All of Jesus

In our study on the thinking of Jesus we soon realize that He KNEW His Father the way WE can know Jesus – as LORD, healer, savior, deliverer, encourager … Jesus told Philip in Jn 14:7-8 that he who knows Jesus knows the Father and John tells us that this is the true God and eternal life [1Jn 5:20]. But this knowledge requires a supernatural encounter and change through the Spirit of God.

Eph 3:14-19 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that (1) He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, (2) to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that (3) Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able (4) to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that (5) you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

To quote an anonymous saint: “Our problem is that we have all of Jesus we want. Not all of Jesus we need, but all of Jesus we want.” He was speaking for more people than his immediate congregation.

“We have all of Jesus we want”

Billy Graham knew how much he needed Jesus. He told a 1993 crusade in Portland, Oregon, “I can’t live the Christian life alone. I’m a failure. Billy Graham cannot live the Christian life. I’ve tried. I can’t do it. But with the help of the word of God and the help of the Holy Spirit, I can live the Christian life. But he lives it through me.”

Acts 17:28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’

John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

Rev. Graham knew that we need Jesus as much as he did. In 1955, he said on “The Hour of Decision,” “The regeneration of the individual is much more needed than the revolution of society.” He stated that same year, “If I didn’t believe that the Bible and the gospel of Jesus Christ held the answer to this world’s baffling problems, I would go back to the farm and the rural life that I love and spend my days in peaceful solitude.”

He declared, “When our minds are on Christ, Satan has little room to maneuver.” And he knew that when we are changed by Jesus, everything about us is changed: “The transformed man loves when others hate. He is just when others are prejudiced. He is understanding when others misunderstand, and he is poised when others are frantic.”

I.        How does this happen?

Gal 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

1.                    Desire

Psa 63:1-5 O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. 3 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You. 4 So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. 5 My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.

Dr. Graham was convinced: “If Christianity is important at all, it is all important. If it is anything at all, it is everything. It is either the most vital thing in your life, or it isn’t worth bothering with.”

Paul writing to the Philippians lays out his pedigree and then discounts it entirely:

Phil 3:7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

Paul’s ultimate purpose and passion were clear: “That I may know him” (v. 10).

2.                   Pursue

We often seek after God the way a thief seeks after a policeman.

Phil 3:12-14 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Jeremiah 29:13 ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Knowing Christ is the purpose of the Christian life. Everything else about our faith is secondary and derivative. We were created for an intimate, daily, personal relationship with our living Savior.

So, let me ask you: How well do you know Jesus today?

The answer is simple: You know Him as well as you want to know Him. And knowing Him is by His Word and faith, not our opinions and ideas. Hear Paul on this:

Ro 10:2-8 For I testify about them [his own countrymen] that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. 3 For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

5 For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. 6 But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), 7 or ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” 8 But what does it [the word of righteousness] say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,

You can know him just as you can know any other living person, but with greater connection because He promised His Spirit would live in those chosen to be His sons and daughters.

1 Cor 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

2 Cor 6:17-18 “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. 18 “And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty.

3.                   Practice

James 1:23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. 25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

You get to know Jesus just like you get to know anyone else: by spending time with him.

Read his word to hear His voice. Listen for His Spirit as He speaks to your spirit. See His hand in His creation (Col 1:16) and be thankful. Speak to Him through the day. Practice His presence by seeing yourself in His presence, and it will be so. Guard your heart against the assaults and lies of the enemy – Let His Word dictate your thinking.

Too many want a relationship with God AND a relationship with the world. This is impossible.

2 Cor 6:14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?

Ro 8:34 “Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

Jesus is as close as your next prayer.

A final quote from Billy Graham: “My one purpose in life is to help people find a personal relationship with God, which, I believe, comes through knowing Christ.”

Matthew 6:33-34 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”