Jesus Raises the Dead | Sermon Series 08/27/2023

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John chapter 11. We're going to be in verses 38 through 46 today.

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John 11 verses 38 through 46. The title of the sermon today church is,

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Jesus Raises the Dead. Jesus Raises the

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Dead. So starting in verse 38 of the gospel, according to John chapter 11, hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true

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God. So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb.

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Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said,

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Remove the stone. Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.

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Jesus said to her, Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?

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So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised his eyes and said,

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Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but because of the people standing around,

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I said it, so that they may believe that you sent me. When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice,

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Lazarus, come forth. The man who had died came forth bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth.

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Jesus said to them, Unbind him and let him go. Therefore many of the

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Jews who came to Mary and saw what he had done believed in him, but some of them went to the

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Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. Thus ending the holy and inspired word of God, let's pray, church.

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God, I ask that you would speak through me today. Lord, I pray that you would illumine the

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Scriptures by your Spirit, the same Spirit who inspired them. Lord, we thank you for your word.

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We thank you that it endures through all generations. And that it's relevant, and that it's binding and authoritative even today.

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We thank you that this account is recorded in Scripture for our sakes.

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So Lord, please teach your people today and encourage them, and let those who need to know the

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Gospel hear it in this message today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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So, for the past two Sundays, we have been in the biblical account of Jesus raising

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Lazarus from the dead. I hope it's been an encouragement to you thus far.

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We saw at first there was a purposeful delay of Jesus. Remember, he waited several days, then he arrived.

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Last week, we saw that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He called for her to believe that.

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We saw that in him, something was rising up, stirring up in him, indignant with sin and death, before the holy

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God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the I Am, he said.

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He says, I Am, Ego Emi, the resurrection and the life.

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He is the God in whom life is given. Whether from birth, spiritual birth, or even life after physical death.

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You know, there are many skeptics who are against the account of John 11.

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There are many people today, many, Christian and secular, who don't believe that this actually happened.

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They don't. But this resurrection scene doesn't stand alone.

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The first time Jesus resurrected the dead was in Luke 7. Verses 11 -17,

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I'll read it. Soon afterwards, Jesus went to a city called Nain, and his disciples were going along with him, accompanied by a large crowd.

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Now, as he approached the gate of a city, a dead man was being carried out. He was the only son of his mother, and the mother was a widow.

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Pause real quick right there. When the only son of a widow dies, that's a death sentence for the woman in ancient times.

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Death sentence. And a sizable crowd from the city was with her. When the

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Lord saw her, here it is, when the Lord saw her, not the man in the casket, he felt compassion for her and said to her, do not weep.

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And he came up and he touched the coffin, and the bearers came to a halt, and he said, young man,

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I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

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Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying, a great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited his people.

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And this report concerning him went out all over Judea and in the surrounding district.

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That was the first time. The people marveled at such power, such ability in Jesus, and what an unknowingly astute proclamation when they say,

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God has visited His people. He absolutely has. But probably in a way that they didn't expect.

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God is actually tabernacling among them as Jesus Christ. The next one happened in only the very next chapter in Luke 8.

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We're talking about resurrections that Jesus did. Luke 8, verses 41 onward.

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It reads, And as Jesus returned, the people welcomed Him, for they had all been waiting for Him.

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And there came a man named Jairus, and he was an official of the synagogue, and he fell at Jesus' feet.

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Who fell at Jesus' feet last week? Mary. He fell at Jesus' feet.

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He began to implore Him, begging Jesus to come to his house, for he had an only daughter.

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An only daughter, 12 years old. She was dying. But as Jesus went, the crowds were pressing against Him, and while He was speaking, someone came from the house of the synagogue official and said this,

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Your daughter has already died. Do not trouble the teacher anymore.

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But when Jesus heard this, He answered him this, Jairus, do not be afraid any longer.

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Only believe. What did He tell Martha and Mary?

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Only believe. Only believe and she will be made well. When He came to the house,

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He did not allow anyone to enter with Him except Peter and John and James and the girl's father and mother.

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Now they were all weeping and lamenting for her, but He said, stop weeping, for she has not died, but is asleep.

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We saw that too. Asleep. Minimizing physical death.

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Making physical death look inconsequential. Because that's how powerful

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Jesus is. And then it says this, they're literally weeping and lamenting and it says, then everyone began laughing at Him, knowing that she had died.

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He, however, took the little girl by the hand and said this, child, arise.

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And her spirit returned and she got up immediately and He gave orders for something to be given her to eat.

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And her parents were amazed and He instructed them to tell no one what happened. So, do you see the common threads?

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Maybe you remember for the past two weeks what we've seen as well. Weeping. That doesn't last forever.

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Sleeping. He calls death sleeping, which is temporary. The glory of God revealed in each situation.

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And these things are further demonstration of the deity of Christ. His power.

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And that's what John wants us to get out of this in his Gospel and out of this passage today.

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Jesus is no mere prophet. He is no mere miracle worker. He is the

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I Am. As we've seen now, what, over ten times in the

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Gospel of John? He is the I Am. That is, ego eimi. We see that in the

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Greek Septuagint. That's when it says Yahweh, the Lord. He's the resurrection and the life.

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Let's see firsthand the reality of that truth in our text. Go to verse 38. So Jesus, again, being deeply moved within, came to the tomb.

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Now it was a cave and a stone was lying against it. Jesus was once again a brimomai.

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In the Greek, a brimomai. He is outraged deep within His innermost being.

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He is outraged. He is ready to enter into combat against the greatest enemy the world has ever faced.

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The greatest enemy that mankind has ever dealt with. Death. Death. Death has plagued us from the time of Adam until now.

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We're talking thousands and thousands of years. Death has been a reality in our world.

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You see, we were never meant to die. We were meant to be created upon the earth and live in communion with God.

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The earth was to be populated with God -loving and God -fearing people whom the Lord could walk with, be in communion with, and it was going to be heaven on earth, so to speak.

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But after sin entered in and the fall occurred, so did death.

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Death entered in. Some scholars believe that the animal skins that were given to Adam and Eve were the very first sacrifice, possibly, pointing to the need for an ultimate sacrifice for sin, an ultimate covering.

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If those animal skins were a covering, they don't cover well enough. We need something that covers our sin, pointing to the need of Christ.

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God was gracious to not demand their lives right then and there, but since then, there has been sickness, disease, death, murder.

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Shortly thereafter, Cain killed his brother Abel merely for jealousy.

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Death came to the evildoers in the flood. Wars and battles have littered

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Israel's history from the time of their slavery in Egypt even until now. Battles, war, death.

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Death is the fiercest foe. It's the only condition in the entire world that affects 10 out of 10 people.

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100 out of 100. 1 ,000 out of 1 ,000. And so on and so forth.

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There are many enemies in this world, but the people of this earth share one common enemy.

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We may be enemies with each other many a times, but mankind shares one enemy together.

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That's death. That's death. The problem is, death is not something we've been able to fight.

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It's not been something we've been able to conquer. No matter what people do with a lot of money, they can't change their approaching death.

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Only one greater than death can defeat it. Only the one who has the power of life can kill what kills.

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Only the one that has the power of life can kill what kills, and He's here. This moment is a foretaste of His mission.

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He's traveled far. He's come from the Kingdom of Heaven. He's ancient.

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He's eternal. He was at the beginning when death slithered into this world. He was the one that God promised would come to deal with it.

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The prophecies are true. The stories are real. The I Am has come into His own creation.

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The resurrection and the life has come to kill death. He's come to kill death.

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And this, with Lazarus, is a preview of that. Jesus is outraged in His Spirit for too long, stinking corpses, rotting bodies, and weeping families and shortened lives have plagued humanity.

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You see, we weren't actually made from the dust to be dust forever.

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From dust to dust is actually a symptom of the malady of sin and death.

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We were made to live on. Will dust praise God? Will the pits of Sheol sing the

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Almighty's praise? The psalmist often says that. No. No.

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And so with that, the righteous indignation that Jesus has really hit

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Him at the tomb of Lazarus. He comes to this cave. There was a stone lying against that cave door.

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And if that seems familiar, a tomb in a cave with a stone rolled against it, that's because it is.

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You see, if Jesus can do this to another, He can do it for Himself. And the reason they had to go some distance for the burial site, the reason why it took some time to get to the cave was because in Jewish culture, you didn't bury the dead right near your house.

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You would bury the dead a certain length away from your home. That way to maintain some sort of ritual purity.

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That there's no ritual impurity coming upon you because of the dead bodies. And so what that even shows you too, church, is that Jesus is willing to go to the impure place for you.

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For I. He's willing to go to the place that is taboo. He is willing, even on the cross, on the

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Sabbath, to be made impure so that we would be made pure.

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But here they are. They're at the tomb. You have

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Jesus, you have the disciples, you have Mary, Martha, and then you have the mourners from Jerusalem, the people who are weeping and crying.

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A multitude of people are out front of this cave that's holding Lazarus. Jesus gives the measured command, remove the stone.

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Remove the stone. You see, He wants everyone to see that there's a body lying there.

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He wants everyone to see how it is now before He does what He does. He wants everyone to see how

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Lazarus is not getting up by himself. So He says, remove it.

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And He wants nothing to inhibit Lazarus when He does what He does. But doubt, doubt or at least some form of ignorance creeps in.

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You see, death has taken out every single person it's ever faced. Martha remembers the odds of death and weighs what

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Jesus promised and the track record of death. And she thinks that Jesus can't overcome it in this moment.

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At least this moment of doubt washes over her. She doesn't understand maybe what the resurrection and the life can do.

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You see, most people thought that when the Messiah was to come, that He was going to fight a physical battle against Rome.

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He was going to free them of Roman occupation. He was going to go to war with Rome.

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And He was going to give them some form of temporal peace. But that's not what He came to do.

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The Messiah came to fight the greatest foe, the greatest enemy, even one that Rome cannot beat.

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And He would give eternal peace, not temporal peace. That's His mission. She didn't get it.

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She says, Lord, by this time there will be a stench for he has been dead four days.

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So Martha's objection demonstrates she did not understand what

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Jesus meant earlier. Jesus didn't say what

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He said so as to make her think Lazarus will only be raised at the end of time, at the end of days.

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He's going to raise Lazarus even now. And Jesus' question earlier, do you believe this, was not meant to be a challenge to trust

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Him in the future. Do you believe this? That wasn't a challenge for her to believe

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Him later at the resurrection. That was a do you believe this, like do you believe Me now?

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Do you trust what I'm saying now, Martha? And so, she has these doubts.

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Will we trust Him even in the face of death? Will you and I trust Jesus and believe

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Jesus now and at the final day? That's the question. See, I don't think we should criticize

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Martha's lack of understanding too much. I think we would do the same. And think about it this way too.

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To expose a decomposing body would be a terrible desecration.

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Think of Mary and Martha and any extended family and people who were there.

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And they want to keep their memory of Lazarus in the way that he was living.

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Right? Sometimes people go to a wake. They go to a funeral and they go, you know, I just don't want to see them.

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I want to remember them for what they were like when I embraced them, when I saw them last.

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You know, I'm okay. I'm not going to look upon their body in the casket. But even so, it's been four days.

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Decomposition is setting in. And they're like, Jesus, by now? You're going to open the door to this tomb?

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You're going to open this now? It would be a horror to consider for the family.

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And so, Martha's mind goes to this terrible stench of a dead body. An impersonal thing.

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Jesus, though, keeps it very personal. This is Lazarus sleeping.

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That's it. But she reminds us of all the realities of physical death.

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There is a stench. And the stench is the calling card of death.

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The organs shut down. Decomposition sets in. Things begin to putrefy and decay.

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Sulfides and death -related gases expel from the body. In fact, researchers have found that there are 800 different chemicals that make up the stench of death.

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800 chemicals of the body. It's a distinct and rotten smell. There's no mistaking it.

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Not only will everyone get to see Lazarus's lifeless body and go, okay, he's really dead.

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Not only that, but they'll get to smell the stench of death.

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The odor that is only ever present with one specific condition. Okay? Jesus reminds

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Martha in verse 40, Did I not say to you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?

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This points back to two things. First, at the beginning of the chapter, verse 4,

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He said, This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.

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And we see here that Jesus confirmed what I had told you all last week, that this is to show the already -existent glory of God and the glory of the

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Son. And so as they pull back the stone to see the horrors in a cave, likewise, as Jesus pulls back the effects of Lazarus's demise, so shall they and we see the glory of God.

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But Martha was not privy, if you remember, to Jesus' earlier conversation with the disciples.

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But this might be a way for Him to summarize all that He had spoken with her, remember their conversation.

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And so He's trying to remind her of those things. You see, she has believed in Him, and so she must believe in Him even now.

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For many people, they must see to believe. You get that?

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For many people, they must see to believe. But Jesus says here, if you believe, you will see.

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Do you see that? Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?

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For humans, we often need to see things, right?

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Someone makes a promise. Maybe someone's applying for a job. And we want to see some sort of evidence that they can actually do the job that we're going to hire them for.

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You know? When even I was being raised up to come and move here and plant this church, my pastors in Arizona wanted to see that I understood, that I counted the costs, that I wouldn't come and I wouldn't just give up, that I would know what

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I was getting into, that I would have knowledge of Scripture, that I would have knowledge of many different things in regard to church planting.

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And so, for them, they must see, then they'll believe. But Jesus says, if you believe, then you'll see.

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And really, for God, His Word alone ought to be enough for us. If He says it, we should believe it.

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And I think beyond all this, a major point being made, one that is sort of in the background is that ultimately as much as the resurrection of you and me and the gift of eternal life is to our immense benefit, it seems here that resurrection chiefly, not only, but chiefly is to show the glory of God.

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That a perfect and holy God who should rightfully demand our lives of us for our sin and our rebellion would give us life.

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And He wouldn't simply give us a do -over. You're not going to die and then you get to live this life again and then you die again.

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There's not some sort of reincarnation here. You don't get a do -over with Jesus.

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You get a completely new eternal life. You get peace with God all the way from the effects of the fall.

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And that ultimately shows how great He is. That He would take people who don't deserve it and He would give it to them.

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He's glorious. He's merciful. He deserves to be praised. And He ought to be worshipped. That's true.

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And so they remove the stone from the mouth of the cave. Do you see that? It says in verses 41 and 42, then

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Jesus raised His eyes and said, Father, I thank You that You have heard

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Me. I knew that You always hear Me. But because of the people standing around,

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I said it so that they may believe that You sent Me. So Jesus addresses

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His Father. Many Jews prayed in such a way calling out to God.

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They would use the term God, Elohim. But Jesus speaks more personally here.

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This is His Father. Remember, He had just said in chapter 10 that He and the

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Father are one. They are connected. Jesus isn't talking to Himself because although there is one being of God, He is revealed in three

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Persons. The Person of the Son here, especially in His divine and natural form, speaks to the

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Person of the Father. You see, they are undivided. They are one.

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And yet, they are distinct. That's what Scripture shows. There's one

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God and yet three Persons. Jesus thanks the

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Father for hearing Him. He doesn't say this because the Father only sometimes hears the

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Son. He always hears the Son. And the Son always hears the Father. That's what this word in the

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Greek means in this context. At all times, without exception, they hear one another.

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Always connected. Remember, I spoke about their connection being impossible to break.

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John 5. We went over this. Let me read it again from verses 19 -21.

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Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself unless it is something

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He sees His Father doing. For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

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For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing. And the

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Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. And here it is.

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Listen to this. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, even so the

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Son also gives life to whom He wishes. Jesus does the works of His Father.

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He said they are one. The prologue said that Jesus is the exegesis of God.

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We found out that that's where the word comes from. Exegesis in the prologue in John 1.

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Jesus is the greatest manifestation of God on earth. And so not only are we going to see the glory of God, but the oneness of the

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Father and Son here as He turns His eyes to the Father. The Father is involved in this.

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They're always involved with each other. They don't act outside of each other.

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And so the Father always hears the Son. And it's not like prayer.

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Even more so, I think it's like a direct line. Now, there are implications to these claims that if a regular man were to say them, like myself, if I were to look to the heavens and go,

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Father, You hear me. And I know You always hear me. And I'm saying this right now for all these people.

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You would think I'm a little bit nuts, I would say. Father, You always hear me.

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It would be a strange claim for a normal man to say. Maybe a bit prideful.

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Maybe a bit egotistical. Because these are not natural characteristics of a man.

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This is not some sort of natural ability that man has. You see, there are times in the

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Scriptures where God says, I turn my ear from you. I won't listen.

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And there are times He does. But here, Jesus says,

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You always, the Father always hears Him. And He does this,

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He says this, so that they would believe. Therefore, God's glory and man's belief continues to be the major theme of John 11.

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But here's the question. Why does Jesus start with a thanksgiving?

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Thankfulness to God. I thank You, Father. I think what the

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Father heard Jesus say wasn't only what He had just said out loud.

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That's certainly part of it. But I think that Jesus was finishing an internal prayer with the

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Father, a dialogue, so to speak, that was born out of this internal outrage, this deep troubling, this stirring of His soul.

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The Son was expressing His disdain for sin, His hatred of death. And so His commitment to defeat this is strengthened.

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There is resolve here. Therefore, He is thanking the Father for already hearing the request for Lazarus' life.

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Do you get that? Because He didn't say anything about Lazarus. I think what's presupposed here is when

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He says, thank you, Father, for hearing Me, it's not Him saying, thank you for hearing exactly what

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I'm saying now. It's thank you for hearing Me for all that I've already said. The request for Lazarus' life, that they would do this in their power together.

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So only the thanksgiving was made public. The intercession was then private.

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And how often do you think that God does that for you? How often does that happen where obviously we don't hear what

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Jesus says on our behalf to the Father. But He even doesn't do it here.

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We have to trust Him. He intercedes for us. He's our mediator. He knows more, better than what we need than what we know than what we need.

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Just because you and I don't hear it doesn't mean He fails to pray for us. And another incredible truth is since the

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Father hears the Son, and the Son hears us, the Father then hears our prayers too for those in Christ.

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The Father hears us as well. We pray in the

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Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. But here are four additional takeaways from this as well.

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What did Jesus do here? Number one, He looked upward. He looked upward.

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He does that also in the high priestly prayer in John 17. Jesus shows us therefore in trials and hard circumstances like this that we need to change our focus.

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We need to stop looking at the circumstance. You see, that's our problem a lot is we've got to change from looking down at what we're going through.

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And like Jesus shows us, it says He looks up. He looks at the solution.

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We've got to do that. In Psalm 121, it says, I will lift my eyes to the hills from where shall my help come?

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My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Look to God more.

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Look to the Father. Number two,

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Jesus prays with confidence. He knows that God will act. We ought to thank

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God just as much or more than asking Him to do things.

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Thank Him knowing He will already do more than you ask or think. You get what I'm saying? What I'm saying is we often come to God with a list of supplications, a list of prayers.

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God, would You do this? God, would You do that? And that's alright. He says to do that. But I think what

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Jesus even shows us here is that we should be thanking God even more than we do now.

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Thank God for even when you don't know the outcome of some of those prayers, thank

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Him more. Thank God for what He is doing and what He will do. Number three,

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Jesus then acted after this prayer. He continued to labor even after the prayer, even after thanking

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God, Jesus then acted. We continue to labor in Christ by faith.

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We continue to put one foot in front of us. Because sometimes, we can become paralyzed by the circumstance.

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We're so weighed down by what we see, we're not turning to the Father, we're not thanking

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Him, and then we stop. We become inert. We become static.

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But we are to keep going. We keep going in His power. And number four,

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He did what He did also for the sake of the people in attendance so that they may believe. You see that?

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And I say these things so that they may know and believe that You sent Me, Jesus says to the

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Father. And so for us, I think we are to live our lives in such a way that takes the focus off of us and puts it to the

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Lord God Almighty. We are to be ambassadors on this earth. We are to be those who show who

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Jesus is and point people back to Him. Attention drawn away from us, pointed to Him.

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Because in a way, we are simply paintings of the grand artists.

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So let's go to the climax of this chapter, verse 43. When Jesus had said these things,

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He cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

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And it's that voice, you guys. It's that powerful voice.

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That life -creating voice. That universe -making voice.

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The voice that calmed the seas. The voice that even calmed people.

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The voice that commanded demons to leave their human habitations. That voice is stronger than anything the world has ever seen or heard.

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A .W. Pink says regarding this, it was in your bulletin, here was public proof that the

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Lord Jesus had absolute power over the material world and over the realm of spirits.

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At His bidding, a soul that had left its earthly tenement was called back from the unseen to dwell once more in the body.

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So Jesus cried out. He shouted. It was loud according to the text.

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If we look at the original language. You see, Jesus could never be incited to anger.

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Jesus could never be incited to outbursts or shouting in a sinful way.

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All that Jesus did was measured, calculated, and foreordained. And this,

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I believe, is no exception. But He shouted. He shouted,

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Lazarus, come forth with all this power. And what's interesting to me is in John 18 -19, this same word will be used again, but it will show that people yell at Jesus.

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People later will shout at Jesus. They'll yell at Him. And they'll say, crucify

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Him! Crucify Him! They'll yell at Jesus. And that's what's interesting is when

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Jesus yells, when Jesus shouts, He gives someone life. And when they yell at Him, they want to take

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His life. And His yelling was no doubt coupled with that righteous indignation that He had been feeling.

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His voice is the sword that pierced death.

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His word is actually called a sword on multiple occasions in Scripture. And listen,

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I can't tell you that this is a fair match. I can't act like this is a fair match today, church.

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There was no hope for death. Death never stood a chance here when

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Jesus came into the world. It says in the Revelation that death will one day be cast into the lake of fire.

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There is no duel here. There is no match -up. Just the infinitely prevailing

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Son of God using the command that has always been His from eternity past. His voice booms in the midst of weeping.

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It's like the whole world is silent compared to Jesus' voice here.

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It's surprising that He didn't crack the stone. And what's amazing is

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His voice has direction. If His voice didn't have direction, every single body that was in the ground at that moment would probably rise.

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If Jesus didn't say, Lazarus, come forth. If He didn't direct the command, a whole lot of people who were once dead would suddenly be up upon the earth.

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The graves across the globe would have split open with the power of Jesus Christ.

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So it was directed. He said in John 5, v. 25,

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Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the

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Son of God and those who hear will live. You see that?

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John 5, v. 25. An hour is coming, future, and now is, right now, where the dead will hear the voice of the

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Son of God and live. That's the already, the right now, and not yet.

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Jesus is going to raise people to life in His early ministry, and then an hour is coming later at His return when

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He will raise everyone. You see,

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He raised Lazarus right here, and what's amazing is He's going to have to raise

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Lazarus again. In fact, the next time that Lazarus gets raised from the dead is the same time when you and I, along with Lazarus, will raise from the dead.

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It will be at the same time. That has yet to happen, but it will.

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And so after Jesus commands Lazarus, the power only being in Jesus to command and no power in Lazarus to respond by Himself.

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We're talking totally unable to change His own deadness. It says then in v. 44, the man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped with a cloth.

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Jesus said to them, Unbind him and let him go. You know, it's amazing to me.

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It's really an incredulous thing to me. Some people have actually said that Lazarus had to make the choice to be raised and come out of the tomb.

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It was up to him that if Lazarus didn't want to be raised, he could have stayed dead.

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It's one of the most absurd things I've ever heard in my life. That the power of the voice of the

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Son of God could be resisted by a dead man. Unbelievable. The people believe it.

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Lazarus could do no other. The power of the voice of God brought blood back into his body.

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His heart started to beat again. Blood was circulating. And what was decrepit and decayed and stinking and rotting regained its mass and tissue and muscles started to turn bright red again.

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Sinew reconnected. Neurons were firing in his brain.

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Limbs gained feeling once again. And the lungs billowed with air.

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Lazarus' eyes that were sunken, dull, lifeless, and even putrefying, in a moment, in a second, became solid and bright and opened up.

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Incredible. In John 10, Jesus said, His sheep hear the

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Good Shepherd's voice. And so Lazarus' ears, now working, heard

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His Master and Friend. He came forth from the dark cave of death to the light and life of the world.

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Lazarus, right here, was resurrected from the dead. Incredible. One of the most amazing miracles recorded in Scripture and in all history.

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This is true. This is real. This happened. This man is alive now.

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Actually, it was providential. I was reading in my devotion this morning, Isaiah 3, and it says that when things smell of putrefying stenches, that it's actually a judgment from God.

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But here, this putrefaction is reversed and it's made new.

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I wonder if it smelled perfumey. I wonder if it smelled like flowers.

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I know the smell went away. That's what God does. He expels it.

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Instead of saying Lazarus, John offers a more striking description. You see this?

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I think John did this on purpose. John says, The man who had died came forth.

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I think that's mocking death. The man who had died, who's alive, came forth.

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Mocking death. This is no longer his condition. This man is alive. And he has these traditional

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Jewish wrappings on his body still. His hands, his feet, even his face, everything was bound with linen wrappings.

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This isn't like something in Egypt or whatever. If you're imagining a mummy, there's some really poor illustrations of what this looks like.

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And I think sometimes they use a Halloween mummy of someone coming out. That's not how Jewish burial was like.

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That's not what it was like. But his face, his hands, his feet, everything was bound with linen wrappings.

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Everything was tightly wrapped because it was used to slow decomposition, in addition to slow down pollution of the body.

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If you could imagine tightly wrapping his mouth. Why? Bugs and stuff.

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Things like that coming into him. Slowing it down. Preserving some of what he looks like.

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And it's likely that those wrappings, these grave clothes were so tight on Lazarus that he probably even had trouble getting to the door.

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It's so tightly wrapped, he probably had to shuffle to the door. But the grave clothes are unnecessary now.

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This tomb is no longer a tomb. It's once again a cave.

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And do you notice that? It's so subtle. At the beginning, John doesn't even call it a tomb. He says

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Lazarus was in a cave. They almost never speak that way about the deceased.

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They would call it a tomb. They would call it a resting place. But John specifically maintains that it was only a cave.

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And sure enough, no dead rest in this cave. It is only a cave. Essentially, he had a four -night stayover at the

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Holiday Cave Inn or whatever. Boy, that's a lame joke. Gosh. I am a father.

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Jesus then states another command in the imperative form. He says, unbind him and let him go.

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And I'm sure that was literal. Of course it is. At that command, people, probably the mourners, maybe his siblings came around him.

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They started removing the wrappings from Lazarus' body. But in a way,

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I wonder if that was not even just a command for the people to remove these things. For the people who were present, it's almost as if Jesus says, unbind him and let him go to death.

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Unbind him. Let him go. Death. You can't hold him anymore.

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And this word unbind is the word loose. Loose him. Loose him. Free him.

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It's as if Lazarus was in prison and now he is released in that sense.

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And if you think about it, church, this is all part of what Jesus came to do and is doing now.

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With Christ, droughts become rivers of water. Desert lands become lush and fertile plains.

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Sickness becomes wellness. Barren becomes fruitful. Thorns and thistles become prolific vines.

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Days of darkness become bright light. And the righteous are no longer persecuted, but become co -heirs with Christ to reign with Him forever.

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And death becomes life. The stench of decay becomes the pleasant odor of rebirth.

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All becomes new once again. And those who were not a people are now the people of God.

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And though we were once removed from the Almighty's presence, we get to be with Him once again.

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That's the glory of it. We were removed and sent away from His presence in Genesis 3.

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But in Christ, you regain communion, intimate communion with the

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Lord your God. There's an order, by the way, to this resurrection, 1

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Corinthians 15. That's what I wanted to mention. 1 Corinthians 15 talks about this coming resurrection.

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It says, but now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man death came, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.

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That is Jesus. For as in Adam, all die. All die in Adam.

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That's the problem I was talking about. Death hits 100 out of 100 people. But then it says, so also in Christ we will be made alive, each to his own order.

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Christ the firstfruits. After that, those who are Christ's at His coming.

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Then comes the end when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when

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He has abolished all rule and all authority and all power. Here it is, for He must reign until He has put all

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His enemies under His feet. That's what He's doing right now. Jesus is ruling and reigning from His throne.

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And even though sometimes it doesn't look like it to what we see happening in our country, Jesus is ruling and reigning and He's putting all

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His enemies under His feet. And the last enemy to be defeated, the one that is already a defeated foe, will be cast into the lake of fire.

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That is death. Death will be no more. Death will be abolished.

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And what's amazing is this word, when it says that last enemy that will be abolished is death, that is not in the future tense in the

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Greek. That's in the present tense. It's once again the reality of right now and not yet.

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Right now and in the future. Death has already died, but one day it will be fully done away with at the coming of Christ.

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It will be wiped out. Completely abolished. But now we come, church, to our final verses of our passage.

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What I find interesting is John reports none of what Lazarus experienced in the grave during those four days.

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Don't you wish you kind of... Part of me wants to know that. What was it like for four days being in the grave?

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What was time and space and nature like? It says nothing to what happened when

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His loved ones saw Him emerge. We don't even see in this moment that Jesus embraced

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Lazarus, although I believe they did. I'm sure they did. I think this is all because Jesus doesn't want our hope set on theories or ideas.

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Jesus wants our hope set on Him. The resurrection and the life. That we would trust

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Him. That we would believe Him for these final moments.

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The consummation of all things. He does, however, show us in verses 45 and 46 what the people in attendance thought of this astounding miracle.

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Look at these. Verses 45 and 46, Therefore, many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what

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He had done believed in Him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which

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Jesus had done. Many of the Jewish mourners believed in Him.

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And again, I think it's important to say that they didn't believe in the miracle. They didn't believe in a resurrection.

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It says they believed in Him. But the others who were there simply could not give the glory to God.

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They had to act as wicked informers and they reported what happened to the

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Pharisees. And it wasn't to give God the glory. These people honestly show in some ways they are more dead while walking than when

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Lazarus was in the tomb. Because how could anyone witness such an act?

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How could they witness Jesus call forth Lazarus, see a man rise from the dead, and immediately their first thought is let's go tell the

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Pharisees what Jesus did to get Him in trouble. Because we're actually going to see, we're going to finish chapter 11 next week.

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We'll be done next week with this. And we're going to see what happens as a result of these informers.

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Okay? I think they're able to do this because Jesus splits people in two.

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He divides things. People either believe or they don't. And that's the reality of Jesus' coming.

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And truly apart from God's grace, we would be like them. We would be the tattletales.

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But let's wrap this up church. One cannot help, of course, but compare this to the resurrection of our

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Lord. Jesus was also in a rock tomb with a stone rolled over the door.

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But the difference is, Lazarus groped toward the door for light still wrapped in His grave clothes and linens.

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Jesus' power, however, rolled back the stone, and it says in Matthew 28, it created an earthquake.

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His grave clothes and facial linens, Jesus' were neatly folded in the tomb where He previously laid.

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Lazarus was raised to a mortal body. Okay? Lazarus was raised to a mortal body while the inspired

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Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus was raised to a spiritual body.

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And that almost seems antithetical. Spirits don't have bodies. And so what we come to find with that statement is that this is the glorified body of Christ that we will have one day.

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Physical and spiritual. The glorified body. Jesus already possesses it.

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You will one day have it. You're not going to be raised to a mortal body that can die again.

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You'll be raised to a body immortal. Right? And so,

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Jesus lives forevermore while Lazarus died again. Those are the differences.

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Lazarus' mortal resurrection here pales in comparison to what we will see and experience when you and I hear the booming voice of the

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Lord Jesus Christ along with the trumpets on the last day. But look,

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John's aim wasn't simply for us to compare Lazarus' and Jesus' resurrection experience.

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This has all been about proving that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He is the

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I Am. He is deity. We've seen it over and over again in the

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Gospel of John. Each account we've gone over speaks to it. It's amazing to me, how can anyone faithfully read the

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Gospel of John and not come away seeing that Jesus is God?

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Listen, no other so -called deity, no other so -called

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God, or any sort of other religion has been able to do what

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Jesus has done. And they never will. Not one.

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Many people are following dead things today. They're following idols. They're following false gods.

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And for that reason, they won't receive the life. There is only

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One who gives this sort of life. The One who is the life.

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Now you might say, Pastor Wade, are you saying that Jesus is exclusively the way to this resurrected life?

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No. I'm not. Jesus is saying that. Jesus is.

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The Word of God says that. And so therefore I say that. God has revealed that. The resurrection and the life has raised the son at Nain.

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He's raised Jairus' daughter. And He raised Lazarus. And He also raised Himself.

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And honestly, try to wrap your mind around that. That Jesus raised

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Himself. Because it makes sense that Jesus, while alive, could raise someone who is dead, but Jesus, while He is dead, raises

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Himself. That's incredible power. That is incredible power.

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That's God, my friends. And He has given us a new spiritual life right now.

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We were once dead in our trespasses and sins, but we've been made alive in Christ Jesus.

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We were born again. We have removed the wrappings and old grave clothes of the old life.

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Don't ever put them back on again. Don't ever put what was stinking and rotting back on yourself.

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And more than anything, know in your heart of hearts that one day you too will hear the commanding voice.

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I'm not even kidding. One day, you will hear the commanding voice of the

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Lord Jesus. You will hear the trumpet sound. And without any power in yourself, and only

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His power, you will be compelled in the most glorious way to rise again to an immortal life.

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You will rise. I will rise. Others will rise.

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Many will rise on that day. For now, when we die, we go to be with Him in spirit.

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That's part of our salvation. But that's what's amazing is salvation isn't finished there.

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We're not meant to be with Jesus as spirit for forever.

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We long, it says, the Scriptures say we long for those glorified bodies.

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And so hold on to that, church. Even the saints who are with Jesus now know it's not finished yet.

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One day they'll hear His voice. So hold on to that. And as Jesus asked

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Martha, do you believe this? He asks you and me, do you believe this?

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And by God's grace, may we all say yes. Amen? Let's pray.

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Heavenly Father, we thank You for the Word that has gone out today. We thank

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You, Lord Jesus, that You raised Lazarus from the dead.

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That You showed us Your power. That You showed us who You are. That this is within Your ability as God in the flesh.

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And that one day You will do the same for all of us in the most ultimate sense.

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Lord, help us to hold on to that promise. I specifically pray even today for those who are afraid of dying, who are saints in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, that they would overcome the fear of passing through that door.

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That they would see what Jesus said. That it's simply like sleeping. That they will be with Him.

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And I pray, Lord, that those who don't know You, who may be listening online, who may be here and they don't know

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Jesus as Lord and Savior, that in their fear of dying, they would turn to the only

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One who can remedy it. They would turn to You now, Lord Jesus. We pray this all in Your mighty name.