SPEAKER_00 0:02

If you heard of a close friend who was suddenly in critical condition at the hospital, wouldn't you immediately set aside everything and go to them? Yet in our passage today, Jesus chooses not to respond quickly. Instead, he delays, and when he finally reaches, the close friend is dead.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

You know, most popular movies have happy endings, right? And they have happy endings because we who watch these movies uh demand happy endings. Um in 2007, there's this show uh that that was released called I Am Legend. I'm not sure if if if any have watched this this movie. Um if you have not watched it, just skip the movie, read the book. It is so much better, and I think the movie kind of uh filled the book. But uh if you have watched the movie, you will know that there are actually two endings to the show. Right? The original ending was actually very bleak. The main character character at the end of the day looked less heroic. Um the the line between good and evil was blurred, and uh it was just not a happy ending, right? But it was a very interesting storyline. When this first version was shown to a test audience, before they release movies, they would show to a bunch of people, then they would decide whether they would uh film the show in in its uh entirety, right? Um the test audience hated it. Right? It was not the ending they wanted. They wanted a clean-cut hero that they can support. They wanted the movie to end on an optimistic note. So the directors had no choice but to shoot another ending. One where the hero sacrifices his life, secures the future for humanity, and one where there is hope, where there is courage, and ultimately victory at the end of it all.

unknown 2:04

Right?

SPEAKER_01 2:05

It is in our human psyche to want some kind of happy or positive ending. We innately feel that there is that there will only be resolution when you have these happy endings with a bright future ahead. And that is because that's what we want for our story. Right? What we demand, what we expect from movies, mirrors what we want for our own lives. To have highs, and of course we understand there will be some lows, challenges, but we hope hopefully those challenges are not too difficult. And really, we'll be happy to end off on a peaceful note with our lives. And so when life-altering tragedies strike, we are at a loss because it doesn't follow our script for our lives, and it's all the harder to accept when we say we have an all-powerful and all-loving God. With an all-powerful and all-loving God, how can tragedies happen? Today we are looking at the story of a family who were very close to Jesus and who were loved by him, right? A story that most definitely did not follow the script of everyone involved, especially not when their closest friend is literally Jesus Himself. Um, but before we go into our passage for this morning, I want to just quickly summarize what happened at the beginning. Right? Uh at the beginning in John 11, verse verse 1 over, we read that Lazarus was sick. Uh, bad enough that the sisters sent for Jesus to come. We are repeatedly told that Jesus loved these three siblings. But this is where the story gets you scratching your head because in verses 5 and 6, it tells us that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Verse 6. So, because he loved them, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. What is going on? Shouldn't he have done the opposite of waiting? Shouldn't he have just immediately packed up and go to Bethany, go to Lazarus and Martha and Mary? Shouldn't he have just rushed? And yet, as weird as it sounds, for everyone's sake, he stayed and he waited. And after two days he decided to go see Lazarus. So we come to our passage in verse 17. We read that now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

unknown 4:54

Right?

SPEAKER_01 4:54

So Lazarus has been dead for four days. They bury on the very same day the person dies. Right? So Lazarus has been dead for four days already. If you do a single quick math, uh, you know, uh even if Jesus had immediately left, he would still have been dead for at least two days when Jesus arrived. So why did Jesus wait? Uh there was this belief, uh, some might call it superstition. There was this belief amongst the the Jewish people that when a person dies, uh his soul remains in the vicinity of the body uh for about three days. Right? There's this hope or this this um belief that you know sometimes the soul may re-enter the body and somehow the the the body may be uh resuscitated. Um but by the fourth day, right, uh decomposition would have sat in, you have been impossible, the soul would leave the body, and uh that's when you know that the person is dead, dead, really, really dead. So Jesus waits for Lazarus to be really dead, and that's why he he decided to delay. Now when Jesus arrives, we read that the two sisters, Martha and Mary, met Jesus separately at different times. And what is striking is that in their initial response to Jesus, they actually say the same thing.

unknown 6:17

Right?

SPEAKER_01 6:17

In verses uh verse 21 and then verse 32, he said they say this, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Lord, if you had been here. I can imagine that that was what they were talking about with each other as they grieved over the death of their brother. If only we had sent for Jesus earlier, if only he put another miracle, if only he got here instantly, if only he had been here. But why wasn't he here? Why didn't he show up? Perhaps there was a hint of accusation or hint of disappointment towards Jesus. And I can't be the only one here who have had similar thoughts towards God, right? That sometimes we can't help but accuse him or or or or are disappointed uh at God. When a crisis appears out of nowhere and it knocks us off the course of our life story, in our suffering, in our pain, we ask God, why? Oh God, where are you? I thought you loved me. Why did this terrible thing happen to me? If you had been here, this wouldn't have happened. There's a pastor who put it this way we we have a tendency to interpret the love of God through our circumstances rather than interpret our circumstances through the love of God. Right? So let me say it one more time. We have the tendency to interpret the love of God through our circumstances and not interpret the circumstances through our God, which kind of makes uh uh like immediate sense, right? When something happens to us, that's all we think about. Right? And when that's all we think about, we start to question the love of God for us. But Jesus calls us instead to see and to interpret all that we go through through the lens of his love for us. So what would that look like? Jesus addresses Martha's and Mary's sufferings in two very different ways, actually. Um and perhaps Jesus knew exactly what each of them needed to hear. Perhaps he wanted to reveal something about himself, both his divinity and his humanity to his beloved friends. And so we come to his uh exchange, his interaction with Martha from verse 21. Uh we read that uh Lord, Martha says this, 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. So Jesus said, Your brother will rise again. Martha August didn't quite understand what Jesus was saying, right? She so she says something that all Jews uh roughly believed, right, that there's a resurrection in the future. 24, verse 24, Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. And the main point here is that Martha didn't think that Lazarus was gonna rise up on that very day. Right? She thought that Jesus meant, yeah, sometime in the future, you know, he Lazarus will rise again and then he will have eternal life. So uh Jesus kind of probes her a little bit further, right? In verse 25, 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? This exchange is so interesting because here we see Jesus gently probing Martha deeper and deeper into her faith. There's a level of faith where she understands that there is resurrection on the last day. Right? So, okay, Lazarus will rise again, sure, like all of us will in the future. But Jesus leads her into a deeper level of faith. And in fact, this is why he waited until Lazarus was really dead. He wants Martha to understand something much more profound than resurrection for all believers. Because this story is in fact not ultimately about Lazarus rising from the dead. Right? This story spans 44 verses, and the the actual part where we talk about Lazarus is like the last two verses, it's verses 42, 43, and 44. Right? This story is not ultimately about raising Lazarus per se. Sure, it is a powerful miracle. It is the most dramatic miracle thus far that Jesus had performed. But that was not the point because we have gone through this, right? The miracles themselves were not the point. Right? Jesus is the point. So Jesus says the most famous and most significant I am saying here. I am the resurrection and the life. It is not just someone who offers resurrection and life, he is the resurrection and the life. He is not someone who has divine powers, he is divine himself. Jesus is God. And Martha, to her credit, understood that truth as far as she could have. Right? In verse 27, he said, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. She believed as far as she could have. Right. And she understood partially what that all mean, what that all mean. But soon she will understand more fully by experiencing what Jesus was really saying when Jesus canceled death and made Lazarus alive again. She would experience and see it for herself that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. And in him, there's that resurrection power. In Jesus, we have life abundantly and eternally. And here's so here's the first takeaway, the first application point for all of us this morning. Every one of us who have put our faith in Jesus has the ending of our story secured. Our story and its ending has been written by the author of life. So death does not have the final word to our story. We can be sure that in Jesus, the end of our story exceeds all of our expectations. It wouldn't just be optimistic, it wouldn't just be positive or happy, it will be glorious as we become a new creation made perfect by the resurrection power of God in Christ. And it is in light of what God has secured for us in the life to come that we can face the difficult chapters of our life here with hope and courage. The apostle Paul grasped this truth and wrote the words in Romans 8.18. For I consider the sufferings of this present time not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. So, church, we can be assured that whatever we are going through now, whatever trying and painful things we are facing, all this will one day pass, just as dusk gives way to dawn. And on the flip side, and I think this is something you know some of us may need to hear today, on the flip side, just because our life is going splendidly does not mean that it will end in glory. Especially if our lives are not lived in Jesus. When Jesus says to believe in him, right, he is not asking us to just believe with our minds that Jesus is Lord, believe just with our minds that you know there is some nice, uh, hopeful future for us. Right, the words used in the Greek suggest that there is a movement into a direction or purpose. So when Jesus says believe in me, he calls us to move towards Him, to move into Jesus' life, to move into His purpose, His end, to move in such a way that we will submit to His will and His life. We can live good lives without believing in Jesus, but without Him, who is the resurrection and the life, without Him who is the source of life and life itself, all that we have achieved are vanity of vanities. A chasing after the wind. So let's hear Jesus' words again from 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. To state the antithesis, to state the opposite of that, whoever does not believe in Jesus, he shall not live. And so for those who have lived our life apart from Jesus, separate from the source of life, Jesus' question to Martha is so important for us to hear this morning. Do you believe this? Do you believe in Jesus, the resurrection and the life? Do you believe in him to the point that you would surrender yourself to him so that his life runs through you? Because none of us can escape the fact that Jesus is ultimately the one who writes the ending to our lives. And so Jesus caused us to believe in him, to entrust our lives to him, so that we may experience his resurrection and life presently and then the life to come. And so that was that is the first thing that we see in this today's passage. And that was to matter, with Jesus' powerful saying that points to his divinity. I am the resurrection and the life. Believe in me. To Mary, Jesus seemed to have taken a very different approach. I will quickly read out verses 28 to 35, the rest of our passage. No, actually to 33 first. So 28, when she had said this, when Martha had said this, she went and called his sister, her sister Mary, saying in private, the teacher is here to and he's calling for you. And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Verse 32. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying the same thing. Verse 33, 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. The English translations that we have today really does not do this phrase justice. What is meant by deeply moved? Right, it wasn't just that oh somehow there's this turmoil internally in his heart and he felt really, really sad. In the Greek, it means the snort of a horse when the horse is going to war. An angry animal snorting, ready to charge. And when it is used for humans, it means outrage, fury, great anger. So instead of some internal turmoil, Jesus was physically quaking with rage when he saw Mary and the rest weeping. This word is used again later in verse 38, right? Where he is described as deeply moved, quaking with rage as he entered Lazarus' tomb. Full of anger. So what was Jesus angry about? Was he angry at the people crying, right? Angry at these people who were grieving and mourning. No, he was not angry with Mary. He was not angry with the people who were weeping. Jesus was angry at the tomb. He was furious at the devastation that death brings to all of us. So he was quaking with rage. And being on a war path towards death, Jesus asks, Where have you laid him? And they say to him, Lord, come and see. And verse 35, Jesus wept. This is the shortest verse in the whole of the Bible. And no doubt the favorite of everyone, finding the easiest ver to memorize. Jesus wept. So short. Yet so profound. First, we have to ask, why did Jesus weep? Right? He knows what he is going to do with Lazarus. Right? Doesn't he? He knows how everything is going to end. So he why why did he weep with them? He should have gone in with a smirk on his face or with some joyful optimism, asking everyone to cheer up. Because he knows what he is about to do. And yet he weeps with Mary. And he weeps because he was moved by his compassion for those grieving to the point that he grieves with them. It seems to make no sense at first. But here we we here we are. Here we have Jesus, a divine being, God himself, the resurrection and the life, and yet also fully human. Who identifies with us, identifies with humanity, who goes through the sorrows our frail life brings. He does not treat suffering lightly, he does not casually deal with death. He in fact took it upon himself to become human and to go through suffering, to suffer with us for our sake. And so this is the second point, second application for us this morning that Jesus grieves with you when you are suffering. He identifies with Our pain. Jesus is not far and he is not uncaring. He's there with us through the difficult times, furious with what sin and death do to our lives. On this side of heaven, we will always question why is there suffering? Why is there pain and death? Why, when God is all-powerful and all-loving, why? And sure, there are you know some explanations. Um, but there is never a full, complete answer to the problem of pain. At some point, we will inevitably be confronted with the fact that we don't have a neat answer to suffering. And I'm not sure we are meant to. I'm not sure we are meant to be able to tidily explain why there's suffering, why there's death, and then just be at ease with the presence of suffering. Suffering will and should always disturb us. Especially when we are completely powerless to do anything about it. Right, whether it's on the global and the macro level where there are just wars and war crimes, where innocent people are being displaced and they are suffering, where men, women, children suffer for no good reason. Suffering violence that is just senseless and stupid. Or when we face suffering at a level that is closer to home. When a child dies too young and too soon, when a young dad has a sudden death and leaves behind a two-year-old while his wife expects another. When a loved one has been taking care of her health, only to be diagnosed with cancer out of the blue. There's something senseless in all of this. And they will remain senseless because suffering and death was never a part of the designed order. It will always be senseless because it was never a part of God's design. And we don't know why God has not eradicated uh all suffering yet. We don't know why Jesus hasn't come back yet. Every Christmas we are waiting for him to come back, right? I don't know why. I don't know why God hasn't come here, you know, just kind of wrap things up, uh, call it a day, and then bring us all to eternal glory. But what we do know from scripture is this that Jesus hates suffering and death. He detests death and and hates suffering just like we do. Right, and God's answer to human uh suffering is this to join in the fray by becoming one of us with all our vulnerabilities and uh frailties, to suffer alongside us and to dismantle the power of sin and death by dying on the cross for our sake.

unknown 25:32

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SPEAKER_01 25:32

We we sang the song this now Christ is born, Christ is born, the resurrection and the life coming down so that he may suffer along with us and by dying on the cross for us, give us that resurrection and that life. Right? God is not too far from us, it's not like he doesn't understand what we go through, right? Our Lord knows grief and suffering all too well, for he himself experienced them on a personal and visceral level, right? Ultimately dying on the cross so that we have may have life eternal. So may we take comfort that we are never alone. Jesus, Lord of the universe, is low and by our side, weeping with us. And so these are the two things that we see in Jesus' response to Martha's and Mary's reaction. Right, Jesus reveals his divinity and his humanity. He is the resurrection and the life. He weeps with us. As both divine and human, Jesus is not so aloof that he does not care about what we are going through, but instead suffers with us, grieves with us, while also being the answer to all our suffering. As a human, he fully appreciates the painful chapters of our early earthly lives. As God Himself, he has altered the ending to our story and he has made it glorious and beautiful. All this because Jesus loves you. To kind of reiterate what Reverend Daniel emphatically put it uh last last week, Jesus really, really, really loves you. So I'll close with the words of Paul again from Romans chapter 8, this time from 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, what can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? And then in verse 20 37, no, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor death, not nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the Christ whom we believe, to whom we surrender so we may live in his way and in his resurrection and life. May the Lord give us grace and courage to live out our days, to live up our lives fully in Jesus Christ until we pass on to glory, eternal life.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

We pray that you've been ministered to by the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about ancient Christian church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.