Seeing the Glory of God - Live with Lon!

Hello everybody!

Welcome to Live with Lon, and I'm Lon and I'm happy to be with you. Praise the Lord! Anyway, we are studying the Gospel of John. If you remember, we're actually studying the Gospels, but we moved through the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, called Synoptic because they're very similar. We moved through them and got to the Triumphal Entry, and now we've gone back to John's Gospel, and the Triumphal Entry in John's Gospel is John chapter 12. So we're trying to catch up with the other three Gospels, and then in John 12 we'll put everything together and do the last week of Jesus's life from all four Gospels. So that's our plan, and we are in John chapter 11, the most amazing chapter, amazing chapter.

Of course, so was 10 and so was 9, and John's Gospel is amazing. So let's pray, and we're gonna dig in. Here we go. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you so much for the privilege of studying the eternal Word of God today. Lord Jesus, use the Word of God in our lives, and help us to regard it as the very words of God Himself to our hearts who read it. And Lord, I pray that the Holy Spirit would give us understanding of the Word today, and that He would use it in our life to encourage, and to strengthen, and to fortify us in our walk here on earth till we're with you. And we pray this in Jesus' name, and everybody said, what'd you say? Amen, and what?

Amen. John chapter 11. If you remember the story, Jesus has three good friends living in Bethany, a little village just over the Mount of Olives from Jerusalem, about two miles or so, and they were Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus. This was the Mary and Martha, where Martha was busy serving the meal, and Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, and Martha said, make her help me Lord.

Yeah, that's them. And they sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was sick, very deathly ill, and asked him to come and, you know, ostensibly heal Lazarus. He didn't come, he let Lazarus die, and then he came to Bethany.

And if you remember, we left off with Martha saying to him, Lord, if you'd have been here, my brother would not have died. In other words, this is all your fault, and you need to go back and listen to that message about this all being your fault, God, because nothing's ever God's fault. God doesn't make, doesn't have fault.

He doesn't do anything that's faulty. But you listen to that. Now, we're gonna pick up in John chapter 11, and we're gonna pick up in verse 21. Then Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you'd have been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now, whatever you ask of God, God will give it to you.

So, raise my brother up. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection, Martha. I don't do the resurrection of people. I am the resurrection. I'm the living resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall still live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.

Do you believe this? And she said to him, yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world by prophecy in the Old Testament. And when she had said these things, she went her way and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying the teacher has come and is calling for you. And as soon as she, Mary, heard that, she arose quickly and came to him, Jesus. Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha had met him. And then the Jewish people who were with Mary in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, they followed her saying, she's going to the tomb to weep there. Then when Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet saying to him, Lord, if you'd have been here, my brother would not have died.

Sound familiar? That's exactly what Martha said. I think the two of them had been comparing notes. Therefore when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jewish people who came with her also weeping, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And he said, where have you laid him? And they said him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then the Jewish people said, you see how he loved him, Lazarus? And some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying, Lazarus?

You know guys, wow, no matter what you do, there's already always somebody there to critique it and criticize it, huh? Then Jesus again groaning in himself came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay against it. In fact, if you go to Israel with me in February, we go to Bethany where you can see this cave, the actual cave, and where the stone was.

Absolutely. And I do a sermon there about all of this. Jesus said, take away the stone. And Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Jesus, Lord, by this time there will be a stench for he has been dead four days. Then Jesus said to her, did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?

And then of course they removed the stone and we'll pick up there later. Now the, this passage is an amazing passage and we're gonna take several weeks in this passage because there's so much in here we want to talk about. We want to talk about Jesus groaning in his spirit and weeping. We want to talk about Mary and Martha and their response to Jesus. We want to talk about the people who said, couldn't he have kept him from dying? This guy who opened the eyes of the blind. We got a lot to talk about. But today I want to talk about this comment that Jesus makes to Mary and Martha, particularly to Martha.

Look what he said. We're looking at verse 40. And Jesus said to her, did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God? Now Jesus said something very similar to this at the very beginning of the chapter. If you look back, look with me if verse 4, and when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, he said this sickness is not to death but for the glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified through it. This sickness is for the glory of God.

And did I not tell you if you believe you will see the glory of God. Now folks in the scripture the glory of God is a possession that the Lord has. The glory of the universe emanates from him, that is God, wherever he is because he is so glorious. He's the holy righteous God of the universe. It's a possession of his.

It is a attribute of his. And look at this, just a couple of verses in Isaiah chapter 6. Look what Isaiah says, he's lifted up into heaven or he has a vision, whatever, we don't know for sure, but whatever happened he saw God and he said, verse 5 of Isaiah 6, woe is me for I am ruined for I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips for I have seen the King the Lord of hosts.

Now compare this to John chapter 12 verse 41. Look at this, these things Isaiah said when he saw his God's glory and spoke of him. So God's glory was something Isaiah saw because it emanates from God.

How about chapter 7 of the book of Acts where we're looking at the stoning of Stephen and the death of Stephen and look what Stephen says as he's about to die. He says in Acts chapter 7 verse 55, but being full of the Holy Spirit he gazed into heaven, Stephen, and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He saw God's glory at there surrounding God as an emanation, a shining of God.

So like I said the glory of God is a thing that God possesses that shines out of God everywhere that he is and that is part of his nature. Okay, but this is not what Jesus was talking about when he said in Acts chapter, but this is not what Jesus was talking about exactly when he said in John chapter 11, this sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God and then later in the chapter when he says to Martha, did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God. Now did he mean that Martha if she believed would see God like Isaiah did and would see the preeminent effervescent glory of God emanating from God? No, that's not what he means.

She never was transmitted to heaven or had a vision and saw that there at the Lazarus's tomb. So what was Jesus talking about? Because it's not the same thing that Isaiah was talking about or that Stephen was talking about. What's that mean?

Have you ever wondered about that? I mean we tend to read these verses we get so familiar with them that we just read through them. Did I not say you would see the glory of God?

What does that mean? What's Jesus talking about if he's not talking about seeing God himself and his unbelievable effervescent glory? What's Jesus talking about? Well that's important here and I want to talk to you about it for just a couple minutes and then we're done but first what do we have to do? We have to ask our most important question right and you know what it is so come on here we go one two three so what yes yes and with my surgery coming up and the recovery I'm sitting here right now and I'm in no pain and I haven't had it yet so I say haha baby how sweet it is but even afterwards my wife keeps assuring me that I'm gonna say how sweet it is because I'm gonna be able to walk better so how sweet it is or as Jackie would say or as we would say that's how Jackie would say it how sweet it is we say how sweet it is now what's the takeaway from here now what's the not a sermon just a thought what's the point that I want you to take away from the sermon today well it is this comment by Jesus that Martha if you believe you'll see the glory of God that this sickness is not under death but it's for the glory of God what happened at the tomb well you say Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead that's right and what would we call that come on now you can say it um what is it a miracle correct a miraculous doing on the part of the Lord so what's he talking about here he is saying listen carefully that he is doing something supernatural and miraculous like Ra raising Lazarus from the dead is seeing the glory of God you're not seeing God in all of his you know ebullient glory like a lot like Isaiah did but you've seen the glory of God in the in the work in the miracle in the supernatural of him you say okay so the resurrecting someone reveals the glory of God we're not just resurrecting someone let me point you back to John chapter 2 John chapter 2 where Jesus in Cana changed water into wine look what verse 11 says it says this was the beginning of signs supernatural things Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him so here Jesus allowed people to see his glory manifested it but he didn't raise anybody from the dead he did a miracle he did a supernatural thing changing water into wine but this is not specifically something that's reserved what Jesus said about seeing God's glory for resurrecting people you with me now you say Lon I'm with you but what's the point here's the point the point is God has this personal ebullient effervescent shining glory that anyone who sees him sees this glory it's a thing it's a possession it's an attribute of our holy God but the glory of God is also seen in the supernatural working of God here on earth in people's lives are you with me so when God does something supernatural here's the point and does something miraculous in on here on earth in people's lives people by seeing that are seeing the glory of God reflected and in operation here on earth do you get that do you understand that okay that's what Jesus says I never really noticed this all honestly I never really paid any attention I just flew right by Jesus's comment you will see the glory of God until honestly studying for this message and suddenly the Holy Spirit said to me hey it's not me I want you to see notice this see that's why you keep reading the scripture there's always something new the Holy Spirit will point out to you now what's the point for you and me friends when we here it is listen it's what I want you to take away when we allow God when we give him the opportunity in the platform to do something supernatural and miraculous in our life when we trust him to do great and mighty things that we know not Jeremiah 33 3 we are creating an opportunity for the glory of God to be seen by our friends our neighbors our co-workers our family people all around us and when we tell people about the glorious things God has done supernaturally in our life even though it may be in the past we are allowing people to see the glory of God described to them told to them in our recounting of this supernatural work God did do you understand if you want if I want to give God glory that doesn't mean that I just stand somewhere with my hand up and say glory glory nothing wrong with that but if I want to give really give God glory in my life there's two things I can do number one I can tell people about the supernatural things God's already done in my life and number two I can be willing to trust him for supernatural things now and in the future where people watching will go whoa whoa what a glorious God she's got he's got are you with me the people watching here Jesus raised Lazarus the Bible goes on to say and many believed why because they saw the glory of God in this healing in this miracle and in chapter 12 the Bible says that the the Jewish leaders wanted to kill Lazarus to look at this chapter 12 verse 9 then a great many of the Jewish people knew that Jesus was there and they came not just for Jesus's sake only but that they might also see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead but the chief priests took counsel how they might also put Lazarus to death because on account of him many of the Jewish people went away and believed in Jesus so as Lazarus continued to recount the story he continued to give glory to God and bring people to Christ so I want to challenge you number one don't ever stop telling people the stories your children your grandchildren your friends when you get the opportunity your neighbors whoever your co-workers of the great and mighty things the Lord has done for you this is what Jesus told a legion in Mark chapter 5 he said I want you to go everywhere and tell people what great things God has done for you why because when they hear these things it brings glory to God you recounting these things be vocal about it it never gets old I remember the movie Avalon a great movie about a Jewish man who moves comes to Baltimore and his name was Sam and he kept he always kept telling stories and stories and stories to his children and his grandchildren and his wife kept saying Sam Sam enough already they don't want to hear any more stories yes they do my grandchildren gather around me and go Papa Papa tell us some more stories tell us some more stories my wife may well not want to hear it again and again and again haha but my grandchildren love it they eat it up with a spoon don't you ever think that people especially your children and your grandchildren don't want to know the great and mighty things God has done for you they do tell them be vocal be open tell it again and again and again because every time you do you're bringing glory to God and second of all let me say don't ever get to the point please in your Christian life where you and I stop giving God the opportunity to do great and mighty things for us that we know not we never get so old that God doesn't want us to trust him for supernatural things in our life never do we get too old for that Abraham Abraham was a hundred years old when he trusted God for the birth of Isaac and probably close to a hundred and twenty or thirty years old when he trusted God when he took Isaac up on Mount Moriah and in obedience to God to sacrifice him which of course never happened God stepped in but Abraham that was a huge act of faith and he was over a hundred years old always folks always be available to trust God to do something supernatural for you and I think of that song oceans and there's a great sign of line in there that says take me where my faith has no boundaries that's where we want to be our faith having no boundaries we can trust God for anything if he asked us to because when he does those things people standing around and watching they give glory to God God receives glory from the miracle and the supernatural event you understand you know my oldest son James who's a doctor in the Navy as you know he's getting out soon though and went to Naval Academy love this child he's not a child anymore but love this man have have oodles of props and respect for this man as I do all my boys uh you know what when he was growing up and I never knew this until recently he made the comment recently to a friend who told me about it and said you know James told me that one of the things that was most helpful to his faith was watching God answer prayers for you long and and hearing about God answering prayers for you from even before he was born and say seeing these miraculous answers to prayer great mighty things that we knew not was what really confirmed and encouraged his faith in many respects he never has said that to me I never knew that it was just part of my life to tell him and let him watch and be part of God moving and doing supernatural things but you know what all of those things brought glory to God in James life and and in your children in your grandchildren's lives the same will happen tell them what God has done don't make them poor with memories about what God has done for you tell them again and again and again yes gather them around and say let me let me tell you something the Lord did for me and then tell them something supernatural he did and you know what to this day I'm still trying to be that kind of person with my children and my grandchildren and friends around me I'll close with two incidents they're short I have a very good friend named dick Williams living in near net right outside of Nashville right now hey dick shout out to you brother you and Judy I love you guys but dick years ago was living here in Washington DC and he was the general manager at a TV station here in Washington DC and we became friends because they were attending McLean Bible Church and I'm not sure at this point that when this event I'm gonna tell you about happened I'm not sure dick had actually given his heart to Jesus in in saving faith yet he has now of course I'm not I'm not sure that he really had he was still feeling this out he was born and raised Catholic but he was still feeling this out and long story short what happened was I lived in this neighborhood my wife Brenda was up at Johns Hopkins Jill was an inpatient for a while up there in this particular time and they were trying to figure out what in the world was going on with all these awful seizures anyway it was time for her to come home and we had a big snow I'm talking a foot and a half something like that it was a significant snow and in my neighborhood though my house was down at the end by a cul-de-sac but there was a little the road went kind of up and down in a hump and came down to my house well I didn't have my car was just a little Toyota with rear-wheel drive and I knew I couldn't get it out so I asked dick if he would come and bring his front wheel drive automobile and pick me up and take me to Baltimore so I could pick Brenda and Jill up anyway he came and we while we walked up to meet him because what happened was he came over that hump boom stuck car no move the gun couldn't go forwards couldn't go backwards stuck as could be and we walked up he called me and we walked up the I don't know a few hundred yards and there we couldn't go forward couldn't go backwards there we were Brenda's waiting for us to come get them I mean you come get her there we were and what someone said I don't remember who it was that said you know what we need we need a snowplow and we all kind of shook our head and I said okay let's trust God let's pray and we're gonna trust God for a snowplow I mean there wasn't a snowplow anywhere in sight I threw my arm around dick and I started to pray and his eyes were like more well yeah I don't think he was used to that threw my arm around him we're all standing out there in the snow in the middle of the day and I said Lord Jesus please you can do anything we're standing here Lord Jesus and we need a snowplow please I don't know where you're gonna bring it from but we desperately need a snowplow Lord Jesus and I just want you to show dick your amazing reality and power show all of us about bringing us to snowplow in Jesus name amen and as soon as I prayed it I thought oh boy what have I done oh my gosh what happens if no snowplow shows up how does this would you put the effect dicks coming to crack okay I was just like Lord I know please I didn't mean to put you in this situation I don't know but Lord please friends I lie not if we all I lie not call dick Williams up if you don't believe me it could not have been 20 seconds all of a sudden coming from behind where dick had already come from towards us was this and up above the little hill came this massive truck with the snowplow on the front I thought dick was gonna have a heart attack I thought Judy his wife was gonna have a heart attack my boys all stood there like what they I even I went Lord that's pretty amazing pretty amazing I could it wasn't 20 seconds room plowed everything out we went and got Brenda friends did that bring glory to God and convinced my friend dick that there was a living God who hears prayer and intervenes in our world you betcha but we we can't be afraid to trust God and give him the opportunity to do great and mighty things finally we were over at Tyson's Corner a mall this was probably a year ago and it was after church and we were going there to eat at the at Nordstrom cafe and we we were sitting in the little upper lot if you know what I'm talking about if you know Tyson's there's a little upper parking lot outside Nordstrom and then there's on the other side of Nordstrom there's this big old parking garage and I don't like to park in the parking garage I wanted to get one of the spots out there in this little lot but they're there they're very hard to get people sit there with their blinker on just waiting for people to come walking out of Nordstrom and then they follow them until they get to their car so we drive up there's no spots we're looking around but Tyler my grandson's with me and so we pulled up there's no spots and we're sitting there along one of the rows and I said Tyler let's pray he's like okay and I go Lord Jesus please we need a parking spot please I'm asking you open a parking spot right here in this upper lot for us please and show your glory to my grandson Tyler Jesus name amen and again after that prayer I'm like oh boy Lord please I'll put you in this I'm a little sorry I just stuck in this but Lord please for Tyler's sake please I know you can do it for Tyler's sake I'm not lying to you if you don't believe me ask Tyler it couldn't have been after we said amen could not have been 10 seconds maybe less where right in front of us we were just sitting there you know with the cars all parked 10 seconds these backup lights go on and this car backs out and all the people who you know the parasites they're like me looking for a spot couldn't get there fast enough I'm sitting right there it's literally 10 not even 10 feet in front of me five feet in front of me this car backs out I pull in I say thank you Jesus we appreciate that and Tyler turns to me and he says now Papa he says that was a miracle praise the Lord that was a miracle hey you know what all I did was give God a chance to show Tyler his glory and he did it and he'll do it for you now don't tempt the Lord and ask him for crazy stuff like you say parking space line is crazy stuff no it isn't no pray about your lost keys let people see God help you find them all kinds of things let and let people see it and tell them the stories because that brings glory to God okay I think you got the point time to stop I hope this will change the way you live you want to give glory to God you don't just do it by singing or saying glory praise the Lord no you do it by letting people see the powerful omnipotent God of the universe do things through you great mighty things that you know not that are supernatural that are miraculous and people when they see it what did Jesus say to Martha they see the glory of God tell them about it and let them see it in your life on a continuing basis let's pray Heavenly Father speak to us encourage us challenge us to let people see the glory of God through our willingness to let you do Jeremiah 33 three great and mighty things that we know not Ephesians chapter 3 says Lord you can do things that are exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask and think according to the power of that of you working in us so Lord Jesus get let us be quick to give you those kind of opportunities and tell people about what you did and have done for us in Jesus name Amen hey last thought I remember when I was coming to Christ and God healed my dog Noah you know my testimony many of you of mange I had five or six guys that were living in this house that we were living in and they saw this happen they knew he had the mains that he lived right there in the house they they knew that it wasn't react responding to treatment and they saw God heal him man the glory that brought to God one of them said just a coincidence and I said oh no it isn't and no it was no it's not and I still tell that story to this day to give glory to God and let people see it I had a guy one time say to me I'm sorry God healing dogs a doesn't fit with my theology and I said to him well my friend God is bigger than your theology because God healed my dog I don't care what you think in your theology I'm just telling you God healed my dog he's bigger than your theology praise the Lord see you next week on life of mine Lord willing