Not just Knowing but Loving Jesus!! (Part 2)

The other example I would like to bring up is in John 20 which talks about His resurrection. Starting at John 20:1-2 on the day of His resurrection, Mary wakes up early in the morning to go find Jesus, but doesn't find Him, so she has to go wake up the Lord's disciples up to tell them that He is gone. By John 20:8-10, the disciples see the tomb and believed, and went back home... Probably to go back to sleep... However, Mary was still not satisfied, she wanted to see Him!! Even angels appeared to her while she was weeping (John 20:13), but that still was not enough! (I probably would have been convinced by then if two angels appeared to me, but not Mary.) In John 20:14, Jesus appears finally appears to her. When she realizes that it is Jesus, she probably jumped up with joy and was probably about to go hug Him, BUT Jesus tell her in John 20:17, "Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father."
Okay, so here is the CRAZY part. In John 20:27-28, Thomas actually touched Jesus. This means that He had already ascended to the Father! But wait, in Acts 1:9-11, Christ ascends in front of everyone. What does this mean!? This means that the day that Christ resurrected, He had a secret ascension to the Father, If it were not for Mary's love for Him, He probably would have ascended to the Father without any of us knowing!! Is this not crazy!? Just consider this for a little bit! Because of Mary's love for Jesus, as Jesus was ascending to the Father, He had to take a little detour before He ascended and revealed Himself to her!
So to rap everything up, here are a couple of verses talking about loving the Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 2:9 it says, "But it is written, 'Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not come up in man's heart; things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'" Wow! What an awesome verse! Also, Ephesians, 1:17-18, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him,/ The eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling." Where are these eyes ? and what are these eyes for? Think about it.

Not just Knowing but Loving Jesus!! (Part 1)

This past Tuesday, some Christian friends and I were gathered at an UT alumni family's house. As we were diving into the Word, we got into the matter of knowing and loving Jesus. So I would like to present a question, Throughout the whole Bible, what is the main subject, the one topic, of the Book? It is just our Lord Jesus Christ. In Colossians 1:17, it says that all things hold together in Him. That means that He is the center of all the things in the world! No doubt there are many topics in the Bible, but they all just concern one person, Jesus Christ! In John 5:39, we see that Jews were searching the Scriptures for eternal life, but they completely missed the One right in front of them which is what the whole Bible is about!
So it is great knowing about this person, but how is this wonderful Person revealed to us? First, I would like to point out two stories in the Bible. Matthew 2 is the story of the magi and Herod the king. So in Matthew 2:4, Herod gathered all the chief priests and scribes to identify where would be born, and even in Matthew 2:6-7, they were able to accurately determine when and where Jesus would be born. However, their intentions and their hearts were not in the right place. In fact, later on we see that Herod had an ulterior motive. However, in Matthew 2:10, when the magi saw the star, they rejoiced. Because the magi did not just have the mere knowledge of doctrine but rather they were seeking Jesus, they were able to see Him.