The Hardest Question

Good morning, good morning. Welcome to church, welcome to

family, and welcome to tenderness.

Possibly the hardest question that we have to face as

believers is God, Why? Why did you let that happen?

God, why did you let that happen?

God, why did you let that happen?

Why? Because it's a hard question.

Because if we're asking it, then it means that you or me or

someone that we love is going through something really, really

difficult. Just some of the examples from

this community that I heard this week.

My cancer has come back and the prognosis is really bad.

The doctors say I only have a few weeks to live.

We brought our son up in the best possible way, but he

married someone who hates us and now he won't speak to us.

He's disowned us. My business, the business that I

built, that you called me to God on the principles that you

showed me in your word and the tithing that I did from this

business, that business. God has been hit with so much

fraud that this week I need to go and liquidate it.

It won't survive. It's in these moments that

everything we know about God comes colliding with what we're

experiencing. God, if you're good, if, if

you're in control of all these things, if you really cared

about me, then why? Why God would you let this

happen? And over the past few weeks, God

has been carefully, lovingly, tenderly bringing us back to

exactly this point, through Wendy, through Rory, through

Steve last week, the theme of encountering Jesus in times of

hardship and suffering has been surfacing again and again and

again. And now we come to John Chapter

John 11 · chapter mention

11, the death of Lazarus, which deals with this exact question.

We see Jesus on earth let something really terrible happen

which we would expect them not to let happen.

He hears that someone he loves, one of his friends, is sick.

And in that moment we would expect him to go rushing to his

aid and go and heal him. Instead, he lets the man die,

which begs the question, why? Why Jesus?

Why? So today we're not going to

avoid that question. We're going to step, not with

one foot, but with both feet, big steps into it.

And we're going to look at three things.

We're going to see how the Bible and we're going to have a look

at how John 11 actually invites us, leads us, teases us to ask

that question. Secondly, we're going to look at

what the answer isn't. And lastly, we're going to look

at what the answer is. So we're going to look at the

question. We're going to look at the wrong

answer, and then we're going to look at the right answer.

But first, let's read from John Chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

Good morning. Are you with me?

Good. OK, let's go now.

A man named Lazarus was sick. And I do apologise for my lisp.

So if I do say Laz or a friend, you know that I'm just trying to

get through it. So a man named now a man named

Laz was sick. He was from Bethany, the village

of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, which Mary, this Mary

whose brother Lazarus now lays sick, was the same one who

poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.

So the sister sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one you love is

sick. When he heard this, Jesus said,

this sickness will not end in death.

No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified

through this. Now Jesus loved Martha and her

sister and Lazarus. So when he heard, so when he

heard that his friend was sick, he, he, he stayed where he was

for two more days. And then he said to his

disciples, OK, after two days, now let's go to Judea.

But Rabbi, they said a short while ago, the Jews there tried

to stern you and yet you're going back.

Verse 11. After he said this, he went on

to tell them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I'm going

there to wake him up. His disciples being a little bit

off, said, Lord, if he sleeps, he'll get better.

Sounds like a good idea why you want to go wake him up.

But Jesus was Speaking of his death.

So then he told them plainly, listen up guys, Lazarus is dead

and for your sake I'm glad I was not there so that you may

believe. But let us go to him.

Then Thomas has a bit of a hissy fit and he says to the rest of

the disciples, fine here, let's just go so that we can all die

with him. On his arrival, Jesus found

Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days, so it took

him a while to get there. Now Bethany was less than two

miles from Jerusalem and many Jews had come to Martha and and

to Mary to comfort them and the loss of their brother.

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet

him, and she said, Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been

there, Lord, if you'd been in my situation, my brother would not

have died. But even now, even now, even in

this distress, I know that whatever you ask God to do, he

will do. And Jesus said to your brother,

we'll rise again. And Martha, with the theology

that's in her heart, says, I know that he will rise again in

the resurrection at the last day.

And then Jesus looked at her deep in the eyes and said, I am

the resurrection and the life, the one who believes in me, even

though they die. And whoever lives by believing

in me will never die. Do you believe this?

And Martha said, yes, I believe that you are the Messiah, the

Son of God who has come into the world.

And after she had said that, she went back and called her sister

Mary. Verse 32 When Mary reached the

place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and

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

died. And when Jesus saw her weeping

and the Jews who had come along with her were also weeping, he

was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

And he asked, Where have you laid them?

And they said, Come, Come, Lord, Come and see our distress.

Come, Lord, come, can I show you my pain?

And Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, see how he

loved him. But others said could not he who

opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?

And Jesus was once more deeply moved and he came to the tomb.

It was a cave with a stone across the entrance.

And he said, take away the stone.

But Lord said Martha, the every practical one.

By this time there's a bad odor for there.

He has been in there for four days.

And then Jesus said, did I not tell you that if you believe,

you will see the glory of God? So that took the stone away.

Then Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank you that you

have heard me. I knew that you always hear me,

me. But I say this for the benefit

of the people standing here, that they may believe that you

sent me. And when he said that this, he

called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.

The dead man still wrapped with strips of linen and cloth around

his face. I mean, it must have been

something to see came out. And Jesus said to them, take off

the grave clothes and let him go.

So having read the story, the question that burns in our

hearts is why? Why go through all this?

Why did you let him die? Why go through the pain of

sickness, the false hope, the trauma, the death, the funeral,

the smelly tomb? Why not just heal your friend

and a few people in the passage ask him that exact question.

Martha and Mary. Ask him, Lord, if you had been

here, my brother would not have died.

And then the crowd asked the later.

They say, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man

have kept this man from dying? This makes no sense that he

would allow this person to die. More than that, the way that

John is actually writing the story leads us to ask the

question as well. He is purposefully leading us

down this path to show us something very important.

It starts with a man named Lazarus was sick.

Now, immediately after hearing that statement and having read

the gospel up until this stage, we should all be going, OK, I

know what's going to happen next.

What's going to happen next? There must be a healing.

I mean, remember, Steve spoke about it last week.

He said there was a man born blind.

Jesus went and he healed that guy and remember there was the

lame man and and Jesus healed that guy over there.

And if you go chronologically through the all of the Gospels

up until this point, now chronologically means for all

the afiz boys, I like it. It means in the sequence that

they occurred, OK, in the timeline that they occurred, we

see that Jesus healed, Take a guess, 15 people.

OK, those are just the individuals.

Then there were another non group healings and miracles.

OK, so 24 miracles where people, where Jesus intervened in

people's lives up until this point.

OK, and now we get to Lazarus, who's actually named all of

those other ones were strangers. We don't even know their names.

And Lazarus isn't even just named.

He's known and he's loved because when the sisters come up

to to to Jesus, they say what they say Jesus, they don't even

give his name. They said the one you love is

sick. And we see that he is the

brother of Mary and Martha. And John adds the detail.

He goes witch Mary because we ask witch Mary.

There's a few Marys, let me tell you which one.

It's the one who poured perfume on Jesus feet and wiped it with

her hair. Probably the most extravagant

and genuine act of worship that we find in the New Testament,

which Martha, Oh, let me tell you which.

Martha, the one who opened a home to Jesus, who made

preparations for Jesus, who served Jesus, who fed Jesus, who

provided a home for him to rest in.

So we look at Mary and we look at Martha and we go, if there's

anybody worthy out there of Jesus intervening in their

distress, it has to be Mary and Martha, right?

Jesus, Sir, why did you not do something about it?

My name's Car. Eugene.

It's OK. And I was just in the flow, you

know, but let's get. I'm going to keep going.

And how often do we do that? How often do we do that?

Where? Where we go?

God, I serve you. I worship you.

I come to three CR every Sunday. I go to Home group.

Why are you not intervening in my distress?

And I mean, here's one of those moments.

As if John doesn't hasn't made it plain enough, and as if Jesus

hasn't chosen this moment just so specifically.

His name, the man's name that the story centres around is

what? It's Lazarus.

Does anybody know what Lazarus means?

Biblical scholars out there? God is my help.

The way John is writing all the little bits of detail that is

he's adding the way God chose this very moment, everything is

leading us to believe OK, here's a guy, his name is God is my

help. He's known, he's loved, he's

part of family that I love everything.

Everything leads up to go. He is a shoe in to get a

healing. So in a complete plot twist,

instead of Jesus rushing to his aid, Jesus does nothing.

Stay exactly where you are. He does nothing.

And just think about that. And in the nothing Lazarus does,

the sisters that he loves have to go and take this body of the

brother, deal with the pain, deal with the funeral, and go

and bury it. Why, Jesus?

Why? And this kind of question, this

kind of concern, this kind of doubting is found throughout

Scripture. David, for instance, when he's

being attacked on all sides in a very, I love the Psalms.

I, I read the Psalms continuing just over and over and over

again. And there was just such gems.

There's such real life in in them.

And in this moment in Psalm 10, he cries out and says, why,

Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in

times of trouble? Why, why are you hiding

yourself? Can't you see the distress that

I'm in? And then in Psalm 74, he gets

even more extreme. He says, why have you rejected

us forever? Why does your anger burn against

the sheep of your posture? He's having these incredible

honest moments. We've got where he says, God, I

can't, I'm in this trouble and you are nowhere.

Yes, narrants, I can't find you. Where are you, God?

It feels like you've rejected me.

It feels like you're angry with me.

And throughout the Bible, we see men and women of God giving,

giving God this question. And if we're honest with

ourselves, and if we're really, really honest, not fake, false,

faffing Pharisees like Steve spoke about last week, but if

we're really, really honest, we all ask that question deep

within our hearts. And you know what?

God knows we're asking it and He doesn't shy away from it.

He doesn't rebuke us. He doesn't go ye of little

faith. What are you doing?

Why do you question me instead? If you look at the biblical

example and you look deep into the story, we understand that

God actually invites us, just like Mary, just like Martha,

just like David, to bring the question to him.

Bring me the doubt. Now before we move on, I just

want to show you very quickly how Mary and Martha asked the

question as 2 positive examples that we can learn from.

You see, Martha comes to the Lord and says, if if you'd been

here, my brother wouldn't have died.

What? What?

Why did you let this happen? But she doesn't just come with

the question, she brings it. But she also articulates her

faith. She says even now, even in this

moment of distress, even in this moment of not understanding

what's going on, I know that you will do whatever God.

I know that God will do whatever he you ask.

And when he asks her later, do you believe that I'm the

resurrection and the life? She says, what?

Yes, I believe that you are the Christ.

So she brings, Martha brings the question, she brings her doubt,

she brings her hurt, but she also brings her faith into that

situation. And in Mary Mary we see

something very similar because she comes with this exactly the

same question written in exactly same way, but then she falls at

Jesus feet and she worships him. So we always bring God the

question, but we also bring our faith and our worship.

And that is the example we can use.

And that's the example that we see with David and the Psalms as

well. Questions like where are you

God? Why are you hiding yourself from

me? Why does it feel like you're

angry with me? Those are always fathered with

you know what, Lord? I know that you're good and I

know that you will vindicate me and I know that you will keep a

record of the situation and in the end you will make it all OK.

So the invitation in the Scripture and in this passage is

for us to bring God the the doubt and the concern, saying I

don't know what's going on. I'm honestly hurting.

But I also know that you love me and that you're good.

And that you care for me. So why did Lazarus?

Why no? Why did Jesus not heal Lazarus?

Why did he do that? So first, before we get to the

right answer, let's look at what is not the answer, the wrong

answer. Because in these situations like

this, we're all tempted to believe that if God could have

done something, but he chose not to do something, it must be

because he doesn't care. So John goes to great lengths in

this passage in the next few verses to show us that that is

not the case. We already know how much Jesus

loved Lazarus and Mary and Martha.

Then in verse 8, Jesus decides he's going to go OK, and the

disciples go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

This ain't a good idea. Just a few days ago, they were

trying to stone you. So I know if any of you have

experienced the stoning of late, anyone, any of the Pretoria

boys, it's not fun. People are hurling rocks at you,

not small one big ones with the purpose of trying to kill you.

And the passage before that, that's exactly what they were

doing to Jesus in that area. So that so the disciples are

right to say, listen, it's not a good idea for us to go back

there and they have this debate amongst themselves.

You know, this is crazy. I mean, we want to go back

there. Will we be safe?

Won't be be safe. And Thomas being who he is, just

decides, OK, I'm actually going to lay it out there and just

just have a bit of a hissy fit and say, fine, OK, if we're all

going to go, we can all go there and we can all just die.

But Jesus says, now listen, we're going why?

Because he cared. And then we see in verse 33 to

35 the most powerful picture. Mary comes to Jesus and she

says, if you had been there, my brother would not have died.

And she's weeping. And the crowd is weeping.

And it says that Jesus is deeply moved and troubled in spirit.

And then he asks, where? Where did you put him?

Where did you put the body? And they say to him, Come, come

and see Lord, come and see my pain, come and see my sorrow.

And in that moment when he sees the tomb, when he sees the pain,

when he's invited into the pain, at that moment Jesus breaks down

and he weeps. And can you see that Jesus is

not weeping for them, but Jesus is weeping with them because he

loved his friend, because he's not only concerned, he's

emotionally invested in their suffering.

And this is the key point that times of trouble, trouble God.

He is concerned for us. He doesn't want to see us

suffer. God is deeply moved when we

suffer. Like when your child is going

through a hard time, you're not standoffish, you don't go, oh,

that's your problem. You deal with it.

It hurts you, it's painful, you don't like it.

You want to intervene, you want to get involved, you want to

sort it out, and that's what God is like with us.

Psalm 56, such a beautiful Psalm.

In the ESV it says that you have kept count of my tossing.

Put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?

When we can't sleep at night, He counts.

God counts of us 'cause not sleeping well again.

There he is. He's just moved over again. 1-2

All that anxiety, all that fear. He captures our tears in a

bottle. He keeps a record of all the

things that go wrong. Why?

Why? Because He cares, He cares so

deeply for us. And guess what?

He's also keeping a record of them.

He's storing them because one day he's going to make good on

every single one of them. He's showing us, I'm keeping a

record of the pain and the hurt that you went through.

Because one day, one day, let me promise you, I will sort it all

out. The Lord is near to the broken

hearted Psalm 34. He's not standoffish.

He's not far away. Isaiah 49 Can a mother forget?

Can a mother forget? Sam, can you forget?

Hey, Jess, can you forget? Ellen, can a mother forget?

A mother can't forget, even if they may forget.

Yet I will not forget. Behold, I have engraved you on

the palms of my hands. Not I have a tattoo of your name

somewhere. I have engraved you, not your

name, you. I've engraved you on the palm of

my hands. That is how much I care for you.

It may be tempting, may be really tempting, to think that

it is because he doesn't care. But the example that Jesus sets

for us in this passage is not one of emotional detachment, but

one to be deeply troubled by the bad things that happen for us.

God cares deeply. So since we know that it's not

because he doesn't care, what then is the reason that He

allows Lazarus to die? So here's the answer, and we're

going to build up to it, so listen carefully now.

He allows Lazarus to die so that we might see something deeper

and more lasting than a miracle. You see, Jesus had shown his

power time and time again 24 times up until that point.

He can heal, He can intervene, He can fix.

But in this moment, Jesus is saying, I don't want to solve

just another problem because he knows that the greatest need in

that moment is not so that Lazarus would breathe again for

a few more years. Because he knows that the

greatest need in that moment is that people would come face to

face with the one who is the resurrection and the life.

And we see the answer throughout the passage everywhere.

He says I'm doing this for God's glory.

I'm doing this so that you can see me.

I'm doing this so that you can believe.

I'm doing this so that you might see my glory.

And Chad reminded us about 3 weeks ago said the whole of the

Gospel of John is written for one purpose, that we might

encounter Jesus and believe. Believe in what?

Then Jesus puts it plainly and verse 25 he says that I am the

resurrection and the life and whoever believes in me will have

eternal life. Not I will give resurrection,

not I can come and perform a resurrection.

I am the resurrection and the life.

He is showing us that resurrection is a person we can

encounter today. And that is why he waited.

Because if Jesus had healed his friend, we would have seen his

power. But by Jesus allowing him to

die, we see his glory. And to see his glory is to sue,

see who he truly is, the resurrection and the life.

And we could end it right there at verse 25.

And that would be good enough. Because if you think about it,

all of our questions, all of our doubts, all of our pain, all of

our fears, everything that we go through in this messy life of

ours can be answered in the knowledge that Jesus will make

it good because he is the resurrection and the life.

But the amazing thing is that the story doesn't end with a

statement. It ends with a display of what

Jesus came to do in all of our lives.

So to anchor the message, Jesus says, all right, let me show you

exactly what I came to do in each and every one of your

lives. So Jesus stands in front of the

tomb, and maybe the band can come up.

So Jesus stands in front of the tomb, stands in front of our

tomb, and he calls in a loud voice.

Come out of your tomb, come out of your death, come out of your

darkness, come out of your despair, come out of your pain.

And Lazarus walks out and he's alive, but he's still wrapped in

his grave clothes. He's still got this veil and

this cloth that's covering his eyes and his face.

So keep that picture in your mind.

Now in contrast, let's go to Jesus tomb.

When the women arrived at Jesus tomb, they found it empty.

And when Peter and John go into the tomb, what do they find?

His grave clothes neatly folded. You see, Jesus didn't need

someone to issue a command for him.

He didn't come out wrapped. He left the grave close behind.

He didn't just come back to life.

He defeats Death completely. He has so much time on his hands

after defeating Death that he folds the clothes, puts it there

neatly for us. That's how powerful I am.

He is showing us that he is the resurrection and the laugh come

back to Lazarus. Lazarus comes out rapt because

he's brought back into this world, not yet into the fullness

of what is to come. He's alive but not yet fully

transformed. But the first thing that he sees

before him, the first thing that he sees before him as he walks

out from death into life is what through the cloth he sees Jesus,

the resurrection and the life. And that is us.

We called out of death into life, but still living in this

world where we don't always see clearly, where things don't

always make sense. And now I want to be like one of

those, I don't know, evangelical preachers and start running up

and down because this is the most exciting thing that I've

read. There's a second command that

comes. He doesn't leave it there.

And the second command is take off your grave clothes.

Are you ready, Church, Are you ready?

Take off your grave clothes and let him go.

Let him go, let him go. Be free.

Because that is the hope that we have as believers, that there is

a day coming when our grave clothes will be removed, all of

our pain will be removed, the veil will be removed, and we

will see clearly and it'll all make sense.

So when life hits you with those questions, when you're standing

in the pain and you're trying to answer the hardest question, why

God? Why?

Jesus says, bring me the question.

I'm not afraid of it, Bring it to me.

It's not because I don't care. But you can be sure of this one

thing, the pain, the distress, the death will not have the

final say because standing right in front of you is the one who

does the resurrection and the life in Jesus mighty name, Amen.