WE WANT TO SEE JESUS!
Jn. 12:12-13,18-24
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: DOUBLE JEOPARDY
1. A young man named Turk felt that he had a call to study the ministry, and he asked the help of his pastor for guidance for where he felt he should use his talents. Turk decided that working with the mentally challenged was where he should begin his ministry.
2. The pastor made arrangements for a tour of the local hospital facility and as they walked through the large room full of patients, they first saw a man lying on the floor banging his head while repeating, “Linda, Linda, why did you do it?”
3. The hospital attendant explained that this poor man had been left at the altar when Linda failed to show up for the wedding.
4. As they were approaching the end of the tour, there was another man lying on the floor banging his head, repeating frantically, “Linda, Linda, why oh why did you do it?”
5. When the question was asked why this man was shouting the SAME NAME, the attendant replied, “Oh, he’s the one who married Linda!”
B. TEXT
12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!” 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign [raising Lazarus], went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!” 20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Jn. 12:12-13, 18-21, 23-24.
C. THESIS
1. We’re talking this morning about wanting to see Jesus. Now there’s a lot of wacky people out there, people desperate to catch a glimpse of Jesus.
2. A few years ago a woman in New Mexico was frying tortillas. One of the tortillas burned and the result was an image that looked like a face; she thought it looked like Jesus.
3. She took the tortilla to her priest and he agreed it looked like Jesus, so he blessed it. She placed it in a box surrounded by cotton to make it appear as if it was floating on air.
4. They built an altar around it and started praying there. Word began to spread about the holy tortilla and soon thousands of people visited their home to pray before the holy tortilla. (Shrine of the Miracle Tortilla).
5. Many other similar instances of shadows, wood grains, pancakes, or even Walmart receipts that seem to have a picture of Jesus on them!
6. But we’re looking in the Bible this morning, at the time when Jesus was physically on earth. Thousands of people actually saw Him. Many others wanted to see Him.
7. It’s possible to know Him today and Paul said we can see Him dimly in prayer (1 Cor. 13:12), but when He comes again, we’ll see Him face to face.
8. So my message this morning is “We Want To See Jesus!”
I. SOMETHING IS MISSING
A. SOMETHING WAS MISSING AT THE PASSOVER
1. If we’d been in Jerusalem on that day, we would’ve seen a great crowd making its way down toward the Temple. Among that crowd were Greek proselytes who’d converted to Judaism and were allowed to worship at the Temple. They came as sincere worshippers.
2. They were hungry for spiritual reality. As they watched all the rituals and attended all the meetings, they noticed that, despite all the outward ceremonies, something was missing. They were still empty.
3. But the news came about Someone there who knew the real meaning of the Passover; Jesus of Nazareth. There was an unseen magnetism around Him, because He was the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.
4. The Spirit drew these Greeks to Him, like the Magi who’d been drawn to the place of His birth so many years before. These Greeks came asking, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus!”
B. FINDING CHURCH TO BE EMPTY
1. Churches today are full of people who’ve sung the songs and listened to the sermons, but they’ve never had an encounter with Jesus. They’ve had a partial experience, a distant touch of the Lord, but not enough to completely deliver them. Frankly, they prefer not to be disturbed.
2. POEM: “THREE DOLLARS WORTH, PLEASE!”
a. "I would like to buy three dollars worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or snooze in the sunshine.
b. I don't want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy three dollars worth of God, please."
3. Many Christians live in the half-light, half way between two worlds; they have 1 foot in each. They have a halfway commitment, a halfway worldview, they’re halfway involved.
4. Usually we don’t realize how bad-off we are until we see Jesus. Like Isaiah. He never saw his sinful condition until he saw the Lord. In Isa. 6, when Isaiah saw a vision of God surrounded with angels covering their faces and crying “Holy is the Lord!”, he realized he was full of sin!
5. That’s why we ALL need to see Jesus, because only then will we see ourselves!
II. “SIR, WE WOULD SEE JESUS!”
A. THE WONDER OF SEEING
1. We have 5 SENSES: taste, feeling, smelling, hearing, and sight. [Many kids say their mother has a 6th sense – mind reading!] The last 3 can operate at a distance. We can SMELL a forest fire several miles away. We can HEAR thunder 10-15 miles away.
2. But our SIGHT is the most far-reaching sense: we can see a galaxy 3.5 billion light years away! How valuable is sight!
3. The act of seeing starts when the lens of the eye focuses an image, which is projected on the back of the eye, called the retina. The brain goes through incredibly complex computations and algorithms by which it reconstructs a 3-D digital model of the image in our brains, of what we see.
4. Similarly, as we focus on Jesus, the “Light of the World” (Jn 8:12), our spiritual being begins to form a 3-D model of Jesus in us. Gal. 4:19. 2 Cor. 3:18. Rom. 8:29.
B. FULL VIEW OR ONLY A GLIMPSE
1. Many have only gotten a glimpse of Jesus and never have taken the time to “gaze” – a prolonged look that lets the full image of Jesus into our souls. Now if you fell in love with someone, would you only want to glimpse them or to gaze at them? To gaze of course! Same with Christ.
2. Photographers know that shutter speeds determine how much light is exposed to the film. The longer you keep the camera shutter open, the more light gets in to form the picture.
3. Five minutes may be enough to boil an egg, but it’s not enough time to reproduce Christ in your life! You need more time in prayer, Bible, worship.
4. The longer the exposure to Jesus, the more concrete His Image will be on the photographic film of your soul.
5. BEHOLDING…WE ARE TRANSFORMED. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Cor. 3:18.
C. THEIR DESIRE TO SEE JESUS
1. These Greek men and women wanted to see Jesus; not only to see his face but they wanted to hear His voice, to look into His eyes, to converse with Him, to hear the Word of God from His lips.
2. Just like Mary and Martha. Martha bustled around doing the work of the Lord, but Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, beholding Him, and absorbing His marvelous words and spirit. Jesus said Mary chose the “better part.”
3. Never forget: your top priority should be sitting at Jesus’ feet and hearing His words! Only then will you be transformed!
D. YOU SEE JESUS EVERYWHERE IN THE BIBLE
1. He was the Garden of Eden’s tree of life. He was Abel’s acceptable sacrifice. He was Noah's Ark of salvation in the flood. He was Abraham's RAM offered in the place of Isaac.
2. He was Israel's Passover lamb, protecting them from the death Angel in Egypt. He was Moses’ rod with which he divided the waters.
3. He was the Tabernacle in the wilderness. He was Joshua's captain of the armies of the Lord. He was Rahab's Scarlet cord
in the window; He was Gideon’s sword and David's sling and stone.
4. He was Daniel's lion tamer and the fourth man in the furnace of fire. He was Isaiah's "Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).
5. He was Zechariah’s fountain for cleansing opened in the house of David (13:1). That's what we can sing, "There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins; and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains."
6. He is Malachi's Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings (4:2). He’s the Rose of Sharon, the Bright and morning star, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
E. PEOPLE WHO SAW JESUS (& how it effected them)
1. HARDENED SOLDIERS sent to arrest Him, returned without Him, saying, “No man ever spoke like this Man!”
2. PROFESSIONAL FISHERMEN said of Him, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” Mt. 8:27.
3. RELIGIOUS LEADERS were amazed, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” Mk. 1:27 NASB.
4. The CENTURION at Christ’s crucifixion declared, “Truly, this IS the Son of God!” Mt. 27:46.
III. DO YOU WANT TO SEE JESUS?
A. QUESTION IS: “DO YOU WANT TO SEE HIM?”
WHY CHRISTIANS GIVE UP ON PURSUING JESUS:
1. THEY SETTLE FOR MINIMUM EXPERIENCE WITH GOD
2. THINKING THEY HAVE ALL THERE IS
3. LITTLE EFFORT PRODUCES LITTLE RESULTS
4. PRAYER REQUIRES FEELING AFTER GOD
B. FIVE STEPS TO SEE JESUS
1. REMOVE BARRIERS TO SPIRITUAL VISION.
a. Repent of your sins. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” Mt. 5:8. “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear” Isa. 59:2.
b. Be born again. Jesus told a very religious man, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” John 3:3. New Birth is a prerequisite to seeing Jesus.
2. BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. When you get filled with the Holy Spirit, you become much more sensitive to spiritual things. The Holy Spirit regularly reveals things to people who stay full of the Spirit (Lk. 2:26; John 16:15; 1 Cor. 2:10; Eph. 3:5; 1 Pet. 1:12; etc.). The Holy Spirit has come to reveal Christ to us!
3. SEE JESUS IN THE SCRIPTURES.
a. “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about Me” John 5:39.
b. “Wherefore the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” Gal. 3:24.
4. GET ALONE WITH GOD.
a. “Be still and know that I am God” Ps. 46:10. Get rid of all distractions.
b. Develop a heart that pursues Jesus! David was “a man after his own heart” 1 Sam. 13:14. “You shall seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your hearts” Jer. 29:13.
5. WANT JESUS MORE THAN ALL EARTHLY THINGS
a. “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ” Phip. 3:8, NIV. Let me warn you that GOD WILL NOT SELL HIMSELF CHEAP!
b. THERE’S A PRICETAG. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it” Matt. 13:45-46. The renouncing of our old life and values automatically happens when we really find the treasure.
c. Sinful pleasures must be sold. Old prejudices must be sold. Our own righteousness, our pride, our love of money, our popularity, our old cranky natures must be sold. You can’t worry about what your friends will say. There’s only one price for the Priceless Pearl: you must sell everything you have; then nothing you have will be yours, but God’s, to use at His disposal.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: THE RABBI WHO WAS CONQUERED
1. Years ago two Christian missionaries entered a town in Poland. No Jews would listen to them. At last they sent a challenge to the Rabbi for a public debate on whether Jesus was the Christ.
2. For three days the synagogue was crowded and at last the missionaries were cast out, spit upon, and beaten, and barely escaped with their lives. The Rabbi was applauded as a splendid monument of truth.
3. Next Sabbath, he did not conduct the worship. Another Sabbath passed with a deputy preacher. Then a notice was issued that Rabbi Goldringer wished to see all the members of the synagogue on the third Sabbath.
4. Amid breathless silence, the Rabbi, very pale, arose and said; “Brethren, you are all aware of the recent controversy. You were good enough to acclaim me as victor in that debate. As I have to stand before the Judge of all the Earth, I must tell you, be the consequences what they may, that I was conquered; and that I am here to say, among all those who know me best, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah of whom Moses and the Law spoke.” [Knights New, p. 331]
B. CAN YOU SAY THAT YOU HAVE BEEN CONQUERED?
1. Are you hungry for God? The first step to seeing Jesus is to GET RID OF THE BARRIERS. Our sins are separating us from God! Let’s repent of them and get right with God.
2. Next we need to be BORN AGAIN; that means to ask Jesus to come dwell inside you by His Spirit.
3. Next, are you willing to evaluate Jesus as worth more than everything else in the world? Are you willing to:
a. renouncing of our old life and values;
b. Let go your Sinful pleasures & Old prejudices?
c. Will you abandon your own righteousness, your pride, your popularity, your dependence on money, what your friends will say? Let’s make a clean sweep. Sweep it all out!
4. Lastly, will you commit to searching the Word for Jesus and waiting on Him in the secret place?
5. Let’s pray!
