Are you facing something that looks impossible?

Have you looked at all the possible angles and you can’t see a way through?

Are you depressed or anxious about your circumstances?

For most of us, 2020 has been one of the most challenging years of our lives.

Many of us have lost loved ones.  We have lost jobs and businesses.  We may have come to the brink of divorce. 

Whatever you are facing, it looks impossible. 

Yet Jesus specializes in doing the impossible.

In the Bible in the book of John chapter 11, we read the story about where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

There is a link to the podcast at the end of this blog post.

On the surface, it might just look like a good story, but if you look deeply into what happened, we can gain great encouragement and hope for our own lives.

Even when life looks impossible, we can trust Jesus to come through.

John 11 verse 1 “Now a man names Lazarus was sick.”

Verse 3 “So the sisters sent word to Jesus, ‘Lord, the one you love is sick’.”

In verse 4 Jesus says to his followers “This sickness will not end in death”.

Great!  God has given us a promise that everything will be OK.

Verse 5 – 7 says “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.  So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

WHAT? Jesus loved them so He stayed where he was 2 more days?!!

Have you ever been in a desperate situation and although you believe God has spoken a word of promise to you, it seems like He is not doing anything?!!!

We cry out ‘Where are you God?’  You promise in your Word that you will look after us.  We are desperate for your help. 

And you hear nothing!  Just silence!  You don’t even feel like your prayers get any higher than the ceiling.  Where is God when you need Him most?

But if you keep reading the story, you can see that Jesus delayed coming on purpose.

He was planning a much greater miracle than the sisters could ever had imagined.

After 2 days, Jesus starts the journey to where Lazarus and his sisters live.

By the time he gets there, Lazarus is dead!!!!!

The situation couldn’t get any more impossible could it?

How do you continue to have faith when the situation looks this bad?

This is the time when our faith has to kick in to an even higher gear.

Remember in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1, it says “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”.

Faith is for those times where it doesn’t make sense; where there seems no physical way out; when it feels like the situation is beyond help.  We are at the end of our strength.  Hope has almost been extinguished.

TRUST GOD ANYWAY!

Back to John 11.

Verse 11 – 13 “After Jesus had said this, he went on to tell them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.’ His disciples replied, ‘Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.  Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

Verse 14 – 15 “So Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’”

What?

Jesus is glad that He was NOT THERE!!

How can a loving God be glad that He was not there, just when you needed Him the most.

The truth is that God always has a greater plan; but we often don’t know what that higher plan is. 

From a human perspective, it looks like God has failed you, but from God’s perspective, it is all part of His perfect plan. 

It is often not until later on, that we are able to look back and see that God was there all the time. 

Have you ever heard the analogy that life is like a tapestry?  We are underneath the tapestry and God is on top of the tapestry.  From our perspective, all we can see is a big mess, with lots of knots and loose threads.

But from God’s perspective, it is a perfect pattern, coming together in just the right way.

He is still firmly in control.

Trust Him, no matter what.

In John chapter 11 verse 21 and 22, it says “’Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been there, my brother would not have died.  But I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask’.”

Even though, in the natural, Martha is heart-broken because she knows that Jesus could have saved her brother, but didn’t.  Yet she still shows that she has faith by saying ‘But I know that even now, God will give you whatever the ask’.

In verse 32, it says ‘When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’

And verse 33 to 34, ‘When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” He asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

And in verse 35, it says ‘Jesus wept’.

Remember that Jesus was both fully human and fully God.  When he saw the tears and the heart ache of this friends, he was moved with compassion and wept with them.

Verse 36 to 37 “Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”  But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Have you ever been in a difficult situation and you are holding onto your faith in God with the last shreds of your strength and someone comes along and says something that almost completely shatters your faith? 

Perhaps someone who doesn’t believe in God, or someone who only has a shallow faith and they encourage you to give up on God.

This is just what happened in the book of Job, where he was in such terrible suffering and his wife says to Job in Job 2:9 ‘are you still holding onto your faith? Curse God and die’.

But Jesus knew what He was going to do.

In John 11 verse 9, Jesus said “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

In other words, DON’T GIVE UP NOW!  HOLD ONTO YOUR FAITH IN GOD!

Then in John 11: 41 and 42 Jesus prays out loud to His Heavenly Father and says ‘Father I thank You that You have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me’.

Then in John 11 verse 43 and 44, Jesus says “Lazarus, come out!!!” and with those words, Lazarus is brought back to life again!!!

Jesus knew that by waiting until after Lazarus was dead and then raising him to life, it was a much greater manifestation of God’s power than if he had simply healed him from being sick.

Remember back in John 11 verse 4, Jesus said ‘this sickness will not end in death’.

He knew that although Lazarus was actually going to die, the story would not end with his death.  Jesus would raise him to life again.

In Romans 8 verse 28 it says “we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him.”

In other words, so matter what hard things we go through, God promises to bring good out of even the worst circumstances.  Trust Him.

7 Life Lessons we can learn from this Bible story

1. God doesn’t always do things the way we expect Him to.
2. No matter how bad our situation looks, God is in control.
3. God feels your pain and looks on you with compassion.
4. No matter what things look like, keep trusting God.
5. When others try to discourage your faith and trust, do not listen to them.
6. You may not understand now, but you will understand later.
7. For people who love God, He promises to take bad situations and bring good out of them.