Sometimes in life we get exciting
news, we want to run out and tell everyone, then after telling some people you
find out not everyone is happy about it?
Imagine that you had a very sick friend on the brink of death, for days
you and your friends prayed for a miracle.
Then after a few days of prayer your friend who was all but dead sits up
and says I feel great. The doctors come in and look at him run some test and
say he no longer sick. You run out into
streets and begin to tell people all about it, than you hear that some people
are upset, in fact they are plotting to kill your friend. They are worried because all of a sudden they
realize that people may come and follow God, and then you realize that your
life is in danger as well. This is what
happened when Christ raised Lazarus from the grave. We read in John 11:49-55; “Caiaphas, being high
priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, 50 enor do you consider
that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the
people, and not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 Now this he did not
say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied
that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for that nation
only, but also that He would gather together in
one the children of God who were scattered abroad.53 Then, from that day
on, they plotted to put Him to death. 54 Therefore Jesus no
longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near
the wilderness, to a city called jEphraim, and there
remained with His disciples.”
You would think that of all things everyone would be happy
to see a man that was once dead, be alive again? But that is not the case here at all, no in
fact the main reason they are concerned and upset is that more people are
coming to believe in Christ as the Messiah.
This is not all that different today, many people do want to hear about
God and how His Son came to earth to save us.
They believe that by coming to accept Christ means that they are no
longer able to do what they want to do, that people are going to mock them, or
they just do not want to admit that they are living in sin and need a God to
save them from Hell. They do not want us
to tell them about Gods love for them and how He has a plan of salvation for
their lives. God sent Christ to earth
knowing before He ever was born that He would die on a Cross. This was all part of Gods plan, He knew that
not everyone would be happy about Lazarus, He knew that this would be the one
miracle that pushed the religious leaders over the top.
When we come against people that just hate us because we are
followers of Christ it is best not to push them away. God has placed them in front of us so that we
can continue to show them the love God has for them. We can so easily forget about God’s love for
them, and want to curse those that make life hard for us, that are ready to put
us down when good things come our way.
But we must push forward in love and show them who God is and how much
He loves them. Let us look at Acts
16:16-38, Paul and Silas are imprisoned for preaching the word of God. While in prison they are singing and praising
God. While all of this is going on there
is a earthquake, the jailer thinking that the prisoners escaped prepares to
commit suicide when Paul yells out stop we are here. The Jailer and his family come to know Christ. Are we truly able to sing and praises to God
during the tough times in life?
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