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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Eric Walsh

The Greatest Wakeup Call

It's always good to be in the house of the Lord on His holy day.

We'll get right into this because we don't have a whole lot of time.

Father God, We thank you Lord for bringing us here together this morning.

Lord there are a lot of places we could be today.

But Father God we acknowledge your mercy and that you have led us to be in this place.

We ask now Father God that you would just pour out your Holy Spirit upon this place.

Father God that the words that are spoken, Lord, that they would be distributed from your throne room on high.

Father God we would not leave this place the same way that we came.

Now to give a little backdrop on this morning's study and the story that we'll be reading from, Jesus and his disciples had kind of gotten out of town as it were.

The Pharisees were looking to kill Jesus by this point.

So Jesus had gone far away from where he was often around and 1 of the places that he liked to dwell was in the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

He had to kind of get out of town because people knew that that was 1 of the places he frequented.

The word comes to Jesus as he's out of town that Lazarus is ill.

His sister sends this message and asks that Jesus would come right away.

And as you know the story, Jesus delays a few days in coming and in the time of Jesus is delayed Lazarus actually died Ellen White says that it's a sudden illness that comes over Lazarus a violent illness and so Lazarus Dies and is actually buried and and so what is going on by the time Jesus is on his way to where Lazarus is buried is that by then they have already started the funeral services and the mortars have shown up and there's weeping and crying And all of these things have come together and so as Jesus is on the way 1 of the sisters runs out to him Martha runs out to him and and and falls down at Jesus's feet and asked him if you had been here Lord my brother would have lived The first sister does that the second sister does that in verse 32.

In verse 32 of chapter 11 the Bible says, Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother had not died.

And when Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping which came with her he groaned in the spirit and was troubled.

Now there is 1 of the beautiful things about Christianity is that Christianity is a very unique religion in the world.

I was with 1 of my friends who was raised Adventist with me who is now a Muslim and I was preaching in Boston, he lives in Boston so he came to church with me for 1 of the services I spoke at and we had time to go out that night and talk.

And he began to say that you Christians are so different from all the other religions.

He said when I compare Islam and Judaism they are so close together but Christianity is far fetched.

He says this concept that God has a son is ridiculous.

And he says the idea that God would come to earth is crazy.

And I said well, you're not as much like the Jews as you think because the Jews have a book called Isaiah.

And in the book of Isaiah it begins to outline the fact that Jesus is God.

Now, 1 of the things that makes this story so incredible is that this is 1 of the places in the Bible where Jesus' humanity and his divinity are kind of our diagrams and expressed in 1 place.

This is 1 of the greatest mysteries the world has ever known.

And it is 1 of the reasons a lot of people find it difficult to accept Christianity.

They can't wrap their brain around the fact that God could love the world so much that he would come to earth himself.

Now, Jehovah's Witnesses will ring your doorbell on a Sunday morning and tell you that Jesus is not God.

But John 1 and verse 1 and verse 14, if you want to turn you can, but it says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God And verse 14 says and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us 1 of the reasons I'm a Christian is because I do not serve a God who is separate From my infirmity.

He was tempted in all points like we are, yet he sinned not.

So when you get on your knees at night and pray, You are not praying to a God who cannot understand your struggles.

You are praying to a God who intimately understands what you've been through.

He intimately understands what you're going through.

He watched the world in a suffering state.

He came to earth and experienced the agony of what is a sinful world.

He left the brightness of glory and came to the darkness of earth.

So when you're at your darkest, you know, deepest moment of pain in life, You can turn to a God who understands.

And so he's 100% God, yes, but don't forget he's 100% human.

Now, as the story unveils, here is Jesus beginning to show his humanity in verse 33.

The Bible says, when Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came winter, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled.

Jesus saw sorrow on earth and was troubled.

A lot of people when someone in the family dies or someone close dies or some bad thing happens wonder how God could allow it.

And we can go on and on of the atrocities, the anaphylactic babies that are born, where people stand at the bedside of dying loved ones and agonize, angry with God.

They don't understand that God is standing next to them, also agonizing.

He groaned in the Spirit and was troubled, the Bible says.

And Jesus, being the take charge, make it right type of leader that he was, he says at this point, where have you laid him?

The Bible says, the shortest verse, 1 of the shortest verses in all of scripture is verse 35.

And in verse 35 the Bible shows Jesus as humanity come to a head it says here Jesus left now why did Jesus weep or cry why did he weep why was Jesus so sorrowful that the God of the universe the 1 who spoke and said let there be light and there was light he who had the power of all of glory at his disposal why would he cry was he crying for Lazarus no He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead.

But what Jesus, I don't know why he tells us, looked down through the portals of time, and he looked at my life, and he looked at your life.

When he saw the condition of the world, Jesus saw the sorrow that was followed.

He has seen the suffering, the rape victims.

And when Jesus looked at the consequences of sin on planet Earth that ultimately culminates in death, Jesus could not hold back his bitterness and his sorrow any longer and the God of the universe left.

And I want you to know that Jesus still looks at this earth with great sorrow.

Now, 1 of the things I want to talk about this morning as we go through this story is some of the current things that are going on in our world.

Right now this is a very complicated and exciting time.

1 of the reasons I say that is because when you look at the political atmosphere in the United States, it's exciting to be a part of the democratic process, as democratic as it can be, I guess.

You've got to kind of be filthy rich to get into those debates and be a presidential candidate, but It's democracy nonetheless.

And so as the world begins to now start to discuss all of these issues, and you have these debates where they discuss the war on Iraq, and they discuss gay marriage, and they discuss healthcare reform, and all of these different things.

We are tempted as Christians to jump into the fray and take sides.

And believe me, as a good American and a believer in the divine, I believe the Constitution of the United States was divinely inspired.

I believe the reason that God allowed his remnant, last name church to start in the United States of America is because this was the 1 place on planet earth that there would be enough of a cushion and protection for that fragile little church to grow into the church it is today.

I don't believe that anywhere on earth, not too many other places on earth, that you could have started such a church as ours and it thrived the way it has.

And I believe all of these things have come together on earth, but I believe that we as Christians in this time of great political upheaval and confusion and debate must be careful that we ourselves do not become over politicized Because there's a temptation on the part of many Christians to believe that 1 of the 2 candidates or 3 candidates if you're depending on how you're counting 1 of these candidates would solve the problem and there's this temptation to turn candidates into golden calves.

The idea that there's a man who can solve the problems on earth is a ludicrous idea.

And so we can get so political and join the Republican Party and fight gay marriage and abortion like the evangelicals or we can jump on and be Democrats and fight for social change and social justice and all of the programs that they might want to put into effect.

But I'm here to tell you today that God is not calling us to change the laws of the land, God is calling us to change the hearts of the people who occupy the land.

God has not called us, and so when I was studying this week and reading, I got to where Ellen White in many of the letters that she wrote she really warned against us becoming too political.

Because you can get so and 1 of the things she said is because in doing so you will make allegiances With the world and with unbelievers that you would never otherwise make You ever been to a Super Bowl party That you didn't know anybody at and 1 of the people there We've got no idea who or she he or she is is rooting for the same team as you you ever notice the kindred and brotherhood and sisterhood you develop over a game?

How much more intense is man's passion over politics?

In the nation from which my parents came, from the island of Jamaica, blood is shed Every time there's an election.

People are slaughtered in the streets of Kingston and Montego Bay.

And some of you come from other countries and you know that when politics is at its stake, people's lives are taken.

Fortunately in America we don't have to deal with that.

It's character assassination that more takes place.

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The Greatest Wakeup Call

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