Who Do You Say Jesus Is?

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: According to Dana Gresh, a right perspective on life starts with being clear about who Jesus is.
Dana Gresh: How many of you have been in that place where your vision is refocused and you see Jesus clearly and everything else starts to make sense. That relationship that is or isn't working, that job, that friendship, that decision you have to make, when you see him clearly, that will be clear too.
Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast for Thursday, October 29th. I'm your host, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. I'm glad you joined us. If I asked, who are you? You might tell me your name and a little bit about yourself. If I persisted and kept digging for more, you'd probably start talking about things and the people that you value, the friends who have helped shape you into who you are today, and assuming you're a believer in Jesus, I would guess you talk about the role he plays in your life. But what if we flipped it around and I asked, who is Jesus? That's a question Dana Gresh, the co-host of Revive Our Hearts, asked in a chapel service here at Revive Our Hearts. I was encouraged by what she shared and I wanted you to have a chance to hear it too. You hear Dana mention my book, Incomparable: 50 Days with Jesus. When she spoke, our staff were reading through that devotional book in the weeks leading up to Easter. So she mentioned it as you're about to hear. So pretend you're sitting in a Revive Our Hearts chapel time. And if you're able to follow along in your Bible, let me invite you to turn to Mark chapter 8. Here's Dana.
Dana Gresh: Hey, if you've known me for any years, you know that one of my favorite books of Nancy's is Brokenness: The Heart God Revives. When I read that book, it was a trajectory change in my spiritual life. The Lord helped me with some spiritual blindness and I was able to see my pride for the first time. But I think this might be my new life changer. Incomparable: 50 Days with Jesus and I'm only through day seven. I've waited so that I can join beginning with everybody else during the reading time, but I wanted to get ahead since I somehow got this inconceivable honor. I mean, I'm just flabbergasted that I get to kick off our reading plan because it really does mean something. The Lord keeps speaking to me through every day in a very specific way. For example, I was really overwhelmed by building that landing page. Not all of my career gets to be behind a mic hosting for Revive Our Hearts or teaching. I enjoy that or writing books. I love that. So much of it's administration and I was grumbling through the day and complaining about the menial tasks I had to do when I started doing my day reading sixes. Day sixes, A Working Man, The Earthly Occupation of Christ. And Nancy actually used the words that Jesus did menial work. And my heart was so convicted once again of my pride. But I believe that this book is going to be a game changer for so many people. It already has been for me. Each entry seems to answer a new question for me. And sometimes there were questions I didn't really know I had. I want to tell you about a year ago I was just in conversation with someone who I deeply want to love Jesus and I simply said, who do you say Jesus is? Something she said sparked that question in my heart. To me, it seemed like a normal conversation, but to her it felt like fighting words. I was deeply troubled. I have been deeply troubled thinking about that conversation for almost 12 months, but then I read the introduction of Incomparable and I just want to read the first couple paragraphs to you in case you haven't already been in there. Um Nancy wrote, everyone has an opinion about Jesus. That became clear when Jesus himself, while here on earth, asked his closest followers what they had heard the crowd say about him. They came up with an assortment of answers just as people do today. Many nonbelievers will grant that Jesus was a good man, a wise philosopher, a moral example, a great teacher. Others, of course, insist he was a fraud, a fanatic. Some believe his words and influence are a menace to modern society. The majority, it seems, just clump them together with various characters identified by history and tradition as founders of our world's religions. But you, Jesus said to his disciples, asking an even more pointed, more personal question, who do you say I am? And that's what he really wanted to hear. This is when my spirit started to kind of awaken. I knew that I needed to lean in, that God was going to begin to answer a question I'd had in my own heart. Nancy writes, it's a question every one of us must eventually answer. Who do you say Jesus is? There is simply no escaping it. And whatever your answer, it carries serious implications for your life and future. So it needs to be based on more than mere conjecture or common knowledge. It needs to contain more than just Christian-sounding vocabulary. Your answer needs to be based in truth. Truth that's been revealed to us. Truth that has stood the test of time and hate and derision and all the troubles endured by mankind, yet has continued to point to one only reasonable conclusion. Jesus is incomparable. And so he is. You know, when I read that page, my heart was soothed because I understood why that person I was talking to was so offended by the question. It was conviction. It was the Holy Spirit poking at her heart. It wasn't me. Well, I began to sense that God would have me not just pray about that page that I read in Incomparable, but study the passage it came from. Mark 8. And what I began to learn as I studied this and all the other, I would say launching points in the book as it takes me into scripture, I started to understand that my vision of Jesus was and is like a picture of a pile of rocks that went viral on social media recently. I want you to see this pile of rocks and I want you to look very closely at it. Now don't tell the person sitting next to you what you see if you've already seen it. Some of you seem nothing but a pile of rocks, but I bet some of you see words because once you see them, you can't unsee them. Do you see it? The rocks actually form the words, The stones will cry out. Listen, if we don't see Jesus for who he really is, the Bible tells us that even the rocks will cry out. Well, I am telling you on this property, on this farm, I don't want any of the rocks to have to do that work. I want Dana Gresh. I want Bob Gresh and I want my children and grandchildren to cry out who Jesus is, but we can't do that unless we do see him clearly. So open your Bibles to Mark 8. I want you to see what the Lord helped me to see as I delved a little more deeply into that question, who do you say I am? Um I want to start with this. Martin Lloyd Jones, a preacher from London who most of you probably know. Um he was famous for a sermon he preached based on Mark 8 titled Men Like Trees Walking. And it's based on Jesus's healing of the blind man, which happens in Mark 8. A real miracle to be sure, but Jones claims this story of Jesus healing a blind man at Bethsaida is not haphazardly placed in Mark chapter 8, but it is intentionally there. You see the first 21 verses reveal the spiritual blindness of two groups of people. First, the Pharisees, the enemies of Jesus. They want a miracle, a sign to prove that he is who he is, even though they'd probably heard that he had just fed thousands of people with almost nothing. But it also reveals the spiritual blindness of the disciples, the friends of Jesus. Even though they saw Jesus do that miracle, they began talking about it and we see in verse 21 after they're talking about it, Jesus said to them, do you not yet understand? Don't you still see who I am? You just saw what I did and yet you still don't see who I am. And as I have delved into this chapter, God is showing me some of my own spiritual blindness and helping me to see that I still don't really understand who he is. And that's one of the reasons why I'm so excited to dive into this book. And I wondering, could God be asking you the same question? Do you truly understand who I am? Jones said that this parable of the blind man is not just a literal healing, but also a lessons for the disciples. And I think it's a lesson for you and I today too. Let's start reading in Mark 8 chapter 22. It says, and they came to Bethsaida and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and let him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see men, but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes. His sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home saying, do not even enter the village. All right, I saw three things as I studied this passage. One, I saw that we see Jesus clearly in community. I saw that we see Jesus clearly a little at a time. And that we see Jesus clearly when we're close enough for him to touch us. And I think all three of these reasons are going to inform the way that I press into reading Incomparable for the next 50 days. Lesson number one, we learned to see Jesus clearly in community. Look at verse 22. This is pretty obvious, but it says, some people brought him a blind man. The blind man didn't bring himself. He needed some people to bring him. He needed a community of people who cared about him deeply to drag him to Jesus. And I know this is so basic, but go to church, friend. Be in community. I hope I'm preaching to the choir when I say this, but I am so deeply burdened by the number of mature adults and young people right now who just aren't hungry to be in community right now. And I want to say this, if you're lacking an appetite, maybe it's because you don't see Jesus clearly. Maybe it's because you don't see that we can see him better in community. You know, I I have to wonder, why did the others bring him? Maybe he'd given up. I don't know about you, but I've been there in my faith walk where I've given up on something, something I'm praying about, something I'm asking God for. And it's been my sisters and brothers around me who drag me to Jesus and say, you might not have faith, but I still do. Because this man was in community, others could see what his need was and they brought him to Jesus. But also in that same verse, it says that they begged him to touch him. The blind man, even when he was there with Jesus, it doesn't seem like he was the one saying, Jesus, touch me. It was the community that they earnestly and humbly begged God to touch this man. I wonder, when was the last time that someone was really able to beg God for a healing in your heart and life because you were brutally, transparently, radically vulnerable in community, in your small group or one-on-one with a brother or a sister? I hope there's someone in your life who begs Jesus to touch you the same way that this man had people begging him to touch him. But that happens in community, friends. That happens in community. And no one is healed of their spiritual blindness or their physical blindness without begging for a touch of Jesus. We need to say, Jesus, I can't see you. Will you help me? And I think I think that reading Incomparable is one way to ask that prayer. It's one way to ask that question of Jesus, can you help me see? And as we read day in and day out, we're going to participate in God's answer to that prayer. Lesson number one, we learned to see Jesus clearly in community. Lesson number two, we learned to see Jesus clearly a little at a time. In verse 22, we see that sentence where Martin Lloyd Jones's sermon title came from. When Jesus said, do you see anything? The man said, I see men, but they look like trees walking. Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again and he opened his eyes and his sight was restored. Martin Lloyd Jones said that Jesus attempts, and he put the word attempts in quotation marks, were so the disciples could learn that they didn't yet see Jesus clearly. He wanted them to see that even though they saw some of who he was, there was still so much more. As I contemplated that, I really found myself realizing that this person that I talked to a year ago and said, who do you say Jesus is? I was very quick to say, you don't know who Jesus is. But what if I haven't seen all of him yet? Of course, I haven't. I see through a veil. You see through a veil. But I want to see as much of him as I can this side of heaven. And that means that I have to participate. Martin Lloyd Jones went on to say, this is a parable for the disciples to see themselves as they are, blind men. I had to ask myself, is it possible that I see Jesus like trees walking? Is it possible that you see Jesus like trees walking? Maybe your lack of appetite for the word or your lack of appetite for Christian community is because you don't really see who he is. Wouldn't you like to? Wouldn't you like to? Well, it happens a little at a time. And that's why I love that Incomparable is divided up into little segments and I would encourage you, don't plow through it. Don't binge through the book even though you might be tempted, but read it a little at a time because I find that it's a little at a time that builds the strength in my spiritual eyes. My own walk with Christ generally doesn't happen in big Eureka moments. I mean, there have been those, praise the Lord, their precious memories, but most days when I spend time with them are just that, spending time with them, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour at a time. But I find that when I'm faithful, there's a cumulative effect of gazing at them day after day after day and I see him better. I don't see him like trees walking. I see him more and more clearly. Be faithful day after day after day. Lesson number three, we learn to see Jesus clearly when we're close enough for him to touch us. Look at verse 25. It says, when Jesus laid his eyes on his hands again and he opened his eyes, the man's sight was restored and he saw everything clearly. Now I have been studying, sitting in the presence of God. I have been studying the Hebrew language of the presence of God and I've discovered something really interesting and that is this, that many times in the Old Testament when we see the word presence, um the actual Hebrew actually said the face of God. So it's an intimate face-to-face thing that we're reading about in the Old Testament. And I've been hungering more and more for face-to-face encounters with the Lord. And by that I mean intimate encounters, intimate encounters where I slow down just for Jesus to be with me. I sit still and I soak in the words that he's teaching me. And so I think that it's possible that Jesus when he touched this man, he touched him and he was standing behind him, right? But I don't think so. Based on what I'm learning about God's desire for face-to-face intimate community with us, I think Jesus touched him from the front. And I think when Jesus moved his hands, the very first thing this man saw clearly was the face of Jesus. And then he saw everything clearly. How many of you have been in that place where your vision is refocused and you see Jesus clearly and everything else starts to make sense. That relationship that is or isn't working, that job, that friendship, that decision you have to make, when you see him clearly, that will be clear too. But you have to take your eyes off of those things, the winds and the waves, and you have to gaze upon Jesus and then your sight will be restored. For me, I was able to see my conversation with this person I love so dearly so much more clearly. Beginning with the fact that she does in fact need to answer the question, who do you say Jesus is? But do you know what else I saw? I saw that right now it's just more important for me to be very clear about who I say Jesus is. Listen, everyone is spiritually blind to some degree or another. It is not a mistake that in Mark 8 we see the enemies of Jesus and the friends of Jesus not seeing him clearly. Everyone is spiritually blind to some degree or another, but not everyone's going to see Jesus clearly. Those of us who admit we're blind and beg for a touch, we're the ones that are going to see Jesus clearly. I have a couple of action points for you today. I hope that this spoke to your heart the way it did mine. And if it did, you can thank Martin Lloyd Jones, probably not Dana K. Gresh. But these are the three action points that God has been speaking to my own heart. How to cure my spiritual blindness? I'm seeking to get in community at a greater degree than I have been in community. Um I think one of the things we can do to get in community is to read Incomparable in community together so that when we come to work or we're gathering together, we have the same point of reference and conversation about how we're seeing Jesus and how we're looking at him on that particular day. So I hope you will choose to participate in this reading. Number two, I am going to fall on my knees and beg because that's the language we see here is that they're begging God. They're begging Jesus to touch this blind man. And so in my quiet time with the Lord, just as a posture of my body being in the right position that I want my heart to be in, I've been getting on my knees and I've just been begging the Lord for one thing. Lord Jesus, I want to see you. Help. I don't see you as clearly as I think I'd like to. And three, I've been just sitting in the presence of Jesus, not doing homework, not studying for a message that I might be teaching, not studying for a book that I might be writing, but just taking time to slow down, maybe with coffee in my hand as I look at the bird feeder. I love to watch the bird feeder on the farm. The woodpeckers visit so readily in the winter. And just imagine that I'm sitting there close to Jesus, letting it soak from here in my brain down to here in my heart. Friend, I hope you'll join us. And I hope that at the end of 50 days we see Jesus as incomparable because he truly truly is.
Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: That's Dana Gresh challenging the Revive Our Hearts staff and really all of us to get to know Jesus better. She was referring to a devotional book I wrote titled Incomparable. You'll find more information about it when you follow the link in the transcript of this program at reviveourhearts.com. And if you're looking for a devotional book geared toward Christmas, our friends at Moody Publishing recently released my book, Consider Jesus. It's a 31-day Advent devotional. Jesus's question for the disciples, who do you say that I am? is a critical question for each of us to consider. I wrote this Advent devotional, Consider Jesus, to help you think through many aspects of who Jesus is. And this month we'll send you a copy of that book, Consider Jesus, as our thank you gift to you in gratitude for your donation of any size to help support Revive Our Hearts. Be sure to ask about my Advent devotional when you contact us with your gift. You can do that at our website, reviveourhearts.com, or you can give us a call at 1-800-569-5959. Thank you so much for your prayers and financial support. We really need both. This program is listener supported and when you give, you're helping us reach women like this listener from New England.
Eunice: Hi, this is Eunice calling from Maine. And I want to thank Revive Our Hearts for your faithfulness, to standing on the truths of God's word and proclaiming, teaching us women, as well as anyone who listens, how to better follow the Lord, to learn, and to continue to be faithful witnesses to others. I've been listening to the daily podcasts with Revive Our Hearts since the spring of 2020. As I prepare for my day in the morning, I have my quiet time. And then as I'm continuing to prepare for my day, I'll turn on the daily podcast. I realized quite quickly that I needed some more intentional times. I needed more of God 's word put into my mind just because of the events that we were dealing with here in the US and throughout the world. And it's been a continued routine habit, rhythm that God has used to help grow me and challenge me and to just continue to reaffirm the truths of God's word. So thank you Revive Our Hearts. Blessings to you as you continue to shine for Jesus.
Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Thank you, Eunice. I love that Revive Our Hearts is part of your daily routine. If you'd like to leave a message on our call-in line, here's the number. It's 219-200-2288. Let me repeat that. The Revive Our Hearts testimony call-in line is area code 219-200-2288. And thanks again for your support as we call women in Maine and around the world to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ. Tomorrow we'll turn to Isaiah chapter 40 and look up and see our great God. That's what Isaiah calls us to do. Can I give you a homework assignment sometime between now and when you next listen to Revive Our Hearts? Take some time to read Isaiah 40 and meditate on what it says. That's the 40th chapter of Isaiah. And then please be back for Revive Our Hearts.
Dana Gresh: This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.