Knowing Jesus, Not Just Knowing About Him

Hungry for joy that actually lasts? We explore how John 1 moves us from believing about God to truly knowing Jesus—and why that shift changes everything. Pastor Carl unpacks what it means to receive Him, become children of God, and experience the fullness of grace and truth that doesn’t run dry. Along the way, we confront common assumptions, like “everyone’s a child of God,” and clarify the difference between bearing God’s image and being adopted into His family through new birth.

We walk through the mystery and beauty of the Word made flesh—God stepping into His own creation so we could behold His glory up close. Truth isn’t an abstract idea; truth is a person who speaks, heals, and restores. Grace isn’t a vague kindness; it’s unmerited favor that meets us where we are and brings us home. From John’s firsthand testimony to the humility of John the Baptist, we see how the spotlight shifts to Jesus: the One who came after, yet was before; the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire; the One who reveals the Father and invites us into real fellowship.

You’ll hear why new birth isn’t earned by effort, heritage, or human will, but received by faith through the Spirit. You’ll also hear a clear, practical invitation: turn from self‑reliance and bring your sin to the Savior who gives His righteousness in return. If you’ve longed for a relationship that anchors your soul, this journey through John opens a fresh path—grace upon grace, truth that liberates, and joy that grows as you walk with Him.

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Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com.

Chapters

• 26:00 Marker 01

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

SPEAKER_01: 0:13

Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02: 0:20

You want real, honest, full joy? You get it by knowing Jesus. And when you know Jesus, not just know about, get to know. It's a relationship with him. You have eternal life when you know Jesus because he is eternal life. And John and the other followers, they were with him. They knew him. They interacted with him. They had experience with him.

SPEAKER_01: 0:47

I don't know about you, but I grew up believing that God was real. I truly believed in the stories of the Bible. From the flood to the birth of Christ, I believed all of it. I believed that God existed, but I didn't actually know Jesus. As we just heard from Pastor Carl a moment ago, there's a distinct difference between knowing that God exists and actually knowing Jesus. Oh, that you turn the corner today as Pastor Carl teaches and come to truly know this Jesus of the Gospel of John. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

SPEAKER_02: 1:28

Many, many Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah. But it is promised that Israel would come to salvation. And that's one of the good things about these end times events that are happening. But as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name. Although many in the world reject or don't get delight, there are some who come and receive the Lord. They understand who he is, they repent of their sin and they turn to him. They believe the gospel, they believe in his name. And to them, Jesus gives the right to become the children of God, which brings up another point when you hear phrases like, We're all children of God. That's not true. If you've come to faith in Jesus Christ, you become a child of God, you become a brother of Jesus, you've become adopted into the family of the Father. Now, every man and woman in this world has been created in the image of God. And there is an aspect of a dignity that every person should be given because of the image of which they've been created in. And in that instance, in that aspect, we could say we're children of God. I mean, that's probably what is meant by that. We are made in the image of God. Every man and woman and child are image-bearers of the God who created them, if they know him or not. But if you know him, if you receive him, if you believe in his name, then you will become a child of God. These people who were born not of blood, they not just because they were in the right bloodline, not just because they were of the Jewish heritage, because Jesus has come to save the Jews first and the rest of the world as well. The Gentiles. He's come to bring salvation to the Gentiles. Nor the will of the flesh. It's not something that I can do. I really want to do this. I really want to be a child of God. I really want to be born again. You can't do that. You're not able to make yourself born. Nor of the will of man. This was something that was dictated by mankind. You have to be born again. No, it's the will of God, it's it's the power of the Spirit working in the lives of people who put their trust in Jesus. And in chapter three, we'll talk more about that concept. Verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word became flesh. Again, he's he's he's he's attacking the Gnostic teaching that that tries to address who Jesus is by saying Jesus was just an apparition, he was just a ghost, he didn't really have a physical body. He may have possessed a body at some time, but that wasn't his body, that was somebody else's body. And and John is saying that's that's heresy. The word became flesh. God, the creator, God of spirit, became part of his creation, became a man, was born of a virgin, and he dwelt among us. He was here, he walked with us, just like he walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Truth is not just a concept that you can grab a hold of. This is a truth that goes beyond what we can come up with as humans. Truth is a person, there's no darkness in him. He brings forth who he is. It's his nature to be truth. He is the truth. And grace is just this unmerited favor. It's given us what we don't deserve. And why does he do that? Because of his love for us. John goes on and explains a little more of his experience in his first epistle. The first few verses of 1 John chapter 1 said, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. The life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you, that you may also have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. You want real, honest, full joy? You get it by knowing Jesus. And when you know Jesus, not just know about, get to know. It's a relationship with him. You have eternal life when you know Jesus because he is eternal life. And John and the other followers, they were with him. They knew him, they interacted with him, they had experience with him. But even that was nothing compared to the personal relationship when the Holy Spirit came upon them and opened their eyes, and they knew Jesus at a new level that they never knew before. And others that have that same relationship, you can have instant fellowship with him. And that is the desire that they that John would have, that you would know Jesus, and that we would have fellowship with each other as a result. I mean, there's a lot here. You can dig deeper, and I and I wish that you would go deeper in this and see what John is trying to tell us. So going back to our study, John verse 15, John bore witness of him and cried out, saying, This is he of whom I said, he comes after me, and he's preferred before me, for he was before me. Now, John is going back to John the Baptist and and the declarations that that he made. And he's calling out. John is calling out John the Baptist, saying, You know, I'm talking about this one who is coming. He comes after me because I'm preparing the way for the Lord, but he was before me. And of course, he's crying out to the Pharisees and the Sadducees that are coming out to seeing what he's what he's doing out there, and why are all these people following after him? And you know, how can they get him caught for false teaching and so forth? But he's saying, This Jesus that's coming, this Messiah that's coming after me was before me. And if they did just a little bit of study, they would realize that John the Baptist was born six months before Jesus. So Jesus came after him both ways. And yet John is not talking about this life, is he? He's talking about Jesus, who is the creator of all things. And even Jesus would later say, before Abraham was, I am. Before I was, John the Baptist says, This one who's coming after me was before me. He is the great I am, he is the one who had no beginning. He's been eternally God from eternity past. And even eternity is outside of time. So this idea that you know he was the creator, he is the creator, he is the great I am, he is God at this very moment. But that was before my time, and of his fullness we have all received grace for grace. In another version, it says something along the lines of his blessed gifts of grace keep coming, keep coming. When one seems to run out, there's another that comes after it. There's so much the Lord wants to pour upon us in developing his relationship with us and equipping us for the service that he wants to do in declaring his good news to the world. He keeps pouring out his grace upon grace, upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, and again, that's not saying anything against the law, but the law was very and rightly so, very elevated, very important. The Jewish people were the keepers of the law. The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Grace and truth fulfills the law, grace and truth reveals the law, grace and truth reveals our need for him and makes us right with him, through him, because of him. No one has seen God at any time talking about the glory of God, the majesty of God. No one can stand before God and live. That's why we need resurrected bodies so we can stand before our Lord face to face. However, in God's grace, God became a man and he set aside all that glory to become one of us, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father as He has declared Him. A very intimate, very familiar, poetic way of describing the relationship between the Father and the Son. He became us, but he was still in fellowship with the Lord, with with the Father. And in being one of us, Jesus declared, Jesus showed, Jesus revealed God to a world that could not stand before the glory of God. And then he moves away again from describing just the indescribableness of our Lord. And he turns back to John. And this was this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. I'm not sure if they're asking him, Are you the Christ? At least they're asking, Who are you? And they know he's he knows that he's asking, Are you the Messiah that's supposed to come? Because you got a whole lot of people coming out here doing things, and who are you and what are you doing? And he confessed. He did not deny, but confess it's interesting. It's he's boldly saying, I am not the Christ. Um, he doesn't want anybody to even get the hint of thinking that he is the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? Because Elijah is to come before the Lord returns. Elijah will come and declare the same things that John the Baptist is this is describing. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And I believe Elijah will be one of the two prophets that are killed in the streets of Jerusalem in the end times in the tr in the great tribulation period, after they've been declaring the truth of who Jesus is and calling the world to repent for three days, and the whole world sees it, probably on their smartphones. And he says, I'm not Elijah. Look, I'm John the Baptist, I don't believe in reincarnation. I might be doing some similar things to Elijah, but I'm not Elijah. Well, are you the prophet? Moses is described as the prophet in Deuteronomy. There's this idea that another will come like me, a person who represents man to God and God to man, who speaks the word of God to the people. When that prophet comes, you listen to him. That's what Moses said. And that prophet, of course, uh points to the Messiah, points to Jesus, the one who came as a man, who represents God to man and man to God, who speaks the word as of the Father, who is faithful in what he does. But he answers, No, I'm not the prophet. Then they said to him, Who are you that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself? And this is what John said. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said, which is, you know, applies to Elijah, but it's not Elijah because it's him. And in many ways, they hadn't understood that there were two parts of the Lord's coming. That he would first come to die for the sins of the world, and the second time he would come to be the judge. They they had a uh they melded the two together so that there was some confusion there. But even with that, there was somebody who came in that same spirit of Elijah. He kind of looked weird like Elijah. He he he spoke things like Elijah spoke, and and he would do the same thing that Elijah would do in the future. Calling out, make way this, this the make straight the way of the Lord. He was calling people to repent and to prepare themselves for Jesus. Now that's not to say you need to clean yourself up to come to Jesus, because you need to come to Jesus to let him clean yourself up. That's the gospel, right? But there is the point, the idea that you need to recognize that there's a problem. You need to recognize that you're stuck in your sin and you need to turn from that and put yourself at the mercy of the Lord, who in his great mercy has made a way to clean you up, to make you right, to give you the righteousness of God. Now, verse 24, those who were sent were from the Pharisees, and they asked them, saying, Why then do you baptize if you're not the Christ or Elijah or the prophet? With the implication of there, there, you know, there are some baptisms that we do, but we do that in our holy place. You're out here in the wilderness, um, and it seems like some other fringe groups have done similar things, and this is just not the way that the law, and more importantly, the oral traditions that we've created to help everybody out have dictated the things go. There were, there was a baptism, the Jewish in the law, and that baptism was for Gentiles who wanted to enter into the Jewish religion, who wanted to be part of the community, and they would be baptized or cleansed so that they could be part of the community. There was something similar, a ritual cleaning the Jews would do to make themselves right with God and to prepare uh to be in fellowship with him. But this idea of a baptism for Jews as well as Gentiles, a baptism that is a a repentance baptism, a preparation for the Messiah baptism, was not anything that was familiar with with the with the Pharisees, and and uh it was just wrong in their eyes. So they're looking for a defense from him. Maybe if he was one of these positions, there would be some excuse for, but they didn't believe he was anyway. And and John really didn't really didn't defend what he was doing, he declared what he was doing, and he moves on. I baptize with water. But there stands one among you who you do not know, and you need to know him. It is he who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I'm not even worthy to loose. John, very humble, very understanding of who he is, what his call is, and in and of himself, how unrighteous he was. I baptize with water, I'm preparing people, I'm calling out, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And in other gospel accounts, that's expanded a little bit. There's one who comes after me who's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He's going to baptize with power, and he's also going to have another baptism. Of judgment. You really need to pay attention to this one that I'm calling out. This one that I'm I'm I'm directing people to, this one that says that I'm saying is coming, so prepare your way, prepare your hearts, make way for the Lord. And these things were done in Bethbara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. And we'll continue and conclude chapter one next week. But here's John setting the groundwork, just giving us a glimpse into who Jesus was. And so much so that John the Baptist laid down his whole life in order to do this one thing, which was preparing people for the way of the Lord. He didn't care what the Pharisees thought of him, but he cared what they thought of the Messiah. He wanted to make it clear that he was not the Messiah, but the Messiah was coming. John wanted to show us that this is the one that created all things. The one that gave us strength, the one that gives us hope, the one that gives us life. He is the word from the beginning. This is our Lord. This is our God. This is the one who became part of his creation, the one who became one of us to make a way where there was no way, so that we could experience, so that we could gain, so that we could have and be the righteousness of God. Jesus became sin. He became sin so we could become the righteousness of God. What a deal. He says, Give me your sin and I'll give you the righteousness of God. That's the gospel, and that's the God we celebrate this morning. Why don't we stand and pray as we wrap up? Father, we thank you for your word. And Jesus, we thank you that you are the living word. And words are important. Words convey ideas and bring convictions and bring joy. But it's so much deeper than that because you are the word. You're the one who spoke into the darkness, and light came and and you created all things, and you became part of your creation because we fell. And we needed a savior. Father, you are amazing. Lord, you are beautiful. Your name is beautiful. You are the word. You are love, you are life, you are light. You are salvation. And though we get a glimpse into it, and and those of us who have come to faith in you know you, and yet we know there's so much more to know of you. You shined into your creation, and your creation had no idea what you were doing. And you've opened our eyes and you've given us a glimpse into your glory, and yet we realize there's so much more to learn. So, Father, we pray that you would grow in us, that you reveal to us as we go through this study of John more and more about your Son. That Jesus, you would become our everything even more and more and more. Lord, we love you and we celebrate you, and we desire to know you more. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

SPEAKER_01: 24:07

That's Pastor Carl on Come On Up. You know, the Gospel of John was written by one of Jesus' original disciples. He's referred to as the disciple whom Jesus loved. What a sweet and intimate way to refer to the closeness and friendship that was had between John and Jesus. After all, so many of the events mentioned were witnessed firsthand by John. He was there for the transfiguration, and he was the only disciple of the twelve mentioned to be at the cross as Jesus died. He was also one of the first people to see that the grave was empty. John had an opportunity and a privilege to write about all the things that he saw and witnessed with his own eyes. He saw miracles. He was the recipient of Jesus' love and care, and he was eager for others to see and experience knowing Jesus too. That's why he wrote it all down in this wonderful book of John. Like the author, we hope that you'll take note of the ways that God has intersected your life and brought about amazing stories to tell. Write them down, share them with others, and don't be afraid to tell people about the greatest love of all so that they can also claim that they are disciples whom Jesus loves. An easy way to share Jesus with people is by letting them know about this radio program. The Mountain Cross is a group of believers in Jesus who seek to grow in faith by simply teaching through the Bible. We meet on Sundays beginning at 10 a.m. To learn more, go to themountaincross.com. That's all for today. Come on up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.