It is something that all of us will spend at least an hour doing every day and I mean every day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. In fact, we will spend 5 years of our lifetime doing nothing but this. It is universally above everything else the one thing everybody hates to do. In fact, there is nothing that we do that is more frustrating, aggravating, irritating and feels like more of a waste of time than doing this. Can you guess what it is? It’s waiting. An hour every day we wait on something. We are put on hold, we wait in the doctor’s office, we wait at a red light, we wait at a checkout counter. An hour a day, 5 years of our life we will spend 6 months of our lives just waiting at a red light. I don't care how patient you are; we all hate to wait. Ask anybody, “What do you like to do for rest and relaxation?” They’ll never tell you, “I just like to wait.” There are a lot of weird people that have a lot of weird hobbies, but nobody makes a hobby out of waiting.
That’s never been more true in the quick fix, real time culture that we live in today. Between the Internet, the computer, the smart phone, and twitter, we’re always in the know and we’re always in the now. We’ll do almost anything and pay almost any price to keep from waiting.
People who come to our country and especially to major cities can’t believe the quick pace, jet set, super fast lifestyle that we live.
When the Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff immigrated to the United States he said that the thing he loved the most about this country were the grocery stores. Here’s why he said, “I’ll never forget walking down one of the aisles and seeing powdered milk; just add water and you get milk. Right next to it was powdered orange juice; just add water and you get orange juice. Then I saw baby powder and I thought to myself, “What a country!”
Yes, we want everything now. Well what about the old saying, “Good things come to those who wait.” Could that possibly be true? Is it possible that sometimes the best things that happen to us happen only after we wait for them? Some of you may remember this old commercial that was very popular years ago that makes the point about the quality of the product as people wait for the ketchup that pours very slowly.
Now come on, be honest, how many of you in some way or another have ever thrown that ketchup bottle against the wall? Here’s a big one-how many of you have ever felt like doing that with God? You decide you’re going to go all in and trust God and believe God for an answer to prayer, and you get so bold you even pray for something specifically and you put a specific date on it. And you’re absolutely convinced it’s the will of God for it to happen and the date passes and nothing happens. But you refuse to give up, you just push the date back, but that date comes and goes and nothing happens. I don’t know if you’ve had that experience, but I can tell you I have on more than one occasion. It’s hard not to quit praying. It’s hard not to get angry. It’s hard not to be disappointed even in God because it’s one thing to wait on something or someone else, but there is nothing more difficult than waiting on God. I could tell you of many times in my life when I have actually looked up to the sky and said, “What are you waiting on?”
Well there is a story in the Bible that addresses that issue head on and answers the question, Why does God sometimes wait and why does God sometimes make us wait on Him? We’re in a series called “Seven”. Seven times in the gospel of John, Jesus specifically identifies not just who He is, but what He is. And He doesn't use names or titles he uses metaphors. He calls Himself The Bread of Life, The Light of the World, The Door, The Good Shepherd, The Vine. But today we’re going to study a statement that He’s made in a story that’s found only one time in all of scripture. Yet wrapped up in this statement and the story that surrounds it is the answer not only to why God waits and why God sometimes makes us wait, but why it really is true that good things come to those who wait. [Turn to John 11] When we get to this statement later in this message and you see what Jesus did in the story and why He did it, you’re going to learn one of the most valuable life lessons of all. Key Take Away: No Matter How Long You Wait God Is Never Late.
It’s one of the most well known stories in the Bible. One of the most famous miracles in the Bible that in fact made a man famous who we might never of heard of otherwise. His name is Lazarus. We pick up the story in verse one.
“Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.” (John 11:1, ESV)
When you go to Israel one of the neatest places you get to visit is the little village of Bethany. Which is just across the Kidron Valley from Jerusalem not far from the Mount of Olives about two miles walking distance. This family had adopted Jesus and this is where Jesus would stay whenever He went to Jerusalem. Lazarus is sick and it’s not just a cold or a touch of the flu, he’s deathly ill. So the sisters send for Jesus and it’s interesting that they describe Lazarus as, “The one whom you love”. Jesus did love Lazarus. He was literally like a brother to Jesus and outside of Peter, James, and John they were best buds. Now just to emphasize how deep this love was between Jesus and this family, John adds this in verse 5.
“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” (John 11:5, ESV)
So understand these are not just friends, this is family. So the story continues in verse 6. “So when He heard that Lazarus was ill He immediately dropped what He was doing, got to Bethany as fast as he could, and healed Lazarus.”
Um, I know, that’s not what is says. That’s what we would expect it to say, but instead we read: “So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.” (John 11:6, ESV)
Can you just imagine the scene? This messenger comes breathlessly to Jesus and His disciples, tells them that Lazarus is deathly ill. The disciples immediately begin packing up their bags, getting ready to go. Jesus instead reaches for another Coke and changes the channel to ESPN. In other words, He decides to wait.
We pick up the story two days later and indeed Lazarus is dead. Jesus informs the disciples of his death. He makes one of the strangest statements of His short earthly career.
“Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there…” (John 11:14-15, ESV)
Wait a minute, your best buddy has died, you could’ve stopped it and you’re glad that you didn’t go to stop it. You’re glad that you let him die? By now the even the disciples are probably a little bit in sensed. They’re thinking to themselves, “Boy, you’ve got some explaining to do.” But when you see what happens as this story unfolds and you play the tape back and realize how it was all planned out from the beginning. Then you’ll understand why this crazy sounding principle is so true. Jesus is glad for the bad when the bad leads to the good. Whenever God waits, whenever God procrastinates, whenever God doesn't do what you think He ought to do, when you think He ought to do it, the way you think He ought to do it, God is making sure that three things happen.
I. God Is Glorified
Jesus The first reason why God waits and the first clue that Jesus gives is found when He first hears of Lazarus’s illness. Let’s go back to verse three.
“So the sisters sent to him, saying, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ 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.’” (John 11:3-4, ESV)
There are four words that not only tell us why God waits, it tells us why God does everything. In fact, these four words actually tell us what the single most important thing in the universe is and those four words are: The Glory of God.
Now at first glance you think you’ve caught Jesus in His first mistake. He says, “This sickness will not end in death.” (John 11:4, NIV)
You say wait a minute it did end in death. No, his sickness led to death, it did not end in death, it ended in the glory of God because Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
In fact, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, your life is not going to end in death. It will lead to death, but because you have eternal life it ends in the glory of God.
In fact, do you know why Jesus performed miracles at all? He wasn't just being a divine showoff. He wasn't doing tricks to amaze crowds. In fact, the very first miracle that John records is at a wedding where Jesus turned water into wine. Do you think He did that just so the wedding crowd would have plenty to drink? Listen to this verse.
“This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” (John 2:11, ESV)
Whenever you study the life of Jesus don’t ever forget this next fact. Whatever Jesus is doing in your life He’s doing it not primarily to satisfy you, but to glorify God. The glory of God is the trump card in the deck of life. God’s glory will always trump our desires, our wants, and our preferences.
When we’re sick what’s far more important than our healing is the glory of God. When we’re poor what’s far more important than money is the glory of God. When we’re unemployed what’s far more important than a job is the glory of God. When we’re bereaved what’s far more important than our comfort is the glory of God. There is nothing more important in this world or in your life than that God is glorified.
When Jesus was about to go to the cross and He was thinking about how He was going to be beaten and tortured and suffer and die for the sins of the world, this is what He said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” (John 12:23, ESV)
Not crucified, but glorified. Jesus Christ not only died for the love of sinners, He died for the glory of God.
Have you ever admitted a time in your life when you just didn’t know exactly how to pray? You didn’t know what to ask for. You didn’t know what to pray for. You didn’t even know how to say what needed to be said. There is one prayer we can always pray and we can always know that we’re praying in the will of God and this is that prayer, “Father, glorify your name.” “Father, whatever you do no matter what it costs me, you bring glory to yourself.” Because the glory of God outranks everything else, it trumps everything else, it’s more important than everything else.
So the next time you feel like looking up to heaven and saying, “What are you waiting on?” Know this, the one thing He’s waiting on for sure is that He is glorified. There’s a second thing that God is waiting on. So the next time God delays, God holds out, God stays silent, God does nothing, there’s a second thing that God is determined to see happen and that is:
II. Faith is fortified.
We just read where Jesus tells the disciples that Lazarus has died and He’s glad. Now let’s see why He was glad.
“Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.’” (John 11:14-15 ESV)
Now we learn the second reason why God often times waits and why we have to wait on God. It is so that we may believe, that we may exercise faith and that our faith might be exercised. I want you to remember this; God is in the faith growing business. God is more interested in growing your faith than He is in healing your sicknesses, solving your problems, or satisfying your desires. We don't understand that and see that and that's why we often respond the same way that Martha did.
“Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’” (John 11:17-21, ESV)
How many times have we said that to God, “Lord if you had done this, this would not have happened. If you had been here, this would have turned out differently.” Martha was right, if Jesus had been there Lazarus would not have died. He would have healed him while he was still sick, but had he done that, this miracle would have never had happened and this story would not have been in he Bible. And what did happen would have never happened.
But there’s still that nagging question, why the delay? He waited two days cause we just read that by the time He got back to Jerusalem, Lazarus had been in a tomb for four days. If Jesus had left immediately when He heard that Lazarus was sick, Lazarus still would have been dead by the time Jesus arrived. And Jesus could have still performed a miracle. Whether you’re dead two days or four days, dead is dead. The very least if He had gone ahead and left He would have at least saved Mary and Martha two days of crying, and heartache and grief. So why did He wait?
Well you would have understood clearly if you had been alive two thousand years ago. There was a Jewish superstition that when you die your spirit hovers over your body for up to three days and then it departs. At that point no resuscitation is possible. It’s only after the fourth day when decomposition sets in that the spirit finally departs and death is judged irreversible. If Jesus had arrived two days earlier and brought Lazarus back from the dead, there would have been a lot of people saying, “He never really died, we know how this works. This is no miracle.”
But the point is made twice that Lazarus had been dead four days. That's why as Jesus goes to raise Lazarus from the dead Martha says to Him in verse 39, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor for he has been dead four days.” (John 11:39, ESV)
Now if you have an old King James version it says, “Lord, by this time he stinketh.” (John 11:39, KJV)
Now when you stinketh you’re dead. You see there was no such thing as embalming back in Bible days in the sense that we know it. Whenever you wrapped a corpse in cloth and ointments it was not primarily to embalm is was to quell the smell. There’s no doubt Lazarus was as dead as disco.
That sets up this unbelievable “I Am” statement.
“Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’” (John 11:23-26, ESV)
Now every Orthodox Jew believed there would be a resurrection at the end of time, but Jesus was not talking about tomorrow, He was talking about today. He wasn't talking about then, He was talking about now.
Jesus is actually making two claims. When He says, “I Am the Resurrection.” What He simply means is there is life after death, but when He says, “I Am the Life” He’s also telling us there’s life after life. In other words, Jesus says, I not only will take care of your future, I will take care of your present.
That statement is a game changer because Jesus says to all of us, as long as you live I am your life, but when you die, I am your resurrection. I will be there for your present and I will be there for your future. I will be there today and I will be there tomorrow. I will be there now and I will be there later. I am with you as long as you live and I am with you when you die and in fact because of me you can never die.
You see Jesus was actually speaking of two kinds of death. When He says in verse 25,
“Whoever believes in me though he die, yet shall he live.” (John 11:25, ESV)
He was talking about physical death, which is the separation of the soul from the body. But in verse 26 when He says, “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:26, ESV)
He was talking about spiritual death, which is the separation of the soul from God. One of these days my body is going to die, but I am going to live after my body dies. Now the issue at that point before Martha was not what Jesus said, He couldn’t have made it any plainer. The issue came down to this question, verse 26, “Do you believe this?” (John 11:26, ESV)
Jesus’ main concern is not Lazarus’s death; He’ll take care of that. His main concern is Martha’s faith. I don’t know what you’re going through right now, but God’s main concern is not what you’re going through, His main concern is do you trust Him in the middle of what you’re going through.
And the real point of this miracle and the climax of this story is not what happens to Lazarus, it comes in what Martha says in verse 27.
“She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.’” (John 11:27, ESV)
I’ve told you before that every time we go through a difficult situation whether you hear from God or not, whether God acts or not, His question is hanging in the air, “Do you trust me or not? Do you believe me or not?”
Well, this is a put up or shut up statement. You can say you’re the Resurrection and the Life, you can say that people will live even if they die, but it’s another thing to prove it. So we go to the part of the story that we all love.
“Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 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.’ (John 11:38-39, ESV)
Well we just read where Martha believed, that she DID believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. But she did not believe everything she needed to believe about Christ the Son of God. Her faith needed to be fortified. So Jesus reiterates the main point.
“Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?’” (John 11:40, ESV)
God’s glory and our faith always go together. When you choose to believe God even when everything tells you not to, when you choose to trust God even when you can’t see Him, feel Him, or hear Him, God is glorified.
Now listen to His prayer.
“So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 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.’” (John 11:41-42, ESV)
You see it? Jesus could have prayed silently, but He prayed openly, He prayed publically and He prayed loudly because He wanted everyone to understand that what He was about to do was not just another magic trick, not just another miracle, it was to glorify God and to fortify faith.
I would give everything I own if I could have had a front row seat to what happened next.
“When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out.’ The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’ (John 11:43-45, ESV)
If you’d been selling popcorn that day you’d made millions. This man who was definitely dead, life over, spirit gone, has done the unthinkable, he has come back from the grave. Now don't miss the next thing that happened.
“Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him.” (John 11:45, ESV)
Do you see that? This is not a story primarily about the dead being raised. It is primarily a story about God being glorified and faith being fortified.
Think about it. Whose faith was strengthened that day? Well the faith of the disciples was strengthened, the faith of Martha and Mary was strengthened, the faith of the Jews who came to see Mary and Martha was strengthened, and you better believe the faith of Lazarus was strengthened. Here is the lesson; God wants to use your trial as a trail to lead to more trust. The greatest work that God will ever do in your life is not what He will do for you; it’s what He will do in you. And when God is waiting and you’re waiting on God, mark it down; He’s wanting to fortify your faith.
Notice one last thing that happens, when God is glorified and faith is fortified:
III. Ministry is multiplied.
Listen again to verse 45. “Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him.” (John 11:45, ESV)
These were formerly unbelievers who became believers. These were people who did not believe in Jesus before the miracle, but believed in Jesus after the miracle. And it doesn't just say a few Jews; it says many Jews. God used the faith of Mary and Martha, and God used the death of Lazarus to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ. And this family had a ministry that was multiplied throughout their community that they would have never had, had God not been glorified and their faith had not been fortified.
Now do you think that Lazarus was a changed man because of this? Do you think he had a story to share and do you think he shared that story? As a matter of fact, he became a celebrity. Everybody wanted his autograph. Everybody wanted to have their picture made with him. You think I’m making that up? Listen to what happens a few days later. We read in the next chapter.
“When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.” (John 12:9, ESV)
Jesus was actually sharing the stage with Lazarus. They didn't come to just see Jesus; they came to see the guy that’d come back from the dead. They were coming to hear his story. Oh by the way I love what we read in the next two verses.
“So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.” (John 12:10-11, ESV)
Do you see what’s happening? People were coming from miles around to see this man that had been raised from the dead and he’s telling everybody what Jesus had done for him. And John says on account of Lazarus and his story many of the Jews were believing in Jesus and the Pharisees didn't like it.
So the Pharisees put out a contract on Lazarus. They probably sent word to him and said, “If you don't shut up and quit telling people about Jesus, you’re going to die.” Let me ask you a question. Do you think that scared Lazarus? He said, “Been there, done that, no big deal. You take your best shot. You can kill my body, but you can’t kill me. I have eternal life because I believe in Jesus.” Lazarus kept right on sharing his story and people kept right on listening and people kept right on believing. And the ministry of the Gospel was multiplied.
It would be only a week later that this same Jesus would die, crucified on a cross. It would be nine days later that He would come back from the grave. And maybe many years later Mary and Martha and Lazarus are reminiscing about Jesus and the time they had together and they may have said something like this, “I am so glad when God waits and I am so glad when we wait on God because look how God has used us. Look at all the people who have trusted Jesus. Look at how strong our faith is. Look at the glory that God brought to Himself because He waited and we waited.”
In 1897 a man by the name of Pearl Wait wore several hats. He was a construction worker, but he was also an inventor. And he would dabble in certain kinds of medicines and other things and he was trying to make a living selling his remedies door to door. In the midst of his tinkering he came up with this idea of mixing fruit flavoring with granulated gelatin. His wife named it “Jell-O” and Wait had one more product to peddle.
Well unfortunately like most of his other products, sales didn’t go as he hoped they would. So in 1899, Pearl Wait sold the rights to Jell-O to Orator Woodward for $450.00. Well Woodward knew the value of this product and within just eight brief years his neighbor turned a $450.00 investment into a one million dollar business. Today not one single descendant of Pearl Wait receives any royalties from the 1.1 million boxes of Jell-O that are sold every single day. Can you guess why? Because Wait just couldn’t wait.
Good things do come to those who wait on the Lord. Never forget no matter how long you wait, God is never late. And when you wait great things happen.