This is Connect with Skip Heitzig, and we're so glad you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig is all about connecting you to the never-changing truth of God's Word through verse-by-verse teaching.
That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others. Before we get started with the program, we want to invite you to check out connectwithskip.com. There you'll find resources like full message series, daily devotionals, and more. While you're at it, be sure to sign up for Skip's daily devotional emails and receive teaching from God's Word right in your inbox each day. Sign up today at connectwithskip.com.
That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Now, I want you to notice this, because some of you may be suffering from a wrong theology that says, if Jesus loves me and I love him, I, as a Christian believer, should never experience sickness. That is a popular teaching.
It has been for years. So here we see it's possible for Jesus to love someone and for that someone that Jesus loves to actually experience physical sickness. It's important that you realize that. Sickness happens to all people. All people. Even faith healers who say, if you have enough faith, you never have to be sick.
Hallelujah. But just follow them and watch them and find out what they die of. Everyone dies of their last disease. There's some condition that the medical record would have as to why that person perished. They didn't just float up to heaven with a smile on their face. Everybody experiences death. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. People that Jesus love, they get sick.
Tragedy happens to them. Jesus heard that and he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God that the son of God may be glorified through it. Verse five. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Lord, this guy that you love is sick. Well, Jesus loved Lazarus and Martha and Mary.
Loved them all. Now you notice the word love is used twice. There are two different words here for love. The first word, the word they use in the letter to Jesus to summon him is the word phileo, which means friendship love. The word where John says Jesus loved Lazarus and Martha and Mary is a different word. It's agapao. It's a divine, unconditional, godly, incessant, sacrificial love.
Okay. And that second use of the word love is in the imperfect tense in the Greek language, which means it is unending. It is never ceasing.
It is ongoing. So let me translate it for you. They send him a note or a messenger comes, Lord, your good buddy, your friend, the one that you are fond of in a friendship manner. He is sick. Now, Jesus continually incessantly loved with a sacrificial deep love Lazarus, Martha and Mary. Okay, so that's important. Look at verse six. So when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was. The word so could be translated therefore.
Now listen to how this sounds. Jesus, with an ongoing sacrificial incessant, godlike manner loved these people. Therefore, he didn't come when they called him.
Therefore, he stayed put for two more days. That doesn't make sense to us. We think it ought to read something like since Jesus loved them so much, he immediately did what they asked and went to the aid of Lazarus to make sure he wouldn't die or get sicker. No, it's because Jesus loved them. His delay is tied to his love for them.
Here's what you need to know. God's delays are not denials. In fact, if you start evaluating a delay from God, first of all, that's a misnomer. There are no delays from God. What you perceive as a delay from God doesn't say anything about his timing.
It says a lot about yours. God is never late. You're early. He's always on time. Peter said the Lord is not slow concerning his promise as some men count slowness. He does things with a perfect timetable. So he loved them in an imperfect tense or an ongoing incessant, unconditional manner.
Therefore, he stayed two more days, stayed where he was. And then after this, he said to his disciples, let us go to Judea again. Wanted to make sure that Lazarus is not just dead, but good and dead, really dead, not mostly dead, all dead, right? Mary and Martha are going to get angry when they see Jesus, especially Martha. Mary, not so much. I'll show you why, but Martha will. She'll be angry and you'll hear it in her voice. And here's her mistake. And I wonder if it's yours.
It's sometimes mine. We have a tendency to interpret the love of God through our circumstances rather than interpreting our circumstances through the love of God. You see what I'm saying? Well, Jesus didn't show up. He must not love me.
No, no, no. He loves you. And so he's going to delay. Learn to interpret your circumstances always through the lens of the love of God. God loves you. Therefore, he's allowed this to happen. Well, why would he allow this to happen? This is bad. Oh, be careful. What you assign is bad.
It actually may be good. You don't know the whole story. You don't see the big picture.
They didn't see the big picture. What they wanted was a resuscitation of Lazarus. Jesus wanted a resurrection of Lazarus.
Which do you think is better? Yeah, I mean, which is like super cool? A resuscitation. Well, that'd be awesome because he'd never die. Woo-hoo, awesome.
But a resurrection, that's the big picture. I was watching, I was channel surfing. I don't really watch.
So I was channel surfing and something caught my attention. So I decided to watch it for a minimal amount of time, longer than my quick perusal. And it was an artist with a blank canvas and he was going to paint a picture for the audience very quickly, he said. Well, he started putting paint on this canvas and he put these colors on it in blotches and honestly, I looked at it and I thought as he was doing it, I could do that. He just, it's like, you're taking up television time to do this?
I just thought it was not really good. Well, as I waited a little longer and he moved quickly, suddenly I saw trees. I saw a lake. I saw more trees and mountains and then light filtering its way into the picture and highlighting certain objects and at the end I went, wow. Now, what I discovered is the artist saw that going in. That's what it revealed to me.
He knew what it was, he was going to create at the beginning with just the blotches on the canvas. I didn't. I had to wait and see it. And so often life is like that.
We see a blotch here and a blotch there and I said, boy, my life is pretty blotchy. Yeah, but wait for it, wait for it, wait for it. Wow. I didn't expect that. Of course you didn't. You couldn't see it.
The artist, God, you are his workmanship, his poema. He sees the big picture, you and I don't. That's why we have to trust. That's why we wait. The Lord is never late.
Perfect timing when he shows up. So Jesus says, let us go to Judea again, verse 7. Verse 8, the disciples said to him, Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone you and you are going there again. Now that brings up what we read last time and a couple times before, twice in the last few chapters, one in chapter 10. When Jesus said, before Abraham was, I am. And then Jesus said, I and my father are one. Both times they picked up stones to kill him. And the last time in chapter 10, he said, what good work do you stone me for?
And they said, not for a good work, but because you being a man continually make yourself God. So they left. They're down by the Dead Sea and between December and April, that's where you want to hang out. It's like going to Palm Springs or Phoenix in the wintertime.
It's nice and warm and dry and mild. Anyway, I digress. They remember the incident. They remember the stones being picked up. They remember how close it seemed in Jerusalem. And so they protest. Rabbi, they wanted to stone you.
They're going to stone you there again. First time Jesus answered, are there not 12 hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world.
But if one walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him. The Jewish day was divided into two segments of 12 hours and 12 hours. And in the, in the highlight of the summer, the middle of the summer, there are 12 hours of daylight, 12 hours of darkness.
It's an even split. So that's how they kept time. As it's getting nearer Passover, there is literally that 12 hours and 12 hours.
So the day was divided that way. And Jesus is simply saying, while it's daylight, you do your work. Once you don't have light to see what you're doing, you don't do the work anymore.
You can't do it. You didn't have flashlights like we have. And they didn't go out and work with the interns. They called it quits. He's referring to his own ministry. He knows that his hour is coming very shortly. Next few months, he'll be Passover time and he will go to the cross. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, in order to connect even more people with Jesus in the year ahead, Connect with Skip Heitzig needs to meet a financial goal by December 31st. And we're asking for your help to meet this goal in full so that together in 2025, we can reach more people with gospel-centered teaching and resources that connect them with the God who loves them. Finishing this year on solid financial footing will mean that Connect with Skip Heitzig can grow current efforts and say yes to new opportunities in the coming year to expand to new stations, new countries, and new technologies, all with the goal of sharing the good news of Jesus with more people around the world. Your gift today will have an eternal impact on many lives. So go to connectwithskip.com slash give or call 800-922-1888 and give a tax-deductible year-end gift to help connect more people with Jesus in the year ahead. Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. He has a limited amount of time.
It is daylight. It is the prescribed day of the Lord in the sense that he is there as the Messiah to work these works and the night is coming. Beyond that, there's a principle for us. You and I have a task, a life task. You and I have a life work, a calling from God. Some of you don't know that yet or you haven't discovered what that calling for your life in particular is, but you have one.
I'm convinced you have one. You have a task that only you can fulfill very uniquely in the body of Christ and the reason God has you in the world is to fulfill that task. Your joy, your fulfillment, your satisfaction is directly proportional to your discovery of that task and your obedience to that calling. Find out what it is because you have a day to work in. You can't extend the day longer than it is. You can't say, well, today I want 14 hours of sunlight.
You can't do that. You have a prescribed period of time to live on this earth. Today may be your last night for some of us. It might be my last night. I never know.
We never know, correct? So we have to work while it's light. As Jesus in another place said, the night is coming when no man can work. So he's going to go up to Jerusalem.
He's going to perform in Bethany and perform this resurrection. He uses this metaphor of I have a time that is set, but so do we. I believe that you are invincible, that nothing can happen to you until God's done with you. And then when the day is done, right, your day, whatever day, whatever time that when your day is done, who wants to hang here anyway? Once it's done, once you've fulfilled what God has put you on earth to do, who wants to let it linger on past that time? You know, some people will say, oh, he died and he's in heaven enjoying God forever and ever.
How horrible. They won't say that, but when I'm done, man, I'm done. I'm ready.
I'm ready for the new life with the Lord in his presence. And you're invincible until that time. You say you use that word invincible. I don't think you know what that word means. Well, in Revelation chapter 11, there are two characters named known as the two witnesses.
Are you familiar with them? And do you know that it says God says, I will give power to my two witnesses that they can prophesy 1260 days. So a time limit is given to them to prophesy 1260 days. They have the power to shut up heaven so it doesn't rain during the days of their prophecy.
They have the power to turn the water into blood. And it says, and when their prophesying is over, when they're done, it says, then when they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them and kill them. Now, when will that happen? When they have finished their testimony? Not until then. It's not, well, they almost finished their testimony, but the devil got them. No, they will prophesy 1260 days.
And when they're done, as God calls it done, finish their testimony, then the beast ascends out of the pit, makes war against them and kills them, then and only then. So you and I have a life task. Find out what it is. Get engaged in it.
Get fulfilled by doing it. These things he said, and after this, he said to them, our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up. And his disciples said to him, Lord, if he sleeps, he will get well. However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought he was speaking about taking rest and sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead. When Jesus said Lazarus is sleeping, he did not refer to soul sleep. I don't know if you've heard that term, but there's a belief that when a person dies, a believer dies, that their soul kind of goes into a suspended state. Their soul is unconscious. They're asleep for thousands of years until the end times.
Not so. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So that doesn't happen.
He's not referring to that. He's referring to the appearance of the body at death. If somebody dies in front of you, and I've watched people die, the appearance as their body goes limp at first is they're sleeping.
It's what it looks like. And so that's a euphemism. It is used in the scripture, in the Old Testament it says, and they slept with their fathers. It is used in the New Testament of Stephen after he was martyred in Jerusalem.
It says, and he fell asleep. And that term is used not because it's soul sleep, but that is the appearance physically of the body. In cultures where death was seen out in the open, not like ours, they use language like this. I've been to India where death is a part of life, and if you walk down the street in some of the villages in southern India, you'll see casket shops. And they'll have the caskets right out on the main street just sort of propped up.
Different sizes, different lengths, different widths, different materials. And the idea is that you go shopping and you just sort of, you know, size it up. I went there one time and said, can you find one to fit me? And they go, ooh.
Yeah, you're a little tall for anything they had there. So it just fascinated me that these caskets, which would creep us out to see them just sort of at a here's a shop where you buy gum and then there's caskets right next to it. And it's just so people that got time, they look at it and they go, yeah, I'm kind of getting up there. You pick a casket, put it on a layaway plan, I guess, and then they will lay you away in that casket when your time comes up. But when a person dies and the funeral service is conducted out in the streets like it was in Israel in ancient times, very similar to that, the body is placed up on a cot or a mat and carried through the streets. And the appearance is that of somebody sleeping. And so they thought Jesus was at first just talking about he fell asleep, he took a nap, he's sick, and he's kind of in a long sleep, so he'll wake up. But Jesus was speaking euphemistically, so he just made it really plain so they wouldn't, you know, miss him.
They're fishermen. So he goes, he's dead. Oh, okay, now they got it. Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there. That's an interesting thing for Jesus to say. He's dead, and I'm glad that I was not there. You wouldn't picture Jesus or think of Jesus saying, he's dead, and I am glad that I was not there.
But he's glad that he was not there for your sake, he said, that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go to him. Then Thomas, who is called the twin, who's he the twin of?
Me, you. You've been just like him before, so have I. We've reflected much of what he thinks in our own thoughts at times. Thomas, who is called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him. I've often called Thomas the Eeyore of the disciples. If this were Winnie the Pooh, he's Eeyore. He always sees the dark side of things.
You know, they want to kill you up there. Let's go, and we'll die with him. Oh, thanks, Tom. You know, Thomas, Doubting Thomas, we always call him Doubting Thomas, and we refer to people who doubt as Doubting Thomases, because Thomas is like the patron saint of all skeptics.
He saw the dark side of things. If Thomas would have had personalized license plates on his chariot, they would be Missouri plates. The Show Me state. He was the Show Me disciple. I don't believe it. Show me. When Jesus rose from the dead, Peter and John said, he's alive. He's risen. I'm not going to believe it.
I have to put my fingers in my hand. I have to touch those wounds. I have to see this for myself. Yeah, but Peter and John saw it.
Yeah, but I know those guys. I need to see it for myself. Now, he does see the dark side. He is the doubter.
He is the skeptic, but at the same time, I just got to be honest with you. I like him. What I like about him is he's loyal, number one. If indeed they thought they were going to die, he's loyal enough to say, well, let's go die with him. That's loyalty.
Instead of I'm feeling a little sick, I'm going to stay behind. So he's loyal. He's courageous to say this, and he's also honest.
What I love about Thomas, more than any other attribute, is he was honest. If he didn't get something, he wouldn't just try to act really spiritually. Oh, that's cool.
He would just say, I don't get it. So in John chapter 14, that very famous passage, let not your hearts be troubled, Jesus said. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house, there are many mansions.
If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also, and where I'm going, you know, and the way you know. Thomas said, I don't know where you're going.
I don't know how to get there. Don't you love that? I'm sure the other disciples are kind of just like Jesus talking, they're nodding their heads going, yeah, that's good.
That's really good. Thomas goes, I don't get it. And I'm sure the other disciples thought, we don't get it either, but we don't want to say we don't get it.
At least we're going to act spiritual and go, yeah, man, amen. And I'm so glad that Thomas said that. Don't know where you're going.
Don't know how to get there. I'm glad he said that. You know why? Because after that, Jesus answered it with one of the greatest proclamations ever that may not have been in the scripture unless he said that. Because right after that, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life.
No man comes to the Father but by me. Thomas, thank you for bringing up that objection so Jesus could say that. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you of the financial year end need that must be met by December 31st to ensure this ministry you love stays strong, reaching millions more in the year ahead. Your gift today will help share gospel-centered teaching with more people in 2025, making an impact that will last for eternity.
So jump in with your best year-end gift. Call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash give. And did you know that you can find full message series and libraries of content from Skip Heitzig on YouTube? Simply visit the Connect with Skip Heitzig channel on YouTube and be sure to subscribe to the channel so you never miss any new content. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
