We Want to See Jesus -- 7/11/10

Sunday, June 11, 2010 Baptism: Emmet

WE WANT TO SEE JESUS

“We want to see Jesus.” That’s what some people once said to one of Jesus’ apostles. “We want to see Jesus.” Would you say those people were on the right track? These people were not Jews, but Greeks. They didn’t live in Jerusalem, but they had come up to the temple in Jerusalem to worship at the Passover feast. No doubt, they had heard about Jesus, because most everyone was talking about Him. They had heard enough that they wanted to meet Jesus. Surely they were talking about more than just laying their eyes on Jesus, when they said, “We want to see Jesus.” They wanted to meet Him. I imagine they desired to ask Him some questions. In short, they wanted to know more about this Jesus who was causing such a stir.

Here’s my question for you this morning: Do you want to see Jesus? Do you want to learn more about Him? So let’s talk about Jesus. Young ones, what do you know about Jesus.

Who Is Jesus?

Jesus is God and man. John 1:1-2,14… "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2. The same was in the beginning with God… And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." Where did Jesus come from? He has always been, even from the beginning. Jesus is the Word because He reveals God the Father, just as your words reveal who you are. And we read in verse 14 that this Word, Jesus, became flesh. That is, He became a man. We won’t take time to look at it this morning, but the fact that Jesus is truly a man is emphasized in the book of Hebrews (see esp. 2:14-17). So understand that Jesus is fully God and fully man.

Are you both God and man? No. Jesus is different than us. What are you? We are all human beings, but we are not God, and we will never be God. God is the Creator; we are His creatures. He made the heavens and the earth, and He made us.

Question: Did God make Jesus? No. As a matter of fact, God the Father made everything He made through Jesus. Let’s read again John 1:1-3, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2. The same was in the beginning with God. 3. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." You might say that Jesus helped His Father make all things. Jesus is the agent of creation. When God made man, He did it through Jesus.

What Did Jesus Do?

So we have considered who Jesus is, but now let’s ask this question: What did Jesus do? Name some things that Jesus did. [Taught, healed, cast out demons, raised the dead; calmed the storm, walked on the water, fed 5,000; went home with Zachhaeus, called the Pharisees a bunch of hypocrites, etc.]

We could go on and on, but let me ask you another question: Why did Jesus do all those things? Let’s answer that question by reading some verses from the Gospel of John.

John 4:34… "Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work."

John 5:19… "Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."

John 8:28-29… "Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. 29. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him."

John 17:4… "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do."

Jesus healed the sick because that is what God His Father wanted Him to do. He taught the truth to the crowds of people because that pleased His Father. He raised Lazarus up from the grace because that was part of His Father’s will and it brought Him glory. Jesus only did what the Father wanted Him to do.

So what about sin in Jesus’ life? Did Jesus ever do anything wrong? There was no sin. He was perfectly in tune with His Father. Was Jesus tempted? Yes, He was tempted in every way that we are tempted, but He never sinned.

Are you like Jesus? Have you always pleased God the Father? have you always done what God wanted you to do? No. So what have we done? Is. 53:6, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way…" Rom. 3:10-12, "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Jesus pleased His Father. When we come into this world, whom do we please? Ourselves. That’s why no one has to teach a little kid how to say “I, my, mine.” Those words are a huge part of his vocabulary from the time he can talk.

What Was the Hardest Thing Jesus Did?

Back to Jesus now. What is the most difficult thing the Father gave Jesus to do? Yes, to die on the cross. What was that so hard? Was it the whipping they gave Jesus before they put Him on the cross? Was it the pain from the nails they drove in His hands and feet? Was it hanging there trying to get enough air to breathe? What was the most difficult thing out the cross?

Think about a time when you disobeyed your parents, or when you let a friend down, or when you thought ungodly thoughts in your mind. How did you feel? Something the guilt is almost unbearable, isn’t it? When you told your mom or dad what you had done, you felt so much better. Now take that one thing you did and add t it every other bad thing you have ever done. On top of that, throw in all the bad thoughts that have run through your mind. How does that make you feel? Add to that all of the bad things I have ever done and thought... and _______.... (name a few others). Multiply that by millions. You are beginning to see what it was like for Jesus on that cross.

Why is that? Because all of our iniquities (our sins) were laid on Jesus. Jesus, who never once did anything wrong became sin for us. He had no sins of His own, but He took all of my sins on Himself. No one else has ever done that. We have sinned and sinned and sinned; Jesus went to the cross to die for those sins.

But why would Jesus do that? To answer that, I have to ask you a question. Does sin have to be punished? Which sins? Every sin must be punished, because God is a holy God and He can’t let anyone close to Him unless his sin has been punished and removed from him. Think about it. Every single sin you have ever committed must be punished.

What does the Bible say about the wages of sin? The Bible says that sin earns a wage. Does anyone know a verse about that? “For the wages of sin is death…” (Rom. 6:23a). This is more than physical death. Adam sinned against God and he earned death. When he ate the fruit, he was cut off from God and eventually he would die physically as well. And if something wasn’t done, he would be dead forever. Death has three parts. We are dead spiritually when we are born into this world. That simply means we are cut off from God. At some point we will die physically. And then God punishes our sins by cutting us off from Him forever. That’s what hell is all about. It’s a place of forever punishment.

But can’t something be done? 1 John 4:9-10, "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice to take away our punishment. That’s what propitiation means -- a wrath-removing sacrifice. When Jesus went to the cross, He took my punishment. That’s why the cross was the hardest thing for Him.

Let me put it another way. Jesus was my substitute. Do you know what a substitute is? A substitute is someone who stands in for another. We know about a “substitute teacher.” If the regular teacher is sick and can’t teach, he has a substitute who teaches for him.

Consider the Passover. You remember that God’s people Israel were slaves in Egypt. God sent Moses to lead them out, but there was none problem, and the problem was named PHARAOH. When Moses said, “Let my people go,” Pharaoh said _____ (NO). So what did God do to persuade Pharaoh to change his mind? He sent plagues. Let’s deal with the first nine. Name a couple (blood, frogs, hail, gnats, boils, darkness, etc.). Did those plagues change Pharaoh’s mind? Well, more than once he agreed to let the people go, if God would take away the plague. But when the plague was gone, Pharaoh would change his mind and refuse to let the people go. Finally, the Lord sent the last plague.

Let’s talk about that last plague. God said that every firstborn in Egypt would die, unless something was done. What was that something? They were to take a lamb, a perfect lamb, and kill it (each family). Then they were told to take the blood of that lamb and smear it above the door and on the sides of the door. At midnight there was the death of the firstborn in every house in all Egypt, except the houses where the blood had been applied to the door. At those houses, death passed over them. That is where we get the term “Passover,” because death passed over. And the lamb whose blood was smeared above and on the sides of the door was called the Passover Lamb.

Now what does the Passover have to do with Jesus? When John the Baptist saw Jesus, what did he say to his own disciples? “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). Remember that every sinner is sentenced to death, both physical death and eternal death. Those Passover Lambs were pictures of Jesus. Was Jesus killed? Yes. His blood was spilled, just like the blood of those Passover lambs. Those lambs had to be perfect. Was Jesus perfect? Yes, He was absolutely perfect in every way. Those Passover Lambs were sacrificed. They were laid on an altar and killed. They were the substitutes for those firstborn who should have died. The firstborn didn’t die, because the lamb died in his place. Jesus is our substitute. You should have died on that cross. You deserved to be punished for your sins. But Jesus went to the cross instead. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us (II Cor. 5:21). My sins were on Jesus. God did not overlook my sins; He punished them. How? All of His punishment for my sins fell on Jesus at the cross.

Don’t ever forget this. Jesus bore terrible physical pain at the cross, but the pain for bearing sins was a million times worse. Other people have borne physical pain equal to what Jesus bore, but no other person has ever taken the full punishment of God for the sins of others. That’s what Jesus did.

Is There Some Other Way?

As we look at Jesus, what do we learn about ourselves? We learn that we are not like Him. We come to understand that we are wicked. Jesus pleased His Father; we have pleased ourselves. We are selfish, rebellious, wicked people. It’s not so much about how bad each sin is. Rather, the problem is that we want to do what we want to do instead of what God wants us to do. That’s why we deserve God’s punishment.

We have seen again that Jesus came into this world, lived a life that pleased His Father, and then went to the death as our substitute to take the punishment for our sins. But let me ask you a question: Isn’t there some other way? Couldn’t I be forgiven without Jesus dying on the cross? What about people who believe in other religions? Will they be made right with God and go to heaven to live with Him?

What did Jesus say about the way to the Father? “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). There is no other way. Do you think God would have sent His Son to the cross, if there was some other way for us to be made right with Him?

How sad it is when we try to find other ways to come to God other than through Jesus. We can try to act better and not do bad things. We can go to church, and read the Bible, and pray. Those are good things, but they won’t fix our sin problem. Rom. 3:20, "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Do you know what that means? It means that you cannot fix your sin problem by trying to keep God’s commandments. It is impossible. Then why did God give us His commandments? “For by the law is the knowledge of sin.” In other words, when we try to keep God’s commandments and fail, we realize how far short we fall. We don’t even come close to keeping His commandents.

So What Must We Do?

Jesus put it like this in Mark 1:15 "… The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel." Repent and believe. Repent. Give up on your belief that maybe everything will be all right if you just live a pretty good life. Change your mind about that. Forsake any hope that you can get good enough for God. Give up on yourself completely. Hate your sin, which has offended the God who made you. You have rebelled against God. Understand that you fully deserve God’s punishment. Long to be done with sin and to please God.

Believe. Repentance and belief are like two sides of the same coin. If you give up on yourself, then whom will you trust? There is a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Throw yourself on Him, the one who died in your place at the cross. Acknowledge that He is Lord and has every right to run your life. Rejoice in the truth that He and He alone can make you a new person. Say with Job, (loose paraphrase), “Even if He kills me, I will trust Him” (Job 13:15).