Biography
Ted Olsen is a member of the faculty of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield and serves there as Associate Professor of Practical Theology. He was Senior Minister of the Arlington Heights Evangelical Free Church for eleven years. Ted is a great friend of the Chicago Sunday Evening Club and has been a member of our Ministers' Advisory Council for many years. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"Welcome Christ Into Your Home" 
Family was a simple term to define when my wife and I were married a generation ago. Everybody knew that family meant a wife, a husband, and 2.4 children. The wife worked at home and the husband outside the home. Today that stereotype is smashed. Two-career families predominate with 1. 6 children or no children. There are blended families from previous marriages and single families. There is a multiplicity of family structures today.

Our text this evening, John 11, describes the relationship of Jesus with a nontraditional family, two sisters and a brother who lived together in a beautiful suburb just outside of Jerusalem in the Holy Land. This is a chapter that is best remembered because of its account of a family crisis. The man of the family, Lazarus, became ill, terminally ill. He died. For four days he was entombed there outside of Bethany and then Jesus came to this home and raised him from the dead. It was another convincing proof that Jesus is who He claimed to be, the Son of God, who came for a while to live with us here on planet Earth, to be our Savior.

In its recounting, this well-known story of Jesus demonstrates a universal characteristic of every family regardless of how that family might be constituted and, that is, every family is desperately in need of the help that only Christ can give. Every family ought to welcome Christ into the home. I have been a pastor for many years. It was my custom every Sunday morning to invite and to receive written prayer requests from the members of the congregation. It was always my observation that most of those prayer requests had to do with family concerns - families in need of healing, physically, emotionally, socially; families crying out for reconciliation; families in need of employment; families suffering from grief in the deepest sorrow at the loss of loved ones; families that were struggling for their very survival.

The Bible speaks to the needs of our families. The Bible urges us to welcome Christ to our homes, just as that family at Bethany welcomed Him. They became a witness to us in our generation. They demonstrate to us how Christ offers support for your family and for my family, regardless of the circumstances that we might be experiencing at the moment. For example, Christ offers us the support of His love. Now, don't turn me off. I realize that's a generalization. Perhaps you hear it as a platitude. But, please don't underestimate the value of Christ's love for your family.

As we read this wonderful story of Christ and the family of three at Bethany, three times over we are told explicitly how much Christ loved them. His love for that family is implied throughout the entire recounting of this episode in their lives. You see, the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus is probably the one place above all where Jesus, this single itinerant teacher, felt at home.

From another incident that is recorded from Bethany, this in the Gospel of Luke, it seems as though Jesus often just dropped in on the family unannounced. When He found Himself near Jerusalem, He stopped by at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus and He was always warmly welcomed by them.

Is Christ welcome in your home? Would Christ feel just as "at home" with you? Maybe that question makes you feel uncomfortable, a little red under the collar. "He couldn't possibly. We're just going to have to get our act together a little bit better as a family." Sometimes things become a little bit tense at our house at 4 Whitehall Court. Sometimes words are exchanged. Sometimes feelings are close to the surface. Jesus would never score our family a perfect ten. Well, probably not any more than that family at Bethany got a perfect ten. In fact, if you read about His visit there in the Gospel of Luke, the grade that He assigned them if He would have graded them, would have been much closer to a "C" than an "A." The sisters had a fight right there in front of Jesus -- one complaining that the other wasn't doing her share of the housework. Nevertheless as we read the story in the Gospel of John we are told Jesus loved Martha, her sister and their brother, Lazarus.

He wants to be welcomed as part of our families today. He wants to strengthen and to support us in the weaknesses that we face day by day. Do you ever doubt Jesus' love for your family? Of course, you do, especially when the going gets rough, in the crises and conflicts of life. Listen. In response to Martha's cry for help in verse 3, "Lord, the one you love is sick," Jesus gave a most interesting reply, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it."

What was the moment of Christ's glory here on earth? How would Jesus be glorified? Well, the fact is that becomes a prominent theme in the Gospel of John. Jesus refers to the moment of His glorification over and again. Every time He does so, He is referring to His death. Jesus would be glorified at Calvary. As the scenario develops here before our very eyes in John, Chapter 11, it's fascinating to see that Jesus actually timed His last visit to the home in Bethany so that He might precipitate the cross. He knew that with the raising of Lazarus from the dead, the religious leaders at Jerusalem would be enraged. With their jealousy, they would stop at nothing until He hung on a cross. Sure enough, it happened just as He planned.

We turn the page to John, Chapter 12. We discover that it was from that home in Bethany that Jesus made His descent from the suburb down the side of that hill called the Mount of Olives - a couple of miles into downtown Jerusalem. It was Palm Sunday when Jesus rode on to die. The events of Holy Week followed in rapid succession.

Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus so much that He died for them. He died as a sacrifice for their sins. Yes, I have no doubt that they were upstanding members of that community and had the respect of their neighbors. But, the Bible says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not one." That quarrel in their home was just a symptom of something much more serious.

Christ died as a sacrifice for my sins and the sins of my family. Just inside the front door of our house hangs a small cross. I look at that cross and it reminds me that this family is loved. Christ proved how much He loves us. He died for us.

While I was a pastor, one day a woman cam to me and said, "Pastor, with all of the problems our family is facing - and she had shared them with me through the months - and all of our concerns for our children, it's so good to know that God loves us." Call that simple. Call that profound. Call it what you will, but that was a life-transforming realization for that woman.

When our girls were little, my wife often put their hair into braids. It wasn't until then that I realized braids are not woven with just two strands of hair. I tried to be of help with the first daughter and discovered that if you try to braid with just two strands, it all unravels. Braids take three strands. Jesus is that indispensable strand that holds the family - husband, wife, whoever constitutes your family - together. His love supports the family and you can have the assurance of His love if you will trust His death for you.

Also inherent in this last visit of Christ to the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus is another important lesson and that is He offers the support of His leadership. As a husband and father, I am so grateful that I have a Superior leader in my home. That is demonstrated here in a very interesting way by Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Throughout this dialogue, this conversation of Christ with the three of them, they address Him over and over again. Every time they speak to Christ, they refer to Him as Lord. Count them. Read it sometime. Not once, not twice, not three times, but six times over He is called Lord. This is a lesson of the lordship of Jesus Christ for your home and mine. You see, Jesus was not merely the friend and frequent house guest there, He was the head of the home with all of the respect and authority and honor pertaining to that. You see, the love of Jesus is made real in your home and mine by the recognition of His headship in our families.

This can be illustrated in many ways. But, it can be especially illustrated in a family's priorities. Again, that account in the Gospel of Luke where Martha quarrels with Mary. Jesus, the leader of their home, spoke up. He helped them clarify their values to see what truly is important in home life. He said, "Martha, Martha, you are fretting and fussing about many things. But, only one thing is needed." What was that? That was her relationship with Him in worship and devotion. A family - my family, your family - can be buried under trivia. What message are we communicating to the children in our homes? What are we demonstrating to them as a family that is really important in life? Success as defined by late twentieth century secular society, or success as defined by the Lord Jesus Christ. Only one thing matters, He said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you."

Do our priorities betray us? Is house pride first for us, or automobiles, or vacations, or home entertainment centers or estate plans? What's first? It must, be Christ. This principle of personal and family priorities is tested every day, isn't it? It is tested by our obedience, you see, to His Word, the Scriptures. One of the most important contributions any of us can make to our children is the security of growing up in a home where they know that they are loved, but also where they are given a sense of accountability, a sense of responsibility. Jesus, when He is worshiped as lord of our homes, offers both. When Jesus is welcomed to our homes, there is the support of His life if we will trust His death for us. There is further the support of His leadership if we will obey His word. But as this story reaches its climax, best of all, we have the support of His endless, eternal life.

Don't miss the atmosphere in which this encounter with Jesus takes place. If you have your Bible, open to the 11th Chapter of John, you will notice that picture is painted very carefully in verse 1. Lazarus was sick. In verse 2, Lazarus now lay sick. In verse 3, "Lord, the one you love is sick." As we study this passage, we cannot escape the prominence of the word "love" over and again and the word, "lord." But also, the word "sick" - sick, sick, sick, sickness - in a home where Jesus is welcomed - sickness and death. Christ doesn't promise us health, wealth and happiness unbroken. Lazarus was stricken, terminally stricken. He died and left grief stricken sisters.

That brings us to the ultimate support needed by every family. No words can possibly express the agony of death in a home. The silent voice, the empty chair, the missing face, the unspeakable sense of loss. I know that thousands of you are facing that sense of grief this evening. So what does our Christian faith have to say to that? One thing it says is verse 35, the shortest verse in the Bible - John 11: 35. At the grave of Lazarus, "Jesus wept." Our Lord is the Lord of love. He really cares. Verse 33 says, "... He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled." He is the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He is not some Aristotelian God who is content to contemplate His own perfection. He is the God who became flesh and lived a while among us, with care, the love and the comfort of one who has poured His lives into ours. As another apostle in the New Testament put it, "He is touched with the feelings of our infirmities." Not only that, through His life we have hope. "Martha, your brother will rise again." "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." It seemed Jesus sensed something was missing there. That far-off hope was just not quite enough for Martha. So He said in John 11:25, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." He offered Martha and her family the support of eternal life in the present tense. Death is only that moment when eternal life passes from the material world to the spiritual world. Eternal life right here and now.

A few years ago Charles Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship and former White House Counsel, reflected on a cancer operation. He said, "Every time a non-Christian gets cancer, God allows a Christian to get cancer as well so that the world can see the difference. I prayed when I was diagnosed with cancer that I might be so filled with God's grace that the world might see the difference." He is speaking of the support of Christ's life, living through and triumphing over the absolute worst that a family can experience.

Christ pressed Martha for her commitment. "Martha, do you believe this? Do you believe that your brother has not died, physically yes, but not spiritually? Though his body has been in the grave four days, because of his personal relationship with me, He is alive!" How Martha's response mist have pleased Jesus. She looked Him in the eye and said, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who would come into the world." That's probably the grandest confession of faith to be found in the Gospels because it was not given on the mountain top, but in the valley of the shadow of death. Perhaps at the lowest point in her life, she trusts Christ, who offers her and her family the support of His life.