Raising Lazarus

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

This is our sixth week studying Jesus's seven signs in the Gospel of John, and John actually gives us a variety of ways to kind of work through his gospel. We got a couple options. He gives us the seven I AM statements. So seven times in the Gospel of John, Jesus says, I AM. So I AM the bread of life. I AM the light of the world. There's also seven titles that Jesus receives in John chapter 1. So he's the Messiah, he's the Lamb of God, he's the rabbi, he's the King of Israel. What we've chosen to do is to go through John's gospel according to the seven signs that Jesus did in them. And so far we've covered five of them and I want to quickly look at each one. Sign number one, Jesus turned water into wine in John 2. And Jesus did that so that he could show us that he's the one who makes us clean. And the people that witnessed this were only Jesus's disciples and a few of

the servants. So it's a very, very private thing. And so Jesus' second sign, it starts to get a little bit more personal. It's where he heals the official son in John chapter 4. And Jesus is really looking for true faith, not popularity. And that's that sign shows us. And so the only people that saw that were the official and his household and a couple of onlookers, still kind of personal. Third sign, Jesus heals a paralyzed man in John chapter 5. And this really shows us that Jesus gives life to whomever hears and believes. And he gives life to to whomever he wants. So whoever hears and believes, that's who he's going to give life to. And the people that witnessed this sign, there were a few people that witnessed it, but really Jewish leadership got a hold of this. And so Jesus's kind of his popularity at this point is growing. His celebrity status is growing. The Jewish

leadership is taking notice. And the fourth sign where Jesus feeds the 5,000 in John chapter 6, the highlight is that Jesus is all we need. He's our portion, right? And he illustrates this as he feeds 5,000 people with five loves and to fish. All right? The people that witnessed this, there were actually a lot of people who witnessed it. It was a large crowd, but it was remote. So it was public, but still it was kind of limited in scope. The fifth sign, what we looked at last week, was Jesus healing a blind man in John chapter 9. And the highlight is that that Jesus came to give sight, right? That Jesus came to make blind people see and that's our testimony right I once was blind but now I see and we worked through that how each of us had that testimony and it's powerful but when you look at who witnessed it it was a lot of people it was the crowds it was

the Pharisees all in the city all for everybody to see and so there's this growing kind of buzz about who Jesus is and the arc in in Jesus's popularity from the first sign all the way to the fifth sign, you know, you can see it kind of trending upward that it's spreading. And so this week, we're going to look at Jesus's most public sign yet, and it's his sixth sign. And we're going to be in John chapter 11 today. We're going to start in verse three. So we're going to be in most of the chapter, John chapter 11. And we're not going to really skip around. We're going to kind of move through. We're going to skip over some parts, But we're going to try to move quickly. And this is Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Now, unlike most of Jesus's other signs, where a lot of the action happens after the sign, today we're going to focus on the events that lead up to the sign.

Right? So there's this whole... this is all of John 11. Jesus does not heal Lazarus until the end of John 11. And so, John of Levin is like a buildup to that. And what we find here are events that are set in three different scenes with three different groups of people that Jesus is interacting with. And all these people, they see the problem, they know that Lazarus is in trouble or they know that he's dead, but they really miss what's going on with it. They really miss what Jesus is saying about it. And so the first scene that we find is Jesus and the disciples where they hear about Lazarus being sick. And for that we're going to turn to John 11, of course we're going to be in John 11, and we're going to start in verse 3. And I'll read verses 3 through 6 for us. It says, So the sisters sent to him, the sisters being Mary and Martha, those are the two sisters of Lazarus,

The sisters sent to him saying, Lord, he whom you love is ill. So Jesus and Lazarus had a pretty good relationship. He was the one that Jesus loved. And so verse 4, when Jesus heard this, 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. And so Jesus's actions here are kind of puzzling. He hears Lazarus is sick and he seems like he's shrugging it off. He seems like he's saying, it's fine. And he even stays there two more days. But then in verse seven, we read seven and eight, we read what happens after that. It says, then after this, Jesus said to the disciples, let's go to Judea again. So they just come back from Judea and Jesus saying, let's go back. But

But here's the disciples reaction. They said to him, verse 8, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you. And are you going to go there again? And there's a disbelief in that statement. There's like, what? And so Jesus is saying the time is right. And the disciples are saying, they just tried to kill you. Why would you want to go back? They don't understand what's going on. Jesus gives them some kind of illumination verses 11 through 16. John 11 through 16. It says, "...after saying these things, he said to them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him. The disciples said to him, Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." In other words, we don't need to go to where you're going to get stoned if he's going to wake up by himself. Verse 13, "...now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought he meant he was taking rest and sleep. Verse 14, then Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus has died.

And for your sake, I'm glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him. So Thomas called the twin, and you might have heard of Thomas before, we call him Doubting Thomas, that's kind of the common name associated with him. So Thomas called the twin, sent to his fellow disciples, let us go also that we may die with him. So although there is some initial confusion, Jesus said he's asleep but he really meant he was dead, the disciples get the message that Lazarus is dead and even though Jesus hints that there's a bigger plan going on, the disciples really, they assumed that they knew Jesus's plan. They assumed that Jesus was going on a death march. They assumed that he was going back, even though Lazarus was going to get better, and that he was going to die. And Thomas is ready to die, right? And so we call him doubting Thomas, but really here he's fighting Thomas.

Like he's ready to go. You can almost hear the excitement. You can see the fire in his eyes. He's like, He's like, okay, if Jesus is gonna go, then let's go with them. Even though we die, we're gonna go die with Jesus. I love that. But whenever Thomas is thinking about that, and maybe you're like Thomas, whenever he's thinking about him, about following Jesus, Thomas is ready to storm the gates of hell for Jesus. He's ready to do the amazing thing. He's ready to go die. But Jesus here is asking Thomas to really do something different, although Thomas doesn't know it yet. And how often are we ready to rush headlong into some great adventure? But really Jesus is asking us to do something much different than that. We assume that Jesus wants us to do hard things on our own effort, but really what he's asking us to do is to submit to his plan. And in Jesus' plan, he's the hero, not us.

And so the disciples here assume that Jesus wants them die with him. And while that is very noble, it still misses the point. Jesus has something far better in mind. And so let's keep reading. We're going to move on to the second scene. And this time it is with Jesus and Martha. And it's a couple of verses down. And it's going to be in John 11, 20 through 22. And it's going to be a little further than that. We're going to start in verse 20. It says, so when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lauren, 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. So Martha has some doubts going on, but it's very well informed. It's a very theologically correct doubt, right? So her opener is, hey Jesus, this is your fault, but you can fix it, right? And it seems at first that

Martha and Jesus are on the same page, and Jesus even responds kind of like they're on the same page. Verse 23, Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. So we're getting the impression Jesus is trying to tell her, I'm going to raise Lazarus. Her response, verse 24, Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. And you can almost see Jesus tilt his head to the side a little bit and go, okay. Because what Martha is doing is she is confusing a promise for a lesson. Jesus is promising her that he's going to resurrect her brother and Martha thinks this is Bible study. She's like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's 2nd Chronicles 6. I read it last week. I know the resurrection is going to happen on the last day. Jesus, good. Yeah, so she wins Bible drill, but she doesn't get what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying Lazarus is going to rise again and she's just adding on. Yes, he will rise

again on the last day. I know. So again, Jesus goes kind of back at it with her to make the promise again, John 11 25 through 27. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. That's one of those famous I am statements right there. Jesus says, I'm the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live. And whoever lives and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? So he's really kind of putting it to So Martha is saying, look, I decide who lives and dies. Do you believe this? And her answer is the same. She's a little tone deaf. She doesn't get what Jesus is asking. She says to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you were the Christ, the Son of God who is coming into the world. And so Jesus is saying, I have the power to raise Lazarus. Do you believe? And she said, yeah, I believe that you're the Son of God.

And so Jesus doesn't show any frustration. But you can tell he's not getting through because Martha here again is confusing things. She's confusing a promise for a confession, right? She's saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. I know that's true. I can recite that. See nothing is really wrong with Martha's theology on this point. Martha has her Bible correct. She knows the verses. She believes what Jesus says. She even believes that he's the Son of God. yet she misses the point that Jesus is making right then and there. And really, this is where a lot of us are, right? This is where a lot of us are. We see scripture and we read the Bible as history, but we struggle to read the Bible as a promise, right? We read scripture as history, but not as a promise. So we know God's faithfulness throughout history. We can quote you chapter and verse. We know about the Exodus.

We know about God doing great things. We know about Jesus doing miracles. But when it comes to God coming through for us in a particular circumstance, many of us are paralyzed by fear. Now this is always true, but right now it's a lot easier to see because there is a global pandemic going on. And so the questions that are swirling around that paralyze us in fear are, look, will my job be there when all this is over? How am I going to cope with my whole family in my house? How will I help them do homeschool? Will I get sick? Will I suffer? Will I die? Will my parents die? Will my grandparents die? My infants? Who's going to live and who's going to die? Jesus has promised us in Philippians 4:13, and we love to quote this. see this on Jesus t-shirts all the time, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. And yes, and amen, we can. We can do all things because Jesus is the one supplying us strength. But I

want you to look at the previous verse. I'm going to read verse 12. This is the verse that doesn't make it on the Jesus t-shirt. Philippians 4 12, I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, facing abundance and need." And then it says, I can do all things. The all things right there that we can do is it includes suffering. It includes being holed up in our home longer than we want. It includes being told we can't go work and can't make money. It includes being told we don't know where the next paycheck's coming from so we don't know if we can pay bills. It includes all those things. It includes all those fears and anxieties. I can do all things. I can persevere through all things because Jesus is the one who is strengthening me. Many of us right now are low. Maybe we're low

financially. Maybe we're just feeling lonely. Maybe it's just a psychological lowliness that we are feeling, but Jesus is right there with a plan to grow you. He is right there willing to give you strength and to help you. He wants to make you into the person who suffers well. He wants to make you into the person who perseveres. And you're saying, Jesus, I know you can do all things, but I just don't know how I'm going to get through this. And maybe you can identify, not just with Martha, but Let's look at the third scene. Maybe you can identify with this third scene that we see in John's gospel. This time it's not the disciples, it's not Martha. Now it's Mary, and it's Mary with a crowd of people that are mourning. And this is in verse 32. So we've skipped a few verses. John 11, 32 is where we're picking it up. 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. right? It's the same line. It's the same line that Martha gives him, except it's shorter. She simply says, Jesus, this is your fault. If you were here, if you had done something different, my brother wouldn't be dead. Martha, excuse me, Mary is upset. She's blaming Jesus in the midst of her frustration. 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." Jesus is met with Mary and her accusation. Jesus, this is your fault. And here we see that Mary's doubt is different from the disciples, and it's different than Martha, right? The disciples, they had some bad assumptions. They thought they knew Jesus's plan, but they didn't. Martha doubted, but there was some future comfort there.

She knew enough to know, I'm at least going to see Lazarus in the last day. Mary here, though, Mary is doubting and she's just undone. And you can see it in her friend's reaction. Look at verses 34 through 37. And Jesus said, where have you lain in? And they said to him, Lord, come and see, Jesus wept. And so Jesus said, oh, sorry. So the Jews said, see how he loved him. Look at verse 37. But some of them, some of the crowd said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying? You can tell here that the discussion among Mary and her friends has been different than the discussion that's been going on with the disciples. It's different than the discussion that's been going on with Martha. This discussion is a discussion in which they have swallowed the doubt. They have swallowed it and it's turning it into cynicism.

Whereas the disciples have some false assumptions. Whereas Martha is wrestling with doubt. Mary, her sister, is not wrestling with anything. She's internalized it. or at least her friends have, and they've become cynical. Listen to the question again. Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying? The message is loud and clear. Jesus is not as powerful as he says he is. That's what they're saying. They're saying Jesus is not really interested in your problem, Mary.

Jesus might be faking it. And today's version of that kind of cynicism is that Jesus isn't... Excuse me. Today's version of that cynicism is that Jesus isn't real. Following him will not change your life. This religion thing, this Christianity thing, it's just brainwashing. It's just social conditioning. There's nothing real about it. You can't really change. You can't really be made new from the inside. Jesus has a response to this, but Jesus's response does not include shouting over anybody. It doesn't include any mic drop moments where he just kind of, you know, says this really cool line and then walks away and we're all like, whoa. He's not, Jesus isn't going to waste time, you know, commenting on your Facebook rant. that's not, he's not interested in that kind of game. Jesus's response to all of it, to the bad assumptions that we make, to the hopeful skepticism, to the well-informed theological doubt

that Martha displays that we can have. Jesus's response even to the deep cynicism of Mary's friends. Jesus responds to all of that with action, not rebuttal. Jesus isn't worried about convincing you with words, He will show you with His actions. And when He does, Jesus absolutely blows everyone away. See, we all have our plan in mind, and it seems like the best way forward, or maybe sometimes we think the only way forward. And Jesus' plan, even though we can't see it, it always blows us, it blows our plan out of the water. It's not even a comparison. Jesus' faithfulness is is beyond our imagination. If we are able to push past doubt and believe and hold on, we can trust that Jesus will blow away, blow us away with what He has in store. Let's read what finally happens and as we do, I want you to try to imagine the shock and the joy that goes on whenever Lazarus is finally raised from the dead.

as we read, you're gonna get some detail in there, and I'm gonna read a few verses, 39 through 44, but I want you to picture it as I read it. Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead for four days. And Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you that if you believed 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. Let's just stop there for just a second. Jesus said I could have done all this and not had an audience here, but I did all this and I wanted all of you guys here so that you could see and believe what I've been saying. 43, we'll pick it back up. When he said these things, he

cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus come out! And the man who had died came out, his hands and his feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth. And Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. When you let Jesus push past the doubt and the bad assumptions and even the cynicism, what you find is life. You find the resurrection of the dead. You find something you cannot explain. You can tell that Jesus is helping you push past the doubt when you begin to have responses like these. I'm gonna give you three examples. These are indicators that you are beginning to push past doubt. If you can't say any of these, then you're probably swimming in that doubt. You're somewhere in there. You got some bad assumptions, you got some maybe you're wrestling with some skepticism or really you're just being cynical and you're swimming in it. Here's three responses to

let you know that you're pushing past the doubt. First response, I will wait. I will wait. It means that you can resist your own desire to plan your future. You can resist falling in love with your own plan. And this is not what always goes doesn't it? Like we ask Jesus, hey Jesus, show me your plan. Show me what you want me to do. And really, we are interested in what the plan is, but what we sort of mean with that is, hey Jesus, let me check your plan for mistakes. Let me tweak it so that it's a little bit better, so that we really know what the plan is, but we are really in control of the plan. The reality is, if Jesus were to appear before us and show us the plan, line out our entire life or even the next couple of years of our life, we would turn pale and we would run the other direction like Jonah. We would not know what to do with that. We think much too highly of ourselves and our ability

to plan to really swallow what Jesus is going to show us, even if he showed us just the next couple of years of our lives. The reality is instead of asking Jesus to show us the plan, let's begin to push past the doubts and trust his plan and say, I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna see what Jesus has. I'm gonna see the life that Jesus is going to bring and I want to encourage you to do that. Don't swallow the doubt. Don't fall into cynicism or skepticism or false assumptions. Don't fall into that. Wait, wait. The second sentence you're going to say if you're pushing past the doubt is, I need strength. I need strength. You begin asking Jesus for strength, for hope, to make it. right? When you're at the end of your rope, that's not a bad thing. When you are cooped up in your house and you're on day 20 of a quarantine, it's not necessarily a bad thing because you can't do anything else and you actually begin

to see Jesus working. Because if something's happening, it has to be somebody besides you. If good things are going on in your life, it has to be Jesus working it out. Right? And so when you say, I need strength, you are beginning to say, I can't make this happen on my own. I need help. I need strength to make it happen. And so when you begin to ask for that, you are pushing past the doubt. You were asking for strength to wait past that doubt. The last thing that you're going to be saying if you're pushing past the doubt is this won't help. And by this I mean all the blame, all the resentment, all the the cynicism, all the frustration, all the guilt, right? All of that you're beginning to say that's not going to help. You're beginning to see the blame and the resentment for the dead ends that they are. And it might just be a question that you say like what good is this

going to do me?" You know, and so asking the question right before you get on Facebook and you're just gonna complain for about five paragraphs, just ask yourself, what is this going to do? What good is this going to do me? The popular idea is that we can vent, right? We can just say that we're frustrated and by saying that we're frustrated that somehow we'll alleviate the frustration. Scripture, though, actually talks about how whenever you do that, whenever you whenever you rant like that, it's actually not venting at all. It's just rehearsing. You are rehearsing the bad things that are going on with you. You are rehearsing the fear, the doubt, the skepticism, the cynicism. You are rehearsing a mistrust, a disbelief that Jesus is going to come through. And so before you rant, why don't you just stop and pray? Why don't you say what you were gonna say on that Facebook post, to Jesus. Why don't you see what his plan

is? As we learn to lean into Jesus and his plan, we will begin to say, I will wait. We will begin to say, I need strength. We will begin to say, this won't help. And of all three of those statements, I will wait, I need strength, And this won't help which one of those speaks to where you are right now How do you need to trust in Jesus's plan today because as we do when we wait He will come through and he will come through with something that blows our minds. It will far exceed our expectation I'm not saying your life's just gonna be rainbows and unicorn after this moment But what I am saying is that when you wait when you depend on Jesus He always comes through and he comes through in a way that you don't, you just don't expect. You can't imagine it. Your best case scenario, Jesus kind of giggles and is like, I've got something so much better, so much more comprehensive in mind. I have a plan to grow you.

I have a plan as to finish what I've started in you. Philippians 1 6 tells us that how do you need to trust in Jesus's plan today? Let me pray a blessing over you. Jesus, I ask that you would help everyone watching this video and everyone else, that you would help them lean into your plan, that you would help them push through the doubt, the confusion, the bad assumptions, the cynicism, the skepticism, that they would push through that and they would trust that you are going to come through. Lord Jesus, help them with the immediate problem going on, but But Jesus, please help them connect that to what you're doing in their life long term. And it's in your name that we pray. Amen.