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July 21, 2022
Keywords:
4: "When Jesus heard this, he said to him: This disease is not a mortal disease, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified through it."
11: "Then he said to them: Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I will wake him."
Birth and death are like a bracket in everyone's life. The bracket opens with man's birth and closes with his death. Despite scientific progress, this bracket has still not been resolved.
Everything in this world changes, but it doesn't change the fact that all people must die one day. Therefore, this death awaits everyone.
But Jesus came and loosened this bracket. His death and resurrection made it possible that our life does not end in death, but that we may receive eternal life.
Today we would like to get to know this work of Jesus.
1. Jesus' love out of his resurrection power (1-5)
Lazarus, Martha, and Mary were brothers and sisters in a house in Bethany. Bethany was a small suburb of Jerusalem about 3 km away. Whenever Jesus came to Jerusalem, he visited this family. The last time he visited, Mary heard him listening while Martha cooked for him (Luke 11:38-40).
In today's story, Jesus was somewhere across the Jordan (10:40). Bethany was about a day's journey from this place. Because Lazarus was very ill, the two sisters sent a messenger to Jesus and said, "Lazarus is very ill, Lord."
They expected Jesus to come quickly and heal their brother. Because they believed that if he came in time he could heal their brother.
When Jesus heard their message, he said, "This sickness is not a sickness unto death, but it is a sickness to the glory of God."
With these words, Jesus declared that Lazarus' sickness would serve to reveal God's glory to the people. By this, he meant that by raising Lazarus from the dead, God will reveal Jesus as the Son of God who came to deliver people from the power of death. For he will raise from the dead everyone who believes in him. Jesus explains here that not our physical death has the last word over our life, but Jesus.
Jesus was explaining that the death of Lazarus was an opportunity to demonstrate God's love and resurrection power to the sisters of Lazarus and to all people, and to glorify God.
By raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus proclaimed the good news to the whole world that everyone who believes in him as God's Son will be resurrected. Jesus Christ came into the world to free us from the bondage of death and give us eternal life and the kingdom of heaven.
Praise him!
Verse 5 says, "Jesus loved Martha, and her sisters Mary, and Lazarus."
The word "loved" in this verse is the Greek word "agapao" according to the original text of the Bible. Agapao is the verb form of "agape". Agape means selfless, divine love.
Jesus' love is such a divine love. Jesus loves Lazarus, Mary, Martha and all of us with the love of God. We can remember the Word of God in John 3:16.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
We are to accept God's love in Jesus Christ with gratitude. If we accept his love, we are in paradise. Our soul is joyful and happy. We will rejoice and praise and thank God.
Such is Jesus' love for our happiness and for the glory of God.
2. Waiting Love (6-10)
Verse 6 tells us that Jesus stayed there for two days more after hearing that Lazarus was seriously ill. Normally, when one hears of a best friend's serious illness, one postpones all plans and immediately visits their friend.
But Jesus did not immediately bring Lazarus to visit Lazarus, but stayed where he was for two more days. We should not rush into anything, even if it seems very urgent.
God's timetable is not always the same as our plan. Our schedule is often short-sighted.
Two days later, Jesus said to his disciples, "Now let's go to Judea!"
Then the disciples said: "The Jews are trying to stone you. Still, do you want to go there?"
Then Jesus answered them, "Aren't there twelve hours in a day? If you walk around during the day you will not stumble, because there is light in this world."
With these words, Jesus taught the truth that God gave himself and all people time to work according to his will. And Jesus himself did God's work in the time that God gave him.
Our Lord works according to His schedule and is never late. He has a very accurate atomic clock and acts on time. Therefore, we should better understand God's timing and follow it.
But we mainly adjust our timetables to our current circumstances.
However, God establishes and carries out the timetable according to His eternal and perfect plan. We pray from a human point of view: "My short-sightedness shall happen!"
But we should pray like this: "Not my short-sighted will, but the perfect and eternal will of God be done!"
What do we fix our eyes on? Are we only looking at the external situation now? Or are we looking to Christ and His hands behind our situation?
We're supposed to wait when we're supposed to wait. We should work when we should work.
The early Christians were waiting in prayer for the Holy Spirit when Jesus ascended into heaven. When the Holy Spirit came upon them, they worked and preached the gospel.
If God keeps us waiting, we should wait in prayer. When God tells us it is time to work, we are to work, and we shall share the gospel with others.
3. Love from resurrection belief (11-16)
When Jesus said that Lazarus was sleeping, the disciples understood that Lazarus was literally sleeping.
So they said, "Lord, if he sleeps, he'll be better."
But Jesus said to them clearly. "Lazarus is dead. I'm glad for you that I wasn't there for you to believe." (14-15)
Sickness and death often make us sad and hopeless. But Jesus took the sickness and death of Lazarus as an opportunity to teach his disciples and us to believe in the resurrection.
We live in a world where we believe that a person's physical death is their ultimate end. But physical death is not the end of our lives. After physical death, all human beings will be resurrected and appear before the judgment seat of God. God will announce the final word of judgment to everyone. Those who don't believe in Jesus will be judged for their sins. However, those who believe in Jesus Christ will be declared innocent by the grace of Christ and will enter the kingdom of heaven of glory. Jesus Christ is our victor who gave us victory over the power of death and the Last Judgment!
As the apostle Paul said at Romans 8:31-32, “What shall I say to that? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him for us all, how should he not also give us all with him?”
The death of Lazarus was a serious crisis for his sisters. But Jesus saw this crisis as an opportunity to reveal His divine love and power and to strengthen the faith of His disciples.
That is why Jesus said, “I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe (in the power of my resurrection).”
Every crisis we face is an opportunity to see God's glory through resurrection faith in Jesus. That is why we should experience the love of God and his resurrection power in every crisis.
When I was in the 2nd grade, I injured the hip of my right leg. My parents' house was then a poor farmhouse. This injury prevented me from becoming a farmer. Because of poverty, my family was not able to pay middle school fees. So I faced a serious crisis in my life before the end of elementary school. To overcome this crisis, I studied hard and got the help of my 6th grade class teacher so that God helped me to get the best note in my middle school entrance exam. So I got a scholarship and went to middle school. And God gave me the scholarship, so I could go to high school and university. During my freshman semester of college, God sent me to a student church and made me believe in Jesus Christ.
God used my great crisis of hurt to enable me to attend middle school through college and be saved from the power of death and live joyfully by believing in the resurrection. Praise God!
On July 16 (2022) I had a barbecue party with my close friends of faith at Ümminger Lake in Bochum, Germany. Missionary Bekkie Lee told me about her dream. In her dream she saw my wife Esther who had fallen asleep in 2019 and me. Esther and I looked very young and beautiful. When I showed Bekkie a beautiful photo of my wife Esther and I, taken when we were young, she said it was much nicer than the photo.
It is true that our resurrection appearance is younger and more beautiful than any of our figures in this world.
On July 17, at 3:30 in the morning, I had a dream: Esther and I drove to a hotel in a luxury sports car like a Ferrari. And we gave the car to the hotel staff and went on a way with a long white stripe that said like a very long scroll looked down covered rice paddy road to go to our room. I followed Esther and our footprints were left on the piece of paper. When we reached the end of the long path, I woke up from sleep.
After hearing this story, missionary James Lim from the Netherlands told me not to rush to God, but to live long.
But I want to go fast.
Conclusion
Our life seems to end with bodily death. But our bodily death is not the end.
Jesus Christ poured out a true, living hope and God's love for us.
Has any of us forgotten that the Lord takes our hand and guides us?
When we are overcome by fear, doubt and worry because of a life crisis, we should look to Jesus. Jesus loves us and says: "Do not be afraid!"
We must trust in the love and power of the Lord and rejoice in His resurrection hope and love. We will be brave and happy if we trust in this Lord.
We must not forget that God is greater than anything else in the world. Jesus loves us very much. He holds us in his arms and protects us. And he overcomes the power of death and leads us to heaven.
We are to gratefully accept his loving companionship. We should firmly resist the temptation to let problems overwhelm us.
Let's not get caught up in anything, and let's not worry too much. We must not waste a lot of time and energy on our problems. Rather, we should perceive that the Lord of the resurrection accompanies us. That's why we should trust him, look at all problems from the perspective of this Jesus.
We are to live with a living hope and give glory to the Lord. As we look with us to the Lord of the Resurrection, we will be freed from all the bonds of the world, and we will be filled with joy and hope. Therefore, let us walk with the Lord Jesus of the Resurrection and live by that faith.
And let's give glory to the Lord. Let us trust with the Lord's perfect love and perfect timing. Let us sing praises to the Lord of the Resurrection and follow the Lord. And let's worship the Lord!
Amen!
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