You Have Heard, Right?

...assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus (Eph 4:21).

Anyone who communicates a message wants to know who they are talking to.  They want to know exactly who is on the other end.  They need to know their audience.  While the point of their message doesn't change, their approach will vary depending on the recipient.  In this verse, Paul hits the pause button on his letter to make sure he knows his audience.  He's been describing how unbelievers whom he calls "Gentiles" go through life with empty lives and hard hearts.  Before he goes on to encourage Ephesian believers in what following Jesus looks like, he stops to ensure his readers who are actual following Jesus: "assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus" (v21).  You have heard, right?  You were taught, weren't you?  You do know the truth, don't you? 

In many ways, Paul is flipping their spiritual scrapbook open to his three-year stay in Ephesus.  He rolled into the massive seaport during his second missionary tour.  Dr. Luke fills an entire chapter with several crazy accounts of those years (Acts 19).  Once he hits town, the apostle sets up shop in the synagogue and holds nothing back in telling folks about Christ.  Some Ephesian Jews come to believe that Jesus is the long-awaited Jewish Messiah.  But then unbelieving Jews boot him out, so he sets up shop down the street at Tyrannus Hall.  This opens the doors to not just Jews but Gentiles to hear the Gospel.  For the next two years, the Good News spreads throughout the city and the entire region.  Folks hear about Jesus.  Folks are taught about Jesus.  Folks learn the truth about Jesus.

Take a look at the phrase "you have heard about Him" (v21).  In the original text, Paul literally writes "you heard Him."  No preposition "about."  This is no secondhand communication.  This is NOT what REO Speedwagon sang about, "I heard it from a from a friend who, who heard it from a friend who..."  Get the idea?  Straight from the Savior's mouth.  Now come on, dude.  You expect me to believe I can actually hear Jesus?  Absolutely.  The apostle tells his readers that IF they've trusted in Jesus, they've heard Jesus.  Sure, it starts when you hear about Him.  Somebody who follows the risen Rabbi/Carpenter tells you about Him.  They tell you who He is.  They tell you what He's done.  While that's all well and good, hearing ABOUT Jesus is just info.  Data.  Facts.  It's not until we take Him at His word and place our trust in Him that we begin to truly hear Him.

Jesus is calling me to a whole lot more than knowing ABOUT Him.  He wants me to know Him.  Paul told the Philippians than anything less than knowing Jesus is a big steaming pile (Phil 4:8).  Jesus is calling me to a whole lot more than hearing ABOUT Him.  He wants to speak to me.  And His main method of speaking to me is through His Word.  You see, as a follower of Jesus, I believe the Bible is more than a collection of dusty old stories dating back thousands of years.  You might not buy the fact that God's Holy Spirit inspired the writing Scripture.  As as follower of Jesus, I do (2Tim 3:16-17).  And believers hold that this book is so much more than words on a page.  It's "living and active" (Heb 4:12).  His Word has the ability to do complicated and precise spiritual surgery on me.  His Word reveals who I really am.  A jacked up rebel who certainly doesn't deserve any good from God.  And His Word reveals who Jesus really is.  The sinless Son of God who lived the perfect life that I failed to live.  The spotless Lamb of God that died the death for my sin that I should have died.  

You and I hear Jesus when He calls out to us to be His (Rom 8:28-30; 1Cor 1:9).  He calls us from His overflowing grace (Gal 1:15).  He calls us using His Gospel (2Th 1:14).  When He calls, we respond (Jn 10:3).  And He'll never let us out of His loving kung fu grip (Jn 10:28).  That's what happens when you hear Him.  His call is like nothing else.  His Word changes everything.  God created the entire universe by simply speaking.  So when He calls you and me, crazy things happen.

You have heard, right?  You were taught, weren't you?  You do know the truth, don't you?

Paul reminds his Ephesian friends how they "were taught in Him" (v21).  He's recalling those wonderful days when he was with them and how they learned more and more about Jesus.  The apostle would have used the OT Scriptures to blow them away with prophecies, promises and pictures of Messiah thousands of years before He arrived on the scene.  While hearing ABOUT Jesus is certainly different than hearing Him, there is an element of learning in following Him.  Just before He headed home to heaven, Jesus Himself gave His posse marching orders to baptize everyone who would listen, "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Mt 28:19-20).  The more we learn about His character, the more we'll stand in awe and worship Him.  Take the command of the author of Hebrews to heart and lock your eyes on "Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of our faith" (Heb 12:2).  The more we know, the more we love.

You have heard, right?  You were taught, weren't you?  You do know the truth, don't you?

The apostle doesn't want us to miss the fact that "the truth is in Jesus" (v21).  This part is a bit hard to swallow for many folks these days.  We live in a relativistic society.  Hey, you've got your truth and I've got my truth and it's all good.  Here's the straight scoop.  The truth, if you will.  Jesus isn't just one version of the truth.  He is Truth.  THE Truth.  Absolute Truth.  Unvarnished Truth.  100% Truth.  In a world of tolerance and acceptance, this kinda talk is seen as bigoted and narrow minded.  But the truth is (pun intended).  Jesus said so Himself.  "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me" (Jn 14:6).  Not A way, A truth and A life.  Not one of many.  Just one.  Henry Blackaby says, "Truth is a Person."  And His name is Jesus.  Jesus' best buddy John wants us to know that it's only through the truth of Jesus "that we may know Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.  He is the true God and eternal life" (1Jn 5:21).

You have heard, right?  You were taught, weren't you?  You do know the truth, don't you?

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