Do you know the Son of Man and does He know you?
Do you know the Son of Man and does He know you?
I do not know if you realize, but I want to remind you that in heaven there is ceaseless praise
of the Son of Man, who sits at the right hand of God. It was not as though, two thousand years ago, the Son of Man ascended into heaven and there was that great outpouring of joy from the angels, archangels and all who saw the Triumphant One entering heaven—and today, after two thousand years in heaven, they somehow became accustomed to His presence, sitting there gloomily, wondering when there will be some sort of spectacle in heaven again. After all, so many years have passed and no further triumphant figure has arrived. Every day—though there is no concept of ‘day’ there—they praise Him constantly. They glorify Him together with the Father, they honor Him, they sing songs of praise to Him, and as they look down upon us, humans, they say:
“People, does He not hold the same value for you as He does for us?” and they also say:
“He has united us in Himself as one, and we shall live forever.”
“We”, say the angels, “are very glad of this, but what about you, people?”
The angels have no problem giving Him glory, praising Him, worshiping Him. It is we, who have a problem here on earth. You see, in heaven there is no longer a devil, no rebellious angels and heaven has found rest from those marauders. But these marauders are on earth and we now have serious trouble with them. They rob us of our joy in Christ. They are the ones who cause believers, baptized people, to behave like backsliders. It is precisely they—demons, the devil’s servants, the rebellious angels—who are pressuring people and robbing them of their normal joy in Christ Jesus. They actually feel bad about giving up their lives for some Jesus who means nothing to them. This is how the devil deceives people, as though Jesus Christ meant nothing to us, yet He is the only way to God, and no one will return to God except through Him.
He ought to fill us with ceaseless praise for the fact that He has given us the chance to change during our earthly life, so that we may stand before God in awe and purity.
However, still people are wasting their time on all sorts of things and think to themselves:
“Well, how much longer are we going to keep speaking about this Jesus Christ and His coming in the flesh? After all, everyone knows that He came here to earth in a body like ours, and lived here among us and triumphed over the devil.”
“How much more can be said about it?”
Well, everyone knows that already.” But how many are overcoming?
How many people have found in Jesus the true purpose of their lives, so that they might do what He came to enable us to do and follow in His steps?
How many have found true satisfaction in looking unto Him, the Author and Finisher of our faith, drawing more and more from Him and becoming increasingly filled with who He is?
Do you see how the devil is fighting?
The angels are at peace now. They know what we are going through here, on earth; they went through it once when the devil was raging. They sympathize with us, but they will not allow Christ not to be glorified. They are eager to join the glorified Christ. They will not join where Jesus is not glorified -where man glorifies himself, builds himself up, lives for himself and draws satisfaction or dissatisfaction from himself. Whatever it may be, a man is constantly satisfied and dissatisfied with himself, always trapped in his own changing moods -because this failed or that did not go the way he or she thought, or that succeeded – “great”, “beautiful”. But it is all worthless and will perish anyway. Yet, they do not rejoice in Christ.
But what could possibly go wrong for you in Christ? You have succeeded in everything. You have every success in Christ.
Why not live in Christ, where there is constant success? Why draw strength for war, for battle, for struggle, rather than for love, joy, peace, and building one another up into God’s house?
I will not be able to convince you until you yourself see how important Christ is to you, how much you dislike Him, how much you love yourself, how much you dislike His words, which say that unless you hate yourself, you cannot be His disciple. You hate those words because it would be best if they were not in the Bible at all. After all, how can you not love yourself when you care so much about your own satisfaction?
And Jesus – what did He derive satisfaction from?
He derived satisfaction from doing the Father’s will.
And what do we derive satisfaction from? Is it also from doing the Father’s will and doing what the Father wants, or from something else? And we think to ourselves: "Oh, not this again," or we find one excuse or another.
So we see that Christ is constantly being glorified in heaven, for He is always of the same worth.
Christ Jesus is of immeasurable worth. And that is why you must remember: if you do not give your life to Him, then you will lose that life. You will lose it for yourself. You will lose it on your own account and when you reach the end of your journey, then you will see just how much you have lost – that Jesus did not become everything to you, that you continued to prioritize your own satisfaction above His. And the Father said with such wonderful delight, and with the Father all things endure forever: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear Him" (Matthew 17:5, AKJV).
And look at what people do with Jesus? Why is there such a problem with Jesus? Because people listen more to the devil, who works through the flesh, than to the Holy Spirit, who works through the human spirit. The flesh is more inclined toward its own pleasures than the Spirit is toward His. Therefore, instead of being spiritual, a person becomes fleshly, sensual, demonic. And so it depends entirely on whom he or she listens to. Why are you reluctant to honor Him? What do you think? Even in the congregation of God’s people? Is it not because someone else is holding the reins, blocking your delight in Christ?
Cast off that hellish yoke, walk in the yoke of Christ. There you will find satisfaction and gratitude, and though you pass through many trials and adversities, Jesus will prove Himself victorious in them all. Our eternal destiny is being weighed here. Many have fallen asleep, saying to themselves, like Peter, James and John:
“Well, Jesus is engaged in the struggle, so let us rest for a while and sleep.”
He is fighting, whilst we sleep. But Jesus came to them and said:
“Why sleep you? rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation” (Luke 22:46, AKJV).
And what does man do at that moment? He says: “All right, all right.” And then what? He goes right back to sleep. Once again Jesus comes and says: “Are you sleeping again? Peter, could you not stay awake even for one hour? ”
He leaves them and once again it is the same story.
Quite a conversation, isn’t it? An interesting conversation indeed: Jesus comes and says, “Do not sleep” and they reply, “Yes, yes”, yes they keep on sleeping. Soon enough they are asleep again. What a striking conversation. And these were supposed to be mighty warriors of the faith, yet in a moment they were nowhere to be found.
So we understand that the issue is this: Someone must be so important to us that we are willing to give up everything in order to honor Him. From every side, the Holy Spirit speaks to us about the Son of Man, about the glory and greatness of the Son of Man. Do we want, together with the Holy Spirit, to behold this Son of Man and see who He is before God, who has seated Him at His right hand to rule over all things. This wonderful Son of Man, the Son of God. And therefore, this is precisely what is so difficult for people to grasp. What would you do if you were one hundred per cent certain that there is nothing good for you apart from Jesus?
If only you were certain that there is nothing good for you apart from Jesus, nothing truly good at all. And the only good that can be found in you is that which comes from Jesus Christ. Your own goodness is corrupt, evil and selfish but the goodness of Christ is centered upon His Body upon the good of His people, and upon the building up of His Body. Your thoughts would be directed toward seeing His Body, filled with the glory of the presence of the Son of God, the Son of Man. Your thoughts are directed toward seeing God walking among His people in the congregation. You offer yourself unto Him and seek His presence, longing for Him that He might come among the saints when they gather together. This is precious to you, because Jesus came to cleanse us and to make us the temple of God, so that God might dwell among us and walk in our midst. Therefore, wherever you go, you think about this, you live by this, and it does not matter whether you are at work or at home, you simply live by Christ Jesus and for Christ Jesus, because this is the truth, because He has become everything to you in every way.
If this is not true of you, then you must turn your attention away from yourself and consider why Christ Jesus became Man. He became a Man to bring out of bondage a people living in darkness and lead them into the light of God’s presence, so that no one would remain in darkness any longer. This darkness is the “self”, the “I” and that self arose from sin and from man’s turning away from God. In Jesus Christ we are now one. He has gathered back together those who were scattered in the pursuit of self. He has brought us back under the one Son of Man, so that, under His glorious commands of love for one another, we might live here on this earth, praising God for sending us the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, into the world, so that it might no longer be we who live, but Christ. And that is the most beautiful thing of all.
I can do nothing with you, only those who look to Christ can truly say that their life now has but one purpose and one value: to do what is pleasing to Jesus. And those who do not understand this, let them come to understand it: there is nothing more precious to you than doing what is pleasing to Jesus. There is no greater treasure. For when you do what is pleasing to Jesus, you are doing good even to yourself, because whatever a man sows, that he shall also reap. Therefore, if you do good in Christ, you will reap that good, and with that good you will stand before the presence of God, for the good works we have done in Christ follow after us. Therefore, consider this carefully and devote your life entirely to Him. Make the most of the time of your visitation by building what Christ has begun, doing what is pleasing to Jesus Christ, and thereby pleasing the Father as well.
In John 1:10-11 (AKJV) we read:
“He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came to his own, and his own received him not”.
Amazing, isn’t it? How do you know whether Jesus has been received by you? Is Jesus now your Owner, your Ruler? The One who feeds you, gives you drink, clothes you, provides you with everything you need. The One who has said: “I will now look after your every need, I will guide you, I will lead you through various sorrows and joys, but I will always be with you. I will never leave you.” Is that not beautiful? On this earth, where people abandon one another, where people betray one another, to have Someone who will never betray you, who will never leave you, Jesus Christ. Is it not better to give your life to Him? To dwell in His presence? Those who belonged to Him did not accept Him, did not want Him, did not consider it necessary to belong to Him, did not consider it necessary to honor Him by submitting to Him. They considered their corrupted humanity to be of greater value and importance, that religious yet corrupted humanity, just as it was in the days of Jesus. The scribes and Pharisees were religious men, yet their hearts were corrupt, and they regarded themselves as God-fearing and devoted to God. Many think the same way today. They are refusing to accept Jesus as their Saviour and Redeemer, refusing to let Him save them, refusing to let Him change the way they think, to free them from that hateful, dreadful sense of their own satisfaction and dissatisfaction whenever their desires are not fulfilled, while giving no thought to His satisfaction. Yet He himself has told us what pleases Him: that we should live for Him and for His glory.
Think about it, because it is worth considering: the only One who is worthy of receiving your whole self is Jesus Christ. The Father said that there is no other name given among men by which they must be saved than this one Name, the name of Him who was obedient to the Father in all things, Jesus Christ and that whoever calls upon the name of Jesus Christ shall be saved.
But why call upon Him? So that He might save me, rescue me — not to call upon Him in vain, whilst at the same time refusing to give Him the opportunity to rule and reign. So why call upon the King if you have no desire to be His subject, if you are unwilling to live according to His commands? Such calling is in vain. Call upon Him sincerely and in truth, that He may take hold of your life, lead you, and use your life for His own purposes, for the things of God. What a marvelous glory that is.
And what if you should lose this life? In truth, you will gain it. For Jesus said that “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it stays alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit” (John 12:24, AKJV).
You have your own plans and purposes, but what profit are they to you, Oh believer? What do they give you? Do they satisfy your soul? Are you really happy in Jesus? Is He your assurance that your life is blessed—that being with God, coming to know God, belonging wholly to Him—is not time wasted, but time redeemed, time gained?
Many people think they have freedom and, by doing whatever they desire, they are truly free people. I do not see it that way at all; you are slaves to the devil, wanting to do what you want and actually doing it. But if you do what Jesus wants, you will see. Oh, it will be hard, you will have to change yourself, you will have to surrender to Him now. It is easy for the devil, for he entices us toward what pleases the flesh, whereas Jesus leads us in the way that pleases the Father. That is why we can see the difference: why it is so easy for believers to focus on themselves and so difficult to keep their eyes fixed on Christ.
In 1 Corinthians, 1:18, (AKJV):
“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but to us which are saved it is the power of God.”
Talking about the cross of God is foolishness for many, but what then of the cross itself? Do you have your cross today? Does that cross separate you from this corrupt humanity today? Are you dead to the world today, or are you still living for yourself. Even with the knowledge of Scripture, knowing how dangerous it is to live on this earth without the cross. Are you still walking in the power of the flesh rather than in the power of the Spirit? Is there anything more dangerous on this earth? You might walk down the middle of the road and every driver may see you and avoid you but if you walk without the cross, you are walking toward destruction. You cannot understand the teaching of Jesus if you still live for yourself and Christ Jesus does not live in you. You cannot fully understand the great good He has brought to you by dying on the cross, so that we might die to sin, to death, and to self, so that He might save us and deliver us. You may think, “I know, I know, I know”. But every day brings new tests and challenges and the question is: are you walking with the cross ? Are you separated from the world and living for Jesus? Are you abiding in the Body of Christ and being cleansed by His precious blood?
Do you realize how amazing that blood is ? It is the blood of the Son of Man, the only blood that can cleanse all the sons and daughters of Adam from all their sins – what an amazing sacrifice! One Man, Christ Jesus, and His shed blood, cleanses us all from all our ungodliness, so that we may live for God. One Man has saved you and me, and what then? Shall we set Him aside, because we have our own plans for life now, our own desires and pursuits? This is important now and that is important because I have this and I have that. “Later, Jesus, I will have time for You. When I retire, then I will finally have time. Then I will serve You”. If you do not serve Him whilst you are at work, at home, or wherever you may be, neither will you serve Him in retirement. In fact, you will be even less likely to serve Him then. There is no “later”. Later, later, later never comes. You will be so stubborn, so obstinate, that even though you have plenty of time, you will still follow the desires of the flesh. You will go about moaning, grumbling and lamenting: this thing, that thing and yet another thing instead of praising God and giving thanks unto Him. Yet Jesus Christ came precisely so that we might praise Him. And the angels want to praise Him with us, they in heaven and we on earth—united in one Christ Jesus. What a marvelous worship it is!
So then, are we one hundred per cent certain that without the cross, we cannot learn from Christ Jesus? This Teacher demands the cross, He says: “If you do not deny yourself and take up your cross, you cannot follow Me. You may walk behind Me, but you will not imitate Me.” You may come to the gatherings, yet you will not truly follow Him. You will continue to live for yourself, for yourself and for yourself. It is astonishing how many live only for themselves. They do not see at all what is happening or where their path is leading. They think that if they satisfy themselves, all will be well and they will come satisfied before God. Why are they not satisfied when they come before God ? Because they live for themselves. True contentment comes from Christ and true joy is always found in Him alone. Therefore, how important it is to live for Him, and then, rejoicing in Him, to come and give glory to the Father for that wonderful Son of Man, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
You will not move, nor will you let go of your oppressor until you see that the hand of the Son of Man is a hand of mercy and love. Yet it is also a hand that, if rejected, will one day bring judgement upon you. Today it is extended in an act of friendship, desiring to save you and deliver you. Make the most of this time. Do not allow yourself to be deceived. When you see that you are still holding on to your own ways, that you are able to stop and live for yourself rather than go and serve Jesus, giving glory unto Him and doing the things that are dear to Him (to His heart), then you must say to yourself:
“O God, You have set before me a mirror, Your Word and in Your Word I see that I am a wretched man, a wretched woman, who values their own self more than Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man.” Behold, the Word of God is a mirror that reveals reality and everyone may look into it. Even now I have set a mirror before you. Do you see yourself? Do you see Jesus in yourself? When you look into this Word of God, whose image is reflected there? Is it your dissatisfaction and satisfaction or Christ glorified? I advise you, as when you look into this mirror of God’s word, to see Jesus in yourself, the glorious Son of God, and the Son of Man, who overcomes and triumphs over every adversity.
So we are aware that He is the most important of all, and that is why we speak of Him. That is why I do not intend to seek out any special knowledge about the Son of Man. I want to speak of Him directly. Is He worth devoting your life or not? Each person must make this sincere decision every day. Is He worthy to be known more than all else, or is He not? Is He worthy that we should redeem the time in order to serve Him, or is He not? And this happens every day. He knows what you do when you are not here. He is the Judge and He shall judge both the living and the dead. Therefore, He knows how we have behaved, what we have done. He knows when we have humbled ourselves, when we have asked Him for purification, when we have neglected Him, and when we have not thought of Him at all, but have placed Jesus within our plans while at the same time continuing to follow our own agenda, in which the self is of greatest importance, not Christ.
We could take the Scriptures and beginning with the Gospel of Matthew and reading all the way through to Revelation, read about the Son of Man, and see why the whole New Covenant speaks of Him. Even in the Old Testament there is much written about Him. Even Daniel said that he saw One like the Son of Man, who was brought before the Most High, and everything was handed over to Him.
Praise be to God! We must make the most of this time and rejoice in Him. We must become like the Bride, and this is the desire the Holy Spirit has placed in my heart to be like parts of one Bride. We are rejoicing here, speaking of our Beloved. This is not something taken out of context, nor is it some kind of fleshly expression. It is something beautiful and glorious, which is the result of our love for Him. Let love speak, for we may have knowledge of Him without loving Him. Jesus even says: You are willing to suffer for Me, yet you no longer have love for Me. See from what height you have fallen. They might be even willing to suffer, and yet, despite everything, have no love for Him. Many have suffered for many causes. There have been countless people through the history who suffered for their nation, who died, who sacrificed their lives – everything. People are capable of suffering for some cause they consider worthy, but to love Jesus? How can one love Him? If you do not look unto Him constantly, you will never love Him. If your eyes are constantly turned here, there and everywhere, you will not love Him. One could say that students go to school and learn many things. Some things are invented, untrue, fashioned by some poets, some storytellers, or other men, yet there are also things that are true. Two plus two is mathematics and it comes from God, because everything else would be untrue. And you can learn God’s mathematics; it is on this basis that all things are calculated, and you cannot introduce anything foolish, because the result will not be right.
It must be mathematics established by God. It is He who has determined how it will be, what is one, what is two, what is three, what is four. You learn God’s mathematics to learn and see what you want to reap: good, or evil? You can go out, look at the open sky and behold the glory of His creation. You can always be learning. The Epistle to the Romans says that man has nothing to say in his own defense, for everything has already been revealed there, so that man might understand that God is so Almighty, so powerful and so great. Therefore, whoever does not worship Him falls into the trap of the flesh. From this come so much evil and corruption.
Do you know the Son of Man personally? Is there anyone as close to you as a friend? If not, then become friends with Him. He said that whoever is willing, as He was, to lay down his life for others, is a friend of Jesus. Are you willing to lay down your life for others, so that others may benefit from you? A friend of Christ Jesus. If you persevere to the end, what a glorious triumph that will be. The Apostle says: To know Him is the greatest need of my daily life. Someone might say: But You already know Him. You have seen Him, you have spoken with Him. Yet still, you desire to know Him more and more. The Apostle encourages me: if a man who received such a powerful revelation of Jesus Christ could write that He considers everything as rubbish in order to know Christ fully, then this really encourages me to get to know Jesus. It means that I do not yet know Him as well as I ought to know Him, and I need to get to know Him more and more each day – who He is and why all heaven admires Him all the time. Why, for over two thousand years, heaven has not grown weary of Him, nor has it ever said that there is nothing more to admire. Rather it still admires Him, and indeed we even read that the angels look upon us, seeing what is happening within us because of Jesus Christ, marveling at God’s work within us. Stephen saw Him standing at the right hand of God, in glory.
Ask yourself these questions: do you live for Him, and does He live within you today? Or do you merely know about Him that he once was upon the earth? Does your life now belong to Him, and does His life belong to you? The exchange of lives has taken place. He took our corrupted life upon the cross and gave us a pure, holy and incredibly glorious one. He would like there to be agape here, among us, a feast of glory, but the enemy is keeping us from it, holding us back in various ways, fighting ferociously. The enemy knows he has little time left, which is why by all means, he tries to turn our eyes away from Christ Jesus, the Son of Man, who crushed his head, defeated him, and who brought us the triumph of victory over the devil.
The word "repentance" was later translated in some versions as "conversion" or "change of mind". Today, when many people hear the word repentance, they ask: What is repentance? Does it mean I have to put on a sackcloth? What must I do to repent? And the expression “commemoration” hardly means anything at all. But a change of mind still means the same thing it always has. That is why Paul writes that in the spirit of the mind, your way of thinking is changed, you put on the new man, the One who was here on earth, Christ Jesus, and in Him you begin to move. Yet there must be first a change in the way you think, so that your thoughts are set upon Him and He is the One who matters most to you, you abide with Him. He becomes for you the very center of the meaning of your life on this earth. Then all is well, then the things are as they should be. But if everything else comes first, and you say: Jesus, if I have time, then that is not good. It is a tragedy. It is wrong.
Perhaps let us also read from Hebrews, chapter 5, beginning with the verse 7:
„Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him (…)”
I do not think it could be stated any more clearly than that: “unto all them that obey Him.” Is obedience to Jesus more important to me than anything else that might happen in this world? Is it for His sake that I choose one path and reject another? Is it because of Him that I live here on this earth today? Is He, for me, the authority who tells me what I may do and what I ought not even to touch? And do I do that? Are His commands an authority for me, or are they not? Do you understand how the devil blinds us that we read the Bible, talk about the Bible, yet live contrary to it? And the devil is delighted that he can draw many away from the obedience of Christ. But there ought to be a feast among us here, there must be a holy celebration. We ought to be so thoroughly won by Christ that our love for Him should begin to overflow here, and we should begin to have an incredible feast of satisfaction, and then the words: Come, Jesus - will mean precisely that: the Bride has made herself ready. And this is what the battle is constantly about in this congregation – and I think in many congregations on this earth – for the Bride might make herself ready. The resistance is so fierce that it seems as though loving Jesus is the greatest problem for people. Everything rises up against it, this thing and that thing – just so as not to love Jesus. And when a man begins to love Him, he does everything to keep this love to himself, to lock that love for himself. And God does not want that. God wants us to speak of His Son, to speak in love just as the Father speaks of his Son, so that in the Father’s love we may speak of the Son.
May God fill us with this love, for I cannot draw this out of any of you, nor can I draw it out of myself. It must be the Holy Spirit who pours into our hearts this love for Christ, for the Beloved Son of God. It must prevail within us, for otherwise, you see, it will be the case that there will be more who quench than those who kindle, more who tear down than those who build up. I do not know if you realize that every action of yours that goes against Jesus’ commands brings destruction, while every action that is in obedience to His commands builds up?. Therefore, what matters most in the hour of testing is this: what do you do? Do you overcome? Remember, Peter said: ‘I will follow You even into the fire.’ A few words, and Peter was gone. The truth comes to light in our actions and in our trials—but why does this truth come to light in such trials? We have discussed this topic many times that it is so because only then I might see what I am really like, what you are really like, and then I can come to my senses. I can cry out to God, or thank God that I have triumphed, that I have come through—praise be to God that after all, it turned out as Jesus intended.
But the main thing is that the believing people, baptized believers, should gather together to honor the Son of Man and the Son of God, and to glorify Him. It is impossible for there to be little manifestation of the Son of Man’s work amongst believers: mutual love, mutual joy, mutual honesty, mutual peace, mutual patience, silence, tranquility, gentleness and perseverance. These wonderful virtues of the Son of Man revealed in us – in you and in me . These things are more precious than anything else, my beloved. Here we may think we have
gained many things in this life, yet in reality we may lose what is the most precious. Therefore, I encourage you to think about these things, for we will continue to speak of them for a long time. The apostles said that they would never cease to remind the believers of these truths, so that, even after they were gone, they would remember what is most important. And when the hour of testing comes, show who is more precious to you: yourself or Jesus. Amen.
8.10.2025 Marian