On Account

Why do we do what we do?

In The rhythms of worship on Sunday mornings. Last Sunday we were here celebrating Reformation Sunday. A Sunday in which we remember that the church had been reformed. Why do we do what we do?

In The rhythms of worship on Sunday mornings. Last Sunday. We were here celebrating Reformation Sunday. A Sunday in which we remember that The church had been reformed according to the word of God and continues to be reformed, according to the word of God. And then, most people remember October 31st, actually, for Halloween. How many of you had more trick-or-treaters this year? Right? Sure. Why do we do what we do this? Sunday is reflective of the day that follows October 31, namely November 1st, which is known as All Saints, Day, All Saints Day in the Life of the church is a time to remember that great cloud of witnesses. Those who've gone before us in the faith, those who witnessed. The grace and glory of God. And bear witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so today we are going to celebrate that All Saints Day by reading a passage from the word that reminds us. Or rather helps us to focus once again on. The witness to the resurrection. Namely, we're going to be looking at that passage in John. John chapter 11. That passage that has to do with Jesus, raising Lazarus from the dead. Now, we're going to read a little way in. We're, we're already kind of catching the story as it's moving. Along, the parts we're skipping over or rather that we need to just keep in the background. Is that Jesus has been told that Lazarus was sick, but didn't rush right away to his a but rather stayed back and waited. And now it's come when Lazarus has died. Also, Martha has rushed out to Lazarus sister, Martha, Mary and Martha are Lazarus' sisters Martha is raised out to him and said, Lord, if you been here, he would not have died. And then she goes and tells her sister Mary that Jesus is now here. So let's pray that God would open his word to us. That we might hear what God has to teach us this morning. The Lord may you guide us?

May you guide us through your word.

May you help us. Help us to hear our part in carrying the witness. To the resurrection.

Help us O. Lord through your spirit that we might hear your word and bear your word in Jesus name. Amen.

We're the 11th chapter at the 32nd Verse of the Gospel of John.

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 would 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. Jesus said, take away the stone.

Martha. The sister of the dead man said to him. Lord by this time. There will be an odor for he has been dead for four days.

Jesus said to her. Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?

So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up, his eyes and said, father.

I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around that, they may believe that you sent me.

When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice Lazarus come out.

The man who had died. Came out. His hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them. Unbind him. And let him go. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Honestly. There is so much in this passage that we could rightly have a whole sermon series addressing many of the points. But today, as we reflect on that idea of All Saints Day on the idea of bearing, witness to the Resurrection on the idea that we are surrounded by so great. A cloud of witnesses that we are here because others have shared the Faith with us. We're going to zero in on that point in which we recognize that we too are being called to carry and be witnesses to the resurrection. So in our focus and our zeroing in and then we're going to look at this prayer that Jesus has in the midst of this event. You heard him? You heard what he said? He said, father. I thank you that you heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around. That they may believe that you sent me. On account. Of the people standing around.

We get to listen in. We get to listen into a prayer between Jesus and the father. It's kind of like those old days, right? With the old party line to pick up and get to hear somebody else's conversation. We get to listen in to a prayer. And actually find that that prayer is all being spoken aloud for our benefit so that we might listen in I want you to think about it for a moment. Why we do what we do, where we go, why we do it, how many of us? Go to our grandchildren's sporting events or plays or band performances? How many of us do that? And why do we do that? We do that to be supportive and encouraging.

But we also do that because we want them to remember. That we're part of their lives.

And we're there to witness their events. And what transpires.

Were there to tell about how they were growing and progressing in life.

Jesus is stopping in this moment and saying, look, I'm praying all this. I know that you hear me. I thank you that you hear me. I know that you hear me and I'm saying all this because I want everyone else around to listen in. It's on account of us that he says these things. And he says all this aloud because something needs to change.

Something needs to change in us. Weather it be in our hearts or our thoughts our mind The way we do things, there is a need for a change. And so Jesus is doing this on account of us so that a change may be affected. That something will change within us. He's having us bear witness to the prayer that he himself is having. With the father so that we might actually make a change. He wants to let us listen in and see the difference that is about to take place.

Now, what needs to change?

Actually, that's not really that hard a question. What needs to change is actually rather apparent? It's pretty clear. Jesus is in a very different place than everyone else that is around him. Jesus has a very different perspective. On the nature of death. Actually even more than that, a very different perspective on the whole power and domain of death. That is different from everyone else who's around him. He wants to effect a change in everyone else around him that they can see that the limits and the power of death are not what they believed them to be. There's a Chasm. There is a difference between what Jesus holds and what everyone else holds. Our first clue to this of course, is with Mary. You remember the whole Martha and Mary story, right? Martha is the one who's busy working in the kitchen making preparations when Jesus is visiting. And and she's busy, getting everything already and she's frustrated, that her sister Mary is not helping her. She's in at the Lord's feet listening with the rest of the men. Martha gets so frustrated that she says to Jesus Lord, Tell my sister to come help me. Remember that? The Martha and Mary story. Well, this time, we're encountering Mary and Mary Falls at Jesus feet. When he's arrived. Her brother is dead. And he says, she says to Jesus Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And as I suggested to you or shared with you, before we read the passage that her sister Martha and actually said the very same thing earlier to Jesus. When she first encountered Jesus. Is this time It was Martha who encounters Jesus and, and says the same thing. Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. So, these two sisters who were in different places in a different story. This time, we find they're perfectly aligned. They see everything. The same. They say it the same way. They have the same conviction. I'm sure they've been full of sorrow and grief, the last 4 days. How many times have they wondered? Why did he not come? If he had only been here? Our brother would not have died. Remember Jesus has this prayer and he says it aloud and he says it in the presence of everyone and he says it on account of us that we might hear.

And the reason is because a change needs to be affected in them. And in us, there is a Chasm a difference between what Jesus holds and what everyone else around him Holds. What Everyone else around him holds is what Mary and Martha? Hold Lord. If you had been here, our brother would not have died. In other words. We believe fully in your power to heal and restore to make better and to make whole. We've seen it countless times. We've seen it. You have healed people, you restore the hand, you made the lame man. Walk you made the blind man. See you've made the leprous man. Totally clean.

You've done it all. There's nothing that we have not thrown at you, that you've not been able to manage. In other words, in every way you've made it that the living can truly live.

But like so many things in life. We wonder where the limit is. Turns out I ticked off Siri there just now.

We're told that she's not listening.

But they're always listening. Where's the limit? When is it that Siri is not listening or or Alexa is not listening. Where are the limits? We have limits. We always understand limits and in the Bible, the followers Around Jesus, we're becoming more and convinced more convinced of his power of his ability to change and head to affect wholness, but there's a limit

and that limit comes to the same thing that we deal with as well today. Then we can live life and we can do it in a mini different ways. But we still come up against this thing. We don't even want to talk about. We don't even want to acknowledge. It's called Death.

We try to dress it up and cleanse it in as many ways as we can at the graveside. We put up around artificial turf. We do everything we can to avoid the reality of death.

Even today, we, we pray for healing and in cancer and heart disease, and everything else, and at the same time, there's this part and us that wonder if we have to be fair to God, because we know that death will still happen.

A Jesus is praying this prayer on account of us because he recognizes there's is tremendous divide between what he is and knows and believes and where everyone else is around him.

Which means?

That like, Mary and Martha. We have a challenge before us.

Will We Believe? In the resurrection.

The passage part of this passes that we didn't read of Martha when she first approached Jesus and said, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died. She says that before Mary does that's when we get that part of the passage that we used So often when Jesus says I am the resurrection and life. Anyone who lives and Believes In Me, though. He die, yet shall he live. And basically says to Martha. Do you believe this and she says Oh, yes. Lord, I believe in the Resurrection. The Resurrection to come someday.

And yet, we know that Jesus is held up coming and saving his friend right away because he's got a greater purpose in mind.

He's going to address now that great Chasm, that exists between where God is and where we are, and that feeling that death finally always wins.

After Jesus has come now, in the face of death,

And we need to read this passage differently than even the translators, do it. We read it, that he's greatly troubled. He's deeply distressed. We read that. He wept. How many of us love that verse Jesus, wept. It's the shortest verse in the Bible. It's the easiest one to memorize. If you say Jesus cried I'm going to give you a failing grade.

In this, we see such tremendous compassion that Jesus is right alongside them. Boy. We get it. This was really must have been a friend of his He too is moved and deeply crushed by the death of his friend Lazarus. I don't think that that's not true. Of course it is but he's moved by all of our suffering. No, I think the deeply distressed, the deeply troubled and greatly moved. Honestly.

Has far more to do. With that Chasm between where he is and where we are.

That is deeply troubles. And greatly moved. by the fact that those who've been around him, if seen all he's done that, they still don't get

We are still limited by this thing called sin. We're still broken in such a way that we can't possibly understand the full power of God.

Greatly troubled means that he was distressed.

He was upset. About how differently we were in approaching this than where he was.

Deeply troubled. More of a warning, is deeply. Troubled in the spirit. He's worn. It is a warning within him that this is not right. People are not getting it. They're not grasping who I am and what I can do.

It's all the more moving as to why he needed to come in the first place. Why the father sent him into this world That is so broken. That there's not a chance for us to get or understand and be able to Bear witness to what he is about to do.

And so in the face of all that the stress and frustration and upsetness. He says Where have you laid him?

And they tell him, And then he says, roll away, the stone. Now reality has to come into play. It's no longer. Oh, wow, that's great and wonderful thoughts. Now, we got to deal with the Practical realities of Lord, There's not enough rolling down of the windows that we can do. At this point. The smell is going to be awful, the stench, he's been dead for four days. And in that part of the world, believe me, the decomposition is quick. This is not a pleasant moment that he's about to introduce to them. Roll away, the stone, they say, but if we do that, it's going to be awful.

That's the reality. That's how we Face things. We still say, Lord. I'll follow you. But if we go there, that's not really, we're not really facing reality at this point, Lord. And yet, notice what's happening?

Our Lord is saying if you really want to see a change. You got to be willing to see that stone moved. Think about that. If we go Easter morning and expect the stone still there. What change are we really expecting? We want to see change if we want to see God, really affect Change We need to be willing and ready to see that stone that which Is Dead. We need to be ready to see it move, our Lord took stone, tablets and wrote the law on those stone tablets, but you need to understand that, our Lord didn't leave it there. He's decided he's going to write his law on our hearts. Not on that which is dead. But that which is alive.

Jesus says roll away the stone. Where I am and where you are two different places, and we're going to fix that. We're going to change that. So, they roll away the stone and just cinematically, I don't know about you, but I can see the camera zooming in on, that hole ready to go. And what do we find? Suddenly? Nope. We got to shift our Focus. It's not on that hole What's about to happen there? Now? We got to shift to Jesus.

Who now is going to pray? We are at the climactic moment. The stone has been rolled away. We're expected to see something. I don't know anything, or at least the smell is going to be awful. And instead, we have to focus in on a Prayer.

and Jesus says, father.

So, like I said, we get to listen in and we recognized were listening in Upon Jesus, the son of God and the father we get to listen into that conversation. We get a front row seat. Father.

I thank you. That you hear me.

This is giving. Thanks. Thanking God for listening for hearing. For I know that you always hear me. Always hear me. Our father is listening and hears us.

But I'm going to insert a little caveat there.

when we think of hearing, we, think of hearing, and acting and doing something,

And Jesus is indeed, implying that. There's one time, in which God will hear.

And will not respond.

And that is when Jesus calls out. My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?

We're being moved at this moment. To know that Jesus is listen to and heard by the father, but there will come a time where the father will not listen. So that Jesus' is purpose for coming can be accomplished.

I know that you always hear me. I said this on account of those people around me on account of us. This is being told, this is being remembered, so that we would hear. So that we would remember that What is about to happen that Jesus was in communication, with the father. It was clear. They were on the same page and the people that need to get on the same page is us or our us, somebody will tell me English wise, whether I got that right or wrong. It is about

Are we on the same page? Because Jesus is about to do something very powerful.

After he finishes that prayer as he says, I've said this on account of those around me so that they might believe he now, says Lazarus come out.

He raises him from the dead.

There's no question that he was dead. Everyone there believes a stench is going to happen. The moment that stone was rolled away and Jesus raised him from the dead.

They all become Witnesses.

That Jesus' is power is not just over healing and making whole just as power, is over death itself.

Think about that.

And yet. Power over death itself when it is his turn.

When it is his turn to go to death on our behalf when it is his turn to drink the Cup of Wrath. That is ours. He does not fight. But dies fully for us.

Do you realize that in the Gospel of John, this event, the raising of Lazarus from the dead becomes the pivotal moment for which the religious leaders. Now want to take Jesus' life? This becomes the moment, this becomes the unsettling moment where the other gospel writers talk about, all sorts of questions being put to Jesus so they can there's a sparring back and forth. This is the moment. This is where it seems that this man is going too far and the religious leaders. Now want to get rid of him.

It is in this moment. That he does this prayer on account of us that we might here so that we would bear witness ourselves to what we have seen and what we believe.

You say well, I haven't seen anybody raise from the dead. That's okay. We stand on the shoulders of those who have the shoulders of the shoulders of the shoulders.

Soon, This afternoon, we will gather. To Bear witness to the resurrection as we remember Eunice. We do so in our grief and in our sorrow, we do So also with hope to the resurrection through Jesus Christ.

Why do we do what we do?

Jesus did this and prayed in front of everyone so that they might truly understand what he is or who he is and what he can do. And everything we face in life.

All the mountains and difficulties. This one is on our side, has given His life to us so that we may live life to the fullest not just in this life but in the life to come. He did it on account of us, let us pray.