John 11:17-44, The Rest of the Story

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John 11:1-37 Jesus At a Funeral

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Please open your Bible with me to John chapter 11 starting verse 17 be reading through verse 44.
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I Hear the word of the Lord Now when Jesus came he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days
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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
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So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house
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Martha said to Jesus Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died
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But even now I know that whatever you ask from God God will give you Jesus said to her your brother will rise again
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Martha said to him. I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day Jesus said to her
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I Am the resurrection and the life Whoever believes in me though he died yet Shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die
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Do you believe this? She said to him. Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the
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Christ the Son of God who is coming into the world When she had said this she went and called her sister
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Mary saying in private the teacher is here and is calling for you And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him now
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Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him when the
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Jews Who were with her in the house? When the Jews who were with her in the house
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Consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out they followed her Supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there
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Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him she fell at his feet saying to him
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Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died When Jesus saw her weeping and the
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Jews who had come with her also weeping he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled and he said
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Where have you lay laid him? They said to him Lord come and see Jesus wept
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So the Jews said see how he loved him, but some of them said Could he could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying
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Then Jesus deeply moved again came to the tomb it was a cave and a stone lay against it
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Jesus said take away the stone Martha the sister of the dead man said to him
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Lord by this time there will be an odor for he has been dead four days Jesus said to her did
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I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said
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Father I thank you that you have heard me I knew that you always hear me
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But I said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me
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When he had said these things he cried out with a loud voice Lazarus come out
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The man who had died came out his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped in a cloth
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Jesus said to them Unbind him and let him go May the
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Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, you might be a little upset with me if you're particular
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You might think I did something wrong The Lazarus story is not supposed to end with everyone weeping and Lazarus still in the grave where we left it
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Friday night I I didn't finish the passage. I left us hanging preaching malpractice
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You might charge me with But That's where we are in life.
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We're in verses 17 to 37 We're at a funeral people are dying the living are sad
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Jesus comes into that situation in our life and Tells us that the dead will rise again
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We might be believers and we might agree with him agree with his doctrine But he doesn't just want us to believe a doctrine he wants us to believe in him and so he tells us
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I Am the resurrection and the life Now we say we believe we might bow at his feet
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We might of course be questioning why he didn't say the dying before they died He tells us what to do, but we still don't believe him after all we think the dead rot
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They can't come back Even if in our theology, you know, it tells us that one day they will it's not just that we don't believe it will happen now
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Is that we don't really fully trust? Who he is?
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That's the situation we're in right now and the situation
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Jesus came into So is who is he? exactly
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When I was growing up probably many of you remember the same radio personality, I remember listening to Paul Harvey On the radio his program was like from the 1950s to the 2000
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I didn't really know it lasted as long as it did but it called the rest of the story You remember he called it history mixed with mystery
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He'd tell a story from history usually kind of concealing a little something at first Maybe like there's a tavern owner who was stuck with a staggering debt that the court required him to pay
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He didn't think it was fair. He didn't rack up the debt himself personally So he protested but the judge told him if he didn't like it that way that he should learn the law himself
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Then there'd be a surprising twist at the end Paul Harvey would reveal the tavern owner They've got into law because they didn't like being stuck with the debt
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Was Abraham Lincoln? It's great to know the rest of the story and now, you know the rest of the story sometimes it's surprising
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Sometimes it totally overturned our expectations, you know, we don't expect a failed tavern owner deep in debt to turn out to be the president
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We don't expect maybe a race a runner far in last place halfway through the race to win at the end
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We don't expect the team that is down by 25 points in the third quarter led by a 39 year old quarterback
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Who was suspended earlier in the season to come back and win? We don't expect that and we don't expect in a world of funerals
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Where death ends it all as far as we can tell and has for all of human history
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We don't expect the surprising twist at the end is life
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But we see that here in three parts Dealing with three different people first is to Martha who he is then second to Mary What he is and finally to the dead to Lazarus what he says
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First who is he starting at verse 17 Jesus come to the scene of a funeral As we talked about Friday night, what's
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Jesus gonna do at a funeral? We'll see right here. And this funeral is just outside of Jerusalem.
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Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days decomposition has visibly and Smellingly that's a word begun
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People are mourning when Martha hears that Jesus is approaching being the active type
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She runs out to meet him and she believes now without a doubt that Jesus had he been there earlier
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Would have healed her brother Lazarus and he would not have died She seems to even believe that now she still believes in him in a way
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Jesus can do what? Whatever She said that's the word term. She uses whatever he wants
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We'll see though how radical her faith is how far? Whatever goes in her mind
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Jesus assures her that Lazarus will rise again Martha believes in the resurrection She confesses it but Jesus wants her not just to believe in a doctrine but in himself
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So he says I am the resurrection and the life Resurrection life
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Which triumphs over death is not just something he's saying not just something over the horizon, you know in the far far distant future
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You know when we can believe anything might happen then it's easy to say you believe something I have a way off Resurrection life
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Jesus says is present now Not just in a kind of a power that give you what you want, but he says it's present now in me
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It isn't it is in him who is the resurrection Jesus is the embodiment of the promised life
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He is God's salvation from death to believe in Jesus then means that death is defeated
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Death was our Goliath No taunting us Insulting us Cursing us causing us to tremble in in fear and then our
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David Steps forward and on our behalf He fells the giant
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Now, yes, there will be a moment if Jesus doesn't return first There will be a moment in Eternity, it will probably only seem like a moment when though he dies.
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Jesus says though he dies When the funeral is our funeral when the body decomposing or embalmed in cold is ours
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But that's not the end of the story the rest of the story is That death will not be the end that we want and we won't fade off either like some kind of ghost and do it just a shadowy beyond, you know sitting on clouds playing
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Invisible harps, but we will be raised as alive and as physical as ever
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Jesus comes to a funeral not with a doctrine to believe but with himself now people today believers often make the mistake of Job's friends
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When they encounter someone who has recently stung by death, you know like Job's friends nice words
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But really not very consoling They would give them a doctrine to believe give them an idea give them the right ideas to Think that that's what they need to console them.
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But what people need is not an idea but a person Christ himself.
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I Am the resurrection and the life he says whoever believes in me though he died like Lazarus Like someone close to you
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Like you one day Yet shall he live
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The rest of the story there's a surprising twist at the end something something nothing in nature prepares us for there's really nothing it's really not quite like a
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Caterpillar turning into a butterfly. Okay, that's that's all alive Oh, nothing really in nature prepares us nothing in our experience
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Nothing we would have thought of ourselves Except that one came from heaven and declared it to us
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The rest of the story is that he is the resurrection. It's not just an event in the future
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We're supposed to believe in but it's a person we're supposed to trust now
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He is the life not the heart beating Or the lungs breathing the brainwaves emitting
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But the Son of God having life in himself and if we're in him by faith we're in with life
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So he says everyone who? everyone who lives Because the son has given him or her life everyone who lives and believes in me
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Jesus says every one of them Will never die That life
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Jesus gives is is unkillable It's immortal Hearts that stop beating don't stop it
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Lungs that stop breathing don't smother it brains that stop firing off synapses and brainwaves don't extinguish it and then
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Jesus asked Martha and Us a simple question.
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Do you believe this? Well, do you? Martha says yes, she believes
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So far Well, Mary is next Martha found out who he is
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Mary will find out what he is Martha runs back home to tell Mary Who then comes out to Jesus followed by this entourage of mourners?
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They all thinking they're going to see the dead when in reality, they're going to see life
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Mary throws herself at Jesus's feet like Martha Mary knows that if only
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Jesus had been there Lazarus would still be alive That he could have spared him from death
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She's crying The mourners are crying and Jesus sees this the spectacle
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He's outraged the term could be translated outraged He let's I've got a groan and this is something the enemy death has done
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It has brought misery on these of these people his close friends He groans from the depths of his heart and he asked where Lazarus has been laid and then with the others
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He too weeps now he's part of the spectacle and observers see this outrage these tears hear that groan and Remark How much he must have loved?
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Lazarus and his whole family Even the skeptics among them Comment that you know if he loved him that much
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Why didn't he come earlier to heal Lazarus? You know when Lazarus still had a chance before you know things got gotten so far now
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No one Could change it now. Good day. Everyone sees though What Jesus is?
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Compassionate caring Sympathetic a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief
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That's what Jesus is he's not a stoic he's not a kind of a stone -faced, you know figure
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Untouched by our anguish kind of in denial telling us to buck up make our funerals into celebrations
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He's not an otherworldly mystic You know sitting on the ground cross -legged Unmoved by our suffering telling us to see beyond the illusions of this world the mirage of pain transcend it all
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No That's Buddhism Our Savior is not trying to escape the world or even to show us how to do
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So he's he's going to show us how to overcome it. He's entered in into it with us
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So what is he? He's someone who has experienced every loss Every sting every crushing blow that we have and Then cares about all of them that we've suffered
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He's compassionate That's what he is The resurrection and the life is who he is now
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What does he say That's the last thing. What does he say?
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Well, there's one more person here that he needs to speak to He'll get around a few others before he but this is the main one coming.
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There's the rest of the story There's Lazarus Again, Jesus is outraged from his heart verse 38 same word as before He groaned out of the well of compassion in his heart as he came to the tomb
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They had put Lazarus body in a cave and rolled a large stone over the entrance What does
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Jesus say? At a funeral He says four things here one to the spectators second to Martha third in prayer to the
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Father and Finally what what all the others are leading to to Lazarus?
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What does Jesus say? Probably many of you have been to funerals you think what
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I say, it's hard to know what to say What does Jesus say at a funeral first of the mourners take away the stone
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In other words remove that barrier open what you thought was a permanently closed door maybe for us
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Dig up the grave Lift up the vault open the casket remove all the monuments that we put in Put up to our belief that death is the end of the story.
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Jesus says take it all away Because the rest of the story is coming a lot sooner than you thought
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Martha who had sounded so faithful before remember whatever you asked for Lord God will do it
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So confident so believing You know when she thought she was kind of dealing with a doctrine in the abstract
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Something to believe that's over the horizon in the far far distant future didn't require anything from her now now
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She protests Lord by this time there'll be an odor. He's been dead four days
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This is the second time. We're told that Lazarus has been dead for four days. So this is just to get it through to us
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So to remind us Jewish folklore said that the spirit of the dead lingered around the the body for three days
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But after that when decomposition becomes this obvious to the naked eye the spirit then leaves
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So we're reminded that Lazarus has been dead for four days to show us he's really dead Okay, this isn't like, you know a lifeguard
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Getting a drowning victim out of the water giving CPR to someone that's just had stopped breathing for a minute or so Lazarus, you know
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Isn't like that. He's a rotting corpse Nothing in nature can bring him back
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Okay, the best of our technology now could not bring him back Martha had said to Jesus that whatever he asked for from God God would give it
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But you know, whatever in her mind meant, you know within reason, of course little asterix there within reason
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What she meant was I believe you're powerful Jesus. You could have healed my brother But even you can only do so much only so much
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Ah Martha Jesus says this is what he says to Martha Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?
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He had said that to Martha And even earlier he had said that to his disciples that this illness of Lazarus Would not end in death that the rest of the story would be for the glory of God So that Jesus said so that I the
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Son of God may be glorified through it now How is God glorified in sickness and death?
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by showing That is not the end of the story That for Jesus there is no
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You can only do so much after all and Only so much
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Savior is in the end No Savior at all what he says to Martha is to believe that death is not the end of the story with him
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Now he speaks to the father What does he what does he say to the father? He looks up to heaven
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Says he prays in verse 41 Father I thank you that you have heard me
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Have past tense in the past Jesus has already in the past prayed for Lazarus He is thanking here.
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He's not really asking the father for anything about Lazarus He's simply thanking the father for answering a prayer that he has earlier made
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He knows what the father will do here and he's praising him for it beforehand And then he says
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I knew that you always hear me He is after all the one -of -a -kind son an equal person of the
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Trinity from eternity with the father But I said this
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He said I said this prayer On account of the people standing around He's praying this prayer for the spectators for the witnesses for the readers of the story for us
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His public prayer isn't just here between him and the father is that the people around him don't matter it's for people like us
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So that we may believe this is what this whole thing has been for. It's always been so that for the purpose of glorifying
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God father and son by inspiring people to believe that Jesus is
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The resurrection and the life that we would believe This is the purpose as he says right here
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For the people standing around for the witnesses for the readers for us that Purpose we would believe that the father sent him
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He challenged Martha if he if she really believes it she said she did But it crunch time
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She's more sure of the stench of death than she is of the power of life Sure. Okay.
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He's compassionate for all of us who are still victims of the tyranny of death He's outraged at what death is doing to us
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He understands and he cares but he's also here trying to lift us up so that we know
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The rest of the story here. He prays that we would know that what he does here
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Not only shows that he cares But shows that he is
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Who he says he is the resurrection and the life
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That's what he says to the father Thanking him in advance for hearing him
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Not to score points with God You know, was that this is how he's gonna earn God's power.
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But so that we purpose of the prayer So that we would believe No, there's just one more person to talk to The one really but that all this other speaking has been leading to Lazarus himself the rotting corpse in the cave
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He completes his prayer and then no fancy Rhetoric no long speeches simply cries out says with a loud voice
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Lazarus he's got to specify to him. He's talking Lest every dead person in the from the beginning of history here and rise
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Lazarus Come out That's what
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Jesus has to say to the dead That's What he says to the spiritually dead now, you know
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Those who are totally cold to God who are insensitive to his light and to his glory
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Come out and they do and notice it depends not on them
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What did Lazarus do here to make this possible? Absolutely, nothing, you know his two sisters don't even really believe this is going to happen.
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No one around Lee This was gonna happen. This wasn't a miracle Manufactured fostered by the faith of those around it.
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It depended totally completely on the word of Jesus himself
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He says Come out What would
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Jesus say at a funeral now sure You weep with us.
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That's what he is. He's compassionate But who he is is the resurrection and the life so when he speaks life life comes
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What would Jesus do at a funeral? You speak to the dead He'll tell them to come out alive
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That's why every funeral We have now is unfinished Never not one of them is over.
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Yeah Rest in peace we might say as if it's forever, but it's not There is still the rest of the story
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Jesus will end every funeral one day with come out and The dead will rise
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What does Jesus say? Come out Then in verse 44
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John writes knows the way John writes it is brilliantly verse 44 the author
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John writes Not using the name of Lazarus doesn't just say he could have just said Lazarus came out
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He doesn't say that but in case we forgot who it is who's coming out who's? waddling out of this cave the man who had died
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Who had died? We don't usually go talk about anyone's experiences death as something they they used to you know
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Have in their past but death was now a past experience for him something to put on his resume died
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Something he went through and came back out alive and all our experience death is the end
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But it's not the end. He came out probably kind of waddling Because he's wrapped in these grave cloths that he had all around him
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And this is technically and this shows us that yes, you know, he's still bound by these cloths
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This is technically not a resurrection. It's a foreshadowing. It's a promise of the resurrection but not a
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Strictly a resurrection not yet The first person to be resurrected would be Jesus himself and he would come out through the grave clothes leaving them behind You know, he didn't need the help of the
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Roman soldiers. Let me get out of this fellas. He didn't need that He has what Paul calls
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Jesus has what Paul calls 1st Corinthians 15 a spiritual body Something really can't explain is just out of the laws of nature that we are now bound by here though Lazarus doesn't have a spiritual body, but he restored resuscitated
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Mortal body still bound by the laws of nature here literally by the linen strips all around him
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And so one last word from Jesus to the gotta be stunned spectators Unbind him and let him go
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This isn't quite yet the end of the story But it shows how it will end when
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Jesus is raised in his immortal body Then the end begins
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That's where we are now I said at the Beginning there were in verses 17 to 37 at a funeral
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Jesus having come and told us who he is But still we have death and grief to be acquainted with That's true
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Except there's one major major difference one thing has dramatically changed
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Jesus has risen He's begun the New Age He does he doesn't just we just we don't just have a promise of resurrection
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We have its beginning Jesus has come not only told us He's the resurrection in the life not only given us a doctrine to believe not only shown us that he's
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Compassionate that he is upset in his heart and shares with us our grief and the pain that we suffer
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He's not only glorified God and inspired faith in us, but he has begun the end the resurrection and the life
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Was resurrected and is alive Now he is saying