Do You Know Jesus

“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable unto His death.” (Philippians 3:10)

Today is Father’s Day. I have the privilege of preaching today where my father answered the call to preach, where he was ordained and where twelve years later he became pastor. During those twelve years he was pastor of four other local Baptist churches. My father was a great man in my eyes. He had farmed, served as a deacon, and taught Sunday school. He was thirty-six years old when he finally said yes to the Lord to preach the gospel. He suffered a major stroke at the age of fifty-seven and died four years later when he was sixty-one years old.  I have heard many people say they knew my dad, but they really only knew about him.  I did not just know about him, I knew him.

Paul says in our text, “I want to know Jesus…” Many people have some knowledge of Jesus, where He was born, where He grew up, where He was crucified and a few other facts. But they only know about Him. To know Jesus one must spend much, much time with Him. We must talk with Him in prayer. We must fellowship with Him. We must seek His counsel. We must read His precious Word. We must confess our sins, faults and failures to Him and experience His forgiveness. You need to have the same heart’s desire as Paul did to get to know Jesus.