Good morning. If you would open
your Bibles to the book of John. John chapter 11. John chapter
11. I bring good tidings with me from
everyone in Kingsport, especially my pastor and his family and
the rest of my family and All the other brothers and sisters,
I had way too many people. I started telling people, I'm
just going to tell them all you said hi, because I couldn't remember everybody
who wanted me to. Let's open with a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father. Lord, as
we've gathered here this morning together, Lord, make our minds
and our hearts be of one accord in worshiping you. Lord, we pray
that The message that is going to be preached is one of salvation
completely and alone in the Lord Jesus Christ and Your love for
Your children. Lord, we humbly ask that You
would speak to us. Lord, don't leave this sinner
to his own words, but give us a message that would proclaim
the truth and make our hearts to swell The joy to come forth
of how wonderful you are to your children. Lord, we ask these
things in Christ's name, Amen. In preparing this message, much
like everything I do in my life, I end up starting with me. I
end up thinking about myself, focusing on myself, and until
the Lord pulls me away from that, that's just what I do. Even in
thinking of a subject as pure and as holy as love, I find myself
looking at my love, my love for the Lord or my love for my family
or my love for people. And that's a depressing thought,
because at first it seems wonderful. I love my family. I love the
Lord. But it's so weak. And the only reason I have any
of it is because the Lord loves me first. So what happens is
thankfully the Lord draws me somewhere And in verse 36 of
John 11, the Jews spoke of the Lord and it says, Behold, how
he loved him. This is the Jews noticing the
Lord Jesus Christ and how much he loved Lazarus. So this morning,
I want to look at this story with a special emphasis and focus
of the Lord's love for his children. So let's jump right in in verse
1 of chapter 11, John 11. Now, a certain man was sick named
Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed
the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose
brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore, his sisters sent unto
him, unto the Lord, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is
sick. Lazarus lived just outside of
Jerusalem in Bethany. This was a decent ways off from
where the Lord was, but his two sisters knew that the Lord loved
Lazarus. They also knew that the Lord
was the only hope Lazarus had. Now, it doesn't tell us how sick
Lazarus was at this moment or how much they knew about how
sick he was. But in all honesty, we're all sick at heart. And
even when we realize we're sick, whether it's a sneeze or a cough
or a fever, we really don't know how sick we are. And our only
recourse of action is we have to approach the Lord and say,
Lord, if it be thy will, heal me or heal them. So that's what
his sister asked. And the way they asked it, they
said, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. We can be bold
enough to say that. We can actually say, Lord, he
or she whom thou lovest is sick. We can say that about ourselves.
The Lord says he loves his children, so we need to have the confidence
that he loves us. If we hope that he heals us,
it's because he loves us. They knew the Lord was the only
one who could do it and they didn't plead their merit. They
didn't plead the merit of Lazarus. They didn't even tell the Lord
what to do. They just said, Lord, whom thou lovest is sick and
leave it in his hands. So let's see what the Lord does
for those or someone that he loves. Look at verse four. When
Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but
for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby. The Lord knew that Lazarus would
die and that he would raise him from the dead. The Lord knew
this. Yet he makes the comment that this is not unto death. The Lord works in very mysterious
ways. But the key to this is in verse
four, it says, the sickness is not unto death, but the sickness
is for the glory of God. That's what it's all about. Everything that happens is about
His glory. Now, thankfully, in the Scriptures,
it says it's all for His glory and our good. We're thankful
that that caveat is there, but His glory is first and foremost
in this. When we see stories in the Scripture,
such as the Red Sea, we can see examples of how the Lord does
things in ways that don't make any sense to us. The people of
Israel have been in captivity for generations. Finally, the
Lord had delivered them out. They leave out of Egypt. And
as they go, the Lord leads them along their path. It's time to
camp by the river. So what does he do? He puts them
in the strangest, the worst possible defensive place ever. He corners
them into a place where when Pharaoh comes with a couple hundred
chariots, he traps them. Now, think about this. There's
estimations of how many people were there, but the lowest is
about 400,000 and there are as many as millions. Do you realize
how bad of a position you have to be for a couple hundred chariots
to block a half a million people? The Lord took those people to
the only place that they could be trapped and put them in a
position to where they had to think they had no way out. because
He was going to save them and they had to realize first that
they couldn't save themselves. Then, the only way we can be
saved is for God to help us. God is always glorified when
His Son is glorified. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
glorified when His divine power is manifested, when His power
is shown, and men have no choice but to acknowledge how powerful
He is. Verse 5, Now Jesus loved Martha
and her sister and Lazarus. And when he heard, therefore,
that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place
where he was. I mean to say this later, but
I want to say it now about verse 5. It starts off with how the
Lord loved Lazarus. And in verse 36, we talk about
how everyone noticed how much he loved Lazarus. But in verse
5, it says, Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. The
Lord loved that whole family. And when the Lord heard that
he was sick, he stayed where he was for two days. Now, I don't
know about you all, but if I find out someone that I truly love
is really sick, I go see him. I can't usually do anything to
help them, but I still go. If I had the power to heal them,
Lord willing, If He be willing, I would go to help them. So this
doesn't feel like something someone would do that loved Lazarus. We know that the Lord loved him,
but he didn't go right away. We cannot judge the Lord's love
for us based off of what is happening in our lives. The trials that
we go through, the outward circumstances, They are for our good. They are there to prove and to
strengthen our faith. And they are most importantly
there to glorify our God and to accomplish his eternal purpose.
And we'll see this later on. Verse seven. Then after that,
saith he to his disciples, let us go into Judea again. His disciples said unto him,
Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee. And goest thou
stizzer again? He said, let's go to Lazarus,
which is right outside Jerusalem. And his disciples said, Lord,
last time we were there, they were trying to kill you. And
by product, they were trying to kill us. I think the disciples
had good intentions. They didn't want their Lord to
die. And we'll see that again in the message later, that they
just didn't understand at that point how necessary and he must
die. Our sin makes us to think we
know better than the Lord's providence. These disciples didn't know that
where he was actually going with this trip was to take him to
the cross. That's why he was going back
to Jerusalem. Verse 9 says, Jesus answered, Are there not twelve
hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he
stumbles not, because he seeth the light of this world. But
if a man walk in the night, he stumbles because there is no
light in him. You turn back one page to John
9, verse 4. John 9, 4 says, I must work the
works of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when
no man can work. The first part about this is
the Lord is saying, I must be about my father's business. He's
telling these disciples, I have to go. It doesn't matter the
danger. I have to go. The second thing
he's saying is that where I'm going, this is going to be open
for everyone to see. The Lord's work is in the daylight.
He is light. He doesn't do anything secretly.
He doesn't try to slip something in. The Lord proclaims who he
is and makes those to believe that he will. Verse 11, These
things said he, and after that he said unto them, Our friend
Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep.
Then said the disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
Howbeit, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that he had
spoken of taking a rest and sleep. The Lord uses the word sleep
here to say that Lazarus is dead. The disciples don't understand
this, and just like us, they just can't see the whole picture.
But they're hopeful for Lazarus, because if he's asleep, he'll
be better. They're thinking, well, maybe Lazarus can make
himself better. If he's resting, that's wonderful.
Maybe he'll wake up and he'll be all well. And I don't know if they meant
it to say that we don't want to go wake him out of his sleep.
or that the Lord says He's going to wake him up, and they immediately
follow with sleep is good. But this is an illustration of
how man finds so much comfort in sleep and rest and how that's
really where we all are. We find so much comfort in ourselves
when the only single thing we really need is for the Lord to
come and wake us up. If the Lord just comes and wakes
us up, that's when we're all better. Verse 14, Then said Jesus
unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your
sakes that I was not there to the intent you may believe. Nevertheless,
let us go unto him. Lazarus is dead and it's good
for everyone involved. Here's another statement that,
humanly speaking, we can't get. I imagine those disciples are
looking at the Lord thinking, He's dead and that's good for
us? They don't see it. The Lord says,
He's implying, if I'd been there, you would have seen a miracle
of healing. But you may not still have believed
or others may not have believed. But now, because He's dead, you
are going to see the miracle of resurrection from the dead,
that you may believe that I am the Son of God and the true Messiah."
Verse 16, "...then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto
his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with
him." Poor Thomas is used in the Scriptures to say things
that I feel like, boy, I would have been right with him. I'd
have said so many dumb things. I'd have spoken up and the line
that I remember someone teaching me a while back when we started
the preacher school is I remember someone in the room saying, people
oftentimes are looking at you thinking that you're not very
smart, but if you open your mouth, you're going to remove any doubt
that they have. Thomas was sure that the Jews
were going to kill the Lord and he was right in that. So in a
bit of gloom and a bit of devotion. I don't think Thomas was speaking
ill here. I really think Thomas thought
to himself, well, let's go die with him when he's not thinking
who he's going with. All right, look at verse 17. Well, first, let's say this,
Thomas is saying this about let's go die with him. I asked a few
people this question to make sure I was correct in this. When
the Lord said, I didn't go and Lazarus is dead. There's nowhere
recorded in the Scriptures where anyone died around the Lord. The Lord is life. If he had gone
to Lazarus, Lazarus couldn't have died in front of him. And
Thomas didn't realize that. I'm going with life. We don't
go with life to face death. But the only time the Lord Jesus
Christ was around death is when he died. And he had to die for
our sakes. OK, verse 17. Then when Jesus
came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.
Now, Bethany was nigh into Jerusalem, about 15 furlongs off, about
two miles. And many of the Jews came to
Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. The
Lord waited to come to Lazarus until he had been dead four days.
He would have already started decaying at this point. And as
I heard a man once say, Lazarus was dead, dead. This makes the
miracle to come even greater. There was no doubt everything
had been removed, that there was a chance that maybe Lazarus
just wasn't doing well or he had just died. Lazarus was decaying
at this point, which means healing him and the appearance of Lazarus
would take on a new meaning. And then the other part of this
verse is it shows how many of the Jews had come to mourn with
Mary and Martha. And I'm not going to get too
far into this, but we don't really know the Jews motives in this.
The Jews are well known to be outwardly religious, to go and
mourn with someone because they want everyone to see that they
were mourning with someone as a work. Verse 20, then Martha,
as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him.
But Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha under Jesus,
Lord, if thou had been here, my brother had not died. But
I know that even now whatsoever thou will ask of God, God will
give him to thee. Martha went unto the Lord and
Mary didn't, and we'll see later that Mary didn't know that the
Lord was there. And Martha expressed her belief
that had the Lord been there, Lazarus would not have died.
And that's great wisdom. She knew that. Undoubtedly, Martha
and Mary had spent days praying for the Lord to come. They knew
that he could heal him. But the Lord did not come, so
she changed her prayer. She now says, I know that even
now whatsoever thou will ask of God, God will give it to thee. Martha is not openly asking the
Lord here to heal Lazarus. Though I think she's kind of
implying that, saying, I know you're able to. This is important, and we learn
this in our prayers. We often ask for the Lord to
do specific things, and that's OK. We're sinners. When we're
praying to the Lord, it's a good thing. No matter what we're doing,
if we literally are worshiping the Lord and praying to Him,
it's a good thing. But Martha's prayer here is wonderful in a
time of need. Martha just says, I know even
though he's dead, whatever I ask of you, you'll do for me. But
she leaves it at that. She's asking the Lord's will
to be done. Look at verse 23, Jesus saith unto her, thy brother
shall rise again. So Martha just asked the Lord,
I know that you can raise my brother if you want to. I know
you can do it. She's implying she wants that.
So the Lord answers and says, he shall rise again. He tells
her, yes, I'm going to do it. So in verse 24, Martha responds
with Martha says unto him, I know that he will rise again in the
resurrection at the last day. Martha asked the question, gets
the correct response, and then doesn't realize she's getting
the correct response. And this again is us. The Lord
is giving us the answer we're even asking for and we still
find fault in that or we don't understand it. The Lord said
it. We do it so often and we need
to stop looking for the answer that we want. Stop looking for
the answer that we think is best and let the answer that the Lord
thinks is best, because that's what's going to happen. She knew
and believed that the dead would rise from the graves on the last
day. And as all of God's people do, she found comfort in it.
I don't think Martha was being mean here. I think Martha was
happy. That's a great word from the Lord. Even if he was saying
he will rise again with me in that day, we cannot ask for more
than that. That's the greatest news we could
ever hear about any loved one, any friend, anyone. So in verse
25, after she said that, he says, Sorry, verse 25, Jesus said unto
her, 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? The Lord makes a statement and
then asks a question. He says, I am the resurrection
and the life. He's saying I'm the source. I'm
the cause. I am the fountain of eternal
life because he is God. Because he lives, because he
is our surety, our righteousness and our redemption. We live because
in him dwells all the full, blessed life of God. Then we are complete
in him because he lives. We live life and resurrection
is not an experience that Christ purchases and bestows. It's not
only that, but he is our life. He is our life. We can no more
die and perish than he can. When I said earlier that the
Lord cannot die, if we're in him, we cannot die. He is our
life. If someone believes and is in
Christ, though his body is in the grave, he is not dead. Lazarus
lived, for he is one with Christ. And the Lord turned Martha's
thoughts from doctrine to himself. The doctrine of salvation, the
doctrine of resurrection and eternal life, are only understood
in the light of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we
dwell on a doctrine, on something that the religious world loves
to hammer home, we hear doctrines and the points and all these
things. It's all Christ. Without Him, all of those words,
we get lost. We get muddied up. We can't figure
out where we are. We can't even understand them
apart from Him. So look at verse 27. Martha says
unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the
Son of God, which should come into the world. Martha believed,
and do you know why she believed? Because the Lord told her. That's
the only way any man or woman ever believes. The Lord tells
them. Verse 28, And when she had said
so, so said, she went her way and called Mary her sister secretly,
saying, The Master is come and calleth for thee. As soon as
she heard that, she arose quickly and came unto him. Now, Jesus
was not yet coming to the town, but was in the place where Martha
had met him. The Jews, then, which were with her in the house
and comforted her when they saw Mary, that she arose up hastily
and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep
there. The first thing that happens
here is after the Lord tells Martha who he is and she says,
I believe you, I know who you are, she leaves. That's all she
needs. That's all a sinner needs. The
Lord to show them who he is. And that's all we need. So she
goes and tells Martha and Mary. So the Lord's sinner. And when
Mary was leaving, everyone followed her and they thought she was
going to mourn at the grave. I'm sure when Mary heard that
the Lord is here, this was not a quiet sneak out the back door
kind of thing. Mary heard that the Lord was
there. And we'll learn more about Mary in the next message. She
was probably very emotional and stormed to see the Lord. So in
verse 32, Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw
Him, she fell down at His feet, saying unto Him, Lord, if Thou
hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Mary saw the Lord,
she fell, weeping at His feet. Mary's faith, her love and devotion
to Christ are very obvious every single time we see her. When
He is near her, She is at His feet, and we should learn from
her and follow her guidance. Verse 33, When Jesus therefore
saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with
her, He groaned in the Spirit and was troubled. And He said,
Where have you laid Him? And they said unto Him, Lord,
come and see. Mary could only cry in grief, and the Jews are
also weeping. Some of them may have been in
sympathy, Some of them may have been hypocritically weeping,
just making sure if everyone else is weeping, I should be
crying, too. But this shows us that our Lord had a real soul
and real emotions, that he was subject to passions throughout
with sin, though without sin. And our Lord knew where Lazarus
laid, but he asked him, he said, where is Lazarus? So in verse
35, his response when they went to the tomb was Jesus wept. There is a great deal of opinions
between writers on why the Lord was crying. Maybe he thought
of Lazarus, whom he loved, that had to die. Maybe the grief of
the two sisters. He was thinking of Mary and Martha
and how troubling this had to be. The Lord loves his children,
and though this had to be this way, the Lord loves them. The
Lord does what is best for His children. But in the same way
that we chasten our children, it is, of course, emotional.
He didn't want to see Mary and Martha so sad. And then some
people think He was crying of the unbelief of the multitude,
thinking I've done all these things and still you don't believe
and you mock. Or maybe He was looking at the
lack of faith on the part of His friends. All His disciples
were with Him. But all of this did get a reaction
from the Jews. In verse 36, the reaction of
the Jews says, Then said the Jews, Behold, how the Lord loved
him. Some of them said, Could not
this man which opened the eyes of the blind have caused that
even this man should not have died? Jesus, therefore, again,
groaning in himself, cometh to the grave. It was a cave and
a stone lay upon it. The Jews first reaction was correct.
The Lord obviously loved Lazarus, but they didn't understand. And as very typical of what we
see in the days ahead, the Jews would stand there and look at
the Lord on the cross and say, he saved others. Can he not save
himself? This is the man that called that
he's called the savior, but he can't save himself. These Jews were always looking
for ways to discredit and to doubt Him. And the Lord groaned
in Himself, maybe over the wickedness and malice in their hearts. So
look at verse 39. Jesus said, Take ye away the
stone. Martha, the sister of him that
was dead, said unto the Lord, Lord, by this time he stinketh,
for he hath been dead for four days. So Martha, Her first request
to the Lord is, will you please bring my brother back to life?
The Lord said, yes. And she said, well, I know you'll
bring him back at the end of days. And the Lord said, no,
I am the resurrection. I'm bringing him back to life.
Then he says, take away the tomb. And Martha interjects again and
says, no, no, no, it's going to smell awful. He's decaying.
Please don't make me go through this again. Martha's lack of
faith or understanding here is just another picture of us. We
try everything we can to get involved or to be a part of or
to get our will to be done. Isn't that just who we are and
what we always do? Look at verse 40. Jesus saith
unto her, said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe,
thou shouldest see the glory of God. He reminded her of what
he had already said to her in verse four. This sickness is
not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might
be glorified thereby. And something he said in verse
23, Jesus said unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Then
in verse 25, Jesus said unto her, 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? The performance
of this miracle did not depend on Martha's faith, thankfully.
He was telling her to get her eyes off of Lazarus and this
corpse and off this flesh and put her attention on Christ.
Stop worrying about what Lazarus is going to look like and what
state he's in. Look at me. Look at the Lord
and what I'm going to do for him. Trust in the Lord. Believe on the Lord. And she
would see the greater glory of God revealed in Christ. Verse
41, Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead
was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes
and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And
I knew that thou hearest me always. But because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent
me. The father and son are one. And this prayer is a wonderful
picture of what the Lord does for those he loves. Not just
in the act of what he's getting ready to do, but the whole event
is the Lord with a purpose of those he loves. So he says out
loud to his father, to God, a message so that everyone around realizes
that I'm speaking to God, who is my father. We're one. I'm talking to you so everyone
else can see that this is God doing this. And he says this
because his disciples are there, the family is there, all of these
Jews have come to mourn. All of them are there. He does
all of this that they might believe on him. Verse 43, And when he
thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth,
bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound
about with a napkin. And Jesus saith unto them, Loose
him, and let Him go. There is only one thing that
can bring forth the dead, and that's the voice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That is not only true in action,
but it's true spiritually. No man can hear the truth. No
man can become spiritually alive except for the voice of the Lord
to speak to him. It's His Word and power which
gives life to all of us and to those who are physically dead
as well. And all of this is a picture of his love for us, of his love
for each of his elect children. So when looking at his love for
us, let me give a couple different things to think about when we
think about his love for us, because it's amazing, especially
when we think of this. Christ's love to his people is
even when they are dead in trespasses and sins. His love is amazing
when you consider who he is, that he would love us because
he is the eternal son of God. He is the creator of all things. He is the king of king and the
Lord of lords. Then it's even greater if you
consider who he is and then who we are. We are the object of
his love. Not only are we creatures, but
we're sinful, evil creatures, exceedingly mean and wretched.
We are the most worthless things on this world. We're bankrupts. We're beggars. We're comparable
to only a dead animal. We love nothing. We have nothing
on the outside or inside that is worthy of His love. We have
no way to attract His love. We have nothing about us that
deserves it. But every part of us is disgusting
and worthy of hatred as we live our lives in one way. We are
at war with our God. But if we consider not only who
he is and who we are in that gap for the love, think about
what all he's done for us. Before time, he married us. He became our surety. He engaged
in a covenant with his father for us. He agreed to everything
that was and would be required for us. He is always taking care
of us. He supplied the blessing, the
promise and the grace and all the glory for each one that he
loved. Now, what is he doing now? Then
in time, he became a man. He assumed our nature. He took
it on. He fulfilled the law for us.
He died in our place. He bore our sins. He paid our
debts, while at the same time giving us his righteousness and
an eternal redemption. So now he's in heaven. He's preparing a place for those
that he loves to be our intercessor, our advocate for us. He is supplying
our wants. He is frequently visiting with
us. He indulges us with communication with him. He is preserving us. He's keeping us safe. He has
a wall around us. We're in his hand. He's waiting
until we come to his kingdom and his glory. And until that
day, When he gets this, he will introduce all of those he loves,
presenting them to his father with joy. He will present his
children, though we see what we are. But at that time, we
will be in him. We will be like him and we will
be presented to his father in joy, proud of who we are. Now, consider the nature of his
love, that his love should be everlasting. that before we were
even born, he loved us. It is the love of quiet pleasure
and delight in us that it is free. It's unmerited. It's without any reason. It has
no motive on our part. It is a distinguished love that
us and not others should be the object of his love. And it will
continue unchangeably the same, even with our constant sin and
our provocations. So why did the Lord deal with
Lazarus's illness in this way? Why did He let Lazarus die? There are so many other ways
that this event could have unfolded. There are many ways we would
have changed it if we didn't see the whole picture. But all
of this happened the exact way that God predetermined. And thankfully,
that's the way everything happens. But it all happened for that
exact reason and in that exact way because of this. Because
He would get the most glory and because He had others that He
loved. Look at verse 45. All of this
happened, then many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen
the things which Jesus did, believed on Him. All of these events,
the death of Lazarus, the sorrow of Mary and Martha, The disciples
fear that we're going to our death. All of these things had
to be endured because there were some people that he loved, that
this was the way he was going to bring them to him. And when
they saw who he was, they believed. Wherefore, it may justly be said
in verse 36, behold how he loved Lazarus, but it can also be said,
behold how he loves us. All right.