Before Our Savior's Face "“ Part 2 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. In a series called, In the Divine Presence, we're visualizing five faces of Jesus as depicted in the Bible. Today we'll learn about the last four of these depictions ending with his glorified face as seen in Revelation chapter 22.

For some deep truth, please stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Wind with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, as you contemplate the five faces of Jesus, which one means the most to you? Well Dave, of course it's the glorified face of Jesus as given to us in Revelation chapter 1.

I know that I've told this story before, but Joni Eareckson Tada, she has been in a wheelchair for 50 years, and she said the thing that she looks forward to most when she is in heaven is the ability to see God without sin coming in between. And you know, when we behold the face of Jesus in all of his glory, and we will remember what Jesus has done for us, that of course will be our greatest time of worship, adoration, and praise that will go on forever. I believe that this series of messages is a tremendous blessing to all those who listen and contemplate the divine presence. So for a gift of any amount, we're making these messages available for you.

Here's what you do, go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And let us always remember, beholding the face of Jesus can begin in this world, and of course will continue more directly in the world to come. First of all, we've seen now the transformed face of Jesus. Let's notice now the resolute or determined face of Jesus. It says in Luke chapter 9 verse 51, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

Here is the determined face of Jesus. Let's remember that when he decided to go to Jerusalem, think about what that road was like. He needed to be determined because this would be a very rough road, a very rough road. A Jesus would be going to Jerusalem where he would be rejected, where he would be killed. He knew that at the end of this road there was death, there was separation momentarily from the Father.

This was a very, very rough road. It was also a lonely road because the Bible says that all of the disciples forsook him and fled. Jesus knew that when he went to Jerusalem he would be going places where he'd have to go alone. When he was dying on the cross there were three hours of sunlight during which time he suffered under the hands of men and then later on three hours of darkness when he suffered under the hands of God. And the reason that God shrouded the earth in darkness is that when that transaction was being taking place, when Jesus was being made sin for us, the one who knew no sin, when this was being laid upon him and he was becoming a sacrifice for our sins to the Father, the Father said that no one can see what is happening. When Jesus was there on the cross every second of the clock seemed like ours as he suffered. And so Jesus with a very determined face, you looked at him and you could see that he was absolutely resolute.

He was determined to go to Jerusalem no matter the cost. And when we follow Christ there are times when we have to go alone. There are times that the only thing that can sustain us is grit and determination. May God give us a determined face to do what he's called us to do. Let's look at a third face of Jesus and that is the submissive face and for this I do want you to turn to Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26. This could be called yes the submissive face of Jesus. You'll notice it says in verse 39 we're in Gethsemane now.

We're at a place where we should take the shoes from our feet because the ground is holy. The Son of God is wrestling with the will of the Father. Verse 39 and going a little farther he fell in his face and prayed saying my father if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as you will. He falls on his face. Why did Jesus fall on his face? First of all because of the sheer weight of the sorrow. You remember the text in the Old Testament that says does anyone have sorrow like I have sorrow and the answer of course is no. It's not possible for us to comprehend the sorrow that Jesus was in.

So he falls on his face because of the extent and depth of the sorrow but also falling on his face before the Father showed his submission and his acceptance of the Father's will. You'll notice it says not my will. That's the human will of Jesus because Jesus had a human will.

He was 100% man, 100% humanity joined with 100% deity but here's Jesus as a man. Father not my will but thine be done and there's no way that you can really say that unless you are wholly submissive and the best way to say it is on your face before God. There are different ways that we can pray. We pray when we're seated. We can pray when we're standing up. We can kneel but when you want to as an individual lay down the weapons of a rebel.

When you are finally finished and you say no longer my will but yours be done. The best place is to be on your face before God. I have in my mind here an image of Jesus. I don't think that this was a graceful act because it says he fell down. It's as if the weight was so great he couldn't take it he just went face first into the dust of Gethsemane. Father not my will but thine be done he cried.

It's the submissive face of Jesus. Why was Jesus able to say that to the Father? Well of course because he loved the Father and this was part of the Father's plan and that's the real reason that Jesus could say this is because he knew that the cup that he would have to drink had been a cup given to him by the Father not by Satan. Satan was involved but at the end of the day it was from God the cup which my Father has given me.

Shall I not drink it? My dear fellow Christian today when you see your trial is coming not from Satan though he may be involved not from just the circumstances of life but when you see behind all of that God you'll be able to accept it and you'll be able to say thy will be done. The great theologian of Geneva Switzerland Calvin had many many physical infirmities and he prayed one day and said oh God I am greatly afflicted but it is from thy hand therefore I am abundantly satisfied. Jesus represents to us the submissive face the face that says Father thy will be done and I'm speaking to many today and you need to say that to God don't you? In fact if you'd be on your face I think that you would know what God's will is because there's something in your life that God is pointing out that it's your will against his and it's time his won and so you get on your face and you say Father thy will be done. That's the submissive face of Jesus.

Let's go on to a fourth face and that is what we could call the dishonored face. We're still in Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26 you'll notice it says in verse 67 then they spit in his face and struck him and some of them slapped him saying prophesy to us you Christ. Who is that that struck you? Wow when you spit in somebody's face that is the ultimate insult but in that culture in that day it was even more abhorrent. It indicated your greatest contempt for that person and Jesus is struck in the face and they spit in his face. This is the dishonored face and yet look at his response. He remains silent in fact part of the story here in context is that the priest is trying to get Jesus to speak and Jesus remains silent and then he gives them that great declaration of his deity and it is at that point that they spit in his face. Someone has said that never was a dishonor less deserved and never more bravely born. Wow I was meditating on this and I was amazed to remember that Jesus was not in a helpless situation.

If you and I had been there what would we have done? Well the answer is that in our weakness we'd have maybe had to just bear it because we had no other options. If you're tied up and somebody's spitting in your face you just need to take it but Jesus wasn't in that situation.

He was not a victim in that sense of the word. He said do you not know that I could call 12 legions of angels and they'd come and deliver me. If I wanted out of this I could get out of it just like that. All of you would be incinerated if I gave the word and yet he endured it. This morning as I was reviewing my notes this phrase came to me. I thought of all of the unused power of Jesus. The unused power of Jesus. A man who could retaliate.

Now let's think about yourself. You are working in an office and there are people who want to do you in and they're making life as miserable as they possibly can for you and you could retaliate. You have the power to do that. You could really give word for word, insult for insult, injury for injury, weapon for weapon because you've got your own arsenal but you choose not to. Now we're talking about true greatness.

True greatness is not seen necessarily by the power that is used but by the power that is unused but could be used in retaliation. Jesus takes it and there are times in life when you and I need to simply take it too. There are really three laws.

You might want to write them down. The first law is the law of Satan. Satan's law is this.

You hate people who love you. That's Satan's law. Then you have man's law. Man's law is you love those who love you. Jesus said that human beings do that. They love those who love them but then there's the divine law.

You love those who hate you. That is divine love. Jesus is standing here and he is bearing it.

He is bearing it. This is his dishonored face. No matter how great the provocation was, even greater yet was the patience and the faith of Jesus that he did not need to settle all of his accounts right there. It's a verse I've given to you many times. First Peter chapter two, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered he uttered no threats but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. Jesus said I don't need to straighten out all these injustices.

I trust my father in heaven to do right by me someday and that's good enough for me. It's the dishonored face. It's the kind of face that you and I are not good at, are we?

Because retaliation is in our bones. Jesus said I can take it. Well now think of how far we've come. We spoke about the transformed face, the resolute face, the submissive face, the dishonored face and now we come to the glorified face, the glorified face of Jesus and for this you have to turn to revelation chapter 22. Revelation chapter 22, by the time you get to revelation 22 you're in a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth have passed away and God has created a brand new order of reality and what an order of reality it is.

You'll notice in verse 3 and I'm going to jump in right there. Revelation chapter 22 verse 3. No longer will there be anything accursed but the throne of God and of the lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him. They shall see his face and his name will be on their foreheads and night will be no more. They will need no light of the lamp or of the sun or of the earth.

No more. They will need no light of the lamp or of the sun for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign with him into the ages of the ages. The text says for all of eternity they'll reign with him. This is now the glorified face, the face of Jesus.

Notice what the text says. No more curse. Instead of the curse the throne of God and of the lamb. God has finally taken over. His rule has come. He now rules in every pocket of the universe but today he rules by delegating responsibility and we notice what happens when that's the method of ruling but in the end it's all going to be wrapped up. Justice will have been done.

All of the loose ends of society will finally have been answered. Every single sin, every single crime will already have been retried so that throughout all of eternity we can sing just and true are thy ways thou king of saints and now we're in the forever land and you'll notice what the text says. His servants will worship him, serve him. Both words are important. Many people think that when we get to heaven all that we're going to do is we're going to begin at hymn number one in our hymnal, sing all the way through and when we get to the end Tim or Jerry or somebody like that is going to begin again with number one and we're going to sing all the way through.

No my friend. When it says his servants, it's doulos, it is his slaves will serve him. We're going to be assigned tasks, we're going to be given things to do in the new order of reality. You are going to be busy in heaven and one of the things that we're going to be doing is studying the ideas of God that go on for all eternity. Oh there's going to be lots of time for worship and fellowship, but you're going to be given assignments by God, you're going to serve him and we have some ideas as to what those assignments might be, but now notice the text. It says they shall see his face.

What can I say about that? To see the face of someone means access. To see the face of someone means access. No longer will Jesus be distant from us. We will see his face. I mean we're going to be able to connect. The things that I spoke about at the beginning of the message, his mood, his love for us, his acceptance of us, all of that is going to be open is going to be open to everyone.

No glass in between. Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face and we shall see him in all of his glory. So the Bible says that we shall see him face to face and his name shall be on our foreheads. What's all that about? That's ownership. It means that we belong to him and we are going to willingly, gladly, and irresistibly serve him and love him forever and ever and ever and ever.

In fact, I read the text. They will reign with him forever and ever. The final face of Jesus, the one that we shall see throughout all of eternity. Now the Bible says no man can see God and live, you remember, but that means nobody can see God in these bodies, but we are going to be so transformed.

That's why I'm looking forward so much to Resurrection Sunday. We are going to be so transformed that we are going to be like him, the Bible says, for we shall see him as he is. There's going to be a huge resemblance between us and Jesus, even though we'll never be Jesus, but there's going to be a resemblance.

God had one son and then he wanted to bring many sons into glory, the Bible says, and so he redeemed us so that we could be like his one son and we're going to be like him. And at that time we'll be able to see God directly. We'll be able to see Jesus directly. The Mount of Transfiguration, which was just for a few of the disciples, will suddenly be the experience of all of us as we behold his face and we worship him and we serve him forever and ever. Now what does all this mean to us as believers? First of all, it should mean the recognition and the reminder that we do serve the Lord in his face, even here on earth, though we cannot see Jesus. He's watching us.

He is seeing us because the eyes of the Lord and the face of the Lord, from that standpoint, go throughout the whole earth. But how are we transformed into the likeness of Jesus, which is God's agenda for you, by the way? People always say, well, you know, what is, I don't know God's will.

Well, I'm so glad you came here today. I'll just tell you God's will and settle it for you. It says in the book of Romans that we might be conformed to the image of his son. But how does that happen in this life? It's supposed to happen in this life and then it culminates in the life to come. But how can I be like Jesus?

That's the question that you and I ought to be asking. Because the lesson is simply this, we become what we gaze at. You gaze at television, that's what you become. You gaze at God and his word, that's what you become. What an awesome, explosive passage of scripture. 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18. But we all with open face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are transformed from one degree of glory to another degree of glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit. God wants us to be like Jesus and we become what we gaze at more and more like him. It begins here, it ends in the life to come when we shall see him finally, face to face. I don't know about you my friend but I sure love that song, face to face with Christ my Savior, face to face what will it be when in rapture I behold him, Jesus Christ who died for me. I can't think of a series of messages that is more important in this day and age when we have so many things that distract us.

We have cell phones, we have television, we of course are inundated by various kinds of technology, we have all of the voices that are screaming at us about one thing or another. In the midst of it my friend, you and I must behold the face of Jesus. We must spend time in his presence. That's why we're making this series of messages available for you as you frequently hear me say so that you can make it all the way to the finish line with our eyes on the prize and our prize is Jesus. So for a gift of any amount you can receive these messages entitled, In the Divine Presence. In a moment I'm going to be giving you some contact info. I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy so that you can write this down. But I want to also say thank you from the depths of my heart to you as you help us with this ministry. This ministry of running to win that goes around the world because of people just like you. But if you'd like to have these messages in permanent form here's what you do go to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for the series of messages in the divine presence so that you can listen to them again and again. Share the messages with your friends and when you are discouraged after watching the news what you and I need to do is to remember where we must look in the divine presence.

You can write to us at Running to Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. It can happen in a few seconds. A car accident leaves you lifeless on the pavement. A heart attack drops you to the ground. We never know when we'll meet death but the greatest issue we'll face is what happens one minute after we die. Next time on Running to Win a seven-part series begins answering that important question. Don't miss it. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.