WE SHALL SEE HIM AS HE IS

First John 3:1-3

Sermon Of The Week #200629 – 7-23-06

John says that God hath bestowed His love on us; He made us children of God, and as children of God we shall be made like Jesus when He returns.

Although God has bestowed His love on us by the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, there are many who reject that love and go through life facing temptations alone, the sorrow of the death of loved ones alone, no help, but such as man can give, and then die alone, not knowing that God is waiting to judge them. It is appointed unto men once to die and then cometh the judgment.

One man told me many years ago while I was working in the Shipyard that he was going to live his life for the Devil, and enjoy himself, and when he got to be old, he would repent and go to heaven. Apparently he wanted to burn the candle of life at both ends, and as the flame died out blow the smoke in Gods face. Many times when those who wait unto the eleventh hour die at ten thirty.

In addition to rejecting the love of God in sending His only begotten Son, John also said to the Christian, “For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.” Since the world rejected Christ, and still does, neither will the world accept the Christ like.

 This should come as no surprise when we remember   Jesus said several times; ”The servant is not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord, if they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more them that are of the household?”

In fact the Lord made it stronger than that. In His farewell address to the Apostles in John fourteen through seventeen, He said, “The day will come when whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth service to God.”

 Many who are listening to this broadcast at this moment in other countries know exactly what that means. More people are dying for their faith today than ever before in history. Churches have been burned, and public worship forbidden. And this done by people who think they are doing service to God.  

And then John said to the Christian, “We know that when He appears we shall see Him as He is, and be made like Him.” In the previous chapter John says, “Be sure to abide in Him that you may have boldness, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” Jesus predicted that many would be ashamed before Him when He comes. Luke records how Jesus said, “He that is ashamed of Me before this adulterous generation, of him will the Son of man be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father and His angels.” So it is a very important question. Will you be ashamed before Him at His Coming?

Many are ashamed of Him now. Consider the great number of quote Christians unquote who are petrified at the thought that they may do something religious, and be called a religious fanatic. It may be fine with them to be called a sports fanatic, but it might be better to have ten lashes with a horsewhip than to endure such a charge as being a Christian fanatic.

         How many would be ashamed before Him at His coming considering the home they live in, the car they drive and then the amount of money that is contributed? Does what we give really represent us? We give ten, fifteen, twenty per cent to the waiter in a restaurant lest we be thought stingy, and then give a tip to Jesus Christ who died for us. I heard of a woman one time who said to her little daughter as she left the services on Sunday, “That was the lousiest sermon I ever heard in my life.” Her little daughter said, “But Mama, what kind of a sermon did you expect for a dollar?” How many would be mortified at the thought of meeting Jesus knowing that the last Sunday on earth we missed the Lord's Supper to do something else? How many elders would be ashamed to meet the Lord knowing they had not tended the flock of God as commanded, but turned this chore over to something called a staff? I was in one service where it was announced, if you have a problem this week see one of the members of the staff. I suppose they thought, “Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” How many preachers

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 would be ashamed to meet the Lord whose hands were pierced with nails knowing that the only gospel they preached was pop psychology? Some one told me of a preacher who preached a sermon on, “How to keep from being shy.” My guess is he will be very shy when the Lord comes and we see Him as He is.

And then we make passing reference to another statement John made when he said, "He that hath this hope purifies himself even as He is pure.” Every follower of the Lord Jesus Christ needs to remember the prayer of King David in Psalms 139, “Search me O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be some wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” 

          The big thing to remember is when John said, “We shall see Him as He is and shall be made like Him.” I would point out that we shall see Him as He is, and not as He was.

WE SHALL SEE HIM AS HE IS AND NOT AS HE WAS

When He appears we will not see Him as He was on earth. On earth He did not wear a halo. He was qualified to wear one had there been such a thing, but since halo's had not been invented at that time. Neither was there a shaft of light coming down out of Heaven to indicate whom the Lord was. He probably looked just like any other Jewish man at the time, and not a well-to-do Jew at that. He lived in no fancy house, and could not afford the latest style in clothing. He looked like any other peasant from Galilee.

We shall see Him as He is, and not as He was. Not as He was in the manger at Bethlehem surrounded by shepherds and sheep. Instead of a manger He will be sitting on the throne of His glory. Of course the shepherds will be there. The faithful shepherds of the sheep called elders in the New Testament. The sheep will be there. The sheep Jesus referred to are the sheep the Lord referred to when He said, "My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me."

         We will see Him as He is, and not as He was in the Garden of Gethsemane when the soldiers sent to arrest Him fell down backwards when He said, "I am He." If they fell down backwards when He was clothed in the rags of mortal flesh, what will it be like when these miserable wretches are dragged from their graves to stand before the King in His glory?

          We shall see Him as He is, and not as He was as a boy of twelve years old, and as a juvenile confounding the wisdom of the world's ripest scholars.

        We shall see Him as He is, and not as He was as the Saviour of the world, but as the Judge of the human race. But although we shall see Him as He is at His coming, and not as He was, we can say, we do see Him today as he was, as the gospel is reproduced in the life of the redeemed.

WE SEE HIM AS HE WAS IN THE LIFE OF THE REDEEMED

The picture of the gospel of Christ is reproduced in the life of the redeemed. When Jesus died; He died on the cross. In like manner we also must die on the cross. Paul tells us in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.” And then again in Romans 6:6 “our old man was crucified with Him.” Also in Galatians 5:24 "And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof."

Jesus died on the cross, and we must be crucified on the cross. The picture of the crucifixion of Jesus is reproduce in the life of the redeemed.

When Jesus died it was necessary that He be buried. It is also necessary that we be buried. Earth is earth and water is water. When a person is buried in physical death a hole is dug, and he is buried and covered up. When we die on our cross we must be buried and covered up. Paul tells us in Romans 6:4 "We were buried with Him in baptism." Jesus was buried after He was crucified, and we must be buried after we are crucified. The picture of the burial of Christ in the tomb is reproduced in the burial in baptism of the redeemed.

After the Lord’s dead body was buried He was raised up on the third day. The angel at the tomb said, "He is not here for He is risen even as He said." We also must be raised up from our watery grave. Again in Romans 6:4 “As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.” Jesus was raised from the dead, and we must be raised up also. The picture of the resurrection of Jesus on the third day is reproduced in the life of the redeemed.

Listen the Redeemer died on the cross, was buried, and raised from the dead, and the redeemed in like manner must duplicate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. 

Buried beneath the yielding wave the Great Redeemer lies

Faith views Him in the watery grave and thence behold Him rise.

With joy we in His footsteps tread, And would His cause maintain

Like Him be numbered with the dead and with Him rise and reign.

Now blest Redeemer, we to thee, Our grateful voices raise

Washed in the fountain of Thy blood, our lives shall be thy praise.

WE SHALL SEE AS HE IS AND BE MADE LIKE HIM

And now that we seen Him as He was as He sojourned on earth, and seen Him as He is when reproduced in the life of the redeemed, we need to know that when He returns we shall see Him as He is, and we shall be made like Him.

         What does He look like as He is now? Paul says that He dwells in light unapproachable whom no man hath seen or can see. What ever His appearance is John says we shall see Him as He is and we shall be made like Him. Jesus said that when He returns that the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. So what will we look like if we will look Like Him?

         Paul says that this body when it dies is sown in corruption, but raised in incorruption. Corruptible means this body we now have will age, deteriorate, and die. But that is not all. After it dies it will decay and decompose. Actually it is becoming corrupt before we die. Paul tells us that the outward man decays day by day. But the inward man is renewed. As far as the physical is concerned every day we rot a little. It is a fact of life some seem to rot faster than others. But at the resurrection the Christian will have a body that is incorruptible, we will never age, decay, or decompose.  It is also sown in dishonor and raised in glory. You may think you are a beautiful specimen of a human being, but your body is dishonorable. Nothing shows that body’s dishonor more than when it dies and then buried out of sight. It is sown in dishonor,

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 even though the mortician may paint it up and made it look good and people will say that he surely does look natural. What did you expect him to look like? If he doesn't look natural it might not be who you think he is. It might even be somebody else. One day our bodies will all be deprived of every ability, and power it ever had, and be reduced to a handful of dirt. But the resurrected body will be raised in glory and have an eternal magnificence.

         It is sown in weakness, but raised in power. The body is weak. I have seen the strongest specimens of manhood grow old and feeble. A germ can knock off any of us at any time, and the dead body is so weak that it won't be able to stave off the worms. It will be too weak to even lift a finger.

        It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is going to be a change that we cannot begin to imagine; a change that all the factories and laboratories working 10,000 years day and night would not be able to do. Paul tells of the resurrection of the Christian dead when he says, “Behold I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed.”

        Just what will we look like? A boy in school one time was assigned to write an essay on the human anatomy. He wrote:

Your head is round, and hard and your hair is on it and your brains are in it.

Your face is what you’ve got to eat and make faces with.

Your neck is what keeps your head from sinking down into your collar.

Your arms are what you’ve got to pitch with, and so's you can reach the butter.

Your shoulders are shelves where you hang your arms, and your stomach is what hurts if you don’t get enough to eat; And spinach sure don’t help it none.

Your spine is what keeps you from folding up, and no matter how quick you turn around it’s always behind you.

Your legs is what if you ain’t got two of you can’t get to first base,

And neither can your sister.

Your toes are what’s always getting stubbed, and that all there is to you ‘cept what’s on the inside, and I ain’t never seen that. Perhaps science could give us a better description.

        A very inadequate comparison in the body we now have to the body we will have when we look like Him is like comparing a canoe with a United States aircraft carrier. It is almost eleven hundred feet long—over one hundred and forty feet longer than the Queen Mary and over two hundred feet longer than the Titanic. That aircraft carrier will have a crew of over five thousand men. Comparing the body we now have with the body we will have is like comparing a firecracker with the atomic bomb. Comparing the body we now have with the body we will have is like comparing a paper airplane to a rocket we send to the moon. It is like comparing the dried up flowers on a coffin lid with all the flowers of 2,000 spring times gathered into one bouquet. The thing that is wrong with this comparison is the fact that it is hopelessly inadequate.  It does not even begin to tell you the difference in the body you now have, and the body you will have on that day when He appears and you see Him as He is and are made like Him. I am reminded of a popular song of yesteryear. Part of the lyrics said, “I’m gonna change my way of living, and if that ain’t enough, I'll even change the way I strut my stuff. There'll be some changes made that day.” I say amen to that.

         Perhaps there is one small glimpse of what we will look like when we are made to look like Him when we know that Jesus after the resurrection surprised them by appearing and disappearing. He could change His appearance; He could enter a room when all the doors were closed. This does not tell us too much unless we consider as Mark said, He appeared to two of them in another form. He was still the same person yet when some doubted He proved His identity by taking a piece of fish and honeycomb and eating it before them.

So we will appear in glory in another form, and it will still be us, and we will recognize each other, but that doesn’t begin to tell us what it is like to dwell in light that is unapproachable to us on earth.

         It is enough for us to accept John’s statement we shall see Him as He is, not as He was on earth, not as He appears as reproduced in the life of the redeemed, but as He is now in all the glory of the One who dwells in light that is unapproachable, and as we also will be for all the ceaseless ages of eternity.

        All of this will assuredly come to pass as we remember how the resurrected Lord laid His right hand on the prostrated Apostle John and declared: “Fear not. I AM the first and the last and the living one and I was dead, but now I AM alive forever more, and I have the keys of death and Hades.” And now as we as Christians wait for that glorious day when faith shall be made sight, let us continue to sing: “I’M PRESSING ON THE UPWARD WAY, New heights I’m gaining every day. Still praying as I onward bound, Lord plant my feet on higher ground.”