Temple Baptist Church - 11-22-2023
John 12:9-11
Introduction:
A. In the preceding verses, we saw the restoration of three people that the Lord loved very much. I am glad that God will not leave you in the aftermath of great hardship but will continue to make you better instead of allowing you to get bitter.
B. I came back to this portion of Scripture for a reason.
1. There will come times when, as a saint of God, you will be persecuted without cause. In our text, I always find this to be an amazing thing when religious people hate saved people without a cause.
2. When I say, without a cause, then the cause becomes evident. Without a cause because God’s people are good people and good citizens. The cause of their hate is that they hate God and especially the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation.
C. We find early in the Bible the First Mention of such anger and hatred. Wicked people who hate the Lord cannot take their ire out on Him, so they choose to do injury to the Lord’s people who love Him.
1. In Genesis, chapter 4, we find the story of Cain and Abel. Righteous Abel verses the “way of Cain.” In the First Mention of the wicked destroying the righteous, I see several things that apply to the story of Lazarus.
2. Both Abel and Lazarus were Righteous people. All they did was obey and love the Lord in biblical silence. Neither did nor did they say anything offensive.
Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
Matthew 23:35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
3. Both Cain and the chief priests were wicked.
Jude 10-13 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. (11) Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. (12) These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; (13) Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
4. Both Abel and Lazarus were persecuted for who they were more than for what they did. Cain was put to death and Lazarus was under a false indictment of death.
5. Both Cain and the Chief Priests were VERY wroth (furious, incensed, to blaze up) with God because of their personal rejection of the sacrifice that God demanded. This was a baseless, unreasonable anger that spelled hatred for both God and God’s way while continuing in their rebellion by killing Abel and threatening Lazarus.
D. Why persecute Lazarus? He was not persecuted for what he did, but for who he was.
E. We that are saved are slowly becoming the enemy of the state.
1. I am not speaking of religion which allows one to live as they like and continue to feel good about themselves spiritually in disobedience to the Word of God.
2. I am speaking of those who have been converted, turned around, through repentance and faith in a finished work called the Gospel.
3. They know who we are and do not like what we have become, out of step with society which continues to decline, because Jesus Christ was such.
F. Why persecution? Why Lazarus? Why God’s people? I want to tie these three questions together because this has not changed since Cain and Abel.
John 12:10-11 But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; (11) Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.
2 Timothy 3:10-13 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, (11) Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. (12) Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. (13) But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
1. These “chief priests” persecuted an innocent man!
a. I find no fault in this man that would cause any sane person to want him killed. There is nothing recorded that Lazarus ever spoke or did that was wrong.
b. All that Lazarus did was love the Lord and open his home and life to Him.
c. If we live godly, we shall suffer persecution!
d. To avoid persecution, all a child of God has to do is “hide in plain sight” by living at a guilty distance from the Lord.
2. These “chief priests” who wanted Lazarus dead were not sane people. These religious zealots hated a man who was righteous because of what the Lord had done for him.
a. It was not Lazarus’ fault that he got sick and died. I am sure that Lazarus would have been perfectly happy to die once and spend his eternity with the Lord without having to come back to this old sinful world and go through the process of dying again at a later date.
b. It was not Lazarus’ fault that the Lord chose to resurrect him from death and the grave.
c. They hated Lazarus without a cause. Like Job, Lazarus was just the “man caught in the middle.”
3. These chief priests hate Lazarus because of what the Lord had done. “Because that by reason of him”
a. The Lord did a wonderful thing for Lazarus that should have made everyone glad. Proof that our Lord had resurrection power and that there was life after death.
b. There are going to be times when you will be persecuted simply because the Lord did a wonderful thing for you when He saved your soul.
c. Though not perfect in the flesh, those who choose to live a godly life expose the ungodliness of the unsaved.
John 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
4. Lazarus was persecuted because these “chief priests” hated our Lord Jesus Christ!
John 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
1 John 3:13 Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
1 John 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
5. Rejoice when men hate you for who you have become and be good to them.
Luke 6:22-23 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. (23) Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.
Luke 6:27-28 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, (28) Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
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