From Believer to Knower

Most Christians refer to themselves as Believers. This moniker presumably comes from the identification of oneself as a “Believer in Christ”.

The Bible says that if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, then you will be saved.

Salvation is the most glorious gift our Lord has given us, but, and please forgive me for saying this, it really is the minimum performance standard for a Christian. Every Christian who has said the sinner’s prayer is saved, but that doesn’t mean we are living life to the full, as Christ wanted us to.

I used to tell my wife that I would be happy with “standing room only” in Heaven- as long as the door closed behind me, I would be ecstatic.

But as I have grown in my faith, in my walk with the Lord, as I have come to know Him intimately, and see the truths of His Word, I have come to long for His very best. I want no less than what He wants for me any more. As Paul said in Corinthians, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize”.

I want the prize. Whatever that means, whatever it is, I want it. I want it because God wants me to want it. He has told us to live our lives in such a way as to achieve it. He has placed His very best out there for us and then told us to “run” so we can get it.

Faith is only the beginning.

When we become believers, we enter into the beginning of new relationship, one that is new and exciting, one that we have high hopes for. And just as in a new relationship, we have a lot to learn about the person. We may know things about them, but we don’t really know them, we don’t really know what they are capable of.

This is the difference between believing and knowing. When I believe, I make an assumption based upon what I have seen and heard. It may be correct, or it may be false. It may be based upon fact, but it is just as often based upon emotion, habit, or upbringing.

The Twelve Disciples spent over three years with the Lord Jesus Christ. When He called them, they were first motivated by a belief that He was the Messiah. Over the course of their time together, they came to know Him, they came to know Him personally as Teacher, Mentor and Friend. It took spending time with Him for them to get to know Him.

It took Jesus pouring Himself into them for them to get to know Him. While Jesus was alive, He even gave the disciples authority to cast out demons, heal the sick and the diseased. At least one disciple even believed they could call fire down from Heaven to destroy their enemies.

But I will submit to you that although they knew Jesus, and believed in Him, they did not yet know Him; not in the fullness of knowing Him as God, Lord and Savior that they would come to know Him.

Look at the disciples before Jesus’ death. They were able to perform some miracles, clearly, but there were also things that were beyond their ability (Matthew 17:21). They also had a difficult time interpreting Scripture and understanding Jesus’ parables. In Matthew 13:36 it says, “Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.’” And again in Matthew 15:15 “Peter said, ‘Explain the parable to us.’”

Clearly this was not an uncommon practice, as we read in Mark 4:33-34 “He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.”

The disciples believed Jesus’ words and teachings, but they still needed to be explained and interpreted. They didn’t know what He meant, or what He was getting at.

This all changed after His arrest and subsequent death on the cross.

First, His disciples abandoned Him in fear for their own lives. Matthew 26:56b, “Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.”

And after His death, we find them cowering in fear. In John 20:19 we learn “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews,”

Why were they afraid of the Jews except that they feared to suffer the same fate as Jesus? And that fate was something they did not expect, nor understand. They thought Jesus, the Messiah, came to set them free and establish a new Kingdom. The revolution was at hand! And just like that, He was gone.

They went from belief to despair. From hope to doubt. From faith to fear. Even when they first heard of the resurrection, and this after Jesus had explained to them what must happen, they didn’t believe. As we read in Luke 24:9-11, ‘When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.”

Their words seemed to them like nonsense.

Why?

Because they had seen Jesus’ dead body with their own eyes.

But on the third day, when Jesus revealed Himself to them, everything changed again, and the world will never be the same.

I will submit to you that what changed for the disciples, what enabled them to go from the dregs of society, from cowering in fear over seemingly crushed dreams, to the catalyst for establishing the Church and fulfilling the Great Commission, is that they went from believing to knowing. On Thursday they believed.

On Friday, they doubted and despaired. On Saturday they feared. On Sunday they KNEW. Their faith took on a whole new dimension.

What could you do if you knew, absolutely knew, you could not fail? Anything, right?

Well, after the Resurrection the Disciples absolutely knew that Jesus was the Son of God, and that ALL His promises were true. Therefore, everything suddenly became possible for them, and death no longer had any power over them.

So, how do we as believers go from believing to knowing? How do we leave being Believers to become Knowers?

Jesus Himself provides the means. As He did for His disciples then, so He has done for us now.

“Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’ – Luke 24:45-49

Jesus sends what His Father has promised, and clothes us with power from on high.

And because of this, these men went on to change the world; not because of what they believed, but because of what they knew.

Almost all of them died for their faith. Martyrs. Tortured and beaten. Brutally murdered and executed. So how do we know that they knew that Jesus rose from the dead, that He is, in fact, the Son of God?

Those mean died to prove it to us. The original disciples that believed in Him, and came to know Him, died; so we can know. Only someone who saw the risen Lord would submit to the deaths these men died without recanting their stories. No one dies for a lie they know to be false.

So, are you a Knower?