8th September 2024

Lazarus: A Journey from Death to Life

Speaker:
Passage: John 20:30-31, 11, 8:12, 9:5
Service Type:

Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead is more than a miraculous event; it’s a powerful demonstration of His identity as the Son of God and the source of eternal life. This account challenges us to examine our faith, especially in difficult circumstances. Do we truly believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life? His power over death offers hope not just for this life, but for eternity. Even when all seems lost, Christ calls us to trust in Him, for He has conquered death and offers life to all who believe.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] Thanks, Alan, for the introduction. Saves me having to introduce myself again. And as you would have guessed, our home group has been going through the book of John. beginning of last year we finished off a little book which sort of covered the first four chapters since then we’ve been doing Freestyle through John. We haven’t finished yet. So, this morning we have a lot to say, I have a lot to say on behalf of the home group,

[00:00:28] so hopefully we’ll be finished within the hour. That’s a joke, in case you’re wondering. If you did need to have a coffee, then your chance for one before service has ended, but you can certainly look forward to one at the end. If you have your scriptures open, I’d like you first to turn to John chapter 20, verse 30 and 31. What these two verses give us is John’s purpose in a nutshell for why he wrote the Gospel of John. It’s very helpful for me because I like to have a little short summary because my brain’s fairly small.

[00:01:12] I like to have something that I can just grab a hold of and allow the purpose of John’s Gospel to build in underneath that. let’s read this together and John chapter 20 verse 30 and 31. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples so John has recorded some signs, seven in fact and the one that we’re looking at this morning the story of Lazarus is the seventh that comes at the end and the first one you might be familiar with which is the wedding when Jesus turned the water into wine. So John says that the purpose that he has written this book in verse 31, that these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in His name.

[00:02:10] John’s purpose for writing the book is so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah the one sent by God. But beyond that he is also the one who is the Son of God… He is God incarnate. John wants us to know this morning that this isn’t just some ordinary man, this is the Son of God and by believing in his name we might have life and this morning believing in his and his name brings us eternal life. Let’s have a look then at the mini-verses which Alan has already read to us. Alan, it wasn’t to make it difficult for you by any chance. But what it does is, it does carve about 10 minutes

[00:02:59] off my sermon. Let’s have a look at the first little section there where John gives us a bit of an introduction. And the introduction is around some relationships. We have Mary, Martha, Lazarus, who are all related, brothers and sisters, and we know that Mary is, who this Mary is, because there’s a few Mary’s in the scriptures and John wants us to know it exactly who she is. She is the one that wiped Jesus’ feet with her hair

[00:03:36] and Martha was her sister, who we’ll find out a little bit later on, was the one who was busy serving at that time. So there’s a bit of a problem. Lazarus is ill, this close friend of Jesus. So the sister’s sent to him. He’s probably a couple of days journey away. And the messengers say, Lord, he whom you love is ill. But when Jesus heard it, he said,

[00:04:08] 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. I know we’ve got a few airplane buffs here and Vanessa and I flew down to Melbourne last weekend. It was very comforting when you get on the plane and they say, welcome to flight whatever, headed to Melbourne. Ah, whew. Right. We’re on the right plane. There’s sort of a bit of a sigh of relief, and you kind of lock yourself in. I think John’s already done that in chapter 20 when

[00:04:43] he gives us the definition of why we’re going to read the scriptures, why he’s written them for us. But we come to this part, in the start of the story of Lazarus, where to me, it sort of feels a bit like that boring part, dare I say it, and when they go through the safety instructions they talk about. You’ve got to clip the belt on and you pull it low and tight around your waist, and there’s some lights in the alleyway and here’s your exits. Most people are still on their iPads and reading books and doing whatever. But those become important things if suddenly you land into a bit of turbulence. You want to know that your seat belt is going to be fixed nice and tight so that you’re not going to fly around the aircraft. If your plane suddenly takes a bit of a dive then you’re probably wanting to know where are those life jackets, where is my exit, how am I

[00:05:34] gonna get out of this thing if it lands, and then if you finally crash well let’s hope not, and you’re in the ocean and you probably really want to know where your life jackets are and how you’re going to get out of this thing and be saved when possibly all else when all hope sort of seems to be lost. Jesus I think at the start of this is giving his disciples a bit of a heads-up. He says first of all this illness does not lead to death But its purpose is for the glory of God so that the Son of God would be glorified through it. Now we have the benefit of hindsight. We can see that actually what happened was that Lazarus did die. We do actually know the end of the story too that Lazarus was brought to life again.

[00:06:25] But for the disciples, during the journey, what was it like for them? What was it like for Mary? What was it like for Martha? As we go through the passage this morning, those are the three groups that I want to have a look at as we work our way through this passage of Scripture this morning. So if we read on, in verse 5, now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

[00:06:52] So we’re reminded, again, how much Jesus loves these ones, so when he heard the news that Lazarus was ill, he immediately jumped on a donkey, tore up to Bethany and there tried to do all that he could possibly do. Well that’s what you’d expect right. Wouldn’t you expect that if you loved somebody and you found that they were in distress, first thing you do is see what you could do to go and help. But no, what does Jesus do? He swans around for another couple of days. What is this? Does this seem like something that Jesus should be doing? We follow on in Scriptures and find out that this actually was part of God’s purpose, what His purpose was. But He says to them, just a few days later, let us go up to Judea again. So He’s delayed His departure. In the meantime Lazarus

[00:08:00] has got further ill and by this stage probably, well we’re going to find out soon that He had actually died. So what was Jesus doing? I think what Jesus is doing is giving an opportunity for Him to feel what He just said in verse 4 that all of this was going to be for His glory. And sometimes in our journey of life I don’t think God really necessarily runs to our agenda. We might think that He should be doing things in a certain way and certain time frame but we are left to sometimes wonder why he doesn’t do them the way that we want to. Sometimes he wants us to trust him, to believe him, to be confident that his agenda will be fulfilled in us. So anyway, two days passed and Jesus decides to head up to Judea which is where they were. And the disciples said to him, Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to seeking to

[00:09:12] stone you and you’re going there again. Now it seems like a genuine concern for Jesus but I think that there’s an underlying problem for the disciples. The underlying problem is that as a disciple of a rabbi, as part of your discipleship, that you go where the rabbi goes. So your Rabbi is deciding to go back right into their heat of trouble and he’s asking them to follow along, not surprising that they have a level of concern. can see it in their words when they say, But were they just now not trying to stone you? Are you sure you really want to go into this heat of battle? Do you really want to take us with you? And so Jesus confidently responds to them and he says, Are there not 12 hours in the day?’ If anyone walks in the day, he

[00:10:10] does not stumble. Now is Jesus just giving them a bit of a recap on workplace health and safety regulations. As he’s saying, here’s the obligations that you have. No I think what Jesus is doing is using a set of arguments to build their faith and their confidence. So first of all, he says are there not 12 hours in the day? Well in our day, no there’s 24 so but we have to remember in the Jewish timeframe there 0.6 a.m. was the start of the day so those people who don’t like early starts happy days you don’t have your day doesn’t start before 6 a.m. and then it finishes at 6 p.m. so from the 6 a.m. of our time clock to 6 p.m. is the 12-hour day so Jesus says to them then Death 12 hours and the day they agree yes that is correct there is

[00:11:02] twelve hours in the day. And then he says if there’s anyone who walks in the day you don’t stumble. Well that makes sense, you can see where you’re going, you can see the obstacles in your path, yes, that is a true and correct statement. And then on the flip-side of that if anybody walks in the night-time as, probably, fishermen did, they’re more likely to stumble over their trip over their fishing nets or what’s left in the boat and so, yes that’s another true statement Jesus, yes we’ve got those three statements, so and up, but the twist on this one is that Jesus actually says that it’s because they see the light of the world or the light of this world. This is not a new statement for the disciples, if we flick back in our Scriptures if you have them open. I just want to read a couple of other times when Jesus referred to himself as the light of the world. First one’s in chapter

[00:11:59] 8 verse 12 and he says, again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. And if you look over also in chapter 9 verse 15, no, chapter 9 verse 5, Jesus says as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. So Jesus in this statement is really drawing the disciples’ attention to remember already and to see what he’s been teaching them, that in him they will be safe. He is the light. He will cause them or help them not to stumble. And there’s a truth in that for us today, that for us to remember that Jesus is the light, that He is the one in whom when our faith is in Him, He will cause us not to stumble

[00:13:01] but to carry on in him. So after saying these things Jesus says to them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep which has code for his died, which I’m glad the disciples were a little bit misunderstanding so that we got the clarity that Jesus was absolutely certain that Lazarus had died, but that he was going to go and wake him. What was the purpose? Why did Jesus want to take the disciples into the heat of trouble? We see it in the second half of verse 15 when he says, Lazarus has died and for your sake I am glad that I was not there. So that you may believe. Remembering Jesus is looking to bring about faith and an understanding of who he was from the position that the disciples actually currently saw him as

[00:14:10] being. And you can see then, in Thomas’s response He said, according to his fellow disciples, he says, let us go that we also may die with him. Something had happened and Thomas at least and he encouraged his disciples also to believe that Jesus was the light, that he was the one that was able to keep them from stumbling. So when the flight got a bit bumpy, the turbulence, came on for the disciples Jesus called them to trust in him fastened her seat belt and believed that he is the one who is going to keep them from

[00:14:56] stumbling whatever that outcome of that journey might look like. So let’s move on next we’re going to have a look at Martha and as I said before if you remember in Luke’s Gospel, Martha was one who was often found to be a little bit anxious and worried about many things was what Jesus said. So Martha’s that type of person who wants to try and fix the problem. At the time she was … sorry at this time she was faced with a bit of a problem. Interesting that Mary attention, Mary stays behind. She’s still sitting down weeping. She has the Jews that are there to comfort her. But Martha’s probably a little bit more pragmatic. She’s up and left and possibly not quite in the same sort of state of tearfulness as Mary is. So she heard Jesus was there, and she comes out, and the

[00:16:03] she says to Jesus in verse 21 was, Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. You can hear in Martha’s voice the sense in which that if only Jesus was here when Lazarus was alive, he could have done something. He could have intervened somehow and I wouldn’t be in this fix at the moment. I wouldn’t have this problem. Likely for her she’s got Merry who’s beside his self in grief, she’s got a house load of Jews. I don’t know, maybe they need to be fed. Lazarus has died. Maybe Lazarus was the only form of income and support for her. What was Martha going to do? She’s got a problem. Her plane is in a dive. And she looks at Jesus and says, well, if only you had been here. And we might say the same thing. Jesus, if only you were there at the time, you could have done something. But what’s the thing

[00:17:24] with Martha, though? She has a level of faith in Jesus, but it seems that it just hasn’t gone quite far enough. Jesus says to her, oh, well, sorry, before I go on to that, verse 22, you can see that she has a level of faith. And she says, but even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. So there’s a sense in which even though she might feel that the opportunity is passed, there’s still a case, a sense of hope, perhaps that Jesus can ask God and God can do something in this situation to fix the problem. What is she lacking? Jesus says to her, yes, your brother will rise again. Martha says to him, yes, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus says to her though, I am the resurrection and the life. I think what Martha had the problem was that she saw that Jesus was perhaps the messiah

[00:18:40] but maybe he wasn’t the Son of God. Maybe he really wasn’t God incarnate. Maybe he was someone that was very close to God had a very close relationship with God so much so that he could ask God anything and God would act on his behalf. was he in fact God incarnate? Jesus’ answer to here is, I am. I am the resurrection and the life. He’s saying, I am the one in whom is the light of the world. I am God incarnate. I am the in whom whoever believes though he die yet shall he live.’ This is one of the most wonderful verses in Scriptures isn’t it? It says, I am the resurrection in the life whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me, shall never die.

[00:19:41] Shall never die.” What was John’s purpose of writing in the book of John? So that we might have life in his name. Jesus asks Martha, do you believe this? And this seems sufficient for Martha. She says, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the son of God who is coming into the world. Martha departs from here, goes and calls her sister Mary but with those words echoing in her ears that question, do you believe this? The question we have faced before us this morning from the Scriptures are, do we believe

[00:20:31] this? we believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life and do we believe that in Him, though we die, yet shall we live?” So we have Mary and the Jews. Now remembering that the disciples were a little bit concerned about Jesus going up to Bethany because of the Jews and because of the opposition that he had previously encountered. We’re not told and I don’t know for certain whether these were some of the same Jews or not but you can see there’s a bit attention perhaps building in this situation and we find out that Jesus didn’t actually go into the house. I think there’s a sense in which Jesus was still concerned for His disciples. He wasn’t just going to go barrelling into a house of Mary and

[00:21:28] and all the Jews and putting them potentially at risk. He’s waited outside not only the house but outside the village and he’s had the first conversation with Martha and now he has a conversation with Mary with the Jews in tow. What does Mary say when she came to Jesus? Well when she came to meet Jesus where he was in verse 32, Mary saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Which sounds very similar to what Marther said. So you could hear that these two have probably been going backwards and forwards over the last few days, if only Jesus would hurry up and get here, he could have actually done something, well, he can actually do something while Lazarus is still alive. There’s still hope, there’s still an opportunity that Jesus could come and

[00:22:31] actually do something to fix Lazarus’ ill health. He’s done it in the past, he can do it again, but then Lazarus dies. And it seems that for the two girls, the sisters, that all hope seems to have died with him. If only you had been here, our brother would not have died. Mary is out of hope. She is beside herself. If you want to take the analogy of the plane flight I think her flights crashed. It’s gone from the bumps, it’s gone from the nosedive, it’s crashed and she’s here weeping and the Jews are all weeping there with her and it’s a very sad, woeful kind of situation. 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 and we move on to one of the

[00:23:53] famous verses in Scripture which is one of the shortest so if you want a memory verse to learn this is a good one verse 35 Jesus wept the question asked is why did Jesus weep? Well the Jews tended to think that it was because he loved Lazarus so much and he was torn in his heart for grief for this one who had died that’s what the Jews thought they even had a level of hope too didn’t they in verse 37, some of the said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying. So why did Jesus weep? If we just have a look back up in verse 32, no 33. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit. Now some footnotes in your scriptures might have the word changed out there from deeply

[00:25:24] moved to being indignant or angered is another way in which that original Greek word could be interpreted. So if Jesus is indignant or angered we have to ask the question what was he upset about, what was he indignant or angered about, what upset him, so we have one other passage in scripture which talks about Jesus’ weeping, and that’s when he wept over Jerusalem, over the nation who should have known who he was, that he was a Messiah, but had rejected him and had missed the day of his visitation. Jesus was crying or weeping over them for their unbelief. I think it seems fitting to me that Jesus was also weeping here because of their unbelief. that it seemed to them that all hope had gone. Lazarus, while he was alive, he was still a glimmer of hope. Jesus could have done something, right? But now he’s dead,

[00:26:35] all hope is gone. There is nothing left except to the morn, those who have passed away. But that wasn’t to be the case, was it? Jesus has already said that this doesn’t lead to death. If we have a look back in verse 4, Jesus 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. Was Jesus wrong? Did he get it wrong? Lazarus has died, right? But Jesus said this does not lead to death. Well, Jesus is never wrong. So what is Jesus looking at? Jesus isn’t looking at the bumpiness and the journey. He’s not even looking at the crash at the end that we might experience, but Jesus is looking at, if you’d like, the destination. The end of this is that Jesus is not going to stay dead. Lazarus is not going to stay dead. Jesus is not going to stay dead, either. Amen. Lazarus is not going to stay dead. This is only part of that journey. Jesus is looking at the end. we do well to look to the end in our lives. Though we may face bumps in our

[00:28:06] lives that we might find that even life takes a dive and perhaps we feel like it’s even crashed and burned, Jesus is asking us to look beyond the circumstances of our life and to look to him to have that faith and him that he is able to take us through to the end. So Jesus then heads off to the tomb. It’s a cave and it has a large stone laid against it. And he asked them to take away the stone. I’m sure Jesus could have just said stone be moved and it would have moved by itself but Jesus asks those who are there to be involved in the action of faith.” Martha, pragmatic Martha is concerned about the odour, fair comment. Martha trust me. Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God and if we believe we will one day

[00:29:11] day or so to see the glory of God at the end of our lives. So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and he 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, that I am the Messiah, that I am the sent one of God, the promise of your hope of eternal life.” And when he had said these things he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus! Come out! Like many people have said before me, Jesus had not said his name. I expect every tomb would have broken out and every dead person in the distance of the sound of Jesus voice would have come out of those graves. At his word the death is brought to life. Wrapped in his jolly old linen strips

[00:30:27] of dead and buried without hope. Jesus says the word and he comes out as good as the day was born and bind him and let him go. Tell you what, believers this morning Jesus calls us out of a Dirty Rotten grave, it’s called sin and death. And he brings us to new life. We have a hope that a certain and sure, built on the foundation of his own death and his resurrection from the grave. Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, and so they should.” So should we. Yeah, but some of them, they went off to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. I couldn’t deny it. They were scared. They just didn’t know what to do. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council together and said, what are we to do? For this man performs

[00:31:58] many signs. What a shame, what a tragedy. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. And then the Romans are gonna come and take away our little spot. You know John records for us in the first half of his gospel of John seven signs that Jesus did. He says these signs are recorded so that we might believe that he is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing in him we would have life and have it eternal. The second half of John’s gospel is about one sign and It tells us of the last days of Jesus’ life on earth from the time of the Passover supper to the time when he was hung on the cross. When he was dead and he was buried, he was wrapped in grave clothes and for the disciples even then it probably seemed like all hope had gone.

[00:33:21] But the story doesn’t stop there, didn’t stop with Lazarus. Jesus rose from the dead, not the same resurrection as Lazarus because he rose to life again like you or I to die again. Jesus rose the other side of death, he conquered death, and in him we have the hope of eternal life. because Jesus is the one who has paid our debt of sin. He has cured us of our illness that leads to death and he has dealt with it once and for all. Look, if you don’t have faith, if you’re not a believer this morning, then I encourage you that maybe you’re on the journey and you need to look at what Jesus has done, gain some more understanding of who he is, who he claimed to be, read the Gospel of John. If you’re a believer this morning, maybe for you you have a

[00:34:41] similar problem to me in that when sin recurs in your life you wonder whether you can make it to the end. Does Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross cover me and my sin this time again? Well I want to encourage us this morning that Jesus’ sacrifice was once and for all and is sufficient to carry you to eternity with him. John’s purpose of writing his Gospel was so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we would have life in his name. Jesus asked Martha the question, do you believe this? Jesus asked us the same question this morning, do you believe this? Let’s pray. Jesus I want to thank you that you are the one in whom is completed the work necessary for us to have eternal life. Thank you that you went through the

[00:36:13] death on the cross, that you were buried, that in that we have the same sense in which our sins have been put to death, buried in that grave. But we thank you most of all Lord that you rose victorious on the other side. And in that doing you proved to be the one who is the Son of God, the Messiah, that we also might have the ability to be raised to life again. That yes even though we might die in this physical life, yet shall we live because you live and you have made that way possible for us. Give us hearts to believe in you, even when the road is bumpy, when the flight takes a dive, even when we feel like our hope is lost, building us the faith to push the stone away, and to see you do your miracle in our lives and in our circumstances. Thank you again Jesus for this wonderful picture of Lazarus being raised to life again in the demonstration of your power to do the same in us. We thank you for this in Jesus name, Amen.

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