WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.040 So, this is the last of our miserable as sin series, okay? 00:00:06.040 --> 00:00:12.000 And naturally, it moves from where we've gone from this piece, which was really the 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:17.160 theme of all, to division and disintegration and now death. 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:20.359 And you know, we know, we know, don't we, death's all around us, you know? 00:00:20.359 --> 00:00:23.359 And I think sometimes we become enured to death. 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:25.120 It's a great word, you know? 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:29.600 Enured means, well, I do, obviously. 00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:33.280 Because I looked up, I knew this, I knew the word, but I didn't know. 00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:35.000 But it just really means accustomed to. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:37.399 We've just become accustomed. 00:00:37.399 --> 00:00:43.240 We've become desensitized in many ways. 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:47.040 I struggled with this because we haven't, we haven't. 00:00:47.040 --> 00:00:49.400 In some ways, it's lost its shock value. 00:00:49.400 --> 00:00:53.400 You know, we know about famine and war and epidemic disease, but it all seems very far 00:00:53.400 --> 00:00:59.280 away unless the media choose to focus on it for whatever particular reason. 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:01.960 Much of it we never hear about. 00:01:01.960 --> 00:01:06.680 Sometimes it's just explained away now, scientifically, as just a natural part of life. 00:01:06.680 --> 00:01:08.519 Death is a natural part of life. 00:01:08.519 --> 00:01:13.439 In some places, it's even now embraced. 00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:18.359 But in films and in thrillers and in video games and in books, the themes are usually 00:01:18.359 --> 00:01:24.240 love or death, or both. 00:01:24.240 --> 00:01:26.079 We see a lot of death. 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:27.200 We've watched a lot of death. 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:32.280 So at that level, we've come in and endured to it, I think, it's harmless until it gets 00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:35.280 close. 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:41.000 Then we're much more aware of it, generally, when it gets close to us. 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:47.400 But even then, I think society, the society we live in, certainly, seems to have done 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:55.400 its best to mask death with scented celebrations and bright colors. 00:01:55.400 --> 00:02:03.240 This to life and the shining hope of another star twinkling down from the heavens. 00:02:03.240 --> 00:02:07.680 And that seems to be the way that we cope as a society with death. 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:13.080 We clothe it in nice words and nice thoughts and focus on the life. 00:02:13.080 --> 00:02:17.439 And of course, there's great value in that as well. 00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:23.480 But less we are seen to be making judgments on everyone else. 00:02:23.479 --> 00:02:31.759 I think as Christians, it's very easy for us to become blasé about death as well. 00:02:31.759 --> 00:02:33.359 We know a great deal about death. 00:02:33.359 --> 00:02:36.120 Christians probably speak more about death than anyone. 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:43.519 We celebrate the Lord's death in this great sacrament that we enjoyed this morning. 00:02:43.519 --> 00:02:48.319 But I do think that sometimes we treat it death like some kind of minor distraction on 00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:50.639 our way to heaven. 00:02:50.639 --> 00:02:57.000 We downplay its horrors, you know, from the safety of our redemptive status. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:01.159 That we shrug our shoulders at death and we're peeking out from behind God's back 00:03:01.159 --> 00:03:03.879 and we're saying, well, it doesn't really, it's not that bad. 00:03:03.879 --> 00:03:06.000 Jesus crushed its power. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:10.279 We've the victory so we can laugh in the face of suffering and in the face of death. 00:03:10.279 --> 00:03:15.279 Now, I don't like when Christians speak like that because I don't think it's biblical and 00:03:15.279 --> 00:03:16.679 it's shallow. 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:22.800 I think it lacks wisdom and sensitivity, and most of all, it's not like Christ because 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:25.840 we don't find Christ speaking like that about death. 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:31.400 Now, we know we're not to be afraid in the face of death because of what Jesus has done 00:03:31.400 --> 00:03:37.000 for us, but neither are we to be blasé about the reality of death. 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:39.159 Death is ugly. 00:03:39.159 --> 00:03:41.560 Death is an end game for us. 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:44.879 Death is something that shouldn't be in God's great world. 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:52.639 It's the ultimate outworking of sin's dis-peace, of the division that sin brings, and of the 00:03:52.639 --> 00:03:54.120 disintegration. 00:03:54.120 --> 00:04:05.680 Atrophy ends in death, and death is the dark, foreboding, cold enemy of every living being. 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:08.039 So it is something that's ugly. 00:04:08.039 --> 00:04:17.079 Now, just by way of introduction, I want to go back to Genesis chapter 2 and verse 17, 00:04:17.079 --> 00:04:20.279 because we go back to the beginning of the Bible just to find everything in its right 00:04:20.279 --> 00:04:21.879 context. 00:04:21.879 --> 00:04:31.519 And Genesis chapter 2, Jesus says to Adam and Eve in verse 17, You may eat of every 00:04:31.519 --> 00:04:34.600 tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not 00:04:34.600 --> 00:04:35.600 eat. 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:38.160 If you eat of it, you shall surely die. 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:40.400 So that's the introduction of death in the Bible. 00:04:40.400 --> 00:04:47.080 Right from the very beginning, we recognize that death for the belief, death for us with 00:04:47.080 --> 00:04:52.680 the truth of God is a spiritual problem, or it's a spiritual reality. 00:04:52.680 --> 00:04:56.120 It's a basic spiritual truth. 00:04:56.120 --> 00:05:03.160 It's central to our understanding of the universe in which we live and of our condition. 00:05:03.160 --> 00:05:09.400 So death comes into humanity's experience both as a consequence and as a judgment for 00:05:09.400 --> 00:05:13.320 rejecting God as Lord and King. 00:05:13.320 --> 00:05:16.640 The day you eat of it, you shall surely die. 00:05:16.640 --> 00:05:25.080 And as they did, then we recognize the consequence and the judgment, denying the oversight of 00:05:25.080 --> 00:05:27.879 the author and source of life, God. 00:05:27.879 --> 00:05:28.879 You shall surely die. 00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:34.439 Okay, so I'm going to ask a question. 00:05:34.439 --> 00:05:38.360 Was the fulfillment of what God said there, was it immediate? 00:05:38.360 --> 00:05:40.159 You shall surely die. 00:05:40.159 --> 00:05:41.159 Was it immediate? 00:05:41.159 --> 00:05:43.639 Okay, I'm going to give four answers. 00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:48.000 Yes, not quite, no, absolutely. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:49.279 Okay? 00:05:49.279 --> 00:06:00.479 Do we recognize and see that the answer to this judgment of God was layered in many ways. 00:06:00.479 --> 00:06:08.199 Yes, immediately there was a death in that the perfect relationship with God, our Father, 00:06:08.199 --> 00:06:12.439 and that relationship of trust had gone. 00:06:12.439 --> 00:06:16.159 Trust with the author of life was gone. 00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:21.640 Not quite in the sense that God still loved them and still cared for them and still offered 00:06:21.640 --> 00:06:27.640 a rescue to them if they came to Him in repentance and forgiveness. 00:06:27.640 --> 00:06:30.760 No, because they didn't die physically immediately. 00:06:30.760 --> 00:06:31.760 Did they? 00:06:31.760 --> 00:06:32.760 No, they went on to live. 00:06:32.760 --> 00:06:33.760 You shall surely die. 00:06:33.760 --> 00:06:40.680 Well, they didn't die physically immediately, but they began to die from that moment. 00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:47.519 And unless they were rescued, absolutely, they would be both physical and spiritual 00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:48.519 death. 00:06:48.519 --> 00:06:57.519 Sin, in other words, breaks the relationship, and we are people who are dying physically 00:06:57.519 --> 00:07:00.480 and dead spiritually without Him. 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:02.879 So Biblically, what does it mean death? 00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:05.399 Ultimately, it means separation, doesn't it? 00:07:05.399 --> 00:07:10.240 It's the ultimate division, the separation from life and the source of life, from shalom, 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:13.720 from wholeness, from identity, from meaning, from love. 00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:20.639 And its shadows are isolation and division and disintegration and aging and illness and 00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:26.360 hatred and evil and loneliness and lovelessness. 00:07:26.360 --> 00:07:36.840 So we recognize now, I think here I'm making up a theological sort of statement because 00:07:36.840 --> 00:07:38.280 the Bible speaks about second death. 00:07:38.279 --> 00:07:43.519 I'm not sure when the Bible speaks about first death, but I'm saying that the first 00:07:43.519 --> 00:07:51.439 death is the natural condition we're all born in, that we are spiritually separated 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:54.439 from God from the moment we're born. 00:07:54.439 --> 00:07:56.039 Our natures are separated from God. 00:07:56.039 --> 00:07:57.039 That's the first death. 00:07:57.039 --> 00:08:03.479 But then there's physical death, which maybe some theologians would count as the first 00:08:03.479 --> 00:08:05.479 death. 00:08:05.480 --> 00:08:09.240 Is that violent or natural end of life? 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:15.280 The ultimate, the ultimate individual experience. 00:08:15.280 --> 00:08:22.520 The greatest isolating reality that there is in every way, yet the most unnatural experience 00:08:22.520 --> 00:08:32.039 in the universe, the tearing apart of body and soul, the dissolution of life from belonging, 00:08:32.039 --> 00:08:37.599 from community, from family, from hope. 00:08:37.599 --> 00:08:38.839 So that's physical death. 00:08:38.839 --> 00:08:44.719 And then there's the second death, which the Bible in Revelation speaks of, which points 00:08:44.719 --> 00:08:50.679 towards God's final judgment and the brutal experience of being separated from hope and 00:08:50.679 --> 00:08:58.240 from rescue and from opportunity to be in relationship with God and alive again. 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:07.320 And the end of the possibility of redemption and worship, a place utter disaster, a place, 00:09:07.320 --> 00:09:17.519 how would you, how would you today in our society, how would you describe hell to a 00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:22.759 society that can't be shocked anymore by anything and don't believe in anything like, it's very 00:09:22.759 --> 00:09:24.759 difficult, isn't it? 00:09:24.759 --> 00:09:29.200 I think sometimes that's how Tim Keller got into some trouble in the way he tried to describe 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:37.799 hell in a way that people would understand and others took it to an unnatural end as 00:09:37.799 --> 00:09:41.480 far as his description were concerned. 00:09:41.480 --> 00:09:51.279 But is it not whatever else is the place without any expression of divine or human love? 00:09:51.279 --> 00:10:01.679 And unthinkable, where there are no conditions to allow the flourishing of beauty, only ugliness. 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:07.919 That terrifies me, and that should terrify you. 00:10:07.919 --> 00:10:15.439 That spiritual death that Revelation speaks of, horrifying, dreadful. 00:10:15.439 --> 00:10:18.679 So we've got that picture from Genesis. 00:10:18.679 --> 00:10:26.439 Then we come to this chapter, and Jesus speaks into the reality of death very strongly here 00:10:26.439 --> 00:10:31.319 in these very famous words when he speaks to Martha, and he says, I know that he will 00:10:31.319 --> 00:10:35.000 rise again in the resurrection, but Jesus said, I'm the resurrection in the life. 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:38.279 Whoever believes in me, though he die yet, he shall live, and everyone who lives and 00:10:38.279 --> 00:10:40.559 believes in me shall never die. 00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:47.799 Now, can I just go back a little bit to verse 21, where Martha says, Lord, if you had been 00:10:47.799 --> 00:10:51.799 here, my brother would not have died. 00:10:51.799 --> 00:10:58.599 And that's important because there's mystery, isn't there, in Jesus' apparent absence at 00:10:58.599 --> 00:10:59.599 Lazarus' illness. 00:10:59.599 --> 00:11:00.599 Why didn't he come? 00:11:00.599 --> 00:11:05.799 Or why didn't he just pronounce a word from where he was and Lazarus wouldn't have died 00:11:05.799 --> 00:11:07.799 as he did on other occasions? 00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:10.199 Martha, if you had been here, he wouldn't have died. 00:11:10.199 --> 00:11:12.959 Why didn't Jesus stop it? 00:11:12.959 --> 00:11:14.719 Why didn't he wait? 00:11:14.720 --> 00:11:21.879 Why did he stay where he was until after Lazarus had been in the grave for four days for goodness' 00:11:21.879 --> 00:11:22.879 sake? 00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:23.879 Great questions. 00:11:23.879 --> 00:11:26.440 Martha, questions that. 00:11:26.440 --> 00:11:34.320 And it's great because it speaks into our own, often, questions in the midst of God's 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:41.279 sovereign decisions, why he chooses to do certain things and why he doesn't respond to our prayers 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:47.919 and to our requests when we feel he ought to, is that mystery of his sovereignty, resting 00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:54.319 in trust and in faith, knowing that he has his reasons, even though we might not understand 00:11:54.319 --> 00:11:55.319 him. 00:11:55.319 --> 00:11:57.079 How often have you asked that question? 00:11:57.079 --> 00:11:59.759 Lord, why weren't you there? 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:01.679 Why didn't you do things differently? 00:12:01.679 --> 00:12:05.399 Why didn't you dance to my particular tune? 00:12:05.399 --> 00:12:08.839 Because we think that he should have, with all. 00:12:08.840 --> 00:12:15.519 I'm not saying that in an arrogant, that we say it in an arrogant or a faithless way, 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:22.519 but this is a great reality for us as we go through this story because he gives us astounding. 00:12:22.519 --> 00:12:27.040 When he does arrive after Lazarus is dead, he gives us astounding statement in the hallway 00:12:27.040 --> 00:12:29.480 of death. 00:12:29.480 --> 00:12:31.840 He challenges its power. 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:36.480 He nails it as a spiritual and a relational issue. 00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:39.279 And he says that he's the only answer to it. 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:40.279 That's what he's saying. 00:12:40.279 --> 00:12:42.120 What a claim he makes. 00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:46.720 I, it's not that I know the resurrection, I can think of how the resurrection works. 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:50.120 He says, I am the resurrection and the life. 00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:54.399 Nobody comes to the Father except by me. 00:12:54.399 --> 00:13:00.840 He's claiming to be the, Siobhan spoke about promises. 00:13:00.840 --> 00:13:07.000 He's claiming to be the promise that God made in the garden in Genesis 3.15, one of 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:14.720 the most famous verses in the Bible where God makes the promise that the seed of the 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:20.600 woman will crush Satan's head and he will bruise his heel. 00:13:20.600 --> 00:13:25.360 And this is Jesus claiming to be the answer to that, the answer to the death that was 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:27.879 brought into the world through Adam's sin. 00:13:27.879 --> 00:13:34.080 It's not bravado, it's remarkable self attestation. 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:38.919 There's no value in recording this story if it didn't happen. 00:13:38.919 --> 00:13:41.759 There's no benefit. 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:43.360 Jesus is making this remarkable claim. 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:50.480 He's saying, ultimately he's saying the offense has been made against me and I am the only 00:13:50.480 --> 00:13:52.080 one that can put it right. 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:53.720 I am the source of life. 00:13:53.720 --> 00:14:04.840 I am the hope of resurrected life and the paradoxes that it will come through my death. 00:14:04.840 --> 00:14:07.519 So it's a astounding statement. 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:12.320 And the thing about Lazarus is that Lazarus is a sign of that. 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:15.080 You know, we think about the miracles and we think, oh, they're great. 00:14:15.080 --> 00:14:17.759 Jesus reveals his power and he reveals what he can do. 00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:18.759 But there's more to it. 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:22.879 He's teaching as Thomas is speaking about this morning, about the importance of learning. 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:25.120 The timing is intentional, isn't it? 00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:30.159 Hugely intentional because he's heading for Jerusalem. 00:14:30.159 --> 00:14:34.240 He's heading for that place where his disciples say, oh, if you're going to go there, you 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:36.639 already know they're out to kill you. 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:38.039 So you're going to be heading to your death. 00:14:38.039 --> 00:14:40.240 And he, of course, knew that. 00:14:40.240 --> 00:14:42.679 And his purpose was to go there. 00:14:42.679 --> 00:14:46.639 And the miracle speaks forward to the glory of God. 00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:50.399 He says that himself when he's teaching the disciples. 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:54.519 He's reminding them that he has to do this so that they will believe. 00:14:54.519 --> 00:14:57.559 He is a task to perform. 00:14:57.559 --> 00:14:59.199 He's the sent one. 00:14:59.199 --> 00:15:02.480 Death and resurrection, albeit its core. 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:09.600 And he speaks in verse 43 with such great authority, doesn't he? 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:13.240 He says, Lazarus, come out. 00:15:13.240 --> 00:15:14.240 Great. 00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:24.680 Now, there's a tomb, and there's a body in that tomb for days. 00:15:24.680 --> 00:15:29.200 He knew that would be him shortly. 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:35.159 And he's reminding his disciples, it's a sign for his disciples and for him, that evil 00:15:35.159 --> 00:15:43.440 and sin do not have the final word that grace and God does. 00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:46.800 He's reminding them on us that things are not as they seem. 00:15:46.800 --> 00:15:50.400 Things look very bleak. 00:15:50.400 --> 00:15:52.600 Things are not as they seem. 00:15:52.600 --> 00:16:00.560 But Jesus was choosing to go, the innocent taking the guilt willingly, freely. 00:16:00.560 --> 00:16:10.760 The only person who could have chosen in life not to die, but chose to die. 00:16:10.759 --> 00:16:14.480 Because it was the only way we could live. 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:24.279 So if Lazarus was a sign, the empty tomb on the third day, not Lazarus, Jesus, is the 00:16:24.279 --> 00:16:25.279 seal. 00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:34.120 It's the seal that this was no empty promise, even though the tomb was empty. 00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:38.840 And that the death that he died wasn't for himself, it's for us and for our guarantee. 00:16:38.840 --> 00:16:42.320 That's why the resurrection is so important to the believer. 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:46.560 That's why we changed, you know, the day of worship was changed to the first day of the 00:16:46.560 --> 00:16:49.780 week to record and remember the resurrection. 00:16:49.780 --> 00:16:54.480 It's because we have this new beginning and death has indeed, as we read at the beginning, 00:16:54.480 --> 00:16:56.080 lost its sting. 00:16:56.080 --> 00:17:02.519 That's hugely significant for us, even though its death is an enemy, it's a defeated enemy. 00:17:02.519 --> 00:17:06.319 Can I say it's still an enemy? 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:08.079 Still an enemy, but it's defeated. 00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:13.480 So for the Christian, the Bible often talks about the Christian's death as falling asleep, 00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:15.480 because it's a beautiful term. 00:17:15.480 --> 00:17:17.599 And to be with Christ is far better. 00:17:17.599 --> 00:17:22.439 And as we were reminded this morning, there will be a new creation when all life will 00:17:22.439 --> 00:17:26.319 be renewed and weeping will have gone. 00:17:26.319 --> 00:17:32.439 That's why these invitations matter. 00:17:32.439 --> 00:17:34.519 That's why they do. 00:17:34.519 --> 00:17:38.599 That's why what you're saying and living and living out to your friends is so significant 00:17:38.599 --> 00:17:48.279 and me for my friends and I can't hide behind being afraid of rejection from them. 00:17:48.279 --> 00:17:56.200 It matters because it's so real and because it deals with such significant reality for 00:17:56.200 --> 00:18:02.619 us all because of hell and because of grace. 00:18:02.619 --> 00:18:08.679 So I finished just with Jesus' response to death, which is why we can't be blasé about 00:18:08.679 --> 00:18:10.679 death even though it's defeated. 00:18:10.679 --> 00:18:14.519 And this is really good. 00:18:14.519 --> 00:18:20.599 In verse 35 we're told with the shortest verse in the Bible, Jesus wept. 00:18:20.599 --> 00:18:22.079 Why? 00:18:22.079 --> 00:18:25.399 Well, it doesn't make sense. 00:18:25.399 --> 00:18:29.359 He's in the cusp of an overwhelming victory. 00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:35.759 He's going to roll away the stone and Lazarus is going to come out alive. 00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:38.119 Why is he weeping? 00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:40.759 He's weeping because he gets sin. 00:18:40.759 --> 00:18:41.959 He gets it. 00:18:41.959 --> 00:18:43.319 He understands it. 00:18:43.319 --> 00:18:50.519 He understands the ugliness and the evil and the darkness that sin brings into this world, 00:18:50.519 --> 00:18:54.079 the division, the disintegration and the death. 00:18:54.079 --> 00:18:58.919 And he recoils from it in his goodness and in his justice and his love. 00:18:58.920 --> 00:19:00.279 I want to know a couple of things. 00:19:00.279 --> 00:19:02.840 There's a really interesting things here. 00:19:02.840 --> 00:19:10.960 Verse 33, Jesus saw her weeping and he certainly wasn't weeping. 00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:14.039 She might have been weeping a few minutes later when Lazarus got up. 00:19:14.039 --> 00:19:17.200 She was weeping and the Jews had come with her, were also weeping. 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:21.519 He was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 00:19:21.519 --> 00:19:27.640 Then verse 38 says, Jesus then Jesus deeply moved again came to the tomb. 00:19:27.640 --> 00:19:29.960 Now, I am no linguist. 00:19:29.960 --> 00:19:30.960 You know that. 00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:39.240 But I don't understand why all the English translations use that term deeply moved because 00:19:39.240 --> 00:19:48.800 it doesn't get across the word that is clearly used in the original because the word that's 00:19:48.800 --> 00:19:53.320 used means indignant, angry. 00:19:53.319 --> 00:19:57.720 Now deeply moved is kind of much more gentle, isn't it? 00:19:57.720 --> 00:20:01.240 You can be deeply moved at something emotionally. 00:20:01.240 --> 00:20:08.519 And I think, I just wonder what are the translators afraid to attribute anger because the word 00:20:08.519 --> 00:20:19.319 means literally, and I say this reverently, it means to snort with anger like a horse, 00:20:19.319 --> 00:20:22.759 to snort in anger. 00:20:22.759 --> 00:20:28.680 That's what the word means literally with indignant displeasure that Jesus was snorting 00:20:28.680 --> 00:20:34.879 with anger at that moment deeply moved by what he saw. 00:20:34.879 --> 00:20:40.799 It's the same word that's used in Mark 14 when the people were indignant and snorted 00:20:40.799 --> 00:20:44.759 in anger at the women who poured out the oil on Jesus' feet. 00:20:44.759 --> 00:20:47.759 Say, what a waste it could have been given to the poor. 00:20:47.759 --> 00:20:51.319 They were snorting in indignant rage. 00:20:51.319 --> 00:20:54.919 That's the word that's used here of Jesus. 00:20:54.919 --> 00:20:55.919 He's angry. 00:20:55.919 --> 00:20:56.919 It's horrible. 00:20:56.919 --> 00:21:00.599 It's holy rage. 00:21:00.599 --> 00:21:04.720 He sees its evil and its destruction. 00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:10.159 And the problem is that sometimes that we are enured to all of that. 00:21:10.159 --> 00:21:11.559 We're entertained. 00:21:11.559 --> 00:21:18.319 Our material lives, our busyness, the million distractions that we have stop us from being 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:28.319 angry at the brutality and ugliness and evil of sin and death and injustice. 00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:33.599 We don't snort with rage in the face of these things. 00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:38.240 We're just moseying on down. 00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:43.359 Life's just one big laugh for us and everything's great. 00:21:43.359 --> 00:21:48.519 And the injustice is going on while other people will deal with that. 00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:57.639 I think snorting with rage like an angry horse is missing in our lives as we see the reality 00:21:57.639 --> 00:21:59.839 of what sin actually is. 00:21:59.839 --> 00:22:06.879 It says it is deeply, deeply moved in the spirit and greatly troubled. 00:22:06.879 --> 00:22:11.240 And that word means, because we can learn, word studies are important sometimes, and 00:22:11.240 --> 00:22:18.000 we can learn that this word is something that's much more inner, an agitation, an inner perplexity, 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:19.000 a terror. 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:23.079 It's the same word that Jesus goes on to use in a couple of chapters later where he says, 00:22:23.079 --> 00:22:26.279 don't let your hearts be troubled. 00:22:26.279 --> 00:22:27.279 Don't be agitated. 00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:28.279 Don't be anxious. 00:22:28.279 --> 00:22:34.720 At this moment, he says to disciples as they face the darkness of the cross. 00:22:34.720 --> 00:22:40.640 He is sensing the forsakenness ahead, the mystery and the horror and the powers of darkness 00:22:40.640 --> 00:22:48.720 enveloping him, the unimaginable desolation of losing the sense of his Father's love, 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:50.800 the wrath of God. 00:22:50.800 --> 00:22:57.400 And he even, he will know that this great miracle, this great sign will actually be 00:22:57.400 --> 00:23:02.280 what tips the Pharisees over the edge to say they need to nail him. 00:23:02.280 --> 00:23:06.840 So this great sign becomes a sign of death. 00:23:06.839 --> 00:23:13.039 He raises, but it stamps his own death because the Pharisees says we need to get rid of him 00:23:13.039 --> 00:23:18.559 now because of what he is and what he's done. 00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:21.519 So he sees the hardness and the darkness of the heart. 00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:24.199 The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. 00:23:24.199 --> 00:23:25.759 Who can understand it? 00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:34.279 He sees that in their response and he is deeply, greatly troubled in his life. 00:23:34.279 --> 00:23:37.480 And he wept. 00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:41.440 He wept. 00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:44.039 He weeps with those who weep. 00:23:44.039 --> 00:23:49.920 He's the great answer to Romans 12, 15, that we weep with those who weep. 00:23:49.920 --> 00:23:57.480 He's great empathy for those who are going through the ones he loved, Mary and Martha. 00:23:57.480 --> 00:24:05.360 He could see the great sorrow and it all cascaded around him in great emotion. 00:24:05.360 --> 00:24:08.680 He's not breezing into the situation saying, I've let this happen. 00:24:08.680 --> 00:24:10.480 It's not really so bad. 00:24:10.480 --> 00:24:12.759 It's going to turn out for good. 00:24:12.759 --> 00:24:19.000 I'll just do a great miracle and we'll all be laughing and celebrating. 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:20.000 He's not saying that. 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:21.000 He's weeping. 00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:28.119 He's weeping because a miracle should never make a shrug and say it'll be all right in 00:24:28.119 --> 00:24:29.119 the night. 00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:31.160 He hates death and he hates sin. 00:24:31.160 --> 00:24:32.160 He's grieved. 00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:40.119 He's moved into his soul because he could see his trinitarian community imaged in his 00:24:40.119 --> 00:24:47.200 people being ripped apart by the misery and the ugliness of sin. 00:24:47.200 --> 00:24:51.480 A humanity that was created to love and belong and serve and glorify and enjoy relationship 00:24:51.480 --> 00:24:52.480 with him. 00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:54.360 You could see that was gone. 00:24:54.360 --> 00:25:00.440 Every single funeral is a desperate reminder to us of that, that things are not as they 00:25:00.440 --> 00:25:07.039 should be and we would do well to weep with those who weep. 00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:10.799 We would do well to weep with those who weep. 00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:16.759 It remains an ugly reality even though we can praise God and give thanks for its defeat 00:25:16.759 --> 00:25:25.839 we should never gloat, we should never be cynical or careless in the face of death. 00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:36.960 So the study and sin and miserable as sin was never intended to be an end in itself 00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:39.879 and that's for sure. 00:25:39.880 --> 00:25:48.960 It was only and ever meant to be an opportunity for us to recognize God's diagnosis of our 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:56.440 spiritual condition and the shaping of our worldview towards redemption. 00:25:56.440 --> 00:25:57.960 That's been the intention. 00:25:57.960 --> 00:26:00.880 It's not to focus on sin for the sake of it. 00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:11.320 It's been to, unless we have a clear vision of what it is, grace is meaningless and it's 00:26:11.320 --> 00:26:15.400 cheap and it's not really significant in our lives. 00:26:15.400 --> 00:26:20.600 The joy of forgiveness is shallow and the hope and the peace and the wholeness and the 00:26:20.600 --> 00:26:27.640 life we're maybe looking for and finding in other places. 00:26:27.640 --> 00:26:34.000 It's meant to push us towards Christ and the sacraments do the same don't they? 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:36.000 All the time they do the same. 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:47.000 And it's to push us towards the unbreakable value of unity in community because that's 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:54.440 what we're created for and sin brings division and disintegration and dis-peace. 00:26:54.440 --> 00:27:00.759 Now that is worth sharing. 00:27:00.759 --> 00:27:07.840 That is worth your friend not speaking to you again as long as we are honest and humble 00:27:07.840 --> 00:27:15.720 and gracious and gentle and tell them about Jesus because although they might not speak 00:27:15.720 --> 00:27:21.200 to us again, and I doubt that will be the case, I think they'll come around. 00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:27.160 And we've seen God's promises and we've seen He's faithful in His timing, not ours. 00:27:27.160 --> 00:27:28.160 Amen. 00:27:28.160 --> 00:27:29.160 Let's pray. 00:27:29.160 --> 00:27:36.519 Father God, we pray and ask that you would teach us your way, that you would show us 00:27:36.519 --> 00:27:39.920 that your ways are higher than our ways. 00:27:39.920 --> 00:27:49.039 We simply can't imagine Jesus snorting like a wild horse in the face of evil and death. 00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:55.920 It seems so in Congress to us in our politeness and in our order. 00:27:55.920 --> 00:28:01.159 And yet here we have the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords who sees and who knows and 00:28:01.159 --> 00:28:08.599 who understands where our opposition lies and where our enemy sits and what he strives 00:28:08.599 --> 00:28:14.039 to do and how we so often fail to see. 00:28:14.039 --> 00:28:22.960 Lord we pray and ask that you would help us to recognize and know and share Jesus' hatred 00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:29.759 of the destructive power of sin and death and that we would run to you and know that 00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:39.440 for us all and especially as we get older and we disintegrate humanly that we can be 00:28:39.440 --> 00:28:45.160 renewed inwardly day by day and that you walk with us through the valley of the shadow and 00:28:45.160 --> 00:28:47.640 that we know everlasting life in your presence. 00:28:47.640 --> 00:28:52.960 It's a great hope and it's a hope that this world does not have. 00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:58.480 Give us courage and boldness to share it and to pray that your spirit would work in the 00:28:58.480 --> 00:29:03.720 lives and hearts of people that we know and love and even those that we don't know to 00:29:03.720 --> 00:29:04.960 bring them to Jesus. 00:29:04.960 --> 00:29:10.519 We pray for a great work of your spirit in this city, among all the churches. 00:29:10.519 --> 00:29:15.680 Thank you for the guys that pray in a Thursday morning church leaders down in Costco there, 00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:22.120 Costa down in Hannover Street every Thursday morning praying, pleading for the city, pleading 00:29:22.120 --> 00:29:28.160 for the people that they would come to know Jesus. 00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:36.680 And we pray that that would be our experience also in prayer and in answer to that prayer. 00:29:36.680 --> 00:29:59.160 Amen.