It is good to see all of your faces, a lot of new faces too,
which is amazing to see. Hey, my name is Sean Stevens.
I am on the teaching team here at Res Church.
My wife and I have been coming here for about 5 years.
Man it is. It is always a blessing to be
here with you today. We are going to continue in our
series and John, we are going to be looking at John 1117 through
27. So if you guys want to turn
there now, you can go ahead. But we're going to be looking at
the life, death and ultimately the life of Lazarus as it
pertains to his two sisters, Martha and Mary.
I would say that it is safe, that there are moments in life
that feel so outer body, so confusing, so filled with
suffering, that we begin to ask the question, why?
Why do these things happen? Where were you, God, in my time
of need? It may be a moment of actual
loss, like what we're going to see in our reading today.
Or it might be just that the rug got pulled out from under you
and it's confusing and you don't understand it.
I myself have had many of these moments.
Some are from the Lord sovereignly and others are
created by our own bad decisions and then we have to live in the
consequence of that. So just for kind of a frame of
reference, so you know who I am a little bit.
Most of you know my story, but I am about 2 1/2 years sober
today. 2 1/2 years. Yeah.
Praise the Lord. God is so faithful.
Yeah, well 2 1/2 years ago I got Volun told to come to an elder
meeting where I got sat down by all the pastors and the elders.
And there was a non negotiable requirement of my life at that
time, which was for the sake of my marriage and for the sake of
me being a part of Rez church, that I had to go into sober
living for three months. So I find myself in this
position where I'm an addict, I'm an alcoholic and all of the
things that come with that. I'd lost my job, I'd lost where
I was living. My wife was 8 months pregnant, I
had a 2 year old daughter. Everything was burning to the
ground around me. I mean, it is safe to say that I
was completely hopeless in that moment.
And I remember going into this sober living facility and you
have guys that are tattooed from their toes to their head, their
felons, their convicts. They've lived rough lives.
I go into my little room and I sit on my squeaky and stained
twin bed with a guy that I'm living with in that room who has
visible signs of PTSD in his life.
And I remember sitting on that bed and everything just became
silent where I had to kind of re evaluate if there was even a
plan for my life. Was God absent in these moments
or was there a purpose to what I was going through?
And ultimately I had to choose to believe right then that in
the midst of my suffering that God still had a plan for my
life. And that what we are going to
see is that in the midst of all of our suffering, God has a plan
for hours. The big idea today is that when
everything feels dead, it's where hope in Jesus begins,
where everything feels dead, it's where hope in Jesus begins.
So we're going to be in John 1117 through 27, starting in
verse 17, it says now when Jesus came and found Lazarus had
already been dead for four days in the tomb.
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. When Martha heard that Jesus was
coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the
house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if
you had been here, my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God
will give you. And Jesus said to her, Your
brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that
he will rise on the resurrection on the last day.
And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and
everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
Do you believe this? And she said to him, yes, Lord,
I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who is
coming into the world. Let's pray Father, we pray for
your word as you promised to not come back void, that you would
do the work in our hearts that only you could do and that we
could ultimately see Jesus for who he is, that He is good, who
has a purpose for our life, He has a plan and that He can be
trusted. We pray these things in Jesus
name, Amen. So as Justin explained last week
in his sermon, Jesus knew that Lazarus was on the precipice of
death, that it was imminent Lazarus was going to die.
And what Jesus decided to do in that moment was not rush to
Martha and Mary and Lazarus to make sure that Lazarus didn't
experience this physical death. But what he does is he
intentionally delays and inevitably Lazarus dies, Lazarus
dies. Jesus explains this on his
reasoning on why he says that one, that the power of God would
be shown and two, that God would receive glory when he resurrects
him. The problem or the challenge at
this moment is you still have Martha and Mary bearing the
weight of losing a loved one. It is real, it is overwhelming.
I I can imagine the confusion, the hurt in this moment.
But as we will see, there is a purpose to his dealings with
Martha and there is a purpose to his dealings with us as we find
ourselves in similar situations. Because when everything feels
dead, it's where hope and Jesus begins.
So point number one, God is at work.
God is at work. Jesus is coming into Bethany.
He's riding in, Mary stays in the house, house.
Martha sprints out to meet him. And Martha says to Jesus, Lord,
if you would have been here, if you would have been here, my
brother wouldn't have died. Do you hear the question?
I know, I hear it. I can feel it.
I think we've all felt it. What Martha is asking is why?
Why did you let this happen? Why in my greatest time of need
were you absent in this moment? Why did my brother have to die?
Do you know those moments? I know them where God feels so
absent, where you begin to question everything.
I mean, I just turned 39 and I've had a specific suffering in
my life, my entire life. So 39 years.
I have insomnia. And I don't mean like I can't
sleep a little bit. I mean my mom tells stories.
When I was a baby, I didn't sleep.
When I was a toddler, I didn't sleep.
Some of my first memories in life is being 5-6 years old and
I'm just sitting in my room playing with toys and it's 3:00
in the morning. It's silent in the house, it's
dark in the house, it's dark outside.
I'm just awake. These are some of my earliest
memories I have prayed to God, Lord, please give me sleep.
Some days I I feel like a zombie.
I feel like I'm walking on the moon.
I'm queasy, I'm angry, I'm all of these things and I see God
and say, please remove this. And God has not removed this
thing. And the truth is that although I
know, I know it, that he is good and he could be trusted.
I know it. Man, is it hard to believe it
sometimes? Man, is it hard to to see God in
the middle of our suffering? Martha is experiencing this same
kind of disconnect. She knows that the issue is the
belief at this moment. Listen to what Martha says in
John 11/22 she says, But even now I know that whatever you ask
of God that he will give you, but right before she says but
why did my brother have to die? I know that you have a plan, but
this tragedy has befallen on me and I don't understand why.
And what a natural response that is in a moment like this.
That when life hits so overwhelmingly where it feels
like you are outside of your own body, when tragedy strikes, that
we are struck by fear and doubt and confusion, despair.
Will there ever be hope again? But as the Bible begins to speak
to us about the character of Jesus, we see as we get to know
Him that it is for our good. He does have a plan.
We see that it is promised in the Bible, suffering and there
is a purpose behind it. One of those reasons is to draw
us closer to God. He wants to draw us in.
Listen to what Hebrews 415 and 16 says.
It says we do not have a high priest who is unable to
sympathize with our weaknesses. Hey, Hallelujah, Hallelujah that
He knows where I'm at right now, but one who in every respect has
been tempted as we are, and yet He is without sin.
Let us then, with confidence draw near the throne of grace,
that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. Family, he knows where you're
at. He knows what you're feeling.
He knows that this world chews us up and tries to spit us out
and leave us. For that He knows and how He
knows, because He has hurt, He has suffered.
He knows our confusion. He knows our weariness.
Jesus has been suffered and tempted with everything that we
have and more, and He understands our hardships.
And He desires to give us a greater revelation of Himself
that we would know Him and that we can find peace in the middle
of whatever we are going through.
We follow a suffering Saviour. He wants us to know the full
counsel of His character, and part of that is suffering.
The second one is it is to refine and strengthen.
It is to refine and strengthen. Listen to first.
Peter 4 says, Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery
ordeal that has come on you to test you as though something
strange were happening to you. The fire is supposed to test our
faith. What a good God we serve that He
tests our faith so we know that it is proven and real.
He allows us to go through this so we can see the weight of our
hardships and still trust him in it, and that our suffering is to
grow our affection for Jesus brighter and that we would be
refined and strengthened through the fire.
So that's number one, is that God is at work #2 God offers
resurrection power. He offers resurrection power.
First, we're going to see a physical resurrection.
He is talking about that. This is great news.
This ain't your best life. Now family, Hallelujah.
I got 2 little kids and it does not take me much to get to the
point where I pray Jesus just come back right now, please, and
just take me to heaven because I'm I'm done with this.
Like literally I took in groceries two weeks ago.
Simple task, right? Groceries are at the door, the
counter is 12 feet away and I just have to get these groceries
to the counter. The problem is I have a four
year old and a 2 year old and they saw string cheese in the
bag that I was holding and that's all it took.
So now they're standing in front of the door like armed guards
and they're just staring at me. And I'm trying to tell them
like, hey, if I can get this bag to that counter, I'll give you
the string cheese. But then they did this thing and
I know parents will understand, especially parents with young
kids. This thing never works that kids
try to do, and if anything, it hinders.
They did this thing where they try to help you.
Ever seen that? Or they try to start helping
you. My son drags a bag out.
Oranges fly on the ground. There's avocados.
I slip on the bag, I knock him over.
My daughter is in the kitchen trying to take a single shoe
off. She's having a meltdown.
And in that moment I'm just like, Lord, come back now, right
now, take me to heaven. That's all it takes.
But that's the truth is that if you have put your faith in
Jesus, this isn't your best life.
Now. There is going to come a time
when you either die or at the second coming of Jesus where all
of your pain, all of the hardship, all of those questions
that you have had your entire life, why did that have to
happen to me? Why did it unfold that way?
Why wasn't my dad around? Why did he have to die?
All of those questions are going to be absolved in the goodness
of God and we will spend eternity with Him in the
fullness of joy. The first one is pointing to a
future resurrection. The second one, praise the Lord
as he's pointing to spiritual life now, spiritual life right
now. Martha is rightfully devastated.
Her brother is dead. She is experiencing the grief
over this and in this moment Jesus comment to her could seem
cold. She asked the question.
She says if you would have been here, my brother wouldn't have
died. Jesus doesn't respond to it.
You ever pray to the Lord? Why, why, why?
And he doesn't answer. He just lets you stay in it.
That's where Martha's at. She is in the middle of it.
Jesus says in that moment when he is looking at Martha, he
says, I'm not going to tell you why I let him die and I'm not
even concerned about the future. He stands right in front of her
and says I am the resurrection and the life, it stands in front
of her in that moment. Heavenly life, eternal life,
these things stand in front of her.
Satisfying life in God can be found in that moment.
And this is amazing that no matter what befalls on us, your
marriage, your health, your finances, that the resurrection
is in front of you at this moment.
But the truth is that resurrection power, seeing it
for what it is, takes work. It takes a lot of work to see
Jesus for who he is. It takes a lot of work to see
Jesus in the suffering. Those parts of your life that
are dead, it's hard to see life in it.
There are some people in this room that have surrendered parts
of your life to death, but there's this area that just
hasn't been given over to the Lord.
And he calls and he beckons, and he wants to heal it and give you
peace in it. I mean, as I was preparing in
this message, I began to think of all of the moments that I
have experienced death in my life.
And I know for a fact that there are men in this room right now
where your marriages are dead. They're dead.
You've ascribed them to death, and the Bible would speak to our
marriage the same way that it would speak to every area of our
life that we should care about our marriage.
Listen to what Ephesians 525 through 28 says.
It says, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the
Church, and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her,
having cleansed her with the washing of the Word, so that he
might present the Church to himself in splendor, without
spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, that she might be holy
without blemish. In the same way husbands love
your wives. He who loves his wife loves
himself. The Jesus as we are the bride
cleanses us and purifies us. He spent so much time and so
much effort building us up to ultimately present us to
Himself. He does the work and then He
presents us to Himself. Men, we are going to have to
present our wives to a holy Creator who is also the Father
of your wife. Is he going to look at you in
that time and say, man, she looks exactly like I hoped she
would look like? Or is he going to say, I wish
you would have spent more time, sacrificed more, cared more,
done the hard work more? I'm living this right now in my
life. I'm 2 1/2 years sober.
This wall of trust takes years to build.
And in one moment I pushed it over.
It's gone. So now I got to go find all the
bricks and slowly start putting these things in place.
But it takes time to get there. And I remember I'm a year into
sobriety and I'm I'm holy and I'm doing everything I should be
doing. And I'm having this problem.
Like, man, my wife doesn't. She's not showing me the
respect. I'm doing everything I need.
And I would bring this to the men in my life and I'd say, what
am I supposed to do? And all of them would say, get
over it, seek God, stay accountable, die to your old
ways, sacrifice more, sacrifice more, pursue her more, love her
more. That I would have to bring it to
the cross. God had the power to send His
Son to die on our behalf, to win our hearts.
He will give us the power to sacrifice ours to win hers
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
He will empower you to do things that you are didn't even think
capable. Listen to what AW Tozer says in
the pursuit of God. Speaking about the cross dying
to our old ways. He says that the cross is rough
and it is deadly, but it is effective.
It does not keep its victim hanging there forever.
There comes a moment when it's work is finished and the
suffering victim dies and after that is resurrection.
Glory and power in the pain is forgotten.
And I'm not so naive to think that the pain might be your
marriage and maybe it's not. Maybe your Martha moment isn't
that and praise the Lord, but maybe it is your health.
Maybe it is. Man, I have to see doctors every
single week and it doesn't look like this is going to end well.
And why God? Maybe it's parenting challenges.
Hello anybody. Am I the only one that sits in
my living room sometimes and like, I don't know what I'm
doing? Or it could be the actual loss
of a loved one. But all of these things can be
brought to the cross of Christ so that in our hardship we can
receive a greater revelation of His goodness and His glory, and
that we can find joy in it. It is painful beyond imagination
and it is totally worth it. It is totally worth it.
Jesus loves you so much you can't even fathom It is totally
worth it. Because when everything feels
dead, it is where hope in Jesus begins.
And then #3 belief awakens new life.
Belief awakens new life. In the life of Martha.
This was an absolute testing of her faith.
She didn't understand why she had all of these questions,
questions. Jesus didn't answer them as
Jesus does a lot of times. But in that moment, Jesus stood
before her and he said, Martha, your brother will rise.
I'm going to resurrect him physically and he's going to
rise at the second coming. He will rise again.
There will be resurrections. But what he said to her is the
resurrection and the life stands before you today.
And then Jesus asked the question, do you believe it?
Do you believe it? Do you believe that I am capable
of giving you the things that you are desiring, the questions
that you need answers? Do you believe that it can be
found in me? There is a passage in John 9
just two chapters before about a blind beggar.
And I don't know if you guys have read this, but this man has
been blind for decades. It's his entire life he's been
blind and Jesus miraculously heals this man after being blind
his whole life. And leading up to this moment,
there are so many different parties involved and all these
things going on. You have the disciples asking
Jesus, was this guy blind because of his sin or his
parents sin? And Jesus addresses that and
then he heals them. And then people, his neighbors
walk by and then they're looking at the blind guy saying, is this
him? Some say yes, some say no.
The Pharisees get wind that Jesus has healed on a Sunday.
So then they get involved and they're trying to put these
claims on Jesus. And then the Pharisees call in
the blind guys, mom and dad, and say, is this the guy?
And you have all of this commotion.
He's just healed this man. And it's said that they kicked
him out of the temple, the blind man.
So he goes out and listen to this.
It says Jesus followed him. And I imagine this moment with
this blind man, as he's standing there, he's received this
miracle. He just got ostracized from the
temple and everything becomes silent.
He's standing face to face with Jesus.
All of his hardship from the past, all of the brokenness that
he's experienced, all of the opinions of others, his
neighbors, his friends, his mom and dad, it's all just quiet.
And Jesus looks at this man and says, do you believe in the Son
of God? And at that moment that man had
to make a choice to believe. And it says, he said, I believe.
And he began to worship the Lord, began to worship the Lord.
He had lost sight of all of his trauma, all of the years of
hardship, the suffering, all of those moments asking God, why
did you let this happen? And all he could see was Jesus.
I spent so many years looking at the past injustices that have
happened in my life, all of the trauma, my own decisions, and I
couldn't see Jesus because my eyes were fixed on them.
But I had to make a choice to look at Jesus.
The blind man had to make a choice to look at Jesus.
Martha is in the same situation. She couldn't see God, but then
she chose to believe that Jesus had a plan and it was for her
good. And you may be experiencing a
Martha moment today where life is so upside down, so backward,
so confusing, so it's all burning to the ground that you
cannot see God and what He is doing and you have not trusted
the Lord with your life. But it's also become too
overwhelming to continue. Or you may be sitting here
today, like Me 2 1/2 years ago, where you look forward, you look
backward, you look left, you look right, it's all cinder and
ashes, It is all just gone. And you've known, you've
reasoned that God is good, that he is maybe has a plan for your
life. You've seen him work in other
people's lives. But you have not yet got to the
point of believing. And if you are feeling that call
today, I want to give you an opportunity to accept the Lord
as your Savior if He is beckoning you and calling you
today. This is what Romans 10-9 would
say. It simply says, if you confess
with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and here it is, if you
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
will be saved. You don't have to work for
salvation. You don't have to put all of the
pieces together. You just have to believe.
Martha had to believe that God had a plan.
If we all could, if we could all bow our heads and close our
eyes. If you believe that God is
calling you and this life has become overwhelming, it's
unmanageable. And although that you have known
about this Jesus person, you have not yet trusted him.
But you know in this moment God is calling you to eternal life
in heaven and also eternal life in this moment.
I want you to pray this prayer after me, either silently or to
yourself. Father, I know that I am a
Sinner and I cannot do this life on my own.
Today I choose to believe that through Jesus life, his death,
his resurrection, that I will be saved.
Help me live a life that is marked by trusting you in every
situation in Jesus name, Amen. Keep your heads bowed real
quick. If you prayed that prayer for
the first time, can you be brave and just raise your hand for me
to see? Thank you, Lord.
All right, you could put your
hands down if you prayed that prayer.
OK, you guys could put your heads up now.
Sorry. If you prayed that prayer for
the first time and you believed in your heart for the first
time, I want to say welcome to the family of God, Praise the
Lord. We're going to have a gift for
you who all accepted the Lord. They're going to be on the back
tables and on the way out. You guys can grab that gift.
So application. So what does this look like?
So what if today we chose to believe?
What if today we say, hey, I have been through the wringer,
it is real, it's valid, but I am choosing today to believe that
God is good and he has a plan. What would that look like?
Point #1 It would look like living your life around people
who believe. OK, I'm going to offend some
people right now and it's OK. I don't mean people who go to
church. I don't mean people who've been
baptized. I mean people in every and all
situations of their life, the answer of their heart is praise
God. Do you know those people?
I know them. I see them a mile away and I'm
like, man, I just want to be in their shadow to like rub the
holiness off on me. Get around those people that if
it's hardship, the response of their heart is joy.
Jesus is so good. It's joy if it's blessing, it's
joy if it's the mundane. They're just like, hey, praise
God. I do the same thing every day,
Praise the Lord. Be around those people.
What does that look like? You get plugged into a small
group. We do community here at RES.
It's small groups. You can come up to one of the
leaders or one of the staff after and we can get you guys
plugged in. And when you get into that small
group, man, you get like, like thermal vision, and you find the
people who are seeking God in that group and you go, man, I
want to believe more. I want to get through this
situation more. I want to see God and all of it.
And that happens by hanging out with people utterly filled with
the Spirit of God. And they will encourage life
into you. Get around people who believe #2
the word of God begins to change you when you decide to believe.
It is nearly impossible. And I say this from experience,
OK? It is nearly impossible to trust
God and suffering if you don't have spiritual eyes, but instead
you got a worldly mind. We do not conform to the
patterns of the world. Listen to what Romans 12/2 says.
Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you
may discern what the will of God is, what is good and acceptable
and perfect. We don't want to do what the
world does. I don't want to act the way the
world does. It offers me nothing.
There's death, it's death out there and they wrap it in a
pretty box and they say, here you go, take it as I'm dying
from depression and anxiety. No, I don't want to be conformed
to the pattern of this world. I want to be transformed by the
word of God. As I encounter Jesus.
That's what I want. It's Jesus.
Faith comes by hearing. You want to grow your faith.
You want to grow belief. It's through the Word of God.
Bible reading plans are amazing. Watch the word of God begin to
change your heart. But you approach the word and
not in cold rigor. And you just check your boxes
and I've done it for today. But you open the word and you
say, Lord have mercy on my heart for I am broken and feeble and I
can't do this on my own. And I'm so fleshly I can't even
see you have mercy on me. And you know what God will do.
He'll show himself to you. It says draw near to the Lord
and he will draw near to you. Our prayer team is going to come
up at this time. Thank you prayer team.
We want nothing more than to pray for you.
I mean, you guys are like me. I know that I'm having
situations all day long where I'm like, Lord, I need prayer.
Help me, help me with the kids, help me with having joy in my
job, joy when I'm broke. The finances don't make sense.
I don't know how I'm going to make it the next month.
We want to pray for you. Our goal is that you would
encounter Jesus. He doesn't just offer you
resurrection. He is the resurrection.
He doesn't just offer you life, He is the life and He stands
before you today. The altars are open.
You all move as the Lord leads. Thank you.