WHY DON’T PEOPLE BELIEVE? — John 12:37-50

unbelief, Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION;

It is now only a few days before the crucifixion and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 36 tells us that Jesus hid from the multitudes in order to spend some concentrated time with His disciples before His death.  In this passage of Scripture, John 12:37-50, the apostle John gives a summary of the public ministry of the Lord Jesus to the nation of Israel, and then he gives Jesus’ response to the nation.

I.  JOHN’S EVALUATION OF THEIR UNBELIEF (verses 37-41)

John has three things to say about the Jew’s rejection of Jesus.  First, it was illogical, considering all the miracles Jesus had performed to prove He was the Son of God.  There are two aspects of Jesus’ miracles that John emphasizes.  In verse 37, John uses the words “so many miracles”.  Not only were there many miracles but there were also many kinds of miracles, some of which were repeated.  For example, there was the feeding of the 3000 and the feeding of the 5000.  There was also the raising of Jairus’s daughter as well as the raising of Lazarus from the dead.  The large number and the great variety of miracles demonstrated Christ’s power and gave the people many opportunities to observe and examine them.

Jesus performed His miracles “before them”.  Most of His miracles were not done from a distance or in secret, but right in front of their very eyes.  To reject these miracles was to deny the obvious.  The apostle John expresses amazement that, though the Lord Jesus performed so many mighty works, the Jewish people as a nation did not believe in Him.  As John mentioned before, their unbelief was not caused by any lack of evidence.  The people did not want to believe.   They refused to believe.

Secondly, their unbelief was predicted.  In verse 38, John quotes Isaiah 53:1 when he says, “Lord, who has believed our report?  And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”  There is a question over who is speaking in this quote:  “who has believed our message?”.  To say that it refers to Isaiah and the other prophets doesn’t fit with verse 2, nor with Isaiah 52:15 or chapter 54 of Isaiah.  I would like to suggest that the speaker in verse 1 is the nation of Israel — the future nation of Israel which will have come to believe in Jesus Christ.  This new Israel that is to come is looking back to the time of Christ and asking, “Who believed the message we received then?  How many recognized the “arm” or the power of God in the miracles of Christ?”  The obvious answer is “not many”, not many at all.  The form of this question is an emphatic way of saying that the message was rejected.

Thirdly, in verses 39-41, John declares that their unbelief was decreed by God.  In verse 39, he says, “For this cause, they could not believe.”  Then John quotes the words of the prophet Isaiah, saying, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart; lest they see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and be converted, and I heal them.”   Let’s not misunderstand the words of John and the prophet Isaiah.  The people are not being condemned against their will, or before they have an opportunity to choose for themselves.  John is writing here about a cause-and-effect relationship and God is not the cause of their spiritual condition.  They are the cause.  What they persist in doing, they will become.  It doesn’t say that they can’t repent or that God won’t forgive them if they do so.   God has not put an obstacle in their path.  They have stubbornly put an obstacle in God’s path and God is allowing them to have their way and experience the consequences of their disobedience.

The word “hardened”, in verse 40, comes from the Greek word for “callus”.  I’m sure many of us have calluses on our hands.  Wherever there is a callus, the skin is not as sensitive to touch or pain because that hard callus covers the nerves underneath it.  That same process can happen spiritually.  The more a person rejects the Gospel message, the harder it becomes for him or her to receive it.

One of the early church fathers, Augustine of Hippo, commented on this passage of Scripture.  He said, “If I be asked why they could not believe, I answer without hesitation, ‘because they would not; because God foresaw their evil will, and he announced it beforehand by the prophet.’ ”

Pastor Ray Stedman used an illustration that brings this principle across clearly by applying it to our human bodies.  Here is his illustration:

“Tie your arm to your body and leave it tied, unmovable, for a week.  When you untie it, you will find that you can hardly move it; it will have lost its ability to function, not because God wants people to lose their arm function.  No, but God determined the law that says, ‘use it or lose it.’ . . . It is also true of moral life.  If you don’t exercise faith when you have the opportunity, you will gradually lose the ability to do so, until there will come a day when you cannot exercise faith.  By the law of nature, then, God has hardened your heart and blinded your eyes.  Having chosen that, that is what you become.  If you refuse to act on truth, you will finally lose the ability to recognize it.  It has been said,

“There is a line by us unseen, that crosses every path,
The hidden boundary between God’s patience and His wrath.”

II.  BELIEF IN MIND, NOT IN ACTION (verses 42-43)

As the apostle John continues to evaluate their unbelief, he makes a statement in verses 42 and 43 that could be misinterpreted if it isn’t tied to his previous statements.  John is not saying that many of the authorities became followers of Jesus Christ.  What he appears to be saying is that many of the authorities were entertaining thoughts that Jesus was the Messiah, but there was no evidence of a commitment to follow Christ at that point in time.  True faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is life-changing.  The indwelling Christ overcomes the fear of man and gives the true believer the desire and the power to stand firm in the face of opposition.  There is no such thing as a secret disciple of Christ.

In 373 A.D., a man by the name of John Chrysostom spent some time alone in the mountains of Antioch, seeking to know God better.  He learned from that experience that, with God on His side, he could stand alone against anyone or anything.  That lesson was put to the test later on in his life.  In 389 A.D., he was appointed patriarch of Constantinople, where his zeal for reform antagonized Empress Eudoxia, who had him exiled.  Allowed to return after a short time, Chrysostom again infuriated Eudoxia, who sent him away again.  How did Chrysostom respond to such persecution?  With these words:  “What can I fear?  Will it be death?  But you know that Christ is my life and that I shall gain by death.  Will it be exile?  But the earth and all its fullness are the Lord’s.  Poverty I do not fear; riches I do not sigh for, and from death, I do not shrink.”

The rulers of the Jews, on the other hand, refused to confess Jesus Christ before men because of their fear of the consequences.  The approval of men was more important than the approval of God.  That attitude ruled out the possibility of any real commitment to Jesus Christ as their Lord.  There were two exceptions.  After the crucifixion and death of Jesus, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea risked their reputations and their lives when they asked Pilate for the body of Jesus Christ so that they could give Him a King’s burial.

III.  THE SERIOUSNESS OF REJECTING CHRIST (verses 44-50)

After finishing his evaluation of that situation, the apostle John now quotes the words Jesus spoke to them at that point in time.  Verse 44 says that Jesus “cried out”  He raised His voice so that everyone could hear what He was about to say.  Here is His first statement:  “He who believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me.  And he who sees me sees him who sent me.”  Jesus is saying that He and the Father are one in essence.  They are both God.  To see Him is to see God because Jesus is God in the flesh.

 

(MORE TO FOLLOW SOON).

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  A Work In Progress

Thank you for visiting this construction site:  John 12:37-50  Even though it is just getting off the ground, we are beginning to learn some things from the apostle John about the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of men.  He has much more to share about the unbelief of the nation of Israel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GLORIFY THY NAME – John 12:27-36

Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION:

When we are facing a difficult and dangerous assignment, what alternatives do we have?  One alternative would be to avoid it, refusing to go through it or running away from it.  The prophet Jonah comes to my mind.  When God told him to go to Nineveh, Jonah ran in the opposite direction.  Another alternative would be to do the parts of the assignment which were less threatening and disregard the rest.  A third alternative would be to do it, regardless of the danger or cost to ourselves.

The Lord Jesus Christ was faced with a dangerous situation.  He knew that very soon He would be arrested and crucified.  John 12:27-36 describes Jesus’ response and His motivation in the face of suffering and death.

I,  JESUS PRAYER CONCERNING HIS COMING CRUCIFIXION (verses 27-28)

Jesus didn’t wait until the Garden of Gethsamane, the night before His death, to begin to pray about it.  In verse 27, He expressed His inner feelings to the Father when He said, “My soul is troubled.”  There was a conflict of emotions.  Jesus asked Himself the question, “What shall I say?” [“What shall I pray?”].  Two alternatives came to His mind and He expressed the first one:  “Shall I say . . . Father, save Me from this hour?”  We see the reaction of Jesus’ human will to the possibility of death.  It was an instinctive reaction to danger, a reaction that we all have as human beings.  Jesus was no actor playing a role.  He was a real person possessing real emotions.  And this hour that He was facing would involve the desertion of His disciples, being bound and led away, being struck on the face, scourged with a whip, and mocked, followed by crucifixion and death.  Try to imagine facing that situation yourself, knowing what was about to happen to you.

In verse 27, Jesus immediately realized that He could not pray this prayer, “Father, save Me from this hour” because His whole purpose for coming to this earth was to go to the cross.  Jesus was born so that He might die for our sins.  Without Christ’s death, His life would be fruitless.  It would accomplish nothing of eternal value.  So Jesus immediately dismissed that thought and expressed His real desire when He prayed the words:  “Father, glorify Thy name.”  Jesus knew what was in store for Him:  the physical pain, the emotional strain and shame, and the spiritual agony as He would become the object of the Father’s wrath for sin.  Yet His prayer was not for Himself but for the Father’s name to be glorified and His will accomplished.  Jesus was saying, “complete your perfect plan of salvation through Me, even at the cost of My own suffering and death.”  We will see this same attitude again in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed, “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39).  Then he immediately added, “yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”. 

The Bible doesn’t tell us when God the Father revealed to Jesus that He was going to die for the sins of the world.  We do find, in Luke 2:41-52, that at the age of 12, Jesus was found in the temple listening to the elders and asking them questions.  His response to Mary and Joseph was, “Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?”  It’s clear from that passage of Scripture that Jesus already had some understanding of His mission.  We find that, early in His public ministry, Jesus talked about His death.

William Hunt painted a famous picture entitled The Shadow of Death.  The artist portrayed Jesus as a young man in Joseph’s carpenter shop.  It was in the late afternoon and the sun’s rays were coming through the open door.  Jesus had gotten up from His work and was stretching His aching arms.  As he did so, the setting sun casts a shadow on the wall behind Him, creating the appearance of a man on a cross.  That picture dramatizes the truth that Jesus lived with the consciousness that Calvary was God’s will for His life.

In verse 28, Jesus’ prayer was a demonstration of His perfect obedience to the will of the Father.  He also fulfilled, by His example, the prayer He taught His disciples in Matthew 6:9, where He said, “Pray, then, in this way:  ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.  Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ “   Exalting the name of the Father and doing the Father’s will were the chief concerns of His life.

II.  THE FATHER’S RESPONSE (verse 28)

After Jesus prayed those words, “Father, glorify Thy name”, verse 28 tells us there was a voice from heaven saying, “I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”  When did the Father glorify Himself through His Son?  We find the Father’s voice echoing from heaven at Jesus’ baptism.  In Matthew 3:17, God spoke from heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”  The Father was testifying to His Son’s sinlessness and perfect obedience to Him during the silent years before Jesus began His public ministry.

Later the Father’s voice was heard again at the transfiguration of Jesus as Peter, James, and John watched and listened, and as Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Jesus.  God the Father spoke these words from heaven:  “This is my beloved Son.  Listen to Him!” (Matthew 17:5).  The Father was expressing His delight in the Son’s ministry –  a ministry that was superior to all the prophets and leaders who came before Him.  When God the Father said, “I will glorify it again”, He was also saying that still greater glory was yet to be brought to Him through the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.

III.  THE CROWD’S REACTION (verse 29)

From the crowd’s reaction, we learn that there were basically two groups of people in that crowd.  The first group said, “It thundered”.  This group of people didn’t believe in anything miraculous.  They were saying, “There is no such thing as a miracle, so there must be a natural explanation for this.  Hmmm . . . It must have been thunder.  That’s the only sensible answer.”

The second group knew it wasn’t thunder.  They admitted that words were spoken, but they couldn’t be the words of God; so their conclusion was:  “An angel has spoken to Him.”  But how could an angel say those words?  The Scriptures tell us that angels don’t marry or have children (Mark 12:25).

I just read a true illustration about a person whose response to his own personal experience is the opposite of these two groups of people.  Near the end of World War 2, members of the allied forces were often found searching farms and houses for snipers.  At one abandoned house, which had been reduced to rubble, searchers found their way into the basement.  There, on a crumbling wall, a victim of the Holocaust had scratched a Star of David.  Beneath it was written the words, “I believe in the sun, even when it does not shine.  I believe in love even when it is not shown.  I believe in God even when He does not speak.”

There was a time when the Jews believed that God spoke audibly to men.  He spoke to Abraham, Samuel, Elijah, and several others. But during the silent years – the 400 or so years between the Old Testament and the New Testament, when God did not speak audibly or through the prophets, many of the Jews were drawn away from that sense of God’s presence and His closeness to them.  Now, when God does speak aloud to them, they act as if they are hard of hearing.  Would you agree that pride can sometimes cause us to be “selective listeners”?  As the saying goes, “In one ear and out the other.”  That seems to be the case in this situation, doesn’t it?

IV.  JESUS RESPONDS TO THE CROWD (verses 30-33)

In His response to the crowd, Jesus begins by saying, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine.”  Let’s not misunderstand the meaning of His words.  Jesus was not saying that those words from heaven had everything to do with them and nothing to do with Him.   The Father said those words aloud in reply to Jesus and I’m sure they were an encouragement to Him.  What Jesus meant was:  “That voice came more for your sake than for Mine.”

Then Jesus made a startling statement when He said, “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world shall be cast out.”  He’s beginning to describe to them how the Father is going to glorify Himself again through His Son.  Some may have been thinking, “What right does He have to make such a prophetic statement?  Who is this ‘ruler of this world’?”  Actually, many of the Jews of Jesus’ day may have had that understanding of Satan.  The apostle Paul was a Jew and he referred to Satan as “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4), and “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2).  There were also many demon-possessed people in Palestine during the lifetime of Christ, and the Jews had opportunities to observe the power and control that demons could wield in a person’s life.

When Jesus referred to Satan as “the ruler of this world”, He was asserting that Satan was powerful and that he exerted a lot of influence over the people of this world.  But even though Satan’s desire is to control this world, there is One who is more powerful than himself.

During the French Revolution in the early 1800s, Napoleon Bonaparte, with his staff officers around him, once spread a large map of the world on a table before him, put his finger on a kingdom colored red, and said to them, “Messieurs, if it were not for that red spot I could conquer the world.”  That red spot was the British Isles.  In like manner, Satan might place a huge map of the universe before his cohorts, put his finger on a place red with the blood of the Savior, and say to them, “If it were not for that red spot, I could conquer the universe.”  That red spot is the Cross on Golgotha’s Hill where the Lord Jesus died to save sinners from Satan’s power.

Not only would He defeat Satan by His own death on the cross, but Jesus adds in verse 32, “I will draw all men to Myself.”   When Jesus said the words all men”, He did not mean every individual without exception, but all kinds of people without exclusion.  Jews and Gentiles, regardless of age, gender, color, nationality, or social status would be drawn to Christ and find deliverance from sin and peace with God through the “magnet” of the cross of Christ.  Earlier in His ministry, Jesus said, in John 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”  When you are drawn, you come.

The apostle John wants his readers to understand the reason why Jesus said the words, “When I am lifted up.”  It was to indicate the kind of death He was to die.  In contrast to Satan [“the ruler of this world”] who is going to be “cast out”, Jesus is going to be “lifted up”.

There is confusion in the minds of the multitude.  They heard Jesus call Himself “the Son of Man” in verse 23 and now He is talking about His death.  That didn’t fit their understanding of the Scriptures so they demand an explanation.  In verse 34, someone in the crowd must have spoken on behalf of the others saying, “We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever, and how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up?  Who is this Son of Man?’ ”  Can you feel the tension?  Just a couple of days earlier, they were shouting, “Hosanna!  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.  Now they are questioning whether the Son of Man and the Messiah are the same person.

V.  WALK IN THE LIGHT (verses 35-36)

Jesus doesn’t answer their excuse and their question directly.  Instead, He gives them a warning, a choice, and a promise.  Farmers have a saying that goes like this:  “Make hay while the sun shines.”  It’s an encouragement to make the most of the opportunity.  The weather won’t be favorable for planting or harvesting for much longer.

As Jesus speaks to the multitude, He once again uses the theme of light and darkness.  In verse 35 He says, “For a little while longer the light is among you.”  Jesus” is referring to Himself.  You may have heard the saying, “Opportunity seldom knocks twice.”  In their case, “opportunity” has been knocking for three years and very few have opened the door.  It is now Passover week, and Jesus’ crucifixion and death are just a few days away.

When Jesus said, “The light is among you”, He was bringing to their minds the words of the prophet Isaiah who said, in Isaiah 9:2, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine upon them.”  Jesus is, once again, proclaiming Himself to be the Messiah they are longing for.  He is also giving them a final warning and two final exhortations:  “Walk while you have the light, that darkness may not overtake you . . . believe in the light in order that you may become sons of light.”   Can you sense the urgency in His plea to the multitude?  This is His last call to them.  God’s patience with them has reached its limit.  To “walk in the light” and to “believe in the light” are two ways to say the same thing.  Both refer to a commitment to follow Him, the “light of the world” (John 8:12).

They have the privilege of having the light of the world [Jesus Christ] in their presence, and along with that privilege comes an obligation to believe in that light with the result that they will become children of the light.  The warning is that He won’t be around much longer, and they will be stumbling in the darkness.  This was the end of Jesus’ public ministry in John’s Gospel.  Verse 36 tells us that after He said these things to them, Jesus “departed and hid Himself from them.” 

CONCLUSION:

Several principles can be drawn from the example of the Lord Jesus Christ in this passage of Scripture.  First, God’s glory, not our own comfort and safety, should be the basis for all our decision-making.  After Jesus told the multitude about His coming death, He said, “Father, glorify Thy name.”

Secondly, God is glorified when we are obedient to His Word and are doing His will.

Thirdly:  Now is the time to glorify God in our lives.  Is this a time of decision for you?  The Light of the Lord Jesus Christ is not only to be seen and admired but also to be followed and displayed.  He wants His light to shine in and through your life.  Don’t put off believing in Him and living for Him.  Before the people of Israel crossed the Jordan River to enter the land of Canaan, Joshua said, “Chose for yourselves today whom you will serve.”  He was also quick to add his own personal application saying, “but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”  (Joshua 24:15).

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED

Welcome to this construction project:  John 12:27-36.  I hope you will enter into the emotions of Jesus and learn from His response, His Father’s response to Him, and the responses of those who were there, watching, listening, and coming to their own conclusions.

THE PARADOX OF LIFE FROM DEATH – John 12:20-26

Paradox of death and fruitfulness, Paradox of life and death, paradox of life and death, Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION:

A paradox is defined as a figure of speech or a statement that seems to contradict itself, but which, upon further examination, contains a kernel of truth.  I like pastor Warren Wiersbe’s definition:  “A paradox is a statement that attracts attention because it seems to be contradictory.  This arouses curiosity and we are puzzled.  But as we meditate on the statement, we go deeper into some important facet of life and learn something new.  Paradoxes are marvelous instructors.”

The Bible contains many spiritual paradoxes.  The Lord Jesus sometimes used paradoxes as a means of communicating truth.  He said, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be last of all, and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35).  In another situation, Jesus said, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11).  In the passage of scripture we are now studying, John 12:20-26, Jesus once again uses a paradox to communicate truth.  Before we examine this paradox, let’s look at the circumstances leading up to it.

  1.  THE BACKGROUND AND SETTING (verses 20)

The feast of the Passover, the greatest feast on the Jewish calendar, was near, and verse 20 says that certain Greeks were going to Jerusalem to worship at the feast.  These Greeks were probably proselytes – a term used for those who were not Jews by birth but became converts to the Jewish religion.  Another example of a proselyte was Cornelius, the Roman Centurian in Acts 10 and 11.  These Gentile converts must have found Judaism to be much more meaningful than their pagan religions.  Have you ever studied Greek and Roman mythology?  If you have, you’ve probably noted that those gods and goddesses were more corrupt and immoral than the people who worshipped them  By contrast, the God of Israel was a God who was holy and worthy of their worship.

II,  THE REQUEST (verse 21)

Notice, in verse 21, that these Greeks approached Philip and said to him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”  Why such boldness?  How did they know that Jesus would be interested in talking to them?  We can find the answer to that question in Mark’s Gospel.  Between verse 19 and verse 20 of John 12, a day or two may have elapsed, and Mark 11:15-17 describes what happened:  “And they [Jesus and His disciples] came to Jerusalem.  And He [Jesus] entered the temple and began to cast out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who were selling doves; and He would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple.  And He began to teach and say to them, ‘Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?  But you have made it a robbers’ den.’ 

Jesus cast out the traders and the moneychangers from the outer court of the temple to fulfill the prophecy in Isaiah 56:7, which says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”  This outer court is called “the Court of the Gentiles” because that was the only place in the temple where Gentile converts could come and worship.  Those Greeks may have been in the temple at that time or may have heard about it, and they must have realized that when Jesus cleansed their courtyard, He did it for their benefit, so that they could worship in peace.  Therefore Jesus was interested in them and could be approached confidently.  They wanted to have a conversation with Jesus and get to know Him better.

Henry Bosch shares an illustration that uses this verse of Scripture.  A brilliant young preacher, with several degrees after his name, once accepted a call to pastor a large congregation.  The people were pleased with his oratory and learning, but something seemed to be missing from his sermons.  One day, when entering the pulpit, he saw a note addressed to him, bearing the following words:  “SIR, WE WOULD SEE JESUS!”  The Holy Spirit spoke to his heart.  Throwing aside his superficiality and his scholarly rhetoric, he became an ambassador for Christ, pleading with the people to be reconciled to God through the blood of Christ.  Those who came to be entertained by his message remained to pray and repent of their sins.  On a later Sunday, the young minister found another note pinned to the pulpit.  On it was written a Scripture that summarized the feelings of his now well-fed congregation.  It read, “THEN WERE THE DISCIPLES GLAD WHEN THEY SAW THE LORD!”.

Going back to John 12, we read in verse 21 that they came to Philip.  Why did they choose Philip?  Possibly it was because of his name.  Philip is a Greek name.  It means “lover of horses”.  Therefore He would probably understand their language and their ways of thinking.  Their choice of Philip was a good one because Philip himself was an inquirer  The first time he is mentioned in the Gospels is in John 1:43-46.  Philip expressed faith in Jesus and then immediately he went out to bring others to Christ.  Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. . . . Come and see.”

III.  PHILIP’S RESPONSE (verse 22)

John 12:22 says, “Philip came and told Andrew.”   Why did Philip tell Andrew?  Why not take these Greeks directly to Jesus?  He may have been seeking Andrew’s advice.  These Greeks were Gentiles and Philip may not have trusted his own judgment.  So he presents the situation to Andrew to get his reaction.  The result is that both of them come and tell Jesus about the request.

IV.  JESUS’ RESPONSE (verses 23-26)

Jesus’ heart must have been filled with joy as He exclaims, in verse 23, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”  Jesus had been rejected, for the most part, by His own people, but now He sees the assurance that He will be received and accepted as Savior and Lord by the Gentile nations.

In verse 24, Jesus states that there is only one way in which He could be glorified: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies . . . ”  Jesus had to die in order to become a source of life to the world.  It’s only when a grain of wheat falls to the ground, is buried, and begins to rot, that new life comes up from it.  The Lord Jesus is applying this illustration to Himself and to all believers.  If Jesus did not die, “He would remain by Himself alone.”  There would be no saved sinners to share His glory.  But Jesus did die, and Ephesians 2:13 says, “But now, in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”  The kingdom of heaven is now open to all believers.  In the case of Jesus, He would die and He would produce fruit, but His body would not experience decay, in fulfillment of prophecy (Psalm 16:10, Acts 2:27).  After Jesus’ death and resurrection, we see the tremendous fruitfulness of the Gospel.  In Acts 2, three thousand people were saved and baptized in one day!  Shortly thereafter, 5000 more came to the Lord.  Then addition became multiplication.  The New Testament church was growing by leaps and bounds.

In 1881 a Scotchman in Minnesota put those words of Jesus to the test.  He planted one grain of wheat.  This grain produced twenty-two stalks bearing 560 grains of wheat.  In 1882 he planted the 560 grains and received a fifth of a bushel of wheat.  In 1883 the fifth of a bushel produced 17 bushels.  In 1884 the seventeen bushels produced over a hundred bushels, and in 1885 the hundred bushels produced 2,800 bushels or four boxcar loads of wheat.  That’s the principle of multiplication.

After applying His principle of death and fruitfulness to Himself, in verses 23-24, Jesus then applies it to His disciples and to us as well. in verses 25-26.  He begins by saying, “He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.”  Only by death to oneself comes new life in Christ and fruitfulness for God.  The Lord Jesus carries that principle a step further when He says, “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”  There will be rewards for faithful service and we will cast those crowns of righteousness at our Savior’s feet as an act of worship to Him.  But the greatest joy and honor will be the privilege of enjoying His presence and fellowship for eternity.

A man by the name of C.T. Studd was such a grain of wheat.  He and his wife went first to China, then to India.  In 1913 they were compelled to return to England with broken health.  But the fires of God still burned in his soul.  He was called a fool and a fanatic when he decided to go to Africa with neither health nor money.  His reply was, “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”

Studd poured himself out for the Congolese for sixteen years, then went to be with the Lord in 1931  In the fifty years since he went to Africa, the one mission field had grown to forty, and the one missionary had become more than a thousand missionaries working under the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade.  C.T. Studd willingly and joyfully died to himself in order that he might know and do the will of God, and God used him abundantly.  The fruits of his labors are continuing to multiply.

Are you and I such a grain of wheat?  The Lord Jesus Christ is only asking us to do, on a small scale, what He did for us on a grand scale by coming to this earth and paying the penalty that our sins deserved in our place.  Are we willing to follow Him completely and unreservedly?    If we want something bad enough, we are willing to make almost any sacrifice to get it, aren’t we?  Jesus Christ has provided the greatest gift.  He has made the greatest possible sacrifice to order to do so.  The greatest joy in this life comes when we submit our wills to the will of God and become a vessel that is emptied of self, filled and controlled by the Spirit of God, and useful to Him for His honor and glory.

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED

I hope to see you next door as I begin a new construction project at this new address:  John 12:27-36.

THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM – JOHN 12:9-19

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INTRODUCTION:

You may be familiar with the song, “The King Is Coming”.  We know that the king spoken about in that song is the Lord Jesus Christ.  When you think of Christ as King, what image or picture do you see in your mind.  Do you see Christ seated on a great throne, ruling the universe?  Do you see Him on a white horse, as He is described in the book of Revelation, leading the armies of heaven?  Those are probably the most common mental images.  In this passage of Scripture, John 12:9-19, we find a different description of Jesus Christ as King, but one that is equally true and especially important for us to envision and seek to understand.

I.  THE BACKGROUND AND SETTING (verses 9-11)

Jesus’ friend, Lazarus, was now a walking miracle ever since Jesus raised him from the dead.  In the previous passage of Scripture, we learned that Jesus came out of hiding.  He and His disciples returned to the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus in Bethany and were having dinner with them.  After dinner, they must have spent the night there because verse 12 begins with the words, “On the next day”.

Have you ever heard or used the phrase, “He [they] put two and two together?”  It means to figure something out based upon what one has seen or heard.  The Lord Jesus is about to make arrangements and create a scene in the hope that His disciples and the crowds of people in Jerusalem will “put two and two together” by linking the scene with the Scriptures and responding to Him appropriately.  The apostle John doesn’t give the details of Jesus’ plan, so we’ll need to look at the other three Gospels and gather that information.

Meanwhile, there is a commotion along the streets of Jerusalem and around the temple area.  The news of the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead by Jesus is the talk of the town.  It has been the primetime story on the “Word-Of-Mouth News Network” [WOMNN] for several days now.  People are tuned in and listening with interest.  Other people are saying, “Could Jesus be the promised Messiah who will deliver us from the power of Rome?”  There is excitement in the air. and the hearts of people are once again filled with the hope of deliverance.  The stage is set for the arrival of Jesus at the feast.

In Matthew 21, Mark 11, and Luke 19, the plan unfolds.  Jesus had already arranged for a donkey to be tied to a tree in the village of Bethphage with its colt beside it.  He sent two of His disciples ahead to get the two animals and told them what to say to the owner of the animals.  When they returned, the disciples put their cloaks on the back of the colt and Jesus sat upon it.  Slowly and humbly He made His way up the road to the city of Jerusalem where thousands of Jews from all over the Roman Empire and beyond were preparing to celebrate the annual Passover feast.

!!.  THE RESPONSE OF THE MULTITUDE (verses 12-15)

Then something amazing happens.  The crowds of people gather on both sides of the road, throwing their cloaks and their palm branches on the road in front of Jesus and shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David.  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9).  They were quoting words from Psalm 118:25-26 and giving Jesus a King’s welcome.  The crowd was “putting two and two together”.  They were reminded of Zechariah’s prophecy and they realized that Jesus was fulfilling that prophecy concerning the Messiah.  Zechariah 9:9 says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and seated on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

I don’t think Zechariah 9:9 was the only scripture passage that came to their minds when they saw Jesus entering the city of Jerusalem on that donkey.  This was not the first time that a king rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.  When the crowd saw Jesus coming they were reminded of that previous event because Jesus was coming in the same way, and from the same direction as the previous king.

Let’s examine the words of King David in 1 Kings 1:32-35 and the response in verses 38-40:

“Then David said, ‘Call to me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son the Jeboiada.’  And they came into the king’s presence.  And the king said to them, ‘Take with you the servants of your lord, and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon.  And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there as king over Israel, and blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ ” . . . So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule and brought him to Gihon.  Zadok the priest then took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon.  Then they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ “

Jesus was the second king to ride into Jerusalem on a donkey.  The onlookers put the two events together and responded appropriately.  Maybe some of the Scribes and Pharisees who had previously said to Jesus, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you”, still remembered part of His answer:  “Someone greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:38-42).

III.  A CONTRAST:  THE DISCIPLES, THE CROWD, AND THE PHARISEES (verses 16-19)

The apostle John concludes his description of this event by showing us the contrast between the different conclusions that were reached in the minds of Christ’s onlookers.  Verse 16 tells us that Jesus’ disciples didn’t understand the meaning of what just happened, but they did put two and two together after Jesus’ crucifixion and His resurrection from the dead.  Then they worshipped Him as their King (John 20:19-20).

Among the multitude of the pilgrim Jews, there were many who watched Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead.  It doesn’t say, in verses 17 and 18, that they believed in Jesus as their Messiah, but it does indicate that they were eager to meet Him and to learn more about Him.   The Pharisees, on the other hand, were worried.  In verse 19, they were saying to one another, “Look, the world has gone after Him.”  They realized that something had to be done to prevent this from happening, and it had to be done soon.

IV.  THE FINAL INGREDIENT

Before we close the curtain on this Palm Sunday celebration, there is one more ingredient that must be taken into consideration.  Based upon the crowd’s reaction to Jesus, another event must have entered their minds – an event that is not recorded in the Scriptures.  About 200 years earlier, a man by the name of Judas Maccabeus entered the city of Jerusalem as the people waved palm branches and sang hymns.  He and his army then defeated the Syrian army, rid the temple of pagan worshippers, and brought peace and freedom for almost a century.  That’s the kind of Messiah that this crowd was longing for and looking for.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on the donkey, the crowd responded in a similar fashion:  bringing palm branches and singing, “Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”  (Matthew 21:9).  The Jews sang this song each year at the beginning of Passover.  It comes from Psalm 118, which is the most quoted psalm in the New Testament.  The psalmist uses the word “hosanna” which means “save now” or “save us please”.  He also tells us why he chose to use that word.  In verses 10-14, the psalmist describes his situation and how God delivered him from his enemies:

“All nations surrounded me;
In the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off.
They surrounded me, yes they surrounded me:
In the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off.
They surrounded me like bees;
They were extinguished as a fire of thorns;
In the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off.
You pushed me violently so that I was falling
But the Lord helped me.
The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.” 

As you can sense from his words, the psalmist is speaking of God’s physical deliverance and victory over his physical enemies.  He uses the rest of his psalm to praise God and thank Him for the deliverance and victory that He provided.

If you add up all these historical events and prophecies and combine them with the high expectations that Jesus is the one who will make it happen, then you’ve got a recipe for disappointment.  This Sunday parade and celebration is going to result in the Monday morning blues.  Their expectations are going to come crashing down because the Lord Jesus didn’t return to Jerusalem in order to fulfill their expectations.  He came to meet their deepest needs.

CONCLUSION:

What happens when God doesn’t meet your expectations?  Do you become disappointed?  Do you become angry?  When your hopes come crashing to the ground, are you resentful?  That was the attitude of the majority of that multitude after that Palm Sunday parade was over and they came down from their emotional high.  In just a few days, many of those who shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David”, will change their cry to “Crucify Him!”  “Crucify Him!” 

As we’ve studied this passage of Scripture, have you put two and two together?  Have you added up the fulfilled prophecies and the detailed historical events and come to the conclusion that Jesus is truly the Messiah, the King of kings?  If you are willing to do some more arithmetic, the prophet Daniel even prophecies the date when this event was to happen.  We need to add Daniel 9:25 to Nehemiah 2:1-9.  Daniel 9:25 says, “So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.”  That’s seven weeks and sixty-two weeks of years.  7 plus 62 equals 69 weeks of years.  There are seven days in a week, so 69 weeks of years are equivalent to 483 years.  That decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem is found in Nehemiah 2.  Verse 1 says, “And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes.”  That’s the starting time for Daniel’s Prophecy.  The prophetic clock started ticking on March 14, 445 B.C.  It would seem like the easy answer would be 483 years later but that is not the case.  The ancient Hebrew year consisted of 360 days, not 365.  There is a lot of figuring that needs to be done.  Thankfully, Sir Robert Anderson did the painstaking work of counting up all the days and making the calculations.  The date was April 6, 32 A.D.  That’s the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that donkey, literally fulfilling that prophesy to the very day!  He, and He alone, is the Prince, the Messiah!

If you add up all these historical and prophetic details, there is no other reasonable or logical response than to worship Jesus Christ as your God and King, by repenting of your sins, yielding your life to His control, and following Him (Luke 9:23-24).  Are you ready to make that commitment or do you want to know more about what it means to follow Christ?  If so, please go to my sermon entitled “What Does it Mean to Receive Christ – John 1:12-13”.  It explains what it means to become a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

If you are a committed follower of Jesus Christ, does He receive a King’s welcome from you every morning?  I pray that your heart may be filled with peace and gladness as you remind yourself that you are a child of the King.  I also hope that you will ask God each day for the power to act like one before the world around you.

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED

Welcome to this completed sermon.  This is a wonderful passage of Scripture to visualize in our minds as the scenes unfold.

MARY ANNOINTS JESUS – John 12:1-3

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Have you ever spent your money extravagantly?  Did you do so in order to reward yourself?  Was it done to impress someone else?  Or was it an act of love from your heart?  Did you regret it later or are you glad you did so?

In this passage of Scripture, John 12:1-3, an extravagant act is performed; an act which many might consider to be boastful or wasteful.  The Lord Jesus Christ is on the receiving end of that extravagance.  Let’s take a look at what happened.

I.  THE SETTING (verses 1-2)

Verse 1 tells us that it is now six days before the Passover.  Jesus and His disciples have come out of hiding.  They “came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.”  The Gospel writers, Matthew and Mark, also describe this event, and they tell us that Jesus and His disciples, as well as Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, are at the home of Simon the Leper, and are enjoying a meal together [Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9].  We aren’t told, but it is likely that Simon the Leper was a relative of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.  That would help explain verse 2, which says, “So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him.”   We see, once again, that Martha loves to serve by preparing the food.  She may also have organized this banquet for Jesus and His disciples as a way of thanking Jesus for bringing her brother, Lazarus, back from the dead.

II.  MARY ANNOINTS JESUS’ FEET (verse 3)

In verse 3, we observe Mary’s devotion to Jesus.  We meet Mary three times in the New Testament scriptures.  On the first occasion, Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to Him (Luke 10:39).  The second time, she fell at Jesus’ feet, seeking help and sympathy after the death of her brother, Lazarus (John 11:32).   Now, in verse 3, she is about to anoint Jesus’ feet.  In each case, Mary is at the feet of Jesus.

Verse 3 tells us that she had, in her hands, “a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard.”  This perfumed oil represented the best that money could buy.  It was a gift fit for a king or queen and was very expensive for two reasons.  First, it was probably imported from India where it was extracted from the roots of the nard plant.  Secondly, nard, or spikenard oil, was sealed in alabaster jars to preserve its fragrance.  That jar was probably worth at least as much as the perfume itself, and it had to be broken in order to get the perfume out of it.  In verse 5, we are given its approximate value:  300 denarii.  That’s a year’s wages for a common laborer!  Let’s put that in today’s terms.  I live in Oregon, and the minimum wage here in Oregon is approximately $12 per hour.  That’s $96 a day for eight hours of work.  If you multiply that daily wage by 300 days, you have a total of $28,800.  That’s almost $30,000 worth of perfume, poured out on the feet of Jesus.  Would you call that extravagant?  I would!

Why does Mary have this expensive bottle of unused perfume in her possession?  The main use of this ointment was that of anointing a dead person’s body in preparation for burial.  It may have originally been purchased for the purpose of embalming her dead brother, but the family waited because they were told that Jesus was coming.  Now that Lazarus is alive again, she decides to lavish that fragrant perfume on Jesus.  Another possibility is that she purchased this perfume after Lazarus came back to life at the command of Jesus.  As we study this passage of Scripture, we will understand why this possibility may be what actually happened. 

This perfumed oil is the most expensive item that Mary possessed.  Martha and Lazarus may have known about her intent and were in wholehearted agreement with her decision.  It’s possible that Jesus may have told them, as He did His disciples, what would soon happen to Him in Jerusalem.  Mary, who always paid close attention to Jesus’ words and His teachings, must have known that His death was soon to occur.  She may also have known the Old Testament prophecies that spoke of it.  It seems that Mary may have sensed that this would be the last time that Jesus would be enjoying a meal with them, so she wanted to express her love and devotion to her Messiah and friend in the most generous and unselfish way.

In Matthew 26 and Mark 14, we find that Mary first poured some of the oil on the head of Jesus.  Then she poured the rest of it on His feet and wiped His feet with her hair.  Just a few days earlier, Mary and Martha were concerned about the stench of their brother’s body when Jesus told them to roll away the stone from his tomb.  Now the house was filled with the sweet smell of the perfume.  Mary used her hair, what the Scriptures say is a woman’s glory and crown, to wash the dirty feet of Jesus.  Bible commentator, William Barclay, tells us about one of the customs in Palestine during the first century AD.  “On the day a girl was married, her hair was bound up, and never again would she be seen in public with her hair unbound.  It was the sign of an immoral woman to appear in public with her hair unbound.”  But Mary wasn’t concerned about what others thought.  Her only desire was to express her love for Jesus

Mary didn’t use water but expensive perfume.  That is the essence of worship.  True worship of Jesus Christ is, first of all, humbling.  It is recognizing that He is King of kings and Lord of lords.  Secondly, true worship is generous and costly, done out of love for the Lord.

CONCLUSION:

Do you and I have a humble and extravagant love for the Lord Jesus Christ?  Is He more valuable to us than everything else we possess?  Are we unashamed to be devoted to Him by putting Him first in our lives?  Are we unashamed to be identified with Him and to proclaim Him to others?

Having observed the selfless devotion and costly generosity of Mary, there is another person in the Scriptures whose gift was infinitely more extravagant at a cost that was beyond measure.  The apostle Paul described that person and His gift in Ephesians 1:7-8.  He said, “In Him [the Lord Jesus Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us.”  I like the word “lavished”!  God loves us so much that He humbled Himself and became a man, in the Person of Jesus Christ, so that He might shed His own blood to pay the penalty for our sins.  Not only that but we are also filled with His grace now and forever. G-R-A-C-E:  “God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense”.  Are you a follower of Jesus Christ?  Have you repented of your sins and given your life to Him?  Has your life changed as a result?  If you are unsure, please visit my sermon entitled, WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO RECEIVE CHRIST? – John 1:12-13, and respond to God’s leading in your life.

If you are truly a follower of Jesus Christ, living a changed life because He is living in reigning in you, these words of the apostle Paul will be true of you:  “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of Him in every place.  For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life” (2 Corinthians 2:14-16).  I think the fragrance Paul speaks of is the fruit of the Spirit of God (“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”). as it is manifested in us when we yield the control of our lives over to Him from moment to moment (Galatians 5:22-23)  May those around us feel refreshed and attracted to Christ, as we live our lives devoted to Him and His word.

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED

Thank you for visiting this completed, construction site:  John 12:1-3   I hope you enjoyed the fragrance as you imagined yourself in the midst of this dinner party.

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH JESUS? — John 11:45-57

john 11:45-57, Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION:

You’ve probably heard the saying:  “You can please all of the people some of the time, and you can please some of the people all of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”  As we study this next passage of Scripture, John 11:47-57, we can add another phrase to that saying.  That phrase is:  “You can please some of the people none of the time.”

I.  THE DILEMMA (verses 45-48)

Jesus had just performed His last and greatest public miracle when He raised Lazarus from the dead.  As a result of that miracle, verse 45 says that many of those who were present at the tomb of Lazarus believed in Jesus as their Messiah after they watched Lazarus come out of the tomb at the command of Jesus.  However, some of the observers who were standing there were not happy at all.  In the midst of the joy, amazement, and celebration, there were a few who did not respond appropriately to the miracle and the miracle-worker.  They went and told the Pharisees, who became very angry and very worried.

Verse 47 says, “Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, ‘What are we doing?”  The leaders quickly met as a council.  It was an informal gathering rather than an official meeting of the council.  This council was called the Sanhedrin and was composed of 71 members, including the chief priests, the high priest, the captain of the temple, and members of the Sadducees and the Pharisees.  They were all very upset and kept saying among themselves, “What are we doing?” or What are we going to do?”. 

The term “think tank” was coined during World War 2.  It was used to describe a safe place where wartime plans and strategies could be discussed and implemented.  As we shall see in this passage of Scripture, the term “think tank” fits this occasion very well. The council of the Jews needs a strategy, and it needs one in a hurry.  What is the reason for their frustration and their panic?  The apostle John states it at the end of verse 47 when he quotes their words:  “this man performs many signs.”  Notice that they won’t even refer to Jesus by name.  To them, Jesus is just a common man, but they do ascribe many signs or miracles to Him.  They couldn’t deny the miracles – there were so many of them, and the raising of Lazarus from the dead was performed right before their very eyes.  Yet they stubbornly refused to believe Jesus’ claims and all the undeniable evidence that supported those claims.

Let’s take a close look at their conversation with one another in verse 48.  Their words reveal the major reason for their hatred for Jesus.  Here is what they are saying:  “If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in HIm, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”  The members of the council are coming to a consensus:  “We need to put a stop to this Man and His miracles as soon as possible.”  They fear what might happen to their way of life if Jesus continues to gain followers.  What is their way of life?  What are these Jewish leaders really afraid of?  I think the answer to those questions is given in verse 48, and they are the ones who are giving us the answer.  The little word “our” is used twice in their conversation.

In the Sanhedrin, there were both Pharisees and Sadducees.  The Pharisees were not a political party.  They were a religious sect within Judaism.  Their sole purpose was to know and practice every little detail of the Law of Moses.  As long as they were free to do so, they weren’t really concerned about the government that was ruling over them.  On the other hand, the Sadducees were a political and religious sect.  They were the wealthy nobility among the Jews.  All the priests were members of the Sadducees.  As commentator William Barclay puts it:  “So long as they were allowed to enjoy and to retain their wealth, their comfort, and their position of authority, they were well content to collaborate with Rome.”

So why were these leaders so upset by the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead that they gathered together for an emergency council meeting?  In verse 48 they describe the potential effects of this miracle and then the potential consequences to themselves.  Let’s look first at the potential effects.  Here are their words:  “If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him.”  They are exaggerating but they do have a good point.  Verse 45 said that “many believed in Him [Jesus]” as a result of the resurrection of Lazarus.  They saw the reaction of the people firsthand.  That is unsettling, especially in light of the potential consequences.  In the rest of verse 48, the leaders describe those potential consequences when they say,  “and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”  Now we know their reason for going into “panic mode”.  It’s jealousy!

We sometimes use the words “jealousy” and “envy” interchangeably, but there is an important difference between the two words.  To envy is to want something which belongs to another person.  One of the ten commandments is:  “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, his wife or his servant, his ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

By contrast, jealousy is the fear that something we possess will be taken away by another person.  What do these Jewish leaders possess that they fear will be taken away from them?  The word “our”, used in their conversation with one another, gives us the answer.  When they say “our place and our nation”, they are claiming that the temple and the nation belong to them. They consider the temple and the nation to be the places where they exercise their authority and bring honor and praise to themselves.  They can’t allow Jesus to take away their social and political power and prestige.  It would destroy their whole way of life as the elite among the Jews.

Maybe you’ve heard this phrase used before:  “That person has a one-track mind.”  What is a one-track mind?  Let me illustrate.  A little boy was asked by his teacher, “Johnny, what is your favorite animal?”  He said, “Fried chicken!”  Being a PETA supporter [People for Ethical Treatment of Animals], she sent him to the principal’s office.  The next day she asked him, “Johnny, what is your favorite living animal?”  He said, “Chicken!”  She said, “Out of all the various kinds of animals, your favorite is a chicken?”  “Why?”  He said, “I see it as a potential fried chicken!”  Off to the principal’s office, he went.  The next day, the teacher asked Johnny, “Who is the famous person you admire the most?”  He replied, “Colonel Sanders!” [Kentucky Fried Chicken].

As you can see from this story, Johnny had a one-track mind.  All he could think about was chicken!  These Jewish leaders also demonstrated that they had one-track minds.  All they could think about was themselves.

II.  CAIAPHAS SPEAKS (verses 49-53)

It’s at this point that Caiaphas, the High Priest, raises his voice and addresses the council.  He begins by criticizing them, saying, “You know nothing at all.”  That statement must have captured the attention of everyone!  He then gives his political opinion about the matter when he says, “it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation shall not perish.”  Caiaphas didn’t realize it but God used his words as a prophecy of Christ’s substitutionary death for the sins of the world (Mark 10:45; John 3:16).  It was an “unconscious prophecy”.  Like Balaam’s donkey [in Numbers 22:27-31], neither Caiaphas nor the donkey had any inkling that God was speaking through them.  The apostle John is writing this Gospel after the death and resurrection of Christ.  Looking back upon that day, he realizes that the statement Caiaphas made to the Sanhedrin was actually prophetic.

His statement is also ironic.  Jesus came to this earth to die, not to save the nation of Israel from physical destruction, but to save the world from eternal destruction through faith in Him.  John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  The very things that the Jewish leaders wanted to protect themselves against were going to happen beyond their expectations.  In less than 40 years, their temple and their nation would be destroyed, and their people would be scattered.  That was not what Caiaphas had in mind when he spoke those words.

This meeting of the Sanhedrin was the turning point in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Verse 53 says, “So from that day on they planned together to kill Him.”  Jesus was now an outlaw.  A bounty would soon be placed on His head [30 pieces of silver], and a bounty hunter [Judas] would take the money and turn Him in.

III,  A TEMPORARY HIDEOUT (verses 54-57)

It’s at this point in time that Jesus makes His getaway.  Verse 54 says, “Jesus therefore no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from there to a country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there He stayed with His disciples.”  Was Jesus motivated by fear?  Did He flee from the scene and go north to the hill country of Ephraim because He was afraid to die?  No.  He was on His Father’s timetable and this was not the time nor the manner in which He was to die.  It is estimated that He and His disciples were now about 12-15 miles northeast of Jerusalem.

The Roman historian, Tacitus, said these words:  “He who fights and runs away will live to fight another day.”  When I was a senior in high school, I took two semesters of classical Greek.  We translated portions of Xenophon’s Anabasis.  One of the memorable events recorded in his book was the retreat of the 10,000 Greeks and Spartans.  These elite soldiers were hired by Prince Cyrus of Persia in 401 BC to join his own troops in his rebellion against his brother, Artaxerxes, for control of the Persian Empire.  When Cyrus was killed and his army defeated at the Battle of Cunaxa, these Greek soldiers were asked to surrender.  They refused.  Instead, they marched out of the land of Persia and back to their native land of Greece.  They returned home so they might fight again at another time.

The Lord Jesus and His disciples also made a tactical retreat, but He would be back soon.  Verse 55 says, “Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand”,  Verses 56 and 57 tell us that the chief priest and the Pharisees were preparing an ambush in case He showed up at the feast.  They weren’t expecting Him to arrive but they wanted to be ready just in case.  Verse 56 contains a double negative in the Greek text.  What these Jews were saying to one another in the temple was:  “He wouldn’t dare to come to the feast!”  But Jesus would be back in a few weeks, not to do battle with the enemies, but to give His own life to defeat the greatest enemy – sin and its eternal consequences.  He would win the ultimate victory for all who believed in Him.

CONCLUSION:

This passage of scripture teaches us something about the providence of God.  On the surface, we see confusion and panic.  The Jewish leaders gather for an emergency meeting and Jesus and His disciples make a quick getaway.  It looks like things have gotten out of control but, in actuality, everything is going according to plan – God’s plan.  The events are fitting together in fulfillment of scripture and on God’s timetable.  In the same way, God works in our lives according to His will and in His timing as we yield our lives to Him and His will or us.

There is also a lesson to be learned from the words of Caiaphas, the high priest.  When Caiaphas said, in verse 50, ” . . . it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish”,  he was speaking selfishly, completely unaware that his words were a fulfillment of the Law in Leviticus 16:15-22, as well as the prophecies in Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, and elsewhere.  These scripture passages talk about substitution, and substitution is at the very heart of the gospel message.  In love, God the Father substituted His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for us (1 Peter 2:24; 3:18) so that our sins might be forgiven (Ephesians 1:7-8), and so that we might live for Him who died for us (Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 5:15).  I hope that you are a true child of God and a follower of Jesus Christ, experiencing the peace that comes with forgiveness and the joy that comes from serving Him with all your heart.

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED

Welcome to this completed site:  John 11:47-57.  This passage of Scripture is a turning point in the Gospel narrative.  Jesus’ arrest and death are only a few weeks away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LAZARUS! COME FORTH! — John 11:28-44

John 11:28-44, Lazarus raised from the dead, resurrection of Lazarus, Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION:

You may remember that Jesus’ first miracle was the turning of water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana.  He told the servants to fill the six stone waterpots with water and take some of it to the head waiter.  When he tasted the water turned to wine, he said to the bridegroom, “You’ve saved the best for last.”  We have a tendency to save the best for last, don’t we?  And we usually have good reasons for doing so.  Why do gymnasts put their most impressive skills at the end of their routines?  Why do fireworks designers put the big burst at the end?  Why do we eat dessert last?  We like a grand finale, don’t we?  We like to expect, or at least hope that the best is yet to come.

TRANSITION:

The Lord Jesus has something really special in store for Martha and Mary, for those who are with them mourning the death of their brother, Lazarus, and especially for Lazarus himself.  Jesus has already had a short conversation with Martha and has told her that He is the resurrection and the life.”  She responds by saying, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”  She affirms her faith in Him as her Messiah.  The words “I believe” are in the perfect tense meaning, “I have believed and I will continue to believe.”

I.  MARY COMES TO JESUS (verses 28-32)

After saying those words to Jesus, verse 28 says that Martha “went away, and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ ”  Martha may have sat down beside Mary and whispered those words in her ear.  She did this secretly because she wanted her sister to have some uninterrupted time with Jesus before He arrived at their home.  She may also have been concerned about the welfare of Jesus since many of the antagonistic, Jewish leaders were in her home at that moment.  Verse 29 tells us that Mary “rose quickly, and was coming to Him.”  Jesus was still waiting on the outskirts of the village of Cana in Galilee.

Her sudden moves and quick exit did not go unnoticed.  Her friends mistakenly thought that Mary was going to the tomb of Lazarus in order to weep there.  Verse 31 says “they followed her” in order to weep with her there.  This was the customary thing to do.  They were following the Jewish rules of etiquette during the time of mourning.  The Greek word translated as “weep” needs some further explanation.  It means to “wail”.  It is a loud expression of pain and sorrow.

II.  MARY GREETS JESUS (verse 32)

When Mary arrived at the place where Jesus was waiting, verse 32 says, “She saw Him and fell at His feet, saying to Him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ ”  Mary’s words are filled with emotion and she is weeping and wailing loudly.  She fell at Jesus’ feet as an expression of worship.  Those who followed behind her were weeping and wailing loudly along with her.  There was a lot of noise and a lot of emotion being expressed in the presence of Jesus.

III.  JESUS’ RESPONSE (verses 33-35)

In the midst of all this clamor that is going on around Him, let’s ask ourselves this question:  “What may be going through Jesus’ mind at this moment and how is it affecting His emotions?”  Verse 33 says, “When Jesus, therefore, saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit, and was troubled.”  They weren’t shedding tears but were making loud, almost hysterical sounds of mourning, customary for Jewish funerals of that day.

First, Jesus was “deeply moved in spirit”. The Greek word literally means “angered”, so “deeply moved” might convey that Jesus was enraged. Outside the New Testament, this word was often used by the Greeks to refer to the snorting of horses.  The Greek word translated “troubled” means to “shake together”, “stir up”, or “agitate”.  It was used to describe the pool at Bethesda which had an underground spring.  The spring would sometimes send hot water up to the surface and the pool would churn and bubbles would appear.  The two Greek words combine to describe a wave of anger that came over Jesus.

What was the cause of such a strong emotional reaction on the part of Jesus?  Was it seen in His facial expressions and did His body shake with anger?  It doesn’t say in the text but it must have been obvious to the apostle John as he remembers what happened that day and describes what he observed firsthand.

There may have been several reasons for Jesus’ anger in verses 33 and 34.  Let’s explore some reasonable possibilities.  Jesus may have been angry at the fake expressions of grief shown by those who followed Mary as she hurried to meet Him.  Their loud wailing was not a true expression of grief.  They were just following their traditions and competing with one another. They were grieving like the pagans who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

Jesus would also have good reason to be angry about sin and its consequences.  Sin, sickness, and death have plagued mankind ever since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:17-19).  God has been angry at sin and its effects on mankind ever since that day.

In addition to these reasons, Jesus may have been deeply troubled by the fact that no one believed that He was God.  After all His teaching and the miracles He performed over a period of three years, some were willing to believe that He was the Messiah, but they didn’t equate that with being God.  They still did not understand who He was nor the mission He had come to this earth to fulfill.  Finally, as Jesus was about to perform His greatest miracle before their eyes, He knew that the raising of Lazarus from the dead would set the wheels in motion for His own death just a few days away.  Rather than convincing the Jews to believe in Him, this miracle would convince them to kill Him, and this is in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies.  All of these reasons may have played a part in forming Jesus’ emotional state at that moment.

Verse 34 seems like a sharp contrast – a change of mood.  Jesus set those feelings of anger aside in order to minister to the needs of Mary and Martha.  He asks Mary, “Where have you laid him?”  Then, in verse 35, “Jesus wept.”  The Greek word speaks of a quiet shedding of tears, not a loud wailing.  Why would Jesus weep when He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead?  Many reasons have been given.  I prefer to believe that Jesus was revealing His humanity as He entered into the grief of Mary and Martha.  The prophet Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3).  Jesus demonstrated the love of a true friend by entering into their sorrows.  Mary and Martha would always remember the events of that day, and they would also remember the tears.  As the apostle Paul later said in Romans 12:15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” 

IV.  AT THE TOMB (verses 36-42)

On the way to the tomb, verse 38 says, “Jesus therefore again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb.”  What caused Jesus’ emotions to become stirred up again?  The answer to that question seems to be found in the previous verse.  The Jews said, in verse 37, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have kept this man also from dying?”  After three years of watching Jesus perform miracles that only the Messiah could perform, they still consider Him to be just a man who has some healing abilities.  The hardness of their hearts and their spiritual blindness must have been a source of irritation to Jesus. 

As they stand in front of the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus makes an astonishing request when He says, “Remove the stone”.  Martha, who earlier affirmed that Jesus was the Messiah, is quick to respond, saying, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.”  Martha’s faith failed at that moment.  She didn’t want to expose herself and her guests to the ugliness of death.  The King James version says it more bluntly:  “Lord, by now he stinketh.”

I saw an advertisement recently that showed a picture of a huge and beautiful flower.  Out of curiosity, I looked for more information and learned that it is the largest individual flower in the world and it has a strong odor after it blossoms.  Its nickname is “the corpse flower” and it wasn’t given that name because of its outward appearance.  Need I say more?  I wonder if God made that flower really big so that people could enjoy its beauty from a distance!

Getting back to the narrative, I wonder whether some of the mourners stepped back a few feet after Jesus said these words to Martha:  “Did I not say to you, that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”  Verse 41 says, “And so they removed the stone.”   They must have done so at Martha’s bidding because I don’t think they would do so otherwise.

This raises a question.  Why didn’t Jesus perform a miracle to remove the stone?  He could have saved time by telling the stone to roll away.  Mary and Martha were hoping for a miracle.  By doing so, He could have shown them that He was capable of performing a miracle on their brother.  Why did He demand that the stone be rolled away by the men who were standing there beside Him?  The Lord Jesus had a reason and a lesson that He wanted to teach them.  The Lord would not do by a miracle what they could do by obedience.  You might call this an “audience participation miracle”, and these men are going to get a whiff of it firsthand!

Once the tomb was open, Jesus “raised His eyes” (verse 41).  He lifts His eyes toward heaven because He wants everyone to know that He is about to pray. He wants them to be quiet and listen.  This is going to be a public prayer.  Jesus will be saying His words loud enough for everyone to hear them.  Public prayers are different from private prayers because people are listening to the words, and Jesus wants them to learn something from it.  Here is His prayer:  “Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me.  And I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the people standing around I said it, that they may believe that Thou didst send Me.” 

It’s a very short prayer, and it’s a prayer of thanksgiving even though He hasn’t performed a miracle yet.  I get the impression that Jesus is ending a conversation that He has been having with the Father privately.  He has made a request and He has received the Father’s permission and enabling in order to do what happens next.  He ends His conversation with the Father out loud because He wants everyone to know the closeness of His relationship with the Father and the authority that has been given to Him by the Father.

V.  THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS (verses 43-44)

Then, facing the entrance to the cave, Jesus shouts, with an even louder voice:  Lazarus!  Come forth!  As the Good Shepherd, Jesus is calling His sheep by name.  As he said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”

Within a few seconds, there were gasps and expressions of joy as Lazarus came hopping out of that cave in the direction of Jesus’ voice.  John describes that moment in verse 44 when He writes, “He who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings; and his face was wrapped around with a cloth.”  Lazarus couldn’t see, and he could hardly move, but he responded to the voice of his Shepherd.  Wouldn’t it have been interesting to see what was going on inside that cave after Jesus shouted those words?  Lazarus opened his eyes but he couldn’t see.  His hands and feet were tied so he could hardly move.  How he was able to stand up, I don’t know.  But all these things were incidental.  When he heard the voice of Jesus calling his name, he immediately obeyed.

Among all the spectators who were standing beside Jesus, including those Jews who opposed Him, there was no question and no doubt in their minds that Jesus had performed a miracle and brought Lazarus back to life.  In verse 44, Jesus immediately tells them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”  The embalming spices, which were wrapped tightly against his body and head using long strips of cloth, not only made it difficult for Lazarus to move but also to breathe.

What a joyous reunion that must have been!  Tears of sorrow had now become tears of joy.  Jesus had saved His best, public miracle for last.  What a display of the power and the glory of God!

In this passage of Scripture, we see clearly the deity of the Lord Jesus.  When He raised Lazarus from the grave, none of His onlookers questioned it, and none could prove otherwise.  If you are a true follower of Jesus Christ there is no reason to fear death because Jesus is “the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25), and He is our pathway from death to eternal life (John 5:24).  There is also every reason to live for Him.

We have also gained insight into the humanity of Jesus Christ.  He displayed human emotions when He trembled with anger and rage at sin, its consequences, and the failure of people to come to an understanding that He is the God-man – deity in bodily form.  In John 11:35, Jesus expressed His emotions in tears as He entered into the grief of Martha and Mary and released His own pent-up emotions.  Then He performed His last and greatest public miracle by raising Lazarus from the dead.

APPLICATION:

As you consider your own life today, would you say that you are completely satisfied, or do you feel that there is something missing in your life?  Do you feel that you already have the best that this life has to offer or is there an empty place that you haven’t been able to fill?  Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.”  He is the One who resurrects people from the dead, both physically and spiritually.  He is the One who gives abundant life now and eternal life with Himself.  In John 10:27, the Lord Jesus was referring to Himself as the good Shepherd, and He said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  And I give them eternal life.”  He is the very best that this life has to offer, and offers the brightest future to all those who choose to turn from sin’s control over their lives in order to follow Him as their Lord and Savior.  He alone has the power to change your life and give you eternal life with Him.

If you are a genuine disciple of Christ, do you share in Jesus’ hatred for sin and grieve over sin’s effects on the people around you?  Are you burdened by the realization that, for many people in this world today, the worst is yet to come?  Hell is a real place and it’s a place of permanent residency.  Are you ready to write down people’s names on a list and pray for them daily?  If you haven’t done so already, are you willing to write a brief personal testimony of your journey to personal faith in Christ, memorize it, and learn a gospel presentation using the Scriptures?

God wants to use us to resurrect the spiritually dead in sin and bring new life through faith in Jesus Christ.  He also desires to use us to help new believers to grow.  As we pursue these goals and priorities in our lives and draw closer to Him as we spend daily time with Him in His Word and in prayer, we will experience the very best that God has for us in this life

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED

 

NO EXCUSE GIVEN — John 11:17-27

john 11:17-32, Uncategorized

What do you say if you are late for the funeral of a friend?  What do you say if the family of the deceased person asks you why you are late?  What do you say if you miss the funeral altogether?  You’d better have a really good excuse, right?  The funeral and burial of Lazarus occurred four days earlier and Jesus wasn’t present.  He and His disciples have been walking all day in the direction of the town of Bethany, and the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus is now in sight.  Does He have a good excuse ready?  As we study this next passage of Scripture, John 11:17-27, we are going to find that Jesus is too late to heal and too late for the funeral.  However, He does not give an excuse, nor is He asked to give one.

I.  THE SCENE AT BETHANY (verses 17-19)

Verse 17 says, “So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days.”  That verse seems to imply that Jesus did not know that information since He found that to be the case after He arrived.  Once again, we are reminded that Jesus Christ was not all-knowing while He was on this earth.  His Heavenly Father told Jesus that Lazarus had died, but apparently didn’t tell Jesus on what day he died.  There is now no question in anyone’s mind that Lazarus was dead.  Jesus may have been given that information from someone they met as they approached Bethany.  It’s implied that Jesus did not know this information when He left for Bethany earlier that same day.

John gives us a brief geography lesson in verse 18 in order to help explain what follows.  The town of Bethany is located very close to the city of Jerusalem.  It’s just under two miles away.  The reason for verse 18 is found in verse 19, which says, “and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.”  The distance between Bethany and Jerusalem was short enough that many of their friends and acquaintances must have decided to come to the funeral.  In first-century Palestine, the Jewish time of mourning was divided into three parts.  The first three days were days of weeping.  The next four days were days of heavy mourning.  Then there was lighter mourning for the rest of the thirty-day mourning period.  During the first week, visitors constantly came to their house to console the family.  Even though many of these Jews were hostile toward Jesus and His followers, there were those who showed the courtesy of paying a visit and offering comfort.  Jesus and His disciples would be coming to a house filled with sympathizers that day.

II.  MARTHA’S CONVERSATION WITH JESUS (verses 20-27)

Verse 20 tells us, “So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him, but Mary remained sitting in the house.”   From what the Bible says about Martha here and in Luke 10:38-42, she is a take-action person and a take-charge person.  She likes to be busy, making sure that everything and everyone is taken care of properly.  Someone must have told her or made an announcement that Jesus had arrived in Bethany and was headed in the direction of their home.  Martha was quick to her feet and on her way to meet Jesus.

Meanwhile, on the road to Bethany, Jesus and His disciples see a small cloud of dust in the distance.  It’s a woman . . . it’s Martha . . . she’s coming in a hurry!  If I were in that situation, my first thought would be, “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”, and then, “What am I going to say and do if it does happen?”  Can you feel the tension?  Have you been in a situation like this before?  Were you on the giving end or the receiving end?

In verse 21, Martha’s first recorded words to Jesus are. “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Does that sound like one of those greetings where the person pauses afterward, waiting for you to give your excuse?  Did you have one ready in your “bag of excuses” or was there a moment of silence . . . an apology . . . shame?

Martha may have rehearsed those words with her sister because Mary later says the very same words.  There may also have been a sense of regret in her words.  “If only you had been here, this tragedy would not have occurred.”  Martha knew that Jesus could and did heal sick people and wondered why He didn’t arrive in time to heal Lazarus.  You might think that Martha considered her brother Lazarus to be beyond hope now that it was four days after his death.

There was no long pause after Martha’s greeting.  Immediately after saying those words, we find that Martha makes a profession of faith and hope in Jesus.  Despite the “irreversible” condition of her brother in the minds of the people and their leaders, Martha makes a statement of faith in Jesus when she says, “Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you” (verse 22).  Even in her desperation, there is a step of faith and there is a ray of hope.  After looking into Jesus’ eyes and seeing the humility, gentleness, and love mirrored there, how could Martha keep from growing in faith and from experiencing a greater sense of hope and peace?  The saying has been around for a long time and seems so appropriate for this moment:  “I can see it in your eyes”.

When Martha made her second statement, she was turning the focus of her attention away from the situation and placing it upon Jesus.  Even though she did not yet believe that Jesus was God, she did believe that there was a close relationship between Him and God, so close that God would answer any request Jesus might ask of Him.  She was now seeing this situation from a different perspective.  I recently read an illustration of another woman whose perspective was changed because of a dramatic incident in her life.  Many years ago the inhabitants of a small village were startled by a sudden earthquake.  The people were trembling with fear but were surprised at the calmness and apparent joy of an old woman whom they all knew.  Finally, one of them addressed the old woman and said, “Mother, are you not afraid?”  “No”, said the woman.  “I rejoice to know that I have a God who can shake the world!”  Has Martha come to the realization that she has a God who could raise the dead, even her own brother, Lazarus?    

Jesus encourages her faith and seeks to build upon that faith when He says to her, in verse 23, “Your brother shall rise again.”  Those words may have been a common phrase that was used during the mourning period to comfort and encourage the family during the mourning period.  However, Martha could tell from Jesus’ tone of voice that He was making her a promise.  He’s applying her words of faith to her brother’s condition.  Now we see that Martha’s words to Jesus, “I know that whatever you ask of God, He will give you”, were not meant to be applied to her brother’s situation.  God had never raised a person who had already been dead for four days.  The spirit of her brother had already left and his body was decaying.  It was too late for a healing miracle.

In an effort to understand Jesus’ words and agree with Him, Martha says, in verse 24, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”  That’s what she had been taught from her Jewish upbringing.  She believed in a future resurrection of the dead.  Her hope for her brother Lazarus was now tied to the future, not to the present.

Do the Old Testament scriptures talk about a bodily resurrection?  Yes, they do, in several places.  The prophet Daniel said, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” (Daniel 12:2)The prophet Isaiah said, “Your dead will live; their corpses will rise.  You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy” (Isaiah 26:19).  There are also many references to the resurrection in the Psalms.  Martha’s response to Jesus’ comment was true, but she didn’t understand how He could be referring to the present situation. 

With the exception of the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, most Jews during that period of time believed in a resurrection of the dead on the last day.  Jesus already said, in John 5:21, “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He is pleased to give it.”  Now Jesus makes it clearer and more emphatic when He says to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).  Once again, Jesus uses God’s special name:  “I am.”  He’s telling Martha that the resurrection isn’t just a doctrine.  It’s a Person, and He is that Person.  There is no resurrection and there is no life apart from Him.  Jesus is also saying that eternal life begins at the moment when a person believes in Him and follows Him [he who believes in me shall live even if he dies; and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die”]. Physical death has no effect on the life that Jesus gives.  Those words of Jesus must have been an encouragement to Martha.  He brought her personal understanding of the resurrection out of the future and into the present.  He told her that people are saved, not by words written in a book (the Torah), but by Jesus Himself, “the resurrection and the life.”

A nineteenth-century missionary to the South Seas by the name of John G. Paton met opposition to leaving his home in Scotland and going to preach to the cannibalistic peoples of the New Hebrides Islands.  A well-meaning church member said to him, “The cannibals, the cannibals!  You will be eaten by the cannibals!”  Without hesitation, Paton replied, “I confess to you that if I can live and die serving the Lord Jesus Christ, it makes no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms; for in that Great Day of Resurrection, my body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer!”  The hope of the resurrection removed Paton’s fears and strengthened his commitment to serve the Lord.

Martha’s response to the claims of Jesus was also based upon genuine faith in Him.  In her answer to Jesus’ question, “Do you believe this?”, Martha said “Yes” and used three titles to refer to Him:  “Lord”, “the Christ”, and “the Son of God.”

CONCLUSION:

You may remember the famous words of the apostle Peter in Matthew 16:16, where he said to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Let’s also remember the words of Martha, who said to Jesus, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.”  They both came to the same conclusion and were encouraged and comforted by that knowledge.

Pastor and evangelist, Dwight L. Moody, told the story of a soldier at the Battle of Inkerman [November 5, 1854] who was just able to crawl to his tent after he was struck down.  When found, he was lying upon his face, his open Bible before him, his hand glued fast to one of the pages by his lifeblood which covered it.  When his hand was lifted, the letters of the printed page were clearly traced upon it.  And such words they were that they decided not to wash them from his palm when they laid him in a soldier’s grave.  The promise etched in blood was this:  “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”  Then Moody said, “I want a religion like that which can comfort even in death, that can unite me with my loved ones.  What a gloom and darkness would settle upon this world were it not for the glorious doctrine of the resurrection.”

Do you believe in the resurrection?  Do you believe in the One who said, “I am the resurrection and the life?”  The Lord Jesus Christ is the only true source of hope, peace, and joy in this life and the nextDon’t let human reasoning keep you from knowing Christ as your Lord and Savior.  Take that step of faith by choosing to repent of your sins, believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and follow Him in obedience to His word.

If you have already made that decision, then live in such a way that you never have to give an excuse for your actions but rather, a reason and a motivation.  As the apostle Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15-16, “but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence, and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.”

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED

Thank you for visiting this site.  In this passage of Scripture, we are taking a closer look at Martha and her understanding of who Jesus is and what He can do.  We will be studying a demonstration of Jesus’ claims in the next passage of scripture.

THE DEATH OF LAZARUS — John 11: 1-16

John 11: 1-16, Uncategorized

Have you ever discovered, in your own life, that sometimes God’s love and God’s timing are difficult to understand and accept?  Has there been a recent event in your life that doesn’t seem to fit with your understanding of God’s love?  Are you still trying to make sense of it?

In this passage of Scripture, John 11:1-16, which deals with the sickness and death of a close friend by the name of Lazarus,  Jesus’ love and His timing were difficult to understand and accept.  Jesus is about to receive a message.  Let’s see how He responds, and let’s put ourselves in the situation, as if we were members of the family of Lazarus, or as if we were Jesus’ disciples, trying to figure out what is going on and trying to make sense of it.

I.  THE SICKNESS OF LAZARUS (verses 1-2)

Life is filled with surprises, isn’t it?  Do you like surprises?  What about unpleasant surprises?  That’s another story, isn’t it?  The eleventh chapter of John’s Gospel begins with an unpleasant surprise.  Verses 1-2 describe the situation in these words:  “Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.  And it was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.” 

The apostle John is the only gospel writer who mentions this event.  He goes into considerable detail to make sure his readers know who he is talking about.  The name Lazarus is a form of the name Eleazar.  Martha appears to be the oldest, based upon her responsibilities in the family.  John uses an event that happens in the future to describe Mary.  The apostle John wrote this gospel several years after the death of Christ and he wanted to make sure his readers knew which Mary he was talking about in this verse.  There are several Marys who are mentioned in the New Testament scriptures.

II.  THE MESSAGE (verse 3)

At that point in time, Jesus and His disciples were still on the other side of the Jordan River in the land of Perea where John the Baptist had been baptizing.  Martha and Mary must have known this because they sent Him a message.  Verse 3 says, “The sisters therefore sent to Him, saying, ‘Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.’ ”  The person who brought this news to Jesus must have been quoting the words that Mary and Martha asked him to say.  The words “he whom You love” are filled with meaning and emotion.  They aren’t implying that Jesus loved Lazarus more than others.  I think they are focusing on the fact that Jesus’ love for them is so much greater than their love for Him, that they feel so undeserving but so enthralled by His love.  Like the apostle John, who referred to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, whenever they thought of Jesus or thought of themselves, they were reminded of, and amazed at, His love for them.

Hymn writer Philip Bliss, finished singing the hymn, “Oh, How I Love Jesus”, when he said to himself, “Those words are true.  Yet I feel guilty for having sung so much about my poor love for Christ and so little about His endless love for me.”  As a result, he wrote a song that is well known today.  Here is the first stanza:

“I am so glad that our Father in heaven
Tells of His love in the Book He has given,
Wonderful things in the Bible I see —
This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me.”

IV.  JESUS’ REPLY (verse 4)

Having considered the love of Jesus, how did Jesus respond to this bearer of sad news?  Did He stop what He was doing, accompany the person, and perform a healing miracle?  That’s what He usually did, but not in this case.  Instead, He gives some words of assurance for this messenger to take back to Mary and Martha.  In verse 4 Jesus said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”  After spending the night with Jesus and His disciples, the messenger must have left the next morning reassured by that good news, and Jesus’s disciples must have been glad that there was nothing to be concerned about.  Everything was going to turn out alright.  That’s going to be true, but not in the sense that Jesus’ hearers understood it.  Not at all!

V.  LOVE AND DELAY (verses 5-6)

Verse 5 describes Jesus’ love, not only for Lazarus but for Martha and Mary as well.  The apostle John wants to make it clear to his readers that all three of them were equally the objects of Jesus’ love.  Then, in verse 6, Jesus does something that seems to contradict that love.  Verse 6 reads, “When therefore He [Jesus] heard that he [Lazarus] was sick, He stayed then two days longer in the place where He was.”  That doesn’t sound very loving, does it?  You would think that Jesus would have accompanied the messenger back to Bethany and healed Lazarus.  Why the delay?

If we look through the gospels, we find that Jesus was not a “creature of habit” when it came to performing miracles.  He didn’t perform any two miracles exactly the same way.  Some of His miracles were done in very unusual and unexpected ways.  You might draw the conclusion that Jesus was a non-conformist who did things His own way, but that’s not a valid conclusion.  Jesus conformed to the will of His Heavenly Father, and when asked or challenged, He gave the credit to His Father.  In John 5:30, Jesus said, “I can do nothing on My own initiative. . . . I do not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.”  In John 14:10, Jesus will be making a similar statement when He says, “but the Father dwelling in Me does His works.”  Jesus was on the Father’s timetable and acted according to the will and power of the Father, and for the glory of His Father.

VI.  THE TIME FOR ACTION (verses 7-10)

After two days of rest and relaxation, Jesus gives the exhortation, “Let us go to Judea again.”  Those words must have startled His disciples.  They just fled from there to save their lives and now Jesus wants to go back again?  What’s going on?  To get the full picture, let’s imagine what has been happening in Bethany during this period of time.  The messenger returned to Bethany the following evening only to learn that Lazarus had died while he was on his way to deliver the message to Jesus.  The messenger was alone; Jesus wasn’t with him.  Let’s try to imagine the conversation between them.

“Where is Jesus?”

“He’s still in Bathabara.”

“Is He coming?”

“I don’t think so.  He said, ‘This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it’.”

Can you imagine the shock when Mary and Martha heard those words?  Lazarus was already dead.  They already had the funeral service for him and had laid him in the family tomb.  Yet Jesus had not come, and His words to them didn’t make any sense.  They must have been devastated and wondered whether He was going to come at all.  There may have been a sense of abandonment in their hearts.

In spite of the shock and confusion this delay has caused in the minds of Martha, Mary, and Jesus’ disciples, Jesus had an important and necessary reason for the delay.  The climate in that region was very hot and only the rich could afford to embalm a dead family member.  It was a process that took months to accomplish.  The rest of the people endeavored to bury the body the same day or early the next day.  They also didn’t have the diagnostic equipment we have today to confirm that a person was truly dead.  As a result, there were cases where the “dead” person came out of his swoon or coma and came back to life.  In order to explain this phenomenon and keep it from happening again, the leaders came up with an explanation.  One popular opinion was that the spirit of the person hovered over the body until decay began to take place and then left.

That may seem to give a reason for the delay but I don’t think that reason aligns with the character of the Lord Jesus.  He was not one who would hurt His friends in order to bring more glory to Himself at their expense.  Jesus also does not confirm that view.  Remember, Jesus was not all-knowing, and His will was to bring glory to the Father as the Father revealed His will to His Son.  There were things that Jesus knew and there were things that Jesus didn’t know until the Father revealed them.  For example, Jesus probably knew about this “swoon theory” that I just mentioned.  He knew that any resurrection miracle would be questioned if the person hadn’t been dead for at least three days.  However, Jesus may not have known that Lazarus was already dead.  One thing we do know is that Jesus always did the will of the Father as the Father revealed it to Him, and until then, He waited.  For Him, it wasn’t a delay but an act of loving obedience to His Father.

With that information in mind, Jesus may have said those words:  “Let’s go to Judea again” immediately after the Father had told Him that Lazarus was dead and that it was time to return to the home of Martha and Mary.  Those words of Jesus in verse 7 were not the words that Jesus’ disciples wanted to hear.  It sounded like a death sentence and they were not ready to die.  They encourage Jesus to reconsider His plans, saying, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?”  I see an exaggeration and an implication in their response.  First, they make it sound like this attempted stoning happened just a couple of minutes ago instead of a couple of days ago.  They seem to be saying, “Don’t you think you should give this a little more thought rather than react upon the first impulse?”  Secondly, they are giving Jesus a hint about their response to the idea.  When they said, “are You going there again”, they seem to be implying, “You’re on your own this time!”  It sounds like a stand-off, doesn’t it?  Jesus is ready to go and they are giving Him reasons to stay.  He doesn’t get angry with them because of their fears but uses this opportunity to build faith and trust in Him and His words.  His disciples are focusing their thoughts upon the situation rather than upon their Messiah. 

Jesus begins by giving them a lesson on how to tell time.  Can you remember learning how to tell time as a child?  I was a little slow to catch on at first.  Most of the clocks are digital now, but I grew up back in the day when all the clocks had an hour hand and a minute hand, and some of them even had a second hand.

In verse 9, Jesus answers their question with a question of His own, saying, “Are there not twelve hours in the day?  If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him.”  Jesus uses a form of telling time that was common to the Jews of that day by stating that there are twelve hours of daylight and implying that there are twelve hours of the night.  If you’re going to take a walk, it is better to do it during the day.  They didn’t have street lights as we have today, so when the sun went down, it was really dark.  There was more that Jesus was trying to communicate to them but they missed it.  He told His disciples, in chapter 8, that He was the light of the world.  He had also mentioned that His hour had not yet come.  There was still work that the Father wanted Him to do.  Until then, they were safe with Him.  As King David said, in Psalm 27:1, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear?”

VII.  THE NEED FOR EXPLANATIONS (verses 11-15)

That answer received no response from Jesus’ disciples.  Their thoughts are still focused on what He is about to do, rather than on who He is and what He is able to do.  Jesus is trying to build faith and trust in Him as their Messiah and He is not about to give up yet.  In verse 11, Jesus gives them an explanation when He says, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, that I may awaken him out of sleep.”

The response of His disciples seems to be appropriate.  Verse 12 reads, “The disciples therefore said to Him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.’ ”  I wonder if their response to Jesus was one of relief rather than rejoicing.  In order to avoid the risks of going to Bethany, they are trying to convince Jesus that there is no longer a need to make the trip.  “Let Lazarus sleep undisturbed.  The sleep will heal his sickness.”  Jesus’ disciples are still in protection-mode and have misunderstood His words.  Over 35 times in the Old Testament scriptures, the phrase  “slept with his fathers” is used when referring to the death of someone.  The disciples of Jesus missed that association because none of them asked Jesus for clarification.

It’s time to head for Bethany so Jesus tells His disciples clearly and plainly what has happened to Lazarus.  In verses 14 and 15, Jesus said, “Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I wasn’t there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.”  Jesus could have been there sooner.  He could have brought Lazarus back from the dead without going there in person.  But Jesus is glad at that moment, knowing that what His disciples are about to experience is going to stretch and deepen their faith in Him. 

VIII.  THE RESPONSE OF THOMAS (verse 16) 

Jesus may be rejoicing at that moment but His disciples aren’t sharing the enjoyment along with Him.  They see this trip back to Bethany as a death sentence for all of them.  However, one voice responds loudly enough for all to hear.  It’s the voice of the apostle Thomas.  Verse 16 says,  “Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go that we may die with Him.’ “

The apostle Thomas is my namesake and most people refer to him as “doubting Thomas” because of his reluctance to believe that Christ had risen from the dead (John 20:24-29).  I’ve been called “doubting Thomas” many times in my life, but I would like you to think of the apostle Thomas as he is described here in verse 16.  His words are an expression of two of his character qualities:  loyalty and pessimism.  He was a loyal follower of Christ who was willing to face death along with Him. Thomas also encouraged the other disciples to do the same thing.  As we’ll see in the next passage of scripture, the other disciples followed his advice. 

CONCLUSION:                                                                   

This passage of Scripture points out that life isn’t just a series of events.  It is also a process.  There are issues to deal with, challenges to accept, responses to make, and things to learn.  God has designed the circumstances in our lives so that we might mature physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.  God orders those circumstances so that we might respond to Him by faith, trust, and obedience as He enables us and empowers us.  Jesus was going through a process also.  In verses 7-10, we learned that Jesus did not allow danger to keep Him from doing what He knew was the Father’s will for His life at that moment.  He was also willing to wait until the time was right.

It’s not always easy to wait, is it?  G. Campbell Morgan made the following statement.  “Waiting for God is not laziness.  Waiting for God is not going to sleep.  Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort.  Waiting on God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.”

If you are not yet a committed follower of Jesus Christ and a true child of God, now is not the time to delay.  2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “. . . Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation.”  In these dark and perilous times, remember and respond to the words of Jesus who said, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).        

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED

 

 

JESUS, THE SON OF GOD — John 10:31-42

1 Corinthians 1:10-17, 2017 resolutions, John 10:31-42, John 10:31-42, Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION:

Many years ago, there was a popular game show on television called “What’s My Line”?  Maybe you’ve seen it or have heard of it.  Each week they would introduce an individual who had an unusual occupation.  The contestants on the show would take turns asking this person questions in order to guess what this person did for a living.  The first contestant to guess the person’s line of work or occupation correctly would win the game and would receive the prizes.

In this passage of Scripture, the Jewish leaders seem to be playing a game similar to “What’s My Line”, only in reverse.  Jesus, who is the person being interviewed, has already told them several times who He is, yet they keep asking Him to identify Himself.  Now it’s Jesus’ turn to ask them some questions.

I.  JESUS’ FIRST QUESTION TO THEM (verses 31-32)

Verse 31 is a short intermission.  It says, “The Jews took up stones again to stone Him.”  They were in the temple so those stones weren’t on the ground at their feet.  They had to walk away from Jesus in order to find stones and pick them up.  These weren’t one-handed stones; they were two-handed, large, and heavy stones.  They were picking up those stones because Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.”  All of those Jews recognized that Jesus was claiming to be God when He made that statement.  While they are gathering the stones for His execution, Jesus calls out to them, asking His first question:  “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?”  Within that question, there are several questions that Jesus wants them to consider and answer for Him.  “Are you stoning Me to death because I gave sight to a man born blind?”  “Are you stoning me because I healed a man at the pool of Bethesda, who had been ill for 38 years?”  “Are you stoning Me because I cleansed lepers, raised the dead, and cast out evil spirits?”  “Are you stoning Me because I made the dumb speak, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and fed the multitudes?”  Jesus pointed to His mighty miracles which fulfilled prophecy and set Him apart as being from God.  How are they going to respond to that evidence?

II.  THEIR ANSWER (verse 33)

How do you answer a question that would prove you to be wrong?  How do you respond to a question that would make you look foolish?  Have you ever been in that situation?  There are many possibilities.  Let’s see which one they choose.  In verse 33, the Jews give their answer:  “For a good work we don’t stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make yourself out to be God.”  I call this the “shame on you for asking” approach.  In a loud and demeaning tone of voice, they are saying, “That’s a stupid question!”  “You’re not really serious, are you?”  “It should be obvious that we are stoning you for blasphemy because You, of all people, are claiming to be God!”  They have side-stepped Jesus’ question and His miracles in order to put the focus on Him and His claims.  By doing so, they are hoping to have the last word on that topic so they can proceed with their stoning.  However, the conversation isn’t over yet.  Jesus has another question for them to answer, and this time it concerns a passage of Scripture.

III.  JESUS’ SECOND QUESTION (verses 34-36)

Jesus responds to His accusers in an unexpected and unusual way, giving His answer in the form of a question to them.  He quotes from Psalm 82:6 saying, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I SAID, YOU ARE GODS’?”  Jesus is going to be using a form of logic called “reasoning from the major to the minor” (or from the greater to the less).  The focus of Jesus’ argument is going to be on one book of the Bible [the Psalms], one chapter in that book [chapter 82], one verse in that chapter [verse 6], and one word within that verse [the word “GODS”].

After quoting that verse, Jesus presents His argument in verses 35 and 36, saying, “If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scriptures cannot be broken), do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said ‘I am the Son of God’?”  There must have been many puzzled looks on the faces of His adversaries after Jesus presented that argument.

We see, in this verse, Jesus’ confidence in the inspiration, the authority, and the inerrancy of God’s Word.  He is saying that two things are certain:  the psalm calls them gods and the Scripture cannot be broken.  The Lord Jesus Christ is staking His life on the reliability, accuracy, and authority of just one word of Scripture, for His enemies were about to stone Him to death.

Down through the centuries, many ungodly people have tried to refute or destroy the Scriptures, but they have all failed.  The famous philosopher, Voltaire, held up a copy of the Scriptures and boasted that he would put the Bible in the morgue.  Before long, he was in the morgue and the Geneva Bible Society used his house as a Bible warehouse!

In Psalm 82, what did the psalmist mean when he used the phrase “you are gods”?  Who was he referring to?  He’s talking about the judges or rulers of the people of Israel.  They are called “gods” because they represented God as they judged the people of Israel.  It was God who put them in their positions of leadership.  In Exodus 7:1, God said to Moses, “See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh.”  In Exodus 21:6, as well as Exodus 22:8, 9, and 28, the word translated “judges” is the Hebrew word “Elohim” which literally means “gods”.  Jesus has brought His argument to its logical conclusion.  He is saying to His accusers:  “Don’t stone Me just because I use the word “God”.  Look at all the people in the Scriptures who were called “gods”, and the Scriptures can’t be wrong.”  Jesus didn’t have to prove what He said to them because they knew those Scriptures.  After hearing those words, the Jewish leaders started relaxing their grip.  I can envision those stones slipping from their hands and falling to the ground beside their feet.  You’ll see what I mean when we look at the next several verses of Scripture.  They have lost that argument and the crowd that has gathered around them knows it.

IV.  A CONCESSION (verses 37-38)

Now that Jesus has deflated their argument for stoning Him to death, He makes them a concession in verses 37-38.  “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” Jesus knew that, if they would believe His works, it wouldn’t be long before they would believe in Him.  This was the case for one of the most well-known illusionists in the world.  Early in his career, Andre Kole considered himself to be an atheist and he was skeptical of Christianity.  He was challenged to investigate the miracles of Christ with the intent of proving them to be illusions or tricks and exposing Jesus Christ as a fraud.  However, his quest had the opposite result.  Becoming convinced that Jesus’ works were genuine miracles, Andre became a devoted follower of Jesus Christ and used his abilities as a means of presenting the Gospel message to thousands of people around the world.

More recently, a well-known Christian illusionist and escape artist, Brock Gill, set aside his personal beliefs to explore the miracles of Jesus Christ objectively for a BBC television company.  In every case, Gill concluded that Jesus could not have tricked people into believing they had experienced a miracle.  There was no doubt in his mind that the mighty works of Jesus were actual miracles.

V.  THE RESULTS (verses 39-42)

Verse 39 tells us what happened after Jesus finished speaking.  It says, “Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp.”   Notice that it says “seize Him”, not “stone Him”.  As I mentioned earlier, the stones that were in their hands have already fallen to the ground.”  Now the Jews want to take Him into custody while they figure out what they are going to do next.  That plan didn’t work either because Jesus eluded their grasp.  His time had not yet come.

Jesus and His disciples escaped.  They left Jerusalem and went to a place of refuge.  Verse 40 says, “And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there.”  The place the apostle John is referring to is on the other side of the Jordan River and about twenty miles from Jerusalem.  Why did He choose to go there?  There may be several reasons.  It was a place of safety because the Jews wouldn’t pursue Him that far from Jerusalem.  It was also a special place for Jesus.  His betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion were only a week away, and Jesus has returned to the place where His public ministry began.  He was baptized here by John the Baptist, and it was here that John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah and urged his own disciples to follow Jesus.  Possibly the main reason Jesus decided to go to this particular region is given in verses 41 and 42.  “And many came to Him and were saying, ‘While John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true.’  And many believed in Him there.”  These people must have listened to the preaching of John the Baptist while he was in their neighborhood, preaching and baptizing.  Some of them may have been baptized by John.  It is now almost three years after the death of John the Baptist, yet these people still remember John’s words to them, and everything he said about Jesus has been proven to be true.  As a result, many believed in Him.  John the Baptist didn’t perform any signs (miracles), but he spoke about Jesus in such a way that people wanted to find out if what John said was actually true.

Bible commentator, Leon Morris, shares the following story about a ringing telephone.  A harried housewife picked it up and shouted, “Sorry, I can’t talk now.  Our white mouse is loose in the kitchen and I have to catch him before the cat does.”  She left the receiver dangling, and strange noises filtered through for the next five minutes or so.  Then she picked up the phone and heard a strange voice say, “Excuse me, lady, I know I have the wrong number.  But I just had to find out.  Who got the mouse?”  Like this lady, John the Baptist was not a person of eloquent speech, but He spoke about Jesus in such a way that his hearers wanted to find out more about Him.  Therefore, the Lord Jesus found genuine faith among these people.  They came to the realization that everything John the Baptist said about Jesus was true, so they put their trust in Him because of who He was, not because of what He did.

CONCLUSION:

This event in Jesus’ life tells us a lot about His own view of Scripture.  He held the Scriptures in the highest possible esteem.  No one has ever had a deeper reverence for God’s Word than Himself.  He read it, studied it, memorized it, meditated on it, obeyed it. and shared it often from memory.  Jesus believed in the inspiration, the authority, and the truthfulness of all the Scriptures, and He came to fulfill the Scriptures.

What is your attitude toward God’s Word?  It is a reflection of your attitude toward Jesus Christ because He is the main focus of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  If you’re not sure of your relationship to God and are not very familiar with the Bible, I challenge you to read the Bible and take a good look at what it says, as Andre Kole did.  Investigate the life of Jesus Christ, His miracles, the prophecies He fulfilled, His death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven.  Visit it, not as a tourist, but as an explorer.  There are two ways you can study the Bible:  studying it with your mind made up, or studying it to let it make up your mind.  If you will take that second approach to God’s Word, you will find every word of it to be true.  You will find Jesus to be all that He claims to be.  Your life will be changed when you turn it over to Jesus Christ.  You haven’t really lived until you’ve done so.  You have yet to learn the meaning of true joy and purpose in life.  You have yet to experience the relationship that gets better every day and never ends.

Fellow Christian, there’s gold and precious stones between the pages of God’s Word, but you’ve got to dig for it.  The deeper you dig, the more spiritual riches there are to be found.  Then, follow Jesus’ example and share the wealth with others.

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED

Thank you for visiting this completed construction site:  John 10:31-42.  There are over 150 messages on this blog site and you are welcome to visit them all.  I’m sharing the wealth with you.