By There is no greater joy than knowing Jesus.
You and I as Christians are perhaps very comfortable with the knowledge of Jesus because it is such a fundamental part of our confession as Christians.
Of all the VIPs that you might have met in this world, or perhaps only dream of meeting, there is no person as important as Jesus.
As Christians we know Jesus. Our faith has even been named after Jesus’ title – Christ, which is the Greek equivalent of Jesus’ OT title.
Being called a Christ-ian is extraordinarily special. In the OT, the personal name “Jesus” was not yet associated with Jesus; he was simply known as the “Messiah”, translated as “Christ” in the NT. But according to the book of Acts (11:26, also 26:28 and 1 Pet 4:16), it took very little time for the followers of Jesus Christ to be nicknamed “Christian” – a name we accept very willingly.
Christians are those who know Christ. The simple fact that you know Jesus is therefore the greatest blessing ever to come your way.
Think about it this way: Have you ever considered what a curse it would be if God withheld knowledge of Jesus from you? It would be a just curse for your sinfulness, but still, consider how horrid life would be if God never offered one word of revelation about Himself through Jesus. All the events in history would still happen, but no revelation about God; no knowledge of Jesus.
The Garden of Eden story would simply be what was handed down over the years from Adam and Eve. Adam would tell his children how one day he just ‘was’. He awoke in a beautiful garden, all kinds of animals and plants, sun, moon, and stars, and trees with the most delicious of fruits where already there – he had no idea where it all came from or for how long it had all been there before he was. Then one day, he and Eve his wife decided to walk to the middle of the garden and try some of the fruit there. Something went horribly wrong though, for while eating from the different trees that day, they were suddenly filled with a real sense of shame and soon realised that everything in their beautiful world had been messed up. Pain, struggles, thorns and thistles suddenly because part of everyday life, and to their dying day they never knew how it had come about, much less how it could be reversed back to the original normal.
Think of all the other historical events that would be told so differently if God never revealed the full story to us in the Scriptures. Sodom and Gomorrah would just burn one day. The story of Moses wouldn’t include the Ten Commandments, much less God’s glorious self-revelation of “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex 34:6). The prophets would have no word from God; the Psalms would have no eternal hope. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John would be nothing more than a collection of ancient Israeli newspaper headlines. The NT epistles would offer no salvation, no knowledge of God, no explanation of Church, no promise from God on how the world will end.
Without God revealing knowledge of Jesus, Christianity would never even have that name. A man with no knowledge of Jesus is a man most miserable.
I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. … Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.
1 John 2:21, 24 (ESV)