I base my remarks this morning on John 14:9. The words of Jesus (actually a question) to His Disciples, particularly to Philip … “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me?”
Nearly three years, being with Jesus every day! (Mark 3:14 … “And He ordained twelve, that they SHOULD BE WITH HIM.”) Yet, Jesus seems startled, marveling within Himself … “Yet thou hast not known Me?”
And if Philip, after all those months of literally following Jesus, came up short … where do we appear?
I suggest we all lack intimacy with our Saviour, to some degree anyway. We too have not known Him, surely not as we we would hope! (If one has no desire whatsoever to know Him better … I’d be worried, frankly.)
But then a “shift” occurred, in this “knowing Jesus” context! It happened on the Day of Pentecost!
Prior to that Day … the Disciples knew Jesus as the “Power Source” for their ministries. “The demons are subservient to us,” they rejoiced! (Luke 10:17 … “And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.”)
After that great Day (Pentecost) … they knew Him as living down within their hearts, through His Holy Spirit of course. “Abiding” within them!
What a progression!
Of course … He is still the Power energizing all we do … but now as our innermost “Friend” and “Companion” and “Lord!”
“Yet,” as in our Text, John 14:9 … Jesus used that precise conjunction to show Philip that the possibility existed “to know Him more intimately!”
Which Philip eventually did!
I say that because Philip (history says ) died for Jesus, died as a martyr for the Cause of Christ!
Obviously there are different levels of knowledge open to a Believer in Christ (both “yada” in Hebrew and “ginosko” in Greek imply such) … therefore some of this “knowing Him” situation is up to you and me!
I’d like to turn that “yet” into a “then” in my experience with the Lord Jesus!
In a good sense here, I’d like to be “ever learning!”
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
Jesus praying in John 17:3 … “And this is life eternal, that they might KNOW thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
Amen!
By the way, how well do YOU know HIM? (On a scale of 1 to 10 … with 1 being “cold” and 10 being “hot?”) Your answer to this question could be very revealing! I sure hope we don’t come up with a lot of “lukewarm” answers here!
.