Do People Still Want To See Jesus?

You know, things have changed a lot since I was a kid. I remember when everything revolved around the church and these days it seems we juggle church around everything else and I think it causes society to lack something, and sometimes I wonder, do people still want to see Jesus, do folks still want a relationship with Christ? Let’s look at our text today. (Read John 12:20-23)

People were excited about Jesus, and why wouldn’t they be? He was healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. The Pharisees were afraid, they had even said “look, the world has gone after Him.” In the text today we see that the Greeks that had come to Jerusalem weren’t concerned with directions to the temple or any other part of the festivities they wanted to see Jesus, not just as part of the crowd, but to actually see Him and talk with Him. Excitement was everywhere.

Back when I was young things seemed different than they do now. Our values and moral compass was anchored on God, The Bible and the Ten Commandments. Peoples mind and actions were wrapped around Christian values, worshiping God, honesty and integrity were important. People knew all the great Bible stories, they knew about Moses, Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego, Samson, David and Goliath. People knew what you meant if you called them a Pharisee or a Jezebel. Our parents were worried that if we played some of our music backward we would hear the devil talking. My how times have changed.

Now we worry that our teenage daughters can take a morning after pill or get an abortion and we as parents may never know, we worry about what are children do, say and see on social media. We worry if they will make it home from school or a trip to town safe. We worry about our children because this world seems to have gone to Hell in a handbasket and we wonder if people still want to see Jesus. Christianity seems to be dying, prayer has been abolished in almost all of our schools, workplaces and legal establishments our kids and young adults think Mathew, Mark, Luke and John are some new Pop group, and that Samson and Delilah are the newest country duet. In today’s world it seems that Science and feelings have replaced religion as the bases of social morality. We are certainly not living in the same world that we were 20 or 30 years ago.

In today’s world we have Biotechnology, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and micro surgery. Technology is moving faster than it ever has and is moving forward faster and faster every day it seems. We have cell phones and I pads that can hold thousands of songs and 100s of pictures we can even watch movies and television shows on them. Thanks to this technology many Christians have the Bible at their fingertips with the touch of a screen. Even though we seem to be leaping forward each day in some ways we seem to be crawling backwards spiritually and our moral compass seems to be slipping. In a world that seems to applaud abortion, genetic engineering, euthanasia, and designer genetics I think we may wonder “does anyone still want to see Jesus?” As Christians we may be tempted to hide our light under a bushel and keep Jesus to ourselves, but we cannot not.

When astronauts are training for a space mission they practice working in zero gravity, during their work they must be tethered to a stable object or they will simply drift away along with all their tools. We live in a culture that is trying to live morally untethered and is drifting every which way, without a moral tether we will wind up spiraling out of control.

We need to ask ourselves not what, but who will tether our moral compass! Do people still want to see Jesus? I think so, and we must show Him to them! People today are much like the Greeks that asked for an audience with Jesus.

People today aren’t asking “where is your church?” they can see them plainly they are asking questions like “why do you care, Why are you so happy, why are you so honest and trustworthy?” When they ask you these questions tell them “I’ve got Jesus.” Then you want hear “show me your sanctuary or show me your family life center.” You’ll hear them say “Show me Jesus?”

People still want to see Jesus but they want hard evidence, they want to see that following Jesus really does make a difference. People are hungry and thirsty they just don’t know what they are looking for and it is up to us as Christians to give them Jesus, not just by our words but by our actions and deeds. We have got to show them Jesus by living a life for Christ.