It sounds relatively simple. “Get to know Jesus.” But how do you actually do that?
I knew how to worship Jesus, obey Jesus’ words, have faith in Jesus. But get to know Him as a person? Is that even possible?
What I have found is that it is not only possible, it is the main reason Jesus says, “Follow Me.” He wants us to literally come with Him and get to know Him.
Here’s how you start:
1) Ask Jesus in which Gospel He would like to meet you.
You can make it sound like a prayer. But that’s not necessary. Just ask Him and wait til He pops the answer into your mind. Jesus is risen from the dead and already with you all the time. He’s just waiting for you to realize that. He wants to tell you things and show you things that will change you from the inside out. But we have to come to Him and then come with Him so He can. One of the main ways He gains access into our hearts and minds is through the words He left in the Bible. The Spirit of God literally comes into the realm of human beings through those words. So, ask Jesus where He wants to meet you in the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.
2) Now, open a Bible to that Gospel and literally join the crowds following Jesus.
Come up to the fringe of all those people surrounding Jesus and start listening to what Jesus is actually saying. Watch what He is actually doing. Just like the people around you in the crowd, wrestle with what you see and hear from Him. Allow yourself to realize that what He is saying He is saying to you and that He is requiring a response from you. Will you believe Him? Will you follow Him? Because if you will…
What I have found over the years is that the people who have the hardest time with this are church-going Christians. We have built up so much presumption around Jesus and have so successfully nipped and tucked Jesus to conform to our religious preferences, that we have a hard time simply listening to what Jesus actually says and watching what Jesus actually does.
But if we can realize this and repent of it, the Kingdom of God is already near. You are ready to get to know Jesus.
Tomorrow we will look at what will happen as we get to know Jesus in the Gospels.
What happens when you follow Jesus around in the Gospels? You get to know Him.
When we join the crowds following Jesus around, when we join the inner circle of disciples, when we watch what is going on and wrestle with what He is actually saying, we are letting Jesus Himself disciple us.
This is a simple but profound point for those who would follow Jesus: You need to put yourself into position to let Jesus disciple you.
That’s why the first step in being a Jesus-follower is planting yourself in one of the Gospels and getting to know Jesus. We are literally giving Jesus access to our minds and lives by listening to and watching Him. His Spirit is literally let loose through His words (in the Gospels) to start His formational (read “discipling”) work in our minds and lives.
Then there is this other simple but profound point: The better you get to know Jesus in the Gospels, the better you will be able to recognize Him at work around you today.
When we follow Jesus around in the Gospels we become so familiar with what He did do (in the Gospels) that we begin to recognize what He is doingaround us right now. And we can join Him.
We will talk about that in a few days when we look at the Kingdom of God coming near.
So, how do you get to know Jesus?
So here’s a recap of what we’ve discovered so far:
1) If we get to know Jesus in the Gospels we will be able to more accurately recognize Him around us today.
2) When we recognize Him around us today, we will be able to follow Him, join Him, be a part of His Kingdom coming (more on this tomorrow).
So, get to know Jesus, recognize Jesus, follow Jesus. (By the way, the more you follow Jesus, the more you’ll recognize Jesus and get to know Jesus!)
Today, though, let’s talk about one of the questions I am asked the most: ”I feel like I am getting to know Jesus in the Gospels. I feel like my relationship with Him is so much more real now that I spend some time with Him in a Gospel each day. But once I go out the front door into my day, how do I recognize Jesus in the world? How do I know it’s Jesus and not my over-fertile imagination?”
Good question.
Lots of crazy stuff happens because people “think” God wants them to do something.
So, how do you know it’s Jesus?
Quick answer? If you benefit from it, if it lifts you above others, if it brings glory to you? Exercise extreme caution. But if it costs you something, if it’s hard, if it requires you to humble yourself for the good of another? It’s probably Jesus. Start with that.
We could go to all kinds of places in the Gospels to verify this: John 1:14 (then expanded in Philippians 2), Matthew 16, John 13, Luke 15, Matthew 25, etc. But I would like to take us to the beginning of the Gospel of Mark and then to the end.
Mark 1:1 says, “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” It’s an easy nuance to miss, but did you realize that not once throughout the rest of the Gospel of Mark is Jesus recognized as the Son of God by a human being until Mark 15:39. “And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard His cry and saw how He died, he said, ‘Surely this man was the Son of God!’”
Jesus is recognized as the Son of God by demons (Mark 3:11) and, of course, by God the Father (Mark 1:11). But no human, no disciple, really understands that Jesus is God the Son until He is hanging dead, sacrificed, given away on the cross.
If you want to learn how to recognize Jesus, go to where life is needed. If you want to learn how to preceive the Jesus of the Gospels in the world today, go be with people who need redemption, help, hope, and forgiveness. When you give yourself up, when you have to take up a basin to wash feet, when you have the cross laying at your feet and you’re wondering if this is Jesus prompting you to pick it up and follow… pick it up.
You’ve just recognized Jesus.
“The Kingdom of God is near you.”
This was the core message of Jesus. Everything He said and taught came through the lens of this new reality He came into the world to announce. He was saying that the reality of God’s presence and working has come to you. It is within reach of you. It is all around you. It is able to be perceived and recognized by those who would seek it out.
God is breaking into the realm of human beings all the time and God the Son tells us exactly how to recognize it.
All we have to do is listen to what He is actually saying. That’s why it is so important to really plant ourselves in the Gospels and follow Jesus around there. Jesus tells us everything we need to know. John 15:15, “…for everything that I learned from My Father I have made known to you.” Matthew 11:29, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.” Keep following Jesus, keep listening, keep wrestling with His Words. “Whoever has will be given more,” Mark 4:25.
So how does Jesus say we can recognize Him and His Kingdom coming into the realm of human beings? How does He say He will show up? How does He say we can perceive the Kingdom breaking through?
It is not usually in big, showy, spectacular ways. The Last Day, when the Kingdom comes in finality and the old order of things passes away, yeah, that will be big and showy and spectacular. But today? Right now around you? Right now within you?
Jesus says it will most often be in little ways.
The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed… the smallest seed. The Kingdom of God is like a pinch of yeast… starting out small. The Kingdom of God comes in the faces of hungry people and hurting people… whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. The Kingdom of God comes near when you speak a word of Hope or Truth to someone who needs it. The Kingdom of God comes when you sit down and listen to the one who needs such compassion. The Kingdom of God is near when you feel that tension between hurrying on by and coming on over to someone bloodied and beaten by life and in need of the oil and wine of grace. The Kingdom of God is near when you feel that tension between getting busy with preparations for the day and choosing the “one thing” needed, sitting at the feet of Jesus and talking with Him and receiving from Him before we enter the day.
This isn’t all, but it gives you the idea.
Jesus is at work all around us and within us. He shows us how to recognize Him. The Kingdom of God is near. Seek first His Kingdom.
Like the blind man, when Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” let us reply, “Rabbi, I want to see.”
Be sure to check out Greg's Web Site - www.dwelling114.org
The following are blog posts from Pastor Greg Finke. His ministry Dwelling 114 is focused on setting up missional communities as avenues for people to hear the gospel and come to know Jesus. He is on the cutting edge of mission work to this generation in twenty-first century, post-church, America.
No comments:
Post a Comment