Before we get to the glorious
picture of the Lord Jesus gathering in Bethany, we have to remember
that our God is absolutely sovereign in all of his activities and
he does all things for his glory and for his good. And I pray
that you would pray for us and pray for each other that this
would be a place where the Lord Jesus Christ, the owner of his
anointing, fills the house. That sort of fills heaven, doesn't
it? Every sight in heaven, every moment in heaven, every view
of heaven, every view for the rest of eternity. Just contemplate
that. May our friend Dee went into
the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and he'll never, ever,
ever be separated from him. I don't know what eternity is
like, I just know it's a long, long time. And eternity is a
long, long time because the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is such
that anything less than eternity wouldn't be sufficient for the
glories to be fully realised. We have a remarkable and awesome
God, and yet in John 11, at the end of John 11, we have a God
who has come and done such remarkable things
in the presence of people, and yet these same people who were
witnesses to these remarkable miracles are divided into two,
aren't they? They're divided into those who
rejoice in His love, in His power, they rejoice in His gospel displayed,
and yet there are others, religious as you in a way which would embarrass
you, full of religion, full of tradition, and they could back
up their religion and their tradition by opening up the Bible and saying,
we're doing what God says. This is all at the end of the
Lord Jesus Christ's life and not very far away from the Passover. So you can imagine the preparations
in that place. A million people came to Jerusalem
and so many, hundreds of thousands of animals were to be sacrificed.
What a remarkable sight it must have been. The disciples stood
on the outside there and looked from the Mount of Olives down
there onto that magnificent sight. Look at those amazing buildings.
They were in awe of the wonder of that temple that Herod had
already spent 40 years building. But these same people, and in
that same place where there was so much religion, they hated
him. Verse 53, from that day forth,
They took counsel together for to put him to death. They had hatred. All they could think of was let's
remove this man, let's remove his voice, let's remove his testimony,
let's remove his witness from us. Listen to verse 54. walked no more openly among the
Jews. There is a religious crowd in
this world who think that they are worshipping God and convince
themselves that God is in their midst and what they're doing
is honouring him and he has withdrawn himself from them. The Lord Jesus Christ and him
crucified divides humanity. He did before the foundation
of the world. He did with Cain and Abel. He did in separating his people
from this world in so many ways throughout all of their history.
He did on the cross particularly. He does on the great day of judgment. And the division is most stark
and most evident when he is most glorified and when he is lifted
up as the great God and Saviour. Lazarus resurrection, he'd been
four days dead. It's a picture of life from the
dead. And he gives us simple reasons,
doesn't he? Why did all this happen? Why
all that pain for that family? For the glory of God, for the
glory of God, that the son of man might be glorified for the
reason that people might believe. that faith would become sprung
to life. Faith, the very gift of God.
It requires the gift of God. See, the Lord Jesus Christ stripped
sin of its penalty. What's the penalty of sin? The penalty of sin is death,
eternal death. He that believeth on me shall
never die. Believe thou this. And Martha's
answer is a glorious answer of saving faith. I believe that
you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. We live and we
believe on Him. We believe on Him because we
are alive, because we have been given spiritual life. The people
who don't believe on Him are dead spiritually. They can't
see the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. They can't smell the
odour of his sacrifice. They can see nothing beautiful
about him. They can't taste and see that
the Lord is good. And where do we get this life
from? Lazarus is a great picture of
where that life comes from, wasn't it? We couldn't believe until
life arose. Life, spiritual life, comes before
belief. You must be born again, the Lord
Jesus Christ told Nicodemus and the religious crowd. The Lord
Jesus Christ stripped sin of its penalty, which is death,
and the Lord Jesus Christ has just stripped death of its power.
And the power of the grave is stripped. Death and the grave
must let go their captives when Christ speaks with power. That's what salvation is, isn't
it? The Lord Jesus Christ, the very Word of God coming to you. You hear it from a man. And yet,
when the words are the words of God Almighty, you'll know.
My sheep, hear my voice. My sheep, he calls his sheep
by name. They are found, where does he
find them? He finds them dead in a turn. What does he do? He awakes them from the dead
and they come from darkness and captivity and death and they
come to life. And he is life and he gives faith. Come and see, come and see Him
as the Christ. He speaks the words of life and
the dead live. And He's doing exactly the same
thing. If you want to know what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing
in this world today, you just read your Bible and you say,
amen, He'll do. He's doing exactly the same things
today. And these stories are given to
us so free of the entanglements of human emotion and feelings,
and yet there were intense feelings, they wept, and the Lord Jesus
Christ wept in return. But the Bible is about the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's about His accomplishments.
You could write books about how Mary and Martha felt at the time.
You could write books about asking Lazarus questions. What was it
like to be in heaven for those four days, Lazarus? What did
you see? What did you do? The questions are not answered
and we're not encouraged to ask them. When Paul, the only person
we know of other than the Lord Jesus Christ, who went to heaven
and came back again, he said it's too magnificent. Words can't
describe it. I can't tell you. I cannot tell
you. And yet we have multitudes today
that run around saying that they've been to heaven and come back
again and died. They're lying to you. They might
be sincere, but they have been deceived. There is just one issue,
isn't there? There is just one issue. What
do you think of the Lord Jesus Christ? What do you say about
him? What do you say about the object of faith and the faith
for one? There's a division among the
people because of him, and the Lord Jesus Christ withdraws himself. He withdrew himself. He walked no more openly among
the Jews, but went into a country near the wilderness. Where did
you find the Lord Jesus Christ? You don't find him in the great
metropolis of religion. You don't find him in the great
denominations. You don't find him where the
fancy things are. You find him near a wilderness. But in that place, he was there
with his disciples. Ultimately, salvation comes down
to love, doesn't it? Why did he withdraw? He withdrew
himself, not because he was afraid of these people. He withdrew
himself in judgment on them. He leaves people with religion. He leaves people with all the
trappings of religion. What a shocking thing. You might
recall in Luke chapter 2 that the Lord Jesus Christ as a young
man had been with his family down to Jerusalem and he'd had
those remarkable discussions with those elders, maybe the
same elders that are having this same issue right now. Caiaphas
and Caiaphas' father-in-law, Annas, were around in those days.
But on the way home, They start looking for him, don't they?
Their parents are looking for him and they can't find the Lord
Jesus Christ. They had supposed that he was
with them, and yet he was not. Then they went back and they
searched and searched and searched Jerusalem. Where did they find
him? They find Him where you find the Lord Jesus Christ, in
the temple. You find Him where He is. But
there is a division, isn't it? There is a division among people. There's a division among all
the people of this world, and it's a division of love. And
these men who plot the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, just
living living testimony to the promise the Lord made to them
he said this is the condemnation this is the judgment John 319
this is the job this is the crisis when the gospel is preached there
is a crisis there's always a crisis This is the condemnation that
light, the Lord Jesus Christ is the light of the world, that
light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather
than the light because their deeds For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, that his deeds, his deeds in coming to the light,
may be made manifest, that they, his deeds in coming to the light,
may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. They are
God's work. It's God's work to bring His
people from death to life. It's God's work to bring the
Lord Jesus Christ and to reveal Him to His people. It's God's
work to hide Him from multitudes. John wants us to go back again
and again and again to the beginning of his gospel and he says the
light shineth in the darkness. What an extraordinary light shone
that day at the tomb of Lazarus. What an extraordinary light.
The light of who God is, the light of how God creates life. What a remarkable creative activity. How many billions and trillions
of cells were dead and came to life when Lazarus was raised
from the dead? He was a rotting corpse and the
Lord Jesus Christ showed himself to be God yet again. He did miracles
that no one else can do. His miracles are creative miracles. He created life. where there
was nothing. And what light? And then verse
5 of John chapter 1 says, That's a shocking darkness, isn't it?
And the Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 11 has withdrawn
himself from that place of religion See these people, the darkness
doesn't comprehend it, the darkness doesn't perceive it. But in fact,
the children of the light see because of the light that God
gives them. We see in His light, we see light. So they didn't
perceive their foolishness. They didn't perceive their sinfulness,
their wickedness. They didn't perceive who God
is. They saw nothing majestic in
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. They acknowledged His miracles
and they hated Him because of them. They acknowledged that
He did these marvellous things. They didn't know who God was.
They couldn't see God when God was standing in their midst.
They couldn't see His Majesty. They couldn't see His power.
They couldn't see that He, as God Almighty, has sovereign power
over life and death. And yet they stood there opposed
to him and their one solution was to kill him. They couldn't
perceive their ignorance. They couldn't perceive their
ignorance. They didn't know who they were
dealing with. And that's true of the religious
people of this world today who run around blaspheming the very
character of God and dressed in their robes and their finery
and all of their religion and all of their tradition. I do love Elisha's prayer. When his servant, in 2 Kings
chapter 16, his servant went outside and he was just fearful
of all of the enemies he saw beside him. And Elisha said,
Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And what did
he see? He saw a mountain full of horses
and the chariots of fire. And where were those chariots
of fire? in exactly the same place they
are today, brothers and sisters, they're round about God's people
and His servants and those who speak, as sent by Him into this
world. Lord, enlighten my darkness,
to see Your glory, give life and faith. They have the very
light of God Almighty in their presence. and they didn't know
it. And when he withdrew from them,
they had no knowledge of what they had lost. My brothers and sisters, this
is the judgment of God upon this world for God to withdraw himself. For God to withdraw himself,
He walked no more openly among the Jews, but went thence into
a country near the wilderness, into a city of Ephraim." My brothers and sisters, let's
pray that the Lord doesn't allow us to treat His presence and
His blessings as lied things. withdraws himself and God hides
himself. Let me go to a couple of passages
of scripture that make this so abundantly clear that I pray
that we are simply praying as these people did in Jerusalem,
where is he? Will he come? The Lord Jesus Christ speaks
of his coming and speaks of his words and speaks of the testimony
of he and John the Baptist in John chapter 11 and he says to
those cities that had seen his miracles that they are worse
off than Sodom and Gomorrah. You think of the horror that
fell on Sodom and Gomorrah. They were feasting and drinking
and having their breakfast and two angels came and they took
those four people out of there and Lot's wife looked back and
she was turned to a pillar of salt and then Hell came to earth. They had no knowledge whatsoever. They had no knowledge that they
had angels in their midst. It's worse for Capernaum. It's
worse for Bessiara. It's worse for Chorazin. And he said, it'll be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.
And that time Jesus answered and said, listen to this. I thank
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent." The wise. Wise in their own eyes. Prudent. walking in this world such that
you are not causing offence to other people, that you have peace
with yourself and peace with others, but not the peace from
God, yet wise and prudent, and hath revealed them unto babe. Even so, father, for so it seem
good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father. No man knoweth the Son, but the
Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. And
then these glorious words of our Saviour, come unto me. Come
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden. So the wise
and the prudent aren't labouring and heavy laden. You come. the
labouring and the hit and I will give you rest take my yoke upon
you and learn of me not just learn about me you learn of me
as I am of the Christ of God you learn of me for this is the one who withdrew
himself from them for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall
find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden
is light. The Lord Jesus Christ, thank
God for him not being seen by the wise
and prudent, but seen by babes. characterized as a babe, I held
my little grandson close to my heart down in Vogue and it was
just absolutely lovely. What's a babe? Completely and
utterly dependent. Completely and utterly dependent
and accepting. God withdraws himself from people. He withdraws himself from the
religious world and says, and please note it, isn't it, Jesus
therefore, because of their opposition and their enmity, he withdrew
himself in judgment from them. And that's exactly what's happening
today in the religious worlds all around us. He withdrew himself
from them. God, God's revelation is a glorious
gift and his withdrawing himself ought be something that causes
us to pause and to pray, Lord don't do that to me. Paul in
Acts chapter 16, you might remember the verses, Paul wanted to go
to certain parts of what is now modern day western Turkey. Acts
chapter 16, he was desirous, he was anxious to go there and
preach the gospel. He knew wherever he went he was
going to meet opposition. And now when they'd gone through
Phrygia, throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were
forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. Forbidden by God. But after they'd come to Mysia,
they tried to go into Bithynia, they wanted to go into Bithynia,
but the spirit suffered them not. The wonderful thing is, if you
read on in Acts chapter 16, that there was a lady from those regions.
God will always get his people and his gospel to meet. And the
Lord opened the heart of Lydia and she came from that very region.
How did he get the gospel to her? He took her out of that
region. He took her all the way over
to Philippi and he took her down beside a river and he brought
his servant to preach the gospel to her and the Lord opened her
heart and she believed all the things that Paul had said. These things are hidden from
the wise and prudent, and they're revealed to babes, the children
of God. It's a gathering of the children
of God. But let's read on in John 11 and get to the end of
it. He says in verse 55, and the
Jews' Passover was at hand. It was in Exodus chapter 12 called
God's Passover. John's not playing games with
word when he says it's the Jews' Passover. This has now become
these feasts of God which celebrate the Christ of God have now become
man-made religious institutions. Many went out of the country
up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves, and that's
what man-made religion is all about, the purifying of yourself. Now there were some requirements
for those who wanted to participate in the Passover. If you had touched
a dead bone or touched a dead body, you needed the red heifer
purification ceremony, which took several days. I'm not wanting
to be denigrating all of these people, but this is, in the context
of John's Gospel, is a reminder that that's what men want to
do. They want to purify themselves. How do you make yourself pure
before God? How do you purify yourself before
God? How do you have a pure heart? Blessed are those I can't read it all, but in Acts
chapter 15, the answer is as clear as you could ever wish
it to be, brothers and sisters in Christ. He put no difference between
we Jews, we apostles, and the Gentiles, purifying their hearts
by faith. By faith, by faith. Mary and Martha, do you believe
this? And may it be so with us in verse
56 of John 11. Then they sought they for Jesus
and spake among themselves as they stood in the temple. What
think ye that he will not come to the feast? Of course he must
come to the feast. He was perfectly obedient to
the law of God. He attended every Now both the
chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment that
if any man knew where he were, he should show it. that they might take him, that
they might arrest him. Isn't that nice? We're going
to arrest him and give him the opportunity to defend himself
in court. They are liars and hypocrites,
aren't they? They had one intention in mind.
They wanted him arrested so they could just put him to death.
They had no interest in justice. They had no interest in upholding
the law of God. Then Jesus comes. He went away into the wilderness,
but go back to verse 54 with me, and there continued with
his disciples. He takes his people away from
the religious world, and he takes them into what appears to men
to be a wilderness, and there he sustains them, and there he
abides with them. There he reveals himself in glory. And then he comes to Jerusalem.
What a glorious, glorious picture we have of the Lord in this blessed
town of Bethany. Let's have a break and may the
Lord bless his words to our hearts.