As the Lord may graciously help
me, I return your prayerful attention to the Gospel of John and chapter
11, and read in verse three for a text, John 11 and verse three,
and that can be found on page 994 on the Ruby Bible. John 11,
verse three. Therefore his sisters sent unto
him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. That's John 11 and verse 3. Therefore his sisters sent unto
him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. We have before us in this precious
account of John's Gospel, this great miracle that the Lord Jesus
was to work so soon before he himself would be raised from
the dead after he had been put to death at Calvary. Here we see this great miracle
that the Lord Jesus was going to work on behalf of his dear
friend Lazarus and the two sisters of Lazarus, Martha and Mary,
which were real friends to Jesus. We understand that he would often
be at their house and receive hospitality from them. And yet, you see, since they
were good friends of the Lord Jesus, they were not exempt from
difficulties. And you see, Satan would perhaps
say that if Jesus really was our friend, then these things
would not have taken place. But you see, the Lord is able
to bless us in this way and able to make these things come to
pass, which are for our spiritual and eternal good. And here, in
the lives of Martha and Mary, they were coming into a great
trial. Their brother Lazarus was sick,
we read in verse two. And these two sisters, we read
in our verse that we've named for a text, therefore his sisters,
sent unto him, that is, to the Lord Jesus, saying, Lord, behold,
he whom thou lovest is sick. So they send out this prayer,
this letter, because, you see, Jesus was not there at that time.
We read at the end of John's Gospel, sorry, at the end of
chapter 10 in John's Gospel, that, um, in verse 40, and he went away
again, beyond Jordan, into the place where John at first baptized,
and there he abode. So Jesus was beyond the river
Jordan, some way away from Jerusalem, or close to where Bethany was,
was close to Jerusalem. He was far away, but they sent
this message to the Lord Jesus. When Jesus heard that, Therefore
his sister sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest
is sick. It's a simple, simple message,
isn't it? And they do not really ask for
anything. They just lay their case before
the Lord Jesus. And that's precious, isn't it,
for us? In our troubles, in the difficulties
that we come into, The sicknesses that we come into, our loved
ones come into sickness. He whom thou lovest is sick. You see, they don't say he whom
we love is sick, although that would have been true, but they
have a sense that this one Lazarus is loved by the Lord Jesus himself. He whom thou lovest is a wonderful
thing if when we have difficulties amongst our families and our
friends and our loved ones that we can say in prayer to God behold
he whom thou lovest is sick or behold she whom thou lovest is
sick, commending them to the Lord, commending them to his
to his grace and for him to do as he sees fit. And this great prayer that they
ask then, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. They lay it before the Lord. And in this case, it was obviously
a physical sickness, which led, of course, very shortly to the
death of Lazarus. But of course, We think in our
lives there is physical sicknesses, but there are also spiritual
sicknesses, aren't there? Different types of sicknesses,
both physical and mental, but also spiritual. And perhaps there are sometimes
times when we can say, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is
sick. They're not in a good place. as they normally are. They're
not feeding on the word of God as they did formerly. They're
not in a healthy state spiritually. And we bring them to the Lord. Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest
is sick. Behold, she whom thou lovest
is sick. So these things can be both natural
mental sicknesses or indeed surely there can also be the sicknesses
of the soul. He restoreth my soul. We read that in Psalm 23. David said that, he restoreth
my soul. David, the sweet psalmist of
Israel, David, the one that was a man after God's own heart,
yet he needed restoring. And we know that there were those
times when he, though he was the king of Israel, though he
had so much, so many blessings, He was left to fall at times,
in particular in that occasion with Bathsheba. But we read in
his penitential psalm, Psalm 51, how the Lord restored David,
restored him. And he was able to say after
his restoration, then shall I teach transgressors thy ways. and sinners
shall be converted unto thee. You see, even in David's sickness,
spiritually, it was a sickness in a way, wasn't it? I don't
think he was in a good state for some time after that event
with Bathsheba. We read in the Psalms how he
didn't immediately confess his sins. And if I just turn to that
in Psalm 32, I believe it is. Yes, Psalm 32. Blessed is he
whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in
whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and
night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into
the drought of summer, Selah. There was a time, you see, after
the events with Bathsheba, some nine months of David's silence. And he wasn't confessing his
sins. He was trying to hide his sins.
He was trying to cover his sins, not with the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, but tried to hide them from view as if they'd never
happened. But you see, when I kept silence,
my bones waxed old through my roarings all the day long. Could there not been a sum of
David's friends that could have prayed this for him? Lord, behold,
he whom thou lovest is sick. David was sick in that sense. He was not in a healthy spiritual
state. But you see, he restores my soul. And so we have then in this precious
word. And may we perhaps plead it sometimes
for ourselves. Those of us who have a hope in his mercy, we're
not always in the best state, are we, spiritually? Behold,
Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. And we lay it before
the Lord and we ask that the Lord would heal us. Emmanuel,
here we are, waiting to feel thy touch. Deep wounded souls
to thee repair. And Saviour, we are such. This
simple prayer. Lord, behold, he, she, whom thou
lovest, is sick. Is there a loved one? Is there
one that this is true of? and we bring them before the
Lord, both naturally and spiritually. There can be that health or that
sickness in their physical or in their souls, and how often
we have observed amongst people we know, how when they've had
sicknesses, the Lord's people have sicknesses in their bodies,
and they've been in hospital perhaps in very difficult circumstances,
The Lord has come and visited them on that hospital bed, come
and blessed them in their souls, that they would look back and
say, like David, it has been good that I've been afflicted,
that I may learn thy statues. The Lord, you see, is able to
bless. Well, these two sisters, Mary
and Martha, they send this message. is sick. Well, there you see
they were applying to one who they believed could deal and
could do what was best. And it's a precious thing, isn't
it, when we spread our letters, our difficult things, we spread
them before the Lord. We don't know what will be best.
We don't know how the Lord will appear, but we we go to the Lord,
Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick. And you see, this was not
wrong. What they said was not untrue
because we're told, you see, in verse five, now Jesus loved
Martha and her sister and Lazarus. What these two sisters said was
totally true. Jesus did love them, and we're
told that. Lord, behold he whom thou lovest
is sick. The love of Christ to sinners,
the love of Christ to his people, the love that brought him down
from heaven's glory to this sinful earth to work out a righteousness
for these people that he loved and he came to seek and to save
that which was lost. But you see in verse four of
this chapter, we have these words of the Lord Jesus, when Jesus
heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the
glory of God. These words that Jesus spoke,
and we don't know whether the messenger heard these words and
took these words, Back to Mary and Martha, but we know that
very soon, if not almost at the same time, Lazarus must have
died because when we read that he was with Jesus abode there
two more days. In verse six, we read, when he
had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still. in the same place where he was,
beyond Jordan, after he'd heard of this sickness. He stayed two
more days. And then, you see, by the time
he traveled up, talked to the disciples about it, and they
made their way towards Lazarus. And of course, Jesus knew by
that time that he was also already dead and buried. And you see,
we read that he'd been there by the time Jesus arrived, that
for four days, Lazarus had already been in the grave. So these words
of Jesus, when Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness is not
unto death, but for the glory of God. Surely what a trial of
the faith of those sisters, if they got that word back from
the messenger. And the difficulty this was to
all of the disciples, he had said, that this sickness was
not unto death, but for the glory of God. And yet, Lazarus, this
one whom Jesus loved, we're told that that was not, it was not
just the sister's thought that he was loved of Jesus, but wasn't
really. No, in verse five we're explicitly
told, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister, Lazarus. There was the love of the Lord
Jesus to these people and yet you see there was this mysterious
workings of providence in God's hand that he remained still two
days in that place beyond Jordan. He didn't rush as we would think
and no doubt probably they would think and as we see later on
in their reactions when they talk to him If they had been
here, our brother would have not died. They realised that
if only he had come earlier, if only he had come sooner, then
they believed that their brother would not have died. This was
of strange providence for these two sisters, wasn't it? They
sent to Jesus, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. But the
way that the Lord Jesus answered this, the way he responded was
so different than they would have thought. hoping to sing
as our closing hymn this morning. God moves in a mysterious way
his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the
seas and rides upon the storm. And what a storm this was. for
dear Martha and for dear Mary. They'd sent the message. They'd
sent a simple message. They'd sent a true message. They'd
sent a message in love to the Master. Lord, he whom thou loveth
is sick. And whether they received the
response, to be told that, from the messenger, that Jesus had
said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God,
that the Son of God might be glorified thereby, whether they
got that return message, we're not certainly told. But this is what Jesus had said,
and certainly the disciples heard Jesus say that. But then Jesus,
you see, stays another two days. And then in verse seven, then
after that, saith he to his disciples, let us go unto Judea again. His disciples say unto him, master,
the Jews of late sought to stone thee. Goest thou thither again? It was dangerous that he had
been, we read in the last chapter how, what opposition he had from
the Pharisees. And they hated him. They wanted
to do away with him. And now Jesus goes, suggests
that they go, let us go into Judea again. And the disciples
can't understand why Jesus would do that. And yet Jesus was going
to go and he did go. And he tells them, you see, later
on, in verse 11, these things saith
he, and after he said unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth. But I go that I may awake him
out of sleep. So here he is referring to Lazarus
as sleeping, but really we see later on that he is really saying
that Lazarus is dead and that he was going to raise Lazarus
from the dead. You see, this sickness is not
unto death. but for the glory of God. And we have to realise that God's
ways are like that. His ways are higher than our
ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We just think
of the here and now, but God had it in view here to demonstrate
his power over death, over one that had died and now was four
days already in the grave. And as... As his sister said, when Martha said that when he was
going to raise him from the dead that he's already decaying, by
this time he's stinking. That decay would have already
set in. But you see, the Lord was going to demonstrate that
he is, as we read in this chapter, I am the resurrection and the
life. and we need that resurrection
power, don't we? You see, it's the resurrection
power that raises people from death to life, to start within
their Christian pathway, isn't it? Ye, we read in Ephesians,
those words, and you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses
and in sins. We need that resurrection power
to raise us from the dead, and we're told, that in verse four of Ephesians 2,
but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ. That quickening power of the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the same power that
rises us, raises sinners out of a state of spiritual death.
and to bring them into a state of spiritual life. I am the resurrection
and the life, the Lord Jesus says. Well, you see, so much
was going to be taught to these disciples and so much was going
to be taught to Mary and also to those Jews that were in their
house who were trying to comfort Martha and Mary at the loss of
Lazarus. Well, in verse 14, then Jesus
said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead, for I am glad, and I
am glad for your sakes, that I was not there to the intent
ye may believe. Nevertheless, let us go unto
him. So the Lord Jesus was going to
go to them, knowing that Lazarus was dead. Knowing that he had
said, this sickness is not unto death. Well, you say, surely
there's a contradiction. Lazarus has died. And you've
said that this sickness is not unto death. The trial of your
faith being much more precious than gold that perisheth. You
see, these things are a trial, aren't they, to our faith? How
can we square these things? And when the Lord says things
in our pathway and then other things take place that seem to
totally override them and totally change how this could be true.
This sickness is not under death, but for the glory of God. So
ultimately, you see, at the end of this account, there
was going to be Lazarus raised from the dead. Ultimately, it
was not going to be Lazarus's death in that sense, but it certainly
was going to demonstrate the glory of God and Jesus going
to heal a sick Lazarus would have brought less glory to his
name and would have been less of a demonstration of his power
than Jesus raising one from the dead who had been dead and buried
for days. You see, the Lord knew what he
was doing. And as these two sisters laid
their cause before the Lord, Lord behold he whom thou lovest
is sick. Have we some loved ones that
are sick? Maybe naturally, maybe spiritually,
they're sick. They're dead in trespasses and
in sins. The God of this world has blinded
their minds. They're as yet far off from God or perhaps
as those that have turned away from the things of God. Once
those that we thought were on the right way and now they seem
to have taken a turn so far for the worse. Lord, he whom thou
lovest is sick. Well, may we be amongst those
who pray for our loved ones, pray for those ones, and pray
that thy kingdom would come and thy will would be done in earth
as it is in heaven, that we may be concerned about others and
their state and their standing before God. Well, in verse 17 we read, Then
when Jesus came, he found that he had laid in the grave four
days already. Bethany was nigh unto the Jerusalem,
about 15 furlongs, it's about two miles. And many of the Jews
came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. So they came to comfort in kindness
to Mary and Martha, although many of the Jews did not share
their love for Jesus that Martha and Mary clearly had. And yet
they came to comfort them as fellow Jews. Interesting yet,
many of those were going to see a great miracle and were going
to be blessed in their own soul. So as we seek to minister to
others, you see, the Lord can minister to us. We read that
in the Word, that he who watereth would himself be watered. And
these that were seeking to water Martha and Mary and be kind to
them in their time of loss, many of them were watered themselves. watered themselves with a wonderful
blessing, the gift of eternal life, a realization that this
is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Well, and many of the Jews, that's
verse 19, came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning
their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard
that Jesus was coming, went and met him. But Mary sat still in
the house. We often think of Mary as being
the more perhaps spiritual of Mary and Martha, sitting at the
feet of Jesus. But here in this account, Martha,
you see, she goes out to Jesus. When Martha, when Mary's still
staying at home, Martha goes out and meets Jesus as he's travelling
towards them. And Martha, as soon as she heard
that Jesus was coming, went and met him. But Mary sat still in
the house. Then said Martha, this is verse
21, then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here,
my brother had not died. Well, dear Martha, she just had
a great disappointment. Her brother whom she loved, her
brother whom she'd prayed for, her brother whom she'd request
that the Lord would come and would request that the Lord would,
she expected, I believe, that the Lord would come and do something.
And yet, he did not. He didn't do it. She was so disappointed,
and yet, her faith, she'd not lost her faith in the Lord Jesus,
had she? She could have said, well, you're
too late now. I'm not interested anymore. My
brother's died. No, she still, I believe Martha's
faith was strong amidst lots of discouragement. Then said
Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had
not died. She realized that Jesus was able
to have power over death. But I know that even now, whatsoever
thou ask of God, God will give it thee. It seems that she still
believed that... Did she believe that that meant
that God could raise Lazarus now from the dead? I don't know
just what she had in mind, but she realized the power of the
Lord Jesus still, that his arm was not shortened, that it cannot
save. She had not lost her faith, even
though she'd been tremendously disappointed. Perhaps in our
lives, we have tremendous disappointments. We thought that it should have
been he that should have redeemed Israel. You see those two on
the road to Emmaus, they almost came to the conclusion that this
was not the Christ anymore. They must have been mistaken,
but Martha doesn't do that. It's interesting, you see, we
think of that great statement in Matthew chapter 16, where
Peter was able to say, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. Let me just find that. Matthew's Gospel chapter 16. When Jesus asked, who do men
say I am? And then Peter answered in Matthew chapter
16 and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You see, he was able to say that
with confidence. But really, he was not in a great
difficulty at that time. But later on, when Jesus said
that he must suffer and be killed and raised again the third day,
Peter rebuked him. He didn't want a suffering Christ. He realized that Christ was the
Son of God, but he didn't want a suffering Savior. Not at that
time. But of course, Peter was going
to learn. Peter was going to write that epistle that says
unto you, unto you that believe he is precious, with the precious
blood of Christ. That's what Peter was going to
speak about. So you see, he had much to learn,
and so do we. Well, Martha says this, if thou
hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even
now her faith was strong, though it was very vexed and very troubled. whatsoever thou will ask of God,
God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto him, thy brother
shall rise again. And Martha says, I know that
he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. She believed
in the resurrection. She believed that the Lord's
people, though they went into the grave, that they would rise
again. And so she says that, and Jesus saith unto her, I am
the resurrection and the life. Jesus revealed himself, you see,
to Martha in a way beyond what he could have done, in a sense,
if he'd have just come and visited Lazarus on a sick bed when he
was still alive. No, Jesus is saying, I have power
not just to raise a sick Lazarus, Other miracles that Jesus did,
did demonstrate his ability to save and to heal sick people. But here, it had gone beyond
just sickness. It had gone to death and it had
gone beyond death. It had gone to four days in the
grave and Lazarus decomposing in the grave. Jesus said unto her, I am the
resurrection and the life. The life of all that live. And
it was a strange path for Mary and Martha. Jesus said unto her,
I am the resurrection. and the life. Jesus revealed
this to her and of course this is precious to us today isn't
it? He and Jesus said this really which is talking about which
is true for all of his people really looking to that time at
the end when time will be no longer. He that believeth in
me though he were dead yet shall he live. So all of the all of
the Lord's people who Believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, though
they die and their bodies are laid in the grave, though he
were dead, yet shall he live. There shall be a resurrection
of the just unto eternal life. And then in verse 26, Jesus addresses
the other class of believers. Believers that have not yet died. When the Lord Jesus comes again,
there will be believers that are still alive. and whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. So those Christians
that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and are alive at the second
coming of the Lord Jesus, they shall never die. They shall never
pass through death because they will go straight to glory. And of course, we read those
same words in 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We read this in verse 15. For
this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent
or go before them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with
the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. And that's what the Lord Jesus
is referring to. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. There shall be that raising from
the dead. Then we which are alive and remain,
so those who are still alive when Jesus comes the second time,
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with So Jesus
takes Martha and says, yes, this is what's coming. But I'm giving
you a foretaste of that. I'm showing you the truth of
what will happen to all the Lord's people by what's going to happen
to your brother Lazarus now. Jesus saith, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Well, she'd
had many trials to her faith. She said unto him, Yea, Lord,
I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should
come into the world. It's interesting, this confession
of Martha was in the face of the death of her brother. The
death of the brother that she hoped the Lord Jesus would come
and save from death before he died. But her hopes in that regard
had been disappointed. And yet she did not lose her
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Her faith was still centred in
Christ. And she said, yay, Lord, I believe
that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come
into the world. She'd still got a dead brother. Lots of disappointments, but
she had that faith. Of course, as time went on, you
see, then Mary came and said similar words to the Lord Jesus.
Well, the Lord then did raise Lazarus, from the dead and our
time has gone really, but there was that raising of Lazarus from
the dead, so that the end result of all this great account was
that it didn't end in Lazarus. He says, this sickness is not
under death, but for the glory of God. And how Our disappointments,
God can turn around. The great disappointment that
Mary and Martha had that Jesus did not come in the time scale
that they wanted him to and that their brother died and where
was their hope? Did he really love them? Ah,
we're told that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. He loved them and yet he He delayed his coming. He hides
the purpose of his grace to make it better known because he wanted
to demonstrate, I am the resurrection and the life. And this was the
case, this was the time when the Lord Jesus raised one from
the dead who had been dead the longest. The first time, if you
remember, was Jairus' daughter and she had just died and Jesus,
raised her from the dead. And the second one that Jesus
raised from the dead was that widow of Nain's son, and he was
being carried out to be buried, and Jesus touched that one while
he was in the coffin, or in the beer as it's called in the Bible.
But this one, you see, Lazarus had been dead four days.
In the grave, the stone had been sealed. Surely there's something
here of a foretaste of what Jesus himself would do. He would be
in the grave. He would be, and it seems that
all the disciples' hopes were shattered. But up from the grave
he arose as a mighty triumph for his foes, that last enemy
dead. Well, may the Lord add his blessing
and may we then come with our loved ones. And Lord, behold,
he whom thou lovest is sick. We bring it to the Lord, we leave
it to him. And the Lord did what was best
for them, didn't he? He did what was better than Martha
and Mary could imagine. And you see, his ways are higher
than ours. God moves in a mysterious way,
but it's a good way. and the Lord's people will come
to have to acknowledge that his way is best. May the Lord have
his blessing.