Seeing the Infinite Value of People [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. It's mind-bending, but what will happen is if you can understand and see through Jesus' eyes, this is who people are.

You will never view a person in the same way again. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. Presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But right now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. When Jesus paid it all, we sing. It is to say that when Jesus looks at people like His disciples, He's looking at them first through the eyes of His own creative power as the one who created them, but He's also looking at them and He's looking at Peter and James and John and all the people He came to rescue. He's looking on them through His own knowledge of the price that He came to pay for them. Jesus could never miss the value of a human being because every person that He encountered reminded Him of the reason that He'd come as the Redeemer to pay the price for them. So what it meant was He didn't look at Peter's value based on what Peter was willing to sacrifice for Christ, but Christ based Peter's value on what Jesus would sacrifice for Peter.

I think instead of trying to manage our thoughts, manage our behaviors when it comes to our views of people, I think what would change everything is to understand the value. If you ever had something that you didn't know was valuable and then you found out that it was and how it changes everything, one of our pastors, David Hastings, who works with our Clemens campus and our pastoral care, he's a fascinating, wonderful brother and he's got a fascinating life and one of the things fascinating in David's life was he knew, was personal friends with and worked with one of the most important American painters of the mid-20th century, Andrew Wyeth. Andrew Wyeth was the first painter to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was the first living American artist to be elected to Britain's Royal Academy.

He, in 2007, received the National Medal of Arts. He was a realist and his works are remarkably beautiful and insightful. One of the friends, it was a mutual friend to David Hastings and to Andrew Wyeth, a couple, the last name was Cipolla, and the Cipollas, interestingly, I guess they posed for you. He painted a picture of them sleeping, which is marvelous and a little creepy too.

I mean, they were sleeping, but anyway, I guess they posed for it, but that's the Cipollas. And so they were friends and because they were friends, Andrew Wyeth gave them some paintings over the years. And David, Pastor David Hastings, he said that one time years later that Andrew Wyeth was at the Cipollas home and he was speaking to him and he just finally brought it up. He said, say, he said, do you still have those paintings that I gave to you? I think there were four of them that he had given to them that he knew of.

And they said, oh, yes, Andrew, we do, we do. And he said, well, are you aware what they might be worth? And they said, well, you know, they're rolled up and they're in the closet and, you know, we keep saying we need to get those framed because you've become quite well known. They may be worth several hundred dollars each, they thought. And David said, Andrew Wyeth came over, took their hands very gently and he said the other paintings like those are right now selling for $250,000 each. They had four of them in their closet. David later learned that they had sketches and other just lying around the closet. The last painting that was auctioned of Andrew Wyeth went for $18 million.

What I'm saying is if you found out that there was a $250,000 painting rolled up in your closet, you would do something about that, wouldn't you? If you have something that you treasure, you immediately think and feel differently about it. So Jesus knew the value of a human being because the value of the human being was what Jesus had come to pay and that was the gift of his own life. Eternity had come into time, divinity had come into humanity. He had not counted equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, he became the form of a servant and he came to give the ultimate gift, his own life for you. That's how much you're worth.

And he never was confused about that. I think part of the problem is that we can get confused about what's really valuable. A couple of weeks ago, this is especially cruel in a time of shelter in place, a museum that was closed, a small museum outside of Amsterdam where they had a famous Van Gogh painting that they were keeping was robbed. And there's videotape of the thief, he comes in with a sledgehammer, just crushes through the protective glass twice, two different places, grabs the painting and he's singing. You see him going out with the Van Gogh under his arm. And so the whole art community, everybody's up in arms about this, but I was thinking, you know what you don't read and in the headlines is nobody is saying protective glass broken and the whole world is mourning over the fractured glass. Nobody's saying that, they're all talking about the painting. The painting's the thing that's valuable, the glass wasn't the thing that was valuable. How foolish it would be to get those things mixed up.

Jesus never got it mixed up. He never thought for a moment, well stuff is important, but people aren't. Agenda is important, but people aren't.

My schedule's important, but people aren't. No, he always knew what was valuable. How do you see people, Jesus? Well, he sees us through the eyes of the Creator and he sees through the eyes of the Redeemer and he also sees us with the eyes of a co-heir, a co-heir.

That's who we are, that's who we are designed to be. We are princes and princesses when we come to Christ, we become co-heirs with Him and we in that sense share in His majesty. In the beginning, Genesis 1 28, God blessed him, said to him, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air.

Dominion. This is the promise of God's Word. Matthew 19 verse 28, Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Paul really asserted that the reign that we have with Christ has already begun. If, because, he says in Romans, because of one man's trespasses, death, speaking of the first Adam, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. We're destined to reign with Him. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 11, The saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with Him, we will also live with Him. If we endure, we will also reign with Him. And in Revelation, the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with Me on My throne as I also conquered and sat down with My Father on His throne.

So when Jesus looked at people, He was looking at the people who will, as co-heirs with Him, reign in a new heaven, in a new earth for all eternity. Wow! That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Now more than ever, someone you love needs your blessing, and we're here to help you craft it. This month's special offer from Alan Wright is a beautiful booklet that will teach you how to craft a meaningful blessing. The easy step-by-step instructions are biblically based and even include a worksheet that helps you write your blessing. So this Christmas, give someone you love a present not found in stores, a gift from your own heart that will encourage and empower. Write down the blessing and put it in a package under the tree or put it in your Christmas card.

They'll never forget it. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month, we'll send you this booklet as our thank you so you can discover the power to bless. Now we are in our final days of offering this special product. Call us at 877-544-4860 or visit PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. One of my favorite catechisms, the Heidelberg Catechism. Catechism is simply a question and answer document that is designed to help educate people to the essentials of the faith.

And when you come to the Heidelberg Catechism to question number 32, the answer is just beautiful and stunning. Why are you called a Christian? Because by faith I'm a member of Christ and so I share in His anointing. I am anointed to confess His name, to present myself to Him as a living sacrifice of thanks, to strive with a good conscience against sin and the devil in this life, and afterward to reign with Christ over all creation for all eternity. That's who you are, one who has been made in the image of God, redeemed, bought with the most expensive price imaginable, an infinite price, the price of the life and death of the Son of God. And it is for this purpose that you will be a co-heir with Christ and that you'll live with Him forever and that you'll reign with Him forever. It is mind-bending. But what will happen is if you can understand and see through Jesus' eyes, this is who people are, you will never view a person in the same way again.

C.S. Lewis captured this so magnificently in his The Weight of Glory. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations, these are mortal and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit. Immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. An everlasting splendor is who you are as a co-heir with Christ.

It must have been with that idea of who a human being is, with that in mind that C.S. Lewis wrote the brilliant Chronicles of Narnia. In The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, these penvessy children stumble through a wardrobe into this magical land of Narnia.

Peter and Susan and Edmund and little Lucy. And interestingly, in Narnia, there are all kinds of fanciful creatures, but there are no humans until the penvessy children arrive. And so the creatures of Narnia are absolutely fascinated that human beings have come. And what they begin to learn is that human beings are the answer to overturning the evil in Narnia. They meet Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, who tell them of the prophecies of how the White Witch will be defeated.

Beaver says, down at Caer Paravel, there are four thrones. There's a saying in Narnia, a time out of mind, that when two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve, humans, when they sit in those four thrones, then it will be the end not only of the White Witch's reign, but of her life. And the children are just mesmerized by this because, see, back in England, they're just children and they're overlooked.

And now here, they're realizing that they are viewed as royalty, that they're the answer, that they're going to have a rule and a reign in Narnia. So the children are curious and they say, this White Witch, but isn't she human? And Beaver says, ah, she wants you to think that she's human, but she doesn't have an actual real drop of human blood.

And I love what Mr. Beaver said. He said, in general, take my advice, when you meet anything that's going to be human and isn't yet, or used to be human once and isn't now, or ought to be human and isn't, you keep your eye on it and feel for your hatchet. Yeah, when you see the value of a human being, you'll never look on a human being the same way again. Think of something you treasure.

Maybe it's just a physical thing, something that you really care for. Think about it for a moment. How do you think of it? Keep it in mind, something, some physical thing you treasure. How do you view it?

How do you feel about it? How do you care for it? And let me ask you this. Does anyone need to give you a lecture or a law to make you care for something you treasure? No, you instinctively care for what you value. I've mentioned a few weeks ago a gift that was given to me my 40th birthday, this beautiful miniature grand piano. And I'm no great pianist, but what a treasure it is, and I play it most every day. Do you have to give me a law that says don't go and take a knife and scratch the beautiful ebony finish?

Because what? No, you don't have to give me a law or a lecture that says don't go over and just bang on the keys, don't jump up and down on top. If there's something that's valuable, what do you do?

You instinctively take care of it. I'm saying, beloved, that our relationship problems that we work so hard to try to fix would be transformed with a simple prayer, Jesus, how do you see this person? And the way that you view your own life and care for your own body and soul, and the way you think about your future would all be transformed to just see yourself as Jesus does. So it all began in a garden where Adam was created and put in the garden to tend it and was authorized to rule. But Adam and Eve were lured, tempted by a serpent, and they became disobedient and sin came into the world. And when sin came into the world, these perfect humans who were made in the image of God, they became blind in a spiritual sense, they became dead in a spiritual sense, and they felt separation from God and they felt shame, but they were still made in the image of God, even though it was marred and broken. And God never once said, what I'm going to do is I'm going to scrap humanity and start over again.

Instead, He set out to transform it all. He transformed it by sending His Son as another Adam. The Bible says as a second Adam, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, thus it is written, the first man Adam became a living being, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. In Romans chapter 5, for if because of one man's trespass, Adam's, death reigned through that one man, so through Adam's, the first Adam, death came to all of us, spiritual death.

Much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. So that's a picture the Bible paints is that there was a first Adam, but there's a second Adam, and that God, instead of scrapping humanity, said, no, you're far too valuable for that. He knows what He made.

He knows the majesty and the glory of a human being. And He's not going to, when you die and go to heaven, He's not going to turn you into a different kind of creature. He is just going to give you a new kind of body, but you will still be human.

We say, oh, I'm only human as if it's like as a nothing, but God doesn't look at it that way. Instead, what Jesus came to do was He came to be the second Adam to go into the garden and to be ferociously tempted and to have in front of Him the specter of His suffering and death. To have the kind of temptation that the first Adam experienced, but this time in a garden, in a different garden, the second Adam would not yield to the tempter, but instead, not my will, but Yours be done, Father. And in so doing, what He did, this second Adam, the last Adam, He made it possible for your humanity to be restored, for you to be restored into relationship with God, for you to be restored into a place of having spiritual dominion in the earth where sin is no longer your master, where you are no longer a slave to fear. But instead, what Jesus came to do was not just take us to heaven, but to make us fully human again.

So we are not in the first Adam, we're in the second Adam. It means that we are, in His eyes, reckoned as righteous, and you, beloved, when you accept Christ, are fully restored as a human being one day to be glorified as a human being. People are the most precious treasure on earth.

They are infinitely valuable, and maybe one of the greatest things that will come out of this terrible time of suffering and global pandemic and sheltering in place is it will never look on people the same again. Look, Mommy, people! Look! The image of God. That's who He made you to be, and that's the gospel. Alan Bryant, today's Good News message, Seeing the Infinite Value of People. In our series, You'll See. We're back in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day in just a moment.

Stick with us. that will teach you how to craft a meaningful blessing. The easy step-by-step instructions are biblically based and even include a worksheet that helps you write your blessing. So this Christmas, give someone you love a present not found in stores, a gift from your own heart that will encourage and empower. Write down the blessing and put it in a package under the tree or put it in your Christmas card.

They'll never forget it. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries this month, we'll send you this booklet as our thank you so you can discover the power to bless. Now we are in our final days of offering this special product. Call us at 877-544-4860 or visit PastorAlan.org. Back here in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day. And who better to talk to than someone in the people business, and that's a pastor, about the value of people. And, boy, we've all learned that through a global pandemic. People are what matters. People are what matters to God. People are what matters in this world. It's not things that matter. It's not institutions that matter.

It's not even the civilizations and cultures that matter. It's persons, human beings, made in the image of God, a little lower than the angels, worth the very price of the Son of God. So ask Him and He'll give you His eyes if you want to see people rightly. You'll see them as everlasting, immortal treasures to God. And this is why it's so important how we treat people. This is why it's so important why we share the gospel with people. We're made for eternity. And I hope and pray that out of all that we've experienced through a pandemic that has kept us apart from one another, that we'll never look on people the same. Christians, ask the Lord, give me your eyes for people and He'll do it. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.