That we may know God's name

With Resurrection Sunday rapidly approaching (it’ sonly 4 Sunday’s away), I always think it’s helpful for us to focus even more on the person and work of Jesus. Jesus is the center of everything in Scripture, both Old and New Testament, and no matter what passage is being preached, Jesus is the ultimate point of is all. But I like to focus more directly on Christ in some way or another in order to help prepare our hearts for the remembrance and celebration of the most important Christian holiday of the entire year. Even though there is no command to celebrate the resurrection of Christ once a year, doing so serves to remind us in an obvious way of death and resurrection of Jesus; we do this in remembrance of him. It serves the same purpose of communion and is perhaps a more complete participation of the ordinance of communion than what we normally practice.

This year we will spend these Sundays leading up to Easter in what is known as the High Priestly Prayer found in John 17. When Jesus prayed this prayer, he did so after the last supper with his disciples but before he went into the Garden of Gethsemane where he was betrayed and arrested. It’s a prayer first for himself and then for his disciples and all those who will believe in him. There is an incredible amount of truth found in this prayer and far more than I could possibly hope to communicate before Easter. Therefore, we will be jumping around the chapter every Sunday as we discover 5 reasons why Jesus came to Earth in the flesh.

Today we will learn that Jesus came to the earth so that we might know God’s name.

In John 17:4, Jesus stated that He glorified God the Father on the earth having accomplished or finished the work that the Father gave him to do. In verse 6, that work is described to be the manifestation of Father’s name to those whom the Father had given to Jesus. Therefore we may elaborate on our first reason by saying Jesus came to manifest God the Father’s name to those whom the Father has given to Jesus.

This is such a powerful truth that needs a bit of unpacking if we are to grasp its significance.

We’ll start with the idea of God’s name.

God’s name

Every person has a name. Generally speaking, a name is a title used to distinguish one person from the next. We identify the entirety of a person with their name. When someone call me by my name, Thomas, they are not referring to just my finger or liver or my height but rather to all of what makes me, me.

God has many titles or names in this regard. Most of God’s names refer to particular aspects of his character and nature. For example, Jehovah Jireh is a name of God that means “the Lord will provide.” It speaks to God as provider, even though God is more than a provider. The one title that gets closest and is perhaps his real name is Yahweh. It’s the name given by God to Moses so that when the Hebrew slaves in Egypt asked Moses for God’s name, Moses was to tell them that I AM send him. Yahweh means “I AM” God is who he is. The Jews held this name of God in such high regard that only the high priest could say it once a year and even that stopped once the temple was destroyed in 70AD. To today, Jews will not say, spell, or write this name of God.

But Jesus is not here referring to this singular title of God. Rather, the name of God here refers to the character, nature, and authority of God. It is this aspect of God’s name that Jesus manifested.

Jesus manifested God’s name

Up until the time of Jesus, God had chosen to make his name known only through works and words. God is known through supernatural works like creation and the parting of the Red Sea, and through words like the Law of Moses and the prophets and messages from angels. That’s how people knew who God was.

But when Jesus became God in the flesh and lived as a man on the earth, a more complete revelation of God was given because Jesus is the very embodiment of God’s character because Jesus is God himself in the flesh. God is most fully revealed through Jesus.

As the very revelation of God’s name in the flesh, Jesus’ life and example are those of God the Father himself. For this reason, when Philip, a disciple of Jesus, asked Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus said, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father (John 14:9).”

Jesus has manifested the name of God as he himself is the manifestation of God’s name.

The gift of knowing God’s name

But something else we learn from the text is that Jesus only manifests the Father’s name to those whom the Father gives him. “I have manifested your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world (John 17:3).” So, not everyone who hears and learns about God knows God.

We may know a lot about an athlete or a celebrity but that doesn’t mean we actually KNOW them; we only know ABOUT them. Truly knowing God is about having an intimate fellowship with him through Jesus. But a fellowship like this is only possible if we are first freed from bondage to sin and death. Since those in bondage to sin and death are unable and unwilling to seek God on their own, they need help. That help comes from God who, in his great love, choose to allow some people to experience an undeserved grace leading to salvation. Six times in John 17 Jesus makes a statement about God giving Jesus those to whom Jesus makes known God’s name. Knowing God’s name is a gift. In fact, as Jesus says in verse 26, knowledge of God’s name is a continual gift; it’s something that never stops for once someone has come into restored fellowship with God through faith in Jesus, that knowledge of God’s name never stops. Rather, it grows continually forever and ever through the work of the Holy Spirit.

It is a gift from God to know His true name.

To know God’s name is to possess God’s love

Now that we’ve unpacked the cargo and understand a little more of what it means that Jesus came to manifest God the Father’s name to those whom the Father has given to Jesus, let’s take a look at three wonderful benefits of knowing God’s name.

First of all, according to verse 26, To know God’s name is + to possess God’s love. Jesus said, “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them (John 17:26a).”

What a truly awesome truth! If someone knows the name of God in intimate knowledge and relationship, that person possesses the very love that God the Father has for God the Son. If you’re anything like me, you look as Jesus and see perfection; you see the one we are striving to be like but will never fully succeed in this life. You probably don’t think you are deserving of any love from God, let alone the awesome love that God has for Jesus and you would be right. But right here in verse 26, Jesus makes the declaration that all those whom were given by the Father to Jesus for salvation have in them the very love the Father has for Jesus…that God has for himself. It’s awesome, it’s completely undeserving, and it’s true. Those who have the love of God in them know God’s name and have received him (John 5:42-43)

The love of God within a follower of Jesus completely transforms and makes one into a new creation. No longer are we bound to live sinfully but with God’s love in us, we have the freedom to truly love others as God has first loved us. And as the Apostle Paul said, “Nothing is able to separate us from the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:39).” With God’s love in you, you are an impenetrable fortress and a solid rock. Let the world throw at us whatever it will…God’s love in us through Christ Jesus is enough!

This leads us to the second benefit which is Jesus dwells in those who know God’s name.

To know God’s name is to have Jesus dwell in us

Jesus is God’s name and is the very love of God revealed to us. Jesus has the name that us above every other name (Phil. 2:9-10) and even though Jesus is no longer WITH us in person and we look forward to his promised return, He is still IN us through his Holy Spirit. Paul said in Galatians 4:6-7: “6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

God himself dwells in those who have faith in Jesus and know God’s name.

To know God’s name is to have eternal life

The final benefit, according to the text, of knowing God’s name is that to know God’s name is to have eternal life

Jesus said in John 17:3, “3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

The Apostle Peter affirms this truth in 2 Peter 1:3, 4b: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence…having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desires.”

Eternal life is knowing God through Jesus. Our thoughts about eternal life usually focus on peace and freedom from sin and eternal joy and happiness and all rightly so. But at the end of the day, eternal life is all about knowing God. There would be no joy in heaven if God were not there. God’s very presence is heaven, for wherever God dwells, there heaven will be.

Here on the earth, we are blessed to experience a taste of eternal life because we may know God right now. Even now, the more we come to know God through our salvation and through his word to us in the Bible, the more we will be eternally transformed. There is no greater application of our time than to commit ourselves to knowing more about God; the more God reveals about himself, the more we are experiencing eternal life

When all things are considered, I truly believe that there is no greater blessing on this earth than to know God. This is made possible because Jesus humbled himself in all obedience and manifested the Father’s name to those whom the Father has given to Jesus.

Jesus came that we may know God’s name.