Lazarus Raised

[0:00] So this morning we are in John chapter 11, the last sign, and if you have a Bible, please open it at John 11. And I'm going to read verses 1 to 46.

[0:25] John chapter 11. Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

[0:37] 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.

[0:51] 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.

[1:03] Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

[1:14] Then after this, he said to the disciples, let us go to Judea again. The disciples said to him, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you.

[1:26] And you're going there again? Jesus answered, are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.

[1:41] After saying these things, he said to them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him. The disciples said to him, Lord, if he's fallen asleep, he will recover.

[1:52] Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant he was taking rest and 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.

[2:08] But let us go to him. So Thomas called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go, that we may die with him. Now when Jesus came, he found Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

[2:24] Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.

[2:39] 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.

[2:51] 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.

[3:05] Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who believes, everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?

[3:17] She said to him, yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, the teacher is here and he is calling for you.

[3:30] And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

[3:50] 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 had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.

[4:10] And he said, where have you laid him? And they said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. So the Jews said, see how he loved him.

[4:23] 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 and came to the tomb.

[4:35] It was a cave, 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 order, for he's been dead four days.

[4:50] 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.

[5:05] 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.

[5:18] The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, his face wrapped with cloth. Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go.

[5:34] Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

[5:45] Then verse 53 says, So from that day on, they made plans to put him to death. Well, Lord, we pray that you would bless the reading of your word and that you would speak by your spirit to all of us.

[6:02] Well, there are a number of popular sayings in our culture about God and about Christian cliches.

[6:14] Whether or not you have grown up in a Christian home, you've probably heard these and maybe even used them. For instance, finish the saying, Love the sinner, hate. God helps those who everything happens for when God closes a door, he opens a window.

[6:36] What is for you won't. And finally, God won't give you more than you can handle. Popular Christian cliches.

[6:49] But are the actual biblical truths? You see, at best, these things are half-truths and mistaken sentiments. And some of which have come from misunderstanding Bible verses.

[7:02] So when I was searching for Christian cliches, perhaps the one that I found more often than any other on practically every list was that last one. God won't give you more than you can handle.

[7:15] But really, is that true? Have you, perhaps, in here, have you ever felt like you have had more than you can handle? You see, this comes from, perhaps, misunderstanding something that Paul said.

[7:30] When Paul said that no temptation has overcome you that is not common to every man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, they also provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

[7:44] But Paul here is talking about temptation. He's not talking about trials or hardships or suffering. He's talking about sin and temptation. But will God really not give us more than we can handle?

[7:58] I don't think that's true. I think many of us will testify to that. You see, imagine Jesus got word that Lazarus was ill and in need of his help.

[8:09] And he sent a message back saying, don't worry, Lazarus. God won't give you more than you can handle. The sentiment just doesn't work. It doesn't work when someone's in need of intensive care.

[8:22] You wouldn't say, don't call the ambulance. You wouldn't say, don't give them oxygen. You wouldn't say, don't treat the fever. God won't give you more than you can handle. You see, everyone in this story knows that Lazarus cannot handle what he's facing.

[8:40] Everyone knows that. And that's the point, isn't it? See, not only are there things in life that overwhelm us, but we are all heading towards a situation in which we have no control whatsoever.

[8:53] We will all go beyond the point of that which we can handle. You see, have you ever been in a situation where you thought, I've got this. I can handle this.

[9:04] And then suddenly it spirals out of control. and you realise you cannot handle it. Things like this happen in our world every day. Perhaps a parachute fails or a car is on ice, uncontrollable, or a marriage is falling apart or a loved one is slipping away.

[9:23] All these things, situations that are beyond our control. And so I think that's one of the big points of this final sign in John's Gospel is that there's something very real and very powerful that will affect every single human being whether we like it or not.

[9:41] And it's the greatest symptom of humanity's greatest problem. The universal problem of death is a direct result of the universal problem of sin. And if you have ever been to a funeral, you realise that it's completely beyond our control.

[9:57] It's completely beyond our ability to handle. You see, the one who dies cannot do anything about it and the one still living cannot do anything about it. And like Mary and Martha, most people will see this.

[10:10] Most people will see someone else face this before we ourselves face it. But we're all, every one of us, headed towards this. Regardless of what happens before, when this happens to each one of us, it will be more than we can handle.

[10:26] See, this final sign in John is a huge arrow pointing to one man, one man, one man who can actually do something about our most impossible situation.

[10:38] You see, the situation has to be impossible. The situation in this text has to be impossible. There can be no corner of darkness left that Jesus cannot pull us out of.

[10:50] You see, imagine being the servant. Imagine being this servant going to Jesus, delivering the message. And we don't really know how it went down, but the narrative suggests that when Jesus speaks, he isn't just talking to the disciples, but he was replying to the messenger.

[11:09] And he said this, he said, this illness does not lead to death. It's for the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. And maybe at that point the servant thought, well, he looked pretty bad when I left.

[11:24] Or perhaps the messenger was reassured. Perhaps they thought, well, Jesus is a prophet. He's got more information than we have.

[11:35] Perhaps Lazarus will be okay. Perhaps he was relieved to hear that this illness was not as serious as they thought.

[11:47] But either way, we can actually be confident in the messenger when he returned to the sisters had found that Lazarus had actually already died. He was now dead.

[11:59] And I tell you something, if I was the messenger, I would be very nervous about telling the sisters what Jesus said. Because you go back with this message that it's not going to lead to death and you find that Lazarus is already dead.

[12:14] What are you going to say? I would be very nervous because at this point it now looks like what Jesus said is wrong. And if you were one of the disciples you would be actually doubly relieved because not only would you think from his words that Lazarus would be fine, you also didn't want to go anywhere near Jerusalem.

[12:35] And Bethany wasn't far off Jerusalem. You wouldn't want to bump into any of the Jerusalem Jews again because they previously tried to stone Jesus. Now it's worth noting that although John mentioned Jesus' love for Lazarus and the message John himself as an editorial note that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

[12:58] Not only that but connects it with both his delay and also his going two days after. You see the sense is that he really did love this family.

[13:09] Not just as God who loves all those who he made but that Jesus is a man. Jesus had a particular and peculiar love for these people. See no doubt we're to notice that Jesus is always doing the will of the Father and Jesus is always and only acting according to his timing and not to any external forces or pressures.

[13:33] But there's also a very real sense that from what John is saying that Jesus' love is one of the things that motivates his delay and also motivates his going.

[13:46] You see his love for them was such that he would delay in order to give them something greater. Something better than if he went immediately. For they could have a healing just now and know Jesus as a healer or they could see that he truly is the giver of life and the conqueror of death.

[14:06] See out of love he delays. Out of love he does what he does. They could have him now and gain a small faith or through delay they could have a greater revelation resulting in a greater faith.

[14:21] And no doubt in the midst of their sorrow they would be trying to reconcile the fact that they knew that Jesus loved them yet the fact for some reason he had not come. How often would they be out there checking to see if he was coming?

[14:36] Where is he? Where is he coming? You see that's a perfectly natural thing to do. Perhaps you're praying about something. You ought to pray with faith.

[14:48] You ought to ask God with expectation. But where do our thoughts go when we check and we check yet it seems like he's just not coming to our aid? See we're in the same situation.

[15:02] Where do our thoughts go when there seems to be no answer and we wonder if he even got the message? We wonder if God is even coming to our aid. Does it make us question whether he even cares?

[15:17] And I don't just mean about you as a person. We trust and know that God cares. But about your situation. Does God care about your suffering? Does God care about your pain?

[15:29] Does God care about your sorrow? You see what I think John wants us to learn here is that if there ever should be a delay, it's not because that he doesn't love us.

[15:42] It's not because that. If there should ever be a situation come up that's far too great to handle, it's not because he doesn't love us. If there should ever seem to be no answer to prayer, if there should ever seem to be no God coming to your aid, it is not because he doesn't care.

[16:02] See any such delays are not from a lack of love, rather because of love. Jesus has given his life for you and if you believe then you have become one of his.

[16:14] If you are then one of his, know that he is handling things for you. Any situation more than you can handle, any apparent delay, he is on it more than you know.

[16:26] The truth is that the only delay is in respect to when we think help should come. whereas Jesus, Jesus is always working according to a better timetable.

[16:38] You see, heaven's clock is different from earth's clock. His timing is perfect, even if to us it seems delayed. With respect to Lazarus, not only does it seem delayed, it seems too late.

[16:53] What if the thing that you're praying for never happens? What if the marriage is already over? what if the diagnosis comes and is exactly what you prayed against?

[17:05] What if the job is already lost? What if the person's already died? What if the thing that you were praying for, it's like David when he was praying for his son, and yet it's too late.

[17:17] It's too late. And I'm not saying any of these situations can be made any easier or any less painful, but this final sign in John shows us that you can have faith in Jesus even when things are too late.

[17:34] Just because a thing has already happened or passed, we cannot think that Jesus cannot still do something spectacular or completely unexpected. You see, when we begin to think that he doesn't care, we must remember that his love is far more present and burns more brightly than we can ever realize.

[17:53] Just when we think it's too late for him to help us, we must remember that he knows in his perfect time he will visit us. Nothing is impossible for Jesus.

[18:04] Nothing is too late for Jesus. Nothing. And so just as this family and the messenger know that Lazarus has now died, so Jesus spells it out for the disciples. There's a lot of confusion to get past with them and eventually he gets to the point where they know he's dead and they know despite their desires and efforts to stop going to that risky region, they're going to go to Bethany to see a dead friend and probably a bunch of Jews who hate Jesus.

[18:34] And let me just say that there's a lot of stuff going on in this chapter and I'm not going to be able to cover everything, not just for the sake of time, but also last October at the end of the month we were in this chapter and we covered many things in that.

[18:49] So if I'm skimming over parts like this section with the disciples, it's because they're in that other sermon which you can catch online on the website. So Jesus and the disciples are nearly at Bethany and Jesus finds that Lazarus has already been in the grave four days and then he finds Martha coming out to meet him on the way and the first thing on her lips is her sorrow and discouragement that he wasn't there.

[19:16] If only you had been there, Jesus. If you had been there, my brother wouldn't have died. If you had been there, how many times would we be tempted to say the same thing?

[19:28] If Jesus had been here, these things would not have happened. If only God would have intervened, we would not be in this situation. Where was Jesus when I was going through this?

[19:40] Why didn't God intervene before it got this bad? God? We remember that that was the very experience of Helen Rose Fear.

[19:53] Things got really bad and she was asking, why God did you not intervene before this? She found that he was present more than she knew. And then she says, but even now, even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.

[20:12] And I don't know what she expects when she says this. Perhaps she's just saying this that she's glad that she's here and although it's too late for Lazarus, maybe Jesus yet has something to offer the rest of them.

[20:25] I don't think she expects anything for Lazarus. Even although Jesus then replied that her brother will rise again, her response shows that she thought it was just some sort of words of comfort and consolation.

[20:40] You see, her response is typical for a Jew at that time. But when Jesus replies, his words are the whole point of this sign and some of the most important words that we can ever hear.

[20:52] You see, her view of life after death was a future resurrection, particularly one reserved for the people of Israel. Her hope in death was a future afterlife that was secured by your ethnicity.

[21:08] She calls it the resurrection on the last day. That's what she calls it. And she thinks that God will be the one doing the raising and the Jews will be the ones raised.

[21:19] And if you want to be a part of the resurrection, then you would have to become a Jew and keep the law. But Jesus blows that out of the water. And at that time they thought of the resurrection as being some future event.

[21:33] But Martha is now told that it is neither merely future nor is it neither merely an event. The resurrection is a person and that person is present standing right before her that very day.

[21:48] Martha says I know that he'll rise again in the resurrection on the last day. In the resurrection. He'll rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

[22:00] Jesus says I am the resurrection. You're thinking about the last day? The last day is standing right in front of you. The resurrection is standing right before you. I am the resurrection and the life.

[22:14] Whoever believes in me, not that last thing, not that event, not your ethnicity, not this or that. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who believes in me, everyone who lives and believes in me, shall never die.

[22:30] What do you say, Martha? Do you believe this? You think that the resurrection is a thing way over there? Well, I am the resurrection and I'm right here.

[22:43] I'm right here with you. Do you believe? This thing that you think is on the last day, it's me and I'm standing right here right now. What do you think?

[22:55] Who do you think was going to be raising people on the last day? No, if you said God, you would be right, but look, I am here. Here I am, the resurrection.

[23:07] I am here. I am the one who raises the dead. And in this, Jesus is making a very clear claim to be God. God, I am the resurrection.

[23:17] I have the power of life. Who do you think the resurrection is for? Who do you think the resurrection is for, Martha? Well, I'll tell you, whoever believes in me, whoever believes in Jesus, and everyone who believes in Jesus, because Jesus is the one, the only one who has the power over death to give life to whoever he will.

[23:45] Jesus gives life and no one can stop him, not even death. You see, this is the promise of Jesus to do the impossible no matter how late, no matter how far gone it may be.

[23:56] There is no corner of darkness that he cannot pull us out of. There is no corner of death that he cannot find us and give us life. That's the promise to everyone who believes in Jesus.

[24:09] You see, Jesus wants to show us that our faith needs to go beyond the grave. We mustn't give up faith when a situation we're praying for doesn't happen.

[24:20] We mustn't give up faith when we cannot think he can hear us. We mustn't give up faith when we think he doesn't care or when we think he isn't coming. We mustn't give up faith when we're certain that death is going to swallow us up.

[24:35] We must go into all of these things and beyond them with a faith that is sure enough that whatever the darkness we descend into is, when the time is right, Jesus will come and he will pull us out and give us life like we never had before.

[24:52] Jesus wants to show us that when we do have faith in him, this faith is sufficient even when things are too late. This faith is sufficient even when things are too far gone like the body of Lazarus.

[25:06] Faith in anyone else will fail, but faith in Jesus is more than sufficient for the impossible. Faith in him is sufficient for a dead body wrapped up in a grave to walk out when he calls their name.

[25:23] You see, others will rely on their ethnicity when they go to the grave. The Egyptians relied on a coin in the mouth to pass over. Others rely on good deeds when they go into the grave.

[25:34] Some rely on their ancestors and others rely on false promises from false prophets, but Jesus is not a false prophet. Only faith in Jesus will suffice, and faith in Jesus is all you need to pack in your suitcase when you're going on that one-way trip to the grave.

[25:53] That faith will suffice when things are too late. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in him, though they die, yet shall they live. Everyone who lives and believes in Jesus shall never die.

[26:07] That's the promise that Jesus has given here. And his question to everyone is, do you believe this? Because everyone who does believe this will receive the promise.

[26:21] And so Jesus, Jesus is never all talking, no action. He wants to know where the tomb is. Mary comes to him and has the same comments as Martha, and the Jews come also, and they're all wailing and mourning loudly, as was their custom, and they also comment that Jesus could have prevented this.

[26:42] And something about all of this disturbs Jesus. Seeing how they were mourning causes this strong emotion in Jesus. And this particular bit is quite a tricky section because different translations and particularly different commentators disagree over what Jesus' response here is.

[27:02] Now when John writes, he was deeply moved. Deeply moved in his spirit and troubled himself. The Greek is a bit stronger and less common.

[27:14] You see, the term deeply moved in the Greek actually is a term that means to snort with anger like an angry horse. The term means indignant. Jesus was indignant.

[27:26] What does that mean? You see, the term is used both when he sees Mary and the Jews wailing and also again when he came to the tomb just after the Jews were commenting on Jesus' emotions.

[27:42] And couched right in between these two moments of indignation is the moment Jesus wept. Now many people assume that Jesus wept because he loved Lazarus. He really did love Lazarus.

[27:54] But the narrative of John doesn't position it like that. it doesn't position it that he wept over Lazarus because he knew what he was going to do. Others think that Jesus moments of anger and weeping were over the nature of death.

[28:10] And it's that it's against the purpose of God. But again, I think it's not really how John positions it because Jesus has life in and of himself and he's going to give it.

[28:22] He has power over death. You see, I think there are likely layers to Jesus' emotion here. And Jesus is not weeping for his friend because he knows he's going to raise him.

[28:34] And he's not merely weeping or angry at death because he has the power of life over death. And he's about to demonstrate that. But rather, John positions it in relation to the way that the people were mourning and probably to some of the people themselves.

[28:51] And I think this is evident in that he's included this very thing as a sign. This is a sign and indeed the final sign.

[29:02] And this is important in relation to people. So very briefly I want to look at two layers that I think are perhaps the most prominent in causing Jesus to be angry. First, the way the people were mourning.

[29:16] The word used to describe Mary's weeping and the Jews' weeping is not the same used for Jesus weeping. The way Mary and the Jews were weeping was different from the way Jesus wept.

[29:27] You see, they were mourning in a kind of worldly despair and they were wailing in a custom. Perhaps some of them it was ingenuous as well.

[29:39] More on that in a minute. But given all that Jesus has said up to this point, both the message that he sent back and also the words to Martha, given who Jesus is, and given all the signs that Jesus has done previously, why are these people still mourning and despair as if Jesus can do nothing about this?

[30:00] When Jesus is right there with them, if he is the resurrection and life, why is there such despairing weeping as if he cannot do anything about it? So I think the first layer is that their mourning betrayed their disbelief in who Jesus was.

[30:18] It betrayed their unbelief that Jesus really was who he says he is. And later Jesus will say to Martha, he'll remind her, he'll say, did I not tell you when she protests at him opening the tomb, he says, did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?

[30:35] God, this betrays unbelief that Jesus really is the resurrection and the life. And so his anger and strong emotions are as if to say, you all keep saying to me, Martha, Mary, the Jews, all keep saying, if only you were here, if only you were here, you could have done something about it.

[30:59] And Jesus is thinking, do you still think that I am only a healer? Is that all you think? That all I can do is heal a man?

[31:12] Is that who you think I am? Do you not know me yet? So that's what I think is going on. The way these people are mourning and what they are saying is if they only believe that Jesus is a healer and nothing more.

[31:26] Secondly, the people themselves, like before, even the sisters who he loves are not believing the words that he's just spoken to them. And they, more than the Jews, should know who Jesus is.

[31:39] They should know better. But more than that, the Jews themselves, many likely among those who were around who tried to stone Jesus, the Jews that the disciples were nervous to be around, the ones who complained time and time again when Jesus did miracles, they are weeping for Lazarus, as though they care that he's dead.

[32:03] And they're also saying that Jesus could have prevented this just like he healed a man born blind. Do you notice that? That John adds that, that they say, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?

[32:21] Well, that's a bit of a kick in the teeth because you saw how they responded when he did heal the blind man. He didn't respond very well. So these people, these people really didn't like the things that Jesus did.

[32:40] And now they are acting like they care about Lazarus, as though they care he's dead and as though they care that Jesus could have prevented it. And now perhaps some of them do, give them credit, some of them will be mourning, some of them will be supporting the sisters.

[32:58] But some of them who were mourning over Lazarus being dead were suddenly not very happy when he was brought back to life. What does that say about them?

[33:12] Seeing the power of Jesus to give life only made them want to report him to the authorities and secure his death. What does that say about them? We must remember that this is a running theme in John and this is why I think it's an important thing in the final sign.

[33:31] This is the climax of signs that Jesus performs. And the Jews, we know a running theme in John is the Jews demand signs but every time Jesus gives them a sign they do not believe but they grow more and more hostile towards him.

[33:47] The disciples themselves earlier in this chapter anticipate it they anticipate trouble from the Jews here. They know that they've tried to stone Jesus before and Jesus is all too aware of their attitude.

[33:59] So I think when you see these prominent threads run throughout John you can see that Jesus' anger and strong emotion positioned alongside what the Jews are doing and saying in this account because he knows that despite all of their weeping all of their mourning and all of their comments that Jesus loved Lazarus and he could have healed him he knows that even if he raises Lazarus back to life some of them will still refuse to believe and instead they'll run off and secure his death.

[34:32] And so Jesus is indignant. The final and greatest sign will still be rejected by the Jews. How can this be?

[34:43] Despite being apparently concerned for the dead they don't really want the one who can bring the dead back to life. They would rather kill him than believe in him. And this will only result in their own not receiving life in the end.

[35:01] So Jesus does the impossible. He orders the tomb to be opened despite the protests about the smell. And at this point Lazarus isn't just ill.

[35:11] He isn't just dying and he isn't even just dead. But his body is now showing signs of decomposition. This isn't a resuscitation he's going to perform. Opening the tomb at this stage is more like exhuming a body.

[35:26] And there was this belief as well among the Jews that a soul would wait around hovering over the body going to and fro waiting to see if it would enter the body again. But after three days when the face began to change colour and the body began to smell and show outward signs of decay the soul would then leave knowing for sure that it would no longer re-enter the body.

[35:50] Now it has been four days and that is why they protest. The body will now smell real bad and there will be no way to bring it back. No way.

[36:01] The soul has now gone. But how can Jesus show them that he really is the resurrection unless he raises a body that is too far gone? You see if the resurrection that they expected was on the last day when everyone is too far gone then he is showing them right now that he is the resurrection.

[36:22] He is the one that raises those who are too far gone. He and he alone can do this. And it has to be utterly impossible. It has to reach the darkest corners of the grave so that everyone who believes in him can be sure that he can actually do this.

[36:39] We need to be sure that he can do this when we go into the grave. We need to be sure that he can do this when we have been lying in the grave for 400 years. Whether he comes before we die or whether we die before he comes we need to be sure.

[36:56] And so Jesus does this to reassure us to encourage us to exhort us that faith in him is sufficient even when it is too far gone. They open the tomb Jesus calls out Lazarus come out.

[37:13] And at that moment a decaying dead body obeys the command of Jesus. Who is Jesus? And it is not a zombie or a mummy that comes out.

[37:24] There is no smell. There is no decay. Jesus has fully restored him soul and all. And many of the Jews at this point did believe. Which was a great thing.

[37:35] But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. And from that day on they made plans to put him to death. You see John has given us these signs so that me and you may believe.

[37:50] Yet he shows us the consequence of not believing the signs through the Jews who constantly reject them. John says then in the next chapter in 1237 this is what John writes.

[38:06] though he had done so many signs before them they still did not believe in him. And then John concludes in 1240 quoting Isaiah 610 therefore they could not believe for again Isaiah said he has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts lest they see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them.

[38:34] You see after this moment in John's gospel he doesn't do another sign. Jesus doesn't do another sign nor does he walk openly among them. From chapter 12 on it focuses on the disciples and his passion week but the door has effectively closed on the Jews.

[38:54] They have continually rejected the signs even to the point of rejecting the one who can bring the dead back to life. And so John concludes that with a quote from Isaiah and the interesting thing is Acts the book of Acts also finishes the same way in chapter 28 when Paul finds the same stubborn rejection from the Jews he concludes also by quoting the same verse in Isaiah 610 the same quote saying that since the Jews would not believe God will now turn to the Gentiles.

[39:31] And here we are. So this final sign that John shows us is both the tragedy of rejecting signs that you are rejecting the resurrection and the life.

[39:46] You're rejecting the only hope in the face of death and judgment yet it also shows us the greatest hope through one of the greatest signs to encourage us to put our faith in the only one who can reach into the most impossible situation and pull us out.

[40:04] John has shown us before he gets to the end of his gospel and says he did many more things the Jews didn't believe but I have written these things that you may believe and that by believing you will have life in his name.

[40:21] Only faith in Christ will suffice and whoever believes in him though they will die yet shall they live and whoever lives and believes in Christ will never die.

[40:38] Do you believe this? Let me pray and then we're going to play a song through a video. You might know it, you might not. If you know it you can sing along. If not you can reflect on it but we're going to have a video song after this.

[40:52] I'm going to pray then we're going to do a song. God our heavenly Father we thank you so much for the Lord Jesus Christ. For any of us believing in him this morning we only believe because you have made him known to us that you have shown us his glory and that you have given us the faith sufficient to believe in him.

[41:17] Father we pray that our faith would be firm that we would know that Jesus is the only one who can do this that we would know that faith in him is sure no matter if things seem to delay that faith in him is sure no matter if things seem too late Father help us to be sure that this faith that we have in Christ will truly lead to life even when we die because everyone who believes in Jesus your son though shall they die yet shall they live because you have given Jesus your son the authority to have life in and of himself and you have given him the authority to give eternal life to all whom you have given him and so we thank you for Jesus we thank you for the life that we have through faith in him and we pray that our faith would be sure and that we would be sure of our faith in him and that any who yet are still to believe would put their faith in Christ we pray in his name for his glory amen amen