Twiggs Academy Chapel | John 11

Intro

Good morning y’all

My name is Austin Ussery, I am the Student Pastor at FBC Gray.

Pastor Daniel and I crossed paths there a few years ago and his asked me to speak today. I am grateful to be here and hope that I can aid you in your walk with the Lord.

And with that, I really only have one goal, is that you would not hear me, but that you would open yourself to hear a word from the Lord.

There is nothing special about me, or what comes out of my mouth, I am here as a messenger.

So my hope is that you would not hear me but open yourself to hear a word from the Lord.

I know this is Christian school and you are saturated with the christian things, thats a great thing. I know what that’s like but what we are prone to do in that is kinda not be amazed with God, not really see the awe of the Lord. We lose our sense of wonder with scripture.

We see Jesus and scripture as just another part of our academic pursuits.

Context

So I was thinking about why did Jesus perform miracles.

Have you ever thought about that? When we learn about Jesus, the miracles are part of it. They’re the stories that get the most press. You know it’s way cooler when Jesus calls peter, he makes all the fish be caught and the boat almost sinks but when he calls Matthew he just say, follow me and off he goes.

We think more about the 5000 being fed than when jesus tells them to grab some barley on the sabbath.

One of those is gonna be the VBS story one year.

But there is one miracle that we talk about but it’s like the big one.

Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

Of all the miracles, that’s the one that really should make us take a step back.

SO what happens in the story, if you are not super familiar with it.

There is this man named Lazarus and he is sick. He is also a friend of Jesus, and they know who Jesus is. They know about the miracles he has done, they know about the healings and stuff.

But he is sick and his sisters are worried. Mary and Martha, so they send a message to Jesus saying, “Hey Jesus, Lazarus is sick could you come do something?”

and Jesus says, in John 11:4

John 11:4 ESV

4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Great! That sounds like good news.

Like is the doctors came in and told you, hey, its not terminal we just have to do a surgery.

Cool, you’re opting for the surgery.

So Mary and Martha, they’re good. The disciples they knew Lazarus, so they heard that and they were like, great, Lazarus is gonna pull through. Jesus is about to do something awesome.

If we keep reading, we see what Jesus does.

And you know, if I’m Jesus gonna go take care of this, gonna go and see. Not gonna waste anytime.

SO what does Jesus do?

He waits? Not like a let me get my stuff, let me take the trash out, no he waits two whole days.

and in those two days, Lazarus dies.

This seems counter productive right? Like Jesus can heal at will. Why did he wait?

Remember what he said at the beginning. John 11:4

John 11:4 ESV

4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Why does God do anything?

So the first question we need to ask is why does God do anything? What is his purpose in doing anything? Why does God let bad things happen?

Lazarus died, but God is supposed to get Glory in this? How does God get glory in death?

Wouldn’t the Glorious thing to have been to show up on time, and be the hero? Right?

If God was going to get glory, why didn’t hey show up and do something glorious?

That is what Mary and Martha felt, they told him, they were mad at him. Jesus had you been here, Lazarus would be standing here laughing with us.

But instead he’s in a tomb, you want to see?

So, why does God do anything? Why does God let the bad thing happen?

Jesus answered it for us, God get’s the glory, it is for the glory of God.

IN the case of Lazarus, Jesus weeps, because he was sad, he was friends with Lazarus, he loved him and his family. Lazarus was close to him.

Tragedy came and Jesus was there.

Jesus knows our pain, and sits in it with us, because H is glorified through our suffering, not that suffering is glorious but because it isn’t glorious, the suffering doesn’t bring glory but the fact that in out suffering we have a God who sits next to us in it. That is the glorious thing.

That the king would come and sit down with the slave, with his enemy, with us and weep.

That is what is glorious.

So why does God do anything?

For His glory, why does God save us, for His glory, why do we get to be the people who join in the mission of redemption and restoration? for his glory. why did he choses to save us, those who reject him and can’t even follow the 10 commandments with out breaking them? It’s his glory.

His creation reflects His glory.

Scripture says the heavens reveal His glory.

We were made for His glory.

And so, how does Jesus get glory in this story? WHat happens?

They take him to see where they laid him. and after a second, Jesus tells them

remove the stone.

Imagine you were by a grave of a loved one, and I know some of you are not having to imagine, but you can remember being there.

But you are standing there, and some one says, dig him up. get the shovel.

That’s basically what Jesus doing.

Open the grave.

What are you saying? No, that weird? that’s what I’m saying.

But i love what Martha says here, she says, Lord, he’s gonna smell, it’s been a couple three four days.

If there are any KJV folks out here, that’s the most hilarious translation, it reads “He Stanketh.”

The middle school boys locker, stanketh.

You know what is meant by that, it’s not just gonna smell but it’s rank, it’s awful, the stench of death is there.

But what do they do? They open the grave, the remove the stone that was there.

and Jesus tells Martha, John 11:40

John 11:40 ESV

40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”

Remember, believe in me and you will see God glorified.

Then Jesus prays and he looks in to the tomb, and yells.

Lazarus, come out.

and what happens? Lazarus comes on out.

And so, God is there with us through our suffering and His glory is revealed through the suffering.

and so this shows us how the kingdom works.

and so this gives us a glimpse in to how the kingdom of God works.

One of my favorite preachers has this idea about the kingdom of God being an upside down kingdom. A kingdom literally that is on top of it’s head.

In a normal Kingdom, there is the king on the throne. In the upside down kingdom, in the kingdom of God, the King steps of the throne and becomes the least.

He steps down off the throne and dwells among the least of the people and becomes the least of the people.

Jesus was from Nazareth. When we hear Nazareth, we think, oh yeah Jesus was from there. cool!

When the people in Jesus day heard Nazareth they heard, “oh he might rob me, we should hide the silverware.”

If Jesus was from Georgia you know this would be west side of Macon. No where, and of nothing special.

But that’s the upside down kingdom, The King saves the rebel, and invites them in as son’s and daughters of the King.

And so a bit ago we asked about why does Jesus do miracles? We answered it, for God’s glory.

But also every time, Jesus does a miracle, we see the kingdom. We see what it’s going to be like when the kingdom come.

Jesus is going around preaching the kingdom is at hand, and then shows them what it will be like in the kingdom.

When he heals we see that we won’t have to worry with sickness. When Jesus heals the blind man, our eyes are open to the glory of God.

When jesus turns water into wine, our cups will always be full. When Jesus heals the 5000, we will never hunger again.

When Jesus heals the cripple, we will walk with him, and he will be our God.

When Jesus says Lazarus come out, we know death will be no more because He has power of death.

This is the beauty of the kingdom. This should give us a since of wonder, that no matter what we have Christ. This is our hope, this is what we look forward to.

But we still exist here in this already but not yet. we are still here. The kingdom is here but not yet fully come. But we have glimpse of the kingdom to come.

So what do we do?

The Church, grave clothes.

So Lazarus has been raised, Jesus says “Lazarus, come out!”

And so Lazarus comes out of the grave, stankith he does.

But look at what is says right here, John 11:44

John 11:44 ESV

44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Lazarus didn’t walk out, Lazarus kinda waddle out, his feet were bound, you know the walk you do when you’re out of toilet paper.

That’s Lazarus coming out, bound up, hands and feet.

He coms waddling out.

I know the song says “I came running out of the grave” but he wasn’t running.

He needs Help.

So Jesus says, “Unbind, and let him go.”

Lazarus needs people to come and help him get his grave clothes off.

He needs help getting out of these grave clothes.

So what does this tell us about us, who are here in the already not yet?

How many of us, we’ve been saved, but we are still in our grave clothes?

You waddle on out, but you can’t go anywhere. You might be in, but you are still bound by your grave clothes.

You need help taking them off.

You need you community in your life, you need church family, it needs to be family. you need to have people in your life who can help you take off those grave clothes. Who can help you walk closer with the Lord?

So in our Student group back in gray, we close ever Wednesday night by saying, “You didn’t come to church, you are the church, so go and be thee church.”

Part of being the church means helping your friends also be the church.

The thing about being a christian is that it is not only you who are in christ. We are in Christ with you.

This is how we are the church.

Point other to Christ. Be the Church.

So who do you have to help you out of your grave clothes? What part of your grave clothes are you holding on to. Might have been your favorite shirt. It belongs to the dead, you aren’t dead anymore.

P2Christ

But for some us in here, we are still dead. You stankith. This may be a Christian school but that doesn’t mean you are a a Christian.

It’s easy to hide here. You hear about Jesus, you hear what he’s about, but you are dead.

You only know of Him you don’t know Him.

So think about your life, do you know him or are you dead or are your grave clothes still on?

So this is what I want for you. I know this might be the part where someone tells you to start living right and make changes. Be a good boy.

I’m not gonna tell you to do that.

But this is what I want for you.

This will sound counter intuitive, but I’m not asking you to stop sinning. If you’re a good boy or a good girl in here, but on the weekend, you go and get wild on a Saturday night. I’m not gonna tell you to stop.

What I want for you is to follow Jesus. Take one step in the direction of Jesus. One. Follow Jesus.

because here’s the thing, all you sin, all your stank, you can’t do anything about it.

Lazarus was dead. Not asleep, this man was dead. He was unalive. Dead.

Wasn’t anything he could do.

This is the gospel, this is the hope. This is the good news that the kingdom of God is at hand.

The King is here, and he wants you.

This the gospel.

There is nothing you can do. You can’t make enough rules, have enough will, makes enough promises to get rid of your sin. nothing you can do.

The whole Old Testament is the story of is the story of the Hebrew people not being able to keep rules. Not being able to just white knuckle sin away.

All we can do is follow Jesus. Follow Jesus. Repent and follow, take the step towards him.

Because if you are following Jesus, He’s gonna take those desires, he’s gonna take those wants, that sinfulness about you and he’s gonna start to work it out. He gonna start to make you new. not over night, but over your life if you are following Him.

My plea to you today is that you would examine your life and ask, do you know Him, and are you following Him?

If the answer is no to both of those questions, please come talk to one of your teachers, faculty, Pastor Daniel. Someone. Talk to me if you need to. Talk to some one. Jesus is calling you out of the grave and out of your grave clothes.

Let me pray for you, and we will get get some lunch.

Pray with me.