Kaleo San Diego Church

Please open your Bibles to John 20:31-Let’s read

John 20:31- but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

John is writing to the Church, and he tells us that the purpose of recording these signs is “that you may believe” and by doing so “you may have life in His name.”

As we read through verse 11-44, I want us to keep that in mind. I want us to remember that this very sign has been recorded for us to believe in Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God.

Pay attention to the discussion of believing in this passage, as Christ tells us why He let Lazarus die.

Read John 11:11-44

Let’s examine this story:

Verse 11 These things He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up."

14 Times the bible describes the death of a believer as “sleep.” It is a way of poetically saying that someone is dead. This is not what the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe which is a “soul sleep”

The Jehovah’s Witnesses say that when you die, you sleep in death, knowing nothing.

Yet this is totally contradictory to the biblical teaching of death.

Genesis 2:7 The Bible teaches us that man was created out of the dust of the earth, and that God breathed life in him so that he may be a living being.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

In the new testament, James says that the body without the spirit is dead. And Paul tells us that to be “absent from the body is to be present with the Lord”.

So we know that when we die, the grave gets the body, but the spirit is separated and stands before God.

As a matter of fact, we see this example when Jesus raises Jairus daughter from the dead:

Luke 8:54-55 But He put them all outside, took her by the hand and called, saying, "Little girl, arise." 55 Then her spirit returned, and she arose immediately. And He commanded that she be given something to eat.

Hebrews 9:27 tells us “and as it is appointed a man to die once, but after this comes judgment.”

Physical death is not the end, or the period to finish the sentence of life, it is a comma, and your location after standing before God when you die, is fixed upon your relationship in His Son.

Verses 12-13 Then His disciples said, "Lord, if he sleeps he will get well." 13 However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.

Here continues the common patter in this Gospel where Jesus’ hearers totally misunderstand what he says because they are thinking in a literal fashion what Jesus is saying metaphorically. But Jesus constantly uses this as a way of opening the door for further teaching.

I believe He does this for us. He says something to us that causes to respond with an eye that is focused on the temporal and physical, and then he opens up His teaching to us in the eternal and spiritual realm.

Verse 14 Then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead.

Jesus abruptly tells them “Lazarus is dead.” The tense of the verse actually means “Lazarus has already died.”

Verse 15 "And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him."

Here it seems strange that this would be a time to rejoice in a friends death, yet that is exactly what Jesus is telling them. He is glad.

This should shock some of you. “Lazarus is dead and I am glad.”

But Jesus already knew that the reason for this was “for God’s glory” (verse 4). But now He says that His joy is for His disciples “so that you may believe.”

We know that they were believers in Jesus, so why would He say that this was done so that they might believe?

Simple, their faith was still weak. We know this because they forsake Him when He is taken to be crucified.

Faith is progressive. A person does not have a mountain moving faith immediately after conversion. Faith comes as a gift from God, and is developed by God through trials and tribulation.

It grows as our circumstances in our life test our faith. God uses these circumstances to deepen the roots of our faith in Him so that we can draw from His living water.

As I said last week, we become the most diligent and fervent in our prayers when we are under the weight of trials and pain.

God loves us enough to wound us, so that we come to Him for healing, and through His touch we trust Him more and more.

Verse 16 Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him."

If any of you know Thomas, you know that he was nicknamed “doubting Thomas” for a reason. He seems to constantly lack faith. He seems to doubt what Jesus tells Him.

Yet here He is so moved by Christ telling him that Lazarus is dead for their benefit, He bravely says “let’s go die with Him.”

Thomas knew that the Jews were looking for Jesus to kill Him, yet he doesn’t care. In his moment of faith, he is willing to lay down his life to follow Jesus.

This is exactly what the Bible teaches us to do. In the next Jesus tells us:

John 12:24-25 24 "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 "He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

A disciple of Jesus should have the same boldness that Thomas demonstrates at this time.

Yet Thomas will also leave Jesus. He forsakes Jesus though Jesus has promised that He will never leave or forsake Thomas.

Yet we see that beauty of our Lord as He takes Thomas doubt and replaces it with faith:

John 20:24-29 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord." So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." 26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!" 27 Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." 28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Jesus tells us that we are blessed, because we have not seen and yet we believe!

Verse 17 So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days.

The four days is significant. There was a Jewish belief that the soul stays near the grave for three days, hoping to return to the body. But on the fourth day it sees the body decaying and leaves.

Jesus uses this superstitious belief to demonstrate to the Jews that there was no hope of Lazarus returning from the dead. He was four days dead and already stinking!

The only hope for Lazarus was for God to raise Him from the dead.

Verses 18-22 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. 20 Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. 21 Then 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."

Martha is not chastising Jesus. She is telling Him that she believed if Jesus was their, He could have kept Lazarus from dying.

Even though Martha knew that Jesus waited an extra two days to come to her brother, she doesn’t try to rebuke Jesus. She doesn’t say “why didn’t you come” she is simply in pain and states a fact of her faith. If you had been here…She expresses regret, not rebuke to her Lord.

This should be the same for us. It is totally acceptable for us to express regret to our Lord, but we are never to rebuke Him for His saying two more days and not coming at the time and in the way we expect.

Martha then says that she believes that Jesus can ask God anything and God will give it. Yet I don’t think she is thinking of Lazarus being raised from the dead. This seems clear by her following comments.

Verse 23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

Jesus begins to reveal to Martha what He is about to do, but He speaks somewhat vaguely. He leaves his comment hanging for a moment without explanation. He knew Martha was familiar with the great resurrection of the dead, so he turn her thoughts to resurrection.

Verse 24 Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

Martha immediately assumes that Jesus is speaking of the final resurrection at the end of the age. She still has no idea what Jesus is about to do.

She thinks Jesus is giving her some comfort by telling her “it’s ok, one day he will rise from the dead.”

Jesus opens the way to make a powerful declaration of Himself.

Verse 25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.

So far in this Gospel, Jesus has claimed many things about Himself.

He has claimed of Himself that He is:

The bread of life-meaning that He is the only thing that can give eternal nourishment to those that hunger and thirst for such food.

The light of the world-meaning that man has been blind and in darkness until His coming, and now He becomes light in darkness and gives sight to those who are spiritual blind.

The Door-meaning that He is the only way that one is allowed to enter into the sheepfold of God’s people.

The Good Shepherd-meaning that He is the one that is Pastor and Master over the sheep. He tends and cares for us and He knows us by name.

And here we see this might declaration in the context of the death of His friend that He loved. He is “the resurrection and the life.”

He doesn’t simply say that he will give resurrection and life. He is saying that resurrection and life are so closely associated to him that HE is the resurrection and life.

Without Him there is no life and there is no resurrection from the dead.

The Bible teaches us about the importance of the resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:1-22

1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 11 Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. 12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up--if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

The resurrection is such an essential doctrine to us as believers that we are told that if we are not going to be resurrected, then Jesus was not resurrected. And if Jesus is not resurrected that we are still in our sin and our faith is useless!

This is not just a New Testament idea. As a matter of fact, when Jesus wants to leave a discussion with the Pharisees and Sadducees, He simply brings up the resurrection and walks away so they can argue with themselves.

They already had “ideas” about what the resurrection meant.

Job 19:22-27 25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; 26 And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God, 27 Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

Job knew that his redeemer, God, lived. He knew that one day God would stand on the earth. He knew that even after his death, when his body is all but destroyed, he would still see God with his own eyes!

Earlier in this Gospel, John tells us in John 5:28-29 28 "Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 "and come forth--those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

Believers will once again be reunited with a new body. We will be given a resurrected body.

1 Corinthians 15:42-43 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.

Philippians 3:20-21 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.

Unbelievers will rise to eternal death, that is, to shame and torment in hell forever.

Isaiah 66:24 "And they shall go forth and look Upon the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, And their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh."

Matt. 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matt. 25:41 He will say to those on His left, "Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

Rev. 1:7 Look, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen.

Verse 26- "And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

What a question. Do you believe this? Do you believe that Jesus is speaking truth to you. That He promises us we will never die, that we will be resurrected again, we will live with Him for eternity, with no more pain, or sorrow. No more death, or darkness. No more decay of sin. Christ has defeated all of that by being “the resurrection and the life!”

Do you believe this?

Verse 27 She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."

Good answer Martha! This should be our answer. If you are out of Christ, the answer to this question has eternal consequences.

Verse 28-32 And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, "The Teacher has come and is calling for you." 29 As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. 31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, "She is going to the tomb to weep there." 32 Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died."

We see each time Mary is with Jesus, she is at His feet. What a great example when we are in a place of despair. Simply fall at Christ’s feet in humility and reverence to your King.

How does He respond to his friend that He loves?

Verse 33-34 Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. 34 And He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see."

In the Greek, when you put words together that He “groaned” and was “troubled” it is a picture of agitation, irritation, and mostly anger.

Jesus was angered and irritated by death.

We are told in Genesis 2:17 "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

God is life. When we are walking away from life, we are walking in death, away from God. I am speaking about those that are not God’s children.

In the book of Romans, Paul says “the wages of sin is death.”

Death is a horrible intrusion. It is not natural. It was not part of the initial creation of Adam and Eve. They were to live forever.

Yet when sin entered into this world, death came through sin.

We have earned death as a wage, but the gift of God is eternal life.

Sin is death and grace is life. It is that simple.

He is agitated that death exists because of the sin of man. That all of creation us under this great burden of sin that weighs everything downward towards destruction.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that “death is our enemy.”

We shouldn’t simply resign to this being the Lion Kings “circle of life.” It is only because of sin that this happens to each of us.

We can work out all we want, we can take vitamins all we want, we can visit the plastic surgeon all we want, but one day death will come to take us and there is nothing we can do to avoid it.

10 out of 10 people will die.

I am glad that He is agitated at death. I am glad He doesn’t simply shrug His shoulders at death.

Verse 35 Jesus wept

As Jesus is there, He sees His loved ones crying, He knows the pain they are in, and He is moved in His humanity.

There are some that will say that Jesus was only God or only man. He was both. He was the God-Man.

In His humanity He gave us examples of how to live in our relationship with God. And here we see the example of how we are to live in compassion in relationship with man.

Verse 36 Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!"

What beautiful words to you today. You can have comfort in knowing the heart of God. Jesus as your friend weeps and loves you.

Verse 37 And some of them said, "Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?"

People love to blame God. They accuse God of being lazy because they don’t see the entire picture as we do.

This is like walking into a movie and seeing the first 5 minutes and assume you know what is going to happen. It is arrogance that someone could assume such things about God when we are only 5 minutes into history.

Verse 38-40 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, "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?"

Jesus reminds Martha as we all need to be reminded tonight, that “if you believe you will see the glory of God!”

Do you believe that? If you believe…..You will see the glory of God!

Remember these words as you doubt God’s abilities and sovereignty. Remember Jesus telling Martha “Did I not say to you.” Remember how Jesus needs to remind us of the importance of our faith in Him.

I believe if we stayed in that place of simply believing God, we would resolve almost every effect of problems in our life.

I don’t mean that we would resolve the problem itself. I can’t promise that God will take away cancer. I can’t promise He will make you rich. I can’t promise He will heal you marriage. But the effects of those problems can be eliminated by trusting in God’s total sovereignty in our lives.

We are to stay shipwrecked on the rock of God’s sovereignty at all times.

Verses 41-42 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. 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."

Jesus begins by thanking God that God always hears the prayers of Jesus, always, without exception.

He then explains the reason for His prayer is for those standing by Him so “that they may believe” that God has sent Him.

This entire story is summed up in those words. “That they may believe.” The purpose of Lazarus sickness, the purpose of Lazarus death, was all for the Glory of God, that the Son of God would be glorified.

Verses 43-44 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "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, "Loose him, and let him go."

Jesus commands Lazarus to come from death to life. He simply calls His name and he who died is now risen!

What beauty in this picture. Lazarus is dead. 4 days dead, already decomposing and yet Jesus calls Him from death.

This is a great picture of our salvation. In Ephesians 2:1 says “you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”

We don’t seek after God. Romans 3:11 says “there is no one who seeks after God.”

Yet God comes to us in our death and gives us life! He calls us from death to live in His life.

And as Jesus said to them to “loose him, and let him go” so Jesus after raising us from the dead, removes our binds that held us in sin and gives us freedom!

This is all for His glory, and from the fountain of His great love for us.

CONCLUSION

I can’t manipulate you into believing. I can take a stick and try to prop you up, but you will still be as dead as Lazarus. But I can speak this story to you and pray that God will call you. I can speak this story and give you the same promise that Jesus did with those who listened to His words “If you believe, you will see the Glory of God” and “all that believe in Me, though he shall die, he will live!”

I pray as believers we will grow in our faith from this story. I pray for any that may not identify themselves with Christ, that you think of Lazarus and what would have become of Him, had Christ not come to raise Him from the dead.

Pray.

Communion

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