A Certain Hope

Text: John 11:27-37

Focus: Focusing our faith in Jesus alone

Function: Preaching the gospel, inviting people to trust in Jesus (instead of universal karma).

Form: Storytelling

Intro: I have a good friend who has a different understanding than me of one of the fundamental principles of Christianity.

This man is very sincere in his faith and his love for God, but he believes something that I do not understand.

Well, I understand it, but I do not quite concur.

He does not believe, like I do, in the atonement.

It is a theological term that refers to Jesus' death on our behalf for our sins.

And I suppose my friend has some good reasons.

One of them is that he does not believe it is ever okay for anybody to allow anyone else to die on their behalf.

He believes that we should take responsibility for our own actions, and sins.

He reasons that someone like me believes that I can literally get away with anything, by asking God to forgive me and I would never suffer consequences.

Unfortunately, parts of history have proven him right and he believes that this doctrine has painted Christianity in a bad light. He says that at times the resulting Christian practice does not line up with the teachings of Jesus.

And finally, he believes that my picture of God is both powerless and mean.

He says it is powerless because God could not wipe out the penalty for sin by just decreeing it to be so.

And mean because it paints God as a God of wrath who must be appeased by sacrifice.

I disagree.

I love this man, and I have no doubt that I will see him in heaven, with me, someday.

But my belief system revolves around the atonement, Good Friday and Easter morning.

God is powerful. I believe that God could have decreed that all sins were forgiven without the sacrifice of Christ, but God choose not to in order teach us peace and forgiveness.

Jesus' words “forgiven them for they do not know what they do” are some of the most powerful words in the Bible.

And it isn't that God is mean, but the cross demonstrates how terrible evil can be.

And if there is not a just punishment for evil, then God does not love us.

It is a simple analogy. If I have two children and I permit one child to physically beat the other child every day with no consequences, then I am not loving either child.

And God, in His love for humanity decided to take the punishment for us on Himself on the cross.

Isaiah 53 tells us that the punishment for our sins fell upon Him.

From the Cross Jesus cried: (loudly) Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachtihni.

“God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

We believe that in that moment on the cross, the weight of every sin ever committed was laid on Jesus, instead of us. God's wrath against sin was satisfied.

And my friend would be correct if... ...If Jesus were merely a man. But He wasn't. He is also God. And God took our sins on our behalf.

And yes, there have been abuses perpetrated by every religion, even Christianity. But that does not discount God's redemption story.

And the redemption story is never so powerful as it is when we are facing death.

So today, to see how much God loves us, let us look at Jesus at the funeral of His friend.

1. He had twelve disciples.
   1. They bickered. He had to teach them
   2. They were work, to Him
2. But He also had 3 friends
   1. Mary, Martha and Lazarus
   2. While Jesus was in Jerusalem
   3. Lazarus gets desperately ill
   4. Mary and Martha, Jesus friends, saw Him heal everyone else.
   5. They knew that if Jesus just came, everything would be okay.
   6. They begged Him to come.
3. And Jesus delays.
4. After Lazarus dies Jesus decides to go.
5. And before Jesus gets to town, Martha discovers his approach and Jesus has this exchange with her.
   1. “Lord, if you had just been here...”
      1. I can picture her pounding His chest in frustration.
      2. They are friends.
      3. She asks the question we all ask.
      4. God, Where are you?
   2. Jesus answers:
      1. “Your brother will rise again...”
      2. Martha: “Yes, I know, in the resurrection...”
      3. We all say that.
      4. It was the 1st Century's version of what I call “the common hope.”
      5. Today we may say:
         1. He is in a better place.
         2. She isn't suffering anymore.
         3. God will make some good come of this.
         4. Even those who do not believe in life after death comfort themselves with the fact that there is no longer any pain.
         5. And those words do help, but at times they seem to fall short.
      6. And Martha goes further:
         1. Martha gives the “religiously correct” answer.
         2. The Jews fought, and Martha lines up with the Jewish people who refused to scoff at the claims of scripture.
         3. She wants Jesus to know that she's truly a believer.
         4. She takes the common hope to the hope in the resurrection.
      7. She gives the same sort of hope we all have.
      8. She gives us the common hope of all humanity.
6. And then Jesus corrects her.
   1. He wants to expand on the common hope.
   2. “Martha,” I can picture Him saying.
   3. She looks him in the eye.
   4. Those piercing eyes that we see in our pictures of Him.
   5. They are kind.
   6. They are focused on her.
   7. She is the center of His world at that moment.
   8. She sees His care for him.
   9. When I picture Him saying “Martha...”
   10. I see her start listening beyond those clichés we say at this time.
   11. Those clichés are good
   12. But God has more.
   13. Jesus wants her to know that His care for her is specific and personal.
   14. He says, “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me will never die...”
   15. We will get back to that conversation in a minute.
7. The story move from Martha to “where's Mary?”
   1. Martha runs to get Mary, who is weeping at the home.
   2. They move and then Mary and Jesus meet near the tomb.
8. And again we hear, from Mary: “If you had been here...”
   1. At the core of her question to Jesus is one that we all ask:
   2. “WHY?”
   3. If God loves us, why does He let us suffer?
   4. If God could feel our pain, would He let us suffer?
9. Jesus loves us
   1. This story proves that Jesus knows us.
   2. It proves that Jesus can handle human emotion, even anger when it is directed at Him.
   3. He created us.
   4. There is sorrow, anger and pain and yes, blame in her statement.
   5. Blaming God is common at death.
   6. It is normal and Jesus handles it.
10. So look at what Jesus does.
    1. The text records two emotional reactions by Jesus:
       1. When he sees her sobbing, it says: “Jesus cried out with a loud voice.”
       2. The word in the original Greek text is the word used when an horse is terribly upset and starts neighing loudly.
       3. Jesus goes through an extreme emotional reaction.
       4. He felt it.
       5. The crowd says “look how He loved Him.”
       6. Look how Jesus loves humanity.
       7. You can picture them getting closer to the tomb and Jesus who was literally overwhelmed with His love for Mary as He is trying to comfort her.
       8. As they get closer to the tomb, Mary is not doing any better.
       9. And my favorite verse in the entire bible comes up.
       10. It is the second emotional reaction recorded: “Jesus wept.”
       11. It is my favorite because it tells us just what is going on with Jesus when we are suffering.
11. Now most of you know the end of the story.
    1. Jesus tells them to roll the stone away.
    2. When He commands this, she responds with something the Junior High kids love: “Lord, he stinks.”
    3. And this is much better than a 30 minute sitcom on TV.
    4. This actually happens and all of their sorrow and torment is instantly erased as Lazarus is raised from the dead.
    5. He Loves us.
    6. He really does.
    7. He is as Human as He is divine.
    8. As God, not only does He understand our pain, but as man, He has experienced it.
    9. Never forget the power of His love.
    10. Love wins.
12. So let us go back to that first conversation.
    1. Jesus: “Your brother will rise again...”
    2. Martha: “Yes, Lord, I believe in the resurrection....”
    3. She gives us the pat answer of the religious faithful. The answer that I call the common hope
    4. Jesus: “Martha... Martha...”
    5. And then Jesus fills in the rest of the gospel story.
    6. He says: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will never die.”
    7. This is new teaching.
    8. No one has heard these words before. Ever.
    9. It is something that would take a long time to sink in to us.
    10. I am The Resurrection and The Life...
    11. Those statements are concepts.
    12. But Jesus is a person, not a concept.
    13. I think if I wasn't in the presence of Jesus like Martha was, I would try to explain, maybe explain away, the mystery of Jesus words here.
    14. But instead, I picture a very personal connection between Martha and Jesus.
    15. I picture that piercing gaze into her eyes and to clear up Martha's confusion, Jesus asks her:
    16. “Do you believe this?”
    17. (look at crowd, everyone) Do you believe?
    18. You see, Jesus is moving her from the common hope of humanity to the specific hope of Jesus' love for humanity.
    19. He is not just the HOPE of the resurrection, He is the FACT of it.
    20. He is not just the HOPE of eternal life, He is the FACT of it.
    21. And looking into His eyes, something happens inside of her.
    22. Saving faith is renewed, maybe created for the first time, inside of her.
    23. With Jesus present, there is the brush with the Divine.
    24. And Martha, piercing into His eyes says:
    25. “Yes Lord, I believe...”
13. I believe that You are the Christ.
    1. Where is your faith?
    2. Is it common?
    3. Or is it specific?
    4. It is simple: Lord Jesus, I believe.