AM John 11:43

[0:00] Chapter 11, two sections of this chapter, and we're going to read first of all from verse 17 to verse 27.

[0:11] Now this is entitled The Death of Lazarus, and we've been looking at the story on different occasions when we've been here, and we're going to take it up again this morning.

[0:22] So first of all, in this chapter from verse 17. Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

[0:34] 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.

[0:52] 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.

[1:05] 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.

[1:20] Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.

[1:38] And then we've got Jesus' encounter with Mary, and we go on at verse 38, where we've got the account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead at verse 38.

[1:51] Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, take away the stone.

[2:01] Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odour, for he has been dead four days. Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?

[2:18] So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me.

[2:31] 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.

[2:45] The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, unbind him, and let him go.

[2:58] 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.

[3:11] Just to there, may God bless to us this reading. Chapter 5. John's Gospel, chapter 5. Some verses from verse 19.

[3:22] Amen. Amen. So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.

[3:42] For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself is doing.

[3:54] And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead, and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.

[4:08] The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father.

[4:19] Whoever does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life.

[4:35] He does not come unto judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

[4:53] For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

[5:09] Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming, when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and come out. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

[5:27] May God bless to us this passage also. Let's turn to John's Gospel, chapter 11. We're going to look at this story that is entitled, Jesus Raises Lazarus.

[5:40] And what we've got here in verse 43 is the central statement of this passage. When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.

[5:55] Now, you may remember that we've been looking at this chapter. And last time, because it was communion, we changed the order of doing things, and we missed out this passage, and took the next one, because it was more appropriate for a communion service.

[6:14] So, now we're going back to this passage that we missed out, and we're going to deal with what is the central part of the whole chapter, namely, the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

[6:25] Now, that sounds simple. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. But the account, actually, is really much more complex than that. It's got different bits attached to it.

[6:38] So, there's the story of the rolling away of the stone. And there's the prayer that Jesus makes to his father. And then, there's the story of Lazarus being raised.

[6:51] And after that, there's the account of what happened through the testimony of the women. So, there's these four elements in this story. And it's difficult to trace the relationship of one to the other.

[7:04] But we're just going to go through the story, bit by bit, learning what we can from each section, and then try and sum it up at the end, bringing out the main gist of this wonderful idea that God has power over death, and loves to destroy it.

[7:21] What we've got, first of all, is a preliminary activity. Namely, we've got the rolling away of the stone. And that is preliminary to what is going to happen.

[7:36] It's something that has to be done before the main thing takes place. Because it wasn't that Lazarus was buried in the ground and covered over with earth, as we normally dispose of the dead.

[7:50] It was that there was a cave, maybe a natural cave in the limestone rock, or a cave that had been carved out by human hands. And here it had been put into that cave, and a stone had been rolled over it to keep wild animals out, and keep the body safe.

[8:09] And that's the stone that needs to be rolled away. And Jesus asks for it to be rolled away, not in order that he might see Lazarus, but in order that Lazarus might come out when he's been raised from the dead.

[8:23] So it's a preliminary to the main event. But it seems that Martha doesn't understand it in that light. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said in verse 39, Lord, by this time there will be an odour, for he has been dead four days.

[8:42] Now, up to this point, Martha, it seems to me, has done pretty well in this story. You know what I mean? Okay, she did say to Jesus, Lord, if you'd been here, our brother would not have died.

[8:56] Okay, we understand that in the circumstances. But she also goes on to say some quite positive things. Even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.

[9:10] So that's the beginning of the story. She's got some confidence in Jesus, whose prayers will be answered. And Jesus goes on to teach her, I am the resurrection and the life.

[9:23] In other words, you'll find resurrection in me. If you want to know what resurrected life is, look at me and rest upon me and enter into that life that I can give.

[9:34] And she seems to take that aboard and she says, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God and so on. So she seems to have come out pretty well in this story so far.

[9:47] But here it seems she didn't really grasp what was happening. She doesn't understand this as a preliminary to the main event. She doesn't say, Oh, he's doing this so that Lazarus has come out.

[10:00] He's going to raise him from the dead. Simply she objects to it happening because of the terrible smell that there's going to be when a body has been there lying in the grave for four days.

[10:11] The body decomposing much more quickly than in our cooler climate. So here is an expression of unbelief. She hasn't grasped the purpose of Jesus in doing this.

[10:24] And Jesus therefore has to correct her. And he says to her, Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? So what he's saying to her is this, Look, what you're saying shows that you haven't appreciated what I'm about to do.

[10:41] If you'd realised what this meant, you'd be jumping with joy and saying, Yes, he's going to do it. But here you are complaining about it. Just remember, just remember what I said to you.

[10:54] So he's rebuking her for her unbelief. But he's also encouraging her faith. He doesn't say, I'm going to raise your son, your brother from the dead.

[11:05] He says, Did you not realise that if you believed you would see the glory of God? I'm going to show the glory of God in this event. He doesn't say he's going to raise Lazarus.

[11:18] And Martha is left to figure it out now. How is he going to show the glory of God in this event? And then her faith is meant to click in again and she says, Ah yes, I know what it is.

[11:29] He's going to raise Lazarus from the dead. What more glorifying to God than that? So what he's really saying to her is, Look, you fail to understand my purpose. You fail to enter into what I'm doing on this occasion.

[11:44] Just think of what I said I would do and put your trust in this fact that I'm going to raise them from the dead. That it seems to me is the significance for Martha of this preliminary event of rolling away the stone.

[12:01] And I think that's quite interesting in a way. Think about it for yourselves. Martha, it seems to me, is more connected with Jesus in her mind.

[12:14] Mary is a feeling person. Martha thinks through things. And when Jesus says, I am the resurrection, the life, it's a doctrine that she embraces.

[12:26] And that's the difficulty with people that take things into their minds. They sometimes have difficulty translated it into practice. And I suggest that that may be the sort of thing that's happening here.

[12:40] Martha said, yes, you are the resurrection and the life. She's agreed with that as a matter of fact. But she can't apply it to this situation. And that is what Jesus is encouraging her to do.

[12:53] And I say that because many of us were brought up with this intellectual appreciation of the gospel. We were told the doctrine and we had no problem with the doctrine and we received it.

[13:04] And we embraced it as truth. But you see, we have to carry it into practice. And we have to remember that the doctrine that we believe, Jesus as the resurrection and the life, has to be translated into something active as in this case here.

[13:20] An appreciation that Jesus is actually going to raise Lazarus from the dead. So, he's encouraging her to have faith. He's encouraging her not just to have sound doctrine but to carry it into practice.

[13:35] And those that have been brought up with a sound appreciation of the truth or have come to a good doctrinal knowledge, we have to remember that that's what has happened to us.

[13:46] It's good to have doctrine in your mind. It's far better to be able to carry it into practice so that it makes a difference in daily life. That's the preliminary to the big event.

[14:00] Now, the second thing that we've got here is quite unusual. It's Jesus' prayer in verse 41. Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me.

[14:14] 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. Now, I say that this is unusual.

[14:27] Not that Jesus is praying because there's nothing unusual in Jesus praying. But he lets people overhear his prayer. There are other occasions when this happens, in Gethsemane especially, and two or three occasions in John's Gospel.

[14:46] But it's rather unusual, and we should treat it at that level. What a remarkable thing this is. Here is the Father and the Son speaking together, and here we are allowed to hear the conversation.

[15:02] And not just are we allowed to hear the conversation, the conversation goes on for the sake of the people that are standing there, that they might believe.

[15:14] So, he's praying, okay, he's praying for himself. But he's praying in this way so that others may hear his prayer. That's unusual. What we've got in the prayer is self-revelation.

[15:28] Here is the revelation of Jesus' relationship with the Father. Father. So, this is the second element in this story. There's been the preliminary of rolling away the stone.

[15:40] The second element is this revelation of Jesus as a close to the Father. And you can see how close it is. I thank you that you have heard me.

[15:51] Here is somebody saying, you've answered my prayer. You've responded to my request. I'm grateful to you for doing that. And that implies a real connection between Jesus and his Father.

[16:07] And it's a constant connection. I knew that you always hear me. This isn't a one-off thing that just happened on this particular occasion. It's a constant experience of Jesus' life.

[16:21] There's a constant communication with heaven. Here he is talking to his Father. Here is the Father responding to him. Here there is a oneness of purpose.

[16:32] So that whatever the son asks the Father does, they've got the same goals in mind. They've got the same priorities before them. There's the same great plan being worked out. So that whatever the son asks the Father does, because they're united in purpose.

[16:49] And this is something quite remarkable in the way it's expressed here. And not only that, you see, but he says, I thank you that you have heard me. What's he talking about?

[17:01] Well, I think he's talking about the power to raise Lazarus. This is what he's going to do. And he's asked God, the Father, for the power to do it.

[17:12] And he's already thanking the Father that that power is his. So even before it's a reality to him, he's grateful for it. He's so sure that it's going to happen, that he says thanks for it before he even gets it.

[17:29] And that, to my mind, just wraps up the closeness of the relationship between the Father and the Son. There's a unity here between the Father and the Son that is quite remarkable.

[17:44] And a unity of purpose and more than that. The closeness of the Father, that's what's brought out in this prayer. I and the Father are one, he says, and this is an example of it.

[18:00] But he does this, you see, so that people may benefit from it. I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me. How did the people benefit from that?

[18:13] Well, just think about this as well. These are thoughts that I'm throwing out for you to think about. I'm not saying this is definitely the case, but do think about it. I do wonder if Martha feels pretty bad about this, or maybe pretty good about this.

[18:27] I wonder if Martha feels that Jesus is speaking to her, because this is the sort of thing that she said when she first met Jesus on this occasion.

[18:38] I know that whatever you ask, God answers you. She appealed to him as the one whose prayer God answered. She knew that about him.

[18:50] And she's maybe just been slipping a wee bit, and this is a reminder to her. When I ask, God does answer, just like you originally thought.

[19:02] And if I'm asking for lasses to be raised, you can be sure of this, God will answer me, just as you thought originally. This is also of use to the women who are hearing the eyewitnesses, and we'll come to that in a moment.

[19:18] But it seems to me that this sets the sort of perspective from which we should see this whole matter. This is the context in which Jesus actually raises Lazarus from the dead.

[19:32] The context is one of him doing the Father's will, of cooperation between the Father and the Son. that's the way we have to see this.

[19:43] It's not the Son working on his own, it's the Father working through the Son. And that's something that most of us appreciate pretty well.

[19:55] But sometimes I've heard it said that people have not entirely expressed this relationship correctly in regard to the Gospel.

[20:05] people. And I've heard the idea stated that God the Father was angry until Jesus turned away his anger. God the Father was angry with his people until Jesus gave his life on the cross.

[20:22] And the anger of God was turned away and changed to the spirit of love. Now we understand what people mean, at least I think I understand what people want to say when they say that.

[20:35] But that really isn't the way of looking at it. As if God was not really very willing for salvation. And he had to be persuaded to save people because Jesus gave himself on the cross.

[20:50] That's not the way. There's complete cooperation. As here the Father and the Son are completely united. So it is in the plan of salvation. The Father and the Son are completely united.

[21:02] God so loved the world that he sent his Son. It is that God begins to love his people because Jesus died for them. It's that Jesus died for them because God had begun to love them.

[21:16] Complete cooperation. And that's the spirit in which we have to see this. He wants us to see this as an act of God through Jesus, the Father and the Son, cooperating together as one in the purpose of God for raising Lazarus from the dead.

[21:33] And that leads us to the main event, namely the demonstration of God's power over death. Notice here, going back to the opening verse of this section, Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb.

[21:50] Now we looked at this before. Jesus was sad and deeply moved over this event. And what was it that made him indignant, as this word is sometimes translated in this verse?

[22:04] What made him so indignant when he saw the tomb? He's indignant at death. He's angry at the presence of death. Death is such a terrible thing.

[22:17] It brings suffering to so many people. It brings distress. It's a very, very sad thing when somebody that's been in the prime of life is showing all his qualities and abilities.

[22:29] And then he's lying in the tomb, lifeless. It's a horrible thing. And it's a thing that makes Jesus, that makes God indignant. That's the way we've got it presented here.

[22:42] in large time, we're not going into this more. But you see, this is the way that Jesus went about this. Here he is approaching a dead person and he's saying, what a horrible thing death is.

[22:54] It's an enemy and it's an enemy that I'm going to destroy. And that's what he does here, in the case of Lazarus at least. Some have raised questions about this matter of Jesus speaking a loud voice.

[23:10] When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice. And they say, what difference did it make? Lazarus was dead and he couldn't have heard it even if Jesus shouted at the top of his voice.

[23:22] Or whether he had whispered, it wouldn't have made any difference at all. That I think is a kind of petty objection, but I've heard it made. And you can see right away that this again is done for the sake of the crowd.

[23:37] He wants everybody to know precisely what is happening. There may be people at the back of the crowd that can't see what's going on, and he wants them to know that it isn't any writer's ceremony that is performing, any magical art or anything of that nature.

[23:51] it's just a simple word of command. And he wants them all to hear that word, and that's why he cries out in a loud voice. It's not because he's speaking to a dead man and wants him to hear, that he raises his voice.

[24:09] He wants everybody to know precisely what is happening. That's part of the explanation. The other part of the explanation is that what do you expect when there's a command, an authoritative command given?

[24:27] Do you expect it to be done in a whisper, in a quiet voice? Something authoritative and a loud voice announcing it go hand in hand.

[24:40] When Jesus, when God created the world, he said, let there be light. Now, we can't imagine it, but we can't certainly imagine him whispering that.

[24:52] It was a voice of command, a loud voice of command we would imagine. And that's what's happening here. Here is the power of the creator. Here is the power of the redeemer.

[25:03] Here is the one who is king over death. And he's issuing an authoritative command to death itself to be done with. And he's doing so with a loud voice because he's got authority to do so.

[25:19] You don't expect a royal decree to be read out in a mumble. You expect it to be read out distinctly and clearly and loudly. And that's what's happening here.

[25:31] And so we've got this command that is issued. Lazarus, come out. Nothing more than that. A word of command accompanied by the authority of God. And he comes out.

[25:43] It is a wee bit strange what happens here actually. The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth. One could imagine Lazarus coming out, striding out of the cave with a smile on his face, ready to surprise the people and glad to be alive.

[26:07] And that's an easy picture to try and conjure up if somebody's been raised dramatically from the dead. But it wasn't like that. his hands and feet are still bound with the grave clothes and there's something over his face.

[26:20] He can't see the expression of his face. He can hardly move. And you've got to imagine crawling out of the cave like a snake, wriggling around the ground to get out. And it's only when he's out that they loose the cloths.

[26:33] That just by the way of course to explain what's happening here. So don't have in your mind's eye a picture of somebody strong striding out of a cave happily. It wasn't like that.

[26:45] But nonetheless it was just as dramatic. Here is death rebuked and here is one that is dead responding. And that's the big picture in this which we'll develop later.

[26:58] But that's the big picture here. Who have we got here? We've got God destroying the power of death in this particular case. And we've got the indication as we'll develop that this is the sort of God we've got.

[27:12] Somebody who looks at death as an intrusion into a perfect world and wants to be done with it. And this is expressed through the work of our Lord here because it is he who brought that about through his own death and his own resurrection.

[27:29] But that's the big idea that we've got here. We've got here a demonstration of God's power over death. The last thing that we've got, the last incident we've got is the aftermath here.

[27:44] 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. Now the Jews who had come with Mary are Jewish women mainly as far as we can gather for what has been said previously in the story who would come from Jerusalem to comfort her in her bereavement.

[28:13] So these aren't the poor country people of the area. These are the city dwellers in the capital city and they are prominent people therefore in some sense and some at least have access to the authorities.

[28:31] And this is what happens. Some believe, okay, no problem about that, and some go and tell what has happened to the chief priests and elders and so on to the Jewish council.

[28:45] And as we saw last time, the Jewish council take action on that basis to have Jesus put to death. And this is part of the story for John. It's the central element in the story.

[28:57] What did the raising of Lazarus lead to? it was, we might say, the first step to Calvary. The first step of the last lap to Calvary, we might say.

[29:10] That's what it was. Because it led on to him being condemned by the council and the decision made, we must put this man to death or else we're in trouble.

[29:21] And that's what we saw last time. But the point is this. Here are these women who have seen this. they go and tell what has happened. And I think if they tell the whole story, you can see the significance of the previous events that were mentioned.

[29:38] They come to these leaders of the Jewish nation and they say, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. And they're going to say, are you sure he was dead? Maybe they just thought he was dead.

[29:51] And they'll say, no, no. He was in the tomb. They opened the stone, they rolled away the stone, and we knew he was dead. He was dead and decaying.

[30:03] We know that for sure. And they go on and tell the story of what's happened. And perhaps they say something like this, that he made this prayer.

[30:21] And they tell the content of Jesus' prayer. And they say, you know, he was talking to his father. And they were one in purpose. Everything the father, everything the son asked the father gave.

[30:35] Always. That's what he said. He was claiming a relationship with the father as if they were one. And if they say that sort of thing to this Jewish council, it's like a red rag to a bull.

[30:48] So, I don't know if that's true literally, but metaphorically at least, it's something that would stir them up and make them really annoyed. Because this is a problem we've had with Jesus before.

[31:00] A few chapters back, we read this. This is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him. Because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father.

[31:13] Making himself equal with God. And if these women tell this prayer, then what they're doing is adding fuel to the flames. They're going to say he's at it again.

[31:27] Calling God his father. Making himself equal with God. Speaking as if they had one purpose, one outlook in life, as if they were one. We can't have that. And it's stirring up opposition that leads to his death.

[31:42] And I think this is an essential part of the story of Lazarus. It's the beginning of the journey, the last stage of the journey to Calvary.

[31:53] Here, from this point on, they're going to kill him. And the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead is key to the way that they saw things. So much so that they wanted to put Lazarus to death as well at one stage.

[32:08] And this is part of John's story. He's saying to us, look, yes, this is a great thing that happened, but look what it led to. It led to the Jewish council condemning him and putting him to death.

[32:23] And I reckon that Jesus knew all that. And when he rolled away the stone, he knew it would be used as evidence against him. And when he prayed the way that he did, he knew it would be used as evidence against him that would inevitably lead them to say, this man must die.

[32:41] And he did it deliberately because this was his plan and purpose to go to the cross. And the instrumentality that was used was this incident of Lazarus being raised from the dead in the way that he was raised from the dead.

[32:57] And that completes the four incidents in this story. Now I want to wrap it up. And I want to say that this, in regard to the central point, is a template of God's actions.

[33:12] In other words, the essential features that we see here are acted out in other circumstances, in other circumstances, following the same template, the same pattern.

[33:25] This is a template of God's actions. It's a template of God's actions in regard to the personal life of Jesus.

[33:36] I think I indicated this before. When Jesus was troubled in spirit, as it says earlier on in this chapter, I think he was also remembering, just as this man has died, so I am to die.

[33:55] Because troubled in spirit was something that came over him every time that he thought about his death. Jesus was troubled in his spirit and testified, truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.

[34:10] Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose, I've come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Being troubled in spirit is so closely associated with the death of Jesus, that I reckon that when he was troubled in spirit here, he wasn't just troubled for Mary and Martha, or even Lazarus.

[34:35] He was troubled because he saw this as a foreshadowing of his own death. This was a template of what was happened to happen to him. He was going to die, he was going to be in the grave, and he was going to be called forth to the grave to eternal life at a new level, inconceivably greater than anything we can imagine.

[34:59] This, for Jesus, was a template of his own experience. Another thing I have to my mind back set up is the way that he keeps speaking about him being glorified through this, God being glorified through this.

[35:13] I don't doubt that God is glorified through the resurrection of Lazarus, but if this is just a template or a picture of a greater resurrection that is to come, it seems to me that Jesus may well have been thinking about that when he spoke about God showing his glory.

[35:32] If this is an event that leads to his death, his death and resurrection, then I can see that it wasn't just the death of Jesus, it wasn't just the raising of Lazarus that was glorifying to God, it was the death and resurrection of Jesus that was partly in mind here.

[35:51] For Jesus, this was a template of his own experience. As Lazarus was in the tomb, so was he to be in the tomb. As the father raised Lazarus through Jesus, so the father raised Jesus from the dead.

[36:07] a template of Jesus' experience. It's a template also of human experience. This is what we read about in John 5.

[36:18] An hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out. This is the second coming. Jesus coming again with a shout of command, says Paul in Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 4.

[36:34] He'll come with a shout of command. What's he going to say? He's going to say what he said to Lazarus. Lazarus, come out. And he's going to give the shout of command as he comes.

[36:46] Come out, all you who are dead. Come out, all you who are in the tombs. Come out to life. That's what he's going to shout. And that's what Jesus is referring to in this previous part of the chapter, or this book.

[37:00] An hour is coming, and now is, when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out. And that enables us to say, this is human experience. The day is coming for all of us, when a voice of command will be given, and the dead will be raised to life.

[37:15] And that's a wonderful thing to think on. It's glorious to think, no more death. The intrusion, the enemy that is death, destroyed, because Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

[37:29] It's a great thing to think about, but there's terms and conditions attached. There's a warning attached to this as well, because Jesus also spoke about some being resurrected to life, and others being resurrected to condemnation.

[37:48] Yes, all who are in the graves are going to hear his voice and come out, but all are not going to be raised to the same destiny. Some will be raised to glory, some will be raised to experience what is sometimes called the second death.

[38:04] And that will be the fate of those that don't trust in the Saviour. This is a template of the resurrection of all humanity. It's a template also of spiritual experience.

[38:19] And of this too, Jesus spoke in that other passage that we read in John chapter 5. He didn't just say that the hour is coming when people in the graves will hear his voice and come out.

[38:30] He also said this, Truly, truly I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voices of the Son of God and those who hear will live. Oh, you may say, isn't he speaking about the resurrection from the dead?

[38:42] No, not at this point he isn't. He's speaking about a spiritual resurrection. He's saying there are people who are dead in their sins. They can't respond to the call of God. They're blind to the beauty of Christ.

[38:54] They're unaware of the danger that they're in. They can't walk in the ways of God because they're dead, dead, dead. And they're going to hear the voice of the Son of God and they're going to come to life.

[39:06] They're going to hear the voice of Jesus speaking in the gospel and under the influence of the Spirit those that are dead are going to come to life. And they're going to come to know the blessings of salvation.

[39:17] So they are given spiritual life and they're able to walk in God's ways because they're no longer paralysed. And they're able to see the beauty of Christ so they come to him and take him as their own. And they're able to hear his voice so they can walk in his ways and respond to his teachings.

[39:33] Because they've been given life. And this is a template of that spiritual experience. As Jesus said, Lazarus comes out.

[39:43] So he says to people today, come to me. And they come to him. Come to him though they're dead. Because the Spirit has given them life. And they respond to him. And they rest upon him.

[39:55] And they turn from their sins. And they receive his grace. And they're brought to life, spiritually speaking. And that's what we need to keep in mind when we think about the great day of resurrection.

[40:08] When all the dead will be raised to life again. If we've had this spiritual experience of being raised to life by the power of the Spirit, then that will be a glorious resurrection for us as well.

[40:19] well. So that it seems to me is the way that finally we have to look at this passage. Wonderful Lazarus raised from the dead. Wonderful Jesus raised from the dead. Wonderful that everybody is raised from the dead.

[40:32] But more wonderful too in his own way. That he speaks today and says come to me. And people that are dead in their sins come to him. And they receive life that gives him the full assurance of the great day coming when Jesus will say come out and they will rise to glory.

[40:52] And so let's make sure that we've responded to the call of God and the gospel. Let's make sure that we've passed from death to life because we've heard Jesus in the power of the Spirit addressing us and we've responded and we've passed from death to life by receiving the gospel and resting on him.

[41:13] May God bless to us his word. Thank you.