THE DESIRE TO BE KNOWN

 

1 Corinthians 8:3 (NIV)
But the man who loves God is known by God.

               Not too long ago I attended a conference for ministry leaders. I knew two of the main speakers, so after one of the lessons I approached one of those men. I immediately introduced myself, not wanting to assume that the man would remember my name. His immediate response was, I know who you are. There is something powerful about being known.

               There is a big difference between someone recognizing you and someone really knowing you. There are many people who know my name, and may even know somethings about me, but they don’t really know me. There are many people that I know in a superficial way, but I don’t really know them in a significant way.

               Several years ago, I led a group of men from my church on a weekend, backpacking trip. After the trip was over one of the men made a comment that has stuck with me even since. He said that before the trip he knew me as Pastor Dave. Now he knows me as Dave. Because we had shared that experience together, this man moved from knowing me from a distance to knowing me more personally.

               There is a desire within each of us to be known, to be recognized, to be valued. So many of our relationships are superficial, surface level relationships. People know our name, but we don’t feel truly known. It is possible for us to be surrounded be people and still fell utterly alone and unrecognized.

               This desire that we have to be known goes even deeper than connecting with other people. We want to be known on a much deeper level by God. We all want to know that our life matters. We all want to know that our efforts count for something. We all want to be recognized in a deep and profound way.

               Jesus came into the world to offer us that kind of relationship with God. Before Jesus came, the Jewish people knew about God, but from a distance. As a people in general they felt that God knew them, but not as individuals. Although they may have believed that God cared about the welfare of the nation, they didn’t sense that God cared about them as individuals. Jesus came to change that.

               During Jesus’ earthly ministry, He focused His attention on individual people. He could have gone the political route and established His rule and reign in Jerusalem, but He did not. He could have gone the religious route and established Himself as the High Priest in the Temple. But instead, He took the personal route of seeing and caring for people who felt neglected, overlooked, and unimportant. I think one of the things that drew the common people to Jesus was that, in His presence, a person felt seen, heard, and valued.

               By coming to earth in the form of a man, Jesus invited us to really know Him, but also to be known by Him. In the opening chapter of John’s Gospel, he makes a powerful statement. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-2,14 By coming to earth Jesus revealed the very nature and character to God in ways that it had never been done before. Jesus was inviting people to really know Him, not just know about Him. Then in I John, John talks about the very personal nature of his relationship with Jesus. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 1 John 1:1-2

               The greatest desire that we all have is to move from knowing about Jesus from a distance to being known by Jesus in a personal, intimate way, as John knew Jesus. Jesus doesn’t just know about us; He knows us as a friend. When we put our faith in Jesus, we move from a vague image of a God out there somewhere to a personal relationship with the God who is present in our lives.

               Jesus is not calling us to conform to some religious system. Jesus is inviting us into a relationship in which we can know Him and be known by Him. Jesus makes it very clear that it is not enough to know about God, but we need to know Him personally. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' Matthew 7:21-23 (NIV)

               We don’t have to settle for knowing about God from a distance. Through faith in Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit, we can know Him and be known by Him.

John 10:14 (NIV)
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—"