John Chapter 11, Verse 1, Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.  You can read more about Mary and Martha in Luke Chapter 10.  And it’s an interesting picture because what you find are two sisters that “welcomed” Jesus into their home yet their approaches to relationship with Him were quite different.

 

Mary simply sat at His feet and heard His word while Martha was “distracted with much serving.”  The word there actually means that she was drawn away, even burdened, with much “serving.”  And what we find is the Lord actually rebuking Martha because she had given her attention to “many things” rather than to the One thing, worship.  And so everything was out of whack. 

 

Why was it like that?  Why was Martha in a place of complaining and rebuke?  Wasn’t she serving the Lord.  Well, yes…but those symptoms are caused by a person simply attempting more than God has called him or her to do.  When any Christian feels as Martha felt…her load being too heavy for her to carry, then understand you have undertaken to do more than the Lord has appointed. 

 

One thing is needed and Mary had chosen it.  Martha was reproved, Mary was commended.  Mary sat at His feet, heard His word…understood her deep need and came to Jesus to be ministered to.  Later you’ll find Mary ministering to Christ…but the important lesson for us here is that we much first receive from Jesus, we must first be ministered to, filled by Him before we are qualified to minister to others.  We must be receivers before we can be givers.  What do we have other than what we have received… 

 

We must receive the love of Jesus before we can be loving towards one another.  We must touch the grace of God before we are able to give grace…we must receive forgiveness before we ourselves are able to forgive.  Is that the problem child?  Are you hard and self-seeking and inconsistent…and yet you wonder why you can’t seem to get on your feet?  Have you been ministered to by the Lord?  If the answer is no…then you can’t possibly expect to minister…you have nothing to give.  Rather you will be more akin to Martha…busy about doing things, wondering why no one is helping you and accusing even your sister…or brother.  Get to the feet of Jesus!

 

This bit of background on Mary and Martha will help us to understand them better as we see them here in this scene.

 

Verse 2, It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.  So we see Mary ministering to Jesus….wiping His feet with her hair and anointing Him with fragrant oil…a picture of worship, a picture of prayer.

 

Verse 3, Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”  Interesting here…no demands upon Jesus, just FYI…just raising the issue to Jesus.  And what this displays for us is implicit confidence in Jesus and ultimately…submission to the Lord’s will.  So often we can pray the solution to the Lord and then when the Lord chooses to delay or chooses to deliver something other than we have prescribed, we become confused…sometimes disappointed or even angry…Lord why did you not come through?  Lord why were you not there?  When all the while He was but you couldn’t see Him through your self-will spectacles!

 

And so just an FYI to their Lord…the one in whom they trusted…they begin their message to Him with “Lord.”  Acknowledging who He is…then they say “he whom YOU love” giving Him the preimminence.  They could have said, “he who loves YOU” but notice how they put Jesus first!  And so their hearts are revealed.  Jesus, You are Lord and Your will, Your love is how we approach You!  This is the correct pattern for prayer people!  Acknowledge God for who He is…Lord and Savior!  And then steadfastly concentrating upon and contemplating His infinite and immeasurable love for us rather than our finite and feeble love for Him.  Our love varies, He knows no change…and so as I approach God, remembering His love for me, what He has done to set me free, I know my prayers are heard and I know that the result of the situation will be for good and not for evil!

 

So cool!  And look, yet more to glean from this prayer!  “The one whom you love is sick” so we know that sickness does not mean for certain that God is displeased with someone.  Some would teach that but they teach it to gain advantage.  We know from this case right here that is indeed not the case.  But wait there’s more!  Their brother is ill, what do they do?  Make him some soup, research the best cure-all on the internet?  NO!  They call out to Jesus!  This is good stuff!  Man all that packed into eight words and one action!  There’s even more but we just don’t have the time!

 

Verse 4, When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”  So cool, yet another testimony of the deity of Jesus as He speaks of the Father’s glory then of the Sons…as the same.  And recall earlier in Chapter 9 when Jesus encountered the blind man, and His disciples asked, “Who sinned, this man or his parents for him to be born blind?”  And Jesus’ response then, “Neither, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”  Again, here we see a man sick, a man loved of God, and the revelation…that his trial is indeed for the glory of God.  It is a common theme.

 

Paul, often afflicted…his thorn in the flesh, his rejection and imprisonment…he gives us insight into his afflictions in 2 Corinthians 11:  24-28.  He says, “From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.  Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, besides the other things, what comes upon me daily…”  Yet he later pens in the next chapter, “I would rather boast than complain in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me…for when I am weak, then I am strong!” 

 

Why?  What does that mean?  Let me ask another question.  What strength or power do you inherently possess that is not a mirage anyway?  Can you add one cubit to your stature?  Can you add one single hour to your life?  The truth is…the answer is…no.  And so when you trust in the Lord, when you place Him first, seek Him first…allowing Him to fill your heart, your mind, your life, your decisions…then you are filled with strength.  True, eternal strength of faith, and hope and even love!  Paul would say in the same letter that he is an ambassador of Jesus Christ…his life is for the glory of God, and therefore…great strength…what can man do to that kind of life?  Nothing!  That is power!  That is strength!

 

And so take heart.  God is not on break.  God does not change and does not make a mistake and although you may even find yourself in an impossible situation, we serve a God of impossibilities and even moreover, we serve a God of eternal life…and a God that desires that all men might be saved…maybe not saved from having it tough in this life…that may be your calling…remember the other Lazarus that we find in Luke 16…tormented in life, comforted in eternity!  Jesus said to Martha, “Martha, you are so worried and troubled…one thing is needed to find strength, and Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her.”  Paul found that “good part.”  Which is simply worship…trust…hope…stand-fast!  No matter the situation, worship and trust in the goodness and righteousness and salvation of Jesus Christ…Paul did…and many were led to eternal life…even still today. 

 

All the things he went through.  All the afflictions we know of…do you for a moment believe that he is in the presence of God the Father asking him “why?” proclaiming that God is unfair, unjust and unloving?  No, I don’t think so…because it would be hard for him you see…because the hundreds, maybe thousands, maybe even millions that are there with him in heaven, in paradise, in the eternal life of the Father…directly because of those same afflictions…they would hear him too.  He probably looked around, at the multitude saved from his ministry there in heaven and his cry may have even been “Lord, why not more!”  So take heart…God has not forsaken and will not forsake you…what you are going through is not unto death (although Laz even died!  But look the affliction was for the purpose of life!) but for the glory of God in heaven!

 

And now Jesus, verse 5, loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.  So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.  It’s interesting here that John says Jesus loved Martha…and her sister.  I mean we saw how Mary was commended by Jesus while Martha was corrected but we also see here that even so, God does not play favorites.  He loves Martha with the same love as He does Mary, even though Martha was in need of correction…not for her service, but for her attitude.  And maybe you tend to be a bit more like Martha…serving practically and energeticly rather than the one that is quite somber and solemn…well take heart!  Don’t be discouraged by the reprove of Martha…it was not the service that Jesus was correcting, but rather it was the priority of her heart.

 

And what’s also interesting is that He hears of His friend being very sick, and being sick involves suffering, and what does He do…He tarries.  From where He was, back to Judea, to the Town of Bethany was at least a two day journey.  And so He tarries, He delays His arrival for at least four days total but we have the luxury of knowing why…so that God may be glorified in what He is about to do.  We don’t always have that luxury do we?  Nevertheless, God’s purposes are good…they are just and they are righteous and ultimately all that He does is for your good and for His glory. 

 

Verse 7, Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”  Notice what it says, “He said to the disciples.”  The pivot point of His earthly ministry.  No longer “to the Jews,” but now to His family.  The town of Bethany was in Judea…but what else was in Judea?  Jerusalem.

 

Verse 8, The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?”  Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day?  If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.  But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

 

Jesus never acts out of fear does He?  You know what?  He commands that of us also.  Because acting out of fear causes us to stumble.  What does that mean?  To stumble?  Simply to miss the optimal path…And He says here…there is still work to be done there!  It is not time yet for them to have Me.  My days are numbered by God just like yours are and it’s not over yet…and when it is over…hey, my days are numbered, and that’s it.  While I am here, while I still have days, I will do the work of the Father.  I will walk in strength and love and truth…in the light…but anyone who seeks to save their life…will lose it.  They will stumble about, void of strength and love and truth.

 

Verse 11, These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend (philio) Lazarus sleeps (koimao), but I go that I may wake him up.”  Then the disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.”  However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.

 

Verse 14, Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.  And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe.  Nevertheless let us go to him.”

 

Verse 16, Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”  You gotta love Thomas…his name literally means “the twin.”  And you know who he is a twin to?  Me.  Here we see him ready to lay down his life for the Lord, on fire…burning with strength and purpose…and then later we’ll find him with less than a shred of faith, demanding to place his hand into the side of the risen Lord before he would believe.  He’s the twin of us all really isn’t he? 

 

Let’s go ahead and finish up.  Verse 17, So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb for four days.  They would typically bury someone on the day that they died.  Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away.  And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.   

 

Verse 20, Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house.  Again, you gotta love Martha!  Taking the initiative, going out to meet the Lord.  She gets a bit of a bad rap but she’s really pretty awesome.  Look at what she says next.  Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.  But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”  What great faith.

 

Verse 23, Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”  All the world couldn’t bring such comfort!  He shall be called Wonderful, Counselor (Is 9).

 

Verse 24, Martha’s great faith!  Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.  And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”

 

One of the “ego eimi” statements of Jesus.  One in the set of “I ams” that we find in John’s gospel.  And truly, a powerful one.  This gets added to the other “I am” statements that we have already seen.  “I AM the bread of life,” back in Chapter 6.  “I AM the light of the world,” in Chapter 8.  “I AM the door,” and “I AM the good shepherd,’ both in Chapter 10.   And now, “I AM the resurrection and the life.”  Jesus says I am the giver of life.  I am the One who resurrects from the dead.

 

That’s really my business, my purpose…I am the Christ is what He is revealing plainly to her.  Mankind is dead in sin, locked down, trapped by the power and penalty of the fall, but Jesus came to set us free…to resurrect us from the dead and to give us life…not just breath in our lungs but exuberant, joyful life…a life full of love and power and relationship with the Father of all life!  And though this tent may go to the grave, my home is with the Lord and a life awaits me in heaven…If I choose to trust in Him, believe in Him, call upon Jesus as my Lord and Savior. 

 

Jesus then no doubt peering with purpose and promise into Martha’s eyes says to her, “Do you believe this?”  And that is the question.  That is the very threshold of the door to God’s house.  Do you believe that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the Christ, your Lord and your Savior?  Jesus has placed before Martha the same question that is placed before all man…the opportunity as it were to enter into eternal life. 

 

Look at Martha’s response.  Verse 27, She said to Him, “Yes, Lord.  I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

 

In light of what Jesus has said, she only has two options.  Believe He is the Christ, the Savior of the world…accept Him as Lord…or reject Him as looney.  Why would I say that?  Well, look at what He just said!  No man would ever say this…make these claims unless He is indeed the very Son of God or unless He is indeed a few French fries short of a happy meal!  But the thing about Jesus is…His words were fully supported by His works.  And indeed, He is the One!