That I May Know Him

Luke 10:38-42 - As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

The most important thing we can do is to know Jesus. In this passage, we see that the two sisters have two different ways of showing Jesus how important he is to them. The first, Martha, is working to do everything for him. She cleans, she prepares, she cooks. Whatever needs to be done, Martha is running around doing it. On the other hand, Mary sits around. She sits and waits for Jesus to come. She sits next at his feet and listens to his words – what does he think, what does he expect, what are his wishes and desires. Martha responds as any hard working person would – “Hey, I’m doing all the work around here, tell her to get up off her duff and help out.” But Jesus isn’t like the world. The world would tell us that we can do things by working harder. That we can do whatever we set our minds to. That we are as good as we think we are. That hard work will result in fame, fortune and whatever else we might be aspiring to. Jesus tells us that there is nothing we can do to earn eternal life and that the most important thing we can do is to spend time with him, to know what he thinks, what his wishes are.

There is nothing we can do to earn eternal life. The only way to the Father is through Jesus. God has given us a way to have eternal life that doesn’t depend on hwo good we are, how hard we work or whether we have the right stuff. Instead, God has realized that none of us are good enough and that we all deserve to be separated from Him, we all deserve Hell. But the Gracious God who loves everyone and wants no one to perish has decided by His great mercy, not because of who we are or anything we have done, to allow us a way to be covered so that our shortcomings do not keep us from heaven. That is through his son. Once we recognize that it is the sacrifice of Jesus that brings us to everlasting life, we have an easy way in. We no longer have to work so hard to get it, like Martha tried to do. Instead, we simply need to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen.

We need to spend more time listening to Jesus. We don’t do this enough right now. Most of us have the same reason: I’m too busy. I don’t have time. How can we not have enough time to give the one person who has given us everything – our future, our hope…his life! It’s not that we don’t have enough time. Everyone is born into this world and has to deal with figuring out the best way to spend their time. Some choose to find ways to be comfortable. Others choose to work. Those who choose to spend time with Jesus has chosen the better way. Are you choosing the better way? What are your priorities? We need to make sure we have our priorities correct and the first priority in our life must be Jesus. This means reading our bibles. This means spending time in prayer. This means spending time with our brothers and sisters in Christ, worshipping, fellowshipping, studying. This means disciplining ourselves to do all these things.

Once we know Jesus, we need to stay connected to him

Col 2:6-7 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

So we have received Christ Jesus. Now what? The bible tells us that we need to continue to live in him. What does that mean? The Bible tells us that we need to walk in Jesus. How do I do that? It’s all about Trust. Do we trust Jesus for our lives? Do we trust him to provide for us? Do we trust him to care for us, lead us, help us, make the right decisions for us?

So how do we trust him? We must be rooted and built up in him. Trees are rooted to a very particular spot. If that tree were to be uprooted, it would not survive. But if that tree is able to build deep roots into the ground, then no matter how hard the wind blows or the rain comes down, the tree will come through the storm. In the same way, when we are rooted in Jesus, no matter what happens in our life, we will come through the storm. We need to ensure that no matter what happens, that Jesus is who we trust to get us through these storms. If we try to do it on our own, we will find that our roots aren’t strong enough to keep us firmly planted and we may fall. However, by trusting in Jesus, by putting our roots deep into his ground and being firmly planted in him, we will be able to survive any storm and in fact, we will become like a great oak, unable to be taken down by any wind. This faith we have in Jesus is strengthened as we overcome obstacle after obstacle. It is, in fact, why God allows us to go through these difficult times: so that we can grow deeper roots and therefore, deeper faith.

And as we go through these difficulties, we thank him for caring for us, for bringing us through these times. We ought to be overflowing with thankfulness. Too often we ask God for help, but when the help comes, we take it for granted, we take credit for it or we give credit to something or someone else. It was the medicine, the doctor, the diet. We need to thank Him because it was Him!

We cannot get side-tracked by other things / people on the way.

Satan will try to sidetrack us. He will do this by making other things our priority. Once those things have a place in our lives, he then makes those things more important. How many people stop going to church because of the game, their work, their projects around the house. At first, it was just a single instance: “I go to church all the time, but this week, I have to get this thing done around the house, otherwise it will never get done.” “Junior has a game this Sunday, but we’ll be back soon as the season is over.” “I got tickets to the big game this Sunday, I couldn’t pass it up.” “I’ve got so much work that I’m behind on that I really have to get this done.” This isn’t the first time that people put Jesus second behind someone or something else.

Luke 9:59-62 - He said to another man, "Follow me."
      But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

Jesus knew that we would always have excuses to not follow him, to not put him first, to not pray, study, or come together. So he gives us a couple of people who have these great excuses: One guy wants to wait until his father dies before he follows Jesus and another wants to see his family one more time. In this easy-going, God comes second culture that we live in today, we would say, “I understand where they were coming from and think that it is a totally valid reason.” But Jesus very plainly tells us that even these are not good enough reasons for not following him. If these reasons aren’t good enough, then the game or work certainly aren’t. Have we let our lives, our desires, take priority over Jesus? Has Satan won that battle?

If so, don’t fret. It’s not too late. Just stop now and go back and do what is right moving forward. Go back to church now. Start reading your Bible now. Start regular prayer now. And if you don’t get it all right immediately, keep pushing through. It is a constant battle. We need to keep walking the walk.

It is a constant walk – even Paul was still working on it

Phil 3:12-15 - Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.

So you’re struggling to do these things? Well, the Bible gives us the solution. First we need to forget the past. It doesn’t matter how poorly you did, how little you gave, how many mistakes you made. Paul was a murderer. Peter denied that he even knew Jesus. You may have made many mistakes in your life, maybe even denying Jesus or murdering someone. It is not too late! Forget that stuff. Give that up to Jesus and he takes it from you and replaces it with his own blood, which covers every sin that you have committed.

Then look forward to the future. It is hard to be a Christian without having that hope that Jesus is coming back again to take us to be with him. Imagine that – the best friend in the world, Jesus, coming to take you to live with him forever. It is this hope that has allowed hundreds of thousands of martyrs to die for their faith. It is this hope that is written about over and over again in the Bible. It is this hope that allows us to know that, even when we die, we live. Jesus is the resurrection and the life and he is the only way for us to overcome. He is the one who gives us his peace, not as the world gives peace, but as only he can. It is this hope that we have in Jesus, that allows us to look forward. And it is this looking forward that allows us to remember all that Jesus has done for us and that Jesus is more than able to provide for us. It is this hope that allows us to keep Jesus as our priority and to trust him in all things. After all, if he is able to overcome death and sits at the right hand of the Father, then he is able to do ALL things.

Finally, we need to persevere through the problems. Jesus told us that there would be problems and obstacles in our life but he also told us that we need to persevere through these times. He has told us that he will be with us and that his peace will surround us. Really – if we run into a difficult situation but know that God has a plan, that He will take us through it, that we can trust in Jesus for our provision during this and have his peace, then are we really struggling that much? If we know that everything is going to come out OK, then do we really need to worry at all? We just need to stay on track, keep our eye on the goal, finish the race and finish strong.

So to review: What do we need to do to stay on track?

We need to keep Jesus, God, as our priority. He needs to be first in our lives. He needs to come before everything, even our family, our spouses, our jobs. Everything. He is first.

We need to Trust God in all things and at all times. No matter what is going on, no matter how ugly or hard it may seem. We need to remember that Jesus is greater than any of these things and we need to trust in him to get us through.

We need to Thank him in ALL things. Thank him when everything is going well. Thank him when everything is falling apart. A lack of money means that we will not be idolizing mammon; a broken relationship means that we have our most important relationship first, that is with Jesus. These things may be difficult, but when we are thankful for the bad things that happen in our lives, truly thankful, we find that our heart is where our treasure is – with Jesus.

Forget what has happened in the past. It doesn’t matter to God. It shouldn’t matter to you.

Look to the future. We have a hope that cannot be taken away as long as we hold on to it.

Persevere through the problems. There are no problems that are too great for our God.

Phil 3:10 - I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death

This is Paul’s motto, based on all his writings, I believe this is the sentence that pulls it all together for Paul and describes what Paul was all about. The most important thing to Paul was to know Jesus. This is where we need to be. We need to get to the same point. Are you ready?

Send mail to david@TheArkNY.org with questions about the church or comments about this site.
Last modified: April 25, 2009