Last time we were together we looked at the famous story of Mary and Martha.
We concluded that the Lord wants us to be like Mary in our worship, and like Martha in our work.
Duty and devotion are both necessary but there must be a balance.
A balance where neither one would hinder us from exhibiting the other.
Everything we do and every relationship we have demands focus.
When we focus properly, we succeed.
When we lose our focus, we begin to fail,
and the longer we go without focus,
the worse our circumstances get.
This morning, I want us to take a look at another encounter Jesus had with Martha
John 11:1-16
1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
7 Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light. 10 It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.”
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
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I can imagine Martha.
Pacing..
Pacing..
Where is he?
Where?
Where is he?
How many times had she asked that question over the past four days.
Her only brother had come down with some mysterious virus and nobody could do anything for him.
Well nobody except for their friend Jesus.
How many times had he reached out his hand and the blind had seen, or the lame had walked.
If there was any hope for Lazarus it would only be through Jesus.
Granted she hadn’t actually asked Jesus to come, she had only sent word that His friend was deathly ill.
If Jesus was the friend that he professed to be wouldn’t he have come.
But she had waited and Lazarus got worse,
and she waited
and Lazarus died,
and she waited
and Lazarus had been buried.
Jesus had healed the paralytic and he didn’t even know him,
he healed the blind man who was just a face in the crowd,
surely he would come for his friend.
And still the thought tormented her,
where was he,
surely she couldn’t have misjudged Jesus so badly.
He had eaten at their table and slept under their
roof surely that had meant something to him,
or maybe not.
And then a murmur began to weave it’s way through the crowd that had gathered to mourn with the two sisters, the master is here,
Jesus has arrived.
And Martha couldn’t help herself, she was on her feet rushing to meet her friend.
The thought that had burned in her heart was already on her lips, John 11:21-22 (NIV)
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
I don’t think it was said with a mean or vindictive spirit,
but I don’t think it was simply a statement of fact either.
I think she was disappointed in Jesus and felt betrayed and I’m sure the question even though unasked could be read in her eyes,
“When you heard he was sick, why didn’t you come then?”
Max Lucado says that “The grave unearths our view of God”
And he’s right
how often have we heard
“If God existed such and such would not have happened”
How often are we guilty of dealing with God in that very same way, of demanding to know why he doesn’t do it the way we want it done, when we want it done.
The experts tell us that it would have been a two day walk from where Jesus heard the news to Bethlehem,
So if we take the experts word for the distance
and add to it the two days that Jesus waited before he left
we come up with a grand total of four days,
the exact number of days that Lazarus had been in the grave.
And then she said the most incredible thing, something that revealed volumes about her character and her faith, John 11:22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Jesus, I may not understand what you’ve done,
I may not be able to explain it,
I may not like it
but even now I still believe that you are capable of anything.
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How about you?
Are you convinced even now that he is able to do anything?
Are you?
What do you believe that God can do even now through Rayleigh Elim Church?
All we have to do is look at what He has done in the past to see what he can do in the future, because what he did yesterday he is capable of doing today.
1st point: God can do the impressive.
Recently David has been preachng on the story of Gideon.
I love the story of Gideon,
maybe you don’t know it very well,
It was during a time that Israel had come under foreign rule,
the story is found in the book of Judges.
The Midianites had conquered Israel and the people had run for the hills, literally living in caves.
Not satisfied with that the Midianites made a nasty habit out of burning any Israelite fields they found and killing their animals.
In a situation like this who do you need?
You need a hero
And where do you find a hero, well I checked the yellow pages and they skipped right from herbs to hobbies.
But if you’re God you don’t need the yellow pages and so an Angel was sent to a young farmer named Gideon.
Well to make a long story short Gideon raised an army of 32,000 men.
But God said “Hey you guys could defeat the Midianites all by yourself, tell anyone who is afraid to go home”
That did it 22,000 of them left.
Imagine how Gideon must have felt.
But still 10,000 is better then none.
Then God said “Hey Gideon still too many,
get everyone to drink from the stream and keep only those who drink from their cupped hand”
Well maybe you know what happened 9,700 of them knelt down to drink and Gideon was left with 300.
To quote God in Judges 7:7 “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place.”
And He did.
Now that’s impressive.
But not necessarily impossible.
You see the three hundred men surround the Midianite camp in the middle of the night each one armed with a trumpet, a clay pot and a torch. On a prearranged signal they blew their trumpets and smashed their clay jars, waved their torches and yelled “For the Lord and for Gideon.”
Well the Midianites had just been woken up panicked turned on each other and beat a hasty retreat.
God does some impressive things in our lives, perhaps helping us deal with anger,
or helping our relationship with our spouse or our children.
People have prayed for work and found the perfect job. That’s impressive.
People have been sick and others have prayed for them and they have gotten better, that’s impressive.
God answers prayer in an impressive way, but none of those things were impossible.
People have found the perfect job without praying, sick people have gotten better without praying, relationships have been restored without God.
But he does do impressive things in answer to our prayers.
Are there situations in your life that you need to say, “Even now I believe God can do some impressive things for me.”
Maybe you feel your at the end of your tether or frustrated about a situation and you feel like only a miracle could help,
God is still performing miracles today.
God still does the impressive.
Throughout the Bible we read how God stepped in and helped his people.
Abraham, David, Solomon, Joshua, Moses, Daniel each one could tell an amazing story of the impressive work that God did for them
and even today there are people who would confirm that even now,
God does the impressive.
2nd point: God Will Do The Improbable.
Do you remember the story of David and Goliath?
It seemed that everyone wanted to attack Israel, this time it was the Philistines.
If you want to read it later the account is found in the book of 1 Samuel 17.
The Israelites are on one hill,
the Philistines are on another hill and the Philistines trot out their Champion, Goliath,
and he was one big bloke standing over nine foot tall.
Throwing down a gauntlet Goliath says, 1 Samuel 17:8-9 “Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.”
Well, none of the Israelite soldiers were happy with the prospect of taking on this guy.
But along came David,
not a soldier a shepherd,
not an adult but a teenager
armed with a slingshot and five smooth stones
he killed the giant and saved the day.
a professional soldier armed with the very best armaments available to him
challenged by a mere boy with little more then a toy.
What are the chances of David being the victor. Possible but not probable.
God not only does the impressive he does the improbable.
Daniel surviving a night in den full of lions, Abraham and Sarah having a child in their nineties, Noah building a 450 foot boat miles from the nearest major body of water.
Impossible not, improbable yes.
And God does the improbable today.
People addicted to one thing or another who have tried everything to break that addiction have turned to God and have conquered it.
Possible yes, probable no.
But even now God does the improbable.
But even now God does the improbable.
Cancer patients have been prayed over and all traces of the disease have disappeared,
Possible yes, probable no.
But even now God does the improbable.
What are some of the improbable things that you need doing in your life,
things that just aren’t likely to happen.
Need a personality transplant, he can do that,
need self control he can do that.
Do you have giants in your life that need to be put down,
he still helps to defeat giants.
And not only can he do the improbable in your life he can do the improbable in our church as well.
He’s all ready doing it.
Even now God does the improbable.
God can help us to reach our community.
When? Even now.
3rd point: God Does The Impossible.
Let’s return to our original story.
Jesus friend Lazarus becomes ill and his sisters send news to Jesus.
They don’t actually ask Jesus to come
but judging by their reaction they expected him to come.
Not only did they expect him to come they expected him to come and heal their brother.
That much is evident in Martha’s words in John 11:21 (NIV) “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” and the words of her sister in John 11:32 (NIV) “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Now that’s not pulling any punches is it.
Now you would think that with expectations like that
and knowing Jesus the way we know him
that he would have rushed to be with the sisters
or knowing that he wouldn’t have made it in time did a God thing and brought Lazarus back to health long distance. Like He did with the Centurions Servant.
Let’s go back to John 11:5-6 (NIV) Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
Now I don’t know why Jesus waited two days,
and I’m not going to pretend I do.
What we do know is that when Jesus heard the news his friend was already dead and ready to be buried.
And then he came.
But Lazarus had already been in the grave for four days.
And even though it would appear that Martha had reprimanded Jesus for not being there sooner she tells him “It’s not too late because even now you can perform a miracle.”
Could you do that?
Standing next to your brother’s filled in grave could you express that type of faith in God?
You see her statement was not so much saying that she believed that Jesus could raise her brother, but she would trust him even if he didn’t.
A woman was talking to her friend whose young son had cancer and she made this comment: “Perhaps God will be good and heal your son”
the reply from the mother was “God is good whether he heals my son or not”
That is what Martha was saying.
Even now I believe that you can do anything.
But the story doesn’t end there, because Jesus goes to the tomb, let’s read John’s account of what happened after all he was there.
John 11:38-44 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Guy’s been dead five days, in the grave four days and he’s brought back to life.
That is impressive, and it’s improbable and it’s also impossible. Dead people don’t come back to life that just doesn’t happen. But it did happen. You see it is the reality of what the Angel Gabriel told Mary in Luke 1:37 For nothing is impossible with God.” and Jesus summed it up when he said in Luke 18:27 “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
And guess what God still does the impossible today.
People can change their behavior but only God can change their hearts.
What have you been told is impossible in your life?
Can you say with Martha Even now?
What would you have God do with Rayeigh Elim Church?
Can you see it as God sees it?
Can you see it not as it is but as God would make it.
Close your eyes for a minute and answer this question, if we could be anything and do anything without taking into consideration any human limits. Forget about money, buildings, staff what do you believe God can do with this church.
what do you believe God can do with us?
Because even now God can do the impossible.
