Show Us Jesus
Updated: Sep 29
Pastor Stan Mons
Sermon Transcription:
Show us Jesus is the title this morning. Show us Jesus. I want to dive right into the scriptures with you this morning as we start in John chapter 8, verse 31. Pay close attention. "Jesus said to the people who believed in Him", that's who He's talking to, people who believe in Him. "Jesus said to the people who believe in Him, you are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." Confusion all around. Instantly, here comes their response. But we are descendants of Abraham. They said, "We've never been slaves to anyone." What do you mean? You will be set free. Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth." In other words, you don't have to question what I just told you. I tell you the truth. Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
A slave is not a permanent member of the family. But a son is part of the family forever. So if the son sets you free, you are truly free. Jesus is speaking to people whose first impression and first response to his word is this message is not for me. This is a strange message you're speaking over my life, Jesus. I can I can think of somebody that it's for. They're right down the row. I won't look at them, Jesus, but they're right next to me in the row. And I know, oh God, please speak to their heart. I know this is for them. That's the kind of person Jesus is speaking to right here. He tells them a word from heaven and their first response is, "But but we are descendants of Abraham. You're talking to the wrong people. We've never been enslaved. We've always been free." What do you mean, Jesus? You come with this new teaching that I have to be set. What do you mean I have to be set free? I ain't that enslaved. I ain't that much in sin.
This message is not for me. We are sons of Abraham. The Pharisees are telling Jesus as if he didn't know. And these were the good ones. You know, the church has sometimes taught us to look a little bit down on on Pharisees and Sadducees and any of the seeds you can come up with. We kind of look down on them because they're the evil ones. They put Jesus on the cross. In all reality, if you lived in that time, if you personally knew a Pharisee or you had one in your family, I mean, that just made you walk like this in public because not everybody had an uncle that was a Pharisee. Not everybody had a cousin who was a Sadducee. Not everyone, and these were the good ones. These guys lived to know and keep God's word. They made it their aim to know God's word, the Old Testament. Exactly. And they made it their aim to know what God expected from humankind and to try and live it out to the best of their ability. Take care of the poor, teach truth to people, do what's right in every way, shape, or form that they could possibly think of. These were in their community. These were the good ones. They were dedicated to the things of God. They lived to live right.
Sons of Abraham, descendants of Abraham, so confused by this message that Jesus brings. They're looking to what he teaches. They're looking to what he preaches. There may be something here. There may be something to learn from. They're giving him a chance. But almost every time this Jesus opens his mouth, we're a little confused or we strongly disagree or at the very least, I ain't going to that place where Jesus is preaching this Sabbath. Sons of Abram, let's look at a son of Abraham. His name was Isaac, and let's see if you are like a a son of Abraham. See, the New Testament tells us that not all are sons of Abraham, but those that are of the same faith are sons accounted as sons of promise, counted as sons of Abraham. But let's see if your life is like a son of Abraham right here in the scriptures. We're going to look at a story that very often it's looked at from Abraham's perspective. I want to look at it with you together from a son of Abraham's perspective.
Genesis 22, we'll start in verse one. "Sometime later, God tested Abraham's faith. Abraham, God called. Yes, he replied. Here I am. Take your son, your only son, yes, Isaac, whom you love so much, and go to the land of Mariah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will show you. Now, a lot of us at this point may be a little bit shocked at what God is saying and maybe even that Abraham responds so willingly. Abraham was not shocked. It was a common practice, a very normal practice in that time. Other gods would always demand for children to be sacrificed. Other temples, idolatry temples, they would sacrifice children in those temples. And Abraham was an idol worshipper before he met God.
And so for God to say this and lead him into a thinking that makes it possibly acceptable that this could be something that is okay to do. That is from his past. And God is speaking his language. He knows this. He has seen this before. And God was about to show him that He's a very different God than these idols.
"Take your son, your only son, yet Isaac, whom you love so much, and go to the land of Mariah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will show you. The next morning, Abraham got up early. He settled his donkey and took two of his servants with him along with his son Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place that God had told him about. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance." Church, I've told you many times, but I will tell you for the rest of your life. When we are praying, God, show us Jesus, and you begin to read in a story that something took three days, you better start paying attention because you may start to learn and see something about Jesus. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. "Stay here with the donkey," Abraham told the servants. "The boy and I will travel a little further. We will worship there and we will come right back. So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac's shoulders while he himself carried the fire and the knife as the two of them walked on together.
You read of wood in a Bible story. Church, you pay attention. That wood gets placed on somebody's shoulders, you pay an awful lot of attention. Verse 7. "Isaac turned to Abraham and said, "Father, yes, my son." Abraham replied. "We have the fire and the wood," the boy said. But where's the sheep for the burned offering? "God will provide a sheep for the burned offering, my son," Abraham answered. And they both walked on together." See, the child of Abraham, Abram's son, could not see the sheep yet. He could not see the sacrifice yet. He didn't have his father's eye of faith yet. And the Lord was about to begin to show Isaac what Abraham could already see. He had walked with the Lord a longer time. He had known the Lord a longer time. And he wasn't Isaac wasn't a little boy. By the way, we we've seen the the little uh coloring drawings in in Sunday school with a little boy holding his father's hand. Abraham and Isaac going to the mount.
But scholars agree it is quite an age range. But he was for sure older than 18 years old and for sure younger than 38 years old. Somewhere in between that age bracket is where Isaac was at this journey. He was a strong young man in the strength of his life carrying all that wood. But he wasn't able to see the sacrifice. Verse nine, "when they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. And then he tied his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. At that moment, the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven. Abraham, Abraham. Yes, Abraham replied. Here I am. Don't lay your hand on the boy, the angel said. Do not hurt him in any way. For now I know that you truly fear God. You've not withheld from me even your son, your only son. Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh, which means the Lord will provide. To this day people use that name as a proverb. On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided."
Here we see this incredible story that is supposed to show us Jesus. Remember the Pharisees said, "We are sons of Abraham. We've never been enslaved. What do you mean, Jesus? You will set us free." What do you mean? And here we read of that son of Abraham who was carrying that wood. That wood represents the same cross that Christ Jesus carried unto Calvary Hill. Here Isaac is carrying wood on his adult shoulders up a hill, up a mountain. A place of sacrifice is prepared. Isaac is placed on that wood. And it represents that wood represents that cross of our shame. The weight, the size, if you will, of our sin, the sins that we walk around with. We should be carrying it. We should be placed upon that wood for all to see. This is a man, a woman. He has offended the most high God. Guilty. Guilty. And all of a sudden, we hear this stop from heaven, a sound from heaven over your life, over the life of Abraham, over the life of Isaac. Stop. Don't touch him. Do not let any harm come to him. And there's a sound a little bit of waves in the bushes in the thicket. And there's a sheep. There's a ram stuck with his head in these bushes, in these branches. And we call to mind how Jesus, the lamb of God, was crowned with a crown made out of thorny branches pressed into his head. And Abraham takes that sheep and that sheep is sacrificed in the place of Isaac. Isaac watching it all. Now seeing the sacrifice. Now seeing that God will provide a sacrifice in place of him having to be whatever his actions made him to be. Whatever we are carrying in life, whatever sins we are to be held responsible for because we did do wrong.
There's this heavenly sound that can open up over your life, a call of heaven that you can hear in your own heart, that you can understand with your own mind, that you can begin to see as Isaac eventually began to see this this call from heaven that says, "Stop. Don't lay a hand on him. Don't hurt her in any way. I will provide a sacrifice for him. I will provide a sacrifice for her. Don't touch him. Don't touch her." Remember Jesus told the Pharisees, "If the son sets you free, you will be truly free." See, the Pharisees were missing it. They weren't looking over away from everything they were doing, everything they could bring to God, everything they could say sorry for, everything they could live right or better. They weren't willing to look over to that that sound in the bushes where a sacrifice was provided by the hand of God so that no one carrying their own cross, no one carrying their own shame, no one carrying their own sins has to actually bear the pain, the shame and the death of that cross.
The Pharisees were missing it. The Pharisees said in their heart, and we've seen it many times, "My cross is smaller than that guy's. My sin load is significantly smaller than that per they got divorced. Oh, my marriage is doing a lot better than so and so's. I know I didn't break that law.
Whatever they're doing right there, right now, I'mma go far away from I don't want to have anything to do with that. I'm living a holy life. I'm a son of Abraham. I'm with God. I was called to live a good life and I sure am trying and I sure do not do as much wrong as others. They were missing it. They were living a they there were times that they came into a room and felt like, well, I probably have the smallest cross in this room. What a scum. Bad people. My life is manageable. I can carry this. I can fix my life. I can manage my life. I can make up for some of my mistakes. And I can look pretty Christian. I can look pretty good. I can be kind of like God. I can be a son of Abraham. The size of your sin does not matter. Did you know that the size of your sins do not matter? Let me read to you from the word. James 2:8, 9, and 10. Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal laws as found in the scriptures. Love your neighbor as yourself.
But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law. For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God's laws. Let me read to you verse 10 again. "For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God's laws." All of them. See, the Bible seeks for us to understand is that you either have sin or you are forgiven. The Bible doesn't teach us like if you have a little bit of sin, you're only a little bit in trouble. You're only a little bit away from God. You're only going to go a little bit to hell. You're only going to be a little bit removed from the family. No, the word tells us there's no size. It is a standing before God. Either standing before God guilty or standing before God pardoned. One sin, one time in your life, one sin, and you will be cut off from God, cut off from true joy, experiencing true joy, cut off from the ability to see and hear in the spirit. You will be blind and deaf. And one day you will be in the deepest unstoppable most horrendous torment forever in hell.
One sin and you're counted with the mass murderers. When God looks at you, he doesn't see anybody less bad, anybody better than mass murderers. One sin and you're counted with the worst of abusive men on the face of the earth. One sin. If you've broken one, you are guilty of all of the sins, all of the law counted with the worst. The priests and the elders came to Jesus also to challenge his authority. And Jesus tells him a parable. Let me read it to you. Matthew 21 starting in verse 28. But what do you think about this? Remember what we do when Jesus asks a question? We pay again an awful lot of attention because that's not usual. What do you think about this? What are your thoughts on this? A man with two sons told the older boy's son, "Go out and work in the vineyard today." The son answered, "No, I won't go. Forget it. I won't go. But later he changed his mind and went anyway. Then the father told the other son, "You go." And he said, "Yes, sir, I will." But he didn't go.
Which of the two obeyed his father? They replied, "The first." Then Jesus explained his meaning. I tell you the truth, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you do. For John the Baptist came and showed you the right way to live, but you didn't believe him while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even when you saw this happening, you refused to believe him and to repent of your sins. Now, what was Jesus referring to? What did John come and tell them? What did John the Baptist, the forerunner, he is also called, though the one that would prepare the way for Jesus to arrive? What did he come to do? Did he come to preach them to to keep the laws of Moses? They'd heard that their entire life. What did John come to tell them? We read it best in John 1:29, arguably the height of his ministry. The next j day, John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, "Look, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." The story of Abraham and Isaac played out all over again. Here comes that message from heaven to the people of God. Look right there over there in the thicket. Look away the sacrifice of God that God has provided so that none of us have to carry our own cross so that none of us have to pay for our own sin. Look over there. God has sent a sacrifice.
God has provided and the tax collectors and the prostitutes looked over at this Jesus, at this sheep, at the at the lamb of God stuck with his head in branches woven together with thorns.
And everyone who looks away from everything they can do for God, everything they can give up for God, everything they've done wrong, everything they think they've done right, everyone who looks away from it all and looks unto this sacrifice that God has provided. every single person, there is still a heavenly voice that opens up the doors of heaven and begins to call unto your heart, making it so clear. And you will hear that voice saying, "Stop. Don't touch him anymore. Don't touch him. I have provided a sacrifice for his life. I have provided a sacrifice for her life. Prostitutes and tax collectors will enter before you." What a gospel. Not a purse. The worst have the best advantage to get in. Those whose life has become too hard to carry. Their sins weigh them down too much. And there's a sound, an invitation to look away from carrying it all ourselves and somehow being responsible for our own life. to look over and to see that heaven wanted a sacrifice in your place. That the Father desires for you to have a sacrifice that substitutes you ever having to pay for anything you've done.
Ever having to live with all of the pain of things that have happened to you. A sacrifice.
A way has been made. A way so powerful, so beautiful that the worst of humankind, Jesus says they get to go in easily. Prostitutes, corrupt tax collectors, they go in before you. They're not even trying to be good. But life has gotten too heavy. Sin has become unmanageable and they're willing to look over. They're willing to look unto a sacrifice. They're willing to say, "I am that guy. I am that woman. I am a sinner. I need to be saved. I can't figure this out. I can't live. I can't die." Right? I need to be saved out of my situation. Unless someone else does all of the work, there's not going to be any saving for me. There's nothing I can do. I can't figure it out.
Remember the tax collector, Zacchaeus, corrupt tax collector. We know this because he said, "Everything I've taken wrongly, I will repay four times." He knew, trust me, the people knew. They hated him. And he was looking to see Jesus. And the people again trying to serve God, trying to live right, they hated Zacchaeus because his cross was so much bigger than theirs. His sin load was so much bigger than theirs.
But who got to sit down with Jesus? Do I not have to become good pastor? No. Here is how God is going to bring hope to the nations. This is what the Bible says. He will do it through you. But this is how he will do it. Ezekiel 36, verse 23. "I will show how holy my great name is. The name on which you brought shame among the nations. And when I reveal my holiness through you before their very eyes, says the sovereign Lord, then the nations will know that I am the Lord." Through you, tax collectors of the worst sort, sinners of the worst kind, prostitutes. His holiness, he says, his holiness will come upon you when a sacrifice is provided on your behalf.
His holiness will come upon you in such a way that everyone sees it. They will see through you that God has given away what was his and that he has taken from you everything that was yours. Everything that made you despicable. Everything that made you to be rejected.
Everything that was wrong in your life, He took away from you. And He gave to you the one thing you never deserved. He gave you everything that belonged to His own son. And now you have been made a child of Abraham. Now you have been made a child of the Lord. Now you have been made holy by God's own doing, God's own power, God's own son, who was given as a sacrifice so that you do not have to be placed on the wood, suffering all the shame and consequences and somehow satisfy the payment for our sins. See this incredible promise that God will manifest his own holiness upon your life, the life of real sinners, that he will cause the nations through you, what he will do on your life, that he will cause the nations to know that he is God. That is such an exciting thing to me. It's going to it means that people are going to begin to realize that Jesus is alive, that Jesus is Lord, that he is God. It means that people through your life are going to begin to believe that forgiveness is possible. If this Jesus is God, if this Jesus is the sacrifice that heaven has sent, then I can be forgiven, too, then I can be changed, too. God says, "This is what I'm going to do." When you turn away from everything you have, all of your wrongs, everything you ever did right, and you turn to the sacrifice that I will provide, I will stop anything and everything that will try to hold you guilty and responsible for your sins. I will stop that. I will set you free.
That son will set you free. That son will bring you into liberty. And my holiness will settle upon your life. You will be changed to such degree from the inside out that people begin to believe that they too can be forgiven. That's what I'll do for my holy name. That's what He promises.
God himself provided a sacrifice to get you out of harm's way forever. That's what he has done. Here's what the Holy Spirit put on my heart for you. Have you in your own spirit, have you actually heard heaven shout over your life? Stop. Don't hurt him. Don't touch him. I have provided a sacrifice for him, for her. Have you heard that in your heart? Can you see Jesus? Have you come to that place that Isaac had to come to where he could finally see that God provided a sacrifice so that he did not have to bear the consequences? Have your heart seen that or is it still somewhat insecure? I want to invite you to pray something along these lines. Lord, help me to look over.
Help me to look over like the prostitutes and like the corrupt tax collectors. Help me to look over like somebody who who who is convinced to their bones that they cannot manage their own life. They cannot stand before God. They can't live right. They can't die right. They cannot continue like this. They need to be saved by someone else. Teach me. Help me Lord God to look over like those real sinners do. Help me Lord God to hear from heaven. Show me Jesus so that I can see that sacrifice that is replacing me so that I can have true joy, true understanding of what God has done. If that is what you desire this morning online or here in person, if you desire to see Jesus for the first time or you need a moment of renewal where that joy of seeing what God has done re-enters your heart, would you come to the front and would you let me pray with you? If you desire to see Jesus like that again or for the very first time, come and join me at this altar so I can pray with you. For those that are online, if you desire to see Jesus, you desire to live seeing Jesus, I want to invite you to pray with me.
-Pastor Stan Mons
