Appreciation of the Lord Jesus

… In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you, Spiritual Father, for serving us. Joseph grew up in a land where his father was a sailor, in the land of Canaan. He and one of the generations of Joseph, Joseph, being 17 years old, were seen as law-abiding citizens. And that was where the sons of Zilpah, and where the sons of Zilpah started a fire. And Joseph was one of the fathers of their people, of course. Now Israel loved Joseph, more than all his children, because he was the son of Jehovah, and he made him the head of many tribes. And when Joseph saw that their father loved him more than all his children, they hated him, and could not be peace-makers, and they did. Joseph was 31. And they took Joseph's coat, and killed the goats, and gave his head into the blood. And they took the coat of the many tribes, and they brought it to their father and said, this shall be mine. No, no, no, it will be my son's coat, or no. And he heard and said, this is my son's coat. And he will be as happy as I am. Joseph did without doubt, let him keep it. And Joseph let it stay. He put the sack on the father's loin. And he mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to come with him. But he refused to come with them. And he said, for I will go down to the grave with my son in the morning. But his father wept for him. And that he was no more. Joseph was dead. After six days, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John his father, and brings them up into a high mountain park. And both stand freely before him. And he says, he shines as the sun, and he glitters worldwide as the light. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Goliath talking with him. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, if it is good for us to be here, that thou wilt let us make here three tabernacles, three booths, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Goliath. While he gets ready, behold, a black cloud overshadowed them. And behold, the voice of a thousand said, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Clearly he did. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were so afraid. And Jesus' hand clasped him good, as I can see on the face. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw him and said, He is perfect. And now, we have this morning, reading from that wonderful chapter in the book of Luke, where the Lord Jesus is lying in a Pharisee's house, and a woman, certainly, I remember, and shows her appreciation of the Lord, when she brought her alabaster box of ointment, and says to the Pharisee, weeping, again to wash his feet with tears, and wipe them with the hair of her head, and chip his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. A story with which we, I no doubt, all those who may know. But what? It just struck me this morning, that this particular soul, has an appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is rather special and personal. And thinking about that, I remind you everyone thought about, along with other individuals, and then, how they have that appreciation of the Lord Jesus, which is rather special and personal. And this evening, we bring together those attitudes and the words, in which the insight, and its path, speak to us of the comprehensive and all-seeing appreciation of the Lord Jesus, which is God, the Father, and his only. You see, when you read about Joseph, and you catch him in a couple, nobody else realised why it was that Joseph should have that coat. At least they did realise it, and they realised it in a sort of subjective kind of way, instead of in an objective kind of way, because for Cyrus, as Jacob was concerned, he had such a love for his son, as the son of his own age, the son of the woman that he really loved. The son of the woman that he'd served 40 years for. He had such an appreciation for him, as his special son, that he expressed that appreciation in the coat that he had for him. A coat of many pieces, of different colour slots, sewn together in a patchwork. Today we should think it was rather extraordinary if somebody wore that, some were wearing a coat like that. Would we not? But in those days, no doubt, it was the son of the regard that his father had for him, and certainly this was accepted by his brothers. And because this was a reason for their jealousy, because his father loved him, his father loved him, and appreciated him in ways he didn't love them. And you know, to think that somebody of this referred to us is something which goes against our human nature, especially in our family. But also it happens in all kinds of other situations as well. No doubt in his coat of many colours that Jacob expressed the very thought that he had concerning Joseph. And you see how it is that these woody men, these brothers, were taken on this very feature, this very means which Jacob had to express his regard for his son. And it was that that they took. And Joseph was loved as a goat. And Joseph was, to their father's face, no longer his right-hand coat or whatever. No doubt about it. There was no other coat like that that he made with his own hands. And he said, it is my son's coat. And we've seen the terrible grief that came over Jacob. It was assumed that he'd still remember his 12th son, but that didn't mean anything. This was the son of his love. And this was the son whom he visualised as having been really defeated by his son, wildly. And it was assumed that the wedding coat was in fact not quite as long, more than just seven or eight days. I want to talk about why surely it's left us in a little bit into the thought of the father's grief when the Lord Jesus was put to death. Often we wonder however it could be that the father, God, the one who is the almighty, the one who is the creator and the sustainer of life, would fall back, smiting a world, which took the son of his love and put him to death on the seventh day. It was no doubt that one day he said there would be a full payment that all this time he'd held back and he'd let the world go on. The world was guilty of that. Tell me, you bet your head it would take a storm on that day. We know that it was in accordance with his plan. We know that his purpose was being fulfilled. Scripture was being fulfilled. The way of salvation was being made, the atonement, redemption was being accomplished. All these things that we like to think about and we read about and we understand in the New Testament scriptures by the fact of the man that at one time took the Lord Jesus the son of his love and put him to death on the seventh day on the seventh day of the year. And sometimes we think of him as being the father of the child, the seed of his son, that he suffered so much and that he, as God, had turned away his faith and had not answered a prayer which the Lord Jesus prayed, My God, what has that to say to me? For now you and I can never have in this life the full appreciation of the Lord Jesus whether in life or in death, that the Father has. Scripture says that no man knows whose son he is but the Father. But the Father has the full appreciation of his son. So as we go through this thoughtful story as I was mentioning, there are these individuals of 10 to 9 who have their own particular appreciation of the Lord Jesus and the first one I had in mind was this woman in her 70s. And the reason why she thought so much of the Lord Jesus was because she was a sinner. She was a sinner who was known as such. Somebody from whom self-righteous people like this charity would withdraw had nothing whatever to do with her. They wouldn't. If they could help her, have her in the house, they thought it was a kind of representation to their own. And yet she was the one with whom the Lord Jesus was able to say publicly that her sin which remained will forgive her for she thought much. Now which is the cause and which is the effect? I don't really know. But I think rather than deny, this is the result of her forgiveness. And this is what the story is about. So to see this heresy, no doubt the story has no forgiveness. She wasn't conscious of her sin. She never thought forgiveness for her sin. She felt like herself. She felt she was alright there. She was very good as a Lord. And one as good as God must be extremely proud when you look at it. So there's no question of forgiveness for her. In other words, it's not thought. That's what the story is all about. But this woman, her sin which remained will forgive her. And it was because of that that she took her off the white man, put him to sleep behind him, and wept, and washed his feet, and wiped them with her hair, and kissed his feet, and did not say anything like that. What an exhibition of life. Why in this country where we're so careful to do this kind of thing, if you do anything personal, you have to do it in silence. So we started sort of demonstration about it in the field. But not so there. And then this woman did it in public, in front of the Pharisees. In front of the Pharisee that she knew despised her. It's so great with her love for the Lord Jesus that she did it just the same. And she went on doing it. And he says to the Pharisee this woman has not sinned. She has not sinned. And he uses her as a lesson to the Pharisee of the Pharisee's total lack of mercy in the way he received her into his house. And he carried her away in the way he received her. That's the normal practice of the day. And most offhand way he should receive. If you and I were invited somewhere and we were received with such lack of mercy in our modern terms today, why we should be most uncomfortable sitting at the table. If our guest opened the door to us and said, oh it's you, go in there, you'll find a seat. I'll be with you certainly. And then came and sat down and said well and you know made a very remote and casual and disinterested conversation. We should feel very uncomfortable. Surely the Lord felt like that as far as the Pharisee was concerned in a way. And yet the Lord Jesus was always marked in every situation and so he chose himself to be here as he brings home this lesson strongly and heartily to the Pharisee that his sins weren't forgiven, that he had no love and no appreciation for this woman's past and therefore she was the one for whom the Lord gave him life. When we go back to the beginning of John's Gospel, we see there another man, a man this time, somebody who had a very particular appreciation for the Lord Jesus. And it's right at the end of the chapter that the Pharisee says, I'm very fond of this man and very supportive of him. And so, as you see, I'm very fond of him, of whom Moses and the Lord and the prophets did write Jesus in Nazareth for some period. And you see, Nathanael, like a lot of other people, was a little bit cynical because once he mentioned Nazareth he pictured Nazareth in his mind's eye right. And he's mentioning Nazareth. You'd never expect anything to happen in Nazareth. You'd never expect anything good to come out of Nazareth. Out of the question. He only said good things would come out of Jerusalem or Bethlehem. But some say it's well spoken of. Some say it's beautiful and refined characteristics and environment. All those things that we'll be talking about tonight. Now here, when they say Nazareth, it's quiet. It's almost a joke. Yet when the Lord Jesus said to Nathanael, which maybe right, there's no doubt, he just opens his eyes and thinks a bit, doesn't he? And he said, how do you know me? It's a challenging choice to answer the question. And the Lord Jesus said, with perfect confidence, he said, before Christ saw you, when you were under the 60s, I saw you. I saw you. And you know, you and I don't know whether he was praying under the 60s, whether he was reading under the 60s, whether he was sitting under the 60s, or whatever. Or whether he was just sitting there thinking, what it was, I don't know. But there's no doubt about it, something about the Lord Jesus said, to Nathanael, right to the heart. I saw it, he said. That was all. No question of an independent contact to the village. No question of somebody said to you, you know Nathanael, he'd rather have a little chat. Nothing of that, doubt it. But, I saw you. And you know, I say this to every one of us. This experience is to every one of us. If the question is, now we are who is this? Because that's the Lord Jesus. The one who comes as the saviour of the world. Who has the whole of God's services in his hands. Who is going through the knowledge and services within mankind. And there's Jesus, Nathanael, who says, I saw you. And he had a great meaning to Nathanael. He didn't need to say any more. Here was one who had the eye of the servant of God. As it says in the Old Testament. The eye of the servant of God. The eye which sees and penetrates and understands all things. Understands all the functions of life. And he calls the things there and then. Without any more ado, he calls the things he worships. Nathanael answers and says, God is the servant of God. God, why have some people years and years of experience with the Lord Jesus and they don't like to listen to him. Some people have to be medical and parables and all kinds of things. And go through all sorts of experiences before they get to this point. But Nathanael, he has his own few words. I saw you. And that was Nathanael. It's a story. It's a life story. And yet you still say this is life. And this is life. To go to the Lord Jesus and look at your feet and see that through and through he does. And be able to say that. There's only one reason for him to say that. Because he did it. Through the finished work. I was just putting the coat off. We were talking about the prophecies of David. He prophesied according to the words of God gave to him. From the height of David he looked down on the encampment of the children of Israel. And there he read how he had not been held in the city of David. And so on. There was the encampment of Israel. Full of grumbling, all kinds of things that we read all through the book of Numbers until that point. When God looks down on his big surveyors, instead of his people. These people have got nothing that he will admit about them. Which is unseemly. Which is unacceptable. Which is something you should criticize. Because he seems to tell who in power lives within these southern lands. They're his people. They're doing deeds of the Lord. They're going off into the land of these provinces. And if you look to them from that angle, why there's nothing there that that would seem unacceptable. So it is, of course, that he looks down on the enemy. The Lord Jesus. He says he's humble. And when he realizes that his people are not that, then surely he is a fanboy. And those who worship him will be offended. The sons of the king of Israel. The ones who come to save and to when I was quite young, I'd go out into the gospel of chapter 5 and know about Noah. The vision of the Lord's people. Luke chapter 5 and Simon Peter. The Lord says to him in the fourth verse, he says, stand up and he says, and say nothing, never the less. At thy word, I will let thou be known. There's no issue of life at all. You know, it's up to me to disagree or I'm friendly or I'm kind. So you know, it's kind of a patronizing attitude we've got, Simon Peter when he says these words. After all, he's a fisherman. He's a fisherman. So anyway, he says, let down the net. And there he goes. When he was down there, he says, so he's going to pass through the cities in their next row. And the head says, you're helpful, isn't it? Well, Simon Peter saw it. He fell down into the city saying, it's up to me for I am a simple man, O Lord, for you are a son and I'm all for everything. That was Simon Peter before he fell into the city. Well, somebody pointed out to me the remark that I made the other day at the funeral of some of you or so, about the Lord Jesus. Here's the answer. He's the one who knows and he's the fisherman. You and I, we might be proud of our ownership. We might be proud of what we do in our work, in our everyday life. We might consider ourselves to be competent, attentive, well-trained, efficient. Perhaps not so much as that. Perhaps even a hundred of you are like that. But when it comes to the Lord Jesus, then it comes to perfection. And in this case, there was a perfection in a fishing technique which completely annihilated Simon Peter. The man who was master of the fish. And it was that. It was the fact that here was one that was ultimately so much greater than him. Although he wasn't a fisherman, he was a teacher. A teacher. And yet his knowledge, his understanding, his ability was so completely beyond anything that man could achieve. Simon Peter's form of work. But he looked at the Lord Jesus Christ and he saw immediately the contrast between the simple, hard-working, ignorant, natural man and the wonderful Lord Jesus. You and I have to realize that, don't we? We have to realize that he's not a natural man. He's the one who sits in the library in that way. You and I, we need help. We need guidance day by day. Not only in spiritual matters. Not only in the difficult things of our lives. Unfortunately, every day I feel as if we need his hand to be over our hand guiding us in our reckoning in what we're doing. But before we have that, we need to realize that we are not nothing more than simple non-permanent. Full of imperfection. Full of failures. And perfection is only found in ourselves. Well now, another outlaw, obviously, comes to the job in chapter 9. You know there's a dog in the house of God. I'm not going to tell it to you, but what I'm going to point out to you is this. Did they ask you? There's those of you in the center saying, how would I know? I didn't say anything. You just made say, and looked in my eyes and said, I'm going to go to the school of Thailand and watch. And I went and watched, and I received that. And then there's all sorts of other things. You said somewhere, would it be a sin or no? I know not. One thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see. That's a fact. And then they try to cast a spell on you, and I'm 30 years of age, you don't know where he comes from. He opened my eyes. So, able, and yet you, you don't know where he comes from. And then you see, there's one thing I didn't know, he wouldn't change his testimony. He stuck his gun against all cover. He said, this man called Jesus, and he denied him. And whereas once he was blind, now he sees. And then Jesus used it, you know. He asked him a question, and he said, do you believe in Jesus Christ? He said, who is he, Lord, if I'm not sure. Lord Jesus said to him, and he said, I don't believe you. And as you see, there's no point in telling me to believe him, because I don't. But over the eyes, and he looked around, and saw the building that he lived in, and people walking about in the market. But the eyes that behold the Son of God, open, by the Lord Jesus. This is the wonderful testimony. I wonder if he had, and most of them have got their own experience. Never knowing what it is, really, to not believe this. George Hunter taught it to my mother and me. Liz is a preacher. Liz is where I studied school. Liz is a Bible writer. All sorts of storybooks about the Lord Jesus. Grown up with it. But perhaps never had this self-reliance conversion experience. And usually those who do have it, what a wonderful testimony that he gave me here, where I was a monk, now I'm a priest. But you know, I don't think they do. For those of us that have always grown up with the Lord Jesus, as somebody that we've been blessed to be with, who have come to take us for granted as well, too. We've come to have this realization that it's great. Our eyes are being opened. Not by ourselves. Not by God, but by the Holy Spirit. Revealed to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to have a revelation for ourselves. So this is the test. So that's what I want to tell you now. I'm a priest. I'm under siege. But our eyes are being opened to see the beauty of His presence, the love of Jesus. The light of the Lord God, of Christ, who lives in God. The light shining in the face of Jesus Christ. We look up and we see the Lord Jesus glorified man in heaven. We look on and we see the name on the earth of Israel, the knowledge of His Lord, of His water-covered Spirit. We look on and we see His face. And we say His name. Shall be His name forever. Our eyes need to be opened to see the Lord Jesus for ourselves. When I was young I thought more about Putin. Who read about the Transfiguration Day. People in Germany and beyond had the vision of the Lord and the people after His life who did not follow communist devised fables, but who were eyewitnesses of His majesty. We saw He received from God the Father honor and glory when He came. Such a voice. Such a voice in that text of the story. You see, it wasn't the light. It wasn't the gleaming glory shining in the face of the Lord Jesus that really took time to be given. It was the voice that said, this is my beloved son, whom you might well see. It was this voice that came from heaven. We heard, we said, when we were in Israel. What an impression that was. What a time it was. And I just wanted to call you today to speak to you about John and the title in the third chapter of the Revelation. I think it's John in that passage. He's a mirror to the complete revelation of the Lord by the Lord than anybody else I know has ever done. Maybe it's caught up in the third end of the text of the Revelation. We don't know. But no matter what it was that he saw, it certainly made a profound impression upon Paul. But here, the Lord Jesus appears to John behind the tap-mat in the text of the Revelation. He says, he's being turned by the sword. Seven laps down. He goes to the lap stand. One lap down. Goes to the garments, down to the foot. Goes about the tap-mat. Goes to the bed. He says, he's there at the right, right water. He lies there at the center of the tap. He sees that in the sun's eyes. He says, don't let me go. And he draws the sun out of the water. He lays his right hand against the sun. And out he is now. And the sharp sword is drawn. And he comes forth. And the sun shines in his strength. Why, here is a person who has really brought into spiritual reality. Here is the Lord Jesus in all his personal glory and in all his official glory. I haven't got time to think about the individual features of it this evening. But there it is. There is the glorified Lord Jesus who appears to John in the eye of the tap-mat. And when he is called in he says, I'm here to receive you. And this is a very fantastic experience to watch everything in here. That's the appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is also altogether to this point where we ourselves hopefully and completely don't come to an end anymore. John, the one who you always was, the Lord is here in the flesh, lies at work and delights himself as a disciple of Jesus Christ when he sees him in his official glory. I wonder if you and I hear the voice of the Archangel of the Son of God and we're called up to be with him in a flower, what are we going to have this time to react to? I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised. Even though we ourselves are going to be shaken I think it's time that we all see the sky where the Lord is right now. We're going to be so far beyond our imagination and so startling in reality and in splendor that we're going to be more than taken aback when we see him. John fell to his feet and said the Lord is right now before me. This this old man falling away so horribly in this single settlement on the other side never will be replaced by us and said to him, I'm the living one. And the old man went up to him and asked if he hated him and said John, there's nothing to you to be afraid of in this island there's nothing to hurt you to be afraid of but I'm the one so he said, I'm the one to love, I'm the one to worship, I'm the one that is more powerful than you and on that attitude our Lord is the one we're waiting for maybe we'll have a more comprehensive vision of himself, so that we can see with not only three eyes in the saddle, we can see that a woman in the centre of you on the ground now has also three eyes of John in the saddle, so that we might have the attitude towards ourselves realising that he's everything and that we're nothing and yet, he's fully free he's the one who's out for us and who lives for us and who can for us there's nothing like serving him more than the senses and certainly the Lord Jesus he's everything and only he is he's our saviour …