You know what it’s like when someone that you know quite well dies, and after the funeral people are sharing stories about the person. Some of the stories you know. You might even be the one telling some of the stories. You might hear a story about something the person once did and it’s something you didn’t know about them. But you are not shocked or amazed, because it fits with what you already knew about the person who died. That’s because you knew them well.
Now imagine that you are at the funeral of someone whom you should have known well but we’re never able to get to know. Maybe, although they were a close relative, they lived somewhere on the other side of the world. Maybe they were estranged from you, even though that was not your fault. After the funeral, stories are told. You listen. You are putting the different stories together and you are trying to build a picture of this person – of what they were like, of who they really were. You have no stories of value yourself, because you didn’t actually know this person. If they walked into the room right now some of the people there would know the person well, whereas you would only know some things about the person. Even after hearing many stories about the person you wouldn’t actually know them. You would just have knowledge about them.
Now imagine this scene. You are at a wedding. This is the most lavish wedding you have ever been to in your life. It’s big too. Guests there from all over the world. No expense has been spared. This is the wedding to end all weddings. Literally
This is the end of the age. This is the glorious coming together of Jesus and His Bride, the Church (you and me).
So there you are, among thousands upon thousands (well billions actually). And there is Jesus.
Is this, for you, going to be like the scene in the first paragraph, where you know Jesus. Your eyes meet and you know Him. You will hear stories that day about Him but they won’t surprise you because they fit with the Jesus whom you already know.
Or is this occasion going to be a bit more like the one in the second paragraph – where you have ended up knowing a lot about this Person, but not actually knowing them.
This is a question for us individually, and a question for The Church. Do we know Him, or do we just know about Him. We are often encouraged to deepen our knowledge about God. We are less often encouraged just to know Him.
Jeremiah 31 says this: “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.””
(Jeremiah 31:33-34 NIV).
Gods plan is that because of what Jesus successfully did on the cross, we would from now on be able to know Him rather than just having to be taught about Him.
In John 17, Jesus describes eternal life. He tells us exactly what it will be like. It is when we know Him. That’s what eternal life is. Knowing Him. It starts now. Eternal life starts now. Knowing Him starts now.
To know Him takes time. It comes from doing stuff rather than knowing stuff. It comes from time spent together, chatting, doing what He likes to do, with Him. Ask Him what He would like to do with you today. Is there anywhere He wants to go with you today; or anywhere He wants you to go with Him? He once said that we would know His voice – we would be able to know what He is saying. It’s not meant to be complicated. We get so used to the big testimonies where people seem to hear the audible voice of God and we assume that’s the norm.
You’d be surprised at how many people say to me “I can’t hear God” because they are not hearing something big and audible. Often His voice is a still small voice. Soft. Deep inside. In our Spirit. It rises up to our mind and we find we are having “God thoughts” or we just ‘know’ what we are supposed to do – we have ‘nudges’ or ‘impressions’. As we learn to go with those nudges, and follow them, we get to know Him better and better.
The more we know Him, the more we love Him, and…..the more we want to worship Him.
One day we’ll see Him face to face, and then it will be the completion of a friendship rather than the start of one.
Church is out there 