We ask your Lord to please be with
us and to speak to us through your
holy word.
Amen.
Our text we find in John chapter 11
and verse 21.
Lord Martha said to Jesus, if you had
been here my brother would not have died.
Now Martha and Mary's brother became ill.
Seriously ill.
And then they sent a messenger to Jesus.
Jesus wasn't there, he was elsewhere at another
place.
Perhaps more than 25 miles away.
When they brought the message to Jesus.
Reporting to him about Lazarus's illness.
And I said to him, Lord the one
whom you love is seriously ill.
It's quite amazing that they took note of
the fact that the Lord Jesus loved Lazarus
dearly.
And if we continue with the matter because
it's quite a long matter.
We find that Jesus also loved Mary and
Martha dearly.
So in other words, this was a family
dearly beloved by the Lord.
Now very often we have the spirit of
the communists where we say everything has to
be according to equal measure.
Everything's got to be the same.
And we are jealous.
And if we see that someone seems to
be loved more than somebody else or more
than what you are loved.
Then you can die of jealousy.
And you say, well, that person is always
being greeted friendly and he's gone to visit
that person twice already.
And he hasn't even yet come to visit
me once.
And then your faith collapses and comes to
an end.
But with God, it's not like that.
Neither with the Lord Jesus Christ.
When the Lord dealt out talents to the
one, he gave five to the one, two,
and to another one, one.
But we Christians have already been influenced very
seriously and we've been finished off by communism.
Well, it's good that it's God who is
the creator of man and not man himself.
The communist doctrine says everything has got to
be equal.
The amazing thing is that their leaders are
not equal to the others.
They are wealthier than the others.
Jesus had his twelve disciples.
Yes, he loved all of them and they
were all dear to him.
But at certain
times
when he would walk with them and go
to certain places like when he went to
the mountain of transfiguration and also when he
went into the garden of Gethsemane to go
and pray, he would choose out some of
them, three of them, to go with him.
Well, it's good that we were not there
because if we had been there, we would
have forsaken the Lord Jesus a long time
ago already.
We would have grumbled and murmured and said,
but why is it that he loves those
more than what he loves us?
Why does he choose them out rather than
us?
And he also had a separate group of
seventy disciples.
Now, why do I say this?
Because this isn't really very important.
It's not the gospel.
No, it doesn't seem to be important.
It is very important because if you have
jealousy in your heart, you will be a
curse to God's church.
The Holy Spirit will never be free and
at liberty in your life.
And if we wanted everything to be equal,
then if we had our hand and all
the fingers were equal, we would get a
shock at its appearance.
If maybe such a hand would come to
you at night, you would run away thinking
it's a ghost.
What would you say if a person's thumb
was as long as his index finger?
You would say that person is a cripple.
He is malformed.
What would you say if someone were to
come to you and say, well, we've got
to change the hand and chop off the
fingers that are longer, cut them off, and
sew them onto the fingers that are shorter,
that they'd all be equal?
You know what the communist approach was in
Europe to try and infiltrate the youth there?
The teachers would speak to the children and
say, tell me, how big is your bedroom?
And then they'd say, and then they'd say,
now tell me, how big is your parents'
bedroom?
Obviously theirs would be much larger.
It would never be the same as ours.
And then I'd ask, now tell me, how
does the furniture compare?
And then they'd say, well, how big is
the bedroom of your parents and yours, the
bed they sleep in, the bed you sleep
in?
And they'd say, well, our parents' bed, it's
queen or king size, and ours, no, it's
so small, maybe it's a double bunk.
And they'd say, oh, so it's not the
same.
Oh, kanga bona.
Manja nina o man fige kaya, ni fige
ngas katsini.
And then they'd say, oh, so things are
like that then, are they?
And when you have to come home, what
time do you need to be at home?
And your father, when he comes home, what
time does he get home?
And if you are told to be home
at three in the afternoon and you only
get back home at four, what happens?
Oh, we'll be cross-examined and we'll be
questioned.
Oh, my figa, uya buu swayin, uguti ubuyanini,
ugufuti ubebelebelepi.
And your father, what time does he get
home?
Oh, well, five, six, seven, sometimes even at
eleven at night.
Now when he gets home, is he asked
where he was and why he's so late?
Kaga buu swayin.
No, he doesn't get asked questions.
How?
So why are things then like that?
You know why you young people fail to
be true believers?
Why you fail to live for the Lord
Jesus?
And why you fail to be a healthy
influence in society, in the community and bring
life to them?
It's heart-breaking.
Not one country in the whole world has
ever profited through communism.
On the contrary, when communism takes over, that
country loses everything that it had.
I'm not a politician.
But when I stand here at the pulpit,
allow me to tell you the truth.
I hadn't intended saying this.
I hadn't even dreamt that I would say
it today.
But why do I say it?
Because of this message, that the sisters of
Lazarus sent Jesus, the one whom you love
is sick.
In other words, it was evident that the
Lord Jesus loved him dearly.
There was a very close relationship between him
and Lazarus and also between Jesus and Martha
and Mary.
And he'd regularly go and visit there.
And when he would go to Jerusalem, he'd
always go via their place and go and
visit there because they were about two miles
away, even though today you measure things in
kilometers.
Jesus loves us all.
Completely.
No one can say he doesn't love me.
For he died for you.
There's nothing more than that that he could
do for you.
But don't ever enter into that error where
you say, oh, so it seems like the
Lord Jesus loves others more than what he
loves me.
And because of that, you enter into sin.
And if he gives somebody else five talents
and he only gives you two, that shouldn't
make you disheartened or disappoint you and make
you downhearted, you should understand it is because
it is the will of God.
And if he blesses somebody else richly, then
you too should bless that person.
And through that, you too will be blessed.
As God said, I'll bless Abraham and those
who bless him, I'll bless as well.
And those who curse him, I'll curse.
Never be like that.
When God blesses your neighbor, perhaps he gives
him a car.
Perhaps when he plants something, it grows very
well.
Never be like that, that you wish that
something bad would befall that person.
No, be happy together with him, rejoice with
him and bless him as well.
There's somebody whom I know.
Well, it's in a factory.
And the owner said, I'd like to give
you a promotion and give you a higher
position.
For he saw that he was very gifted,
very intelligent and very practical.
And he thought, well, the job that he's
got at the moment, it's a waste to
have him there.
Let me rather give him a better position.
So he said, I'll promote you.
And this black person said, no, I'm sorry.
He said, why?
He said, these others will become jealous of
me and eventually they'll kill me.
Now, tell me, such a nation, such a
people, such a congregation, can it ever prosper?
Can it ever advance?
It's like two crabs trapped in a box
and when the one tries to get out,
the other crab constantly pulls him back.
Do you hear that?
Where he pulls him down and he pulls
him back rather than pushing him and encouraging
him and helping him to get out.
And if you have any jealousy in your
heart, pray to God that he'll finish it
off, that he'll save you from it and
set you free for you won't get anywhere
with that jealousy in your heart.
Yes, the murderer, the drunkard, the prostitute, they're
all guilty, but you are just as guilty
as they are with the jealousy in your
heart.
So ask God to deal with it, to
wipe it out of your life, to get
rid of it totally and completely because when
you look at people through that eye and
you say, oh, so that family, that surname,
they are always treated better than what I
am.
Oh, what a cursed attitude.
And whilst you have that attitude, let me
tell you, you won't get anywhere.
You'll get into a grave one day without
having reached places with God.
And whereas it will be said at the
grave side of a drunkard, this is the
grave of a drunkard.
At your grave side will be said, this
is the grave of somebody who always had
jealousy and who could never wish anything good
for somebody else.
And if you only have one talent, whereas
somebody else has got five talents, you can
hate that person.
You could look at that person with an
evil eye, but when you stand before God,
God will take even that one talent which
you had and He'll take it and give
it to that person who had five talents.
Have you heard and understood and grasped this
point?
Can I leave it now?
And don't be like Judas Iscariot and be
a devil in their midst.
Be careful of that.
You can be a disciple, and yet, in
the end, you're a devil.
You can be a disciple, and yet, in
the end, you're a devil.
For Judas had a sin, which was his
pet sin, which he nurtured in his life.
And he kept the purse.
He was a treasurer, and he would secretly
take some of the money and keep it
for himself and use it for himself in
secret, very cleverly, that nobody else would find
it out.
You get some people that are close to
Jesus, but they are evil.
You won't catch them in their sin, unless
they're slim.
Even the wisest among the disciples, not one
of them ever got a thought that there's
something not right, something unclean in his secret
and hidden life.
No chance.
That little sin, so-called little sin, is
the master of your life, and you won't
end where you want to end.
You will end where that evil force will
drive to you.
So decide, make that decision, and say, Lord,
please finish this thing off in my life,
because else that thing will take you to
a place where you don't want to be.
And in
the
first place, this jealousy that I've mentioned, pray
that God will finish that off in your
life.
Otherwise, if it continues to reign in your
life eventually, Jesus will have to say, well,
I can't go and visit at Lazarus' home
anymore because of the jealousy of the others.
Else you won't be of help to the
Holy Spirit in the building up of the
church, of God's work.
Instead, you'll be a hindrance.
You'll be a stumbling block, and the church
will be happy the day that you are
dead and buried and out of the way.
Now, let's leave that point.
That topic, let's go to another one.
When Jesus heard that this one whom he
loves was very sick, he stayed where he
was two more days.
So he didn't go immediately.
He stayed there for two more days.
And remember, it was still a distance that
he had to travel from where he was
to Lazarus' home.
And when he got there, they told him
that he had been dead for four days.
But Jesus had stayed for two more days
there where he was.
And then he said, well, let's go off
then there to Judea.
To Jerusalem.
And then Thomas said, but Lord, how can
you go there?
Just a short while ago, they wanted to
kill you there.
And he said, doesn't a day have 12
hours?
If you walk during the day, you will
not stumble.
Yet, if you go at night, that's when
you'll stumble.
And Jesus knew it's not the 12th hour
yet.
It was the 11th hour.
And there was still one hour left for
him.
And he made full use of it.
And he didn't say, oh, because it's 11
hours already, it's close by, I better stop.
That's what only we could do, we foolish
ones.
And then Jesus said, well, I'm going.
And then Thomas said, well, let's just go
together with him and go and die with
him.
We'll die with him.
You get many Christians that are like this
man.
They always see the dark side of things.
They always see the dark side.
You all understand German, don't you?
If you don't, oh, there's something missing in
your life.
That's what the Germans say.
A pessimist is that kind of dung or
fertilizer on which nothing grows.
If you understand German, you'll know where the
fertilizer comes in, in the word pessimist.
We had a German friend here and it
was so misty.
So I made a mistake when he left.
I said, I'm sorry that you have to
drive in this mist.
He says, ja, es ist richtig ein schlechter
mist.
Mist, es ist kuhmist.
It's cow dung.
Mist is nebel in German.
So, you get those people.
They always see the dark side of it.
Well, Thomas, you didn't do too bad.
You were prepared to die with our Lord.
You'll get a point, one point for that.
We had a German friend here and it
was so misty.
So, you get those people.
Well, Thomas, you didn't do too bad.
You were prepared to die with our Lord.
You'll get a point, one point for that.
You'll get a point for that.
Thomas was wrong!
Sickly and sickly and sickly in the name
of Jesus Christ.
But Thomas was wrong.
Absolutely wrong.
Completely wrong.
He was on the wrong side.
This was going to be a time in
which Jesus was going to be glorified in
a wonderful way.
Next point,
Jesus
said our friend is asleep.
It wasn't only that Jesus loved Lazarus, but
Lazarus also loved the Lord Jesus dearly and
was very close to him.
He was like a friend, like a relative.
He didn't just love the Lord Jesus, he
loved his disciples as well.
That's always the case.
You can't love God and don't love his
own.
You are a liar.
He said, Leonard, you can't love God.
Jesus said, I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I love you, I
love you, I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I love you, I
love you, I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I love you, I
love you, I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I love you, I
love you, I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I love you, I
love you, I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I love you, I
love you, I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I love you, I
love you, I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I love you, I
love you, I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I love you, I
love you, I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I love you, I
love you, I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I love you, I
love you, I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I love you, I
love you, I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I love you, I
love you, I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you, I love
you, I love you, I Jesus's blessing, God's
blessing rested upon this home, upon this family.
Don't be jealous about that, rather pray that
God will work in your life that you'll
experience his blessing as well.
So Jesus told those who were with him,
he said our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,
but I'm going there to wake him up.
In English it's, he's fallen asleep.
Here he's sleeping, but I'm going to wake
him up out of his sleep.
Well if a sick person sleeps, it's a
good sign.
So they must have thought, well he's improving,
he's sleeping and the Lord will come and
wake him out of his sleep.
So they said, Lord if he sleeps, he
will get better, but Jesus had been speaking
of his death.
Jesus is the Lord of life, he
is in control of that and so with
him there is no death and even if
a person sleeps in death here, he sleeps,
he rests with the Lord in heaven.
And so he told them plainly, Lazarus is
dead, but I'm going there to raise him
from the dead.
And he told them, he said, for your
sake, I am glad that I was not
there, so that you may believe, but let
us go to him.
Now let's jump and go to Martha.
There where Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if
you had been here, my brother would not
have died.
It was a heartbreaking, a very sad and
grievous occasion that their brother had passed away.
And so these two sisters were heart sore
and were grieving.
To them, it was dark.
Everything looked dark to them, for they had
sent a message to the Lord Jesus and
then he didn't come.
In the meantime, their brother had passed away.
Everything went wrong and both of them, Mary
and Martha, felt the same about it.
You know how our human minds
and human reasoning works.
When things go wrong, we always look for
a reason and the cause for the things
going wrong.
And then we saw that things went like
this, it was because we didn't take the
person to the doctor quicker or they gave
the person the wrong treatment or because of
that, always looking for a reason or a
scapegoat.
Maybe your husband said he's got a terrible
headache and you didn't really take notice of
it.
And then he complained again that he had
a headache.
Oh man, well, take an aspirin or do
this.
I'm tired and you don't really take notice
of it.
And the next thing, he's got a stroke
and there he lies.
And then you say, oh my, I would
have only done this or that or this.
And then the next thing, he's got a
stroke and there he lies.
And then you say, oh my, I would
have only done this or that or this.
And so it was like that with Martha
and Mary.
There they had sent the message to Jesus.
He didn't come.
In the meantime, the fever was rising, the
temperature was rising, the fever was continuing.
And every now and again, they'd look out
the window, look out the door.
Anxiously, is Jesus coming yet?
No, he isn't coming.
And things were only getting worse.
And eventually, he died.
And buried, put in a place in the
tomb.
And Jesus hadn't yet arrived.
And he's not coming.
But there where Jesus was, he said, I
am glad for your sake that I was
not there.
And on his arrival, when it was said
Jesus is there, Mary and Martha jumped up,
ran to go to him.
The whole home was full of people, some
highly placed, important people there as well.
To Eastern custom, if somebody had passed away
in your home, and you've got family or
you've got friends that are coming there to
grieve together with you, passing their condolences, you
can't just jump up and leave them there
and go somewhere else.
But that shows us how close they were
to each other.
But Jesus wasn't there.
And so Martha jumped up first and got
to the Lord Jesus.
And I don't know whether she was upset
or what, but it was almost as if
she scolded the Lord, saying, Lord, if you
had been here, my brother would not have
died.
You are to blame.
It's your mistake.
If you would only have been here.
Now what must the Lord do?
Apologize.
I'm so sorry that I didn't come earlier.
But I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Saying, I'm sorry.
Like three leaders of three different countries,
they had a meeting with the Queen of
England.
But they came late.
You know, with the whites, if you are
one minute late, that's a terrible crime and
a sin.
And they'll get upset and angry with you
about that.
But that is not a big sin to
them.
So Margaret Thatcher, when she got to the
Queen, she said, I'm so sorry for being
late.
And then another president came as well.
And he said, I'm sorry too.
And then somebody else came.
And I won't tell you the name of
this leader.
He didn't know English too well.
And he said, I'm sorry three.
I'm sorry.
I perfect and he knows what he's doing.
Jesus stayed 2 days longer there where He
was.
Before He even started traveling and when he
got there Lazarus had been in the grave
already for 4 days and was already smelling.
Now Mary and Martha were very close to
the Lord Jesus but the heartbreaking thing is
that on the other hand they are as
far apart from each other as the East
is from the West.
On different wavelengths.
It's heartbreaking if a person walks with Jesus
and yet isn't on the same wavelength as
he is.
Jesus told his disciples I'm glad for your
sakes that I wasn't there when it happened
because God is going to be glorified through
this and I as well.
And you'll believe in me.
But to Mary and Martha it had seemed
as if all had gone wrong.
It was pitch black.
And so Jesus
said to Martha I am the resurrection and
the life.
And Martha said I know whatever you ask
of God he'll do for you.
Whatever you ask I know that even now
God will give you whatever you ask.
Martha spoke very well.
Oh it was wonderful and sweeter than honey
what she said.
In such a situation, under such circumstances, that
she could say such a thing, in such
circumstances, I know that God will give you
whatever you ask of him.
And
Jesus
said your brother will rise again.
And she's answered I know you'll rise again
in the resurrection at the last day.
Mary what have you said just now?
Martha what have you said just now?
When Jesus said I'll raise him she says
I know God will give you everything you
ask.
And now when he says I'll raise him
she jumps and she says on the last
day.
So what went on?
Seemingly she didn't really mean what she said.
She didn't mean what she said.
She didn't
mean
what she said.
It's very sad.
It's terrible when a person says something very
sweet, something wonderful and yet that person doesn't
mean what they say.
And they're not complete in that.
It's a pity that we can talk like
a saint, like a holy one, but we
are not in it perfectly.
Two different things.
She must have said it like a parrot.
She must have spoken something that she knew,
but she wasn't in it.
It wasn't part of her.
It was her lips
and
not her heart.
So pause for a moment.
Examine your life.
Examine your faith and see what it's like.
Are you perhaps a very sweet-talking, smooth
-talking saint and yet in your heart you
are far removed from that.
You are double-minded or like it is
said in the Bible, where God said of
Isaiah, he prophesied correctly about you, that you
draw nigh to me with your lips, but
your hearts are far removed from me.
I think I've spoken enough now.
I've still got much material here.
I thought I'd talk about it, but the
time is gone, so I'll stop.
But I ask you to take to heart
what you have been told and chew the
curd properly, properly, like a good cow when
she chews the curd.
Jesus said to them, take the stone away.
He went to the grave, commanded them to
remove the stone.
According to the Talmud, they were not allowed
to touch the stone.
Because a corpse was unclean.
And even the grave and even the stone,
there had to be a certain distance between
them and the stone.
But Jesus broke those Jewish rules, take away
the stone.
And then he cried out with a loud
voice.
He never did that in his whole life.
He did it only once before he died
on the cross.
He cried out with a loud voice and
gave up the ghost.
But here at the tomb, he cried out
like that.
Some people say, why did he have to
cry out so loud?
Well, that's the question a little child will
ask.
Some child will say, well, he had to
cry out aloud so that Lazarus could hear
him and come out.
You remember the little girl who was raised
from the dead?
Some translations say, I think, little girl rise.
In Greek it is, my little
lamb arise.
He didn't cry with a loud voice.
He just spoke silently to a little lamb
and she arose.
He didn't cry with a loud voice.
He just spoke silently to a little lamb
and she arose.
Are we still on the same plane?
Maybe he had to shout so that God
would hear him.
That's the mind of a little child that
still needs to develop.
Maybe he said it for the sake of
his disciples and those that now bathe us.
Lazarus come out so that they could all
hear what he said.
And he came out.
My, what a Lord.
If only you had been there, oh, my
dear sister, Martha, Martha Mary, Eva, he was
always there.
Only you were so stupid and so blind
as to think he wasn't there.
He was there.
He was present.
He was there.
He was in control.
And he said, I'm glad, I'm happy that
I'm not there.
Because then most probably you would have to
raise him.
And what a pity if Lazarus would have
been healed before he died.
And he said, I'm glad, I'm happy that
I'm not there.
Because then most probably you would have to
raise him.
And he said, I'm glad, I'm happy that
I'm not there.
Because then most probably you would have to
raise him.
And he said, I'm glad, I'm happy that
I'm not there.
Because then most probably you would have to
raise him.
And he said, I'm glad, I'm happy that
I'm not there.
And he said, I'm glad, I'm happy that
I'm not there.
Because then most probably you would have to
raise him.
Now we can ask a little question, a
little child would ask.
Why isn't everybody raised from the dead?
Why didn't he raise my wife?
Who had her second birthday two days ago
in heaven?
Now I'll answer you like a little child.
They were told Kay is going to come
and if she wouldn't have come they would
have been disappointed.
Because if you love a person and you
hear he's coming, you're happy and then if
he doesn't come, oh you're disappointed.
Paul said let me speak like a foolish
man for a while, so I'm just speaking
to you like a fool does.
But she says if only you had been
here and she didn't know that he was
there all the time.
And what he had planned and he had
ordered was much higher than what they asked
for.
So much as the heaven is above the
earth.
In closing, Peter, what I do now you
don't understand.
But one day you will understand.
As standards, shall we pray?
Lord Jesus, reveal to us your heavenly mysteries.
That we might truly understand and grasp what
you are saying.
And that which has been spoken, that it
might bring forth much fruit.