The other day, my wife Olivia was driving around town withour two year-old when Flannery began passionately shouting from the back seat:

“I want Jesus! I wantJesus!”

A bit startled and yet excited, Olivia happily responded:

“You can have Jesussweetheart, he loves you and wants to be with you always…”

She continued to explain the love of Christ and the gospelin the best two year-old terms she could muster in the midst of the impromptuworship service:

Flannery: “I wantJesus! I want Jesus! He have a Mustache!”

Olivia: “What?”

Flannery: “He have amustache! In my book, he have a mustache!”

The story sent me into hysterics ofcourse, but it set my mind in loops as I was studying 1 John to teach on thelife of a man (John) who knew Jesus personally. What do I mean when I say thatI want Jesus and what does it mean to know him?  How did knowing Jesus change John’s life andripple out from him into the lives of those he came in contact with and thosehe led and the ones he loved? And did he have a mustache? Everyone seems tothink so!

 In 1 John 1:2-4 he writes:

…² the life was made manifest, and wehave seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which waswith the Father and was made manifest to us-³ that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you,so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is withthe Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

John’s explanation of what has happened in hisown life and in the communities he was a part of because of the gospel was theleading edge of his invitation to his readers to meet Jesus. Although he couldhave led with lively anecdotes of life traveling with Jesus, jokes he toldaround the campfire or even a physical description. Recognizing the real Jesushad to do with something different.

In another conversation I had thatsame week I was catching up with an old friend who has just returned in manyways; just returned to the area, just returned to our relationship and justreturned to his long abandoned pursuit of God. We were discussing his recommitmentto the Lord and the twelve step program that has been incredibly instrumentalin his relationship with God.  We talkedabout the gospel and how evident it is in the “system” and our desire forpeople there to come to know the real “author of the grace” they were experiencing.Then I asked him a question about a close friend he has made in the group;

“Is she a Christian? Doesshe love Jesus?”

And his answer challenged me. He said;

“Sheloves what God is doing in her life and in mine. She wants more and more ofwhat he has for her and is excited to come with me to where ever I invite her todiscover who this “higher power” is! She just doesn’t know that it’s Jesus. Butshe will. She knows God’s love and is experiencing his transformation, which ismore than I can say for a lot of Christians I’ve known. Sadly I’ve sat in a lotof church meetings where there doesn’t seem to be any desire or passion to knowGod more.”

            I asked him to affirm anaffiliation, I asked him to give a label and instead he began to proclaim thekind of life that he and his friends are seeing God manifest in their midstbecause of the gospel. He was unable to give me the answer I thought I waslooking for and yet he told me about the fellowship he was seeing, andexperiencing.

            I thinkthat makes John’s point very clearly. There is no other name under heaven,except that of Jesus Christ, by which we might be saved. There is content tothis gospel; sin that imprisons us, sacrifice that releases us and Yet it is notalways the information of the gospel, but the manner of life, the freedom, theredemption and the growth that is made possible by him, accomplished for us atthe cross, that is the most compelling invitation to the world. The world canrecognize Jesus in the life that he brings, with or without the facial hair.