The bible tells us that Jesus face was greatly disfigured.   It makes you wonder what was there about Jesus face that the devil despised so much?  Why did Jesus’ kind, smiling, warm, loving face bring out so much hatred, anger and fury from Satan?

Pilate could not bear the sight of the pure innocent face of Jesus and that look in his eyes. He tried to desperately save him.

A man is known by his face.  I may not know you from the back.  Recently I didn’t recognize someone from the back and I called him the wrong name. But when he turned around I immediately recognized him.

Jesus face was unrecognizable.

Isaiah 52:14 “Just as there were many who were appalled at him – his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness-“

 As a pastor, I have visited someone in the hospital whose face was brutally beaten – her name was Rosie, she had been beaten on one side of her face so I kind of have in my head the brutality the Bible is talking about here.

The took Jesus face and they beat it with a staff. It is like a rod. They slapped him. They spit on him. They plucked his beard out.

Matthew 27:28-30

“They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.”

 As amazing as it sounds, in that horrible beating there was given to us a great benefit.  The benefit is that because of his wounds, we have a relationship with Christ.  It is only because He suffered, that we can actually know him.  The great hope  is that when we see his face we will become like him.

I want to share some thing deep…in simple terms today.  Who you really know affects who you are.  When you get married, the person you marry will change you. I know that living face to face with Jureen has changed me for the better in the last 30 plus years.  Who you know changes who you are. It’s true.  It happens all the time. Why? Because you live face to face. Their values become your values. Their heart becomes your heart.

The same thing happens to us when we get to know Jesus.  When we really have a relationship with him…we will be changed. I am not talking about knowing about him. I am talking about knowing him. His light will shine in your heart.

II Corinthians 4:6,7 “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”] maded his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

Why does it talk about the face of Christ?

It is symbolic of the relationship you have with him.  I want to know Jesus face. I want to live in such a way that I am face to face with Him in a spiritual way. God made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. I know that is a huge phrase that is hard to get your hands around, so let me share another verse and then simplify it for you.

2 Corinthians 3:8 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

I want you to notice this says that we behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. We are not looking directly into his face. But in the spiritual sense we do get glimpses.  We get glimpses of him. We get to know him.

In the process, you get changed.  His face was beaten so that your face could be changed.  The only way we can have a relationship with Jesus that is truly face to face was for Jesus to suffer the way He did.  That satisfied the anger of a holy God.  Because he suffered, I can now know Him face to face and be changed. And so can you!

I honestly believe this. You can tell by looking at someone’s face if they have been with Jesus.

Just beholding as in a mirror his glory changes us.

The stream of blood from his face guarantees us that we can be changed.  A relationship with Jesus will change your life.

Some people think that just means accepting him as Savior. It means much more than that. It means walking with him. It means spending time in the Word. It means communicating with Him. Loving him. Worshiping him. It will change you.

It guarantees that one day we will indeed be totally changed. I want to let you in on a mysterious truth. We will not all sleep, we will not all die.  We shall all be changed.

 

1 John 3:2 describes it.
”Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

 

We will look into his face and be changed. Thank you Jesus for what you did by taking those blows. Never let us take it for granted.