Knowing Jesus is different to knowing about Jesus. Jesus said,
"I am the way and the truth and the life.”
John 14:6 (NIV)
He is not ‘a’ truth, He is the truth. In our westernised thinking, we are expecting the truth to be a formula, a philosophy, or an equation, but it is not. The truth is a person. Discovering Jesus is discovering what life is all about – why we are here, the origin of life, and our destiny. Jesus is the truth about our existence.
Jesus is also the life – the energy factor, the enthusiasm, the zest of life. That is Jesus in you.
He is the way, the pathway in which we navigate through every situation in life - the difficult, the challenging – whatever it is, there is a way through Jesus! When you invite Jesus into your life, you are bringing in all that He is, as He describes himself – the way, the truth, and the life, the vine, the bread of life, the door. Jesus is the door. When you meet a wall of opposition or refusal, put Jesus in there, and you put a door in the wall. You will find there is access to possibilities in your seemingly impossible circumstances.
When you get to know Jesus, you will be drawn into the depths of God’s wisdom and understanding so that you begin to see with fresh eyes all that God is. Before the apostle Paul met Jesus, he was known as Saul, the great persecutor of Christians, “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples”. Acts 9:1 (NIV) “Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.” Acts 8:3 (NIV) Jesus met Saul on the road to Damascus and blinded him with His great light. “He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’” Acts 9:4 (NIV) After Saul’s life-changing, transformative encounter with Christ, he goes on to write “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ” Phil 3:8 (NLT) and “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death,”. Phil 3:10 (NLT)
“Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!”
Psalm 34:8 (NLT)
People may tell you all about Jesus, but you need to taste for yourself and you will see that the experience of knowing Jesus tops everything else in this life. When you have found Him, you will count everything else in your life as valueless in comparison to the worth of knowing Jesus as your Lord and saviour. In order to know Jesus, we need to spend quality time with Him, spend time with the Lord. We need to give Him our undivided attention. Put your electronic device away and try to start with devoting 30 minutes of uninterrupted time basking in God’s presence. Mark 12:30 (NLT) tells us “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.”
SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT
- Discuss the difference between knowing about Jesus and actually knowing Jesus and what that means to you?
- Reflect on a time when you have experienced a transformation in your life from knowing Jesus intimately
- What is the next step for you to take that will lead you to a closer relationship with Jesus?
- Can you think of anyone in your life with whom you can share the life-changing experience of knowing Jesus?
