Seeing the Glory of God 1988

I'd like to start by reading from John chapter 2, verse 1. On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the marriage with his disciples. When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.

And Jesus said to her, oh woman, what had you to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you to. Now six stone jars were standing there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons.

Jesus said to them, fill the jars with water. They filled them up to the brim. He said to them, now draw some out and take it to the steward of the feast.

So they took it. When the steward of the feast tasted the water, now become wine. And did not know where it came from, though the servants who drew the water knew.

The steward of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, every man serves the good wine first. And when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.

This first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. This was Jesus' first miracle in the book of John. And it was to show that he had come, Jesus had come to bring life to a dead Israel, just as he brought a dead wedding feast to life with this sign.

The sign was primarily for the benefit of his disciples. And its major purpose, along with the illustration of its meaning, was to increase their faith. This first of his signs, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him.

At the beginning of our walk with Jesus, this kind of thing always happens. There will be a sign. There will be some wonderful answer to prayer that comes straight from heaven with such power that it knocks us off our feet.

And our faith expands. Jesus is real. It's not theory anymore.

We know that we have had an encounter with the Son of God. And now we're able to believe in him in a way that we were not able to believe in him before. But this honeymoon faith, this faith which the disciples had when they left that wedding feast with Jesus, is fragile and weak.

It is not the kind of faith that's going to take us through storms and battles and wilderness journeys. And so as we read on in the book of John, we see Jesus continuously teaching the disciples the importance of faith as an act of the will. Believing as an act of the will.

And it's important for them to understand that now if they're going to have the kind of faith that can make it through the storms, they have to begin to do something. And so we see him teaching this to them. In the beginning, you saw something and you believed.

But now I want to teach you to believe in me even when you don't see. This is the work of God, that you believe in him and he has said, He who believes in me, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water. I've ignited a faith in you.

But now if you're going to keep that faith going, you're going to have to do something. You're going to have to exercise that faith. You're going to have to live that faith.

In the beginning, you came to faith as I manifested glory to you. You saw glory, you believed. Now, in order for you to have the kind of faith that can survive storms, we turn it the other way around.

You're going to believe and then you will see glory. Have faith and then the glorious doors of the kingdom will open for you. And so now we skip back through the gospel of John to his last sign of his flesh and blood ministry.

Found in John 11, 38. Then Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay upon it.

Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor for he has been dead four days. Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God.

So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that thou hast heard me. I knew that thou hearest me always, but I have said this on account of the people standing by that they may believe that thou didst send me. When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.

The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, unbind him, let him go. Did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God.

These words, which precede the final sign of his flesh and blood ministry in the book of John, were addressed not only to Martha, but to every believer of all time. Did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God. You're concerned that the situation is hopeless.

The man's been dead four days. When you take away the stone, there's going to be an odor. You see the problem very well.

But did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God. Believe. Now, Lazarus, come out.

And here he comes. We have come to a place in our life together where we can no longer expect the Lord to keep our faith alive by all the time feeding us with signs. We have come to a place in our life together where we will see the signs only when we exercise the faith we have.

When we believe. Believe, and you'll see. And so this is the message of the Lord, truly to this body, and to many others.

You know, you need to see the glory of God, true enough, but you will only see the glory of God when you believe. And we hear this cry. It was interesting.

Wednesday night, Tim began the Bible study here by reading from the Old Testament. And the basis was, you know, Moses' desire, I want to see your glory. And really that's the cry of the body of Christ all over the place.

And certainly here, Lord, we need to see your glory. We need to see your glory. We need the fullness of your spirit.

We have to have that living bread so that we have the power to set those captives free out there. And his answer is, did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? So what does it mean to believe? I thought I did believe. I mean, why do I come here if I don't believe? Why would I eat the bread and drink the wine if I didn't believe? Why would I present offerings of my toil and sweat if I didn't believe? Martha could have said all that too.

Martha was deeply committed to Jesus. There was nobody in her life who was more important to her than Jesus. Yet he now calls for something more from her.

I know you love me, Martha. I know you care about me. But now I want you to trust me in a way you have never trusted me before.

I want you to trust that I'm able to take this situation and turn it around. That I'm able to restore Lazarus. I want you to believe.

And to us, he says, I know you love me. I know you care about me. I rejoice to hear your hymns of praise.

I rejoice to see you out there doing my will. But I'm calling for you to have a trust in me that you've never had before. I'm asking you and calling you and commanding you to believe that I will bring life into this body it has never had.

That I will bring power into this body it has never had. Believe this. Believe, first of all, that Jesus is the only source of life and health for us.

And we will see the glory of God. Martha saw the glory of God because that's what she believed. Listen to the conversation which preceded that sign.

From John 11, 21, Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give it to you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again.

Martha says to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection of the last day. Jesus says to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he were dead, yet will he live.

And he who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? She says to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. I know that he will rise again in the resurrection of the last day.

And then Jesus says, but I am the resurrection and the life. Not only on the last day, but now. Whoever believes in me has everlasting life, not only on the last day, but now.

Believe. Don't just pin your belief on some future event. But also put your belief, your trust in me as I dwell in your midst now.

Trust that I am with you. When you call on my name, when you sing my praises, when you eat my flesh and drink my blood, believe that I am your resurrection and your life now. And you will see resurrection life flowing into your present situation.

And your Lazarus will come forth, and your mountain will move, and your nightmare will give way to evidence of God's glory, a vision of God's glory that will change you and things around you. Believe. Enough in Jesus to commit yourself into his hands.

Every day. And you will see the glory of God, he says to us. Reading from Luke chapter 9, verse 23.

He said to all, if any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. If anyone would come after me, meaning be in my presence, walk in my footsteps, have fellowship with me, see my glory. We have that.

We have the presence of the Lord when we commit ourselves into his hands. Not just once and done, but every day. Every day.

I need to die to myself so that I can live in him. Every day we die to self. We turn away from our own way and we pick up our cross, which is a sign that we are dead to our own way, and we go off in his way.

And when we make that a discipline, an act of the will, conscious act of the will, every day, we will see the glory of God as he walks by our side. Believe that my word to you will keep you alive, not only in this life, but in the next. And you will see the glory of God, he says to us.

Reading from John chapter six, verse 66. After this, many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. Jesus said to the twelve, Will you also go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and had come to know that you are the holy one of God.

You have the words of eternal life. Your words are spirit and life. You're the living bread and your words are the life that comes from the bread.

And so we listen to those words, and we remember them, and we trust them, and we do them. We deliberately put ourselves under the power of those words. If he says you're the salt of the earth, that's what we are.

If he says you're the light of the world, that's what we are. If he says love your enemies, have a single eye, speak the truth, that's what we do. You have the words of eternal life.

And those words will be fulfilled, and we will see the glory of God in our daily life as we trust them. Did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? In the beginning of our walk with the Lord, he gave us some kind of vision of glory and generated faith. But now, in order to strengthen us, he's calling for a faith that comes first, believes, and then sees.

After every revival, every spiritual awakening, call it whatever you wish, when the honeymoon season has passed, and we're down to the business of serious discipleship, all those people who believe only when they see, begin to see less and less and less, and believe less and less and less, and pretty soon, they're back in Babylon, back in Egypt, back in the world. But the Lord Jesus keeps walking on at the head. A little band of disciples who are desiring and willing to be taught the faith that endures, faith that believes even when it sees nothing.

These disciples will see the glory of God again and again and again, and will be sustained by that glory because they believe. He's calling for us to be part of that band of disciples now. As he says in the Spirit to each of us now, did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? Believe, and your mountain will move, and your Lazarus will come forth, and that door will break open, and in it you will see the glory of God right where you are.

Let's wait upon him now in silence, and let the Spirit speak through our hearts.