Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Harry Houdini was an escape artist.
They tried all kinds of ways to keep Harry Houdini locked up.
They would bury him in a coffin, but he would get out.
They would sew him up in canvas bags and throw him in the river, but he would come out.
He was placed in many different gadgets, but nothing could hold him.
His biographer said he could escape from anything except your memory.
Yet there came a day when Harry Houdini died, and he did not escape.
He told his wife if there was a way, he would figure it out.
When he did, he said he would meet her on the anniversary of his death.
For ten years, she would light a candle by his photograph waiting for him.
Finally, she gave up because she knew there was no way to escape death.
No trickery there.
Harry Houdini did not escape the iron-clad clutches of death.
But I want to tell you there was another who died.
His name was Jesus, and He made the great escape.
Jesus came out of the grave, and He arose.
Praise God, Jesus is alive!
I want to today tell you a little of what He can do for you.
What His resurrection means for us.
What we receive from Him when we place our faith in Him for our everlasting life.
Today we will look at John 11:1-44.
In this text we see many things about Jesus and death.
But the first thing we see is that...
Jesus Is the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:1–27)
John 11:1–4 (ESV)
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.
So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”
But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death.
It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
John 11:11–15 (ESV)
“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.”
The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”
Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep.
Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.
But let us go to him.”
John 11:20–27 (ESV)
So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained...Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
Explanation: Jesus had a special relationship with this group of siblings: Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.
His love for them is mentioned several times (vv.
2–3, 5).
Yet when they send word to Jesus that Lazarus is deathly ill, Jesus delays coming and Lazarus dies (vv.
6–14).
Jesus hints to his disciples what he plans to do, but they don’t understand (vv.
11–15).
When he finally arrives at their home in Bethany, the sisters are grieving and upset.
They know Jesus could have healed their brother (vv.
21, 32).
Jesus tells Martha what he is going to do—raise Lazarus from the dead—but she thinks he means only in the last day (vv.
23–24).
Jesus assures her that he is “the resurrection and the life” and whoever believes in him “will live, even though they die” (v.
25).
She reiterates her faith in him as the Son of God (v.
27).
Illustration: Musician David Bowie died January 10, 2016.
Seeming to cheat death, he released a music video of a song called “Lazarus” only a few days before his death.
It began to circulate widely right after his death.
His producer for the album Blackstar, wrote on Facebook
“He always did what he wanted to do.
And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way.
His death was no different from his life - a work of Art.
He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift.
… He was an extraordinary man, full of love and life.
He will always be with us.
For now, it is appropriate to cry.”
This had a powerful effect on his fans, who seemed to feel almost as if Bowie was reaching back through the grave through the song, which had themes relevant to the grave and resurrection.
And yet, the truth of the matter was that Bowie, brilliant musician though he was, was, in fact, dead.
Only God knows the state of his faith, but regardless of whether Bowie will be raised again with all believers, he cannot make the claim that Jesus makes here.
Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life.”
Not even “I can raise people again,” but “I AM the resurrection and the life.”
Bowie didn’t even claim to raise dead people, let alone to be the resurrection and the life.
Like Lazarus, Bowie can only come alive again through an act of God.
Just as God once breathed the breath of life into Adam and Eve, so God will do with the ashes and remains of our dead bodies.
He can animate dead matter because He IS the resurrection and the life.
Application: Eternal life starts not in heaven but in the moment when we believe Jesus is God’s only Son and believe in what he accomplished for us through his death and resurrection.
To become born again involves a transformation of our inward person that is then reflected over time in our outward lives.
That is why we live even though we die.
We are Christ's, and as His, we live in and through Him.
Even though we do and we may know and believe this with everything in us...
The Pain of Death Will Test Our Faith (John 11:28–37)
We see this in this next section of this narrative.
We see Martha call Mary and Mary’s pain is real and deep.
Explanation: Openly emotional and upset, Mary comes to where Jesus is waiting for her (vv.
28–33).
She is the same woman who had poured out her precious perfume on his feet and wiped his feet with her hair (v.
2).
They were close and she was a believer.
Yet her darkest moment of disappointment and pain tested everything she believed about her precious Savior.
Illustration: Sometimes death makes us wonder about the love of God.
We may doubt that He is good and righteous when death occurs.
There is horrendous and difficult to understand death all throughout the world.
I know of a story out of South America where a little child was trapped in a rising flood.
There had been an earthquake and the child was trapped.
The water was rising and rescuers worked diligently day and night to get to the child.
Yet, they were unsuccessful in reaching the child.
This death may cause us to doubt the goodness of God and the righteous nature of Him.
Yet, without Him this life was nothing.
It was just a brief blip of existence that has been taken with nothing else to remain but a few memories until the family dies too.
Death comes for us all.
We will all die eventually.
This death though tragic, is just an earlier version of what comes for us all.
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