Does Jesus Know You?

All those that profess to follow Jesus may not, but should profess him one way or another in their life. Some profess by their bumper stickers they have on their cars like the one that says “Jesus Freak” or they may have the standard Christian fish symbol. They may wear a bracelet or neckless that professes who they follow. Face it; all of us that say we follow Jesus say that we know him, including myself.

Jesus is many things to us; he is our lord, savior, friend, brother and master. If he is all these things to us do we truly see him as each as we ought to? I ask that because there is a very important verse that is overlooked. I have thought about it a lot to reevaluate where I am standing in the sight of our lord. Do I show the respect deserved to a friend, brother, lord, master and savior? Or do I fall short in doing so?

We being believers say that we believe in Jesus and that he came and died for us, but do we seriously believe the things he says? If your answer is yes, then we need to look at just a couple verses and see where we are when it comes to not us knowing Jesus, but does Jesus know us.

Matthew 7:21-23 is a very powerful scripture. Here we get to see Jesus’ response to people that knew him and did great things in his name and yet Jesus’ response is that he never knew them. If we saw someone healing, raising the dead, casting out demons and all in the name of Jesus most would think that is someone that knows the lord. On the other hand some may think that it’s of the devil, which they would have to be careful in claiming, but that’s another sermon topic. Let’s say that you were able to do all these things yourself because you believe in Jesus and if you could I am quite confident that you would think that your relationship with Jesus was close. In this scripture we see Jesus telling those that are exactly like that that he never knew them and if he does it to those that do such great things it is possible that he will likewise do it to those that don’t.

Why would Jesus say he never knew them? What did these individuals do to have Jesus deny ever knowing them? Are we doing anything that would make Jesus at the end say to us, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity”. Those are some of the most powerful words found in the gospel and we definitely don’t want to be on the receiving end of them.

So what does it take for Jesus to know us? One step is found in Matthew 16:24 were we are to deny ourselves. We need to put Jesus’ wishes and desires for us above our own, which isn’t as easy as it looks when it comes to one of our first acts as being a disciple. Before Jesus we put ourselves first and even at times after we have turned our lives over to Jesus that we have a tendency to slip back into the old ways, another reason to always be vigilant.

We also have to avoid doing what Matthew 10:33 says and that once we accept Jesus we don’t turn around and deny him before men. This doesn’t have to be done verbally; it can be done by action as well. Remember Jesus mentioned that there was more than one way to break the commandments without physically breaking them (Matthew 5:27, 28). We can deny him with actions, such as our behavior and the things we condone through doing that is not right in his sight and making it known before men. This is also a large reason why non-believers have a hard time accepting Jesus when they see those that say they are disciples of his doing things contrary to him. Examples could be going to strip clubs, bars, have multiple partners, getting tattoos, living a homosexual lifestyle just to name a few.

What else could we do that would make Jesus not know us? How about John 14:15, 21 for starters. I would think that to have a good relationship with Jesus we would need to love him and that seems to start with keeping his commandments and what and whose commandments are these? Are they Jesus’ own commandments or are they ones that have already been around? In verse 24 we see whose they truly are and in this lay another key element in having Jesus knowing us.

These next three scriptures I have found interesting and fun to read, because what they say and hold in them. John 7:28; 8:19 and 8:55 says so much in just three little verses. In 7:28 I feel most people fall under, saying that they know Jesus without truly knowing him. Then in 8:19 the reason they truly don’t know Jesus is because they truly didn’t know the Father, so by not knowing the Father they could never know Jesus. And finally in 8:55 we see why so many don’t know Jesus or his Father, because unlike Jesus many don’t keep his Fathers sayings. Again even that can be its own sermon, but to keep it simple for this one what has happened to his Fathers commandment of the Sabbath or even the first one saying not to have no other gods before him such as in the Trinity? By not keeping his Fathers saying we don’t truly know his father, thus not knowing Jesus and in turn Jesus not knowing us. And to reiterate this you can also read John 12:44-50.

We need to ask ourselves, have we denied ourselves? Have we avoided denying Jesus before men? Do we truly know his Father and keep His saying without changing any of them? Because in the end we will be faced with the hard question that we don’t get to answer, but Jesus does. Jesus do you know him/her?