DO PEOPLE SEE JESUS IN US?
John 1:10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
Following Jesus’ resurrection Luke 24:16 tells us that at first when Jesus met with Cleopas and another disciple he kept them from recognizing him. He did this to know how they were responding to his death and the resurrection that the lady's reported. Because of a person’s free will Jesus wanted to learn from them what they believed and intended to do. His disclosure was not meant to be some sort of trick or trap. Just the opposite was true, and God’s intention all along. God wanted his creation to know him as Adam and Eve did, and to love and trust him. This was the calling for all the Jews, but they felt that the Lord was their own personal God and for them alone. God had promised Abraham that through him would come one that would bless all the earth. (Gen 12:3)
How does God reveal himself to his creation? God began with Adam and Eve to set promises or prophecy in motion so that people would have reason to believe and not be deceived. Even with Adam and Eve’s sin that would cause humanity to be estranged from God due to sin, God gave a promise or prophecy that through Eve would come one that would crush the snake’s (Satan’s power) head. Between Adam and Eve to Jesus being born in the town of Bethlehem, God would set up a means of prophecy that would reveal himself to all the earth.
One of these benchmark prophecies was given to John the Baptist. It tells of this in John 1:29-34. It says, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.”
In revealing Jesus as the son of God to Israel he also did to the world. Even though the religious leaders of Israel rejected Jesus as the Son of God, many Jews and even Gentiles would believe God had come to earth. Jesus explained how it would happened using a parable of yeast and a mustard seed. He said that even though a mustard seed is the smallest of seeds, when it is planted it will grow into a tree that birds can sit in. It is also like yeast that will work through the dough. John the Baptist would tell others and in turn they would tell others and so on. Today with publications, radio, TV, the internet using satellites, the Good News of Jesus is spread throughout the earth. Millions of people are becoming Christians. Through Jesus, his teachings and the Holy Spirit, people are coming to know the Lord.
Hebrews 1:3 says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. He also said in John 10:30 that, “I and the Father are one.” Then in John 14:7-9 he says, “If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said, “Lord show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
As Christians, Jesus lives in us (Jn 14:20), and so does the Holy Spirit. We are to represent to the world what God is like. As John the Baptist revealed Jesus to the world, we Christians can do the same. Hopefully when the world see us they will recognize Jesus in us.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, please transform us so much into the image of Jesus that when the world looks at us they will recognize we are different and not only will want to know what makes us different , but they will want to be like us being like Jesus! We ask this in Jesus’ name.
