The Resurrection and the Life - John 11:1-44

©Copyright May 2, 2021 by Rev. Bruce Goettsche

Funerals are always hard. It is a time filled with deep emotion. It requires a “Good-Bye” we don’t want to express. When you visit a family in a time of grief it is always hard to know what to say. Frankly, everything seems cold and empty. Some people mouth various platitudes such as: “You know they are in a better place” or the questionable, “Now there is one more person to play cards in Heaven.” And of course, there is the theologically off base, “Heaven needed another angel.” (People do not become angels . . . we remain people).

It has been said in a time of grief you learn who your friends are. You are surprised that some people you thought were close stay away and by other people who draw close.

This morning we will look at a funeral that was unforgettable to anyone who was in attendance. The man who died was a man named Lazarus. We don’t know much about him other than he was a friend of Jesus, he lived in Bethany (which is like a suburb of Jerusalem), and he had two sisters, Mary and Martha. The family is mentioned in all four gospels and seem to be close to Jesus. Mary and Martha are mentioned several times.

We are going to look at this account and draw some principles we can glean that will help us in our lives and as we face our own mortality.

A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. 2 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. 3 So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.”

4 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.” 5 So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, 6 he stayed where he was for the next two days. 7 Finally, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”

The Glory of God is ALWAYS the greatest good. (4)

Put yourself in the shoes of Mary and Martha. They had seen Jesus heal people before. They knew of his power. They believed Him to be their friend. They knew of his affection for Lazarus. They didn’t ask Jesus to heal Him, but the expectation certainly was that He would do so.

Jesus deliberately delayed. I suspect on one level he wanted to heal his friend. Yet, he waited until Lazarus died before he even moved toward Bethany. His reasoning was this: “It happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” And this is the principle that we must hold on to in life: The Glory of God is Always the Greatest Good.

This is a hard concept to grasp. We have grown up believing God is there to meet our needs. That is bad theology. We exist to bring glory to the Lord! In other words, WE are not the center of the universe! Our comfort, our health, our happiness is not the highest priority in life! God being glorified is the greatest good there is.

Practically this means there will be things in life that happen that don’t make sense to us. There will be times when we feel God has forgotten or abandoned us. These times are opportunities for us to glorify Him. When a Christian remains strong in a time of crisis, God is glorified. When a believer faces death with a sense of victory, God is glorified. When we learn deep lessons in hard times, God is glorified. When miracles happen in the midst of tragedy, God is glorified. If we draw closer to Him in the hard times . . . God is glorified. The circumstances of life are designed for us (and others) to see Him more clearly. If we understand who He is and who we are in relation to Him, we should be honored to serve as an avenue for God’s glory to shine . . . no matter how hard it is for us at the time.

This runs counter to everything around us. We live in a world where people think the world revolves around them and owes them something. They believe if God doesn’t cater to their desires, they should simply walk away (thus punishing Him by the loss of our favor?). They serve a God of their imagination. The idea of God being the central focus of creation is something they find difficult to grasp. They believe they ae the stars of the show.

Our Task is to serve in whatever way we can while we can

8 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?”

9 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. 10 But at night there is danger of stumbling because they have no light.”

The disciples were concerned about Jesus. They last time they were in Jerusalem the leaders made it clear they wanted to kill Jesus. Going back this close to Jerusalem, seemed like it was asking for trouble. And, if Jesus was going back to perform a miracle, they would become targets for sure.

I believe Jesus is saying, “We only have so much time. We can shrink back in fear or we can get the job done.” Our job is to serve the Lord while we walk in the light. Jesus was focused on the task at hand rather than the risks involved in doing what God wants us to do. If we do what God wants us to do, we are always in the right place to bring Him glory and to testify to our loving Lord.

Suppose you are in the middle of a project and someone comes by who wants/needs to talk. The tendency is to brush them off because you are busy. But how do we know that person was not brought to us by God in that very moment to use us to change their lives. The thing we notice about Jesus is His great awareness of people and the opportunities to impact the lives of those people. He made time for children, the lepers, and those with great physical problems. He even made time for religious experts who wanted to talk! Jesus was focused. There is a truth here for us: we don’t control how long we live but we do control the quality and impact of the life we live.

Once again this requires a humility that allows the Lord to control our schedule. Every day, as we meet with him, we should ask: Lord, help me to adjust my schedule today to do what you have called me to do.

This is not the same as saying: “Lord, I am going to let other people control my schedule today.” Other people are happy to do that. Satan will keep you so busy you don’t have time to think about the whispers from God. What we should be saying is: “Lord, I want to let YOU control my priorities and my schedule today. Help me to be open to divine interruptions.”

Things are not always what they appear to be

To Martha and Mary it may have seemed Jesus did not care. They may have believed (as we probably would) that if Jesus really cared He would have come immediately to bring healing to Lazarus.

Jesus handled this situation like he did all the others: with wisdom and compassion. Even as He talks with Martha, she seems to misunderstand what He is saying, even though she has a good understanding of the idea of life beyond the grave. Martha thinks He is speaking about Heaven but Jesus is telling her what is going to happen in just a matter of minutes.

17 When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. 18 Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, 19 and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. 20 When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”

25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

27 “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.”

Martha is working hard to give Jesus the benefit of a doubt. I would love to have heard the tone of her words. Was she cold and accusing Jesus, or was she stating a fact that Lazarus would not be dead if the Lord had been there? Martha was looking at the facts. It was too late for the Lord to help Lazarus, but she was glad He was there, nonetheless.

Martha says, “Even now I know that God will give you what you ask.” We would like to think that Martha was still hopeful for a miracle, but the conversation that follows seems to indicate she believes that ship has passed. Jews believed the soul left the body three days after death (which is why Jesus waited as long as He did. . . to show it was a miracle rather than just a “near death experience”). So, it seems like Martha is still trying to be very faithful even though she is disappointed Lazarus was not saved.

Jesus tells her what he is going to do. “Your brother will rise again.” She heard this the way we would hear it if someone said it to us at a funeral home. We would assume the person was talking about Heaven or the second coming of Jesus. Those promises are wonderfully comforting and true but . . . it was not what Jesus was talking about here.

Jesus clarifies saying, “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.” We have the advantage of knowing what Jesus is about to do. However, if this was said to you at a funeral you would nod your head in agreement. When Jesus asked if Martha believed she said, “I’ve always believed in you.”

Martha needed to learn what we all need to learn: things are not always what they seem to be. We may feel,

· A divorce means we will never be happy again

· A business bankruptcy means we will never be successful

· Losing a leg means you will never walk again

· Financial struggles mean you are a loser

· Being bullied means you are weak

· Feeling desperately alone means no one cares

· Not having a job means you are useless

You can go on and on with this list. What seems to be the truth to us is discounting the wildcard: Jesus. When the Lord is in our life, He makes all things new. He brings beauty from ashes. God is full of surprises. The CHOSEN TV series was a series of things that looked bad (a movie flop, chapter 11 for the host company, Lawsuits) . . .all used by God to bring about His purpose. All this Covid stuff has led us to livestream and this has resulted in ministry to people we would have never met otherwise. Things are not always what they seem.

Death and Grief were not part of God’s original plan

Listen carefully to these verses,

33 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. 34 “Where have you put him?” he asked them.

They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Then Jesus wept. 36 The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” 37 But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”

38 Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance.

We are touched by the compassion of Jesus in verse 35 but did you hear what came before and after this? In verse 33 Jesus saw people grieving with Mary. We are told Jesus had a deep anger that welled up within Him. We are told he was deeply troubled. He was still angry in verse 38 when He got to the tomb. Was He angry because the people were grieving or because they didn’t believe Him? Was He angry because he felt the grief of the crowd was contrived and superficial? Maybe, but I don’t think so.

I think Jesus was angry because death, pain, and grief, are all perversions of the world God designed. Jesus, I believe Jesus was angry at the consequence of sin. He knew He was about to bring Lazarus back from the dead but still He grieved over the unnecessary suffering that is the consequence of sin. One could say Jesus was angry enough that He was going to do something about it – give His life as payment for sin which would deliver us finally from eternal separation from God.

Knowing this doesn’t mean we don’t grieve when someone we love dies. Like Jesus, we might even be angry at cancer, Alzheimer’s and other debilitating illnesses. We hate what they do and are angry at the havoc they raise. This is not wrong. Paul says, it means we do not grieve like the rest of men WHO HAVE NO HOPE. We know Jesus has given His life so we might live even though we die. He Himself conquered the grave which shows He can deliver on His promise.

Death for the Believer is not defeat but is the doorway to greatest victory; It is not the end of life, it is by contrast, the beginning.

We love to quote John 11 at funerals.

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. (25-26)

These words are never more cherished than when we are standing at a cemetery. It is a place that feels forsaken, final, and empty. The form of someone we loved is lowered into a grave and it all feels so wrong, so final, so meaningless.

This of course is why we make a big deal out of the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus had not risen from the dead His words about life beyond the grave could be dismissed as mere wishful thinking; a coping mechanism. But because of the resurrection, we believe the promise of Jesus that those who live in Him and believe in Him will live even though they die.

This is not merely intellectual belief. In other words, it is not just knowing facts or even believing they are true. It is believing so fully that your life is altered because of Him. If you truly “believe in” Christ in the way Jesus is talking about belief, that belief will impact far more than just your Sunday mornings. It will change your perspective on life, your foundation of truth, and the decisions you make. Your love for the Lord will impassion your lives. Honoring Him will become your first priority. The Glory of God will increasingly become your goal in life.

In the book of Hebrews we read this question: “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3) In the last sermon R.C. Sproul preached to his congregation, which was on this passage, he said to his congregation what I pass on to you.

How do you know if you are (a Christian)? Can you sing the words of this song? “O God, you are my God, and I long for you. My whole being desires you.” How can you be a Christian and neglect so great a salvation? Is the salvation not enough? Maybe you think it’s all right: It’s good, but really not great. Do you neglect it? I can’t answer that question. If you neglect it and treat it lightly, it probably means that you’ve never been converted, that God has never quickened or awakened your soul from spiritual death. This salvation is incredible. It deserves our diligence, our energetic pursuit of it. Certainly it does not deserve neglect. (R.C. Sproul A Life by Stephen J. Nichols p. 322)

The Bible message is clear: 1) God is Holy. He does not compromise or overlook evil. 2) We are sinful. We have rebelled constantly against our Holy God. We have ignored His commands and gone our own way. We stand guilty before our Holy God. 3) Because of this, we need some kind of substitute. The Bible tells us only Jesus can save us because He alone can provide the payment needed to pay for our rebellion against God. If we receive this gift He offers. He becomes our substitute and His life of living rightly before God is given to us is applied to our account. If you understand and embrace this, the Holy Spirit will live in you. And he will begin to transform you from the inside out. You will hunger for Him, grow in love for Him and increasingly and willingly devote yourself to Him.

Of course, What happens next in the story is incredible. Jesus commanded the stone be moved from the grave. Martha was concerned the body had begun to decay and would really stink. Jesus thanked God in advance for answering His prayer and then called for Lazarus to come out. And, still wrapped up . . . perhaps mummy-like, Lazarus shuffles out. (This is when I would love to hear and see the crowd reaction.) Jesus told them to unbind Lazarus. I can’t even begin to imagine the pandemonium that took place next.

Wouldn’t you have loved to sit down and visit with Lazarus? Did he remember anything from his stint with death? Was He at all reluctant to come back from the dead? So many questions.

But here is the point: coming out of the tomb like Lazarus would be incredible. But how much greater to step into eternity and be embraced by the Lord who gave His life for us! That is the confidence that belongs to everyone who lives and believes in Jesus; to each one who is forgiven and made new by a grace we could never ever deserve.