Raising Lazarus (Pt.2) (11:1-57)

JOHN 11:7-16 Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking 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 anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." After saying these things, he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him." …

JOHN 11:7-16 … The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

Christian Myth # 1 Christ Always Leads His People Safety & Security & Away From Trouble

David Wells all too often the church has: “turned to a God that we can use rather than to a God we must obey; we have turned to a God who will fulfill our needs rather than to a God before whom we must surrender our rights to ourselves. He is a God for us, for our satisfaction – not because we have learned to think of him in this way through Christ but because we have learned to think of him this way through the marketplace…

David Wells …In the marketplace, everything is for us, for our pleasure, for our satisfaction, and we have come to assume that it must be so in the church as well. And so we transform the God of mercy into the God who is at our mercy…if the sunshine of his benign grace fails to warm us as we expect, if he fails to shower prosperity and success on us, we will find ourselves unable to believe in him anymore

MacArthur If you are walking in the Spirit and serving the Lord, you have your day. Being a coward and taking all kinds of precautionary steps and not being faithful isn’t going to lengthen it; and being bold in the face of enemies isn’t going to shorten it because it is what God has ordained it to be.

Ortberg Fear has created more practicing heretics than bad theology ever has, for it makes us live as though we serve a limited, finite, partially present, semi-competent God

JOHN 11:20-21 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 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 from God, God will give you."

Christian Myth # 2 When Jesus is Present, there will be No Sickness, Pain, Grief, or Death

Christian Myth # 3 God’s Love is Primarily Reflected in our Lives By His Provision of Health, Wealth, and Comfort

Piper Jesus does not mainly love us in this life by sparing us suffering and death. He mainly loves us by showing us and giving us himself and his glory…Jesus loves us mainly by giving us himself and all that God is for us in him. Don’t measure the love of God for you by how much health and wealth and comfort he brings into your life…Measure God’s love for you by how much of himself he shows you…how much of himself he gives you to know and enjoy

Yancey Saints become saints by somehow hanging onto the stubborn conviction that things are not as they appear, and that the unseen world is as solid and trustworthy as the visible world around them. God deserves trust, even when it looks like the world is caving in.

Andrew Murray In times of trouble say, First: He brought me here ; it is by His will I am in this strait place: In that I will rest. Next: He will keep me here in His love, and give me grace in this trial to behave as His child. Then: He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends me to learn, and working in me the grace He means to bestow. Last: In His good time He can bring me out again - how and when He knows. Say: I am here (1) by God's appointment (2) in His keeping (3) under His training (4) for His time.

Timeline Messenger Comes to Jesus – Lazarus dies Jesus Waits (Day 1) – Messenger Returns to Bethany Jesus Waits Another Day, Then Departs – Likely Continues His Ministry Jesus Arrives in Bethany

JOHN 11:1-3a 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."

JOHN 11:1-3a Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha…

Piper Jesus does not mainly love us in this life by sparing us suffering and death. He mainly loves us by showing us and giving us himself and his glory…Jesus loves us mainly by giving us himself and all that God is for us in him. Don’t measure the love of God for you by how much health and wealth and comfort he brings into your life…Measure God’s love for you by how much of himself he shows you…how much of himself he gives you to know and enjoy.