Trusting God When You Don’t See It

What if the delay you fear is the very place where faith is forged? We take you into John 11, where Jesus lingers while Lazarus grows worse, Mary and Martha ache for help, and the disciples wrestle with danger, timing, and trust. The tension is real: if love is present, why not come sooner? The answer Jesus gives is unsettling and beautiful—this is for the glory of God and for your belief.

We trace the route from Jerusalem’s hostility to Bethany’s heartbreak, revealing how divine timing challenges our instinct to control outcomes. Along the way, we compare the two Lazaruses—one poor and forgotten in Luke, one well-connected in John—and uncover a common thread: “whom God helps” is not defined by comfort but by trust that endures. We talk about Scripture’s power to persuade where signs alone cannot, echoing Abraham’s warning that proof without a listening heart changes nothing.

Thomas steps forward as a surprising mentor. Branded as a doubter in popular memory, he first urges, “Let us go, that we may die with him,” then admits, “We don’t know the way,” drawing out Jesus’ blazing claim, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” That blend of courage and candor becomes a model for disciples who want clarity more than appearances. We also hold together the rich portrait of Jesus in John: fully God who raises the dead, fully human who weeps at a tomb, fierce against corruption yet tender toward the weak.

If you’ve ever felt overlooked, late, or left in the dark, this conversation invites you to hear before you see, to walk while it is day, and to trust that the story ends in joy. Listen, share with a friend who needs hope, and if it resonates, subscribe and leave a review so others can find the show.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his paths.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

It's so important for us not to impose our beliefs, our assumptions, our hopes of how we think life should be on the Lord, and say, Lord, this is how it needs to be. May we be a people that back up and say, Lord, I believe you, I trust you, you've revealed yourself to me, but is there something that I'm missing? Can I see something from your perspective?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Picture this: it's your birthday, and your friends haven't once acknowledged it. You begin to suspect they've forgotten altogether. You start to grumble about their unfaithfulness as you walk into your apartment and, surprise! They've been secretly planning a party for weeks. In today's message, Pastor Carl reminds you to view your relationship with Christ this way. He's always scheming with your best interest in mind. And even if you can't see it yet, everything ends with a party in glory. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Let's get into a study of God's Word. We are in the book of John, and today we'll be in John chapter 11, an exciting chapter, the chapter of uh Lazarus being raised again to life from the grave. And yeah, spoiler alert, he rises again from the grave. But we're gonna just get into John chapter 11. Uh now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, in the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick, and therefore the sisters sent to him, sent to Jesus, saying, Lord, behold, he who you love is sick. Now this is interesting because this is the book that is written by John, right? And John described himself as the disciple that Jesus loved. And yet he realizes that the Lord loved other people too, and he loved Lazarus. And behold, the one who you love is sick. And Jesus did have good relationships with Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and whenever they were going to Jerusalem, oftentimes they would stop by their house in Bethany on their trip down. Now, just to review a little bit, Jesus was down in Jerusalem. It was Hanukkah this last time, and yet he said something else again to get the Pharisees upset and they wanted to stone him, so he needed to get out of town. But he was also having problems up in Galilee, so he headed out to Bethany beyond the Jordan. It's the other side of the Jordan. This is an area where John the Baptist did a lot of his baptizing, and they just hung out there because it would be a little uh safer than the other places. By the way, Bethany was the place where Joshua and the Israelites camped out as they went across and they marched around Jericho seven times and then began the conquest of the promised land. So that's where they were. So they went from Bethany to Bethany. That was the plan. And this is where Lazarus was sick and he was about to die. Actually, he was so sick he was about to die. And Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus, would you come and and heal our brother? You love him, he needs healing, he's about to die. But before we go into that story, I wanted to compare another Lazarus to this Lazarus. There was a Lazarus in the book of Luke. And you remember this story? Jesus talked about Lazarus. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at the gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that when the beggar died, that he was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried, and being torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom as well. There was this idea that the Old Testament saints, when they died looking forward to the Messiah that was to come, they died in faith, trusting the Lord. They just didn't know how it was going to work out, how the cross was going to work and all that, but they looked forward to the coming of Messiah. They trusted in the Lord. If you died in your faith that way, you would be taken to what was called Abraham's bosom. And this is not to be confused with purgatory, but this was a waiting period until Jesus would complete the job on the cross and come and set the captives free. But there was also a place called Hades, which is not the lake of fire, but it's like a precursor to warm you up to it. Sorry, that's a bad joke. But for those who refused to believe in the coming Messiah, those that did not put their faith in the Lord, they would be placed in Hades until the coming day of judgment, and ultimately would be put in the lake of fire. And that's where this rich man was. And Lazarus was, of course, in Abraham's bosom. And the rich man cried out to Father Abraham because apparently they could see each other and hear each other. There was a chasm in between, but they could communicate. And he said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he might dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted, and you are tormented. And besides all this between us and you there's a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us. So it's the way it is, Mr. Rich Man. This is you made your choices, and that's where you are at this point. And I'd like to help, but I just can't. It's not possible. So then the rich man said, I beg you therefore, Father, that you would send him, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they might also come to this place of torment. And Abraham said to him, They have Moses, and they have the prophets, let them hear them. You know, the the Lord in his grace and his mercy has revealed his truth to us in through the scriptures and through the prophets to teach the scriptures, to declare this the scriptures. They're there to listen to. And he said, No, no, Father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to him, If they don't hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one raise from the dead. That last line is what we want to focus on. If they do not hear from Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead. Or if he did this, then my wife would believe, or my husband or my son, or my cousin, or my friend at work. If only he'd do this, then he'd believe. But what was the Lord doing all this time? He was doing the works of the Father, works that were declared in prophecies past that the Messiah would do, and yet they wouldn't believe, because they did not believe Abraham and the prophets. And now the Lord Himself is about to raise another Lazarus from the grave. And how many people would still not believe as a result? Kind of ironic, isn't it? Chuck Missler had an interesting description in comparing Lazarus to Lazarus. Lazarus in Luke was a beggar, right? Lazarus in John was a man of means. He was pretty successful in his life. Lazarus and Luke was uncared for. Lazarus and John had loving sisters that were looking out for him. Lazarus in the book of Luke looked for crumbs on the ground. Lazarus in the book of John dines with Jesus in his own house. Lazarus and Luke remained in the grave, but Lazarus in the book of John was brought to life. Both Lazarus, different stories of their life, but the same outcome. They both put their faith and their trust in the Lord and they were secured for eternity. The word Lazarus actually means who God helps. Both of them were helped by God, but their situations might not look at it if we look through eyes of the world. It's a form of the Hebrew name of Eleazard, which means whom God helps. Both of them put their trust in the Lord and the Lord helped them. And they would be with the Lord for eternity. Well, with that background, let's go back to our story. And in verse 4, when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick and Mary and Martha were implying, come and pray for him so he would do better, Jesus said to his disciples, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified through it. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was. The way that John writes this is very poetic. And it reflects some of the feelings, some of the reactions that the people around him, especially Mary and Martha, might have been feeling. If you loved us, why didn't you come right away? He loved them, so he hung out for a couple more days. You see, the Lord sees things in a bigger picture than we perceive them. And his ways aren't our ways, and and how he is going to solve a situation is different than the way we think he should, oftentimes. Something else that I thought was interesting to note that John brings out here, that Jesus loved Martha and her sister. And just recently we saw the the idea that you know Martha was was a serving person. She just loved to serve people. And that's good. You know, that's a blessing. We need people that that love to serve. And yet she she knew the Lord, and we'll see that as we go on. She knew the Lord, she knew the scriptures, she had great faith. But sometimes when you're serving and you're called to serve, you're left out by yourself to do a lot of that work. And remember, there was a little argument where Martha was telling Jesus, why don't you tell Mary to come and help me? And Jesus said, Well, Mary, actually at this moment she's doing the better thing, which is sitting and listening to me. You could come and listen too, and we'll take care of this later on. So John, you know, in that particular story, it looked like Jesus loved Mary more than Martha. But John wanted us to be sure that he loved them both dearly. And they were both worthy of that love. Martha was listed first, and Mary wasn't even listed in this particular sentence, just her sister and Lazarus. Interesting things to ponder on there. Verse 7. Then after this he said to the disciples, Alright, let's go to Judea again. So a couple days later he said, Alright, let's get up and go. And the disciples said to him, Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone you, and you're going there again? Look, we we got out of there, so you wouldn't be killed, and now you want to go back? Are you sure? I don't understand. And Jesus answered to them, and he said, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, but he sees the light of this world. But if one walks at night, he stumbles because the light is not with him. Now there's a lot packed up in there. There are two main things. One, we we know that Jesus is the light of the world, and he has a purpose. And part of that purpose is to shine the light into the darkness. And if he's not doing that work, then people will remain in the darkness. That's one aspect of it. The other aspect of it is he knows his time is limited. But he also knows that there is a prescribed time by the Father where he would lay down his life. And until that moment, he will not be touched. Even though he doesn't want to remain in that situation of threat and he had to leave it, but he can go back into it if he's being led by the Lord, being led by his father to go do it. And he says there's only so much time. The sun is up. We've got what we've got, and it's time to go and do this work that I'm called to do. And uh that's something for us to consider as well. What are we doing with the time that we have? Are we doing what what God has called us to do, or are we are we be being too careful about not getting into trouble that we enter that we hesitate getting into some of the areas that God is calling us to get into? Because getting into areas of ministry can be uh dangerous, definitely be uncomfortable and inconvenient, but sometimes we just need to do that because we're called to do that. And we have a certain amount of time that we're here on this earth. What are we doing with it? Are we doing what God has called us to do? So in verse 11, these things he said after he had said to them, our friend Lazarus, and after that, he said to them, Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go, then I might wake him up. And his disciples said, Lord, if he sleeps, then he'll get well. Implying that, Lord, if he's just sleeping, that means he's going to be good, and we don't need to go and risk our lives, risk your life for going down there again to try to help him. If he's just sleeping, isn't that all right? However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that he was speaking about taking rest and sleep, and then Jesus said to them plainly, You're not hearing what I'm saying. You can hear a little sternness in his voice. Lazarus is dead. And I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go to him. And boy, if if you're trying to look out for your Lord so he doesn't get stoned to death again and risk your own life for him to go, and the guy he says is sleeping, all of a sudden now he's saying that he's dead, and now he's saying he's glad about it. This is getting confusing, isn't it? But do you see it from Jesus' perspective? There are things and situations that the Lord has to get us into to see some things from his perspective that we wouldn't see any other way. And that is what he's telling him, telling them at this book at this session. And it's interesting, obviously, the the disciples believe in him because they're following after him and declaring who he is to each other and to others. Is their belief the full belief that they need? Is there something more that he desires for them to see, to grasp, to have faith in? And there was at least one who really didn't believe at all. We know him to be Judas, who pres who betrayed Jesus because he had a different image of who Jesus was in his mind and what Jesus ought to do to reign in the kingdom, to bring it in. And that's what we're after. We're after that kingdom, and he wanted to help him out. It's so important for us not to impose our beliefs, our assumptions, our hopes of how we think life should be on the Lord, and saying, Lord, this is how it needs to be. May we be a people that back up and say, Lord, I believe you, I trust you, you've revealed yourself to me, but is there something that I'm missing? Can I see something from your perspective that you're trying to show me? Help me to see things from your point of view. Give me your eyes, give me your heart, give me your mind, that I might understand truly the situation that I am in. And then Thomas, who is called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, let us go, that we might die with him. Now, this is an interesting statement that Thomas shares here. Almost sounds defeatist, but sounds very bold and confident as well. In some ways, it sounds like he's grasped a hold of this idea. If the Lord is gone, we're going. And if he's gonna die, we're willing to die with him. Because isn't that what it's about? Isn't that what life is about? Now it's interesting, Thomas is only mentioned as far as he's given words that he's said and things that he's done, are only described by the Apostle John. In the other books, um, he's listed as among the disciples, but never given any any words that he said. And there are a few things that Thomas has said in the book of John that I find quite interesting because we always think of Thomas as doubting Thomas, and we'll look at that in a little bit here. But he's he's really a complex person. And as I looked at Thomas, I saw a little bit of myself in him. Like this statement, let us go that we might die with him. Just a quick statement that on the surface you might go, whoa, that's kind of wild. Now, I would say that Thomas had some prophetic tendencies, and I would apply that to myself as well. Prophetic tendencies in that the the office of a prophet in the Bible is described as one who shares the word of God and applies it and gives warning. If we continue, based on this word of God that we just read, if we continue in this direction, this is what the result will be. And as a watchman, you say, watch out! These are the directions we're going in. And just like Thomas said this, there was a time in our lives where I lost my job after about 11 years. I was laid off. But because of the goodness of God, he saw fit that our house was paid off. And my wife says, you know, but the house is paid off. Isn't that good? And my response was, yeah, but we'll be in this paid-off house without any electricity. Now, there's more to that, but that's what came out, and it doesn't sound exactly what I meant it to sound like. There's this idea that I was trying to convey that yes, the Lord is going to provide for us. I'm glad that the house is paid off. That sure makes the situation a lot easier. But we only have so much money, and if something doesn't happen, if the Lord doesn't intervene in the way we think he should, we're going to get to the place where we run out of all our savings. And we might get to a place where the lights go out. And there have been plenty of other people, plenty of other faithful believers in Jesus Christ through times past that have gone through a lot tougher situations that we have gone through and still do around the world today. There are believers that go through horrendous situations. So, yes, the Lord is going to provide, but he might not provide in a way that we would like him to. And we just need to be aware of that. And it came out as a one-word statement that wasn't really taken in the way that it was meant. So we do trust the Lord. We trust him to take us wherever he sees fit to take us, even if it costs us our comfort, even if it costs us our lives. Do we have that kind of perspective? The kind of perspective is Thomas that's willing to go and to lay down his life. Look, we're trying to protect his life and our life, but does that keep us from doing what we're called to do? Let's go do whatever he's called us to do, and whatever happens, we'll give him the praise. Well, the next time we hear from Thomas is in chapter 14, and Jesus talking about leaving this earth and preparing a place for us in in eternity. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you might be also. And where I go, you know, and by the way, you Know and Jesus said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going and how we can get there. How can we know the way? And this is great because there were other instances where Jesus asked the disciples, Do you understand what I just said? And they said, Oh, yeah. And then they look at each other, what did he just say? I have no idea. Because we're afraid to admit to the Lord we don't understand because we don't want him to get mad at us. Because you don't understand. I've been telling you these things. And that's just our nature, isn't it? The fallen nature to lie, to get out of this situation. But Thomas was bold enough to say, I want to know the truth. I want to understand this, but I admit I don't understand this. And I'm going to say this. The other disciples are probably going to be mad at me because I'm going to say we don't understand it. And the Lord might be mad at me because He says, Well, you didn't listen. But I need to know. And I found myself in similar situations like that and say, Hold on. What is being said here? What are we really looking for? What is really being asked of us in this situation? I want to know what exactly is going on. And you'll ask specific questions to get it out. And other people in the in the particular meeting that I might have been in would get irritated. It's like this meeting is going to take forever because he's asking all these questions again. But sometimes we just need to do that because that's really honest, isn't it? I want to know the truth. I want to be changed. I want to be in line with the Lord in lock step. So, Lord, what what is it? And so the Lord, he answered him. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. I'm going to the Father. I'm preparing a place for you. And you could be there too, but you got to come through me. You got to believe me. You got to trust me. You got to be changed by me. You got to be surrendered to me.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

You've been listening to the teaching of Pastor Carl from the Mountain Cross on Come On Up. We're in the Gospel of John, and there's much to explore in this exciting book of the Bible. Jesus does all kinds of miracles in the book of John, such as turning water into wine and raising Lazarus from the dead. These were signs that he was far more than human. He's God. However, Jesus didn't shy away from expressing his humanity on earth either. When his friend had died, he was sad and he cried. He experienced righteous anger, seeing people abusing and defiling the temple while taking advantage of the poor. He cleared out the temple area with a cord of whips and showed his authority. But he was also tender with children and compassionate to those who were considered outcasts. This is the juxtaposition of the book of John. Jesus was both God and man, and you get to fully appreciate it more and more by reading this rich book of the Bible. If you're enjoying the teaching on Come On Up, would you consider helping us get the word out to others? Simply visit themountaincross.com/slash donate. It's a safe and secure way for you to give online. The Mountain Cross meets Sunday mornings at 10 at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville, North Carolina. If you are nearby and don't have a church home, we'd be delighted to have you join us this weekend. And be sure to come on up to the mountain with us next time as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come On Up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.