[0:00] Will you took me from a fearful death, and from the mighty quail, And on our Lord He said, my King, established in my way.
[0:37] In which I knew song in my mind, I got to my heart.
[0:56] Many shall see and shall fear, and from the glory line.
[1:16] O blessed is the man whose trust upon the glory lies, Respecting all the proud or such, Has turned aside to lies.
[1:55] O Lord my God, O many are the wonders thou hast done, Thy gracious thought to us weren't far above, All thoughts are gone.
[2:35] The Lord, our love can reckon to thee, If they declare and speak of them, I would say more than can be numbered up.
[3:23] Let's turn to God in prayer. Let's pray. Almighty God, You are the great and eternal God.
[3:37] Your thoughts are way beyond our thoughts, As high as the heavens are above the earth, So are your thoughts higher than our thoughts, Your ways higher than our ways.
[3:49] Our ability to know you is so limited, And we would not know you at all if it were not, That you'd revealed yourself to us in your word.
[4:01] You have given us the scriptures, In order that we might know anything of God. How we bless you for the scriptures, That enlighten us, That bring light, Bring food to our souls.
[4:16] How we give thanks for what they reveal, Of the true and living God. Lord, we would have found ourselves in darkness, Filled with questions, Wondering, As so many have always done, What is life all about?
[4:31] Where did we come from? Where are we going? All the deep mysteries, That have always perplexed mankind. We would be without answers to these questions, If it were not, For your revelation of yourself, In the word of God.
[4:46] And you have revealed yourself, Not only as the creator God, Not only as the supreme God, The one who sustains all that there is, The one who is from everlasting to everlasting, The one who is infinite, But you have revealed yourself to us, As the triune God, Father, Son, And Holy Spirit.
[5:08] You are the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, You are the God, Who has loved us so much, As to give your only begotten Son, So that whoever believes in him, Would not perish, But have everlasting life.
[5:23] You have given us the Lord Jesus, You have revealed to us why, You have given to us the Lord Jesus, We are a needy people, A lost people, A doomed people, A people with no prospects, In this world, Or in the world to come, Were it not, For the Lord Jesus, Without life, Without knowledge, Without hope, But he has come, And he has changed everything, And he has made salvation possible, To be reconciled to God, To be your people, To know that we are your God, That you are our God, We are your sons and daughters, In Jesus.
[6:04] Lord, How we bless you for such a saviour, One who has completely done, All that needed to be done, Who could die with the words, It is finished, On his lips, Because it was finished, Because everything, That had to be accomplished, Had been accomplished, And that there is nothing, That we can add, To make that salvation, More perfect, Or more secure, Jesus Christ, Has won the battle for us, He has defeated sin, He has defeated Satan, He has defeated the curse, He has defeated death itself, And we come, Sinners though we be, Wretched, In our natural situation, And yet, Lord, Redeemed, Saved, By the blood of the Lord, Jesus Christ, How we rejoice this morning, As we come, That we have such a saviour, That we have such a gospel, That we have such a marvellous, Word to speak of, Even, What we have been singing about, That our experience, Can be the same as the psalmist,
[7:06] Who waited on the Lord as God, But did so prayerfully, Crying out to you, Seeking your grace, And who knew what it was, To be rescued, To be plucked, From the mire, To be, Put, Set, On a rock, And to have a new song, In his mouth, Lord, You have blessed us, With all these things, We pray, Enable us to see, That they are but gifts of God, To us, Through the Lord Jesus Christ, You are the God of all grace, And we come to celebrate, That grace once again, And to remember, Our precious saviour, He who was, Wounded, For our transgressions, Bruised, For our iniquities, The chastisement, Of our peace, Was upon him, With his stripes, We are healed, And we pray, Lord God, That he would be exalted, Even in our midst this day, That we would be, Very mindful, Of what makes it possible, For us to gather, At the Lord's table, That who makes it possible, He is the,
[8:07] The redeemer, And he is the one, Who has bought us, At the cost of his own life, And his own blood, And we pray, That you would, Remember us each, And every one, As we gather here today, We give thanks, For the tremendous privilege, That is once again, Ours, To be seated, At this table, To be present, Where the Lord's supper, Is commemorated, Whatever, Our situation today, As we come Lord, We could have many worries, There could be things, That are causing us, Deep anxiety, We may be coming, With illness, We may be coming, With grief, We may be coming, With troubles, That the rest of us, Know nothing about, And we could be coming, With cares for our families, Financial worries, We could be coming, In all kinds of situations, We pray that, Whatever our situation today, We would know your help, We would know your grace, We would know your blessing, We would know your healing, We would know,
[9:07] That all things, Ultimately work together for good, To those who love God, We pray for those, Who cannot be with us, We remember the housebound, We remember the elderly, We remember the hospitalized, We remember folks, Whose hearts are with us, Perhaps folks that are away, At this time, We pray protection, And safety for them, Where they are, We ask Lord God, That as we seek your blessing, Upon us here in the building, So we would pray, And remember, And seek your blessing, For those who cannot, Be with us at this time, We pray, That you would enable us, To remember that, As we become, We come with your people, All across the world, We come with all your people, Across time, We sit at the same table, The disciples sat at, In the upper room, We are participants, In that same Lord's Supper, That has been commemorated, Down through the centuries, We meet, With the saints, Of every nation, Across the world,
[10:08] And across time, We meet, And commemorate the same thing, And we bless you Lord, That in these, Elements, That broken bread, That wine, We might be able to remember, And to discern, The Lord's body, We pray, That you would enable us, To recognise, That what we are doing, Is not simply, Eating bread, And drinking wine, We are remembering, The broken body, And the shed blood, Of the Lord Jesus, And we pray, That he would be precious to us, Even more precious, For having been here, Once again, And be with us, We pray, Take away, Every sin, Every distraction, That we might truly worship, In spirit, And in truth, Hear our prayers we ask, Pardon sin, In Jesus' precious name, Amen.
[10:59] We can read God's word now, As we find it, In the gospel of John, The gospel of John, In chapter 11, John's gospel, Chapter 11, And we can read, From the beginning, Of the chapter, 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,
[12:02] Now Jesus loved, Martha, And her sister, And Lazarus, So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, He stayed two days longer, In the place where he was, 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?
[12:25] 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 them, After saying these things, He said to them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, But I go to awaken him, The disciples said to him, Lord, If he's fallen asleep, He will recover, Now Jesus had spoken of his death, But they thought that he meant taking rest and 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, Now when Jesus came, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb, Four days, Bethany was near Jerusalem, About two miles off, And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary,
[13:28] To console them concerning their brother, 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, 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, Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again, Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again, In the resurrection on the last day, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection, And the life, Whoever believes in me, Though he die, Yet shall he live, And everyone who lives, And believes in me, Shall never die, Do you believe this?
[14:16] She said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, The Son of God, Who is coming into the world, When she had said this, She went and called her sister Mary, Saying in private, The teacher is here, And is calling for you, And when she heard it, She rose quickly and went to him, Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, But was still in the place where Martha had met him, When the Jews who were with her in the house, Consoling her, Saw Mary rise quickly and go out, They followed her, Supposing that she was going to the tomb, To weep there, Now when Mary came to where Jesus was, And saw him, She fell at his feet, Saying to him, Lord, If you had been here, My brother would not have died, When Jesus saw her weeping, And the Jews who had come with her, Also weeping, He was deeply moved in his spirit, And greatly troubled, And he said, Where have you laid him?
[15:14] They said to him, Lord, Come and see, Jesus wept, So the Jews said, See how he loved him, But some of them said, Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man, Also have kept this man from dying?
[15:30] Then Jesus, Deeply moved again, Came to the tomb, It was a cave, And a stone lay against it, Jesus said, Take away the stone, Martha, The sister of the dead man, Said to him, Lord, By this time there will be an odour, For he has been dead four days, Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you that, If you believed, You would see the glory of God?
[15:54] So they took away the stone, And Jesus lifted up his eyes, And said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me, I knew that you always hear me, But I said this on account of the people standing around, That they may believe that you sent me, And when he had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, Come out, And the man who had died came out, His hands and feet bound with linen strips, And his face wrapped with a cloth, Jesus said to them, Unbind him, And let him go, So on, Amen, May God bless to us, The reading of his own holy word, And to his name, Be the praise and the glory, We'll sing again to his praise, This time in Psalm 103, Psalm 103, Sing Psalm's version, On page 135, Page 135, Psalm 103, And at verse 12, As far as east is from the west, So far his love has borne away,
[16:55] Our many sins and trespasses, And all the guilt that on us lay, We can sing verses 12 to 22, To God's praise, We can sing verses 12 to 22, To God's praise, As far as east is from the west, So far as east is from the west, So far as east is from the west, And all the guilt that on us lay, And all the guilt that on us lay, As our father loves his child, So God loves those who fear his name,
[18:01] For he remembers, And when he knows, And he does, His human life when God's honey, His human life is like the grass, A light, An edge He recall Once so That in The tempest Close But Everlasting Is God's
[19:04] Love For all To the end And Their Seed Are Those Who Keep His Love And Carefully His Peace And See God In The Who Is Over All In Heaven He Has Set His Storm For You This Angel Praise Praise The Lord Strong Ones By Who
[20:04] His Will Is Done Oh Praise The Lord You Heavenly Host His In Heaven Who Hath Born His Word His God Is What To And Is Well And You My Soul Of This Lord The Lord Turn With me Again Please To The Gospel Chapter 11
[21:11] We Verse 25 Jesus Said To Martha I Am The Resurrection And The Life Whoever Believes In Me Though He Die Yet Shall Live And Everyone Who Lives And Believes In Me Shall Never Die Do You Believe This As We Were Reflecting Yesterday It's Always A Great Privilege To Come To Communion Season To Come To The Lord's Table And To Remember And To Focus On Christ's Love Christ's Grace Christ's Faithfulness To The Will Of His Father His Devotion To His Father His Devotion To Us We're Only Here Because Of His Devotion To Us Unworthy As We Are But It's Also As We Saw A Good Time To Reflect On Our Devotion To Him And The The Very Word Of God Challenges
[22:12] Us To Do That To Examine Ourselves As To Why We Are Here Why We Do What We Do To To Assess Again To Refresh Again To To To Remind Our Love For Him Our Devotion To Him And For What He Has Done For Us And As We Reflected Yesterday In Luke's Gospel Luke Chapter 10 We Met These Two Sisters Martha And Mary There Was No Mention Then Of Lazarus But Martha And Mary How They Received Jesus Into Their Home And How They Fed Him And His Disciples And We Saw Something Of Martha's Busyness And Something Of Mary's Sitting At Christ's Feet And Learning And Worshipping There Now We're Introduced To The Third Member Of The Family Here At John Chapter 11 A Certain Man Was Ill Verse One Lazarus
[23:12] 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 And He's Described In Verse Three Lazarus As He Whom You Love A Message Is Sent To Jesus By The Two Sisters Saying Lord He Whom You Love Is Ill And Of Course There's No Inconsistency There That Somebody That Loves The Lord And Somebody That The Lord Loves Should Be Ill Of Course There's Nothing Inconsistent About That And We Know The Reality Of That Good People Get Ill Some Get Better Some Don't Some Die And Of Course In The End We All Die No Matter How Good No Matter How Holy No Matter How Right No Matter How Upright A Life We Have Lived No Matter
[24:12] How Much We Love The Lord And How Much The Lord Loves Us In Fact It's Because The Lord Loves Us Isn't It He Takes Us To Be With Himself There's Nothing Inconsistent About Lord He Whom You Love Is Ill But We Can Be Too Ready Can't We We Can Be Too Ready When We Get Ill Or Something Bad Happens To See As A Sign Of The Lord's Displeasure Lord Why Why Have You Sent This Why Have You Done This To Whoever My Husband My Wife My Son My Daughter My Father My Mother Whoever It Is Why Have You Sent This Their Way They Don't Deserve That We Often Think We're Too Ready To See Illness Or Worse As A sign Of God's Displeasure Or God's Judgment Which Of Course He Has His Purposes In All These Things But We Can Be Too Ready To Interpret It Badly Here
[25:13] The Very Fact That Lazarus Is Ill And Will Go On To Die Is Actually A Blessing There Is No Way The Sisters Can Realize That At This Time But They Are Going To Be Blessed Through The Illness Of Their Brother And Indeed Through The Death Of Their Brother But It's This Message To Jesus Lord He Whom You Love Is Ill It's Not Even A Prayer Is It's Not Lord He's Ill Please Come And Heal Him It's Not That They Simply They Take Their Situation And They Present It To Him Lord Lazarus Is Ill And They Leave It At That They're Just Leaving It With The Lord There's Something For Us To Learn Even In That We Leave Our Situations With The Lord He Is The One That Is Wise Enough To Deal With Every Situation
[26:13] But Behind These Words There's A Trust There's A Belief There's A Faith There's A Hope They They They They They They Know They Know Who Can Do Something About This Situation And There Must Be A Hope When Jesus Receives This Message He Responds In Verse 4 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 And That Must Be The Message That Went Back To Bethany Back To The Sisters Who When They Received It Assuming Lazarus Hadn't Died By Then They Must Have Thought Wonderful Wonderful This Illness Does Not Lead To Death He's Not Going To Die He's Going To Recover If He's Already Died By The Time The Message Gets Back I Don't Know What They're Going To Think How Are They Going To Receive That News This Illness Does Not Lead
[27:13] To Death We'd Be Speculating To Go Into That But When Jesus Says It Won't Lead To Death Well It Wouldn't It Wasn't Going To Lead To Death But It Was Going To Lead Through Death To Life Again Lazarus Was Going To Die But He Was Going To Come Back Again Again There's No Way They Could Know That Other Than Jesus Said This Illness Does Not Lead To Death And It Would All Be Done To God's Glory He's Saying That So The Son Of God May Be Glorified Through It Is For The Glory Of God Which Of Course Was Always Jesus Priority It Was Always What He Sought What He Sought All His Life What You And I Should Seek All Our Life It's Odd To Think Isn't It That Lazarus Death Could Lead To God's Glory It's Odd To Think You Can Be Ill To God's Glory But You Can We Are To Glorify God
[28:13] All Our Lives In Whatever Circumstances Whether We Eat Whether We Drink Do All To The Glory Of God Man's Chief End To Glorify God And Enjoy Him Forever You Can Be Ill To God's Glory That's Ill Listen To Be Careful About Cursing Our Illness And Remember That Verse 5 Tells us Jesus Loved Martha And Her Sister And Lazarus And His Illness And Even His Forthcoming Death Doesn't Change That He Loves He Loved He Always Would Love Them That was Very Peculiar As Well When We Come To Verse 6 So When He He He He Was Ill He Stayed Two Days Longer In The Place Where He Was That's A strange Verse Isn't It At least That First Word Is Strange If It Said You Might Expect It
[29:13] To Say Something Like Jesus Loved Martha And Her Sister And Lazarus But Unfortunately When He He He Wasn't Able To Go There And Then But He Loved Martha And Mary And Lazarus So And He Didn't Go And That Must Seem Really Peculiar It Must Have Seemed Really Strange To The Disciples Why Is He Not Going Why Is He Staying Here Should We Not Be Making For Bethany Are They Not Asking Him To Come And To Heal Lazarus And To Get Him Off His Sick Bed And The Bible Is Telling Us That It's Because He Loves Them That He He Stays Put And He Doesn't Go Towards Them For Another Two Days It's Very Peculiar When You Stop And Think About And Wonder What Folk Were Thinking At The Time And Scratching Their Heads He Loves Them Why Is He Staying Here But It's Because He Loves Them That He's Staying Here And They Would Understand
[30:14] That Later Maybe It Seemed A Bit Harsh It Might Have Seemed A Bit Cruel Even To Some It Might Have Been Where Is God When You Need Him Where Is Where Is Jesus When You Need Him Does He Even Answer Does He Care Because He Loves Them And Yet He's Staying Here And He's Not Making Any Attempt To Go To Lazarus But It's For God's Glory Jesus Is Telling Us That The Whole Thing Is For God's Glory And It's For Their Ultimate Good And It's For Our Ultimate Good As We Read This Passage 2000 Years Later For Our Ultimate Good Because What Happened In The Long Term In That Incident Is Far More More Important Than What Happened In The Short Term The Long Term Ploy Of Jesus At This Point Even Though Others Couldn't See It Is Far More Important Than
[31:14] Anything He In The Short Term We Probably Had Done It Differently If We Had The Ability To Perform Miracles Probably We Had Done It Differently We Had Gone To Bethany As Fast As We Could We Make Every Effort To Get The Best Doctors The Best Medicine Do Whatever We Could To Prevent His Death And If Jesus Had Done That And Prevented Lazarus Death We Have A Whole Different Story One Of The Greatest Miracles That Jesus Ever Did Would Not Have Happened In Our Wisdom We Might Have Done It Differently In Jesus Wisdom He Does It Very Differently From What We Would Have Done It Would Have Been A Great Miracle If Sick Lazarus Had Been Raised Up Whole And Healthy But It's An Even Greater Miracle Isn't It That Dead Lazarus Is Raised Back
[32:14] To Life Again What An Amazing Thing That Was Sometimes We Shrink From God's Providence We Shrink From God's Guidance We Don't Know Why He's Doing Something We Don't Know What He's Up To We Don't Know Why Our Life Has Gone Off Kilter We Don't Know Why Our Plans Are Not Working Out We Don't Know We Can't See It In Our Minds Eye In Our Hearts We Feel We Might Not Say It But Might Think God This Is Not The Way I Would Have Done It Why Are You Not Answering My Prayers You've Told Me To Pray You've Told Me That When We Pray You Hear Us You've Told Us That When We Believe In Prayer We'll Get What We Ask And Yet You're Not Doing It We Think We Know Better We Never Know Better Than God Mary And Martha Didn't Know Better Than God And You And I Don't Know Better Than God But If Lazarus Had Not Died And Been Buried And Be
[33:14] Dead In That Jesus Was Capable Of Changing That Situation We Wouldn't Know That Jesus Could Raise A Man Who Had Been Dead Four Days We Would Know So Much Less About Him And So Much Less About God It's Because He Allows It To Happen That We Know He Can Do It And Why When He Himself Is Dead In The Grave For Three Days And Three Nights We Can Have Infinite Hope And Perhaps The Disciples Should Have More Hope And More Realization That If He Can Raise Lazarus After Four Days And He Himself Can Rise From The Grave After Three We Remember The Lord Jesus That's What We're Here To Do Isn't It We're Here To Remember The Lord Jesus To Remember Who He Is To Remember What He's Done To Remember Him In The Way That He's Commanded Doing Today In Remembrance
[34:15] Of Him Our Wonderful Lord And Saviour Of All Wisdom Of All Love Of All Grace Of All Devotion To His Father And To His People And To Rekindle As It Were Our Love For Him We Move On Verse 17 Jesus Arrives In Bethany Jesus Arrives In Bethany When Jesus Came He Found That Lazarus Had Already Been In The Tomb Four Days He's Already Told His Disciples That Lazarus Has In Fact Died He's Not Just Sleeping Apparently There Was A Jewish Tradition I Don't Know Where This Comes From I Don't Even Know If This Is Genuine But I've Heard Said That There Was A Jewish Tradition It's Certainly Not Biblical That When A Person Died Their Soul Kind Of Lingered Somewhere Above The Body A
[35:15] Kind Of Body Experience For Three Days After Death That The Soul Would Hover Around In That Vicinity Before After Three Days Departing Into The After Life I'm Told That's A Jewish Tradition I Can't Say It Kind Of Lingers And Observes All That's Going On Sees The Grieving Relatives And So On Before Passing Away Into Eternity If That's The Belief And I'm Not Saying It Is If That's The Belief That Is Lingering Among The Jews Of Bethany Then Jesus Is Coming Four Days After The Death Of Lazarus When Even In Their Superstitious Understanding All Hope Is Gone Maybe They Would Have Said If He'd Come In Three Days The Soul Was Still Hovering Somewhere In The Vicinity But After Four Days All Hope Was Gone Is
[36:17] Is Is Is Is That Why Jesus As It Were Panders To That Belief To Show The Greatness Of God To Demonstrate Even With Your Wacky Belief That This Is A Great Miracle Of God Can't See Certainly Four Days Is A Long Time For Anybody To Be Dead Isn't It We Read About The Little Girl Jairus Daughter And She's Only Just Died And Jesus Comes Into The Room And He Raises Her Back To Life We Read About The Son Of The Widow At Nain Who's Died A Few Hours Maybe A Number Of Hours The Funeral Procession Has Already Started They're On The Way To The Cemetery Jesus Comes Restores Him To Life Again These Are Things That Happen Within A Relatively Short Period Of Death But This Is Four Days Four Days Is A Long Time As Martha Will Comment When The Tomb Is About To Be Opened Four
[37:17] Days Is A Long Time Not Least In A Hot Climate Like That Was So Even If There Was No Tradition Of The Soul Lingering Around For Three Days It Still Represents The Whole Thing Represents A Massive Challenge Challenge Requires A Massive Miracle Requires Massive Faith In Lazarus Sisters To Believe That Anything Can Be Reversed At This Point And It's Going To Result In Massive Glory To God That That's The Very Thing That's Going To Happen We Read In Verse 19 Many Of The Jews Had Come To Martha And Mary To Console Them Concerning Their Brother Now They Themselves Would Be Jews Jesus Himself Is A Jew The Disciples Are Jews Many Jews But You Remember The Jews Are Hostile To Jesus The Leadership Of The Jews They're Hostile To Jesus They're
[38:18] Already Seeking To Kill Him He's Been Warned At The Beginning Of The Chapter Lord Surely You're Not Going Back There They're Waiting To Stone You Back There They're Hostile The Jewish To Jesus And Yet Here They Are They've Come Many Of The Jews Had Come To Martha And Mary To Console Them Concerning Their Brother Martha And Mary And Lazarus Are Known To Be Friends Of Jesus Whom The Church Hierarchy Has Declared To Be An Enemy Of The People And An Enemy Of God And I Think It Says Something About Martha And Mary And Probably Lazarus Too The Way They're Perceived By Their Own Community We've Seen Already They're Hospitable People It Would Seem They're A Popular Family And When They Suffer This Loss The Community Gathers Round To Help Comfort Them And In Fact That Will In Turn Be A
[39:18] Blessing To Their Friends What We Might Call Their Non Christian Friends Will Be Blessed Through Their Friendship And Their Support At This Time Of Martha And Mary Their Faith The Faith Of Martha And Mary And Lazarus Their Faith Their Love Their Devotion Their Witness To Christ In Their Own Community Hasn't Caused Them To Be Outcast Hasn't Caused Them To Be Outcast In Fact They They Seem To Have These Non Christian Friends Pray That God God Would Bless You Christian People With Non Christian Friends That You Can Be A Blessing To These Jews Were Going To Be Remarkably Blessed Some Of Them Just By Their Friendship With Mary And Martha And Lazarus They They Have They
[40:18] Have To They Have To Abandon But There's A Time To If We Love Our Friends And We Love Our Family Don't Isolate Them Mary And Martha Don't Seem To Have Isolated Them Their Faith Has Brought Public Sympathy Public Compassion For Their Plight They're Not Weirdos They're Not Perceived As Friends And Their Non Christian Friends Are About To Be Blessed By Them Verse 45 After Jesus Is Risen Many Of The Jews Therefore Who Had Come With Mary And Had Seen What He Did Believed In Jesus Because These Jewish People Cared For Mary And Martha Who They Loved And Who They Wanted To Be With And Wanted To Help Because They Themselves Received The Blessing They Saw The Raising Of Lazarus They Came To Faith Themselves They Too Became Believers In Christ
[41:18] Through The Influence You Might Say Of Their Friends Isn't That An Encouragement To Ourselves Make Sure That You're Not Some Kind Of Outcast Religious Weirdo But That You're A True Spiritual Praying Kind Compassionate Friend To Your Non Christian Friends And Neighbors Their Sympathy The Sympathy Of The Jews Their Compassion Wonderfully Rewarded Because Of Their Love For Mary And Martha Isn't It Good For Those Who Are Not Believers who wants a demon driven out of his son.
[42:26] Lord, if you can, you can cure him. If I can, says Jesus, all things are possible to those who believe. And the man says, I do believe.
[42:39] Help thou mine unbelief, as it says in the King James Version. Help. I'm swithering somewhere between belief and unbelief. I think that's where Martha's at here, isn't it? He's still the Lord.
[42:50] He's still the Lord Jesus. But he wasn't there. And Lazarus has died. And she says, if you had been here, you wouldn't have died.
[43:02] And she's somewhere in that grey area between faith and doubt, between belief and unbelief. And perhaps many of us can echo that.
[43:13] Perhaps you're here today, and your faith wobbles and wavers at times. Wouldn't it be wonderful if our faith was just strong all the time? And it was like an upward rise that just got stronger and stronger as the years went by.
[43:29] But you might be here today, and you're feeling terrible. And you're thinking, my faith is so poor. My faith is so little. My faith is so meagre. Have I even got faith? And yes, I do.
[43:40] I know the Lord Jesus. I believe in the Lord Jesus. I love the Lord Jesus. And you can, instead of a nice straight line, it can be much more up and down. I think there's something of that about Martha, even here.
[43:52] And Mary will echo the same kind of language when she appears. We can be swithering in our faith. And I think Jesus is sensitive to that as well. He knows our human feelings and failings and foibles.
[44:05] He remembers we are dust. He knows our frame. And he has compassion on us. And he has compassion on her. Lord, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died.
[44:19] But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. And he responds to that. And he says in verse 23, your brother will rise again.
[44:32] Your brother will rise again. And maybe he's probing and he's challenging Martha's faith. Do you believe?
[44:42] You know that's orthodox, Martha, don't you? You know that's the truth. What are you going to make of it? And maybe she's thinking, what do I believe?
[44:55] What do I believe about God? What do I believe about Jesus? What is possible for God? Is anything impossible for God?
[45:08] Your brother will rise again. And no doubt she, and no doubt her sister, they believe that God can do anything. The difficulty she'll face at this point and it's causing her faith to rise and fall and swither and wobble.
[45:26] I know he can do anything, but will he do anything? I don't know what he's planning to do at this stage. Will he do anything?
[45:39] Maybe that's where we're at too when we bring our prayers, our supplications to Jesus. I know he can do anything, but is he going to do anything about the situation I find myself in?
[45:51] Is he going to hear my prayers? Is he going to answer whatever's going on at this time? Maybe they'd got the message that Jesus sent back in verse 4. This sickness is not unto death.
[46:04] And maybe they'd say, wonderful, Lazarus is not going to die. And then he dies. Maybe they'd got that message and say, well, what are we going to make of this now? I thought Lazarus wasn't going to die and he's died.
[46:20] But anyway, she goes to him. That's the main thing, isn't it? She goes to him. She doesn't say, I don't want to see Jesus. I don't want anything to do with him. He said Lazarus was going to die and he's died and it's all too late.
[46:32] She doesn't do that. She hears that he's coming, verse 20, and she goes out to meet him. She goes. Her faith might be ever so fragile at that point, but she goes out.
[46:44] She goes out to meet him and she says, Lord, if you'd been here, he wouldn't have died. I don't know how to read that.
[46:56] Is she simply stating a fact? Because that could very well be true if Jesus had been there. Lazarus wouldn't have died. Is it still a statement of faith? I know you can do anything and therefore if you'd been here, he wouldn't have died.
[47:11] Is there an element of resentment about it? If only he'd been here, he wouldn't have died. Might there even be that accusation, why were you not here?
[47:22] Why were you not here? He wouldn't have died if you were here. It would seem that they've probably had maybe four, at least seven days, perhaps agonising about Lazarus' illness and then Lazarus' subsequent death.
[47:38] And where was Jesus? Where was Jesus? Just that message saying this is not going to lead to death. I thought he was our friend.
[47:50] I thought we were his friends. Isn't the very essence of friendship? even in modern terms. I'll be there for you when the rain starts to pour. I'll be there for you like I've been there before.
[48:05] I'll be there for you. You'll be there for me too. Isn't that the modern definition of friendship? I'll be there for you. And he wasn't there. He wasn't there.
[48:17] And they know that God's not a slot machine. You just put in your prayer penny and out pops the answer that you want. They know that's not prayer.
[48:28] They know that's not the way God works. We know that's not the way God works. And yet sometimes faith really struggles. Faith struggles when things don't go right. When things go wrong. When we're denied the very thing we're hoping and longing and agonising perhaps in prayer for and it doesn't happen.
[48:47] And it leaves us bereft and struggling in our faith. It's so easy to presume that what we want so badly is the best thing in God's eyes and God's plan.
[49:01] And if he doesn't give it to us I'm not sure I can bring myself to keep believing in it. It's so easy to go down these roads. So understandable in many ways to go down these roads.
[49:15] And here's Jesus standing in front of Martha and saying your brother will rise again. Even now Martha knows in verse 22 I know whatever you ask from God God will give you.
[49:31] She has a faith and it's still there. It's being tested to the limits but it's still there. She knows he could have healed from afar because he's healed other people from afar.
[49:43] He didn't even have to be there. He could have healed from a distance. You know these miracles where somebody asks for something and by the time they get home they find that the miracle has happened.
[49:55] Their sick servant or sick daughter or whoever has been cured. Jesus can heal from afar. Anything is possible for him. And at the same time her faith turns to doubt again.
[50:07] And she does believe in him. She believes that her brother will rise again. She believes there is to be a resurrection. But by verse 39 she's doubting again when they're talking about opening the tomb.
[50:20] Oh no, no, don't. That's a horrible thought. Don't do that. And her faith is plummeting again. She's going to rise to the most amazing faith by verse where are we?
[50:33] Verse 27. But then it's going to go plummeting. Again. And she's with her in faith. Doubt. Faith. Doubt.
[50:44] Faith. Doubt. And maybe that's you and me. And we wish our faith was steadier. And we wish our faith was stronger. And maybe we're even sitting at the Lord's table and your faith is up and down and you think I wish I was stronger.
[50:59] I wish I believed better. I wish I was a better Christian. If faith comes and goes and rises and falls because her brother is dead and although we know the end of the story she doesn't know it.
[51:13] Lord I believe help my unbelief. She's still a true devoted believer.
[51:26] We can all sympathize with that. And then Mary comes in and she's got the same saying. Lord if you'd only been here my brother wouldn't have died.
[51:38] And she comes out in verse 32. When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him she fell at his feet and said Lord if you'd been here my brother would not have died.
[51:55] This is the second time we found Mary at Jesus' feet. That's where she was yesterday when we considered Martha in the kitchen. Mary sitting at Jesus' feet.
[52:07] We only read about Mary three times in the scripture. All three times we find her at Jesus' feet. As the Lord will enable us we'll see that again tonight. She doesn't stay away either.
[52:20] Martha comes to him. Mary comes to him. them. They don't stay away. They love him. And they know that he loves them. And they come to him in their pain, in their agony, in their grief, in their bereavement, in their sorrow.
[52:34] They come to him. Where you and I need to go to him. In the same time whatever's going on in our life. I think it was J.C. Ryle that said those who sit at Jesus' feet in the day of peace like Mary yesterday find comfort there in the day of sorrow.
[52:55] Isn't there a sense in which as we cultivate our faith and the more we devote ourselves to Christ and the more we walk with him and the closer we walk with him the better able we are to cope with the disappointments, the difficulties, the hard times.
[53:12] The more we know him, the more we trust him, the more we know something of his peace and his help. Those who sit at Jesus' feet in the day of peace, find comfort there in the day of sorrow.
[53:26] We might not be in the house of mourning today, we may be, we may not be, but isn't that great counsel, as it were, pre-bereavement counsel?
[53:38] How can you get through the next sorrow you'll have to face? It'll come, but the more prepared we are, the better able we are to cope with it.
[53:48] Those who sit at Jesus' feet in the day of peace, will find comfort there in the day of sorrow. The more we know God, the more we know his word, the better equipped we are to cope with any forthcoming crisis, the stronger our faith.
[54:05] Don't let anybody say to you, theology is not practical. The better we know God, the better we're able to know him, to understand him, to trust him, even in the darkest moments.
[54:18] theology is practical. We'll take our theology into the next part of the service, but now we're going to sing to God's praise, we're going to sing in Psalm 118, we're going to sing verse, bear with me, verse 15, this is on page 156, page 156, triumphant shouts of joy resound in places where the righteous dwell, the Lord's right hand is lifted high, his mighty hand does all things well.
[54:54] Psalm 118, verse 15, page 156, we can sing down to the end of verse 24, to God's praise. verse 156, verse 156, verse 156, I am the blood of God, every sound, in places where the righteous dwell, in the Lord's I come, there is mighty hand, his mighty hand, does all things well.
[55:45] I do or die but Lial Lear thou lost I will proclaim The Lord severely Chased me But rescued me From death's domain Wide the gates of righteousness I will turn on Give thanks to God
[56:47] This is the gate Of God through which The righteous come Before the Lord You answered me I will give thanks Salvation comes From you alone The stone The elders had refused Has now become The cornerstone
[57:52] The Lord himself Has done all this It is a marvel In our sight This is the day The Lord has made In it let us Take great delight Turn with me now please To Paul's first letter To the Corinthians Chapter 11 1 Corinthians Chapter 11 We can read
[59:02] Verse 23 What we would call Our warrant For doing What we are doing today Paul reminds the believers There that I received from the Lord What I also delivered to you That the Lord Jesus On the night When he was betrayed Took bread And when he had given thanks He broke it And said This is my body Which is for you Do this In remembrance of me In the same way also He took the cup After supper Saying this cup Is the new covenant In my blood Do this As often as you drink it In remembrance of me For as often as you eat this bread And drink the cup You proclaim the Lord's death Until he comes Whoever therefore Eats the bread Or drinks the cup Of the Lord In an unworthy manner Will be guilty Concerning the body And blood Of the Lord Let a person Examine himself then And so Eat of the bread And drink of the cup For anyone Who eats and drinks Without discerning the body
[60:03] Eats and drinks Judgment On himself And so on And Paul had to Write these words To the church At Corinth Not because they were So familiar And so well versed In what the Lord's Supper Was all about But because Their celebration Of the Lord's Supper Had become a complete Travesty It was a scandal The way They were Having the Lord's Supper Or having What they called The Lord's Supper And actually The whole thing Was a complete sham They would Announce It would appear That That The Lord's Supper Was going to take place And then they would All turn up At different times And those that came first Might have a good scoff And eat half of what Was available And others would turn up Later And find there was Nothing left And that Some who came Early on They drank so much Of the wine That they even got drunk In verse 21 He says You can do these things
[61:04] At home Eat and drink At home Don't turn the Lord's Supper Into a Free for all First come First served You know Rammy Don't do that That is a complete Travesty Of anything That Lord's Supper Means Let me tell you He says What the Lord's Supper Is all about Which is why He reminds them Of the passage We've just read It's about the Lord And the night he died And what he said And what he did And what he instituted And how he said If you're my disciples This is what you're to do And you're to do it In remembrance of me And that's why I think we treat And I'd like to think We treat with real reverence The times we come To celebrate the Lord's Supper And it's a special time It's a special date On the church calendar For us Perhaps we don't do it All that often Perhaps that makes it More special When it does Come round But it certainly Makes us focus On what we're doing Why we're doing it
[62:07] And who's meant to do it The Lord's people Are meant to do it And they're meant to do it Remembering Jesus Christ It's not like Having a cup of tea And a biscuit Where you have A wee bit of something To eat And a wee bit of something To drink It's not that at all He says When you're taking it Remember It represents It represents The broken body Of Jesus On the cross The shed blood Of Jesus On the cross For his people That you might be saved That we remember Who has accomplished Our salvation What it's all about That's what's so important For us To remember And how he says To his people Do this In remembrance of me And it's how we've seen That's a commandment Not a suggestion Not a piece of good advice A commandment Do this Do this To remember me And you think Lord I would never forget you Maybe you would Peter said that All the disciples said that
[63:07] Even as he was Instituting it For the first time And by the time The night was through They'd run away I don't know if they'd Quite forgotten him But they'd certainly Forgotten their loyalty to him They'd forgotten They were supposed To be devoted to him They'd forgotten That they were supposed To be his closest friends And within a few hours Of him instituting The Lord's Supper And having them At their table Unworthy as they were Him knowing What they were about to do Knowing Peter Was about to deny him He said Be at my table And then do this In remembrance of me That's what we're doing Today And if we're God's people today We're doing it The way he's told us To do And we're doing it To remember him And if you're a believer Today Whether you're at the table Whether you're not At the table But you believe in Jesus And he should be at the table Because he's telling us Do this In remembrance of me And he's commanding That his people
[64:08] Do that And in a few moments time Once again That's what we'll be doing Let's remind ourselves Just first of all Let's go back to Mary and Martha Grieving The loss Of their brother In John chapter 11 If he'd been here My brother wouldn't have died That's what they both say But Jesus doesn't deal With What ifs And he doesn't deal with If onlys And what might have been We can go mad with these We can drive ourselves crazy Our faith can be Shattered Thinking about God why not Why did you not do this We can become bitter We can become resentful We can become angry With God Our attitude Needs to always be Thy will be done Lord I believe I trust I know
[65:08] You always do What is good And right And wise So Jesus tells Martha What is going to happen Your brother Will rise again Verse 23 He's dealing in facts He's dealing in truths Not dreams And wishes But perhaps There's something Deliberately ambiguous About it And that's reflected In Martha's answer Because she doesn't Quite know how to take that Do you mean You're about to raise him From the dead Or do you mean One day He's going to rise again When everybody else does And that That reflects Her answer to him And makes her Give this very Orthodox answer In verse 24 Martha said to him I know That he will rise again In the resurrection On the last day And she might be Being a bit cagey And she's not Really committing herself To Do I believe You're about to do A miracle here She's just I know My faith tells me The word tells me I know this is
[66:09] What's going to happen But that answer From her Prompts An even greater Declaration From Jesus Doesn't it Verse 25 I am the resurrection And the life Whoever believes in me Though he die Yet shall he live And everyone who lives And believes in me Shall never Die I am Resurrection You believe in a Resurrection Martha I Am the resurrection That's an amazing Statement From Jesus He's saying And she knows He's saying this I have power over death I can raise the dead She knows That's what he's saying I can raise The dead I'm claiming To be a life giver And only God Can give life I'm claiming to be God I'm the resurrection And the life It's stunning What Jesus says to her
[67:10] And what he's saying is Whoever believes in me Even though He has died Yet shall he live And everyone who lives And believes in me Shall never die I have power To give life And I have power to give it Eternally So that people will never die Again And it's important for us To think When He is saying this This is not the The risen Resurrected Jesus Saying this This is the Jesus Who's yet to be crucified And resurrected Saying I am the resurrection And the life He's not saying Let me get this right He's not saying I am the resurrection And the life Because he himself Has risen from the dead He will rise He will rise from the dead Because he is the resurrection And the life Get that I am the resurrection
[68:12] And the life People will rise Because I am the resurrection And the life And if I can raise All the dead At one time Sometime in the future Martha Can I not raise One man Now If I choose To do so That's amazing What he's saying Isn't it She's never heard Anything like this Physical death Is temporary But it won't affect Everlasting life I'm the lord Of everlasting life Whoever believes Will live forever And it doesn't matter What's become of the body In the meantime You could be Blown to pieces In 9-11 You could be Dead at the bottom Of the ocean You could be Killed in In the war You could be buried In an unknown grave When nobody knows For sure Where he even died I am the resurrection And the life
[69:13] And whoever believes In me Will live Even though He's totally dead And gone This is the Jesus We're commemorating today This is the one The one who was crucified And came alive again The one who said I was dead In Revelation chapter 1 But I'm alive And I'm alive forevermore Whoever believes in me And that's Isn't it It's an odd kind of phrase Isn't it Right at the end of Chapter Sorry Verse 26 Everyone who lives And believes in me Shall never die Do you believe this That's what he says To Martha Do you believe this What I'm telling you I have the power To raise the dead Because I am God I am Resurrection Do you believe this Do you believe me Martha That's his challenge You and I We read our gospels Do we believe
[70:13] Peter walked in the water Do we believe That Jesus Calmed the storm Do we believe That he was Dead three days And that he rose again And that he's alive Forevermore Martha gets it Martha gets it In verse 27 She says Yes Lord I believe You are the Christ The son of God Who's coming Into the world That's one of the Great statements This is Martha Who was getting Rebuked yesterday Remember Martha who was So busy in the kitchen That she's Telling Jesus To sort out Her family squabble Telling Jesus What to do Lord get her To help me This is Martha One of the Great statements Of New Testament Faith Yes Lord I believe I believe That you are The Christ The son of God Who's coming Into the world It's up there With Peter's one At Caesarea Philippi I believe That you are The Christ The son of The living God One of the
[71:14] Great statements Of faith Of faith In Jesus And who he is And she comes Out with it At this point It must be God given It was God given To Peter It must be God given To Martha Do you believe This Yes Lord Should yet Perhaps He could have said Do you believe I will be crucified And rise again Would she have said Yes Lord I believe you are The Christ The son of the Living God She has great faith She has great faith She could have been Persecuted For saying that She could have been Excommunicated From the synagogue She could have been Stoned For saying What she has just said But she says it anyway And she is willing To put her neck On the line Because she believes Who Jesus is And she is willing As it were To make public Profession Of what she believes About who Jesus is Jesus is asking
[72:14] Martha Do you believe The things I am telling you And she says Yes Lord I do I believe That you are The Christ The son of God Who is coming Into the world But don't you And I come Into that category Too Is Jesus Not asking us Asking each One of us Today Do you believe This Do you believe Who I am Do you believe I am the Resurrection In the life Do you believe I have the power Of life and death In my hands Do you believe I have the power Of God In my hands Do you believe That I am God The son Do you believe That As a question For every one of us Whoever we are today Do you believe This Do you believe This And if you do If you If you can say What Martha said In verse 27 Lord I do believe That you are The Christ The son of God Who is coming Into the world
[73:14] If you believe That you should Be at the table Your place is At the table I say that To everybody here Your place is At the table And you may have Come along today With no intention Of being at the table And I'll sit at the back And I'll just Spectate And I'll watch What goes on But maybe You've been Swithering Maybe you've been Swithering like Martha If that's the case It's not too late Come Come To the table Go and meet the session Briefly We'll have a song We'll sing a psalm Go and meet With the session Come It's not too late You ought to be there If your testimony Is the same as Martha I believe You are the Christ The son of God Who is coming Into the world Jesus leaves the question Hanging for us Do you believe Believe in Jesus Christ The son of God Jesus Christ Who was crucified Jesus Christ Who rose again Jesus Christ
[74:15] Who ascended into heaven Jesus Christ Who is coming again Jesus Christ Who is still The God of his people Remember Do this In remembrance Of me Let's pray Our gracious God We know that At the Last supper Jesus Took that bread And took that wine And he prayed And he blessed it And he broke it And he said Do this In remembrance of me And we seek to do that In a moment We seek to Do that We seek to know Why we're doing it We seek to do it Because you are the Christ The son of the living God The one who is coming Into the world The one who has come Into the world The one who will return To the world Jesus Christ Him crucified Him resurrected Our God and saviour Lord enable us to do this To do it to your glory
[75:15] In remembrance of you In your name we ask it Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Näy I want something to happen.
[76:18] I want something to happen.
[76:48] Your body is broken. Your blood is spilt. We do this in remembrance of you. With our grateful, eternal thanks.
[76:59] In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
[77:19] Amen. Thank you.
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[89:24] He is the resurrection.
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