Michigan Camp Meeting 2018: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

On the Outskirts of Jerusalem

Phil Mills

An Unconquerable Power for Good

Dear Lord, we're going to be taking the Word of a King, and we want it to have power in our lives.

And I pray that your Holy Spirit will be here to interpret these words to us, that we're different because we've had the word of a king this afternoon in Christ's name, amen.

Luke 10, verse 38, Now it came to pass as they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

Understanding the context of this passage helps us understand the passage.

Chapter 10 of Luke begins with Christ sending out teams of 35 teams of disciples, and they were on a medical evangelistic tour to prepare for Christ's final days of ministry.

Luke 10, 1 tells us, after these things the Lord appointed 70 others also and sent them out, sent them 2 by 2 before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go.

The work of these disciples was to prepare the way for Jesus to come.

They were preparing for Jesus coming and that was their message.

They went throughout Judah and Galilee, and through this event, though this event was 2 millennia ago, would God like to send out teams of medical missionaries today to prepare for his coming?

Notice this, manuscript 141, 1903, medical missionary work is yet in its infancy.

The meaning of genuine medical missionary work is known by but few, Why?

Because the Savior's plan of work has not been followed.

From the instruction that the Lord has given me from time to time.

I know there should be workers who make medical evangelistic tours among the towns and villages.

Those who do this work will gather a rich harvest of souls both from the higher and the lower classes.

The way for this work is best prepared by the efforts of the faithful canvasser.

When we send out missionaries, the first thing that we do is to make sure they have money, they have clothes, shoes, and a bag to carry these things in.

My daughter was planning to go on a trip to Cambodia and so it turned out that she couldn't go but before we knew that what do you think we begin to prepare for?

All the things you'd need before you go on a mission tour to Cambodia.

In some cases, missionaries will raise funds for their project before they embark on it, and that's prudent.

But that's not what Jesus had his disciples do before sending them out.

Verse 4 says, Carry neither purse, that's something to hold your money in, nor script, that's a knapsack to carry your belongings in, nor shoes.

Carry no purse, the Amplified Version says, no provision bag, no change of sandals.

They were not to wait until they had accumulated sufficient things for them to be able to work for God.

This is an important principle in this verse.

And then as they worked for God, they were not to accumulate things.

They had either to turn down or give away gifts that were more than their actual daily needs.

They had a special mission to perform, and there must be nothing to delay or sidetrack their mission.

They were not sent to receive, they were sent to give.

Among the 70 disciples that Jesus sent out were a few from wealthy homes with ample resources, but they were not to feel superior to the other disciples as they were not to draw upon or rely on these home resources.

Most of the disciples, however, had either scanty resources or none whatsoever.

They were already learning to live by faith.

All were sent out with what the poorest disciple had, knowledge of Jesus in their head, love for him and others in their heart, power for healing in their hands, and words of truth and hope in their mouths.

This is what they carried and shared freely.

Jesus and his disciples could not afford to stay at the Sheraton.

They couldn't even afford to stay at Motel 6.

They were dependent on the hospitality of the people they ministered to.

On this mission, the disciples learned to depend on God.

And they found that He was sufficient to supply every need day by day.

Just as day by day, Jesus, the same Jesus, provided food for the children of Israel in the wilderness.

The birds get their food day by day, and God provides it for them.

As the disciples freely gave, the hearts of the listeners were touched.

They were invited into the homes of the humble peasants, and they were given food and a place to sleep each night.

Many months later, Christ reminded His disciples of this experience and asked them, "...when I sent you out without purse and script and shoes, lackey, anything?" And they said, what?

Though they could not accumulate earthly treasure, there was 1 thing they could and did accumulate.

There was 1 thing they carried back to Jesus.

Luke 10, 17 says, And the 70 returned again with joy.

These gospel medical missionary teams returned to Christ rejoicing, filled with the story of the mighty works of God.

The kingdom of Satan was invaded, and Satan and his angels had been forced to flee.

The kingdom of Satan could not stand before the power of Jesus.

These disciples once again joined Christ's company as they accompanied Jesus to the various villages that they had labored in.

Now it came to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village.

This certain village was the village where Martha lived.

John tells us the name of this village, John 11.1, Bethany, the town of Martha.

We know what the prefix means, house of, though Hebrew scholars have informed me that it more broadly means container of, but we get the word Bethel, house of God, Bethlehem, house of bread, Bethphage, house of figs, Bethesda, house of mercy, Bethsaida, house of hunting, Bath-Abera, House of Crossing, which was by a Ford in Jordan.

Thayer's respected Greek dictionary tells us the meaning of the name Bethany was house of depression, house of misery.

The New American Standard tells us Bethany means house of affliction.

The New Open Bible Study Edition tells it means house of poverty.

How instructive that Jesus came to Bethany, the house of misery, affliction, depression, and poverty.

The 1 who left the glories of heaven, born in a rude shelter for animals, came to a world of depression, misery, affliction, poverty.

The NIV gives the meaning as the house of poor figs.

Jeremiah was given a vision of poor figs, evil figs.

These evil figs represented not the fruit of the spirit, but the fruit of the unholy spirit, the fruit of the flesh.

He came to the fig tree of Israel seeking fruit, but found it covered with pretentious leaves bearing only evil fruit." John tells us something else about Bethany.

John 11, 18, now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem about 15 furlongs off.

A furlong is about an eighth of a mile, 660 feet.

15 furlongs is 1.875 miles, so it's not very far.

It was actually the distance that I used to walk when I lived in Chatsworth, Georgia, doing some advanced study in dermatology.

It was the distance between going down to the mailbox and coming back up to our house.

I walked the distance to Bethany each day.

To get there, you climb the Mount of Olives, and Bethany is on the base of the other side of the Mount of Olives.

The house of misery, the house of depression, the house of affliction and poverty was on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

This is where Jesus stayed when he came to Jerusalem, Matthew 21, 17, and he left them and went out of the city into Bethany, and he lodged there.

This brings us back to verse 38 of Luke 10, the last part.

A certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

Do you want Jesus to lodge in your house?

Do you want to receive Him into your home?

Her house was not just for Martha and her needs.

Being Dead, Yet Speaketh

Father in heaven, as we study 1 of your friends today, I pray that the Holy Spirit may be present to speak to our hearts, to enliven us, to give us a deeper appreciation for Jesus, a better understanding of your word, and a firmer commitment to be faithful to you.

Bethany, as we saw yesterday, was just under 2 miles from Jerusalem.

We will look at it on a three-dimensional map here.

You see Jerusalem, and then you climb the Mount of Olives to the east of Jerusalem, and then you go down on the other side into the valley of the Mount of Olives, and that's Bethany.

And today the town of Bethany is still in existence.

The city once known as Bethany, the house of misery, is today known as the city of Lazarus, the resurrected 1.

Jesus described Lazarus as a friend, and what God did for 1 man, his friend Lazarus, permanently changed the city, even its name.

This morning we want to study this afternoon, we want to study about Lazarus.

If you have your Bibles, you can open it to John 11 because we're going to be studying from John 11.

I am going to have it on the screen, but you can have it right there in your Bible.

And we're going to begin with the first 2 verses of John 11.

Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

In the Bible, the name of places and the name of an individual is important.

The word Lazarus means God is my helper in Greek.

Lazarus has a Hebrew equivalent called Eleazar, which was a relatively common Jewish name.

In fact, there are 8 different people in the Old Testament known as Eleazar.

Now this doesn't mean that Lazarus had a little cold, little sniffles, little runny nose.

A little trip to the doctor, a little bit of a fomentation.

This verse tells us that Lazarus was sick and then reminds us of this in verse 2, verse 3, verse 4, and verse 6.

The Greek word translated sick here actually means weak.

And it's translated weak about half of the time.

For example, in Hebrews 11 out of weakness were made strong.

In Christ's day, if they said you were sick and they used that word, it meant that you were too weak to get around.

Luke 4.40, they that had any sick or weak with diverse diseases brought them unto him.

The sick were too weak to come on their own.

Mark 6.56, and whithersoever he entered into villages or cities or countries, they laid the sick in the streets.

They might be too weak even to be brought to Jesus.

Acts 19.12, so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons.

When John says Lazarus was sick, he was seriously ill.

He was too weak even to go on his own to see Jesus.

He was too weak even to be taken to Jesus.

Lazarus' sisters were afraid he might die.

What should we do in a situation like this?

The Bible tells us, is any sick, that word sick, among you, weak, let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

They may be too sick to go to the elders and so they call the elders to come to them." That's the context of that verse.

And this is just what was done with Lazarus.

Notice verse 3 of John 11, Therefore his sisters sent unto him, ' that is Jesus, saying, "'Lord, behold whom thou lovest, "'he whom thou lovest is sick.'" It's helpful to look at the context of this story.

It was in the last few months of Jesus' life.

John 10.22, the few verses before John 11, tells us it was at Jerusalem, the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.

This is the last winter of Jesus' earthly life.

This feast was not 1 established by God, it was established by Judas Maccabeus in 164 BC.

It was celebrated in the middle of December around our Christmas time, and so this was after the winter of 30 AD, the last winter of Jesus' life, when this is going to take place.

At this feast, the Jewish leaders accused Jesus of blasphemy, and they attempted to stone him.

Therefore, they sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their hand and went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized, and there he abode, and many resorted unto him, and many believed on him there.

Jesus, like David, fleeing from King Saul, fled to the rocky fortress on the other side of the Jordan.

Here, Jesus was out of range of both priest and ruler.

He went to the wilderness region where John the Baptist had grown up, where he had begun his ministry at another village which is sometimes called Bethany, but more often Bethabara.

And there he had great success, reaping where John the Baptist had sowed.

There in this wild and rocky region, He was safe from the plots of his enemies.

But while he was there, Lazarus' 2 sisters sent him an email.

It's interesting to me that they call Lazarus the 1 you love.

It was obvious to everyone that Jesus loved him.

John 11, 36, "'Then said the Jews, Behold, how he loved them.'" But he didn't love Lazarus alone.

Notice verse 5, "'Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister, " that would be Mary, "'and Lazarus.'" Is Jesus' love unique to Martha, Mary, and Lazarus?

Years ago, when I was a student at Columbia Union College, called then, now it's Washington Adventist University, I was having my devotions.

I was praying, and I said to the Lord 1 evening while I was praying, I said, Lord, you know, I tell you that I love you.

I would like you to tell me that you love me." Now, of course, I was ignoring the fact that every spire of springing grass, the birds that make the air melody with their song all testify of God's love.

And if I wanted to know whether God loved me, I could have gone out and looked at the grass there by the boys' dorm.

But I said, Lord, I tell you, can you just tell me?

And I had no sooner said that prayer than I got 2 buzzes.

Now this was before iPhones, and this was before even more sophisticated communication where you had a telephone in the room, we had a buzzer that the desk could communicate with us, and 2 buzzes meant that we had a phone call.

So I went down the hall and to the right where there was a phone on the hallway.

It wasn't a girlfriend, it was just a friend, but it was a girl.

And she says, I was just reading Malachi and it was so good, I just had to call you and tell you and read it to you.

And here was the verse, Malachi 1, 2, I love you, says the Lord.

No, I don't remember the year, but it was an amazing situation.

And I have never wondered, If I wonder, I just get out the New English Bible and read Malachi 1, 2, because that is for you.

The sisters were right to say to Jesus, the 1 you love is sick.

In this message to Jesus, did Mary and Martha ask him for a favor.

Therefore, his sister sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.

Satan’s Methods, Jesus’ Methods

Dear Lord, thank you so much for another time we can study your word.

I pray that you will fill our minds with a deeper understanding and appreciation for Jesus.

Fill our auditorium with the Holy Spirit, we pray in Christ's name, amen.

There's Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana, Google Assistant, all voice activated, but this voice activation is not new.

Everything in the world, everything in the universe God made, voice activated.

By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth.

For he spake, and it was done, he commanded, and it stood fast." Why?

Ecclesiastes 8, 4, where the word, say it with me, where the word of a king is, there is power.

In Genesis, God said, let there be light, and there was light.

And so on through all the days of creation, as each part was created, God spoke.

God's word brought order from chaos, beauty from ugliness.

The dirt became man, and a rib became woman.

By God's Word, the ordinary became extraordinary.

And that's what God wants to do in our lives with his word.

Our study this week has taken us to the outskirts of Jerusalem.

In our first study we saw Martha opening her home to Jesus.

If you didn't get the handout for the first lecture, we have 1 here.

Although she welcomed Jesus to her house, the first time he visited she worried about what she had to offer Jesus instead of appreciating what he had to offer her.

She became overwhelmed, irritated, impatient.

She began to feel that the little she had to offer Christ was more important than the much he had to offer her.

And we learn from Martha that it's not enough to invite Jesus into our home.

The purpose of his visit is companionship with us.

He doesn't come for us to wait on him, he comes to wait on us.

He doesn't come to add to our burdens, he comes to take our burdens.

Martha lost the companionship of Jesus when she neglected to cast her burden on the Lord who cared for her, and then he and his disciples just became 1 more burden.

Have you ever seen people who are burdened down with all the things they have to do for the church or for Jesus.

That's losing the companionship of Jesus.

Without realizing it, what was the testimony that Martha gave the world about inviting Jesus into the home?

He absorbs others' attention so they don't help me and they become useless.

Whenever we complain, that's really what we're saying.

Martha serves as a warning, how easily we can complain even when Jesus is present.

On Monday, we saw how God's Word can change us as we sit at the feet of Jesus, morning by morning.

Power to change lives come from sitting at the feet of Jesus.

Yesterday, we looked at what happens when Jesus comes into our lives and into our homes.

But who are His friends and how can we become them?

If you have your Bibles, turn to John 15, 14.

And there we see how do we become 1 of Jesus' friends?

Proverbs 22, 11 says, "'He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the king shall be his friends.'" So if we do what Jesus commands, when we do his sweet will, he abides with us still.

This afternoon, we will move on in our study.

We'll be looking at the various passages and comparing them.

As we learn to study, you have the handout.

Let me just hand some to you to give to anybody that doesn't have 1.

The reason why I think this will be easier than looking it up in your Bible, because we'll have them there so you can see the similar passages side by side.

We want to learn to listen to the voice of God and see how that voice activation activates our lives and changes us.

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On the Outskirts of Jerusalem

Follow Up

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Recorded

Eric Walsh: Road Map to Heaven

The Road Less Traveled

38m

Leadership in an Immoral World: Inescapable Culpability

42m

Restoring the Joy

49m

The Hardest Commandment

53m

How Low Can You Go?

49m

The Parables

The Grand Banquet

46m

The Remnant’s Call To Give Glory

54m

The Everlasting Gospel

4. Preparing the King’s Highway

48m

Imagine a Healthy 100

How to Boost Your Immune System

52m

Breakouts

4. Loving Jesus

42m

Refuse Not Him

1h 1m

Morning Worship

One Thing You Lack

17m

Sound Doctrine