We will be in John chapter 17 this morning. This is the high priestly prayer of Jesus. It's the last recorded prayer before Jesus goes to the cross. Therefore, it has great significance because it tells us what's on God's heart and mind. There's one verse that I'm charged to preach from this morning. It's John chapter 17 verse 3. And it says, this is eternal life that they know you the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. What a man or woman often says as they're going to die is the most significant thing that you're going to hear come out of their mouth because it's going to tell them who they really are. There was a pastor years ago, his name was W. B. Henson, who was told by a doctor that he would not recover from an illness that he had contracted. So one evening he walked outside of his home in Portland, Oregon and he looked at the mountains. He looked at the rivers and he looked at the stars as the evening began to come about and he said at that point, I may not see you many more times but mountain. I shall be alive when you are gone and river. I shall be alive when you cease running towards the sea and stars, I shall be alive when you fall from your sockets. Possessing eternal life is the greatest comfort any person can have. One of the most astounding facts I think in the Bible is that it tells us as believers in Christ that eternal life for us was determined before the foundations of the world. That's an amazing thought. God chose us before the foundations of the world. In love he predestined us. That's what Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4 tells us. But eternal life is not just endless life. Those lost in hell have endless life. The Bible describes this type of life as the second death in Revelation chapter 21 and 22. This morning we're talking about eternal life. And I believe for those of us who know Christ that eternal life with God is God's ultimate goal for his children. Let me tell you where I get that. Look in John chapter 17 verse 24. Jesus says, Father I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you love me from the foundations of the world. Even in this prayer Jesus is saying my desire is for my children the ones God that you have given me to be with me. And then in John chapter 14 verses 2 and 3 Jesus says in my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so I would have told you for I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there you may also be. And then in 1 Peter 3 18 says for Christ also died for sins once for all the just for the unjust so that he might bring us to God. God's ultimate goal for you and I who believe in Christ is that we would have eternal life. In the process we are to glorify God but God's desire for us is to be with God in eternity. Now our verse this morning tells us in John chapter 17 verse 3 that Jesus doesn't believe we have eternal life just in and of ourselves. Notice in verse 2 he says that he has authority to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. Jesus speaking to the Father saying you have given me the authority to give eternal life the assumption that Jesus makes in the implication is that we don't have eternal life in and of ourselves. We need someone to give it to us. Jesus prayer in this chapter and his life tells us that we are in need of eternal life we don't have it apart from Jesus giving it to us. We all know the reason we don't have this eternal life is because our first parents in the Adam and Eve forfeited the privilege of having eternal life. First Corinthians 15-22 says for as in Adam all died you and I apart from Christ are dead in our trespasses in our sins Ephesians 2-1. But Jesus recognizes this death blind and lifeless state and he prays these words before his disciples and he gives them to us today. Jesus speaks these words to tell us how we may have eternal life to be in the ultimate place that God desires for you and I as his children to be and that's to be with him spiritually deaf people and blind people and lifeless people do not hear they do not see and they do not live. But this morning God may give spiritual hearing to the deaf and spiritual sight to the blind and eternal life maybe to those of us who are here who are dead. So I want to pray to that end this morning would you join me father we come before you knowing we have nothing in ourselves that would merit you giving us eternal life. And so we fall upon your mercy and your grace and I pray that your word would have its place in our life this morning and I pray if there are some here who do not know Christ who cannot hear cannot see and are not living that you would awaken them. That you would give them the ability to hear the ability to see the beauty of Christ and to receive the life that you say that you have for us and I pray in Jesus name amen. So how does Jesus give the deaf man or woman the ability to hear how does he give those that cannot see the ability to see and how does he give life to the dead. Well Jesus gives us three requirements this morning to have eternal life out of John 17 verse three the first requirement for eternal life is we must know the only true God. The word there no means to learn to know or to come to know it's the idea that involves an intellectual and life changing understanding you know God himself values knowledge of himself. In Jeremiah chapter 9 verse 23 and 24 says thus says the Lord let not the wise man boast in his wisdom let not the mighty man boast in his might let not the rich man boast in his riches but let him who boasts boast in this that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love justice and righteousness on the earth for in these things I delight declares the Lord. And in in Hosea chapter 6 verse 6 says for I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. It's not just enough to know there is a God the demons know that there is a God they believe James chapter 2 verse 19 says you believe that God is one you do well even the demons believe in shutter. So what does knowing God look like James Packer in his book knowing God says this and he says these are the things that are involved in knowing God number one that you listen to God's word and receive it as the Holy Spirit interprets it in application to oneself number two accepting his invitation and doing what he commands characterizes whether you know God or not. Number three recognizing and rejoicing in the love that has been shown in thus approaching you and drawing you into divine fellowship with God himself. And number four noting God's nature and character as his word and his works reveal it that last little statement about knowing God's nature and character refers back to this idea of the only true God. We must know the only true God and I think that's depicted for us very clearly in what I call the 10 round showdown. You remember in the book of Exodus all the plagues that happened there were 10 of those I call it the 10 round showdown I want to tell you how God proved himself not only to the Egyptians but to Israel that he was the only true God. You remember their 10 plagues the first plague was the plague of the Nile that was turned to blood. This was directly opposed to and showing superiority over the God happy who was the God of fertility. The Lord turned the Nile into blood to show Pharaoh that the people's life does not come from the Nile but from him. The second plague was the plague of frogs it's against the God heckett who was a fertility God and who literally was the image of a frog. God is providing and saying to these people that he is superior to heckett which was the name of this God the Egyptian God the Lord brought the frogs to prove that he is the one who provides children and everything else he is the giver of life. The third plague was the plague of Nats. It's the Egyptian God of the earth and God proved by sending these Nats that he is superior to the Egyptian gods and the magicians could not take away and duplicate that fact and those Nats. They couldn't reproduce. Now I want you to know that up until the first three plagues all of those plagues happened to both Israel and to Egypt. Israel experienced the blood in the Nile. They experienced the frogs. They experienced the Nats but when we get to the fourth plague something very unique happens. These plagues from 4 on are directed specifically at Egypt and they are not in the land of Goshen as if you read the Bible it will point those out so the fourth plague was a plague of flies. It's against the God kefir it's the God of the resurrection. God makes a distinction between Israel and Egypt setting his people apart. This is the first plague where it happens to Egypt but not to Israel. The fifth plague was a disease livestock. This is against the God hathor. It's the Egyptian goddess of love and protection. Usually depicted with the man with the head of a cow and God is showing here that he is the source of all economic success and wealth. The sixth plague is the plague of boils. It's against the goddess Isis who is the Egyptian goddess of medicine and peace. People break out in boils and God is showing that human attempts to healing are futile. Only God has the power to afflict and only he has the power to heal. The seventh plague of hell and thunder. This is against the Egyptian God nut who is the goddess of the sky. The Lord is showing here that there is no one like him in all of the earth that God controls nature. The eighth plague is the plague of locusts. This is against the Egyptian God Seth who was the God of storm and disorder. The Lord wants Israel to testify to their children and their grandchildren how he dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how he performed signs among them and that they may know the Lord. And remember, these last plagues are not happening to the people who live in Goshen, to Israel, but they are happening to the Egyptians. God is showing that he is the only true God and the ninth plague where there was darkness over the whole land that could be felt. This is against raw, the sun God, there are three days of complete darkness and the Lord is showing that he has control over the sun and as a witness that he is the ultimate power over life and death. And you know the last plague, the death of the first born. This is against Pharaoh himself who was the God in that time and in Egypt. Pharaoh was seen as a God and you know the story that God kills all of the first born in Egypt except for those who had the blood on the doorpost and the Lord passed over them. I want you to think about that for just a moment. Don't let that pass by. All of the first born in Egypt died. So that God could prove he is the only true God. Do you believe in that God? He is the only true God. There are many other stories I could tell you in the Bible of God proving he is the only true God. God sent his only son into the world so that you and I would believe that he is the only true God. Second Peter chapter 1 verse 3 says that God gives us everything we need to know this God. It says his divine power has granted us to know all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us into his glory and his excellence. It's amazing that God would send his only son that we could know him. So that brings us to the second requirement that we must have to have eternal life. We must know Jesus Christ. Remember I said that knowing is this idea of intellectual understanding that changes the way we think and the way that we believe. And so we must know this Jesus Christ. But there's great opposition to knowing Christ. Second Corinthians 4 verses 3 and 4 says, and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are piercing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. You know, it's not just enough to know about God. It's not just enough to know who Jesus was. You must know him personally. How do we know him personally? The Bible gives us many descriptions of how we must know with our minds intellectually Jesus Christ that then affects the way that we live our life. Let me give you some of these categories, some of these titles of Jesus. Jesus is the Savior, the one who saves John 3, 16 tells us for God so love the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whose server would believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. He is the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one who is sent to do the special work of bringing men to God and giving life to them. John 4.25 says, the woman then said, I know the Messiah is coming who is called Christ and when he comes, he will tell us all things. And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you and he. So we must know him as Savior. We must know him as Messiah. We must know him as the bread of life. We must know him as the light of the world. Then Jesus spoke to them again saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have life. Jesus is not of this world. He is not like an ordinary man. John 8.23 says, and he said to them, you are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. Jesus said, I am. I am. John 8.58, Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Jesus is the good shepherd. John 10.10 says, the thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. But I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly. And I am the good shepherd and the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Jesus is the one who overcomes the world. In John 16, verse 33, these things I have spoken to you, that in me you have peace. In the world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. He is the Son of God. John 10.36, do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? You are blaspheming because I said, Jesus said, I am the Son of God. We must believe in this person. We must know Jesus Christ, if we are going to have eternal life. He is also the resurrection in the life. In John 11.25, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection in the life. And he who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. He's teacher and Lord. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He perfectly revealed God the Father to us. He is the vine. He is a king. He is the one who has all authority. He is the judge. He is the head of the church. Ephesians 5, 23. For the husband is the head of the wife, even his Christ is the head of the church, his body, and then in Colossians chapter 1, verse 18. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in everything he might have preeminence. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of the cross. And then Paul says to the Philippian church, whatever I have gained, I count it a loss for the sake of knowing Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord. Eternal life requires that you know Jesus Christ and that you receive Him and you submit to Him. How do you know that you know Jesus Christ? First John, chapter 2, verse 3, and 6. And by this we know that we have come to know Him. Write this down. You want to know if you know Jesus Christ. The Bible tells you how you can know if you know Him. First John, chapter 2, verses 3 through 6. And by this we know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments. Whoever says I know Him but does not keep His commandments as a liar and the truth is not in Him. But whoever keeps His word in Him truly, the love of God is perfected and by this we may be sure that we are in Him. Whoever says He abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. Does your life say I know Jesus Christ? I not only have an intellectual knowledge of who He is but I have a life that shows that manifests a love of Christ that has made a difference in my life. You cannot have eternal life apart from that. You must know Jesus Christ and that brings us to the third requirement for eternal life. We must know that Jesus was sent by God. Galatians 4, verse 4 says this, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent His Spirit, the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father. Now where and why does the Bible confirm that God sent His Son? It's important. For to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, it's important to know where and why the Bible confirms that. So I want to read you some more passages. Where does it say that God sent Jesus? In John 8.26, He says, I have much to say about you and much to judge, but He who sent me is true and I declare to the world what I have heard from Him. So where, John 8.26, why is that verse there? To declare to the world what Jesus has heard from the Father. Jesus speaks on behalf of God the Father. That's why He was sent. Where else, John 8.24? Jesus said to them, if God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own, but He sent me. Why was that put in that place? I think it's to show us God's love. Also in Acts 3.26, God having raised up His servant, sent Him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you away from your wickedness. Why was Jesus sent into the world to turn us away from wickedness? John 3.17, for God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. God sent His son into the world so that the world might be saved through Him. John 17, verse 18, as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. Don't miss. That's at the end of Jesus prayer in John chapter 17. Listen carefully. Jesus says, as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. Why is that there? So that we, just like Jesus' first disciples, may be sent into the world. I read a story this last week by Layton Ford. He was in Nova Scotia preaching at a Billy Graham concert and he stands up and he preaches the gospel. And what he didn't know was that Billy Graham had snuck in the back. He was in Cognito, had on glasses and a hat. Nobody recognized him. And as he presented the gospel, there was a man in the back sitting right in front of Billy Graham and Billy Graham said, Would you like to go forward and receive Christ? I'll be happy to walk down with you. The man looked up and for a moment thought and then he said, no, I think I'm going to wait until the big gun comes tomorrow. We laugh at that. It's probably right to get a chuckle. But how many of us feel like we're not the big gun? We don't have what it takes. We're the little shot. Jesus came. It was sent that you and I may be sent. Take your little shot and make some noise. You have been commissioned by God to take the message of Christ into the world. Knowing him involves an intellectual and life changing understanding. What evidence is there in your life to indicate that you know Jesus was sent by God. First John chapter 4 verse 19 says this. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he is in us because he gave us his spirit and we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his son to be the Savior of the world and whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. Maybe the five evidences I pulled out of that passage to ask yourself, do you testify with your life that you know Jesus Christ. Are you manifesting the love of God to others in this world? That's an evidence of knowing him. Are you living through Jesus? Are you living your life through Christ or are you living on your own efforts? Verse 9 tells us that he was sent into the world that we might live through him, not independent, through him. Number 3, are you loving one another? Proving that God's love abides in you and that is being perfected. His love is being perfected in you. That's in verses 10 and 12. Do you know number 4 that you have eternal life based on your love for one another? Does your love exhibit itself in such a way that people around you go, I know that person loves God. Number 5, are you testifying to the world by your words and your actions that the Father has sent Jesus to be the Savior of the world? You and I need an Isaiah 6 moment. We need to hear the voice of the Lord saying to us, whom shall I send and whom will go for us? Isaiah says, here I am. Send me. Send me. God calls us by this simple verse to believe in the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. He calls you to believe in the one true God and in Jesus Christ his Son and then to evidence that belief and knowledge in taking that knowledge to the world. It's pretty simple, but it's pretty difficult to do. So as we go to the Lord's supper here in just a moment, we are to remember and proclaim that the only true God sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to die for the sins of the world. That's what we read about when we read the words of institution in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 6 says, for as often as you eat this bread and you drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Jesus was sent into the world to die for you and for me. And as we go to the Lord's supper, that's what we celebrate. That's what we remember. And as we leave here, that's what we take and we proclaim to the world around us. So when you come to the Lord's table in just a moment, there is a right way to come to the Lord's table. This table is not for those who do not know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. This table is for those who know Christ. If you do not know Christ, there's a prayer in the back of your bullet that you can look through and pray through and I want to encourage you. If you're here this morning and you do not know Christ, I will be in the back of the church in the foyer. I would cherish the opportunity to tell you how you can know Christ. Also, you must be a member in good standing. You must be approved by the officers of a church to receive the Lord's supper. Thirdly, we ask you not to be at odds with one another. I want to encourage you if you're here today and you know somebody in this room that you're at odds with before you come and take the Lord's supper. We'll give you a moment to go over to that person, confess, reconcile, and then come to the Lord's table. This table is for sinners. Make no mistake. There's nobody here perfect, but it is for us, but you must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to be a member in good standing of a church that believes the things that I have talked to you about today because as you know those things, you can rightly discern the body of Christ and you can receive it and not bring condemnation on yourselves. I'm really serious about taking a moment to go to those you know that you don't have the right relationship that you might want before you come to this table. It's a privilege for us to come to this table because in doing so, we remember what Jesus did for us. We remember his life and death and sacrifice. We remember that we are to believe and to know the only true God. And it's a privilege for us to do that together. Let me pray. Father, we thank you for your incredible word that does not leave us in the dark. You have made it abundantly clear in your word how we may have eternal life. We believe in the only true God and in Jesus Christ whom He has sent. And Lord, I pray that you would help us, those of us that know Christ, to know that knowing this knowledge means we must go. We are sent, Lord, give us boldness and courage to proclaim Christ's death until He returns. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.