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(upbeat music) - I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We're
starting a study of John chapter 11 today, day one in our look at this
incredible chapter of the Bible. We're going to look at verses one to verse six
today.

You know, there is something in every one of us that longs for something more.
Everybody I've met, there's just something in them that longs for something
more. We don't want to just, we don't want to just settle.

We don't want to just settle for life. We don't want to just settle for things as
they are. We don't want to just settle for things as they have been.

Here's the incredible thing about John 11. John 11, in this chapter, Jesus shows
us that there is something more. In John chapter 11, he does his most amazing
miracle of all the miracles that we've seen in our study together of the book of
John.

He raises a friend of his by the name of Lazarus. He raises him from the dead.
He does that miracle to show us who he is.

Remember, with every miracle, Jesus is showing us something about who he is. And
even in the middle of this chapter, he's going to remind us that he is the
resurrection, he is the life. This miracle shows us who he is, but it also shows
us what he can do in our lives.

So let's get right into this chapter. This miracle begins in a very unusual way.
John 11, verses one to six, let me read those verses.

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and
her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same
one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.

So the sister sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one you love is sick. When he heard
this, Jesus said, this sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's
glory, so that God's son may be glorified through it.

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, and yet, verse six says, yet,
when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
There's the surprise, there's what's unusual. This miracle begins with Jesus
waiting.

As we walk through this miracle and what Jesus does together, we're going to see
how Jesus works in ways that are amazing and often unexpected. And here, Jesus
waited. Lazarus is clearly sick.

You see in verses one to three, very clearly Lazarus was sick and then it tells
us who this Lazarus was. He was from Bethany, which was a town very near
Jerusalem. It was the village of Mary and Martha.

These three, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, were good friends of Jesus. They were
near Jerusalem and apparently, when Jesus was in Jerusalem, he would go to their
home as a place of rest, a place of quiet retreat, and they'd become close
friends. In fact, the Bible is clear here about who this Mary is.

This is the same Mary, it says in verse two, who poured perfume on the Lord and
wiped his feet with her hair. When we get to chapter 12, we're going to see more
from this family and it's introducing us to who this Mary is, which is
important. In the Bible, have you noticed in the New Testament, there are a lot
of Marys?

This is not Mary, the mother of Jesus, this is reminding us. This is not Mary
Magdalene, that's a different Mary. This is Mary, the sister of Martha and the
sister of Lazarus.

And these friends of Jesus, these people that he'd spent time with and
ministered to, and they had administered to him, they have a deep, deep problem.
Lazarus is very, very ill. Jesus hears about it and his first reaction is, I
know what God's doing.

I know that this is not a sickness that's going to end in death, that's going to end
in God's glory. Jesus as God knew the future in ways that we do not. He could
see the ways in which God's working toward, working for his glory.

So he says, Lazarus is sick, but this is going to end in God's glory. Now the truth
is, Lazarus did die, and we're going to find that out later in this chapter before
Jesus resurrects him from the dead. But that's not the end of the story.

He says, this won't end in death. The end of the story was not death. The end of
the story, the end of the story is life.

The end of the story is God's glory. Now just as we're walking through this
chapter and we're looking at Jesus talking about sickness and illness and death,
and he says it's for God's glory, there is a question that comes to mind. It's
the same question we asked when we looked back at chapter nine and Jesus saying
he was healing somebody for God's glory.

The question is, is this illness then caused by God somehow? I mean, did God
cause Lazarus to go through this illness so that he could create his glory? Does
God cause illness and sickness?

Let's just dive into that one more time. Does God cause illness? Well, as you
read the Bible, you find out what God teaches us about this.

And he teaches us that rarely he does cause illness. Rarely in the Bible we see
him causing illness as a punishment for sin. You see, for instance, Moses'
sister Miriam goes through an illness.

God puts a skin disease upon her because of a sin in her life. But that's very
rare in the Bible. And it's very direct.

God always tells people when he's doing that and why he's doing that and how
they need to repent. There's not just some general guilt that makes people sick.
God says, you did this, I'm making you sick, and so you need to repent.

Usually, usually illness is simply as a result of the fact that we live in a
fallen world. It's not a direct punishment for sin. Illness is a result of sin,
but not my sin or directly your sin.

It's just a result of the fact we live in a sinful world. So, believers and
unbelievers, we all face illnesses in this world. And in those illnesses, we
need to realize that this world is not all there is.

There is going to come a day, Jesus promised us, when there's going to be no more
tears, no more crying, no more sickness, no more pain. That's what we look
forward to. So, God is looking forward to that day with us.

And even here in this story, he's looking forward to that day. When he says,
Jesus says, this is for God's glory. For God's glory, this is going to be done.

That's interesting, God's glory. That phrase, obviously it means so that God can
be honored. But if you read carefully the words of Jesus, you see that he often
refers to God's glory in terms of what's going to happen on the cross.

He talks about the Son being glorified. When he talks about the Son of God being
glorified, he's talking directly about going to the cross. And so, in talking
about glory here, Jesus is saying, yes, people will see who God is in the
healing, but there's something even deeper.

The glory here is that the reaction to this healing would continue to lead Jesus
toward his appointment with glory at the cross. And don't miss what happens in
this story. Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick, and yet he stays where he is two
more days.

He loved Lazarus, yet he stayed. He loved, but yet he waited. Don't let the
brightness of the miracle, by the way, divert your attention from the reason for
this miracle.

Jesus loved Lazarus. He worked these miracles in people's lives. He works
miracles in people's lives because of his love.

That's why God works, that's why God acts in our lives. But here, love, love
stayed where it was two more days. Love waited.

You know what love was doing here, what Jesus was doing? Jesus was meeting their
deepest needs instead of satisfying their immediate wants. That's what love
does.

As we walk through this chapter, we're going to see Jesus loving these people that
he had spent so much time with through this miracle. And here, he loves them by
meeting their needs instead of satisfying their immediate wants. Jesus waited
because it was the right thing to do for all who were involved.

Jesus waited because he understood God's timing better than anyone. It's
interesting in John how we've seen again and again that Jesus always does things
on his timetable, not on other people's timetable. His mother says, "Hey, we're
at a party.

"Let's have a miracle here "and make some wine out of this water. " And Jesus
says, "Well, wait, wait, wait, wait. "It's gotta be on my timetable.

" His brothers are going down to a feast in Jerusalem and they say, "Jesus, come
with us right now. " And Jesus says, "Wait, wait, wait, my timetable. " And here
he waits two days for his timetable.

Now, as I talk about waiting for God to work, that may be a very practical, real
truth in your life right now. You might be waiting for God to work in your life.
If you're waiting for God to work right now, I would encourage you to do three
things.

Three things. First of all, make sure that it's God you're waiting for. Make
sure that you're not using God to try to get what you want or using God as an
excuse to not do what you know you need to do.

Sometimes people say they're waiting on God, but the truth of the matter is
they're waiting on themselves or they're waiting on nothing. The truth you gotta
look at first is, am I truly waiting for something that fits into the will of
God? Or is what I'm waiting for some selfish need?

That's the key. Is it selfish? Is it unselfish?

That's usually where I can see the dividing line between my will and God's will.
So make sure that it's God that you're waiting for and not some excuse that you
put in your mind. And if it is, if it is God that you're waiting for when it
comes to a relationship or a hurt that needs to be healed or a struggle you're
going through in your life or a job that you're waiting on coming or a dream
that hasn't been realized, if you see that it is God that you're waiting for,
the second thing you do of these three things is you pray for God's glory.

Jesus said it's for God's glory. So you pray for God's glory, even in the
waiting. Sometimes God's glory will come through your growth, your personal
growth in the waiting.

Sometimes, like here, it will come through a way that God works that could have
never happened except for the waiting. You pray for God's glory, even in the
waiting. I got to tell you, I'm like you, I hate to wait, but there have been so
many times in my life when I have seen God do things in my life, in other
people's lives, because we've had to wait.

It could have never happened if the wait hadn't been a part of our lives. So you
pray for God's glory, even in the waiting. You make sure it's God that you're
waiting for.

Number one, you pray for God's glory, even in the waiting. And then number
three, you trust his timing, because he knows far more about it than you ever
will, than I ever will. You trust his timing.

Now, let's take just a second, as we pray today, to talk to God about something
that you might be waiting for right now. And just say to him, Lord, you know
what it is. Here it is, here's what I'm waiting for.

So I just go through what we just talked about. Am I waiting for you, Lord? I
ask you the question.

Is this just some selfish desire? If it is, let me know. If it's in your will,
give me a conviction, a heart about that, that lets me know that as well.

And then in this, even in this waiting, I don't like it, but even in it, I pray
for your glory. I pray for your glory, for you to be glorified in me and through
me and through this situation. And God, as hard as it is to pray this, I pray, I
tell you in faith that I trust your timing because I know that you know things I
will never know.

And so I bring this situation to you and I say to you in Jesus' name, I trust
you. Amen. Well, join us tomorrow.

We're going to see together what happens when Jesus decides to stop waiting in
verses seven to 27.