John Chapter 11:17-37

Nobody in this biblical story has any idea what is about to happen.

They're clueless. They thought they were going to the tomb to mourn some more with Jesus. That Jesus was there to mourn for them. They had no idea what Jesus was getting ready to do.

And you know what? Many of us in here have no idea what Jesus is getting ready to do. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is a senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina.

Do you think God doesn't care for you? Sometimes in life we can get confused, but the truth is we have no idea what Jesus is about to do in our lives. Today Pastor David McGee helps us understand this as he continues in the Gospel of John chapter 11.

Now here's David McGee with part two of his teaching, Do You Believe This? We're gonna pick it up in verse 17. He 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. Verse 18, Now Bethany was near Jerusalem about two miles away.

It was like one and seven eighths, 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. Now Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. 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 shall never die.

Do you believe this? 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 blaming 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.

Most of us are aware of that from some of the teachings here. 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. 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.

Interesting couple of things. 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 worshipping, 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. Mary, as soon as she hears that Jesus is there, it comes to him. Verse 30 says, Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, She's going to the tomb to weep there. They didn't know what she was doing, did she?

Did they? They had no idea she's going to the tomb to weep there. She's not going to the tomb to weep. They misunderstood completely what was going on, and that's okay.

And, guys, you know what? The world and those family members and stuff, they may completely misinterpret you. They may not understand you. That's okay. Jesus told us that was going to happen. So don't be confused when that happens. Don't be angry when that happens.

Jesus told us, even one step further, he said, Look, in this world, you're going to have trials. Don't be surprised. Don't be surprised. So you're going to be misunderstood.

And that's okay. I mean, they're reading from a different playbook, if you will. They're reading from a different script than us. Maybe you can have some compassion and remember when you didn't understand what life was all about. You didn't understand about Jesus.

You and I are going to have those opportunities in the coming days. John 11, 32, Then when Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down on his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. That's kind of a familiar little phrase, isn't it? Now I'm thinking at this point, Mary and Martha have been talking. They've been talking, you know, what, Jesus wasn't, if Jesus would have been here, this wouldn't have happened. Be careful of thinking that. Was Jesus aware of what was going on?

Oh, you betcha. We know from the conversations he had with his disciples that we talked about last week, he knew exactly what was going on, but he was willing to wait so that the glory of God would be revealed. Don't assume that Jesus doesn't understand about your place.

If you would have been here, it wouldn't have happened. The situations that occur in your life have been filtered through the hands of God. Some of you have endured trials and tribulations and testings. Some of the rest of us might not understand, but Jesus does.

Jesus does understand what you're going through. And notice Mary, when she came to Jesus, she fell down at his feet. You know, we come across Mary three times in Scripture.

You know what she's doing every time? At the feet of Jesus. She's at the feet of Jesus. The first time she's at the feet of Jesus, she listened to his word. The first time she's at his feet, like we read in Luke 10. Right here, she falls at his feet and is pouring out her sorrows.

What we're going to see in the next chapter is that she fell at his feet and gave Jesus her praise and worship. You know what? At the feet of Jesus is a good place to be.

And you know what? Don't wander very far from there. The cool thing is we can go there at any time at any moment. You get in the middle of a trial, of a testing, things aren't going well at work or whatever, go to the feet of Jesus.

Fall at the feet of Jesus. What an amazing thing that he set it up where we could do that in any place and at any time. Go there frequently, friend.

You'll find yourself refreshed and reminded of what all this is all about. Verse 33. Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, then the Jews who came with her weeping, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled.

And he said, where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Verse 35, Jesus wept. Jesus felt compassion. Jesus felt pain. Jesus cried. Jesus understands. And notice that he wept. It's not just that he understands.

It's that there is a deep, deep compassion for people. Jesus has this. And in this situation, he wept. I remember as a small child being told something, big boys don't cry.

Many of us heard that, didn't we? But Jesus wept. If I may use the phrase, the biggest of all boys cried. So men, don't walk under that.

Don't carry that baggage. Strongest men that we see in the Bible cried and wept. And by far the strongest of them was Jesus. And it says here that he wept.

So not only do you need to come out from under that, but don't tell your kids that. Don't say to your sons, big boys don't cry. And so Jesus wept. Why did Jesus weep? I think probably compassion for Mary and Martha. I think for their pain.

I think for the devastation of death and destruction and all these things. But also wonder one other thing. As he's weeping, there's somebody that we don't usually think he might be weeping for. He might be weeping for Lazarus.

You see, he knows what he's about to do. He knows where Lazarus is. Lazarus is in heaven. And he knows that he's getting ready to call Lazarus out of heaven, back into the sin-stained earth. And oh, he understood that one, didn't he? See, he had left heaven and come to earth. And he knew what Lazarus was about to leave behind as he called him back. We're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge.

He'll be right back with more in just a moment. But I want to remind you of the free resources available to you on crossthebridge.com. There's a team of hundreds of people that will pray for somebody to be saved. You have a loved one that needs to know Jesus as Savior. You need people to pray for him.

You need someone to present God's Word to him. Every day we're presenting God's Word to him here on Cross the Bridge with Pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well just by simply going to crossthebridge.com and click on the Pray for the Lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as Savior, click on submit, and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones. And what an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus. 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. Verse 36, then the Jews said, see how he loved him. See how he loved him. Look at Martha and Mary's reaction.

They both had the same reaction. Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. They mistakenly thought God didn't care about Lazarus or Mary or Martha. The life lesson here is do not mistake God waiting to do something for him not caring. Do not mistake God waiting to do something for him not caring.

We tend towards that. When we get in a situation and God doesn't resolve it immediately, we begin to think, well, is he aware of it? If he is aware of it, doesn't he care enough to get me out of this? Don't mistake that. Now, the amazing thing is nobody, nobody in this biblical story has any idea what is about to happen. They're clueless. You can see that in the Scripture in a few verses where, you know, Jesus says roll away the rock and Martha says, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's gonna stink. Nobody had any idea. They thought they were going to the tomb to mourn some more with Jesus. That Jesus was there to mourn for them. They had no idea what Jesus was getting ready to do. And you know what? Many of us in here, maybe even all of us, have no idea what Jesus is getting ready to do.

No idea. Some of you, the Lord is really touching your life. You're being changed from the inside out.

I get the joy of having a front row seat to see in that. And yet I still sit back and I think, oh, he's got no idea what Jesus has in store for him. I mean, I don't know either, but I mean, I know that, you know, I know that he doesn't know. Are some of you ladies seeing you serve and pour out your heart and know, oh, man, Jesus has got really something good for her. He's got really something good for you. Some of you may know what it is. Some of you may not. He's got a good plan for all of us.

And the reality is you can't imagine how good it is. There'll be trials. There'll be tribulations. There'll be tests. No doubt about it. Jesus tells us about that stuff.

And for some, it may be harder than you expect, but for all, it will end up better than you can imagine. Of course, the enemy doesn't want you thinking that. He doesn't want you dwelling on that thought.

It's not going to be good. I'm not just holding on trying to make it. Is that the picture that scripture paints for us? Ephesians chapter three, verse 20 says now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us. What an amazing thing to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.

Now you're sitting there going, well, I can ask and think a whole lot. Yeah, but that's not even close to what God is going to do. The New Living Translation has the Ephesians 3 20 says now glory be to God by his mighty power at work within us he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we could ever dare to ask or hope. How did we go from that verse to hoping we can make it to church on Sunday? I don't know. I'll try.

Do you see the disconnect? God says, oh, you know, I'm going to be able to do more than you can imagine or think. If you'll submit to me, if you'll place yourself in the palm of my hand, I will blow your mind with what I do with your life. And there's so many God stories around here of God doing exactly that in the last couple years, it would blow your mind to hear them all.

So many of them. The life lesson here, God has a destiny for you. Go for it. God has a destiny for you.

Go for it. See, the reality is the one person that can hold you back more than anybody else isn't the person sitting beside you. It isn't the person maybe that didn't come with you this morning. It's you.

It's you. Lord has equipped you with certain gifts, certain abilities. He wants to use you for his glory. He has an awesome plan for your life if you'll follow him.

But many of us, like the little, you know, thing with the dog chasing his tail, many of us wound up like that, confused and dizzy with the busyness of it all. And God's like, oh, no, I got to, I got a much better plan. And God's desire is to use us to reach a world that doesn't know him. God desires you to reach the people that are in your circle. He desires that you perhaps invite them to this place to hear the good news.

He desires to use you to impact the world. And you know what's even more mind-blowing is he's waiting for us to do it. What do you mean he's waiting for us to do it?

Well, don't take my word for it. It's what the Bible says. 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 9 says, the Lord isn't really being slow about his promise to return as some people think. No, he's being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish so he's given more time for everyone to repent. He's waiting.

Perhaps you're sitting there going, well, that sounds like he's waiting on them. Yeah, kind of, till you think about what he said in John 4. Remember when he said, pray for workers in the harvest.

You notice how that's worth it? He didn't say pray for the harvest. As a matter of fact, he said the harvest is already there. The fields are white with the harvest, ready to be harvested. Pray for workers to go into the harvest. I encourage everyone in here to pray that prayer. And let me tell you what's going to happen as you do. As you pray for the Lord to send workers into the harvest, you'll realize you are worker in the harvest.

And that you should go into the harvest field because that's what workers in the harvest do. God wants to do that. See because according to the first and according to this book, at some point Jesus will do away with all the death and the destruction and the disease and the sin. He'll do away with it all. But in that moment, friend, all those that have rejected him will have the door shut. I'm glad he's waiting. I'm glad he's waiting because some of you that are here this morning, if you'd have come six months ago, the door would have been shut. So I'm glad he's waiting.

He's waiting for us to tell other people the good news. And maybe you've suffered. Maybe you've suffered with sin and sickness and disease and pain and all these things and every one of us has to one degree or another. Be reminded that at some point that ends.

And really in terms of eternity, it's a brief season. Revelation 21 says, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying. There shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away. What an awesome verse, huh? What an awesome verse. Verse 37, and some of them said could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying, kept him from dying?

Oh, listen up guys. They're sitting there going, couldn't he have kept him from dying? Yeah, he could have done that. But you know what?

He's getting ready to do something that will just, it's going to rock your boat. He could have kept him from dying. Oh, that'd have been good. But he waited. He waited. Now in the meantime, in him waiting, guess what happened to Lazarus? He died. He died so that he could glorify God. Oh, this will just sting for a second.

Okay. See, that's what has to happen in every person's life. You have to die to yourself. You have to die to your perhaps selfish desires.

Follow the Lord and then the Lord will be glorified. Could Lazarus ever have imagined that he was going to be told and talked about in Sunday schools and children's ministries and in sanctuaries and congregations for 2,000 years and all over the world? No way.

No way. Nobody even told him. He had no idea what Jesus was getting ready to do.

Guys, that's the last life lesson. Sometimes we have no idea what Jesus is about to do. But I know that God is a blessing God. I know that God is a keeping God.

And I know that God has a good plan for your life and God has a destiny for your life if you will go for it and you will submit to him. Why does he do it? Because you believe. Why do you show God that you believe?

You ask him to forgive you of your sins and you tell him that you believe and it changes everything. Some of you came in here this morning one way and you'll leave different than when you came in. Some of you are walking with the Lord and there's such good things around the corner. Be encouraged. God has a plan for your life. Everything that's in your life is being filtered through his fingers and is for your good is what the book of Romans says.

So guys, go for it. If you're walking with the Lord go for it. Go for following the Lord with all your heart mind and soul. If you don't yet know him allow me to lead you in a prayer which you ask the Lord to forgive you of your sins. How can you be forgiven of your sins? What huge price must you pay?

Price has been paid. Jesus says believe. Turn from your efforts to what he's already done. If you're not sure this morning that you've ever prayed that prayer or perhaps you prayed it and you really didn't understand what it was about and everything didn't change then I want to encourage you to pray that prayer this morning and you have no idea what Jesus is about to do in your life.

But again let me tell you it's beyond your imagination more than you can think more than you can ask. Some of us perhaps needed to be reminded of that simple fact this morning that Jesus has a good plan for your life and you can submit to him because he cares and he knows. Coming to Jesus is the best thing you could ever do whether you're coming to him for the first time or you're coming back to him it is the best thing that you can do. 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 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 12 515 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