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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/frank-sona/seeing-jesus/
The gospel of John, chapter 12, please. The gospel of John, chapter 12. I want to look at the heart of really what we're hearing and the core of all doctrine and truth. John, chapter 12. John's gospel is centered upon the truth of seeing, seeing.
John emphasizes that over and over again. And even in his epistle, he does that as well. In 1 John, as we were noticing in the area studies. John, chapter 12, in verse 20, and there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast.
The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him saying, sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew. And again, Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them saying, the hour has come that the son of man should be glorified.
That's all we'll read for now. Four words were uttered in 1922. It was in the Royal Valley in Egypt. And there was an eminent world-renowned archeologist at that time named Dr. Howard Carter. Dr. Carter was with an associate and they had spent six years digging and excavation looking in the Royal Valley.
And one of the most amazing discoveries in terms of archeology was made at that time. Peering into the darkness, he looked through, the associate looked through and Dr. Carter was right behind him and he says, do you see anything?
Do you see anything? Well, what he saw inside that, that dig, that excavation point was all kinds of gold and animals and chests and cobras and daggers and jewels and a hand-carved coffin of a boy king.
More than 3 ,000 objects in all that Carter would take the next 10 years to catalog and remove. Do you see anything? Must have been tremendous to see that gold and the glistening and the value of what they discovered there.
Well, those are all relics of a dead king. I hope that Dr. Carter at some point in his life got to see the great treasure of the king of kings, a living king, because that sight would eclipse anything he saw that day in the Royal Valley.
I want to ask everybody here, the question was even asked last week at Stout and I was listening and it caused me to think of this passage. What are we looking for in this world? What are you focusing your attention on, your pursuits on?
What are you looking for? When we come to this passage, it's very, very interesting because here are Gentiles and they come and they are looking. Sirs, we would see Jesus. Was that why you came to this conference?
Is that who you're looking for? We would see Jesus. In the measure that we see him, it will move us, it will motivate us, it will mold us, it will make us. It is what God delights in, in seeing his son.
This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. The Old Testament passages of Isaiah and those servant songs and how God emphasizes over and over again, behold my servant, behold, God delights to see his son.
The father loveth the son and hath put all things into his hands and what God delights and desires in is to see his son manifested through us and in us. That's what his desire is when it comes to our personal lives.
That's what his desire is when it comes to the local assembly. When it comes to the local assembly, as we've been hearing, house of God, it is not simply a house, it's house of God. And the emphasis even prior to that in the book of Genesis is very interesting when Moses writes of El Bethel, the God of the house of God.
That is what gives character to the assembly. That is what gives value to our lives. One has said, I think it might have been Spurgeon, what gives value to our lives is our connection to Christ, our association with him.
And as I look at this, I was thinking about these men coming. Very interesting point in the book, in the Gospel of John, when these men come and who they are. Because it's interesting, we live in a blinded world for the sinner.
The God of this age has blinded the minds of them that believe not. But sadly, we also live in a blinding world for the saint. And we are often blinded by things that capture our attention, our affection.
We turn away. Paul was reminding the Corinthians of that even in his second letter as he says he's concerned about them, that they should be turned away. That they should, their affections, their loyalty, their devotion, their fidelity to Christ.
I have espoused you as a chaste virgin to Christ. And he was concerned that their focus, their looking had been turned away. I want to ask everybody here because I ask myself, is our focus being turned away by a world in various aspects that is causing us to be blinded to the true beauty of Christ?
As I read this passage, this account is only given in John's Gospel. It's interesting that when you come to Matthew's Gospel, some of the first people that come to see the Lord Jesus are Gentiles, the wise men.
When you come to John's Gospel, some of the last people that come to see him are these Gentiles. We really, in fact it's interesting if you go right to the chapter or the passage before, there are the chief priests.
And you know what they're saying? They're upset and they're saying the whole world has gone after him. And that was kind of true in a way. But with the Gentile influence. But the whole world was going after him because John's Gospel tells us that he came after the whole world.
God so loved the world. And so these people come. We're not told much about them. They were Greeks. We don't really know if they were proselytes or were they God-fearers. They were likely God-fearers because it's unlikely that they would simply be called Greeks if they were in fact full members of the Jewish religion.
And we are told that they came to worship at the feast. And yet they come to Philip. And they say, sirs, we would see Jesus. And we don't really know the reason why. But perhaps it was like the Ethiopian who we would put in the same classification.
And similarly, that they were no doubt dissatisfied with the multiplication of gods and the lifestyle that they had had from their pagan lifestyle. And now they're coming to the feast and they're coming to worship.
And now they're moving in that sphere of Judaism. And neither one could satisfy. That they wanted something more and in a good way. And in a way, they were no doubt repelled possibly by the Jewish ritual, by the requirements, circumcision, food, diet, et cetera.
And now they get the core of the matter. We would, we want to see Jesus. Now that idea in that, as John so often presents, is more than just sight. They didn't want to just, we'd like to see him. We've heard he's some kind of a celebrity.
Where is he? Could you show? If that were the point, they could have simply waited when he passed by. No, they wanted something more. They wanted something deeper. They wanted more. They wanted to talk.
They wanted to benefit from him. They wanted to hear him, to see him. Can I ask you, is that on our lives? Is that that level of intimacy, of desire that captures our hearts? We've been hearing our brother has said about meditation and the word of God.
Not a skimming of the surface, but a deepening of study, spending time meditating, chewing on, dwelling on, thinking on the word of God that Christ could be formed in us. Of beholding him is our desire.
We would see Jesus. These men, they come to Philip. That's interesting. Not sure why. We're not really told why. Perhaps his Greek name had something to do with it. Andrew is also a Greek name. And so they come.
And it's interesting that they talk to Philip and Philip, he just was unable to handle it. And so what does he do? He listens to them and he goes and gets Andrew. Andrew is obviously the more qualified of the two.
Andrew was the one that was more comfortable seeing him. You know what's interesting? Can I ask you something? How comfortable are you telling others about Christ? How at home are you? I'm not saying, now Philip was obviously a disciple, but for some reason he goes and gets Andrew and they go to the Lord Jesus.
You know, when you look at Andrew and you look at Philip, Philip was not always the most resourceful of the disciples. But when you come to Andrew, Andrew is the bridge builder. Andrew's the one we read of right in the beginning of this, he first findeth his brother, Peter.
Andrew was the man who went to get the little lad with the lunch. And Andrew was the one in Mark 13 who specifically asked the Lord Jesus at the Last Supper about the prophecy of the destruction of the temple with others.
What's going to happen? These people, Andrew was the one that seemed to be the one that was concerned about the people. He was approachable. He was able to communicate, he was a bridge builder. Can I ask you younger ones in here in school, how comfortable are you with really sharing Christ?
Older ones here, how welcoming are we? Do we really reflect Christ? Are we comfortable doing that? I wanna know something else, and this is just a historical fact, it's not a biblical fact, but it's interesting that while these men came who were Greeks, it could have very well been, could have been, that these men who were steeped in Judaism, even though they were Greek names, Philip would have been a little bit, and you hardly see in the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus really going beyond Palestine.
John chapter four, there is that interaction with the woman at the well, the woman of Samaria. But by and large, these men would have been a little hesitant because here are foreigners, they are Gentiles, they are not, we don't really have dealings with them.
I just wonder, just as a practical note, you have Gospel meetings, you have tent meetings, how welcoming do you make people feel who may come into those meetings who are outsiders? How embracive are we, how thankful?
Do we talk to them, do we meet them? I can't tell you how many meetings I've had where the Christians are looking at people who come in and they're like, hey, there's someone new, there's someone, I wonder who they are, I wonder where they're from.
Well, go find out, talk to them, tell them, hey, we're glad to see you. You know, I've even thought sometimes, and again, I had no intention of saying this, but even on a Sunday morning where there are those perhaps that come in from an area and they are in the seat of the unlearned, and brethren, I would also recommend to have men at the door.
You know, there are assemblies where I'm surprised there's no man at the door, and you know, that's a twofold reason, you're not just guarding the table. But you're also there to welcome people in. And I've been in assemblies where there are people that have come to visit, and they sit there, and they don't know what it's expecting, and you know what, it's a nice thing, I've really appreciated where men have got up at the end of that meeting, and they made an announcement, and they've said, and we would like to welcome those who are sitting here looking on.
Thank you for coming. Philip wasn't just that comfortable, and he handed it over to Andrew. But you know what I think is very interesting? Tradition says that Andrew died by crucifixion in the city of Patras, Greece.
He went to where the Greeks came from. Very interesting. Scripturally, just make a comment about this statement here. We would see Jesus in the word of God. This is the one great place we see the Lord Jesus, and the tools are given to us as the word of God makes him known.
So again, before I leave this, how much time do you spend in the word of God? You wanna know how to live for the Lord Jesus? You wanna know how to serve him? You wanna know how to mirror him, how to reflect him in your life?
Where are you going to find that out? From the word of God. You're going to find out what his interests were, what his characteristics are, what his habits were. You will begin right from the days of his public ministry, as his custom was.
And we read that he not only went into the synagogue, he opened up the scroll so that there was attendance at meeting. There was the desire for the word of God. The psalmist said it prophetically, oh, how I love thy law.
And there was a great desire for the word of God. In fact, so much so that in that same passage, I believe in the Psalms, he says, rivers of water run down mine eyes because they keep not thy law. That there was such a longing for others that they would come to love this law that he loved, to love him, to know him, scripturally.
Personally, we've looked at that. God delights at his son, in his son. But I wanna just cover three things as I move on very quickly. Sometimes people are unable, unable to see the Lord Jesus. Now there are reasons why we can have good eyesight.
You need good eyesight to see. And in having good eyesight in seeing Christ, it is going to require a deep intimacy. It's going to require not just a willingness of attitude, that's where it starts, but it's going to require action as well.
It's not just attitude, it's action. You are going to have to take steps to make sure that you have good eyesight. You are going to have to have confession of sin, a clean life. The old preachers used to say, keep short accounts with God.
Well, you know what's even better than that? Keep no accounts with God. When anything comes up on the ledger, just confess it, get in the presence of God. Cultivating love, forgiveness, humility. Service for others.
God will look at your life and he will see Christ in that life when you take on servant character. Mark's gospel is full of it. You know what the problem is? We want everybody to serve us. We live in a world that is teaching enablement.
You deserve this, don't let people step on you. And when they do step on you, don't let it ever happen again. How I think of the Lord Jesus. He served, the servant king, washing the disciples' feet, caring for others.
Do you, can I ask each one here? And I ask myself, because in preparing for this message, I had to look up these things and I asked myself, how am I characteristic in these things? Do you serve others?
Do you have that lowly character? Do you have that humility? How about prayer? How much time do we actually spend praying for others? That is Christ-like. That we see the Lord Jesus going out to pray all alone.
John, this gospel, isn't it amazing? The gospel of the Son of God in his deity tells us so much about the prayer of the Lord Jesus. We read that every man went to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives and telling others of Christ.
And if we don't do those things and if there's not that reading and that willingness and that desire and that service, then our eyesight will be affected and we will be unable to see him. Self, self. That does fill our eyes, doesn't it?
To be not only unable, but how about unwilling? I know there's a wide variety of people here today and I just wanna, I just wanna be very clear on this one. We cannot display Christ. We will not see Jesus if we are full of self.
And you understand when I say that about seeing Jesus, I am not being irreverent, I am simply quoting the passage. I know he is the Lord Jesus. But we are looking at him in the measure of how he moved amongst men here.
Living a life of self will take away our ability. And I just mentioned a number of things. I mentioned unconfessed sin, I mentioned hardened heart. Stubborn hearts become hard hearts. Harboring hatred, bitterness, lack of forgiveness.
They're all blinders. Pride and self-sufficiency, leaning through life, going through avenues and aspects of experiences in life and leaning toward my own understanding and my own guidance, seeking self-preservation so much and one man upsmanship and what I want out of this rather than seeking the will and the word of God as to what does he want for me.
Lack of faith. You know what a lack of faith is? A lack of faith isn't basically saying I don't believe God. A lack of faith is failing to respond to what God has said and acting on it. That's a lack of faith.
Self-sufficiency is the exact opposite. How about, how about idolatry? Anybody putting something, let me ask, sisters, are you putting anything before Christ as Lord? Brothers, idolatry in our lives.
You know, I can't tell you how many times I've seen little, little, little gods in the hands of people. They're called cell phones. The majority of time, I've even seen people doing it in meeting, in the breaking of bread.
And you can see sometimes, they're texting people. That has become your God. That has displaced the true God. Anything that has priority over God is an idol. What about contentment with my spiritual state?
Do you know if you are content where you are, spiritually, you will not see the Lord Jesus. How about compromising and people-pleasing? Seeking the approval of others. Seeking the applause of others.
Doing things that, because you know that, that will get you the approval of people. Even if it means compromise in the things of God. Friendship with the world. These are things that affect all of us, and they will blind us to being able to see Christ.
Personal pleasure, the deceitfulness of riches, ambition, friendship with the world, and worldly friendships, rather than spiritual friends. Friends that will take you away. Moving in areas and arenas where you will join in with them in things that you know better than.
And if you don't know better, you can find out what is the best by reading the word of God. And then there's even times where, as far as in our lives, God's legalism and reliance on tradition can actually lock a person into the past, and it will take away our vision of even a new work that God wants us to do in accordance with his will and word at the present.
There are other reasons. Just turn with me for a few final moments. I want you to go to John chapter 20. The hymn that we just sang gave me a little encouragement in this subject. John chapter 20, and we're gonna read about a woman who did not see Jesus.
Well, she wanted to, but things came in and affected that vision. John chapter 20, the first day of the week, verse one, cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher.
Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved. There's a wonderful note in that, and I'll get to that in a moment. Verse 11, they leave, they go, but Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping, and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher and seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain, and they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?
She saith unto them, because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? You ever wonder where the angels get their words what to say? Right from, they only say what they have authority to say, and they said exactly the same thing that the Lord Jesus said.
Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She supposing him to be the gardener saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary, she turned herself and saith unto him, Rabboni, which is to say, Master.
I've touched on things that are of self-will and so on that will cloud our vision and affect our sight. But I want to notice a few things just very quickly on another note. Storms. Sometimes we don't see Jesus because of storms.
They come out of nowhere. They appear suddenly. We're not expecting them. Our eyesight has been affected by debris, by winds, heavy winds. Naturally occurring conditions that are magnified, blinding, and they affect our eyesight so that we may even see something else.
That's exactly what happened here. Part of it, at least. When the disciples were on the boat, you remember that they were in the middle of a storm. The storm came up quickly on the Sea of Galilee. And when he came by, it says, they supposed he was a phantom.
So that they saw something, but they didn't see correctly. They assumed the wrong thing, even though it was him. It was in a storm. It affected their eyesight. Brother or sister, there are storms that come up on us at times.
We do not expect them. Debris is flying. Conditions around us are affecting us. And we have our eyesight affected. And it wasn't until he gave them his word that they recognized him. Be not afraid, it is I.
Literally what he's saying there in the Greek is ego, I me. What that simply means is this. I am. I am. And in the storm, when he gave them his word, that's when they saw. Sometimes we go through things like that.
I think there might be people here going through a little bit of a storm. Don't lose sight of him. Don't let the debris, don't let the suddenness, the unexpectedness, because it's not unexpected to him.
He knows exactly what would come, when would come, and he is there. And most importantly, he wants you to see him, not the storm. One more thing, John chapter 20, the shadows. Here is a woman. She comes and it says it was early, it was dark, yet dark, the shadows.
That affects our sight. It was dark, she was alone at this point. Now we do know from the other gospels that there were other women that joined her and they came with spices. But at this point, she is alone and it is dark.
We are living in dark days right now. I wonder, I think sometimes some of our night vision has been affected. We need, you ever see these soldiers, they've got these night vision goggles. They can see clearly in the dark, right?
Has your night vision been affected? The darkness of life, what's going on around you? And you're not seeing Jesus, you're not seeing the Lord. You're missing out. And maybe even when it comes to these shadows that sometimes we don't have enough light, it's dark.
Well, where do you go? The word of God, the entrance of thy words giveth light. He had told them, he had given them his word. I'm going to suffer many things. I will rise again the third day. And they just had forgotten the word.
And now she's dark, something else, she's alone. Can I encourage you? Surround yourself with spiritual believers. Friendship will affect your life and you will affect others. You know what? It's just, it touched my heart to see here that it's interesting, she runs to Peter.
Peter had denied the Lord three times, three times. And yet she still went to him first. I think it's a testimony to Peter's approachability and care. And clearly the followers of the Lord Jesus at this time still regarded him as the leader of the little band.
And the fact that John was willing to go with Peter shows that John didn't cut him off for denying the Lord. I think sometimes we're pretty quick to cut people off. And sometimes when people are going through storms and they see shadows, we need to help them.
Brother John McCandless were talking about people who leave the assembly and how do we get them back? How do we let them know? How do we, how about people who get away from God? Restoration, a great subject that's needed to be spoken on.
A great need among us. Mary was in darkness and she was alone. Sorrows, she's weeping. Tears clouded her vision. She sees two angels and it has virtually no effect. That's how clouded she is. She's looking and she sees angel.
How would you react if you saw an angel? Well, I know how I would react if I was seeking only him, then they wouldn't matter much. But if I wasn't seeking him, I'd be pretty happy with a few supernatural events.
What are you looking for? Are you looking for him? She wasn't going to stop. The tears are clouding her vision and the angels speak to her. I was thinking of this as she hears what is going to turn her, his voice.
You know what's touching here? You can't get it from the English. But when the Lord Jesus, the New Testament, we know it was written in Greek, the Koine language, the common Greek language of the day.
But when Jesus speaks to Mary here, he actually calls her by her Aramaic name. He calls her and he says, Miriam, he calls her by name and she turns. And in the midst of the tears and in the midst of the cloudy vision, she knows immediately who he is.
Don't let sorrows, don't let shadows, don't let storms cloud your vision of seeing Jesus. Sirs, we would see Jesus. I'll close with, it's interesting in the darkness of things, we often lose sight. There was an account, I remember reading about it.
It was actually in a black church and a black congregation and I think it was down South somewhere and there was a young minister and he was preaching and as he was preaching, all of a sudden, the power went out and the lights went out and it went dark, whole building went dark.
And the young minister, he stopped in the middle of his message. He just stopped preaching. I think it was one of the men and one of the deacons in the back, he says, preach on, brother. He said, we can still see Jesus in the dark, like that.
And he called him out to do that. You can still see Jesus in the dark. We want the lights on. But the time we miss and may lose is when the storms come, when the shadows are there, when suffering and sorrows come in, when there's discouragement, when there's debris flying, when there's upheaval, it's easy.
This conference began, and I even think about that in relation to the assembly, if you lose sight of him in that assembly that you're in, that's the whole reason that assembly exists, is so that God can see his son and the reverence that we have and the obedience to him and the worship for him in testimony to God about his son.
And it's a witness to the world around. The only attractive thing, please don't miss this, because there are people we're trying to, at times trying to spruce up things and trying to jumpstart what people view as something that might be dead.
The only attractive thing about a New Testament assembly is Christ. You take Christ away, you've taken out the very heart, the very reason, and all the other things that people try to add so that people will see something that they want to see.
But if they don't wanna see Christ, and if they don't see Christ, that's our fault. Because we have to bring Christ by participation, by obedience, by submission, by the word of God being honored. My brother said just recently, prior, we keep the word of God, we keep the word of God.
Let me ask you, does every assembly here, do you keep the whole word? Or do you pick and choose what you wanna pick? There are times when assemblies, they know that they're not doing the word of God. But they're afraid that people will be upset.
They're afraid that maybe people will leave or they'll upset a family, or they'll upset certain individuals. And so nothing is said about that. But we will pride ourselves on the fact that we keep the word of God.
That's not keeping the whole word. That's not making sure that people can come and say, we see Jesus. It's interesting that that statement was made to end Corinth, about a man who came in chapter 14. To Corinth, it says, and falling down on his face, he will worship, he will report, he will communicate, he will see and bring that report to others that God is among you of a truth.
We need a lift. Yeah, that's how this conference began. We need a lift. There was a young boy and he was sitting on a curb one day. A parade was going by and he could hear it. He heard the sounds, he heard the marching, but he couldn't see from where he was sitting at that curb.
So he pulled on his father's coattail and he pulled and he'd tell him, I can't see, I can't see. And so his dad reached down and lifted him up and the boy looked on and he says, now I can see. We need a lift, but we need to be lifted up above.
Above the crowd, above this world, above the debris, above the circumstances, above the competition that we think is out there and we need to rise above because that's where God wants to bring us. He wants to bring you, he wants to bring me, he has his company above.
That's why it was in a large upper room picture. God does not want us at ground level just like the rest of the world around us. There's separation from and separation to and a desire that not only will God see his son in us and in companies of God's people, but that we too will be able to see Jesus and that is our desire and the desire of others, hopefully and prayerfully, who will come and see Christ in the midst of us and his people.