This week’s devotions are based on the message: “Overcoming Death” Week 5 of Signs (LISTEN HERE)
What is your response?
It’s a big deal when you can convince your skeptics and detractors that you are the real deal. This whole series, “Signs” has been based on the premise that the Apostle John wrote in John 20:30-31, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
The journey of miraculous signs that John takes us on is one that screams with clarity that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. There is no doubt in this…even from his detractors.
After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the reaction was mixed:
John 11:45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
The miraculous signs were real. How one reacted to them was the difference. Many of those that came to grieve with Mary and Martha saw Lazarus alive and believed in Jesus…exactly the purpose John outlines for the miraculous signs. Some however when and told the religious leaders what Jesus had done. They didn’t deny Jesus raised Lazarus. They didn’t discount that his work was miraculous. They didn’t even deny that they were convincing people to believe in him.
Their response? Kill Jesus. The religious leaders were more interested in holding on to the power they had and their fear of the Romans than acknowledging that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God as the miraculous signs clearly communicated.
The raising of Lazarus along with every other miracle leaves the skeptic without excuse. The miracles speak for themselves. The proverbial “nail in the coffin” was Jesus’ own resurrection a short time later. The evidence as witnessed by others left no doubt that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. The only question remained, “Will you allow the evidence to testify clearly or to pretend it never happened?”
The religious leaders couldn’t change the evidence. They tried at Jesus’ resurrection. They only could prevent more evidence from being submitted for evidence, so they wanted to get rid of Jesus.
Still today, many want to get rid of Jesus, not deal with him, acknowledge him, or admit he existed. Why? Perhaps there are varied reasons, but if I don’t get rid of him, I am left with no other option than to admit he is the Christ, the Son of God.
And if he is the Christ, the Son of God he has fully accomplished his mission from God:
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
All that remains is to get rid of the denial and allow the Spirit of God to work the conviction, based on the evidence, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that only through him, you have eternal life.
I pray this is your response.
Apply: What evidence is most compelling? What do you still question?
Prayer: Lord, send your Spirit to lead me to fully trust that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing I may have life in his name. AMEN.