John 11:3-6

When disappointments come your way in life, it is easy to blame yourself or others—or even both. Frequently it is difficult to know what to say or do because you cannot quite identify the real cause or purpose of the letdown.

Disappointment is often an emotional response to our own failure—or someone else’s—to achieve a desire, hope, dream, or goal. This can lead to losing faith in someone on whom we were depending—perhaps even a person we love.

The gospel of John tells us that Jesus loved Martha, her sister Mary, and their brother Lazarus. Because of this, they didn’t sense the need to tell the Lord anything more than “He whom You love is sick” (John 11:3). Their expectation was that as soon as Jesus heard this, He would come and heal their brother. But He didn’t set out for two more days.

When He arrived, Martha came out to meet Him and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died”(v. 21). She’d had the expectation that He would come right away, thereby saving Lazarus’s life. She didn’t see His purpose, which was to perform a greater miracle.

God has reasons for permitting us to experience disappointments. He could prevent them, but He wants to show us His purpose. His desire is that we will trust and believe—and let our circumstance bring glory to Him (vv. 4, 25).

When disappointments come, will you be stalled and derailed from God’s plans for your life? Or will you find yourself open to what He wants to show you and eager to understand His purpose and lesson in those situations? The right response is simply to trust Him.

John 14:1-6

In My Father’s house are many mansions; . . . I go to prepare a place for you. —John 14:2

Once, during my tenure as a human resource officer for a construction company, we took some jobs in a neighboring state. This meant our workers were faced with a 2-hour commute each way, plus a full workday. To ease the burden, we booked motel rooms for the week, but we also arranged vans and drivers to transport those who decided to commute. Almost every worker took the vans!

One of our grumpiest workers discarded his usual demeanor as he described the thrill and surprise of his wife and four boys on the first night. He hadn’t told them he had an option to come home, so he showed up unexpectedly to surprise them. Later his wife called to thank the company owner, telling him their family was “loyal for life” to anyone who understood how important home was to workers.

Anyone who has been deprived of home, even for a short time, will understand the comfort Jesus’ disciples drew from His words when He promised that an eternal home awaited them (John 14:2). Then, to make their joy complete, Jesus told them He would prepare and guide them to that home, and, joy of joys, He would be there too (v.3).

Remember the greatest comfort of this life: Jesus promised that one day we will go home to be with Him. —Randy Kilgore

Heavenly Father, we praise You for these words

from Jesus that touch the deepest longing in

our soul—the hope and comfort of home. We

want to be with You. In Jesus’ name, amen.

There is no place like home— especially when home is heaven.

On May 6, 1937, radio commentator Herbert Morrison sat at the Naval airbase in Lakehurst, New Jersey waiting for the arrival of the Zeppelin Hindenburg, the largest airship that had ever flown. It was twelve hours behind schedule and, doubtless, Morrison was glad to begin recording: “Toward us, like a great feather … is the Hindenburg. The members of the crew are looking down on the field ahead of them getting their glimpses of the mooring mast…”(1)

 But three hundred feet over its intended landing spot, the Hindenburg shockingly burst into flames. It was destroyed in precisely 32 seconds, all before the unbelieving eyes of 1,000 spectators. Morrison’s breathless account of the tragedy remains a sad and recognized piece of American journalism, particularly his cry “Oh the humanity!” which resonated with the impact of the disaster.

 This phrase is now synonymous with any expression of surprise or strong emotion, but it was originally uttered by Morrison as a lament for the human vulnerability so brazenly materializing before him. As burning wreckage came crashing onto the ground and the crowd underneath did not seem to have time to escape, humanity appeared small and susceptible, and his was a cry of lament. The symbol of German grandeur, the aircraft deemed the largest and the safest, was suddenly an image of the fragility of human life.

 Often reclaimed in times of despair or calamity, the image of human life as vulnerable comes as a shock, even though we know it to be an accurate picture. We are not the towering pillars of strength we sometimes believe, but clay at best, which breaks and falls into pieces before our eyes. It is an image we receive with disbelief, if not indignation. Consequently, because we are so often reminded of human weakness in the midst of tragedy, it is easy—and often valid—to associate vulnerability with lament. Sitting beside a cancer patient who has fought the disease with everything she has and is still losing the battle, fragility is something to bemoan. Standing within a refugee camp, where disease is rampant and the death rate unthinkable, human frailty is not only lamentable, it is infuriating. The same jumbled mix of lament and fury fit the violent and despairing scenes of Boston this week as well. Human vulnerability can be heartbreaking. We might ask, is it justifiable to see the inherent weakness of humanity as anything other than something to bemoan?

 Not unlike the tragedies that jar us awake, the gospel and the cross within it remind us that human life is not invincible. Jesus spoke readily of his own death and wept at the grave of a friend. He crumbled in Gethsemane under the weight of the coming cross, sweating blood and praying in anguish. In reality, at the very heart of Christianity is one who reminds us that humanity, like grass and flowers, withers and falls. The apostle Paul, too, racked with persecution, shipwrecks, and beatings, wrote of our bodies as clay jars, hastening back the image of David who lamented that he had become like “broken pottery.” Scripture clearly puts forth the story of a fleeting and afflicted humanity.

 And yet importantly, this image is not always put forth as a lament. Far from this, Christ calls to us within our weakness and within his own weakness, demonstrating that suffering is not unfamiliar to him and beckoning us to live as he lived. In the cruciform image of Jesus on the cross, we find the staggering hope of redemption in tragedy, healing in brokenness, even the possibility of meaning in affliction. Further, the broken and yet standing Christ himself is reason for strength in weakness. As Paul writes, “[W]e have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:7-10).

 The Christian story does not merely tell of the life to come, of resurrection and restoration, certainty and comfort; Christ is not an escape raft for the hard realities of this world. On the contrary, the gospel must figure into what we think about our humanity in the midst of it all. Jesus extends an example of what it means to be human here and now, through suffering, in tragedy, when vulnerability and helplessness lay us low. Here, lamentation is so often befitting, but its counterpart is not out of reach. For quite thankfully, Jesus is not only familiar with the tragic sense of human frailty, he also willingly embraced weakness, that he could carry us through our own.

 Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

 (1) “Oh, the Humanity!” Time Magazine, Monday, May 17, 1937.

You have come…To the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Hebrews 12:22,24

Reader, have you come to “the sprinkled blood”? The question is not whether you have come to a knowledge of doctrine or an observance of ceremonies or to a certain form of experience, but have you come to the blood of Jesus?

The blood of Jesus is the life of all vital godliness. If you have truly come to Jesus, we know how you came–the Holy Spirit kindly brought you there. You came to the sprinkled blood with no merits of your own. Guilty, lost, and helpless, you came to take that blood, and that blood alone, as your everlasting hope. You came to the cross of Christ with a trembling and an aching heart; and what a precious sound it was to you to hear the voice of the blood of Jesus!

The dropping of His blood is as the music of heaven to the penitents of earth. We are full of sin, but the Savior bids us lift our eyes to Him; and as we gaze upon His streaming wounds, each drop of blood, as it falls, cries, “It is finished; I have made an end of sin; I have brought in everlasting righteousness.”

Sweet language of the precious blood of Jesus! If you have come to that blood once, you will come to it constantly. Your life will be “looking to Jesus.” Your whole conduct will be epitomized in this–“to whom coming.” Not to whom I have come, but to whom I am always coming. If you have ever come to the sprinkled blood, you will feel your need of coming to it every day. He who does not desire to wash in it every day has never washed in it at all. Believers constantly feel it to be their joy and privilege that there is still a fountain opened. Past experiences are doubtful food for Christians; a present coming to Christ alone can give us joy and comfort. This morning let us sprinkle our doorpost fresh with blood, and then feast upon the Lamb, assured that the destroying angel must pass us by.

“Is it not a little one?” Genesis 19:20

Suggested Further Reading: Romans 2:1-11

There is a deep pit, and the soul is falling down,—oh how fast it is falling! There! The last ray of light at the top has disappeared, and it falls on and on and on, and so it goes on falling—on and on and on—for a thousand years! “Is it not getting near the bottom yet? No, you are no nearer the bottom yet: it is the “bottomless pit;” it is on and on and on, and so the soul goes on falling, perpetually, into a deeper depth still, falling for ever into the “bottomless pit” and on and on and on, into the pit that has no bottom! Woe without termination, without hope of coming to a conclusion. The same dreadful idea is contained in those words, “The wrath to come.” Notice, hell is always “the wrath to come.” If a man has been in hell a thousand years, it is still “to come.” What you have suffered in the past is as nothing, in the dread account, for still the wrath is “to come.” And when the world has grown grey with age, and the fires of the sun are quenched in darkness, it is still “the wrath to come.” And when other worlds have sprung up, and have turned into their palsied age, it is still “the wrath to come.” And when your soul, burnt through and through with anguish, sighs at last to be annihilated, even then this awful thunder shall be heard, “the wrath to come—to come—to come.” Oh, what an idea! I know not how to utter it! And yet for little sins, remember you incur “the wrath to come.”

For meditation: This shocking description can give only a faint idea of the just punishment of our sins. Are you trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver you from the wrath to come? He is able to do it because he suffered the wrath of his loving heavenly Father on the cross (Romans 5:9;

1 Thessalonians 1:10).

“We may not know, we cannot tell, What pains He had to bear;

But we believe it was for us, He hung and suffered there.”

Do you?

Sermon no. 248

17 April (1859)

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).

By the time Jesus arrived, Israel was in a desperate condition spiritually. The Jewish people were in bondage to the oppressive legalism of the Pharisees, who had developed a system of laws that were impossible to keep. Consequently, the people lacked security and were longing for a savior to free them from guilt and frustration. They knew God had promised a redeemer who would forgive their sins and cleanse their hearts (Ezek. 36:25-27), but they weren’t sure when He was coming or how to identify Him when He arrived.

The enormous response to John the Baptist’s ministry illustrates the level of expectancy among the people. Matthew 3:5-6 says, “Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea, and all the district around the Jordan; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins.” The uppermost question in everyone’s mind seemed to be, “How can I enter the kingdom of heaven?”

Jesus Himself was asked that question by many people in different ways. In Luke 10:25 a lawyer asks, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” In Luke 18:18 a rich young ruler asks exactly the same thing. In John 6:28 a multitude asks, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Nicodemus, a prominent Jewish religious leader, came to Jesus at night with the same question, but before he could ask it, Jesus read his thoughts and said, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

As devoutly religious as those people might have been, they would remain spiritually lost unless they placed their faith in Christ. That’s the only way to enter the kingdom.

Still today many people look for relief from sin and guilt. God can use you to share Christ with some of them. Ask Him for that privilege and be prepared when it comes.

Suggestions for Prayer:

Pray for those enslaved to legalistic religious systems.

Be sure there is no sin in your life to hinder God’s work through you.

For Further Study:

Read Galatians 3.

Why did Paul rebuke the Galatians?

What was the purpose of the Old Testament law?

God is faithful (reliable, trustworthy, and therefore ever true to His promise, and He can be depended on); by Him you were called into companionship and participation with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.—1 Corinthians 1:9

There are times you just can’t see through the darkness that seems to be closing in around you. It is in those times of endurance and patience that your faith is stretched and you learn to trust God even when you can’t hear His voice.

You can grow in your confidence level to the point where “knowing” is even better than “hearing.” You may not know what to do, but it is sufficient to know the one who does know. Everyone likes specific direction; however, when you don’t have it, knowing God is faithful and ever true to His promise, and that He has promised to be with us always, is comforting and keeps us stable until His timing comes to illuminate the situation.

“Mark this well: The Lord has set apart the redeemed for himself. Therefore He will listen to me and answer when I call to Him” (Psalm 4:3).

My 93-year-old mother has known and walked with the Lord since she was 16. In all the years that I have known her, now more than 60, I have never known her to say an unkind or critical word or do anything that would be contrary to her commitment to Christ, made as a teenage girl.

Hers has been a life of prayer, study of God’s Word and worship of Him. The radiance and joy of her godly life has inspired not only her husband and seven children, but also scores of grandchildren and great and great-great grandchildren, and thousands of neighbors and friends.

A few days ago I invited her – for the hundredth time, at least – to come and live with us, knowing that all the rest of the children have made similar invitations. She responded, “No, I prefer to live alone. But I am not really alone, for the Lord Jesus is with me, comforting me, giving me His peace and assurance that He will take care of me.”

So she spends her days in prayer, in study of the Word and in being a blessing to all who enter her home, as the love of God flows through her. Only eternity will record the multitudes of lives that have been transformed through her godly example and her dedicated prayers of intercession.

Surely every Christian needs a daily engagement – with priority claim over everything else – to meet the Lord in the secret place if his life is to be a benediction to others.

Bible Reading: Psalm 5:1-7

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  I recognize that if I am going to live a supernatural life, I must set aside time which will take priority over every other consideration. Only a genuine emergency will take precedence over such an engagement of prayer, study of God’s Word, worship and praise of my wonderful Lord.

Read today’s verse again. Then continue with the thought presented in verses 10 and 11: “so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment. Philippians 1:9

The apostle Paul prayed that love would abound in the Philippians, impelling them to act righteously in all things, even in the minor affairs of life. As one Bible commentary states, “Love is not a wild, ignorant enthusiasm.” It can give spiritual guidance if tempered by knowledge (the acquisition of information) and discernment (the awareness of differences to determine what is excellent).

When you understand what is best, you will neither offend nor take offense, but will be filled with the fruit of the Spirit. Abounding in love will prompt you to live a useful life with the holiest of conduct. You can stand blameless before Christ and give glory to God.

Pray for love to abound in this nation – love for God, for one another and for those who have yet to know the saving grace of Jesus. Transformation will surely follow.

Recommended Reading: I Thessalonians 3:5-13

And after some days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. —Acts 24:24

When the apostle Paul stood before the Roman governor Felix and his wife, “he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come” (Acts 24:25).

But Felix was frightened by what he was hearing, and so he told Paul, “Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you” (verse 25). That is how a lot of people are: Go away for now. I don’t want to talk about it.

That was my mother’s response every time the topic turned to spiritual things. She would cut the conversation short and say, “I don’t want to talk about it.” Whenever we got to the topic of the meaning of life or the afterlife, she would say, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

I didn’t want to have a confrontation with her every time I saw her. But one morning, I felt especially convicted that I needed to visit my mother and raise the subject once again. When I arrived, I told her, “I want to talk to you about eternity.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

But I wasn’t backing down. I said, “Mom, today we are going to talk about it.”

She didn’t like it. But we had the conversation, and it ultimately resulted in her making a recommitment to the Lord. I am glad we talked about it because it wasn’t long afterward that she died unexpectedly.

If you know someone right now—a mom or dad, a grandfather or grandmother, or someone who is getting close to the end—and you are feeling convicted by the Holy Spirit to have that conversation, then go have it. What if it is awkward? Then it is awkward—and it just may result in their making a commitment to Christ.

Picture if you will, a blank check.   The amount of the check is “sufficient grace.”  The signer of the check is Jesus.  The only blank line is for the payee.  That part is for you!  May I urge you to spend a few moments with your Savior receiving this check?  Reflect on the work of God’s grace. The nails that once held a Savior to the cross.  His sacrifice was for you.  Express your thanks for His grace.  Whether for the first time or the thousandth, let Him hear you whisper, “Forgive us our debts.” And let Him answer your prayer as you imagine writing your name on the check.

No more deposits are necessary.  So complete was the payment that Jesus used a banking term to proclaim your salvation.  “It is finished!”  (John 19:30)  Perhaps I best slip out now and leave the two of you to talk.