Do we really know someone?
I recently read a story about a woman waiting at an airport. Passing the time before her flight, she bought a book and a small bag of cookies. Then she found a seat in a crowded lounge, sitting right next to a businessman.
As she started reading, she reached down to the table between them, took a cookie, and ate it. But then, out of the corner of her eye, she was shocked to see the man reach into the exact same bag and take one too.
She was furious. But she didn’t want to cause a scene. So she said nothing.
A few minutes passed. She took another cookie. He took another cookie.
Finally, there was only one cookie left. She watched the man, wondering what he would do. With a gentle smile, he took the last cookie, broke it perfectly in half and pushed one half over to her. Then he left to catch his flight.
The woman was beside herself – the nerve of that guy, she thought. She gathered her things, boarded her plane, and angrily sank into her seat. She reached inside her purse to grab her book, and froze.
There, tucked safely inside her bag, was her own completely unopened bag of cookies.
In an instant, she realized she was the cookie thief. The man wasn’t stealing her food; he had been quietly and generously sharing his own cookies with a stranger without a single complaint.
Do we really know someone? I’ll push it higher: Do we know the Someone of all someones – God?
As we are in Galatians we come to 4:8-10 today. We are going to cue in on the massive topic Paul brings up: knowing God. Because today’s sermon is a shorter one, we are going to establish what it means to know God – what the Bible says it is for a person to know God. Then next time we are going to go through these same verses in more detail and look at how they relate to what Paul says here.
Question: Do you Know God? In Galatians 4:8-9 Paul says that previously the Galatians did *not* know God. Now they do.
What does it mean to “know God?” It doesn’t mean simply being informed about the facts of the Christian faith. My favorite atheist was Christopher Hitchens, and he knew what Christianity teaches very well. In a debate he said, quite mockingly,
I’m asked to believe that a virgin was impregnated by a ghost, gave birth to a son who was also his own father, who then had to be tortured to death in order to scapegoat the sins of others, and who then came back to life and rose into the sky, and that if I accept this story, I can live forever too. I understand it perfectly; I just find it morally and intellectually bankrupt.”
He could articulate the truths of the Christian faith very well – even if it was with pointed irreverence. But because he knew what the Christian doctrines are, does that mean Christopher Hitchens “knew God?” Not at all. Because knowing God is not merely having information. Knowing God means believing in that information as true.
So when Paul told the Galatians that they used to NOT know God, it means that they didn’t believe in the past. Now that is remarkable – think about this: many of those Galatians were Jews who converted from Judaism to faith in Christ. Many of them were Gentiles who followed Judaism as “worshipers of God.” And Paul includes them when he says “when you did NOT know God.” They knew their religion but they did not know God. It wasn’t just the pagan Galatians who were ignorant of God, it was the Mosaic worshipers that were also ignorant and didn’t know God.
APPLICATION: Do you only know religion? I’ve heard many many times from people who grew up in church or go to church “Oh I know all that. I’ve heard it before.” Yeah, you may “know all that,” but the question is “Do you know God?” That’s my question to you today: Do you know God? Are you like Christopher Hitchens? Are you well acquainted with what Christianity says and familiar with Church……but you don’t really believe it? You can have information and not have eternal life. Make sure you have eternal life – make sure you believe in Christ and believe Him. That’s what it means to know Him.
APPLICATION: Right now you cannot know God without knowing Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me” and “If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father.” (Jn 12:45; 14:9). Paul said to the Colossians, “Christ is the image of the invisible God” and Hebrews 1 says, “God has spoken to us by His Son” and “Jesus is the exact representation of God’s being.”
One of the most famous, and most important verses is John 17:3 when Jesus is praying to the Father, and he says, “Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the One true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” You see, eternal life is knowing that God is, and God has a Son, and God sent His Son, and Jesus Christ is His Son, and Jesus came into the world, and through Jesus you can have eternal life. You know that, but you know God because you know that about Him and know He is true.
That famous verse in the OT, Jeremiah 9:23-24, God says this: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight.”
Understanding and knowing mean believing those things are true about God – not merely having information that those are claims others believe about God. Knowing God means you know Him to be righteous, kind, just, forgiving, your Savior!
So I ask you: Do you know God? There is nothing greater than knowing God. Jesus said, “What does it profit you to gain the whole world but lose your soul?”
There was a man long ago who had it all. He came from the right family. He had impeccable morals. His education was the best. No one was equal to him in his career – and that career was taking off like a rocket. He had the confidence of the older generations that he was supremely capable to take over and take the movement to whole new levels. The future was in his hands.
Then he lost it all. And he couldn’t have been happier. He became a Christian. As a matter of fact, one time while reflecting on everything he lost to follow Christ, he wrote these words,
“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake ofChrist. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider it all garbage, that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but having a righteousness that is through faith in Christ…I WANT TO KNOW CHRIST….”
Those are the words of the Apostle Paul, author of much of the New Testament. He was a man who had everything, and he said nothing compared to knowing Christ Jesus.
Do you know Jesus Christ? To know God you must know Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Come to Jesus. Make Him your way, your truth and your life.