Do You Believe This?

John 11:1-6, 20-26
“Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, ‘Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.’ When Jesus heard that, He said, ‘This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.

Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give you.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’… Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?’”

It is impossible to please God without faith. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that “without faith, it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” You can clean up your life, stop sinning, become morally as good as you can be, and still be far from pleasing God. No person can live beyond his belief; the greatest loss a person can face in life is the loss of faith. When one loses belief in something, loses belief in anything, one loses hope. And when hope is lost, then you can never fulfill purpose and destiny. The greatest challenge in life is to believe in the midst of life itself, when everything seems to be going wrong. Again, looking at Hebrews, we are reminded that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

     Faith is not the product of Reason, but the product of the Reborn Spirit!
     Faith is not the product of the Mind, but the product of the Heart!

Everything you are dealing with right now – the issues, the problems – has everything to do with where you are in your faith. It doesn’t mean that just because you are in a mess that you don’t have faith. Equally, it is not the weakness of faith that got you into the mess, but it is the strength of your faith that will determine how fast you get out of the mess!

Going back to the story of Lazarus and his sisters, the key is verse 3: “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” John 11:5 tells us again that “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” Lazarus, Martha, and Mary had a relationship with Jesus BEFORE everything went wrong. Too many people are trying to exercise their faith that don’t even have a relationship with Him. They only time they come to God is when they are in great need or trouble. They look to Him to get out of the mess, but haven’t built the infrastructure of relationship. They are trying to move a God that they serve, don’t worship, don’t seek, don’t even speak to, and then expect Him to come running to fill their need. Quite simply, they are trying to use God for their own good. But the most marvelous things begin with relationship. If you don’t have relationship with the person beside you, then no matter how good it might be, it is just short of marvelous, and it is the same with God!

John 11:3 also tells us that, though they sent for Jesus right away, He did not come for two days and by then, Lazarus had died. Sometimes, when you’re waiting on God, stuff dies. (Maybe He is killing the flesh that you’ve let live?) And then bad has become worse. When they couldn’t heal Lazarus, couldn’t fix the mess, couldn’t solve the problem, they buried him. When you can’t fix your mess – you try to bury it – you cover it up and hope it goes away.

In verse 21, Mary says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” Like Mary, we try to blame someone else for our mess. We say that we are believers, but the truth is that many have quit believing. The simple truth is that there is a peace in quitting; it is easier to believe that it is never going to happen, that we will never be healed, never going to be or do anything. Why? The pain of expectation is too much to bear. You don’t want to be disappointed again, so you resolve in your mind that things will simply never change. But you have to use your faith on those things that you have buried. Later on in the story, after Jesus first arrives and Martha meets Him outside, Jesus says to Martha and Mary, “show Me where you buried him!” (John 11:34) Jesus wasn’t looking for a living Lazarus, but He was looking for the dead and buried Lazarus. In the same way, Jesus was looking for the prostitute, the leper, and the thief; even now, He is looking for the sick, the lost, the hopeless and broken and depressed. He wasn’t, and isn’t, looking for the ones who have it all together – or pretend to have it all together!

If you are looking for God to bring restoration back into your life, then quit looking at the stuff that is living and look at what you have buried – the things you have covered up!

Mary blames Jesus for Lazarus’ death, BUT she also knows Jesus holds the key to restoration. “But even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” (John 11:21+22) Yes, she says, it’s been bad; it’s been four days since he died. It has gotten worse, and everything has fallen apart, but even now I believe you can do the impossible. Even though everything is falling apart, things are dead in your life, broken and you can’t fix it – it is time for your “even now” miracle! The challenge for every believer is to take the faith that they claim during a church service and use it out in the every-day world!

Finally, in John 11:41, we hear that Jesus heads down to Lazarus’ tomb. He prays, “Father, I thank you that you have heard Me. And I know that you always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by, I said this, that they may believe that you sent Me.” When Jesus says “people standing by,” He really means, “for the benefit of all these doubters, haters that don’t believe that I can raise Lazarus, that I can’t do what they deem impossible.” They move the stone away, and Jesus looks into the cave and calls out for Lazarus. It is dark in the cave, for there is no light, and there is quiet in the cave, for there is no noise. He doesn’t Himself go into the tomb, doesn’t throw special anointing oil into the tomb, nor does he have anyone bring the body out. He stands just outside the mess, and calls, “Lazarus, come forth!” The people listen and hear nothing, but then, they hear movement! You can’t see anything, but you hear something moving in your Spirit; I’m not walking by sight, but walking by faith! Lazarus comes hopping out of the tomb! He is hopping, not walking, because he is still tied up in the burial clothes. But he comes out because he heard the Voice calling for him, and believed “I’m coming out of this mess.” He wasn’t able to get completely out of the mess, out of the things keeping him tied up, but Lazarus knew he was coming out! God is not only calling forth dead bodies, but dead dreams!

Lastly, in Second Kings 7, we learn about four lepers sitting outside the gates of the city during the midst of a famine. They are getting weaker and weaker, simply getting ready to die. Finally, one of them jumps up and says “Wait! Why are we sitting here until we die?! If I’m going to die, then I’m going to die up on my feet, chasing my dreams, reaching for something! They would have died a miserable, lonely, unfulfilled death and God would have let them die, if they didn’t use their faith and rise up!

It is time for you to rise up and believe, and use your faith to push through your mess! Do you believe this??

Suggested Resource: Faith Connection 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Brian Lake, preacher, author, motivator, and entrepreneur, has a heart to see the church come into a deeper intimacy with Jesus.

http://www.brianlake.org