Sermon Tone Analysis

· If you were with us last week, you remember how we looked at the reality that –

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure

· And how we looked at that reality play itself out following the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

· If you remember, after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead…

· Lazarus, Mary and Martha decided to have Jesus over for dinner…they wanted to – HONOR Him…

Because – they VALUED Him

Mary got out the VERY expensive ointment and used it on Jesus’ feet…

They VALUED Him, and so they HONORED Him…

· But – if you ALSO remember, there was someone else involved in this story…

· JUDAS – now Judas voiced a concern about the use of that ointment…

· He asked why the ointment wasn’t sold and the money given to the poor…

· Was Judas CONCERNED for the poor?

Not at all…

What he REALLY wanted was to be able to gain access to the money that would have been received from selling the ointment…

· And it’s THIS heart attitude that’s gonna shine through our text today

Judas couldn’t care less about Jesus…

He didn’t want Jesus to be honored – Judas wanted to honor himself…

· Today we’re going to see how the evil of this world (UNBELIEF) responds to followers of Jesus Christ…

· Last week we saw how the world responds to Christ Himself…

· Today we’ll see how that translates to followers of Christ…

· When we look at this passage as a whole…we see that the THEME is actually about Lazarus and not Jesus.

· V10 here tells us that the chief priests made plans to NOT ONLY kill Jesus….but to also KILL LAZARUS…

WHY?

Because it says…

“on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus”

WOW

· And so HERE WE SEE the wicked heart of mankind doing WHAT IT CAN - to PERSEVERE…

· See – YES – Christians are called to persevere…

· But WICKEDNESS will try to persevere as well…

· The UNBELIEVING World looked at LAZARUS – following his being raised from the dead…

And it saw – EVIDENCE

LAZARUS HIMSELF was evidence that CONFIRMED what Jesus had been saying about Himself!

· And so what does EVIL do when trying to PERSEVERE in the midst of TRUTH…

· It will try to – DESTROY THE EVIDENCE

No – I’m not going to go all political right now…

· Could I? Sure…

· Have we seen this before – this idea of –

Someone getting caught with something and deciding – LET’S DESTROY the EVIDENCE

Of course - we’ve seen this very thing in the past 5 years

· And of course - we probably don’t even have to look anywhere else but at ourselves to know we’ve done this as well…

· Lazarus – BEING ALIVE – after having been DEAD – was now causing people to BELIEVE in Jesus!

· It CONFIRMED for many that Jesus was in fact – the Messiah…

· Lazarus was now going to have to deal with PERSECUTION for being EVIDENCE of the truth of Jesus Christ…

· And so let’s ask ourselves –

Does my life so point to Jesus, that I too face persecution on account of Christ?

We all SUFFER in this world…right?

The question is – Do I experience Gospel Suffering in my life?

Gospel Suffering is the kind of suffering that comes ON ACCOUNT of Jesus Christ…

· The same kind of suffering spoken of here…

· Blessed are those who are persecuted for – RIGHTEOUSNESS sake…

· Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely – ON MY ACCOUNT

· There it is – this isn’t JUST ANY kind of SUFFERING…

It’s suffering that comes DUE to you LIVING for Jesus!

And is this IMPORTANT?

Does it REALLY MATTER?

· The GIFT of suffering – from God…

· The Bible makes it clear that if we are EVIDENCE to the reality of Jesus Christ, then we WILL be persecuted…

· LAZARUS had people PLOTTING to kill him…

Because his life – PROVED Jesus Christ…

· The job description of Christianity includes:

SUFFERING

And so because that’s TRUE....it’s gonna help us to be STRENGTHENED today...

Christianity is about EMBRACING suffering…not running from it

And so - we need help with this...

And so to finish this out, I want us to look at HOW God uses GOSPEL SUFFERING for His purposes…

And to do THAT we’ll focus in on the apostle Paul – his life and his teaching

When we look at the life of the Apostle Paul, there’s no doubt that what we see is a life marked with suffering.

Imprisonments, countless beatings, often near death.

Forty lashes, less one…five times.

Three times beaten with rods.

Stoned.

Shipwrecked three times; a night and a day adrift at sea.

In danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

During his 3rd missionary journey, Paul was preaching the gospel in the temple, in Jerusalem, and was illegally arrested.

What followed was a 2 year prison stay.

He then had to deal with a plot to take his life, a shipwreck,

a snake bite, a 3 month stay on an island,

and Roman imprisonment.

All of this done; all of this suffering in the name of Christ.

Let’s look at Phil 1:12-18 to see how God uses our Gospel Suffering…

· Paul here, in v12, starts out by telling us….what

· Remember – Paul wrote these words from prison…

· And this phrase = WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME…contains a ton of information…

It contains that list that we just went thru:

Imprisonments, countless beatings, often near death.

Forty lashes, less one…five times.

Three times beaten with rods.

Stoned.

Shipwrecked three times; a night and a day adrift at sea.

In danger from EVERYWHERE...

sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

illegal arrest

a 2 year prison stay.

a shipwreck,

a snake bite, a 3 month stay on an island,

and Roman imprisonment

· So Paul says – ALL OF THIS HAS – “really served to advance the gospel”

We’re going to see that Gospel Suffering Advances the Gospel!

· THIS is how God uses our Gospel Suffering…..to ADVANCE the Gospel!

NO WONDER the Bible says - COUNT the COST!