The Weeping Saviour
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Lazarus is dead.
Jesus and the disciples have gone to Bethany to meet with Mary and Martha, but most important of all, to awaken Lazarus from the dead that God would be glorified and sinners would believe the Lord.
15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.
When the Lord arrives, Martha hears of His arrival and travels to meet Him. She offers words of praise, yet protest too (vs. 21–22).
21 Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
22 But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.
Jesus did not have to be present to do a miracle.
He doesn’t have to ask God’s help on anything because He is God.
The Lord responds to Martha, “Thy brother shall rise again.”
Jesus announces the miracle in advance, but Martha missed the meaning of the promise. We probably would have done the same thing. Martha believed He was referring to the resurrection of the last days.
Jesus clarifies the issue stating, “I am the resurrection and life.” The term “I am” is a reference to God.”
25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
The person who put his trust in Jesus for his salvation will never die the Second Death in Hell.
People will either live in Heaven or Hell based upon what they have done with Jesus Christ. If you reject Jesus, you reject Heaven.
The most important question you can answer today is the question asked by the Saviour at the end of verse 26… “Believest thou this?”
We find a little later, that Mary comes to Jesus and responds the same way as Martha, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,
Jesus groaned in His spirit and was troubled when He saw them weeping.
The weeping was a loud, wailing cry.
Jesus groaned when He heard this. This word “groaned” comes from the Greek word indicating a very strong display of emotion, of being upset, angry, or stern.
John continues to tell us the Lord was “troubled.” This word means “stirred, agitated, or disturbed like a pool of water.”
We then find the shortest verse in all the Bible...
35 Jesus wept.
Does Jesus cry? Absolutely.
We have no record of Jesus laughing in the Bible. We do have three examples of Him crying though.
Jesus performed many great miracles while on Earth, and how amazing it would be to have been there to witness them, but honestly, I don’t think any supernatural display of healing power could ever present a greater sight than that of tears flowing down our Saviour’s cheeks.
It’s beyond my comprehension that the King of angels should weep!
It’s beyond my understanding that He who had known eternal splendor should become acquainted with the heartbreaks of sinful men!
I want to preach for a little while on “The Weeping Saviour”
Charles Spurgeon preached two messages on “Jesus Wept.” He said, “There is infinitely more in these two words than any sermonizer or student of the Word will ever bring out of them, even though he should apply the microscope of the utmost, attentive consideration.”
What I desire to do this morning is apply that microscope even though I know I won’t even skim the surface of how profound these two words are...
I want you to notice first…
HE WEPT BECAUSE SIN HAD HURT THE WORLD
HE WEPT BECAUSE SIN HAD HURT THE WORLD
The death of Lazarus brought great grief to his sisters, and it’s easy for us to appreciate the painfulness of the scene described in:
33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,
We’ve been in situations like this before, a time of great grief at the passing of a well-loved family member or friend…We know what it is to grieve...
Within a few moments of this scene, we find along with the crowd that day and His friends, Jesus weeping.
You think about this, many graves would have been in the vicinity of the tomb of Lazarus, and Christ knew that behind each burial-place was a tale of woe.
Disease and death had appeared to mar man’s joy, and the scene around Christ was anything but what God had intended.
Sin had hurt the world, and the thought of this tragedy hurt the Saviour. He wept!
You think about it, at one point in time, in the Garden of Eden, this world was perfect, everything was right, and now, look around at all the pain and sorrow, all the grief, all the hurt that sin has brought into this world…It’s a reason to weep!
I’ve often thought of what went through the mind of Adam and Eve after plunging this world into sin, and being cast out of the garden…I wonder if they thought something like this:
I was born to be royal
I was made to be free
But I was torn from the garden
When that devil lied to me
I was formed from the soil
I got dirt inside of me
But I was born to be royal
I was made for glory
Take me back to the garden
Take me back and walk with me
For Your presence I am longing
Take me back
God, take me back!
I don’t know about anyone else this morning, but I get absolutely beside myself thinking that God has took us back, God has given us His presence! God has given us forgiveness for everyone that will accept it! I’ve wondered how amazing it would have been to be in the garden and experience God the way they did, and then I realize, I’ve got that in salvation!
I’ve got to move on!
He wept because sin had hurt the world, but also:
HE WEPT BECAUSE SIN WAS HURTING HIS PEOPLE
HE WEPT BECAUSE SIN WAS HURTING HIS PEOPLE
41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
43 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
While the crowd was rejoicing, Jesus was weeping!
In this, He was like the Prophet Jeremiah who wept bitterly over the destruction of Jerusalem.
Jonah looked on Nineveh and hoped it would be destroyed, while Jesus looked at Jerusalem and wept because it had destroyed itself.
No matter where Jesus looked, He found cause for weeping.
If He looked back, He saw how the nation had wasted its opportunities and been ignorant of their “time of visitation.”
If He looked within, He saw spiritual ignorance and blindness in the hearts of the people. They should have known who He was, for God had given them His Word and sent His messengers to prepare the way.
As He looked around, Jesus saw religious activity that accomplished very little. The temple had become a den of thieves, and the religious leaders were out to kill Him. The city was filled with pilgrims celebrating a festival, but the hearts of the people were heavy with sin and life’s burdens.
As Jesus looked ahead, He wept as He saw the terrible judgment that was coming to the nation, the city, and the temple.
In a.d. 70, the Romans would come and, after a siege of 143 days, kill 600,000 Jews, take thousands more captive, and then destroy the temple and the city.
Why did all of this happen? Because the people did not know that God had visited them! “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11). They said, “We will not have this man to reign over us!” (Luke 19:14)
He wept because sin was hurting His people, and then lastly:
HE WEPT BECAUSE SIN WAS HURTING HIM
HE WEPT BECAUSE SIN WAS HURTING HIM
7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
In describing the scene in the garden of Gethsemane, Luke writes,
44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
As Jesus faced the Cross, it was not the physical suffering that burdened Him, but the fact that He would be made sin and separated from His Father. Other servants of God have faced death and not expressed such great emotion; but no other servant ever bore on his body the sins of the whole world.
The Lord Jesus was feeling the weight of a world’s iniquity; already He was beginning to taste the bitterness of His cup of sorrow. The garden conflict was the introductory stage of the triumph of the cross.
The greatness of His desire to save the lost carried Him through that night of agony; but we shall never know how much our sins hurt the Son of God.
Charles Spurgeon wrote, “Look to the cross, and hate your sin, for sin nailed your well beloved to the tree.”
It’s significant that Hebrews mentions “strong crying and tears.”
His anguish was not expressed in silent weeping, but in agonizing sobs.
How greatly Jesus must have loved us!
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
Christ’s heart was broken because of our lost condition. He bled and died for our eternal liberty.
He said, “… I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
He loved a lost world so much that He went to the very depths of hell itself to offer it salvation. And the world spurns the Holy One of God, the spotless Savior who was made sin for us.
Let me ask you a question. Have you rejected Him? Have you spurned Him? Are you ungrateful for what He did for you?
Stand in the quietness of Gethsemane and listen. Do you hear the sob of His soul? Do you see the falling drops of blood?
Look by an olive tree and see, bending low in agonizing prayer, the Savior who took upon Himself your sin and mine.
The next day He went to the cross.