FROM DEATH TO LIFE, AND LIFE TO DEATH
JOHN 11:45-53
GREENMOUNT AND O’LEARY CHURCHES OF CHRIST
AUGUST 01, 2021
Phillip’s Residence August 07, 2021
Video Link: https://youtu.be/kQn7VZTbao4
INTRODUCTION:
This morning’s message deals with Jesus raising Lazarus back to life. Because of that great miracle the desire to bring Jesus to his death became even greater.
A.) As a result, I have titled my message “From Death to Life, and From Life to Death.
The Timing of John 10 was the feast of Dedication around December or about four months before the crucifixion of Christ.
I am not sure of the time frame between John ten and eleven, but John eleven was very close to Passover when Jesus would have been crucified.
As a guess, I would estimate John 11 to be maybe two or three weeks before the crucifixion of Christ.
JESUS BROUGHT LIFE IN THE MIDST OF DEATH.
Lazarus was dead.
A.) In our message last week we saw that Lazarus was sick but by the time Jesus got there he had died.
B) Certainly, the hope had been that Jesus would get there in time to heal the ailing body of Lazarus and that death would not occur, but that was not the case.
Lazarus was now dead and in the grave for four days.
Any hope of him being restored to life was long since gone.
The Jews had a belief or superstition that the spirit of a person stayed with the body for up to three days after death.
ba.) I have no idea where this thought pattern came from.
bb.) It is not a teaching from the Word of God but more from Jewish folklore.
bc.) Perhaps for the first three days they still held out hope that Lazarus could be restored to life, but by the fourth day, all hope was gone and yet Jesus asked that the stone be removed from the grave.
.01) John 11:38-42
.011) At this point Jesus had not raised Lazarus from the grave but was praying to God the Father.
.012) The prayer which Jesus gave was for a certain purpose.
.013) He did not pray for the resurrection of the dead.
.0131) As a member of the Godhead, Jesus fully had that resurrection power himself.
.014) What Jesus prayed was that the miracle he was about to perform would move those who witnessed it to have faith that Jesus was from God and had been sent by God.
Jesus called Lazarus from the grave.
A.) John 11:43
B)” Jesus called in a loud voice”
ba.) This sounds very similar to the scene when Christ comes back for all those who are in the grave.
bb.) 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
C.) “Lazarus, come out”
ca.) I want you to take note of how Jesus addressed him.
cb.) He specifically called Lazarus by name.
cba.) I believe there was a reason for this.
cbb.) Had Jesus not personally called Lazarus by name then every grave would have opened, and all the dead brought back to life.
cbc.) It would not just have been Lazarus but all who had ever died from the beginning of creation until that day would have come forth alive resurrected from the grave.
cbd.) There will come a day when all who are in the graves will hear the voice of the Son of God, but that day will not be until the end of the world.
.01) John 5:25,28
cbe.) The resurrection of Lazarus was merely a preview of the grand work of God at the end of time.
cbf.) The resurrection of Lazarus merely whetted the appetites of believers of that day, and of Christians who have lived and died in the 2,000 years since that time.
.01) Lazarus was the verification of the testimony that Jesus had just given to Martha that He is the resurrection and the life.
.02) As we think of that title of Jesus, what excitement it brings to our soul as we anticipate that glorious day when every graveyard will proclaim the victory of Jesus Christ.
D.) “The dead man came out.”
da.) John 11:43-44
db.) What a sight this must have been as this man came walking out of the grave with his burial clothes still wrapped around his body.
dba.) Jesus gave orders to remove the burial clothes and free him.
.01) He would no longer be needing the rags of death but would wear the clothes of life.
dc.) Grander than this, what a sight it must have been to see a man walking around who had been dead and buried for four days.
dca.) The shock and bewilderment the people of that day would have had would be no different than if we were to experience such a thing today.
dcb.) Next to the miracle of resurrection Jesus would soon do in his own body, this was probably the greatest miracle that Jesus had performed.
dcc.) It is no wonder that Jesus prayed beforehand that this great miracle would bring people to faith in Him.
THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS SOUGHT DEATH BECAUSE OF GIVING LIFE.
“What are we accomplishing?”
A.) Really and truly for most of the ministry of Jesus the religious leaders had opposed Jesus.
aa.) Even before Jesus they were in opposition to the ministry of John the Baptist.
ab.) After the death of John the Baptist the opposition was focused entirely on Jesus the Christ.
ac.) For over three years, the religious leaders were jealous of Jesus and wanting to get rid of him.
aca.) Things were now coming to a head.
acb.) The council meets together to deal with Jesus.
“If we let him go on like this everyone will believe.”
A.) They fully realized that the resurrection of Lazarus was a miracle, and that miracles had to come from the Almighty God.
aa.) You would have thought this knowledge would have brought them to faith in Christ, yet it only fuelled the fires of hatred against our Lord.
ab.) This miracle was the turning point where plans were officially made to put Jesus to death.
aba.) John 12:10
ab. Because of Lazarus, the religious leaders decided they had to kill Lazarus as well as Jesus, as he was the catalyst bringing so many to faith in Jesus.
aba.) Scripture does not tell us if they murdered Lazarus but after the death of Jesus there would be no further worries over Lazarus.
CAIAPHAS PROPHESIED THAT JESUS MUST DIE TO BRING LIFE TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE.
Caiaphas was one of this group of the Sanhedrin.
A.) We would guess that his heart was every bit as sinful as the others of this group.
aa.) Yet even in the wickedness of his desire to have Jesus put to death, God worked through him in a powerful manner to give a message to the group.
“It is better for you that one man die for the people than the whole nation perish.”
A.) This was a proclamation that had come from God himself.
aa.) The question we must ask is why would God use a man with such sin in his heart to make a proclamation of the plan of God?
ab.) The answer to that question comes immediately after this:
He did not say that on his own
“But as high priest that year he prophesied”
aa.) The answer to why God would use him to give a prophetic utterance is because of the office he held.
aaa.) The man Caiaphas was likely as wicked as the others in the Sanhedrin who wanted to kill Jesus.
.01) Though the man himself may have been a wicked man, the office he held was a position of honour, and an office in some ways representative of the working of God with them.
.02) It was therefore not for the person he was, but for the office he held, that God would work through him to bring this message.
“He prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation,
ba.) What a powerful testimony that must have been.
baa.) I am not sure Caiaphas fully understood all that he had prophesied.
bab.) In his mind he was thinking more of avoiding Roman retaliation against the nation than recognizing Jesus as the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.
bac.) Just the same, God worked through him to reveal the truth that Jesus had come as a sacrifice for the Jewish People.
.01) His prophecy made it clear his sacrifice would not be for the Jewish people alone.
.02) Caiaphas went on and further prophesied to them.
and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God,
ca.) These scattered children of God are separate and distinct from the nation of Israel whom Caiaphas had just mentioned.
cb.) When we consider that, the scattered children of God are referring to the Gentile People -- people who up to this point had not been thought of or considered as Children of God.
cba.) There is no questioning this prophecy had come from the Holy Spirit of God, as I am sure that Caiaphas, nor the others of the Sanhedrin would have of their acknowledged that the Messiah would bring the Gentile people to salvation.
to bring them together and make them one.
da.) This prophecy of Caiaphas goes right back to the prophecy Jesus himself had made in the previous chapter of other sheep.
daa.) John 10:16
CONCLUSION:
1.) One of the greatest miracles of Jesus was bringing Lazarus from death to life.
A.) As powerful as the transformation from death to life, how much greater is the transformation spiritually from death to life.
B.) Jesus went from life to death that we might come from death to life.
C.) If you are spiritually dead today, won’t you come from death to life through Jesus the Christ who died, was buried, and then raised to life for you?
D.) Pledge your life through faith in Christ in the waters of Baptism.
