Knowing Christ

This is my contribution to the dedication service for our new Worship Center at Patterson Park Church in Beavercreek, Ohio. I was one of three speakers. Each of us was given precisely seven minutes to explain one of the three verbs in our Mission Statement: Patterson Park Church exists to glorify God by knowing Christ, growing in Christ, and going in service to Him. I spoke on "Know," (and I feel certain I spoke for less than seven minutes).


An itinerant Palestinian rabbi once told this story: Once there was a man who bought and sold fine gemstones. Gems and jewels and precious stones were not just his job, they were his passion.

One day he stumbled upon a pearl of such surpassing beauty that it took his breath away. In all his decades handling precious stones, he had never seen the equal of this one pearl. He inquired discretely as to its value and discovered that this one gem was worth more than the rest of his entire inventory combined. In fact, it was worth the equivalent of his entire net worth. He realized that from that moment on, his life would never be the same. Either he would give up everything in exchange for this one thing of infinite value, or he would hold on to what he had and pass up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Even though the stakes were so high, he made his decision quickly, even gladly: he sold everything, liquidated his entire estate, to buy that one pearl of great price.

The Mission Statement for Patterson Park Church is encapsulated in three simple verbs: Know. Grow. Go. It is no accident that “Know” is the first. We believe that the Christian life must begin not with feelings but with knowledge.

If you were to ask one of us what kind of church Patterson Park is, we might stumble over the answer. Patterson Park is not part of a denomination. Because we value the Bible so much and feature the Scriptures in our teaching and preaching, many have rightly described us as a “Bible church.” But it is not knowledge of the Bible that is the starting point and center of our faith.

The “Know” in our Mission Statement is about knowing Christ. We believe that all of the spiritual life – having a relationship with God, growing in faith, preparing for the life to come – all of it must begin with knowing Jesus.



A quick Google search will tell you that there are many different explanations of Jesus, who he was and what he means to human history. So it would be good to explain exactly what we believe about that first century Palestinian rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth.

Like most others, we believe that Jesus was a great teacher and healer. Like most others, we believe that Jesus was a prophet, the greatest prophet ever to appear among men. But unlike many, we agree with the view informed by the Scriptures and by two thousand years of Christian thought and tradition: we believe that Jesus was God in human flesh.

We believe that in Jesus, God broke into human history to set things right. We believe that the life of Jesus was the turning point in human history. We believe that the death and resurrection of Jesus provide the only way for people to make peace with God.


So if that’s what we believe about Jesus, what does it mean to “know” Jesus? It means more than just intellectual assent. A man or woman can affirm all that we have said about Jesus and still not know him. Knowing Jesus involves a personal commitment to trust him and follow him exclusively.

And knowing Jesus in this way – trusting and following him exclusively – will change your life. People who know Jesus have been forgiven of their sins – all of their sins. Last week we had a choir from an inner-city ministry sing here on the platform. These were street people who had come to know and trust Jesus, and they sang with gusto about their sins being forgiven. I don’t know what their sins were, but I know my sins. And in the eyes of the Holy One of Israel, the One who sees the heart, I knew – I know myself to be a wretched sinner. I know that forgiveness of sins is as great a miracle for me as for the vilest offender. “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners,” says the Apostle Paul, “of whom I am chief.” In other words, I am the worst of the sinners, the bottom of the lot. Knowing Jesus means my sins are forgiven, and that is good news, very good news.

But knowing Jesus changes your life in another way. Knowing Jesus means obeying him. In fact, obedience is one of the ways we can be sure that we really do know Jesus: “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning,” says the Apostle John in his first letter. He goes on to say, “No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” If I really do know Jesus, if I really do trust and follow him, I will try to obey him. Knowing Jesus really does change your life.


You can see why we think knowing Jesus is so important, why knowing Christ is the starting-point and center of our faith. You can see also why knowing Jesus is priceless. Saul of Tarsus was a brilliant scholar, a rising star in first century rabbinic Judaism. When Saul of Tarsus encountered Jesus of Nazareth, Saul threw away his career and all his prospects without hesitation. And he never regretted that decision. In a sense, he was that merchant who gladly gave up everything in exchange for that one thing of supreme value.

Saul was later renamed Paul, the Apostle Paul, and he described his life-changing decision this way in one of his letters: “Whatever gain I had, I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.” For Paul there was only one item in his asset column: knowing Jesus. Everything else he gladly moved to the loss column without regret.



Patterson Park Church is known for its great music program. We have a reputation for our exciting and vibrant programs for children and teens. We have dozens of small groups where our people encourage and support one another in their walk of faith. But music isn’t the center of our ministry, families aren’t the center, nor teens nor small groups. The starting point and center of our faith is in knowing Jesus. Everything else, as important as it may be, follows this vital first step. It all begins with knowing Christ, trusting him and following him exclusively and faithfully.