THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS
I. THOUGHTS OF GOD
A. What comes into our minds and deep into our hearts when we think about Jesus is the most important thought a human
can think. It’s the idea of what we imagine God to be like.
Matt 16:15 Jesus said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
1. Who is God? What is He like? Who am I to God? What does Jesus think about me? How we answer these
questions means everything. All else falls short.
2. Low and wrong views of God destroy the power of the gospel of Christ.
3. Idolatry assumes that God is other than He really is. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts
about God that are unworthy and untrue of Him.
B. Colossians 1:10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God
Ephesians 1:17 that the Father of glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him
1. The heaviest obligation upon the Church (you and I) today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is
once more worthy of Him.
Rom 11:33-36 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His
judgments and His ways past finding out! 34 "For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His
counselor?" 35 'Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?" 36 For of Him and through Him and
to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Is 40:25-28 To whom then will you liken Me or to whom shall I be equal…says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high
and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness
of His might and the strength of His power…28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the
Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
C. God desires to empower us to behold who He is and what He’s like. Whatever we study about God is what is
made alive in our hearts towards God. We have to take what He’s given us in His Word and apply our minds and hearts
to encounter the Word.
I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, And on Your wondrous works. (Ps 145:5)
D. The question to us...“Who do you say that I am?”
II. A GLANCE AT HIS POWER AND PRESENCE
Ex 19:11-20 … For on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people...16 Then it
came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the
mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. 17 And
Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount
Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a
furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. 19 And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder
and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. 20 Then the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top
of the mountain...
A. This event is three months after the Exodus from the slavery of Egypt. In these last three months the camp of
Israel has seen great and awesome acts of the power of God.
1. The plagues of Egypt that caused their deliverance (Ex 7-12).
2. A pillar of cloud led them by day and a pillar of fire led them by night (Ex 13).
3. The Red Sea split and they crossed on dry ground (Ex 14).
4. They were fed supernaturally with bread from heaven and quail (Ex 16).
5. Water came from the rock and they drank (Ex 17).
B. And now in Exodus 19 God desires to ‘meet with them’. Real people (estimated 2-3 million) in real time (close to
1500 BC) experienced the coming of God to the earth! (metro-area population of Kansas City is just over 2 million).
C. We may never have an experience likened to the intensity of these biblical accounts. Yet they are recorded in
scripture and we have the eternal God living in us to give to us the revelation of the power of God in such accounts.
John 14:17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know
Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
D. God desires that His people know Him. He told Moses that He desires that the people may hear Him and believe
forever v.9. God will release power upon our hearts as we read and consider these accounts to do in our hearts what He
sought to accomplish in their hearts. His Word is not only in history but is active now, today. What He intended for them
to receive we are invited to have.
Exodus 20:18-19 Now all the people witnessed the thundering, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the
mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. 19 Then they said to Moses, "You speak
with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die."
1. The people trembled and quaked! This is who God is. His presence is holy and awesome.
2. We can call this a holy fear of God. We don’t fear Him as an evil dictator but we reverence Him and honor Him as
The Creator God. The people respond to Moses...you speak to God, we’ll speak to you.
E. There is an important principle taught in this passage. God displays His majesty, glory and power so that we
would have a high vision of who He is, that the fear of Him would be before us and that we would be delivered from sin.
Ex 20:20-21 And Moses said to the people, "Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may
be before you, so that you may not sin."
1. When we have a low view of God we are bored and dull. When humans are bored we look for quick gratification;
leading us into sin.
2. Recapturing a high and lofty vision of God in our mind and heart will settle what we crave; Divine fascination. This
will deliver us from sin.
F. The desire of God behind this account was to awaken a people by the ‘awe factor’, to live with holy wonder in their
hearts toward God; to be given wholeheartedly to Him in loyalty and love. This same desire still holds true right now for
you and I as we consider this story.
Exodus 6:6…I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their
bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. 7 I will take you as My people and
I will be your God…
III. GOD IS JESUS (GOD BECOMES A MAN)
A. As we consider God we must rightly perceive that Jesus is the Eternal (without end or beginning), Omnipotent
(possesses all power) God of the Old Testament. Found in this Jewish Man is the fullness of the God of Exodus 19.
John 10:30 I (Jesus) and My Father are one
Col 2:9 For in Him (Jesus) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily
B. Jesus is the exact representation of God.
Hebrews 1:1-3 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in
these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom (Jesus) also He
(Father) made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His (Father) glory and the express image of His (Father) person,
and upholding all things by the word of His (Jesus) power, when He (Jesus) had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at
the right hand of the Majesty on high (Father)
C. The Person of God in Jesus is eternal. He’s always existed. He has no beginning or end. At the first coming He
put on flesh and became a man.
John 1:1-3, 14 In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God (Father), and the Word was God. 2 He
was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made...
14 And the Word became flesh
D. From the throne of God that governs all things comes a Man! This Man possesses the seven-fold Spirit of God
(the fullness of the Holy Spirit). The Jasper God that expresses Himself with lightning and thunder has put on skin!
Rev 5:6 And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the
elders, stood a Lamb (Jesus) as though it had been slain, having seven horns (perfect power) and seven eyes (perfect
wisdom), which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
E. God trumps every story in the Bible concerning His desire to draw near to His people by coming to dwell among us
in the Person of Jesus. As we study the life (actions, reactions, words) of Jesus we grow in our knowledge of what God is
like.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth.
F. As we read through the life of Christ we pause and consider what He just did, what He just said, how He just
responded and we grow in our understanding of what God is like. When Jesus spoke, God spoke. When Jesus laughed,
God laughed. When Jesus cried, God cried. This is our journey into the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 Cor 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
IV. THE SPLENDOR OF THE MAN JESUS
Revelation 1:10-11, 12-18 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day and I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet saying “
I am the Alpha and Omega the First and the Last” 12 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having
turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with
a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as
white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; 15 His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice
as the sound of many waters; 16 He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword,
and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. 17 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid
His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. 18 I am He who lives, and was dead,
and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen.”
A. The Apostle John (author of Revelation) has walked with Jesus for over 60 years up to this point. Three of those
years being with Jesus in the flesh. Side by side day after day and night after night John watched His every move and
listened to His voice very carefully. John was the Apostle named ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’ (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2).
B. In this account John is overwhelmed and trembling before his Friend. Jesus’ glory is unveiled so much that John,
the disciple that followed Him so radically, falls to His feet trembling in holy terror (1:17).
C. In these biblical accounts when the prophets use the word ‘like’...that translates to us that they’re doing their very
best to describe a supernatural sight their gazing upon. There are hardly human words that can accurately describe what
God appeared to be to them. Remember, He has no beginning...He’s before the vocabulary of man, He’s other than.
How do you explain an uncreated God with created language? You use the word ‘like’.
D. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow. Instead of thinking of an old-aged, white-haired wizard
think more of brilliant, pure white light that hurts your eyes to look at. It speaks of purity and stunning beauty.
Mark 9:2-3 He was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no
launderer on earth can whiten them.
E. His eyes like a flame of fire. Eyes of fire speak of His intensity, jealousy, focus and pursuit of His bride. These eyes
penetrate through anything! When you look into them, you’re ruined forever...forever! (John 6:5, Luke 5:11, Mt 4:22,
Acts 6 & 9 with Stephen and Paul)
F. His voice as the sound of many waters. As the sound of a trumpet in v. 10 and as the sound of many waters in
v. 16. His voice does a thousand things in one sentence. Violent rivers all coming together at once, like being at the
bottom of a high waterfall when the water crashes against the rocks, you can feel the velocity of the water on the rocks,
like feeling a freight train coming on the tracks before you even see it...so is the voice of God when He speaks. God can
speak a different sentence to 1,000 people in different tones and languages at the exact same
time!
Job 37:1-5 "At this my heart trembles and leaps from its place. 2 Hear attentively the thunder of His voice, And
the rumbling that comes from His mouth. 3 He sends it forth under the whole heaven, His lightning to the ends of the
earth. 4 After it a voice roars; He thunders with His majestic voice, And He does not restrain them when His voice is
heard. 5 God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend.
G. His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. The consuming fire of Deut. 4 & Heb. 12. The
glory of God draws you in yet He’s unapproachable light at the same time. His presence radiates beauty. His
holiness is beautiful, marvelous, full of splendor and majesty.
H. Rev 1:17 And when I saw Him I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me. The eternal,
glorified Jesus stretches out His hand and touches His friend. The One who was never created. The One who
knows no beginning or end. The One whose countenance is as the sun...this One reaches out His hand and
touches John’s physical frame.
V. SUMMARY
Matt 16:15 Jesus said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
A. What comes into our minds and deep into our hearts when we think about God is the most important
thought that we can think. It’s the idea of what we imagine God to be like.
B. When Peter looked into the eyes of Jesus and answered in Mt. 16:16 “You are the Christ, the Son of the
Living God” he was stating...“You are the God of Exodus 19!” What a profound declaration!
C. The knowledge of God upon one’s soul is the true meaning of life.
John 17:1 & 3 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said…3 this is eternal life, that they may
know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.