God Shines Forth: How the Nature of God Shapes the Mission of the Church - Michael Reeves
00:00:00.000 | I'd like to invite everybody to stand.
00:00:22.680 | Here this morning, Jesus' words to his disciples, to us, how we are to go, make disciples of
00:00:32.300 | all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
00:00:39.560 | We have a promise in the Psalms that has the same characteristics where God is saying,
00:00:52.000 | we will be exalted.
00:00:55.240 | Psalm 46 verses 10 and 11 say, "Be still and know that I am God," and he's saying to these
00:01:01.320 | nations who are in such an uproar, he said, "Be still!"
00:01:04.600 | It's not like a promise box verse, "Be still and know that I am God.
00:01:13.320 | I will be exalted among the nations.
00:01:15.900 | I will be exalted in the earth."
00:01:18.480 | It's that divine authority, and he says, "The Lord of hosts is with us.
00:01:25.800 | The God of Jacob is our fortress."
00:01:29.000 | We're about to sing "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" based on this psalm.
00:01:36.240 | I just want to remind us that these words aren't true because we sing them.
00:01:45.220 | We sing them because they're true.
00:01:49.760 | "A mighty fortress is our God, the whole world ever failing.
00:02:17.160 | For still our ancient foe, the seed to work us whole, his wrath and power are great.
00:02:29.560 | An arm with brutal pain, on earth is not his equal.
00:02:41.800 | If we in our own strength would fought, our striding would be losing.
00:02:51.720 | Word of the right and of our son, the man of God's own choosing.
00:03:01.720 | The task of that may be, Christ Jesus is king, for sovereign of his name.
00:03:14.760 | From age to age, the spirit changes and he must win the battle.
00:03:28.600 | And though this world with devils will should present to undo us, we will not fear, for
00:03:41.480 | God has built this fruit to triumph through us.
00:03:48.760 | The prince of darkness thrift, we tremble not for him, his grace we can ensure.
00:04:02.120 | For though his doom is sure, a little word shall help him.
00:04:15.560 | And word above all earthly powers, O thanks to them abided.
00:04:25.960 | The spirit and the gifts are ours, through him who with us sided.
00:04:36.680 | Let good and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may build.
00:04:50.600 | God's truth abideth still, his kingdom is forever.
00:05:02.760 | Amen!
00:05:06.840 | Let the glory, let the glory of the Lord, for ev'ry heart and soul, may retention be
00:05:24.120 | the theme of our song.
00:05:29.160 | For by grace we have been saved, and by grace we shall relate, to the corners of the earth
00:05:38.760 | that Christ has come.
00:05:42.360 | Let the nations be glad, let the people rejoice, for salvation belongs to our God.
00:05:56.200 | Let the whole world be filled with the praise of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our
00:06:07.160 | God.
00:06:08.360 | Let the nations be glad.
00:06:16.680 | Though the age has gone before, through the trial and the sore, many saints and martyrs
00:06:25.800 | conquered, though they died, still we're holding out for the cross.
00:06:33.720 | Crossing oceans of remorse, we shall endure all things to win the crown of life.
00:06:43.560 | Let the nations be glad, let the people rejoice, for salvation belongs to our God.
00:06:57.160 | Let the whole earth be filled with the praises of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our
00:07:10.200 | God.
00:07:11.400 | Let the nations be glad.
00:07:22.680 | Let the whole world be filled with the praise of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our
00:07:35.800 | God.
00:07:36.840 | Let the whole world be filled with the praise of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our
00:07:50.680 | God.
00:07:51.240 | Let the nations be glad, let the people rejoice, for salvation belongs to our God.
00:08:04.840 | Let the whole earth be filled with the praises of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our
00:08:15.640 | God.
00:08:16.840 | Let the nations be glad.
00:08:22.520 | Sing let the nations be glad again.
00:08:24.520 | Let the nations be glad, let the people rejoice, for salvation belongs to our God.
00:08:39.240 | Let the whole earth be filled with the praises of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our
00:08:51.480 | God.
00:08:52.200 | Let the nations be glad.
00:09:01.960 | You know, a lot of us are going to return home to our churches and think, "This was
00:09:07.000 | amazing what we had at this conference, and I just want everybody in my church to feel
00:09:11.240 | what I'm feeling right now."
00:09:12.440 | We're going to be so discouraged by the response of people.
00:09:19.480 | So I so appreciated what Joel said earlier.
00:09:26.840 | When you're discouraged in your ministry, remember your future.
00:09:31.160 | We get so caught up in what's going on right now.
00:09:36.120 | But there is a future that awaits us.
00:09:39.560 | He said, "We will gaze on Him and never have to look away."
00:09:45.640 | And John got a picture of that in the book of Revelation, and the Lord had him write
00:09:53.320 | it down for us.
00:09:53.960 | Revelation 7, verses 9 and 10.
00:09:55.880 | "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number."
00:10:01.000 | This is where we're headed, because of what Jesus Christ has done.
00:10:05.400 | From every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne
00:10:17.720 | and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying
00:10:27.240 | out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, to the
00:10:37.720 | Lamb.
00:10:38.220 | You will never have to look away."
00:10:42.280 | So let's look at Him right now, to the eyes of faith.
00:10:55.560 | Crown Him, crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne.
00:11:09.720 | Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own.
00:11:21.160 | Awake, my soul, and sing of Him who died for thee, and hail Him as thy matchless King
00:11:38.040 | through all eternity.
00:11:42.040 | Crown Him Son of God before the world's beginning, and He who tread where He hath trod,
00:12:01.960 | crown Him the Son of Man, who every grief hath known, that brings the human breast,
00:12:17.320 | and takes and bears them for His own, that all in Him may rest.
00:12:28.840 | [MUSIC - "CROWN HIM"]
00:12:35.800 | Crown Him, Lord of love.
00:12:40.280 | Behold His hands and side.
00:12:45.800 | Those wounds yet miserable of love, in beauty glorified.
00:12:56.280 | No angel in the sky can fully bear that sight.
00:13:06.760 | But Thou forbid'st his wandering eye at mystery so bright.
00:13:25.720 | Crown Him the Lord of life, who triumphed o'er the grave,
00:13:35.640 | and rose victorious in the strife for those He came to save.
00:13:46.120 | To the glories now we sing, who died and rose on high,
00:13:56.520 | who died eternal lives to bring, and lives that death may die.
00:14:14.520 | Crown Him the Lord of lords, who over all the grave,
00:14:24.520 | who once on earth incarnate were for ransom sinners slain,
00:14:35.720 | now lives in realms of life where saints with angels sing.
00:14:46.520 | Their songs we pour Him day and night, their God, Redeemer, King.
00:14:59.720 | [APPLAUSE]
00:15:12.200 | Lord, we look forward to that day when wherever we look,
00:15:17.960 | we will see You.
00:15:20.200 | We'll never have to turn away.
00:15:21.400 | Thank You that You are worthy of endless praises
00:15:28.360 | of all creation, and in Your mercy,
00:15:33.160 | You've called us to be a part of that endless praise.
00:15:38.440 | Use us, we pray, by Your Spirit to bring You glory,
00:15:45.960 | not only in our songs, but through our lives.
00:15:48.920 | Amen.
00:15:53.800 | Amen.
00:15:54.300 | Let's be seated.
00:15:55.720 | And can we welcome Michael Reeves.
00:15:59.440 | [APPLAUSE]
00:16:02.920 | [MUSIC - "THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER"]
00:16:29.240 | Brothers, it is my simple but awesome privilege
00:16:39.280 | to hold out the glory of God now.
00:16:43.840 | For the glory of God is the epicenter, the genesis,
00:16:52.320 | the principle of all healthy mission.
00:16:59.720 | When the mission of the church goes wrong,
00:17:03.760 | it is always because she has become man-centered.
00:17:09.000 | Sometimes it is that Christians fear God more than man.
00:17:19.920 | And so they do no mission not wanting to offend or confront.
00:17:24.920 | Sometimes they lose sight of God's truth,
00:17:30.600 | and so they do no mission, or only a mission
00:17:34.520 | which is giving sinners the worldly things they already
00:17:37.320 | want.
00:17:37.820 | And sometimes they love the glory of man
00:17:46.400 | more than the glory of God, and nobody notices the problem.
00:17:54.280 | Because they seem orthodox.
00:17:58.560 | They seem zealous.
00:18:01.640 | But they are preaching Christ out of selfish ambition,
00:18:07.160 | making little empires for themselves.
00:18:13.520 | And so as a remedy, we're going to look
00:18:16.840 | at the first three verses of John Chapter 17, Jesus'
00:18:23.480 | High Priestly Prayer.
00:18:26.000 | Let me pray as we come to God's Word.
00:18:27.640 | Oh, Holy Father, open our eyes that we might know you better.
00:18:42.600 | And so have the life that comes in knowing you.
00:18:47.240 | And so may we, weary ones, proud ones, tired ones,
00:18:54.080 | all be enlivened by the knowledge of you.
00:18:59.040 | Have life and overflow with life for the blessing of the world
00:19:03.880 | and the glory of Jesus Christ.
00:19:06.400 | And in his name we ask it.
00:19:08.520 | Amen.
00:19:09.020 | Amen.
00:19:11.320 | Well, here in Jesus' High Priestly Prayer,
00:19:14.480 | our great high priest, we enter the true holy place
00:19:19.960 | of God's presence.
00:19:21.840 | And you remember, just as the Old Testament
00:19:23.960 | tabernacle, which was its copy and shadow,
00:19:29.080 | that was filled with God's glory.
00:19:32.960 | So look at what fills this place.
00:19:35.040 | I'll read the first five verses.
00:19:38.440 | Jesus spoke these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven,
00:19:43.440 | he said, "Father, the hour has come.
00:19:48.760 | Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you,
00:19:54.800 | even as you gave him authority over all flesh,
00:19:59.360 | that to all whom you have given him he may give eternal life."
00:20:06.680 | And this is eternal life, "that they
00:20:09.360 | may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
00:20:14.440 | whom you have sent.
00:20:16.080 | I glorified you on the earth, having
00:20:19.080 | finished the work with which you have given me to do.
00:20:22.600 | Now, Father, glorify me together with yourself,
00:20:27.200 | with the glory which I had with you before the world was."
00:20:33.520 | Here is a glimpse behind the curtain
00:20:38.960 | to see a heavenly conversation, and one
00:20:42.360 | that lifts our eyes to heaven.
00:20:44.360 | And all John's gospel has been ramping up to this moment.
00:20:54.840 | At Cana in chapter 2, Jesus told his mother, "Woman,
00:21:01.480 | my hour has not yet come."
00:21:06.360 | Later, he was teaching in the temple,
00:21:08.760 | and no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.
00:21:16.200 | Now, he says, "Father, the hour has come."
00:21:22.880 | This is the hour he described in chapter 12,
00:21:26.760 | the hour for the Son of Man to be glorified
00:21:30.280 | as he is lifted up from the earth, lifted up on the cross,
00:21:34.240 | lifted up in his resurrection, lifted up
00:21:37.160 | in his heavenly exaltation.
00:21:38.960 | This is the hour for which Jesus came.
00:21:47.120 | And you see, his whole purpose in it
00:21:51.240 | is that the Father might glorify the Son,
00:21:55.360 | that the Son might glorify the Father.
00:21:59.440 | Now, I want you to notice the logic of verses 1 and 2.
00:22:03.320 | Look closely.
00:22:05.000 | Jesus says, verse 1, clause A, "Father, the hour has come.
00:22:11.640 | Glorify your Son."
00:22:14.120 | Clause B, "That," consequence, "that the Son may glorify you."
00:22:21.880 | Connecting even as or just as--
00:22:26.640 | you see the mirroring here between verses 1 and 2.
00:22:30.320 | Clause A, "You gave him authority over all flesh."
00:22:34.740 | Clause B, consequence, "That to all whom you have given him,
00:22:40.280 | he may give eternal life."
00:22:44.200 | So the Son's glorification of the Father, verse 1b,
00:22:49.680 | is the consequence of the Father's glorification
00:22:53.160 | of the Son.
00:22:55.560 | And in parallel, verse 2, the Son's giving of eternal life,
00:23:00.640 | verse 2b, is the consequence of his being given authority,
00:23:05.800 | verse 2a.
00:23:08.560 | So the two verses parallel each other.
00:23:12.280 | They work together so that we can see the overall logic,
00:23:19.320 | which is, ultimately, the glorifying of the Son, "that
00:23:26.680 | eternal life be given."
00:23:29.080 | You could compress it like this.
00:23:31.200 | "Glorify your Son, that he may give eternal life."
00:23:35.680 | Life flows from the glory of the Son,
00:23:48.120 | which glorifies the Father.
00:23:51.640 | In other words, dear friends, mission starts not with you.
00:23:58.440 | It starts with the glory of God.
00:24:00.480 | The giving of life is the consequence
00:24:06.960 | of glory with this God.
00:24:09.680 | Mission does not start with us.
00:24:16.240 | Mission does not start with us finding the zeal within
00:24:21.000 | ourselves to go out and do something in our own strength.
00:24:26.520 | And yet, we often talk as if it did.
00:24:31.080 | We separate the glory of God from mission,
00:24:34.520 | as if we have our devotional lives on one side,
00:24:38.040 | where we glory in God, and know him, and enjoy him.
00:24:42.040 | And then there's this separate extra thing
00:24:44.920 | called mission, which has a different motivation.
00:24:46.880 | And when you think like that, one of two
00:24:52.680 | things is going to happen.
00:24:53.920 | You will burn out, and/or you will do your mission and your
00:25:04.600 | ministry with another glory in mind--
00:25:09.040 | the glory of man.
00:25:12.600 | So brothers, here's a litmus test for you.
00:25:18.080 | Do you find yourself constantly overwhelmed by ministry,
00:25:25.800 | sensing the burden stops with you?
00:25:28.920 | You're the initiator.
00:25:30.160 | Or do you find yourself constantly concerned with what
00:25:38.920 | people think of you?
00:25:41.280 | Do you long for more approval, fame, recognition?
00:25:46.760 | Either way, in good part, the root problem
00:25:57.600 | is probably the same.
00:26:00.880 | The glory of God has dipped in your esteem,
00:26:05.320 | has ceased to be your energizing motivation,
00:26:09.680 | and therefore, taking your eye off the glory of God,
00:26:14.760 | you are looking for life and glory elsewhere.
00:26:18.920 | And of course, it hurts and doesn't satisfy.
00:26:21.040 | And so for our health, and the health of our ministries,
00:26:27.520 | for the healthy mission of the church,
00:26:29.960 | we need to refocus on the glory that gives life.
00:26:36.800 | So let's do that now.
00:26:38.920 | Now, what is this glory?
00:26:41.800 | What does Jesus mean when he says,
00:26:43.600 | "Father, glorify your Son"?
00:26:47.000 | Now, throughout John's gospel, Jesus
00:26:49.280 | has been setting us up to see Jesus' glory is
00:26:54.680 | something entirely unexpected.
00:26:57.800 | We assume, and the Pharisees assumed,
00:27:06.000 | glory means searching for the acclaim of others.
00:27:10.880 | But Jesus said, "I do not seek my glory.
00:27:18.440 | If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing."
00:27:24.000 | No, the one who is the very glory of God himself,
00:27:31.280 | he does not need glory.
00:27:33.120 | He's not acquisitively seeking glory,
00:27:36.240 | for his glory is not [AUDIO OUT]
00:27:42.800 | He has no need.
00:27:45.800 | His is a self-giving glory.
00:27:48.720 | The Spirit glorifies the Son, Jesus tells us,
00:27:55.920 | by taking from what is mine and giving it,
00:27:59.800 | disclosing it to you, John 16.
00:28:03.520 | Or John 12, Jesus describes exactly what
00:28:07.800 | it means for the Son of Man to be glorified.
00:28:11.160 | Remember John 12, verse 24?
00:28:13.680 | "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat
00:28:17.360 | falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone.
00:28:23.080 | But if it dies, it bears fruit."
00:28:28.760 | That death-bearing fruit, that is the hour of his glorification.
00:28:37.720 | When he dies, it is when he is lifted up from the earth,
00:28:45.040 | then we see most clearly who he is.
00:28:48.960 | Then we see the glorification of the glory of God.
00:28:54.600 | We see the deepest revelation of the very heart of God.
00:29:00.280 | And it is all about laying down his life to give life as a seed.
00:29:08.520 | Or as he puts it here, "That to all whom you have given him,
00:29:12.880 | he may give eternal life."
00:29:16.680 | So his self-giving is the hour of his glorification.
00:29:22.160 | It is the nature of his glory.
00:29:25.520 | Or in Paul's words in Ephesians, it
00:29:27.800 | is in the riches of his grace that we
00:29:30.640 | see the riches of his glory.
00:29:32.440 | He is the radiance of the Father of glory,
00:29:44.360 | the one who is so superabounding in life and blessedness
00:29:49.520 | that he generates glory.
00:29:51.840 | Without need or lack, his is the glory
00:29:58.720 | of the overflowing fountain of life.
00:30:01.440 | In his hour, we see a divine glory
00:30:10.720 | that shines light into darkness, that confers good,
00:30:16.080 | that gives life and righteousness
00:30:19.360 | to unworthy, helpless sinners.
00:30:23.800 | And in that, with that end of verse 1,
00:30:30.800 | the Son glorifies the Father.
00:30:34.960 | And so on the cross, their God is glorified.
00:30:41.720 | For when you've seen the Son, you've seen the Father.
00:30:46.080 | When you've seen the self-giving of the Son,
00:30:48.680 | you've witnessed the very heart of the Father who sent him.
00:30:52.080 | You've witnessed the superabundant graciousness
00:30:59.160 | and goodness of God himself, loving first
00:31:02.840 | before we ever loved him.
00:31:06.600 | That is what the only true God is like.
00:31:12.240 | The Son, who is the radiance of God's glory,
00:31:16.120 | shows us that God's glory is an outgoing, radiant thing,
00:31:22.520 | which is why throughout Scripture, the glory of God
00:31:25.520 | is so often compared to a pure and dazzling light ever
00:31:29.920 | shining outwards.
00:31:33.680 | Arise, shine, your light has come,
00:31:37.760 | and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
00:31:40.880 | The shepherds kept their flocks outside Bethlehem.
00:31:46.880 | The glory of the Lord shone on them.
00:31:52.480 | In the new Jerusalem, it has no need of sun or moon
00:31:58.200 | to shine on it, for the glory of God illumines it,
00:32:04.120 | and its lamp is the Lamb.
00:32:09.360 | As the sun in the sky gives of its own light and heat,
00:32:14.560 | so this God glories in giving of himself because he is so full.
00:32:24.560 | Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
00:32:29.960 | And verse 2, then, even though it does not mention glory,
00:32:38.720 | is actually unpacking the meaning of glory developed
00:32:42.680 | by the thought of verse 1.
00:32:44.120 | Now, remember the logic.
00:32:46.600 | Verse 1, clause A, "Father, the hour has come.
00:32:49.600 | Glorify your Son."
00:32:50.880 | B, "That, in order that the Son may glorify you,
00:32:55.920 | even as," mirroring clause A, "you gave him authority
00:33:00.880 | over all flesh," clause B, "so that to all
00:33:05.600 | whom you've given him he may give eternal life."
00:33:08.760 | Now, see the mirroring there.
00:33:11.080 | Now, glorifying your Son may not sound obviously
00:33:16.080 | like giving him authority over all flesh,
00:33:19.600 | but we know they're connected, "even as."
00:33:25.800 | So the Father lifts up the Son on the cross,
00:33:29.720 | in the resurrection, in his exaltation,
00:33:32.400 | to glorify the Father, "even as."
00:33:37.880 | That means to give eternal life.
00:33:41.800 | This is just what Paul said in Philippians 2.
00:33:44.320 | "God exalted him, bestowed on him
00:33:47.840 | the name that is above every name,
00:33:49.760 | so that at the name of Jesus every knee may bow,
00:33:57.400 | of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
00:34:00.680 | and that every tongue will confess
00:34:02.440 | that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
00:34:06.480 | God is glorified and revealed for who
00:34:10.680 | he is in the giving of life through the lifting up
00:34:14.760 | of the Son.
00:34:16.200 | And that is why the glory of God is the epicenter of mission.
00:34:19.640 | God gives life because he is so gloriously super-sufficient,
00:34:28.920 | so full, so overflowing.
00:34:33.240 | That is his glory, to shine out into the darkness
00:34:38.000 | in pure grace until that day when the earth will be
00:34:42.960 | filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
00:34:46.040 | as the waters cover the sea.
00:34:47.720 | And that is why the glory of this God
00:34:56.960 | makes Christians delight to lift him up,
00:35:00.720 | delight to proclaim the honors of his name.
00:35:04.880 | You see, if God were an empty God,
00:35:11.120 | if he were a needy idol, motivated primarily
00:35:17.600 | by getting something from us that he needed,
00:35:20.800 | that he didn't already have, if that were what God were like,
00:35:27.640 | then he would be a burden.
00:35:30.240 | To be like him would mean loving the glory of man,
00:35:36.800 | because that's what clearly he loves.
00:35:38.400 | Proclaiming him would be a heavy, burdensome duty.
00:35:43.120 | All he's trying to do is take.
00:35:44.600 | But because God is the only true God, is so full,
00:35:54.640 | so overflowing with life, mission simply
00:35:59.440 | flows from who he is.
00:36:06.920 | When we proclaim Christ, we are joining in
00:36:11.120 | with a pre-existent mission.
00:36:13.480 | We are joining in with the divine outgoing,
00:36:17.000 | with a mission that does not depend on us for its genesis
00:36:22.160 | or its momentum.
00:36:25.040 | As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you,
00:36:28.240 | we just join in.
00:36:32.840 | Which means, if the glory of God outshining
00:36:42.280 | is the genesis chamber and the delight-giving motivation that
00:36:51.360 | makes saints go out and speak of him
00:36:57.160 | and shine out themselves then, it
00:37:02.440 | means, friends, if you take your eyes off the glory of Christ,
00:37:09.840 | the thought of proclaiming him to the ends of the earth
00:37:12.960 | will feel overwhelming to you.
00:37:16.760 | If the buck's going to stop with you, that's a burden.
00:37:20.200 | And then other motivations will start to drive you.
00:37:30.720 | But see the glory that gives life,
00:37:35.440 | and you will be enlivened.
00:37:36.760 | His glory will eclipse yours and be a greater motivation,
00:37:47.880 | a preceding motivation that precedes any zeal you have,
00:37:53.560 | but stirs it up.
00:37:57.640 | And come now to verse 3, where we
00:38:00.800 | see the nature of the eternal life he gives.
00:38:05.560 | "This is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God
00:38:12.240 | and Jesus Christ, whom you've sent."
00:38:14.360 | Now, because life is in God, you cannot have
00:38:21.680 | any life apart from God.
00:38:25.520 | Life is not an abstract commodity he throws out.
00:38:28.960 | Life is found in him, and so in knowing him,
00:38:38.320 | and not just knowing any God, but knowing the only true God,
00:38:45.960 | in knowing the Father by knowing Jesus Christ, his Son,
00:38:49.920 | through the enabling power of the Spirit.
00:38:54.720 | So verse 2, spot the logic here.
00:38:57.800 | Verse 2 had shown the Son is given authority
00:39:01.200 | in order to give life.
00:39:03.720 | And verse 3 logically follows.
00:39:06.520 | If the Son is to bring that life,
00:39:09.680 | he must bring people to know God,
00:39:14.400 | because that is what life is.
00:39:18.200 | And how does he do that?
00:39:19.480 | By glorifying and revealing God in himself,
00:39:27.160 | because no one knows God, but through him,
00:39:30.880 | and only through him, we come to know the only true God,
00:39:36.640 | and so have life.
00:39:37.560 | No one has ever seen God, but God, the only begotten,
00:39:42.640 | who is in the bosom of the Father, he explains him.
00:39:47.760 | And so life is found in knowing the Father through him.
00:39:50.920 | Life is found in knowing God.
00:39:56.840 | That means, friends, if you would have much life,
00:40:04.840 | be a theologian, be a knower of God.
00:40:17.040 | For the knowledge of God is not interesting trivia.
00:40:22.440 | It is not something to be enjoyed
00:40:25.120 | when you have a bit of spare time.
00:40:26.640 | The knowledge of God is life.
00:40:32.720 | And if your knowledge of God is shallow and weak,
00:40:42.040 | you will be shallow and weak.
00:40:45.680 | But Daniel 11:32, "The people who know their God
00:40:52.080 | will display strength and take action."
00:40:56.400 | The people who know their God will display strength
00:40:59.120 | because they have life.
00:41:02.640 | But it's only those who know God who have that strength.
00:41:06.280 | It all means we must not separate mission,
00:41:15.480 | making Christ known, from knowing God.
00:41:19.400 | As if knowing God is an impractical nicety
00:41:22.320 | we put on one side when we feel like being active
00:41:25.960 | and going out and doing this thing called mission.
00:41:28.160 | No.
00:41:32.560 | A good missionary must be a good theologian.
00:41:35.720 | You know, John Calvin is a marvelous example of this.
00:41:41.360 | We often-- we usually think of John Calvin as a theologian,
00:41:45.000 | and we should.
00:41:45.800 | But don't imagine Calvin cooped up in a library
00:41:48.920 | thinking heavenly thoughts, unconcerned
00:41:51.800 | with the growth of the church on earth.
00:41:53.640 | No, he educated in Geneva, primarily through the academy,
00:42:02.320 | a generation of pastors in the knowledge of God
00:42:07.200 | in order to--
00:42:09.880 | to use John 17 language, that he might send them out
00:42:15.960 | to the ends of the earth.
00:42:17.880 | So he gave them a knowledge of God
00:42:20.680 | and turned Geneva into a theologically-fueled center
00:42:26.520 | for the propagation of the gospel.
00:42:28.600 | And there, he gave them the knowledge of God.
00:42:33.360 | And from there, pastors and missionaries
00:42:36.000 | were sent out to Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary,
00:42:41.920 | even South America.
00:42:43.200 | He saw it must start with knowing God,
00:42:49.280 | so he raised up those who know God,
00:42:51.720 | for it's only those who know God who have life
00:42:55.000 | and can go out and give life.
00:42:56.920 | And it's exactly the same logic you
00:43:02.400 | see in Calvin's great work, The Institutes.
00:43:04.880 | He starts the whole thing with knowing God
00:43:09.560 | and works from there towards the Christian life,
00:43:14.960 | because knowing God is the source of life.
00:43:17.480 | And it must then be the source of healthy mission.
00:43:24.320 | No knowledge of God, no mission.
00:43:32.200 | Thin knowledge of God, thin mission.
00:43:38.920 | Weak knowledge of God, weak mission.
00:43:42.600 | But I don't want to stop there, because if we leave it there,
00:43:49.840 | we're going to misunderstand what knowing God means.
00:43:54.280 | See, especially when I say be a theologian,
00:44:02.160 | you all think, oh, please no.
00:44:03.600 | Because we easily imagine knowledge
00:44:13.120 | as this merely cerebral thing, knowledge about God,
00:44:23.640 | as if being a diligent student of Scripture
00:44:26.720 | and a careful exegete, that's knowledge,
00:44:30.120 | and therefore that's what gives life.
00:44:31.960 | So if I'm a careful exegete and a diligent student
00:44:34.160 | of Scripture, hey, I've got life.
00:44:38.760 | But the knowledge that Jesus speaks of here
00:44:43.360 | requires glorying in God.
00:44:51.480 | Now, some commentators, they read verse 3
00:44:55.520 | about knowing God, and they see it
00:44:57.640 | as an aside that's got really nothing
00:44:59.600 | to do with the glory that the surrounding verses deal with.
00:45:04.640 | But throughout John's gospel, knowledge
00:45:11.280 | is entirely bound up with glory.
00:45:15.320 | And I want to see this, because this
00:45:16.840 | is critical if we are to have the knowledge that gives life.
00:45:21.480 | Let's start with John 5 from verse 39.
00:45:23.640 | John 5 from verse 39, Jesus says to the Jewish scribes,
00:45:39.840 | "You search the Scriptures because you
00:45:41.760 | think that in them you have eternal life.
00:45:45.320 | It is these that bear witness about me, and you are not.
00:45:49.720 | You are unwilling to come to me that you may have life.
00:45:54.920 | I do not receive glory from men, but I know you,
00:45:59.960 | that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.
00:46:04.280 | I've come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me.
00:46:07.360 | If another comes in his own name, you'll receive him.
00:46:12.040 | How can you believe when you receive glory from one another?
00:46:17.560 | How can you believe when you receive glory from one another,
00:46:28.400 | and you do not seek the glory that is from the only God?"
00:46:32.720 | So the scribes and the Pharisees,
00:46:35.000 | they thought they had life in the mere searching
00:46:38.680 | of Scripture, but they did not seek the glory of God.
00:46:44.880 | And so they sought to be masters of Scripture
00:46:50.160 | in order to receive glory from each other.
00:46:53.600 | And so seeking the glory of man, they never
00:47:01.760 | recognized the true glory of God.
00:47:05.240 | And so they crucified him.
00:47:08.400 | They crucified the Lord of glory and mocked him,
00:47:12.440 | for they did not know God.
00:47:15.760 | They were blind to who was right in front of them.
00:47:20.680 | It means because they didn't glory in him,
00:47:24.320 | all their knowledge was not true knowledge of God.
00:47:28.040 | Oh, dear friends, it means that to glory in Jesus
00:47:37.160 | is not an optional extra for some emotional types.
00:47:41.040 | You simply cannot know the only true God
00:47:47.920 | without glorying in him, because God is so glorious,
00:47:52.880 | he is not known where he is not adored.
00:47:55.240 | If God, my friend, is not delightful to you,
00:48:03.840 | your eyes have not been opened, you are blind,
00:48:11.800 | and that reveals a deadness of head and heart.
00:48:18.320 | If God is not glorious, if he is not your delight and treasure,
00:48:24.320 | you may know something about him,
00:48:28.160 | but you do not have the knowledge
00:48:31.280 | that is eternal life.
00:48:34.600 | Knowledge requires glorying in him.
00:48:38.200 | So glorious is he.
00:48:39.360 | Come on to chapter 8 from verse 42.
00:48:51.000 | Jesus said to them, "If God were your father,
00:48:57.240 | you would love me.
00:48:59.920 | For I proceeded forth and have come from God.
00:49:03.040 | For I have not even come of myself,
00:49:04.840 | but he sent me."
00:49:06.240 | John 8 43.
00:49:07.920 | Why do you not understand what I'm saying?
00:49:13.040 | It is because you cannot hear my word.
00:49:15.080 | You are of your father the devil,
00:49:17.360 | and you want to do the desires of your father.
00:49:19.920 | Now, the word "understand" there in verse 43
00:49:24.560 | is gnosko, to know.
00:49:28.440 | Jesus is saying, "You do not know
00:49:32.040 | if you have the desires of the devil,
00:49:34.360 | and so do not love God."
00:49:38.400 | The knowledge of God is entirely bound up with love for,
00:49:44.960 | desire for God.
00:49:49.800 | Hence the terrible words of Paul to the Corinthians,
00:49:55.320 | "If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus,
00:50:00.320 | let him be anathema, accursed."
00:50:06.680 | And last reference describing the nature of true knowledge.
00:50:09.840 | Come back to John 17 verse 26.
00:50:16.960 | Jesus concludes his prayer saying,
00:50:21.960 | "I have made your name known."
00:50:25.440 | John 17 26.
00:50:26.840 | "I've made your name known to them.
00:50:30.240 | I will make it known."
00:50:31.960 | This is knowledge.
00:50:33.000 | "So that the love with which you loved me
00:50:36.880 | may be in them and I in them."
00:50:39.520 | To know God is to love him.
00:50:44.400 | Now, a generation ago, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones
00:50:50.440 | argued that a false view of knowledge
00:50:54.480 | had become the great error of the church.
00:51:00.440 | He said, "If I understand the condition of the church today,
00:51:04.080 | and indeed during the last 50 years or so,
00:51:06.720 | I would say its great trouble has
00:51:09.240 | been that it has fallen into this particular error,
00:51:12.800 | the error of Sandemanianism, the idea that saving faith
00:51:19.080 | is nothing but bare belief of the bare truth.
00:51:22.560 | Sandemanianism taught knowledge of God
00:51:29.120 | is bare assent to the truth.
00:51:33.400 | It is mere intellectual acknowledgment
00:51:36.920 | that the gospel is true.
00:51:42.120 | It imagined our real problem as sinners
00:51:45.200 | is simply that we're ignorant.
00:51:48.640 | What do you think that did to their sermons?
00:51:50.440 | If people's problem is just ignorance,
00:51:55.360 | what is a sermon for?
00:51:58.400 | Their sermons were purely education.
00:52:03.000 | That's it.
00:52:04.480 | Nothing more needed.
00:52:08.200 | They never sought to deal with the hearts of their people,
00:52:13.320 | the affections, the desires.
00:52:16.760 | They never sought to deal with their own hearts.
00:52:20.800 | They failed to recognize that the human problem is
00:52:23.400 | deeper than ignorance.
00:52:26.600 | The reason people do not believe in Jesus
00:52:29.160 | is not simply ignorance.
00:52:31.560 | It is to do with what they love.
00:52:35.800 | Sinners love the darkness rather than the light.
00:52:39.800 | The sinful mind is hostile to God
00:52:42.360 | and therefore refuses to love the truth
00:52:49.120 | and be saved, 2 Thessalonians.
00:52:52.760 | See, both faith and unbelief involve more than the head.
00:52:56.720 | Not less than, but more than.
00:52:58.080 | Unbelief flows from a hostility of heart
00:53:04.200 | that hates the truth.
00:53:07.280 | Faith flows from a heart that has been turned to love Christ
00:53:12.000 | and so embraces truth.
00:53:15.680 | And so we who believe, it is not simply
00:53:18.440 | that we know certain things about Christ.
00:53:23.040 | Our eyes have been opened, our hearts
00:53:25.240 | turned so that we find to our surprise
00:53:27.520 | that He is beautiful, delightful.
00:53:30.640 | We desire fellowship with Him.
00:53:33.760 | We cherish Him, we adore Him.
00:53:37.760 | And here's the danger with the knowledge of God
00:53:39.920 | that is purely cerebral.
00:53:41.840 | It will puff us up as it puffed up the Pharisees.
00:53:45.840 | And full of ourselves, we will even
00:53:51.520 | find ourselves looking down on those simpletons
00:53:55.680 | who love Jesus, but don't seem to know as much as we do.
00:54:00.280 | That kind of knowledge is not a taste and appreciation
00:54:06.240 | for the glory of God, that proud, puffed up knowledge.
00:54:19.520 | That is a lust for the glory of God.
00:54:26.400 | It is a lust for the glory of men.
00:54:30.480 | It is so easy for us to see the corruption in a sinner.
00:54:40.400 | Take a sinner whose tastes have grown so perverted
00:54:43.480 | that they revel in moral filth.
00:54:45.560 | And we can think, I'm not like that.
00:54:48.400 | But if we are dead to the loveliness of Christ
00:54:51.440 | and we do not glory in Him.
00:54:54.520 | If the glory of men stirs us more than the glory of God,
00:54:59.280 | then, oh brothers, we are corrupted.
00:55:02.280 | At the end of John's gospel, three times,
00:55:08.720 | Jesus asks Peter, do you love me?
00:55:14.040 | And so, my dear brothers, I must ask you, do you love Jesus?
00:55:22.560 | I am not asking, do you love ministry or study or preaching?
00:55:32.440 | Do you love Jesus?
00:55:34.360 | This is the life that God shares with us.
00:55:42.240 | This is what God has always been about.
00:55:47.760 | The Father has always enjoyed knowing and loving His Son.
00:55:54.160 | That is what is most characteristic of Him for eternity.
00:55:58.160 | And through the Spirit, the Father shares with us His highest pleasure.
00:56:02.920 | He opens our eyes so that we know and love and enjoy His Son as He has always done.
00:56:11.600 | And so, our love for the Son is an echo, an extension of the Father's love.
00:56:20.680 | That is the very heart of Godlikeness.
00:56:31.360 | It is the prime reason the Spirit is given.
00:56:35.960 | And so, the Puritan John Owen wrote,
00:56:41.600 | "Therein consists the principal part of our renovation into the image of God.
00:56:48.120 | Nothing makes us so like the Father as our love for Jesus Christ."
00:56:55.920 | When you love Jesus Christ, that's when you're being like the Father,
00:57:00.600 | who loves His Son and is well-pleased in Him.
00:57:07.760 | And so, the Spirit not only opens our eyes to share the Father's love of the Son,
00:57:12.600 | He gives us the mind of Christ.
00:57:15.240 | And so, the Son's love for the Father.
00:57:18.600 | And what is most characteristic about the Son is John 14, 31, "I love the Father."
00:57:30.600 | And so, the heart of our transformation into the likeness of the Son is our deep delight
00:57:38.840 | in the Father.
00:57:41.560 | Jesus, when He's filled with the Spirit, says, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven
00:57:46.360 | and earth."
00:57:50.160 | And so, in our love and enjoyment of the Son, we're being like the Father.
00:57:53.720 | In our love and enjoyment of the Father, we're being like the Son.
00:57:58.200 | This is eternal life.
00:58:02.520 | This is why the Son glorified His Father.
00:58:07.200 | We get to know God in that hour, "so that," John 17, 26, "the love with which you've loved
00:58:16.520 | Me may be in them and I in them."
00:58:19.120 | When God is glorified, life is given.
00:58:27.920 | And this is why the glory of God is the genesis of mission.
00:58:33.200 | When we glory in God, knowing, enjoying Him as He is, we have life.
00:58:44.160 | Those who know their God shall find strength and life.
00:58:51.760 | And when we glory in God, we will overflow with life and go out radiantly, like Him,
00:59:08.160 | in mission, participating in the work of the Spirit to make Jesus known in all the earth.
00:59:20.960 | In contrast, if we do not glory in Christ, we will not proclaim Him to the ends of the
00:59:29.840 | earth.
00:59:32.400 | And that's made very clear at the end of John chapter 12.
00:59:35.960 | Would you come with me to John chapter 12, towards the end, verse 42.
00:59:48.400 | John 12, 42, "Many, even of the rulers, believed in Him.
01:00:05.280 | But because of the Pharisees, they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be
01:00:11.920 | put out of the synagogue."
01:00:13.360 | So what's going on?
01:00:14.360 | They are not confessing Him.
01:00:15.880 | Why?
01:00:16.880 | Verse 43, "They loved the glory of men rather than the glory of God."
01:00:28.440 | That was their root problem and the reason they would not confess Him.
01:00:34.840 | They loved the glory of men more than the glory of God.
01:00:42.360 | With their eyes on others, hungry for popularity and praise, they would not dare confess Christ
01:00:50.700 | or go against the crowd.
01:00:54.320 | They're looking to scratch itching ears, because they want the applause.
01:01:00.360 | And so instead, said Jesus, they do all their deeds to be noticed by men.
01:01:05.600 | They broaden their phylacteries, they lengthen the tassels of their garments, they love the
01:01:09.880 | places of honor at the banquets and being called "rabbi."
01:01:16.720 | God was not sufficiently glorious in their eyes, and so they preferred the glory of little
01:01:22.280 | creatures.
01:01:27.440 | Blind to the beauty of God, they became enslaved to the hamster wheel of people-pleasing.
01:01:36.520 | Haven't we all been there?
01:01:43.360 | Enslaved to what people think of us.
01:01:49.200 | And it wasn't about their theological orthodoxy or their biblical competence, it was all about
01:01:55.040 | what they loved.
01:02:01.240 | Dear brothers, we will share and we will smell of what we truly glory in.
01:02:17.200 | And the fact is, we think we can, you cannot hide what you really glory in for long.
01:02:27.120 | It gives off a stink.
01:02:32.840 | What you truly glory in will be an aroma about you.
01:02:40.000 | And out of the overflow of your heart, whatever is in your heart, you will speak.
01:02:48.340 | In my ministry as President of Union, we raise shepherds, church leaders, in church-based
01:02:58.700 | locations all around the world.
01:03:02.140 | We do so that the church, the Bride of Christ, might be built up, that in all these locations
01:03:11.080 | around the world, we may deploy them out for the growth of the church and the spreading
01:03:16.940 | of Christ's glory worldwide.
01:03:20.340 | And so, to do that, Union provides biblical education, pastoral training, theological
01:03:27.620 | resources, but underneath all of that, we seek to raise leaders who glory in God.
01:03:43.440 | Who love the glory of God more than the glory of man, for no amount of education, training,
01:03:53.020 | or resources can make good one who loves the wrong glory.
01:04:00.220 | Now, of course, loving the glory of men more than the glory of God, it's an itch, a lust.
01:04:13.220 | We all feel, we all know it inside ourselves, and we see it everywhere around us.
01:04:23.940 | So we must ask, please ask yourself, really, which is better, the glory of God or the glory
01:04:36.660 | of his creatures?
01:04:39.500 | Which is more life-giving?
01:04:45.700 | The glory of God is the only fountain of life, and we cannot depart from it if we are to
01:04:56.180 | have life or to give life.
01:05:01.100 | The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians had a very similar thought to John 17, when he says,
01:05:06.700 | "God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' is the one who has shone into our hearts to
01:05:13.860 | give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."
01:05:20.740 | Now, what is on Paul's mind there is how, you remember Moses saw the glory of God on
01:05:29.300 | Mount Sinai, and then he came down from the mountain and he did not realize his skin shone,
01:05:40.620 | radiant because he had been speaking with God.
01:05:48.340 | He shone.
01:05:51.640 | That is glory.
01:05:56.060 | And likewise, says Paul, "We all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of
01:06:03.860 | the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory."
01:06:10.740 | We're doing what Moses did.
01:06:13.460 | We, like him, turned to the Lord, and beholding his glory, we, Psalm 34 verse 5, "They looked
01:06:25.580 | to him and were radiant."
01:06:29.320 | Those who look to him begin to shine with God's own light.
01:06:37.620 | The sight of the glory of Christ is what makes the faces of the saints shine.
01:06:45.020 | It's what makes them come alive, whatever their circumstances, for the glory of God
01:06:52.500 | in the face of Christ is like a sun shining us on a winter morning.
01:06:57.340 | It's like the turn of winter into spring, a warming, life-giving light grows, making
01:07:06.420 | life blossom.
01:07:09.660 | The Puritan Richard Sibbes put it like this, he said, "The saints are like little birds
01:07:17.860 | shivering in the darkness of the night, quiet, cold, until the dawning light shines upon
01:07:30.460 | them.
01:07:31.460 | And then, in the light of God's goodness and glory, they begin to sing.
01:07:40.780 | Shine the light of the world on them, and warmed by him, glorying in him, they break
01:07:47.420 | forth in joy."
01:07:51.460 | Those who glory in God, who know him with an adoring enjoyment, brothers, they are the
01:08:00.900 | ones who become like him.
01:08:04.660 | Those are the ones who become like God.
01:08:06.780 | As he is radiant, those who look to him become radiant.
01:08:11.020 | And they become like him, fruitful, life-giving, outgoing.
01:08:21.500 | They begin to shine like stars in this present darkness, this crooked and depraved generation.
01:08:33.300 | Look to him and be radiant.
01:08:39.020 | Look to Daniel 12 verse 3, "Those who have insight will shine brightly, like the brightness
01:08:48.360 | of the expanse of heaven.
01:08:51.180 | And those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever."
01:09:03.020 | Brothers, it is by the shining of his glorious face that he gives life, that he spreads his
01:09:11.700 | blessedness.
01:09:13.900 | So look to him if you would have life.
01:09:18.300 | Know him with a knowledge that falls on its knees in adoration.
01:09:26.020 | It is those who know him and glory in him who are radiant with life.
01:09:35.260 | And so, dear brothers, may the Lord bless you and keep you.
01:09:41.540 | May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
01:09:49.100 | May the Lord lift up his glorious face upon you and give you peace.
01:10:09.300 | Thank you.
01:10:22.780 | What a feast.
01:10:25.160 | Thank you, Michael.
01:10:27.820 | Well, we've had a pretty good day so far, haven't we?
01:10:33.620 | And it just is going to get better and better and better.
01:10:38.220 | I want to highlight a couple of books.
01:10:39.820 | And since Michael was in John 17, I want to highlight a book, a new book by Pastor John
01:10:47.660 | MacArthur.
01:10:49.220 | And it's called A Savior Who Prays, and it's an exposition of Christ's prayer in John 17.
01:10:56.340 | Related to that, you can also visit John MacArthur Publishing Table on the patio.
01:11:01.020 | You can get a free study guide for this book and other books also from JMPG Books, Our
01:11:09.020 | Savior Who Prays.
01:11:10.540 | And along that also same line, Stephen Charnock, who is the famous author of The Existence
01:11:16.540 | and Attributes of God, has a book that we have available, The Doctrine of Regeneration.
01:11:22.620 | The Doctrine of Regeneration.
01:11:24.460 | So just two books to highlight for you this afternoon as we move into dinner.
01:11:32.240 | We have food trucks out there, which is a very big favorite here at Grace Church.
01:11:37.420 | There's a variety of Southern California multicultural meals provided near us.
01:11:42.860 | We have a Hawaiian barbecue.
01:11:45.380 | We have a Los Angeles Greek cuisine.
01:11:48.100 | We have a Thai-Mexican.
01:11:49.820 | We have Italian.
01:11:51.120 | We have American fusion.
01:11:52.580 | There's so many.
01:11:53.580 | You can see them in your app for Shepherds Conference.
01:11:58.400 | So go out there.
01:12:00.340 | Find some that you can kind of limit tonight and then tomorrow night and Friday as well
01:12:04.660 | just to kind of try the different trucks.
01:12:07.060 | But more than anything else, just take a time to really contemplate what it is that we've
01:12:12.780 | just heard about the glory of God, the glory of Christ preceding just knowledge so beautifully
01:12:20.780 | done and so wonderfully heartwarming, my friend.
01:12:23.940 | Thank you.
01:12:24.940 | Well, let me just pray for dinner and then you're dismissed.
01:12:27.540 | Father God, thank you again for just the lessons that we are learning from your Word, lessons
01:12:33.740 | that are transcending all things that perhaps we had even contemplated before.
01:12:39.160 | Our love for your glory, dear Jesus, our love for you is the source of all true knowledge.
01:12:46.280 | And let that be a lesson to us today.
01:12:48.700 | Let it be the source of our conversation and let it be the joy of our heart.
01:12:54.280 | Bless the food that we're about to receive in Christ's name, amen.
01:12:57.380 | Amen.
01:12:57.880 | Amen.
01:12:58.380 | Amen.
01:12:58.880 | Amen.
01:12:59.380 | Amen.
01:12:59.880 | Amen.
01:13:00.380 | Amen.
01:13:00.880 | Amen.
01:13:01.380 | Amen.
01:13:01.880 | Amen.
01:13:02.380 | Amen.
01:13:02.880 | Amen.
01:13:03.380 | [BLANK_AUDIO]