I Want to Know Christ

Ephesians 3:8-21

“To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

One day I was working in my office at Wesley Biblical Seminary and the door was open.  I heard two unnamed students talking about Dr. Blakemore’s class that morning. 

One said to the other, “Dr. Blakemore knows so much that he just overflows with learning.”

The other student, ever trying to one-up the first, said: “That’s nothing.  Not only is Dr. Blakemore overflowing with learning, he’s standing in the slop!”

Knowledge.

What do you know?

Do you know what matters?

Do you really know Christ?

Paul says that to know Christ is to know the Ontology of Christ, the Teleology of Christ, the Tribulations of Christ, and the Theology of Christ.

• Who is He?
• Where does He come from?
• What is He doing?
• Where is He going?
• Why was He born?
• Why did He suffer and die?
• Why was He resurrected?
• Where is He now?
• What is He doing?
• What is yet to come?

Each of these questions is answered in the Person of Jesus Christ. Do you know Him?  Do you want to know Him? 

I want to know Him more than I know Him now.  If we are to know Him, He must be in full control of our lives. 

Dennis Kinlaw writes of this passage:

“It is only our graspiness and groveling smallness that keeps us from looking up at a holy God who knows all things and saying, ‘God, You pull the strings in my life.  When I put my hand back on my life, You rap my knuckles until I once again surrender to You so that you are in full control of my life and can make me what You want me to be and what I was destined to be.’” (This Day with the Master, December 30).

I want to know Christ.

“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:7-11 NKJV).