John Chapter 11:1-10

Know that Jesus loves you.

Know that. And when you get in one of these situations where you don't know what's going on or you're confused, fall back on what you do know. Know that Jesus does love you and desires the best for you. Because sometimes, guys, let's be honest, I've been in situations where I couldn't really get my mind around the situation.

I really couldn't get my hands or my heart around the situation. But I knew the Lord could. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina.

Out of all the things you can be sure of, the most important is this. Jesus loves you. Today, Pastor David explains why this is important to remember when we get into difficult situations as he continues teaching in the Gospel of John chapter 11.

Now, here's David McGee with his teaching for the glory of God. John chapter 11 verse 1 says, 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 sister sent to him saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.

This is interesting. And I want to point out something here in the Greek. That word love that they used is phileo.

It's the Greek word for a friendly type of love, a friendship type of love where you love somebody as a friend. And then notice what they do. And I have to respect the sisters for this. They don't tell Jesus what to do. They simply say, you know what?

The one you love is sick. And you have to respect that because, see, they're not telling Jesus exactly what he is supposed to do. They're just presenting a problem to him.

They're saying, okay, Jesus, he's sick. We don't know what to do. And we're not going to tell you what to do. The reason I respect that is because, well, to be honest, I don't always do that. Sometimes in my prayers, you know what I do? I tell God the problem and I tell God how to fix it. You ever do that?

Amen or oh me? God, this is the problem and here's how you need to do it. And then when he doesn't follow your directions, what do you do?

You get upset, don't you? I can't believe you're not following my directions. God, I told you how to solve this problem.

Meanwhile, God is doing something so much better than what we could come up with. See, understand, present him the problem and don't tell him how to fix it. Now, he may lay on your heart how to fix it, but don't tell him how to fix it. You know why? Because he's God.

He knows everything. So give the Lord the details and leave the fixing up to him. And understand, the fixing is not necessarily what you think is best. It's not what you think is best.

It's what he thinks is best. And at times, loved ones, there's going to be a difference between those two things. There's going to be a difference between what you think should happen and what God thinks should happen. And if truly he is God in your life, you will allow him the freedom to be God.

You will allow him the freedom to act in your life as he sees best fit. Because we're going to see in this chapter that what he does here, it doesn't seem in the beginning that it's best for the people, especially for Lazarus. But you know what we're going to see is that it is best for the people.

And see, that's the thing. At the end of the trial, at the end of the tribulation, that's what we see every time. We see God knew what he was doing. We see God had our back the whole time.

God was fixing it, but he was fixing it in his way and in his timing. Verse 4, when Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified through it. He's saying that this is going on so he can be glorified in this situation.

You know what? He sees that. We don't often see that in a situation, do we? We look at a situation and we go, Well, I don't know how God could be glorified in this.

But there's a good question to ask. To turn around and go, Well, how can God be glorified in this? Boy, I know I've made a mess of things, but how can God be glorified in this? I know that I'm struggling in this area. How can God be glorified in this?

And you'll come up with some beautiful answers. Verse 5, Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Now, I need to point out here, that's a different word than verse 3. In verse 3, it's phileo, the Greek word phileo, where we get words like fellowship and friendship. Verse 5, it's agape, agape. Agape is the Greek word to love deeply, to love fervently, to love, well, with perfection, with perfection. See, it's a way that God loves us with his agape love. And it's interesting that many of the times we're told to love one another, it actually uses agape, which we know in our human self and our human frailties and in our human strengths is impossible, but not with God. See, God gives us the love to love one another with. So he uses a very strong word.

Now, let's just review something real simple, real basic. But Lazarus was sick, right? But Jesus says right here, or John says right here, that Jesus loved Lazarus. You know what that means? Is that sickness or disease cannot be used as a barometer or a gauge of whether God loves you or not, or if God loves others or not. So you know what happens, and I do this and you do this probably too, we may not admit it, but you know, somebody gets sick or somebody has an accident or something happens, and what's the first thing we think?

I wonder what they did. Well, they had to do something wrong for God to do that to them. That's a wrong assumption.

That's a worldly assumption. That's a secular assumption, if you will, because the world thinks that God does all the bad things. They're willing to give him credit for that, you know, because like insurance companies, when there's a hurricane or there's something like that, you know, you realize the term we use, it's an act of God.

Oh, they're willing to give him the credit for that, but still struggling with the creation thing, huh? Don't assume if you're sick or if you're in the midst of a hard time or somebody you know is in the midst of a hard time or sick that it means God's love is pulled back from them in any way or in any measure. As a matter of fact, it may mean that God loves them so much that he's counted them worthy to endure a trial or a tribulation or a situation that he didn't count us worthy to endure.

So when you see somebody going through a hard time, think, wow, wow, it's going to be awesome to watch their faith in the Lord bring them through this situation. Now, verse 6, it's a little confusing, I guess. Verse 6 says, so when he had heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was. It's interesting the order of the verses. I mean, verse 6 comes after verse 5.

Again, if you're taking notes, you may want to jot that down. Verse 6 comes after verse 5. No, my point is that it's established that Jesus loves Martha and Mary and Lazarus. And then it says he stayed there two days.

Why? Because we need to have that knowledge that he loved them so that we can understand that the two days had nothing to do with not loving them because we could assume that. I mean, you remove that verse and you go, well, they said they were sick and then Jesus hung out there for two days. That doesn't make any sense unless you understand that Jesus loved them with an agape love. Now, we talked about Thursday night, we talked about last Sunday morning, realizing that God loves you.

This is an example of why that's so important. See, everything in your life, every trial, every tribulation should be viewed from the fact that you understand that God loves you. See, because sometimes you will be in a situation where you don't understand it. You'll be in a trial you don't understand. You'll be in a tribulation you don't understand.

And the tendency for us is to think, well, God doesn't love me anymore or God doesn't love me as much. When you get into a confusing situation where you don't know what's going on, fall back on what you do know. And what you do know, what you should know is that Jesus loves you. And that's our first life lesson. Know that Jesus loves you. Know that. And when you get in one of these situations where you don't know what's going on or you're confused, fall back on what you do know. Know that Jesus does love you and desires the best for you.

Because sometimes, guys, let's be honest. I've been in situations where I couldn't really get my mind around the situation. I really couldn't get my hands or my heart around the situation. But I knew the Lord could. And not only that, but I knew the Lord knew how the situation would resolve. And that somehow it had been filtered through his fingers and allowed to be in my life.

And I know that he loves me. I won't know everything. We're not wired to know everything in this life even though we sometimes try to understand everything. But if we know that God loves us, we can fall back, if you will, on that. We can fall back on that.

This is one of the things that we know. No, because see, here's what we do. A lot of times we're in a situation and we think we know what God should do in a situation. I mean, how many of us would be honest enough this morning to say that's true, that we see situations and we go, oh, God should do this, God should do that. And this is what God should do. Many of us have had the occasion of praying for somebody that doesn't know the Lord. And then all of a sudden we hear things are going horrible in their life. And we're thinking, God, what are you doing?

I told you how to do this. I told you, you know, if I'm going to Billy Graham or Harvest Crusade or something going forward, what are you doing? God's doing what he knows is best for that person.

And what's best for that person is that they may have to sink down a little bit lower. They may have to go through more stuff in order to be brought to the Lord. And God knows that. God is answering your prayer. He's answering your prayer. It's amazing sometimes we pray, Lord, help me to grow. Help me to grow, Lord. Increase my faith.

Jesus, Lord, I want to have more faith and I want to grow. And then what happens? God begins to answer that prayer.

And you know how He often answers it, right? Yeah, trials and tribulations. And then what do we do? We get in the middle of trials and tribulation. God, what are you doing? Get me out of this mess.

Hurry. And God's like, okay, I'm confused. Should I answer the first prayer request or should I answer the one you're doing now? Because this was the answer to the first prayer request and now you're going against your first request. Man, you humans are so confused. God is glorified in a way that I don't think we... God is different from us.

You realize that? God is different from you. God is different from me. Because, you know, I look back on certain stories in the Bible and I see things. I see like Daniel and how Daniel, you know, if I had been there, I would have saved Daniel from the lion's den.

I said, well, this is just real easy. Let's just tweak the situation real quick and we'll have it where Daniel never goes into the lion den. That's not what God chose.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, you remember them? Got thrown into the fire. Is that how you would have handled that situation?

I have to be honest and go, no, no. I would have, you know, blew out the flame or, you know, had them run out of gas or whatever it was they were using. That's not what God chose. How about the Red Sea? Would you have chosen to have the children of Israel surrounded by mountains and the Egyptian army with the Red Sea at their back?

I wouldn't have. But God chose to save Daniel in the lion's den. He chose to save Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego through the fire, in the fire. He chose to save the children of Israel in the Red Sea through the Red Sea. I know that that's ministering to some people in here this morning that perhaps are in situations that they don't understand and they really feel like God maybe should have kept them from the situation, or maybe you feel like you should have kept yourself from the situation.

God can be glorified in that situation and save you in that situation, not necessarily from that situation. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A. Brown. Hey, Bob, I want to take a minute to pray for some of our listeners in these cities in Hawaii.

Kihei, Lanai City, Lehu, and also Ammon, Asseton, Boise, and Burley, Idaho. God, we thank you that we get to pray for these listeners today. We pray that they would be encouraged and remember how much you love them. Lord, if some of them are sick, we pray that you please heal them from the top of their head to the bottom of their toes. And Lord, we pray that you would equip them and empower them to share their testimony of your goodness to other people. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. Now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Whenever you're given a time frame or something like that, it's always good to look at it and go, okay, well, why are we giving this and what does this mean? We're told two days, and then we're told that he's dead for four days. That's interesting. You know why? What it tells me is that the day the messenger left Bethany, Lazarus died.

It lays out like this. Day one, the messenger left Bethany and came to Jesus and Lazarus died. Day two, the messenger returned. It was about a day's journey, about 20 miles.

It took about a day to walk that. The messenger returned to Bethany on day two, and that's the first day that Jesus waits. Day three was the second day that Jesus waits.

Day four is the day that Jesus arrives in Bethany, and they say he's been dead for four days. Now, that's interesting because Jesus told the messenger this sickness is not unto death. Well, was Jesus confused? Did he not understand?

Did he not know that Lazarus probably at that point may have already been dead? No. What he was saying is it's not permanent. This is not the way the situation is going to end. It's not going to end in death.

Hallelujah. Because you know what? Our story's not going to end in death either. It's not going to end in death. I know Jesus.

You know what happens at some point? I leave this tent behind, and I go to be with the Lord. At some point in the future, you know, you may hear, if this happens, you may hear, well, Pastor David's dead. Pastor David ain't going to be dead. Pastor David's going to be more alive than he's ever been. Amen? It's like Tigger says, ta-ta for now.

I will see you later. It doesn't end in death. But see, what did the messenger think? See, he had talked to Jesus, and Jesus said it's not going to end in death. And then he went back, and Lazarus was dead. I wonder if he told the sisters this at that point, or maybe he just thought, wow, I'm really confused. I don't know what to do because Jesus said it's not going to end in death, but Lazarus is dead. And maybe he just tucked away that little salt in his heart until he saw how it played out. The next life lesson, at times, your faith will contradict circumstances. At times, your faith will contradict circumstances. Now, God's given us a measure of wisdom.

He expects us to use it. You know, if you're sick, don't sit there and say, I am not sick. I am not sick.

I am. And don't go to the doctor. That's not filled with faith. That's silly. God gave us doctors. God gave us medicine. But at times, your circumstances will contradict your faith. Have the joy as believers of believing something in spite of the circumstances, and then have the joy of seeing the circumstances line up with our faith instead of our faith line up with our circumstances. Guys, don't be surprised when this happens.

Don't be surprised when this happens. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7 says, For we walk by faith, not by sight. For we walk by faith, not by sight. What is it that you think that verse is telling us? That at times, it will be dangerous to spiritually walk by sight. That we should walk by faith.

Now, this is a tough one, isn't it? This is the working out of our faith, if you will, because we get in a situation where we go, Oh, I didn't know that. Oh, but look at this, and we take our eyes off of Jesus.

We put them on our circumstances when we should be putting them on Jesus. See, sometimes, again, your circumstances will contradict your faith. Stand on your faith. Stand on your faith. How do you walk?

Do you walk by faith, or do you walk by sight? There's a couple telltale symptoms, if you will. Oh, I'm getting ready to convict myself. I don't like it when this happens. But if you're anxious about something, if you're not at peace about something, if you're depressed about something, then do a heart check, because perhaps, I'm not saying definitely, but perhaps it's because you believe in your circumstances and not your faith. Those could be warning signals, if you will. Now, certainly, those things are valid, and if you're standing out in the middle of the road and one of these big trucks hauling one of these John Deere Hitachi earth movers is on your way bearing down, you should feel anxious, okay?

That's not necessary. Faith should tell you, get out of the road. But understand, if those two things contradict each other, and if you're in that situation where you're anxious, count on the Lord.

Turn to the Lord. Verse 7, then after this, He said to the disciples, go to Judea again. Verse 8, the disciples said to Him, Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone you, and are you going there again? Now, this is kind of interesting to me, because the disciples are seeking to rescue Jesus from His obvious short-term memory.

They're thinking, wow, He really doesn't remember, does He? Hey, the Lord, that's the place the Jews, they wanted to stone you, and you're wanting to go back to that place. It's also kind of interesting, because they say, and are you going there again? They didn't say, and we're going there again. They said, you're going back? Well, wait here.

You just come back and get us one. But, you know, it's interesting, because, you know, they're sitting there thinking, you know, Jesus, you may have forgotten this, but this is still kind of fresh in our minds that these guys wanted to stone you. And something, if we go back there, something really bad could happen, like, you know, they might, you know, miss you and hit one of us or something. So, you know, we probably shouldn't do this, and they're reminded, the Lord, about the details, aren't they? Oh, Lord, you forgot.

Did you forget that? See, and this is unique. We see this in Jesus. We also see this in Paul. You remember Paul went to Philippi, and they beat him up, and they stoned him, and they left him for dead?

And then, you know, he goes out and does some other things, and then he gets ready. He goes back to Philippi. How would you have liked to have been a helper in the ministry with Paul, when Paul said, all right, we're going back to Philippi. I'm really excited. Philippi?

Isn't that where they stoned you and left you for dead? Yeah, yeah, I'm excited. I'm stoked going to Philippi. And you're going, okay, it's a good time for me to turn in my notice, Paul. I'm stepping down from the ministry. Jesus is revealing something here to us.

We have a front row seat to this. Jesus is more concerned about ministry than he's concerned about his own well-being, because there's times when ministry takes risks. There's times when ministry takes risks. And Jesus was less concerned about his own well-being. I've taken risks here, and sometimes the Lord has really blessed my steps of faith, and sometimes it's just falling apart horribly.

And that's okay. That's okay, because ministry takes risks. I would rather take risk in ministry than to play it safe.

You know why? Because I'm a follower of Jesus. I don't see Jesus playing it safe. I don't see Jesus lingering back and going, well, you know what?

You're right. They did stone me there. They didn't stone you guys. Why don't y'all run along and minister to Martha and Mary? No, as a spiritual leader, he put himself right in the middle of the risk, and they followed him.

And this is a principle we need to understand, because check it out. We know that Jesus could have healed Lazarus from afar, don't we? I mean, he did it with the centurion's son. If you remember John 4, he could have just said, hey, Lazarus, be healed. Praise God. And it would have worked. It would have happened. He's the Son of God.

He can do stuff like that. But he couldn't have ministered to Mary and Martha, because he physically wouldn't have been there. And so he made a decision, play it safe, stay here, or go there and minister to them. Now, I want to lay that backdrop before we read verse 9, because there's some commentaries that I read that completely missed the point of verse 9, I felt like. Verse 9, Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. If one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him. So Jesus is saying, you know what?

There's twelve hours in the day. I'm going to be about the work of the kingdom. I'm going to be ministering while I'm here. And I actually read some commentaries that said, Jesus, what he's really saying here is that it was safe.

It was going to be okay. I don't see that in those verses. As a matter of fact, if we're familiar with what happens later on in the chapter, the Jewish leaders actually begin to seek the execution of Jesus because of what happens. See, this is the thing, and we have to understand this, is that oftentimes, and I know this is going to rock some of your boats, and praise God for the rocking of boats, amen, safe in Christianity at times won't go together. But you know what? At the end of this life, however long the Lord gives me, at the end of this life, I don't want to look back on my life and go, well, I didn't do this, I didn't do that, and I didn't do this, that, and the other, but you know what?

I played it safe. You don't hear Jesus congratulating anybody that comes into his presence and says, oh, well done, now, safe servant. It's not in there. It's not in there. Guys, we got to get that out of our heads. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven, and I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life, and I've done wrong things. I've sinned, and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things.

Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name, amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood, through radio, through the Internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much he would have you give, either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.