Do You Believe This?

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If you'll turn your Bibles with me, please, to the Gospel of John, John chapter 11.
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Or if you are a textual critical scholar, just simply get out your bulletin and get out your brand new high quality insert and just follow along there.
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That's what George is going to be doing. So we can do it that way as well. John chapter 11.
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Let's ask the Lord to bless our time together. Our great heavenly Father, we do thank you once again that we possess your word.
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You have preserved it for us. And we continue to look to it. Because by your spirit, you draw us to your word.
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We confess it is the very word of God. You have given it to us as a light to our feet and our path.
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Lord, we are thankful that you have not left us in the darkness. May you be honored and glorified in what takes place during this time.
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And may you, by your spirit, minister to us, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. If you are visiting with us, you are visiting during a period of time where the sermon series that I have been doing over the past number of months when
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I have been here, I do a lot of traveling. And so there's a lot of holes, both in the manuscript and how often
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I'm here. And we are doing a sermon series based upon a papyrus of the
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New Testament called P45. And the bulletin insert, which you have, gives you a picture of where we are right now in that papyrus.
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And you may note something if you have been here before. If you have the others and compare what we have today, you will notice that we're running out of papyrus.
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In other words, on the left -hand side of the image, you'll see, well, it looks pretty much like what we've had before.
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But the right side, much is missing. And that's why we can't go into John 14, 15, 16, so on and so forth, is
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P45, of course, has been severely damaged over the years. We only have 30 some odd pages out of 220 that were there originally.
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And so on the back, instead of giving you my translation, I decided to thrill the geeks in the congregation.
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And I gave you actually the Greek itself. So if you want to, you can sort of follow along on the front for those of you who do that kind of thing.
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Obviously, we'll be giving you the English translation. You do not have to be able to read Greek to attend this church.
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What we've been doing is we have been allowing this particular papyrus to be the guide as to what text of scripture we'd be looking at.
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And so if there's any portion of a chapter that still exists in P45, we have been working through that particular section.
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And we haven't been spending a whole lot of time on the unique characteristics of this manuscript.
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If you're a member of the church, you already know. I'm currently working on, I'm currently a student in the
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PhD program in textual criticism at Paterstrom University. It's actually technically
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Northwest University. Its old name is Paterstrom University in Paterstrom, South Africa. And P45, of course, is the manuscript that I am working on as far as its textual background and character.
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We haven't been spending a lot of time looking at the unique elements of that. But I did want to, just as we start, mention one thing that because we didn't have this last week,
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I wasn't able to mention before we get back into the text itself. And that is, we looked at verse 25 last week, where Jesus says to Martha, I am the resurrection, the life, the one believing in me, even though he dies, shall live.
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And we talked about that amazing statement, I am the resurrection and the life, that this was in response to Martha's Orthodox confession, where she says,
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I know that my brother will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
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And then Jesus says these amazing words, I am the resurrection. And we talked a little bit about how could this possibly be in light of the fact that this is an eschatological statement, there's going to be a resurrection at the last day, the dead are gonna come forth, they are going to be judged on the basis of their deeds in the body, justice is going to be done, et cetera, et cetera, how can
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Jesus be the resurrection and the life? And we talked a little bit about what the difference between resurrection and life might be.
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Resurrection brings you into a state where you can then have life, but the nature of that life, so on and so forth.
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We did that last week. Well, what is rather intriguing in looking at P45, and I'll just mention this briefly, won't spend a lot of time on it, is that the phrase and the life is not in P45.
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Now, that doesn't mean there's any question as to the originality of that.
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One of the tasks that I have over the next couple of years is to find a way to consistently deal with the scribal habits of the individual who wrote this particular manuscript.
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And he doesn't, unlike some people, add things, but there are places where he deletes things.
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Why? Well, that's one of the questions I'm going to be dealing with. But the phrase and the life,
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I could show it to you on the, it's, let's see, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine lines, well, actually 10 lines down.
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If you look at the very, very, very, very top, it is where it's found. And very clearly, it goes from resurrection to the one believing in me.
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And so there are these textual variants. You will not find a note about that in your
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Bible anywhere, mainly because unless you have a text, a critical edition of the
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Greek New Testament, you will find it noted there. But no English translation is going to make references because there's really only one other
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Greek manuscript that doesn't have it. And about one or two translations, that's about it.
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It's a very, very small minority reading. It's not an original reading. And instead, there are probably some other issues behind why that phrase is missing in P45.
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But again, we've discussed this many times in the past. I don't want anybody in this congregation to ever be caught up short by someone coming along and saying, ah, but did you know that such and such a manuscript doesn't contain this, that, or the other thing?
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These are handwritten manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts described was specifically trying to be as careful as possible.
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We have a Gospels manuscript. It originally contained all the Gospels. It doesn't any longer, but where the, it's very clear that the scribe copied letter by letter, one letter at a time.
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Others would do a word at a time. Others would do a phrase at a time.
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The smaller amount that you copy, the more particular you can become. And the less likely it is you're going to make a major kind of error where you're gonna skip a phrase or something along those lines.
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And so, different scribes had different ways of handling things. And the scribe of P45 did phrases rather than individual letters.
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That may explain it as a mistake, or there might be other reasons. But give me a few years before we talk anymore about that.
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So this is what we're doing with P45. It is probably the most unusual sermon series ever, but that's okay.
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You all are very, very patient people. So we are in John chapter 11, and we are slowly working through John chapter 11 because there is so much going on here.
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And if you were here last week, you know that we just began to move into verse 25 where Jesus says to Martha, Mary has remained in the house.
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Jesus has come to Bethany. Martha has gone out to meet him. And Jesus has engaged her in conversation.
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He has said, your brother will rise again. And she has answered in a very orthodox pharisaical way.
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Pharisaical is not an insult, by the way. We frequently use it that way. It shouldn't be taken that way.
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I would be considerably more insulted if you called me a Sadducee than a
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Pharisee because the Pharisees were orthodox in their theology. And many of the people of the land believed the
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Pharisees' explanation of God's truth even if they didn't engage in the hypocrisy of many of the leaders of the
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Pharisees who did all their good deeds outwardly and so on and so forth. But the
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Pharisees were at least orthodox in their understanding. And Martha gives the orthodox response, yes,
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I know there's gonna be a resurrection and he is going to rise. And so she has the hope that the
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Sadducees did not have of that resurrection. The Sadducees denied that this was going to take place.
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And then we saw Jesus' amazing words to her starting with that very important phrase in the
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Gospel of John, I am, ego, I me. I am the resurrection and the life.
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And so Jesus immediately shifts her focus from, well, yes, somewhere down the road.
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Yes, down that direction. Many, many years in the future, I know that's going to happen.
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Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. And so we noted last week the fact that these words, if they were placed on the lips of any other individual, would be absolutely blasphemous.
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That no prophet, no one that we can think of in the
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Old Covenant, the Old Testament could ever say these words. We are so accustomed to these words because we've read
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Jesus saying them over and over again. But please don't let that keep you from experiencing the force of what
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Jesus says. The very wrapping up of the entirety of God's purpose, the very fulfillment of the meaning of human life, the doing of justice, the setting of all things right.
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What's it found in? In Jesus, I am the resurrection. So if you are in Christ, then your resurrection is a certainty.
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If you are in Christ, you have the life which only He can give. But if these words are true, then the pressure that has been placed upon every single one of you, unless you live in a lead -lined cave and you do not read any print media, you have had pressure brought against you this week through the television set, through the computer screen, through the iPad screen, through the smartphone, through the conversations with others, through the big screen.
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You have had pressure brought against you this week to not believe what
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Jesus says in these words. Sometimes it's blatant. Sometimes it's straightforward.
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Sometimes it comes straight out of the mouth of Bernie Sanders. Did you see that?
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Did you see Bernie Sanders attack a Christian man for daring to believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that every person stands condemned before God outside of Jesus Christ?
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You're not allowed to believe that. That's not what this country's about. That's what leftist socialism's all about.
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Believe you me. So that's blatant. That's straightforward. I am offended that anyone could ever say anything like that.
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That's blatant. But it's the subtle ways that influence us the most.
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It's the subtle ways that make you hesitate to not only say what a
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Christian needs to say, but to think as a Christian should think when facing the issues that we see in the world around us today.
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What do I mean the subtle ways? If Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life, those are absolutely exclusivistic words.
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He's not saying, I am one resurrection, that you can believe in all religious leaders.
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They're all the resurrection. There is no possible way in the context in which
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Jesus was speaking, in the Jewish context in which he was speaking to Martha to interpret these words in the soft, ecumenical, inclusivistic way of the world today.
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You can't read them in that way. She's speaking as a believing Jew that Yahweh, the
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God of Israel, was going to raise the dead and judge all the dead in the future.
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And Jesus does not say, oh, it's much wider than that. We have all these other religions.
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No, he in that context says, I am the resurrection and the life.
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If you want to experience resurrection, if you want to have the life that comes from God, there is only one way to have that resurrection and that life.
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And that is in vital union with Jesus Christ. The one believing in me, the one believing in me, even if he dies, shall live.
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So here again, that phrase, the one believing, we have mentioned it many, many times before in the
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Gospel of John, emphasizes the living nature of this faith.
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There is a play in John's utilization of this word believe. Well, John likes to do this a lot of things.
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Hear, hearing, see, seeing. Here, believing. The one believing, this is an ongoing faith.
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It's not the one who believes. Every time you run into that, John chapter two, John chapter eight, someone who just believes, a point action.
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We find very quickly that these are not true believers. This is the one believing. This is John chapter six.
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The one believing in me has everlasting life. I'll raise him up in the last days, so on and so forth. So here's the one believing in me.
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So many people are comfortable with a vague, undefined, undirected faith.
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You just need to, just believe. You know, it's theological Nikeism. Just do it, just believe.
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No object, nothing definable, just believe. Believe what?
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Believe in whom? Biblical faith has an object. It's not blind faith.
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It's not a leap into the existential darkness. There are certain,
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God makes revelation. He reveals who Jesus Christ is, and saving faith has an object, and it's a personal object.
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The one believing in me. It's not enough to have correct theology.
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Yes, there's gonna be a resurrection. Martha knew. I've been properly trained.
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But Jesus says, the one believing in me will live even if he dies. Now again, in this response to Martha, we have to recognize that it's purposeful on Jesus' part to be using language that's gonna be communicating on two different levels.
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He's about to raise Lazarus from the dead, but the problem with poor
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Lazarus, poor guy, I mean, I'm sure he didn't mind. I'm sure that as he pondered these things later in his life, that he was accepting of God's providence, but the poor guy died twice.
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That's giving your all. Let's give Lazarus a gold star, or a couple of them, because he died twice, and it really makes me wonder,
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I have to admit, the Bible doesn't tell us anything about it, so it's all speculation, but second time around, do you get better at it?
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I mean, seriously, when you think about it, do you think, I would imagine he was significantly less, had significantly less angst and fear, and I'm not meaning to be flippant, but been there, done that, you know?
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I mean, in other words, he knows. I mean, talk about, not only, we already saw, remember what
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Jesus said to the disciples? I'm glad I wasn't there for your sakes, that you might believe.
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So yeah, the disciples' faith was greatly increased when Lazarus comes out of the tomb like this, because their
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Lord has called him forth out of the tomb. Their faith is greatly increased, but I'll bet you
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Lazarus's was too, in a big way. And once you experience resurrection, you know, he knew,
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Jesus didn't give him a promise, and by the way, Lazarus, you're gonna live to be 2 ,000 years old. I don't think he would have wanted to have done that, actually, he knows he's going to experience death, but he's been there, done that, he knows the
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Lord of life. That must have changed how he experienced death that second time, just absolutely, it must have, it must have.
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So it's easy for us to look at that and go, that's a pretty unique situation. Same thing with the, we don't know anything about the widow's son, the widow of Nain's son, we don't know anything about what happens with him, but yeah, can you imagine if you're raised from the dead by Jesus?
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That would sort of change how you look at all of life, and certainly how you'd experience death. Isn't that supposed to be how you and I are every day right now?
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Isn't that, if you and I actually realize the reality of our union with Christ so that his death is our death, isn't that the biblical teaching?
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We died with Christ, buried with him, his resurrection becomes our resurrection, he becomes the firstborn of the dead, the firstfruits of them that slept?
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And isn't the exhortation of scripture that you and I, as true believers, are to consider ourselves dead to sin, dead to the desires of this world?
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The reason that Christ can ask us to give our lives, to act the fool in this world, is because we've died?
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Isn't the great, beautiful promise of Colossians 3 .3? For you have died, and your life is hidden together with Christ in God, you have died.
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That's supposed to be the experience and the guiding principle in our lives each and every day.
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And yet we can look at Lazarus and go, wow, that must have been really weird. Well, yeah,
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I suppose on one level. But on the spiritual level, if you have been born again, then you recognize you've died, that old self, crucified.
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This newness of life is to be the life, that's the life Jesus is talking about, the life brought to us by the
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Spirit of God. And so, as a believer in Christ, this theological reality of what, not only the
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Bible's teaching as a theological truth, but what took place historically, it actually happened.
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We know the timeframe, we know where. We know that Bethany is 1 .72
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miles from Jerusalem. And you might think, who cares? The point is it actually happened.
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This isn't just mythology that some people sat around a room and came up with and said, let's go see if we can change the
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Roman Empire. No, this actually took place in history. There were such things as empty tombs, actually happened.
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And that actual happening in time is supposed to have a directly corresponding reality in our lives.
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That's why we as believers can never apathetically go, well,
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I'm doing better than most. We can't compare ourselves to each other.
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We can't compare ourselves to others and say, ah, where's our spiritual fervor?
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We can never be comfortable in this world. We can never be comfortable just simply satisfying our human desires, gratifying the desires of this body.
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We're supposed to be looking upward to the things that are above, not the things upon the earth. That doesn't mean we become so heavenly minded we have no earthly good.
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I know, we are told to do the things that we have responsibility to do. But it's done within the light of always looking upward to what is eternally significant, not simply to what will allow me to get through the next week or the next month or the next year.
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So yeah, we can look at Lazarus and go, wow, even though a person dies, he shall live.
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Yes, there is that element of it. We have that promise that after our physical death, there is going to be a resurrection.
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Do we really believe that? Again, the world constantly places pressure upon you to, they'll let you confess that, just don't live in light of that.
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Don't live as if there is an eternity to come because that's going to change the way you make decisions now.
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You see, if there's no eternity to come, then you need to live it up in this life. You need to fulfill all of your desires.
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You need to have all the things and do all the things and all that kind of stuff. If you really lived in light of the last phrase of verse 25, and even though he dies, he's gonna live.
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Well, I want what I do in this life to impact that life because that life, nobody can touch.
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That life, no one can take away. That life is going to be the fullness of life without the presence of sin and the ignorance and all the rest of this stuff that so hinders my service to God.
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Now, that life will be in his presence. And then
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I love verse 26. And it's pas -ha -zone.
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Isn't that interesting? For those of you that read the language, pas -ha -zone. Everyone living and believing.
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So now you've taken that same form of believing, this ongoing description of this ongoing thing.
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Now, here you have a description of living. Oh, that's real deep there for the
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Bible. Well, you're either talking to the dead or the living, I suppose. And if you think of it that way, you're missing his point because not everybody lives.
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Not in this sense. Not everybody lives. That's the sad thing about looking around at those around us.
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They're living, but they're not living. If you don't know the author of life, if you don't know the one that made you exactly the way you are, if you don't know the one who gave himself in your place, the author of life himself, then your heart may be beating, you may be breathing, but you ain't living.
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Not this living. When Jesus says he's the resurrection and the life, then he says everyone living and believing in me, this is an ongoing description of the kind of life.
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This is the supernatural life. This is eternal life. Remember I said there's a bunch of connections between John chapter five and John chapter 11.
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And if you believe in Jesus, you've passed out of death into what? Well, the only thing you pass out of death into is life.
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But what does that mean if you haven't believed in Jesus? You're abiding in death. That's what
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Bernie Sanders found to be so offensive. And it's central to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Absolutely essential.
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So everyone living and believing in me. So it's real easy in our way of thinking everyone living, okay, now a new word, we separate off, believing in me.
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We're used to believing in me. We just saw believing in me after I'm resurrection life, the one believing in me. But they're together.
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Living in me. Living in me. Paul knew all about this, remember?
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The life which I now live. You know, I've been crucified with Christ. The life which I now live,
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I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He fully understood exactly what the
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Christian life is all about. It is a supernatural life. It is a life the world cannot begin to understand and cannot touch.
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Living in Christ, the one living and believing in me. This is so exclusivistic because you can't demand that God provide multiple, incredible, awesome ways of peace with himself.
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Given that it's the second person of the Trinity that's entered into human flesh to accomplish all this, what arrogance on our part to say, well, we appreciate that,
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God, but I really think it would be better of you if you provided lots of different ways because, you know, there's lots of different restaurants to go to, so we should have choices.
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Amazing arrogance on man's part. Yeah, that's the way, it's the spirit of our age.
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It's the spirit of our age. Everyone living and believing in me will not perish forever.
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Strongest form of denial, will not perish, and then you just sort of as icing on the cake.
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This, the very same language we had back in John chapter 10, and there, where was this strong denial used?
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The one in my hand. My sheep shall never perish. No one shall snatch them out of my hand.
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I and the Father, they're in the Father's hand, they're in my hand, I and the Father are one, bringing about the salvation of God's people. Here it is again, the one living and believing in me shall never perish forever.
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If you can't hear the emphasis upon the centrality of Jesus, the exclusive claims of Jesus, then you're not listening, and this is what the world finds so offensive, so offensive, and in so many open ways and subtle ways, seeks to make you as a
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Christian embarrassed by this message. Embarrassed. Well, that's not very loving.
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It's the most loving thing in the world to recognize what God has done in Jesus Christ.
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Not just loving toward God, but loving toward any lost person, any person outside of this life, the only life that there is.
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It's not loving to go, okay, well, yeah, I'm sorry that you don't like it. Everyone living and believing in me, here is eternal life.
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Here is eternal life, shall not perish. And he asks her, do you believe this?
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Do you believe this? And when Jesus asks you, do you believe this?
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Remember, he knows what fills your heart. You can fool any one of us.
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If you're a member of this church, you've gone through that super secret little door over there.
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You've been sworn to secrecy about what takes place in there. The reality is you have to quote the entirety of the
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London Baptist Confession in Greek. Everybody knows that's what's actually happening in there.
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Yep, yep, yep. But you know what? When we sit down in there and we talk to you about your testimony,
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I can't look into your heart. And you can fool me easy.
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I've been fooled many a time. And you can put on the
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Sunday clothes and put on the Sunday face. And you can fool people that are even the closest to you.
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We all know how to do it. But when Jesus says to you, do you believe this?
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You can't fool him. Because remember back in John chapter two, the wedding at Cana Gali?
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There are people who saw the sign he did and it says they believe in him. Point of action. Not this ongoing belief, but the single event.
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And it said Jesus did not believe himself to them. He did not entrust himself to them.
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Because he knows what's in the hearts of men. So I've just gotta ask.
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There's a proper time for all of us to examine our own faith. You lie to the people around you, they may not detect it.
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But you can't lie to Jesus. Do you believe this? Do you believe that everyone living and believing in him will never perish?
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Is that your only hope? You say, well, of course, we're all
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Christians here. Well, I don't know that. Well, we don't have anybody from other religions here.
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I don't know that either. But let's just say for a second that that's the case. Do you believe that Jesus is able to save you completely?
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Because the focus in both 25 and 26, exact same Greek phrase, in me, in me.
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Let me ask you. Might you be believing in Jesus plus?
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What do you mean? Well, let's say I say that I believe that this seat over here is able to sustain my weight.
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Now, some of you remember a time about, I don't know, about seven, eight years ago, that might've been a questionable thing.
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I was a little bit of a bigger boy at one point in time. But if I say
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I believe that this seat can bear my weight, you might say, well, prove it.
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All right? If I sat down like this, you might have reason to wonder.
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See, I'm holding on to other stuff. Do I really show much confidence? You see, if I say
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I believe this seat can support me, I'm just gonna sit down. Aren't you glad it didn't collapse? It would ruin the entire thing.
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Are you? You holding on to other stuff? Oh, I believe Jesus can save me, but I'm doing my good works.
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I'm sort of, I got a backup plan. If it starts failing, I'll be able to. There's so many people.
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Oh, I believe Jesus can save me. But you know, I'm also doing this, and I'm sort of hedging my bets over here.
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That's not saving faith. Might be religiosity. It's not saving faith.
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You trust him wholly? Completely? Fully? Jesus asks that question, and he knows your heart.
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I don't, and nor does anybody else. But if you're gonna deal with him, he knows your heart.
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Is there a time for Christians to examine themselves? Or Paul said there was. He said, examine yourself, see whether you're in the faith.
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That whole beautiful book of 1 John gets to the end. These things I've written that you may know that you have eternal life.
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And so many people, when the gospel was presented to them, it was presented to them, and that was sort of the last page of the little tract that was handed out.
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And see, once you sign a died line, you shake the hand, you get through the baptistry, then you know you have eternal life.
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Only one little problem. That only emphasizes the last half of the sentence, not the first half.
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These things I have written you. What things? The rest of the book. Well, what did the rest of the book say?
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He who hates his brother walks in darkness until now. If you love
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Christ, keep his commandments. All that stuff about living the Christian life.
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Yeah, there's a good reason for us to, but there's a balance.
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Maturity in the Christian life is always a matter of finding that balance. And I do run into people over here, and they're always just contemplating their navel, and they just,
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I just don't know, I may not be a Christian, I just, I don't know. And you try to get them to, well, are you trusting in Christ?
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Do you detest your sin? Look away from yourself, look to the Savior. There are people like that.
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But then they're, they're the minority. The much more dangerous majority is, got my ticket punched, doing pretty good in comparison to others.
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There's never a time of serious reflection and examination. Am I growing in grace, or am
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I just sort of floating along? Jesus says, do you believe this?
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Now, Martha gave an answer of faith. Yes, Lord, I have believed that you are the
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Christ, the Son of God, the one coming into the world. I believe.
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That's her answer, and you can sit here today and say,
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I see the orthodoxy, I understand that Jesus is the Christ, I understand that he's the
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Messiah, I understand that he's the Son of God, I understand that in John, the Gospel of John, he is the unique Son of God.
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In John chapter 19, the Jews are gonna say, by that law, he ought to die, because he made himself out to be the Son of God.
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They recognize that his use of that phrase, Son of God, would be blasphemous for anybody else. I understand all of that.
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I even understand the deity of Christ. He was the one coming into the world, sent by the
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Father. But do you have orthodoxy that's dead?
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The demons also believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
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Son of God, the one coming into the world. That's why they're so scared of him. Saving faith, joined with true belief, true orthodoxy, that's what we wanna have.
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And so you may have been raised with a tremendous amount of truth, but the question is, when you say you believe it, does
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Jesus know you believe it? I don't care about anybody else. I don't even care what you've talked yourself into believing.
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The question is, does Jesus believe you? Because he's the only one that matters.
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Because he will be the judge at the end, and his eyes see past everything else.
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Past everything else. The orthodoxy, great to see.
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And man, I'll tell you, it seems to me that Martha knew a little bit more than a lot of the disciples did. She had been listening.
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That's awesome. Tremendous revelation given to her. I believe you're the Christ, Son of God, the one coming into the world.
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Wow, that's awesome. She's about to see much more of what all of that meant.
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And we already know all of that. But this morning, I want each one of us to leave this place thinking about the question.
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If Jesus said to me, do you believe this?
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My response is yes. Will I live my life this week in light of that answer?
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Will my life reflect that Jesus would see that I was answering honestly?
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That's the question that we need to be thinking about. So often we run past this because, wow, what's gonna happen is so cool.
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I wanna see a dead man come forth in the grave. This is awesome. But isn't it interesting,
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Jesus didn't just go marching up to the grave, say, remove the stone. Get out of here, Lazarus. Instead, he took the time to stop and talk with Martha.
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He's gonna talk with Mary. There's some preparation. There's a reason why all this is here.
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And the question that we face today is, do you believe this? I hope everyone here does.
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But the only way you can is by the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart. Let's pray together.
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Our gracious Heavenly Father, we once again thank you for your word and we thank you that it searches us out. We thank you that it asks us directly, do we believe?
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Lord, we know that it takes the work of your spirit to translate us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of beloved
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Son. Take us out of judgment into life, out of death into life.
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And so, Lord, we would pray that in this hour, as we hear Jesus asking, do you believe this, that we would not hide from that question in our own lives.
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That we would consider once again, even those of us who have walked with you for a long time, who have professed the faith for a long time, may we be reminded that it is good to consider, to be reminded of those basic foundational truths.
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And ask ourselves the question, does my life reflect the fact I really believe?
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How has the world influenced me to make me afraid or even ashamed of the gospel?
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Lord, I ask you would work by your spirit in our hearts. As a result, we would be better servants of Jesus Christ.