Sermon Tone Analysis

Lent 5

March 13, 2005

John 11: 1-53

“Life Does Not End in Death”

after Rev. P. Andreasen

During the season of Lent we have witnessed the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, the Samaritan woman at the well, the healing of a man born blind, and the Savior’s prediction of his death and encouragement for his disciples to live as humble servants.

All of these accounts point to our Savior’s power over sin, Satan, and the sickness of this world.

Today’s Gospel carries this power over the final enemy of death and points to our Savior’s own glory in the cross and the empty tomb.

This Gospel gives us hope as we too face death.

And this Gospel empowers us in our Christian lives.

A new music teacher in a middle school organized a band.

The school administration said there should be a concert, so the teacher set off to get the children prepared.

The kids loved their instruments and even thought the teacher was a good band instructor.

They tried to love the music that had been chosen for them.

As the day of the concert approached, however, the music teacher was not certain that the band was ready.

She wasn’t even convinced they could ever be ready, and so she told the students that if they didn’t feel certain of their parts, they should just pretend to play.

When the band took the stage and the director walked to the center, she smiled at her students and nervously raised her baton.

When she brought it down with her first initial sweep of the downbeat to begin their first song, nothing happened.

No one in the band played even a note.

Sometimes the church is like that.

We love our churches, we love our Lord Jesus Christ, and we even try to love the things Christ has for us to accomplish in the church.

But when it comes to being absolutely sure about certain things, we aren’t always there on the downbeat.

But God has mercy on poor sinners like us.

In the Sacrament of Holy Baptism he washes away our sins.

He fills us with the Holy Spirit, who empowers us to praise the Lord with a loud voice.

We have faith in Jesus’ words “I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (Jn 11:25–26).

Our Christian lives don’t always reflect this faith that we have been given/.

/Several years ago, after the Los Angeles riots, a radio broadcast included an interview with one of the riot’s many looters.

This man had been one of hundreds of people who had looted area businesses.

It was interesting, however, what the man had stolen.

He admitted to having taken Gospel tapes.

He did so, he said, because he loved Jesus.

There are so many people who claim to love Jesus.

Throughout the world there are millions of people who would attest to their love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

That should suggest their knowledge of our Savior’s power in their lives, but that is not necessarily true.

Mary and Martha loved Jesus.

They demonstrated that fact again and again.

But their love for Jesus did not necessarily mean they comprehended Christ’s complete power for them or for their brother Lazarus.

Jesus is the very power of life and light as we read in the first chapter of John’s Gospel.

He has given us that great power of life also.

As he taught in the text for today, life does not end in death.

Believers in Christ will not die.

There is a physical death.

Lazarus experienced this death.

Sickness, a result of sin, sometimes leads to physical death.

Sometimes we die as victims in this fallen world.

Physical death exists all around us (refer to a local newspaper obituary column).

Physical death is inescapable unless Christ’s return comes first.

Death is a basic human problem.

It belongs to us because of sin.

The wages of sin is death.

As far as we know, human beings are the only creatures on earth who know they will die.

Because of this, we are concerned about death.

We are conscious that death stands at the end of our lives, and this affects us.

Someone once said that death “plays back into our lives.”

It affects us here and now.

Physical death affects those still living.

The death of Lazarus affected Martha, Mary, and their community.

“31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

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."

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.

The sorrow surrounding death affected Jesus.

Death of loved ones affects us with sorrow and loss.

Death would become a reality for Jesus.

His return to Bethany would result in his arrest and crucifixion.

Even his disciples had some awareness of this reality.

“8 The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?" “16 So Thomas, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

The religious leaders plotted his death.

It would happen as Jesus prophesied about His own death.

But it would happen at the time appointed by God and not by human appointment.

Christ’s death was a real necessity.

God’s anger over the sins of all mankind had to be appeased by the sacrificial death of Jesus.

All our wrongs of thoughts, words, and deeds could only be forgiven through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The effects surrounding the death of Lazarus were but a small picture of the effects of sin that Jesus would carry to his own death.

Our sin saddens God.

Our sin demands atonement.

Our sin necessitated Christ’s death and His death on the cross for the sins of all people.

Isaiah reminds us that “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; and by his wounds we are healed” (53:5).

The healing includes far more than forgiveness alone.

It also includes resurrected life to celebrate here in time and hereafter in eternity.

Christ claimed to be the resurrection and the life.

He provided the proof of this claim in raising Lazarus from the dead.

The name Lazarus means “God is my help.”

God indeed helped him through His Son Jesus Christ.

Four days in the grave were no match for the resurrection and the life Jesus claimed as his own and which he gave to Lazarus.

Three days in the tomb were no match for the resurrection and the life Jesus claimed as his own following his death on the cross.

Any time in the tomb can be no match for the resurrection and the life Jesus claimed as his own and which he has given to us.

As Jesus said, “25 I am the resurrection and the life.

Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

In Him God is our help as He rescues us from sin and death.

All of us here today would probably attest to the fact that we love the Lord Jesus, but our love for Jesus does not necessarily mean that we comprehend Christ’s complete power for us in the resurrected life we live now and forever in eternity.

Jesus is the resurrected life.

He has given us that great gift of faith to believe in him.

He has given us the blessing of resurrected life to celebrate here in time.

“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Rom 6:4).

He has certified our own resurrection to eternal life.

This knowledge affects our lives here and now.

This past week we have been celebrating Lutheran School’s week.

We have had lots of fun, doing crazy things, dressing up, the science fair, and even sharing the love of Jesus through music to the people of Mayville nursing and rehab.