To the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, despite being the infinite God, He never coerced people into doing His will or into believing what He told them. He simply laid out the facts, or people’s responsibilities, and left them to make the right decision. How very unlike us He was when He ministered among our Christian predecessors. And how very unlike us He is yet today.
Recently I read a little prayer that struck a chord with me: “Lord deliver me from the lust of vindicating myself.”
In that regard, we have an illustration in the interaction between Martha and Christ.
That good lady said with tears running down her face, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” Jesus replied, “Thy brother shall rise again.” To that she said, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Then the Lord pointed out that it is not about the future and potential blessings. He said, “It is all about me.” “I am the resurrection and the life…” To that Martha said, “Yea Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ…”
Then she spun on her heels and “went her way” to find her sister, and Jesus let her go. He didn’t say, “Whoa there Martha. Let me explain, I don’t think you understand.” He just let her hurry off. This scripture has always seemed to me to be just a bit broken. It has seemed that something is missing.
While this is important and helpful in seeing the Lord more fully, it is not what I’d like to bring to your attention this evening. Notice verses 24 and 25 once again. “Martha said unto him, I know that (Lazarus, my brother) shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” There is nothing wrong with Martha’s theology or her faith. This is absolutely true. But she was missing the blessing which could have been hers at that moment. She was living in the future, so to speak. Her faith was fixed on something off in the distance. And in the process she was losing the blessing of the moment.
Martha was grieving. I’m not putting her down for it. Her grief is as natural as life and love. She was grieving for a couple of reasons. Her brother – the man of the house – the chief bread winner – was gone, leaving holes in her life. She may have had questions about what was going to happen next. Maybe she worried about her younger sister, who was less experienced in the things of the world. And Mary was doing silly things like giving her most prized possessions to the Saviour. Also, there was a tiny bit of anger toward Jesus for not coming earlier and healing Lazarus. Her faith in the future resurrection of her Christian brother wasn’t enough to meet the emptiness in her soul. Her faith was focused on the future; it wasn’t planted in the moment and in the Lord. Her eschatology and the authority of Christ to raise the dead at some future time were there, but it didn’t do her much good in the moment.
So Jesus reminded her, “I am the resurrection and the life” – NOW. He could have taken His hands, putting them on both sides of her face, lifting her chin, making her look at Him. He could have forced her to focus on Him – but He didn’t. He left her with her future faith rather than a present faith, because that was what she wanted now that Lazarus was dead. Jesus didn’t try to vindicate the precious statement He had just made. And He did force her to redirect her faith from the future to the moment.
My point is: don’t let YOUR faith get stuck in the future, when it could be a blessing to you today. Let’s assume that Martha believed that God is sovereign and omnipotent. Her words point to her orthodox faith in Jehovah. Let’s also assume she knew that Jesus was the Son of God and He could have healed her brother.
Martha, don’t push that omnipotence out into the future – some place where you don’t live right now. Christ is the resurrection and the life – right now. Jehovah is God of the here and now, just as much as He is the God of the future. Trust the Lord to always do what is right and what is best. Always trust the Lord to always be the Lord. Don’t push the blessing of faith away, even if it is into the future.
Before coming back to some other Christian examples of this, consider an obvious non-Christian case.
How many millions of people in Christendom have some sort of faith that the Lord will save them some day? Many of those people aren’t sure that they saved today, but when they die, the Lord will make things right. Many of those people know they are not saved. Justifying their misdeeds, they say, “Well, I’m no saint.” How many Greek, Roman and Orthodox Catholics believe that after enough time in purgatory, the Lord will finally declare them to be worthy of Heaven? Even without purgatory, how many believe that God will accept them into Heaven when they die, but those same people refuse to relinquish the reigns of their lives to the Lord today? They refuse to repent, often declaring the insignificance of their sins, or the positive quality of their lives. They may have a future faith, however weak or corrupt, but they certainly don’t possess a present faith. Obviously, that kind of future faith isn’t a Biblical faith at all.
Again, I’m not saying that Martha’s faith wasn’t genuine or Biblical, but it wasn’t what where it ought to be. And what about us? I’m of the opinion that we need to stop from time to time to examine the chronometry of our faith. Are we praying for the Lord’s blessings on this coming Sunday when here we are still in Wednesday? There is nothing wrong with looking into the future and trusting God for that future. But what about today? Are we praying that God would bless someone’s cancer treatment, and that down the road she might be healed, or are we praying for the Lord to show His magnificent power and heal her today? Are we praying for the Lord to save the soul of our friend, trusting God to reveal on the day of judgment that she really did trust Christ? Or are we praying for the Lord to save her right now, even thou she is not here. Isn’t it true that our future faith often robs God of His glory today?
Let’s consider some other examples of displaced or mis-timed faith.
An obvious illustration would be Disciple Thomas. In the evening Jesus’ resurrection day, the Lord met with most of His disciples. But Thomas was not among them. After the Lord blessed and encouraged everyone who was there, He departed. When the brethren saw Thomas, they told him what had happened. “We have seen the Lord.” But he said unto them, except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe.” Thomas was ready to believe the others and believe Christ’s resurrection, when the proper criteria were met. “Except I see; except I put my hands into His wounds I refuse to permit my faith to crystalize.” In essence, he was willing to believe, but not just now. He was pushing his faith, or his potential faith forward, when he needed it right then.
Why do we need more information before we commit our faith to something? Why do we have to self-prove the testimony of the brethren or the Word of God? Do we really have to have visual evidence of Noah’s Ark before we believe what the Bible says? For a week, Thomas was the loser, while the rest of brethren were excited about seeing the risen Lord. Don’t push your faith into the future when you need to enjoy its benefits today.
Another example is found in Acts 12. James had recently been killed by Herod, and it looked like Peter was next on the wicked king’s hit list. But an angel of the Lord miraculously delivered him. “And when he had considered the thing, he came to house of Mary… where many were gathered together praying.” For what where the saints praying? Were they praying for Peter release? Were they pleading that God would give him a painless death or a speedy resurrection? Were they praying for their own safety, having given up on Peter, in the light of James’ death? When Peter knocked on the door of that house of prayer, a young lady named Rhoda listened through the wood, recognizing his voice. When she ran back, interrupting the brethren’s prayers, they called her insane – “Thou art mad.” Of course I can’t know the kind of faith those were employing, but it wasn’t of the immediate kind. They should have been like the little girl who brought her umbrella to the prayer meeting during the drought. They had no expectation of deliverance. There was no anticipation of God’s immediate glory.
Thankfully there are far more illustrations of timely faith than of the postponed variety.
“By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet… prepared an ark to the saving of his house….” My point is almost too silly to mention, but at what point did Noah believe God’s threat and promise? I suppose he might have been willing to build that ark while not really believing the talk about something he’d never seen before. And it is certainly possible that his sons were not fully convinced. But the Bible clearly teaches that Noah DID believe the Lord, and he believed the very moment God revealed His plan for the flood and revealed the plans for the ark’s construction. But the rest of the people of the ante-diluvian world did not believe – until the rains started. In the Noahic flood we have examples of both immediate and postponed faith. Postponed faith meant death.
A similar illustration might be the Lord’s illustration of the man who built his house upon the rock. It is far better to believe and build before the rains come and winds begin to beat upon our house. When the storm clouds rise, we may be too busy to think about prayer and faith.
In writing to the saints in Corinth, Paul spoke about the manner of his ministry. He said that what he preached necessitated faith – predetermined, pre-problematic, pre-salvation faith. “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power; that your FAITH should not STAND in the wisdom of MEN, but in the power of GOD.” When it is necessary to bolster, create or feed our faith with scientific research or the agreement of the PhD man, then our faith is going to come a day late and dollar short.
When Jehovah interrupted Abram’s life, telling him to leave Ur and get to the destination He would reveal to him, Abram didn’t get out his phone to check Google maps on what the possible destinations might be. He didn’t drag his feet trying to decide if he should take his cold-weather or warm-weather gear. He just packed up a few belongings and started down the road. And I don’t think I’m doing him any harm in saying that Abram thereafter lived by faith day by day. His faith wasn’t resting in the ultimate destination; it was settled on the God to told him to go. His faith wasn’t stuck in the future, even though there was definitely a future aspect to it. “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” As Abraham “sojourned in the land of promise,” he did so day by day, even though he was looking for a divine city with foundations unlike anything in this world.
The Bible also tells us of a woman who crept up behind the Saviour with a desire to touch the hem of His robe. She had been suffering for twelve years, and in the process she had lost everything she had. There was no insurance or medicare to pay her doctors, so they took her life-savings. She may never have had the opportunity to marry and to enjoy the comfort of a loving husband. She was a sort of leper. When she fell on her knees behind the Saviour and put her thumb and forefingers on the edge of that robe she was not hoping that the right medication might fill her veins and the healing process would begin. She was not thinking about a day in the future when she might marry and have babies. When she touched the hem of Jesus’ robe, her faith was expecting an immediate cure – nothing more and nothing less. And Jesus said, “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.” She didn’t waste her faith on some future dream; she spent it on the immediate now, and Christ blessed.
The time to put on the breastplate of righteousness is before we face the principalities, powers and rulers of the darkness of this world. Don’t put off until tomorrow the faith you ought to put in the Lord today. Don’t put the end of your faith off in the distance, when you need the Lord’s blessing right now. I don’t care how Hollywood might have presented it, but when David stepped out of the fear-filled ranks of Israel in order to face Goliath, he didn’t fall on his face pleading for the Lord’s blessings. David’s trust was in the Lord at all times. It had been a part of his life from the time he killed the lion and bear and probably long before that.
Like Martha, we may have good and proper theology and faith. “Yea Lord; I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.” “I believe you can do whatsoever you choose to do, because you are Immanuel. But I don’t believe you can, or will, do anything for me at the moment.” Brethren, that isn’t Biblical faith. Biblical faith deserves to be augmented with immediate expectancy. We should join that grieving father in his prayer, “Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief.”