I Am The Resurrection And The Life

All right, let's stand up and sing the song together. ♪ Gives me neither feet nor hands ♪ ♪

Better news the gospel brings ♪ ♪ It bids me ride, it gives me a place to come to ♪ ♪

Here I stand now justified ♪ ♪ My guilt is in His grace divine ♪

Everybody sing praise the Lord. ♪ They're dressed in beauty not my own ♪ ♪

And then Lord shall I fully know ♪ ♪ Until that day how much

I know ♪ Sing praise the Lord. ♪ Praise the

Lord ♪

Welcome this morning to 12 Five Church. I just wanna thank all of our covenant members here for your faithfulness.

Coming together on the Lord's day in reverence and all for our Lord and King. If you are a guest, you're also welcome this morning and we just want to let you know we'd love to get to know you more and if you could fill out one of our connect cards, that way we can reach out to you, pray for you, help answer any questions that you may have.

And so all of us together this morning, I just want you to know that you are loved by us and we want to grow together in the grace and knowledge of our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, amen. Well, I have a couple announcements that I'd like to share with everyone.

Coming up really soon, October 5th on a Saturday, we are going to have a family picnic.

We are overdue. Last year we didn't get to do our picnic. It's been two years ago and 12 Five is totally different now.

And so this is coming up October 5th. We're gonna have this at Craighead Forest Park. And so if you would, we have a number there on the screen.

Please call Jamie Agee and let her know, hey, I want to come to this, right? This is a way for us to just be able to fellowship as a family.

And so put that on your calendar, October 5th from 12 p .m. to 3 p .m.

Next on our announcements, we have class membership. If you are curious to learn more about 12

Five Church, you could say, hey, I just want to come and see more of what y 'all are about, what y 'all teach through.

I'm curious. And so obviously this is a time, if you would like to join and become a covenant member, you definitely want to come check out this class.

This will be on October 9th and our service starts at 6 .30 p .m.

And so also starting October 9th is our next announcement. We are getting ready to start a new midweek series and we're asking the question, what do you want to know about?

Maybe you have some doctrinal questions, exegetical questions, practical questions, or what we're wanting to do over the next number of weeks and months is just hear from the body.

People that show up at 12 Five and just want to be able to talk about real life questions that you may have as you're studying the word.

And so if you would, text your question to Nathan Hargrave at the number on the screen and just preface your question with the question.

And we would love to prayerfully consider those questions and get ready to teach through those on Wednesday.

All right, with that being said, if you would, please stand. Before we stand, let's take a moment to pray for a local church.

Let's pray for Central Church as we do before our service. We always want to reach out and be in prayer for other evangelical churches that herald the gospel of grace.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we lift your name on high this morning. And God, we also want to lift up Central Baptist Church.

God, what another sister church, what a wonderful church that preaches the gospel that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.

Lord, I just pray that you would mold the leadership at Central, God, that the leaders would be committed to overseeing the flock.

We pray for Archie. We pray for those that handle the word of God. We pray that much time would be spent in your word and that your spirit,

God, would mold the leadership's heart to be able to preach it boldly to the people. Lord, we love you.

We pray these things in your name, amen. All right, if you would please stand for our call to worship.

This is a time where we get to declare God's truth with one another. Our call to worship comes from Psalm chapter 30, where the psalmist says,

I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me.

O Lord, you have brought me up, my soul from Sheol. You have restored me to life among those who have gone down to the pit.

For his anger is but for a moment and his favor is for a lifetime.

As for me, I said in my prosperity, by your favor,

O Lord, you hid your face.

To you, O Lord, I cry and to the Lord, I plead for mercy. Will the dust praise you?

Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me. You have turned for me my mourning into dancing.

You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness. O Lord, my

God. And all God's people said. Amen.

♪ Just one time for me ♪ ♪

The sin has o 'er me ♪ ♪ Purged by, crucified ♪ ♪

In an inch, all my boast is in Jesus ♪ ♪

Him a bitch is in straight or right ♪ ♪

But in the grace of God ♪ ♪ I glory in weakness and bear this cross ♪ ♪

In plenty or in what they see ♪ ♪

My boast is in Jesus ♪ ♪ All my hope is in the Lord ♪

Oh God, thank you so much for sending your son, Jesus, to die on the cross.

Lord, please teach us to make our boast in you alone, Christ, all of our days. God, we go through hurts and pains in this world.

God, we see death all around us, but we can boast in Christ. God, please help us to realize that we are not given any set number of days.

God, you've given us today. God, you've given us today to revere your name on high and to adore you,

Jesus, as our Lord and Savior. Lord, we love you. Pray these things in your name. Amen. ♪

What is our role in life and death ♪ ♪

Christ alone, Christ alone ♪ ♪ What is our only confidence ♪ ♪

That our souls to Him belong ♪ ♪

Who holds our days within His hands ♪ ♪

What comes apart from His footstool ♪

Sing this together. ♪ You will see how they do it ♪ ♪

He can calm a soul ♪ ♪

Into the grave, what shall we see ♪ ♪

Christ, He lives, Christ, He lives ♪ ♪ In one reward, sin and death ♪

Our scripture reading reflects this wonderful truth that there is mystery that has now been revealed to us in Christ Jesus, and we are victorious in His resurrection because that promise that we too will be resurrected eternally.

The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, I tell you, this brother's flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Behold, I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed, for this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality.

When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our

Lord Jesus Christ. So what do we do in light of this amazing truth?

Paul says, therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is never in vain. Everybody knows this chorus, sing this with me.

♪ Hallelujah, love is

Christ ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Jesus is mine ♪ ♪

Once was lost in darkest night ♪ ♪ In thought

I knew the sin that promised joy ♪ ♪

And there've been two, and you were a fool too ♪ ♪

And if you had not loved me first ♪ ♪

But as I ran into freedom ♪

Oh God, we are a sinful people, God. Week in and week out, we war against our flesh, we war against the prince of the power of the air,

God, we war against the ways of this world. And God, we confess to you our shortcomings, we have all sinned and fall short of your glorious standard.

And God, you require perfection, that's why we must look to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

God, this morning, please help us not look to ourselves and our brokenness that we go through each and every day.

God, thank you for the body, thank you for our brothers and sisters that we can call and reach out to and share truth with one another.

God, it is your truth that is life to our souls. God, the flesh profits nothing. God, this world is perishing.

God, please help us not to look to the things that is going to ultimately be burned up one day. But God, we rest eternally secure in your finished work.

Lord, we lift your name on high, please help us to make our boast in you, Jesus, looking to you each and every day.

Sing this with me, now, Lord. Now, Lord, I'll be yours alone

In this all my sin The strength to follow your ways

Could never come Sing this out. Oh, Father, handsome like in any

All I have, Jesus, is

For the throne

I must fall Perfectly The great high priest

Whose name is love Whoever lives and keeps

For my name is graven on his hands

My name is written on his heart

In heaven he stands No tongue can beat it

No tongue can beat it

He tends me to his feet

Tells me of his countenance

To sleep or gather just Is satisfied

To work or fix bothers

Righteousness The great unchangeable

I am In himself

I purchase my visit

With Christ on I With Christ my savior

Praise the one Risen son Of God Praise the one

Risen son Of God Amen.

Praise you, Father God. Lord, we thank you for this time of worship, God, that we get to come collectively to worship your mighty holy name before the throne of God above.

Thank you, Jesus, for the prize paid. Thank you that our boast can be in you. Praise you,

Father. God, as we continue this worship of you, Lord, and in preaching and giving and coining

Neal later on, God, may you be honored and glorified in what we do. To you be all glory and honor and praise forever and ever.

In everybody's sin. Amen. I really think

I could get up here and just Wow.

What a service. Well, this is the first, the fifth, sorry, the fifth sermon in our series.

It's the who do you say that I am series. And what we're doing is we're going through each of the great

I am statements that Jesus makes. He made seven of them in the gospel of John.

And we're in the fifth today, the resurrection and the life. Let us pray.

Father, you are so merciful. We thank you for your love.

For your compassion. And how you constantly show us your attributes,

Father. How you poured out your love on us when you went to the cross. You made it possible for us to come into the presence of your father.

We are so thankful to you. And Father, I pray today. When we walk out this door, we would have a better understanding of who you are.

I pray this in Christ's name. Amen. If you would go ahead and turn to John chapter 11.

That's where we'll be starting today. And in fact, we'll be starting right at the end of 10. I want to bring us kind of up to speed where we are compared to last week.

But because of the length of the text, 53 verses. Don't look at your watches.

I think I've got it in sight. I'm going to do more of a running narrative. So I'm not going to read the whole sections.

I'm going to do it as I go along. But there's so many important truths in this chapter that set up the whole story.

And I don't think we can quite grasp exactly what has taken place without covering them somewhat.

And what I'm going to mainly focus on is three of Jesus Christ's attributes.

That is his sovereignty, his love and compassion, and his omnipotence.

So we're going to be beginning in John 10, 39. If you want to look right above chapter 11.

It says, again, they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the

Jordan to the place where John, this is John the Baptist, had been baptizing at first, and there he remained.

And then look at 42. It says, and many believed in him there. So we see

Jesus is fleeing Judea. That's where we left him last week. When he gave this long allegory about,

I am the good shepherd and I am the door. And if you read further along, he has another confrontation with a religious elite.

And they try to stone him. And so this is what it's saying here. They sought to arrest him, but he escaped.

He has fleed Judea. He has gone across the Jordan back where his public ministry first began.

And we see this phrase once again. I think we've seen it at least four times. And many believed in him there.

Everything was going great. Jesus was probably at the apex of his ministry at this point.

And then we start in John 11. It says, now a certain man was ill.

Lazarus of Bethany. The village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was

Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother

Lazarus was ill. So the sister sent to him saying, Lord, he whom you love is ill.

So we know Mary and Martha if you've read the Bible. They're the two sisters. And we always saw Mary at Jesus' feet.

She was wanting to listen to him teach and take in his words. And Martha, well, she was the servant.

She was always hurrying around and trying to get everything ready for everybody and take care of all of their needs.

And it mentions their home. And this is one of the few places where we see Jesus was a frequent guest.

And most likely because it was only two miles from Jerusalem. So he probably was using it not only to visit friends and people that he loved, but to get away from the hustle and bustle of Jerusalem and the temple.

And so we start in verse 4. This is the first point. Jesus confirms that his sovereignty over creation is unalterable.

So in verse 4, but when Jesus heard it, he said, the message about Lazarus being ill, this illness does not lead to death.

It is for the glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

So right off the bat, Jesus is telling us kind of what's going on here. He already knows about the illness.

And he tells them exactly the purpose for this illness. It's for the glory of God. It's so the

Son can be glorified through it. He is saying, basically, this sickness was divinely appointed.

It has a purpose in it. And I want you to remember back when we talked about the blind man that Jesus healed who was born blind.

Well, when he healed him, the apostles asked him and said, why has he been born blind?

Jesus answered that the works of God should be manifest in him. There was a purpose that he was born blind.

And it was so people could see the work of God. The works of God manifest, proclaimed through the healing of the blind man.

He's teaching us that there are divine purposes in the trials of life.

We need to keep that in mind. Verse 5 through 7. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Then after this, he said to the disciples, let us go to Judea again. So to the first time reader, you might be sitting there wondering, why did he stay two days longer?

I mean, if Lazarus was ill, why didn't he go right away? Why did he tarry where he was?

Well, he was wanting to teach his disciples that divine delays bring about divine purposes.

And we'll see this as we go along. And it's strange here in verse 7 that he says, let us go to Judea again.

He doesn't say, let us go to Lazarus. He says, let us go to Judea. And there was a reason for that.

He is testing the disciples. He is testing their faith. He is testing their willingness to follow him.

And look at what the disciples say in verse 8. The disciples said to him, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you.

And are you going there again? Now, I'm not really sure that's exactly how they said it.

I think it was probably had a little more emotion in it. And so I'm going to put a little emotion in it.

And forgive me, but I'm going to paraphrase quite a bit. Okay. I think it was more like, Rabbi, you know, we respect you.

But don't you remember that those bunch of lunatics were wanting to kill us all? I mean, after all, things are going great here.

People are coming to us in groves. We could just stay right here. We could build a mega church or something.

Instead of going to Judea and riling up the heathen over their sin. Let us stay here where we're comfortable, where things are going good.

Isn't that our reply at times? I know it's mine. Lord, you want me to move over there?

That's not something I want to do. I'm going to have to get out of my comfort zone. I'm going to have to serve.

I'm going to have to be around the heathen and witness to them. Isn't that true of us at times?

He's building their trust. He's building their faith. And that's exactly what he wants to do with us.

He wants us to grow. He wants us to follow him and trust in him.

He wants us to move along in our sanctification. He's not interested in our comfort.

He's interested in strengthening our faith. And look at Jesus' reply in verse 9.

Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him. And here

Jesus is speaking of the manner and the time in which one walks. He's wanting them to walk in the day, in the light of the world.

He's wanting them to walk in his will, following him according to his purposes, to trust him.

And then the time he wants them to walk is while he is with them. He's basically saying the time is limited.

The time of my mission here on earth is limited, but it is set.

It has been set before eternity past by our

Father. It's his eternal plan that we're doing. And again, he is getting them to trust in him.

So in verses 11 through 15, After saying these things he said to them,

Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him. And the disciples said to him,

Lord, if he's fallen asleep, he'll recover. Why should we have to go if he's just fallen asleep?

He's going to recover. We can just stay here. And now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought he meant taking rest and sleep.

Then Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.

But let us go to him. See, there's a lesson in them going to Judea, going to Lazarus, and he tells us plainly what it is.

So that you may believe him. Now I want to say something about the disciples here, and I think there are people who kind of get the wrong impression when

John uses this term, the disciples. He is not necessarily talking about people that are saved.

Now surely they're saved in this group, people who have faith in Jesus Christ, because this also includes the apostles, because we know the apostles was with him.

But just because they're disciples, they're not necessarily have a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

And we saw that back in chapter 6 when we were talking about, I am the bread.

If you remember, he said, no one can come to me unless the father draws him.

In the next verse it says, and many of the disciples that were with him walked with him no more.

If you remember, I talked about walking with Jesus. It's different than being a follower, just following along.

And so clearly they were not saved. The word is no more. They were no more with Jesus.

So some of these disciples probably had a saving faith, different levels of faith, but then there are some here that do not have saving faith.

So that's why he said, so that you may believe.

And you know, none of this was a surprise to Jesus. Like I said, he knew all about Lazarus. In fact, he knew that Lazarus was probably dead at the time that the messenger came.

He was in control of all of these events. And this is a profound truth that we need to understand.

We do not have to understand God's purposes to embrace the fact that God is in control of everything.

If we do not embrace this truth, we will struggle to believe that God is sovereign.

We must understand that in the course of our life, he will put us in situations that repeatedly ask us to trust him.

And we will question, God, are you really in control? He's testing your belief.

So in this phrase, so that you may believe, Jesus is developing his disciples' faith.

Their eyes were being opened further to perceive exactly who Jesus Christ is.

By his repeated manifestations of his power and his compassion and love, they were becoming to know that he was the

Messiah. So in verse 16, so Thomas called the twins, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him.

And here's Thomas. He's known as the doubting Thomas. But we have to admire his devotion, don't we?

It's evident that he loved Jesus. He was willing to go with him and bring everybody else, even if it meant death for them.

Verses 17 through 19. Now when Jesus came, this is at least a two days journey, many scholars say.

It may be even more from where they were. They found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

So it stands to reason, he waited two days, he traveled two days. Most likely when the messenger arrived,

Lazarus was already dead. So we see that the events here are being orchestrated by Jesus.

He is setting another stage. One as grand or grander than the one when he stepped into Jerusalem, into the temple and said,

I am the light of the world. And it tells us here that this family says many of the

Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. And if you remember, every time we see this term

John used, the Jews, he's talking about Hebrews, the seed of Abraham, but he's also specifically talking about the religious elite.

So evidently many of the religious elite was already there in attendance.

Evidently they had relationships with people in Jerusalem, so they had come to help her mourn.

Now why did Jesus delay? I mean if we've read the verse, we know the answer, but what about his disciples?

I mean they arrive and Jesus has been dead already four days. I mean why?

And now they arrive and the Jews are at the wake. I mean all the things that they were fearing, they're saying, oh gosh, this is going to come true.

We may be persecuted just like Jesus. In addition to this, because Jesus delayed, they were most likely questioning his compassion.

Why all the suffering and death? Why all the great sorrow?

The truth is that God allows bad things to happen because he has a greater thing in mind for us.

That's a truth we need to understand. Take Joseph for instance. His brothers sold him into slavery, down into Egypt.

He went down there and he had success at first, but then he gets thrown into prison. He makes it out of prison and he becomes the number two man in Egypt.

And he enables Egypt to be so successful in growing food that they had a big surplus.

There was a famine back in Israel. So the brothers have to come to Egypt and get food because they know there's plenty there.

They end up running into Joseph. Joseph finally reveals himself to them and they're in great anguish.

I mean, they're fearing for their lives. And what does Joseph say? You meant this for evil, but God meant this for good.

I mean, this is one of the hardest things for Christians to understand. Why does God let bad things happen to good people?

Because he has greater things in mind for us. This is at the core of one of the most cherished promises in scripture.

Look at Romans, I mean, Romans 8 28. And we know for those who love

God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

Through his sovereignty, God is in control. He knows what you need and he gives you what you need in order so you can grow in Christ.

The question for you is, do you believe? Do you trust?

How strong is your faith? So this brings us to the next point concerning our chapter.

Jesus proves that his love and compassion is incomparable.

And this is verses 20 through 37. Now at this point of the narrative,

I think we need to cover the dark shadow that's hanging over this chapter. Do you know what it is?

Have you seen it? It's death. That's the dark shadow. If this were a play from the world's perspective, they would call it a tragedy.

All of the major players here were accustomed to death in one way or another. They were all used to physical death being a reality at any point in time in their lives.

I mean, they were under the thumb of a brutal regime that specialized in many forms of torture and death.

The disciples felt that the possibility of death was very real. There was a high probability of it.

They could be grabbed at any time and stoned. The sisters had witnessed the death of their beloved brother and the sorrow and hopelessness that went along with it.

And Jesus, he knew what awaited him. He would suffer the humiliation of one of the cruelest deaths known to man.

But as dark as the shadow is of physical death, the shadow of spiritual death is even darker.

In fact, Scripture tells us multiple times, it is darkness. In this account of Lazarus' death, we must not focus on physical death alone while ignoring the ravages of spiritual death.

Just as Lazarus was dead, so is the natural man. And it's because of one thing, sin.

Sin is death. This is the plight which demonstrates

Jesus' love and compassion more than anything else. And Paul points this out clearly in Ephesians.

Ephesians 2, 4, and 5, two best words in Scripture. But God, being rich in mercy, and here it is, because of the great love with which he loved us.

There it is. We were dead, but this is the love of our divine Savior. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive with Christ.

By grace you have been saved. Just as Lazarus' body had undergone four days of decay, the natural man also suffers from the corruption and the decay of his heart and his life.

He is dead in his trespasses and sin. He is darkness. Spiritual death encompasses him.

We can't miss it. Sin is the main issue here. Okay, don't forget that.

Sin is the main issue. Death is the result. It is the wages of sin.

If sin were just a sickness, we could most likely find a remedy for it. If sin was just a matter of intellect, we could reason it out of people.

If it was a matter of the will, we could talk people into doing something different.

But that's not the case. The natural man's problem is spiritual death.

And just like physical death, we are powerless to deal with it.

Get that. We are powerless to deal with spiritual death just like physical death.

Just like the sisters, the apostles, and the Jews were all faced with the death of Lazarus.

They were powerless to deal with it. All we will see at the wake of Lazarus is sorrow, it's mourning, confusion, and a total sense of hopelessness.

But God, the light of the world is about to shine forth.

The resurrection and the life will step onto the scene with the same voice that spoke the world into existence and will turn this calamity, this tragedy, into a celebration of life.

Jesus alone has the power to create life through his love and compassion.

Through that love and compassion, he will demonstrate his power over death.

As we continue with this narrative, let's not miss this spiritual significance.

Because of Jesus Christ's love and compassion, alone can he resurrect life out of spiritual or physical death.

Moving on in verse 20. 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 of 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.

So Martha gives her the answer. She says, I know that he will rise on the last day.

But she was still distressed. She still had questions. How did this happen?

Why did this happen? Jesus, why didn't you come?

And this points to a spiritual reality. God's comforts rely on his promises and not his explanations.

The truth of the hows and whys of life, their circumstances, it belongs to the

Lord. He sustains us through our trials in life, through his promises.

And if you look in the Bible, they're numerous. There's an issue here.

Explanations from God do not require faith. Explanations from God do not require faith.

But promises do. Martha's faith was weak. She assumes that Jesus could not give her comfort immediately, but only in the future.

And she says, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

But what Jesus is doing here, he's offering comfort now, in the present.

And she just couldn't see it. She was focusing on the resurrection in the future. She failed to see that Jesus' reply was actually one of love and compassion.

He was building her faith slowly. And he talks more. He's trying to bring her closer to the truth in verse 25.

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.

Whoever believes in me, though he die, he shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

And then he asked her this million dollar question. Do you believe this? What Jesus is telling her is, it is not the future events, the resurrection and the dead that she should be concerned with.

But it's the person of the Lord Jesus Christ that she needs to be most occupied with.

Because he is with us always. He's bringing her to the present.

Fixing her eyes on him. He's leading her from her grief to a stronger belief, a stronger trust, and a stronger faith.

She's building that trust in her savior. He is telling her, Martha, do not dwell on death, but dwell on me, who is the resurrection and the life.

Now in this I am statement, Jesus once again is proclaiming his deity. But he's also proclaiming his power over death.

Note the order. He says, I am the resurrection and the life.

And in the spiritual sense, what he is saying is that we are resurrected. We are regenerated from being dead in sin.

And then he becomes our life. He is the resurrection and the life.

He goes on to say, whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.

And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. So the main point Jesus is making here is that physical death cannot extinguish spiritual death.

I mean spiritual life, sorry. We will be raised on the last day. So back to Martha.

He asked her this million dollar question. Do you believe this? And what he's saying is, do you believe that I alone have the power and am the source over resurrection and eternal life?

And see what she says to him. Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the

Christ. The Son of God who is coming into this world. Her language here is emphatic.

Yes, I do. And her statement actually matches up perfectly of what

John gives us as his reason for writing his gospel. In chapter 20, verse 31.

But these things are written so that you may believe that Christ, that Jesus is the

Christ. He's the Son of God. And that by believing, you may have life in his name.

So Jesus asks her, do you believe this is who I am? And Martha replies, you are the

Christ. You are the Son of God. And you have come into the world, the

Savior sent by the Father. Because of his infinite love and compassion for Martha, he has pointed her to the only source of life, the resurrection and the life.

And that is Jesus Christ. In verse 28.

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.

And 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.

So evidently, Jesus had sent Martha to get

Mary. And she attempted to tell her in secret, but it failed. The Jews saw her go out, they thought she was going to the tomb, so they went with her, which was custom.

At a funeral, if somebody was to go weep and mourn at the tomb or at the gravesite, it was custom, protocol for everybody to go with them.

So they were going to actually see the last great miracle, the last great sign of Jesus Christ.

Once again, Jesus is setting the stage. Verse 32,

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 laid him? And they said to him, Lord, come and see.

And Jesus wept. You see, like Martha, Mary is sitting here thinking, what might have been if?

What might have been if you had been here? My brother would have not died.

And how many times has this happened to us? We look into the past and go, what might have been if?

If this would have happened? Or if that would have happened? I mean, we seem to forget that it's all because the

Lord has permitted it to be so. And if that's our belief, if that's our faith, if that's our trust, then we know it must be for our own good.

If we're asking what if, it's not what if something else would have happened, it's what if God would have worked in a different way.

But something great is going to come out of this what if, especially for both of the sisters.

And look in verse 33. I mean, it was the sight of Mary and her comforters weeping that affected

Jesus greatly. In the original language, it says that he was distressed to the extreme degree.

He wept. What was he weeping over? The terrific cost which sin had borne.

That's why Jesus was weeping. In the New Testament, we see Jesus weeping three times.

We see him weeping here. We see him weeping over Jerusalem in Luke 19, 41.

And then we see him weeping again in Gethsemane. And Hebrews 5, 7 tells us about that.

But each time Jesus weeps, it's over the effects, the consequences of sin.

I mean, the fact that Jesus had great compassion for them to the point of tears gives us an indication that this scene was one of great sorrow, grief, and pain for all involved.

It says Jesus was greatly moved and troubled. Isaiah 53, 4.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. In verse 36.

So the Jews said to him, see how he loved him? But some of them said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?

I mean, you can feel the unbelief and the disdain in some of these Jews. They still have not gotten it who this

Jesus Christ is. From all we can see, so far in this account, no one was expecting what was about to happen.

The Son of God was about to prove without a shadow of a doubt that he was who he claimed to be.

The resurrection and the life. This was going to become a fact, a truth that no one could deny.

And once again, in the face of divine power, there could only be two courses of action.

And we've talked about this through this entire series. Accept him as the

Messiah or do away with him. Those are the only two choices. There's no others.

This brings us to the next section. Jesus demonstrates that his omnipotence is inconceivable.

In verses 38 through 44. Then Jesus deeply moved again, went to the tomb.

It was a cave and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, take away the stone.

And Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he's 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 the stone away. Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me.

I know that you always hear me, but I said this on the account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.

When he said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.

And the man who had died came out. His hands and feet were bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth.

Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. So we look in 39,

Martha says that there will be an odor. And I don't think she's realizing what's taking place.

I think what she's thinking is that Jesus wants to view the body of her friend, of his close friend.

And then in verse 40 we see, Jesus said, did I not tell you that if you believe, you would see the glory of God.

And look how closely this mirrors what he said to the messenger who came and his disciples back in verse four.

He said, it is for the glory of God so that the son of God may be glorified through this.

It's all about the glory of God. Our salvation.

It's all about the glory of God and that the son would be glorified through it.

And even in the prayer, father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe what?

That you sent me. Now, one of the reasons he said this, I believe, is that you'll see in scripture often, people are blaming his miracles on the power of Satan.

And so he's saying, oh no, this is coming from my father. It is my father from which the true source of this miracle proceeds.

And he gives him the glory for it. He glorifies. He leaves no question what is going on here about the miracle that he's about to perform.

He says that they may believe that you have sent me. He's asking the father to give proof of his divine mission on earth.

And then in verse 43 through 44, when he said these things, he cried out with a loud voice,

Lazarus, come out. And the man who had died came out.

I want to pause here for a moment. I need to remind us something. And I know most of you understand this.

And I know most of you know this. But this is not just some story.

This is not a story that we just tell our children. It's not an allegory. It's not a metaphor.

It's not a figure of speech like we covered the last two weeks. This is a detailed account of an actual eyewitness who was one of the apostles.

He is telling us of when the light of glory by his divine power contradicted nature and reached down into the darkness and commanded with a shout that the king of darkness yield up his captive.

The man who died came out. The grave was robbed of its victory.

Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? Can you imagine?

Can you imagine the scene here when this happened? Nature stood stunned.

What could all the senses more than witnessing the conquering of death by the resurrection and the life?

And I'm sure many fell to their knees. They were overwhelmed with this supreme demonstration of the power of eternal life that triumphed over death, corruption, and hopelessness.

And remember, just before this, Jesus wept. What a grand picture of the humanity and the divinity of our

Lord and Savior. This same power that raised

Jesus from the dead will one day raise all from the grave.

Now, don't be mistaken. When I'm saying all, I mean all, everyone.

This same power that raised Lazarus from the grave will one day raise all from the grave.

And those who believe in Jesus Christ, the Messiah, will see the glory of our

Savior, God, and King in our resurrected and glorified bodies. And all those who did not believe will due to time restraints, that has to be a sermon for another day.

So this brings us to our last section. Faced with the truth, the two courses of action are unavoidable.

In 45 through 53, many of the Jews said, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did,

I mean, many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him.

But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the

Pharisees gathered the council and said, what are we to do? For this man performs many signs.

And if we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. And the

Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest, and the high priest,

I just want to throw in here, he was actually responsible for speaking for God. That was one of his responsibilities.

He says to them, you know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it is better for you that one should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.

And then John throws this statement in here. He did not say this of his own accord.

But being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation.

And not for the nation only, but also together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

So from that day on, they made plans to put him to death. So Jesus, I mean,

John is now telling us how this great sign, that this great miracle has been regarded by the

Jews. He actually says that they were divided. I mean, imagine that. They were divided about who

Jesus was. And as with the rising of Lazarus, when people are confronted with the truth of Jesus Christ, as I've said before, they must make a decision.

I mean, there's only two options. There's not a C. A, you accept

Jesus, or B, you reject him. Either believe, or you have unbelief.

Now, unbelief has its many different forms. On one extreme, you can have open hostility.

On the other extreme, you can have apparent indifference. But it's all the same.

From both ends, all the way across the middle. The result is the same. It's the rejection of the

Messiah and eternal enmity with God. Now, that doesn't mean that you won't come to saving faith later.

But when you're confronted with the truth, you either accept him, or you reject him. In this section, we see that many

Jews who was there and had witnessed this great miracle believed in him. And when you take the wording into account and other factors, it gives an indication that their faith was genuine in Jesus Christ.

So, this brings us to the unbelievers, those who are hostile against Jesus. So, you see the impact of Jesus' miracle on them?

They ran back to Jerusalem and got with the Pharisees and told them what had happened. The Pharisees call a council the

Sanhedrin. We talked about that last week. And we're told that the council was frustrated.

They knew what the problem was. The problem was that this Jesus, this

Galilean, was not the Messiah that they wanted. He wasn't it.

He didn't fit into their self -righteous mold. And they stood to lose everything. Their wealth, their influence, their power, their prestige.

And they even say, we may lose our nation. Their frustration was, they just didn't know what to do about it.

They tried to arrest him on several occasions, but he always slipped away. So, they didn't know what to do.

Well, it takes the Holy Spirit to get involved, so they'll know what to do. Go back over here. You know, they say, what are we to do?

And then in verse 49, But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, said to them, you know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.

And John said, he did not say this of his own accord. He was not speaking on his own accord.

He was prophesying. And usually when a prophet prophesies, he says,

Thus says the Lord. The Holy Spirit was speaking through Caiaphas that Jesus had to die for the nation.

It took the Holy Spirit to get involved so that he could act according to what they were predestined to do when they were predestined to do it.

We see that. All the times Jesus got away from them. The guards didn't bring him back when the

Sanhedrin sent them to get him. And it keeps on telling us it was not his time. It was not his time.

His time had been set. Little did the Sanhedrin realize from their very first encounter with Jesus Christ to the time they had him nailed on the cross and even beyond, they were being led around by an invisible ring in their self -righteous nose.

They were carrying out the plan of God. And it turns out that their actions, it didn't come close to solving their problems.

In fact, it made it infinitely worse. And this is further proof that the sovereignty of God is unalterable.

It is so. And it will remain so. I want to take us back all the way to the first sermon

I preached in this series. If you were here, you remember I laid down four foundational truths that I said we would see all the way through all of these great

I am statements that Jesus has made. And in the very first sermon, at the very first of the sermon, we talked about the first verse in the

Bible. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

And I told you, I told you that if you get this wrong, your train is already on the wrong tracks before it leaves the station.

Because Jesus is giving you a test. The Lord is giving you a test when you read this.

What He is asking, do you believe? And do you submit to the bread of life?

Do you believe and do you submit to the light of the world? Do you believe and do you submit to the good shepherd and the door?

And do you believe and do you submit to the resurrection and the life?

The answer to this question will affect the trajectory for the rest of your life.

Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful for Your Word that You have revealed

Yourself to us. And in revealing Yourself, You have shown us exactly who

Your Son is, exactly what Your Son has done, the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

Lord, I pray that we would come to a stronger faith in our life like we saw here so that we may bring glory and honor to Your Name by recognizing and following Your Word.

So, this brings us to the Lord's table so that we can be in remembrance of His death and His resurrection where Jesus Christ proved without a doubt that He is the resurrection and the life.

And this was done as a pledge of His eternal love for us. So, in coming as one, not only do we show our union with Him, but also a union with His covenant body.

Now, I want to remind you as we always do that this is a sacred time to come to the

Lord's table. And it is for believers, people who have a saving faith in Jesus Christ, who rest all their hope on the death and the resurrection.

If you're not a believer, we ask that you refrain from partaking until you come to faith in Jesus Christ.

We encourage those who are believers that you examine your heart so you can partake in a worthy manner.

If your heart is not right, if you have issues with another brother, you're walking in sin as a few examples, we ask that you refrain from coming to the

Lord's table until you can get these situations rectified and come in a worthy manner.

So directions for the Lord's Supper as we split about down the middle here, half go around this way, half go around the other way, around the outside, and you'll take the wine and the bread back to your seat.

Pray, pray with your family and take the bread and the wine of the

Lord's Supper. And then when you come back out, you know, just go back to your seats down the middle. So let us pray.

Father in heaven, we bow our heads in reverence, respect, and belief in the person of your

Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for the words of Christ today. We thank you for the cross of Christ.

Today we come not in our own righteousness, but in the righteousness afforded us because of the love and compassion of our