What does First B Jackson teach about knowing jesus?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on knowing Jesus starts with a distinction that comes up repeatedly: there is a real difference between knowing about Jesus and actually knowing Him. Pastor Ray pressed this from Philippians 3, using the image of attending a funeral for someone you never met. You can say things at that graveside, but you do not grieve the way those who loved the person do. That gap, between information about Christ and a living relationship with Him, is what Paul is after when he lists everything he gave up and calls it worth nothing compared to the surpassing value of knowing Christ.
Both Pastor Ray and Pastor Tyler worked through the same passage to show that knowing Jesus is not something a person earns through religious credentials or heritage. Paul had more of both than anyone, and he counted it all as refuse compared to being found in Christ, holding not a righteousness built from law-keeping but the righteousness that comes through faith. The point is not that effort or background are worthless in themselves, but that they cannot get a person to what Paul is describing. Knowing Christ means being found in Him, sharing in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.
Steve Landis, filling the pulpit on one occasion, brought the same concern from John 15, where Jesus tells His disciples to remain in Him the way a branch stays connected to a vine. Steve was honest that God had put a personal question to him: you think you know me, but you do not know me. The teaching here consistently holds that knowing Jesus is not a destination reached by accumulating the right experiences or church history. It is an ongoing, abiding relationship, and everything else in the Christian life flows from it.
Taught from Philippians 3:1-11 · Philippians 3:1-14 · John 15:1-11 · Ephesians 2:8-9 · Romans 2:28-29
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 15:10
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- January 18, 2026 Put No Confidence in the Flesh Paul's letter to the Philippians challenges us to stop trusting our own credentials and find everything we need in knowing Christ Jesus as Lord.
- January 7, 2018 Knowing Him, Not Just Knowing About Him Philippians 3:1-11 on the difference between knowing Jesus and merely knowing about Him, and why no religious résumé can substitute for that.
- January 7, 2018 Knowing Christ, Not Just Knowing About Him Philippians 3:1-11 opens a question worth sitting with: is there a difference between knowing Jesus and knowing about him? The pastor explores what Paul counted as loss.
- September 28, 2014 Remain in Me Steve Landis walks through the Gospel of John asking one question: do you truly know Jesus, or have you, like the Pharisees, learned to look right past Him?
Mentioned along the way
- September 7, 2015 Monday Nights @ First B (10) Pastor Carl closes out 1 John with a look at what it means to trust God, pray for one another, obey His commands, and keep Jesus at the center of your heart.