I Want to See Jesus

The message opens with the story of Charles Simeon, who in 1782 placed the words of John 12:21 — the Greeks' request, "Sir, we want to see Jesus" — behind his pulpit, so that everyone who stood there would preach with that longing in view. Two guests in the service that morning, Erina from a local coffee shop and two Spanish-speaking Marines, become a living picture of people who simply came because they wanted to meet Jesus.

Why do people want to see Jesus? Through Blaise Pascal, the message describes the infinite abyss within the human heart that nothing in this world can fill, and through Augustine, the restlessness of a heart made for God that finds no rest until it rests in him. Pleasure, wealth, power, fame, and false religions cannot fill that emptiness — only an encounter with Jesus Christ can.

Solomon repeats the words "under the sun" twenty-nine times in Ecclesiastes, yet all human labor, wisdom, pleasure, and achievement prove to be vapor. The Westminster Shorter Catechism's answer — that our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever — frames the alternative: to look beyond the sun, through Jesus Christ, to the Father's throne.

Simeon, Anna, the disciples, Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist, the shepherds, and the Magi all longed to see Jesus. In Luke 10:24, Jesus says that many prophets and kings desired to see what his listeners saw, but did not see it — Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, David, Solomon, Zechariah, and Jeremiah among them. The question then turns personal: with all your heart, soul, and mind, do you want to see Jesus?

David strengthened himself in the Lord in his distress, and Jacob wrestled through the night and would not let go without a blessing. Their stories lead into Psalm 63, David's cry of thirst for God in a dry and weary land — the picture of a believer who seeks God earnestly, clings to him, and is upheld by his right hand.

Many who call themselves Christians have never wrestled to meet Jesus in their own lives, and their Christian life remains powerless. Elders can pray for us, and that is good — but personal victory begins when we cry out from the depths of our own hearts, wrestle in our own secret place of prayer, take God's Word seriously, and surrender our whole lives to Jesus as Lord. No one can do this for us.

The message closes with a testimony from the speaker's teenage years: a stern Bible-study teacher turned two poor, dirty children away from the church door, and they never came back. Against that memory stand the blind man crying out for mercy, Zacchaeus climbing the tree, and David Wilkerson's words that God never rejects a broken heart. Whoever seeks the Lord sincerely, he will never turn away — and through our lives, we must never block anyone else from meeting him.