Grave Robber
Text: John 11:17-44
Introduction
1. For nearly thirty years, the One who had crafted the universe with His voice crafted furniture with His hands. And He was good at what He did ”no crooked table legs ever came out of the carpenter’s shop in Nazareth. But Jesus was more than a master carpenter. He was also God incognito. His miraculous powers rank as history’s best-kept secret for nearly three decades, but all that changed the day water blushed in the face of its Creator. That was the day the wood bender became a water bender. Jesus manipulated the molecular structure of water and turned it into wine - 757 bottles, no less. And nothing but the best. This wasn’t just wine, it was fine wine.
2. Thirty-four distinct miracles are recorded in the Gospels, while countless more went unrecorded. John’s Gospel spotlights seven miracles, unveiling seven dimensions of Jesus’s miraculous power.
A. In John chapter 2, the miracles begin with Jesus turning water into wine.
B. In John chapter 4, Jesus heals a nobleman's son long distance, revealing His lordship over latitude and longitude.
C. Then, in John chapter 5, He reveals His mastery over chronology, reversing thirty-eight years of pain and suffering with one command.
D. In John chapter 6, Jesus feeds five thousand with five loaves and two fish. In God's kingdom, 5 + 2 doesn't equal 7.
E. His encore is waltzing across the waves on the Sea of Galilee.
F. In John chapter 9, there is more to the miracle than meets the eye. Jesus doesn't just heal a blind man's eyes; He hardwires a blind man's brain by creating a synaptic pathway between his optic nerve and visual cortex.
G. And just when you think you've seen it all, the Grave Robber turns a tomb into a waiting room. Lazarus is four days dead when Jesus calls him to come out. That miracle foreshadows His own death and resurrection.
3. The seven miracles in John's Gospel are seven signs, and each sign points straight to Jesus. So let me offer a word of caution: Don't seek miracles. Seek Jesus. If you follow Jesus long enough and far enough, you'll eventually find yourself in the middle of some miracles.
A. Everyone wants a miracle. But here's the catch: No one wants to be in a situation that necessitates one!
B. Of course, you can't have one without the other. The prerequisite for a miracle is a problem, and the bigger the problem, the greater the potential miracle.
C. If the wedding party in Cana hadn't run out of wine, there would have been no need for the Wine Maker to do what He did.
D. What the bride and groom perceived as a problem was really a perfect opportunity for God to reveal His glory.
E. And nothing has changed since Jesus turned water into wine, healed a man born blind, or walked out of the tomb three days after His crucifixion.
4. The resurrection of Lazarus teaches us is that Jesus has...
A. Power Over Time
B. Power Over Death
C. Power Over Chains
5. Let's stand together as we read John 11:17-44
Proposition: He is the God who can make your impossible possible!
Transition: First Jesus has the...
I. Power Over Time (17-22).
A. If Only You Had Been Here
1. Let me set the scene for you. Jesus receives a message that his good friend Lazarus is seriously ill, and it is requested that he come at once. However, instead of dropping everything and coming to the rescue Jesus waits two days before heading to Bethany, where Lazarus, Mary and Martha live.
2. John tells us, "When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days."
A. We have no description of the journey. John simply tells us that when Jesus arrived he found that Lazarus had already been buried for four days.
B. We do not know how long before that he died, but probably not long because, remember this was the ancient Middle East and they didn't have the same technology and science like we do today.
C. The four days may be significant. There was a Jewish belief that the soul stays near the grave for three days, hoping to be able to return to the body.
D. But on the fourth day it sees decomposition setting in and leaves it finally.
E. If this view was as early as the time of which we are thinking it will mean that a time had been reached when the only hope for Lazarus was a divine act of power (Morris, The New International Commentary on the New Testament – The Gospel According to John, 484).
3. Then John tells us, "Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, 19 and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss."
A. John inserts a typical note concerning the lay of the land. He locates Bethany with precision as "less than two miles" from Jerusalem.
B. By contrast, when he is referring to this family Luke speaks only of "a village", giving neither the name nor the location.
C. John's note about distance serves a twofold purpose; it explains how "many Jews" could be there to comfort the sisters, and it tells us that Jesus had practically reached Jerusalem for the climax (Morris, 485).
4. When he finally gets there Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died."
A. Martha's greeting is an expression of faith: had Jesus been present her brother would not have died.
B. In the story in Luke Martha rebuked Jesus because he did not tell Mary to help her with the housework, and some hear an implied rebuke here, too.
C. Why had Jesus not been there when he was needed?
D. Martha knew when the message had been sent to him and she knew how long it had taken him to get there.
E. Even if Jesus had not waited and come right away he could not have arrived in time, but Martha may have been upset about his waiting two days.
F. But she does not say "If only you had come—." Her remark expresses regret rather than rebuke. It may well echo what she and Mary had often said to one another during the past few days (Morris, 487).
5. However, Martha then adds, "But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”
A. The meaning of this verse is puzzling. On the surface it seems to mean that Martha knew that Jesus could even now perform the miracle, he could raise Lazarus from the dead.
B. But the rest of the narrative shows that she cannot have meant that, or at any rate that if she did mean it she was not able to sustain the incredible faith the words imply.
C. When Jesus commanded that the stone be taken away from the tomb it was Martha who objected the most.
D. Her attitude there is so clear that it seems impossible to reconcile it with any real hope of a resurrection here.
E. "Even now" may perhaps point to the thought of a resurrection, but equally the expression may be logical with the idea of: "If you had been here my brother might not have died, for I know that God gives you the things you ask."
F. "Whatever" is plural. It does not point to any one gift, but to whatever things Jesus should at any time ask (Morris, 487).
G. She did not realize, understand, or dare to hope that Jesus would ask God to give Lazarus back his physical life and be returned to his family.
H. Instead, she reaffirmed her trust in his power even though she thought Jesus had missed an opportunity to display it by healing her brother (Barton 423).
B. No Time Restraints
1. Illustration: John Maxwell writes in his book, Partners in Prayer;
"In the summer of 1876, grasshoppers nearly destroyed the crops in Minnesota. SO in the spring of 1877, farmers were worried. They believed that the dreadful plague would once again visit them and again destroy the rich wheat crop, bringing ruin to thousands of people.
The situation was so serious that Governor John S. Pillsbury proclaimed April 26 as a day of prayer and fasting He urged every man, woman and child to ask God to prevent the terrible scourge. On that April day all schools, shops, stores and offices were closed. There was a reverent, quite hush over all the state.
The next day dawned bright and clear. Temperature soared to what they ordinary were in midsummer, which was very unusual for April. Minnesotans were devastated as they discovered billions of grasshopper larvae wiggling to life. For 3 days the unusual heat persisted, and the larvae hatched. It appeared that it wouldn’t be long before they started feeding and destroying the wheat crop.
On the fourth day, however the temperature suddenly dropped, and that night frost, covered the entire state. Result - it killed every one of those creeping, crawling pests as surely as if poison or fire had been used, It went down in the history of Minnesota as the day God answered the prayers of the people." As usual God came through just in the nick of time.
2. We serve an awesome God who is not limited by time.
A. 2 Peter 3:8 (NLT)
But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.
B. We are limited by and subject to time restraints, but we serve a God who is not.
C. We have bill collectors that function based on time.
D. We have doctors who are limited by time.
E. We have situations that are governed by time.
F. But we serve a God who transcends time.
G. He is not subject to or limited by time.
H. He doesn't worry about time because it has no control over him.
I. But let me tell you this one thing; God is not going to let you down and he will be there just in time because he is an on time God.
J. Like the song says, "He's an on time God, yes He is. Oh, oh, oh ! on time God, yes He is. Job said, He may not come when you want Him, but He'll be there right on time. I tell yah, He's an on time God, yes He is."
Transition: Secondly, Jesus has the...
II. Power Over Death (23-30).
A. I Am The Resurrection
1. Jesus now moves Martha in a new direction of faith. He says, “Your brother will rise again.” To which Martha replies, "yes, he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”
A. Jesus spoke in an unclear way so that Martha might exercise faith.
B. The future tense could mean either Lazarus' immediate restoration or the resurrection of the last day as she understood.
C. When Jesus Said, “Your brother will rise again,” she attributed it to the future resurrection—“When everyone else rises, on resurrection day.” But Jesus did not mean an eventual, distant resurrection, he meant that Lazarus would rise again that very day
(Barton, 423).
D. It is rather amazing that she believed in a future resurrection since the Old Testament has only a few passages concerning the final resurrection (The Complete Biblical Library – John, 317).
E. However, Jesus taught regularly on the resurrection, and since he had spent a considerable amount of time in their home it's not surprising that she accepted his teaching on the matter.
2. Then Jesus takes her even further down the road of faith. He says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
A. Without hesitation Martha associates Jesus promise with the resurrection at the second coming.
B. Her words express that she had no concept of an immediate raising of Lazarus from the dead, but rather point to a future resurrection of all believers.
C. Furthermore, you could even say that she that Jesus words were meaningless attempts at consoling her like so many others had been doing.
D. However, her words open the way for one of the great declarations of Jesus in this Gospel. Jesus does not say simply that he will give resurrection and life.
E. So much are resurrection and life associated with him that he says that he is the resurrection and the life.
F. The linking of resurrection and life perhaps points to the truth that the life he brings is the life of the age to come.
G. Those who believe on Jesus will live even though they die. The paradox brings out the great truth that physical death is not the important thing.
H. For the unbeliever death may be thought of as the end. Not so for those who believe in Christ. They may die in the sense that they pass through the door we call physical death, but they will not die in a complete sense.
I. Death for them is the gateway to eternal life and fellowship with God. It means that the moment we put our trust in Jesus we begin to experience that life of the age to come, which cannot be touched by death.
J. Jesus is bringing Martha a present gift, not simply the promise of a future good (Morris, 488).
K. Everyone who lives and believes in Jesus will never die. Jesus does not, of course, mean that the believer will not die physically.
L. Lazarus was dead even then, and millions of Jesus' followers have died since. He means rather that believers will not die in the sense in which death has eternal significance.
M. They will not die in the age to come. They have eternal life, the life of the age to come. Jesus rounds this off with a challenge: "Do you believe this?"
N. His words about faith and life are not a philosophical expression to be argued. They are a saving truth to be received in faith and acted on (Morris, 489).
3. Now listen to her response to Jesus. “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.”
A. These words of Martha do not always receive the attention they should. When Martha and Mary are spoken of, Martha is usually characterized as the lady of whom Jesus said, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better...".
B. But with all her faults, Martha was a woman of faith and hers is a powerful declaration.
C. First, she agrees with what Jesus has said. She is not choosing her own way but accepting his. She may not understand fully the implications of what he has just said, but as far as she can she accepts it.
D. Then she expresses her faith in her own words. Whatever be the case with others she has put her trust in Jesus. "I believe" or better "I have believed" indicates a lasting and enduring faith.
E. She brings out three points. First, Jesus is "the Christ," that is the Messiah of Jewish expectation.
F. Second, he is "the Son of God." It is an expression which can mean little more than that the person so described is godly, but it can also point to an especially close relationship to God. It is in the latter sense that it is used throughout this Gospel, and, indeed, John writes with the purpose of bringing people to faith in Jesus as the Son of God.
G. Third, she speaks of Jesus as "who was to come into the world", that is the long-awaited Deliverer, the One sent by God to accomplish his will perfectly.
H. Taken together these three affirmations give us as high a view of the person of Christ as a anyone can have. Martha should be remembered by this moving declaration rather than by her worst moment of criticism and fretfulness (Morris, 489).
B. Where O Death
1. Illustration: You cannot un-bake cookies, uncut hair, undelete documents, or un-run red lights. These are a few of the lessons I’ve learned the hard way. Some of those lessons were easily laughed off after a little embarrassment. Then there are those irreversible moments that leave a hole in your heart forever ”like standing at the foot of a casket.
If you've been on the receiving end of divorce papers, answered a frantic phone call in the middle of the night, or gotten lab results from your doctor that affirm your worst fears, you know that feeling all too well. It feels like your life is over. But it's not over until God says it’s over!
When Jesus walked out of the tomb, the word impossible was removed from our vocabulary. And His resurrection isn't something we celebrate one day a year on Easter Sunday. It's something we celebrate every day in every way.
2. Since Jesus overcame the grave, he has opened the door for us to overcome it too!
A. 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 (NLT)
54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
B. As Christians we do not fear death because like Jesus it has no hold on us.
C. In rising from the dead Jesus not only proved that he was who he said he was, the unique Son of God, he also paved the way to victory over death for us.
D. As Christians, death is not the final word or the end of the story for us.
E. No, death is only the beginning because as Christ was raised from the dead we too have the hope of the resurrection.
F. O death where is your victory? O death where is your sting?
G. Thanks be to Jesus death is nowhere, nothing, nadda, it is finished!
Transition: Jesus has power over time, death, and...
III. Power Over Chains (31-44).
A. Didn't I Tell You
1. Now the scene shifts from Martha to her sister Mary. When she heard he had arrived she went running to him. Those mourning with her thought she was running to Lazarus' grave to weep, but she was running to see Jesus.
2. When she saw him she said the same thing to him that Martha had said, "Lord, if only you had been here my brother would still be alive!"
3. Then John tells us, "When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. 34 “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.”
A. The previous verse has said nothing about Mary's tears, but they were to be expected, and this verse makes it clear that she was wailing in grief, as were the Jews who had accompanied her.
B. The word signifies a loud weeping, a wailing. It was the habit of Jesus day to express grief in a noisy, out of control fashion and this is what these mourners were doing.
C. With a crowd of people all doing this there must have been quite a scene of confusion and sorrow.
D. The sight of it caused Jesus deep emotion. The verb rendered "he was deeply troubled" is an unusual one.
E. It signifies a loud unintelligent noise, and its proper use appears to be for the snorting of horses.
F. When used of people it usually denotes anger, and that this is the meaning here; and it is probably anger against death that is meant.
G. It must refer to his deep concern and indignation at the attitude of the mourners.
H. They so completely misunderstood the nature of death and that of the Person of the Son.
I. Even Mary, who from what we know of her elsewhere might have been expected to have understanding, had her thoughts firmly fixed on earth (Morris, 493).
4. Then we read one of the most remarkable verses in the entire New Testament if not the entire Bible, "Then Jesus wept."
A. In this, the shortest verse in the Bible, the noteworthy thing is that a different word is used for weeping than that used of Mary and the Jews.
B. The word used of them means a loud, demonstrative form of mourning, a wailing.
C. That used here (and here only in the New Testament) signifies rather a quiet weeping.
D. Jesus did not wail loudly, but he was deeply grieved.
E. As in verse 33 this will not be because of the death of his friend, for he was about to raise him. It will be because of the misconceptions of those around him (Morris, 495).
5. Next John tells us, "Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. 39 “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”
A. This verse is of the greatest importance for John's understanding of what took place. The Evangelist puts some stress on the fact of the death of Lazarus.
B. He leaves no doubt but that he is describing a miracle.
C. First comes Jesus' command to remove the stone, then Martha's astonished protest based on the certainty that the body would be decomposing, for it had already been buried for four days (Morris, 496).
D. Or as the KJV renders it "he stinketh!"
6. Then Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?”
A. Jesus firmly rejects the protest. He reminds Martha of his earlier words, What was about to happen would be a spectacular miracle, a display of the power of Jesus, an immeasurable gift to the sisters.
B. But typically Jesus speaks of none of these. For him "the glory of God" was the one important thing.
C. This means that the real meaning of what he would do would be accessible only to faith.
D. All who were there, believers or not, would see the miracle. But Jesus is promising Martha a sight of the glory.
E. The crowd would see the miracle, but only believers would perceive its real significance, the glory (Morris, 497).
7. "So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. 42 You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.”
A. After Jesus' words they moved the stone. Jesus raised his eyes in the attitude of prayer. He addressed God simply as "Father", not as "our Father", because his relationship to the Father is not the same as that of others.
B. The first words of his prayer are a thanksgiving that the Father has heard him. The habitual hearing comes out in the next words, "I knew that you always hear me."
C. "But" is because of the strong opposition Jesus was facing. It was because of the crowd standing around that Jesus had spoken his thanksgiving aloud; the emphasis here is on his concern for the people.
D. John consistently depicts Jesus as dependent on the Father and concerned for his glory. He is not like the run-of-the-mill popular wonder-workers who sought to magnify themselves.
E. So here Jesus acts not of his own will but in dependence on the Father to whom he addresses his prayer. The prayer, publicly uttered, would make it clear to all who heard that he depended on the Father (Morris, 497).
8. "Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”
A. Jesus calls to the dead man. He cried out in a loud voice and addressed Lazarus directly by name, calling him to come out of the tomb.
B. The loud voice was not, of course, because a loud voice was needed to make the dead hear. It was probably in part at least so that the crowd would know that this was no work of magic, but the very power of God.
C. Wizards muttered their incantations and spells, but not the Son of God.
D. John records that the man who had been dead came out. He notes that he was still bound hand and feet with the grave clothes.
E. It is difficult to see how he could walk under such circumstances, and it is possible that we are to understand that this was "a miracle within a miracle.
F. Lazarus does not walk out of the grave; he is rather drawn out tightly bandaged."
G. John concludes his account of the miracle with Jesus' command to loose Lazarus and let him go.
H. Jesus was never so carried away by the wonder of his miracles that he forgot the needs of the person (Morris, 498).
B. Set Free
1. Illustration: In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, U2 front man Bono was asked his opinion on Jesus with this question: "Christ has His rank among the world's greatest thinkers. But Son of God, isn't that far-fetched? The lead singer of U2 and global crusader against poverty responded: "No, it's not far-fetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this. He was a great prophet who had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually, Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook. Christ says, ˜No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me a teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: I'm the Messiah. I'm saying: I am God incarnate. And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet we can take. So what you're left with is either Christ was who He said he was ”the Messiah” or a complete nutcase."
2. What is holding you in chains?
A. John 8:36 (NLT)
So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.
B. There are many things that hold us in chains.
C. Some are held captive by alcohol, drugs, sex and other addictions.
D. Some are held captive by money, possessions, and other material trappings.
E. Some are held captive by relationships, hurts, and painful memories.
F. Some are held captive by fear; fear of the past, fear of the future, and fear of the present.
G. But no matter what holds you in chains today, Jesus can set you free.
H. Just as he set Lazarus free from death, free from the grave, and free from the trappings of his grace clothes, he can set you free.
I. If the Son has set you free you shall be free indeed!
Conclusion
1. The resurrection of Lazarus teaches us is that Jesus has...
A. Power Over Time
B. Power Over Death
C. Power Over Chains
2. When Jesus died on the cross, Satan smirked. But the Grave Robber got the last laugh. He always does. And if you give Him a chance, He'll give you a second chance.
A. He will give you your smile back.
B. He will give you your laugh back.
C. He will give you your life back.
3. Do you believe this? If you do, He will make the impossible possible.
