Note: I accidently sent this out of order so I realize that I missed 3.3 and 3.4. I will catch up later in the week. Sorry
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In my own personal journey with Jesus, I have taken paths that lead away from Him and then other paths that bring me back to Him. I’m the type of person who has to get beat down many times before it finally sinks in! ( Do I hear an Amen?! ) I think it finally took having children to make me realize that I can NOT do anything without Jesus.
All through Jesus’ ministry, it seemed like He was always having to prove to people that He was indeed the Son of God. It seemed that even those closest to Him needed some reassurance.
In John 11, we read the story of Lazarus. Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, but oddly, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two more days. After the two days, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.” They said, “Rabbi, you can’t do that.
The Jews are out to kill you, and you’re going back?” Do you see that they didn’t believe that Jesus was God’s Son? Then Jesus became explicit: “Lazarus died. And I am glad for your sakes that I wasn’t there.
Now the disciples should have already had strong convictions that Jesus was God but learn that Jesus had to keep reassuring them. Jesus said, “You’re about to be given new grounds for believing. Now let’s go to him.”
Essentially, Jesus said – I am going to do something so unbelievable that you will have to believe that I am God’s Son!
I love Thomas – Mr. Glass-half-empty himself. I can just hear him: “Ok, we might as well come along and let the Jews kill us too! Do you see the unbelief?
Jesus even acknowledged this unbelief when He prayed to His Father to raise Lazarus from the dead. Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and prayed, “Father, I’m grateful that you have listened to me. I know you always do listen, but on account of this [unbelieving] crowd standing here I’ve spoken [out loud] so that they might believe that You sent me.” [amplification mine]
That was a turnaround for many of the Jews who were with Mary. They saw what Jesus did, and believed in him. But some went back to the Pharisees and told on Jesus. The high priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the Jewish ruling body. “What do we do now?” they asked. “This man keeps on doing things, creating God-signs. If we let him go on, pretty soon everyone will be believing in him and the Romans will come and remove what little power and privilege we still have.”
Some people believed but even more unbelievable, some people didn’t. They were tired of Jesus creating “God-signs”. They plotted to kill Jesus.
Amazing!
If you had witnessed Jesus creating “God-signs”, would it have changed your mind?