He Whom You Love Is Sick

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As we begin this morning, looking once again to the Gospel of John, Chapter 11 now,
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I point your attention to your bulletin, where my tremendous computer skills have once again provided you with graphical joy.
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Nothing's fancy, and yes, I do realize I didn't exactly line things up perfectly for the cutter, but hey, it worked.
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We are actually way behind in the handout. I apologize for that.
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We had left the first graphic that I had given you from Manuscript P45. Some of you,
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I know, I'm sure that George is framing each of the handouts as they have been given, so this will be the second one.
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But we're on to the next graphic, and I'm not inviting you to not listen to what
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I'm saying, to be sitting there reading it. I'm sure that many of you are probably staring at it going, yeah, that's very edifying.
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But a couple of you are going, I recognize something there. But if you're visiting, we are in the midst of certainly one of the most unique sermon series that I've certainly ever heard of.
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Some people would say strange, odd, weird. I prefer the term unique, personally, if you don't mind.
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But we are working through an ancient manuscript, and we actually started with the best preserved pages, by the way.
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What you're going to see later on, we get into Acts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, not
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John, but Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Actually, we'll have to go back and touch on this later on.
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There are just tiny little fragments from John Chapter 4. We actually get to go back and do that sometime in the future.
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But they are tiny, just a matter of words in comparison to pretty much a full page.
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In the bulletin, I've given you where we are currently.
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We will be looking at, well, I just realized that we only have through verse 42 on the back of that.
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I don't know where the rest of it went. Well, there you go. We'll catch up with it next time.
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I will have to shrink the text down, because I was just looking at it going, well, we're going to be in Chapter 11, and I said, that ends at verse 42.
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Well, that's nice. There's actually a fair amount of text on each of these pages.
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Later on, they're going to get smaller and smaller, and more difficult and more difficult to look at. We started with the easy stuff.
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We'll go to the harder stuff. The next time, I'll give you the rest of Chapter 11.
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Sorry about that. Now you have a major textual variant due to computer error.
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See? I lost 11 verses. That's pretty much as bad as anybody ever did in the
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New Testament. There you go. It was all due to computer stuff. Isn't that an interesting way of doing things?
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At least you have the next page, as far as the graphic goes, and some of the translation from before.
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Next time, I'll throw Chapter 11, verses 1 through 10 on the back. That way, you'll have the rest of it there for you.
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We are working through any chapter of the New Testament that is found in this ancient manuscript.
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That means we're going to be doing some chapters from Matthew, Mark, Luke, here in John, and then also a number of chapters in the book of Acts.
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That takes us to John, Chapter 11. We will be looking at verses 1 through 10.
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Chapter 11, verses 1 through 10. Let's consider what the
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Word of God has to say here. By way of introduction, we recognize, as we sort of step back, and this is what
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I want to do this morning, primarily, is to recognize what a pivotal section
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John, Chapter 11 is in this gospel. I hope that I have encouraged you over the years in the ministry of the
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Word here and in the teaching of the Scriptures from the pulpit to very often, in fact, start by stepping back and looking very carefully at how the author is presenting the text that you're approaching.
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Now, we just worked through John, Chapter 10. We saw that there is a close relationship, of course, between what had happened in Chapter 9, the healing of the blind man, and the introductory portions of John, Chapter 10.
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I have mentioned to you many times before that chapter and diverse divisions were not a part of the original text.
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They came about much later. The chapter divisions came about first, and then the verse divisions were first introduced, at least for the
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New Testament, in 1551. So, three -quarters of church history passed before anyone could make a sign and show up at a football game that said
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John 3 .16. So, that's something to always keep in mind as you look back at ancient history.
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No one had ever memorized John 3 .16. Now, many people had memorized the words of what we call
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John 3 .16, but there was no John 3 .16 until 1551.
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And so, when we keep that in mind, we recognize how often it is that we, very naturally, because of the way that we have been taught to read, by the way we read books, by the way we even read here.
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We read a chapter. I read one chapter this morning from the Book of Ephesians.
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Well, that's convenient. It's helpful. I mean, my goodness, can you imagine what it would have been like to try to get to the same passage of Scripture in the ancient church?
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Well, of course, not everybody had a Bible. Not everybody had the Scriptures available. They may have had a certain number of copies of the
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Old Testament available in the Greek translation initially, and they may have been passed out to certain people.
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But for the majority of people, your Scripture reading came from hearing somebody else reading it. And even at that point in time, it is interesting to note, just historically speaking, that Christians always preferred the book form to the scroll form.
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Now, why might that be? I've been pondering that a lot recently. And we only have a small number, less than like a dozen, of portions of the
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New Testament that were ever written on a scroll, even though that was the most popular way in which things were written in that day.
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The Christian people from the beginning preferred a book where you could open up what's called the codex form.
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Why might that be? Well, I've theorized that it's possible that since the Gospels were so central to the preaching of the early church, and can you imagine trying to compare
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Matthew, Mark, and Luke in a scroll? Okay, now we turn over to Mark.
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Oh, let's go back to Matthew. I mean, you'd have forearms, it'd be huge. It's hard to do that.
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You can't really compare portions of a different place when you're utilizing scrolls, unless you have them as separate individual scrolls.
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But even then, trying to get to a certain place, it's very, very difficult. And so, possibly that's why they did things that way.
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And why they preferred those particular formats. But here, in the Gospel of John, what we need to keep in mind is we want to step back, we want to look at the entire panorama of what's happening here, and we see something coming.
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And when you look at the Gospel of John, I hope you see the watershed portion, the watershed, what do we call it?
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The continental divide. That's what we call it here in the United States. We call it the continental divide. Each July, I go up to Colorado, and one of the rides
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I do takes me over Loveland Pass. And Loveland Pass tops out at 11 ,990 feet.
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I try to jump a little bit to try to get close to 12 ,000 there. And right at the top, it says on the sign,
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Loveland Pass, 11 ,990 feet, and it says continental divide. And so here is the divide of the continent, and things just sort of go down each side from there.
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Not obviously evenly. But if you look at John, what's the continental divide? Where is the dividing point?
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Well, I hope you're familiar enough with it to realize it's the end of Jesus' public ministry at the end of Chapter 12.
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Because beginning with Chapter 13, you have Jesus' private ministry to his disciples.
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So it's 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, the great high priestly prayer, the intercessory prayer, moving directly into the crucifixion narrative, the betrayal and crucifixion narrative, beginning in Chapter 18.
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And so we're in the public ministry portion here. You have the back and forth going on with the scribes and Pharisees, so on and so forth.
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And really, when you think about it, you've got Chapter 11. There's just a little bit more in Chapter 12, and then it's all the private ministry to the disciples.
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And so it's sort of been building up. Certainly we see in Chapter 10, building up until that final conflict where the
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Jews pick up stones again. They sought to kill Jesus and John in Chapter 5. They pick up stones and stone him in Chapter 8.
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Chapter 10 ends with that encounter that we've looked at not very long ago where the
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Jews pick up stones to stone Jesus. And now we have Chapter 11.
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And when you think about the story of Chapter 11, all of us automatically go, ah, the raising of Lazarus.
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Yes, the raising of Lazarus. How can that function as a continental divide?
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Well, Jesus only raised a few people from the dead. He could have raised many, many more.
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That would have been difficult to interpret within the Jewish worldview because in the
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Jewish worldview, as we are going to see later on in Chapter 11, the resurrection, remember when
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Jesus is saying, Yes, I know he will rise again in the resurrection. It's a future thing. It's down the road.
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The idea of resurrection happening in this time period right now is a revolutionary idea.
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And so obviously the raising of Lazarus is a huge element when you look at, well, what did
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Jesus do to demonstrate his Messiahship and the fact that he was the Son of God? Well, raising the dead is a big thing.
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And of course the raising of Lazarus, some pretty important things to note about it.
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Very close to Jerusalem. Bethany is a short distance from Jerusalem.
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So this is right near the very seat of the power of his opponents. Those who ironically are going to put to death the one who can give life.
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You think it ever crossed one of those Pharisees' minds as they plotted to deliver
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Jesus over to the Romans? You think any one of them didn't have the back of their mind, the sight of Lazarus waddling to the front of the tomb?
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I don't know about you. That would be the first thought in my mind as I'm seeking to betray and destroy this one.
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And so we have an incredible insight, as we will see, into the very essence of religious hardening and blindness on the part of the scribes and Pharisees.
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And it's real easy for us all to stand back and go, I just can't believe those scribes and Pharisees. Can you imagine being so hardened and so blinded?
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What you need to realize, it's real easy for us to look out there, but you see, these were the people that possessed the
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Word of God. And what made their sin so serious was the amount of light which they possessed.
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I've said to us here in this place many, many times, if there's any sin we want to constantly be avoiding, it's the sin of the scribes and Pharisees.
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Because I don't think that Jewish people today could commit the kind of sin that they did then.
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Jesus isn't walking amongst us. Very few Jewish people actually read and believe the Scriptures today.
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Who has the most light today? We do. We do. We do not want to partake of the sin of the scribes and the
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Pharisees and the hardness of their hearts. But what do they do?
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We're going to have toward the end of this chapter, I think, one of the clearest Gospels statements concerning not only substitutionary atonement, but what we specifically refer to as particular redemption.
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That Jesus was going to give his life in a substitutionary fashion and for a specific people.
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And that's drawn out from a prophecy placed within the mouth of the high priest who is seeking to have
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Jesus destroyed. We see Jesus' power over death.
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We see Jesus' confidence in the father's approbation of his ministry.
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This was not done in a corner somewhere. Jesus invited the scrutiny of his enemies who had just been seeking to kill him, which is going to come out here at the beginning of the chapter.
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Because the disciples are going, we're going back where? Right near Jerusalem? That's where they were just picking up stones to stone you.
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And that's where we're going back this quickly. They don't understand.
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And so Jesus goes right back to that place and right in front of his enemies, demonstrates that everything that he had said in the temple, everything he had said in John chapter 8, before Abraham was,
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I am. Everything he said in John chapter 10, I am the good shepherd, I am the father, we are one.
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I am the one that the father has sanctified and sent into the world. Therefore you are false judges if you identify me as blaspheming when
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I say I am the son of God. He's going to vindicate all of that right in front of their eyes in the resurrection of Lazarus.
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That's going to lead rather naturally then to the cessation of the public ministry.
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The intense period of private teaching to his disciples right up to the point of his betrayal.
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And then the crucifixion. And so it's easy for us to see the importance of this text. But I think because of how grand the rest of the chapter is, the conversation that Jesus has about being the resurrection and the life.
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And the emotion that is seen in Jesus. The second shortest verse in the
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Greek New Testament. Yeah, I know some of you. Some of you went to VBS like I did when you were a kid and you always knew.
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You had to memorize a certain number of verses where you could always do John 11, 35. Because that's the shortest verse in the
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New Testament. Not in Greek it's not. In English it might be, but it's not in Greek. But yeah, that was one that we all had memorized.
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We all know that Jesus wept. I never felt that that was a fair verse to memorize for the total number of verses in VBS.
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I think that should have been. But hey, we can't be too picky there. We see in that verse the reality of the incarnation.
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The reality of the emotional life of Christ. He truly was a man. And we might want to think a little bit about what he was weeping at.
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Because I think we could learn something from there. But all of that to say this.
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This opening section. This opening period.
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Of the first 10 verses. We normally just sort of go by it really quickly.
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It's almost like this is taking too long. We want to get to the exciting part. The exciting part is the
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Pharisees watching. And Jesus crying out. And Lazarus coming forth.
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That's all the exciting part. This other stuff here. And yet,
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I would like to suggest to you. That the deepest understanding. Of why
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Jesus did the things that he did. And the way that he did them. Requires us to pay a little more attention.
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To these first 10 verses of chapter 1. Chapter 11
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I'm sorry. Beginning of verse 1. Because of the fact. That some foundations are laid here.
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That go against the standard understanding. That people have of who
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Jesus was. And why he did things. And if we hear carefully what Jesus is doing.
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It will help us I think in understanding. So let's look at the first 10 verses. I again apologize.
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I thought I was handing it out to you. I was going to give you my own translation of it. But alas and alack.
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A textual variant has appeared. Due to computer error. Actually it was of course.
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It's easy to blame the computer. It was my fault. But the computer just did what I told it to do. It's generally how that works.
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Now a certain man was sick. Like Lazarus of Bethany. The village of Mary and her sister Martha.
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It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment. And wiped his feet with her hair. Whose brother Lazarus was sick.
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So the sister sent word to him saying. Lord behold. He whom you love is sick. But when Jesus heard this.
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He said this sickness is not to end in death. But for the glory of God. So the son of God may be glorified by it.
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Jesus loved Martha and her sister. And Lazarus. So when he heard that he was sick. He then stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
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Then after this he said to the disciples. Let us go to Judea again. The disciples said to him. Rabbi the
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Jews were just now seeking to stone you. And are you going there again? Jesus answered.
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Are there not twelve hours in a day? If anyone walks in a day. He does not stumble. Because he sees the light of this world.
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But if anyone walks in a night. He stumbles. Because the light is not in him.
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Now. So much here. So much here.
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Some people have theorized. There is a theory by the way. Because of that statement.
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That Jesus loved Lazarus. That this was the beloved disciple. And that Lazarus is actually the author of this gospel.
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That is the theory that has been expressed out there. It's not a largely held theory.
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But I thought I would mention it to you. And of course we know of another Lazarus.
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Very different Lazarus. In Luke chapter 16. But it is a name that is known from antiquity.
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And so we have Lazarus of Bethany. And this is identified as. There is more than one
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Bethany. This is specifically the village of Mary and her sister Martha. And we know that this is a village that was about two miles.
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Not a short but not an overly long walk. From Jerusalem itself.
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And so Lazarus becomes ill. And by the way there was absolutely positively nothing unusual about that.
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This was much more of an experience of the ancient world. Than it is of us today with our knowledge of microbial life and the like.
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And so Lazarus becomes ill. But it is so painfully obvious to me.
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And should be painfully obvious to us all. This didn't just happen.
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This is a part of the entire purpose of God. In redemption itself.
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I mean if you see the cross as the very center. Of what God is doing in redemption. The story of Lazarus is very important in bringing us to that point.
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This becomes the trigger that solidifies the opposition to Jesus.
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And eventually leads to his betrayal, his arrest and his crucifixion. So this isn't
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God sitting up there in heaven going. How am I going to bring this about?
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Oh look Lazarus is getting sick. I didn't have anything to do with that. I didn't see that microbe heading over there.
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But I wonder if I could do something with this. I mean you and I go. Come on that's ridiculous.
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There's a lot of people who think that's how this world works. That God is sitting up there going. Well I didn't see that coming.
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Well if I put that together with that. Oh that won't work because that just happened. Trying to you know this big computer just running the numbers.
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No God had a purpose in this. And God had a purpose in Lazarus becoming ill.
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Now it's interesting that John mentions to us in verse 2.
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It was the Mary who anointed Laura with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. Whose brother Lazarus was sick.
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Hmm. That's John chapter 12. Isn't that interesting? So proleptically
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John has to sort of say. I know
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I haven't introduced you to Mary. But she's the one who anointed Laura with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair.
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Whose brother Lazarus was sick. And I'll tell you more about that later. Now how can you get away with doing that?
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I mean is this just John sort of taking the lazy way out of doing this? Or is there something more here?
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I think there's something more here. I think what you recognize here. Is that John is writing for an audience.
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That he can assume is already going to be aware of that particular incident. In Jesus' life.
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In other words. The vast majority of scholars do believe that John is the last gospel to be written. And you do have to sort of wonder.
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How come you don't have the story of Lazarus anywhere else? I mean this is a big story.
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This is a big deal. This was central to the solidification of the opposition. Why isn't this a central story to the other gospels?
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A lot of people ask that question. And the often time given answer is.
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Well it's because it didn't happen. John is ahistorical. John is making these things up.
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John is. This is all theological rumination on John's part. Well.
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I'd like to suggest a different reason. And it's one I've suggested before.
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But I'll remind you of it. And that is. It does seem to me. To be supportive of the fact.
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That John is the last gospel being written. That he can for example just assume.
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That his audience isn't going to be thrown completely off by verse 2. They already know the story.
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It's part of the oral gospel tradition. That has been part and parcel of how the church has spread itself all across the world.
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It's a common possession of all the Christian people. It's why Paul in Corinthians.
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In answering questions about marriage. Can say the Lord not I say this.
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And then later on say I not the Lord say this. Was he denying his own inspiration or something there?
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No it's not even crossing his mind. The point was when he says the Lord says this. He's drawing directly from the gospel tradition.
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We have it in the gospels. In exactly that way. But then when he goes on to answer questions that don't appear in the gospels.
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He says not the Lord but I say. And he differentiates himself. Because there wasn't anything in the gospel tradition.
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About Jesus addressing this particular subject. And it happens to match exactly with the gospels we have. So there was this oral teaching and preaching.
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There were years that went by. Before Mark or Matthew or Luke. We don't know who wrote first.
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The theory today amongst most people. Is that Mark wrote first. In the early church they thought
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Matthew wrote first. There's no dating and there's no references to answer those questions.
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But even when people like myself say we don't know the order of the gospels. Except that it does seem that John is the last.
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Because you have these little places where. It indicates that he recognizes. The existence of that oral tradition.
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And the fact that Christian people would understand this. But why doesn't this story appear elsewhere?
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Is it because John is ahistorical? Or is it because of something else? I would suggest to you. That the specifics of the interactions that Jesus had with the disciples.
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Where you have names being given. Where you have here Mary, Martha, Lazarus.
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Would have been dangerous to have included. In the earliest gospels. While they still lived.
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But after the destruction of Jerusalem. And many years down the road. There's no longer an issue.
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In being very specific. In giving details. Of conversations with people who have now gone to be with the
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Lord. If they hadn't died prior to the destruction of Jerusalem. Trust me.
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Bethany had been utterly destroyed. Along with Jerusalem. Being so close by the Roman armies as well.
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And so the chances of them being alive at that particular point in time. Would be very, very small. So it seems to me.
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That's a much fairer understanding of why you have these details.
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And these stories in John. That you don't have in the others. Than to just go. Oh it's just because John is making it all up. And so I suggest that to you.
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And do find verse 2 to be interesting. Because the whole story is going to be expanded.
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In chapter 12. Coming up after this story here. In chapter 11.
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So here's Lazarus. So the sisters sent word to him saying. Lord behold he whom you love is sick.
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Now it is interesting. I have not noted this in the past. But there does seem to be a consistency on John's part.
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That he does not use the form the Lord. Of Jesus until after the resurrection.
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So in other words. It's the idea that there is an exaltation aspect.
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Of referring to Jesus as the Lord. Upon his resurrection. That is not included prior to that.
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And so that is what you have here as well. This is probably being used in the sense of Rabbi.
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Probably in the language they would have been using. But they sent word. How we don't know a note.
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Someone is sent to Jesus. Lord behold he whom you love is sick.
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Now just stop for just a moment. Again we want to rush past all this stuff. We want to get to the resurrection.
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We want to get to the exciting stuff. Isn't there something a little bit strange. For most people.
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In verse 3. Doesn't Jesus love everybody?
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I mean. Don't we all. Didn't we all taught to sing. Jesus loves me.
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Hadn't Lazarus been taught to sing that by now? Why point it out?
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It really does help. It's helpful to remind us of something. The word became flesh.
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And yes we see the condescension and deep love of the son of God.
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In his humiliation. In the veiling of his glory. The taking on of a human nature.
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His being coming obedient to the point of death. Even death on a cross. We see all of that.
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But that doesn't change the fact. That amongst the 12.
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Jesus seemed to be particularly close to John. And probably wasn't as particularly close to Judas.
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And there are a couple of other disciples. We know their names. But don't know almost anything about them.
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So isn't it natural. See the idea that many people have is.
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If you're the incarnate son of God. And you're the very embodiment of love. That means you're going to just love everybody in the same way.
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And so Jesus loved Lazarus his next door neighbor. In the exact same way as Lazarus.
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No he didn't. No he didn't. That's just ridiculous. We as human beings.
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We know certain individuals better than other individuals. And we have relationships with certain individuals.
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Better than other individuals. I don't know anyone who lives. I don't know anyone in the government of Iran.
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And so I can say I want to see them come to know the truth of Jesus Christ. But the fact of the matter is
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I don't know who they are. It is absolutely understandable and natural.
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That we have close personal relationships with some people. And not all people.
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And there was a special relationship. We don't know when it started. We don't know how it started. But there was a special relationship.
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Lazarus is a really good friend of Jesus. And there is a relationship between them.
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So he can simply be described as he whom you love is sick. And we have a disciple.
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Who is in that close inner circle with Jesus as well.
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Is there something wrong with this? No. If Jesus truly was a human being.
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If he truly took on a human nature. Then this is fully understandable.
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And it reminds us of the importance of that. And it reminds us of the fact that God is greater than we are.
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Not lesser than we are. If it is appropriate for example for the New Testament to say.
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Do good to all men but especially those of the household of faith. So in other words I can make distinctions.
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We're commanded to make distinctions. I've pointed out before. But I'm commanded to love my wife.
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In a way it's different than loving your wife. That means I have to make distinctions. Oh but love just has to be.
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No. We're human beings. We make distinctions. There are necessary distinctions.
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That means there's different kinds and natures of love. Unfortunately we live in a day.
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And I did not make this up. And I've been hearing it most of my life. We live in a day of sloppy agape.
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Sloppy agape. That means God's love for every individual is exactly the same.
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Tell that to Israel and the Egyptians. You have to sort of get rid of the
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Old Testament. To come up with anything like that. And a lot of people are willing to do that. They're willing to do that.
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See this idea is God's actually in some ways lesser than we are. We can make proper and appropriate distinctions in the expression of our love.
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But God can't. That's what it means to be omnibenevolent. Well doesn't the
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Bible say God is love? Yes it does. It says he's wrath and he's just and he's light.
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It says a lot of things about God. But that doesn't mean that any one of his attributes is supposed to destroy his personhood.
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And so a lot of people just go blowing by this particular word.
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This particular phrase. He whom you love is sick. I'm getting to the resurrection.
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Without stopping and going. The son of God as a human being had special relationships with particular people.
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He did. That's an appropriate thing. It's a right thing. And we need to keep that in mind.
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I think it's evidence of the reality of the incarnation. And it helps us to remain balanced when it comes to looking at God.
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And the fact that he has redemptive love. He has a common grace. A lot of people want to destroy those distinctions.
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And in the process end up making mincemeat out of the teaching of the
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New Testament. So word is sent to Jesus concerning the sickness of Lazarus.
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But when Jesus heard this, he said, This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so the
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Son of God may be glorified by it. I don't know about you, but Jesus seems to be in on what's going on.
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There are a lot of people that read something like this and they go,
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It's all a puppet play. I don't like this kind of thing. What's going to happen?
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Jesus knows, so is it really real? And when I hear people say that,
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It's the same objection that is raised to our acceptance of the Bible's rather plain teaching.
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That God sovereignly decrees events in time. Well, that just means it's all, it has no meaning.
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Well, you know what? It seemed to have enough meaning to God for him to decree that it's going to happen. And that he makes the very end of his own glorification depend upon what happens in this place called time.
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So he seems to think it's important. And then he entered into time in the person of Jesus Christ.
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And in so doing, proves that what takes place in time is vitally important.
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Well, I just can't see how you can put the two together. That's because you're a time -bound creature. That's why you ain't God. Stop trying to judge him as if he has to have the same limitations you have.
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Many of our brothers and sisters do exactly that. They're real uncomfortable with this idea. Yeah, Jesus knows.
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This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory. And then, right there. Do you have any friends like I do?
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That as soon as you see that, you go, oh, I'm going to have to explain that one to somebody. Because, see,
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I, only a couple of you, I think, I'm not sure how many of you here saw the debate that I had the week before last.
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I'm hearing some chuckles. But something tells me that you can understand why
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I would say that I deal with people who would look at this and say, See? The Bible's wrong.
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Lazarus did die. The Bible's wrong. There's an error in the Bible, right there. Not allowing for the same author who wrote these words to then narrate the resurrection of Lazarus and the glorification of the
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Son of God. There are people like that. Sadly, sometimes they write for major news outlets, and they end up getting published for some reason, and we all end up having to respond to the odd and strange things that they say.
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This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.
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In the end, in the end, not in this particular situation, but in the end,
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I would like to suggest to you that that's the answer to all of human suffering. Ultimately, in the end, what did we read?
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I was bummed I didn't get to read Ephesians chapter 1 last week. But Brother Callahan did.
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What did it say? What's sort of the ultimate answers to the praise of His glorious grace?
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This is what God's doing. He's glorifying Himself. There is a purpose. And oh my, how
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I have been ravaged by people over the decades for daring to say there is no such thing in this world as meaningless evil.
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I've said it. Because I think that's what the Bible teaches. God has a purpose.
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He has a purpose in the way He has created this world. And in the end,
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He is going to be glorified in how He acted in justice, how He acted in mercy, in how
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He decreed to work out His own self -glorification and redemption of particular people in Christ Jesus.
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And I do not believe that God is running around going, I can't believe that happened. Oh, can
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I make something good come out of this? There are some people that rack the Bible. Well, what about that one place where it says it never entered his mind?
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And so there's really something there. And yet, over and over and over again, the
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Scriptures tell us God can tell us what's going to happen in the future. He can tell us what happened in the past and why it happened.
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You've got to be able to put it all together. You've got to be able to put it all together. It doesn't seem that Jesus functioned on the basis of this, well, this sickness, we didn't see it coming, and it's going to cause some real problems, but in this instance, we're really going to step in and do something cool.
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We're not going to do it for almost anybody else who's going to be dying, and there's going to be a lot of sickness and a lot of really bad stuff happening. But in this one instance, because Lazarus and I are close, we're going to do something special.
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That's not what He says. There's a specific purpose here. There's a reason why these things are happening.
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And Lazarus isn't the reason. Did you catch that? It's actually for the glory of God and for the fact that the
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Son of God will be glorified by it. Now, Lazarus gets the really cool... Can you imagine what it's like to be
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Lazarus after the resurrection? I mean, think about it.
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They were actually trying to destroy him. So there were a couple of times I'm sure Lazarus was like, this is great, but...
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But can you imagine what it's like to be Lazarus six months later, walking down the road in your own village?
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I mean, no one just goes, hey Lazarus, how are you doing? You just don't do that anymore. That's the guy that died.
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And so when you go to buy some fish or something, hey, can I buy it?
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Whatever you like, sir. I mean, it changed his life. I mean, there's not too many people that experience this.
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There's those folks in Matthew chapter 27, a few people that were... And we're not given any information about them.
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But it wasn't really about Lazarus. And I think if you talk to Lazarus after all this takes place, he's not going to be talking about himself.
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I know everybody's going to be asking him, what was it like? Yeah, I get that. But he's going to be focused on who
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Jesus is and what Jesus did for him. And Jesus is the resurrection and life. And that's what he's going to be focused on.
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And so here you have God using sickness, using the frailty of the flesh in this life, and the specific end of this is what?
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Well, it's not the betterment of Lazarus' life. It's not to give people a spectacle to see.
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The purpose is so that the Son of God may be glorified by it. I listened to a story recently, and I'll close with this.
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We'll continue as we normally do with this text this evening. But I listened recently to the story of a
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Christian man from the Czech Republic who works for the Voice of the
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Martyrs and had gone into Sudan to help the church there. And he was arrested by the
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Muslim government and was imprisoned for, I think it was 14 months, the first portion of that time, in a tiny prison cell with ISIS fighters.
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He was beaten, he was humiliated, almost died.
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And this took place 2015 -2016, so this is very recent.
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Actually, 2016 -2017, I think. It was just released only a matter of months ago. Anyway, it was a modern tale of a
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Christian man suffering for his faith. And something tells me that upon his release, this particular individual, if he were to read these words, would understand them in a way that he never understood them before.
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Because he came to be willing to experience the loss of his freedom, his relationship with his family, for what reason?
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Well, it wasn't about him anymore. He came to understand it was for the glorification of the
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Son of God. Lazarus came to understand that. Mary and Martha came to understand that.
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The disciples would eventually understand that. But each one of us gets to learn that in our own lives.
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During this time period, during these two days when Jesus is going to tarry, Mary and Martha, watching
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Lazarus die, are going to be wondering about the goodness of God and wondering about the goodness of the
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Teacher and His love. And every time we have in Scripture a story where the saints are faced with these difficulties, the message always is trust.
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Wait. God is good. You may in this life get to see how that works.
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You may have to wait after this life to see the specifics. But the message is always trust.
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Undergo what you undergo. Experience what you experience. For what reason? For the glorification of the
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Son of God. That's why we live for Him. That's what we've been called to do. That is a high calling indeed.
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Let us pray together. Indeed, our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank
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You for these words. And we thank You for the message of Your Scriptures to us. That You are sovereign.
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You are in control. You bring about Your own glory. And we as Your people desire to see that glorification.
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We desire to be used in that glorification in our lives in this coming week. Help us to think upon these things.
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Help us to think about what it was like to hear the gracious words of Jesus.
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To see the graciousness of His actions. And yet His purpose and His intention.
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Lord, we thank You for preserving these words for us. May we live in light of them.