The Day Jesus Arrived to Late

All right, well, good morning. It's good to be here. We're just saying a song here and the one verse stood out to me.

Teach me to feel that thou art always nigh. Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear. To check the rising doubt.

I don't know if you ever had those or not. The rising doubts. Says the rebel sigh.

Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer. Appreciated that verse. Thought it went well with what I have to share here this morning.

It's good to be here at Living Hope. I don't get here as much as I would like to. I get here once in a while.

My children get here more often than I do and the But one question I have is I see this crowd. There was a there was a welcome made to visitors. And so my question is this.

How many visitors do we have? And I'm not sure how you define visitors. Let me just ask you this. I'd like to know who I'm speaking to.

How many are here primarily because Bible school is starting here in a little bit? Can you raise your hands? Wow, quite a few. Okay. Are there any other visitors? Let's ask this way.

If you haven't been here more often than five times, can you raise your hand? And you didn't raise your hand before. Raise your hand now. A few of you.

Okay. All right. Well, it's good to have you all here.

I'm a visitor too. So I'm here with you and it's it's very good to be here and hopefully learn to know some of you a little better. Obviously, I'm not going to get around to shaking everybody's hand.

But I thought well, maybe this will help me know who I'm speaking with. I have a message I'd like to share. It's called The day that Jesus arrived too late.

The day that Jesus arrived too late. Now when I was asked by Amos to have a message this morning, I didn't think about the fact that it was going to be time change weekend. We were talking about it last night, this thing of time change moving our clocks around.

And what if you forget to move your clock around? I guess this morning if you forgot to move your clock, you probably got here early. Now next spring they're going to do the clock moving again. It's going to go the opposite direction.

And if you forget to move it then, then you arrive late. And maybe some of us don't need that excuse to arrive late. Maybe we're just taking it easy through life and we forget to check our clocks period and we just show up a little bit late.

And by the way, I didn't look in the back. I don't know if any of you got here late today or not. So I'm not pointing any fingers.

But that happens. People get to places too late sometimes. And that was for various reasons.

The question is, does Jesus ever arrive too late? I did think about it though, even though I didn't think about the fact that it was going to be time change. I did think about the fact that today was going to be my daughter's birthday. And even though I'm glad to be here, if I was somewhere else, I would like to be with my youngest daughter today.

She's turning nine years old. I can't be with her because I'm here and I think God wants me here. Don't get me wrong.

But nine years old. She's turning nine today. And that's not the only birthday I missed.

Three days ago, another daughter turned 12. And I basically missed her birthday as well. We left early in the morning.

She was still sleeping. And so two birthdays I missed this week because of this trip. We were with Cam, by the way, yesterday and the day before.

And it was very good. Glad again to be here. But those are just, that's part of November travel.

We miss some birthdays sometimes. As I was thinking of my 12-year-old daughter, I wondered how many here, I won't ask for a raise of hands, but I wonder how many here have a 12-year-old daughter. I do, obviously.

Some of you probably do. I didn't check this group that was up here. How many did I think looked about 12 years old? But probably some of them, maybe you quit at age 12.

I don't know, going to children's meeting. But whatever it is, there's probably some 12-year-olds here. But more importantly, are there some parents of 12-year-olds that are here? Our Bibles tell us a story of a mother and father who had a 12-year-old child.

If you want to turn to it, you can. It's in Mark chapter 5. We don't know the name of the mother. We do know the name of the father.

His name was Jairus. And Jairus and his wife, they had this 12-year-old daughter that they loved very much and she got sick. And there was seemingly nothing they could do for this sickness.

Now, so let me, for those of you who have a 12-year-old, I had to think, what would I think if my daughter's not feeling well, and we take her to the doctor, and they take some blood work, blood tests on her, and try to figure out what's going on. And three or four days later, I get a call from the doctor. You need, Mr. and Mrs. Hersley, you need to come on in, and we need to have a sit-down.

This doesn't sound good. So we go into the doctor's office, and we sit down together, and he says, your daughter has some kind of incurable disease. There's, maybe it's, maybe it's leukemia, some kind of cancer, but we took these blood tests, and it's, it's not looking good.

We have nothing we can do for your daughter. How would that make you feel? How would it make me feel? How did it make Jairus and his wife feel as they were watching their daughter get more and more sick? Now, they had a choice to make. There was one option that they had yet on the table.

They had already been to the doctors, and that didn't work. They took all the home remedies they knew to take, and that didn't work. But there was one more option they had, but it was a very risky option.

And this was a prophet that was roaming around the countryside preaching and healing, and being from this particular area, I'm not sure exactly where Jairus was from, but it could have been the city of Capernaum, and there were healings that had happened there in Capernaum. There had been a centurion who had a servant that was sick, and Jesus simply said the word from a distance, and he was healed. There was a nobleman who had a son who was sick, and Jesus healed him as well, and Jairus probably heard about this, and they put it off as long as possible, because you see they had a, they had a ruling by the Pharisees and so forth that said this, if, I'm not sure the chronology here, maybe it was after this, but there was at some point a decision they made that if anybody believes on Jesus as the Christ, you're going to be kicked out of the synagogue.

So this was a very risky thing Jairus was doing when he left his wife at home and went in search of Jesus. He's going to go fetch Jesus, bring him home, and get his daughter, but he got to the point where his love for his daughter overcame his fear of political or religious ostracization. And so that's what, that's what he did.

He went to look for Jesus. Now, I don't know, I suppose maybe they had a conversation. Mrs. Jairus, Mr. Jairus, she maybe told him, just tell him to hurry.

She's very sick. We maybe waited too long, but tell him not to take too much time to get here because our daughter is very sick. And so this is going through Jairus' mind.

He goes and he finds Jesus. He said, can you come to my place? And Jesus almost immediately said, yeah, he'll come. But Jesus was maybe one of those people, maybe you know people like this who never got in a hurry.

He didn't, I don't know if he ran ever in his life. Probably he did, but I don't know that we read of him running. We read of him walking.

And so he started toward Jairus' home walking. Now, it's hard to walk when you have a big crowd of people around you. But he was making decent time and Jairus was, you know, in his heart at least saying, come on, let's go, let's go, let's go.

There's no time to lose here. If you're going to make it there in time, you've got to hurry because she's very, very sick. And then about that time another woman walks up behind Jesus, touches the hem of his garment, and Jesus stopped.

Can you imagine how Jairus' heart fell when Jesus stopped and turned around and started looking for this woman? And she's very bashful. She doesn't want to make herself known. But eventually they had a conversation and eventually she did make herself known and she was healed just by touching the hem of Jesus' garment.

Well, they got done with that little encounter and started off toward Jairus' home again. And about that time another messenger arrived with the devastating news, Jesus is too late. Our daughter is, your daughter is dead Jairus, leave him alone.

It's too late. Well, Jesus immediately picked up on this that they were thinking he's too late and he says, don't fear, just believe. It's going to work out, let's keep going.

So they didn't stop, they kept going. And you know the rest of the story, they got there to Jairus' home, there was people weeping and wailing and mourning the dead daughter. Jesus spoke to this dead girl and said, Talitha Kume, little girl, get up.

And she did. Speaking to the dead is not usually a very productive idea. In fact, back in the Old Testament, I think they called that necromancing.

Something like that, I'm not sure I'm pronouncing it right. But speaking to the dead, communicating with the dead, they were forbidden, God's people were forbidden to do it. But Jesus was speaking to this dead girl and for proof that it was legitimate, she sat up.

She obeyed the voice of the Son of God. So was Jesus too late? No, the day I'm talking about right now is not the day that Jesus was too late. So you wonder, well, when is this day that Jesus was too late? Well, about 20 miles to the southwest of this town of Capernaum was another town called Nain.

And in this town, there's a woman there who had a husband and a son, but the husband had passed away. I don't know what it was, maybe it was a logging accident, maybe it was camo kicked in, maybe it was COVID, I don't know, but he died and the son was left and the son was there to provide for his mother and when he started, when his son, when her son, sorry, started to get sick, she didn't have the luxury of sending her husband to go get Jesus. She was stuck.

She had to be there to take care of her only son. And so she did and she tried to nurse him back to health. Maybe they called doctors, all in vain.

He died. And so now what does she do? Maybe there were neighbors that came up to this widow lady and said, hey, Mrs. Widow Lady, you know, Jesus didn't only heal the sick. Did you hear about Jairus's daughter? She was already dead and Jesus came and spoke to her and she raised back to life.

Maybe you could go fetch Jesus now, but what's going through the widow lady's mind? It's too late. I'm sorry. I don't even know where Jesus is.

By the time I get there and get back with Jesus, it's going to be two days at the most, at the least. And I mean, with Jairus's daughter, it's a little understandable. I mean, Jesus was already on the way when they heard that the little girl died.

The body was probably still a little bit warm. And so when Jesus spoke to her and told her to get up, it's shocking, but not that shocking. By the time Jesus could ever get here to this little town of Nain to speak to my son, it would be far too late.

And so they went ahead with funeral plans. The next day, as they were probably buried, I suppose within a day or maybe two at the most, they're having this funeral and there's a lot of people, a lot of mourners that are gathered there to walk with this widow down to the grave. And they're out in front and all these people are behind.

And then they see a crowd coming. And at the front of the crowd is Jesus. And the widow's heart maybe sinks.

Why didn't he come one day sooner or two days sooner? Think of what could have happened. But here we have two crowds of people. And as one author put it, we have this river of people celebrating death.

And they're on a collision course with another river of people celebrating the prince of life and they're going to meet. So what's going to happen when those two crowds of people meet? Once again, Jesus stopped this funeral procession and he spoke to a dead person and said, young man arise. And he arose and he gave him to his mother.

And the news about that spread everywhere. A great prophet has arisen. So, is that too late? Was Jesus too late that day? If you would ask that widow lady, did Jesus get there too late? Now that she has her son back, she would have said, no, Jesus didn't get there too late.

If you'd ask Jairus and his wife, did Jesus arrive too late? They'd say, no, Jesus was not too late. However, 60 miles to the south was another town called Bethany. And in this town, there was a family that were very good friends of Jesus, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

And Lazarus got sick. But you know, that's not a big deal because we know Jesus. He's our friend.

And when we want him to come and heal our brother, he'll come. Of course, he'll come. I mean, we know him.

And we've known him for a while. He stayed in our home. So they sent for Jesus.

Can you come and heal our brother Lazarus? But he didn't come. He waited. And time kept passing.

And they wonder, why doesn't Jesus come? I thought we were friends. Why is he letting us down like this? But he didn't come. And he kept getting sicker.

And finally, he died. But there's still just a glimmer of hope. Yes, our brother is dead.

But remember Jairus? Jairus' daughter? Then he showed up soon after that and raised the girl to life. But Jesus didn't show up. So finally, they decided we better go ahead and have the funeral and get ready to bury him.

But there's still this glimmer of hope because remember the widow of Nain and her son. And while we're in the funeral procession, here comes Jesus and he shows up. Surely that will happen this time.

So let's get this funeral arranged. And we have the burial plot down there. We know where we're going to bury this body.

And we start walking. And I can imagine those girls looking out in the distance, scanning the horizon to see if a crowd of people is coming with Jesus at the front. But he never comes.

And they're walking toward the grave. And they whisper to each other, walk slower. Give Jesus a chance.

Maybe he got delayed somewhere. Maybe another woman touched the hem of his garment. Let's just, let's walk a little slower.

But no matter how slow they walked, eventually the grave came in view. And they arrived there. And there was nothing else to do but put the body in the grave.

And put the stone back on the mouth of the grave. And then they go home. Day two.

Day three. Still no Jesus. Finally, Jesus arrives.

Day number four. Both Mary and Martha went out to meet him. And they both had the same statement for Jesus.

You're too late. If only you had been here, my brother would not have died. Another way of saying, Jesus, you got here too late.

Once again, we know the rest of the story. Jesus said, let's go to the grave. And they went.

And once again, he talked to a dead person. And the dead person lived. The dead person came to life.

Was Jesus too late for Lazarus? No, he wasn't too late. And you know, there's been accusations toward Jesus for a long time saying, you're too late. People were looking for the Messiah back in the Old Testament.

There was a lot of waiting. And when's this Messiah going to come? And is he ever going to come? And we think we're about ready to give up. But you know what day it was that Jesus showed up on this earth? It was the fullness of time, according to Galatians 4.4. In the fullness of time, God sent forth his son.

You know what that means? That's another way of saying he was right on time. He wasn't late at all. He was exactly at the proper time for God to get there.

Now, what about people that have already died? Maybe you've had loved ones that have passed away in the last little while. And you said, I was hoping Jesus would come and heal them. We had the anointing.

We did what James says to do. We were, you know, even after the person had died, maybe there was that glimmer of hope that Jesus could do like he did in other times and raise a dead person back to life, but it didn't happen. And maybe you feel let down.

Maybe you feel like, God, we did everything you told us to do and you didn't come through. You didn't come and speak to this dead person. Maybe that's how Mary and Martha felt on day number three after Lazarus died.

But you know, scriptures tell us that the story's not over yet. Jesus is going to come and he's going to speak to dead people again. According to John 5.24, all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and will come forth.

And so those people who have died in the Lord, they're going to hear that voice and they're going to come forth. In fact, even those who have died outside of Christ, they're going to also rise and there's going to be a judgment. And when the dead people hear the voice of the Son of God, they're going to come out of those graves.

And Acts 3.21 tells us when that's going to be. It's until the restoration of all things. So there's some sort of a restoration going forward and we're moving forward in history.

And you know what day that's going to be? It's going to be exactly on time when Jesus comes back and those in the graves are going to hear his voice. Now, I have some other good news though. You don't need to wait until that day until Jesus comes to speak to dead people because they're in that same passage in John 5. Turn with me if you would to John 5 and you can hear here where Jesus said, well I'll just read this whole passage starting with a few verses here actually.

John 5, we'll start with verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.

For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself, and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. So there in chapter, verse 28 it says, all that are in the graves shall hear his voice.

That's a physical death and it's going to be some sort of a physical resurrection. I don't understand it all, but somehow or another Jesus is going to sound forth the trumpet and everybody will rise to one of these two judgments, either the judgment, the resurrection of life, or the resurrection of damnation. But he says earlier in this passage that He is still speaking to dead people, and the time is coming and it says, and now is.

It's already here, Jesus says. It was already there back, it certainly is still already here then. What does it say? It says when the dead, the time is coming, the hour is coming, now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.

That's talking about a spiritual death and a spiritual life. And I wonder if there is anyone here who feels in your heart, I have spiritual death. I have news for you, the Son of God would like to speak to you, a spiritually dead person, and as you hear His voice He would like to make you live.

Jesus called it the new birth, except a man is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. I would like to extend that invitation to you, that is what Jesus wants to do. And for those who do not respond, those who do respond, those who do not respond, there is coming a day when everybody will come out of the graves.

Now there are people that make fun of that idea, 2 Peter chapter 3 says there are scoffers that are coming. And they are saying, well if Jesus was ever going to come, He is way too late now. Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep from the beginning of creation, even until now everything just continues as it is.

And they are laughing at the idea that the Son of God is going to show up again and speak to dead people. But He is, He is coming, and the scoffers aren't going to stop Him. They are going to be one of those that are going to hear His voice.

Maybe there are other things you are praying about. Maybe it is not necessarily sick people you are praying for, maybe it is lost people you are praying for. Maybe you have people, loved ones in your life, like I do, that need salvation, and you have prayed for them, and it feels like there is no answer.

It feels like Jesus is showing up too late. What do you do with those things? Last couple of days we were at Christian Aid Ministries. Merle Burkholder told, he gave a talk, and he told a story in one of his talks about his work up in the, I think it was up in one of the Indian tribes up in Canada, about a young woman who made a commitment to the Lord.

And she was a young Christian, and he wanted to help her grow and build her faith. She had a mother that had also been coming to church, hearing the gospel, understood much of the gospel, this mother did. She wasn't in very good health.

She didn't respond to the gospel though, at least not initially because of various addictions in her life, there were drugs involved. And this lady though, she had some kind of a disease that put her in the hospital. Might have been diabetes, I'm not sure.

But she ended up in the hospital, and she was unconscious. And now you have this young woman, and her, I'm not sure what the young woman's name was, the mother, I think he said Tilly was her name. So Tilly was in the hospital, unconscious.

And they said, let's go talk to your mother Tilly. And this young woman who had just become a Christian, she says, I want my mom to get saved. I want her to make a commitment to Christ.

And obviously there in the hospital you can't, there's a lot of steps you can't do, repent, believe, you know, be baptized. But maybe we can just talk to her. We've, and Merle, the preacher, he says, well I heard that physically the hearing is the last thing to go.

So maybe she can still hear us even if she can't respond to us in any way. Let's go talk to her. And so they went into the hospital room, and they knelt down by the bed, and they shared with her.

Can you respond in any way Tilly? Can you hear us? No response. But she's there, there in a basically unconscious, in a coma. And so they kept talking to her.

They presented the gospel one more time. She'd heard it before, but again they presented the gospel. Can you hear us? And, you know, then they prayed, God give us a gift.

Just give us two minutes that she wakes up for two minutes. That's all we would need. And we could, we could pray, you know, pray with her.

And, you know, then if you take her, that's okay. But they didn't get the two minutes. So they said, I'll tell you what Tilly, let's do this.

I'm going to hold your hand, and I'm going to ask you a question. And if you can respond by just squeezing my hand, we'll take that as a sign that you heard what we were telling you about Jesus and His provision. And this will, and if you just squeeze my hand, that will be, that will be your response.

You'll say, yes, I heard you, and I, in my heart, am exercising some level of faith, whatever, whatever that is. And so they asked her that question, and they felt for the squeeze of the hand, but there was none, and she died. Merle said, I felt angry at God.

He said, here's this new believer, a young woman who made a commitment to Christ. She needs to grow her faith. And God could have so easily raised that mother back to life.

She wanted to know how her mother was, what the condition of her mother was spiritually. If only, just two minutes, that's all it would take, just one little hand squeeze, and this young Christian could have at least rested in that, at least taken some consolation in that when her mother died. And he struggled with that.

God, why didn't you do that? It would have been easy. You could have easily brought this woman back to consciousness for just a little bit. Well, time went on.

This Indian tribe where they were had a sort of a tradition, a belief system, maybe even a superstition, but they said, when people die, we always have somebody else in the village, always has a dream about them. And the dream, you know, just, we see them in our dream, and we think of who they are. And, you know, and then that dream gives us some sort of a comfort, you know, where this person is.

And yet, Tilly, there was something different. She didn't, nobody had the dream. And they were asking among themselves, well, did anybody have a dream? Do you hear from? No, I didn't.

I didn't have a dream. Do you? No, I didn't either. And time went on.

They're wondering what's going on. But about a month later, longer than normal, one of the village elders, one of the top men in the village came to the rest of the group and said, I had a dream about Tilly last night. And she had a big smile on her face in this dream.

And she was so happy. She says, I'm in a better place. And she, and he said, and she had one of those things on her head that the Sunday school teachers wear.

That's all the way he knew how to describe it. And all the villagers were hearing this story. Wow.

A dream. Not a dream from just anybody, but one of the village leaders. And you know, that dream that he had did way more for that village than a hand squeeze would have.

You know, a hand squeeze, he said, they would have just discounted that. Ah, you know, people are always twitching when they're dying. You know, that's not no big thing.

But that dream, now that spoke to everybody. To them, that was a sign that she had made in her heart a commitment to Christ. And again, I don't know what all theology plays in here, but that was a gift to them and to the village.

And people started to respond to the gospel as a result of that, that little encounter. Did Jesus arrive too late or did he arrive right on time? A year ago, right now, 17 missionaries were down in Haiti in a kidnappers camp, a gangster camp. And we heard many testimonies yesterday and the day before about how many people were praying.

There was a lady over in Liberia who had been receiving some help from CAM. And when she heard about this situation in Haiti, she was, one of the missionaries there said, I've never seen anybody pray like this woman prayed. She was very sickly.

She couldn't get out. She was, I'm not sure if she could even walk, but people, she hadn't seen the sunlight for a while until they came and helped her. And, but she began to pray.

She was a believer and she prayed for this situation in Haiti. And that's just one person of thousands, maybe millions. I don't know how many people were praying for those 17 missionaries, but there was a lot.

How many no answers did we get? Day one goes by, Lord release them. The answer comes back, no. Day number two, day number three, 59 days, 59 no's.

They're not released yet. On day number 60, that was when they were finally, they finally, God worked a miracle that all other things had been exhausted. They had, if you read the book, you find out that, you know, there was a lot of things tried.

Both spiritually and physically to try to, you know, get a release, but it always came back no until there was finally only one thing left to happen, and that is for God to work. And then he did work. The, so once again, was God late or was he right on time in this delivery down in Haiti? Last few months I've been getting emails, maybe some of you have as well from Pablo Yoder, from his son Jacinto down in Nicaragua about the sickness that Pablo was going through.

And they had an anointing and God said no, as far as physical healing concern is concerned. And so Pablo felt like he was resigning himself to die. And the time kept getting closer.

And I was just reading this email last night, but his, his son, they had made an agreement. When you feel the time is close, you tell us when you, if you see, like some people seem to see, they see into the next life, you see the angels coming to get them, the angel band, tell me, tell me that it's, that it's going to happen. So they had that agreement and you know, they got to that last week and pain up until that point had been somewhat manageable, but it got really bad on day number one of that week and day number two, Lord, how long is this going to go? Some family members showed up and you know, they're, they're waiting and enduring this pain.

And Lord, why, why is this continue to drag on day number three? And then early in the morning, I think it was on day number four, about six 30 in the morning, all of a sudden Pablo somehow seemed to muster enough strength to sit up, grabbed his son's arm and said, I see, he said, there's only three words, they're coming. And then a pause. And then a word, I don't know if I've ever heard on a death bed, finally, they're coming finally.

And what he saw that convinced him, I don't know, I don't know exactly, he couldn't describe it, I guess, but what it was he saw and these angels were coming. And it was, it was very shortly after that, that he passed, it was over and mixtures of sorrow and joy as they had this, this funeral and so forth. But once again, was God late? Did Jesus arrive too late? Did the angels arrive too late? The answer obviously is no, they were right on time.

Let's, let's go back to John chapter 11. And in closing, let's just read this account again and let your emotions go with the emotions of this family as they faced death and what happened here. John chapter 11, verse one, now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany of 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, when his sisters 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 that the glory of God, 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 heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. Then after, then after he, then after that he saith unto his disciples, let us go into Judea again.

His disciples said unto him, master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again? Jesus answered, are there not yet 12 hours? Are there not 12 hours in a day? If a man walk in the darkness in the day, he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he, he stumbleth because there is no light in him. I apologize.

I should have my reading glasses and I'm trying to get by without them. I don't have them here. So, um, do you ever run into that? You try to deny the fact that you're getting old.

I've struggled with that, but we'll get through this. If not, I'll switch to my phone, but we're about verse 11. These things said he, and after that, 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. How be it Jesus spake not of death, spake of his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

And I am glad for your sake that I was not there to the intent that ye may believe. Nevertheless, let us go into him. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus unto his fellow disciples.

Let us go also that we may die with him. Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already. Now, Bethany was nine to Jerusalem, about 15 furlongs off.

And many of the Jews came to Mary and Martha to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she had heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

But I know that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

Believest thou this? She said unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. And when she had so said, she went her way and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come and calleth for thee. As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to him.

Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him. The Jews then, which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth into the grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come, where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came unto her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have you laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold, how he loved him! And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died? Jesus therefore groaning in himself, cometh to the grave.

It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days.

Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that if thou shouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always.

But because of the people which stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth! And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot, in grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen these things which Jesus did, believed on him. But some of them went their way to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done. And we'll stop right there.

So once again, maybe if there's anything you're struggling with this morning, thinking that Jesus hasn't answered my prayers, I'd like to encourage you, there were other people who thought the same thing. Jesus hasn't answered my prayers. But you know, at the end, when the whole story was told, they were looking back and saying, Jesus wasn't too late.

So I would just like to encourage you with that, keep praying. Jesus encouraged the widow who did not get an answer, did not get a yes answer immediately. He said she kept answering, and kept asking, even to that judge.

And the judge finally granted her request. He said, how much more will your Heavenly Father answer your prayers if you keep on calling out to him? Let's stand for prayer. Lord, we come to you in the name of Jesus.

We thank you, Lord, for your word. We thank you for these stories. We thank you, Lord, for the assurance that you do hear and answer prayer.

And Lord, like that song says, you are still nigh unto us. And Lord, even though we may get that unanswered prayer, Lord, teach us the patience of that unanswered prayer. Or maybe that prayer that comes back with an answer that we weren't exactly wanting in ourselves.

We pray, Lord, that we would accept that as an answer, and we would continue to have faith in you, and know that you are seated on the throne. And there is coming a day when those who are in the graves will hear your voice and come out. And there is a day, and there already is, when you are speaking to dead people spiritually, and they are hearing and living.

Help us, each one, to accept, to hear that call, to hear your voice, and live as that voice of the Son of God comes into our lives. Thank you, God, so much for this gathering. We just pray that you'd bless each one for being here.

In Jesus' name, amen.