The Distant Shepherd of John 11

Could we look together please in the Gospel of John chapter 11. The Gospel of John chapter 11. Let's start reading in verse 1. Now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sister sent unto him saying, Lord behold he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that he said, this sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick he abode two days still in the same place where he was. Then after that saith he to his disciples, let us go into Judea again.

His disciples say unto him, Master the Jews of late sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again? Jesus answered, are there not 12 hours in the day? If any man walk in the day he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night he stumbleth because there is no light in him. These things said he and after that he saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth.

But I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord if he sleep he shall do well, albeit Jesus spake of his death. But they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest and sleep.

Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there. To the intent you may believe. Nevertheless let us go unto him.

Then said Thomas which is called Didymus unto his fellow disciples. Let us also go that we may die with him. And then when Jesus came he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.

Now this chapter I think holds a lot of preciousness to probably many of us here today. We've been hearing about shepherding and I want just to remind you of the connection from chapter 10 to this chapter. In chapter 10 he has presented himself as the Good Shepherd.

Now we're going to see a sample of shepherding. And it's perplexing, especially the section that I have just read. And so I'm going to label these first 16 verses, the distant shepherd.

The shepherd who doesn't seem to be there for his people, especially when they need him most. So we have the perplexity of sickness and death and the divine purpose. In chapter 10 he presents himself in contrast to the thief, to the wolf, to the hireling.

But one of the things that he emphasizes in chapter 10 is that it's eternal life that he guarantees us. And eternal life, I've been going through John the last few months and I have to say that it has been very helpful for me personally. We tend in the Gospels just to, you know, tidbits here and there.

A gospel message from this, another message from that. It helps to study and meditate chapter by chapter and see the development of the program of God. And this chapter really comes to, you might call it, the crunch in the program of God and into chapter 12.

But here we have this family. They're a very precious family to the Lord Jesus. They have been for him like an oasis in the desert.

He has faced so much conflict, so much opposition, so much malice in Jerusalem. And yet here's this little community just not even two miles from Jerusalem. And here's this family who love him, who believe in him, who have provided that comfort for him.

And it mentions here very emphatically that he loved them. So we have deliberately put side-by-side things that are in tension with each other. And so we have the sickness happening.

And the sisters send unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. They were so confident in his love to them and his ability that they thought that if they just got word to him, everything would be all right. And as that message gets to him, the Lord hears it.

And he gives this reassuring response. This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God. Now, if you were there that day, how would you have understood it? What do you expect those sisters understood it to mean? I'm sure that those messengers came back with lightened hearts, with relieved minds.

And I'm not sure of the exact time frame of the sequence of events. They may have barely gotten back home when Lazarus dies. There may have been just that temporary relief.

The Lord has said this sickness is not unto death. They could only have understood it to mean he's not going to die. He's going to get better.

And yet, and yet he dies. And I'm sure probably most families here have been at this place where we have at times prayed to the Lord and experienced his wonderful intervention, his goodness in restoring a loved one who was sick. And we are to pray.

We are to call upon him because he is the Good Shepherd and he truly cares about us. But what we are presented with in this section are really two great divine purposes that are beyond our individual lives, beyond our family lives, beyond our personal interests. God's purposes.

And the first one is given to us in verse four. This is for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now you've already been hearing the supreme importance of God's will, God's purposes, God's glory.

Do we truly accept that we are here in this world for his glory? That in us he might be honored? That in us and in our lives he might be brought out into honorable display and made known? And specifically that the Son of God might be glorified. And so it's going to relate to the Lord Jesus particularly and his glory as the Son of God. That's the theme of the Gospel of John among many other themes that we have.

The Son of God, the glory, the revelation of him in this world as God's Son. And this family is going to be used for God's purposes at that time to manifest the glory of his Son. But to do it he's going to have to let them suffer.

And so we come to this question of faith. Does God really have the right to use us? Does he have the right to use your health, the life of your loved one, to further his glory? This chapter is telling us yes. Now of course when we get to the end of the chapter we understand the meaning of this.

I would like to mention before I go any further that this chapter, this story is really a parable of the whole Christian era and the experience of God's people under the care of the Good Shepherd until he comes. Now when I say a parable I am not meaning that this didn't really happen literally. It was all too real in their experience.

But in just a few weeks from the time of that sickness to the time when they are looking at their brother raised from the dead, it's like an illustration of the power of God and the families of the saints who are brought through life and death and finally to know the glory of God in resurrection. There are some very interesting things that are highlighted in this chapter and I'm going to try just to limit myself to the first 16 verses if I can. In this section we have two great purposes of God.

The first is the glory of God. The second one is mentioned in verse 14 where the Lord after again speaking cryptically, speaking in a riddle that the disciples don't understand and finally he says Lazarus is dead. And then he makes this shocking statement and I'm glad I was not there.

How do you like that? That sounds like callous indifference to the sorrow, the grief of this family. But it draws out another divine purpose in our present existence and that is that through our life's experiences people might be introduced to him. That people who don't know him and are in the darkness of their own sin that they might find Christ.

And also that those who are believers might have their faith deepened in Christ and get to know him better. So here are these two great purposes of God which he claims the prerogative of using our lives including our sicknesses and even death to advance his cause. The glory of God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now that comes out towards the end of the chapter as well. So let's just think about as we come down through these verses, verse 5. He says now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. And so what would you expect to follow? That he cancelled everything he was doing, all his plans and he hastened to Bethany.

Instead it says when he had heard therefore that he was sick he stayed where he was. He abode two days still in the same place where he was. He waits until he dies.

And then he said let's go. Let's go back into Judea again. Now you've already heard mentioned in going through the gospel of John that the Jewish leadership had become very much in opposition towards the Lord Jesus and his claims.

And the conflict is becoming more and more intense. And if you were to read from chapter 7 through to chapter 9 and even into chapter 10, in every chapter there is a threat to his life or an allusion to it. And so yes it had become very dangerous for him to go back into the Judean area concentrated in Jerusalem.

And so the disciples, they're very apprehensive. Lord are you going to go back there again? The Jews were wanting to kill you and you're going to go there again? You're taking a big risk. I'm just going to touch on this because this connects with what you were just listening to on the will of God and the purpose of God in our lives.

The Lord answers in a way that you might wonder like what is this doing here in the passage? They say Lord are you sure you want to go there? If you were to put it in in plain language what they're really saying is saying Lord do you know what you're doing? Do you know the risk that you're taking? And he answers are there not 12 hours in the day? Well of course he's talking about daylight. Are there not 12 hours of daylight in the day? If anyone walk in the day he stumbles not because he sees the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night he stumbles because there is no light in him.

Now this is where you need to pay attention to context to understand what is being talked about here. Light and darkness are prominent themes in the gospel of John. But what he's referring to here is not the same as the other references.

What is he talking about? He's really talking about this reality that he lived moment by moment in the light of the Father's will. And in the Father's will he was perfectly safe. He was going to go you might say into the place of danger.

But it wasn't his time yet. And even though naturally speaking it would look like a high risk proposition. He says there's 12 hours in the day.

Just walk in the day. Now again I wish I had a better sense of this in my own life. To know that I am where God wants me to be and doing what God wants me to be doing moment by moment.

The Lord lived in that perfect light of the Father. Of his purposes and his will and he was coming to do a work that the Father wanted him to do. And he was perfectly safe.

And so then he says our friend Lazarus is sleeping. I'm going to go and wake him out of sleep. Now again we are introduced here to something that has become very familiar to us.

And yet it's such a profound reality that death is not final for the Christian. He talks about it so simply. Our friend Lazarus is sleeping.

And of course they think that he's just talking about ordinary sleep. And they say well Lord you know why don't you just let him sleep. If he sleeps he'll get better.

He'll do well. But why is sleep an appropriate metaphor for Christian death? It's because of resurrection. It's because it's temporary.

Just like going to sleep at night. There is a morning. There is an awakening.

There is something beyond. And we may take that for granted today. But that is only there because of Christ and what he has brought into our world.

And then he says very plainly Lazarus is dead. Lazarus is dead. That must have been a shock to the disciples because they probably heard him say that this sickness is not unto death.

And now he's saying Lazarus is dead. And I'm glad I wasn't there. For your sakes that you might believe.

And then he finally arrives and finds out that he's been dead for four days. Now again I want to just leave this with you to ponder. Are you settled in your mind that the Lord has the right to use your life at whatever personal cost it may involve for you today and in this world? To you personally, to your family, that your life's experiences could contribute to the glory of God, the honor of God, the knowledge of God, and that through what happens to you, someone else is going to have an awakening.

They are going to be enlightened. They're going to understand there is something of God at work here and that Christ is going to become an object of faith in their minds. That is what we have emphasized in this chapter.

But in the meantime, there is sorrow. There is grief. There is despair in the hearts of his own.

Does that sound like a good shepherd? Let me just remind you again. It's eternal life that he promises us. And I have said this at times and I think it's accurate.

Anything that you get to enjoy of happiness, of well-being, of comfort, and goodness in this life, in this world, is actually just bonus. His promises are all connected to the age to come. In fact, one of the things that has been impressing me in going through John and thinking about eternal life is to recognize the emphasis that eternal life is really the life of the age to come.

It's the life that is going to be experienced. We have the spiritual part of it. The first fruit of it.

We long for sinlessness. We long for inner perfection. We long for liberation from distress, from problems with our minds, problems with our health, and all of these things.

The life of the age to come, the life of the kingdom of God, is a life where the bondage of corruption is lifted. And beautiful, perfect life is experienced forever and ever. That's his promise.

And he has come to bring it. But the blessings that we instinctively look for of health and so on in this life, those are just temporary, subject to removal, until he reigns in this world. May God help us to appreciate that there is an overriding program of God and purpose of God that we also are subject to until he comes.