Well, hey, everybody. This is a much chiller
greeting. Welcome to Pursuing Jesus. Hello, everyone.
It is good to have you with us on episode 22.
22? 22. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling
22. Everything will be all right, as long as
I'm standing next to you. Well, you have definitely
felt 22 sooner than I have felt 22. I just had
that revelation of like, okay, wait, hold on.
I think Ben turned 22 and he had a theme song
available for him for turning 22. He did. Now,
I was still in my Taylor Swift is for girls era.
Yeah. And seeing that I am not a girl, I did
not celebrate that way. Although Madison did
sing it to me the day I turned 22. Which it makes
sense. Because she is a. Girl. Yeah. So I only
have one Taylor Swift experience. Okay. So this
would have been early college. Okay. When she
had had just her debut album out. So she was
small. When she was still country. Yes, because
me and Tiffany went to a Rascal Flats concert.
Ooh. I'm admitting that. It is on the internet.
People now know I have been to a Rascal Flats
concert. Dude, I'm envious. I love those guys.
So we went to the concert. Taylor Swift was the
opening act. No way. Yep. That was back when
she played fiddle. And she put on... a much better
show than Rascal Flatts. I mean, blew them out
of the water with just her and like a few band
members on stage, but her stage performance was
amazing. Well, good for her. It makes sense where
she has ended up where she is with the big concert
she has because the girl can do it. I mean, you
knew she was trouble when she walked in. I did.
I did. I understood that song reference. I'm
desperately searching for more Taylor Swift.
You've been constantly doing it. But even though
I don't have the 22 connection, you know what
year I was born? 17. Why did you start with 17?
1984. Dude, 1984. Yeah. So there's been a lot
of references to 1984 in pop culture. Well, yeah,
because of the book. Have you read that? I'm
actually a big fan of 1984. I have read the book.
You've got that one, and the whole point of 1984
is world domination will come through global
spying and people being suppressed, but you also
have Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I have
not read that. He was a contemporary of Orwell.
And his argument was not that the world would
come under global control by mass policing. It
was actually that people would please themselves
to death. The whole thing is that the society
keeps them sedated, medicated, entertained at
all times, in every sense of the word. Well,
that's not happening at all. Give it a read with
all the free time. It is borderline prophetic.
It's one of those things. I definitely do not
read enough fiction. I mean, literally, in the
past, In the past, I don't know, let's say 10
years. Yeah. 1984 is one of the very few fiction
books I have read. besides the harry potter series
three times yeah for a second i thought you meant
you had read 1984 three times and i've read the
harry potter series three times in the past 10
years uh i need to i need to put harry potter
down i just enjoy it's a great good versus evil
story yeah but i need i need to pick up some
other fiction man i really do well so the the
the water is wide on that one and so like you
get fiction that you read for entertainment Right.
Yeah. Um, but you also end up with fiction that
you read for like, like it's got a deeper meaning.
Like, like recently I read a book called Jaber
Crow and it's just about this dude who grows
up in this fictional town in Kentucky. Um, book
take the book starts in like 1898, just a little
after you were born. Um, and, uh, and he, it
walks him through the sixties. So it's this weird
first person perspective of, um, like watching
the world go from a very agrarian, non -industrialized,
not connected place to like, like he lives through
the world wars. He lives through Vietnam. He
lives through the space race. And like, it's
just this dude watching the world go by and it's,
it's long winded and a slow burn and contemplative.
And it taught me the value of time. Interesting.
So now that is interesting. So I don't know if
this is a specific category. I'm not a, I'm not
a bookworm. Sure, we'll go with that. A bookworm,
a bibliophile. There you go. There's a big word.
Why use big word when small word do jobs? Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Anyways, but I did read. So there
was a nonfiction book I read, but it was written
in a fiction style. It was a leadership book.
Yeah. And it was a leadership book that was written
using storytelling as the ability. to give the
leadership principles. That's a compelling medium.
And it was incredible. Yeah. It was so good.
I don't know, like I said, I don't know if that's
its own genre or what it is. And I'm terrible
at remembering book names, author names, or even
quotes. And so I can't tell you what the book
was. It's because you're so focused on the Bible.
See, you know my heart. Yeah, exactly. That is
the reason that is on the internet right now.
Yes, correct. Oh, man. Well, I do feel the need
to explain a little bit of what we're doing today.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Do it. So Memorial fam, this
is pursuing Jesus from the crib. On location.
On location. So Sean and I are currently sitting
in his living room. You know what? This is such
a different feeling. I am chilling on my couch.
Yeah. Surrounded by my dogs. That's not literally.
my, my puppies. Am I not one of your dogs, bro?
You are one of my dogs, but my actual pets as
well. Okay. And then, you know, my son is across
from us just chilling on his phone and we did
offer him a mic. We tried to get him on the mic,
but I understand. I understand. He does. Right.
But this is kind of fun, man. This is kind of
fun just chilling in the house. Obviously, it's
a very comfortable scenario for us to just talk
about random stuff. That's what we've opened
with for a lot of time so far. It's okay. We've
got about the same amount of time as we usually
do. Okay. Um, but just with the kind of the,
the different environment and, uh, the, the sort
of the chiller pace. I mean, like you and I are
talking about this off mic, just sort of wanting
to today's zero in on one major test. Cause there
was in this, for those of you that have been
doing the pursuing Jesus book and you're up to
date with us this week, there was a massive story
that took up four days. Correct. And so we decided
like, let's just zoom in on not a particular
day. but on the story that took up four days
of the week. Yes. And there's so much to draw
from like the John 11 narrative of like Jesus
and Lazarus. Yeah. Because it really is in three
acts, right? So you get the, we'll call it the,
oh man. So you get the prequels. The first movement
here we have is Jesus hears about the death of
Lazarus. He's talking to the disciples about
it, right? And then. You have the Jesus comes
into town discourse, and he has this conversation
with Martha. And then, of course, you have the
ending where you see Jesus actually raise Lazarus.
And so you really do have three unique movements
of this that I think are worth us touching on.
Yeah. So, Sean, how about this? What do you say?
Maybe we say we read through verse 16. We park
it there for a little bit. Yeah, and just kind
of let's talk about that, and we'll go over that
for a little bit, and then we'll just go from
there and see how much time we have. We'll go
by movement. Miles, does that sound good to you?
Okay, he's giving us a nod. Miles gave us a head
nod, so I think we're good. Excellent. Good.
Now a man was sick, Lazarus, from Bethany, the
village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was
the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and
wiped his feet with her hair, and it was her
brother Lazarus who was sick. So the sisters
sent a message to him, Lord, the one you love
is sick. When Jesus heard it, he said, this sickness
will not end in death, but it is for the glory
of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified
through it. Now Jesus loved Martha. her sister
and Lazarus. So, when he heard that he was sick,
he stayed two more days in the place where he
was. Then after that, he said to the disciples,
let's go to Judea again. Rabbi, the disciples
told him, just now the Jews tried to stone you
and you're going there again? Aren't there 12
hours in a day? Jesus answered, if anyone walks
during the day, he doesn't stumble because he
sees the light of the world. But if anyone walks
during the night, he does stumble, because the
light is not in him. He said this, and then he
told them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,
but I am on my way to wake him up. Then the disciples
said to him, Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he
will get well. Jesus, however, was speaking about
his death, but they thought he was speaking about
natural sleep. So Jesus then told them plainly,
Lazarus has died. I'm glad that for you that
I wasn't there so that you may believe, but let's
go to him. Then Thomas called the twin, said
to his fellow disciples, let's go to so that
we may die with him. There's a lot there, like
a lot, a lot there, even in verse. So context
is important, right? And then they touch on that,
that Jesus just like. majorly irritated. Yes.
A ton of that. He kicked the anthill. Yeah. And
then he left and then he left and they, and they
did pick up stones to stone him because he repeatedly
made claims to be equal with the father or literally
just God himself. He, he claimed that before
Abraham was born, he had always existed. Um,
and so, so brief side note, like, like if anybody
ever tells you and your discussions that, you
know, that Jesus never claimed to be God. If
they take kind of the moral teacher route, like,
like John eight through nine is a great place
to take them of just like, you know, guys, I
appreciate that, but that's not true. And it's
actually, that is that, that is an argument that
is taught to people to try to refute Judaism,
to try to refute Christianity is to try to get,
is try to manipulate and say that Jesus never
claimed to be God. Right. And so that's one of
those things that this is why apologetics is
so important. This is why knowing our Bible is
so important, so that you can know where to go
to defend your faith. No, absolutely. Absolutely.
So in the text, though, so keep that in your
mind, because I think that's important as we
move on. Man, even in verse two, you see that
these folks have a previous history with... Jesus.
There's a relationship that has been built here.
And there are two seeds of that, right? You see
one, that Mary was the lady who anointed the
Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her
hair. And so Mary has a real understanding of
her position before God. Oh my gosh, yes. And
that's where her request, hey, he whom you love
is ill, comes from. And so for us, we can learn
from her example of, When you're in a difficult
position, like when, when things are not looking
pretty, remind yourself of how the Lord has worked
in your life up until that point, because the
relationship that he builds with you is not for
nothing. Yeah. I mean, it's like, it's, that
would be like, that would be like if, if I got
a flat tire before and you came and helped me
change a tire, although like disclaimer, I know
how to change a tire. I took the auto maintenance
merit badge and boy Scouts like, like I'm set.
That's the thing. It's a thing. If you help me
change a tire before, I can call on you because
I know that you know how to do it. Yeah. And
you've shown me that you're willing to help me.
Yeah. And so Mary, who is sitting in the right
place before Jesus, knows that she's completely
dependent on him, says, Lord, Lord. Not rabbi.
No. But Lord. And whether this is... I don't
have the Greek in front of me, and so I don't
know whether this is dominus, like what they
would say is a term of respect, or Adonai, which
means Lord God. But either way, this is a term
of submission. He whom you love is ill. But look
how Jesus responds to this. 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. The thing that
stood out to me as I was reading verse four is
when Jesus makes a promise, he keeps it right.
Like you see that in this text, you see that,
that this illness does not lead to death, but
we often fill in our own interpretation of what
his promises mean. Like, like I think in my own
life, I assume that God will take the most direct
route. What do you mean by that? What I mean
by it is this. Psalm 122. He will keep you from
all evils. Or Psalm 91. You need not fear the
terror that stalks in the night, nor the arrow
that flies by day. A thousand may fall at your
side, but you will only see the recompense of
the wicked. My brain first reading says, Ben's
not going to get sick. It says he will keep you
from the deadly pestilence, right? Interesting.
Because that is the closest, nearest explanation
that I can get. Right. Right? But we do get sick.
Yes, we do. Our bodies are frail. Sometimes the
pestilence that stalks in the night does strike
us. Yeah. Sometimes the arrow by day does hit
us. Yes, it does. But the Lord's promise that
he will keep us from these things. is a lot closer
to, I feel like, and I mean, check me if I'm
wrong here. The Lord's promise in this is a lot
closer to, I will prevent this or I will carry
you through it. And in the end, I will make all
things new. No, I agree. I think you have your
finger on the pulse of that one correct for what
you're saying there. I absolutely agree. You
know, if I could take a moment and look at this
passage and kind of, The thing that overwhelms
me is looking at this part of it is just that
relationship that you were talking about earlier.
Yeah. When we look at verse three and it talks
about Lord, as you said, we looked at Lord, the
one you love is sick. And then later on. in verse
5, now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus.
And so, to see the emotions playing out in this
story, I think we talked about this in the podcast
last week, that there's many times that we don't
get to see a lot of those personalities or emotions.
We get to see them in some passages, but this
is one of those special ones, that because John
uses some particular language, it's a lot easier
to feel what's going on in this passage. And
I think that's on purpose because I mean, we're
talking about death here, you know, but what
I love about this is that when, obviously it
says her brother Lazarus was sick. I don't think
that this was a common cold, right? This was
a serious sickness. I mean, obviously it led
to his death, but whatever was going on in the
moment, they knew. This is not good. Correct.
They knew this is not good, and they trusted
Jesus so much. I mean, already at this point
in this relationship, they knew who he was. Yes.
They knew he had the power, the character, and
the love to do something. And you see Martha
say that explicitly in Act 2. And so now it ends
up being different than what they think. Precisely.
Right? But the trust that they have with Jesus
because they have a relationship with him. Yeah.
That's incredible. And that's where it starts.
I think that some people wonder, like they look
at this very beginning part and it's like, man,
I wish I had a relationship with Jesus like that.
It's obtainable. Absolutely. Relationships take
work. Relationships take trust. And even this,
the story that's pointed out, Mary humbled herself,
put herself on the ground, and wiped Jesus' feet
with her hair. I mean, talk about a total position
of humility. And of course, you respond to Jesus
in ways like that. Jesus is going to respond
back. And not even in a reciprocal way. No. It's
not like you're gaining Jesus' favor more because
you're more submissive. As you further submit
to him, you are better able to receive that relationship
with Jesus. Exactly. Exactly. Thank you for clarifying
that. Because what you see here, we are seeing
the heart of what Mary wants. Yeah. And she just
wants to be near Jesus. And think about whenever
something in your life like this, like her brother's
dying, her brother who she has an incredible
relationship with, this person that she's close
with is dying. Who do you want to be around during
those moments but the people that you're most
intimate with, the people that you have a close
relationship? And for her, one of those people
is Jesus. That's incredible. You know, one of
the other things that stood out to me is at the
very end of this act, here is verse 14, when
the disciples are still like... what do you mean
he's asleep? You know, uh, which by the way,
like, I feel like that's me so many times. Like
I'm like, I see something in scripture or the
Holy spirit speaks to me and tells me to do something.
I'm like, I miss it. But what do you mean? Yeah.
What do you, what do you, what do you mean? What
do you mean? You know? And so, but like, like
praise God that he communicates to us directly.
Like, just like Jesus does here, just like he
does with us when we miss it. It's not like he's
waiting on us to miss it. Like he's like, he
goes and Jesus told them plainly Lazarus has
died. And for your sake, I am glad I was not
there, that you may believe, but let us go to
him. That's crazy. I am glad. Jesus sees the
ultimate good. Yes. In circumstances, even when
we can't see it. Yeah. I mean, like I would never,
I mean, like as Christians, we're put into places
where when people are grieving, they ask us questions.
Yeah, they do. Doesn't matter whether we're pastors,
doesn't matter whether we're Sunday school teachers
or deacons or whatever. Yeah. If you bear the
name of Jesus, they're going to ask you these
things. And I couldn't say, I'm glad this happened.
You know? Right. But Jesus, knowing the full
set of circumstances, knowing what was to come,
I am glad that I was not there so that you may
believe. Yeah. He sees the situation, and we're
going to see that Jesus gets emotional over the
situation and the relationships and all of this,
but he knows there is a purpose, and there is
a purpose behind what is about to happen, what
has happened, and he knows that is the greater
good. And we can trust him with that. And that's
a good example for us, that when we have no idea
why, we find ourselves asking why questions.
Those aren't too big for him. You'll even see
Jesus get asked some why questions by Martha
and by Mary, and he doesn't dodge them. He doesn't
sidestep them. He doesn't rebuke them. He answers
with more of his character, more of his presence,
and with more hope. Let's go to Act 2, man. I
feel like this is a natural place for it. Moving
on. Jesus and his disciples come back into Judea,
and Martha catches wind that Jesus is coming.
And so she meets him on the road. Mary can't
handle it. Which, there you go. You have two
different forms of grief. Yes. And both are okay.
And they are. And that's why I wanted to bring
this up is that people respond to grief differently.
Yes. Some people run to others and they need,
they desire that immediate support. Other ones,
they take time to process. And Jesus validates
both experiences. Yes, he does. Ah, I love it.
So Martha shows up and says, Lord, there it is
again, that Lord, that submission. 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. 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? She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that
you are the Christ, the son of God who is coming
into the world. You know what? I want a statement.
You know what I love about Martha here? What's
that? She is straight up with Jesus about her
wrestling in belief. Yeah. Because think of it.
Look at this. First, she says, if you were here,
he wouldn't have died. Then she says, but you
still might be able to do something about it.
Talk about faith right there with that statement.
But then she says on the last day, not right
now. And then do you think, I wonder if that
is like there, she's showing faith, but there's
still that little bit of doubt, like just in
case, like just in case, like, I don't know.
I think it's exactly what it is. Yeah. I mean,
I mean, she's, she's to not get herself disappointed.
Maybe dude, we all do that. Yeah. The second
that you learn disappointment. in a human context,
you can't help but apply it to God. Yeah. The
second that things don't go your way and you,
and that particular shade of blue comes over
you, you can't help but apply it to God. And
so Jesus answers her imperfect faith. Yeah. Valid,
but imperfect. I like that. Yeah. With a promise.
Martha, you're beating around this resurrection
bush, but I, I am the resurrection and the life.
You know, it is so, gosh, I mean, as you're talking
about this and we're looking at Martha, I mean,
how awesome is it to know we don't have to have
perfect faith. Jesus is going to respond to us
in our imperfect faith. Seriously. With love,
with reassurance of his promise of who he is.
It's like we don't have to have it all together
to come to Jesus. No. We come to him as we are,
and he accepts us as we are and loves us and
then guides us to where he wants us to be. Yes.
And he delights to have it so. Like the book
of Zephaniah, like major deep cut of the Bible.
I was like, there's a drop. The book of Zephaniah,
there's a gentleman in my life who I respect
very, very much who loves to remind me of, I
think it's Zephaniah 3, where it says that the
Lord will rejoice over you with singing. With
singing. And the notion there is not that once
you've gotten it all figured out, he's like,
oh, thank goodness. It's more of an idea of when
the father sees you coming, he celebrates. It
shows that joy. It shows that joy. Yeah. I love
the twofold promise here. The Bible likes to
do this, where Jesus will offer a promise that
is immediately applicable to the people that
he's talking to, or the apostles will say something
specifically to the people he's writing an epistle
to, but it's got a bigger ramification for us.
So Jesus says, whoever believes in me, though
he shall die, yet he shall live. Spoiler alert,
though Lazarus died, because he believed in Jesus,
though he died, yet he shall live. And everyone
who believes in me shall never die. That shifts
to, we have eternal security that we will not
eternally perish. That second death that the
book of Revelation talks about. But he also ends
it with, I guess you could say, a challenge.
Do you believe this? He makes these statements,
but then he puts it on them. Once again, we come
with imperfect faith, but then he's guiding.
Yeah. I mean, that's the, and that's the rhythm
of worship too. Like, like this is, this is a
bit of an aside, but I think it's, it's pertinent
to what we're talking about. Please continue
worship pastor. Listen, man, the rhythm of worship
is revelation and response. You see this in scripture
all the time. God reveals himself to his people.
whether that be physically manifesting or he
gives them a truth about them. And then that
revelation compels them to respond. And we get
to choose how we respond, whether we respond
in worship, whether we respond in rejection of
him. Like it's like that passage in Isaiah, behold,
my people have committed two evils. They have
forsaken their God. That's the revelation. And
they have hewn out for themselves broken cisterns
that cannot hold any water. Revelation and response.
Well, Jesus is the living water. Amen. But here,
I am the resurrection and the life. I am revealing
myself to you. Do you believe this? I love it.
Reveal and respond. Yeah. But we see more of
Jesus' heart kind of in the conclusion of Act
2 here. Yes. When Jesus comes to Mary. Because
now we've got the different grieving process.
The different grieving process. He responds to
Martha with one way, and now we see how he's
going to respond to Mary. Yes. Now, I love how
Martha, encouraged by her conversation with Jesus,
goes and gets Mary. And I think that there's
a lesson in that for us as believers. I think
it's 2 Corinthians that says, we are comforted
so that we can comfort others. So we have a responsibility
to when we are given comfort, when the Lord speaks
to us, when the Lord shows us a path forward
to carry that to other people, because he may
have comforted you so that you can go and show
his same love to that other person so that you
can be Jesus to them. And so Martha goes and
gets Mary. This is verse 32 now. When Mary came
to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his
feet. saying, Lord, if you had been here, my
brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her
weeping and the Jews had come to her also weeping,
he was deeply moved. And all that he asks is,
where have you laid him? She says, Lord, come
and see. And Jesus wept. Here's the thing that
stood out to me about this section of text. Yeah.
You talked about Martha and Mary grieving differently
and needing different things. Yeah. Martha needed
answers. And we see from like the Mary Martha
story where she's like more logistical focused
about hosting and all that stuff. Yep. It makes
sense. She needs answers. You want to know what
Mary needed? Mary needed to see Jesus weep. Yeah.
Mary needed to didn't like Jesus knew exactly
what they both needed. Mary didn't need answers.
Mary didn't need an explanation. She falls on
her face before him and she presents the problem
and all he does is cry with her. Yeah. We have
a savior who weeps for us. It's like the book
of Isaiah. I feel like I've talked about Isaiah
a lot today. It's just where I'm sitting these
days. Like surely he has borne our sorrows. He's
acquainted with grief. Like Jesus knows exactly
what it's like to suffer perfectly well, what
it's like for us to suffer. And so how could
he not cry? I picture him thinking, of the day
that he created the world, the day that he knit
Mary and Martha and Lazarus together in their
mother's womb. And I pictured the design that
he had for the Garden of Eden, free from sin,
free from death, free from suffering, paradise.
And I can see him weeping not only for the pain
of loss, but for the, this is not what I intended
for you. Because he can see it all. And he can
see the redeemed potential, the pre -Eden potential
for how all this could have gone. And it's so
different. And I feel like it's important for
us to mention this. We have a savior that weeps
with us. We got a lot of reason to weep in our
country, in our nation. Even individual life
circumstance can just drive us to our knees,
dude. But as we grieve. The Psalms promise that
he keeps all of our tears in a bottle. Yeah.
As we lose, he promises that not a sparrow falls
without him taking notice. As we feel like we
are broken and broken and broken, he promises
a bruised reed I will not break. That is the
Savior that we see in this text. So I was rereading
this this morning. Yeah. And specifically this
part of the story, I was... Reading it over,
I was sitting right over there at my kitchen
table. I had my coffee cup, and I got to verse
32. It says, as soon as Mary came to where Jesus
was and saw him, she fell at his feet and told
him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't
have died. And I'm picturing the situation, and
once again, there's so much emotion in what's
going on. I don't know exactly what she's going
through. I have not experienced this kind of
death, but I'm understanding a little bit of
the emotion that's going on here with what's
going on and how she could have brought herself
and then fallen at the feet of Jesus. And then
I read when Jesus saw her crying, the Jews who
were... who had come with her, he was deeply
moved in his spirit and troubled. Where have
you put him? He asked. I mean, I love that. His
response, he's right there. Jesus sees her crying.
He sees the emotion. He's deeply moved. And right
there, there's action that Jesus wants to take.
Where have you put him? Lord, they told him,
come and see. And then there's the famous short
verse, Jesus wept. I read that this morning.
And I was overwhelmed with how much Jesus loves
me. I'm reading this and thinking of how much
Jesus truly loves his creation. Seriously. Like
we don't worship a distant God that is just in
the cosmos watching us. Be like, oh, you screwed
up again. You screwed up again. You dumb, dumb
human. You screwed up again. How dare you screw
up again? Like, no. I worship a savior. I believe
in a God that meets me where I am, grieves when
I grieve. loves when I love, rejoices when I
rejoice, and he is there to guide me in my imperfection.
And I'll be honest, I'm man enough. I started
to cry at my table by myself this morning thinking
about how much Jesus loved me. I became overwhelmed
with his love. What I love about this text is
that not only does Jesus empathize, like truly
empathize. feel those emotions with Martha and
Mary, he takes the next step. It's not like,
oh, I'm just going to sit with you in this. This
is where he takes his promise and fulfills it,
right? Deeply moved again, Jesus comes to the
tomb. It was a cave and a stone was against it.
And Jesus goes, take away the stone. Now here
we see Martha wrestle again, right? because Martha
believes that Jesus can do anything. She's wrestling
with his Messiah hood, but she's like, it's going
to stink in there. She's still responding as
Martha does. We have the same type of thing we
saw earlier. She's still giving these little,
these little words. Yeah. And honestly, man,
same here. Yeah. Even in some of the moments
where I've watched God work the most up until
the very moment that he has done that great deliverance.
I've struggled the belief. 100%. And even going
back to what we were talking about earlier with
Martha, there's been times in my life that God
has given me confirmation multiple times that
this is what he wants, but I'm still like, but
what if? But that's that imperfect faith. It
is. And you know what? Rather than him sitting
up there and going, really don't trust me. He
again and again allows these things to happen
to grow our faith. Absolutely. So we can continue
to point back to see what he's done, see what
he's done. And what he's done shows us who he
is. And so Jesus goes, did I not tell you that
if you believe you would see the glory of God,
Hey, watch this. Watch. Yeah. You know how I
said, I am the resurrection and the life. And
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.
Can you imagine the heavy silence? Dude, after
those three words are mentioned, I'm just like,
everybody's looking at each other, looking at
Jesus, looking at the black hole of the tomb.
Like, oh my gosh, this is about to happen. It's
almost cinematic. And maybe not even, oh my gosh,
this is about to happen. But like he said, what?
Yeah. You know, and you slowly see this silhouette
fill the hole in the cave. And this man wrapped
in bandages walks out. But how does Jesus respond?
Unbind him and let him go. Get those grave clothes
off. When we have been brought from death to
life, there is evidence of the grave, but there's
a promise of a future life. It is so interesting
as humans. We still want to hold on to grave
clothes, don't we? Of course we do. You know,
and that is that thing that even though we see
how amazing Jesus is, and it's going back to
that imperfect faith again, it's like, man, we
hold on to the stinking, rotting grave clothes
that we just need to let go of. But there's something
about that old life that is hard to let go at
times. But yet, even in those moments, Jesus
still says, come to me. Yes, absolutely. And
as Jesus calls us to throw down those grave clothes,
he is calling us deeper into himself. The process
of moving closer to Jesus in relationship is
synonymous with casting off sin and engaging
in righteousness. Because if you do it without
him, that's legalism. If you try to remove...
your grave clothes on your own without involving
him in the process. And I think that's a common
response. Of course. Continue. And he's the one
who says what comes off first. Go deeper. Think
about this. So you and I will spend the rest
of our lives battling sin. Yes, we will. And
battling unbelief and battling all manner of.
Even just thought processes that don't honor
Jesus, right? Yeah, absolutely. Scripture says
that he is the author and the perfecter of our
faith. Yes. He wrote this thing. Yes. He's the
one who's driving the boat. He's the one who's
put the gas in the engine. Yes. And so we have
to be in relationship with him and he will point
out the areas that he wants you to start with.
Yeah. What I know about him is that he will also
point out the areas that we don't see. Yeah,
because those are definitely the dangerous areas
in our lives. Absolutely. That we can feel like
we have reached the goal. We're there. I've done
it. I have overcome these things. And that's
when Jesus can humble us and continue to guide
us on that path. Well, it's like, so I'll close
with this because I feel like this is a really
good quote to share. C .S. Lewis has a book called
Mere Christianity. And in it, he compares our
sanctification process, the process of us becoming
more like Jesus, to us being a house. When we
start the Christian life, we assume that Jesus
is going to keep the house the same. He's going
to change out the paint. He might throw down
some carpet over the hardwoods, but we expect
to stay the same. generally speaking, house,
same floor plan. He's just going to change a
little bit. We get really uncomfortable when
he begins to tear out a wall, when he begins
to build another wing, when he puts a staircase
there, why would you put a staircase there? And
we find that he's not here to renovate the house.
He's here to build a new one. And I feel like
that's important to note as we look at Jesus
helping us take off our grave clothes. Now that's
Drex in the background barking. This is at the
crib edition. Sean, anything else you want to
add to this text before we sign off here? Not
really, man. We've had some great conversations.
I think there's been a theme of looking at our
imperfect faith, and it's been really good to
really get deep into a passage, a passage that
has some serious things going on to it. But once
again, like we try to do so often on this podcast.
How does it affect us? What has this got to do
with our lives and our relationship with Jesus?
And I think we've done a great job of that today.
I think so, too. I'm excited to continue to dig
into pursuing Jesus. And to conclude, I'd like
to introduce our celebrity guest today. This
is Marvel, the Pomeranian. Let's see if Marvel
will talk. Marvel has a specific theological
music for us. This has been Pursuing Jesus. We'll
catch you guys next week. All right, guys, this
is Sean. I will see you guys later. Pursuing
Jesus is a ministry of Memorial Baptist Church
in Norwood, North Carolina. To learn more about
our church, please visit memorial4norwood .com.