Allen Jackson - When We See Jesus - Part 1
The title for this session is «When We See Jesus». And it’s not really about his second coming although I guess it could be. It’s really built upon the experiences of Easter and Jesus’s closest friends of the events of that Easter weekend of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection changed their lives dramatically. They were never the same again. Their behaviors were never the same again, their attitudes were different. The ones who were professional fishermen, they never went back to their fishing careers. They fished a little bit, but they never went back to their former roles. Their destinies were changed. That’s my goal tonight.
I want us to ask the Lord for a revelation of him that will bring a change to our future. I really, I have very little interest in playing church or just going through the routines or the order of a service. I have every interest in being transformed by the revelation of a living Christ in my life and it’s my prayer for you. And I happen to think that we’re living in a season where the opportunities for that are really unprecedented, unparalleled. God is moving in a way I’ve never seen him move. I’ve been a Christ follower for a bit and I’ve never seen the Spirit of God moving in the way he is now. In my imagination, it’s like a rapidly moving stream. I’ve been in white water rafting a bit, not a great deal, but some.
And, you know, you see it on TV it’s not too intimidating. They put you in a little rubber dinghy and drop you in the middle of that white water all of a sudden it’s focus time. And it feels like to me that the Spirit of God is moving with the rapidity of white water. God would do things in your life now in a matter of months or weeks that in the past I would have imagined would require periods of years. It’s time to say yes to the Lord. And I would tell you conversely on the opposite side of that if you decide to focus your attention on something that’s ungodly or you open the door for something that’s ungodly, you’ll be swept away far more quickly than I have been accustomed to.
See whichever direction you’re going, I believe it’s accelerated. I tell people all the time, «Keep saying yes to the Lord, keep saying yes to the Lord, keep saying yes to the Lord. Don’t be satisfied to say, well, I made a profession of faith a decade ago or two decades ago. I want this day to have said, God, I intend to give you my best». And if you’ve made the mistake of stepping into the wrong current, before we go tonight, I’m gonna give you a pathway, some tools to change the implications of that. You can’t stay in the middle any longer. There was a time not long ago when you could stand in the wrong stream and with a little focus and a little attention you could stand against that current and maintain your equilibrium. You can’t do that today. You don’t manage sin. You can’t manage ungodliness.
If you’ve accommodated it, if you’ve opened the door for it in your life, if you’re practicing it, before you leave this campus tonight, I’m gonna encourage you to repent. Say to the Lord, «I’m sorry». It’ll sweep you away. And if you haven’t been saying yes to the Lord, tonight’s your night, we’re gonna do that. You know, we see the outworkings of this played out in our culture, but they’re really secondary and tertiary issues. The root of this is spiritual. There’s something so perverse, so ungodly amongst us that we’ve lost the ability to even pray for our nation. If you say, «God bless America,» there are people who are angry at you. That’s messed up. Christians are afraid to say simple things like, «I believe Jesus is the Son of God. May God bless America again». Because there’s some label that will be hung on them.
I intend to say those things loudly, repetitively, consistently with determination and I would invite you to say the same. I’ll give you two quick examples of ways that there’s powerful forces tearing at the fabric of our nation and understand this, they’ll destroy the future of our children. One was an open border. We will not exist as a sovereign nation unless we have borders that are regulated. And the multiplied millions of people that came into our country illegally. Anything that begins with the word illegal does not have a good outcome. And now they’re trying to sort that out, to deport violent, murderous, angry criminals and there’s tremendous resistance for it. The previous several administrations have deported multiplied thousands of more people than the current administration.
The difference is there’s a spirit that’s been unleashed for the destruction of our nation. If they came here illegally, it’s not kindness to perpetuate what they did illegally. You don’t deserve due process if you came illegally. And we’re a nation of immigrants. I’m pro-immigration. But the other side of the same coin is tariffs. We’ve been betraying American workers for decades. We have been betrayed. Our jobs, our livelihoods, and our futures have been exported. They’ve been taken offshore and there’s an attempt. I don’t know what the outcome will be to begin to restore that pride and dignity that we are a nation who does something. And it will require us to be willing to go to work, but work is a biblical principle.
When we meet God in the book of Genesis, he’s working and if you take notes, he’s working a six-day week. And he worked from sun up to sundown. Powerful forces and in the midst of that, the church seems addled, confused, timid, frightened. We’d rather talk about abstract theological principles or new ideologies that will make us the darling of our contemporary culture. We would rather talk about DEI than the redemptive work of Jesus and its necessity in the life of every human being. May God forgive us. We better repent. If you’re attending a church that doesn’t acknowledge the authority of Scripture and the uniqueness of Jesus and his redemptive work, you need a new place to worship. It’s not a church. I don’t care what the sign says or what the architecture looks like.
God is moving in the earth and we have to decide that we’re gonna move with him. Stop holding up your resume and start talking about the fruitfulness of our life this week. I gave you an outline. I gotta go back there, don’t I? That’s the weakness of giving you all those Scriptures, you know what I’m supposed to be doing. By the time we get to Acts chapter 1 and Jesus ascends back to heaven, the disciples' attitude and understanding of Jesus has been completely transformed. The events of Easter combined with Acts chapter 2 and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit changed that group of people. They’re changed more dramatically in that 40 day window or so than they were in the previous three years. They followed Jesus as a teacher, as a miracle worker, as a healer, as a Rabbi. They even acknowledged him as Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one.
However, after Easter, they have a completely different awareness and they’re changed. You can see it in the reports that were given in the pages of Scripture. They helped to author it, they told the stories, they told the stories about how they were before Easter. That’s how we know the material in the gospels. They told us how they were different after Jesus ascended back to heaven. We know the narratives from the book of Acts. They had to tell the stories. Most of the video from that window in time has been lost. So what we know, we know from their word of mouth testimony. They were honest about their failures and their strengths, and they were honest about the transformation. After Jesus returned to heaven, after the Holy Spirit’s poured out, they’re more bold, they’re more determined, they’re more relentless. They have a new purpose. They’re not just following Jesus any longer. They’re no longer just the group of gotchas going along to help clean up whatever Jesus points them to, pick up the basket fulls of leftovers.
«Master, can you pray for this father and his son? We tried and nothing happened». After Jesus leaves, they’re the front line. There is no retreat. They’re different. They have a revelation of Jesus that has changed them. If you’ll allow me, I’ve spent my adult life serving in the church. We need a new revelation of Jesus. We have revelation of our denominations, we have revelation of our styles of worship, we have revelation of our preferred length of a sermon. We’ve got all sorts of revelations. We need to see Jesus and be changed. I have no intention of maintaining the status quo in my life or in the lives of the people with whom I’m traveling. I intend to do my best to be an advocate for Jesus of Nazareth for the principles of his Word, with the truth of the gospel, and to encourage everybody who’ll stand still for just a moment and listen to the invitation to join me in being advocates for that.
It’s time to use our voices for the kingdom of God. The disciples after Acts 2 are no longer living within the system. They’re no longer just playing within the system, coming and going to Jerusalem hoping that the leadership there is gonna be transformed. They have a whole new orientation for their lives. We need that. Their relationship with Jesus has changed and it’s resulted in a change in all their other relationships. I’ll tell you how you’ll know when your relationship with Jesus is different. When you have a greater revelation of him, it’ll change all the other relationships in your life. There will be people who are comfortable with you now that won’t be comfortable. There’ll be a new group of people that move towards you. Some of us who live too far in the world. We’re way too comfortable with ungodliness and I believe Jesus is inviting us to follow him in a new way.
I wanna start with Revelation chapter 1. There’s hope, I got to my notes. John wrote this. Of all the apostles, of all the disciples, he was the closest to Jesus when he was here. And the book of Revelation is written almost 30 years after Jesus ascended back to heaven. So John’s had decades to live it out. Most of his peer group are gone, they’ve been martyred. And John himself is a prisoner on an island held captive for the testimony of the gospel, not because he’s a thief or an extortionist. You understand cancel culture is not new folks. The timidity and the cowardice of the church is embarrassing. Say, well, there’s a price to pay if we acknowledge that we believe Jesus is the Son of God. No kidding. There’s been a price since Jesus was here. There’s still a price. If you’re not willing to take up your cross and follow Jesus and say, «I belong to him».
If we’re not willing to acknowledge him before men, if we’re not willing to understand there are times and places we’ll be hated for that, we’re not worthy to bear the name. You’re hiding your timidity, your unwilling to acknowledge Jesus is not evangelism, it’s cowardice. I love you, but we’ve been coached the wrong way. Somebody actually sent me an email this week and said that they worship in another state and their pastor said the reason we don’t tell the truth more directly in our church is we want the ungodly to be comfortable. That’s the same notion as going to a doctor and says, «Well, I want all the patients to come here to come back so I don’t ever give anybody bad news».
If you’re not willing to tell the truth so the people will go get a second opinion to see if what you told them was really true so they can have a better future, we don’t deserve to wear the label. Revelation chapter 1. I’m trying really hard, I promise. John’s in exile on the island of Patmos. He said on the Lord’s Day he was in the Spirit and he hears a voice behind him. And he turns to see the voice who it is that’s speaking to him. And it’s Jesus. I can’t imagine. He hasn’t seen Jesus since that day on the Mount of Olives when he ascended back to heaven. He’s been working on his behalf. He’s been arrested, he’s been threatened, he’s been beaten. Now he’s an old man and he’s a prisoner and Jesus is standing behind him. It’s in your notes.
It’s Revelation 1:17. «When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. And he placed his right hand on me and he said, 'Don’t be afraid, I’m the First and the Last. I’m the living One. I was dead, and behold I’m alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.'» I think it’s worth noting, John didn’t give him a fist bump. He didn’t give him a high five, he didn’t give him a hug. Let’s hug it out, bro. He said, «I fell at his feet like a dead man». I’ve never known anybody like him. I spent my life serving him. You see, the modified version of Christianity that most of us have spent our lives around trying to teach us how to get Jesus to serve us. How to get Jesus to do our bidding, to answer our prayers, to give us what we want, to give our children the promotions we want them to get and the opportunities we think they should have.
The reason we’ve arrived at that fractured profession of faith is we haven’t had a real revelation of Jesus. I’m not saying you haven’t heard about him. I’m not saying you haven’t read your Bible. I’m telling you that there’s something yet ahead of us. It will be expressed in the fruit of our lives. The disciples left everything to follow Jesus. Their testimony, not mine. Jesus challenged them and they said, «We’ve left everything to follow you. What do you mean»? When Jesus said, «I’m leaving and you can’t go with me,» Thomas said, «Wait a minute, Lord, that’s not the bargain we struck». And yet after Acts chapter 2, they’re forever saying that they’re never gonna be the same again. That’s my goal for myself and for you. We’ve known about Jesus. We’ve invited him into our lives. He’s done some nice things for us and we’ve been polite and said thank you, but I’m looking for a different response in myself and for you.
In Acts chapter 2, this is Peter’s message on the day of Pentecost. A crowd of people is gathered because of the disturbance. I want you to hear Peter’s words. He said, «Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. And this man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge: and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him». That’s not some theological concept that Peter is espousing, he’s a witness to that. He said, «You killed the Messiah, but death couldn’t hold him. I saw him when he was alive,» he said.
This is all part of the same message, verse 32. «God raised this Jesus to life, and we’re witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he’s received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and he’s poured out what you now see and hear. Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah». I would submit to you that’s pretty confrontational language. He’s standing in Jerusalem in the city where a few days earlier, they had screamed at Jesus, «Crucify him». And now he’s saying to no doubt some of the people that were a part of that angry mob, «You crucified the Messiah, but death couldn’t hold him».
This is the Peter that denied the Lord three times on the night he was arrested. This is the Peter that had trouble when they came to arrest Jesus, he cut off a guy’s ear. This was the same Peter that couldn’t stay awake and pray with Jesus just before Judas came to betray him. And now he’s got the boldness and the courage to say, «Even death couldn’t stop him». You see, if we have a personal encounter with a resurrected Jesus, it rewrites our future. Then we’re not just religious or churched or moral or ethical. We’re not just kind or generous or benevolent. We don’t just do good things. There’s a completely different purpose for our lives. We know something to be true that is so transformational. It created such a different future for us that we can’t imagine anybody we meet wouldn’t want that same future. Then we know the reality, not everybody will. But if we will accept the assignment of going into all the world with the good news of the gospel, you will meet an unlimited number of people who will receive the message with joy.
Amen is the word you’re searching for. It’s okay. I know you’re outside and there’s birds. And you’ve got food and here comes a plane. Much competition outside. But the truth is the same. The truth is the same. I gave you a series of passages that highlight that. Acts chapter 3, the very next chapter, there’s been a miracle in Jerusalem. A crowd has gathered, they’re curious. And Peter and John stand up and say, «You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and you asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead, and we are witnesses of this».
This becomes the theme. We’re witnesses of this. We’ve experienced this. This isn’t theoretical. I’m not reciting some discipleship tool that I’ve committed to memory. I’m sharing with you something that’s a part of my own experience portfolio. We are witnesses to this. You’ve done some bad things, but there’s a pathway through this. There’s a different future for us. I’m gonna take the minutes we’ve got left. I wanna give you a tool. It’s a tool I learned as a young man. It’s been powerful in my life. It’s centered in the blood of Jesus and what the blood of Jesus makes available to you and me. If the Spirit of God were to make this a reality in your heart, it’s a pathway towards freedom. It’s a pathway towards freedom from sickness or disease. It’s a pathway towards freedom from grief and depression and oppression. It’s a pathway towards freedom from whatever would beset a human being.
You see, God’s provision for humanity is complete, it’s entire, it’s irreversible. It was accomplished on the cross of Jesus. With the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, God accomplished a total irreversible defeat of Satan and his kingdom. But in order for the benefits of that to accrue to impact our lives, we have to receive it by faith. That’s more than just a profession of faith. That’s applying the authority of Scripture and the truth of God over every aspect of our lives and overcoming our carnal nature, that part of every one of us that’s hardwired towards ungodliness. We have to bring the authority, the blood of Jesus and say, I will not give you first place in my life. That little voice inside of Allen and inside of you that says, «I think and I want and I will, you will not dominate my life in the name of Jesus».
I want to know what God thinks. I want to know what God’s will is. I want to know how God feels about this circumstance. And then I will learn to yield those things in me to the perspective that God brings. Yielding’s not fun. Have you noticed? You know, my driving has mellowed a lot. Not completely. And I honestly, I always thought, you know what a yield sign is on the road? I always understood that please don’t model my behavior. I understood yield to me and accelerate. 'Cause if I got there ahead of you, you could yield. If that makes no sense to you, just pray for me. I’ll tell you what changed my life a lot is that goofy little Jesus is Lord magnet. You know, it’s embarrassing to drive like the devil and have Jesus is Lord on the back of your vehicle. It should be embarrassing to park like a pagan and have that on the back of your vehicle too. But that’s a discussion for another day.
I wanna give you a tool. Revelation chapter 12 and verse 11. You have it in your outlines. Says, «They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony». And I put in your notes some parenthetical insertions, some words in parenthesis that help amplify that verse just a bit. «They, (the believers on the earth) overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb (that’s Jesus) and by the word of their testimony». Or if I just said it in good Southern vernacular, that is they testified to what the Word of God says about the blood of Jesus. Do you remember the Exodus story? The last night the Hebrew slaves spent in Egypt. All the plagues, all the expressions of the power of God and it hadn’t changed the hearts of Pharaoh or the people. They weren’t about to release the Hebrew slaves. And God told Moses to tell the Hebrews to take a lamb and to prepare the lamb. They gave him specific instructions on how to prepare the food.
The bread was to have no yeast because it didn’t have time to rise, but they were just to catch the blood of the lamb in a basin and to use hyssop, a common weed in the region. And to put some of the blood on the doorpost of the house because God said that night death was gonna pass through the land of Egypt and on every house where their blood was on the doorpost, they would be spared, but where that blood was not on the doorpost of the house, the first born in every house would die. Whether it was a man, a woman, or even an animal, God said. Death rolled through the land of Egypt that night and the only people spared were the people with the blood on the doorpost of their house.
Do you think there was anybody in the Hebrew community that didn’t participate? I promise. And the next morning there was so much grief, so much fear that they literally drove the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt. They gave them their gold and their silver. Well, that’s the imagery that’s being used in Revelation. It’s the blood on the doorpost of the house except it says we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb. We don’t put it on the door frame of our house any longer. We apply it to the circumstances of our lives with the word of our testimony. It’s not enough to have a Bible. It’s not even enough to have committed to the memory or read it to know what it says. We have to give application of that truth with the authority of our words. You know, your words carry with them a spiritual authority.