Well, welcome back to this
program "Books of the Book."
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And we are with Dr. Jon Pauline.
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Dr. Pauline, we said we
would get back to Lazarus,
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so is there something
else to say on Lazarus?
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Well, I want to remind us
that in the Gospel of John
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the stories are acted parables.
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They represent something,
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some theological teaching
that's elsewhere in the book.
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And the theological
teaching that's represented here
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is actually
found in John 5:28-29.
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So Jesus is acting
out what He will do there.
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Why don't you read John 5:28-29?
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"Do not marvel at this
for the hour is coming,
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in the which all
who are in the graves
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will hear his
voice, and come forth
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those who have done good
to the resurrection of life
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and those who have done evil
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to the
resurrection of condemnation."
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So here in the Lazarus
story, Jesus is acting out
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what He'll do at the end of time
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when He raises the dead. Okay.
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At His second coming
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and then ultimately
after the millennium as well.
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Let's talk about
now Lazarus' sisters.
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Yeah, that's-- Mary and Martha.
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That's very
interesting, Lazarus' sisters
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because we tend
to see the sisters
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in the light of Luke 10.
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We don't think of them so
much in the light of John 11.
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Why don't we go
to Luke 10:38-42.
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So Chapter 10 and verses 38."
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Now it happened as they went,
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that he entered
a certain village
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and a certain woman named Martha
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welcomed him into her house.
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And she had a
sister called Mary,
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who also sat at Jesus'
feet, and heard his word.
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But Martha was
distracted with much serving,
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and she approached
him, and said, Lord,
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do not care that my sister
has left me to serve alone?
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Therefore tell her to help me.
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And Jesus
answered and said unto her,
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Martha, Martha, you are worried
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and troubled about many things
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but one thing is needed.
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And Mary has
chosen that good part,
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which will not be
taken away from her."
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This is the lens I think
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through which most of
us look at the sisters.
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You know, Martha is
kind of task oriented,
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she is into the cooking
and cleaning and all that.
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Mary on the other hand
wants to go deep with Jesus.
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She wants to be with Him,
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she wants to hear Him and so on.
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And if in fact she is the woman
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of a couple
chapters before in Luke
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that was the
sinner who washed his feet
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with her hair and so forth.
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Then you could
see that she would be
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in love with the man
who truly changed her heart
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and gave her a new life.
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But John 11 looks at the sisters
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with a little
bit different lens.
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You know, people are complex.
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And they are
not always you know,
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you get a glimpse of them
that's not the whole person.
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Let's get a closer glimpse
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of these two
sisters in Chapter 11.
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And we're gonna
start in verses 20 to 22.
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John 11:20-22.
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"Now Martha, as
soon as she heard
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that Jesus was
coming, went and met him.
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But Mary was
sitting in the house.
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Now Martha said to Jesus,
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Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would have not died.
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But even now I know
that whatever you ask of God,
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God will give you."
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Now Jesus, when He arrives,
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He doesn't
actually come into town,
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He stays in a park
just at the edge of town.
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And word comes to the sisters
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that Jesus is coming, He
is in the park out there.
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Martha Jumps up
and runs out to Jesus
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and she just yell, if
only You would had been here,
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Lazarus wouldn't have died.
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But even in that
complaint, she expresses--
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she says, well I know even now
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God will give
you whatever you ask.
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So it's
interesting Mary doesn't go,
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Martha does go.
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And it raises the question,
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is Mary more
fragile personality?
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Does she--is she
hurt, that Jesus delays.
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I don't want to
talk to, you know.
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She may be uncertain
how He feels about her,
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that He didn't respond
the way that she expected.
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So Martha
expresses some disappointment
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but she also expresses faith.
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And then go to verses 23 and 24.
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"Jesus said to her,
your brother will rise again.
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Martha said to him, I
know that he will rise again
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in the
resurrection at the last day."
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And then here is the
thing, in verse 25 to 27,
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Jesus gives the
most glorious expression
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of resurrection
in the whole Bible
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and Martha draws that
out from Him. Now read it.
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"Jesus said to her, I am
the resurrection, and the life.
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He who believes in me,
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though he may
die, he shall live.
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And whoever lives and
believes in me shall never die.
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Do you believe this?
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She said to him, Yes, Lord,
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I believe that
you are the Christ,
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the Son of God, who has
to come into the world."
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Her statement is the
most glorious expression
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of exactly what Jesus wants.
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You are the Messiah,
you are the Son of God.
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You are the one who
has to come into the world.
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Now Thomas actually
exceeds that in Chapter 20.
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So called Doubting Thomas,
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when he says, my
Lord and my God, you know.
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But that is drawn out by seeing.
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Martha makes the
statement without seeing,
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Lazarus hasn't been
raised from the dead.
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The future resurrection
isn't there to be inspected.
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Jesus says, I am the
resurrection and the life,
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and she says, yep, I get it.
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I know who you are.
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So Martha becomes representative
of the second generation
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who believes without seeing.
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And that makes this very
special and glorious story.
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She represents mature
faith and discipleship.
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What about Mary?
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Let's bring Mary back
into the story, verse 28.
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"And when she had
said these things,
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she went away, and
secretly called Mary
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her sister saying,
that Teacher has come
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and is calling
for you." Continue.
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"As soon as she heard that,
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she arose
quickly, and came to him.
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Now Jesus had not
yet come into the town,
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but was in the place
where Martha had met him.
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Then the Jews who were with her
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in the house,
and comforting her,
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when they saw that Mary
rose up and quickly went out,
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followed her, saying,
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She going to the
tomb to weep there.
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Then when Mary
come where Jesus was,
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and saw him, she
fell down at his feet,
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saying to him, Lord,
if you had been here,
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my brother would have not died."
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Now she says the
same thing as Martha said.
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The same thing. Yeah.
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Now you notice Martha
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specially calls as the
Lord is asking for you.
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And that suggest to me
that maybe Mary was doubting
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whether Jesus
really would except her.
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Yeah, He didn't
come for my brother,
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you know, may be He
doesn't want to see me either.
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And I would see Mary
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as something of a
fragile personality
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especially if this Mary
is the same as Mary Magdalene
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and something even the
woman taken into adultery.
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If she has this
kind of checkered history
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then she's still
somebody whose emotions
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are all over the
map and fragile and so.
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And that's the kind
of person we see here.
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Like Martha, she
expresses some doubt,
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but unlike Martha
she expresses no faith.
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And Jesus presence
doesn't draw out faith from her.
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So let's continue verse 33."
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Therefore when
Jesus saw her weeping,
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and the Jews who
came with her weeping,
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he groaned in the
spirit, and was troubled."
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It doesn't just say
that He was crying with them
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but He was troubled.
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In other words,
there was something
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very disturbing
in the situation.
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Didn't happened when Martha came
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but it happened when Mary came.
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So continue through verse 38.
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"And He said,
where have you laid him?
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They said to him, Lord,
come and see. Jesus wept.
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Then the Jews said,
see how he loved him.
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And some of them
said, could not this man,
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who opened the
eyes of the blind,
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also have kept
this man from dying.
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Then Jesus again groaning
in himself came to the tomb.
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It was a cave, and a
stone lay against it."
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So here you'll see--
What was He troubled about?
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Well, the one-- the
two things that are obvious
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of the
statements first from Mary.
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You know, if
you would been here,
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my brother wouldn't have died.
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Unlike Martha it almost
comes across as an accusation,
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cause there is no
faith that comes with it.
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There's no
positive in that statement
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and so He's
troubled there, He weeps.
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And then people
say-- what was in verse 37,
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could not the one who
opened the eyes of the blind
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have kept this man from dying.
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And that is not
grasping the fact
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that Jesus is truly who
He claims to be, as God.
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Death is not the
end of the story.
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So they are expressing doubt
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that Jesus can do
anything about the situation.
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Now if He had been here earlier
everything would be okay.
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He could have kept
this man from dying.
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But they don't believe that
He can raise him from the dead.
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Now, even Martha wavers
a little bit at this point.
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And notice verse 39, he says,
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"Take away the stone Jesus said.
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And Martha says
but Lord, said Martha,
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the sister of the dead man,
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by this time
there is a bad order
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he's been there for four days.
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Then Jesus said,
did I not tell you that,
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if you believed, you
would see the glory of God."
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And then it tells the
story, they took away the stone,
00:10:02.28\00:10:06.15
Jesus looked up and said,
00:10:06.18\00:10:07.41
"Father, I thank you
that you've heard me.
00:10:07.44\00:10:09.79
I knew you always hear me
00:10:09.82\00:10:11.21
but I said this for the benefit
of the people standing here
00:10:11.24\00:10:14.28
that they may believe
that you have sent me."
00:10:14.31\00:10:17.42
And He calls Lazarus
out and Lazarus comes.
00:10:17.45\00:10:23.03
The beautiful thing is
that the raising of Lazarus
00:10:23.06\00:10:27.14
raises Mary's spirits
and in the very next chapter,
00:10:27.17\00:10:31.16
we see her
totally sold out to Jesus.
00:10:31.19\00:10:34.43
No more doubts,
no more questions,
00:10:34.46\00:10:37.61
no more wavering,
you know, staying here,
00:10:37.64\00:10:39.97
and let Jesus be over here.
00:10:40.00\00:10:41.57
She wants to be
with Him all the time.
00:10:41.60\00:10:44.24
And she senses that
Jesus is going to die.
00:10:44.27\00:10:48.30
And so she brings this
perfume probably a year's wages,
00:10:48.33\00:10:53.06
she brings this perfume
to anoint Him for His burial.
00:10:53.09\00:10:56.15
So in Chapter 12, Mary
shows the ultimate devotion.
00:10:56.18\00:11:01.47
In Chapter 11, Martha is the one
00:11:01.50\00:11:03.92
that shows this
second generation devotion,
00:11:03.95\00:11:07.24
belief without seeing.
00:11:07.27\00:11:08.98
Mary like Thomas needs to see,
00:11:09.01\00:11:11.53
she needs to touch
in order to believe.
00:11:11.56\00:11:13.71
But once she truly believes,
00:11:13.74\00:11:15.90
she is totally devoted
and totally sold out to Jesus.
00:11:15.93\00:11:20.64
And I find this observation
to be tremendously encouraging
00:11:20.67\00:11:26.35
because a lot of people
are like Mary and Martha.
00:11:26.38\00:11:30.95
There's a lot of people
who are really structured,
00:11:30.98\00:11:33.98
you know, they are
not that emotional,
00:11:34.01\00:11:35.89
they are efficient, they
get the job done, you know.
00:11:35.92\00:11:39.43
And they kind of
look down at the people
00:11:39.46\00:11:41.18
whose emotions are all
over the map just a little bit.
00:11:41.21\00:11:43.92
So Martha represents
those people who are distracted
00:11:43.95\00:11:49.45
and don't come to Jesus
because they are distracted,
00:11:49.48\00:11:52.28
their life is full,
they've got things to do,
00:11:52.31\00:11:55.19
emails to answer and so on.
00:11:55.22\00:11:57.72
Mary on the other
hand is the kind of person
00:11:57.75\00:11:59.87
whose heart is
in the right place
00:11:59.90\00:12:02.07
but their emotions
are all over the map.
00:12:02.10\00:12:04.19
You know, one day they
are in love with Jesus,
00:12:04.22\00:12:06.12
the next day their
head is somewhere else,
00:12:06.15\00:12:08.14
the next day they are distracted
by this here and there.
00:12:08.17\00:12:11.72
And the beauty of this is that
00:12:11.75\00:12:13.23
both of these
sisters come to true,
00:12:13.26\00:12:16.85
full, deep,
genuine faith at the end.
00:12:16.88\00:12:21.10
That's the beautiful story.
00:12:21.13\00:12:22.58
It doesn't matter
what your personality is.
00:12:22.61\00:12:26.04
There are all
kinds of personalities.
00:12:26.07\00:12:28.86
It doesn't matter how
consistent you are as a person.
00:12:28.89\00:12:33.11
Some people are up and down,
00:12:33.14\00:12:34.51
other people are
steady as a rock.
00:12:34.54\00:12:36.75
But Jesus works
with all of them.
00:12:36.78\00:12:39.34
Every one of us
has access to Him.
00:12:39.37\00:12:42.33
And there's no
need for us to say,
00:12:42.36\00:12:44.91
oh, He wouldn't
possibly accept me,
00:12:44.94\00:12:47.91
because we know that He would.
00:12:47.94\00:12:49.87
He loves us as we
are and He takes us
00:12:49.90\00:12:53.01
and He makes us
what we could be. Amen.
00:12:53.04\00:12:56.40
And Dr.
Pauline, Jesus is still--
00:12:56.43\00:12:59.52
can still resurrect people today
00:12:59.55\00:13:01.83
from their
spiritual death? That's right.
00:13:01.86\00:13:05.33
And friends,
perhaps you at one point
00:13:05.36\00:13:07.24
accepted Jesus and let Him go.
00:13:07.27\00:13:09.53
Well, today, Jesus
wants to make that call
00:13:09.56\00:13:11.38
to resurrect you to come forth
00:13:11.41\00:13:13.70
and to live a life in Him.
00:13:13.73\00:13:15.68
God bless you till next time.
00:13:15.71\00:13:17.04