The Resurrection and the Life Pt 2.

Introduction

A few weeks ago, I was amazed to watch and see how the simple act of sharing a few positive words could have such a huge and positive effect on people. This happened while subbing, and in the morning I had the duty of standing in the hallway at a major intersection and making sure no kids got into any trouble and didn’t linger/loiter around. It was almost the end of duty time, and another teacher came up, an older lady who I had only met in passing but had always thought was very kind and fun to be around.

This teacher made a point to speak to and encourage every student that walked past her. To every girl she said, “Good morning, smile, you are beautiful, have a good friday.” Almost every face lit up as they walked by. To every boy that walked by she said, “Good morning, smile, you are handsome, have a good friday!” Almost every face lit up as they walked by. Into each and every one of those students, she spoke life into their hum drum morning. Not everyone received that life giving encouragement, but many did, and no doubt, when each of those students leave that middle school one day, they will remember her fondly, and oh yeah, I had a talk with her about Jesus, which means she was a Christian, which means her students knew that as well! So, she lived a life that people would look at and go, “Huh, she has something I wish I could have, what’s different about her? Which inevitably have someone ask her why she has so much hope and life, to which, i’m sure she will tell them about the one that is both the resurrection and the life, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Prayer

Father God, we thank You for Who You are. A great Big God who sees each and every one of us here and cares deeply about us. We ask this day, as we are continuing in this time of worship to You, reading Your Word and hearing Your Word, that You refine us with it. Mold us, make us, shape us, rearrange us so that we can be more like You, and made more into the image of Christ. Help us be a people who love You and love others so much that we are moved into action by whatever it is You are going to show us about Yourself today and what that means in our lives. Help us do this, because all too often our selfish and sinless flesh war against our will to follow Yours. As we are doing this, and as we are coming into Your Word today, we ask that You take away any distraction that we may have, and make it go as far away as it possibly can, because we want to see and we want to know You better. I ask these things for your glory and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and precious name that I pray, Amen.

Context

Today we continue and see the last of miracles Jesus performs in The Gospel of John. As you will remember, we said this last week and said it a long time ago, that the Gospel (The Good News) according to John, has 2 large divisions, the first is known as The book of signs (which consists of the first 11 chapters). The second is The Book of Glory, which consists of the rest of this book, where we see Jesus begin His march to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.

In last week’s text, word gets to Jesus that a family He cared about very much was in deep distress. Yes, this was the family of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha who had shown Him and His disciples such warmth and comfort in a time of trial and difficulty. These 3 were siblings, and the sisters sent to Jesus that their brother was very seriously seriously sick, it didn’t look good for Him, so they wanted Him to come to Him as quickly a they could. Now, they wouldn’t know it when they sent word, but Lazarus would die not long after the message was sent.

Jesus cared about this family very much, but also knew The Father’s plan for His glory here. And knew that Lazarus’ death was not final, but would be a part of a miracles that would be used to glorify The Father and to finally stir the Jewish leadership up enough for them to pursue Jesus’ death for intent and vigor than every before; which would ultimately lead to Rome executing Him on a cross, which would be the perfect, sinless, spotless lamb that Jesus is, dying on the cross for everyone who accept His offer of forgiveness.

Make no mistakes, the people that called for Jesus blood came from every shape and size, every level, every high and every low. It just goes to show a truth that remain even till today that Mankind often sinfully prioritizes itself over our loving God. This is a fact, that as believers, followers of Jesus Christ, have to be aware of not only no-beliers, but also and unfortunately in brother and sister Christians, and even ourselves. So, we must all endeavor to get our priorities right. To always put God, to always put Jesus, His, want, His will, His glory above our own. He is both the resurrection and the life, the source of all our hopes and anticipations for the redeemed, so let us all see and treat Him as so and seek to build our relationship with Him all the more every chance we get. So, Today, From the text, I want you to to see and understand these truths that inform you about our relationship with Jesus, who is The Resurrection and The Life.

Message

The first truth to see and understand about your relationship is that: God has deep love for us 28-44

28 Having said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 As soon as Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw that Mary got up quickly and went out. They followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to cry there. 32 As soon as Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and told him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died!” 33 When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, he was deeply moved[c] in his spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you put him?” he asked. “Lord,” they told him, “come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Couldn’t he who opened the blind man’s eyes also have kept this man from dying?” 38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 “Remove the stone,” Jesus said. Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, there is already a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. 42 I know that you always hear me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so that they may believe you sent me.” 43 After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.”

After their brief talk, Martha goes to her sister Mary to tell her that the Teacher is calling for her. Mary heard this and went to Him quickly with the crowd following her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn. She too expresses her deep grief for His untimely arrival. Jesus was deeply troubled at their grief, their is so many levels that He, Jesus, could be troubled, but perhaps none is more deeper than the pain He would feel as their creator who made them to not experience the pain of death (as mankind was the original design of mankind) now experiencing it feeling it deeply, all because of the deceiver Satan’s lies and mankind’s will to heed it and believe that God was holding out on us (which lead to the original sin and the curse of sin which still plagues this planet today).

Jesus asks where Lazarus was laid, was shown and mourns the loss of His friend and beloved creation as well. Everyone who saw this was amazed, seeing how this man loved them. See these true tears he sheds, which were unlike the false tears of hired professional mourners/wailers that would have been around both at this time and in general in the day at any funeral and time of mourning. What would happen after this would have been a dramatic scene, once that was so striking and so absurd. One that struck the fiber of their being to see unfold and rocked their world in every way. To come into contact with a dead body, left you ritualistically unclean, so you would never do that, especially after the body has been dead for so long. The smell would be unbearable. To follow Jesus’ command to move the stone would be something only someone of unshakable faith would do! And, it was done! Jesus then prays out loud for everyone to hear, and makes it clear, that He had already been given this authority, but is acknowledging the Father that others who see may benefit from what is about to happen. Then, in an unthinkable turn, he calls out the dead mans name, and tells Him to come out! Then, to everyone’s shock and amazement, he comes out, bound up, needing to be unbound. One moment Lazarus was dead, the next moment from Jesus’ words, he was very much alive and well.

What’s clear from this dramatic turn of events is Jesus’ is God’s deep love and affection for each and every one of us. I want you to do this. Look at someone near you and say to them, “God loves you….” Now, say out loud to yourself, “God loves me.”.......... The truth is, God has deep deep love and affection for each and every person of the world, born and unborn alike. Old, young, and in between. He loves each and every one of us. And it is not His desire or His will that any of us should be separated from Him. However, through our curse of sin, which we brought upon ourselves,, we choose to separate ourselves from Him. He is a perfect and Holy God who cannot abide with or near the impurity of sin, yet we choose sin time and time again. Despite the great provision, great gifts He gives us, even up to God the Son’s own death on a cross. Mankind often sinfully prioritizes itself over our loving God. Still, despite this, despite who we are and what we do, the good news for us, is that God has a deep deep love for us.

Another truth to see and understand about your relationship is that: Sin leads to death and suffering 45-57

45 Therefore, many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what he did believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and were saying, “What are we going to do since this man is doing many signs? 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49 One of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! 50 You’re not considering that it is to your[d] advantage that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.” 51 He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to unite the scattered children of God. 53 So from that day on they plotted to kill him. 54 Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews but departed from there to the countryside near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and he stayed there with the disciples. 55 Now the Jewish Passover was near, and many went up to Jerusalem from the country to purify themselves before the Passover. 56 They were looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? He won’t come to the festival, will he?” 57 The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it so that they could arrest him.

Seeings this miracle of Lazarus coming back from the dead, many of them there believed in Jesus afterwards. However, as the text is clear, many were angered and troubled by this. So, they went to the Pharisees, who were the sect of Jews who would be viewed more as the conservative of the sects, who prided them to following the law of moses to the strictest t. The Pharisees me and were troubled by Jesus’ miracle and growing following, they then convened with all the other leaders of their religion, stating their self centered and unrighteous concerns about the balance of powers because of Jesus and what Rome would do if His following continues to grow. Then, Caiapahs, who was the Roman appointed High-Priests speaks out in a cunning way that would have been very much his way and custom. As, He had planned on placing many of the current problems on Jesus, positioning Him as scape goat of sorts. So, Rome would be forced to get rid of Him for their own good, and they (the Jewish leaders) would be rid of Jesus who threatened their comfortable lives with power and influence they had built for themselves. Little did the high priest know, that his prophecy would indeed be fulfilled, as Jesus would be the final and lasting sacrifice for mankind, when the deed was and Jesus was offered up high on the cross. From this time on, knowing that His time was near but not quite, Jesus no longer walked openly among the people and crowds, as indeed He was being looked for openly to be arrested without cause. The sin in their hearts, desired Jesus to die, and that’s just what they were after. Here also we see Jesus began changing the focus of His ministry to preparing His disciples for when He would be gone.

Sin has a way of just running everything it comes into contact with. This past summer, Emily and I had the pleasure of taking a scenic mountain train ride together. We were promised beautiful mountain views, scenic lakes, even views of long abandoned mining operations. We were really looking forward to it! But, do you want to know what we saw to our right and our left for for about 80% of that train ride? Kudzu. A fast spreading, landscape devouring, invasive vine that grow up to one foot 1 foot in length every single day. The creeps, it seeps into every nook and cranny, it’s extremely hard to remove, and once it really sets in, it is set, to get rid of it takes extreme action!

Sin is a lot like Kudzu, once it finds a foothold, it will sneak anywhere and everywhere it can, it takes extreme effort and will with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to overcome and it took the blood of Jesus to be forgiven of. Don’t believe me, don’t think it’s all that bad or even one tiny little sin that you are holding onto isn’t that big of deal, here what the apostle Paul wrote in the book of Romans, “For the Wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Know this, Sin leads to death and suffering. And for some reason, even though it is a curse, we continually turn to it for a cure to our ails as if it was going to help us. Why? Because Mankind often sinfully prioritizes itself over our loving God. This includes even the redeemed, so then, those of us who know better, let us do better and look to God who is better and greater than all our sins and ask Him to empower us to overcome them and ask for forgiveness of them, knowing that He will!

Conclusion

So here we end the first part of the gospel of John together and begin The Lord’s march towards the cross. In this final miracle, as large and splendid as it was, we still observed how mankind can and does oft prioritize our own personal wants and desires well above our perfect and Holy and loving God.

To help us all recognize our part in this, to recognize it combat it, let us all remember these truths about our relationship with God, that Jesus brings light to our eyes; revealing right from wrong. That belief in Him gives us resurrection and true and lasting life. Let us all remember that God has a deep love for each and every one of us, let us hold onto that fact and never forget it, especially in the hard times where the allures of sin are so strong on our weak hearts. Also, let us remember and not take lightly that sin leads to death and suffering, indeed sin is the entire reason their is death on suffering in this world, so let us all endeavor to sin no more and love God more than any of the allures of the world, loving Him above else, so much that His True Word, His true Gospel must be shared from each and every one of our lips.

With all of that being said, I would be remiss if I didn’t share the Gospel (or the Good News) of Jesus Christ with you today, for the benefit of both believer and non-believer in the room. This begins all the way back at the beginning, God created everything, and he created all things good. He gave His most treasured creation (us, mankind) the ability of free will, the ability to choose Him or rebellion. Man was deceived by Satan and desired to be like God and sinned (or rebelled against God). This brought the curse of sin and death into the world and it remains with us to this day; which separates us from God. God, though, loved His creation (mankind) so much that He worked through history to redeem all mankind that would turn to Him from sin so that we can experience a full and perfect relationship with Him again. This was through the perfect and final sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the pay for sins. Accepting this free gift from God, makes you new and forgiven. All you have to do is accept this free gift by repenting and believing in the Lord Jesus and you will get to experience the good side of God’s justice forever. So, now that you know this, you can no longer plead ignorance. I invite and urge you to respond today non-believer and apply this to every part of your life believers in the audience today.

Father God, we thank You for Who You are. A great Big God who sees each and every one of us here and cares deeply about us. We ask this day, as we are continuing in this time of worship to You, reading Your Word and hearing Your Word, that You refine us with it. Mold us, make us, shape us, rearrange us so that we can be more like You, and made more into the image of Christ. Help us be a people who love You and love others so much that we are moved into action by whatever it is You are going to show us about Yourself today and what that means in our lives. Help us do this, because all too often our selfish and sinless flesh war against our will to follow Yours. As we are doing this, and as we are coming into Your Word today, we ask that You take away any distraction that we may have, and make it go as far away as it possibly can, because we want to see and we want to know You better. It’s in these things that I ask and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and precious name that I pray, Amen