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Discovering Jesus
Rodney Plunket
On November 17, 2002
the elders of the Broadway church of Christ unanimously adopted a
mission statement for this church family. That mission statement is
discovering Jesus. I have a great deal to say about this statement, so
I hope you have a few minutes.
In 2 Corinthians (2Cor)
3:12-18 we read the following:
Since, then, we have such a hope, we
act with great boldness, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to
keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was
being set aside. But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very
day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is
still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. Indeed, to this very
day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; but when one
turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with
unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a
mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of
glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
The book of 2 Corinthians is written by the
apostle Paul, and in these verses Paul refers to an Old Testament story
found in Exodus (Ex) 34. In Ex 34:29-35 Moses
comes down from Mount Sinai with the tablets of stone upon which are
chiseled the Ten Commandments, but Moses does not know that his face is
shining with the glory of having been with God upon the mountain. The
people shrink back from him. Even his brother Aaron the high priest
shrinks back. Moses has to cover his face with a veil so the people are
not frightened of him.
In 2Cor 3:12-18 the
apostle Paul is noting that the veil which shielded the glory of
Moses’ face is like the veil that he sensed when he tried to teach Jews
the saving message of the new covenant. They could not see the wonder,
the saving power, the truth of that message. He taught them using the
words of Moses, but they could not understand. Paul could all but feel
the veil which obstructed their vision, but he could not penetrate it,
and he knew that they would continue to be veiled in their understanding
until they turned to the Lord.
And that brings us to v
18. Let’s read that verse again. Paul says,
And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the
glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed
into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes
from the Lord, the Spirit.
When the veil is removed look what
happens. Believers have an unimpeded view of the divine glory and are
transformed because they are able to focus upon that glory. Paul also
makes clear that the transformation process is continual; it is
ongoing. He proclaims that we are “transformed from one degree of glory
to another.”
Victor Paul Furnish in
his Anchor Bible commentary on 2 Corinthians has powerfully captured the
force of this verse. He looks down at 2Cor 4:4 where Paul calls Christ
“the image of God,” then he looks down to 2Cor 4:6 where Paul refers to
“the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ.” He then says, rightly I think, that the glory of the Lord in
3:18 refers to the glory of God which we are allowed to see “when the
veil of unbelief is removed.” And the mirror in which we see that glory
is the face of Christ.
In other words, as we stay focused upon the person of Christ we are
looking upon the very glory of God. And as we stay focused upon that
glory we are transformed; we are shaped by that glory. We become more
and more like Jesus, more and more like God. We display God’s glory.
We are transformed into the image of Christ Jesus our Lord.
The song, “A New
Anointing” makes the following declaration:
This is the season for a new anointing.–––This is
the season for a fresh outpouring,–––that the sons and daughters of the
King of glory may arise and shine, . . . .
I believe that God is preparing Broadway for a
season of new anointing. I believe that God is calling us individually
and congregationally to grow from glory to glory. I believe we are
being called to “arise and shine,” and I believe that one of the ways
that God is calling us to do that is through our mission statement.
2 Corinthians 3:18 is, for me, a foundational
passage in understanding what “Discovering Jesus” means. Why? Because
the mission statement “Discovering Jesus” declares that it is our
purpose to stay more focused upon Jesus in order to be “transformed . .
. from one degree of glory to another.” To put it another way, when we
say that “Discovering Jesus” is our mission statement, we are declaring
that it is our purpose to discover through knowledge and
experience the fullness of Jesus the Christ and to be transformed
continually through that ongoing discovery process. We want to grow
from glory to glory by focusing upon Jesus, who is like a mirror because
He accurately reflects and transmits to us the very glory of our God.
But this verse in 2 Corinthians is not the only
biblical reference which calls upon us to fulfill our mission
statement. The writings of the Apostle John use a certain Greek family
of words in a specialized way. I am referring to John’s use of the
Greek word ginoœskoœ
and other words related to it. This
word family refers to knowing and knowledge. It is a common word group
in the New Testament (NT), but the apostle John gives it a distinctive
role and meaning, and John’s Gospel has more occurrences of the word
ginoœskoœ
than any other NT book. John uses “knowing” to refer to the
relationship/the fellowship/the experience of community that exists
between God and Jesus, and John also uses it to refer to the
fellowship/the experience of community that is to exist between Jesus
and the people who put their faith in Jesus. In fact, John’s writings
make clear that the type of fellowship that Jesus and His disciples are
to have is explicitly patterned after the type of fellowship that God
and Jesus have. In John 10:14-15a. Jesus says, “I am the good
shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the
Father knows me and I know the Father.” “I know my
own and my own know me.” That is the kind of relationship/the
kind of community that Jesus desires to have with His followers. And
the depth of that relationship is conveyed by what Jesus says next. The
kind of knowing Jesus desires is that it be “just as the Father knows
me and I know the Father.” These words of Jesus call us to a
life of “Discovering Jesus” with the goal of knowing Jesus like the
Father knows Jesus and like Jesus knows the Father. These words of
Jesus call us to discover Jesus so that our relationship with Him will
become more and more like His relationship with the Father. That is
accomplished as we become more like Jesus as we move toward loving as
Jesus loves, being obedient to the Father as Jesus was, being in tune
with the Father’s will as Jesus was.
What we must realize is that to discover
Jesus involves our hearts, our souls, our minds, and our bodies. We are
talking about “Discovering Jesus” with and in our entire being.
That means that “Discovering Jesus” impacts
our emotional lives. This mission statement calls upon us to
discover and live out the way that Jesus feels about others, the
way Jesus feels for the lost, the way Jesus feels about
situations in our community and in the world. To discover Jesus is to
be drawn up out of emotional lives of negativism and despair.
“Discovering Jesus” calls upon us to have emotional lives that conform
to the feelings, the attitudes of Jesus our Lord.
Discovering Jesus also impacts our religious and
spiritual lives. This mission statement calls upon us to discover
through experience the prayer life of Jesus. It calls upon us to
discover through experience the way Jesus was so tightly connected to
the Father.
“Discovering Jesus” also calls upon us to discover
and embrace Jesus’ way of thinking. For example, we more and
more will think with the humility of Jesus. Jesus is the Son of
God, but He loved the lowly. Jesus is the Son of God, but He lowered
Himself “to the point of death––even death on a cross” (Philippians
2:8). As we discover Jesus through walking in His steps, we will think
in a humble manner. We will move further away from selfishness, pride,
and arrogance.
“Discovering Jesus” impacts us physically.
“Discovering Jesus” will cause our words and our actions to be more and
more like the words and actions of Jesus. Our words and our actions
will be baptized in love, as were the words and actions of our Lord.
Please feel and embrace the way that “Discovering
Jesus” draws the whole of our beings into an ever-deeper relationship
with the risen Christ!
In Ephesians 3:16-17
Paul writes as follows:
I pray that,
according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be
strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that
Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted
and grounded in love.
The mission statement
“Discovering Jesus” calls upon us to experience the affirmation of that
prayer in our lives. To discover Jesus is to have Christ dwelling “in
[our] hearts through faith.” To discover Jesus is to experience “being
rooted and grounded in love.”
In Colossians 1:27-28 we read:
To them God chose to make known how great
among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is
Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is he whom we proclaim, warning
everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present
everyone mature in Christ.
“Discovering Jesus” is a call to maturity in
Christ. Paul, in these verses, makes clear that he stayed focus upon
Jesus to generate maturity of faith. We must do the same.
One more passage from the
apostle Paul, Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is
no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I
now live in the flesh I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who
loved me and gave himself for me.
“Discovering Jesus” is based upon the desire for
each of one of us to say what Paul said. Our desire is to be able to
say that we are dead. The persons people now see are the persons that
Christ within us is causing us to be.
May we “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).
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