Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning, Ambassadors!

I’m grateful to be with you again this Sunday, opening with you the gospel of John.

As we continue our series “Encountering Jesus in the Gospel of John,” we are moving through the narrative story of Jesus through not only the perspective of John, but also through the lens of the signs he performed and the people He met.

Today’s text, chapter 11, is quite possibly the most dramatic and glorious sign Jesus performed while in His ministry.

My hope for us today is that we can make observations about this event and then apply those observations to our own walk with God.

Before we get into the text, I’d like to explore with you the idea of our emotions.

Is there a film, a photo, an item, a person, or even a memory that elicits strong emotions from you?

It could be positively or negatively, of course, but I’m sure that there are many things that come to mind.

For example, my weak spot is soldiers returning home to surprise their kids, or maybe it’s a big brother or sister coming home, or something of that nature.

I can’t watch those videos any more; I have to just keep swiping out of it because I know that I’ll start crying!

Not crying because of the hurt, but because of the healing.

Perhaps you have an item of clothing that brings back a memory, or you see a picture from years ago and remember how God has been faithful through it, and it brings you to tears.

In any case, we all experience a wide range of emotions, for better or worse.

One of the most comforting observations about our text today is that we can see that Jesus is Someone that has experienced that wide range of emotions and has felt the same pains and heartaches we have (except for the self-inflicted pains caused by sin- but he bore those for us on the cross as well).

Knowing that our Lord Jesus is an empathetic Savior, let’s read together the text.

We will not read it all at once, but break it into 4 sections.

May God honor the reading of His Word.

As I mentioned before, we’ll be breaking up this narrative into 4 sections, and in each section we will look at an observation and an application from that part of the story.

My hope is that we together this morning will be blessed by seeing the whole picture of what was happening here.

As we have just read through the first 16 verses, we see:

Observation: Jesus was crucially involved in deep relationships.

This passage is one of the best ways to show us the doctrine of what we call the Hypostatic Union.

Jesus is fully God and fully man.

His Deity and humanity are perfectly united, never shifting, and never in flux.

God is a triune God of relationship.

The Godhead beautifully and eternally exists in a state of three in one, and Jesus is a glimpse for us into that Godhead relationship.

But while on earth, Jesus re-constituted that characteristic in his humanity by exhibiting for us the very relationships that you and I would get to experience.

Jesus was intimately involved as we know with Peter, James, and John (often described as the inner circle of His Disciples).

Here we see how this other family (Lazarus, Mary, and Martha) also enjoyed close personal friendship with Christ.

There was a depth to there relationship.

Think of the closest family friend to your family.

I think for me growing up, my parents were very close to my dad’s best friend and his wife, so much so that we called them Uncle Wes and Aunt Melina.

For my wife and I it is our dear friends Katie and Jordan, who live in Roanoke.

Their presence at any serious moment of our lives would feel entirely appropriate, important, and welcome - just as Jesus was here.

Application: God made us for relationship rooted in the Gospel

Their relationship was deep, but not without an end or a foundation.

Martha reveals more about what their friendship is based in by fully placing her trust in Christ and running to Him in the next section.

Observation: God is unbothered by our circumstances, but not unsympathetic.

This is the beauty of the Sovereignty of God.

We see Jesus’ attitude in the beginning portrayed as “laissez-faire” or almost apathetic.

But we know it to be true that Jesus is not apathetic or unsympathetic to our lives.

On the contrary, Jesus comes alongside this family, mourns with them and for them, while knowing all along that He had the key to it all in the first place.

Application: Draw near to Jesus and be open to His plan for your life.

In another story about Mary and Martha, we read it and think about how to be like Mary, but here we see it’s good to be like Martha!

She does not hesitate to confess all that she knows about Jesus and trust Him for His goodness, even though she doesn’t fully know what that means in the current situation.

Observation: Jesus wept for more than Lazarus; He was there when death entered the world.

Jesus was clearly moved and distraught by the loss of His friend.

But knowing what we know about Jesus and about Jesus’ Deity, I can’t help but see how Jesus wept not only for Lazarus but for the sin that put Lazarus in the grave.

Jesus was there when Adam ate of the fruit.

God the Son was present when, before the foundation of the world, He committed to come and die for us so that we might be free.

Application: Know that there is a Savior who has not only wept over your sin, but paid for it.

Just as Jesus wept over Lazarus’ death, He has done so for our sin.

And just as He wept in spite of being sovereign, He remains good and gracious to us, ready to receive us into newness of life.

Observation: Lazarus’ resurrection was a foreshadow of the resurrection to come

This has been called the “Ultimate Sign.”

John’s Gospel is full of signs that Jesus performed that always pointed to God the Father, but also to the work He was sent to do on earth.

Lazarus is the third person Jesus raised in His ministry, and this the most public and improbable.

Lazarus has been dead for four days, and Jesus calls him out of his death.

Jesus similarly calls to sinners, telling them to get up and live!

We ourselves were once dead in our trespasses and sins, yet Christ has, through his own resurrection on the third day, brought us to life - as long as we accept Him.

Application: Accept Christ and be raised to walk in newness of life

Newness of life:

Salvation

Baptism

Spiritual Discipline

Discipleship

Obedience to God’s Word and involvement in God’s Work (Church)