Experiencing it, and expressing it see, and it's virtually the core of the law isn't it aye, that you love the Lord your God and experience His love, and also you love the people that you can see, so that's the core of what He's doing. So how do believers experience such a love that impacts them, and unites them, then they begin to overflow? How do you do that? So He says there are two aspects to that, and I want to just look at the two aspects of it, then we'll break it down very, very practically. So I want to go in and first of all look at the second aspect, and the second aspect which is mentioned here is this. You notice what He says, Verse 26, I have declared to them Your name. I have revealed what You are like, and will continue to reveal what You are like, and here's what the outcome of Me revealing what the Father is like, that the love that You have for Me will also be in them.
So the very same relationship Jesus had with His Father, the very same love that sustained Him in every adversity, He wants you to have it, and He said the way it comes, is by it being revealed to you. You can't have something you don't know about, so He says I have made Your name known, or literally, I have revealed what You are like, so how does Jesus reveal what God is like, and continue to reveal what God is like? Simply through three main ways. One way that Jesus has revealed what God is like is just through creation. The Bible tells us Jesus created all things. When you go out into creation, you get alone and away from all the busyness and you take a few moments of solitude and look at maybe the universe, the sky, the stars, you look at the sea. You become aware of how vast and great God is, and yet He's interested in you, so creation itself tells us what an awesome, amazing, incredible God and I'm connected to Him.
The second thing is about the life of Jesus. Jesus' own words reveal what God is like, so if you want to know what God is like, you've got to look at the life of Jesus Christ and become connected to Him, so the first way that we experience the love of God is by developing an on-going personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That means that we see what He's made and appreciate it, that we listen and read His words and we begin to dwell on them and let them change the way we view life, and that we draw from His life and what He did to others reveals to us something about what God's like, so for example how did Jesus handle an adulteress? Well look at what He did to the leper. How did Jesus handle the woman at the well? How did Jesus handle people? That's what God is like, so if I read the word of God, and begin to study the life of Jesus and open myself to Him, then I begin to start to access the life that God has through personal relationship. There's another way too, and notice what He says here in Verse 22. I'm going to make this very practical. He says - now notice this - He said, the glory You gave me I have given them, that they may be one - then Verse 23 - the world may know You've sent Me, and have loved them, as You have loved Me.
Now notice here He says that I have not only made You known through life and teaching and whatever, I've also given to them the same glory You gave Me. Well I wonder what that means and I wonder when He got it? You've got to ask questions of scripture, otherwise you sort of read it and it doesn't impact your life - so He said the glory You - that's the Father - gave Me. Remember He left everything behind when He came to earth - the glory You gave Me, I have given it to them, and the purpose of it is to unite them, so that they may experience Your love, and people will obviously see it. So here are the two things; one is the personal life of Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him. The second one is this one here, it is prayer, and openness to the Holy Spirit revealing God to us, openness to the glory of God, whatever all that means. So if I encounter or experience the glory of God, it changes me. I begin to feel touched by the very character of God, the very life of God. I begin to experience the very life of God, the same way Jesus did, and that changes me, just as building relationship with Jesus, getting into His word and seeing His patterns of life and teaching and applying them to my life, also do that.