Well, our aim here for these minutes is that we would, in fact, see Jesus. And I want us to start at the end of Luke's Gospel, Luke 24. But I hope you have your Bibles open and can go with me, because we're going to go to a few different places here this morning. But Luke 24 is where we're going to start off our launching pad. We've just read in 2 Corinthians 4, and seen in 2 Corinthians 4, that the devil is busy at work, blinding the eyes of unbelievers. Blinding them from seeing what? The glory of God in the face of Jesus. So think about your co-workers, your neighbors, the enemy putting his hand over their eyes as it were, preventing them from seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus. But the same God that said, let there be light has for believers, opened our eyes to see something amazing. Namely, the beauty of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And so that's our aim this morning. That we would see this very thing. And we're going to read right here about some folks whose eyes were closed and then whose eyes were open. But Luke 24 is where we begin. Verse 13. You may remember this story. It says here that on that day there were two friends of Jesus. And they were walking along a seven mile road. It was the road that was going to a village named Emmaus from Jerusalem. And here they were this third day after Jesus had been crucified. And they're walking along the road. And it describes these two men as they were walking along the road that their countenance was down. Their heads were low. They were despairing. They were discouraged. And it says that while they were walking and discussing together, verse 15, Jesus Himself drew near and walked with them. But verse 16 says, their eyes were what? Their eyes were kept from recognizing Him. Here are these friends with Jesus. Jesus comes right up alongside them. They don't recognize who it is that's with them. But He said to them, what is it that you're talking about here? What are these things that you're discussing? They stood still and they looked sad. One of them named Cleopas. He says to them, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem that doesn't know what's happened? Man, are you from the moon? Don't you know what's going on? It's been front page of the Jerusalem Times. It's been everywhere. I mean, have you been living in a cave, man? Don't you know what's going on? Jesus might have said, well, I have been in a cave for a few days. But He didn't. He just kept going. And He said, what things? Isn't it great how Jesus comes alongside and just is patient? What things? Well, concerning Jesus of Nazareth. a man who was a prophet, mighty in deed, and word before God and all the people. Verse 20, how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified. And we had hoped, oh, we had hoped, that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it's now the third day since these things happened. Now, they continue, there were some women from our gathering, our little faith community, there were some women who amazed us. Because they were at the tomb early this morning. And when they didn't find His body, they came back saying that they had seen a vision of angels and that He was alive. And some of those who were with us, they went to the tomb and they found it to be true. Him they did not see. So we're really discouraged. Because we thought He was going to rise again. Several women went to the tomb. They didn't find Him. Some others went. They didn't find Him either. But we're still very discouraged. What does Jesus say? Oh, foolish ones. Slow of heart to believe. All that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things? and enter into His glory. Now, focus with me please on verse 27 when He says, "...and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." What did Jesus do on that third day? On this seven mile walk? He had Bible study with these men. And He's pointing them from Moses starting in Genesis. Exodus, Leviticus, how it was all concerning Him. All pointed to Him. Numbers pointed to Him. And Deuteronomy pointed to Him. And the prophets pointed to Him. Isaiah pointed to Him. And Ezekiel pointed to Him. And Micah pointed to Him. And as they're talking, as they're walking, He's talking about these things. Verse 31, And their eyes were opened. And they recognized Him. And He vanished from their sight. Their eyes had been kept from recognizing Him. But now their eyes are opened. Not by themselves, by God. And they recognized Him. And He vanished from their sight. And what do they say to each other? This is great. Verse 32, Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road? Well, He opened to us the Scriptures. Oh, Cleophas, wasn't that great? When he was talking about the book of Joshua and how it pointed to Him? My heart was on fire. That was amazing. I didn't connect those dots before. I was so good. Well, Luke 24 goes on. It's the last chapter in Luke's Gospel. But He appears to the disciples. And move your eyes down to verse 44 and see what it says. He's gathered with the disciples. He eats the fish. He said to them, these are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their eyes to understand the Scriptures and said to them, thus it is written, The Christ should suffer, and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." Next chapter, Acts 1, they receive that power and go as witnesses. But Jesus tells the disciples, Look at how all these things have come together in me. All the shadows and all the types, they've all come and found their fulfillment in me. They were all pointing to me, and now you're my witnesses. And how does this great chapter end? Well, as He's carried up into heaven, the last two verses say, and they worshipped Jesus. and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God. The response, the after effect of having minds open to see Jesus in all the Scriptures is a worship of Jesus, of being filled with great joy in Jesus and a continual, I can't help myself, blessing of His name. And oh, that's my prayer for us today. that as we see Jesus in the Scriptures, we would worship. What does God need from us? Nothing. What does He call us to do? Worship. And that our hearts would be filled with this great joy. And we'd just find ourselves not being able to stop blessing His name. What a great God we serve. What a great God we serve. And as we read this chapter, we consider the world in which we go back to work at this afternoon or tomorrow. We consider the neighbors we go back to be in relationship with. When we think about our world, we think about our society, we think about it in contrast with this, we think about how Christless it is. And it is shocking. When we consider His power and His glory, it's shocking how silent our newspapers are. And our schools are. And our universities are. And our government is. The one deserving of all praise and glory, not receiving it in very many corners. Outside of this place of gathering, there is great silence in every city and every state about Christ. And so this morning we have this collision. We live in this Christless world, and yet we see the glory of Jesus in this book. And they collide in our hearts. We see that the whole Bible is pointing to Jesus. It's all about Him. He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. So Genesis, and Joshua, and 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah, it's all about Him. Have you ever been on an airplane? Open up that little airplane magazine and you flip through it and see what soft drinks they're offering. Whether they've got peanuts or pretzels. And there you get to the end and you see each company has a map of where they fly. And each company has a hub. A city that they're based out of or more than one. And they show where those flights go. And sometimes a hub will have dozens, even hundreds of flights going into that city. All connecting through maybe Chicago or Atlanta. And so it is, with what Jesus is doing here, showing us how every chapter and every page and every book is pointing to Jesus. All of them arrows, arrows, arrows, saying, look at Jesus, see His glory, get joy as you look and as you study. Jesus, brilliant in majesty, high and lifted up. And Jesus, brilliant in meekness, low and humble. And this is true for 10th graders and 8th graders and 6th graders and 40-year-olds and 80-year-olds. So friends, I want to ask you this morning, is the glory of Jesus better than popularity? Is the glory of Jesus sweeter than season tickets? Is the suffering of Jesus sufficient for your guilt and my guilt? Is the forgiveness of Jesus and His call to forgive powerful enough to induce you and I to forgive our enemies and love them? So our prayer this morning is, Father, show us Jesus and let His glory be the center of the solar system of our lives. Well, Jesus has said all of Scripture points to Him. I want to give us five brief snapshots from different places in the Old Testament that point us to Christ. As a believer growing up, trying to understand this Word, I have to confess that for many years the Old Testament was a mystery to me. I did not understand how it all fit together. Sometimes I wonder about churches that would call themselves New Testament churches or New Testament Christians. I wonder, why do we have this big chunk of our Bibles that's the Old Testament? What is it? And as I have understood this and seen this, see all of it pointing to Christ, it has become precious and living and joyful to me. And so I hope as we just skim a couple of places, look at a couple of snapshots, that it will grow in its joy and delight for you as well. Well, where do we begin? We begin on the first page, because that's where Jesus began. He began with the very beginning. Children here can give us the very first verse of the Bible, right? In the beginning, God created. Ellie, do you have it? The heavens and the earth. That's right. That's right. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And we take Genesis 1-1, and we take it alongside Colossians 1, which says that all things were created by Jesus, and all things were created for Jesus. Jesus was there in Genesis 1, making it for Himself. As we think about this very first chapter, We think about this creative work that Jesus has done, making it all by Him, making it all for Him. We ask ourselves the question, why is the universe so big? Why is the universe so big? He made the heavens and the earth. We've got all these planets and all these galaxies. Why did He make it so big? Scientists have wrestled with this question. In fact, they say it's really too big. So there must be aliens. There must be other life out there, because it's way too big just for us. If it's just here, us here on this one little planet, this whole creation is ridiculously oversized. Think about this. The region visible from Earth, that is the observable universe, is a sphere with a radius of about 46 billion light years. One of those light years is 6 trillion miles. Do that math. 46 billion times 6 trillion is the radius of the observable universe. Either you're bad at math or your head just exploded. One of those two, right? Because that's just ridiculous. It's ginormous. It's enormous. The Milky Way galaxy, our galaxy, is roughly 100,000 light years in diameter. And the nearest sister galaxy to the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy, is located roughly 2.5 million light years away. There are probably more than 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe. Why is it so big? And what does that have to do with anything we've been talking about? Here's what one man said about the universe and Albert Einstein and how it all comes back to Jesus. The design of the universe is very magnificent and shouldn't be taken for granted. In fact, this man says, I believe this is why Einstein had so little use for organized religion. Although he strikes me as a basically very religious man, he must have looked at what the preacher said about God and felt that they were blaspheming. He had seen much more majesty than they had ever imagined. And they were just not talking about the real thing. My guess is that he simply felt the religions he ran across did not have proper respect for the author of the universe. Einstein had seen the vastness of the universe. and marveled. Why is it so big? Is it too big? Well, friends, it's actually just the right size for what it was intended to do. And what is that thing? The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim his handiwork. What's the point of those billions of light years? to display that our God is glorious and Jesus is magnificent because it was all created by Him and it was all created for Him. Every one of those planets and every one of those stars made for Jesus to testify to us here in Radford. I am amazing. That's snapshot number one. every comment declaring the glory of God in the face of Jesus. We have five of these. Snapshot number two. We move forward 15 chapters to Genesis chapter 16. And there we meet for the first time in the Old Testament a character named the Angel of the Lord. The Angel of the Lord. This particular name And the angel of the Lord, as we study the angel of the Lord, find this is a striking reality of who is this? Because referred to as an angel, and yet this angel does things that no other angel does. This angel is unique. And as we consider who this angel is, we've got to understand some things. One, the angel of the Lord occurs in the Old Testament 59 times. The angel of the Lord is supernatural. The angel of the Lord is, in fact, referred to as God and speaks as God. And the angel of the Lord is not, in fact, a created angel. One man said it like this, the determination of which member of the Trinity the angel represents is less clear, but most conservative evangelical sources interpret the angel of the Lord as the second member of the Trinity, representing a pre-incarnate manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider this, in that Colossians text we referred to before, Jesus is called the image of what? The image of the invisible God. The Father is invisible. How do we see the Father? Jesus is the image. Jesus is the seen one. He shows us the Father. Remember what it says in John 1 when it said, No one has ever seen God the Father. Jesus, who is at the Father's side, Jesus has made the Father known. No one has ever seen the Father. Jesus has made him known. So when someone shows up who is God, in the Old Testament, we know it's not the Spirit, because the Spirit is the Spirit. And no one has ever seen the Father. So even if our math is a little sketchy, pretty quickly we're reduced to one reality, that Christ, in His pre-incarnate form, is appearing. You see, the angel of the Lord speaks as only God can. The angel of the Lord exhibits divine attributes. The angel of the Lord performs divine actions as He does in Genesis 48 with Jacob. The angel of the Lord receives divine homage. Remember that angel in the book of Revelation? When John wants to bow down to Him? What does he say? No, no, no, no, no. Don't worship me. I'm just a servant. Worship God. When the angel of the Lord is worshiped, He never says that because it's appropriate for God to be worshipped. The angel of the Lord identifies himself as God as he does in Genesis 31. So one well-known commentator said this, there is not a single valid reason to deny that the angel of God is the second person. Every known fact pointing to his identification as the Christ of the New Testament. And church history attests to this. From the early church fathers, to Jonathan Edwards, on to more recent men. And for me, I was just oblivious to this for so long. And as I studied this, lights were just coming on. It was 2 Corinthians 4 happening in my mind. Just go, wow, this is amazing. Now you think about all of this. The angel of the Lord is appearing. And then you ask the question, well who, of all of these appearances, who is the angel of the Lord going to appear to first? It's got to be somebody really important. It's got to be somebody really significant. Like a president, a king, a powerful ruler, somebody held in high esteem. Or someone God's going to use in a really powerful way, right? No, that's not it. You see, in the second picture of Christ, we've seen the loftiness of Christ in creation, but now we see the lowliness of Christ. Because Jesus, in His tenderness, is appearing to the least likely person we can imagine. An outcast. The person Jesus appears to is a foreigner. The person Jesus appears to is a single mother. Pregnant. Cast out. She's in the wilderness. She's homeless. She's scared. She's alone. She's been rejected. And no one in the world cares about Hagar. No one. Because Sarai has sent her out. And there in Genesis 16, there in the wilderness, we meet this foreign, all alone, scared to death, pregnant single mom, who's completely cast out in the wilderness. Sarai has sent her out. And we pick up this story in verse 6 of chapter 16 of Genesis. It says there, But Abram said to Sarai, Behold, your servant Hagar is in your power. Do to her as you please. Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her. The angel of the Lord found Hagar by a spring of water in the wilderness. The spring on the way to shore. And how now does this angel of the Lord approach this pregnant young woman? With harshness? With rebuke? I'd expect that from someone religious. But here the angel of the Lord says, Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going? Oh, what a tender question he asks. I'm fleeing for my mistress Sarai, she says. The angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress, submit to her. He gives her a gentle word of command. Verse 10, the angel of the Lord also said to her, I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said to her, behold, you are pregnant. You shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction. He's not speaking as an angel here. He is speaking as God. He is declaring divine authority here. He shall be a wild donkey of a man. His hand against everyone and everyone's hand against Him. And He shall dwell over against all His kinsmen. So Hagar, verse 13, called the name of who? Who spoke to her? What does verse 13 say? It does not say angel of the Lord. So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her. You are a God of seeing. For she said, truly, here I have seen Him who looks after me. You are a God of seeing. You are the one who looks after me. Cast out, alone, frightened, pregnant, helpless. You are a God of seeing. You look after me. Oh, friends, the beauty of our Christ. and his character that is such good news for so many who we know who can identify with Hagar in her precarious predicament. Warren Wiersbe says this, this is the first appearance in Scripture of the angel of the Lord who is generally identified as our Lord Jesus Christ. In Genesis 16.10, the angel promised to do what only God can do, And in verse 13, Hagar called the angel God. These pre-incarnation visits of Jesus Christ to the earth were to meet special needs and to accomplish special tasks. The fact that the Son of God took on a temporary body, left heaven, came down to help a rejected servant girl surely reveals His grace and His love. And friends, doesn't this sound like Jesus whom we meet in John 4? When He came up to that fountain, to get a drink in that most unlikely of situation, when that Samaritan woman all alone coming out in the heat of the day because she was so filled with shame, shame of her own sin, her own checkered past, and Jesus comes up to her, not only a woman known for her sin, but a Samaritan, and says, woman, give me something to drink. And then He says to her, if you would have known who asked, You would have asked for Me, and I would have given you living water. And that living water would have caused you to never be thirsty again. And oh friends, this is our Jesus. Well, so many places we can look in Genesis, throughout the Pentateuch, and see Him. But we must skip ahead, and we go to our third snapshot. And here we go, just past the Pentateuch. The promised land awaits the people. They have come through the wilderness. They are the brink of crossing over. Moses, the mighty leader of God's people, has died. We've just seen the outcast. Now we see the rookie. A man thrust into a leadership position who is scared, who is frightened, and yet God has said to Joshua, do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you shall go. And our story picks up in Joshua chapter 5. Turn there, please, if you would. If you don't know of this story well, I hope it becomes as precious to you as it is to me, because there Joshua is there contemplating this leadership responsibility. They've just come across the Jordan River. They've put the stones in place. They've circumcised the new generation. God has said, I'm going to give you this land. And here is Joshua trying to figure out how he's going to lead this ragtag bunch of people with mothers and children and animals into this battle that God has called him to. And it says this in Joshua 5 and verse 13, when Joshua was by Jericho, so here he is on the plain across the river looking at this big walled city. He lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and he said, Are you on our team or are you on their team? Are you for us or are you for our adversaries? Are you with the good guys or the bad guys? Who are you? We could use you. Maybe you should join our team. Verse 14, this man with the drawn sword said, no. This is an or question. Are you for them or for us? His answer? No. But I'm the commander of the army of the Lord. And now I have come. Remember those guys in Luke that didn't get it? And then they did? When Jesus shows up, this happens again and again. Eyes dull, don't get it. Eyes open, they get it. And Joshua responds as the crowds in Revelation respond. As people that see Jesus throughout the Bible respond. He responds in the only appropriate way when you see the glory of Jesus. Namely what? He falls on His face. He falls on His face. And He worships. And He says to him, what does My Lord say to His servant? This is no angel here. This is God. This is Christ come down. The commander of the army of the Lord. The one with the drawn sword in His hand. This is the same Jesus we see in the book of Revelation commanding the army of the Lord with His sword. And what does He say to Joshua? He says, take off your sandals from your feet. For the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. Where were they standing at that moment? The land of Canaan. The land of idols. The land of idolatry. The land of the worship of all kinds of false gods. But suddenly he says, this ground is holy. Why? Because Jesus is there and He makes it holy. Does this sound familiar here? Take off your sandals, this ground is holy. Sure it does. Exodus 3, Moses, the burning bush. Who is speaking to Moses in that burning bush? The angel of the Lord. That's right. Because Joshua 5, Connects to Exodus 3. Connects to Luke 24. Connects to the book of Revelation. All of these places in Scripture are connected. And they all are finding their fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. So here is this rookie. This one wondering, how in the world are we going to win? And the commander of the Lord's army shows up. in his splendor and his power and says, no, no, it's not. Am I on your side or am I on their side? The reality is I'm here and you're with me and I'm with you. What happens next in this story, do you remember? What happens next in the story is absolutely ridiculous military strategy. Because God's people are to take the city of Jericho. Right? And so the commander of the Lord's army gives Joshua the battle plan. And the battle plan is meant to do one thing. Namely, highlight man's weakness and God's strength. Because that's God's way all the time. If you're here today feeling particularly weak, wondering if God can use you, if you're feeling weak, God's got you right where He wants you. Because his strength is made perfect in weakness and this battle plan was made to highlight their weakness So joshua shares it with the people And they respond by saying we're doing what? Wait wait You want to replace moses and you want us to do what march around the city? On the seventh day seven times blow some trumpets walls coming down This is terrible. Can we get a new leader here? We need some catapults We need some trebuchets. We need something that's going to knock down these walls. But his plan is really, really simple. Remember those two spies that had gone up to spout the land? Those two spies that had gone up to Jericho and they were hidden by one woman? The only one mentioned in the whole city of Jericho? Remember who that woman was that hid those spies in the city of Jericho that they were about to take? A prostitute. Rahab. A foreigner. An enemy. A woman. A prostitute. And yet she's the one mentioned in Hebrews 11 as having faith in God. So here in this city, that they're about to march around is one with faith in God. The most unlikely of all those in the city to be saved, but she and her family would be saved. And oh, by the way, this little story is not quite done yet. Because Rahab is mentioned another place in the New Testament. Namely in Matthew chapter 1. the genealogy. And it says that Rahab had a son, you may be familiar with, whose name was Boaz. And Boaz married another foreigner named Ruth, who became the great grandmother of the Lord Jesus Christ. So even here, it's pointing to Christ. Rahab has Boaz. Boaz and Ruth have a son who has a son who has a son named King David and on down to become the great grandmother of David and the many great grandmother of Christ. Oh, friends, this book is amazing and it is all pointing to Christ. Well, two more brief snapshots and then we're done. The loftiness of Jesus in creation. The lowliness of Jesus with that servant girl, Hagar. The loftiness, again, of Him with this rookie, Joshua. And now forth, we skip ahead through the histories to 1 Chronicles 21. 1 Chronicles 21. They'll make it to Chronicles very often, probably, if you're like me. Not a lot underlined there. But oh, what an important story here. Because here we see the angel of the Lord appearing again. Appearing to deal with King David. Much loved King David. The writer of so many Psalms, King David. This one who loved God and pursued God. And yet, here in 1 Chronicles 21, we see the picture of a believer who had gotten puffed up, who had begun to exalt himself and trust in himself and be filled with pride and be filled with arrogance. And oh, the danger that exists for each of us in pride consuming us. I have walked with God for quite a long time now. God has blessed me quite a bit now. I look pretty good, don't I now? And suddenly God's blessings turn inward and we become obsessed with self as happened with David. But oh, this story is so important for us, because we see another facet of the jewel that is the Lord Jesus Christ. We see another aspect of His character here, and it is so helpful. Because there are many that would dismiss Jesus as something soft, something nice, something comfortable, but oh friends, we must to know Jesus, know that He is not soft and He is not comfortable. He is mighty and He is powerful. 1 Chronicles 21 begins by saying this, Then Satan stood against Israel. And Satan incited David to number Israel. So David said to Joab his helper and the commanders of the army, Go number Israel from Beersheba to Dan. Bring me a report that I may know their number. But Joab said, may the Lord add to His people a hundred times as many as they are. Are they not, my Lord the King, all of them your servants? Why then should you require my Lord to do this thing? Why should it be a cause of guilt for Israel? He knows this is a bad thing that David is asking Him to do. God has specifically told Him not to count the people. Why would He count the people? To know how strong He is. To know how mighty He is. He's counting his gold, he's counting his troops because he wants to know how great he is. George says, please, don't do this thing. We're all going to be guilty if you do this thing. Please, please, David, don't do this thing. You ever plead with someone who is blinded by their own sin? Don't do this thing. If the Lord is pleased to sustain this church for the next 10 years and 20 years, there will be multiple occasions where you will plead with another brother, another sister, please don't do this thing. You know this thing is not right. Please do not do this thing. And this is what Joab is doing here. But the King's Word prevailed against Joab. And so Joab departed. And he went throughout all Israel. And he came back to Jerusalem. And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. There were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword in Israel. 470,000 in Judah. Verse 7, But God was displeased with this thing, and He struck Israel. And David said to God, I have sinned greatly. in that I have done this thing. Now please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly." We've all been there, haven't we? Acting foolishly, asking God for mercy, and so often He is so pleased to give mercy. But oh friends, sometimes there are such painful consequences to sin, and this was one of them. The Lord God spoke to Gad, David's seer. And He said, go and say to David, thus says the Lord, three things I offer you. Choose one of them that I may do it. So Gad came to David and said to him, thus says the Lord, choose what you will. Three things. Option one, they're all bad. Either three years of famine. Option two, three months of devastation by your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the Lord." Destruction on the land, with the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel. Now decide what answer I shall return to Him who sent me. David said, I am in great distress. Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercy is very great. Do not let me fall into the hand of man. So look at this. 1 Chronicles 21 verse 14. So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel were killed. And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as He was about to destroy it, the Lord saw, He relented from the calamity, and He said to the angel who was working destruction, It's enough, now stay your hand, Now the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Verse 16, And David lifted his eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders clothed in sackcloth fell upon their faces. This is the appropriate response when the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is seen to fall upon their faces. And you say, but Pastor, Jesus doesn't kill people. Jesus is loving. Jesus is forgiving. Jesus is the one we sing about to our children. Yes, we do. And He is so merciful. But He is not only merciful. He is also a God of wrath. And if His wrath is poured out because of the sin of a believer, how much more on the proud rebel, on the angry mocker, on the belligerent ignorer, Think about 2 Thessalonians 1 that promises when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, He will inflict vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His might when He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed. You see, when Jesus returns, He will either be marveled at and glorified and worshipped, or He will destroy and conquer. Because our God is a God of mercy, and He is a God of wrath. The God of the Old Testament is not different than the God of the New Testament. This is one God. This is one story. This is one theme. One character interwoven, all finding its Glorious fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have seen first the glory of God in the face of Christ in creation. In His lowliness with that servant girl. The command of the Lord's army to Joshua the rookie. Here, wreaking havoc because of the sin of David. And fifth, finally the last brief snapshot is the one that's foretold all throughout the prophets when they foretell of His sufferings. Remember in Luke 24, it says, the prophets have foretold my sufferings that the Christ must endure. There are many, but just one is Isaiah 53, verse 12. When it says, therefore, I will divide Him a portion with the many, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors." Think about Jesus. Knowing all of these Scriptures that spoke of His sufferings. Think about Jesus. In Luke 22, in that garden. Knowing what's about to come. And there He is, this same Jesus with the power to destroy. There in the garden, the same Jesus who hung these so many galaxies. This same Jesus, He knelt down in that garden. And He agonized with crates, drops of blood being sweat out of His body. He prayed more earnestly. His sweat like great drops of blood falling down to the ground, He said, Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours be done. This is the way it is captured in Luke 22. In Matthew's Gospel, it says that going a little further, he fell on his face and he prayed, saying, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. The one with all power submitting himself to his father, saying to you this morning, I love you in your struggles, in your weakness, in your rebellion, in your sin, in your wavering belief and unbelief. I love you. Not as I will, Father, but as you will. And in Mark 14, he said, Abba, Father, O Father, I love you. All things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will. Friends, Our last snapshot is of the one with the most power becoming the one who is the most meek, completely submitted to the will of another as a massive act of love, a testimony of love to every single believer. Oh friend, if you've doubted His love towards you, in the hard trial, in the difficult pain. If you've wondered, God, do you really love me? Jesus says to you, yes, yes, yes. And He brings you by the hand and He takes you to the Father and He says, let me show you how to pray. Our Father, not just my Father, but oh believer, come with me and let me introduce you to our Father. I have made the way for Him to be both my and your Father. So when we survey that wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, our richest gain counted but loss, poured contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that we should boast, save in the death of Christ our God, all the vain things that charm us most, we sacrifice them to His blood. See from His head, His hands, His feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did there such love and sorrow meet? Or thorns compose so rich a crown? Friends, this is the height of His glory. The cross our guilt dealt with. Mercy given undeserved for you, for me, Every care, every burden, dealt with Jesus extending those nail-pierced hands, saying, I love you, I'm for you, I'm with you. All of God's promises are for you, yes and amen, in me. So Christ Church, as we come to the end, let me ask you, do you see Him? Are you looking at Him? Are you looking at your Lord? You love Him. That's why you're here. But oh, pray that God would so consume you with love for Him that it would drive out all other loves. Oh, that God would help us to count everything else loss compared with this one surpassing reality. The God of this world wants to blind not only the minds of unbelievers, but believers too. from this glory. But oh, that we would see, that we would see one surpassing, consuming, glorious beauty. And that everything else would fall under that. Friends, you see Him at creation when the sun sets tonight. Are you going to recognize that is about Jesus? That sunset is about Jesus tomorrow morning? That sunrise is about Jesus? Those hills are about Jesus? The flowering trees are about Jesus? Don't miss it. All of it is Jesus testifying to you and saying, I made it. And I made it for myself that you would see my glory in it. Friends, do you see Him in His tender compassion on that dusty road with that outcast girl? Friends, do you see Him in His mighty power, commanding the Lord's army with Joshua there? Do you see Him furious, in wrath, ready, able, and preparing very certainly to destroy His enemies? Do you see Him bowed down before with believers falling on their faces, and they see Him in glory? Be it David or Joshua or the elders in Revelation. Friends, you see this glorious Jesus ruling and reigning from all eternity and yet emptying himself of all of it to become nothing. So that you might have everything in Him. Friends, in a few weeks, when you see or hear of 65,632 people filling Lane Stadium to cheer on the Hokies, I want you to think this would be really, really appropriate if it were for King Jesus. When you see a bunch of people, whether it's on Black Friday or whatever, lining up around a store for a big sale or for the tickets going on sale, think this would be really appropriate. if this were tickets to gain entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven. When you see the media fixated on the same thing day after day, think, this would be right if they were fixated on the glory of King Jesus. But instead, we live in this world rushing headlong towards screens and big events and shopping and flings, and we have these hearts that pull us towards all of these things, and yet here, God is saying, I want to arrest your attention. I want to arrest your affection. I want to arrest your priority with the one thing that truly matters, namely the glory of my majesty and the reality of my meekness. So friend, when you're driving home today, pray this one prayer. Father, show me Jesus. When the children have worn you out tonight, pray this simple prayer, Father, show me Jesus. When you're at work and things are just frustrating, pray, Father, show me Jesus. When you're trying to figure out that broken relationship or that hard decision, Father, show me Jesus. It was about a year ago that I had a unique privilege in my life. And that was not only to attend a wedding, But I was asked to walk the bride down the aisle of a wedding. You see, it was a young woman in our church whose parents were not believers of any sort. Very, very hard situation she had grown up in. And yet this young woman was an absolute trophy of God's grace. And she asked me to do something that I completely did not deserve, and that is walk her down the aisle. I had to pinch myself. I thought, this is amazing. This is really amazing. And so we were preparing for the big day. And she, as the bride, looked beautiful and looked absolutely radiant. And it was wonderful. It was all coming together. And there was that great moment when the doors were closed and the music kicks in for the bride to walk in and the doors opened and everybody's eyes, not on me, but on this bride. And as we walked in, I had the joy of looking at this beaming group of people. looking at the radiant bride. And I scanned the whole crowd, so many that I knew and loved, and there was one face that captured my attention. Because everybody was looking. Everybody was enjoying. But there was one face that was absolutely enthralled. One face that looked like it was going to burst. Because the eyes on this face were just... I mean, they were as big as saucers, and they were looking at this bride. And the face belonged to my five-year-old daughter, who hadn't been to a lot of weddings. But at that moment, she got it. And she was looking. And she was captivated at the sight of this glory. And it was glorious. As I think about my little Gabriela looking at glory, I thought, that's what we're praying for, Lord. That's what we're praying for. We're not seeing anything else. We're seeing this, the one thing that truly matters, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.