IF ONLY OR ONLY BELIEVE

Scripture: John 11:17-44

"Lord, if you had been here,

my brother would not have died."

John 11:21,32

Then Jesus said, 'Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

John 11:40

For a number of years I have received the gift of a book from my home church the First Baptist Church , Fort Erie, and this year's book has the two-word title "If Only". By way of explanation, there is a longer title: " Moving Beyond Blame To Belief"

Because all truth is God's truth, I feel at liberty to share some of the ideas expressed in this book along with some reflections of my own & have entitled my sermon If only OR Only believe. This suggests a choice that each of us can make between if only or only believe. Dave Seamands , the author of the book explains it as moving beyond blame on to belief ."If only" means living in the past, but "only believe" means committing the past to the Lord and living in the present with our faith in the Lord. Obviously, we cannot change the past but we still cling to it. We must go beyond blame and past the gnawing pain of regret into a life of continuing faith.

The main passage of Scripture that the author uses to put across these truths is the eleventh chapter of John's gospel which relates the death of Lazarus & his being raised from the dead by Jesus who said ,"I am the resurrection & the life. Dave Seamands interprets this passage of Scripture through his experiences as a missionary & Christian counselor . Let's look at John, chapter 11.

(1)IF ONLY

These are usually words of regret, a sad commentary of what could have been but wasn't . They are the words of both Martha & Mary, sisters of Lazarus. To recap the story, you will remember that Jesus receives the report that Lazarus "whom you love" is sick. Jesus' comment to the disciples is that this sickness will not end in death but is for God's glory that God's son may be glorified .

And John explains at this point, that Jesus loved Martha & her sister and Lazarus, but that when he heard it, he stayed where he was two more days. One would think that the Master would rush to the home of Lazarus & heal him but in his own words ,"This sickness will not end in death, (but) is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." "What does he mean?" we wonder. He died very soon after the report was received. Did the sickness not end it death? Well, the answer is "no, not really", for in God's plan, people would witness the wonderful power of God. Something else that we must realize is that the people of that day were not living in a world of instant communication. Luke gives the account of the centurion whose servant was ill . He expressed tremendous faith in Jesus and his conviction that the Master need only say the word and the servant would be healed. Christ marveled at this man's faith & in that case there was both instant communication & instant healing. But in the case of Lazarus, Jesus was about two days removed from Bethany and it is possible that Lazarus had died by the time he received the message. What seemed an unnecessary delay was useful in actually strengthening the faith of Martha & Mary thus preparing them for the miracle that was to follow & also teaching his disciples about what was taking place. The centurion was prepared for Jesus to act, but Mary & Martha no doubt needed to have their faith both tested & strengthened.

And so, after two days delay, Jesus suggests that they return to Judea. The reaction of the disciples is, " a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you and yet you are going back there ? " After telling them that he must work while it is still day, he makes this beautiful statement, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him." Of course, he had to explain what he meant. He tells them plainly that Lazarus was dead and adds "for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." They ,too, were being prepared for something even greater than a healing. Jesus wants us to look beyond death into the eternal world. After all, he is the resurrection and the life. Mary, Martha , and most certainly Lazarus and Jesus' own disciples were about to get a glimpse of eternity.

Taking up the narrative, we read that Jesus, upon his arrival, found that Lazarus had already been dead for four days. Not only, did he minister to the disciples but also to the sisters of Lazarus . They had to be prepared for what he was about to do. Martha is the first to greet Jesus upon his return. You will recall that she was the anxious one who rebuked her sister for not helping her prepare the meal when Jesus came to visit. So, on this occasion , she goes out to meet him. "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.". It certainly sounds like she is blaming him. Once again, we hear those words "if only" ..."if only, you had been here, my brother would not have died." But she quickly goes on to make another statement that indicates faith in the Master. She says, "But I know that even now. God will give you whatever you ask.

What did she mean ? Did she believe that Christ would bring him back to life ? That hardly seems likely for Jesus tells her that her brother will rise again & gets the response, " I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." But we can imagine that she is really asking what he is going to do about it here & now. If we read on, we soon find out."I am the resurrection & the life." he declares, " He (or she) who believes in me will live, even though he dies & whoever believes in me will never die." And to make it all very personal he adds, " Do you believe this ?"

"Yes, Lord , I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world." Having said this, she went back & called her sister Mary aside. " The teacher is here, and is asking for you". I wonder why Mary wasn't out there to meet Jesus as Martha was. After all , she was the one who sat at his feet listening as sister Martha prepared the meal. Did Mary's faith need a boost? Whatever the case, her words are the same as Martha's: " Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." It appears that once again, Jesus is being blamed for his death. We too may blame others & in some cases we too may feel that we are being blamed. The incarnation meant that the second person of the trinity became a human being. He was God in the flesh, but it also meant that he accepted the limitations that flesh is heir to. One obvious limitation is that we are confined in space & time. Jesus could not be in two places at the same time. He was not Mary & Martha's private chaplain. But he also participated fully in the sorrow & heartache of our own mortality. When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her weeping , he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. He asks, " Where have you laid him?"

I wonder if the hymn writer was speaking from personal experience when he asks whether Jesus cares. In any case, he has captured the pathos & the anguish of that group of mourners near Bethany.

"Does Jesus care when I've said good bye to the dearest on earth to me?

And my sad heart aches till it nearly breaks. Is it aught to Him ? Does he care ?

O yes, He cares, I know He cares, His heart is touched with my grief

When the days are weary, the long nights dreary; I know my Saviour cares."

Jesus does care about you & me? Yes he does. His heart is touched by our grief. And here in this scene, before they go to the tomb, we see our Lord as the great comforter. Anyone who has ever gone to Sunday School knows that the shortest verse of Scripture is John 11:35: "Jesus wept". Surely, his humanity, his being part & parcel of the human condition are seen here. But in being vulnerable, he is exposed to the criticism of those who watched. "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying ? "

With the eyes of everyone fastened upon him, Jesus is about to demonstrate his compassion but also his active power. But before, they could get a glimpse of eternity, they had to feel afresh the ugliness & reality of the tomb. There are things that we must do for ourselves before we can witness what God can do in our lives. And the first command issued by our Lord is "Take way the stone". Whereupon Martha replies, "But Lord, by this time there is a bad odour , for he has been there four days. " We can well imagine that in that warm climate, it would not be very pleasant, but it had to be done & it is like the many unpleasant things that we may have to do in our own lives, before we can see God's power displayed. It may not be very pleasant, for example, to reopen emotional wounds that are festered & have not healed properly. Or the pain of dealing with unconfessed sin is never easy.

But what does Jesus reply to Martha's objection ? He says, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God. Once again, they are urged to move from "if only" to "only believe". So the stone is rolled away.

The next thing Jesus does is pray. Although he is the divine Son of God, his total dependance is upon the Father. In his prayer, he not only shows his confidence in the Father, but also the desire that those who are watching may know that he has been sent by God. And when he had prayed, Jesus called in a loud voice ,"Lazarus, come out !" I have heard it said that he had to call Lazarus by name, otherwise the whole graveyard would have been emptied! We have seen his humanity & we also see his divine nature, for in the creation account God said "Let there be light", and there was light. That word has still its ancient power in your life and mine.

And so, in response to Jesus' word, the dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen. Jesus issues his final command, " Take off the grave clothes & let him go." To apply that to our own lives, it surely means that the old trappings of our former life have to be removed. This is not easy, even when we have been freed from the past & its power.

This is illustrated by an example Dr. Seamands gives. He talks about "Dr. Paul Brand , the world renowned medical missionary, who worked for years restoring the deformed hands of leprosy patients... (Brand) tells of his shock when his earliest prime patient, whose reconstructed hands now looked and performed normally, returned despondent after a few months. He was grateful for his new hands but then went on to complain, "But, Doctor, they're bad begging hands. People don't give as generously now." By freeing the hands from the characteristic "leper's claw", the surgeon had jeopardized the man's main source of income."( pp 104,105)

Henry Koop illustrates the same idea by the example of beggars on the streets of Calcutta who scrape old wounds , not allowing them to heal, so they can inspire the pity & thus the generosity of those who give. In a spiritual sense, we can do the same thing, and it keeps us from moving from the stage of "if only" into "only believe".

Well, we have come to the end of the account of the raising of Lazarus but what does it all mean in your life & mine? It is suggested in Dr. Seamand's book that we can be victim or victor. The choice is ours. He writes: "'the blame game'

has become almost a national epidemic ...We blame our parents, our schools. Our politicians, our environment, sometimes even God himself ...God's healing process can move use beyond hurt to forgiveness, beyond blame to belief." (end of quotation)

ONLY BELIEVE

As long as we live under the sentence of "if only" we are stuck in that thought pattern . This actually becomes a part of our identity. We continue to regard ourselves as more sinned against than sinning. There are , of course, many people who are victimized & that is a tragedy, but we must move beyond blame to belief. In the closing verses of Roman 8 Paul helps us to pass from victim to victor. He writes beginning at verse 36, "as it is written ' for your sake we face death all day long, we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered ... (but) in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us "

And he closes that chapter with the triumphant assurance that absolutely nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What a note of triumph was sounded by the raising of Lazarus ! He became living proof of the astonishing power of God, and a rebuke to the powers of darkness. We read that there was actually a plot to kill Lazarus. He was an embarrassment to the enemies of Christ. Well, we assume that he died in bed at a ripe old age. It is interesting that whereas we have the recorded words of both Mary & Martha, we hear nothing from Lazarus. And , yet, his life story speaks volumes. "Lord. The one you love is sick", was the message conveyed to Jesus. And that love was demonstrated in a must unusual way. His being raised from the dead is a powerful reminder that we too can be raised, not to die again but to be alive forevermore And the risen Christ who guarantees that final victory through faith in him, proclaims in Revelation chapter one: "Do not be afraid. I am the First & the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death & Hades."

May each of us experience that victory through faith in Christ. Return to Ken Seburn's web page