Apart from the Holy Spirit
We know that Judas was very much self serving. His following of Christ seems to be completely selfish and focused on what he could gain. Mary used oil to anoited Jesus before his death and Judas was focused on the oil being sold for money and then giving that miney to the poor. The truth is that Judas was in charge of the money and whatever was sold, he was now in charge of that money and would "dip his hand in the cookie jar" and steal what did not belong to him.
The chief priests were also self serving. They liked their power and their control over people's ways by judging and condemning them for little things. They lorded over people rather than exposing people to the Lord. After Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead and the people came to see them both, the chief priests wanted to kill Lazarus. If they did this than that literally kills a huge miracle and evidence of Jesus being God in the flesh. This was waaaaaay before Twitter and Facebook so the only evidence was word of mouth. No photos. No videos. Just person to person proof. They wanted to do this because with Lazarus dead the people would stop leaving the chief priest's leadership and going to Jesus (John 12:9-11). They would stay doing what they were doing which was being mislead by underhanded people who were religious leaders.
When we seek Jesus and find him and let him in the old way is gone and the can be in us. It's like if your car is on its last legs and you get a new engine and transmission, those old problems are gone. Or if a tornado hits your house and your roof is torn apart. Once you get a new roof that problem is gone. This is what Jesus does, but he does it for our lives. He comes in (if we seek him and let him) and he gives us a new life. We must have faith in him and in that we will have a new life in eternity and not just life on earth (John 12:25). Heaven isn't for "good people," it is for people who believe Jesus is God in the flesh and have accepted him. It's more than just knowing.
PLEASE SEE THE LOGOS AND LINKS BELOW TO SHARE VIA EMAIL, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, PINTEREST AND GOOGLE PLUS. THANKS!
The Glory of God
The more we read scripture the more we understand how Jesus was focused and how we should focus.
When Lazarus died, people thought that Jesus who had healed a blind man could have saved Lazarus from dying (John 11:37). Once again we see "naysayers" looking at things from the outside rather than with real righteousness (God's will). The focus is to glorify God through what we do, not appease people's opinions and thoughts on what we should do.
In John 11:4, Jesus said “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” That means this is not "it" for Lazarus. This isn't the end and God will be glorified through it. People came to Jesus in order for him to save Lazarus. He waited two more days before he left to see Lazarus. Why did he wait two days?? Look at it this way, the Pharisees were going to critique him and question everything Jesus does any way. If Jesus was to hurry and heal Lazarus, then the Pharisees could say that Lazarus wasn't really dying and probably would have attributed it to some medical anomaly. When Lazarus died Jesus was able to glorify the Kingdom through the Son of Man (himself) being able to resurrection and showcase the the power in him as he is God in the flesh.
I know it is hard to relate the works of Jesus and various parables to our life and see how we can see the sin in our lives and what in our lives is not focused on obedience to God. I look at it like this, there are hard times and really, really tough times that we can go through in life and it just seems like there is no end to it and the world is crashing down around you. You cry out to God to save you and nothing happens. You pray day and night and nothing changes, or things get worse. Now you start to think "does God even exist or is He ignoring me?" Look at it this way, what am I doing in my life that is leading to death? Maybe not physical death, but maybe it is. Maybe it is emotional death? Maybe spiritual death? Jesus needs to be allowed to work in your life. That means you will need to see what it is he wants from you. You can believe all you want, but when you believe the actions follow. God wants you to follow Him and submit to Him. If you do not there will be more "death" in your life. It is time to submit to God's will for all parts of your life.
PLEASE SEE THE LOGOS AND LINKS BELOW TO SHARE VIA EMAIL, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, PINTEREST AND GOOGLE PLUS. THANKS!
