What it means to abide in Jesus Christ's pattern - Seek and Know Jesus Christ

 

Introduction:

    The last few posts have looked at what it means to abide in Christ. The posts are based off of a recent sermon I preached on the subject. Featured in the posts are Mary and Martha, two sisters whom Jesus met in the course of His earthly ministry some few months before His crucifixion. The last few posts dealt with how Mary highlights for us what it means to abide in the presence of Christ. We learned that to abide in Christ means:

"To abide in Christ is when my faith is settled in spiritual union with Him, identification with Him, and bearing fruit for Him." 

    Mary had her faith "settled in Jesus" but how she abided in His words, His cross, and His majesty.  We are now going to switch our attention to her sister Martha to learn what it means to abide in the pattern of Christ. In the last post we witnessed Martha learning to stop, look, and listen as she settled into abiding in Christ's pattern. Today's post will take us a step further by teaching us about "seeking and knowing" Jesus Christ. We will turn from looking at Luke 10:38-42 to the episode of Jesus' raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11:20-28, and how Martha responded to Jesus.

Seek and know. John 11:20-28

   We come to a second episode involving Martha in John 11:20-28. John 11 records the death of Lazarus and Jesus’ delay in getting to the family right before He dies. John 11:1 “Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.” 

   Jesus and the disciples were sent a message from Mary and Martha to come heal their brother before it was too late. Well, “too late” came and Lazarus died, prompting Jesus to say these words in John 11:11-15 “This He said, and after that He said to them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep.’ 12 The disciples then said to Him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.’ 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep. 14 So Jesus then said to them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead, 15 and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.” Thomas then makes a remark in John 11:16 and the narrative switches to it’s second main sequence beginning at John 11:17.

Lets pause before moving forward.

    Let’s pause here before continuing and ask ourselves this question: why does the Lord seem to hide Himself when we need Him most? This touches upon a philosophical and apologetical challenge referred to as “God’s Hiddenness”.  I’m reminded of the time I was flying back from a ministry trip many years ago. We lived in Florida where I was pastoring. The plane had to go above the cloud tops because of a major storm. 

    Above those clouds was blue skies and endless sunshine. Once we descended to land we were in the middle of the storm. If I had not witnessed what was above the clouds I would have assumed that the whole day in Florida was nothing but storm. Do you know when we landed, I wasn’t near as troubled by the lightening and the thunder. As a matter of fact I could be patient as I sought out the day that would come when I’d see the sun I knew was always there.

Dealing with the problem of God's hiddenness as we seek and know Jesus Christ.

    This problem of “God’s hiddenness”, as it is called, has prompted some skeptics to argue that because of all the evil in the world and the prevalence of unbelief, there surely can be no good reasons for God to allow it, and thus many deny His existence. Such an argument assumes that God has no good reasons, which is its flaw. It would be like me saying there can be no such thing as a “sun” if all I saw was storm and wind and assumed there can be no good reason for the storm.

 If I recall correctly, the storm of that day provided temporary cooling of the waters off the Gulf Coast of Florida which greatly weakened an incoming larger storm. Jesus’ delay had good reasons – to eventually raise Lazarus and show God’s glory. 

God’s supposed “hiddenness” is counter-balanced by His revelation of Himself in creation, the conscience, and especially His Word, which on average will foster either trust or expose how much we distrust Him. In other words, Jesus’ strategy of hiddenness was so that people like Mary and Martha would seek and know Him. We often don’t see the need to seek and know God until we’re in a situation where we cannot find peace despite seeking everything else. In my storm illustration earlier, I would not have desired to see the sunshine again unless I first had to ride through that storm and wind.   

How Martha sought to know Jesus Christ in the face of grief. 

Let’s see how Martha responded to Jesus and ended up seeking to know Him more. John 11:21-27 “Martha then said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.’ 23 Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ 24 Martha said to Him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ 25 Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’ 27 She ‘said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.” 

Martha had apparently taken time to know Jesus and seek Him between Her first meeting of Him over two months prior in Luke 10:38-42 to this episode in John 11. She was tested at a great point of loss, and she came through with flying colors. She confessed Him to be “The Christ”, her Anointed Savior. She confessed Him “The Son of God”, her Almighty God. She confessed He had “come into the world”, her incarnated Lord.

She found out it wasn’t so much her seeking and knowing Him as it was Jesus seeking and already knowing her. She learned to abide in His pattern through this storm of grief. As Adrian Rogers once noted, “tears are but telescopes through which we can see and grab onto the promises of God”. As we learn to abide in the pattern of Christ as Martha, we first need to stop, look, and listen; followed by seeking to know His pattern.

More next time...