There are some places in which even our country that's being denied and for various reasons and understandable, but it is a great joy that we're able to gather and able to sing, and we should pray for those who can't, and for those here locally who are not able to join us, but they can through technology join us online, and we're glad to have you with us worshiping Christ this morning in the way that we can. We're gonna look at John chapter 11. John chapter 11. This is a record in the account which Jesus miraculously restores the life to his friend, Lazarus. I've organized this lengthy narrative in four sections, as I've mentioned. 1-16, Lazarus dies. Jesus is summoned to come. And 17-37 is the second Jesus arrives and he consoles his friends. 38-44, Jesus will restore the life of Lazarus. This is his last public miracle before he's going to make this triumphal entry into Jerusalem in chapter 12 and you know what happens next. 45 through 47 in this text, chapter 11, deal with the aftermath of this miracle and the plot to kill Jesus. Last week we dealt with the second section where Jesus arrives, consoles his friends, and makes this point in verse 25 where he says, I am the resurrection and the life. I am the resurrection and the life. We're going to continue on since we didn't complete that section in verse 28. We'll pick up there. And I've added really today the verse 38 because you're going to see how that ties together with what we'll talk about today. Our focus, though, this morning will be on this very simple, short verse, verse 35. Jesus wept. It's the shortest verse in the English New Testament. And technically, because in the Greek, this verse has 16 letters. First Thessalonians 5.16. Rejoice always has 14. But in English, this is shorter. And then there's someone who came up with the idea that there's another verse in Luke 20 that reads, and the second, which has 12. So, so much for Bible trivia. This is a short verse. And as far as you know, it's the shortest verse in the Bible, but it's a very profound verse, and that's why we're focusing on it. By the way, if you did want to memorize a verse in the Bible, here's your chance. You can walk home with one today. But I hope you do more than just remember Jesus wept, but that you would know the meaning of that. Think about that through the course of the week, and perhaps the course of your life, the very significance of this profound statement, Jesus wept. It's a valuable lesson for us all. Now let me put it in context, this Jesus weeping here, Just to remind you where we've been in chapter 11, Jesus is beyond Jordan. He has left Jerusalem. He has traveled about a day's journey or so into the wilderness. But he's being summoned by his friends, Martha and Mary. He's summoned to come to Bethany, a little city on the outskirts of Jerusalem, and he's summoned because his close friend, Lazarus, was deathly ill and by the time the message gets to Jesus, by the time they send word to him, verse 3, he already knows Lazarus is dead. So what does he do? Hurry up and get to town? No, he waits two additional days, verse 6. He waits two additional days before traveling this one day journey. But this delay is purposeful as all things are worked out according to God's providence, His purposes. We know what they are in general and specifically it's stated here in this text what this was about. It is, verse 4, it is for His glory. He says it doesn't lead to death. In other words, that's not the point. The point wasn't Him dying. He does die. But what is the purpose of this particular suffering and grief in the life of these folks? It is for the glory of God and specifically said that the Son of God may be glorified in it. And I would say all things are for God's glory. Even sickness, even death, there are no accidents, or arbitrary events in which catch God unaware. He's aware of them all. He's constantly working all things for His glory which redound to the good to those who are His beloved. Well, verse 17, Jesus comes. to Bethany. And he's on the outskirts of Bethany. It's been four days. Lazarus is dead already. And of course, once someone dies in that culture, they would bury them immediately. So he's already buried. And here you have a great grief-stricken family. The sister of Lazarus, Martha, runs out to approach Jesus as he's entering the town. And Jesus takes this as an opportunity to teach her a great lesson. It is an opportunity for the glory of God through Christ Jesus when He is able to declare to her in verse 25 that I am the resurrection and the life and that whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die and the question is do you believe this? It was last week. You believe it? That Jesus is the resurrection and the life? Well, you hear her testimony, Martha, as she responds in verse 27, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. And I ended with reminding you that confession of faith contains three elements of genuine faith or belief. The content, that is the notitia, The truth, a census. And fiducia, that is a personal statement. Notice it is, he is Christ. He is the Christ. He is God. And that is the one who has come into the world. That's the right information. She believes it's true. And it is personally adopted. She says, yes Lord, I believe. That's Martha's genuine confession of faith. And on her confession of faith, then we have a shift into this circumstance with Mary, in which Jesus weeps. And that's where I want to pick up in our text at verse 28. Follow along with me. John 11, 28. When she said this, that is when Martha makes this confession, Then she went and called her sister Mary. Remember, Martha, it goes to the outskirts of town. Mary is still back grieving, so she goes to her. She goes to her sister Mary, saying, note this, in private. Imagine her whispering to her, the teacher is here and is calling for you. And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet saying, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. So the Jews said, see how he loved him? But some of them said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying? And then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave. and a stone lay against it." Let us pray. Father, we have heard your Word. I pray that you will grant a hearing of the Word of Christ today. I pray the truth and the significance of what is being communicated in your Word would reach deep down into our souls, convict encourage, reprove, rebuke, instruct. Teach us, O Lord, your word today. And may we feed and feast on the sustenance of who you are to strengthen our faith and to establish the faith of many. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen. As I mentioned here, this verse 35, that's what we're going to center on, this very statement, Jesus wept. And I have questions when I read this text. Well, what's going on here? Why did John include this aspect? in this carefully selected story. Remember, John doesn't pick out everything that happened, he picks out certain things. And this was an important event, the last sign. And he includes these aspects of it and the questions that I have, well, why is he weeping? What is causing him to weep? We can make assumptions. But what can we learn from the text? And what can we learn as Christians then and followers in Christ by which to emulate in Christ's actions here? We need to unravel the tapestry of this narrative. And as we do, I want to point out two groups that are mentioned here, two categories of people, if you will, You can see it. It's woven together. It's a little subtle, but I'll try to separate it and show you from the text. There's two categories of people. Believers and unbelievers. And there's two different responses. Compassion and indignation. As Jesus weeps, it's an expression, a response of both Love and anger both are righteous expressions of a holy God. He has righteous empathy and he has righteous displeasure. And beloved, I would say as followers of Christ, of this one, who is revealed in Holy Scripture, that we are called to maintain that righteous tension of both compassion and indignation. So we live in a world in which we exist, but we find ourselves not of the world in which we exist. It's important that you notice these two types of people in this narrative. First glance, you can miss it. I'm going to refer to some of the original language here today to some degree. I try not to very much, but in this case, it's going to be helpful for you to understand the text, and so hopefully I won't bore you too much with that, but I do want to mention that because I think it'll be helpful in your understanding. The believers, of course, are Lazarus, who is now deceased, and his sisters Martha and Mary. Notice verse 28. After Martha's confession that Jesus is Lord, her response then is to go get her sister and bring her sister to Jesus. Anyone who has encountered Christ This is a. Understandable response, isn't it? To bring them to Christ. She does so, notice here, she goes, verse 28, and she does this in private. Almost whispering. And you'll put that together here in this narrative as you think through this in general. Why she responds that way to her, rather than just bursting in the door of the home where Mary is and saying, hey, Jesus is down the street, let's all go. So she goes private to Mary. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, they were all personal friends of Jesus Christ. Do you remember from the weeks before? Verse 3 in chapter 11, The message they sent included this, Lord, him who you love is ill. And then verse 5, it describes that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. And if you remember from a few weeks ago, I mentioned that there's a Greek word behind each love. There's a slight nuance. They are essentially synonyms, but they share a range of meaning, but they're slightly different. And when they're this close, I think they're juxtaposed this way to indicate different information. Lord, we know the word in verse 5, Jesus' love, and we're familiar with that. Many of us are. Agapao, the idea here is a sacrificial love. Often people call this as a divine love. Now it can be used slightly other ways, I understand that, but that's how it's primarily used in Scripture, a sacrificial love. In verse 3, phileos, you can remember from the city of Philadelphia, the city of what? Brotherly love. And that's essentially what that word means. It's a friendship type of love. It is a human love. It isn't necessarily lesser, but I made the point here in Christ's love for them. It is his sacrificial love that he would lay down his life for Who? His friends. Jesus actually has a personal relationship with everyone that is united to him by faith. It isn't as if he dies a sacrificial death and put some sort of general sacrifice out there, but specifically for his friends. And they have an intimate relationship with him, both kinds of love. If you want to think of it from a human perspective, as well as a divine perspective. God's love is multifaceted. And there are distinctions in his love. There's a universal aspect of his love that God loves everyone in the sense that he hasn't drowned all of us yet, although we deserve it. He loves everyone in the sense that the sun came up this morning and didn't burn us to death. He is upholding all things by the word of His power. It is the suppression and sustaining of all that is evil and corrupt in the world that we are all immediately terminated by this virus that's going about. God has great love and compassion on both the just and the unjust. Love, when you think of it, really I like to define love this way, much more than a sentiment, but grace and mercy. In other words, unmerited gifts that God gives, and on the other hand, mercy, judgment that He withholds, because He's a patient God. Loving kindness is a way to describe Him. His grace the world. And anything good in this life, in this world, anything that you enjoy, it is all from the good hand of God. It is a gift of grace and mercy. It is a gift of love. But there's a particular aspect, a distinction, as we might have distinctions in our love for those that are related to us according to our various relationships, right? You can think of co-workers, friends, family, strangers, care for all of humanity, but not in the same way. And here, The driving force of both these forms of love towards these friends. This is a distinction in his commitment and care for these that he loved. I would describe it this way. The general love would be if you saw someone driving home, you're driving home today and you see someone in a car accident, the car's on fire, and you rush over there, you stop your vehicle, you go to help them, and you drag them out. That's a loving, kind act, isn't it? But what if that was your spouse, your brother, your sister, your family member, your church member? You see, it's a little distinctiveness in that action. Sacrifice, but also sentiment, and you care. Mary, one who Jesus loves both from a human and a divine perspective, she now comes to Jesus where he is, just outside, on the outskirts of town, verse 32, She comes to where Jesus is and when she sees him, she falls at his feet. She sees him and responds in worship. She says the same expression that Martha said in verse 21. Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. And it's hard to get tone here, but I see a slight distinction in just the impetuous nature. Martha, who runs out there and almost says it, not a scolding or rebuke way, but kind of in some sense, but then said, Lord, yeah, but I know you can take care of everything. And that's what Jesus says, I am the resurrection, the life. Here, Martha has a different personality and perhaps a deeper emotional state. In your grief-stricken state, she falls down and worships Christ. Martha and Mary have different personalities, and this is not to teach us how to have the right kind of personality. People are wired differently. It's okay. Martha has some things to learn, and Jesus will teach her. But so does Mary, and he will patiently teach her as well. God is able to strengthen the faith of those that are more passive and those that are more aggressive, if you will, both need their faith strength and Christ will do that. Mary seems to be in a great state of grief and she expresses her heart, Lord, If you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. And as we said last week, just like Martha, that's an invalid statement, isn't it? He doesn't take time to confront the error at this moment. But we know it's totally in error. Jesus is omniscient. He is always omnipresent. He is always omnipotent. And, beloved, He is omnibenevolent. So it's an invalid statement. He would teach her a lesson but she will learn this on her own through her observation. He has a purpose for what he's doing and his purpose is for his glory and the good of all believers and these here specifically. And that'll be evident as the story unfolds. Now, I want you to skip back to verse 30 in our text because I want you to pick up the second group that is often overlooked when you casually read through the story. It's understandable because Martha and Mary are featured here, but there's another group that's featured here and almost missed. You see him? Verse 30, Jesus has not come to the village, come into the village. What's he outside the village for? He's on the outskirts. Well, if you read the rest of the story and into chapter 12, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem nearby, I think it would be logical to conclude he is careful as he approaches. He's not afraid of anything. He just has a certain time to die. And it's not right now. And so as he comes in, it's as if he doesn't want to make too big of a splash as he's coming into the suburbs of Jerusalem. Because we know what's going to happen. false, hosannas will be sung. Perfunctory hosannas will be sung by people of a superficial religious faith for which I'll give you a heads up for which Jesus will weep. If you remember where we left off, just as one reason I like going through the text, rather than jumping around all the place. If you remember where we've been in chapter 10, in verse 31, Jesus is confronting the Jews. He's doing this all along. It's starting to escalate and in verse 31 of chapter 10, the Jews pick up stones to stone him again. And in verse 39 of the same chapter, again they seek to arrest him. but he slips out of their hands. They're going to arrest him because he is declaring that he is indeed God incarnate. And so by this time when Jesus is now summoned in chapter 11 to go to back to this area where they've been trying to kill him and arrest him, Thomas recognizes that and really in a statement of great courage and conviction in verse 16 of chapter 11, let us go that we may die with him. That's great courage and great conviction. He knew what was going to happen. And so this is where Jesus is approaching back to these Jews who would pick up stones to kill him. And remember, these aren't like little pebbles or rocks. These are like boulders to crush his head. They want to arrest him. And so Jesus approaches with caution in order that he would be glorified in the restoration of life of Lazarus. It needs to be a certain amount of privacy to do that because this is done in public but not in Jerusalem. He's on the vicinity of Bethany. Mary is summoned by her sister Martha. Jesus doesn't go, but he sends Martha. And notice verse 31. Martha goes, and when the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb, to weep there. Did you see the second group? It's the Jews. Now, all of them were Jewish. So why is this group singled out the Jews? Beloved, this is the same group as John has consistently done in his gospel. He uses that as somewhat of a technical term to talk to the leaders and describe the leaders of the Jews, specifically the Sanhedrin made up of Pharisees and Sadducees, but also all of those who are aligned with them. They're part of that political party, if you will. Yeah, there's many who might waver, and we see that in the lead-up to this section, but essentially here are those that are at least, at the very least, affiliated with the Sanhedrin, who are opposed to Christ, who are part of those who would wish to crush his skull, who would wish to arrest him, Who are these? These are unbelievers. I'll walk through some of the text with you. Good news is I can't see the clock with all these flags, so we'll just see how time flies. John chapter 7. Jesus was in Galilee. Verse 1, But he didn't go to Judea at that time, that is the section around Jerusalem. Why? Because the Jews are seeking to kill him. Drop down to verse 11 of chapter 7. Jesus goes to this feast, and they were looking for him at the feast, and they asked, that is the Jews were looking for him, and they asked all the people, you know, where's he at? And they said, some said he was good, others said he's leading astray. Yet for the fear, verse 13, of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. You get the idea? It's crowd suppression. They're afraid. The fear of the Jews, that is the leaders. And then this same group, verse 32, same chapter, the Pharisees, here's this crowd muttering. And the chiefs and the priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. Next chapter, chapter 8. Here is this long argument that Jesus has then as he's confronted directly with these religious leaders called the Jews. And they claim that they are true. True to God because Abraham is their father, verse 39. Chapter 8, verse 39. They're related to God because Abraham's their father. And here Jesus stands directly to them and listens to this rebuke He gives them. If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. They respond with slurs. In verse 41, they say, we're not born of sexual immorality. Jesus said to them, verse 42, if God were your father, you would love me. For I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. The question is, why didn't they get it? Why didn't they understand this? Everything he said is true and right. They could never accuse him of anything. He did miraculous works that they even had to attest to. You remember Nicodemus in chapter three, he said, look, we know that you're from God because nobody can do what you're doing. And as God is with you, And yet, they continue to rebel and they continue to reject. They are unbelievers. And He explains it to them. Verse 33, why do you understand what I say? It's because you cannot hear My Word. How can they hear His Word? Is He not speaking loud enough? Is it not clear? No, they don't have ears to hear. They don't have eyes to see. and they don't have a heart to respond. And he says in verse 44, you are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning. He doesn't stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. When he speaks, when he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he's a liar and the father of the lies. But because I tell you the truth you don't believe me?" And here is a great question. He asked them, one of which I would never ask of anybody, which one of you convicts me of sin? Can you imagine it? He's talking to the Pharisees, the people who knew the law, who knew everything, and they could measure everything, and Jesus stands right in front of them and says, who convicts me? Beloved, you could not do that. I could not do that. Here is a perfect righteous one, Christ. And they cannot convict him of sin. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. And what is their response? Another slur. You're a Samaritan? and a demon. You're a demon-possessed, crazy half-breed, is what they taught. Jesus said, if I aligned with you, I'd be a liar like you. Verse 55, because Abraham rejoiced to see my day, Jews asked him, verse 57, you're not 50 years old, how can you see Abraham? Jesus said to them, truly, truly, that is, amen, amen, of most certainty, I say to you, remember, the one that they cannot convict of lying or saying anything wrong, I am the one who performed all these miracles, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Another claim. a divinity. The confrontation escalates with these Jews. The question is then, well what are these Jews, or at the very least those that are lined with this great antagonism, children of the devil, liars, what are they doing over here at Martha's and Mary's house during this time? Verse 31 of chapter 11. They were weeping. Did you see it? Well, Martha goes into secret, whispers in Mary's ear, says, hey the Lord's out there, let's go, privately, so that she won't be entangled in all of this from the Jews who are antagonistic against him. And they think she's going to go weep at the tomb when she sees her get up and go. They were engaged, beloved, in the cultural practice of mourning at a funeral. It was perfunctory. The weeping mentioned here, it says they were going to weep, it means to wail. It was part of their custom in that day to have a week of mourning, sometimes longer, at the funeral practice. There were mourners who actually even paid to be part of the ceremony, much in the way in our culture we might hire a funeral director and assistants and whatnot to take care of things. They would hire someone to engage in a week-long wailing. According to the Mishnah, even a poor family was expected to hire at least two flute players and a professional wailing woman. The practice was not genuine grief in the loss of a loved one, rather it was the cultural burial practices. And for many that were engaged in the religiosity of the day, it was part of their good works and behavior that would somehow gain some merit before God to participate in such activities. Well, Jesus does have a response. And now we'll jump back down, identifying these groups, both the believers and unbelievers. Verse 33, chapter 11. When Jesus saw her weeping, and note this, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. See the two groups weeping? You got Mary and the Jews. You have the sincere, genuine, and you have the superficial, artificial, who really hate Jesus. They're weeping too. They're all crying. Jesus is response here is that he's, note the reading of our text, it says, deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And here we get into the original language again. Because it's helpful, because I think this really is not a great translation, let's just put it that way, in the way this is translated. If you read through this, it looks like, at first glance, that Jesus has just an emotional response of sorrow when he sees her weeping and he sees this other group weeping, right? Isn't that the way you would see it, maybe, when you first look at it? The translators in English would actually do better, I think, if this read this way, this section where it says, deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled, if it said he was outraged in his spirit and filled with indignation." This is a description of righteous anger. Now, before you think I've jumped off the deep end, there is at least one English, modern English translation that translated this way that I found. So, at least someone else agrees with me. The Holman Christian Standard, put out by Lifeway, reads this way, he was angry in his spirit and deeply moved. There's two words that they're trying to add, like, deeply moved and greatly troubled. Those aren't four words, there's actually two. The deeply moved is one word, greatly troubled is another word, okay? The Holman Christian Standard sets it up, and it can be confusing, deeply moved on the second one, to talk about how it's translated greatly troubled in the ESV. The word deeply moved, this first phrase, two words, there's really one, is a word which is used in extra-biblical Greek to describe a horse in anger. And Ken can tell you if a horse is angry he might snort of sorts, right? Maybe you've heard that. And well, that's how that word was used. In connection with mankind, it was used when a man gets angry. Or you can think of your nostrils even flaring up in anger. It's only used a few times in the New Testament. In Matthew chapter 9, it is this word here that we have translated deeply moved in our text, in 1133, is translated sternly warned. In Mark 1.43, it's sternly charged. In Mark 14.5, it is scold. The idea here is one of anger, deeply moved. righteous indignation. Beasley Murray, in his commentary, indicates that the German translations get it right. And by the way, let me just stop. I'm not dissing on English translations per se, that's fine. Oftentimes a familiar passage or, you know, they oftentimes translate them very similar. You'll find that a lot. You don't want to be totally different sometimes, I guess, started the translation theory, so that if I'm reading, you know, ESV and you're reading New King James, they're going to sound essentially the same. But here, it's probably, you could be misled in reading it, is my point, and Beasley Murray agrees with that, and he says that most English translations soften the passage to, he groaned in spirit, or we have translated deeply moved. He sighed heavily. He was deeply touched. All without linguistic justification. The phrase in his spirit isn't in dispute, that is in his human spirit, right? Immaterial part. It doesn't, of course, refer to the Holy Spirit. His inward reaction was anger or outrage or indignation. That's what I'm saying it means. He agrees. That's what the word actually means. He's outraged. The word trouble, it says, and, and we have translated deeply, mood. Tarasso, it means to be disturbed or agitated to the point of being shaken. Have you ever been so upset that you were shaken? That's the imagery here. So, deeply moved in his spirit and troubled. It's not a state of sorrow of what's going on when he sees her weeping and then he turns and sees these Jews weeping. He is filled with righteous indignation. against the superficiality of religiosity, which is absolutely meaningless. There is a genuine response for this lady who has lost her loved one, her brother. She is in great grief and goes to the Lord and falls on her knees before him. And then he turns and sees this superficial crowd who just as soon bash him in the skull with a rock. weeping also, in hypocrisy. He has righteous indignation. And so he asks in that state, agitated, shaken. And remember, when he's in that condition, he doesn't do so, it's kind of hard for us to relate to it in some way, because we always think of anger as something that is wrong, right? But we already have righteous anger, that is, be angry about the right things. If you're going to protect a child from somebody who's going to harm them, it might take great wrath to do that. All of our Responses are still always mingled with a degree of sin. I understand that. It's hard to see that. But Christ does it in perfection. Righteous anger and agitation. We could get close to it when we're fighting against something unjust and for a righteous cause. He's agitated. He's shaken. And he turns to them and speaks in verse 34. And Giuseppe says, Where you laid him? And they said, Come, Lord, come and see. And here is our watershed verse in which water flows from the eyes of our Lord. Verse 35, Jesus then just uncontrollably bursts out in tears. That's what the word means. It's an uncontrolled response. The word for weeping here is different from the Jews weeping. Clio is the Jews weeping and Mary weeping. It's more of a cry out, a wailing. And, of course, we know Mary's genuine. Jews are superficial. This word is decruo. It's different. If you look it up in a lexicon, it means to indicate shed tears because of sadness, rage, or pain. He had it all, didn't he? There is great compassion and sadness for Mary, and just great pain and rage for the Jews. It's an involuntary response. And perhaps you've had that happen from time to time. You can think about it. You're watching a movie, or reading a book, or just in a circumstance in which somebody is talking and the next thing you know you just cry. Maybe it's over some unrighteous act that was done and it just breaks your heart. Involuntary, just, you can see the humanity of Christ coming out here. The prophet Isaiah would speak of Christ as he came, God incarnate, as he would do so that he had his majesty clothed in the form of a servant in Isaiah 53. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. That makes me cry. Could you imagine how much God would cry? Right now no one esteems Christ to the degree he's worthy of being esteemed. I'm glad we gather together and we attempt to sing praises to his holy name and to esteem him. But I tell you the world is full of people who do not esteem him. And don't take this for a moment that this doesn't, in a sense, okay, I understand where I'm going, make Jesus weep. He has great empathy for those that are in grief. He will help those that are being tempted Preacher of Hebrews says, we don't have a high priest who is unable to sympathize for our weakness, who is every respect but tempted as we are yet without sin. Don't think for one moment that he doesn't know, doesn't care, and doesn't shed a tear for whatever's going on in your life. He does. And for those that are united to him as believers, it is a family love, phileo. as well as an agapao, a sacrificial love, the depth of his love for his beloved is beyond what you could imagine. But on the same token, and here we'll take a quick journey because my watch is broken, I can't see the clock, we'll go to Luke 13. I just want you to see, I'll just show you a couple spots, you can look at it later. just to show how Jesus is deeply moved also for those that are unbelievers who rebel against him. And in that sense, these are cries of righteous indignation and of tears. In Luke chapter 13, You have kind of a wailing, if you will, of Jesus. And in context here, he is again confronting the Jews, the leaders, the Pharisees. And he looks out over this great city. Not the land, but the people. Oh, Jerusalem. the city that kills the prophets and stone those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing. Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. There will be a day when every eye will see him." But he weeps. He weeps for these religious leaders who would bind the people up from seeing the glory of Christ and lead them in another direction. One more from Luke, sits through there, 19. This is in his triumphal entry, which we'll get into chapter 12 and John in just a bit. And they're preaching Christ. And some of the Pharisees, verse 39, in the crowd said to him, teach and rebuke your disciples. Because they're saying, verse 38, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. And Jesus said, well, I tell you, if these are silent, the very stones will cry out because they know. And that made Jesus cry again. He drew near the city, verse 41, and he wept over it. Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that are made for peace. But now they're hidden from your eyes. They're going to come with great destruction. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He's deeply moved. Agitated, irritated, and weeping in that sense. Back to chapter 11 of John. Jesus doesn't just have empathy with sorrow and grief, but anger over sin, and they missed the mark completely. Verse 36 of chapter 11, the response of the Jews is what, oh, see how he loved him. Because they see him crying, as if this is just his tears over this sentimental event. He was an emotional response of losing this loved one who he would raise again. It isn't a sentimental response over the grief of Martha and Mary because he knows he's going to give them great joy here in just a bit. These tears ultimately are tears over sin and unbelief and the consequences of it. And then we weep every day. for those who would be ravaged by sin just in their daily life, and then what is to come? Oh, it would make you weep. And to portray their unbelief, verse 37, some of them said, well, he might have cared for them, but could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have also kept this man from dying? They demonstrate their unbelief again. He could have kept Lazarus from dying. But he had a purpose. And he has a purpose for all suffering, even death. It is for his glory. His response to that is this same phrase in YI through 38 here to finish this out. It does function as a transition as we move forward for next week in the resurrection. But he says that Jesus was deeply moved again. Same concept as mentioned before. He is greatly angered in righteous indignation once again. The glory of his patience with sinners is on display once again. But it doesn't please the Lord to put up with fools forever. When our text says that Jesus wept, he literally burst out into tears. It wasn't superficial or sentimental. His tears were an expression of both sincere compassion and sincere outrage, both mingled at this moment in time. And beloved, I think we would do well to live in such a way that as we follow Christ that we would have compassionate outrage. D.A. Carson describes it this way. Those who follow Jesus as his disciples today would do well to learn the same tension that grief and compassion without outrage reduced to mere sentiment while outrage without grief hardens into self-righteous arrogance. Did you get it? Listen one more time. Grief and compassion without outrage reduced to mere sentiment while outrage without grief hardens into self-righteous arrogance. Let us pray. Father, grant that we would be compassionate to those who suffer in this life with the consequences of sin. Not as those without hope, we hope in you. We trust in your providence that you will work all things for good to those who love you who are called according to your purpose. Give us courage and conviction. But may we be continually outraged over the conduct of sin and sinful men. And preach Christ and Him crucified. May the proclamation of your truth, the revelation of your glory save many, so that all our tears would be wiped away. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Beloved, it is a time now for you to respond not to me, but to Christ. Take a moment, think on these things privately, and respond directly to Jesus your Lord.