Pastor Michael Talley | January 4, 2026
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John 17:1-3
Good morning, & Happy New Year! It’s special to be together on the first Sunday of the year. I wonder if you have noticed how good our society has gotten at New Year’s. Here’s what I mean. When I was a kid, growing up in the 1980s, I remember that New Year’s Resolutions were a big deal. Everybody wanted a better life, a better body, a little more energy, a little less debt. But if I remember it correctly, our society wasn’t really set up to help us with our New Year’s Resolutions very much. If you wanted to get in shape, you could check out a Richard Simmons VHS or join Weight Watchers. Otherwise, you were pretty much on your own.
This is not the case in 2026. You could argue that (in our lifetime) society has transformed to help you improve your life. Self-improvement is king. I was stuck at a traffic light in Charlotte a few years ago & was struck by how many gyms were on that block. I counted 7! Seven gyms on a single city block in Charlotte. But that was several years ago. We’re so far beyond that now. With the advent of wearable technology, & even more AI, self-improvement is on a different level. You can track every movement & get personalized data to help you optimize your life. People are getting healthier & they want you to know about it. An entire industry of podcasters, influencers, & life coaches are ready to teach you their secrets to a better life.
Our world is really good at New Years. Before I say anything negative about this, let me quickly say that people are getting healthy, & that is awesome. These strategies & techniques are changing lives. I saw my nephew at Christmas. He was carrying around a gallon jug of water. He told me about all the health trends he had been trying out because he saw them on Instagram. He was a different kid. There is a lot of value is so many of these trends.
And yet, if we were to step back & evaluate our society as a whole, I don’t think anyone would say that we’re getting healthier. These lifestyle trends might improve some areas of our lives, but I’m not convinced that they are providing society the life it desperately wants apart from God. And the reason is very simple: you will never find the life you are looking for until you behold Christ. There is no life apart from him. Self-improvement strategies apart from Christ may make you feel a little better, but life is more than self-improvement.
I believe that Christians need to be aware of this as we make plans for the New Year. As technology increases over the next few years, the pull will only get stronger. The world is putting an immense amount of pressure on everyone to seek fulfillment apart from Christ. But I want to argue this morning that you will never fundamentally change your life until you capture a vision of the glory of Christ.
If you have your Bible, turn to Jn 17. We’re going to study the first 3 verses of this amazing chapter. This chapter is a treasure in the Bible because it is one of the only times that we get to hear Jesus pray. We know that he prayed all the time, but in Jn 17, we get to listen. In these final hours of Jesus’ life, he is thinking about the cross. He is thinking about God’s eternal plan of salvation. He desires the Father’s glory. And he is also thinking about us. He wants us to experience a life that is better than anything we could have imagined. We are not the primary target of his prayer, but we are there. Let’s read. [1] When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, [2] since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. [3] And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
In this prayer, we can learn 2 important truths about the life that Jesus gives us. The first truth is that Life is a Gift. If you want a fulfilling life in 2026, you can’t earn it; you must receive it. It is the only way you can access true life. This is very clear in vs 1-2. When I originally decided to preach on Jn 17, I wanted to do the entire sermon on vs 3, because that verse is so clear & easy: it’s a simple statement that tells us exactly what eternal life is. And yet, when I drilled into the study, I discovered that you can’t really understand v3 without diving into vs1-2. They are way more complex, but they’re worth chewing on because they give us a rare glimpse into the dynamics of the Father & Son’s eternal plan of salvation. (Disclaimer: Holy Spirit).
The best part about the opening of Jesus’ prayer is it has very little to do with us. The Father & Son are exchanging gifts, but we’re not the primary recipient of the gift. This is a conversation between the obedient Son of God & his loving Father in heaven. Because of their love for one another, we get life. You can think of it like this. Imagine you are a little kid outside of your parents’ bedroom. You put your ear up to the door & overhear a serious conversation. They begin talking about how much they love one another & they remembered a plan they made before they had kids to take a big trip to Disney. They decide that in the morning, they would pack up for the most epic week of their lives. You did absolutely nothing, and yet you gained everything. It wasn’t your idea, it wasn’t your money, but you get the Mickey ears.
That pales in comparison with the conversation we will hear this morning, but the idea is the same. The Father & the Son are talking about their plan & their love for one another, & yet we reap the reward. Let’s put our ear up to the door & listen. In v1, Jesus lifted his eyes to heaven and said: Father, the hour has come. He is speaking of the cross. This is the central moment of God’s plan of salvation. It all comes down to this. Without the cross, there is no life. It is the fulfillment of Jesus’ entire life. It is the fulfillment of every promise God made in the OT. It is the fulfillment of the plan that the Father, Son, and Spirit set forth before the foundation of the world. The hour had finally come for Jesus to purchase a people.
And so, Jesus prays: Father, glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. In this moment of agony, Jesus asks the Father to clothe him in splendor for the entire world to see. Sometimes you will hear commentators say that Jesus is praying for himself. I suppose this is technically true but there is nothing self-seeking in this prayer. He did not seek this glory for his own benefit. If he wanted that kind of glory, he would have taken Satan’s offer when he was being tempted. Jesus only wanted the Father’s glory so the Father in turn would be glorified. He wanted the entire world to look at him hanging in agony on the cross so they might see how awesome his Father in heaven was. Glorify me now, Father, so I can glorify you in my death! This is a stunning picture of the mutual love that exists between the Father & the Son.
This is helpful because it sets the pattern for the next clause. Verse 2 gets a little confusing so hang with me. In the ESV, it says: since. (Father, glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority…) It kind of muddies the water. My brain has a hard time working out this connection. If you have a NASB, it translates this conjunction better. It says, “even as…” Jesus is making an analogy. The mutual gift exchange of glory in v1 should help us understand the second verse. Glorify me now, Father, so I can give you glory in the same way that you have given me authority over all flesh to give eternal life to the people you have given me.
If v.1 is about the mutual exchange of glory, v.2 is about the mutual exchange of a people that the Father had given the Son. Before the world began, the Father had set apart a specific group of people as a gift for his Son. The Father then gave Jesus the authority to give them life. We typically think about salvation primarily as the gift that God gives us. But in this Trinitarian conversation, we are not the ones opening the gift; we are the ones popping out. We are the gift that the Father gives the Son. But stay with me because it gets even better: in the same way that Jesus did not receive God’s glory without giving it back, Jesus will also give this gift back to his Father as well. 1 Cor 15:24 says that at the end of time, Jesus will deliver the kingdom of God back to his Father once he has destroyed every enemy. Jesus will return this purified people back to the Father, and God’s perfect plan of redemption will be complete.
And the entire plan hinges on the cross. This is the hour. As Jesus hangs on the cross, he will be glorified by God, which will bring the Father glory. As Jesus hangs on the cross, he will give us eternal life by bringing us to himself. I realize this is very heady stuff. This is why I think I wanted to preach a sermon simply on v3. But the reality is that this is a billion times more glorious than our small, man-centered view of salvation. This prayer mentions us, but we are not the focus of the prayer. We are not the center of the universe. In fact, the only reason we are saved is because we got caught up into the redeeming love of a Triune God. We are not saved because we signed a card, or walked an aisle, or prayed a prayer, or did a deed, or made a resolution. We are saved because the Father gave the Son the authority to give life to us. And the Son went to the cross & willingly welcomed every sinner who the Father gave to him.
Eternal life is a gift. It’s not something you can make or build or craft or cultivate or develop. You can only receive it by coming to Jesus and beholding the Son’s glory on the cross and resting in the Father’s love and taking the bread of life. Life is a gift.
But let’s move to the 2nd point because it can be easy to misunderstand. This is why verse 3 exists. Jesus anticipates the misunderstanding & qualifies the nature of this gift. The second truth about life that we learn from Jesus’ prayer is that Life Is A Relationship. Look at v3 again. As soon as Jesus mentions the eternal life that he offers to us, he immediately qualifies it. [3] And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Eternal life is a gift, and this gift is knowledge of the only true God. Eternal life is abiding in a relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. You can talk about Jesus all day, but if you do not abide in his love, you do not have life. It’s as simple as that. You can speak of grace & salvation & the gospel & life, & you can sing all the songs, but if you do not personally & intimately know the Triune God, you have no life. There is no such thing as a salvation apart from God. Eternal life is not a thing we get, it’s not a place we go to, it’s not a status God gives us. Life is only found within a relationship that we enjoy & experience now with the Triune God.
This is consistent throughout the entire Bible. God wants to walk with his people in the cool of the day. He wants a relationship. Jeremiah spoke of a day when all God’s people would know the Lord. Habakkuk prophesied of a day when the knowledge of God’s glory would fill the earth like water fills the sea. Paul told the Philippian church that he wanted to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. 1 John 5:11 – “This is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
It could not be any clearer, & yet, it’s so easy to miss. One of the signs that we may be living this way is that we begin to talk about the gifts and less about the giver. We speak of grace & love & mercy & joy, because these gifts enhance our life, but they are disconnected from the source of these virtues.
At the risk of offending everyone in the room, & being terribly misunderstood, I’ll try to give an example. Think about the beloved song Amazing Grace. It’s one of the most amazing songs that the church has ever produced. I will go ahead and respond to your emails now. I love the song. I am a warmhearted fan. I cry when I sing it, & I hope you’ll sing it at my funeral. The poetry is beautiful & the doctrine is pristine. But it doesn’t mention the name of Jesus. You have probably never noticed this before, because as a fully devoted follower of Jesus, you translate this in your mind. When you sing of the Amazing Grace, you know are singing of the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ. But we should be very careful with our words, and not begin thinking like this. This is a very small example, but it’s one of the ways that we can subtly focus on the gift & not the giver. Let us say what we mean. Grace apart from Jesus is nothing. It is an abstract idea. The grace of Jesus is everything.
We can do this with any good Bible word, really. “I’m saved by the gospel!” Not really. You are saved by Jesus, into a relationship with the Triune God. That is the gospel. I recently discovered that Charles Spurgeon intentionally shied away from using these rich biblical words in his sermon because he didn’t want to confuse his people. He didn’t want to make it abstract. He told a group of pastors: “Brothers, let us not talk about the gospel; let us preach the gospel itself.” We don’t come to church to hear strategies to make our lives better; we come to church to treasure & behold Christ. Jesus is not the first step to life; Jesus is our life.
Let’s summarize. According to this prayer from Jesus in Jn17, eternal life is a gift. It is not something we can build or earn on our own. And this gift is a relationship. It is not something that God gives us apart from himself. This should fundamentally change the way that we approach the New Year, & any type of self-improvement strategy. As we close, I want to return to our original question & apply these truths to our lives. How should Christians navigate a world that is obsessed with self-improvement? Two points: I believe that Jesus changes the way we work, and what we work for.
If life is a gift, it will change the way we work. A Christian & a non-Christian may both work very hard next to each other. They may go to the same gym, and the same grocery store (because we don’t have many options in Boone). But their attitudes will be radically different. Life is either a gift, or it is a grind. If you are united with Christ, life is a gift. If you have no Christ, life is a grind. This will come out in so many ways. Here’s an example as you think about the new year:
•If life is a grind, Monday mornings will take on special meaning, because it is the first day of your week. It is your moment to rise & grind. It is a fresh start for you to make your mark on the world. This attitude will follow you the rest of the week. You will become extremely competitive & grouchy.
•If life is a gift, Sunday mornings will take on a special meaning, because it is the first day of your week. The first thing you do each week is to rest in God’s love. You come to the church to worship God and behold the glory of Christ because life is a gift. This attitude will flow out of you the rest of the week.
Here’s one more example:
•If life is a grind, you will be driven mad with anxiety. Because if you mess up, your entire life meaning & purpose will fall apart. Life is a constant tight rope with no net. There is no time for rest, no room for a mistake. Perhaps this is why self-medication techniques increase alongside self-improvement techniques. Our world is flooded with options for drugs & distractions.
•But, if life is a gift, you can work with joy, even when the whole thing falls apart. This actually happened to John the Baptist. If you remember, John the Baptist was wildly popular when he began his ministry. But then Jesus came, & everybody left him. His disciples got worried and begged John to do something about it. “Look, John – everyone is going to Jesus. Your entire life work is falling apart!” What did John say? “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given to him by heaven.” When you understand that life is a gift, it will change the way you work.
But if you understand that life is a relationship, it will also change what you work for. Think about it: if you have been united with a self-giving God, your work can no longer be self-focused. Your life’s work must take on the same shape as Jesus’s life work. This is the exact point that Paul made in Philippians 2. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider others greater than yourself. Let your mind be the same as Christ. Though he was God, he did not consider that something to be grasped, but instead, he humbled himself & died on a cross.
If you have been united with a savior who gave up his life, it will shape the kinds of things you work for. You will never improve your life for the sake of a better life. You will always seek to improve your life for the sake of others. This is how you will know that you have eternal life in Christ, when you begin to pour your own life out for others.
So, for instance, let’s say that you really want to get in shape. This is a great instinct, but you should ask yourself why you want to get strong & healthy. Is it to simply feel better about yourself? So that people will notice you? To win more championships? If that is the case, then you are seeking glory from man, & it will let you down every time. But the Christian will work to get healthy for the sake of others. They will spend their strength on the poor & widow & orphan. And God will raise them up!
Maybe you desire to have more income & less debt. This is a great desire, but again, why?. Is it so you can have a bigger vacation & more empty rooms to clean & a nicer car? Christians work hard so they can share the excess with others. This is how you know that you have been united with God.
Jesus changes everything. He changes what we work for, and he changes the way that we work. And so, as we stand on the brink of another New Year, only one resolution truly matters if you are thirsty for life! May we press in to know our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. May we behold his glory. Make this your single aim in the new year & may every other habit & self-made plan submit to that one goal. Behold the glory of Jesus with the help of the Holy Spirit, and may he lead you straight to the Father. Let’s pray.
COMMUNION –
This is the first Sunday of the month, so we have the joy of celebrating communion together. If you are united with Christ, but forgot to get the cup on the way in, we hope that you will celebrate this meal with us. Raise your hand and an usher will find you.
About 2 months ago, the pastors gathered in Pastor Scott’s office and spent the afternoon thinking of ways we could highlight the Lord’s Supper & Baptism in 2026. We get to celebrate the Lord’s Supper 14 times this year, and we have 6 baptisms scheduled (though I am always ready for more!) These are the gifts that God has given to his church to strengthen our faith & to renew our union with Christ.
But unfortunately, these ordinances have also been the subject of endless controversy throughout church history. Theologians get very technical on the details, & that is extremely important. When they are being abused, we will jump into the ring. And yet, Jesus didn’t give this meal to the church so we would fight about it. Jesus gave us this meal so we would eat it together. We wanted to enjoy the full benefit of this meal in 2026.
So, we wanted to create a small book to emphasize a different feature of the meal each time we gather. We have a single word each time. I hope you will pick one of these up and meditate more fully on these themes. We’ll have them available all year. We hope that we end 2026 with a greater appreciation of these ordinances. (And that they will lead you to Jesus).
The first word we want to consider this year is the word Communion. You have probably heard this meal called a lot of different things. Maybe you’ve called it the Eucharist, or Mass, or the Lord’s Supper. In the 2nd Century, one of the church fathers, Irenaeus, called it the Medicine of Immortality. (I wonder why that one didn’t stick). But of all the names, I love the name communion, because that gets to the very heart of what this meal is. We come to the table to commune with God. Jesus shed his blood & delivered his body to be broken so we could have life. And that life is a deep & abiding communion with God.
As we enter this time of communion, I want to give you a moment of silence to be with God.
1 Corinthians 11:23–26
[23] For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, [24] and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”