The Miracles of Jesus: A Wholistic Savior | Associate Pastor: Matt Armstrong

This brings us to the end of our current sermon series on the miracles of Jesus.

We've been walking through the Gospel of John, looking at Jesus and his particular miracles along the way.

Today we look at uh the ri the rising of Lazarus from the death.

Next week uh begins Advent.

Uh and so we're excited for the Christmas season.

Uh we've already started playing Christmas music in our house.

I'm outing us uh pre-Thanksgiving.

I don't know what y'all's traditions are.

But today is the last uh Sunday of the Christian calendar.

The Christian calendar actually begins next week, the beginning of Advent.

And the last day of the Christian calendar is Christ the King Sunday, where we celebrate both the victory of Jesus and the death of Jesus and how he brought victory through death.

And we're gonna see that this morning in this story of Lazarus, Jesus' victory over death that comes through death.

Now the story tells us so much about Jesus.

And it also tells us a lot about ourselves.

It's long for the Gospels.

Um we didn't read the whole passage, it's verses 1 through 44.

And we don't have nearly enough time to cover everything that's in this incredibly written and crafted story.

I commend it to you as something to go and meditate on, perhaps this week.

Excuse me.

It's a story that wrestles with some of the deepest human questions that face all of us.

Those of suffering and loss, those of doubt, those of uh seeing loved ones suffer and die, and questioning even the goodness of God.

If you've experienced any of those things, then you're in good company.

And this passage has much to say to us.

Um again, this this passage has more than we can cover today.

So I've I've picked out four points that I think uh speak particularly to us today, and let's jump in and see what those are.

First point all that Jesus does and allows is for the glory of the Father and the Son.

Let's look at verses one through four again.

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.

So the sisters sent to him saying, Lord, he whom you love is ill.

But when Jesus heard it, he said, This illness does not lead to death.

It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

Jesus' friend, Lazarus, is deathly sick.

He knows this family, he knows them well.

And Lazarus' sisters, Mary and Martha, are famous in the Gospels.

They appear multiple times in some pretty uh influential and uh well-known stories in the Gospels.

And so they have the inside track.

Jesus is their friend.

He has stayed with them in their home, he knows them well, he loves them.

They send this note saying they don't even name their brother.

They say the one whom you love is sick and ill.

What's interesting is they don't actually, at least what's recorded for us, they don't ask for anything.

They simply believe that letting Jesus know the situation is enough.

They know him well enough to trust him to know what to do.

This story begins with beautiful faith in this family, both Mary and Martha and Lazarus himself.

And his response is incredibly encouraging, right?

He says in front of his disciples, but probably in front of the messenger who brought the letter, he says, This sickness will not lead to or end in death.

But it has a purpose.

This illness hasn't come out of nowhere, it has a purpose.

It is for the glory of God and that his son may be glorified through it.

This is great news.

Can you imagine being Mary and Martha or Lazarus?

They got word from their Lord, the Messiah, that this illness is not going to lead to death.

We're starting off in a good place.

Now, briefly, I wanted to talk about the word glory because it's one of those Christian words that we say all the time but often don't know what it means, right?

This is for God's glory.

Well, what does that mean?

Well, it means something very tangible, concrete, and distinct.

It means that through this illness, something is going to happen that will cause God's people, when they see it, to rejoice, to give thanks.

So the glory of God is his greatness on display.

And when we see it, it causes us to respond with thanksgiving and joy.

That's what is about to come.

That they would respond, how great is our God.

And so, again, for Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, this is very encouraging.

That leads us to our second point.

Hardship and suffering in no way reflect or contradict God's declaration of love over us.

Look at verse 5.

Uh, this continues the passage.

John writes, Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

Now, why would John insert this here?

It's almost like an aside, right?

He starts the story, the one whom you love is sick, and he says this is not going to end in death.

And then John just inserts this line.

Now, I want you to know, Jesus loves this family.

Why would John insert that?

Well, I think if you know what is coming in the rest of the story, you know that you might question Jesus' love for this story.

Jesus is going to delay.

We're told he intentionally waits.

He doesn't immediately go to Bethany, a multi-day walk, travel from Galilee, where he is, back down near Jerusalem.

And so John wants us to know, it's like he's putting this at the very beginning to say, hey, everything that you read, following here, know that it comes in the context of God's love.

It's a simple point, but one that I think that we forget.

If you're like me, when suffering enters my life, I tend to question God's love for me.

Is he paying attention?

Is he good?

Have I done something wrong?

John anticipates and knows those questions because he's asked them himself, and he wants to set us at ease and wants to set everything that will happen in that context.

Now, this aside gives us another important point of application, and that is this don't interpret the story until it's over.

How many of us, when suffering enters into our own lives, we draw the conclusion that God must be done with us.

He must be asleep, he must not care.

Maybe he's not even there.

Why?

Because what's happening to me doesn't jive with this truth I've been told all my life, that Jesus loves me.

But this story is an incredible weaving together of something we've all experienced.

Jesus has declared, he has made a promise, this sickness will not end in death.

And yet, as it unfolds, both Mary and Martha and Lazarus himself will come to question that promise and question the goodness of God.

But sometimes for us to follow Jesus and to believe his promises requires for us to walk by faith because what we experience and what we see doesn't line up with the promises of God.

And the irony of that is that the scriptures tell us that over and over and over again.

That's why we need to be literate in the scriptures.

The Old as well as the New Testament, the Psalms are filled.

Do you know Psalm 88?

It's the only psalm that doesn't end with praise.

It actually ends with questioning God.

Will I exist in darkness?

Will I live in darkness?

Will I live in depression and despair all of my days?

Why would a psalm exist in the Bible that doesn't come around at the end and say, oh, but God, you're still good.

And I trust you.

Because God knows God is not threatened by our emotions.

He's not threatened by our doubt.

And he wants us to know that he sees us and he knows us and we can be honest with him.

All right.

Third, Jesus is with us in our suffering.

This is the meat of this passage.

It's probably what you've seen if you're familiar with this passage.

It's what stirs our hearts and connects us most deeply with this passage.

Jesus comes finally to Bethany.

We're told in verse 6 that he intentionally delays.

Now in verse 17, he says, When Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had been dead four days.

What do you think was happening during those four days?

Four days of grief, four days of confusion, four days of questions, four days of silence from Jesus.

Not to mention the days between when they got the message back from Jesus saying, this will not end in death, the initial elation, followed by some anxiety in the waiting, finally with some desperation at the end as Jesus fine, Lazarus finally died.

Jesus didn't show up.

What do you think this family was thinking?

A couple weeks ago I got to lead my son's uh Cub Scout Den meeting.

There was a lesson.

Duty to God.

And guess who they asked to lead that?

Your dad's a pastor?

Hey.

It was awesome.

It was great.

We talked about faith and these kids' individual faith and the faith of their families and their backgrounds.

And beforehand, I gave them a list of five questions to go through with their parents and to answer for themselves.

And one was, what's your favorite thing about your faith?

And one question was, what's your least favorite thing about your faith?

And I was amazed, these kids, these fifth graders, and their responses.

And one in particular, he said, the his least favorite thing about his faith is when God doesn't answer my prayers.

Man, what a great answer.

What an honest answer.

Even as children, we know that experience of heartache, of disappointment, of confusion.

When we open our heart to God, when we ask him for things that we need as well as what we want, and he doesn't answer the way we want.

We think he will.

We think he should.

We ask questions.

Did I do something wrong?

Does God care?

Is he even there?

Does he listen to my prayers?

I'm gonna ask you this morning, where is Jesus not showing up for you?

Where are you asking these same questions in your own life?

Some of us grew up in churches where it wasn't okay to voice these doubts.

We've all had them and they became our secret shame.

Everyone else seems to have it together.

Jesus seems to answer everyone else's questions.

I just need to hold on to this, hide it, and bury it deep.

I think this passage here, this story, is here to tell us that that's not what we're supposed to do.

That God knows the human experience.

He knows us better than we know ourselves.

And just like Mary and Martha, he wants us to bring those emotions, those questions, those doubts to him.

And that's exactly what we see Mary and Martha do in our in our very story.

Though they do it in very different ways, don't they?

Have you noticed that in this story?

When Martha hears that Jesus is on his way and when he's nearing the village, he's not even there.

I think John tells us specifically, he's still a couple miles away.

Martha hears, she immediately gets up and she runs to Jesus.

She meets him on the path, and she immediately engages him.

Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

This fits with the Martha we know from the scriptures, right?

She's having a dinner party at her house and she's doing all she can to host this group of disciples and people there, and she's frantic and she says to Jesus, Hey, tell my sister to get up and help me.

She's type A.

She takes matters into her own hands.

And so while she's grieving and while she's asking questions, as soon as Jesus draws near, she she runs to him and she engages him face to face.

And she exhibits great faith.

She's not condemned for this.

She says, her very next words are, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

But even now I know that if you ask the Father, he will give you what you ask for.

And Jesus engages her in conversation.

And because of the way she engages him, we're given some beautiful truth that maybe we didn't know before.

Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life.

And your brother will rise again.

Now, Mary, interestingly, she doesn't get up when she hears that Jesus is coming.

She stays in the house.

Why?

Well, we're not told, and so uh we use our redeemed imaginations a little bit.

And we think maybe she's asking questions about, well, he's here, but my brother is dead.

What good can he do now?

Maybe she wonders, he didn't come in time, maybe he doesn't really love us the way we thought he did.

He took his own sweet time.

But when she hears, when Martha comes back, she brings a message from Jesus.

He he waits for her outside the village.

She says, The master is asking for you.

And immediately Mary gets up and she runs to Jesus.

I I think to me that shows uh this desire to want to believe that Jesus loves her, and yet that doubt that held her back.

And as soon as she heard the invitation, she responds.

She runs.

And what does she do?

She doesn't engage Jesus with words, really.

Consumed by grief and sadness, she falls at Jesus' feet, weeping, and she says and she says the exact same thing that Martha said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

Is John trying to communicate something in the exactness of those two questions, those two statements?

Or is this what Mary and Martha have been talking about for four days?

And so it's the first thing on their lips.

And what's fascinating is how Jesus' response perfectly adapts to each sister.

With Martha, he engages her with words, he engages her statement, her questions, and reveals more of himself to her in that moment.

But with Mary, who is overcome with emotion and grief and has no words, Jesus gives no words.

But we're told, John says, that he was deeply moved in his spirit and he was greatly troubled.

And if you're a Greek nerd or a Bible nerd, you go and you want to look at what those words mean, it means that Jesus was deeply grieved.

He felt authentically, deeply grilled.

As he saw, John tells us as he saw Mary weeping, and the Jews who had come from Jerusalem, who were mourning with them as he saw them, he was moved.

He dwelt with them in their sadness, their grief, and their agony, and he wept.

The famous shortest verse in the Bible.

You see, Jesus, though fully God, was not aloof.

He was not separated, knowing what would happen.

He knew clearly at the beginning of the story how it would end.

And yet, as he was here with Mary and Martha, he was completely present with them in their grief.

And he grieved with them in the way that was appropriate for them.

He knew he was coming to face the great enemy of God, death, and defeat it with his own death.

And yet he was there, fully present with Mary and Martha.

And as I read this, uh as I was thinking about this passage, my wife reminded me of this Andrew Peterson song that I love, and he the uh name of the song is Always Good.

And he has this line in there, he says, Do you remember how Mary was grieving?

How you wept and she fell at your feet?

If it's true that you know what I'm feeling, could it be that you're weeping with me?

I think it so beautifully captures the truth that the scripture conveys that when we go through suffering and when we're tempted to ask, does God care?

Has he forgotten me?

Does he even exist?

The reality is that he is right there with us through the Spirit.

And he weeps with us.

But can't he control?

Couldn't he have made it so that didn't happen?

Couldn't, yes, all of those questions are present here in the story, even as they are present with us, and yet the scriptures don't answer those questions.

What they say is that Jesus is with us, he is fully present.

He weeps with us, and he will engage our questions.

Jesus being God is not so removed from our human experience.

It is cold and aloof.

No, he fully embodies and fulfills Isaiah 53 that tells us surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

In this story, in this encounter with Mary and Martha, Jesus fulfills Isaiah 53.

He grieves with them, he mourns with them, he rages with them against death that has intruded on God's good creation.

Sometimes we are full of questions and need to engage God in words.

And sometimes we're so overcome with sadness and confusion and grief that we can't.

And that's okay.

Paul tells us that the Spirit groans within us with prayers that you can't put words to.

Jesus meets us just where we are.

He weeps with those who weep.

And he reveals some of those himself to those who ask.

Now, some of you, including, and maybe especially the men, maybe you need to put away some questions.

Put them to the side for a moment, some roadblocks, some barriers between you and Jesus.

And you just need to bring your hurt to him.

And you need to weep.

You need to feel his tears on the back of your neck and his embrace.

Put away your anger and receive his compassion, brothers and sisters.

That leads us to our fourth point.

Jesus came to free us, yes, from the powers of sin and death, but also from everything that binds us.

Fear, slavery to sin, everything.

Now, first, I want I don't want you to miss this.

We get a glimpse into why Jesus did what he did.

Why did he wait a few days?

Well, we're told throughout the story that.

Because there was this four days since Jesus' death and Lazarus' death and Jesus' arrival, it gave time for a group, a great number actually, of those from Jerusalem who knew this family that all came to Bethany to help this family to grieve and to prepare Lazarus for burial.

And so a great crowd had gathered around this family so that when Jesus did what he knew he was going to do, they were there to see it.

You see, Jesus had a plan.

And he knew that this death and this miracle would have greater impact because of his delay.

Everything he does has a purpose.

And so he comes.

Now he's spoken with Martha, he has wept with Mary, and now he comes to Lazarus in the tomb.

And he he commands, he orders, let the stone be removed.

And Martha is still confused, you know.

She has no idea what Jesus is going to do, or that he has power over death.

And so she gives that kind of funny response, Lord, uh, four days, you know, this guy stinks.

It's gonna stink when we open this tomb.

And Jesus turns to her, and in my my mind, I think he has a twinkle in his eye, and he he smiles at her and he says, Didn't I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?

And now, as the stone is removed, he he orders Lazarus to come forth.

And even Lazarus, the dead man, as John calls him, responds, obeys the very words of God to come alive.

And he's shuffling out of this little tomb, still wrapped in the ceremonial garments, the burial garments of cloth, and Jesus gives the final command unbind him and let him go.

John, this master, storyteller, these this line, this sentence communicates what this story is all about.

This is why Jesus came.

To unbind us and to let us go, to unbind us from the powers of death, the fear of death, to unbind us from slavery to sin and hatred, and to free us to love and to know Him.

And yes, to free us from fear of future death and future judgment because we've been forgiven of our sins, but Jesus' deep desire as he meets with Mary and Martha is to free us from the fears that control us in our day-to-day lives.

Fear of man, idolatry.

Jesus wants us to know that he has power over all of those things.

And so it's not just the future that we look forward to, but it's the very present, the very now that Jesus is at work, freeing us, unbinding us, and letting us go.

This is what Jesus is doing in our own lives to reveal the love of God to his people.

You see, Mary and Martha and Lazarus himself would never have seen or understood the extent, the full extent of Jesus' love and power and reason for coming if he had not allowed Lazarus to die.

And he does the same thing in our own lives.

He allows suffering and hardship to come into our own lives that cause us and invite us to ask these desperate questions because it's in asking those questions and bringing them to the Lord that we receive the answers.

That we have put our faith in other people other than the Lord.

We've put our faith in our titles and in our money and in our things.

They continue to let us down, and it's only when those idols crumble that we cry out to the true and living God.

And he meets us.

He says, I love you, and I died for you, and I will resurrect you on the last day, and you will never need to experience this again.

Beloved, this story is about what Jesus is doing in your life.

He wants you to trust his promises in the valley when things are going wrong, when you don't understand.

Yes, it means waiting.

Yes, it means wrestling.

It doesn't mean putting away your questions and walking in blind faith.

It means engaging with Jesus right where it hurts, right where the confusion is, and listening to his response, feeling his embrace, experiencing his tears.

He wrote this: If we knew what God knows, we would always ask for what God gives.

There's a lot of wisdom in that line.

If we knew what God knows, we would always ask for what he gives.

Why?

Because we know God is good.

And we know that he has our best intentions at heart, right?

That's what Romans chapter 8 tells us.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

That all things must work together for our good.

But our human minds struggle to understand and to wrap themselves around what is happening.

And so we walk by faith, trusting in the promises of God, bringing our hearts and our questions and our tears to Jesus and allowing him to minister to us in that way.

Jesus loves you, Redeemer Church.

Run to Him.

Let's pray.

Our Father and our God.

Lord, this is hard.

This is hard to do.

But we thank you for the story.

We thank you that this is a struggle that is common to man.

And so you address it.

You tell us not to be afraid.

You tell us that you weep with those who weep.

You know us, Lord.

Free us by your Spirit to run more freely to you and experience the joy of knowing more fully your radical love for us.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.