John 11:17-27
Notes
Transcript
Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console 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.”
Prayer:
I am the World Champion Christmas Present Guesser and Two-Time World Champion Christmas Present Finder! Did yall know that?
But, this year, I lost.
I didn’t guess and I didn’t find my prize.
It was in plain sight too. It was in the garage with one box sitting on top of it. It wasn’t hidden…just sitting there and I NEVER SAW IT!
Has that ever happened to you? And then, its a big joke. Everybody followed me in the garage and it still took me forever to find it and it was right in front of me the whole time.
That is how it is with Christ isn’t it?
That is how it is for Christians. We grow gradually. He gradually shows us things and we continually grow in our knowledge of Him.
We have such a hard time seeing some of the things of God. We miss so much. It can be right in front of our eyes…and we miss it.
But like Peter says in 2 Peter 3:18
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Last week was our Christmas service and we spent that time looking at:
Why Christ came
Why He came When He came
And When is He coming back?
The week before that Elder Saucer talked to us about how we died to sin through Christ’s death.
So, I want to give a quick run down on how we got to verse 17 here in John chapter 11.
And it is mainly for us to see what we may not have seen before.
It is also to see what “they” in this chapter didn’t see either.
Jesus friend Lazarus is sick back in Bethany and Jesus is most likely a two day trip away just south of the Sea of Galilee. You see here in verse 18 that Bethany was less than 2 miles from Jerusalem.
Christ and His disciples had just left Jerusalem because they Religious Leaders were wanting to kill him.
He hears of Lazarus being sick so He decides to stay a few more days before He heads back to Bethany.
Then we see in verse 11, Jesus tells them this:
After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.”
But they didn’t get it either.
So Christ tells them plainly, so they could understand the TRUTH that He just told 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 that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died,
Christ first tells them that Lazarus had fallen asleep.
So…they thought Lazarus had fallen asleep.
Imagine:
Then Christ tells them “Plainly” that He meant that Lazarus was “Died”.
The apostles were probably like: “Then why did you say “he had fallen asleep?”
Probably because Christ would have said, “because He is asleep!”
Then everybody is just looking at everybody and they are SO confused. So, Jesus is like…just come on…I’ll show you.
So we all are pretty familiar with the story.
This is Christ’s final miracle that He performs in His ministry and He raises Lazarus from the dead!
But I want to point out how Christ said He was asleep.
What is sleep?
It comes at the end of a hard days work doesn’t it?
Ahh…sleep!
It comes after a hard day of struggling doesn’t it?
Ahhh…finally…rest!
So it is with the Christian life...
we labor for the King Jesus and His Kingdom
We are sometimes hated and slandered, like Christ was
We are sometimes rejected and persecuted, like Christ was
But then…when our work is done…we sleep, but we never die.
Our spirit is with the Lord and our bodies await for the Second coming of our Savior
SEE, in their reality…Lazarus was DEAD!
And he was! He was DEAD!
But In God’s reality…Lazarus was ASLEEP!
And he was! Because Lazarus was a believer!
So, as we get to the end of our text this morning…I PRAY YOU BELIEVE!
Truly believe the PROMISES of GOD!
According to God’s Word…through the writing of Paul…the Christian has the mind of Christ…take hold of it…look through His eyes and believe His reality that He tells you…don’t believe your reality over His Word.
Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
We discussed this last week in our Christmas service but I want to mention it again since this is where we are this morning.
Jewish belief was the spirit of someone could hover over the body for up to 3 days and possibly enter back into the person and bring them back to life.
After 3 days, there was no hope for them. They were DEAD. There was no chance for someone who had been dead for 4 days to come back to life…BUT God.
God gets all the glory
And everybody knew it...
some loved it
some hated it
so it is to this day.
Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off,
This little town is just east of Jerusalem right beside the Mount of Olives.
One, it shows us the risk Jesus took by coming this close to Jerusalem to do his final and his greatest miracle.
Second…word didn’t have to travel far for everyone in Jerusalem to hear about it, including the Religious Leaders.
and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother.
Many, in the Greek, means “many”.
What is the context here? Was it normal that when someone died that “many” would come and console the family of the one who had died?
Of course it was for some…but not for everyone obviously
So why did Mary and Martha have so many come console them?
Some commentators say it is possible that they were wealthy and had a lot of connections to the big city of Jerusalem.
they say that because of the expensive ointment (perfume) that Mary pours on Jesus feet.
Another possibility is this:
In this culture people were very close to their relatives. People we would consider distant relatives were considered their family and they were close to these family relationships.
Also, life was lived publicly it strong nit communities.
But that isn’t the real takeaway from verse 19.
The real takeaway is the WISDOM OF GOD!
Lets read verses 19-21 to make this point:
and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console 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.
I know you can think of countless reasons as to why you are glad I am not Jesus…but let me give you another reason:
I would have probably said something like:
“I know Martha but it’s not all about you okay…I got a lot of things going on here that you don’t even realize. I’m working even when you think I’m not Martha! GAAAA....will you at least hear me out…and stop thinking the worst of me! GAAAaaa...”
Yep…I want to be more like Christ…but as of two or three days ago…I’mmmm pretty sure that is how I would have handled Martha.
But Jesus doesn’t defend Himself…He just speaks to Martha.
But NOTICE something here:
Martha is right…if Jesus was there Lazarus wouldn’t had died.
Death always ran from Christ.
But this answers the question we all had when we read verse 6…
So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
And it answers our questions that we have in our own circumstances today....
Many of us are asking God for something
to heal this loved one
God, deliver me from this situation that I am in…I feel like I am drowning...
God, please…change his heart, change her heart Lord God…Please God...
And then we think God isn’t hearing our prayers…or answering our prayers
But see, Christ, waited for the perfect time to do his greatest miracle…
by waiting he not only proves that He is God by raising someone while they had been in the tomb for 4 days
by waiting he was able to do it in front of many more people.
We sometimes think that God isn’t working…but trust His timing…it is always perfect and it reaches farther for His Glory than our timing would reach.
Let us encourage one another to be patient as we wait on the Lord.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Let us help one another believe this Promise of God…that “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”
Look at verse 20:
So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.
what I want to point out here is how the church is made up of all different people…thank you Lord!
Could you imagine everyone being _____?
Could you imagine if they were all like me?
We talked about this in verses 1-16 but here it is again with Mary and Martha. (that would be a good discussion in small groups…the differences in personality between Mary and Martha in the Gospels).
Loot at verse 21 and 22:
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.”
Imagine this scene.
She is convinced that if Jesus would have been there her brother would not have died!
She has confidence in Him…but she doesn’t understand quite yet who He truly is and what He is capable of.
Verse 22 might seem to look like she is saying that she knows that He can raise him from the dead if He just asks the Father but that is not what she is saying here in verse 22.
After He tells her all that He is about to tell her we still see in verse 39 she still didn’t quite understand His Power.
What she is saying to him is that she is still loyal to him. She still believes, even though He wasn’t there to prevent her brother from dying, she still believes that whatever HE asks from the Father, God will give Him.
But the thought of Him raising Lazarus from the grave NEVER crosses her mind.
She didn’t quite understand just how POWERFUL Christ was...
And isn’t that how we all are to some degree or another?
Some think that Christ is not powerful enough to raise a spiritually dead person and regenerate them into a new birth
They think it is up to the individual person to do that for himself.
well, thats impossible
the chances of a spiritually dead person raising themselves back to a newness of life is the same odds as Lazarus has of raising himself out of the grave.
We limit God’s power like Martha
Some think that God will never deliver them from the sin that has them held captive:
But when Christ calls you to himself…he says the same thing He says to Lazarus… “Unbind him, and let him go” (John 11:44)
the question is…DO YOU BELIEVE HIM?
You know you can’t set yourself free from the sin that has had you captive
Believe His Word…He will surely do it
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
BELIEVE THE WORD!!!!
Look at verses 23 and 24:
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.”
This is a picture of a true teacher.
HE could have just come out and said it...
HE could have just walked into town and not said a word…walked up to the tomb of Lazarus and told him to come out.
But Christ, the Great Teacher…does what He does…He teaches.
He doesn’t just come out and say what He knows He is going to say but instead He tells her, “YOUR BROTHER WILL RISE AGAIN”.
Why does He tell her that?
Because many Jews believed what the Pharisees taught about the resurrection on the last day.
It was a well known teaching and Martha believed it
Most people would have said the same thing...
“of course I know that he will rise on the last day”
So, Christ, the Great Teacher…gives her a common belief and wants her to walk her down that road and get her to think a little deeper about what she “says” she “believes”.
Christ is about to shine some light a little brighter on this common belief in a final resurrection.
Aren’t we the same in so many ways?
Like Martha, I had some common beliefs that I never thought too deep about:
I use to “say” I believed that God got all the glory
but in reality, after thinking about it in light of God’s Word, I ACTUALLY Believed I GOT A LITTLE…because I am the one that did it.
I use to say I believed that Christ died for all of my sins and loved me unconditionally…yet, also believed I could lose my salvation.
But in Reality, when I thought deeper about what I said I believed in light of Scripture…I was wrong
How can I say Christ loves me ‘UNCONDITIONALLY’ and He died for ‘ALL MY SINS’ and still lose my salvation…that is illogical...
This is why we need to be Creatures of the Word…this is why we must ABIDE in His Word…so we can grow in our knowledge of our Savior and grow in grace.
Look at verses 25-27:
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.”
Man…oh man!!!!
See, Martha’s Hope was in the FUTURE!
Her HOPE was so far in the distance!
But it was RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER!
the woman at the Well…Christ…the Great Teacher…leads her down a path to think about another “Common Belief” held by her people…getting her to think deeper...
The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”
and THEN…BAM!...
Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
IT IS EASY TO BELIEVE IN SOMETHING IN THE DISTANT FUTURE.
THAT DOESN’T TAKE MUCH FAITH AT ALL....
But Christ is not wanting His people to believe in the DISTANT FUTURE…NOT IN FUTURE EVENTS…BUT BELIEVE IN HIM!
PUT YOUR TRUST IN HIM RIGHT NOW....
Don’t put your trust and your faith in HIM for what HE IS GOING TO DO IN THE FUTURE FOR YOU....
If you think you have saving faith because of what HE is going to do for you....you might now have saving faith
Saving faith is in the Person of Jesus Christ…RIGHT NOW!
LOOK TO CHRIST NOW!
THIS IS WHAT HE IS TELLING MARTHA.
JUST LIKE Martha…so many today have their faith in a future “RAPTURE” to save them from this evil world and all these bad people out “there”....
Put your faith in Christ the King right now and go “out there” and make DISCIPLES!
Look back at John 11:25-27
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.”
Don’t go looking for a future resurrection…
LOOK TO CHRIST…HE IS THE RESURRECTION
Don’t go looking for a life in the distant future....
LOOK TO CHRIST…HE IS LIFE!
He says, “whoever believes in ME,”
Not “whoever believes in what I am going to do...”
“whoever believes in ME, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in ME shall never die”.
So, for your loved ones who believed in Christ…guess what, they didn’t die!
And believe the WORD OF GOD RIGHT NOW....
IF you believe IN CHIRST…and your breathing air this morning…you will never die!
But…but....
Nope...
Does your body die?
of course
But Do you die?
Not according to Christ.
Its a sleep, a rest…and as soon as you close your eyes you are standing before the throne of God in Worship!
No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
Look back at John 11:25-27
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.”
Let me ask you something....DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?