28.2 Knowing Jesus Sent
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:3). I have been saying “Jesus Sent” for some time now, a phrase that has grown only richer in meaning.
- Sent – apostello: to send. I send forth, I send (as a messenger or a commission). Sent on a defined mission (from biblehub.com).
Christ Personal in Me
But for this lesson, I see two primary and specific ways by which we must know Jesus Sent in order for us also to know the Father. The first way we must KNOW Jesus Sent is as Jesus Personally inside of our own hearts.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith (Ephesians 3:17). There is another Person, full and complete, who lives in all that He is, in all of His glory, right here, inside my own heart. Not for one second am I in any way separated from this Jesus, whether I remember or forget, whether I walk or stumble, whether I rejoice or growl.
Union – Communion - Expression
There is not a single word or truth that is of God that is found outside of this Person living inside of me. There is not a single part of me, including all of my sin and shame, that is found outside of this Person living inside of me.
Jesus and I are one in substance; Jesus and I are two in communion; Jesus and I are one in appearance. Union – Communion – Expression My fellowship with this Person inside is sweet and unbroken. It is especially when I do badly or feel awful that I look inside and see Union unbroken with sweet Communion. And I know that our Expression together is Father’s travail.
Carried by My Savior
And if my unbreakable union with the Person of Jesus inside of me, Person inside of person, is all I know in the present season, then I know all, have found all, and am utterly content. I put on the Lord Jesus Christ every moment, that is, I sink into Him in all ways, with all that I am, in the same way that I sink into the covers of my bed. I have a Savior inside of me, and He carries me in His arms, inside His own heart, all the way into Life, Father revealed.
Everything begins here. If I hear any speaking out from any other source, any words or ideas not flowing out from the glory of Jesus alive in one’s heart, then I go my way; it has nothing to do with me. No union – no fruit for Father.
For Father
You see, Jesus does not dwell inside of me for Himself, but for Father. Jesus is Sent into me by Father to bring me in all ways into union as one person together with Father.
Jesus first wins my heart for Himself by giving His Self in full exchange for my self, that I might have a Self that is already fully pleasing to God. Jesus becomes me. But then, having won my heart utterly and completely, Jesus turns and connects me at every point with Father, that I may know Father, that Father might reveal Himself to His creation through me.
The Jesus Secret
And the way by which Jesus connects me to Father is as every Word God speaks, as every Word that Jesus is. Thus I must also know Jesus Sent as Word.
But knowing Jesus Sent as Word is a very specific and unique way of knowing Him. Knowing Jesus Sent as Word is not just knowing the Bible; it is knowing how every word on the pages of Scripture comes alive in me through the Holy Spirit and becomes Jesus Himself connecting me with Father by that word. And thus I find that, in completing this first Bible Institute course, I have come full circle back to The Jesus Secret. Speak who God says I am.
What Kind of a God?
Let’s return to the question I raised in the previous lesson. We know God only in conjunction with knowing ourselves. “What kind of a God do you want?” Remember, we are not speaking of some “new” heretical approach to knowing God. This is already how every single Christian on this planet “knows God,” only by themselves.
Do you see why we must know Jesus first as our only Self? Those who do not see their weakness inside of Jesus and Jesus inside of all of their weakness, will reject themselves as the image of God. My strength is made perfect IN your weakness.
By Every Word
You see, because we zealously long to know the Father, we might think, “Well, I don’t want to know myself, just every Word the Father speaks.” In so thinking, we would exclude what we find ourselves to be. And in so excluding, we are rebelling with Adam.
So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you KNOW that man does not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord (Deuteronomy 8:3). – O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps (Jeremiah 10:23).
We Are
Either it is or it ain’t. Either we ARE already living by the good speaking of Jesus or there is no such thing as God or the universe. Either we ARE already walking in the steps God orders for His revelation through us or we don’t exist.
This is the difference between a broken DNA and a living DNA, that is, our living and alive knowledge of Father connected together with us. I want so very much to instill utterly into the depths of our minds, into all the ways of our thinking, this pattern of the DNA molecule, God’s design for the activation of organic life.DNA Structure
The critical side of the DNA connection is the point where the cross bar, Jesus as every Word God speaks, connects into us, into our humanity.To look at any Word coming as Jesus from the Father into us and to say, “I wish I could be like that” is to reject the Father and to remain with Adam. We see every word coming into us as “I am,” as Christ our ONLY life.
I Am
My strength is made perfect IN your weakness.
Word connects with us only as faith, faith that says, “I am.” “I wish” is a rejection of the good speaking of Jesus; “I am” is sinking utterly into Him in full acceptance that our humanity IS God’s acceptable image.
Thus we come back to the question: What kind of a God do you want to know? Here is our answer. I want to know a God who comes to me as every Word that is Jesus and shows Himself to creation as my own human weakness. I want to know Father.
The Ten Most Important
Now do you see the extraordinary importance of the ten most important verses in the Bible? Let’s go back, now, to Jesus’ illustration of vine and branches, but use it instead to better understand how Jesus as Word connects us to Father.
My grape vines in my backyard each branch into three larger branches with each of those three larger branches branching again into another three. Picture Father’s heart, Romans 8:28-30, branching into motive, means, and opportunity, each branching into three. Do you see how we are able to know Father with every other word in the Bible fitting inside the spread of these ten?
Random Verses
Now, let’s try something else. Let’s just randomly pick any other ten verses in the New Testament. I will not list any here, but you can picture letting your Bible fall open and putting your finger on a verse, ten times. Or, let’s mix some random verses together with Christian ideas not from the Bible; things like “Salvation means we go to heaven after we die.”
If you use your new list to attempt to know God, what kind of a God will you know? Please understand, I am not presenting a “new” way for Christians to know God; rather, I am presenting the way Christians have known God for 2000 years.
The Vine and the Tree
If the structure or branches by which we know God is off kilter, then the entire tree is all out of shape, everything stuck into all the wrong places.
First, the vital branches must be placed solidly into the vine, or into the trunk of the tree, then all the other branches and all the leaves and all the fruit, will easily find their proper place and the entire tree, the entire vine, will be rich and beautiful. I am speaking of our knowledge of God; I am speaking of knowing God through knowing Jesus Sent.
I want to go through, now, each of the ten most important verses in the Bible, picturing each of them first as Word connecting Father with us and second as branches aligning all truth into its proper place.
Pro-Thesis
We begin with the Father’s heart, His pro-thesis, Romans 8:29. God wants to be seen and known; He does that by sharing the same form with other persons, Person inside of person. Out from already knowing us inside His own heart, the Father is determined to symmorphose us into that same revelation as one person together with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thus we know Jesus Sent first and in all things as the Bond of the Covenant, as every connecting point joining us to Father and Father to us, that Father might make His home in us. We know the Father’s heart by Jesus Sent; we know what God wants – many sons, just like Jesus, the first One of our kind.
Extending the Most Important
Then, Ephesians 3:17-19 is Jesus Sent connecting us to ALL that is Father, with ALL of God inside of us, utterly rooted and grounded in love. Immediately we see the weakness verses flowing in, also as Jesus Sent, causing us to know that our humanity is fully pleasing to God.
As we stagger in wonder, Jesus Sent turns us around and by John 7:37-38 becomes the Spirit of God flowing out of us as Rivers revealing the life and love of Father to all the universe. And with our ever greater amazement, Jesus Sent flowing out of us becomes the Mighty Warrior, the vindicator of all that God speaks by Revelation 12:11, casting down the accuser.
How Can This Be?
We are utterly overwhelmed, Jesus Sent has become in us, by three huge verses, more than we could ever consider. “How, Lord, how can this be?” we cry.
And Jesus Sent comes to us as a Man on His knees in Gethsemane, a Man saying to Father, “I will drink your Cup,” and by the connecting Bond of Galatians 2:20, this Man takes away from us our old self and gives us His Self as our very own.
As Jesus rises to His feet, we now stand with Him, daring with His Mighty heart to enter boldly into all that God is inside of us, daring, as the Blood of Hebrews 10:19-22 cleanses our hearts in full assurance of faith.
Boldness and Confidence
“How do we enter?” we ask. “Boldly,” Jesus Sent replies. Yet as before, hardly do we consider boldly entering into all that is HOLY, before the next word of Jesus Sent turns us around again by Hebrews 3:14 and 2 Corinthians 2:14, “Go forth in Confidence, for God always leads us in Triumph.”
“How, God, is your Spirit released through us?” “By Confidence, by celebrating Victory before you see it with your eyes.” Yet we pause, here, in the wonder of God’s simple Hows, for we see in front of our eyes our brethren and past them all creation. And we wait upon Jesus Sent to know, for real, the Father’s heart.
The Father’s Opportunity
Then Jesus Sent connects our hearts with Father’s heart and we see, unfolding out from us the Father’s opportunity, the one time and place the Father has to win what He desires. Father seen, Father known, Father touched, Father dancing together with His creation, known by each one.
Jesus Sent becomes Father’s opportunity then by becoming as us John 15:12, Love one Another. And we see the first part of the Father’s opportunity, a precious church walking together, loving one another with a pure heart fervently. And out from that church, Jesus Sent becomes Romans 8:19, the Spirit of God in travail to set all creation free into the same glorious liberty.
Increase Without End
But the real opportunity of God, the only time and place that Father can be who He is and possess what He desires is John 14:20, Jesus Sent becoming you and me, Jesus Sent now as us.
What kind of a God do you want to know?
I’ll tell you what kind of a God that I want to know. I want to know this Father Who Sends His Word, Jesus, into me as my very and only life. I want to know this Father by each one of these most incredible, most important verses in the Bible. And I want to know every other Word that is Jesus Sent, as it comes flowing into me by each of these great realities, glories that increase without end.