Not knowing the true God of John 17:3, and not knowing Jesus leads to a murderous spirit. Notice what Jesus said, "...the hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. These things they will do because they have not known the Father or me (John 16:2-3).
Sometime later, Stephen was murdered. Stephen saw heaven opened, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He said, Behold, I see the heavens opened up, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56). This so upset the religious paradigms of their day, that the Jews, drove him out of the city, and stoned him to death. Saul had consented to his murder (Acts 7:58).
Saul obtained approval from the religious elite to continue persecuting the church. He was on his way to Damascus with the mission of arresting believers in Jesus, and bringing them back to Jerusalem to have them put in prison, and or killed. Along the way, he saw a light from heaven, and heard someone say, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" (Acts 9:4). Saul replied, "Who are you Lord?" (Acts 9:5). He responded, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting" (Acts 9:5). Saul did not know the God revealed in Jesus; distinct from Jesus; and at one with Jesus; the true God of John 17:3. Saul was blind for three days, and during that time, he neither ate nor drank. He had a great awakening, and became the Apostle Paul. He was sent by the risen, and ascended Lord, to the Gentiles, Kings, and the sons of Israel (Acts 9:15).
The Apostle Paul, being filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaimed the true God of John 17:3 to the men of Athens. He said to them, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, "To An Unknown God." Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you (Acts 17:22-23). The true God revealed in Jesus, distinct from Jesus, and at one with Jesus, was unknown to these people. Paul wanted them to know this God, that they may experience eternal life. Paul goes on to proclaim, "for in him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are his children.' Being then the children of God..." (Acts 17:28-29). Paul tells these people who did not know the only true God, that they lived and moved and existed in him. He then called on these people to have an awakening. To wake up to the reality of what is already true. We live move and exist in God. We are his children. Even though they did not yet know the only true God, he did not exclude them from being God's children. He called upon them to wake up.
God is the lover of humanity. He is the lover of the human race. We are his children. We are made in his image, after the God-kind. Human beings are made after the God-kind. We are being wooed by the lover of the human race, the Holy Spirit, the "other member" of the trinity, so that we would experience eternal life in him. The apostle John writes, "And we have known and believed the love that God has for us, God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16). "For God so loved the world [the entire human race] that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him (John 3:16-17).
The prophet Jeremiah foretells about the awakening that was to come. He tells us, "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more (Jer. 31:34). They will all know the true God of John 17:3. So they will all experience eternal life!
The writer of Hebrews reminds us of the Jeremiah's prophecy. He tells us, "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. "And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all will know me, from the least to the greatest of them. "For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more" (Heb. 8:10-12).
The Great Awakening is happening before our very eyes. Like the apostle Paul experienced on the road to Damascus, the scales are falling from our eyes. We have been anointed to see again, and to know...
"This is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent (John 17:3).
God is the lover of humanity. He is the lover of the human race. We are his children. We are made in his image, after the God-kind. Human beings are made after the God-kind. We are being wooed by the lover of the human race, the Holy Spirit, the "other member" of the trinity, so that we would experience eternal life in him. The apostle John writes, "And we have known and believed the love that God has for us, God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16). "For God so loved the world [the entire human race] that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him (John 3:16-17).
The prophet Jeremiah foretells about the awakening that was to come. He tells us, "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more (Jer. 31:34). They will all know the true God of John 17:3. So they will all experience eternal life!
The writer of Hebrews reminds us of the Jeremiah's prophecy. He tells us, "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. "And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all will know me, from the least to the greatest of them. "For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more" (Heb. 8:10-12).
The Great Awakening is happening before our very eyes. Like the apostle Paul experienced on the road to Damascus, the scales are falling from our eyes. We have been anointed to see again, and to know...
"This is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent (John 17:3).
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