On Seeing God

Introduction

Usually churches and pastors in the beginning of the year share their vision. Individually we usually have our own vision for ourselves and our family. These things are important and we should have that. But I want us all to focus as church in having a vision of God.

Personal and Corporate vision is important. But having a vision of God is much more important. Why? Because it sustain us, equip us and anchor us no matter what will happen to us in the coming days. There’s no guarantee that your plan will come into fruition and your prayers will be answered according to what you imagine. There’s a lot of uncertainties ahead of us. But if you know the Lord, you will be okay no matter what.

There’s nothing else that is more important than learning to see God and beholding his beauty as we start this year. King David says:

Psalm 27:4 “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.”

“To gaze” means to scrutinize, to carefully examine - the beauty of the Lord. This is a careful and slow meditative reflection of the beauty and the glory of the Lord. This should be our goal and our prayer this year as we study in this series “Be Thou My Vision”.

Our main text or passage in this series is Isaiah 6. Ans we will divide this into 5 parts hopefully.

Next week part 2, We are going to look at Isaiah 6:1-4 and we are going to talk about WHO GOD IS.

Then in part 3, we are going to look at WHO WE ARE IN LIGHT OF WHO GOD IS in Isaiah 6:5.

Then in part 4, we are going to look at WHAT GOD DID FOR US in Isaiah 6:6-7.

Lastly, we are going to look at WHAT SHOULD BE OUR RESPONSE FOR WHAT GOD DID and we are going to look at the remainder verses in Isaiah 6:8-13.

But today we are going to look what does it mean to see God. Isaiah 6:1 says “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne...” What does he mean when he saw the Lord? And is it possible for us as well to see God?

There are people who “saw” the Lord not just Isaiah.

Jacob - Genesis 32:30 “... I have seen God face to face, ...”

Moses talk to God face to face (Exodus 33:11; Deut. 34:10)

Israelites in Deut. 5:4 - “The Lord spoke with you face to face”.

Question: Do you want to see God like them? Be careful in answering them.

It is scary and dangerous to see God “for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29)

That’s why Isaiah says “Woe is me” in Isaiah 6, not “swerte ko”

OT Saints are scared of seeing God. Jacob says in Genesis 32:30 “...I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

Deuteronomy 5:24 “And you said, ‘Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man still live.”

Judges 6:22–23 “Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.””

Parents of Samson says the same thing. Judges 13:22 “And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.””

So again let me ask you, do you want to see God? If so, how do we see Him in such a way that we will not die? How do we see Him in such away that it will be life transforming? And if it transform our lives, how does that impact others that surround us as well? So throughout this series we are going to make application in regard to conversion and evangelism and also in sanctification and discipleship.

Back to our question: How can we see God in a transformative way?

First let’s start with God.

God and Seeing Him

First we need to understand that God cannot be seen and yet can be seen. Invisible yet visible. Let me explain. The Bible says in John 4:24 that God is spirit. In other words, he is not a physical being limited in time and space. Additionally, according to Paul in Colossians 1:15, God is invisible. In other words he cannot be seen by our physical naked eye.

1 Timothy 6:16 “...who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”

How come Isaiah, Moses and Jacob saw him? The short answer is that they didn’t saw the fullness of the glory of God but the glimpses of his glory that is enough for them not to die.

We cannot see God on our own. We can only see if He sovereignly will to reveal Himself to us. We can only see what He want us to show about Him.

Example in Romans 1:19 “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.” This is talking about the general revelation of God. That everything in creation from the mountains, seas, flowers and bees - everything shout there is a glorious and beautiful creator. God has chosen to reveal himself through the creation. The nature around us itself is like a sermon preaching to us the invisible attributes of God.

But my point is this, God is totally sovereign in choosing what He wants to reveal about Himself and we are totally dependent from Him as well to see what He wants us to see.

Isaiah saw the Lord in the capacity that God has allowed him to see and what is need.

Now, this leads us to ask what is the capacity of man to see God?

Man and Seeing God

Man in himself has no capacity to see God. The fullness of the glory of God is too bright and too powerful for a human being. What will happen if you stand in the middle of the day and look directly to the sun without eye protection? You don’t have the capacity to see it directly. In the same manner, we can’t see God directly without being blind or eyeballs burned. Nor we can approach his presence without consumed into ashes for our God is a consuming fire. (Heb. 12:29)

That’s why when Moses asked the Lord “show me your glory” God graciously respond by showing his afterglow or the glimpses of his glorious character.

Exodus 33:20–23 “But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.””

So be careful when you ask God “Open my eyes, Lord, I want to see you” because you if you see God’s face you are going to die. Even if God wants for you to see Him, you don’t have the capacity - we are like a battery that will explode if you charge it directly in a voltage that is beyond it’s capacity.

But that’s not our only problem. We have another problem and that is that we are blind. Apart from the enlightening grace of God we are blinded about the truth about God. This is the default fallen human condition. Because of sin and the work of the devil we are blinded from the truth about God.

2 Corinthians 4:3–4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

But we can’t fully blame the devil. We also have responsibility for our own blindness.

John 3:19 “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”

Let’s not think that only the criminal and people in prison are the ones who are in darkness and blinded by the truth. Even religious people who profess to be a Christian and yet trust themselves are blinded.

Jesus even rebuke the religious leaders of his day. “Woe to you, you blind guides, you blind fools, you blind men”. It’s possible to be very religious and yet blinded by the truth.

“We were blind to our own blindness” (Paul Tripp)

The question then, is who can heal us from our own blindness? Who can open the eyes of the blind?

Christ and Seeing God

The answer is Christ. That’s why Jesus the Son of God came. He came to show us who God is and to open our blind eyes.

He came to show us God because He is qualified to reveal God to us.

John 6:46 “...not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.”

He alone saw the fullness of the glory of the Father. Why?

Because He is fully God. John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” Jesus is Himself God.

In fact, the apostle John writes in John 12:40 as the fulfillment of what Isaiah says in Isaiah 6:10 about the blindness and hard-heartedness of the people in rejecting the Messiah.

John 12:40–41 ““He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.” Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.”

Who did Isaiah saw in the temple where the angel worship and sing Holy Holy Holy? He saw the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

It’s the same glory that Peter, James and John saw in the mountain when the Lord Jesus Christ was transfigured (Luke 9:32).

Peter says “we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16)

John says “We have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:14)

John asks Philip John 14:9 “Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

Jesus is the only way, the only exclusive way for us to see and know God. We are totally dependent upon Jesus for us to know what God is like. Why? Because we are spiritually blinded about the truth of who God is. But because of his mercy he miraculously open our blind eyes so we can truly see who He is and the Father.

Matthew 11:27 “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

We can see the glory of God not only in the person of Christ but also in his crucifixion. In the cross, the invisible attributes of God is powerfully demonstrated.

1 Corinthians 1:23–24 “but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

We see in the cross and Jesus’ resurrection that God is powerful to accomplished everything for our salvation.

Do you want proof? Paul says 1 Corinthians 1:30 “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,”

The question then for us is, how does this happen? In what way did God open our eyes? Because on our own, the gospel message sound foolishness and stumbling block to us. This lead us to the next point

The Spirit and Seeing God

So far we learn that we are totally dependent on God for us to see and know Him. Then we learn that we cannot see Him or knows Him unless the Son will reveal Him to us. Furthermore, we cannot know and see God apart from the working of the Holy Spirit to open our spiritual eyes.

1 Corinthians 2:9–10 “But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”

The Holy Spirit is the one who reveals to us the things of God even the depths of God. If you are a Christian the reason why you see and embrace Jesus as Lord and Savior is not because your IQ is higher or you are morally good. We are all blind. Not partial blind. A little blind. But TOTALLY BLIND. The difference is that God through the Sovereign work of the Spirit shine his light in our hearts.

Listen to what Paul says: 2 Corinthians 4:6 “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

This is parallel in the Genesis 1 when God says let there be light and there was light. There it shows us God’s sovereign power bring light out of darkness. Here in the new creation in the human heart, it is still an act of God’s sovereign power through His Spirit to let His light shine in our hearts so we can see the glory of God and the face of our Lord Jesus.

This is ALL the work of God. Apart from his work of enlightening we cannot see God nor receive Christ as our Savior. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and our conversion. But this is just the starting point. And it doesn’t end here.

Once we became Christian, once we are converted, He is the one who continues to help us grow in our sanctification - or the process of becoming like Christ by helping us to see God more and more.

2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Here we see that the key to transformation, the key to becoming like Christ is not by trying to be like Christ but by beholding Christ. BEHOLDING NOT TRYING LEADS TO BECOMING. It’s the Spirit of God who helps us see Jesus. And as we behold him we become more and more like Him.

This is the goal but God uses an instrument to accomplished this goal of sanctification and becoming like Christ. That’s why he instituted a church.

The Church and Seeing God

The process of helping one another become like Jesus is called discipleship. Discipleship always happens in the context of the local church empowered by the Spirit. And so the goal of discipleship in the church is to help one another look to Christ.

That’s why this is the emphasis of Paul in Colossians 1:28 “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”

Discipleship is not about the place or “coffee2x” lang. It’s not about chat2x sa Messenger or biking, running or playing sports together. These can be context of discipleship IF ONLY we help each see Christ more clearly. So we need the Church to continually see Christ through the preaching, teaching and fellowship with one another.

But it doesn’t end there. The church as well is where “visibly represent” God to the world. The world cannot see God but they can see us.

John says in 1 John 4:12 “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”

Mark Dever says “The church is the means in which the gospel is made visible.” That’s why becoming part of the local church and being active member of the local church and growing in our love for each other is God’s design to empower us for mission.

As a church we have responsibility. Because our eyes have been open, we also long and pray and seek that other’s eyes will open to see the glory of the Gospel in the face of Jesus Christ. That their lives might be transformed by the power the Spirit through the faithful preaching of the Word in the context of the local church. We will do this faithfully by God’s grace until we see God face to face.

1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” That’s hope fulfilled. That’s longing satisfied.

But as we long for that day. Let’s not forget that we can still see God daily today.

Seeing God Daily in the Scriptures

Maybe you expect you want to see God like Moses through spectacular vision. Remember he asks “Show me your glory”. I hope this is our prayer as well. How did God answer this.

Exodus 33:19 “And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”

God told Moses His Name and his attributes - goodness, grace and mercy. Where can you continually know this? Not apart from His Scriptures - special revelation of Himself. You cannot see God and know God if you spend less time with you Bible.

If you pray right now “Lord I want to see you” God actually has answered that. He will say, if you want to see me “Go pick up your Bible and read and study and meditate on it. Gaze upon Christ. Behold Him.”

But you might say, I want a vision like Peter James and John on the mountain. Listen to what Peter will say about this.

2 Peter 1:16–21 “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Do you want to see God? Pay attention to the Scriptures. Do you want your hearts to be enlightened? Read the Scripture and seek Christ. This is the only way you can find rest from guild and condemnation. From fear of the unknown future and today’s anxiety. May we keep our eyes fixed on him.