SERIES: The Great Adventure: The Way
TITLE: The Way to Forever
Scripture: John 11
“All great Christians have been wounded souls.” Tozer
“The world breaks everyone and afterwards many are strong at the broken places.” Hemingway We can safely say “Every one of us broken by God, and it is in those broken places where we are strong.”
I. THE BACKSTORY
Jesus raised Lazarus to life, not to restore him to life, or to comfort his grieving sisters, but that He and His Father would be glorified.
“This sickness does not lead to death” is another way of saying, “This sickness will not end in death.” This may be the most important statement in the whole story.
Everything that takes place after that statement is just one opportunity after another for the life and love and goodness of the Father to be experienced, embraced, and believed.
II. THE ENCOUNTER
What was Jesus saying when He said this illness will not lead to death? Was not saying Lazarus would not die. He was saying death would not be ultimate outcome.
It is never easy understanding God’s way of doing things. We wonder, like Mary and Martha, why Jesus didn’t come sooner, especially when He claims a deep love for this family.
Mary and Martha could only see (the immediate). What they would soon learn is you can’t have a resurrection without (a death). You cannot know the transforming triumph of Christ without a (crisis).
Jesus wept. Why?
1) Jesus weeps with those who weep.
2) Jesus weeps for the condition of humanity.
We celebrate today what Paul writes in I Cor.15: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
NEXT WEEK: Title: The Way to Peace
Text: John 14:15-31
