Looking Unto Jesus
Looking unto Jesus our author and finisher of our faith. Looking unto Jesus. What does it mean? When I was a small boy my math professor one day told us a story, which happened to him when he was teaching in my College. One day while attending the secondary school he was teaching the students about an important subject on math. Without understanding this subject he could not proceed further. Before starting the course he asked all his students to pay attention and listen carefully and only look at the black-board while he explained an important theory. Again he insisted not to take away their eyes away from the black-board until it was finished. He told them, when I finish explaining I will ask you questions whether you all understood all the theories which you are about to hear. And he continued his discourse.
Ninety percent of the students were keenly looking and listening what he was explaining. When the study was over he started to question each student whether they understood what he was explaining. But when he came to one student who was sitting in the back of the row when he questioned him he didn’t reply so he asked him again whether every thing entered into his brain. But he replied, no sir everything entered but the tail is’ still hanging. Surprised by his reply he again asked him whether everything entered. But he replied with the same answer. “No sir, only the tail is hanging”, pointing to the roof. There in the roof was a hole. When he looked at what he was showing, the professor saw a little rat playing and his tail was still hanging from the hole. Now he asked him questions about the subject. He didn’t understand anything…He was only looking at this rat and he could not reply.
So looking made a big difference. All the time spent explaining to teach this student became a waste because he was looking somewhere else. So the professor became real sad because he was also a Christian who understood about this verse–Iooking at Jesus. He explained to us where we look makes a big difference in our daily life. What we behold changes us to be like the path we choose. And if salvation is our concern, when Christ comes to us to teach his words and asks us to look at Him and we go and look somewhere else like this student then Satan grabs us in his snare and traps us in his world wide web.
Satan has invented many amusing things for us to look at–sports clubs, television, radio, Theater, Movies, dance clubs, even computers etc. One day while watching a documentary program I came across the subject called the invention of the television. The man who invented the television first was Philo Farnsworth and he was only 14 years old when he first got the concept of how an electromagnetic wave can be deflected in a tube producing an image. He was born in 1906 near Beavel City, Utah a community settled by his grandfather in 1856.
When he was 12 his family moved to a ranch in Rigby, Idaho, which was four miles from the nearest high school, thus necessitating his daily horseback rides. Because he was intrigued with the electron and electricity he persuaded his chemistry teacher Justin Tolman to give him special instruction and to allow him to audit a senior course. And later his chemistry professor when testifying in a patent settlement stated how Farnsworth’s explanation of the theory of relativity was the clearest and most concise he had ever heard. He was only 15 years then. According to legend the moment of inspiration came while he was tilling a potato field back and forth with a horse- drawn harrow and realized that an electron beam could scan images the same way line by line just as you read a book. Fransworth gained admission to Brigham Young university. The death of his father forced him to leave at the end of his second year but as it turned out at no great intellectual cost. There were at the time no more than a handful of men on the planet who could have understood Farnsworth’s ideas for building an electronic-television system and it’s unlikely that any of them were at Brigham Young.
With the help of some investors at the age of 21 he created his first camera and television and the first man on the planet earth to do so. For seven years he had to fight in court for his patent because of a Russian immigrant who went and patented his idea and now he had to prove it was his and with RCA to pay royalties for his invention. When he was 26 years old he was hospitalized for depression but later he recovered then at the age of 36 when he appeared on the television asked “if he had invented some kind of a machine that might be painful when used.
Farnsworth answered yes, sometimes it’s most painful. Later his son revealed what he meant “I suppose you could say that he felt he had created a kind of a monster, a way for people to waste a lot of their lives.” His attitude was there’s nothing on it worthwhile and we’re not going to watch it in this household.” Why did he come to this conclusion? Because today because of television our generation is plunging to a deeper sinful state.
The young student carries a gun to school and shoots their fellow mates. And the ugly music scene and sex and robbery, all this adds to an already corrupted society. I don’t discredit the man for his invention of the television because of his invention we have the’ computer monitor, oscilloscope and radar. All this came into existence because of his concept and really helped humanity as well as when we say one image is a thousand words. If television would have been properly directed and used it would have been the greatest blessing to mankind. It would have meant long distance school students would have studied many courses and used to spread the gospel of Christ.
I sometime watch educational programs like nature, how to paint, to build a house, and travel etc. If the government would have regulated and only given permission for it to elevate man kind and allowed noble men to see as to what we broadcast no souls would have fallen but elevated to a higher degree, it would have been a blessing to many but on the contrary it is debasing and awkward. Scenes are even watched by children and toddlers and the whole concept of moral issues are burned in the altar of corruption. For all this corruption our legislators are responsible when Christ comes. They all would have to answer they have no excuse.
It’s true that what we look creates a big change in our life. We totally agree with this television inventor who says it’s not good for the intellectual to behold this kind of garbage. What changed the two monstrous disciples of Christ when they joined Christ, what changed their attitude you can see in Luke 9:54. And when his disciples James and John saw {this], they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them: even as Elias did? They will destroy right away anybody who opposes them. They were called the sons of thunder, but surely when they started to behold and started to look at Christ they started to change. “The Savior’s lesson, resist not him that is evil was a hard saying for the revengeful human and they murmured against it among themselves. But Jesus now made a still stronger declaration: “ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.” Such was the spirit of the law which the rabbis had misinterpreted as a cold and rigid code of exactions. They regarded themselves as better than other men and as entitled to the special favor of God by virtue of their birth as Israelites, but Jesus pointed to the spirit of forgiving love as that which would give evidence that they were actuated by any higher motives than the publicans and sinners which they despised. He pointed His hearers to the Ruler of the universe under the new name, “Our Father.” He would have them understand how tenderly the heart of God yearned over them. He teaches that God cares for every lost soul that “like as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.” Psalms 103:13. Such a conception of God was never given to the world by any religion but that of the Bible.
Heathenism teaches men to look upon the Supreme Being as an object of fear rather than of love, a malign deity to be appeased by sacrifices, rather than a Father pouring upon His children the gift of His love. That’s how the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for a race who doesn’t deserve His kindness is not like anyone seen nor heard. His goodness cannot be measured nor His love comprehended. When John saw everyday the manifestation of His love, dealing with the poor and on the cross how He was praying for those criminals who tortured and killed Him, He perfectly understood the gospel of Love. That’s how looking unto Jesus meant to him. It took 3and 1/2 years to teach them daily then the results came to be. He who could create the worlds in 6 days spent 1277 days with them to make sure they would understand the spiritual kingdom.
“Let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith. Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12:1,2. Paul speaks of the power in keeping our eyes on Jesus. We all with open face behold Him as in the glass the glory of the Lord are changed to the same image from glory to glory even as the spirit of the Lord. 2 Cor 3:18. Dear friends here is the power that will change ones life and keep us from falling and when we lift our eyes to Jesus and gaze unto His wonderful face it is by beholding Him by mediating upon His love that our lives are changed.
In Ed 282 “As the highest preparation for your work I pint you to the words, the .life, the methods of the Prince of teachers. I bid you consider Him. Here is your true ideal. Behold it, dwell upon it, until the Spirit of the divine Teacher shall take possession of your heart and life Reflecting as a mirror the glory of me Lord you will be transformed unto the same image. This is the secret of power over your pupils. Reflect Him.” The great object of walking with Christian thought is to be like Jesus and at the end of me way we will be with Jesus. Here we have the secret. We must lift our eyes to Jesus. We must gaze upon Him always, for it’s only by beholding that we can reflect His glory and thus be transformed.
I wish if it were possible for me to tell you that as s()on as we accept Jesus we will be immediately like Him.. There will be no more struggle, no more need to learn patience, faith and trust and virtue.. We won’t have trouble or persecution but I cannot tell anyone such things for they are not true. I read the same words Jesus speaks in John 15: 19,20. If ye were of die world the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Master. If they have persecuted Me they will also persecute you.”
Paul uses an analogue in Hebrew 12. He refers to the Christian experience as a race so ,intense that every weight and even the little things that so easy beset you must be laid aside. Now you can come to the conclusion that the Christian life is not an easy one nor is the pathway a rosy one.
In my uncle’s dispensary one day a jungle mother came ‘with her little son of 2 years old. He was very sick. And as my uncle did the diagnostic test posing the questions he knew he had to give him a dose of castor oil. My uncle never likes the idea of prescribing castor oil for the patient because of its bitter taste. He avoided getting himself involved in the operation and gave the responsibility to the mother and walked away. As soon my uncle went away he heard the cry of the baby yelling and he returned to see thinking it has swallowed the bitter oil. But when he entered the veranda there was the oil still in the spoon. The baby had not tasted a drop. But from a pack on her back that wise little jungle mother had taken a lump of native sugar and was holding it above the babies reach. She was saying if you want this lump of sugar you must take the oil without any fuss. And I saw how much the baby wanted that sugar. He swallowed down his tears but his mother insisted, “until you have taken the oil.” He looked at the oil then at the sugar then at the oil then at the sugar then .the baby looked quickly looked at the oil with his gaze on the sugar. He opened his mouth and swallowed the oil. Then his hands grabbed the prize.
I know what Paul meant when he told us to keep our eyes on Jesus. That lump of sugar didn’t change the bitterness, but it helped the little fellow to endure the hardship that went with taking it. If we will only keep our eyes on Jesus we will long to be like Him. We would desire nothing more than to get rid of this miserable nature of sinfulness, which makes us come short the glory of God. Even if we need some bitter draft in our lives we would ask God that we may become like Christ. When you truly become hungry and thirsty after righteousness and feed upon on the word of God the fruit of the spirit comes to our lives that when we pray to God and He shall send trials we shall able to say” thank you,” that it may produce the glories of harvest. The trials of our lives always produce a great harvest.
When the true Christian witnesses for Christ even his life produces much fruit. The best sermon he ,can give is the greatest trial of his life. The fruit yields much fruits. Do you really long to be like Jesus so you long to speak like Him or act like Him? So much should we be willing Oh! Lord if you see some terrible habit that is robbing me of my goal cut it out. Cut deep, hurt me, Lord. Take anything away, but make me like your son Jesus. I believe this is what Paul meant–run with patience the race that is set before you looking unto Jesus…
Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the FATHER of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. And make straight path for your feet that which is lame be turned out of the way but let rather be healed.” Heb. 12:9-12. What is more joyous than a life filled with the gifts of the spirit and to be like Jesus.
This assurance is given in the paragraphs of education 192. “The great motive powers of the soul are faith, hope, and love; and it is to these that Bible study, rightly pursued, appeals. The outward beauty of the Bible, the beauty of imagery and expression, is but the setting, as it were, for its real treasure–the beauty of holiness. In its record of the men who walked with God, we may catch glimpses of His glory. In the One “altogether lovely” we behold Him, of whom all beauty of earth and heaven is but a dim reflection. “I, if I be lifted up,” He said, “will draw all men unto Me.” John 12:32. As the student of the Bible beholds the Redeemer, there is awakened in the soul the mysterious power of faith, adoration, and love. Upon the vision of Christ the gaze is fixed, and the beholder grows into the likeness of that which he adores. The words of the apostle Paul become the language of the soul: “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:. . . that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.” Philippians 3:8-10. {Ed 192.11.}
Is it just Paul’s gospel or is it the profound message of the gospel of Christ as looking at Jesus? Christ spoke to Nicodemus about the greatest truth about looking unto Him “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so shall the Son of Man be lifted up” John 3: 14. If we refer to the old testament as people spake against God. 21:5 And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For [there is] no bread, neither [is there any] water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
21:6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
21:7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
21:8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
21:9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
The serpent of brass was a symbol of Jesus that He will be lifted for all the humanity and whosoever looks at Christ will live. That’s the virtue of Christ. The brass doesn’t have any living power. But Christ has the power to grant us life again. Because the fiery serpent will perish in a moment. But a miracle occurred by beholding this pole, whosoever believed and obeyed the voice of God and were healed. The same as Christ asks us to look at Him, if we look at Him all our thoughts, all our evil ways will change towards Him. But when we stop beholding Him our thoughts drift away. Then the soul starts to commit sin. The lamps are to impress upon the church the necessity of eternal vigilance as the price of safety. Devotion, watching, and prayer are not for a moment to be neglected.
The Lord is coming a second time to Our world, and there must be found in us a disposition to wait and watch for his appearing, lest coming suddenly he finds us sleeping. All whom Christ has united in holy covenant with himself are to feel that it is not safe at any time to be without oil in their vessels. The warning Christ has given is for us, and we shall be found guilty before God if we do not take heed to it.
“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” Luke 21:34-36.
How did sin originate in this earth? Every sin we do is done in the same method. The angels had cautioned Eve to beware of (l) separating herself from her husband while occupied in their daily labor in the garden; with him she would be in less danger from temptation than if she were alone. But absorbed in her pleasing task, she unconsciously wandered from his side. On perceiving that she was alone, she felt an apprehension of danger, but dismissed her fears, deciding that she had sufficient wisdom and strength to discern evil and to withstand it.
Unmindful of the angels’ caution, (2) She soon found herself gazing with mingled curiosity and admiration upon the forbidden tree. The fruit was very beautiful,
(3) and she questioned with herself why God had withheld it from them Now was the tempter’s Opportunity. As if he were able to discern the workings of her mind, he addressed her: “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” Eve was surprised and startled as she thus seemed to hear the echo of her thoughts. But the serpent continued, in a musical voice, with subtle praise of her surpassing loveliness; and his words were not displeasing. Instead of fleeing from the spot she lingered wonderingly to hear a serpent speak. Had she been addressed by a being like the angels, her fears would have been excited; but she had no thought that the fascinating serpent could become the medium of the fallen foe.” PP 53,54. (4)And she ate the fruit not only made a medium for the fall of Adam.
Every sin is committed in the same fashion (l) Separation (2) Looking at the forbidden grounds. (3) The desire is kindled in the heart. (4) Sin is the result. That’s what the Lord told in the ancient time the same is in the latter time. The message didn’t change What did Christ say in Isaiah 45:22? “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I [am] God, and [there is] none else. Now again in Isaiah 33: 15-17. He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, andshutteth his eyes from seeing evil; He shall dwell on high: his place of defence{shall be] the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters [shall be] sure. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.
This is a very important message as to why we are still sinners. This verse casts the true light of our message. DA pg. 32 When the soul surrenders itself to Christ, a new power takes possession of the new heart. A change is wrought which man can never accomplish for himself. .It is a supernatural work, bringing a supernatural element into human nature. The soul that is yielded to Christ becomes His own fortress, which He holds in a revolted world, and He intends that no authority shall be known in it but His own. A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies is impregnable to the assaults of Satan. But unless we do yield ourselves to the control of Christ, we shall be dominated by the wicked one. We must inevitably be under the control of the one or the other of the two great powers that are contending for the supremacy of the world.
It is not necessary for us deliberately to choose the service of the kingdom of darkness in order to come under its dominion. We have only to neglect to ally ourselves with the kingdom of light. If we do not co- operate with the heavenly agencies, Satan will take possession of the heart, and will make it his abiding place. The only defense against evil is the indwelling of Christ in the heart through faith in His righteousness. Unless we become vitally connected with God, we can never resist the unhallowed effects of self-love, self-indulgence, and temptation to sin. We may leave off many bad habits, for the time we may part company with Satan; but without a vital connection with God, through the surrender of ourselves to Him moment by moment, we shall be overcome. Without a personal acquaintance with Christ, and a continual communion, we are at the mercy of the enemy, and shall do his bidding in the end.”
If you analyze this verse to what conclusion do you come? And what does it really mean, looking at Jesus? It means “Prayer without ceasing.” How can we sin like Eve? 1) Separate our self from Christ (continual communion) 2) Our soul start wondering after the forbidden ground and starts looking at sin. 3) Desire is created in the heart and 4) We commit sin. (mercy of the enemy, and shall do his bidding in the end). Many start off as Christians but few understand what its really like to be a true Christian.
Many times in the Old Testament as well as in the new we see what his disciples have done. We see what Enoch did. He prayed without ceasing and was translated to Heaven without seeing death. Look what prophet Samuel writes “Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you.” See what the Church was doing when Peter was in Prison “Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.” See what Paul writes concerning himself “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers.” So I hope now you understand what really means in “Looking at JESUS.” Amen.