Faith in the Waiting Room

Published July 23, 2025

TL;DR: Quick Takeaways from John 11:1–16

• Faith isn’t proven when God says yes. It’s proven when He says wait.
• Following the Father’s will keeps you from stumbling in the dark.
• God often uses our deepest pain to develop our deepest trust.
• Sometimes the strongest faith is the faith that follows, even when it’s afraid.
• God’s silence is not God’s absence. He’s working even when He seems still.

Each Wednesday, we rewind. Not just to remember what was preached, but to look again, slowly and deeply, at what God is saying. This week, we stepped into one of the most personal stories in the Gospel of John. A family Jesus loves is hurting. Lazarus is sick. Mary and Martha send for Jesus, confident He’ll come. But He doesn’t. He waits. And in the waiting, we see that faith isn’t just about trusting God to act. It’s about trusting Him when He doesn’t.

The Delay That Didn’t Mean Distance – John 11:1–6

John 11 opens with a crisis in a home Jesus knew well. Lazarus, a man described simply as someone Jesus loved, has fallen ill. His sisters, Mary and Martha, respond not with panic but with confident faith. They send word to Jesus with a message that is both tender and trusting: “Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.” They do not plead or argue. They simply remind Him of the relationship. This was not a stranger in need. This was someone who had sat at the table with Him. Someone who had made room for Him in both their home and their heart. Surely, they believed, Jesus would come.

But what follows is one of the most surprising turns in the chapter. When Jesus hears the news, He does not immediately go. He remains where He is for two more days. The delay is not explained to the messengers. No update is given to the sisters. Jesus does not even send comfort with the reply. He simply stays.

Jesus’ decision to wait was not a failure to act in love. Jesus was not ignoring their need. He was allowing something greater to unfold. His love is not measured by how quickly He moves, but by how perfectly He works. What felt like inactivity was actually divine intention timed to reveal the glory of God in a way they couldn’t yet imagine.

He says, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” His response reframes the entire situation. They saw an urgent need, but Jesus saw the full picture of what the Father was doing.

God’s delays are never pointless. They are deliberate. They test and shape the faith of those who wait on Him.

Romans 8:28 reminds us that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” That promise includes the silence. It includes the space between the prayer and the answer. It includes the ache of not knowing when or how God will move. For Mary and Martha, the waiting was painful, but it was not wasted.

Faith isn’t proven when God says yes. It’s proven when He says wait.

Faith is not most evident when God responds immediately. It is most clearly displayed when He doesn’t. When we still trust Him in the silence. When we still believe He is good while the need goes unmet. When we still call Him Lord while we are waiting for the answer.

The Risk of Going Back – John 11:7–10

After two days of waiting, Jesus doesn’t offer comfort or explanation. He simply says, "Let us go into Judaea again." To them, this is not just a geographic decision. It is a life-threatening one. The disciples had not forgotten what happened the last time they were in Judaea. The crowds had raised stones to kill Jesus. They said, “Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee. Wilt thou go there again?” Why would we return to the place where death threats still lingered?

Their concern is not unreasonable. The path back to Bethany is a path into danger. But Jesus is not rattled by their fear or persuaded by their caution. His eyes are not fixed on the hostility of man, but on the will of His Father. He answers with a curious phrase: “Are there not twelve hours in the day?” With that single sentence, He reminds them that His time on earth is divinely measured and sovereignly protected.

Then He says, “If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.” He’s not talking about sunlight. He’s talking about the clarity that comes from walking in obedience to the Father. When you walk in the light God gives, you may not see everything ahead, but you’ll see enough to keep your footing. That’s how Jesus lived, with full trust in the Father’s plan, even when the path led through danger.

Psalm 27:1 says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” That’s exactly the kind of confidence Jesus is walking in. He’s not being reckless. He’s being obedient. He knows the road is dangerous, but He’s not backing away from it. He won’t turn from the Father’s will just because the cost is high.

The disciples are still learning that following Jesus doesn’t guarantee safety in the world’s eyes. It does, however, bring clarity. It shows them what truly matters, who is really leading, and where lasting security is found.

Psalm 119:105 reminds us that “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” It may not illuminate the entire journey, but it gives just enough for the next obedient step. That’s the kind of faith Jesus is inviting His disciples into, not one that demands to see everything, but one that trusts the light they’ve been given.

Following the Father’s will keeps you from stumbling in the dark.

Obedience to the Father doesn’t eliminate risk, but it does eliminate confusion. When we know we’re walking in His will, we can move forward with confidence even when the outcome is unclear.

A Deeper Purpose at Work – John 11:11–15

After settling the disciples’ concerns about returning to Judaea, Jesus begins to prepare them for what they are about to face. He says, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” The disciples take His words at face value. If Lazarus is sleeping, then surely he is recovering. That would be good news. There would be no need to risk danger by returning. However, Jesus isn’t talking about sleep. Lazarus has died.

So He says it plainly: “Lazarus is dead.” And then He adds something even more unexpected. “And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe.”

To those listening, that must have been hard to hear. Jesus knew Lazarus was dying. He could have healed him from a distance, just as He had done with the centurion’s servant in Matthew 8. He could have arrived in time, but He didn’t. He chose not to, not because He didn’t care, but because He cared enough to let their faith grow beyond what it had been.

This moment was not about preventing sorrow. It is about producing belief. Jesus is not minimizing their grief. He is showing them that even their pain is not wasted. There is something more at stake here than comfort. What they were about to see would strengthen their faith in a way nothing else could.

1 Peter 1:7 reminds us that “the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,” is meant to result in “praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” God doesn’t waste painful moments. He often uses them to show us things we wouldn’t have seen any other way.

The disciples needed to see more than a healing. They needed to see that even death itself was not beyond His authority. The path they were walking was not one of failure or delay. It was a path into a deeper understanding of who He truly is.

God often uses our deepest pain to develop our deepest trust.

Jesus was leading them to see that real belief isn’t built around the absence of pain. It’s often shaped right in the middle of it.

The Courage of a Disciple – John 11:16

At the end of this scene, we hear from Thomas. He’s remembered by many for his doubts later on, but in this moment, he shows something else entirely. When Jesus says they are going back to Judaea, Thomas doesn’t argue. He doesn’t try to talk Jesus out of it. He simply says, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

He isn’t being sarcastic. He means it. This is loyalty speaking, even if it’s wrapped in fear. Thomas doesn’t know exactly what lies ahead, but he knows who he’s following. He doesn’t understand everything Jesus is doing, but he trusts Him enough to go anyway.

Hebrews 10:39 says, “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” That kind of faith doesn’t wait until everything makes sense. It just keeps moving forward. Not because the path looks easy, but because the Savior is worth following no matter what it costs.

Sometimes the strongest faith is the kind that shows up in fear but chooses to follow anyway. Thomas gives us a picture of what that kind of faith looks like. He may not yet understand what Jesus is doing, but he’s still willing to walk with Him into whatever comes next.

What none of them realize is that they are not walking toward a funeral. They are walking toward a miracle. They just don’t know it yet.

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