Amen. Now friends, if you have a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to John, chapter 11. John, chapter 11, as this afternoon we read a portion of the story of Jesus and his friends. Here now, the word of God, first beginning at John, chapter 11, verse 1.
Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who was anointed who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and white his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore, the sisters sent to him saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was. Then after this, he said to the disciples, let us go to Judea. And now at verse 11, these things he said, and after that he said to them, our friend Lazarus sleeps.
But I go that I may awaken him. Then his disciples said, Lord, if he sleeps, he will get well. However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that he was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
And I am glad for your sakes. I was not there that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go to him. And now in verse 17, so when Jesus came, he found that he had already been in the tomb for days.
And now verse 20, then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him that Mary was sitting in the house. Now 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 of 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 at the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?
She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who is to come into the world. And now at verse 32, then when Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Everyone Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her weeping, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And he said, where have you laid him?
And they said to him, Lord, come and see Jesus wept. Then the Jew said, see how he loved him. And some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying? Then Jesus again, groaning in himself came to the tomb.
It was a cave and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him who was dead said to him, Lord, by this time there is a stench for he has been dead four days. Jesus said to her, did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God, then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.
And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me and I know that you always hear me. But because of the people who are standing by, I said this, that they may believe that you sent me. Now, when he had said these things, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he who had died came and came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes.
And his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, loose him and let him go. Amen. This is God's eternal and everlasting word.
Let's look to him in prayer. We do pray that you would comfort us by it, Father, and grant us eyes to see and ears to hear the hope that we have in you because of Jesus. Amen. This story shows us Jesus' love and Jesus' grief and Jesus' promises.
First we see his love. Jesus had become friends over time with Lazarus and Martha and Mary. He had slept in their home. He had shared meals at their table.
Perhaps as he was coming and going from them, he very naturally, like we do, greeted them, perhaps with hugs or holy kisses. They were good friends. So when Lazarus became seriously ill, the sisters sent word to Jesus seeking his help just as many here today did for Nancy when you heard news of her cancer. These sisters appealed to Jesus, the one whom you love is ill.
They just knew that he would be concerned for Lazarus. But they waited and they waited and Jesus did not come and Lazarus died. Were they wrong about Jesus? No, he did love Lazarus.
He could help Lazarus and we know the end of the story. He did help. But it does make us wonder, did Jesus also love Martha and Mary, the concerned and then grieving sisters. I mean, he didn't come quickly when they summoned him.
He didn't help them as they thought he should. Martha said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And Mary said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Lord, where are you?
Why don't you come? Don't you love us too? Very naturally, they would have asked that question and perhaps we've asked that for ourselves, perhaps in our grief. We'll ask that in days ahead and John in telling this story, anticipating just that question, I think, at verse 5 interjects, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
What we see is that the love of Jesus for us does not exempt us from sickness or death or sorrow. He loves us, but he has not promised us we will not suffer in this life, in this life he else where it says, you will have trouble. Why can't you have an answer? Why in the prime of her life?
I can't tell you the details of the mind of the Lord on that. But we do know why it isn't. It isn't because God doesn't love Nancy and it isn't because God doesn't love us. Jesus said, I do love you, yet I do not do what you want me to do.
I do, he says, what the Father has sent me to do. Doing your will, you can almost hear him saying to Martha and Mary, would have meant something less incredible. Your will would have brought healing, but the Father's will brought resurrection and restoration. Was it love only that Jesus should heal him or was it also love that he allowed him to die and healed him after his death?
This too is love. For us, our love would have kept Nancy among us. Our love would have wanted her here if we could have made her pain free and healthy. God's will for Nancy is better.
She is done with suffering and in the end it is God's mercy that he took her home and from us. But for us, our grief goes on. It lingers on. And our sorrows continue.
Where can we go for assurance for ourselves that he does love us, that behind the frowning providence he hides a smiling face. How can we be confident in the love of Jesus? How can I speak so certainly about this? Here's how.
You'll have to remember dear friends that Jesus didn't show up in Jerusalem 2000 years ago just to perform miracles for his friends. But Jesus showed up in Jerusalem 2000 years ago to do something better, to be crucified for his enemies. God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He doesn't just love you in your suffering.
He loves you in your sins. This is why God sent his son. And he came for us to bring us back into fellowship with God for all who believe in him so that we might know the promise that neither death nor life can ever separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So we see the love of Jesus but we also see the grief Jesus shares with us.
Seeing Mary weeping and seeing the tomb where his friend is like what did he do? He wept. Because he loved Lazarus because Lazarus had died and he went because death isn't natural and it's not how things are supposed to be in the good world that God first made. Jesus hates death.
It is the last enemy we heard read that Jesus came to destroy and he grieves the disruption and the sorrow that we experience in parting. And he weeps with those who weep even as he rejoices with those who rejoice. That biblical command friends is not simply for us to obey but it is a call for us to be like Jesus because that's what he does. His tears are real.
We can trust a God like that. Nancy longed to be healthy. That was a right desire. Nancy didn't want to suffer nor to leave us and that was right.
There were days of frustration and there were days of fear understandably. It's okay if this is hard for you if you're sadness even lingers. We love Nancy. We wanted what's best for her but it is not what this fallen world can offer.
Perfect health is what only Jesus can offer because of his compassion for us. Our weeping Savior did something about it. What? That's the final thing.
You hear it in his promise. First he asserts it to Martha 25 and 26. I am the resurrection and the life he says. Whoever believes in me though he died yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
Do you believe this? He says to her everlasting life. Life beyond the grave. The kind of life that even the grave can't kill.
That's what he promises. At the right hand of God fullness of joy everlasting. But how can Jesus be so bold because he is the resurrection and the life. He is the spring from which we drink to receive those gifts and he proves this promise.
He doesn't just assert it. He proves it with the display of his power. There at the tomb he commands the stone to be rolled away. Don't, Lord, they say to him he's gone and all that remains is his body.
And Jesus knows that he is not gone. That the soul lives on and Jesus can put back together the soul and the body. And so he cried out with a loud voice Lazarus. Come out and Lazarus lives.
And he was restored and it was a miracle. And Jesus has the power to match the words of his promises. For us, the issue of what exactly to do with we are sick beyond appealing for the help of the Lord himself. That's a difficult question.
Often there's more than one way to approach that. Whatever way we go often entails risks. There are few guarantees in life and Nancy had considered that and knew that. I think even of Lazarus for a moment.
His soul has gone to be with the Lord in heaven among the angels talking with Abraham and Moses and Esther and Ruth enjoying glory. And suddenly he's back in the body in a world not yet made perfect. Yes, his family gets him back. I'm sure it was an incredible reunion.
They throw parties in the next chapters to celebrate. But for how long and in what kind of existence? Not the best kind. Lazarus as incredible as it must seem would die again.
We can forgive him if he wants or twice thought. I'd really rather be in the perfect place I once had been. We can imagine his sisters had they perhaps still been living when he died again. Weeping over the loss of their dear brother again.
Yet we might also assume mixed with laughter in the tears for such was the certainty of Lazarus safety that they must have had the peace which passes all understanding. But where do we get that peace friends? Not by Lazarus returning from the grave. Not by any.
Not by Nancy except by one. There is one. Our Lord Jesus though he was crucified and he was buried yet the stone of his tomb was rolled away and he stepped out. Not not covered in grave clothes to die again.
But he stepped out radiant and alive forever and he defeated death. He trampled on it and he took the sting out of it like the like draining the sting of death out of the the bee that has venom that destroys and now death for believers in Jesus holds no power to destroy Jesus's risen. He came out of the tomb not like Lazarus wearing grave clothes bound to him but he came out with every believer in him bound to him and his victory is our victory and Nancy's victory. This is the hope that we have dear friends and I know that many of us watch Nancy's physical health deteriorate and that has been extremely difficult to see.
It was hard on her. It was hard on us and we couldn't help but feel helpless in many ways to help her. But one day we will see her in a resurrected glorified body whole and happy and healthy for Jesus helps her in ways we can't. And in those last days with us Nancy had times when she was radiant in the expectation of that glory eager to be with Jesus eager for the day beyond that for the resurrection herself when she would be made strong and reunited to her body a soul made perfect in righteousness and reunited to her loved ones who have gone to be with the Lord.
So outwardly Paul says we are wasting away and yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day Nancy knew that experience. Paul isn't mocking by calling our troubles light and momentary difficulties he isn't delusional. They are only light and momentary when we fix our eyes not on what he's seen but on what is unseen. Think dear friends of Nancy 50,000 years from now by the way we reckon time a 50 year lifetime of fleeting joys painful troubles will seem but an echo of a whisper that can't be heard.
In fact just one instant in the presence of Jesus already wrapped in his love was already enough to heal all her hurts. This is a promise he makes to all who believe in him a promise he extends to all who don't believe but who will come to him and say Lord have mercy on me a sinner and save me and give me this everlasting life. We we grieve today for Nancy and it is right for us to grieve but Nancy isn't grieving to Jesus make sure of that because of his love because of his grief because he is the power to fulfill all his promises even the resurrection. Let's pray.
Our Father in Heaven we bow before you and say that we need you and we need this hope we need you good shepherd of your sheep to draw near and to comfort our hearts and to help us to cast all our anxieties on you because you care for us and I pray that you would build us up in the assurance of what you have promised. O risen Savior for we ask it in your name. Amen.