Review

Well we are in our Easter series where we are looking at Paul'sdefinition of love phrase by phrase and pairing it with a story fromthe life of Jesus to observe what loved looked like as it walkedamong us.

Last week we looked at the phrase, love bears all things and todaywe take the next two phrases, love believes all things, hopes allthings.

Now before we go anywhere, we need to begin by observing animportant keyword.

In 1 Cor. 13:7, if you take the sentence as a whole, you have fourwords each of which are modified by the word "all"" So the key word

is all and the idea is actually 'always.' Love always does thesethings. This is what love continually does. It's really a dispositionmore than an action.

Translating it always helps us get away from the idea that beingloving is the same thing as being gullible. Love will believe anythingyou tell me. That's not the idea at all. What it means is that love hasno limits.

When Peter asked, how many times should I forgive my brother, upto seven times? And Jesus answer was, "There is no limit on love."

And that's what actually makes it love. You see, there is nothingparticularly Christian about these four words until you add the word"ALWAYS."

Don't you agree? If you think about the words in this list, they arethings we all do by virtue of the fact that we live in communities.Everybody has to give. I don't care who you are, if you interact withpeople at all, you have to bear up under annoying things. You haveto believe and hope in people, despite their mistakes. You have toendure people's failures. There's nothing particularly Christian aboutthat.

What's Christian is the word, "Always." Because humanly speaking,we all have a limit. We all have a threshold. Once you cross thisthreshold you've gone from reasonable to unreasonable. Now it'stime for retaliation. What you are asking me to endure is out ofbounds. You've crossed the limit. I am now entitled to resent, or lashout, or even-the-score.

But here we read that love doesn't have a limit. It's inexhaustible in

its willingness to absorb failure. That's what makes love, love. Lovebelieves all things. Hopes all things. It's just always in that posture.

Human 'Love' is Self-Protection

That is hard to do.

Normally, the moment we detect a pattern of failure in a person wedoom them to eternal failure. The FAILURE pattern becomes anultimate judgment. We conclude they are unchangeable. They are alost cause. And the reason we do this is that it protect ourselves. Wedon't want to raise our hopes just to have them be dashed again,and so we tell ourselves, "Don't expect anything." We consider thepattern of failure to be a final judgment.

How can we continue to believe and hope in a person like this?

Perhaps this is you right now. You are not emotionally able tocontinue to believe and hope in a person that has failed you overand over and over again. The scars are too deep. Thedisappointment is too fresh. You might feel bad, but what do you doabout it? We've lost hope. How do I just drum it back up. I've beenlet down so many times it would be stupid to the core to set myselfup for further disappointment. I've literally lost my ability to bear, andbelieve and hope and endure?

And let me just say, I understand that, and affirm you in that. Youhave no reason to hope in a person who has continued to disappointyou. "What basis do you have for believing they will ever doanything different?" Answer: none.

The Object of Belief.

Now the key to rekindling hope is to change the object of our hope.

When we say, Love ALWAYS believes, what are we believing in?What are we hoping in? That is a massively important question. Youcan go into Hobby Lobby and you have signs that say, "Believe." AnI always think to myself, "No object, huh? You know, the object iskind of important."

Believe in myselfBelieve in luckBelieve in politicsBelieve in technology

Belief by itself is no virtue. When we say love believes all things,love ALWAYS believes...What are we ALWAYS believing in?

Now today we are going to answer that from John chapter 11. John11 is a famous chapter on the resurrection. This is the passagewhere Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. So it's an appropriatepassage for Easter for that reason. And while resurrection power iscertainly one of the main points it's definitely not the only point. Wewant to look at this passage for a slightly different reason. Whatdoes this passage teach us about belief and particularly its relationto love? Here's what we are going to see.

Jesus loves his disciples deeply. The text in John 11 is crystal clearhere. He has a special deep love. Not only does he personallypossess this love He wants them to know true love. That's isgreatest and largest aim in John 11 as we are going to see.

And yet, we see in John 11, three times, his perfect love isquestioned.

Let's read.

We are told here explicitly that Jesus LOVED Martha and Mary andLazarus. He loved them with perfect love. That's stated explicitly inverse 5. That love is going to produce an action.

John uses the transition “So”, and it’s a strong word. Jesus lovedMartha and Mary and Lazarus. THEREFORE. Because he lovedMary so much.... Because he loved Martha so much.... Because heloved Lazarus so much.

SO, because he loved them so much, when He heard that Lazaruswas sick, he stayed where He was two more days and he lets himdie.”

How do you like that for a demonstration of love? “He's got a 106degree fever and he's wasting away. He hasn't eaten for a week.He's on the brink of death. So, let me just hang out here a few moredays before I go to him.” That's how I'll show my love. That’s whatthe text says!

Envision Mary

Now in order to really appreciate just how Bizarre this is you have toenvision being Mary or Martha. They of course are just living anormal day. They don't know that this is going to be a chapter in theBible. This day is just as normal to them as today is for you.

Picture the scene. Mary and Martha are incredibly worried abouttheir sick brother. The best cure is rest, right? One day, then two

days. And Lazarus is just getting worse. And finally they say, "I'venever seen him this sick.

He's in and out of consciousness.He's in total delirium.What should we do?

So they send a runner to find Jesus. The only thing we can do is cryout to Jesus." That's what we do in our suffering, right? We cry outto Jesus.

And what happens next for them is the torture of waiting. Now this iseasy to forget, in our world of smart-phones, and texting.Communication literally happened at the speed of a mule. You canimagine the agony of just waiting.Their hope left two days ago by foot. No updates. No idea if therunner even found Jesus. Just waiting...waiting.

Every time he coughs it's more congested and shallower.And he's burning up with fever and they can't do anything about it.And he's been throwing up now for three days.He's whiter and thinner by the hour.

And every five minutes they just look out the window to see. Is hehere yet? Is he coming? Is he on the way? Nope. Another fiveminutes. Maybe now. They love Lazarus. He's Mary's brother.Another look. Still nothing. Another cough. Some blood.

And then finally they see the runner. Did you find him? Did you tellhim? Is he coming? And you can see a bit of hesitancy in his eyes.Yeah, I found him and I told him, "Jesus, Lazarus, the one you loveis no kidding around sick. I mean he's basically in a coma. He'svomiting up blood. I think he's only got days, maybe hours to live.

You got to come now and save him?"

Well, what did he say? And the messenger swallows hard. He saidthat this is not the kind of sickness that leads to death.

And the three of them look at Lazarus whose pale and thin andincontinent and they think, really? The smells that are coming out ofthis guy don't smell like health. Doesn't Jesus care that he's thissick? Does Jesus want to help us? I thought he loved us?

How many suffering people in the world have asked that question?Jesus, if you cared you would change my situation. If you cared youwould undo these circumstances. If you cared you would removethis sickness.

Because Jesus loved him, he stayed where he was. Why? Whatpurpose could you possibly have? I have the assurance of your loveon the one hand but then the absolute abandonment of you on theother.

What am I to do with that? Well verse four tells us. I am letting yousuffer so that you can see the glory of God. That's what verse foursays. The suffering is so that they might what? See the glory ofGod!

In other words, it was more loving to put Lazarus through death andhis sisters through grief, if that would reveal more of God’s glory tothem so that they might believe. So Jesus waits and let's Lazarusdie. That was the most loving thing he could have done.

Seeing the glory of God changes what you believe. And I want toshow you that belief is what Jesus has in mind. Love believes all

things, right? Jesus explicitly says that changed belief is his aim.

Do you see that a relocated BELIEF is Jesus' main aim? Thereason I am letting Lazarus die is so that you might believe allthings. That you might ALWAYS believe that Jesus has power over

the impossible, I am letting Lazarus die. I love you too much to allowyou to put your hope i anything else.

Now let's go up to Jerusalem. Keep in mind, a chapter earlier, theJews picked up stones to kill Jesus. There is serious political heatand Jesus is walking into the epicenter.

Every disciple has a roll to play and Thomas' roll is Eore.

Now the four days is significant for a couple reasons. If Jesus wouldhave set out immediately Lazarus would still have been dead one ortwo days. Why wait two additional days? Two reasons.

1. First of all in an ancient culture it was hard to tell if someone wasreally dead. There would be cases where it would look like a personwas dead and then a day or two later they would revive. This led tosome theories. In one first century document, we read, “When aperson apparently dies, the soul hovers over the body of thedeceased person for the first three days, intending to reenter it, butas soon as it sees that the appearance changes then it departs.”What's that referring to? When the appearance changes?Rigamortis. Decomposition. Rotting. Lazarus has been dead fourdays. In that hot, arid climate, the decomposition process sets inquickly. In waiting two days, he established with such spectacularcertainty of Lazarus’s death that when he raised him from the dead,the miracle would be without question. There was a second reasonJesus waited till the fourth day.

2. Because the fourth day was the day when the man was officiallydeclared dead, the fourth day was the high day of mourning. If youcould only come and sympathize with the family for a day, you'dchoose the fourth day. In our culture, if someone dies and you arevery close to the family, you are probably there on the death bed, ormaybe you immediately go over to the house and comfort them,maybe you go with them down to the funeral home. That's the kindof thing you do if you are close. But if you are not as closelyconnected or you are out of town and have lots of workresponsibilities and you can only get away for a day, you wait untilthe funeral service. Well for them, in their culture that was thefourth day.

Now Jesus finally arrives in village, and here's what he sees.

So Jesus finally shows up. Late the game. It too late. It's probablywith a pretty high degree of pain and even a sense of betrayal thatthey welcome him. I can't help but read between the lines. Why didMary stay seated in the house? Perhaps she wanted to send amessage. You betrayed us.

You could imagine a scenario where a child was upset at the parentand the parent was gone for a day or two and upon returning home,the child hears mom walk in the house but stays in the room. It's away of communicating something. Is that what is going on here?

It's certainly a possibility. Everyone here is struggling with the feelingof betrayal.

Listen to what Martha says.

I think what happens here is Martha says what she feels, realizesshe oversteps and tries to dig herself out of a hole. And we canunderstand Martha's cry, can't we.

Is this not the legitimate cry of a thousand hurting voices echoingthrough the corridors of the human experience. If you had beenhere, this bad thing wouldn't have happened? Where were youLord? Where are you Lord?

Remember we said that Jesus' love is questioned three times.Here's the first questioning. Lord, if you had been here, if you reallyloved me, you would have been here and changed the outcome. Butyou weren't here? Why? What doest that mean? It seems like if youcared you would have been here? Do you love me?Lord if you hadbeen here, Lord...

That is perfectly ambiguous. But what he's doing here is setting herup.

Now when we say Jesus is setting her up, here's what we mean. It'snot like he's trying to trick her and purposely be ambiguous to trick

and control. That's what we normally mean by that. She has the rightkind of belief but the wrong location. Jesus is trying to change thelocation of her belief.

Where is here belief currently located? The text tells us. It's locatedin a catechism. Martha is repeating something she learned inchurch. She's repeating a phrase here mother and father taught herbetween bites of baby food. When Martha says, "I know he will riseagain in the resurrection on the last day," what is she doing? she'seffectively quoting a catechism.

We've got these learning tools that have been handed down to usthrough church history.

Where is Martha's hope. It's in a catechism.

And Jesus effectively says, I am the catechism. Jesus says to her,"Mary your brother will rise again." And then what does Mary do,"She says, Oh Jesus, well I know that's true because in Psalms 118it says...." And Jesus interrupts her. Mary, I am the Psalms. Stopquoting the Bible. I am the Bible. It was all pointing to me. So when Itell you, "your brother will rise again" the train of thought stops there.I am the resurrection.

Jesus is trying to relocate her belief from words on a paper to aperson.

Look at what comes next.

Here's the second time Jesus' love is questioned. Lord if you hadbeen, here, if you loved us, my brother would not have died.

Let's just admit that we can't possibly imagine the dynamic here. Wecan't possibly appreciate the emotion and pain because we knowhow this story ends. But they don't know. All Mary knows is that shesent a runner, Jesus never showed up and she had to watch herbrother die.

She has had to wrestle with the words of Jesus, this is not asickness that leads to death, and he died. She watched him stopbreathing. And for you who know a thing or two about death, deathis never, never easy. Sickness that ends in death is always horrible.

The progressive weakness.The labored breathing that gets shallower and shallower and thendeath.And Mary and Martha just went through all of that.

And they didn't then call the mortitian and go home and take a bathand wait for the memorial service. They had to pick up his cold bodyand wash it. They had to wrap the body that was seizing up withrigamortis in grave clothes. Then they had to carry him to the tomb.She had been waiting for Jesus to come, waiting, waiting and Jesuswas a no show. And Lazarus died. And this was supposed to be asickness that did not lead to death?

Everything gets called into question. Her faith is rattled. And then,after it's all closed up and tidied up, finally Jesus shows up. Youwould have done the EXACT same thing.

And Jesus did this, because he loved her? Yes, because he wantstheir hope and belief to be in the right place.

I want your hope for Impossible resurrection change to be in me. Ilove you too much to allow your hope and belief to be anywhereother than that.

And there's the third time his love is questioned. Could not he whoopened the eyes of the blind man (the crowds are referencing ourpassage from last week in John chapter 9) keep this man fromdying?

There is a word here in verses 33 and 38 that has been a quandaryfor translators for years now. It says, “When Jesus saw herweeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping,he was deeply moved in spirit …” Then down in verse 38, it says,“Jesus, deeply moved agian, came to the tomb.”

That translation is difficult because the obvious translation doesn'tmake much sense. This word translated "deeply moved" means tosnort or bellow with anger, and it usually is used for animals. It’stalking about a kind of primordial rage, and the translators don’tknow what to do with it. It was very common word so there is noconfusion in ancient Greek.

The only other place in the New Testament it’s used is in Mark 14:5,

when the woman takes enormously expensive perfume and anointsJesus’ feet with it and everybody comes at her, and it says, “Andthey rebuked her harshly.” In that context it's an outrage at theimpropriety.

So why don't they translate it this way? Because it makes almost nosense. “How could this be? Why would this Jesus, filled with grief, atthe same time be quaking with rage?” By the way, some translationsdo translate it this way. Eugene Peterson’s book, The Message.Jesus saw them weeping, he became deeply angry. In verse 38,The Message says, “Then Jesus, the anger again welling up withinhim, arrived at the tomb.”

Now the commentators are all over the map on why Jesus feels thisway. Why did Jesus weep? Why was he greatly stirred in his Spirit?

He can’t just be weeping about Lazarus. He can’t. He's going toraise him from the dead in three minutes. How could you cry overthat?

And I think the best interpretation is the one that corresponds to thecomplicated way in which humans experience emotions. Emotionsare a pool of complicated feelings. You can have joy, sorrow andanger all mixed together. Jesus' spirit is a swirling pool of deepemotion.

I think there probably is a joy in the mix.

1. Anticipated Joy. He knows this going to go from a funeral to a partyin about three minutes. All the sorrow will be turned to joy. If youcare at all, just to see other people cry makes you feel thoseemotions and you can't wait for them to see the glory of God. That

emotion is being restrained. It's like players who are about to win achampionship game. And they know in 15 seconds they are goingto celebrate like crazy, but they have to wait. Jesus is experiencingthis restraint.

2. Anger. But there's anger also. He’s mad at death, and heapproaches death in a rage because he’s about to do a battle. Heknows that this miracle he's about to do is part of a narrative thatends with him on the cross. Immediately after this miracle, the textis very explicit about this, the religious leaders plot to put Jesus todeath.

Jesus knows if he raises Lazarus, if he does this indisputablemiracle, he’s forcing the hands of his enemies.

It's like he's talking to Lazarus.

To break the seal of your grave is to seal the stone on my grave.I can only raise you if I sink.If I bring you out, I’ll bury myself.

Literally, historically, John says that’s exactly what happened. Jesus'raising of Lazarus was the beginning of the end.

Jesus says, “Come on.” He’s bellowing with rage that there is thisawful cup that he is about to drink. And he's furious. And he's readyto do battle.

3. Sorrow. There's a sorrow over the unbelief he sees.

He had to hear it from Martha, Lord if you had been here, my brotherwould not have died. And then you hear it from Mary. Lord if youhad been here, my brother would not have died. He hears it from theguests. Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind keep this

man from dying. It's painful to have done nothing but prove yourselffaithful over and over again and have your love be questioned.

And so I think Jesus' tears are this complicated combination of allthese emotions.

So they took away the stone. Imagine this. This would be theequivalent of saying, "Go dig up the body." I mean Jesus, it's done.It's over. I imagine there's all sorts of hesitation and pausing. Areyou sure?

And I imagine that when that stone rolled back the smell must havearrested them. The smell of a decomposing deer or wild animal. It'sso distinct. So sharp. So inescapable. You can imagine thehandkerchief over the noses. And I imagine Jesus let the horror ofthat smell reach their nostrils and let them think about what thatsmell meant.

Jesus said, father, would you transform all this suffering, all thishurt, all this pain and doubt into BELIEF in me. BELIEVE in me.

He says in the hearing of all. This miracle that I am about to do is fora PURPOSE: I want your belief to be in me.

Now, what do you think happens when Lazarus hops out of thetomb?

What happens to all of that doubt?What happens to all of that sadness?What happens to all of that heartbreak when Lazarus comes out ofthe tomb?

Does it not vanish the moment Lazarus pops out?

All the sorrow,all the loss,all the heart-brokenness,all the doubt,all the fear,all the accusations against Christ and whether or not he actuallycaresand whether or not he actually loves andwhether or not he actually is who he says he is

It all vanishes when Lazarus, still wrapped in grave clothes, hops outof the tomb alive, resurrected from the dead. And Jesus issues thecommand, unwrap him or we are going to have to do this wholeresurrection thing all over again.

Now it all makes sense, all their questions are answered, all theirdoubts assuaged, all their concerns and hesitations gone in a flash.That, my friends is resurrection power at work. When at least we seeGod's answers, God's solutions, God's reasons, it's all made right.

Now let's come full circle here and wrap this back into where westarted.

We introduced the message today by asking the question, "What isthe object of belief and hope?" When it says, "Love believes all

things and hopes all things." What are we believing and hoping in?Someone has disappointed you over and over and over again.

And you've lost hope. I want to be loving but how can I hope again?How do I just drum it back up? This person is a dead corpse. Theywill never change. I've been let down so many times it would bestupid to the core to set myself up for further disappointment. I'veliterally lost my ability to bear, and believe and hope and endure?

That feeling is correct. "What basis do you have for believing a deadcorpse will raise itself up from the dead?" Answer: none.

The way to rekindle hope is to change the object.

Don't hope that Lazarus gets better. Hope that Jesus, theresurrection, raises Lazarus. You have someone in your life whoyou are hoping will change. Don't hope in them. Hope in Jesus, theresurrection.

Remember what both Mary and Martha say to Jesus? Lord wherewere you? Do you see how Martha is doing the exact same thing weoften do with God. She's writing the end of the story before Goddoes. She's trying to tell God how the story ends. She's concludedthat God has BROKEN his promse. She's locked on to the pattern.I've seen this before. Once people get to this state there is nothingthat can be done. It's over. Martha isn't wondering how this thing willend. She isn't looking to the unseen future. In her mind it's ended.She knows how it ended. She's even telling Jesus how it ends. Itended with death.

Listen my friends. You might look at your spouse or your son ordaughter and think, there is no hope. Never GIVE UP HOPE in a

person because if JESUS CHRIST can RAISE THE DEAD, he canchange the heart of that person you love. THAT is what you hope in.THAT is love, to believe that God can do that and HOPE in him.

Just like Lazarus, you do not know the reason for God's delay. Thepattern of death of billions of people through history establishes theglory of God in conquering death for the one man Lazarus.

Why does God delay? Learn from this text. He delays that you mightbelieve. He delays so we can see the glory of God. The delay ishorrible because you have this mixed message, this conflictingexperience. I have the assurance of your love on the one hand butthen the absolute abandonment of you on the other. Where areyou?

There is coming for every suffering follower of Jesus a time whenverse 5 and 6 make sense in their experience. Remember verse 5.Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus and because he lovedthem, he purposefully let Lazarus die.

How can that be? But when the glory of God is made known, nowwe see. You didn't abandon me. You were there all along. Now itmakes sense. I can imagine them saying, "Jesus, I believe in you.How could I ever have doubted!"

Never see a pattern and write a person off. Never see the slownessof God in changing a person as the abandonment of God. Lovebelieves and hopes all things. Heaven forbid you hope in the person.You believe and hope in God who can call a dead man forward.

Lazarus, live. And a dead body responds to the word of Jesus forthe Glory of Jesus. That's how you were saved. Your dead body

responded to the word of the Lord. And that is what we hope in.

Welcome Back for Good Friday

The major point of the story is belief. Love believes all things whichproduces the proper hope. Now some believed and that is what wecelebrate today on Palm Sunday. Jesus being accepted as Messiah.Many, believed.

but there is a comma

This miracle of life did not produce life in everyone. Some wanted tokill the giver of life. So I want to encourage you to come back thisFriday as we consider how the same sun that softens the waxhardens the clay. Some were melted by the love of Jesus. Otherswere hardened against it.

And this Friday at 7pm we invite you to join us in a reflective time aswe look at a love that not only believes all thing and hopes all things,but a love that ENDURES all things.