Resurrection and the Life
Today I am going to complete the study on the seven signs found in the book of John prior to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Over the last six Bible studies I have covered the first six signs covered in the book of John. We discussed how John could have included hundreds of other miracles that He witnessed Jesus perform. However he just includes seven that reveal who Jesus is.
In the first sign, the turning of the water into wine, Jesus revealed how He is able to take useless ritual, and turn it into an everlasting covenant. In the second sign, the healing of the officials son, Jesus demonstrates how He is the word of God. In the third sign, the healing of the man at the pool, we discovered that Jesus is the one who is able to forgive sins. In the forth sign, the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus reveals that He is the bread of life. In the fifth sign, the walking upon water Jesus revealed that the old system was ending and a new one was beginning. In the sixth sign, the healing of the man born blind, Jesus reveals how he is the light of the world.
The seventh sign is the most awesome miracle of them all. In this miracle Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.
It is the most awesome of miracles, because this time Jesus faces mankind’s greatest opponent, death. Death is the ultimate equaliser. It doesn’t matter who we are, it doesn’t matter what we have done, it doesn’t matter how rich we are, we may be able to slightly prolong our lives on this earth, but death will always catch up with us. It is something that we don’t like to talk about until it actually arrives to somebody close to us. As one tombstone wrote, ’I was expecting this, but not yet.’
Three friends were discussing this very subject and one of them asked, ’If you were to get run over by a truck this evening, what would you like people to say about you? The first replied, ’I would like people to say that I was a faithful Christian, a good husband and a good father.’ The second replied, ’I would like people to say that I was caring, compassionate and made a real difference in this world.’ The third person replied, ’I would like people to say look, he is still moving!!!’
I remember when I first became a Christian I was once passing the graveyard by St Lawrence Church. Full of faith, I walked into the centre of the graveyard and started praying to see if somebody would rise from the dead. Boy, I am glad that God didn’t answer my prayers that night? I would have run a mile.
But death is something that is painful. Even though when our loved ones die in Christ, we have the reassurance that we will one day see them again, that parting causes extreme sorrow. This is the same situation that Jesus’ friends find themselves in when Jesus performs this miracle.
I want to look at this miracle in the same way that I have looked at most of the rest. Firstly there is a test show the level of peoples faith before the miracle. Then Jesus performs the sign as a revelation of who He is. The finally John also records the teaching of Jesus in relation to this sign. He shows how the combination of these three things affects the people.
John 11:1-45
1:Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
2:This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.
3:So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick."
4:When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it."
5:Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
6:Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
7:Then he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea."
8:"But Rabbi," they said, "a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?"
9:Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light.
10:It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light."
11:After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up."
12:His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better."
13:Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14:So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead,
15:and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."
16:Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."
17:On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.
18:Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem,
19:and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother.
20:When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21:"Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
22:But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."
23:Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
24:Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
25:Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;
26:and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
27:"Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
28:And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. "The Teacher is here," she said, "and is asking for you."
29:When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.
30:Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.
31:When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32:When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
33:When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
34:"Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied.
35:Jesus wept.
36:Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"
37:But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"
38:Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
39:"Take away the stone," he said. "But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days."
40:Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"
41:So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
42:I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."
43:When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"
44:The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."
45:Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.
The Test.
Like the other miracles there is a test of faith prior to the miracle taking place. In this miracle Jesus test the faith of His disciples, of Mary, and of Martha. These were people who would have had faith in abundance. Their faith had been built by the many wonders and miracles that they had personally witnessed Jesus perform. This however was going to be the strongest test yet of that faith.
They were all people who would have been close to Jesus. Firstly we have the disciples, they were people who would have followed Jesus around everywhere. Then we have Mary and Martha. John identifies this Mary as the one who poured oil over Jesus feet and washed them with her hair, although he doesn’t actually record this event until the following chapter.
John records that Lazarus, Mary, and Martha are people that Jesus loves. The messenger who tells Jesus about Lazarus doesn’t even use his name, He just states, "Lord, the one you love is sick." Here he uses the word ’phileo’ to describe his love and then he uses the even stronger word ’agapao’ to describe his love for these friends.
Lazarus and his sisters lived in Bethany, which was only about 2 miles away from Jerusalem. It was probably the place at which they would have stayed when they visited the city. They were clearly friends of Jesus and his disciples.
Jesus tells his disciples that Lazarus is dead, but actually uses the phrase that he is asleep. He then has to explain what He means literally to the disciples as they feel that it is a long way to go just to be somebody’s alarm clock. The question is, why does Jesus wait for two days before making that journey to Bethany?
There could be a number of reasons. Could it be that he was never actually asked to go? Mary and Martha had only actually informed Jesus that Lazarus was sick, they didn’t actually request for him to attend. However it would be clear to Jesus that this was their intention.
Could it be that He knew the danger? As the disciples pointed out, there were many in Jerusalem who wanted and had tried to kill Him. We see in the Garden of Gethsemane that death was not an attractive prospect, even for Jesus. The desire not to go would have been multiplied by the fact that we learn in the previous chapter that Jesus was having a pretty successful time ministering on this side of the Jordan. However Jesus had never let fear stop him doing anything that He knew was right.
I believe that the reason Jesus delayed for two days was to test the faith of his followers, including that of Mary and Martha.
When Jesus arrives in the town, we find in verse 17 that Lazarus has been dead for four days. That means that even if Jesus had left straight away, Lazarus wouldn’t have been alive when he got there. In waiting another two days all Jesus had done was ensured that Lazarus was well and truly dead.
However, many Jews believed that the spirit of a person hung around for about three days after their death. There was no doubt however in Lazarus’ case that his spirit was well and truly departed.
The reaction of both Martha and Mary when they get to Jesus is exactly the same, ’Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’
When the sisters first sent the message to Jesus their brother was only sick. They clearly had enough faith to believe that Jesus could heal the sick, they had seen Him do it many times before. Maybe they had enough faith to believe that Jesus could raise somebody from the dead who had just died, after all Jesus had done that before as well. He had healed Jairus’ daughter as well as the only son of a widow. Lazarus on the other hand had been dead for four days, what could Jesus do now?
Martha, in verse 22 shows a little bit of faith in that she knows that Jesus will raise Lazarus on the last day. In verse 27 she exclaims, ’Lord I believe!’ However when Jesus goes to perform the miracle and calls for the stone to be removed she shouts out, ’But lord, by this time there is a bad odour,’ or as the KJV puts it, ’Lord, by this time he stinketh.’
She could smell death, all hope was gone. Jesus here exposes her, along with the others, lack of faith, when he says, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" Jesus then performs the miracle, and brings a dead man back to life. When all hope was gone, Jesus performs the impossible.
Many people will have had a need like Mary and Martha and will have sent the message to God in prayer. Maybe you have received a promise from God that He is going to do something in your life and situation, but like the sisters have started to see that promise die.
Even though you were asking the impossible, you still had the faith to believe. However circumstances killed that hope. At first you had the hope that somehow God may be able to somehow resurrect it, however as time has gone on you have given up all hope of that promise ever coming to life.
You find yourself, like the sisters, clinging to Jesus and crying out, ’Lord if only you had been here... I believe that You could have done something, but for some reason You didn’t, for some reason You delayed. I believe that there are some people in this room who are like that. Your dream has died, your hope has gone, and maybe you feel it has even gone past a miracle.
I believe that God is telling some of you in here to believe and you will see the glory of God. God has delayed for a reason, but it will only make the fulfilment more amazing. He is calling for you to turn again and believe. It is time for your promise, your dream, you vision, your prayer to be awoken.
The Revelation.
With each miracle that John records, comes a revelation of who Jesus is. John doesn’t include any miracle in his book unless it reveals something about the person and nature of Jesus. What then does this miracle reveal about Jesus?
With this miracle, like in the previous Jesus spells it out. In verse 25 he states, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;"
Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He is revealing two things, the fact that He is the resurrection and the life, and the fact that there is going to be a resurrection. The concept of life after death is quite familiar to the modern church, but at the time of Jesus there was much confusion surrounding the issue. The reason the church today knows so much about heaven and hell is because Jesus spoke so much about it and because the New Testament is packed full of teaching about heaven, the second coming, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal life. We are left with no doubt.
The Old Testament however has quite sparse teaching on the subject. If you were to prepare a study about life after death and were to only use Old Testament scripture then would would spend a long time searching for the appropriate verses. You would be able to do it, but it wouldn’t be such an easy task.
The Old testament concentrated much more on the requirements of the law of Moses. The blessings of faithfulness to these commands, and the punishments of unfaithfulness, were often more immediate. Either people felt the effect of their actions in their own lifetime or the blessings and curses were passed down to their families. Because of this many Jews did not understand the concept of life after death.
Two of the main leading groups of the Jews were in fact very divided on the subject. The Pharisees were an ultra strict sect of Jewish leaders created laws in order to ensure that people kept the main laws of mains. They were firm believers in the resurrection. Another sect, or denomination, of the Jews were the Sadducees. This was a group that majored just on the law contained in Genesis through to Deuteronomy. As these five books didn’t contain any teaching on afterlife, they vigourously denied that any such state existed.
This led to Jesus being tested on this very subject.
Luke 20:27&28
27:Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question.
28:"Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother...
By raising Lazarus, Jesus was showing that not only has He got power over death, but it is through Him that resurrection comes. He was leaving the people in no doubt that there was life after death and that it came through believing in Him.
Teaching.
Jesus teaching about this sign is very short and succinct and we have just mentioned it in the last point. The piece that I want to concentrate on is found in verse 25 and I will read it again.
John 11:25
25:Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;"
Notice also that Jesus says that He is the resurrection and the life, not the life and resurrection. We can not have true life until after we have been resurrected. Once we have been resurrected, we will truly live and death will never touch us again.
Lazarus was raised from the dead, and it was at this point that he truly found life. In the following chapter we read that he was having so much impact that it even put his own life in danger.
John 12:9-11
9:Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
10:So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well,
11:for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him.
As the sisters were clinging onto Lazarus when he was dying, hoping for God to come and do something, so can we hold on to our promises. It may seem that you promise has died. It may seem like the hope that you once had has now completely passed. I want to ask you tonight not to give up hope. You are serving a person who is the resurrection and the life. Lazarus only became as effective as he did because he died. I want to encourage to hold on to that promise, because it’s resurrection will bring more fruit than you ever thought possible.
Conclusion.
I believe that many people here are in the situation where there hopes are dying or have even died. You may feel discouraged or even aggrieved with God. I think that one of the most encouraging things about this chapter is to know, that even though Jesus knew that everything was going to be all right, even though He knew Lazarus was going to be raised again, He still wept with those whose mourned.
Gods knowledge of the future and the glory that He has for us does not stop him from understanding how we feel right now. Whatever problem that we are facing, even if He knows that that problem will melt away, He still understands what we feel right now, He still shares our tears.
My message to you tonight is to remember that God is a God of comfort, but He is also a God of hope, at times when all hope is lost. There are some people here whose promises upon their lives are dead, but God is about to resurrect them.
