In this episode, we journey through the narratives of Jesus feeding the five thousand and raising Lazarus from the dead. These stories are not just powerful demonstrations of His miraculous abilities, but also an illustration of His compassion and the personal love God has for each individual. Experience how Jesus’ actions and words underscore His role as our high priest, feeling and understanding our earthly infirmities while offering divine grace and love.
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
SPEAKER 03 :
We know from God’s own testimony that it is possible not only to know God, but to understand Him. This is what He said, But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. And we know from reading the stories of the Old Testament that these three characteristics of God, lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, are well illustrated there. But to really know and understand God at a personal level, one has to know Jesus. Called in the New Testament, the Son of Man. On the night of the Last Supper, Jesus had a rather long dialogue with his disciples. And in that dialogue, he said something really quite remarkable. It’s probably familiar to you if you’ve been a Bible reader at all. It’s in John 14 and verse 1 where he says, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I’ll come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And then he said, Where I’m going you know, and the way you know. Well, Thomas blinked a couple of times, and he said, Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. How can we possibly know the way? And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. Then he said, if you had known me… You should have known my father also. And from henceforth you know him, and, astonishingly, you have seen him. And then Philip, also kind of blinking a little, says, Lord, show us the father, and that will be sufficient. And Jesus turned and looked at him and said, Have I been so long time with you, and you haven’t known me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen the father. So what are you sitting there saying, show me the Father for? Now that is really amazing because here what Jesus is saying to his disciples on this occasion is, if you’ve seen me, you have seen the Father. And so in Jesus Christ, one sees the characteristics of the Father illustrated in the flesh and at a very personal level. Jesus went on to say, don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you, I didn’t come up with these. My Father that dwells in me, he does the works. Now believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or at least believe for the works’ sake. Now, this really can be a little bit puzzling. It almost sounds as if Jesus is saying that he is the Father. But that can’t quite be true. Jesus is on earth. The Father is in heaven. And they talk to each other. John’s gospel is very strong on this point. He even starts out with this comparison or this virtual identity of the Son and the Father. Right at the very beginning of the Gospel according to John, he says this, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now, I’m not one to want to put too much weight on individual words, but his choice of words in this case has to be significant. John knows precisely what he is saying. He didn’t say that the Word came into existence sometime after the beginning. He said in the beginning was the Word. Then he said the Word was with God and the Word was God. Now, this poses a logical problem. How can the Word be God and be with God at the same time? It’s like saying, you know, you’re standing there alongside of yourself. Christian theologians have wrestled with this down through time and have come up with the idea that God is a trinity, three persons in one. The precise nature of the Trinity is said to be a mystery, so we can’t expect to comprehend it fully. But if we bear in mind one simple principle from the Bible, we can understand all we need to know about God. And this principle is found in Deuteronomy 29, verse 29. Here he says this, The secret things belong to the Lord our God. But those things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. So what we look for is what is revealed. Now, you can go charging through the Scriptures if you want to, and you can create a construct out of the things that are revealed. You can extrapolate. You can draw lines, connect the dots and draw lines on out into space, and somehow or other think you have found something more than what is revealed. But you can never be sure. What we look for is what is revealed. Now, when most people use the word God, they are referring to the one supreme being who is above all others, the one Jesus referred to as his Father. The problem is that the Bible uses the word God in more than one sense. In the Bible, God can indeed refer to the one supreme being. But it can also refer to a kind of being. And what nearly every reader of the Bible has come to see is that God is revealed to us in terms of family. Father and Son, both God. And if God is not to be looked upon as a family, it is truly odd that Jesus introduces us to God as a father and himself as the son, both of them being God. Now, I really believe a person who, without any theological training, who sits down, reads through the Bible from beginning to end, would never come to the conclusion, as a result of that reading, that God is a trinity as such. Rather, he would see a God who is the Father and his Son, who is also the same kind of being as God, and a member of the family, who both work through the agency of someone called the Holy Spirit. That’s what you would see if you just read the Bible and took it at face value. It takes quite a bit of analysis, quite a bit of reasoning to come to any other conclusion about God, and you don’t really have to go there. And so returning to what John said, he said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Now, this is striking, because what John seems to say is that all things were made by the Word of God. And, in fact, Paul will later tell us that Jesus Christ was the one through whom the Father made the worlds. In him, that is in the word, was life. And the life was the light of men, and the light shined in darkness, and the darkness didn’t get it at all. There was a man sent from God whose name was John, and he came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. John was not that light. He was sent to bear witness of the light. This was the true light which lights every man that comes into the world. And you have to kind of read John carefully because what John will, as he develops his themes down through both his gospel and his epistles, the contrast between light and darkness is very strong in his mind. And he obviously sees Jesus Christ as the light of the world. He was in the world. That is the logos. That is the word of God was in the world. And the world was made by him. And the world didn’t know him. Here’s Jesus walking down the dusty streets of Galilee. And he’s the one who made the world. And nobody who saw him even imagined it. He came unto His own, that is, unto the Jewish people, and His own received Him not. But as many as did receive Him, to them He gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, who were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. Now He then comes to the point. And the Word, that Word which made the world, that Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. And later in verse 18, He’ll say, No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. So it is the Word made flesh that is Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man. And it is in Jesus that we actually see what the Father is like at a personal level. And we would expect to find in Jesus those things that characterize God. Loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness.
SPEAKER 02 :
We’ll talk about that when I come back right after this message. Did you know that everything that goes into your mind goes in and stays there forever? Your mind is like a closet you can never clean out. What can you do about it? Write for a free program titled A Closet Never Cleaned Out and hear the solution. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791 or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE44.
SPEAKER 03 :
So what can we know about the loving kindness of God through the person of Jesus Christ? Well, there was an occasion after the apostles had been out on one of the trips that Jesus sent them on. They came back and they told him all the terrific things that they had done and what they had taught the people. This is in Mark 6, verse 31, that Jesus said to them, I think it’s time to come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while. All of them were working hard. Jesus had been working hard. There were many people coming and going. They had not even had time to eat. And so he thought it was a good idea really for them just to get away from everyone and just rest for a while. Sometimes you need to just let your mind go idle so it can work. So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. The problem was a lot of people saw them leave. They knew him and they knew where he was going. And so they ran on foot from all the towns and around. They got there before Jesus and the others and they gathered round about him. Now here’s where the challenge would come in. You and your best friends have gone away to a deserted place to be by yourselves, to take a much-deserved rest. You have it coming. There’s nothing wrong with your having some time off. And here come a whole bunch of people. What are you going to do? Are you going to send them away? Are you going to get irritable with them? Are you going to say, no, we’re not going to do this. We’re resting. We’re on vacation. We’re not going to help you now. Well, when Jesus saw them and came out, saw a great multitude. We learn a little later there are 5,000 men who were there. He was moved with compassion on them because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things. Jesus felt sorry for these people. And because they had made the effort and they had come out there, he said, no, these people really desperately need leadership. I’m going to have to spend some time with them. And the day was really long spent. His disciples came to him and said, look, this is a deserted place and it’s already getting late. You better send these people away so they can go into the surrounding villages and get something to eat. They don’t have anything. Now, that’s a very sensible suggestion the disciples were making here. But when you have the means to be hospitable, this is what you want to do. Jesus answered and said, no, no, no, you give them something to eat. And they said to them, what do you mean? Shall we go and buy 200 denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat? He said, now how many loaves do you have? Go and see. When they came back, he said, we have five loaves, two fish. How many people? 5,000. So he commanded to make all these people sit down in groups on the green grass. And they sat down in ranks, hundreds and fifties. And when he had taken five loaves, two fish, he looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, gave them to his disciples and set them in front of the people. The two fish he divided among them all and everybody in the crowd ate and were filled. And they passed around the baskets to pick up the fragments of everything, all the fruit bed and all the fish. And they had 12 baskets full of fragments from five loaves and two fish. And those that had eaten the loaves were about 5,000 men. Now, what is this all about? Why did Jesus do this remarkable miracle? It doesn’t seem to have any theological significance. So why is it here? The logical thing would have been to say, look, folks, the day is getting late. You’d better head off into the villages around here and get yourself something to eat. We’re out here to rest in any case. But you know, I think the answer is simplicity itself. Sometimes we look for hard answers when the easy answers are staring us right in the face. Jesus did this because he is gracious. And a gracious person does not send his guests away with empty bellies, not when he can give them something to eat. And Jesus obviously could. What Jesus did was to interrupt his vacation to teach these people because he is kind. And he fed them a meal rather than send them away empty because he is kind. All of this is of a peace with the God we encounter in the Old Testament, a God who is loving and a God who is kind. Now, John records another instance in the ministry of Jesus that is really worth our attention. It underlines, again, my question is, do you really want to know God? Do you want to understand what He is like, now especially at a personal level? If so, then we need to look at this one in John, the 11th chapter. A certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany, the town where Mary and her sister Martha lived. It was that Mary that anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. These were special people to Jesus. His sister sent to him and said, Lord, he whom you love is sick. And when Jesus said that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now, this statement must soon have come to haunt the disciples because Lazarus did die. Then John tells us in this account, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. And I can say, well, of course he loved them. Jesus loved all men. Jesus loves everybody. But this is a very important statement. It would be true to say that Jesus loves all mankind, and yet here is a singular mention of a particular love. Most of us understand the bonding love of friendship. We just may not think of the personal nature of Jesus’ love for these three people. When he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the same place where he was. Jesus, we learn, deliberately waited until Lazarus was dead before returning. A very, very strange thing for him to do. And yet, when we see the whole story, we’ll understand. After that, he said to disciples, let’s go to Judea again. And they said, Master, the Jews down there wanted to kill you. What are you going to go there for again? Jesus said there are 12 hours in a day. If any man walk in the day, he doesn’t stumble because he sees the light of this world. If you walk in the night, you stumble because there is no light. What he meant was basically we’ve got to get down there and get to work while we can. He said these things, and after that he said to them, Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may raise him out of sleep. His disciples said, Well, I’m sure glad to hear that, Lord. If he’s sleeping, he must be getting better. But Jesus was speaking of his death. They thought he was just asleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, No, Lazarus is dead. And I’m glad for your sakes that I wasn’t there, because I want you to come to believe. So let’s go to him. Then said Thomas, called Didymus, one of his fellow disciples, Well, let’s go to that we may die with him. A little melodramatic, but they went. Then Jesus came, and he found that they had lain in the grave four days already. Now, Bethany was near Jerusalem, about 15 furlongs off. Now, the four-day thing on this is really kind of important, because a Jewish custom had to do with, there was a concern that somebody who was dead might not really completely, absolutely be dead, and that there was a period of time of mourning and of waiting, about three days, so that you would know for sure that the person wasn’t going to revive. It’s happened. It happened, I guess, back then. It’s happened in a modern world. Now many of the Jews had come to Mary and Martha to comfort them concerning their brother. And Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him. Mary stayed in the house. And Martha said to Jesus, O Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. But I know that even now, whatever you ask of God, God will give it to you. I can’t think of any reason why she said that. except believing that Jesus really still could raise him from the dead. And Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again. And Martha said to him, Well, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. And Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? And Martha said, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who should come into the world. And when she said that, she went back and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, The Master has come, and he’s called for you. Well, as soon as she heard that, she rose and came to him. And Jesus had not yet entered the town. He was in that place where Martha met him. He stayed out there. And the Jews were with her in the house. They saw her take off and go hastily and said, Oh, she’s going to the grave to weep there, and so let’s go along with her. When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And that had to hurt. Jesus loved these two women, and he loved their brother Lazarus. And both of them have told him, Oh, if you had just gotten here… He would not have died. He would have lived. When Jesus therefore saw her crying and the Jews weeping that came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. Jesus was genuinely touched at a personal level. I saw the title of an article in a publication recently to the effect, Can God Suffer? Is it possible for God to feel the pain that human beings feel? Here, Jesus groaned in the spirit. He was deeply and genuinely touched. And he said, where have you laid him? And they said, come and see. And Jesus wept. You’ve probably heard about this. The shortest verse in the Bible, two words. Jesus wept. And the Jews said, Behold how he loved him. And some of them said, Couldn’t this man who opened the eyes of the blind have caused that even this man should not have died? And Jesus again, groaning in himself, comes to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. And Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha said, Oh no, Lord, by this time he may have been dead for four days. He will stink. And Jesus said, Didn’t I tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? And they took away the stone. Jesus prayed a short prayer and said, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot in the grave clothes, his face bound with a napkin. And Jesus said, Loose him and let him go. And many of the Jews which came to Mary had seen the things Jesus did, believed on him. I would certainly think so. Now, you know, when I read this account of Jesus groaning in the Spirit and Jesus weeping at the tomb of Lazarus, it seemed strange to me because Jesus knew what he was going to do. He deliberately waited until after the man had dead. It was dead. He knew that he was going to come back there. He knew he was going to bring him back to life again. Why did he weep? I didn’t fully understand this until I sat by my mother’s side in the hospital as she died. I thought I was prepared for her death. She had lived a long time. Her body was worn out. It was time for her to go. And so I was comforted by that. I sat by her bedside and waited. And finally, the line went flat on the monitor over her bed. And I cried like I hadn’t cried since I was a child. When Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, it was a manifestation of real love. It was a very human response to the presence of death. But it was more than that. It was the response of God. It was real love at a personal level. Stay with me. I’ll explain what that means when I come back.
SPEAKER 02 :
For a free copy of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only. And request the program titled, Knowing God, Number 6. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll-free 1-888-BIBLE-44. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.
SPEAKER 03 :
The writer of Hebrews understood this and tried to develop it so that his readers would understand that Jesus Christ, as our high priest, was not distant from us. It wasn’t a God who was off in heaven somewhere who may or may not hear our prayers and who may or may not love us as a member of a class of people. He said this in Hebrews 4, verse 14, Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold fast our profession, because we don’t have a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. But he was in all points tempted like us, yet without sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Now let me tell you what I take away from this. The love of God is real. The kindness of God is real. The love of God is personal. God does not merely love me as a member of a class. He loves me as a person all by myself. I might not know that if it weren’t for Jesus making it clear. On the night of the Last Supper, speaking to his disciples, he said, Get a little while, and the world sees me no more, but you see me. Because I live, you shall live also. At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me. And he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. Notice all these third-person singulars, him, him, not just to them or as a group or to the church, but to the individual that loves God. He will be loved by God, and I will love him, Jesus said, and I’ll show myself to him. Later in John 15, he says this, If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done to you. Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit. That’s the way you’ll be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Continue in my love. What an astonishing thing, he said. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Not as one of many, as a person, all by yourself. Greater love, said Jesus, has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And that’s why I keep telling you,
SPEAKER 02 :
You were born to win. The Born to Win radio program with Ronald L. Dart is sponsored by Christian Educational Ministries and made possible by donations from listeners like you. If you can help, please send your donation to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. You may call us at 1-877-7000. 888-BIBLE44 and visit us online at borntowin.net.
SPEAKER 01 :
Christian Educational Ministries is happy to announce a new full-color Born to Win monthly newsletter with articles and free offers from Ronald L. Dart. Call us today at 1-888-BIBLE44 to sign up or visit us at borntowin.net.
In this episode, we journey through the narratives of Jesus feeding the five thousand and raising Lazarus from the dead. These stories are not just powerful demonstrations of His miraculous abilities, but also an illustration of His compassion and the personal love God has for each individual. Experience how Jesus’ actions and words underscore His role as our high priest, feeling and understanding our earthly infirmities while offering divine grace and love.
