Sermon

John 11:one-45

The Raising of Lazarus

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John xi:1-45

The Raising of Lazarus

By Dr. Philip W. McLarty
The raising of Lazarus is the last of Jesus' miracles.  It's also the clearest sign of who he is—the Son of God, the Promised Messiah, the Savior of the earth.

It sets the phase for Jesus' ain expiry and resurrection.  According to John, those who witnessed the phenomenon went back and told the temple leaders what happened.  John writes:

"The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council,
and said, 'What are nosotros doing? For this homo does many signs.
If we leave him alone like this, anybody will believe in him,
and the Romans will come and take abroad both our identify and our nation.'…
So from that day forward they took counsel
that they might put him to expiry." (11:47-53)

What I hope you'll get out of the sermon this morning is a promise: If Jesus can enhance Lazarus from the expressionless, he tin can bring you to new life, if y'all're willing.  The story begins,

"Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany,
of the hamlet of Mary and her sis, Martha." (John 11:1)

John assumes you lot know the human relationship.  Mary and Martha and Lazarus were among Jesus' closest friends.  He stayed in their home when he came to Jerusalem.  It was his spiritual hangout.  He enjoyed their hospitality.  He cherished their friendship.  While he had many followers, Mary, Martha and Lazarus were iii of his favorites.

This gives us a glimpse into the homo nature of Jesus – that is, to experience a certain allure to some, and not others.  We all know what that's like.  Call information technology chemistry, if you like, or adept vibes – something about another person awakens your spirit, and you feel drawn to them in a special way.  Why should Jesus be any dissimilar?

John goes on to tell us that Lazarus was ill.  That'due south an understatement – he was well-nigh the point of decease.  Mary and Martha sent for him to come at once.

Jesus was laying depression when he got the bulletin.  He'd had a run-in with the Pharisees in Jerusalem.  They'd threatened to stone him or have him arrested.  (John x:31, 39-twoscore)  Still, he got the message: "He for whom you have great affection is sick."

Can you hear the urgency?  It'south a plea for help.  Given that, you'd think Jesus would've dropped everything and rushed back to Bethany.  But, no, John says,

"Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sis, and Lazarus.
When therefore he heard that he was sick,
he stayed two days in the place where he was." (John eleven:5-6)

This is our first clue.  Who is Jesus?  He'due south the Lord of life.  He's not jump by time and space.  Affliction and death pose no threat to him.  This comes out in what he told the disciples.  He said,

"This sickness is not to death, only for the glory of God,
that God'due south Son may be glorified by it." (John 11:four)

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If you're paying attention that should raise a question: But didn't Lazarus die?  The respond is: Yep, he did.  And that leads to a bigger question: What does it mean to live?  What does it mean to die?

To live is to be at ane with God and the whole of God's creation.  To die is to be separated from God and at odds with the world around you lot.

Nosotros put too much accent on this mortal life when we just endeavor to stay alive.  We're all going to die some 24-hour interval.  The question is whether we'll live in the fullness of God'southward grace and love.  Jesus said,

"Only seek start God'southward Kingdom, and his righteousness;
and all these things will be given to you equally well." (Matthew 6:33)

Put the Lord starting time, and he'll give you lot all the strength and vitality you need to experience life in affluence, however long you lot alive.

Jesus stayed where he was two more days, then he told his disciples, "Permit'due south become into Judea again." (John eleven:seven) The disciples tried to stop him.  They said,

"Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you,
and are you going there again?" (John 11:8)

In a sense, they were correct: It'd exist suicide for Jesus to become back to Jerusalem.  Simply again, Jesus was on a different patently.  All that mattered was for him to complete his mission.  He said,

"Aren't there twelve hours of daylight?
If a man walks in the day, he doesn't stumble,
considering he sees the light of this globe.
But if a homo walks in the night, he stumbles,
because the low-cal isn't in him." (John 11:ix-10)

It'southward easy to go caught upwardly in what others would accept yous call up, say and do.  To be faithful is to seek God'southward will for your life and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit … and let the fries fall where they may.

Jesus would go back to Jerusalem.  If it cost him his life, so exist it.  He told his disciples,

"Lazarus is dead. I am glad for your sakes that I was not at that place,
and so that you may believe.
Nevertheless, let's go to him." (John xi:xiv-15)

Just every bit a man's blindness gave Jesus an opportunity to demonstrate the power of God to give sight to the blind (John 9:i-41), then Lazarus' decease will give Jesus an opportunity to demonstrate the power of God to raise the dead to new life.

God doesn't cause bad things to happen to innocent people, but God can use misfortune to bless united states in unexpected ways, if we turn to him.  In this fashion nosotros take an opportunity to be a witness of organized religion to others.

One of my elders in Odessa was diagnosed with cancer and given only a few months to live.  Friends and family gathered to console him.  I'll never forget what his best friend said, "All these years you've shown your boys how a man of religion lives out his life; now you lot take a take a chance to show them how a man of faith goes virtually the business of dying."

When Jesus got to the home, Martha rushed out to greet him.  She said, "Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn't take died." (John 11:21)

Hear the anger?  "If just you'd gotten here sooner … What took you then long?!"

Don't exist likewise hard on Martha.  When tragedy strikes … when a loved one dies … when you experience disappointment and loss first-hand, it's simply natural to lash out.  Jesus told Martha, "Your brother will rise once again." (John 11:23)

Martha took this to mean that Lazarus would rise again at the resurrection on the last 24-hour interval.  This was a standard belief among the Jews.  But that's not what Jesus meant.  He said,

"I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.
Whoever lives and believes in me will never dice." (John 11:25-26)

And then he asked Martha, signal blank: "Do yous believe this?"

Martha said, "Yes, Lord. I accept come to believe that you are the Christ, God's Son, he who comes into the world." (John 11:27)

Martha went back to the house and got Mary, and Mary came out to greet Jesus.  She said the same affair, "Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn't have died."  This time, Jesus reacted differently.  John says,

"When Jesus therefore saw her weeping,
and the Jews weeping who came with her,
he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,
and said, 'Where have you laid him?'" (John eleven:34)

They took him to the tomb where Lazarus was cached, and, in the shortest verse of the Bible, John says, "Jesus wept." (John 11:35)

Consider the significance of these two words: Jesus wept.  If ever you need permission to grieve, here it is.  The verb used here literally means "to quake."  The sense of it is this: Jesus didn't simply become teary-eyed; he shook with emotion from the depth of his soul.  If you've ever wept uncontrollably and in anguish, you know what I hateful.  Organized religion in God and the pain of separation and loss frequently get manus-in-hand.

In his book, Don't Have My Grief Away, Doug Manning tells of a young couple whose xviii-month-old daughter developed a croup and was taken to the infirmary.  She was put under an oxygen tent and given antibiotics.  In spite of everything the doctors did, she died less than an hour afterward.

When Doug got there, the mother was crying hysterically.  He was a immature pastor, and he tried to console her.  He said, "In that location, there, y'all must go hold of yourself."  He said the young woman looked at him direct in the eye and said with fire in her voice, "Don't accept my grief away from me.  I deserve it, and I'1000 going to have it." (61)

He said he learned from that experience how important grief is to the healing process.  He writes,

"Grieving is every bit natural as crying when you are hurt, sleeping when you are tired, eating when you lot are hungry, or sneezing when your nose itches.  It's nature's way of healing a cleaved center." (P. 60)

When Jesus was confronted with the death of a shut friend, he wept, so must we.

John goes on to say that Jesus went to the tomb.  When he got in that location, he asked that the stone exist taken away.  Martha objected.  She said, "Lord, by this fourth dimension there is a stench, for he has been dead four days."  (John eleven:39)

Jesus said, "Didn't I tell you that if you believed,
you would encounter God'south glory?" (John xi:40)

They rolled the rock away.  Jesus looked to God and prayed.  Then he chosen out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" (John 11:43)  Lazarus came out.  His body was still wrapped in burial cloths.  Jesus said, "Costless him, and let him get." (John xi:44)

It was a miracle and a clear display of God'due south ability.  Information technology was also an unmistakable sign that Jesus was the Christ.  The question was how to respond.  John says,

"Therefore many of the Jews,
who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did,
believed in him.
But some of them went away to the Pharisees,
and told them the things which Jesus had washed (John 11:45-46)

For the Pharisees and their henchmen, it was the start of the terminate of this man, Jesus.  For those of faith, it was the beginning of new life.

The question is: Which volition it exist for you?  Volition y'all open up upwards your heart and honor Jesus Christ equally your Lord and Savior?  Will you walk in his footsteps and follow his instance?  Only you lot tin say who or what will be the Lord of your life.

At the outset, I said the raising of Lazarus contains a hope, and it does: If Jesus can heighten Lazarus from the expressionless he can bring you to new life, as well.

But information technology depends on you lot and your willingness to profess faith in Jesus Christ.  If you've already fabricated a profession of organized religion, are y'all willing to reaffirm it?  Either way, I don't know of a ameliorate style than to profess faith in Jesus Christ than to offer the prayer of John Wesley.

Here's what I suggest: I'll give you the words.  If yous're willing, repeat them after me.  Permit them speak of your faith and of your delivery to Jesus Christ.  Let us pray:

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what k wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Allow me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Permit me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me take zippo.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
Amen.

Live each day in the spirit of this prayer.  Surrender each day to the lordship of Jesus Christ.  In time, you'll experience a dimension of life you could've never, always imagined.

In the name of the Begetter, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

Copyright 2011, Philip McLarty.  Used by permission.

SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS are from the Earth English Bible (Spider web), a public domain (no copyright) modern English translation of the Holy Bible.