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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brandon-doll/watching-christ/
Matthew 27, we'll read at verse number 35. Matthew 27, verse 35,. And they crucified Him and parted His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets. They parted My garments among them, and upon My vesture did they cast lots.
And sitting down, they watched Him there. Over to the book of John, please. John chapter 20, we'll look at verse 24. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord.
But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them.
Then came Jesus to the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing.
And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God, Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. Book of Acts, please, in chapter 1.
Acts chapter 1, verse number 7. And he, that is the Lord Jesus, said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.
And ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Lord, bless to us the reading of his precious word. So I'd like to continue on a little bit with the theme and the thought of seeing him. It started the conference on Friday night as we were exhorted by our brother to look for him.
And throughout this conference, if you would have followed the theme, you could see it all the way through. I'd like to look just simply at watching him. More maybe than a glimpse, but a stare. That's what these dear people are doing.
When we come to Matthew in chapter 27, they have crucified him. The false accusations have come about. The fake trial has taken place. And the reality now of a cross, and a man upon a cross, and one who has suffered like none other, and there they are, the Romans, the soldiers, after they crucified him, they sat down and they watched him there.
They kept an eye on him. And no doubt there were others there that watched him. And I was thinking about it this morning early as they would sit and they would watch him there. What would they see? What would they see?
Put yourself there at the foot of the cross just for a moment. And sitting down, you're watching the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. You're watching the One who proved that He was the Son of God with power by the signs that He had done.
What would you see? You're a Roman soldier and you're keeping an eye on Him. You're going to see One who is altogether different. You're going to see One who, as He was being nailed to the cross, a One who was altogether unique in His response.
He was unique in His response to false accusations. He was unique in His response to the cruelty of men. He was unique in His response to the nailing of the hands and of the feet. He was unique in His lips.
And that He spoke no guile, and when He suffered, He threatened not. He was altogether unique to the Romans. Altogether unique. And they kept an eye on Him. If you would have been a malefactor, what would you see?
Remember, they're on either side. The Lord Jesus in the midst and there's these malefactors and they're reviling Him and they're railing on Him and they're blaspheming Him. And one man continues until we finally quit reading about him.
But there's another man, a malefactor, a guilty sinner. And he's keeping an eye on Him. Everything about the Savior would have caught his attention. And now finally the time comes and he realizes that he's getting what he deserved.
But the Savior has done nothing amiss and His countenance has changed and His attitude has changed. And what does he see in the Savior? And this will go along with our brother Larry's. He sees one. The only one who is absolutely trustworthy.
Do you realize when that malefactor placed his trust in the Lord Jesus? That he was placing his trust in a man to give him everlasting life who was dying the same death that he was dying? Would you do that?
He says, Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. He knew he was the Lord. He knew he was a king. Only kings have kingdoms. He knew he wasn't going to be there. And yet in his sin and his guilt and in his repentance, he understood this, that this man is absolutely trustworthy.
Do you believe that today? As you keep an eye on him, is he absolutely trustworthy? Is he worthy of your trust? He is. If you would have been a Jew there and you're keeping an eye on him, what do you see?
You see an imposter. You see a man who claimed to be the Son of God. Oh, they knew that he'd come from God, but he was not the Son of God to them. And you would observe the sufferings of Christ. And you would watch that man there and I can see those Pharisees and I can see those scribes and I can see those hypocrites.
And with every wince of pain and with every drop of sweat, they're thinking, yes, he's getting what he deserved. They esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. They knew that there was none who ever suffered like this man.
And they thought that they were wrong. They thought that he suffered for his own sins. They thought that he was afflicted for claiming to be the Son of God. And here are these Jews and they're watching this and they're getting pleasure out of the death of the Savior because he claimed to be the Son of God.
If you're a disciple, what do you see? You're keeping an eye on him. You're a disciple. You're a follower of the Lord Jesus. Now, you were a malefactor, one who was going to get what you deserve. And you found him trustworthy.
I don't think there's any Jews here today. They still think he got what he deserved. But what did the disciples see? You remember the women that followed him, weeping. There was none more lovely than the Savior.
Their hearts were drawn to Him. He had blessed them. He had healed some. He had helped them all. And they saw this man now suffering and nailed upon the cross. Their hearts went out to Him. I think of His mother.
And a sword pierced through her own soul also. I always wondered when did she realize that He died for her sin? Can you imagine being Mary and watching the Lord Jesus suffer and die upon the cross and knowing this, my sin nailed Him there?
Would have broken her heart. I hope it's broken yours. It was your sin that nailed Him there. What would they see? They would see one that was showing them how to love. If we're to be followers of Him, and we are.
If we're to be disciples of Him, and we are. We need to know some of these things. How is it that we're ever going to know how to love one another? Keeping an eye on Him. And there they would see this one there.
And Paul would say, the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. That wasn't unique with Him. It flows to us. And those there who knew Him and knew who He was. Or maybe learned who He was. He loved me.
By keeping an eye on Him, we'll know what it is to love and how to love one another. What else would we learn? Oh, we'd learn how to suffer, wouldn't we? There's none that have ever suffered like Him and you and I can expect to suffer, right?
We're associated with Him. The world hated Him. And the world hates us. And by watching Him, keeping an eye on Him, we'll learn how to suffer patiently. Sitting down, they watched Him there. What else does a disciple learn by watching Him?
Can you not see them there and they're watching this whole thing take place? They don't understand it, but they're soon going to understand it. And there they're looking at Him and they're learning what it is to love, what it is to suffer.
They're learning what it is to sacrifice. Sacrifice. He held nothing back. Absolutely nothing. He offered Himself without spot to God. And Paul says in Romans 12, to present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Where did he get that idea? Christ. Christ. So they watched Him there, the disciples. And then we come to John 20. And we've got Thomas. Thomas is an interesting disciple. I think more of us are like Thomas than we'd like to admit.
We can be hard on him and we call him Doubting Thomas. Well, I can say this much. If we were there and the one that we had put our trust in to be the Messiah, to be the Son of God, and now He's dead and He was upon a cross and now He was buried.
And if you can say that it wouldn't have rocked your world, I don't think you're being truthful. It would have rocked ours, wouldn't it? When things that we trust in, even in this lifetime, let us down.
They're the most devastating moments in our life. So let's understand Thomas like this. He's skeptical there. He's not sitting there. But he's skeptical. What is he going to learn now? With his personal encounter with the risen Christ.
He's going to learn what hope and expectation are. Hope and expectation. He says I'm not going to believe it unless I can see the prints in His nails and His hands and His side. Unless I can stick my finger in it.
Unless I can thrust my hand to His side. I've been fooled once. That's the idea. I'm not going to be fooled again. And as we think of those that were sitting there and the disciples there. Now they're in that upper room and then here comes the Savior and Thomas is there the second time.
And the Lord Jesus addresses him directly, personally. He said, Thomas, behold. Put your eye on it, Thomas. The nail prints in my hands. The spear print in my side. And what hope and what expectation did the resurrected Christ give to Thomas?
What did He say? My Lord and my God. My Lord and my God. And the one who just three days before was nailed upon the cross and then He was buried and now He's alive. And He's risen again from the dead.
And death couldn't hold Him. And the resurrected man is standing before Him, a real man. What hope does that give you today, believer? What expectation does that give you? The hope of resurrection. The expectation of the resurrection.
The full assurance that God is satisfied. There may be someone here and you're doubting and you're skeptical and you're lacking assurance. If you could stick your hand in His side, would it give you assurance?
He didn't have to. He just saw it. And the joy to me is this, that the Lord tells Him, blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. That's every one of us here. And the resurrected Christ and the hope and the expectation that that brings to the believer and all of the doubts and all of the discouragement, He's alive.
And now that He's alive and now that we've seen Him suffer and we've seen Him sacrifice and we've seen Him in agony and we look back and we put our eye on His whole entire life and everything that we could go through or will go through, He has gone through.
He has been there. He has gone through that. And He is able to comfort and to succor and to be an advocate, an intercessor, a high priest, a comfort to us. He's risen. But there's more than risen. We come now a few days later and they're standing there in Acts 1.
And the Lord gives them really some final instructions and some final words and they're standing there and He goes and He's taken back to heaven. Would have been a tremendous thing. I don't know if they ever saw Him fly before that.
It wasn't in a 747. They're standing there and up He goes and they watch Him go. Standing there. What would you do? I think I'd still be standing there. I do that with a healing balloon. I watch it till I can't see it anymore.
How would that affect you? Well, these two men in white apparel, they say, what are you standing here for? He's going to come again just as He went. Well, where is He going? He's going home. What's He going to do while He's there?
He's going to prepare a place. He's gone to prepare a place for us. Wouldn't that be exciting? To watch Him go, not only that He's going home for a season, but He's coming again. He's coming again. What hope does that give you today, believer?
Are you keeping an eye out for Him? No, you're not going to see Him. You're going to hear Him. You're going to hear Him before you see Him. Right? The prospect that it could be today. It could be today.
That the one 2 ,000 years ago who went, and He's coming again. Are you watching? Are you watching? What are we going to say? Looking at the cross as we look back and remember the Lord even this morning, it goes through our mind as we see the suffering Savior, my Lord and my God.
When we think of the resurrected man there in the days of Thomas, and we think of Him raised from the dead even in our own experience, what do we say? My Lord and my God. What are we going to say when we're caught up to be with Him in the air?
My Lord and my God. But I didn't read one, and there's two minutes left. What are the saints doing that are in heaven right now? They're worshiping there. Where are they looking? What are they watching?
I would suggest they're all focused on one person. And they'll be focused on that person for all eternity. And they'll be worshiping there and they're going to see the crescendo as it would grow in appreciation for that man.
As we get to know Him. And we get to appreciate Him greater. And for all eternity, the magnitude of His beauties and the beauty of His holiness and His majesty and His power and His love and His care will only grow and grow and grow and crescendo and crescendo and crescendo.
It'll never diminish. Impossible. You and I, when we've had a long day, the air comes out of our lungs and the energy leaves our body and we're getting weaker and feebler and feebler. But I'll tell you this, worshiping there will never cease.
It will never diminish. Because we'll see Him like we've never seen Him before. Worshiping there, what are we going to say? My Lord and my God. More and more beauties will be revealed. What will we say?
My Lord and my God. And the holiness of that place and the majesty of that person with an eye on Him. And worshiping there for eternity. Brethren, be encouraged at the end of this ministry session. Watch Him.
Watch Him there.