Text: Joh 11:1-44
Theme: Hear His history and believe in His future
Preacher: Kruger de Kock
Date preached: 25 July 2004
1. Introduction
History and future meet one another in faith. Faith is a trust in the future, built on the knowledge of the past.
We can see this principle at work in our daily lives. We have a faith in certain people because of a trustworthy track record in the past. For instance: In S.A. we have a choice of which doctor you want to see. Usaully the one with the most visits will be the one with the best track record of healing sick people. We can almost say we have a faith in this specific doctor - we trust him for our future health, built on the knowledge of his past track record.
That was also true for Martha and Maria when their brother, Lazarus got ill. They were disciples of Jesus Christ and knew what He was able to do. Some of the miracles they even saw. So, immediately they called for Him, hoping that He will heal Lazarus before his death. They called Jesus as the Doctor, not the undertaker. She was trusting in Jesus Christ, the one who healed the sick all over Palestine, but He arrived too late! It almost seemed to her that He broke her trust – being untrustworthy! Perhaps this is the reason John uses a word that describes two oponents meeting for battle when Martha meets the Lord Jesus as He enters Bethanie. She is hurt and still struggling to come to terms with the death of her brother. The Mary shows the same unbelieving reaction, only in a different way. She stayes in the house. Moping with the other Jews over the death of her beloved brother, perhaps silently blaming their friend Jesus for being seemingly too late.
Some of you might have identified with their unbelieving reaction and are now eager too learn where have they gone wrong, why this is not the believing way to handle hardship and pain.
Well, the answer and the rebuke lies in the content of their faith. Don’t we also hear the glorious message of life everlasting but wish only to shift it to the sideline of your logical thinking? Don’t you find yourself sometimes ignoring God’s promises when making practical everyday decisions? This could very well be the unbelieving way most of us handle the inconceivable promises of God.
Perhaps it is now a good time to hear what a true faith is according to our Church tradition, how we have always made God’s promises concievable in everyday life.
Question 21 of the Heidelberg Catechism asks : What is true faith?
A21: True faith is not only a sure knowledge, whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in His Word,[1] but also a hearty trust,[2] which the Holy Ghost [3] works in me by the Gospel,[4] that not only to others, but to me also, forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness, and salvation are freely given by God,[5] merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ's merits.[6]
Faith is both knowledge and trust. Knowledge on the things past and trust for the things to come. Look at how this is worked in us. By the Holy Spirit through the Gospel. It is not merely a logical trust for the future on the grounds of the past, but is is a hearty trust worked by the Holy Spirit in light of the Gospel, God’s history.
Let us consider our faith in the rest of the sermon along these two lines –
1. Hearing Gods past – Knowledge and
2. Believing God’s future - Trust.
Taking this principle to the text immediately gives as an explianation of the apparent difficulty Martha and Maria had to react in a believing way. They only saw a part of God’s history and not yet the big picture. They saw the miracles of Christ and heard the teachings, but they were still in the dark about the full meaning and purpose of Christ’s coming to earth. Remember, they were part of the history that we base our trust on today. The history where Christ’s died in our place to reunite us with the Father and win for us everlasting life. That big picture was still obscured to them. But the Lord Jesus preaches to them that Gospel, not by Words but by a powerfull deed, that He was not merely about healing the sick, but about resurecting the dead through His Word.
These deeds of God was preserved for us, to teach us through history God creates life through His Word.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light recalls Gen 1, right and the beginning of our Bibles.
And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. (Gen 1:7,9)
And God said… and the whole creation rose up.
In the New Testament we see countless events where Jesus’s Word has power to drastically change our reality. Remember when Jesus was sleeping in the boat while a storm broke, he subdued the wind through His word.
Then it is no surprise to us that when God ministers a saving faith to sinful dead human beings, He uses His Word. His living Word is accesible to us today in Scripture which is God-breathed, Paul tells us in 1 Tim 3:16. God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (1 Tim 3:16-17)
God gave to us His life giving Word to minister to us a saving faith, equipping us to live out of faith, through our ears. But “…how can they hear” asks the writer of Hebrews, “…without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” h Ro 10:14-15
Without asking our Minister or elders to show us their feet, we can know that they were sent by God to preach to us His saving/transforming Word. Look how an you also see how God is constantly concerned with our faith in relation to His Word. He is the one sending His called pastors and teachers, elders:
"… to prepare the saints for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up, so that we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (Eph 4:11-13)
It is God’s Word written, read and preached, by His sent gifts that build us up, so that we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, more like Christ Jesus. Wow, it is a big calling to stand on this side of the pews. A calling inline with God’s will to build His church up through the preaching of His Word. A calling our minister says he tries to do with Colossians 1:28-29 in view:
"We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labour, struggling with all his energy, which he so powerfully works in me."
In Cole Abbey our faith is built and being built by God Himself. How? Through God’s Word by God’s Ministers, labouring with God’s power in order to build us up to become more like Christ – more like God.
“These things was written” says John when he explains a few chapters on why he had to write the Gospel, “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” Joh 20:31
Our faith begins and is maintained by God’s Word – that is why it was written, that is why it is read today and that is why it is preached. Today, everyday God calls His lifegiving Word into your very soul when your listen to His word, reading from the Bible or listening to a sermon.
2. Trust - Believe in His future
That brings us to our second point. If God is doing everything to fulfill His purpose, what am I to do? We have to act upon His Word!
Abraham had to. He left his home and wider family for a foreign place in the desert.
Noah had to. He acted and built a ship in dry sand.
Moses had to. The simple herder had to convince a pharoah to let his workforce go!
They acted obediently on what they heard, they believed what God had told them. (Heb 11)
What have God told you to do? What have God said about you that you have to believe and act upon it?
God has said such a lot to us! Think of your baptism, or baptism of your children.
God said : You are my sons and daugthers, and I am your Father. Act upon it and live as his His children, obeying Him and enduring your hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons (Heb 12:7)
God said: I am your God and you are my people. Act upon it and obey the law of the King, enduring the scorn of the people unable to see His kingdom.
God said: Everyone that believe in me will never die. Act on it don’t be fearfull of death or discouraged by the death of you beloved. What God promised, He follows through.
Like Noah, Abraham and Moses, Martha suddendly had to take Jesus on His Word.
“Your brother will rise again.” (Joh 11:23)
How hard is that! He has been dead 4 days!
Inside the stonecold grave is a dead, rotting body, four days old and starting to smell. At the closed entrance stands Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Martha, reluctant to believe God’s promises tries to withold Him from entering. Again He has to remind her of the power of His Word – “Did I not tell you…. Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (Jh. 11:40). Then His life giving words cuts through our reality –
“Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out. (Joh 11:43)
The dead man came out. Dead man walking! Like Lazarus we are also dead. Not only for 4 days but from the fall. We are dead, but through Jesus’s Word dead man can walk! Just think a while about the power of this specific act of God, preserved for us in His word. We are afraid to die, we are supposed to die and to stay dead, but He raises us up! With that single act Jesus preached to them what He will accomplish for everyone that believes in Him. History and future met briefly to forever proclaim that faith in God’s future is based on His deeds in the past.
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”(Jn 11:25-26)
Believe that what He says is true, that He will make it happen. If you believe it, act on it. In other Words, if what He says is true – make decisions according to it.
That is easy, I hear you say, if you were one of the Jews who had to take the robes from Lasarus’s cold body that suddenly became warm. If only I was the one who had to set down my beloved in a cask to see them rise four days later! Then I will believe!
No says the writer of the Hebrews in defining faith: “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” Heb 11:1. Remember the faith of Noah, Abraham, Moses and now … Martha. They did not see, but they trusted God on the solid rock of His promises. We are living in a blessed time because all the promises of the Old Testament was embodied and fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. We can believe God’s future because we heard His fulfilled history – a history of sticking to His promises. If our eyes are not to convince us to have faith, where should we look to not grow weary?
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses (knowledge from God’s trustworthy past), let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Heb 12:1)
We are to use our ears and listen to God’s Word and use our eyes and focus them on Jesus Christ. Building a clear picture of God’s future as proclaimed in His Word. He fulfilled all the promises He made, He will one day return in power and glory to let rise from the graves His sleeping brothers and sisters. Fix your eyes on that reality, trusting that through His Word and Spirit your future is secure.
Perhaps you are an unbeliever here tonight – unsure of your future and even more reluctant to entrust your future in someone else’s hands. Can you see the astonished faces of the people as they took the robes from a living corpse. Our church are made up of living corpses, destined to evelasting death but raised up to live forever through faith in Jesus Christ. Don’t just be astonished, come and talk to us and you will see that we are not super-natural beings, but sinful creatures who constantly cling to the truth that has been preached to us. Daily we take of the robes and bandages from our bodies when we listen to the Word of God. Regularly we get together to encourage one another that we are not dead but born again, made alive. Call like Martha did, not Jesus as the undertaker, but call Him as the doctor. He Himself said that He came for the ill – He will heal you, not only for this life, but for life everlasting. Come regularly and listen with us to His Word. Hear His history and believe in His future.
Amen