If I were to hold up a painted picture and ask what you think of it, there would be a variety of answers. Some might say it’s beautiful. Others might say it’s ugly or doesn’t make any sense. The reason that is, is because when it comes to art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Some works of art are immediately recognized as great art. For example, Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, or Michelangelo’s David. When people look at these works of art in person, they don’t marvel at the quality of the canvas, or the wonderful piece of marble or the beautiful frame. They marvel at the person who created it. A great piece of art leads us to glory in its creator.
In that frame of mind, we are God’s creation, and we were created for His glory. Unfortunately, we don’t reflect God’s glory as we should. In our sinful state, too often we want our own glory.
But if we want to bring glory to our Creator, where do we begin? That’s what this message is about. When we live as He created us to live—when we follow His plans for our lives—our lives bring glory to God. And that’s when we experience our greatest joy.
Today, I’ll be using the Gospel of John for our message, chapter 11. This story concerns Lazarus—his death and Jesus raising him from the dead. Jesus had received word that his friend, Lazarus, was ill. One might assume, since they were close friends, that Jesus would have hurried to Bethany to heal him. Instead, Jesus waited two days before starting His one-day journey to Bethlehem. When Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been dead for 4 days. Let’s pick up the story in verse 1.
READ John 11: 1-4. Did you notice what Jesus said? The significance of Lazarus’ sickness wasn’t that he would die, but Lazarus’ suffering would glorify God. Jesus recognized that the key issue wasn’t Lazarus’ death, but God’s Glory.
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When we face a difficult situation or a health concern, our greatest worry is usually not tied to God’s glory. Our greatest concern is that we want out of that situation as quickly as possible. We want to feel better as quickly as possible. We want immediate comfort and relief, we want the difficulty to go away—NOW.
That’s what Mary and Martha wanted. When Jesus finally arrived, Martha says in verse 21, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” Mary and Martha probably assumed that they knew what was best in their situation. How dare them to think they knew best, right?
But we do the same thing. We tend to think that if God loves us, He’ll make us comfortable. But frankly, we’ll have an eternity in heaven to be comfortable. BUT, when we face a challenge, we can trust that God will work for our good and for His glory.
Our lives, as well as our deaths, ought to bring glory to God. Paul said it this way in Philippians 1:20. “My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all courage, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death.”
Mary and Martha knew that Jesus loved Lazarus. They believed that Jesus could heal him. But now, they were going to learn something even greater about Jesus. Not only could He heal the sick, but He could raise the dead! Jesus was going to take His friends to a deeper place in their walk with Him than they had been before. The sisters were looking for healing, but Jesus focused on glory.
I preached a message back in April 2012 entitled, “The Purpose of Lazarus’ Death.” In that message, I asked, “How could Lazarus’ death glorify God?” Here are several ways that I listed: Lazarus’ death glorified God
• By showing God’s desire for man to have life.
• By showing God’s power to give life.
• By showing His approval of Christ by which He proved that HE really did love the world enough to send His Son to save the world.
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And now we come to the climatic part of our story. READ John 11: 38-40. When it comes to timing, God is never in a hurry. It is we who are in the hurry. No situation is impossible with God! The Bible tells us so. The Bible shows us so.
Upon Jesus’ arrival, He commanded the stone to be removed from the entrance to the tomb. To those with Him that day, His request seemed quite impractical. Martha reminded Jesus of the unpleasant odors that would assault them. “But Lord, there’s already a stench because he’s been dead 4 days.” The KJV says, “But Lord, by now he stinketh.” “He stinketh, Lord, he stinketh.”
Mary and Martha probably wondered why God had placed them in this situation. Jesus’ actions must have had them guessing what He was up to. They knew Jesus loved them but they couldn’t understand why a loving God would allow a loyal follower to suffer and die. Lazarus was Jesus’ good friend, yet he had apparently contracted this sudden illness and dies abruptly. It made no sense to them.
You see, the Jewish people had a belief that a deceased person’s soul lingered near the corpse for 3 days. On the 4th day, the soul finally departed. So, the mourners kept hoping for recovery until the 4th day, when all hope was lost. Now let’s think just a minute.
Jesus was Jewish. So, He knew of the Jewish belief of no hope on the 4th day of recovery after death. I have a feeling that is why Jesus waited to come. He made sure it was after all hope was lost that He came. Otherwise, what He was about to do would be just considered a phenomena of their beliefs. If Lazarus came back to life within the 3 days of him dying, that was already their hope. But, on the 4th day, that hope was gone. So, NOW, Jesus comes on the scene. Lazarus had been dead 4 days when Jesus arrived, and Lazarus’ recovery was now deemed impossible.
Remember too, that Jesus said this was going to bring glory to God. READ John 11:41-43. Notice that Jesus prayed first. His petition to God was confident and thankful. He already knew what God was going to do. So, He thanked God in advance for what was about to happen.
Jesus knew His Father always heard Him when He prayed. But notice that He says, “But because of the crowd standing here I said this, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” What Jesus was about to do, He didn’t want the glory. He wanted God to get the glory.
Then it says in verse 43 that Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” Why did He shout? Did shouting make Jesus’ command more powerful? No. It may have been that Jesus wanted everyone within hearing distance to witness the miracle. Jesus wasn’t praying timidly. He wasn’t praying, “Now God, if it might possibly be Your will, would you please do this?” No. Jesus was putting His work on display for everyone to witness.
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Ok. Let’ pause for a moment. Think about some of the needs in your life.
• Maybe it’s a broken relationship.
• A wayward child.
• A financial need.
Look at the problems in our nation today:
• Crime
• Violence
• Loss
• Hopelessness
• Drug addiction
• Immorality
• Broken homes
• Pornography
• Corruption in high offices
The remedy for these problems may seem as overwhelming as raising a dead man, but nothing is beyond God’s ability to heal and remedy. NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD. (sing, nothing is impossible, when you put your trust in God) Jesus’ conversation with Mary and Martha reminds us to trust Him and we will see the glory of God at work.
READ John 11:44. Surely Mary and Martha and Lazarus had told their neighbors about Jesus. Some may have believed. Some may have been skeptical. Much the same as today. Then Lazarus died. People may have wondered how the great Healer could allow one of His best friends to die prematurely. People may have speculated how things might have been different had the famous miracle worker come earlier.
Jesus had finally arrived but many of Mary and Martha’s friends and mourners shared the view that Jesus was too late to do any good. When Jesus insisted that the stone be rolled away from Lazarus’ tomb, a crowd was already present. Moments later, Jesus’ commanding voice rang out, “Lazarus, come out!”
Mary and Martha certainly praised God for this great miracle of receiving Lazarus back from the dead, but it didn’t stop there. Others saw and believed. Christ was exalted as Messiah. So, even though Jesus did this to glorify God, Jesus was also glorified in that:
• He had the opportunity to do the work of God.
• He was able to demonstrate God’s power.
• He showed compassion.
• He strengthened the faith of believers.
• And He led unbelievers to believe.
READ John 11:45. And there it is. Many more believed. Talk about finding good out of any circumstance as we talked about last Sunday. In an extraordinary turn of events, the awesome power of God reversed the corruption and decay of death and brought Lazarus’ corpse back to life. Imagine the surprise of the onlookers as Lazarus made his way to the entrance of the tomb, still wrapped in his grave clothes. Even more astounding, imagine Lazarus’ surprise!
The first-century Jewish burial custom was to place the body of the deceased individual on a long, narrow sheet. The feet were placed at one end of the sheet. The sheet was folded over the head of the deceased individual and covered the body. The arms of the deceased were tied to the body and the ankles were bound together. The head was also wrapped separately. The two halves of the long sheet were bound together to secure the body. Unlike the practice of Egyptian mummification, the Jews wrapped the bodies rather loosely, which would explain how Lazarus was able to move rather freely from the tomb.
Jesus commands, “Unwrap him and let him go.” This miracle had its desired effect. Many of those there saw and believed. For many, the evidence of what had occurred was just too much to continue to deny. They couldn’t simply ignore what had happened.
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Let’s see if we can apply this to our lives today. It may be the greatest glory that Martha and Mary ever brought to their Lord when they trusted Him in the midst of their greatest pain.
Sometimes it’s the same for us. We can bring great honor to Christ as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. It’s like I said last week, if we assume that our purpose in life is to be happy and healthy, then our difficult circumstances will confuse us when they inevitably come. But if we desire above all else to glorify our Savior, then we will seize every opportunity—both joyful and painful—to glorify Christ.
How have you seen God glorified in the midst of difficulty recently?
Think about YOUR situation, YOUR circumstance that you are going through right now. What step of obedience is God asking you to take? How can you glorify Him in this situation?
For instance, I performed two funerals this past week. One for my sister-in-law, and one for another beloved church member. And those events are sad to say the least as we say our final farewells to our loved ones.
But even through the tragedy of Cathy’s death, and the passing or Marlene, we glorified God by trusting in His promise of eternal life and a home in paradise with Him.
So, you see, instead of letting our problems define us, when we let God work through them for His glory, others notice. When we live our lives according to God’s will, we honor Him.
And you can honor God right now by accepting His Son Jesus Christ as you personal Savior if never have before. Won’t you respond to His call on you heart, right now?
