Could Lazarus Have Said No?

Alpha & Omega Ministries

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commands us to do. As we wrapped up the last Radio Free Geneva, we were looking at John Chapter 11.

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I wanted to read it to you because I'm going to replay the section because I really do want to try to bring out some important elements of these discussions, these sermons, not just provide a rebuttal, but also hopefully direct your attention to some of the underlying issues that are very important and that I would hope we would see are central to our understanding of basically where things have gone wrong in a lot of evangelicalism today.

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In John Chapter 11 beginning at verse 38, then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay against it.

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Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor for he has been dead four days.

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Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? Now just stop right there.

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And here that what, you know, Jesus is putting himself in a position here. He cannot fail.

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He has promised that here Martha would see the glory of God.

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And he goes on to say, so they took away the stone and Jesus lifted, lifted up his eyes and said, father,

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I thank you that you have heard me. If Jesus fails, then we have reason to doubt whether the father, here's the son.

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We have reason to, to question the very harmony of the Trinity itself. He says,

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

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So Jesus is putting himself in a position here. There is no possibility of failure. If Jesus fails here, scratch

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Christianity, scratch the deity of Christ, scratch Jesus as Messiah, as the one sent by the father, everything, it goes out the door.

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There's nothing here. Where is the focus on Lazarus? What is the focus in Jesus's own words?

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You're going to see the glory of God. Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.

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He is going to do a work that is going to testify that he has been sent by the father.

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And then when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice. He didn't whisper it.

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He didn't say it with a loud voice so that the dead man could hear him and respond as a dead man.

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He said this with a loud voice so that there would be no question as to who worked this sign.

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There was no whispering. There were no incantations. There was no, nothing going on with a loud voice.

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Jesus commands. He commands

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Lazarus to come forth. That is a word of command.

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Isn't it obvious that the whole point of all of John chapter 11,

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Jesus staying for the extra days, even when the people came and said that Lazarus was dead, the whole point was to bring about this very situation of Lazarus dead for four days in the tomb.

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And that Jesus in fulfillment of John chapter five, the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and they will come forth.

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Not because they choose to, not because they have the capacity to, but because the son of God has the power to give life to whom he pleases.

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John chapter five, here's the fulfillment. I am the resurrection life. It's all about Jesus.

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It's all about his power. It's all about his capacity to do exactly what the father wills him to do.

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Isn't it clear? And after Jesus cries out,

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Lazarus come out. The man who had died, came out, had died. He's not dead anymore because he chose to become undead.

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No, because Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. Jesus said,

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I give life to whom I will. It's all about Jesus. It isn't about Lazarus.

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This is so obvious, so plain, so clear that is absolutely stunning to hear any man stand before thousands of people, thousands of people and say what

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Bob Coy said. Let's listen to it again. Well, can a dead man respond to the command of Christ?

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Well, no, he can't. Really? Do you remember the story of Lazarus? He was dead.

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Very, very dead. He was so dead. He'd been in the grave for three days, four days.

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Jesus stands outside the tomb of Lazarus. He says, Lazarus, come out. And Lazarus said,

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I can't. I'm dead. That's not what he did. Lazarus came out.

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So you mean to tell me a dead person can respond to the command of Christ and even in an act of obedience.

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There you go. Uh, like I said, uh, this, I've never,

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I had had a lady called years and years ago. And in fact, uh, someone said that this, this particular program played, uh, on the way back machine last week.

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Um, but I had a, I had a lady call once and, and I had asked her, could

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Lazarus have said, no, just, just Lazarus come forth.

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And could you have heard a voice coming back out of the tomb? No, thanks. You don't know what it's like living with those women.

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You know, could, could that have happened? Uh, and you know what her answer was?

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Her answer was yes. The son of God could have failed, could have failed to do this.

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Now that's a different argument than what he's saying here. Uh, I disagreed with the person channel said,

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Oh yeah, someone in the, you said you had never heard anybody use that argument before. No, that wasn't her argument. Her argument was that Lazarus had a choice.

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The argument he's making here is as a dead person, you can choose to be obedient to God, therefore resulting in your,

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I guess, becoming an undead person. So I don't think that Bob Coy would say that there was a possibility that Jesus could have failed, but I suppose he'd have to, when you think about it.

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I mean, um, one of his big things here is he's got this complete misunderstanding of the reformed position and saying, well, once God calls it, you just got to come whether you want to come or not.

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He does no concept of what regeneration is and reformed theology at all. It's just, it just doesn't understand it.

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So I guess he'd have to say that Lazarus could have said, nah, no thanks. Don't want to like it in here.

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It's nice and cool, quiet. I guess that's what he'd have to say. I don't know.

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I don't know. But I feel for the people in that, in the thousands of people audience sitting in front of me,

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I feel for those who are seriously thinking about their faith or maybe serious, facing serious challenges to their faith.

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This kind of preaching cripples the listener.

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Do you hear me? You know, people say, you're just so mean, picking on people. You like to make fun of people.

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And they're nice folks. And Bob Coy is a nice guy. I'm sure he is. But this kind of preaching cripples the people in the audience.

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It does not give them an example of how to do exegesis. It leaves them in confusion.

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And it leaves them incapable of giving a defense for the faith. It destroys foundational truths.

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Even when it presents truths, it does so in such a way that you don't really understand why it's true.

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You're just told that it is. And so it's not mean to review such things.

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And hopefully people learn to think critically about what they're hearing from the pulpit. And hopefully those behind the pulpit are called to a higher standard in handling the