I've Got You!
The Gospel of John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 7 viewsNotes
Transcript
Fearing Not the Rhino
A young girl stands in a picturesque meadow. In another part of the field is a gigantic African rhinoceros, which begins charging toward the girl. Her serene and happy face remains unmoved.
As the rhinoceros gets closer, the words appear on the screen, “Trust is not being afraid.” A split second before the rhino tramples the helpless child, it stops, and the girl, her smile never wavering, reaches up and pets the animal on its massive horn. The final words then appear, “even when you are vulnerable.”
The commercial was designed to tout the abilities of an insurance company to protect its clients from the uncertainties of life. How much more does it describe the believer, who can say with the psalmist, “I will say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust’ ” (Psalm 91:2)!
—Stephen Nordbye, Charlton, Massachusetts
You’ve probably heard this before: the word fear is an acronym for “False Evidence Appearing Real.” As wonderful as that sounds, and as much as we know we should not fear, we often find ourselves fearful. Fearful about the future, fearful about how we will pay the bills, fearful about our children and the path they appear to be taking. Fear paralyzes, so many are gripped by fear. What shall we do with fear? By briefly studying John 11:1-16, we will see how Jesus helps his children when we are fearful.
1 Now a man was sick—Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick.
3 So the sisters sent a message to him: “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 When Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
5 Now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus.
6 So when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was.
7 Then after that, he said to the disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again.”
8 “Rabbi,” the disciples told him, “just now the Jews tried to stone you, and you’re going there again?”
9 “Aren’t there twelve hours in a day?” Jesus answered. “If anyone walks during the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
10 But if anyone walks during the night, he does stumble, because the light is not in him.”
11 He said this, and then he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m on my way to wake him up.”
12 Then the disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.”
13 Jesus, however, was speaking about his death, but they thought he was speaking about natural sleep.
14 So Jesus then told them plainly, “Lazarus has died.
15 I’m glad for you that I wasn’t there so that you may believe. But let’s go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (called “Twin”) said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go too so that we may die with him.”
In this narrative, we are told that a close friend of Jesus, Lazarus, was sick. His sisters send word to Jesus, fully expecting him to come to Lazarus’s aid and heal him because that’s what Jesus does—He heals the sick.
Jesus tells his disciples that Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. Still, we know that Jesus actually permitted Lazarus to die, so that’s a puzzling statement that demands further study and another sermon for another day.
After Jesus delays his departure, he tells his disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again.” However, the disciples respond,
John 11:8 (CSB)
8 “. . . , “just now the Jews tried to stone you, and you’re going there again?”
Then Jesus makes a cryptic statement that is recorded in verses 9 and 10,
9 “Aren’t there twelve hours in a day?” Jesus answered. “If anyone walks during the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
10 But if anyone walks during the night, he does stumble, because the light is not in him.”
You might be wondering, “What on earth does that mean?” How is this statement by Jesus appropriate to the disciples concern? Let’s unpack what Jesus said to the disciples.
First off all, when did the enemies of Jesus pick up stones to stone him? Let’s turn to
John 8.
In the later part of the chapter, Jesus is having a dialogue with the Jewish leaders. He tells them that they are not Abraham’s children (see John 8:39) because he would have rejoiced if he had lived to see Christ in person. Jesus declares, John 8:44,
44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
However, later on in the discussion, Jesus acknowledges that his enemies were Abraham’s genetic descendants, and astounds them with the statement,
John 8:58 (CSB)
58 . . . “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”
Verse 59 shows how the Jewish leaders responded to Jesus earth shattering statement.
59 So they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple.
Now it’s interesting to note, in John 9, Jesus proves that he is who he said he is when he heals the man who was born blind. However, before Jesus heals him he makes an another interesting statement,
4 We must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.
5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Jesus predicted a time would come when no one would be able to work to announce the gospel of grace. However, the fulfillment of this “Night” has a double application. The first application is found in Luke 22:52-53
52 Then Jesus said to the chief priests, temple police, and the elders who had come for him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a criminal?
53 Every day while I was with you in the temple, you never laid a hand on me. But this is your hour—and the dominion of darkness.”
Luke describes the time when Jesus was arrested, unlawfully tried, and executed, and quoting Jesus, declares that that time or hour was the “dominon of darkness.” The final application will be at the end of time when Jesus will again be arrested, tried, and executed through his people when darkness appears to be reigning on the earth when the mark of the beast is enforced. As it was when Jesus was first arrested, there was no work being done, and that time will come again when pulpits will be silent, and the voice of gospel messengers will be silenced.
Nevertheless, here is the key: when Jesus uttered these words to his disciples, as recorded in John 11, that time was not yet. They picked up stones to stone him, but the hour of darkness was not yet.
Let’s read John 11:9 again,
9 “Aren’t there twelve hours in a day?” Jesus answered. “If anyone walks during the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
When Jesus spoke of the twelve hours, he was referring to the twelve hours of daylight in a day, and that while he, the Light of the world, was working to save humanity, it was metaphorically daytime, the time to work for the salvation of others.
In John 11:9-10, there is a contrast between two groups of people: those who walk in the daytime and those who walk in the darkness. So what was Jesus saying?
Anyone who walks with Jesus, the Light of the world, is walking in the daytime and is safe from stumbling. The word stumbling in the original language, προσκόπτει, means to dash your foot against a stone and experience harm. Jesus was saying nothing can harm you without God’s permission. Nothing can harm you while you are walking with the Light.
However, those who were rejecting the Messiah, namely the Jewish leaders, were walking in the night; they would eventually stumble, be harmed and ultimately perish if they refused to repent because they had no light.
So why would Jesus say this to the disciples? What point was he driving home?
The disciples expressed their concern for Jesus’s safety in John 11:8
8 “Rabbi,” the disciples told him, “just now the Jews tried to stone you, and you’re going there again?”
In other words, “Jesus, they are going to kill you, and possibly us if you go back to Judea.”
How do we know that the disciples were concerned for their lives too? Look what Thomas says after Jesus insists on going to Judea,
16 Then Thomas (called “Twin”) said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go too so that we may die with him.”
But did Jesus die that day? Was Jesus stoned to death as the disciples feared? No, he went to Judea, comforted those who needed comfort, and glorified the Father through the incredible resurrection of Lazarus. The machinations or evil plotting of the enemies of Jesus could not come to pass while it was day. They could not touch him or his disciples while it was day.
Again, I ask, were the enemies of Jesus able to execute Jesus the day after, or the day after that, or the day after that? NO! The enemies of Jesus could not touch him, for his time had not yet come, and nor could they touch his disciples, for there are “twelve hours in a day.”
When we are walking with Jesus, the Light of the world, working for the salvation of others while it is daytime, no one can touch us unless God says so. No one can touch us while it is day. We are safe in the arms of God despite any threats to our lives. If and when God allows us to be touched, it will bring glory to God and contribute towards the salvation of others as it was with Jesus’s death. Ultimately, we will see the face of Jesus at the last trump and be raised to enjoy immortal life and bliss with Jesus.
Simply put, Jesus said, “Don’t worry, I’ve got you.” “Let’s do what my Father tells us and rest in his arms.” When we are walking with the Light of the world—Jesus, we have nothing to fear.fear.
I love the way Rodney Whitacre puts it,
They [Christ’s followers] should stick with Jesus even when he seems to lead them into danger, for no matter what happens it will work out for the best, even as Lazarus’s illness will work for the glory of God. Here is a word of assurance and a call to all believers to take their bearings from God and not from their circumstances.
Rodney A. Whitacre, John, vol. 4, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Westmont, IL: IVP Academic, 1999), 280–281.