John 10:14-15

Isn’t it the most wonderful thing to be known completely and yet still be loved (smile)? With all of our flaws and fooleries, with all of our pettiness and “little” peccadilloes not to mention our selfishness and propensity to sin, it is no wonder we find it amazing that we as believers can be both fully known and totally loved by our Lord. In our verses for today Jesus states that He is intimately acquainted with His sheep – He is completely aware of their every detail with full and complete knowledge. He knows how we are knit together, He knows our likes and our dislikes, He knows our strengths and our weaknesses – we never take Him by surprise. He bears patiently with our infirmities and does not cast us aside because we are erring or wayward. Even with all this knowledge of His fallen ones, He loved us enough to lay down His life for us. God’s love is amazing to be sure - that the God of all creation would willingly die for you and for me is certainly beyond my limited comprehension. It is a love that passes knowledge. Scripture gives us the following Truths regarding this:

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8 (NIV)

13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13 (NIV)

“O Love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee; I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow May richer, fuller be. O light that foll’west all my way,
I yield my flick’ring torch to thee; My heart restores its borrowed ray, That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day May brighter, fairer be. O Joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee; I trace the rainbow through the rain, And feel the promise is not vain, That morn shall tearless be. O Cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee; I lay in dust life’s glory dead, And from the ground there blossoms red Life that shall endless be.” George Mattheson

Our verses today also show that there is to be a close personal relationship between our Savior and all of His believing people. Just as He knows us, we are to seek to know Him – ever growing in His image - He being the firstborn among many brothers. We are to know each other well connoting affection and intimacy. This is an important point we do not want to miss. Do we know our Lord well? Are we familiar with His ways, with His desires, with His longings? While our Lord certainly knows His people, His people, on the other hand, are to know Him. They are to maintain a loving trust and confidence that quite frankly baffles the unbelieving world – indeed, onlookers dismiss it as foolishness. Yet wisdom is proved right by her actions. We as believers know Jesus as our friend, observing Him through the eyes of faith and therefore are able to rest our head between our Savior’s shoulders. Tasting and seeing that the Lord is good only whets our appetites for more and more knowledge of Him. I am reminded of Paul’s fervent passion which fueled his every move stated clearly for us in Philippians:

7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 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, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 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. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Phil 3:7-14 (NIV)

What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves in life? To know God. What is the eternal life that Jesus gives? Knowledge of God. What is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight, and contentment, than anything else? Knowledge of God. What, of all the states God ever sees man in, gives Him most pleasure? Knowledge of Himself. J.I. Packer

“If you wish to know God, you must know his Word. If you wish to perceive His power,
you must see how He works by his Word. If you wish to know His purpose before it comes to pass, you can only discover it by His Word.” C.H. Spurgeon

“And the only way to know the God of the Word is to know the Word of God.” Donna Evans

Lastly, amazingly, Jesus likens His unity with us to the unity He has with the Father. Let that sink in for just a minute – the Father knows Jesus just as Jesus knows the Father, indeed Jesus states they are One having the exact unity of purpose. In like manner, Jesus knows the believer just as the believer knows Jesus – the believer seeking to achieve the exact unity of purpose with the Lord through the knowledge of Him who loved us and gave His life for us. Scripture tells us:

30 “I and the Father are one.” John 10:30 (NIV)

6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. 1 John 2:6 (NIV)