“Comfort-Driven Naysayers & Enemies” – FBC Morning Light (4/20/2023)

Well, a good Thursday morning to you. So we're coming close to the end of the week now, and I just want to remind you again of the

Eternal Issues Bible Conference coming this Sunday through the following Wednesday. Five different messages from the book of Genesis delivered by Pastor Aaron Hoke from Warsaw, Indiana.

And each of these messages will have an evangelistic emphasis or thrust to them, so I encourage you if you already know

Christ as your Savior, and you're burdened about someone praying for their soul, bring them with you.

Encourage them to come and be part of these services. I know they'll be a blessing to you.

So that's coming Sunday, the 10 .30 service, in the morning service, the 6 o 'clock evening service, and then

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at 7 o 'clock. Well, for today, we're reading in Judges 7 and 8,

John chapter 11, and the 79th Psalm. And I want to focus on the parenthesis around the raising of Lazarus.

You know, John 11 is most noted for raising of Lazarus from the dead, and there's obviously so much that could be said about that,

Jesus declaring he's the resurrection and the life, and bringing Lazarus from the dead, and so forth.

But I want to look at something before that and after that. So before that, we find

Jesus, who is some considerable distance away from where Lazarus is. He gets the message that Lazarus is sick.

But one of the little details about this situation is that in verses 7 and 8, when after a few days pass,

Jesus gets a message about Lazarus being sick, a few days go by, and finally, he stays there for a while, and finally, he says, let's go to Judea again.

And what's striking about that, one of the disciples reply and say, well, Rabbi, hold on a minute here, just a second.

Lately, the Jews sought to stone you in Judea, and are you going to go there again?

Are you going to go there again? And Jesus says, yes, we're going to go there again. He says, there's 12 hours in a day, we need to do this, we need to walk while it's daytime and so on and so forth.

And then in verse 11, he says, our friend Lazarus is sleeping, I'm going to wake him up. His disciples, they don't get it, they say, well, if he's sleeping, it's probably good for him, so maybe he can get better.

But Jesus spoke of his death, verse 13 tells us. And then finally in verse 14, he says to them, look, let me just spell it out for you guys.

Lazarus is dead. He's dead. Then he goes on to say, and I'm glad for your sake that I was not there so that you may believe.

Nevertheless, let's go to him. All right. Now, what I wanted to zero in on is

Thomas's response to all of that. It's like Thomas has been on the sideline watching all this back and forth.

And as you can imagine the scene, Thomas is getting a little more agitated, a little more concerned as things go on, because it seems like we're going to go back to Judea again.

This doesn't sound like a good deal. So then verse 16, Thomas, who's called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him.

Hey, ever know anybody like Thomas, who just always sees the glass half empty, who just, you know, is just such a naysayer.

Is just constantly looking at the negative and constantly sure that the worst case scenario is going to actually take place.

This is Thomas. But, you know, I want you to notice something else. Jesus doesn't tell

Thomas, hey, look, you don't believe, just stay here, you just stay here. We'll go and we'll get the blessing. No. He says, come on, we're going to go.

The thing is, Thomas went. Thomas went. Now look, if you happen to find yourself gravitating to being a

Thomas, you know, always looking at the dark side of things, and looking at the glasses that's half empty, and just kind of down on stuff, do not allow that tendency on your part to keep you from following Christ and following, you know, those who would lead you spiritually.

Go along. Go with. Go with them. Go along. Experience the blessing with the rest of God's people.

And don't allow your naysaying to rob you of great blessings.

Well, the other thing I wanted to point out is at the other end of this event,

Jesus is gone. He's raised Lazarus from the dead. And verses 47 and 48 says the chief priests and the

Pharisees gathered a council and said, what are we going to do? What are we going to do with this man, speaking of Jesus?

For this man works many signs. He says, if we let him alone like this, everyone will believe in him.

And the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. The other thing

I wanted to point out is that many people reject Jesus. Not because they don't believe in his character or in his power, but because they don't want their comfortable lives to be upended.

That's certainly the case with these chief priests and Pharisees. They know Jesus' power.

They're very well aware that he just raised a dead man from the dead. He just spoke, and the corpse came out of the tomb, unquestionably.

They know his power, and they know his character. They can't really legitimately say anything evil and ill against him.

He hasn't done anything wrong. They know his power. They know his character. Well, why won't they believe in him?

If we don't do something about this, the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.

What are they concerned about? They're concerned about their own comfortable, satisfied lives.

They don't want those lives upended. Do you know anybody like that who accepts that Jesus was a good man, and Jesus was a powerful man, but they don't want to follow him?

Why don't they want to follow him? Because they don't want their comfortable lives upset.

They have to make some drastic changes and decisions. I hope that's not like you today.

I hope you're not like that at all. I hope that you've come to follow Christ, and you're willing to forsake all to follow him.

All right. Listen. Let's pray. Father, I pray, deliver us from being Thomases, and deliver us from being like these chief priests who are just so concerned about our own comfort, that we find it hard to do what

Christ would have us to do, to follow the path he would have us to walk. And this we pray, in Jesus' name, and for his sake.

Amen. All right. Well, listen. Have a good rest of your Thursday. I hope the Lord will bless you in it.