Getting Ready-Articles

Do You Know Jesus?

Do you know Jesus? – my Jesus?

Mine because He died for me.
He died for you, too, whether you know it or not.

Do you know Jesus?

Born as a baby to a virgin in a stable in a small town in Judah.
When our baby was born we sent out birth announcements as proud parents.
God did, also, in the form of a host from heaven to some common shepherds.
The kings did not know where to find him; they still don’t, but the shepherds did.

Do you know Jesus?

Creator of the world, the sun, moon and stars – the universe; Who only has to speak a word, and it is so.

“All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3)
Who is the Alpha and Omega – the Beginning and the End – the A to Z (Revelation 1:8)
“And God said … and there was … and God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1)
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in the earth … and he is before all things and by him all things are sustained – held together.” (Colossians 1:16, 17)
You are worthy, O Lord Jesus, to receive glory and honor and power. [Why?] For You created all things, and for Your pleasure they are and were created. (Revelation 4:11)

Do you know Jesus?

Who walked this earth as a man; a man that people like to be around.
Who said, “Permit the little children—don’t forbid them—to come to me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14)

Are we willing to come to Jesus as a child, or are we too sophisticated?

Jesus is simple—not a simpleton—just not complicated.

Do you like mental stimulation, to exercise the intellect?
Do you like the excitement of new discoveries in the area of knowledge?
Then—

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5)
Be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2)
Our natural mind is not good enough. The mind renewed by Jesus is.

Do you know Jesus?

Who came into a world that was confounded and confused by a thousand philosophies—
To a people oppressed and under tension, who needed to be set free—and said,

“Follow me.”
Who said,
“I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
Who came into a world filled with highly educated people vainly worshipping idols and false gods and said,
“He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
What about you? Are you confused, jumping from one philosophy to another? Your god is that one or thing you look to that has ultimate truth, that can give direction to life. Does your god always seem to be changing his mind, never able to make up his mind as to how things got started, when and in what order? Can he, or it, never seem to quite figure out how he put the atom together or how he is going to fix this mess we have gotten the world into, or how, or why, it happened?

Jesus spoke and wrote it all down in black and white, so to speak. He spoke through His prophets—

Men who could hear because they wanted to hear, and God chose to use;
Men like Abraham, Noah, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul—to name a few.
In His book, the Bible, He writes:

“God is not a man that he should lie.” (Numbers 23:19)
“God is watching over His word to perform it.” (Jeremiah 1:12)
“For Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy name.” (Psalm 138:2)
He did not want any mistakes or trust it to hearsay.
He wrote it all down that we might test it, and He has preserved it intact, the first written guarantee.
Archeologists are discovering that the Bible is extremely accurate in indicating times and places.

Do you know Jesus?

Of whom the apostle Paul wrote:

Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)
Of whom it is also written in the book of Hebrews:

But we do see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for every one. (Hebrews 2:9)

Do you know Jesus?

Who took upon Himself the penalty for your sin.

Do you know what the penalty is for sin?
Do you know what sin is?
Satan said it—And you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Sin is doing things our way without regard to what God says.
We put ourselves—
Our opinions, understanding, intellect, feelings, emotions, physical desires—
Over against God.
God—Jesus—created these things and created them good. But we make them into gods.
The penalty for sin? – DEATH

“For in the day that you eat from it (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
“For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)
Physical death for sure, but even worse is spiritual death—eternal separation from God.
The solution? – JESUS
Jesus, who hung on a cross, between heaven and hell, disfigured by the beatings and the whippings, and suffered the penalty, not of His sin, because He was without sin, but of your sin and my sin.
The Bible says:

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3)
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Do you know what Jesus said?

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. … unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3, 5)
Born of water—that is repentance. Repentance is agreeing with God that you are a sinner. That is a natural act that we do.
Born of the spirit—born again. That is a supernatural act of God that gives 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 eternal life. (John 3:16)
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” (John 14:6)
“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
Have you been born again? Do you have eternal life?
The Bible says,

“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord (He is my God), and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” (Romans 10:9, 10)
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have you been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. … For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:4-6, 8)

Do you know Jesus?

Who not only saves and gives eternal life, but comes to live, to make His dwelling, in each believer.
Jesus said:

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:23)
It is the desire of Jesus that you would know Him, intimately; that you would hear Him speak and know His thoughts.
Jesus said:

“I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.” (John 10:14, 15)
The Bible says that you are to “have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5)
The Bible also says, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that He will instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 2:16)

Do you know Jesus?

Who not only saves and gives eternal life, but baptizes you in His Holy Spirit that you may live in the here and now.
Have you been baptized by Jesus?
John the Baptizer, who baptized Jesus in the Jordan River, said:

“As for me, I baptize you in water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not even fit to remove His sandals; He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11)
On the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Jesus was resurrected from the dead, and ten days after He ascended back to Heaven, the disciples were gathered in Jerusalem. The Bible says:

“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.” (Acts 2:4)
Later, the apostle Peter, one of those who were in that room, saw the same thing happen in the house of a non-Jew. This is what happened:

“While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. And all the circumcised (the Jewish) believers who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with other tongues and exalting God.” (Acts 10:44-46)
When asked by the others about what happened, he said:

“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as He did upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If God therefore gave to them (and you) the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” (Acts 11:15-17)
Why speaking in tongues?
Do you realize that by speaking in an unknown tongue you can have a miracle every time you open your mouth?
How do you receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit?
Go to Jesus and ask. He is the baptizer. Simply ask and receive.
Jesus said:

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” (Luke 11:13)
How do I speak in tongues?
The same way as the believers did at Pentecost.
God moves.
You respond by speaking.
The Holy Spirit provides the words.
Why? God empowers the believer through the Holy Spirit.
The Bible says:

“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” (Acts 1:8)
All you really need to do is receive.

Comments:

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