A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. 2This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick. 3So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.”4But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” 5So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, 6he stayed where he was for the next two days.
John 11:1-6 (NLT)
Jesus responds to my hurt, anger and confusion…
1) With Compassion and Comfort
When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, He was angry in His spirit and deeply moved. 34 “Where have you put him?” He asked. “Lord,” they told Him, “come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”
John 11:33-36 (CSB)
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses…
Hebrews 4:15 (ESV)
2) With Correction and Direction
Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. Yet even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You.”
John 11:21-22 (CSB)
Then Jesus, angry in Himself again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39″Remove the stone,” Jesus said. Martha, the dead man’s sister, told Him, “Lord, he already stinks. It’s been four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
John 11:38-40 (CSB)
3) With Purpose and Power
Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You heard Me. 42 I know that You always hear Me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so they may believe You sent Me.” 43After He said this, He shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him and let him go. 45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what He did believed in Him.
John 11:40-45 (CSB)
Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.
John 11:25
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