Knowing and Growing, Philippians, 3:7-11

So we are looking at John 14, 16, and 17, and John 17, 1 through 5. We last week had looked at the first eight or so verses of John chapter 15, and this is out of the same context. What's the context of chapters 13 and 14 and 15 and 16 and 17? Which, by the way, those are fairly unique. They're in John and not in the other Gospels. What's the context there in those passages? In those chapters? John is the High Priestly Prayer,

17. Okay, John 17 is often called the High Priestly Prayer. Some would say that is the Lord's Prayer. And there's probably some truth and wisdom to that. So that's a part of it. What happens before John 17 though, where Jesus is praying to the Father, who is He talking to prior to that time?

He's talking to the disciples, and so what's happening, this is what we often call the Last Supper. In John chapter 13 is where He washes the disciples' feet. He begins telling the disciples things that relate to the church age. That is, it relates to, here are the disciples who are soon to become apostles, right? And he's preparing them for that.

And let's ask this question. How much of what Jesus said that night did they understand well? Just about zip, right? They understood very little of it, but what Jesus did tell them is that the Helper, the Holy Spirit, would come in one of the Holy Spirit's ministries, specifically with the disciples, is to help them to call into remembrance the things that he said.

So this is one of the reasons why John could write these chapters. He wasn't copying from somebody else. He had the ministry of the Holy Spirit to recall the details in an extraordinary way. in an inspired way, as a miraculous ministry of the Holy Spirit to bring all these things back, that in fact at the time they didn't understand. They understood the Holy Spirit coming upon someone, but did they understand that that was going to be a permanent thing? And this was something, in fact, we're going to take a look at that very thing. because that's something Christ reveals in the passage we're looking at. So you bring up an excellent point.

The thing is that the Holy Spirit during the Old Testament times would come upon someone, but was the Holy Spirit continually with someone? No, and that would even be reflected in Psalm 51, David would pray, take not your Holy Spirit from me. Where that was a prospect and in fact the Holy Spirit essentially would come and go on a particular individual, even upon King Saul. The Holy Spirit would come and go rather than what we have here in the church where there's a continuing presence, and we're even told specifically what that presence means.

We have the word with, the Holy Spirit with you, but also we find out, like in Romans 8, the Holy Spirit is both in us and we in Him. There is a positional statement there in Romans 8 that is comparable to our being in Christ and Christ in us, but it doesn't mean the same thing. So anyway, as we look at this passage, Jesus is telling them extraordinary things that at the moment they don't get it. One of the points we made last week was, here is Jesus who says, abide in me and I in you. And they didn't have the positional basis to do that at that time. They didn't have the basis in being in Christ and Christ in them at that time.

When would that occur? That would occur on the day of Pentecost, which we're going to get to in the main service here this morning. And really just mind-boggling to realize what took place on that day. That day not only was the giving of the Holy Spirit, but also the beginning of all the positional truths. It would take them years to come to have revealed and have to understand. So as we look at this, I think that's something for us to take a look at.

This is forward-looking. He's saying, I have to leave so that the Holy Spirit can come, and then all these things will happen. You've been with me. I've been your rabbi. You've been in the system of rabbis and disciples. That sort of thing is going away. I will always be with you. you'll have no more rabbis. And what being a disciple means is now going to change radically.

Okay, so let's take a look here. So this part here, at the end of John 14, Jesus says, let us go from here. And so it is quite possible, let's say even likely, that somewhere between starting John 15 into 16 and 17 was either on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane or spoken at the Garden of Gethsemane. Taking the end of John 14 as let's leave here. So that's the context. This is in the upper room at what we call the Last Supper. To give it a date, April 2nd, 33 AD. So here it is. So here's John 14, 16, and 17.

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever." That is, just so it's clear, this Helper is the Spirit of the Truth, and I inserted from the translation, the Truth. That's not my numeric standard. the spirit of the truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you." So we got that? He abides with you and will be in you.

So let's take that step by step. So by what means will the helper come here to minister to the apostles in the church? Alright, so let's look at John 14, 26, 15, 26, and 16, 7. One of the things that you'll find is John 14, 15, and 16, they rhyme. Okay? 14 and 15 and 16 rhyme. Rather than Jesus going from A to Z, starting in chapter 14 and then finishing in chapter 16, what he does is he keeps circling around. the same set of truths, elaborating and expanding it a little bit more each time. So what we find in John 14, 26, which compares to John 14, 16, and 17, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, you would get that same message from John 14, 16, and 17, right?

Whom the Father will send, so this is future active indicative, in my name. So by that passage, who's going to send the Holy Spirit? The Father is the one going to send the Holy Spirit. If you took that passage alone, you'd come to that conclusion. Okay, John 15, 26. When the Helper comes, whom I will send, future active indicative, same verb form, entirely, okay? To you from the Father. Oh, that's interesting. Now we've got, you know, I'll send from the Father. That is, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds, present middle indicative, from the Father. And by the way, I should have put in there, the Spirit of the Truth, who proceeds from the Father.

And then 16, 17, But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come. So I had the Helper come at that point. No, Jesus had to go away first in order for the Helper to come, at least in the way in which he is going to come. Yes? Why is there seemingly only one active participant of the Trinity in Scripture? Like in the Old Testament it was God, then it was Jesus, and then after Jesus leaves it's the Holy Spirit. Can they not come down in pairs?

We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about exactly that. As a matter of fact, it shows up again in the Acts passage that we've been looking at this morning. You ask a very good question, and so we're going to be exploring that very point.

It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper, so he's been consistent in what he's called the Holy Spirit, right? The Holy Spirit's been called the Helper in each chapter, right? And he clarifies who the Helper is. The Helper will not come. This is future middle indicative. What's the difference there? The Helper will not come. Instead of the future active, the Father sending the Spirit, future active, the Son sending the Spirit. This is future middle indicative. What is that telling you? Notice, a middle voice means I initiate the action and the action comes back on myself.

So what does that tell us about the Holy Spirit's coming? Is the Holy Spirit coming reluctantly? No. The Holy Spirit initiates the action and comes upon Himself in complete cooperation with the Father and the Son. Bingo. Wow, this is really great stuff. Because that tells us, one, Unlike what the Jehovah's Witnesses teach, the Holy Spirit is not a force, but has a will. And, the Holy Spirit is not being shoved out the door of heaven. No, no, this is a terrible mistake! There's none of that, right? The Holy Spirit is not coming reluctantly. Oh, okay! If you guys think so. There's no arm twisting. You get the message from this. From the first part, 1426, who is sending the Holy Spirit? The Father. And in whose name? In Jesus' name, right? 1526, when the Helper comes, who's going to send him? Jesus.

And what's his relationship to the Father in that? Jesus is going to send the Holy Spirit from the Father, and we see in 16.7 that the Holy Spirit is not a reluctant participant, but instead has an act of will impacting himself in which he is sent. that came back upon himself.

So that's a very good point. So we can look at that as an illustration. This is how the Holy Spirit's coming will be. Very different in ministry, of course, but the Holy Spirit's coming is not because the Father and the Son are shoving the Holy Spirit out of Heaven's door. He isn't kicking and screaming or going just passively. He is also making an act of will impacting himself that is in complete cooperation with the Father and the Son. Yes? I don't see the Holy Spirit eager to go. How's that? How's that? How do you get that?

The Helper will not come to you, but If I go, I will send him future act indicative to you. But the idea is that the Holy Spirit will come future, middle, indicative. So he won't come unless I go, but he will come future, middle, indicative as an act of will.

It's his will. So what you have there is the coming of the Holy Spirit is not the Holy Spirit just suddenly saying, hey, you know, I think I'll go, and jumping out the door. It is not Him acting in isolation. It is not the Father and the Son shoving Him out the door. It's not him, you know, operating in some way arbitrarily or anything else. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all three involved in this choice to come. Yes? Why did Jesus have to send the Holy Spirit? Why did he just have to agree? Ah, yeah.

Let's put it this way. Let's take another example. Suppose we were going to put someone into ministry here at Holly Hills to go somewhere else. We would not simply want to say, okay, leave and see you. But we would actually want to send them, we would want to support them in this.

It indicates that there is a cooperation among us. and a communication about it indicates that his coming is purposeful. So Christ's coming was purposeful in his first coming, right? But there was an end to it. And as a matter of fact, we look at that end and say, OK, he was crucified, buried, raised, ascended, and seated. And those are very purposeful. As a matter of fact, they're eternally purposeful. And we're identified with him and have a new history in that. But then, as Christ is seated there in the heavenlies, now it's time for the Holy Spirit to come and to carry on His purposeful, intentional ministry.

Could you say it's the same thing with the rapture, that Christ is waiting for the Father to say, okay, go. And that's the thing, what you find, I was thinking this morning, based on this, and we're going to be revisiting that, there's a song that we sing, knowing you, knowing you Jesus, there is no greater thing. We're going to see actually an enhancement of that understanding here this morning in this passage.

So, which person of the Trinity is the final say in the Holy Spirit's coming? The Father as to timing. Essentially, it's all three persons, each having a different role. Here's what's interesting. Several centuries after the New Testament era, what became the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches By that I mean Greek Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Russian Orthodox.

The Orthodox churches actually had a church split over this question. Did the Father send the Holy Spirit? Or did the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit? The Orthodox churches said the Father sent the Holy Spirit. The Roman Catholic Church actually took a more biblical position, although it wasn't complete. that said the Father and the Son, isn't that what we see here, send the Holy Spirit, but did the Holy Spirit go reluctantly or passively? No, the Holy Spirit also had an act of will in coming, and that says that all three persons of the Trinity were involved in the Holy Spirit's coming. Yes, they're all in agreement, and so that there will be a church split over this is ridiculous.

Right? Yeah. When you say middle indicative, are those separate items, middle and indicative? Yes, right. Let's talk about that. One is I talk about future middle indicative, for example. The future says it's going to happen in the future, typically. I mean, I don't want to be bonehead simplistic, but generally it's in the future that it's going to happen. Middle voice would mean I make an act of will that comes back upon me. An active voice would be I make an act of will in which I act upon another.

An example would be, I'm playing baseball, right? Active, I hit the ball, right? I swung the bat and came back around and hit myself. Little voice. So the action that I took came back and impacted me. Passive voice, the ball hit me. I didn't do anything but the ball just hit me. So that is kind of an illustration of how those voices work. Indicative says it's a statement of reality or a statement of fact.

And again, we don't want to be bonehead about that, but that's the simple explanation. But I think it's amazing when you just compare those three verses, 1426, 1526, and 1607, and you get the full picture of this is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit working together. Now, let's ask a question that Stan brought up, which is a very good question. Why don't we have just, okay, here's the Son, and He sticks around, and the Holy Spirit comes, and Jesus is around while the Holy Spirit begins the church age.

Why does Jesus have to leave? Tag, you're it. Why do we have tag-team ministry here? Why is that? Because each part of the Trinity has their individual roles, and Christ's role was fulfilled at that time, and so he ascended, but then now it was the Holy Spirit's role. Right. Okay, so Christ had a certain role as he walked the earth, right? Even a certain role as he walked about resurrected, right? And that was different from the rest of the role that he had. So, you got that phenomenon going on.

Now, Christ leaves, and so is Christ just completely taken out of the picture and having no spiritual involvement whatsoever? No, not at all. He takes his heavenly seating with intent, next to the Father, and does he say, you know, see ya, we'll see ya again a couple thousand years, or a few thousand, and centuries go by, see ya later? I'll come back, don't worry.

So what happens instead, he tells them, as we studied last week in John 15, while I am gone from here, abide in me, and I in you. So the character of his ministry is going to change radically, but that doesn't mean his ministry is going to end. The character of the Holy Spirit's ministry is going to change radically, that doesn't mean it's going to end.

Now, who determines when is the best time for the Father, oh I messed it up, when is the best time for Christ to be born? At the right time God sent his Son. And this is the father. This is the father who picks the times and the spans. And we've seen that in Acts to begin with and we're going to continue to see it. What we're going to start off with in the Acts study is this momentous moment that the father chose. So he chose and chooses specific points in time. Now is the time for the son to be born. Now is the time for the Son to die. Now is the time for the Son to ascend. Now is the time for the Holy Spirit to be given. And there will come a time when the Father will say to the Son, go get your bride. That's what's today. Right? Yeah?

And correct me if I'm wrong, but it also seems that since there are different times where each part of the Trinity has different roles, we're able to understand God God's relationship to us in different states. Yes, and as we're going to see here this morning, this is an amazing insight that we sing, you know, knowing you, knowing you, Jesus, more than that. Is that true? Yes, it's not all the truth. Yes. So timing, since God is sovereign, it has to come from him. any other aspect other than sovereignty. I mean, he's in charge.

Does Jesus choose the time when he's born? No. Does Jesus choose the time when he ascends? No. Does Jesus choose the time when he's crucified? No. Does Jesus choose the time when he'll come again for us? No. That is the Father's role. Because he's sovereign. He picks the time. Is that all that he does? No. Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Who gets the credit for that? The Father gets the credit for the blessings.

Who pulled it off that we're in Christ? Who pulled it off that you and I are in Christ forever? Who pulled that off? What's interesting is you can find justification for all three persons of the Trinity to have involvement with that. If any one of them had not done their part, it wouldn't be. It's a total Trinity transaction. Every single person of the Trinity is involved in the fact that you're in Christ and Christ is in you. Alright, now, so let's take a look. Here's John.

1526 when the helper comes who I'll send to you from the Father that is the spirit of the truth who proceeds from the Father he will testify about me. John 16 13 but when he the spirit of the truth comes he will guide you into all the truth for he will not speak on his own initiative but whatever he hears he will speak and he will disclose to you what is to come. Who does the disclosing? the Holy Spirit. So very interesting, here's Jesus talking about the Father, talking about the Holy Spirit, and we find the Scripture spelling out different roles.

Timing, it's all the Father. Whether you're talking about specific points of time or spans of time. The spans of time in between. All those, that's the Father's job. Did God the Father die on the cross? No. No. And here on the day of Pentecost, we'll be looking at here this morning, did Jesus come? No. It was the Holy Spirit. So, each of them has a specific role, and that's on purpose. Yeah. But, the Father tells the Holy Spirit first, and then He reveals that truth, correct? Yep. Oh, no. I say, oh no, because there was a graphic that didn't get printed on page two. That's why you have a big blank spot. It all had to fill it in with verbiage. So at the top of page two, drawing from all of these passages, what are the things that the Holy Spirit will do when He comes, which we know is on the day of Pentecost, May 24, 33 AD? He will seal us.

Okay, you are correct, but that wasn't revealed until the Apostle Paul revealed that, and he wrote that first right into Corinthians, and secondly to the Ephesians. So you're correct, but that's not what this passage says, and in fact it's one of those many things that weren't revealed until later. So what are the things the Holy Spirit will do when he comes according to these passages that we just read? He is going to be the revealer of truth. He is going to call to mind things that Jesus said, but he is also going to be revealing new truth, truth with respect to the church age. At first that truth is going to be revealed through apostles and prophets to those who do not yet have the completed New Testament, but ultimately it will be revealed through the writings of the Apostles and Prophets in the New Testament, so that we have those truths now.

Yes? I think it's interesting to point out that, like you said, John 16, 13 says, He will guide you into all truth. He won't just slam it all on you. He'll suggest a way to reveal it to you. Have you ever had truth revealed to you that you weren't quite ready for yet? Uh-oh, I wasn't ready for that.

And so that's a very important point. The Holy Spirit is going to guide us step-by-step into these truths. We find the apostles, in fact, discovering things over years and decades of time. And not just, here's the day of Pentecost and here's Peter getting a mental download that's just blowing his circuits. Instead, the Holy Spirit guides them into truth for whose benefit? for theirs and especially ours. The Holy Spirit is referred to as the helper, I think, of empowering. So not only that we're given the truth and guidance, but empowered to walk in that. Is the Holy Spirit just a turbo boost?

No, we're going to jump to light speed. The Holy Spirit is a helper, not in the sense that, okay, we do it and he kind of gives a little bit of a boost, but he is a helper in the sense that he carries about ministries and does things that otherwise ain't happening. Without his doing it, it's not happening.

It gives me reason to believe that we won't all be slammed with truth when we get to heaven. We'll be learning in heaven progressively also. He'll be showing us. That's a demonstration. It's visual. It won't be like, I keep working at this, but I'm not getting it. We're going to be going, oh, wow.

And it won't be a matter of, you know, he showed us that the first day we got here. And after a while, it's getting a little old, you know? And, you know, this is a really great place, but I'm kind of waiting for coffee break and getting off my, you know, rear because I'm getting numb. It won't be any of that, right?

Let's take a look now at this next one, going back to John 14, 16, and 17, what is meant by see him, and that's where you got the blank, and so let me explain. What was intended to be there, I have no idea why it dropped out, what was intended to be there was a graphic, on the one it lists all the different five classical senses, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. So are we going to look unto him physically? No, you're going to look unto him spiritually. Earlier in Hebrews, we see Jesus.

The Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 1 is translated, the eyes of your hearts may be opened. It's perfect tense. The eyes of your hearts haven't been opened that you might see. So he doesn't pray that the eyes of your hearts may be opened. That's already a done deal. He prays that the eyes of your hearts, having been opened, perfect tense, past action, that you might see.

That you might engage the vision that you've been given the capability of seeing. Similarly, spiritual hearing. He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. I would venture to say that the people listening to that had ears, physically. So it's spiritual ears.

And so we go through the five senses, you know, taste and see that the Lord is good, etc. And so we have that idea. So the other diagram was to say, okay, we have a body within which is a brain, which is a part of the body, right? And we have five senses into the spiritual realm, excuse me, physical realm. Similarly, and as an analog, we have a spirit in which is the soul, it's a part of the spirit, and we have five senses in the spiritual realm that are analog to what's in the physical realm. So that's what was intended to be there, and don't you see it? Okay, anyway. So now, let's look at this.

What is meant by know him, the Holy Spirit, in John 14, 17? Can we know the Holy Spirit independent of and without God the Father and God the Son? Is knowing the Holy Spirit exactly the same thing as knowing the Father and God the Son? In the Greek, there are a lot of different words for nose, and having a gnosko is full knowledge, but in the process of getting there, what is there? Like in 1 John, there is a whole bunch of nose.

Well, yes, and we'll get to that. In this context, he uses the Greek word gnosko, I don't mean to get all greeky geeky, but That word is talking about experiential knowledge. It's also the same one he's going to use in chapter 17. So let's expand on that. What is meant by know him experientially?

That is the Holy Spirit. Can we know the Holy Spirit independent of and without knowing God the Father and God the Son? I think part of that comes from discernment. As you're walking through your life, you experience God, but you have to be able to discern it. Like you said a couple of weeks ago, you have to be born again before you can ever do that. There are people, and I've talked to them personally, who are really impressed by having Holy Spirit glue. and they get this Holy Spirit glue, and they get glued to the floor and can't get up, and that's related, they also relate to drunkenness spirit and all these different experiences. Are they experiencing the Holy Spirit? No. I don't believe so. I don't believe that's biblical. A great deal of what they describe is not even remotely biblical. The holy barking and holy mooing and holy barfing and all sorts of things, right? That is not what's intended.

What we see here is we experience the Holy Spirit as revealed in Scripture. So let's ask this question. Can we personally know the Holy Spirit? What do you see from this verse? The answer is yes. We can personally know the Holy Spirit. Is that the same as, I know Jesus Christ? Are they different persons? I can experience the ministries of the Holy Spirit, I can experience Christ, I can experience the Father, and those are not all the same thing. So we say knowing God, in fact these two passages make a distinction between the different persons of the Trinity, in terms of knowing God. It's one reason I looked at major Bible themes over this last month, and they got one chapter on the Father and two chapters on Satan.

I thought, hmm. Wow, what's the emphasis here? So what did Jesus mean by, you know him because he abides, present tense, with you, and will be, future tense, in you? Ah. So, let's ask this question. At this moment, while he is talking to them, is the Holy Spirit in them? No. No. With them in some sense, but not in them. Okay? With them, but not in them.

And is that why sometimes it says the Holy Spirit would come upon them rather than in them? Yeah, and that's something as we go through the Acts series we'll be taking a closer look at because there are different words, you know, there's baptize, he's with you, he'll come upon you, you know, there's all these different terms, what's meant by these, and people sometimes get real cookie cutter about it. Being filled with the Holy Spirit, for example, we see early in Acts, and we'll be taking a look at that.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit, there's only one place in the epistles, Ephesians 5.18, where there's actually a command to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Only one. And the effects, there are five verbs that come out from that. The effects of being filled with the Holy Spirit are never speaking in tongues and all that.

It's fairly normal kinds of activities that we wouldn't at the surface go, wow, that is really impressive. So yeah, you bring up a good point. There's a set of words that are used and we can't just go cookie cutter and unthinking about how those are used, but instead look carefully in each context. We won't have time to cover it all this morning, but that's an excellent point. Let's take a look here.

Jesus' High Priestly Prayer in the Garden. And by the way, let's ask another question. Where does Jesus carry on his High Priestly ministry now? He carries it on on the heavenly scene, right? He sits at the Father's right hand, and that is a positional statement. He carries on a ministry of being our heavenly high priest there. So if anything, calling this a high priestly prayer, this is the initiation of that, while still on earth, and not the sum total of it. The high priestly ministry, by the way, of Christ is described mostly in the book of Hebrews, if you want to pursue that.

Okay, so here's what we said earlier in John chapter 17, Christ's prayer to the Father, because that prayer essentially encompasses the whole chapter. Prayer to the Father while Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus prayed for himself and for his disciples, soon to be apostles, and for us who would believe because of the message of the apostles. Here's John 17, 1-5, Jesus spoke these things and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him he may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do. Now, Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was."

How much of what we see described in the Bible and the New Testament had already been taken care of and agreed upon before God said, let there be light. Essentially, from the end to the beginning, it's all done. Before God said, let there be light, the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Christ slain from the foundations of the earth, right?

The Father and the Son agree, and the Holy Spirit in cooperation, the Son is going to pay the price. We're going to, in this entity called time, that we're going to create, we're going to have the Son bear the sins of the whole world, regardless of time. for what, in time, is a few hours. And because Christ has infinite capacity to bear our sins, he's going to get that done in a few hours. Where if every individual wants to take care of it themselves, it's going to take forever.

That's a very good picture of the difference between spiritual and finite. Because what you're saying here, the plan that was established before the foundation of the earth, these were all spiritual accomplishments, agreements, etc. But then God created the earth and we have these finite things that are going on now. So even though it was agreed upon spiritually that Christ was going to die, that took place obviously before he actually did in this physical world. So we have a great division there between spiritual and physical.

Christ in this prayer and Christ with his disciples in the hours before talks in such a way that, I mean, you're looking at it, and you say, wait a minute, he's talking as if he's already been on the cross. Has he? In the commitment of the Father and the Son and their communication, has it already taken place? Yes. In time, it has hours before it's going to happen.

But between the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit chose you, already done. Am I going to die on the cross? And Father, you and I are going to be alienated because of those sins that I'm going to bear for a few hours in the time that we haven't created yet. And when this is all said and done, I'm going to come back to this earth that we're going to create.

And so this has already been determined and agreed upon. Yeah, Roy? It's a thought of reality from God's perspective. Yeah, from God's perspective. I mean, we're looking at it and saying, well, it hasn't happened yet. But from God's standpoint, as it's been determined and determined in the past, there's no uncertainty about it. God isn't saying, well, we're going to try to make this happen. We're going to do our best. I'm going to try to pick, to choose Morgan in him before the foundation of the world. I'll give it my best shot. But if it doesn't happen, I'm sorry, I'll try.

So everything has been determined with absoluteness. So then the glory that Jesus gives to God is the accomplishment of the finite on an agreed upon spiritual truth previously? Yeah, you look at it, his prayer is looking in anticipation as if it's already been done. He's praying for something that essentially they've already agreed upon, it's already going to happen.

That your son may glorify you, in order that he may glorify you in time. Likewise, what did Christ mean by, and I'm paraphrasing this, all whom the Father had given Christ, Christ may in turn give eternal life. All whom the Father had given Christ, who does that include?

Us. Praying for you and me. This is us. This is us, right? Christ may in turn give eternal life. Have you been given by the Father to Christ? Has Christ given you eternal life? We're going to find out the definition in here. What does eternal life mean? So the next one, this is eternal life that they may know you experientially. The only true God, Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Whom you have sent. This is eternal life that they may experientially be knowing you.

Do you have eternal life if you're not in current fellowship with the Father? Are you experiencing that eternal life if you're not currently in fellowship with the Father? No. So what he's talking about is the experience, not the positionally lose it and gain it and lose it and gain it. Oh, I'm back in fellowship with the Lord now.

So this is eternal life that they may know you, who is who? God the Father, and Jesus Christ from the ascent. Who's that? The Son. So by the chapter 14 passage we just looked at, who do you know? Who are you knowing experientially? Chapter 14? The Holy Spirit. By this passage, who are you knowing? The Father and the Son.

Are they identified separately? Yes. Do we know, are we intended to know and experience personally each person of the Trinity? Yes. So, a statement, do you know God, is that correct? Yes, it is correct. It is correct, it's not the full detail. Because from these passages it is apparent that we are intended to know experientially each person of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Isn't that something?

To know each of them, and experientially means to grow in that. How do we grow in each of those things? First of all, we start by understanding what the Scriptures say, and we walk by faith in those revealed facts. Not that I go around just spitting off statistics. Oh, I've got this and this and this and this, and I know the Greek on that, and I know the history of this.

No. The intent is that we personally know the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit experientially. And when is there an end to that? There isn't. There is not. You as a believer are intended to know experientially the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, all three persons of the Trinity, and God from eternity past intended that and desires that for you and did everything in position and potential to make that reality. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So you, the only true God, God the Father, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. So between these, do we know all persons of the Trinity? Yes. Are we to experientially know them? Yes.

Is that a once for all knowing finished at the outset or is it progressive throughout the believer's life and on into eternity? Progressive for life and on into eternity. Is that something? Eternal life. Yes, this is eternal life and so the beginning to know gets initiated when we first believe. Everything is set in place from eternity past in order for that to happen. It's implemented in time, as God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit accomplished these things. Our getting to know the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit personally was what God intended before he said, look at me, for you and for me. Isn't that great stuff? It's really cool. So here's a graphic that did make it in.

The Bible teaches that God is three personal beings, one essence. What we have there is a diagram that shows the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It shows that the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. They are in fact three separate personal beings of one essence. But each of them is God, that is, each one of them is deity. Each one of them is deity.

Last question there, does the glory and glorifying that Jesus prayed about in verses 1, 4, and 5 have anything to do with knowing the Father and the Son? If you look at it, I've got a sandwich here. I've got this glorifying thing as he first starts talking to them. And then in the middle here, is eternal life, is knowing Him. And we get back to glorifying again. Why is knowing Him and eternal life put right in the midst of that passage?

Isn't glory a revealing of God's essence? So that we see that revealing, which helps us to know Glory, we can define it briefly as the radiant essence of who God is, expressed distinctly through each person of the Trinity. We do not get to know them, we do not experience each of them personally without having God's glory involved. The radiant essence of who God is is involved intimately with our knowing Him experientially.

Yes? One of the things that we count on over is that God's purpose in eternity, regarding His glory, to declare, to reveal, to share, and then to be glorified. Let's put that, the quick, succinct answer regarding these things is God has revealed and declared and shared His glory, and who did He share His glory with? Us. And by the way, not the only ones, but us. He shared His glory with us that He might be glorified. that he might be glorified.

Yes? That was his original purpose for creation to begin with, wasn't it? Yes. Right? For the fellowship. Yeah. And knowing him. For our fellowship, for our knowing him, and he didn't say, you know, it's going to happen until about the middle of 2017 and then we're kind of done. You know? Right?

So, you know, look at the calendar page, you know, on the 30th of June, this is kind of all over. Is that the way it works? No. It was done with eternal intent. This is eternal life. Not just life until June 30th, 2017. And that goes backwards as well as forwards. We come to know that the history of Christ is our history too. Yes, and that's where we get to know him. We were identified with Christ, as we'll point out again in his death, burial, and resurrection. That's been revealed by who? Who did the revealing? Paul, but ultimately who revealed these things? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit had that ministry to reveal our personal history in Christ by the intent and called for by the timing of who?

The Father. So for us to come to understand the different roles of the persons of the Trinity is not just an intellectual exercise, but it is a part of our getting to know them experientially. To experientially know. Look, Father, by the way, Abba, Papa.

The Father is the one who calls those specific times and the time spans within time for things that were determined before time. Everything else that's revealed in scripture, details about this and details about that, there's plenty of pilot, Here's this king lived, and that one lived, and this guy was born and died. All the other things revealed in scripture are to provide us a backdrop and a landscape for knowing all three persons of the Trinity experientially, not just intellectually, but experientially.

That's why you have on there, we won't get to it, here's a listing of the ministries of the Holy Spirit, some of which are positional, done deal, once. others of which are ongoing. And so I invite you to take a look at that. Why? Because that is an introduction to how we experience the Holy Spirit and know Him experientially. Oh, that's what He did, that's what He's doing. And He did that because those are explicit ministries that the Father and the Son communicated with the Holy Spirit about a long, long time ago. Time is the right word. Probably not. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for these marvelous, marvelous truths that we will never, in all eternity, stop learning about. But even deeper than that, we will never, in all eternity, Stop knowing experientially the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. What marvelous things you revealed to us here. This is infinitely deep and it's also eternally deep. We thank you for these things that you've given to us. You love us so immensely. We pray in Jesus' name.