Not everyone is afraid of death
-Some are more afraid of life, as it is, than death as they perceive it to be
I say that because I’ve used the fact that most people have a fear of death in evangelism before, and I’ve had people tell me…”I’m not afraid of death…when you’re dead, you’re dead…like going to sleep.”
-The fact that they are not afraid of death doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be.
-The fact that they say they are not afraid of death, doesn’t mean they won’t be when it comes down to it.
On the other side, not everyone is enamored with “eternal life.”
There are major religions whose ultimate goal is to escape the endless cycles of eternal life. (the repetition of reincarnation)
To tell this person they can have “eternal life” is to offer them what they are trying to escape.
For others, eternal life is thought of as a boring…disembodied, vague, endless existence.
Now these are based on misconceptions…death is not merely endless sleep, peace, or a “better place”
Death is not an escape from consequences…it leads to lasting ones.
According to Jesus, death leads to a final judgment…then the eternal presence of God or lasting separation from him.
And Eternal life is not just “more of the same” eternally existing as we currently know it.
And
It is not a disembodied everlasting boredom.
It is an entirely different kind of life…that begins at conversion and doesn’t end with physical death.
Jesus said…
“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?”
Resurrection and life are not used here as repetition for emphasis (that happens often in Scripture) …here they are two different but complementary things.
I am the resurrection…is future tense…those who believe in me, though they die, will be raised to resurrection life on the last day.
I am the life…is ongoing present tense…those who believe in me will never die.
Yes, ordinary mortal life will slip away, but the different kind of life that Jesus gives will never end.
I am the resurrection…you will live though you die.
I am the life…you are forever spiritually alive in me and it starts when you are born again.
This is the already, but not yet experience of eternal life
It is ours now, a promise that is guaranteed…but it is not ours in fullness now, it is a promise that remains in part in the future.
Chapter 11 marks the turning point in John’s gospel…for the remainder of his book, Jesus is headed to the cross.
Over and over Jesus has said, “It’s not time”…but in the next chapter he will say, “The hour (time) has come).
The last half of John’s gospel is about the last week of Jesus’ life.
This turning point is marked by the climatic and most dramatic of miraculous signs…the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead.
Jesus’ quest to bring his friend to life is what leads to the ultimate decision by the authorities to put him to death.
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.”
Jesus was an actual man, who had people he was closer to than others.
My pastor growing up regretted the fact that after 30 years at the same church, he had no close friends there.
He told me that he had been taught as a young pastor, that you can’t make close friends, or you will alienate some of the congregation.
He said, “Some will think you like others more than them.”
Well, of course, you like some more than others…that’s called a friend.
But to be friends with some, doesn’t mean you can’t be pastor to many.
Jesus was a close to friend to some, Savior to all who believe.
I say all that, so that in our minds, we will be careful to not make Jesus into some kind of spiritualized ideal of a person.
He is presented in Scripture as a real person…much like us, and yet very different than us.
If we fail to apprehend him in our thoughts as a real person…it will hurt our ability to know him personally in our day to day lives.
Do you talk with him throughout the day, asking him for help, guidance, wisdom…in all the things you face?
Some of you do…some this is a new idea.
He wants to include you in his circle of friends…even as Moses was called a “friend of God.”
Why? He obeyed…and he was also very honest with God.
Moses knew God was God…and he did over step at least once…but he talked with and walked with God as a friend.
Do you only come to Jesus for the “big things” or the only during your “prayer time” or only when trouble comes…
Or do you ask him for help with a project at your house(wisdom, success), with a budget, a computer issue, a sore throat….help to you understand the Bible, to say the right things in a conversation.
I don’t mean to treat him as a genie or an omniscient help desk…I mean as a friend who is alive and wants to be included in your day to day life.
Jesus loved His friend Lazarus…and he was near death…but death would not be the end.
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.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was.
Lazurus sickness would lead to his death…but it would not end in death.
Jesus stayed two more days after hearing the news of his friend’s illness…this was not callous…it was love.
Look at verse 5, “NOW, Jesus loved them” Emphasizing his closeness to them.
Then verse 6…SO he delayed.
John’s wording describes the Lord’s delay as being tied to his love for Martha, Mary, and Lazarus…how can this be?
Well, he was up to something big, and it was bigger than what his friends could comprehend.
His love was revealed in his delay that would lead to a manifestation of his glory
When God wants to get glory in our suffering…we tend doubt to his love…because we are suffering.
When in fact, one of the key ways he shows us his love…is by revealing his glory even through our suffering.
If we turn from him, rather than to him when trouble comes…we miss out.
The trouble doesn’t go away, but we are no longer positioned to see the purposes of God in them…because we have turned away from God rather than to him.
Jesus loved them…so he delayed…in to reveal his glory to them and through them.
7 Then after that, he said to the disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again.” 8 “Rabbi,” the disciples told him, “just now the Jews tried to stone you, and you’re going there again?” 9 “Aren’t there twelve hours in a day?” Jesus answered. “If anyone walks during the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks during the night, he does stumble, because the light is not in him.”
The disciples of Jesus were shocked…”They just tried to kill you, why are we going back there?”
“Because there are only twelve hours in a day.”
Before accurate time pieces both the Romans and Jews divided daylight into twelve “hours” or variable blocks of time.
Not hours as 60 minutes, but hours as the daylight divided by 12.
People did most of their work during the daylight time frame and stopped when the sun went down.
So, if we operated with this system, In June, your 12 work “hours” (blocks of time) would be about 70 minutes long (the day is longer) and in December, your “hours” would be about 45 minutes long.
We largely ignore the sun now in regards to our workdays with electricity lighting our streets, homes, offices…even our fields when necessary.
For his hearers, Jesus is saying…you work while it’s light…not in the night.
He is the light of the world, darkness is coming, he will soon die…he will raise from the dead and return one day.
But now is the daytime…work and do the will of the Father now…he was resolute in this.
They are saying, “Hey, don’t go there, you might die.”
His response is, “I do wherever my Father wants me to do, this is why I came.”
He was going towards those who wanted him dead…because he is determined to do the work for which he came.
He did not seek save his life but laid it down…first for Lazarus…the cause that took into danger…then for us all…as he went to the cross.
We cannot, we must not, live trying to hold onto our lives…this simply cannot be done (we are going to die) and it is the surest way to waste our lives on the way to death.
We are to do the will of God with our lives…it is the reason we have been given lives.
Work while it is day…what are you saving your life for anyway?
No one saves their life…we will spend them or we will waste them
11 He said this, and then he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m on my way to wake him up.”
OUR friend is asleep (euphemism for death) and I am going to wake him…raise him from the dead.
He’s our friend, but you guys can’t do a thing about his condition…only I can.
12 Then the disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.” 13 Jesus, however, was speaking about his death, but they thought he was speaking about natural sleep. 14 So Jesus then told them plainly, “Lazarus has died. 15 I’m glad for you that I wasn’t there so that you may believe. But let’s go to him.”
These guys can be dense…”Lord, if he is asleep he will be fine.”
“Guys, He’s dead.”
Jesus through supernatural means knew that Lazarus was already dead, this is two days after receiving the news of his illness.
“I’m glad I wasn’t there” isn’t Jesus being callous…there are bigger things in play here.
16 Then Thomas said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go too so that we may die with him.” 17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
He is called doubting Thomas, but you have to admire his courage here.
After a two day walk to Bethany, Lazarus had now been dead four days.
18 Bethany was near Jerusalem (less than two miles away).(this is John telling us that he was that close to deadly danger) 19 Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. 20 As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22 Yet even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”
Martha is not rebuking Jesus but confessing faith…”If you had been here, he would not have died…now that you are here, well God will do whatever you ask.”
23 “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.
24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Martha takes the Lord’s words much like we would if someone comforted us at a funeral…”Well you will see them again someday. ”
That’s not what he means..
Jesus doesn’t correct her with, “No, I’m not talking about the future, I’m going to raise your brother from the dead right now”
Look at what he says instead.
25 “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. 26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Jesus is not asking her if she believes he is about to raise her brother from the dead or even if she believes in the final resurrection of the dead.
He wants her to see him as resurrection life.
Do you believe that “I AM the resurrection and the life?”
Do you place your hopes fully in me?
Raising Lazarus in that moment was going to be temporary, because he would die again.
His resurrection was a sign, like all the rest of the signs…pointing to Jesus.
The life that Jesus gives is permanent, unending life…resurrection life.
She \responds with a statement of personal faith.
27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who comes into the world.”
Jesus is concerned now to see his friend Mary, so he can comfort her.
Martha wants to give her sister her own private time with Jesus.
Unfortunately, she won’t get it.
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.
They were going to go cry with her, a cultural norm of the time.
Now instead of being alone with Jesus she has a watching crowd in the middle of a very tender moment.
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!”
Her response is similar to that of her sister’s but filled with much more emotion and it’s not private…people are watching.
The Lord, always full of situational awareness…responds differently to her than to her sister.
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.
“Deeply moved in his spirit” can also be translated “Jesus was outraged in spirit and troubled”
The words translated “deeply moved” are elsewhere used in the Bible to describe anger.
So, what was Jesus angry about?
And why did Jesus weep? Was it sad tears or was it angry tears or both?
Let’s look at how those present interpreted the Lord’s display of emotions.
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?”
For some the tears were evidence that he loved Lazarus, they were thinking that his grief was like theirs…despair, ultimate loss of a friend.
They were right and they were wrong…he did love Lazarus, but his tears were not like theirs…there was no despair in them.
Others remembered the healing of the man blind born blind and thought…”couldn’t someone who did that, have prevented this?”
Maybe he is crying from remorse, or guilt…missed opportunity.
Yes he could have prevented his death, but they were wrong in assuming Jesus had failed to do what he could or should have done.
For them, if they could stop a friend’s death…they absolutely would have…why?
Because they lived doing what they wanted to do…what they thought best.
Jesus, however, lived for his Father’s glory and the ultimate, not the temporary good of others.
They were still as has been the case throughout John, focused on the signs, the displays of the Lord’s power…and missing the whole point of them, they point to Jesus as Savior and Lord.
They point to ultimate, not temporary things.
The miracle supply of fish and breads…long consumed…but for those hungry in that moment, it was the “point”
The man whose eyes were blind from birth…experienced his sight being restored … but those eyes closed in death one day long ago.
Lazarus was raised to life…but he died a second time.
This all pointed to something greater…they pointed to Jesus and why he had come.
He didn’t FAIL to prevent Lazarus death…these tears were not that kind of sadness.
He loved Lazarus…SO he delayed.
He loved Lazarus…So he wept
We will have to ask Jesus what exactly was in his heart when this happened…but the evidence points to Jesus being angry and moved by sin, death, and the continued unbelief of people.
These three things are tied to together in John
Death is the result of sin, and the refusal to believe in Jesus as Lord is to remain in bondage to sin and death.
Then Jesus is moved in anger again.
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.
Jesus is straight forward here; he is acting with full command authority.
He doesn’t gather the family around and say, “Okay, guys I’m seriously considering raising Lazarus but I’m going to need to get that tomb opened. Is that okay? I’ll give you some time to think about it.”
There are times, when people are flooded by emotions, and it is loving leadership to be clear and concise…direct.
Jesus is kind, but he is in charge.
“Remove the stone.”
Immediately Martha gives him a reason why it’s a bad idea.
(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.”
Jesus has clearly already asked his Father for Lazarus life; all he has to do now is thank his Father for the answer.
He is not “praying for the crowd”…he is drawing them into the intimate fellowship he has with his Father.
Jim Lewis will spend a lot of time praying in advance about his public prayer given on Sunday mornings.
One time a person suggested that it was a negative thing that he had written out his prayer…that it ought to be spontaneous.
First of all, all the prayers in Scripture are “written out”, so there is that.
But in addition…it is not less intimate and spiritually powerful to seek God in private as to how to pray in public.
Public prayers should reveal a person’s private prayer life
Jesus often withdrew by himself to pray in private…his public prayers give us a glimpse, just a glimpse of what went on in private between him and his Father.
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.”
It has been said that the authority of Jesus is so great that had he not specified “Lazarus,” all the tombs would have given up their dead to resurrection life
Now that is usually said tongue in cheek, but the point is well taken.
There is some truth to it in principle at least.
Jesus is much like us, and Jesus, in his power, is very much unlike us.
He is fully man, fully God.
Lazarus rose then with a restored physical body, Jesus will in a little while from this point, resurrect with what Paul calls a spiritual body in 1 Cor. 15.
Lazarus died again, Jesus never will…that is our future destiny.
This was the final sign of Jesus but like all the signs before it…it pointed to something greater than itself.
It pointed to who Jesus is.
This chapter ends with the final plot to kill Jesus.
CONCLUSION: I want to focus on two passages from this chapter in our final application.
I the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in him will never die.
When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled. “Where have you put him?” he asked. “Lord,” they told him, “come and see.” Jesus wept.
What do they have in common?
How should they shape our lives and ministry?
Jesus was angry, and Jesus wept because of the ravages of sin and death, and because it is unnecessary to remain a slave to them.
John has written this so that we would believe and have life in Jesus.
Life that doesn’t end when we die, but also a life that doesn’t wait until we die to begin.
A wholly different kind of life now.
Jesus wept and felt compassion and he was full of anger.
I think the tears were from both places…compassion and anger
The word used for Mary’s weeping is a different one than what was used for the weeping of Jesus…John did that on purpose.
That word for how Jesus wept, usually means to lament in the face of some calamity.
He wasn’t grieving for Lazarus; he was about to raise him from the dead.
He wasn’t weeping because he was bringing Lazarus back from heaven as some have suggested.
Lazarus would have been happy to come back if it was for the Lord’s glory…pretty sure.
The calamity that moved Jesus was the calamity of unbelief that he was continually confronted with.
This is the worst possible human calamity…to fail to believe in Jesus, the Messiah.
What does this mean for us?
- Of course, it means that we must believe the gospel and be saved.
To not have believed the gospel and yet to have no fear of death is misguided…you should fear death.
And If you do rightly fear death, you don’t have to.
You can believe the gospel and the promises of God…and live and die someday with confident faith.
- Another application is that we should learn to live with the same tension the Lord had.
We should be known for our compassion and capacity to grieve with others as they suffer…but we should have a sense of outrage inside of us that people do not have to grieve without hope.
When people suffer and die without faith it should make us both sad and mad.
D.A. Carson writes, “Grief and compassion without outrage reduce to mere sentiment.”
We can become like Brene Brown’s model of empathy…where we only sit with others in their suffering without offering them the hope of Christ.
Military chaplains are said to offer a ministry of presence…this is good and powerful.
But if they don’t also offer a prophetic word, the truth of the gospel…at the right time…then they are missing their calling.
We should have broken hearts over the world around us…but it must be more than mere emotion…we have the very truth of God to offer people
There is no room for arrogance in this fact…we have received the truth…not because we are special or smart or good…but because of the grace of God.
But Carson goes on to give the balance:
So first: “Grief and compassion without outrage reduce to mere sentiment”
BUT
“Outrage without grief hardens into self-righteous arrogance.”
Jesus modeled this perfectly.
In Matthew 23 he gives his terrible “woes”…the devastating judgment that is coming on the city…and then he says…
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”
Judgement and mercy were perfectly united in the heart and mind of Jesus.
We will never find that perfect balance, but we must strive for it.
It starts with our own lives.
Even as we thrive in the grace of Christ in our lives, even as we live as the Father’s beloved adopted kids (we talked at length of this last week)…we must be angry at our own sin and never find it acceptable.
We must thrive in the love of Christ for us…but be angry at our own unbelief.
This is the balancing side of last week’s message…we are secure in our relationship with Christ, if we have trusted him and have been born again.
Now as his secure kids…we must find unbelief, in all its forms…unacceptable.
When I am selfish and unkind…and Christy checks me on it…I can get defensive.
I should, weep…sometimes I do…for my unbelief.
How is selfishness unbelief?…all sin is.
Jesus is Lord, he is resurrection life, he is abundant life…to believe him is to obey him…sin is a sure sign of unbelief.
To believe is to obey…to obey is to thrive in his life for us.
From our secure place as his children and friends…we should be angry and sad…first at our own unbelief…then with the unbelief that ruins the lives of people around all us.
John wrote, “I have written so you will believe that Jesus is the Christ and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
Believing is not just for initial salvation…it is the ongoing belief of relationship…the belief of friendship.