Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Isaiah 51-55
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Matthew 10:32-33
Jesus: Whoever knows Me here on earth, I will know him in heaven. And whoever proclaims faith in Me here on earth, I will proclaim faith in him before My Father in heaven. But whoever disowns Me here, I will disown before My Father in heaven.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
These were incredibly important words to Jesus’ disciples as they began the first missionary task He gave them. When He sent out the twelve with the message, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He gave them a short sermon to encourage them, but also to warn them of the opposition they would face, the potential imprisonment and suffering that would come their way because of the message they shared. But now Jesus gives His disciples the warning in the words we consider today.
“Whoever knows Me here on earth, I will know him in heaven. And whoever proclaims faith in Me here on earth, I will proclaim faith in him before My Father in heaven. But whoever disowns Me here, I will disown before My Father in heaven.”
We sometimes let Satan add a word in our thought process that confuses the warning Jesus gives us. We often think, “Whoever knows ‘about’ Me…,” but that’s not what Jesus said. So what does it mean to know Jesus? It is certainly more than understanding the intellectual facts about His life and death during the reign of Herod and Pilate. It’s more than believing Mary was His mother and Joseph, her husband, helped raise Him at least into His teen years. To know Jesus means more than regurgitating facts about Him.
When we look at the use of the word in the Old Testament we begin to get a better idea about what it means to ‘know’ Jesus. In Genesis 4, the King Jame version and many of the older translations use the term Adam ‘knew’ Eve and she conceived and bore Cain. Abraham ‘knew’ Sarah and she bore Isaac. ‘Knew’ and ‘begat’ go hand-in-hand throughout the Old Testament. The term denotes the intimate relationship between husband and wife. It’s even more than a sexual relationship. It’s the relationship that desires and accomplishes procreation.
Jesus wants us to know Him. To create more spiritual children for His kingdom. He is sending our His disciples to share His message to increase the population of the kingdom of heaven. The intimate relationship that draws us close to our spouse, so close we want to create progeny to carry on our human legacy, is the kind of close relationship Jesus wants with us. He wants us to know Him intimately.
After 38 years of marriage to my best friend, we often finish each others sentences. We know each others likes and dislikes. I know my wife’s favorite movies, songs, books, foods, colors, vacation likes and dislikes. I know her. I know her so intimately that I can tell when others cannot exactly what she thinks about something without her saying a word. I know when she feels bad, but puts on a smiling face to fool the public. She can do the same for Me. We know each other.
There’s only one way to have that kind of intimacy. You have to talk. We do that through prayer. When you keep your prayer life active and let Him talk to you through His word and His alive, active Spirit that permeates His word and His world, you get to know Him…intimately. Inside and out. He wants us to be able to complete His sentences, finish His thoughts, understand His will for humanity and for you. And when we know Him here on earth, He will continue that relationship with us in heaven at the end of this age.
He also gives His disciples a warning about sharing His message. If you proclaim faith in Him on earth, He will proclaim faith in you before the Father in heaven. But if you disown Him here, He will disown you there. Sounds pretty drastic, doesn’t it? But it also sounds pretty fair, don’t you think? It’s kind of like His message on forgiveness. If we forgive others, He will forgive us. We are forgiven in the same measure we forgive others.
Jesus told the disciples to share His message, to let others know the Messiah arrived, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He told them to proclaim Him to those they met. When they did, He would proclaim them to His Father, the Creator. But if they failed to share Him, if they decided it was too hard or too embarrassing or too risky to proclaim allegiance to Him and share His message. If they disowned Him, He would disown them.
The sermon Matthew recorded, delivered to the twelve before they went out to the villages around them is still true today. We are disciples if we accept Him as Lord and we accept His forgiveness, that’s part of the bargain. He accepts Lordship or nothing. All or none. So as His disciples we, like the twelve have a responsibility to share His message. When we proclaim Him before others, He proclaims us before the Father in heaven. When we disown Him before others, He disowns us before the Father. Still our choice. We can choose what we do, but we don’t choose the consequences. We know what the consequences are. He has told us.
Jesus’ declaration to His disciples, past and present, seems pretty straight forward. So, what will you do?
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