Come Forth

Introduction – Where Is He?

The sun was just breaking over the village of Bethany. Birds began to sing as dawn’s first color brushed the courtyards of Mary and Martha’s home. Inside, a woman stood at the window—Martha—her eyes fixed on the road.

Where is He? she wondered. He should have been here by now.

Two days earlier she had sent an urgent message: The one You love is sick. Surely Jesus would hurry. Everyone knew how deeply He loved Lazarus and this household. This home had been His retreat, a quiet place to rest.

Martha remembered how her sister Mary once poured expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair—Mary, spontaneous and pure in her devotion. They had given Him their best. Surely He would come now, when they needed Him most.

But Lazarus had grown weaker. The night before, Mary knelt beside his bed all night, cooling his fevered brow and praying through her tears. At dawn Martha whispered to herself again, Where is He? Jesus is cutting it close this time.

She forced herself toward the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the disciples she expected. Then the cry came—Mary’s voice, broken and desperate. Martha rushed back and found Mary clinging to her brother’s still form. Lazarus was gone.

Mary’s anguished question pierced the room: Martha, you said He would come. Where is He?

Martha had no answer. The One who never failed them had not shown up. They wrapped the body, received mourners, and on the third day sealed the tomb. By the fourth day, when decay had set in, even Martha’s slim thread of hope snapped.

And then—too late, it seemed—Jesus appeared on the road.

Point I – Hold On When God Disappoints You

Martha ran to meet Him, her heart a storm of grief and love.

“Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died,” she said.

But even in pain she added, “Yet even now I know that whatever You ask of God, He will give You.”

Even now.

That’s the first lesson of this story:

Will you hold on when God seems late?

1. Everyone Faces This Crossroad

At some point every believer stands where Martha stood—hurt, bewildered, asking why God missed the deadline.

You prayed for healing but the illness ended in death.

You begged for a marriage to mend but the papers were signed.

You trusted God for provision and the foreclosure notice came.

Scripture is honest about this pain:

Abraham waited decades while his body aged.

Job sat in ashes scraping sores, crying, Where are You, Lord?

Moses spent forty silent years in the desert.

David fasted for his dying child only to hear the child was gone.

The disciples huddled behind locked doors after Calvary, thinking all hope was buried.

Faithful people, real disappointment.

2. Faith That Trusts the Character of God

There is a faith that holds to promises we can see.

But trust goes deeper: it clings to God’s character when no promise is visible.

Isaiah 42:3 whispers hope:

“A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out.”

Jesus told His disciples about Lazarus,

“This sickness will not end in death… it is for God’s glory… so that you may believe.” (John 11:4,15)

Sometimes He waits so that you may believe—so that a deeper revelation of His glory can be born.

3. Refuse to Quit

The enemy’s favorite lie is, Quit. Give up. It’s over.

But Hebrews 10:36 urges,

“You have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God you may receive the promise.”

A saint once said in testimony, “It is so sweet to trust in Jesus—just to take Him at His word.”

Sometimes the greatest miracle is simply not quitting.

Martha’s story tells us:

Hold on when God disappoints you. Trust when you cannot trace His hand. Because Jesus is never really late—He is always perfectly on time for His greater purpose.

Point II – Look Beyond What You See

Martha stood on that dusty road with tears drying on her cheeks. Jesus had just said,

“Your brother will rise again.”

She replied with what she knew from Scripture:

“I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

And then Jesus gave words that have thundered through centuries:

“I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”

Right there Jesus shifted the conversation from when to Who.

The hope of every believer isn’t just a future date—it is a Person.

1. A Greater Day Is Coming

This world is not the finish line.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:19,

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”