That I May Know Him

In this part of the sermon: He distinguishes between merely 'knowing about' Christ (like studying photographs) and truly 'knowing' Him, which involves a living, relational communion, akin to a marital…

The difference between a corpse and a living person (using Anwar Sadat as an example) illustrates the difference between knowing about Christ and knowing Him in living communion.

Well, let me say by way of trying to describe it and define it, it is distinct from knowing about him. Now, is there a difference between a corpse and a living, thinking, feeling, speaking, moving human being? Well, you say, of course. And what is the difference? A week ago, President Anwar Sadat was a living. He was a living. He was a living. He was a living. He was a living.

17:22 - 17:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He distinguishes between merely 'knowing about' Christ (like studying photographs) and truly 'knowing' Him, which involves a living, relational communion, akin to a marital…

An extended parable of two photographers taking pictures of Martin's wife from infancy to adulthood illustrates that one can know many facts 'about' a person from photographs, but only a spouse knows the person through intimate, relational self-disclosure.

There is no living soul within that body. There is but the shell of a man. And you see, in some measure, that's the difference between knowing about someone and knowing someone. Knowing about Christ is seeing, as it were, the form and the shape of who he is and what he's done. Knowing him is entering into living communion with his very person and being. Let me try to illustrate it by a more extended illustration and parable, and I have my wife's permission to do this. Imagine up in Vermont, where my wife was born, that she was born next to a household that had two teenagers, a boy and a girl, ...

18:31 - 19:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin uses the text to expose the errors of legalism and ritualism (shadows vs. reality), decisionism (Christ as an insurance policy), sheer objectivism (all verse 9, no verse…

A man in prison whose wife can only see his shadow and hear his voice illustrates the Old Testament shadows (circumcision, sacrifices) that dimly represented Christ. Insisting on these shadows after Christ's coming is perverse, like a wife wanting to see her freed husband's shadow instead of embracing him.

It's as though a man was placed in prison, although a man were placed in prison. And his captors told his wife, you cannot see his face as long as he's in prison. But you can come to a certain place in close proximity to the gates of the prison where you will be allowed to get close enough to see his shadow as it is thrown upon the ground from the setting sun. And if you come each afternoon when the sun sets, you may be close enough to speak to him and hold some verbal communion, but you cannot see him nor touch him, but you will see his shadow.

37:31 - 38:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of 'decisionism' that leads to a lack of appetite for Christ, viewing Him merely as an insurance policy rather than a Person to be continually known.

The analogy of an insurance policy is used to critique 'decisionism,' arguing that Christ is not merely a policy secured by a decision, but a Person to be gained and continually known. If one only wants the 'policy' and not Christ Himself, they don't truly have Him.

I say, brethren, that's a curse. It's a curse. Christ is not an insurance policy.

43:37 - 43:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Be utterly satisfied with your acceptance before God in Christ, but utterly dissatisfied with your present level of knowledge of Christ, as this tension is a sign of spiritual health.

Martin imagines a zealous young evangelist asking Paul if he knows the Lord, and Paul's 'yes and no' answer highlights that even for a mature apostle, the knowledge of Christ is an ongoing, aspirational pursuit.

And here the apostle as a mature Christian says that I may know him. Well, Paul, don't you know the Lord? Yes, but no. I can imagine some zealous young soul winner coming out of the classroom of a personal evangelist course in some Bible school finding the apostle Paul.

50:50 - 51:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Be utterly satisfied with your acceptance before God in Christ, but utterly dissatisfied with your present level of knowledge of Christ, as this tension is a sign of spiritual health.

George Whitefield's statement on his 50th birthday, 'this day I have vowed to begin to begin to be a Christian,' illustrates the holy dissatisfaction and aspiration for deeper knowledge of Christ even in a mighty man of God.

Some of you have heard the quote George Whitefield, that mighty man of God whose devotion to Christ shames me so much. I can't take much of his biography at once. I get so discouraged I want to quit. I mean that seriously.

51:43 - 51:56 Read in full sermon