As the story of Lazarus wraps up at the end of John 11, there are different responses to this amazing resurrection. Some believe. They see the signs as from the only place they could be—God. That makes Jesus unique in some way to them. At the very least they believe Jesus is from God.
Others do not believe. In fact they begin to plan his death. They say it out loud if you were wondering why—John 11:47-48
[47] So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. [48] If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
They didn’t see the evidence that others saw. What they wanted was to keep their place and nation at the expense of not believing that Jesus was the Son of God. They should have seen it through the many signs. The evidence is stacked against them. Anyway, they gave up trusting in God to keep the temple and nation. These were not to be substituted for God himself but it seems that’s what they had become.
Instead of seeing God through the obvious signs Jesus was showing them they looked to the temple and nation as evidence or maybe something else. Are you satisfied with a dead building as evidence of God? I’m not. And you shouldn’t either.
So how do you get people to see Christ for who he is? How do you cause people to hear the gospel and believe? Warnings or wooings? Or both?
This Lazarus event was a clear example of wooing. They should have seriously wrestled with the signs not against them. God has used both with the people and Pharisees. Why did neither of them work with some?
Notice this statement by Jesus about warning and wooing—Matthew 11:16-19
[16] “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,[17] “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ [18] For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ [19] The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
To simplify what Jesus is saying here—I came wooing you with wonderful signs and John came warning you to flee the wrath of God through repentance. Jesus played the beautiful flute and John sang the funeral song (a lament—dirge).
Why did they not listen? There are a few possible answers but only one satisfies to me. What is it?
[4] Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
This could stand alone without any explanation and likely encourage you. However there’s more to consider here than only thinking, “I’ve got this! God is in me!”
This verse is in the context of deciding who to listen to. It began in 4:1 by saying do not believe every spirit. You might ask, what is a spirit? Well, he defines what he means. Spirits in the plural here means people who speak or attempt to speak on God’s behalf.
False prophets would be an example of a spirit that you should not believe. Then you might ask, how do I know whether this is a false spirit or not. John says this—1 John 4:2-3
[2] By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, [3] and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
My guess is that you might think, can someone confess Jesus Christ has come from God to deceive me? Well in fact they can. There a tons of examples throughout the bible showing us that.
The next test is this—1 John 4:5-6
[5] They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. [6] We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
People/spirits that do not listen to God’s word are not of the Spirit of truth. They are the spirit of error. They may say they love Jesus but it usually shows up very clearly in their actions. Like the previous encouragement, you can say you love your brother but if you see him in need and refused to give him what he needs then the love of God is not in that person.
There are likely people who can put on a show over some period of time. But eventually and usually in private they are who they really are. I’d pay attention to the people who listen to them. The world listens to these people but God’s people do not. They like people listening to them and that weakness usually exposes them.
But remember, he who is in you is greater than those false spirits that are in the world. The Lord will protect you. And I would strongly suggest that you know the Spirit of truth by knowing the Spirit inspired Word of God.
I suppose that it’s easy to doubt the things we believe about God. We have an enemy that is working to deceive us. It seems that there is a passive deception in the world when we see so many things that are evil and wrong. The glimpse of reality is darkened by the clouds of doubt that actively or passively seek to hide the truth.
There’s a clear connection between our confidence in God and our obedience to the Lord’s commands. When people who claim to believe the truth do not do what he commands of us that actively and passively hides the truth and attempts to deceive us.
When we gladly obey the good things God has told us to do such as loving our brothers not only word but in deed then we not only display that we believe the truth but we also know that we are of the truth. This assures our hearts before God. No doubt it also assures others that we and they are of the truth. Instead of deceiving your fellow brothers by disobedience you encourage them actively and passively.
1 John 3:16-21
[16] By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. [17] But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? [18] Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
[19] By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; [20] for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. [21] Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God
Let us know the love of Christ in that he didn’t merely say he loved us but proved his love by laying down his life for us. So too, prove your love for Christ by loving your brother and then you will also prove your love for your brother. And you will be confident in the truth because his love and truth have become visible and abides in you.
The cross comes before the crown. Suffering comes before relief. Immaturity comes before maturity. Unbelief comes before belief. Darkness comes before light. Chaos before order. War before peace.
In John 11, Lazarus dies. He was Jesus’s friend. Indeed, Jesus was not only friends with Lazarus but his two sisters, Mary and Martha. They send word to Jesus that Lazarus is sick and near death. It says very strangely that Jesus hears the news and because of his love for them he delays his response for two days knowing that Lazarus will die. Or to put another way, he delayed so that he died.
It states clearly that Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. However this act doesn’t seem loving at all. When Jesus has the power and availability to stop this he decides the best thing for those whom he loves is to see his glory. But to see his glory they must experience a great deal of pain. Pain that could have been avoided but pain that was necessary.
We all know how the story ends but are we okay with how Jesus loves here? Is Jesus on some ego trip to make himself look good? How is pain like this in our best interest?
The Bible often uses the birth of a child to explain this. When the baby arrives the pain is forgotten about. No doubt the joys of life swallow up the pain. The sting of death doesn’t get the final word. God does. And he will burst open the graves and clothe us with a new body that will never die again.
The second death is the worst and eternal death. If you want heaven NOW hell comes later. If you want light now darkness will come later. If you avoid suffering now it will come later.
There are two paths or we might say two ways of life: a crown now and a cross later. Or a cross now and crown later. The death of Lazarus gives us a visual picture of that reality.
And Jesus wasn’t on an ego trip, he was giving them and us the best thing he could possibly give us—himself.
After preaching and hearing a strong warning from Hebrews 6 on Sunday, it is fitting to hear the assurance offered to those who believe. However one works out assurance of salvation, we must at least hold to that the promises of God are only for those who believe.
And if you believe which was a work of grace through the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Good Shepherd that laid down his life for the sheep then assurance is available because of the Good Shepherd.
John 10:14-16
[14] I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, [15] just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. [16] And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
He’s not like the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy. He’s not like the hired hand who abandons the sheep when the wolf comes. He saves the sheep by laying down his own life for them. The thief and hired hand always seek to save their own lives but not the Good Shepherd.
It might seem strange that the sheep are saved by way of the death of the Shepherd. It seems normal to think that the life of the sheep lie in the life of the Shepherd. In this analogy, the life of the sheep that is eternal life rests in the death of the Shepherd but this Shepherd doesn’t remain dead.
John 10:18
[18] No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
He died but was raised to Shepherd his sheep to eternal life. Because he’s alive, we will be kept safe forever by our loving Good Shepherd.
There are actions (good and bad) that people do that grab our attention sometimes. They speak more than words sometimes and do far more to move us away from evil or toward righteousness. Seeing examples of living out the faith is good for us and that’s one reason the Lord designed the church. It is intended to be the visible body of Christ.
This morning, I noticed a response of Jesus that grabbed my attention. In the story about the man born blind in John 9, Jesus hears about the healed blind man being put out of the synagogue. However he found out, Jesus responds to this information.
He goes and finds him and gives him something. I think in part he goes to find him because even with limited knowledge (limited sight) he understood some things about God that even the learned men did not seem to know. But he not only knows these things but says these things to the spiritually blind. He knew the risk of being put out of the synagogue but he spoke the truth in love anyway.
But Jesus going after him when he was all alone stirred my heart to love of God even more. It makes me want to live like that. It makes me want to speak up even when I know it may cost me dearly. And in doing so, if I find myself alone and hurting when I did everything right, Jesus comes near.
He’s not in the crowded synagogue but on a backstreet somewhere talking to this lonely man who stood up for him at great risk. Even his own parents did not have faith to speak up for Jesus but rather threw their son out on his own.
One of the great but simple truths of Scripture is the fact that God is with us. Indeed, Immanuel has come and he cares for us deeply. He doesn’t take the evil and pain away yet, but he strengthens us for the journey to the day when it will be made right. All of it!
What did Jesus give the lonely man? What does he need most? Jesus gave the man Jesus! He is his greatest need. And Jesus gave the best gift he could have ever received.
“O my great High Priest, pour down upon me streams of needful grace, bless me in all my undertaking, in every thought of my mind, every word of my lips, every step of my feet, every deed of my hands.”
Valley of Vision, After Prayer [277]
Christ is with us and ministering to us as our great high priest. Pray this for yourself and each other! He will pour down grace upon us.
I suppose this is a simple encouragement but I hope helpful nonetheless. James ends with a list of things as do several of the NT letters. He begins that list like this…
James 5:13
[13] Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
I’ve often wondered what a service like this would look like. It seems as though it’s in the context of the gathering. How do you decide who is to pray? Anyone among the body who is suffering. Who sings? Anyone among the body who is cheerful.
Obviously, there are other places where order is demanded and rightly so. But where does this fit in? And did you notice, we often pray for those who suffer and we should. But here the one suffering ought to pray. The one who is to sing is one who’s of good courage not the one most talented in musical skills.
Maybe this isn’t meant to be something done in the assembly. Nevertheless, we ought to pray when we suffer and not merely leave it to someone else. When we are cheerful we ought to sing praises to the Lord and not just enjoy our own cheerfulness as though we have obtained it on our own.
Prayer and praise are fundamental responses of the believer! We are going to suffer and we are going to be cheerful. Let’s spend them on godward things not ourselves.
As I was preparing for our Wednesday night study in Proverbs, one of the phrases that we did not get to was the one above from Proverbs 3:7. So, fearing the Lord in part is turning away from that which God says is evil. The wise see God’s instruction as good and life-giving.
As I was reading Ecclesiastes this morning, the Preacher says this:
Ecclesiastes 4:13
Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice.
As we know from Proverbs, the wise become wiser by continually seeking to gladly walk in God’s amazing ways. To be wise does not mean there’s nothing else for us to learn. While it may be that you know God’s ways, it’s another thing to do them and apply them to every situation that is thrown at you in life all of your days.
As we get older as the passage from Ecclesiastes points out concerning the youth and old, even the aged can be foolish. Old age does not guarantee wisdom. Indeed, there are temptations for us all. But in particular, those advanced in years tend to think they need no further instruction nor any need to grow. That’s just not true.
But don’t miss the great value spoken of concerning wisdom: it’s better to be poor and wise than foolish and king (powerful and wealthy). If God’s good ways are not valuable to you then you will likely find yourself thinking you are wise in your own eyes which is a dangerous place to be.
Seek the good in your youth and when you are advanced in years. Seek wisdom no matter the current outcome. Do what is right no matter the cost. In other words, trust in Christ and follow him and you will save your soul forever.
The Word Is Not Imprisoned 