Skeptical Scoffers
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
It's really amazing, it's an amazing thing, how two human beings, both blessed with the ability to think, both blessed with the ability to reason, to contemplate, can be presented with the exact same information, the exact same situation, the exact same evidence. If a case is being made, they hear the exact same arguments, and yet these two people who are both blessed with the ability to think and to reason can come to completely, completely different conclusions. We see that around us every day, don't we? It happens every day—human beings exposed to the same information yet come to two different conclusions, opposite conclusions.
Think about all that's debated in our culture. People debate politics, they debate issues that are mentioned in the news about this and that and the other, and they talk about court decisions and what they think is right and what they think is wrong. They debate things that are important, they debate things that are completely unimportant, trivial. And what's often startling when you pay attention to these debates is the ability that people have to only accept the information that seems to agree with the position that they already hold.
How often it is that they come to a situation, they've already had a conclusion in their mind, and so the information that seems to accord with what they already believe—well, they accept that. They hold on to that. How often it is that they come to a situation and do exactly the same thing. And how easy it is for human beings to just sweep away the information that would expose their wrong thinking or that could lead them to a different conclusion. And that's something, beloved, that belongs to sinful human nature.
Do we realize today that only God can give an honest heart? Only God can give an honest heart. Do you realize that only God can give someone a heart that really wants the truth? And wants the truth in a way that we could describe as desperate—a desperate desire for the truth. That is, no matter what it means for me, no matter what I have to repent of, no matter what I have to recant, no matter how it would expose me and make evident that I thought wrongly about something, all that I want is God. All that I want is the truth. I just want the truth. That kind of desperate. Only God, only God can produce that in a human soul.
Because what has happened as a result of the fall in Genesis 3 is that we don't have an honest heart. We don't. We don't have an honest heart. "The heart is deceitful, above all else is desperately wicked. Who can understand it?" He does. Men are not born with honest hearts. In fact, men are born with a hopeless bias against light, against the truth. When you talk about spiritual truth especially, understand it. When it comes to the natural man, to man as he's born in Adam, what is right is objectionable to him. What is wrong is pleasurable to him.
In the language of Isaiah, right is wrong and wrong is right and sweet is bitter and bitter is sweet. Everything is upside down, everything is inverted. And so he takes all the spiritual evidence—man in his fallenness, in his Adamic nature—and he sees it all through the prism of a heart that doesn't want the truth. We've seen that before in the Gospel of John, didn't we? John chapter 3 verse 19 puts it this way: "And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. And everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light, lest his deeds be exposed." A hopeless bias against the Light, against the truth, and all the information is sifted through this heart and through this mind that doesn't want to see the truth—a dishonest heart, a biased heart.
I bring this up this morning because we see an example of this right here in this chapter. We see the actions of Jesus, we see the attitudes of Jesus, we hear the words of Jesus, and we're going to even see Him raise Lazarus from the dead. And you have a group of people, all of whom are exposed to the same actions, the same attitudes, the same words, and the same miraculous deed. Yet what you will see in this chapter is emerging two conflicting perspectives. Some have faith, others do not. Some believe, others do not. Some, at the end of the day, are going to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; others are going to leave the scene and tell on Him, report it to the Pharisees. Same information, same evidence, but two completely different, starkly different conclusions. And the way you explain the difference in conclusion is the condition of the heart, the condition of the mind.
We'll see that this morning and next week, Lord willing. But where I want us to begin this morning, I want us to begin with the indignation of Christ to set the context. The indignation of Christ (point number one), the indignation of Christ. And I want us to return to something that was mentioned last Lord's Day because we need to be clear on this, or else we will not rightly interpret the Scripture here, this text. Back in verse 33, when it says that Jesus was deeply moved: "When Jesus therefore saw her crying, and the Jews who came with her also crying," here it is, "He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled."
There's a Greek word translated "deeply moved," and we have to figure out what it means. I mentioned it last Lord's Day; I want to come back to it because it is critical for us this morning. *embrimáomai* (ἐμβριμάομαι) is the Greek word, and this word is used in extra-biblical Greek literature to refer to the snorting of a horse preparing for a battle—the snorting of a horse preparing for a battle. Calvin views it as Jesus gearing up for the conflict as our champion in the battle against sin and death. Literally, this word means to roar, to storm with anger, to be enraged, to be indignant. It expresses indignation against someone.
And you recall last week that was mentioned concerning this verse, that I believe that has to do with indignation—that Jesus was indignant here. He was angry. There's something here that upset Him. But let me say this at this point: there are some really sound interpreters who don't agree with that—men who we greatly respect and greatly benefit from their work in the Lord. One of them is James Montgomery Boyce. He believes that the word here ought to be just understood as simply strong emotion. Here's his point, here's why he takes this position: he says there's nothing here in the context that would explain Jesus being angry. And so he sees it as just a strong emotion. Jesus is moved by the tears of Mary, moved by the tears of the mourners, he says, and so He's just feeling strong emotion here.
The problem with that is that in every other place where this Greek word is used—aside from the extra-biblical literature—but everywhere, in every place that this Greek word is used in the New Testament, you have the idea connected to it, the idea of indignation or sternness. Every other place. And I want you to see those places with me—three other places outside of John 11.
Turn with me to Matthew 9. Matthew 9:27 and following. We read there (a sweet sound to my ear, these pages being flipped, by the way, I just want to mention that, I don't think I have mentioned in a long time), verse 27: "As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, 'Have mercy on us, Son of David!' And when He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, 'Do you believe that I am able to do this?' They said to Him, 'Yes, Lord.' Then He touched their eyes, saying, 'It shall be done to you according to your faith.' And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, 'See that no one knows about this.'" The word translated "sternly warned" is the same Greek word we have in our text, *embrimaomai* (ἐμβριμάομαι).
Mark 1:40. Mark 1:40: "And a leper came to Jesus, pleading with Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, 'If You are willing, You can make me clean.' And moved with compassion, He stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, 'I am willing; be cleansed.' And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed."
Verse 43: "And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away."
The word "sternly warned" is the same Greek word.
Mark 14:5: Mark 14:5, we read: "For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii and given to the people." And they were, what? "Scolding her."
The word "scolding" is the same Greek word—actually, in this case, translated "scolding" rather than "sternly warning." And so the previous verse, by the way, describes them as being indignant, and as a result of being indignant, they scolded her.
A. T. Robertson, in his Word Pictures in the Greek New Testament, he says this, speaking of this word, this Greek word. He says, and I quote: "It means to snort with anger like a horse. It occurs in the Septuagint in Daniel 11:30 for violent displeasure. The notion of indignation is present in the other examples of this word in the New Testament, so it seems best to see that sense here and in verse 38," referring to John 11.
By the way, notice the same word is used in verse 38 in our text in John 11, where it says: "So Jesus, again being deeply moved,"—same word—"within, deeply moved within, came to the tomb."
Another Greek New Testament scholar, Robertson, says this, and I quote: "Every other place that it is used," referring to this Greek word, "including the Septuagint translation of Daniel 11:30, where it means violent displeasure—in every other instance, there is this flavor of indignation or anger or sternness."
Another one, Alfred Plummer, the Cambridge Greek New Testament, says this of this word: in all cases, as in classical Greek and in the *Septuagint*, it expresses not sorrow, but indignation of severity. It means, number one, literally of animals to snort, to growl; secondly, metaphorically, to be very angry or indignant; and thirdly, to command sternly under the threat of displeasure. Zodiatis says the same things. He says it means to be enraged, indignant, to express indignation against someone. And so, when you say, we're just going to think of it as a strong emotion, understand that that doesn't really capture what is contained in the usage of this word in every other place where this word is used.
Every other place that it's used, it carries the idea of sternness, scolding, or indignation. So, when we come to this verse, really, one is compelled to say, if we're consistent with how this word is used everywhere else, we have to see indignation here. So that raises the question that Boyce dismisses, and that is, is there anything in the context that would explain the indignation of Jesus? If there's indignation here, is there something here that would explain His anger? And of course, His anger is always righteous anger, righteous indignation.
If there's indignation here, so what is it that would explain that? And I believe there is. I believe there's something in the context that would speak of the anger of Jesus, and we touched on it last Lord's Day. There are a couple of things offered as to an explanation that I don't completely agree with, but let me give them to you just so you can think about those things yourself.
Some say that Jesus is angry here, and what He's angry about is death itself, that He's just upset with what death does. B. B. Warfield compared it to a warrior on his way to do battle with a great enemy. S. Lewis Johnson, quoting Warfield, said, it is the opinion of Warfield that Jesus was not moved by uncontrollable grief, but irrepressible anger. And why? He was angry at the violent tyranny of death, and He was advancing against it as, "a champion who prepares for conflict, gazing into the skeleton face of the world. He saw the awful reign of death everywhere, and He was deeply disturbed". So they say, yeah, He was angry, and what He was angry about is the tyranny of death.
Some say—here's a second explanation—some say it had to do with the mourning of all who were weeping. So Jesus, they're saying, Jesus looked at the weeping of Mary, and Jesus looked at the weeping of the mourners, and the weeping of everyone else, and He was troubled because their weeping didn't reflect faith. That is, they were mourning as those who have no hope. Well, I like this one better than the first one because at least there's a direct connection to weeping. I want you to notice with me, if you just look closely at the verse, verse 33, you have to connect His being deeply moved with the weeping. "When Jesus therefore saw her crying, and the Jews who came with her also crying, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled."
So I see the deeply moved as being connected with the weeping, but the problem that I have with the second one is knowing what we know of our Savior, right? Knowing how He deals with people throughout the Gospels, I don't believe that He would have been angry with the weeping of Mary since it was a sincere weeping. She was sincere in her weeping, and this is why Beuys rejects it. Because is the Lord Jesus angry with Mary as she weeps over her brother? I don't think that's the case at all.
Which leads to the third explanation and the one that I fully embrace, and that is that this anger had to do with the mourning of the religionists, the hypocrites. There's actually a contrast in verse 33. There's the weeping of Mary, which was sincere grief, and then there's the wailing of the professional mourners, a prescribed weeping. And you remember in our studies of this chapter, right? We saw this last couple of times, and we talked about the funeral traditions in Judaism—dead Judaism at this time—how they would hire professional wailing women, the flute players. They would go through the prescribed ritual of mourning over the dead.
And I believe that Jesus saw in that the hypocrisy that really marked the entirety of this decadent Judaism at this time, embodied in the Pharisees. Plummer expresses it very well. He says, and I quote, "What was He angry at? He was indignant at seeing the hypocritical and sentimental lamentations of His enemies, the Jews, mingling with the heartfelt lamentations of His loving friend Mary. Hypocrisy ever roused His anger." And Pastor MacArthur picks up on this. He says, and I quote, "Jesus appears to have been angry not only over the painful reality of sin and death, of which Lazarus was a beloved example, but also with the mourners who were acting like the pagans who have no hope."
And I believe that's the best possibility. Let me share four reasons why.
It fully agrees with what we know about the superficial way that Judaism handled everything, including death. Talked about last week how they, or the week before, about how they had prescribed a rending of garments for the mourners. You were to rend your outer garment a hand's breadth. And if you were mourning over a child, it would never be sewn up again. But if you were mourning over someone else, then after 30 days it was sewn up again.
You had 30 days of prescribed mourning. The first three were days of weeping. The seven were days of lamentation. So then you have 30 days of sorrow. All of it, so mechanical, so official, so prescribed, so superficial. And the professional wailing women at times would carry this out to the point where they would start pulling their hairs out. It was all prescribed. And as Jesus was angry with hypocrisy—and you will notice in the Gospel—the harshest things that He had to say, what do they always have to do with? Hypocrisy. Duplicity. The hypocritical, insincere, duplicitous external religion of the day.
This explanation connects His being moved with the weeping. It also connects His being moved in verse 38 with the same group. Look at it. Look at verse 37 first: "But some of them said, 'Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind have kept this man also from dying?'" These mourners, they come out with this statement in verse 37. And I'm going to submit to you this morning that I believe there was a mocking in the statement. There was at least, at the very least, sinful questioning in the statement.
And on the heels of that, verse 38, we read: "So Jesus, again being deeply moved within,"—same word, again, angry, indignant—"came to the tomb." So just as He would have been angry with a superficial mourning in verse 33, so now He is angry again, righteously indignant with the mocking and the questioning that came out of the same group in verse 37. This also explains, would explain, the attitude that's present in verse 37. You see, we have to determine what are they actually saying in verse 37? What is their attitude in their words? What's coming out? What is being shown to be their attitude by their words?
This also, by the way, fully accords with what we're going to see in verse 46. Verse 45—this is after He raises Lazarus from the dead—then we read in verse 46: "Therefore many of the Jews who,"—verse 45—"Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what He had done believed in Him. But some of them..." I mean, think about this, and we'll get there, Lord willing. After all of this, after all of this, "some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things what Jesus had done." There's no doubt but that you have enemies of Jesus present in this setting. You have those with close relationships to the Pharisees now reporting back to the Pharisees about what had taken place.
And so to see Jesus indignant, angry with the religionists of the day, fits the picture. And so we see the indignation of Jesus. And now that leads us to, secondly—and I want us to see this morning—the insults of the Jews, the mocking of the scoffers. Verse 37: if we're right in our understanding of the passage, and I believe we are, then what you have here is a statement made to be insulting, to be undermining, to be mocking. Some of the Jews recognize that Jesus had a love for Lazarus. But others looked at the same actions of Jesus, there in Perea, and the attitude of Jesus expressed in His tears in Bethany, and they looked at the same things, but they had a different sentiment—different sentiment. They had an accusation that they wanted to hurl in His direction, that they wanted to cast aspersion on His character.
What exactly was their accusation? Well, I'm going to give you some possibilities. They may all have an element of truth, but some possibilities as to what they mean—the attitude—in verse 37. One, this may be an accusation concerning Christ's abilities. Verse 37, concerning Christ's abilities. You'll notice they reference the blind man: "Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind man...?" Remember back in chapter 9, the blind man? This miracle must have left a lasting impression on these people. They're still talking about it: "Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man also from dying?"
Perhaps they were still questioning the ability of Jesus to actually perform miracles. Now, I know that seems astounding that anyone could question it, but we know without a doubt that there were people who still would not attribute the work of Jesus to God, right? They would still not admit that He was doing the works of God. And so it could be that they were saying, you know, where was His power when it came to His friend? Does He really have any? He opened the eyes of the blind, but could He have not taken care of His friend?
You say, would people mock Him that way? We know that they would mock Him that way. You know where my mind is going, right? Because what did they say when Jesus was on the cross? Matthew 27:42: "He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him." What were they seeing when He was hanging upon Calvary's cross? Well, they thought they were seeing someone who is powerless, impotent. They thought they were seeing someone who supposedly could save others, but when it came to Himself—well, He can't save Himself. "If You come down from the cross, we'll repent. We'll believe," mocking Him.
That's one possibility. But there's a second possibility in terms of the meaning and the attitude of verse 37. This could be an accusation not concerning His abilities, but concerning His affections. Maybe they were saying, "Look at His tears." Remember, they say in verse 36, "Behold, see, look at the tears," one group said. "See how He loved him. How He loved him." And this other group now would be saying, "Yeah, look at the tears. If He really loved this man, why didn't He keep him from dying? That's real love. Really, real love. Why did He not keep him from dying?" Well, that could be what they were doing—accusing Christ in terms of His real affection for this man. "Could not He have kept this man from dying?"
It could also be an accusation concerning Christ's actions in the third place. Now, you remember Martha and Mary both—they talked about this, no doubt, over the four days. Their brother's dead in the tomb. So that when they come to the Lord, verse 32: "When Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, fell at His feet, saying to Him, 'Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.'" Martha made the same statement, you remember, earlier in verse 21. And you remember, we saw together, this was not a statement of accusation on the part of Mary and Martha. They know that their brother died the same day that the messenger was sent to Jesus. And this is actually an expression of faith. A statement of regret really bound up in it. "We know if You had been here," there's a willingness. "You had a willingness to help our brother. We know that You had the ability to help our brother. If You had been here, he wouldn't be dead." That's how they mean it.
But it may be that these religionists, hypocrites, have picked up on the words of Martha and Mary and filled their words with an entirely different meaning. "Why wasn't He here? Why wasn't He here? Why didn't He come? Couldn't He have saved his friend?" So that you have two groups of people who witness the same tears, same emotions of this perfect man, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. But they are seeing the same tears, coming to two different conclusions at the end of it.
Now let me ask you this morning, how do you explain the difference? How do you explain the difference? I said it a moment ago, but let me underscore it. You explain the difference based upon the condition of the heart. You explain the difference based upon the condition of the heart. You have scoffers and you have believers. And then you have a third group. They're not yet believers, but they're not scoffing.
Scoffers. Scoffers. Are there scoffers today? Are there people who see the exact same evidence that the Holy Spirit used to bring you and I to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Are there people who see the exact same evidence, hear the exact same arguments, are exposed to the same, the exact same, information, but they don't believe on the Lord Jesus? Absolutely. Absolutely.
So let me close this morning with the remaining time that we have with a word about scoffers. Let's look at the individuality of a scoffer. What marks a scoffer? A word about a scoffer. And if you are a scoffer sitting in one of those chairs here this morning—now you may not be outwardly a scoffer, but maybe you sit here week after week and in your heart you are just scoffing—if you're a scoffer, I pray to God that He would help you to see yourself. To see yourself.
Because there may be a scoffer here with us this morning. There may be someone, a young person who's been brought by their parents, and that's why they're here. That's why you're here. Maybe a husband brought by his wife. That's why you're here. Maybe a wife brought by her husband. Maybe that's why you're here. A friend brought by another friend. You're not a believer, and you scoff at the truth of Christianity. You scoff at the Gospel.
And it's not a lack of information. It's not a lack of evidence that you're not a Christian. It has to do with the condition of your heart. The condition of your mind. And if that's you this morning, I pray, I pray and plead that in the grace and mercy of God that you would be able to recognize yourself. Proverbs 14 and verse 6 puts it this way: "A scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none." "A scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none. But knowledge," and I love this, "but knowledge is easy to one who has understanding." For someone who's been given understanding by the Lord, knowledge comes easy. But for someone who doesn't want to see, they don't see.
No matter how much information, no matter how much evidence, no matter how powerful, undeniable the evidence is—I mean, is this not powerful evidence they're about to see? I mean, how could you ignore that? Is this not undeniable evidence they're about to see? Yet they still go away scoffing, reporting it to the Pharisees. What can we say this morning about a scoffer? Number one, a scoffer takes what is harmless and uses it for harm. A scoffer takes what is harmless and uses it for harm.
If the people in verse 37 are picking up on the words of Martha and Mary, when Mary and Martha said, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died," their words did not contain any venom. Their words reflected an honest lack of understanding, a limited faith, an uninformed faith—not fully informed. They had no idea even after Jesus told them, and we'll see that next time, Lord willing, they had no idea what the Lord was about to do. But in their frailty, in their limitations, they were still expressing affection for the Lord Jesus and an affirmation of His ability to do what only God could do. They're still expressing faith, but it's still limited.
But those in verse 37 had picked up on the same language, yet their words were filled with something entirely different. There was an accusation. There was venom in what they were saying. And this is what scoffers do. They take what is harmless and they twist it. They use it in their minds to justify unbelief. Have you noticed in our times and days and our culture the attack all around us in the media, entertainment industry against the person, the nature of our Lord Jesus Christ? Have you noticed the attack on the idea that He was sinless? Divine? All of this in search of the "real Jesus" sort of stuff?
Do you notice one of the threads running through many of these things—the idea that Jesus had a romantic interest in Mary? They take the anointing of Jesus. They take the washing of His feet with her hair. They take her sitting at His feet, running to Him, falling down. They take all of these things that were expressions of a pure love for the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And what do they do? They twist it. They twist it to make it something impure. They take what is harmless and they want to use it for harm—to attack the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ—and that's what scoffers do. Innocent words, innocent acts, innocent deeds, and they twist it to attack the gospel.
There's a second thing that we could say about scoffers, and that is, and by the way, when you think about that, I think of Titus 1:15: "To the pure all things are pure," right? "But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled." They always ascribe ill motive. But secondly, a scoffer ignores the evidence that would negate his conclusion. A scoffer would always, always ignore the evidence that would negate his conclusion. We talked about it earlier this morning. What does a scoffer do? He does what sinful humanity does. He only accepts the information that agrees with his position, the position he already holds. And he sweeps away anything else that would expose his ignorance and his error. And you see them here exactly doing the same thing. They're attacking the actions of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're saying, why wasn't He here? Why didn't He help His friend? And we've already learned He could not have been here.
Now, let me put in parenthesis, as we know, He could have healed Lazarus with a word from a distance. We know that, but the scoffers don't believe that anyway. So they're not picking up on that. So they're saying, why wasn't He here? Well, you know what? He couldn't have been here. He couldn't have. Lazarus died on the day the messenger was sent. There was no way Jesus could have been there. But we've learned it in our own experience, haven't we? That doesn't matter to a scoffer, does it? It doesn't matter that He could have been this or could have been that. It doesn't matter whatsoever. They seize on anything that they can use and they hold on to it to justify their sinful, unbelieving position.
Let me ask you, I mean, maybe this will resonate with you. You've had discussions, no doubt, with friends, relatives, people you care about, and you make every effort prayerfully to point them to Christ, to lead them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you notice how they will grasp at straws to hold on to their unbelieving position? They'll seize on anything reported in the media, any failure of any Christian leader, any failure of any believer they know, whether it makes sense or it doesn't make sense, whether it's valid or invalid. It doesn't matter. Looking for something to hold on to where a person can say, I'm justified in not believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Why are they doing it? Because they have a scoffer's heart. Because they have a scoffer's heart, a scoffer's mentality. This is what a scoffer does. He ignores the evidence that would negate his conclusion.
Could that be you today, my friend? Is that the kind of heart you have this morning? Not an honest heart, not a good heart, not the kind of soil where the seed falls, takes root, bears fruit, but rather a stony heart, a weed-infested heart, where the Word of God cannot take root because you're looking for reasons to stay in your place of unbelief.
There's a third thing we could say about a scoffer. A scoffer has no appreciation for the beauty that is spiritually appraised. A scoffer has no appreciation for the beauty that is spiritually appraised. A scoffer has no appreciation for the beautiful things of the gospel, no appreciation for the beautiful themes you find in Scripture, the beauty that's found in God, in Christ. That's why we're warned about casting our what? Pearls, precious things, before swine who have no appreciation—no appreciation for the preciousness, the beauty of the things that have to do with the beautiful gospel.
Even in our text here, isn't it a beautiful thing to behold that the Lord Jesus, the Creator of all things, God the Son, wept? Wept. And we talked about the different words here for crying, weeping. One is *klaíō* (κλαίω),it has to do with wailing, and the other, the cruel, verse 36, the silent burst into tears of Jesus, out of His love for Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And some, in verse 37, were saying, "See how He loved him." They see in the tears of the Son of God something beautiful. They see in the tears of the Son of God something that speaks of His grace, His love, His sympathy, His mercy, His majesty.
And yet you have another group. They look upon the same exact expression, but they see nothing beautiful there. What they see instead is something to be bothered about. Yeah, yeah, tears, tears—why didn't He do? One group sees beauty, the other group sees something to be bothered at. That hasn't changed, has it? The things that touch our hearts for Christ, the things that move our hearts toward God—isn't it true that our people in this world are absolutely bothered by the same things that move us? I mean, it bothers them, makes them angry. In fact, that which is beautiful to us, they mock, they can't stand.
I mean earlier, just standing here and listening—listening to the voices behind me and the praise of God and the enthusiasm, the heartfelt worship. And you have people who are bothered by this. You people gather on Sunday morning and Sunday night. My goodness, once is not enough? You have to come back Sunday night? How boring is that? Then again on Wednesday, and what do you do? I mean, you come and you sing songs and spend time with each other to pray and to sit and listen to someone talk about a book. These things are beautiful to us, they're sweet. They lift us up—but not beautiful to them.
The gospel, the fact that God has given us the truth—do we have the truth? Do we have the truth? We have the truth. God has given us the truth. What is the truth? 1 Timothy 3:15, "The pillar and support of the truth in this world is the church." What is the church? The pillar and support of the truth—that God has given us the truth. The church is the people, the organism, the body, the place where if you want truth, there the Word of God is taught, there you find the truth concerning life and death and heaven and hell and sin and salvation and reality. The church, the church, the pillar and support of the truth in this world—that's why we want to come together. We want the truth. We love the truth. We follow the truth.
But the world scoffs at that idea. Truth? Like Pilate, they ask, "What is truth?" This is the heart and mind of a scoffer. He doesn't believe in truth. The only truth he believes in is his own, and so what is beautiful to the child of God annoys him, bothers him. It bothers him.
Which leads to the fourth and last thing concerning a scoffer. A scoffer—and this is very sobering—a scoffer is left with the fruit of his scoffing. A scoffer is left with the fruit of his scoffing. We're going to see that more later, but there are some people who had the privilege on this day to see something that very few people ever had the privilege to see. Can you imagine being there? Can you imagine what it was like when Jesus said, "Where have you laid him? Remove the stone," and He puts to calm the concerns of Martha, the sister, "Lord, by this time he smells."
And not as the false teachers do, not with great bravado, and not with some kind of showmanship, not singing subjective man-centered songs until our emotions get to a fever pitch—no, no—but in a very simple fashion, "Lazarus, come forth." And a dead man comes out alive.
Can you imagine being there, and having witnessed what very few people have ever witnessed? There were some who said, "We need to tell on Him. We need to go and tell the Pharisees." Still scoffing instead of believing. And you know what? If that's how they died, they are in hell right now, left with the fruit of their scoffing.
Listen carefully. By far the most terrible and just result of scoffing is a divine taste of their own medicine. Proverbs 3:34, "Though He," God, "He, though He scoffs at the scoffers." Remember Psalm 2? Remember what we read there in Psalm 2? "He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord mocks them. Then He speaks to them in His anger, terrifies them in His fury." Scoffers.
My friend, where will your scoffing take you? What will your scoffing get you? Where will it get you? According to God's Word, it will get you nothing but condemnation, eternal condemnation in hell. But you're offered life this morning. You're offered life this morning. You're offered life in the One who is the resurrection and the life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.
Do you see the beauty in Him? Do you see the glory of God that's in His face? Do you see here even in His attitudes here in our text, in His actions, the glory of One who is God in human flesh? Do you see the Savior of the world? Do you see the One who is Lord over all? And do you desire Him?
Do you desire Him who is the truth in a desperate way, no matter what it means, no matter what it will cost you, no matter what you have to repent of, no matter what you would have to recant? You just want the truth, and He is the truth. So you'll come running to Him. And I want you to know something. Only God can give you a heart like that. It's not natural to sinful man. Only God. But God is ready and willing to give you, to give you the hope that is all bound up in the gospel—forgiveness of sin. If you turn to Him, will you scoff today? Will you go on scoffing, or will you repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? In the language of the prophet, "Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come and buy wine and milk without money, without cost."
And listen, why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? You're wasting, squandering your efforts and life on that which does not satisfy by pursuing this and that and the other. There is no satisfaction apart from Him. "Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon His name while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." This is the promise available to you today. God will abundantly pardon your iniquity and your scoffing and your sins. Turn to Him and be saved. I beg you, cease and desist from scoffing and turn to the One who is truth, the truth, the life, and embrace Him as your Lord and Savior. Lest you will reap the fruit of your scoffing—eternal damnation in hell.
Why will you die in your sin? Why will you die in your sin, when you have a Savior with arms wide open, ready to embrace sinners who come to Him by faith?
Oh, and beloved child of God, you who love the truth, you who want the truth, we who love the truth and want the truth and God opened our eyes to see and behold the truth, we ought to fall on our knees and give praise to God because you could have witnessed the raising of a man from the dead and if God had not given you an honest heart, you would have never seen the truth. I would have never seen the truth. God did this for us, for you and for me.
We ought to worship God and sing again and again and again and again, "Behold the man upon a cross, my sin upon His shoulders, ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers. It was my sin, my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished." And accomplished it was, blessed be God, and He cried out, "It is finished." His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished, forever finished. "I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom, but I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection. Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer. I cannot give an answer, why? But this I know with all my heart, His wounds have paid my ransom."
Let's pray.
Think about all that's debated in our culture. People debate politics, they debate issues that are mentioned in the news about this and that and the other, and they talk about court decisions and what they think is right and what they think is wrong. They debate things that are important, they debate things that are completely unimportant, trivial. And what's often startling when you pay attention to these debates is the ability that people have to only accept the information that seems to agree with the position that they already hold.
How often it is that they come to a situation, they've already had a conclusion in their mind, and so the information that seems to accord with what they already believe—well, they accept that. They hold on to that. How often it is that they come to a situation and do exactly the same thing. And how easy it is for human beings to just sweep away the information that would expose their wrong thinking or that could lead them to a different conclusion. And that's something, beloved, that belongs to sinful human nature.
Do we realize today that only God can give an honest heart? Only God can give an honest heart. Do you realize that only God can give someone a heart that really wants the truth? And wants the truth in a way that we could describe as desperate—a desperate desire for the truth. That is, no matter what it means for me, no matter what I have to repent of, no matter what I have to recant, no matter how it would expose me and make evident that I thought wrongly about something, all that I want is God. All that I want is the truth. I just want the truth. That kind of desperate. Only God, only God can produce that in a human soul.
Because what has happened as a result of the fall in Genesis 3 is that we don't have an honest heart. We don't. We don't have an honest heart. "The heart is deceitful, above all else is desperately wicked. Who can understand it?" He does. Men are not born with honest hearts. In fact, men are born with a hopeless bias against light, against the truth. When you talk about spiritual truth especially, understand it. When it comes to the natural man, to man as he's born in Adam, what is right is objectionable to him. What is wrong is pleasurable to him.
In the language of Isaiah, right is wrong and wrong is right and sweet is bitter and bitter is sweet. Everything is upside down, everything is inverted. And so he takes all the spiritual evidence—man in his fallenness, in his Adamic nature—and he sees it all through the prism of a heart that doesn't want the truth. We've seen that before in the Gospel of John, didn't we? John chapter 3 verse 19 puts it this way: "And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. And everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light, lest his deeds be exposed." A hopeless bias against the Light, against the truth, and all the information is sifted through this heart and through this mind that doesn't want to see the truth—a dishonest heart, a biased heart.
I bring this up this morning because we see an example of this right here in this chapter. We see the actions of Jesus, we see the attitudes of Jesus, we hear the words of Jesus, and we're going to even see Him raise Lazarus from the dead. And you have a group of people, all of whom are exposed to the same actions, the same attitudes, the same words, and the same miraculous deed. Yet what you will see in this chapter is emerging two conflicting perspectives. Some have faith, others do not. Some believe, others do not. Some, at the end of the day, are going to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; others are going to leave the scene and tell on Him, report it to the Pharisees. Same information, same evidence, but two completely different, starkly different conclusions. And the way you explain the difference in conclusion is the condition of the heart, the condition of the mind.
We'll see that this morning and next week, Lord willing. But where I want us to begin this morning, I want us to begin with the indignation of Christ to set the context. The indignation of Christ (point number one), the indignation of Christ. And I want us to return to something that was mentioned last Lord's Day because we need to be clear on this, or else we will not rightly interpret the Scripture here, this text. Back in verse 33, when it says that Jesus was deeply moved: "When Jesus therefore saw her crying, and the Jews who came with her also crying," here it is, "He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled."
There's a Greek word translated "deeply moved," and we have to figure out what it means. I mentioned it last Lord's Day; I want to come back to it because it is critical for us this morning. *embrimáomai* (ἐμβριμάομαι) is the Greek word, and this word is used in extra-biblical Greek literature to refer to the snorting of a horse preparing for a battle—the snorting of a horse preparing for a battle. Calvin views it as Jesus gearing up for the conflict as our champion in the battle against sin and death. Literally, this word means to roar, to storm with anger, to be enraged, to be indignant. It expresses indignation against someone.
And you recall last week that was mentioned concerning this verse, that I believe that has to do with indignation—that Jesus was indignant here. He was angry. There's something here that upset Him. But let me say this at this point: there are some really sound interpreters who don't agree with that—men who we greatly respect and greatly benefit from their work in the Lord. One of them is James Montgomery Boyce. He believes that the word here ought to be just understood as simply strong emotion. Here's his point, here's why he takes this position: he says there's nothing here in the context that would explain Jesus being angry. And so he sees it as just a strong emotion. Jesus is moved by the tears of Mary, moved by the tears of the mourners, he says, and so He's just feeling strong emotion here.
The problem with that is that in every other place where this Greek word is used—aside from the extra-biblical literature—but everywhere, in every place that this Greek word is used in the New Testament, you have the idea connected to it, the idea of indignation or sternness. Every other place. And I want you to see those places with me—three other places outside of John 11.
Turn with me to Matthew 9. Matthew 9:27 and following. We read there (a sweet sound to my ear, these pages being flipped, by the way, I just want to mention that, I don't think I have mentioned in a long time), verse 27: "As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, 'Have mercy on us, Son of David!' And when He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, 'Do you believe that I am able to do this?' They said to Him, 'Yes, Lord.' Then He touched their eyes, saying, 'It shall be done to you according to your faith.' And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, 'See that no one knows about this.'" The word translated "sternly warned" is the same Greek word we have in our text, *embrimaomai* (ἐμβριμάομαι).
Mark 1:40. Mark 1:40: "And a leper came to Jesus, pleading with Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, 'If You are willing, You can make me clean.' And moved with compassion, He stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, 'I am willing; be cleansed.' And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed."
Verse 43: "And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away."
The word "sternly warned" is the same Greek word.
Mark 14:5: Mark 14:5, we read: "For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii and given to the people." And they were, what? "Scolding her."
The word "scolding" is the same Greek word—actually, in this case, translated "scolding" rather than "sternly warning." And so the previous verse, by the way, describes them as being indignant, and as a result of being indignant, they scolded her.
A. T. Robertson, in his Word Pictures in the Greek New Testament, he says this, speaking of this word, this Greek word. He says, and I quote: "It means to snort with anger like a horse. It occurs in the Septuagint in Daniel 11:30 for violent displeasure. The notion of indignation is present in the other examples of this word in the New Testament, so it seems best to see that sense here and in verse 38," referring to John 11.
By the way, notice the same word is used in verse 38 in our text in John 11, where it says: "So Jesus, again being deeply moved,"—same word—"within, deeply moved within, came to the tomb."
Another Greek New Testament scholar, Robertson, says this, and I quote: "Every other place that it is used," referring to this Greek word, "including the Septuagint translation of Daniel 11:30, where it means violent displeasure—in every other instance, there is this flavor of indignation or anger or sternness."
Another one, Alfred Plummer, the Cambridge Greek New Testament, says this of this word: in all cases, as in classical Greek and in the *Septuagint*, it expresses not sorrow, but indignation of severity. It means, number one, literally of animals to snort, to growl; secondly, metaphorically, to be very angry or indignant; and thirdly, to command sternly under the threat of displeasure. Zodiatis says the same things. He says it means to be enraged, indignant, to express indignation against someone. And so, when you say, we're just going to think of it as a strong emotion, understand that that doesn't really capture what is contained in the usage of this word in every other place where this word is used.
Every other place that it's used, it carries the idea of sternness, scolding, or indignation. So, when we come to this verse, really, one is compelled to say, if we're consistent with how this word is used everywhere else, we have to see indignation here. So that raises the question that Boyce dismisses, and that is, is there anything in the context that would explain the indignation of Jesus? If there's indignation here, is there something here that would explain His anger? And of course, His anger is always righteous anger, righteous indignation.
If there's indignation here, so what is it that would explain that? And I believe there is. I believe there's something in the context that would speak of the anger of Jesus, and we touched on it last Lord's Day. There are a couple of things offered as to an explanation that I don't completely agree with, but let me give them to you just so you can think about those things yourself.
Some say that Jesus is angry here, and what He's angry about is death itself, that He's just upset with what death does. B. B. Warfield compared it to a warrior on his way to do battle with a great enemy. S. Lewis Johnson, quoting Warfield, said, it is the opinion of Warfield that Jesus was not moved by uncontrollable grief, but irrepressible anger. And why? He was angry at the violent tyranny of death, and He was advancing against it as, "a champion who prepares for conflict, gazing into the skeleton face of the world. He saw the awful reign of death everywhere, and He was deeply disturbed". So they say, yeah, He was angry, and what He was angry about is the tyranny of death.
Some say—here's a second explanation—some say it had to do with the mourning of all who were weeping. So Jesus, they're saying, Jesus looked at the weeping of Mary, and Jesus looked at the weeping of the mourners, and the weeping of everyone else, and He was troubled because their weeping didn't reflect faith. That is, they were mourning as those who have no hope. Well, I like this one better than the first one because at least there's a direct connection to weeping. I want you to notice with me, if you just look closely at the verse, verse 33, you have to connect His being deeply moved with the weeping. "When Jesus therefore saw her crying, and the Jews who came with her also crying, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled."
So I see the deeply moved as being connected with the weeping, but the problem that I have with the second one is knowing what we know of our Savior, right? Knowing how He deals with people throughout the Gospels, I don't believe that He would have been angry with the weeping of Mary since it was a sincere weeping. She was sincere in her weeping, and this is why Beuys rejects it. Because is the Lord Jesus angry with Mary as she weeps over her brother? I don't think that's the case at all.
Which leads to the third explanation and the one that I fully embrace, and that is that this anger had to do with the mourning of the religionists, the hypocrites. There's actually a contrast in verse 33. There's the weeping of Mary, which was sincere grief, and then there's the wailing of the professional mourners, a prescribed weeping. And you remember in our studies of this chapter, right? We saw this last couple of times, and we talked about the funeral traditions in Judaism—dead Judaism at this time—how they would hire professional wailing women, the flute players. They would go through the prescribed ritual of mourning over the dead.
And I believe that Jesus saw in that the hypocrisy that really marked the entirety of this decadent Judaism at this time, embodied in the Pharisees. Plummer expresses it very well. He says, and I quote, "What was He angry at? He was indignant at seeing the hypocritical and sentimental lamentations of His enemies, the Jews, mingling with the heartfelt lamentations of His loving friend Mary. Hypocrisy ever roused His anger." And Pastor MacArthur picks up on this. He says, and I quote, "Jesus appears to have been angry not only over the painful reality of sin and death, of which Lazarus was a beloved example, but also with the mourners who were acting like the pagans who have no hope."
And I believe that's the best possibility. Let me share four reasons why.
It fully agrees with what we know about the superficial way that Judaism handled everything, including death. Talked about last week how they, or the week before, about how they had prescribed a rending of garments for the mourners. You were to rend your outer garment a hand's breadth. And if you were mourning over a child, it would never be sewn up again. But if you were mourning over someone else, then after 30 days it was sewn up again.
You had 30 days of prescribed mourning. The first three were days of weeping. The seven were days of lamentation. So then you have 30 days of sorrow. All of it, so mechanical, so official, so prescribed, so superficial. And the professional wailing women at times would carry this out to the point where they would start pulling their hairs out. It was all prescribed. And as Jesus was angry with hypocrisy—and you will notice in the Gospel—the harshest things that He had to say, what do they always have to do with? Hypocrisy. Duplicity. The hypocritical, insincere, duplicitous external religion of the day.
This explanation connects His being moved with the weeping. It also connects His being moved in verse 38 with the same group. Look at it. Look at verse 37 first: "But some of them said, 'Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind have kept this man also from dying?'" These mourners, they come out with this statement in verse 37. And I'm going to submit to you this morning that I believe there was a mocking in the statement. There was at least, at the very least, sinful questioning in the statement.
And on the heels of that, verse 38, we read: "So Jesus, again being deeply moved within,"—same word, again, angry, indignant—"came to the tomb." So just as He would have been angry with a superficial mourning in verse 33, so now He is angry again, righteously indignant with the mocking and the questioning that came out of the same group in verse 37. This also explains, would explain, the attitude that's present in verse 37. You see, we have to determine what are they actually saying in verse 37? What is their attitude in their words? What's coming out? What is being shown to be their attitude by their words?
This also, by the way, fully accords with what we're going to see in verse 46. Verse 45—this is after He raises Lazarus from the dead—then we read in verse 46: "Therefore many of the Jews who,"—verse 45—"Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what He had done believed in Him. But some of them..." I mean, think about this, and we'll get there, Lord willing. After all of this, after all of this, "some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things what Jesus had done." There's no doubt but that you have enemies of Jesus present in this setting. You have those with close relationships to the Pharisees now reporting back to the Pharisees about what had taken place.
And so to see Jesus indignant, angry with the religionists of the day, fits the picture. And so we see the indignation of Jesus. And now that leads us to, secondly—and I want us to see this morning—the insults of the Jews, the mocking of the scoffers. Verse 37: if we're right in our understanding of the passage, and I believe we are, then what you have here is a statement made to be insulting, to be undermining, to be mocking. Some of the Jews recognize that Jesus had a love for Lazarus. But others looked at the same actions of Jesus, there in Perea, and the attitude of Jesus expressed in His tears in Bethany, and they looked at the same things, but they had a different sentiment—different sentiment. They had an accusation that they wanted to hurl in His direction, that they wanted to cast aspersion on His character.
What exactly was their accusation? Well, I'm going to give you some possibilities. They may all have an element of truth, but some possibilities as to what they mean—the attitude—in verse 37. One, this may be an accusation concerning Christ's abilities. Verse 37, concerning Christ's abilities. You'll notice they reference the blind man: "Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind man...?" Remember back in chapter 9, the blind man? This miracle must have left a lasting impression on these people. They're still talking about it: "Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man also from dying?"
Perhaps they were still questioning the ability of Jesus to actually perform miracles. Now, I know that seems astounding that anyone could question it, but we know without a doubt that there were people who still would not attribute the work of Jesus to God, right? They would still not admit that He was doing the works of God. And so it could be that they were saying, you know, where was His power when it came to His friend? Does He really have any? He opened the eyes of the blind, but could He have not taken care of His friend?
You say, would people mock Him that way? We know that they would mock Him that way. You know where my mind is going, right? Because what did they say when Jesus was on the cross? Matthew 27:42: "He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him." What were they seeing when He was hanging upon Calvary's cross? Well, they thought they were seeing someone who is powerless, impotent. They thought they were seeing someone who supposedly could save others, but when it came to Himself—well, He can't save Himself. "If You come down from the cross, we'll repent. We'll believe," mocking Him.
That's one possibility. But there's a second possibility in terms of the meaning and the attitude of verse 37. This could be an accusation not concerning His abilities, but concerning His affections. Maybe they were saying, "Look at His tears." Remember, they say in verse 36, "Behold, see, look at the tears," one group said. "See how He loved him. How He loved him." And this other group now would be saying, "Yeah, look at the tears. If He really loved this man, why didn't He keep him from dying? That's real love. Really, real love. Why did He not keep him from dying?" Well, that could be what they were doing—accusing Christ in terms of His real affection for this man. "Could not He have kept this man from dying?"
It could also be an accusation concerning Christ's actions in the third place. Now, you remember Martha and Mary both—they talked about this, no doubt, over the four days. Their brother's dead in the tomb. So that when they come to the Lord, verse 32: "When Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, fell at His feet, saying to Him, 'Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.'" Martha made the same statement, you remember, earlier in verse 21. And you remember, we saw together, this was not a statement of accusation on the part of Mary and Martha. They know that their brother died the same day that the messenger was sent to Jesus. And this is actually an expression of faith. A statement of regret really bound up in it. "We know if You had been here," there's a willingness. "You had a willingness to help our brother. We know that You had the ability to help our brother. If You had been here, he wouldn't be dead." That's how they mean it.
But it may be that these religionists, hypocrites, have picked up on the words of Martha and Mary and filled their words with an entirely different meaning. "Why wasn't He here? Why wasn't He here? Why didn't He come? Couldn't He have saved his friend?" So that you have two groups of people who witness the same tears, same emotions of this perfect man, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. But they are seeing the same tears, coming to two different conclusions at the end of it.
Now let me ask you this morning, how do you explain the difference? How do you explain the difference? I said it a moment ago, but let me underscore it. You explain the difference based upon the condition of the heart. You explain the difference based upon the condition of the heart. You have scoffers and you have believers. And then you have a third group. They're not yet believers, but they're not scoffing.
Scoffers. Scoffers. Are there scoffers today? Are there people who see the exact same evidence that the Holy Spirit used to bring you and I to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Are there people who see the exact same evidence, hear the exact same arguments, are exposed to the same, the exact same, information, but they don't believe on the Lord Jesus? Absolutely. Absolutely.
So let me close this morning with the remaining time that we have with a word about scoffers. Let's look at the individuality of a scoffer. What marks a scoffer? A word about a scoffer. And if you are a scoffer sitting in one of those chairs here this morning—now you may not be outwardly a scoffer, but maybe you sit here week after week and in your heart you are just scoffing—if you're a scoffer, I pray to God that He would help you to see yourself. To see yourself.
Because there may be a scoffer here with us this morning. There may be someone, a young person who's been brought by their parents, and that's why they're here. That's why you're here. Maybe a husband brought by his wife. That's why you're here. Maybe a wife brought by her husband. Maybe that's why you're here. A friend brought by another friend. You're not a believer, and you scoff at the truth of Christianity. You scoff at the Gospel.
And it's not a lack of information. It's not a lack of evidence that you're not a Christian. It has to do with the condition of your heart. The condition of your mind. And if that's you this morning, I pray, I pray and plead that in the grace and mercy of God that you would be able to recognize yourself. Proverbs 14 and verse 6 puts it this way: "A scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none." "A scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none. But knowledge," and I love this, "but knowledge is easy to one who has understanding." For someone who's been given understanding by the Lord, knowledge comes easy. But for someone who doesn't want to see, they don't see.
No matter how much information, no matter how much evidence, no matter how powerful, undeniable the evidence is—I mean, is this not powerful evidence they're about to see? I mean, how could you ignore that? Is this not undeniable evidence they're about to see? Yet they still go away scoffing, reporting it to the Pharisees. What can we say this morning about a scoffer? Number one, a scoffer takes what is harmless and uses it for harm. A scoffer takes what is harmless and uses it for harm.
If the people in verse 37 are picking up on the words of Martha and Mary, when Mary and Martha said, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died," their words did not contain any venom. Their words reflected an honest lack of understanding, a limited faith, an uninformed faith—not fully informed. They had no idea even after Jesus told them, and we'll see that next time, Lord willing, they had no idea what the Lord was about to do. But in their frailty, in their limitations, they were still expressing affection for the Lord Jesus and an affirmation of His ability to do what only God could do. They're still expressing faith, but it's still limited.
But those in verse 37 had picked up on the same language, yet their words were filled with something entirely different. There was an accusation. There was venom in what they were saying. And this is what scoffers do. They take what is harmless and they twist it. They use it in their minds to justify unbelief. Have you noticed in our times and days and our culture the attack all around us in the media, entertainment industry against the person, the nature of our Lord Jesus Christ? Have you noticed the attack on the idea that He was sinless? Divine? All of this in search of the "real Jesus" sort of stuff?
Do you notice one of the threads running through many of these things—the idea that Jesus had a romantic interest in Mary? They take the anointing of Jesus. They take the washing of His feet with her hair. They take her sitting at His feet, running to Him, falling down. They take all of these things that were expressions of a pure love for the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And what do they do? They twist it. They twist it to make it something impure. They take what is harmless and they want to use it for harm—to attack the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ—and that's what scoffers do. Innocent words, innocent acts, innocent deeds, and they twist it to attack the gospel.
There's a second thing that we could say about scoffers, and that is, and by the way, when you think about that, I think of Titus 1:15: "To the pure all things are pure," right? "But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled." They always ascribe ill motive. But secondly, a scoffer ignores the evidence that would negate his conclusion. A scoffer would always, always ignore the evidence that would negate his conclusion. We talked about it earlier this morning. What does a scoffer do? He does what sinful humanity does. He only accepts the information that agrees with his position, the position he already holds. And he sweeps away anything else that would expose his ignorance and his error. And you see them here exactly doing the same thing. They're attacking the actions of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're saying, why wasn't He here? Why didn't He help His friend? And we've already learned He could not have been here.
Now, let me put in parenthesis, as we know, He could have healed Lazarus with a word from a distance. We know that, but the scoffers don't believe that anyway. So they're not picking up on that. So they're saying, why wasn't He here? Well, you know what? He couldn't have been here. He couldn't have. Lazarus died on the day the messenger was sent. There was no way Jesus could have been there. But we've learned it in our own experience, haven't we? That doesn't matter to a scoffer, does it? It doesn't matter that He could have been this or could have been that. It doesn't matter whatsoever. They seize on anything that they can use and they hold on to it to justify their sinful, unbelieving position.
Let me ask you, I mean, maybe this will resonate with you. You've had discussions, no doubt, with friends, relatives, people you care about, and you make every effort prayerfully to point them to Christ, to lead them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you notice how they will grasp at straws to hold on to their unbelieving position? They'll seize on anything reported in the media, any failure of any Christian leader, any failure of any believer they know, whether it makes sense or it doesn't make sense, whether it's valid or invalid. It doesn't matter. Looking for something to hold on to where a person can say, I'm justified in not believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Why are they doing it? Because they have a scoffer's heart. Because they have a scoffer's heart, a scoffer's mentality. This is what a scoffer does. He ignores the evidence that would negate his conclusion.
Could that be you today, my friend? Is that the kind of heart you have this morning? Not an honest heart, not a good heart, not the kind of soil where the seed falls, takes root, bears fruit, but rather a stony heart, a weed-infested heart, where the Word of God cannot take root because you're looking for reasons to stay in your place of unbelief.
There's a third thing we could say about a scoffer. A scoffer has no appreciation for the beauty that is spiritually appraised. A scoffer has no appreciation for the beauty that is spiritually appraised. A scoffer has no appreciation for the beautiful things of the gospel, no appreciation for the beautiful themes you find in Scripture, the beauty that's found in God, in Christ. That's why we're warned about casting our what? Pearls, precious things, before swine who have no appreciation—no appreciation for the preciousness, the beauty of the things that have to do with the beautiful gospel.
Even in our text here, isn't it a beautiful thing to behold that the Lord Jesus, the Creator of all things, God the Son, wept? Wept. And we talked about the different words here for crying, weeping. One is *klaíō* (κλαίω),it has to do with wailing, and the other, the cruel, verse 36, the silent burst into tears of Jesus, out of His love for Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And some, in verse 37, were saying, "See how He loved him." They see in the tears of the Son of God something beautiful. They see in the tears of the Son of God something that speaks of His grace, His love, His sympathy, His mercy, His majesty.
And yet you have another group. They look upon the same exact expression, but they see nothing beautiful there. What they see instead is something to be bothered about. Yeah, yeah, tears, tears—why didn't He do? One group sees beauty, the other group sees something to be bothered at. That hasn't changed, has it? The things that touch our hearts for Christ, the things that move our hearts toward God—isn't it true that our people in this world are absolutely bothered by the same things that move us? I mean, it bothers them, makes them angry. In fact, that which is beautiful to us, they mock, they can't stand.
I mean earlier, just standing here and listening—listening to the voices behind me and the praise of God and the enthusiasm, the heartfelt worship. And you have people who are bothered by this. You people gather on Sunday morning and Sunday night. My goodness, once is not enough? You have to come back Sunday night? How boring is that? Then again on Wednesday, and what do you do? I mean, you come and you sing songs and spend time with each other to pray and to sit and listen to someone talk about a book. These things are beautiful to us, they're sweet. They lift us up—but not beautiful to them.
The gospel, the fact that God has given us the truth—do we have the truth? Do we have the truth? We have the truth. God has given us the truth. What is the truth? 1 Timothy 3:15, "The pillar and support of the truth in this world is the church." What is the church? The pillar and support of the truth—that God has given us the truth. The church is the people, the organism, the body, the place where if you want truth, there the Word of God is taught, there you find the truth concerning life and death and heaven and hell and sin and salvation and reality. The church, the church, the pillar and support of the truth in this world—that's why we want to come together. We want the truth. We love the truth. We follow the truth.
But the world scoffs at that idea. Truth? Like Pilate, they ask, "What is truth?" This is the heart and mind of a scoffer. He doesn't believe in truth. The only truth he believes in is his own, and so what is beautiful to the child of God annoys him, bothers him. It bothers him.
Which leads to the fourth and last thing concerning a scoffer. A scoffer—and this is very sobering—a scoffer is left with the fruit of his scoffing. A scoffer is left with the fruit of his scoffing. We're going to see that more later, but there are some people who had the privilege on this day to see something that very few people ever had the privilege to see. Can you imagine being there? Can you imagine what it was like when Jesus said, "Where have you laid him? Remove the stone," and He puts to calm the concerns of Martha, the sister, "Lord, by this time he smells."
And not as the false teachers do, not with great bravado, and not with some kind of showmanship, not singing subjective man-centered songs until our emotions get to a fever pitch—no, no—but in a very simple fashion, "Lazarus, come forth." And a dead man comes out alive.
Can you imagine being there, and having witnessed what very few people have ever witnessed? There were some who said, "We need to tell on Him. We need to go and tell the Pharisees." Still scoffing instead of believing. And you know what? If that's how they died, they are in hell right now, left with the fruit of their scoffing.
Listen carefully. By far the most terrible and just result of scoffing is a divine taste of their own medicine. Proverbs 3:34, "Though He," God, "He, though He scoffs at the scoffers." Remember Psalm 2? Remember what we read there in Psalm 2? "He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord mocks them. Then He speaks to them in His anger, terrifies them in His fury." Scoffers.
My friend, where will your scoffing take you? What will your scoffing get you? Where will it get you? According to God's Word, it will get you nothing but condemnation, eternal condemnation in hell. But you're offered life this morning. You're offered life this morning. You're offered life in the One who is the resurrection and the life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.
Do you see the beauty in Him? Do you see the glory of God that's in His face? Do you see here even in His attitudes here in our text, in His actions, the glory of One who is God in human flesh? Do you see the Savior of the world? Do you see the One who is Lord over all? And do you desire Him?
Do you desire Him who is the truth in a desperate way, no matter what it means, no matter what it will cost you, no matter what you have to repent of, no matter what you would have to recant? You just want the truth, and He is the truth. So you'll come running to Him. And I want you to know something. Only God can give you a heart like that. It's not natural to sinful man. Only God. But God is ready and willing to give you, to give you the hope that is all bound up in the gospel—forgiveness of sin. If you turn to Him, will you scoff today? Will you go on scoffing, or will you repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? In the language of the prophet, "Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come and buy wine and milk without money, without cost."
And listen, why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? You're wasting, squandering your efforts and life on that which does not satisfy by pursuing this and that and the other. There is no satisfaction apart from Him. "Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon His name while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." This is the promise available to you today. God will abundantly pardon your iniquity and your scoffing and your sins. Turn to Him and be saved. I beg you, cease and desist from scoffing and turn to the One who is truth, the truth, the life, and embrace Him as your Lord and Savior. Lest you will reap the fruit of your scoffing—eternal damnation in hell.
Why will you die in your sin? Why will you die in your sin, when you have a Savior with arms wide open, ready to embrace sinners who come to Him by faith?
Oh, and beloved child of God, you who love the truth, you who want the truth, we who love the truth and want the truth and God opened our eyes to see and behold the truth, we ought to fall on our knees and give praise to God because you could have witnessed the raising of a man from the dead and if God had not given you an honest heart, you would have never seen the truth. I would have never seen the truth. God did this for us, for you and for me.
We ought to worship God and sing again and again and again and again, "Behold the man upon a cross, my sin upon His shoulders, ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers. It was my sin, my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished." And accomplished it was, blessed be God, and He cried out, "It is finished." His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished, forever finished. "I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom, but I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection. Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer. I cannot give an answer, why? But this I know with all my heart, His wounds have paid my ransom."
Let's pray.
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