Maybe you know someone who always has a plan. They don’t make a move without a plan for the day, for the week, even for months ahead. They check the weather, know the timetables for public transport, and plan for all possible contingencies during the day. They have a solution or back up plan just in case the original plan doesn’t work out. But what sometimes throws them off are the unanticipated delays, detours, and dead ends.
We all know that life doesn't always work the way we plan. For example, we are at the beginning of a new school semester. For the parents and kids, it means rising up early in the mornings again, getting the kids dressed, fed, out the door, and making sure they get to school on time. No one expects to wake up to a leaky ceiling, to see a flat tire when they walk out to their bike or car, or expects to leave the keys in the house - all of which require waiting on someone for help. And when we call someone to come and help, we expect them to come in a reasonable amount of time, don’t we?
When life doesn't go as expected, and we are counting on others to help us, how do we act or react in these situations?
Today, we are in John chapter 11 in our study of John’s gospel. At the beginning of this chapter Jesus is asked to come and heal a friend who is very sick, but His response time was not something this family was expecting - it was not according to their plan.
John 11:1-16
1 Now a certain man was sick: Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 And it was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” 4 But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not meant for death, but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” 5 (Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus.)
6 So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was. 7 Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and yet You are going there again?” 9 Jesus replied, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks during the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
11 This He said, and after this He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going so that I may awaken him from sleep.” 12 The disciples then said to Him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will come out of it.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about actual sleep. 14 So Jesus then said to them plainly, “Lazarus died, 15 and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let’s go to him.” 16 Therefore Thomas, who was called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s also go, so that we may die with Him!”
We can see in this passage that Jesus does everything:
? For God’s glory
? To accomplish God’s purpose
? For our good
1. For God’s glory
A man named Lazarus was sick. His name meant “whom God helps.” Which we will see how God helps him throughout these passages. He lived in a certain town called Bethany, about 2-3 miles from Jerusalem. Lazarus was the younger brother of Mary, the woman who cried over Jesus’ feet and wiped her tears with her hair and then anointed His feet with oil. Lazarus lived with Martha and Mary and when he got sick his sisters were very worried about his condition. They had seen Jesus heal multitudes of people so they asked Him to come and heal him with the expectation that He would. This was their plan and it was the logical thing to do.
So, in v. 3, the sisters sent this message to Jesus, “Lord, Lazarus, our brother and Your friend, the one You love is sick.” This family knew they were loved by God and knew Jesus personally cared about them and so they expected that He would come right away. But what was Jesus’ response? He said, “Lazarus’ sickness will not end in death, but will be for the glory and honor of God, so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” The word glory here means that people would see God’s visible splendor in this situation. Jesus knows that in God’s plan He will reveal His glory.
This sounded quite optimistic, like there was nothing to worry about because He is on His way to their home to heal Lazarus. Most likely the sisters were expecting Him to drop everything and run to the village. But for some reason after He received the message He stayed in the same place for two extra days. That may have been quite a shock when Jesus didn’t show up - they might have even taken it as disloyalty when He did not fulfill their expectations.
We shouldn't be shocked by this. How often do we have certain cultural expectations from our families or from our extended families, in some cases very extended? And if we do not fulfill these expectations it is taken as disloyalty or even betrayal to the family. As we see later, Martha and Mary were very disappointed that Jesus didn’t drop everything and answer their request. But Jesus’ loyalty was to something higher than human relationships, His loyalty was to God first.
This made me think about certain expectations that we as Christians place on God. Do we expect that if we are following Jesus, He will or should give us everything we request and desire and do it according to our timeline? Are we disappointed when God does not act in situations according to our prayers and plans?
Do we believe that because we are His children and that He loves us, He will always protect us from harm and suffering and if He doesn’t something must be wrong? Do we take promises from God’s Word out of context and expect Him to fulfill them in a way I think would best to promote my happiness and spiritual wellbeing?
What if I am experiencing constant physical ailments or mental and emotional fatigue? Does that mean something is wrong in my relationship to God? What should I think when things don’t go according to plan? Have there been times you have gone to God for help, asking Him to intervene in a situation and nothing happens, you don’t receive an answer? What should we do? Ps 37:5 says, “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act.”
The question is: Am I willing to come to God with all my desires, hopes, and dreams, joys, sorrows and leave them with Him, allow Him to answer in His time, according to His plan, and in a way that brings Him glory? Of course, as Christians, we profess and teach that we are happy to live for God’s glory, but subconsciously are we seeking the advancement of our own agenda,the fulfillment of our own expectations and the advancement of our own reputation?
If we’re honest, I think we are sometimes more interested in accomplishing our plans for our own reputation and our own fleeting glory rather than for God’s. But Jesus did not seek for the praise or approval of people nor wait for their affirmation. He made Himself of no reputation and everything He did and said was to bring His Father glory and to point people to Himself. And everything the Father did was to point people to His Son. This theme of Jesus glorifying the Father and the Father glorifying Him is found throughout the book of John. Jesus not only did everything for God’s glory, everything He did was so that people would see God’s visible splendor. Jesus wanted people to see God’s holiness, His power, His mercy, His heart, His longsuffering. And that’s why He went to the cross. It not only manifested the depth of our sin, it also manifested the magnitude of God’s love for this world. Everything He did was to...
2. To accomplish God’s purpose:
Jesus could have completely prevented Lazarus' illness or else said the word and healed him from where He was. But we know He didn’t do that and that there was a purpose in delaying His arrival. Why did God allow Lazarus to become so sick? Is sickness a sign that God is not happy with us, that we are under judgment or under satanic oppression? Actually, some scholars contend that even sickness can accomplish a purpose and is generally sent for the good of our souls. Sickness tends to draw our affections away from this world and all our plans and to direct them to things above. Adversity tends to humble us, to deepen our prayer life, and make us more receptive to God’s voice, God’s plans and purposes. Though Lazarus was His friend, Jesus allowed him to be sick, and in pain, and weary, and to languish and suffer like any other man. Did that mean that Jesus loved him any less?
We know from this passage Jesus did indeed love Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. He could have healed his sickness but He had a far greater purpose in letting this sickness take its course. We don’t know what He was working in their lives. Jesus knew His plan would bring God glory and would accomplish God’s purpose, and that it would produce an outcome that no one could have ever predicted.
We sometimes read books, watch movies or plays, and hear stories where we can predict the next scene, the next lines, or even the ending. Maybe these stories, dramas, or adventures influence the way we think life should go and think these express the purpose and meaning of life. But God has a plan and purpose for our lives that no human being could ever contrive or conceive of because His thoughts and ways are so far beyond ours. As the Creator of the universe, He created you and me in His image, loves us and knows what’s best for us. He knows how to humble me, knows what will deepen my faith, what will bring me to the place where I will receive life from Him that will overflow to others.
So instead of telling God what your plans are, when, and by which means He should fulfill them, are you willing to submit your plans into the loving and powerful hands of God so He can work His character into your life and fulfill His purpose in and through you?
We can’t even see into the next minute, let alone what will happen years down the road. At best, we can only take educated guesses, but only God knows for certain what will happen tomorrow, next week, and for the duration of your life. Nobody expected this economic crisis, no one expected that Europe would suffer the worst drought recorded in over 500 years. A few days ago I was at a book club with some men who are economists, lawyers, bankers, and in the fuel industry. When I asked them about what is going on in the world’s economy they could only speculate about what will happen in the future but none of them could say for sure. Jesus tells us that there are 12 hours in the day and if we walk with Him we will have light and not stumble, no matter what the future holds, no matter how dark the future may seem.
A. W. Tozer said,
“We must meet the uncertainties of this world with the certainty of the world to come.”
If we think about just the last couple of years, God brought us through some very difficult times with the pandemic. We had no idea if we were going to make it financially personally, let alone as a church. But God was faithful then and is faithful now. That is why in this current economic crisis, with the rising inflation and everything that is being predicted, we can ask God for the wisdom and grace to navigate these circumstances. We can ask Him to direct our steps and continually grow in trusting in all that He allows because we know He has a greater plan and purpose. He will provide for us.
In v. 7 after waiting two days Jesus said, “It’s time to go back to Judea.” You can tell by the disciples' reaction that they didn’t like this plan - “Lord, have you forgotten what happened just a few days ago? These leaders tried to kill you and you want to go back there! What purpose would it accomplish for us to put our lives in danger?” They were so caught up in the situation they forgot they were talking to the second Person in the Trinity, co-Creator of the universe.
Jesus was telling them, “Don’t worry about these people in Judea, you are with Me and we are going to wake up our friend Lazarus who is sleeping.” The disciples respond, “if he is only sleeping, leave him alone and let him sleep, he will get better on his own.” Their plan was to stay out of harm's way but Jesus’ plan was to fulfill God’s purpose. Jesus had to bluntly tell them, “Lazarus is dead.” This was the shocking reality of the situation. For them, death is final, but to Jesus death is merely a form of sleep. There is nothing final, nothing tragic about it. This seemingly tragic situation was an opportunity to reveal God’s visible splendor to his disciples, to Mary, Martha and to all those around them. Chuck Swindoll said,
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible
situations.”
We may be in a religious country but spiritually speaking many people are dead to God. We have a great opportunity to go outside these doors and share the good news and God’s unfailing love with others. This is why we went to Ukraine, why we are spending our time and resources there. As we sow the seed, we pray and wait for God to accomplish what is humanly impossible. Maybe we won’t always see the answer to our prayers in this lifetime but will we trust and serve Him while we wait for Him to work out His plan?
Jesus didn’t regret waiting, in fact He was glad, because what He would do next would not only glorify God and accomplish His purpose. It was…
3. For our good
Why did Jesus wait so long to answer their request? It is so that they would believe. Jesus is allowing a situation to deepen their faith, a faith that goes beyond the day of salvation. He was stretching them so that they would trust Him for greater things. In the OT when God did something powerful, miraculous or significant it was so that His people would know that He is the Lord. In fact, over sixty times in the book of Ezekiel alone, God says that He does all that He does in order that Israel and the nations and everyone “will know that I am the Lord.”
I believe there is no situation in life that you will encounter in which God cannot use and bring glory to Himself. Whether it's sorrow, sickness, or death, whether it is promotion or prosperity, nothing happens to you as child of God that He, as a loving Father, does not permit for a reason. He knows what He needs to work into our lives that will conform us to His image. It doesn’t matter if it’s an impossible boss, a difficult marriage or relationship, a dysfunctional family, a crushing tax bill, a struggle to find a job, or when nothing seems to fall into place - God will use these things to deepen our faith.So that we will know that He alone is Lord.
If only we will put every situation into His hands and trust Him. We may not think His answer or the timing of His answer is loving, caring, or even logical, but you can be assured that everything God does, everything He allows you to experience is within a greater plan, for a higher purpose and for your sake so that God’s splendor, majesty, grace, kindness, holiness, mercy would be displayed. So that you and others around you will know that He alone is the Lord.
In order for that to happen God must bring us to the end of our plan (which is part of His plan) so that His good plan and purposes will prevail. One author said it this way: “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” This sermon really caused me to examine myself, am I really doing everything for His glory? Are my decisions honoring Him first? Am I waiting on Him and trusting Him for the next steps for my life? Is my life fulfilling God’s purpose? If your answer to these questions are yes, if this is really what you desire for your life that is when you will be manifesting God’s visible splendor to others. That’s when you will be fulfilling God’s plan and purpose for your life.
