Our identity as a follower of Jesus is based on God the Father’s choice of us to be His children...

This week, we are looking at the opening section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of our Bibles called the book of Ephesians. Yesterday, we saw a man named Paul reveal for us a timeless truth in that our identity as a follower of Jesus is the basis of our spiritual blessings. Paul wanted the members of the church at Ephesus, and followers of Jesus throughout history, to clearly understand what their identity was.

Paul wanted followers of Jesus to clearly understand that our identity was to be grounded in God’s activity through His Son Jesus Christ that resulted in our relationship with Christ. And Paul wanted followers of Jesus to recognize and worship God for the reality that God has already provided us with every Divine blessing and benefit that we will ever need in Heaven as a result of His activity through His Son Jesus Christ that resulted in our relationship with Christ. Today, we see Paul reveal for us these Divine blessings and benefits beginning in Ephesians 1:4:

 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

In these verses, we see Paul reveal for us the first way that our identity as a follower of Jesus is the basis for our spiritual blessings. And that first way is that our identity is based on God the Father’s choice of us to be His children. Now, to fully understand what Paul is communicating here, we first need to understand some church mumbo jumbo talk terms. When Paul uses the phrase, just as He chose us in Him, he is revealing that the means that God the Father used to choose us was through His activity through Christ. In other words, it was Jesus who was the vehicle that was used to choose us to be His children.

Now the word chose, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to choose. Paul then explains that God chose us to be His children from the foundation of the world. So, before He created the world, God chose you to be a part of His family. Paul then reveals that the reason why God the Father chose us to be His children was so that we would be holy and blameless before Him. This phrase simply means that God chose us to be His children so that we would be set apart to Him and would be without fault before Him. And what drove God the Father to choose us, Paul explains was His love for us.

Then in verse 5, Paul reinforces God’s the Father’s choice of us to be His children by stating that He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself. Now the word predestined is a big fancy 50 cent theological word that simply means to decide upon beforehand. In other words God the Father decided beforehand that in spite of you He would choose to adopt you as His child.

You see, it is not your performance for God that resulted in His choice of you. Instead, it was God’s choice of you in spite of your performance that led to your adoption. Paul reinforces this reality by explaining that God the Father’s choice was according to the kind intention of His will. In other words, God the Father chose you according to His pleasure and His desires. God’s adoption of you as His child was according to His desires and His adoption of you brings Him pleasure.

Then in verse 6, Paul explains that God’s the Father’s choice of us to be His children was decided on beforehand to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. Paul’s point here is that God’s the Father’s choice of us to be His children was so that He would receive admiration for His transformational intervention and activity in our lives.

God the Father would receive admiration because His transformational intervention and activity was a free gift to us. And God the Father would receive admiration because His transformational intervention and activity was through His Son Jesus Christ’s activity in the world.

Tomorrow, we will look at the Son’s activity in the world that impacts our identity…

Our identity as a follower of Jesus is the basis of our spiritual blessings...

Whether you are a follower of Jesus, whether you don’t buy the whole Jesus, Bible, thing; whether you are not sure that you could ever really know whether or not God exists, we are all on a search for identity. We are all on a search for the answer to the question “Who am I”?

And we all try to find our identity in something. Sure, we may have a driver’s license in our wallet that we use as I.D. But for some of us, we may find ourselves reaching for our credit cards far more often when it comes to finding our identity, because we find our identity in our possessions. For others of us, we may find ourselves reaching for our word I.D. far more often when it comes to finding our identity, because we find our identity in our position. And for others of us, we may reach for our driver’s license, but we only use that I.D. as a means to have access to what we really are trying to find our identity in, which is pleasure.

So, where are you trying to find your identity? What I.D. card do you pull out to define you? And what I.D. card should you pull out to define you? To answer these questions, we are going to spend the spring and summer in a sermon series entitled identity. During this series, we are going to look at a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of our Bibles that provides us the timeless answers to these questions.

And as we go through this series, our hope and our prayer is that God would enable us to see our true identity, the identity that He designed us to live in, so that we would live our day to day lives in light of our true identity. So this morning, as we launch into this new series, let’s begin by looking at the opening section of this letter, which is called the book of Ephesians, which begins in Ephesians 1:1:

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

In these verses, we discover the author of this letter as the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul was once a self righteous religious person who persecuted Christianity until he had an encounter with Jesus Christ after He had been raised from the dead. After His life transforming encounter with Jesus, Paul proceeded to become the chief missionary to the non-Jewish nations of the world and wrote the majority of the letters that we have that form the New Testament of our Bibles.

Paul planted the church of Ephesus in 53 A.D. during Paul’s third missionary journey, which is recorded for us in another letter in the New Testament of our Bibles called the book of Acts, in Acts 19. However, to fully understand the story of the church at Ephesus, we first need to understand where the city of Ephesus was located and the significance that the city played in the first century.

The city of Ephesus was a port city that was located in the southwest corner of Asia Minor, or modern day Turkey. Ephesus was the capital and the largest city in the Roman province of Asia.  The city was a port city that was one of the main entry points to Asia, which made it a leading commercial, political and religious center in the Roman Empire.

The centerpiece of the city of Ephesus was the temple of Artemis, which was considered one of the seven wonders of the Ancient world. The temple was four times larger than the Parthenon in Athens, Greece and was the center of idolatrous worship to Artemis, who was the goddess of fertility. A major part of the economy in Ephesus revolved around tourism and worship to Artemis, including the manufacturing of portable shrines and images of Artemis that could be purchased. And even today, you can still view the ruins of the temple of Artemis.

As a result, the city was marked by rampant sexual immorality that occurred as part of their worship. In addition, the city was a regional center for various cultic practices and the publication of magic and their formulas. Ephesus also contained the largest theatre that was ever built by the Greeks, which was capable of holding up to 30,000 people. While largely populated by those who were of either Roman or Greek culture and ethnicity, there was also a large settlement of Jewish settlers who also lived in Ephesus.

And it is into this context that Paul planted the church at Ephesus. Then eight year after planting the church at Ephesus, the Apostle Paul found himself in jail in Rome after being arrested for proclaiming the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. And as Paul sat in prison awaiting trial, Paul wrote a letter to the church that is recorded for us in our Bibles today as the book of Ephesians.

After extending his customary greeting, we see Paul begin his letter to the members of the church of Ephesus with a powerful statement that reveals for us a powerful and timeless truth when it comes to our identity. So let’s look at that statement together, beginning in Ephesians 1:3:

 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

Now Paul’s statement here, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “Praise God for providing us with every Divine blessing and benefit that we will ever need in Heaven as a result of His activity through His Son Jesus Christ that resulted in our relationship with Christ”.

Notice what Paul says here. The phrase, who has blessed us, is past tense. In other words, this is something that is already a reality in your life if you are a follower of Jesus. You have already been blessed by God. And how you have been blessed by God is with every spiritual blessing. God has provided followers of Jesus every Divine blessing and benefit that we could ever need. Paul then explains that these Divine blessings and benefits are in the Heavenly places, which is another way to refer to Heaven.

But not only are every Divine blessings and benefits in Heaven; Paul explains that every Divine blessing and benefit is in Christ. But what does that mean? What does it mean to be in Christ? With this phrase, Paul is revealing for us the reality that the reason why as followers of Jesus we are the recipients of every Divine blessing and benefit that we would ever need is due to God’s activity through Christ that results in our relationship with Christ.

You see, when God the Father looks at us as followers of Jesus, He does not simply see us. Instead, He sees us in Christ. Right now, in a mystical and spiritual way, God the Father sees you, in Christ, in Heaven. As followers of Jesus we are part of the church, which is the body of Christ here on earth. But even now, we are mystically and spiritually a part of the body of Christ in Heaven. Now doesn’t that make your head hurt?

And Paul wanted the members of the church at Ephesus, and followers of Jesus throughout history, to clearly understand what their identity was. Paul wanted followers of Jesus to clearly understand that our identity was to be grounded in God’s activity through His Son Jesus Christ that resulted in our relationship with Christ.

And Paul wanted followers of Jesus to recognize and worship God for the reality that God has already provided us with every Divine blessing and benefit that we will ever need in Heaven as a result of His activity through His Son Jesus Christ that resulted in our relationship with Christ.

And it is here that we see Paul reveal for us a timeless truth when it comes to our identity. And that timeless truth is that our identity as a follower of Jesus is the basis of our spiritual blessings. Just as it was for the members of the church at Ephesus, just as it has been throughout history, our identity as a follower of Jesus is the basis of our spiritual blessings. If you are are a follower of Jesus, God has already blessed you with every Divine blessing and benefit that you could ever need. And in the verses that follow, we see Paul reveal for us these Divine blessings and benefits.

We will look at those verses tomorrow…

Jesus has the power to do the unexplainable to overcome death...

This week, we have been looking at a section of an account in Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of John. Wednesday we looked on as Jesus said to a woman named Martha “I am the One who brings life from death when one places their trust in Me. I am the One who brings reconciliation with God from separation from God when one places their trust in Me.” Jesus then asked Martha a timeless and powerful question: ‘”Do you believe this?” In other words Jesus asks Martha: “Are you willing to trust Me”?

We discovered that the question is not whether or not we live forever. The question is where are we going to live as we live forever? Are we going to live for all eternity in the relationship with God that we were created for as a result of responding to what God has done for us through Jesus life, death, and resurrection by believing, trusting, and following Jesus? Or are we going to live separated from God for all eternity because we refused to believe, trust and follow Jesus? Today, we will see John reveal for us how Martha answered that question in John 11:27:

 She said to Him, "Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world."

Martha basically says to Jesus “Jesus, You are large and in charge of my life. Jesus, I have placed my confident trust in You as the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a rescuer and a deliverer to bring me back to God. I am trusting that God has sent You to earth to bring us back to God.” But Martha here is not simply making a profession. John reveals for us how Martha demonstrated that she possessed a relationship that trusted in Jesus in verse 28:

 When she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to Him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and consoling her, when they saw that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept.

Mary hits at the core of our response when we find ourselves, as followers of Jesus, in the midst of difficult circumstances; “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died”. Jesus, if you had been here, I would still be married. Jesus, if you had been here, I would still have a job. Jesus, if you had been here, my wife would not have died of cancer. Jesus, if you had been here, my son would not be addicted to drugs”.  Jesus where were you?

You see, so often we have a picture and perspective of difficult circumstances that looks something like this: “God, I just got the news that I have cancer, but that’s o.k. because I know that you gave me cancer so that I could be miraculously healed and through that miraculous healing you will receive glory”.

However, sometimes, the difficult circumstances, from God’s perspective, looks like this: “yes you have cancer, but you are not going to get any better. You are just going to be really, really sick for a really long time and then you are going to die. I am going to receive glory not by you being miraculously healed from cancer; I am going to receive glory by how you live your life with cancer until you die”. Now, for some of you, in your mind this is what is happening “I am not listening, I am not listening; God is not like that, God is not like that”. Yes He is. That is why this story is in the Bible.

But notice what else we see about Jesus response to Mary and Martha’s grief, hurt and pain. Jesus did not avoid and remain distant from their grief and pain. Instead, John tells us that Jesus was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled. Now the phrase, deeply moved, in the language that this letter was originally written in, means to feel strongly about something. You see, Jesus was not apathetically detached from the grief, hurt, and pain that His close friends were experiencing.

In addition, the word troubled here literally means to experience deep inward turmoil. You see, Jesus was unsettled and stirred at the core of His being at the grief, hurt, and pain at the death of His close friend, whom He loved. And as the strong and stirring emotion of what Jesus was experiencing broke over Him like an ocean wave, John tells us that Jesus wept. Jesus wept over the brokenness of Mary and Martha in their grief, hurt, and pain. Jesus wept over the brokenness of Lazarus body. Jesus wept over the brokenness of the world that He had created. And Jesus wept over the brokenness of His own heart over the death of His close friend.

Now I find the fact that Jesus wept incredibly comforting. I find the fact that Jesus wept incredible comforting not simply because Jesus experienced grief and sorrow. I find the fact that Jesus wept incredibly comforting because Jesus desires to enter our lives and journey with us as we live life. Jesus came to earth and became one of us so that He could enter into our lives and journey with us through the uncertainty that life brings.

Regardless of the source or cause of where we are in life, Jesus desires to walk the journey with us. And as Jesus walked the journey with Martha and Mary, we see how others responded to what was happening in verse 36:

 So the Jews were saying, "See how He loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?" So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.

As we have seen throughout this series, Jesus once again causes a division among those around Him. While some applauded His love and concern for those He loved, others were critical of His absence and inaction. There were those who drew the conclusion that a lack of activity on Jesus part was due to the fact that Jesus was absent and unconcerned.

However, just as it was for Mary, and Martha, just because we feel like God is silent, that does not mean that God is not present and full invested in our difficult circumstances. Rick Warren once said “The teacher is always silent when the test is given. When God is silent in your life, you are being tested”. But God’s silence does not mean that God is absent and unconcerned. John then reveals for us what happened next in verse 39:

  Jesus said, "Remove the stone." Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days."

Martha basically says to Jesus, "You know Jesus, it has been four days since we asked you to come. It has been four days since Lazarus has been dead, so you don’t want to remove the stone because; as the Old King James Version says “He stinketh”. Notice Jesus response to Martha in verse 40:

Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"

 In other words, Jesus says to Martha, “Martha, did I not tell you that your trust in Me will result in God receiving glory? Martha are you going to trust Me? Do you trust Me enough to follow Me during the difficult times? Do you trust Me enough to be able to see how God is going to use what I am about to do to make much of Him?” What happens next is another event in history in that is unexplainable. An event in history that John records for us beginning in John 11:41:

 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. "I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me." When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth." The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.

Now, this morning, I want us to take a moment and imagine ourselves in this event from history as Lazarus. I want us to place ourselves in his shoes. Can you imagine what was going through Lazarus mind in the moments before he died? Was he questioning God? Did he doubt God? Or was he thinking “I don’t know how this is going to turn out, but I know God is going to do something through this?” The Bible doesn’t say.

Can you imagine what was running through Mary and Martha’s mind? What they were thinking? How were they feeling? The Bible doesn’t say. Can you imagine what was going through the disciples mind? What were they thinking? How were they feeling? Did the conversations over the previous four days suddenly make sense? The Bible doesn’t say.

What the Bible does tell us is that as a result of Jesus doing the unexplainable by bringing back Lazarus from the dead, many people placed their confident trust in Jesus as being the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a rescuer and deliverer to bring them back to God.

And it is in this event from history that that we see revealed for us a timeless truth when it comes to Jesus. And that timeless truth is that  Jesus has the power to do the unexplainable to overcome death. Just as it was with this unexplainable activity involving bringing back a man whom He had loved and who had died, just as it has been throughout history, Jesus has the power to do the unexplainable to overcome death.

You see Jesus, in doing the unexplainable, was providing a sign that was designed to reveal and point people to something significant about who He is and what He came to earth to do. And that sign was that Jesus has power as God to intervene and act in a way that overcomes death. Jesus has the power as God to provide the eternal and spiritual life that we so desperately need. 

And that is what Easter is all about. Easter is about God responding to the selfishness and rebellion of humanity that separated humanity from God by sending His Son Jesus as God in a bod to humanity in order to live the life that we were created to live and refused to live. Easter is all about Jesus willingly allowing Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. Easter is all about the reality that Jesus died on the cross, was buried in a tomb dead as a door nail, and was brought back to life as a result of God’s transformational activity.

You see the core message of the gospel, which simply means good news; the essence of Christianity is not about theology. The core message of the gospel and the essence of Christianity revolves around an event that occurred in history. What makes the Bible so compelling and different than other religious literature is that Christianity is rooted in history.

So here is a question to consider: Do you believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life? Do you believe that Jesus has the power to do the unexplainable to overcome death?

A Question of Life and Death...

This week, we are looking at an event from the history of Jesus life that is recorded for us in an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of John. Yesterday, we looked on as John gave us a glimpse into a very confusion conversation that Jesus was having with His disciples. After leaving Jerusalem and traveling across the Jordan River, Jesus and the disciples received word that a dear and close friend named Lazarus was sick.

Upon hearing of the sickness of his friend, Jesus explained to His disciples that this sickness would not end in death, but for the glory of God. In essence, Jesus was stating that God was going to receive glory as a result of Lazarus illness. John also tells us that Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters.

In the confusing conversation that followed, Jesus delayed for two days after receiving word that His dear and close friend Lazarus was sick, and then suddenly wanted to go back to a place where they had just tried to kill you. And then Jesus stated that Lazarus was only taking a nap. Today we will see Jesus, after the disciples missed the point, Jesus speak with unmistakable clarity in John 11:14:

 So Jesus then said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him."

Now do you think the disciples heard anything past the first seven words here? Would you have heard anything past the first seven words that Jesus spoke? What? Wait a minute. So Jesus you are saying that Lazarus is dead and that you are glad. You are glad that he is dead. Really? Jesus that is just sick and wrong. Jesus, I thought that you were the Messiah who was coming to alleviate and remove the pain and suffering from our lives. And now you say that you are glad that someone you love is dead?

Isn’t that the tension that we can find ourselves wrestling with when it comes to God? Can’t we find ourselves at a place in life where we find it unexplainable how a good and loving God could allow bad things to happen in the lives of those He loves?  How can Jesus seem to be so absent in the lives of His followers when they encounter difficult circumstances? And in their confusion, we see how the disciples responded in verse 16:

 Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, so that we may die with Him."

Thomas, who we know as the disciple who doubted Jesus, here shows a strong commitment to follow Jesus. Thomas basically says “let’s go along with Jesus and if we die, we die”. You see, the disciples had missed the boat. The disciples had missed Jesus statement that He was going to use Lazarus illness as a means to strengthen and grow the disciples trust in Him.

The disciples were focused on what had happened to them the last time they were in Jerusalem and on Jesus seemingly strange and confusing statement that He was glad that Lazarus was dead. John then reveals for us what happened next in verse 17:

So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off; and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house. Martha then said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.

Wow. That must have made Jesus feel good.  “Jesus where were you when Lazarus needed you most? If you would have been here, my brother would still be alive”. Look at what Martha says next:

"Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You."

Even in the midst of her grief, hurt and pain, Martha believed and trusted that Jesus could enter into and leverage this situation to help Lazarus. “Look Jesus, I know that you can help Lazarus. All you need to do is ask”. No pressure there. We see how Jesus responded to Martha’s pressure in verse 23:

 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."

Notice Martha’s response here: "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." In other words, Martha is basically saying “Jesus I know the correct theological answer in my head. I know that my brother was right with God and loved and trusted You. I know that I will see my brother again in Heaven at the end of God’s story here on earth”.

You see, theologically, Martha knew the correct churchy answer. But emotionally, Martha was a mess. Emotionally, Martha had a hard time believing that the person that she believed to be the Messiah, the person that she believed to be God in a bod, had let her down.

Have you been there? Have you ever been in the place where you feel like God has let you down? Have you ever been in the place where you theology does not seem to be helping you emotionally? And it is in this context that we see Jesus make a timeless statement and ask a timeless question, which John records for us in John 11:25:

 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?"

Now Jesus statement, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “Martha, I am the resurrection and I am life. Martha the resurrection is not about a time in history. The resurrection is about Me entering into history. As a result of Me entering into history, whoever trusts in Me while they are living, will never be separated from Me spiritually. And whoever dies physically after placing their trust in Me, will always live spiritually in the relationship with Me that they were created for.”

You see, the question is not whether or not we live forever. We were created as eternal beings. When the Bible uses the word death, this word refers to the separation that every human being experiences. When we physically die, our soul is separated from our bodies. When we selfishly rebel against God by doing things that hurt God and others, we are spiritually separated from God. And if we experience physical death, where our soul is separated from our bodies, while we are spiritually dead, which is to be separated from God as a result of our selfishness and rebellion, we experience eternal death, which is eternal separation from God.

Jesus is saying to Martha “I am the One who brings life from death when one places their trust in Me. I am the One who brings reconciliation with God from separation from God when one places their trust in Me.” Jesus then asks Martha a timeless and powerful question: ‘”Do you believe this?” In other words Jesus asks Martha: “Are you willing to trust Me”?

And today, Jesus asks us that very same question. Today Jesus asks “Are you willing to trust Me”? “Are you willing to trust that I am the One who brings life from death?  Are you willing to trust that I am the One who brings reconciliation with God from separation from God?”

You see the question is not whether or not we live forever. The question is where are we going to live as we live forever? Are we going to live for all eternity in the relationship with God that we were created for as a result of responding to what God has done for us through Jesus life, death, and resurrection by believing, trusting, and following Jesus? Or are we going to live separated from God for all eternity because we refused to believe, trust and follow Jesus? John then reveals for us how Martha answered that question in verse 27:

 She said to Him, "Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world."

Martha basically says to Jesus “Jesus, You are large and in charge of my life. Jesus, I have placed my confident trust in You as the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a rescuer and a deliverer to bring me back to God. I am trusting that God has sent You to earth to bring us back to God.” But Martha here is not simply making a profession.

Tomorrow, we will see John reveal for us how Martha demonstrated that she possessed a relationship that trusted in Jesus...

A Confusing Conversation...

This Easter at the church where I serve, we came to the conclusion of a sermon series entitled Unexplainable. During this series, we have been spending our time together  looking at seven unexplainable events from the life of Jesus that are recorded for us in an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of John.

And as John gives us a front row seat to these events from history that seemed to be unexplainable, our hope and our prayer is that we would be able to see how these unexplainable events from history that occurred through Jesus reveal for us several timeless truths about Jesus that have the potential to powerfully impact how we view Jesus.

This week, I would like for us to look at the seventh and final event from history that seems to be unexplainable. And as John gives us a front row seat to this event from history, we will discover another timeless truth about Jesus that have the potential to powerfully impact how we view Jesus. So let’s look at this event from history together, beginning in John 11:1:

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick." But when Jesus heard this, He said, "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." Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

John brings us into this unexplainable event from the history of Jesus life by providing for us the context in which this unexplainable event would take place. At this point in His life, Jesus and His disciples had just left Jerusalem after a confrontation with the self righteous religious leaders of the day, who had attempted to kill Jesus.

After leaving Jerusalem and traveling across the Jordan River, Jesus and the disciples received word that a dear and close friend named Lazarus was sick. Upon hearing of the sickness of his friend, Jesus explained to His disciples that this sickness would not end in death, but for the glory of God. In essence, Jesus was stating that God was going to receive glory as a result of Lazarus illness. John also tells us that Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters.

Now imagine yourself in this event from history as one of the disciples. Place yourself in their shoes. As you have traveled with Jesus during the past three years, you have seen Jesus do the unexplainable. And every time Jesus does the unexplainable, God has received glory. And now comes word that Lazarus, who Jesus loves deeply, is suffering from a illness so serious that they have sent messengers to inform you. You then hear Jesus say that their good friend Lazarus sickness would bring glory to God.

You’re a disciple. How would you respond? I mean, Jesus statement sounds great doesn’t it? You would want God to get glory, wouldn’t you? And, as a disciple, you have seen Jesus do the unexplainable to bring glory to God. So, as a disciple, would you not expect Jesus to do the unexplainable here? Would you not expect Jesus to say to the messenger something like “Go, Lazarus lives”, which is what He had said to the Jewish royal official, who was a total stranger, in the unexplainable event from a few weeks ago in John 5. I mean you would expect Jesus to do or say something like that for someone that He loved, wouldn’t you? We see what Jesus did next in verse 6:

So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.

Woo; wait a minute; I thought Jesus loved Lazarus. But if Jesus loved Lazarus and had received a message from Mary and Martha to come heal Lazarus, then why is He waiting? Maybe you find yourself in a place in your life where you feel like you are waiting for God to enter into a difficult circumstance and bring help and healing, but it seems like Jesus is delaying. Maybe you find yourself waiting on Jesus.  Now, if that isn’t confusing enough, look what happens next:

 Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?"

Now imagine yourself as one of Jesus disciples. You have just fled Jerusalem after the self righteous religious leaders had attempted to kill you. And now, after delaying two days after receiving word that a close friend, whom Jesus loves, is sick, Jesus decides that He wants to head back to the very place that they had just tried to kill you? You are a disciple. What would you be thinking? How would you be feeling? How would you respond?

You would respond like the disciples responded, wouldn’t you? “Jesus, I don’t think that this is a good idea. You didn’t seem to be in a rush to leave two days earlier. I mean you already said that Lazarus wasn’t going to die; and remember the last time that we were there they tried to kill you.” We see Jesus response in verse 9:

 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. "But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."

The disciples were probably looking at each other and saying “why does He always have to talk like that? John, what is He talking about?” By asking “are there not twelve hours in the day”, Jesus is revealing that there was still time for Him to intervene in Lazarus life prior to His arrest and crucifixion. Jesus then uses the imagery of walking in the day to explain that He was still acting according to His Father’s desire for His life.

And because there was still time; because Jesus was acting according to His Father’s desire for His life, they should still make the most of His presence on earth, while He was still on earth as the Light of the world that reveals and explains God. By contrast, those who walk at night, which is a word picture of those who live their lives according to their selfishness and rebellion instead of according to God’s desires for their lives, are going to stumble and fall short when it comes to living according to God’s desires for their lives. Now if that is not confusing enough, look at what Jesus says next in verse 11:

This He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep." The disciples then said to Him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep.

Now, imagine yourself as a disciple. Can you see how confusing this conversation would be? First, people who you claim to love come and tell you that their brother, who you say you love is sick and ask you to come heal him. Then you delay for two days, and then suddenly want to go back to a place where they had just tried to kill you. And then you say that Lazarus is only taking a nap.

Well if Lazarus is asleep, let him sleep, I mean it’s not worth losing our lives over, is it? He doesn’t need us to be his alarm clock. Can you imagine how confused you would be at this point?

Having missed the point, we see Jesus speak with unmistakable clarity in verse 14. We will look at what Jesus had to say there tomorrow…

Jesus has the power to do the unexplainable to overcome suffering...

Last week, we were looking at a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of John. Friday, we looked on as a man who had never read the Bible, theologically schooled those who considered themselves experts in the Bible. We looked on while the self righteous religious people were interested in doctrinal debates and aligning themselves with Moses, the man who was born blind was more focused on what Jesus had done that was otherwise unexplainable apart from God. Today, we will jump back into this section of the gospel of John and see how the self righteous religious people responded to being schooled in John 9:34:

 They answered him, "You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?" So they put him out.

John tells us that the self righteous religious people, who were now embarrassed after being theologically schooled by an uneducated blind man, attacked the man as being blind as a result of being someone who, like Jesus, did not measure up to God’s standards and was an outsider who was opposed to God.

You see, just like the disciples earlier, these self righteous religious people assumed that bad things happened to bad people. And as a result of that assumption, John tells us that they kicked the man that had been miraculously healed by the Son of God out of the church that was supposed to point people to God. Because that is what self righteous religious people do, isn't it? We see how Jesus responded to what had happened in verse 35:

 Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" He answered, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you." And he said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped Him. And Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind."

John tells us that Jesus, after hearing that the man that he had healed had been kicked out of the church that was supposed to point people to Him, responded by once again taking the initiative in order to pursue Him. Upon finding him, Jesus asked the man who had been born blind a simple but powerful question: "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" In other words, Jesus is asking this man if He had placed his trust in God’s promise that one day a rescuer, a deliverer, a Messiah, would come to bring the Jewish people back to God and back to prominence in the world.

Notice the man’s response: "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" Remember, at this point this man had not seen Jesus. He had heard Jesus voice; he had felt Jesus hands upon his face, but he had not seen Jesus. But this man wanted to trust in the man that God had promised to send. This man wanted to trust in the man that he had not yet seen but that had done the unexplainable to him.

And then this man who had been blind heard the following: "You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you." John tells us that the man who had been healed from his physical blindness responded by basically saying “I trust in you” and then fell to the ground in worship of God in a bod, who unexplainably brought rescue and healing from a lifetime of suffering.

Jesus then proclaimed to the crowds that had gathered around Him that this was the reason why He came to humanity. Jesus proclaimed that He came to humanity so that God would be revealed and proclaimed to those who had not previously been able to see God because they were spiritually blind. And Jesus came to humanity so that those who thought that they were insiders with God through their own religious activity and had rejected Jesus would be revealed as being blind to the things of God. John then concludes this section of his letter by revealing the response of the self righteous religious people in verse 41:

Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, "We are not blind too, are we?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, 'We see,' your sin remains.

John tells us that the self righteous religious people responded to Jesus explanation for His entry into humanity with a defensive question: "We are not blind too, are we?" They basically asked Jesus “so are you saying that we are spiritually blind?”

 Jesus response to their question, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today would have sounded like this: “If you had been previously blind to the things of God, you would be without sin because would have received the forgiveness of sin as a result of trusting in Me. But because you claim to have spiritual sight when it comes to God but reject Me, you reveal that you are actually spiritually blind and remain in sin”.

Jesus point is that those who claim to have spiritual sight apart from Jesus will be shown up for the blind people that they are, while those who are spiritually blind to their selfishness and sin and need for forgiveness, will through Jesus receive the ability to see their need for forgiveness and the relationship with God that they were created for.

And it is in this event from history that that we see revealed for us a timeless truth when it comes to Jesus. And that timeless truth is this: Jesus has the power to do the unexplainable to overcome suffering. Just as it was with this unexplainable activity involving a man who had suffered his entire life without sight, just as it has been throughout history, Jesus has the power to do the unexplainable to overcome suffering.

You see Jesus, in doing the unexplainable, was providing a sign that was designed to reveal and point people to something significant about who He is and what He came to earth to do. And that sign was that Jesus has power as God to intervene and act in a way that overcomes suffering. Jesus has the power as God to alleviate suffering, both physical and spiritual.  Jesus provides the sight that helps people see God and their need for Him. And Jesus works through suffering, and our response to suffering, to make much of Him and point people to Him.

So here is a question to consider: Do you assume that bad things always happen to bad people and good things always happen to good people? Do you believe that Jesus has the power to do the unexplainable to overcome suffering? Because as we have seen this morning, Jesus has the power to overcome suffering and Jesus uses suffering and our response to suffering to point people to Him.

Trying to Explain the Unexplainable...

This week, we are looking at an unexplainable event from the history of Jesus life that is recorded for us in an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of John. Tuesday, we looked on as Jesus approached a man who had been born blind, then spit on the ground, made mud pies to cover his eyes, and then told him to walk a half a mile to a pool called the pool of Siloam in order to wash the mud pies off his eyes so that he could see.

We looked on as the blind man responded by making the half mile trip to the pool of Siloam. By having to go wash in the pool of Siloam, the blind man had to demonstrate His trust in Jesus by obeying Jesus instructions. And the blind man’s trust in Jesus resulted in the unexplainable happening. Today we will see John record how those who knew the blind man responded to what had happened in John 9:8:

Therefore the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, "Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?" Others were saying, "This is he," still others were saying, "No, but he is like him." He kept saying, "I am the one." So they were saying to him, "How then were your eyes opened?" He answered, "The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash'; so I went away and washed, and I received sight." They said to him, "Where is He?" He said, "I do not know."

Now how dumb is this question? Where is He? I don't know, you see I was blind at the time. Seriously. The reason why the blind man did not know where Jesus was at is due to the fact that the blind man had no idea what Jesus looked like because he had never seen Jesus. John tells us that crowds were confused over the identity of the blind man because they could not wrap their minds around the reality that he was no longer blind.

And in their confusion; and in their search for answers in order to explain what seemed to be unexplainable, the crowds brought the blind man to the Pharisees, who were the self righteous religious experts. John then records how the experts responded to what they saw in verse 13:

They brought to the Pharisees the man who was formerly blind. Now it was a Sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also were asking him again how he received his sight. And he said to them, "He applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and I see." Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, "This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath." But others were saying, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And there was a division among them. So they said to the blind man again, "What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?" And he said, "He is a prophet."

When John explains that it was the Sabbath on the day that Jesus had healed the blind man, he is revealing for us the reality that Jesus had broken one of the religious leaders rules by doing the unexplainable on a day when no work was supposed to be done. John tells us that the self righteous religious leaders of the day responded to Jesus doing the unexplainable by viewing Jesus as one did not measure up to God’s standards and thus an outsider that was not in relationship with God but opposed to God. 

The Pharisees believed that a man sent from God would not violate one of His rules, so then Jesus must be a false prophet and a sinner because He was breaking the Sabbath. Others, however, could not understand how someone who was an outsider that was opposed to God could perform a miracle that only God could do. And as a result, John tells us that there was a division among the self righteous religious leaders of the day. You see, Jesus always divides people. Jesus is not the type of person that one remains on the fence about.

The self righteous religious leaders then turned to the man who had previously been born blind in order to get His opinion. By calling Jesus a prophet, the man, who had not previously known Jesus, responded to what had happened in his life by giving Jesus a title that seemed to fit Jesus and that others who had performed miracles had received.

You see, when placed in the middle of an argument and asked to choose sides; the man who was born blind did not hesitate, but was definite when it came to how he defined Jesus. We see how the Pharisees responded to the blind man’s’ statement in verse 18:

The Jews then did not believe it of him, that he had been blind and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight, and questioned them, saying, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?" His parents answered them and said, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself." His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue. For this reason his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."

John tells us that the self righteous religious leaders rejected the man’s opinion and called for his parents. You see, while they acknowledged that the unexplainable had taken place, their focus was centered on who people thought Jesus was, not on the miracle itself.

And the parents, who were people pleasers, were more focused on losing their status in the community than they were of defending their son and rejoicing in the unexplainable activity that had occurred in his life. So they avoided answering the religious leader’s questions and put their son back in the spotlight. We see what happened next in verse 24:

 So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, "Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner." He then answered, "Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see."

Now the self righteous religious leaders question, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “Tell the truth and stop lying, we know that this man does not measure up to God’s standards and is an outsider that is opposed to God”.

The blind man, however, was not interested in having a theological debate. And the blind man could not answer their deep doctrinal question as to whether or not Jesus was an outsider who was opposed to God. All the blind man knew was what he had experienced and that is what he wanted to talk about. John the reveals for us what happened next in verse 26:

 So they said to him, "What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?" He answered them, "I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?"

As the self righteous religious people pressed the man who had been born blind, John tells us that the man responded by choosing to align himself with Jesus. The blind man chose to respond to Jesus unexplainable activity in his life by taking His side. We see how the self righteous religious people responded to the man’s response in verse 28:

 They reviled him and said, "You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. "We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from."

Now the word reviled literally means to abuse someone verbally in a very insulting manner. And as they insulted this man who had been previously born blind, these self righteous religious people attempted to make themselves appear to be right by identifying and aligning with Moses.

The self righteous religious people basically say to the man who had previously been blind: “So you want to follow this Jesus, well we follow Moses. And we know that God was with Moses because of all that God had said and done through Moses. We know that Moses was on God’s team because of all the miracles that Moses did and how God gave Moses the Law. But the guy you follow, this Jesus, there is no evidence that God is with Him or that He is on God’s team”.

These self righteous religious leaders looked down and insulted this man as being inferior in education and intellect. What these self righteous religious leaders were not prepared for, however, was what the man who had been previously been blind had to say next, which John records for us in John 9:30:

  The man answered and said to them, "Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. "We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. "Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. "If this man were not from God, He could do nothing."

Now the man’s response if communicated in the language that we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “Well it seems remarkable to me that you do not seem to know if He is from God or not after He has done something as miraculous as enabling a man like me who has previously been blind to be able to see. What is amazing to me is that even though I have never been able to read a Bible or go to Torah class so as to become a rabbi, one thing that I do know about God is this: What I know and what everybody knows is that God does not pay attention and respond to the requests of those who do not measure up to His standards and are outsiders that are opposed to Him. What I know and what everybody knows is that God pays attention and responds to the requests of those who place Him large and in charge of their lives and are walking in relationship with Him. And here is something else that I do know: no human being throughout history has ever done something like this without the intervention and activity of God. And I don’t even remember Moses healing a man that was born blind, do you? So it’s obvious to me that this man named Jesus is from God”.

You see this man, who had never read the Bible, had just theologically schooled those who considered themselves experts in the Bible. While the self righteous religious people were interested in doctrinal debates and aligning themselves with Moses, the man who was born blind was more focused on what Jesus had done that was otherwise unexplainable apart from God. John then reveals how the self righteous religious people responded to being schooled in verse 34:

 They answered him, "You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?" So they put him out.

John tells us that the self righteous religious people, who were now embarrassed after being theologically schooled by an uneducated blind man, attacked the man as being blind as a result of being someone who, like Jesus, did not measure up to God’s standards and was an outsider who was opposed to God.

You see, just like the disciples earlier, these self righteous religious people assumed that bad things happened to bad people. And as a result of that assumption, John tells us that they kicked the man that had been miraculously healed by the Son of God out of the church that was supposed to point people to God. Because that is what self righteous religious people do, isn't it?

 

Tomorrow, we will see how Jesus responded to what had happened...