God is Fully Revealed in Jesus Christ
Please open your Bibles to John chapter 17.
Today’s subject is “How to Know God.” But wait a minute; a good majority of people don’t really care to know God. We hear all the time, oh that religious stuff is fine for you, but I’ve got my work and my family, or my school and I just don’t have time for that “God stuff.”
But see, that is only because they don’t know of their need. Let me illustrate this: on commercial airplanes, flight attendants go through a whole thing about emergency exits, oxygen masks, life rafts, etc. And what are people doing during their demo? They are reading, or sleeping, or talking. Why? Because they don’t see their need; tTheir perception is that they are all fine. But suppose now that we’re in the air, about halfway over the Atlantic ocean, and the pilot comes over the intercom and says, “Ladies and gentleman we have a problem in that two of our engines have stopped, we will be ditching in the Atlantic. Our flight attendants will now demonstrate the use of life vests and rafts.” Do you think people would pay a little more attention? Yes, because now they see their need. Now they have a right perspective. Well, let’s look at some perspective on the importance of knowing God:
Now this is eternal life [we’re talking life and death here]: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:3
8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9
Now we ought to have a proper perspective about knowing God. If we do not know God, we will not have eternal life, and we will be punished. That shows us our need; it shows us the one requirement that we have in this life. The sermon today answers the question, “How can I know God?” And I want to share with you just three things today:
1. the requirement: to know God
2. the method (How do we know God?)
3. the results
So we’ve seen the requirement: we must know God in order to have eternal life. But what is the method? How do we know God?
Throughout history, people have attempted to answer that question. The Greeks sought to gain wisdom, believing that wisdom was the pathway to God. We have modern-day counterparts to the Greeks today in the New-Agers and mystics like Wayne Dyer, Ravi Shankar, and Shirley MacLaine; but, in all their gaining of wisdom, and in all their spiritual enlightenment they still did not know God.
The Jews took a different path; they sought to know God through the keeping of the Law, hoping that their good deeds earned them favor with God and put them in a right relationship with God. But we saw last week that the Law is described as a mountain burning with fire, shouting “keep out, you can’t get to me this way.” So we cannot know God through gaining worldly wisdom, and we cannot know God through trying to be good, and that brings us to today’s passage:
No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known. John 1:18
This verse tells us that Jesus Christ has made God known; He has revealed Him, put Him on display for the world to see, and has made Him knowable.
But there is a contrast brought out here. Notice that in the past no one had ever seen God, but now God is fully revealed. The contrast is that under the Law God could not be fully seen or known. But now in Christ, God is fully revealed and can be fully known.
Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud (“thick darkness” KJV) 1 Kings 8:12
Clouds and thick darkness surround him... Psalms 97:2
Under the Law He was not revealed. What could be known of someone who dwells in “thick darkness?”
“…that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9
The contrast is thick darkness to wonderful light; obscure knowledge of God, to full revelation of God.
18 Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory." 22 …I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen." Exodus 33:18-23
Moses did not see the face of God, but only His backside.
For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6
So the contrast is between the backside of God, and the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus put a face on God; He was God in a body so that people could finally see God. We can know God now.
So the obvious implication of this text can be stated in a question, “Do you know God?” I’m not asking if you are religious or a good person; I’m asking if you know God. That’s the requirement; that we know God.
The method is that we get to know God through Jesus Christ. We don’t know God through studying the Zen masters of the universe, or coming to spiritual enlightenment, etc. Nor do we get to know God by trying to keep the law, trying to be good. We get to know God by coming to know Christ.
But coming to know Christ, how? We still haven’t gotten to the real method by which we come to know God, have eternal life, and escape punishment. In what way do we come to know Jesus Christ so as to know God?
Well, some will say that He was a fantastic teacher, that we are to accept Him as a great, or possibly the greatest religious teacher. They point to His amazing parables, His Sermon on the Mount, His practical insights; wow, what a great teacher!
Others say He was a wonderful example, and we are to try to emulate His life, follow in His steps; that He was the greatest example of a religious leader there ever was.
But none of these are how we come to know God through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 8:
8 But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ’Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." Hebrews 8:8-12 (emphasis added)
Ah, do you see it? That little word “for” in verse 12 tells us that knowing God is based on our forgiveness. “They will all know me for I will forgive their sins.” The method, then, to knowing God is through forgiveness of our sins, and this is exactly why Jesus Christ died, so that He would forgive and remove our sins. The barrier keeping humans from knowing God is our sin. But when we turn to the cross and believe that Jesus died for us, and we repent of our sins, turning away from them, we not only have our guilt and our shame removed, but we also come to know the Living God. The barrier to knowing God is removed at the cross.
The story is told of a family of four that moved out of the city up to a mountain village in the Alps. The previous owner of the home told the new owners that there was another home up the path farther, but there was a huge boulder that blocked the path so nobody had seen or talked with the people that lived there. One day the 16-year old daughter had gone up the path toward the boulder and saw lying on the ground a rock with a paper around it. She unwrapped the paper and began to read, “Hello, my name is Johann, I am 17-years old. If anyone gets this note, please write back and throw over.” She wrote on the back, “I’m Jessica, 16-years old, how long have you lived up there?” And she threw the stone over the large boulder. It wasn’t long until the two were corresponding several times a day, getting to know each other through their writing. This went on for over a year and, by the end of this year, the two had become quite fond of each other and had even written notes to each other’s parents talking about the future, if only they could find a way to see each other.
One day a survey crew in the area knocked on their door and explained that the government was going to widen the road above them, and that they would be breaking the large boulder up and carrying it away. Quickly Jessica wrote to Johann, “Government removing boulder - I will see you tomorrow evening.” And as the last bit of boulder was taken away there was Johann, and there was Jessica, seeing each other face-to-face. Later she would write about her husband in her diary, “I had come to love Johann through his writing, but to see him face to face was as if I were seeing the face of an angel.”
Listen, the Old Testament is God communicating with us through His writing; but 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ removed the boulder of our sin, that which prevented us from seeing Him face-to-face, and now we can see God and know God. We look at the cross and we see that our sin is gone, our guilt is gone, our penalty is paid, and our pardon has been purchased.
The requirement is that we know God; the method is through forgiveness of our sins. But what is the result of knowing God?
12 I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. 13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. 14 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. 1 John 2:12-14
Look at the three groups of people here: we have children, young men, and fathers. And notice by what each is characterized:
Little children: characterized by forgiveness (verse 12) and knowing God (13). You see these people have been to the cross. They have looked at Jesus Christ dying on the cross and accepted His death as payment for their sins; they have seen Him shedding His blood and believed that His blood covers their sins; they have seen Him wearing His crown of thorns and have submitted to Him as their King and received new life in His name. And in the forgiveness of their sins they know the Father. Maybe someone here needs to come to know God through forgiveness of his sins. You might feel as though you have a huge weight on your back and your conscience is condemning you. I know a place you can come and have that burden rolled away and your conscience completely cleansed. Come to the cross and find forgiveness through Jesus’ death.
But forgiveness is about the extent of little children’s knowledge. They know they’re forgiven, but they are susceptible to the attacks of the devil; and, like any toddler they stumble and fall and make a mess of things. But you know what they start doing? They start getting into the Word of God, and the Word of God starts getting into them, and they start growing and gaining strength. Know how I know that? Because look at the next group, the young men:
Young men: characterized by their strength, by the Word of God living in them, and by their overcoming the devil. Ah, these people have matured, haven’t they. And how exactly have they matured to where they are characterized by strength and victory? Mark this word well: “The Word of God lives in you.” Oh these people have given themselves over to study, meditation and application of God’s Word. They have studied and sought to apply what they are reading to their lives; they asked others for help in applying, they’ve gone to Bible studies, they listen to sermons; they can’t get enough of God’s Word and, little by little, it begins to grow in them, to take up residence in them and, as it does so, they start winning battles left and right, defeating the devil, and gaining the victory.
Children know God through forgiveness of sins; young men know God through victory over sin. And Fathers delight in their relationship with God and reproduce themselves through others.
The one requirement that we have in this life is that we know God. Without that we do not have eternal life; we have eternal punishment. So Jesus came to reveal God, to make Him known. The method of knowing God is through forgiveness of our sins, where we see that Jesus was punished for us. The result of knowing God is that we grow up. We mature. We overcome. So Jesus Christ came to reveal God and make Him known; He did that best on the cross, where He died to forgive us, thereby removing the barrier to our knowing God.
