Knowing Jesus
Bible Study Time 4-30-06
Church links:
Bible Study Time 4-30-06
For the past few weeks, our young people and children at the Peace Church have been working in a unit of study entitled, “Knowing Jesus.” Many people are content to know only the Jesus of secular history and archeology, while others know only the Jesus of popular novels and movies. But what a blessing it is to look into the Bible and see what God’s word says about who Jesus really is.
When Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I am?”, they answered, “Some say you’re John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the other prophets who has come back from the dead.” In this we see that Jesus was as controversial in His own day as He is today. Immediately after their reply, Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?”, and this is the question that every person since the time of Christ has had to answer for himself.
The people of Jesus day believed that Jesus was a great prophet, and people today say pretty much the same thing. They say, yes, Jesus was a great prophet, or He was a great teacher, but they’re content to leave it at that. However, if Jesus was a great teacher then surely we should listen to what He taught. In John 14, the Lord told Philip, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” In John 10:30, Jesus declared to the multitudes:
John 10:30 (NKJ)
30 "I and My Father are one."
Clearly, Jesus taught that He was one with God, the Father, but John 10 goes on to say that when the Jews took up stones to stone Jesus, Jesus said:
John 10:32-34,37,38 (NKJ)
32 . . . "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?"
33 The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God."
34 (Then) Jesus answered them,
37 "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;
38 "but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him."
Jesus said, if you can’t believe my words, then take a look at my works. If my works are from God then surely you must believe that I am from God. He said, believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me.
Who else but God could heal the lame, give sight to the blind and raise the dead? Oh, how He pleaded with the Jews to at least take a look at the miracles and believe, but when all was said and done, Jesus came unto His own and His own received Him not.
While Jesus was on the earth, even the disciples did not know the full extent of who Jesus really was. The disciples saw the mighty works of the Lord Jesus and believed that He was the Son of God. When Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?”, Peter confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
The word Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word, Messiah, which means “the anointed one”. Therefore, Peter was confessing that Jesus was God’s anointed One, the promised Messiah. The Jews had been waiting for the promised Messiah since the time of Abraham for God had promised to send a person who would deliver them from their enemies and raise them up to be a blessing to all of the nations of the earth.
They knew that the Messiah would be a person who was sent from God, but few if any really understood that He would be God in the flesh. However, this was not something they had to understand in order to be saved. All they had to believe was that Jesus was the promised Messiah who was the Son of God. Jesus said:
John 3:36 (NKJ)
36 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
Some 60 years after the death of Christ, the Apostle John spoke of Jesus and said:
John 1:1,3,4 (NKJ)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
How John had grown in his knowledge of Jesus. As John wrote these words, I can just imagine him looking back on his time with the Lord, thinking, “Lord, if only I had known who you really were, I would have worshiped you and served you with a greater sense of appreciation and gratitude.”
Those of us who know the Lord should ask ourselves if we are growing in our knowledge of Christ. God wants us to know Jesus more completely, more fully, as we journey through this life. The better we know Him, the more effective will be our worship and our service.
As the disciples walked with the Lord, none of them could have imagined that Jesus was actually Jehovah God of creation. It was not until after the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ that the Apostle Paul said:
Colossians 1:15-16 (NKJ)
15 (Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
The disciples believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and because of their faith in Him, they were given eternal life. They did not know that He was the God of creation, and neither did they know that He had come to offer His blood as the sacrifice for sin. Luke, Chapter 18, says:
Luke 18:31-34 (NKJ)
31 (Jesus) took the twelve aside and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.
32 "For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon.
33 "They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again." (But then in the next verse it says)
34 (the disciples) understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.
For people today to be saved by faith, they have to believe that Jesus Christ died for their sins, but that was not the case while Jesus was on the earth, and neither was it the case as the Apostles ministered in the early part of the book of Acts. At the time of the last supper, Jesus spoke of the purpose of His shed blood.
Matthew 26:26-29 (NKJ)
26 . . . as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."
27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you.
28 "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
29 "But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom."
Jesus was speaking as the Messiah, saying that He must shed the blood of the New Covenant before the kingdom could come. He said that this blood of the New Covenant was His blood and that it was to be shed for the remission of sins. Again, the disciples were blinded to the significance of His words.
It was not until the Apostle Paul came along that the gospel as we know it today was revealed. In Romans, Chapter 3, Paul said:
Romans 3:25-26 (NIV)
25 God presented (Christ) as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. (God) did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--
26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
The blood of Jesus allows God to forgive the sins of those who believe. If God on a whim decided to forgive the sins of some while refusing to forgive the sins of others, that would be unjust, that would be unfair, and praise the Lord, God can not tolerate injustice. Therefore, He gave His Son as a sacrifice for sin so that He could be just in His forgiveness of the sins of those who believe in Jesus.
So as we think of knowing Jesus, we see that Jesus did mighty miracles while He was on the earth to prove that He was the only begotten Son of God. While Jesus was on the earth and during the early years after His resurrection, people were saved by believing that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah. Today, God calls us to believe that Jesus offered His blood as the payment for sin. Paul said:
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel . . .
2 by which . . . you are saved . . .
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
But as we study the book of Ephesians, we see that there is another aspect of Jesus that we need to understand if we are going to really know Jesus today. In Ephesians 1, Paul says:
Ephesians 1:22-23
22 (God has) put all things under (Christ’s) feet, and (has given) Him to be head over all things to the church,
23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Here we see that an understanding of the fullness of Christ must include the knowledge of His role as the Head of the Church which is His Body. Today, all believers are members of God’s glorious heavenly Church. This Church is not an earthly organization, but it’s a living organism. It’s the Body of Christ.
As members of the Body of Christ, we have the opportunity to know Christ in a way that believers of others ages could not have imagined. We can revel in the fact that He is the God of creation, and yet He was willing to leave heaven to take a body of flesh to die for the sins of the world. We can rest in the awesome realization that Jesus Christ is the God who transcends all of the earthly types and figures of the Old Testament Law. We can see that these types and figures were merely shadows of Christ. Today we move beyond the shadows to the substance of Christ. Paul said in Colossians 2:
Colossians 2:16-19 (NKJ)
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
As members of the Church which is the Body of Christ, we have the opportunity to come to Christ, not on the basis of miracles which we have seen but on the basis of faith in God’s word. Jesus said to Thomas:
John 20:29 (NKJ)
29 " . . . because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”, and He is asking you and me that same question today. Who do you say that Jesus is? Your answer to that question will determine your relationship to Christ as you live this life, and it will determine your eternal destiny.
If you don’t know Jesus Christ this morning as the One who came to die for your sins, you can first of all acknowledge these facts, and then you can make it personal by getting on your knees and saying, “God, I need to be saved. I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and I’m asking you to forgive my sins because Jesus died for my sins on the cross.” If you pray this prayer, God will save you and give you eternal life.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
When Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do men say that I am?”, they answered, “Some say you’re John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the other prophets who has come back from the dead.” In this we see that Jesus was as controversial in His own day as He is today. Immediately after their reply, Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?”, and this is the question that every person since the time of Christ has had to answer for himself.
The people of Jesus day believed that Jesus was a great prophet, and people today say pretty much the same thing. They say, yes, Jesus was a great prophet, or He was a great teacher, but they’re content to leave it at that. However, if Jesus was a great teacher then surely we should listen to what He taught. In John 14, the Lord told Philip, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” In John 10:30, Jesus declared to the multitudes:
John 10:30 (NKJ)
30 "I and My Father are one."
Clearly, Jesus taught that He was one with God, the Father, but John 10 goes on to say that when the Jews took up stones to stone Jesus, Jesus said:
John 10:32-34,37,38 (NKJ)
32 . . . "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?"
33 The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God."
34 (Then) Jesus answered them,
37 "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;
38 "but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him."
Jesus said, if you can’t believe my words, then take a look at my works. If my works are from God then surely you must believe that I am from God. He said, believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me.
Who else but God could heal the lame, give sight to the blind and raise the dead? Oh, how He pleaded with the Jews to at least take a look at the miracles and believe, but when all was said and done, Jesus came unto His own and His own received Him not.
While Jesus was on the earth, even the disciples did not know the full extent of who Jesus really was. The disciples saw the mighty works of the Lord Jesus and believed that He was the Son of God. When Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?”, Peter confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
The word Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word, Messiah, which means “the anointed one”. Therefore, Peter was confessing that Jesus was God’s anointed One, the promised Messiah. The Jews had been waiting for the promised Messiah since the time of Abraham for God had promised to send a person who would deliver them from their enemies and raise them up to be a blessing to all of the nations of the earth.
They knew that the Messiah would be a person who was sent from God, but few if any really understood that He would be God in the flesh. However, this was not something they had to understand in order to be saved. All they had to believe was that Jesus was the promised Messiah who was the Son of God. Jesus said:
John 3:36 (NKJ)
36 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
Some 60 years after the death of Christ, the Apostle John spoke of Jesus and said:
John 1:1,3,4 (NKJ)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
How John had grown in his knowledge of Jesus. As John wrote these words, I can just imagine him looking back on his time with the Lord, thinking, “Lord, if only I had known who you really were, I would have worshiped you and served you with a greater sense of appreciation and gratitude.”
Those of us who know the Lord should ask ourselves if we are growing in our knowledge of Christ. God wants us to know Jesus more completely, more fully, as we journey through this life. The better we know Him, the more effective will be our worship and our service.
As the disciples walked with the Lord, none of them could have imagined that Jesus was actually Jehovah God of creation. It was not until after the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ that the Apostle Paul said:
Colossians 1:15-16 (NKJ)
15 (Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
The disciples believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and because of their faith in Him, they were given eternal life. They did not know that He was the God of creation, and neither did they know that He had come to offer His blood as the sacrifice for sin. Luke, Chapter 18, says:
Luke 18:31-34 (NKJ)
31 (Jesus) took the twelve aside and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.
32 "For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon.
33 "They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again." (But then in the next verse it says)
34 (the disciples) understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.
For people today to be saved by faith, they have to believe that Jesus Christ died for their sins, but that was not the case while Jesus was on the earth, and neither was it the case as the Apostles ministered in the early part of the book of Acts. At the time of the last supper, Jesus spoke of the purpose of His shed blood.
Matthew 26:26-29 (NKJ)
26 . . . as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."
27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you.
28 "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
29 "But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom."
Jesus was speaking as the Messiah, saying that He must shed the blood of the New Covenant before the kingdom could come. He said that this blood of the New Covenant was His blood and that it was to be shed for the remission of sins. Again, the disciples were blinded to the significance of His words.
It was not until the Apostle Paul came along that the gospel as we know it today was revealed. In Romans, Chapter 3, Paul said:
Romans 3:25-26 (NIV)
25 God presented (Christ) as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. (God) did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--
26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
The blood of Jesus allows God to forgive the sins of those who believe. If God on a whim decided to forgive the sins of some while refusing to forgive the sins of others, that would be unjust, that would be unfair, and praise the Lord, God can not tolerate injustice. Therefore, He gave His Son as a sacrifice for sin so that He could be just in His forgiveness of the sins of those who believe in Jesus.
So as we think of knowing Jesus, we see that Jesus did mighty miracles while He was on the earth to prove that He was the only begotten Son of God. While Jesus was on the earth and during the early years after His resurrection, people were saved by believing that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah. Today, God calls us to believe that Jesus offered His blood as the payment for sin. Paul said:
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel . . .
2 by which . . . you are saved . . .
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
But as we study the book of Ephesians, we see that there is another aspect of Jesus that we need to understand if we are going to really know Jesus today. In Ephesians 1, Paul says:
Ephesians 1:22-23
22 (God has) put all things under (Christ’s) feet, and (has given) Him to be head over all things to the church,
23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Here we see that an understanding of the fullness of Christ must include the knowledge of His role as the Head of the Church which is His Body. Today, all believers are members of God’s glorious heavenly Church. This Church is not an earthly organization, but it’s a living organism. It’s the Body of Christ.
As members of the Body of Christ, we have the opportunity to know Christ in a way that believers of others ages could not have imagined. We can revel in the fact that He is the God of creation, and yet He was willing to leave heaven to take a body of flesh to die for the sins of the world. We can rest in the awesome realization that Jesus Christ is the God who transcends all of the earthly types and figures of the Old Testament Law. We can see that these types and figures were merely shadows of Christ. Today we move beyond the shadows to the substance of Christ. Paul said in Colossians 2:
Colossians 2:16-19 (NKJ)
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
As members of the Church which is the Body of Christ, we have the opportunity to come to Christ, not on the basis of miracles which we have seen but on the basis of faith in God’s word. Jesus said to Thomas:
John 20:29 (NKJ)
29 " . . . because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”, and He is asking you and me that same question today. Who do you say that Jesus is? Your answer to that question will determine your relationship to Christ as you live this life, and it will determine your eternal destiny.
If you don’t know Jesus Christ this morning as the One who came to die for your sins, you can first of all acknowledge these facts, and then you can make it personal by getting on your knees and saying, “God, I need to be saved. I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and I’m asking you to forgive my sins because Jesus died for my sins on the cross.” If you pray this prayer, God will save you and give you eternal life.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
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