Thrust Statement: God’s delay does not mean that He has forsaken you.

Scripture Reading: John 11:6-7

            Do you think Christians are free from troubles? Do God’s people experience death, as do those outside Christ? Do those who profess faith in Christ undergo privations, as do those who refuse to acknowledge Jesus as Lord? Did Paul escape adversity because he was a believer? Are Christians suffering today because of their faith? Do the saints of God go through divorce, as do those outside God’s covenant of grace? How many of you have ever experienced financial loss? Has anyone here ever suffered the loss of a loved one in death?  Do you feel deserted by God? Have you ever cried out, “Why me Lord?” Are disciples of the Lord promised immunity from trials and tribulations?

Is there ever a delay in God’s response to your predicament? Does God still love you even if he allows unpleasant things to happen to you? Can distasteful things work for good to those who love God? These are questions that this message explores through biblical and non-biblical examples in the lives of God’s people.  Hopefully, these models of faith and courage will strengthen you in your journey of faith. All Christians, to some extent, have troubles. The following stories about suffering in the lives of some of God’s people should give His people hope in the face of problems that seem insurmountable. The people of God are not immune to death, divorce, financial problems, family difficulties, and so on. 

LAZARUS

         The account of Lazarus reveals that even those closest to Jesus still experienced tragedy. The story of Lazarus, as reported by John, details Jesus’ delay of love in His response to the news that Lazarus was sick.  John writes, “Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where He was two more days.^[1]  Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea” (John 11:6-7).^[2] Have you considered the words preceding this information about Lazarus’ sickness? Listen to John as he explains Jesus’ relationship to Martha, Mary, and Lazarus: “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (11:5). Upon learning of Lazarus’ sickness, Jesus did not leave immediately nor did He speak a word that brought healing to his body—“he stayed where he was two more days.”  This delay is truly amazing. If John had said, “Jesus was unable to go to their help for two days,” then this word unable would have lessened the difficulty of understanding.

         One’s difficulty of understanding is lessened by the yet (11:6), which contains a wealth of comfort and good hope. But what is its message? The message is that God is going to use the transpiring events to reveal once more His glory and the glory of His Son. Jesus comments on the sickness of Lazarus by saying, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it” (11:4).  Martha and Mary experienced the loss of Lazarus, but God would use his death to glorify Himself and His Son. Jesus, knowing that Lazarus was dead, told His disciples that he was asleep, “but I am going there to wake him up” (11:11). Upon His arrival in Bethany, Martha and Mary both expressed their anxieties to the Master: “If you had been here, my brother would not have died” (11:21, 32).  Even though they were loved, in a very special sense, by Jesus, still they were not spared from grief; on the other hand, this sadness did not last long because Jesus called forth Lazarus from the grave.

This narrative on the death of Lazarus is a classic example of involvement in which our Lord Jesus intervened on behalf of Martha and Mary. But, on the other hand, there are other cases in the word of God in which God did not protect His people from catastrophe.  In spite of the death of Lazarus, neither sister doubted Jesus. How do you react when you suffer hardships such as the pain that Martha and Mary were subjected to? Do you think that your problems are greater than anything other believers have encountered in their life times? Have you ever considered the story of Joseph? How long has it been since you reflected upon Paul’s thorn in the flesh? Have you ever studied the persecutions that Paul endured during His ministry for Jesus? With Martha and Mary, one witnesses the delay of love in Jesus’ response to their message about the sickness of Lazarus. God’s delay does not mean that He has forsaken you.

JOSEPH

The story of Joseph is one of the best-known stories in the Bible. This narrative covers more than a dozen chapters in Genesis and demonstrates that God is actively involved in the lives of His people. Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob and became Jacob’s favorite. Moses writes about this extraordinary birth: “Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and opened her womb.   She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, ‘God has taken away my disgrace.’ She named him Joseph, and said, ‘May the LORD add to me another son’” (Genesis 30:22-24). Eventually, his brothers came to hate him and sold him to traders, who also sold him to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, in Egypt (37:1-36).

Not only was Joseph taken from his father and sold into slavery, but he also ended up in prison as a result of refusing the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife (39:1-23).  In spite of his blameless behavior, Joseph still ended up in prison. He patiently waited for someone to help him in his predicament, but to no avail (39:1—40:23).  Amazingly, one is stopped in his/her tracks as one reflects upon the words of Moses:

But while Joseph was there in the prison, the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did (39:20-23).

Finally, help came from one of Pharaoh’s servants (cupbearer) that had previously been released from prison and restored to favor with the king. Earlier, Joseph had interpreted a dream of the cupbearer and the baker. In this dream he informed the cupbearer that he would be restored to his earlier position and that the baker would be executed within three days. Following the interpretation of these dreams, Joseph requested that the cupbearer remember him and come to his aid in obtaining his release from prison (49:1-15). But the cupbearer did not remember Joseph’ request—at least for two years (41:1). After two years of imprisonment, Joseph was released from prison and made equal to Pharaoh (41:39-40; 44:18). Joseph made plans for the coming famine that God had revealed to him in the interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream (41:28-40). Eventually, this famine caused Joseph’s father to send his sons to Egypt for food. Ultimately, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers:

Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! (45:3-4).

One cannot help but reflect upon God’s delay of love in the troubled life of Joseph. Even in prison, Moses says that God “the LORD was with him” (39:20). Again, Moses reinforces God’s actions in Joseph’s life: “the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did” (39:23). Was Joseph bitter with his brothers and with God for all the misfortunes that he had endured from his brothers and the false accusation from Potiphar’s wife? Did he break out in anger against God? How would you have reacted? How do you act in response to ill-timed circumstances in your own life? How did Joseph react? Listen to his conversation with his brothers about their earlier clandestine operation:

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt (45:4-8).

            One wonders if Paul did not reflect upon the life of Joseph when he penned the following words: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Paul, so it seems, is not saying that everything that happens to an individual is good, but rather, he seems to be saying that out of ill-fated circumstances, God can turn these wretched trials into things beneficial to those who love Him. Paul puts forth a number of questions concerning evil—trouble, hardships, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, the sword—and he desires to know if these regrettable actions can deter us from Christ:

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.  Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (8:31-39).

God’s delay or lack of action does not mean that God has forsaken us. Even in the face of troubles, God is still with us.

JEREMIAH

            Jeremiah began his ministry about 627 BC during the thirteenth year of Josiah, king of Judah (Jeremiah 1:1-2). He declared his opposition to false religious practices, wrong social behavior, and foolish government policies. This resistance against the prevailing evil habits in the nation of Israel brought strong hostility to his ministry. As a result of the reaction of the government and the people, he displays a great deal of unhappiness with the community in general and with God’s seemingly disregard for his welfare.

            Jeremiah began his public ministry when he was about twenty years old (1:6). He never married since God told him not to (16:2). Apparently, he had few friends (20:7). And, if this was not enough trouble, God revealed to him how his own family would abandon him: “Your brothers, your own family—even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you” (12:6). Even the people of his own town plotted to kill him:

I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.”  But, O LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. Therefore this is what the LORD says about the men of Anathoth who are seeking your life and saying, “Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD or you will die by our hands” (11:19-21).

            Do you have troubles? Are your problems anything in comparison to the sufferings that Jeremiah endured? When one is a prophet of God, this fact, in and of itself, does not relieve one from troubles. Had God forewarned Jeremiah in the initial stage of his calling? Listen to God as he speaks to Jeremiah:

Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD (1:17-19).

This affirmation of God to Jeremiah gave him confidence to do what God wanted him to do. But was Jeremiah “a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land”? Yes he was! But that did not mean than he would not experience trouble. Not only did God tell Jeremiah that the people would fight against him, but God also said, “I am with you and will rescue you.” This sounds fair enough, does it not? Well let’s hear the rest of the story.  Jeremiah found himself beaten up and in the stocks by orders of the priest Pashur (20:1-2). Well, what about God’s assurance: “I am with you and will rescue you.” If you had been in Jeremiah’s shoes, how would you have reacted to such treatment? Listen to Jeremiah as he complains to God about this ill treatment:

O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long (20:7-8).

Can you imagine a prophet of God telling God that He deceived him? Do you recall how God informed Jeremiah about his family betraying him? Just before God reveals this devastating news, Jeremiah questions God about justice. In response to Jeremiah’s complaint, God questions him about his spiritual strength. God goes right to the heart of the problem:

“If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan? (12:5)

God is simply saying to Jeremiah, “Jeremiah if you think things are tough now as you race with men on foot, just wait until you have to compete with horses.” Again, God wants to know how he will manage in the thickets by the Jordan if he stumbles in a safe country.  In other words, God is saying in essence, “Jeremiah, if you think the problems you have right now are tough, then you are in for a shock—you have not seen anything yet.”

PAUL

            The life of Paul is an enigma to the casual reader of his troubled life. Luke reveals to his readers that Paul, before his conversion to Christianity, had obtained letters to go to Damascus (137 miles NE of Jerusalem) to take as prisoners all—men or women—who belonged to the Way (Acts 9:1-2). His objective was to arrest them and take them to Jerusalem. But as he neared the city of Damascus—approximately 137 miles from Jerusalem—the Lord caused a great light to flash around him (9:3). During his conversation with the Lord, Jesus told him to go Damascus. In the mean time, God also spoke to Ananias to “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight” (9:11-12). Following Ananias’ encounter with Paul, Paul was baptized according to the command of Christ as recorded in Matthew 28:18-20).

            Ananias informs Paul: “The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth.  You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.  And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name” (Acts 22:14-16). Paul immediately proclaimed the good news of God to those in Damascus. Luke says: “Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ” (9:22). As a result of his preaching, the Jews conspired to kill him (9:23). In fact, things got so bad that Paul’s followers “took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall” in order to escape being killed (9:25). Even though Paul became a child of God that, in and of itself, did not guarantee the absence of trouble.

 Later, Paul returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple (22:17).^[3] So far so good, so it seems. But trouble for Paul is on the horizon again. Luke says that while Paul was in a trance, the Lord spoke to him: “Leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about me” (22:18). This news fell on Paul’s ears in unbelief and bewilderment:

“Lord,” I replied, “these men know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him” (22:19-20).

In spite of Paul’s reluctance to leave, the Lord said: “Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (22:21). Again, one is reminded that God’s people are not free from troubles when one reflects upon Paul’s prior activities against Christians prior to his conversion to Christ as Lord. Prior to his acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah, he went from one synagogue to another in order to imprison and beat those who accepted Jesus as Lord (22:19).

Sometime later, Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark started on their first missionary trip (13:1-3, 13). When Paul and Barnabas arrived in Pisidian Antioch (275 miles NW of Paphos), persecution also broke out against Paul and Barnabas: “But the Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region” (13:50). Do you think your troubles are greater than the troubles that the early Christians encountered? When one becomes a child of God, this, in and of itself, does not free one from troubles in the family, from the agony of sickness, nor from the devastation of death. The stories about Paul’s missionary journeys are classic examples of how he coped with troubles in his own life.

FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY

Luke records the first missionary journey of Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark in Acts, chapters 13 and 14. Upon Paul’s and Barnabas’ arrival in Pisidian Antioch, they preached the good news of God. As a result of emphasis upon Jesus as God’s way of forgiveness and justification (13:38-39), the Jews “stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region” (13:50). They left Pisidian Antioch and went to Iconium (71 miles SE of Antioch) and proclaimed the good news. Luke says that they spent considerable time there (14:3) and spoke “boldly for the Lord, who confirmed by the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders” (14:3). In spite of the wonderful things God accomplished through their ministry, nevertheless, “There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, where they continued to preach the good news” (14:5-7).

            In the city of Lystra (14 miles S of Iconium), they received a great welcome following a miracle that Paul performed (14:9-11). The crowds were so enthusiastic that they wanted “to offer sacrifices to them” (14:13). But the crowds turned against Paul when some Jews came from Pisidian Antioch (85 miles from Lystra) and won the crowd over (14:19). As a result of the persuasion of the Jews from Antioch, Luke informs his readers about the tragic events that transpired: “They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city” (14:19).

The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe” (14:19-20). Did they give up? No! They left for Derbe (45 miles SE of Lystra) and “preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith (14:21-22). How did they view persecution and the work of God in their lives? Listen to Paul as he explains: “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (14:22). Are your troubles anything in comparison to the hardships that Paul and Barnabas endured?

SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY

During Paul’s second missionary journeys, one soon discovers tremendous persecutions against Paul and Silas, his fellow-worker (Acts 16—18). In fact, things got so bad prior to Paul’s arrival in Corinth that God appeared to Paul in a vision at Corinth to give him encouragement: “‘Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.  For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.’  So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God” (Acts 18:9-11). It appears that Paul had just about reached a breaking point. He had undergone a beating and imprisonment in Philippi (16:16-24). But that persecution was just the beginning.

After Paul and Silas were released from prison, they went to Thessalonica [128 miles SE of Philippi] (Acts 17). After arriving in Thessalonica, Paul explained and proved from the Scriptures that Jesus had to suffer and rise from the dead (17:1-3). Some were persuaded that Jesus was the Christ. But the Jews were so jealous that they rounded up some bad characters in the marketplace and formed a riot (17:5). And as a result of this riot, Jason, who had welcomed Paul and Silas into his house (17:7), was dragged, along with some other brothers, before the city officials (17:6). Finally, Jason and the other brothers posted bail and they let them go (17:9). Paul and Silas could not be found by the mob (17:5), and later that night Paul and Silas went to Berea [41 miles SW of Thessalonica] (17:10).

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY

Luke also informs his readers that the Jews did not stop their actions against Paul: “When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up” (17:13). Paul left Berea (approximately 40 miles W of Thessalonica) and went to Athens (200 miles SE of Berea) and waited for Silas and Timothy (17:15-16). Finally, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth [40 miles W of Athens] (18:1). As stated above, God assured Paul that no one would attack or harm him while in Corinth (18:10). He spent about eighteen months in Corinth preaching Jesus (18:11).

Following the completion of Paul’s third missionary Journey, Paul was arrested and spent the next four years in jail (two in Caesarea and two in Rome—24:27; 28:30). Are your troubles in life anything in comparison to Paul’s? In concluding the scenario of Paul’s trials and tribulation, it would be helpful to hear from Paul himself the many hardships he endured:

Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers.  I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.  Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying.  In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands (2 Corinthians 11:23-33).

CONCLUSION

Today, how would you view such troubles in your own life? As a Christian, would you scream, blame, and reject God if you had to suffer imprisonment because of your faith in Jesus?  How would you respond to heartbreaking disaster in your own life? How do you respond to sickness, death, financial loss, divorce, and so on? How do you react to unfortunate circumstances in your own life? Do you view your troubles in the same way Paul viewed his incarceration?  How did Paul react? Listen to him as he expresses his views to the Christians in Philippi:

Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly (Philippians 1:12-14).

Have you allowed your troubles to advance the gospel of God? The very thing that makes one think that God has deserted him/her may be the very proof of His love. As stated above, the “yet” (in the story of Lazarus) may give comfort to our hearts when delays and disappointments and sorrows nearly overwhelm us. One cannot say that one can always see the love of God in one’s sorrows and troubles and disappointments. Yet, every believer must take it on trust.

Yet it is still a tremendous help to believe that God is there, even if we cannot see that back of every trouble, every trial, every grief, and every loss that God is still there. There is still the “yet” of God’s holy and immeasurable love. One should never forget the words of Peter to God’s elect that were scattered throughout “Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia”  (1 Peter 1:2)—“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (5:7). Have you done this?

The meaning of Peter’s words is that Christians are to commit all their troubles to Him.  Even if one loses one’s friends, one’s health, or one’s property, one is still to cast all anxiety on Him because He cares for every individual.  The apostle calls it, “all your anxiety.” The cares of every Christian is various—personal cares, family cares, cares for the present, cares for the future, cares for yourself, cares for others, and cares for the community of God. The conclusion of Paul’s letter to the Philippians is to the point about anxiety. What does Paul say? Listen to Paul as he encourages the proper mind-set for God’s children as they face troubles in their own lives:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:4-7).

It is appropriate that this message concludes with the words of Paul to the Christians in Philippi as each reflects upon his/her own tight spots:

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.  For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have (Philippians 1:27-30).