To Know Jesus is to Live For Jesus

Know Jesus

Jesus told His disciples that if they knew Him they knew the Father. This was a huge statement because people believed in the transcendence of God. The idea that God was so much higher than humanity that He could never possibly become a part of humanity. To a certain degree the transcendence of God remains in our world today. To think that God would step out of heaven and become a human is too much for some people to believe. I must confess that it blows my mind to think this, but I believe it because I know Jesus and He said it!

Jesus claimed that there were two ways to know him and understand that Jesus is God. By hearing Him and Seeing Him one can understand that Jesus is God

Hearing Jesus

Jesus said that the words that He speaks are not from His own initiative, but from the Father. So you may ask, “how did Jesus get the words of God?” This is a fair question that Jesus answers by stating, ”Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” vs. 11

Jesus only speaks what the Father tells Him. John 12:49-50

John 12:49–50 NASB95

“For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. “I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”

Jesus was one with the Father. We see this in the fact that Jesus was sent by the Father as a means for us to see God and understand Him. This is why The Father indwelt Jesus.

The message was placed in Jesus to share to a lost and dying world that there is salvation from sin and the promise of eternal life in Jesus Christ. This is the message that Jesus proclaimed from the very beginning of His ministry. Mark 1:14-15

Mark 1:14–15 NASB95

Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Not only did Jesus speak about the gospel, but he also taught about how to live life. The sermon on the mount is one of the best sermons on how to live the christian life. Jesus got this sermon from His 40 days in the wilderness. When Jesus was baptised the spirit led Him out into the desert for 40 days. He spent time with the Father discerning the mission and what He was to do. We see a pattern of Jesus slipping away from ministry to spend time with the Father.

Time spent listening to the Father enabled Jesus to speak the Words of God.

We Can Speak the Words of God

The same way Jesus was able to speak the word of God enables us to do the same. We must do it the same way Jesus did it. He spent time listening to God.

Now we do not have the same deity that Jesus did, but we do have the Word of God. We must spend time in His Word if we are going to hear His voice and speak His words. For example, there are many times that I will be studying God’s word and it is particularly moving in my soul. That moving in my soul is purposeful. Either it is meant to apply in my life regarding a situation that I am in or to share with someone else that may need to hear it. Sometimes it is both.

Seeing Jesus

Jesus only did what the Father revealed for him to do. John 5:19-20

John 5:19–20 NASB95

Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.

Jesus recognized the activity of the Father and does the same things. The Father showed Jesus what He was doing and Jesus joined the Father in His work.

We Too can see Jesus

Jesus manifests himself to us in several different ways. He gives us guidance in times of uncertainty, He reveals to us His purposes through the placement of passions in our hearts, He reveals wisdom to us when we come through a trial, He reveals opportunities for ministry. All of these things are around us daily. We must have eyes to see them.

I saw Jesus when I was first asked to teach a Sunday school class. I couldn’t do it but had the desire and opportunity and Jesus blessed it. That led to becoming a deacon and serving families. This led to several other areas of service within the church. These led to serving at the county level in supply preaching. This led to Life-tech. This led to bi-vocational ministry which led me to vocational ministry. All along the way the hand of God has prepared me for what is next. I don’t know what is next, but when it comes I know that God has used Prospect to prepare me for what is next.

When we see Jesus at work, we must have the faith necessary to jump in and do the works of the Lord.

Ask Jesus

Jesus stated that people will do greater works than what Jesus was doing. Obviously there is nothing that we can do that can compare to dying for the sins of all people. So what did Jesus mean when he said that we would do greater things.

When we look at Jesus preaching, we see that he did not preach outside of Palestine. Today we have the ability to preach the gospel all over the world. The technological advances in medicine, transportation, and communication have served as a means to spread the gospel on a broader basis.

Christ has allowed us so much opportunity that we must leverage it for the advancement of the kingdom. We must figure out how to do it. All we have to do is ask and the Lord will answer.

I like what William Barclay says regarding asking Jesus. He says: Jesus says that any prayer offered in his name will be granted. It is here of all places that we must understand. Note carefully what Jesus said—not that all our prayers would be granted, but that our prayers made in his name would be granted. The test of any prayer is: can I make it in the name of Jesus? No one, for instance, could pray for personal revenge, for personal ambition, for some unworthy and un-Christian object in the name of Jesus. When we pray, we must always ask: can we honestly make this prayer in the name of Jesus? The prayer which can stand the test of that consideration, and which in the end says, Your will be done, is always answered. But the prayer based on self cannot expect to be granted.

William Barclay, The Gospel of John, vol. 2, The New Daily Study Bible (Louisville, KY: Edinburgh, 2001), 192–193.

Follow Jesus

Jesus said that if we loved Him that we would obey His commandments. I want to close where I began and say that we cannot love someone we don’t know. We will not obey someone we do not love.

So I want to leave you with some questions to ponder.

Do you know Jesus?

What have you heard Him say lately?

What have you seen Him do lately?

What are you currently doing for Jesus?

Are you obeying His commandments?