John Chapter 11:17-30

There's a lot of really smart people in the world, and they sit around and they think about things, but you know what's an amazing fact? Is that some of the things that are really, really important, they don't know. But many of us this morning, we actually know.

Now, isn't that amazing? God has revealed it to babes. We know things that some of the greatest minds in the world are still trying to figure out. The question of what happens when we die, we know what happens when we die.

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Do you ever wonder what is life all about? And does God really care about our circumstances? You know, we fail God so much, but when we look around, we see others that have fallen as well. God has a remedy for the fall of man, both for our personal failures and for those around us.

Here's David McGee with his teaching. Do you believe this to help us in these issues? We're going to pick it up in verse 17. It says, so when Jesus came, he found that he had already been in the tomb four days. Now, just as a way of remembering, we're talking about Lazarus here. Lazarus has died. When Jesus got the word that Lazarus was sick, he actually stayed there for another couple of days before he came. And here, death has claimed Lazarus.

Now, this is an interesting thing because when death comes, when death takes a life, science, all other things really cease to give us answers, to give us hope. And you know, the statistics are staggering. You know, do you realize that 10 out of 10 people die?

You realize that? Nobody escapes death. It's something that we all must face and therefore should be something that we think about. I don't mean to be morbid or anything, but the reality is, and the beauty is for the believer, it's not a sad thing. See, as a believer, when somebody passes away, it's not a, they're gone forever if they know the Lord, if they're walking with the Lord, it's a, see you later. I've done funerals for people that I know knew the Lord, and I've done some where I wasn't sure and those around me weren't sure.

And I tell you what, those are two different situations. Death for the believer is just walking through one door and two in another room. You want to talk about benefits? That's one of the huge benefits to being a Christian. You know, we get rewarded somewhat in this world, but you know, our death benefits are like out of this world, man. I mean, you know, I mean, we get to go to heaven.

See, there are a couple of things that the world can't really come back. The three of them really, there's more of them than this, but death, sin, and loneliness. See, the world doesn't really have an answer to death, but Jesus has an answer for death. The world still doesn't have a cure for sin, but Jesus has a cure for sin. The world doesn't have an answer for loneliness, but Jesus has an answer for loneliness. See, even in the world, you know, sometimes you can be in a crowd of people and you just feel so alone, but when you're walking with the Lord, you're never alone anymore.

And there's the answer to three of the huge problems that face mankind. Verse 18, now Bethany was near Jerusalem about two miles away. It was like one and seven, eight, and many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary was sitting in the house. So Martha comes out and she comes to meet Jesus. And let's see what she says in verse 21. Now, Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Martha's angry.

I think it's kind of understandable. I think she's grieving and she's hurting. And I think perhaps that we might see in the crucifixion a father that was hurt and angry. If you remember, the sky grew black.

The earth quaked as the pain of a father losing his son. And I think here, Martha is angry and she's sad. The amazing thing is she's assuming that Jesus was clueless about what was going on.

She says this as if he doesn't know, you know, and she's blaming Jesus who is God. Have you ever noticed we tend to do that? We tend to blame God, not just us, not just you and I, but society as a whole. And I hear people say, well, you know, why do bad things happen to good people?

That's a real easy one. The answer is that there's not any good people. See, we're all sinners saved by grace. Now, the amazing thing is we in the garden, remember guys, we fell. Now, maybe you're sitting there going, I wasn't in no garden. I wasn't me. I was Adam and Eve. No, but wait a minute. We're not told how long they were in the garden before he fell, before they fell.

Might've been days, might've been months, but let me promise, let's be honest. Had it been me there, had it been you there, do you really think you wouldn't have fallen? I think any of us given that same situation would have at some point ate the fruit. So the fact that sin, death, disease, all these things are in the world, they're not God's fault. You see, they're a consequence of the fall of mankind in the garden. They're a consequence of the sin of mankind.

You don't see those things in the garden. You didn't see sin and disease and death. Now, the amazing thing is God had a remedy for that and still does for the fall of man. And God, I said that sinners saved by grace, but do you understand what God does? He takes it even beyond sinners, beyond sinners saved by grace and makes us man. You got your seatbelt fastened? Makes us saints. Wow.

Is that a mind blower? He gives us a fresh start and then looks on us with robes of righteousness because we've come to Him and we've asked Him to forgive us of our sins. So while we're blaming things on God, let's be sure to blame Him for that one, huh?

Because He came up with a solution and the answer and gives us a fresh start. Of course, none of us really needed a fresh start. It was just kind of convenient, right? Yeah, right. Come on now.

Elbows flying around the room now, aren't they? Take notes that Jesus waited. And we talked about this last week. Jesus could have healed Lazarus right where he was before Lazarus died, but he was willing to wait that God's glory would be revealed so that there would be a huge blessing. And Mary and Martha right now don't understand that. And the reason that should comfort us is because there's going to be situations, there's going to be circumstances in our lives that we're not going to understand.

But we can fall back on what we do know. Jesus loves us and has a good plan for our life. Verse 22, but even now, Martha's continuing, but even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Martha's so close, but so far, she's standing right beside him. And she doesn't say, hey, God, she says, no, go ask God. She had no idea. She was right there beside Jesus and she had no idea. She had had fellowship, meals, communion with Jesus, but didn't know he was God.

She had even served dinner around him. She'd even spoke, prayed, perhaps. She had spoken, she had served, she had had communion, but she didn't know him.

She was so close, but so far. And how many people does that describe across the land this morning? People that know, that don't know the Lord. Maybe they're in church, maybe they're serving, maybe they're taking communion, maybe they're even praying, but they don't know Jesus as their savior.

They don't have a personal relationship with the Lord. You can be so close and yet so far. Now, verse 23, Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. And Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me, she'll never die. Do you believe this? Jesus just always has a way of cutting to the chase, doesn't he? Getting to the heart of the matter, saying, you know, okay, this is the real deal. But notice something, he does not disagree with Martha when she says there will be a resurrection in the end times. He doesn't go, oh, Martha, that's just a folk tale. There's a reality to that.

And any church, any organization, any denomination that takes away from the reality of the resurrection is in serious biblical error. But there's some that say that now. See, this is incredible. And I don't know if you really stopped to think about this because, you know, there's a lot of things in this life that we wonder about, that we think about. There's a lot of really smart people in the world.

And they sit around and they think about things. But you know what's an amazing fact? Is that some of the things that are really, really important, they don't know. They don't understand. But many of us this morning, we actually know.

Now, isn't that amazing? God has revealed it to babes. We know things that some of the greatest minds in the world are still trying to figure out.

I mean, you know, they're studying this, they're studying that. But the question of what happens when we die, we know what happens when we die. They're still trying to figure that out. What happens? I don't know. He went somewhere. We're not sure where he went. He left.

There's nobody home anymore. But we're not sure where he lives now. See, we know that. We know because the Bible tells us this.

And so you can't go, and so you can't go, well, I believe that part, don't believe that part, believe this part, believe that. No, see, Jesus right here, he's very upfront, isn't he? He says, look, I'm the resurrection life. He who believes in me will never die.

Do you believe it? So he asked. He asked the question.

He asked her, then he's asking us this morning. But not only do we get these answers, but we get a huge answer in what is this life all about? What is this life all about? Some people, some very intelligent people, some very loving people, go through this life and they have no idea what this life is about. And yet somehow God has seen fit to tell us.

Isn't that amazing? I mean, that's something to be excited about that. We actually, you know, we know something. We know something that a lot of people don't yet know. Now don't be like that.

I mean, this is such good news. We want to tell other people. We want to tell other people, is there life after death? What's life all about? What happens when we die? Hey, I know, I'll tell you.

I'll tell you. There's opportunities all around us. The moment we move out of this earthly body, we move into our heavenly body. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord is what Paul tells us in Corinthians. The reality of what Jesus was saying is so amazing, so far in its implication that it should change everything about us. This changes everything.

Though you die, you'll live. I mean, that really changes, that changes everything. It should radically change our lives. And you know what people that reduce Christianity to a list of dos and don'ts, man, they're missing the point.

This just doesn't affect perhaps your language or perhaps which movie you select or something like that. This changes everything. That's the life lesson here. Believing in Jesus changes everything.

I mean, this stuff is so radical that believing in Jesus changes everything. Because, you know, Jesus says, you know what, you'll never die. You'll never die? What did He mean by that?

He meant you won't stay dead when you die. Now, that's an amazing thing. 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 listeners in the state of Idaho, specifically these cities, Cascade, Clarkston, Grangeville, Ketchum, Marcing and Boise, McCall and Moscow. God, we thank You for everyone listening today. Lord, we pray that You would encourage them and remind them how much You love them. Lord, if there is some listening today who haven't put their trust in You, we pray that today will be the day that they would say yes to allowing You to forgive them of their sins and that they would say yes to following You with all their heart, all their soul, and all their strength.

And Lord, we pray that You would get them plugged into a Bible teaching, Bible believing church. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Notice what he says.

The prerequisite or the requirement for this is in verse 26. And whoever is mostly good shall never die. Is that what he says? No. He who goes to church more than he doesn't will never die.

Is that what he said? No. See, a lot of people think going to church makes you a Christian, right? That doesn't work.

It doesn't work. If that's true, then, you know, I guess going to McDonald's makes you a Big Mac, right? I mean, you know, I wasn't a Christian, but I came here and now I am.

That's pretty cool. No, no, no, no, no, no. Believes in me shall never die. See, we get confused. Oh, man, we've obliterated this message, haven't we? I mean, I grew up in church and that was basically the message I got. You better be good because your good needs to outweigh your bad.

Boy, you want to talk about a frustrating way to live. Hoping your good outweighs your bad. And then you come across Scripture, it says, well, if you've broken it in one place, you've broken them all. Oh, well, that's encouraging. When I'm trying to get my good to outweigh my bad.

You understand most of us live part of our lives or sadly, some people live all their lives like that. It's like, there's a scale and there's a hundred pound lead weight on one side. And we think by putting feathers over here, we're going to balance the scale out.

That's not going to work. I mean, it makes it tougher that there's like a breeze blowing. So every four feathers you set, it's like two of them go on.

I'm just, you know, I'll just keep at one point, these feathers outweigh, you know, and we, and we do that. And it's so unbiblical. Jesus came to wake us out of that slumber of thinking our good can outweigh our bad. He walks in and he's the only one that can do it. He walks up to the scale and says, let me take the weight off. Wow. And then he gives us a new start.

What's the cost. Was it like one third of everything you'll make, you know, like from now till the time you die, kind of like a, you know, a sin come tax or something that you got to pay so you can get in or is he come for like your first born or for, you know, maybe a body part where you got to cut off your hand, just like Matthew said, you know, okay, now you can get into heaven. No, no, you have to believe in him. Oh, it can't be that simple. Oh yeah, it is.

It's just that simple. And God probably knew that we would complicate it far more than it is. And guess what we have, even in light of scriptures like Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, for where grace are you saved through faith is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. It's the gift of God. It's the gift that perhaps is waiting on some of you. Some of us have opened it.

Some of us have not. So if we believe this, it changes everything. Because if we believe Jesus, we'll follow Jesus. And if we're following Jesus, we should believe Jesus.

And it should affect every area of our life. It gets strange because people have these academic discussions about, well, you know, can you believe him and not follow him? I don't know.

I don't know. I know that in my life, my belief has caused me to follow him and everything has changed. Everything's different. I look at everything different. I look at life different. I look at death different. I look at people different.

I look at time different. This changes everything. Verse 27, she said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world. Martha hits a home run. I want you to notice how much she changed in just a couple of verses. I mean, she was going, hey, ask God for something and blame and Jesus for something.

And in just a few verses, what's she saying? Well, she's calling him Christ. Now, you may be confused and thinking, well, she's calling him Christ because that was his name. That was not his name. His name was Jesus or Yeshua in the Hebrew.

The English word of that is Joshua. But see, Christ, the name Christ comes from the Greek word Christos or anointed one. It was not a name. It was a title. It was a title reserved for the one that God was sending into the world to save his people from their sins. It's the Greek word for the Hebrew word mashiach, where we get our word Messiah.

Those words are very similar. She's saying, you're the Messiah. You're the one. God bless Martha. Even in the midst of her trial and her pain, she's willing to see this and say, you know what? You're the Christ.

You are the one. Now, a little background information before we continue. Luke chapter 10, verse 38 tells the story of Mary and Martha. And it says, Now it happened as they went, that he entered a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister call Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

Therefore, tell her to help me. And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. And Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her. Notice, Jesus didn't slam Martha.

He simply reminded her of the most important thing. And I think there's kind of a tendency if many of us are Martha's and many of us are Mary's. And I think it's fair to say that be sure you act like Mary sometimes.

Maybe perhaps at times you should be doing like Martha. I'm not getting into this teaching because it's in Luke 10. It's not in John. But to give us kind of a background of the sisters. Now, in that moment, she said, Lord, don't you care? At least she didn't come out with that one. You know, Martha, when she came out to meet Jesus, Jesus, you don't care.

That seemed to be a common thing people accused them of. You don't care. Remember what the disciples said when they were in the boat and the seas were getting rocky? Don't you care?

We're drowning. You see the irony of that? Jesus, don't you care? What was He here for? Because He cared. God so loved the world.

And yet people that we read about in this book turn to Him, said, don't you care? Well, let's be honest. Let's make it a little more personal.

Probably every one of us has done that. Lord, don't you care? Don't you see, Lord, that I'm in this situation? Don't you care that I'm hurting? Don't you care that this person's dying or this person's sick? Don't you care, Lord? Oh, He cares. Loved one, He cares more than you could imagine.

More than you could imagine. He cares more than you about those situations. Remember, the Lord cares and He knows. Verse 28, and when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister saying, the teacher has come and is calling for you. And as soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. Now, Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. You notice, and I mention this, Martha changed so abruptly, didn't she?

What changed Martha? She was in the presence of Jesus. That changes things, doesn't it? Being in the presence of Jesus changes things.

See, that's one of the things that happens here. I guess you're aware of it, but you know, you come in here and sometimes I see people come in here heavy and burdened and they come in here and they start worshiping. And the presence of the Lord is in the worship and the word is proclaimed and it's like, man, they look like new people after the service.

Why? Because they've been in the presence of Jesus. And when you're in the presence of Jesus, it changes you. Something is different. Maybe your friends, maybe your family have even recognized something's different because you've been in the presence of Jesus. You're changed. You're different. You're different, but perhaps they've not been in the presence of Jesus.

Perhaps they haven't been changed yet. Perhaps the Lord wants to have you to be used to show them how He can make a difference in somebody's life. 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. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.

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 have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. 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. Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him.

And He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. 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. Well, 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.