JESUS: The Resurrection and the Life                                   

12-4-05

John 11:1-44 (25)     Audio

His name was Lazarus.  He is not the Lazarus of the story of the rich man who dies and goes to hell, and the beggar who dies and goes to heaven.  This is the one who lived in Bethany, close to Jerusalem, and John is the only one who tells his story.

It would appear that Lazarus lived with his sisters, Martha and Mary, and together they had repeatedly welcomed Jesus into their home.  Their home was a place of refuge for Him, the One Who had no home of His own. They loved Jesus, and they held a special place in His heart.

But Lazarus never speaks.  Not once in any of the 4 Gospels do we ever find him saying a word.  We read Martha’s words, and Mary’s words, but never anything from Lazarus.  He was the silent one.  As a matter of fact, we never even read of him until here in John 11, where he has taken ill.  Even before his illness, his name meant “God is my help”.  And certainly in the story before us today, God is going to be Lazarus’ help.

His illness must have been serious.  There could be no other reason why they would send someone to find Jesus and tell Him that his friend was sick.  The messenger did not tell Jesus that Lazarus was dying. Perhaps none of them knew that his time of death was that near.  But there were no demands from the sisters, just “the one you love is sick”.  They did not see Jesus as their servant, to do their bidding; they just wanted to let Him know, believing He would come and help them.

I hear people sometimes who seem to assume that God gave us prayer in order to put us on the throne and tell Him what to do, that prayer makes us the master and Him the servant.  I hear them demanding things of God and treating Him as if He was their inferior.  We are not even His equal.  He is our Creator, our Lord, our King, our Heavenly Father, our God.  We need to approach Him in humility.  Yes, we can come boldly to the Throne of Grace and present our needs to Him, but the word “boldly” means “with freedom of speech”, not with disrespect.

Jesus statement in v.4 is interesting: “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”  This sickness will not end in death.  He does not say that Lazarus will not die, but that his death will not be the end of the story.

Ever since Adam sinned there has been sickness and death in our world.  It’s not the way God intended it.  He did not create sin; He did not create sickness; He did not create death.  They came into existence as a result of disobedience, but they were not what He intended.

And one of these days, when Jesus comes back and His followers are gathered with Him in heaven, we will again be free from all sickness and suffering and death.  But they are part of the present order of things and we have to live with them.

John makes special note that Jesus loved Lazarus.  He was not sick because Jesus did not love him, and neither are you. Nor did Lazarus’ sickness come because he was out of God’s will. 

When we disobey God sometimes sickness does come. Painful consequences often follow our sinful behavior.  But sometimes we get sick when we are walking closely with God and doing His will fully.  Babies get sick, not because they have sinned, but as a reflection of the world we live in.  And blatant sinners sometimes have wonderful health.  We are in great error when we estimate God’s love for us and our standing with Him by our sickness or lack of it.

Knowing that His friend is ill, very ill, Jesus stays where He is for two more days.  I usually don’t like it what Jesus does that to me, and I suspect neither do you.  We want Him to act on our time schedule, and instead He acts on His time schedule.  I think I know when it’s best for Him to do something, but He does not consult me, no matter how anxious or frustrated with Him I might be.  Jesus waits two more days, waits until Lazarus dies.

Jesus says so much in parables, in figurative language, and He does it again in v.11: “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”  “But why do you want to wake him up?  If he’s sleeping, that’s good.  That means he’s getting better.  And by the way, how do You know he’s sleeping?  Did another messenger come and tell you that when we weren’t looking?”

So He tells them plainly: Lazarus in dead, and I am glad.  “You’re what?  You’re glad that he died?  How can that be?  We thought he was your friend.”  I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe.”

In all of the circumstances of life, God is doing something beneath the surface.  We look at sickness and death and we want it to go away. 

I don’t know about you, but I’m a lot like Charlie Brown who said in one of the Peanuts cartoons: “I don’t like pain; it hurts.”  What are we to do with sickness, and pain, and death?

It helps us when we can deeply believe that God is at work in our lives and in the lives of others in the midst of our pain—that suffering has meaning to it that may not be readily apparent.  There are some things more important to God than our happiness and comfort. And sometimes He is willing to take those from us in order to accomplish His greater goal for us.  He is working in our spirits; He is working to develop greater faith in Him in the midst of our difficult times. 

How difficult is it to trust in God when things are going well: when the sun is shining and our bellies are full and our bank account is sufficient? In the midst of God’s blessings it’s easy to trust Him.  But He is looking for more than that.  So He takes us deeper.  Can we also trust Him when the clouds move in, when the storms of life come, when it seems like He has grown silent and deserted us?

“Let’s go to Bethany now, so I can wake up this sleeping friend.”  The disciples knew that Jesus might be walking into a trap.  The Jewish leaders wanted to kill Him because He was a threat to their status, to their position.  “But if He’s going, we might as well go along, and die along with Him” Thomas adds.

Why did it take 4 days for Jesus to get to Bethany?  It could be that they were in the far north of Israel.  There is very little of Israel that is a 4 day walk from Bethany if you are in a hurry to get there. Perhaps they were north of the Sea of Galilee.  But maybe Lazarus was dead even by the time the messenger arrived, Jesus waited two days, and then two days to get to Bethany.  Whatever the scenario, He had been in the grave 4 days by the time Jesus gets there.

Some have suggested that Jesus waited so that the people would know that Lazarus was indisputably dead.  I read someplace that there was a belief among the Jews that a person’s spirit stayed around for 3 days after they died.  If that indeed was their belief, 4 days would have been significant.  His spirit had now departed for sure, and it was hopeless.

But Jesus’ wait seems to fit a pattern.  Remember in John 2 when Jesus’ mother came to Him at the wedding they were attending?  The wine had run out, and she wanted Jesus to do something about it.  He says to her: My time has not yet come. 

He says in essence: “Let Me handle it My way.”  Yet just a little later He goes ahead and performs His first miracle, turning water into wine.

And then in John 7, His brothers tell Him He needs to go to Jerusalem with them to the Feast of Tabernacles so He can show people His miracles and get them to believe in Him.  He refuses to go with them, telling them His time had not yet come.  Yet after they go, He goes by Himself to the Feast.

And now here with Lazarus, Jesus does the same thing.  In His own way, in His own time, He acts.  He does not act because we compel Him to.  He is the only One with the right to sing the song: “I’ll do it My way.”

When Jesus and the 12 arrive, the week-long period of deep mourning is well underway.  Friends from Jerusalem have joined friends from Bethany, and there are people at the house as well as at the tomb.  To the Jews it was a sacred duty to express loving sympathy to the family of one who had died, especially during this first week.

Because of the hot climate and the absence of embalming, funerals took place almost immediately after the person died – within a day or two.  But sympathetic mourners would continue to come for days.  So when Jesus arrived, Lazarus was already in the grave, but there were still a lot of people around.

Even before He got to the house, the news of His arrival reached Martha.  She may have been outside while Mary was inside.  It appears Mary doesn’t know Jesus is there until a bit later.  Martha rushes to meet Jesus and speaks to Him words of disappointment and maybe a bit of reproach, yet mixed with faith.

V.21 “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

And behind those spoken words are the unspoken ones: Jesus, when you got our message, why didn’t you come at once?  Why did you delay?  You got here too late! 

That’s what makes me think that Jesus was perhaps not 4 days away.  The messenger had returned and told the sisters that he had delivered the message.  They knew where Jesus was. They knew that something had delayed His coming.  He could have been there sooner, but He had delayed.  And if He had not delayed, their brother would not have died.

Then come the words of hope, even if very slight hope: “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”  My brother is dead, but…

Jesus answer is concise and direct: Your brother will rise again.

So is Martha’s: I know He will rise again in the final resurrection.

Then come Jesus words that are the core of this message:

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”  John 11:25-26

There are those two words again: I AM.  He is making another claim here: I am the resurrection and the life.  Who but God Himself could make that claim?  None of the prophets ever made that claim. None of the Apostles ever made that claim.  It’s not just that He raises people from the dead and gives them life; He is the resurrection; He is the life.  It is resident in Him.  Our life is a gift from Him, but He is life in its essence.

The second part of Jesus’ statement seems confusing at first.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.  Is not death the absence of life, and life the absence of death?  How can you die and yet still live?  It seems like a contradiction – unless there is more than one kind of life and more than one kind of death?

Titus 5:6 speaks of those who live for pleasure as being dead even while they live.  And Ephesians 2:1 says: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world.

The Bible speaks plainly about both physical life and spiritual life, about physical death and spiritual death.  Jesus is not saying here in John 11 that we can be both physically dead and physically alive at the same time. That’s impossible!  But we can be spiritually dead even while we are alive physically, and spiritually alive even though we die physically.

You sit here today in this room, or perhaps are listening to this message as a recording.  If you are listening to my voice you are obviously physically alive. But are you spiritually alive? That’s the more important question.  That’s the question that will determine where you will spend your eternity.

He that believes in Me, Jesus said, he who adheres to and trusts in and relies on Me, even though he may die, yet shall he live.  It was more than just introduction to what He was about to do in raising Lazarus from the dead.  It is a statement of fact that applies to every one of us who are followers of Jesus.  It is a statement of hope.

Annie Nelson is no longer in her emaciated, worn out body.  At 96 years of age she was anxious to get going, to lay aside her earthly body and head for a better place.  Her body has died, but Annie is alive today!  And so many of us who have known her through the years, her two brothers who are a part of this congregation, and other family members and many friends know that she lives on – not just in our memories, but is really alive today, only in a better place.  That is the promise Jesus makes to us here.  Physically dead, but her spirit is still very much alive.

“I know my brother will rise again in the resurrection at the last day,” Martha says to Jesus.  Indeed he will, but Jesus is about to do something that will honor God and glorify Jesus.  That’s what Jesus said He would do back in v.4.

In Isaiah 42:8 God says “I am the LORD; that is my name!  I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.

And in Isaiah 48:11 “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.”

God is jealous of His glory.  So how can Jesus say that He is going to glorify Himself by raising Lazarus from the dead and not incur the wrath of God?  Unless He is Himself God!  Here we have another claim by Jesus to be God, just as His Father is God.

Standing at the entrance to the tomb, Jesus has them take away the stone.  Why did He need the stone rolled back?  First of all because Lazarus is going to come back to life in a body that had not been glorified.  When Jesus came back to life He just passed through the grave clothes and through the stone.  The angel rolled it back only so everyone could see that the tomb was empty.

But Lazarus could not pass through the rock.  They had to roll it back.  And Jesus could have commanded the stone to roll back but He leaves to us what we can do, while He does what we cannot do.  We cannot bring anyone back to life.  We cannot raise the dead, either physically or spiritually.  He has to do that. But we can prepare for the miracle that He is about to perform.

Now before the open tomb He shouts: Lazarus, come out!  If He had not said “Lazarus”, the whole graveyard would have been filled with dead people come back to life.  But in answer to His command, out comes Lazarus, doing the dead-man’s shuffle.  He is still bound from head to foot with the grave wrappings.

Jesus could have dressed him in a suit from Nordstroms, but He leaves him in the grave-wrappings.  Have you ever wondered why?  Have you ever wondered why people come to life spiritually and still have so many struggles, still have so much of the smell of death still on them?

I can hardly imagine what it must have been like for his friends to stand there and unwrap those cloths so full of the stench of death.  The new life in him was the result of a miracle; the rolling back of the stone and the unwrapping the grave-clothes is left to people who could not do the miraculous but who used their natural abilities to do what they could.

Jesus sometimes works through miracles, and He sometimes works through natural means.  But it is Jesus working in both cases.

The night before Jesus was crucified, He could have gone out and rounded up 12 guys and said to them: “Look, I’m about to be crucified and I need someone to carry on My work.  I’m going to lay My hands on you and you will be filled with the same Spirit that fills Me.  You will know what to do because I’m going to miraculously give you that knowledge. You will have all the power you need, and the courage you need, and the wisdom you need. It’s all going to come as I lay My hands on you.  Any questions?”

And then BAM!  Miraculously all that they needed to start Christianity was instantaneously theirs.  But it didn’t happen that way, did it?

For 3½ years He worked with these men.  Day and night He worked with them.  It was so discouraging at times.  He must have wondered if they were ever going to get it right.  Why did He not use His miracle working power and just change them in a moment of time?

Instead He chose to use a process, and that process took months and months and months.  But that’s the way He chose to do it. 

When we get saved, why does Jesus not do a miracle in our lives that makes us instant spiritual giants?  Why does He bring us back to life with grave-clothes on?  Why does it take so long for us to become what He wants us to be, to become like Jesus?

There are some who think that all we need to do is to get people down to the altar and pray and all of their problems will disappear.  Yes, we need to pray with people and for people.  But God has called us to walk alongside of each other, as stinky as some of us are, and lovingly unwrap the grave-clothes.

That will involve praying with people. It will involve unconditionally loving them, and even at times lovingly confronting them.  It will involve helping them take authority over Satan and his demons.  It will involve helping them establish new relationships, and new habit patterns, and new response patterns, and new ways of thinking. 

Could God do that miraculously and instantaneously? Certainly He could.  Does he do it miraculously and instantaneously?  Usually not.  He calls us to love one another, and help one another become all that God wants us to be.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life.  He is life, and He brings life.  None of us can do that.  But He does call us to help prepare people, and to follow-up with them as they come to life.

Is there a Lazarus from whose grave Jesus is wanting you to roll back the stone?  Is there a Lazarus who has found life from Jesus but needs to be set free from his grave-clothes – and Jesus is saying to you today: Take off the grave-clothes and let him go!  Help set him free from his bondage.

Or maybe you are the Lazarus today.  People have spoken to you about Jesus.  This message has spoken to you about Jesus.  The stone has been rolled back.  Will you hear His voice calling to you today – John, come to life; Susan, come to life; Brittney, come to life; Jerud, come to life.  Will you respond to His words of life and walk out of your grave today?

PRAY