That You Might Believe

God will always accomplish His glory (vv. 1-16)

God accomplishes His glory in His timing not ours.

God accomplishes his glory in His way not ours.

vv. 4

Jesus accomplished God’s will in the Father’s timing, and in His ways so that the Father may be glorified.

God’s timing does not always make sense to us. It does not alway match up with our timing. (Do we trust His timing over our own?) (vv. 6)

Marriage, Job, Children, Housing, etc...

Jesus timing is not our of a lack of love. (vv. 3, 5)

The accomplishment of God’s glory though perfect timing

He is not going to compromise His glory and our good so we get what we want when we want it.

God is never going to get the cart before the horse. He is never going to make a mistake in his timing despite our displeasure with it.

God’s Way does not alway make sense to us. (v. 8-16)

God are you sure? (vv. 8, 12)

God brings clarity when we need it. In the mean time we just need to truth him. (vv. 9-11)

At time God’s clarity isn’t all that clear. (vv .9-13)

Jesus did not fear man.

Clarity does not always bring the peace we are looking for. (vv. 14-16)

Clarity is not the answer trust is.

Jesus waited for the right moment in the Father’s plan.

What the disciples needed to know was that Jesus was concerning Himself with the glory of the Father and the good of his disciples.

This message may easily have been missed in light of the surrounding circumstances.

The feared for their lives and a friend was dead.

Would God really use the dead of another to accomplish bring Glory and our good? Yes!

God’s Glory always accomplishes the good intended for the children of God. (vv. 17-44)

Read vv. 17-

God will reveals Himself to us through the difficulties of life for our good when we seek Him.

We come to him in faith, not knowing what good he intends or what he will reveal to us. (vv. 20-22) Faith begets faith.

As God reveals Himself to us His love for us becomes more and more evident. (vv. 35-36)

God does not need us to have complete understanding of his will in order for his will to be accomplished. We just need to be willing to come to him in faith. (vv. 20-22)

God may not reveal his grand plan to us, but He will reveal Himself to us, if we seek Him.

Our failure to trust God will not deter his plans. We will simply miss out on the blessing that otherwise would have been ours. We tend to waste so much time focusing on the problem or failing to recognize God for who he is and what he can do. We would save ourselves so much pain if we would simply trust God. (vv. 35-38)

Jesus concerned with teaching the people and his disciples Jesus begins to reveal his will to his disciples (vv. 11-15)

He is going to “wake” Lazarus

i. The sleep is not a literal sleep it is a word use to describe believers who are dead. Mt 27:52</>; J 11:11

ii. Acts 7:60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

iii. Acts 13:36 "For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption; 1 Cor 7:39; 11:30; 15:6, 18, 20, 51; 1Th 4:13–15; 2 Pt 3:4.

Strengthen the disciple’s faith. Thomas, faith and ignorance revealed

Willing to die with Jesus Did not understand Christ’s unique and atoning death. Martha’s response to Jesus

Ran to meet Him. (about 2 miles away) Martha’s statements of faith

i. Believed Jesus has the power to heal.

ii. Believed that God would answer Jesus’ prayers.

Note: “Her words ‘But I know …God will give You what ever You ask’ might imply by themselves that she was confident Lazarus would be resuscitated. But her actions in protest at the tomb (v. 39) and her words to Jesus (v.24) contradict that interpretation. Her words may be taken as a general statement of the Father’s blessing on Jesus.”

iii. Martha understood and had faith the resurrection of the last day. This is a future resurrection.

iv. Martha Believed that Jesus was the Christ (Messiah) who was sent by God into this world.

Jesus’ response to Martha

I am the resurrection – For those who are physically dead I am the life – For believers that are still living. Those that believe in Christ though they may face physical death will never suffer spiritual death. Jesus’ question “Do you believe this?” Mary’s response

Mary also believed Jesus has the power to heal.

How was God glorified through it?

The Father’s will was done through the person of Jesus.

- The disciple’s faith was increased.

- Others faith was increased.

- People put their faith in Christ.

- Lazarus was raised.

- People were saved.