Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20101107.htm

BIOGRAPHIES OF BIBLE SAINTS
III. Mary and Martha: Overcoming Sinful Weaknesses Through Christ
B. The Trial Of Overcoming Our Sinful Weaknesses
(John 11:1-44)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    Sometimes, the trials we believers face seem far too hard for us to understand how God can let them occur, or what possible purpose He might have in allowing them to come our way.

    Take for example the case of the Dr. William Petit family: on a Sunday evening three years ago after the family had been to Church earlier that day, two hardened, released criminals invaded their Cheshire, Connecticut home mistreating all and killing all but Dr. Petit himself. Only he lived to tell his harrowing story in court.

    Many wonder if Dr. Petit asks himself every day why that awful crime happened to him and his Christian family!



    Thus, we ask: "If I face a trial that is too hard for me to understand God's purpose in it, how should I respond, and why?!"

    Need: "If I face a trial too big for me to begin to comprehend God's purpose for allowing me to face it, what should I DO, and WHY?!"

  1. When Jesus' friends Mary and Martha sent word that brother Lazarus was ill, instead of rushing to Bethany to heal him, Jesus waited until Lazarus died before starting to go to them, Jn. 11:1-14.
  2. Jesus' PURPOSE in this DELAY was to get GREATER GLORY to GOD than was POSSIBLE WITHOUT His DELAY, John 11:4, 11.
  3. Mary, Martha and Lazarus did not know this, and, coupled with Biblical history, they COULD NOT UNDERSTAND Jesus' DELAY:
    1. Until this time, all resurrections had occurred within a day after death:
      1. The Jews did not embalm their dead, so Jesus raised a widow's son while the body was being carried for burial (Luke 7:11-15) and He raised Jairus' daughter (Luke 8:41-55) the day each child had died.
      2. Also, Old Testament Elijah and Elishah raised bodies from the dead (1 Kings 17:22; 2 Kings 4:34-38 and 2 Kings 13:20-21) and New Testament Apostles Peter (Acts 9:36-41) and Paul (Acts 20:9-12) raised people, but all were raised within a day after death.
    2. Also, a common belief held by the Jews in Jesus' time was that three days after death, the soul left the body for its eternal abode, Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah , 1993, p. 699.
    3. For these reasons, when Jesus arrived in Bethany FOUR DAYS after Lazarus had died and was BURIED (John 11:17), Mary and Martha not only felt hopelessness over Jesus' being able to reverse Lazarus' deceased state, but DISILLUSIONED that JESUS had NOT made the EFFORT to come SOONER, John 11:17-32!
  4. Yet, in view of the wide Biblical context, it was NECESSARY for Jesus to WAIT to raise Lazarus FOUR DAYS AFTER his BURIAL to prove His victory over death as True Messiah and Son of God regardless how LONG one has been DEAD:
    1. Death has afflicted man since his sin in Eden, Gen. 2:16-17; 3:17-19.
    2. However, though God had driven man from the Garden of Eden, He had put a flaming sword around the Tree of Life there to guard it in hope that man might have access to it and live forever after sin and death had been fully conquered, Genesis 3:22-24.
    3. Thus Revelation 22:2 reports that in heaven, saved, glorified man will have access to that Tree of Life that fallen man had been denied!
    4. Now, Christ was to provide that victory over sin and death by His salvation offered by His death on the cross, 1 Cor. 15:20-22, 54-57.
    5. However, for this victory to be applicable to all, deceased men who have believed in God's Word for salvation all through history must be raised from the dead, the vast majority of whom will have seen corruption in their bodies FAR BEYOND JUST ONE DAY!
    6. Thus, to SHOW HIMSELF to be the CONQUEROR of sin and death as TRUE Messiah and Son of God, Jesus HAD to raise a man whose body was humanly hopelessly deteriorated, so He chose to do so with the dear brother of beloved friends, Mary and Martha!
  5. Though they knew GOD would raise the dead in the end, Mary and Martha did NOT realize that Jesus was the CAUSE of THAT FUTURE RESURRECTION, so as Jesus saw their disillusionment and grief, He identified with their pain, and wept, John 11:21-35!
  6. Still emotionally troubled at His friends' pain, Jesus called for the stone over Lazarus' tomb to be removed, but a horrified Martha objected, claiming Lazarus' body was now greatly decaying, making the stone removal an unedifying act, John 11:38-39.
  7. Jesus INSISTED that Martha STILL BELIEVE Him that she might SEE God's GLORY even if she did NOT understand HOW, and Martha complied, letting the stone be moved, John 11:40-41a.
  8. Jesus then prayed to the Father, showing He was giving glory to GOD in the fact that GOD had SENT Him as His Son and Messiah, and He shouted for Lazarus to come out of the tomb, Jn. 11:41b-43.
  9. Lazarus obediently came out bound in his grave clothes, so Jesus told the stunned onlookers to untie him and let him go, John 11:44!
  10. The reality of this event is seen in the reaction of Jesus' enemies: Lazarus' resurrection so impacted the people, Israel's rulers then decided to kill Jesus to avoid a national crisis, John 11:45-50, 53.
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ as Savior to have eternal life, John 3:16. (2) If facing a trial above our ability to understand God's purpose in it, may we STILL believe and obey God, for He is at work to grow our faith in Him as the infinitely GREAT God!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 In our sermon introduction, we alluded to the Cheshire, Connecticut home invasion crime committed against the Dr. William Petit family. It has left many people wondering if Dr. Petit himself asks the question as to "why" it all happened to his Christian family.

One reason is that the event highlights the Bible's truthfulness to all, a fact evidenced by a letter to the editor in the November 1, 2010 Republican-American, p. 6A. A Woodbury, Connecticut woman there gave reasons why she was opposed to the death penalty for one of the convicted men in the Petit case, but she also admitted: "If it were my family, I don't think I could handle the grief and rage. I would probably want the death penalty for [one man], and even want to kill him with my own hands. These are my feelings, and they are real."

This tension between the lack of justice for the victim and the desire to protect the criminal's life so typical of the stance opposing the death penalty is nevertheless fully harmonized in the Biblical view:

(1) Opponents to capital punishment hold man has native value by himself, making slaying even a murderer as punishment an evil like his own crime. The Woodbury woman's letter thus held: "The law say's it's illegal to kill. The Bible's Ten Commandments and other religious books say, Thou shalt not kill' or similar . . ." [Actually, the Hebrew verb for "kill" there refers only to crimes of murder.]

(2) However, the Bible holds man's value is NOT native, but graciously given by God: Genesis 9:6 calls for capital punishment since man is seen as bearing the image of GOD given him by His Creator. If the criminal so despises the image of God in his victim by performing his crime against him, he must forfeit his own right to bear that same divine image by way of his death! Thus, the need to punish the criminal and to vindicate the victim's loss are fully harmonized!

(3) As then evidenced by the Woodbury woman's letter, God's ALLOWING the terrible Petit crime to occur to a Christian family serves the purpose of highlighting the CREDIBILITY of the BIBLE'S TEACHING on capital punishment to the WORLD, and equips us Christians with greater impetus to hold to and proclaim Scripture truth, especially the saving truth of the Gospel!



May we then trust in Christ as Savior for eternal life, and trust and obey Him in trials that overwhelm our level of thought!