Audio Transcript

I love it when I find sermon clips of Pastor John pastoring his congregation from the pulpit by illustrating how he does certain things in the Christian life. In today’s clip, he’s going to take us into his own life to show us how he focuses his attention on the glories of Christ (which is an essential discipline, as we just saw in APJ 1892).

This clip today is very tangible. In fact, we just had another clip like it come up about a month ago in an episode on meditation. You might remember that one. What does it look like when he meditates over the word to get God’s truth from his mind down into his heart and his affections? Pastor John illustrated his own process and practice for us in APJ 1886. Well, I just found another example of him doing something similar. That’s a clip I want to share with you today.

We’ve been talking lately about attention. Why did God create us to rivet our focus? Last Wednesday, we looked at Hebrews 2:1, a text that is, in my opinion, the most important verse in the entire the Bible for those of us who live inside this digital-media age — the age of the spectacle, the age of mass media, the age of endless social media, the age of addictive video games and blockbuster movies and viral television shows, all trying to grab our attention. So why did God give us attention, and what are we to do with it?

Hebrews 1 is all about the supremacy of Christ. And then Hebrews 2:1 says, “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” Here’s a clip from Pastor John’s 1996 sermon on Hebrews 2:1 and 12:2, modeling from his own life how he rivets his gaze on the glory of Jesus Christ. Here he is.

This text says it is more exceedingly necessary to give heed, to fix your eyes on Jesus. He’s your only hope. There’s another beautiful image later on in Hebrews 6:19, where it says, “We have an anchor in heaven.” So the anchor is in the temple in heaven, hooked over the mercy seat, and the rope or the chain is around your waist, and God’s pulling you in.

Deadly Drifting

But if you take your eyes off of him, if you don’t focus on him, you become like a little leaf or a dead fish, and you just float the way the river’s going. And the river is not flowing toward heaven in this world. It’s flowing the other direction. So you don’t have to work hard to go to hell; you just have to drift. Drifting is very dangerous. Very, very dangerous.

“You don’t have to work hard to go to hell; you just have to drift.”

There are some drifters in this room right now. And the good news, the sign of hope for you drifters, is that right now while I’m preaching, God is awakening a desire not to be a drifter. Some of you are sitting there, and you know you’re a drifter. You haven’t read the Bible in a long time. It’s a hit-and-miss affair. You don’t spend any time or vigilance to focus on the Lord, to soak in him. But right now, as I’m talking, the Holy Spirit is saying, “You’d better fix that.” And you want to fix it. And your want to is a really good sign. It’s a really good sign.

If you’re sitting there right now just wishing you could get home a little earlier, and that I would not talk, and this is all for the birds, then that’s a bad sign, and you are in big trouble and need to pray earnestly that God would change that heart. Drifting is deadly in the Christian life. Pay close attention to what you’ve heard. Consider what God is saying.

Fix Your Eyes on Jesus

Let me illustrate for you. I got up at three o’clock this morning. That’s no brag. It’s four o’clock in the afternoon my time; I’m still in Uganda. I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t want to get up at three o’clock. I had no plan to get up at three o’clock. I couldn’t sleep. I said, “Well, if I’m awake, I’ve got to preach over there at Bethesda anyway. I’ve got to preach here, so let’s get up and get ready.”

So I went to the word. Now, everybody knows it’s the 28th, right? After the 25th, you can read anything you want to in the Bible, if you’re on my reading plan. For the first 25 days of the month, they tell you what to read; the last five days of the month you can read anything you want. So I’m totally free. But I say, “I’m going to go on in Mark — I’m going to read Mark 10.” And I opened my Bible and knelt down in my study, and I met Jesus.

The first thing I saw was this: “Suffer the little children to come to me” (Mark 10:14) These disciples were all like, “Get those children out of here — you’ve got more important things to do than children.” And Jesus says, “Let those children come to me, because to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” And I stopped and I thought, You know what he’s saying? He’s saying that the kingdom of God is of such a nature that if you are contrary in your spirit to the needs of children, you are contrary to the kingdom of God. And I saw Jesus. I saw Jesus loving these little children.

Now I read further into the story about the rich young ruler, and I heard Jesus say, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom” (Mark 10:25). And the disciples put their hands to their heads and say, “Well, who then can be saved?” And he said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:26–27). And I saw Jesus. “All things are possible with God.”

And then I read the next paragraph, and Jesus looks at him, and he says, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of the chief priests and the scribes. . . . And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise” (Mark 10:33–34). And I saw Jesus.

And then I read a little further, and I saw John and James saying, “Who’s going to be the greatest in the kingdom?” And Jesus looks at them and says, “Get it: if you would be great, you must be the servant of all. If you would be first among them, you must be the slave of all. Because the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life for ransom for many” (see Mark 10:42–45). And I saw Jesus.

And I read one more paragraph further, stopping after each one of these, just letting it soak in — just loving Jesus, just looking, fixing my eyes on Jesus the way Hebrews 12:2 says. And I saw this blind man say, “Son of David, have mercy on me. Son of David, have mercy on me.” “Be quiet.” These disciples never get it. They never get it. “Be quiet. Be quiet.” He wouldn’t be quiet. “Son of David, have mercy on me.” Jesus stops. They said, “Oh, he stopped — you can go.” And Jesus, of all things, says, “What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord, let me receive my sight.” And Jesus says, “Your faith has made you well. Go.” And he received his sight and followed Jesus (Mark 10:46–52). Sight. And I prayed for half an hour that I would see Jesus this morning, that you would see Jesus.

“Therein lies the key to the Christian life: not hard work for Jesus, not labor for Jesus, but looking at Jesus.”

That’s all I know, folks, about this text, that we are called upon to see Jesus, to listen to Jesus, to consider Jesus, to fix our eyes on Jesus. And therein lies the key to the Christian life: not hard work for Jesus, not labor for Jesus, but looking at Jesus — look at him over and over and over. And if you see him, if he does for you what he did for that blind man, you open your eyes. You can’t leave him. And if you haven’t seen him, pray that your eyes would be opened. That’s what this text is about.

Satisfy Us in the Morning

When I was in Kenya, a week ago now — God was so good. Thank you so much for praying for me. God was so good to me in Nairobi and in Kapchorwa, Uganda, to give me all I needed to keep my tummy safe while eating all that funny stuff over there, and to help me handle jet lag and teach for sixteen hours in those five days. It was so good. And you know how he did it? Every morning, the word was alive — it was alive. And Jesus stood out of the word. He just stood out and said, “Here am I. I will help you.” Every morning when I said, “I’ve got five hours to teach today” — Wednesday, I had to teach five hours; Saturday, I had to teach five hours. I hadn’t prepared a stitch when I went. I just threw everything in a briefcase and said, “Lord, make a layover in Gatwick.”

The point of that was this: one morning in Kenya, the Lord, from Psalm 90:14, said in a prayer of the psalmist to himself, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” And it hit me like a ton of bricks that God inspired the psalmist to pray for satisfaction from the Lord. “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love.” Do you ever pray that? That’s the most important prayer in the world. “I’m looking to you. I’m not looking to sex. I’m not looking to money. I’m not looking to health. I’m not looking to family. I’m not even looking to effective ministry. Satisfy me in the morning with your steadfast love.” Pray that prayer, and then just keep looking. Satisfy me that I may rejoice and be glad all my days, because if I rejoice and I’m glad in you all my days, the power of sin will be broken in my life, and you will be pleased, and I will be happy.

It’s very dangerous to drift, folks. It’s very dangerous.

Today, some Christians seem embarrassed by the doctrine of hell. As such, they either omit discussing it, or they reinvent the doctrine and rob it of any real horror. Our Lord, however, was not afraid to talk about hell. Jesus speaks of “the hell of fire” (Matthew 5:22); the danger of the “whole body” being “thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:29); “the unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43); the place where the impenitent are “thrown” (Mark 9:45), “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48).

Many Christians struggle to believe that Jesus plays an active role in the destruction of the godless. However, the Scriptures leave us in no doubt about the reality: Our Lord will, with his angels, gather all “law-breakers” and “throw them into the fiery furnace,” where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:41–42). Christ calls this a place of “outer darkness” (Matthew 25:30). If people doubt that Christ spoke of the judgment to come, often using vivid language, they have not read the Gospels carefully (see, for example, Matthew 3:12; 7:22–23; 10:28; 11:23; 13:30, 41–42, 49–50; 23:16, 33; 25:10, 31–33; 26:24; Mark 8:36; 9:43–48; 16:16; Luke 9:25; 12:9–10, 46; John 5:28–29).

At the same time, the doctrine of hell is not merely a New Testament doctrine. Indeed, some of the language used for hell in the New Testament comes from the Old. For example, Isaiah warns the godless of “the consuming fire” and the “everlasting burnings” (Isaiah 33:14). In the last chapter, he speaks of God coming in fire “to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh; and those slain by the Lord shall be many” (Isaiah 66:15–16). Isaiah prophesies that the righteous “shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against [God]. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh” (Isaiah 66:24; see Christ’s use of these words in Mark 9:48).

Daniel, along with others, also refers to the final judgment: “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).

Endless Punishment

There is no shortage of professing Christians who affirm a coming judgment of the wicked. Some, however, tend to think that this judgment will not be everlasting. As finite beings, we struggle to wrap our minds around the concept of eternity. But if God intended to either annihilate the wicked at death, with no future judgment, or put an end to suffering after an indefinite period of time, then he did a poor job of communicating that to us.

Scripture shows us that hell is a place of “everlasting punishment” (Matthew 25:46 KJV). Hell is an “everlasting fire” (Matthew 18:8 KJV) that can never be quenched (Mark 9:45), where their worm never dies (Mark 9:48). Sodom and Gomorrah were punished for their sins by “undergoing a punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 7). False teachers have a place reserved in hell where the “gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever” (Jude 13). We read of the suffering of the wicked, “The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night” (Revelation 14:11; see also Revelation 19:3, Revelation 20:10, “forever and ever”). William Shedd rightly notes, “Had Christ intended to teach that future punishment is remedial and temporary, he would have compared it to a dying worm, and not to an undying worm; to a fire that is quenched, and not to an unquenchable fire.”

Shedd adds that other words and metaphors could have been used to describe a long, but not endless, punishment. Indeed, if hell is not endless, the New Testament writers “were morally bound to have avoided conveying the impression they actually have conveyed by the kind of figures they have selected” (Dogmatic Theology, 892). The word used to describe “everlasting life” is also used to describe “everlasting punishment.” For example, in Revelation 22:14–15, the existence of the righteous in heaven is coterminous with the existence of the wicked “outside” of heaven (that is, in hell).

Separation from God?

Another way people try to make the doctrine of hell more palatable is to say that hell is merely separation from God. But while hell does separate the wicked from the blessed life of God in Christ, hell is still punishment. Those who hate God in this life will continue to hate him in eternity, and they will continue to face God’s wrath.

Hell is a location, a place; it is not simply a metaphor that describes inner thought processes. Acts 1:25 tells us Judas went “to his own place.” Just as there is a place for the righteous after death, so there is a place for the wicked after death. The word Gehenna refers to the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem. The horrible history of this place involved, at one time, the Israelites and kings of Israel burning their children as sacrifices to the false god Molech (2 Chronicles 28:3; 33:6). Gehenna may not be a reference to a burning trash dump (as some have claimed), but it is far worse: a place where the greatest horrors take place, such as the willful sacrifice of children. Hell is a place of pure evil, destitute of all hope.

Rather than being mere “separation from God,” hell is, as the Puritan Thomas Goodwin said, a place where “God himself, by his own hands, that is, the power of his wrath, is the immediate inflicter of that punishment of men’s souls” (Works of Thomas Goodwin, 10:491). God’s power will be “exercised” as his wrath toward those who are cast away from the presence of God’s blessedness. Those in hell will receive the opposite of those in glory, but they will still be in God’s presence. Those in heaven have a mediator, but those in hell have nothing between them and an avenging God.

If the foregoing is true, we should be careful not to say (as some have) that hell is giving people what they want. In a highly limited sense, this is true. They do not want to enjoy God in this life, so they will not enjoy him in the life to come. However, given the torments of hell, no one can possibly desire to suffer at the hands of the omnipotent God, especially for all eternity. Who could possibly desire for their despair to increase as well? As the creatures in hell realize more and more that they are suffering forever, the despair of eternal judgment can only increase. Those in hell have no promises, and thus no hope, but only increasing despair.

Escape Through the Cross

Goodwin makes the solemn point that the “wretched soul in hell . . . finds that it shall not outlive that misery, nor yet can it find one space or moment of time of freedom and intermission, having forever to do with him who is the living God” (Works, 10:548). The wicked will despair because there is no end to the righteous wrath of the living God. Thus, the concept of ever-increasing despair for all eternity, whereby the creature damned to hell can do nothing else but blaspheme a living, eternal God, gives us all the reason in the world to persuade sinners to put their faith in the one who experienced hellish despair on the cross.

Our Lord shrieked with cries so that we might sing with praise; he was parched with thirst that we might drink freely from the fountain; he was abandoned in the darkness that we might have fellowship in the light; he was crushed that we might be restored; he was publicly shamed that we might be publicly exalted; he was mocked by evildoers that we might be praised by angels; he gave up his spirit that we might have our spirits saved. As real as his sufferings were, our joys will be no less real. The hellish experience of the cross is the greatest testimony to the unspeakable joys of eternal life with God.

Audio Transcript

Today on the podcast we look at God’s love to us. And we are going to look at his love to us when life hurts the most. This is one of those areas that proves especially challenging for us to grasp. But we must learn this lesson. And we do in the life and ministry of our Savior. Because it’s relatively easy to see and feel God’s love when things are going well in life. But what about when sickness hits? What about when we feel weak? What about when we come to the end of our resources? Even as we approach the end of life, how do we feel God’s love and his purposes in our pain?

For that answer, we turn to Jesus and watch how he handled the sickness of his good friend Lazarus in John 11:1–6. There are lessons here for all of God’s people. To explain, here’s Pastor John from a 2019 sermon, preached in Northern Ireland.

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. (John 11:1–6)

Special Bond

Focus on John 11:1–2, just for a moment: “Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with her ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.”

The striking thing about verse 2 is that that hasn’t happened yet in the Gospel of John. That’s odd. That’s going to happen in John 12:3, one chapter later — Mary’s going to anoint the Lord with her hair. And he says to the reader, “This Mary who’s asking him to come, that’s the Mary who did that. Now, I haven’t told you she did it yet. That’s the one I’m talking about.” What’s the point of that?

That’s the first instance in this text of how John is going to draw out the endearing, special, sweet, deep, precious relationship between Jesus and this family. He’s reaching forward to get a remarkable moment in the life of this woman, who’s going to love Jesus like that, and he mentions her that way here. So we can conclude, at least, that this is special between Jesus and this family, especially Mary.

Now, John 11:3: “So the sisters sent to him, saying, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’” So this is now, I would say, the second instance of drawing out that he loves this family. Now he’s mentioning Lazarus in particular. This man loves this family, and Jesus is underlining it. He loves them, and he makes it explicit. He’s not dealing with a casual acquaintance, saying, “Please come. He’s sick.”

Glory of the Son

John 11:4: “But when Jesus heard it, he said, ‘This illness is not going to lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’” So the first thing Jesus does is connect the news of Lazarus’s sickness with the glory of God. Not many people think this way, and we need to. He put it in relationship to the glory of God. It’s about the glory of God. It’s about the glory of the Son of God, who’s going to be glorified through it.

So, “Take a deep breath, Mary and Martha. This is all about my glory. It’s not going to go the way you think, and it’s not going to go the way you want. It’s about my glory.” “This illness does not lead to death [the point of this illness is not death]. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

You probably remember chapter 9, the blind man, and the disciples say, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answers, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:2–4). All these years of blindness are about glory.

Same thing here. He’s going to die, and Jesus knows he’s going to die. He’s going to let him die intentionally. We’ll see that in just a minute. And it’s all about glory.

Love of the Son

Here comes the third mention of love, in John 11:5: “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” So there it is the third time. He loved her. Loved Mary. Loved Lazarus. Loved Martha. “Now Jesus loved Martha.”

So I’m overstating it, aren’t I, when I say it’s all about glory? No, it’s not all about glory. It’s largely about love. And that’s what clobbered me in this text, right? This is about underlining three times, “He loved them. He loved them. He loved them.” He let him die. That’s what’s striking.

“Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” So surely John the writer is writing this to help us come to terms in our experience with what the love of God is like for you. What is it like to be loved by Jesus? It’s like this. Love is not a minor theme in these six verses. It is a major theme. Three times he’s saying, “He loved them. He loved them. He loved them.” He doesn’t want you to miss that. And he wants you to put yourself in that situation and say, “Okay, I’ve been told that since I was little. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me.”

“The world has no categories for understanding this kind of love.”

And these texts — this one in particular — is in the Bible to help turn our world upside down when it comes to understanding the love of Jesus, because the world doesn’t get this. The world has no categories for understanding this kind of love that we’re about to see, but you should. Apart from the Holy Spirit, this text is in inexplicable.

Lazarus’s Resurrection and Our Own

Here’s the second thing to think about. I think John, in writing chapter 11, is intentionally inviting us to see our own resurrection in relationship to Lazarus’s, our death and our resurrection as parallel to Lazarus’s.

Why do I think that? You might want to drop your eyes down to John 11:23–26. See if you think I’m right about this: “Jesus said to her [to Martha], ‘Your brother will rise again.’” So when he gets there, he gives them the hope he’s going to rise again. “Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’”

Now here’s the connection: Jesus could have said, “Yes, and isn’t that wonderful news?” What he said was, “I am that resurrection of the last day. I just showed up. That resurrection is coming to the world — that power, that control, that life-giving force is me. And I’m here. And let’s show you right now what that’s going to be like because I want you, Martha, and all of you, to put the connection between Lazarus’s experience and what you will experience.”

So he continues. “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25–26). In other words, “My raising your brother from the dead will be what will happen to you.” Which means that the way to think about Lazarus’s death is as a forerunner, a little trailer, of ours — our death and our resurrection.

So now as you step back and think, “Lazarus has died, and Jesus didn’t go, and he let him die because he loved him,” you shouldn’t whitewash that, diminish that, minimize that by saying, “Oh, he is going to raise him four days later” — because he’s going to raise you, too. And the distance between your death and the coming of Jesus, when the resurrection will happen, is a length of time that compares to four days as nothing compared to eternity — as nothing.

So your death and resurrection and Lazarus’s death and four days later rising are virtually the same — except yours is better. You never die again. Poor Lazarus; he had to go through this twice. So if you’re going to minimize Lazarus’s experience, you better minimize your own, and say, “No big deal to die; I’m going to rise in four days anyway” — I mean, more or less.

And you don’t do that. You know you don’t do that. You don’t minimize your death. You don’t minimize your loved one’s death. You take it seriously. You groan and you grieve. You ache. And that’s the way we should feel this.

How Is This Love?

So let’s look again at the logic of verse 5 and 6, because this is the main point I want you to feel, because it turns your world upside down. Verse 5: “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Therefore . . .” Because of that love — you with me logically? I don’t want to add anything here; I don’t want to make anything up. “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” Therefore, because of love, “he stayed two days longer in the place where he was” (John 11:5–6).

And that’s what we have to understand. How is that love? How is it love? That’s what we’re supposed to see. John intends, Jesus intends, for everybody who reads this to ask that about your experience. He loves them; therefore, he does not heal them. He loves them; therefore, he does not save him from death. John intends, Jesus intends, for us to ask this about ourselves. How are we loved when we’re dying? He doesn’t heal him. He just lets him die. How is that love?

The answer is given, I believe, in verse 4. You just have to think a little bit. “This illness does not lead to death.” In other words, he’s going to die, but that’s not the point. What is the point? “It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” So the point of his death is not death. The point of his death is to reveal the glory of God, and particularly the glory of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

So now you step back and you say, “Okay, the so at the beginning of verse 6 says that the meaning of the delay and the death is love. And verse 4 says that the meaning of the delay and the death is the glory of God.” And what would you do? I mean, how would you preach the sermon from here on out? What would you draw out for your life? Here’s what I draw out.

Show Me More Glory

The world doesn’t understand what love is. What is love? Love is doing what you need to do in order to reveal most fully and most durably the all-satisfying glory of God in Jesus. To be loved is to be shown glory — the glory of God. If we’re not a God-centered people, who see God himself in his Son as the greatest treasure, the most beautiful reality, the most all-satisfying friend, experience, and Father — if we’re not that way, that makes no sense.

“If God is the supreme treasure of life, then to have more of him is to be loved.”

You go out and do an average interview on the street with any unbelieving person in Belfast and say, “What is love?” They won’t go here. They won’t say to love is to have anything happen to me — life, death, sickness, anything — that will show me more of God. Nobody’s going to say that.

That’s true. If God is all to you, it’s true. If God is minor, if God is marginal, if your life is your most important thing, if your kids are your most important thing, your marriage is most important, your health is most important, that won’t make any sense. But if God is all, if God is beautiful, if God is the supreme treasure of life, then to have more of him is to be loved. That’s the point of the so at the beginning of verse 6.

So, here’s my definition of love based on this text: love is doing whatever you have to do, or whatever God has to do, at whatever cost, in order for the glory of God to be shown.