2011 - 2012 TNBS Study
"Listening To Jesus"
September 13, 2011 -- April 24, 2012
2011-2012 Intro From Russ
“I want to know Christ…” Phil 3:10
Surely a noble aspiration for any of us, but a somewhat surprising statement at this stage in the life of the great Apostle to the Gentiles. Why? When these words were penned it had been 25 years since Paul’s conversion on the Damascus road, the last 15 spent as a missionary and evangelist. One would think he would “know Christ” very well by now.
Paul indicates in such passages as Ephesians 4:20 that to become a Christian at all is to come to “know Christ”. How could it be otherwise? The writer to the Hebrews expresses the same sentiment in addressing the persecuted believers of his day, “For we know him …” Heb 10:30
The Apostle John, who was one of those with Jesus on that dark night of his arrest, heard first hand the words of the Lord. “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” So, 60 years later as these words came to mind he would write, “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.” 1 John 2:3 To John, to be a Christian is to know Christ demonstrated by obedience.
Hmm, Paul must have something else in mind. And in fact, I believe he does. Paul had discovered that wonderful, mysterious paradox that is knowing Christ. At once, the most joyous, fulfilling, satisfying condition that mankind is capable of achieving, while at the same time never fully satiating the thirst for more.
That thirst is very real in every human being. How do we know? Because we are often faced with nagging disappointments, discouragement, and a sense of longing for something to fill the emptiness inside. We hear the question from others, sometimes we formulate it in our own despair, “Is this all there is?’
It is still amazing to me the ways and means the human heart, my human heart, will devise to try and please itself; satisfy itself, console itself, even in light of a lifetime of experience with consistent failure. There is something fundamentally wrong with us.
I have been in love with the writings of C.S. Lewis for the better part of three decades and every time I pick up one of his books or articles I’m reminded of why. Here’s his analysis of the problem:
"It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." — C.S. Lewis (Weight of Glory and Other Addresses)
We are offered pleasure and satisfaction that we cannot imagine. But it won’t be found in things of the world. Here’s a surprise – it won’t be found in the blessings of God or in the gifts that he gives us either.
So where do we go? Paul knew the answer. So did C.S. Lewis:
“Give up your self, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.” – C.S. Lewis; (Mere Christianity)
All we long for will be found ‘in him’. Not in the things he gives us, but ‘in him’, personally.
This will set the course for our study for TNBS during the 2011 – 2012 year. We are going to study HIM.
There are certainly a number of ways open to the serious student who wishes to study God. We could analyze character traits, or do a series on attributes. There is much profit to be found there. My leaning is to study him more by what he said, much of which comes to us in the imperative mood of language grammar. It seems Jesus was very demanding. What he requires of us speaks volumes about who he is and to understand his contexts and motives will move us closer to an intimate relationship with the one who proclaimed himself to be our Lord and then, in love, gave himself as our savior. That will be our aim, to know him more deeply, and to achieve that by a more comprehensive understanding of what he requires of us and the demands he makes upon us.
We have the assurance of the undergirding of Paul’s prayer:
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. Eph 1:17
Class will begin the second Tuesday after Labor Day, September 13th, at 7:00PM.
Maybe it’s time to give up making mud pies in the slums of our hearts and see what joy and exhilaration awaits those who accept the offer of a lifetime holiday at the beach. I believe it’s what Paul had in mind.
Maybe it’s time to test the premise that if Christ becomes the focal point of all my longing and I commit to finding my complete joy and satisfaction in him, that everything else, all those secondary things that I’ve been chasing, will be throw in.
I pray you will join me in the journey.
In His love,
russ
We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true — even in his Son Jesus Christ.
He is the true God and eternal life.
1 John 5:19-20
