Temporary Tears
Sermon Notes
I’m preaching from home today because I had back surgery. But all is good so we’re continuing our teaching series called Visible God, which is about seeing God through the life of Jesus. We’re studying a book of the bible called the Gospel of John which records the life and words of Jesus as it was written by an original source, an original follower of Jesus, and today we’re talking about how sometimes we feel like God disappoints us...Sometimes we feel like God disappoints us, especially when it comes to facing hardships. For some of you this might be one of the reasons you aren’t a Christian. It’s because you’ve faced some hardships in life that hurt you, disappointed you, caused you to stop believing in God. For some of you it isn’t that your hardships have caused you to stop believing in God, but they have caused you to feel disappointed, confused, even bitter towards God. The new Christian usually feels confused saying “I thought life would be easier following Jesus,” and the mature Christian usually feels bitter saying “I thought if I did everything right, Jesus would bless me.” Everybody at some point in their life feels like this, feels like God’s disappointed them.
Perhaps some of you are feeling like that right now. You’re not ready to walk away from God, but you are disappointed with God because life isn’t going as planned. In fact 2020 isn’t going as planned! You’re the person yelling at the scientist who recently found 33 new species in a cave “Seal it up! 2020’s been bad enough as it is, we don’t need any new gremlins or vampire bats running around. That cave’s been sealed for over 5.5 million years for a reason. So you better seal that thing back up! 2020’s been bad enough.” So far 2020’s been a disappointing year for a lot of us, and in today’s text we’ll see there’s some people who are feeling disappointed by Jesus. They had certain expectations of Jesus, he didn’t do what they expected, and they’re feeling disappointed. So let’s turn to John 11:1-44 and check it out. If you open your bible to the middle, turn a few books to the right, you’ll find John. We’ll be in John 11:1-44. Title of today’s message is Temporary Tears, and here’s the big idea. Your tears are temporary...Your tears are temporary...There’s hope for your tears, when you’re shedding those tears with Jesus.
Context:
Here’s your context. In vs. 1-16 John the author of this book of the bible, records a time when a guy named Lazarus dies. Jesus was close friends with Lazarus and his two sisters Martha and Mary. Well Lazarus gets sick, he becomes deathly ill, so Martha and Mary send someone to get Jesus. They’re expecting Jesus to heal him, but Jesus doesn’t come right away, and Lazarus dies. Lazarus dies, and they’re disappointed Jesus didn’t come sooner. Let’s pick it up in vs. 17.
The Word:
John 11:17 states this, “Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.’” Can you sense the disappoint in Martha’s voice? I mean she’s asking questions we ask when we’re disappointed and hurt. She’s like “Jesus where were you? It’s been 4 days since we sent for you, so why didn’t you come sooner? If you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” It’s disappointing when God doesn’t do what we want, when God’s timing isn’t our timing, when God’s plans aren’t our plans. It’s disappointing when God allows us to go through hardships or delays in rescuing us from our hardships. We’ve all felt this kind of disappointment before, and it usually stems from us expecting God to do something He never promised, which is to give us a life free of hardships. But God never promised us a life free of hardships, and if that’s what you think you’ll be deeply disappointed when hardships come. We get disappointed when we expect Jesus to submit to the hardship free narrative we’ve written in our minds. We get disappointed when we expect Jesus to play a supporting role in our story, instead of trusting him to be the author of our story. It’s okay to express our disappointments to Jesus like Martha, but we should also trust Jesus to be the author of our story, even in our hardships. It’s exactly what Martha does next.
Vs. 23, “Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ 24 Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ 25 Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’ 27 She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.’” Martha trusts Jesus...She trusts Jesus to be the author of her story, even in her hardships. And notice Jesus doesn’t rebuke her for expressing disappointment, instead he corrects her perception of her hardship and the resurrection. He’s like, “You think your resurrection joy can only come on the last day, but I can give you resurrection joy right now on this present day! It’s because I am the resurrection and the life! I’m the very God who has the power to raise your brother’s life from the dead. Do you believe that’s true?” Jesus is inviting her to believe in him, to believe he’s the very God who has the power to make her resurrection joy a reality, and she ends up believing him. I love this part of the text because Jesus knows he’s going to raise Lazarus from the dead which he told his disciples in vs 1-16, yet he’s still willing to sit with Martha in her grief. Jesus truly is an empathetic Savior, and what we’re learning here is he’s fine with us expressing our disappointments in our hardships. But he also wants us to trust him with our hardships even when we can’t see how our hardships will end. Martha has no idea what Jesus is about to do, she has no idea he’s gonna heal Lazarus, yet she still trusts him with her hardships. He doesn't have to do whatever she wants for her to trust him, instead she trusts him because she believes he’s trustworthy. She believes he’s her trustworthy Messiah, her trustworthy Savior. Jesus wants us to trust him like Martha did, and I think there’s 4 truths in the text that can help us with that. It’s 4 truths to remember about Jesus, when you’re facing hardships. Let’s pick it up in vs. 32.
Vs. 32, “Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ 35 Jesus wept.” That’s the shortest scripture verse in the bible, it’s only 2 words, and it’s ‘Jesus wept’...Jesus wept, and this is our 1st truth about Jesus.
Truth #1 = Jesus cares: Jesus cares...Sometimes when facing hardships we wonder if Jesus cares about us, and what we’re seeing in the text is he does care. In fact the Greek word for wept means to burst into tears. So Jesus isn’t just tearing up over this, he’s weeping, bursting into tears over this. Now what makes this so amazing is that he does this even though he knows he’s about to heal Lazarus. Why? Why does Jesus weep even though he knows he’s about to raise Lazarus from the dead? One of the reasons is to let us know he feels our pain and is willing to go through hardships with us. Jesus cares about us so much, that he’s willing to go through hardships with us, he’s willing to weep with us. Psalm 56:8 says, “You’ve put my tears in your bottle,” meaning he cares about us so much, that he isn’t willing to let a single tear go unnoticed. He feels every one of our disappointments, hardships, shattered dreams, tears in a bottle. He weeps when you weep and puts your tears in a bottle. Jesus cares about your hardships.
Again vs. 35, “Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ 37 But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?’” Notice they’re thinking past tense, as if Jesus could’ve only saved Lazarus in the past but not the present. They even talk about Jesus’ love for Lazarus in the past tense saying see how he loved him, as if Jesus’ love for Lazarus ceased with death. This leads to truth #2.
Truth #2 = Jesus loves you, in the present tense: When Jesus loves you he doesn’t just love you in the past tense, he also loves you in the present tense. In the Gospel of John we see Jesus constantly using I AM statements not I WAS statements. It’s because his character and love never changes. Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” This means when Jesus loves you he doesn’t just love you in the past, and he doesn’t just love you in the future, some cleaned up version of you in the future. No he loves you the same yesterday, today, and forever. Tim Keller states, “The teaching of this passage is that Jesus’ love is never in the past tense. If he has set his love on you, his love is always present and never in the past tense. It’s an eternal love that never lets you go.” This is critical to remember when you’re facing hardships, because just like your hardships can cause you to think Jesus doesn’t care. They can also cause us to think he doesn’t love you, or that you’ve done something to lose his love. “Is it me, is it something I did wrong? Is that why bad things are happening to me?” But what we’re learning is Jesus still loved the people in the text even in their hardships. He wouldn’t weep with them if he didn’t love them. So facing hardships doesn’t mean Jesus doesn’t love you, because when Jesus loves you, he loves you eternally. It’s the assurance we have through the gospel, through his death on the cross. If you give him your sin, he’ll give you his love. You don’t have to doubt his love in the present, when he’s displayed his love on the cross in the past. So don’t judge Jesus’ love through the filter of your hardships, judge your hardships through the filter of Jesus’ love. Judge your hardships through the filter of the love he displayed on the cross, and the love he’s displaying in this text. It’s a love that’s always present, even in our hardships.
Vs. 38, “Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.” That’s the second time the text says Jesus was “deeply moved.” It says it in vs 33 and here in vs 38, and it’s our 3rd truth about Jesus.
Truth #3 = Jesus is outraged: Jesus is deeply outraged over the pain we feel from sin and death. The Greek word for deeply moved doesn’t translate well into English, it means so much more than deeply moved. It means to be angry, to be outraged, to snort with anger like a bull snorts when it sees red. It’s that angry feeling you get when someone you love dies. Jesus is angry like that. He isn’t being sympathetic here, he’s snorting with anger over the painful effects sin and death has caused our world. John Calvin states, “Jesus is like a wrestler preparing for the contest. He groans because the violent tyranny of death which he had to overcome, now stands before his eyes.” So do you see what’s happening? Jesus is entering the ring, he’s entering into a cage fight with humanity’s greatest enemy which is death. This is the part in the Gospel of John where the Rocky theme song starts playing. It’s where Jesus is no longer consoling the hurting, he’s going to war on behalf of the hurting. You have to set aside your idea of Jesus being a comforting counselor in this moment, because his protective love is literally going to war with death. He’s literally shouting at death like William Wallace or the Spartan King Leonidas. He’s shouting at the greatest enemy humanity’s faced which is death. In vs 39-42 he tells them to remove the stone on Lazarus’ tomb and shouts with a loud voice for Lazarus to come out.
Vs. 43, “When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out.’ 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’” In ch 11 Jesus steps in the ring with death so Lazarus could live, but 8 chapters later he’d step into the ring again so we could live. He’d step into the ring with death, go to the cross on our behalf, then rise again on the 3rd day showing he really is the resurrection and the life. He really is the God who has the power to give us eternal life! City Awakening Jesus cares about you, he love you, he’s outraged over sin and death, but he’ll also prove victorious over sin and death which is the 4th truth about Jesus.
Truth #4 = Jesus will heal your shedding tears: The resurrection power of Jesus means your tears are temporary, it means Jesus will eventually heal your shedding tears. It’s passages like this that should remind us that our time is coming too. Our time is coming when Jesus will roll away our own stones of sin, suffering, death, and we’ll be blown away by the magnitude of his power and glory. In fact in vs 4 and vs 40 Jesus said he’s doing all this so his followers could see God’s glory. It’s a miracle that’s meant to be a sign proving Jesus really is the resurrection and the life. It’s a miracle meant to display Jesus’ power over death, so they’d come to trust him for eternal life. It’s a miracle meant to carry them through the hardships of everyday life, as they look forward to eternal life. So although you won’t always know the reason for your hardships, or why he’s delaying to rescue you from your hardships. What you can know is there’s hope for your hardships, because Jesus cares about you, he loves you, he’s outraged over your hardships, and will eventually heal all your shedding tears that’ve come from hardships.
The Big Idea:
So here’s the big idea. It’s that your tears are temporary...Your tears are temporary, because there’s hope for your tears, when you’re shedding those tears with Jesus. So shed your tears today, but trust he’ll wipe away all your tears in eternity’s tomorrow. Trust that a time is coming when he’ll yell at death, he’ll call your name shouting Come out!..and all your hardships will be swallowed up by his glorious resurrecting power. Until then, every morning you wake up is your resurrection practice. Wake up from your sleep, face the new day with hope and courage knowing we believe in the one who can forgive our sins through the power of his cross, and roll our dead tombstones away through the power of his resurrection. In the words of D.A. Carson his power is so great! That if Jesus didn’t specify Lazarus when he shouted, every tomb in Jerusalem would’ve given up its dead. That’s the power of the one who’s weeping and fighting for you. That’s the power of the one who can give you hope for your tears. The question is, will you trust him with your tears? Will you trust him as your author, even as you face hardships?
Truth #1 = Jesus cares:
Truth #2 = Jesus loves you, in the present tense:
Tim Keller states, “The teaching of this passage is that Jesus’ love is never in the past tense. If he has set his love on you, his love is always present and never in the past tense. It’s an eternal love that never lets you go.”
Truth #3 = Jesus is outraged:
John Calvin states, “Jesus is like a wrestler preparing for the contest. He groans because the violent tyranny of death which he had to overcome, now stands before his eyes.”
Truth #4 = Jesus will heal your shedding tears: