Jesus Is Real, Living, Precious, and Present
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00:00:06.000 | Jesus Christ is a real, true, living friend.
00:00:10.000 | He is the Christian's closest friend.
00:00:13.000 | But like any relationship, it's a friendship that must be maintained by mutual knowing.
00:00:19.000 | So how do we come to know Christ and to learn to trust Him more and more over time?
00:00:24.000 | In other words, how does Christ become a more and more real friend in our lives?
00:00:29.000 | That was a question tackled by John Piper in a 2011 sermon on John 8, verse 31.
00:00:35.000 | Here's what Pastor John had to say.
00:00:37.000 | If you want to know Jesus, be much in His Word.
00:00:43.000 | One of the most important convictions I ever developed, and I commend it to you,
00:00:48.000 | one of the most important convictions you could ever form,
00:00:52.000 | is that Jesus, as a real, living, precious, present, experienced friend and person,
00:01:03.000 | is known chiefly through His Word.
00:01:09.000 | And the only reason I use the word "chiefly" instead of "only"--
00:01:14.000 | I first wrote "only" when I wrote this.
00:01:16.000 | Only.
00:01:18.000 | And in a sense, that would be true.
00:01:20.000 | Here's the reason I stepped back from "only" and wrote "chiefly" for this reason.
00:01:26.000 | You know it from Paul in Philippians 3.
00:01:28.000 | You'd know it if you've walked with Jesus a long time,
00:01:32.000 | that as you walk with Him through His Word, by His Word,
00:01:36.000 | communing with Him, trusting His promises, striving to obey His commandments,
00:01:41.000 | and enjoying His fellowship, I will be with you to the end of the age.
00:01:45.000 | As you walk with Jesus hour by hour over 10, 20, 30, 40 years,
00:01:52.000 | you walk through very, very deep valleys, very much suffering, very many hardships.
00:02:00.000 | And in those hardships, Jesus proves Himself in a way that you know Him
00:02:08.000 | in a way you could not any other way.
00:02:11.000 | Any other way.
00:02:13.000 | And therefore, even at those moments, it is by His words.
00:02:17.000 | I'm almost tempted to go back and change it to "only."
00:02:21.000 | But I wanted the chance to say that.
00:02:23.000 | I wanted the chance to just say that experience with Jesus,
00:02:27.000 | experience lived out daily walking, trusting, right now,
00:02:33.000 | in this horrible, horrible, horrible thing,
00:02:37.000 | there's a knowing, there's a knowing there that comes that you don't get anywhere else.
00:02:45.000 | Nowhere else.
00:02:47.000 | And yet, it's by His Word at those very, very moments.
00:02:54.000 | Let me give you a verse to hold on to for this,
00:02:57.000 | because this is just massively important for living your Christian life.
00:03:03.000 | And knowing Jesus moment by moment.
00:03:07.000 | 1 Samuel 3, verse 21 goes like this,
00:03:12.000 | "The Lord revealed Himself to Samuel by the Word of the Lord."
00:03:22.000 | The Lord revealed Himself by the Word of the Lord.
00:03:29.000 | That is a structure of reality that controls my whole life.
00:03:35.000 | I want to know Jesus.
00:03:37.000 | Not just books.
00:03:40.000 | Not even just the Bible.
00:03:42.000 | As precious as it is.
00:03:44.000 | I want the person of Christ.
00:03:46.000 | He's risen.
00:03:47.000 | He's risen.
00:03:49.000 | He is here by His Spirit.
00:03:52.000 | He is as much a person, more than all of us are.
00:03:57.000 | And He's in this room right now, listening to what we say.
00:04:02.000 | I'll be with you.
00:04:04.000 | And I want to know Him.
00:04:06.000 | I want to commune with Him.
00:04:07.000 | Fellowship with Him.
00:04:08.000 | Talk to Him.
00:04:09.000 | Listen to Him.
00:04:11.000 | Be helped by Him.
00:04:13.000 | Be drawn by Him.
00:04:14.000 | Be strengthened by Him.
00:04:15.000 | I want to know this Jesus and walk with Him hour by hour.
00:04:20.000 | How shall that happen?
00:04:23.000 | Answer, the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel by the Word of the Lord.
00:04:33.000 | If you try to run after the Lord without running through this, you will find someone else.
00:04:43.000 | Don't feel like that makes you some kind of pedantic academic.
00:04:50.000 | Like, "Oh, you've got to be a scholar, blah, blah, blah."
00:04:54.000 | The least educated person may have the deepest grasp of Jesus through this book.
00:05:01.000 | There's no correlation between higher education and sweet fellowship with Jesus through the book.
00:05:10.000 | What does it mean to be in the Word that is summed up in Jesus?
00:05:17.000 | And all these words that mediate Jesus.
00:05:20.000 | What does it mean to be in it?
00:05:26.000 | If you abide in my Word, you are truly my disciples.
00:05:33.000 | So here's a picture.
00:05:34.000 | I'm going to push this picture and maybe it'll stick.
00:05:38.000 | And I think it's faithful to the Scriptures.
00:05:44.000 | The Word of Jesus, with Himself at the center and the focus, has a force field around it.
00:05:55.000 | This is an image.
00:05:57.000 | Like a magnetic field around it.
00:06:00.000 | And when you are in His Word, you're in that force field.
00:06:05.000 | You're under the sway of the force emanating from the Word.
00:06:12.000 | Let me illustrate that.
00:06:14.000 | Part of this force field is the truth of the Word.
00:06:19.000 | So when you're in the Word, you're in the persuasion of the truth of the Word.
00:06:28.000 | You're in the grip, the hold of the force of the persuasion of the truth of the Word.
00:06:35.000 | The Word is compelling persuasion and you're in it.
00:06:38.000 | It's got you like that.
00:06:40.000 | So when you correlate your being with truth, it's persuasion.
00:06:44.000 | I'm there.
00:06:45.000 | I'm drawn in.
00:06:46.000 | I'm compelled.
00:06:48.000 | Second, the force field is created by the beauty of the Word.
00:06:54.000 | And this beauty attracts.
00:06:56.000 | So when you move into the Word, you're attracted and held by the beauty of the Word.
00:07:05.000 | Third, this force field is created by the supreme value of the Word.
00:07:13.000 | So when you're in the Word, you're captured by the preciousness of the Word.
00:07:18.000 | As God opens your eyes to see the beauty and the preciousness and the value of the Word,
00:07:26.000 | it compels, it attracts, it draws.
00:07:29.000 | This field pulls you in, in to the Word.
00:07:35.000 | Fourth, there is a power and a grace creating this force field so that as you see this power
00:07:43.000 | and you see this grace and you're drawn to it, there is an experience of peace because of the grace
00:07:50.000 | and restfulness because of the power.
00:07:52.000 | The power and the grace conspire to guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
00:07:57.000 | And in the Word, you are held by a peace that passes all understanding.
00:08:06.000 | Another part of this force is the life-giving, soul-sustaining bread of heaven.
00:08:13.000 | The Word is the bread of heaven.
00:08:15.000 | And therefore, when you're in the Word, you're in the nourishment of the Word.
00:08:19.000 | You experience yourself being nourished.
00:08:24.000 | Like sitting on the couch Saturday morning, Noel's gone to a seminar and Talitha's gone off to her event
00:08:32.000 | and I'm all alone in the house with my iPad and my Bible program, and I am feeling so nourished.
00:08:46.000 | I wouldn't get up from this moment for anything unless I had to.
00:08:52.000 | I am being fed in my soul.
00:08:57.000 | How could I leave? I'm in the Word, in the nourishment of the Word.
00:09:05.000 | That is a sweet reminder from a man who has been a friend of Christ for many decades,
00:09:10.000 | John Piper, from his 2011 sermon titled "If You Abide in My Word, You Are Truly My Disciples"
00:09:17.000 | on John 8:31.
00:09:20.000 | This clip was sent in to us from Brady in Richfield, Minnesota.
00:09:23.000 | Thank you, Brady, for the clip.
00:09:25.000 | And if you have a clip to share with the listening community,
00:09:27.000 | please email me the sermon name and a timestamp of when and where the clip appears in the audio message.
00:09:32.000 | Go to our online home and send us an email from DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:09:38.000 | I am your host, Tony Reinke, and John Piper returns tomorrow.
00:09:42.000 | We'll see you then.
00:09:43.000 | [END]
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