Do You Know Jesus

Many people know about Jesus; where He came from, what His purpose was, but do they know Him?  They have heard about what He has done, the places He went, even heard about the people He healed and fed and the demons He cast out of people and many of the things that He said, but do they really know Him?  There are many famous people that we know a lot about, but we never knew them we just heard a lot of things about them.  You can have someone’s autobiography which will tell you enough about the person to talk about them but if you never met them you never had a real relationship with them, you just read or heard about them.  

Many people claim to be believers or Christians, but are they?  I was talking to a man about three weeks ago and I brought up Christianity in our conversation and he said he was born a Christian to which I replied it doesn’t work that way.  Then he said something about him being a nice guy and always treating people good or fairly or something to that extent, but none of these things make a person a Christian.  I think God is very displeased when we claim that our righteousness, or rightness, or our good works makes us a Christian or a believer because in His eyes there is no one that is righteous.

Read what it says in Romans 3:10-12:

“As it is written:

There is none righteous, no, not one;

There is none who understands;

There is none who seeks after God.

They have all turned aside;

They have together become unprofitable;

There is none who does good, no, not one.”

“There is none righteous” is like saying there is no one that is innocent, we were all born with a sin nature and stand condemned and separated from God, who alone is righteous.  When we are born-again, becoming believers, then we are covered by His righteousness.

Read what it says in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

It also says this in Isaiah 64:6-7:

“But we are all like an unclean thing,

And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;

We all fade as a leaf,

And our iniquities, like the wind,

Have taken us away.

And there is no one who calls on Your name,

Who stirs himself up to take hold of You;

For You have hidden Your face from us,

And have consumed us because of our iniquities.”

I know this may be hard for many people to accept but it is the truth and in order to get right with the Lord we need to know the truth.  This is what the Word says about truth, when Jesus talked to His disciples in John 8:31-32, “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

There are those that say there is more than one way to get to God, or Heaven, and that is a lie.  Jesus said this in John 14:1-6, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’

Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”

Everyone will have to get there through Jesus or it will be impossible to get there.  Read what Jesus said to a Pharisee named Nicodemus in John 3:13-18, “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

If you want to read about Jesus’ whole conversation with Nicodemus, read all of John chapter three.  

It is going to be a very sad day for many people when they stand before the Lord on judgment day, thinking they are going to be with the Lord but will be cast out because they thought they could get to heaven some other way and not through Jesus, this is one of the reasons I say this.  Read what it says in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

Sounding religious and acting righteous without a personal relationship with the Lord through faith will never cut it, you will be exposed on the Day of Judgment.  The Word says this in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”  

If you don’t know the Lord personally, repent of your sins, which means thinking differently, turning your back on sin and going in the other direction.  Receive Jesus by faith, confessing that you have sinned and you are sorry and ask Him to forgive you and be the Lord of your life.  You can do this anywhere as long as you are sincere.  Take your time and let the Lord fill you with His peace, love and joy, then you can go on your way rejoicing and share what the Lord has done for you with others.  Go to a Bible believing church and start growing in your newfound faith.

I have given you something to think about!  In this new year, my prayer is that you will start it out with a new life in Christ.  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super day!!  PS don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord!!