A Message from Mary and Martha

John 11:1-16

 

INTRO: The message from Mary and Martha was a summons for Jesus to come to Bethany where their brother Lazarus was sick (vs 3).  John records seven miracles connected with the public ministry of Christ.  The first and last miracles recorded by John deal with families.  The family is important to the Lord and His work.  The church is only as strong as the families that make it up.  Jesus wants us to stand up for traditional family values.  During His public ministry, Jesus preformed His first miracle at a wedding feast and His last at a funeral.  These represent life’s gladdest and saddest hours.  At the first, He turned water into wine.  At the second, He triumphed over the tomb.  Both miracles are humanly impossible.  One reveals Him as the Lord of creation, the other as the Lord over death.

 

I.        VSS 1-5, THE HOME OF MARY AND MARTHA– FRIENDS OF JESUS VISITED BY AFFLICTIONS

A.       Vs 1, The occasion of the miracle before us was the sickness of Lazarus.

1. Lazarus is another form of the Hebrew Eleazar meaning, “he whom God helps or God is my help.”

a. He was a resident of Bethany.  Jesus loved him and his family.  “It is one of the most precious things in the world to have a house and a home into which one can go at any time and find rest and understanding and peace and love..... In the home at Bethany, he had just such a place.  There were three people who loved him: and there he could find rest from the tension of live (Barclay 92-93).

b. We are told where he lived to distinguish him from the other Lazarus in the New Testament.

2. Bethany was the village of Mary and Martha.

a. Bethany was a town on the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives on the high road to Jericho.

b. Bethany means house of afflictions, and as we shall see it will live up to its name in this true story.

c. The close knit family of Lazarus is hit by tragedy.

B.       Vs 2, Mary is distinguished from the many other Mary’s of her day.

1. She is the Mary from Bethany.

2. She is the Mary who anointed the feet of Jesus with ointment and wiped His feet with her hair.

a. She showed her love openly by anointing the Lord’s feet.

b. Mary’s expression of love (costly gift– $132.00) and worship filled the house with fragrance (12:3).  Where Jesus is worshiped, there is a sweet fragrance.

C.      Vs 3, Here we find the summons of Mary and Martha.

1. Lazarus is sick.  The word “sick” is astheneo in the Greek this means “impotent, weakening, sinking.”  This is a picture of a desperate situation.

2. The seriousness of the situation is pointed out by the use of the word “behold.”

3. The situation is desperate, and Jesus is 25 miles away at Bethabara.

a. Picture the one sent with the message hurrying to deliver it.  “Jesus your friend is sick.”

b. Picture also the anxious sisters at the deathbed of their brother, hoping that Jesus will arrive on time.  Questions cloud their minds:

1- Why had they waited to call for Jesus?  Questions we all ask.

2- Could He not speak the word and heal Lazarus?

3- Did He not know by divine wisdom that His friend Lazarus was sick?

c. Picture their hearts gripped with fear.  Lazarus is dying; he is sinking fast.

D.      Vs 4, The end of this sickness would not be death.

1. Death would intervene, but death would not be triumph.  It would not have the last word.

2. This sickness was for the glory of God and for the glory of the Son of God.  All sickness falls into one of three categories: for chastisement, for the glory of God, or to death.

a. Jesus knew what would happen.

b. Lazarus would die, and He would raise him.

c. One day I will die; and at the trumpet sound, He will raise me.  I Cor 15:51-57.

E.       Vs 5, In verse three, the word for “love” is phileo which means Lazarus was Jesus’ friend.  In verse five, the word is agapao the highest kind of love, divine love.  This is the love that sent Jesus to the cross (Rm 5:8).

 

II.       VSS 6-10, THE PURPOSE OF OUR LORD’S DELAY

A.       Vs 6, The journey to Bethany would have taken about a day.  Lazarus had died soon after the messengers had left Bethany.

1. Jesus knew Lazarus was dead, and Jesus was in no hurry.  So He stays two days more at Bethabara.

2. Jesus did not hurry because He was on a divine schedule.  His every move was in accordance with the perfect timing of God.  Jesus works on God’s schedule not on the persuasion or prompting of others.

B.       Vs 7, Jesus did not say, “Let us go back to Bethany,” where he had friends.  But he said let’s go to Judea where His enemies were.  The disciples do not know that Lazarus is dead (vs 4).

C.      Vs 8, In concern for Jesus, the disciples give their answer to the words of Jesus in verse 7.

1. They thought it folly to go to the place where folks had tried to stone Him.

2. The disciples warn Jesus that it would be dangerous for Him to go to Judea.  The last time He was there, the Jews sought a way to kill Him.

D.      Vs 9, The Lord does not set His eyes on the danger, instead His eye was on God’s clock, on God’s timing, and on the lateness of the hour.

1. The Jewish day, daytime, is twelve hours.

a. The Lord saw His allotted span of life on earth as a “day.”

b. This day would end or be terminated at His death; He called this “His hour.”

c. His hour had not yet come.  It was still day and still time to work.  He was sovereign, yet saw work that needed to be done.

2. Jesus could see clearly where He was going.  This is why going to Judea did not cause Him to fear.  He knew “his hour” had not come.

a. Jesus was in God’s hands, in God’s care, and on God’s time table.  “The day’s periods is fixed, and nothing will shorten or lengthen it.  In God’s economy of time, we all have our day, whether it is short or long” (Barclay 96).

b. When the sun is shining, obstacles are easily seen and avoided.

E.       Vs 10, If a person journeys in the night in a country with very little artificial light, he stumbles because he does not have sunlight to guide him.

1. Jesus knew that His work on earth was limited to the decree of God.  It was definitely fixed.

2. By walking in the plan of God, nothing could happen amiss.

3. We must learn from verse 9-10 that we must get the work of the Lord done while there is light.  “The night cometh when no man can work.”

4. We preach the Gospel of light so men will not die in darkness.

 

III.      VSS 11-17, JESUS IS TO AWAKEN LAZARUS OUT OF SLEEP

A.       Vs 11, Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.”

1. “Our friend Lazarus.”

a. Death is not the end of life.

b. Death is not extinction of our being.

c. “Our friend Lazarus” is still “our friend Lazarus,” as if he were alive.

d. In life, Lazarus had been the friend of Jesus, John, Peter, and Matthew.  In death, he is still their friend.

e. Jesus who could see the dead as clearly as the living knew that death had not changed the things that are essential.

2. “Sleepeth.”  Death is likened to sleep.  We speak here of death of the body, not the soul, for the soul never sleeps.

3. Jesus was headed to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead.

B.       Vs 12, The disciples misunderstood our Lord’s reference to sleep.  What they heard sounded like good news.

1. The disciples thought that Lazarus was in a restful, healing slumber.  They thought that Jesus must have healed Lazarus from a distance.