Africa 2003 -- Hope for Our Troubled World

#1
But We See Jesus

What does a preacher say here on the eve of a great spiritual adventure and our Voice of Prophecy Africa campaign? I’ve wondered for weeks what I ought to share with you today on the eve of our “Hope for Our Troubled World” campaign and the inauguration of our Discover Bible School, with a large graduation coming in just three weeks.

We have tremendous social and political issues across this continent of Africa that we could talk about, and we Christians must be involved in helping to solve the social problems of our time. Shall I speak about these – AIDS, race relations, poverty, war, crime, hunger, genocide?

Tonight I want to start where I believe the faith has got to start – with Christ. And as we begin this series of meetings, I’ve decided to put first things first and do precisely that. Tonight that’s what I’ve decided to do: I want to speak to you simply about Jesus Christ.

I’d like to paint for you a picture of Jesus tonight. Because for the next three weeks the sobering reality is that we want to offer hurting, lonely, and frightened people the good news about Jesus and a better tomorrow found only in Jesus Christ. People on Planet Earth are afraid, worried, distressed, discouraged.

My text is Hebrews 2:8-9. And, I’m going to lift out of the book of Hebrews a few verses which begin by telling us when God created man, He placed everything “under his feet,” under man’s control.

But the Bible goes on to say: “But at present we do not yet see all things subjected to man.” (Under man’s control.) Even though God created everything to be subject to man, that’s NOT the way it is. We do not see all things controlled by man. Things are not the way they ought to be.

We do not see all things controlled by man, “but we see Jesus!” Now this is the central point of it as I see it. This is what is important as far as any Christian is concerned.

The achievements of man are certainly deserving of praise. Satellites. We’ve reached out into space. We’ve landed on the moon. We have tamed the forces of nature: hydro-electricity. Radio. TV. Telephones. We have found the cure for many diseases and prolonged human life.

But you may boast all you want of man’s wisdom and nobility, while the tragic story of man’s failures must be told. Wars. Revolutions. Genocide. The ghosts of the war-dead testify of man’s hatred and bestiality. His folly. The Hutus and Tutsis. The Middle East. WWI and WWII. The civil wars in Liberia and in Congo and other countries. Man has invented destruction. Given freedom, he has chosen slavery and weapons and violence. Man is the only living creature who, created in the image of God, has chosen to disfigure himself and become instead demonic.

The truth of the matter is magnificently understated in Hebrews 2: “We do not yet see everything in subjection to man. But we see Jesus.”

This is the crux of it. We’re making no attempt to hide evil and sin in our world. It’s everywhere.

But we’re not a discouraged people, we’re not a hopeless people. Because in spite of what man does, in spite of all evil, we see Jesus!

Now I’m sure everyone would say, “Yes, if I really could see Jesus, it would make such a great difference! If only I could have been there 2,000 years ago. (One of the twelve disciples; or a member of the crowd which followed Him at a distance). Oh! What a difference it would make!”

Have you ever considered the fact that we have NO PHOTO of Jesus? Wouldn’t it be something if we had a little more tangible contact with the MAN Jesus? Actually we can see Jesus in a much better sense than most of us have ever realized!

Now, I’m aware most of the pictures of Jesus we use for devotional purposes are merely artists’ interpretations. But actually we know much more about Jesus – other than that He appeared as a man – than we have ever thought before. More than we’ve ever accepted.

If you want to see Him, start, for example, with the RACE of which He was a part. You know He was Semitic. A Jew. And knowing this, you know his skin was dark in color. (His eyes were either brown or black and he had dark hair.)

How do I know? Because that’s the way of Semitic people! When Hollywood makes a movie and portrays Christ with bright blue eyes, you know they’re wrong, because there never was a blue-eyed Semite. With blue eyes Jesus would have been so noticeably different somebody would have called attention to it. But He wasn’t noticeably different from the rest. He was like the people among whom He was born and with whom He lived.

So, He was dark-complected. He had dark eyes, either brown or black, and He had dark hair. You not only know His RACE, you know His ENVIRONMENT.

In the Mid-East hot sun burns down on a baked earth from a cloudless sky for nine months out of the year. The heat waves shimmer and reflect off the hills and mountains in that sun. You either squint your eyes (they had no sunglasses) or you go blind. Living in that environment you know Jesus had a darker complexion (bronzed even more by the sun and wind.) And He had heavy crows’ feet (lines at the corners of His eyes) from squinting against this light.

You also know from the record that His eyes were the most unusual feature of His person. Remember how many times it says “Jesus turned and looked at him.” It doesn’t say He said anything. He didn’t gesture with His hands. He just turned and LOOKED at somebody. And when Jesus turned and looked, things happened! Men going one way turned around and went the other. People who were dirty became clean. Men that were evil became good. BECAUSE JESUS TURNED AND LOOKED AT THEM. His eyes must have seemed to literally bore through them!

So, He came from a race of tall, dark-haired, dark-eyed, dark-complected people, bronzed by the sun and wind. And He had crows’ feet at the corners of those most unusual eyes.

But, you not only know about His race and environment, you know He was an outdoor man. The Bible says He was a rugged outdoor person. “The birds of the air had their nests, the foxes had their holes, but the Son of Man had nowhere to lay His head.” (Mat. 8:20; Lk 9:58)

He lived out of doors. Everywhere He went, He walked. The Bible records only one incident where He rode (and that was about 1 ½ miles to Jerusalem!) Nazareth to Jerusalem and back again. Do you know how far that is? 145 kilometers (as the crow flies). But in Palestine you don’t walk as the crow flies. Everything seems straight up or straight down. There aren’t any roads, just mule paths. You don’t cross bridges either. You had to swim if the water was too deep. (The word “bridge” isn’t in the Bible). The Hebrews didn’t know what a bridge was! Nazareth. Tyre & Sidon. Jerusalem. He walked all the way. (And the record never says He was sick a day.)

Now this was an outdoor man, a rugged He-man individual. Do you begin to see Him? Tall. Dark complected. Dark eyes – those eyes piercing as they looked right through you. Further bronzed by the wind and sun with all the characteristics of an outdoor He-man.

And He had strong callused hands because He was the son of a carpenter. For 30 years He wielded those great, heavy awkward tools they used. They required tremendous strength. And you either develop great, heavy calluses against their abuse, or they tear your skin to ribbons.

So here were the great heavy, callused hands of Christ. Yet hands so gentle that mothers brought their babies to Him and asked Him to gently lay His hands on their heads.

I mentioned earlier, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to have a tape recording of His VOICE?’ You say, “How can you know anything about His voice?” I say you do!

One day 5,000 people spread out over the grassy hillside and Jesus stood on the top of the hill to speak. People weren’t jammed, straining every muscle to hear. They were seated comfortably under the open sky, thousands of them.

There was no roof to hold Jesus’ voice down. No walls to make His voice ring in it. No shell behind to throw it out. No megaphone. No microphone. Nothing! And yet every one of those individuals heard every word with no strain! Doesn’t that tell you something about His voice?

I’ve been singing in quartets and choirs for 50 years, so I have a great appreciation for good tenors. But Christ’s voice was no high, piping tenor! He would never be heard. This had to be rich, resonant baritone voice that rolled down that hillside so people could hear. Can you hear that voice?

You see, if you would see Jesus, you’d know a great deal more than you thought you did. But of course we’ve really dealt only with superficial things, haven’t we? His outward appearance. We’d all say, “That’s fine, preacher. But it isn’t enough. You haven’t really ‘seen’ a person just by knowing what His physical appearance was, or even how His voice sounded. What about His PERSONALITY? What about the real Him? What is it that shines through all this?”

We know there was a fundamental JOY in this Man that reached out and surrounded anybody that came within reach. People liked Him. Somebody was always inviting Him home to dinner.

Go back and read the account. And when Jesus was invited home for dinner, He always went! After He stayed awhile, and the time came to leave, they didn’t want Him to go. They begged Him, “Stay longer!” Often they didn’t even realize He was talking about religion until after He left and they thought back on it.

Because this was no witchdoctor that made people uncomfortable, that made people want to be away. There was something clean and good and wonderful and happy and pleasant and joyous that radiated from the life of this man and touched everyone that came in contact with Him. So people wanted to get closer.

Jesus also had a most remarkable ATTITUDE towards people. He was an expert at this. Remember how many times Jesus came into contact with the lower classes of society: individuals who had been thrown away, banished from their tribe, cast off, considered useless and valueless. (Worse: they were evil!)

How many times Jesus reached out and reclaimed those people who had been rejected by others. Jesus confronted people who had committed every conceivable evil. But He found in them that spark of God which He could fan and feed until that life became beautiful and good.

And the reverse was true, too. Jesus saw evil where society didn’t believe it existed. People who were highly respected in society; pillars of the church. They paid their taxes. They came to church. They prayed on street corners as well as at prayer meeting. Everyone said: “Now those are the ‘great’ people!”

Jesus said, “The trouble with those people is they are like whitewashed tombstones: nice and pretty on the outside, but inside they’re rotten with death.

You see, this man Jesus said horrible things about sin. But He said the most kindly things toward sinners. “I do not condemn you. But go and sin no more.”

Tonight I’d like you to see the courage of Jesus, too. Because I don’t believe you’ll ever really understand Him unless you see His physical courage.

You want a hero? Young people today want someone to look up to. Sports heroes like Samuel Matete, Zambia’s great Olympic high-hurdles champion in 1992 and 1996. Football’s Pele. Kenya’s runners. Great hunters. Great celebrities.

Look to this Man Jesus and the fantastic courage He had. I mean PHYSICAL COURAGE. Remember the time the Bible talks about the temple cleansing in the courtyard at Passover season. The priests in Jerusalem had a crime syndicate going: they jacked up the prices 400%. [EXPLAIN]

Jesus comes in, winds a cord into a rope, and in front of the temple police drives them out. How did He do it? It was the courage and bravery of it.

But the height of the physical courage of Jesus was going to Jerusalem to die on a cross. He didn’t have to die. He was way up the coast near Lebanon ministering to thousands that needed Him.

But He told His disciples, “I must go to Jerusalem to die.” That’s when Peter rebuked Him, “Be it far from Thee, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Get behind Me, Satan.” Jesus could have said, “Look these people need me.” And they did need Him. And Jesus could have lived to a ripe old age like Buddha and Confucius and Mohammed.

But here’s why Jesus Christ is different from any other prophet or good person. Jesus deliberately left Tyre and Sidon near the Lebanese border and deliberately came back to Jerusalem to fulfill prophecy! You see, Jesus came from heaven on a Divine mission to go to Calvary’s cross and die for your sins and mine! And that took courage, too!

But even when He arrived in Jerusalem on that Passover Palm Sunday there was still a week left. No one trapped Him in jail. All He had to do was go back to Nazareth and they wouldn’t have bothered Him.

On that final Thursday night after Passover when He and the disciples went out into the night and started up the slope of the Mt. of Olives, He could have detoured to the right and taken the road to Bethany. I’ve been there at the foot of Olivet. The road is the same today as it was 2,000 years ago!

There’s a fork in the road: The one to the left goes into the Garden of Gethsemane and the Mt. of Olives. The one to the right goes over the hill to Bethany, Jericho, and on to Galilee. All Jesus had to do that night when He came to the fork was to turn right and keep on going. They’d have never touched Him. Instead He deliberately went into the garden where He knew the soldiers could find Him. Where He knew Judas would betray Him. Where He knew He’d be arrested.

Friends, maybe we ought to wake up to the fact that it was real blood that ran down from the nail holes in the hands and feet of Jesus. It was real blood that spurted from the wound in His side by the spear.

Remember His tremendous anguish at the thought of God separating Himself from Jesus on the cross when He cried out, “My God! Why hast thou forsaken Me?” The Son of Man was in anguish. He was suffocating there on the cross, dying from a lack of air. That’s how a man dies on the cross, not from lack of blood.

Hanging only by the nails in the hands and feet, the body sags. And the muscles of the chest aren’t strong enough to lift the rib cage so he can get a breath. So he has to pull against the nails and kick against his feet and pull His body up and catch a breath. And then he sags again until finally there’s no strength. He dies because he can’t breathe. There isn’t any more horrible death.

But friend, Jesus didn’t die from the nails. He died because of your sins and mine. He died from a broken heart. He did it all DELIBERATELY. On purpose. He could have run away.

You say, “If Jesus hadn’t died on the cross, maybe I’d still love Him. He could have lived to be 110 years old and died in bed with His boots on; I’d have loved Him.”

But I say you’ve missed the point. If Jesus wouldn’t have gone to that cross, you would never have heard of Him. He could have done so much and said so much, and if He hadn’t been willing to prove it, to put His life right on the line, you would never have heard of Him. And Jesus knew that, too.

You see, Jesus had spiritual courage, too. He wasn’t afraid to do things for God, to confront men and women with spiritual things. Which is why you’re here tonight. It’s decision time, friend. During every night of these meetings we’re going to take the words of Jesus in the Bible, and you’ll have to make a decision for eternal life or eternal death. It’s the hour of decision!

One day, the Bible says, a rich young ruler came to Jesus, and Jesus loved him. He’d honored His father and mother. Been a great kid. He’d done nothing wrong. The only trouble is, Jesus looked at him and realized there were two great loves in this man’s life: (1) God; (2) His possessions. Yes, he loved God. But, he had lots of land, vineyards, sheep, goats.

And Jesus knew that naturally love of possessions eventually comes out on top, so He said, “Friend, if there’s anything bigger than God in your life, get rid of it.”

It would have been so easy, you see, for Jesus to say: “Look, why don’t you put lots of money into charity or give a big donation for the fund at church.” (Or, something like this).

But not Jesus. He loved the young man. But it’s all or nothing at all with Jesus. And in this case, Jesus lost. For His new friend, this young man, turned away from his friend, Jesus. He went away sorrowing because of his great possessions.

You see, Jesus had spiritual courage, too. Tonight it takes great courage to tell you that without Jesus, friend, you are lost. And that’s why our Discover Bible lessons are so important and these “Hope for Our Troubled World” meetings so absolutely thrilling and exciting – because they tell you how to get to know Jesus.

When you allow Jesus into your heart, when you accept and follow His Word, you will find peace and security. And oh, so bright a future! Jesus can make such a fantastic difference in your life, that listen...Your future is so bright, you’re going to need sunglasses to see it!

But the final and most important question is: “Was He the Son of God?” Not what someone else said. What He said.

“God the Father and I are one.”
“He who has seen Me has seen God.”
“No man comes unto the Father except by Me.”
“Before Abraham was, I AM.”
“I am the Bread of Life.”
“He who drinks of the water I give shall never thirst.”

Who ever dared take upon Himself such authority? Who ever dared to say, “Thy sins are forgiven?” No one. No one else in all history has ever dared to make such claims for himself. (Not Buddha, Not Confucious, Not Mohammed.)

Some of the great intellectuals of the world like to give Jesus a pat on the back. “Oh, yes, Jesus! This man, we agree, was the world’s greatest teacher. History’s most outstanding philosopher. The world’s finest applied psychologist.”

But NO, friend! The answer is no to these men. For the simple reason, Jesus could not have been greatest ANYTHING and been wrong about Himself.

There are only two choices: The Man of Nazareth was either history’s greatest fraud (the biggest hoax ever and we’re all fools to come here night by night), or else He was absolutely everything that He Himself claimed to be, the Only Begotten Son of God. One or the other. No middle ground.

Now I know Him to be the Son of God. He holds my heart. I seek to follow Him, to be a part of His body in the world. I don’t do a very good job of it often.

There’s never been a day yet when at the close I could look back and say, “Well, today I followed Him all the way.” There hasn’t been such a day yet. Instead, every evening I have to look back and pick out with sorrow and sadness and shame, incident after incident when I turned my back on Him and walked my own way.

But I can’t get very far away! Thank God! I have to come back! Because He’s the only hope I’ve got for my life. He’s the only hope I’ve got for this world.

And thank God every time I come back I feel that great big strong Carpenter’s arm reach out across my shoulders and that magnificent voice say once again, “Now that’s all right, Lon. But next time, won’t you try a little harder and walk a little closer with Me?”

How is this proved? It isn’t. How do you prove a victory before it is won? How can you prove a Man is a leader worth following, unless you step out in faith and follow Him to death?

I walk through the crowded streets of this world where men and women, mad with lust, loose-lipped and lewd, go promenading down to hell’s wide gates. Yet I’ve looked into my Savior’s eyes and I’ve seen the light of true love. It’s a light you don’t see on land or sea in this world. Oh, it’s a beautiful love – the love of my Savior. And on that love I bet my life!

O, I do! I bet my life on beauty. Truth. Love. Not just a passing fancy or abstract truth. But Truth Incarnate. Love realized. Jesus is REAL.

I bet my life on Christ. Christ crucified, aye! But risen and alive forever more.

O yes, the Bible says “At present we do not see all things controlled by man, but WE SEE JESUS!”

Let’s pray.