Banner Logo

Sermon

Sermon Graphic


Seventh Sunday of Easter
St. Stephen’s Anglican Church
The Rev. Jeffrey O. Cerar, June 1, 2014


The Gift of Eternal Life

Text: John 17:3

This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. [John 17:3]

Jesus prayed these words the night before He was crucified. We call this prayer in John 17 the “High Priestly Prayer,” because Jesus prayed it on behalf of the people whom the Father had entrusted to His care. He prayed it for His disciples—those who had followed Him in His ministry in first-century Palestine, and all who would come after down through the years. He prayed this prayer for you and for me.

As Jesus began this prayer, He said,

Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

When we speak of eternal life, we usually are thinking of a secure and wonderful afterlife, following the death of our earthly bodies. But when Jesus spoke about eternal life, He had more in mind. He had in mind a life that begins the minute we give our lives over to Him and accept Him as our Savior and our Lord. It is a life that is so different from our previous life that He refers to it as dying and being born again.

I remember a few years ago, we had a several-week seminar at St. Stephen’s on how to share our faith. We were adapting the model of a program called “Evangelism Explosion.” One of the tools of Evangelism Explosion was to ask people, “If you were to die tonight, do you know where you would go after you die?” One of our members put up her hand and said, “I don’t think this is where most people’s heads are these days. I think people would answer that they don’t care much about where they go when they die; they want to know what Jesus can do for them now.”

Obviously, I never forgot that comment. And I have found it is true. The answer to that kind of objection is that there is a quality of life that Jesus offers that is better than anything you will ever experience without Him. That is what Jesus means by eternal life, which He says is to know the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. And once you know God, once you know the Word made flesh, Jesus, God’s only Son, sent into the world in love,

And when it is not, you know that too. But it’s not the end of the world. Jesus is always ready to forgive you and steer you on the right path.

All of us are in search of our identity in this world. Those who know Jesus find their identity in Him. But many, many people seek their identity in other things:

None of those things can fulfill us, because it is not those things for which God made us. He made us to know Him and to enjoy Him forever. So when we build our life around those other things, we will come up empty.

But a life built around Jesus is totally different. When we build our life around Jesus, if we fail Him, He will forgive us. If we stumble, He will pick us up. And He will love us. And His love is our most precious possession. This is eternal life: that we know the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent.

Our hope for one another in this congregation is that we would have that eternal life, and that nothing would jeopardize it. That is what we always try to give to our children. We want to bring them up knowing God and centering their lives on Him. And when their time comes to leave home and go off to college, or start a career, we hope they have what they need to keep that eternal life.

What I personally hope for them is that when they leave the nest,

Today, we are honoring our grown-up young people who are graduating and moving on. 2010 was a big year for us: we graduated five from high school—Betsy Joslyn, Tim Lewis, John Radcliffe, Blake Smith and Ben Wrightson. All of them graduated from college this May. Ben and Betsy are with us today. I also have word from the other three, which I will share with you. Next week, Jennifer Radcliffe will graduate from Northumberland High School, and Lisa Nguyen will graduate from Lancaster High School, and they will both head off for university later this summer. They are here with us today. And Caitlyn Cralle is here as well. She finished up her freshman year and William and Mary, and has a few things to share with us from her experience. Let’s hear from them.

1. Tell us where you graduated from, and what your degree is.

2. Any honors you want to report?

3. What are your plans for this summer, and for the future?

4. What was your experience finding Christian community in college?

5. Any suggestions on how we could attract the unchurched?

6. Any advice you want to leave with this congregation?

7. Jennifer, after spending your whole life in this congregation, what message would you like to give us?

Let’s lift these young people up in prayer now, and all those who pass through our embrace, including those God will entrust to our care in the future. May they know the only true God, and His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. May they have the gift of eternal life.

© Jeffrey O. Cerar, 2014

Return to top

Sermon Archives