Exposing Jesus
"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being." -Hebrews 1:3
One afternoon, a month or so ago, I was sitting in Panera writing the beginnings of a new book. As I sat there reflecting on my past and the project before me I was suddenly aware of what a dim view I had of Jesus, not just in the past, but even as I sat there. Who is He really? Oh yes, I know Him as Savior, and Lord of my life. But who is He? What is His personality? Is my view of Him correct? Am I getting to really KNOW Him, or do I spend more time reading ABOUT Him? Jesus has a desire to have a very close intimate relationship with those that the Father gave Him to die for. He knows everything about us, but many of us as believers have failed in getting to know Jesus, we've thought that knowing Him would just kind of happen, like waking up. But like every relationship it takes work, it takes time, you have to fight for it. So from that afternoon on I committed to "expose Jesus" and believe me it's been work! And I have been so excited to finally be able to write this to you so that you too can get excited about finding who Jesus is, and encourage you to know Him! Dig into His Word for yourself and find Him, let Him show himself to you. There is so much to be found.
One of the first things God led me to do these past few weeks is to read through the Gospels again, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. As I read I paid close attention to certain words, especially words that were repeated a lot. These were people that were eyewitness to Jesus' ministry here on Earth, Matthew and John were of the 12 close disciples who followed closely to Jesus. In the Gospels we see unique sides of Jesus. Matthew ties the Old Testament up with New Testament in that the word "fulfilled" is emphasized throughout the whole book, His gospel is known as the Kingdom Gospel. Then we move to Mark, he was a friend of Paul, and both were missionaries to Rome. Mark exposes the servant Jesus, you read throughout his book, ...and He (Jesus) did this... In the book of Luke we see the man Jesus being exposed. Luke was a doctor so he noticed things that a doctor would notice in man and records it. Then we come to John, this is my favorite Gospel. John exposes the Son, Jesus. John was the disciple "whom Jesus loved." This is where we find a very true representation of Jesus in my opinion. In the book He is exposed as who He has always been, the Son of God. That is who I wanted to catch a glimpse of.
We often treat God differently by telling Him how He can or can't act, especially when we pray. We are a name it and claim it kind of generation. This shows what a dim view we have of God. How we interpret His intentions for us is through our own personal filters, and not allowing God to show us who He really is. We can recall that the first time God was asked to reveal Himself, He said, "I AM." (Exodus 3:14) He is who He says He is. When we see Jesus revealed in the Gospels predominately, we are seeing God revealed too. However, most believers do not grab hold of this, including me at one time. There is a disconnect between what we read in the Bible, and how we relate to Him. There are a lot of reasons as to why this is. We have cultural lenses that blind us, that in itself is a whole other realm, and post for another day. But in the way of Jesus' personality, we must understand that He never changes. He is the same forever and always, always has been, always will be.
The cool thing about Jesus is how He reveals the Father, He becomes a specific image to who God is. We can say God, but it's such a loose term, people see themselves as 'god' there are gods in idols, here a god, there a god, everywhere a god. But the true living and reigning, who has been forever God is shown and exposed through Jesus specific to His character, His personality, His love, everything. The Son, and the Father are one, and are equal. Again, another post. People in general are ok with the term God, because He seems so distant, and He seems safe. But then we are introduced to Jesus, and He is not so distant, or safe, He is face to face all up in your business, Jesus. John records Jesus as saying, When you see me, you see the Father.
Don't miss Jesus. To do so stunts our growth in Him, and our relationship with Him. We will never correctly understand His work. Read what is really there in the Bible. Forget all preconceived ideas that you have about Jesus, the mind is deceptive. Read with your heart, and the Holy Spirit will start to interpret and teach and reveal the true Jesus. You see because the Holy Spirit is equal to Jesus, and to God. Wow! As Mark Driscoll puts it, we like to picture Jesus riding on a unicorn, over rainbows, and pretty flowing hair in the breeze, skipping and holding hands...just imaginary stuff. No! He disturbed a lot of people, especially the Pharisee's and the Saducee's. He is radical, and not the cool kind of like "dude that's rad." He is true. Pilate asked Jesus before handing Him over to be crucified, "What is truth?" He was looking at it. Jesus. That is the quest philosophy pursues. Truth. Jesus declared in John that, "I AM the truth." There is so much more that He Is. We can never know it all, not until Heaven.
When we know Jesus for who He really is, is enables us to trust Him more. We don't trust people we don't know, that's just not smart. Don't stay content in a bland view of Jesus. He isn't bland, and the more you believe that He is, that means Christianity is bland, and Christianity isn't bland, because that would mean Christians are bland, and we aren't bland.
In closing, may I warn you about the enemy?! Since Satan was thrown out of Heaven with a 1/3 of the angels, the agenda has been to prevent the exposing of Jesus, and for Him to be known. If the most important thing in life is knowing Jesus, Satan is totally against it. He will continue to do everything in his power to blind, and deceive people. Again in John Jesus warns that the enemy comes to "steal, kill, and destroy." He stops at nothing. My sister reminded me yesterday as we talked, Satan has no limits, he does not stop and consider that things might be to evil, or to sinful, or to mean. He limits himself to nothing, and uses all the resources, and people he can. Don't keep being blind. Just as Jesus asked the blind man if He wanted to see, Jesus is asking you today, do you want to see me for real? Allow God to heal and restore your sight so you can have a clear view on who He is, who you are as His follower, and how you can expose Jesus using your life.
One afternoon, a month or so ago, I was sitting in Panera writing the beginnings of a new book. As I sat there reflecting on my past and the project before me I was suddenly aware of what a dim view I had of Jesus, not just in the past, but even as I sat there. Who is He really? Oh yes, I know Him as Savior, and Lord of my life. But who is He? What is His personality? Is my view of Him correct? Am I getting to really KNOW Him, or do I spend more time reading ABOUT Him? Jesus has a desire to have a very close intimate relationship with those that the Father gave Him to die for. He knows everything about us, but many of us as believers have failed in getting to know Jesus, we've thought that knowing Him would just kind of happen, like waking up. But like every relationship it takes work, it takes time, you have to fight for it. So from that afternoon on I committed to "expose Jesus" and believe me it's been work! And I have been so excited to finally be able to write this to you so that you too can get excited about finding who Jesus is, and encourage you to know Him! Dig into His Word for yourself and find Him, let Him show himself to you. There is so much to be found.
One of the first things God led me to do these past few weeks is to read through the Gospels again, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. As I read I paid close attention to certain words, especially words that were repeated a lot. These were people that were eyewitness to Jesus' ministry here on Earth, Matthew and John were of the 12 close disciples who followed closely to Jesus. In the Gospels we see unique sides of Jesus. Matthew ties the Old Testament up with New Testament in that the word "fulfilled" is emphasized throughout the whole book, His gospel is known as the Kingdom Gospel. Then we move to Mark, he was a friend of Paul, and both were missionaries to Rome. Mark exposes the servant Jesus, you read throughout his book, ...and He (Jesus) did this... In the book of Luke we see the man Jesus being exposed. Luke was a doctor so he noticed things that a doctor would notice in man and records it. Then we come to John, this is my favorite Gospel. John exposes the Son, Jesus. John was the disciple "whom Jesus loved." This is where we find a very true representation of Jesus in my opinion. In the book He is exposed as who He has always been, the Son of God. That is who I wanted to catch a glimpse of.
We often treat God differently by telling Him how He can or can't act, especially when we pray. We are a name it and claim it kind of generation. This shows what a dim view we have of God. How we interpret His intentions for us is through our own personal filters, and not allowing God to show us who He really is. We can recall that the first time God was asked to reveal Himself, He said, "I AM." (Exodus 3:14) He is who He says He is. When we see Jesus revealed in the Gospels predominately, we are seeing God revealed too. However, most believers do not grab hold of this, including me at one time. There is a disconnect between what we read in the Bible, and how we relate to Him. There are a lot of reasons as to why this is. We have cultural lenses that blind us, that in itself is a whole other realm, and post for another day. But in the way of Jesus' personality, we must understand that He never changes. He is the same forever and always, always has been, always will be.
The cool thing about Jesus is how He reveals the Father, He becomes a specific image to who God is. We can say God, but it's such a loose term, people see themselves as 'god' there are gods in idols, here a god, there a god, everywhere a god. But the true living and reigning, who has been forever God is shown and exposed through Jesus specific to His character, His personality, His love, everything. The Son, and the Father are one, and are equal. Again, another post. People in general are ok with the term God, because He seems so distant, and He seems safe. But then we are introduced to Jesus, and He is not so distant, or safe, He is face to face all up in your business, Jesus. John records Jesus as saying, When you see me, you see the Father.
Don't miss Jesus. To do so stunts our growth in Him, and our relationship with Him. We will never correctly understand His work. Read what is really there in the Bible. Forget all preconceived ideas that you have about Jesus, the mind is deceptive. Read with your heart, and the Holy Spirit will start to interpret and teach and reveal the true Jesus. You see because the Holy Spirit is equal to Jesus, and to God. Wow! As Mark Driscoll puts it, we like to picture Jesus riding on a unicorn, over rainbows, and pretty flowing hair in the breeze, skipping and holding hands...just imaginary stuff. No! He disturbed a lot of people, especially the Pharisee's and the Saducee's. He is radical, and not the cool kind of like "dude that's rad." He is true. Pilate asked Jesus before handing Him over to be crucified, "What is truth?" He was looking at it. Jesus. That is the quest philosophy pursues. Truth. Jesus declared in John that, "I AM the truth." There is so much more that He Is. We can never know it all, not until Heaven.
When we know Jesus for who He really is, is enables us to trust Him more. We don't trust people we don't know, that's just not smart. Don't stay content in a bland view of Jesus. He isn't bland, and the more you believe that He is, that means Christianity is bland, and Christianity isn't bland, because that would mean Christians are bland, and we aren't bland.
In closing, may I warn you about the enemy?! Since Satan was thrown out of Heaven with a 1/3 of the angels, the agenda has been to prevent the exposing of Jesus, and for Him to be known. If the most important thing in life is knowing Jesus, Satan is totally against it. He will continue to do everything in his power to blind, and deceive people. Again in John Jesus warns that the enemy comes to "steal, kill, and destroy." He stops at nothing. My sister reminded me yesterday as we talked, Satan has no limits, he does not stop and consider that things might be to evil, or to sinful, or to mean. He limits himself to nothing, and uses all the resources, and people he can. Don't keep being blind. Just as Jesus asked the blind man if He wanted to see, Jesus is asking you today, do you want to see me for real? Allow God to heal and restore your sight so you can have a clear view on who He is, who you are as His follower, and how you can expose Jesus using your life.
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