Not going to repeat all of that again, but you can listen to the sermon on our website if you missed it. I will say that we saw that Jesus is himself the resurrection and the life. It's not only he who gives every living thing life, and that he will raise us on the last day, although both of those things are true. He is life and he is the resurrection. Today I want to see that this story is really about the love of Christ for his people. Now, no sermon on the love of Christ is exhaustive, but there are several things here that I think are worth noticing, and there are eight that I'm going to mention. Christ's love for us is personal, has perfect timing, is individual. It gives us hope. It comforts us. It defeats our enemies. It's sacrificial and it extends grace. Let's pray. Father, as we come to your word, we pray that what we do here in listening to your word preached will benefit our souls, will cause us to understand more deeply than ever before the love that you have for us in Christ Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen. So first it's personal. Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Now, we're used to hearing for God so loved the world, and that's true, but it's also true that he loves us personally. Ephesians chapter 1 says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who's blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption, as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. You see, if you're a Christian, your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. If you're a Christian, it's because you have been on the heart of God from before the foundation of the world. Now I know that this passage brings up the idea of predestination and election, well, because the words are right there. And for some people that doesn't sound fair. It's as though everybody in the world is saying, pick me, pick me, pick me, Lord. But that's not reality. Reality is, if you could imagine a soccer pitch, see in the United States I would have set a football field, but here in Nova Scotia, a soccer pitch, what we imagine is everybody standing at the center line wanting to be picked. But that's not reality. Reality is everybody on the center line turns and runs as hard as they can away from God. That's our natural state, that we're sinners. But God, because of his love and mercy, reaches out and pulls us back and saves some of us. So if you're a believer, it's because he chose you from the foundation of the world. He set his heart on you. He loves you personally, like he loves Mary and Martha and Lazarus. So since we know that Jesus loves Lazarus, and he's heard that he's sick, it's very curious what the next verse says, that he stayed where he was two more days. And then he said to his disciples, let us go back to Judea. It almost seems like a contradiction. Well it is, for us it would be a contradiction. Usually when someone we love is sick or near death, our response is to get there as fast as we can. I don't know how many of you have lost a parent or a spouse. But I remember when my own mother was sick and we knew that she was close to death, our entire family was nearby. And one of my children, especially when they were young and small, would get sick. I dropped whatever I was doing to attend to them. And it's obvious from verse 5 that Jesus has an intimate bond with his family. Mary is the one that poured out the perfume on Jesus' feet. You might be familiar with another occasion where Jesus was dining at their home. The women feel confident enough in the love of Jesus that when they send for him and say that Lazarus is sick, that he will come quickly, if not immediately. It's also obvious that they believe when Jesus comes that he will heal Lazarus and prevent him from dying. They've seen him heal others, of blindness, sickness, leprosy, lameness. So they know that he can do it and they are hopeful that he will do it. So it's curious then that Jesus waits two days. And it seems like he delays for no particular reason. It doesn't say he delayed because or that he delayed in order to anything. A man is dying, a friend is dying, someone you love is dying, he can stop it and he doesn't. Why? I think there are a lot of things like this in our lives. It seems that God delays in answering our prayer. We get no answer at all. In this situation, since we have the whole story, we can see the outcome. Jesus delayed, he even said so at the beginning of the chapter, to reveal who he is. It was for a greater purpose. He received glory, which is God's ultimate purpose in everything, to bring himself glory. As he went along, another passage in the Gospel says, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind. Neither this man nor his parents sinned, Jesus said. But this happens so that the work of God might be displayed in him. We don't have all the information. God does, and he is working all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Mary and Martha are close to Jesus, that's obvious. They love him, and he loves them, and he loves their brother Lazarus. Which is why it's so curious that Jesus waits for two days. And when he arrives, both of them say, if you had been here, my brother would be alive. They're at the same time expressing faith in the power of Jesus that he could have stopped death and disappointment that he didn't show up in time to do so. This is similar to the story of the disciples. You remember they were crossing the sea, and they were in the boat, and Jesus was in the boat with them, and he was asleep, and a storm came up, and no matter how hard they tried to row through it, they couldn't, and they were afraid they were going to die, and they woke Jesus up, and they said, Rabbi, don't you care that we're perishing? Don't you care? It seems like Mary and Martha are wondering the same thing. But when that happened, Jesus awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still, and the wind ceased, and there was a great calm, and he said to them, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? You see, they believed that he could stop the storm, but they weren't sure he cared enough to do it. There are things like this almost every Christian has in their life. Things like, why did my husband die? Why did my wife pass away? Why are not all my kids believers? Why didn't I get that job? Tracy and I have our own questions like that. Why did our son Joe have to die? Why did Tracy lose her job? Why couldn't Sam get permanent residence? It's a hard week for us. Sam had to move to Arizona on Wednesday. He cried a couple of times that week. He cried the night before at dinner. He cried on the way to the airport. I think he was hoping against hope that as the reality of leaving approached that there would be some reprieve. And again, when we said goodbye to him before he went into security, he cried again. He asked us, why doesn't Canada want me? And all these questions and others like them are difficult to answer. We want to believe that God is for us. The scripture tells us he is, but we can't see the whole picture, and he can. And although we don't often understand, his timing is always perfect. Now a more encouraging update about Sam. He arrived Wednesday late, about 11 o'clock Tucson time, which is 2 a.m. Nova Scotia time. Thursday he went out and passed out resumes. Saturday he had two job interviews, and he got two job offers. Both full time with health, dental, and eye care, and a 401K. So maybe it'll work out that he went to Tucson. But before he got to Tucson, he was heartbroken that he had to leave, and so were we. So thirdly, Christ's love for us is individual. In her book, their eyes were watching God, Zora Neale Hurston, near the end is explaining the nature of love, and she wrote it like this. Love ain't a grindstone, same thing everywhere. Do the same thing to everything it touches. Love is like the sea. It's a moving thing, but takes its shape from the shore that it meets, and is different with every shore. Now parents often say, if you have more than one child, you say, I love my children equally. Which is true, but we all know that we don't love our kids in the same way. Because each child is an individual, and they need love in different ways. Maybe you've heard of the book, Love Languages. There's supposedly five of them. Words of affirmation, physical touch, quality time, gifts, and acts of service. Usually according to the book, everybody has a main one and a secondary one. Tracy said she has three main ones and two secondary ones. The author says that each person responds best when they're loved in their love language. Now what we have here in Mary and Martha are two sisters from the same family asking the same question to Jesus, why weren't you here? If you had been here, our brother would be alive. And to Martha he offers hope. Hope in the form of theological truth. And I know there are a lot of us here that that boy, that's right up our alley. We want theological truth. That's what brings us hope. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. She says, I know he'll rise again on the last day in the resurrection. Jesus says, I am the resurrection. He who believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever believes in him, 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 has come into the world. All of us need this kind of hope. Not pie in the sky, false hope. Everything will work out. But the truth about who Jesus is, what he has done for us, and what he has done in us, and how all of life can be seen through that lens. Author and evangelist Josh McDowell said it like this. No matter how devastating our struggles, disappointments, and troubles are, they're only temporary. No matter what happens to you, no matter the depth of tragedy or pain you face, no matter how death stalks you and your loved ones, the resurrection promises you a future of immeasurable good. And the resurrection is Jesus. So he offers Martha hope, but he offers Mary comfort. My kids are like that. Some of them need truth. This week Sam needed comfort. And while we all need theological truth, sometimes that is not what all of us need first. And that was the case with Mary. She says the same words to Jesus as her sister Martha. Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Whereas Jesus responded to Mary with a great hope of the resurrection, he responds to Mary with compassion and comfort. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come along also saw her weeping, he was deeply moved. Where have you laid him? He asked, come and see Lord, she replied. Jesus wept. Second Corinthians 1 says he's the God of all comfort. Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. So he not only gives us hope and comfort, but he defeats our enemies. Jesus once more deeply moved, came to the tomb, it was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance and he was quaking with rage. He approached it with anger. He sees the devastation of death and sin from the inside. Jesus is going to turn the funeral into a party, but he's still angry. What is he mad at? He's not mad at them. We're not supposed to be stoic. You're not like Jesus if you can't weep. If you can't say, if you try to say I have enough faith, that's why I'm not affected emotionally, that is faith in yourself. Faith means that you trust the grace and comfort of God through your tears and your weeping. So he's not mad at them, he's not mad at himself. Death is not his design, but he could stab his fingers and be rid of it. Where did it come from? From sin. You see, that's what a lot of people think. Why doesn't God just eradicate sin? Because if he eradicates sin and gets rid of death, then you and I will go with it because we're all sinful. But if he's going to destroy evil and suffering, then he has to become one of us and suffer with us and for us. That's why the writer of Hebrews says, since the children have shared in flesh and blood he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him. Who holds the power of death that is the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Jesus is angry with death. Jesus knew if I bring Lazarus out, I will sign my own death warrant. And he chooses to raise Lazarus anyway. He's bellowing with rage out of love. It's not supposed to be this way. God had created the earth and all that was in it, including man in his own image, and he declared it good. He's angry at all the times loved ones have grieved over the loss of a father or a mother or a sister or a brother or a daughter or a son or a friend. He's bellowing at the devil because of the thief that he is, stealing hope and joy and love and life. Take away the stone, he says. But Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, by this time it's a bad odor for he has been there four days. I love the KGB, King James Version, rendering of this. Martha said of the dead man, by this time he stinketh for he has been there four days. See, the Jews thought incorrectly that the spirit hovered near a person for three days and then departed. So since it was four days, all hope was lost. It was too late, couldn't bring him back. But Jesus said, did I not tell you if you believed you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone and Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew you will always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe that you sent me. You see, that's the reason that Jesus didn't come when he first heard Lazarus was sick. If he came then, he would heal him. He would never have died. But Jesus knew that it wasn't long before he would have to go to the cross and he wanted everyone to know who he was and who had sent him. And so he was willing to delay and let Lazarus die physically in order that Jesus might bring God glory by bringing him back from the dead and really foreshadow his own resurrection, although this is a different kind of resurrection. The dead man came out his hands and feet wrapped in strips of cloth. Jesus said, take off the grave clothes and let him go. And it says that many of the Jews who came and saw this put their faith in him. And you know that word had to spread like California wildfire. Raising Lazarus from the dead is more glorious, more astounding than if he had prevented him from dying. Now, I'm not sure Lazarus would agree with that. After all, if he was a believer, he was probably in paradise. And to be in paradise and suddenly you're back on earth, no matter how good a shape you're in, you have infirmities. I mean, I remember being 20, 25 years old and how good that felt. Trouble is most people that are 20 or 25 don't realize how good it feels until they're not 20 or 25. We don't always know what God sees, but we can trust that he sees and that he's good and that he loves us. Deuteronomy 29, 29 is something that we can lean on. The secret things belong to the Lord, our God. But the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of the law. Do you see what he's saying? He's saying the things that are revealed are the things that you're supposed to do. The things that aren't revealed belong to God and you don't have to worry about it. So not only does he defeat our enemies, but his love is sacrificial. Let me explain the extent of love for you and me. Jesus knew when he loosed Lazarus from the bonds of death that he had signed his own death warrant. He knew that the Pharisees would plot against him. He knew and yet he did it anyway. In the next several verses, talk about that. Verse 50, you do not realize, Caiaphas said, that it's better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to perish. You see, they were worried that if he keeps doing these sort of things and people start believing him, the Romans were going to come and take away their place. In verse 53 it says, so from that day on they plotted to take his life. Jesus' love for us is sacrificial. Romans chapter 5 you see at the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person. Though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die, God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. His love is sacrificial. All love is sacrificial. Rarely his love extends grace. All of us are sinners. From the beginning God said sin leads to death and the wages of sin is death. And yet Jesus, in whom is life itself, because he is life and he is the resurrection, freely offers his love to anyone who would believe. All you need is need. First John says, and this is the testimony God has given us, eternal life. The life is in his son. Whoever has the son has the life. One author wrote this, when you're in love, you're operating from this foundational sense of abundance, not from scarcity or fear. There's an inherent generosity of spirit, of smile, of gesture, of readiness, of initial acceptance and you immediately sense from any person who is standing inside this flow. And although he wrote this about romantic love, it applies even more to those who know the love of Christ. Because if the ultimate person, and that's who Jesus is, if the ultimate person loves you, you are secure in his love. Then you have a rock solid foundation and the abundance that only he can provide. A love that is immense, unfathomable, drives out fear so that we can be generous and ready to love anyone we meet with the love of Christ. Let's pray. Lord thank you that you love us. Thank you that we don't deserve it. Thank you that we can be confident in it and rest in it. Jesus name we pray. Amen.