11222020 John 11.17-27 I AM the Resurrection and the Life
Notes
Transcript
Single Vision
Single Vision
John’s gospel is presented to us on a couple different levels. He talks about physical light and at the same time is referring to spiritual light - physical hearing and spiritual hearing - physical water and spiritual water, so when we get to this 6th “I AM” statement we hear him speaking about physical resurrection from the dead, but also a spiritual resurrection to a newness of life when someone in joined together with Christ by God’s grace alone in Christ alone through faith alone.
Just as some people are right handed and left handed - right brained (creative - intuitive) and left brained (systematic - analytic) - there are people who are right-eyed and some people are left-eyed? John speaks here about having sight that brings into singular focus the general resurrection of the dead when Christ returns, but also the spiritual resurrection of those who are dead in their trespasses and sins and resurrected from the deadness of life to newness of life here and now, today.
Bear with me: Extend your arm in front of you and give me a thumb’s up - Now use your thumb as a site and place your thumb over something 10 or 20 feet away (me in the pulpit) Keeping both eyes open and focused on a distant object, superimpose your thumb on that object.
Now, close your left eye. Leave your right eye open. Now, open your left eye and close your right eye.
The eye that keeps your thumb directly in front of the object while the other eye is closed is your dominant eye.
That’s because each eye sees a different image, and when the brain puts those images together (with both eyes open, we get a feel for how far away things are.
That phenomenon is, as you probably already know, called depth perception. There’s a test that optometrists do, where you look through that contraption they have and at first you see two images and then as the doctor turns the knob the two images merge into one. He’s testing your focal length and bringing what was blurred into true focus.
In John Chapter 11, we are confronted with two realities that sometimes get a little out of focus - on the one side is life & on the other side is death. Most people see these two things as separate (life & death), but as we consider Jesus’ words here - words given to Martha and Mary concerning the death of their brother, Lazarus, we begin to see that the Word of God brings these two things into clear focus - giving us single vision about life & death - bringing the hope of tomorrow into the reality of today so they become one.
Read John 11:17-26
17 So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off; 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.
20 Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house. 21 Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 “Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”
Prayer of Illumination
Delay is not Denial
Delay is not Denial
Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was sick. Evidently his illness was serious. No doubt the sisters believed that when Jesus heard the news of their brother’s illness he would have immediately come to their aid and possibly heal Lazarus.
They were issuing a cry for deliverance.
When a loved one is sick we send out the news in the hope that someone will come to attend to us in our need. The natural reaction when we hear that relatives or dear friends are sick is to rush to their side to see what we can do for them. We would have expected Jesus to come immediately to assist his dear friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
But Jesus does just the opposite. He intentionally waits - putting off his arrival until after the death and burial of Lazarus.
One of the most amazing verses in the Bible is verse 6 which says that when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick he spent 2 days longer in the same place where he was. Imagine that! He deliberately waits for 2 more days before he comes to them. But when he arrived there we know the results of his coming. His delay in answering their request did not mean a denial of that request.
Jesus arrives late but he is still on time. God always has our best interests at heart, but he acts according to his own agenda and timetable, not ours. Jesus has a purpose in waiting to come to Bethany where Mary and Martha are waiting for him.
We’re told in v 4 why he delays - it was so God would be honored (glorified) through it.
4 But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”
Both Mary and Martha say these words:
21 Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.
32 Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
There is something in us all that wants to tell God what He should have done. Mary and Martha looked for Jesus to heal their brother. God does all things according to his will and his eternal purpose. In most cases, we don’t know the specific purposes of God.
In this setting we get to see why Jesus delays his coming, but most of the time in our lives when there is a delay we don’t know the reason for the delay. We get impatient and wonder why God doesn’t do something about our situation, but a delay does not mean denial.
God uses his divine prerogative as to the times and seasons of our lives. He is never late. He is always right on time - moving in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.
The hardest thing we have to do is wait on God - to be still and know that He is God and understand that His delay is not necessarily a denial of our need.
Outward Display of emotion does not mean Inward Despair
Outward Display of emotion does not mean Inward Despair
The shortest verse and maybe one of the most important verses in the Bible is this:
35 Jesus wept.
The word used here δακρύω indicates that Jesus shed tears - not because of physical suffering but because he was “deeply moved in spirit and was troubled” (v. 33). Jesus experienced real sorrow from the depth of his soul. This says to me that Jesus knows and understands what I am going through. He doesn’t stand off to the side detached from our human experience and separated from our emotions and feelings.
He understands and cares deeply...
15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus knows all about our troubles because he experienced our troubles. God will never ask us to go through anything or experience anything that Jesus, our Great High Priest, has not experienced or felt. He has been where we are. He has experienced what we experience. He not only came to save us from our sins, he experienced the pain of separation from God the Father because of our sin.
He suffered as we suffer. He was bruised as we are bruised. He was hurt as we are hurt. He was weary as we are weary. He was forsaken as we are forsaken. He was ridiculed as we are ridiculed.
He wept as we weep.
Seminary training tells us not to get too emotionally involved when we come alongside members of our congregation as they are walking through the valley of the shadow of death. We are told to remain objective and not to drag our own emotional baggage into our congregation’s situations - like a surgeon has to remain objective during a surgical procedure - so a pastor coming alongside one who is grieving for a loved one that has died or is terminally ill must remain objective.
This may be true to a certain extent, but pastors are people too - we do get emotionally involved with those under our care...
But an outward display of emotion does not mean there is inward despair.
Paul says we weep and grieve but not as those who have no hope.
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
Jesus’ display of emotion was not out of a sense of inward despair. His display of grief was not the despair of grief, but of one who “as a man of sorrow was acquainted with grief”
3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
He knew that the one who was dead would rise from the dead
General dread of death....funeral homes soften it…we even use other words for it
Traditional funerals and funeral homes today try to sugar coat the dread of death....
Dread Does Not Mean Defeat
Dread Does Not Mean Defeat
the dread of death does not mean defeat in death
The lesson in the Lazarus story is that death does not have the final word. Jesus does...
When Martha tells Jesus that if he had been there her brother would not have died, Jesus said, “Your brother shall rise again.”
She replied, ”I know he shall rise again in the resurrection of the last day.”
Here is where Jesus speaks one of the great “I AM’s” of the Bible and the book of John.
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Do you hear the importance of what Jesus is saying here?
The dead shall live and the living shall never die.
The dread of death has been defeated.
Jesus is saying here that there is no life outside of him. Death has been defeated. The defeat of death only comes through the victory of Christ on the cross. Only those who believe in Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life, will live tomorrow and can fully live today.
The dread of death does not mean defeat in death but this is only true for those who are in Christ, for those who believe in him by God’s grace through faith.
After Jesus made this I am the resurrection and the life statement, he asks Martha if she believes this.
She answers in a way that indicates that as she looked at life and death they are two separate events - “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day (v. 24) and that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God come into the world (v. 27).
She believes that there is a resurrection from dead, but did she believe that the one standing before her was that resurrection life NOW?
Who Jesus is and what he has come to do are brought into singular focus...
Not Double Vision, but a Singular Focus
Not Double Vision, but a Singular Focus
He says he is the resurrection and the life and now he proceeds to demonstrate it at the tomb of Lazarus. Jesus arrives at the tomb of Lazarus.
It was a cave and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take the stone away.” When Jesus told the folks to take away the stone in front of the tomb, Martha protests saying, “but Lord already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”
The Jews believed that the soul lingered near the body for three days and that death was truly final on the 4th day.
Jesus tells Martha,
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
"So they removed the stone.”
Jesus lifts his eyes to heaven and prays,
41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 “I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.”
You see the Father had already heard the prayer of the Son. Jesus said, “Father I know you have heard me. But for the sake of those standing here, I want you to answer so that these folks will see that I have come from you. I don’t do anything of my own will, Father. I came to do your will and to bring honor to you.”
Then he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”
The call was for Lazarus - specifically.
Lazarus’ resurrection was temporary, but Jesus’ resurrection is permanent. In a sense, Lazarus’ resurrection is a preview - a dress rehearsal of our own resurrections when Jesus returns and calls each of us by name to our own individual resurrection from the grave.
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
But our resurrections will be different. Lazarus was raised to a mortal life which would end again one day. But we shall be raised to a resurrected life which shall endure forever.
We are reminded of what Paul says...
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
Death’s finality is destroyed by the victory of Jesus Christ over death.
When the dead in Christ shall rise we can ask death a rhetorical question.
55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
Do You Believe This?
Do You Believe This?
When you raise your hand and give a thumbs up to the cross of Christ what do you see? do you see two things? - the resurrection from the dead and life today?
Jesus has come to bring those two things into focus as one - so we see them as one when we close the right eye or the left eye we still see one thing - the glory of God in the face of Christ.
6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
For some Christians these two things are two separate things - life today and resurrection tomorrow. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” The promise of the resurrection tomorrow is the hope of life today.
There are situations in all our lives where we need this reality to come into focus with crystal clear vision because...
....We can experience death in so many ways.
Our hopes can die.
Our joys can die.
Our loves can die.
Our peace can die.
We can be overcome by a sense of defeat and despair which can be as deadly as death itself.
Jesus calls us to come out of all those situations that are binding us in grave clothes of defeat.
10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
Maybe you are despondent about all the things we haven’t been able to do because of Covid-19 restrictions....
Maybe the joy of your salvation has been killed through some tragic event in your life...
Maybe your peace has been disturbed by some turbulent personal conflict...
Maybe your love for family members and friends has been fractured and mortally wounded by some incident...
The one who is the Resurrection AND the Life - calls us to life that RESURRECTION LIFE NOW and there is hope, peace, joy, rest....
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
John 11:26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.
26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Do you believe this?”
Do you believe this?”