Conquering Death

The Gospel of John, we find ourselves
in John chapter 11. to take up on a gloomy Sunday
morning. We don’t like death. Death is
an invasion into our world just as it was in God’s. From time
to time you’ll hear of somebody in the newspaper that says that
they died of natural causes. Don’t believe it. Death was an
acknowledgement by God that it was not how he designed things. Death is an intrusion into God’s
plan and is an intrusion into our own, isn’t it? We come to
one of the most astounding miracles that Jesus ever performed. Raising
a dead person. And even though Jesus Christ
was certainly capable of doing this miracle repeatedly, and miracles that the human mind
can’t even conceive, there was no limit to the Lord’s power. The amazing thing is that even
though Jesus had the ability to do this miracle, which He
did on three different occasions, The Gospel writers limit recording
these resurrections to only three particular occasions. One of
them was the raising of Jairus’ daughter, recorded in Luke chapter
8, where a broken-hearted father pleaded on behalf of his daughter,
and then a broken-hearted mother pleading on behalf of her son
in Luke chapter 7. Only three occasions, including
this one before us this morning in John chapter 11. Death. Death has always been
an unwelcome, unappreciated, unpopular, unfriendly, part of
life. In the ancient world, even down
to our own day, death and the fear of death was universal. Everyone, every society thought
of it as an evil that had visited their village or city or home. Death was this grim adversary,
said one, that all men feared because no one could defeat it. And as such, death became man’s
greatest and most feared enemy. Even to our own day, we find
death hated so often because it is so utterly cruel. Comes
at the wrong time. Touches the wrong people. In our minds, It comes in our
own minds with great suddenness, indiscriminately. It touches
the poor and the rich. It touches the old and the young. And it comes inevitably. Even
King David said, behold, I am going the way of all the earth. King David wrapped his arms around Death is held out to be that
terrible thing, the worst thing that can happen to a person. There are literally hundreds
of scriptures like these. I would limit it to just a few.
Psalm 23, you know the passage. Even though I walk through the
worst possible scenario. Even though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death. the psalmist acknowledging there
the great enemy of mankind. Job likewise spoke of this subject
of death, talking about the worst possible scenario, though he
slain me, though God himself killed me, yet I will hope in
him. Worst possible scenario. Psalm
39.10 says, remove your plague from me, because of the opposition
of your hand, I am perishing. It’s the worst possible situation. For me, your child, your friend,
God. Even Paul acknowledges this in
his great, long, wrap-up to Romans chapter 8, which passage we mentioned
last Lord’s Day, arguably one of the greatest chapters in all
of Christianity, which starts, there is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. But when Paul wraps it up, he
goes through all of those things which could potentially be against
the believer He starts in verse 38, I am convinced that neither
death, he starts with death, the worst possible enemy of mankind,
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. and gives that detailed account
of the importance of the resurrection, a doctrine that the church cannot
let go of indiscriminately, as if it doesn’t matter. Paul says
everything is bound up in the doctrine of the resurrection,
because at the end of that he says, oh death, where is your
sting? Death to the Christian has become
irrelevant, unimportant. And it became irrelevant because
of what Jesus does in this particular passage. He conquers death. Jesus Christ wasn’t just a miracle
worker. He didn’t go around working,
as it were, magic tricks to impress others. Jesus Christ is God in
the flesh. And he’s looking to establish
that confidence, not only in the hearts of those who are looking
on, not only in the hearts of his dear friends, But even in
the hearts of those who were his closest followers, the apostles,
the disciples themselves, certainly he wanted to have outreach. He
wanted to reach those Jews, those Pharisees that were so contrary
to him, even to the Romans. He wanted to be a testimony,
a light. He wanted to be seen and beheld
and received as the Messiah. But he didn’t just go around
doing magic tricks. Jesus Christ wanted to establish
the fact that he was Almighty God. Perhaps no other miracle that
Jesus did or could have done was so astounding as this. To
literally raise a dead person. Restore them to life. If you
would, I wanted to take us to the book of the Gospel of John
to chapter 11 and to its entirety. We’ll take this in portions in
the next several weeks. But I wanted to get a grasp on
what Jesus Christ accomplishes here in John chapter 11. He conquers death. And he conquers
death for all time, not just for a man named Lazarus. Now a certain man was sick, 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 sick. So the sisters sent
word to him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. But
when Jesus heard this, he said, This sickness is not unto death,
but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified
by it. Now Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was
sick, he then stayed two days longer in the place where he
was. Then after this, he said to the
disciples, Let us go to Judea again. The disciples said to
him, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you. Are
you going there again? Jesus answered, are there not
12 hours in a 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. This he said. And after that,
he said to them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. But I go so
that I may awaken him out of sleep. The disciples then said
to him, Lord, if he’s fallen asleep, he will recover. Now,
Jesus had spoken of his death. that they thought he was speaking
of literal sleep. So Jesus then said to them plainly,
Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes
that I was not there so that he may believe, but let us go
to him. Therefore Thomas, who was called
Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go so that we may
die with him. So, when Jesus came, he found
that he had already been in the tomb four days. Now, Bethany
was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews
had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their
brother. Martha, therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming,
went to meet him, but Mary stayed at the house. Martha then said
to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have
died. 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. Jesus said to
her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in
Me will live even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes
in Me will never die. Do you believe this? She said to Him, Yes, Lord, I
have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God. Even
he who comes into the world When she had said this, she went
away and called Mary, her sister, saying secretly, the teacher
is here and is calling for you. And when she heard it, she got
up quickly and was coming to him. Now Jesus had not yet come
into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met
him. Then the Jews, who were with her in the house and consoling
her, when they saw that Mary got up quickly supposing that
she was going to the tomb to weep there. Therefore, when Mary
came where Jesus was, she saw him and fell at his feet, saying
to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have
died. When Jesus therefore saw her
weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was
deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and said, Come and see Jesus wept. So the Jews were saying, see
how he loved him. But some of them said, could
not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept
this man also from dying? So Jesus, again being deeply
moved, then came to the tomb. Now it was a cave. And a stone
was lying against it. Jesus said, 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 for four days. Jesus said to her, did I not
say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?
So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised his eyes and
said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that
you always hear me, but because of the people standing around,
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, Lazarus, come
forth. The man who had died came forth,
bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face wrapped around with
a cloth. Jesus said to them, unbind him
and let him go. Therefore, many of the Jews who
came to Mary and saw what he had done believed in him, but
some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which
Jesus had done. Therefore, the chief priests
and the Pharisees convened a council and were saying, What are we
doing? For this man is performing many
signs. If we let him go on like this,
all men 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 high priest that year, said to them, you
know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is
expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that
the whole nation not perish. Now, he did not say this on his
own initiative, but being high priest that year, He prophesied
that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation
only, but in order that he might also gather together into one
the children of God who were scattered abroad. So from that
day on, they planned together to kill him. Therefore, Jesus
no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away
from there to the country near the wilderness, into a city called
Ephraim. And he stayed there with the
disciple. In this passage, Jesus conquers
that great enemy of humanity. Jesus overcomes and miraculously
reasserts himself as God Almighty, God in the flesh, by taking hold
and utterly conquering the greatest enemy of mankind out of death.
What this passage provides for us is divine assurance of eternal
life. Divine assurance of eternal life. And I wanted to take just a moment
this morning as we course through the first portion of this passage
to look at just three different scenes as they unfold before
us. In the first seven verses, you’ll see the physical condition
of Lazarus, and there was some debate There was some confusion
even over what that condition was. Somebody was sick, Jesus
mentioned sleep. There’s utter bewilderment because
when the report comes that he’s actually died, there’s disbelief. Not only the physical condition
of Lazarus, but then we see Jesus’ response, strange response. If you’re in seminary and you’re
in training for pastoral ministry and you respond like this, you’re
probably dropped from the class, right? We’re taught from the
earliest day when the phone rings, you know, there’s some questions
you have to triage, some situations that you need to put off for
a little bit of time and then respond accordingly. But you
don’t wait two days. We see Jesus’ response to the
emergency and then finally in verses 11 through 16 we see his
intention in this emergency. Let’s go back if we could to
verse 1. I want to start by looking at the physical condition of
Lazarus. At first John begins by introducing
us to the background of the story in verses 1 through for some
detail that we need in order to kind of begin to process this
story. Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus
of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. And we
meet with this special family a number of times throughout
the Gospels. It was a family that was beloved
by the Lord himself. They were introduced to us in
Luke’s Gospel in chapter 10, and if you would, I want to do
some flipping around today. Turn to Luke chapter 10, keeping
a finger here on John 11. Luke chapter 10. This occasion had to have preceded
the one before us, and in the harmony of the Gospels, it certainly
makes the most sense to have this occurring sometime before
the scene before us. Luke chapter 10, jump down to
verse 38. where Luke records, now as they
were traveling along, he entered a village and a woman named Martha
welcomed her into his home. And you begin to see the personalities
of these individuals kind of come to the surface. We learn
much about them by what Luke records. A woman named Martha
welcomed him into her home. She was a hospitable individual.
She couldn’t wait to have Christ into her home. She had a sister
called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet. And you begin
to learn a little bit about Mary. Mary was given to worship. Martha was given to hospitality. Mary was devoted to worship. She had a sister, Mary, seated at
the Lord’s feet, listening to his word. But Martha was distracted
with all her preparations And she came to him and said, Lord,
do you not care that my sister has left me to do all this? Have
you heard this argument before in your home, right? Tell him
to help me with the dishes, right? But the Lord answered and said
to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so
many things, but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen
the good part. I don’t know, perhaps there were
other occasions, but it certainly seems that Jesus, even upon entering
into this situation, may have even known them. He readily yields
to their request to come into their home. There is another
possible connection to this story. Do you remember in Luke’s Gospel
the mention of a poor man named Lazarus? And it’s presented in rich man who treats this poor
man in life like dirt. Then both, incidentally, die. One goes to heaven, Lazarus,
the other goes to hell, and Jesus presents an account, whether
it’s historical or hypothetical. Some people have suggested that
it’s somehow linked to this account before us just by virtue of the
name. the raising of a man named Lazarus from the dead. Did Jesus
know what Lazarus endured? We don’t know that at all. Purely
conjecture, and the name was a relatively common God has helped both men named
Lazarus. They don’t necessarily need to
be the same man. So other than these two situations,
the common name in both passages, we don’t have a strong connection
here. There is another connection. Jesus talks about it in verse
2. Back to John chapter 11, look at verse 2. And he gives us some
more detail about the other sister. We know about Martha, and we
know Martha’s tendency to serve, and roll up her sleeves, and
show hospitality. Perhaps she had a culinary degree,
and that’s how she, nothing wrong with what she did. Jesus never
rebukes him. But then he talks about Mary.
Look at verse two, and it was the Mary who anointed the Lord
with ointment, and wiped his feet with repair, whose brother,
Lazarus, was sick. He gives this kind of, almost
a passing, almost a parenthetical comment. By the way, is this
the Mary that I’m talking about? Because if you know your Bible,
if you know the Gospels, there are lots of Marys, right? And
we gotta have this straight. And John wants us to have it
straight. He wants us to know who this individual is. Well,
this is the one that sat at Jesus’ feet and ultimately wiped his
feet with her hair. Now, in our culture, that’s just
astounding, almost gross to us. This was an absolute act of worship
on her part. And we can see that even from
the first time that we met Mary and Luke chapter 10, can’t we?
sitting at the feet of Jesus, we can see it naturally progressing
into that severe act of worship. And it’s interesting, though,
that in John’s Gospel, he readily speaks about this situation that
happened, this occasion where Mary fell at the Lord’s feet,
broke perfume, poured it over his feet, and then dabbed his
feet The only concern is that John
hasn’t talked about this at all. In John’s gospel it has not been
recorded. There is another incident recorded,
and if you would, bear with me, turn back to Luke and back to
chapter 7 of Luke’s gospel. There is another incident. And
it includes a woman sitting at Jesus’ feet and doing the very
same thing that John seems to describe here. If you’re in John 7, look at verse
36. One of the Pharisees was requesting him to dine with him,
and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.
Now, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner. Now, that
is an understatement, because this was probably a woman who
was a great sinner. It was a woman who had a reputation,
if you will. There was a woman in the city
who was a sinner when she learned that he was reclining at the
table in the Pharisee’s house. She brought an alabaster vial
of perfume and standing behind him at his feet, she didn’t even
want to stand in front of him. Standing behind him at his feet
weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. She kept
wiping them with the hair of her head, kissing his feet, anointing
them with perfume. And so there is that incident
that is recorded prior to what John talks about here. The only
problem is, most scholars don’t agree that
that is the Mary. That is not Martha and Lazarus’
sister, Mary. This is another woman. It’s another
city. It’s another location entirely. The scene is very similar to
what John describes here in verse two. But what John describes
in chapter 11, verse two, doesn’t necessarily imply that that event
had already taken place in John’s gospel. Turn back if you would
to John chapter 11. It is very likely that there
were two such incidents. That there were two women that
were that if it was good for a sinful
woman, a woman whose reputation in the town was of the lowest
of low, if it was good for her to worship the Lord by breaking
perfume, pouring it over the Lord’s feet, and wiping His feet
with her hair, what would stop anybody else from doing that,
especially one forgiven of their own sin? John, in his gospel
also, as you know, he has a tendency to forecast, doesn’t he? He has
a tendency to speak about things that are out there in the future,
even though they’ve already occurred as if they’ve occurred in the
present when he’s writing. Of course, when John wrote his
gospel, all of these things had occurred. So John can reach forward,
if he wishes, and speak of something that is yet chronologically future,
and bring it right into the account here for clarity. He wants us
to know which Mary this is. So he doesn’t necessarily say
that this is absolutely the sinful woman that leaves the door open. And if it leaves the door open,
we find another incident in John chapter 12. Jesus, therefore, six days before
the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus
had raised from the dead. So they made him a supper there,
and Martha was serving there. She is again this faithful saint,
exercising her God-given gift, which, by the way, Jesus does
not rebuke here. But Lazarus was one of those
reclining at the table with him. This is after he had been raised
from the dead. And believe me, if you have just
been raised from the dead, all you want to do is recline with
the Savior. That’s all he wanted to do. Mary then took a pound of very
costly perfume, a pure lard, and anointed the feet of Jesus,
and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with
the fragrance One of his disciples, who was
intending to betray him, said, why was this perfume not sold
for 300 denarii and given to the poor people? And I suppose,
in a sense, that’s the argument you hear all the time. Why mistletoe
vents? Why this? Why spend money on
bridges and roads when people are hungry? Jesus will go on
to answer that question. All we know, all we want to focus
on right now, all we want worshiper of Christ, and if your
brother has just been raised from the dead, what more natural
thing for Mary to do than to fall on her feet and worship
Almighty God? So we’re looking, and we’ll get
there, to the condition of Lazarus. We’re reviewing just the background
for a moment. We begin to characterize the
sickness in verse three Because it says these sisters that Jesus
loved sent word to him saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love
is sick. Your friend, your dear friend
that you love is sick. We don’t know who the messengers
were. It’s completely unimportant to
the story. But they sent word. They sent
messengers to Christ. And it’s so simple in its request.
They didn’t ask for anything in particular. They trusted the
Lord. They laid the situation before
him. And it implies, however, that
they knew that Jesus would do the right thing. They knew that
Jesus would know the situation. They knew that Jesus would do
everything that he could. The fact that they sent word
indicates to us This wasn’t just a flu or a cold. This was sickness unto death.
This was a grave situation. Lazarus, we might say, in our
day and age, he was in critical condition. Look at verse 4. But when Jesus
heard this, Jesus characterized it. Remember, he is the great
physician. He takes word of what’s going
on. And he is, after all, omnipotent. And he says, This sickness is
not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that God
may be glorified in it. And he does nothing immediately. He just characterizes the sickness,
characterizes the situation. Jesus’ disciples and the messengers
who had brought this report took part in his work. Not unto death,
oh good, this is great news. They took it to mean that Lazarus
was eventually going to recover, that the sickness was really
no big deal. The sickness wouldn’t kill him.
And they likely didn’t even attend to the rest of his words. Not a big deal. Not into death.
OK, well, what were we talking about? Nor did they attempt to think
through what he meant when he said, this sickness was for the
glory of God. How is God glorified in that? They had this nugget of assurance,
that’s all they were really hoping for. Lazarus, their friend, was
going to be okay. And this word no doubt traveled
all the way back to the sisters. They will obviously have that
difficulty to work through as well as when Lazarus does die. Was Jesus wrong? Did he totally
misread the situation? Was he callous? to their need? Did he know that Lazarus was
going to die and downplay it by suggesting that he was merely
sleeping? When Jesus says that he will
not die, it doesn’t mean that Jesus was mistaken or misread
it or didn’t understand the nature of the request or was callous
or heartless. He just meant that this sickness
was not going to end in depth, and it doesn’t. Look at verse
5. We see Jesus’ response to this
emergency, and it comes in waves. His response immediately was
one of waiting, and then His response in principle, as He
is still discipling His disciples, and then we see His response
ultimately. Ultimately, he purposes to go
and to be with Lazarus. Let’s look first at his immediate
response. His immediate response is one
of waiting. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus, so when he heard that he was saved, he stayed. Doesn’t make sense. Jesus loved Martha and her sister
and Lazarus, so when he heard that he was sick, he then stayed
two days longer. Something doesn’t add up. John tells us that Jesus loved
this family, and he names them individually just to point out
how much he really loved and cared for these three people.
There’s meant to be a buildup. There’s meant to be a contrast.
He loved Martha. He loved Mary. And he loved Lazarus. So he’s thankful. That statement, we would almost
expect it to say, you know, Jesus loved Martha and his sister and
Lazarus, so he immediately took off. I mean, that’s what you
do as a pastor, right? Fall in the rain, somebody’s
sick, boom, you’re out the door. not to remark an intentional
and most instructive connection between this verse and the preceding
one. Jesus loved the family of Bethany, all three of them, and
yet when he heard Lazarus was sick, instead of hastening at
once to Bethany to heal him, many of God’s providential dealings
with His people. We can easily imagine the grief
and suspense and perplexity in which the household at Bethany
must have been kept for four days when their loving master
did not appear. The Lord could have prevented
it all, but He did not. In other words, you really have
to process these words. Jesus loved them so much. Mary,
Martha, Lazarus, and his disciples, that he stay even longer. Long
enough for Lazarus to be dead and buried for four days. And it’s not like, John doesn’t
paint any picture that Jesus was so wrapped up, so busy, so
absolutely buried in the work of ministry. It doesn’t, John
doesn’t paint the picture of the fact that Jesus was so busy
that he just couldn’t drop what he was doing right then and go.
It was intentional. So that the nature of the miracle
would be that much more profound. That he would be that much more
glorified. That their faith would be that
much more strengthened. And so the immediate response
is one of waiting. This is an emergency. Lazarus
is in critical condition, and Jesus intentionally waits. Look at his response principally,
beginning in verse seven. Jesus’ call here is to walk in
the light. He’s made that statement before,
look at verse seven. Then after this, and I take that
to mean two days delay, and it puts emphasis,
doesn’t it, on this whole scene way after the report came. Jesus said to his disciples,
let us go to Judea again. It’s time. The disciples now
are back in hesitation mode. Verse 8 says that They said to
him, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking Dystonia, and you’re
going there again? I mean, maybe, just maybe, it’s
possible that Lazarus got better. Or maybe, just maybe, Lazarus
is already dead. What’s the purpose? What’s the
use? Why risk our necks in going back there again? carrying around stones. They
were carrying them. Lying in wait for Christ. Look
at verse 9. Jesus says, are there not 12
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 I’m sure his disciples are
doing just like we do. OK. And your point was? Are we going there or not? And
if so, why? And instead of giving them a
real spot-on, point-on reply, he gives them kind of this philosophical
answer about light and light and darkness. He doesn’t make any application
of it. He doesn’t say who this lesson is for. He just says 12
hours. has in mind here is that that
really is the extent of the daylight in which a laborer, a farmer,
someone going about in the day would have to operate. It’s during
those 12 hours that he can be effective, when he can walk without
tripping and stumbling in the dark. Jesus has already made
this very point. Remember in John chapter 9, When
they came across the man born blind, Jesus said, we must work
the works of him who sent me as long as it is day. Night comes when no one can work. Jesus is making the same point.
He basically says, look, God has given me 12 hours in which
to work. Not 12 literal hours, but a bookend,
a time, a period of time in God’s providence when he has gifted
me, enabled me to come here and do my work, and I’m going to
do my work as long as it is day. And basically what he tells them
is my day is not finished. I’m still on the clock. We’re
going. Essentially he says, They cannot touch me. They can
do nothing to me until the Father himself allows it. And so we see Jesus’ response
to the emergency. Immediately it’s one of waiting.
Principally it’s one of working. Ultimately, and for our sake, we’re sitting
here as well, concerned. Here’s Lazarus, all this time,
sick, critical, in need of his friend, in need of a savior,
in need of help, divine help. Finally, ultimately, Jesus’ purpose
is to go, look at verse 11. This he said, and after that,
after he takes the time, I mean if it was really an urgent situation,
can we do discipleship later, maybe Wednesday night? This he said, John is a master. This he said, and after that
he said to them, first let me give you my lesson on laboring,
and the lesson on God’s sovereignty, and the lesson on being patient,
and the lesson on being courageous, that they can do absolutely nothing
to you until God in his providence allows it. This he said, and
after that he said to them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. Sleep, almost as old as humanity,
is a very common metaphor, isn’t it, for death. A common metaphor in scripture. But here, there’s almost a forecast
that for believers, that’s all death is. Jesus wasn’t making light of
it by saying he’s just sleeping, he’s faking. He was speaking
absolutely truthfully, that spiritually speaking, Lazarus was merely
asleep. And that he merely needed to
be awakened. Look at verse 12. The disciples
almost seemed supercharged by this good news. The disciples
then said to him, Lord, if he’s fallen asleep, he’ll recover.
Good. We don’t have to go. Now drop
it. They think maybe that’s all he
really needs, right? And you can almost see them elbowing,
yeah. He said he’s resting. That’s
what he needs. They were eager to reach that
conclusion, weren’t they? They wanted to stay as far as
they could away from the hateful Jews, and they wanted Jesus to
stay away as well. Look at verse 13, now Jesus had
spoken of his death, and they thought he was speaking of literal
sleep. This is not just conjecture here. They really thought that
Jesus meant literal sleep, and so Jesus takes the occasion to
drive the point home. Verse 14, so Jesus then said
to them plainly, what we call an heiress. It’s
already happened. It’s not that by the time we
get there, we shuffle our feet much longer, Lazarus is going
to go downhill. He’s going to take a turn for
the worse. Nope. By the way, men, Lazarus is dead. And that
certainly points to the fact that Jesus knew, supernaturally,
something that no reporter had brought in, no friend, no bedside
companion had come and said, to be with the Lord, look at
verse 15. Take a running start out of verse
14. So then Jesus said in plain language,
Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes. I mean, here’s
another connection that just, it really is bothersome, isn’t
it? It really gives us the creeps, doesn’t it? Lazarus is dead,
and I am glad. glad for your sakes that I was
not there. I’m glad that I didn’t go. I’m glad that I didn’t go
heal him. I’m glad that we didn’t run out there on day one when
the report first came. This is a cause for rejoicing.
We should have a party. That’s the spirit that is communicated
with this gladness. It is a spirit of rejoicing. If the disciples, and they should
have been shocked by this statement, it’s not surprising that we would
find shock in it too. Same surprise that they heard
when Jesus says, Lazarus is dead and I rejoice, smacks us with
the same sentiment as well. If Jesus had been there, Lazarus
wouldn’t have died, and the disciples, That was the case, they would
not have seen incredible sign of the fact that he was the Messiah.
And for that Jesus rejoices. And so the disciples have this
incredible advanced warning that Jesus intends to raise the dead
and he clarifies their misunderstanding of this seemingly obscure statement
that Lazarus was asleep, he’s dead. And he declares up front,
his entire intention is to go and awaken, bring back Lazarus
from the dead. And now they begin to put two
and two together. Lazarus is dead and Jesus intends
to raise him. One pastor said, Jesus means
that he was glad that he was not at Bethany when Lazarus became
ill. and had not healed him before
his death, as in all probability he would have done, the result
now would be most advantageous to the disciples. Their faith
would receive an immense confirmation by witnessing the stupendous
miracle of Lazarus being raised from the dead. You see, children
of God, and I use that term intentionally, Our faith, just like the disciples,
needs to be built up and bolstered and strengthened. You say, but
these were the disciples. These were the apostles. Pastor, have you lost your mind? These are the guys. These are
the 12. Let me give you just one quick
example. Proof. that the disciples were
weak in faith? I told you that we’d look at
verse 16 verses. Look at verse 16. Therefore Thomas,
uh oh. If you know anything of Thomas,
that’s almost enough, right? Therefore Thomas, who is called
Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, This is almost Eeyore, right?
Let us also go, so that we may die with him. This is gloomy
dusk, right? Thomas is usually known in scripture
as a doubter. Thomas is the Hebrew, Thomas,
rather, in Hebrew. Didymus is the Greek version
for that. It’s a Greek word for twin, and
some people You know, they do a lot of work in trying to connect
Thomas with various people to prove the fact that he was a
twin. There’s nothing in scripture that really lends itself to prove
that. But there is this one thing. Thomas was two-minded. He had two minds. He had a tendency
towards faith and at the same time a tendency towards doubt.
He had a tendency to take Jesus at his word and then in the same
moment express doubt. And that certainly is what seems
to be here. Jesus didn’t say that he was going there to die.
It’s just like when he had the disciples on the boat and said,
let us go to the other side. Not let us go to the middle of
the lake and if the storm comes up, let us drown. But when the
storm came up, that’s exactly what they did. In their lack
of faith, they began to despair of life itself. The point here is that the resurrection
of Lazarus from the dead was going to be a remarkable sign,
the most remarkable sign that these disciples had ever seen.
And even though they already had placed their faith in Christ
and were willing to walk with Him and follow Him, and perhaps
even die with Him, burgeoning, growing, weakening,
strengthening, faltering, strengthening again. Is it the same faith when you
first fell on your knees in repentance and asked Christ to forgive you
for your sin and called on Him for your Savior? Has it not strengthened
over the years? Strengthened even over this past
week as perhaps you saw some answered prayer? Perhaps in the
past six months where you saw some miraculous provision of
God’s grace in strengthening you from some sinful tendency,
some weakness? Has God not built up your faith
in giving you some amazing, astounding provision of God, whether it’s
financial or otherwise? Even our daily bread, said Jesus,
is cause for our faith. Has God, in his goodness, worked
some miracle in some relationship that is restored to make it stronger
even than it was? See, our faith needs to be constantly
strengthened as well, doesn’t it? That’s what Jesus did on
behalf of his own disciples. One pastor said it this way,
be thoroughly, courageous, genuine, sincere, avoid loose and unsubstantial
convictions regarding spiritual and eternal things. Remember,
however little the word is revealed to you, it is God’s greatest
and best thought. that it is the divine record
concerning yourself and his dear son, and it ought to make of
infinite importance to you. Settled convictions of divine
truth are of great value. They give stability, contentment,
and intro. Would you bow before him? Our merciful King, We humble
ourselves in consideration of that horrible and unwelcome word,
death. But Lord, even as we’ve begun
to consider this passage, this incredible chapter, we see that
you are the Lord even of death, that you have indeed conquered, already conquered death. And Lord, we know that in so
many ways our faith is puny and weak, like a vapor. And Lord, only
You, by Your grace, can strengthen our faith. We pray that through
Your Word, through having our eyes open to all that You are
doing in our world, through revealing such occasions as what we just
read, Lord, we pray that You would indeed strengthen our faith.
Make us to be not those like even our brother Thomas, vacillating,
wavering, now believing and now doubting. Lord, strengthen our
faith that we would know without a doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ
has secured our forgiveness before Almighty God. And that having
placed our faith in Him, we are forgiven. We are granted the
righteousness of Christ, which allows and enables us to stand
before the very throne of Almighty God. Lord, strengthen our faith. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.