PRESENT CHRIST || PHILIPPIANS 3:7-11
“Present Christ, encourage growth and holiness, and send out to present Christ.”
KNOWING WHO
An essential part of Jesus’ mission was to show the world who God is through His life. It is very important in our faith in God to come to know exactly who God is, all the truth about God and nothing but the truth about God.
“Jesus told him, ‘“’I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really
me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do him and have seen him!’ Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus replied, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?’” —John 14:6-9 (NLT)
“Christ is the visible image of the invisible
. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” —Colossians 1:15-22 (NLT)
“The [Person] who walks out of [the pages of the Gospels] to meet us is just central and irreplaceable. He is always a surprise. We never have Jesus in our pockets. He is always coming at us from different angles … If you want to know who
is, look at Jesus. If you want to know what it means to be , look at Jesus. If you want to know what is, look at Jesus. And go on looking until you’re not just a spectator, but part of the drama that has him as the central character.” —N.T Wright
KNOWING JESUS PERSONALLY
Jesus came into this world to not just show us who God is but to personally introduce us to God so that we would be in a growing relationship with God.
“And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely
him.” —Hebrews 1:6 (NLT)
“And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.” —1 John 5:20 (NLT)
“You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for
him will be the salvation of your souls.” —1 Peter 1:8-9 (NLT)