Give to the Lord the glory he
deserves! Bring your offering and come into his presence. Worship the Lord in all his holy splendor. -- 1Chronicles 16:
29 (NLT)
Their brother has been dead for four days now. Four long days of mourning a loss they did not expect. Four days of waiting for their friend to come to town. Their friend who they know could have healed him. Could have made him whole again. Could have prevented him from lying in the tomb he now lay in. Jesus was so moved by their grieving that the Bible says He wept. God cried at the loss His two friends were experiencing. Jesus then raised Lazarus from the dead. He said "come forth" and the dead man walked out of the tomb alive. Here was the result:
Therefore
many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put
their faith in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what
Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of
the Sanhedrin. "What are we accomplishing?" they asked. "Here is this man
performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will
believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and
our nation." - John 11: 45-48 (NIV)
Note the two different reactions from the witnesses to this unbelievable miracle. They are the same two reactions we see today from people who have to decide on whether to place their faith in Jesus. They are the same two reactions we see today from religious leaders when people take a stand for the true and uncompromised Gospel of Jesus Christ. People will either ascribe the glory due to His name or they will plot and scheme because of their own carnal concerns.
The first group here saw what Jesus did and put their faith in Him. Can you blame them? If I had just witnessed someone being raised from the dead -- after being entombed for four days -- I think I would put my faith in that person. When God makes Himself real to us we too must choose to place our faith in Him and believe. Realize that a great many people see the miracle and still deny the deity. They incorrectly see Christianity as having to give up pleasures in this life when in reality it is about God delivering them from bondages they cannot see.
Realize that unbelievers have a chance every day to accept the overwhelming evidence of a Creator. They choose to walk out at sunset and think it a random event. The truth is the vast majority of unbelievers are actually agnostic. The true atheist percentage is less than 10%. The agnostic accepts that there is a God -- they just choose to do nothing about it. They do not seek His counsel. They do not seek His wisdom. They do not even seek to find out what He might want. They have bought into the lies of the world system and the devil which has convinced them that they are not "bad" people. What they are missing is the point of comparison. The world convinces us to compare ourselves to other humans and when we do that -- we can always find someone worse than we are! When we put ourselves before the holy and sinless God however, we are reduced to filthy rags. It is only when we stand in that position do we truly begin to feel the weight of our own sin and finally begin to ascribe the glory due to His name.
The second group however is interesting to look at and consider here in this story. They too just witnessed an extraordinary and supernatural miracle. They too knew that the man named Lazarus had been dead and entombed for four days when Jesus shouted, "Come forth!" Really think about this. They saw the exact same thing as those who believed. They correctly realized that these were indeed miraculous signs based upon their own words. Yet in their carnality they seemingly did not care that this was an act of God. The only thing they were able to see was their own situation. The only concern they had was for themselves and their own earthly worries. Like little snitches, they ran behind Jesus' back to tell on Him.
Even more amazing is the reaction of the religious leaders. They call for a meeting and the first thing they ask is "what are we accomplishing?" Not what is God trying to do? Not what is God trying to say? Their initial reaction is always about themselves and not God. About protecting their piece of turf here on earth. We see this far too often these days as well amongst our religious leaders. There are far too many pastors who are in the business of constructing buildings and not expanding the kingdom. Realize too that these religious leaders in the time of Jesus were the mega-church pastors of today. They were the ones everyone listened to. They had the large followings. If there were national cable networks back then it would have been them on Larry King Live.
Too often today we have leaders who dismiss the spiritual side of Christianity. Who pay it lip service from the pulpit but ignore it within their leading. Meetings are held with the opening inquiry of, "what are we accomplishing?" The focus being put upon the works of man instead of the leading of the Spirit of God. Realize that just like the Sanhedrin of old, they still look the part. They still sound the part. The Spirit of religion however, emphasizes the importance of the church building over the body of Christ. Sheep that agree are welcome in the flock but those that might want to seek what God is trying to accomplish are shown the pen door.
In this story these folks have just seen a man raised from the dead and they state, "If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him-- Seriously? My initial reaction is to bristle at the arrogance that assumes they have control over whether Jesus would continue to perform miracles of God or not. But just a few verses later the Bible says that from this moment on they plotted to kill Jesus. This was the crystallizing moment for them that they decided Jesus must die. That same plotting, scheming spirit still infests the modern church sometimes. That spirit that seeks to control everything. That seeks vision from outside sources instead of from the Holy Spirit. But of course if the Sanhedrin had properly reflected to the Spirit of God they would have first had to deal with their own hypocrisy and religiosity. They would have had to deal with their own pride and sin. They would have had to first look inward before they could assign blame outwardly. The spirit of religiosity refuses to do that till this very day. It cannot look at itself without seeing how in error it is. It excuses heresy away as being culturally relevant. It excuses apostasy away as trying to reach the next generation for Christ. But like the religious leaders in this story -- their primary concern never was Christ. It was always about their piece of turf. It was always about the building they are trying to expand. All about the next big project they can sign their members up for to show how holy they are. Of course it is all for Jesus -- nod wink, nod wink. Glory hallelujah.
The key verse says it all. Give the Lord the glory He deserves. Not with words that are not backed up with actions. Give the Lord the glory He deserves. He raised Lazarus from the dead. He raised all of us from the dead. Give the Lord the glory He deserves.
Rev. Anthony
