Doctrine is designed to handle the pressures of life. Our job is to follow Him. John 11:1-7

John 11:1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

 

It is very interesting that all the way through we always forget about Lazarus. Lazarus means God is my help.

 

Lazarus never complained. So the real hero is the one who isn’t mentioned too much as to how great he really is, but it is Lazarus.

 

He knew he was going to die. He knew how to die - no dramatics, no weeping and wailing. He carried on a routine of doctrine and it’s definite that people witnessed his dying grace.  

 

John 11:2 And it was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

 

While the events of John are chronological he wrote retrospectively many years after this had happened, and he puts in here that it was Mary that anointed the feet of the Lord - one of the greatest applications of doctrine.

 

It was something permanent. She stands forever as one of the greatest of all grace ladies.

 

John 11:3 The sisters therefore sent to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick."

 

The word for love here is phileo.

 

Lazarus was also a great man of doctrine with great category #1 love response. This same phileo is used for Abraham - James 2:23, friend [philos] of God.

 

John 11:4 But when Jesus heard it, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it." 

 

When Jesus heard about this it is almost as if He is being callous, but the real purpose of the crisis is now made clear and Christ knows all about it.

 

“This sickness is not unto death,” means that death is not the final issue of this particular sickness.

 

Principle: We don’t always know what the Lord is going to accomplish in our personal disasters and we don’t know how He is going to deliver us from our disasters.

 

Martha is a detailed oriented woman and though she desires Lazarus to be healed she actually goes about her business after Lazarus is dead.

 

 

 

Mary is different. She is so sure that Jesus is going to come and heal him that when He doesn’t she gets very angry at the Lord and won’t even come to see Him when He finally arrives. She pouts in anger against her Lord.

 

This will bring out for all of us some wonderful comforts for those times when we’re sure the Lord is ready to do something, only to find out that He does not and something we feared occurs.

 

John 11:5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

 

Verses 5 & 6, the perfect timing of the Son of God.

           

This verse expresses the perfect love of Jesus Christ for this family.

 

You would assume that this crisis would cause Jesus Christ to leave immediately from Perea. He delays.

 

Remember this principle: Any delay in the plan of God advances the glory of God. Delay does not hinder the plan of God, it advances the plan of God. God’s delays are advances.

 

“Now” is the particle de, it changes the circumstances again.

 

It indicates that Jesus wanted to depart immediately but He refrained from doing so. Notice that four people are involved in this verse. Three are named specifically, one is not. Jesus is doing the loving here, and this is His humanity.

 

“loved” is the imperfect active indicative of agapao. We have already seen that Jesus loves Lazarus - phileo.

 

But agapao is only a restricted love, a mental attitude love.

 

The point is that Jesus did not delay His departure because of vindictiveness or implacability, or any mental attitude sin.

 

This word is to make sure it is understood that the motivation of Jesus Christ was not to cause anyone to suffer.

 

His delay was going to cause both girls to suffer, but that is not His purpose. There is no mental attitude sin involved.

           

Notice whom he loved: “Martha” - He had a relaxed mental attitude toward her. It also mentions Lazarus who is dead, He had a relaxed mental attitude toward him. But the interesting thing here is “her sister.”

 

Mary is not mentioned by name. Why? We know who it is because the passage makes it very clear.

 

The one who is not named is the most important one.

 

One of them died a great death because of doctrine. One of them still isn’t fully straightened out; she is still hustling in the kitchen per se.

 

One is not mentioned by name and only the rest of this passage will give an explanation.

 

But to anticipate, did you ever have someone who really cared for you who didn’t remember your name on purpose?

 

This would explain what is happening here.

 

The very absence of Mary’s name is of the greatest significance because right now Mary with all of her doctrine is having mental attitude sins toward Jesus Christ!

 

She has a hang-up.

 

She sent the message in time so that the Lord could be there. Lazarus is dead, Martha is hustling around, but who has nothing to do and is out of fellowship and is in the greatest danger of all?

 

The greatest women in the world are those whose life is doctrine, and that is all they want to do.

 

But they have an occupational hazard too. In crisis, they have been taking in doctrine, but they are sensitive and get their feelings hurt and then they may revert to mental attitude sins.

Doctrinal women are responders to authority. But when that authority lets them down, husband, boss, pastor, etc. they can revert to mental attitude sins.

 

The Lord has not let Mary down, but she thinks He has and so she fails the test. The Lord’s delay caused her sorrow, that couldn’t be avoided, but she did not meet that sorrow head on with doctrine and so MAS could’ve been avoided.

 

So who is up in her room, torn to pieces and mad at Jesus? Mary!

 

Each is great in their own way and each has an area of strength, but each area requires Bible doctrine.

 

Every person who has a natural strength, a natural inclination, also has an occupational hazard.

 

Now we meet Mary, the one who loves Bible doctrine and is so strong for doctrine, the one who, as it were, sits at the feet of Jesus while her sister hustles around the house.

 

She has a problem too. When a crisis occurs and everything doesn’t fall in place as she expects it to her mental attitude sins come into her grief.

 

John 11:6 When therefore He heard that he was sick, He stayed then two days longer in the place where He was.

 

This allows time for death and burial, makes the situation totally hopeless, and brings to light the principle that there is no such thing as a hopeless situation for a child of God.

 

It is a matter of whose timing is important. Mary has a lot of doctrine but timing is her problem. The Lord’s timing is perfect; our timing is not.

 

John 11:7 Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." 

 

After the proper amount of stalling it’s time to move.

 

The disciples were nice and comfortable on the other side of the Jordan. There was no danger there.

 

They have just escaped the wrath of religion in Jerusalem (10:39, 40). Jesus is actually testing His disciples when He says, “Let us go,” just the way He did in the storm.

 

In the boat in the storm - Matthew 8:23-27 - the disciples learned something about the Lord which was impossible to learn any other way.

 

The storm at sea illustrates the pressures, the sufferings and the disasters in life. In the boat the waves were high, the disciples were absolutely helpless. The humanity of Christ was sleeping during this terrible storm.

 

However, the disciples learned that the deity of Christ never sleeps and that they were safe in the boat in the storm. Now the question arises: Did the disciples learn anything from that storm?

 

The storm is passed, they are safe on dry land, they have gone through other things since, so what did they learn from that experience?

 

Will the disciples panic at the thought of returning to danger, or will they relax under the concept of the wall of fire around them?

 

Any time that a person goes into a danger, a problem, and he knows it is a danger; this is a great test of the faith-rest technique, a test of the reality of Bible doctrine in life.

 

Can you go into a danger, a pressure, an adversity day in and day out and never and never shirk?

 

Bible doctrine is designed to take the pressure as you take everything else.

 

In other words, to stride through life; to give you that peace, that blessing in the midst of pressures as well as in the midst of prosperity. The disciples had eventually passed the test in the boat after initial failure; now, would they pass the test of ‘over the river’?

 

They have a river to cross and this is their problem. They flunked the test!

 

 

John 11:8 The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?"

 

“His disciples say unto him, Master.” They always say Master when they didn’t like it. When they liked it, it was Lord; when they didn’t like it, it was Master [Rabbi], which means Doctor, Professor, or Teacher.

           

This is their attitude. In other words, what bothers the disciples is that there are many Jews in Jerusalem that carry stones in their pockets with the intent of throwing them at them.  

           

This is making them nervous because they are under fire too. While Jesus is the main target the disciples are also included.

 

Jesus is leading them right back - the verb ago means to lead. He is going ahead of them with a perfect mental attitude but the disciples are reluctant.

 

Their mental attitude is different and they are looking for some kind of an ‘out.’

           

 

Principle: You never solve the pressures of your life as long as you are looking for an ‘out.’

 

Meeting the pressures of your life as a believer depends upon the utilization of Bible doctrine.

 

The very ‘out’ that you take it simply pressure added to pressure.

 

No one can go on his own as a believer and ever get out of the pressure. Every time you look for an out you are going on your own.

 

You are not designed as a believer to go on your own; you are a believer priest and are designed to follow your high priest - Jesus Christ. That means you go through the battle, not run away from it.

           

They strike up a conversation for one reason. They want a dialogue; they want to discuss this matter: ‘Lord. Let’s talk this over.’ Notice: Who is the leader? Jesus Christ. Who has the authority? Jesus, and He says, We are going. That’s it!