The Silent Man Who Spoke Not A Word – Message John 11 Lazarus Part 2 Series

THE SILENT MAN WHO SPOKE NOT A WORD – Message John 11 LAZARUS Part 2

THE CHARACTERS OF JOHN’S GOSPEL

John 11 v 17 When Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. John 11:18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, John 11:19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. John 11:20 Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary still sat in the house.

The Apostle now moves the story to Bethany and says that Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. That is the way John wrote it, but Jesus did not find that out when He arrived. He already knew all that from ages past because He is the Omniscient God, the same One who saw Nathaniel under a fig tree. If He does not know the end from the beginning, He is not God. The sense of verse 20 is that Martha did not wait for the group to arrive but set out to meet them. Someone must have raced ahead with the news. I think it was grief that kept Mary in the house in verse 20. “In the tomb” for four days means that he had been dead for four days, as they were buried straight away, not like the custom we have. Even if Jesus had not delayed for two days, He still would have been two days late.

John 11 v 21 Martha therefore said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. John 11:22 Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” John 11:23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother shall rise again.” John 11:24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, John 11:26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:27 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.”

Poor Martha. She had a burdened soul of regrets. How many of us are just like that? Why, most of the world is. You can always identify regrets. It is the word “IF”. “If only I had gone there earlier. If only I had fixed the car brake last week. If only I could undo the damage my comments made. If only I’d gone to see her when she was still alive. If only I had got a proper tradesman! I have a PhD in regrets! And so we have Martha - “Lord, IF You had been here, my brother would not have died.” That shows Martha had faith for the here and now. Her great statement showed that she believed Jesus would have kept Lazarus from dying IF the Lord had been there when he was sick. Her faith did not extend beyond that, just like us. We pray that the Lord will heal people and restore them, but we don’t think of that in terms or raising them from the dead. Her regrets were focussed on the Lord’s absence – “IF only You had been here!”

In the year I was born a famous poem was written by RUDYARD KIPLING in “Rewards and Fairies” in “Brother square-toes”. This is it –

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build them up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,