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John 11:35 is a well-known scripture simply because it is the shortest verse in the Bible. The entire verse is only two words: Jesus wept. Even if you have an extremely poor memory and often forget to take your memory pills, you ought to be able to memorize at least this one verse of scripture! But it seems that in scripture the simplest things are often the most profound. So it is with this passage of scripture from which we draw the subject of this sermon. Jesus wept. Two small words. Very simple to understand and read, but perhaps the most profound in scripture. Think about it: what would cause the miracle worker, the one who is the hope of all mankind, the one who has power over the world that He created, the one who could calm the storm and raise the dead, to respond emotionally with tears!? What could be so great a tragedy that it caused our Lord to weep?

A careful scan and study of scripture reveal that we only have three recorded instances where Jesus wept. Crying is a very human trait. For Jesus Christ to be God manifest or revealed in the flesh like I Timothy 3:16 so clearly declares, then it would make sense that He would cry. Jesus was a human being unlike any that has ever been before because He was also God. The scriptures clearly say:

For in the body of Jesus Christ, dwells EVERYTHING that God is and will be. The fullness of the Godhead is displayed in Jesus Christ. And the scripture does not say "dwelt" as in past tense. Jesus Christ is "God manifest or revealed or made visible in the flesh" for forever. That's why Colossians 1:15 says that Jesus is the "image of the invisible God." That's why II Corinthians 5:19 says that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." Not "themselves." Jesus was the one, true God come to the earth in flesh. That's why the prophet Isaiah could declare in Isaiah 9:6 that the son to be born would be "the mighty God, the everlasting Father!" That's why Acts 20:28 says that "God purchased the church with his own blood." Who died on Calvary and shed his own blood? Jesus Christ. That's why when doubting Thomas saw the nail prints in Jesus' hands, he fell to his knees and cried out to Jesus in John 20:28 saying "my Lord and my God!" Jesus did not rebuke Thomas for proclaiming that He was God because He was.

There is no plurality of the Godhead. The concept of a "trinity" of three distinct persons in the Godhead does not find it's support in scripture, but in the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. The terms Father and Son and Holy Spirit are titles that refer to roles that God has revealed to us. They are NOT names. The term "Father" always refers to God in an invisible spirit form. The term Son always refers to the flesh that God became. The terms Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit always refers to the Spirit of God working among and living in men's lives. God is not limited in any way to those three titles, but He is also a Healer, a Brother that sticketh closer than any other, a Light, a Deliverer, a Protector, our Redeemer, our Saviour, the Great Shepherd, and many, many more. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are not names of God but titles. The name of God is Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus said in John 5:43, "I am come in my Father's name." The name of the Father is Jesus! Jesus also said in John 14:26 that "the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name shall teach you all things." The name of the Holy Ghost is Jesus! The angel told Mary in Matthew 1:21 that she would "bring forth a son, and call his name Jesus!" His name wasn't "son" that's a title. But the name is Jesus! That's why when Jesus commanded His disciples in Matthew 28:19 to "baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" that the disciples obeyed him by always baptizing in the "name of Jesus." The name of Jesus is THE name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Philippians 2:9 says that the name of Jesus is "above every name." Acts 4:12 says that the name of Jesus is the ONLY name given under heaven whereby we must be saved! There is a difference between being baptized under the titles and calling out the true name, Jesus!

What are you saying preacher? I am saying that despite what men might say and what traditions of men say, that the scriptures declare that there is only one God, and the one God of the Old Testament came to earth in the New Testament in flesh and His name is Jesus Christ! I've given you 13 scriptures so far. All are true. Perhaps that you would like some more talking about how that Jesus Christ is the one, true God.

Jesus is the Father. Isaiah 9:6 called the son the "everlasting Father." Jesus said in John 10:30 that "I am my Father are one." In John 14:8-11, when Phillip asked Jesus "show us the Father," Jesus responded by saying "have I been so long time with you and you have not known me Phillip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father!" Isaiah 63:16 says "Thou, Oh Lord, art our Father, our redeemer." The one Lord of the Old Testament would be both the Father and the redeemer or savior! Who redeemed you with His blood? Jesus Christ!

Jesus is the Holy Ghost. In John 14:16-18, Jesus told His disciples that when He ascended into heaven that the Father would send the Comforter, the Holy Ghost. He then told them "ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Then Jesus just point blank told them who the comforter was: "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you." The word for "comforter" there in the Greek literally means "orphans." Jesus said that when the Holy Ghost came, it would be Him coming to the disciples so that they would not be "orphans" or fatherless! He would be their Father! Malachi 2:10 says that we only have "one Father." So if Jesus is the Father, then He must be the one true God come in flesh! Ephesians 4:4 says that there is but "one Spirit." So Jesus and the Holy Spirit must be the same! The Bible proclaims many, many times that Jesus Christ is "Lord." II Corinthians 3:17 says that " Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

Jesus Christ is the one true God of the Old Testament come in flesh. There are not three, there are one. In Zechariah 11:4-12, we find that the Jehovah God said "they have weighed for my price, thirty pieces of silver!" But the New Testament says that Jesus Christ was betrayed for thirty pieces of silver! The 23rd Psalm says that Jehovah Lord is our shepherd, but I Peter 5:4 proclaims Jesus Christ as "the chief shepherd!" There can only be one chief! When Paul saw a great light on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter 9, he asked out "who are thou Lord?" "Jehovah God, who are thou?" The voice replied "I am Jesus!" Jesus is the one true, living God! And when we read about the earthly life of Jesus Christ, we are talking about the one God of the universe coming in flesh to redeem humanity. Jesus was all God and all man at the same time!

But when God came in flesh, He willing subjected Himself to the confines of human emotions and human hungers and human thought. So Jesus was more than just God acting like man, but He was both God and man in a way that no one has ever been nor will they ever be again! When Jesus Christ prayed, He prayed as an example for us as humanity to pray, but He also prayed to keep His fleshly desires in subjection to His Spirit! When Son prayed to Father it was not one person of a trinity praying to another, but rather flesh praying to Spirit. If the Son and the Father are co-equal and co-powerful as the false doctrine of the trinity declares, then the prayers of Jesus contradict that belief because for one to pray to another means that the Son was not as powerful as the Father. There is a distinction there, but it is flesh praying to Spirit. When we view the life of Jesus Christ, then we must ask ourselves "was He acting in the role of flesh, or in the role of the Spirit? When He slept on the floor of the boat, He was fulfilling the role of His flesh. But when He was awakened by His frightened disciples and stood up in the boat and calmed the storms and the winds, He was acting according to the Spirit of God within Him! When Jesus Christ hungered, we see His fleshly side. When Jesus Christ forgave sins, we see His Spirit side! He was both God and man at the same time! He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin! No man could ever become God and bridge the gap between God and man, so God did what man could not do and humbled Himself and became a man to restore the relationship with a lost humanity! Thank God that He did! Thank you Jesus Christ for loving us enough to step off your throne in glory and come walk this earth and shed your precious blood!

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Understanding that Jesus Christ was both all God and all man at the same time, then which side was manifested when He cried? When Jesus wept, did He weep as a human being or did He weep as God? I am sure that Jesus cried more than just three times. I am sure that Jesus Christ as a boy wept when He skinned His knee or had a bad day, because the scripture says that He was tempted just as you and I are. But we have no scriptural record of the other times that Jesus Christ might have cried. We just have three mentions of when Jesus wept, and in all three cases, He used human emotions to reveal how He felt as God! Every time that Jesus wept, He wept from the viewpoint of God; from His Spirit side. If that is so, then we are back to our original question, but now we see just how profound our text really is. What would cause the God of the universe to become saddened enough that tears would well up in His eyes!? What would cause Him to be so upset that a release of emotions were in order!? When Jesus wept, then, what exactly was He trying to teach us?

There are three recorded instances of when Jesus wept. All three happened within a time period of less than three months. All three reveal to us what is important to God for us to know or do.

We read it as our text in Luke. As Jesus rode toward Jerusalem for the last time days before His crucifixion, His disciples began to rip palm branches from trees and wave them praising and worshipping Him. Some took their coats off and laid them across the path where Jesus' humble donkey would walk. It was a celebration fit for a king, and He was the King of Kings and He well deserved the praise. But to the side were some of the scoffers: the Pharisees who were bound by their traditions of men and their hypocritical lifestyles. They did not believe that Jesus Christ was who He said He was. At one point in His ministry, they picked up stones to kill Him when Jesus proclaimed that He was the true God. They rejected His claim as the Messiah, because to say that Jesus was the Messiah was to say that He was the one God of the Old Testament. They could not grasp the fact that God had come in flesh! So they scoffed and they mocked and they questioned the praise and worship of the true believers. Jesus answered their mocking by saying that "if these would not have praised me, then the rocks and the stones would cry out with a loud voice and praise me!" It had been prophesied that He would be worshipped when He came into Jerusalem again and it would happen because He was worthy of the praise! What Jesus was saying was "if man will not praise me, then the earth will because I am worthy to be praised!" He was God. When the Jewish leaders refused to worship Him and crucified Him days later, the rocks and earth did praise the Lord. During and immediately after Jesus' crucifixion, the sun refused to shine for three hours. There was a great earthquake and rocks blew apart with a great noise that was really thunderous praise for the Savior of the world! What man would not do, creation did!

And the scriptures say that as Jesus Christ passed by His scoffers and came to the crest of the mountain that overlooked the city of Jerusalem, that He stopped His ride, and as He gazed over the city, He wept. The great God of the universe stopped and cried.

He wept because Jerusalem did not know the time of their visitation. A few realized that God was literally in their midst in human form, but most refused to believe it. The miracles could not convince them to step out of their traditions and their opinions and so it would only be a matter of days when the majority of the people for whom Christ had only done good, would step up to the judgment house of Pilate and in a fury that only comes from an angry mob, shake their fist at the sky and scream "Crucify Him, Crucify Him!" It was easier for them to reject Him and kill Him than it was to accept His teaching that would cause them to admit that what they believed before was not entirely truth. It was easier to walk away than it was to face errant tradition and draw closer to Him. It was easier to try to erase three years of a powerful ministry from their minds rather than be willing to take up their own cross and follow Him! Jesus knew the unbelief at who He claimed to be! And so He wept.

At the beginning of this sermon, some of you were wondering why I spend scripture after scripture pointing out that the scriptures all together agree that Jesus Christ was the one God of the Old Testament come in flesh. That I so dogmatically pointed out the scriptural teachings of Jesus Christ being the only true God in the universe. It was not a point of touché or to prove one doctrine right over another. It was because you must get a revelation of who He is for yourself! There are few things that upset God more than people who refuse to get a revelation of who He really is! He wants to reveal Himself to you! He wants to answer your questions as to His identity. I'm here to tell you that calling on titles will not save you because only His true name, the name of Jesus brings salvation. Jesus told Jerusalem that "unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." You must get a revelation of who Jesus Christ is! Mary cannot save you and it is fruitless to try to pray to her or any other saints. They lay dead in their graves awaiting the resurrection of the church. Tradition will not save you. Steadfastly holding on to something that is not based upon scripture will not save you. Only Jesus Christ can save you! Only by calling out to Him for the forgiveness of your sins. Only by having His name called out over you in water baptism. Only by receiving the Holy Ghost, His Spirit, will you be saved. You must get a revelation of who He really is!

Jesus wept because He knew that if they did not accept His teaching for who He really is, then they would eventually serve some other god. Their idolatry was not before a stone idol or carefully carved wooden object. Their idolatry was in putting themselves and their traditions before the Word of God. Man is created to worship, and you will worship something. If you reject the true identity of Jesus Christ, then you accept tradition or your own self as your god. And those gods will not save you. Thus Jesus wept over Jerusalem.

We read about it in our first, longer text in the book of John. Jesus had left Jerusalem and was ministering in the nearby area of Perea when He got word that His dear friend Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary, was sick and dying. They lived in Bethany, and they were dear friends of Jesus. He would often pause at their house to rest in His journeys. When Jesus received the word of Lazarus's fading, He did something interesting. He waited around a few more days in Perea. The disciples were amazed that Jesus was not rushing to get to the bedside of Lazarus and so Jesus told them, "this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God to shine forth." Another day went by and then word came that Lazarus had died. Jesus told His disciples that "He simply sleeps and I will go and awake Him from sleep." One of the disciples shook his head and thought "Jesus doesn't get it does he" He then piped up and said "Lord, if he is just asleep then that would be great, but ..." Finally Jesus sighing, looked at them and said "look, I know that he is dead, okay?" Jesus was trying to get them to look beyond their own solutions and their own limited faith and believe with Him for a miracle, but the disciples were the ones not getting the point. Jesus had been teaching them that He would die and then raise Himself from the dead. He was orchestrating the situation of Lazarus to prove to them that He could do as He promised. But in their minds, they somehow did not think that Jesus could do it. They really didn't believe that He was going to really die and then raise Himself up after three days either!

The scriptures say that Jesus arrived on the outskirts of Bethany after Lazarus had been dead for 4 days. That is one day longer than Jesus would stay in the grave. I think that Jesus waited that long to prove a point to the unbelieving disciples! As He was coming into the town Lazarus' sister, Martha, came running up to meet Him. The first words out of her mouth were "Lord, if you would have just been here, then my brother would not have died!" She was a little aggarvated that Jesus had not come through when she wanted Him to. Jesus looked at her and said "your brother will rise again." And Martha said "I know he will in the resurrection at the last day." She had faith in the future, but she was not having very much faith for the present!

Jesus looked at her and said "I am the resurrection and the life!" "If you would believe me, we can have a resurrection right now!" He was looking for someone to have faith in His ability to perform a miracle at that moment. He did not find it in His disciples. He did not find it in Martha. He knew that there was one more person to come that perhaps might believe that He could perform what He had said that He would do: Mary. Mary finally came and the first words out of her mouth matched that of Martha: "Lord if you had only been here, my brother would not have died." Jesus did not answer her or respond to her as He had Martha. The life giver was standing there in flesh and they were complaining and blaming Him for their situation! When He realized that Mary did not have faith, He groaned and then the scriptures say that "Jesus wept."

He was not weeping for Lazarus because He alone knew that Lazarus would soon be alive and beside Him. He was not weeping with compassion with Mary and Martha because He had done His best to make them see that the situation was not final. Jesus wept, not out of compassion or sympathy or grief, but because as He looked around at His disciples, Mary and Martha, and the many Jewish people from Jerusalem standing around the tomb, He realized that many of them said that they believed that He was the Messiah, but not one of them had faith in the present situation that He could do the miracle. He wept because He could not find one person with faith that God could do what He had said right now for them!

It is one thing to say that we believe God can do anything. It is quite another to be in the desperate or seemingly hopeless situation and continue to trust in Him! Neither Mary and Martha nor the disciples really believed that anything special was going to happen but for different reasons. Mary and Martha were mad at Jesus because He did not perform the healing like they had asked. Both of them approached God with the attitude, "if you would have simply done as we asked, then this wouldn't have happened." Many people today take the same approach to God. They pray how they want to see something work out in their life, and when God doesn't do it exactly like they demanded, then they question God and blame Him for their shortcomings and hurts! What Mary and Martha and many people today don't realize is that even when life says something is final and over and finished, with Jesus Christ a miracle can still take place. Lazarus had been embalmed and placed within the tomb. He had been dead for four days. It seemed final to the sisters. They had been mourning for days their loss, and they got so bitter in their situation that they automatically assumed since it was final that Jesus could no longer do the work!

Can I tell you that God will rarely do things as you have them worked out for Him to do them!? Can I tell you that God will often wait until a situation looks hopeless and pointless to you before He begins to work?! Because if He waits until then, He can prove to you that it was Him all along! You cannot take credit for any of it, because you've already admitted that the situation is hopeless in your hands! God specializes in waiting until human beings get to frustrated that they stop trying to orchestrate their lives themselves and will turn to God. But don't get frustrated in a situation just because it seems as if it is hopeless. Get you eyes off of your situation and look to Jesus! With God involved in your life, it is never too hopeless! It is never too late with Jesus Christ.

The disciples caused Jesus to weep because they did not have faith simply because they had never seen it done this way before. They had seen Jesus come hours after Jarius' daughter had died and raise her up. They had seen Him interrupt a funeral procession and raise the widow's son in the city of Nain. But those had been immediately after the person died. Never before had they ever heard of opening graves and such!

Can I tell you that God is not limited to what you have seen before!? He is looking for someone to have faith in Him for the unthinkable and the unexplainable! He is looking for someone to believe that He is "able to perform exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think!" Someone who believes that we serve an all powerful God who can handle any situation no matter how hopeless that it seems or whether or not we have seen it before! Maybe no one else in your family has the Holy Ghost and has ever lived for God. Be the first! God can keep you! Maybe you've never actually seen a miracle or a healing before. Will you believe God for the things that you have never seen? When in a horrible situation that looks hopeless will you have the attitude of the disciples that it is hopeless, or will you be the one who goes against the crowd and says, "I don't care how bad it is in this situation, I have a God who is able!"

If Jesus wept over their unbelief, then He must smile at belief that stands against the odds! If you want God smiling over your life, trust Him even in the bad times! God will come through for someone like that! The scriptures say that the angels rejoice over one sinner that comes to repentance. The angels all face the throne in worship according to Revelation 4 and 5. That means that they rejoice because they see the joy and rejoicing of the one who sits upon the throne! For a sinner to repent means that they believe that God will truly forgive them despite the bad situation in their life! It means someone has faith toward God and is trusting in Him. Jesus wept over unbelief, but He rejoices at faith and trust in Him! I don't want the epitath over my life to read "when Jesus wept." I want it to read "when Jesus rejoiced!" Get your eyes off of your situation. Roll the stone of doubt away and see if Lazarus doesn't come forth just as Jesus said He would! With Jesus involved, it is NEVER too late!

I must close. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, when they rejected His true identity. He wept at the graveside of Lazarus at their unbelief. The third time that He wept was hanging on the cross. You may have not realized that Jesus actually wept while on the cross. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John do not record it in their accounts. Yet in Hebrews 5:7 we find that Jesus did weep:

Jesus wept upon the cross. He also quoted part of the 22nd Psalm. One of His prayers were "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Few people realize that He was quoting the first verse of the 22nd Psalm. This Psalm is a very powerful one because it was written thousand years before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and yet pin points exactly what happened. I believe that the Gospel writers heard Jesus only quote the first part of the first verse because His strength was not enough so that He could pray it loudly. I, and many other preachers, believe that Jesus Christ actually quoted the entire Psalm on the cross.

We don't have time today to do justice to a thorough study of the 22nd Psalm. Go home and read it when you have a chance and then realize how amazing it is that it was written thousands of years before the life of Jesus Christ by David. It mentions His water flowing from a gash in His side. It mentions that He was betrayed and mocked by those whom He loved. It even predicts that the soldiers would cast lots for Jesus' robe at the foot of the cross and that His mother would be standing there. It mentions His great thirst and that He would die eventually of a broken heart from the stress placed upon the body in His crucifixion. It names the details of the crucifixion in accurate detail, and it also mentions three times that Jesus cried while on the cross. From this scripture and the one in Hebrews, it is clear that while hanging there on the hill called Golgotha , Jesus wept.

I want you to realize that as Jesus hung on Calvary that He was NOT dying to save Himself. He, Himself, needed no savior. His own well-being was not on His mind. He was thinking about a lost world that He was dying to save. He was thinking about every person that would ever be born and how that they would have an opportunity to come to Him, apply His blood to their lives, and receive His Spirit because of the redeeming work that He was performing by giving of His life. He suffered real pain. He suffered real humiliation and His flesh did not want to die any more than ours would desire such a death. But He was not crying because of the pain or the torment at suffering for every sin of humanity. He was crying because He realized that even though He was giving everything that He could give. That even though He was paying the ultimate price for sin, that there would be some who would reject His Word as frivolous and unnecessary and choose to live their lives according to their flesh, and thus reject the tremendous love and act of mercy that He was presenting. He wept, not because there would be many saved, but because He knew that there would be some that would choose to walk away without "denying themselves, picking up their crosses and following Him." He knew that there would be some to go the way of Judas Iscariot that would allow condemnation to overcome and kill their spiritual life. He knew that some would go the way of Demas "having loved this present world" more than the things of God. Jesus knew that dying out to self at an altar of repentance would not appeal to some, and so, even as He was offering Himself for the sins of every person who would come after Him, He cried. Jesus wept.

There will be no tears in the New Jerusalem. There will be streets of gold and walls of jasper and gates of pearl. There will be many great things there, but the one thing that will be missing will be weeping. Could it be that Jesus wept so that we will not have to? Could it be that Jesus wept to point out the things that we must avoid at all costs?! Could it be that His tears are recorded so that we can avoid hurting Him in like manner!? The scriptures say that when we willfully sin after that we have come to a knowledge of the truth, that we "crucify Him afresh." When you continue doing something that you know is absolutely against His Word, then you are hurting Him just as the day that He was crucified. On the day that He was crucified, He wept. I want to learn the lesson of His weeping in scripture, because when I see Him, I want to hear "well done, thou good and faithful servant." I do not want to hear "cast him out where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth." If you could see the face of Jesus Christ in response to your lifestyle today, would it wear a smile? Or would we say that Jesus wept?!