Chapel of the Lake
Lord, If You Had Been Here
Welcome to Chapel of the Lake in Lake St. Louis, Missouri. The chapel family is a multi-generational community of believers who gather weekly to worship and explore God's Word as we grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Join us now as Pastor Keith Spa opens the scriptures. Well, good morning, family. What a joy to be here this morning to be able to praise our great God. He is indeed great in wonder. He is great in his mercy, great in his compassion for us. We're in for a treat this morning. This past week I was away out of town all week, and one of our elders graciously volunteered to step in and open the word for us this morning. It's a blessing and a privilege to welcome this morning to teach us our brother Chuck Hunter. Good morning, chapel family. Today, our text is going to come from the book of John, chapter 11, and so if you would turn with me there, we will read that. John chapter 11, starting at verse 21. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died, but even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." 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? She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world." When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, "The teacher's here and is calling for you." And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews, her with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, "Where have you laid him?" And they said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him?" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of a blind man have also kept this man from dying?" Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, "Take the stone away." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead for four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" 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 would always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me." 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." Let's pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this opportunity to come and worship you in song and worship you in fellowship and worship you in your word. We pray for your spirit to open up our minds and our hearts and our ears here today to hear what you would have each one of us to learn. Pray that your spirit meet each one of us where we're at and that as we hear and let you minister to us, we won't leave the same as we've come, but we will be renewed and invigorated for your kingdom and your glory. We pray this in your name. Amen. Now, a few years ago, I was asked a question regarding this passage in verse 35. And in verse 35, we see Jesus wept. And I was asked why did Jesus weep? The answer to that question had a very profound effect on me. So I'd like to share with you over the next few minutes what my discovery to that question led to and how it changed me and how it is still affecting and changing me. Now, one of the explanations that I came across early was that the text was referring to the crowds. And the crowds had the reason as to why Jesus wept. So if you look in your text, starting at verse 33, it says, "When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, "Where have you laid him?" And they said, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him?" You know, and as I was thinking about this, I was thinking about all the other times that we have in Scripture where the crowd commented on Jesus. And you know, something about the crowds regarding Jesus, they were never right. They always got it wrong. So why would suddenly they be right here? If you turn back in your Bibles just a couple of pages to John chapter 6, and look at verse 15 with me. So John chapter 6, verse 15, we read, "Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain, by himself." Now prior to this verse, we have the feeding of the 5,000. Now it's 5,000 men, so when you add the women and the children, estimations are of 15 to 20,000 people were fed there. And so there were large crowds of folks that were always following Jesus around because of the healings that he was doing. You know, that's a lot that's going on, and people wanted to experience that. They wanted to hopefully maybe be healed. They wanted to get some of that food. You know, the idea of having free food and free healthcare was pretty good to them, so they thought, "We'll make this guy our king." And Jesus, he actually sort of calls him out on it. If you look down at verse 26, Jesus answered them and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves." And then if we look further on, Jesus then gives them the actual gospel. And look at verse 47, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the man in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." The Jews then disputed amongst themselves, saying, "How can this man give us flesh to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks of my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living father sent me, and I live because of the father, so whoever feeds on me, he will also live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the father's aid and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." So Jesus presented the gospel to the crowd, and what was their reaction? Well, look with me at verse 60. "When many of the disciples heard this, they said, 'This is a hard saying, who can listen to it?' Then if you look down at verse 66, after this, many of his disciples turned and no longer walked with him." So here we see the crowd following Jesus and wanting all of these things, but when presented with the gospel, that's not something they wanted to hear. The crowd didn't have it right about Jesus. In just a few weeks, shortly after this incident, where Jesus raises Lazarus, we have the crowd, once again, saying, "Hosanna, Hosanna is Jesus coming into Jerusalem only a few days later to be yelling crucify him, crucify him." So when the crowd say, "Oh, look, he's crying because of his love for him," the fact that they were not right in a lot of different ways sort of made me dismiss that. Another reason that some commentators had, for Jesus's weeping, was that he was moved as he got caught up in the emotion over the funeral. So as I got thinking about that, I thought about, well, how did Jesus react in the other times where he resurrected somebody? And Scripture gives us two specific occasions where Jesus raised somebody else from the dead. First time was when he raised Jerris' daughter from the dead, and the second time was when he raised the widow's son. So if you turn with me over to Mark chapter 5, verse 21, we'll see the account of Jerris' daughter. And we see the initial setting, verses 21 through 24. And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd, there's the crowd again, gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jerris by name, and seeing him, fell at his feet, and implored him earnestly, saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death, come and lay your hands on her so that she may be made well and live." And he went with him. Then if you go down to verse 35, we'll pick up the rest of the account. While Jesus was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house someone who said, "Your daughter is dead, why trouble the master any longer?" But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe." And he allowed no one to follow except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he entered, he said to them, "Why are you making such a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but sleeping." And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him and went in to where the child was. Taking her by the hand, he said to her, "Taleetha Kumi, which means little girl, I say to you, arise." And immediately the girl got up and began walking for she was 12 years of age. And they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and he told them to give her something to eat. So, Jerris had come to Jesus because his daughter was ill. And he knew that Jesus was capable of healing people. I mean, the crowds knew Jesus was capable of healing people. So, he had a great expectation that he would bring news to the master. The master would come, and he would heal his daughter. And everything seemed to be working because when he told Jesus what was going on, Jesus agreed to come with him. But then on the way to home, he was met by a servant that told him his daughter was dead. And I can only imagine that the grief this father felt, the sense of loss at this time, where he had hope that his daughter was going to be made well, and suddenly she was dead, must have been just as devastating as that loss that Martha and Mary had felt. But Jesus didn't weep. He turned to the elder of the synagogue, and he said, "Believe." The next time we see Jesus raising somebody is over in the gospel of Luke in chapter 7, verse 11. So, in Luke chapter 7, verse 11, Scripture tells us soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate to the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother. And she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and he said to her, "Do not weep." Then he came up and touched the beer, and the bearers stood still. And he said, "Young man, I say to you arise, and the dead man sat up and began to speak." And Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited his people." And this report about him spread throughout the whole of Judea and all the surrounding countryside. So now, as they were coming to the gate, Jesus and his procession were coming down, and there was this dead man being carried out to be buried. You know, when he had been dead for some time, he probably died that day because within the Jewish tradition they needed to take care of the dead during the day. He had already been anointed and taken care of because they were carrying him out to the tomb to bury him. Now, one other thing to note about this was the mother's state. In this culture, it was a patriarchal society. And so a widow had no means to support herself by herself. So this was her only son. Not only was he her only son, and she had that loss, but she also had the loss of provision. She had nobody else to take care of her. And so it's in this sense of mourning and sense of loss that Jesus shows up. But in either of these circumstances with the widow's son or Jared's daughter, do we see Jesus breaking down and weeping? In both of these scenarios, emotions were running high, just like in Lazarus. In both of these situations, there was great loss, just like with Lazarus. And in both of these situations, Jesus had compassion for those who were left behind, just like with Lazarus. But still, Jesus didn't weep. Now, a third reason that people have said for the difference between the situation with Lazarus and these two is the relationship that Jesus had with this family. And if you turn back to our text there in John chapter 11, and look at verse 5, the text plainly tells us, "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister," which is Mary, "and Lazarus." So Jesus deeply loved this family. And he had spent a lot of time with this family. Now, this family lived in a little town called Bethany, and Bethany was about two miles east of Jerusalem. And one commentator pointed out that whenever Jesus was in this area, he stayed in Bethany with this family. It sort of became his base of operations, if you will. And if you turn back to Luke chapter 10, verse 38, we see one of these examples of Jesus with this family. And this is also probably one of the most well-known passages that talk about Martha and Mary. So Luke chapter 10, verse 38, we read, "Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house." And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her and said, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her." So Jesus and his disciples and probably some other people of the town are there. And we have a situation where Martha is, for all intents and purposes, it says it was her house. So she is the head of this household. Some commentators speculated that she herself was widowed. And so she has inherited this house and she's taken care of her younger siblings. The fact that she's mentioned first in these accounts, commentators said that it shows that she was probably the eldest of the three. But here we see her getting everything ready. She's trying to get everything off the stove at the same time, get everything to where it needs to be. And that's a lot of people to feed. And so she comes to Jesus and sort of complains and says, "Hey, can you tell my sister to get up and start helping me?" And Jesus rebukes her and says, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion." And you know, when we talk about the love that Jesus had for this and the intimacy that he had for this family, it's really amazing to think that it is that same love that Jesus has for us. John 3, 16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life." In Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4 and 5, the word tells us, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, for by grace have you been saved." Romans 5, 8 says, "But God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." And then if you turn over to John chapter 14, which is near where our text is, and look at verse 21, John chapter 14, 21, we read, "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." And you know, it's amazing to think that the God of universe loves us that much. It's the same love with which he loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. And you know, one other thing about this love, you know, as we look at the deaths of Jericho's daughter and of the widow's son and of Lazarus, they were dead at different stages. Jericho's daughter had just died. The son died sometime earlier but been dead long enough to where they were able to get him ready for burial. And here we have Lazarus, which in our text, we read, had been dead for four days, and Martha was concerned, was already starting to decay. And you know, it doesn't matter how dead they were. Jesus had the power of resurrection. And you know, that same thing applies to us. You know, the scripture that we read said that we were dead in our trespasses and sins, but God loved us and sent his son to die for us. And it doesn't matter how dead we are or we were. It didn't matter if we were basically a good person but just separated. It didn't matter if we were a terrible sinner. Dead is dead, and we serve a God who has the power to overcome that death, and he has done that for us. And that's an amazing thing. And so another reason that ties in with this, that I think that it wasn't because of the emotion of situation that Jesus wept because we see that this whole thing of Lazarus dying was part of Jesus' plan within this situation. Turn back to John chapter 11 in starting at verse 2. We read, "It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill." 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, for it is the glory of God so that the son of God may be glorified through it." So sort of in keeping with what we saw with Jerris, the sisters knew who Jesus was. They knew what his power was, and they knew their brother was sick, and so they sent to Jesus to come and heal their brother, which makes sense. They knew who he was. Now, what did Jesus do? Look at verse 6. When Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. He stayed there, because this was something that was going to be manifested for God's glory. And while he was staying there, if you look down in verse 11, he says to his disciples, after saying these things, he said to him, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to wake him." And the disciples said, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." Now, the disciples were a little bit concerned about Jesus going back to Judea, because they knew that the Jews were conspiring to kill him, and they were afraid that if he went back there, he would be put to death. And so they were concerned that he's going back there just to wake up somebody. He's going to wake up eventually, so Jesus had to clarify, you know, a lot of times as we read in the scriptures, it seems like the disciples weren't the sharpest tools in the shed. And that's a good thing, because my dad used to tell me I needed to be hit over the head with the two by four before I could be taught anything. So I have a lot of stuff in common with the disciples. But in verse 14, then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus has died." So Lazarus is now dead, so Jesus now goes to Bethany. In verse 17, we see Jesus coming to the town. Now, when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for 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 Jesus comes, and the brother is dead. So in verse 20, we hear that Martha's immediate response, as she hears that Jesus is coming, is that she gets up and goes to him. But Mary doesn't. Mary stays in the house. And I want us to take a look at the conversation that Martha and Jesus have with each other. Verse 21, Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you." 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." And 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? And she said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world." Now we see here that even through the sorrow of the death of her brother, even through the tumult of everything that's going on, when Martha comes to Jesus, she comes to him with complete faith. She comes to him with confession that he is the Christ and she comes to him with an understanding that he can do all things. So then we look down at verse 28 through 31 and we see that after this conversation Martha then goes to Mary who's still in the house and she tells Mary that the teacher is calling for her and so Mary gets up and she goes to him. And the people, the crowd, that was in the house, they see her running and they think she's going to go to the tomb and weep, so they get up to go weep with her. It was a big deal the crowd was doing. They actually had in this day professional mourners, professional weepers. But let's look down in verse 32. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and she saw him, she fell at his feet saying to him, "Lord, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." But you notice this is where Mary stops. She doesn't go on like Martha. She stops here. If you had been here, my brother would not have died. In verse 33 we read, "When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled." Now this word deeply moved, I'm going to read it here, it's called "Embry Malmai." And it's translated deeply moved here, but this verb is used three other times in the New Testament. The first time we see it used is over in Matthew 9.30. You don't need to turn here. If you want to write it down for reference later, that's fine. But in Matthew 9.30 the text reads, "And Jesus sternly warned them." Another time this verb is used is in Mark 143 and it says, "And Jesus sternly charged him." In Mark 1415, the text says, "For this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 denare and given to the poor, and they scolded her." So we're in our text, it was translated deeply moved. In all of these other texts, it is translated as sternly worn, sternly charged, and scolded. One commentator said that the Greek term deeply moved always suggests anger, outrage, or emotional indignation. Now as I was going around the house practicing this word, "Embry Malmai," my daughter was listening and she didn't hear me right and she said, "You know Dad, when you were practicing that word, I kept hearing angry mountain lion." And I thought, you know, it actually sort of fits. So as I was learning Russian, I had word pictures that I would say, "Now I'm never going to get angry mountain lion out of my head for this word." But it actually fits here because Jesus wasn't moved. He wasn't deeply moved because of sympathy or empathy. He was deeply moved because he had a righteous anger. And one of the commentators said that his anger was there because rather than having hope in him, the crowd was acting like pagan's act. And this is where I come back to the reaction of him weeping. And as I was thinking about it, I started looking at the difference between how Martha reacted and how Mary reacted. When Martha said, "Lord, Lord, if you had only been here, my brother would not have died," she followed it up by saying, "But even now I know that whatever you asked from God, God will give you." Mary didn't do that. For all the time that Mary spent at Jesus's feet listening to his teaching, for all the relationships she had with him, for all the time she had spent with him in the house and seeing his miracles and hearing about all the things that had done when push came to shove, when the rubber met the road, when the bullet met the meat, she stopped short. She just said, "If you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died." And I think that is what caused Jesus to weep. And it got me thinking, how am I so different as I was studying this passage? I was saved when I was six years old, so I've had a relationship with Jesus Christ for 56 years now. I didn't grow up in a home that went to church, but when I was 16 and able to go on my own, I started going to church and I actually started studying the Word. And to varying degrees, often on through the last 35, 40 years, I've been applying that, trying to apply it to my life. Since then, I've been in fellowships. I've been encouraged by the brethren. I've had brethren help me, help strengthen me, help correct me. And yet, I was thinking about that. And how often have I said, "Lord, Lord, have you, if you were only here?" And if that's what caused Jesus to weep, it makes me think, how often have I caused Jesus to weep? Isaiah 53 says, "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not." And unfortunately, for Mary, our story doesn't end here. If you turn over to chapter 12, we see, starting at verse 1, six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed his feet and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of perfume. So now we see Jesus back at this family's house. We have a resurrected Lazarus reclining at the table with Jesus. We have Martha busily getting everything ready for dinner, and we see Mary coming in. And Mary takes a bottle of perfume and anoints Jesus, anoints his feet. And then she lets her hair down and she takes her hair and she wipes his feet. And what Mary is showing here is complete submission, complete worship, complete contrition. You know, we serve a God who is a God of reconciliation. He is a God who wants to restore our relationships with him. He does that by providing us salvation, but he also wants to restore our day-to-day relationships with him. You know, so when we come to those times where due to the circumstances, due to what's going on, due to a loss, due to a tragedy, due to unforeseen loss of job or trials or being wronged or being hurt, when we want to cry out, Lord, if you had only been here, we can know that He is. We just have to trust Him. We just have to trust in His Word. We just need to trust in His sovereignty. We just need to trust in His grace. Romans 828 tells us, "And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, to those who are the called according to His purposes." The story didn't end with Jesus weeping. The story ends with Mary's worship. Let's pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, we just thank You that You are a God of reconciliation and that You've loved us so much that no matter where we are at, You want to keep that relationship with us, to kindle that relationship for us. You watch out over us. You intimately care about what's going on with us. And all things that happen to us, your desire is to work for our good and to bring you glory. And Lord, as we leave here today, we just pray that You'll help us to see You in all of our circumstances, that we will worship You in spirit and in truth. In this we pray in Your name. Amen. May God bless you as you grow in your walk with Him this week.