Sermon Tone Analysis

The greatest measurement of the Christian faith is when difficult times, when tragedies invade the Christian's life.

It becomes a barometer.

It becomes the backdrop for which is measured the validity of our faith, but not just the strength of our faith, but its very existence, whether it is indeed a religion we belong to, or whether we have that relationship with Christ that will sustain us, that will guard us and guide us through whatever happens in our life.

We get a snippet in the lives of disciples this morning as we look at the seventh sign that John shares with us in his gospel of Jesus as the Son of God, and he saves the best for last, the greatest of all the miracles, the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

We're going to spend a few weeks looking at this text.

We'll break it down into sections because there is just so much in each one of these sections that I want us to be sure and notice, and especially this morning when we look at what happens, how it can be possible that despair can be turned to joy.

What is it about our relationship with Christ that allows genuine despair to be turned over, transformed into joy?

The circumstances don't change.

The facts of the situation don't change, but we change.

If we have a valid faith, if we see Jesus for who He is, and we see us for whom we are.

So it is with this young family of Bethany.

To sort of set the scene for you, if you've been with us in our studies, Jesus has been, during that winter season at the Feast of Dedication, He was attempted, or at least the Jews attempted to seize Him.

They wanted to stone Him.

He was making claims of being His Father's Son, of being the very Son of God.

They saw that as blasphemy, and they wanted to stone Him.

So Jesus left town.

He leaves and goes to a Bethany, but not the Bethany of today.

It's another Bethany.

Your Bible sometimes speaks of this place as Beit 'anya.

It's on the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee approximately 100 miles from Jerusalem.

Jesus and His disciples go up into that more friendly area of Israel where His ministry has always seen success, and where He has found far more disciples and far more friendship.

They go there.

They retreat, if you will.

They go away for a time to Beit 'anya, to this other Bethany.

There is another Bethany though that is right outside of Jerusalem, the more famous Bethany that's within just a couple of miles of the city of Jerusalem to the east over the Mount of Olives.

In this Bethany lived a family that Jesus had become very close to…the family of Martha and Mary and Lazarus.

Now it's likely that these three who were brother and sisters, they didn't live together.

They very likely were married and had their own homes and their own families, but we see them together in these family gatherings.

We see Martha hosting a banquet for Jesus in her home, and Mary being there.

After the resurrection of Lazarus there is going to be a banquet where Mary and Martha, along with Lazarus are gathered there.

So there is a very strong family connection between Lazarus and these two.

You know it's interesting, Lazarus is sort of the Greek version of the Hebrew name /Eleazar/.

Eleazar is in Arabic, /Azaraih/, and the Arabic name of Bethany, (and Bethany is in the Palestinian territory today; it's over that wall) is /al-Eizariya/.

They don't call it Bethany.

They call it /al-Eizariya/, which is interesting to me because it's in commemoration of Lazarus that they have given it that name.

We still call it Bethany.

The Jews call it Bethany, but it's interesting that the local tradition was strong enough that it was renamed after this man.

Tragedy has fallen to the family.

They have loved Jesus.

They have gotten to know Jesus.

Jesus has gotten to know them, just as many of us, we fall in love with Christ.

We love Him.

We love being His disciple, but then tragedy comes in our life.

In this case, Lazarus comes down with an illness, a terminal illness.

We don't know what it is, but we do know that he is so close to death.

So close, in fact, that Mary and Martha decide to send a messenger to Jesus.

It's also interesting isn't it that they've gone up to this Beit 'anya area, up to the other Bethany, also called Beit 'abara in some of your translations.

Mary and Martha know where He is.

That's how close Jesus was to Him that He lets them know where He is going to be, even though the Pharisees may not know, they know.

So they send a messenger up to Jesus.

I want to share because that sending of a messenger is for us today the sending of a prayer.

It is our…How do we communicate with Christ in times of tragedy?

This Jesus that we love…this relationship that we have.

So join with me in John, chapter 11.

Today I want us to begin in the first verse.

It says, /"Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick."/

We'll see that very story in the next chapter.

/"Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, 'Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.'"/

They send a messenger up to Jesus.

They send a prayer.

That's what a prayer is, isn't it?

It's a request.

It's communication.

We sort of "holify" it, but at its root level, a prayer should be not formal words that we just recount, not a model that we just repeat, but it's a communication.

It's a dialog that we have with God.

That's what Mary and Martha have done.

But you know what's striking about this?

What's telling about this, and what should be on every one of our hearts to learn this morning is exactly what they do and what they don't do.

Notice, if you will, the phrase in verse 3, /"Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick."/

Period.

End of quote.

They don't tell Jesus what to do.

You notice that?

Oh, when we have prayers before God, do we tell Jesus what to do? Do we say, "Lord, my mother is sick.

My child is sick.

Would You heal him?"

Do we go that far?

Do we tell Jesus, "Okay, You're God, here's what You need to do to fix my situation?"

They didn't tell Him what to do.

You know that reminds me of a couple of other instances where we see that.

First, Jesus own mother.

If you will remember at the wedding back in Cana back in John 2, she goes up to Jesus and she says, "The host of this wedding has run out of wine."

Period.

End of quote.

Jesus says, "Ma'am, what do you have to do with Me? It's not My time."

But she doesn't tell Him what to do.

She just goes to the servants and says, "Whatever He tells you to do, do it."

She doesn't make any requests.

The same thing happens really with Nicodemus when he comes to see Jesus and he says, "I know You're a man sent from God."

He really doesn't ask anything of Jesus, although he has a lot of questions on his heart.

Here is Mary and Martha.

Their brother whom they love and who they know Jesus loves is dying.

He is near death.

All they say is, "Lord, the one whom You love is sick."

What faith.

What a testament.

What a model for us of how to pray in tragedy.

They don't tell Jesus what to do, and also they don't ask Jesus to come.

They don't ask Him to heal him.