Seeing Jesus More Clearly in 2020

2020 Vision:

2020 Vision

Focus:

How do you see Him?

2020 Vision:

I must admit that a series called 20/20 Vision is not very creative. There are many churches that are springing off from this idea and they move into the New Year. But, after the title, every church is going in the unique direction that the Lord is moving their own church.

20/20 vision is the physical goal for eyesight. With 20/20 vision we can see far and near comfortably without any problems. Spiritually our vision ought to be 20/20 as well but often we allow the problems and cares of the world to occlude our vision and we end up not seeing the wonderful things that God has right in front of us or off in the distance. Although it would be marvelous to have our physical vision back to 20/20, it would be far better to have spiritual 20/20 vision. Together, as a church, this is what this sermon series is about. It is what this whole year will be about – gaining focus and clarity in what God has for done for you, is doing for you, and plans to do for you in the future.

In our series we are going to take a look at “Seeing Jesus More Clearly”, “Seeing the Person of the Holy Spirit More Clearly”, and “Seeing the Vision and Mission of the Church”.

Seeing Jesus More Clearly

[Bring out the painting and put it on the stage].

This is a beautiful painting of Jesus that Pastor Akers had commissioned to be painted. He worked with the artist all the while that it was being done. It was painted by a woman named Dee Dee. After it was painted, her brother-in-law remarked that he saw his brother’s eyes in the painting. Her ideal for Jesus came, at least in part, from her love for K. D.

There have been many pictures of Jesus over the years. Here are some of the most famous:

📷

You may not recognize his name off the cuff, but you've probably seen his work. Warner Sallman was the best-known Christian artist of the early twentieth century. Almost everyone has seen a reproduction of his Head of Christ. The yellow-brown picture with long flowing hair was an icon of the forties and fifties.

📷I remember this one from my aunt’s home. I didn’t realize the significance of it back then. Holman Hunt was the artist. His message was straightforward, to the point. His moral and devotional feeling impressed the crowds who came to see his paintings, many of which had a Christian message. In ‘The Light of the World’, Christ knocks in vain at the door of a human soul/conscience. But the weeds and vines growing in front of the door show how long it has been since this soul responded to Christ’s presence.

📷We can’t forget to include Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper…

In the 1960’s Jesus appeared in a painting with Che Guevara and Fidel Castro as revolutionaries. Criticism abounds with every painting. Jesus, in these paintings, has been criticized as too white, too effeminate, too harsh, too conservative, and too liberal.

Every generation has tended to see Jesus as they have wanted to see Him, but did they have 20/20 Vision of Jesus or was it distorted by the events and attitudes of their age or their own biases? The Apostle Paul said, “that I might know Him more.” Like Paul, my desire is to know Jesus more in 2020 and see Him more clearly than ever before. Remember that Paul had to have the scales fall from His eyes to see Jesus and perhaps there are some scales that need to fall from our eyes as well.

How Do You See Jesus?

As a Personal Savior?

Over the past 20 years there has been a great dissatisfaction from younger generations with the ‘traditions’ of the church. I suppose this has always been the case. However, there has never been a generation that didn’t desire greater spirituality – although many don’t know where to find it. Generations that looked for spirituality instead of tradition were right. Of course, the answer to their search is found in a personal Savior named Jesus Christ.

Aimee Semple McPherson was one of the 1st Pentecostal leaders coming out of the Pentecostal Outpouring and the beginning of the 20th Century. She spoke to millions and saw tremendous salvations and powerful acts of God through miracles. She gave a message that she titled, “Is Jesus Christ the Great I AM or the Great I Was?” Basically, she is asking the question that I am asking this morning, “How Do you see Jesus?”

Here is a bit from her message…

Pat! Pat! Pit-a-pat!”—there are young feet, old feet, light feet, heavy feet, glad feet, sad feet; joyous feet, tired, discouraged feet; tripping feet, lonely, groping feet; straight feet, sick and crippled feet; eager, searching feet; disillusioned, disappointed feet; and, as they pass, a message is somehow tangled up in their pattering, which rises from the cobble-stones like a mighty throbbing from the heart of the world.

“’Tis not so much what Christ used to do for the world in answer to prayer in bygone days,” they seem to say, “but where is His power NOW? And what can He do TODAY?”

“Ah yes!” sigh the crippled feet from the pavement, “we are not so vitally interested in the sick He ‘used’ to heal, the limbs He ‘used’ to make straight and strong. (Of course, we are glad to know that somewhere, sometime, in the distant past Christ healed the sick in far off lands). But we live in the great today—and Ah me!![1]

Of course, she is suggesting that the world is looking for a living, active, and powerful Savior TODAY, not a Great ‘I was’. She continues:

…Preaching ‘The Great I WAS’ can never satisfy our longings, WE NEED ‘THE GREAT I AM.’

“The Great I AM”—why yes! That’s it exactly! That’s what this old world needs. A Christ who lives and loves and answers prayer today. A Christ who changeth not but is the same today as He was yesterday and will be evermore. A Christ whose power knows neither lack nor cessation. A Lord whose Name is “I AM” forever, even unto all generations.[2]

…“I AM the Lord, I change not.”

“I AM the Lord that hath chosen thee and called thee by thy name.”

“I AM come down to deliver thee and to bring thee up into a good land and a large; unto a land flowing with milk and honey.”

“I AM (not I WAS but I AM) the Lord that healeth thee.”

“I AM He who was dead but am alive forevermore.”

“I AM Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”[3]

“I Am” – present, personal, powerful … fully alive. What is your picture of Jesus Christ? Are you painting Jesus as your personal Savior?

Does Jesus Disturb You?

Phillip Yancey in his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, walks us through his growth in knowing Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Historically Jesus would not have been a model on the cover of a magazine. Jesus favored those who would have been kicked out of Bible college and rejected by many churches. Among his contemporaries he somehow gained a reputation as “a wine-bibber and a glutton.” Those in authority, whether religious or political, regarded him as a troublemaker, a disturber of the peace. He spoke and acted like a revolutionary, scorning fame, family, property, and other traditional measures of success (Yancey, 15).

Jesus’ most devoted followers usually come off as scratching their heads in wonderment – Who is this guy? (Yancey, 21)

Here’s something that might disturb you …

(NIV) They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.

23He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

The story begins normally enough, but the longer it goes, the stranger it becomes. Jesus and His disciples came to Bethsaida. Someone brought a blind man to Jesus and implored Him to touch him. At this moment, Jesus did what any of us would do in this situation. Jesus takes him by the hand, leads him out of the city, spits in his face and touches him. We all know that’s exactly what to do when confronted with someone who needs to be healed. Oddly enough, this is not the first time Jesus has done this. In Jesus stuck his fingers in a man’s ear and then proceeded to touch his tongue with His saliva. This is also not the strangest part of . The odd part is not that Jesus spits in the man’s face; it is what happens next.

In verse 23, Jesus says something shocking: “Do you see anything?” This is a question you do not expect Jesus to ask. We expect him to make an authoritative statement that the man has in fact been healed. Instead, Jesus asks the man, “Do you see?”-as if to say, “Did the miracle work?”

24He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

25Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

I’ve grown to love the Gospel of Mark since I taught the book a few years ago. One of the things that I learned was that the Gospel of Mark seems to answer the question, “Who is this Jesus?”

In chapter 1, he answers the question four times. He answers it when John the Baptist says He is the Messiah. He answers it when the Father opens up heaven and declares Him as His Son. He answers it when Jesus says, “The time is at hand; the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.” The question is even answered when Jesus walks from the temple and is confronted by the demons, who say, “We know exactly who You are, you Holy One of God.” Over and over, Mark is attempting to answer this question. The only problem is that no one seems to get it. No one seems to understand who Jesus is.[4]

Chapter 8 is pivotal because immediately after this miracle Jesus asks the disciples “Who do men say that I am”. Their responses range from one of the prophets to John the Baptist. His next question, however, was the question of the hour, “Who do you say that I am”. That can be a disturbing question.

Who Do You Say That Jesus Is?

Peter accurately described Jesus as the Messiah, but missed the fact that He had to suffer and die. You can’t blame Peter we all seem to see “men as trees, but not quite clearly.” Throughout the early part of Mark, the people were trying to understand this Jesus but were getting it wrong.

To the crowd Jesus is a fascinating man who does a lot of wonderful things. They are convinced it is worth keeping an eye on him. To the religious leaders Jesus is an infuriating man who does a lot of frustrating things. They are convinced he is demonic. To his family he is an embarrassing man. They are convinced he has gone insane. They are so convinced of his insanity that they go and try to take him back home by force. And the disciples, who of all people should understand, do not know what to think about him.

Even to Peter in the 8th Chapter, he had realized that Jesus was the Messiah, but Peter painted his Messiah to be a conquering Messiah. He would not be a suffering Messiah. But don’t we do the same thing? Some years ago I came across a list of descriptions that are popular man-made versions of Jesus; things like – “Football Jesus” or “Buffet Jesus”. Most people don’t disbelieve in Jesus, they just choose to see Jesus the way that they want to see Him.

I want to challenge you in 2020 to see Jesus more clearly. I challenge you as we study the scriptures together in Men’s and Women’s studies, in Community Groups, Children’s classes, and in the upcoming services to allow the revelation of Jesus to come alive, not based on our own biases but on the revelation of Jesus Christ by the Spirit – in the Word of God.

[1] McPherson, A. S. (n.d.). Is Jesus Christ the Great “I Am” or Is He the Great “I Was?.” In Divine Healing Sermons (p. 14). n.p.

[2] McPherson, A. S. (n.d.). Is Jesus Christ the Great “I Am” or Is He the Great “I Was?.” In Divine Healing Sermons (pp. 15–16). n.p.

[3] McPherson, A. S. (n.d.). Is Jesus Christ the Great “I Am” or Is He the Great “I Was?.” In Divine Healing Sermons (pp. 19–20). n.p.

[4] Smith, J Josh. Seeing Jesus More Clearly: A Sermon From . www.preachingsource.com