Looking at Life Through Jesus' Eyes [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. I think Nathaniel must have been one of those straight shooters. He was the opposite of old Jacob.

Nathaniel, if it came to his mind, he'd just say it. Well, they said, we found the Messiah. He's from Nazareth. He just said, Nazareth?

Can anything good come from Nazareth? That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, You'll See, as 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. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org, or call 877-544-4860.

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. God had already foreordained that Jacob would be blessed as if he was the firstborn son. But he was the second of twin boys.

And the firstborns got all the attention in that culture. And so it's interesting, Jacob is born grabbing onto his twin brother's heel as if Jacob wants to get in first place when they're being born. But he's born second. And so he's named Jacob, which means probably one who grasped at the heel.

Or it can mean supplanter. But the idea you get of Jacob's name is it means somebody that's struggling with people. And Jacob becomes a manipulator of people.

He becomes a deceitful person. He becomes, in many ways, a despicable conniver because he so desperately wants to be blessed. And the height of this is there's a special moment in which a Hebrew father would impart a blessing to his firstborn near the end of the patriarch's life. And in so doing, spoke and released a positive destiny on that firstborn son.

And that firstborn son would get a double portion of the inheritance and run the family estate. And so at this special moment where Esau is going to get the blessing of a firstborn, Jacob pretends to be Esau. And because Isaac has grown blind in his old age, Jacob goes in and tricks him into believing that Jacob's Esau.

That's what we read at Genesis 27, verse 18. So he went into his father and said, my father, and he said, here I am, who are you, my son? And Jacob said to the father, I am Esau, your firstborn. He lied directly to his father.

I've done as you told me, now sit up and eat in my game that your soul may bless me. At verse 24, Isaac said, are you really my son Esau? And he answered, I am. So Jacob was a liar, a man of deceit, desperate to be blessed, struggling all the time, jockeying for first place because he so wanted to be blessed. Well, he started a journey for Jacob.

The first thing that happened was Esau hated him and was going to murder him. So Jacob fled for his life. And soon in his journey, God in his grace began revealing himself to Jacob. God is so patient with Jacob. And one of the first things that happens for Jacob is a supernatural revelation. In Genesis 28, verse 12, we see Jacob having slept outdoors on the run, on the way to Beersheba.

He's got a stone for a pillow. And that night, God visits him with a dream. And he dreamed, verse 12, and behold, there was a ladder set up on earth and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Now, just get this vision in your mind, a ladder firmly planted on earth, but it's as if the heavens have opened and the ladder's top extends into heaven. So there's a connection between earth and heaven. And what he sees are angels, which are messengers of God, coming down from heaven towards earth and then going back from earth to heaven, ascending and descending. There's enormous majestic supernatural traffic on a ladder between heaven and earth. And Jacob, who has lived his life as if there is no real connection point between the stuff of earth and the stuff of heaven, who always acts like it's up to me to manage the stuff of earth so I can get my place of blessedness, he suddenly realizes that heaven and earth are connected.

And what he says at verse 16, if powerful, Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it. Jacob gets married to his beloved Rachel, but he has to agree to work for seven years. He gets tricked. The trickster is tricked by Rachel's father and he ends up marrying Leah first and has to work another seven years. So he's got 14 years of labor. He's got two wives. His life is a mess at home with all kinds of maidservants and wives trying to have babies and all of this trickery and deceit.

It seems like it's caught up with him. Years pass and Jacob's going to meet Esau again. And he is terrified of meeting Esau because he's afraid that as Esau was back when he first stole the blessing from Esau, that Esau is going to try to murder Jacob. And so Jacob prays before the reunion at Genesis 32, verse 11. And he asked the Lord, please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.

He's saying, I'm afraid he's going to come and slaughter all of us. But, and it's a wonderful thing Jacob does, he reminds God of a promise. Jacob said, you said, Lord, I will surely do you good and make you your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. He said, God, protect me.

And remember, you promised that my descendants would be blessed. So then at verse 23, Jacob sends his people across the river, took them, sent them across the stream and everything else he had. And Jacob was left alone. And the text says, simply a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. The struggler who's always wrestling with people, wrestles a supernatural being, an angelic figure, maybe a pre-manifestation of Christ.

We don't know exactly who this man is who appears from nowhere, but they wrestle all night long. And he grows weary. At verse 26 of Genesis 32, we read, then he said, let me go for the day has broken. Jacob has got such a firm grasp on the angel. The angel says, let me go. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me.

My whole life is dedicated to finding a way to be blessed. And he said to him, the angel said to him, what is your name? And he said, Jacob, struggler with people, the supplanter, the one who grasped me healed, I'm Jacob. And then he said, the angel said to him, God spoke through this messenger and said, your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel for you've striven with God and with men and have prevailed. Interestingly, scholars think that Israel, an unusual word means something like struggles with God. He said, you've struggled now with God all through the night and you've prevailed, meaning you weren't slain by your close encounter with God. And his name was changed from Jacob to Israel, from supplanter, one who grasped at the heel, one who struggles with people to the one who struggles with God. His name was changed essentially from struggles with people to struggles with God. Now that may not sound like that great of a blessing, does it? But if you can identify it all with Jacob, you know it's a blessing. Because if you've ever been, even a little bit, the kind of person that can't feel blessed unless you've got everyone else's approval, if you've ever tasted of that sort of approval addiction, if you've ever been that person who feels worried all the time about your place in this world such that it feels like you're constantly struggling with other people, always trying to get ahead of somebody else, never free to just be joyful and just be at peace with everybody. If you could taste that in your life, you know it's painful and it's a blessing if instead of worrying about what everybody thinks of you, you can bring your pain and your problems and your dilemmas to God. He's saying, here's who you are and this is who I want my people to be. I want you to care most of all about bringing to me whatever it is that's on your heart.

Come to me, you are heavily burdened and I'll give you rest. Come into the freedom of loving God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength such that he's what matters most to you and other things seem small in comparison. His name was changed to Israel. The deceiver who was always struggling through his craftiness to get ahead of other people is now named the one who has no such God as the one who is has no such guile and instead authentically comes to God. Jesus, how do you see this?

It's a prayer that the Savior loves to answer because after all, Christ came to be the light of the world. Clear away confusion, win over the darkness, and open your heart to wonder and joy by pre-ordering the book today. Though the book releases October 10th, if you pre-order now, you'll receive over $100 of bonus resources. Simply pre-order the book at Amazon or your favorite online bookseller.

Visit seeingasjesusseas.org or come to our website pastorallen.org. Give us confirmation that you've pre-ordered the book. And when the book releases, you'll be given a free audio book from the publisher and you'll also receive a free six-week Seeing as Jesus Sees companion video series from Pastor Alan, along with a study guide and a daily reading plan. All these valuable bonus gifts are only for those who pre-order the book. So place your order today with your favorite online book retailer and visit our website for instructions on receiving all the extra resources.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Allen Wright. That's the story of Jacob. And unless you know that story, you wouldn't understand the beauty and power of what's happening in the call of Nathaniel. So go back to the Nathaniel story.

John chapter one, verse 47. Again, we read Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. He saw Nathaniel and he said, here is a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit. And everyone would have known, especially Nathaniel, that Jesus was talking about Jacob. He was saying, essentially, here is a man who is all Israel and no Jacob. He is saying to him, here is a man, and the Greek word really is more like the word who has no guile, no deceit through human craftiness, no pretension. I think Nathaniel must have been one of those straight shooters.

He was the opposite of old Jacob. Nathaniel, if it came to his mind, he'd just say it. Well, they said, we found the Messiah. He's from Nazareth. He just said, Nazareth?

Can anything good come from Nazareth? It was just, I bet you, Nathaniel was one of those people that like open mouth, insert foot. But one thing you could count on about Nathaniel was he was an honest man. He might've been honest to a fault.

I don't know, but he has no guile about him. He was, Jesus said, all Israel, one who struggles with God and no Jacob, one who wrestles with people all the time. And he must have absolutely nailed Nathaniel's character because it absolutely makes Nathaniel stand at attention. And Nathaniel, verse 19, I mean 49, Nathaniel answered him, Rabbi, you're the son of God.

I'm sorry, I'm jumping ahead of it. Nathaniel said, how do you know me? So Nathaniel is saying, you just have said something essential about my nature.

You get me. And Jesus answered him with a further, more powerful revelation. Before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. So Nathaniel's in some other spot. Jesus in the spirit sees Nathaniel under the fig tree, probably hears the whole conversation in the spirit of Nathaniel saying, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And Nathaniel is like, well, how do you even know me?

You're describing my character, but how do you know me? He says, I saw you while you're under the fig tree. He might as well have said, I saw you over there when you're saying, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And Nathaniel is just blown away by this.

It now rocks this whole world. And he says in verse 49, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You're the King of Israel. In other words, because Jesus saw Nathaniel, Nathaniel now sees Jesus and he has a paradigm shift. And Jesus must have smiled here. I just imagine Jesus chuckled. I don't, I'm just guessing, but the way he says this, he must've smiled and just thought, you know, maybe this mission ain't going to be so hard after all. He's got a convert right here. Just cause all he did was they had a simple little, Jesus is like, this is prophecy 101. And I've already got a convert out of this. He said, might as well raise the dead and stuff.

This is not going to be that. I'm just guessing. But Jesus answered and said, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree. Do you believe?

Wow. You will see greater things than these. And he said to them, said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man. If there's any question that we were talking about Jacob here, it's answered, right? He's saying you are all Israel and no Jacob. And he said, you believe because I saw you under a fig tree. And at this verse, he changes his language from you and the singular to you and the plural. And he says, you all will see greater things in this.

And now he's speaking to everyone there and he's speaking to you and me. He's saying you all, y'all are going to see greater things than this. You're going to see the heavens open and angels of God ascending and descending not on Jacob's ladder, but on the son of man.

He is saying, I am Jacob's ladder. I am the connecting point of earth and heaven. I am the one who has opened up heaven to you. And you're going to see miracle after miracle and grace upon grace. And you're going to see it all, not on some figurative ladder in a dream, but you're going to see it with your own eyes. You're going to see the heavens open and the grace of God poured out because there's one mediator between God and man. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And he came to connect us to heaven again. Seeing with Jesus changes everything. I want us to learn to see ourselves as he sees us. He didn't say to Nathaniel, I saw you under the tree and you're a doubter and a scoffer. I heard what you said.

He said, you're all Israel, no Jacob. I think sometimes we look at our lives in reflection. It's like looking at one of those crazy mirrors at the carnival. You know those wavy mirrors and you look and all of a sudden it makes you look like you're next two feet long, or you've got really big ears or something like that.

You hear in life, somebody says, well, you're always losing or you're always sloppy or you're never this. And you listen to these things that people say, and it's just a carnival mirror. And Jesus came to tell you who you really are. You can see yourself through his eyes and you can learn to see others. We're going to explore many stories of Jesus's encounter with people. I love the way he saw people because he made the people. I get the chance to see through the creator's eyes. Everything within you will start honoring people. There's no way to tell the worth of a life except through Jesus's eyes.

So the Pharisees in Luke 7, they'll see a woman they call a sinful woman, but Jesus sees a worshiper. We're going to learn how to let go of judgments and get the logs out of our own eyes, lest we spend all our time trying to get the speck out of someone else's. And I think it's an invitation to see the world differently. I want us to have times to stand with Jesus on the hillside and look out over Jerusalem and weep with him and say, O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, how I have longed to gather you under my wings.

I think you'll find compassion where you didn't used to have compassion. You'll find insights where you used to have confusion, but you'll have clarity about how God's called you to interact in a world of so much trouble, all of this and so much more. In Genesis 28 verse 17, after Jacob had his vision of the ladder, he said, how awesome is this place? This is none other than the house of God.

And this is the gate of heaven. And in verse 19, he called the name of that place Bethel. It means house of God. He's saying, this is the house of God.

This is the meeting place of God and humanity. That's what the temple was. And in John chapter two, the chapter after our text today, the Jews said to Jesus, what sign do you show us for doing these things after he cleaned out the temple? And Jesus answered them, destroy this temple.

And in three days, I'll raise it up. And the Jews said to him, it's taken 46 years to build this temple and you'll raise it up in three days. But the text says he was speaking about the temple of his body. Jesus was saying, I am Bethel. I am the house of God.

I'm the meeting place of God and humanity. May God give you the eyes of Jesus so you'll see everything as he sees it. Through Christ's eyes, just like he promised Nathaniel, you'll see greater things this year under a cloudless, open heaven. May God give you the savior's own clear vision so that you'll see yourself more beloved than broken. You'll see others' potential more than their problems. You'll see the world's hope more than its heartaches. I believe God's grace is all around you. You'll see. That's our hope. And that's the gospel.

Alan Wright. It's our good news message today, looking at life through Jesus' eyes. It's in the series you'll see. And Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio with today's parting good news thought in just a moment. Seeing as Jesus sees. It's the title of Pastor Alan's newest book soon to be released, and it's the giant secret of real transformation. Alan Wright invites readers into a new, simple spiritual practice, a little breath prayer that can be prayed throughout the day. Jesus, how do you see this?

It's a prayer that the savior loves to answer because after all, Christ came to be the light of the world. Clear away confusion, win over the darkness, and open your heart to wonder and joy by pre-ordering the book today. Though the book releases October 10th, if you pre-order now, you'll receive over a hundred dollars of bonus resources. Simply pre-order the book at Amazon or your favorite online bookseller.

Visit seeingasjesusseas.org or come to our website, pastoralan.org. Give us confirmation that you've pre-ordered the book. And when the book releases, you'll be given a free audio book from the publisher, and you'll also receive a free six-week Seeing as Jesus Sees companion video series from Pastor Alan, along with a study guide and a daily reading plan. All these valuable bonus gifts are only for those who pre-order the book.

So place your order today with your favorite online book retailer and visit our website for instructions on receiving all the extra resources. Pastor Alan, I like what you said, even on our last program. Instead of what would Jesus do, it's just really asking the question, how would Jesus see it? Maybe praying the prayer, Lord, help me see as you see. I think it's just a very simple spiritual discipline, but I've found it to be life transforming to simply in every situation say, Jesus, how do you see this?

I mean, you get into a difficult spot. Just stop and say, Jesus, how do you see this? Because, you know, Daniel, once you see something clearly, then your thoughts and feelings will line up with it. And I think that it's a precious promise Jesus gives Nathaniel and Nathaniel, and it's one to us as well, in a very important season for Jesus to say, you'll see greater things. So ask him. And I think you'll find that by the Spirit of Jesus, you'll be led. And when you see it differently as he does, all your behaviors and thoughts will line up. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.