Dying to Self (Part 2 of 2) — Keith Green

Studying Lazarus in the Gospel of John

Can you turn to John chapter 11, Gospel of John. This is a study that I prepared for our own ministry last night, and I got sick yesterday and didn't feel up to presenting this. As God works together for good in everything, I know that possibly there are some here that needed to hear the principles that Jesus lives out and presents in his life through this chapter.

And this morning I felt the Spirit united me to call Dale and see, I knew that Leonard was out of town, and that possibly I was to teach this here tonight. And he said no, there wasn't any plans for anybody to be here to take Leonard's place.

And I always feel kind of strange sitting in Leonard Ragnall's chair. I don't feel that I have his years or anything that he has, except the same God and the same Bible, which is a lot. So tonight we're going to look at I think one of the most exciting, dramatic, it's more dramatic than anything that ever happened on a soap opera or on a holiday screen, it's the death and resurrection of Lazarus.

And this chapter is peppered with, there's several verses in here that you can teach on for a week if you have one of those mentalities. I never could get into people that took a verse and went a week on it.

I've never been able to do that. The Bible is sort of like a love letter, and there's stories. There is a couple of books in the Bible that you can spend weeks on verses. The only two I can think of really is Romans and Hebrews.

They always kind of stump the stars in the theologian field. But the Gospels are, I think they're meant to be read, read them, go through them, pick out the good parts and expound on them. I don't know how you would feel if you'd written a couple of letters to somebody and they took a week to go on each sentence.

Dear Fred, okay, dear Fred. Look at the way he said dear. Look at that semicolon there at the end of Fred. He spelled the date out. I have trouble with spending a lot of time on one little part of the scripture because you tend to forget the whole story.

So we're going to go through this, and there is a couple of places where we need to stop and say a few things and to point out some things that aren't necessarily obvious on the surface. But I think you'll agree, taking a look at it, that Jesus' emotions are not what the people in this chapter thought they were.

Lazarus, Mary, Martha, and Jesus' Special Love

Okay, let's go from the beginning. Chapter 11. I'm reading from the New American Standard. Okay. Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. You can remember Mary and Martha.

Remember Martha was the busy one. She wanted to make Thanksgiving dinner for Jesus, you know, the turkey and the stuffing, and she was running around. She had pre-empted the microwave and everything, and Mary was kind of sitting there gazing at Jesus.

Martha was kind of, but that's another whole story, another whole principle. But that's the same Mary and Martha of the hey Mary, how come you're not working? Fain. Okay. Verse 2. And it was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. Now let's stop there. I think that Jesus had a special relationship with his family. Now it's true that Jesus had a love for all mankind, but let's face it, as Leonard says, he had some favorites.

Nobody likes to think of things like that, but he had favorites. It says that God is not a respecter of persons. That means that he's not impressed when you have big gold rings. He's not impressed that you have a big house or that you've got a pretty face or a wonderful personality.

He's only impressed with one thing, the state and attitude of your heart. Remember, here was a family, a man in Israelite in whom there is no guile. That impressed Jesus. It impressed David, a man after God's heart, a man after my heart.

Have you considered my servant Job, a man righteous, upright, and blameless? Those are the things that always impressed God in the Bible. There must have been something about this family that impressed Jesus, but we already have an example that he was impressed with Mary, devotion.

Lazarus also, now there's a lot of things in the Bible. In fact, it says at the end of this book of John that if everything Jesus did were written, the world couldn't even contain the books. I used to look at that and go, that's not a literal statement, but it really is.

You know why? What has Jesus done? Well, rock beer. All right? What if they wrote down every single thing he did while he was on the earth? That wouldn't fill the earth, would it? No, probably not. I mean, if they wrote down everything that John Paul Diddy did, you know, he took a breath, he digested his carrots, he blinked his eyes.

I mean, that wouldn't even fill the earth. What else did Jesus do? He created the earth. Imagine all the books he would take to talk about how he created the eye of the fly. What else does he do? He runs the universe.

Get the picture? How long has he done it? Forever in both directions. Now you can find out why the earth could not contain all the books of everything Jesus has done. That's a literal statement. But back to Lazarus, Lazarus must have done some incredible, had an incredible heart.

He must have really impressed Jesus with his spiritual depth and character. For him to be called by his own sisters, the one of whom you love. And another place in this chapter, it says, look, see how much he loved him, he's weeping.

The people, he has, Lazarus was one of his best friends. He wasn't like one of the twelve, but he was one of his favorite missionaries, if you will. One of his favorite people that were supporting the ministry on the outside.

Somebody he liked to hang out with when he was in town. Now there's another thing in this verse. Lord behold, he whom you love is sick. It's almost like they're saying to him, they don't say Lord Lazarus is sick.

They say, Lord, this guy is sick. Remember how much you love him? Like they're trying to say, they're trying to talk Jesus into coming. They're trying to add a little bit of human ingenuity and human pull to get him to come.

But when Jesus heard it in verse four, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by him. How does Jesus know that? Jesus knows that Lazarus, through the spiritual realm, he knows that Lazarus is not going to stay dead by the sickness.

This is not unto death. Now, you have to understand what his disciples, you guys can come on in. There's plenty, there's room here on the couch and there's more chairs around or on the floor. You have to understand what this sounds like to his disciples.

Misunderstanding Jesus' Words and the Call to Trust

Now remember, Jesus had the kind of disciples that would open their mouths to change feet, especially Peter. He had disciples with six inch skulls. Imagine the night before you die, you know, you're going to be hung on a cross.

You know, you're going to be beaten to a pulp. Here's your 12 disciples, three years of intense discipleship training, three years of Bible study, three years of Old Testament in-depth teaching, three years of miracles.

I'm the greatest. Oh, I'm the greatest. Oh yeah. Well, we're going to get into the kingdom. I'll sit at the right hand. Oh no, I'll sit at the left hand. Three years. I would have gone out and gotten 12 new disciples.

Not Jesus. He got down and washed their feet. Shows you the heart of God. So he's got these numbskulls for disciples. Now you have to understand how this sentence sounds to the disciples. How does it sound?

This sickness is not on the death. That means, very literally, liars ain't going to die. How do you think it looked to the disciples when he went there and they found him dead? It looked like Jesus gave up all prophecy, didn't it?

On the surface. You have to understand that when Peter said, is that you Lord out there? Jesus said, uh-huh. If it's really you, bid that I come. The disciples said, I got to see this. Jesus said, all right, I got to see this too.

Peter starts walking on the water. All the disciples said, I wish I would have done that. He starts to sink and I go, boy, I'm glad I didn't do that. I'm sorry. Peter was eager to jump to conclusions.

All the disciples were too. He says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Maybe it's because he didn't take bread. I'm not talking about bread. I'm talking about their teaching. They're always taking everything literally.

So how does this sound to the disciples? This sickness is not on the death, but the glory of God, the son of God may be glorified by it. Well, maybe he's going to heal him from afar. He did that before.

Maybe Jesus will just go around the bush and wave his hands and Lazarus will get healed. And it's for the glory of God. Also, you have to understand, you'll find later in the chapter, they had just come out of Jerusalem where Jesus had almost been killed and been taken according to the disciples view of it.

So they don't want to go down to Bethany, which is right stone's throw from Jerusalem. Five. Now here's one of those verses that gets the Christian socialists very mad. I'll explain that in a minute. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

And therefore he heard that he was sick. He stayed then two days longer in the place where he was. Verse five, the people that says that Jesus loves everybody equally. They say, well, of course he loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus and Fred and Mary and Ethel and so on.

But that is one of those verses of special. Jesus had a special love for them. You better believe it. Jesus had a special love. It doesn't mean that you didn't have that. That means that because he loves more doesn't mean he loves others less.

You have to understand God's love. God can love you with his whole heart. And then the guy next to you, you can have a special love for him. And it doesn't mean he loves you any less than he can love you.

You won't notice it. Remember Joseph? His father gave him a coat of many colors. Remember how jealous it made his brothers? His father gave them good. Their father gave them good things too. Their father kept it was a rich man and shared among his brothers.

But he desired to give a special blessing to Joseph. Remember the parable of the guys who worked in the vineyard? He says, can I do what I want with what is my own without you getting jealous and covetous?

I want you to realize that because it's going to be important to store it. Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. He had special love for them. How many of the disciples were in the inner circle?

Three. He had three disciples that only got to do certain things nobody else got to do. They were there on the transfiguration. Jesus took those three to a special place. There was another place he just took them to which was, I can't think of the guy's name, Rahiel the daughter of Jairus.

He just took those three too. Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Six. When therefore he heard that he was sick, he got on the next plane and went to Bethany. No, he stayed. Premeditatedly didn't go.

That's what that says. He premeditatedly said, hey, he's sick. Let's stay here. That doesn't sound like a very loving thing to do if you have the power to heal somebody. God works in mysterious ways. God will withhold from us a blessing so that we can get a greater blessing later.

God will withhold a small miracle so that he can do a greater miracle and get more glory. God always does the thing that gives him the most glory because it's the best thing for his universe and his kingdom for him to get the most glory.

It's the healthiest thing for you for God to get the most glory. Therefore, God will withhold from you pennies so that you can get quarters, spiritually speaking. God will withhold from you those little things sometimes.

He will premeditatedly not give you what you ask for immediately so that he can give you more than you bargained for later. Things that we have not heard or seen or even imagined in our hearts as God prepared for them in life.

His sisters weren't thinking that Lazarus was going to die. They weren't even considering. Now, we all know the end of the story, right? Lazarus is going to get raised from the dead. Every Christian in here knows that, so I'm not going to act like you don't know the end.

We're going to go through it as if we know the end already. From God's point of view, God knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. He says it right there in verse 4. Jesus is planning, God is planning to do something big.

They just want him to get healed of the flu or the cold or acute acne or whatever he had. They wanted an easy, quick, God gets a little glory, way out. God had other plans which caused them to doubt, which caused them to fret, and you'll find out later, caused them to be a little bitter, questioning of God's wisdom.

At the end, nobody questioned God's wisdom. At the end, no one had a thing bad to say about Jesus and how much he loved or didn't love Lazarus. Verse 7. Then after this, he said to his disciples, let us go to Judea again.

The disciples said to him, Rabbi, here his board of directors came with us. We really don't think this is a wise idea. Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you and are you going there again?

Have you flipped your noodle? I mean, can you imagine? Here's these guys, you're the teacher, they're the students, you're the master, they're the followers, and they're questioning your every move. Are you sure this is the right thing to do to you?

Last week, he told this wind to shut up and it did, and they're questioning him. Week before that, it made food stamps look crazy. He's just passing food out, five loaves of bread. They're questioning Jesus.

They're giving him a political and social statement. They're giving him the ABC World News Tonight report. This is not good, Lord, it's not safe for you to go. He just saved them from drowning with a word out of his mouth and they're questioning him.

Can you believe that? What God allows people, what God puts up with, what God allows people to go into in his presence and still very quietly says, nine. Jesus answered, are there not 12 hours in the day?

Speaking of parables here, 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. What does all that mean?

It has a whole bunch of different meanings. One of the meanings is, of course, the mystical or spiritual meaning, is there's a time when I can walk and not be taken. Remember, he says, my hour has not yet come.

My hour has not yet come. He talked about a time when he will be allowed to be taken. He says, no one takes my life from me, but I give it willingly. They can't take me, guys, don't worry about it. I'm going to walk in the day.

This is the daytime of my ministry. There will come a night, the night of Gethsemane, when they'll come and take us like thieves and robbers. That's the other meaning. You don't have to worry. We're going to travel by day.

When I get taken, it'll be at night. Then there's even other meanings to that. Okay. Verse 11, then he said, and after that, then he said, and after that, this he said, and after that he said to them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go that I might awaken him out of sleep.

Isn't that a nice way of putting it? Jesus, you know why Jesus said that? Why didn't he say, Lazarus kicked the bucket. Let's go raise him from the dead. He cast in his chips. The reason he said Lazarus fell asleep, because there's something of a finality in the word death, right?

He died. Uh-oh. You don't have any hope that somebody's going to come back in your lifetime when they use the word die. Jesus was trying to explain spiritually to them, this is a temporary situation, kids.

He's falling asleep. I'm going to wake him. That's as easy. He says, it's going to be as easy as going and shaking your brother when he was, he had to wake him up for his school. That's the way Jesus looked at it.

He was giving them a glimpse at the way he sees things. He was giving them a glimpse at what true faith is. He was giving them a glimpse of the vision of what resurrection really is to God. It's no great feat.

It isn't even a miracle. It's natural to God. The disciples therefore said to him, now here's their medical advice to the Lord Jesus. First they gave him a political report. Now they're giving him the American Medical Association opinion about Lazarus here.

Lord, if he's falling asleep, he'll recover. He's just a little tired. Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he was speaking of literal sleep. Thank you, John. Then Jesus therefore said to them plainly, Jesus therefore said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

Thank you, Lord. Sometimes God will just say, shut up. And I am glad for your sake that I was not there. I can see the Lord smiling through that. And I wasn't there. So that you may believe. Come on, let's go.

But let us go to him. Thomas, therefore, a man of faith who is called Davidimus, which means the twin, said to his fellow disciples, let us go also that we may die with him. Come on, he's going to get killed.

Let's go die too. There's a faithful man to have around. For your treasurer, you've got a thief. For your encourager, you've got a cynic. For your leader, you've got a guy with two feet in his mouth. Verse 17.

Jewish Mourning and Martha's Religious Certainty

So when Jesus came, he found that he'd already been in the tomb four days, which probably means now, I don't know really where he was there, but they said that two day journey from there to Bethany. He waited two days, which means he probably died the same day they sent the message, which means he probably couldn't even have gotten there before he died anyway.

Right? So Jesus probably knew when he says, this sickness is not of the death, that he possibly had already died. Because you remember, if it took him two days to get there, how long would it take the message to get to him?

They didn't have airmail. It took somebody just as long to get to you as it took you to get to them. So most likely, the message had been given to him two days before Lazarus died. When he got it, it was the day Lazarus died, so he couldn't have gotten there anyway.

He waited two days, and then it took a two day journey to get there. He's been in the grave four days. Right? Now the thing, it's probably obvious to everybody that he couldn't have gotten there before he died.

But everybody here is going to be all bummed out that he didn't at least make an effort to get there, because he didn't know that he died, but Jesus did know, and they don't trust him. They worship him, they hosanna him, they say, oh lord, they call him master, they listen to his teachings, they're impressed, but they don't trust him.

It's obvious by everybody's attitude, including his own disciples, that they didn't trust him. You can sing praise songs, you can raise people from the dead, you can do all kinds of miracles, you can go to church until your face is blue, until the church is gorgeous, you can give all your money, but if you don't trust God, your religion is like all these people.

It's funny. It's really, it's either sad, it depends on which way you look at it. I mean, you can look at this and weep, and you can look at it and laugh. It really is funny when Jesus falls in the water, I mean when Peter falls in the water when he tries to walk.

And so it's kind of sad. Jesus didn't laugh. Jesus said, be a little faithful. Why didn't you laugh? Everybody's attitude here is judgmental, critical, untrusting, unbelieving, and they're all sounding so religious.

It's a picture of you and me. It's a picture of Christians who trust God a little bit, who believe because something that God did for them a long time ago, even last week, that's a long time in God's kingdom.

Because remember, the manna only lasts one day. And I think it's real important you understand this. This is a picture of us. Every person in this chapter. This is an incredible story. 17. So when Jesus came, he found that he'd already been in the tomb four days.

Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off. And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. Has any of you ever been to a Jewish funeral? It is the loudest, voiceless.

They had professional mourners in Israel. They still do at a synagogue and Orthodox funerals. You can hire people to weep and wail and cry at your funeral. Or at your wife's funeral, your kid's funeral.

Really get the tears flowing. You know how when people are crying, everybody else cries too? If you see somebody crying, it makes you, you know, it's a chain reaction. They had professionals. They hired people that were so authentic in their tears.

Because it existed. Remember when Jesus went to heal Jairus' daughter and they were wailing and he says, why don't you guys leave? She's already asleep. Oh, they all sit in their laps and go to sleep.

Sure. Where'd you get this clown? Okay. Many of the Jews, verse 19, come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet him, but Mary still sat in the house.

Martha therefore said to Jesus, first word, first word, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Hi, Lord. How have you been? No. Gee, it's good to see you. No. Hey, come over and raise my brother from the dead.

No. How's the miracles been going? Leave more people to yourself? Yeah. No. How's the kingdom of God doing? Her sister didn't even come out. The one that was gazing at his feet, that was so enraptured in Jesus, she's sitting in the house.

She's so bitter, she won't even leave the house. Martha's so bitter, the first thing's on her, if you, if, if, if, what's this if business with God? If you would do this, if you had done this, then my life wouldn't be the way it was.

If you had killed Hitler in 1936, 6 million Jews wouldn't have died. That's what the whole world does with God. If God, if God is so good, why does he allow this to happen? Jesus, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

22, and here's her, I told you, even sounding religious, here's her even sounding religion. Even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Now, do you think she means, do you really think she means?

Even now, if you say the word, he'll live. You'll find out in the next few verses. Jesus is a little hopeful that's what she means. Now, this is a little comp kid here, but you check it out. She says to him, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died.

Even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. That is just a bunch of religious hogwash that she's saying. You'll find out two verses later. So Jesus replies to that statement with your brother, she'll rise again.

You're right. She says, even now, whatever you ask, I'll give you. So Jesus is saying, okay, I'll raise him from the dead. That's what she's saying. That's what he's saying. So she says to him, I know that he'll rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

I've got my doctrine right. I sat under the best teacher, you. I know all the theological points of doctrine. I know there's going to be a resurrection. Martha, listen, I'm the resurrection in the life.

The resurrection day isn't a part for me. Hey, here I am. I'm resurrection day. Who do you want me to raise from the dead? Your brother? Here I am. He who believes in me shall live even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

Do you believe this? Here's her catechism question. That's the way she's taking it. She says to him, yes, yes, Lord, I believe it. You are the Christ, the son of God. Even he who comes into the world, I believe in the Trinity.

I believe in the rapture. I believe in this and that and everything. I've got my doctrine down. And when she had said this, she went away and called Mary, her sister, saying secretly, why secretly? The Lord is here and he's calling for you.

Because Mary was stewing. Mary's in the house and she's stewing. So she takes her aside to talk to her. Listen, man, Jesus is here. He's calling for you. She can't say it out in the open because she may turn around and say, so what?

He should have been there. You know how like if somebody's kind of in one of those moods, you got to take them aside and talk to them privately. Jesus is, the Lord is here and he's calling for you. The teacher is here and he's calling for you.

When she heard it, she rose quickly and was coming to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met him. The Jews then who were with her in the house and consoling her.

When they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out and followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Part of the Jewish custom. Go to the tomb and you weep. Therefore, Mary came where Jesus was.

She saw him, fell at his feet, saying to him, hallelujah. Saying to him the exact same words as her sister. Now, have you ever heard a story about yourself and two different people? Same words. Guess who's talking?

The two people that told you the same story about yourself. Gossip, backbiting, bad mouth, bad attitude. Well, I heard that you said this. And the same person next to you, I heard that you said this. Well, guess where they heard it?

From each other. How do people come out with the same exact words? They get together and grumble together. Guess who was grumbling together? Mary and Martha. She says the same exact words. Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled. Does anybody have a footnote on what deeply moved in spirit means? What do you think deeply moved in spirit means?

You think he was touched? If you know you're about to raise somebody from the dead, you're not going to get all caught up in the fact that the guy is dead. Say somebody is blind. He's just been struck blind.

A battery blew up in his face and battery acid has made him blind. And everybody is going, oh, he's such a great father, and he's such a great husband, and he's not going to be able to do his job. And you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you're going to touch his eye and he's going to see.

Does it make any sense that you're going to walk in and start wailing and crying that he's blind? That deeply moved and troubled. Jesus is disappointed. He is extremely hurt that though he's come with good news, telling them, your brother is going to rise again.

I am the resurrection. All you've got to do is ask me, and I'm going to heal this guy. I'm going to raise him from the dead. They're still weeping. They're still crying. They don't see five inches in front of their nose that the Lord of life, the creator of human bodies is right in front of them.

And he's come on the earth in a human body to come and touch them from God, from heaven with resurrection, with healing, with new life. And he is very, very bummed out. Okay. And he said, first thing he says, he's not trying to talk some sense into Mary like he did Martha.

Hey, look, brother's going to rise again. He just verbulated. He realized words ain't going to do any good. They failed last time. I'm just going to go raise him from the dead and stop all this stuff.

They said to him, Lord, come and see. Verse 35, Jesus wept. The shortest verse in the whole Bible. That's it. John 11 verse 35, the shortest verse in the Bible. Jesus wept. I believe it's the shortest verse in the Bible because it's like a bullet.

And Jesus is, is really, he's weeping. He is, his heart's broken. They look at him and say, Oh, behold, how he loved him. He's weeping for Lazarus. I wouldn't weep for somebody I'm going to raise from the dead in five seconds.

Who's he weeping for? The people around him, his father's heart. He's come to bring good news. He's come to bring resurrection. They're still holding funeral service. Don't you realize folks, I'm going to raise this guy from the dead.

He said it plainly in verse 23, your brother's going to rise again. Rejoice. Verse 36. And so the Jews were saying, behold, how I love him. But some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of him who was blind and kept this man also from dying?

Put salt in the wound. They keep blaming him for something beautiful that God's allowed to happen. He's going, he sees the end. They're just blaming him, rubbing it in. He saved others. Could he not have saved himself?

They're doing the same thing they did to him on the cross, right there. He's carrying his cross all the way through to the, to the grave of Lazarus. They're making fun of him as he does a good deed. They put the knife in and turning it.

They're blaming him. They're, they're making him sound like a bad friend, a poor steward, an uncaring person, when he is the most caring, compassionate, loving, planning to do a wonderful deed to glorify his father.

And meanwhile, they're putting blame and putting a false impression on his deeds and motives. Verse 38. Jesus, therefore, again, being deeply moved within, that's what they said, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave and a stone was lying against it.

Jesus says, remove the stone. And I think Martha and Mary ought to get the picture by now of what he's going to do. Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to him, Lord, by this time, there will be a stench for he's been dead four days.

Does that leave any doubt that Martha doesn't have any idea of what he's planning to do? Either that or maybe she wants to have a sanitary resurrection. One without smell or mustard. Why don't you raise him first through the stone and then we'll spray some blade air freshener and he can come out.

She has no concept. He says, if your brother's going to rise again, show me where you laid him. Remove the stone. What does she want, a drum roll? I mean, what does she need? Everything's been set up for a most incredible miracle.

And she's still talking about stink. They think, oh, he just wants to see him one last time. Poor guy loves leather, so what? Did I not say to you, if you believe, you will see the glory of God? Didn't I tell you?

And so they removed the stone and Jesus raised his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou heardest me. And I knew that thou heardest me always, but because of the people standing around, I said it.

That they may believe that thou didst send me. Now what Jesus is saying is one of the most odd prayers. It's a very interesting and odd and unusual prayer. God, I thank you to hear me. Look, I know you can hear me, but because of them, I said it, so they'll know it's believable.

I mean, that's what he's saying. I'm not praying to you for my sake. I'm praying to you for their sake, so they realize that you sent me and that you're doing this and that you're getting the glory. Before he did something, one of the greatest feats on earth, he brings his father into it in the people's eyes.

And he says why he's doing it. He doesn't have to be reminded it's his father doing it. He doesn't have to be reminded who's getting the glory. He says I'm not doing this for me. And he said that in front of them to make a point.

I don't need to give my father glory. I live to give my father glory. I don't need to say I'm giving him glory or point to him, but I'm doing it for your sake. I don't need to be reminded of Jesus saying.