Recently in a few Bible studies I had asked the question “who is Jesus Christ”?
The answers were pretty accurate, but I also left saddened. IN fact one friend came with over three pages of scripture that depicted the character of Jesus Christ. The list of his attributes are staggering, awe inspiring, and accurate, yet the answers were void of God’s deepest desire, and that’s relational context.
Even until today, God deeply desires to restore us, heal us, and be in covenant relationship with us. The challenge we must face is to believe what scriptures say about him or to believe how we feel and what we see.
We can believe in God or we can believe in the world around us, but we can’t believe in both. If we attempt to do so, life will still be confusing, dark, chaotic, and it will distort our belief of God.
When I asked the question, “who is Jesus Christ” I was hoping to hear personal testimonies of how Jesus has revealed himself to people. I wanted to hear about their interactions and what they’ve experienced as they’ve sought after him. The church in Iran is one of the fasted growing churches in the world right now. They don’t have Bibles, they don’t have buildings, in fact a large majority leading this charge are women, but Jesus Christ has continually been revealing himself in dreams to these people. This is in a land where an open confession to faith in Jesus is cause for capital punishment.
“When we have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, nothing can convince us that he isn’t who he says he is.”
We are designed to create life. It is in the core of who we are because it is who God is and we are designed to bear his image. I often joke that we find the great commission in Matthew 28 about making disciples, but I say the greatest commission is found in Genesis 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
I certainly believe the men I had these discussions with believe in Jesus, but if we have not received a revelation from him, our use of scripture can often feel like a weapon to someone else.
The Gardener of Eden
Eden is perfect. It’s place where there’s peace, there’s vitality, there’s purpose, and there’s life.
We see Eden described at the beginning of the Bible, we see Eden described at the end of the Bible in Revelation 22, but there’s another place that we often miss Eden in our English language and it’s found in Luke 23:41-43. We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be we me in paradise.”
parádeisos – an ancient Persian word meaning "enclosure, garden, park."
We often believe heaven is a land far, far away and God is more like the wizard of oz than the source of all life and vitality. We see him as a cosmic puppet master rather than the one who has lavished mercy upon mercy on us and our lack of commitment and belief in him. A better understanding is to realize is Heaven is simply wherever God is. We understand this concept in many forms in our daily lives. A business may set up its headquarters in a certain city or location. The core values of that company are centralized in this location and dispersed from there, however, if the company moves, that original location is simply a geographical point on a map, but the heartbeat that drives that company is there no more. In the same way, heaven is where God is, and today friend he wants to dwell in you. That’s just wild.
To be in his presence is perfection, it’s bliss, it’s wholeness, it’s completion, it’s stillness, it’s inexpressible beauty, it’s truth, it’s incomprehensible love, and it’s all endless. He really is that good
The Book of Genesis describes God as the creator and caretaker of the Garden of Eden, a paradise where the first humans, Adam and Eve, reside. God plants every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, placing Adam in the garden to work it and keep it (Genesis 2:8-15).
The OT was written in Hebrew and the Hebraic language consists much of word pictures. Think of it like trying to paint a picture in someone’s mind using only words. Knowing God as a gardener paints a picture of His role as a provider and sustainer of life. Just as a gardener tends to plants, ensuring they have the conditions necessary to thrive, God provides for humanity, seeking their well-being and growth. For our culture though, being a gardener would be considered entry level in the job force. It’s a lowly position. It’s a humble position. No one usually wants to see the gardener, but we want to experience it’s bounty. What God is teaching us is that the lowly, humble positions are where life begins and where life is formed. It’s an upside-down pyramid.
I recently had been on staff at a church in our area. One of my positions was the facility coordinator or simply the maintenance guy. It wasn’t my ideal job, but I also didn’t ever want another title than maintenance. Shepherding people is not at all for the faint of heart, but moreover titles change the way we view and often treat others. The greater the title, the higher the reverence.
James 3:1. Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
Not all teachers are pastors, and not all pastors are teachers, but the truth is we have a tendency to believe a pastor or priest has spiritually authority from God and have a closer relationship with God, but even they can still have never received a personal revelation of who Jesus. It is completely possible to know about Jesus but not know Jesus.
I never wanted a different title because it’s not about me. It’s about the good shepherd. It’s about the gardener.
There was a point in my own journey when life was an absolute disaster. I had lost a house, all our vehicles, forced into bankruptcy, and eventually my wife left and took the kids.
No money, no house, no family, no Jesus.
I began to come back to my roots though. I had certainly been taught about Jesus, and I can look back to say I knew him. I had simply over the years allowed my heart to be hardened. I let the world raise me. I let my own instincts teach me. I completely took God out of my life and being and incredibly loving God, he allowed me to fall.
However, scripture says raise up a child in the way they should go and when they get older, they will not depart from it. And so it was with me. I stepped away from myself, I walked through the waters of baptism, and I came out on the other side into the life found in Jesus that I was designed for, but it didn’t all change. 6 days after being baptized my dad suddenly died, my dog died, his dog died, and things with my kids got worse. But I wasn’t going back.
In John 7:38 Jesus is recorded saying “if you believe in me according to the scriptures, rivers of living water will flow from within you.” I didn’t know what that meant, but I knew that if I wanted to know what it meant that I needed to dedicate my life to knowing what scripture says about Jesus.
Our world tells us to take for what’s ours, to rise to the top, to build a name for ourselves, to gain the title, but Jesus is saying that real life will only come from the bottom up. From being willing to be a gardener and not be needing to be known for anything else.
James 4:10. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
It’s about Jesus anyways, it’s not about us.
If we want peace, if we want joy, if we want to know how to love or forgive others how he does, it must begin by knowing him. All of what we truly seek after will only be found in a revelation of who Jesus is.
For man (humans) to exist apart from God will inevitably bring about a sense of loneliness, despair, confusion, and incompleteness, however God himself is the one who is and has always been complete. Completeness is even in his name. Revelation 22:13. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
The use of "alpha" and "omega" as a pair to signify the beginning and the end was a familiar concept in Greek culture, symbolizing totality or completeness. Knowing this about God allows us to know the eternal and all-encompassing nature of God. (1)
One other incredible element about Jesus statement in John 7:38 ties all the way back in to Eden.
In John 7:38 Jesus is recorded saying “if you believe in me according to the scriptures, rivers of living water will flow from within you.”
Genesis 2:10
A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters.
Revelation 22:1-2
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
The tree of life is in the story of both gardens.
When Jesus hung on the tree, he told the thief he would be with him that day in the garden.
There he was, the source of all life, hanging from a tree, providing a way for all the receive eternal life.
He truly is the only source of life and for us to receive that life, we must strip aside our comforts, our expectations, and our control and allow the gardener to plant and nourish as he sees fit.
We are going to take communion together.
Jesus makes some bold statements in His teachings, many of which we have heard as we’ve gone through The Sermon on the Mount, but none of which may be more shocking around that of which we call communion.
Jesus didn’t mince words. What we know is at the last supper, as Jesus took the bread, he gave thanks, and said to his disciples, this is my body, which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of me. Then afterwards, he took the cup also and said “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this in remembrance of me”. What we often miss is that to the twelve he was speaking to, they still had no idea what was about to happen, whereas we are on the other side of the story. Interestingly, this wasn’t the first time they would have heard Jesus say this. In John 6 we read of a time when many of Jesus’s followers walked away from Him.
John 6:53 53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He goes on to say For my flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. (vs. 55-56).
...you must not eat flesh with life, that is to say, blood in it. (Genesis 9:4-5)
This is a perpetual law for all your descendants wherever you may live: that you will not eat either fat or blood. (Leviticus 3:17)
You will not consume the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood, and anyone who consumes it will be cut off. (Leviticus 17:14) (See also Deuteronomy 12:16, 12:23-28)
Therefore say to them, "This is what the Sovereign LORD says, 'Since you eat meat with the blood still in it...should you then possess the land?' (Ezekiel 33:25)
Leviticus 17:10-13
If anyone from the house of Israel or a foreigner living among them eats any blood, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from among his people. 11For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for your souls upon the altar; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. 12Therefore I say to the Israelites, ‘None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner living among you eat blood.’
13And if any Israelite or foreigner living among them hunts down a wild animal or bird that may be eaten, he must drain its blood and cover it with dirt. 14For the life of all flesh is its blood. Therefore, I have told the Israelites, ‘You must not eat the blood of any living thing, because the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it must be cut off.’
Friends, I present to you the Gardner of Eden. The humble servant from whom all life flows. He has offered himself as a living sacrifice, providing for us an atonement for our sins and now asks of us to come back to the garden. The walk with him. To represent him. To show the nations by our lives the goodness of his character and the breath of life found in his spirit.
Therefore, in view of God’s mercy, let us offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, pleasing and acceptable to God. This is our true and proper worship. Romans 12:2
