Lazarus, Part 9 - Some of Them Told the Pharisees
John 11v45-46
16th December 2022
Jesus predicted that Lazarus would rise from the dead, then He offered up a prayer of thanks to God for the miracle that was about to happen, then He called "Lazarus, come out!" and Lazarus came out of His tomb. It was a truly amazing miracle, a proof that Jesus had come from God.
John 11v45-46
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.
Many people, astounded by this miracle, came to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. We come to faith in Jesus in different ways. Some of the people believed in Jesus because of what He said and who He was, His character, His love, His goodness, His godliness. Thomas would eventually come to believe in Jesus when he put His hands in Jesus's wounds (John 20v24-29). Some, including many of those who witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus, believed in Jesus because they saw Him performing miracles. As Jesus had said previously:
John 10v37-38
"Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father.
But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works [miracles],
that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."
But some people who heard Jesus speak and saw what he did, would not believe in Jesus. Some of the people who witnessed this amazing miracle refused to believe. Some of them merely ignored Jesus and went about their business, but others reported Him to the authorities.
Perhaps some those Jews who ran to the Pharisees to tell them Jesus had raised the dead were just being loyal to the state religion, propagated by the government and accepted by the majority of the people. Jesus wasn't a threat to the people; He was only a threat to the establishment, but He was a revolutionary figure, and most people prefer the status quo, a quiet life, and freedom from any kind of governmental disapproval. Perhaps others hated Jesus and wanted His ministry to end.
And we see the same range of responses to Jesus Christ today. Some people see a wonderful answer to prayer and believe in Him. Some consider His character, His life and His death and believe in Him. Some refuse to believe and carry on regardless. Some actively oppose Jesus and His church.
It seems to me that the state religion of the United Kingdom in our generation is secularism. While the government has not (yet) outlawed Christianity, Christian belief is less and less tolerated in our society. The underlying belief system of the United Kingdom is that, while people are more-or-less welcome to believe what they like, God is irrelevant and religious belief is unhelpful if it affects how we actually live.
In some countries, things are much worse. Christians have been betrayed to the government and have suffered imprisonment, beatings and death. But we're no threat to anybody, we're the bearers of the Good News of Peace. You've got to wonder why some people hate us, and hate our Lord.
Some people just believe what their governments and teachers say against the followers of Christ. Some people want to fit in with the secular society around them. Some people cling to the beliefs they had before they were confronted by the possibility that Christ is who the Bible says He is. Some people hate the very idea of the existence of God. Such people call themselves "atheists".
The word "atheist" used to be understood to refer to a person who believes there is no god of any sort. Since that belief is difficult to maintain, people who call themselves "atheists" have redefined the term in recent years to mean anybody who believes there is no god, plus anybody who believes that, even if there is a god, that god is irrelevant. All this is nonsense.
In the first sense of the word, there are no atheists. In the second sense of the word, however, there are huge numbers of atheists.
Nobody is a true atheist. That is, nobody truly believes there is no God. Of course, many people believe the Christian God is not real. Muslims and Jews are obvious examples. But everybody knows there is some sort of God, and everybody has some idea of what God is like.
Romans 1v18-20
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and
wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it
plain to them.
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal
power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what
has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Atheists and others can point out that they don't believe Paul's letter to the Romans is God-breathed and true, and therefore find this line of reasoning less than convincing, but Christians know that it is. If a person doesn't know that 2 + 2 = 4, that doesn't demonstrate that 2 + 2 ≠ 4.
We are born with an innate sense of God. Everybody who looks at a sunset, an ocean, a baby, a forest or a mountain without an atheist agenda knows there's a creator god. Everybody in an aeroplane that's about to crash knows there's a god. Nevertheless, some people - many people - try to convince themselves and others that there is no god. They suppress the truth about God. I think they don't like the idea of being accountable to somebody who will sit in judgement on us all. That is, they want to do what they think is right, not what God says is right. And they don't want to be punished for doing so.
As the preacher Ray Comfort has said, "Atheists don't hate fairies, leprechauns or unicorns because they don't exist. It is impossible to hate something that doesn't exist. Atheists hate God because He does exist".
Jeremiah 17v9
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
But Jesus Christ is full of mercy and love. He is the king of kings who will receive any sinner who truly repents. And He has the power to change any human heart. He has enabled you and me to know the truth about Jesus, and He brings more people to saving faith every day.