The Mystery of Mortals and Miracles
The Mystery of Mortals and Miracles
Ps Adrian explores the deep tension between human suffering and the miraculous, drawing from John 11 and the story of Lazarus. He outlines four key principles for navigating life’s hardships as believers. First, God’s purpose is greater than our pain—even when Jesus delays, it’s for a greater glory. Second, when His plans are unclear, pursue Him anyway. Like Thomas, who followed Jesus despite confusion, we’re called to trust without full understanding. Third, the promise is a person—Jesus Himself. Our hope is not rooted in circumstances or outcomes, but in Christ, who is the resurrection and the life. Lastly, His power is still present—we continue to pray and believe for miracles while trusting in His sovereignty.
The sermon challenges listeners not to live in denial or disillusionment, but to embrace faith rooted in Christ’s eternal promise. Ps Adrian shares personal stories of loss, disappointment, and perseverance to illustrate how believers can hold on to Jesus in both valleys and victories. He reminds the church that Jesus remains faithful regardless of life’s outcomes. Ultimately, the message is one of hope: even in the face of pain, believers are called to worship, trust, and find comfort in the presence of Christ.
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The Mystery of Mortals and Miracles: Finding Balance in Faith
Life is filled with tension between our mortality and the miracles we hope for. We pray for healing, restoration, and breakthrough, yet we live in a world where pain, loss, and death are realities. How do we navigate this mystery as followers of Christ?
The story of Lazarus in John 11 provides powerful insights into how Jesus wants us to handle this tension. When Lazarus fell ill, his sisters Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus, expecting him to come immediately. Instead, Jesus stayed where he was for two more days. By the time he arrived, Lazarus had been dead for four days.
How Do We Handle When God Seems Absent?
This story reveals four key principles that help us navigate the mystery between our mortality and God's miracles:
His Purpose Is Greater Than Our Pain
When Jesus heard about Lazarus being sick, he said, "Lazarus's sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God, so that the Son of God will receive glory from this." Then, surprisingly, "although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days."
This is hard to understand. When we're in pain, our comfort is often our primary concern. But God has a different agenda—a greater purpose. Sometimes His plans and purposes are different from ours.
Romans 8:28 reminds us: "For we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them."
Even in our darkest moments, we need to surrender to God's purpose, even when it causes us pain.
When His Plans Are Unclear, Pursue Him Anyway
The disciples didn't understand what Jesus was doing. When Jesus said, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I'll go and wake him up," they were confused. They thought Lazarus was just sleeping and would get better.
Thomas, often called "Doubting Thomas," showed remarkable faith in this moment. He said to his fellow disciples, "Let's go too and die with Jesus." Thomas didn't understand Jesus's plan, but he was committed to following him regardless.
How many times in our lives have we not had a clue what God was doing? Why am I going through depression? Why is my loved one sick? Why is there suffering in the world?
The best time to show that Jesus is the king of your life is when you don't understand His plans. Like Thomas, we must pursue Him anyway.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take."
His Promise Is a Person, Not an Event
When Jesus arrived, Martha came out to meet him while Mary stayed in the house. Martha said, "Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that God will give you whatever you ask."
Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?"
Martha replied, "Yes, Lord. I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God."
The promise God gives us is not an event or an answer to prayer—it's a person. Jesus Christ himself is the promise. This world can't give us security. Everything in this world will fade away except Jesus Christ and His life in our hearts.
Your Christianity cannot depend on all God's promises in this life being fulfilled. The ultimate promise is Jesus Himself—eternal life, hope beyond this world, and joy that transcends circumstances.
His Power Is Still Present
When Jesus arrived at Lazarus's tomb, he commanded, "Roll the stone aside." Martha protested because Lazarus had been dead for four days and would smell terrible.
Jesus responded, "Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believe?" Then he shouted, "Lazarus, come out!" And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in grave clothes.
We still live in a world where God is all-powerful. His power is present today. While we may not understand why some people are healed and others aren't, we should keep believing that God can do miracles.
We should never stop believing, never lose hope, and never give up. But our ultimate hope must be in Jesus Christ Himself, not in the miracles He performs.
Life Application
How do you handle the tension between mortality and miracles in your life? Here are some questions to reflect on:
When you face difficulties, do you focus more on your comfort or on God's greater purpose?
Do you continue to pursue Jesus even when His plans are unclear and you don't understand what He's doing?
Is your hope primarily in Jesus as a person, or in the answers and miracles you want Him to provide?
Do you still believe in God's power to work miracles today, even if you've experienced disappointment?
This week, make a conscious decision to choose Jesus regardless of your circumstances. When you don't understand what's happening, declare, "Lord, I don't understand your plans, but I choose you anyway." Remember that Jesus Himself—not the things He can do for you—is your ultimate promise and hope.
In the words of Thomas, be willing to say, "Let's go too and die with Jesus." That kind of commitment—choosing Christ before all else—is the way to live the Christian life, balancing the reality of our mortality with the hope of God's miracles.
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A discussion guide for the sermon can be found here.
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I want to welcome you if you're joining with us from all of our churches.
If you don't know, connect Christian Church family is six churches and we're here, we're in all of our locations. And God's doing a great work at Bass Coast. We're out there and started in February. And God's doing a mighty work across all of our churches. And so we're very proud of you guys.
I love you. Thank you for everything you're doing because you are making a difference in our city and in our communities. And today we're going to get around the word. So to my beautiful wife, may I please have my phone and my Bible? Who's ready for the Word this morning?
I'm ready. Here we go. So we're going to turn to John, chapter 11. John, chapter 11. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John had to go through my head the order of the Gospels there.
Alrighty. John, chapter 11.
We're gonna come around this story. That's a famous story. The story of Lazarus being risen from the dead, raised from the dead by Jesus Christ. And so most people know some of this story. We're gonna have a look through it today.
And we're gonna start off right at the start here. It just says it straight. All right. It says a man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters Mary and Martha.
This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord's feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother Lazarus was sick. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, lord, your dear friend is very sick. We start off with this passage where we have a man who's a friend of Jesus Christ who's very sick. Now we know.
All right, we're going to go spoilers here if you haven't read the story, the spoiler is that Lazarus dies. Lazarus dies. He gets very sick and then he dies. And Jesus appears to do nothing about it. But then Jesus comes in later and he speaks over Lazarus grave where he was and says, lazarus come out from the grave.
And Lazarus is. He'd been dead for four days. So this isn't like, was he dead or not four days? He was in the tomb, he was wrapped up, and he was. He was raised from the dead.
And it was a story that went across all the people there. It actually got Jesus into a bit of trouble because the others who were against him weren't happy about Jesus raising people from the dead. And we see this amazing story, and usually we talk about this story as the miraculous power of God. Isn't it awesome that Jesus can do miracles? He can raise the dead.
He has power within him to do it. And that is true. But actually, it's a bigger story than that. It's a greater story than that. It's a story about how does God work in our mortality?
How does God work in our pain? How does God work in the issues we have in life? Because who knows that we have this tension in our lives between miracles and our mortality. I've titled today's message this the Mystery of Mortals and Miracles. The Mystery of Mortals and Miracles.
Because the truth is, this passage actually helps us understand how God actually works in our lives. We all have things we look forward to. We all have promises that we say, hey, God, this is. I was talking to Alex this morning and this week and yesterday. Alex, any moment now, any moment is about to have a baby.
It could happen right now. Where's Fua? Fua's cooking out there, right? It could happen now. Sorry, Alex.
Alex is like, don't say that, Adrian. It's not gonna happen. It's not happening now. But in the next few weeks, Alex is having a baby. And this is a beautiful thing, isn't it?
It's a beautiful promise of God. It's a miracle. Human life. There's going to be a new little Tepai running. Well, not running around quite straight away, but very soon we'll be running around, taking over the place.
What a miracle. But in the midst of that, we accept this in life. There's pain, there's mortality. Alex was supposed to lead last night and she had to say, I can't come and lead because I'm worried I'm going to go into childbirth if I'm trying to sing and lead at the same time. I'm going through cramps.
I'm struggling to sleep. This is part of our lives that we live in the place where pain is a part of our lives, and yet we have promises. We live in the place where graves exist, but yet we're believing for glory. We live in the place of reality, don't we? And yet as Christians, we have a revelation.
We live in the place where our mortality is real. Bad things happen, people get sick, people pass away people, we lose our jobs, the economy goes up in flames, relationships end. And yet we believe in miracles. How am I supposed to live in this mystery? How are you, as a Christian, supposed to live?
So I want to give us a message as we walk through four things from this passage that I think Jesus shows us about how we are to live, how as Christians, we are to keep this tension. The problem is if you don't listen to the words of Christ and we don't take these messages, we choose ourselves, how we live. And I've watched people in Christian life, and we tend to go in two ways. We tend to either live in denial, denial of bad things. My grandma Martha was a bit like that.
Refused to accept when she was sick, Refused. And who knows? Some people are like that in Christianity. We used to call them super spiritual, right? Super spiros.
Who, no matter what happened, they would just be like, praise God, no worries. It's like you're in hospital. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. So everything's good.
It's like, well, it's not all good. And sometimes we can wanna live in denial because we go, well, that's our way of dealing with the pain of life. It's our way of dealing with our mortality that we can just stay in denial. The other place we don't want to live in is disillusionment. Who's been there where you believed God for something.
You thought that he was going to protect you, you thought that it was going to be okay because you prayed and you sought God and you did the right thing. And it doesn't go that way. And if you're like any of us who've been a Christian for long enough, you can get disillusioned. I've been there many times and we don't want to. God doesn't want you to live in denial or disillusionment.
He wants to live within his way of handling this mystery. And so I want to talk to you about that today. I want to talk to you about four things that we learned from Jesus, from the story of Lazarus, about how do we handle this great mystery in how God does miracles? But we're still mortals. The first thing is this.
We see this, this is the first point. His purpose. We've got to understand this about God. His purpose is greater than our pain. His purpose is greater than our pain.
This is a hard one to understand, but Jesus sort of forces them to deal with this. Early on, they come to Jesus and they say, hey, Jesus, your best mate Lazarus is sick. Like, what are they expecting him to do? Drop everything and get there ASAP and pray for him and see him healed, like, he needs your help. And Jesus response is the opposite of that.
What does Jesus say? He says, when Jesus heard about it, verse four, he said, lazarus sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God, so that the Son of God will receive glory from this. He had a greater purpose. And then it says this, so although Jesus loved Mary, Martha, Mary and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days.
How would you feel if Jesus did that to you? Jesus, thank you that you promised to be there no matter what. You're always there for me. You always help me. And you come and you pray to the Lord.
And the Lord's like, no worries, you'll be right. You'll be right. And then he does nothing. And you're like, where are you, God? That's what he did.
That's what he did. And sometimes this is our lives, isn't it? We pray. We go to Mary and Mother. They go to him and say, lord, come and help now.
And he goes, I've got a purpose in this. I'm going to work it out. And then seems to do nothing. And the thing we need to understand, number one, is that we won't always get all the ins and outs. But here's the thing.
I've learned from this in my life, in others lives. God has a different agenda to our agenda. Sometimes he has a different purpose. His purpose is greater than our pain. And.
And this is a hard one to understand. But the truth of the matter is, in our society, many times when we're complaining or we're going through troubles and trials, our comfort is the thing that we're most concerned about, isn't it? We don't feel comfortable. We go, this isn't good for me. I'm not enjoying this.
You know, it happens when you're in the car and I get a. Someone like, takes off slowly from the light, and they take off slowly and they get through and you get the red light if you're Doing that. Stop it.
When the light goes green, go. Now, I've done it myself sometimes where I wasn't paying attention. And then you get through and you've stopped about six cars behind you, right? And I go, that is not fair. I'm annoyed.
And the Lord wants to say to me, adrian, I don't care about your comfort, mate. You can just sit at the lights. It's fine. Right? That's a little issue.
But many times in life, if you think about it, we like our comfort. We like our comfort. We want things to be going well for us. But God has a greater purpose than that. And the key to understanding the mystery of mortality and miracles partly is understanding this, that sometimes God's plans and purpose is different from yours.
It was in this case, God says. He says at the start, this is going to bring glory to God. And one of the things that we need to do as Christians, and it's hard to do is say, lord, whatever happens to me, let your name be glorified. I've watched people go through really hard times, and they say, God, even in my suffering, let your name be glorified. I've watched others throughout history, you see this in scripture, where they say, God, even in my suffering, God, it says, rejoice in your suffering, rejoice in trials.
And we're like, no way. All right? But the reason for that is because they said, God, my suffering and my trials can even bring you glory. Even in that pain? Even in that pain.
It says this in Romans 8:28. For we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Now, I'm not pretending that that's an easy answer, right? The reality is this sermon, this message came out of me starting to think on, dwell on this about how does God work? When I heard some pastors that we heard about, who he got diagnosed with a brain tumor and cancer, and he was preparing for death.
And they talked about how they had to wrestle with this concept of, I could die, but I've got things to do. I'm still pastoring the church. I'm making a difference. Why would this happen to us? And they had to prepare in his heart, saying, God, if that yout purpose, then I surrender it to youo.
And this is the thing. Even in the darkest moments, it's gonna help us if we can say, God, whatever your purpose is, God, I surrender to that, even if it causes me pain. And this is the second thing that flows onto that, that we need to understand from this. When his plans are unclear, which they often are, pursue him anyway. His purpose is greater than our pain.
But when his plans are unclear, pursue him anyway.
Sometimes his plans are very unclear. Look at this.
The disciples didn't have a clue what Jesus was doing. All right, in verse 11, I mean, he starts talking. I mean, here we go. He says this, right? Has Jesus ever, like, not made sense to you?
You don't know what he's doing in your life. I mean, I don't know. The disciples didn't have a clue. I don't even know sometimes what he's saying. Verse 9.
I mean, many times, I don't know. Jesus replied, there are 12 hours of daylight every day. During the day, people can have can walk safely, they can see because they have the light of this world. But at night, there is danger of stumbling because they have no light. He's just given a little saying.
Then he goes in verse 11. Then he said, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. But now I'll go and wake him up. The disciples have got no clue what Jesus is talking about. They're just like, all right, let's go.
And they actually correct him. They're like, verse 12. The disciples said, lord, if he's sleeping, he'll soon get better, so we don't need to bother. He's going to be fine, mate. And they thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping.
But Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So he told them plainly, lazarus is dead. And for your sakes, I'm glad I wasn't there. For now you will really believe. Come, let's go see him.
And then Thomas. I love Thomas. We call him Doubting Thomas. But this is on fire. Thomas, this is enthusiastic Thomas.
This is like, forget Peter, Thomas is the gun here. Thomas, nicknamed a twin, said to his fellow cycles, let's go too and die with Jesus. Yeah. I mean, that's the ultimate.
You know what Thomas is saying. I don't have a clue what Jesus is doing, but I'm following him all the way. Let's go die. Come on, let's go. I'm not a champion.
Do you know what I love about that? That's you and I. Do you know how many times in my life I haven't had a clue what God's doing? I've been asking him. I've been praying, saying, why are you doing this in our church?
Why are you doing this in my life? Why hasn't this happened yet? You gave me a promise here, God. It hasn't come to pass. Why Am I going through depression?
Why have my wife going through sickness? Why are people that I love going through pain and torment? Why is this happening in the world? Why is this happening in Ukraine, in Israel? I don't have a clue.
I don't understand. His plans are unclear. What's happening is unclear. I don't always understand it, but do you know what? I want to be like Thomas?
Pursue him anyway.
Do you know the best time to show that Jesus Christ is the king of your life is when you don't get his plans, when you don't have a clue, when you say, lord, I don't understand you, but I chose you. I love it in this church when I see men and women of God who go through difficult times. And you know what they do? They say, I worship you anyway, Lord, I serve you. Anyway, Many years ago, it's getting long and many, many years, Narelle and I were engaged to be married.
And we did a thing. We encourage people to do this. We did a survey that helps you in your pre marriage counseling. We did pre marriage counseling, and we did a survey to test whether our relationship was on track. Are we compatible?
And I was like, of course we are. This is the love of my life. This is awesome. And so we filled out this survey, and it asked you a bunch of questions about your relationship. Some of you may have done something like this.
One of the questions was this. Is there anything in this world that could make you question your love for your fiance? And I went, never. Nothing in this world will make me question my love for Narelle. And I marked that down.
And I was like, yes, I love her with all my heart. She's the woman of my dreams. I've written all these wonderful things about how wonderful she is. I'm in love. This is gonna be amazing.
And we sent our surveys in, and then they came back, and we were sitting down with our pastors to go through it, and they said, adrian, you've been red flagged.
I'm like, what are you talking about? They've red flagged you, Adrian. There's a major issue that you've got. I'm like, what? What?
They said, well, we're not supposed to tell you. We're gonna just talk about it. But you answered that there's nothing that could ever make you question, and that's a big no. No. You are overly expectant.
You've got very high expectations. You've got rose colored glasses on. Because do you realize in your marriage there are gonna be times when you don't even want to talk to Narelle. You don't even want to be in the same house as Narel. There are gonna be times.
Do you know, there's things that could happen that could really very much make for your wife, and you need to be aware. You need to go into this with a little bit more, you know, understanding of how life works. And who knows? That's true sometimes. We've been married for 23 years now, and there are times, actually, never for me, but for Narelle, there are times when she's gone.
Hang on a second. Is this the guy that I really wanted to marry? There are times you go through difficult times in marriage. It happens to every one of us. And if you haven't got married yet, it's gonna happen.
There are gonna be times, the love of your life, where you'll be annoyed at them, and you'll be like, I don't even wanna talk to them right now. And that happens. But I realized this, right? There's truth in that. And sometimes you can go in with rose colored glasses.
But do you know what? When I walked down. When Narelle walked down the aisle and I said my vows, I made a covenant with her. I made a decision. I said, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, until death do us part.
And I want to tell you that the reality is there have been times when we've gone. Hang on. We're very different people, and we've got to navigate this, and we'll have an argument or we'll work it out. But do you know what my commitment to say, even when I don't understand it, even when I haven't got a clue what my wife is thinking, man, that's every day for most of us when you say something and it doesn't go the right way. I made a decision 23 years ago that this is the woman that I'm gonna marry, and this is the woman that I'm gonna stay with for the rest of my life.
And 23 years later, that's still as true today as it was back then. And I was right. I am gonna stay with Narelle. That's my plan for the rest of my life. That's my intention.
Cause I love my wife. I choose my wife. I made a commitment to my wife, and even when the plans don't work out, I choose her. And I want to tell you this. The same is true.
This is why God compares marriage to the relationship with him. And I know it doesn't always work out for Us. I know, right? I'm not trying to have a go at people, but I'm saying the commitment that the Lord's made to us and the commitment that we're supposed to make to him is not a commitment based on whether you understand it or not. It's not a commitment whether you know everything that's going on or whether it's gone your way.
It's a commitment that says, lord, I choose you. I made a covenant with you. You're my Lord and Savior, and I will not back down from that. And I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, that is the way to live the Christian life. I've watched too many people go off track because they didn't understand what was going on in their life.
They got hurt, they got disillusioned, and they said, I quit. Don't quit, Jesus. Don't step away from Jesus. Choose Jesus. Lord, my.
Your plans are going all over the place and I don't get them. But I will pursue you anyway. I'm gonna be Thomas, I'm gonna be Thomas. And even when I don't have a clue what's going on, I'm like, I'm gonna die with you, Jesus. Let's go, disciples.
Let that be your choice. Is that what you choose? Is that the relationship you have with Jesus? He doesn't want a half baked, conditional relationship with him. Do you choose Christ before all else?
Says this in Proverbs 3. 5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
If I relied on my understanding of what God was always doing in my life, I would have gone off on my own tangent. But I'm choosing him. There are times his purpose is greater than our pain and his plans don't always make sense. But I will pursue him anyway. That's what Jesus is saying here.
Before any miracle happened, he said, are you going to follow me even when you don't understand? There will come times in your life we ask that of you. He says, will you follow me even when you don't understand it? Then it goes on Jesus, after a couple of days, he comes to the place where Lazarus has passed away. He gets there and they say, Martha comes out and tells him, his die.
He's gone. It says this in verse 17. Jesus arrives at Bethany. He was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, and many of the people had come to Console Martha and Mary in their loss.
And when Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. Cause Mary was ticked. Mary was. Who's ever been ticked at Jesus?
Ticked at God? It's okay. Mary was ticked off with Jesus. All right. Martha said to Jesus, lord, if only you'd been here, my brother would not have died.
But even now, I know that God will give you whatever you ask. And Jesus told her, your brother will rise again. Listen to this. This is important for us to understand. Yes, Martha said, he will rise when everyone else rises at the last day.
And Jesus told her, I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never, ever die. Do you believe this, Martha? Yes, Lord.
She told him, I have always believed you're the Messiah, the Son of God. The one who has come into the world from God. I want to tell you this third thing that we need to realize about following Jesus and balancing mortals and miracles is that his promise to us is a person.
It's not an event. It's not an answer to prayer. The promise God gives you is a person. He says, I am the resurrection and the life. It is a deeper promise than this world can give you.
You can win the lotto, and guess what? You can lose it all as well. And the reality is you will lose it when you die. And you can go, I'll give it to my kids, and they could just go wreck the whole thing. Have you ever thought about that?
You save all your money and you hand it. I've thought about that. If I save money, save money, I go, I'll give it to my daughter. She can just wreck the whole lot like that. It's not secure.
This world can't give you security. Jesus Christ comes and gives you a greater promise, and it is Himself. He is the person. He is the promise, and he is the truth. And what he says is Lord.
He says, I am the resurrection and I am the life. Even if you die, you have life. Isn't this the truth that we believe? The truth of carrying this tension in our lives is that this world will cause death and pain. And we try and pretend in our society that it's all good, right?
We dress up, we live longer, you know, we're richer than most generations have ever been. We're some of the richest people that have ever existed on planet Earth. We got some of all the luxuries. We've got all these wonderful things. And yet the world still gets us.
It still takes. Things still decay. This is the law of the universe, that things go back. They decay and go down. We get older, don't we?
We get wrinkles, we get sick. Some of us aren't sick. We don't think about getting wrinkles until we've got them.
True. Young people look at older people and they don't look at themselves. They don't look and go, that's me. One day they go, oh, that person's old. Bad luck for you.
And I look and I go to them. When I get called old by my daughter and others, I go, this is you. One day your children are gonna call you the same things. Isn't that true, parents?
Because it happens to all of us. This world will do that to you. But Jesus Christ gives us a greater promise. If you're holding onto promises of this world, you will be disillusioned. You will be disappointed.
Jesus had not risen, raised Lazarus from the dead in this moment. But he came to Martha and told her a greater truth that she believed. Do you believe? I do believe in you, Jesus. You are the Son of God.
You are the Messiah. She said this while Lazarus was in his grave.
She said it. I want to tell you this. Your Christianity cannot be dependent on all the promises of God in this life being. Yes, and amen to you. Because some of them won't be.
Guess what? Everyone at certain age, unless Jesus comes again, is going to die. Lazarus got raised from the dead, but guess what? He's not here today because he's dead.
It was only for a time. He got raised from the dead for a little period of time. Now he's gone, everything in this world will fade away except the Lord Jesus Christ and his life in your heart, in your spirit. Is that what you're holding onto? Because if you don't, what profited a man or woman to gain the whole world and yet lose their soul?
And I want to tell you, there are Christians today who have lost sight of that fact. His promise is a person. His promise is not that you're going to have the best job and that you're going to live the longest life and that nothing's going to go wrong. That is not the promise of God to you, because it's not the reality. We have mortality.
The promise of God is that I give you a life eternal, life beyond. I give you a hope beyond. I give you a joy beyond. When you're in the worst, darkest place of your life, there I am with you, giving you joy. That this World can't give.
It's a miracle. Do you understand that? It's a miracle. That's the miracle. That's the joy.
I want to tell you, I've watched people go through this. We're watching it right now, people in this church this morning, people in our locations. You're going through deep dark valleys and yet you're saying, lord, I hold on to you as a resurrection. I want to tell you, young Harry here's about to this week, starting on staff as our youth pastor. Isn't that exciting?
Where is he? There he is, up the back.
You know what I love about Harry is I've watched him growing up in this church. I've been here for 10 years and he was a kid, he's a little 10 year old kid. Well, he was still tall back then, but you know, and I've watched him go through life and I've watched him. Many of you will know this, but Harry lost his mom a couple of years ago to cancer. And Yvette was just such a mighty woman of God in this church and it broke our hearts.
And I watched Harry go through that. I watched Steve go through it, but I watched Harry go through that, you know, and I'm sure there were many moments of deep pain, but I watched him go through, you know, he never once stopped saying, lord, I'm gonna serve you. Never once stopped saying, jesus, I'm gonna love you. Go and say, harry, how you going? He goes, I'm okay, I'm okay.
And he had a mum who said, you know what, Even if I die, he is the resurrection and the life. You know what I love about what she said? And many have said, the promise is a person. Oh, I want to be healed, but the promise is a person. I've got a greater promise than my body, than this life.
And I watched Harry and the reason he's stepping in as our youth partner, you know what, because over the last couple of years, God's devoted. But he said, you know what? The promise is a person. I'm following you, Lord Jesus above everything else. I'm not following this world.
I'm not following the promises of. I'm following Jesus Christ. And isn't that good? He's just 20 years old, but isn't that awesome to know that we're going to have a young man in our church who's going to be teaching and leading by example, our youth and our teenagers going, you know what? You can go through an incredibly difficult time, but hold on to Jesus because he's the Answer.
That's who Harry is. That's who Jesus is. And that's what we have to hold in our hearts. The promise is a person.
And then we get to the glory bit.
The truth is that sometimes miracles happen.
Sometimes amazing things happen. We believe for them, we pray for them. But I'll get to this at the end. And I think Jesus gets to this at the end because this whole story is a lesson about life. If you are just waiting for the miracle, then you're going to be disillusioned like Mary was for a time.
That's okay. It's okay to get upset, it's okay to question. It's okay to say what's going on, God. But God wants you to learn these principles to help us. Say, God, your purpose is greater even when I don't understand your plans, Lord, I'm going to pursue you, Lord, I'm going to hold in my heart first and foremost that the promise you give me is the person of Jesus Christ for eternity.
And then you hold those three things in your heart, you believe them, you carry them. And then you know what we do. And then we do believe for miracles. And then we do say, God, we're pressing in. And so this is what happens.
Jesus gets to the grave. And we won't go into all the details about how he was annoyed. He was annoyed. You know, one of the reasons he was annoyed, he was annoyed because of the people's lack of faith. Because they actually were so broken and they had.
Some of them weren't seeing him as Savior. Some of them weren't putting their trust in him, Him. They were just caught up in the pain of this world. And Jesus gets to this place and he says in verse 39, roll the stone aside. Jesus told them.
But Martha, the dead man's sister, protested, lord, he's been dead for four days. The Bible's very, very real. The smell will be terrible. We won't go there. Let's not talk about that.
But it's true. Four days gone. And Jesus responded, didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believe? So they rolled the stone aside. And then Jesus looked up to heaven and he said, father, thank you for hearing me.
You always hear me. But I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here so that they will believe you sent me. And then Jesus shouted, lazarus, come out. Have you ever thought why he had to say Lazarus?
Because he is so powerful that if he hadn't said Lazarus and just said, come out. Every Human being, every skeleton within hearing range of that area from thousands of years before would have literally been crawling up out of the grave out of the dirt, and you would have had skeleton. It would have been a freak show. Children would have been scared for the rest of their lives. He had to be specific.
Lazarus, the rest of you can stay there, but Lazarus, you come out. And he called out, and the dead man in verse 44 came out. Even this was a bit freaky. His hands and feet bound in grave clothes, his face wrapped in a head cloth. And Jesus told them, unwrap him and let him go.
Let the guy breathe. Stop freaking out all the kids, because this is crazy. Because the power of God was present in that moment. This is the fourth point. His power is still present.
You gotta hold these other truths. Hold these other truths because they will hold you in the mortality of life. When you feel very mortal, when you feel like the world's coming in, when the pain of this life and you can't understand it is grabbing a hold of you. Hold those other truths. But I want to tell you this.
We still live in a world where God is all powerful. His power's still present right here today. And I will not tell you, and I don't think anyone can, how it exactly works. I don't know why some people are healed and some people aren't. I don't know why sometimes people say God intervened and saved my life and other times it doesn't happen.
But I do know this, that I'm going to keep believing that his power is still present, even if it doesn't happen for me. I'm not going to get disillusioned. I've been there in my life, where I go, ah, forget it. Miracles, they're all made up.
Partly because that's we're trying to deal with the pain of this loss. And other people are like, if you just believe, you'll get healed. Well, I know some mighty men and women of God who believed. I know some incredible people who've believed. I know some people that have served God with their lives, and yet they've gone through tragedy and loss.
That's not how it works, guys. It's not that simple. But I will tell you this. I don't understand it all, but I still believe his power is precise. And I want to tell you, God wants to give you a faith that we keep believing this is the truth.
I hold onto Jesus as the resurrection and the life, but I keep believing. I'll keep believing for healing, for your loved ones. I'll keep believing for God's provision in your life. I'll keep believing for things to happen in this life that God wants to lift and restore and bring relationships back together. I'm going to keep believing because his power is still present today.
There's been times when it hasn't happened yet. The band's come on up. Times when it hasn't happened. We've all gone through them, haven't we? We all go through these times.
I know. Years ago, Narelle and I, we wanted to have another child. And we had prophecies, people telling us we would. We had prophecies of telling us that Narelle was pregnant. Oh, a word.
Well, it was well meaning, but it was wrong. We held on in faith and we prayed and I fasted and I believed God. And we said, God, it's going to happen. Is that your will? And the truth is it didn't happen.
It didn't happen.
And I went, that's okay. I don't understand all the plans of God. I don't understand why. But I'll go, God, you're in charge. You know, there's other people I've prayed for.
There's other people I've given a prophetic word to. I remember there was a couple in a church. I prayed over them at a New Year's Eve, Sarah, New Year's Eve service we had years ago. And I felt God say, they're going to have a baby. They've been trying for years.
And I prayed for them. Do you know what? The next. A year later, they were at the same New Year's Eve or New Year's Day service, and they had a baby. And I went, well, God answered their prayer.
I don't know why God didn't give us another child, but gave them another child. I don't know. Why did God heal that person of cancer but not this person? I don't know. Keep believing.
I still believe in the power of God. Don't you, Steve? I still believe in the power of God. Right now, for the present, right now. And I'm not going to get disillusioned.
I'm going to believe that he can heal today. He can do miracles today. He can bring breakthrough today. We never stop believing. We never lose hope.
We never give up. But you know what? I carry within me a greater hope. Can I tell you, brothers and sisters, you got to keep this. If all your hope is in a miracle, you'll get disillusioned and hurt.
My hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ, My Hope. He is my promise. He is the great I am. He's the one that loved me. And do you know what?
Not having another child, if I die, if I got sick, if I die, if something happens to me, I go. Jesus, I've got a greater promise in you. That's what a vet believed. That's what others here have believed. This is the hope we have.
I hold that with all my heart, first and foremost. And then I believe for his presence and power in our lives today. Make yourself manifest. I will pray for healing. I will believe for breakthrough.
I'll believe for all those things, but not as my Savior. As the one I'm looking to the Savior first.
The mystery of mortals and miracles. Some of us are facing it right now. This is a message for when you go through a difficult time. How are you going to hold it? Are you waiting out for a miracle more than you're waiting out for the miracle maker?
Martha and Mary got challenged with this.
You know what's interesting to me? In a few passages later, the next chapter actually, Mary ticked off with Jesus, upset with Jesus. She's the one who went and poured oil over him, or sorry, perfume.
Anointing his feet, wiping it with her hair. She had a revelation. Jesus, you're the one. You're the promise. You're my hope.
I want to ask you how you're going to treat the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe with all our hearts that the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you. You can pray for people and see a miracle. You can see breakthrough. You can see a relationship, a marriage restored.
You can see someone saved that is a million miles away from God. Do you believe it? I believe it. His power is available in the present, right now. But if it doesn't happen, I've still got my promise.
My promise is a person. My promise is Jesus. My promise is the one. He is the one I will pursue when I don't understand it, when his plans aren't clear, Lord Jesus, I pursue. Come on, Christians, brothers and sisters watching with me.
I don't want you to miss out on the promises and the call of God. It is not the things of this life. It is the person of Jesus Christ. And when you go through the most difficult time, you can hold your head high and say, he is still with me. Me.
And you can be real and say, I don't get what's going on, but I choose him. I chose him when I got saved. I choose him when I'm going through the valley. I choose him when I'M on the mountaintop. I choose him for eternity.
Is that your response?
That's my prayer for you. That's my prayer. And so we're gonna pray. We're gonna pray. This is a message for all of us.
This is a message for everyone.
It's particularly for people going through a difficult time. It's particularly for people asking, God, what are you doing? What are you doing, God? All those questions, you know, come up. Do you care about me, Lord?
Have I been forgotten? Have I done something wrong?
Does my value not mean anything to you? Because look at that. And what's happening to me?
Lord says to you, of course I love you. Of course I love you. I've got a greater plan for you. Don't look to all the circumstances. Look to the safe.
Look to the resurrection and the life. And then keep believing. Keep believing for health. Keep believing for breakthrough. Keep believing.
But that's not. What if I don't get it? He loves you anyway. He's got a greater plan in eternity for you anyway. Jesus has already won.
He's won. Some of us have lost loved ones. He's already won.
Victory is greater than this life. Come. Why don't we bow our heads, Holy Spirit?
Jesus is the way.
Jesus is the way.
Jesus is the way.
Jesus is the way.
Jesus is the way. Yes, he is. Is the way the truth? The life?
Oh, yes, you are, Lord. Jesus is the way.
Jesus is the way.
Jesus is the way.
Our heads bowed, our eyes closed today.
What's the Lord saying to you?
What's the spirit of the Lord saying to you?
I hear the voice of the Lord speaking to someone today, saying, I understand. I feel the pain. I know.
I know.
I know the lonely tears.
I know the broken heart.
I know the feeling of despair.
Trust me. Anyway, Holy Spirit's calling you. He's giving you an opening right now, saying, choose me anyway.
You don't have to work it all out. You don't have to work it all out.
Jesus is the way for you. Jesus is my promise. Jesus is my hope. Jesus. Without you, Jesus, some of you.
Without Jesus, I would fall to pieces. And he says, I know. Hold me. Grab me. Hold on to me.
Don't let me go.
You've had a revelation that that's all anyone has in the end. Some of you are getting. It's all any of us have in the end is Jesus. It's all any of us have. Don't be deceived by the comforts of this world.
It's all any of us have is Jesus. You only have him. He is the resurrection. He is the way. He is the truth.
He is. He is the life.
So hold him.
Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit invites you all over this place. And you say, jesus, I need you. I need to hold on to you. I need to grab a hold of you tighter than I've ever held you before. Lord, would you hold me?
I just want you to lift out your hands before the Lord right now and just say, lord, here I am. Would you hold me? Would you. You take a hold of. I need you, Jesus, I'm desperate, Lord.
God, there is nothing else that will satisfy me. God, there's no other truth that will hold me. Lord, I need you right now. All over this place, all over our churches. Lord, I hold you.
Let him be the way, the truth, the life. Let the Holy Spirit bring comfort in Jesus. Name. In Jesus. Name.
In Jesus. Name. In Jesus. Name. We're going to say a prayer.
Maybe you've been far away from God. You say, lord, I'm coming back. I need you. There is no one else but you. You are my Savior.
And Lord, I'm going to declare it again. Maybe you've been far from God or maybe you've never done this. Let's say a prayer together. Now you repeat this. Say, jesus, I'm coming to you right now.
Dear Lord Jesus, I'm giving you my life today. I believe you're the Son of God. You died on the cross for my sin and you rose again from the dead. So forgive me, Lord Jesus, be my Lord and my Savior. In your name I pray.
Amen.
Yeah. Thank you, Jesus. So what we're going to do, all across our churches. Got a couple more minutes and then we're going to finish. But I want us to, as we're going to sing this song and then we're going to go into.
Here I am to worship. If you say, Lord, here I am. You're my promise. You're the one I serve you. Invite us when you're ready.
You want to stand to your feet and start declaring this over your life and say, jesus, Jesus, you're my way. You're the way. I follow you, Lord, I commit myself afresh to you.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, yes, you are God.
Here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down, here I am to say that you're mine. That's my declaration, Lord. All together lovely. All together worthy.
All together wonderful to me. So here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down, Here I am to say that you're my God and you're all together lovely, all together worthy, all together wonder. Oh, here I am to worship you Lord. Here I am to worship.
Oh, we're lifting holy hands to this place. We worship you, Jesus.
One more time. Here I am to worship. Here I am to worship, worship. Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God.
You're all together lovely, all together worthy, all together wonderful. To me this is who yes you are, Lord. You're the way, the truth, the life.
Thank you Lord.
Jesus is the Lord. Thank you Jesus. So Lord, I pray for your people to today in this room watching online in our churches, Lord, I pray let you be our promise, let you be our hope. Let the person of Jesus Christ help us carry this mystery, this tension, Lord God, between reality and revelation. Lord God, between our mortality and miracles.
God help us, Holy Spirit, to walk strong even in the miracle. Midst of pain in the valleys. God, let us say, Lord, I'll be like Thomas, I'll pursue you no matter what.
Let them know in their hearts, Lord, how loved they are. Let us know how loved we are, Lord. And let it give us the desire to follow you to the ends of the earth. Lord Jesus, bless your people as we go in Jesus name, Amen. Amen.
God bless you. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Everyone from our churches hand you back over. God bless.
Related Bible Verses
📖 John 11:1–44 (NLT)
Link: https://www.bible.com/bible/116/JHN.11.1-44.NLT
1 A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha.
2 This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick.
3 So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.”
4 But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.”
5 So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus,
6 he stayed where he was for the next two days.
7 Finally, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”
8 But his disciples objected. “Rabbi,” they said, “only a few days ago the people in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again?”
9 Jesus replied, “There are twelve hours of daylight every day. During the day people can walk safely. They can see because they have the light of this world.
10 But at night there is danger of stumbling because they have no light.”
11 Then he said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.”
12 The disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!”
13 They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died.
14 So he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.
15 And for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there, for now you will really believe. Come, let’s go see him.”
16 Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.”
17 When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days.
18 Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem,
19 and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss.
20 When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house.
21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.
22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”
25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.
26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.”
28 Then she returned to Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, “The Teacher is here and wants to see you.”
29 So Mary immediately went to him.
30 Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him.
31 When the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there.
32 When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled.
34 “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.”
35 Then Jesus wept.
36 The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!”
37 But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”
38 Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance.
39 “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”
40 Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?”
41 So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me.
42 You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.”
43 Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”
📖 Romans 8:28 (NLT)
Link: https://www.bible.com/bible/116/ROM.8.28.NLT
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
📖 Proverbs 3:5–6 (NLT)
Link: https://www.bible.com/bible/116/PRO.3.5-6.NLT
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.
6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.