Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right, let's look at God's word here.
[00:00:03] Chapter 11, we're going to look at verse 28. And following, we're in this series. If you are new here, if you haven't been here in a while, we've been in this series called that you may believe just John's heart and purpose in writing the Gospel of John is that people would know who Jesus is, what he has done, and they would believe in him as their personal Lord and Savior. And so we've been walking through this together, and as we do, we see this story that we're in, chapter 11, the story of Jesus raised. Well, I don't want to give away the end of the story, but about a man whose name is Lazarus who died. And last week we looked at the first two scenes. And so there's kind of four scenes in this story. Last week we looked at scene one and scene two. And so since today is part two, we're going to look at scenes three and scenes four. And that will bring a conclusion to the whole story. And as we look at this story, it's important for you and I to know as you look back, maybe in your bibles, in verses 1 through 16, the theme there, if you look in your. In your Bibles, was Jesus view of death. And he said that this death of Lazarus, that is, would not end, or his death would not end in death, which doesn't really make sense. Or sickness, I should say, would not end in death and then he dies. And so we saw that from Jesus words, there's purpose.
[00:01:25] There can be purpose, great purpose in death. And Christians don't need to fear death. We also saw last week that there is a powerful truth that we can hold tightly to as followers of Jesus, and that is this. He is, as he says in his fifth I am statement. He says, I am the resurrection and the.
[00:01:48] The life. He makes that promise. Last week we saw that in verses 17 through 27.
[00:01:55] Last week I also brought a rubber band with me. I brought it with me again today. And last week we talked about how there's this real tension that you and I, as followers of Jesus, walk through between what we're experiencing in our life, the feelings that we might be going through, and the promises that we know that God has given us or has offered us. And so we saw last week that there are people who were afraid that Lazarus was going to die, and then he does, and they're grieving through that. And Jesus says, well, I offer life, I offer hope. And they know that to be True. Martha spoke about this last week. We saw. I know that you are. That there will be the resurrection in the end. But I also know I'm sad right now. I know that you offer power and strength. And I know that I am grieving.
[00:02:42] You've probably experienced this feeling as well, this tension between I know God is good and God is kind. And I'm scared or I'm hurting. I remember not too long ago, my son Nathaniel was pretty sick. He had super high fever. We had gone to the ER a couple times. And we're trying to figure out how do we get this fever down. And he was obviously not feeling great at all. And one of the things that I do with him at the usually the end of the day, if I'm putting him down, we'll walk around. Cause he likes to be carrying him and walking. And I remember I'm walking him, his fever is just super high. And trying to get him to calm down and go to sleep. And I remember I'm walking around. And often, as I do, if I'm walking with him and trying to get him to go to sleep, we start walking in his room and I have to sing various songs. And so I found myself as I'm worried about him, worried about his health, worried about if he's gonna go to sleep and his temperature's gonna spike again. Worried about what he' going through, obviously, the couple trips to the er, all kind of thinking through, feeling through, processing all of that. And I'm standing in his room, I'm holding him, and I find myself walking around singing Amazing Grace.
[00:03:57] And I didn't think about it at first. I just kind of picked the next song in the list of my mind. And as I'm walking around holding him, I felt this tension between, oh my goodness, I don't know what's going to go on with him, what's going to happen with him. And God is good and he's kind and he's gracious.
[00:04:16] This tension, I think, exists for all of us at different points in our life. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. And I thought. I remember thinking to myself, yes, God, you are good and you are gracious and make the fever go away.
[00:04:29] We look at scene three and four today, and we're going to see here that Jesus walks with people who are hurting. And then he demonstrates his power to bring about a release to the tension that exists in the hearts and lives of those he's interacting with. Let's pray together before we start reading verse 28. Jesus, we love you and we know that we can love you because you loved us first.
[00:04:55] For those of us here today who are sitting maybe with different things on our hearts and minds, we want to submit them to you this morning as a good and gracious God.
[00:05:05] The tensions that might exist inside of us, or maybe that we think you're thinking about right now, we want to lay them before the cross and sit as your children before you under the blood that you have shed, making us right with you. For those here today who have trusted in you. For those here today, maybe who don't have a relationship with you, Lord, I pray that your spirit work in their hearts. As we walk through this passage together, you would open our hearts and minds to the incredible heart that you have for us and the incredible power that you possess.
[00:05:39] We thank you, Lord, for your spirit working in our hearts. I just ask the things that I say would be from you, the things on your heart. In Jesus name, Amen. So let's move to scene three here. So the curtain has already closed on scene two. That happened last week. You can go to the next slide there. Scene 3 Here is what we're going to look at. You could write this in on your outline. Scene three, we open up and we see some significant emotions that Jesus displays in this scene here. So the curtain now opens. And before we step into the account of what goes on in verse 28, it's also very important that we understand that Jesus is, as Hebrews 1:3 says, he is the exact imprint and nature of God. So we don't just look at Jesus as, oh, cute little baby Jesus as we celebrate at Christmas or somebody that we saw just hanging on a cross and, oh, that's sad for. And hard for what's going on there. He also is, and it's important that we hold remember this. He is the exact imprint and radiance of the glory of God. It says Hebrews 1:3, Colossians 1:15 says, he is the image of Pastor Les. Read this earlier. He is the image of the invisible God. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn of the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. So it's important as we look at this that we not make Jesus small. Here he is the clear picture of the heart of God, the work of God, the mind of God in the flesh, fully God and fully man. The stage has been set in verses in scenes one and two that Jesus has heard about this man, his friend Lazarus, who was sick. Who then Jesus says is going to who then dies. And then Jesus tells his disciples, after staying apart from Lazarus, from the. From where Lazarus is a day's journey away for two days, Jesus stays away. He comes back and he enters this small town about two miles outside Jerusalem called Bethany.
[00:07:41] And he begins to come closer to this town. Somebody goes and somehow connects with Martha. Martha runs out and talks with Jesus. We saw that last week. And so now we've concluded the conversation that Jesus has with Martha. You can see that. That she says in verse 27, Jesus said to him, yes, Lord, I sorry. She said to him, yes, Lord, speaking to Jesus, I believe that you are the Christ that is the Messiah, the Son of God who is coming into the world. An incredible proclamation of faith and understanding of who Jesus is. So after she says this, you could write this in. The big idea here that we're going to look at is this. Jesus wants to comfort us. Before we look at. And lean into that point, let's just walk through this verse together. You could write that in though. Jesus wants to comfort us. When he had said this, when she had said this, that is. Mayor Martha has concluded that statement in verse 27. She went and back into the town of Bethany to her house and called her sister. What was her sister's name?
[00:08:37] Mary. That's the same story of Mary and Martha. That is Mary sitting at Jesus feet, Martha working. Mary and Mary saying in private, the teacher is here and is calling for you. And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Let's just pause. Notice she tries to go in private, probably knowing that. And we saw this last week, that Jesus didn't want to make a big scene of this. The reason that Jesus doesn't want to make a big scene of him coming into the town of Bethany is because firstly, there's a bunch of Jews there from Jerusalem. And we saw earlier on, the Jews want to kill him. Jesus life is in danger. We have today, like Most Wanted posters. Have any of you seen the Most Wanted poster? Hopefully your face wasn't on it or no one that you knew Jesus face. If we imagine Most Wanted posters, Jesus face was probably on those Most Wanted posters around Jerusalem. If you see from him or hear from him, let us as the religious leaders know. Jesus knew that people were opposed to him. So he was not looking to make a big scene. So Martha goes in, she says, hey, the teacher is here. Which I think also is so neat, isn't it? She doesn't say Jesus, she doesn't say the Lord. She says the Teacher. And one of the Reasons that is the rabbi. One of the reasons I think that's so neat is because in this culture, rabbis didn't teach women.
[00:10:04] So the rabbi, the person calling somebody rabbi would be probably the man saying, this is the rabbi. He is our teacher. But here, these women equate Jesus to being the teacher. Even look at not just a teacher, not a rabbi is here or a teacher, but the teacher, the master teacher, our teacher is here. And this is an important thing for us to learn. Being willing to listen and learn from other people, to be students, to be willing to be taught from others. Now, to the point that you see on the screen here is this. Jesus wants to comfort us. As you think through this story, as I was thinking through this story, this came to mind like, Jesus didn't need to go and talk with Martha, did he? He could have raised Lazarus from the dead from a distance, couldn't he? Jesus is all powerful. Amen. He did not need to go even to this place to do this. And even more so, even if he did, he didn't need to go and have a conversation with Martha. But why did he do this? It demonstrates his care, his comfort for the people he loves. He didn't need to ask Martha to get Mary. Already knowing that Mary would have been very emotional and frustrated that Jesus wasn't there earlier. He didn't need to let them come, as we're going to see later on, come and cry in front of him, seemingly displaying no faith in his power. He could have bypassed all of that and said, never mind, we're just not going to go to their house. We're just going to go over because he's Jesus, so he knows exactly where Lazarus is laid. He could have just walked over to the tomb, brought Lazarus out, raised him from the dead, and brought him back over to the house. Right? Jesus could have done that, but he didn't do that. One of the things we see from this is Jesus heart to comfort those who are hurting. He wanted to comfort them. He was their friend, is their friend in this story. And he wanted to walk with them in their pain. Even though, and this is so important for us. And as I have to remember as I was walking Nathaniel around the room in his fever, even though he knew full well that he could make their pain and their problems stop, he let them run to him and he went over to them and said, I'm here to offer you comfort. This reminds me of 2 Corinthians 1, 3 and 4. He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus. Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all. Do you know this verse? Comfort, who comforts us in our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. We see there clearly God wants to comfort us. He wants to walk alongside us, even though we know, and he knows full well, he can make whatever problem is going on in our life instantaneously not be a problem any longer. Let's look at point two. So we see that, yes, he wants to comfort us. We see something else in the midst of walking through some big emotions in this story is that Jesus can handle your emotions and my emotions, whatever they happen to be. Let's move on in the story in verse 30 goes on. Look in your Bibles with me. Now. Jesus had not yet come into the village. We talked about that already, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. So he interacts with Martha. He stays there. Remember, his disciples are also there with him, probably standing there waiting, hoping that no Jews happen to show up and find him. Because you remember he's on the most wanted poster somewhere.
[00:13:24] They're going, oh goodness, we don't want Jesus to get found out here. We don't want to get caught up in his arrest and possible death. As Thomas mentioned, we saw last week that Jesus, they thought they might be going to their death. Verse 31. When the Jews who were with her in the house, and now we're at the house where Martha and where Mary is, they were consoling her.
[00:13:44] These were friends of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Consoling, comforting, mourning with them, grieving with them. They saw Mary rise, that is, after they had. She talked with Martha and they. What?
[00:13:57] What did they do when they saw her rise?
[00:14:00] They followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep. That word weep is to lament or to mourn there. This was major loud crying that would have taken place, not just letting tears fall down their cheeks. Now, when Mary came to where Jesus was and she saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have what Mary runs to him. After inadvertently alerting the other mourners. So much for this being in private. What's also beautiful about Mary? Every time we see Mary, we see her at the feet of Jesus.
[00:14:41] 1 We see them when they're working and Martha's running around and Jesus is teaching. Where do we find Mary sitting at his feet and Martha Has a problem with that. Remember that story Here again, we find Mary running to Jesus and falling at his feet. And later on next, the next chapter, in chapter 12, we're going to see that Mary is wiping at his feet, wiping his feet with her hair and anointing him with oil. So we have Jesus out in the distance. Kind of picture this with me. Jesus is out in the distance. Mary goes running to him. She falls at his feet. The crowd of mourners, the Jews, the friends, those even possibly paid mourners who would have come with them would have been mourning along, crying along with them. This would have been known as it was when someone died coming and they see in the distance, Jesus and Mary, we see there at his feet.
[00:15:34] So we see in the midst of this, Mary also says something to Jesus. Look what she says. Lord, if you had been where, if you had been here, trust in his power to keep Lazarus from dying, from whatever the sickness, whatever his unnamed sickness was, my brother would not have died. Who else said these exact same words?
[00:15:57] You take a guess. Martha, verse 15. If you look back in your Bibles, look back, you'll see Martha literally runs to Jesus. She says these same things. Lord, if you had been here, I feel like they probably would have said this to each other after Lazarus died, right? Like, even as he's sick, if Jesus would just get here, I hope that he gets here. I hope then Lazarus dies. And they probably would have been sitting there next to each other, grieving together, thinking and saying to one another, if Jesus had been here, this wouldn't have happened. Here's the point.
[00:16:29] The death of a loved one brought major grief to those he loved. This sadness was not a surprise to him, but rather he came and he leaned in to comfort them. We see again to comfort them in this season of grief. Why? Because Jesus isn't afraid of. And maybe you need to write this down somewhere. Jesus isn't afraid of your hard emotions, even emotions that you and I are afraid to interact with. He isn't afraid of them. He can handle them. And so maybe this is for you today. Don't avoid God because you're disappointed in him, because you're angry with him, because you're sad, because you're bitter, because you're fearful of him or what might happen if you interact with him. He can handle whatever you bring before him. If you're questioning him, if you're doubting him, if you're confused by what he's done or what he's doing, I would just say this to you and to myself as well. Let's learn from Mary and run to him and fall at his feet and experience the comfort and the grace that he displays. He doesn't scold Mary here. Hey, you know, if you just knew the future, you'd know what's going to happen. We don't see his critical remark here, but rather we see him grieving with them, as we're going to see in just a moment. Let's be like Mary in this. Whatever those hard things may be, running to him and saying, jesus, will you help me in this? Before we look at point three, if you find yourself avoiding God because of your hard emotions, because of whatever's going on inside, we just encourage you today, take courage and approach him with whatever it is. He can handle it. 3. On your outline, verses 33 through 36, we go on with the story. So Mary's now at his feet. The disciples are behind them. We have mourners and family members and friends coming here. Jesus is there. Mary says to him, if you had been here, this wouldn't have happened.
[00:18:21] We see a point 3. Jesus displayed both spiritual grief and physical grief. This is a passage or a portion of this passage that many of us know. There's one particular verse here that many of you know. Verse 33. He goes on, and Jesus saw, if you like to underline or circle things in your Bible, maybe underline or circle that when Jesus saw her weeping, that is mourning or lamenting loudly, he witnessed this event in front of him. He's seeing it with his own eyes. And the Jews who had come with her, also weeping. He was what?
[00:18:55] Deeply moved. Deeply moved. Some of your Bibles, depending on what version you're reading, might say he groaned or he murmured in his spirit and greatly troubled, or he was stirred up. Those two words, we just need to pause there for a minute, is not Jesus then broke down and started crying. That's not the word there. This is actually a very unique term that you see there, this deeply moved term. And it's actually never used in scripture in a positive way. It's always used in a negative way.
[00:19:31] Someone is angry about or upset about.
[00:19:35] We look at this, we ask ourselves, based on how this word is used in other places, it's an appropriate question to ask, was Jesus angry? Was he upset by what he was witnessing? And before you're like, no, of course not. He was just crying because everyone else was crying. I would push back and say, I don't know. Actually, as we think about the person of Jesus, remember the exact imprint and representation of God. As we saw earlier on, we have to remember that In Romans, chapter 15, he speaks of death as being an enemy to be defeated.
[00:20:07] And now he's watching the grief of his friends because of an enemy that he will one day defeat. One day the enemy of death will be defeated. And before that day has come, Jesus is now watching its power rain out in the life of a friend that he cares deeply about.
[00:20:27] Perhaps Jesus is greatly troubled inside of him. Yes, because his friends are grieving, but also because he's like, this isn't how it's supposed to be. I didn't make the world like this.
[00:20:40] Death is not supposed to rain out in somebody's life. And he knew full well also that he would raise him from the dead. And yet we see he experiences the power of both in the life of his friend Lazarus, and also the impact in the people that he loves. So we see this groaning inside of him. His spirit is greatly troubled.
[00:21:04] Most likely they would have seen this expression on his face. And then he asks a question.
[00:21:12] He asks an interesting question. I think he said, where have you laid him?
[00:21:18] He's Jesus. He knows where he is.
[00:21:21] He doesn't have to ask directions.
[00:21:24] He's got that down. And yet he asks that. We see this in almost a kind way, like, let's go together to where this friend, this brother is. We see he's already turned up. He's already, as the passage says, he's greatly troubled. He's moved. He's groaning in his spirit. Yes, probably both reasons his friends are crying. He knows that this enemy called death is yet to be defeated. He knows both of those things are true. And yet he has this incredible feeling inside of him, this turning of his spirit. And then he asks his friends, let's go. Let's go to where he is. And then they start to go, and we kind of get this idea of. Now they turn there again. They're on the Mount of Olives. This is on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives, because it's a mountain. There's caves and there's a cemetery there. This is still actually there today. There's many graves that exist there. And so it wouldn't have been a long walk from where Bethany was to where this grave was, to this tomb was. And so as they turned to go there, let's look and see what happens. And they said to him, lord, come and see. They begin to move in that direction. Verse 35, as we all know, the shortest verse in the.
[00:22:35] In the Bible says what? Let's Say it together. Jesus wept.
[00:22:41] This word, Jesus, the word wept here, never used anywhere else in the New Testament. This is not the word for lamenting. This is not the word for weeping that we see is going on with the others in this passage. This word is this. It's literally just he shed tears.
[00:23:00] And so you get this picture, these loud mourners, the very obvious in what they're wearing. They're grieving greatly. And Jesus then turns to go with them, and then they see tears coming down his face.
[00:23:15] And the Jews said this. As Jesus displays, again, we see the spiritual grief because he sees the power of death in the world. It's not supposed to be like this. But also physical grief. We see this. Look what they say in verse 36. And the Jews said, see how he what, loved him.
[00:23:33] They see that Jesus expressed those kinds of emotions. He didn't despise tears. He didn't hold it in because he knew what was going to happen in a little bit. He was willing to shed tears. He showed his emotion even though. Even though he knew what he would do moments later. He knew the outcome of the story, and yet he expressed this kind of grief that they saw in him. I think the point here could be this. Perhaps for you and Fry, for you and for me, there is no shame in showing your emotions. There's no shame in crying in tears. Jesus showed this clearly. You don't have to apologize for that. We look even in the Old Testament, we see many people who cried at times. Tears even are. And especially for us as Christians, we can have this weird, strange belief, tears being. We can maybe think or believe that tears are less spiritual, but here we see that that's not the case. Perhaps even depending on what's going on, tears are more spiritual if they're in line with the heart of God. Let's look at point four, and then we'll move on to scene four. Showing emotion isn't a sign of weakness. This is just a quick point here that we see some there listening verse 37. But some of them said, could not we see this, like, level of doubt going on here?
[00:24:56] Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying? What's the answer to that?
[00:25:04] Yes, most definitely, he could have kept him from dying. We see here, though, that some saw his tears and their first words were not in agreement that he loved Lazarus, but also. But this. Is Jesus not strong enough?
[00:25:19] Is Jesus not strong enough?
[00:25:22] Of course he's strong enough, but it doesn't mean that he makes all of the problems in our life go away. Does it? You know this firsthand.
[00:25:31] I know that he's strong enough, and yet he lets us walk through this.
[00:25:37] These emotions. We walk through emotions truly are a gift from God. And working to understand what they are and how they work is vital, is important to living in maturity as a follower of Jesus.
[00:25:50] Notice their reaction. If he loved. Look how much he loved him. For you and for I today, for you and for me. If Jesus loved Lazarus so much, and we see this demonstrated in his tears for him, how much more can you and I say that he loves us? Because he's done a lot more than just shed a tear for us. He's went to the cross. Amen.
[00:26:13] So we have this group of people now moving from just outside of Bethany on the side of the Mount of Olives. We have the disciples in Jesus. We have Mary and Martha. We have these friends from these Jews and these friends and family members. Now they're on their way to the grave where they've laid Lazarus. And now the curtain closes.
[00:26:36] Scene three is done, and scene four begins. We see here that Jesus is powerful. Jesus power is seen clearly in these few verses. 38 through 44. Like, brings a final, concluding end to the tension that we've been dealing with this whole time, back and forth. He's strong enough, right? But why didn't he save us? Why didn't he save Lazarus? He's able to heal from sickness, but he didn't do that for some reason. There's hope and he's the resurrection, and yet somebody still died. He's a God of comfort. And yet I'm grieving. This tension exists throughout this entire text. And finally, Jesus is going to bring resolution to the tension in the lives of people. And it's important for us, especially who know this story, to know that we can be completely desensitized to this.
[00:27:25] We can be so like, oh, yep, then he rose and like, oh, I don't want to give away again. That's. That's the end of the story. But we can be so desensitized, particularly even as followers of Jesus, as we read through the Gospels, as we read through the word of God, desensitized to the incredible power of God because of the movies that we watch, the shows that we watch, the books that we read, we can get so desensitized to, wow, then Jesus did this. Well, I saw that in a movie last night.
[00:27:52] Whoop de do. Like, it doesn't really matter. Like, we look at what Jesus did here and okay, well, I've heard this story of him raising somebody from the dead.
[00:28:04] Let's just realize that for a moment.
[00:28:07] We can't look at the Word of God as a story or a movie that we watch. That's science fiction. These are real people that bled real blood like you and I do, just removed from the timeframe that we're in today. These are real people, real things going on. So let's keep going. So Jesus, verse 38. Then Jesus deeply moved. Again we see the same word again. That's one word in the original language that is groaning within himself. Again, came to the tomb. They get there. It was a cave, which is not hard to do when you're on the side of a mountain and a stone lay against it. That is to keep thieves and robbers out and also to keep the body protected from animals. And so we see that there's a stone laid against it. Jesus says, take away the stone. You could see on point one on your outline. At first, Jesus instructions might be confusing. Has Jesus ever asked you to do something that just didn't seem like it made sense?
[00:29:06] We see this here. Take away the stone. Now, Martha, seemingly the one who jumps in first when stuff needs to be said, at least between the two sisters, says, lord, that's not a good idea.
[00:29:20] I don't recommend that.
[00:29:22] Depending on what your version may be. If you're reading from King James, he stinketh by this, there might be an odor. This is not going to go well for all of us standing out here. He has been dead for how many days?
[00:29:36] Four days.
[00:29:38] Okay, so just briefly, could Jesus have just moved the stone by himself, but yet he asks them to do that. Why? Because Jesus often asks us to do what we can do ourselves.
[00:29:50] And then he says, do that walk in faith. Do the things that you are called to do. And then after that, I will step in to do the things that you can't do. But first you need to do the things that you know you are able to do by yourself. So first off, this demonstration of faith, do the thing that you know you can already do by yourself. Can you move the stone, Martha? I'm not sure this a good idea. There's going to be an odor.
[00:30:17] Jesus doesn't seem to think that that's going to be a problem. More to the point here we don't always see the whole picture. Most of the time we don't see what God is doing in the large spectrum of things. There's a song I remember from some years ago called Trust His Heart. And I Love a couple lines from it. I'm just going to read it to you. As we think about this idea of Jesus instructions not always making sense, we see the present clearly, but he sees the first and the last like a tapestry he's weaving you and me to one day be just like Him. God is too wise to be mistaken. God is too good to be unkind. So when you don't understand, when you don't see his plan, when you can't trace his hand, trust his heart. In the midst of this, they had a choice to make. Are we going to trust the instruction that Jesus is laying before us? Jesus isn't asking us to figure it out. He's asking us to trust that he already has figured it out. And isn't that what faith is? It's trusting God even when you don't understand the plan.
[00:31:26] I'm gonna ask a question for you and we'll look up point two after that. Is this maybe write this down somewhere. Think about this for yourself. Is Jesus asking you to do something that sounds stinky and thus you've been resisting it?
[00:31:39] I know you want me to do it, but that's gonna be unpleasant. I don't want to do it because of what that's gonna make me feel like, so I'm gonna resisting. Maybe you've been resisting and resisting and resisting because whatever he's asking you to do doesn't sound good.
[00:31:53] It may be confusing even at times, but here we see that we can trust Him. Point two on your outline, Jesus wants us to trust his promises. Verse 40. Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? He's speaking now. If you look back in your Bibles to verse four, and most likely this message that Jesus communicated to the messenger who was sent from Bethany to wherever Jesus to where Jesus was, to Jordan, to the Bethany beyond the Jordan, which is a day's journey. Jesus said to this messenger, trust me. And here Jesus says, did I not tell you to trust me?
[00:32:32] Trust me. What I love about this is this miracle though is not dependent on Martha's faith. This is such a good, good reminder for us. Jesus isn't saying, if you have a lot of faith, then I'll raise him. But if you don't have a lot of faith, then I won't raise him. Jesus already knows what he's going to do. Jesus promise here is not saying, if you believe, then I will do this. There are some, and this is maybe to think about for yourself. There are some Dependent promises that we read about in Scripture. And there are some independent promises. So, for example, a dependent promise. If you trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding, he will make your paths straight. So you need to first trust in him and lean on Him. And then the promise is this. He will keep your paths straight. He will straighten or give you guidance in your life. Another promise, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Right? That's a dependent promise. Here's the promise. You will be saved. What do you need to do? What's the word? Believe. Right. Can we say believe together? Believe. Like that's. That's the promise. But it's dependent. What are you going to do? And you can experience the promise of.
[00:33:42] Now, there are other promises that we see in scripture that God makes that are not dependent on the person. One story that you might remember is Abraham. God says, I will make a great nation out of you. And Abraham's like, I can't sign up for that. Like, I can't promise that that's going to happen. And I'm going to do all the right things. Which is good because Abraham made lots of mistakes. And so God said, I will make a promise, a covenant with myself. So here we see that promise, for example, something that Abraham could lean on was not something dependent on him, but rather it was solely leaning on God. Here we're reminded that Jesus desires us to remember his promises is more important to focus on than the discomforts of the world.
[00:34:25] And this is hard at times. This comes back to that tension between, here's what I'm feeling and here's what God's promised in my life. Let's look at point three here. Verses 41 and following and 42, the point three. You can write this in Jesus, power is God's power. And we start leaning into the purpose of this miracle. Just the last few verses. So they took away the stone, they stepped out in faith, and Jesus lifted up his eyes.
[00:34:58] Are you imagining this with me? The stone is there. They've moved it away. Now there's an opening. Whatever smell is beginning to waft out because it's been four days. The people are standing around wondering, is Jesus going to walk in and say his last goodbyes to Lazarus? Like, is that why we're doing this? Notice, no one actually here says, I think he might raise him from the dead. No one's expecting that to happen. And so then Jesus, with everyone watching on here, says these words in whatever tone this is. He's Calling out or crying out, depending on what version you're reading. Father, we see here the relationship between the two. I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me. Again, relationship between the Father and the Son. But I say this on the account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me. Again we see Jesus demonstrating, this power that I have is not in and of myself, but rather it is because of the God of the universe that you all believe in. As all the Jews there, you all believe in this God. You all believe that he has power to raise someone from the dead, Right? You all believe that. And those Pharisees would have believed, Yes, I believe God has the power for that to happen. And here Jesus says, thank you, God. Thank you, Father, you have sent me and that I'm going to be able to do this. And it's not for my glory, but rather so that people can see you have truly sent me. This was Jesus mission over and over again. I have been sent from God. Will you believe me? And here he lays before all of them.
[00:36:30] This power that I'm about to demonstrate shows my authenticity as the Son of God.
[00:36:35] This is key for everyone standing around. He doesn't ask God, dear God, would you please, dear Father, would you please raise Lazarus from the dead? Amen. That's not what he does. He doesn't step aside and say, I'm just going to depend on the power of the Father. But he recognizes my relationship with the Father is so key for everyone to see here that I possess the same power.
[00:36:57] And so here Jesus does something that people believe only God could do in the last day, as we saw Martha speak about earlier. But this power was not attributed to Jesus. Here he says, this power is mine. And then point four, we finally come to conclusion of this entire story. Verse 43 and 44.4 on your outline, you outline you could write this in the impossible. Can you say impossible? The impossible is possible with Jesus. And this is the culmination of this entire story. Scenes one and two and three. And finally we're at the end of scene four. Jesus is making this point. I want to glorify my Father and I want you to see that he has sent me and I have the power to do anything. It's not I'm just a good teacher. It's not I'm just a good rabbi out there for you to learn from. It's not that I'm here so that you would follow me, so I could feed you or whatever your opinion is. Of me. I am here as the exact representation of God. And then he says verse 43, declaring and showing this truth to be real. When he had said these things, he had praised, thanked the Father. He cries out, which makes me think the same time Jesus, remember, he's hanging on the cross and it says he cries out. It's a loud voice, Lazarus. Some commentators say it's important that Jesus said the name Lazarus because he's standing at a cemetery.
[00:38:23] And imagine, Jesus calls out and just says, come out.
[00:38:27] Imagine what would happen. Probably the same thing that happened when Jesus died. And it said that people came out of the tombs. That would have been quite a scene. So here he names Lazarus and he says, come out.
[00:38:40] And then there's this, what? Pause as everyone.
[00:38:45] Like, is that going to happen? Can he do that? Is he allowed to do? Like, what's going to happen? Then verse 44, the man who had died, I.e. lazarus, came out, his hands and his feet bound with linen strips. That's what they would have done. They didn't embalm. They just wrapped them loosely in linen strips and they would have put spices in, wrapped in those linen strips to help with the smell, as they saw, we see with Jesus later on. And his face was wrapped with a cloth. That was something else they did. It was a separate cloth on the face. And then Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. He didn't have some magic spell to bring Lazarus out. The resurrection and the life simply spoke. That's all he had to do.
[00:39:33] Now, if this is really too dull for you, here's what I would recommend today. Go to the cemetery down the street, read a name on the tombstone and call their name and tell them to come out. No, don't do that. It's going to be really strange. Really, really strange. But if you did that, I don't think anything's going to happen. People are going to think you're just pretty crazy because you do not have the power by yourself to bring somebody who is dead in the ground up from the grave. That is only a power that God has. Now, if that happened, wouldn't that be something else? Imagine going to a cemetery, going to a funeral, and that happening would blow you away. You would be talking about that with everybody. So just keep in mind, like, this is not just a story that we read about that didn't actually happen. This was real people. And then I wondered, how did he come out? I mean, he's wrapped in grave clothes. Did he. Some people ask, like, did he hobble did he float? Like, how did he get out of there?
[00:40:36] I don't. I don't know. We can ask him when we get to heaven. Speaking of which, imagine being Lazarus.
[00:40:44] He grows up as a little boy, 2,000 years ago, this town of Bethany. He doesn't get married. He hangs out with his sisters. He knows that one day he's going to die. He gets really sick, then he dies.
[00:40:54] That would have been really unfortunate, like really hard. Obviously. Then he goes to paradise. It's probably like paradise. It's wonderful.
[00:41:03] He's hanging out there for however long that is our days for four days.
[00:41:10] And then he's doing whatever you do in paradise. And then he gets this call from off in the distance saying, lazarus, it's time to come back. He's like, what?
[00:41:21] Things were great here. It was paradise here. So he comes back, he sees everybody, and then he has to die again.
[00:41:32] But at least next time he goes to heaven and it's wonderful for him there.
[00:41:40] Let's close with a few thoughts here.
[00:41:43] What Jesus did here is no more of a miracle than what he has done in inside of you and I as followers of Jesus today, we can look at this and say, wow, that's incredible. Look at the immense power this would have taken. We clearly couldn't do that. But Jesus has done that in you and I. We have gone from dead to alive in our relationship with Jesus. We have gone from far from God to being friends with God. So as we look at the story, we might say, wow, but truly, friends we must have jaw dropping, awesome view of the work inside of every person who has trusted in Jesus Christ.
[00:42:25] Even more so when we see someone move from. I am not following Jesus. I'm resisting him. I'm resisting him. I'm resisting him to. I'm ready to submit to him that friends is more of a miracle than what we just read.
[00:42:37] So much more of a miracle.
[00:42:40] We have to stand in awe of that. I want to give you two things to meditate on in this passage, from this passage and two things to apply to your life. So if you want to write things down, two things to meditate on and two things to apply. First thing to think about or question to consider. Is there an area in your life that you have no hope that that situation or relationship could get any better?
[00:43:06] Is there an area in your life that you have no hope will get any better? Because that was real for them and Jesus showed up and changed that. Secondly, Jesus has the power to change anything from utter hopelessness and sadness to that of complete joy. He did that literally in a moment as he calls Lazarus come out. And then Lazarus comes out. Everyone grieving there.
[00:43:31] Their sadness went to complete great joy.
[00:43:36] Do you believe that the Jesus you worship has that kind of power in your personal life? Not just for somebody else, but where you're feeling hopeless, where you're feeling sad and broken? Do you believe? I think he can change that in an instant. And I'm willing to be like Mary and run to him and ask him to do that.
[00:43:57] Two things to apply as we think about this. Firstly, seek.
[00:44:02] Dig through the word of God.
[00:44:05] And as you do that, look for the promises of God, both dependent and independent. Promises of God. Write them down and put them various places in your life. Maybe write them on little sticky notes and put them on your bathroom mirror, on your steering wheel, in your car, in a book, on a book cover or something like that. Find promises of God that resonate with you and put them in different places in your life. Because our life all goes. All of our lives go up and down and up and down. We have moments of doubt and moments of fear. We need to be able to come back to the promises of God and find hope. Last piece here. Second thing to apply wherever you are, commit today to go and spend time with Jesus.
[00:44:46] Spend 5 minutes if you spend no time. Spend 10 minutes if you spend 5 minutes. Spend 15 minutes if you spend 10 minutes. Spend time there with him and lay whatever is on your heart each day before him and say, God, what do you want to do with this? I need to trust you with it. And maybe you're here today and you have resisted and resisted and resisted the work of Jesus in your life. And let's be again like Mary and run to him and say, I'm going to trust you with my problems. I'm going to trust you with my fears. I'm gonna trust you with my doubt.
[00:45:15] And I'm gonna trust that you have the power to change me. So if you've never trusted in Jesus, your Lord and Savior, say, jesus, here's my life. I don't know what the rest of it's gonna look like, but I believe that you have better plans for my life than I do. And you can move me from being in a place of death and doom, of depression, anxiety, bitterness, anger, whatever that is, to experiencing wholeness in relationship with you. So I'm gonna entrust my life to you because as we saw in this story, it's going to be much, much better when we do just that. Let's pray together.
[00:45:50] Jesus, we are in awe of your power. As we look through this passage here, we see your power displayed in a very real way.
[00:46:03] Thank you. That we're able to come to passages like this and be reminded of your power and of your love and of your grace, of your comfort for us.
[00:46:11] Thank you. That we're able to sit before these words here and be called back to laying our life at your feet, coming and sitting before you and entrusting ourselves to you. For those here today, Lord, I pray that you would help us to do just that, to entrust our hearts to you for those here today. Maybe we've never trusted in you as their Lord and Savior, Lord, that they would do that today. Your spirit would urge them to submit to you.
[00:46:43] For those here today, maybe who have been resisting running back to you because of other things in their life, Lord, today would be the day they would run back to you and ask for help. Because you. You can do the impossible. The things that seem impossible to us, you do with ease.
[00:47:00] And so we rejoice in that. Today we find great joy and hope knowing that we can look ahead, trusting you with whatever lies before us. In Jesus name, amen.
