Introduction:
Knowing Jesus When You're Hurting (John 11:17-37)
- He is Present and Powerful today. (John 11:17-27)
- He Feels your hurt. (John 11:28-37)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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John chapter 11.
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We're going to be picking up in verse 17 here in just a couple of moments.
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Have you noticed that some people do an absolutely terrible job comforting people?
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Have you ever noticed that?
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Terrible comforters.
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Several years ago I was exercising on a weight machine and the cable broke on the way down.
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And I smashed all of the fingers on both of my hands.
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But this one here, I'm not going to stick it up by itself.
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This one right here took it the worst.
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And it got swollen and it turned this really weird like purpley blue green color.
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And I was just like, it'll get better, it'll get better.
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And it got worse and worse and worse and worse.
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And Aaron's like, you need to get to the hospital.
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I'm like, no, it'll be fine.
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And I could feel my heart beating in that finger.
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You know what I'm talking about?
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Well, finally, I listened to Erin's advice and I went to the hospital, and the nurse said, "We're going to have to relieve the pressure on that." And I'm like, "Oh, how are we going to do that?" And she pulled out this white pen-looking thing that had this little black tip on it that suddenly turned blazing hot orange.
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And she goes, we're going to have to puncture through your fingernail to relieve the pressure.
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And I'm like, is it going to hurt?
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No joke.
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She grabbed my hand, tucked it under her arm.
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She goes, yes.
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Jabbed my finger.
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Whoa!
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Do you know how bad that thing hurt?
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Oh my gosh.
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And then she says, you're probably going to lose that fingernail.
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Awesome.
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I guess my insurance doesn't cover bedside manner, right?
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But not a great job comforting.
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It was obviously a very traumatic thing for me.
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But there's no worse time to be a bad comforter than at a funeral.
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And changing gears here, getting very serious, I attended a funeral many years ago.
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It was a friend of a kid who went to our church.
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A bunch of them were jumping off the bridge at Moraine, just having fun doing things that goofy teenage kids do, and the one kid drowned.
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And I attended the funeral, again, because the friend of the deceased boy went to our church, and they brought some priest in that was completely unfamiliar with the family or the situation or anything.
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And this priest was just standing up there just stammering and blathering forever about, "What are you talking about?" And at one point, he pointed the casket and he said, "I didn't know him, but I'm sure he was a wonderful young man." And I'm just sitting there going, "Stop talking! You have a room full of grieving people, and you have supposedly the greatest comforting message in the world, and you're just not giving it. Like, what's What's the matter with you?
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You completely blew it.
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Well today, we're going to be heading to a funeral.
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We're going to learn two things that you absolutely have to know about Jesus Christ.
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Especially, especially when you're hurting.
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John chapter 11, we saw that Jesus had gotten word that his buddy Lazarus was ill.
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The Bible says because Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters, he waited two days to go to them.
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And Bethany, like why would he wait?
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Well, Jesus said the illness was to display God's glory.
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And this is all leading to His last, but His greatest, public miracle.
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And that's raising Lazarus from the dead.
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Oh, spoiler alert. That's next week's message.
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But you know, there were two other resurrections recorded in Scripture that we know about, that Jesus performed.
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One was Jairus' daughter, and the other one was the widow's son.
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And you're like, "Well, what's so significant about Lazarus' resurrection?" And I think it's this.
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The funerals, the resurrection, rather, for Jairus' daughter and the widow's son, those took place immediately after the person died.
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So I suppose some silly skeptic could just try to explain it away, to say, "Well, maybe they weren't really dead, maybe they're unconscious, maybe they're in a coma, whatever." Which is wrong, but some silly skeptic could try to explain it away.
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but this event, this resurrection takes place four days after Lazarus died.
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So look at verse 17 with me.
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It says, "Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
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Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother." Stop there.
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A funeral in those days lasted seven days.
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So four days in was sort of right in the middle of the funeral.
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In those days, the actual funeral would be seven days, but then they would have 30 days of mourning and comforting, and people would stick around and they would spend that time telling stories about the deceased, sharing some favorite memories, things like that.
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You know, it's not like in our day, when somebody dies, it's like, "Run to the funeral home for an hour visitation," and we have the funeral, and then it's like all over.
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We sort of rush through it, but in those days, they really took their time to remember and celebrate the person.
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So in the middle of the funeral, here comes Jesus, revealing two things, again, you need to know when you're hurting.
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So on your outline, jot these down.
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Knowing Jesus when you're hurting.
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Number one, He is present and powerful today.
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He is present and powerful today.
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Look at verse 20. It says, "So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met Him.
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But Mary remained seated in the house.
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Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if you had been here, My brother would not have died.
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The first time we meet Martha is back in Luke 10.
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And in verse 40 of that chapter, she's telling Jesus what to do.
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Remember that story? Mary's sitting, listening to Jesus.
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Martha's rushing around, trying to serve.
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And finally Martha's like, "Hey, hey, Jesus, tell Mary to be helping me in the kitchen.
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Tell her to get off her rear end and help me." That's a paraphrase.
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But here, she rushes to meet Jesus and she leads with another pretty bold statement.
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Right out of the gate, she goes, "Jesus, if only you'd been here." Where have you been? If you'd been here, things would be different.
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Notice that Martha had confidence that Jesus could heal the sick, but she didn't have confidence that Jesus could raise the dead.
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If you were here when he was sick, you could have done something, but obviously now it's too late.
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Look at verse 22, Martha continues, she says, "But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.
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Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again.'" What was she expecting from Jesus?
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I mean, obviously, she wasn't expecting resurrection because look at how she responded when Jesus said that Lazarus is going to resurrect.
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He said it very plainly, "Your brother will rise again." Look at her response, verse 24.
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Check this.
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Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus says, "Lazarus will rise." And Martha's like, "Yeah, yeah, someday.
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Someday.
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I know Jesus.
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Someday.
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Someday in the distant future.
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Someday.
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Lazarus is going to resurrect in the last day." And that is an absolutely true statement.
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It's good theology, but it's very weak faith.
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Because look at how Jesus responds to that.
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Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life.
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Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
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And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
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Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.
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You notice how Jesus took Martha from a program to a person.
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Lazarus will resurrect, and she goes, "Yes, according to my systematic theology framework, he is going to resurrect." And that's true.
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He is going to resurrect in the last days, and Jesus goes, "Okay, but resurrection is not merely some thing on a list on a page in a systematic theology book.
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Jesus said, "Do you know what resurrection is?" He said, "I am the resurrection.
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I am the life." I love that.
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Notice Jesus didn't merely say, "Oh, hey Martha, I'm curing the dead." He said, "I am the resurrection and the life." This is the fifth of seven "I am" statements in John.
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We've seen this as we've gone through John.
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Jesus has said, "I am the bread of life.
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I'm the light of the world.
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I'm the good shepherd.
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I'm the door." Every single one of them is a claim to deity.
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Understand that.
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When Jesus says, "I am," he's saying that he's God.
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Because clear back in Exodus chapter 3, when Moses, speaking to the Lord, said, "Who should I tell them sent me?" Like, "What is your name?" God told Moses that his name is "I am." Yahweh, Y-H-W-H, the Tetragrammaton, it's called. That is a fancy way of saying God has a name. God is like his title, but Yahweh, I AM, that is his name. And Jesus here, throughout John, is saying, "I am, I am." And here, Jesus says, "I am the resurrection." In other words, dead, brought back to life, that's what I do. And then he says, "I am the life. He is the source of life. Every other living being got life from someone." Raise your hand if you got life from someone here. Okay, that's all of us. We've all... that's one of those, is everybody still listening tests? Most of you passed. Every other living being got life from someone, but only God is the source of life.
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God didn't get life from someone else.
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God doesn't have parents that gave birth to him.
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God is the originator of all life, and that is exactly what Jesus is claiming here about himself.
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I am not only the one who raises the dead, I'm the one who gives life to everyone else.
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But church, I've got to be honest with you, I think way too often church, we find ourselves exactly like Martha in this passage. Like Martha how? Look again at verse 23 where Jesus says, "Your brother will rise again." Look at Martha's response. "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." We are too guilty of this church. I happen someday, but not in who Jesus is today. Let's just be honest, in the church, we get our Bibles, and do you know what we do? We read our Bibles and we say, "God was so awesome in the past, wasn't he? All this creation stuff and like the Moses stuff and King David stuff, wasn't God awesome in the past? He was just, He was on fire. He was killing it in the past. God was so amazing in the past, and he certainly was. And then we read the book of Daniel, and we read the book of Revelation, and we say, "You know what? Someday God's gonna do some awesome things. God's got a wonderful future planned, and someday God's really gonna show the world how awesome He is, and God is going to be so awesome in the future and when we do that we're Martha. We can have good theology but theology isn't much good if you don't know Jesus. Huge difference, right? Jack, will you come up here for a second? I'm not gonna embarrass you, I promise. I just want...
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This is my friend Jack. Everybody give Jack a warm welcome.
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Jack, I'm just gonna write a little theology about you, okay? Where were you born?
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You were born a butler? Yeah, I was too. Sorry about that. But you were born a butler. Okay, Jack, what do you like to eat for breakfast? What's like your favorite? Like, if you're like, "I could have anything in the world for breakfast," what would it be? You just drink coffee. No crime in that. You realize I just rolled out an I am statement and you got more amens with your coffee statement. Just a little indicator of the spiritual condition of our church. Okay, Jack, what would you say is like your best talent? Like, you're like, "This is something Not to brag, but this is something that I'm good at, the Lord's blessed me with.
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Hawking?
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I know a guy that he's like part owner of some company that does that.
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You can watch out for those people.
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I know he's here.
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Yeah, he's here.
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All right, what's your favorite movie?
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Step Brothers.
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I hope you're watching that on TBS, young man.
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All right, thank you very much, Jack.
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See, now...
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Now, here's what we did here.
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We got a list of some factoids about Jack, because Jack's a really cool guy.
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And here we got our factoids.
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And you can take these, you can take these little factoids and you can carry them around and you can pull them out and read them and you can memorize them.
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Don't do that, that's weird.
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I'm just saying you could do that.
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You could take these around and you could think about them and you could read them and you could share them with other people.
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"Hey, you know what I learned in church today? Jack Moore drinks coffee for breakfast and that's pretty much it." Now here's what I'm getting at.
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All of these things are absolutely true about Jack, because it came straight from Jack's mouth, right?
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These things are all true about Jack, but knowing these factoids is way different than knowing Jack.
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It's completely different.
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And so it is with Jesus Christ.
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For some people, we have our factoids that are true, that we carry around, but knowing about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus.
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So here's the thing, Martha's.
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Last day stuff, end of the world stuff, that is going to happen.
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We went through the book of Revelation here recently, and I believe everything's going to happen the way God laid it out.
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Last day stuff will happen, but do not.
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sell Jesus short, because He is the "I Am" today.
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When Moses wanted to know God's name, and God revealed Himself as the "I Am," and Jesus, again, revealing Himself as the "I Am," do you realize the significance of that?
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He didn't say that He's the "I Was." Like, you know, back in the day, you should have seen me back when I was in high school, I was something special.
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You can call me the "I was." He's not the "I was." And He's not the "I will be." Like, you know, I'm dieting and exercising and I'm on a program, and someday you should look me up because someday I'm going to be spectacular.
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He's not the "I will be." He is the "I am." That's why Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Jesus Christ is the "I am" today.
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He's just as powerful, He's just as active, He's just as amazing, He's just as awesome as He ever was.
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Do you believe that?
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Well, do you pray that way?
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Do you call out to Him, trusting that He hears and acts today?
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Do you pray that way?
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Do you experience His presence and power and everything He offers you today, right now?
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Or have you just taken all of it and you just have this big box that says, "Someday later." And you just throw everything in the "someday later" box.
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Someday later, someday later, someday he's going to show himself glorious when he wants to show himself glorious to you today.
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You pray that way?
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Because the answer to that will show if you know about Jesus or if you know Jesus.
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So knowing Jesus when you're hurting.
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Martha's.
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Jesus reminds us that he is present and powerful today.
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And number two, knowing Jesus when you're hurting.
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Number two, write this down, "He feels your hurt." He feels your hurt.
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We're going to pick up in verse 28.
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It says, "When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, 'The teacher is here and is calling for you.' And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him.
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Now, Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in a place where Martha had met him.
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and the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
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Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Is that sound familiar to anyone?
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"Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Where do you think she heard that?
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I think they created, what's the term that they use today?
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The echo chamber, you know what I'm talking about?
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Where you just surround yourself with people saying the same thing because it makes you feel better.
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I think they had like this first century echo chamber because Martha and Mary said the exact same thing.
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I think they just sat around while Lazarus was sick, while Lazarus died, I think that was the thing they kept saying over and over and over.
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You know, if Jesus was here, this wouldn't be happening.
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If Jesus was here, where's Jesus?
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If Jesus was here, Lazarus would be up.
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He'd be well.
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He'd be better.
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If Jesus was here, and like your sister, when Mary encounters Jesus, that's the first thing out of her mouth.
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Like, "You've been here." The same words.
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But notice with Mary there was weeping.
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This didn't need to happen.
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But look at verse 33.
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"When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in His Spirit and greatly troubled." Stop there. When I first read that, I thought this was like a compassionate thing, right?
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Like Jesus was like, "Oh, I feel so bad for you." And this might surprise you as it surprised me, but it's not compassion at all.
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Every other time "deeply moved" is used in the New Testament, every other time that word is used in the New Testament, it's an angry term.
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A better way of saying it is disturbed, but not in the sad way, in the angry way.
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It was a word that was used for a snorting horse.
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It says he was deeply moved and troubled, and troubled intensifies the emotion of deeply moved.
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This is more than just being annoyed.
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This is like an angry anguish.
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Over what?
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It was over the pain of a fallen world.
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Jesus was taking this all in on a level that you and I can't understand.
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He was taking this all in.
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The curse of sin, death, pain, heartbreak, confusion, despair, unbelief, just the horrible destruction and hurt and pain that crushes the hearts of us all.
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He was there and he was feeling the weight of all of this.
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And you're like, "He's Jesus.
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Didn't he know this already?" He did.
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But that doesn't eliminate pain.
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I would suggest to you that sometimes knowing makes the pain worse.
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This past Wednesday, I dropped...
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My son Owen goes to the Watson Institute and at the Watson Institute there are varying degrees of students with whether it's physical or mental disorders, issues.
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It's a wonderful school.
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I dropped Owen off and I drove around the loop in the parking lot and I stopped at the crosswalk because I saw a teacher with a student holding his hand, walking him in.
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And the dad was behind on the sidewalk.
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And I saw this student reach back and he was wailing, he was crying, reaching back for his dad.
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And you're like, "Well, what's the big deal with that?" Well, the kid was like 12 or 13.
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I mean, it's one thing when you see a toddler do it, first time mom drops him off at daycare.
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This was a 12 or 13-year-old kid wailing, reaching back for his dad.
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And I got to be honest with you, I just completely broke down.
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I just started weeping.
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This whole exchange that I saw there in the parking lot probably lasted about 10 seconds.
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But it took my mind to what the rest of their week must be like.
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Because I get it.
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I get that.
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I know.
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And I feel that.
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So let me ask you, if such a little thing with my limited perspective broke my heart, what do you think a death of a friend and everything that was going with it at this time, what do you think that did to the heart of God?
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What level of knowledge does Jesus Christ have?
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I would suggest to you that His knowledge made Him feel it deeper than anyone could.
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And he said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept.
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So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of a blind man also have kept this man from dying?" Jesus wept.
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That's a different term than this deeply moved and troubled.
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This is silent breakdown.
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This is tears.
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This is, they saw Jesus just completely, emotionally, started weeping, sharing the heartache.
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But again, so much deeper.
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Because just as deeper knowledge means worse pain, so does deeper love.
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And the deeper the love, the deeper the pain.
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I get this, in being a pastor, over the years I've had to do countless "community funerals" we call them.
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It's when somebody dies and they don't have a church or a pastor, and they call up and they're like, "Hey, would you do a funeral?" "Yeah, I do." And yes, they're sad, but you have to understand, it's a lot different doing that funeral than when I'm doing the funeral of a family member or somebody that I've known for decades and have loved.
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It's at a much deeper level.
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And here you have Jesus' personal friends, Lazarus, Mary, Martha.
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You know, yeah, you're like, "Okay, but why was he weeping?
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Didn't he know he was going to raise him?" Yeah, but knowing doesn't mean not feeling.
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Jesus was not a robot.
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I think sometimes we kind of put him in that category, like he knows, so he doesn't feel it.
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And this passage in your Bible forever stands as a testimony that God feels.
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Yes, he knows, but yes, he feels.
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I've often felt at Watson when I drop off Owen, I just want to run up to the people and I want to grab them.
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The kids, the parents, I just want to run up, I want to grab them and I want to get in their face and I want to say, "Do you know Jesus said he's going to make all things new?
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So this is going to be ancient history someday and everybody's going to be whole and healthy.
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Everybody who trusts Christ, do you know how awesome that's going to be?" I know that, and I believe that's true, but it hurts when you see people experiencing pain.
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And that's where Jesus was here. He wept.
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And that's your big takeaway here, church.
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Jesus cares. He cares very deeply. He feels our hurt. It's personal to Him.
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For Jesus, it's not just intellectual acknowledgment. Jesus didn't walk into Bethany going, I'm aware that people seem to be sad. It's not just some intellectual acknowledgement.
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And it's not sharing a hopelessness. Jesus didn't walk into Bethany and they're like, "Hey, Lazarus died. You should have been here." He's like, "Oh man, what are we going to do?
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All hope is gone." That wasn't Jesus either. And it wasn't forced compassion where Jesus thought, "You know, I am the Son of God. I guess I should probably feel something about this. He feels emotion. He deeply cares. And nothing means more to the hurting than having somebody there who cares, true or false. We get that. When somebody passes away, we send cards and we send flowers and we visit the funeral home and we attend the funeral and we take food to the family, and every single act of kindness means so much to the grieving family. Have you ever been there?
27:40-27:44
God's Word shows us that no one cares more than Jesus cares.
27:45-27:47
Maybe you're like the crowd at the end.
27:48-27:49
They see Jesus weeping.
27:50-27:56
Some are like, "Look how much He loved them. Look at Him crying. Look how much He loved them." Verse 37.
27:57-28:02
This is kind of funny because this comment here is like something you'd read on social media.
28:03-28:09
You know, like, "Jesus weeps," and then somebody has to run in there with their criticizing comments, right?
28:10-28:23
"Could not He who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?" Maybe you're like the crowd, and you say, "Well, you know, if Jesus cares so much, why doesn't He do something about it?" Get ready.
28:24-28:30
because we'll see what He did in this instance when we pick up here next week.
28:31-28:36
Yes, He loves. And yes, He's present and powerful today.
28:38-28:42
And this is why, in our worst hurt, we run to Jesus.
28:42-28:43
Let's pray.
28:44-28:48
Father in heaven, we thank You for Your Word.
28:48-29:03
But Father, today we thank You specifically for this portion of Your Word, that if we've ever wrestled with the question, "Do you care? Do you care when I hurt?" we forever have a testimony of how you feel when your people hurt.
29:03-29:06
Father, we thank you for your compassion.
29:07-29:10
We thank you, God, that you feel what we feel.
29:10-29:26
And we thank you, God, that even though you know what you're going to do, and how you're going to make all things new, and how you're going to bring perfect justice, even though you know that, God, you still care and you still feel.
29:26-29:30
Father, we thank you for this glorious revelation of yourself.
29:31-29:34
And I just ask, Father, that it would help us run to you.
29:35-29:49
It would help us to trust you, God, that yes, you're going to do some awesome things as outlined in your Word, that's true, God, but let us run to you trusting that you're going to move today, that you are the "I am" today.
29:50-29:52
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 11:17-37
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Martha believed God would do something big in the future, but not in the present (John 11:24). Have you ever been guilty of that? Why do we sometimes struggle to believe in Jesus’ power today?
Why did Jesus address Mary differently than Martha, even though they both led with the same statement (John 11:21, 32)?
John 11:33 says Jesus was “deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled”, an expression that indicated anger and anguish. Why was Jesus feeling these emotions here?
Why did Jesus weep (John 11:35) if He knew what He was going to do? What does this tell you about God?
Breakout
Pray for one another.