2 Chronicles 7:1-2
1 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house.
When Solomon finished praying at the temple’s dedication, God did something amazing. God sent fire down from heaven and totally consumed the burnt offerings and sacrifices.
Right now, stop and make sure that you are picturing this. If you’ve ever seen a ceremony for the opening or dedication of a new building, I guarantee you that this is different. Instead of having a few photographers from a local paper, a ribbon, an over-sized pair of scissors, and a smiling person who wants to be seen as important making a speech, all we have here is the king praying and then, bam! Fire falls from heaven. The sacrificial animals that were on the altar are totally consumed in an instant.
And if the fire from the sky is not enough, the glory of God fills the temple. This brilliant, bright, glorious cloud covers everything. This picture has been seen in Israel before at the dedication of the tabernacle in the wilderness. And this picture serves to tell the Israelites that God is present and that he is setting apart the temple as special, a sanctuary.
The priests, the men whose job it was to work inside the temple making sacrifices and caring for the items in the temple, were unable to enter the temple. God’s glory was there. They knew that to walk into such holiness would be deadly. So, until the cloud went away, the priests had to do what the crowd did; they had to stand back and simply marvel at the presence of the glory of God.
Looking at what happened right here, we have our first lesson for thanksgiving. If you really want to be thankful as God wants you to be thankful, you must first be captivated by a picture of the glory of God. God has designed us all with a hunger to see and to be inspired by things that are amazing, that are beautiful, that are bigger than we are. The greatest thing we can ever imagine is the glorious presence of God. So, if you want to be truly thankful, you need to first seek a glimpse of the glory of God.
So, what should you do. Let me suggest a couple of ideas. If you want to see the glory of God, the first and best place you can look is the word of God. Our Lord has revealed his glory to us in the Bible. The Bible is where we look to hear the account of fire consuming offerings on the altar and the glory of God filling the temple. The Bible is where we look to learn about the waters of the Red Sea sliding apart, about entire armies being put to flight before tiny groups of men, about giants falling before teenagers, about the dead being raised to life, about the son standing still in the sky, and about so much more. The word of God shows us the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and all of the glory of God dwelling in bodily form. So, if you want to glimpse God’s glory before giving thanks, start with the Scripture.
But you can look other places to glimpse God’s glory.
Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
God’s glory is seen in his creation.
We can also see God’s glory as we look back over our lives and remember the things that God has done for us in the past. Perhaps we can learn more about God’s glory as we talk to one another about the things that God has done in our lives.
And let me suggest that, if you want to see the glory of God, you pray that God show you his glory. God loves his children. He will answer your prayer to see him at his best. He will allow you to glimpse his majesty if you are genuinely wanting to know him more. He stands at the door of your heart and knocks as Revelation 3:20 says, and he is anxious to come in and fellowship with you. So, if you want to sense more of God’s glory, ask God to help you to see his glory. Before giving thanks, seek the glory of God.
Antichrist (1 John 4:2-3)
1 John 4:2-3
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
We live in a world in which religious tolerance is at a premium. Why can’t we all just get along? Why can’t we see that we all worship the same God? The answer to that last question is easy: We don’t worship the same God. We can’t get along because, fundamentally, people of differing world religions disagree about the central point of who God is.
John, in writing 1 John, did not have a problem spelling out the reason for the trouble and conflict between different religions. It came down to one simple question. Do those who believe a certain religion acknowledge Jesus? This, of course, is more than saying that a man named Jesus lived years ago. The question was a question of the nature of Jesus. Do you recognize Jesus as fully God and fully man? If you deny both the deity and humanity of Jesus, you cannot be Christian.
IN fact, look at John’s words. When speaking of those who deny the fundamental nature of Jesus, John speaks pretty harshly. Those who deny that Jesus has come in the flesh are antichrist. To miss the identity of Jesus is to miss God. To lower Jesus to mere humanity is to blaspheme God. To miss the fact that Jesus did become human is to deny key elements of the atoning work of Jesus. Simply put, if you want your religion to be the religion of God, you had better get the person of Christ right
There are lots of ways in which people in the world ought to be tolerant. We should be kind to those who see the world differently than we do. However, if someone denies the identity of Jesus, we cannot call them in any way people of God. God’s word says that to deny Jesus is antichrist, and that is a very serious thing.
Faith, Action, Reward (John 11:39-40)
John 11:39-40
39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
When Jesus gives the command to remove the stone from the entrance of the tomb, Martha is aghast. Thinking that Jesus just wants a look at her brother’s body, Martha moves to stop Jesus from opening the tomb. She knows it has been four days. She believes that Lazarus’ body will be in a state of decay. Simply put, she warns Jesus not to open the tomb, because the rotting body will stink.
But Jesus turns to Martha and asks her if she remembers what he has taught her. If she will believe in him, having genuine faith in him, she will see the glory of God. He does not tell her how she will see it. He does not tell her what he is up to. But he does ask her to display genuine, true faith in him in order to see something marvelous.
What will happen if Martha believes in Jesus? Two things will occur. First, if Martha believes in Jesus, she will take action. She will not simply hear Jesus’ words to have the stone removed, she will go along with that command and order those around her to do what Jesus said. This teaches us something: true faith in Jesus always requires action.
Second, if Martha will truly believe in Jesus, she will see the glory of God. If she believes, she will experience the highest of possible human joys. Simply put, true faith in Jesus always reaps a reward.
The same faith that Jesus commands Martha to have is the faith he commands you to have. Do you believe in Jesus? Do you have the kind of faith in Jesus that God commands you to have? If you do, two things will be true. If you really have faith in Jesus, you will take action in your life. You will live differently because of your faith in Jesus. You will desire to know God more. You will study God’s word. You will attend church regularly, joining in worship with joy. You will learn to love others. You will share your faith. You will give of your resources to the ministry of God’s kingdom. You will turn away from sinful activities and thoughts and you will turn to right living and right thinking. If you have genuine faith in Jesus, you will take action based on that faith.
Also, if you have genuine faith in Jesus, you will reap a reward. You, like Martha, will see the glory of God. If you have the kind of faith in Jesus that changes your life and saves your soul, you will experience the highest of possible joys. You will live for the joy of experiencing the glory of God. You will joyfully find that your life exists for God’s glory. You will live to get more and more of the joy of glorifying God. And, when you go to the grave, you will find ultimate fulfillment, eternal life in Jesus Christ.
True faith in Jesus requires action and reaps a reward. Have such faith, and you will live differently and find true joy for your heart.
A Bigger View of Jesus (John 11:23-27)
John 11:23-24
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Still in the middle of the drama of a dead Lazarus and weeping sisters, Jesus tells Martha very plainly what is about to happen. Jesus came with the plan to raise Lazarus from the grave. But Martha cannot imagine this concept. She knows that Lazarus will rise from the grave at the end of history when God raises all the dead. But she has no category in her mind to think that Jesus could bring Lazarus back right now.
John 11:25-27
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
Now Jesus says something of massive importance. Instead of pointing Martha’s hope to a coming day of resurrection, Jesus gives her a powerful “I am” statement. Jesus tells Martha that he is the resurrection and the life.
Five times now in John’s Gospel, we have seen Jesus say that he is something. He said he is the bread of life in 6:35, the light of the world in 8:12, the door in 10:7, the good shepherd in 10:11, and now the resurrection and the life in 11:25. In each of these statements, Jesus is calling the people to think much bigger about these issues. He does not want the people to look for a handout of bread; Jesus is the bread of life. Don’t just look for light to guide you; Jesus is the light. Don’t just look for a door to heaven; Jesus is the door. Don’t just look for guidance; Jesus is the good shepherd who lays down his life for you. And now, amazingly, don’t just look forward to a day when the dead rise; Jesus is the resurrection. He does not want you to look for something out there to find hope in, he is the one in whom your hope finds its life.
Jesus asks Martha what she believes. Martha declared that she believed that Jesus could do anything he wanted. Yet, she had no category in her mind of him raising the dead. She looked forward to a day of resurrection, but her looking forward to that day made her miss something crucial about the person of Jesus. Jesus is bigger, greater, more glorious than Martha had ever imagined.
Let me ask you, is your picture of Jesus too small? Do you think of him as an important part of your private life, but not someone who changes the very fabric of your being? Do you think of him as a nice story, or do you see Jesus as the one for whom all of the universe exists? I challenge you to ask yourself if your picture of Jesus is too small. If it is, learn to believe that Jesus is more than you have ever imagined.
How Could This Be God’s Plan? (John 11:11-13)
John 11:11-13
11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep.
This, I have to say, is one of my favorite verses in this section simply because I find it so funny. Jesus tells the disciples that Lazarus is asleep, and Jesus is about to go and wake him up. The problem is that Jesus is using a figure of speech, and the disciples don’t get it. Jesus was using a euphemism for saying that Lazarus is dead, but the disciples just don’t follow.
One of the factors as to why the disciples may not have followed Jesus’ meaning could be that they simply do not see how this is possibly God’s plan. How could Jesus be going to Lazarus if he’s dead? That makes no sense. So, it must be that Jesus is talking about sleep. But it’s dangerous to go to Judea, and Lazarus is clearly resting. We shouldn’t go.
People often do not understand what is going on when God works mysteriously through hardship and tragedy. And when you go through a tough time in life, do not find it at all surprising when your friends and loved ones say things to you that show you that they have no actual clue as to the reality of the situation. They may say something that seems to minimize your sorrow. They may say something that shows that they really do not grasp that God is in control. My counsel to you is this: Expect it. Know that people around you will not necessarily understand or trust what God is doing. But you will know. You may not know all the reasons why, but you can know that God is in control, that he will be glorified, and that his glory is your source of joy.
Suffering and Jesus’ Friends (John 11:1-3)
John 11:1-3
1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”
Lazarus is a man that we know almost nothing about. His sisters, Mary and Martha appear in the Gospel According to Luke, and so we know that this family loved Jesus dearly. And, from the words used by the sisters in verse three, it is clear that the family understood quite clearly that Jesus loved them dearly too.
There is, however, a problem. Lazarus is sick. He is very sick. In fact, the sisters fear for his life. So, they send word to Jesus. They do not tell him what to do. They do not try to manipulate him in any way. They simply call to him with the message that Lazarus, their brother and Jesus’ dear friend, is very sick.
There is a lesson to be learned for us as we read this text, even before we see Jesus respond. Many Christian teachers out there would have us believe that, if we are true followers of God, we will be relieved of the burden of suffering in this life. There are many teachers who call us children of the King, and surmise that king’s children always have the best things in life. But these teachers mislead their followers.
Lazarus, Mary, and Martha were dear friends of Jesus. Lazarus was beloved of Jesus. And if the friends of God were to be free from suffering and granted success in all things, there is no question that Lazarus would not be going through what he presently suffers.
Followers of God are by no means exempted from suffering in this life. Honestly, the follower of God is actually open to more suffering, because we go through all the troubles that others in life may have, but we are also open to the persecution of a world that despises God and those who follow him. Both Paul and Jesus promise us hardships in this life, and we dare not assume that the love of God will keep us from suffering hardships.
With that said, I also want to point out that God gives us what we need to survive our hardships. We may suffer, but we suffer not as the world suffers. The world suffers without God and without genuine hope. We suffer, when we suffer, with the presence of God’s Holy Spirit living within us. If we are the members of a local church, when we suffer, we suffer in a community of others who are present to encourage us, to comfort us, and to ease our burdens. No, we do not suffer as the world suffers. But make no mistake, the love of God is not a magic talisman that frees us from the pains of this life.
Suffering Losses (John 9:34-38)
John 9:34-38
34 They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
Jesus healed a blind man and caused quite a scandal on the Sabbath day. After a fascinating back-and-forth, the Pharisees have had enough. They cast out the healed man. This casting out is a bad thing. They are not just telling him to get out of the room. The Jews are telling the man to get out of the community, out of the synagogue, out of the Jewish social circle. He has been blacklisted.
As soon as he hears about the man’s experience, Jesus goes to the formerly blind man and asks him if he believes in the Son of Man. The formerly blind man, who has been through quite a lot, rightly asks exactly who is the Son of Man. Jesus answers in a clever way, “You have seen him.” You’re looking at him. He’s the guy who healed you. I’m the Son of Man.
In a very real sense, Jesus reveals his identity as the Messiah to this man who has just been kicked out of the religious establishment. It is much like what we saw in…
John 4:25-26
25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
The formerly blind man realizes that he is in the presence of God’s promised king, the Savior himself. So, the man does what is appropriate for anyone who truly understands who Jesus is, he worships Jesus.
Christians, take note of this event and take heart. The man who stood his ground before the skeptics suffered greatly at their hands. They hurt him. Probably he had wanted for all of his life to simply be normal. Likely he had wanted nothing more than to live a life of not begging, of attending worship with everyone else, of experiencing the glories of the temple life. But he lost all those wonderful things because he stood his ground for the truth about Jesus. But Jesus did not leave this man hanging out to dry. Jesus came to him. Jesus revealed himself to him. Jesus brought this man a lasting joy that far surpassed any suffering he would ever go through.
Are you afraid that you will suffer losses for the name of Christ? You very well might. But let me assure you, no one will lose more in this life than Jesus will abundantly repay in eternity.
28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
You may suffer for the gospel, but the suffering will pale in comparison to the glory, the joy, the astounding grace of God that you will experience both in this life and especially in the one to come. You can never suffer so much here on earth to outweigh the glory of heaven.
Telling Your Story (John 9:15)
John 9:15
So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”
Earlier in John 9, Jesus healed a man who had been born blind. Once the man was healed, he was brought before the Jewish religious leaders for examination. The Jews ask the formerly blind man how Jesus healed him. They do not actually believe anything about this story yet, but they are gathering their data. And the man, for his part, tells his story simply and clearly. He was blind. Jesus made mud and put it on his eyes. He went and washed off the mud, and he came away seeing.
I love that the man told his story so well. In fact, the way he tells his story is an excellent model for you to follow as you tell your story.
· Tell who you were.
· Tell what Jesus did.
· Tell what you did.
· Tell how things are now different.
This is a great pattern for giving a Christian testimony, even when sharing with skeptics.
I was a sinful person who was rightly under the judgment of God. I was headed for hell for my sin with no hope. But God sent his Son to pay the price for my sin, taking my place, and offering me his perfection in exchange for my imperfection before God. I believed in Jesus and asked him to forgive me of my sins through is work done on the cross. I entrusted my soul to him and committed my life to follow him. Now I am forgiven by God, headed for heaven, and living the life that I was created by God to live.
Can you tell a story like that? If not, you need to come to know Jesus today. If you are a Christian, you should be able to tell that story to anyone who might listen. Tell a true story of who you were, what Jesus did, what you did, and how things have changed.
Life as a Canvas (John 9:1-3)
John 9:1-3
1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
Do you believe that, if a person sees true art in the form of a remarkable painting, they are likely to comment on the canvas itself? If a person is looking at an original Picasso or Van Gogh, do you think it likely for them to look at someone nearby and say, “Boy, that’s really an amazing piece of canvas behind all that paint”? Of course they wouldn’t. While the canvas might be a very nice canvas indeed, it is crazy to think that the canvas should be the focus of the person who sees the beautiful art painted on it.
Of course, we all think together, none of us would be silly enough to elevate the value of the canvas over the art itself. But, we often do; not necessarily in a museum, but in our lives. When left to ourselves, we tend to focus on background issues and make them out to be of primary importance. In doing so, we take the things that should be of first importance, and push them aside.
Look with me at verse 3 above. Jesus gives us the answer to the disciples’ question as to why a man was born blind—was it his fault or his parents’—and it is not either of the two options they gave to him. Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Neither the man nor his parents are directly to blame for his blindness. Instead, something much more grand is behind this man’s suffering. As strange as it may seem for us to believe, the reason that this man was born blind was in order that the works of God might be displayed in his life.
The man’s suffering was for the purpose of glorifying God. Is that offensive? Yes, if you believe that human happiness is the highest good. However, if you believe that God is our Creator and has the right to do with us as he pleases, and if you believe that the glory of God is the ultimate good, then you have to conclude that it is OK and even good that the Lord would allow this to happen.
Genesis 1:1
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
God is our Creator. He created all things. Therefore all things that exist do so at God’s whim, for his pleasure.
Isaiah 43:6-7
6 I will say to the north, Give up,
and to the south, Do not withhold;
bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth,
7 everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
And God created us for his glory. It’s there, plain as day in the scriptures. And, if it is true that God created us and has the right of ownership over us, and it is also true that he created us for the purpose of displaying his glory, then there is nothing wrong whatsoever with God allowing even our suffering if that suffering will display his glory.
All of our lives are for the glory of God. Your strengths and your weaknesses exist for God’s glory. Your happy moments and your greatest tragedies exist for the glory of God. Your greatest joys and your greatest sufferings are all testimonies in one way or another to the glory of God.
You know what this teaching makes you? It makes you a canvas. You are a canvas that God has created in order to display the beautiful art of his glory. Sometimes the colors that he uses to create that art are dark and painful. Sometimes the colors that he uses are bright and lovely. In either case, they are painted onto your life in order that you will, when all is said and done, truly display for the world to see the glory of God, the divine artist.
What we must do, after thinking about the words of Jesus in verse 3, is change how we think. We must think of ourselves as the canvas onto which God paints. We exist for his purposes and for his glory. We must not ever allow ourselves to think that we are of the utmost importance. God is of the utmost importance. His glory is of the utmost importance. Our purpose for existence is to display that glory of God for all to see. If you cannot stomach that, then you are at odds with God and his purposes. Let me urge you to fight to change that way of thinking, because you will never defeat God. Recognize that your life is a canvas for the displaying of the glory of God.
A God-Centered God (Ezekiel 20:40-44)
Ezekiel 20:40-44 (ESV)
40 “For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord God, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings. 41 As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. 42 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that I swore to give to your fathers. 43 And there you shall remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed. 44 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord God.”
Are we God-centered or man-centered? This question is one of great importance that we should often return to. We know, of course, that we are to be centered on the name, the person, the glory of God. Yet, when we examine our lives, our language, and our thoughts, we often find that it is very easy to slip back into a more man-centered philosophy.
Passages like the one above help us to remember that, while God may do us great good and show us wonderful kindness—kindness that we could never give thanks enough for—he does such things for a greater purpose.
Look again at verse 44 which reads, “And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord God.” Twice in that single verse, God puts the focus of his actions squarely and rightly on himself. God says to Judah, “You shall know that I am the Lord.” At the center of what he is about to do is that the people shall know that God truly is God, the supreme, the Lord, the King. God also tells them that he will deal with them “for my name’s sake,” again putting the emphasis of the action on the person of God and not on the people.
Before we find ourselves wonderfully offended at God for making himself and not us the center of the picture, look at what God is doing. God is rescuing the people from their captivity. He is bringing them to proper conviction of and repentance from their sins. He is renewing his relationship with them, rescuing them from Babylon and returning them to the Promised Land. God is giving them both earthly benefits and spiritual, heavenly benefits. They will see God in action. They will see god’s glory. They will be God’s people. They will have the greatest blessing people can have. The people in no way lose in this deal.
While the people get wonderful joy in the actions of God, we must be careful not to assume that the people are the central reason behind it. God is displaying his character. God is defending his name and his glory. God is supreme. God cannot pretend that the people are the highest value in this event, for to do so would be for God to set them above himself. To set something above God is idolatry, and God will not be guilty of that. However, God displays his glory, focusing on his own name, and in doing so, he gives the people the greatest of blessings. They get to see God’s glory, which is the supreme good, and they are rescued by God’s mighty hand.
So, are you God-centered or man-centered. God is God-centered, and this is the best thing for mankind.
