I. Recap from last week.
A. Main points.
1. We looked at Numbers 21:4-9, chosen by the Spirit to be included in the OT and inspired by the Spirit to be referenced by Paul in 1 Cor 10:9-11. “Written for our instruction in the last days.”
2. The soul of the people became discouraged because their journey was difficult. Out of this discouragement, they spoke against God and His chosen leadership. They criticized, grumbled and complained.
3. Fiery words brought fiery serpents, which bit the people and many died, never able to complete the journey and enter the land. (Words that sting, words that contain venom.)
4. We saw in this that sometimes our mouth is the open door that allows the enemy access into our lives to bring destruction.
a. Grumbling, complaining and criticism destroys our hope, steals our vision and can eventually keep us from God’s purposes in our lives.
b. A single match can destroy a forest, one snake bite can poison the whole body and just a few words can destroy what God is building for us.
5. Remember: the discouragement inside of us is more dangerous than the desert around us.
6. But the Lord provided a means of redemption, the bronze serpent lifted up on the pole. Anyone who looked at the serpent would be saved and made whole. This is a prophetic picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, lifted up on the cross for us, providing salvation and redemption for all who look to Him in faith.
7. The three action steps were:
a. Guard your heart.
b. Guard your words.
c. Look to Jesus.
B. This week: Looking to Jesus.
1. This week I want us to understand in greater detail what it means to look to Jesus.
2. In Num 21, all who looked at the bronze serpent were healed. How do we apply that?
C. Promise & hope.
1. In John 6:40 Jesus said “...this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
2. This means that it’s God’s will for every believer to see Jesus and believe in Him.
3. This is not a special gift, a special anointing, etc. not something for the most holy saints, but for every believer. Every believer has been invited into a place of intimacy with God where He sees you and you see Him.
4. To help us with this, God has given us His Word, His Spirit and His presence.
5. And as we look to Jesus and believe this is what will happen to you.
a. Your faith will increase. (You will start to expect God to move.)
b. You will become more optimistic. (More hopeful and bold.)
c. Your countenance will change. (It will show up on your face.)
d. Most importantly, you will become more and more like Jesus Himself.
II. What does it mean to look to Jesus? Key concepts and scriptures.
A. Looking to Jesus means to focus our full attention on Him.
1. Hebrews 12:2
“…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 has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
a. Gr: aphorao (af-or-AH-o)
b. to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something (one thing)
c. to make a separation and consider attentively
2. Make a separation? It means removing anything that distracts our attention away from the Lord so that se can focus our awareness on Him alone.
3. In our day, we talk about ADHD and conditions that hinder our ability to focus and pay attention. I’m not denying those things, but by faith we can put the Word of God above our conditions.
4. We do our part, which is to remove distractions, and create the conditions for the Lord to meet us in this place of intimacy with Him.
5. So Number 1, the first thing that we do to see Jesus is set the stage. You control the setting, and you control your attention.
6. It may only be for 2 minutes, 5 minutes, but you can choose to make the separation between the treasure in Jesus and the temporary comforts of this world.
7. ILLUSTRATION: A photographer spends time focusing.
A photographer finds the best possible position and then spends time focusing on the subject until it becomes clear.
In the same way, we might have to find the best position, where and when we pray and seek the Lord, and we may have to spend some time adjusting our focus, but the Lord will become clear and it will be worth it.
B. Looking to Jesus means to perceive Him with the heart and mind.
1. John 1:36&37 “35 …the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. 36 And looking
at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”
a. Looking: Gr emblepo, to look at with the mind, to consider
b. Behold: Gr ide to see with spiritual recognition, to perceive, understanding
c. John saw Jesus with his physical eyes and had a revelation with his spiritual eyes, he was able to understand Who Jesus Is, the Lamb of God.
2. Eph 1:18 The eyes of the heart, or the eyes of our understanding.
17 …that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe
a. Paul prayed for their spiritual eyes to be opened, eyes of the heart, eyes of understanding, etc.
b. Paul was writing to Christians who needed to understand spiritual things with their spirit, not their natural mind.
c. Many Christians get stuck here. They start with a revelation that they are dead in sin & need to be saved, but after that, they try to live the Christian life by natural understanding.
3. What spiritual truth did they need to see, or perceive, understand?
a. the hope of His calling,
b. the riches of the glory of His inheritance in us,
c. His incredible power towards us.
4. So Number 2 is to ask God to open the eyes of your heart. (Not overthinking it.)
5. There is a place for studying the Word, the Greek and Hebrew, commentaries, etc. Study
can lead us to Jesus, but study by itself was never meant to be a substitute for seeing Jesus. We should
pray and ask the Spirit to show us Jesus as we study the Word.
6. Jesus said this Himself in John 5:39&40
39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”
7. ILLUSTRATION: Don’t analyze the bronze serpent, look at it.
In Num 21, the people where healed by looking at the bronze serpent, not by knowing about it. God didn’t tell them to analyze the chemical makeup of the venom, the angle of the pole to the sun, etc. just to look at it. We don’t receive from the Lord by analyzing Him, but by beholding Him.
8. So (#1) set the stage by removing distractions and focusing on Jesus, and (#2) ask God to open the eyes of your heart.
C. Looking to Jesus means to look with expectation, faith and trust in Him.
1. We see this in Numbers 21:8&9 when God said “…whoever is bitten, when he looks at it (the bronze serpent) will live.”
2. Isaiah 45:22 “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
a. Look: Hbr pana to turn away from one thing and turn toward another
b. God says turn to Me, focus on Me, and you will be saved.
3. John 6:40
“And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
a. sees: Gr theoreo to view attentively, to perceive and ascertain
b. also… to enjoy the presence of someone
c. Jesus connects focusing our attention on Him to being raised to eternal life
4. So the next thing, Number 3, is to look in faith, look with expectation, look with trust.
a. Believe that there is always a benefit to you when you look to Jesus.
b. Num 21: look and be made whole
c. Isa 45: look and be saved
d. John 6: look and receive everlasting life
e. Eph 1: look and be encouraged by all that He has for you
5. The eyes of faith open when natural sight ends. “We walk by faith, not by sight.”
a. When we can no longer see how something is going to work out in the natural, it forces us to see with the eyes of faith.
D. Recap: Looking to Jesus means…
1. Set the stage. Turn away from distractions and focus only on Jesus.
2. Look with the eyes of your heart.
3. Look with faith, hope and expectation.
E. Prayer moment.
1. For the strength to turn away from distractions and comforts. For the eyes of our heart to be opened. To look to the Lord in faith & expect that He will meet us in the place of intimacy.
2. To cast our discouragement on the Lord and look to Him with hope and faith again.
III. Benefits of looking to Jesus.
A. Time spent looking to Jesus will show up on our faces.
1. Psalm 34:5 “They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed.”
a. Looked: nabat, to pay attention to Him, to look upon Him
b. Radiant: nahar, to shine with light, to glow,
c. Also: to flow like a river, rivers of living water that flow from His Spirit to ours
2. When we look to Jesus and see Him with the eyes of our heart, His love, joy and peace flows outward, from our spirit, through our soul and it shows up on our face.
3. DREAM: I knew from the Lord’s countenance that He wasn’t angry with me. I woke up forever changed.
4. We can have this same experience every time we encounter the Lord, doesn’t have to be a dream. Can be in prayer, silence, worship, reading the Word, etc.
B. Time spent looking to Jesus will make you an optimist.
1. Micah 7:7 “Therefore I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”
a. sapa (tsawfaw) to look for, to keep watch.
b. Looking to the Lord fills us with optimism and keeps us looking forward.
2. The more time we spend in the presence of the Lord, the more we will get to know Jesus. The more we know Jesus the more we become like Him, and Jesus is an optimist.
a. Hebrews 12:2 “…for the joy set before Him endured the cross…”
b. You have to be an optimist to willingly go to your death when you know you’re innocent.
3. Some other optimistic sayings of Jesus.
a. John 16:33 “In this world you will have tribulation, but be joyful, I have overcome the world.”
b. Matt 16:18 “I will build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” He was talking about using redeemed humans to overcome the evil one.
4. Remember… the discouragement inside of us is more dangerous that the desire around us. So look to Jesus within and let Him fill you with love, joy and peace that drives the discouragement away.
IV. Closing: Looking to Jesus will help us survive and thrive in the Last Days.
A. Things will get better and worse at the same time.
1. We need to understand that as we get closer to the Lord’s return, things are going to get worse and better at the same time.
2. Isa 60:2 “For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you.”
3. Rev 22:11 “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.”
a. still, Gr eti, implies to increase more and more
b. “He who is unjust, let him become even more unjust…” etc.
4. In the Last Days, we will see a great divide between holiness and evil. God’s people will increase in holiness and the lost will increase in evil.
5. ILLUSTRATION: Two kinds of people stuck in a cave.
Imagine a group of people who went spelunking at night. At some point they got lost and started to argue about the way out of the cave. One group realized they were close to the entrance, and they knew that when the sun came up, the light would begin to shine in the cave and they could follow the light to safety. But the other group was convinced that the right way to go was further down and deeper into darkness. When daylight came, the first group happily walked towards the light and walked out. But the other group refused to listen and walked deeper and deeper into darkness. This is the reality of what is happening in the world today. To walk out, we will need to keep looking at the Light of Jesus.
B. The Lord our Lighthouse.
1. The only way to stay hopeful and positive in the midst of increasing evil and wickedness is to keep looking to Jesus and realizing that He’s not worried so we shouldn’t be either.
2. ANALOGY: A Lighthouse in the Storm
A ship captain once wrote that in a fierce storm, he survived by keeping his eyes fixed on the lighthouse through the spray and darkness. “I couldn’t control the wind or waves,” he said, “but as long as I saw that light, I knew where I was.” In the same way, Jesus is our fixed point of reference in the chaos of this world. As long as we keep our eyes on Him, we won’t lose our way.
C. Looking to Jesus is Father’s will for every Believer.
1. Set the stage.
2. Ask God to open your spiritual eyes.
3. Look with faith, expecting God to encourage you in some way.