Jesus and Martha
Notes
Transcript
ME
ME
How do you jump higher on a water bed? Fill it with spring water
Where did the king put his armies? In his sleevies
When I got to Oklahoma there was a man that wanted to meet me and talk and before I went everyone was telling me stories about him. And I would tell them I wanted to make my own decisions, but as we had lunch and met I’d be lying if I didn’t say those voices were in teh back of my head. I had to make them shut up so I could really get to know the man, And he was pleasant. He didn’t seem anything like the man they were painting him to be and I remember getting back to my office after lunch and telling my staff that he seemed fine, I didn’t have any problems. And he and I kept meeting and he would confide in my some of the hurts that he had from the church in the past and I was able to get closer to him and the more we met the closer we became until now, we still call each other every few weeks to check in. And we have become closer. Time and closeness have added up to make a relationship stronger.
Met a guy once who was a TN fan… can you believe that ….
WE
WE
We tend to make rash decisions in the beginning that can change….
Maybe your Daughter-in-law… you know when he first brought her home and you knew that she would never be good enough for YOUR son… but over time… that relationship has grown and you love her more than your son…
EXPOSITION
EXPOSITION
What we will see today is a conversation and a seeking heart with Jesus can change everything for your faith
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off,
19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother.
20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.
In this we find that Jesus has again stayed on the outskirts and not allowed himself to go inside Bethany, it was a small town, some scholars believe the reason for this is because the amount of people in Jesus’ entourage was too big to get inside the town where he was. Remember, Jesus was a rockstar… people flocked to him… crowds followed him… they wanted to hear what he said and see what he could do and some think this may have been the reason he didn’t go into the town.
We have to see what happened here, Jesus had sent word that he had arrived and Martha ran to Jesus… Mary stayed home and you will begin to see a difference between the two sisters… but Martha had left to see Jesus she was the woman who had action and did what she thought needed to be done, but Mary was a little different.
21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
What is clear here is that Martha has faith in Jesus. She clearly believes Jesus could have saved Lazarus had he been there… It is clear, but he wasn’t and this is a complaint to Jesus… While Martha has faith… she has a complaining faith… her faith is not a resting faith that believes Jesus has our best interest and knows he will do what is best for us… remember we talked about how the death was for his glory… and the death was for love… and she hasn’t seen this yet because she hasn’t seen the resurrection, but what we see is she is questioning him… she isn’t resting in him… and this is the place we can often find ourselves in our faith… just like Martha… a limited faith… and what happens when we have a limited faith is we believe in Jesus but we question if he has done what is best… or we question if he actually knows what is best….
We come to those places in our lives where we say Why would he let this happen… why would he let me lose this job… why would he let this person die.. and we take the normal approach…doesn’t he know how much I love him… which was completely different than the sisters approach, don’t you know how much you love HIM… and we question if Jesus really knows best..
We believe he can do it… but we have limited our faith to only believing if he comes through in the way we think he should in that particular minute. We only believe he is doing the right thing if he has answered our prayers in the way that we think he should…
And it reminds me of that old Country Song… Some of God’s greatest gifts… are unanswered prayers… and we need to get to a place where we can see things in the same way Garth did… where we realize that Jesus has our best intentions at heart and don’t go down the wrong road of disbelief because he hasn’t acted in a way we think he should…
And she says to him
22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”
And look at how great her faith is… she is saying… I know you could have saved him… You weren’t here… and you didn’t so that upsets me… but even now I know you can do something…
but at the same time… she has limited Jesus here… she didn’t say Jesus I know you are about to do something… i know you can heal him… instead she is saying I know you can ask God to do something now… and while she has faith… it limited when it came to him being dead and in the grave for four days… then she suddenly doesn’t think it is Jesus who could do something… all of a sudden she thinks only God can do it.. she hasn’t seen Jesus for who he really is, she doesnt know that he IS God.. that he is the savior that he IS the one… she has missed this in all that Jesus has done… and there are some moments that we see this in our world today…
People think that Jesus is a great teacher…
People think Jesus is a motivational speaker…
People think Jesus can do a limited amount but they miss out on the fact that Jesus is God… and it limits our faith and thinking for the way Jesus can move in our lives
But soon we will hear Jesus say these words clearly to those that are there to listen… Jn 14:10
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
But even the disciples that walked with Jesus had those moments where they didn’t see Jesus clearly for who he was
31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
These guys believed in Jesus but they still hadn’t gotten to a place where they could believe he could handle the wind and rain and waves…. their faith in this moment was also very limited…
And Jesus is about to tell her something that will enlighten her faith he says
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
And lets be honest, there is no way he could have said this any clearer than he just did… he laid it all out there for her to understand clearly what it was he wanted her to know… Lazarus would rise from the dead… and somehow she still doesn’t get it right…
24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Again the faith is evident here, she believes that Lazarus will rise in the resurrection, but she has missed the fundamental part of what Jesus is saying, its not the future.. its about to happen right now and what we can see in Martha is the disappointment in Jesus…
She wanted Lazarus with her… she wanted him to be there… and though she believes all that Jesus has taught, she is sad because Jesus hasn’t come through and everything she wanted and longed for is gone…
Have you ever had a moment like this, where you believed in Jesus but you can’t help but be disappointed because he didn’t come through.. and for some of you this may be in the same situation… you may have lost someone just a little too soon in your eyes, so you are disappointed in him… you find yourself like Martha, yeah I know they will be there in the resurrection, but that doesnt help me right now… and we can’’t see past it… we believe in Jesus… we believe in his power… but again we don’t believe that he knows what is right… or that he always makes the right decisions….
and in our case much like that of Martha the future resurrection is no comfort ti us… the hope of a future reunion with a loved one doesn’t help in the here and now…and the key here is she had that beginning or fundamental faith in Jesus… she knew what was there to be believed, but the hope of the future didnt comfort the present…
And what we see that is so vital in her life and our life is not just a fundamental faith but a living faith a faith that lives out what we believe at all times, even when things don’t look the way we think they should and what causes us to see and make that change is a revelation of Jesus, a knowledge of who he really is… look at what happens next…
24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
And I think of important not before we move on here is John is making sure and wanting us to see the resurrection of Lazarus as a picture of our resurrection… and what Jesus is saying here to her is look what I am about to do with your brother, the way he will be resurrected, it is what is going to happen to everyone who believes in me… and we talked a few weeks ago about how if you look at the death of Lazarus and say its not a big deal because Jesus knew he was going to resurrect him… this is it.. this is Jesus saying the same thing to you and me about ourselves, about our loved ones… about everyone who believes… we will be resurrected and our death is no big deal because we shall never die…
Look Jesus did not say that he GIVES the resurrection and life… he said he IS the resurrection and the life… and he will return us and give us that resurrection but his point here is so much deeper he wants us to know that he is life…
And as he is saying this, he is making a huge claim… he is saying that all life… all of it… only exists by his will… he holds all of life together… he is saying that all of life… those who believe and don’t they all existing apart from his will. Its all Jesus. So if a dead person wants to rise… they need him…. and only he can allow that to happen..
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
And it is clear that life for all comes through Jesus.
And Jesus made this promise, if you believe in him though we die, we will live, and whoever believes in him shall never die… and he is telling us the believer that has passed from this world doesn’t just go to some holding place… we aren’t just floating around on a cloud, we are in the blink of an eye out of this world and with him in heaven. Which is the same thing that Paul will tell us in 2 Cor 5:8
8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
And he is assuring us of what Jesus had already told us… and this is hard for us to wrap our minds around… how can it be… explain
And we shall never die…
Because Jesus did away with death…. and in that moment we never lose consciousness… we just go from this life to him….
Heard a story… baptism… electrocution… he said what an amazing way to go…
And that goes with the most quoted Bible verse… Jn 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Its eternal life because it keeps going… from this to the next life…
And look at what Martha’s response to Jesus is
27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
She had this revelation of who he was and all of a sudden it changed her belief… it changed how she saw him,
YOU
YOU
Just think of how different the people around us could be if we didn’t give up on them, and especially in light of the gospel… if we continued having conversations and helped them to have a revelation of Jesus and who he is. If we laid down our lives to share with them.
WE
WE