The resurrection of Lazarus demonstrates that God's purposes, even in death and sorrow, are for His glory and the glorification of His Son. Jesus intentionally delayed his arrival, not out of indifference, but to allow for a greater display of God's power and to strengthen the faith of His disciples and witnesses. The account highlights the contrast between human limitations and God's omnipotence, as seen in Martha and Mary's initial despair and Jesus' ultimate command, "Lazarus, come forth!" The sermon emphasizes that while God's delays may seem inexplicable, they serve a divine purpose, ultimately leading to belief and the manifestation of God's glory.
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I'm not going to read the portion but make a few comments on it, which I trust will be helpful under God. I want to be sure that you can all hear me because my voice is not natural because of a bad cold that I have at the present time, but I'm sure that the person that's adjusting the amplification will take care of that. We have in this wonderful chapter the outstanding miracle toward the end of the life of our Lord Jesus before he died for us on the cross. The resurrection of Lazarus. I'm sure we've all read this passage over and over and over again, and perhaps what I will be saying will be redundant because you've already seen this yourself and thought of these things.
A certain man was sick named Lazarus Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. Perhaps some of you have gone over to the Holy Land and you've visited Bethany and found it on the far side of the Mount of Olives there. Perhaps you've even done as I have done. You've gone to the tomb where it's reputed Lazarus was raised. At any rate, this is where the Lord Jesus loved to dwell in that family there at Bethany. The town of Mary and her sister Martha.
And Mary is identified here because there are six Mary's in the New Testament. And so it's explained that Mary is the one that anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. And, of course, we had the whole story in the next chapter, in the twelfth chapter. We had this wonderful story of Martha, or rather of Mary. Martha's in the picture, but Martha's always a bit in the background. She was very active, but nevertheless it was Mary who loved to sit at the feet of the Lord and hear his words.
And I'm sure we all like to be Mary sitting at the feet of the Lord, although the activities... oftentimes put us into the Martha class. Mary anointed the Lord with ointment. How valuable it is to study the word with a harmony of the Gospels, comparing one of the Gospels with another one. For example, in this case there is an account given in Matthew and an account given in Mark of this account of Mary and her bringing the alabaster box of ointment and breaking it and pouring it on the feet of the Lord Jesus.
In the two other accounts, it says as well that she poured it on his head. And we know that the normal reception for guests in a Jewish home was that he would have his body anointed. But for the Lord Jesus, it was more than that. Because of all the disciples, and certainly Mary was one of the disciples, she was the one who seemed to understand that his death approached. And so in both Matthew and Mark, when the story is given, it said, the Lord said that she had anointed him for his burial.
She saw what was ahead. The disciples had at least three times been told that the Lord was going to die. and that he was going to be buried and he was going to rise the third day. But there it was Mary who came. And as she poured that precious ointment on the Lord Jesus Christ, we could take the time speaking just to that lovely expression of worship as she came and threw herself at his feet and poured the ointment on his feet and on his head as well, and then wiped his feet were the hairs of her head. And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
The worship as we enjoy this morning is something that is communicative. Men took knowledge of those disciples long ago when they had such courage and spoke with such power. They took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. And as we come forth from a time as we had this morning in remembrance of the Lord Jesus, our whole lives, our filled with the joy of his presence. And I like to think of Mary as she went out with the ointment from the, with the odor of the ointment from the body of the Lord Jesus. The odor of the Lord went with her. I have a cousin in Toronto and I could not quite understand him.
I tried to understand his character and try to find a point of contact because he's not a believer. I tried to find something about him that I could move into in order to win a friendship. But there was one thing about him I couldn't enjoy at all, and I really couldn't have confidence in him. Because whenever I was with him, from his body there was the odor of feminine perfume. And we men don't like that very much. And to find another man with feminine perfume, it raises questions in one's mind. And I'm afraid I was, I held myself a bit distant from him until I learned that he worked in a perfume factory in Toronto.
And he couldn't rid himself of the odor of the perfume. When you're constantly there, of course you carry that with you. Well, I like to think of our being in the presence of the Lord for this time here at Park of the Palms and fellowshipping together in these conferences that there will be something of the beauty of the Lord that will go with us. And so it was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment that her brother Lazarus was sick. And there's another mention of this family, and that's in verse five. Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. He loved that family.
He loved to be there. He didn't have a home of his own. He didn't have a bed upon which to lay his head of his own. But he could come to that home. Oh, the joy of hospitality. In the last few months, my wife and I have driven over twenty-two thousand miles. And we've been in many, many homes. Asked Betty how many beds there were. I can't keep track of them. But oh, the fellowship of God's people. the joy of going into a home and being received in the home and welcomed, of fellowshiping together, and perhaps helping a little bit just by being with them.
The Lord Jesus loved to be there at Bethany. And now word is sent. Now they sent word to him. His sister sent to him saying, Lord, behold, he whom now lovest is sick. Now out in Africa, if you get a message like that, you drop everything you have and go. Because the African families are knit together. And if someone is sick, you have to go. Not that you can do anything about it, but you can be there. And of course we realize this, and when I think of my dear brother Keller, I didn't know he was ill, but I've known brother Keller from many, many years back, and I'll certainly go and see him the first chance I have.
I have to see him. Known him from Lombard, Illinois, back there in the beginnings of the assembly there in Lombard. And the message then comes to a man in Africa or a woman. If he's implied, well, he asks for excuse and off he goes, immediately. But notice the Lord in this fourth chapter, when Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death. I'm sure you've asked yourself, what can you mean by that? We know that Lazarus died. What can he mean by this sickness is not unto death? And down below we read that he died.
What did the Lord mean? This sickness is not unto death. He went on to say, but for the glory of God. Lazarus had to die that God might be glorifying. This is the point of Lazarus' death. The sickness is not unto death. That's not the object. That's not the whole story. The Lord is going on to explain what was the reason for Lazarus' death, for the glory of God, and that the Son of God might be glorified. I have had three daughters, lovely daughters whom I've loved very, very much indeed.
My youngest daughter, Pat, a very special daughter, although we don't make choices between members of our family, but one with whom I've had a wonderful contact, a spiritual contact, so that between us it wasn't necessary to have much conversation. We seemed to understand each other more or less automatically, naturally. There was something between us that was a strange and wonderful understanding. And then Pat came down with cancer. And of course, it's hard for me to tell you this, because this was a very precious person to me.
And We were in Africa, Marifa and I, Dora and I were in Africa, and we heard of the sickness affecting her. We heard about a brain tumor. She was just forty-one. Well, it was actually earlier than that. She was just turning forty when it started. And after that, we heard that she was getting very sick, and then she was better, and then she was sick, and then she was better. They were giving her cobalt therapy and chemotherapy and all these things. She was going down back and forth to Houston, to the place down there, to the leprosy center.
And finally a call came. If you want to see her alive, come home. And so my wife and I and our daughter Sally, our second daughter, came. And she was at Houston when we arrived. They were coming back the next day, and so we waited at the airport O'Hare there. And between their planes, because they were going to Indianapolis, we saw her. She had had now a vertebra tumor and was totally paralyzed from the waist down. Therabra, her husband took her off the plane. They had to wait for half an hour, three quarters of an hour between planes.
carried her into the waiting room. And there was that feeling, that understanding between us, of course. And so it went on, but I'll not tell you all the details. It went on, went on. And the brain cancer was dried, and then later the vertebra cancer was dried, and she was able eventually to gain certain measure in her brain. walking. She actually started walking again. Remission looked so good. In fact, my daughter Sally, who stayed to care for her here, I went back to the field because she's a missionary in Zaire at Nyan Kundi.
And then came other things and lung cancer. And I had many opportunities of seeing her because although I went back to the field and Dora, my wife, went to be with the Lord in my absence after I'd gotten to the field. We hadn't expected her to go. But just two weeks after I got to the field, she passed on to be with the Lord. We learned some of those lessons about absent from the body and presence with the Lord. Many of you have experienced these things, too. Well, I had some opportunities of going down to see Path there time and again. And one time, just two weeks before she died, I was able to make a long trip from Rochester right through to Anderson, Indiana, and I had three and a half hours with her alone, just the two of us.
She was still up, and she served luncheon time. Before that, three and a half hours, she served luncheon. Her mother-in-law was there, and then we sat down together. Her mother-in-law had an appointment, and I sat with Pat and held her hand. And we prayed, prayed, and this is what she said to me. She said, I had to decide, and she was practically quoting this, if the Lord can be glorified in my cancer, I want it. I accept it. We had a wonderful time of fellowship together. It was grand. And I saw it to her soul, and she saw it to mine, I'm sure.
She said, if the Lord is glorified in what comes upon me, I'd give it gladly. And so later, when she died a few weeks later, a couple of weeks later, and we were at the funeral, it was a large funeral in a church there in Anderson, Indiana, between eight hundred and a thousand people at the funeral. She had touched hundreds and hundreds of lives for Christ. during that time, and there'll be some in heaven because of her testimony. The Lord said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God.
As I read this, I find great comfort in this, great joy. The Lord lets things come into our lives, let things come into your life that you wouldn't have chosen to have. But it can be that He's allowed those things that glory might be brought to His name and that the Lord Jesus Christ might be glorified. And so it's been a wonderful thing to think that my little daughter left her son, her husband and two young sons, that she could say, if it's for the glory of God, I want it.
And she swiveled up. It has encouraged me as I thought of the death of Lazarus. His death was that God might be glorified. That's purpose number one in this account. The sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified by it. And then, of course, the Lord would go quickly and immediately to be with that family, but no. The Lord did not want to go immediately to that family. Notice in verse six, when he heard, therefore, that he was sick, he went immediately.
I would have thought that the disciples would say, Lord, Lazarus is sick. Go to him. No, not at all. They don't say anything. They don't want him to go. They don't want him to be stoned because they had threatened to stone him there in Judea. And so they didn't urge him. But the Lord Jesus is waiting two days still in the same place where he was. The Lord's delays are not refusals. The Lord has a purpose even in delays. He knew what was happening over there. He knew about the sorrow and sickness in the house of Lazarus. He knew all about it.
He is omniscient. He understood perfectly. We know this because he explains it. further down. He knew all about it. And so he said he abode two days in the same place where he was. And after that, after the two days that he counts, they were probably in Transjordania at that time. At any rate, after the two days he said, let us go to Judea again. And then the disciples said, no, Lord, master the Jews of late sought to stone thee and goest thou there again and now trying to dissuade him from going but he knows the time he's waiting he's known all about the sorrow in that family he's known all about the difficulty that those girls are going to have taking care of a funeral no taking care of a funeral can be a terrible thing in some of those lands in Africa when someone dies and they send word The person who sends word about the death starts preparing food because he's going to be inundated by many, many people.
He's going to have to feed them for days and days and days. If it's a person's sick and then after a person's death, you have to feed them all. Terrific thing. Terrible amount of work. But the Lord knew all about it. He knew about the sorrow. He did nothing about it. For two days, he delayed. A purpose, delay, intention. And then we go to Judea again. The disciples say, Why goest thou there since there again? And the Lord gives a couple of verses here that has to do with the joy of walking in the light and not stumbling in the darkness. And for my soul I find in those verses that the Lord said, I am the light of the world.
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have a light of life. Oh, the joy of walking with the light of the Lord beside us, knowing the way of the Lord. The good step, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way with the light of the Lord upon us. We must go on. Verse eleven, These things said he, and after that he said unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth. But I go that I may awake him out of sleep. We know this is an expression that's often used in Scripture concerning the believer.
The believer sleeps, not talking about soul sleep, but sleep in the death of the earth, waiting for the resurrection. And they thought that he was just sleeping. As he said, our friend Lazarus sleepeth, I go that I may awaken. And then they said, and they seem to be so lacking in faith, lacking in understanding. They say, well, if you're sleeping, that's fine. They say, Lord, if you're sleeping, you shall do well. That's verse twelve. But Jesus spoke of his death and called him sleeping. For instance, in the case of Jairus' daughter, when he died, you know, they took him to see the child and he said the damsels were asleep.
And they mocked him to scorn. He's looking beyond those physical things to that which he was going to accomplish. And then he raised her from the dead. And this is what's going to happen here in verse fourteen. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. Lazarus is dead. First of all, he said he sleeps. And now he's saying he's dead. I find in this portion that the Lord is looking for faith. Faith in the disciples. Faith in the girls there, in the women there at Bethany. And faith in those that witness.
He knows that the death of Lazarus was a certainty. And he knows that the purpose of it was for the glory of God and for the glory of the Son of God. And when now he says very definitely to them, They don't understand that Lazarus is sleeping. And the Lord is going to awaken him out of the sleep of death. They don't understand this. And so he says plainly, Lazarus is dead. And then notice what he says. And this joins together with this earlier fact of the glory of God. Another purpose of the death of Lazarus. I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there.
Glad to miss all that sorrow and put his hand on Lazarus or even speak that Lazarus might rise or be healed before the death. He said, I'm glad for your sakes I was not there. For your sakes I'm glad that we waited those days and had all this happen. To the intent that you may believe, you may believe. It fills my heart to hear us all singing like this for the Lord and we praise God for it. But I feel that we need in their own lives, certainly mine, and many I meet. We need encouragement in the sense of a more implicit trust in the Lord in all of our ways, day by day.
I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent that you may believe. These are the disciples that the Lord is speaking against unbelief and desiring belief, implicit trust. in himself. And Thomas, we like, I like Thomas here. He's so courageous. Yet we know just a little while later he seemed to be so unbelieving. He says, let us go that we may die with him. Then Jesus came and saw that he had been in the grave four days already. And so Martha heard that Jesus was coming, verse twenty.
And she went to meet him. Mary stayed back in the house. She was there quietly in the house. Martha comes running out to the Lord Jesus. And what is she going to say to him? Rejoicing that he's here that he might raise him from the dead? Oh, how the Lord longed for that. I feel certain in my mind. Longed for that expression of faith on the part of Martha. And Mary was there in the... There were many Jews there. In verse nineteen, Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha came and went out to meet him. And Martha said unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
Rebuke. Reproach. If thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. Why didn't you come sooner? That in effect is what it is. But not only Martha that said that, but look at verse thirty-two. When Mary saw Mary, Mary heard where the Lord was there, and she came out and saw him. She fell down at his feet and said to him, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. They're not thinking of resurrection. They're thinking of things on a physical plane. And they're lacking in that faith that leaps onto the impossible with the Son of God.
We don't live by sight. We live by faith and we go beyond the physical things, the temporal things of life. And we look at him who is able to do exceeding abundantly for us above all we ask or think. Well, he said to her verse twenty-three, he said verse twenty-two, and I think that Martha's word here is very good. I know that even now, Whatever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it to thee. Jesus said unto her, Thy brother will rise again. What a comfort that must have been. She said, Yes, I know that he shall rise again at the resurrection of the last day, but not now.
Where's the faith? The Lord is just giving her clues, clues that she might see the opportunity for faith there. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believers thou this, and then comes that glorious confession of faith on the part of Martha. She saith to him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who should come into the world. Like Peter, who gave such fine confession of faith to the Lord. And he rejoiced to have that confession of faith.
But in a practical expression, day by day, now, the Lord is looking for that expression in the lives of his people that sees beyond the natural to the wonderful, eternal thing that the Lord can do. Well, Jesus went into the town and he found Mary and she said the same thing as Martha had said. And when Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping who came with her, I'd like to notice these three words. And I suggest that there might be a wider explanation of these words than that the Lord was sympathetic and sorrow, sorry for the sorrow they had.
Verse thirty-three, Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping who came with her. He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. In his spirit he groaned. But he knew all about this. He knew this was going to happen. He delayed in the knowledge that this was going to happen. He groaned in the Spirit and said, Where have you laid it? They said, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold, how he loved him. And some said, Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind have caused that even this man should not have died? No one's saying anything about resurrection.
And here's the God of resurrection, the Son of God. The Lord's longing for an expression here. It was a cave and the stone was laid upon it. Jesus said, take away the stone. I can imagine Martha, he said, take away the stone. She would jump to it in a hurry and get some of those fellows pushing that stone away. No. What does she say? By this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days. Glad you came, Lord, but it's too late. He's dead. Too late for the Son of God. He's dead. No use of rolling aside the stone.
There's a corpse inside. The Lord said, Said I not unto you if thou wouldst believe thou should see the glory of God, which is to be manifested right then in the resurrection. Well, they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. I knew that thou hearest me always. But because of these people that stand by, I said it, that they might believe. He's interested all the way through the chapter in belief of his own. And further down we find that many of those who weren't his own, they believed when they saw what the Lord had done.
But he prayed, I knew that thou hears me always, but because of the people who stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent thee. And when he had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. I remember when I, during the last war, I was at chapel up there in the Middle East with the Zairean soldiers. And I went oftentimes to Jerusalem from Gaza, where we were stationed, and taking soldiers there to visit. And I remember one time all alone, one Sunday morning, I went up the Mount of Olives, and I went over to Bethany, and I stood there, and this was the site, they said, of the death of Lazarus, or the burial of Lazarus.
So I stood there, I remember. It's down quite a depth down into the ground. And then you find the level that was there at that time. And so I said, Lazarus, come forth. Nothing happened. Nothing happened. But I thought at the time the Lord said it. Because then, when he said that, there in the darkness of the tomb, there was a movement and a figure stumbling out, completely covered face and stumbling toward the the voice that had called him back to life, and he came out. He that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a cloth.
Jesus said unto them, Loose him and let him go. Many of the Jews who came to Mary and seen the things he did believed on him. They believed on him. And the Pharisees who hated him They said in verse forty-eight, if we let him rest alone, all men will believe on him. And from that day forth, verse fifty-three, they took counsel together to put him to death, put him to death. This is all part of the scenario that was worked out in eternity, that the Lord Jesus should die. He was there seeking belief on the part of his own. I'd like to take you to another portion.
Psalm seventy-eight, please. Psalm seventy-eight. And I'm going to use this rather quickly here. Psalm seventy-eight. The lack of faith on the part of the children of Israel. Verse nineteen. They spoke against God, said, Can God furnish the table in the wilderness? Twenty. Can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people? Twenty-two. They believed not in God and trusted not in his salvation. Thirty-two. They sin still and believed not in his wondrous works. Verse forty-one.
Yea, they turned back and tested God and limited the Holy One of Israel. That's the verse. Because of their lack of faith, they limited the Holy One of Israel. Now, We look in Mark. Mark chapter... Mark chapter six. Mark chapter six. He's in Nazareth now. And they're speaking of him. Mark six, verse three. They say, this is not the carpenter, son of Mary, brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon, so on.
Verse five. And he could there do no mighty work, except that he laid his hands on a few sick folk and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And in the Matthew, verse chapter, occasion it says he could there do no work because of their unbelief. He was hindered in that which he would do because of the unbelief of the people there. There's one more verse, one more section here. This is the ninth chapter. And Mark chapter nine, this man who brings the son to him, the son that has been, has an unclean spirit.
And he tells what happened. Verse eighteen, I spoke to thy disciples. They should cast him out, and they could not. He answered and said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? Bring him to me. And they brought him to him. Now the man tells, and it tells what happened. about his son being fallen in the fire from a child. Verse twenty-two. Often it has cast him into the fire, into the waters, to destroy him. But if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believe it. And straightway the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.
And then the disciples have question about it. This can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. The lack of the fullness of God's blessing in our lives, in our individual lives, collectively too, in assemblies all over the country, because you are representatives from many meetings throughout the whole North America. Have faith in God, beyond that which sees the present impossibilities, so that God is enough, shall we pray. Our gracious Father, we thank thee for thy great goodness to us. Thank thee for thy word that is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing us under soul and spirit, with the joints and marrow, and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our hearts.
Help us to give ourselves in complete consecration to thee, to believe thee in every detail of our life, even in the remotest and most minute details, that our Lord may be glorified, that God may be glorified, and the Son of God glorified as we trust thee. Accept our thanks now as we separate. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ,