Sight (9-24-12)

Hebrews 5:14 - "But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil."

This time around we're going to look at what the Word of God has to say about our sense of sight and how it relates to our relationship with God. We read in 1 Timothy 1:17 - "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." God is invisible, He cannot be seen with the physical eye. So how does sight play in to our relationship with God? The Bible says in John 1:18 - "No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him." Here again were told that we cannot see God the Father, but Christ, God in the flesh, appeared as the greatest revelation God has ever given. The Lord Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. If we are going to see God, we're going to see Him through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:15 says - "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." Though we don't see the Father, Hebrews 2:9 says - "But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone." Even today Christ is the image of the invisible God. He still has a physical body although it's a glorified body. So how do we see Christ today? Through His Word. Through the testimony of those who saw Him. John says in 1 John 1:1-3 - "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life— and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." He also writes in John 1:14 - "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." John saw the Lord Jesus in His earthly body. He had daily interaction with Him. And as close as their fellowship was, I'm convinced that God wants to have that same closeness with you and I. He wants to reveal Himself to us through His Word and through a close walk with Him day by day. We can vividly see Him through what He has revealed of Himself in His word. We may not be able to see Him with the physical eye, but we have the testimony of those who did. And we also have the word of Christ in John 20:29 - "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

In John chapter 1 we're given the testimony of John the baptist. In John 1:29 we read - "The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."" And again in verse 34 he says - "I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God." Those who saw Jesus and knew who He was couldn't keep from speaking about Him. Peter and John said in Acts 4:20 - "for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard." We have faithful testimonies of those who have seen Christ all throughout the Bible. And we see Him through their testimony, as we read in 2 Corinthians 5:7 - "for we walk by faith, not by sight." We have faith in what God reveals to us concerning Himself in His Word. And when we approach the Word of God we need to pray with the psalmist in Psalm 119:18 - "Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law." God is invisible and eternal, and the only way to see the eternal invisible things are with the eyes of faith. 2 Corinthians 4:18 - "while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Pauls prayer for the Ephesians in Ephesians 1:18-19 was this - "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might."

In John chapter 1 The Lord Jesus is called the "Light of men." Light enables us to see. There would be no sight apart from it. Even so, there is no true light, and no one can see any spiritual thing apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. The relationship between light and sight are very interesting in Scripture. Jesus said in Matthew 6:22-23 - "The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" The word "clear" in this verse means "single". This verse comes in the context of Jesus talking about how we are unable to serve two masters, and how we don't need to worry about food or clothing, but God will take care of us if we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. And in all this He talks about the focus of our eye. If our eyes are not fixed on Jesus we are not going to be able to see, to discern between good and evil. And if we try to focus on Him with one eye and focus on serving ourselves with the other, then our vision will be distorted we won't be able to see. Our eye needs to be single, focused on Him in order that our lives might be full of light. Hebrews 12:2 - "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." C.S. Lewis said - "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." In Acts chapter 26 the apostle Paul is recounting his testimony, and he says in verse 18 that the Lord Jesus called him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles - "to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me." Mankind has a problem. We are all born blind, spiritually blind. Concerning those who are still lost in their sins, 2 Corinthians 4:4 says - "in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." Satan, the god of this world has blinded the eyes of the unbelieving that they might not see the light of Christ. All who have seen the light of the gospel have had their eyes opened by the Light Himself. The only way we can see is if Christ Himself opens our eyes and reveals Himself to us. We see a great example of this in John chapter 9. In John chapter 9 the Lord Jesus came upon a man who was blind from birth. And the Lord Jesus, after speaking of Himself as the Light of the world, gave sight to the blind man. This man knew barely anything about Jesus. He hadn't even seen him yet after he received his sight, but this man had a testimony, and a powerful one at that. He may not have understood everything about Christ, but he gives this testimony in John 9:25 - "one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." That's the testimony that we sing quite often in the song Amazing grace. "I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see."
We have a similar testimony in the hymn Blessed assurance. Fanny Crosby, the writer of this hymn says in verses 2 and 3 - "Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight; angels descending bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love. Perfect submission, all is at rest I in my Savior am happy and blest, watching and waiting, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love." She writes about visions of rapture bursting on her sight. Watching and waiting, looking above. The incredible thing about this woman is that she was blind from the time she was an infant. And yet she had better sight than most seeing people today, because she wasn't looking at the temporal things, she had her eyes fixed on the real things, the eternal things. And she was looking for Christ Himself. 
As you read through Hebrews chapter 11, the faith chapter, over and over again you'll notice that sight is referred to. Noah was warned about things not yet seen, and faith moved him to action. The patriarchs were looking for an unseen city, one which had everlasting foundations whose architect and builder is God. Faith sees the invisible. In Hebrews 11:24-27 we read - "By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible." God is invisible and yet Moses lived his life as seeing Him who is invisible. Faith enables us to see the unseen. How is your sight?

2 Corinthians 4:18 - "while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."