On Resurrection Sunday, Andy Davis preaches Hebrews 2:9 on how we see Christ, who is invisible, with the eyes of our souls, our faith.
On Resurrection Sunday, Andy Davis preaches Hebrews 2:9 on how we see Christ, who is invisible, with the eyes of our souls, our faith.
-Sermon Transcript-
We’re taking part today in a worldwide celebration. We’re aware of that as Christians. All around the world, Christians are gathering on this day to celebrate this awesome truth, that Christ is risen, that death has been defeated forever. This worldwide celebration is a testimony to some powerful realities. Centrally, the universal problem of death and the fact that we do not have in ourselves the resources to defeat this enemy, but Christ has defeated death for us. Death is the enemy of the entire human race and it is a relentless enemy, which absolutely does not discriminate. It stalks everyone. Death has the final say over everyone’s earthly existence, rich and poor alike, young and old alike, beautiful and successful or despised and downtrodden. Any human being who draws breath is held in bondage by this terrible foe. No mighty ruler, no king or prime minister or president or potentates can confidently say, “I am beyond death’s reach. I have made a covenant with the grave so that death’s bony hand cannot reach me.” No one can make that statement. Neither can a wealthy Wall Street, hedge fund manager or fortune 500 CEO buy a guarantee of immunity from death’s reach. Neither can a new mother look on the fresh sleeping face of her newborn child and say with certainty, “You my child have many years ahead of you.” She doesn’t know. She cannot be certain and neither can a young man in the prime of his health who visits the health club or the gym every day, be guaranteed of another day on earth beyond this one. The terrors of death enslave, all people.
Hebrews 2:15 speaks of people who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. So if death, the ultimate enemy of the human race, has been defeated, then truly we have reason to celebrate every day. Death has been pressing on people’s minds, always presses on people’s minds. But recently in our experience everyday life, death has risen up and pressed in on us. None of us will ever forget the grip of the worldwide pandemic through which we have been passing and we hope to soon be through with, from early in 2020 until even this year, the lead story night after night. Many of us know personally, loved ones who have died from COVID. Others came very close to death, right to the brink because of that disease. More recently, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has pushed COVID more from the headlines with the terrible devastation of open warfare and visions of death in the streets. Recently, I saw a very powerful video depicting some of the agonizing details of the war in Ukraine and the sufferings of the people. It focused on the word “was”, some of you may have seen it. The narrative went like this in the video. “’Was’” a simple word, merely a part of speech used in everyday life, but it is not that simple for us. Because now the everyday Ukrainian simply cannot say “was” without bursting into tears. This was my home. This was my friend. This was my dog. This was my car. This was my job. And this was my father, showing an older man lying recently struck with a bullet or something lying in the street, while you hear in the video in the background, an agonized voice crying, “Papa, Papa.” This was my daughter showing a little girl in a pretty dress loaded on a gurney and being wheeled into a crowded hospital and her father screaming, ‘Hurry, hurry, come quickly,’” translated for us. The narrative continued, the millions and millions of fresh wounds are bleeding with that word “was”. Russia has drowned Ukraine in tears and blood in children’s corpses. Then the video turned, the turning point of the video. It put the word “will” on the screen and made all these bright promises. “We will win. There will be new houses. There will be new cities. There will be new dreams. There will be a new story. And those we have lost will be remembered and we will celebrate anew. Yes, Ukraine was beautiful, but it will become great.” As I was watching that video, I was thinking about this celebration that would be coming up in a number of weeks. I couldn’t help thinking about the dark enemy of death standing over everything we value in this world and saying that same word “was”. But then Christ in his resurrection victory standing over us and giving us a future and saying, the word “will” such as John 11, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Also Revelation 21, “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, now the dwelling of God is with men and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. And he will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away.”
So this morning we join believing Christians around the world in celebrating that glorious future that Christ has bought with his own blood and his resurrection victory. We have a “will” that is guaranteed for us through the words of Christ. This morning, our focus is going to be on this majestic text. You just heard Hebrews 2:9 and there it says, “but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.” From that text, as I was meditating, the theme comes, seeing Jesus. The context in Hebrews is powerful. It’s one of my favorite books in the Bible for the glory of Christ, the majesty of Christ that shines in that epistle. Hebrews 1 celebrates the infinite majesty of Christ. Hebrews 1:3, “The son, Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful word. And after he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Hebrews 1 gives this glorious vision of Christ, this majestic being.
But then in chapter 2, it addresses the burning question, if Jesus is so glorious and so majestic, why did He seem so lowly, so weak? He was born of a human mother, Mary, in a stable where animals were sheltered. He lived as normal human beings do physically. He got hungry and thirsty and tired. His appearance was completely normal while He lived on earth. Even more shocking than all of that, his weakness, his physicality was his death on the cross, the painful and humiliating death of crucifixion. The author acknowledges that though Jesus is the creator and king of angels in chapter 1, He was made for a little while lower than the angels or a little lower than the angels while he was on earth. But he did this so that He might become one of us, that He might become human like us, be part of the human family and that He might be able to shed his blood to die for us and set us free from the penalty of our sins from death. Having achieved that saving work on the cross, Christ rose from the dead and is now exalted far above the heavenly realms, so we see Jesus exalted. That’s going to be the focus of our study today.
Seeing Jesus by Faith
We begin with this concept of seeing Jesus, and we see Jesus by faith. Look again at Hebrews 2:9, the text says, “but we see Jesus who is made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor.” Faith is the eyesight of the soul. Sight is the most powerful of all of our faculties. Science tells us that we derive 83% of our knowledge about the physical world around us, by our eyes, only 11% through hearing, 3 1/2% through smell, 1 1/2% through touch and only 1% by taste. 83% comes by sight. Therefore, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be filled with light.” That’s especially true of the eyesight of the soul, which is faith. If your spiritual eyes are good, your whole soul will be filled with God’s glorious light. However Jesus went on, “If your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. And if then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness?”
Another text speaks of the eyes of the heart. Ephesians 1:18, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” What could this be other than faith? What are the eyes of the heart, other than your faith, the ability to see invisible, spiritual realities, past, present, and future? That is the eyesight of the soul, it’s faith, the eyes of the heart. Also in that great faith chapter, Hebrews 11, the author defines faith, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things, not seen.” Not seen, invisible things. Later in that chapter in Hebrews 11:27, it speaks of Moses living the life of faith, “By faith Moses endured, listen, as seeing him who is invisible.” How do we do that apart from faith? It is by faith that we can see God who is invisible and to see Christ who is for us invisible.
“Faith is the eyesight of the soul.”
The text says that we see Jesus and we see him now, but we see Jesus now crowned with glory and honor. But we have never seen Jesus. Peter said in I Peter 1:8, “Though, you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.” We’ve never seen Jesus. And we don’t see him this morning. I hope you’re not going to show us the invitation card that says,”See Jesus”, and say that’s false advertising. “We’re expecting to come to see Jesus and we saw you, the pastor. We want to see Jesus.” I want to see him too, but Peter said, “ you’ve never seen him, and we don’t see him now.” He’s speaking physically, but seeing Jesus physically never saved anyone anyway. The overwhelming majority of people that saw Jesus physically didn’t believe in him. They didn’t see him properly. Many think, oh, I wish I could have lived back then and seen Jesus with my own eyes. I don’t deny it. It would’ve been a great grace, but just understand that most of the people that saw him underestimated him. His physicality threw them off. They didn’t understand how a mere man could claim to be God. The reason was, there was nothing particularly attractive about him, physically. Isaiah 53 predicted this in verse 2-3, speaking of Jesus, “He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not.” So if you had seen him physically, but you weren’t given the gift of faith, you would not have seen him properly. The physical side of Christ alone does not save the soul. To be saved we must see Jesus by faith based on the word of God. We begin by saying, “We see Jesus crucified”.
Seeing Jesus Crucified
This morning we’re going to see Jesus crucified. The text speaks of his suffering. Look again at Hebrews 2:9, “We see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels. Now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death. So that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.” Jesus tasted death. He drank the cup of death, the cup of suffering. The cup of God’s wrath for us in our place.We see him crucified. When the facts of the gospel, the account of his death are read publicly, or you read them privately, you have the opportunity to see Jesus crucified at that time, based on the scripture.Mark’s account runs like this, Mark 15, “They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull. There they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes they cast lots to see what each would get. It was the third hour when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read, the King of the Jews. They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right, one on his left. At the sixth hour, darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means my God, my God why have you forsaken me? And then with a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.” When you read that, you can see Jesus crucified and see him based on the historical account. He tasted death for everyone. That is for all who would believe in him and trust in him by faith. He tasted death for them because only in that way could our sins be atoned for before a holy God. Sin and death were linked from the very beginning. In the Garden of Eden, the warning was, do not eat from the forbidden fruit because in the day you eat of it, you’ll surely die. The wages of sin has always been death, and Jesus tasted death for us all so that we would not have to die eternally. The real death is what the Bible calls the second death. What is that? Well, first comes physical death and it is appointed. Hebrews 9:27, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” But what happens after judgment? If you’re not a believer in Christ, hell comes after judgment, the Bible calls that the second death. The lake of fire is the second death. Revelation 20:14-15 says, “The lake of fire is the second death. And if anyone’s name was not found written in a book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” So we see Jesus’ death on the cross by faith, when the gospel is preached clearly and publicly.
As I was pondering this theme of seeing Jesus, especially seeing Jesus crucified, I was led to consider the most famous verse in the Bible John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” The most famous verse in the Bible also has the most misunderstood word in the Bible. It’s the little word “so”. It is so misunderstood. Some people think it means “so much.” By saying it doesn’t mean so much. I’m not saying God doesn’t love us so much. I’m just saying that’s not what that word means. Not in that verse. The Greek word translated “so” is “in the same way”. Two things are being compared. You’re right in the middle of a thought with that famous verse, John 3:16, “For in the same way, God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should and not perish, but have eternal life.” The same way as what? We have to go back to the two verses that precede in John 3. In John 3:14-15 says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God in the same way, loved the world,” et cetera. It brings us to the story of the bronze serpent. In the Old Testament one of the great central events of the Old Testament is God’s rescue of the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt through the Exodus. He brought them out into the brink of the promised land, but they did not trust God. They did not believe in God. They did not obey God. They did not cross the Jordan river and take the promised land. They were condemned to wander for 40 years in the desert, but God sustained them physically. He fed them with manna, bread from heaven, miraculous, that they collected every day. But these people complained about the manna, “’We’re sick of eating the same thing every day.” They should have crossed over into the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey, and they wouldn’t be eating manna at that point. God wasn’t hearing any of it. He judged the nation for their complaining. He sent poisonous desert serpents into the camp, and those serpents bit many Jews, and many died. The people cried out to God for deliverance, they cried out to Moses to intercede for them, and Moses did. He interceded to God, but God said, “ I will not take away the poisonous desert snakes, but I will help the people.” He commanded Moses to make a replica of the serpent out of bronze and lift it up high on a pole and put it where everyone in the camp could see it. This message would then be spread throughout the camp of hundreds of thousands of people, even a couple million people. This vast message would be spread that if you’re bitten by a serpent, you should get out of your tent as soon as possible and go look at the bronze serpent, and if you do, God will see your look of faith. He will see it, and He will heal you and you will not die. This is a brilliant picture of the gospel. God was dividing the bitten people into two categories, believers and unbelievers. The believers would live and the unbelievers would die.
In the same way, God lifted Jesus up on the cross to separate the bitten people into two categories, believers and unbelievers. Who are the bitten people? That’s us. That’s all of us. We all have the serpent bite on us, on our souls. It is sin. We have the poison of sin cursing through the blood vessels of our soul as it were. And we have limited time, friends. In the wisdom of God, He could have chosen different serpents and different poisons. There are some that’ll kill you instantly. That wouldn’t do any good, right, because then you have no time to look at the bronze serpent. God in his wisdom gave a certain kind of toxin that gave you some time, some time to go look at the bronze serpent. How long do you have? He didn’t tell us. So what should you do when you’re bitten? When you feel feverish, when you start getting hot and you feel the poison? You better get out and look at that bronze serpent. You better look while you have time. And how long do you have? I don’t know how long you have. But you’re here today under the hearing of the gospel, and you have the opportunity to look to Jesus now by faith, you have that chance. Jesus said in John 6:40, “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day.” Do you realize what He’s promising you there? If you just look to the Son now by faith right now, your sins will be forgiven. God will see you looking. You don’t have to get up or go anywhere. You just look to Jesus, knowing you’re a sinner. You can feel the poison of sin in your life. You know you have violated God’s laws, you know that you deserve to die, and Jesus is your only hope. For God in the same way, loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whoever looks to him, sees him and believes in him, will have eternal life, they’ll not perish in that second death. So that’s what it means to see Jesus crucified.
“For God in the same way, loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whoever looks to him, sees him and believes in him, will have eternal life, they’ll not perish in that second death.”
Seeing Jesus Resurrected
We also this morning, see Jesus resurrected. How do you do that? The same way, by reading the accounts of the empty tomb. We get to see the accounts of Jesus showing himself to his beloved disciples. We get to see it by faith when we read the account of John 20, for example, verses 1-8, “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved and said they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him. So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in. Then Simon Peter who was behind him arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside. He saw and believed.” What did he see? He saw the physical evidence of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He saw the stone had been moved away from the entrance to the tomb. He saw that there was no body in the tomb. He saw the grave clothes lying, wholly undisturbed in their original position with that sticky resonance, aromatic spices and the myrrh and all that, in which Joseph of Arimathea had wrapped Jesus. It was all there. The head cloth folded up in an orderly way off to the side. This is no work of a grave robber, all of the physical evidence spoke to resurrection, and John was convinced. He saw the physical evidence and believed. His faith at that moment was based on what he saw with his eyes. But then he knew very well, and God especially knew well, that all of us coming centuries later would not have the same privilege. I don’t know how long it took Jesus’ Jewish adversaries to destroy all the physical evidence, get rid of it, gone. I would say later that day maybe. The opportunity was gone. It would never be again to actually see the physical evidence. John adds in the very next verse, “ They still did not understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.” By scripture alone we see the physical evidence of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. Now you can say, “but pastor, I know I can buy a ticket, a plane ticket to Jerusalem and I can go on a tour. They’ll show me the empty tomb.” Do you believe that? Well, which one are you going to go to? I think there’s like four of them. And I don’t know what to believe if I go see some empty hole somewhere. It’s not going to convince me of anything.
Frankly, you’re going to read the Bible and the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection and you’ll believe or not based on the scripture. That’s why John wrote John 20:9, “They still did not understand from scripture that Christ had to rise from the dead.” Later we had that even better evidence, which is an actual physical appearance of Jesus before his beloved disciples. John 20:19-20, “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace, be with you!’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.” I wasn’t there at the time, and neither were any of you. Oh, neither was Thomas. He should have been, but he wasn’t. So Jesus comes a week later to convince doubting Thomas of his bodily resurrection. The account is in John 20:24-29, “Now Thomas called Didymus one of the twelve was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him ‘we have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.’ A week later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace, be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, see my hands, reach out your hand, put it into my side, stop, doubting and believe.’ And Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God.’ Then Jesus told him, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed.” All of you who are genuine Christians, born again through the power of the spirit are in that category. You have not seen, and yet you believe. You believe that Christ has been raised from the dead. On what basis? Scripture. You read it, and you believe it. There is no other basis to see Jesus resurrected.
Seeing Jesus Crowned
Thirdly, we see Jesus crowned. That’s what the text says. Hebrews 2:9, “We see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.” Once Jesus’ humiliation was finished, God exalted his Son to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. Christ’s present exaltation can only be seen by faith. By reading scripture, we’re told amazing things about the present exaltation of Jesus. Scripture probes into the invisible heavenly realms to tell us some things we would have no other knowing. So this is the only source of our heavenly vision, the feeding of our faith by scriptural truth, the same way.
“By reading scripture, we’re told amazing things about the present exaltation of Jesus. Scripture probes into the invisible heavenly realms to tell us some things we would have no other knowing. So this is the only source of our heavenly vision…”
What do we learn about Jesus’ present exultation? Go back to the first verse I quoted from Hebrews, Hebrews 1:3 which says, “Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful word.After he had provided purification for sin, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” That’s Jesus’ present exaltation. He is sitting down at the right hand of God. Ephesians 1 teaches the same thing, v. 20-23, “God raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given not only in the present age, but also in the age to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” It’s incredible! Jesus is at the right hand of God, ruling the universe. All the powers and principalities and authorities and spheres of influence, both among humans and angels and demons, all the seats of power there are in heaven and on earth are under Jesus’s authority. Vastly under his authority, so that if they all combined together in one vast rebellion against Christ and sought to topple him from his throne, they must fail before the tidal wave of his omnipotence. That’s the infinite greatness of Jesus’s present exaltation.
As God the Father said in Psalm 110, “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make all your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion. You will rule in the midst of your enemies.” God, the Father has been doing that. After Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, He said, “Sit down next to me and watch what I’m going to do.” By the power of the Spirit, He then makes his enemies transformed into friends, worshipers, or crushed by his sovereign power in his own good time. Those are the two options. Isn’t it wonderful that we who are Christians were at one point God’s enemies by our rebellion and our sins and our violation of his laws, but now in Romans 5:10, “When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled through the death of his Son.” We’re not enemies anymore. This is the majestic and powerful work going on all over the world. Christ is winning his former enemies over, and He’s melting their hard hearts and bringing them, sweetly and submissively, under his kingly authority. We’re glad that He’s our king, glad to do His will and to serve him.
Christ’s future exaltation is going to be obvious for all to see, we won’t need faith for that one. Now is the time of faith, this is the era of faith. This is where you come to church, Easter Sunday, and you have a pastor saying, “We see Jesus.” It’s like, hmm, interesting. I’m telling you when He comes in glory, you won’t need faith to see Him. You won’t need faith at all. The era of faith will have ended. Matthew 24:27, “As lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west. So will be the coming of the Son of Man.” Everyone’s going to see it. Then Revelation 1:7 says, “Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all peoples on earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.” That’s the second coming of Christ, no faith needed. But now’s the time for faith. Now’s the time through faith to have your sins forgiven while there’s time.
Seeing Jesus Now and Continually
Finally, we see Jesus now and we see him continually. So to all guests, I have already strongly urged you to look to Christ while there’s time. I hope you can see the evidence of the snake bite in your life, just understand God’s laws. Understand that you’re commanded to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself, and you don’t. Understand that God commanded you in his Ten Commandments, many things, and you violate them all, in your hearts and perhaps even with your bodies, you’ve broken God’s laws. The poison of sin is coursing through the veins of your soul, and you have a limited time. Look to Jesus now while there’s time. It’s all you need do. What did the thief on the cross do but look to Jesus and see him as a coming king? Just look to Jesus and your sins will be forgiven.
“You need to feed the eyesight of your soul by taking in God’s word.”
Now for all of us who are believers. We’re not done looking to Jesus. We still need to look to him. Our faith is a living thing and that living thing needs constant food. You need to feed the eyesight of your soul by taking in God’s word. Our vision of Christ can get pretty cloudy sometimes. Like the blind man that Jesus healed in stages in Mark chapter 8, “I see people, they look like trees walking around. And then once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes and then his eyes are open and he could see everything clearly.” So it is with us. We need to look to Jesus again and again daily, by taking in God’s word and feeding on it. You can see Jesus by faith. At an unusually early age I had cataracts, cloudiness of vision in both my eyes. I ride a bike for exercise. I also listen to earbuds. So one day I was climbing up a hill, deaf through the ear with earbuds and pseudo blind, through my cataracts. I looked over my left shoulder, didn’t see anything, coast was clear. I crossed the road, the car missed me by feet I think. I would want to say by inches, I felt the whoosh as it went by me. I needed to do something about these cataracts. The car was right in the center of one of them, I guess, I never heard anything, never saw anything. That’s what we can get through sin and through unbelief. Even as Christians, we can get a cloudy vision. We just don’t see Christ the way we need to. The author of Hebrews commands us to look to Jesus, to look to him, to persevere in our marathon race of faith, Hebrews 12, it says, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Who for the joy set before him endured the cross scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God.” We’re supposed to look to Jesus every day, throw off the weights and the nets of sin that are entangling us, as we run this race with endurance.
As I already mentioned in Hebrews 11:27, “Moses persevered as seeing him who is invisible.” Christian brother and sister, run your race every day as seeing him who is invisible. Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more, for God took him. Enoch walked with God by seeing him who is invisible. Joseph was tempted by Potiphar’s wife, day after day. “Come lie with me, come lie with me.” She pulled on him and tempted him and tried to seduce him. And Joseph said, “How could I do this and sin, commit this great sin against God?” He could see the invisible God seeing him, and he could not sin. Job said, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl for God sees my every way and counts my every step.” That’s what it means to see Him who is invisible. Jacob had a dream at Bethel of heaven open and a stairway with angels ascending and descending. When he woke up, he said, “How awesome is this place? Surely God was here and I did not know it.” How many days do we as Christians live like that? God is here and we did not know it. I’m urging you to keep looking to Jesus. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing the word.” As you hear, you see, and you see Jesus, you see him as the one who is invisible and you live a holy life, that’s pleasing to God. Close with me in prayer.
Father, we thank you for the time we’ve had to see Jesus this morning in the scripture. Thank you for the joy of this day. Thank you for the joy of Christian fellowship that we get to band together and celebrate and urge one another on to be joyful. Lord, help us to see Jesus by scriptural intake, day after day and by faith, being developed. And, oh Lord, I pray that there wouldn’t be a single person here under the hearing of the gospel that would walk out of this place now unconverted. But instead that their sins have been forgiven through simple faith, trusting in Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen.
On Resurrection Sunday, Andy Davis preaches Hebrews 2:9 on how we see Christ, who is invisible, with the eyes of our souls, our faith.
-Sermon Transcript-
We’re taking part today in a worldwide celebration. We’re aware of that as Christians. All around the world, Christians are gathering on this day to celebrate this awesome truth, that Christ is risen, that death has been defeated forever. This worldwide celebration is a testimony to some powerful realities. Centrally, the universal problem of death and the fact that we do not have in ourselves the resources to defeat this enemy, but Christ has defeated death for us. Death is the enemy of the entire human race and it is a relentless enemy, which absolutely does not discriminate. It stalks everyone. Death has the final say over everyone’s earthly existence, rich and poor alike, young and old alike, beautiful and successful or despised and downtrodden. Any human being who draws breath is held in bondage by this terrible foe. No mighty ruler, no king or prime minister or president or potentates can confidently say, “I am beyond death’s reach. I have made a covenant with the grave so that death’s bony hand cannot reach me.” No one can make that statement. Neither can a wealthy Wall Street, hedge fund manager or fortune 500 CEO buy a guarantee of immunity from death’s reach. Neither can a new mother look on the fresh sleeping face of her newborn child and say with certainty, “You my child have many years ahead of you.” She doesn’t know. She cannot be certain and neither can a young man in the prime of his health who visits the health club or the gym every day, be guaranteed of another day on earth beyond this one. The terrors of death enslave, all people.
Hebrews 2:15 speaks of people who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. So if death, the ultimate enemy of the human race, has been defeated, then truly we have reason to celebrate every day. Death has been pressing on people’s minds, always presses on people’s minds. But recently in our experience everyday life, death has risen up and pressed in on us. None of us will ever forget the grip of the worldwide pandemic through which we have been passing and we hope to soon be through with, from early in 2020 until even this year, the lead story night after night. Many of us know personally, loved ones who have died from COVID. Others came very close to death, right to the brink because of that disease. More recently, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has pushed COVID more from the headlines with the terrible devastation of open warfare and visions of death in the streets. Recently, I saw a very powerful video depicting some of the agonizing details of the war in Ukraine and the sufferings of the people. It focused on the word “was”, some of you may have seen it. The narrative went like this in the video. “’Was’” a simple word, merely a part of speech used in everyday life, but it is not that simple for us. Because now the everyday Ukrainian simply cannot say “was” without bursting into tears. This was my home. This was my friend. This was my dog. This was my car. This was my job. And this was my father, showing an older man lying recently struck with a bullet or something lying in the street, while you hear in the video in the background, an agonized voice crying, “Papa, Papa.” This was my daughter showing a little girl in a pretty dress loaded on a gurney and being wheeled into a crowded hospital and her father screaming, ‘Hurry, hurry, come quickly,’” translated for us. The narrative continued, the millions and millions of fresh wounds are bleeding with that word “was”. Russia has drowned Ukraine in tears and blood in children’s corpses. Then the video turned, the turning point of the video. It put the word “will” on the screen and made all these bright promises. “We will win. There will be new houses. There will be new cities. There will be new dreams. There will be a new story. And those we have lost will be remembered and we will celebrate anew. Yes, Ukraine was beautiful, but it will become great.” As I was watching that video, I was thinking about this celebration that would be coming up in a number of weeks. I couldn’t help thinking about the dark enemy of death standing over everything we value in this world and saying that same word “was”. But then Christ in his resurrection victory standing over us and giving us a future and saying, the word “will” such as John 11, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Also Revelation 21, “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, now the dwelling of God is with men and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. And he will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away.”
So this morning we join believing Christians around the world in celebrating that glorious future that Christ has bought with his own blood and his resurrection victory. We have a “will” that is guaranteed for us through the words of Christ. This morning, our focus is going to be on this majestic text. You just heard Hebrews 2:9 and there it says, “but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.” From that text, as I was meditating, the theme comes, seeing Jesus. The context in Hebrews is powerful. It’s one of my favorite books in the Bible for the glory of Christ, the majesty of Christ that shines in that epistle. Hebrews 1 celebrates the infinite majesty of Christ. Hebrews 1:3, “The son, Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful word. And after he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Hebrews 1 gives this glorious vision of Christ, this majestic being.
But then in chapter 2, it addresses the burning question, if Jesus is so glorious and so majestic, why did He seem so lowly, so weak? He was born of a human mother, Mary, in a stable where animals were sheltered. He lived as normal human beings do physically. He got hungry and thirsty and tired. His appearance was completely normal while He lived on earth. Even more shocking than all of that, his weakness, his physicality was his death on the cross, the painful and humiliating death of crucifixion. The author acknowledges that though Jesus is the creator and king of angels in chapter 1, He was made for a little while lower than the angels or a little lower than the angels while he was on earth. But he did this so that He might become one of us, that He might become human like us, be part of the human family and that He might be able to shed his blood to die for us and set us free from the penalty of our sins from death. Having achieved that saving work on the cross, Christ rose from the dead and is now exalted far above the heavenly realms, so we see Jesus exalted. That’s going to be the focus of our study today.
Seeing Jesus by Faith
We begin with this concept of seeing Jesus, and we see Jesus by faith. Look again at Hebrews 2:9, the text says, “but we see Jesus who is made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor.” Faith is the eyesight of the soul. Sight is the most powerful of all of our faculties. Science tells us that we derive 83% of our knowledge about the physical world around us, by our eyes, only 11% through hearing, 3 1/2% through smell, 1 1/2% through touch and only 1% by taste. 83% comes by sight. Therefore, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be filled with light.” That’s especially true of the eyesight of the soul, which is faith. If your spiritual eyes are good, your whole soul will be filled with God’s glorious light. However Jesus went on, “If your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. And if then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness?”
Another text speaks of the eyes of the heart. Ephesians 1:18, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” What could this be other than faith? What are the eyes of the heart, other than your faith, the ability to see invisible, spiritual realities, past, present, and future? That is the eyesight of the soul, it’s faith, the eyes of the heart. Also in that great faith chapter, Hebrews 11, the author defines faith, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things, not seen.” Not seen, invisible things. Later in that chapter in Hebrews 11:27, it speaks of Moses living the life of faith, “By faith Moses endured, listen, as seeing him who is invisible.” How do we do that apart from faith? It is by faith that we can see God who is invisible and to see Christ who is for us invisible.
“Faith is the eyesight of the soul.”
The text says that we see Jesus and we see him now, but we see Jesus now crowned with glory and honor. But we have never seen Jesus. Peter said in I Peter 1:8, “Though, you have not seen him, you love him. And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.” We’ve never seen Jesus. And we don’t see him this morning. I hope you’re not going to show us the invitation card that says,”See Jesus”, and say that’s false advertising. “We’re expecting to come to see Jesus and we saw you, the pastor. We want to see Jesus.” I want to see him too, but Peter said, “ you’ve never seen him, and we don’t see him now.” He’s speaking physically, but seeing Jesus physically never saved anyone anyway. The overwhelming majority of people that saw Jesus physically didn’t believe in him. They didn’t see him properly. Many think, oh, I wish I could have lived back then and seen Jesus with my own eyes. I don’t deny it. It would’ve been a great grace, but just understand that most of the people that saw him underestimated him. His physicality threw them off. They didn’t understand how a mere man could claim to be God. The reason was, there was nothing particularly attractive about him, physically. Isaiah 53 predicted this in verse 2-3, speaking of Jesus, “He grew up before him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not.” So if you had seen him physically, but you weren’t given the gift of faith, you would not have seen him properly. The physical side of Christ alone does not save the soul. To be saved we must see Jesus by faith based on the word of God. We begin by saying, “We see Jesus crucified”.
Seeing Jesus Crucified
This morning we’re going to see Jesus crucified. The text speaks of his suffering. Look again at Hebrews 2:9, “We see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels. Now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death. So that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.” Jesus tasted death. He drank the cup of death, the cup of suffering. The cup of God’s wrath for us in our place.We see him crucified. When the facts of the gospel, the account of his death are read publicly, or you read them privately, you have the opportunity to see Jesus crucified at that time, based on the scripture.Mark’s account runs like this, Mark 15, “They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull. There they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes they cast lots to see what each would get. It was the third hour when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read, the King of the Jews. They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right, one on his left. At the sixth hour, darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means my God, my God why have you forsaken me? And then with a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.” When you read that, you can see Jesus crucified and see him based on the historical account. He tasted death for everyone. That is for all who would believe in him and trust in him by faith. He tasted death for them because only in that way could our sins be atoned for before a holy God. Sin and death were linked from the very beginning. In the Garden of Eden, the warning was, do not eat from the forbidden fruit because in the day you eat of it, you’ll surely die. The wages of sin has always been death, and Jesus tasted death for us all so that we would not have to die eternally. The real death is what the Bible calls the second death. What is that? Well, first comes physical death and it is appointed. Hebrews 9:27, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” But what happens after judgment? If you’re not a believer in Christ, hell comes after judgment, the Bible calls that the second death. The lake of fire is the second death. Revelation 20:14-15 says, “The lake of fire is the second death. And if anyone’s name was not found written in a book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” So we see Jesus’ death on the cross by faith, when the gospel is preached clearly and publicly.
As I was pondering this theme of seeing Jesus, especially seeing Jesus crucified, I was led to consider the most famous verse in the Bible John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” The most famous verse in the Bible also has the most misunderstood word in the Bible. It’s the little word “so”. It is so misunderstood. Some people think it means “so much.” By saying it doesn’t mean so much. I’m not saying God doesn’t love us so much. I’m just saying that’s not what that word means. Not in that verse. The Greek word translated “so” is “in the same way”. Two things are being compared. You’re right in the middle of a thought with that famous verse, John 3:16, “For in the same way, God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should and not perish, but have eternal life.” The same way as what? We have to go back to the two verses that precede in John 3. In John 3:14-15 says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God in the same way, loved the world,” et cetera. It brings us to the story of the bronze serpent. In the Old Testament one of the great central events of the Old Testament is God’s rescue of the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt through the Exodus. He brought them out into the brink of the promised land, but they did not trust God. They did not believe in God. They did not obey God. They did not cross the Jordan river and take the promised land. They were condemned to wander for 40 years in the desert, but God sustained them physically. He fed them with manna, bread from heaven, miraculous, that they collected every day. But these people complained about the manna, “’We’re sick of eating the same thing every day.” They should have crossed over into the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey, and they wouldn’t be eating manna at that point. God wasn’t hearing any of it. He judged the nation for their complaining. He sent poisonous desert serpents into the camp, and those serpents bit many Jews, and many died. The people cried out to God for deliverance, they cried out to Moses to intercede for them, and Moses did. He interceded to God, but God said, “ I will not take away the poisonous desert snakes, but I will help the people.” He commanded Moses to make a replica of the serpent out of bronze and lift it up high on a pole and put it where everyone in the camp could see it. This message would then be spread throughout the camp of hundreds of thousands of people, even a couple million people. This vast message would be spread that if you’re bitten by a serpent, you should get out of your tent as soon as possible and go look at the bronze serpent, and if you do, God will see your look of faith. He will see it, and He will heal you and you will not die. This is a brilliant picture of the gospel. God was dividing the bitten people into two categories, believers and unbelievers. The believers would live and the unbelievers would die.
In the same way, God lifted Jesus up on the cross to separate the bitten people into two categories, believers and unbelievers. Who are the bitten people? That’s us. That’s all of us. We all have the serpent bite on us, on our souls. It is sin. We have the poison of sin cursing through the blood vessels of our soul as it were. And we have limited time, friends. In the wisdom of God, He could have chosen different serpents and different poisons. There are some that’ll kill you instantly. That wouldn’t do any good, right, because then you have no time to look at the bronze serpent. God in his wisdom gave a certain kind of toxin that gave you some time, some time to go look at the bronze serpent. How long do you have? He didn’t tell us. So what should you do when you’re bitten? When you feel feverish, when you start getting hot and you feel the poison? You better get out and look at that bronze serpent. You better look while you have time. And how long do you have? I don’t know how long you have. But you’re here today under the hearing of the gospel, and you have the opportunity to look to Jesus now by faith, you have that chance. Jesus said in John 6:40, “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day.” Do you realize what He’s promising you there? If you just look to the Son now by faith right now, your sins will be forgiven. God will see you looking. You don’t have to get up or go anywhere. You just look to Jesus, knowing you’re a sinner. You can feel the poison of sin in your life. You know you have violated God’s laws, you know that you deserve to die, and Jesus is your only hope. For God in the same way, loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whoever looks to him, sees him and believes in him, will have eternal life, they’ll not perish in that second death. So that’s what it means to see Jesus crucified.
“For God in the same way, loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whoever looks to him, sees him and believes in him, will have eternal life, they’ll not perish in that second death.”
Seeing Jesus Resurrected
We also this morning, see Jesus resurrected. How do you do that? The same way, by reading the accounts of the empty tomb. We get to see the accounts of Jesus showing himself to his beloved disciples. We get to see it by faith when we read the account of John 20, for example, verses 1-8, “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved and said they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him. So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in. Then Simon Peter who was behind him arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside. He saw and believed.” What did he see? He saw the physical evidence of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He saw the stone had been moved away from the entrance to the tomb. He saw that there was no body in the tomb. He saw the grave clothes lying, wholly undisturbed in their original position with that sticky resonance, aromatic spices and the myrrh and all that, in which Joseph of Arimathea had wrapped Jesus. It was all there. The head cloth folded up in an orderly way off to the side. This is no work of a grave robber, all of the physical evidence spoke to resurrection, and John was convinced. He saw the physical evidence and believed. His faith at that moment was based on what he saw with his eyes. But then he knew very well, and God especially knew well, that all of us coming centuries later would not have the same privilege. I don’t know how long it took Jesus’ Jewish adversaries to destroy all the physical evidence, get rid of it, gone. I would say later that day maybe. The opportunity was gone. It would never be again to actually see the physical evidence. John adds in the very next verse, “ They still did not understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.” By scripture alone we see the physical evidence of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. Now you can say, “but pastor, I know I can buy a ticket, a plane ticket to Jerusalem and I can go on a tour. They’ll show me the empty tomb.” Do you believe that? Well, which one are you going to go to? I think there’s like four of them. And I don’t know what to believe if I go see some empty hole somewhere. It’s not going to convince me of anything.
Frankly, you’re going to read the Bible and the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection and you’ll believe or not based on the scripture. That’s why John wrote John 20:9, “They still did not understand from scripture that Christ had to rise from the dead.” Later we had that even better evidence, which is an actual physical appearance of Jesus before his beloved disciples. John 20:19-20, “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace, be with you!’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.” I wasn’t there at the time, and neither were any of you. Oh, neither was Thomas. He should have been, but he wasn’t. So Jesus comes a week later to convince doubting Thomas of his bodily resurrection. The account is in John 20:24-29, “Now Thomas called Didymus one of the twelve was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him ‘we have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.’ A week later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace, be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, see my hands, reach out your hand, put it into my side, stop, doubting and believe.’ And Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God.’ Then Jesus told him, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed.” All of you who are genuine Christians, born again through the power of the spirit are in that category. You have not seen, and yet you believe. You believe that Christ has been raised from the dead. On what basis? Scripture. You read it, and you believe it. There is no other basis to see Jesus resurrected.
Seeing Jesus Crowned
Thirdly, we see Jesus crowned. That’s what the text says. Hebrews 2:9, “We see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.” Once Jesus’ humiliation was finished, God exalted his Son to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. Christ’s present exaltation can only be seen by faith. By reading scripture, we’re told amazing things about the present exaltation of Jesus. Scripture probes into the invisible heavenly realms to tell us some things we would have no other knowing. So this is the only source of our heavenly vision, the feeding of our faith by scriptural truth, the same way.
“By reading scripture, we’re told amazing things about the present exaltation of Jesus. Scripture probes into the invisible heavenly realms to tell us some things we would have no other knowing. So this is the only source of our heavenly vision…”
What do we learn about Jesus’ present exultation? Go back to the first verse I quoted from Hebrews, Hebrews 1:3 which says, “Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful word.After he had provided purification for sin, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” That’s Jesus’ present exaltation. He is sitting down at the right hand of God. Ephesians 1 teaches the same thing, v. 20-23, “God raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given not only in the present age, but also in the age to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” It’s incredible! Jesus is at the right hand of God, ruling the universe. All the powers and principalities and authorities and spheres of influence, both among humans and angels and demons, all the seats of power there are in heaven and on earth are under Jesus’s authority. Vastly under his authority, so that if they all combined together in one vast rebellion against Christ and sought to topple him from his throne, they must fail before the tidal wave of his omnipotence. That’s the infinite greatness of Jesus’s present exaltation.
As God the Father said in Psalm 110, “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make all your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion. You will rule in the midst of your enemies.” God, the Father has been doing that. After Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, He said, “Sit down next to me and watch what I’m going to do.” By the power of the Spirit, He then makes his enemies transformed into friends, worshipers, or crushed by his sovereign power in his own good time. Those are the two options. Isn’t it wonderful that we who are Christians were at one point God’s enemies by our rebellion and our sins and our violation of his laws, but now in Romans 5:10, “When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled through the death of his Son.” We’re not enemies anymore. This is the majestic and powerful work going on all over the world. Christ is winning his former enemies over, and He’s melting their hard hearts and bringing them, sweetly and submissively, under his kingly authority. We’re glad that He’s our king, glad to do His will and to serve him.
Christ’s future exaltation is going to be obvious for all to see, we won’t need faith for that one. Now is the time of faith, this is the era of faith. This is where you come to church, Easter Sunday, and you have a pastor saying, “We see Jesus.” It’s like, hmm, interesting. I’m telling you when He comes in glory, you won’t need faith to see Him. You won’t need faith at all. The era of faith will have ended. Matthew 24:27, “As lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west. So will be the coming of the Son of Man.” Everyone’s going to see it. Then Revelation 1:7 says, “Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all peoples on earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.” That’s the second coming of Christ, no faith needed. But now’s the time for faith. Now’s the time through faith to have your sins forgiven while there’s time.
Seeing Jesus Now and Continually
Finally, we see Jesus now and we see him continually. So to all guests, I have already strongly urged you to look to Christ while there’s time. I hope you can see the evidence of the snake bite in your life, just understand God’s laws. Understand that you’re commanded to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself, and you don’t. Understand that God commanded you in his Ten Commandments, many things, and you violate them all, in your hearts and perhaps even with your bodies, you’ve broken God’s laws. The poison of sin is coursing through the veins of your soul, and you have a limited time. Look to Jesus now while there’s time. It’s all you need do. What did the thief on the cross do but look to Jesus and see him as a coming king? Just look to Jesus and your sins will be forgiven.
“You need to feed the eyesight of your soul by taking in God’s word.”
Now for all of us who are believers. We’re not done looking to Jesus. We still need to look to him. Our faith is a living thing and that living thing needs constant food. You need to feed the eyesight of your soul by taking in God’s word. Our vision of Christ can get pretty cloudy sometimes. Like the blind man that Jesus healed in stages in Mark chapter 8, “I see people, they look like trees walking around. And then once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes and then his eyes are open and he could see everything clearly.” So it is with us. We need to look to Jesus again and again daily, by taking in God’s word and feeding on it. You can see Jesus by faith. At an unusually early age I had cataracts, cloudiness of vision in both my eyes. I ride a bike for exercise. I also listen to earbuds. So one day I was climbing up a hill, deaf through the ear with earbuds and pseudo blind, through my cataracts. I looked over my left shoulder, didn’t see anything, coast was clear. I crossed the road, the car missed me by feet I think. I would want to say by inches, I felt the whoosh as it went by me. I needed to do something about these cataracts. The car was right in the center of one of them, I guess, I never heard anything, never saw anything. That’s what we can get through sin and through unbelief. Even as Christians, we can get a cloudy vision. We just don’t see Christ the way we need to. The author of Hebrews commands us to look to Jesus, to look to him, to persevere in our marathon race of faith, Hebrews 12, it says, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Who for the joy set before him endured the cross scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God.” We’re supposed to look to Jesus every day, throw off the weights and the nets of sin that are entangling us, as we run this race with endurance.
As I already mentioned in Hebrews 11:27, “Moses persevered as seeing him who is invisible.” Christian brother and sister, run your race every day as seeing him who is invisible. Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more, for God took him. Enoch walked with God by seeing him who is invisible. Joseph was tempted by Potiphar’s wife, day after day. “Come lie with me, come lie with me.” She pulled on him and tempted him and tried to seduce him. And Joseph said, “How could I do this and sin, commit this great sin against God?” He could see the invisible God seeing him, and he could not sin. Job said, “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl for God sees my every way and counts my every step.” That’s what it means to see Him who is invisible. Jacob had a dream at Bethel of heaven open and a stairway with angels ascending and descending. When he woke up, he said, “How awesome is this place? Surely God was here and I did not know it.” How many days do we as Christians live like that? God is here and we did not know it. I’m urging you to keep looking to Jesus. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing the word.” As you hear, you see, and you see Jesus, you see him as the one who is invisible and you live a holy life, that’s pleasing to God. Close with me in prayer.
Father, we thank you for the time we’ve had to see Jesus this morning in the scripture. Thank you for the joy of this day. Thank you for the joy of Christian fellowship that we get to band together and celebrate and urge one another on to be joyful. Lord, help us to see Jesus by scriptural intake, day after day and by faith, being developed. And, oh Lord, I pray that there wouldn’t be a single person here under the hearing of the gospel that would walk out of this place now unconverted. But instead that their sins have been forgiven through simple faith, trusting in Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen.
