“The Five things to do when disaster strikes.”
ARE YOU WILLING TO BE IN THE WILL OF GOD?
Part 2
And the story goes on…
John 11:33 Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. 34 And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.”
- The fourth stage of grief Depression: “I’m too sad to do anything.”
35 Jesus wept.
Third thing to see when disaster strikes
- Emotion is natural. (John 11:35)
One of the worst temptations during a crisis is to try to appear strong. I will be a rock during this storm, you might think. But let me share a simple truth with you. When we are weak, he is strong. We live in a society that says crying is weak and for women. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Jesus wept. Why did Jesus, weep? Mourning over Lazarus? No that doesn’t make sense. He knew God was going to raise him from the dead. He wept because he saw the pain in Mary and Martha, people he loved, and his heart hurt with them.
God has made us emotional people and when a crisis hits, we need to let it out. It’s ok to be emotional. It’s ok to cry.
Jesus Wept: Human or Divine?
By Dr. Nicholas J. Schaser – September 26, 2019
The shortest verse in our English translations of the New Testament contains only two words: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). The Messiah’s sorrow comes in response to the death of his friend Lazarus, whom he will soon raise from the dead (11:38-44). It is common for Christians to compartmentalize this show of emotion into Jesus’ “human nature” because weeping is associated with vulnerability—a character trait that they assume couldn’t possibility apply to the Divine. However, Gospel readers should not be too quick to limit outward sorrow to Jesus’ humanity, since Scripture contains more than one instance of God shedding tears.
Jeremiah contains the clearest reference to divine weeping when God cries alongside the women of Israel: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Consider, and call for the mourning women to come… let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes (עינינו; eyneynu) may run down with tears (דמעה; dim’ah) and our eyelids overflow with water’” (Jer 9:17-18). This passage highlights God as the speaker and includes the deity among those who weep over Israel’s coming exile. In light of Jeremiah, it is clear that to weep is both human and divine.
A similar picture of heavenly mourning appears in Isaiah. In the midst of an oracle against Moab (15:1), the text includes a lament for the towns of Israel’s contentious neighboring country, “I weep (בכה; bakhah) with the weeping of Yazer for the vine of Sibmah; I drench you with my tears (דמעה; dim’ah)… my innermost parts moan (המה; hamah) like a lyre for Moab” (16:9, 11). While one might assume that these verses describe the prophet’s own sorrow, the text that follows explicates that these were the words of God. Isaiah declares, “This is the word that the Lord spoke concerning Moab in the past” (16:13). As with Jeremiah, Isaiah presents the embodied outpouring of divine distress. According to the prophetic Scriptures, the God of Israel weeps. Therefore, when we read that “Jesus wept,” we must conclude that such emotion reflects both his humanity and his divinity.
Read verses 21, 32. It is ok to question God. It is ok to say “God I do not understand why this is happening to me. I don’t understand what you are trying to do in my life.”
21 Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 32 Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
If you are going through a crisis realize that prayer must be a priority, and that it is ok to allow your emotions to be expressed.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!” 37 And some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?” 38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, 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 him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”
We (the Church are to remove the stones to get to the stinking people ) …we need to quit being so high and mighty and pious and go after the stinking people.
We forget where we came from!!!
Romans 3:23 (NKJV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Isaiah 64:6 (NKJV) But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; …
Back to our text.
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”
“Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. It is easier to say “My tooth is aching” than to say “My heart is broken.”” – C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
Fourth thing to see when disaster strikes
- God uses disaster for his glory. (John 11:4, 40)
He can take a negative and turn it into a positive. He turned disaster into deliverance. God can use crisis in our lives to bring about his glory.
4 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.
In verses 4 & 40, God did not cause Lazarus to die, but he used the crisis for his glory and it changed the lives of Mary and Martha. So how does that help us?
It helps us with the temptation to blame God. It helps us to realize that God doesn’t bring disaster into our lives. It helps us realize that he loves us and can take our defeats and turn them into his victories. It also gives us hope that God is able to cure any disease, fix any marriage, mend any heart, forgive any sin.
There is no crisis too big for God.
41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.42 And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”
43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” 44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”
We need to take off the grave clothes of old habits:
We need to take off the grace clothes of old attitudes:
We need to be renewed by the changing of our minds –
We need to begin to think differently – like we’ve been set free!
Galatians 5:1 (NKJV) Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
45 Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him.
- The fifth stage of grief Acceptance: “I’m at peace with what has happened.”
Fifth thing to see when disaster strikes and:
- God changes lives through crisis. (John 11:45)
That’s the final lesson for us. Sometimes it is the life of the one going through the crisis. Other times it is the lives of those around a suffering person. Most of the time it is both.
Think about the lives that were changed in the Lazarus story:
Lazarus- he was never the same again. He had some wild stories to tell.
Mary and Martha- new love and appreciation for life, Lazarus, and Jesus.
The Jews- (verse 45) changed hearts, a new faith.
John 12:11 (NKJV) because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.
It is sad that it takes a crisis, but thank God that through a crisis he can turn the lost into saved, he can melt hardened hearts, he can make the bitter loving, he can turn orphans into children of the king.
We play in fair weather but we pray in the storms.
If you are a Christian and have gone through a disaster in your life, then you know exactly what I mean. You could say today, “I am not the same person that I was before the crisis came into my life.” God has shaped and molded you into who you are today, and has done it through crisis.
If you are a Christians and have not had any “great disasters”, I do not want to be the bearer of bad news, but at some point, you probably will have a time of crisis and testing in your life. I pray that you will keep these things close to your heart so that you will be totally prepared in a time of crisis.
One final scripture today-
John 11:25-26 (NKJV) 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Do you?
Christians are you living your lives reflecting your hope in the risen Lord?
If Jesus is not the Lord of your life, he can be. The Bible says we must:
Believe in Jesus as the Son of God.
Repent of our sins and confess Jesus as Lord.
Arise and live for him each and every day.
We don’t reach everyone; Some are totally against anything Jesus does!!
46 But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did.
47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs.48 If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”
Next week; “Sitting at the Table with Jesus.”
