Good morning. I'm ready to just keep singing and keep clapping, and I don't want to skip God's word, but I mean I'm already a mess, because of what God's done and just be in with my family here and praising It's good. You know every now and then we get an order of that better is one day, better is an hour and 15 minutes in his courts than a thousand elsewhere, but in the meantime, in the meantime, we wait, we wait for God to finish. We live in a broken world and we see it all around us. We see it in our own hearts. We see it in our marriages and in our kids and in our families and in our church. We need a savior and we have a champion. I don't want to walk together with you, assuming you'll come with me. Through a story that's full of hopes and expectations and my desire and hope and expectation is that God will meet us in the walking. It's really what the story is about. It's about hopes and expectations and how God works through our hopes and expectations to enable and equip us to see Him and to know Him personally and intimately. And often in my own experience and maybe in yours the very circumstances that I would say keep me from believing and trusting in God or the very ones that God is the most using to move me closer to Himself. And so often it's hindsight that has shown me that, but I told someone the other day I'm 46 years old and I told somebody I said I'm just beginning to enjoy some of the wisdom of being almost a half a century old. I probably have about 30 years worth at 46. I'm a little slow, but the story that we're about to journey on together is about a man who died and was buried but he lived to tell about it and his name wasn't Jesus. His name was Lazarus. Lazarus means God has helped. Do you need that this morning? I do. Let me count the waves. My prayers that God would meet you and myself this morning and indeed help us. Pray with me, please. Father God, please come and have at the praise of your people. Pour out your spirit now and meet us right where we are. You're here. You know us all the way to the bottom and you know what we need. Father, surprises, break us, comfort us, strengthen us, grow us up that we might know you intimately and serve you with heart's full of gratitude. Through faith in our rescuer and our champion and our elder brother Jesus. Open our eyes and our hearts that we might fellowship with you this morning and it's in the matchless name of Jesus. I pray. Amen. The story is found in the book of John in chapter 11. If you have your Bibles, you can turn there. I'm not going to read it on the outset. I'm going to read it as we go because I've been told I only have 30 minutes and I got five sermons here to preach this morning. Hey, Rod Miles and Glenter here this morning. Hi guys. And it's so good to see you and your family. Rod is in his wife and family are involved in an endeavor. They're planting a church in California and they're back for a brief visit. It's good to see you. Rod told me said last night I saw him yesterday and I told him what I was preaching on. He said, oh yeah, it took me five sermons to get through John 11. You know, I'm going to, Rod, could you come up preach the first one for us? And I have a, I'm a verbose guy. So I have five sermons here and 20 minutes to go. So I'm going to trust that God is going to lead and guide us through this story. John is one of my favorite books of the Bible. John tells me about Jesus from the perspective of a close and personal friend. John was an eyewitness to Jesus's life. He was a man who knew Jesus like I want to know Jesus. He knew him personally. John was the guy who Jesus entrusted the life of his mother married to when John, when Jesus was on the cross. John is also a guy who's not at all acquainted with or not at all not acquainted with waiting. He lived the longest of the 12 apostles. And he was an exclusion and seclusion exiled for years waiting. He understood waiting. In John's gospel, he tells us that the purpose of his writing it was so that you, the reader and the listener might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. We sung about him. God of God, light of light. He writes so that we would believe that and that by believing in Christ, we might have life in his name. Let me give you some background to the story. These events take place three or so months before the cross. Jesus's public ministry has kind of come to a close. No more sermons at the temple. He now ministers mostly to individuals and those associated with them. In these last few months, we see Jesus focusing more and more on his disciples, training them, teaching them, preparing them. He knows he's going to leave and he knows that it's important that he does leave. He knows the mission for which he's come. His public ministry's raised a ruckus with the religious leaders. In fact, the last time he was near Jerusalem, he angered them so that they picked up stones to kill him. Why not? He was defying the authority of their rules of the Sabbath. He was telling them that their true father wasn't Abraham but it was the devil. And to top it off, he was claiming to be deity. So where do we find Jesus at the beginning of our story? We find him in the wilderness country, a good two or three days walk journey from Jerusalem north on the east side of the Jordan River. He's there with his disciples. And let's begin, John 11. Now a certain man is sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. We've heard those names haven't we? Mary and Martha. Oh yeah. Martha's house in Bethany about two miles from Jerusalem. That was a hangout of Jesus. It was a place where he found safe haven, where he found encouragement and support. Where he found believers. Remember the story of Mary and Martha? Jesus was teaching there and Martha, who was concerned about the preparations and the hospitality issues, she went to Jesus and she said, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work myself? Lord, don't you care? Have those words crossed your mind or lips recently? Lord, can't you see what I'm dealing with? Don't you care? So it's these sisters that this story involves Mary and Martha and they have a brother and his name is Lazarus. Mary is the one who anoints Jesus with ointment and wipes his feet with her hair. That doesn't happen. It hasn't happened yet. Someone records that in chapter 12, but he assumes that his readers are familiar with that event. And he mentions it here. Oh yeah. Mary and Martha. Oh yeah. The Mary and Martha. Mary, yeah. She anointed Jesus with that ointment and I remember Judas got a little bothered by that because he thought they should have sold it and donated the money to the poor. And we know what Judas was doing with the money. It's that Mary. It's that Martha. It's their brother Lazarus. So the sisters sent word to Jesus saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. Look at that message. Would you? Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. That's all the message said. The sisters were close to Jesus. They know where to find him and they know his curtain predicament. They know why he's where he is. Nevertheless, they have a need. Their brother Lazarus is failing. So they send Jesus a message. They must do something. But it's a message that in itself says a lot about their relationship. Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. It gives Jesus respect and honor, doesn't it? It commands immediate attention. That word translated behold, it basically means listen, pay close attention. And it's very personal. There's no personal names involved in this message. It's as though Jesus is supposed to know whom they're talking about. He does. He has an intimate personal relationship with this family. And interestingly enough, this message they send, it makes no demands, doesn't. It reflects a relationship between Christ and His followers. The message is respectful and it's humble, yet it's an urgent plea for help. Lazarus is sick. We need you. Have you prayed a prayer like that recently? For yourself, for somebody in your family, for your spouse, for your child, for your mother, for your father, for a friend, have you prayed it recently? Lord, listen. The person needs help. Urgent. Respectful. It was a plea. Based on what we see in the rest of the story, we see these sisters, they've placed their hope and expectations in Jesus to help. That's good. But when the message comes to Jesus, he responds in a most unusual way. When Jesus heard this, he said, listen, the sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God so that the son of man may be glorified by it. Jesus gets this message. He learns that Lazarus is sick and then he responds by saying the sickness will not end in death. Jesus, Lazarus hasn't died yet, but Jesus knows the end of the story. Let me point out three quick things. Jesus knows the end of all of our stories. He knows the end of your chapter that you are living in now. He knows the end of your story. Our faithful, good shepherd knows how to lead you through the rough places. He doesn't abandon you when it gets rough. He's leading you through for a good reason, though you may not see it. Secondly, look at the so that the sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God so that the son of God may be glorified by it. You realize that your trials are opportunities for God to be glorified, your trials are not just about you. They're not just about you. Although when I get into a trial, it sucks me in. I become self-consumed and it becomes about me. That's the tendency I have. That's where I go. Thirdly, can I make a quick point here? God's will for your life very well. It may include sickness. It may include ailment. It doesn't mean that you've sinned and it's a result of your sin. You may get sick and it's not necessarily a result of a lack of faith. Illness sometimes is a part of God's plan for us. God can use it powerfully. The next two verses are what captivated me with this passage. John 11 verses 5 and 6. Listen. Now Jesus loved Martha and his sister and Lazarus. He loved them. He loved all three of them. He just didn't love them as a family. They all three are mentioned here. Martha, her sister and Lazarus. He loved each one of them. He loved them. So, having received this urgent plea, God, the second person of the Trinity because he loves them, does what? He miraculously heals Lazarus from afar. That's what it says, right? This first blows me away. Jesus loved Martha and his sister and Lazarus so when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Blow me away. What is up with that? Have you been there? You're praying, Lord, listen. I have an intense need. Come help and he stays away because he loves you. He stays away. Have you been there? Are you there? Then after this, he said to his disciples, let's go to Judea again. Wait, Jesus, he stays where he was. He delays two days and then he says, hey, let's go to Judea. Well, guess where Lazarus is and Mary, Martha, they're in Judea. And what do his disciples say? His disciples say, this, the disciples said him rabbi. The Jews were just now seeking to stone you. And are you going there again? They have some self-interest here in that question I would imagine because if Jesus is being sought after to be stone, his immediate followers might be in a bit of peril. Jesus answers. Are there not 12 hours in a day? If anyone walks in the day, he doesn't stumble because he sees by the light of the world. But if anyone walks at night, he stumbles because the light is not in him. You know what, Jesus is saying in here in a figurative, powerful way. He's basically saying, listen, I am with you right now. If you walk with me, remember, I am the light of the world. If you walk with me, you are not apt to fall. Even when there are mortal enemies and grave dangers to deal with, however, if you walk without me in spiritual darkness, you will fall. This he said, and after that he said to them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. But I go so that I may awaken him out of his sleep. This is great. The disciples are taking him literally and they go, Lord, if he's fallen asleep, he'll get better. If he's gravely ill, he's going to be really laid out. But if he's sleeping, that's a good thing. Sleep will bring recovery. Sleep will bring rest. That's good. Keep in mind the disciples again. Do you really want to go back to where we were just in peril? And Lazarus, are we sick? Are we sleeping? Then we don't need to go right now. We can hold off a while. The disciples were somewhat reluctant to go back to Judea. But Jesus has to clear it up for him. So he says, plainly, Lazarus is dead. And then he blows me away again. Lazarus is dead. Lazarus, whom I love. Lazarus is dead. And I'm glad. It's what he says. Lazarus is dead. He doesn't just say that. But he says Lazarus is dead. And I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there. What? You're glad that you weren't there to heal Lazarus. So Mary and Martha, whom you love, don't have to go through sorrow. Don't have to go through remorse. Don't have to deal with the funeral. Don't have to deal with burying their brother. Don't have to deal with days of mourning. You're glad? Yeah. I'm glad he says for your sakes, disciples, that I was not there. So that you may believe. But let us go to him. Therefore Thomas, who is called didamous, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go so that we may die with him. This is Thomas. Thomas gets a bad rap because not only in this, in my impression, and in the commentators, many of their impressions, Thomas, this is yes. There's some gloominess in this comment of Thomas's. He can tend to be negative. He does doubt. But listen, Thomas would rather follow Christ and die than not follow Christ and live. So be careful before you judge Thomas too quickly. Two things are working here in this thing. The disciples, they're fearful, they're reluctant because of the dangers, but they're going to follow Jesus with his encouragement. And then the second thing is that Jesus, aware that Lazarus has now died, wants to answer the urgent plea. Wait a minute. What caused the urgency to begin with? Lazarus is dying. He's failing here. Jesus, come help. There's urgency. Jesus doesn't come. Now Lazarus is dead. Now Jesus is coming. What was he waiting for? Why would he think Lazarus's death was a good thing? Because he is who he is. Jesus is God. He follows his father God, and he sees things outside of time. And in a view of all eternity, and he indeed knows the big picture. Remember, he knows the end of all chapters. He knows your story. He knows the chapter you're in now. He knows how the chapter will end. He knows how to lead and guide you through that chapter for what purpose, for maximum glory. So that God would be glorified, but also so that you might experience life. Life abundant, life rich, life real. Not fantasy, not pie in the sky, life. He uses that word sleep to describe death. That's interesting. Jesus, why would you use such a general term to describe death? Because of perspective. How many of you enjoyed your sleep last night? The older I get, the more I enjoy bedtime. My daughters would disagree. Girls, I want you in bed. Dad, it's only 630. I don't care, I'm tired. The earlier I get to go to bed, the happier I am. The later my daughters get to go to bed, the happier they are. I enjoy my sleep. Sleep is a good thing. And waking up after a good night's sleep. That's a good thing. Jesus is using a good thing to describe something that most of us would... What's he up to? Listen to how scripture describes physical dying. Listen, going to paradise. Being carried away by angels. Sounds pleasant. Going to a house with many mansions. Cool. A blessed departure. To be home. There have been a vacation for nine years. It's great to be home. I love getting home after 17 hours on the road in the car with my family. It's great getting home. To be home. A game. Death is a game. It's very far better. I love that. Very far better. A whole lot much better. It's good. It's a falling asleep. It's to be with Christ. That's what physical death is. Now I understand Paul. He's going death is... It's like I want to be with Jesus. It's not so bad, but I know that there's stuff I need to do here too. I understand that tension the more older I get. The more you see things from God's perspective, the more you can rest in Him. The circumstances He leads you through are to give you more of His perspective. It doesn't come naturally. He's got to give it to us. And He gives it to us very often through our experiences. So what is Jesus waiting for? Jesus is waiting for His Father's perfect timing. The Father is orchestrating life circumstances according to His good and perfect will and pleasure. And that included the death of Lazarus. It included Mary and Martha's grieving. What of the sorrow, the grief, the remorse, the pain experienced by Mary and Martha and others caused by Lazarus' death? Listen, listen. Love permits pain. In fact, I would say it's normative. Love is patient. Patient means long suffering. It's not talking about waiting in line in public for you to get through the line there. That's not exactly what is implied with patients, although that does require some. Patients here is long suffering. Love is. I can't even handle the long line of publics. Love permits pain because pain directs and hurries you to God. What caused Mary and Martha to send Jesus a message? What caused them to go to God with urgency? The thought of their brother dying. He had an ailment. He was ill. He was failing. Go to Jesus. Go to Jesus. When do you most readily go to Jesus? When you have a need? Not when you think you don't. Love permits pain because pain directs and hurries you to God. Love permits pain because through it we see Jesus more clearly and more holy. Holy as in WHOL, ELY. That's about right. Oh, thank you. Love permits pain because it takes what we just think about God and presses it into our experience. Now, what do I mean by that? Look, I believed at one point in my life that Jesus cared about me personally, knew my situation and loved me. But it wasn't until I went through a trial or a series of trials that I came to understand that God really does know me personally. He really does know how to carry me through those trials. He really does love Chuck Berry, not just because I'm part of this big hole that he loves, but because he loves me. The reason Mary pours out her ointment on Jesus at a dinner party, which is somewhat in honor of Lazarus, which happens after the raising of Lazarus, is in part because Mary knows and knows not just here, but here that Jesus loves her. So, so, expending that expensive ointment on Jesus in preparation for his burial was no big deal. It was not a great expense to her. Interestingly enough, it was to Judas. It was a lot of money to waste on Jesus. That could be spent on others, but to Mary, if she had two, she would have done two probably. Gratitude. How could she help it? His love was experiential. It wasn't just in her head. We struggle with that, getting God's word from here to here. You know what gets it from here to here? Struggles, pain, but knowing that God is faithful in the midst of those things. The result of waiting on God? Glory. Glory. Be still and know that I'm God. Be still and know that I'm God. Be still in your circumstances and trust me, he says. Noah, being rejected by his people for months, months into the building project of this silly boat in the middle of the dry land, not a drop of rain, waiting. The Israelites backed up to the Red Sea. God just rescued them from slavery. He led them out of the city. Now they're up against the Red Sea and the Pharaoh is coming. Be still and know that I'm God. Wait, watch. Not in your timing and mine. Moses, after hitting the rock, lost his cool, being told that he wouldn't go into the promised land. Wait. Moses. Joshua, after 39 and a half years of wandering in the wilderness, 39 and a half years. Jonah, after two and three quarter days in the stomach of a big fish, oh, that would be pleasant. Twenty minutes would be enough for me. Two minutes would be enough for me. How about two and three quarter days in the belly of that fish? What do you think he was thinking? He's waiting. Joseph, one and a half years into his prison sentence after being falsely accused. 500th day of being in prison. Everybody's forgotten him. What do you think he's doing? Wait. Jesus, in the garden, asking after asking his father the second time to remove the cup. The third time to remove the cup. Waiting. Maybe dad will have a different answer now. I'll ask him again. If your kids have ever done that, they ask you the same thing twice that you say, no, they come back the same question. You know, same answer. Some of this cave, sorry. Jesus, five and a half hours into the crucifixion. Five and a half hours into the crucifixion. He still has a half hour to go. Waiting. Love permits pain so that God may be glorified in it. You may be purified by it that you may have what? Life. Real, abundant, rich life. Jesus is glad he wasn't there because through this experience his disciples will grow. And they're going to realize that if Jesus was there, he would heal them. If he was there, how could he have not? But his father said, wait, we forget what it must have been like for Jesus. He knew that those he loved were suffering. His father said, wait, not yet. Pain has to do its work. Jesus didn't cause Lazarus's death, but he masterfully, God masterfully uses the natural progression of the fallen world. And through it to accomplish his purposes, that's what's so cool. Satan destroys and crushes the Son of God and God uses it to redeem us. Isn't that awesome? I'm so glad that my father in heaven has that ability to orchestrate all of the circumstances for his glory. It's not about me. So when Jesus came, he found that he'd already been in the tomb for four days. I got five sermons to go. It's like a bottomless pit, a bottomless pit of encouragement and love and direction and guidance. It just blows me away. Jesus gets there and Lazarus has been in the tomb for four, pardon my French stinking days. His body had begun to decompose. Now this was different from the two raisings earlier. The daughter of Jairus was raised only hours probably after she died. The widow of name's son, he'd probably only been dead for less than a day. Lazarus had been dead for quite some time. And the rabbinical tradition says that there was this teaching that was kind of looming around and it wasn't written down actually until like the second or third century, but they assume that it may have been verbally spread, that the soul of a dead person would kind of hover over the body for at least three days hoping to be reunited. But then on the fourth day, since the body's beginning to decay, I'm not going back into that body and it leaves. To raise Lazarus after four days in the tomb would imply nothing other than supernatural divine power. Who in the world could do that? Be to Jesus. Praise be to God. Mary and Martha both have the opportunity to come to Jesus and they both express their unmet expectation, I believe. And they both basically say the same thing. If you had been here, my brother would not have died. Have you had that conversation with God at all recently? God, if you'd only shown up, I wouldn't be in this situation. Who's the blame being directed there? And I know Mary and Martha love Jesus. And I know they knew him personally. I know they trusted him or they wouldn't have gone to him. They did put their hopes and expectations in Jesus, but to a degree it was in the Jesus that they thought he was. We have to be careful not to create a Jesus that Scripture does not tell us about. One of the commentators that I read said this. John gives no indication that the work of Jesus is that he's presently doing. There's no indication of any urgency in the work that he is presently doing. But this therefore can't mean that Jesus deliberately waited for Lazarus to die, death must have taken place before the message got to Jesus. We cannot think that Jesus made his friends supper, bereavement, simply in order to perform a more spectacular miracle. You're missing it. You're missing it. Jesus waiting created the scenario where God could be glorified in such a greater way than if Jesus had just come and been the healer. Jesus got to come and be the resurrected. And he says to Martha, I am the life. I am the resurrection. He said, don't put your faith in anything but me. And what was the result? Let's just, we're going to have to wrap. I could go for hours. We got to stop. What was the result? What was the fruit of the pain? What was the fruit of the suffering involved in this situation? What was the fruit in the waiting? God was able to manifest aspects of his character and reveal them in such a way that people were led from life to death. People were brought back from spiritual death into life because he waited. Because he waited. You with me? So that, why did John write this book so that you might believe and have life? There were those there who witnessed the raising of Lazarus who didn't know Christ as a personal Savior who after the raising of Lazarus did. Do you realize you may meet them one day and they will be grateful that Jesus didn't meet Mary and Martha's expectations? So we got to stop. What expectation is God not meeting that you think he should be meeting right now? What prayer has gone unanswered that causes you to doubt and question if there is a God or certainly if God is good or impossibly if God really cares about you, cares about other people he's answered. Their prayers are you waiting? Jesus is waiting with you. He knows where you are, what you're going through. Best of all, he knows how to lead you through and there will be a day. Maybe it will be heaven but there will be a day when you will be able to realize that you're glad he waited. You with me? Let's pray. Father Jesus said, I'm the resurrection and the life he who believes in me will live even if he dies. Jesus asked Martha, do you believe this? Father in the quietness of this moment as we pray, may we answer that question. Do we believe this? Father strengthen us. Give us faith. Give us the courage to lean into the pain of life's challenges and wait on God. His answer will be more than we could have asked or imagined. His answer will not just include us but will include and have the kingdom in mind and he understands the pain. Father thank you that you understand, you know us and you do love us. Help us to wait and pray this in Christ's name. Amen.