I Believe

February 2, 2025 Speaker: Hendrik Storm Series: The Gospel of John -2024

Topic: Sermon Passage: John 11:1– 1:27

John 11:1-27

Introduction
1. Trust God’s timing
2. Test of Faith
3. Testimony of Faith


Trust in God’s timing
Texas trip and baptism – death of husband and son.
If the Christian faith has nothing to say about death, then it has nothing to say. When we're young, we don't think or talk very much about death, unless that is, it should intrude into our life. And even when we're older, very often, it's relegated to the back of our consciousness. For much of the time we try to disguise it, to keep it away, to confine it within the clean clinical walls of the hospice or the hospital. The fact remains that it is an ugly, unwelcome intruder into our world. It can fill us with fear. Shakespeare calls it the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns.
And for those who can't deal with the issue of death, there's only joking about it, as Woody Allen summed it up. It's not that I'm afraid of death. It's just that I don't want to be there when it happens.
Today I would like us to highlight three things for you from this passage 1) Trust God’s timing, 2) a Test of Faith and 3) a Testimony of Faith.
John has put this account of Lazarus in his book, when the other writers have left it out, and have allocated a big amount of space to this account. John puts it in here because he sees its significance for us. As a matter of fact, we read in the very next chapter, chapter 12 v 17-18, that the crowds of people cheering Jesus on at the triumphant entry into Jerusalem did so because they heard of Jesus raising Lazarus. So this was a big deal.
Bethany, where Lazarus lived and where his sisters also lived was only a very few miles from Jerusalem. It was in Jerusalem that Jesus’ life will end, actually, within a week or so of this momentous event, and it was here in Bethany that we will see the climax of those signs, which John has talked to us about in this gospel. This is the final sign that Jesus will perform, at least in John's selection of the miracles that Jesus performs, all of these signs, in all of them from the very first where he turns the water into wine, He has revealed god's glory. And here we have that final revelation at his hands, and this final revelation teaches us this. That in the hands of Jesus, death itself will die. In the hands of Jesus, death itself will die. This is where the story of John, chapter Eleven is going. This is where the story of every believer reading this account is going to end. Death itself will die at the hands of him, who holds the keys of Death and Hades.
And our problem is, and it's the issue being addressed in this chapter, is that the day of resurrection hasn't come yet. Today we still suffer separation and loss. Today, death still intrudes into our world. And what makes it harder is that in this chapter, the reality of death and illness and dying is tied very closely to the love of Jesus. Did you notice that there is a whole lot of loving going on – verse 5 we read that - Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. And this is not just what John writes subsequently, but Lazaurs, Mary and Martha knew Jesus loved them. verse 3, So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”
These women are believers. They believe in Jesus, they have a great trust in him, therefore, it was very natural for them to send for him, not for 1 min. did they think that he wouldn't come to them. They knew him too well. He knew them too well. They knew how fond of them he was.
Now I wonder if you can identify for a moment with the relationship between these people and the Lord Jesus? Can you? This is your birthright as a believer. Your birthright as a believer is this, that you have access to Jesus. The world doesn't have. You have instant access to Jesus. You don't have to send someone many miles to find him somewhere and ask him to come. You have instant access to Jesus right where you are sitting. At this moment in your mind, you can call on him. You can appeal to him. You can call on his name. He is accessible to you. Wherever you are, whoever you are at, whatever time and in whatever circumstances you find yourself to be in.
Not only do you have access to him, but he has taught you that you have a claim on him. You have a claim to his attention. He has promised that he will hear you. He has promised that he will instantly hear you, and that instantly he will take what you have to bring to him and take it seriously. You have a right, a claim to his time, his attention and his power. Because once we've been redeemed by Jesus, we belong to him. We belong to him. I am his and he is mine. That’s the reality of the position we as believers have.
And you can imagine, therefore, the added distress when Jesus apparently does not act. They thought that perhaps if he left immediately, he could be back in time to save his friend's life. Perhaps he could do it even at a distance. Instead put yourself in their shoes, as their brother worsens. There's no sign of Jesus. Lazarus dies and he is dead for four days. No sign of Jesus. Can you imagine? How that exacerbates the sense of anguish that they're feeling at the loss of their brother after four days.
Now to make it worse for us reading the story is this fact that Jesus obviously chose not to do anything. He chose not to return, to heal, either from a distance or in -person. John tells us in verse 5 that Jesus loves Martha and her sister, and Lazarus. And here's what he puts in the context of that loving relationship. V6 So..when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. That seems to contradict the love of Jesus for these people right.
John tells us clearly that Jesus loves his people by name, as individuals. They're on his heart. They're on his mind. And I think John puts that in there so that, you and I might know, that untimely deaths, periods of prolonged suffering, uncertain futures about employment…that circumstances that seem to contradict the assurance of God's love are not in themselves tests of the quality, or the reality of the love of God, for you. The thing that strikes us is the thought that Jesus is completely informed about your troubles. And yet act as if he were indifferent to them. We learn that whatever circumstances you and I might find ourselves in may appear to contradict the love of Jesus.
Can you relate? We often pray for things, and seem to get no answer. And you may be struggling this morning with the question, does he really love me? And I think one of the lessons here is that your circumstances are not the measure of Jesus’ love for you. Look at verse 5 again. I want you to notice in verse five that there is a direct link drawn between his love and his mysterious ways with us. Did you see that? Look at this word that unlocks the powerful impact of this sentence…and that word is translated so.
This delay would mean the certainty of lazarus's death. And we know that he knew that because in verse 14, he tells his disciples. He told them plainly, lazarus has died. What kind of love is this that does not jump every time we call. What kind of love is this that does not indulge us? That does not jump when we cry to him?
When we find his ways difficult, we need to listen to His Word. Look at verse four. When Jesus heard the news about Lazarus being ill, He says, for it is to the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. Or verse 15 for your sake, I'm glad that I wasn't there so that you may believe. And in verse 42 that we read next week. But I said this on account of the people standing round that they may believe that you sent me. Jesus is saying by his word that there is an intention behind his delays.
It's good to remember that our Lord's purpose for us while we're here on planet Earth, is not primarily to make us happy or healthy but to make us holy. There's something shocking in the words of verse 15, lazarus has died. And for your sake, I am glad that I was not there. Is that a surprise to you? I think Jesus is saying, don't you understand that I'm not taken by surprise? Don't you think for 1 min that I don't know exactly what's going on in this circumstance that you find yourself in. I know he was ill. I know he's dead. Things don't just take me by surprise.
Maybe we need to take those words to heart. He knows about those bills you're struggling to pay, that prognosis that you've just received. The uncertainty of your future. Your fears. Your doubts? He knows. You see he is doing something far greater in us. Do you notice that he wants his disciples to believe? To believe in him. He wants us to trust him. That's what it is to be a Christian. To walk by faith, not by sight.
Jesus’ ways are shaped by His wisdom. In verse eleven, Jesus is redefining death for the believer. He redefines death. Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep. But I am going to go and awaken him. That's what Jesus has come to do. Sleep is something you wake up from. He is teaching us what death means for the believer. Death is not the end. Your circumstance that you are in – whatever it may be - Jesus knows that I not the end. And he knows what he's about. He knows what he's doing. And the best is yet to be.
So when you wonder at his ways. When he does seem to delay in answering our prayers for healing, or for the meeting of a need, or the deliverance from a habit. Or for the salvation of a loved one. I don't know why he delays. I can't give a definitive answer, but I can tell you these delays are inevitable. We cannot see the big picture. Our best desires and prayers are shot through with selfishness and sin. But I can assure you of this, God's delays are not final. This story is in the Bible to teach us that we may bury our dead, as Martha and Mary did. But that is not the end of the story. And what Jesus wants us to learn is to trust him, to rest on him, to lean on him, to wait upon him. And to see the moments and days of our lives not at the mercy of chance, but that they are in the hands of this loving, wise Saviour. Who knows what to do, when and how to act. There is a moment where God knows and that Jesus knows. You see in verse 15. He doesn't go back when he gets the message, but later Jesus is the One who initiates the next steps at the right time. Trust God’s Timing.

Let’s look at the test of faith.

Test of faith
I want you to notice this: Martha approaches Jesus. V 20-21 Martha has no doubt in her mind about Jesus’ ability and His ability to heal her brother. She is a believer. She is categorical. She is straightforward. She is no doubt. But there is, in the way that she frames her question, a tinge of sadness. A question lurking beneath the surface of her confidence. And it's captured in the very first word. If. If you had been here, my brother would not be dead.
Is she wondering, why didn't you come? We sent people to you to tell you. We don't know why you didn't come. We don't understand. Actually, both Mary and Martha, as we will read next week, say the very same thing. Lord, if you had been here, my brother, would not have died.
I see great faith in that statement, but I also see faith that is being tried. It's going through a period of pressure. There's pressure on faith. She's making a statement of faith, and yet there must be questions lurking in her mind. There is an element of doubt, perhaps. Why didn't you come? And it teaches us something about the nature of faith. Faith is not the absence of doubt. Faith is not the absence of questions. True faith in Bible terms, can deal with questions. And can live with doubts.
And that is the nature of true faith, the ability to doubt, and yet believe. I think we hear that in the question or the statement. The confession of Martha - Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
And you hear her faith again, I think, when she goes on to say – v22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. I think that she's saying to Jesus, even though Lazarus has died, I'm confident that you are so at one with God that this had to be of God. It must have been God's will that he died. I'm sure she felt very disappointed. But you notice that those feelings, which were real feelings, are not obliterating her faith in the Lord.
Now, here’s a principle that we mustn't pass over too quickly. Believers often find themselves struggling with disappointment, riddled with questions, and gripped by doubts. And they often ask themselves, are other people the same? Have they lost their faith at such moments? And of course it is possible to attach so much focus on your doubts that your faith falters. If you're looking at your doubts, like Peter did when he was walking in the water, you remember? And it was all right while he was looking at Jesus and occupied with Jesus. But when he looked down and he saw the waves, and he saw his feet on top of the waves, his faith faltered. And he began to sink. If your focus is on your doubts and your questions, then your faith will falter. Let me say this. Jesus said that faith, the size of a mustard seed is still faith. It is still faith, and faith is a gift of God. The only really significant thing is on whom, and in whom, is your faith placed? Even the smallest, shakiest faith that is built on Jesus will save you from time and eternity.
Jesus now speaks to her. V23 Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again.” Now, what does he mean? I think Jesus is talking about what he will do for every believer. Initially giving to every believer spiritual resurrection, and then ultimately giving to every believer physical resurrection. On the last day. Bu what Jesus is doing, is He is continuing the delay in giving any kind of clear answer to the question that are going on in her mind. He's continuing the delay to resolving the doubts and dispersing the disappointment that she's experiencing. It is as if Jesus is elongating the trial by saying something that she obviously believes.
As we see in Martha’s response in v24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” This is not a completely ‘normal’ response, even in Jesus’ time. Sadducees, the liberals, did not believe it and the Pharisees did.
Look at verse 25 and 26. 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?” And this is an astonishing claim. He is picking up on Martha's confession of her belief in an abstract resurrection on the last day. And he's redirecting her belief, personalizing it and directing it on to himself, the one who could make it happen.
In other words, she takes her eyes away from Lazarus. She's preoccupied with her brother in this tomb down the road, and Jesus is taking her eyes away from Lazarus, and turns her attention to himself. Jesus uses this great I AM formula, taken right out of Isaiah, right out of Exodus, where God says, I am. I am. And Jesus applies it to himself. I, I am the resurrection, or literally, I am resurrection. And life. Just as he had claimed to be the only food and drink that really matters, the only light and life that we need, the only shepherd and guide that we must know and follow. So now he says, he is the resurrection and life.
I want to tell you, this is what we all need. When you're sick, you may need a doctor, not a medical textbook, when you have legal business you need a lawyer, not a book on jurisprudence. When you're confronted with troubles, upset or even death, you want a Saviour, not a vaguely held platitude of words. Jesus is turning her attention on to himself. He is making claims for himself, and he's about to back it up by this mighty action of raising Lazarus. From the dead.
He's turning her attention on to himself. When Jesus says, I am resurrection. He is saying this - I have risen power in me. Remember what its says in Revelation, chapter one, end of verse 17 - “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one.” Jesus is saying that resurrection is what he is. He is the power of resurrection life itself. He is in himself, the demonstration of the power of God that raises dead things to life. He has in his hands the power to break death. He has in his heart, the intention that death will die at his hands. And the hope of resurrection finds its fulfillment in him – and ONLY in Him. I am resurrection, he says. And I am life that is a different quality of life, life that never ceases. Life that is eternal. So no suffering for a believer, no hardships or trial, ends in a full stop, a period. But it ALL will end in resurrection to eternal life.

In first John Chapter five, v 11-13 - . 11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
I am resurrection. And life. You have me. You have resurrection right away. Spiritual resurrection, and to come physical resurrection. To have me is to have resurrection. And it is to have life, life, spiritual life, immediately, eternal life. That begins now and is not interrupted by death. Put your hope in Jesus – your faith will be tested, but remain focused on Christ.
And lastly, and briefly, let’s look at Martha’s testimony of faith.


Testimony of faith
End of V 26 Do you believe this? Do you believe this? He's asking her a question. Before he ever does anything, before he goes near that tomb. Before she knows he's going to go near that tomb and raise her brother from the dead. He's asking her this question. This is why he'd come back to Bethany after such a long delay. It was to help them and to help us realize what it is that unites us to him, and what it is that he means to do for us. Do you believe this? And she said to him in v 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” Martha, has given us one of the clearest and most remarkable statements of faith in the entire Bible.
And when Jesus asks her if she believes you notice, there's no hesitation. It's an uninhibited reply. Yes. Yes you are. And I believe that you are the Christ, the Messiah, the Promised One, the son of God, who is coming into the world. And I want you to notice she's doing that before Jesus acts. Before there's any indication he's going to act. Before He's made any promises or used any body language that signifies what he's going to do. While he's still, in a sense, prolonging the agony. Refusing to give an explanation for his delay or explain what he's about to do, while Martha is still in this tension point. Do you see?
Which is why I believe we can look this morning at Martha’s testimony, see where she is at this moment and see, I know what that's like. That's where I am. I'm in that place where the questions aren't being answered, where the delays of love are not being explained. Whether disappointments are still fresh and sharp. Well, I'm not sure what's going on. That's where I am, where Martha is right at this moment. And yet, do you see her? Do you hear her? She confesses publicly that she believes he was who he said he was. And here is the nub of this for Martha, not even the death of her dearly loved brother, which Jesus could have prevented, could distract her from her faith in him.
And when love delays, and not of teasing us or hurting us or wanting to injure us. God has his time and God has his purpose. Whatever it may mean, however, it will pan out, however, the outcome is brought about. She believes. Because she has met THE resurrection. No, she hasn't seen it yet. She has met the resurrection, and she has met the life. And she sees that in him, and she believes in him. And she has eternal life.
So here's my question for you. Do you believe?

We have seen in our the passage this morning, that we are urged to trust in God’s timing, endure tests of faith, and testify through faith. Jesus delays his response to the death of Lazarus, because His love and wisdom transcend our human understanding. He is control, he is not surprised, and he genuinely loves you and has your best interest in mind. We are challenged by Martha’s testimony, that despite her grief and doubts, that affirms her faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the resurrection. Faith can coexist with questions and struggles. But keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, He is the resurrection and life. Jesus calls us, as he did Martha, to place our trust in Him, regardless of life's uncertainties or delays. Do you believe?

 

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