Sermon Tone Analysis

That you may Believe and have Life #31

John 11:1-37

 

Well … death is something I usually don’t have an opportunity to talk with people about until they actually lose someone or in the sad event when death is the diagnosis and people are trying to come to grips with it.

But death is a different story when it happens to a Friend of Jesus …

 

So, I want us to talk about death today …

There are three primary groups here today …

There is Jesus

There are the family and close friends of Lazarus

And there are his disciples

All three had a different perspectives on the death of a friend

 

Maybe by the time we get to the end today, we can all have the perspective of Christ when it comes to the death of a friend

Losing a friend or family member to death is a difficult and painful thing.

We lost our friend John Betzler this week it was unexpected and a shock, but I’ve often said that death always comes one day sooner than we expect … it is always a shock, whether young or old, weak or strong, sick or well … it is always a shock …

 

Jesus lived a normal existence … he was not a stranger to death … it is assumed that Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph, most likely died when he was young, since Jesus’ mother, brothers and sisters are all prominent in his adult life, but no word of Joseph.

So he knew death.

He knew grief.

And the death of a friend of Christ is shown to us in John chapter 11 … we’re going to be in this story for the next two weeks so … let’s begin

READ 11:1-37

 

Allow me to move around freely in this story and lets learn some things from this story …

 

In the death of a friend … you can be sure that …

 

 

1.

Jesus Grieves With Us

 

  A.

Jesus is Moved

One of the most remembered verses in the Bible is verse 35 – Jesus Wept …

 

He is empathetic not just sympathetic

He felt there struggles, not just knew of their struggles.

The prefix “sym” means “along with, together, at the same time” … but “em” means “put into, cover with; provide with; so as to cover”

The person who is sympathetic understands what you are feeling … but a person who is empathetic feels what you feel, they enter into it with you …

 

Notice it in vv 33 and 35 but notice the difference

It says Mary and those with her were weeping and then it says Jesus wept.

… it makes it clear that Jesus wept WHEN he saw them … but there is a difference

It says He saw Mary and the others “weeping”  - /klaio – to mourn, weep, lament, weeping as a sign of pain and grief for the thing signified; to bewail/

That is what the women were doing … but it says “Jesus wept” – /dakruo – to weep, shed tears/

The difference isn’t little.

Their weeping was a complicated conglomerate of emotions

They wept because Lazarus was gone

They wept because of the uncertainty of his future as some believed in the Resurrection and some didn’t and some weren’t sure

They wept because they were angry because Jesus hadn’t come in time to heal him

Perhaps they wept angry that God had allowed him to be sick in the first place

They wailed in a combination of all those things …

And Jesus wept … he shed tears just as they did, I’m sure that there was PAIN in his crying … but his pain was for those he saw crying … his weeping was because he felt their pain and so wished he could take it from him

But notice that HIS weeping was without the hopeless wailing, without the anger, without the fear, …

1 Thes 4:13 says that we do not grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope …

Jesus was grieving but NOT without hope … he knew the end of this story …

How do you grieve … like someone who doesn’t know the end of the story … or like someone who knows the end of the story and is grieving the space that this person leaves behind, but NOT grieving the end of the story or the current location …

 

But know that Jesus is moved when we lose a friend and

 

  B.

He Will Comfort Us

Jesus Christ is a God of all compassion

 

Mat.

11:28-30 – come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest …”

Ps. 116:5 /“the Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion”/

2 Cor 1:3 /“praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort”/

 

 

  C.

Jesus is not Silent just because death has come

How many times have you lost someone after praying for them to get well or be safe and you lost them

And perhaps you have said … “Jesus didn’t answer our prayer” …

REALLY?

Let’s be gentle but honest, that answer shows that we are still spiritual children …

Our children ask us something and unless we say “yes” … they think we don’t love them, they act

But they fail to admit that “no” is an answer … or that he HAS answered with what we were praying for … it’s just that the location has changed …

We need to see things from the perspective of Heave

We need to see things from the perspective of the truth that we say we believe …

Why are we sad when a person passes and say “well I guess it wasn’t the Lord’s will to heal them” …

And we say

The Lord BLESSED them with more time … when he leaves them in the struggles, pain, and dying life …

Isn’t Heaven a perfect place?

Isn’t Heaven a place without pain?

Isn’t THAT healing?

If you prayed for healing and God allows your Christian friend or family member to pass from this life, haven’t they been healed?

I am NOT saying that we can’t or shouldn’t ask the Lord for healing … I’m just saying lets keep things in perspective …

Jesus is NOT silent to our request … when the person dies in Christ Jesus …

 

What was the word that Jesus sent back to Mary and Martha?

What was the answer to their “pray request”?

“This Sickness will NOT end in Death, no it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it”

 

 

2.

Death is Not the End

 

  A.

Sickness will not end in Death

Let me say something that perhaps you have never thought of but we NEED to move into our thinking …

IF you know Christ as your Lord and Savior … you can be confident that no matter what the prognosis … No sickness will ever END in Death … because death is NOT the end for those who know Christ Jesus …

Death is a doorway …

Death is a transition

Death in an opportunity to know Christ

Death is an opportunity to God to be glorified

What brings Christ MORE glory than to translate us into his presence and our faith to be sight … for us to finish the work of salvation and move from justification to glorification?

NOTHING brings God or Christ more glory than the death of a saint

 

Psalm 116:15 says /Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints/

You should go read Psalm 116 because it is a balanced understanding of living, death, dying, and deliverance from death

Early in the chapter David sings of the Lord delivering him from the brink of death and it brings glory to God

But then he also understands that when death comes … it is not from the hand of a fickle God but of a loving caring God who loves his saints and welcomes their death as he transforms them into his presence and he is WORTHY of praise

Death is NOT the End … the worst sickness of this world does NOT end in death …

 

  B.

Your Spirit Will Never Die

Every Spirit is Eternal … you will continue to exist when your body dies and if you know Christ … You will NEVER die Body or Spirit  … \\ Jesus encouraged Martha …

/I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me will live, even though he dies … do you believe this?/

 

Oh and don’t worry about your Body …

 

  C.

Jesus Will Awaken the Body

Jesus said “Your Brother will rise again”