INTRODUCTION
SLIDE #
• What does Jesus mean to you?
• Where is Jesus in your priority list?
• What tangible difference if any does Jesus make in my life and is He supposed to make any difference?
• Do I have a relationship with Jesus? Is Jesus more than just going to church, singing and giving some money? This all leads to my ultimate question for the day.
• How do I know if I know Jesus? This is a question that people have posed to me in the past; people want to know if they really know Jesus.
• Is there a difference in knowing Him and knowing Him? I believe there is. Can we really get to know Jesus? Yes we can!
• I have always said that there are a lot of people who know of Jesus, but they really do not know Him.
• Throughout the ages people have claimed various ways to prove or reassure themselves that they know Jesus. In the days of John, a group called the Gnostics claimed they “knew” Jesus because of a special revelation of knowledge they claimed to possess.
• Today we have the same thinking going with some. There are a few other ways that people claim they know Jesus.
• Is there a difference in knowing Him and knowing Him? I believe there is.
• How do I know if I really know Jesus? Today I pose the question speaking of Jesus, “Do You Know Me?”
• Today I want us to look at what it really means to know Him and how we can know if we really know Him or just know of Him.
• Today we are going to look at three myths concerning how we can know if we know Him followed by a great result of really knowing Him.
• Let’s turn to 1 John 2:3-6 for today’s text.
SLIDE #
SERMON
Knowing Him is:
I. MORE THAN AN INTELLECTUAL PURSUIT, IT IS ABOUT BEING OBEDIENT.
• One of John’s favorite words based on the number of times he uses it in this letter (about 40 times) and the 60 some odd times he uses the word in the gospel of John.
• What does it mean to “know” Jesus?
• For many, it boils down to knowing all the facts thy can about Jesus. It becomes an intellectual pursuit.
• Intellectual pursuits are not a bad thing, we should learn as much as we can about the Savior we have given our lives to.
• But there is more to knowing Jesus than being able to win a bible trivia game about Him.
• I have come across people who would almost boast to me about how they USED to be a Sunday School teacher, but now when you look at them, they are not even a part of a local Church.
• The Gnostics that I mentioned in the introduction thought that because they claimed to have secret knowledge about Jesus, that they really knew Jesus.
• The problem with boiling your relationship with Jesus down to an intellectual pursuit is the fact that an intellectual pursuit is void of any morality. This does not mean they are evil, but just accumulating facts about something in itself does not change you or spur you on to love and live the way Jesus would want.
• We have more information in the public about the problems drugs, tobacco, alcohol and sexually transmitted diseases, yet the knowledge of these bad things in themselves does not change much as far as behavior, there needs to be more to change a life. Why in the world would a person even consider starting to smoke, or take that first hit of meth?
• As I spent time with Robyn, I got to know her. My goal in spending time with her was not to learn all the facts I could about her, it was to know her, Robyn the person.
• I used to be able to tell you all the facts about Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, and other ball players, but I did not know them!
• I used to get really disappointed in a person who went to Bible College, and then years later to see them not serving the Lord faithfully or rarely if ever seeing them darken the doorstep of a church. I used to wonder how a person who knew so much about Jesus, God and the Bible could EVER stop serving Him or ever let their relationship with Him drop to the point it seemingly meant nothing until I came to understand that knowing Jesus is more that retaining facts about Him, it is more than what I can tell you on a Bible Content test you take before entering some Bible Colleges.
• The word “know” means to perceive, to understand completely. It is far more than just recognizing the facts about Jesus or a mere acquaintance with the person of Jesus.
• Taken to the level that God wants us to take it to, knowing Jesus involves complete acceptance of God’s sovereignty or power and the subsequent yielding to His divine will! It means that we wholly commit ourselves to Him!
• SLIDE # Notice verse 3 tells us that if we know Him we will keep His commandments!
• This keeping means we are actively complying with what He wants from us. It means we habitually keep or as we keep on keeping His commandments.
• What I know does not mean a whole lot unless it leads me down the path of obedience.
• I was watching Forensic Files on Court TV the other night. This preacher who was a PHD was actively cheating on his wife and he finally was convicted of killing her. It was surmised that killing her was better if he could get away with it because a divorce would hurt his ministry!
• The Religious leaders of Jesus day knew a lot of things about God, but for some it never affected their life, it was knowledge for pride sake.
• Fact finding is just part of the process of knowing God, John says if we KNOW God, we will be obedient to Him. SLIDE #
Knowing Him is:
II. MORE THAN WHAT YOU SAY, IT IS ABOUT BEING OBEDIENT.
• Verse 4 takes us to our next observation concerning knowing God. Knowing God is more than what you say with your mouth!
• How many times have you heard someone profess Jesus, and then you see no effort, no faith, or no love in what they do.
• For some, if they say it enough, it becomes a reality to them.
• I can tell people I am a major league pitcher all I want to, but what I say does not change reality, which is I am NOT and never will be or could be.
• Once again, we are not talking about the everyday struggles we have living for Jesus. We ALL experience bumps and potholes in the road.
• The word “says” indicates a person who continually says they have come to know God. This person claims to be one with God, yet lives an ungodly life while continually saying they know God while they continually are disobedient to Him. SLIDE #
• Titus 1:15-16 says: 15To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 16They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.
• Once again we are at this pesky keep the commandments statement.
• I wonder where we EVER got the idea we can serve Jesus and NOT be obedient to Him.
• We are told in this verse that if we say we have come to know Him and do not keep His commands, we are a liar and the truth is not in us.
• Why do you think John uses such strong language? It is because this is a serious matter!
• James speaks about how important it is to show your faith verses just talking about it. SLIDE #
• READ JAMES 2:14-18. Slide verse 18
• SLIDE # James 2:19 says: 19You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
• There is more to knowing Jesus than just saying you know Him, it takes obedience.
SLIDE #
Knowing Him is:
III. MORE THAN A MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE, IT IS ABOUT BEING OBEDIENT.
• In verse 6 John subtly deals with those who claim to have a special revelation or experience with Jesus and as a result they know Him.
• In John’s day it was not uncommon for people to look for a special or extraordinary experience as proof of a relationship with Jesus.
• We are not too much different today. We have many who claim a special relationship with Jesus because they had some special or mystical experience with Him.
• I worked with a person in the factory who claimed this great relationship with God because she claimed to have a spiritual gift, but when you looked at the fruits of her life, the tree was pretty barren.
• I have known folks who claim they saw the light because they died on the table, but when it was all said and done, did the experience draw them closer to Jesus?
• John says that if one abides in Jesus, they are to walk in the same manner.
• To abide means more than to be in Him, it includes remaining in Him, a permanent and intimate association, not a temporary or superficial union, but one that lasts!
• The word “ought” means that we have a moral obligation to exhibit the basis of our profession. It denotes that we own God a debt and part of our response is to walk in the same manner as Jesus did.
• Somewhere along the line people have the mistaken idea that salvation is without obligation. There have ALWAYS been expectations of God for man to fulfill once we accept God’s terms of salvation and the subsequent blessings and privileges.
• An mystical experience or a special gift whether real or perceived does not mean we know God, if we abide in Him, then we make ever effort to live as Jesus did.
SLIDE #
Knowing Him results in:
IV. OUR LOVE FOR HIM BEING PERFECTED, BECAUSE OF BEING OBEDIENT.
• Verse 5 gives us a positive result from being obedient to our calling to follow Jesus as He wants us to. Our love for Him is perfected!
• To love means we have gone beyond just “knowing” Him, we have taken our relationship to new heights.
• The word perfect means to “stand complete”. It does not mean without a flaw, but that our live is mature, a mature love brings about consistency in practice. We complete our faith-directed life by being faithful to Him!
• The love we experience toward Jesus is one that we continuously grow and develop as we continue to be obedient to Him.
• If we do not want to obey God, we DO NOT LOVE Him or our love is very immature at best.
• A child or teen who DOESNOT want to be obedient to their parents (most of the time) does not love their parents, they love themselves more.
• When we do not want to obey God, we love ourselves more than God at this time.
• True knowledge of God doesn’t end with ideas and promises but with obedience.
• Verse 5 tells us by this we will know we are “IN” Him. The word “IN” reflects the deepest of relationship. By keeping God’s word, we prove that we are in a proper relationship with Him. We go from knowing to loving to being “IN” Him!
• To know Him is to have the highest intimacy of all spiritual relationships, being one with Jesus!
CONCLUSION
• How can you know if you KNOW Jesus? It is simple, there are two things we can look at, do we do what He says and do we live how He wants us to live?
• I did not speak about spiritual disciplines like reading the word, prayer, meditation and so forth.
• Those things MUST be an important part of your life or you will NEVER get to the point of knowing enough about the God we serve to understand Him.
• Without reading the word and prayer, we will never develop the trust we need in order to obey Him in the first place.
• Today we give you the opportunity to make Jesus the Lord of Your life!
• I hope that today is the day that you will commit to having a healthy growing relationship with Jesus!
