John 11: 28-44

[0:00] When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly... Mary rise quickly...

[0:39] Mary rise quickly... Thank you.

[1:12] Thank you.

[1:42] Thank you. Thank you.

[2:14] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Let's pray. Let's pray as we look at this text and we dive in to see what is going on here.

[2:28] One of the most powerful miracles. Thank you, Brother Jerry. Thank you, music team, for leading us in a time of worship in your Word. and now we get to look at that and study it. So let's pray. Father, you are such an amazing God.

[2:43] The Ancient of Days, as we pray, the one who has been before time began, before man even knew what time was, you were and are and will continue to be. So Lord, if we read your word that is eternal and that stands forever, does not wither and fade like flowers and grass, may you speak to us even this morning, 2,000 years from when this happened, from when this narrative was written.

[3:05] Thank you for giving this to us because we as Gentiles here in America would not have known who Jesus was but was not for your word and for your Holy Spirit and for the witnessing and evangelizing and mission work of your people.

[3:20] That is all because of you, Lord Jesus. God, would you eliminate from this word the truths that we need to read and hear this morning? Would you show us areas in our lives that we need to conform to the likeness of Christ?

[3:31] And would you convict us in areas where we need to be convicted? Encourage us in areas we need to be encouraged, God. But ultimately, you receive glory and honor and praise through the preaching of your word and through the sight of the Lord.

[3:44] We're always worshiping you, Lord. And we want to do so in spirit and in truth. So bless this time, Father. Would you be glorified through Christ's name we pray? Amen. So I have a question for you guys.

[3:57] You know, you should have to be a really encouraging person. And I'm going to be, I promise. Because this message, how could you not be encouraged by this message? But I want to open with a question. Kind of a bummer question. What's death? No, thanks.

[4:08] What is death? And how you view that and how you think of that, how I think of that, says a lot about our walk with Christ. It says a lot about our faith, about what our religion is.

[4:20] Because it's more than a religion, right? Way more than a religion. So what is death then? Is it a, it's a very uncomfortable subject, right? Especially if you've had someone pass away in your family or you know someone else.

[4:31] It's very difficult to approach that person and say, hey, I'm so sorry for your loss. How you doing? Probably not good. It's so uncomfortable, isn't it? Because it's a very serious thing.

[4:42] It's an element of natural life, right? I can remember my first pet dying. His name was Jeff. He was a raccoon. And he grew up in an interesting house. And I remember when he passed away just being so sad that like, wait a minute, little Jeff's not going to come back.

[4:54] Right? So it's uncomfortable. It's, but it's an element of life. There's a finitude to it, right? There's an ending of one season and going to the next. I remember as a kid, there was a graveyard nearby.

[5:06] And as a kid, I'd go there, it was a colonial graveyard. And I would read the gravestones because I was weird. And one of them was kind of neat, but terrifying. It was by this guy, the dude's name was Obadiah Sabin. What a name.

[5:17] And the quote said, death is a debt which I have paid and so must be. So, what a guy. Really, really uplifting. So is that what it is?

[5:27] Is it just a debt? Is that what it is? Certainly we know there's a physical death, right? One that separates our souls from our bodies. And of course, there's also the spiritual death. And if we are spiritually dead, then that means our soul is separate from God.

[5:40] And that's a result of our sin. A result of sin in mankind. So, these are ways you might describe death. I guess another aspect I'd be curious of is that, does that mean that death is the end of our hope?

[5:52] Does that mean we're just here to live 80 years if we're lucky and then that's it? And so, what does that mean looking, I want you to truly ask yourselves that question, what is death?

[6:03] How would I describe that to my son or daughter? How would I describe that to a person who is new in Christ? What is death? And is it an end of hope? Well, last week we learned that that is not an end of hope, right?

[6:15] There's one God who transcends all the evil in the world and even transcends death, right? But we're about to look at a set of siblings, a family here, siblings, who are grappling with the aftermath of death.

[6:30] All right? So, real quick recap of last week's sermon. There was a certain man, as it says in Scripture, his name was Lazarus, he was ill, Mary and Martha, their brother, that's their brother, sends word to Jesus, who's a ways away, at least today's journey.

[6:43] Jesus replies and says, this illness will not lead to death. That's interesting. And he said, from this, for this death, this will lead to the glory of God and the Son of God.

[6:56] Okay? So Jesus, because he loves them, then stays two more days where he is. And then he says, guys, let's return to Judea. He tells his disciples, we're going to return to Judea. And they say, are you sure about that?

[7:06] We just left here. You're going to get stoned. This is not a good plan. And he goes, no, no, no, no. This is what we're doing. We're going to wake him up. Oh, he's sleeping. God, okay. Well, he arrives there and he learns that Lazarus has been dead for four days.

[7:19] And that is significant. We're going to talk about that later, that he was dead for four days. Okay? Martha goes to meet him. Mary stays at home. That's at least how the Scripture stays there. I don't know if that was an intentional choice or maybe she didn't care.

[7:30] What have you. She's at home. So it's just Mary and Martha. And as Jerry shared, there's a beautiful conversation here between Jesus and Martha, right? Where Martha lets him, if you were here, if you were here, Jesus, my brother wouldn't have died.

[7:40] We don't know the tone. I'm sorry. I added that. But she says that to him. If you were here, my brother wouldn't have died. And he says, he's going to rise again. She goes, I know, almost like a platitude, I know he's going to rise again at the end of the day.

[7:51] At the end of time, when it's older, yep, I know that. He'll resurrect. And Jesus tells her the most profound truth that I am the resurrection. And Jesus says, I am the resurrection of life.

[8:04] Mike gave that awesome example of like saying, I am money. What? What does that mean? How do you comprehend that? I'm true on that. But that's what Jesus says. And he goes, do you believe that, Martha? And she says, yes.

[8:15] Yes, I believe that. So she has this confession of faith that leads into our section of this sermon now. And so what is her response?

[8:27] So she confesses, yes, Lord, I believe that. And she goes and she calls her sister. So she goes back home to call her sister and she says, hey, the teacher, which would be an appropriate time, pre-resurrection of Jesus, that would be an appropriate term for what Jesus was called, right?

[8:39] We know rabbi, but also teacher. It means the master of teaching. She would say, hey, the master is calling for you. And so she tells her this in private because what we know there, according to these verses, there were also many of the Jews from the area who had come to console and to weep with and to mourn with Mary.

[8:56] Now, Jesus was not fully into the town yet. It says that he was a bit of ways off, but he stayed there where he met with Martha. He stayed in that location. And so Mary gets up quickly, which says a lot about her love for him, doesn't it?

[9:08] Right? To hear that word, oh, Jesus is here? She gets up and she quickly goes out and goes to find him. And the Jews see that and they think, oh, she must be going to the tomb to wail. That would make complete sense.

[9:19] That would make complete sense in Jewish tradition to get up and then go to the place where your sibling, your brother, had died into mourning and weep there. So they get up and follow her to assume, hey, you're going to the tomb.

[9:32] One thing that's important here is there is no negative overtone here of what the Jews are doing. Okay? Sometimes in scripture we may see that when they're collectively called the Jews, which may be Jewish people, it may be Pharisees, you know, people in the religious rule.

[9:47] But in this specific instance, there is no negative overtone that what they're doing is wrong. And I think that's important because this is a beautiful example of what we can do when we're consoling a brother or sister who's in grief.

[10:00] I remember this time which just, again, blows my mind for reaction. My dad's best friend was brutally murdered by his son. It was that last year and it was so hard to, can you look at my right hand?

[10:15] It was so hard to think about because what I just said to you, I pray that that never happens. Right? He was murdered by his own son. And so the funeral, we all drove up to it and we went to the graveside and afterwards there was dozens and dozens of us who met and had a nice dinner with his wife.

[10:34] He was a believer in Christ. So hallelujah, he ain't dead, is he? Hallelujah. But we met with her and I remember, Helen, I don't know what to say. Just like you said, what was that? Do I say, how are you doing?

[10:45] That's a dumb question. Terrible is the answer. Horrible. This is the worst time in my life. So I remember just asking, is there anything we can do for you? This is beautiful.

[10:56] She goes, I'm just so grateful that you guys came out to be here. I'm just grateful that all of you people came out just to be here. So it means something. Okay? So if you have a friend or a loved one who is going through that grief of loss, just spend time with her.

[11:10] Just go and be there because maybe they want you to talk to him, maybe they don't want you to talk to him, but just being present shows that you care. Those words speak so much. And so that's what these Jews are doing here with Mary.

[11:20] They're consoling her and they follow her as they get up and she goes on. So in verse 32, Mary finds Jesus, again, where she was with Martha, where he was with Martha. And it says, Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying, his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

[11:41] Now this is the beginning of the first point I want to make here. That is the love of God is questioned by name. Okay? And I want to be careful when it comes to Mary and Martha because the scriptures do not impose atonement.

[11:56] Okay? What we haven't said is a sentence and they say the same thing. They say, Lord, if you had been here, he would not have died. That, honestly, is also a confession of faith. Right? Faith that they believe that Jesus had the ability and is capable to stave off death and whatever this illness was to stop it in its tracks.

[12:14] But we're going to see that there is a questioning of his love. So that's the first point. The love of God is questioned by name. So she falls to his feet to sign up worship, honor, respect.

[12:27] And it's almost a little bit of a less private gathering. So it's kind of funny that Martha may have gone to Mary to tell her, hey, why don't you go spend some time with Jesus? He's calling for you. You can have some private time. And then she goes and just falls before her.

[12:39] And that would almost be like a spectacle, right? To lay in front of him. And it says the same thing. If you had been here, if you had only been here, he would not have died. So I think the question would be, so what, why is she saying, what is she saying, why is she saying this?

[12:55] We can speculate on this. We can speculate that she may be complaining or rebuking Jesus. Confession of faith, like I said, it's recognizing his ability and who he is, although maybe in part, right?

[13:07] Because there's a finitude of death here that is implied by my mayor here. Well, dad, once you hit dad, game over, man. That's the end. That's almost implied a little bit in the response.

[13:19] It could be an accusation. Where were you? Where were you? We sent a messenger and he didn't come. In fact, I heard you stay. You stayed two more days. And you even said that this illness would not lead to death.

[13:33] And here, my brother is dead. He's been dead for four days. So like I said, this may allude to a hindrance in her faith, a limit that his proximity mattered, meaning that Jesus had to be here.

[13:46] He couldn't heal from afar or couldn't do something mighty from afar. His presence was necessary. And again, let's not cast any hardcore judgment on him for this because that was us.

[13:56] That would be us, hands down. I'll be honest. Man, we see the works in Power of Christ and it's so easy to read this 2,000 years later with the Holy Spirit imparted to us. But at that time, how hard it would have been to believe that this man could be God and that this man could do these mighty acts and miracles that only come from God?

[14:14] Come on now. Let's be real. So, but that limit there of the proximity, now by this time, Jesus had already would have healed the officer's son of Capernaum. If you guys remember, we read that in John 4.

[14:26] So he, if we're keeping track in the human sense, we can go, oh, Jesus can heal from afar. He's got that skill. He's invested in that skill tree for my gamers. Right? He has the ability to do long bombs.

[14:38] He can throw the, you know, God. How about death? How about death? Is that a barrier? Well, if we, if we look at the other Gospels in a chronological mindset, Jesus has actually raised two other folks from the dead.

[14:53] Now, very different circumstances and they're not in John's Gospel. John, John didn't write about that. Luke writes about one of them. It was a widow whose son was literally to bury him in his coffin and he, and he heals him.

[15:06] He places him from the dead, you guys. And he gets up and he just, it says in Luke that he starts talking, which I'm trying to envision that. Just imagine the top popping off of a coffin or something like that and the man gets up and goes, what's up guys?

[15:17] How are you doing? That death? That was radical. I don't even know how I'm here. Okay? This is, this is crazy stuff. Okay? Now, that one may have spread and shared. I've wondered about that. Did there any more than know about that?

[15:28] Maybe. It said that it spread, according to the Gospel of Luke, it said that it spread through all the Judea. So it's toxic. We don't know that and I don't want to add anything extra scriptural that's not here, but that's just something to notice.

[15:39] The second death that he healed was Jairus' daughter. That's seen in the other three Gospels, the Synoptic Gospels. And at the end of that, after he did raise her from the dead, he said, I charge you to tell them a little bit about this.

[15:51] Okay? So that one, I would think, did not share. We don't know. Many times he just tells people to do something and they don't do it. I don't see you guys. I'm one of them. I'm one of them. But the point is, that's very interesting.

[16:01] Would they have known that? And if so, would that have been a barrier or not? I don't know. And all we can know is what's here in Scripture. We're going to look at just the Gospel of John, but I wanted to mention that by this point, this is the third raising, but this is going to be really cool.

[16:17] So how does Jesus' response? So verse 33, 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.

[16:28] Interesting. And he said, Where have you laid him? And they said to him, Lord, come and see. And Jesus wept. Okay? Take a sip of water before this one because this is a doozy.

[16:41] All right, now. Deeply moved. Trouble. Initial reaction. You read that and you think, Oh man, he was really sad. He was really grieving. In fact, later they say that when he has these emotions again.

[16:53] But this is one of those times where taking a moment to dive deeper in God's Word, to dive deeper by looking at those who have gone before us like commentators, Bible scholars, reading the original language, the Greek.

[17:05] I'm not going to pretend I can read Greek. But taking that effort, oh boy, does that change the way you read this passage. That word deeply moved outside of the New Testament is used for the snoring of horses.

[17:18] If I'm interested. Snoring of horses. So imagine that. No, I'm kidding. Sorry. Sorry. But that's interesting.

[17:29] That's an interesting use of that word. And it would mean instead that he was ibrate and angered. Ibrate or angered. Hmm. Trouble. That's the same word that's used to stir up.

[17:41] Remember when they said the waters of the pool of Bethesda were stirred up? That would be the same kind of word. His emotions, his heart was troubled. So they were stirred. I'm sorry, his spirit was greatly troubled. It was greatly stirred up.

[17:53] So what would this look like? Knowing now that these are the words that John is choosing to use, what would that have looked like? I don't know. But we know that it was evident and obvious enough for the disciple John to recognize that and include that in his gospel.

[18:06] That's a truth. But these also are not words of empathy and tenderness. These seem to be that something is upsetting him and angering him. Now, why would he be angered and troubled?

[18:17] This is where we're going to have to speculate a little bit, but we're going to educate him. I mean, if you're going to look at what the Western Scriptures here is saying and what may be going through, okay?

[18:29] So one may be, he may be angered at a potential insincere expression of grief and sorrow and pain. Now, the people who were with him, remember, I said that there's no negative connotation of the Jews following.

[18:41] But there may have, there definitely would have been two flutists, what? Two flutists and a professional wailing woman. I laughed, I'm not going to lie.

[18:53] I hear you laughing. That's kind of interesting. A professional wailing woman. How do you get that gig? It's on USA Jobs. No. So this is just kind of history, though. This is where the Jewish tradition is to have two flutists and at a minimum you would have that.

[19:06] And it is to, again, to show that you cared for this person who's going through this grief. This is the tradition. Tradition. But is it possible that these people were grieving, like it says in 1 Thessalonians, like pagans who have no hope?

[19:19] So ones who are wailing and grieving because, again, the finitude of death is so strong that this is the end. So that's one reason, maybe. Maybe. Another is that is he angry at sin and its consequences?

[19:31] Jesus, who has been, at least for man, has been here since the beginning. His voice that spoke the world into creation. He saw how temptation gave birth to sin. And sin, when fully grown, gave birth to death.

[19:45] The lineage of death, Jesus is very familiar with. Right? As the God of the universe. So perhaps he's angry when he's seeing and realizing the effects of this death is leading to all these people in grief and pain and sorrow.

[19:57] I think those are very valid potential reasons. But personally, I'm leaning towards this last one. Okay? And I think that's because we're going to see a tie to this, which is that I think that we see that Jesus is angry and irate and troubled because of a lack of faith in who Jesus Christ is.

[20:12] That Jesus spent three years by this point professing that I am the Son of God. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I just called Mary. I am the resurrection and the life.

[20:22] And these people are wailing before him and not recognizing that hey, guess what? The life just showed up at a funeral. And I feel like when the life shows up at the funeral, there's got to be some hope and joy. Right?

[20:33] And I'm not saying they should be feeling joy and what have you. What I'm trying to say here is perhaps they're not recognizing and having a belief in who Jesus Christ is. Who Jesus is at this moment. And so his response is the emotion which is really neat.

[20:48] We're going to take a quick look at the interaction that Jesus has with each of the individuals. It's really beautiful. And my brothers Jordan and Micah bring that to mind. But let's see what Jesus does here. He says he asks where is the tomb?

[21:01] There's no further conversation like he had with Martha about dropping the found truth. Instead, he greets Mary and he looks. He's upset. He's great.

[21:11] It was trouble. And he asks where the tomb is. And he's doing this for their sake. Because let's be honest, this is the Lord of the universe. You think he doesn't know what cave they put above him? Of course he does. Of course he does.

[21:22] But this is for their sake. And we see this a lot where he chooses to walk in humanity to bless the faith of his people. That's cool. So then he goes and then this is a different word.

[21:34] It says Jesus weeps. This is a different word than the weeping and wailing in the Greek here. It means a quiet shedding of tears. So, why?

[21:44] And this is one of the fun things about studying the Bible is asking the question, why? And sometimes the Lord will give us the answer. Sometimes he won't. Sometimes he'll tell us to wait. But in here, we can again kind of speculate a little.

[21:55] Why is he shedding a tear? Doesn't he know he's going to raise Lazarus from the dead? What is there to cry over? Well, I think this is a beautiful opportunity to see the humanity of Jesus Christ.

[22:07] That he is entering into grief with the ones that he loves. Isaiah, the prophet, said that he was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief and bore our sins in grief. And if it's not on display right here, then I don't know what it is.

[22:18] He's weeping and shedding tears, again, not in a wailing way, but in a very personal way because this is his friend. And these are his friends. And they are grieving for the death of a loved one.

[22:30] So what happens next? The Jews, those who are here, says they see how he loved him. That's what a couple of them said. See how he loved him? But some of them said, could not the one who opened the eyes of a blind man also have kept him from dying?

[22:43] And then Jesus deeply moved again. You betcha. That is the same deeply moved, the snorting of horses. Came to the tomb. And it was a cave and a stone lay against it.

[22:55] Now, again, this is why I think what we have here is an anger, a righteous anger of Jesus Christ with respect to the unbelief that is in his presence. Because the Jews only believe that he is a man with healing powers.

[23:06] And even that, that is doubtful. Okay? Because they're saying, like, oh, the truth is blind man. Couldn't we have stopped this guy dying? Do you think if they were told, yes, yes he can, they'd be like, oh, I guess I'm a believer now.

[23:19] No. Right? We don't really see that in scripture. Instead, I think these are the kind of words that come from someone who is spiteful, potentially even sneering. And so they have a heaviness of heart, a hardness of heart, and spiritual blindness to see who Jesus Christ really is.

[23:35] And so again, his sincerity and his love is being questioned. Again, I say that we see that kind of, we can marvellify Mary, potentially, again, there's no tone there, but there's definitely a tone here.

[23:47] There's words a complete doubt of who Jesus Christ is here by the Jews, right? Now this, this is going to foreshadow, of course, here now that they're at the tomb, it's going to foreshadow his own death and resurrection, isn't it?

[24:00] Right? The tomb, there's mourners there, there's a stone there. Let's pick up here at verse 39. We're at the tomb now. Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha and his sister of the dead man said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor.

[24:13] And this is where you can have a lot of fun reading the New King, James Version or the King James Version because this one says he stinketh. So, what a phrase.

[24:24] Throw that one next time when your kids haven't bathed. You stinketh. So, Martha, think about this situation, you guys. Think about the pain and emotion that is going through Mary and Martha in his presence and Jesus says, take the stone away.

[24:41] I don't want to see my dead love going in. I have, he just died four days ago and I am trying to cope with that and you want to open up the tomb and show me the body.

[24:51] I don't want him to be remembered that way. I remember when my grandfather passed away and I, it was really sad but it was beautiful that my mom did this to my dad. He had passed away sunbathing, okay, and unfortunately no one had found him after a few days and it had rained, okay, and I thought it was really beautiful on my mom's account to tell my dad, don't, don't, don't go, let me take those.

[25:14] You don't want to see your dad looking like this. I can't help but think those same emotions and pain are what's going through Martha and Mary here, right? They're about to open this tomb and so this is a wound that would be reopening for them and also they have a law that says it's unclean to touch the dead much less to touch the gravestone that has been sent.

[25:36] This would be breaking in like Numbers 19 it talks about this. You would be ceremonially considered unclean for seven days if you were to touch it and remove the gravestone. So this is not a thing that's very, this is not something you do, okay?

[25:49] We talk about, I think traditionally we get this, right? Exhuming a body, that's not a comfortable thing, okay? It's not a great thing here and so Martha may have here a question of faith and maybe even a question of who Jesus is when she says, you know, he's going to stink, there's going to be an odor, you know?

[26:07] And so, and because he's been in there for four days, right? We already said that, he stinketh, okay? Jesus, he stinketh. You should have won a ball of lazar. I don't know about this. This is ugly, this is gross.

[26:19] Now, four days, remember I said there's insignificance here. This is cool. There was a Jewish belief that was held that after a body, the person died, that the spirit would stay and potentially hover over the body.

[26:33] That's the word that's used in our English translation. Would hover over the body for three days. After three days, gone. Okay? So in other words, within three days, if he comes back, he or she comes back, well, he just resuscitated him.

[26:46] Okay? So look at what Jesus was doing when he said that because he loved them, he stayed an extra two days. So he stayed this extra time to allow this complete finitude of death to see its completeness in man's mind.

[27:02] Okay? In man's mind, they would have been like, oh, he is definitely dead. My son loves the movie, the B movie. I don't know if you've ever seen that. I don't have to mention. But like, there's a line in there where he's dead up, dead from the neck, dead from the neck down, dead, dead, dead is a darned.

[27:14] That is exactly what Lazarus would have been considered. Okay? Dead from the neck up, dead from the dead down. In his four days, he stinks, and he is in fact dead. The belief that the, wow, Jesus really just pushed the spirit back into him, that, that's not the case here.

[27:27] So we're going to move now into the second point of the compassion of God for the faith of his people. We've already seen that his emotions would be triggered and been pushed and manifested enough so much so that John would write it down.

[27:43] But we see it's because of like a lack of faith, right? Now look what he does. Actually, no, I'm sorry. I want to highlight something cool from this week. So when someone is preparing for a sermon, like, can you pray for them?

[27:57] Because it's really cool. When that happens on both sides of it. When you're praying and blessing someone, even if it's through a text or what have you, you have no idea the benefit that the Lord will do in work, whether it's a word of encouragement or a, I did not see that.

[28:11] Hallelujah. Thank you. Well, I had one of those moments, so that's why I'm bragging on some of my brothers, Mike and Jordan and Rob, for many different points that are cool here. One of them is, check this out, look how specific Jesus interacts with intention with the different characters of the earth and the spider.

[28:26] with the disciples, he tells them, we're going to wake him up. They don't get it, just like we would. They're like, oh, he's just sleeping, cool. He's like, no, no, no, no, Lazarus has died and we're going to go and this is going to be for the glory of God and for the glory of the Son of God.

[28:44] Okay, so he specifically gets, he gets direct. With Martha, he drops the profound truth that he is the resurrection of the life. So again, through communication, you see that he's intent, he knows where Martha's at.

[28:58] She doesn't drop to her knees. So maybe that means that in a place she's a little more, maybe able to receive that truth. Does that make sense? So with Martha, he's very specific in telling her this truth that I'm the resurrection of life.

[29:11] And you know, she doesn't maybe get that in a moment, I share it with her, that guess what resurrection is coming now? I'm going to bring it today. In a few seconds, you're going to see it. And with Mary and the Jewish crowd, he interacts with them with this emotion and action.

[29:26] He's now moving to the powerful action. And so I want to thank my brothers for pointing that out. Look at how intentionally he is. And you know what? If you take a second to look at the gospel of John, that's how Jesus is everywhere, isn't it?

[29:38] He speaks with the woman at the wall. Don't knock the earth. He's a woman. Jesus is a American. That's not how Jesus acts, is it? He's very deliberate and direct. He talks with Nicodemus. Nicodemus, what are you doing here?

[29:49] Why don't you go back with your Pharisees? What are you doing here? And he talks to them and he drops more profound truths. It's a earmark of Jesus Christ that he loves each and every one of us distinctly, intentionally, directly, and personally.

[30:03] And that's really neat that we get to see that on display in this story. So I just wanted to highlight that. So here we go. Here's Jesus responding to Martha about the, about the, he stinks, he stinks. He says, did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?

[30:18] We don't know if this exact message got back to her, but this is what he said right back in verse 4, that this illness does not lead to death, it is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through you.

[30:30] And here's a statement that I was just blatantly plagiarizing from John Piper, so I'm just going to give him credit for this. But this is one of those where, chill in this sentence for a second, okay?

[30:44] It was more loving to put Lazarus through death and his sisters through grief if that would reveal more of God's glory to them and more of the glory of Christ.

[30:54] What do you think of that? That's a, whoop, really? This is implying that it is loving of God to allow us to go through hardships and trials and grief, even death, if it means more glory to him and more glory than Son of God.

[31:13] That is a truth, Lord, I wrestle with daily. That's a hard one, right? But, if that doesn't emphasize and underscore the idea that he must increase and I must decrease, I don't know what does.

[31:25] Right? So, think about that with this, that he was, he was demonstrating more love and compassion to allow them to go through this moment and he reminds Martha of, didn't I tell you, you didn't see the glory of God, right?

[31:40] So, he removes the stone and this is where Rob had something really cool to say. We see this both with the removal of the stone and we'll see it here with the great thoughts that he involves others in this.

[31:51] Now, I like, Rob, dude, I love how you put that in the end. When I do something, I don't want the credit. Right? When I'm giving a presentation, oh, I put that together in that picture, I drew it, right? And the fix, I'm doing that and I technically approve the ER and, no.

[32:06] But the point is, we can get very self-absorption, can't we? Now, this is the son of God, this is God who rightfully deserves all of the glory and honor and praise in every action, is the only one qualified for anything to do any of this and he chooses to engage and involve others who can now not only say, yeah, I saw that, they can say, I partook.

[32:25] I partook in this work here. I helped move that stone. I remember that smell. It was nasty. I remember the grave cloths. They were gross, man. Like, these are people who now can say, I was a part of that.

[32:38] And that's just, again, that love of Jesus Christ for the faith of his people and building up of that faith. And so he does that physically with a few of these people and he does it also spiritually. Check out his prayer and says in verse 41, And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me.

[32:57] 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. He's got others on his mind the whole time. Others on his mind the whole time.

[33:10] His prayer was for the people. I don't think this should be read as a prayer of someone who's like, Lord, I am so good and I knew what you do. Like we see some of the Pharisees doing, right, in other gospels.

[33:21] No, instead, this is a prayer. He's thanking God that he's already heard which means he's already been in communication with God. Jesus has always been talking to the Father. Remember earlier, Jesus says in the gospel that I only do what I see my Father doing.

[33:33] Right? Whatever my Father tells me to do, I do. And he's glorified through that. And he's honored through that. And so, again, he's been already directly communicating with him but he prays right now for the faith of his people around to understand that this is God doing this work.

[33:48] Okay? So this is our third and final point as we're wrapping up here is that the glory of God is revealed through the Son of God. The glory of God is revealed through the Son of God.

[34:02] And so here we have the resurrection. It's going to happen, you guys. No, Brother Jerry, thank you so much for reading the word this morning. That was awesome. It's a blessing to hear the word of God come from the tongues of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

[34:14] I've said it once, I'll say it again, there is no better word that can be in your mouth than the word that comes from our God from the ancient of days. But, and it's not here Jerry, but, if we're going to read this in a prosodic reading, meaning if we're going to read what's here and add some emphasis, oh yeah, here loves the word prosodic, sorry.

[34:33] She does. Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come! Right? I don't have to even do that, but that's how this was said.

[34:44] I cried, I yelled, it said he cried it out. This is the voice of authority. from the ancient of days. The voice that spoke the earth into existence. A voice that calmed the wind and the waves when they were with the disciples.

[34:55] The voice of the good shepherd calling out to his sheep. The voice of the very resurrection and the life calling out to Lazarus and the one that called you and me into new birth in him.

[35:06] That's the voice that's calling here. And it says that the dead man came out. Can I get an amen? Amen. The dead man came out. That's you and me, guys. This is a physical death, but a spiritual death may be coming out.

[35:18] Amen? Amen. And what's funny is if we think about this logically, this dude is wrapped up in the grave cloths. He has a cloth on his mouth. He's basically a hedgehog and we call him a mummy. And so what he would have done would have like hopped out or shuffled out because it says his feet were bound.

[35:33] So that's an interesting thought to think about. Okay? But his concern with his friend Lazarus, his first thing he says is take off those grave cloths. Unbind him. Set him free. Man, if you don't see the parallels to our resurrection in Christ, I don't know, guys.

[35:48] Come on now. Right? Now, he demonstrated that he is the resurrection right now. Okay? Mary had that thought, or sorry, Martha had that thought of like, I know the future of the resurrection that's great, but I'm grieving right now and he's now saying, do you see this, Martha?

[36:05] The future is now for your brother. I told you I'm the resurrection and I just proved it to you here with this dead body that stinketh and was dead for four days. Do you see now, Mary?

[36:17] That anguish and pain that you were going through when you fell at my feet, that would have vanished when Lazarus walked out alive because what would you be upset for?

[36:28] He's here. He is alive. He's breathing. Do you see, world? Do you see who I am now that I love you, that I gave, I'm going to give myself up for you. Do you see the glory of God, the Father who sent me here and of God, the Son, who I am?

[36:45] And so, do you see, believer, for us here today in 2023, do we see that he is in fact the resurrection and that he loves us and if he can do this with the man who will now die twice? That's a question for Lazarus.

[36:57] Dude, you went through death twice. What is that like? Let's figure out on that side of glory, you guys. Wow. Raised to unison life. What is the aim of John's gospel again?

[37:09] Well, if we read in John 20, 31, it says, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name. Life, you guys.

[37:21] Jesus. And so, we're going to look at this next week, but Jesus now is actually laying down his life for Lazarus. Okay?

[37:32] Because what he just set in motion by raising a man from the dead is a plot to kill him. Really. The God of the universe that gave you breath and life comes down and shows you he has the power to resurrect you.

[37:48] If you just have faith and believe and their reaction is kill him. And that would be my reaction too. And that would be our reaction. So we're going to look at that next week.

[38:01] What are the reactions? Well, praise the Lord. It says that many did believe. Many did see this sign of miracle and believe that he is the Christ and that he is God incarnate. But others, not so much.

[38:12] And I'm going to leave that for Mike. But I want to ask you that same question we started with this morning, you guys. What is death? What is death? In light of this passage, what is death now?

[38:25] To me, death is a doorway. It's like going from the kitchen to the living room. Yeah, maybe in the kitchen I can't see my family and my friends who perhaps are still here on earth, but it is a doorway that we walk through into eternity with Christ Jesus if we believe that he is the Lord and Savior.

[38:41] Amen? Amen. It is nothing but a doorway, you guys. And guess what? Guess who's the door? Jesus Christ is the door. is the door. Is there hope? Heck yeah, there's hope.

[38:53] And it's built nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Amen? And this was all done through his love for us. I love this, that God loves us mainly by giving himself to us.

[39:08] He loves himself mainly by giving himself to us. John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that whoever would believe in him might not perish but have eternal life.

[39:20] And this life is in the son. And he who has the son has life. And he who does not have the son does not have life. So today, we get to echo the words like when we've been baptized.

[39:32] If you've been baptized, you know these words that we were buried with him in death and raised to a newness of life. Hallelujah! Right? This is cool.

[39:42] We get to celebrate Easter every day, you guys. But we get to celebrate Easter in this passage because it is a resurrection. It shows the power that Christ Jesus has to raise us from the dead.

[39:53] So, as we move in on the praying second, we're going to move in to the Lord's Supper. Keep in mind, keep in your mind of the union that we have with Christ through eternity. This isn't a temporal one.

[40:04] It's for eternity. Remember the glory and the power and dominion that Jesus Christ has through eternity. And finally, remember the love that he has for me and for you, which is eternal.

[40:18] Let's pray.