I heard a preacher/teacher bring a new perspective to the story of Lazarus of Bethany, or one I hadn't heard before. Read John 11:1-57. I am not stealing this man's message; I am spreading the revelation from the word of God and putting my spin on it. If a portion of the word encouraged me, I am not going to bury it. I am going to share it because the word of God is spirit. Anyway, the scripture tells us that Martha and Mary, friends of Jesus, sent for him because their brother was sick. The text tells us that Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Now, Jesus gets the message and says that the sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified through it.
Now, I would have thought Jesus would have stopped everything He was doing and came and healed his friend Lazarus. However, Jesus stayed two more days where He was. So He isn't stressing Lazarus' sickness and He knows that He is going to take care of it when He gets back to town. So Jesus tells the disciples that Lazarus is sleeping but He will go and wake him. The disciples don't get it so Jesus has to spell it out clearly. Lazarus is dead.
By the time that Jesus and his disciples get there, Lazarus has been dead in the tomb 4 days. Now Martha has faith and says to Jesus that if you had been here Lazarus wouldn't have died. Mary when she saw him basically said the same thing. It says Jesus wept. Mary was crying and sad. Jesus tells them to roll back the stone from the tomb. Martha is like, it is going to stink, my brother has been dead for 4 days.
Jesus then repeats what He has told them. Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God? Then Jesus proceeds to talk to His Father for the sake of those around him. He then says, Lazarus, come forth!
To cut to the great part--Lazarus was raised from the dead. IT IS A MIRACLE, A SUPERNATURAL MIRACLE!!!
Now to my point. Think for a minute about Martha and Mary. They sent for Jesus to come and heal Lazarus. It is like when we pray for something. They were both in the waiting room so to speak, hoping that Jesus would come and heal Lazarus. We often find ourselves waiting. Once Lazarus died they came out of the waiting room, so to speak. Do we give up too soon, thinking only in natural human terms?
Jesus didn't get to Lazarus in time, so they thought. They thought that they did not get what they had asked.
They had faith in Jesus. I mean Martha came up to Jesus when he got there and said if you had been here everything would have been fine. Jesus tells her Your brother will rise again. Martha is still faithful and says I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Don't get it twisted, that is faith, but Jesus had to really let them know who He was. Jesus tells her, I am the resurrection and the life. You don't have to wait any longer and I am talking about resurrecting him in THIS life. So we have faith, but may not realize the truth of who Jesus is and His full power and authority.
How many times do we say, God, hasn't done anything so I guess it is over? We only see one or two ways that God can approach the situation or we only see how God can do things naturally. We leave out the supernatural nature of God.
They thought that once Lazarus was dead, it was over. However, they didn't realize that God was going to work it out. I suspect that they felt like Jesus had come too late. However, He came to fulfill His purpose and will, and He answered their prayers. So even when they thought it was over, it wasn't over!!! He did what needed to be done to give God the glory.
The faithful must remain patient. I am waiting for some things to come to pass, and I realize that Jesus gets the message and will do what He said that He would do (Matthew 7:7-11). Anything that I thought was lost, is not lost. What looks hopeless in the natural, is possible in the supernatural power of God through Jesus Christ the Lord.
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