Our three troubles

John 11:33; 12:27; 13:21

Trouble at the Grave, -Man's Ruin

In the news taken from the day's headlines, we read of barbaric tortures, grisly murders, and men careless of life and bereft of conscience.


Young men come to school like any other day with the exception of being heavily armed. Storing arms away secretly in cafeteria niches and supply rooms, two young men angry at the world begin randomly and wildly firing bullets into their classmates bodies and faces.


History gives us horrid descriptions of young men strung up by their wrists while their skin is stripped from their bodies and fed to wild dogs.

But this tells us only the end of sin. When conscience is seared, when hearts are hardened, then minds are tricked into believing evil to be good.

Yet the truest measure of sin lies in our ability to disguise ourselves as angels of light. Right now in each of our hearts sin causes us to think of ourselves as better than we truly are. For none of us can bear to see the true horror of the evil within each of our hearts. But God knows.


He sees the full extent of evil in our hearts and He is troubled.

Only in John's Gospel do we read of Jesus being troubled; 

1. At the grave of Lazarus, Jn 11:33; 
2. At the temple in the Court of the Gentiles, 12:27; 
3. In the upper room at the last Passover, 13:21

Why was Jesus so troubled here at the grave? 

Certainly, He was grieved by His friend, Lazarus' death. Likely too He was grieved at the unbelief of His disciples. These are all human emotions that we can identify with.  Yet how much greater is his grief when one considers the ruin of all that He created as represented in the grave of Lazarus. 

Nevertheless, even though it deeply troubles Him, it carried no sense of shock or surprise to Him...it was for this cause that He came into the world.

J. Sidlow Baxter penned these lines:

Wonder of wonders, vast surprise,

Could greater wonder be?

That He who made the starry skies

Once bled and died for me.

When we speak of how God so loved the world that He gave His unique Son, we usually think of the gift being given at His birth and at the cross. While this is amazing, what is still more amazing is that this gift was actually given before creation.

We often lament with hindsight that "if we had only known, we would have done things differently." Parents of teens may often be tempted to wish they had never had children. 


Some marriages are full of regret: Solomon records twice (Prov 21:9; 25:24) "[It is] better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house." (Married men, this is not the time to say "Amen")

Yet, it was in the heart of God that creation would be handed over to a creature that would so abuse it that the death of the Son was required to redeem it.

God so loved the world even before it was created that He gave Himself from before the foundation of the world.

Trouble in the Garden, - God's Remedy

A garden is wonderful place to spend some quiet time. It causes us to reflect and fill our senses with pleasurable things apart from the din and drudgery of everyday life.

Yet, it takes a great deal of care to keep a garden healthy. In fact, we often give up on it because of the commitment of time and energy. (I made the mistake of placing a bird feeder full of thistle seed in my flower garden)

When we do tend to the garden, it is troubling to see disease invade various plants.  Various remedies may be applied sometimes with success and sometimes not. When no remedy can be found, the only recourse is to uproot the plant and prepare the ground to receive a new plant.

The only way God can impart new life to us is to destroy the old and create something new. But He cannot destroy sin without destroying sinners. One way or another, we must die.

His remedy is to provide resurrection to a new life, not merely reformation of the old life.

Is their trouble in your garden? Are their weeds of endless trouble crowding out what you desired in life? Are their threats of pests and disease ruining you well laid out plans for a beautiful life? Have you tried to tend to it, reform it only to be discouraged by the bitter fruit of it?

God's remedy is in the cross.

Why was He there as the bearer of sin

If on Him my sin was not laid?

Why from His side flowed the sin cleansing blood

If by dying, my debt was not paid?

His purpose in going to the cross was to do what had to be done by no other means. It meant great trouble for Him to provide an opportunity for great blessing to us.

Trouble in the Gathering - Man's Responsibility

           

They filed into the upper room from the dusty streets in anticipation of the feast that always brought a measure of joyful memory and anticipation to their hearts. They hurriedly found a place around the table and continued on in their lighthearted chatter.

The Lord Jesus comes in and removes His robes, puts on a servants towel and washes their feet telling them that they do not know what He is doing now, but they will understand later.

He puts on his outer tunic again and takes His place at the table. The chatter begins quietly at first and then grows a little more lively as they take in what the Lord has just done. 

They see that the Lord's face remains solemn and grows more troubled. The chatter dies down as they one by one look at Him. Then the Lord announces that one from among them will betray Him.

As the astonished disciples discuss it among themselves, a solemn final and gracious command is given to Judas. It is really an appeal to Judas to repent, but in vain.  Judas could have said, No, I think that I will just stay.

The expectation of the Jews, including Judas, was that Messiah would appear as the end Roman rule and oppression and usher in a glorious time for Israel. Judas had hoped that Jesus was He.

Perhaps it was in the mind of Judas to force a confrontation with the Roman authorities in order for Jesus to show His power. Surely, Jesus the Messiah would not allow Himself to be crucified. Whatever the reasoning of Judas, he was moved by Satan to betray Jesus.

Did Judas have a choice? Yes, but that choice was presented to him long before this Passover feast. He could have chosen differently at any time, but he did not.

What was that choice?

"I will follow Jesus - if." 

He put conditions on his faith. Judas's love and loyalty was conditional upon certain expectations being met.

Is our faith such that if God should take every earthly blessing and hope away from us, would we still love Him? Would we still trust Him?

Before this year is out, we may all be tested as to the true nature of our faith.

Will we trust Him when our earthly wealth has evaporated?

Will we trust Him when our earthly institutions are destroyed?

Will we trust Him when our close companions and loved ones are taken in death?

Will we trust Him when we learn of the disease that will take our own life?

There is but one remedy for our troubled faith and that is to trust Jesus completely, implicitly, without hesitation and without reservation. It is not a faith that we conjure up by force of will or reason.

Judas shows us that our will and our reason cause us to have certain expectations about God. When expectations are not met, we doubt God.

If He is God, then trust Him as if He is God.

The cross and His empty grave give us a reason to trust Him and not our expectations.

We would never as a matter of reason expect that God would create a world in which He would be required to sacrifice Himself to save it. 

Certainly not by means of a crucifixion.

Yet, He has done it. Our expectations be cursed. We can trust Him because He is God.

To trust Him only while things are well is 'little faith.'

Trusting Him when the world offers nothing but danger and loss makes faith great because it is placed in a Great Person.

God is not ignorant of the trouble at the grave, nor of the trouble in our garden and not even at the trouble of our little faith in our gathering unto Him.

The Cross and the Resurrection prove that Jesus is Lord, He is Messiah.

Let us trust Him as Lord and God.

The Attributes of God: Righteousness | Blue Letter Bible: The Blog

The Attributes of God: Righteousness | Blue Letter Bible: The Blog

And can it be?...

And can it be, that I should gain
An interest in the Saviors blood?

Died He for me
Who caused His pain
For me, to Him to death pursued?

Amazing love...
    How can it be?
        That you
            My God
                Should Die
                    For Me?

The words of this hymn are no doubt a reflection and meditation upon the well know words of Romans 5...
"But God commends His love to us
In that while we were yet sinners
Christ died for us.

By placing emphasis on differing parts of this last phrase, we meditate on
The Magnanimity of God;
The Humility of God; and
The Vulnerability of God

It was Christ, as God, whom God sent to the cross. Not a third party, though that might have been grand enough. Yet, a third party, be it angel or prophet would nevertheless be a created being subject to his creator. Yet, what we have here is God Himself, uncreated, eternal, sinless, both personal and powerful offering Himself.
For God could not offer His Son without at the same time offering Himself. The loss of the cross was not only the Eternal Son accepting fatherlessness, but the Father accepting sonlessness. The abandonment of the cross was mutual in that Christ being made sin for us, must of necessity separate Himself from the Father even as the Father must abandon the Son.

Here we see that nothing was held back, not even eternal relationship, no part way measures, nothing but the very best was given as an expression of God's love.

What a great mystery!!!

Moreover is what Christ who died for us.
Can we imagine what death means to God? Can we imagine what the death of the cross means to the dignity of Deity? It was not His life that saves apart from His death. It was not merely a perfect example of sinlessness given for us to aspire to. Rather, it was the evidence in the life of Christ that declared Him to be just and undeserving of any death, let alone the death of the cross.

Yet, it is not the physical suffering but the curse of sin bringing death, soul death, to the giver of life.

Amazing love!!!!!...

Most amazing of all, Christ died for us...
Declared unjust, unrighteous, evil, defiant, rebellious, sinners, enemies, yet the very object of God's love. God, as it were, made Himself helpless before that which He loves, not at all guaranteed of a right response. Indeed, His love is offered to a race that is incapable of a right response...

How can it be?...

Speaking to the Serpent

Genesis 3:2 Moses account of man's fall:

"And the woman said to the serpent..."

Do you have a fond remembrance of childhood? Many of us remember it as a time when we knew nothing of evil and only of good. A time when the family sheltered us from this world's depravity and we understood little of its dangers and fears. It was a time of healthy ambition for learning and growth.

Unfortunately, such innocence lasts little beyond infancy and the world comes at us with full speed depravity, corrupting our ability to recognize good from evil. It is a great sadness to see children so robbed of innocence.

Is it any wonder then that God desired the same for man?

Moses account of forfeiture of innocence  in the book of Genesis reveals to us the root of man's depravity. When we examine the first recorded activity of the man (Adam) and the first recorded activity of the woman (Eve) we learn of the culpability of each in changing this world originally declared by God as 'very good' into our present reality of depraved mortality.

The first man was given a task and a prohibition. He was to claim dominion over God's creation by the naming of each creature but he was not to claim dominion as God by eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It was God's desire that man be kept in a state of innocence but not in a state of ignorance.

His prohibition was, in part, so that man could enjoy God and all that He had created without fear or corruption. The knowledge of good and evil was to remain the exclusive prerogative of Holy God.

Man now seems determined to create a world where there is no need for God. In this world, man's wisdom trumps God's wisdom and turns from a relationship with God to 'speak to the serpent' instead. It is a world torn by ethnic hatreds, selfish ambition, overwhelming fear and outright hatred against God and His authority. It is not the world that God created, it is a world created by man when his heart was turned away from God. 

It is notable that the first recorded action of the woman was to speak, not to her husband (to whom she was given as a helper), and not to God (to whom they were both accountable to). When she spoke to the serpent she committed the first act of idolatry. Since that time, every transgression of man is a result of speaking to the serpent. 

Our responsibility is to speak to God, but in our pride and fallen condition, we can no longer do so freely without a mediator ("For [there is] one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus";1 Timothy 2:5). As a result, we are more comfortable with the devil's manipulations than with God's declarations.

Though Eve was in the transgression, Adam was right there and said nothing to restore the right order. Adam followed his heart in the deception. His heart was to follow his wife rather than follow God. In this way he corrupted the love of God - a self-sacrificing supreme love - to the lesser, but more popular forms of love that the Greek language describes as 'eros' (erotic love) and 'phileo' (brotherly love). 

As the head of the human race and of his wife Eve, Adam was held accountable. As proof of the corruption of God's perfect, sacrificial love, Adam deflects blame to Eve for the deception. When Adam is confronted by God with his sin, God asks him, "Have you eaten of the tree...?" Adam replies: "The woman that you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat."

The serpent as a proxy of the devil was very subtle indeed. Satan chose the most beautiful creature in the garden to approach the first couple (see Ezekiel 28:13). As a master of half-truths, he recognizes their joint heir-ship over God's dominion but ignores Adams headship and speaks directly to the woman. She was enticed by beauty and by a desire to be as wise as God Himself. By this deception, the first man, Adam, forfeited the innocence, the glory and the honor that God had desired for His creature. 

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" Romans 5:12

You and I, before we die, will respond to God in one of two ways. We will either continue to follow our natural impulses, speaking to the serpent, exalting man's wisdom, following our heart's passions without regard for God...or, we will turn back to God through the one mediator that He has appointed, God's Son, Jesus Christ.  

Our response will determine our eternal destiny. 

"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."  Acts 4:12