What is Life?

John 11:1–44 NLT

A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days. Finally, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.” But his disciples objected. “Rabbi,” they said, “only a few days ago the people in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again?” Jesus replied, “There are twelve hours of daylight every day. During the day people can walk safely. They can see because they have the light of this world. But at night there is danger of stumbling because they have no light.” Then he said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.” The disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!” They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. And for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there, for now you will really believe. Come, let’s go see him.” Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.” When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” Then she returned to Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, “The Teacher is here and wants to see you.” So Mary immediately went to him. Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him. When the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there. When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.” Then Jesus wept. The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?” Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.” Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?” So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”

47-We are searching for the Fountain of Life.

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality through not dying." -Woody Allen-

We have heard of Ponce De Leon's fountain of youth search. https://www.history.com/news/the-myth-of-ponce-de-leon-and-the-fountain-of-youth

Almost Everyone in this Story is trying to prevent Death.

- The Disciple’s Jesus’ Death and theirs as well. - Thomas’ response - “Sarcasm maybe?”

- Mary and Martha - Their brother’s death.

We try to prevent aging, and we try to prevent death. Why? because we want life. - It is not that life is easy or that we don’t have things we might complain about. But as often many people tell me. “It’s better than the alternative.”

We desire so much life, that we strive to have “A Life,” to “Be Alive.” to Cope with life, to “Experience Life,” to “Build a Life.”

Here at our Church we pray for people’s lives, for healing from sicknesses, and diseases, we pray for emotional and spiritual strength.

We don’t always get what we want. -

Jesus’ Delay - 4 days Lazarus is in the tomb. It is a day’s walk from Jericho to Bethany.

Day 1 the messengers were sent.

Day 2 Jesus hears the messengers message.

Day 3 Jesus decides to go to Bethany

Day 4 Jesus arrives in Bethany - Lazarus died before the messengers got to Jesus.

A time when a prayer for healing is not answered. Or when it was delayed in some way. Why Lord?

In this story we get the Answer...

48-Jesus is Life.

-Everything the people are about to experience in relation to Lazarus’s illness is “for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified” (v. 4).

-“These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

Like many of us when a loved one dies - Martha, grieving, assumes that if Jesus had been there, Lazarus would have survived, but she is resigned to the hope of a future resurrection for her brother (vv. 18–24).

“Most Jews of the day believed in an eventual resurrection—that is, that God would look after the soul after death until, at the last day, God would give his people new bodies when he judged and remade the whole world” (N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope [New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008], 37, epub).

Jesus then makes this statement: “I am the resurrection and the life” (v. 25).

What does this mean? that He is the resurrection and the life?

Controversy over the statement in Season 3 of the Chosen. “I am the Law of Moses.” Dallas Jenkin’s reason - He is in essence saying. “I am the Authority, the source.” The Law would not exist without the law-giver. He is the ultimate authority.

- Jesus is saying here that he is the ultimate authority on the resurrection and the life. No resurrection happens without his approval, no life happens except he be the source. - And then he proves it by raising Lazarus.

- Suggestion - This takes us back to the tree of life. - The Source of life.

- The opposite the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - brought sin and death into the world.

1. We see Jesus become emotionally moved two times in this passage (vv. 33, 38). The word for “deeply moved,” embrimaomai, is rooted in brimaomai, “to snort with anger.” Knowing that Lazarus would get a second chance at life that the grief Jesus is experiencing is less about this singular loss of life and more about the pain and harm that sin and death create in this world for all.

Jesus is angry at the injustice of death, and is eradicating it in his death and resurrection. - Jesus is the fountain of Youth of Life, He is the Tree of Life. Meaning he is the authority, the source of all life, and he wants you to have life.

- Eating from the Tree of Life - The Energy when I started eating healthy food, especially the fruit. - in place of the processed sugar.

Jesus is the real life.

How do we receive Jesus’ life?

49-We can eat from the Tree of Life.

1. Do you think Lazarus lived differently after his experience? “It is one thing to know about the resurrection, and it is another thing, as Paul says, ‘to know the power of his resurrection’ (Philippians 3:10), to know it personally and experientially” (Tim Keller, Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter [New York: Viking, 2021], xxi).

Resurrection life has its source in Jesus and so it is available now, not just after you die and lie in the grave.

If Jesus was raised from the dead, it changes everything: how we conduct relationships, our attitudes toward wealth and power, how we work in our vocations, our understanding and practice of sexuality, race relations, and justice” (Keller, Hope in Times of Fear, xxii). How will your actions change in light of that momentous experience?

- Testimony of when I gave my life to Jesus - Belonging, but also how he brought a sense of fulfillment my Freshman year of High School. I keep coming back to him for life.

Eat some fruit. - Something full of processed Sugars vs. a Blood Orange - Counterfeits.

What does it look like to eat from the Tree of Life.

- Trust Jesus. - with your whole life even through death.

- Prayer

- Receiving the Holy Spirit - Empowerment for Life.

- Asking Jesus to fulfill our needs - Desiring God - Find our Pleasure in Jesus, Find our Love in Jesus, Find our Fulfillment in Jesus, Find our Riches in Jesus, Find our Security in Jesus, Find our Protection in Jesus, Find our Empowerment in Jesus, Find our Energy in Jesus, Find our Meaning in Jesus, Find our Respect in Jesus, Find our Life in Jesus. - What are Mary and Martha looking for - Comfort in Jesus and Healing for their brother.

When Dan Richardson, and enthusiastic believer in Christ, lost his battle with Cancer, the following piece was disbributed at his memorial service.

Cancer is limited….

It cannot cripple love,

It cannot corrode faith,

It cannot eat away peace,

It cannot destroy confidence,

It cannot kill a friendship,

It cannot shut out memories,

It cannot silence courage,

It cannot invade the soul,

It cannot reduce eternal life,

It cannot quench the spirit,

It cannot lessen the power of the resurrection.

-Charles R. Swindoll, The Finishing Touch.