27: LAZARUS IS RAISED FROM THE DEAD.. John Chapter11.

Jesus had some special friends in Bethany they were Lazarus and his two sisters Martha and Mary, One day while Jesus was preaching and teaching quite a long way from Bethany, He received a message from the women to tell Him their brother Lazarus was ill. When Jesus received this news, He didn’t immediately go to them. There’s no reason given in Scripture why Jesus didn’t go straight away but, I wonder if The Holy Spirit might have spoken to Him, because in v4, He came out with these words “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory, so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” And He stayed there for another two days, and in fact went back to Judea. On the way it seems, He told His disciples Lazarus was asleep and He was going to Bethany. to wake him up. I have to tell you here, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead, but the Sadducees did not. Neither did they believe in hell, Heaven, angels and a few other things, this is what really separated them, So when the Pharisees spoke of death, they often used the word sleep for death, because, they believed if you were asleep you could be woken up. The Sadducees however believed death was the end of ones existence, they did not believe in any after-life. I think it is important to know this, to understand that Lazarus was really dead. It’s interesting that there’s no record in the Bible of anyone telling Jesus that His friend had died, but when His disciples pressed Him further (v14-15) He Himself said “Lazarus is dead and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe”...Believe what? Believe who He “Jesus” really was when they saw the up-coming miracle. And the disciples went with Him to Bethany. (v17) On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb four days and many friends had come to support Martha and Mary. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming into the town she went out to meet Him, but Mary stayed home, she may have been a bit upset with Jesus for not coming when He was first told about her brother’s illness. Sometimes we too get a bit upset with God when He doesn’t answer our requests immediately, but as we will see, He always has a good reason for whatever He does and very often His Will for a situation is quite different from ours. (v21) Martha said to Jesus “If You had been here my brother would not have died. But I know, even now, God will give You whatever You ask.” This speaks of her Faith in God, but Jesus wanted her to to go a step further, to believe in Him as The Word of God and in fact that He was God, and so He said to Martha “Your brother will rise again” to which she replied “Yes I know he’ll rise again in the resurrection on the last day. (she still hadn’t got it) So Jesus spelled it out for her,” I AM the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; (Jesus is talking here about the death of the body) and whoever lives by believing in me will never die..(And here about the Soul) Do you believe this.” It was/is really important for Martha and for us too, not only to believe but understand exactly what Jesus is saying here. In the very words “I Am” He’s lining Himself up with God (Only God can raise someone from death to life) and guess what? I Am that I AM. Do you believe that Martha. And Martha replied “Yes Lord I believe You are the Messiah, The Son of God, who is to come into the world.” That was and is the answer God wants from each of us. With that answer Martha was saying I now truly understand, accept and believe all the Scriptures concerning the coming of the Messiah and Your entry into the world. (v28) After Martha said this she went and called her sister Mary and they both went to accompany Jesus into the town and others from the town followed them. When Mary saw Jesus she fell at His feet weeping, she said “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died.” A word here about repentance, sometimes God gives us a negative answer, she was expecting one from Jesus now, and was prepared to accept it, that’s why she was weeping. At the end o verse 28 we read Jesus was asking for Mary, even if we are not happy with The Lord about something, He still is looking for us to come back to Him and repent for having turned away, He’s ready to forgive and renew our relationship with Him. When Jesus saw her and her friends weeping Scripture tells us, He was deeply moved and troubled in spirit and said “Where have you laid him?” “Come and see” they said and Jesus wept. Some of the Jews were saying “See how He loved Him” but others were saying (v37) Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying.” You may be having those same thoughts, or, if He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead why did He weep? Scripture doesn’t tell us, but some Scholars say, because in spite of the miracle which He was about to perform there were those who would not believe in Him, (v38) Jesus once more deeply moved came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. He said “Take away the stone.” But Martha said “By this time there will be a bad odour, He has been in there four days” You see we all want God to work miracles in our lives, but we don’t want to ‘remove “the stone” that is hindering God’s hand from working the miracle for us;. What we don’t understand is,.. when the stone is removed the bad smell and darkness comes out and the fresh breath of the Spirit along with the light of the World can get in. So, do you want God to work a miracle in your life?...A husband or wife to come to The Lord,.. A Child to return to God,.. A serious illness, injury or deformity to be healed. Ask yourself, Do I have a stone in my life? What is it? , that may be hindering God’s miracle from happening for me?. Perhaps some unconfessed sin, Or an elicit relationship,.. Have you injured someone’s character by lying about them or spreading malicious gossip... Had, or assisted in an abortion, or Euthanasia anything that nobody else knows about you, (the Stone) that could be holding you back from deepening your relationship with God and being abundently blessed by Him. Take Your Sin to Jesus, sit at His feet and confess, He is ready, willing and able to forgive, take you back and start working miracles in your life. In v40 Jesus replied to Martha “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the Glory of God” So they took away the stone, THEN Jesus looked up and prayed “Father I thank you that You Have heard me, I know that You always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, so they may believe that You sent Me” Notice the word THEN, Jesus didn’t even pray until the stone had been removed, Jesus’ prayer to the Father included the words, “I Know you always hear me.” So if we want Jesus to pray to the Father for us, we need to remove anything that may be blocking the way of His prayer. As Christians, we need to examine our hearts, and motives, asking God to show us anythi8ng that might be hindering or blocking our relationship with Him. We need to humbly ask His forgiveness and clean up any mess that may be lurking there this I believe shows our intent and recognition before a Holy God, that we want to be a pure vessel before Him, especially when we ask Him to work miracles for us and our loved ones. I think, the depth and sincerity of our relationship with God is judged by the purity of the vessel. (Remove the Stone) I believe coming to God for ourselves or for someone else expecting a miracle requires us to pray first for a clean heart and clear conscience “Create in me a Clean heart Oh Lord, and renew a right Spirit within me” was David’s prayer, He prayed that prayer, to remove any barrier that might hinder his relationship with God. I truly believe God wants to answer our prayers, but sometimes there is sin (a stone) in the way and that can’t be removed unless we take it to the cross. Only then is God able to enter into that situation. Often (as in the case of Lazarus,) we are asking God to change a natural situation by Supernatural means, after all that is what a miracle is and only God is capable of doing that. So we who are approaching God for a miracle need to have a pure heart before Him. What happens when we pray and believe? The stone (sin) is removed and “The glory of God can be seen, as Jesus said in v40. A word of caution here, Always end your prayer with “Thy Will Be Done.” My first hand experience is ...Doesn’t matter how desperate the situation may be, or how pure ones heart is. don’t resort to..”Naming, Claiming or demanding.” Always give God the last word, He knows best for all concerned. He can see what we can’t. He is God. When they had taken away the stone, Jesus prayed “Father, I thank you that You have heard me, I know that You always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that You sent me.” Once again Jesus was claiming to be God’s Son by calling Him Father, and proving it by the miracle He was about to perform. But still in the very next chapter the Jews were making plans to kill Him. After Jesus prayed, He called in a loud voice”Lazarus come out” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said “Take off the grave cloths and let him go.” I believe Jesus never waisted words, So Why did He need to say those words?.. I would say,...To prove this wasn’t a ghost or some sort of ”dead man walking,” No, This was a dead man being brought back to life after four days in the grave, a miracle which only God Himself can perform, for those of us who will remove the stone and have the faith to trust God and believe. Thank you for reading my take on The Raising of Lazarus from the dead. I pray as we search His Word together and learn His Truth as revealed to us by the power of The Holy Spirit we get to believe and trust Him more each day Through Jesus Christ Our Lord, Phaline.

26 GOD SOWS SEEDS. LUKE 8. 4-15

In the above parable Jesus will explain what happens when God sends seeds of Faith for His children the first thing to notice is, there is no shortage of Faith-seeds He throws it on the Path, on the Rocky Ground, some where the thorn bushes are and even manages to get some on the field for the crop. So the problem is not with the amount of seed, there’s plenty of that, it can be taken up by anyone. So why isn’t it taken up and spread abroad more than it is? I am attempting to answer that question today. We are not born with Faith, Like all good things in this world, we have to learn to achieve them, in this case we have to hear about it, seek it out, understand it and evaluate it. As Paul tells us “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God,” Once God gives us the gift of Faith and we know that God is the source of all truth We begin to understand Faith. We all have two ears and most of us have pretty good hearing, so we know we have to listen carefully as we hear Scripture being read and explained to us, therefore, the reason Faith is not exercised is, either we are not listening, or we are not being taught, or, we just don’t want it, or perhaps a bit of all three, in the case of the first two, I suggest we could read it aloud to ourselves so that we can hear it. And allow the Holy Spirit to teach us. When we hear something it goes through our ears to our brain, and is stored there for future reference like a computor. God made us, He knows our capabilities, our senses, everything about us. He knows what we can say to whom. So why don’t we speak-up​? Embarrassed?... It was pretty embarrassing hanging naked on a cross for sins He didn’t commit... Don’t want to make a fool of yourself?,... The Son of God made a fool of Himself for us.... People might scoff and laugh at us?…. “The people scoffed at Jesus saying, “He saved others, let him save himself” So He’s not asking us to do anything for Him, which He hasn’t already done for us. In the case of people in the third category, “those who just don’t want to know about God, or only want an argument I believe we have to leave them to God, but never stop living a Christian life and giving examples of our own faith. I believe this Parable is one of the most basic teachings Jesus gave us, so nobody can say they don’t understand, Jesus chose something as small as a seed to show us how little Faith we need to trust Him, and how few words we need to use. If we take up His offer and give a seed to each person we meet, I wonder Just how large a field we would cover. Yes, some will be waisted, and Satin will come and have his way with some of the seed, but there’s plenty more where that came from. In Luke 8.v4 Jesus tells us the parable about the farmer who sowed some seed in his field. He gave us four examples of what happens when seed is sown. It’s interesting to note that even the disciples who had been with Jesus for several months didn’t understand this parable and He had to explain it to them and give them the reason why He was speaking in parables There were people there just as there are people in the world today who can’t and don’t understand about The Kingdom of God, but we can, So, like Jesus, we have to speak to them in the language they do understand fields and birds, rocky ground and the heat of the sun etc” In other words, Jesus is telling us Don’t talk to new Comers with churchy words or Theological phrases they have no idea what we are talking about. Just tell them about Jesus, How much He loves them and why ,and what He has done for them. I believe, By following His methods we may get better results. Jesus explained to the disciples the parable (Luke 8.v11) The seed is the Word of God. Although we can’t change or minimise it we can simplify it. Inevitably as the farmer goes to the perimeter of the field some will go on to the pathway, and be waisted and birds will come and eat it, in other words, people will hear it and say “What a nice story” instead of taking a few minutes to really listen they ignore the Word of God, while others will reject it out of hand, because Satin jumps in and tells them they’ve done okay in life so far without all that God stuff, so they don’t need it now. But, God keeps giving us more opportunities to pick up on those seeds and come to Him before trouble hits and we live to regret not having taken op such opportunities. It’s good to remember God never withdraws His offer or runs out of the good seed of Salvation, it’s always waiting to be picked up. The second example Jesus gave was the seed that falls on Rocky ground, have you ever noticed, where there are rocky surfaces, there are also little puddles of water keeping tufts of grass green for a short time, and also making the rocks slippery then as the water dries up so does the grass, it’s a process, and so it is with Faith, while it’s fresh, nice, green and moist all is well, but when the water dries up and challenges arrive the grass dies and things get a little tough so does the faith of those who are only there for the good times without putting in much effort or commitment they slowly get bored and slip off the Rock and get washed away. There is no stability, staying power or willingness to learn about God. This is usually brought about by not looking for and finding a Christian friend who can help them in to a good Bible-believing church, or not feeling welcome when they do find one. It’s important, if you see a new face at church to welcome them, remember you were a stranger once and someone came and spoke to you. One never knows just what The Lord has lined up for you, so speak to a stranger, you may save a soul for Christ. Jesus’ third example was The seed that fell among thorns. It was choked by the worries, riches and pleasures of this world. Thorns are horrible things, and I believe Christ chose them very deliberately, they can hurt, even draw blood at times. Some people find it difficult to fully accept Christ, the reasons are varied and numerous; The price is going to be too high, others are of the opinion they have to be a really good person to be a Christian, still some think they have been so bad, God wouldn’t want anything to do with them. These are worldly attitudes and obstacles which choke many a searching heart that desperately needs Christ. These people need to be dealt with sensitively and with gentleness. Tell such people it doesn’t cost anything to come to Jesus just Come as they are, Give Jesus a chance , You have nothing to loose, and everything to gain. He can deal with liars, thieves, bad mouth, porn, abortion, prostitution anything, tell them they are not the first to come to Him in a mess, He has dealt with much worse than they are, if they really want to change and have a new start in life, Jesus is the only way, tell them He died for them to come to Him and receive eternal life. Explain to them exactly what Eternal life really means. Living forever in the happiness of Heaven with God and all the people who have gone there ahead of us. they will live in peace and harmony, no pain, no tears or fighting, disagreements arguments or heartaches, life will be perfect. Why would anyone not want that, especially when one looks at the mess the world is in today. Tell them the only reason God wants them to turn to Him is because He loves them and gave up His very life for them, surely He deserves a chance. Go the extra mile, offer to pick them up for church, or take them for coffee, invite them for a meal, give them your phone number, make yourself available, that’s what true Christianity is really about. Is God asking you to be a Soul Saver for Him today? What an opportunity.!!! The sequence of the words Jesus chose is interesting, “Worries” When one worries it shows a lack of Faith, hundreds of times we read in Scripture “Do not worry” and “Just Believe”, I know these are the most difficult for a new Christian to master, but I can tell you from personal experience when you have mastered worry, all the other virtues are a breeze. The more Faith I have, the less I worry, so pray for God to increase your Faith He really does take care of things when we allow Him to. The problems come when we don’t understand what or why he is doing certain things especially when those thing are exactly what we wouldn’t do, some get fearful and start to put their own spin on it, then things really go wrong and they blame God, However, all is not lost , Confess and try again with smaller things, watch Him work and slowly you will learn to trust Him with bigger things , You’ll be amazed. The next words He used were Riches and Pleasures. We want Riches to buy things that bring us the pleasures of this world. God has given us this world and all that is in it for our enjoyment and pleasure. But, We have to understand where and in whom our Identity lies, as Christians, we belong to Him, and our priority must be Him and His desire for us. So, if we make an Idol of anything else, money, riches and pleasures, we are putting that thing, person or place on the same footing as God who has no equal. This is a sign of misunderstanding and immaturity and will very soon lead us away from God. Jesus said, The Forth Seed fell on good soil. This didn’t let them off the hook, He said “They retain it and nurture it and by persevering produce a good crop.” note the words nurture and persevering, You see we can’t say “I’m a Christian, I know some scripture, go to church, sing the songs, give tithes etc. so I’ll be okay, No, Being a Christian is an activity, it’s an everyday 24/7 job. Now, you can make this a chore or a joyful experience. I know there are some Sects, Churches and religious organisations that require their members to go door-to-door or stand on street corners to preach, and if they are preaching Jesus I don’t have a problem. Jesus said “If they are not against me they are for me” But I would rather bring them to church, take them out for coffee, or spend a bit of time with them in either of our homes. The Command for a Christian is;--”Go and Teach all Nations Baptizing them In the name of The Father and of The Son and of The Holy Spirit” So you see there is a requirement even for those of us who had the Faith Seed fall into their lap as it were. Jesus said “To whom much has given, much is required,” in fact this is a Command for the long-term mature Christian who by persevering will produce a large crop . We all have to answer for what we have been given, and one day, Jesus will want to know what we did with the seed we were given. See the parable of the Talents. Our Christian Faith is so precious, it has to be valued, nurtured, guarded and protected, yet spread thickly all over the world. This is not an easy job and that’s why God sent us His Holy Spirit to help advise and comfort us. We need His input in every situation to keep us awake and alert as the devil roams around the earth “Seeking whom he may devour.” That’s not just you and me, but the New Christians who we must nurture and help along with the seeds which we’ve been given. These seeds are not only of Faith, but Our God also sends seeds of Hope, of Love, Integrity, Holiness, Kindness etc. It’s always a good practise before one goes into a situation to ask The Holy Spirit’s presence to provide us with an abundance of the particular seed necessary to meet the requirements of the situation. This has a two-fold effect (1) it keeps us humble and (2) it gives us confidence knowing and feeling the presence of God. I hope I’ve provided some food for thought regarding the parable of the Seeds. Prayer is our ultimate weapon, use it often. God Bless and protect us all in Jesus’ name Phaline. ------------------------