John 11:1–48 // “The Disappointed”
// Can’t Believe #4
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If you’ve been around here you’ve heard me refer to a man whose
influence on my life can hardly be overstated, Dr. E.C. Sheehan—he
brought my family to Jesus and discipled them, and me as well. He
passed away this week. He was 97 years old.
But it’s given me opportunity to stop and reflect not only on the
goodness of God to me but on the impact our obedience has on
others. Because of his faithfulness, my eternity was changed, and
now, my children. I posted something to this effect on facebook,
and one of our Summit members responded, “Well then, I guess
indirectly he changed mine, too, because your preaching of the
gospel saved my soul first from suicide and then from hell itself.”
 This man is also Chris Gaynor’s grandfather.
 Scene in Pilgrim’s Progress
We’re in week 4 of a series called Can’t Believe in which we’re
looking through the Gospel of John at 7 kinds of people who could
not bring themselves to believe, and how Jesus dealt with each of
them. (8 students at CH)
This week we are looking at “the disappointed”—those who can’t
believe because they think God didn’t show up when he should
have—some miracle he didn’t do; some question he didn’t answer;
something he shouldn’t have done but didn’t.
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I recently read an article about Ted Turner, the creator of CNN
and TBS, media mogul and multi-billionaire. He became a very
outspoken atheist in his 20’s (although he’s backed off of it now),
but when he was in high school he was on fire for Jesus. He was
planning to be a missionary.
When he was 15 his younger sister, Mary Jane, 12, contracted
lupus, a degenerative tissue disease. For several years her body
was racked with pain and constantly vomiting, and her
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screams filled the house. Ted regularly came home and held
her hand, trying to comfort her. He prayed for her recovery;
she prayed to die. After years of misery and struggling, she
died.
Ted's dad, Ed Turner, said, "If that's the type of God He is, I
want nothing to do with Him." That had a powerful effect on
Ted, and Ted lost his faith. 'I was taught that God was love and
God was powerful,' he said in an interview later, 'and I couldn’t
understand how someone so innocent should be made or allowed
to suffer so.'
On March 5, 1963, Ted’s dad had breakfast with his wife, went
upstairs, put a .38 inside his mouth and pulled the trigger."
That sealed the deal for Ted. "If that's the type of God He is, I
want nothing to do with Him."1
Bart Ehrman, our famous friendly neighborhood skeptic here at
Chapel Hill, says this is the reason he lost his faith. He says, “I think
that if, in fact, God Almighty appeared to me and gave me an
explanation that could make sense even of the torture,
dismemberment, and slaughter of innocent children, and the
explanation was so overpowering that I actually could understand,
then I’d be the first to fall on my knees in humble submission and
admiration. On the other hand, I don’t think that’s going to
happen. Hoping that it will is probably just wishful thinking, a leap
of faith made by those who are desperate both to remain faithful
to (a) God (they want to believe in) and to (cope) with the harsh
realities of the world.”2
Even if you haven’t lost your faith, a lot of us have gone through a
time when we wonder where God is… God, why?
 In 1960 C. S. Lewis lost his wife to a painful bout with bone
cancer, and he wrote, (“I can’t understand why God is always
there when things are going well, telling you what he expects of
1
Taken from http://www.kenauletta.com/2001_04_23_thelosttycoon.html and
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1064962/9/inde
x.html.
2
Ehrman, God's Problem, 153.
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you) “But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other
help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face,
and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that,
silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more
emphatic the silence will become. There are no lights in the
windows. It might be an empty house. Was it ever inhabited? It
seemed so once… Why is God so present a commander in our time
of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble?”3 This
was a long time after he became a Christian. This never makes it
on everyone’s “favorite CS Lewis quotes” page.
Now, he made it through this, and his faith ultimately was
strengthened in it, but he articulates what many of us feel.
So here is question for the weekend: What do you do when God
disappoints you?
 Lose your faith: like Ted Turner or Bart Ehrman, God’s not
there, probably never has been.
 Isolate the question from your faith: remain superficial.
 Press deeper in your faith. The times in my life when I
asked the hardest questions, when I struggled, and doubted
God, even—that was when my faith grew the most, became
the sweetest. Spurgeon said that doubt and pain are like a
foot poised… The depths of God’s love can often be known
best in the depths of despair.
That’s the question considered in John 11.
For some of you, the question may not be this extreme: You may
not be about to lose your faith, but you are frustrated at God
because your lives are not going according to plan.
 All your friends are getting married right now, but you aren’t.
 Your friends are getting jobs or promotions but it’s not
working out for you. When I was in seminary, I had several
friends that were getting these great ministry jobs and I wasn’t.
3
C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed (San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins, 1961), 17.
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I was working the French fry machine at a restaurant. God, why
aren’t you coming through for me?
Or maybe you are not having kids.
Or you are approaching retirement and it’s not looking good.
Or your kids didn’t turn out right. You always thought you’d be
close but you’re estranged—and if you’re honest, you’re angry
at God about it.
Or you’re in your 40’s and your husband just walked out. Or
your parents got divorced.
And you’re like, “God, I don’t understand it. How can this be
your perfect plan?”
[11:1] Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of
Mary and her sister Martha. [2] It was Mary who anointed the Lord
with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother
Lazarus was ill. [3] So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he
whom you love is ill.”
 Now, what are they hoping for?
 They’d seen Jesus heal. They know what he can do. Surely if
Jesus healed complete strangers (who grabbed the hem of his
garment as he walked by) he’d do it for a friend.
[4] But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to
death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be
glorified through it.”
[5] Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. [6] *So,
when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in
the place where he was.
 *Strangest word in NT?
 Read ahead a few verses and you’ll see that this intentional 2day delay would cost Lazarus his life. While Jesus waited,
Lazarus died.
 That’s what makes that word “so” so weird. I think “but” would
be better. “He loved them but he waited.” What it says is “He
loved them so he waited.” That’s like saying, “I love my wife so
much, so I forgot to get her something for her birthday.”
[7] Then after this he said to the disciples… “Our friend Lazarus
has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.”
[12] The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will
recover.”) Vs. 12–13, the disciples are like, “Well, Lord, if he’s
asleep, he’ll wake up.”
[14] So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died…” Can’t you see
Jesus just rolling his eyes here? “Really, guys, that’s what you
thought I meant? That I'm going to take a 2 day walk to wake
Lazarus up from a nap?”
[17] Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already
been in the tomb four days.
 Jews had a belief that after someone dies the spirit would
hang around for 3 days and then leave and go to heaven.
 So waiting 4 days was a way of showing that Lazarus was
not just nearly dead. He was dead, dead.
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… 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. (Gr. burst into tears4)
I want to focus here on how Jesus responds to the two sisters in
this story, because I think understanding what Jesus says to the
disappointed hinges on the 2 reactions Jesus gave.
Mary and Martha made the exact same statement to Jesus—
verbatim, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have
died”—but Jesus responds to each of them in two completely
different ways. Not because they have two different personalities
or he loves them differently.
But because when you are disappointed with Jesus, you need
both of these things.
[21] Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother
would not have died.” Martha has the same problem we do. “God,
where were you? You could have fixed this. Why didn’t you come?”
 Acerbic?
To Martha, he gives a theological answer: "I am the resurrection
and the life." The one who lives and believes in me will never truly
die. Even when he does die, he won’t really be dead because I’ll
reverse all that.”
[23] Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” [24] Martha
(who had just graduated from seminary) said to him, “I know that
he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” (I saw the
Kirk Cameron movie; I know how that goes down) [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?” And she says,
“Yes, I believe you are the Son of God.”
Let me stop here and build you, very briefly, a theological case for
SUFFERING. The objection is “If God is so good, and he could stop
suffering, why doesn’t he?” So does the fact that he doesn’t prove
he’s not really there!
[28] When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary,
saying, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” [29] And when
(Mary) heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. [32] Now when
There are 3 important biblical truths to understand about
suffering—you’ve got to get all 3 of these (they really are not that
hard):
1. Suffering is the result of the curse of death on our sin.
Andreas Kö stenberger, John, Baker Exegetical Commentary on
the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004),
341. Cf. Note in HCSB Study Bible on John 11:35.
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God created this world with no suffering—perfect, in a
condition called ‘shalom.’
It was our sin, our rebellion that brought God’s curse upon
ourselves.
Most of the objections raised against God about suffering
are built on the assumption that we as a human race
deserve good things—we’re owed good things—and God is
unjust for not giving them to us. We talk about the
“problem of evil.” Why do bad things happen to us good,
innocent people?
The Bible takes an entirely opposite approach. As a race, we
rebelled against God, a rebellion we have all voluntarily
participated in, and the just result of that was the curse of
death.
What we deserve is death. The fact that there is still good in
the world—sunshine on our faces and food in our stomachs
and happiness—that’s all grace.
And the fact that God has given us a space to repent and to
teach our children to repent—that is unspeakable grace.
The Bible doesn’t wrestle with the problem of evil so
much as it marvels at amazing grace.
Luke 13.
 The question in the story: Why are we surprised?
 As sinners, to put God on trial for our suffering as if
somehow he was unjust is what Jewish people called
“chutzpah,” which they defined as the audacity of a guy
who kills his mom and dad and then throws himself on
the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.
 We shouldn’t be asking, “Why is all this bad stuff
happening in the world?” We’re why! We sinned.
 Why me? Why not me?
So, truth 1: all the suffering in the world is the result of
the curse of death for our sin.
Now: to clarify. I’m not saying that you ever look at a
particular instance of suffering and tie it to a particular sin.
The Bible never tells us to think that way… that ‘this’
happened because of that.
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Well, he got cancer because he wasn’t a good husband. Or
‘you had a miscarriage’ because God was paying you back
for your sexual promiscuity in college. That’s never how the
Bible instructs us to think about suffering.
 We live in a world of suffering because we rebelled against
God and that suffering affects us all because we all, as a
race, participated in the curse.
2. God (in his love and mercy) has reversed the curse by
suffering it in our place. The only truly innocent sufferer ever
in history was Jesus. He was the only man ever to live entirely
free from rebellion and thus exempt from the curse of death,
but when he got to the end of his life rather than being
rewarded he submitted to the curse of death voluntarily.
 But when he did, he overturned the curse of death and started
the process of healing.
 That healing begins by cancelling our sin debt by nailing it to
the cross and reconciling us to God; it dramatically affects our
inward psychological state and soon our relationships; one day
soon it will extend to our bodies in full when we are
resurrected perfect and without pain, and Jesus’ healing
eventually will extend to all corners of our world as God reestablishes shalom to the earth through the blood of the
cross—because he took our corruption and nailed it to a cross
and disarmed the abusive powers and put them away forever.
 Jesus is the one who will make the oceans recede and heal the
planet.
3. God now uses our suffering redemptively: for his glory and
our good.
a. His glory. There are some things that God can
demonstrate about himself to the world through our
pain better than he can any other way.
b. For our good: There are some things God can teach us
about himself through our pain better than he can any
other way.
Now, some people balk at that last point and say: “All pain, for
God’s glory, our good? What about the Holocaust? Sept 11? How
can you say the Holocaust was in any way good for the Jew?”
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But you’re forgetting truth #1, that suffering is the just result of
the curse of death for our sin.
We live in a world under the curse of sin… and just like the
sun comes up and “randomly” shines on both good people
and bad people, the curse of death in the world and (in
some ways) “indiscriminately” affects us all.
You say, “Does that mean that God is not sovereign over all of
it?” No, he’s sovereign, but you have expand your
understanding of sovereignty.
Think of it like this: You have 100 people standing in a field.
The sun comes up. All of them are warmed. God doesn’t
individually shine the sun on a few people and leave others out.
In the same way, the curse of death is at work in the world,
which causes disease, deteriorating relationships, accidents,
and it extends to all.
o And I’m not saying ever single bad act on earth leads to
a good act, as if every Jewish family that died in the
holocaust can say, “See the good that came into my
family through that?” No, sometimes the system as a
whole serves the bigger picture of God’s glory, which is
for our good as we see the glory of God, his holiness and
majesty.
But, for the believer, however, God has taken the sting out of
death and suffering and promised now to use it for our good
and his glory.
o So in every seemingly “random” bad thing I know he is
working redemptively for his purposes.
o Paul says that “all things work together for good to
them that love God” that they might be reformed into
the image of Jesus (Romans 8:28),
o and that “God works all things according to the counsel
of his will” so that we would “resound to the praise of
his glory” (Eph 1:11);
o This is why Joseph could say to those who committed
grave injustices against him that “what you meant for
evil, God re-purposed for good.” (Gen 50:20).
Let me show you how this plays out in this story, because in it
you’ll see all these things present, an you’re going to see a pattern
for all suffering:
[38] Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a
cave, and a stone lay against it. [39] Jesus said, “Take away the
stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by
this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.”
 Most men, in general, stink.
 Meet at man who hasn't showered and worn the same pair of
clothes for 4 days, and he really stinks.
 Meet a man who also hasn’t breathed for 4 days, and he really,
really stinks.
[40] Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you
would see the glory of God?”
[41] So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and
said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. [42] I knew that
you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people
standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”
[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.
 What did that look like? How’s he walking? Did he roll out?
Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Martha had warned Jesus not to open the stone because it had
been 4 days and the body would stink. But Jesus said to do it
because when they did what they would encounter was not “the
stench of death” but “the glory of God.” (vs. 40).
You’ve got to notice the contrast: She was expecting the stench
de-composition; but he knew that what they would find is the
glory of re-composition.
o
I think in this you can see a picture of how God, in all pain,
works for good.
 In the pain in your life you expect to find the decay of decomposition, but when God rolls away the stone what you find
is that he has re-purposed your pain for good.
 Sometimes he rolls the stone away on earth, and you get to see
what he was doing. You see the glory of re-composition.
o Hasn’t that happened to you? Something bad happened
to you and you couldn’t figure out what God was doing,
but just a few short years later you see how he was
using it for good?
 Other times you don’t get to see him roll away the stone in this
life. When you go into eternity and you see… rest assured that
he was working in all things for your good and his glory, and
what will overwhelm you about all things in your life is that
they resound with the re-glory of re-composition, not the
decay of de-composition.
o And I know you can’t see that now… but if you can
already see a purpose for some of the pain in your life it,
don’t you think given enough time and space you’ll see a
reason for all of it?
o And I assure you, he will roll back every stone
 For the believer, Paul calls our suffering a “light and
momentary affliction.” (like birth pangs.)
o Birth pangs are terrible, or so I am told. “We’re
pregnant.” But as severe as they are they are
immediately swallowed up in the glory of the little child
that is revealed.
o Doesn’t mean your pain is not real… it just means that
you endure it differently. You hear two people moaning
in pain in the hospital room next to you. What emotion
does it cause in you? Well, if the person is in the final
throes of dying, it’s depressing. If it is a woman giving
labor, it’s different, right? You might feel sympathy, but
o
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even in the pain there is a joy because you know the
pain is temporary and soon to be swallowed up by the
glory of the child coming through that pain.
Pain and suffering for believers is like birth pangs, not
like the despairing cries of the dying.
Suffering in this life is real, but the next life is forever.
And in light of forever the pain of this moment will
disappear.
I heard a guy once describe a recurring dream about
his wife dying… terrible dream. But he said he loved
the 1st few minutes waking up. Because everything sad
became untrue.
That is what happens in the resurrection. Everything
sad becomes untrue; God takes all pain and undoes it in
resurrection power.
Now there is one other detail here that you can’t miss (any
treatment of suffering that leaves this out is deficient)
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See that phrase, “deeply moved”? (appears once vs. 33 and
again in vs. 38) Scholars say “deeply moved” is a terribly
deficient translation, but English doesn’t have a great word for
this Greek word, embriMAOmi.
One scholar says the word, literally translated, is “snort.” But
that’s awkward in English. It really has the connotation of an
animal snorting in anger (as if getting read to charge).”5
John Calvin says this word indicates Jesus is about to enter the
ring “like a wrestler preparing for a contest with a hated foe. The
violent tyranny of death which He came to overcome now stands
before His eyes.”6 His groan is not one of sympathy, but
preparation for battle.
ἐμβριμάομαι (embrimaomai) Andreas Kö stenberger, John, Baker
Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Academic, 2004), 339.
6 “…like a wrestler preparing for the contest. Therefore no wonder
that He groans again, for the violent tyranny of death which He had
to overcome stands before His eyes.” John Calvin, Calvin’s New
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Vs. 43, Jesus shouts at death in a loud voice.
Snorting, yelling, shouting. Do you see what is happening?
Jesus is entering the ring with mankind’s greatest enemy.
o This is when, if you are writing the soundtrack to the
Gospel of John, you’d start playing the “Rocky” theme.
Now, the other thing that is interesting is that John points out
(in vs. 47) that this event, the raising of Lazarus, would trigger
the events that would lead in Jesus’ death.
o This fight started in chapter 11 with Jesus yelling and
shouting at death, but it would end 8 chapters later in
the crucifixion, with Jesus going full-body contact with
death, absorbing the curse of death we deserved in our
place, and snapping the neck of death through his death.
o The only way Jesus could interrupt the funeral of
Lazarus was to start his own.
o As a dude, I love this because I always heard Jesus
presented in these soft, feminine terms. JESUS KNOCKS
SOFTLY AND TENDERLY… COMES IN AND GIVES YOU
HOLY GHOST KISSES AND ETERNAL SNUGGLES,
CLEANS UP YOUR HOUSE, DOES THE DISHES… I’M
SURE THAT’S ALL CORRECT. This is a man shouting at
the greatest enemy ever to face those that he loved and
destroying it even when it took his life.
o It reminds me of one of the September 11 movie: Person
in the rubble. “Leave you?” That’s our job.
o Jesus says, “Leave you? That’s what I came to do. I won’t
ever leave you. Not now. Not ever.”
Before we end this, let’s go back and pick up Jesus’ reaction to
Mary, because it is a much shorter, simpler, reaction, but it is
important.
Mary, vs. 32, [32] “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would
not have died.” Again, the exact same thing Martha had said. But
notice the new detail. [33] When Jesus saw her weeping… he was
Testament Commentaries, Volume 5: John 11–21 & 1 John (Trans.
T. H. L. Parker; Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1959), 13.
deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. [35] Jesus wept.
(Again, Gr. “burst into tears”)
 I’ve always thought these tears were a little odd. Did he not
know that in 10 minutes Lazarus would be out of the grave and
they’d be re-united? Yes! He knew that from the beginning of
chapter 11.
 Well then, why didn’t he just say, “Don’t cry! I’ll fix it!” Why
weep with Mary if in 10 minutes the issue is resolved?
 To give you a picture of how Jesus goes through suffering with
you. THIS IS THE REACTION OF A FRIEND. (ANSWERS;
SNORTS; WEEPS—PHILOSOPHER; SAVIOR; FRIEND)
 You see, even when Jesus knows the pain is temporary, he
knows what it feels like for you, and he weeps with you.
o That’s how I know a friend loves me. They weep when I
weep.
 Ten minutes is not that much different to Jesus than 10,000
years. He can already see the beautiful end to your story, to see
that all suffering is swallowed up in the glorious resurrection
of what will be revealed. HE CAN ALREADY SEE THE PARENTS
WHO LOST A CHILD…
 But when you’ve lost someone, as much as you tell yourself
you’ll see them again in eternity, it’s still painful now. When
you are lonely, and hurt—it is painful.
 Sometimes what you need is not theological answers, you need
the presence of a Savior who feels your pain and weeps with
you.
 What a friend we have in Jesus. “He took our sin and our
sorrow, and he made it his very own. He bore our burden to
Calvary, and suffered and died alone.” He feels, as his own, every
broken-heart, every shattered dream, every sorrow.
There was another time in Jesus’ life that he wept, but nobody was
there to weep with him. The Gospels tell us in the Garden of
Gethsemane that Jesus was weep with such great anguish that the
capillaries in his face would burst. But no one would respond.
 The Father turned his face away.
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He would ask his disciples to stay awake with him, but
they’d all fall asleep.
He would die friendless, and Godless.
Because of that, I know he’ll never forsake me. He was forsaken so
I could never be. He died so that all that could ever separate me
from God would be removed, so I would never have a season of
suffering where God would not hear me in my pain or he would
not weep with me in my pain.
He cried alone and died alone so when I cry and die I’ll never be
alone.
Story I have told you before: D.G. Barnhouse: Death or its
shadow?
 I’ll never face abandonment or corruption. I just get that
shadow because he got the sting.
 Ps 23, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
 Never. Never. Never will he leave.
 Never, never, never will he turn his face away or not feel
my pain.
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John 20:31 tells you that all these things that Jesus did were signs;
they were simply physical, temporal demonstrations of God’s
eternal plan. Just as Jesus’ apparent absence did not indicate he’d
lost control or faltered in his love, his apparent absence in your life
doesn’t indicate that either.
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!” HE
IS THERE! He’s always there. But you might be in day 2 and feel
like Jesus hasn’t shown up. Or maybe Lazarus has been dead 4
days and still no sign of Jesus yet. Hang on. He’s coming. And his
delay is for his glory and your good.
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Sometimes you need to understand the theological answer.
Sometimes you need simply to know that he is there. That he is
present. That he is fully committed to you and fully in control.
For those of you that are disappointed: What if Jesus appeared
to you and told you, “This is for the glory of God.” And he assured
you that he loved you. You saw him weep in your pain. And that he
was fully in control. Could you endure—if you knew it was all
working for the glory of God; that he was fully in control and
completely in love with you?
Don’t you think that the next time Mary and Martha buried
their brother (if that’s what happened), they did so with the
knowledge that Jesus can heal whenever he wants, and
ultimately he will, and when he doesn’t he’s fully in control
and pursuing a greater plan that leads to God’s glory and
our good?
Yes. I’m sure they knew that. And so can you.
Now, one quick objection: “Maybe I’m suffering because I’m
doing something wrong. Maybe I lost my job… maybe I
keep destroying potential marriage relationships because
I…” That’s why God gave you the church, to help you see
that. So if you’re making dumb decisions they can point it
out. But we can also help you see when the delay in your
life is appointed by the sovereignty of God.
Summit: We worship, we believe, at the feet of one who has power
over death! Do you realize the raw power this shows? He can bring
anyone out of grave with just one word. Augustine said that had
Jesus not specified Lazarus, every tomb in Jerusalem would have
given up their dead.”7 Do you realize this is the power of the one who
Of course you could.
This quote is commonly attributed to Augustine, though I have
been unable to find the original source. Charles Hodge said, "He
call Lazarus by name, lest he should bring out all the dead." Cf. D. A.
7
By the way, anybody know where Lazarus is today? Guess
what? He died again. But this time, no resurrection.
walks beside you, with you, and is at work in you? If he can do this,
what could he not do? What is he not worthy of? What kind of worship
reaction should that solicit from us?
We react not to a prophet who gives tips for living, but a Savior who
faced our greatest enemy and rescued us!
Invitation:
 Are you really going to resist him? He’s the only one who can
overcome your greatest problem. The death rate is holding steady
at 100%. Do you want to live forever? He’s your only hope.
 We’re going to give an invitation again:
o Salvation from today, or last 4 weeks?
o Have doubted Jesus’ love or power and just need to pour
out your heart to him?
 Either way, we want to pray with you.
Counselors at BACK
Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament
Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 418.
Bullpen:
You have three options when God really disappoints you.
1. Lose your faith. You conclude—like Ted Turner and Bart Ehrman—that he’s not really there; he’s
never been there; and if he is there, you don’t want to have anything to do with him.
2. Isolate that question from your faith. i.e. Gloss over it and refuse to think about it. Many people
have simply shut off parts of their hearts and minds to Christian faith and just refused to think
about it—because they are afraid their faith can’t stand up to these questions and they don’t want
to lose their faith (that would be too painful), so they just don’t think deeply about these things.
The result, however, is a superficial faith that doesn’t consume your whole being because you have
a God you can’t love with your whole heart.
3. Press deeper in your faith. i.e. let these questions drive you deeper into God. I’ll tell you that the
times in my life when I asked the hardest questions, when I struggled, and doubted God, even—
that was when my faith grew the most, became the sweetest. Spurgeon said that doubt and pain
are like a foot poised… The depths of God’s love can often be known best in the depths of despair.
You can’t know how deep the love of God is until you cry out to him from the depths of despair,
and you say, “My pain is deep. God’s love is deeper still.”
Jesus said in vs. 41, “I know you always hear me.” Yet, on the cross he would say, “My God, My God, why
have you forsaken me?” But what that means for me is that I know that in my pain he always hears me.
Jesus went through hell itself so that he could defeat death and cursing and so that I could know that he
always hears me.
So I don’t know what God is doing in your life. I know that our Bible is filled with the anguished prayers of
those who can’t figure out what God is doing. Books like Job; the Psalms (which seem more filled with
despair sometimes than they do hope); the prayers of Jeremiah. God put those prayers in there because
he wanted to give you a language for your suffering, so that you would know that he knows how you feel!
But you can know, because Jesus faced abandonment and death on your behalf, and did not leave you
then, but drunk the full cup of God’s wrath and curse of death for you, he won’t leave you now.
John 20:30–31, “Now Jesus did many other signs… but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is
the Christ the Son of God!” This was a sign to you. You are supposed to learn in this that just as Jesus’
apparent absence did not indicate he’d lost control or faltered in his love, his apparent absence in your
life doesn’t indicate that either. You might be in day 2 and Jesus hasn’t shown up. Lazarus has been dead 4
days and no Jesus yet. He’s coming. And his delay is for his glory and your good.
In those days, the heat made the body start to decay and smell terrible almost immediately. So they
usually wrapped them heavily in spices and put them in the family tomb which people could come visit
for a day or two. But after that the spices would wear off…
“Why would John ask us to believe in Jesus even though this life has been difficult? Because the next life is
forever, that’s why.”8
When people stumble at the problem of evil, they usually don’t understand (a) what they really deserve
or (b) how sovereign God’s purposes can be.
8
David Helm, sermon on John 5.



Cf. A Shot of Faith to the Head by Mitch Stokes
“Affliction makes God appear to be absent for a time, more absent than a dead man, more absent than
light in the utter darkness of a cell. A kind of horror submerges the whole soul.” Simone Weil9
“Many people simply will not, or cannot - with any sense of personal integrity, look beyond their
sufferings to a belief in God. If there is a God, they muse, he is incredibly disloyal.” David Helm

"How can evil co-exist with a good and loving God?"
Death rate is holding steady at 100%
“Affliction makes God appear to be absent for a time, more absent than a dead man, more absent than
light in the utter darkness of a cell. A kind of horror submerges the whole soul. During this absence there
is nothing to love. What is terrible is that if, in this darkness where there is nothing to love, the soul
ceases to love, God’s absence becomes final.” Simone Weil10
“No matter what kind of decay is going on in your life, Jesus is still up for moving the stone. There is no
smell or odor so bad in your life that Jesus would walk away from you, He said move it. Jesus knew it
wouldn’t smell bad because He knew RE-COMPOSITION was happening” (L. Giglio)
[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?” [8] The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews
were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” [9] Jesus answered, “Are there not
twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this
world. [10] But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” [12] The
disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” [13] Now Jesus had spoken of his
death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. [15] and for your sake I am glad that I was not
there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” [16] So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow
disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” [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. [22] But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. [27] She said to
him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” [30] Now
Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. [31] When
the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed
her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

What did that look like? He’s wrapped up tightly like a mummy… Maybe he rolled? I’m sure he was
confused. I wonder if he’d been chatting with God and the Father and got summoned back. So much
the Bible doesn’t tell us. Whatever he’s saying, he can’t talk. Mummy. MMmmMMmm… MMMMMM.”
o Tim Keller says, “If you’ve got an infinite God big enough to be mad at for the suffering in the
world, then you also have an infinite God big enough to have reasons for it that you can’t think
of.”
9
Waiting on God, Simone Weil.
Waiting on God, Simone Weil.
10
"Ted was an extremely committed By the time he was a teen-ager, Ted knew that he did not want to join
his father’s business. He [Ted] was religious, and he decided that he was going to be a missionary. Then
his sister became ill. He was fifteen when Mary Jane, who was twelve, contracted systemic lupus
erythematosus, a disease in which the immune system attacks the body’s tissue. She was racked with
pain and constantly vomiting, and her screams filled the house. Ted regularly came home and held her
hand, trying to comfort her. He prayed for her recovery; she prayed to die. After years of misery, she
succumbed. [Sometime in the mid-50s]
Ted's dad, Ed Turner, remarked at the time, "If that's the type of God He is, I want nothing to do with
Him."
Ted lost his faith. 'I was taught that God was love and God was powerful,' he says, 'and I couldn’t
understand how someone so innocent should be made or allowed to suffer so.'
On March 5, 1963, Ed Turner had breakfast with his wife, went upstairs, placed a .38-calibre silver pistol
in his mouth, and pulled the trigger. He was fifty-three."