Some time ago, a small east coast community was struggling financially, so they called an open town meeting to discuss the problem. A couple dozen people were there, including a stranger that no one seemed to know. Most assumed he was a tourist who had just dropped in on the meeting. He started to make a comment when various ideas were offered, but he was interrupted, so he just kept quiet for the rest of the meeting and ended up leaving early.
Just as the stranger left, a late arriving resident came in and asked with excitement, “What was HE doing here? Is he going to help us?”
The others said, “Who are you talking about? Who was that man?”
The latecomer replied, “You mean you don’t know? That was John D. Rockefeller. His yacht is in our harbor. Didn’t you get his help?”
Now, John D. Rockefeller happened to be one of the richest men in the world at the time. So someone cried out in despair, “No, we didn’t get his help, because we didn’t know who he was.” (Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, #4162)
My dear friends, God often shows up in our lives and in our church meetings, desiring to help and bless us richly. But too often, people ignore Him, treating Him like some “ignorant tourist” and miss out on the blessing, because they don’t recognize Him.
So how do you recognize the presence of God when He shows up? How do you know what He looks like? How do you identify His face? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 33, Genesis 33, where our friend, Jacob, sees the face of God. He had been wrestling with God all night, but it was dark so Jacob couldn’t see very clearly. Then the sun rises, and Jacob sees God’s face in the full light of day. What does he see?
Genesis 33:1 And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming...
Jacob sees the face of God on his brother, Esau.
Genesis 33:1-3 And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants. And he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. (ESV)
Jacob is still not sure how his brother, Esau, is going to respond – in anger or with a warm welcome. So he lines his family up, in order of importance to him, from the least to the most important. He puts his beloved, Rachel, in the safest place – last, behind everybody else – and Jacob himself bows before his brother 7 times! 20 years previously, Jacob stole Esau’s right to be lord and master of the family through trickery and deceit. Now, Jacob behaves as if Esau IS his lord and master, hoping to appease his anger.
Genesis 33:4 But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. (ESV)
Esau was not angry. He was happy to see his brother, and together they weep tears of joy!
Genesis 33:5-7 And when Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” Then the servants drew near, they and their children, and bowed down. Leah likewise and her children drew near and bowed down. And last Joseph and Rachel drew near, and they bowed down. (ESV)
Esau meets all of Jacob’s family and welcomes them with open arms. When Jacob sees the face of God, he sees the face of his brother full of forgiveness and love, and that’s what you will see when you see the face of God. Dear friends, if you’re looking for the face of God…
LOOK FOR THE FACE OF FORGIVENESS in your brother.
Notice the countenance of mercy. See the face of pardon. For when God shows up, brothers and sisters forgive one another, because that is the nature of God Himself. That is Jesus dying on a cross for our sins, saying, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” That is God removing our sins from us as far as the east is from the west.
Psalm 103 says, “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:10-12, NIV).
The face of God is the face of forgiveness, and when He comes into our lives, when He comes into our church, that’s exactly what we’ll see all over the place. We’ll see brothers and sisters embracing one another, because they have forgiven each other.
Leilani Schweitzer's 20-month-old son, Gabriel, died in 2006 because of two hospital errors. The first came when a hospital in Reno, Nevada misdiagnosed Gabriel's chronic brain condition as a stomach flu. The second came days later at Stanford University Hospital, when a nurse switched off baby Gabriel's heart monitor alarms so Schweitzer could sleep. The alarms kept going off whenever the baby moved, and Schweitzer was trying to sleep in the same room as her ailing child. Schweitzer thanked the nurse, who saw how exhausted and tired she was.
The nurse had meant to silence only one alarm, but she unwittingly disabled all nine monitors attached to the toddler. When Gabriel's heart stopped beating, no one noticed until it was too late.
Schweitzer says, “It would have been easy for the university hospital administrators to blame the nurse, fire her and assume the problem had been solved because the bad apple was gone. It would have been typical deny-and-defend behavior for them to ignore my questions, to go silent and hope I couldn't gather my thoughts enough to file a lawsuit. But they didn't do that. Instead, they investigated. They explained, took responsibility, and apologized. It made all of the difference.
Now, Schweitzer is in charge of communication and resolution at the same hospital where her son died. She says medical mistakes – even fatal ones – are hard to totally avoid, but hospitals can control how patients and families are treated after a mistake is made.
Schweitzer says, “I've been in many meetings where we explain to patients and families what has happened. And those are difficult things to be part of. I've seen an explanation move the guilt off of a mother's face. I mean, that is the power. I have seen parents walk into a meeting with a physician where no one can lift their heads to look at each other. And by the end of that meeting, they are embracing. And it is remarkable what understanding can do for people.” (Josh Elliott, “Mom of misdiagnosed toddler relives medical errors that led to son's death,” CTVNews.ca, August 7, 2014; and Leilani Schweitzer, “How Can Hospitals Be More Transparent About Medical Errors?” National Public Radio Ted Talks, 12-1-17; www.PreachingToday.com)
How about you? Is there somebody you can’t even look at? Is there somebody you need to forgive? Or even harder, is there somebody to whom you need to admit your sin and RECEIVE forgiveness from that person?
Dear friends, don’t miss seeing the face of God, because you choose to hang on to the bitterness of the past. Let it go. Give it all to God, and with His help, make things right with each other. If you’re looking for the face of God, look for the face of forgiveness. Then 2nd, if you’re looking for the face of God…
LOOK FOR THE FACE OF FAVOR.
Notice the smile of grace. See the countenance of undeserved kindness and love. That’s what Jacob saw when he saw the face of God. He saw the face of favor in his brother.
Genesis 33:8 Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company that I met?” Jacob answered, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.” (ESV)
Jacob is looking for “favor” from his brother. It’s the Old Testament word for grace, which means undeserved kindness and love. Jacob had tried to buy Esau’s favor by sending him droves and droves of animals – sheep, goats, cows, donkeys and camels – more than 580 of them in all! (Genesis 32:13-21).
Genesis 33:9-10 But Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.” Jacob said, “No, please, if I have found favor in your sight, then accept my present from my hand. For I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me. (ESV)
Three times in these three verses, some form of the word “favor” has been used, because when Jacob saw the face of God, he saw the face of favor in his brother, Esau. Esau accepted Jacob unconditionally, even though Jacob had cheated him out of his birthright and the family blessing. Now, Jacob no longer feels the need to buy Esau’s favor. Instead, he wants to give, because he already has Esau’s favor.
Genesis 33:11 Please accept my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” Thus he urged him, and he took it. (ESV)
Jacob said, “God has dealt graciously with me,” and “I have enough.” Literally, “I have ALL!” In verse 9, Esau said he had “enough,” using a different Hebrew word. Here, Jacob says He has ALL! Jacob had the whole. He was complete, because he had experienced God’s grace.
When Jacob saw the face of God, he saw the face of favor in his brother, and that’s what you will see, as well. When God shows up, you will see brothers and sisters in his family accepting one another unconditionally. You will see brothers and sisters extending grace towards one another, even as God extended grace towards each of us.
Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (NIV)
Not WHILE we were good. Not AFTER we had earned his love. NO! While we were STILL SINNERS, Christ died for us. You can’t buy God’s favor, but now that you have it through faith in Christ, you can’t help but give back to God; you can’t help but be generous, because you have ALL you need in Him. He makes you complete. He makes you whole because of His grace.
B.J. Miller was a sophomore at Princeton when, one Monday night in November 1990, he and two friends slipped out for drinks and then decided to climb a commuter train parked at the adjacent rail station, for fun. When Miller got to the top, electrical current arced out of a piece of equipment into the watch on his wrist. Eleven-thousand volts shot through his left arm and down his legs. When his friends reached him on the roof of the train, smoke was rising from his feet.
Miller remembers none of this. His memories don't kick in until several days later, when he woke up in the burn unit of St. Barnabas Medical Center, in Livingston, N.J. Doctors took each leg just below the knee, one at a time. Then they turned to his arm, which triggered in Miller an even deeper grief. For weeks, the hospital staff considered him close to death. But Miller, in a devastated haze, didn't know that. He only worried about who he would be when he survived. For a long time, no visitors were allowed in his hospital room; the burn unit was a sterile environment.
But on the morning Miller's arm was going to be amputated, just below the elbow, he describes a moving scene of support and grace from his community of friends: a dozen friends and family members packed into a 10-foot-long corridor between the burn unit and the elevator, just to catch a glimpse of him as he was rolled to surgery. “They all dared to show up,” Miller later said. “They all dared to look at me. They were proving that I was lovable even when I couldn't see it.” (Jon Mooallem, “One Man's Quest to Change the Way We Die,” The New York Times Magazine, 1-3-17; www.PreachingToday.com)
Today, B. J. Miller is a doctor at the University of California Health in San Francisco. He specializes in hospice and palliative care, treating hospitalized patients with terminal or life-altering illnesses.
That’s the power of grace, my friends! It makes people whole. First, receive God’s grace for yourself. Then demonstrate that grace to others.
If you’re looking for the face of God in your life, 1st, look for the face of forgiveness; 2nd, look for the face of favor; and finally…
LOOK FOR THE FACE OF FELLOWSHIP.
See the face of God in the face of a brother wanting to walk with you. Notice God’s face in the face of a sister wanting to share her life with you.
That’s what Jacob saw when he saw the face of God. He saw Esau, his brother, wanting to walk with him.
Genesis 33:12-16 Then Esau said, “Let us journey on our way, and I will go ahead of you.” But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail, and that the nursing flocks and herds are a care to me. If they are driven hard for one day, all the flocks will die. Let my lord pass on ahead of his servant, and I will lead on slowly, at the pace of the livestock that are ahead of me and at the pace of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir.” So Esau said, “Let me leave with you some of the people who are with me.” But he said, “What need is there? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.” So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. [That’s about 100 miles south.] But Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built himself a house and made booths for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth. (ESV)
That’s north. Esau wants to renew the relationship with Jacob; but sadly, Jacob has no intention of renewing his relationship with Esau. He goes in the exact opposite direction and builds a house for himself and shelters for his livestock. These are no temporary dwellings; they are permanent. Jacob plans on staying in Succoth for a while. He has no intention of meeting his brother in Seir, not soon anyway and maybe never.
It’s sad, because Jacob not only misses out on an opportunity for fellowship with his brother, he misses out on an opportunity for fellowship with God Himself. God had invited Jacob to go back home, but Jacob goes to another place, and it leads to a world of hurt in his family, as we shall see in the next chapter. His daughter is raped. His sons become murderers, and Jacob is disgraced.
Jacob saw the face of God in his brother wanting to have fellowship with him, but he turned away from that relationship and suffered as a result.
Dear friends, don’t you do the same. If you’re looking for the face of God in your life, see it in the face of your brothers and sisters in Christ wanting fellowship with you. See it in the face of your fellow Christians wanting to walk with you through life’s journey. Please, don’t turn away from them away like Jacob did.
Hebrews 10:25 says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (NIV)
My dear friends, we desperately need each other on life’s journey, especially in these last days before Jesus comes. Please, don’t hurt yourself by walking away from that fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Instead, in the fellowship of believers, see the face of God Himself and enjoy fellowship with Him.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn was the great Russian writer who spent years in a Siberian prison. At one point he become so completely discouraged that he decided to give up and die. His plan was to stop working out in the field, to lean on his shovel, and wait for the guards to come and beat him to death. However, when he stopped, another prisoner reached over with his shovel and quickly drew a cross at his feet, then erased it before a guard could see it.
Solzhenitsyn later said that his entire being was energized by that little reminder of the hope and courage we have in Christ. He found the strength to continue, because a fellow believer cared enough to remind him of our hope (Raymond McHenry, McHenry's Quips, Quotes and Other Notes, Hendrickson Publishers, 1990, p. 78; www.PreachingToday.com)
In difficult times, we need each other. So don’t try to go it alone. Don’t walk away like Jacob did. Instead, stay close to the fellowship of believers, and there you WILL see the face of God.
If you’re looking for the face of God in your life, look for it in the face of forgiveness on your brother; look for it in the face of favor on your sister; and look for it in the face of fellowship with your brothers in sisters in Christ.
I am loved, I am loved, I can risk loving you
For the One who knows me best loves me most.
I am loved, you are loved – Won’t you please take my hand?
We are free to love each other – we are loved. (William J. and Gloria Gaither)
The face of God is the face of love in each other. Please, don’t miss seeing it today.
