#85 Lu. 10:23-24 THE PRIVILEGE OF SEEING AND HEARING JESUS Introduction: The Lord had sent out seventy preachers to preach in the land of Israel. When those preachers returned and reported in to Jesus they were overjoyed about one thing. They were overjoyed that they were able to cast demons out of people who were demon possessed. The Lord told them not to rejoice that they were able to cast out demons, but to rejoice that their names were written in heaven. In our text today Jesus tells them that they were also to rejoice that they were privileged to witness the personal ministry of the Christ. I. The desire of prophets and kings to see the Christ V. 23-24, "And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them." Jesus said that many prophets and kings of the Old Testament times had desired to see the Christ, but never had that privilege I think we would all agree that anyone who was one of the Old Testament prophets was especially blessed of God. The prophet would be considered especially blessed of God in view of the special revelations that he would receive from God and in view of the special power and authority he would receive from God. The prophets wrote about things that would take place hundreds of years after they were gone. They wrote with 100% accuracy. They wrote predictions about the future with greater accuracy that most folks can write about that which has already taken place. Some very few of the Old Testament prophets also received special powers to work miracles. The prophet Elisha was one of those who received special powers to work miracles. I preached about him Mother's Day as you will recall. Elisha, through the special power of the Lord, was able to bring the son of the Shunemite woman back to life again. I would say that he was especially blessed of God. Wouldn't you? All of the Old Testament prophets who were not false prophets but were genuine prophets of God were especially blessed of God. Then, also, Jesus mentioned Old Testament kings. He did not name any specific kings, but He did say that there were many of them. I am sure that He was not referring to some of the wicked Kings in Israel, such as Ahab, who was married to Jezebell. Ahab was notorious for his ungodly wickedness. No doubt David is a good example of the kind of king that Jesus was talking about. Hezekiah was another. David and Hezekiah were especially blessed of God. These Old Testament prophets and Old Testament kings knew about the coming of the Christ to the world. They knew, for instance that He would be born of the descendants of Abraham. They knew that He would be born of the descendants of Isaac. They knew that He would be born of the lineage of Jacob. They knew that He would be born of the tribe of Judah. They knew that He would be born of King David's lineage. They knew that He would be born in Bethlehem. They knew that He would be born of a virgin. They knew that the coming of this one man was the hope of Israel. Oh, how they longed to see the coming of the Christ! Oh, how they wished that He would come in their day! Oh, what joy it would have been to them to have the privilege of seeing the things that the Lord's disciples witnessed and hearing the things which those disciples heard! The disciples saw the great miracles of the Lord. They saw Him cause the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the dumb to speak, the lame to walk, the sick made well and the dead to come back to life again. They saw Him feed a multitude with five loaves of bread and two fishes. They saw and heard as He spoke to the storm and calmed the winds and the waves. They saw Him walk on water. They heard Him preach and they heard Him teach and every time they heard Him speak He thrilled their hearts with the things He said. Oh, how Elijah would loved to have seen and heard these things! Oh, how Elisha would have loved to have seen and heard these things! Oh, how Jeremiah, Micah. Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Zechariah would have loved to have seen and heard these things! Oh, how King David, King Solomon and King Hezekiah would have loved to see and hear these things! These men heard about the things that the Christ would say and do. Some of them prophesied about those things. They all longed for His coming that they might witness those things themselves. All who heard about His coming and believed in His coming longed to see and hear these things, but they never got that privilege. In Jude 13 we are told that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied even about the second coming of the Christ. I am sure he would have loved to see Jesus at His first coming, but he did not get that privilege. II. The privilege of the disciples of Jesus The twelve disciples and the additional seventy disciples were especially blessed of God to be living right at this particular time. They were born at just the right time to see and hear the very Christ of God that all of the Old Testament saints had longed to see and hear. If they had been born just a few years earlier they would have missed Him. If they had been born just a few years later they would have missed Him. What a blessing it was that God had given them the privilege of personally seeing and hearing the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All of them had embraced Him with their hearts. Some of them had embraced Him with they arms. They had looked Him straight in the face and in the eye. They had reached out and touched. They had asked questions. They had heard and seen and personally witnessed scenes that people of all the ages would give anything to see and hear. I will have to admit that there has been many a time as I read the Scripture portraying some particular event in the life of Jesus that I have thought to myself, "Oh, how I would loved to have been there! Oh, how I would loved to have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears!" I strongly suspect that you have done the same thing. Perhaps there have been many times when you have heard some preacher preach, you have wished that you could have been there on the scene when Jesus preached. But of course, it was just not meant to be. God has put each person in the world at the time that He saw fit. It was not for the Old Testament saints to choose the time in which they would be born and when they would live. Neither is it our privilege to chose to the times in which we live. All men just have to accept they time in which they live in this world. We have to accept the time in which we live. There is nothing we can do about it. III. The choices the people of old had to make concerning Christ What people of the Old Testament times could chose was whether or not they would believe in the coming Christ who had been promised. They could chose to either trust in Him as their Savior and Redeemer of they could chose to reject Him as their Savior. The sad truth is that the majority of the people in that day did not believe in the Christ as their personal Savior. It has always been true that the majority of people travel the broad way that leads to destruction. It has always been true that the great majority of people rejected the Christ and have gone into the pits of hell. But thank God that there have always been some in each generation who have repented of their sin and have trusted in the Christ. Those who lived before the first coming of Christ and believed the message about His coming looked forward to His coming and put their faith and trust in Him as their Savior. Enoch, whom I mentioned earlier, believed in the coming Christ and was saved. Noah believed in the coming Christ and the Bible says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Job believed the message of the coming Christ and said, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." The Apostle Paul said that God preached the gospel to Abraham, that Abraham believed God and that God counted Abraham's faith in the Christ for righteousness. Moses believed in the coming Christ and on that basis chose to suffer with the people of Israel rather than to enjoy the riches of the land of Egypt. David, long before he ever became king in Judah placed his faith in the coming Christ and was saved. So did every other man, woman, boy and girl who was saved in Old Testament times. They heard about the coming Christ and placed their faith in Him and were saved. After they believed and were saved they also could choose whether or not they would serve the Christ in their own lives. Some of them did choose to serve the Christ. Some of them became prophets and some of them became kings. Some served Him in other ways. This was also the case when Jesus did come on the scene. People who saw Him with their own eyes and heard Him with their own ears had to chose for themselves. They had to choose for themselves whether or not they would believe in Him as the promised Christ. Even in that day when men could see Him and hear Him many still rejected Him as the Christ. Even they heard the great things that He said and they saw the great things that He did many still rejected Him as the Christ. They rejected Him as their Savior. I just do not see how they could see Him and listen to Him and still turn Him down as their Savior, but they did. The great majority did. The great majority rejected Jesus as the Christ. I say to you, my friends that each and every one of those people who rejected Him are right now burning in the fires of hell. They will always burn in the fires of hell. They have made their choice and they will have to live with that choice forever. But thank God that there were some who did not reject Him. Peter and Andrew, James and John, Phillip and Barthomew, Thomas and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus or Lebbeus and Simon the Canaanite all believed in Jesus as the Christ and were saved. The seventy additional preachers whose names are not given in Scripture trusted in Him as the Christ and as their Savior. These and many others in that day trusted Jesus as their Savior and were saved by His grace. They, like all others, had the privilege of being saved, but not only that, they had the privilege of seeing Jesus Christ and hearing Him. To personally see and hear Jesus is no small privilege. I would not discount that privilege at all. I have already told you that I often wish I could have been there to see Him myself. I especially wish I could have sat at His feet and listened to Him teach the truths of God. I count His teaching and preaching as more important than His miracles. When I study the Bible and have a question that I cannot find the answer to, I wish I could just go to Him personally and ask Him for an answer like the apostles did. III. The privilege of hearing and believing the gospel Never-the-less we should not feel that we are at a great disadvantage just because we were not born at the right time to witness His personal ministry. "Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed," (John 20:29). The truth of the matter is that all who have heard the gospel message about Jesus Christ as the Savior of men are blessed indeed. All who hear have just as much opportunity to believe in Jesus Christ and be saved as those who have seen Him. Those who have not seen Jesus but trust in Him as Savior are just as much saved as those who actually saw Him. The problem is that even in our day the great majority who hear the gospel message never trust in Jesus to save their souls. Just as the majority in the days of the prophets and just as the majority in the days of Christ have rejected Him as Savior, even so the majority today reject Him. Each person can choose for himself and most people choose to reject Jesus. All who reject Jesus as their Savior will go out into hell fire and spend eternity there. There is no other way for anybody to get saved and all who reject Jesus seal their eternal doom. They will spend eternity in everlasting fire. But thank God there are some even today who choose to repent of their sin and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior. They choose to believe the good news of the gospel that God loves them and sent His Son, Jesus, to the cross to suffer and die for them. They choose believe the good news that Jesus arose from the dead. They choose to believe the good news that whoever will may call on the name of the Lord and be saved. They do call on Him and they ask Him to save them and keep them out of hell. They trust in Him to save them and to give them a home in heaven. Without ever having seen Jesus and without having ever heard Him speak, they trust in Jesus Christ and are saved. Without ever seeing one of the miracles, without ever hearing one of His great sermons or teaching discourses, they believe in Jesus and their whole destiny is changed. But the best part of all is that one day, even though we have never seen Jesus and even though we have never heard Him, yet we will some day. Some day Jesus is going to return from heaven to this earth and He is going to call all of His redeemed people from their graves. We will be with Jesus for evermore and we will see Him. We will see Him and we will be with Him and it is going to bring great joy to our souls. On the other hand all who have not trusted in Him in Savior will also see Him. Every eye shall see Him. Every knee will bow to Him and all will confess that Jesus is indeed the Christ. Then those who have never trusted in Him as Savior will also hear Him. They will hear Him say to them, "Depart from me ye cursed; I never knew you." Conclusion: What I am calling on you to do is to turn to Him now and ask Him to save your soul. I am asking you to trust in Him. Put your destiny in His hands. Believe in the promises of God and Jesus will save your soul. If you are saved already, then I am also calling on you to give your life in service to God. I am asking you to live your life in a way that is pleasing to God. I am asking you to come this morning and present yourself to this church to serve the Lord.