Good evening. It is good to be with you. I will ask you to open your Bibles, please, to John 11.
It is a great joy for me to be able to be with you again, mainly because I know the Lord has worked in so many of you a hunger, a desire to know Him. And that is why we gather: that we might see the Lord as we come to the study of God’s Word.
There is a principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable, and that principle is total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit. As you study this precious Book, you are going to find many, many helpful tools. There are books of sermons, commentaries, concordances, atlases, dictionaries, word studies, and all kinds of help.
But we cannot trust the help. We thank God for the help, and that gives us some of the human side. But the other side—the divine side—is that only God can reveal God. And He has promised that if we would come as little children, He would dawn His Son upon us.
He desires; He is full, and He is filled for you and for me. There is an infinite longing, a willingness in God, to minister unto us. “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.” That is the promise.
And so I am going to ask you to join with me, please, once again in prayer, as we trust the Lord to show us Himself and to open His Word. Let us pray.
Our heavenly Father, we do thank Thee this evening that we can come. We can come expecting because of the Holy Spirit, who lives in our hearts and who searches the depths of God. We can come expecting a revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we know when we see Him, we will be changed.
We thank You for inspiring this marvelous chapter. We pray, as we meditate together, that our hearts would be turned in a living way unto the Savior. We thank You, Lord, for all that You put in it. Deliver us from flesh and from blood. Give us spirit and life.
Reveal Yourself unto us, and then grace us with the faith necessary to appropriate Christ as You propose Him to us. We thank You in advance that You are going to over-answer this prayer, because we pray it in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Once again, as we come to study God’s Word, you listen in vain and I speak in vain if we do not behold the Savior. We have gathered to see Him, and we trust that He will minister Himself unto us.
Now, I am going to ask you, please, to look at John 11. Let me set before your heart what I would like to share. I do not expect to give you what you have not heard before, but I pray that the Lord will anoint it and that it would be light.
We are going to look at four verses, just to get a theme before your heart, and then we will look in the text. John 11:3:
Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
Then, in John 11:5:
Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
Then John 11:11:
Our friend Lazarus is fallen asleep; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
And then, if you glance at John 11:36:
Behold how he loved him!
All of those verses illustrate this simple truth: there was a special love-union between our Lord Jesus and this wonderful family at Bethany. We do not have a lot of information in the Bible about this family, but enough to assure us that there was probably not a happier family or a more honored family than this precious family in Bethany.
They were loved by Jesus, and they loved Jesus. He called them friend. They had a relationship; they had a union together. As you know from the Bible record, frequently our Lord Jesus would visit Bethany and stay with this family. So there was a wonderful relationship.
I call attention to that because what I would like us to look at this weekend is how our Lord Jesus manifests Himself to His friends. Sometimes, when you read the Bible, the Lord manifests Himself to those who are not His friends—His enemies, those that are unsaved.
Sometimes He reveals Himself to those who are rebellious. They may be believers, but they are rebelling against Him. Sometimes He manifests Himself to the false teacher and the enemies of grace and life.
But in this case, you have those who love Him and are loved by Him—those who are His friends. They illustrate, I think, those who are doing it right. They have got it together. They are walking in light; they are walking in fellowship with God.
Usually, when someone comes as a messenger of the new covenant, his message is, “Come to Jesus,” or, “Come back to Jesus.” What if you are already there? What if you are already looking to the Lord, walking in the light, enjoying the Lord, in fellowship with Him, and enjoying union with Him? Does He manifest Himself to you?
That is what we would like to look at. Since the Lord Jesus manifested Himself to His friends, and since Jesus is everlastingly the same yesterday, today, and forever, I am suggesting that the way He manifested Himself to His friends in John 11 is how He will ever manifest Himself to us.
For those who like logical connection, let me give you the way I would like to look at it. This evening, I would like to share several truths concerning how the Lord Jesus manifests Himself to His friends. Then, Lord willing, tomorrow morning, I would like to take the same passage and look at how the Lord Jesus manifests Himself through His friends.
He manifests Himself to His friends, and He manifests Himself through His friends. That gives you something on which to hang your hat, and you will know where we are going.
Now let us begin to look at this marvelous passage. How does the Lord manifest Himself to His friends? Before I touch that question, before we look into the text, I would like to make two general observations to get us into the flow of it, so that we can catch the spirit and the heart of our Lord Jesus.
The first observation is the words that Martha said to her sister Mary. If you will glance at John 11:28:
The Teacher is here, and is calling for thee.
I love that sentence: “The Teacher is here, and He is calling for you.” Now, if you know the context—and I think you do—this chapter is a story of life from the dead. It is a story of resurrection. It is a story of supernatural life, miracle life. The great principles in this chapter concern the risen life.
I think, in order to get the text before our hearts, it would be helpful to take Martha’s word: “The Teacher is here, and He is calling for you.” In the context, Martha meant, “The Teacher is here and is calling you to Himself.”
And in the context, the Teacher is here and is calling you to the truth of this chapter, which is resurrection life. Brothers and sisters in the Lord, I think that is a good place to begin. The Teacher is here, and He is calling for you. He is calling you to Himself and to the truth of resurrection life.
As we go through the passage, I pray that the Lord will continually remind us of that great reality: that He is here, and He is always here; calling to Himself, and He always calls to Himself; and to the glorious truth of resurrection life.
The second observation has to do with the heart of the Lord Jesus. If we are going to understand the principles in this wonderful chapter, it is helpful to catch the heartbeat of the Savior, to see the direction of His heart.
If you will glance at John 11:14-15, this is the backdrop of all that takes place in this chapter:
Lazarus is dead.
And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.
I like to take the last words of John 11:14 and the first words of John 11:15 and put them together: “Lazarus is dead, and I am glad.” Have you ever connected those? “Lazarus is dead, and I am glad.”
You may be familiar with Spurgeon’s famous sermon on that text: Saints Sorrowing and Jesus Glad. Would you not expect it to read something like this: “Lazarus is dead, and I am sad”? But it does not say, “Lazarus is dead, and I am sad.” It says, “Lazarus is dead, and I am glad.”
So we have to understand His heart if we are going to understand the passage. Notice the comments made by Martha and Mary. They were so different, but they said the same thing.
Martha speaks in John 11:21:
Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
Mary said the same thing in John 11:32:
Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
Their argument was this: this could have been prevented if You were here. If You were here, it would not have happened. This whole thing could have been changed. It could have been different. We could have been delivered.
If Jesus were present in body, they reasoned, we would have been delivered. Now, is that true? Could Jesus have prevented the death of Lazarus? Certainly so. You know that He could have prevented it. He could have done it from a distance; He did not even have to be there. He had done that on another occasion.
Would Jesus have prevented it if He were there? That is a question all its own. It seems implied that He probably would have, when He told His disciples, “I am glad that I was not there for your sakes, to the intent ye may believe.” We cannot say for one hundred percent sure, but probably He would have prevented it.
But now He says, “I am glad. I am glad I did not prevent it.” Why? He is glad He did not prevent it because now He has the opportunity to manifest Himself—not as Someone who prevents, but as Someone who overcomes.
If He had prevented it, He would have been known as the One who prevented that. But now we see Him as the One who has overcome that.
How does the Lord manifest Himself to His friends? One answer is that He loves to overcome for His friends. Our natural hearts want Him to prevent. We say, “Lord, prevent. Deliver me. Prevent this sickness, this trial, this trouble, this circumstance. Deliver me from this situation, from this hard time, from this past, from this affliction.”
God could have prevented the three Hebrews from going in the furnace, but He wanted something better for them. He wants something better for His friends all the time. We like this deliverance prayer: “Deliver me from this and from that.” But God has more for His friends.
O friends in Christ, how much of the knowledge of God is lost by prevention—when God prevents rather than overcomes. When Lazarus was sick, on the low level of earth that was bad. When Lazarus got sicker, on the low level of earth that was worse. And when Lazarus died, on the low level of earth that was terrible.
When things go from bad to worse, and from worse to terrible, what is the heart of the Lord? He is glad. That is how He treats His friends. Who needs an enemy? That is how He treats His friends. He is glad when things go from bad to worse and from worse to terrible, because now He has an opportunity to manifest Himself in a richer way, in a deeper way, in a greater way.
The goal is not deliverance. The goal is not healing. The goal is not having our needs met. The goal is not being happy. The goal is the knowledge of the Lord. The goal is the manifestation of Christ and the glory of Christ.
It is His desire to manifest Himself. So He is glad when things go from bad to worse and worse to terrible, because now you can know Him in a way you could not have known Him if He had just delivered or just prevented. Now you can know Him as the One who overcomes.
The more you go on in a heart knowledge of the Savior, the more you are going to think like Him, see like Him, and feel like Him. You say, “Well, Jesus is clapping His hands in glee because things are going from bad to worse in my life.”
The more you know Jesus, the more your hands will clap in glee when things go from bad to worse in your life, and from worse to terrible. It is not only His opportunity to manifest Himself to you in a greater way; it is your opportunity to know Him in a greater way.
Oh, how we can bless the Lord that, to His friends, it is different. He does not always deliver, and He does not always prevent, because He wants them to know Him in a more intimate and more wonderful way. The heart of the Lord here is in the backdrop of this entire thing.
How does Jesus manifest Himself to His friends? Let me suggest two answers to that question as they are illustrated in this marvelous passage. The first answer is this, and it is all over the face of the passage: He tests their faith.
You cannot read this chapter and not see that the Lord Jesus is testing their faith. In this connection, I love to relate 1 Peter 1:6-9:
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold temptations,
that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by fire,
may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The proof of your faith is more precious than gold, though tried by fire. What is the proof of faith? What is the test of faith? Let us start by asking the question: What is faith?
In its simplest form, what is faith? The most important thing about faith is not my faith. The most important thing about faith is the object of your faith. It is the Lord. It is Who you are trusting. You do not have faith in your faith; you have faith in the Lord. Faith is trusting Jesus.
What is the test of faith? The test of faith is an opportunity to trust Jesus. That is all in the world it is. Faith is trusting Jesus, and the trial of your faith, more precious than gold, is an opportunity to trust Jesus.
Friends of Christ, I promise you: if you are His friend, He will engineer your life so that you will have many opportunities to trust Him, because He longs to make Himself known. The trial of your faith is more precious than the gold that perishes at the revelation of Christ.
Let us get back to the text. I know there are probably more than I am going to mention, but I would like to illustrate from the text. This is so simple. All truth, by the way, is simple, because truth is a Person. Truth has a name. His name is Jesus.
If you look in an abstract way at truth, you will get confused. But if you see the Person, then everything is simple. In this text, there are at least four illustrations of how God tests the faith of His friends.
Number one: He will test your faith, if you are His friend, by what He allows in your life. You will be amazed at what the Lord will allow in the life of His friend. In this record, He allowed sickness.
Sometimes the friends of Jesus get sick. Some people have the idea, “If I am His friend, He will deliver me from sickness. He will prevent it. I will not get sick.” The covenant of grace does not exempt us. It is not a charter of exemption.
Some think that sickness is a contradiction of God’s wisdom and love. I love John 11:3: “He whom Thou lovest is sick.” His love and sickness are put in the same verse. There is no contradiction there.
Jesus allowed Lazarus to get sick. Jesus allowed Lazarus to get very sick. Jesus allowed Lazarus to die. Amazing what He allows in our lives.
I am not suggesting that if He allows sickness in your life, you should not pray and trust Him for healing. I am not saying, “Trust the Lord and throw your medicine away.” You have the illustration in the Old Testament: they called the physicians and not the Lord with Asa. You remember that Bible story.
You do not throw the mechanic away when you get saved. You do not discharge the grocer when you get saved. And you do not discharge the doctor. You trust the Lord, but you take your medicine. I am not suggesting otherwise.
But I am saying that when God allows something like that, it undermines self-confidence and drives you to Christ. He allows things on purpose in your life. As I said, He allowed Lazarus to die.
This is the climax. This is the seventh sign in the Book of John, and it comes to a climax. You have other illustrations in the Bible about death and resurrection. The nobleman’s son was at the point of death. Jairus’s daughter had just died. The widow of Nain’s son was on the way to the funeral when Jesus rescued him.
But here you have four days. Lazarus is not only dead; he is dead and buried. I am so glad that God used this illustration because, again, on the low level of earth, death is man’s most unsolvable problem. That is one problem you cannot deal with. There is no human solution to the problem of death.
In this chapter, our Lord Jesus overcame man’s most unsolvable problem. If He could overcome man’s most unsolvable problem, then any lesser problem can be overcome by the same glorious Lord.
If He allowed that—the most unsolvable problem—in the life of His friends, what will He not allow? Everything under that He will allow as your opportunity to trust Him, so that He can manifest Himself in a greater way.
I think some Christians are sometimes shocked because of what God allows in their lives. All of a sudden their world caves in. “I cannot believe it. I am trusting the Lord. I have got to go bankrupt.” Will He allow a bankruptcy in your life? Oh, indeed He would. Indeed He would.
Sickness, a terminal illness, tragedy, violence, divorce—would He allow that in my life? I am not saying He engineers it and institutes it. I am not saying that. But I am saying that by the time it comes into your life, you have an opportunity to trust the Lord and watch Him reveal Himself.
God allows many, many things in our lives so that we will know Him as the One who overcomes.
A second illustration: how does He test our faith? Not only by what He allows, but by His deliberate delays. Did you notice that in the chapter? John 11:5-6 says:
Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
When therefore he heard that he was sick, he abode at that time two days in the place where he was.
You say, “Well, that was not very nice.” He hears about the situation. He receives intelligence that this man is sick. He deliberately stayed there for two more days.
His delays do not contradict His love any more than what He allows contradicts His love. His delays are on purpose. Remember, Mary and Martha and Lazarus are creatures of time. “Make haste, O God, to deliver me.” The paraphrase is, “Hurry up, Lord.”
“Make haste, O God, to deliver me.” I need help, and I need it now. There is no time to wait. This is an emergency. You cannot linger. Omnipotence can take its leisure, and He does, because He has His own time.
Look at John 11:17:
So when Jesus came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already.
He missed the funeral. It was actually four days later when He came. There is no doubt in my mind that this delay was a great testing of the faith of Martha and Mary—another opportunity to trust Him.
In connection with God’s delays, I love Habakkuk 2:3:
For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hasteth toward the end, and shall not lie:
though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not delay.
What does that mean? “Though it tarry, wait for it; it will not tarry.” Though it delay, it will not delay. I think what He is saying is this: though it comes at the last minute by your clock, it will not delay by His clock. He has a perfect time.
But that delay, when God does not answer right away, is a test of faith and an opportunity to trust Him—an opportunity for Him to manifest Himself in a greater way.
On my wall, I have all these different Bible verses in my study. One of them is John 13:7, Jesus’ words to Peter:
What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt understand hereafter.
Oh, I love that, just as a principle. Sometimes you do not know what the Lord is doing, why He is slow, and why He delays. But you will know hereafter. Sorrow is prolonged for the same reason it is sent: so you can know Jesus, so I can know Jesus.
So He tests our faith sometimes by the strange things He allows in our life, sometimes by not answering right away and delaying. Some saints, if I went around the room, could give testimony: “I have been praying for ten years, twenty years, for this, and He still delays and delays.” It is all to drive you to Him.
There is a third illustration in this text of how God tests faith. Not only by what He allows, and not only by His delays, but He withdraws His sensible presence.
I say sensible presence because, you know, He did not withdraw His omnipresence. He was there. He was there. He knew it. But the sense of His presence—the feeling, the emotion—can be withdrawn.
Job experienced that. Job 23:8-10:
Behold, I go forward, but he is not there;
and backward, but I cannot perceive him;
on the left hand, when he doth work, but I cannot behold him;
he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him.
But he knoweth the way that I take;
when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
It is an awful thing on the level of earth when God removes that sensible presence. I do not know how it is with you. When I first came to the Lord, one of the blessings that came with objective faith was this great sense of the presence of God. Oh, I felt God’s presence.
Then one day, it was gone. God used Youth for Christ as the instrument by which I came to know the Savior—in 1958. They had a big rally up in Hartford, Connecticut. I remember the seat I was sitting in. God moved in my heart, and I responded.
I cried for three hours after I got saved, and I had the presence of God. Then, all of a sudden, it was gone. What do you do when you live in Waterbury, Connecticut, and Jesus leaves you?
I said to my grandmother, who brought me up, “Nanny, I have got to go.” I hitchhiked all the way to Hartford. I found the janitor and said, “You have got to open that door and get me to that auditorium.” I found the seat I was sitting in.
I thought that if I sat in the same seat and prayed again the same prayer, maybe I could get a sense of that presence again. I did not. I did not need it.
God began to teach me the fact of His presence. I do not need the sense of His presence. He is always there. This was a tremendous test for them when they lost the presence of God.
Look again at the two statements Martha and Mary made: “Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” That statement contains two insinuations that show the test that was in their hearts.
The first insinuation is this: it could have been different. This whole thing could have been different.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let me speak very plainly on this tremendous issue. Christians—you friends of God, those who love Him and are loved by Him—Christians are never at the mercy of any circumstance. You are never the victim of any second cause.
No Christian is. You are at the mercy of the Lord, not at the mercy of any second cause. We say sometimes, “It could have been different if only the messenger ran faster. It could have been different if only we got more people to pray. It could have been different if we insisted that they take their medicine.”
“It could have been different if only they had worn the seat belt. It could have been different if I took a rugged stand and said, ‘You cannot go with them. You stay home.’ It could have been different if this and if that.”
By the time it reaches you, because He is sovereign, it could not have been different. Do not look to a second cause. Do not look to a second cause. It is the Lord, and you need to trust Him and not look at some second cause.
I love Joseph’s comment:
Ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.
You sold me; God sent me. That is the glory of it. God is sovereign, and He reigns. He can avert any calamity, no matter how many obstacles are in the way. He can change it if He wants to. He reigns, and we are not the victims of second causes.
Here is the second insinuation, and it is even more serious. Not only, “It could have been different,” but in that sentence is the sense, “It should have been different.” If You were here—and You were not—where were You when we needed You, when we called You, when we sent for You?
“If You were here, it could have been different, and it should have been different.” Once again, the Lord Jesus withdraws the sense of His presence. When He does that, sometimes we are apt to hold His love in suspicion and His wisdom in suspicion.
We say, “Lord, this should not happen. If only—it should not have happened. Lord, where were You? You must be punishing me. I must have sinned. It should not have happened. Maybe You do not love me. You are not looking. You are not observing. Do You not care that we perish?”
We have all of those kinds of thoughts, and all of that because God does not prevent. Because you are His friends, He wants more for you. He wants you to know Him as the One who overcomes.
One more illustration. Sometimes He tests your faith by what He allows in your life. Sometimes He tests your faith by long delays. Sometimes He tests your faith by withdrawing the sense of His presence. And sometimes He tests your faith by confusing you to pieces.
He gives a clear word that is not clear. Have you ever received a clear word that was not clear? They did. Look at John 11:4:
This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby.
The sisters sent a messenger to Jesus: “Tell Him Lazarus is sick.” The messenger went, received a message, and Jesus said, “Go back and tell them, ‘This sickness is not unto death.’” What part of those words do you not understand? How clear can it be?
If my dear wife, Lillian, were sick—very sick—and the doctor sent back the word, “Tell Ed, ‘This sickness is not unto death,’” what would I believe? She is going to live. She is not going to die. It is a clear word. This is not one of those fuzzy words. This is clear. It is simple.
Can you imagine Mary and Martha as they got the word and Lazarus got weaker and weaker? As his breathing became labored, I bet they were whispering in his ear, “Do not worry. We got word from Jesus. We got a clear word. He said, ‘This sickness is not unto death.’”
They were tried all the way to the end. What do you think happened in their hearts when he died? They had a clear word. When you have a clear word and all of a sudden it is not so clear, and you thought you knew God’s way, and it is not that way, and you expected God to do it that way because it was so clear—and then He does not do that—you have an opportunity to trust Him in a fresh way.
He confuses you to pieces. I love when Moses prayed for the glory of God. Glory is not an attribute of God; glory is the sum total of all the attributes of God. God is love, and He is glorious in His love. He is wise, and He is glorious in His wisdom. He is power, and He is glorious in His strength and in His might. Glory is everything God is.
When Moses prayed, “Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory,” he was praying, “Let me see all of God.” You remember how God answered that prayer. He picked him up and put him in a cleft of the rock.
Do not forget his prayer: “Glory. I want to see light.” He put him in a cave. “It is dark in here.” Then what did God do? Put His hand over the cave. Talk about light—that is darkness.
God deliberately put him in a dark place and then put His hand over it and passed by. When you pray for light, God sometimes gives you darkness as an answer to your prayer for glory. You say, “Show me Your glory,” and He puts you in that dark place and passes by.
When you are in the cleft of the rock, when you are in Christ, that is when you are going to see the glory of God. God tests the faith of His children, the faith of those He loves and those who are His friends.
Do not despise it when God allows things in your life. Do not despise it when God delays a little bit or withdraws the sense of His presence. Confusion is a mighty weapon for good in the hand of God.
It is the Lord’s way to give you a word, and then to put a death sentence on that word and all the means that lead up to that word, and then to raise it again from the dead, that you might learn to trust Him and to trust Him alone.
If you are confused, if you are baffled, if you are puzzled, do not throw your hands up in despair and say, “God is not doing anything in my life. I do not know what is going on.” God is doing everything in your life, friend. You are His friend. That is why you are confused.
It crowds you to Christ. It crowds you to Him. It causes you to see the Lord. All these tests are designed for us to see Him.
In mercy He adds to the cross you must carry;
In grace every trial by Him is bestowed.
He knows in your weakness you will run straight to Jesus;
He adds to your burden to lighten your load.
Exactly so. He puts it on because He knows that after a while you are going to wise up, crawl out from under it, lay hold of your Savior, and I am going to do the same thing.
Let me answer a second question, and then we will wrap it all up. How does the Lord manifest Himself to His friends? First, He tests their faith in several of these ways. He always tests faith. He gives them opportunities to trust Him.
The chapter answers the question in a second way. How does He manifest Himself to His friends? I like to word it this way: He always deals with us as we are and where we are, in order to make us what He wants us to be and to bring us to the place He wants us to be.
When you read this chapter, it is amazing how God dealt with Mary and Martha and the people in this chapter. If you want a full description of it, I recommend Robert Candlish. He has a book of sermons on Bible characters, and he does a wonderful job as he unfolds this.
Every time God does something in your life, it is redemptive. You know what I mean by that? It is not primarily for you. It is primarily for somebody else. It is for you too, but it is always for somebody else.
Did you notice in this chapter that He is dealing with Mary? Yes, but He is also dealing with Martha. Indeed, He is dealing with Martha. He is also dealing with the disciples, because He said, “I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe.”
Look at John 11:19. He is dealing also with those hired mourners, those professional cheerleaders in sorrow. They hired these people to mourn at the grave. He is dealing with them.
Not only Mary and Martha, not only the disciples, not only the mourners, but John 11:42 says the great crowd came at the grave—His friends and acquaintances—and it was for their sake that He prayed. He is dealing with them.
In John 11:46, they go and tell the Pharisees. He is dealing with the Pharisees as well. Do not forget that He is also dealing with Lazarus in this chapter.
He is dealing with Mary and Martha and the disciples and the mourners and the friends and the acquaintances and the Pharisees and Lazarus. For two thousand years, anyone who has read the chapter—He is dealing with you. The Teacher is here and He is calling for you. He is dealing with me.
He always deals with everybody at the same time. When the Lord allows you an opportunity to trust Him, He is not only wanting to manifest Himself as One who overcomes rather than One who prevents; He is also dealing with your doctor, your nurse, the anesthesiologist, the cab driver, the paper boy, the grocer, your neighbors, your mother, your brother, your cousins, and your in-laws.
He is dealing with everybody at the same time. Do not answer; just think. Are you willing to be sick for somebody else? Are you willing to die that God can deal with them? That is what Lazarus did.
There is very little connection, if you try to figure it out. Jesus said, “I am glad for your sake.” He said, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If a man walk in the day, he stumbleth not.” What was He teaching the disciples? He was teaching them their safety in the will of God.
What has that got to do with the sickness of Lazarus? Very little connection. What God does in your life to teach somebody else something way off the track, you cannot figure out. Do not even try to figure it out. Just know that what God does in you affects everybody else at the same time.
But let us home in on Mary and Martha, and then I will wrap it up. Mary and Martha: two sisters with the same problem, so different. How does God deal with the problem when you have two different people having the same problem at the same time?
That is why my heart goes out in sympathetic love to all counselors. I just do not know how in the world they can counsel, because God is such a God of infinite variety. He does it differently in so many cases. Everybody is different, and God deals with us as we are and where we are.
Martha and Mary are so different. Martha is a feminine Peter, and Mary is a feminine John. Martha is prose, and Mary is poetry. One is an extrovert; one is an introvert. One is active and nervous, and the other is contemplative and quiet. They are different, and so Jesus deals with them differently.
Read the text. I will not take time to look at it all. But Martha, she will not shut up. I am serious. She has got to talk. So they talk, and they talk about immortality, the future, down the road, the resurrection, and the last day. She has got to talk.
Jesus gives her a sermon. That is what she needs. He talks about the last day, the resurrection, and all that kind of thing. Mary is different. She does not need a theological discussion. She does not need a bunch of creedal statements about the future, resurrection, and immortality.
She cannot talk. She just cries. What does Jesus do? We just sort of read John 11:35, “Jesus wept,” la, la, la. Martha needs His ears, so she gets His ears. Mary needs His tears, so she gets His tears.
Most people know this as the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept.” By the way, it is not even the shortest verse in the Bible. A little trivia here: 1 Thessalonians 5:16:
Rejoice evermore.
There are two letters less in the Greek in that verse, so that is the shortest verse in the Bible.
God deals with us where we are. Pull out all the stops and believe that with all your heart. The centurion needed words, so God gave him words. The blind man needed a touch, so God gave him a touch.
The bent-over woman needed a touch and a word, so God gave her a touch and a word. The man with palsy needed a hug, so the Lord hugged him. Peter needed a look, so God gave him a look.
Martha needed a sermon, so she got a sermon. Mary needed a tear, so she got a tear. He knows you, friend. He knows who you are. He knows your heart. He knows your capacities.
He will always deal with you as and where you are, to bring you to the place He wants you and to turn you into the person He wants you to be.
At any moment in your life, you can be the Christian God wants you to be. I cannot be the husband God wants me to be next week, but I can be the husband God wants me to be now—now.
You cannot be the elder God wants you to be next week, but you can be the elder God wants you to be now—now. You can be the Christian that God wants you to be right now, because He deals with you where you are.
No matter what your hang-ups are, He deals with you where you are to take you to the place that He wants you. How does He deal with His friends?
Do not read this, “La, la, la.” He wants to show Himself, and so He tests their faith. He wants to show Himself, and so He deals with them exactly where they are and who they are.
You are going to come a long way in your life with the Lord if you will just learn to be you and let God be God. Stay out of the Godhead. Do not try to do His things. Just be yourself and trust in Jesus.
That is how He deals with His friends. He wants to deal through them as well, but that is how He ministers unto them. He longs to have friends who will trust Him when He does not prevent, when He brings things into their lives, when He delays, when He removes the sense of His presence, and when He confuses you to pieces.
Can He be trusted? Is He trustworthy? Oh, indeed, brothers and sisters, trust. Let Him deal with you where you are.
The Master is here. The Teacher is here. And He is calling for you—calling you to Himself and to the truth of resurrection life.
Let us pray. Father, thank You so much for Your Word—not what we think we know it means, but all You have inspired it to mean. Will You work that in our hearts?
Thank You for the way You manifest Yourself to Your friends. Forgive us for trying to solve it ourselves. Teach us what it means just to trust You. Work it in our hearts, we pray.
Here we are. Deal with us where we are. We want to come to You and to the truth of resurrection life. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Thank you.