24th Mar 2011

John 11:1-16 – The Death of Lazarus

• ”daylight”
• Jesus hears the news of the death of Lazarus and decides to return.
• Returning is a risky business
• Jesus ministered in various parts of Israel but essentially the north was safer. In fact at times people there wanted to make Him king.
• When His disciples warned Him, Jesus gave a fairly cryptic answer.
• He obviously felt that everything would be fine... but why?
• He had some sense of the Spirit’s leading. He not only decided to act but He was led in how to act. This gave Him both confidence and security.
• In fact rather than making a quick under cover dash back in order to get out again; Jesus for reasons I’ll explain tomorrow, takes His time.
• I’m pretty sure his enemies would have known about Lazarus’ death, and time allowed them to set a trap. But Jesus still waits.
• Thomas on the other hand goes back but without faith.
• Even though Jesus expressly points out that things will be ok; he doubts.
• Faith is not simply the action, it is the attitude we have when doing the action.
• Being afraid is one thing but doubting God whilst we do it is another.
• Jesus and Thomas do the same thing but Jesus injects faith into the team and Thomas injects pessimism.
• Jesus security overflows, Thomas’s insecurity overflows.
• Jesus was walking by daylight, Thomas was walking by night.
• They were both going in the same direction but their experience was very different.
• Praying today that my walk with God is in daylight because I give Him time to guide me and that I inject faith in others.