A little boy was drawing a picture on a piece of paper. His mother came up to him and asked him what he was drawing. The little boy responded, "I am drawing a picture of God."
The mother said to her boy that no one knows what God looks like.
The boy said confidently to his mum, “Well they will when I get through drawing this picture."
That is a story which raises two really good questions.
Is it possible to see God?
If it is possible, then what mental picture do we have of Him?
Now we know God is Spirit and his worshipper must worship him in Spirit and in truth.
We are not talking about trying to make an idol, or an icon, or an image of God.
In that sense of us looking around in the spiritual space …
Do we see God and what mental picture do we have of him?
Because, when it comes to seeing God, we need to firstly and quickly recognise that this is an issue of faith.
Does God exist or not?
You can’t see what doesn’t exist, even if you are looking perhaps through secondary means.
You are not going to see God if you are not looking for Him.
And there are many people in this world who do not believe in God for the very reason that they cannot see Him.
Their whole reason for saying “There is no God”, is “I can’ see him”.
It is a common argument against accepting Christianity … or any religion for that matter.
I read that recently in the comments section on the ABC news site.
“If God was real He could show Himself by lifting everyone off the ground all at the same time for a minute. Then I would believe”.
You can go to that website, and many websites like it, and you read lots of comments like that.
A supposably definitive test, or an action, or an outcome that people are looking for that - were it to happen - they would then believe that God is showing himself.
The problem with this attitude and this approach that all the tests we come up with are limited by our humanity and our limited way of thinking.
Have a look at these words from Psalm 50:17-21
17 You hate instruction and turn your back on My words.
18 When you see a thief, you make friends with him, and you associate with adulterers.
19 You unleash your mouth for evil and harness your tongue for deceit.
20 You sit, maligning your brother, slandering your mother’s son.
21 You have done these things, and I kept silent;
YOU THOUGHT I WAS JUST LIKE YOU.
But I will rebuke you and lay out the case before you.
This the big problem that comes when we start talking about what God looks like. Because the conversation very quickly focuses on how we can fashion God in our own image.
You think I am just like you.
You think it is an impressive act to lift everyone off the ground all at the same time.
You are so small
The reality is I have been always been carrying you all this time.
I have carried you since the day Adam was put on this earth.
Very much on this day I am carrying and providing for 7 billion people.
The earth at no time has never run out of oxygen … or will it run out of oxygen.
I gave you every idea and every piece of technology.
You just sent an unmanned probe past Pluto. Do you realise at the speed it is going that it will take 18,000 years to get to the nearest star?
And I have created all of that.
God could, if he wanted to, lift every one of the earth at the same time for a moment. Because it is a pathetic man-made example of a display of power.
And, to be honest, even if he did the first thing that would happen is that many people would start trying to find an explanation for why we all floated for a minute … and to explain it without involving God.
This would happen because that is what mankind is like.
We don’t see God because we are not looking for God.
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Romans 1:18-21
God is easy to see.
The reason people don’t see God is because we act in rebellion against Him.
So the question then again becomes how do you see God?
How do you get to a point where you look at a flower and see the intricacy and beauty of the designer, and you say, “Wow God is such an intricate designer”.
How do you find yourself watching the sunrise over the ocean - such a beautiful world we live in - and you say, “Thank you Father for this new day?”
What enable you to get through tragic events, and difficulty, the frantic times, the heartache times, the hardship times, and when all is not going well with the attitude that, “God is in the middle of this and He has it under control.”?
How do you get to that point?
Now maybe you are thinking of a passage from the Bible that answers the question. It comes in the context where Jesus is talking about providing a place where he is going to set up a home, a location that Jesus will set up. Then he will come back and bring us to that place.
Jesus says He is going to the place - and the disciples should know this place.
Then going on from there.
5 Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’
6 Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.’
8 Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’
WE WANT TO SEE GOD
9 Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
John 14:5-9
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
it is possible to see God.
But you will not see the true God until you have experienced Him though a relationship with Christ.
If God is not seen through Christ - if you don’t seek to look at God through Christ - then your mental picture of Him is a distortion, or it’s an aberration, or it’s a fake, or it’s a misrepresentation, or it’s a falsehood.
There are so many religions in this world and all of these religions will say that they believe in a God of some description.
But the question is, “Do you really want to see God?”
And if you really want to see God then you have to ask yourself - “Have I seen Christ?”
Not, do I know about Christ … BUT Have I seen Christ?
Not, do I read the Bible … BUT Have I seen Christ?
Not, do I come to church … BUT Have I seen Christ?
Have I looked at Christ and learnt from Christ and understood the he … he is Immanuel.
He is God with Us.
God in the flesh.
We see Jesus during His ministry hanging out with the outcasts, the social misfits, the people on the fringe.
As when you see Jesus like that you say, “That is God”.
That is God sitting there among the sinners.
That is God conversing with those who are on the fringe.
His main program is not to stop and prove that He has power and his might.
If He wanted to do that he would not have been born in a manger - he would have been born in a palace.
But he wasn’t.
He didn’t come born as a rich king; he came as a pauper.
As we see Jesus there amongst these people …
we need to recognise that these people felt so unworthy.
They were unworthy because society told them constantly that they were unworthy
… that they didn’t belong.
… that they didn’t have a place.
… that they weren’t worth it.
They Jesus comes along and he gives them worth and he sits among them and he encourages them.
God who put the heaven sin place enjoys sitting with sinners.
That is what we learn about God.
His main program is to remind us that He sees each one of us. In His eyes we are unique. We are worthy of attention and love. He hears us when we come to Him in earnest prayer.
At those times when we think we are not worthy, when we are treated by others as second class, when we are deemed to be less worthy. In all of these times we look to a God who put all of the heavens in place just so we could enjoy the visual spectacle and glorify God.
We know that we are important and loved and cared for.
We see God’s grace and God’s love in action as we see Jesus.
Another time when we see God in Jesus happened in the week before Jesus is falsely accused and put to death.
Jesus goes to a higher place and he is looking over Jerusalem and he weeps over Jerusalem.
What does that tell us about God?
It tells us that God doesn’t want to punish and destroy.
God doesn’t want to extend His wrath.
Here is Jesus weeping because he knows what is going to happen.
He knows the anger that is being shown against Jerusalem because the hardness of their hearts.
Jesus is weeping because of the anguish in his heart, “Why don’t you see?”
God is patient, not wanting everyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
As we look to Jesus who is going into Jerusalem to give His life we see Him grieving over the reality that the people have rejected Him.
On the way to the cross he prays
“Father forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing”.
That is the cry that He makes … not a just a cry … an earnest prayer of intercession for the people because He cares so much for them.
And in that prayer we see the heart of God.
If you want to sense God through your sight then, more and more, you need to see and learn from what Jesus is doing.
Because seeing God is not just enough.
Sitting on the beach and watching the sun come up and saying, “look at what God is doing” … that is great, but it is not enough.
Looking at a flower and saying, “isn’t that fantastic … I can see the hand of God in the intricacies of the work”.
That is great but it is not necessarily enough.
a matter of seeing His work in creation.
We see the extent of the heavens, and we are in awe at the majesty of God’s power.
We see the intricacy of the human body, and we marvel at God’s ingenuity.
We see the marvels of modern medicine, and we are thankful for the advances God has allowed us to make.
We see animals, microscopic viruses, complex bio systems, order, design.
We can see all of those aspects of creation and say we see God.
But it is not enough. Because isn’t it a reality that a Muslim … or a Buddhist … or someone who believes in Intelligent Design … isn’t it true that they can say the same thing?
The big question is not, “Do we see God?”
The big question is, “Do we see God as He wants to be seen?”
He wants to be seen through Christ.
That is how God wants to be seen … he wants to be seen through Jesus.
In Jesus we do not see this power hungry guy lifting people off the ground for minute just to prove he has power.
He comes along and he touches them and he heals them.
He comes around and he speaks about the messages of forgiveness and grace.
He steps into their lives … the lives of sinners and he brings
… redemption.
… connection.
… relationship.
Sometimes we need to step back and ask ourselves the question, “Do I really understand who God is?”
It is very easy to put God into our own shape. To form him how we want him to act.
When it comes to seeing God the danger we all face in our thoughts about God is that we tend to recreate God in our own image of him rather than seeing God as he has revealed himself in Scripture.
Sometimes people look to God and all they see is that God is love - God is love, but he is not just that.
There are times when he had to be angry.
There are times when he had to punish.
There are times when he had to reveal his power.
If you just focus on love you don’t have a full picture of God.
It is the same if you focus on the wrath of God.
Yes Jesus is coming back and there will be a day of reckoning.
Yes there will be a day of judgement and punishment.
But it is not all wrath.
For some God becomes this ever present, very personal and always close.
He is almost put into a box and they forget his sovereignty and his power and his majesty.
So it is about looking at Christ, seeing how Jesus wants us to understand who God is - in the fullness of himself showing us who he is.
Do you want to see God? Then get to know Jesus.
Get to know who this Saviour is who came to this earth because he is “God with us”
And as we follow … as we see God by seeing Jesus … we get a greater understanding of how God sees us.
It is no secret that we live in a world where everyone is judges by external things. You are judged by what you do … or your appearances … or your accomplishments.
There are people employed to advise those appearing in court on how to dress and speak in order to influence the judge and jury to give a lighter sentence – and it works.
Because it is about the outside.
People judge our credibility on the basis of how we appear or what we are able to do to prove ourselves.
How often do we find ourselves asking other people what they do.
We even do it to our children, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”
A fireman, a policeman, a doctor, an astronaut.
I’m defined by what I am going to DO.
Why are we less inclined to ask, “What kind of person do you want to be?”
How many times do we just say to our kids,
“It doesn’t matter what you do, I just want you to be a Christian.”
“I want you to love Jesus Christ”.
“I want you to be defined by your relationship with the Lord.”
It is not about doing, it is about being.
We are so tempted, even as Christians, to define ourselves by success, achievements, actions, outcomes and performance.
We do this and we can even spiritualize it.
Pastors do it all the time.
You watch them. I reckon within two minutes of meeting a pastor or the first time they have told you how big his church is and how many people come to his church.
Because that is how us pastors often define ourselves.
The good news is that God doesn’t define us by what he sees, he defines us by who we are.
When we see ourselves in weakness and brokenness and shattered because of all that we have done … God sees us in Christ.
In Christ we can be holy, we can be redeemed, we can be restored.
God comes along to those whose eyes are shut to the reality of how wonderful they are in God’s sight and he opens their eyes and he gets us to see that in that relationship there is nothing else we need except Jesus.
When we have Jesus we don’t need anything else.
We don’t need a big house, or a fancy car, or a big paying job … we just need Christ.
When we see who God is … understanding His nature … then we see who we are.
We see ourselves fallen? Yes we do.
We see ourselves broken? Yes we do.
We see ourselves sinful? Yes we do.
But God sees us in Christ and he embraces us.
So sensing God through our sight is so important.
But sensing God in sight by seeing Christ.
And then as we see God in Christ we are transformed, because we see ourselves as God sees us.
Holy.
Blameless.
Loved.
Forgiven.
Blessed for all eternity.
Prayer
