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How Will You Respond to the Riches of God's Glory?
The Gospel of John
John 11:1-16
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - April 5, 2017
(Revised November 24, 2019)
BACKGROUND:
*Please open your Bibles to John 11 as we continue to study one of the Lord's great miracles.
It's Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
Our main focus tonight is the Lord's supreme goal for this miracle, and that is the glory of God.
*In vs. 3-4, the sisters sent to Jesus, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.''
And when Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.''
*God's Word speaks of His glory around 300 times, about half in the Old Testament and half in the New.
The first time we see God's glory is in Exodus, the second book if the Bible, and the last time we see His glory is in Revelation 21:23, where the new city of Jerusalem was described.
There the Bible tells us that "the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its light."
*God's Word speaks of His glory almost from cover to cover.
One of our favorite examples was at the birth of Christ.
Just after Jesus was born, Luke 2:8-14 says:
8. Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9.
And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.
10.
Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
11.
For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
12.
And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.''
13.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
14. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!''
*"The glory of the Lord shone around them," but what is God's glory?
The Old Testament word picture for "glory" is a weight -- something heavy.
And God's glory is heavy indeed.
It's something we should never take lightly.
That's especially true since God's glory is the standard of perfection by which He measures us.
We know this is true because Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned and fall short of the GLORY OF GOD."
*But what is the glory of God? John Piper tells us that "glory is a very hard thing to define.
It is like the word "beauty."
We all can use it and communicate with it but to try to reduce it to words is very frustrating.
It is easier to point to examples."
*A beautiful sunset seen from the tallest building in Monroe, that's a taste of nature's glory.
A hole-in-one, pitching a no-hitter, a grand-slam home run, LSU winning the National Football Championship, and the Saints winning the Super Bowl, these are all examples of athletic glory.
*And John Piper said that God's glory "is the beauty and excellence of His manifold perfections.
It refers to His infinite and overflowing fullness of all that is good.
God's glory is the perfect harmony of all His attributes in one infinitely beautiful and personal being."
(1)
*Church, we also need to get a sense of the mind-boggling, overpowering awesomeness of the glory of God.
In Exodus 24, Moses went up on Mount Sinai to meet with God for 40 days and 40 nights.
And in vs. 16-17, God's Word says:
16.
Now the glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days.
And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
17.
The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a raging, consuming, devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.
*Thinking about these verses and the overwhelming power of God's glory, Robert Crilley said: "Speaking with the Almighty is one thing.
Actually seeing His face is quite another.
-- Like trying to drink from Niagara Falls, the unveiled glory of God would simply overwhelm us."
(2)
*Think of Peter, James and John trembling on the mountain when Jesus was transfigured before them and His face shined like the sun.
Speaking of Jesus, in John 1:14, the Apostle would later write: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Think of the Apostle Paul, struck to the ground and blinded by the glory of the Risen Savior.
Paul would later testify, "Since I could not see for the GLORY of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus."
(Acts 22:11)
*We also need to know that God's glory is tremendously important to Him.
He has great passion for His glory.
God's main motivation as He acts in the universe is His own glory.
He is driven to protect and proclaim His glory.
For example, in Isaiah 48:9-12, the LORD spoke to His people and said:
9. "For My name's sake I will defer My anger, and for My praise I will restrain it from you, so that I do not cut you off.
10.
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
11.
For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; for how should My name be profaned?
And I will not give My glory to another.
12. Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel, My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last."
MESSAGE:
*God's main motive as He acts in the universe is His own glory, and that is totally proper because He deserves all the glory.
That's why in vs. 4 Jesus said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.''
Romans 9:23 also tells us that God wanted to "make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory."
Tonight in vs. 1-16, we will explore the riches of God's glory and how we should respond.
1. CHURCH WE CAN SURELY SEE THE RICHES OF GOD'S GLORY IN THIS SCRIPTURE.
[1] FIRST, WE CAN SEE THEM IN HIS LOVE.
*One of the most wonderful things about God is that He loves us!
God doesn't love us because we deserve it.
He loves us because in 1 John 4:8 and 16 He is love!
"God is love," and there is no doubt that Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters.
We can see His love in vs. 1-5:
1.
Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
2. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
3. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.''
4. When Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.''
5. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
*God's Word goes out of the way to confirm the love that Jesus had for these people.
They were very close friends.
Verse 2 mentions one of what must have been many times Jesus visited in their home.
In vs. 3, the sisters sent a message to Jesus saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.''
The original word for "love" in this verse is "phileo."
That's talking about the affectionate, personal love of a friend.
And here is an amazing thing: The God of the whole universe wants to be our friend!
In John 15:13, we will even hear Jesus say, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."
*Next here in vs. 5 God's Word plainly says, "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus."
This original word for "love" is "agapao," and it's talking about "agape" love, the highest kind of love, the kind of love that God has for us.
These two words for "love" are found over 250 times in the New Testament!
*God has shown His agape love to us in countless ways, but the best place we can ever see the love of God is on the cross of Jesus Christ.
Think about all that Jesus suffered on the cross for us.
*During an Upward halftime devotion, I asked the kids if they had ever stepped on a nail.
Of course some of them had, and I'm sure some of you have too.
The last time I ever stepped on a nail was way back in the mid-90's.
We were doing some repair work on the little youth building at Emmanuel.
I went back there after church one night to make sure everything was turned off.
It was dark, and somebody had left a 2x4 on the ground with a big nail sticking up.
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