Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00016B
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00:01 Well, welcome back to this program "Books of the Book."
00:03 And we are with Dr. Jon Pauline. 00:06 Dr. Pauline, we said we would get back to Lazarus, 00:09 so is there something else to say on Lazarus? 00:12 Well, I want to remind us that in the Gospel of John 00:15 the stories are acted parables. 00:18 They represent something, 00:21 some theological teaching that's elsewhere in the book. 00:24 And the theological teaching that's represented here 00:27 is actually found in John 5:28-29. 00:31 So Jesus is acting out what He will do there. 00:34 Why don't you read John 5:28-29? 00:39 "Do not marvel at this for the hour is coming, 00:42 in the which all who are in the graves 00:45 will hear his voice, and come forth 00:47 those who have done good to the resurrection of life 00:50 and those who have done evil 00:52 to the resurrection of condemnation." 00:55 So here in the Lazarus story, Jesus is acting out 00:58 what He'll do at the end of time 01:01 when He raises the dead. Okay. 01:03 At His second coming 01:04 and then ultimately after the millennium as well. 01:08 Let's talk about now Lazarus' sisters. 01:12 Yeah, that's-- Mary and Martha. 01:13 That's very interesting, Lazarus' sisters 01:16 because we tend to see the sisters 01:19 in the light of Luke 10. 01:21 We don't think of them so much in the light of John 11. 01:25 Why don't we go to Luke 10:38-42. 01:30 So Chapter 10 and verses 38." 01:33 Now it happened as they went, 01:35 that he entered a certain village 01:37 and a certain woman named Martha 01:39 welcomed him into her house. 01:41 And she had a sister called Mary, 01:43 who also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. 01:47 But Martha was distracted with much serving, 01:50 and she approached him, and said, Lord, 01:52 do not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? 01:56 Therefore tell her to help me. 01:58 And Jesus answered and said unto her, 02:00 Martha, Martha, you are worried 02:02 and troubled about many things 02:05 but one thing is needed. 02:06 And Mary has chosen that good part, 02:09 which will not be taken away from her." 02:12 This is the lens I think 02:14 through which most of us look at the sisters. 02:16 You know, Martha is kind of task oriented, 02:19 she is into the cooking and cleaning and all that. 02:22 Mary on the other hand wants to go deep with Jesus. 02:25 She wants to be with Him, 02:27 she wants to hear Him and so on. 02:29 And if in fact she is the woman 02:32 of a couple chapters before in Luke 02:35 that was the sinner who washed his feet 02:37 with her hair and so forth. 02:40 Then you could see that she would be 02:41 in love with the man who truly changed her heart 02:44 and gave her a new life. 02:46 But John 11 looks at the sisters 02:49 with a little bit different lens. 02:51 You know, people are complex. 02:53 And they are not always you know, 02:55 you get a glimpse of them that's not the whole person. 02:58 Let's get a closer glimpse 02:59 of these two sisters in Chapter 11. 03:02 And we're gonna start in verses 20 to 22. 03:05 John 11:20-22. 03:07 "Now Martha, as soon as she heard 03:09 that Jesus was coming, went and met him. 03:12 But Mary was sitting in the house. 03:15 Now Martha said to Jesus, 03:16 Lord, if you had been here, my brother would have not died. 03:21 But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, 03:24 God will give you." 03:26 Now Jesus, when He arrives, 03:27 He doesn't actually come into town, 03:29 He stays in a park just at the edge of town. 03:33 And word comes to the sisters 03:35 that Jesus is coming, He is in the park out there. 03:39 Martha Jumps up and runs out to Jesus 03:43 and she just yell, if only You would had been here, 03:46 Lazarus wouldn't have died. 03:48 But even in that complaint, she expresses-- 03:50 she says, well I know even now 03:53 God will give you whatever you ask. 03:55 So it's interesting Mary doesn't go, 03:58 Martha does go. 04:00 And it raises the question, 04:03 is Mary more fragile personality? 04:08 Does she--is she hurt, that Jesus delays. 04:11 I don't want to talk to, you know. 04:14 She may be uncertain how He feels about her, 04:17 that He didn't respond the way that she expected. 04:21 So Martha expresses some disappointment 04:23 but she also expresses faith. 04:25 And then go to verses 23 and 24. 04:28 "Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. 04:32 Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again 04:35 in the resurrection at the last day." 04:38 And then here is the thing, in verse 25 to 27, 04:43 Jesus gives the most glorious expression 04:45 of resurrection in the whole Bible 04:47 and Martha draws that out from Him. Now read it. 04:50 "Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection, and the life. 04:54 He who believes in me, 04:55 though he may die, he shall live. 04:58 And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. 05:01 Do you believe this? 05:03 She said to him, Yes, Lord, 05:04 I believe that you are the Christ, 05:06 the Son of God, who has to come into the world." 05:10 Her statement is the most glorious expression 05:14 of exactly what Jesus wants. 05:16 You are the Messiah, you are the Son of God. 05:19 You are the one who has to come into the world. 05:22 Now Thomas actually exceeds that in Chapter 20. 05:25 So called Doubting Thomas, 05:27 when he says, my Lord and my God, you know. 05:29 But that is drawn out by seeing. 05:33 Martha makes the statement without seeing, 05:35 Lazarus hasn't been raised from the dead. 05:37 The future resurrection isn't there to be inspected. 05:41 Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life, 05:43 and she says, yep, I get it. 05:46 I know who you are. 05:48 So Martha becomes representative of the second generation 05:52 who believes without seeing. 05:54 And that makes this very special and glorious story. 05:59 She represents mature faith and discipleship. 06:03 What about Mary? 06:04 Let's bring Mary back into the story, verse 28. 06:09 "And when she had said these things, 06:12 she went away, and secretly called Mary 06:14 her sister saying, that Teacher has come 06:17 and is calling for you." Continue. 06:20 "As soon as she heard that, 06:22 she arose quickly, and came to him. 06:24 Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, 06:26 but was in the place where Martha had met him. 06:29 Then the Jews who were with her 06:32 in the house, and comforting her, 06:34 when they saw that Mary rose up and quickly went out, 06:38 followed her, saying, 06:39 She going to the tomb to weep there. 06:42 Then when Mary come where Jesus was, 06:44 and saw him, she fell down at his feet, 06:46 saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, 06:49 my brother would have not died." 06:52 Now she says the same thing as Martha said. 06:53 The same thing. Yeah. 06:55 Now you notice Martha 06:56 specially calls as the Lord is asking for you. 06:59 And that suggest to me that maybe Mary was doubting 07:03 whether Jesus really would except her. 07:05 Yeah, He didn't come for my brother, 07:07 you know, may be He doesn't want to see me either. 07:10 And I would see Mary 07:11 as something of a fragile personality 07:13 especially if this Mary is the same as Mary Magdalene 07:18 and something even the woman taken into adultery. 07:21 If she has this kind of checkered history 07:24 then she's still somebody whose emotions 07:27 are all over the map and fragile and so. 07:30 And that's the kind of person we see here. 07:32 Like Martha, she expresses some doubt, 07:35 but unlike Martha she expresses no faith. 07:38 And Jesus presence doesn't draw out faith from her. 07:43 So let's continue verse 33." 07:47 Therefore when Jesus saw her weeping, 07:49 and the Jews who came with her weeping, 07:51 he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled." 07:55 It doesn't just say that He was crying with them 08:00 but He was troubled. 08:02 In other words, there was something 08:03 very disturbing in the situation. 08:06 Didn't happened when Martha came 08:08 but it happened when Mary came. 08:11 So continue through verse 38. 08:14 "And He said, where have you laid him? 08:17 They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. 08:21 Then the Jews said, see how he loved him. 08:24 And some of them said, could not this man, 08:26 who opened the eyes of the blind, 08:28 also have kept this man from dying. 08:31 Then Jesus again groaning in himself came to the tomb. 08:34 It was a cave, and a stone lay against it." 08:39 So here you'll see-- What was He troubled about? 08:42 Well, the one-- the two things that are obvious 08:45 of the statements first from Mary. 08:48 You know, if you would been here, 08:49 my brother wouldn't have died. 08:50 Unlike Martha it almost comes across as an accusation, 08:53 cause there is no faith that comes with it. 08:55 There's no positive in that statement 08:58 and so He's troubled there, He weeps. 09:00 And then people say-- what was in verse 37, 09:04 could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind 09:06 have kept this man from dying. 09:09 And that is not grasping the fact 09:12 that Jesus is truly who He claims to be, as God. 09:16 Death is not the end of the story. 09:19 So they are expressing doubt 09:21 that Jesus can do anything about the situation. 09:24 Now if He had been here earlier everything would be okay. 09:27 He could have kept this man from dying. 09:29 But they don't believe that He can raise him from the dead. 09:34 Now, even Martha wavers a little bit at this point. 09:39 And notice verse 39, he says, 09:44 "Take away the stone Jesus said. 09:46 And Martha says but Lord, said Martha, 09:49 the sister of the dead man, 09:50 by this time there is a bad order 09:52 he's been there for four days. 09:55 Then Jesus said, did I not tell you that, 09:57 if you believed, you would see the glory of God." 10:02 And then it tells the story, they took away the stone, 10:06 Jesus looked up and said, 10:07 "Father, I thank you that you've heard me. 10:09 I knew you always hear me 10:11 but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here 10:14 that they may believe that you have sent me." 10:17 And He calls Lazarus out and Lazarus comes. 10:23 The beautiful thing is that the raising of Lazarus 10:27 raises Mary's spirits and in the very next chapter, 10:31 we see her totally sold out to Jesus. 10:34 No more doubts, no more questions, 10:37 no more wavering, you know, staying here, 10:40 and let Jesus be over here. 10:41 She wants to be with Him all the time. 10:44 And she senses that Jesus is going to die. 10:48 And so she brings this perfume probably a year's wages, 10:53 she brings this perfume to anoint Him for His burial. 10:56 So in Chapter 12, Mary shows the ultimate devotion. 11:01 In Chapter 11, Martha is the one 11:03 that shows this second generation devotion, 11:07 belief without seeing. 11:09 Mary like Thomas needs to see, 11:11 she needs to touch in order to believe. 11:13 But once she truly believes, 11:15 she is totally devoted and totally sold out to Jesus. 11:20 And I find this observation to be tremendously encouraging 11:26 because a lot of people are like Mary and Martha. 11:30 There's a lot of people who are really structured, 11:34 you know, they are not that emotional, 11:35 they are efficient, they get the job done, you know. 11:39 And they kind of look down at the people 11:41 whose emotions are all over the map just a little bit. 11:43 So Martha represents those people who are distracted 11:49 and don't come to Jesus because they are distracted, 11:52 their life is full, they've got things to do, 11:55 emails to answer and so on. 11:57 Mary on the other hand is the kind of person 11:59 whose heart is in the right place 12:02 but their emotions are all over the map. 12:04 You know, one day they are in love with Jesus, 12:06 the next day their head is somewhere else, 12:08 the next day they are distracted by this here and there. 12:11 And the beauty of this is that 12:13 both of these sisters come to true, 12:16 full, deep, genuine faith at the end. 12:21 That's the beautiful story. 12:22 It doesn't matter what your personality is. 12:26 There are all kinds of personalities. 12:28 It doesn't matter how consistent you are as a person. 12:33 Some people are up and down, 12:34 other people are steady as a rock. 12:36 But Jesus works with all of them. 12:39 Every one of us has access to Him. 12:42 And there's no need for us to say, 12:44 oh, He wouldn't possibly accept me, 12:47 because we know that He would. 12:49 He loves us as we are and He takes us 12:53 and He makes us what we could be. Amen. 12:56 And Dr. Pauline, Jesus is still-- 12:59 can still resurrect people today 13:01 from their spiritual death? That's right. 13:05 And friends, perhaps you at one point 13:07 accepted Jesus and let Him go. 13:09 Well, today, Jesus wants to make that call 13:11 to resurrect you to come forth 13:13 and to live a life in Him. 13:15 God bless you till next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17