A Study of the Book of John
“That You May Believe”
Sermon # 31
“I Am The Resurrection and the Life”
John 11:17-26
In the first half of John chapter eleven we were introduced to the family of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. You may recall that when Lazarus became ill his sisters sent an urgent message to Jesus, yet the reality of the situation was that before the message even reached Jesus, Lazarus had already died. Yet when the news did reach Jesus He did not drop everything and hurry to Bethany to be with His friends. He waited! He delayed his coming and as we noted last time it is that delay; that puzzles us. It is when God does not respond in the way that we have been taught to expect him to, that we are troubled. It is then that we begin to think that God really does not care about us. When you are being overwhelmed by the events of your life, it is very difficult to continue to believe in the midst of God’s silences and in the face of God’s delays that they really are still evidences of His love. Jesus did not stop loving Mary and Martha and Lazarus because He did not come immediately, it was that just that His plan required a different response.
As we look at these verses today I want to look at what they reveal to us about Jesus.
First, We Have A Savior Who Can Handle Our Honesty (vv. 17-22)
“So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. (18) Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. (19) And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. “Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. (21) Now Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. (22) But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You."
The first member of the family that Jesus come into contact with is Martha and Martha’s first words to Jesus in those moments of grief in verse twenty one are "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Or to put it even more plainly, “Where were you Lord?” Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt like asking, “Where were you Lord?”
I think Kent Hughes is right when he says, “It is not sinful to tell God how you feel. That may sound like heresy in the light of some of the things that you have been taught, but I want to qualify it by saying that we should always be reverent toward God. He is God! We are His creatures and must ever bow before Him. But that does not mean we are not allowed to express to Him how we feel. Some of us have feelings that ought to be shared with God. The feelings are not necessarily right, but they are feelings that need to be brought honestly before God. But we do not, for fear of losing something. God is more patient and accepting than we realize…God wants us to pour hearts out to him… That is what he allowed with Martha. [R. Kent Hughes. John: That You Might Believe. (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1999) p. 284]
Don’t be afraid to be honest with God. He can handle your honesty. Notice that God does not reprove nor rebuke Martha for her honesty. And He’ll speak truth into your troubles once you communicate your heart. God already know your heart but he can’t correct the problem of your heart until you admit your feeling.
Jesus answers her by saying in verse twenty-three by saying, "Your brother will rise again." Martha responds to Jesus in verse twenty-four with the fact that she does indeed believe in a future day of resurrection, "I know that he will rise again in the resur-rection at the last day."
Martha’s response is typical even today. It sounds like the correct Sunday School answer, the correct theoretical theology but it is disconnected from life.
He’s A Savior Who Can Handle Our Honesty
Secondly, We Have A Savior Who Deserves Our Commitment (vv. 25-27)
Here now Jesus makes one of his most famous and most significant “I AM” sayings in John’s Gospel. Jesus is not just saying that he can provide resurrection and life though this is certainly implied. Jesus says that He is resurrection and life. And further more He makes it clear that this eternal life is possible not just after death in the distant future, but through Him, in the present for he said: in verse twenty-five, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. (26) And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die….”
Jesus did not mean of course that believers would not die physically. He is not saying that the believer will never pass through the gateway we call death, but rather that the life he gives continues through that death. Death cannot blot out the life that Jesus gives.
Then Jesus asks Martha “the” most important question that any one can ever face. His teaching about the resurrection is not just an interesting piece of information about matters beyond our reach. It is a saving truth to be received in faith and acted upon. And so Jesus asked Martha in verse twenty-six, “Do You believe this?” He is not asking, Do you believe in God? Do you believe in an afterlife? But rather do you believe in Me? Do believe that I am the resurrection and the Life.
It is common among Christian to always remember Martha as the lady was “distracted with much serving” while her sister Mary sat at Jesus feet absorbed with the teaching of Jesus (Luke 10:41-42). But it is apparent that Martha could and did learn. It is worth bearing in mind that no clearer declaration of faith in Jesus has been recorded up till then.
So what does Martha say. To her credit Martha responds by saying, in verse twenty-seven, “Yes, Lord, “I believe, that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world." She said literally, “I have believed,” her use of the perfect tense indicates a firm and continuing commitment. The perfect tense is normally used of something that happened in the past in such a way it continues into the present. “Her “I” is emphatic. Whatever the case with others she has put her trust in Jesus. “I believe” or better “I have believed” indicates a faith once given and permanently remaining.” [Leon Morris. The Gospel According to John. The New International Commentary On the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdman’s, 1995) p. 488]
“She says, “Yes Lord I have believed. I never stopped believing. I’ve always trusted in you. Despite all that’s gone on these last four days, I’ve never stopped trusting. You are the Christ. You are the Son of God.” She doesn’t say I believe in you because you did this or that. She says I believe in you because you are the Christ. You are the Son of God.
Now Martha quickly goes back into action by running to tell her sister that Jesus had arrived. Mary then goes out to meet Jesus and in verse thirty-two says the same thing that Martha has said, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." Mary begins to weep, Martha begins to weep, all those with them began to weep. And then we read the shortest verse in the Bible, verse thirty-five, “Jesus wept.”
We Have A Savior Who Deserves Our Commitment
Third, We Have A Savior Who Is Moved By Our Sorrows. (vv. 35-37)
“Jesus wept. (36) Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!" (37) And some of them said, "Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?"
The shortest verse in the Bible but one filled with meaning. The tears of Jesus speak of his tender compassionate heart. Even his enemies have to remark, in verse thirty-six, “see how he loved him.” Notice that with the active and thoughtful Martha He responded by reasoning with her and with the tender-hearted Mary, he wept. The Lord always responds to us in accordance with our make up. The fact that Jesus wept reminds us that although God permits the suffering in our lives he also feels it with us. This episode reveals that the Lord is deeply moved by the pains and sorrows of his children.
We Have A Savior Who Is Moved By Our Sorrows.
Fourth, We Have A Savior Who Has Demonstrate His Ability (vv. 38-46)
“Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. (39) Jesus said,(1st Command) "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days." (40) Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" (41) Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.”
There some things we can do for ourselves and Jesus does not do for us what we can do for ourselves. Jesus could have rolled the stone away by act of his divine will, yet he asks those present to roll the stone away.
To Martha the removal of the stone was an unnecessary and distressing thing to do. It is possible that the only purpose she could imagine; was that Jesus wished for a last look at his friend. Martha tries to reason with Jesus by pointing out that Lazarus has been dead for four days and decay of the body has no doubt already begun, and what he desired would not be any possible consolation. It was Martha’s belief that Lazarus was now dead beyond all recall. But the question that begs to be asked is; “Would it have been easier to raise Lazarus if he had been dead, for a single day or even for a few hours?” No, dead is dead and only God can bring the dead back to life.
Now in verse forty-one we read, “And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. (42) And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me." (43) Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, (2nd Command) "Lazarus, come forth!" (44) And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, (3rd Command) "Loose him, and let him go."
Jesus prayed out loud in order to focus the faith of those who stood around him, in order that they might believe. Jesus simply ordered the stone to be removed and then with a loud voice commanded Lazarus to come forth. This is not a whisper or even a firm request (Gr. Kraugazo) is a shout of raw authority. Augustine in the fourth century said that “it was good that Jesus called Lazarus by name or else the whole cemetery would have come out of the grave.”
In my mind eye the scene at the tomb is fascinating. The crowd no doubt waited in breathless anticipation, they listened so intently that they heard the sound of their own hearts; then slowly out of tomb, moving with great difficulty because of being wrapped head to foot in grave clothes, came Lazarus – out of the tomb alive. There Lazarus stands before Jesus wrapped from hand to foot in the grave wrappings. And Jesus is no doubt talking to Lazarus reassuring him (what is he saying?) And the crowd what are they to do? It is a little humorous! There are strict rules about touching the dead. So who is going to help Lazarus? After all he is not dead anymore. Well is not hard to imagine that is Jesus that is the first to embrace his friend Lazarus, the recently dead.
Again the people are asked to become a part of the miracle, to do what they could do, when Jesus tells them to “take off the grave clothes and let him go.” (v. 44)
Every miracle Jesus ever performed resulted in a choice, people could believe or people reject the truth and walk away. In verse forty-five we read, “Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. (46) But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did.”
The mourners who had come to comfort Mary and Martha were stunned by the miracle they had witnessed. According to John’s report “many believed” (v. 45) but others rushed to report to the Pharisees what Jesus had done.
Conclusion
I want to conclude with these words of Leon Morris, “When anyone sees that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, he is challenged to do something about it. He cannot regard this as a curious piece of knowledge to be put away safely in some file of comparative religion. He may take it seriously, in which case he responds to it with a wholehearted faith. He puts his trust and faith in Christ and receives that gift of life that means that he will die in any meaningful sense. Or he may reject it and withhold faith, in which case he numbers himself among those who do not know life and never will.” [Leon Morris. Reflections on the Gospel of John. Hendrickson Pub.: Peabody,Mass. p. 412.]
So what will it be for you today? Will you take the challenge to faith seriously, will you put you faith and trust in Christ today? Or are you going to reject him and turn away? Choose life!!
