Jesus' Sixth Sign Lazarus Raised From the Dead John 11:32-44
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Today we are on our sixth sermon in the series called The Seven Signs of Jesus from the Gospel of John.
As I have mentioned before that John used seven signs very intentionally.
Seven signs were used throughout Scripture to represent perfection or completeness.
The signs John chose by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was to prove that Jesus is the Son of God and the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.
John knew that Jesus was the completion of the law, so the seven signs communicated his knowing that Jesus is the anointed one that Israel has longed to see.
John 20:30–31 (ESV)
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but 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.
Each one of these signs helps establish a deeper faith for believers already in Christ, and helps non-believers to come to know Jesus as the Son of God and Savior of the World.
Each one of these seven signs that John describes signify something greater than just the sign itself as we will again study and unpack in this series.
The first sign of turning water into wine symbolized that at Jesus’ coming a new covenant has begun.
The ceremony pots that Jesus used could only bring temporary cleansing but the water turned into the wine by those ceremony pots showed this new wine would bring an eternal cleansing.
The second sign of healing the Official’s son demonstrated the power in the Word.
At the spoken Word of Jesus the Official’s son recieved his healing.
The third sign of Healing the paralyzed man who had lived 38 years without the ability to walk was to show again,
at the spoken Word of Jesus healing takes place.
The third sign was done on the Sabbath, which showed that Jesus is Lord over the Sabbath and that He places people’s needs in front of rituals and ceremonies.
The fourth sign of feeding the 5,000 men, which could of easily been more than 10,000 plus, demonstrated Jesus’ power to supernaturally provide natural food.
But Jesus highlights that this food is temporary.
Jesus pointed to the fact that He is the “bread of life” and whoever comes to Him will be sustained forever.
Jesus’ fifth sign of healing the man born blind highlighted the fact the Jesus is light.
The man saw nothing but darkness for 38 years until Jesus touches him and he is able for the first time to see the light.
The man born blind was to show the works of God through his situation as his eyes where opened and he see’s the light
Jesus is the light of the world and those who follow Him walk in the light of life.
Now today we will unpack Jesus’ sixth;
Lazarus Raised From the Dead.
32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 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.”
Before we unpack the passage today let us turn to the Lord in prayer...
Jesus’ Compassion (Love)
Go back to verse 5 we see what Jesus thought of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus...
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
Because of that love for His friends we can see Jesus’ heart that is moved with compassion
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept.
38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.
We see throughout Jesus’ ministry how he was moved with compassion to heal the sick and demonized.
Jesus’ ministry was marked by His compassion for those who were hurting and broken.
He did not care about ceremonies and rituals but he deeply cared for the needs of the people.
It was out of His love to serve the people that he was moved to take care of their needs.
See Jesus was not moved by obligation but was moved by His love for others.
1 John 4:8 shows us the character of God is His love
The essence of God is His love
We see God’s love for man throughout Scripture from Genesis through Revelation.
God’s character is that of love which compels Him to action on our behalf.
When Jesus sees those hurting and struggling he is moved with compassion.
Here Jesus sees Mary and Martha in sorrow while they weep, He begins to weep with them.
It is important to remember that Jesus was human and experienced human emotion just like the rest of us.
The humanity of Jesus is sometimes forgotten when we read the Gospels.
15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.
Jesus was 100 percent God and at the same time 100 percent man.
As man he experienced pain and emotion.
Jesus was moved and wept with emotion because His friends were hurting and He could feel their pain.
I believe Jesus was weeping not only because he was moved with emotion because He saw His friends hurting, but also because he is seeing the first hand results of what sin has done to the earth that He created good.
When Lazarus died and people were morning Jesus experiences the results of sin from mans fall.
Sin brought death into the world and Jesus was troubled because He knew that was not what He wanted for the earth He created.
Yet, here Jesus is in the thick of this trouble and pain because of the results of sin.
Lazarus lying dead in a grave because of the fall of man by the action of sin.
What is interesting is that Jesus weeps with those who are broken even though he knows that this is not the end of Lazarus’s story.
2. Jesus’ Glory (The Plan)
11:3-4, 14-15
3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 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.”
Remember the fifth sign when the disciples saw the man born blind, they asked who sinned, him or his parents?
Jesus replied to His disciples by saying that is not that the man sinned or his parents,
but rather that the works of God may be displayed in the man born blind.
Here we see Jesus knew that Lazarus’s illness would ultimately not lead to death but rather to bring glory to Himself. (V4)
Now the disciples thought, well good, Lazarus won’t die and all will be well after Lazarus wakes up from a nap.
Jesus then clarifies the situation to His disciples.
14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
The reality is Jesus had a plan all along.
How many here know that God’s plan is often much different from our plans?
We want to go from mountain top to mountain top but if we were honest with each other it is in the valleys that we learn the most.
We want the finished product but we do not want the process to get there.
God works in the midst of pain and heartache to bring glory to His name.
Jesus allows things to happen, and uses it to accomplish His plan and purposes.
Romans 8:28 (ESV)
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
God does not work in just somethings but rather in all things.
In God working in our situation, are we trusting him to accomplish His plan in the way that He believes best?
See, Jesus could have come to Lazarus when he was sick and healed him then without him facing death,
but that was not what Jesus did.
We see in verse 6 that when Jesus heard the news that Lazarus was sick, He stayed two more days where He was at before he went to go see Lazarus. (V6)
Jesus even said that I am glad that I was not there “so that you may believe” (V15b).
A young pastor was sharing his heart with an older pastor on how he was hurt by some friends and felt betrayed.
After the young pastor sharing for about an hour, the older pastor said that is good that this has happened to you.
The young pastor was angry but the older pastor went on to say this to him...
The older pastor said “because you went through this pain you can now relate to more people who have experienced the very same type of pain. Without this suffering you would never known the pain of betrayal and now your influence will be much greater.”
The pain that Jesus’ friends felt when their friend and brother died could have been avoided,
but Jesus knew the impact of Lazarus’s death and soon resurrection.
3. Jesus’ Power (Word)
John 11:40–44 (ESV)
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 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.”
The power of the spoken Word of Jesus brings what is dead to life.
It has been noted by many commentators that if Jesus would not have mentioned Lazarus by name, the whole cemetery would of come back to life.
The power in Jesus’ Word to come back to life brings a man who was dead 4 days back to life.
Sorrow that crippled those who mourned the death of Lazarus is turned to joy as they see the power of God on display as Jesus calls for Lazarus to come forth.
11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth
and clothed me with gladness,
12 that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!
This is what Jesus does...
He turns our mourning into dancing.
He turns our sadness to joy
He turns our defeat into victory.
This is the God we serve who is the same yesterday, today, and forever! (Amen!)
Jesus took the death of Lazarus, which held the pain of defeat, and turned it into a triumphant victory.
Jesus said that this moment of hopelessness will be turned into hope.
Through this you will see the glory of God and believe.
The power of God displayed through the resurrection of Lazarus was so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.
One cannot but help and see that the sixth sign in John points to the climax of all signs when Jesus takes on the sin of the world, dying a sinners death, and is raised from the dead. (Borchert 362)
The difference between Lazarus’s resurrection and Jesus resurrection is that Lazarus will taste death again whereas Jesus receives his glorified body and will never taste death again.
I want to close with something that must not be missed in the sixth sign of raising Lazarus from the dead.
It is this...
We see the compassion Jesus has for his friends.
We see the plan Jesus has that through this tragedy, Jesus will ultimately be glorified through His resurrection Power.
What must not be missed in this whole event, is Jesus’ prayer life to be in alignment with the Father.
We see the power on display and we see Jesus carrying out the will of the Father to glorify himself but we must not miss what Jesus says in verse 41-42.
Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”
The plan to reveal His power was already discussed with His Father.
Notice it said heard in the past tense.
Jesus knew what he was going to do because he had already discussed with the Father and knew the plan all along.
Knowing the plan did not mean that Jesus did not feel the emotion of the situation as we saw he was deeply moved by emotion when he saw His friends broken and hurting.
But because Jesus knew the plan that Him and His Father already had, He was able to carry out the mission in order that His name will be glorified.
We end this morning with the sixth sign in John.
As John points his reader to the climax of the Gospel when Jesus dies for the sins of the world and resurrection from the dead which concludes the seven signs.