Today's reading is from John chapter 11, starting at verse 1, and we read.
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.
So the sister sent to him, saying, Lord, he whom you love is ill.
But when Jesus heard it, he said, this illness does not lead to death.
It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
Then after this, he said to his disciples, let us go to Judea again.
The disciples said to him, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?
Jesus answered, are there not 12 hours in the day?
If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.
After saying these things, he said to them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I will go to awaken them.
The disciples said to him, Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.
Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought he meant taking rest and sleep.
Then Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus has died, and for your sake, I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe, but let us go to him.
So Thomas, called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go, that we may die with him.
Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for days.
Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to consult them concerning their brother.
So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.
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.
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.
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.
When she has said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, the teacher is here and is calling for you.
And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him.
Now, Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.
When the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
Now, when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
When Jesus saw her weeped.
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.
And he said, where have you laid him?
They said to him, Lord, come and see.
Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, see how he loved him.
But some of them said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?
Then Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave and a stone laid against it.
Jesus said, take away the stone.
Master, 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 believe you would see the glory of God?
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
I knew that you always hear me.
But I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.
When he had said these things, he cried out in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.
Come out.
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.
This is the word of God.
Amen.
Great.
Thank you, Bernard and Angie, for reading that for us.
Thank you, Christine, for sharing your story, a story which is full of tears, but also a story full of resurrection power.
And we are excited to continue to watch your story unfold and see how the life of God is working in your life.
So thank you for being vulnerable.
Thank you for being real with us and not just putting on a brave face.
Thank you for letting us into your life, Christine.
We really appreciate that.
Well, Watermark, it is really great to be with you again.
And it's great to be with you for the last time online.
Hopefully the last time in a very long time.
Hopefully the last time ever.
But at least the last time for a while.
We are so excited to see you next Sunday at Ebenezer in person so that we can sing and pray and worship and listen and take communion together as a church family.
Bring your vaccine pass.
Come early.
We're excited to see you next Sunday.
But today is Resurrection Sunday.
It is the heart of Christianity.
Today is the day that we celebrate not only that Jesus died on the cross to take upon himself the sins of all those who would trust in him and hope in him and come to saving faith in him.
In our place condemned he stood.
Today we celebrate not only the wonderful truth of our justification that our sins have been put in Christ.
But today we celebrate the fact that the tomb is empty.
That Jesus rose again to vindicate all his amazing claims.
To prove that he is the Christ.
To defeat the grave and put an end to death.
And so Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed.
Today we are going to look at this very fascinating passage in John 11.
It's a very famous passage.
And it's a passage which is full of intrigue and mystery.
If you're paying attention while Bernard and Angie were reading,
There's a whole lot of things in this passage that at first glance kind of make you think,
Hang on, what's going on here?
And so there's a couple of surprising and interesting things in this passage.
So let's dive in and then we're going to see how this applies to our lives today.
The first thing I think we should notice is the surprising ministry of Jesus.
The surprising tenderness and care of Jesus.
This passage is full of all the things that you and I experience in this world.
The brokenness and the pain of this world.
I don't know if you noticed in verse 8, Jesus says to his disciples,
Let's go to Judea.
And his disciples automatically say,
Jesus, don't you remember just recently the religious leaders here in Judea were trying to kill you,
trying to end your life.
Why would you go there?
And yet Jesus goes straight there.
He walks into, as dead trap as was, he walks into the brokenness of the world.
And of course, you notice the tears, right?
The passage is full of tears.
And Jesus joins Mary in her tears.
He even weeps with her.
And the surprising thing is that Jesus is going to raise Lazarus from the dead in a few minutes,
maybe half an hour's time.
And yet, despite that, he joins Mary in her tears.
You know, it's kind of like if you've got a young child or a child at home and something goes wrong.
Let's say they're building a Lego set and someone breaks down or they're making a drawing or craft and it gets crumbled,
damaged, or they spill their juice and there's tears, right?
Oh, no, the world has come to an end.
As a parent, what do you do?
And instinctively, I'll say, it's okay.
Don't worry.
We're going to sort it out.
Look, I'll help you rebuild the Lego or I will help you with your craft or don't worry.
We'll wipe it up.
We'll get you some more juice.
We automatically run to the solution.
But Jesus doesn't do that.
Even though he's about to raise Lazarus from the dead, you might expect Jesus to say,
Mary, Mary, don't worry.
Just come with me to the tomb.
We'll raise him and it'll all be fine.
But Jesus doesn't do that.
He joins Mary in her tears.
He weeps with her.
He mourns with her.
Part of what the story wants to show us is that Jesus is not some pie-in-the-sky stoic,
a mighty ruler from another world who just finds our pain and our tears unbearable
and who wants to quickly solve our problems.
Do you remember Christine just shared that a few minutes ago?
She said, I was brought up and tempted to bury my pain just to cover over it,
to not expose it.
But Jesus is not like that.
Jesus' surprising tenderness in ministry as he moves towards the areas of our lives
where we are most burdened.
In fact, I don't know if you know, it's in verse 39.
There's this amazing little encounter where Martha, and Jesus says,
now open up the tomb.
And Martha says, Jesus, he's been in there for four days.
That tomb is not going to smell nice at all.
And friends, all of us have areas of our lives that stink as badly as that dead man's tomb.
All of us have areas in our life that we want to cover up, lock, and seal,
and don't want to let anybody or anything in.
But Jesus wants to move into those areas of our lives.
Jesus wants to bring his resurrection life and his redeeming power and his healing grace
to the areas that we find most burdensome, the areas that we find most troubling,
the areas that we find most disagreeable.
Christ wants to move in there.
One of the things that commentators quickly point out in this passage,
and you might have noticed it,
is the way that Jesus responds to Mary and Martha in the exact same way.
Look at verse 21.
Martha comes to Jesus and says, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died.
And Jesus says, your brother will rise again.
And Mary, a few verses later, comes to Jesus with the exact same words.
She says, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died.
And what does Jesus do?
He weeps with her.
To one, Jesus brings this theological truth.
He brings truth to Martha, and to Mary, he brings tears.
Tim Keller says, why does he do this?
Why does Jesus bring truth to one and tears to the other?
Why does he treat these two sisters differently?
Why does he respond to one sister in one way,
and another sister who brings the exact same problem in a completely different way?
And Tim Keller's answer is, because Jesus is perfect.
Jesus is perfect.
He knows each one of us.
He knows what we need.
See, some of us need truth.
We need the truth that will set us free.
Jesus, for some of us, will bring truth that confronts us,
that challenges us, that confronts the sin in our lives,
confronts the idols that we've been trusting in.
Jesus will sometimes bring a truth that will even confront the unbelief in our hearts.
He will bring his truth to set us free.
But for others of us, Jesus will just simply bring his tenderness,
the ministry of tears.
Jesus is perfect.
And for the areas of our lives where we are tempted to most cover up,
Jesus brings his surprising ministry of grace.
But notice, secondly, the surprising love of Jesus.
You probably would have picked this up in the very first verses.
When Bernard read it again, even though I've read this passage hundreds of times,
it always arrests me.
Look at verses 2 to 6 with me.
Verse 2 says,
Verse 5 says,
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So, therefore, when he heard that Lazarus was ill,
he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
In other words, he stayed where he was and let Lazarus die.
Now, that doesn't make sense to us, right?
Because if Jesus, as Rebecca McLaughlin recently pointed out,
if Jesus said, or if the passage said,
you know, Jesus didn't care about Mary and Martha and Lazarus.
They meant nothing to him.
So, he stayed where he was and let them die.
Okay, that would make sense.
Callous, maybe, uncaring, but it would make logical sense.
If the passage said,
Jesus cared them and loved them deeply,
so he rushed to their side to come and help them in their time of need,
well, that would make sense to us as well.
Here the passage says,
Jesus loved them,
so he stayed where he was and let Lazarus die.
Why does he do that?
One of the things that Jesus wants us to see
is his surprising love for us
means that he orchestrates things
so that we will see our need for him.
Previously, the sisters call out to Jesus
because Lazarus, their brother, needs him.
They call on Jesus,
much like one of you or I
would call on a doctor or a nurse at the hospital
if we were at the bedside of someone we loved.
You call the doctor and say,
please, I need you here
because this person that I love is in need of you.
Mary and Martha call on Jesus
because Lazarus needs him.
They need him to do something for them.
But later on,
they run to Jesus
because they need him.
They don't just need Jesus to do something for them.
They don't just need his miraculous power
to solve their problems.
They call on Jesus
because they need his tender ministry.
Jesus' surprising love for us
means that because he loves us,
he won't always give us what we want,
but he will give us what we need.
What do Mary and Martha need?
Friends, what do you and I need?
We don't just need a miracle to solve our problems.
We need to encounter the sovereign,
all-pervasive love of Christ himself,
the risen Christ.
We need to encounter him in our lives.
We need to see his love for us
and run to him and encounter him.
In verse 4, we skip this,
it says this,
Jesus says,
this illness does not lead to death.
It is for the glory of God
so that the Son of God
may be glorified through it.
And at first you read that
and you think,
that sounds very egotistical.
Jesus is saying,
listen, I'm going to let Lazarus lie
so that when I rise and raise him from the dead,
all men will glorify me
and worship me
and tell me how wonderful I am.
I think that sounds very egotistical.
But if you've been reading
the book of John's Gospel
with us through the month of,
through Lent,
one of the things you'll see
is that Jesus is constantly avoiding the crowds.
Time and time again,
the crowds want to take Jesus
and make him king by force
and Jesus slips out of their way.
Jesus is constantly avoiding
the praise and the glory of man.
So what does Jesus mean here?
What he means is that
Jesus reveals himself,
not for the sake of his pride or his ego,
but so that people like Mary and Martha,
that people like you and I
can be drawn to him
and encounter him
in our place of need.
Jesus says the same thing,
actually, a couple of chapters later
in John chapter 14.
He says this,
the person who loves me
will be loved by my father.
I will love him
and reveal myself to him
or make myself known to him.
One of the ways that Jesus loves us
is by revealing who he is
and drawing us into himself
so that we can encounter his grace.
Jesus doesn't love us primarily
by keeping us from suffering
or pain or death.
He loves us by drawing us into himself,
sometimes even allowing us
to go through suffering.
Because for those that have encountered
Jesus and his grace,
those who know how to find their rest
in Jesus,
suffering,
though it feels like death,
death always leads to life.
Because that is the cruciform life.
That is the pattern of Easter,
death,
and then resurrection.
And that leads us,
thirdly,
to the third thing,
the surprising promise of Jesus.
The surprising ministry of Jesus
is the fact that he moves
into the very brokenness of our lives.
The areas that we most want to keep hidden,
Jesus moves in.
The surprising love of Jesus
is that he doesn't always give us
exactly what we want,
but because he loves us,
he gives us what we need.
And sometimes that will feel like death,
but actually it leads to life.
But thirdly,
the surprising promise of Jesus.
And in this,
we come to the heart of the passage.
This passage reveals not only
the wonderful attributes of Jesus
and his amazing love for us,
but it also reveals
the heart of Christianity,
the promise of resurrection hope.
And so look with me
at verses 23 to 27.
Look at this conversation
Jesus has with Martha.
Martha says,
Lord,
if you'd been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now,
I know whatever you ask,
God will give you.
Jesus says to her,
your brother will rise again.
Martha says,
I know he will rise again
at the resurrection on the last day,
and I look forward to that.
And Jesus says,
no,
Martha,
I am the resurrection
and the life.
Whoever believes in me,
though he die,
he shall live.
And whoever lives
and believes in me
shall never die.
Why is this good news?
Why do Christians
all around the world
celebrate the good news
of the resurrection?
Why is what Jesus is saying here
good news for people
like you and I?
Well,
there's a couple of things
that I think we ought to see
in this passage.
The first one is,
Jesus wants us to see
that the good news
of the resurrection
is not just a concept
or philosophy
or a way of life.
It's a person.
It's Jesus himself.
Now,
notice how,
when Jesus seeks
to help Martha,
if he doesn't help her
just by giving her
religious or trite
religious sympathies,
where,
you know,
when someone passes away,
what do we typically say?
We typically say
they've gone to a better place.
And we say this
in order to comfort ourselves,
in order to make ourselves
feel better.
But what does that actually mean?
I mean,
that is so general,
so vague,
so trite.
They've gone to a better place.
Well,
how do you know that?
And who's gone to a better place?
And how do you know
that that's actually
a better place after all?
And how do you know
that they themselves
have gone there?
Jesus,
when he promises us
resurrection hope,
Jesus doesn't just give us
vague,
religious,
trite answers.
Jesus doesn't give us
generalities like
you've gone to a better place
and don't worry,
everything's going to work out fine.
Jesus gives us
something concrete,
something solid,
something that we can
hold on to.
Jesus gives us
the rock solid assurance
that the promise
of the resurrection
is not found
in a vague concept
or Jesus,
let me put it this way,
Jesus doesn't just give us
a religious book.
He gives us himself,
the historic,
physical,
human being,
fully God,
fully man,
that walked on the earth,
Jesus gives us himself.
Jesus says,
I am the resurrection
and the life.
In,
you know,
in the first century,
there was this form
of kind of religion
called Gnosticism,
which,
which said that
everything material
is kind of bad,
it's all going to fade away
and die anyway.
And the really spiritual people
that don't really care
about the physical world,
spiritual people
are those that have
ascended to a higher
ethereal and philosophical
and spiritual realm.
And John,
who wrote the Gospel of John,
writes a bunch of letters
to the Christian church
to say,
no, no, no,
that's not true.
True spiritual maturity
isn't just measured
in the ethereal realm,
it's confidence
in the physical,
real person of Jesus.
Listen to how John
writes this in his letter.
He says,
that which was
from the beginning,
that which we've heard,
that which we've seen
with our eyes,
that which we've looked upon
and touched with our hands,
the word of life,
that which we've seen
and heard,
him we proclaim to you.
When John wants to write
to these Christians
that are suffering
and struggling
and encountering difficulty,
he doesn't just say,
oh, let's just philosophize,
let me give you some vague,
spiritual, trite answers.
He says,
there is a person
who walked on the earth
that we felt
and touched
and looked upon
and encountered.
He's risen,
he's alive,
trust and bank in him.
Jesus says,
I am the resurrection
and the life.
Do you remember
when Jesus rises
from the dead,
one of his disciples,
Thomas,
he wasn't there
when the disciples
first encountered Jesus
and the disciples
run to him and say,
Thomas, he's risen,
he's risen.
And Thomas says,
unless I touch
the scars in his hand
and the mark
and I put my hand
in his side,
I will not believe it.
We call Thomas
doubting Thomas
and we sometimes
use that word
disparaging me.
But Thomas is on to something.
Thomas is saying,
don't just give me
vague generalities.
I want something concrete.
I want something
to bank my life
and I want to know
that if Jesus is risen,
there's something real
and concrete to that.
Don't just give me
an ethereal philosophy.
And Jesus says,
I am the resurrection.
The resurrection of hope
is a person.
It's concrete.
It's real.
You can bank your life
for me.
Two years ago,
one of my heroes,
Tim Keller,
the pastor in New York,
he had just written
this book
around about Easter
and about hope in death.
And the book
had been published
for a month
and he goes to the doctor.
He said,
they have some scans.
He had some pain
in the stomach
and the doctor calls him up
and says,
I've got bad news.
You've got late stage
pancreatic cancer
and you're going
to die from this.
It may be a couple
of months,
maybe a year,
maybe two years
if you're lucky,
but you're going
to die from this.
And Tim Keller says
that after 40 years
of being a minister,
all the theology
and everything
he had shared
with others
suddenly had to
be real for him.
And he wrote
an article
for the Atlantic Magazine
a few months later
and he says,
before the cancer,
the resurrection
of Jesus
had been mostly
theoretical for me,
but not now.
And he says,
he goes back
and he looks
at all his old sermons
and his theology
of the resurrection
of Jesus
and how that guarantees
his own resurrection
to glory.
And he says this,
he says,
Christ's resurrection
and therefore
my own resurrection
became even more formidable.
The theology
gave my place
a footing,
but still
I needed more.
He's saying,
the theology
was strong
in my head.
I believed it.
I understood it.
It was good.
It was real.
It gave me comfort,
but it wasn't enough.
I didn't just need theology.
And he goes on
the article
to write,
what he needed
was the heartwarming
encounter
with the living
Christ.
Because that's what
Jesus says to Martha.
Martha says,
I know in the last day
he will rise
and yes,
that'll be wonderful.
And Jesus says,
don't you see,
I am the resurrection.
Martha,
if you want hope
from your tragedy,
you've got to come to me.
You've got to come to me.
Friends,
don't you long
for something concrete
and real?
Friends,
don't you long
in all the tragedy
of this world
for something real?
You don't just need
theology.
You don't just need
a red book.
You don't just need
a philosophy.
You need to live in Christ.
Jesus says,
I am the resurrection life.
Come to me.
But notice,
secondly,
that Jesus says here
that the resurrection
of hope
is not only a person,
but the hope
of the resurrection
is the end of death.
Look what he says
to Martha.
He says,
whoever believes in me,
though he die,
yet shall he live.
And whoever lives
and believes in me
shall never die.
Jesus is saying here
that the great enemy
of humanity,
the one thing
that all human beings
have sought to evade,
the great enemy
of humanity
has been defeated,
has been destroyed.
Jesus says,
the one thing in the world
that we all seek
to avoid,
the things that we spend
our entire lives
trying to evade,
has been transformed
from a verdict,
a sentence,
into a servant.
What once was
our great enemy
now gets turned
into our servant
that actually helps us
and escorts us
into fullness of life.
What once brought
judgment
now takes us
by the hand
and walks us
from one form of life
into the fullness of life.
It's kind of like
death gets transformed
from a doorway
into judgment,
into an entrance hole,
into fullness of life.
I don't even remember
the great poem
by John Dunn
called Death,
Be Not Proud.
I remember reading this
in high school
and just being astounded
by this poem.
He writes this,
I'll just quote a short section.
He says,
Death,
be not proud.
Though some have called thee
mighty and dreadful,
thou art not so.
One short sleep past,
we wake eternally
and death will be no more.
Death,
thou shalt die.
Friends,
Jesus says that
for those who are in Christ,
those who have come
to save in faith in Him,
because He has died
and risen again,
because the tomb is empty
and the grave has opened,
death has been transformed
from a sentence,
a verdict,
into a servant
that brings you into life.
Paul says the same thing
in Corinthians.
He says,
Death,
where is your sting?
Death,
where is your victory?
Death has been swallowed up
by life.
I've got a friend of mine
who's British
and he says that
when he used to live in England,
he used to go and watch
football games
and you know,
in the Premier League,
the crowds can chant
the enemy,
the opposition side
and they sing these
rude songs,
mocking their enemy.
One no down,
one no down,
you're gonna lose,
you're gonna lose.
There was a story recently
of one team
that has gone bankrupt
and so at their next game,
the whole crowd,
50,000 people,
start singing,
you're going bankrupt,
you're going bankrupt.
They're mocking their enemy.
Paul's doing the same thing.
Yeah,
he's mocking death,
he's saying death.
So just point out to me,
sorry,
where is your sting again?
So death,
just remind me,
where is your victory?
You're going down,
you're going down.
Paul is mocking the fact
that death
has been destroyed.
Jesus says the same thing here.
He says,
whoever believes in me,
even though he walks
through the doorway
that was meant
to be a sentence,
is being converted
into a servant.
They will enter
into fullness of life.
But notice
thirdly here,
this is all
well and good,
it's,
but Jesus makes
these wonderful promises,
wonderful assurances,
but there's something else here.
If Jesus promises
that
those who die in Christ
will rise to life,
why does Jesus
raise Lazarus
from the dead?
I mean,
think about it,
if Jesus' words,
you know,
his message is simply
that those who believe in him
will not feel
the effects of death,
they will pass
from life to life.
Why raise Lazarus
from the dead?
Why not just leave
Mary and Martha
with the comfort
and the hope
that Lazarus
will pass to glory
and all will be well again
and you'll soon
get to be with him?
Why does Jesus
raise Lazarus
from the dead?
I think there's
two reasons here.
The first is,
Jesus wants to show us
that his words
are not in vain.
Do you remember
in Matthew chapter 9,
there's an account
where some friends
bring a paralytic
to Jesus
and he cannot walk
and Jesus says,
son,
your sins are forgiven you.
What great news.
And some people
are around Jesus
and they're scoffing,
they're saying,
who does this man
think he is?
How can he say,
who gave him the authority
to say your sins
are forgiven?
And they are agitated
and they are frustrated
by Jesus' audacity
to claim
the forgiveness of sins.
And Jesus says,
which is easy to say,
your sins are forgiven
or pick up your mat
and walk?
But that you may know
that I have authority
to forgive sins.
He turns to the man
and he says,
pick up your mat
and walk.
And the man does.
Jesus is doing
the same thing here.
He says,
I am the resurrection
and the life.
Whoever believes in me
will never die
and those that do die
will pass straight to life.
And the people around
could say,
who's this man?
I mean,
I know Jesus says
some bold things,
but really,
Jesus claims
to be the resurrection
of the life.
Who,
what kind of audacity
does he have
to say that?
Jesus says,
what is easier to say?
To say,
I am the resurrection
of the life
or to say,
Lazarus,
come out of the grave.
But that you may know
that I have the authority
to raise the dead.
He looks at Lazarus
and he says,
Lazarus,
come forth.
Jesus is proving
that he's not just
some wild teacher
that says outrageous things.
He's not just coming
to stir the crowd.
He actually backs it up
with remarkable power
and authority.
But I think there's
a second reason
why Jesus raises Lazarus
from the dead.
And that's because
Jesus wants to demonstrate
that the resurrection life
and the hope
of his own resurrection
are not just something
that are kept in on ice,
kept in heaven for us
that we just got
to hold on to.
But that the great reversal
of the brokenness
of our world,
the reversal
of the entropy
of the world,
the reversal
of the effects
of sin
and the brokenness
in the world
has started
to take place
now in our lifetime.
Jesus is communicating
that not just
that one day
when you die
all will be better again.
He's saying,
even now
I'm starting
to bring the foretaste
of that brokenness
and hope
into our world today.
Jesus raises Lazarus
to give hope
to the people
of his day
that the resurrection
affects their lives
here and now.
Do you remember
Martha's words
to Jesus?
She says,
I know that he will
rise again
at the resurrection
on the last day.
And what does Jesus say?
Jesus says,
you're right,
Martha,
he will rise again.
I wish there was
something I could do
about that now,
but you know,
my resurrection power,
I only have jurisdiction
on the last day.
There's nothing
I can do about it.
I guess we better
just hold on
until we all die
and get to glory,
right?
No, no, no.
That's not what Jesus is.
Jesus says,
I am the resurrection.
I am the life.
And those who hope in me
will never die.
And you want to know
my resurrection power
now in your lifetime?
Lazarus,
come forth.
Jesus speaks
the hope of the resurrection
into their life
there and then.
And he does the same
for us.
One pastor says it like this,
Jesus' resurrection
means not merely
that Christians
have a hope
for the future
that they've just
got to hold on to,
but that they have a hope
that comes from the future
that begins now
in our lifetime.
Friends,
do you remember
what happened
in the Garden of Eden
way back in the beginning?
Genesis 3,
Genesis 2 in fact,
God says to Adam and Eve,
on the day
that you reject
my word
and reject me,
you will surely die.
And Adam and Eve
don't believe him.
And so they
reject God,
they reject his word.
And what happens?
They don't die.
Well,
not physically,
not initially,
not at first,
but if anybody
has eyes to see,
you'll know that
death enters
into our world
and it creeps
into every corner
and crevice
of our world.
I mean,
what is death?
Death is a loss
of life,
yeah,
sure,
but it's more
than just physical.
It's a loss
of hope.
It's a loss
of vitality.
It's a loss
of relationships.
It's a loss
of peace.
It's a loss
of joy.
It's a loss
of meaning.
Death creeps
into our world
as a result
of sin
and the fallenness
and the brokenness
of our world.
And you know
what Jesus is doing?
Jesus is saying
that because
the tomb
is empty,
because of my
resurrection,
I am reversing
the effects
of sin
and death
into this world
even now.
Do you remember
the Christmas carol
Joy to the World?
It says this,
no more let sin
and sorrows grow,
nor death
infect the earth.
He comes
to make
his blessings
flow far
as the curse
is found.
Far as the curse
is found.
Jesus came
not just
to give us
hope for the world
to come
as glorious
and as amazing
as that's going
to be.
Jesus came
for those of us
that are pilgrims
and sojourners
in this world
to peel back
to reverse
the curse
that entered
into our lives.
When Jesus says
I am the resurrection
and the life
and then raises
Lazarus from the dead
there and then,
Jesus is demonstrating
to Mary and Martha,
to the whole world,
to you and I,
that he hasn't just
come to pay the penalty
for our sin.
He hasn't just been
a benevolent benefactor
that pays up
our penalty
and our price.
Jesus has come
to push back darkness,
to make his blessings
flow as far
as the curse
is found
in your life,
in your family,
in your heart
today,
to bring light
and light
to bear in the
brokenness of this
world.
On Friday,
in our Good Friday
service,
we started watching
the story of Dan
and the brokenness
of sin in his life
and how darkness
had crept into his life.
We're going to watch
the rest of the story.
We're going to watch
the full thing
from beginning to end
and let's see
how Jesus
brought his resurrection,
hope and life
into Dan's life
and correspondingly
into all of ours.
Let's watch the story
together.
You know,
I used to think
people of religion
and faith
were very uncool,
boring,
progressive,
just completely
out of touch
with reality.
I guess in hindsight,
some people still are.
So I grew up
in a great home
with loving parents
who worked hard
to give me
every opportunity.
I was encouraged
to focus on
getting a good education,
going to a good university,
getting a good job,
getting ahead in life,
etc, etc.
And I think I was
definitely going
down that path
and it wasn't until
probably a couple
of years later
that I was still
at university
and I met a couple
of my mates
who are still
my best friends now
and they were
very similar to myself.
We enjoyed playing rugby,
drinking beer,
all those kind of things.
But they just happened
to be Christian as well.
And so they invited me
along to church
and there was no
kind of Hollywood moment,
I guess,
of a bolt of lightning
coming down from the sky
or beams of sunlight
shooting down
from between the clouds.
It was nothing like that.
It was a pretty slow
transition actually
over many months
from Jesus being,
to me,
a nice guy
but most definitely
a fictional character
to the real Lord
and my personal Savior.
And my definition
of success
was really turned
on its head
when I came
to that realization.
It went from
those things
that I had mentioned
before,
which are not necessarily
bad in and of themselves,
but the focus became
my relationships
and love
and how I was
displaying the love
that God had
showered on me
through Jesus
to those around me
through my relationships
with my family,
my friends,
my colleagues
and especially
back to God
himself.
So,
yeah,
that's it.
End of story.
We all live happily
ever after,
right?
If only that were so.
So,
fast forward
a few years later,
I was transferred
to Hong Kong
on a work secondment.
I had a really solid
community structure
around me.
I thought I was
at a point
in my life
where I could
move to a new
city
by myself
and I had it
all covered.
But,
in hindsight,
there was definitely
one major thing
missing there.
That was my
heart.
I think in my
heart I was
still really
restless.
Although I had
all those things
that I'd mentioned
earlier
and it probably
looked like success,
I think in my
heart I was
still
not at peace
and I was
still really afraid
of missing out
on what was
going on around me.
As a result,
I just completely
went off the rails.
It all came
to a head
one morning
after a few
weeks of
pretty consistent
partying,
I had woke up
and was
covered in
my own
vomit.
There was
so much
mess everywhere
that I tried
to salvage
my mattress
and my
pillows,
but I couldn't.
I had to
throw them
all out.
I guess it
was quite
symbolic in
hindsight.
God had
literally
brought me
to my knees
in that
moment.
Around that
time there
was also
another guy
who was
associated
with our
rugby club
who had
died after
choking
after he
passed out
one night
and that
was a huge
tragedy for
us and a
huge wake
up call for
myself as
well.
I remember
just helplessly
crying out to
God that
morning and
man is he
gracious.
He ever so
slowly brought
me out of
that pit.
He showered
me with
grace upon
grace.
He ever
increasingly
brought joy
back into my
life through
his word,
through prayer
and through the
Christian community
around me.
I realise
that so many
of the things
in our life
that we hope
or we trust
in may not
actually come
to fruition.
They may
prove themselves
even to be
less reliable
or trustworthy
than we had
first thought.
But God
has really
taught me a
deeper truth
in all of
this.
That he is
trustworthy,
he alone,
and that the
way up is
down.
by surrendering
your dreams
and your
ambition and
your goals
and your
life to
God and
allowing him
to shape
that.
It may
look like
it's not
success to
the world,
but truly
there is not
a wiser thing
that you can
do that will
bring you a
greater return
on investment
in your life.
Trust in
Jesus.
He will
not let
you down.
Hey Dan,
I love
that story
and I love
seeing God
at work in
your life.
Thank you
for sharing
that story.
As we come
to close our
service today,
I want us
to notice
just one other
thing in this
passage,
and this will
be quick.
At the
very end
of John's
gospel,
the second
last chapter,
chapter 20,
John actually
tells us the
reason why
he writes
his gospel.
He says
these things
are written
so that you
may believe
that Jesus
is the
Christ,
the Son
of God,
and that by
believing you
may have
life in
his name.
That's the
reason why
I've written
this.
As you read
John's gospel,
you'll see he's
constantly pushing
us to say,
will you believe?
Will you believe
that Jesus
is the Christ,
the Son of God?
In verse 28
of our
passage,
Martha has
this conversation
with Jesus.
Jesus says,
I am the
resurrection
and the
life.
Whoever
believes
in me,
though he
die,
will live,
etc.
And he
says,
do you
believe this?
She says,
yes,
Lord,
I believe
that you
are the
Christ,
the Son
of the
living God.
Do you
see what
John is
saying here?
John is
telling us,
he's showing
us that
Martha,
like Dan,
like the
disciples,
like millions
of others
around the
world,
have come
to experience
life in
his name.
I've written
these things
that you
may see
that Jesus
is the
Christ,
the Son
of God,
and by
believing,
have life
in his
name.
Friends,
what about
you?
Have you
come to
believe in
Jesus?
Not just
in theory,
not just
historically.
Have you
come to
believe that
he is the
Christ,
the Son
of the
living God,
who died
but rose
again,
and doing
so has
brought
light and
life to
bear?
The one
who is
raised in
glory and
offering life
to you
today?
Have you
come to
believe in
him?
Maybe
Jesus,
for the
very first
time today,
is calling
you to
surrender
your life.
As Dan
said,
often the
way up is
actually the
way down.
The way
to life is
to die
to ourselves
and to
surrender
to him,
and that
by believing
in him,
we may
have life
in his
name.
Friends,
maybe you
are a
Christian this
morning.
You did
that many,
many years
ago,
but if you're
honest,
the last
few years
have been
pretty dry.
You've
kind of
looked for
yourself.
You've
been seduced
by the
things of
this world.
Will you
freshly come
and believe
that life,
life to
the full,
is found
in him,
the one
who died
and rose
again?
This
morning,
Jesus
invites all
of us,
those for
the very
first time
and those
for the
100th time,
to come
and freshly
surrender
and to
declare that
we believe
that he
is Christ,
the son
of the
living God
and by
doing so,
experience life
in his
name.
Let's pray
together.
Lord Jesus,
thank you that we
get to pray to
you today.
We know that
you hear our
prayers because
you are alive
and you're
real,
seated in
glory.
God,
you are not
just a man
of history,
a figment
of our
imagination
or a
principle of
philosophy
from the
history books.
Christ,
you,
Christ,
are the
living God,
the real
one that
is alive
and glory
and the
one bringing
hope to
our lives
today.
Lord,
I pray for
all of my
brothers and
sisters.
I pray for
us as a
church that
we,
God,
as a
church,
will believe
evermore,
that more
and more,
God,
we will
believe in
you,
trust in
you,
hope in
you,
and experience
resurrection
life in
your name.
Christ,
come and do
that today
we pray.
Amen.