Sermon Tone Analysis

Sunday, April 27, 2008

*The evidence of faith!*

John 11:1-57

/14 //So then He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 //and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may *believe*.

But let us go to him.”

/

/47//. . .

“What are we accomplishing?” they asked.

“Here is this man performing many miraculous signs.

48 //If we let Him go on like this, everyone will *believe* in Him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

/John 11:14-15 & 47-48 NIV

*-----------*

Today, I want us to *try to answer* the question: *What does Jesus mean when He uses the word “believe”?*

John tells us in *John **20:31** (NIV) *that he has *written this gospel* so that we would *believe*.

/31 //But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.

/

So, we understand that *the purpose and the goal *are to *get us to believe*.

But, what does that *involve*?

What does Jesus *mean by “believe”?*

*Thursday night* I got home *fairly late* and fixed myself *dinner* and sat down in *front of the television* to watch the game show, *Are you smarter than a 5th grader?*

It appears that it’s *a variation of* the game show, *Millionaire*.

So, this *very intelligent man* has successfully made his way *up to the final question* that would give him *$1,000,000* if he could *correctly answer* the question.

The *consequence* for a *wrong answer* is that he would *only go home with $25,000*.

If he “*dropped out of school*,” that’s the phrase they use when the *contestant doesn’t want to go any further*, he could go home *with $500,000*.

At that point he would have to *make a public statement* that he was *not smarter than a 5th grader*.

So, we, the audience, were *entertained by the decision making process*.

Does he *believe that he could answer the question* and win the $1,000,000 or does he assess that *the odds are just simply too great* that he *wouldn’t know the answer* and thus concludes that *his faith just can’t push him to take the risk*?

You see, *what Jesus is asking us to do* by believing in Him *bears some similarity* to this man’s challenge.

*The stakes are even higher* with our response to Jesus.

*This is a life and death matter* – that’s *eternal life* or *eternal death*.

Pretty *high stakes*.

And, *the process of assessing* whether we can believe *that Jesus will really deliver on His promises* may also share much in common with this man *trying to decide if he is going to go for the final question* and possibly win a million dollars.

In his case, it’s a matter of *how much confidence does he have in his knowledge*?

In our case, it’s a matter of *how much confidence do we have in Jesus*?

*Is Jesus sufficiently trustworthy enough that we will put our lives on the line with Him?* Will we *go over to His side*, as opposed to *all other* *options*, including being *our own masters*?

Are we willing to *take the consequences of doing so* in order to *gain the benefits*?

I believe these are *some of the questions we need to consider* as we try to understand *what Jesus means* when He calls us to *believe in Him*.

As I mentioned last week, *the central story in John 11* is the *raising of Lazarus*.

But, *Jesus’ purpose* for raising Lazarus was *to overwhelmingly display His glory* that the *confidence level* of those *observing* it and those *hearing* about it *would rise and translate into faith*.

Just a *brief note*.

The words *believe* and *faith* are like *twin sisters*.

A simple way to *look at these words* is that *believe is the verb form* and *faith is the noun form* of the same *root word*.

So, we can say, *someone who has faith believes*.

Or, *to believe is to have faith*.

To believe is to be *persuaded that something is true*.

Thus, if you *believe something is true *you have *faith in that something*.

As *an aside*, the *frequency of a word’s us*e can give us a *clue* about *what is important* to an author.

For instance, of the *four writers* of the Gospels, *Matthew* uses the verb “*believe*” *ten times*, *Mark* uses it *ten times*, and *Luke* uses it *nine times*.

Do you want to *guess* *how often John* uses the verb “*believe*” in his Gospel?

*Nearly 10 times as often*.

John uses the verb “*believe*” *99 times*.

[1] That is *so fitting* with his *purpose in writing*.

Now, again, *the question* is, *what does Jesus mean when He speaks of believe?*

*From the beginning* of the story, Jesus establishes that *Lazarus’ sickness* was going to *bring glory to God’s Son*.

*John 11:3-4 (NIV) *

/3 //So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.”

/

/4 //When He heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death.

No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”/

Here He has *informed His disciples* what would be *the end result* of Lazarus’ sickness.

But, to these same disciples *He makes a rather counter-intuitive statement* that had to have caused His disciples to *scratch their heads in puzzlement*.

/14 //So then He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 //and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.

But let us go to him.”

/

There in verse 15 is the *first use of the word “believe”* in this chapter.

But, I’m *not sure the disciples understood* what Jesus was talking about, particularly about *what they were supposed to believe*.

*Why was Jesus glad* that He was not in Bethany to keep Lazarus from dying?

That is *a really strange concept*, unless you are the *Son of God* or you *know Him very well*.

But, Jesus is saying to His disciples that *the events were unfolding the way they were* *for their benefit*.

“For your sake,” He says, “*I am glad I was not there*.”

And, how were they going to *benefit from His absence* from Bethany?

The disciples were *going to believe*.

Now what seems clear here is that *Jesus was letting His disciples know in advance* that they were going to *experience an inward change* as a result of Lazarus’ death.

That change was going to have *something to do with what they* *believed*.

As we move on in our text, *the scene changes* from a place east of the Jordan *to a place just outside of **Bethany*.

Word got to Martha that *Jesus was about to enter her hometown* and before He could arrive, *she went out to meet Him*.

It is *in this interaction* that we find *one of the strongest statements* from Jesus *about faith*.

/21 //“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if You had been here, my brother would not have died.

22 //But I know that even now God will give You whatever You ask.” /

The word *“believe” is not recorded in these two verses*, but we’d have to admit that *Martha is expressing strong faith* in the midst of *her* *complaint*, or if you prefer, *her observation*.

But, what is *also revealed* in this interchange is that *Martha’s faith had room to grow*.

She could *state with confidence* that God would *give Jesus whatever He asked*.

But, *could she imagine* all that *He would ask*?

I contend that *she could not imagine* Jesus restoring Lazarus to life *after being dead for four days*.

Had that been in the *realm of possibilities for her*, I believe *she would have answered differently* to Jesus’ proclamation.

/23 //Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

/

/24 //Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

/

You see, *Martha didn’t think Jesus was telling her* anything she *didn’t* *already know and believe*.

“Yes, I know about the resurrection, Jesus.”

But, *she didn’t realize that Jesus was talking about* calling Lazarus *out of his grave that day* to resume living; for him to *go home to his sisters* and *take out the trash* and *return to his job*, if they would *have him back*.

And *who can blame her* for not imagining this possibility?

*How many funeral services* do you go to where at the end of the service *the dead person sits up* in his coffin and *joins you for the reception*?

Then, *rather than trying to persuade her* with words about what He *was about to do* that would *blow the lid off her faith*, He *reinforces* what she *already believes*.

/25 //Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.

He who *believes in Me* will live, even though he dies; 26 //and whoever *lives and believes in Me* will never die.

Do you *believe* this?” /

/27 //“Yes, Lord,” she told Him, “I *believe* that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

/

This *affirmation of her faith* was a *powerful statement*.

For someone to say what she said, we would *rightly presume* him or her *to be a true believer* in Jesus Christ.

She was *affirming* that *Jesus is the resurrection and the life*.

She was *agreeing* that *believing in Jesus will result in eternal life*.

And, she was *confessing* that *Jesus was the Christ*, the Messiah, who came into the world *to be Lord* over *all people* and *all nations*.

It was a *profound statement* and stands *right alongside* of *Peter’s confession* that *Jesus is the Christ*, the Son of God.

Just a *side note* about that.

*Peter’s confession* that is *nearly* *identical to Martha’s*, is recorded in each of *the other three Gospels*, but is *not recorded *in *John’s Gospel*, according to my limited research.

(cf.