All right, go ahead and turn to John Chapter 11.
The title of this message is how to find hope when God delays.
How to find hope when God delays.
All right, so we're going to start, we're going to start
reading. There's five different ways that
we do that. We'll start off by reading the
1st 6 verses. It says this now a certain man
was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her
sister Martha. And it was Mary who anointed the
Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose
brother Lazarus was sick. And so we'll pick that up in
chapter 12 next week, but says this in verse 3.
So the sisters sent a word to him, saying, Lord, behold, he
who you love is sick. When Jesus heard this, he said,
this sickness is not going to end in death, but for the glory
of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days longer
in the place where he was. That's hard for some of you.
I, I know you've read that the first time you're like, wait,
wait a second. How could Jesus love and then
also delay at the same time? And we'll pick that up and we'll
give you some, some reasons why. But the first one, how to find
hope when God delays? The first one is this to know
the first one is to know why God delays in crisis.
He's going to show us why that is.
And it's it's tucked right in your Bibles.
I'm not coming up with it. It's right there before you, but
it's how many know that just because we read something that's
truthful in Scripture, it doesn't mean it's it's easy to
live out right. It's not easy to live that out
that truth, but Jesus nonetheless, he gives us that
truth and it says this there's a there's a few things that I want
to share with you. Why knowing why God delays in
crisis. The first one is no matter what
we're to bring our concerns to him.
I love this in this passage, you know, it's it says this that the
the sisters sent word to him. Do you know what it means to to
send a word to the Lord? It's just means prayer that
first Peter 57 cast your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
And they just the other day, one of my little guys, he came
running in my bedroom and he said, hey, he's like, hey, do
you got a prayer on peace? Do you got a, you got a, I'm
sorry, do you got a scripture on peace?
I said, yeah, I could come up with one.
Why don't you try this? Why don't you try Philippians
4-6 and seven? And if you guys listen to seeds
worship and you know, a lot of your parents will put that on
for your kids, but it's so helpful to have your kids sing
the scripture because once they start singing the scripture, I
mean, it sticks. And so I, I, we turn to
Philippians 4-6 and seven and just says, don't be anxious
right about anything. But what pray right in prayer
and petition Thanksgiving, let your request be known to God.
And then it says what? The peace of God will come in
and it will be beyond anything you can experience.
Right. And so I, you know it just as
I'm, I'm sharing that with, Oh yeah, I remember the song.
And so he's like, you know, singing it as he's leaving, but
that stuff, it sticks. And he asked me, he's like, how
do I know? Like how do I just quickly
forget? I quickly forget after I read, I
quickly forget that passage. And I said, it's like all of us,
he's like, all of us forget the scriptures, right at times, But
you but the Holy Spirit's going to bring that up in the time
that is needed. And so the sisters had an issue.
Their brother had just passed or is dying and and they sent word
to Jesus. And I love this.
It says here that Jesus heard this, but when Jesus heard this,
he says this, the sickness is not going to end in death, but
for the glory of God so that the Son of God might be glorified by
there's a lot of glory, glory, glory.
And, and, and sometimes when, you know, when we are in a
crisis moment, we're not thinking of the glory of God in
the moment. That's not the first thing that
we're thinking. We're like, just fix the
problem. You know, like that's what
you're asking God to do. And that's what the sisters came
to do. They said, look, we believe that
Jesus is able to do this and that's why we're going to him.
And I love the fact that Jesus is he's, he's human.
There's a human aspect here. And he, it says that he loves,
he's like I, I, they, they appeal to not that Lazarus love
Jesus. A lot of times we can, we can
appeal to that. Oh Lord, you know, my wife or my
kids or oh, how much, how much they love you, how much they
love you. But what they did is they appeal
to what Jesus is love for them. Why is that important?
Because our love is what? It's fickle, it's up and down,
it's circumstantial, right? And so they did the right thing
and said this is a person that you love and we want you to help
him. Don't forget that.
Just the simple request to God, God, you love these people.
I love what Moses says. You know, when, when, when they
were in the in the desert, they were sinful.
They were making a mess. They just got delivered.
And it's like, man, the people whom you delivered, it's over
and over and over again in the scriptures.
We're not boasting in our love for God.
We're boasting in his love for us.
Amen. Now, that's not a manipulative
tool. It's not like, oh, you love
them, you love them. You got to do something about
this. It's a genuine like, man, we've
Jesus, he's human. Remember, He's not a machine.
He's not just this God who's distant.
He actually had friends. He had it as a human, right?
He came as God and human. He put on flesh, God put on
flesh. And so he, there was a place and
and it's, it's without saying it, but it sounded like they
were a wealthy family. They had a place for Jesus to
stay while he was coming to Jerusalem.
Very, very impersonal. I mean, you can relate to this,
right? He had some friends and he's
like, man, when I'm coming through in Jerusalem, I'd love
to stay with you guys. And so you could just kind of
picture it in your mind. I mean, you know, they're
sitting there, they're having, they're having whatever meal,
they're, they're playing cards, they're having a good time,
they're talking. And now these, these people that
he spent a lot of time with, one of them, the owner of the house
is now sick and dying. And so there's a human element.
There's someone who understands. There's someone who hears it
says that when Jesus heard this, he hears our cry, he hears our
prayer. You may not feel that in the
moment, but he does hear. And I think it's important for
you to understand that early on that when you when you cry out
to God, he hears you. He actually hears you.
You may not hit like it's funny because you're, you're sometimes
when you're praying, you're like, did I get the right, Did I
get the reception right? I mean, is there like, is there
a loss of reception? Am I, is there a loss of signal
because I'm just throwing stuff up there, but I'm not really
getting anything back. Have you ever felt like that
feel like that all the time? I mean, if you really walk with
God, you're going to feel that often, but just know that he
does care for you. It says let your request be
known to God. Why?
Because he cares for you. You cast on like when you say
you have anxiety, right? The sisters had some anxiety.
We know one of them had probably a little bit more anxiety than
the other, right. If you if you read the Bible,
right, OK, so Martha, right. But you're you're just casting,
you're literally like throwing on God.
Your anxiety is like, do that. You're like, well, I don't want
to do that. That's not nice.
No, no, no, He can handle all your anxieties, whatever they
might be. Just cast your anxieties on them
because it says he can care for you.
It's like it actually in the, in the, in the Greek, if you see
it, it's like throwing a saddle on a horse.
It's putting this burden on the horse, right?
This weight on the he can handle it.
The horse is strong enough, God is strong enough to handle
whatever request you give him. Don't ever hold anything back in
prayer. Don't ever hold anything back.
He can handle that. The other day, like I was
calling the airlines and Alfie ever, ever had this experience
before? But it was a foreign airline.
And the first thing that I said, it says hello, we use AI and I'm
like, this is so weird. I feel like I'm like in 21 O3,
you know, like the year. It's like, OK, what are you
going to do with this? It says, please accept the, the
terms and agreement and what the, the information that we
take. I'm like, Oh my goodness, this
is just so weird, you know, but as I finally get there, like,
oh, eventually we'll get to one of our human associates.
I was like, yes, I would love to get to 1 of your human
associates. You know, do you ever have that
like that just frustrating, you know, because you're talking to
this robot, you know, that thinks they know everything and,
and then finally get to the human being and how many, you
know that sometimes when you're talking to human being, you feel
like you're still talking to a robot.
Do you ever feel like that? Like, so I'm talking to this
airline and I, you know, some of you guys know, I'm, I'm, we're
trying to head to Israel, but that's a little difficult as if
you're paying attention to the news, you're not living under a
rock right now. So I, I call it, I'm trying to,
I'm trying to get the tickets changed to another city.
And they said, Sir, we can't do that.
We can't change it to another city unless your city is 150
miles away from the destination. So I just go into Google and I
check 150 miles from Tel Aviv, Beirut.
That's not going to happen either.
Ocean. I don't think you land in the
ocean. Jordan's having some issues.
S there's no airport. Sir, what would you like me to
do? This is your policy. 150 miles.
You know, it's just like, well, I don't know, That's the only
part. You if you'd love to, we'd love
to change it right now if you, if you'd like to.
No, no charge. I'm like, Sir, there are
missiles flying within like 1000 miles of that location.
It's like you're they're just no understanding.
You're like, I want to just talk to the AI person.
Can I just get the AI person on the phone?
Would you ever feel like that? It's not like that with God.
God listens. He actually understands.
He's like, I have this friend. I know Lazarus personally.
Personally, I've sat with him, I've eaten meals with him, I've
stayed at his house. We're friends.
I get it. I know him.
Death is challenging. Have you ever lost anybody?
Maybe just even recently? I just went to a funeral on
Friday with a good friend and we lost and the boys were
devastated. Their sons, we're devastated.
Just they sat in the front row. They're just weeping the whole
time as people are sharing stories about their mom.
It's very hard. In fact, Nicole is just still
texting. She was very instrumental in the
early days of our church plant. She was she's an incredible
friend and one person said it like this.
We don't we, it's not one of those funerals were like what we
hope they're in heaven. One of them, One person said, we
know she is in heaven. And so it wasn't this sad deal.
It was a celebration, but it was still sad because people lost
their mom, people lost their friend and it was sad.
Death. Death brings a crisis.
It's challenging. And he says this, that it will
not end in death. Ultimately, you have to read the
scripture carefully that it looks like maybe a
contradiction. If you've ever read the rest of
this story, it might look like, wait a second, but Lazarus does
die and then you realize he was resurrecting from the dead.
But there's a lot going on here. And I want to help you guys
understand this because it will give you great hope in crisis.
And when God delays. And so there's a, there's two
reasons that Jesus shows us why he delays.
And he just basically kind of gives us, if you're like, you
know, kind of giving a speech, you, you give your
presuppositions early on. And Jesus is saying this
sickness will not end in death, but for the glory of God.
And you're thinking, well, what you know when you're, when
you're either the sisters or you're Lazarus or you're anybody
else in that are close to the situation.
When someone says, hey, when you're when you're in crisis and
God is delaying, he's not answering your your prayer right
away in the way that you want the expectation that you have
right just to hear, Oh, this will end in this will be this
will be for the glory of God. That's not helpful, right?
So what is the glory of God? What is the glory of God?
What is God's glory? And I'll, I'll share this.
There's, there's two ways that Jesus reveals his glory in this.
There's the delay of love. God's glory is it It's not the
delay of it's not the delay of his indifference, but it's the
delay of his love. Indifferent.
It, it, it looks like this like it when God's not answering your
prayer right away, it looks like indifference.
Looks like he's, he doesn't really care.
Have you ever thought that? Like honestly, have you ever
thought that? Like maybe he doesn't care,
Maybe he won, doesn't listen, he doesn't hear, But maybe you guys
are like, no, no, no, I know what the scripture say.
He he listens, he hears, but maybe he's right.
He's not, he's not wanting to. Maybe there's, there's, there's
a lack of willingness, there's there's a delay of or maybe he
doesn't care. There's some sort of
indifference. But in John 17, I'll show you
this in a second here at John 17, I want you to see this in
verse 22. This shows us what the glory of
God is. Glory of God is.
We're we're magnifying, we're putting light on something, on
his, on his character of who God is.
This is the glory, the glory which you have given me.
This is his prayer. This is Jesus's prayer to God,
right? He's saying this to his Father.
The glory which you have given me, I have given to them that
they may be one, just as we are one, I and them and you and me,
and they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may
know that you sent me and love them even as you love me.
She's unpacking what His glory is.
Glory is unity, His glory is his love.
Father, I desire that they also, whom you've given me, be with me
where I am. So it's His presence, His
friendship, intimacy, so that they may see my glory, which you
have given me. For you love me before the
foundation of the world. And you say, no, righteous
Father, although the world has not known you yet, I've known
you, and these have known you sent me.
I have made your name known to them and will make it known so
that this is key, so that the love with which you love me.
So this is the same love that God the Father had for Jesus may
be in them and I in them. Do you understand?
The glory of God is the revelation of his love, but yet
they did not experience that yet.
There's a drama in this story. We're going to get to, to the,
to the climax of the story soon, But there's a there was.
So when you read your Bibles, you're, you're like, OK, I want
to read it as it. You know, sometimes you're like,
oh, we already know how it ends. You know, as you're doing your
quiet time, you're kind of like already know how it ends.
Just try to picture yourself in that moment and, and, and stay
with what has already been revealed.
These sisters are, are desperate and they're coming to Jesus.
They're sending a messenger, which takes one day.
So they already know you know you, you can't just like drive
in your car and drive over there really quick and bring Jesus
back with you. So how it worked was there's
already been one day and most likely Lazarus is already dead
by the time they get to him. That's just one day.
Now Jesus delays two more days. Talk about, you know, if
somebody said, oh, Jesus is indifferent, if somebody was
there and had skepticism saying, you know, this God of yours is
indifferent, doesn't really care.
They might have a point because not only was there one day delay
with by going from the Jordan where Jesus is, and you get that
from John 1040, he went away beyond the Jordan.
This is after he's revealed himself as the shepherd.
So it takes a day to get there from the Jordan beyond the
Jordan to Bethany. So now there's a day.
Now there's two more days which Jesus delayed, and then it takes
a day for him to get there. That's four days.
There's no hope for Lazarus, a human perspective, no hope.
But he says this sickness is not going to end in death, but for
the glory of God. So these messages probably went
back with that message, but I love this.
It says now, and this is anytime you read in your Bible, I've
said this before, but in verse 5, anytime you read that God, it
says explicitly loves people, you underline that most of the
church today does not understand the love of God.
Just imagine if we really believe God's love for us, what
would happen? There's no need to turn to other
sin, right? There's no need to turn to other
worldly things, other idols, because if we know God loves us,
he fills us completely. It says Jesus loved Martha and
her sister Lazarus. I love that John puts that in
there because he again, he knows like of all people, it's like he
refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved.
So instead of rushing back, he has this purpose and it's to
reveal the glory of God. That's why he delays.
Why he delays is to reveal his love.
That's the first thing I I looked at this quote the other
or looked up this quote the other day and I thought it was
so good. When God makes us wait, it's a
sign that he purposes to bless us, but in his own way, usually
a way so different from what we desire and expect.
So just think with me right now. I mean, maybe everyone's having
an amazing time and no one's in crisis.
Praise God, then I'll just sit there and you teach it because I
find myself in these situations all the time.
I don't know about you. If you're in tune with your
life, you find yourself in that moment all the time.
You're crying out to God and you have an expectation, You have a
desire in which God's going to answer your prayers.
And what if that doesn't happen? What is that called?
Starts with AD disappointment. Anybody disappointed this
morning and God saying like Jesus is saying, look, this is
going to be good. He's like excited.
He's like giddy about how he's going to do this.
He's delaying and he's giddy about it.
He's excited about it not because of what that not because
it's going to cause you pain or disappointment because of how
it's going to end, where it's going to lead to.
That's what he's excited about and I love this is the second or
his delay doesn't negate his love.
It actually approves. It proves it.
But the second one is a delays to strengthen our faith.
His goal guys is to conform us into the likeness of him.
That is his main goal. If you look at the, if you look
at Paul's letters like in Colossians, Colossians one, his
purpose, he works, Paul's working really hard to, to teach
the Scripture so that they would understand that they would be
into that, that all these scriptures, all these teachings,
all these things, this labor would so that they would be in
made into the likeness of Jesus. Now the same thing in Galatians
419 that there's like, it's like birth pains like that they would
be made into the likeness of Christ.
That is his goal. That's not our goal a lot of
times. That's why we get that's why
there's so that gap between his goal is to make you into the
likeness of Jesus, which would be to your joy, right and what
your expectations are that gap. If that gap widens, the
disappointment widens, right, The disillusionment comes,
disillusionment comes in then the despair or depression or
whatever else. You got to close that gap and
believe that that God delays not only to reveal his love, but to
also strengthen our faith. And when our faith is
strengthened, what happens? Our joy is increased every time.
Just think of how like the the last trial that you were in,
when God finally came through, did your joy increase or
decrease? It increased.
So did your faith your strength. Man, God is real.
I just literally talked to one of the moms here that they were
believing for a child for a long time and they were, they were
having a hard time, you know, getting pregnant.
And then it just literally they, they woke up and their, their
baby was born just a week ago and they're changing their kids
diapers and they're, they're overwhelmed with joy and they're
like, this is a child that makes this is a symbol and a sign that
God is real. But it wasn't fun months and
months ago. There's no there was
disappointment and despair. There was hardship and wondering
and asking God the very question that we all ask Why?
Why, Why, why, why? Why?
Have you ever asked God that? You know who else asked that?
The Psalmist. It's OK to ask that.
It's not OK to stay there, though.
That will destroy us over time. That's what the enemy wants us
to do, is to stay in. Why?
But maybe the question is how? How God, how will you turn this
in to my good? How will you turn this in?
How will I see your glory in this?
Moses said, show me your glory. And it wasn't just like, hey,
all right, just like a flip it all right, here I am.
No, no, it cost him something to see his glory, and we're in a
difficult spot. Ultimately, he strengthens our
faith because he wants us to know that it was him, right?
Isn't that the best moments of your walk with God?
I'm just like, when you go through an actual trial and in
the end you're like, man, I know that that was God, but how does
he have to get you to know that that was God?
Does anybody know you just read that in a book?
No, you go through a trial that's painful because then
ultimately you're like, man, that has to be God.
That that child being born. That's that's the war.
We tried doing it in our own strength and we couldn't.
It's God. The second thing is here, verses
7 through 16. Second thing you need to do is
know that Jesus desires to calm our fears.
And verse 7 says this. Then after he after this, he
said the disciples let us go to Judea again.
So now they're making their trek back takes a day.
The disciples said to him, Rabbi, the Jews, we're just now
seeking to stone you, and you're now going again.
And Jesus answered, are there not 12 days, 12 hours in a day?
If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees
the light of the world. But if anyone walks in the
night, he stumbles because the light is not in him.
This he said. And after this, after he said to
them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go so that
I may awaken him out of his sleep.
The disciples then said to him, Lord, if he has fallen asleep,
then he'll recover. Now Jesus had spoken of his
death, but they thought he was still Speaking of literal sleep.
This is like the density of the disciples, right?
So Jesus then said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead and I
am glad for your sakes that I was not there so that you may
believe. But let us go to him.
Therefore Thomas, who is called Denimus said to his fellow
disciples, let us also go so that we may die with him.
Sounds like an Eeyore. It sounds like a kind of an
Eeyore character. But I'll, I'll show you in a
second hear what it's actually pretty cool what he what he said
here. But after two days, the they
were just shocked that Jesus wanted to go back because I
think they were thinking, OK, Lazarus is dead.
We don't need another guy dead. Because if you remember just
previously there, he's starting to get towards the end of his
life and people want to kill Jesus.
So Jesus is saying this, Hey, let's go back.
It doesn't matter. I'm not, I'm not afraid.
I'm not, I, I don't, I, I don't live for self preservation.
There are, he says, aren't there 12 hours in a day?
Basically the Jews broke their days up into two 24 hour
periods. There were 12 hours a day, 12
hours a night, just to, you know, I, I know there might be a
little bit more daylight hours, but just go with that.
So he's saying this, he's saying just as you can't add one more
daylight hour or subtract 1 more daylight hour, you can't add one
more minute to your life, nor can you subtract 1 more minute
to your life. Do you guys know you're not
going to live one more day than God ordained?
Do you know what Jesus was ultimately saying here, which is
so opposite of everybody in the room?
We give ourselves to what self preservation?
If we thought we were going to go into a dangerous situation,
we would not. Jesus was saying, hey, I God
knows the very number of hairs on my head.
He knows the day I'm going to die and so I'm going, is it
still light? The 12 hours of night symbolize
death. The 12 hours of days symbolize
life. Or he's like, I'm going to go as
it's light. I'm going to live because I know
death is coming. He's a, he says over and over in
your Bibles, if you look, if you're paying attention to the
Scriptures, he says my hours not come, my hours not come, my
hours not come. What is he saying?
My hour of death has not come. So therefore I'm going to go.
God still has more, right? And so if you're living right
now, if you have a pulse, like God has more for you and you
can't you, no matter I, I've literally said this like
probably in the last several weeks even, and, and no one was
in like a, a, a dangerous situation per SE.
But you know, all of us live with fears, like all of us live
with fears. Like, like, for example, like if
it, if you know, if a, if you have a of a baby and it's maybe
been hard to have a baby and then all of a sudden you have
one, you're like, I'm going to protect that, you know, and
it's, and I understand you protect it with everything that
you possibly have. And that's good.
God wants you to protect your baby or things that are precious
to you. But you have to understand God
gave that child life and gave you life.
And that child is not going to live one more day or one less
day than what God ordained. So why give in to self
preservation? He's asking us to believe and to
trust him, right? He's saying, you know, I, I saw
this the other day, you know, it is safer to be with Jesus in
danger than than to be safe in the world.
That's hard if, but it's true. Does anyone live like that?
Does anyone, would anyone take that quote as their own?
Does anyone actually believe that it is safer to be with
Jesus in danger than to live in the safety in the world?
Right, And I love this because, you know, everybody knows
doubting Thomas and This is why it was kind of funny towards the
end, right? Doubting Thomas, doubting
Thomas. I mean, literally my kid just
asked me that the other day. He was talking about Thomas.
He's like, he's like, what does it mean that it's we're more
blessed than Thomas was? I mean, he got to see the, the,
you know, the wounds in, in his, in his feet and his side and
his, and his and his wrist. I mean that's, it's such a
blessing. It's they're more blessed.
I mean, I would love to see that.
It's like, the point is, is that I was like, do you believe right
now? Do you believe that Jesus died
and rose again? Yes.
Then you're blessed because you didn't have any physical proof
of it. If God placed that faith inside
you, that is a miracle. You never got to see it.
You know, there were people even on the scene that got to see
Jesus literally die and there they got to see his resurrection
or at least hear of his resurrection from eyewitnesses
in the 1st century and they still didn't believe.
Now you understand why it's blessed.
You're blessed if you believe because it's a miracle.
It's the greatest, actually the greatest miracle of all time is
for you to have faith in somebody that did something for
you 2000 years ago that affects your life.
So I mean, we might call him Doubting Thomas.
I think it's a little unfair personally, after reading this,
I'm like, wait a second. That's the stuff.
He's like Jesus, I'd be willing to go with you and I'd be
willing to die with you. It sounds a little like, that's
why I said it sounds a little like he's so pessimistic.
You know, he's like, well, I guess we'll die with you.
I don't know. I used to read it that way.
And now as I'm looking at this scripture, I'm like, hey, man,
he's got some faith. He's like, all right, fine.
If we're going to go back to Jerusalem, they're going to
stone you. And I'm like, you know what,
we're going to die with you. That's cool.
We're good with that. And so there's a level of faith
there. There's a level of devotion.
They he showed more faith courage than the other. 11 And
then thirdly, we got to know that Jesus, what Jesus is truly
after, and verse 17 says this. So when Jesus came, he found
that he had already been in the tomb for four days.
And the scripture shows us that Jesus was glad that he waited
four days because he wanted people to see without a shadow
of a doubt this man raises from the dead.
It is a bonafide miracle. It is not like, oh, he was, he
was dead for like 1/2 hour, you know, and then maybe he really
wasn't dead because they try to play those tricks on Jesus right
at the resurrection. Oh, he maybe he really wasn't
dead. That's why he had to go through
the Roman crucifixion. That's why he had to go through
the whole process, because before he even, most people even
got to the cross, they died. So there's no way that Jesus was
still living on the cross, that when they took him down.
And so Jesus wanted to see, wanted them to see four days in
the tomb. No way, no way this man would be
still living. Now, Bethany was near Jerusalem,
about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and
Mary to console them concerning their brother.
Martha, therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming,
went to meet him, but Mary stayed at the house.
Martha then said to Jesus, Lord, if you have been there, my
brother would not have died. You know, and that sounds like
such a rebuke, right? But it's a it's if you've ever
grieved before, it's a mixture of of, of, of emotion.
It's like if you were, you know, like you, you just say things,
you ever just say things when you're grieving that you don't
mean. Jesus understands that you don't
have to be embarrassed of that. You don't have to take those
words back per say. I mean, that would does does
that. Lord, if you've been there, come
on man. Like what are you doing?
Teleport, whatever it takes. Jesus said to her, your brother
will rise again. And Martha said to him, I know
that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.
And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life he who
believes in me will live if he dies.
And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this? And she said to him, yes, Lord,
I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, even he
who comes into the world. What a beautiful passage there.
But I love this Martha who. And it's just cool to see this
balance every now and then in Scripture because sometimes we
give again with poor Thomas, he gets a bad name.
Poor Martha gets a bad name. But God redeems all that.
And even in this, if you remember in Luke 10, right,
they're having a meal at Lazarus's house, at their house,
and Martha's in the kitchen being busy, right?
And we always make make fun of her.
Oh, she's the busy one. And then Mary is at the feet of
Jesus. And Jesus does say she chose the
greater thing in this moment, that one thing right, that David
talks about, the one thing that I seek, the one thing that my
life is about is to be in the presence of God.
And, and Jesus is affirming what David said and said this woman
is doing the right thing. There's a time for everything.
But isn't it interesting while Mary was back at the house
because they would hire what is called mourners and they would
come to the house and they would mourn with you.
So anytime you go to the gravesite and this would be
about a month long, so they would do this for several weeks.
They would be with you, they would sit with you, they would
mourn with you. It's kind of nice in a way.
I mean, every time you would then hey, and you would go see
the gravesite. So the mourners would kind of
come out and they would meet with you.
And and so if you're weeping, they would weep.
And the Bible says that those you know, you need to weep with
those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.
But it was cool that, you know, even though Martha sound like a
dog was in here, but Martha was was, you know, even though she
was busy and everything, she was like a Peter.
She's like, man, if Jesus is there, you remember that one
part in the in John chapter 21, like he will get there later,
but he like jumps out of his boat and he jumps into the water
like he's like, man, that's Jesus, that's the Lord.
And he's like, he just like he wants to be near the Lord.
And I love this how Jesus redeems Martha.
Like everyone's like Martha, Martha, Martha, this Martha,
Martha. And he's like, no, no, no,
Martha was like, Jesus is here, I'm there.
And it's interesting. Mary's back at the house with
the mourners, being consoled by the mourners and Martha's life.
That's not enough. I need him.
You know, nothing else is going to satisfy when you're in pain
but Jesus. Nothing.
I just love, I love this because man, this is my goal is that my
words would fade and that you would get the Scriptures.
You're just reading it for yourself.
You're leaving. You're like, oh, John said this,
John, it doesn't matter. Jesus said this.
The Scripture said this. John the Apostle said this.
That's what's going to stick. Do you know that like I, that is
what's important, the word of God is going to stick well
beyond like if you go to another church, you go somewhere else.
I hope if anything, the words of God stick.
That's why we open up our Bible and we look at this and we're
like, man, I'm more like a Martha.
And you know, I'm busy, anxious and all this kind of stuff.
No, no, no. OK, great.
That that was her scene there, her scene here.
God's redeemed, that God's redeemed, that she's a different
person. She wants Jesus.
Amen. And we're not saying anything
bad about Mary because we're going to see in a moment here,
she's still the same person too. And it's important that you look
at the scriptures, look for yourself, see it in the pages of
Scripture because it will change your life.
It will. The scriptures over the last 25
1/2 years have changed my life. I've grown more in love with the
Bible in 25 years. Have you?
Do you love the Scriptures? It's so good.
Somebody was just challenging me earlier that today in worship,
they're like, you got to memorize the whole, a whole book
of the Bible, like Philippians or something like that.
You got to do that. I'm like, man, that's just OK,
I'll read my Bible. I read my Bible.
I know it's memorizing Scriptures, you know, it's so
good. But that's great when someone
can memorize a whole book. But as you memorize Scripture,
you have it with you. Everywhere you go, it's there.
The Holy Spirit's reminding you of what's important in the
moment. And everybody here is going to
go through a crisis at some point.
You're either in it or you're going into it and you're going
to need these words. So what's going on next here?
It says this, this rebuke was a mixture of grief and with faith.
And that's a lot of times what our that's a lot of times what
happens and this and, and if you, if you have friends that
are rebuking you in crisis, find other friends.
You need friends who listen. You need friends to point you
constantly to Jesus and your words you'll find and often if
you have a relationship with God, your words will you'll find
yourself with both a mixture of grief and faith and that is
normal and I love this what he's getting us to hear.
He says this, Jesus says Lazarus, he will rise again.
Martha thought that he would eventually rise.
What he's saying here is like, you know what Martha is like, I
know my brother will rise. I know he will.
What is he talking about? You know, our faith, it has
stages, right? It there's different stages to
our faith and for her the faith here and Jesus is trying to the
Third Point here is know that what Jesus is truly after and
you're going to see this in a moment here.
But Martha had a little bit of faith and she knew that, you
know, eventually it says something Psalm 16 that God
would never let my soul undergo decay.
What is he saying that eventually they understood the
Jewish thought they understood that eventually in the end we're
all rise. But Jesus is like, no, no, no,
you don't understand. Like I am the source of life and
I will rise him in real time today in about 5 minutes and she
just didn't understand that. And I love the the patience that
Jesus has for us. He says no, no, I am the
resurrection and the life. And this is the fifth of seven I
am statements. If you're following with John,
he's getting closer to the end here.
It's like in the 1st and John chapter 2.
He's the God of joy, right? He turns water into wine.
He saves a whole wedding and John chapter 5.
He says this that he's he's a he's a healer.
He can't the the, the the man who is lame for 38 years.
He can't on his own move towards Jesus.
And so Jesus moves towards him and then moving on from chapter
6, he feeds us and otherwise we would starve.
He says that I'm the bread. I am the bread of life and
therefore those who eat of meat who's take me in will never
starve, who never will never be empty.
John eight. I am the light of the world and
therefore he they never have to live in darkness ever again.
They could have the light of life number John Chapter 9 heals
the blind and John chapter 10, which we just saw last week.
He's the Good Shepherd. He's also the door into the
relationship with God. He's the way, right?
And then 14, which we'll get to you later.
I am the way, the truth and the life and John chapter 15, I'm
the vine. Why are these important for you
this morning? Because this is who Jesus is and
he's just saying come to me experience these things.
This is not just to be read on a page and what Jesus is
ultimately telling Mary he's like this.
Do you believe this Do you believe I love that there is
that was probably one of the best lines right for all of us
in this room. Do you personally believe this?
Do you actually believe that I am the resurrection of the life?
And what is the what is the after?
What is Jesus ultimately after He's saying this?
The greatest need, Martha, and I'll say this to you, Annie
Orlando, the greatest need is not your theology.
Your greatest need is Jesus himself.
Do you understand what's happening here?
If you're a good student in the world and you're paying
attention right now, you would understand that Jesus doesn't
give a RIP about your theology. He doesn't want you reciting all
the things that you know about God in crisis.
He wants you to what, go to him. It's real time.
He's like in this crazy. He gets beyond the theological
and he gets personal. He's like, do you believe this?
What does he want Martha to believe?
Not that they're going to resurrect one day.
In the end, as Paul talks about in Thessalonians, we're all
going to raise and have new bodies.
He's not talking about that. He's saying, do you understand
that I'm the source of life? And I want to give you hope in
real time. I want to give you myself.
See, guys, we don't ultimately what Martha and her sister Mary
were struggling with, it wasn't that Jesus could do this
miracle. That's why they came to him.
They've watched him do miracles for the last, I don't know, 8
chapters of his life up to chapter 2 was his first miracle.
They watched it, they were there.
We don't question his ability. We question his willingness.
Did you get that? We don't question his ability.
Some of you guys do. I mean, maybe, but I personally
don't. I don't question you.
Don't you walk with Jesus long enough?
You don't question his ability. He can do it.
Are you kidding me? He's the creator of the
universe. He can certainly do whatever he
wants, but does he want to? That's what trips us up.
That's why that's, that's why most of us, and maybe you're
new, that's why most of us in this room, we can go throughout
our whole life just reciting things in a cold way, in a cold
manner. We could just recite theology
all day long. And the older you are, the more
theology you have. And Jesus is saying, I'm not
interested in your theology. I'm interested in you knowing
me. That's what I'm interested in.
So when you're going through crisis, I'm not interested in
how much. Dude, I have people literally
coming. I mean, I've talked to a lot of
people on campus and just even at the funeral, there was some
people that we were talking to and just, they got so caught up
into the theology, into so many, just there are some people who
didn't know the Lord there and, and we were just talking to them
about all these different things.
But it was all these matters of theology.
And all I wanted to say is no, no, no, no.
Do you know him? Do you know God like the God of
the earth? Do you know that He is not not
just able, but wants to? He wants to, He wants to move in
your life. And until you believe that it
won't happen, until you believe that he actually wants to move
in your life in a personal way. It's the hope.
The ultimate hope is the hope that he wants to.
And do you live with that in your heart?
Yes, God wants to. He wants to move, He's
interested in me, in moving in my life.
It's not just theory, it's reality #4 fourthly, know
Jesus's compassion. After Martha believe she'd go,
then goes and grabs her sister. I love this.
She's in verse 28 when she said that she went away and called
Martha, Mary, her sister, saying secretly the teacher is here and
is calling for you. And when she heard it, she got
up quickly and was coming to him.
And now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still
in the place where Martha met him.
And then the Jews were were with her in the house and consoling
her. And when they saw that Mary got
up quickly, they went out and followed her, supposing that she
was going to the tomb to weep there.
And therefore when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw him and
fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my
brother would not have died. She's just like her sister,
right? But I love this and in Luke 10
and in John 11, Mary's the same person when things were going
really well. Where is she at, at Jesus's
feet? When things aren't going too
well, where is she at, at Jesus's feet?
Are you just with I, I know some of us maybe are, you know, new
at walking with God. But there are times early on in
my life that it just, I, I kind of had this, you know, unhealthy
pattern early on, maybe in college and early young
adulthood that when everything was like, man, I'm telling
people about Jesus, it's awesome.
He's changed my life. But then when things would not
go too well, it was like, I wouldn't, I wasn't finding
myself at the feet of Jesus. He had to teach me how to do
that over time. But Mary, what's so beautiful
about this is she was consistent no matter if things were going
well or things weren't going well.
Where'd she find herself the feet of Jesus in the next
chapter, chapter 12, You come back next week, we'll see the
profound this of her of how she literally gave everything to
Jesus because she knew who he was.
You spend enough time at the feet of Jesus, especially in
crisis, you'll know who he is. And that's why a lot of times
you're like, well, I don't really know who God is because
you're only at the feet of Jesus when things are going well.
Did you remember that? The glory of God reveals his
nature, who he is, and it strengthens your faith for the
long haul. And he says this in verse 33.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews who came
with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and was
troubled and said, where have you laid him?
And they said to him, Lord, come and see.
And it's the shortest verse in the Bible, right?
So hopefully everybody's memorized it.
Jesus wept so that the Jews were saying, see how he loved him,
but some of them said, could not this man who opened the blind
eyes have kept this man from dying?
I love this is that, you know, deeply troubled.
Jesus was moved and deeply troubled.
This is how we should all react when we're in a sense of crisis
or we're consoling somebody else.
But in the Greek, it's kind of a weird word.
It's it's snort like a horse. So it's like, OK, was Jesus
literally doing that? Like, I don't, we don't know.
It doesn't say, but the Greek word is snort like a horse.
It just means scolding or it carries anger.
And you might be thinking, wait, Jesus, does he do that?
Why is he angry? What is he hangry angry at?
Well, he's angry at the if you see the, the, the surrounding
context, there's three reasons why Jesus wept, which means that
it's not tears that like the tears that like the mourners,
like tears without hope. It's not a wailing, It's quiet
tears. It's quiet tears of pain and
hurt. Why?
There's three reasons why he wept.
And one, because sin kills. It hurts.
Sin hurts. Let me ask you something.
When's the last time you grieved over your own sin?
When's the last time you actually grieved over a friend
who's living their life away from God?
He saw all the heartache. I mean, he's watching this.
It's like this moment, he could almost, he was like, you know,
like those movies, like everything's happening around
them, but they're giving you this like point of view and
they're just quietly still. And it's like you can and then
they kind of drowned out all the sounds and all you hear is just
it's just silence and they're just watching.
It's like a movie scene. You ever see that?
I don't know what movie I'm thinking of, but I've just seen
some movie like that. And they're like all this chaos
and commotion and he just has this moment and he's looking
around and he's like, this is awful.
The sisters are plus my friend, mourners are there and they're
they're mourning is people without hope.
Do you ever just do you know the difference?
I remember some of my my actually when I got saved, my
grandmother died. She's she's, I grew up in an
Italian household. So Italian funerals are crazy.
And, you know, everyone's wearing black.
There's no celebration of life there.
There was like, it was terrifying.
And people are like way like these.
My Italian aunts and others are like wailing over the casket,
you know, like just, but I could tell, like, those are not tears
of hope. They're tears of despair.
That's not why Jesus is grieving, because he's watching
these people without hope. But he's also saying this.
Of all the unbelief around him, do you know that he agrees at
your unbelief? And thirdly, I think this is the
most human reason that we have that connects us to Jesus
himself. Is he just Death is painful.
To watch. He lost his friend, so I got
miss, you know, you just, you know, when you miss somebody and
you, you've lost somebody you like, What do you do when you
just remember all the good times?
You're just like flashing. Like what's flashing before?
You it's just all the I could just, you know, like a like in a
movie, right? I mean just flashback like he's
like, you know, Martha, he's like Martha and Mary there.
You know, Jesus is just joking with them and joking with
Lazarus and they're having a good time.
They're drinking and like just going back.
He's like, man, I miss this guy. I miss the times are never going
to be the same anymore and to the other side of heaven when
things are all made right, but on this side you know it's not
going to be the same as it. And so he weeps.
Isn't that amazing? I don't know who.
If you're new, you're coming in. I don't know what your views are
on Jesus, but I hope you have a better view of who he is today.
He's both the Lord of. Heaven and earth.
He has all the power in the world to do whatever he wants
and yet at the same time he's puts subjects himself in a a
world full of grief, unbelief, obviously opposition from verse
36, you see, but he's also. He's lost.
The God loses his friend and he weeps because it ripped.
Death rips people apart. It hurts, but he's a high priest
who sympathizes with our pain. And then lastly, don't get.
Distracted from his ultimate goal.
Which is ultimate goal. We'll see here in a second verse
3038. So Jesus again, being deeply
moved within. Do you notice that I love this.
And verse 37, he's like people begin to start mocking him and
come on, man. I mean, if you're going to open
up blind eyes, my goodness, why weren't why isn't he here just
healing this man of this disease?
It's pretty simple, right? Have you ever kind of felt that
way, right? And Jesus doesn't give in to any
of the mocking. What does he do?
He sticks with the program. He's grieved, he's grieved.
He's grieved within. And then he goes to the tomb,
and now? It was a cave and the stone was
lying against it. And Jesus says remove the stone
and you don't get to see this right here, right?
It's and I love this in the in the new King James, it says it
stinketh there was a. Stench 4 days.
They're about to open up this tomb, right?
It was a stone. They just rolled it aside and
there it is. I mean, in other words, I don't
want to get too graphic, but the body started decaying.
And they're like and again you can see like the.
Unbelief Martha, the sister of of of Lazarus, this deceased, he
says, Lord, I mean like I love your heart.
You want to see my brother, but I don't think this is a good
idea. Again you can see.
Proof here that she didn't. Believe that Jesus was actually
going to raise him from the dead.
How patient is God towards our unbelief, Lord by this time?
It's going to be a stench. For he has been dead for four
days and he's like, of course I know, remember what I said, I'm
glad for your sakes. But this is not going to end in
death. It's going to end, he says.
Did I not tell you? That if you believe, you would
see the glory of God. So they removed the stone.
Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that
you have heard me, and I knew that you always hear me.
But because of the people standing around, I said it so
that they may believe that you sent me.
He did all that. He sets up every trial in our
life to reveal His goodness. You know that every trial you're
in every single circumstance that is hard.
He sets it up to reveal himself, to reveal his love, to
strengthen your faith, to increase your joy.
That's why he does it. And when he said these things,
he cried out with a loud verse. Lazarus come forth in the in the
Greek, it just says Lazarus here outside, that's what it says.
It's kind of cool, isn't it? And there's some commentators
that say if Jesus wasn't specific about, he's saying
Lazarus here outside, every dead man would have rose from the
dead. Like, Can you imagine?
Like no, no, not not. You you go back to it's like
what the heck, you know, but but I love that.
I love that his words are so powerful.
Lazarus here outside and he just like comes out, you know, I
don't know if he comes out like a mummy because he was wrapped.
You know, it's like you can't really see.
And it's cool that every person that was a bystander, whether
they were believing or not believing got to be a part of
his miracle because he says undress the person.
And then I love the fact that he cares about every little thing
he says after he does the miracle right of raising the
little girl, he says, come, give her something to eat.
Jesus doesn't care just about the miracle.
He cares about the person and I love this that.
Every single person. Right, Every single person that
was watching this, that do not have a relationship with God saw
the miracle. Every person that witnessed
this, that has a relationship with God got to actually see
God's glory. Do you know that that every,
I've watched this many, many times where God has done a
bonafide miracle and everyone could attest to it.
There are people that are just like, wow, that's a cool
miracle. But the friends the.
Family, those close, what do they get to experience?
When Kathy and Nathan were going through their.
Journey of adopting a child it's very difficult for took about a
couple years and the actual process of adoption took many
years lots of money and you often think you know God you can
do anything you can do it in the moment in the moment you can you
can do it you could have given them a child in the moment you
could have opened up the womb you could have done whatever you
wanted to do and they had faith in God's ability but for.
Whatever reason God started. Putting more and more people in
their life. For what reason this is this?
That God was glad. That it went about this way so
that. The friends and family could see
the glory of God when that child came back home.
I mean, there's so many people just showering that little one
with gifts and some of the things they need to be careful,
right? But just getting.
To see. Geez, God could have done it
simpler. I sometimes wonder, like God,
you could have done this in such a simpler way, right after you
go through such pain and heartache through a trial.
Did you ever say that? Like this could have been a
simpler way. You could have just said the
words, boom, done. We don't even have to go through
any of that. But he gathered everyone around
the. Elys so that we.
Who are? Friends with them could see the
glory of God. Do you think the Elys faith are
strengthened? Do you think their joy is
increased? Do you think they know?
That God loves them. So good.
I think what we need to do often is is just say to each other
when we go through. Trials, if you believe.
You will see the glory of God. I think we.
Need more friends in our life that just when.
We're going through really hard things and we will in this
church. It's not just all awakened
trips. And we love college ministry and
we love I, I mean, that's my favorite.
I, I leave college ministry with the guys.
I'm that's my favorite ministry out of all the church.
But I know that in the family ministry and as you grow in your
faith, you're going to go through some stuff and you need
friends to come around you and say, you know what?
You are going through this. So that you will see the glory
of God. God has set all this up,
ultimately to draw you near. I gave a message not that long
ago. And Luke?
Five, I'm not going to go through the whole thing, but
Peter is really struggling. That night he tried it.
He. He.
Needed to He's a fisherman. So he's just like, hey, I need
to make a living. And Jesus comes near him and
says this is this like probably second or third encounter.
And Jesus just says to him in Luke 5, hey, throw the net into
the boat, off the boat, into the water, See what happens.
He's like, OK, because he said, so I'm going to do it.
So all of a sudden all this fish came into the boat and almost
capsized their boat, the Nets, There's so much fish in there.
The Nets broke. And what did he do?
He got down on his knees and he said to Jesus, depart from me.
I am a sinful man. The grace of God is overwhelming
in our life and when it comes, when we get to see where there's
children born or adoption or whatever miracle that comes into
your life, whenever you see the breakthrough of God, they're
only responses. God, I do not deserve that.
And it's funny how on the front end you're like, I deserve this
God, you have to come through. And then he takes you through
this crazy, painful experience and in the end you see the glory
of God and you're like, no, depart from me.
I'm a sinful man because you saw what God's patience and his
grace move through your life. He walked with you in your
unbelief and in your ups and downs.
And then when you say, oh Lord, if you were here earlier, you
would have, you would have done something about this or
whatever. He's, he just puts up with you,
right? He doesn't just put up with you.
Actually, no, he doesn't put up with you.
He loves you. He's with you, He's committed to
you, and I love. This is that in that you.
Know Peter could have easily just said OK Lord what we're
going to do here is we're going to come up with a great business
plan you're going to come on all my fishing adventures and you'll
make me a lot of money and Jesus just says something very simple
I'm paraphrasing but he says forget the fish I want you and
until we. Realize that until.
We really truly understand what God is after.
We will be people despairing all the way through the trials and
tribulations until we understand that He puts us in this.
He sets everything up to draw us near, to draw us close.
Says this in Psalm 27. Verse 13 and 14 says the one
thing right we want is this glory, but it says this we would
have despaired unless I believed that I would see the goodness of
God and the land of the living. And he says in verse. 14 we'll
wait upon. The Lord, let's take heart.
Do you know this? This miracle?
This. Is another great thing about
this passage as we close the miracle was not dependent on
their faith. It would have happened
regardless. You know what that shows?
God is incredibly, incredibly patient with your up and down
faith and that truth alone just draws us.
And that's why He does it. He doesn't have to.
Answer our prayer, He. Doesn't have to perform the
miracle even in our unbelief or even in our struggling faith,
but He does so anyways because of His grace.
This miracle was not dependent on Martha.
It wasn't dependent on Mary, certainly wasn't dependent on
Lazarus, because he's already dead.
It's not dependent. On anyone.
Around there, not even his disciples because they struggled
and unbelief, but it was dependent on who was dependent
on God and he would have done the miracle regardless.
And he did do it regardless because when our faith is weak,
he is faithful and he's showing himself true over and over and
over again. And I want to, I want to land on
just this song. I asked the the band to to just
sing this bridge. And I think it would just will
be. Helpful.
And I'm just praying for a breakthrough in the room that
maybe perhaps some of you guys are really struggling in this
season with whatever it is, whatever breakthrough you need.
And it just doesn't seem to be coming quick, quick, at least
according to your expectations. But God is incredibly patient
and he's faithful. And this bridge just says it
like this. Help me to trust the way you
lead me in and out of every season in gardens or in desert
places, the good and the bad. I will trust your patience.
He's incredibly patient with us. So I wanted you to see first
hand for you to look. And as I'm, I'm just falling
more in love with God throughout this, this journey and John,
because I'm like, man, we get to see this first hand, who he
really is. And he says this, the sickness
will not end in death. His words are true.
His words will never fail but for the glory of God, so that
the Son of Man may be glorified. He allows you to go through the
things you go through so that His glory ultimately that would
be revealed to you so that you might draw closer to Him.
Help me to trust the way you lead me in and out of every
season, Lord, in the gardens or in desert places.
I will trust your patience a stand and worship Him.