Jesus In His Own Words
The Resurrection and the Life
John 11:1-44
Sometimes, when you're trying to understand a concept or idea, it helps to think about what the opposite of that concept is. That's the technique I want to use to help us get our brains pointed in the right direction tonight regarding the statement Jesus makes about himself in John 11.
The statement is found in verse 25
John 11:25
So Jesus calls Himself, "the Resurrection and the Life". What is the opposite of resurrection and life? Obviously, it is death. Question: how many people are going to die? All of us! The odds are against you. They are stacked in the favor of death.
So if Jesus can claim to be the opposite of death, if He is the Resurrection and the Life, I ought to really tune in to what He has to say about that because I am a walking dead man.
And the message we find in John 11 is for anyone who's dying. Once again, it's a long chapter, so I'm going to skip a few places, and draw attention to others.
Let's begin with
John 11:1-28, 32-44
In typical sermon fashion, let me draw three things from this text about life and death and what it means for Jesus to identify Himself as the Resurrection and the Life.
First let's talk about
1. The Shadow of Death
At the beginning of this chapter, we are immediately met with a crisis. This man named Lazarus is sick, and we soon learn that it wasn't a minor sickness. This is not just the flu or a stomach bug. This is more like heart failure or stage-4 liver cancer. Lazarus was in trouble. So in desperation, his two sisters, Mary and Martha, send word to Jesus. And they wait.
From an Old Testament perspective, they are walking through the in the shadow of death. Psalm 23 has that famous line: Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And I think that's a good description of where Mary and Martha (and Lazarus) were.
Because when death is near, there is this ominous shadow that falls over everything. Right? And it really affects us. So before we talk any more about those guys, let's take a minute to talk about us. How do you and I experience the shadow of death?
Sometimes we find ourselves in the position of Lazarus. We get sick. One minute we're living our normal life; the next minute, we're in a hospital bed, wearing a strange gown, with an IV needle in our arm. And we hear doctors talking about surgery and radiation and chemo and side effects. Some of you have been there. The shadow is dark.
Sometimes, we find ourselves in the position of Mary and Martha and it is someone that we love in that hospital bed. And even though we're not the sick one, that shadow falls over us, and affects our lives. I can't tell you how many times I've visited someone in the hospital, and over by the window, I see a pillow and some folded-up blankets, because the husband or the wife or the parent of the sick person has been living in the hospital room-putting their life on hold because someone they love is sick, and that sickness casts a long shadow. Some of you have been there.
But I want us to step back for a minute and look at a bigger picture. Because even when we're not deathly ill, like Lazarus, and even when we're not caring for someone who's deathly ill, like Mary and Martha, we can still be affected by the shadow of death.
We're waiting on test results or someone we love has gotten bad news, and as a result of the wait and uncertainty there is physical exhaustion and mental exhaustion, and even though death may not be imminent, it still feels like the shadow of death is hanging low.
That is a reminder that our bodies are fragile, and even if our own death is probably decades off, we get these little reminders that it's coming, and it may be closer than we think! Death casts a long shadow.
Now smart people say that most of us reach our physical peak around age 20. That's when we are at our healthiest and strongest place in life. Not necessarily our smartest, but our strongest!
So if the average person lives till around age 80, then that means for three-fourths of our life, we're deteriorating and going downhill fast! Isn't that encouraging? It's just this long, downhill slide until we eventually wear out and die!
And obviously we should take care of our bodies and eat right and exercise and all that. By the way, the statistics say if you eat right and do all that stuff, on average, you will lengthen your life expectancy by about nine months. It will seem like nine years in a nursing home somewhere, but be encouraged, you will live longer!
I'm always reminded of Dr. Carl Atkins, who developed the Atkins diet. He died on April 8, 2003, at age 72, when he slipped on the ice while walking to work. In the fall, he hit his head and developed bleeding around his brain. He lost consciousness on the way to the hospital, where he spent two weeks in intensive care.
Now I don't know if he was aware of what was going on ornot, but I promise you, if he was, he was laying there thinking, "I wish I had eaten more carbohydrates!"
His story is a very vivid reminder that even when we treat our bodies really well and take extra good care of ourselves, we're still going down! Death casts a long shadow. Eventually, we are all Lazarus.
Now: you can choose to deny that. Does anybody remember the old moisturizing cream commercial? This glamorous woman says, "I don't intend to age gracefully. I intend to fight it every step of the way."
So you can be like that: obsessed with physical fitness, eating perfectly, working out every day. But sooner or later, we all bump up against reality.
So here's the point: this is not just a story about Lazarus and Mary and Martha. This is a story about all of us. Because sooner or later, we all realize we're walking in the shadow of death. And in this passage, Jesus is giving us a whole new way to think about death.
So let's talk about
2. The Response of Jesus
When Jesus hears the news about Lazarus, the way he responds teaches us a lot. First,
- He's in control
verses 5-7
So if he loved them so much, why did he wait two days? I imagine there were moments, after Mary and Martha sent the messengers to Jesus, where they knew their brother's life was slipping away, and they looked out the window, and they thought, "He'll be here any minute! I know Jesus, and He'll be here!"
Then, after the first day, the questions took on a different tone: "Where are you, Jesus?"
And as we see in the story, the question is "Why didn't you come?" Most of us have been there. We're in some dark placing, and we've been praying, and nothing's happening and God doesn't answer, and we think, "God, where are you?"
You know what this tells me? God simply doesn't work on the same timetable that we do. Right? We think something has to happen now! And God sees it differently. We're in a hurry and God isn't!
So that's the first thing we see about Jesus: when our situation looks out of control, he's in control. He's working his own timetable.
Then here's the second thing:
- He Cares
Jesus gets to the outskirts of town, and by this time, Lazarus is dead. So first Martha, and then Mary comes out to meet him and he talks with them separately. Did you notice that both sisters say pretty much the same exact words? They both say, "Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." They both say that.
And the interesting thing is: Jesus responds to the two sisters in completely different ways. With Mary, here's what happens,
verse 33
That phrase "groaned in His spirit," is translating a single Greek word. It's a word that can be translated "furious" or "outraged."
A lot of people have a distorted view of Jesus because they only picture the meek and mild Jesus that is always nice and kind. But that is distorted. There is something about the effects and destruction of sin that makes Jesus furious.
He feels the way you would feel if someone broke into your house and messed with your kids. He's outraged because sin and death has broken into His world and it's messing with his kids. And the fire of his anger is burning.
And then noitce,
verses 34-35
As you probably know, vVerse 35 is the shortest verse in the Bible, but it is also one of the most significant. Here's why: when the shadow of death falls over your life, you need to know that you have a God who weeps with you. Those two words say so much about Jesus!
Even when we don't understand what He's doing or what's going on, we need to know that He weeps. He wept with them, and He weeps with us. He's angry at the darkness in the world, and he will do something about it! And in the meantime He weeps.
So that's how he responds to the one sister. Here's how he responds to the other one.
verses 23-26
With Mary, Jesus shared His tears. But with Martha, He shares His truth. You know why it's important to see both of those? It is because when the shadows fall in someone's life, sometimes they need to hear truth. They need to hear Scripture. They need to have their wrong thinking corrected and their bad theology straightened out. And it is the job of Godly friends to come alongside them and remind them of the truth.
At other times, just need our tears. They just need for us to be there and share the pain. And Jesus cared so much about these two women that he gave both of them exactly what they needed in that moment.
He's in control. He cares. And then here's the most awesome thing:
- He conquers
verse 39
Martha is not too sure that is the right thing to do! Jesus, by now he is stinking!
verse 43-44
How can we even begin to process what these people must have been feeling? Shock? No doubt! Disbelief? It would be hard to deny what just happened! Joy? Absolutely! Fear? I would think so! Awe? Have you ever seen anyone raised fromt he dead? Confusion? Probably!
And we don't get many details here! But remember, this was Jesus' friend also! So you know he wasn't calm and mechanical. "Okay, guys. Let's get this corpse uncovered and get back to work!
They must have embraced and danced and whopped and hollered and wept for joy! How could they not?
So what does this mean for us? I can summarize it in one word: preview. P
This event was a preview of what will happen to every believer in Christ.
Here's what I mean: the death of Lazarus' body was temporary, and in the same way, the death of our bodies will be temporary.
Now, ours will probably be dead longer than four days, but the principle is the same. I've often thought about those who died maybe 2 or three days or even a few hours before the Rapture. And they just get their bodies buried, and all of a sudden, they are right back up! Do you suppose they will want to say, "Really? You couldn't have come just a few hours earlier?"
But here's what that means: if we're trusting in Christ, we will rise. Isn't that an amazing thought? You and I get to be like Lazarus!
But it's even better. Lazarus was brought back to life, and we don't know how old he was, or how much longer he lived before his second trip to the cemetery, but at some point, he died again.
As awesome as it was, what we read about here in John 11 was not a permanent fix. For a permanent fix, we had to wait for Jesus to resurrect.
And while the similarities are obvious, so are the differences. Both were put in a tomb; both were sealed behind stones, and both came back to life. But here's the difference: when Jesus came back to life, He would never die again.
Romans 6:9 says it like this: For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
So I guess I should correct what I said a moment ago about you and I getting to be like Lazarus. That's an imperfect comparison. More precisely, you and I get to be like Jesus because when you die, your spirit will go immediately into the presence of God, and one day, your body will rise to join your spirit, and it will be a glorified body that never gets sick; never gets tired; and never dies.
I need to hear that. And you need to hear that! Jesus has conquered death!
And that brings us to the last point:
3. The Ultimate Question
There is something that keeps coming up during this chapter that I want us to see.
verses 14-15
then, just before he raises Lazarus, Jesus prays
verse 42
And when he's talking to Martha, he says,
verses 25-26
See, at the end of the day, the most important question we will ever answer is. Do you believe? Do you believe that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, so that when you connect your life with His, His resurrection will lead to your own resurrection? Do you believe? Because if you do, it will deeply affect the way you react to the shadow of death.
When I'm truly believing in Christ, it affects, first of all,
- My View of Death
I have been at many funeral services, and you have too, where the person that has died had a clear and unmistakable relationship with Christ. And I've also been at services where they didn't.
Just this week, I was talking with Donny Custar from Emmanuel. He did two funerals on Tuesday. I had read the obituaries in the paper on Sunday, and I saw him Monday. I said, "It looks like you've got quite a contrast in the two funerals you are doing."
One of them, a faithful servant of God, police officer, military veteran, and family man. The other had gone through four marriages and was living with a fifth woman, and there was no mention of any church involvement.
- it's all said and done, the only thing that makes any difference at all is whether or not there is a relationship with God made possible through Jesus Christ. Because he lives, we will live also. It's that simple.
A few years ago Billy Graham was asked how he felt about his own death. Here's what he said:
"I have a tremendous amount of hope, because I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead. And I believe he's alive right now. My wife is already in heaven, I look forward to seeing her, definitely, in the near future, because I'm 92 now and I know that my time is limited on this earth.
But I have tremendous hope in the fact that I'll be in the future life, and I'll be there based on what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross and by the resurrection. This gives me a great deal of hope." Do you have that hope? It comes only through trusting Christ.
But then also, when I believe in Jesus as the resurrection and the life, it affects
- My Priorities in Life
I have this theory: if we don't really believe in eternal life, then we will desperately try to hold on to our youthfulness. That's why old women wind up embarrassing themselves by what they wear and how they do their makeup and all that.
If, deep down, you don't really know for sure if there is life after death, then this becomes your only shot! Why do people have a mid-life crisis when they turn 50 and suddenly go buy a convertible?
Lisa asked me when I bought my Mercedes if I was having a mid-life crisis. I told her I wasn't saying, but I did have an appointment to get a perm in my hair and I had ordered some gold nugget necklaces!
Why do old men suddenly start going to the gym and wearing their baseball cap turned backward and have an affair? Often, it's because they get desperate. They see their life ticking away, and they think, "I'm just going to go for it. This is my only shot!"
There is a great lesson to be learned from
2 Corinthians 4:16
Here's the reality: outwardly we are wasting away, especially if we're in that last three-fourths of our life. Just like Lazarus, we are wasting away.
And we can deny that and pretend it isn't true, or we can look at the second half of that verse: we can choose to be inwardly renewed day by day. Even as our body does its normal thing of aging, we can allow the power of the resurrected Christ to renew us on the inside.
I know some older people who are disappointed and angry and bitter and no fun to be around because they're outwardly wasting away. They've got nothing on the inside to counter the cold hard facts of life. Throughout their life they put all their emphasis on the external, and now that the external is fading, they're just empty. How profoundly sad.
There are other older people that I love to be around. Because as their body is going down, their wisdom and their warmth and their love are going up. Do you know anybody like that? Outwardly they're wasting away, but inwardly you can see the living Christ renewing them day by day. What an awesome thing to see.
Man, I want to be that second kind of person so bad. And it doesn't mean I won't go running and lift weights. But it means that since I know this life is not all there is, I will focus more on things that last. It means I will resist my temptation to be obsessed with fitness and youthfulness. I'll build my priorities around things like loving God and loving people and serving the world. And as my body ages, I'm actually okay with that because this inner renewal feels good and it reminds me that the best is yet to come.
A man named Lazarus was sick. And dying. And so are all of us. But when we believe that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, it changes our view of death; it changes our priorities in life; it changes everything.
PRAY
