The Resurrection and The Life

INTRODUCTION

A local café served as a regular hangout for several senior adult men. 

They typically got together for lunch and extended conversation. 

On this particular day they were discussing a whole litany of problems that ranged from local frustrations to national calamity. 

A fellow diner overheard the bulk of their conversation and couldn't help but laugh when one old timer summed up their discussion. 

With a smile he quipped, "Well, there's one thing we don't have to worry about anymore. 

We ain't gonna die young!" Reader's Digest, January 1992, p.154

The COVID-19 pandemic created an enormous well of grief throughout the entire world.

In December 2020, the New York Times returned to one of the hardest-hit areas, Bergamo, Italy, to see how residents were coping months after the deadly, horrific spring.

They found an aching void and sustained trauma, guilt, and grief.

Jason Horowitz writes, "Every Monday night in the northern Italian town that had perhaps the highest coronavirus death rate in all of Europe, a psychologist specializing in post-traumatic stress leads group therapy sessions in the local church.

'She has treated survivors of war,' the Rev. Matteo Cella, the parish priest of the town, of Nembro, in Bergamo province, said of the psychologist.

'She says the dynamic is the same.'"

One survivor, Roberta Pedretti, said, "Bergamo is trying to come back, but it's full of fear. … It saw too many cadavers. It can't be like before."

(Jason Horowitz, "Bergamo's Pandemic Survivors Carry Scars Unseen and Incalculable," New York Times, December 6, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/06/world/europe/bergamo-italy-coronavirus-covid-19-ptsd.html).

The culmination of the gospel stories is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Yet before his resurrection from the dead, Jesus brings several other people back to life.

Only one of those deaths makes Jesus cry, and it is that story and sign that we are focusing on this week in our series on the signs of Jesus.

So far, we have looked at a variety of different signs.

These signs were actions Jesus took that demonstrated God working through him for our salvation.

He turned water into wine at a wedding, healed an official's son from a great distance, made a lame person walk, healed a blind man's sight, and fed thousands of people from very little food.

And now the sign is the raising of the dead.

The BIG IDEA FOR THE MESSAGE TODAY IS THAT JESUS IS THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. The raising of Lazarus offers proof of this point.

Let's begin by turning to John 11:1-4!

John 11:1–4 (CSB)

1 Now a man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick.

3 So the sisters sent a message to him: “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

4 When Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

SERMON

I. Sign showing a concerned Lord.

At the start of chapter 11, Jesus learns that his friend Lazarus is seriously ill.

Jesus's response to this concerning news is reminiscent of how He responded to the disciples' questions in chapter 9.

He tells them that Lazarus's situation "is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it" (v. 4).

By this statement, we know that whatever happens next happens so that God will be glorified through it.

This statement gives us more understanding of these signs: they are meant to reveal the glory of God.

Similarly, John 2:11 says that when Jesus turned the water into wine, he "manifested his glory."

The glory of God is on display through Jesus.

Jesus is told by a messenger from his dear friends Mary and Martha that their brother Lazarus is sick.

I like that the messenger reminds Jesus that Lazarus is the one He loves.

Jesus is probably still in Perea, where we left him in chapter 10.

Bethany is a village on the backside of the Mount of Olives, about 1½ miles east of Jerusalem.

It is not the same as the Bethany in the Jordan River Valley (1:28), but a small village on the road to Jericho. (Gospel of John. College Press Commentary Series)

For a bit of background concerning Lazarus and his family.

We know from Luke 10:38-42 that Jesus enjoyed hospitality from the family while passing through Bethany.

In John 12, John tells the story of Jesus being in the home of Lazarus when AMry poured expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus and wiped it off with her hair.

This is what John is referencing in John 11:2 as he is seeking to give context to the relationship Jesus had with the family.

One thing we need to know about Jesus is His concern for people.

In the case of Lazarus, we are explicitly told that Jesus loved him.

Verse 5 points out that Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazurus!

Later in the chapter, we will see how Jesus was moved to tears as He saw the scene unfolding after Lazarus had been in the grave for fours days before Jesus arrived on the scene.

One would expect Jesus to drop everything and run to Bethany to heal his beloved friend.

That is not what Jesus did!

Verse 6 tells us that Jesus remained where He was for two more days!

The messenger sent by Mary and Martha probably took at least two days at a fast pace to get to Jesus.

Most likely, Lazarus died while the messenger was heading back to Mary and Martha.

We don't see Mary and Martha asking Jesus directly for help; however, one would have to think the message is clear, JESUS, GET OVER HERE ASAP!

I have to think that when the messenger returned without Jesus, the sisters had to be disappointed.

The sisters make a desperate call to Jesus, yet it seems like He does not answer.

When we see their response when Jesus comes, it is evident they had expectations that Jesus did not meet.

Even when Jesus does not seem to meet a need the way WE expect Him to, He still cares for us!

John 11:11 (CSB)

He said this, and then he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m on my way to wake him up.”

Now it is time to go see Lazarus!

Let's drop down to verses 28-37.

John 11:28–37 (CSB)

28 Having said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

29 As soon as Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.

30 Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him.

31 The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw that Mary got up quickly and went out. They followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to cry there.

32 As soon as Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and told him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died!”

33 When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled.

34 “Where have you put him?” he asked. “Lord,” they told him, “come and see.”

35 Jesus wept.

36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

37 But some of them said, “Couldn’t he who opened the blind man’s eyes also have kept this man from dying?”

II. Sign showing a consistent Savior.

Jesus arrives on the scene, and it is a sad scene to behold.

Lazarus had been dead for four days; the Jews who were there to comfort Mary and Martha were crying and wailing.

In the verses we did not cover, Martha was the first one of the sisters to meet Jesus, and she told Jesus had He been there, Lazarus would not have died.

Martha tells Jesus. that she knows that whatever You ask of God, He will grant to you. John 11:22

Jesus tells Martha that Lazarus will come back to life.

Being the practical sister, Martha thinks Jesus is talking about the final resurrection for all.

Then Jesus says:

John 11:25–27 (CSB)

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who comes into the world.”

Then Martha goes to call Mary.

The crowd sees Mary leaving the house, and they follow.

Mary drops at the feet of Jesus and tells Him that had He been there, Lazarus would not have died!

Jesus was moved to tears by this scene.

He did not come in cold and callous, even though He knew He would raise Lazarus.

Jesus shows He is a consistent Savior.

What did Jesus say from the beginning concerning Lazarus?

That Lazarus would not end up dead, yet here we are, Lazarus had been dead for four days!

Jesus is consistent.

The disciples traveling with Him might have been questioning that a bit since Jesus said Lazarus was not going to end up dead, yet here he is, lying in the tomb dead for four days.

We have to realize Jesus will ALWAYS do what He says He will do, even when it does not look like He will, even when He does not act on our timeframe.

Typically, whenever Jesus does not do what we want when we want it, we lose faith.

I know Mary and Martha loved Jesus; however, their faith had to be shaken because all reality told them was that Lazarus was dead.

Verse 37 says some were saying that since Jesus healed the blind, why couldn't He keep Lazarus from dying?

They felt that since Jesus was not there to stop the death, they did not consider that Jesus could fix the death.

I wonder if the messenger Mary and Martha sent assured them Lazarus wouldn't die?

The present circumstance would make it easy to doubt Jesus, to think He did not care.

The truth of the matter is that Jesus is consistent.

He is not bound to our timeframe and our commands as to how things are to work out.

Let's read verses 38-44

John 11:38–44 (CSB)

38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.

39 “Remove the stone,” Jesus said. Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, there is already a stench because he has been dead four days.”

40 Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”

41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me.

42 I know that you always hear me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so that they may believe you sent me.”

43 After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

44 The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.”

III. Sign showing a capable Messiah.

Yet again, we see Jesus moved to tears over the scene before Him.

Jesus is a capable Messiah.

Yes, Lazarus was in the tomb, and he had been there for four days.

Yet, Jesus was capable of changing that issue!

The final aspect of the sign we see here is God's total power over death.

Jesus approaches the tomb and tells those present to move the stone, declaring that now is the moment they will see the glory of God (vv. 39–40).

Being the practical sister, Martha points out that Lazarus would not smell too good.

See, even at this point, she probably thinks Jesus wants to see the remains of Lazarus; she is not expecting a resurrection!

With a loud voice, Jesus commands Lazarus to come out (v. 43).

And "the man who had died came out" (v. 44)!

Jesus truly is the resurrection.

He has complete power over death.

As author Robert Farrar Capon writes, “Jesus never meets a corpse that doesn't sit upright on the spot.

Consider. There is the widow of Nain’s son (Luke 7:11–17); there is Jairus’s daughter (Luke 8:41–56); there is Lazarus himself.

They all rise not because Jesus does a number on them, not because he puts some magical resurrection machinery into gear, but simply because he has that effect on the dead.

They rise because he is the Resurrection even before he himself rises” (Robert Farrar Capon, Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989], 405).

God is at work in this world through Jesus for our salvation, and part of that salvation is that the dead in Christ shall rise.

Jesus did what He did for the glory of God!

Jesus showed He is a capable Savior!

Jesus is not some impotent small g God!

He is LORD!

HE IS THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE!

CONCLUSION

One thing we need to grasp in life is the fact that Jesus is the real deal.

The raising of Lazarus is yet another proof of the fact that Jesus is who He says He is.

Where who, or what have you anchored your life?

Where, who, or what are you depending on for your eternal life and your purpose for life now?

As Peter said in our message a couple of weeks ago, where will we go? You have the words of life!

Bringing the dead back to life is impressive.

Jesus can bring you back to life both now and after this life is over!