Sermon Notes, August
18, 2013
Pastor Jan Sinozich
Pastor Jan’s
sermon was titled “Jesus Wept,” based on John 11:35. We
know that this is the shortest verse in the Bible—many choose to memorize it
for that reason alone. But, as Ella
Wilcox wrote, “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; cry, and you cry alone.” There are tears of grief, and there are tears
of joy. The Bible records three times
Jesus wept.
The tears Jesus
wept in John 11 were tears of sympathy,
for his friend Lazarus, and his sisters Mary and Martha. They had sent for him when Lazarus got sick,
but Jesus waited for two more days before he went. By the time he and his disciples arrived,
Lazarus had been dead for four days.
Mary and Martha knew he could have healed their brother, but when Jesus
asked them to take him to the tomb, they were shocked. “By this time he stinks!” Jesus prayed, and Lazarus came out of the
tomb, alive. Why did Jesus cry? His friend was dead; he saw the pain of
Martha, Mary, and the crowd. He cried
with them. Has He cried with you, in
your pain, distress, discouragement?
In Luke 19,
verses 31-44, on Palm Sunday, Jesus wept tears
of sorrow, for Jerusalem. Paul
reiterates this sorrow in Romans 9:1-3.
God’s chosen people had not accepted Him. They rejected God’s Son. Jesus still weeps for lost cities and lost
souls. Revelation speaks of the second
death—eternal separation from God, the destruction of body and soul, in the
lake of fire.
The tears Jesus
wept in the Garden of Gethsemane were tears
of struggle. (Matthew 26:36-42) He
prayed for God to deliver him. He
prayed, not to hide, but to prepare for death.
Carrying all our sins would separate him from God, and it drove him to
his knees.
At the tomb of
Lazarus, Jesus wept for a family. At
Jerusalem, he wept for a city. In
Gethsemane, he wept for the whole world.
Sin separates us from God, and that separation is the worst punishment, now, and for eternity.
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