OPEN: Three ladies were in a restaurant and as they picked up their menus each one put on a pair of glasses. A little embarrassed, the first woman said "I really only need mine for close reading." The second shyly remarked, "I only use mine when the light is bad." The third smiled and confessed, "I rarely wear mine - except when I want to see."
The real reason those ladies needed glasses was because they didn’t have 20/20 eyesight.
ILLUS: I got a little curious about why its called “20/20 eyesight thing” so I looked it up. And I found that if you go into an optometrist’s office you’ll see a chart like this one (we showed an eye chart on the overhead that a red line under the 8th line of the chart). On this chart, down at line “8” you’ll see a red line. That’s the “20/20” line. An optometrist will have you seated 20 feet from the chart, and if you have good vision, that’s the last line you can read clearly without glasses. 20/20 is the baseline for good vision. Now, if you had better than average vision – say 20/10 vision - you might see a line further down the chart at 20 feet that an average person could see standing 10 feet away from the chart. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31kYnnIjugQ)
Now 20/20 vision is very important to a lot of people. A lot of us don’t have 20/20 vision, so we have to use corrective lenses (glasses/contacts) because we want to be able to see things that are important to us. We want to have a perfect vision!!! And what I found interesting is that - this year - January 1st will be on Wednesday. And the year will be (wait for it) 20… 20. That makes this a great time to talk about vision.
The question for us this morning is this: What is the vision we should have as church and as Christians? What should be the measure of a perfect 20/20 eyesight in 2020?
You know what the answer is? The answer is … JESUS!!!! He’s the measure of perfect vision. Hebrews 12:2 says we should “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (NIV)
Now there are a lot of churches that love the passage we read today - “Sir, we would see Jesus.” (John 12:21). In fact, that’s such a popular phrase that a lot of churches have it engraved on their pulpits to remind their preachers that that’s what they want to see. They want to Jesus when their preachers preach.
ILLUS: I remember at the first church I served. They had that statement on the pulpit “WE WOULD SEE JESUS!” And I was so excited because I wanted to preach about Jesus!!! The only problem was, the leadership didn’t really want to see Jesus all that bad. They didn’t mind seeing Jesus… as long as He was more than 20 ft away because, that way, He could be fuzzy enough that they could make Him into anything they wanted to see.
And that is a natural tendency. It’s a trap a lot of Christians fall into. We tend to see the Jesus that WE want to see - not the Jesus who IS!
ILLUS: There’s the true story of a professor who was teaching a class called “Jesus of Nazareth.” On the opening day of the class he gave a standardized psychological test. The first part of the test was all about Jesus. It asked students to imagine Jesus' personality with questions like, "Would Jesus prefer to go his own way rather than act by the rules?" And "Was he a worrier?" The second part of the test asked the same questions of the students. But instead of "Was he a worrier?" it asked, "Are YOU a worrier?" He said the results were phenomenal. The test revealed that most people tend to think Jesus is like THEM. Introverts thought Jesus was introverted (for example), and extroverts thought Jesus was extroverted.
These students hadn’t fixed their eyes on the Jesus who WAS. They only saw the Jesus who was like them, and who agreed with them. Jesus wasn’t the measure of who THEY should be. Instead, THEY were the measure of who Jesus should be.
That’s what happens if we’re not careful to fix our eyes upon Jesus. It gets kinda dangerous.
ILLUS: If we take our eyes off Jesus, we can cripple our faith. Do you remember the story of Jesus walking on the water? Peter sees Jesus walking on the water and asked to be able to come out to him - and HE walked water! All was good until he took his eyes off of Jesus and he started looked at the wind and the waves. Then he sank into the water and cried out for Jesus to help him. When Jesus got him back in the boat He said: “O you of little faith. Why did you doubt?”
Looking away from Jesus caused Peter to doubt, it crippled his faith.
ILLUS: Even worse, if we take our eyes off of Jesus we can even endanger our salvation. I recently read a story about “deconversion.” You’ve heard of “conversion (turning to) Christ” of course. Well Deconversion is turning away from Christ. In an online story at “The ChristianPost” there’s an interview with a Professor Anthony B. Pinn who had walked away from Jesus. In the interview, Prof. Pinn said that his deconversion wasn’t an “aha! moment,” but a “slow build” over a period of years. (https://thepreachersword.com/2019/10/29/the-deconversion-of-christians/)
What happened? Well, the article doesn’t say, but I have a pretty good idea. I believe He’d begun to take eyes off Jesus and started focusing on other things. And (I suspect) he’d grown used to looking for a Jesus Who was like him and Who agreed with him. Eventually, he found something other than Jesus to love and he walked away from his promise of salvation that Jesus had offered him.
(PAUSE) Well, how can I tell the difference? How can I KNOW IF I’m not becoming like Peter at the Galilee or Professor Prim in his deconversion?
In John 6:40 Jesus said: “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Notice, in that verse, it’s not enough to LOOK on Jesus. We have to BELIEVE in Him. But what does that mean?
Well, first it’s important to realize what it doesn’t mean. In Luke 23:8 we’re told “When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle.”
Now, did Herod “LOOK ON” Jesus? Of course He did. It says “he had been “wanting to see” Jesus for a long time. So, what’s wrong with that? Well, Herod didn’t want Jesus on Jesus’ terms he wanted Jesus on HIS OWN terms. And that’s where a lot of Christians mess up. They want Jesus to meet their needs, on their terms. They tend to see Jesus as THEIR servant.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with wanting Jesus to meet our needs. I mean, He promised to give me peace, hope, forgiveness and great number of other blessings. Psalm 37:4 tells us “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” So, there’s nothing wrong with believing Jesus will supply for your needs. But the problem is when THAT becomes the PRIMARY focus of your relationship with Christ.
Notice what happened right after the Greeks came and asked to see Jesus, Jesus said this: “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....” John 12:25-26
Another part of Scripture says it this way: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” I John 2:15
Or, as it says in James 4:4: “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Essentially – you can’t truly SEE Jesus, if something else is more important to you.
ILLUS: Have you ever been around someone who did this? (I took out my cell phone and pretended to be absorbed in pushing buttons). They can’t get stop texting, or stop emailing… or whatever. They ignore almost everyone around them, and it’s like they would die without being able to do that. The Washington Post told about a 15-year-old girl who sent and received - in a single month - nearly 6,500 cell phone text messages. She said of her cell phone, “1 would die without it.” (Our Daily Bread March 22, 2010).
You know what irritates us the most about that? It’s the idea that that piece of electronics is more important than YOU are! And, there are people who treat God that way and it’s got to irritate Him way more than that. The very idea that there is something else in this world that’s more important to them than Jesus - the very idea that it’s like they would DIE if they had to give up whatever that is for Christ - has got to anger God immensely.
My point is this: when Jesus said: “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life...” (John 6:40) He was saying – if you follow me - put down that thing in your hand. Put aside everything you think is important … because compared to Christ it isn’t important enough.
We need to fix our eyes on Jesus and let NOTHING take a priority over Him.
One last thought. When Jesus is the focus of your life, that will attract attention of others. They’ll know when you’ve fixed your eyes on Him.
ILLUS: Years ago, my mom and dad were visiting with some friends of theirs… and they’d sat down to eat. The family they were visiting weren’t “religious”, but the other man looked over at dad and said “Would you offer the prayer because I know you’re a Christian.” And you know, it wasn’t long after that that this other family started going to church.
When you fix your eyes on Jesus, reaching people for Christ will be a driving passion for you. I’d like you to sing a song with me this morning. You’ll know the chorus, but when I get to the verse, I want you to let me sing that by myself. “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”
The 2nd verse of that hymn goes: “His Word shall not fail you—He promised; believe Him, and all will be well: Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell!”
THEN GO TO A WORLD THAT IS DYING…
We’re told that when the Greeks came to Philip they asked “We would see Jesus.” And do you remember what Philip did? Did he take them to Jesus? NO! John 12:22 tells us “Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.”
Philip is one of Jesus’ disciples and he has a chance to introduce these folks to Jesus… BUT HE DOESN’T DO IT!!! Doesn’t that strike you as odd? It does me!
He has a chance to do something, say something… and all he does is pass the buck. He goes to Andrew, and Andrew leads the way. That doesn’t seem quite right. I’d have thought that Jesus would have rebuked him or something. “Be a man, Philip! Step up and share your faith!!!!” But Jesus doesn’t do that.
Now a couple thing about Philip. Back when Jesus asked Philip to follow him, Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." John 1:45
In other words, Philip had shared his faith before. It’s just – for some reason – he felt the need to involve Andrew this time. Maybe he looks up to Andrew or maybe he sees Andrew’s faith as stronger than his. I don’t know. But I do know the Bible doesn’t condemn Philip going for backup.
Our Highest priority ought to be that we are willing sharing our faith. I saw this meme on Facebook: “All I Want for Christmas is for my friends & family to know Jesus.” And I thought: THIS should be our target! But we should never be ashamed to involve another Christian in getting the job done. Christianity is a team sport! If you feel uncomfortable talking to someone about Christ… get someone else involved. And if you FIX your eyes on Jesus… you’ll get the job done.
INVITATION
(Note: We used "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" as the invitation hymn)
