Allen Jackson - Good and Evil on Display - Part 2
Angels and demons and you, they’re in play today just as much in the first century. Kingdoms in conflict, we have to decide what our alignment’s going to be. You cannot be both. There’s no dual citizenship. It’s very important to understand. John 11, let’s start, verse 1. We’re not gonna read the whole thing. I’ve edited it a bit, but how much time do we have? Yeah, we’re not gonna read the whole thing. «Now a man named Lazarus was sick. And he was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, 'Lord, the one you love is sick.'»
Jesus is friends with the family. They have a cell phone. So she sends a text. I mean, Living Bible, it’s pretty much what happened. She said, «Lord, we need help». And Jesus sees the text. And when he read the text, he looked at the disciples, said, «Oh, this isn’t gonna end in death. It’s for God’s glory that God’s Son may be glorified through it». And then John inserts this little bit because it’s a part of the story that helps us understand. He said, «Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days».
Wow, like, on purpose. Didn’t say he couldn’t get there, didn’t say his schedule was too crowded. It wasn’t he couldn’t get a flight. He just stayed where he was for a couple of days. «Then he said to his disciples, 'Let’s go back to Judea.'» That’s where Bethany is. «'But Rabbi, ' they said, 'a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and you’re going back there? '» Remember, we just read those two occasions where they tried to arrest him. The disciples are very aware of this. «We can’t go back near Jerusalem. They’ll arrest you. They tried to kill you the last time you were there».
So this isn’t some subtle narrative. This is the defining component of Jesus’s ministry. Do you have this imagination that there was enough hatred directed towards Jesus, that if he was in the vicinity of Jerusalem, he needed heightened security? How do you square that with the very popular notion that Jesus is just all about love? I understand he said, «A new commandment I give you: Love one another». But everybody didn’t love him. And he doesn’t always cooperate in a kind, gentle word. He makes whips and overturns tables and drives people out and calls people names. His disciples come to him and said, «You’re kind of offensive, could you dial it back a little bit»?
Don’t you know they talked about that after the fact? Weren’t you the knucklehead that told Jesus he was a little over the top? You know they did. They argued about who was the greatest. You know they talked trash. They just didn’t put it all in the book. They put enough in there that it’s embarrassing. Verse 11: «After he said this, he went on to tell them, 'Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I’m going there to wake him up.' And his disciples said, 'Well, Lord, if he sleeps, he’ll get better.'» Bless their hearts. «Lord, if he’s sleeping, the fever’s broken, he’s gonna be okay. We don’t have to travel, we don’t have to go put ourselves at risk».
It’s not that they don’t want to make the trip, it’s dangerous. I don’t think we’re prepared for it, it hasn’t settled in on us yet, that it was dangerous for Jesus to be Jesus. It’s gonna be dangerous for you to be Jesus’s friend. Now, how long are you going to deny him? When they say, «Don’t pray,» we go, «Oh, okay». What’s wrong with us? «Don’t talk about him in this school». «What do you mean? If it’s a public school, we paid for it. Jesus is coming». What’s wrong with us? It’s a public university. Jesus will be welcome here. They teach every other form of worldview on that campus. They might as well welcome my Jesus.
«'Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. I’m gonna go wake him up.' 'Lord, if he sleeps, he’ll get better.' Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep». Again, John keeps explaining. He’s kind of telling on them. «So then he told them plainly, 'Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I’m glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let’s go to him.'» That’s fascinating to me. «For your sake, I’m glad I wasn’t there». For Lazarus’s sake and Mary and Martha’s sake, maybe not so good. A lot of grief, a little anxiety, death. Lazarus is dead. But for your sake, I’m glad I wasn’t there. Imagine if you’re the one that’s sick. «Forget them, come help me. They’re kind of slow anyway. I’m not sure they’re gonna catch on». «But let us go to him».
Verse 16, fascinating: «Then Thomas said to the rest of the disciples, 'Let us also go, that we can die with him.'» Do you hear the depth of it, folks? This isn’t like a debate. This isn’t, «Oh, they said something unkind about me in MSNBC». This isn’t, «Well, you know, we have a theological disagreement». If we go back, there’s a high degree of probability, we’ll die. Let’s go with him anyway. Same chapter, verse 21: «'Lord, ' Martha said to Jesus, 'if you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.' And Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again.'» Boom, drop the mic. «And Martha answered, 'Yes, I know he’ll rise again in the resurrection at the last day.'»
What a religious answer. No power present. No expectation, no awkward moment. «Yes, yes. God answers every prayer now and in eternity». Doesn’t that sound like the kind of drivel we push forward? «And Jesus said to her, 'I’m the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? ' 'Yes, Lord, I believe that you’re the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into this world.'» Strong. Same chapter, verse 38 now: «Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 'Take away the stone, ' he said».
Now if you’re reading this, you’re getting a little excited because you’ve got some anticipation. But Martha’s still having a hard time. «'Take away the stone'? Lord, he stinks. It’s been four days. You better leave it sealed up». She’d just had the conversation, we just read it. Jesus said, «Your brother’s gonna rise again. I’m the resurrection and the life». Then he goes to the… he said, «I wanna see the tomb. Open the tomb». You’re reading this, you’re going, «Yes,» but Martha is very much in the moment. She understands what’s in play. It’s outside of every expectation. You see, what I want us to feel as we read this is that Jesus’s message isn’t subtle. But it’s still being tamped down, ignored, denied, dismissed, discounted, the same way we discount and dismiss miracles. They are happening amongst us.
And we mutter around and mope around and go, «I don’t know if God does a miracle. I still got a hangnail. I circled the square three times last week, praying for a parking place. I had to park in the parking garage and walk in the rain. It was cold. I didn’t like it». See, it’s not the magnitude of the miracles, it’s the condition of our heart. The fact that God does miracles, that the supernatural is a part of our journey, doesn’t remove us from the arena of human suffering. It didn’t remove Jesus, it didn’t remove the disciples. They’re gonna be martyred, imprisoned, beaten, mistreated. They’re gonna rejoice because they were counted worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus because they saw the kind of tension he caused.
What’s happened to us, church? It’s happened little by little, bit by bit. Over a long period of time we’ll hold up our baptismal certificate and say, «Well, I don’t have to be like… I’m good, I’m good, I’m good, I’ve got all I need, really». «Jesus said, 'Take away the stone.' Martha said, 'By this time there’s a bad odor. He’s been there four days, ' and Jesus said, 'Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? '» «Well, I guess so». «And when he’d said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out! ' The dead man came out».
Now John’s been giving us all these little insertions, all this little backstory. He puts nothing here. I want him to tell me what did Martha do? Did she pass out? Did she hug the J-man like, what did she do? What did the crowd say? Were they speechless? Were they terrified? Probably. I mean, Lazarus walked out. «Lazarus, come here»! And you hear noise. And then you see movement. And dude’s walking out. John just doesn’t say anything. «Well, I mean, his hands and feet were wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. And Jesus said to them, 'Take off the grave clothes and let him go.' Therefore», therefore is a summary word. When you find a «therefore» you should find out what it’s there for. «Therefore,» because of this Lazarus event, «many of the Jews who’d come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him».
Many did, not all of them. So if you saw somebody walk out of a grave after being there for 4 days, some people are still determined enough to go, «No, I’m not sure». Many believed. Look at verse 46: «But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. And the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin,» and said, «Well, clearly this is the Messiah. Let’s all get behind him». I mean, they have eyewitnesses to a resurrection. No choice here. But they’re gonna stick with the Russian collusion hoax. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not attributing biblical stature to anybody. I’m telling you deception and lies and a refusal to acknowledge the truth is a spiritual conflict more than it’s a political one. And we better wake up. «So they called a meeting of the Sanhedrin, and they said, 'What are we accomplishing? Here is this man performing many miraculous signs.'»
Well, just maybe you could, like, support him. «'If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him.'» Well, that’d be awful. «'Then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.'» See, they don’t believe in angels and demons in you. They’re not leading a dimensional life. Well, they have all kinds of religious activity. They keep religious rules. What goes on their fork, they tithe of everything they get. They’re always in service. They’re very churched. We’re gonna have to be sophisticated enough to understand the difference between the true and the false church. No pleasure in that, but we’re gonna have to be. They said, «If this continues, this is gonna be bad for us». They have no spiritual awareness. No light, no salt.
Same story, just I’m gonna pull it forward a few more weeks. Lazarus has been doing well. Jesus is back. «A large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and they came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he’d raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him». You read it, but it’s disorienting. It’s an expression of evil that’s so dark, it’s hard to process. It’s like, «Oh, that can’t be right. There must be some cultural something I don’t know».
No, there’s not. The chief priests prefer to destroy the evidence of God’s activity rather than to cooperate with what God is doing. That’s the plain reading of the text. The same spirit is operating in the earth today. No shame, no embarrassment. We’ll slaughter 60 million children and then demand our right to choose so we can kill 60 million more. We’ll mutilate children, teenagers, and say it’s a confusing issue. It’s not confusing, you’re evil.
I don’t know why God chose. It seems to me, at least from my vantage point, it started with COVID, the shaking, where things that had been hidden in the shadows have begun to find their way into the truth. The light seems to begin to come on, that they’re coming on now with such a rapidity that you’re blinking. It’s hard to see. Billions of dollars in waste and fraud, and rather than everybody rallying around and go, «Thank God we’re going to keep some of the money that we gave the government,» we’re angry about it. We’re angry about it. But it seems to me much like what I’m reading in John.
«Yeah, you raised him from the dead. We gotta get rid of him, that’s awkward. People can keep telling that story, and keep seeing him in the marketplace. We’re never gonna talk this Jesus out of his place. We gotta shut him down too. We’ll kill one, we’ll kill two, what’s it matter»? Angels and demons and you. We can’t hide in our churches anymore. We can’t just have our polite Bible studies. There’s a spiritual dimension. Are you aware of it? In John’s Gospel, it’s very clear there’s a decision being processed by the people. Jesus is providing lots of coaching on the choices to be made. God intervenes time after time, healing a man that’s born blind, raising a man from the dead with a voice from heaven, in John chapter 12, a voice from heaven: «This is my Son». A voice from heaven. And they go, «It’s not God».
Oh, lots of people heard it. You see, there’s a tension between dimensions in John’s Gospel, between time and eternity. Jesus said, «My home is someplace else. I’m just here on a temporary assignment». One of the great challenges we have is we’ve been so invested in this present age, we’re so deeply rooted in, that we imagine our success based on people who deny the existence of the kingdom of God. We think we’re competing with them. We’re so rooted in, we’re not really living for eternity. Jesus said, «Listen, you can do what you need me to do. I’m just here on an assignment. When I’ve accomplished my Father’s assignment, he’s gonna glorify me.
Do what you need to do. Do you need to arrest me? Let’s go. You need to put a crown of thorns on me and spit in my face and call me names? Here you go. But I mean, don’t get overheated with yourself. The only authority you’ve got, my Dad gave you. And if I needed help, there are legions of angels,» a legion’s 3 to 6000 people. «There are tens of thousands of angels at my disposal. We could fry your bacon». That’s not a very Jewish analogy, just for, «But I wanna complete this assignment because the best possible thing for me is obedience».
What would happen to us if we decided to live like that? What would happen to us? What would happen to us if we would stop saying, «Well, you know, I don’t like to read. You know, I’m just not, that serving thing, I’m not really into that. I’m busy. It’s not a good time in my life for that. Giving, you know, I don’t believe in tithing. Why am I gonna do that? I don’t…» How long are we gonna keep pushing obedience away? How long are we gonna deny the Lord so we can close a deal or get an opportunity or maintain our position? It’s really clear in the narrative. We gotta decide, folks, if we’re gonna raise our hand and follow Jesus. We call Thomas «the Doubter,» and Thomas is the one who said, «Let’s go with him. If they kill him, we’ll go».
That’s pretty good for a doubter. What kind of church are we gonna be? I can promise you this, the changes that are being initiated by politicians are unsustainable unless there is a greater change in the heart of the people of God. We’re the salt and the light, we’re the moral compass for the culture, and our compass has been broken. And there are some voices that are standing up for some truthful things that the church has not been willing to say. We haven’t been willing to say there’s two genders. We haven’t been willing to stick to a biblical definition of marriage. We haven’t been willing to say our educational system has failed miserably. No, 'cause it’s awkward, it’ll hurt somebody’s feelings.
We’re gonna have to be willing to say we’re gonna choose a different course. And we’re gonna respond in a different way. We’ll start in the little community where God placed us. Take this mud out of the schools. Don’t hire people based on how they look, hire them based on competency. The government works for us. We shouldn’t serve it. This really isn’t that complicated. God will move if we will raise our hands and say, «We will follow you». Why don’t you stand with me? I wanna pray that prayer for us. Do you believe in spiritual things? Yes, I do. Do you believe demons are real? Absolutely. Do I believe they influence our lives? Without any question. Do I believe that angels are real? Jesus did. They ministered to him frequently. He said at the end of the age, the angels would be the harvesters. That he would send them out into the world to separate the good from the bad. Yes, I do believe in them. I believe they’re actively involved in our lives today.
The Bible doesn’t say it. It’s my opinion, so you could disagree with me, but when they say that Jesus could walk through the crowd and they couldn’t lay hands on him, I think there was a contingent of angels going, «You’re not touching this one today». And I think when he submitted himself to their authority and they blindfolded him, hit him over the head, there were angels standing there watching him go. You better enjoy it, because this is a temporary arrangement. You’re valuable to God. You were valuable to him. He gave his Son for you. Not so we could play church and sing our choruses and sit in our favorite seats and park in our favorite spot. What nonsense. He gave his Son for us so we could be a part of his eternal kingdom and in our brief journey through time we could be advocates, ambassadors for him.
I have a friend that was given an ambassadorial assignment on behalf of the United States government and I’m very happy for them. It’s an honor. It’s an incredibly greater honor to be called an ambassador for the kingdom of Almighty God. And that’s you and me. We’ve been a little slack. We’ve been underrepresenting. Truthfully, we’ve been ashamed. Or we wanted the profit that might come to us if we just denied our association a little bit, kept it in the background. Not anymore. We’re gonna lead with our faith. If we’re coming, we’re bringing little Jesus with us. Maybe on the stage at a rock concert. It may be with EMTs that call you Lazarus. It may be in an educational system that says if you’re born again, we’re gonna find a way to revoke your tenure. You do what you need to do, but I’m not gonna stop advocating for Jesus. The miracles are all around us if we’re willing to choose the Lord. Let’s pray:
Father, thank you for your Word, for its truth and its power and its authority. I thank you that you’re moving in the earth today in the most remarkable ways, the dramatic ways, that you’re raising up voices for truth, unlikely voices, unanticipated voices, voices with courage and boldness. Well, sometimes to the point that it makes us uncomfortable. Holy Spirit, help us. Give us discernment. Give us wisdom, give us a hunger for your Word that we might know your truth and the wisdom to recognize to see what’s happening in our world. Forgive us for our indifference when we don’t wanna be bothered, we just wanna chase our own dreams and do our own things. Father, we’re sorry. We stand today before you to present ourselves as living sacrifices. You called us to be ambassadors and here we are. Now in our community, in our schools, in our hospitals, in our courtrooms, in our classrooms, in our job sites and our factory floors, in our neighborhoods, in our ball games, may we have the courage to stand for you. Forgive us when we’ve compromised and we’ve betrayed you. We’ve been embarrassed of you. We’ve been more fearful of the consequence than we have desirous of pleasing you. I thank you that you’ve awakened us. Help us to see, help us to understand. And give us a new boldness from you, in Jesus’s name, amen.