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As we continue to read this last epistle of Paul, he was going to be executed not long after he wrote this epistle to Timothy. And here he's given instruction to Timothy to be faithful in the ministry.
Paul calls upon himself as an example for Timothy to follow. And then he exhorted Timothy to watch over his own life and his own walk with view to the ministry to which God had called him. 2 Timothy 2.
2 Timothy 2 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
Sharon's suffering is a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my Gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal.
But the Word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with Him, we will also live with Him.
If we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will also deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. Remind them of these things and charge them before God, not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the Word of Truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene.
Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swore from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal.
The Lord knows those who are His. And let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Now in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable.
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. So flee youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting His opponents with gentleness.
God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by Him to do His will. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, there are so many wonderful truths in this passage that we just read. So much instruction. Lord, I pray that we would reflect upon these instructions that as a church that You would bind us together in love, that we would not be quarrelsome, that we would not engage in silly controversies.
Or idle babble.
We pray, Lord, that our conversation would always be holy, that it would always be intentional, that it would always lift You up high above all else. We pray, Lord, that as we fellowship this afternoon, that these would be our thoughts, that these would be our words, that we would reflect upon the sermon and discuss it and grow in grace and truth.
We pray, Lord, that as we listen to Lars teach, that we would hear what the Word of God says, that we would focus on what it says, and that we would strive to apply it to our lives in the power of the Spirit.
We pray, Lord, that the things that we learn here that would not just go into a bucket and stop there, but that we would entrust what we've learned to other faithful people, that they might teach others also.
We pray, Lord, that this church would be a beacon in this area, that the truth would go out and that it would touch people's lives. Lord, we exalt You and we thank You that we are a part of Your work, and we thank You for this time together.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Well, let's turn in our Bibles once again to John chapter 11, as we continue to address this interaction of Jesus with Martha and Mary, even as their brother Lazarus was yet in the tomb. And of course, this is in preparation of him raising Lazarus from the dead, which we'll probably get to next week, Lord willing.
And so in this episode, we have this conversation that Jesus has with the two sisters, Martha and Mary. We read of our Lord's interaction with these two sisters in two parts. And so Jesus first spoke with the older sister Martha in verses 17 through 27.
We read these last week. Let's read them again. So when Jesus came, He found that He had already been in the tomb four days, Lazarus. Now, Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away, and many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother.
Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him. But Mary was sitting in the house. Now, Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give you.
Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to Him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to Him, yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world. And so, after speaking to Martha, our Lord then spoke to Mary, and we have the substance of that recorded in verses 28 through 37, and so we'll read these verses.
And when she, that would have been Martha, said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, the teacher has come and is calling for you. And as soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him.
And now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. And the Jews who were with her in the house and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, she is going to the tomb to weep there.
And then when Mary came where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. And therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews came with her weeping, He groaned in the Spirit and was troubled.
And He said, where have you laid Him? They said to Him, Lord, come and see. And we have the shortest verse in the Bible, Jesus wept. And the Jews said, see how He loved Him. And some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying?
Now, last Lord's Day, we were unable to address all of what we intended to that was in our notes regarding this exchange between Jesus and Martha. And so today we want to catch up where we left off. And in doing so, we may repeat a few matters, hopefully embellishing them somewhat for our understanding and appreciation.
But we do so in order to help us to understand the context of the entire passage that's important for understanding and appreciating what's before us. And so in verse 21, we read that when Martha approached Jesus she expressed a note of sorrow as well as a word of faith and hope.
Verse 21 records, now Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And that was a true statement. And although she was certainly disappointed and perhaps near despondency because he had not been there in time, nevertheless, her confidence in Jesus as a man of God had not diminished.
And so she said to Jesus in verse 22, but even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. And so Martha here was not in these words expecting Jesus to raise her brother from the dead.
She had no inkling whatsoever that was about to take place. She was merely asserting that she knew that Jesus had such a relationship with God that whatever he asked of God, God would grant to him. In other words, she knew that God would not refuse to answer any prayer that Jesus offered to him.
And so she in no way sees any fault or failure on the part of Jesus for not having arrived in time as it were. She knew and confessed that Jesus was a man of God from her perspective. That's what she understands and is confessing at this moment.
A few verses later, she gives a full confession. It's clear that the Holy Spirit revealed to her more fully the person of Jesus. And the Holy Spirit did this through the words that Jesus spoke to Martha.
But here Martha revealed a lack of understanding and therefore a lack of understanding and weakness of faith in her friend Jesus. Yes, God would answer anything that Jesus would ask of him, but in his response to her, Jesus essentially told her it wasn't necessary for him to ask God regarding the resurrection of her brother.
He had the authority in and of himself to perform this miracle. That's what he's asserting. And so it would not be necessary for him to ask God to intervene, for he himself is God. That's his claim here.
It's another statement of his deity who had the power to raise her brother from the dead. We then read Jesus's word of promise in verse 23. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. That's a blessed promise.
And Martha's response was one of faith and confidence. She had no doubt about this. She affirmed her unshakable faith in the future bodily resurrection of the dead. Verse 24, Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection of the last day.
That was not in doubt. She was in no doubt about the future bodily resurrection of the dead. We performed a funeral yesterday for Marie Chester, who used to work quite a bit in the food and clothes closet ministry, and some of you have known her all your lives.
And we were in the, of course, Evergreen Cemetery yesterday with probably 50, 60 people standing there. And I called attention to this incident, all right, that this grave is not the end of our existence.
And Martha knew this with regard to her brother. A future bodily resurrection of the dead. And this is essential to true Christian faith. We believe in the future resurrection of the body. The Christian hope is not deliverance from this body, escape from this body as a spirit or soul, but rather the redemption of this body, the resurrected body, the blessed hope is in the future resurrection.
Although it will be a blessed state when we depart from this world and we go to be with the Lord Jesus waiting for that day. But although Martha was in no doubt about the blessed future, it did not seem to console her very greatly at this moment in her grief.
And so as another once wrote, may the Lord forgive us of undervaluing the glory of the blessed promises God gives us. That should have been a source of comfort to her itself. As we emphasized last week, when Martha responded to our Lord's words, she was affirming what all Jews of faith believed and confessed.
She was convinced there would be a future bodily resurrection from the dead of all those who had salvation given to them by God's grace. And all Old Testament believers believed in the future resurrection of the body.
Martha was in no doubt about this matter. Notice also, however, her understanding as to when the future resurrection would take place. She said to the Lord, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
We mentioned this last week, of course, we wanna reiterate it and reemphasize it today. This is a phrase found in six places in John's Gospel. It speaks of a future single day, the last day of human history, in which the general resurrection of the dead will take place, and Jesus Christ will execute judgment on the entire human race.
A single day. A general resurrection of the dead and a general judgment of all mankind. All human beings will be raised. That is, resurrected from the dead. Some onto everlasting life, others to everlasting punishment in hell.
All the elect will be delivered from condemnation on that last day, the great day of judgment. The Lord's judgment of their lives will prove they were true Christians as their words and their thoughts and their actions and their attitudes are brought to light by King Jesus.
Christians will be affirmed in their faith and they're saved by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, but their lives testify that they are believers. All others will also be raised from the dead.
All bodies come forth from the grave, but they'll be judged and damned for their works and they'll be sent into everlasting punishment. This is a clear, plain teaching of the Bible. The judgment of their words, their thoughts, their actions and attitudes will prove they were ones who never possessed saving faith in this life.
The final judgment will make that clear to all and to them. Now, not everyone believes there will be a single last day of history when the Lord Jesus returns to raise the dead and judge the world. Many well-meaning, but we would say mistaken evangelicals claim there'll be a number of future last days and to oftentimes to get them thinking, they've never even considered it before and they start referring to these future days.
Are you talking about the first last day or the last last day from your perspective? And they begin to think twice about it. Are you talking about the first second coming or the second second coming of Christ?
Because they believe in two stages of the second coming of Christ. People oftentimes don't think through these things. Actually, they make the doctrine of eschatology and that's the doctrine of last things much more complicated than what the Scriptures set forth.
The Word of God teaches that there will be a final day of history, the last day. When Jesus returns and He'll conduct the judgment of the human race. On that day, one of two destinies will be assigned to every human being.
Either eternal punishment for the damned or eternal life for all those who have Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Consider these few places in Scripture that convey this truth. It's just not one or two places.
It permeates Scripture. Paul proclaimed the final day of judgment that would occur with the coming of Christ when he spoke before the pagans in Athens on Mars Hill. Truly these times of idolatry is what he's referring to.
Of ignorance God overlooked. But now commands all men everywhere to repent because He has appointed a day. He didn't say He's appointed a number of days in the future. He's appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom He has ordained.
And He's given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead. There is going to be a day in which the world is going to be judged. Second, Paul wrote of the general day of judgment in Romans 2.
He was writing to some who thought that they were going to be judged according to a different standard. That God was going to give them a pass because they were simply Jewish people and they deserved it or warranted it.
But Paul said otherwise. We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. Do you think this old man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?
Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you're treasuring up for yourself with wrath, and I italicize it, emboldened it, in the day of wrath, a singular day, and revelation or unveiling of the righteous judgment of God who will render to each one according to his deeds.
And then he mentions the two categories of people, eternal life, eternal damnation. Eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good, seek for glory, honor, and immortality. That's what Christians do.
But to those who are self-seeking and who do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath. There's damnation. Tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who works what is good, as God defines it and describes it in the Bible, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for there's no partiality with God.
A single judgment, a separation, the grace of eternal life given to those whose lives clearly exhibited they had faith in Jesus Christ, as seen by their attitudes, their words, and their actions. And those who live for themselves in total disregard of Jesus Christ as Lord, they receive what is due them as well.
And that is indignation and wrath when the wrath of God comes upon them to the uttermost. A single day, a single day of judgment, two destinies for the human race. Third, our Lord Jesus spoke of the day of judgment when people either are justified, and in this passage, being justified is not justification by faith alone.
That's not what he's talking about, being declared righteous through faith and having your sins forgiven through faith alone. But in this justification, he's speaking about being vindicated. Here we are claiming to be Christians.
We claim to have faith in Jesus Christ and we're making these claims. And on the final day of judgment, when our lives are examined, we will be vindicated. We'll be justified in our claim that we're believers.
Our lives will demonstrate, yes, that we were believers. And that's what is being spoken about in this passage in Matthew chapter 12. Either make the tree good and its fruit good or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad for a tree is known by its fruit.
Brood of vipers, how can you being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. An evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.
Two ways of life. But I say to you that every idle word men may speak, they will give an account of in the day of judgment. For by your words, you will be justified. In other words, your speech is going to betray the fact you're a Christian.
And by your words, you'll be condemned. Those are the unsaved. And their speech reveals they weren't Christians. The things they talk about, it's not just talking about coarse and foul language, but the nature of their conversation, the things they desire delight in, and the things they have no interest in, no concern about, and they never talk about.
Our speech will be a suitable basis of judgment on the day of judgment. And that will distinguish Christians from non-Christians when King Jesus exercises that judgment. And so on this future day of judgment, two destinies are pronounced.
There are some whose words will prove that they are true Christians. There will be others whose words will convict them of their sin that they did not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Two destinies for two peoples are set forth as the outcome of one day of judgment.
And I would suggest that our dispensational friends, those of you who have ears here, let them hear, have no place in their entire scenario where this kind of judgment takes place. This is only true of our understanding as Reformed believers who believe in historic Protestant teaching of Scripture.
Four, the Lord told of the day when all nations would be gathered before Him, and He would separate all peoples into two groups, the redeemed and the damned. Again, a general judgment, general resurrection, general judgment, separation.
And so we read in Matthew 25, when the Son of Man shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory. And before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.
And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. And then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
And then I left off a few verses where He pronounces those on the left to go into everlasting damnation. But there's a general separation after a general resurrection, it's a general judgment, and the two destinies of mankind are displayed and determined.
And then fifth, Paul wrote to the Christians in the church at Thessalonica that they would be ready and prepared for that day when God would bring judgment upon the wicked. But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you.
For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman.
They shall not escape, but you, brethren, are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. Again, this day is coming upon the entire world, and yet Christians are ready for that day because they see what's happening, they prepare themselves in advance.
The day of the Lord is coming even as a thief in the night. And as often is taught but wrongly taught, Jesus coming as a thief does not speak of a secret rapture of the church like a thief sneaking in at night, stealing your goods, and then fleeing or getting away without being detected.
But rather, the Lord Jesus coming as a thief speaks of His unexpected return suddenly in which He'll catch unbelievers unaware and unprepared for His coming. When that day arrives, sudden destruction would come upon the unsaved.
But that destruction would not come upon Christians for they would be ready and prepared when that day arrived. Some will be ready, those who are in Christ. Others will not be ready, those who are without Christ.
And so here again, we read of the one day when both the saved and the unsaved meet their final destiny. The whole proposed scenario of future events according to the dispensationalists is errant, in our opinion.
The left-behind series should be left behind us, frankly. It's nonsense. And remember, it itself declares itself to be fiction. And yet sadly, most who claim to be Bible-believers learn their doctrine of end times based upon fiction.
It's not Bible, sadly. How did our Lord respond to Martha's affirmation of faith in the future bodily resurrection of the dead? Well, we read in verses 25 and 26, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? What a wonderful question. And I ask it many times at the graveside.
This is what Martha believed. Do you believe this? There are several matters we may point out respecting our Lord's declaration. It's getting rather redundant almost. Here's another I am statement. I am the resurrection and the life.
The Greek words, the ego eimi. Ego is the Greek pronoun for I. Eimi is the verb to be. I am. And this is, again, a statement of Jesus declaring himself to be Jehovah, the covenant God of his people, the God who appeared in the burning bush to Moses.
The I am is Jesus Christ. This is his claim. Now, it should be regarded as our Lord going beyond the true statement that Martha made in verse 22 when she said, but even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.
Here, Jesus is essentially saying, yes, the Father does indeed grant me whatever I ask of him. However, I'm God. I'm the source of life. And it's I who gives life to whom I will. And so he's essentially correcting Martha and stretching Martha to see his true identity as God incarnate.
Richard Lenski, the Lutheran commentator, he had a tendency to give a good explanation of the Greek terms. And he wrote these words. Here's another mighty I am, ego eimi. This makes every notion such as the Father merely grant something to Jesus at his request disappear completely.
The inadequate is set aside by the adequate. No resurrection and no life exist except as they are embodied in Jesus. When he is absent, resurrection and life are absent. When he is present, resurrection and life are present.
And that's the force and the intention of Jesus' words to Martha. J .C. Ryle described our Lord as exalting his own person greatly in these words. I am the resurrection and the life. In this and the following verses, our Lord corrects Martha's feeble and inadequate notions and sets before her more exalted views of himself.
As Chrysostom, he was the silver tongue, the golden mouth preacher of the early church, says he shows her that he needed none to help him. He tells her that he is not merely a human teacher of the resurrection, but the divine author of all resurrection, whether spiritual or physical, and the root and the fountain of all life.
I am the high and holy one who by taking man's nature upon me have ennobled his body and made resurrection possible. I am the great first cause and procurer of man's resurrection, the conqueror of death, the savior of the body.
I am the great spring and source of all life, and whatever life anyone has, eternal, spiritual, physical, is all owing to me. All that are spiritually quickened are quickened by me. Separate me, there is no life at all.
Death came by Adam, life comes by me. That's what he was asserting to Martha in these words. I am the resurrection and the life. So in other words, where Martha confessed her confidence that God would grant any request that Jesus requested of him, Jesus declared that he had the power in himself to do whatever he purposed to do.
As Matthew Henry wrote, Martha believed that at his prayer God would give anything, but he would have her know that by his word he could work anything. Now Jesus had said to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life.
What is the difference between these terms? Resurrection and life. Resurrection is coming to life from death, and then life is the blessed existence enjoyed upon that resurrection. I am the resurrection and the life.
Now, resurrection of course proceeds and makes possible life. Now the state in which Lazarus lied when Jesus came to him was death. Due to sin, fallen man is actually subject to three forms of death when you think about it.
First, he lies in spiritual death, having been born in sin. Second, as he passes from this life, he's subject secondly to physical death in a cold lifeless grave from which he's powerless to come forth.
And then thirdly, of course, he's in a state of eternal death by the sentence of God's law, eternal hell, which is the second death. But God purposed to save us from this threefold death, and so he gave his son to have life in himself that he then imparts to his own, saving them from death in all its forms and from all its power.
We should believe that Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life. We probably all claim it, but do we really believe it, that in him and in him alone is life? We should not be as Martha and believe only that God will raise the physical dead from the graves on the last day.
We're to believe that Jesus is the resurrection and life even now, who can come to those who are spiritually dead and raise them to life. Here are the words of Edward Griffin, a 19th century preacher who happened to be born right up here in Wrenge, New Hampshire.
His dad was a pastor up there. The most abandoned sinner who's condemned by the law to the lowest hell by faith in him, Christ, may be acquitted of all his guilt. There is the last hope of an expiring race.
There is the only hope which anxious parents can have for their perishing offspring and dying sinners for their own souls. Hope's in Christ, not in those persons in and of themselves as to what they might do, is the point being made.
And of this threefold state of death, Christ delivers those who believe on him. It's because he came to our rescue by entering our fallen world, becoming one of us and one with us.
Except for our sin,.
He did so in order to lift us out of our sin, from our sin. Jesus Christ is the sinless one who became sin for us. And it was the Father who brought this about so that we might be raised in the righteousness of his Son.
For our sake he, God the Father, made him, God the Son, to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Again, Edward Griffin wrote of our Lord, delivering us from the three states of sin to which we were subject.
The work that Christ came to accomplish was the most difficult and to the eye of sense an impossible task. It was nothing less than to raise the dead. He saw a world completely sunk under the dominion of a threefold death and utterly and forever lost.
First he saw them by the apostasy of their first father, Adam, plunge into spiritual death, dead in trespasses and sins, dreadful state, more loathsome than the grave of Lazarus, every holy principle extinct, their souls dead to every emotion of love to God, to every impulse of gratitude, as insensible to mercies, to divine love and beauty as the bones that are moldering under the clods of the valley and doomed by the law of God to an eternal abandonment to such a state.
And secondly, he saw them condemned to temporal death, their bodies filled with disease and pain, gradually wasting into food for worms, preparing to expire in agonies and to rot in the grave. He saw decay and death wither on all the enjoyments of man, on his father and mother, on his wife and children, on his house and lands, on the very fabric of nature, which for the sin of man was doomed to dissolution.
And thirdly, he saw them actually consigned by the sentence of the law to eternal death. Oh, the insupportable ignominy, to be judged unworthy to live in the light of heaven, unworthy to share in the infinite love itself, unfit for the society of holy beings, fit for only to be the company of devils and fuel for the flames.
He saw them condemned to welter under the wrath of the Almighty for eternity. This is how the Lord Jesus saw you and me. This is the way our Lord saw us. We had no power to bring ourselves out of that state.
No more power than Lazarus had to come out of that tomb. He was wrapped in graveclaws and he was in a tomb sealed with a stone and he was dead, incapable of coming forth. And so the Lord had pity upon us.
He purposed to bring us to life. In Him is life. He is the resurrection and the life. Now, interestingly, as the Lord interacted with Martha, it seemed like he was delaying somewhat his action. He didn't immediately raise Lazarus, did he?
Because he actually had a greater purpose than just raising Lazarus from the grave. And this purpose, of course, was in helping Martha and Mary and others to grow in their understanding of Him and their faith in Him.
And so he didn't immediately raise his friend. He had a greater desire, as he realized, in his disciples than just raising Lazarus. And he has a greater desire in your life and mine than just relieving us of what's afflicting us.
He has designs for us through these things. They had no clue that this was his purpose, but he had a purpose and he would accomplish it. He delayed in a similar case earlier when he raised up a young man healed of a deathly illness.
Here are the comments of Herman Ritterbos, a Reformed commentator of the 20th century. He continues to delay because before manifesting his glory, he seeks to unite his disciples to himself on a level deeper than can be achieved by removing their sorrow over Lazarus.
See, the worst thing that can happen is all of a sudden you're relieved of everything that troubles you. All the trials and difficulties and not receive the spiritual benefit that the Lord intends to come through those things.
We're nearsighted. We don't have perspective. We don't see the end from the beginning. So we have to trust ourselves to the Lord Jesus who does all things well. Whatever he ordains is right, as we saw earlier.
Herman Ritterbos. So he continues to delay because before manifesting his glory, he seeks to unite his disciples to himself on a level deeper than can be achieved by removing their sorrow over Lazarus.
Jesus deals pastorally with Martha in a way strongly reminiscent of the course of his earlier encounter with a royal official. There too, a person in great personal distress turns to Jesus. And there too, the miracle is delayed as it were.
At stake in the encounter with Jesus is not just and not primarily that a man gets his deathly ill son back or a woman her dead brother. The life and resurrection which Jesus speaks and that he imparts are more than that.
It is this that the delay is designed to make us see. And that's his purpose in all of our difficulties as Christians. That we would see things, see him, in a better light, a better understanding, a better perspective.
I know how difficult it is when you're under great stress and difficulty and you're grieving to see anything past that. But that's why we need the Holy Spirit to instruct us and give us grace to humble ourselves under the dealings of our God.
He's dealing with us rightly. And he'll take us through and accomplish his purposes through it. And so the Lord's delays may be distressing to us. But we may be assured they're also beneficial for us.
The Lord does all things well and has our best interest on his heart. For the Christian, there is no curse. The curse is removed. For the Christian, everything is blessing. Not that everything is not good in and of itself.
Evil things happen. This world is a fallen world and we're sinful and we've got sin happening. But nothing happens to us that he doesn't bring good out of. And so we are no longer subject to the curse, but we are under God's eternal, unending, undiminished blessing.
And we ought to be able to see that in faith and not build our sense of who the Lord is and his dealings with us by what our eyes see, what people tell us and what our old heart thinks, but rather by what the word of God reveals to us and teaches us as the Holy Spirit illuminates our minds to the truth that's in Jesus Christ.
But our Lord was pressing something quite profound through these words. I am the resurrection and the life. Again, the Jews understood the resurrection and life as primarily future realizations of God's promises in history.
Resurrection and true life can only be experienced upon the resurrection, was their thinking. God's promises of the future, and that, in their view, was a distant future. This was Martha's understanding.
And yes, she was right. Her brother would rise on the last day. But our Lord was declaring something else to her, that God's promise of resurrection and life were now present in his person. He didn't say, I will be the resurrection and life.
I am the resurrection and life. He who believes, present tense, present participle, he who believes on me as life. This is what he's pressing upon her, that this resurrection and life were now present in his person.
And so as one stated rightly, what to the Jews is a future hope is to Christians a present reality. But we don't see it necessarily. We saw the same idea conveyed by our Lord back in John 5. When he declared, most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word, believes in him who sent me, has, present tense, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed.
That's talking about when you were born again, regenerated. You passed from spiritual death unto spiritual life. Who's passed from death unto life, most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming, and not will one day be, he's not talking about a future bodily resurrection of the dead, he's talking about a present spiritual resurrection of the soul, people coming out of spiritual death into spiritual life.
The hour is coming, and now is when the dead, that's the spiritually dead, will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. New life, whole new life in existence. And he gave the reason why.
For as the Father is life in himself, so he's granted the Son to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. And so here in John five, he was speaking of spiritual death, spiritual resurrection that takes place when a person is converted to Christ.
Life is in Jesus Christ himself. And he imparts that life to people he calls unto salvation, those whom he's purposed to raise from spiritual death to spiritual life. And those who have heard him calling upon them to believe on him as Lord and Savior respond in faith, they've already encountered a spiritual resurrection.
The fact that they've come to him in faith indicates that they're alive now, whereas before they were dead. Faith isn't the cause of life, faith is the evidence of life. One need not wait until the last day to enjoy the blessings of resurrection and life, for these things are in Jesus Christ.
And the one who has Christ now has true and eternal life now, is what Jesus was declaring. And so we would advocate, and I can't stress this enough, we would advocate that without Jesus Christ, it's not possible for one to experience true life, both future and present resurrection life.
The Bible must be more than a mere source of good and sound principles by which we live. And yet often preaching and teaching has been reduced to that. Here's what the Bible says. Here are eight steps how you can become a happy housewife.
The Bible is not that kind of book. It reveals Jesus Christ in whom is life. We are not going to reduce ourselves to moralistic teaching and preaching. We're preaching Christ. In him alone is life. The Bible must reveal the person of Christ so that faith in him results and faith in him continues.
This is the reason for the reservation we have for all 12-step programs that attempt to help people through biblical principles, but attempt to do so apart from faith in Jesus Christ, because in Jesus Christ alone is life, and that life is mediated to those who believe on him.
We preach Christ, not just things about him, not just things that he taught. We preach and teach him. There's a difference. Again, Jesus declared to Martha in verse 25, I am the resurrection, the life.
And then he said, He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And the word believes, again, is a Greek present participle which emphasizes continual believing. The word believes is a continuous trusting, continual persevering, continual believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's no place in the Bible where this emphasis on decisionism, one-time decision for Christ puts you in the fold, you're forever, once saved, always saved. There's so many people that wrongly think that.
Saving faith is believing. It doesn't matter what you once believed 20 years ago. That's immaterial. What are you believing today? That's what's important. And that you're believing when Jesus comes. Because temporary believing is not saving faith.
That's apostasy. And then faith in Christ brings us into enjoyment of that life that's in Jesus Christ. Physical death does not interrupt this possession or enjoyment of life. It'll never end. And physical death does not bring it to an end.
It does not impinge on the life that's been given to us. It's forever with us. Well, after mentioning that death cannot cause life to cease.
Or to be experienced,.
Jesus addressed the life itself in verse 26. Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. He was not saying that the one who believes on him would never experience physical death, for obviously people have been dying for the last 2 ,000 years, even Christian people.
He wasn't speaking about physical death. He means that people will not die, believers will not die in the sense of eternal significance. He will not die with reference to the age to come. He has eternal life, the life of the age to come, as one wrote and rightly wrote.
And then verse 26 ends with our Lord's challenge to Martha, do you believe this? He was not asking her to believe that he could and was about to raise her brother from the dead. That hadn't even been brought into the picture yet.
He was asking if she believed in him as the resurrection and the life. That in him is life and only in him. And so again, we ask you the question, do you believe this? Then verse 27 is a remarkable confession of Martha.
She confesses her faith in Jesus as the resurrection and life. And so in response to our Lord's question, she said to him, yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who's come into the world.
That is quite an advanced statement of her belief in who Jesus is. More than what she declared earlier, I know whatever you ask of God, He'll answer you. Now she confesses, I believe you're, yes Lord, I believe you're the Christ, the Messiah, you're the Son of God who's come into the world.
And so in this confession, Martha declared her confidence that Jesus was God incarnate. That he was the promised Christ, the anointed promised King of Israel. He was also the Son of God who was to come into the world.
And so she confessed her faith in both his deity and his humanity, that he had the authority to impart to people resurrection and life. And so this is one of the clearest, most certain affirmations of the person of Jesus Christ in all of Scripture from the mouth of this woman, Martha.
It stands forth as a statement of faith on the part of this woman that is full, complete, profound, and settled in her mind and life. One wrote of Martha's confession. This was Leon Morris, 20th century commentator.
These words of Martha do not always receive the attention they should. When Martha and Mary are spoken of, Martha is not to be characterized as the lady of whom Jesus said, Martha, Martha, thou art anxious about many things, but one thing is needful, for Mary has chosen the good part.
Reference to the account in Luke 10, where Martha is not shown to be a very sharp disciple. We shouldn't remember Martha that way. Let's remember her by her confession here. But Martha, with all her faults, was a woman of faith.
Hers is a significant declaration. First, she agrees with what Jesus said. She's not choosing her own way, but accepting his. She may not understand fully the implications of what he just said, but as far as she can, she accepts it.
Her faith is not a vague, formless credulity. It has content and doctrinal content at that. It's an amazing statement. And as one said, it really rivals Peter's confession. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.
What she said was not any less wonderful and powerful than that declaration of the apostle Peter, was it? I know it's getting late, but I don't wanna stretch this out into another week. So let's just look at the conversation between Jesus and Mary.
There's some wonderful things here that I really wanted to bring out to us today. So when she, Martha, said these things, she went away secretly, called Mary her sister, saying, the teacher's come and is calling for you.
And as soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to him. Now, Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met him. And then the Jews were with her in the house, comforting her when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, she's going to the tomb to weep there.
And so we read that Martha sought out her sister, Mary, but doing so secretly. Perhaps she knew a crowd would have accompanied Mary if she'd expressed openly Jesus arrived in the area. But it would seem also maybe Jesus told Martha, go tell Mary privately that I'm here.
Perhaps Jesus was wanting to speak to Mary personally and quietly to console her in her grief for her brother.
I don't know.
But the fact is the Lord Jesus often manifests himself in special ways to each of his disciples, doesn't he? And you know that to be true. It's a truism that most Christians can speak from experience.
Jesus is my personal savior. It's interesting in the way Martha describes Jesus.
Look at that.
We probably just read over it. She said to Mary, the teacher is coming and is calling for you. When you and I think of Jesus, do we think the teacher? This is how Martha conveyed to Mary that Jesus had arrived.
It would seem that whenever Jesus was speaking to someone, perhaps especially to those closest to him, he was the teacher to them. And by the way, this appellation or name ascribed to Jesus as the teacher reveals something unique about Jesus and his relationship with women.
A note in the Reformation Bible pointed this out to me. It revealed or reflected a characterization of his ministry. He did not disdain as others often did to teach a woman. Martha said to her sister, Mary, the teacher, wants you to come to him.
She came so secretly. And allow me just by word of application for a moment to spiritualize. And I don't think I'm going beyond the spirit of the word. Just as Martha could say to her sister, the teacher is coming and is calling for you, so we would say to you and say quite often, the teacher is coming and is calling for you.
As a Christian. A Christian by biblical example is a disciple.
Who is a learner.
Jesus Christ is the teacher. And he calls his own disciple aside to instruct him or her in a very special, private, personal way. Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit guides us into truth. And so have you heard him calling you to go aside and sit with him a while?
Perhaps daily in that special place, at that special time, perhaps in the morning or the cool of the day and listen to him instruct you and guide you in his word and ways. Could you imagine Mary declining this invitation of the Lord?
Let us not fail or decline when the teacher bids us to come unto him. You might say, Pastor, you're making me feel guilty.
I hope so.
If it'll result in you enjoying the riches of personal, intimate communion with your Savior. Because in him is life. Most of us have been around a while. This is my 45th year of ministry. I've been in the Lord since 1972.
And I've learned a few things over the years. And you know, I can kind of coast along based upon the stuff I know and I've learned. But that's not how life is experienced as a Christian. Life has to be mediated to us daily.
Is that not right? And we can fool ourselves and fool others by writing on past experiences and the illustration I think is so aptical. You cannot survive today on yesterday's breathing. You have to breathe today.
And we have to be with Christ regularly and faithfully. And if you're not, if you failed to do, I guarantee you, you do not experience the life of Christ that you're capable of experiencing by your failure and your neglect.
Because he calls you, as he called Mary, to come to him. He is the teacher. Well, Mary spoke to Jesus in verses 28 to 31. Or actually verse 32, I guess. Then when Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died.
Same words that Martha expressed up above. Mary comes and now she repeats. She repeats Martha's words. Mary felt as her sister, expressed the same sentiment as did Martha. Martha said, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died.
Same words, same sentiment, same faith expressed by both sisters, but also the same weakness of faith is suggested as well. But where Jesus, rather than comforting and exhorting Mary as he had done with Martha, we read of his sympathy toward her.
This is interesting. And so we read of Jesus weeping for his friends in verses 33 through 37. When Jesus saw her weeping, the Jews who came with her weeping, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
When Martin Luther translated from Greek into German, the German New Testament in the 1500s, which became the foundation of the modern German language still is today, he translated this groaning as Jesus becoming angry of sin and death that robbed the sisters of their brother.
I don't know whether that be legitimate, but it seems like he was grieving, groaning in spirit, was troubled. He was grieving because of their grief. And so where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see.
Well, gee, didn't he know where he was buried? In his human nature. Jesus is one person with two natures, a divine and human. And so he had two wills, a divine and human will, two ways of thinking, divine and human, perfectly in one body, but distinct from one another.
And we see his human nature exhibited here. Where have they laid him? And then we read again that word or that short subject and verb, Jesus wept. And the Jews responded, see how he loved him. Were the Jews right in their assessment, their conclusion that they drew regarding Jesus?
Was this what he was exhibiting? And some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying? The verb wept is actually an aorist tense verb in the Greek and it carries what's called an aggressive idea.
In other words, it isn't just saying the fact that he wept on that occasion, but it speaks about he began to cry. Ingressive, he began to cry and weep. His emotions were stirred. He didn't just shed a tear, he shed many tears.
And so we read that Jesus was very sympathetic and empathetic to the grief that this family was experiencing. When Jesus saw them weeping, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And so we may take to heart as Christians that Jesus Christ cares for us in our pain, our loss, and our trials.
You may wrongly conclude that he's indifferent to your difficulty, but that would be a wrong conclusion. And then we have a section, the old hymn entitled, and it's not in a red hymnal or blue hymnal, I look, but it was called, Does Jesus Care?
There are four stanzas and then a refrain. Does Jesus care when my heart is pained too deeply for my song? As the burden's pressed, the care's distressed, the way grows weary and long. And then the last stanza, does Jesus care when I've said goodbye to the dearest on earth to me?
My sad heart aches till it nearly breaks. It ought to Him, does He see? I like the third stanza too about sin. Does Jesus care when I've tried and failed to resist some temptation strong? When for my deep grief there is no relief, though my tears flow all the night long.
And then the refrain that was sung, of course, after each one of these stanzas. Oh yes, He cares, I know He cares. His heart is touched with my grief. When the days are weary, the long night dreary, I know my Savior cares.
And we know that Jesus does indeed care because of accounts like this one that we have before us in the gospels. Each of us may say and sing, oh yes, He cares, I know He cares. By the way, the scriptures command us, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
And here we see our Lord Jesus doing what He commands us to do, weeping with those who weep. But in some ways, this is difficult for us to do. We see images on television, the internet, we're bombarded with them, of terrible sufferings that people encounter.
The Bahamas, who could imagine? The boat burning up there in California, 34 or 35 people dying. We're on a scuba diving trip. Terrible loss and suffering. But sometimes we're overwhelmed. And then we are almost assaulted by appeals.
There's not a day that doesn't go by I don't get a phone call. Generally, a number of phone calls. And I finally determined, you know, I've got to respond. I'm sorry, I don't make commitments on the phone.
You send me some information in the mail, when I sit down, pay our bills, at the end of the month, I'll give it consideration. Well, won't you give at least $15? I'm sorry, I don't make commitments on the phone.
How else do you deal with these things? And then you feel bad because you've grown insensitive to these appeals. And there may be legitimate concerns. And of course, the fundraisers, it's developed into an art form.
And so they know a certain number of calls are gonna generate a certain amount of money. And they know how to appeal to us. And so there's a hardening that can take place to the sufferings of others. Well, oftentimes the Lord will take us through our own experiences of loss and trouble in order to renew in us sympathy for others, because we can personally relate to their plight.
We're gonna close, but I hope you read the notes. And we're really getting to the good part. Here, the Lord Jesus is being qualified as a high priest. He's able to represent us before God because He has experienced the things that we have experienced.
In His divine nature, that wasn't the case. You know, God in His divine nature is by definition simple. And that means He's unchangeable. That is, God doesn't change. What happens to us doesn't change Him.
If it did, then we're saying that He would be improving or moving toward perfection. And God is infinitely perfect. Or that He's diminishing in His perfection. He doesn't change. But when He joined Himself to our human nature, the Lord Jesus experienced what you and I experience.
And that qualified Him, according to the writer of Hebrews, to be a sympathetic high priest who can represent you and me before our Father. He's God, so He has, of course, access to the Father, full understanding, infinite understanding, but He's fully man, too.
And so He knows us. He's one who knows our weakness and our difficulty and knows how to pray for us and intercede for us, intervene for us, even when we don't now know what to pray for. Thanks be to God.
Well, let's close. Thank you, Father, for Your Word and for the wonderful stories that we have in Your Word that reveal Jesus Christ more clearly and fully to us. And we pray that You would help us take these matters to heart.
Help us, our Father, to love the Lord Jesus more clearly and fully, and understand, Lord, His ways with us. And help us, our Lord, not to be distracted or turned away in any way from Him and the fullness of life that's in Him.
And we pray, our God, that You would manifest His life to the ones we love. He, and only He, can bring forth life where there's presently death. And we just pray for a wonderful work of salvation, Lord, regeneration, redemption in the lives of those about us.
Help us, Lord, to bear witness of the Gospel as it is in truth, for we know that this is a manifestation of Your power to everyone who believes. Bless this Gospel, Lord. Show forth Your wonder and power in saving many people from their sin, for we pray in Jesus' name, amen.