Lazarus Raised

Lazarus Raised
John 11:16

16 Then [oun] said [epo] Thomas [Thomas] , which [ho] is called [lego] Didymus [Didumos] , unto his fellowdisciples [summathetes] , Let us [ago] also [kai] go [ago] , that [hina] we [hemeis] may die [apothnesko] with [meta] him [autos] . KJV-Interlinear

16 Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, 'Let us also go, that we may die with Him.' NASB

Some would say that this was the zeal of Thomas' faith. But zeal without knowledge is the behavior of a fool, and this is exactly what we have here.

Thomas was not immediately ready to sacrifice himself because of his faith. Here he is reacting to the notion that it is inevitable that they were going back to Judea. They have already tried to stone Jesus there. Those folks are not nice. So going back there is just nothing less than suicide. Or this is the thought process going on inside his head. It is an emotional reaction.

He doesn't want to go back, but since Jesus is going back, he has no choice but to go along or just leave the group and go home. He doesn't want to go home.

Here they are, just teaching and curing folks along the way. It has been a rather pleasant and peaceful life. No hours to speak of. No problems with employers, or even monthly bills to deal with. Folks just bring you their food and some money from time to time. It seems the easy life. What could be better? Why take risks unnecessarily?

But as we saw yesterday, there are three areas they were avoiding, and they were avoiding them based on their emotions not wisdom. Go back to Judea? There are the questions of danger, responsibility, faith and trust which we considered yesterday.

If you are truly understanding of Gods Word and oriented to life by means of His Word, then you should have no fear of anything. You should understand your responsibilities in life (to God, to self, and to others. 'Me' is never first but last). Faith comes from the daily study and daily advance in ones spiritual life. We learn little by little each day of our lives. We grow up little by little, and sooner or later, we wake up one day and have a complete understanding of what life is really all about. But as a child in the spiritual life, we haven't a clue. We just have to be patient. 'When will I be grown up mommy?' 'Soon dear. Soon.'

Faith is a function of spiritual growth. It isn't instant, and does not come from life's experiences, but comes from application of Bible doctrine to life's experiences. You have to know Bible doctrine first, before you can apply it to your life.

Trust, come as a result of all of the above. God is on our side. God wants the best for each one of us, but most of us are our own worst enemy. We are impatient. We are inconsistent in our fellowship status. We are inconsistent in our daily Bible study. We want to learn doctrine and not have any further requirement of us in life. We just want an infinite sunset and a check in the mail.

Like Thomas, we just want things to be nice and pleasant all of the time. But this is the devils world. We are in the midst of an angelic conflict. We need to know and understand why life is what it is, and where history is going at the moment.

Why did Jesus come to earth nearly 2000 years ago, in His First Advent? To walk around forever and cure folks and eat fishes and bread on the hillsides? No. He came here to go to the Cross. Thomas and the twelve should have put two and two together and understood that the Cross would occur at Passover and not one day or minute before. They should have known through the teachings of the sacrifices that the Cross would occur between noon and three on the afternoon prior to the Feast of Unleaven Bread. That had been taught since Moses recorded all of the Levitical feasts some 1500 years prior. God controls history.

'We'll just go back to Judea and die with Him.' Thomas was out of line and arrogant, with this empty statement, presuming that God, who by the way was standing right beside him, was not in control of history, and might be overlooking the dangers that lay before them in Judea. What danger is there to God. What danger is there to anyone who is with God? None. Of course we will see where Thomas is when we get back to our study in Matthew 26 - no where!

So it is in our individual lives. We have to tough it out from day to day and grow up spiritually. We have to get over our petty attitudes of apprehension, of self pity, of selfishness, of compromising life styles, of whining about life, and get with a program of really growing up and learning Bible doctrine, and becoming mature.

With maturity comes responsibility as defined in the Bible, not as you might define it from the convenience of your personal preferences. Spiritual maturity comes from wisdom in the soul and obedience to God, not from doing things in life (keeping ones room clean, lining up tools in the shop all in one direction). Those are habits of daily living or might even be obsessions, but they are not signs of maturity and responsibility.

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