Power Over Death | When Earthly Answers Don't Satisfy

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Sign up at harvest.org. If God loved me, why did he let this happen? We've asked this before. We know God is all-powerful. He could have prevented our pain.

Could have, but didn't. Well, that's a crisis point for many. Today, Pastor Greg Laurie brings us the big picture. God has made everything beautiful in his time. See, we look at the temporal. God looks at the eternal. He's looking at what he's ultimately going to do in your life. Many people ask one question when tragedy strikes.

It's the one-word question that reverberates in our very soul. Why? Why did this have to happen? Why? Why me? Why now?

Why this? Maybe you've asked that question, or maybe you've tried to answer that question. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie addresses that challenge head-on. When earthly answers don't satisfy, we have to look to what God tells us in his Word, truth that speaks to the heart.

Let's turn in our Bibles to John chapter 11, and the title of my message is Power Over Death. My grandchildren used to have a bunch of rabbits. They had different names, Fuzzy and Cotton. One was named Chubby Cutie, which is funny because that's what my wife calls me. Back to Fuzzy and Cotton, they were a couple.

Let's say they were very successful at bringing more rabbits into the world. My granddaughter, Allie, came to me one day, and she was in tears. She said, Papa, Fuzzy the rabbit died.

Then she said, it's not fair. I assured her that Fuzzy had lived a very long life. He had many offspring that he left behind. We counted around 80 bunnies that were left from Fuzzy.

This happens. Of course, we wonder, will we see our pets again in heaven? Well, I think it's a pretty simple answer. All dogs go to heaven. No cats do. But will we see them? I don't know.

Who knows? It's possible that you might see your pet on the other side somewhere, but we don't have certainty of that. We know that when heaven comes to earth, and what we call the new earth, that there will be animals with us. We read about a little child leading a lion, which would be the ultimate pet, a lion. That's one cat I can get behind, right?

A lion. We don't know about these things, but Allie raised a good issue. It's simply this. Death is not fair. Death is harsh. It's mean, and it rips people that we love away from us. Sometimes expectedly, we know it's coming.

Other times, unexpectedly. It's so hard for us to wrap our minds around the death of a child. We know that grandparents are going to definitely die, and then parents, and time, and even us in time, but nobody plans or thinks through the death of a child, or doing a funeral service for your child.

Our son Christopher, he's in heaven. He's been in heaven for 14 years now, and we know we will see him again, and Kathy, and I, and our son Jonathan went to his grave, and we reflected on his life, and we all prayed and recommitted ourselves to the calling God has put on our lives, and you say, well, that's a really morbid thing to do. I mean, go to a grave, and well, yeah, but it's a grounding thing to do, I'll tell you that, because it just reminds you, one day, I will be here, too. I've told you this before about a person who was walking through a cemetery, and they saw a tombstone, and on it were inscribed these words. Pause now, stranger, as you pass by, as you are now, so once was I, as I am now, so you will be, so prepare for death and follow me.

And a person reading that was overheard to say, to follow you is not my intent until I know which way you went, right? The Christian can look death right in the face, and not be afraid, because we know death is not the end. We know there is life beyond the grave. Sure, we're realists.

You know, people accuse Christians of being out of touch with reality. I think other people are out of touch with reality that don't deal with this topic head on as we ought to, because only those who are prepared to die are really ready to live. So we look at death, and we say, I'm not looking forward to it, but I know it's not the end, and I know I'm simply changing my address from earth to heaven, because I put my faith in Jesus Christ.

And that's how we can view it. And this is, not only does a believer have the hope that the moment they die they go immediately into the presence of God, but the Bible also teaches there will be a bodily resurrection. That means the body that is in the grave now will one day be resurrected.

We will see our loved ones again. But we're so uncomfortable with this topic. We don't even like to use the actual words. Instead of saying someone died, we'll say, well, they passed on.

Or technically you might say, well, they expired. An undertaker, we call him a mortician. A coffin is called a casket.

A graveyard is a memorial park. Well, that's whatever you want to call it. It is what it is. And death is harsh. And death is mean. And death is final. And death is real. And death is not our friend.

It is the enemy. In fact, 1 Corinthians 15, 26 says the last enemy to be destroyed is death. And actually, God never wanted us to die. There was no death in the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit. There was no sickness. There was no aging. There was no need for police officers or the military or anything of that kind. There was no suffering at all.

It was pure bliss. But our first parents ate of the forbidden fruit. And sin entered the world and so did death. And this is a story before us now in John 11 of three people that were impacted by the death of someone they loved. We're talking about Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

And we're talking about when Lazarus, the brother, got sick and died. And by the way, they were inseparable. They were close siblings. Not all siblings are close. Sometimes we have sibling rivalry.

They're fighting with each other all the time. But other siblings do everything together. I remember when I first met my wife, Kathy. She wasn't my wife yet. And she was at a Bible study with her two sisters. They went everywhere together.

Mary, Kathy, and Dodie. And so there they were sitting in front of me. And I noticed Kathy. And I noticed her because there was a light shining on her. And I realized later Dodie was holding a flashlight over her head. And I noticed her and I thought, wow, there's something about this girl.

I want to meet her. So I went up to all of them. Hey, how are you?

I'm Greg. And so I said, you want to go get coffee after church? And we did.

And then another week passed. I saw him again. Hey, you want to go out after church and get some dessert?

Sure. And we all went. And the third week I said to Kathy, hey, you want to go out after church and get some dessert? He said, sure, I'll get my sisters. I said, I don't want your sisters.

I just want you. And thus our relationship began. But they did everything together.

And so did Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, a tight knit family. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey, everybody.

Greg Laurie here. And I want to personally invite you to the Harvest Ministries Israel tour, April 9 to 19, 2024. Listen, this is your chance to walk in the steps of Jesus, literally in what we call the Holy Land. Learn more at Israel.harvest.org.

Shalom. Well, today, Pastor Greg is offering insights based on the resurrection of Lazarus recorded in John chapter 11. It's a message called Power Over Death. So this is sign number seven in our series that we're calling the Seven Signs of Jesus. The first sign was turning water into wine at a wedding. The final sign was the resurrection of a man from the dead. So we go from a wedding to a funeral, reminding us that God is in control of all things in our life from the beginning to the end.

He's there with us in our joys and our sorrows. But the ultimate sign of Jesus was not even the resurrection of Lazarus, as amazing as it was. The ultimate sign of Jesus was his death and resurrection.

Everything was building to this crescendo. Jesus said a wicked and an adulterous generation seeks after a sign. But no sign will be given to them without of the prophet Jonah. And as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster or the great fish, so will the eye, the Son of Man, Jesus speaking, be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.

Loose paraphrase. Jesus says, you guys want a miracle? You want a sign?

Here it is. I'm going to dine across. I'm going to bear the sin of the world. And I'm going to rise again from the dead. But let's see what happened to Lazarus. John 11, I'm starting in verse one. I'm reading from the New King James Version. Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary, and her sister Martha. And it was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

Therefore the sisters said to him, saying, behold, he whom you love is sick. So we'll stop there. What did we learn from this story? Point number one, if you're taking notes, life is filled with pain and sorrow and the death of loved ones. Is that not the most depressing point of all time? But is it not true?

Sorry that I have to be the one to break this to you in case you don't know it. But life is filled with the pain, death, and sorrow of loved ones. Now when you're younger, this is hard to wrap your mind around. But you see people dying and it starts to settle in that one day this will happen to you as well.

So this is what we see. And when tragedy comes in our life or we lose a loved one, we say, why me? Why is this happening to me? But it's ultimately going to happen to everyone, including you. In fact, we're told in 1 Peter 4 12, don't think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which will try you as though some strange thing is happening to you.

So we have to accept this fact, but that brings me to point number two. God loves us. God loves us. Don't rush over that.

Don't misunderstand it. Let it sink in. God loves you. I want you to say this out loud. God loves me.

Go. It's true. Do you believe that? God loves you. Okay, so no matter what you're facing right now, don't forget this simple fact. Therefore, what he does or allows to happen in your life as his child is motivated by his everlasting love for you. God loves you.

Therefore, whatever he does or allows to happen in your life as his child is motivated by his everlasting love for you. Now I'm interested in what Mary and Martha do. Now remember Lazarus is still alive, but he's very sick. They know this is serious. So they send word to Jesus, the one that you love is sick. In verse three, another translation of the same statement is, Lord, your dear friend is very sick. And this is an excellent example of what we need to do when we are in crisis. We are not here to tell God what he should do, but we are here to tell him about our problem and say, Lord, here's my problem.

And they describe it to Jesus. Call on the Lord. There's nothing wrong with asking God to help you. Nothing wrong with asking God to deliver you.

In fact, you should do it. Because in the book of James it says, you have not because you ask not. Now God may deliver you from your problem and he may simply walk with you through your problem, but bring it before the Lord. When the Israelites are criticizing and turning against Moses, we read in Exodus 15, 25, he cried unto the Lord. When Hezekiah received a threatening letter, we read in Isaiah 37, he spread it out before the Lord. When John the Baptist was beheaded, his disciples went and told Jesus.

That's what we should do. Christ said, go and tell Jesus, hey Jesus, I have a problem. I have a need. I have a burden. I have this thing that's happening to me right now and I'm asking you to help me. Psalm 46 one reminds us that Jesus is a very present help in times of trouble.

A present help. Now, they could have said, now look Lord, you owe us. We fed you and your disciples a lot of times. You see, Jesus and his boys would often frequent the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus could legitimately say Jesus is our friend. You see, they lived in Bethany and Bethany is striking distance from Jerusalem. So as Christ would make his way into the city, he would just stop by. I wonder if he came by unannounced.

He certainly couldn't text Martha. Hey, Martha, how's it going? We're on our way into Jerusalem, man. Are we hungry and we all know what a great cook you are.

Could you make something for us? Sure, come on in, Lord, and then they would all come. They probably all went into the kitchen together. Why is it that in our homes, everyone wants to hang around in the kitchen? You might even have a proper living room that no one ever uses.

The most worthless room in a home, the living room. We all want to be in the kitchen because that's where the action is, right? Isn't this making you hungry right now? Because that's where the food is and everyone, you know, people are leaning up against the stove and their clothes are catching on fire, but the food's there.

It's good, right? So they could have said, Lord, we fed you so many times. You kind of owe us. It's time to reciprocate, but they didn't do anything like that. They just said, Lord, the one that you love is sick. They didn't even say the one that loves you is sick. They said the one that you love is sick. They weren't even appealing on the basis of their love for him.

They were appealing on the basis of his love for them. Let's pick the story up, John 11, verse four. When Jesus heard about it, he said, Lazarus' sickness will not end in death.

No, it happened for the glory of God, so the Son of God will receive glory from this. Now, don't miss this verse. Although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days.

I'd underline that, actually. Although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days. Then he said to his disciples, let's go back to Judea. He loved them, so he waited.

That doesn't make sense. We would expect that verse to say, because Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, he got on the back of the fastest horse and rode to them. Or, hey, in the case of Christ, he could have just moved there, just, vroom, here I am. Or he could have spoken the word. He didn't even have to go to them. He could have spoken the word and said, Lazarus, you are healed. But none of this happened. He delayed his arrival.

Why? Listen, because he loved Lazarus. Now, we think this is a contradiction. If Jesus really loved Lazarus, why didn't he immediately go and heal him? And in the same way, when hardship, tragedy, or even death come into our lives, we wonder, if God really loved me, why did he let this happen? Right?

We've asked this before. If God loved me, why did he let this happen? It's hard to see through eyes that are filled with tears. And the point that we need to see in all of this is not why it's happened, but remember, God is in control.

And also remember that his delays are not necessarily his denials. A verse I love, Ecclesiastes 3.11 says, God has made everything beautiful in his time. See, we look at the small picture. God looks at the big picture. We look at the temporal.

God looks at the eternal. See, I'm an artist of sorts, more of a cartoonist, if you want to call that an artist. I like to think of myself as an advanced doodler. But I like to draw. If there's a piece of paper near me and a pen, I'll start drawing.

I can't stop myself. And people will say, do a caricature of me. Now a caricature by its very definition is an exaggeration of something. And so if someone says, draw me, I'll look at them and I see them in a certain way.

As something of an artist and also as someone with a warped sense of humor. And I might see flaws. Like, oh wow, your ears are quite big. So in the drawing I do of you, your ears are going to be gigantic. And that's what a caricature is. That's why I never do caricatures of girls. Because I'll draw a girl and make her perfect, flawless.

So cute and adorable. She'll say, I don't look like that. But guys, I'm brutal, man. I'm going to go for it. It's meant to make you laugh, right? So even before I begin to draw, I might start laughing. You don't see anything in the paper, but I see it in my imagination. I know what I'm going to do. So God is drawing a picture of our life.

He does a stroke here, a line there. And we say, I don't, what is this? I don't see what it's going to be. The Lord says, you're going to like it.

Wait, that's done. We're a work in progress. He's looking at what He's ultimately going to do in your life. Pastor Greg Laurie is presenting his message called Power Over Death. And obviously there's more to come from this study here on A New Beginning. Well, Pastor Greg and his wife, Kathy, are here with a special guest today. Pastor Greg?

Pastor Greg Hey, everybody. I'm here in studio with Shannon Breen, broadcaster extraordinaire and author of many books. In her newest books, Animals of the Bible. Shannon, you haven't gotten there just yet. You have a chapter on your dog, Biscuit Breen.

Biscuit Breen. You know, what's so funny is I do think maybe one day, all right, I've written a chapter about biscuit in my personal book and not Biscuit Mart or previous dog Mocha, because you love her so much. And she's so ornery, even like on her leash. Like, I want to let her run and play, but she will run into traffic without my guidance. And I'm like, this is the Lord giving me a picture of him.

Like you think all of these great things and you want to go play in this grass and do all this crazy stuff. But there are dangers out there. I'm trying to guide you to something even better. There might be a biscuit book out there.

Or just a book on biscuits in general, because I love biscuits. Anyway, I'm joking. Shannon has not written a book on animals of the Bible, but she has written a book called The Love Stories of the Bible Speak, Biblical Lessons of Romance, Friendship, and Faith.

Okay. Friendships. Think of these guys, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel. They were taken as captives in the Babylon. They're in the king's court and their friendship was so strong and they had great tests. Of course, Daniel in the lion's den, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. Talk about that bond of friendship that they had together.

This is one of my favorite chapters, because I think we all want to find those friends who would go into the fire with us. And that's sort of what this is, is that, as you said, they were taken out of Babylon and they tried to strip them of everything that was about their Jewish identity, their language, the food that they ate, their names. I mean, all of those things that gave them that unique identity. And these guys just wouldn't do it.

I mean, they stuck together. They wouldn't eat the king's blessed food that was offered before idols. And when the king came up with this giant gold idol that he said, everybody, when you hear the music, you've got to bow down and do it. These guys had already been proven to the king to be wise men. He had them among his chief advisors, but the people who didn't like them saw this opportunity when they refused to bow to get these guys out of the way. So he's forced them to take them to this punishment, which is to throw them into this furnace, heated seven times hotter than it ever was before. The men who were assigned to throw them in actually died from the exposure. And what they said to the king before they went, and gives me chills every time I think about it, because they said, we know our God can save us.

But even if he chooses not to, we will never serve your false idols. Then into the fire that they went. And so they're in there. The king sees them walking around. He sees someone, a fourth person like the son of God.

You're the expert. A lot of people think it's Jesus, but I defer to you that it could have been the son of God with them there. And when they came out, there was such amazement that they didn't smell like smoke. Their clothes didn't. There was not a hair on their head that was singed. And these men stuck together. No one at any point bailed and said, okay, those other two, they're crazy.

I'll do whatever you say, king. They walked into this furnace together. And this friendship bond was such a beautiful thing, because we all need friends like that in our lives who will walk through the most difficult and threatening things in our lives with us.

I love these guys. Well, and friendships. You have Jonathan and David, and you also have Paul and his many friendships.

I'm looking forward to that chapter in particular. We just finished the book of Acts last year. You were teaching through that, Greg. And we saw Paul with his friends. How amazing is that that God doesn't want us to do life alone. And he brings just the right people around us as we root ourselves in the community that he has provided in the church.

How exciting to know that we have so much to learn about what a true friend is like and the cost of friendship many times of staying loyal and being true to somebody, speaking the truth in love, even hard things. Paul had some friends that he had to tell the truth to. And even fell out in a way with Paul and Barnabas. And Barnabas, you know, he's called the son of encouragement.

One translation put it, Mr. Encouragement. So he was a very encouraging guy. Paul and him had a disagreement over Mark, but they came back together later.

Mark and Paul were reunited. You know, sometimes in friendships we have disagreements. Sometimes we maybe don't communicate as much as we used to, but we always want to seek to bring reconciliation, if possible, in a friendship, right?

Absolutely. And these friendships were the foundation of the early church. I mean, he had help along the way and different people that came into his life. One of my favorite stories is kind of one of the lesser known in Philemon about Onesimus, who was a slave, and there's a debate.

And again, I'm with experts here, so you can help me with this. But it's whether he was a runaway slave or whether he had been sent to minister to Paul. In any case, Paul came to see him as a brother in Christ, not a piece of property. And he was making this urgent plea, see Onesimus as our brother in Christ. So there are just so many unique relationships that he had along the way.

Yes. Lots to discover, like treasures. You may not have thought deeply about them, but Shannon has. And she's written about them for us to glean from. And the book is called The Love Stories of the Bible Speak, biblical lessons on romance, friendship, and faith. And we're offering it to you for your gift of any size this month.

Yeah, that's right. It's a book that offers such rich insights and encouragement for our relationships. We'd like to send you a copy of The Love Stories of the Bible Speak to thank you for your donation right now, an investment in keeping Pastor Greg's insights coming your way. So why not contact us today? Our phone number is 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org. You know, there's nothing like hearing the Word of God and worshiping the Lord together. I want to encourage you to join us for something we call Harvest at Home. It happens every Saturday and Sunday at harvest.org. You can join Christians from around the world as we worship and we study the Word of God together. So join us for Harvest at Home at harvest.org. Well, next time, more helpful encouragement on reaching out to the Lord in our times of trial and tragedy. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Craig Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins. The preceding podcast was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Learn how to become a Harvest Partner, sign up for daily devotions, and find resources to help you grow in your faith at harvest.org.