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July 13, 2022
Key verses
4: "When Jesus heard this, he said, 'This disease is not unto death, but to the glory of God, that by it the Son of God may be glorified.'”
11: "So he said, and afterwards he said to them, Lazarus our friend is asleep, but I go to wake him up."
Birth and death enclose every human being like brackets: brackets open with birth and brackets close with death. Despite scientific progress, this bracket still cannot be broken.
Everything changes, but death remains an unchangeable end of every human being. He's still there, waiting for us.
But Jesus changes that. He came to tell us the good news of the unraveling of this bracket. He gives us eternal life through the sacrifice of his life. At the cost of his sacrificial death, we can enjoy full, eternal life.
Today we want to get to know such a work of Jesus Christ from the story of Lazarus.
1. For the glory of God (1-5)
Lazarus' siblings, Martha and Mary, lived in a house in Bethany. Bethany was a small suburb of Jerusalem, about 3 km away from Jerusalem. It was in their house that Jesus often rested when he came to Jerusalem.
Earlier, when Jesus visited them, Mary sat at Jesus' feet and listened to His words while Martha cooked for Jesus (Luke 11:38-40). A little later, Mary anoints Jesus' feet with oil and wipes them with her hair (12:3).
Now Jesus stayed on the other side of the Jordan (10:40), which was about a full-day-distance from Bethany.
Since Lazarus was dying, the two sisters sent a messenger to Jesus and told him, "Lord, our brother is dying."
The two sisters expected that Jesus would come to them quickly and heal their brother. They believed that if Jesus came to them while their brother was still alive, Jesus could heal their sick brother.
When Jesus heard from the messenger about the illness of Lazarus, he said about the illness of Lazarus: "This sickness is not for death, but for the glory of God."
With this word, Jesus proclaimed that the sickness of Lazarus would serve to demonstrate to people the omnipotence of Jesus and his love and to glorify God.
Jesus wants to say that the death has not the last word, but Jesus.
The death of young Lazarus was a great tragedy for his family members such as Mary and Martha. But Jesus saw his death as a good opportunity to make the good news and God's love known to the brothers and sisters and to all people in a vivid way. That is why he said that the death of Lazarus would serve for the glory of God.
How did the death of Lazarus glorify God and reveal the good news and love of God?
On the one hand, Jesus wanted to be glorified as the Son of God by raising the dead Lazarus. On the other hand, the resurrection of Lazarus will announce the good news to all people that all people who believe in Jesus Christ will be resurrected.
God sent Jesus Christ into the world so that Jesus could deliver us from the clutches of death and give us eternal life.
Verse 5 reads, "Jesus loved Martha, her sister Mary, and Lazarus."
Did Jesus have erotic love for the siblings?
No!
The word "loved" in this verse is "agapao" in Greek, according to the original Bible text. Agapao is the verb form of "agape". And agape means an egoless, devoted love.
Jesus' love is agape. Jesus loves Lazarus, Mary and Martha and all of us with devoted, divine love. We are to remember God's Word in John 3:16:
"For God so loved the world (i.e., all the people of the world) that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
2. The Waiting Love (6-10)
Verse 6 tells us that after Jesus heard about Lazarus' serious illness, he stayed where he was for two more days.
Normally, when you hear about your best friend's serious illness, you will postpone all your plans and immediately visit the sick friend.
But Jesus did not leave immediately to visit Lazarus. He stayed two more days, although he had heard that Lazarus was seriously ill.
This teaches us that at times we must wait for God's time before the Lord tells us to act. We should not be in a hurry, even if it seems very urgent or if we have good ideas of our own. Our Lord works quite rightly according to His time plan.
That is why we should ask about his plan and follow it. By waiting, we can better understand God's time and perspective. The Lord never works too late. The Lord has his own atomic clock, which is quite accurate. His schedule is not always the same as our schedule.
Our perspective is temporary rather than eternal. Our perspective thinks mainly about our current situation; But God thinks of eternal perfection.
We pray with a human perspective: "My will for this moment be done!" But the prayer according to the divine perspective is: "Not my short-sighted will, but Your perfect, eternal will be done!"
What do we fix our eyes on? Are we just looking at our current situation, or at the hand of Christ behind the situation?
After two days, Jesus said to his disciples: "Let us go back to Judea!"
His disciples answered: "The Jews were just about to stone you, and you want to go there?"
But Jesus explained to them, “Are there not twelve hours in one day? When someone walks around during the day, he doesn't knock, because he sees the light of this world."
Jesus meant that God gave Him and every human being time to work according to the will of God. That's why he wanted to use the God-given opportunity and work.
We are also to make good use of the God-given opportunity and do God's will. When we are given the opportunity to share the Gospel with others, we should do so responsibly. If we get an opportunity to help those in need, we should help.
3. Seizing the best opportunity to reveal His power (11-16)
When Jesus said Lazarus was sleeping, the disciples understood that Lazarus was literally sleeping. So they said, "Lord, when he sleeps, he gets better with him."
Then Jesus said to them clearly: "Lazarus is dead. And I'm glad for your sake that I wasn't there for you to believe."
Illness and death often leave us sad and hopeless. But Jesus uses the sickness of Lazarus and his death as an opportunity to teach his disciples and us to believe in the resurrection.
We live in a world where people believe that physical death has the last word.
But physical death does not have the last word, but God. Physical death is not the end of our life. After physical death, every human being will be resurrected and appear before God's judgment. And God has the last word.
Those who do not believe in Jesus must appear before God's judgment and be condemned to eternity. But whoever believes in Jesus Christ, after his physical death, he will rise again in glory and enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, Jesus Christ is our victory over death and judgment! That is why the apostle Paul said in Rom. 8:31-32:
“What shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? Who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how should he not give us everything with him?”
The death of Lazarus was a serious crisis for his sisters. But Jesus used this crisis as an opportunity to reveal his love and divine power and strengthen the faith of his disciples. That is why Jesus said: “I am glad for your sake that I was not there for you to believe (in my resurrection power).”
Nobody wants to get into trouble.
But whoever takes the difficulties caused by believing in God as an opportunity to get to know faith in the resurrection will experience a great blessing from God.
Each of our crises is an opportunity to experience God's glory through faith in Jesus. Therefore, when we face a crisis, we should see that crisis as an opportunity to experience God's power and glory.
When I was in the second grade of the primary school, I was injured in the hip joint of my right leg. At that time my parents' home was a poor farmhouse. Because of the injury, I could not become a manual laborer when I grow up. Because of poverty, my family could not afford my tuition for middle school. So I got into a serious crisis of life. During this time of crisis, I studied hard and God helped me through my 6th class teacher to take part in the middle school entrance exam and get the highest score among the applicants. So I got the scholarship and went to middle school.
After that, I was able to go to high school and university with a scholarship.
In my first semester, God led me to a student church and to believe in Jesus Christ. Through such a way, God used my great crisis to get me to attend college and be saved from the power of death. I praise God!
Conclusion
With death, everything seems to come to an end. But in Jesus, death is not a final end. For Jesus Christ offers real hope to us who find ourselves in crisis.
Have we forgotten that the Lord holds us in his hands?
As fear, doubt, and sadness grip us because of this crisis, we need to look to Jesus and listen to His words.
Jesus says to us: "Do not be afraid!"
We should trust the Lord and get motivation and opportunities from Him.
We will become bold as we trust in the Lord. We can trust in his eternal perspective and time.
We are to remember that God is greater than anything in the world. God loves us very much. He keeps us safe under his arms.
We are to remember and believe in His promise. We should resolutely resist the temptation to become overwhelmed by problems.
Let's not focus on problems too much and let's not worry too much.
We should see that our problems waste too much of our time and energy.
We should trust in God and look at our problems from God's perspective.
The Bible says: “Cast all your anxiety on him; for he cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7).
Let's choose to trust in the Lord.
Let's stop worshiping the problems.
Let's look to the Lord and follow his advice!
Let us follow the Lord's leading, His perfect love, perfect TIMING, perfect forgiveness and perfect hope.
Let's worship the Lord!
God's word in Psalm 121:1-3 reads: “I lift my eyes to the mountains. Where can I get help? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip, and He who protects you does not sleep.”
Amen!
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