4 DAYS LATE, BUT RIGHT ON TIME!
Jn. 11:1-7,11-15,39-40.
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: Super Granny
1. An elderly lady after shopping, returned to her car and found 4 young men in the act of leaving with her car. She dropped her shopping bags and drew her handgun, proceeding to scream at them at the top of her voice, "I have a gun and I know how to use it! Get out of the car you dirty rotten scoundrels!"
2. The 4 men didn't wait for a second invitation but got out and ran like mad, whereupon the lady, somewhat shaken, proceeded to load her shopping bags into the back of the car and get into the driver's seat.
3. She discovered her keys wouldn’t fit into the ignition; then it dawned on her why. A few minutes later she found her own car parked four or five spaces farther down. She loaded her bags into her car and drove to the police station.
4. The sergeant behind the desk broke into laughter when she told her story and pointed to the other end of the counter, where four pale white males were reporting a car jacking by a mad elderly woman described as white, less than 5' tall, glasses, and curly white hair carrying a large handgun.
5. No charges were filed. (True story!)
B. TEXT
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 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” 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.” 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 believe, you will see the glory of God?” Jn 11:1-7,11-15,39-40.
C. THESIS
1. I’m a person who always believes in being punctual. Being late is a bad thing with me. My dad always said, “Better an hour early than 5 minutes late.”
2. Trains and planes leave at appointed times. Connecting flights are dependent on the earlier flights being on time. Delays or cancellations cause big problems for people.
3. But by far the most punctual person in the universe is God! He set up the galaxies and our solar system like giant time pieces, run with precision. The time of the sunrise – a thousand years from now – can be calculated to a milli-second!
4. How strange and contradictory it is then, to find God being late! God – all-knowing and all powerful – how can He not be on time? Yet, it’s true!
5. He was 25 years late getting Abraham a son; 15 years late fulfilling Joseph’s dreams; 17 years late making David to become king; Samuel was late to make sacrifice for Saul, and a good number of other instances!
6. And tonight we find God being so late to heal a man that he even missed his funeral by 4 days! Yet we’ll find out, God may be “4 Days Late, But He’s Right On Time!”
I. JESUS & THE FAMILY AT BETHANY
A. THE SITUATION OF LAZARUS
1. You remember the 2 sisters from Luke 10, where Martha slaved over a meal and Mary just wanted to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to His words. Mary was also the one who anointed Jesus for His burial (John 12:3).
2. Their brother Lazarus’ name means “assistance of God”, pointing to the fact that, no matter what our circumstance, we all need God’s help!
3. He lived in the town of Bethany which means, “the house of unripe figs or the house of misery.” (Unger)
4. Everywhere we turn in this life there’s sickness, pain, death, depression, discouragement and constant trouble. Job said, "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble." (14:1).
5. WE ALL HAVE OUR BETHANY! No one is immune to the attacks of Satan or the troubles and trials of life.
B. BASIS OF THE SISTER’S REQUEST
1. The message they sent was very short, not even a petition; they didn’t dare to direct the Lord in what to do. It barely related the situation, but contained the tender insinuation, the unspoken plea for Jesus’ assistance.
2. “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”
a. They did not say, “He whom we love, but he whom You love.” Our greatest encouragements in prayer are derived from God’s character and the motivation of his grace.
b. They did not say, “Lord, behold, he who loves You, but he whom You love.” “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us.” Our love to Him is not worth speaking of, but His to us can never be enough spoken of.
II. JESUS’ RESPONSE TO THE PLEA
A. JESUS COULD EASILY HAVE HELPED LAZARUS
1. Jesus has power to alter the forces of nature: to calm the winds and the waves; power to suspend the movement of the universe in answer to the prayer of one man. Jesus did miracles with many elements -- He made arms grow out, made bread and fish multiply, transformed water into wine.
2. He didn't have to be present to work a miracle. He told the Centurion, "Go your way, your servant will be made whole." Another long-distance healing was the Syro-Phoenician woman's daughter.
3. No circumstances could stop him. No limits of time could be a factor. Nothing limited Him. He had the power to heal sight, restore hearing to deaf ears, speech to the mute; freedom to the demon possessed, healing to the lepers, and He’s moved with compassion – “touched with the feelings of our infirmities.”
4. Why then does He wait until a man, whom He clearly loves, is dead, before setting out to help him? Even the disciples knew there was a special bond between Lazarus and Jesus; "He whom You love is sick."
5. Imagine that you or I call our best friend and say, "I think I'm going to die!" And our friend responses, "Well, I'm busy. It's Sunday, I'm in church, I'll try to make it by Friday. Do you think you can hang on that long?" Friends would be perplexed.
B. IT WAS A SIGN OF GREATER LOVE
1. One would think that the Bible would next say, “When Jesus heard that he was sick, he stopped what He was doing and immediately went to him.” You’d think that if he loved them, He would “burn up the roads back to him.”
2. But He showed his love the opposite way. Because He loved them, he determined to do something great and extraordinary for them, to perform a miracle greater than He’d done for anyone else. So He waited so that Lazarus might be dead and buried before He came.
3. If Christ had come immediately, and healed the sickness of Lazarus, that would not have been a superior act of love than He’d demonstrated for thousands of others.
4. If He’d raised him back to life right after he’d died, that would not have been a superior act of love than He’d demonstrated for the widow of Nain’s son, or Jairus’ daughter.
5. But by delaying to answer their prayer and letting the situation become so hopeless and impossible, He showed more love for them than anyone else! Note, God’s greatest intentions may be signaled by His longest delays!
6. Christ’s friends at Bethany and their distress were not out of His thoughts, though He didn’t hurry to them. By His omniscience, He was present in spirit, when Lazarus at last died and when the sisters carried their brother to the grave. Then Jesus said, “Let us go to Judea.’’
7. Listen to Ezekiel 37:11,13; “They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’….Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.”
C. IT WAS FOR THE DISCIPLES TOO
1. Verse 15 says, “For your sakes I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.” If Jesus had immediately gone there, He would have healed Lazarus’ disease and prevented his death.
2. But then his disciples would have seen no further proof of his power and their faith would not have been enlarged. Contrary to natural thinking, God’s delays are often a tremendous blessing. Many people believed on Jesus because of this miracle.
III. PURPOSES OF GOD’S DELAYS
A. ALTERNATIVES
1. God may be delaying because delaying is GOOD FOR US.
2. He may be testing our faith or developing perseverance in us.
3. It may actually be dangerous to give us something at this moment.
4. Another idea is that God is setting up an impossible situation, in order that He may perform a miracle, or a bigger miracle.
B. HOW LONG WILL GOD WAIT? TILL IT STINKS!
1. Sometimes Jesus waits until your situation really stinks! When it stinks, God will get complete Glory! That’s when you come to end of yourself!
2. WHY DOES GOD WAIT SO LONG? RESURRECTION LIFE IS NOT FOR THE LIVING, IT’S FOR THE DEAD! You don't get resurrected while you're alive, you get resurrected when you're dead.
3. It's not until we've died out to ourselves, all our efforts, have given up, resigned ourselves to the defeat of our efforts, had a stone placed over our tomb, that a change can come.
4. “For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh” 2 Cor. 4:11. The principle is LIFE OUT OF DEATH.
C. WE MUST GROW TO HANDLE A BUMPER CROP
1. You don’t see a young apple tree bearing 150 apples; if it did it would collapse under the weight.
2. Over time God strengthens and prepares the tree so it can handle the weight of what it can bear in maturity.
3. It’s the same way with us. We want everything now, but God knows we can’t bear it, so He only gives us an apple or two until we grow spiritually stronger.
4. The construction business knows that “the deeper the foundation, the taller the structure can go.” The depth of our spiritual foundation determines how high we can rise. God must dig us down before He can raise us up.
5. Many believed that life in the center of God’s will will be easy, and if it’s not easy then we’re out of His will. This isn’t necessarily true. Many biblical heroes experienced betrayal, hardship, loss and disappointment while being in the center of God’s will.
6. Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life, he that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." That's present tense.
D. BE PATIENT!
1. “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” Heb. 10:35-36.
2. Never close the book of your life when GOD HAS NOT FINISHED writing your story. Never hang up when GOD IS STILL ON THE LINE with you. Hang in there. GOD IS STILL WORKING IN YOUR LIFE.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. On December 14, 2005, fire broke out in Tracinda Foxe's kitchen in New York City. The thirty-year old mother began to panic as flames raced through her third story apartment. She soon realized that she was cut off and she could not escape.
2. Smoke filled her apartment; Her three week old son Eric soon was overcome by the smoke and stopped breathing. "God, please save my son,"'
3. Tracinda ran to the window, but the smoke prevented her from seeing below. In a desperate act, she screamed "Save my son! Save my son!" And then she released her grip on her precious son. Eric plunged thirty feet.
4. Felix Vasquez, a housing authority supervisor who happens to play on the baseball team, reached out and caught little Eric. Vasquez, who learned mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as a teenaged lifeguard, began mouth-to-mouth and was able to revive little Eric.
5. Moments after Felix's life-saving catch, two firefighters broke into the burning apartment and rescued Tracinda.
6. God wants us to know, that even if we don’t see Him, He’s there and He will be right on time! God will be there to catch you if you fall!
B. THE CALL
1. “Jesus Wept.” Why did Jesus weep? He knew that in 10 minutes He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, yet He still wept, because He felt the hurt of Mary & Martha so deeply and grieved for their hurt. He is touched with feelings of our infirmities!
2. Let’s turn everything over to Him in prayer!
