Death Confronted

A Confrontation with Death.

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2022

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Scripture Reading together as a church.

Chainsmokers - Kanye

… I have never wished on hope Didn't need a telescope To see where I am going I have never been the one Trying hard to hold my tongue Is my stereo on

… One day I'll stand with a crown on my head Like a God yeah, like a God With every step, no, I won't second guess what I want

… I wanna be like Kanye I'll be the King of me always Do what I want, I'll have it my way All day, like Kanye-eah, yeah, yeah Like Kanye, Kanye, yeah-ah, yeah-ah I'll be the king of me

John 11:32–38 ESV

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. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.

There’s so much happening in Chapter 11 that I would encourage everyone to grab a commentary and spend some time at home digging into this one.

Raising Lazerus to life is Jesus’ final miracle recorded in John.

Remember, John’s purpose in writing:

John 20:31 ESV

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.

When you think of Jesus, what comes to mind?

perhaps you think of his diety

perhaps you think of his sacrifice

Maybe the found of a religion

A meek and gentle man

Jesus was fully God and fully man.

Philippians 2:6–7 ESV

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

It’s the mystery of the incarnation…

Jesus, as a man, was a person of complex emotions. When studying this miracle I was personally impacted by the emotion of Jesus and what does it mean for us?

Let me set the stage for you:

Let’s go all the way back… way back into Genesis.

When God created, it was good, perfect, without sin and the affects of sin.

God gave the representative of Humanity, Adam, authority over his creation.

Genesis 1:28 ESV

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Now, God left a tree that represented “life and death.” This tree was not Man’s to consume and doing so came with consequence.

“You will surley die.”

Genesis 2:17 ESV

but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

There it is: we are confronted with Man’s oldest enemy… DEATH.

We’re bombarded with information about how to lose weight, make more money or prepare for a potential disaster, but facing the reality of death is a subject most of us tend to avoid.

Ecc. 7:2 “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.”

So, for fun… let’s reflect on death together... What is the biblical perspective of Death?

• The separation of the spirit and soul from the present physical body

James 2:26 “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”

• Inevitable for everyone

Psalm 89:48 “What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah”

• The doorway to your eternal destiny

Hebrews 9:27 “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,”

• Determined by God

Psalm 139:16 “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”

• The result of sin … violating God’s will

Romans 5:12-13 “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.”

Death is not a natural extension of life, though many psychologists and thanatologists argue that point today. Death is an enemy, created as a result of sin, and ultimately to be destroyed by God.

What does any of this have to do with John 11?

I want you to take notice of something. v.33 & v.38 reveal Jesus’ emotional response to death.

Some translations say that Jesus was:

Deeply Moved

Groaning in spirit

I like the way the Amplified Bible puts it:

deeply moved in spirit, to the point of anger at the sorrow caused by death

In that moment John is capturing something beautiful:

Remember in John 1, John built the case the Jesus is God, who is active in creation?

I think it was the second person of the trinity (Jesus) who communed with Adam in the Garden.

Gen 3:8-9 “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?””

Perhaps in this moment, Jesus was thinking about the unbroken relationship he had once enjoyed with man.

He looked around at the pain and sorrow of the people… Their hopelessness in death.

He was moved to tears.

John 11:35 “Jesus wept.”

This miracle is the forshadow of why Jesus came to earth.

Jesus wasn’t weaping of Lazerus death. He knew the miracle that was coming.

Jesus was weaping over the devestation of sin… We too have permission to greive over loss and the devestation of Sin in our world.

Continued: What is the biblical perspective of Death?

• The last enemy to be destroyed

1 Cor 15:26 “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

• The price Jesus paid to provide eternal life to all who place their confidence in Him

Romans 4:25 “who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

• To be regarded positively by Christians

1 Cor 15:54 “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.””

Personal Story: (lil’s death)

One of the most difficult things I deal with as a Pastor is providing comfort in times of loss. In part becasue our culture doesn’t do what we are doing right now…

There was an elderly woman in my congregation who knew she was nearing the end of her journey on this side of Heaven. She had been asking to see me and knowing her condition I made it a priorty to come talk.

I remember sitting alone with her as she laid in hospital bed reflecting on her life and all the experiences she’d had. She lived a colorful life! She’d been a model, was in the military… as an MP! She was a tough cookie.

I’ve learned that when people call a pastor out, they typically aren’t looking to reminisce, but can find it difficult to get to the real reason they want to talk. Sometimes I have to help them along a little…

So, I asked her, “Tell me about your faith in Christ, I want to hear your story.” This is what she really wanted to talk about. Did God love her, was she going to be in Heaven, how can she be sure about her salvation.

We went through the Scriptures together that day, and I’m convinced I’ll see her again.

The irony of John 11… Jesus does a miracle that brings someone back to life, while setting the stage for his death.

John 11:49-53 “But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.”

So much of the Christian life is focused on the Cross. But that’s not where the story ends friends!

1 Cor 15:3-5 “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”

Jesus is alive… defeating death.

We spend so much of this life focused on today and we’re filled with anxiety regarding the unknown, and the things we may lose.

But the hope of the Believer is in Jesus who is:

John 11:25 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,”

There’s a natural and healthy spirital longing to be free from the presence of Sin.

Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”