Hope for troubled believers

Introduction

You may open your bibles to John 11

I have spent a lot of time in hospitals, but virtually never for myself. It was always for someone else. They are usually sad visits, due to some sickness or injury. Fairly often you just go and be present with the person, which can be very comforting of them, but thats basically all you can do. However, every so often something goes wrong in the hospital room, and you press the red button on the wall to call the nurse for help. They’re paid and trained to come to you assistance in emergencies. What if the person receiving the alarm was not just a nurse, but the best doctor in the whole world, who was both available, and certainly able to help. But what would happens if they don’t come?

How would you feel if the person who was supposed to come help you didn’t come when you needed them most of all, but consciously decided not to come but instead let the person die …

I’d feel awfully confused, mad, sad, and maybe a few other emotions. This is probably how Mary felt when Jesus after having received news that Lazarus was very sick, decided to delay coming by 2 days. At the beginning of John 11, it says that Jesus delayed, not out of apathy, or because He was too busy, but out of love…

John 11:5–6 LSB

5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days in the place where He was.

He ultimately arrived after Lazarus had been dead a full 4 days. As soon as He arrives to where they were, Martha leaves her family and friends that had come from afar to mourning, to talk with Jesus.

From their dialogue, some have naturally assumed that Martha’s words are a small rebuke to Jesus for not having come right away. Weather they are or not, Jesus rather than explaining or defending His decision, goes right to working doing what He was called to do in a way that Martha didn’t expect.

Reading of the text

Please rise for the reading of God’s holy word

John 11:21–27 LSB

21 Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 “But even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 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; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die—ever. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, the One who comes into the world.”

Prayer

Let us pray

Dear Lord Jesus,

in you resides the fullness of deity, and power over life and death. You make no mistakes, and all your ways are perfect, though we may not always understand them. Be with us this morning as we study your word, that we might come to know you more and more as we reflect and the truths that you have revealed about yourself in this text. You are the fountain of life. Show us the depths of your love for us through this text, and how you take care of your people. Bless the preaching of your word.

Amen

You may be seated

Sermon theme

If there is anything that everyone knows about Jesus, it is that He loves people. You see the slogan “Jesus loves you” on signes, on buses, bumper stickers, everywhere. But in this text, how is Jesus loving Martha? How is He taking care of her? He let Lazarus die, and let Mary and Martha suffer through the whole experience. Many around them asked the obvious question of Jesus.

John 11:37 LSB

37 But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”

If I had the power that Jesus had, I’d remove all your sicknesses immediately. No questions asked. But why didn’t He? That is what these people are thinking? Doesn’t He care for them? Doesn’t He love them?

The comfort and love that Jesus offers His people doesn’t always come in the way they expect. This whole story shows us how Jesus loved Martha. He loved Her by letting Lazarus die while he was possibly in her arms. Then He loves her, and comforts her by giving her a living hope, and revealing more of who He is to Martha.

We are completely powerless and hopeless when it comes to death, especially if we have to face it on our own. Death is coming for each and every one of us at some point or another. This includes even Jesus. This story happens only a few weeks maybe before He Himself would go through death. But He would come out the other side unharmed. Jesus isn’t a distant observer to our sufferings, but He walks through it with us, because He himself has already walked the path through the grave.

He is our only hope when faced with death because He is life itself! While we are powerless before death, He isn’t! In Him alone can we find comfort and peace in both this life and dead. He alone is able to take care of us in this life, and in the next, as well as the journey between.

When you are troubled in your faith, when you doubting the love of God due to your circumstances, look to Jesus as your only hope in life, because He alone is able to take care of us in the ways that we truly need.

Plan

The plan for this morning follows the conversation between Martha and Jesus where He reveals How He loves and cares for her by giving her a true and lasting hope in all things.

Hope in death (21-24)

First, He gives her hope that death is not the end. Hope is found in the Word of God, and its promises concerning the coming resurrection where she will be permanently united not only with Lazarus, but with Christ.

Hope in life (25-26)

Next, He gives her hope in the one who is life itself. The one who raises the dead, the one is the author of life and who preserves His people through the trials of death by giving them life.

Hope of faith (27)

Finally, He shows her the hope of faith by focusing her attention on Himself, by putting aside all other distractions, and prompting her to put all hope hope and trust in Him.

Transition

This is how Jesus takes care of Martha and shows her His love: by giving her a true hope and faith. Though we know the end of this story, Martha doesn’t yet. Before any miracles are done, Jesus ensures that Martha is focused on Him.

Hope in death (21-24)

Jesus does in fact raise Lazarus from the dead at the end of the chapter, but he will once again die, and they will go through losing him once again. The raising of Lazarus wasn’t permanent, but temporary. Because of this, they need an everlasting hope that lasts through death which bring me to my first point. Our hope in death.

Confession of our grief (21)

Starting in verse 21, Martha addresses Jesus in a very similar way when He was at her home, and she was preparing the meal while her sister Mary was sitting at Jesus’s feet listening. She told Jesus what she needed to do then, and she’s trying to do it again.

She knows Jesus delayed

But this time her words are filled with grief. You can almost hear her tears through her words as she addresses Jesus because she knows that He intentionally delayed coming. Her words betray 3 incorrect assumptions she has:

First, that He needs to be present in order to heal. Jesus healed the centurion's daughter with a simple word from miles away. He could have easily done the same for Lazarus had He wanted to.

Second, that it was His will to heal Lazarus. Due to His intentional delay, it clearly wasn’t because He had other plans.

Third, that He can’t do anything to help the dead. She is telling Him that it is too late for you to do anything. You’d of needed to be here 5 days ago to be of any use.

Binging our pain to Jesus

Martha nevertheless clearly trusts Jesus, but is grief stricken, and not thinking clearly. This is a normal among those who are in mourning. We want God to act according to our will, not His, and heal those around us whenever we want it to happen, and we get angry when He doesn’t. We often lack a comprehension of the providence of God, and every time we say in our hearts that God should have done something differently, we are implying that God has made a mistake. God is wiser than we are, so if something happens differently than we’d prefer, know that all of His ways are perfect.

Despite this often miscomprehension of the providence of God, He is still a loving Father, who hears the pleads of His children who call them to bring all ours pains and grief to Him.

1 Peter 5:7 LSB

7 Casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

Martha is doing exactly that. She is venting her grief, tears, and anxieties to Jesus, because she knows that He cares for her. Take your fears, and pains to God through prayer as this is an expression of faith. Fatih doesn’t require complete understanding of the ways that God runs everything, rather true faith leads to submission to the will of God in trembling.

Confession of our faith (22)

Continuing to verse 22, Martha expresses the depths of her faith in Jesus as she confesses it before Him.

Despite her grief, she still holds to the faith

Though He delayed, though she is filled with tears, she doesn’t lose faith. She holds fast as she recognizes the intimate relationship that Jesus has with the Father. Now that He has arrived, she is hoping He would do something about the situation, though she doesn’t know what He can do. Resurrection isn’t on her mind, because in verse 39, when Jesus is before the tomb and asks them to remove the stone, she objects saying it will smell. Even after her conversation with Jesus, she still doesn’t quite get it until she sees it happen.

We often don’t know what to pray for, but our intercessor knows

Martha’s intentions in verse 22 is ambiguous. She hopes that Jesus would be able to do something, but she doesn’t know what to ask for. She is hoping Jesus will know what to ask for.

When we are in our deepest moments of grief, we may not know, like Martha, what to ask for, but we have an intercessor who knows the deepest needs of our souls. Jesus knows the depths of Martha’s heart, and he knows how to take care of her, because He loves Her.

Consolation of the Word of God (23)

Verse 23 shows Jesus’s first words of consolation to Martha. He reminds her that there is a God in control of all things who has given a promise to His people.

John 11:23 LSB

23 … “Your brother will rise again.”

God’s sovereignty over death

Not only is God in control of all things, but He is sovereign over life and death. He alone is able to bring the dead back to life. Doctors may work on people before their death, but once they have passed, there is really nothing they can do. Since Jesus intentionally delayed, and because He is God, He exercised this sovereignty in deciding not to do anything to help Lazarus.

Redirection of her hope to the resurrection

However, Jesus redirects Martha’s thoughts towards the hope of the resurrection when she will be united to her brother when all men will be raised. This is the truth that the Apostle Paul confesses before the governor:

Acts 24:15 LSB

15 … having a hope in God, for which these men are waiting, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.

This is her hope, that death isn’t the end. That body will rise one more. Jesus makes this personal by saying that specifically her brother, will rise. The statement by Jesus is also slightly ambiguous in that He could be referring to either the general resurrection on the last day, or the immediate resurrection of Lazarus later in the chapter.

Grieve like believers (24)

Either way, Martha takes it to refer to the general resurrection. She knows and believes this great truth because there were many in her time that didn’t such as the Sadducee who were the religious group that didn’t believe in the resurrection. Jesus has many interactions with them throughout the gospels, and one in particular where they even challenge Him on this specific point in Matthew 22.

Reminding one another of the truths of God

By reminder Martha of this truth, He is telling her to grieve like someone who has hope. Paul gives us the same exhortation in his epistles to the Thessalonians.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–14 LSB

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

We who have hope cannot act hopeless. We who believe that Jesus died and rose again cannot grieve like the world because we have a solid foundation that death cannot truly touch us. It is not the end. Death is not the end for those who have put their hope in Christ, because we know that we will see Him once again.

This is one of the greatest benefits of the Christian community, that in times of troubles, we can mutually encourage one another and remind others of the truths of God. In the past when I have been down, or struggling with something, my wife has been there to remind me of certain truths of scripture to lift my spirits. Do the same for your other brothers and sisters, exhort, correct, and remind them of what God has told us for our mutual edification. This will strengthen our hope and faith in God.

Transition

This is the type of hope that believers can have in the face of death. An enduring and comforting hope that we will follow the one who has passed through death, and conquered it. As he draws our attention away from our circumstances on onto the promises that God has given us. He conquered death because He is life, and for us to be able to follow Him, we must have this life in us.

Hope in life (25-26)

Which brings me to my second point, the hope that we have in life. I do not mean life in general, but our hope in the one who is life itself. Verse 25.

John 11:25 LSB

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,

Jesus the fountain of life (25)

In Christ is found the source of life, and the power to return us to life. The resurrection isn’t simply an event in the distant future as Martha thinks, but rather it is a person! The one who possesses power over life and death! The one who will raise His people on the last day. Elsewhere Jesus says:

John 6:40 LSB

40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

J.C Ryle makes the remark that Jesus,

John, Volumes 1 & 2 Jesus’ Staggering Revelation

tells [Martha] that He is not merely a human teacher of the resurrection, but the Divine Author of all resurrection, whether spiritual or physical, and the Root and Fountain of all life.

Full reversal of the curse of death

The terms resurrection and life aren’t synonymous, but complimentary because they represent the full reversal of the curse upon the human race. In the garden, the punishment for disobeying God was death, both physical and spiritual. Immediately they fell out of communion with God, and died spiritually as Ephesians 2 says. Later, they dies physically. Both collectively are a consequence of the fall.

But now, through Christ, both aspects of this curse are reversed. When we believe in Christ, that spiritual communion that we had with Him is restored, and we spiritually come back to life. Our souls are resurrected as we pass from death to life in Christ. From the point on, our souls are secure, and unable to die again. This is the eternal life that believers receive in Christ and is enjoyed immediately by faith.

The physical resurrection is still yet to come however. On this side of the grave, that part of the curse still exists, since our bodies will die. Christians are not exempt from physical death, but as the old saying goes:

Every wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.

The complete reversal of the curse of Adam will happen on the last day. Once the time is fulfilled, Christ will return with trumpets riding on a cloud to wake all men, the good and the evil resurrecting them.

Author of life

In John 5, speaking about the resurrection, Jesus says:

John 5:25–29 LSB

25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; 27 and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. 28 “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, 29 and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

Though all men will be resurrected, not all will receive life. Those who have committed evil will face the second death and suffer the eternal judgement of Christ in hell.

While those who are His will receive the fullness of life in their bodies to live in full communion with their saviour. He is the author of life who will dwell with His people forever in glory. This is what is means for Christ to be both the resurrection and the life.

Full provision for believers

The promise that Jesus gives in verse 25 is a sure and sound promise. Christ has made full provision for His people. Death cannot touch them. Both our bodies and our souls will be redeemed.

Eternal life isn’t like being a ghost. We will not have this eternal spiritual existence apart from the material world where we float on clouds or something. Rather, at the resurrection, your whole being is purified of corruption, being fully redeemed.

The body isn’t something to be shed-off and discarded as some pagan philosophies would say, rather, we will return to our original state in the garden. Adam and Eve were created with bodies, and God called it good. That doesn’t change. To be truly human is to be body and soul, redeemed by Christ. Therefore, treasure your bodies, since as Paul tells the church in Corinth:

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 LSB

19 Or do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you were bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

We are to glorify our God both in our souls, and in our bodies. We cannot separate the two in our service to God. Treat both as well as you’d treat the temple of God.

Many people today deny the value of the body saying that the body is simply a shell, or only there for our pleasure for us to use as we see fit. This essentially sums up the entire LGBTQ movement. They seek to use or destroy their bodies through all forms of sexual perversion, debauchery, hormone therapies, or sex reassignment surgeries because they have separated themselves from their bodies and don’t value what God has given them. It is all done in the service to the self which is a denial that the body is in need a redemption. Their subjective feelings cause them to act in such ways seeking to liberate themselves from the limitations of their own bodies.

My brothers and sisters, be on guard for such lies that would try to separate us from our bodies. We are not a soul trapped in a body, because as Pascal once said,

You are your body and your soul.

Your bodies are good because God has said it is good. And you will be in your bodies for eternity glorifying God after the resurrection. Our hope isn’t to escape our bodies in death, but rather the redemption of the body through the resurrection in Christ.

Preservation of believers through death (26)

Which, as verse 26 indicates, believers can have a true assurance that both will be preserved through death. Death isn’t the end for us, but rather and change in address. Death doesn’t brake our communion with God. As God protected Noah and His family through the chaos of the flood, so too will believers be protected through the chaos of death. The degradation of our corpses isn’t a problem for God. Every molecule will be collected at the resurrection.

Assurance of salvation

The promise we have is that if you believe in Christ, you will never ever die. Not physically of course, but spiritually. You can have an assurance of our salvation, not because of the strength of your belief, but because of the strength of Christ who hold onto us. Nothing can separate us from Him, not even death.

Though our faith may be week, our faith is placed in a strong and powerful God who is life itself who will preserve His people through every trial and challenge. And after the resurrection, when the entirety of the curse is reversed, your body won’t die ever again either completing the reversal of the curse.

Transition

Do you believe this? Do you believe not only in Christ, but in the coming resurrection? Do you believe that your soul is secure in the hards of your saviour? This is the direct question Jesus poses to Martha, so now I ask you. Do you believe this?

Hope of faith (27)

Because if you don’t, you are without any true hope, and remain dead in your sins, separated from the one who is life itself. Though you too will be resurrected, it will not be to life, but a final and complete death.

But for those who have believed, the faith that clings to Christ brings us hope, which brings me my third point. The hope of faith. Not that faith is the end of our hope, but through faith, we hope for the completion of our salvation in Christ as it guides us until the end.

In the pilgrims progress, the main character makes his way through this world and encounters many trials and difficulties, but guided by his faith and trust in God, he makes it through many situations. However, at the end of the story, he comes to his final trial. The trial of death itself, where He stumbles and temporarily freezes unable to continue with the final step. He trusted that God would deliver Him from jail, persecution, and sickness, but he had to dig deep to see weather He trusted God to deliver him, not from death, but through death.

Clarity of faith

The reality of death brings a certain clarity to our faith. We often think that we have a certain power to help ourselves in other situations. Financial troubles, just work harder. Sick? Find the right doctor and all will be okay. But death isn’t like that. There is no way to help ourselves or work our way out of it.

Death puts things into perspective

Death more often than not prompts people to think deeply about the state of their own souls. They will often be more receptive to speaking about God, and making death bed confessions because we all know deep down that we are powerless before death. The hidden blessing of this is that it brings deep clarity to our faith. Weather we have true faith or not, and how much of it.

Focusing on Jesus, not our current situations

The essence of true faith in such situation isn’t to look at our situations, but to look to Christ. It is for this reason that Jesus challenges Martha’s faith. Where are you looking Martha? Are you looking at the dead body of your brother, or are you looking at me? Jesus doesn’t tell her that everything is going to be okay, rather He draws her attention onto Him through focusing on the truths of God. He alone can calm the storms in our hears in such situation.

Back to the pilgrims progress, Christian did find it to fully trust God with his soul to walk confidently into death by looking not at death, but at Christ. With Him, we make the same confession that Jesus made upon the cross.

Luke 23:46 LSB

46 “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Having said this, He breathed His last.

It is into the hand of our saviour that we must commit our spirits as we fully trust Him by faith in all things. Jesus is the supreme example of this.

Knowing the faith

But in order to do this, we must know the faith into which we trust. In verse 27, after Jesus confronts her, she confesses her faith in Him.

John 11:27 LSB

27 “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, the One who comes into the world.”

Rests on the word of God, not on visible proof

This is before any miracles had been done. Martha is trusting purely in the word of God without any visible proof that He has power over death. She has the promises that she has known since childhood, and the words of Jesus here.

The situation is the same of us. I have never seen a resurrection, not many miracles, yet we are called to believe based on the testimony of the apostles like Martha. At the end of this gospel, John writes:

John 20:29–31 LSB

29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are those who did not see, and yet believed.” 30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

The scriptures are written for this express purpose. Not simply to convey information, but to incite faith in the hearts of people. They are written “so that you may believe.”

Content

These verses also summarize the content of Martha’s faith. She makes three confessions. First that Jesus is the Christ, the promised messiah who would deliver His people from slavery and bondage. Second, that He is the Son of God. Not a separate entity from God, but truly God, one with the Father in heaven. Thirdly, that He is the one who has come into the world. He is not of this world, but descended from above to be born of a virgin, and walk among us.

Martha knew the faith, so she was able to confess it before her saviour. She didn’t simply say that she has belief in a general sense, but has faith in something specific, with a specific content. You must know the faith, so that you can confess it.

Faith involves both your head and your heart. If we neglect one, the other will suffer. If you have no idea what you believe, your faith will inevitably be very weak or non-existant. That is not to say that you all must have a masters in theology, but that you cannot properly call yourselves believers if you don’t know what you believe.

Knowing the faith leads us to know the God of our faith

Because knowing the faith will bring you into greater communion with God, and increase your faith in Him as you are know more and more who He is and the promisees that He has given you. Martha knew them, but needed to be reminded of them in her grief. Pursue the knowledge of God my brothers and sisters, because as Jesus said when praying to the Father,

John 17:3 LSB

3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Eternal life, the new life that Christ gives us is defined to be the knowledge of God. If you do not know Him, both intellectually and spiritually, you do not have eternal life. But like all relationships, we grow in knowledge of one another. I have been married of 5.5 years now, and I am still learning things about my wife daily. The same is for the Christian life. We must grow in our knowledge of God through the knowledge of His word, as we increase in faith and hope in Him alone.

Do you believe this?

This is our supreme hope, that we might come to know the true and living God through faith. Martha was able to make such a confession of faith to Jesus because she was truly in communion with God. She had truth faith and professed it publicly before her peers. The apostle Paul tell us the importance of confessing the faith:

Romans 10:9 LSB

9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

Do you believe this? Have you confessed Christ as lord? Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world to save sinners? Because:

John 11:26 LSB

26 … everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die—ever.

This is the promise for all men. Our only hope in life and in death is found in Christ alone.

Conclusion

Because He is sovereign over life and death, and cares more for His people than we will ever know. He is the resurrection and the life, making a full provision for believers such that they can pass with confidence through death, and come out on the other side redeemed by God. He is your only hope, because we are powerless before death. The comfort that be brings His people is through reminding us of the truths of scripture, the coming resurrection, and drawing our attention away from death, and onto Him. Hope in Him for the deliverance of your body and souls. Here is His promise:

John 14:19 LSB

19 “… ; because I live, you will live also.

Do you believe this?

Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus, there is none greater than you. There is none more powerful than you. Your glory surpasses us. Draw our gaze upon you, as we trust in you more, and place all our hope in you, as you comfort us through your word. I pray that your word would do your work today. Amen.