Seeing Jesus - Part 1 — K.P. Yohannan

Following Christ along the road to reality, next. Is Christianity merely following a bunch of rules and teachings we find in scripture? Or is there something more to it than that? Today, on the Road to Reality, KP Yochanan encourages us to see Christ and to follow Him.

As we do, we'll be on the road to reality. This is the Radio Ministry of Gospel for Asia, where our heart's desire is to point people to Christ and encourage people to be disciples of Christ. Brother KP joins us now in Philippians 3, verse 7.

Paul's Radical Surrender to Knowing Christ

In the book of Philippians, chapter 3, we have the diary of Paul. He writes something very personal about his journey. He was a radical, a real man, sober-minded. And he had lots of things going for him.

Highly educated, well-established, a politician, very powerful, and a deep thinker. A type of personality, I think, sanguine by temperament, and militant in his commitment. And righteous, very righteous.

Then he ran into Christ. And he said, Lord, what do you want me to do? Kurios is no more a servant who works to get wages, but a slave. So he addressed himself in Romans, chapter 1, verse 1,. I am a born slave of Jesus Christ, having given up every right to run his own life, only one thing on his mind, Christ and him alone.

So he writes in Philippians, chapter 3, verse 7,. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Pursuing Christ Instead of Earthly Ambitions

Pursuing your dreams should be your vocation. Pursuing your treasure must be your call, the reason to live, passion of your life. Our dreams as humans is very horizontal and subjective. Even when we put labels, for God's sake, I'm going to be the best pilot, best doctor, best engineer, a multi-millionaire, an inventor, and we can tag all our aspirations with God.

So we have a lot of Christian pringles now with cross and Jesus name because somebody decided they're going to be rich and famous through putting Jesus along with their ambition or their dreams. It can be very confusing.

And so we have in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3, Paul says, The God of this world has blinded the eyes of people that they may not see the glorious face of Christ, but when the veil is removed, they will see and there is liberty and freedom and enthusiasm and this one-way ticket and passion to embrace him by life or death, nothing else matters.

And so, when it comes to our job, our riches, our position, our power, attention, honor, approval from other men, accomplishment, our fulfillment, our peace, our happiness, our joy, being a good father, a good husband, an upright businessman, all this stuff, wonderful dreams, but please make sure you label it under vocation.

But your call as a follower of Christ is only him and him alone. Now, there's a verse in the book of Psalms says, As the deer pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after thee, O God. I want to read to you a couple of paragraphs from a book a dear friend of mine wrote that kind of helps a little bit to make this clear.

The Cost of Cheap Christianity

For years we have preached a cheap gospel and cuddled a soft savior. We have taught salvation without self-denial and the crown without the cross. We have catered to the unsaved and compromised with the world.

Now we are paying the price. Our instant salvation message has dishonored God and deluded men. Our faulty seeds have produced a flaky harvest. What a pitiful crop we are reaping. As North Americans, we claim we are believers in Christ, but we spend more hours watching television but minutes watching in prayer.

We are more hungry for sports page but little taste for the word of God. We spend more money on pet foods than on foreign missions. We love to feast and hate to fast. Welcome God's blessings, but we are weary and tired of carrying His burdens.

Is this what Jesus died for? Is this our new life in Him? Stop for a moment and think. Anyone who spends more time playing video games than seeking God in prayer has no right to call Jesus his Lord. Anyone who takes delight in today's perverted soap operas is serving another God.

Anyone who cannot die to sports for a season is worshipping idols. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him because the friendship with the world is hatred toward God. 1 John 2 .15, James 4 .4.

In reality, whose friends are we? It is time for some serious soul searching. What kind of born-again experience have we had if it calls for almost no personal sacrifice, produces virtually no suppression from the world, and breeds practically no hatred toward sin?

How can we claim to be born from above? Where is the evidence of our new nature? We call ourselves citizens of heaven, yet our hearts are caught up in earthly treasures. We sing, we are the people of God, but we are entrained by the words to the devil's children.

We claim to be debt to the world, yet we are more interested in temporal fashions than in eternal souls. Something is wrong with our salvation experience. Bad fruits means bad roots. Sobering. I hope you don't think I'm too hard on you.

Longing to See Christ

Many years ago, I was in a prayer meeting. I can never forget that. In our ministry at large, every Tuesday night, all over the world, our people meet for prayer. And first Friday of every month, we meet all night prayer.

And this particular prayer meeting, we had some 1 ,200 people. This is back in India. And toward early morning hours, oh, 4, 4 .30 or something like that, this old woman began to pray. And I was, you know, in the prayer group, you know, small group praying.

What she said in prayer arrested me. Words were like this. Dear Lord Jesus, this long journey I've been on, I'm tired, I'm weary. How long must I wait till I see you? I can't wait any longer. When will you come back?

My heart long and ache just to see you, Lord. When are you coming back? And I opened my eyes to see, who is this lady praying this prayer? And I saw this old woman. She must be 85, 90, wrinkled face like old frog.

You could see it. And she had a little shawl on her head. But you know the amazing thing? Her hands raised like this, gazing. It's almost like she was looking into the face of Christ. Tears streaming down like rivers.

And her face was almost lit, just glows. I was gripped. Then I asked some of my colleagues later, who is the grandma? The answer, as a youngster when she was studying in college, she gave her life to Christ.

Her rich, affluent family members booted her out of the house. She walked away with the clothes on her back. Took a journey to walk with God for the rest of her life, to be a witness, to suffer. And her life was marked by one thing.

Not ministry, not accomplishment, not to be famous, not to be some big individual, but rather, she constantly talked about being in love with Christ, her Lord.

Well that is what life is to be all about. Expressing our love of Christ through our speech and our very own lives. That dear lady was on the road to reality. This is the road to reality. We're halfway through a message from K .P. Yohannan called, Seeing Jesus.

K .P. will return in just a moment. But let me ask you, are you one of the many who long to be faithful? A faithful disciple of Christ? And yet find yourself distracted away from that for one reason or another?

If you're sidetracked, you can get back on course. To help you in that regard, we'd like to offer you a book written by Brother K .P. It's called, The Road to Reality. It's only $10 through our website at WinAsia .org.

Again, you can order a copy of The Road to Reality at WinAsia .org. So we return to K .P. now. We meet up with him here in Psalm 73.

Persevering When the Ungodly Prosper

In Psalm 73 we read about a godly man like many of you. The guy decided he's just going to live for God. He washed his hands from all the dirt and all this stuff. And he kept journeying. But then he began to look around and see people who are stupid, ungodly, making money and riches and name and fame and nothing wrong with them.

They're well off and, you know, they're not skinny and dying without any food and they eat plenty of food. Then he got discouraged. You know, this is dumb. This faith I'm grabbing hold of, this pursuit after living God that I cannot see and touch.

What is it? I have nothing to show for. Then he says, My feet almost slipped. I gave up my faith. And he was all alone. He chose to be alone. To walk alone, a lonely walk with his eye on the face of the living God.

But then the humanity, the reality of temptation just attacks him. And he says, I'm going to hold on to this. I'm going to go after making money and be like anybody else. And then it says, Until I came into the presence of God, I understood their end.

Ah! Listen close. Please do. What you do today, what you are today, how you live for Christ today, how radical you can become for Christ's sake, be a nobody alone, this crazy individual whose eyes fixed on eternity, having said no to everything in the world, depends on not the present, but the future.

You see something nobody else can see, and say, it's okay for them for me. I see something that nobody can see. And that is passion. And our pursuit should be. So, in verse 25, he says, Oh Lord, I've just been so dumb.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And on earth, I desire no one, nothing beside you. I remember 30 years ago, when Gisela and I, that's my wife, you know, she was born in Germany, and I was born in India, talking about getting married and all that.

We both were on the mission field. A day came, we talked about following the Lord as a family. In one of our conversations, this came up. If there must be a choice between her and Jesus, for her, me or Jesus, which one she would choose, I would choose.

And we came up with a statement. As long as we live on earth, we will love Jesus more than loving one another. Please don't get confused. We are still together. We are two children. They both are serving God on the mission field.

We are happy little people. Hallelujah! My precious brother, I want to ask you a question just as a friend, as a brother. Are you following the teachings of Christ and the Bible? Or, are you following Christ?

Following Christ Himself Rather Than Christian Teaching

Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India, the nation, militant in his obeying the teachings of Christ, but he never followed Christ. Consultations, hundreds of books about how to be a better person, all this can be a wonderful thing, but if it all is about us, about making me a better person, for whatever that means to you, if it is not about Him, we have to be very, very, very, very careful.

We have a crisis in Christendom of following the teachings, the doctrines, not following Christ the person. Holy Spirit came not to give goosebumps. Holy Spirit came, Jesus said, when He comes, He will not speak of Himself, but He will take the things of mine and He will show them to you.

Why? Because it is a continuous learning and exchange of what I am all about for Him, so it's Him and Him alone and nothing else. That's what Paul talks about Romans. My greatest longing is this, that somehow you will become more and more like Him.

There's a crisis. Blessings of God is now seen in material blessings. Oh man, God does His business. Look at how healthy He is. Look at His kids. Listen, what about Hebrews 11? Half of them lost their life.

The world wasn't worthy of them. Today 14 sisters live on the mission field in India and Nepal whose husbands were murdered, killed for preaching the gospel. These young sisters are raising their kids on the mission field saying that they will take the place of their husband and continue to preach the gospel.

Seeing the Invisible God by Faith

Moses, was a man, strong man, able man, smarter man than all of us. Great orator, destined to be the king. Sit on the throne. But one day he had an encounter with someone. It says, seeing him who is invisible, he, forsook, left everything of Egypt and the pleasures of sin.

I was in a pastor's conference some time ago, 800 pastors and about 6 or 7 of them later came and said, can we have a little time with you? Just pray for me. Each one by the way. Every one of them had fallen in adultery sometime and living with horrible, horrible guilt and sin and pain.

The epidemic, the crisis, you know, people live in two months of victory over this stupid some sin and then they fall back. You know, it's like a yo-yo constantly. Why is it? You ask the question. Unless we recognize something more precious that is, please see him who is invisible.

That will give you the impetus, the strength, the joy and whatever it takes to say no to the sin and no to the stuff that is pulling you down and down and down. And Moses was able to walk away from all because he saw not the children of Israel.

They were dumb. They were crazy. They were after him. Picked a stone to kill him. But remember he said one time, God, Moses, what do you want? Can I ask you a question? Go ahead. I just want to see you.

That's all I want. Moses, you can't see my face and remain alive but you can see the back. Another time he said, God, you want me to go and do this thing? Please don't. Moses, I give you all the power in the world.

I mean you can do anything you want. All the power. You can do anything. No, God, unless you go with me, I just don't want to go. Even when he failed, when God said, Moses, I'm sorry, you can't enter into the promised land.

You don't read. Moses said, You know what I think happened? This is my own interpretation. When God said, Moses, you cannot go into the promised land. Then you read, God conducted the funeral for his servant Moses.

You know what Moses thought in his heart? I think it's imagination. Finally, I don't have to spend any more time with these people. I can be with him. He walked away from all this stuff, my pursuit, this treasure, this one thing I longed for to be lost in him, not here on earth.

I just want to be with him. Finally. I didn't know I could do something like this and I could have done it long ago. But then later we find Christ, his meeting with Moses and Elijah. You know, Abraham was a rich dude.

Abraham’s Obedience to God’s Call

You know, Sir Leonard Wooley of England had to go to Iraq to prove, well, to disprove rather, that there was no place called Ur of the Chaldeans. Yes, you read that in history book. And he did find out there was a place called Ur of the Chaldeans, in Iraq by the way.

And they found out these people who lived in that time, they were rich and well to do. Abraham was not a poor chap. But, all his family making idols, selling gods and goddesses and making a living. They are big business people.

Then, one day, Abraham hear this strange voice. Abraham! Who is talking? It's me, the real thing. I wanted to leave your house, your parents and riches and the whole thing and go to a place I will show you.

Now, just play this out, it's a movie. Just think about Abraham, this man, coming home that evening and look kind of gloomy and sad and his parents says, What's wrong with you? You look depressed. Yeah, I've been noticing that.

Abraham, what happened? Well, I just can't talk about it. What do you mean you can't talk about it? You don't understand it. You try. Days goes by, he's still gloomy and kind of maybe sad. Abraham, what is wrong?

Well, I told you you will not understand it but I will tell you. God told me to leave you and go to a place He will show me. Which God? We got 30 million sitting here. No, you don't understand that. It's a living God.

You know, we read the Bible thinking it's just so simple. It is so complex. Abraham had to walk away from everything he knew to go where? There's no job, no security, nothing, nothing, nothing. And God said, I will show you where.

Don't ask me, I'll tell you later. And he goes off and he lives in tents. He became very rich and very affluent yet he will not build a mansion. How do you explain all that? Well, go to the book of Hebrews chapter 11.

It says that Abraham saw a city that has foundations and the builder and maker is God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And he longed to be the friend of God not just casual acquaintance. So he was willing, finally, Abraham, yes Lord, your son, the only son, sacrifice him.

How would you explain all this? You can't. It goes beyond logic. But then he will do that. Why? He was absolutely persuaded his greatest longing was not for his son and the riches and the earth and earthly things or his dreams for himself.

Rather, God and him alone. And that is the reason why he could walk through life like that.

Christ was truly Abraham's Lord. He was willing to give up everything to follow Jesus. Can the same be said for us? Quite a challenging message here today on the road to reality, wasn't it? There's actually quite a bit more to this message from K .P. Yohannan that we just weren't able to bring to you today.

However, the complete study is on our website. Now, you can download the MP3 at winasia .org. Just look for Seeing Jesus. Brother K .P. has also written a book that's right along the same lines as the message he brought to us today here on the road to reality.

And it's actually named by the same name we use as our radio program, The Road to Reality. After listening today, maybe you've discovered your life is off track. Well, Brother K .P. will help you get back on course as you read The Road to Reality.

It's only $10 through our website at winasia .org. Or call us toll free 866-WIN-ASIA. That's 866-WIN-ASIA. Well, next week on The Road to Reality we'll bring you the second half of the message you've heard today.

Be encouraged, refreshed, and challenged by God's Word as you join Brother K .P. Yohannan right here next time. Until then, may God richly bless you as you follow Jesus along His road to reality.

Following Christ Above All Other Relationships

Which one she would choose, I would choose. And we came up with a statement. As long as we live on earth, we will love Jesus more than loving one another. Please don't get confused. We are still together.

We are two children. They both are serving God on the mission field. We are happy little people. Hallelujah! My precious brother, I want to ask you a question just as a friend, as a brother. Are you following the teachings of Christ and the Bible?

Or are you following Christ? Mahatma Gandhi ji, the father of India, the nation, militant in his obeying the teachings of Christ, but he never followed Christ. Consultations, hundreds of books about how to be a better person.

All this can be a wonderful thing, but if it all is about us, about making me a better person for whatever that means to you, if it is not about Him, we have to be very, very, very, very careful. We have a crisis in Christendom of following the teachings, the doctrines, not following Christ the person.

Holy Spirit came not to give goosebumps. Holy Spirit came, Jesus said, when He comes, He will not speak of Himself, but He will take the things of mine and He will show them to you. Why? Because it is a continuous learning and exchange of what I am all about for Him, so it's Him and Him alone and nothing else.

That's what Paul talks about Romans. My greatest longing is this, that somehow you will become more and more like Him. There's a crisis. Blessings of God is now seen in material blessings. Oh man, look at how healthy he is.

Look at his kids. Hey listen, what about Hebrews 11? Half of them lost their life. The world wasn't worthy of them. Today 14 sisters live on the mission field in India and Nepal whose husbands were murdered, killed for preaching the gospel.

These young sisters are raising their kids on the mission field saying that they will take the place of their husband and continue to preach the gospel. Moses was a man, strong man, able man, smarter man than all of us.

Great orator, destined to be the king. Sit on the throne. But one day he had an encounter with someone. It says, seeing him who is invisible, he forsook, left everything of Egypt and the pleasures of sin.

I was in a pastors conference some time ago, 800 pastors and about 6 or 7 of them later came and said, can we have a little time with you? Just pray for me. Each one by the way. Every one of them had fallen in adultery sometime and living with horrible, horrible guilt and sin and pain.

The epidemic, the crisis, you know we, people live in two months of victory over this stupid some sin and then they fall back. You know it's like yo-yo constantly. Why is it? You ask the question. Unless we recognize something more precious that is, please see him who is invisible.

That will give you the impetus, the strength, the joy and whatever it takes to say no to the sin and no to the stuff that is pulling you down and down and down. And Moses was able to walk away from all because he saw not the children of Israel.

They were dumb. They were crazy. They were after him. Pick a stone to kill him. Remember he said one time, God, Moses, what do you want? Can I ask you a question? Go ahead. I just want to see you. That's all I want.

Moses, you can't see my face and remain alive but you can see the back. Another time he said, God, you want me to go and do this thing? Please don't. Moses, I give you all the power in the world. I mean you can do anything you want.

All the power. You can do anything. No God, unless you go with me, I just don't want to go. Even when he failed, when God said, Moses, I'm sorry, you can't enter into the promised land. You don't read Moses saying, What's wrong with you God?

I served you all these years. Now you're telling me... You know what I think happened? This is my own interpretation. When God said, Moses, you cannot go into the promised land. Then you read, God conducted the funeral for his servant Moses.

You know what Moses thought in his heart? I think it's imagination. Good. Finally, I don't have to spend any more time with these people. I can be with him. Walked away from all this stuff, my pursuit, this treasure, this one thing I longed for to be lost in him.

Not here on earth. I just want to be with him. Finally. Good. I didn't know I could do something like this. I could have done it long ago. But then later we find Christ. He's meeting with Moses and Elijah.

You know, Abraham was a rich dude. You know, Sir Leonard Wooley of England had to go to Iraq to prove, well to disprove rather, that there was no place called Ur of the Chaldeans. You read that in history book.

And he did find out there was a place called Ur of the Chaldeans in Iraq by the way. And they found out these people who lived in that time, they were rich and well to do. Abraham was not a poor chap.

But all his family making idols. Selling gods and goddesses and making a living. They are big business people. Then one day Abraham hear this strange voice. Abraham! Who is talking. It's me. The real thing.

I want you to leave your house, your parents and riches and the whole thing and go to a place. I will show you. Now, just play this out. It's a movie. Just think about it. Abraham, this man, coming home that evening and look kind of gloomy and sad.

And his parents says, What's wrong with you? You look depressed. Yeah, I've been noticing that. Abraham, what happened? Well, I just can't talk about it. What do you mean you can't talk about it? You don't understand it.

You try. Days goes by. He's still gloomy and kind of maybe sad. Abraham, what is wrong? Well, I told you you will not understand it. But I will tell you. God told me to leave you and go to a place. He will show me.

Which God? We got 30 million sitting here. No, you don't understand that. It's a living God. You know, we read the Bible thinking it's just so simple. It is so complex. Abraham had to walk away from everything he knew.

To go where? There's no job, no security, nothing, nothing, nothing. And God said, I will show you where. Don't ask me. I'll tell you later. And he goes off. And he lives in tents. He became very rich and very affluent yet he will not build a mansion.

How do you explain all that? Well, go to the book of Hebrews chapter 11. It says that Abraham saw a city that has foundations and the builder and maker is God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And he longed to be the friend of God.

Not just casual acquaintance. So he was willing, finally, Abraham, yes, Lord, your son, the only son, sacrifice him. How would you explain all this? You can't. It goes beyond logic. But then he will do that.

Why? He was absolutely persuaded his greatest longing was not for his son and the riches and the earth and earthly things or his dreams for himself. Rather, God and him alone. And that is the reason why.

He could walk through life like that. Christ was truly Abraham's Lord. He was willing to give up everything to follow Jesus. Can the same be said for us? Quite a challenging message here today on the road to reality, wasn't it?

There's actually quite a bit more to this message from K .P. Yohannan that we just weren't able to bring to you today. However, the complete study is on our website. Now you can download the MP3 at winasia .org.

Just look for Seeing Jesus. Brother K .P. has also written a book that's right along the same lines as the message he brought to us today here on the road to reality. And it's actually named by the same name we use as our radio program, The Road to Reality.

After listening today, maybe you've discovered your life is off track. Well, Brother K .P. will help you get back on course as you read The Road to Reality. It's only $10 through our website at winasia .org.

Or call us, toll free, 866-WIN-ASIA. That's 866-WIN-ASIA. Well, next week on The Road to Reality we'll bring you the second half of the message you've heard today. Be encouraged, refreshed, and challenged by God's Word as you join Brother K .P. Yohannan right here next time.

Until then, may God richly bless you as you follow Jesus along His road to reality.