I Want To See Jesus (2)

Remind everyone to please turn off, or silence their phones and tablets and watches for the service.

Also, remind everyone to be considerate of others who are in the house to worship and hear the message. (No talking, laughing, or ANYTHING else that is a disruption to others!) IF YOU NEED TO TALK, PLEASE JUST QUIETLY GET UP AND GO OUT INTO THE LOBBY!

Last week, we looked at a particular timeline in the life of Yeshua which we read about in the gospel of John chapter 12. And within this chapter, we find our Lord in the last week of earthly ministry, having just made His triumphant entry into Jerusalem.

And we learned last week that this was also during the time of the Passover Festival, which was one of the three pilgrimage feasts that required all men of Israel to journey to Jerusalem for, as according to the Law.

That being said, there were thousands and thousands of people, (if not hundreds of thousands of people), who were making the trip to Jerusalem at that time and for the reason of the Passover Feast. And out of the large numbers going to the holy city for Passover, John records for us that there were both Jews as well as Gentiles attending the feast. (These gentiles were most likely proselytes. That is, they were people converted from their pagan worship to Judaism.)

And they, like the Jewish people going with them, were adhering to the Law and assembling in Jerusalem for this holy festival. And it’s within John 12:20-21 that we read of the main passage that prompted the message for last week and is continuing into today’s message as well. In that passage, we read,

John 12:20–21 ESV

20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

The question/statement that these Greeks asked of Philip in this passage was the basis for last weeks message and it carries over into today’s message well.

In the Greek language, these men were saying that they very adamantly wanted to meet with; that is, that they intended to see this Yeshua face to face.

One way or another.......they weren’t taking no for an answer!

And as these men were from a Greek background, they were very much into knowledge and intellectualism, because that was the basis for Greek theology.

Just as Paul said of them and the Jewish people in I Corinthians 1:22, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,”

And quite possibly for this reason, they wanted to meet with Jesus.

They wanted to learn who He was and what knowledge He could bestow upon them, as they were now moving into their new faith and religion!

As I stated last week, there are potentially several good reasons that we can come up with, as to why John documents their desire to meet with our Lord and Savior!

But the bottom line is that we really don’t know the exact reason, because John never lists it.

In fact, he doesn’t even tell us if they ever got to meet with and see Jesus face face.

What he does tell us however, is the answer that Jesus gave when Philip and Andrew brought the requests of these Gentiles before Him.

In John 12:23-26 Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”

Yeshua is now declaring what is about to happen with His own life, as well as for all who would choose to follow after Him.

He is saying that in order to follow Him, one must be willing to lay down their life in servitude for Him, as He did for us, and to no longer desire this life, but rather desire the eternal life that comes after this one!

And He gives this answer based upon the request/the question, of those who were seeking to find Him, who were desiring to truly “see Him”!

Jews and Gentiles alike; it didn’t matter then as He was preparing to go to the cross and bring both groups of people together into one body.

And it doesn’t matter today! For in His body, there is now only ONE people.

As Paul reminds us in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

And all who desire to find Him shall. Just as He said in Matthew 7:8, “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”

But the question that was asked last week, and that carries over for us today, is, “Do YOU want to see Jesus?”

And if so, then WHY?

I mentioned last week that there are those who go after and intently desire signs and wonders and gifts of the Spirit over intimacy with the Christ, thinking that this is the same as going after Yeshua and a real relationship with Him.

These people are enamored with the gifts and the miracles, but their faith in the Lord Himself is shallow and wavering and the appearance of a miracle or a sign serves only to feed their lack of real faith.

As the Apostle Paul stated to all believers, “We walk by faith and not by sight. We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

And as to the faith of a true believer, the author of Hebrews tells us, “Now faith (genuine faith) is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see!”

The reality is that true signs and wonders and miracles, come from having a real relationship with Him, as Jesus Himself mentioned Mark 16:17, where He said,

Mark 16:17 (NKJV)

17 And these signs will follow those who believe.

Jesus is saying to us, that if we truly believe in Him and go after Him and seek Him and pursue an intimate relationship with Him, then signs and wonders will FOLLOW us.

Not the other way around!

We shouldn’t desire signs and wonders and miracles before and over a deep and intimate relationship with Him!

The gifts of Holy Spirit are given to a believer, according to the will of God, for what God wants to accomplish through that individual and at a particular time and place.

We definitely should ask the Lord God for these gifts, as Paul teaches us in I Corinthians 14, in order to help us serve the Lord better and offer us new opportunities to reach unbelievers and yes, to comfort and strengthen one another through those gifts!

And we should always be encouraged and thank God for each and every miracle and sign that we see take place.

They are truly gifts that show the love of our great God and Savior for us, amen?!!

All that being said as to why we should seek Him and an intimate relationship with Him and not just what He can do for us, I come back to last week’s question of, “Do you want to see Jesus?”

And if you say “yes” to that question, then I will ask “Why do you want to see Him and what does that look like to you?”

I think that if you were ask most people what it means to see Jesus to them personally, they would say something along the lines of, “To me, seeing Jesus is what’s going to take place once I make it to heaven!”

Still others, may say that they plan on seeing Jesus when He comes and raptures us out of here, hallelujah! Both statements are true and both are so amazing to think about! In fact, we should be thinking about these things all of the time!

Now in these last days, more than ever!! Praise God!

The Apostle Paul, in his final letter which was written to his spiritual son Timothy, instructed Timothy to fulfill (to complete) his earthly ministry that had been entrusted to Timothy. And then, in 2 Timothy 4:6-8, Paul says this,

2 Timothy 4:6–8 ESV

6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

Paul said to the elders of the church at Ephesus, in Acts 20:24, “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

He mirrored that same sentiment and mindset to the church of Philippi, where he said that he counted everything else in life as garbage, excrement, dung, so that he might “gain Christ”!

And because of his FAITH in Christ, he knew that he would be counted as righteous by God through His Lord, Yeshua!

And in this letter, Paul is saying to his beloved spiritual son, Timothy, that it was time for his “departure”. (That word has a figurative meaning of “being loosed/released”)

Paul was saying that he was about to be “loosed/released” from these earthly bonds, these shackles that hold us here to this world, and that he was about to “SEE JESUS”!

Paul literally LOVED the idea of the return of his Lord and Savior Yeshua and he LOVED, more than that of his own life, the idea of seeing Yeshua face to face and spending eternity with Him!

Paul, being at the very end of his life and knowing that Nero was about to execute him, told Timothy that he knew that the Lord was going to give him a crown of righteousness, (that is, the Lord was going to complete the good work which was already started in him and make him righteous forever), so that he could be with the Lord forever.

Though an unjust, unrighteous man was about to judge him guilty and execute him, the One true sovereign Lord and righteous judge of all, was about to vindicate him and call Paul righteous and just and overturn the verdict of guilty and instead, call Paul blameless and pure and crown him with eternal life!

The Lord was going to glorify Paul and clothe him in the spotless white garments of the righteous!!

For only that which is righteous, can ever be in heaven with the Lord!

And Paul then tells Timothy, that everyone (you guys say “EVERYONE”) everyone who has “loved Jesus’ appearing” shall also receive the crown of righteousness!!

That is, everyone who truly loves the Lord Yeshua and desires to be with Him and cannot wait to be with Him and who finishes their race, as Paul said that he had done; these also will be awarded the crown of righteousness by the Lord on that day!

The “crown”, as Paul mentions, in the Greek, literally means a wreath, a woven wreath of evergreen leaves, which was awarded to the victors of the Greek games. A wreath which was more valuable than that of silver or gold, because of what it symbolized!

A person who won that wreath, that crown, had finished the race and brought honor and glory to both himself, but also and even more importantly, to their home town, village, or city!

It has been written that “many a little town in those days, took down a piece of it city’s wall in order that its son, crowned with the crown of Olympia, might enter that city by a gait that was never used by another person before, or thereafter! (They literally took down a section of the city wall so that the young victor, who was bringing them glory and honor and wearing the crown of honor, might enter the city in such a way as no other would ever do so again!!)

And Paul likens this honor and glory to the crown of righteousness, as he was about to enter the city of the One true, great God and Savior of all eternity, having fought the good fight with out backing down, having finished the race and running it with excellence and having kept the precious faith in his heart, without wavering, to receive the “crown of righteousness” and finally be at peace and HOME with His Lord Yeshua!

Does that apply to you today friend?

Are you in that “EVERYONE” category who will be awarded the crown of righteousness?

I sure hope so!! And you can know for sure in your heart today, if you do not know how to answer that question!!

But let me ask you this...........do you have to die to “see Jesus”?

I mean if you truly believe in Him and truly desire to see Him, does that mean that you have to die first, or even be raptured, or is there another way that we are to be “seeing Jesus” right now?!

The Bible tells us that if we have truly come to salvation through our faith and belief in who and what Yeshua is in our lives, that is, as Romans 10:9 says it, that, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

And if you are saved, then you are thus His! The Bible assures us that if we come to Him in salvation, then we are now a part of His family, we are now called the “children of God”, and Yeshua is counted to us as a brother!

And since you belong to Him and are grafted into His family and His house, then your focus is no longer is be on your life here and now (because it no longer exists; you are a new creature, a new creation and your life is not your own. You belong to a new city and a new dwelling place!)

(EVERYONE STAND ON YOUR FEET FOR JUST A MINUTE PLEASE)

Look around you. Do you not see and understand what is truly going on right now, even as I speak? At this moment, if you are truly “born again” and belong to Lord, then you are literally standing within His kingdom! Right here, right now, right where you are, and for that matter, wherever you go, the kingdom of God is within you and around you at all times!

This earth is no longer your home. And because of His great love for you and I, our heavenly Father has blessed us with a gift and allowed our spiritual feet to forever be standing upon the soil of our new home, which is His kingdom! (You may have heard of people who have left their homeland and say that they would gladly kiss the soil of their homeland if the could ever step foot upon it once again, because they miss and long for it deeply!) Well, we are living in a strange and foreign land here, but we are always walking upon the ground of our own native soil, hallelujah! (YOU MAY BE SEATED)

The Bible says in Colossians 3:1, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Our spiritual eyes are to fixed upon the Christ and where He is seated right now, at this very moment! And our natural eyes are to be averted from the things of this world and forever looking for new ways to serve the Lord, while we are here, in this temporal, earthly vessel!

In doing so, we truly begin to “see Jesus” in our own life and in a completely new perspective! If you are His and you your life now belongs to Him, then your heart’s desire is that you want to be in His presence right now, right here, and all of the time! You begin to look through your spiritual eyes and not through your natural ones!

And you read His living Words and as you talk with Him throughout each and every day, you truly begin to “see Jesus” in ways that you never knew or saw before!

If you’re only concerned with standing before Him one day in a physical form, at some future time period, and you are not looking for Him in your spiritual walk right now, you are going to be in for a rude awakening! Because the Lord is spirit, and those who worship Him are to worship Him in spirit and in truth!

Do not make the mistake of waiting for the future to “see Jesus”! He is right here in this very room with you right now, via His Holy Spirit, which He has sealed you with as a guarantee of your salvation and with which He has placed within every born again believer!

The only reason that you cannot “see Jesus” right now, is because your spiritual eyes are still shut! When a blind person talks with someone, although they do not “physically” see them, they see them in a different way. The blind person’s mind is so attuned with their natural senses, that they literally develop mental images of that other person based upon their sense of touch and smell and sound! Their world is not defined by their natural eyes, but through their mind’s eye, which shows them a different reality.

As one blind man quoted, when being asked about his ability to see the world in his own way, he said, “There's plenty of imagery that goes on all the time in blind people. It just isn’t visual!”

That’s what I am trying to get at with you right now. Not that you try to create images of Yeshua in your mind like a blind person, but rather that you allow your spirit and your mind to work together and look beyond your natural sight and see Him using your spiritual senses, in the realm that He exists within right now!

Once you start developing an intimate relationship with Yeshua in your own life, you will truly begin to “see Jesus” in your life!! And I cannot explain to you how that looks, except to say that you see Him through His living words and through your time in speaking with Him in prayer and in allowing His Holy Spirit to work in and through your life...........YOU TRULY “SEE JESUS!”

And what is equally as important to this, is that other people, who desperately need to, will begin to see Jesus in and though your life as well!

To some people, you are the only physical representation of the Christ that they may ever see, before they leave this world and stand before Him in judgement!

And how you represent Him before others is crucial!

The Bible tells us that we have been given the message of reconciliation.

In that same passage in II Corinthians 5, Paul also tells us that we are “ambassadors” for Christ and that God is making His appeal to others through us!!

This world and everything in it, is going to eventually be destroyed and every human that has ever existed will have to stand before the righteous judge of all, and give an account of his/her own life!

Peter said in II Peter 3:11-12, “Knowing all of this, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.”

We ought to be doing everything possible to show Jesus to the world around us!

You are the only “Jesus” some people will EVER SEE!

Be very careful then how you represent Him to others, because you and I will give an account to Him for the “Jesus” that others saw in us and in our lives!

If you say that you belong to Him and that you want to “see Him”, then that means that you are “sanctified” (Set apart for His holy use) and as such, your life is to be spent each and every day serving Him and doing His will!

Look, here’s the facts. The world that we live in and the nation that we now live in, are under the influence of the god of this world! If you think otherwise, then you’ve had your head in the sand for quite some time now! Some people will say that the church, the body of Christ, is on the rebound and that we are gaining ground in this nation!

And yet, the studies coming out and the polls being taken and the decisions that are being made right now in this nation, say something quite the opposite! In March of this year, Time magazine posted an article about the effects of this whole Covid-19 craze upon the youth of our nation.

A non-profit organization studied some 32 billion US health care claims, focusing on the two billion or so from 2019 to 2020—to calculate the numbers filed for health services in the pediatric age group, which they defined as ages 0 to 22. Now watch this, the researchers focused particularly on the emotionally turbulent years from 13 to 18 years of age. Within that age bracket, and between 2019-2020, there was a 334% spike in intentional self-harm among 13- to 18-year-olds in the Northeast in August of 2020 compared to the same month the year before. 334% increase!!!

In that same study in fact, they found sharp spikes from pre-pandemic 2019 to 2020 in a range of psychological conditions including major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, adjustment disorder, self-harm, substance abuse, overdoses, OCD, ADHD and tic disorders. All of that and in just one small segment of our nation’s population!

In the book of Amos 8:11 we read, “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”

Now, yes I know that this passage was written for a specific time and specific people, but here me out. There exists right now in this nation, (a nation that once boasted of being a Christian, God fearing nation), there exists a famine for the hearing of the words of the Lord God!

Just as Paul warned us of in II Timothy 4:3 where he said, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,”

That’s happening right now and in mass proportions in this nation! You cannot teach the truth of His Word any longer to a large part of this nation, without repercussions! A 30 year military Air Force chaplain was fired last year, simply because he stated the truth of the Word.

He told a group of new recruits about what the Bible teaches about sexual immorality and that if they were having sex with someone that they were not married to, they needed to stop. He went on to say that, as Christians, we tend to only look at one sin, homosexuality, and then we turn a blind eye and don't say anything about heterosexual sin, and that's hypocritical.

Because of that, he was fired! There is a famine for the truth of God’s Word today in this nation! For the first time ever in over a century, less than half of this nation (47%) says that they do not have place that they call or identify with as their house of worship! (People are leaving the church!) Over 1/3 of young adults (30 years of age and younger) in this nation now say that they have NO religious affiliation at all. These are the ones categorized as the “nones” in this nation!

The bottom line is this......people need to “see Jesus”, now more than ever! They need to hear the fullness and truth of His gospel message and they need to see it being lived out in the lives of God’s true and faithful children!!

Stand with me right now please! How many of you, right here, right now, within your hearts, can say with boldness and assurance, “I want to see Jesus” in my life!! Because, if you want to see Jesus, then He will show Himself to you. He’s not hiding, trust me!

If you truly belong to Him, then you should walk according to His will. I John 2:6 says, “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” And you are doing that, then you will begin to “see Jesus” in your life.

And if you are doing that, then others will begin to “see Jesus” in you as well. And the truth of His love and mercy and forgiveness of sin, being lived out in your life, will begin to draw and convict other people and make them want what you have!!!

The final question this morning, I will ask once again, “Do you want to SEE JESUS?”

Have everyone come forward and play, “I Bowed On My Knees And Cried Holy”, by Michael English