The Sickness of Lazarus

The Family

John 11:1 AV

Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

The home Jesus spent much time in the home of..

Jesus loved Lazarus, Mary, and Martha

In Bethany---

The first time we meet this family

Luke 10:38–42 NKJV

Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Martha has a problem she wants to make everything perfect for Jesus and His disciples

Martha has an attitude that it will reflect badly on her if the meal is not perfect

If your gift is to serve, do it with pleasure you are serving Jesus

Mary sitting at Jesus feet and absorbing His words

Learning from Jesus,

Lazarus not a peep, not any word recorded

The next time we see the family is now

John 11:2 AV

(It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)

Mary anointing Jesus with expensive Fragrant oil

John 12:1–3 AV

Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

Martha serving BBQ at Simon the lepers house Mark 14

Mary prepared Jesus for death

Lazarus not a peep

A happy occasion after the incident, here

Lazarus Is Sick

its a deadly sickness

a problem common to all of us

we know someone who is dying , or its us

the natural calamities intrude in our lives

effects the ones that we love

our faith is tested in these moments

in these situations we need to do what the sisters did

They told Jesus

They prayed and told Him the problem

The request is implied, but not asked

They left it up to Jesus, what he wanted to do

His will..

God’s Will

John 11:4 AV

When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

1st to raise Lazarus from the dead

to get Lazarus and the sisters out of a predicament that only God can do

not to cure him

to keep him from dying

something much bigger

John 11:43–44 AV

And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

this sickness turned out to be a beautiful thing

but we can’t see the future, nor the ultimate outcome

that is where faith comes in.

our complete trust in our savior, Jesus christ

John 11:45 AV

Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.

John 12:9–11 AV

Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead. But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.

God is using Lazarus to bring believers into the Kingdom of God

But more important..

John 11:4 AV

When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

The Son of God Be Glorified

In the book of John Jesus refers His Glory is the cross

and resurrection

But when we glorify God it’s to acknowledge Him as being who He truly is

this illness is for God’s good

John 7:39 AV

(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

John 12:23 AV

And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.

John 12:16 AV

These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him.

Jesus knew that going to help His friend would result in His death on the cross

the final spark to ignite the leadership against Jesus

to put Him to death

Jesus asks us to suffer, but He is not asking anything He has not done

The cross we bear for by doing something for the kingdom is for our glory, and the glory of God

The Gospel of John, Volume 3: Those Who Received Him (John 9–12): An Expositional Commentary “It Is Well with My Soul”

In the year 1873, a Christian lawyer from Chicago, named Horatio Spafford, placed his wife and four children on the luxury liner Ville de Havre sailing from New York to France. Spafford expected to join them in about three or four weeks after finishing up some business, but with the exception of his wife he never saw them again. The trip started out beautifully. But on the evening of November 21, 1873, as the Ville de Havre proceeded peacefully across the Atlantic, the ship was suddenly struck by another vessel, the Lochearn, and sank a mere thirty minutes later, with the loss of nearly all on board.

On being told that the ship was sinking Mrs. Spafford knelt with her children and prayed that they might be saved or be made willing to die, if such was God’s will. A few minutes later, in the confusion, three of the children were swept away by the waves while she stood clutching the youngest. Suddenly the youngest child was swept from her arms. She reached out and caught the baby’s gown. Then the baby, a little girl, was lost again. Mrs. Spafford became unconscious and awoke later to find that she had been rescued by sailors from the Lochearn. But the four children were gone.

Back in the United States Horatio Spafford was waiting for news of his family, and at last, ten days later (after the rescue ship had reached Cardiff), it came. “Saved alone” was his wife’s message. That night Spafford walked the floor of his room in anguish, as anyone would have done. But this was not all. For as he shared his loss with his Lord, a loss that could not be reversed in this life, he found, as many have, that peace that indeed passes all understanding. Toward morning he told a friend named Major Whittle, “I am glad to be able to trust my Lord when it costs me something.” Then, sometime later, as he reflected on the disaster at sea, he wrote:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea-billows roll;

Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And has shed his own blood for my soul.

My sin—O the bliss of this glorious thought!—

My sin, not in part, but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more;

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

O Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,

The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend;

“Even so”—it is well with my soul.