Introduction:
A. Church auditorium pulpits are interesting.
1. They can take many shapes and sizes.
2. When I first came to Wetzel Road, the pulpit was made out of paneling and was a big counter with a slanted front and sides and had a podium in the middle.
a. When I stood behind it I felt like Captain Kirk on the starship Enterprize.
b. Fortunately I found this nice small oak pulpit and refinished it.
3. Most pulpits have hidden shelves where things can be stored.
a. Normal items to be stored there are things like a Bible or Song book, but there’s no telling what ends up in there.
b. I heard about one church that has a fire-extinguisher stored there. Maybe their preacher gets a little too hot as he preaches his fire and brimstone sermons.
4. Another interesting thing about pulpits is that there are often some messages attached to the surface of the pulpit, to remind the speaker about certain things.
a. For instance our pulpit has a reminder for the person doing announcements – “Remember to announce to pass the attendance clipboards.”
b. We have two reminders on our pulpit for the preacher.
c. The first says, “Preach the Good News” and quotes John 3:16.
d. The second says, “Preach the Word” and quotes 2 Timothy 4:2.
5. I’ve heard about another church that has a brass plate with this simple inscription, “Sir, We Would See Jesus.”
B. Ultimately, that is what preaching is all about – trying in some way to help those who hear to know and believe in Jesus.
1. Every sermon ought to enable people to see Jesus more clearly and to understand Him better.
2. As a preacher, I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t always hit the mark.
3. I don’t perfectly proclaim Jesus all of the time, but that is my hope and my goal.
4. And as we begin a new sermon series today that I’m calling – DEVOTED TO JESUS, I will be working even harder and more carefully at the task of proclaiming Jesus.
C. I love the story of Zacchaeus the Tax Collector found in Luke 19.
1. Jesus came to Jericho, Zacchaeus’ town, and the streets became crowded with people who wanted to catch a glimpse of Jesus.
2. Zacchaeus was a short man and could not see Jesus over the crowd, so he ran ahead of the parade and climbed a tree so that he could see Jesus.
3. When Jesus reached that spot and saw Zacchaeus up the tree, He invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house, and before the day was over, Zacchaeus became a believer.
4. How badly do you and how badly do I want to see Jesus?
5. What are we willing to do to try to get a better look at Jesus?
D. In our Scripture reading for today from John 12, we heard about a group that wanted to see Jesus.
1. Jesus was in Jerusalem. Jesus had already raised Lazarus from the dead, and had made the Triumphal Entry.
2. It was the week of Passover, the final week of His life.
3. The text tell us that some Greeks were among those who went up to worship at the Feast.
4. These Greeks are either Gentile converts to Judaism or are Jews who lived elsewhere and have come to Jerusalem to worship God at the Temple and participate in Passover.
5. They had heard marvelous things about Jesus and wanted to meet Him for themselves.
6. So they approached Philip, one of Jesus’ disciples and said, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”
7. Now, whether they actually got to meet Jesus for themselves, we do not know.
8. Philip told Andrew about their request, and then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
9. Jesus’ response to the request was to give a little speech. Whether that speech was given just to his disciples or to the Greeks, we do not know.
10. In that speech he talked about His eminent death, and that when He was lifted up from the earth, He would draw all men to himself.
11. So Jesus was interested in all people, both Jew and Gentile.
12. When Jesus had finished speaking, he left and hid himself from them.
E. What I’m wondering about today is how well do any of us know about Jesus?
1. Have we seen Jesus?
2. Do we have a desire to see Him even more clearly and completely?
3. Unlike Zacchaeus or this group of Greeks, we can’t climb a tree to see him better, or go to where Jesus is staying and have a little chat with him.
4. In some respects, we are at a bit of a disadvantage.
5. Karl Barth (pronounced “Bart”) was a Swiss Reformed theologian and was one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the 20th century. He used this analogy to describe our situation, “A man stands by a window gazing into the street. Outside, people are shading their eyes with their hands and looking up into the sky. Because of the overhang of the building though, the man cannot see what it is they are pointing toward. We who live two thousand years after Jesus have a viewpoint not unlike the man standing by the window. We hear the shouts of exclamation. We study the gestures and words in the Gospels and the many books they have spawned. Yet no amount of neck-craning will allow us a glimpse of Jesus in the flesh.”
F. So, who really is Jesus? What did He look like and act like. What did he really say?
1. Although a few have tried to say that Jesus never really existed, that is a hard conclusion to reach.
a. There is so much evidence that Jesus really existed, that it is almost laughable to say otherwise.
b. Isn’t it amazing that the birth of Jesus was so important that it split history into two parts.
c. Until just recently, and the efforts of secularists, everything that has ever happened on this planet fell into two categories: before or after Christ.
d. It’s ironic to me that Jesus is such a central figure that people even use Jesus’ name to curse by.
e. How strange it would be to hear someone who hit their thumb with a hammer cry out, “Thomas Jefferson, or Mahatma Gandhi!”
2. Artists have given us many pictures of Jesus.
a. Scan this sampling with me. Which pictures are you drawn to? Why?
3 Scholars have written so much about Jesus.
a. A scholar at the University of Chicago estimates that more has been written about Jesus in the last 20 years than in the previous 19 centuries.
b. And can we believe all that has been written about Jesus? Certainly not.
c. If you peruse the academic books available you walk away with some pretty strange pictures of Jesus.
d. Some would lead you to believe that Jesus was a political revolutionary, others would have you believe that he was a magician who married Mary Magdalene, or an anti-Pharisee Essene, or a hallucinogenic leader of a sacred mushroom cult.
e. Astonishingly, these serious scholars write these works with little sign of embarrassment.
4. And as you know from experience, many movies have come out saying all kinds of false things about Jesus and Christianity.
a. Like: The Last Temptation of Christ, and more recently, The Davinci Code.
G. So in the midst of such confusion, and so many false claims and so much propaganda, how do we answer the simple question, “Who Was Jesus?”
1. The very best thing we can do is to return to the Bible and take another look at what the Gospel writers had to say about Jesus.
2. In the Gospels we find the clearest pictures we have of Jesus – his actions and his words.
3. And in the Gospels we have a candid honesty that reveals the Jesus’ most devoted followers usually come off as scratching their heads in wonderment – asking, “Who is this guy?”
4. At the time of the events of Jesus’ life and ministry, the disciples were more baffled than conspiratorial.
5. J.B. Philips, after translating and paraphrasing the Gospels, wrote, “I have read, in Greek and Latin, scores of myths, but I did not find the slightest flavor of myth here...No man could have set down such artless and vulnerable accounts as these unless some real Event lay behind them.”
H. I believe that the more we study Jesus the more we will want to study Him.
1. Jesus cannot be explained or pigeonholed.
2. As one person said, “If Jesus had never lived, we would not have been able to invent him.” (Walter Wink)
3. The two words that we could never think of applying to Jesus are boring and predictable.
4. Yet, how is it that over the years we have tended to tame such a character?
5 Dorothy Sayers wrote, We have “very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified Him as a fitting household pet for pale curates (A cleric, especially one who has charge of a parish) and pious old ladies.”
6. Many have tried to present Jesus as just a nice man who told people to be nice.
7. But one wonders how telling people to be nice could get a man crucified. What government would execute Mister Rogers or Captain Kangaroo?
8. Jesus was such a contradiction in so many ways.
9. He was very religious, truly holy, yet He favored those who would have been kicked out of most churches.
10. Even though he was sinless, He gained the reputation of being a drunkard and a glutton.
11. He was the Prince of Peace, but those in authority, whether religious or political, regarded Him as a troublemaker, and a disturber of the peace.
12. He was the King of Kings, yet he avoided all the traditional measures of success – wealth, property, fame and family.
I. One of the things that has challenged us over the years about Jesus, is trying to strike the balance between the humanity of Jesus and the divinity of Jesus.
1. Which is it – was he human or divine? Both!
2. Jesus was “just like everyone else” and at the same time He was “something very different.”
3. Both realities can give us incredible comfort.
4. We need Him to be like us so we can relate to Him and trust that He can relate to us.
5. But we need Him to be so much more and better than us, so that He can be the Perfect Lamb of God.
I. So I think you can begin to understand why we have our work cut out for us.
1. The task of seeing Jesus afresh is exciting.
2. The task of seeing Jesus clearly is demanding and challenging.
3. But the task of seeing Jesus clearly is essential.
4. Why is it so important that we come to know the truth about Jesus?
5. Why is it important that we see Him clearly?
Four Reasons Why It is Essential to See Jesus Clearly
A. The first reason it is essential to see Jesus clearly is because Jesus Reveals the Father.
1. Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (Jn. 14:9)
2. We all want to know God, right?
3. Well, we know Him best through Jesus.
4. The writer of Hebrews wrote, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being…” (Heb. 1:3)
5. If we don’t come to know Jesus clearly and correctly, then we don’t really know God.
6. That’s one reason why it is critical that we clearly see Jesus.
B. Second, it is essential to see Jesus clearly because Jesus is the only Savior.
1. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
2. Jesus said, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.” (John 8:23-24)
3. Peter declared in Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
4. Jesus is the only Savior. We must see Him clearly and believe in Him completely to be saved.
5. There is no other way to God except through Jesus.
6. If there are other ways to God, then it was not necessary that Jesus come and die for us.
7. But since there is no other way, then we must know Jesus and put our trust in Him.
C. Third, it is essential to see Jesus clearly because we must walk as Jesus did.
1. John wrote, “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:6)
2. “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:14-17)
3. Jesus said, “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.” (Luke 6:40)
4. As Jesus’ followers, we must walk as he did. We must follow his example. And we must be like our teacher and therefore be fully trained.
5. We cannot do any of these things if we do not see Jesus clearly and truly understand Him.
D. Finally, it is essential to see Jesus clearly because that will sustain us.
1. Hebrews 12:2-3 reads, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
2. Keeping our eyes on Jesus, and understanding His mission and His suffering will give us the endurance we need to carry us through.
3. Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith.
4. Jesus did the will of God with joy in His heart, because He knew what the blessed outcome would be.
5. We can know and do the same.
6. There is a blessed and wonderful eternal inheritance in store for all who are devoted to Jesus.
7. Let us not grow weary and lose heart! Even though that’s often how we feel. When life hits us hard or we become discouraged or disillusioned with other people or with God.
8. Let us see Jesus clearly and keep our eyes fixed on Him! He will sustain us.
Conclusion:
A. I’m assuming that all of us are here today because “We Would Like To See Jesus.”
1. We want to know Him better.
2. We want to follow Him more faithfully.
3. We want to love and appreciate Him more and more.
B. That’s precisely what I hope will be the result of this series.
1. May God touch us and strengthen us as we devote ourselves to Jesus – Our Savior, Lord and Friend.
2. So let me ask you – Have you seen Jesus?
3. Have you put your faith in Jesus and allowed Him to become your Lord?
4. If you are not ready to do that, then we want to help you get ready.
5. Many of us would be happy to meet with you and look at what the Bible says about Jesus.
6. Obviously, you are welcome just to keep coming and listening to these lessons about Jesus.
7. I truly believe that no one who seriously takes a look at Jesus ever stays the same.
8. Jesus changes lives. That’s my warning and promise.
C. Jesus is tenderly calling all of us to draw near to Him.
1. He wants to save us and make new creations out of us.
2. That is certainly an on-going process as we see Him more clearly and devote ourselves more completely.
