Jesus Knows Me F.R.O.G

I CAN TRUST JESUS KNOWS ME

As we continue our series on “The Way” we are looking at Jesus’ Early life and ministry and discovering why His way is better than our way. Last week we talked about Listening. I encouraged you to Listen Up. A big part in beginning a relationship with Jesus and continuing a relationship with Him is Listening to Him. So it’s important to listen. Maybe me giving you the points about why listening is so helpful for us last week wasn’t enough to convince or persuade you to start following Jesus and Listening to His way, but maybe tonight will.

Have you ever thought……How could so so say they care for me but they don’t even know me?

I think I have said this before, but a thing me and my friends would say in High School at random times, or if we did something unexpected we would say. You don’t know me. You don’t know what I have been through.

BUT I think you can relate there may be times were people have said they cared for you but they never take the time to actually get to know you, or spend time with you. So you may be thinking I don’t believe what they say, or what they say I don’t hold too strongly because they don’t really care for me. They don’t really love me. They don’t really know me. Anybody?

Well lets look at this passage.

Mark 1:16–20 (NLT)

One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him. A little farther up the shore Jesus saw Zebedee’s sons, James and John, in a boat repairing their nets. He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men.

John 1:43–50 (NLT)

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.” Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown. Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

“Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

“Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.

As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.”

“How do you know about me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”

Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”

Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.”

You are not a stranger to God.

Think about this, Jesus didn’t just go up to first couple random people he came across and ask them to follow Him. No, they were compelled to follow Jesus, or inspired because Jesus was different that other “religious” leaders. In fact, I think they, although they might have heard stories of Jesus, heard Jesus’ call to follow Him, they had faith of course, but there was something about Jesus they were confident in and I think it was this. They were confident that Jesus knew them. You’re like Justin how do you get that. Well think about the language Jesus uses in His invitation to follow them. With the fisherman, He says come and I will make you fishers of men. Jesus knew them.

Psalm 139:13–18 (NLT)

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body

and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,

as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

You saw me before I was born.

Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

Every moment was laid out

before a single day had passed.

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.

They cannot be numbered!

I can’t even count them;

they outnumber the grains of sand!

And when I wake up,

you are still with me!

You can be confident that Jesus knows you.

Justin He saw them by the shore, He saw them fishing could have been a lucky guess,

Well, In our main passage where Nathanael comes, and Jesus says,

“Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.”

Jesus did not say anything about what could be seen, but He saw deeper. He saw Nathanael’s character, and who he was when know one was watching.

And of course Nathanael says,

“How do you know me?”

Jesus responds by saying,

“I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”

So here is something that I hope will bring you confidence is

Jesus sees where you are.

No matter what you’re going through, no matter how great things are for you or how bad things are for you Jesus sees you and cares for you.

You may be struggling to believe in Him, you may be running from Him, shoot you may not what anything to do with Jesus, but He sees you and He knows you. In fact going back to what I said at the beginning.

He knows you, He knows what you’ve been through. I even want to encourage you with this is when we are in pain, when we are grieving, when we are stuck in sin and we are hurting. Jesus knows and it hurts him to see us hurting.

Maybe you’re like then why won’t He do something then?

Can I tell you something……I say this in the most loving way I can trying to empathize where you might be right now, and the pain you have gone through I don’t want to at all minimize it, but hear me when I say. Jesus has done something. In fact He has done so much more than we could ever earn or deserve.

He took all of the brokenness of the world on Himself and died for you and rose again proclaiming enteral life free of brokenness to the ones who believe in Him. That should be enough. If Jesus never did anything else, that should be enough.

So hear me out because I hope that you will grab ahold of this truth just as Nathanael in our passage did.

Nathanael realized that Jesus knows Him not just on a surface level, but really knew Him, and it was that very thing that moved a man from saying “how do you know me” to “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel”

Nathanael realizing that God knew Him, changed him! It took him from a man who was searching and seeking, to a man who had been found and loved by God.

You can be confident that Jesus knows you.

Questions:

How did Nathanael respond to understanding that Jesus Knows Him?