J-Curve Classes, Chapter 7: It’s all about who you know<br/>

Class Description: Session 6, Chapter 7

Chapter 7: It’s All about Who You Know: Knowing Jesus in the J-Curve

There is a vast difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus. To know Jesus is to become like him by sharing in his suffering. There are elements of his character that you and I will never develop if we insist on continuing to hold suffering at arm’s length. We want to become like Jesus in every way, and in doing so, to model his gospel to the world around us.

Class Notes:

How are the things we’re discussing and learning changing the way you’re thinking and living?

Has being in Christ enabled you to edit yourself in recent weeks instead of becoming touchy and defensive?

1. Pp. 65-66 Stare at Philippians 3:8-11

a. Can you recognize the two parallel ways that the apostle Paul is talking about knowing Christ? Can you see both Justification by faith and the J Curve?

b. Where do we often stop short in the process of knowing Christ?

2. P. 66 By embracing Jesus in his dying and rising, Paul knows Jesus in ways he would not if he were simply meditating on or resting in justification by faith. The word Paul uses for ‘share’ is one of his favorites: koinonia. It means a binding partnership in which two are embedded in one another.

a. I once had a brother in Christ who was experiencing particularly poignant suffering. He knew God was teaching him things about himself through that suffering and he asked me a question... “Do you think there is any other way to learn what I’m learning right now apart from this suffering?” How would you have responded to him?

b. Look at the underlined section from the quote above. What does this look like and how is it stopping short of what the apostle Paul has in mind?

c. How does embracing Christ’s dying and rising help us to know Christ in the ways Paul envisions for us?

d. Do the concepts we’re studying enrich your understanding of what Jesus means when he calls us to abide in him? (John 15)

3. PM diagrams our Philippians passage on p. 67. Stare at the diagram as we work through his description of it at the bottom of the page.

a. Does it strike you that in living this way we are fulfilling the New Testament law?

b. Is this a vision that you can get excited about? Why or why not?

4. P. 68 Paul can’t imagine believing the gospel without becoming like the gospel. For Paul this is a single act of knowing. To believe the gospel necessarily leads to entering into Christ’s dying and rising. Knowing Jesus in these two complementary ways makes our knowledge of him richer, more complete. We embrace the whole pattern of Jesus’s life as the story of our own life.

a. Stare at the underlined section above... Do we actually believe that?

b. What is the difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus?

c. We don’t talk much at Brick Lane about incarnating Christ. Do you think the concepts that PM is introducing us to here as we look at Philippians may be what others mean when they when they talk about incarnating Christ?

d. How do we typically describe the process of sanctification? What is it and how do we become sanctified? Have we been missing this element in our descriptions?

5. P. 68 Look at the chart on this page. Are these analogies helpful to you in terms of what PM is trying to help us understand in this chapter? How are they helpful?

6. Pp. 68-69 Look at PM’s comparison of a touchy person with a Jesus person.

a. How does embracing our J Curves equip us with the resources to respond well to frustrating situations and suffering in our lives?

b. Have you been helped in recent weeks not to respond to the world around you from a ‘feelism’ perspective?

c. Do you think that people struggling with anxiety and depression could be helped if they could learn to embrace suffering in the ways that PM is suggesting here?