Alba 6-19-2024
DO YOU KNOW JESUS?
I John 2:3-6
There are a lot of things we think we know. But sometimes what we know is not as accurate as we thought. For example, let me give you a test. These are just simple questions that have an obvious answer. Here goes:
1) How long did the Hundred Years War Last? – 116 Years
2) What country manufactures Panama Hats? – Equador
3) From what animals do we get cat gut? - Sheep and goats, cattle and horses.
4) In what month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution? – November
5) What was King George IV’s first name? – Albert
If you were able to give a correct answer to those questions, then you know more than most people. On the other hand, if you were surprised by some answers, perhaps you don't know as much as you thought. But there is a more important question than any of these. And here it is: Do You Know Jesus?
You may say, “Well, that's an easy question. I'm in church and I've heard a lot of sermons, so yes, I know Jesus.” I certainly hope that you do. But to make sure.... Let's take a look at I John 2:3-6. All the clues to the right way that question can be answered are in these verses. We will be wise to compare ourselves with what we find here.
I John 2:3-6 says, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
There are at least three specific things that are mentioned here that will help you to give an honest (and biblical) answer to the question, Do You Know Jesus? First you must ask yourself:
1. Do I Keep His Commandments (vs. 3-4)
Don't be too quick to answer. If you recall Jesus' encounter with the rich young ruler, he thought he was doing pretty good on that score. When he asked Jesus how he could have eternal life, Jesus told him, “ You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ” And (the young man) said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” (Luke 18:20-21)
In spite of such a good record, Jesus pointed out that there was something he lacked. I think that is true of all of us. Hopefully we also keep the commandments that Jesus spoke of to the young man. Those are the big ones. But what about other areas of our lives. Can we honestly say that we are living in such a way that, as best as we are able, what we are doing is a reflection our personal relationship with Jesus? Would other people look at any of us and see us being obedient to the commands of our Lord? Or would they be able to say, “Oh, there goes another hypocrite!” Or as verse four calls it straight up: “Liar”. Judas is the ultimate example of one who looked like a Christian … but “the truth was not in him”.
Following the teachings of Jesus involves conforming every area of our lives to Him. It requires submitting every relationship, every attitude, every word, every thought, every action to him. It involves our whole lives, not just a few specific things that we do or don’t do.
Listen to what Peter says about how we should live in 1 Peter 1:14-16, “As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
Can we be truly holy? It's not easy is it. Here's the thing. When we come to Christ through our obedient faith, turning from sin and being baptized into Him, we are made holy before God. But we still live in this human body, so sin continues to plague us. That is why the Lord implants His Holy Spirit into our lives to give us power to live better than we did before. And the means the Holy Spirit will use to help us is through what is revealed in scripture.
We won't, we can't, follow the Lord's commands if we don't know what they are. If we want to know that we know Jesus, we need to read and study the Bible. Without knowledge of the scriptures, we won't know Jesus. We may know about Him, but we won't know Him. Everything about Jesus and what He wants us to do is revealed in the Bible.
Did you ever get into trouble for something you didn't do when you don’t remember ever being told to do it? So you reply, “Well, I didn’t know I was supposed to do it! How could I do it if you never told me to? What am I, a mind-reader?” Well God has told us what He wants us to do. It is in His Word, the Bible.
Knowing the commands that are given so that you can do what He says is a step in being able to answer the question, “Do you know Jesus?” But knowing Jesus is more than just knowing and keeping His commandments. People can go through the motions and look pretty good, but that is not enough. God is not calling us to be rule keepers. He wants us to be true, sincere keepers of His Word.
Psychologists say that most of us perceive God to be much like our earthly father. So if your father was a tough, maybe even mean, disciplinarian, you probably see God in that way. But if your father was kind and tender, then you probably see God like that, too. No matter your experience, scripture tells us that God is love. That is who our heavenly Father is. You need to know, God loves you.
So ask yourself these questions. “Do I keep His commands so that I won't be punished? Or do I keep His commands because I know He loves me and I love Him?” It makes a difference. So to answer the question, “Do You Know Jesus?” secondly, ask yourself this question:
2. Do I Exhibit the Love of God (vs. 5)
Remember, verse five says that, “whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him.” That word perfected means that love is completed, fulfilled, easily seen. In the gospel of John 14:15 Jesus told the disciples, “If you love Me, keep My commandments”. Our obedience to the Lord's commands is what reveals the depth of our love for Jesus. And as we obey, it strengthens our love and deepens our fellowship with Him. As we follow, and submit, and obey, it draws us closer and closer to our Savior.
It is more than an attitude, but is an inner desire to do what is asked. Not just doing something because it is the thing to do, or it might bring us certain benefits, but it is the passion of your heart. It is a holy desire to obey God because of your love for Him.
What He wants from you is your heart. What He wants from you is your devotion. What He wants from you is your love; love that trusts, love that believes, love that follows, love that obeys. Obedient Christians will see God’s love “perfected”, ‘accomplished’ in them.
Obedient Christians will experience and enjoy God’s love in a real way. And, the more we obey Him, the more of His love we will enjoy.
I doubt that disobedience ever brought you much joy when you were growing up. Your parents may have loved you, even when you were disobedient. But likely you didn't get to experience their love as much! The same is true with a Christian. Obedience (which is a demonstration of spiritual maturity) brings with it the experience of God’s love. God loved you even when you were still in your sins. But His love is perfected in you through Jesus as you continue to do His will, not your own.
And this perfected love that God gives should motivate all of us to be more loving to others. Hudson Taylor said: “If your father and mother, your sister and brother, if the very cat and dog in the house, are not happier for your being a Christian, it is a question whether you really are.” When God's love is perfected in us, it should show in the way we treat others.
When we are showing proper love to those around us, doing what the Lord wants us to do, in this way we become more like Jesus. After all, “Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so.” Jesus' love for us is unquestioned. Because “greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
And that is what Jesus did when He went to the cross to take your punishment and my punishment for our sins. There is no greater love than this!
A perfect or complete love is a love that is mutual. It is a love that goes both ways. And the better you know someone the better you can love them. And when we really come to know how much Jesus loves us, how can we not return our love to Him? In I John 4:19 John says, “We love Him because He first loved us.”
When Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37), He is not telling us to twist our hearts, bend our souls or deny our minds to do something that is hard or makes no sense. No, He is telling us that because of our Heavenly Father's great love for us, our natural response should be to love Him fully and completely in return.
Jesus lived that way showing how the heart, soul and mind can be in tune with the Father above. It is when we walk in His love that we have blessings this world cannot give. So that brings up the third way we can really be sure that we know Jesus. If you know Jesus you will obey His commands, and His love will be perfected in you. But here is another question to ask yourself:
3. Do I Walk Like Jesus (vs. 6)
Verse six says that we are to walk just as Jesus walked. Don’t be like the person the Chinese Christian talks about: “All talkee, talkee, talkee, and no walkee, walkee, walkee!”
Walking is an action verb. It shows action. You can’t sit still and walk. We must walk the way Jesus walked. We must talk the way Jesus talked. We must live the way Jesus lived. How did Jesus “walk”? Jesus walked in God’s will. That is to be our goal. In John 6:38 Jesus said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Jesus even prayed in the Garden, before His crucifixion, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42) The goal of Jesus was to “walk” perfectly in the Father's will, in obedience to all that our Heavenly Father wanted Him to do, even if it meant the cross!
Jesus walked in total, unrelenting, unbroken fellowship and dependence upon the purpose of the Father who indwelt Him. He walked in total surrender to the Father’s will. If we claim that we know Jesus, and that we abide in Him, we must walk as Jesus did. In other words, if we claim to be a child of God, we must act in a way that demonstrates that He is our Father.
Have you ever seen a young boy trying his best to mimic the actions of his father? If the father sits a certain way, the boy tries to do the same. And if the father is walking along with a particular step, the boy will try to walk in the same way.
That's what we are to do. We are to know Jesus in such a way as to see what He has done, and then do our best to walk in His steps. Psalm 37:23 says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way.”
There are times when I think about those times when I did some stupid things. I'm not going to tell you what they are. It is bad enough that they often come to my mind. They are missteps. I'm sure you've had them too. How thankful I am that from little things to big things, when Jesus went to the cross, He did that for all the wrong steps I have taken. That is true for all of us, if we truly know Jesus.
If you answered “Yes” to the question, Do You Know Jesus? Is there evidence that you do? Do you keep His commands? Do you exhibit His love? Do you walk like Jesus in the way you live your life? And if you know Him, is your life surrendered to His will, and is His life being lived out through you?
May our prayer be like what the apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:10-11. This is from the EasyEnglish Version:
“Yes, I want to know Christ better and better. I want to know the power which God showed when Christ rose from death. I want to have the same kind of troubles that he did. I want to obey God like he did in his death. Then I hope that I also will become alive again after death.”
You will know progress is being made when the world is seeing less of you and more of Jesus.
Close:
Melvin Newland, Christian minister and former President of Dallas Christian College, told this story. He said:
Some years ago a friend of mine went back home to be with his father while his mother was in the hospital. He says that this was the first time that he had ever spent four consecutive days alone with his father since he was a little boy.
He said, "Now I did see dad when he and mom came to visit. And of course, we went there to visit, too. But there were always other people around."
He really can't remember ever just sitting down and talking one on one with his father like he did during those four days. And it was a revelation to him.
He said, "My dad was a strong disciplinarian. You knew what was right and wrong. And if you didn't do what was right, you suffered the consequences. My sister and I knew that."
"And I think that I have probably always looked at God in that way, too. But during those four days I saw my dad in a different light. We were dealing with a crisis in our family. The doctors came in more than once and told us that it was touch and go, and that mother might not make it."
He said, "I saw my dad cry. He reached over and touched my hand, and I heard him say, ‘Let's pray together.' I had never heard him say that before. And we prayed many times together during those four days."
"I saw a father who was getting old, who needed help. And I thought how our roles had reversed. He used to lead me. Now I am helping him find his way through the hospital and to the cafeteria. It was a complete role reversal."
"When I left to go home, we drove down the road together. I drove my car and he drove his until we came to a fork in the road where he would turn one way and I would turn another. Then he pulled off to the side and stopped and waved me down.
"As I got out of the car on this lonesome country road, dad came over, big tears in his eyes. He said, ‘I just can't tell you what your coming has meant. I don't think I could have made it through these last four days if you hadn't been here.'"
"We embraced, and he said, ‘I love you.' I'm not sure, but I think that may be the first time that my dad ever said that to me. I saw a different side to him that week than I had ever seen before."
Something like that happened when Jesus came. In Jesus we can see God more clearly than we ever did before - His love for all; His willingness to suffer and die for our sins. Through Jesus we have a whole new picture of God. Do you know Him? Do you know Jesus?
