Authentic Christianity #15: Experiencing Eternity

What is your experience with God like? How have you experienced him and what is your experience with him, like? Is our experience with God, and relating to God more like relating to a theoretical idea? Or is our experience with God actually, touching the eternal? Do we really have, an experiential knowledge of God, or do we just have ideas about him in the abstract? 

Transcript

Good morning. So this morning, I just want us to start out with, contemplating this question. What is our experience with God like, how have you experienced him and what is your experience with him, like? Is our experience with God, and relating to God more like relating to a theoretical idea? Or is our experience with God actually, touching the eternal? Do we really have, an experiential knowledge of God, or do we just have ideas about him in the abstract? You know, as I was thinking about this, I was thinking, you know, I like to watch basketball. And sometimes when I'm watching basketball, I imagine that I'm a foot taller and I'm actually on the court and I'm, you know, banging bodies with the big guys and, and, you know, the truth is, as is that, my imagination can never really match what it would actually be like, what the smells would be like, what the sounds would be like, what the feeling of, you know, the muscle against muscle would be like, I wouldn't really know from my imagination what that experience would actually, be like. It's one of those things where you can kind of have a theoretical experience where you imagine what it would be like, but, you know, the, the phrase you had to be there applies because without actually experiencing it, you you really don't know it in the same way. Well, for many things, this idea that you had to be there is really true to have complete knowledge of something or what something's like, you really have to be there. And to truly experience God, to enter into the eternal, we have to be there. We have to really be there. And how do we get there? Do we even want to be there? It's kind of a scary thought. Being with God sometimes. Do we want to experience, the eternal right now, here and now? Well, today, as we continue in our series Authentic Christianity, reflecting the love of Christ, study of first John, we're going to be looking at one of John's purposes in writing, to us and to the church. One of his purposes is for us to have experiential knowledge of our eternal life, experiential knowledge of the eternal to truly experience and have knowledge, as a result of experience, what it means to have eternal life. Can we say that we've tasted and seen and heard and touched God? Do we experience him? Is our knowledge as a result of really being there, or do we know him more as a theory? Do we even want to know him that way? Do we really want to know him? Face to face? Do we want to have, experience, experiential knowledge of, of eternal life or is that a little scary? How can we get in the game and really know what it's like to have eternal life? What exactly is eternal life? And do we have to wait for it, until after we're dead? Or can we know it right now? This morning's message is entitled. Pastor can't advance the slide. That's what the title is. There we go. There we go. In the first line of. Okay, experiencing eternity. And we'll be looking at first John chapter five, verses 13 through 15. So pray with me, if you would, experiencing eternity. Heavenly father, Lord, we come before you and we ask God, as we look at these verses this morning that we could be excited with the prospect of what we're able to do through faith in Christ Jesus. What's possible in our walk with you? And Lord, I just pray that you would help us reach up and beyond, into and out of this temporal, into the eternal and out of this temporal life that we have, that we might know eternal life even now. We praise you, Lord, and we ask God for your help in this regard. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Okay. Beginning at verse 13 of first John chapter five, it says this I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And we know that, and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him. Now, verse 13, gives us a purpose, statement purpose here. He says, the reason why I am writing you these things, is the second time he uses this phrase in, this book of his. It's a short book, but two times he tells us why he's writing to us, or he tells us why he's writing to the church. The first time we saw and we talked about it, weeks ago in chapter two, where he says, I'm writing these things to you so that you can escape the deceptive, seductive, false teachings of false teachers so that you won't lose your eternal life, so you won't be seduced out of the life that I have that you have gained in Christ. And this week in chapter five, verse 13, he says, I write these things to you for a purpose. I write these things for you. And what he's, you know, referring to when he says he writes these things, the question is, is he talking about his whole letter or is he talking about the press B that follows verse 13. And I think it's talking just about the recopy that follows verse 13. He writes what he did that what we discussed last week, he writes about how it is that God himself has testified to the truth of who his son is, so that we might, believe in Christ and have eternal life. He writes these things to us, and the reason why he writes these things to us, and he's explaining why he's writing these things to us, is so that we can know, eternal life, that we would know, what eternal life is, that we, here he gives the reason so that we could believe and might know and possess eternal life. What does it mean that we might know the word no here is in the subjunctive, which means it's in the realm of possibilities. Well, one of the things we're going to look at today is what exactly does it mean? That we would know eternal life? That we might know eternal life? The theme of this morning's message is this the goal of faith is experiential knowledge of life eternal. The goal of faith is so, for us to have an experiential knowledge, not a theoretical knowledge, but an experiential knowledge of life eternal. Let's take a look at verse 13. Again. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. Now, this idea of might know, comes from the verb oita, and it is in the subjunctive mood, which means it's the mood of possibilities. It's not in the mood of certainty. And Oita is one of the two, one of two Greek words that we use to translate into English the word knowledge. You know, the other one, because you hear it here every Sunday. When we say Gnosis Club, that means knowledge club. Knowing club, the learning club, that Greek word gnosis is not the word that's used in this passage here. The word that's used in this passage, here is the word that we also translated into knowing, which is Oita. And the difference between Oita and, gnosis is that Oita is the kind of knowledge that we get as a result of experience. It's the seeing is believing kind of knowledge. It's the, experiential knowledge. It means certainty based on experience. It's knowing because you've experienced something. It's it's the kind of thing where, you know, because you you are there and you've been there. So this experience, your knowledge is something that becomes possible. It's in the subjunctive mood. It's something that's possible for believers to know, but it's not a certainty that every believer will know or have this experiential knowledge. And it is for this possibility, the possibility of having or knowing the eternal life that we already have, knowing it experientially. This is why, John says, I'm writing this to you. I want you to know, I want you to have this kind of knowledge of the eternal. He's encouraging us who believe that God Himself has testified about his Son, and that our faith in his son opens up us to, to the possibility of having experiential, current time, knowledge of what eternal life is. Can we really know eternal life right now? Don't don't we most often think when we think about eternal life? Is it something that happens after we die? It's something that we'll experience in the future. It's something that we have to look forward to. But in this passage, it's something that, John is writing so that we can know it right now. The, the verb, you know, you might you you might know, what you have, it's, you might know that, you know, the eternal life that you already have. The verb we have in this, in this, in verse 13 is not in the subjunctive mood. It's in the imperative mood. And it's in the present tense, which means it's something we already have. Eternal life is something that we have with certainty right now. We may or may not experience it experientially, but we have it already. Faith in Christ Jesus, faith in the name of Christ Jesus appropriates to us eternal life. We have it. But the question is, are we experiencing it? That, you know, that's kind of the interesting thing that the grammar in this, in this verse reveals, we who believe presently have eternal life. The question is, are we experiencing what we might be able to experience as a result of our faith in Jesus Christ? Do we have experiential knowledge of what we already possess now? What does it mean to know by experience, life eternal? Well, we could back up a little bit and say, what does it mean to know what this like life is like? How do you know what this life is like? How do you know what this temporal, temporary life is like? If I asked you, do you know what it's like to be alive? What would your answer be? Yes, I know, why. Do you know what it's like to be alive? Because I am alive. The reason why? You know what it's like to be alive in this temporal sense, in this temporal life, is because you are alive. Because you're experiencing life. You know, of course I know what I, what it's like to be alive. I am alive, I I'm experiencing life, I breathe, I, I walk, I decide, I act, I know what it's like to be alive in this temporal sense. And what does it mean? To, know what it's like to have eternal life right now? Well, to know what it's like to have eternal life right now, in contrast with our temporal life. Let's take a look at the difference between the two. What is eternal life exactly mean, and how is it different from this life that we're so familiar with? Well, eternal life, means life without limits. Eternal doesn't just mean a limit on, the quantity of time, but it also means, life without limits on the quality of time. Eternal life is a limitless life. Where are we not only limit the duration of the time that we're alive, but we limit the quality of the life that we live. Eternal life means there is no limit on the goodness of life, on the beauty of life, on the truth of life, on the justice of life. There is no limit on the qualities, the good qualities of life are temporal. Life here right now is a life of not enough. There's not enough time in this life. There's not enough anything in this life. We never have enough in this temporal life that we're so familiar with. To be satisfied. Eternal life is beyond fullness. Eternal life is a life where there is no measure. So there is no want, or there is no lack. There's no lack of anything. Qualitative goodness or quantity of life. Eternal life is unlike temporal life. Our temporal life is a life of not enough. Not enough love, not enough respect, not enough joy, not enough liberty. Temporal living is a living in lack. Our temporal lack is, seen by sin, which is lack of goodness, seen by despair, which is lack of joy, seen by hate, which is lack of love, seen by pain, which is lack of pleasure, seen by, injustice, which is a lack of fairness and righteousness, seen by what is ugly around us, which is a lack of beauty, seen by fear, which is a lack of peace. All these things are are inherent in this life. And this life. We don't have enough. We don't have enough of anything. But eternal life is more than enough of everything that is good. Eternal life is life that is limitless, both quantitatively and qualitatively, not just endless. In time, but also in terms of goodness, infinite goodness, infinite joy, infinite peace, infinite love, infinite honor, infinite justice, infinite beauty. Do any of those qualities ring a bell to you? As I'm reading through those things, that eternal life is abundant in? Don't those sound like the qualities that are inherent in the indwelling of the spirit, the fruit of the spirit, the consequence of the life of Christ in us, the fruit of the spirit, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control, etc.? When we experience the eternal, we experience enough more than enough of what, it means to be alive. We can know and we can know and experience and be fully satisfied. In Christ. We have more than enough. Even in this world of lack, if and when we're experiencing the eternal, we are in the eternal. And it is the same thing as being in God's kingdom. When we're in God's kingdom, we're in the eternal. When we're in the eternal, we're under his, will and his authority. We're in the abundance of his goodness in his kingdom. We are called to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And of course, every day is a contest for us. What are we going to seek first? Are we going to seek the temporal, blessings of this world? First, or are we going to seek the, eternal blessings of God first? We're called to seek first, the eternal, the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And and where there is no lack in his kingdom, where there is no need, that isn't provided for where having enough stuff is secondary to having enough goodness, joy, peace, love, etc. enough of what is infinite in God Himself. Look, when we don't have enough, we're living the wrong life. When we don't have enough, it's because we're living in the wrong life. We're living in the life of, of lack. We're living in this temporal life. We're living in our sinful wantonness where we'll never have enough. In God's righteousness. There is never too little. Any moment where you're experiencing the eternal, the one thing you'll know if you're experiencing the eternal is it's enough. It's more than enough. You know that you're in the experience of the eternal. When you're satiated, satisfied, and full. When when there isn't any sense of grabbing or competition because you can't imagine there not being enough, because you can't see the edges of it, you can't see the quantity of it because there it's it's beyond limits. So, eternal, eternal life means no limits, no quantitative or qualitative limits, no lack. So where is the door into the eternal? How? How might we gain what we already have? How might we gain knowledge of what we already have? How might we get to know what we have in Christ more and more, how can we gain knowledge of the eternal, well, we gain it through faith in Christ Jesus. We gain it through the doorway of faith. And specifically we gain it through, faith in his name. The goal of our faith is experiential knowledge of the eternal. This is why John wrote to us so that we might know oday, quite a might have experiential knowledge of eternal life. And point number one is the object of our faith is his name, the object of our faith, the object of the faith that leads us into the eternal is in the name of Jesus. It's in his name. Whenever we have faith, we have to have it in something. We can have misplaced faith in, something that is deceptive. But we can. Whatever we, whenever we say I believe in or trust or rely on something, it has to be something that we're believing in, relying on, and trusting the kind of faith that opens a door for us to experience. The eternal is faith in his name. The object of our faith is his name. Now what does that mean? Let's take a look at verse 13. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life, the faith that opens in us into the limitlessness of eternal life, that immeasurable good that we can have in him, is not just any faith. It's specific faith. It's specific faith in the name of God's Son. God's son's name is Jesus Christ. What does it mean to have faith in the name Jesus Christ today? Earlier are we saying in worship, praising God's name, Yahweh, and having faith in God's name, Yahweh? What is the word Yahweh mean? The word for Yahweh means I am that I am. The word means the Eternal one, the one who who has caused all things. But he himself has been caused by nothing but himself. Yeah. That's what's inherent in the name Yahweh. What's inherent in the name Jesus Christ, the one, the Son of God putting faith in the name Jesus Christ. The name Jesus Christ describes two things. It describes what he has done, and it describes how he has done it. The name Jesus Christ describes two things. What he has done is described by the name Jesus. The name Jesus means God saves. God saves. Jesus lifts us out of the temporal despair of this lacking world into the eternal. He saves us. He saves us out of this wanton life of frustration into the abundant life of plenty. And how does he do it? Well, his second name, Christ, describes how he does it. The name Jesus means Savior. The name Christ means the Anointed One. Jesus is the anointed One of God. He is the one anointed of God, anointed to do what? Anointed or assigned by God, to do what he's anointed into two offices. He's anointed into the office of our high priest, our our eternal priest. And he's, he's anointed into the office of our Eternal King. When we say the word Jesus Christ, we're saying, Jesus. I'm trusting Jesus as my Savior because Jesus is my priest and Jesus is my King. That's what our faith is based on. Trusting in the salvation of Christ that comes through the office of Jesus as priest and the office of Jesus as king. And and we see and hear how he saves us. He saves us through being our priest and our King. To believe in the name of the Son of God is to rely on Jesus to save us. Save us through the authority has is our priest and the authority he has is our King. If we think we can save ourselves out of this wanton world by consuming more, or grabbing more, or getting more successful, or being stronger than others, then our faith is placed on ourselves. But if we put our faith in Jesus, our Savior, he is the one who lifts us out of this temporal mess and into the eternal. He does so as we rely on him as priest. First of all, when we rely on him as priest, we rely on him to cleanse us from all the things that create a barrier between us and life. When we rely on him as priest, it starts out with Christ as our priest, showing us what is dirty about us. That's one of the reasons why people don't come to Christ, because the first step a priest does is he shows you, what needs to be cleansed. The first step into the doorway of life is contrition. If you never reflect on yourself and see what's keeping you from being in God's presence and keeping you in from entering into the eternal, you'll never get into the eternal. It's like, refusing to unlock a locked door. You're not going to get through that thing unless you unlock it. And the first thing that Jesus does is our priest is he shows us what needs to be cleaned. And then as our priest, he cleans it through the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross. So our the first office that, enables us to enter into the eternal, that's described in his name, the anointed One is his office of priest. We are cleansed by his role as our high priest. And without it, we'll never enter into what is eternal. And, as we enter into his kingdom and submit to his will and are led by his truth. That's the point in which we experience what is life giving and what is satisfying and what is without end and what is eternal. Whenever you're walking in what is true, you're satisfied, and you're satisfied because there is no limit to truth. There is no limit to goodness. There is no limit to, what Christ has for us under his authority. It's it's boundless under the king, kingly authority of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is our king. Never leads us into want, or he never leads us into lack. He leads us into what brings greener and greener pastures to the soul. We enter into his and under his story, through his priesthood. And we are led by his sovereignty. Through three. Again, the goal of our faith is experiential knowledge of life. Eternal point number one is the object of our faith is his name. And point number two is confidence in God results from our experiencing God. Let's take a look at verses 14 and 15. Confidence in God results from our experience in God. When we experience him, we grow confident about him. We know because we know him. Not just theoretically. We know him in a experiential way. Let's take a look at verses 14 and 15. This is the confidence we have in approaching God that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us. And again that word for now is again. Oya. If we know experientially, know that he hears us. Whatever we ask, we know, oya that we have, that we know that we, we have what we have asked of him. So here we have this idea that if we submit to his name, Jesus Christ the Savior Priest, our priest and King, if we if we put our faith in Jesus Christ, in the office of Jesus as our priest and our King, as Jesus our Savior, we know then we have experiential knowledge. There's something that happens to us where we know that God hears us. We know he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, we know that he will give us what is his will to give to us. If your father or your mother hears you and you ask from them something they want to give, you know that they're going to give it. You have that confidence. Maybe if you're asking for something mom or dad doesn't want to give you, you're not so sure. But if you ask your parents something they're able to give and something they want to give, you know they are going to give it. And here we have this kind of confidence in, in our father that, once we know that he's hearing us, we know that when we ask him to provide what he wants to give, he will give it. And what does he want to provide? Well, it's clear in Scripture what he wants to provide. Jesus says, I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. He wants to provide this eternal life. He wants to provide a full and abundant life. God's will for us is to live full in what he has for us, full and what is right, full and what is good, full and what is true. He wants us to live in the truth fully. He wants us to be cleansed from our sinful desires, and to be filled with the desires of an eternal nature to fill, be filled with desires that bring us to a state of being beyond full. He wants us to search for, and find the abundance of his kingdom. It is his will for us to abandon our pursuit of the temporal, lacking, evaporating mirage in this world. And to pursue what is good beyond measure. When we know what God wants, we can pray with confidence that he'll give it to us when we ask him. And, we see this clearly in Psalm 71, where David is going before God and he is praying with confidence because he throughout that prayer acknowledges what God wants, and he prays to God. God cleansed my heart, cleansed me, and make me new. Return to me the joy of my salvation. He prays, but the whole time he's praying that he's also confessing that God, I know that you want me clean in the innermost part of my being. I'm praying for the very thing that you want. I want to be clean. You want me to be clean. I'm praying, please clean me, Lord. Return me to the joy of my salvation. Return me to that state I was in before I, you know, chased skirt and broke off everything and murdered Uriah. Return me to that state that I was in when I was connected to you. I know you want to, Lord. I know you see my depravity. I know you see the darkness in my heart. And I ask you, glory to just move in me and cleanse me. Guess what? God wants to do it. He wants to do it. He wants to cleanse us of death. And he wants to give us life. He wants to be in us and and purify us and make us right from the inside out. Why not ask him? That's what he wants to do. So you're going to say no if we ask him, Lord, convict me of my sin. Show me what's what evil way is in me as David did, and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Is he ever going to say no to that? He wants that. He doesn't want us chasing, continually chasing what isn't enough, continually chasing what can ever satisfy. He wants to provide what is good and wants to provide what would fill our soul. God's will is for us to seek life, to seek his kingdom, to turn from what is wasting away and what is perishing, and to enter into our eternal inheritance. We know what God wants for us because he sent His Son to provided for us. We know what he wants because of the cross and because of the empty tomb. We know what he came to give us because of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and because the power of the resurrection to prove his sovereignty over all things. We can ask, as David did with confidence, that David had, because God will. If we know that God is hearing us, we know that he will give us what he wants to give salvation from sin leading to death and to holiness that is full of life. Let's pray this week that he would convict us so those things. Let's not be afraid to pray that he would show us the things that block us from what is good, what is full, and what is holy. Why not get rid of what is ugly in us? Why hold on to it? The only reason we'd hold on to it is, is because we'd be afraid that there was nothing that he would replace it with. Why hold on to what is inferior? When we have the chance to gain what is superior, what is good that doesn't harm us, but only satisfies us? The goal of our faith is, The goal of our faith is experiential knowledge of life eternal. Point number one is the object of our faith is his name. And point number two, confidence in God results from our experiencing God. This morning, I'd like to conclude with, John chapter three, verse 16, John chapter three, verse 16 says this. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. We know what God wants. He wants to give life through faith in Christ. He wants to give. He gave his Son so that what? So that we might not what? Perish. Die. Look, without Christ, we're dust in the wind. Whatever good we have now is temporary. It won't last. And it's not enough anyway. I had a plenty of without. Outside of Christ. I had a plenty of a lot of things. But it still wasn't enough. The one thing I can freely talk about is I had plenty of alcohol. You know, I was asked the other day what a couple beers are like, and I honestly answered a couple of beers, like, well, you get a nice little buzz, you start feeling good. I know what that's like. It's a little, little euphoria. It's nice, but it's not enough. You want another one? It's not happy enough. And it's deceptive because if you keep chasing it to try to get to happy enough, you get very unhappy, especially the next day. It's the deceptive, temporary nature of this world where it's never enough. There's the, a little bit of good in moderation, but in the kingdom of God, there's no need for moderation. Because no matter how much we have of what is good in the kingdom of God, it doesn't stop being good. It doesn't turn around and bite us. Eternal life is life without limits, qualitatively and quantitatively. It's life without, want or lack. And this is what it says. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have limitless life. Life beyond measure, both qualitative and quantitative. It not only lasts forever, but it is without measure and its goodness. Let's pray. Heavenly father, Lord, we thank you that you've given us, a doorway into this life through your son, Jesus Christ. And through trusting in his name, through trusting that Jesus is our Savior, the one that came that we might not perish. He saves us from this perishing. Temporal world of entropy and, and, and dissipation. And he brings us into eternal life through faith in his name, through faith in his office as our priest and through faith in his office as our King. Jesus, we come before you today and ask God that you would do your work in us as our priest, even though the first part of that is to show us what blocks us from you. May we have the courage to be honest with ourselves, that we can then bring those things to you in repentance, and have you wash us of them, so that we can enter into your kingdom and be under your leadership. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.