John 11:17-44, The Rest of the Story
John 11:1-37
Jesus At a Funeral
Transcript
Please open your Bible with me to John chapter 11 starting verse 17 be reading through verse 44.
I Hear the word of the Lord 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 died 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 When she had said this she went and called her sister
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
Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him when the
Jews Who were with her in the house? When the Jews who were with her in the house
Consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out they followed her Supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there
Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him she fell at his feet saying to him
Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died 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 he said
Where have you lay laid him? They said to him Lord come and see Jesus wept
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
Then Jesus deeply moved again came to the tomb it was a cave and a stone lay against it
Jesus said take away the stone Martha the sister of the dead man said to him
Lord by this time there will be an odor for he has been dead four days Jesus said to her did
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
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
When he had said these things he cried out with a loud voice Lazarus come out
The man who had died came out his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped in a cloth
Jesus said to them Unbind him and let him go May the
Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, you might be a little upset with me if you're particular
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
Friday night I I didn't finish the passage. I left us hanging preaching malpractice
You might charge me with But That's where we are in life.
We're in verses 17 to 37 We're at a funeral people are dying the living are sad
Jesus comes into that situation in our life and Tells us that the dead will rise again
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
I Am the resurrection and the life Now we say we believe we might bow at his feet
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
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
Is that we don't really fully trust? Who he is?
That's the situation we're in right now and the situation
Jesus came into So is who is he? exactly
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
We don't expect maybe a race a runner far in last place halfway through the race to win at the end
We don't expect the team that is down by 25 points in the third quarter led by a 39 year old quarterback
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
Where death ends it all as far as we can tell and has for all of human history
We don't expect the surprising twist at the end is life
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
First who is he starting at verse 17 Jesus come to the scene of a funeral As we talked about Friday night, what's
Jesus gonna do at a funeral? We'll see right here. And this funeral is just outside of Jerusalem.
Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days decomposition has visibly and Smellingly that's a word begun
People are mourning when Martha hears that Jesus is approaching being the active type
She runs out to meet him and she believes now without a doubt that Jesus had he been there earlier
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
Jesus can do what? Whatever She said that's the word term. She uses whatever he wants
We'll see though how radical her faith is how far? Whatever goes in her mind
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
So he says I am the resurrection and the life Resurrection life
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
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
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
It isn't it is in him who is the resurrection Jesus is the embodiment of the promised life
He is God's salvation from death to believe in Jesus then means that death is defeated
Death was our Goliath No taunting us Insulting us Cursing us causing us to tremble in in fear and then our
David Steps forward and on our behalf He fells the giant
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.
Jesus says though he dies When the funeral is our funeral when the body decomposing or embalmed in cold is ours
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
Invisible harps, but we will be raised as alive and as physical as ever
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
When they encounter someone who has recently stung by death, you know like Job's friends nice words
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.
But what people need is not an idea but a person Christ himself.
I Am the resurrection and the life he says whoever believes in me though he died like Lazarus Like someone close to you
Like you one day Yet shall he live
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
Caterpillar turning into a butterfly. Okay, that's that's all alive Oh, nothing really in nature prepares us nothing in our experience
Nothing we would have thought of ourselves Except that one came from heaven and declared it to us
The rest of the story is that he is the resurrection. It's not just an event in the future
We're supposed to believe in but it's a person we're supposed to trust now
He is the life not the heart beating Or the lungs breathing the brainwaves emitting
But the Son of God having life in himself and if we're in him by faith we're in with life
So he says everyone who? everyone who lives Because the son has given him or her life everyone who lives and believes in me
Jesus says every one of them Will never die That life
Jesus gives is is unkillable It's immortal Hearts that stop beating don't stop it
Lungs that stop breathing don't smother it brains that stop firing off synapses and brainwaves don't extinguish it and then
Jesus asked Martha and Us a simple question.
Do you believe this? Well, do you? Martha says yes, she believes
So far Well, Mary is next Martha found out who he is
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?
They all thinking they're going to see the dead when in reality, they're going to see life
Mary throws herself at Jesus's feet like Martha Mary knows that if only
Jesus had been there Lazarus would still be alive That he could have spared him from death
She's crying The mourners are crying and Jesus sees this the spectacle
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
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
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?
Lazarus and his whole family Even the skeptics among them Comment that you know if he loved him that much
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
No one Could change it now. Good day. Everyone sees though What Jesus is?
Compassionate caring Sympathetic a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief
That's what Jesus is he's not a stoic he's not a kind of a stone -faced, you know figure
Untouched by our anguish kind of in denial telling us to buck up make our funerals into celebrations
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
No That's Buddhism Our Savior is not trying to escape the world or even to show us how to do
So he's he's going to show us how to overcome it. He's entered in into it with us
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
He's compassionate That's what he is The resurrection and the life is who he is now
What does he say That's the last thing. What does he say?
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.
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
They had put Lazarus body in a cave and rolled a large stone over the entrance What does
Jesus say? At a funeral He says four things here one to the spectators second to Martha third in prayer to the
Father and Finally what what all the others are leading to to Lazarus?
What does Jesus say? Probably many of you have been to funerals you think what
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
In other words remove that barrier open what you thought was a permanently closed door maybe for us
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.
Jesus says take it all away Because the rest of the story is coming a lot sooner than you thought
Martha who had sounded so faithful before remember whatever you asked for Lord God will do it
So confident so believing You know when she thought she was kind of dealing with a doctrine in the abstract
Something to believe that's over the horizon in the far far distant future didn't require anything from her now now
She protests Lord by this time there'll be an odor. He's been dead four days
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
So to remind us Jewish folklore said that the spirit of the dead lingered around the the body for three days
But after that when decomposition becomes this obvious to the naked eye the spirit then leaves
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
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
Isn't like that. He's a rotting corpse Nothing in nature can bring him back
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
But you know, whatever in her mind meant, you know within reason, of course little asterix there within reason
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
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?
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
Son of God may be glorified through it now How is God glorified in sickness and death?
by showing That is not the end of the story That for Jesus there is no
You can only do so much after all and Only so much
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
Now he speaks to the father What does he what does he say to the father? He looks up to heaven
Says he prays in verse 41 Father I thank you that you have heard me
Have past tense in the past Jesus has already in the past prayed for Lazarus He is thanking here.
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
He knows what the father will do here and he's praising him for it beforehand And then he says
I knew that you always hear me He is after all the one -of -a -kind son an equal person of the
Trinity from eternity with the father But I said this
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
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
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
God father and son by inspiring people to believe that Jesus is
The resurrection and the life that we would believe This is the purpose as he says right here
For the people standing around for the witnesses for the readers for us that Purpose we would believe that the father sent him
He challenged Martha if he if she really believes it she said she did But it crunch time
She's more sure of the stench of death than she is of the power of life Sure. Okay.
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
He understands and he cares but he's also here trying to lift us up so that we know
The rest of the story here. He prays that we would know that what he does here
Not only shows that he cares But shows that he is
Who he says he is the resurrection and the life
That's what he says to the father Thanking him in advance for hearing him
Not to score points with God You know, was that this is how he's gonna earn God's power.
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
He completes his prayer and then no fancy Rhetoric no long speeches simply cries out says with a loud voice
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
Lazarus Come out That's what
Jesus has to say to the dead That's What he says to the spiritually dead now, you know
Those who are totally cold to God who are insensitive to his light and to his glory
Come out and they do and notice it depends not on them
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.
No one around Lee This was gonna happen. This wasn't a miracle Manufactured fostered by the faith of those around it.
It depended totally completely on the word of Jesus himself
He says Come out What would
Jesus say at a funeral now sure You weep with us.
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
What would Jesus do at a funeral? You speak to the dead He'll tell them to come out alive
That's why every funeral We have now is unfinished Never not one of them is over.
Yeah Rest in peace we might say as if it's forever, but it's not There is still the rest of the story
Jesus will end every funeral one day with come out and The dead will rise
What does Jesus say? Come out Then in verse 44
John writes knows the way John writes it is brilliantly verse 44 the author
John writes Not using the name of Lazarus doesn't just say he could have just said Lazarus came out
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
Who had died? We don't usually go talk about anyone's experiences death as something they they used to you know
Have in their past but death was now a past experience for him something to put on his resume died
Something he went through and came back out alive and all our experience death is the end
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
And this is technically and this shows us that yes, you know, he's still bound by these cloths
This is technically not a resurrection. It's a foreshadowing. It's a promise of the resurrection but not a
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
Roman soldiers. Let me get out of this fellas. He didn't need that He has what Paul calls
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
Mortal body still bound by the laws of nature here literally by the linen strips all around him
And so one last word from Jesus to the gotta be stunned spectators Unbind him and let him go
This isn't quite yet the end of the story But it shows how it will end when
Jesus is raised in his immortal body Then the end begins
That's where we are now I said at the Beginning there were in verses 17 to 37 at a funeral
Jesus having come and told us who he is But still we have death and grief to be acquainted with That's true
Except there's one major major difference one thing has dramatically changed
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
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
Compassionate that he is upset in his heart and shares with us our grief and the pain that we suffer
He's not only glorified God and inspired faith in us, but he has begun the end the resurrection and the life
Was resurrected and is alive Now he is saying