“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.” – John 11:5,6
“Because He loved them He did not go to them. John intends and Jesus intends for everyone seeing this to ask “Now, how is that love to let him die?”…And the answer is very clear in this text, but not common or acceptable without the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. The key to this: love lets him die, because his death will help them see the glory of God. That’s why verse four is here. This is not about death, this about the glory of God and the glory of the Son through Him, that’s what this is about and since I love them I’m going to put it on maximum display at great cost to Lazarus and his sisters. A cost that most people do not want and are not willing to pay… This is one of the reasons Christianity is hard to believe in for many people, because it defines love in a way that is so different. So what is love?… Love means giving us what we need most. What do we need most? And what we need most is not healing, but a full and endless experience of the glory of God. Most of them don’t know that. That’s why we preach, that’s why we share the gospel…A revelation to your soul of the glory of God is what this text says love is, above life… Love means giving us what will bring us the fullest and longest joy. And what is that? What will give you full and eternal joy? The answer of this text is clear: a revelation to your soul of the glory of God—seeing and admiring and marveling at and savoring the glory God in Jesus Christ.
Here is another way to say it: love is doing whatever you have to do to help people see and treasure the glory of God as their supreme joy—to help people see and be satisfied with the glory of God…”
– John Piper, This Illness Is for the Glory of God
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/this-illness-is-for-the-glory-of-god
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