The Love of Jesus | John 11

• Sermon Transcript

  This past week, or last few weeks, I've done a funeral. And then I officiated a wedding, and then vitiated, another funeral. And of course, in ministry, you do those kinds of things. And both are radically different. But they both are celebrations in a way, especially if the deceased is a believer. Celebrations of a couple coming together, starting a life together, and then celebrations of a life. And funerals. Funerals can be difficult times, obviously mourning and grieving. And once you think about a time, maybe you lost a loved one time where there was a tragedy, and you had to deal with it. There's no way around it, and you have to go through it. You have to process it and do it. Don't you think about who is there for you? During those times? Was anyone there? If you're a Christian, and you are a member of a church, might have had a lot of church family, therefore you should have at least because that's what church family does. They're there for you. And they should at least, that's what I'm talking about. today. We're talking about the love of Jesus, specifically the Christ like love of Jesus that's found, and should be found in the community of believers. We have a long passage today. And we've already done the Lord's Supper. So instead of reading through 44 verses, I'm going to pray for us. And then we'll dive in. Heavenly Father, thank you so much. For today. I pray, Lord, that my words today reflect your heart that you speak through me, you filled with your Spirit that Your Holy Spirit is in here today that it receives your word today, Lord, and that we hear what we need to hear today about the love of Jesus, about how you love us and how we are to love others today, and what that looks like in these traits of your love. Father, we love you, we thank you for loving us, we ask these things in Jesus name, amen. Today, I'm giving us not three, not four, but five traits of Christ like love, because that's what our passage gives us today, five traits, I tried to get it down to three. But you know, sometimes you just got to, you got you got to not use the Scripture, you got the Scripture use you Amen. And so that's what we all should be doing when we're looking at the Bible. And so five traits we see here, of Christ, like, love number one is that Christ like love is relational. Christ like love is relational. Look at verse one. Now, a certain man was ill, Lazarus, of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister, Martha. It was Mary, who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair. This is referring back to the story beforehand, and whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sister said to him, saying, Lord, he whom you love is ill. But when Jesus heard it, he said, this illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. So get a picture here and these verses of the inner community of Jesus, a man named Lazarus was sick. His sister Mary, and sisters, Mary and Martha were were taking care of him, he was sick, that they thought he might die of a serious, Jesus was close friends with the family. And of course, they reached out to him, they had an idea of who he was, I knew he was a man who had never sinned. They knew He who he said he was, they were putting their faith in Him, they reached out to him looking for help. And Jesus tells them that the purpose of this illness is not death. The purpose is so that God will be glorified in His illness. Jesus loved them. And he told them this truth, as he comforted their fears, and they trusted in him, because they had a relationship with him. And I think that's one of the things that we need to remember, as we trust Jesus. When we have a relationship with him, it's easier to trust him. When we don't follow him when we don't relate to him. It's harder for us to trust Him, even though he hasn't changed. Because Christ like love is relational. Now, you may know that, and I heard this this week and my wife was talking to me about this this week, that she heard this too, that that depression is on the rise in America. And studies have been done cross culturally, to try to understand why is this a local phenomenon? It's not a global phenomena. Why is it a local phenomenon in the educated, industrialized world test in America, it is a phenomenon. And what the researchers have found is that people groups that emphasize strong community presence have lower rates of depression. But there's a strong community of some sort, that there are some African tribes where they're just barely surviving day by day, day by day, but the community is everything. And they have virtually zero depression, even though they have hardly any, anything that we would have, in terms of temporal things and blessings. But in America with our highly individualistic emphasis in our society, we are really bad at forming meaningful, communal relationships. And we have friends, we have acquaintances. But are they meaningful Are they people we can trust? Here, the stat that if you can, that if you have two or three friends, you can trust you're winning in life, that's sad. You should have more than that you should have many people you can trust, it's not necessarily a problem with you. It's, it's the problem with society. Now, most immediate families, even in America, the way we've developed, do not have regular access to extended family, whether the grandparents or aunts and uncles, some do, many don't. And if they are near in physical proximity, many times these relationships are distant in emotional proximity. So our individualism is hurting what we would call our mental health, we don't have the strong communal relationships that we need to thrive, both as people. And as God's people. You know, I know myself, if I wasn't in ministry, if I wasn't a pastor, I probably would not have the close, communal relationships that I do have. I have many people in the church, I know I can call up for prayer, and that can help me out. Because I'm forced to have them in many ways as a pastor, right? Now, I enjoy it, and I love it. But if I was just a believer coming to church, I probably would not have the closeness that maybe I should have, and have now. That's why God has designed the church, to be a community of believers. So while you're not saved into yourself, not saved into an island, you have people in your church who are to pray for you, to help you, to love you, to care for you. And it's just not for the needy, because we're all needy, this is all of us. This is all of God's people. And we see that Jesus had a community, he had his disciples, but then he had the equivalent here of this church family, among this community of Jews, his people that he knew well, and intimately and one is sick, and they're trying to figure out what to do about it. Christ like love is relational. We can't love others, if we don't know them. I mean, we can do nice things for him. We can't truly love them, if we don't know. So we must be intentional, especially in our culture, to not wall ourselves off. And when you do embrace the communal aspect of our faiths and number one Christ like love is relational. Secondly, it's purposeful. It's purposeful. Look at verse five. Now, Jesus loved Martha, and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. When he read that you think now wait a second, what? When he heard he was ill, he went right to be with him. Right? That's what you would think you'd see. That's not what we read. When he heard it was ill, he delayed? It seems counterintuitive, because it is. Why Why would Jesus delay his presence? If he had the ability to heal this man, and people knew he had the ability to heal, they had seen them heal the blind, they had seen him heal people. Why was he delaying? But Jesus knew the future. He knew what would happen to the end of our story. And he knew the reason of why it needed to happen. He had a purpose in his seemingly inaction. He had a purpose behind it. Look at verse seven. After this, he said of the disciples, let's go to Judea again. The disciples said to him, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you and are you going there again, like it's dangerous. Why? Why would you go there? Again, Jesus answered, or they're not 12 hours in the day if anyone walks in the day does not stumble because he sees a light in this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him. This would often happen they'd ask you just a simple question. He come up with this metaphorical deep, saying and then it's like wait and what you're trying to figure out what he means by it. Verse, verse 11, after saying these things, he said, then our friend, Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him. So he says, I gotta go back to Judea. They said, You're a wanted man, people are trying to stone you. And it gives this somewhat confusing metaphor, basically, of that, that went, as long as you're walking into lions are falling Christ, and falling His will for them. They can trust him, and the will of God, because he's in the will of God, he can go back to Judea, because he's living in the Father's will. And so they said to Him, Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover. Now, Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought he meant taking rest and sleep. So Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus has died. You know, sometimes God has to speak to his plainly doesn't mean, he tells his truth, and we just don't quite get it. And he's died. He says, verse 15, and for your sake, I'm glad that I was not there. So that you may believe, but let's go to him. So Thomas called the Twin said to his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him. Now Jesus finally gets this buy in from his disciples, even though they don't quite know what they're getting into. At first. They were confused. And Thomas says, Yeah, we're willing to die to Thomas says, know what he's talking about. He's just zealous he's else to to follow Jesus. But Jesus was purposeful. And his love for Lazarus may not have made sense to the ones he loved. But it was his love for them that allowed him to make purposeful decisions. my four year old, I know doesn't think that I love him, because I constantly don't give him what he wants. Or he a discipline when he does something wrong. He doesn't understand why he can't get us I took him to Walmart yesterday to to buy a birthday present for a friend. And this is not for him. It's for his friend. And I picked out a present and said, We're gonna get this. And he said, No, and he threw himself down on the Walmart floor rolled around and cried. I said, No, we're getting this one. Right. Okay. We ended up getting what he wanted. But anyway, it story is explaining is it's easier that point, right? I mean, one was 10. And one was ATM, Joker wasn't that big of a deal. It's 20. But anyhow. Sometimes, you know, we we don't, we don't give them what they need. And there's a purpose behind it. Right? The purpose behind may not make sense. But it might have to be done. If it's a truly loving, act, Christ, like love is purposeful. Jesus had a reason for his inactivity, he hid a reason for his tearing for his delay. There's a purpose behind it. And that reason was love. It's we're going to see number three. Christ like love is confrontational. confrontational. I think it's funny when people will avoid confrontation. And the reason they give is I don't like confrontation. I mean, who does? I mean, some of you might, I don't know, that might be something we didn't talk about. But anyway, who, who does like confrontation right, verse 17. Now, when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for days. Now remember, Jesus told his friends, that Lazarus is sickness would not lead to death. He never lied before. He's Jesus. So they're confused, because he died. Right? First, a team. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off. And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerned her brother, so he had died. They had had the funeral. He was in the tomb. They were still grieving with him, which was about a week long period, at least a lot of the community had been there. That's a strength of the Jewish community that time that we don't really even have. After about a couple days, people kind of disappear for them. They had it for weeks. Sometimes they were there for them. But Jesus was not there. The audacity? Where is Jesus? Of all people that shouldn't be there. The one that can help them, the one that can heal him is not there. You couldn't text him? You couldn't call him weren't sure where he was. You had to have spies on the road, which apparently Martha did. Look at verse 20. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him. The Mary remain seated in the house. Martha didn't wait. She heard that Jesus was on 17 Coming right up here. She's all I'm going out to him. She doesn't wait for him to get there. She met him on the street. Y'all know some martyrs don't yeah. Can you imagine this scene? This Jesus? Where has he been? Oh, he's coming. Oh, well, we're gonna Go see him right now. I'm gonna march myself down to I'm gonna meet him on the street. I'm gonna find him right there. Well, he's too late. And I'm gonna go to tell him that he was too late. He could have been here, he could have done something about it. I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind. Y'all know anyone like that? I'm sure you don't. First 21 More Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. It's your fault. Jesus, he died. We say it's your fault. Can you imagine this? Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not die. And I think she pauses after saying that. She's still calling him Lord, right? She catches herself after her little rant. And she remembers who she's talking to. Verse 22, but even now I know. I know that whatever you ask them, God, God will give you I know. But you could have done something about it. Verse 2300, Jesus handled this confrontation. Say, here, I could have done this, I'm sorry. This He cut her off completely and ignore her and just say, Don't talk to me woman. No. He deals with her how he should. And he's very loving. And he's very direct. First 23. Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again. And then Martha says, I know I know. The Bible says, I know that he'll rise again. And resurrection last night. I understand the scriptures. I know what it says yes, yes, yes, I know who raised wise again. But that's not what he meant. She thinks she knows it all. Isn't it funny how sometimes we think we know what God is saying. When he's not saying that at all. Amen. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection in life. I know there'll be a resurrection. He says, no, no, Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. And then he says this to her. Do you believe this? He's direct to her, but loving? Do you really know who I am? Do you really believe me? She said to him, Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. You know, a lot of arguments and conflict happens because we don't have the whole story on both sides. Martha didn't have the whole story. She thought she did. She was prosecuting Jesus without all the evidence. But she just met her. And he was willing to have the hard conversation with her. And so she now what does she not do? She didn't call him out of firmance. She didn't wait for him to get in the house and say, well, there he is. Where are you being Jesus. She didn't call out from everybody. I look at the cat drug in glad you finally made it. That would have been sinful. No, she went to him one on one the right way and had a little powwow with him on the road like she should. And then Jesus also did the right thing courses Jesus. He gently rebuked her, corrected her, quizzed her. But in this Christ's light confrontation, they both showed the love they have for each other she was she felt comfortable enough to him to come to him and say, You hurt me. You could have done something. And he was able to say, I've already done it. And I'm going to do something. Just wait. Just wait. Cry slight love is confrontational. In this way. He didn't take it personally. And he was able to comfort her in her unbelief and her grief when she agreed she was angry. Some people don't grieve that way as we're getting ready to see but that's how she was. And he dealt with her in the right way. Christ like love is confrontational in a good way. For Christ sight. Love is also though empathetic. It's empathetic, especially when it needs to be first 28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary. Again saying in private. She didn't announce to the whole house. That God Jesus he finally showed up. No, she said Mary, the teachers here you He's calling for you. When she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village. He was still in the place where Martha had met him. I guess he's still talking to her. He's waiting. I don't know he was held up there in the place. And when the Jews who were with her in the, in the house, consoling her saw Mary wise quickly and go out, they fought her because she left in a tizzy. She was crying, she ran out crying, supposing she was going to the tomb to weep. She has left the left the building crying, where she goes on and what she's probably going to go into the tomb. They don't know. Verse 32, now when Mary Now here's a look at the differences of Martha came out and Adam on the street, was angry, and said, if you were here, you wouldn't have died. What does Mary say? Well, what Mary said. She felt his feet and said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. She says the exact same thing as her sisters like they were related. We get that later today. Right? Same exact thing, but in a different way. She's at his feet. She's crying. She's mourning. How does he handle it? What does he say? Do you not believe in me? To look down on her and say quit, quit crying? Why are you crying? There's no crying here. Do you not believe who I am on the resurrection life? No, he didn't have to talk to her like that, because she wasn't wagging her finger in his face. She was crying, and mourning. he handles his sister's very differently. With the indignant and angry Martha. He gently consoled her and talked her through it. But with Mary, he immediately became empathetic. Look at verse 33. When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with me, with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled this is let me tell you something. This is a lesson for all this. My children, my whole family, everybody. They know if they cry, they get a bunch of different dads and if they yell at me, you get a much different, Charlie. Right? And this what they get with Jesus. He was deeply moved. And he was agitated. What was he agitated about? It's weird that the Greek word uses this word. He was agitated about the whole situation, that there was a death, that people were mourning that there was pain that he knows he could have done something to prevent it. But there's a reason why he didn't do it. That death had taken Lazarus. It was painful for his friends, Jesus hate step. That's why he destroyed it on the cross. And through his resurrection. He hates it. He doesn't want anyone to perish. So it looks at the scene. And he says, verse 34, where is he? Where have you laid them? And they said, Lord, come and see. And the point is, raises Jesus to the direction of the tomb. And then we get the shortest verse in the whole Bible, verse 35. Jesus wept. It says that it says, the Marianas Where is he? He weeps for his friend Lazarus. He weeps for the pain, his sisters were going through. He weeps, the Lazarus had experienced death. And he had to die. A horrible thing to have to go through. He weeps over the entire situation. It was sad. And Jesus wept. Why? Because he felt it. Why did he feel it because he knew them. And he had empathy. Love is empathetic. When you love someone, and they hurt, you hurt. You feel it? I've done a lot of funerals, and some people I knew know better than others. Right? But when I'm at the grave side, especially if it's military and they play taps off, tear up. Because I feel that moment with that family. Right. And the more you know him, the more you feel it. So the Jews said, verse 36, see how he loved him. Verse 37, but some of them said could not he he opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying. Here he is showing his human side very humanly. And he gets criticized and adored at the same time. Right. Even the Son of God gets criticized don't expect when you get criticized when you show Christ like love, it'll happen but it doesn't bother Jesus, because you love these people because Christ's love is empathetic. And finally, number five, Christ like love is God, glorifying. True. Christ like love, brings glory to God, not to us, not to others to God, because we know it's not about us. Jesus wasn't about him, of all people was about the Lord, not following the Father's will, even though he is God. For verse 38, then Jesus deeply moved again came to the tomb, it was a cave and a stone lay against it. This is foreshadowing for his own life. He knows he's going to be put into a tomb with a stone, he's staring right at it. And he says, verse 39, take away the stone, and boy, that's powerful. Now, now that we know about what happens to Jesus, amen. Take away the stone. Now, if he had said that people would aghast Hmm. You'd be like going to the graveyard and say, dig them up. dig him up. So Martha, just in case Jesus doesn't know. Tell us him for 39. Lord. By this time, there will be an odor for he's been dead for days. He just says, Oh, I didn't know that. Martin. I didn't say that. Right. knows Jesus is gonna stink. Why? Verse 40, did not tell you, Martha. And if you believed, you would see the glory of God. So that took away the stone. And Jesus lifted his eyes lit up his eyes to heaven. It says, Father, I thank You that You've heard me. I knew that you will always hear me. But I said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me the reason he died. The reason he delayed and made sure he died was to come back so that the people watching would believe that God had sent Jesus, they were stubborn, they did not believe it. They needed to believe it. They have to believe it for salvation. And he's says, This is why my friend has died so that they may believe verse 43, when he had said these things, he crowd out with a loud voice. Lazarus come out. Can you imagine people watching this? The man verse 44, who had died, came out his hands and feet bound with the linen strips, his space wrapped with a cloth like some kind of mummy coming out. And I can just see him standing there. People don't know what to do. She just says unbind him. Let him go. What are you doing, watching unbind him? Let him go. What an incredible scene. To bring glory to God, Jesus let a friend die. Just to bring them back to life. So that people would believe. When people see that type of love that Christians have for each other, they will believe Amen. I believe. When I see first Baptist, loving each other like this, they'll say those are Christians. Those are following Jesus. They are glorifying God in this place. Heavenly Father. We thank you for this story that you've included in your in your word. It's incredible miracle Jesus, raising the dead foreshadowing his own death and resurrection. But it's not just a miracle. It's a story. People's lives that Jesus lived with. experience life with new ate together with laughed with cried with and a death that happened so that others could believe. But we don't always know your purpose and our lives. But if we are living with the idea that we're following you and on mission for you and your kingdom, and we are trying to do Your will we understand that even in the midst of tragedy. You bring good and amazing things for us to see so that we can worship you or there's one here today As never placed their faith in you that today they would do so they'd be saved that that they would be unbound just like Lazarus was unbound from from the the linen cloth of death, they will be unbound from their sin and they'd be freed. And they will be resurrected in the new life, being given a new heart, that the heart of spirit would replace the heart of stone that they'd be saved today they'd be born again. Maybe there's someone in here who just needs Lord, to trust you. Whatever it is, Father, whatever they're going through in their life, whether it's unforgiveness or bitterness, or anger or sadness or depression, they just give it to you, Lord, they trust you. Just like Martha and Mary, eventually trust you. They would trust you in their lives today. Maybe they need to come down to the steps and just lay it at your feet today or maybe they need prayer. I would be glad to pray with them, whatever it is, Lord, and you would work in their lives today. During our response time, Lord, we love you. All we ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.