IN GOD S TIME (John 11: 1-44) How many of you like waiting for the kettle to boil? Or how many of you like to sit waiting in traffic? How many of you like to wait for the results of an exam. How many of us like to wait.full stop. You see by nature we have become people who do not like to wait and we get totally irritated when we have to wait. And so if I had to do a survey and ask how many people have experienced God coming through for them a week before it was necessary I am pretty sure none of you would put up your hand. We want to trust God but then we are not patient enough to allow Him to do what He needs to do we want to demand the timing because we feel that we know best. In looking at our series where we wonder if God is missing today I want to look at God s timing and try and help us all learn that God s timing is perfect and also that we can indeed trust God and His timing. Our sermon title for the day is IN GOD S TIME. Our reading is quite long and comes from John 11:1-44 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. Then he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea." "But Rabbi," they said, "a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?" Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light." After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up." His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better." Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus
was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world." And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. "The Teacher is here," she said, "and is asking for you." When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there. When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. "Take away the stone," he said. "But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days." Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."(niv) In all honesty I think we quite often get irritated with God and often feel that He is missing and is not hearing us or listening to our plea. But right from the word go I need to say that time waiting for God to do what HE KNOWS BEST is absolutely NEVER a waste of time. When we look back on a time of waiting we always see that God s timing was in fact correct and had no influence on the correct outcome of the situation (except that our nerves are shattered).
Let us think of Martha and Mary, their brother was very sick, they send a message to Jesus and in their minds HE DOES NOT PITCH. I can only imagine how many times they must have run to the door to see if Jesus was on His way. I wonder what they must have been saying to their friends and family. I know what I would have been saying and I think if you are honest you would also not just have been sitting back calmly saying nothing and waiting for Jesus to arrive. Where is Jesus why does He not come and help! So what can we learn about waiting for God? The first thing we need to learn is that when we wait for God it does NOT mean that He has deserted us or that He is not listening. We need to understand that when we are walking in His path God will always be glorified so be patient and let God be God. Jesus confirmed this in our story in verse 4: When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it."(niv) The bottom line is that if we allow God to be God and do not intervene what happens will be to God s glory and sometimes we do not agree with the result or understand the result but it WILL be to His glory. Think of Job, for a very long time he did not understand what was happening and felt pretty much deserted by God. Yet in the end, God was glorified AND Job came out ok. In both instances the end result was actually what was asked for and the people involved were looked after and blessed. So when there is a delay and God seems to have forgotten our plea do not allow the world to tempt you into doing something that is outside of God s plan, rather make sure that what you are doing is IN God s plan because He is probably preparing you for what is about to happen. When I came into the ministry I thought that all the tests and meetings would be a walk in the park they were not. I felt that God had sort of forgotten me and that I had not heard Him correctly but I came out of the selection process a more humble person something that I needed, even though it was hard. God knew best and the end result was the same anyhow. In verse 17 we read: On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.(niv)
The significance of 4 days is important to understand. Normally God comes through for the people on the 3 rd day but this was the 4 th day. The people did not expect God to be able to do anything it was past the SELL BY DATE. This is confirmed in verses 20-22: When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."(niv) In Martha s mind it was too late. We need to learn from what happened to Martha. While Martha felt that it was too late because Lazarus was already dead God had other plans. In other words we must NEVER give up on God but rather continue to trust Him, expecting Him to come through for us no matter what has happened. The second point that we can learn is that when God comes through in HIS timing He often comes through in a way that far exceeds all our expectations. This sounds great but we need to be ready for the result or we could mess up. We need to allow God to change and mould us, to prepare us for what is coming. Let us look at verses 23-26: Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"(niv) Martha had sent a message to Jesus asking Him to heal her brother but Jesus had other plans He was thinking of RESURRECTION! Martha nearly missed it and at first did not understand. How many times have we not asked for one thing and God has answered us with HIS answer but we have missed it because it was not what WE wanted? God knows best and we need to learn to trust Him and LOOK OUT FOR THE ANSWERS they may not be what you thought they were going to be. Martha probably thought God was missing when Lazarus died but she had it all wrong. God was not missing, His timing was not the same as her timing and His plan was not her plan.
Are you struggling at the moment, calling out for God to help? Maybe you have lost your job or maybe you feel that you need a new job. Maybe you feel that God is not coming through for you hang in there God s timing is not our timing and GOD KNOWS BEST. While we may be disappointed now because something is not happening, in a while when God feels the time is right we may receive much more and it could be completely different hang in there and trust God..His timing is always perfect..