Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.probap.church/sermons/100216/john-1138-44/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] Well amen and good morning. It's good to see each of you today. Please take your copy of God's Word this morning and turn with me once again to John chapter 11,where we'll conclude our consideration of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Because we have spent the last two weeks working our way carefully through this chapter, and because some of you may have not been with us for every part of the study,I want to begin by reminding us of the road that John has taken us in bringing us to this moment. [0:35] Because what happens at the tomb in verses 38 through 44 cannot really be understood apart from everything Jesus has already said and done throughout the chapter. [0:49] John 11 began with a problem that from the perspective of Mary and Martha seemed simple enough. Their brother Lazarus was sick. [1:01] Jesus loved Lazarus and therefore the sisters sent word to Jesus with what was almost certainly the expectation that the one who had healed so many strangers would surely come quickly to help someone whom he personally loved. [1:15] Yet from the very beginning, Jesus interpreted Lazarus' illness differently than everyone else did. Because whereas Mary and Martha saw an emergency that needed immediate intervention, Jesus saw an occasion through which the glory of God would be displayed. [1:34] He says in verse 4, And that statement governs the entire chapter. [1:49] Before Lazarus dies, before Jesus ever arrives in Bethany, before Martha comes running to meet him, before Mary falls weeping at his feet, and before Jesus stands outside the tomb, He has already told us what all of this is ultimately about. [2:06] It is about the glory of God being revealed through the Son of God. And then as we saw when we began this chapter, John tells us something that initially seems almost impossible to reconcile with the love of Christ. [2:20] John explicitly says that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, and then, rather than saying that because he loved them, he immediately left for Bethany, John says that because he loved them, he remained where he was for two additional days. [2:39] In other words, the delay of Christ was not a contradiction of his love, it was an expression of his love. Because Jesus intended to give this family something far greater than the immediate relief that they were asking him to provide. [2:55] They wanted Jesus to prevent Lazarus from dying. Jesus intended to reveal himself as the one who possesses authority over death itself. [3:07] That distinction matters because it reminds us the love of God cannot always be measured by how quickly he delivers us from difficulty, nor can the goodness of God be assessed simply by comparing his providence with the outcome we would have preferred. [3:24] There are times when the love of Christ leads him to give us precisely what we ask for. And there are other times when that same love, operating according to wisdom infinitely greater than our own, leads him to delay, to withhold, or even to take us through circumstances we would never have chosen for ourselves. [3:47] The sisters prayed in effect, Lord, come and heal Lazarus. Jesus loved them too much merely to answer that prayer in the way they expected. [4:01] As the chapter continues, Jesus eventually tells his disciples plainly that Lazarus has died, and then he adds something which, apart from everything else we know about him, might almost sound cruel. [4:14] For your sake, I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. Jesus is not glad that Lazarus suffered, nor is he delighted in the grief of these sisters. [4:30] Rather, he is glad because he knows that what he is about to reveal concerning himself will strengthen the faith of his disciples in a way that merely preventing the sickness from ending in death never could. [4:43] And so the themes emerge clearly. Glory, faith, resurrection life. By the time Jesus arrives in Bethany, Lazarus has already been in the tomb for days. [4:59] And Martha, upon hearing that Jesus is approaching the village, goes out to meet him and says what has surely passed through the hearts of countless believers in moments of suffering. [5:09] Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. There is faith in that statement, but also confusion. [5:23] Martha believes Jesus possesses extraordinary power, but she cannot yet understand why he did not exercise that power when she wanted him to exercise it. [5:33] And it is into that confusion that Jesus speaks perhaps the most important words in the entire chapter. I am the resurrection and the life. [5:47] Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. Jesus does not merely tell Martha that he is capable of performing a resurrection. [5:57] He tells her that resurrection is inseparably bound up with his own identity. I am the resurrection and the life. [6:09] He is not merely one who possesses life. He is the life. He is not simply someone through whom resurrection may occur. He is the resurrection. [6:21] Then he turns this great theological declaration toward Martha personally and asks, Do you believe this? [6:32] Martha responds with that remarkable confession. Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. Then Mary comes and when she arrives, she falls at Jesus' feet and repeats the same words Martha had spoken. [6:49] Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Jesus sees Mary weeping. He sees the mourners around her weeping. [7:01] He sees everything that sin and death have done to this family, their hopeless grief. And John tells us that he is deeply moved and greatly troubled. [7:14] Then comes that simple sentence, Jesus wept. We saw last week that this is not merely the emotional response of a sympathetic friend, although it is certainly that. [7:29] Rather, there is something deeper happening in Jesus. Because the language John uses conveys not only sorrow, but indignation. [7:40] Jesus stands in the presence of death and is moved with holy anger. Jesus grieves because death and unbelief is an enemy. [7:52] But he does not grieve as one who is powerless before that enemy. He is about to confront it. Christian hope does not eliminate grief. [8:07] It gives grief something to hold on to. So with that, we come to John chapter 11, verses 38 through 44. [8:20] Let me pray for us before I read it. Father God, we thank you this morning for your word. We thank you that you have not left us to invent our own ideas about your son, but have given us this inspired testimony so that seeing who he is and understanding what he has done, we might believe that Jesus is the Christ. [8:44] And that by believing, we might have life in his name. Guard us, we pray, from the kind of familiarity that allows us to read of a dead man walking out of a tomb without being astonished by the glory of Christ. [9:03] Give us eyes to see him, ears to hear his word, faith to trust him, and hearts that delight in his glory. And Father, if there are those among us who remain spiritually dead in their sins, would you, through the gospel this morning, cause them to hear the voice of your son and live? [9:26] We ask this in Jesus' name and for the glory of that name. Amen. John 11, I'll begin reading in verse 38. Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. [9:41] It was a cave and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead for days. [9:57] Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believe you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. [10:12] I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me. When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. [10:26] The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. [10:39] If you'll allow, I'd like to draw your attention to our text in four alliterated points. You know, I've heard the argument made at times that alliteration is meant to help us remember the points of a sermon, but I'm fully aware that too much is said in these sermons for you to really remember the points. [10:58] I'm hoping that you might take notes or go back and listen to the recording later. So I want you to know that I alliterate just for fun. I spend a lot of time staring at words on a page, and so I just enjoy doing it. [11:14] So there we are. The Baptist joke often seems appropriate. I don't do it for that reason. I do it because it's fun. So, number one, Jesus confronts death. [11:27] We see these in these first two verses, and I've mentioned it already. John's description is almost startling in its simplicity. [11:39] There's no attempt to dramatize the scene artificially because the facts themselves possess more than enough weight. There's a cave. There's a stone covering its entrance. [11:51] There's a dead man inside, and standing outside is Jesus Christ, the one who has just declared himself to be the resurrection and the life. [12:03] John tells us that Jesus is deeply moved again using the same strong language we encountered earlier in the chapter, which means that as Jesus approaches the tomb, he is not merely experiencing the sadness of a friend who has lost someone he loves. [12:18] He is confronting with holy indignation the dreadful reality of death and unbelief itself. The Bible never treats death and unbelief as though it belonged to the original goodness of God's creation. [12:33] When God created the world, he looked upon all that he had made and declared it very good. But death, doubt, entered through sin. [12:46] So what now seems universal and unavoidable is nevertheless an intruder into the world that God made. Paul writing in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 does not call death our friend. [13:01] He calls it the last enemy. That distinction is important because Christians sometimes speak about death so casually that we unintentionally say more than Scripture itself says. [13:14] It is true that for the believer, death has lost its condemning power. It is true that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. It is true that death cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. [13:30] But none of that means death itself has somehow become good. We were created for life with God and therefore when the eternal Son of God through whom all things were created comes face to face with the devastation death has brought into His creation. [13:50] He is deeply moved. And He says in verse 39, take away the stone. Notice the authority with which Jesus speaks. [14:04] He doesn't ask whether everyone is comfortable with the opening of the grave nor does He offer a lengthy explanation of what He intends to do. He simply commands that the stone be removed. [14:15] And Martha immediately raises what from every ordinary human perspective is a perfectly reasonable objection. Lord, by this time there will be an odor for He has been dead for days. [14:31] Fun fact, the King James renders this statement by Martha. Lord, by this time He stinketh. death. It's remarkably direct. [14:43] But it communicates exactly what Martha understands about the situation. Jesus has told them to open a grave containing a body that has been dead for days. Martha is not denying Jesus' power in some abstract sense. [14:57] She has already confessed that He is the Christ, the Son of God. What she is struggling with is the collision between what she believes about Jesus and what she knows about the body lying behind that stone. [15:11] Lazarus is dead. Not recently. Not apparently. Not unconscious. Not hovering somewhere near death. Lazarus is dead and her faith is faltering. [15:27] John is taking great care to remove every possible natural explanation for what is about to happen. Because Lazarus has been in the tomb long enough that decomposition has begun. [15:40] And Martha knows it well. Lord, he stinketh. Now, a tomb allows us to place a boundary around death. [15:53] We know what is inside but the stone prevents the side of it, sterilizes its reality. There's something merciful about burial for that very reason because we commit the bodies of those who we love to the ground rather than watching the process of decay unfold before us. [16:14] But Jesus orders the boundary removed. He is about to confront death in all its ugliness. And this is where we need to remember that Christianity is not fundamentally a program designed to help basically healthy people become somewhat better versions of themselves. [16:35] If our problem were merely ignorance, Jesus would have come as a teacher. If our problem were merely bad habits, Jesus would have come as a moral instructor. [16:49] If our problem were merely political disorder, Jesus could have come as a statesman. If our problem were merely emotional instability, Jesus could have come as a counselor. [17:03] And it comes as many of those things. But our problem fundamentally goes far deeper than any of those things because we are sinners standing under the sentence of death. [17:16] Alienated from the God who made us and incapable of resurrecting and rescuing ourselves. Jesus did not come merely to improve our lives. [17:28] He came to give life to the dead. And so, although His Lordship certainly transforms marriages and families, affects the way we work, teaches us how to forgive, changes how we handle money, and reshapes every dimension of human life, we must never reduce Christianity to just those things. [17:51] The gospel is not fundamentally about becoming a nicer person. the gospel is about reconciliation with God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. [18:03] It is about resurrection. I have no doubt that Paul has this miracle in mind as he writes in Ephesians chapter 2. [18:14] And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now in work and the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. [18:40] But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. [18:54] By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. [19:12] Jesus we see first confront death. Second, Jesus calls us to see his glory. [19:25] Verse 40, Jesus responds to Martha, did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? Now the great theme has governed this entire chapter returns. [19:42] Jesus began by saying that Lazarus' sickness was for the glory of God so that the Son of God might be glorified through it, and now standing outside the tomb with Martha understandably concerned about what will happen when the stone is removed, Jesus calls her back to what he has already said. [20:02] Did I not tell you? That question is more important than we might initially realize, because Jesus does not answer Martha primarily by giving her new information, he answers her by reminding her of the word she has already received. [20:22] And very often, that is precisely what struggling faith needs. There are seasons in the Christian life when what we most desperately require is not some new revelation from God, but a renewed grasp of what God has already revealed. [20:40] We are slow learners and quick to forget, particularly when suffering narrows our vision. We know that God is sovereign, but the circumstances begin to unravel and we find ourselves behaving as though he has lost control. [21:00] We know that Christ loves his people, but then he delays in answering a prayer and we begin to interpret silence as indifference. We know that the promises of God are certain, but then death, sickness, disappointment, fear, occupies the whole field of vision and suddenly the things we confessed yesterday seemed much more difficult to believe today. [21:30] At that point, the written word comes to us as Jesus comes to Martha and asks, did I not tell you? Did I not tell you that I am the resurrection and the life? [21:44] Did I not tell you that whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live? Did I not tell you that no one can snatch my sheep from my hand? Did I not tell you that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose? [21:59] Did I not tell you that nothing in all creation can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus? faith does not require us to know everything God is doing. [22:17] Faith requires us to trust what God has said. And Jesus tells Martha that through believing she will see the glory of God. [22:29] And Jesus tells Martha that if she will grasp hold of this reality, she will be enthralled. Now we need to be careful with these words because this verse has sometimes been interpreted as though Martha's faith itself were the force that would make the miracle possible. [22:49] As though Jesus was saying that if she could summon enough confidence, her faith would unlock divine power. That cannot possibly be the point. [23:01] The power of this passage does not belong to Martha's faith. The power belongs to Jesus Christ. Lazarus will not walk out of the tomb because Martha has finally achieved the proper psychological condition. [23:14] He will walk out of the tomb because the Son of God possesses authority to give life to the dead. Faith does not create the glory of Christ. Faith beholds the glory that already belongs to Christ. [23:29] That is an enormously important distinction, particularly in an age when faith is so often treated as though it were a force within us by which we manipulate outcomes. [23:42] Biblical faith is not confidence in confidence. It is not believing strongly enough that something desirable will happen. Biblical faith has an object. [23:56] It rests upon the character, promises, and person of God supremely revealed in Jesus Christ. And that brings us to the question, what exactly is the glory Martha is about to see? [24:13] Certainly she is going to witness something spectacular because her brother is about to walk out of his tomb. But in John's gospel, the glory of God is never merely spectacle. [24:29] John told us at the very beginning of the gospel that the eternal word became flesh and dwelt among us, and that in him the disciples beheld the glory of the only Son from the Father. [24:42] In other words, the glory of God is being revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. If you want to know what God is like, look at the Son. [24:55] This morning as we consider Christ standing outside the tomb, behold your God. This morning as we look and read testimony of the resurrection of Lazarus, behold your God. [25:11] Faith beholds the glory of Christ. So when Jesus tells Martha that she will see the glory of God, he is not merely promising her an extraordinary moment. [25:23] He is inviting her to see more clearly who he is. And Christian faith still does exactly that. [25:34] Faith looks through the providence. It cannot explain to the Christ whose character it knows. And consider how remarkable the revelation is here. [25:52] Jesus firstly confronts death. Secondly calls us to see his glory. Thirdly Jesus communes with the Father. [26:04] Verses 41 and 42 so they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said Father I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me but I said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me. [26:24] For those keeping score this is I argue the chiastic center of the text. Although we have not arrived at the middle of the sermon. [26:35] verse 41 begins so they took away the stone. There's a quiet beauty in the simplicity of that obedience. [26:50] Jesus has spoken Martha has expressed her concern Jesus is a reminder her of his promise and now the stone is removed. Then John tells us and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said father I thank you that you have heard me. [27:10] Before Jesus speaks to Lazarus he speaks to his father and for a moment John allows us to overhear something of the communion that exists eternally between the father and the son. [27:24] This relationship has been one of the dominant themes of John's gospel from the beginning. The son is from the father. The son is sent by the father. The son speaks the words of the father. [27:35] The son performs the works of the father. The father loves the son. The son perfectly delights in the will of the father. There is no competition within the Godhead. [27:48] No disagreement of purpose. No reluctant father whom the compassionate son must somehow persuade to be merciful. Father and son act in perfect unity. [28:00] me. And so Jesus lifts his eyes and says father I thank you that you have heard me. Notice the tense. Jesus does not say father I hope you will hear me nor does he say father please decide now whether you will grant my request. [28:19] He thanks the father that he has heard him. Whatever communion has already passed between father and son concerning Lazarus is not recorded for us. [28:31] But Jesus thanksgiving makes clear that the miracle about to occur is the outworking of their perfect agreement. Then he says in verse 42 I knew that you always hear me. [28:47] There has never been nor could there ever be a defect in the communion between the father and the son. Every prayer of Jesus arises from perfect righteousness perfect wisdom perfect submission and perfect fellowship with his father. [29:02] And that matters because Lazarus' resurrection is not intended merely to demonstrate that Jesus is a powerful miracle worker. It reveals his identity who he is. [29:18] Back in John 5 which in a broader chiastic structure corresponds with this chapter after Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda and the religious leaders became enraged because he was making himself equal with God Jesus explained that the son does what he sees the father doing. [29:40] And among the divine works Jesus explicitly claimed for himself was the giving of life. He said for as the father raises the dead and gives them life so also the son gives life to whom he will. [29:56] Now several chapters later the truth of that claim stands before us in visible form. The father gives life the son gives life the father and son are not competing agents but act together in the work of God. [30:14] And therefore when Jesus stands in front of Lazarus grave and prepares to call him out we are seeing more than a prophet through whom God happens to perform an extraordinary miracle. [30:25] We are seeing the divine son exercising the life giving authority he shares with the father. Jesus then explains why he has prayed aloud. [30:39] I said this on account of the people standing around. In other words the prayer is not necessary because the father needs information or persuasion Jesus prays audibly for the benefit of the crowd and why to what end to what benefit that they may believe that you sent me. [31:08] For those of you who don't know I'm a type 1 diabetic my phone is on silent but not when my blood sugar is dropping so that's what's beeping very loudly I'm okay don't worry about me my little stumbles over words have been because I think my blood sugar is dropping but we're going to make it through I'm going to make it to a glass of juice my lovely wife is going to go get me one right now thank you Sam I don't think I could tell her no at this point so she'll bring it up here momentarily this is another great theme of the chapter right not only glory but belief Jesus said the disciples would believe he asked Martha whether she believed now he prays so that the crowd might believe and eventually John will tell us that's why he wrote the gospel itself John 20 you've heard this many times verse 30 and 31 [32:11] Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name the signs are never intended to terminate upon themselves they're not the point John does not want us merely to walk away saying what an astonishing miracle he wants us to ask what does this miracle reveal about Jesus and the answer is that Jesus is the Christ the Son sent by the Father the one in whom life is found Jesus confronts death number one Jesus calls us to see his glory number two [33:14] Jesus communes with the Father number three and lastly Jesus commands the dead to live we see this in the last two verses in closing when he said these things he cried out with a loud voice Lazarus come out and that was fun we will forever remember that stain and where it came from now we arrive at the moment toward which the entire chapter has been moving when he had said these things Lazarus come out perhaps the most astonishing feature of the miracle is the complete absence of pomp there is no ritual there is no incantation there is no elaborate ceremony jesus does not plead with death negotiate with death or engage in some cosmic contest whose outcome remains uncertain until the final moment he simply speaks and the dead man obeys that should be astonishing to us we are not dualists thinking that somehow the battle between light and death is not already settled jesus simply says lazarus come out i think our familiarity with the story sometimes prevents us from feeling the force of what john records imagine that you have been there you have watched lazarus become sick you have heard that he died perhaps you had helped wash and prepare the body you have attended the burial you watched as his body was carried into the doom and the stone rolled across the opening four days have now passed and you have spent those days sitting with the sisters bringing food speaking words of comfort and doing what people have always done in the face of death grieving because there's nothing else that you can do then [35:34] Jesus arrives! into the darkness of the tomb perhaps already recoiling at the spell that Martha had warned them about and Jesus cries with a loud voice Lazarus come out then from inside the tomb there is movement the man you buried walks out John records it with such understatement the man who had died came out this is exactly what Jesus said earlier in John's gospel would happen in John 5 he declared that the hour is coming when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live what happens in Bethany is therefore not merely an isolated demonstration of miraculous power it is a preview of the life giving authority that belongs to the Son and a sign pointing forward to the final resurrection there is a connection here [36:39] I think with the opening chapter of John's gospel where Jesus identified as the eternal word through whom all things were made in Genesis God created by speaking let there be light and light appears God's word does not merely describe reality God's word brings reality into existence and now the eternal word through whom creation was made stands in front of a grave created by the consequences of sin speaks into the darkness and where there was death there is life the creator exercising his authority over his creation and at least three great truths emerge from this moment first Jesus possesses absolute authority over physical death Lazarus contributes absolutely nothing to his resurrection which is obvious enough once we say it the theological significance is enormous thank you babe if you were listening to this recording [37:53] I spilled I spilled juice all over the stage and now my wife loves me enough to bring me another cup and paper towels to mop up my mess sorry for the distraction in case you thought I was a handsome robot that's an old ongoing joke right Lazarus has done nothing to make this possible right Lazarus does not hear the command of Jesus evaluate the evidence consider whether the resurrection would be desirable and then cooperate by summoning enough strength to come back to life he's dead Jesus supplies everything necessary Jesus calls Jesus gives life now we should distinguish carefully between Lazarus resurrection and the resurrection Jesus himself will soon experience because Lazarus is restored to ordinary mortal life and will therefore die again someday a mortal life he has received an extraordinary restoration but he has not yet received the final glorified body promised to the people of [39:07] God his resurrection is a sign pointing beyond itself towards something greater there is coming a day when Jesus Christ will speak again and every grave will yield its dead on that day those who belong to Christ will not merely return to another period of mortal existence in which death waits for them again the perishable will put on the imperishable the mortal will put on immortality the bodies of God's people however weak diseased broken aged or decayed they may have become will be raised in glory what hope the Christian has secondly Lazarus' resurrection gives us a vivid picture of the sovereign grace of God in salvation now we should not turn John 11 into an allegory because John is recounting an actual historical event in which an actual dead man was physically raised from an actual tomb nevertheless the rest of scripture uses the language of death to describe our spiritual condition apart from [40:20] Christ and therefore the scene before us provides a powerful illustration of what divine grace must accomplish if anyone is to be saved Paul I read earlier says in Ephesians 2 that we were dead in trespasses and sins that diagnosis is considerably more serious than the way human beings naturally think about themselves we tend to imagine that our fundamental problem is lack of information lack of discipline bad examples unhealthy environments or poor choices and while all of those things may play some role in human behavior scripture reaches beneath them to a much deeper reality apart from Christ we are spiritually dead and dead people do not need advice they need life that is why salvation must be a work of sovereign grace from beginning to end the doctrine of regeneration is not some cold theological abstraction best left to seminary classrooms it is tremendously hopeful it means the salvation of those you love does not finally depend upon your ability to persuade them you should speak clearly you should answer objections thoughtfully you should live faithfully you should pray persistently but in the end salvation belongs to God look at [41:52] Lazarus's tomb the deadness of Lazarus did not exceed the power of Christ and the spiritual deadness of the sinner you love does not exceed his power either we cannot raise the dead but Christ can so preach the gospel pray love patiently speak truth and do not confuse the apparent hardness of the sinner with weakness in the Savior third Lazarus's resurrection points us forward to the resurrection of Jesus look carefully again at verse 44 the man who died came out his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth Lazarus comes out of the tomb still dressed for burial his body is alive but the signs of death remain wrapped around him and so [42:53] Jesus commands unbind him and let him go hold that image in your mind because John is going to take us eventually to another tomb there will be another stone there will be more linen cloths there will be another face cloth but when Peter and John enter Jesus tomb on resurrection morning they will not find Jesus stumbling toward the entrance still wrapped in burial garments needing someone else to untie him they will find the linen cloths lying there and the face cloth folded separately the distinction is theologically significant Lazarus has been restored to mortal life Jesus rises as the victorious beginning of the new creation Lazarus will die again Jesus rises never to die again Lazarus resurrection is a sign [43:55] Jesus resurrection is the victory so Jesus confronts death calls us to see his glory communes with the father commands the dead to live had you stopped the story at almost any point before verse 43 and attempted to evaluate the faithfulness of Christ merely by the visible circumstances you might have concluded that something had gone terribly wrong but nothing went wrong Jesus knew precisely what he was doing the delay had a purpose the journey had a purpose the tears had a purpose the tomb itself had a purpose and through all of it Christ was moving toward the revelation of his glory some of you may presently be living somewhere in the middle of a story whose conclusion you cannot see you know that Christ loves you but you cannot reconcile that love with what he has allowed you have prayed and the answer has been delayed you believe but you are grieving you trust him you cannot imagine how the circumstances presently in front of you could possibly serve any good purpose [45:12] I cannot promise you that every grave you stand beside will open in this life John 11 does not give us space for that kind of promise Lazarus resurrection is a sign not a guarantee that every tragedy will be reversed according to our preferred timetable but the sign points to something far greater and far more certain resurrection is coming if you belong to Jesus Christ there is no sorrow in your life which can overturn his purposes for you no loss which can separate you from his love no enemy capable of surviving his kingdom and no grave capable of holding you when he commands you to rise there is coming a day when the voice heard outside Lazarus tomb will sound again only on that day there will be no temporary restoration to a mortal life that eventually ends in another funeral there will be resurrection unto everlasting life [46:22] Jesus is the resurrection and the life believe him trust him wait for him hold up and hold on and expect the glory of our God let's pray together