Sermon Cloud

April 13, 2008

John 11:1-57 (Seven Signs) “Lazarus”

Scene 1 (1-6)

            John gives us a little background.  Mary was one that Jesus said had done the right thing by the actions described in verse 2.  So this is a woman Jesus has great affection for and her brother is deathly ill and it is implied that the sisters want Him to do something about his condition.   Jesus gets the news and He assures them that Lazarus won’t die…sort of.  Here we see Jesus’ motivation and I can make a good case that it’s always God’s motivation:  the glory of God.  In the end, Jesus is in no hurry to prevent Lazarus’ death.  Why?  So that the Son of God may be glorified through it.  For now, notice Jesus’ love for a friend and overarching purpose of His glory-at the same time. 

Scene 2 (7-16)

            Remember that sign from last week where the blind guy sees and all of the Jewish leaders were stirred up?  Well they are still steaming about all of it.  So when Jesus declares that they are going to go back, the disciples are understandably afraid, but Jesus reaffirms both His desire to go to Judea and His identity as the light of the world. 

            Only at this point does Jesus give an indication that Lazarus has died and it passes right over the heads of the disciples.  Verse 15 is huge.  It’s good that Jesus couldn’t prevent Lazarus’ death because He wants to deepen their belief in Jesus’ identity of the Son of God.  In fact, this is the goal of all seven signs and the gospel of John itself.  This is going to be the sign par excellence.  Jesus is going for belief in Himself. That motivates everything He does and is the same thing as seeking glory for Himself because belief acknowledges the worth/glory of Jesus, right? This is the reason we talk a ton around this place about believing the gospel. We initially look to Jesus for salvation and soul satisfaction…we call that conversion.  And like these disciples we keep looking to Jesus and see His power and excellence and He affects us.  If you are a Christian, we see Jesus working for your soul’s belief just like in this story. He’s relentless.     

This scene closes with Thomas talking some craziness.  He’s talking big and realizes the danger, but keep in mind that only John stays with Jesus at the cross.  All the rest, including Thomas, took off when Jesus died.  I think that’s pretty funny. 

Scene 3: Jesus and Martha (17-27)

            Jesus finally gets there, but notice that Lazarus has already been dead for 4 days (v. 17).  Jesus was likely a 2 days journey from Lazarus and this means that those 2 days delay wouldn’t have made any difference for Jesus making it there before Lazarus died.  But why the delay?  The best answer is that the pop religion of the day held that the spirit of the deceased hung around for 3 days until the color started to change in the corpse.  I guess it finally gave up hope and took off.  Probably, Jesus wants to make sure this miracle has no other explanation.

            Significantly, Bethany was close to Jerusalem.  That’s where everyone that wants Jesus dead lives.  Lots of Jews from there are mourning…this was risky.  Martha runs out to meet Jesus and affirms Jesus’ power in v.21-22. Don’t read too much into here words.  The main point is not blame, but even in her grief she has confidence in Jesus. 

            Jesus’ exchange with her takes this story to a new level.  He tells her that her brother will rise again.  Jesus seems to be talking in two different ways.  The first way will become obvious in a minute when Lazarus comes back to life.  The second way is the one that Martha recognizes was an affirmation of the resurrection of the dead that would have been a great encouragement to a grieving sister.  This was the viewpoint of the Pharisees, Martha, and Jesus alike.  It would be sort of like people today saying “He’s in a better place.”  (Which is funny that we say that to everyone…it’s curious that no one is declared to be in a worse placee).  But Jesus presses more.  He declares that HE IS the resurrection and life.  Why does He say it this way?  Apparently, Jesus wants to take Martha’s attention of the vague idea of “a better place” and place it on Him who can get it done.  Jesus is the better place.  The combination of resurrection and life almost certainly mean the final resurrection is in view (Carson, 413).  Again, belief is the goal.  Martha not only believes this, but puts the pieces together and recognizes that the One who controls the resurrection of the dead must also be the promised Messiah.  She believes in a lot more than Lazarus will be “in a better place.” 

            And this is an interesting correction for us.  Almost everyone (Christian or not) focuses on the destination and not Jesus.  How many times have you heard gospel presentations where the reason people should believe in Jesus is that they can go to heaven and not, well, you know?  Even the pop cultural response of the “better place” is based on wishful thinking…if not entitlement because of good we think we’ve been.  The thing that most of that thinking has in common is that it has not much to do with Jesus, right?  Jesus doesn’t want Martha to be there and He points to Himself (again). 

Scene 4: Jesus and Mary (28-37)

            Jesus follows this up with a conversation with his friend Mary.  She was being comforted and the crew follows her out as she meets Jesus.  These people included several professional mourners…that will be important in a minute.  She responds to Jesus in a more emotional way and has an audience, but is saying the same thing Martha said in her first exchange with Jesus.

            Verse 33 says that Jesus was deeply moved and troubled by this display of emotion from Mary and the professional mourners.  How’d you like that job?  “Hey, sorry for your loss” probably doesn’t get it done, right?  Most sermons now run fast to show Jesus’ compassion.  Now listen close…Jesus’ is compassionate in this story, but I don’t think that’s the emotion that comes out in Him here.  He’s angry.  The lexical experts say this phrase is basically impossible to shrink it to grief or emotional pain, etc.  It’s deep, soul wrenched anger.  But at what?  It could be at the effects of sin in this broken world or of the unbelief in Mary and the mourners.  Or maybe both.  One thing we can see:  Jesus is not yucking it up while people are dying and disbelieving down here.

            Jesus wants to see the body and He then cries.  These tears are likely related to His outrage a few moments before.  The pain of this broken world with all of its death and unbelief overcame Him there.  The Jews misunderstood the emotions.  They assumed He grieved like them.   Surely, Jesus’ tears weren’t for Lazarus since He knew He was about to raise Him from the dead.  Also, notice that the same crowd that still was bitter about the blind man healing were there bringing it up again…why can’t you do that again?

Scene 5: Jesus Raises Lazarus (38-44)

            Yeah, Jesus, I’d say the greatness of God is on display here.  A decomposing body is going to hop out of the grave!  He prays to the Father…again with the people’s belief as the goal (42)…and He yells for Lazarus to come out of the tomb.  And he did.

            Much like the previous miracle with the man born blind, it’s obvious that this is more than a miracle.  A miracle helps someone out and shows the power of the doer of the miracle.  And this qualifies, but it’s more.  We see Jesus’ care and even anger about the brokenness and unbelief associated with our fallen humanity.  We see His rule over death and ability to overturn in it for Lazarus.  But consider the bigger story here. 

            Lazarus’ resurrection is paradigmatic for Jesus’ overarching mission. You can see this paradigm most clearly in His exchange with Martha.  Are we talking about Lazarus’ resurrection right now or in the next life?  It seems like both.  In the same way Lazarus was brought back to life by the voice of Jesus, apparently all believers will be raised again by that same voice.  More precisely, that resurrection after death actually is guaranteed by Jesus’ resurrection and initiates in us what you could call the first resurrection in this life.  Let me explain how it works.  You have a dead heart and a rebellious inclination regardless of your illusions of goodness.  What happens at conversion is that Jesus speaks and your dead heart starts beating and your soul rises and now you spiritually live!  In other words, your life with Christ begins now.  And after this body is worn out, it will be put aside and your soul will come out of it at Jesus’ command…just like what happened at conversion…and you will be fully alive in every way enjoying perfect communion with God and the new humanity functioning finally as we were created to function.  Lazarus’ resurrection is a paradigm of our spiritual resurrection in this life and of the soul’s resurrection from our broken bodies after we die.  Wow.  Jesus gives us warrant in this passage to see this miracle as a sign of that reality for all believers.  If you understand this sign, you understand real Christianity!

Scene 6: The Aftermath (45-57)

            Jesus has pushed his luck too much. He healed the blind guy on the Sabbath and now He does a very public…resurrection… of a (probable) prominent family in the area close to Jerusalem.  His reason for doing this was that people would believe and several did just that.  But just like all the rest of the signs…and all of God’s self-revelation, some believe and others get mad or ignore Him.  This is the story of the mad ones.  They want Jesus dead.  Even though Caiaphas means something very different, he prophecies rightly that one guy must die as a substitute for the entire nation.  He means that they need to put down this dog and pony show before the Romans hear of it and lay the smack down on everyone…including them.  So in a sense, he means a sort of substitutionary death.  But He unintentionally spoke of a greater substitutionary death that would guarantee the spiritual resurrection of all who would believe in Jesus.  Jesus would die instead of dead-hearted, guilty sinners.  And it extends beyond Israel to children of God scattered in Lubbock and China and India and Mexico and everywhere in between. 

            The mad religious guys were hoping Jesus would come into Jerusalem for Passover so they could arrest and kill Him.  I want you to think about the irony of this whole story.  Jesus is warned by his disciples not to come to the area near Jerusalem because they knew people were mad at Him.  He tells them to not be afraid.  He goes there to give life back to Lazarus and strengthen or initiate faith in those watching.  And the net result of all of this will be that He will die.  He comes to die so that He can give life.  You need to see how all of it is connected to really get this sign.  If Jesus doesn’t die later, this is a miracle only.  A really cool miracle, granted.  But if it was just a miracle, it wouldn’t guarantee anything about what happens after we die or even a spiritual resurrection right now.  He had to die to make this happen. Either guilty sinners would have to pay for their sin or Jesus would take their payment on Himself.  His death would guarantee that all believers in the world would live! 

Belief, Resurrection, and You

            The illusion that Jesus is an inclusive religious guru is lost hopelessly in this sign.  If He’d just done the miracle, then maybe.  But like He’s prone to do, Jesus pushes to the heart and towards His ultimate mission.  He came as the promised Messiah…the great Rescuer of humanity.  This rescue only comes through Him as God’s appointed means of eternal life through the resurrection of the dead.  He IS the resurrection and life.  I can’t urge you strongly enough to embrace the cure, Jesus.  Don’t kid yourself about “better places.” The attention is to be on Jesus and He paves the way for our new life through His death and resurrection.  Believe.  Turn from following yourself and from your excuses and promises for better attention to your soul tomorrow.

            If you are a Christian, like I said earlier, much of this will come down to continued belief in the gospel.  The gospel of Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection gives us a new heart, a clear conscience, and eternal enjoyment of Jesus.  Do everything necessary to cultivate belief and enjoyment in Him guaranteed by Jesus’ substitutionary death and resurrection that causes your soul to be made alive with Him.  Seriously.  Be ruthless.  Be extreme.  Not against people, but against the things that war against your soul.  If you abuse substances, don’t go ¾ speed.  You’ll get killed.  If you abuse food, look to Jesus.  Fight it.  If you abuse sexuality and make it about you, go to war.  You’ll fight these with the superior excellence of Jesus and by every weapon in your arsenal.  You kid yourself about your desire to grow when you allow secret sin to grow and fester and pretend it doesn’t affect anyone else (and maybe even you).  It does.  Sin is your mortal enemy.  It threatens to undo your belief in Jesus, the most valuable thing in the world.  Fight it.  Kill it.  For greater belief.  For Jesus’ glory.  For your joy.  You’ve been made alive.  Walk in Him.  Col 2:6-7 6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by…_____________.