It's Labor Day in NSW tomorrow. That gives some people time to take their families on a long drive out of the city. It's perfect timing because it's also school holidays here in NSW until 07 Oct. We've done a few long drives during school holidays when our children were little. I remember driving them to Gold Coast, Queensland, to visit the beautiful theme parks. At that time, Sydney to Gold Coast could take a 13 to 14-hour drive with regular breaks every 2 hours. You must take a break every 2 hours because driver's fatigue is one of the highest causes of road accidents. During my time, they have not invented DVD players in cars or any portable gadgets that parents bring with them to keep their children entertained on a long trip. So, you can imagine how bored my 3 children. They constantly ask, "are we there yet" and I would say even without thinking and almost instantly, "No, we're not there yet." To me, it's a very easy question; you almost know the answer right away. These past few days, I thought to myself, I wish all questions were as easy as "are we there yet," but they are not.
We have questions that we don't quite have a comprehensive answer. Someone asked, 'why do bad things happen to good people?" Where was God when such bad things were committed against a good person? Isn't God's job to protect and stop any intruder in our happy, cozy life? Was God absent that He could not do anything to stop the 19 hijackers of 4 American Airlines flights on 9/11/01? People asked, "why did God allow the evil of terrorism to win and kill innocent lives?" DID GOD MISS THE MEMO? Did God not know that a tsunami was coming on Dec 26, 2004, when the tsunami hit the shores of several countries in Southeast Asia and killed at least 225,000 people across those countries? What was God doing? With the number of casualties that day, it seemed God was not there. If God is love, why would God not be there to help people He said He loved? Are these questions not as simple as "are we there yet"? Today our text will highlight two things:
1. We don’t have all the answers to life’s hard questions, but God has. His ways are higher. His thoughts are greater. He fights our battles even those ones that we don’t know about.
2. God has our best interest at heart in all He does and allows to happen in our lives. And sometimes, perhaps, Jesus could be saying what he said once to his disciples, "I'm glad, I'm not there that you may believe." HE WANTS US TO BELIEVE IN HIM.
Let’s open our Bibles in John 11:1-15; 21, 32, 38-44. We will focus on v14-15.
The Death of Lazarus
11 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.”
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have 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.”
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead
38 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 believe, you will 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.” -
This story highlights for us a big disconnect between God’s ways and ours. How little we understand how God works. There are times and seasons in our lives when Jesus takes not the ordinary, the expected, the predictable route because He wants us to believe Him! God wants us to see the glory of God!
V14 - Lazarus is dead 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there
A. The sickness of Lazarus (11:1–3) (11:1–2 & 5): Lazarus, beloved friend of Jesus and brother of Mary and Martha, lies sick in Bethany. Bethany is a small town in Judea. V.5 says that Jesus loves Lazarus and his sisters. (11:3): The sisters notify Jesus of this sickness. (11:4): DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT TOO MUCH. He says Lazarus’s sickness and death are for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
GLORY-PRESENCE-POWER! - The Glory of God is synonymous with his divine presence and nearness visible to his own. GOD IS CLOSE, NOT FAR – The glory of God also refers to the expression of God’s character. GOD IS GOOD. GOD IS LOVE. GOD IS MERCIFUL. GOD IS FAITHFUL. GOD IS POWERFUL. In the NT, we are told that God’s glory was seen on earth in the person of Jesus Christ. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son” (italics added). This is what Jesus wants his disciples, friends, strangers, onlookers, passersby, and the whole world to BELIEVE IN HIM AND TO believe that HE CAME FROM THE FATHER.
The disciples closest to him didn't understand what Jesus was thinking, let alone what He was thinking. What his disciples find confusing is the decision of Jesus to stay back for 2 more days where he was. Wasn’t Jesus a devoted friend of Lazarus and his family? The most logical, friendly, and loving thing is to pack his bags wherever he is and rush to his friend's side. Why delay? Is this delay unnecessary? If Lazarus' sisters called for him to be there, his sickness must be serious. LIKE THE QUEEN?
Jesus delayed his visit to Lazarus' house, which looked like He didn't care. V14 - Lazarus is dead 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there. God’s ways are not our ways. God’s delay is no delay at all. It could be that He is working on a plan known to Him alone, but the outcome is far better than anyone could have thought. In a world of instant gratification, delay has no place. "His thoughts are higher than our thoughts; His ways are better than our ways “that you may believe.”
B. Then, in v7 and 2 days after, Jesus made a shocking announcement that his disciples could not understand, “let us go back to Judea.”
a) Their concern (11:8): The disciples protest that it’s too dangerous for Jesus to go to Bethany. JESUS RISKS HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIEND LAZARUS – SYMBOLIC OF THE CROSS
b) His commitment (11:9–11): They will, however, go there, for he intends to awake Lazarus from his sleep!
c) The despair (11:16): Thomas agrees to go but prepares for the worst! – the other side of Thomas. We remember Thomas as a doubter, but here, it shows the other side of Thomas. He was not a doubter all the time
Who is to blame for the death of Lazarus?
Mary and Martha were in mourning for the death of their brother Lazarus. When Jesus got to their house 4 days after his funeral, the sisters somehow blamed Jesus for his death – “If you have only been here, he would not have died.” John 11:15; 21; 29-32
“If only” – two short words but dangerous enough to play in our head. “If only” – an air of regrets – words of disappointments – if only - words are leaning towards BLAME.
The prayer of Jabez – Jabez means "pain" – "I gave birth to him in pan
1 Chronicles 4:10 - Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted His request.
Jabez could have blamed his mother for giving him such a worst-sounding name. But he didn't! NO TO BLAME GAME, BUT YES TO CRYING TO GOD LIKE JABEZ: CRY – TRUST-BELIEVE-WAIT- WAIT FAITHFULLY-WAIT PATIENTLY-WAIT LOYALLY – WAIT PRAYERFULLY – WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE THE HAND OF GOD MOVE
THE JEWS WHO WERE WATCHING JESUS WEEP FOR HIS FRIEND ASK WHY JESUS, WHO CAN HEAL THE BLIND, COULDN'T KEEP HIS FRIEND FROM DYING (V.36-37).
(SLIDE 5) - Who and what could stop Jesus from doing what He already planned? EVEN A FAITH CRISES CAN’T V23-26 - 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
38 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.”
(SLIDE 6) - 40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (Slide 7) - When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” JOHN 11:43
It is one thing to believe that Jesus has the power to raise us on the last day. He does, and He will. But it's something else to realize that Jesus' power is unlimited now; that Jesus can bring new life to the deadened areas of our personalities; that because of Jesus' power, we can risk taking actions that we might otherwise never have the courage to take. We need never draw back from anything God asks, for the unlimited power of new life is ours in Him.
WHEN THE SISTERS THOUGHT OF JESUS AS SOMEONE WHO COULD HEAL THEIR BROTHER. JESUS WANTED TO SHOW EVERYBODY THE GLORY OF GOD IN HIM. He is not some faith healer or something, but he can bring the dead to life, which is beyond the scope of human nature.
GOD'S WAYS ARE HIGHER, AND GOD'S THOUGHTS ARE GREATER! WHEN IT COMES TO THE PURPOSES OF GOD, DEATH IS NOT THAT BAD. DEATH PRECEDES RESURRECTION. SOMETHING HAS TO DIE BEFORE WE CAN EXPERIENCE A RESURRECTION! SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE SHUT DOWN IN OUR LIVES SO WE CAN RESTART ANEW! EXAMPLE: MY PHONE – SHUTDOWN – RESTART
Something to think about:
• God always has our best interest in mind, even when we feel that He has abandoned us.
• God’s delay is no delay at all.
• The physical presence of Jesus is not necessary for Him to prove that He is present in the moment. "and for your sake, I am glad I was not there." Jesus - JOHN 11:15
• Let Jesus be Jesus to you. He will not compromise His name.
• Even in waiting or in death, God’s purpose is “that you may believe in Jesus” JOHN 11:15
V4`-42 - 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.
What would it take for you to believe in Jesus?
Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. JOHN 11:45
What shall we do when God does not meet our expectations? He does that sometimes to bring people into a state of faith.
Two things:
1. We don’t have all the answers to life’s hard questions, but God has. His ways are higher. His thoughts are greater. HAVE FAITH IN HIM. REMEMBER THE GREAT THINGS HE ALREADY DONE. HE IS ABLE!!!! ALWAYS!! HE FIGHTS OUR BATTLES INCLUDING THE ONES WE DON’T EVEN KNOW. HE IS OUR DEFENDER! HE DEFENDS OUR CASE. HE IS OUR ATTORNEY!
When God is on your side, who cares whose against you on the other side; that'll be the least of your concern because you'll be busy attending to God's business. Hallelujah! Get my eyes on Jesus! I'll be busy praising God because everywhere I look, I see nothing but the glory of Jesus, even in sickness, poverty, health, and riches. Oh, that we might believe in Jesus! O, I believe in Jesus! The voice of the Spirit is louder than all of these; the voice that says nothing can separate you from God's love!
2. God has our best interest at heart in all He does and allows to happen in our lives. And sometimes, perhaps, Jesus could be saying what he said once to his disciples, "I'm glad, I'm not there that you may believe.” JESUS WANTS US TO BELIEVE HIM!
ARE WE THERE YET? NO, BUT WE ARE ON OUR WAY AND MAKING EXCELLENT PROGRESS BY THE GRACE OF GOD IN JESUS CHRIST THRU THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. GOD IS COMMITTED TO SHOWING YOU HIMSELF. WILL YOU BELIEVE HIM WHEN HE DOES, NO MATTER WHAT IT MAY LOOK? WILL YOU STILL STAY WITH HIM AND SERVE HIM? ROMANS 8:38-39 – I AM CONVINCED THAT NEITHER DEATH NOR LIFE, NEITHER ANGELS NOR DEMONS, NEITHER THE PRESENT NOR THE FUTURE NOR ANY POWERS, NEITHER HEIGHT NOR DEPTH NOR ANYTHING ELSE IN ALL CREATION WILL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD THAT IS IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD!
