These concepts are born of man's imagination.
a. If I were God, this is what I would be.
b. This is how I would do things.
c. This is where I would live.
d. So man makes his gods after his own image.
3. Manmade idols to represent the things that he idolized.
a. That which you idolize is actually your god.
b. Manmade gods to represent pleasure, power, possessions, or one of the many other passions that mastered his life.
4. In Romans 3:11, Paul said there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
a. No man really understands God apart from God's revelation of Himself.
1. God is an infinite being and completely incomprehensible to man's finite mind.
2. I am always amazed at the misconceptions men have concerning God.
b. Many people are seeking the benefits that God provides.
1. They want the help in the time of distress.
2. They want the healing for their physical problems.
3. They want peace in their soul.
4. They may seek these things, but they are not truly seeking God.
c. The psalmist said,
PSA 14:2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, [and] seek God.
PSA 14:3 They are all gone aside, they are [all] together become filthy: [there is] none that doeth good, no, not one.
PSA 14:4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people [as] they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.
d. Zophar said to Job, "Can you by searching find out God? Can you find out the Almighty one to perfection?"
e. Paul said that professing themselves to be wise they became fools, and because they did not want to retain God in their minds, God gave them over to reprobate minds.
B. It is interesting how many worldly people think that they know God.
1. They speak with great authority concerning God.
2. They are happy to explain to you all about God.
3. The truth of the matter is that they really do not know God. In ICor. 1:21, Paul said that the world by wisdom knew not God. He also said that the natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit, neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned.
4. How shocked and surprised they will be when they stand before God.
II. "BUT I HAVE KNOWN THEE."
A. This is why the words of Jesus are so important for us to hear and heed.
1. When Jesus speaks of God, He speaks with authority.
2. When He spoke on any subject, He spoke with authority.
B. I cringe when I hear men tampering with the words of Jesus.
1. For a council of men to gather to determine which were the true sayings of Jesus, I am shocked and abhorred by their impertinence.
2. Yet for men to declare that they know more than Jesus concerning the book of Isaiah because He was not privy to modern day scholarship is the height of blasphemy.
a. It will be interesting to see them when they stand before God and try to defend their liberal, theological positions, and the damage they did in the minds of young students through them.
b. I will accept the authority of Jesus any day to these modern PhD's who think that they know God and the word of God even better than the Son of God.
III. "AND THESE HAVE KNOWN THAT YOU HAVE SENT ME."
A. I believe that these are both the disciples and those who would believe on Him through their words. Or you and me.
1. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
2. We believe that the Father sent Him into the world.
B. The word known comes from the Greek ginosko, which is to know by experience. The disciples saw the proofs of His claim to have come from the Father.
1. Jesus said that the works that He did bore witness that the Father had sent Him. 5:36.
2. The disciples had seen the wonderful works that Jesus did.
C. In verse 8, Jesus had said that the disciples had believed that the Father did send Him. Here He asserts that the disciples have known that the Father sent Him.
IV. "I HAVE DECLARED UNTO THEM THY NAME."
A. That glorious name of God. Yahweh. "The I Am, The becoming One."
1. That name by which God becomes everything to you that you might ever need.
2. The name Jesus is Yashua, or God our salvation.
B. When God came down on the mount and proclaimed His name to Moses, He declared, "Yahweh, Yahweh, Elohim, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth."
1. John said concerning Jesus, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
2. The life of Jesus was a living revelation of the name of the Father, as He fulfilled every need of the disciples. He became to them all that they ever needed.
C. "And will declare it."
1. On the cross what a declaration of mercy and grace to us.
2. The purpose of declaring to us the name of the Father,
D. "That the love wherewith You have loved Me may be in them."
1JO 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
1JO 4:12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
1. As you look at your life, can you say that the love of God has been perfected in you?
2. God wants to love the world through you.
3. Even as Jesus was a demonstration of God's love to man, Jesus wants your life to be a manifestation of God's love to the world.
4. Just when we think we are getting somewhere in our progress in the Lord, he brings along some truth like this and makes us realize that we have not yet apprehended that for which we were apprehended, neither are we perfect. But with Paul let us press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
E. "And I in them."
1. This is the key to how it can happen.
2. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
3. It is through Him dwelling in Me that God's love is in me.
Sermon Notes for John 17:24 ← Prior Section
Sermon Notes for John 18:1 Next Section →
Sermon Notes for Luke 1:5 ← Prior Book
Sermon Notes for Acts 1 Next Book →
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