Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. Jesus wept. I feel that he foresaw the sheer numbers of people through the ages. The numbers of people who would sit with him in fellowship yet not be able to believe that he could change a situation in their eyes which was hopeless. That's why I think he wept.
Thank you for being with us for a call to the nation with Carter Conlon. Jesus wept. The shortest verse in the Bible found in John 11 verse 35. The story was about a man named Lazarus who had died and laid in a tomb for four days. Lazarus' sister Mary wept. The Jews that attended the funeral wept. And then the Bible tells us Jesus wept.
Let's join Carter now to discover more. John chapter 11 verse 35. Jesus wept. The shortest verse in the Bible. Yet this one verse that encompasses two words tells us more about the heart of God than entire chapters in the Bible could.
Or books that could be written about the heart of God or the character of God or the certain aspects about God. The fact that Jesus wept. Even though he was surrounded by unbelief, we see something about the character of God in this verse. Now the story, the background story is that Jesus shows up in the cemetery. A friend called Lazarus had died.
He'd been in the grave for four days. All around him are people that he has, he's actually they've seen, many of them have seen his power. They've seen the things that he can do. They've been the recipients perhaps of miracles of the multiplication of loaves and fishes and such things like that.
They know he can heal the sick. They've been eyewitnesses or at least verbal witnesses of many of these things that he had done at this stage in his ministry. He had been at the table with some of his friends and he had been sharing the things concerning himself and about the kingdom of God with them. And there's strong evidence that he had told at least Martha because at one point he said, did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?
The way I read this is that at some point in the past, he had told her this. Martha, if you would believe, you would see what only God can do. If you would believe, if you would put away all of your human effort and all of your human reasonings, you would see something that only God can do that will bring reputation to the name of God and God alone.
Surrounded by unbelief, surrounded by his close friends not being able to bring themselves to the point of believing that he could actually change something which they considered to be unchangeable. And this is the dilemma that we all face as believers in Jesus Christ or if you're on the margins of believing in Jesus Christ. We can study the word of God. We can have fellowship with one another.
We can meet in prayer and devotions in the morning. We can read the word of God. We have the testimonies of the power of God. But when we face something which we believe to be impossible, that's where it becomes difficult to believe that he can do things that cannot be done by human effort.
They can't be reasoned by the human mind. He can do things out of a heart of compassion, out of the fact that he is God. And he does with an unmeasurable love, love his creation. He loves you and I. God so loved the world. We quote that so easily.
We quote it so readily, but we don't even begin to remotely understand the depth of that word. God so loves you. We see in this one verse of scripture, Jesus wept, that God is not distant. He's not remote. He's not unfeeling. Nor is he unconcerned about our struggles.
No, there's a theory that goes around in the church and I suppose there's a measure of truth in it, but the theory is that God is complete in himself. He doesn't need you. He doesn't need me.
He doesn't need anything about us. He's not, in a sense, he's totally self-contained. But I think that this one verse with its two words puts all of that to rest where it belongs. If he was completely self-contained, if he didn't need us in some, or may I put it this way, if he didn't cause himself to need us, let's put it that way, he can cause himself to, in his heart, to love his creation. He can cause himself to have a need in his heart to show his glory among those that have been born and created in his image. Hebrews chapter four verses 15 and 16 says it this way, we don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.
He was at all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. He's touched with our struggles. He's touched with the places of impossibility, for he himself actually faced one called the grave. He's touched with our trials. He's touched with our difficulties.
He's touched with the things that you and I have to go through, and being so, there's a desire. He calls us to the throne of grace to find help in our time of need, when we face something that only the power of God can change, as he did. When he said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit, there was no chance of coming out of the grave without the assistance of God, his Father, and the power of the Holy Spirit, and he knew it. He's touched with our struggles, but he also was touched by that incredible power of God that can even raise the dead, that can take impossible things and make them possible.
Take impassable things and make them possible. How he made a way through the sea for his people in days of old, and many of us here could say that too as well. He made a way for me through the sea of impossibility. I can say it, and I can say it honestly. There were struggles in my life that there was no way that I was ever going to get through it.
I had been bound by fear for nine years I'd lived through hell, taking Valium as like candy to get through just a day in my life, running like a fiend to keep my body always in a state of exhaustion to try to abate the fear that had so dominated my life. But when I came to Christ, in one minute of time he set me free from nine years of hell. I know what he can do. I know he's touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
I know that there's an invitation to come to the throne of grace to find help in time of need. Jesus wept. I've meditated on that verse so many times. He already knew what he was going to do. He knew what he could do. He even knew that the unbelief that surrounded him would not stop the miracle that would bring his name to glory of which we actually speak about it. So why did he weep then? Knowing these things, why did he weep? And here's my perspective on it.
And you can disagree with me if you want, but this is my perspective. I feel that he foresaw the sheer numbers of people through the ages. The numbers of people who would sit with him in fellowship yet not be able to believe that he could change a situation in their eyes, which was hopeless. That's why I think he wept.
He saw the struggles. He saw the many like Martha and Mary who would sit at his table in fellowship with him. And they would be aware of his promises. They would be aware of the history of his faithfulness. They would be aware that he's not a liar.
He doesn't boast of things that he can't do. They would be aware of the incredible depth of his faithfulness. Yet when something impossible was presented to them, they chose to believe the impossibility rather than believe the Son of God. And I feel in my heart that he stood in the cemetery and not being bound by just what he sees with his natural eyes like we are, he could see 2,000 years down the road.
Do you understand what I'm saying? He could see throughout all of history and he would know his mind was not like ours. It was an explosive mind with knowledge that we would never even understand if it was explained to us. And he could see people of every language, every culture, every race, every place throughout the world through all the years, fellowshiping, going to church, reading their Bibles. But when it came to a place of impossibility, not able to bring themselves to believe. Oh, Martha, didn't I tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God. That if you would believe, that you would see God do what only God can do. That if you would believe, your prison doors can open. That if you would believe, your blinded eyes can see a future. That if you would believe, your wounded heart can be healed. That if you would believe, the things that you feel are dead and lost and beyond repair can be brought back to life again for the glory and the honor of God.
If you would believe. In Numbers chapter 14, after the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt with a strong hand and led to the sores of this incredible promise of living in a place of God's provision and God's promise, they chose not to believe that he was able to bring them in or bring them through what they considered an impossible place, in spite of the history, in spite of the recent miracles that they had either seen or somebody had talked to them about. Then the Lord said to Moses, how long will these people reject me?
And how long will they not believe me with all the signs that I have performed among them? You know, I wonder if Jesus could say those words about our generation, 2000 years of testimony. How many testimonies of God's miracles do we have to hear about? How many alcoholics set free to have to stand before us?
How many people like myself set free from fear have to be here? How many people taken out of a complete place of inability and brought to a place where only God could do what God has done through them, have to stand before us before we will believe? And yet, even though the miracles were there, that God judged their enemies. God opened the sea to these people.
He drowned their enemies. He went before them in a pillar of fire by day and a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of the cloud by day. And yet they came to this place and this is, I believe, what the weeping is about. We all come to a place where we consider something impossible. We all come to a place where we just don't believe that we can live in this area of our lives again, or we can be brought into something that we once believed was a promise.
How long will it be before they believe me? They had just a short season of being taken out of Egypt and being brought to this place of the shores of promise. We have 2,000 years of testimony. We have scriptures they didn't have.
Amazing. We have testimonies all around us. And yet we find ourselves, even as the people of God, we find ourselves drawing back and saying, if only you had come when there was hope. If only you had come while there was still breath.
If only you had come in a season that's long gone and I have no hope for the future. Jeremiah chapter 2, the Lord says these words through the prophet Jeremiah about his people of that time. He says, moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem saying, thus says the Lord.
Listen to what he says about his own people of that time. I remember you and the kindness of your youth. The love of your betrothal when you went after me in the wilderness and the land not sown.
I remember you God says about his own people. When you were young, you had a heart that wanted to believe. You loved me when you said you belong to me.
And you went after me even in your dry places. And you went after me in places that were not yet bearing fruit, but you believed that I could bring life into these places. There was holiness to the Lord. The first fruits of his increase. All that devour him will offend. Disaster will come upon them says the Lord.
You were separated to me and life was being born through you. That was the promise that God had made to Abraham. And it was supposed to be the promise to the descendants of Abraham that you would be blessed. In other words, made more than you are. Given more than you could possess.
Taken farther than you could go. I would bless you. And because of the blessing that would come into your life, the whole world would be blessed. Do you see the knowledge of God would come into society. The knowledge of God would come into homes and families. The knowledge of God would be brought through my people into places all throughout the world.
Then he goes on and says, hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord, what injustice have your fathers found in me that they've gone far from me? What did I do that you walked away from me? What did I do to you? Where did I fail you? God says.
What did I speak and I wasn't willing to do it for you? What promise didn't come to pass that I told you if you would believe you would see the glory of God. And so you went far away from me and you began to follow idols and become idolaters. In other words, the idols were the reasonings of your own mind. That's where idolatry stems from.
That's what is the ground that produces idolatry. You started following your own reasoning and you left off. In other words, he's saying you once loved me. You once believed me. You once went after me, even when your life was dry and you were not bearing fruit and you believed. And because you did, you were the first fruits of what I wanted to do in the earth or what I planned to do in the earth. But what did I do?
What did I do that you walked away from me? You see, the mind of Christ is not bound like our minds. He's not bound by time as we are. He's still there in the book of Jeremiah and he's way ahead 2000 years down the road and he's remembering this cry, this weeping that's in the heart of God for us, for God loves you. God loves me.
And it's always been the intent of his heart to bless us and to make us a blessing and to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves and to bring us out of places we can't escape and bring us into places we can't go into and to give us an increase in our lives that people would look and say, only God could have done this. Only God could have made this girl, this guy into what they have become. What injustice have you found in me? I was reading this and I tremble as I read it and say, God, have I found any injustice?
Have I accused you of failing me? Have I pointed my finger at you and refused to believe that the situation that we're facing cannot be remedied simply by your coming? And so today I want to ask a question to people who are listening online and will be.
And believe me, there's thousands of you. By tomorrow morning, there are thousands of you who will have heard these words. What will the response of Christ be towards you?
It's a legitimate question. Will he weep? When he looks at you and I don't know what your name is and I don't know where you are, but God sees you. You may think that nobody knows you even live, but he knows you live and he loves you with an everlasting love. And he looks at you and he says, did I not tell you that if you would believe you'd see the glory of God? Did I not tell you that if you would believe I could raise you out of this place of death? Did I not tell you that if you would believe I could make your life a praise in the earth, I could give you a new song, a new heart, a new mind, a new reason to live, a new future, not only in time but in eternity. Did I not tell you if you would believe you'd see the glory of God? You see, I think he waited till Lazarus was dead to prove to you and I that there is no circumstance we could face where God can't bring us back to life again. It was proved once and for all when they said Lazarus is sick, we must go. And he waited until he was dead.
I do believe in measure. He did it for you and for me. Just to set the record straight, there's no captivity taking you that I can't take you out of. There's no wound I can't heal. There's no prison I can't open. There's nothing I can't do in a life that is surrendered to me.
And even if you're dead, I'll raise you. There's no iniquity in God. There's no unrighteousness in God. He's not a man that can lie. He doesn't boast.
He doesn't brag. He doesn't exaggerate. He doesn't stretch the truth. What he says has the power to create a universe. What he says has the power to raise the dead.
He's eternal, everlasting, always ever will be God. And he weeps for those who can't bring themselves to the place of believing that. Zephaniah chapter three, and I'm going to close with that beginning at verse 17. He says, the prophet says, the Lord, this is to a people back in his day that were to come. He says, the Lord, your God in your midst, the mighty one will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness.
He will quiet you with his love and he will rejoice over you with singing. I tell you folks, we have a choice to make. Jesus will either look at us and weep because we won't believe, or we will get up and come out of the grave and he will rejoice over us with singing.
It's really that simple. We come down the road like the prodigal son. We've got no bragging. We've got no boast. We've got no resume. We haven't been faithful.
We've made a mess of everything. But he was the one that the Lord rejoiced over with singing in the scriptures. He was the one that just said, only you can give me life again. Only you can cover my failure. Only you can empower me one more time to be the person that I'm called to be. I will gather those who sorrow over the appointed assembly who are among you, to whom its reproach is a burden. Behold, at that time, he said to Israel, I will deal with all who afflict you. I will save the lame and gather those who are driven out. And I will appoint them for praise and fame in every land where they were put to shame. Do you hear the words of God?
Do you hear the words that God spoke to his people of that season and that time? I will deal with those that afflict you. I will deal with those things that hold you back. I will smite your enemies. I will bring you through the seas of impossibility. I will raise you out of the places of death that are trying to wrap themselves around your mind and your life and your future. I will gather you who are driven out. You who feel you've got no place in my kingdom. I will gather you.
I don't care who drove you out. I love you with an everlasting love and I will gather you and bring you home. And I will appoint you for praise and fame.
Isn't that amazing? I will appoint you. I will give you a calling and it will bring praise to my name and fame to my name in every place where you had been formerly put to shame.
Hallelujah. You might be the worst drug addict in your community, but there's a day coming. If you will believe there's a day coming that you're going to walk down the streets of your town and you're going to have a song in your heart and you're going to have a strength in your life that you never had. And people are going to look and say, what happened to them?
What happened to her? How did they get to this place? At that time, he says, I will bring you back. Even at the time I will gather you.
So I will give you fame and praise among all the peoples of the earth. When I return your captives before your eyes, says the Lord. When I reverse your captivity. When I give you life where all you had was death.
So the question is really simple. When Jesus looks at you today, will he weep or will he rejoice with singing? The choice is yours.
You don't need to clean up your act to come to God. You can't. Don't even try. Don't even try.
If you're dead, you're dead. There's not much you can do about that. But you can hear the sound of his voice and move towards the sound of his voice.
You can do that. Lazarus couldn't even unwrap himself. All he could do is hear his voice and move towards his voice. I don't want Jesus to weep over me.
I don't know about you. I don't ever want him to weep over my life. I don't ever want him to look through the quarters of time and say, oh, I just wish Carter could have known. I just wish he could have taken that last step.
I just wish he could have believed for that final thing. I don't want any weeping over my life. I want him to rejoice over me with singing.
I want him to rejoice over you with singing. You say, what do I have to do? Just admit you can't save yourself.
Don't make it difficult. Believe that God loves you. And he came to this earth as a man and went to a cross and the punishment that we deserve for what we have done, he took upon himself and paid the price for the wrong that we have done.
A guilty man was set free by an innocent man who took his punishment. That's what the cross is all about. And then just with your mouth say, Jesus, I come. I come to you and I believe God. I believe you can raise me from death. I believe you can give me life.
I believe you can give me a song. I believe you can take something of my life and make a praise to your name through it. My life's a mess.
I can't bring you a resume. I can't bring you a litany of faithfulness. I'm a walking disaster, but God, here I am. And I give you what I am. I give you the message of my home, my life, my family, my mind, my body. I believe that I will see the glory of God. I believe God pleased tonight.
Give somebody the courage to say those words. I believe. I believe I will see the glory of God. I believe my life will be different. I believe I will be cleansed of my sin. I believe I'll be given a new heart, a new mind, a new spirit, a new future.
Oh God, I believe. If that's your heart, pray this simple prayer. Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for loving me. Even in my confusion, I give you my life and you are so gracious to take it. And anything I will become, it will all be because of you. But from this day forward, you're the Lord of my life, my savior, and you are my God. I love you, Jesus.
Thank you for loving me. Hallelujah. The message today has been brought to you by Carter Conlon from Times Square Church. For more information, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. Plan to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.
