The lingering Jesus didn’t just cut it close; He didn’t make it in time. In the extra days that Mary and Martha waited for Jesus, their brother Lazarus died. Their deepest fear and concern had become reality. We know what it’s like to sit with life’s losses too: a divorce, diagnosis, church split, job loss, death of a family member, shattered dream, memory of past abuse. With Jesus, however, even the greatest losses in life become fertile ground for change, for Jesus can use any circumstance, tragedy, or hurting heart as an instrument to transform us. Jesus told His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” (v11) With Jesus, graves are not the end but places where resurrection takes place. In light of this truth, dare we welcome hardships and losses as prime opportunities/fertile ground for Jesus to work His transformation in us? (p50-67)

Today’s portion of Lazarus’ story comes with a surprising twist. Mary and Martha send word to Jesus that their brother is quite ill. In their word to Jesus the sisters even remind Jesus that Lazarus is “the one You love.” Clearly, the sisters hope, even assume that Jesus will come. Jesus, however, doesn’t go into rapid response mode, drop what He’s doing, and come to the rescue; rather, He stays right where He is for two more days. Jesus doesn’t show up in their greatest moment of need. While we have the advantage of knowing that Jesus does show up – eventually, His timing reminds us that Jesus never guarantees that things will work out when and as we desire. Where is Jesus? Why doesn’t He come sooner? In our text, Mary and Martha’s action reveals how we are to respond when Jesus seems to tarry; in an expression of faith, they send word to Jesus. In our own circumstances and seasons of “waiting on Jesus,” we too live by faith. Such waiting (i.e., the in-between time) plays an essential part in transformation. By faith in Jesus and His perfect timing and ways, we relinquish control, surrender our wills, and lay down unholy entitlements. Even when we don’t have answers, we can hold on to the things that we know ARE true: we are deeply loved by Jesus & He is in perfect control. And the times when God seems most absent can be the times when we get to know Him best…moments when God births new hope in us, a hope in who He is, not a hope in who we want Him to be. And we have His promise in Philippians 1:6 that “He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We begin a new 8-week series digging into the story of Lazarus in John 11-12. These verses speak to longings and breakthroughs, unmet expectations and disillusionment with God, the highest goal of God’s glory and clinging to hope in hard times. These are all facets of transformation. In today’s portion, Lazarus needs just that. The beloved brother of Mary and Martha is ill. We do not know what kind of sickness befell Lazarus, only that it is desperate enough to warrant his sisters sending word to Jesus of his illness…a clear cry for Jesus’ help. Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus brings and effects real transformation. He transforms water into wine, a Samaritan village to faith, an invalid for 38 years to full mobility, a handful of bread and fish feeds to a feast, a man born blind to full sight, and His own grave stands empty to this day. As people who desperately need transformation – physical, mental, and always spiritual – genuine change can only be found in Jesus. Jesus’ work of transformation in us, however, is never easy and quite messy (p95-111) as we open up past hurts, current struggles, and future fears to His healing. Moreover, Jesus’ transformation can be dangerous (p181-182). Friends and loved ones might not welcome our letting go of old habits, breaking free from addictions, or changing our behaviors and ways. Real transformation comes with varying degrees of rejection, grief, loneliness, trials, and woes, but all-the-while Jesus is leading us to a more full and abundant life in Him.

From prominence to ash heap, Job needed a strong hand guiding him and a tender heart loving him. Like Job, we are not insulated from life’s tragedies, but neither are we intimidated by them. In the middle of the broken pieces, Job cries out, “I know that my Redeemer lives!” These words mean that we have someone to walk with us through life’s long, dark, winding halls. Granted, there are many things surrounding our hardships that we simply don’t know, but what we DO KNOW is that on this day of resurrection our Redeemer truly lives! No matter what our dark hallway looks like and what our circles are saying, we do not walk alone. And why is that? “He lives, all glory to his name! He lives, my Jesus, still the same. Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives: ‘I know that my Redeemer lives!’”

For thirty-five chapters in the book of Job, Job cries out; his three friends speculate; and God … He remains silent. The LORD doesn’t speak a single word. In Job 38:1, however, the hidden God becomes the revealed God and what He reveals is powerful. “Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm.” Job does not receive an explanation from God as to the why, when, or what of his suffering; rather, he/we receive a revelation of God – who our ever-orchestrating God is. Through what will become a string of 70 questions from God to Job, the LORD emphasizes His incomprehensible greatness in all things. Through life’s storms, God leads Job and us from an attitude of self-pity and self-assertion in our trials to a place of self-surrender, falling before God in reverence, awe, and humility. We too no longer press God for an explanation, but simply bask in His unfathomable revelation – especially in and through Christ.

Just as we take many individual ingredients when we bake – which by themselves taste nasty – and combine them together to create savory cookies or cinnamon rolls, God is the master at working hardships for good. Job puts it this way: “When He has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). God desires righteous character, mature Christian faith, and lives marked by depth and compassion. To this end, God takes strange and distasteful events, and He works them together and creates lives of beauty in us. His plan always works for our good and to the Father’s glory. The secret is understanding how it all works together: “When He has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).

We are given only one detail in our text from Job 14:1–17; one small part of a much larger story. But this one part, this one detail, – though it seems odd at first glance – is beautiful and it is enough. In the midst of life’s pieces, Job says, “There is hope for a tree.” (v7) A tree can overcome many hardships, including being cut down and left for dead; it only takes one small sprout. Job continues: “If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.” (v7) We, like Job, know what it’s like to be cut down in life – health, friends, work – and feel left for dead…as with Jesus. But … “there is hope for a tree,” and in v14 Job confesses, “I will wait for my renewal to come.” Jesus brought renewal on Easter. The stump has sprouted, and for us, no matter how broken life seems, it is enough!

Life in this fallen world comes with its fair share of laments: Why did this happen? Where is God in all of this? Will this ever end? Bible characters like Rebekah, Moses, Gideon, and Job have their own laments too, some of which can make us feel uncomfortable. After seven silent days and nights, Job breaks his silence in our text today with several laments (3:11, 12, 23, 25-26); he puts it all out on the table. In this section of Job, we learn to (1) cope with sorrow by going through it; and (2) survive sorrow by looking past it. We look to Jesus who knows what it’s like to lament. Yes, we mourn and sorrow for the night, but Jesus’ resurrection (and ours) turns lamenting into rejoicing.

When Satan goes to work on Job, his life is marked by extraordinary loss. Job loses his wealth, livestock, servants, all of his children, and even his own health. When it rains, it pours! Like Job, we have three choices when hardships befall us. Trials can destroy us, define us, or develop us. Job fell to the ground in worship and declared, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Suffering develops us when in humble faith we surrender our entire selves into the hands of the living God – not in despair or forfeit – but in worship, acceptance, and hope. For no matter what we lose here, we always have God Himself.

In today’s text, we learn valuable insights from the life of Job on how to fly blind. Though a “blameless and upright man who feared God and shunned evil,” Job had no idea what Satan was scheming against him in God’s court; in other words, Job was flying blind. Job’s ensuing suffering, affliction, and loss would prove to be unwarranted, unexpected, and upending, yet the sovereign LORD was with Job and would work through Job’s hardships to deepen his understanding of and faith in Him. We can trust the sovereignty and good purposes of the same God too.

After the death and resurrection of Jesus, Saul of Tarsus was one of the most widely known names around Palestine; however, on the way to Damascus to round up and persecute more Christian men and women, Jesus broke into Saul’s life with the purpose of carrying His name to the Gentiles (Acts 9). Two other times in Acts (22 & 26), Paul shares his Damascus Road story as a testimony to the true gospel of Jesus Christ (cf. Gal 1:11ff). Paul’s conversion and transformation reiterates that (1) no human life is ever too broken, lost, rebellious, or messed up for God’s redemption and use; and (2) one’s story of Christ’s intervention in their life becomes rich fodder for gospel witness to others.

Near the end of Jesus’ dialogue with a Samaritan woman at a well in midday, she leaves her water jar (perhaps because at this point she’s more concerned with living water than natural water), returns to her town, and invites people come see a prophet who is perhaps the Christ (v29). Many townsfolk believe in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony (v39), and they ask Jesus to lodge in their village. Jesus stays with them for two days, and even more people believe in Him and confess: “We know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” When Jesus breaks into her story, her witness compels people to check out Jesus for themselves. Don’t miss the significant point here: the condition of one’s life prior to Christ has no bearing on the potency of one’s ensuing witness to Him; the redemption (and transformation) of a deeply broken past may, in fact, bolster the power of one’s witness all-the-more.

As Jesus continues His ministry of teaching and healing, He travels way north to Tyre, Sidon, and the Decapolis. A man is brought to Him who is deaf and mute; they beg Jesus to lay His hand on him. Jesus takes the man aside privately, opens his ears, and releases his tongue. Although Jesus charges them to be silent, the healed man and witnesses go forth and continue to proclaim what Jesus had done for the deaf and mute man. Once again, the workings of Jesus then and in our lives/stories today are for proclamation and witness!

On the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, a man with a legion of demons (a Roman legion had 6,000 soldiers) confronts Jesus. Jesus casts the demons into a herd of nearby pigs who then rush down the bank and drown. Understandably, the freed man longs to be with Jesus as a disciple, but Jesus commissions him to return home and declare how much God has done for him. The man does just that; he goes and preaches throughout the whole city how much Jesus has done for him. The man went about his task fervently: he didn’t just narrate, he proclaimed the story! Moreover, not only does the man equate Jesus with God (v39), but Jesus’ words reveal that faith and giving witness to Christ/telling one’s story are inseparable for His disciples.

Envious rulers under King Darius of Persia frame blameless Daniel for breaking a king’s decree which could not be revoked. In accordance with the decree, Darius reluctantly has Daniel cast and sealed in the den of lions, hoping that Daniel’s God would deliver him. Darius returns first thing in the morning and calls to Daniel if the living God has been able to deliver him. Daniel affirms that his God sent His angel to close the lions’ mouths, and he is unharmed. King Darius has the false accusers thrown into the same den and climatically decrees throughout the whole earth that “people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel for He is the living God who (1) endures forever; (2) has an eternal dominion; (3) delivers, rescues, and works signs and wonders; and (4) delivered Daniel from the hand of the lions.” [The LORD is the God whose praises can be proclaimed through donkeys, pagans, enemies, and rocks.] As Psalm 138:4-5 eschatologically declares, “All kings of earth will praise you, Yahweh…they will sing of the ways of Yahweh, for great is the glory of Yahweh!” Even if not a full-blown testimony born from faith in the Living God, Darius’s words point to the homage that every person - king and littlest - will offer at the last.

Psalm 66 is a thanksgiving song for God’s many works on behalf of His people as a whole, as well as an invitation from one individual within the faith community to come and hear what God has done for him personally! The unknown author cried out to God in prayer from an undisclosed distress, and God gave full attention to his prayer. As a result, this worshiper wants to give witness to God’s continuing and intimate care. We learn from the entirety of this psalm the biblical habit of seeing the hand of God in all life-events, which makes suffering and hardship as meaningful as His deliverance. Moreover, because the wording of this psalm is general in nature, we can readily apply it to our struggles today. We too can cry out to God and know that He is pleased to hear and deliver us.

Episode description not available.

Do you believe that Christmas joy is real? And do you believe that such Christmas joy is not just for other people but also for you? The holidays are not always holly, jolly, and bright, but real people face real hardships, uncertainties, and doubts. How can Paul say in a blanket way: “Rejoice evermore?” Paul knew the angelic announcement in the Bethlehem skies: “I bring you good news of great joy for all the people!” Jesus came to rescue our wretchedness, forgive our filth, and heal our hurts. From His cross and empty tomb, He freely gives unlimited, undiminished, unending joy! The joy of Jesus stems the tide of gloom and despair, brings confidence in the midst of confusion, hope in the midst of uncertainty, and calm in the midst of current storms. Christmas means we can rejoice evermore!

ave you ever been stuck on standby for a flight? Will I have a seat or not? Will I get to the conference, loved one, or resort on time? Oh to have the confirmation and guarantee! In today’s text, Paul assures us that we actually do! Our departure in Christ (and all loved ones in Him) has already been confirmed through our belief in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Moreover, our return with Christ is booked too when He comes back to judge the living and the dead. We’ve “got a ticket to ride” and so we will always be with the Lord. Paul calls us to regularly encourage one another with these words.

The holidays can be blue, difficult, lonely, and dark for others and for ourselves. What can we do when people we dearly love are caught in the midst of great pain and loss? When their world caves in? In short, we can imitate Paul and pray. As the Thessalonians were suffering much, Paul prays for them: (1) to grow in faith; (2) to abound in love; and (3) to become secure in hope. Prayer reminds us to see the bigger picture of the God who continues to work for us in Christ, the same Christ who is coming back to restore all that has been lost.