Seeing the Glory of God

From the Gospel of John, chapter 11, verses 38 through 44. 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 thee 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, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, Unbind him, and let him go.

So far today, all through the Sunday school class, and almost in every other conversation, you can pick up the sense of the fact that the foundations are shaking, and nothing's certain, not that it ever was, but we can see more clearly than ever, how shaky everything is. And we're all aware of the fact that in the midst of this battle that's becoming more and more obvious, and all the strange things that are going on around us, the tremendous need, at this hour, among believers everywhere, for encouragement. You know, for saints who can help their discouraged and weary and troubled and overwhelmed brothers and sisters to get back on their feet and keep going.

But the greatest need of all is for the encouragement that comes from God. Now God gives us this encouragement by enabling us to see his glory. And when you see that glory, right down in the midst of your troubles, not after you die and go to heaven, not after the pain comes back in glory, but right now in this valley of trouble, when you see that glory, it encourages you.

You know, it gives you strength, like the time that Elijah was given this meal by the angel under the broom tree and was able to go for forty days. Another thing about this, this vision of glory, when it comes to us, it suddenly clears our heads and makes us see that these temptations that have been so luring are nothing but garbage. We can see them for what they really are.

But these visions of God's glory, these tastes of God's glory, always come to us in the midst of the trouble. You know, never, at least never for very long, all by ourselves, where we just bash in the glory of God, on and on and on and on. Never like that.

For example, when God sent Moses to deliver his people, Israel, out of Egypt, the thing was not done with a magic carpet. It was a journey to be traveled. And from the time of the Passover until the day many, many years later when they crossed the Jordan River and entered the Promised Land, it was a long, hard, weary, terrible journey.

You know, there were dangers to face, there were difficulties to overcome, there were lessons to be learned. But there was one thing. God gave these people, which held them all through that journey, and through all the things they had to face, there was this strange pillar of cloud which was over them by day and became a pillar of fire at night.

And those who set their minds to it could, looking up at that thing, discern somehow the presence of God's glory over them. Now, it was not just seeing the cloud. You didn't see the glory of God by looking at this cloud, strange as it was.

Lots of people sinned under the cloud, blasphemed, murmured, did all kinds of things under that cloud. And there were those who at certain times could hardly see it, it seemed so vague and hazy. And you can be sure there were those who took it for granted, and it was no more a sign to them than the sun or the moon.

But for those who loved God, that cloud was a witness to God's presence in their midst. And it was a tremendous encouragement to them. Now, the day came when they crossed over the Jordan and got settled in the Promised Land, and then the cloud was no longer visible.

But there has never been a time, ever, when God has left his people without subtle witness to his glory. The darker the times get, the more difficult their journey becomes, the brighter that sign of God's glory also becomes. When Jesus came to Israel, there was no halo around his head.

He didn't even look spiritual. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And those who followed him soon began to also experience that sorrow and that grief and that rejection.

But there was one thing which Jesus gave to the men and women who followed him that far outweighed all the pain of the crosses they had to carry. Jesus enabled these people who followed him to see God's glory. And we beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son of the Father.

This first of his miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory, and his disciples believed in him. I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

So these men and women also had that pillar of cloud and that column of fire over them by day and night. Somehow they knew that God was in a special way with them. They were able to see what others looking at their Lord could not see.

They could see the glory of God. Now if the Israelites traveling through the wilderness had not had that pillar of cloud, as an encouragement, it's doubtful whether they would ever have reached the promised land. And if these men and women who became Jesus' followers were not given the grace by the Spirit of God to behold the glory of God in the face of their Lord, they would never have been able to accomplish the work they were given to do.

And it's the lack of this vision of glory today in so many believers which causes them to stumble and fall all the time. So many seem to think that they are able to make it through this world with a hope which is tied to nothing but something future. And so we get really excited as soon as somebody reminds us again, and I believe it's true, that Jesus is coming soon.

But don't tie your hope just to that. What I'm trying to say, don't misunderstand me, what I'm saying is, if it should be that Jesus is coming within the next three years or within the next three months, or even within the next three weeks, having your hope tied to that alone will not hold you through the dream. See, we have to have a connection with Jesus now, which is more than theory or doctrine or feelings or experiences.

We have to have a connection with Jesus now which enables us to see God's glory. We have to have a connection with Him which enables that pillar of cloud and fire to take its place over our lives right now, so that the hope of glory truly is burning inside us. He who follows me will not walk in darkness now, but will have the light of life now.

And what is this light of life? But the glory of God instructing us and teaching us in the way that we should go, guiding us to the sky, causing that glory to be really burning and shining in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. And what I can't understand is how we can be satisfied with this gray twilight that most of us are living in. See, how we can be content to be forever stumbling and wobbling and weaving through this world like a drunken man groping his way through an unlighted alley, with lives which seldom see God's glory and almost never reflect it.

How can we be content to all the time be making excuses for our mediocre, half-baked, lukewarm ministry? When Mary and Martha come with Jesus now to the tomb of their brother Lazarus, they don't have that pillar of cloud over their heads either. You know, they say all the right things, but they are not seeing the glory of God. Lord, if you've been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

You've come when we called you. And yet I know that even now, whatever you ask of God, he will give it to you. And Mary and Martha stand there and Jesus turns to Martha and says, your brother will rise again.

Yeah, I know that he'll rise again in the resurrection on the last day, all the time pushing it off to the future. And Jesus answers, I'm not talking about the last day. I'm talking about right now.

I am the resurrection and the life, not will be, am. He who believes on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And he who lives and believes on me shall never die.

Do you believe this? Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ. See, but then when they get to the tomb and Jesus says, all right, take away the stone, Martha protests. Two minutes before she says, yes, I believe you're the Christ.

Now she says, Lord, don't move that stone. It's going to be an odor. He's been dead four days.

Martha, did I not tell you that if you believe, if you would believe, you would see the glory of God and you'll see the glory of God, not at the end, not on the last day, but right now I'm asking you to believe. And this is exactly what the Lord is saying to us at this hour. You're going to see the glory of God, not when your troubles are over, but right in the middle of your troubles.

You're going to see God coming down into the grave that you have made of your life and raising it from the dead. If you will believe. And right away we say, wait a minute, Lord, I do believe.

I believe. Why do you tell me to believe? How can you do that? Don't you know? You can see that I believe. All the right things.

Yes, child, you believe all the right things. But what I'm asking you to do is to forget about believing and believe in me. You're praying for that member of your family who's all mixed up.

And you're weary. And you're troubled. And you've long since given up expecting anything to happen because you're afraid that if you do, you're going to be disappointed again.

Did I not tell you that if you believe, you would see the glory of God? Now pray again and keep your eye on me. When you get up in the morning, perhaps your mind is believing the right things, but your heart is far from it. You don't expect me to be walking with you through the day.

But did I not tell you that if you believe, you would see God's glory? And some of you are diligently trying to proclaim the gospel where you work, among your friends, out on the streets, in your relatives' house. But most of the time you're doing it as a chore. And you're not really expecting anything to happen.

You know, you're doing your duty on your way to what you hope will be glory land. But you need to see glory now. Did I not tell you that if you believe, you would see the glory of God? See, you can believe in prayer.

You can believe in praising God. You can believe in having faith. You can believe in discipleship.

You can believe in the gifts. And yet when it comes to actually trusting Jesus himself, you can be utterly bankrupt. The belief has to be in Jesus.

He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. See, and to believe in Jesus means that I turn away from my own way, wonderful as it has been, marvelous as I think it is, my religious way, and deliberately put myself under Jesus. And this is where our problem is.

We don't want to do that. We don't want to give up our own way, particularly our religious way, and really start following in those steps. We want to believe the right things.

We want to believe that someday we're going to rise on the last day. And we want to believe this about Jesus and that about Jesus. But we don't want to believe Jesus to the point where we are turned around and actually begin walking in those steps, actually begin doing the things he tells us to do.

You know, such simple things as forgive. Oh, but I'm a believer, you know, but that I can't do, Lord. And this is why we are not seeing the glory of God.

It's this simple. If we are not seeing the glory, if we don't have the light of life, it's because we're believing in something other than Jesus and because our feet are walking on a path other than the path that he... So his message to us as we draw near to receive is exactly what it was to Martha that day. Believe.

Me. You know, believe and you will see some evidence of God's glory in your life. You will see the hand of God come down and touch something in your circumstances, in your heart, in your mind, somewhere this day.

And if you will continue to believe me, you will taste glory every day. Every morning you'll get up and you'll look up and you'll see that pillar of cloud. And you'll look up at night and you'll see that column of fire.

And your life will be lived in the atmosphere of God's glory. And in the light of that glory, you will do the will of your Father. Even while your feet continue to walk on this earth, I am the light of the world.

He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have. Now we'll see the glory. Father, we pray that you'll be dealing with those areas inside our hearts that are much too contented.

Help us, oh God, to hunger and thirst for the glory that you promised that we can now experience. That we, so living in the light of your countenance, Lord Jesus, may reflect that glory and be transformed into its very likeness day by day and hour by hour. We ask it for your mercy's sake.