Scripture Introduction
John 11 contains the well-known story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and (for trivia fans) the shortest verse in the Bible is in this chapter. We also find here the last of the seven miracles (or “signs” as John calls them) which structure this book. Miracles (of course) are exciting, but Jesus is no mere magician. God has come to die for the sins of his people and to rise for our justification. This culminating sign is a parable revealing deep truth about God’s love and work in our lives. Please give your attention to the reading of God’s Word in John 11. [Read John 11.1-44. Pray.]
Introduction
One ill effect of an evil heart is that I naturally assume that my will should be the axis around which the universe turns. This perspective often reveals itself by how much the affairs of life control my feelings. When events please me, I believe God is good and his love safe and solid. When circumstances go awry, I wonder that God’s love is so fickle and frail. Such attitudes betray a most basic form of idolatry. I look at life’s problems and assume they reveal the nature and character of God. The Bible condemns that approach.
The book of Romans does say that creation reveals God exists and deserves worship. The Apostle Paul learned this from Psalm 19: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” But Paul adds that sin both bends creation’s story to hide the truth, and corrupts our ability to interpret “general revelation” properly. As a result, circumstances actually deflect us from the true nature of God. We must have the Word (both in flesh and in Scripture) reveal God to us.
William Cowper struggled with depression much of his life. This led him to meditate frequently on God’s love and goodness in the midst of pain and suffering (what he called God’s frowning providence). One fruit of his anguish was the hymn, God Moves in a Mysterious Way. Listen to these words: “Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, the clouds ye so much dread, are big with mercy, and shall break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace, behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding ev’ry hour; the bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flow’r.”
Today, a frowning providence; tomorrow a smiling face. ESV Psalm 30.5b: “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” God’s unfolding flower of providence will one day reveal blessings unimaginably sweet for his people.
Our family found a corollary example of this when we left off sweets for lent — pleasure can increase when we do without for a season. What that experience taught in a small and simplistic way is also true in substantial and significant events: hard circumstances and difficult trials can bring “joy inexpressible and filled with glory” (1Peter 1.8).
As I grow older I am more and more convinced that our attitude towards our troubles drastically affects the outcome. We find it easy to nurse poor attitudes until they infiltrate every pore of our lives. Rather than trust God and count trials as opportunities to grow in grace and faith, our attitudes drive us to self-pity, self-absorption, self-trust, fear, defensiveness.
These attitudes seem to lead to one of two errors. The first subordinates thoughts of God’s glory to desire for personal happiness. Then, when bad things happen, when we are displeased with God’s providence, we either reject God completely or dissolve into a morass of destructive emotions. We may say, “I’m not interested in a God who let’s my friends die (or suffer).” Or we may simply feel sorry for ourselves and take out our pain on whoever happens to be near.
The other error imagines that God’s concern for his own glory makes him unfeeling and indifferent to our suffering. Religion, then, helps me grit my teeth and endure. But this is the false faith of stoicism. You know people whose faith is joyless, and not content with their own bad attitudes, they steal joy from others.
The Biblical balance is ESV James 1.2-4: Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
The Bible clearly teaches that God delights to glorify himself. That truth is the only rock that holds firm when storms of suffering slam against us. But (and do not miss the other half) God’s glory is the only thing which will make me infinitely and eternally happy.
Both of these truths come to light in John 11, in the person of Jesus Christ. Pain, suffering, death of dear friends — these miseries of a fallen world combine to cast doubt on God’s love. But Jesus steps into our world to show us both the power and purposes of God — and to deliver us from errors and attitudes which threaten hope and joy. To get there, first…
1. We Must Remain Certain of God’s Love (John 11.3,5,36)
ESV John 11.3: So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” John 11.5: Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. John 11.36: So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
After singing, “Oh, How I Love Jesus,” Philip Bliss commented: “Those words are true. Yet I feel guilty for having sung so much about my poor love for Christ and so little about his endless love for me.” So he wrote a hymn with these words: “I am so glad that our father in heaven/Tells of his love in the book he has given;/Wonderful things in the Bible I see/This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me.”
John wants us to remember the certainty of God’s love; he tells us three times. But why must we be reminded?
We must be reminded of God’s love because of sin. When people sin against us, we feel anger and coldness and (sometimes) contempt. Since we know that we sin against God, we can assume that God’s love for us fades like a cut flower left on the dashboard of the car.
We must be reminded of God’s love because of Satan. When the enemy destroys your confidence in God’s love, your usefulness in the kingdom is shattered.
We must be reminded of God’s love because of circumstances which argue against that love. Notice how the sisters describe to Jesus the need: “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” They do not make demands; they are humble and confident. “Tell God about your problems and the problems will go away,” seems to be their plan. They picture in their mind’s eye Jesus mounting his trusty steed and racing furiously to arrive in time.
But time ticks away. Minutes are marked by dozens of worried glances through the window — “Do you see him?” “Is that him?” “Is he coming?” After a day or two the dreaded word is whispered: “It’s too late; Lazarus is dead.”
When God lets friends die, you may doubt his love. So John reminds us: Jesus loved Martha; he loved Mary; he loved Lazarus. And if you are his, if you have been born-again of his Spirit, then he loves you. Yes, I love Jesus, but my soul needs a greater anchor, a more glorious truth: Jesus loves me. This is especially critical when we realize that…
2. We Must Not Deny the Difficulty of God’s Love (John 11.5-10)
I see two ways the love of God is shown to be difficult.
First, Jesus stays two more days. John 11.5-6: Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.” Jesus does not rush to help; he does not hurry to comfort. Jesus seems to care little about Lazarus’ sickness or the sisters’ sorrows. Indeed — he intentionally waits until Lazarus dies before departing! Difficult! And you know when God seems not to care about your problems how difficult it is for you to hold on confidently to God’s love.
Second, the difficulty of God’s love is shown in his taking his people into great danger, John 11.7: “Let us go to Judea again.” To which his disciples answer, John 11.8: “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” We know the difficulty of what Jesus was asking by Thomas’ response: John 11.16: “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Jesus takes his people where they may die. Eventually, most of the disciples will be martyred for their faith.
So God’s love must not be defined by our health or comfort or safety. God loved Lazarus; Lazarus got sick and died. God loved Martha and Mary; Martha and Mary wept and mourned. God loved his disciples and leads them to the place of stoning. Throughout church history Christians have mistakenly assumed that God’s love is best experienced in health, wealth and prosperity.
John Newton, known for writing, Amazing Grace, also wrote a poem to capture the difficulty of God’s love:
I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek, more earnestly, His face.
’Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer!
But it has been in such a way,
As almost drove me to despair.
I hoped that in some favored hour,
At once He’d answer my request;
And by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.
Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in every part.
Yea more, with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.
“Lord, why is this,” I trembling cried,
“Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?”
“’Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.
“These inward trials I employ,
“From self, and pride, to set thee free;
“And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
“That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”
Martha and Mary discovered this truth; so did Lazarus and the disciples — you too must travel through the difficulty of God’s love before you will know its joy. To connect the certainty and difficulty of God’s love…
3. We Must Consider the Purpose of God’s Love
ESV John 11.21: Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” ESV John 11.32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
These were not words of condemnation, but expressions of faith. Mary and Martha had talked together about what God could do. They trusted God’s power and were certain that the purpose of God’s love must be to keep Lazarus from dying. And such purpose would have been accomplished if Jesus had been present.
ESV John 11.35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
It was not only Jesus’ friends who knew best what God’s love should do; the Jews were sure that if God really loved Lazarus, he would have kept him alive. I have often felt the same — if God loved me, so-and-so would happen. And I doubt God’s love when he crosses the fair designs I scheme. That is precisely why John reminded us three times of Jesus’ love.
So what were these friends of Lazarus missing? And what are we missing when circumstances cause us to doubt God’s love?
ESV John 11.4: But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
ESV John 11.14-15: Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
In other words, God’s love must be channeled toward a greater purpose than my pleasure — glorifying Jesus Christ. Additionally, God’s love must seek a greater result than my comfort — faith in the surpassing goodness and joy of God’s being glorified. My momentary pleasure and comfort cannot be the end for which the world exists. Even if it were, I would not be happy. God’s glory is so infinitely beautiful that if I were to remove one drop of honor from his goals and his purposes, I would be miserable forever.
Suppose I take a can of black spray paint and repaint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Would this display of my art delight anyone? No, least of all, myself. My days would be filled with remorse over defiling such surpassing beauty. The glory of Jesus and our faith in him and his purposes are the Sistine Chapel across which my comfort would be hideous black graffiti. God’s love is certain, though it seems difficult because it is constrained by God’s purposes, not our own.
4. We Must Not Doubt the Compassion of God’s Love (John 11.35)
Never does the Bible say that Jesus laughed. Indeed, he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Jesus’ tears prove three things (at least):
1) Jesus was truly human. In a few moments, he will raise the dead, his greatest miracle before his own resurrection and undeniable proof of his deity. But first, he weeps over losing a dear friend. God has become man.
2) God truly cares. God is not “out there,” disinterested in your hurts. He came near, wept with those who weep, and loved his own.
3) There is terrible wrong in this world. Lazarus is dead, and that is not the way it is supposed to be. God made us to enjoy his presence forever. Jesus’ tears remind us that we live in a fallen world with great and terrible trouble.
Why does God record this shortest of verses? So that when you face the powers of hell and the frowning providence of God, you will not doubt God’s compassion. Jesus wept.
5. We Must Place Our Hope in the Provision of God’s Love (John 11.38-44)
Note well, the hope of this passage is not the restoration of your friends who have died. We do not weep and wail during funerals in the vain wish that they would climb back out of the casket. Jesus raised Lazarus, but he lived to die again.
This is a parable — to press on you the ultimate reality: “I am the resurrection and the life.”
Where will you place your confidence when suffering comes? What will control you when your friends and family die? It happens, you know. Alan’s nephew, boy scout troop leader. Article by pediatrician in Kentucky which occurred in Touchstone Magazine just this week. Two children died. I’ve noticed that a lot of people end up dying.
Christianity does not propose a sentimental faith — butterfly kisses wash away all pain. Nor is it a stoical religion — God is busy doing what is important, so go away and leave him alone.
Instead, Jesus is deeply troubled, “suffering with” that he might “suffer for.” Love and glory come together so that your best and greatest joy is guaranteed in his greatest glory. That is a truth which will change your bad attitude and give you a faith worth seeing and a hope which sustains. You think about that. Amen.
