An Encounter With Jesus

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Philippians 3:10-12

            “Mary” grew up in a rather dysfunctional family, and life has always been rough for her. On the surface things looked good, but as the years went by things began to accumulate and she became more and more angry. Eventually she had surgery for cancer and her health began to deteriorate.

           She always assumed that she would die before her husband did. When he died in an auto accident 2–3 years ago she went into a deep depression. It appeared that she would not last much longer.

           Fortunately, however, God sent her to a gifted pastoral counselor. When I saw her in a restaurant recently she was almost glowing with joy. “Mary! You look wonderful! What happened?”

           She explained that initially she had been seeing the counselor weekly, but now had graduated to once a month. She confided, “You can tell him anything and he won’t criticize you. When you have so much hurt stored up in you…you have to tell someone!”

           “Mary” is exactly right! I’ve thought about that conversation a lot. I believe that a daily encounter with Jesus will prevent those kinds of hurts from accumulating. We can tell Him anything and He will never judge us for those feelings!

           One of our greatest privileges is the ability to have Jesus with us at all times. It is a beautiful experience and should be a daily way of life. However, it takes a lot of effort to learn how.

          God is a spirit being. Therefore, He can be everywhere at the same time. He can be sitting on His throne and be with each of us in our time of personal praise and worship, sickness or troubles, or any other time we will invite Him in.           

         Jesus often said that it was “the Father, living in Me, who is doing His work.” We can have that same arrangement… Christ living in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, doing God’s work! “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever YOU ASK IN MY NAME, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask Me for anything in My name, and I will do it.”  (John 14:10-14)

         In John 14:23 we read, “If anyone loves me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and WE WILL COME TO HIM AND MAKE OUR HOME WITH HIM.”

         Thus we know that God is always with us. In 1 Corinthians 3:16 we read, “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?”

          If this is all true, then we should be having daily encounters with Jesus. Why does it seem so hard some days?

 Let me illustrate: If you are a country-western music lover, you probably knew a lot about Johnny Cash. But you probably didn’t know him personally. Most of us don’t move in those circles.

 If you had wanted to know Johnny you would have traveled to his concerts, bought his music and gone out of your way to get acquainted. Since he was a celebrity, you would have had to make an extra effort to make it happen.

         By the same token, many people know a lot about God – but do not know Him personally. Just as we would have to make a special effort to become friends with a celebrity, so too, we must be diligent if we want to know God on a more intimate basis.

 In the 4^th century the Arian heresy taught that humans can know everything there is to know about God. The ancient Mystics also believed this. In modern times the heresy has gone to the other extreme – people say they are agnostics – meaning they cannot know anything about God – if He even exists.  Neither is true, of course.

         Having been your pastor for nearly 12 years, I am satisfied that the members of this church knows God on a personal basis. You know Him, you love Him, and you speak with Him on a regular basis.

        The purpose of this message is to help each of us – me included – have daily encounters with Jesus.

HOW DO WE DO THIS?

First, we must realize that Jesus is the eternally pre-existent Son of God, very God Himself. In fact, Jesus was involved in your creation.

Genesis 1:1-3  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

John 1:1-4  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.

 You and I are spirit, soul, and body, and it takes all three parts to make one complete person. It also takes Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to make God.

 The Father planned it; the Son created it, and the Holy Spirit lives within us to make it all happen! 

 The Father rules from His throne in heaven; Jesus sits at His right hand, interceding for us. The Holy Spirit dwells in us to empower us, instruct us, comfort us, and help us understand what God wants!

         That’s the theology. It’s confusing, awkward, and hard to understand. Now, let’s make it practical!        

         When you realized that you were a sinner in need of a savior, you confessed your sins to God, asked for forgiveness, and asked Jesus to come into your heart. He took you up on the offer and moved in through the power of the Holy Spirit.

          Your body became the temple of the Holy Spirit. As you live a daily life of obeying God and serving others, that is considered an act of worship.

           If you want a closer fellowship with the Lord you will also have a private time of worship, praise and adoration at home on a daily basis. Furthermore you will talk with Jesus throughout the day.

          When Jesus walked on earth as a Man, He was in total submission to the Father and to the Holy Spirit. Until Jesus ascended back to heaven after the resurrection, only a very few individuals had been filled with the Holy Spirit.

          However, after the resurrection Jesus said to the apostles, “Receive the Holy Spirit” and He breathed on them – imparting a new spiritual life to them.

          Remember when God created Adam out of dust, then breathed the breath of life into him? That foreshadowed Jesus breathing on them and saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Up until that very moment no one had ever been saved.        

          On the Day of Pentecost thousands more were added to the Church – and the Church has been growing every since them.

          God the Father, Son, and God the Holy Spirit live in you if you are a Christian. But we need to tune out the everyday cares of life if we are to really experience this relationship.

          Something else happened on the Day of Pentecost. The 120 who were gathered in the Upper Room received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. This is different than receiving the Holy Spirit at Salvation.   In this experience the Child of God decides to give his or her life totally to God. We have often mentioned this… it is the focus of the early Pentecostals and the Charismatics. Although there have been some obvious excesses that embarrassed the Kingdom of God, it is still a valid experience and is one we should seek if we want to walk closer to God.

          It won’t make you better than anyone else, but it will make you better than you are now.

 I believe that we can encounter Jesus at any time. However, most of us are so busy serving Jesus that we fail to really enjoy the relationship. We are more like two small children playing side by side than two adults having an intimate conversation.

 Problems will draw us closer to Jesus. Sickness will slow us down so we will take time to hear Jesus.

 Accidents and injuries also draw us closer to the Lord.

 But the best way is to find a need and start praying about it! For instance, the recent school violence… If you make that a matter of prayer, you will draw closer to the Lord. Start praying about the homeless or other groups of people with great needs and you will be drawn closer to God.

Spend an hour in prayer 7 days a week and you will start changing!

In other words, make the effort!

Pastor Leon