When Jesus Wept John 12:12-13 by Cooper P Abrams III |
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INTRODUCTION: We are told that woman cries five times a month. The average man only once. Weeping shows emotion. With an infant it is a way to communicate. Crying for them is health and a sign of life. As a child gets older it cries less as it matures and learns to talk.
Women are more openly emotional than men are and they cry more. My English teacher once told the girls on our High School class if they found a boy who would shed tears at a movie...he as a good candidate for marriage.
In this passage in John we learn:
2. Many had heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem for the Passover. Great expectation.
3. For three years Jesus had been traveling all over Palestine, preaching, and doing miracles with his disciples.
b. All his claims were disavowed by the religious authorities. They claimed He was a deceiver and sought to kill Him.
c. Most of the people sided, as the world's way is, with their religious leaders.
He did miracles, He had great power, yet if the religious leaders said he was not the Messiah, ---- well they should know! John 12:37
d. Yet there were some in whose ears and hearts still sounded the message He had preached. They had loved God, and were seeking the Messiah. The Old Testament Scriptures said it was the time of his coming. How they longed, for the coming of the Messiah!
But only a very few believed! They were sure He was the Messiah! Like Nicodemus in John 3, they knew that one could do the miracles He did, if He were not the Messiah. They had seen Him raise, heal the man who was born lamb. They saw Him give sight to the man born blind. They witnessed Him raising Lazarus from the grave. In the history of the world no one had done these things.
Yet, the religious leaders had rejected Him, and sought to kill Him.
His disciples were concerned as the traveled to Jerusalem. His last trip ended with them trying to kill Him. What would His enemies do?
2. Matthew quotes, Isaiah 62:11, & Zech. 9:9
4. A great number joined the procession, going ahead of Jesus, who was followed by Lazarus, Mary, Martha and the disciples.
They shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is he the coming in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest"! Hosanna is a word to express the highest adoration.
5. Those in the shops and homes in Jerusalem heard the sings and came out and asked "Who is this?" The answer, "This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee."
6. Jesus then went to the temple and cast out of it the merchants who were mechanizing the temple.
7. This greatly upset and made the chief priests mad. They approached Jesus, and "Don't you hear what this crowd is saying!?
Luke adds, that Jesus, told them that if these were to be silenced, that the stones would immediately cry out. (Luke 19:40)
He then left Jerusalem and went back to Bethany.
2. You see, He wept for those who were rejecting the salvation, and eternal life that He was offering.
3. You see, salvation is in the person of Jesus Himself, not a religious system!
4. They were rejecting Him, and thus rejecting salvation.
The whole city was about to celebrate the Passover in five days. Passover, was a picture of Christ's atonement for sin and salvation. The were preparing for the ritual and ceremony....yet before them stood the Savior, their Messiah and they would not accept Him. They followed their religious leaders....and rejected the Lord Jesus the one who created the world and was about to atone for their sins.
That day, the Messiah stood in their midst, for almost 1500 years, Jews had kept the Passover, which was a symbol of the coming redemption.
Now Christ was come, and they --refused Him.
With open arms and shouts of rejoicing the whole city, should have received they King, yet He wasn't quite what they expected...and they refused to accept Him.
Why, you say, why reject the Messiah!!
Jesus earlier stated the answer, "Men love darkness, rather than light because their deeds are evil" John 3:19
What joy, what peace, what an opportunity! Yet, they would not.
Earlier in Luke 13:34-35:
He knew that in a few days, He would bear all their sins on the cross. And he knew that they would not accept His sacrifice for them.
He knew that for so many, the suffering would be in vain...yet He did it anyway!
For He was God, He love every soul of every man, woman boy or girl.
Yet, the offer of salvation to those who will believe and accept Him, is a real and truth as the day he offered it to those in Jerusalem.
Those that believed, and have long since died, now rest in the very presence of Christ, even at this hour. Do you realize that within a short time you and I too will past on. People who lived only a generation or so back are mostly forgotten. I visited the Abrams cemetery in Crisp, NC. My great great grandfather was named Elisha Abrams. No one knows who his dad was and few of the details of his life. All we know is what if written in the front of a Family Bible and what my dad , who also has passed on know.
But God has never forgotten even one person who put their trust in Him. They all are in heaven at this very moment with Him. And because of His death, burial and resurrection they to will one day arise from the grave and be transformed, given new bodies and forever be with the Lord Jesus.
And yet so many still reject Him, so useless, such a tragedy is the fate of those who so foolishly rejected Christ.
Is Christ, weeping over you?
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