BoW: 397 “Jesus, the very thought of You”

BoW: 470 vv 1, 3; “Nearer still nearer”

BoW: 396 “Jesus, name above all names”

Scripture Reading:  John 12:20-36; Acts 8:26-40;

Sermon: “We want to see Jesus!”

BoW: 334 “There is under heaven”

BoW: 385v3 “To God be the Glory”

Beloved people of the Lord Jesus Christ.

One of the things that is most vital in our calling as Christians is to make sure that Jesus can be seen amongst us.  Now I realize we cannot say to someone, there he is, or go into that room and you will find him, for we know he dwells in heaven.   Yet I put it to you that the desire to see Jesus should be at the forefront of our thinking, not only when we come to this place of worship, but in all that we do.  It should be in the forefront of anyone who leads in worship or speaks at a Christian conference, or prays before a congregation.

Now one of the best ways to do this is to saturate your presentations with Scripture.  For it is in Scripture, the true Word of God where we find Jesus the Saviour of sinners explained.   So if you are asked to prepare a devotion or write a sermon or meditation then make sure people will be able to see Jesus by the way you quote Scripture!

Jesus said to the two disciples walking to Emmaus that all the Scriptures about him [Lk 24:44].  Yes, granted, the Bible contains instruction on Christian morals and ethics, yet its central theme is Jesus and the way of salvation.  Yes, the Scriptures contain wisdom on how to be content when you are poor or the dangers of riches, yet it’s primarily about Jesus and the way of salvation.

Yes, from Scripture we may learn how to live exemplary lives like Abraham and Joseph and Moses and King David.   We may even dare to be a Daniel or Paul.  Yes, the Bible even gives us laws for our guidance, but primarily it’s about Jesus and the way of salvation.  Therefore, every time we hear a sermon or devotion or any Christian speaker, we should ask ourselves, “Can we see Jesus, the Saviour God provided?” Our heart’s desire is to meet Jesus when we read or hear the Scriptures.

Paul writes in 1 Cor 15:3; “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…”  And again, when writing to Timothy, Paul says, “the Scriptures are able to make us wise to salvation.”  From the Garden of Eden to Paradise, the Bible is about Jesus.  From beginning to end the Bible directs our attention to the good news of why Jesus Christ.   From beginning to end there is nothing secretive, mysterious, or hidden in the Bible.  It is all about God’s plan to reveal Jesus and the Gospel.

You will not be able to find out about Jesus by looking at the stars, or the tea leaves in a cup.  You won’t find Jesus by looking inward and going into some trance for hours on end!  The only way sinners will come to know that Jesus Christ is the Saviour that God has provided is through the holy gospel.   Oh we may have an inkling of an idea that there is a God from creation or from the events in history, or even from our conscience, but it is primarily the Word of God that tells me about Jesus Christ.

Apart from the Scriptures we cannot know fully about God’s grace and mercy to us in Christ.  We cannot know about Jesus’ birth, life, death, or resurrection apart from the Bible.   This story about the Ethiopian reading the book of Isaiah in Acts 8:26ff, teaches us that the Ethiopian had no idea that Isaiah was telling the story of Jesus until Philip explained it to him.   It was only when the Ethiopian knew the story about Jesus that he was able to see Jesus in the book of “Isaiah the prophet.”  So whether we read the book of Genesis, or Exodus or the Psalms, or the Proverbs or Isaiah we should be able to see Jesus!

Congregation, this is basic biblical theology.  When we understand Scripture in this way, it will ensure that God receives the glory and not some mortal sinful human being.   It will also ensure that God receives the glory and not Abraham or Joseph or Daniel or Paul or for that matter Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Cranmer, or Edwards, or Spurgeon or Piper or Macarthur or whoever else you may wish to mention.

Why do I mention this? Because sinful man has this tendency to place a man on the pedestal rather than Jesus!   It wasn’t Abraham or Joseph or Daniel or Paul or Luther or Calvin or Spurgeon who saved sinners.   It was Jesus who died and rose again to save sinners who come to him, and the Bible tells me so and that is why we want to see him!

Immediately after the fall into sin, God promised to send a Saviour.   Joseph after being sold into slavery, then falsely accused of rape, imprisoned, and then becoming second in command of Egypt, knew it was part of God’s plan to save a remnant from which the Saviour would come as promised (Genesis 45).

All the OT sacrifices that were repeated annually were pointers to the ultimate, once and for all sacrifice Jesus Christ (Hebrews 7:25ff).  The Book of Psalms contains many messianic Psalms of which Psalm 22 is most prominent.  (Psa 22:1, 6-8, 17-18) “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? …All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ….They [will] divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” Psalm 22 foreshadows what happened to Jesus upon the cross.

Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”  Isa 9:6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”   Or if you will consider Isa 53:3-7, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Despised, he took up our infirmities, carried our sorrows, smitten, afflicted, pierced, crushed, wounded, yet he did not open his mouth.   Isaiah was talking about the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of Christ’s crucifixion.

I put it to you that all of Scripture is about Jesus Christ. We need to make the same request as the Greeks made who came to Philip.  “We want to see Jesus” (John 12:21).   And what does Jesus do after being told about this request?  He starts to speak about his death.  He doesn’t start speaking about his great miracles, not least being that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead!  He speaks about his death for it is through his death that many will be saved!   He speaks about how his death and resurrection will glorify His Father in heaven.  He speaks about how his death and resurrection will cause many men to be drawn to him.  Let me say it again – the Bible is first and foremost a history of God’s redemption for sinful man in and through Jesus.  That’s behind every narrative, every Psalm, every proverb, every prophetic word. That is how God explains His own words and deeds.

Sadly, we live in a world where people are more interested in what they do and have done, rather than in what God has done for them in Christ.   I put it to you when people speak more of their accomplishments than what God has accomplished in Jesus Christ then it robs God of his glory and possibly shows a complete lack of trust in God’s word.  Heb 1:1-2 makes the point that in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son.   How do we come to know Jesus Christ?  Through the word which is the gospel, applied by the Holy Spirit!

After His resurrection, Jesus when walking with two of His followers, opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures (Lk 24:45).   That’s my role and your role.  How do we know about Jesus Christ?   God’s word was written over a span of 1600 years by 36 different human authors.  The authors did not sit down as a committee to decide what to write. They were separated by great time and distance.  Yet, there is an underlying unity. The OT points forward to the coming of Jesus.  The NT tells us He has come.   The underlying theme of the Bible is the Jesus whose birth we celebrate and whose death and resurrection we remember this very day in the Lord’s Supper.

What the OT saints could only see dimly, we can now see clearly and rejoice!   Since the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the outpouring of His Spirit, we are now privileged to be able to read the Scriptures with new insight.  We can read them with ‘Christ coloured’ glasses on.  When we do that, aided by the Holy Spirit we find references to God’s salvation in Christ, even in the OT.   In fact, if you don’t meet Christ you are not reading the Bible properly.  If you don’t meet Christ, then like the Ethiopian, you will not understand what you are reading.  If you don’t meet Christ you are wasting your time.

Make no mistake. God began to reveal the gospel already in Paradise.  He proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs and prophets.   The sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law point to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Finally He reveals it in full through His own dear Son.    I love what the Apostle Peter says in 1 Pet 1:12, “It was revealed to them [the prophets of old] that they were not serving themselves but you when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.”  That last phrase in the Greek indicates that the angels are straining their necks to just receive a glimpse of how God’s marvelous salvation in Christ for mankind was worked out.

How privileged we are for what the prophets of old couldn’t fully see and what the angels cannot fully experience has been revealed and experienced by us.   Jesus said of John the Baptist in Mat 11:11, that he was the greatest of all the OT prophets.  Why, because he had seen the Christ!  He was the last who could point forward to Christ.   But then notice, Jesus goes on and says, “That the least in the kingdom is greater than John.”

Jesus says this because those who know Jesus and His atoning death and resurrection know more than John the Baptist.  We are closer to the heart of God because we know the necessity of the cross and the glory of the resurrection.

Now some people today suggest that the OT is outdated.  Now there are many things that become outdated.  B&W TVs, Analogue phones, Video players, clothes, cars, you name it.    But we can never say that of the OT, because all of God’s word tells us about our beloved Saviour Jesus Christ, and may we never forget it!    In the Bible the OT is not replaced by the NT, rather, the new is concealed in the old and the old is fulfilled in the New.

The OT is Gospel and, in the light of the New Testament, it can and should be used to teach us about Jesus.   So if someone were to ask you, “How can I come to know salvation?”  Tell them, “The holy gospel tells me.”  Read the Scriptures to them.   From the first garden to the last garden we hear the good news of Jesus Christ who came in the flesh to suffer and die and then rise again for the forgiveness of our sins and the salvation of our souls.

And that dear friend is what we celebrate every day! Jesus coming in the flesh to suffer and die for sinners like you and I and rise again from the dead so that we have eternal life!   I don’t care how you say it, but say it, read it, for it is the best news that any sinner needs to hear!

Don’t leave the Scriptures on the shelf.  Become familiar with it.  Prayerfully read it.  Remember some key books and verses.  There is a saying – “use it or loose it!” The same is true with Scripture.   If you only read it on Sundays, you are under-nourished!   So may our family and friends and neighbours see Jesus, not just by the way we live, but also by the way we know his Word.  To God be the glory for He has given us his Holy Word, the good news for sinners who repent and believe.

Amen.