Answers Bible Curriculum: Lesson 4 - Jesus Has Power Over Death

Father, you are God who has, just made everything. You're the one who is behind, The power of, of the whole universe and of what we see in our world. And as we examine again your power today and, and what it means for us, we just wanna open up our minds to you and, and Lord, I ask your Spirit to teach us. help me to be clear with this, material today, and, and Lord, I pray that it would be a blessing to everyone.

In your name, Amen. We'll be looking at, at today, the resurrection. Of Lazarus. But, what we'll be doing as we go through this, really kinda underneath the whole thing is, the impact of resurrection power.

What does that really mean to us, for us, for the way we think and for the way we live our lives? because this is a big deal. for us in Not just for hope for the future, but it's for how we see things, for a perspective on life and upon what it meant for Jesus Christ to come into the world and, and so we'll be looking at it from that aspect. We're in this series, called The Authority of Jesus, and how Jesus is expressing in his ministry, his authority over things.

And, today is power over death. We've looked at his mission, which began with his mission. His power over nature, his power over disease, and today his power over death. A couple of weeks ago, we looked at his power over nature.

We looked at him walking on the water in the middle of a storm. We looked at his power over the storms, his power over physical laws that he himself created, his power to be able to, to operate in, in a way that's, supernatural., it's not normal. We don't get to walk on the water. But, but Jesus did it, and he had the power to do that.

We also saw his, his power over disease and over, human frailty, disabilities that people have. And so we saw a man who was born blind that, that Jesus gave him eyesight. we've, we've seen his purposes, we've looked at his purposes and his power to be able to deal with these things. And one of the things we did in the first session, that Mike taught was, looked at the purpose behind these things, what, what Jesus is trying to demonstrate.

So I want to do a little bit of a review over that, in looking at his purposes, it's good for us to go clear back, I think, to the beginning, back to Genesis, and, and to look at the purposes, to look at what God is doing. When God was finished with creation, he declared it to be very good. We studied that a couple of years ago when we began our whole series of in Genesis, and after placing man in this realm of good, Man believed a liar. This liar came along and, and, persuaded man.

To choose something different. And man chose to enter into the realm of good and evil. The creator, however, loved these creatures. So much that he made, that he had made in his own image.

He chose to enter into this realm with them. In order to restore them one day to a realm of good with him. Through many divine interventions, God has shown to man that he is ever involved in always directing man's events toward a resolution. Of the curse that has come upon him.

While man is still locked into this realm, experiencing joys and sorrows, triumph and failure, health and sickness, sunshine and storm, peace and war, birth and death, God has been intervening and calling men back to him. From his promise to crush the head of the serpent, God's intervention has been in play until it will be completed in the death and resurrection of His own Son. The apostle John described it like this in John chapter one. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Like a laser flashing through the darkness, this light comes with great energy and cannot be stopped. And this light brings life. To a death condemned race. That's where we are when we pick up our event for today and looking at Jesus coming to Bethany.

To, to heal or to raise Lazarus from the dead. And when Jesus came into the world, and he began to do this, his ministry, began to do these wonderful works, what he's demonstrating is he has the power to overcome The curse, power to overcome, these things that, that are always, mounting upon us and, and, wrecking our lives and, and destroying us. He has the power to deal with us. And so he's gonna be, he's gonna be showing with this, resurrection of Lazarus that he has the power to deal even with death.

the, the greatest enemy that we have. So if you turn with me to John chapter 11, We'll be looking at this account. Before we begin reading it though, I do want to introduce the characters. that will be, involved with in this chapter.

First, we have Jesus and his disciples. And this is down toward the end of his ministry. In fact, it's pretty much about a week before the crucifixion. So these disciples have been with Jesus for 3 years or more.

they've been through with him, they've seen a lot. They've experienced a lot, they've learned a lot. And they are, except for one, very committed to Him. They, they've demonstrated this commitment and, As we're gonna, read in this section, we'll, we'll see the level of commitment.

They, they, actually their commitment is to death. they're, they're willing to go that far. they're very committed to Him. So this Jesus and His disciples, we have Lazarus, Mary, and Martha.

Who are described as being very good friends of Jesus. they host Jesus and his disciples in their house. when they come that way, they, they are very friendly and they're believers. and this gets expressed very clearly in this chapter as well, that they, their depth of belief is, is very real and, and enduring.

They truly believe that he is the Christ. He's the promised one. And so that's the good friends that, that, that are of Jesus here. we have the mourners.

And these are people from the Jerusalem area. Excuse me, Bethany is just 2 miles away from, from Jerusalem and so there's, there's a lot of people that are here, these mourners. Now these mourners, are going to play a role because they're gonna be witnesses, witnesses to this amazing event. And, and so that's 11 of the, the positive things for them being there.

But they're there really to support Mary and Martha in their time of grief. And, and, and, this, this is a very important part of the role that they play for Mary and Martha, to give them that support because their grief is real and, and it's heavy. And, and as we all know, because all of us have experienced having lost someone that we cared very much about, that we loved, and we know what that feels like. And we know how good it is to have someone who supports us.

So these, these are important people that are in this event. And we have the Pharisees and the Sadducees. the Pharisees and Sadducees. Also play a role in this story at the end.

And the Pharisees and Sadducees. are really bitter rivals, and it'd be good if you ever, get a chance to, to, if you haven't done it already, do some research on these, these two groups of people. The Pharisees and the Sadducees, We people that that prior in their history, earlier in their history actually had bloody civil wars with each other and fought for domination in, in the rule of things. The Pharisees were the, were the group of people that, that wished to maintain The Jew their Jewish distinctions.

And they wanted to resist the, the Greek culture that was, that, that everyone lived in and, and so on, but they wanted to maintain the Jewish culture, maintain the strict observance of their laws, and, and so that was, that was what they believed in. And that's how they lived. The Sadducees, however, were heavily influenced by the Greek culture. They came from, mostly from Alexandria and the, the Greek cultureization of the Jewish people mostly happened in Alexandria.

Alexandria, which is over in northern Egypt, It was a place that many Jews went to. and that's where the Septuagint, was, was the translation, the Greek translation of the Old Testament occurred there. A lot of scholars, Jewish scholars there, and, and a lot of philosophical debate, but the Hellenization of Alexandria was also very strong because of course, it's named after Alexander. and, and, and so the, it's has this very dominant Greek influence.

As a result of that, the people who, who came from there, particularly the, the priests, the excuse me, the Levites that came from that area. were more, influenced by, Greek, philosophy. they were very pragmatic in their points of view. that's why they didn't believe in the resurrection.

they didn't believe in angels and there was other things that, that they didn't go along with. And they were, they were willing to, to make some trade-offs., some of the Jewish distinctions for some of the, the Greek influences. Because of the way they were. They were more trusted by the Romans.

the, the, the, Pharisees tended to from, from their points of view came the, the zealots, those who want to restore Israel to being a prominent nation. the Sadducees weren't interested in that. They were interested in, just getting along with the culture around them. And just becoming part of it and they find their part and their place of influence and power.

And, and so as they became the, the, the power brokers, which they did, all the high priests were sadducees. and so consequently, they controlled pretty much what went on in the temple area and they gained a lot of wealth from it. And so their position was really important. So these are the players.

that are in this. This, event that we, that we're gonna be looking at. So let's begin reading. verses 1 to 7.

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. So the sister sent word to him saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. But when Jesus heard this, he said, this sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was sick, he then stayed 2 days longer in the place where he was. Then after this, he said to the disciples, let us go to Judea again. There are a couple of things I want to just to remark upon.

I'm not gonna do a complete exposition on this whole chapter. We're just gonna pull out some things that have to do with the point of the authority of Jesus over death. And that's what we'll be looking at. One of the, the, the first things that jumps out at me here in this, in this section is that those whom Jesus loves suffer loss.

And, and It's good for us to be clear about that. That in God's plan, God doesn't spare his children. From, or, or make it impossible for them to feel the impact of living in this realm of good and evil. We're going to feel pain.

We're going to suffer loss. That's part of us living here. And so when we hurt, it's good for us to remember. That we chose this.

Back in the Garden of Eden, we chose this. This is, we believe the lie. This is where we went. And so, so we did, we chose this.

However, The loved ones suffering, don't suffer in vain. When, when We are children of God and, and we belong to Him. He knows what we go through. He understands it all, but it's not just a wasted event.

It, it has purpose. And so we, we can understand that sometimes our suffering is because of our own, it's our own fault and, and, and we're paying consequences for sins that we've committed. sometimes it's, maybe not for sin, but it's for our growth, so that we can, overcome certain things or become more than what we are now. It, it, it edges us toward maturity.

And so sometimes the suffering is for those reasons. And God doesn't waste anything. Sometimes it's for, really not for us, but it's for somebody else. And it's for His glory that he does it.

And he has the right to do that, and we need to relinquish that to Him. And, and be able to, to, to understand that our suffering, even though it's painful for us, is for good. And that's one of the things that comes out in, in, Romans 8:28, right? And then, if you took the time to read through that commentary on Ecclesiastes that we got this summer, There's an excellent chapter on this, chapter 15 that I'd recommend to you if you haven't read it yet.

the, the title of the chapter is The Crook in the Lot. So hopefully that'll make you curious and you wanna go read it. it's, it's really good and it really lays out this whole concept of suffering and, and, and, what it does for us. Why it's there.

But just understanding. That these are people that Jesus loves. Jesus cares about them. And yet Lazarus gets sick.

Jesus knows what's gonna happen. Jesus doesn't just from a distance, airmail, a healing to him and, and then he gets well, and, and that's how he treats his friends, they get special treatment. No. actually, he's going to use the suffering of not only Lazarus, but then his two sisters as they suffer the loss.

He's gonna use their suffering to demonstrate something powerful for all of us. And that is what, how God works, many, many times. And we need to be OK with that. Another thing we see about Jesus in his getting the news of Lazarus, being sick is he, he, he's very deliberate in his actions.

He's not reactive to it. He doesn't panic. He doesn't run around and say, what are we gonna do? I can't get there right away.

We're, we're a ways away, a couple of days' journey., he doesn't, act that way at all. There's no uncertainty, but there's purpose. There's, he's very purposeful in what he does. so, as he's, he's reacting to this, he reacts in a very calm way, in a, in a way that he knows what he's doing.

And as we see through the rest of the story, he does know what he's doing. And that's one of the things we need to take hope in when we're in, in suffering, is that God knows what he's doing. He has a purpose for it. He, he has a way of dealing with it, and he's always right.

He's always right. He doesn't make a mistake. He's not slipping up. he, it's not getting by him where he, he missed that one.

No, he knows. And he's, he has a plan for this. He has a reason, and he's always right. All right.

So let's go on to the next section. Read up through verse 16. Then after this, he said to his disciples, let us go to Judea again. The disciples said to him, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and you're going there again?

Jesus answered, are there not 12 hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of the world. If anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him. This he said, and after that, he that he said to them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go so that I may awaken him out of sleep.

The disciples then said to him, Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover. Now Jesus has spoken of his death, but they thought that he was speaking of literal sleep. So Jesus then said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead, and I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there so that you may believe, but let us go to him. Therefore, Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, Let us also go so that we may die with him.

So here we have, the reaction and then the plan. This is what, what we're, what Jesus is going to do. And we see some interesting things. First of all, we see A, a response that Jesus has to his disciples of a very, they have a clear question and he has a response that most of us, if we, if we were there in their place, we'd be just like them, like, what does that have to do with what we just said?

And Jesus often did that. He often had what some commentators call veiled responses. But one of the things that's important for us to see is that his answer was to get them, and it's also to get us to think beyond the immediate. Jesus is thinking, a big picture.

He's always thinking big picture. And so he's trying to get them to think bigger too, and to expand beyond it. But one commentator that I read, talked about this aspect, and that is that there is safety in living in the will of God, even in the realm of evil. Now Jesus and his disciples had just left Jerusalem because they had threatened to stone Jesus and, and says it's, it was not yet his time.

And so they left Jerusalem. It was dangerous there. things were already escalating toward this idea of killing Jesus. And so that's why Thomas has responded the way he did.

And why the disciples actually were alarmed. Like why would we go back? We just left there because we had to escape for our lives and, and Jesus is saying, We need to go back. The, the, the, and there is a timing in things.

Jesus knows that his time is getting close now. And so that it is time to go back. Lazarus is, is, one of the, the ways of, of reasons for going back that there's gonna be more cause, the, the passion week is, is just about to begin. But there is safety in living in the will of God, in the sense that when God is directing our life, And we're doing what he wants us to do.

He takes care of us even in the midst of, of all kinds of evil that's around us. And, and you probably read missionary biographies and, and, and other bio Christian biographies of people who have been faithful, stayed true in the midst of, of storm around them. danger that, at least when I read it, my reaction is they're nuts, they need to get out of there. And, and, And sometimes that is the right thing to do is to get out of there because Jesus left with his disciples, but then they went back.

So there's, there is that sense of understanding the will of God and, and knowing what to do and, and, and having wisdom with that. but the time is to go back. Another thing that I think is important to draw out of this for our lesson today is that Jesus views death from a position of power. Rather than a position of hopelessness or helplessness probably is a better word.

That we have. See, our position is with death, we're helpless. Now, yeah, we have doctors and we have medicine and we have treatments and so on that can, can help sometimes. you can offer first aid for someone who is bleeding, get the bleeding to stop and hopefully prevent the death.

But when death comes, It comes. Everybody dies. We can't stop that. Jesus uses a euphemism.

He calls it sleep. He has a, a, a different perspective about death. And God sees death from a different point of view than we do, naturally, because he's in a different place and he has greater wisdom and, and vision. He's all knowing.

He, he sees it all. and so it's helpful for us to begin to try to see it the way he sees it. Even though we're limited, and so on, we don't have to be hopeless with death. we, we actually as believers, Paul says that we don't need to grieve as if we have no hope, right?

That we do have hope. And Jesus is giving us a different view, a different way of looking at death, that we're, we don't need to see it so permanent. It's not the end of the story. and as we're gonna see, there is a hope in resurrection.

OK, let's go to Verse 17. So when Jesus came, he found that he had already been in the tomb 4 days. Now, Bethany was near Jerusalem, about 2 miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. Martha, therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet him.

But Mary stayed at the house. Martha then said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again.

Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection of life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this? She said to him, yes, Lord, I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, even he who comes into the world. One of the things that is so powerful about Jesus' statement. is when he, he's, we see that in him is life.

And that's how John, the writer of this story, begins his gospel, as we read in that preamble, that in him is life. And that life is the light of men. In him is life. And one of the things that Just kinda should jump out.

This is a powerful, powerful statement, that Jesus is making about Himself. No mere human has this power. We are alive, but we don't have the power of life. We can't give life to something else, but Jesus can.

Jesus can give life. He has not only life to sustain himself, but to sustain all of us. He has the power of life. And And so he has the ability with this great power to be able to impart it to others.

And he's going to demonstrate even to someone who has died, he's able to bring back to life. What an amazing thing this will be. And then he asks the question. Do you believe this?

Jesus is claiming and about to demonstrate that he has the power of life. And this question then comes to us as well, I believe. I think when we read this, we should actually ask it of ourselves. Do I believe this?

And Jesus is intending for Martha to respond. But as we read this story, as John is sharing it with all of us, it's good for us to, to say, what do I really believe? Ask myself that. What do I really believe?

When I go to that funeral, that person I really care about, what do I really believe? When I have this loved one or even myself gets really sick, sick unto death. What do I really believe? Jesus.

In his, in his gentle way, but in a provocative way is, is pushing Martha in this point. Do you believe this? So let's move on to the next, see what happens. When she had said this, she went away and called Mary, her sister, saying secretly, the teacher is here and is calling for you.

And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to him. Now, Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house and consoling her, when they saw that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw him and fell at his feet, saying, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled. And he said, Where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept.

So the Jews were saying, see how he loved him. But some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man also from dying? One of the, the things that, that comes out for me in this, this section is, is The personality. of Jesus.

And in the fact that it's being Part of the Trinity, he's representing something about the character of God in relationship to us. Jesus is not placid here. He's not just a bystander. he's not unaffected by what's going on.

Even though he knows that joy is about to come because of what he is going to do. it's not something he's hoping for. It's something he's planned for. He's planned on doing this.

He's planned on bringing Lazarus out of that tomb. He knows this is gonna be exciting. This is gonna be wonderful. People are gonna be very happy.

they're gonna be amazed. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be a really wonderful thing. But in the moment Jesus enters into their sorrow.

And He submits, and what we see from this is that, that he submits himself to our time and space to share our grief. And that is such an amazing quality that God has, that he cares that much about us. Can we grasp the love of God? That did not leave us alone in this realm of good and evil.

When we chose to go this direction, God didn't just throw up his hand and say, OK, you wanna go there, you go there. No, he, he came with us. And he has been with us as a human race ever since. And so he has, not just been a bystander, not just been a god from a distance.

But he has been closely involved in the affairs of, of mankind. He has entered into our sorrows. That's my next point. He's entered into our sorrows.

He has fully entered into our realm of good and evil. He didn't just leave us there as, as I've been saying. the writer of Hebrews describes it in this way is that he knows by experience our infirmities. He knows by experience, he has fully entered into this realm with us.

And he has felt our sorrow. And this is what it means when it says Jesus wept, and when he groaned within himself that, that, that this is him entering into that with us. He's sharing it. He's sharing the sorrow, even though he has a perspective that is way bigger, and he sees the end game.

He also has the ability to enter into our pain, into our sorrow. And, and that is, an amazing quality that he has to be able to enter into. And that's the, the savior that we have that we depend upon. This is the God to whom we pray.

This is the one that we commit our, our future to. And we have our hope in this God who knows us. And so the writer of Hebrews is trying to get us to understand that when he talks about Him having experienced our infirmities, and Isaiah writes about it prophetically that surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, that he knows who we are. He knows what we feel.

Kids, move on, verse 38. So Jesus again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, remove the stone.

Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead 4 days. Jesus said to her, did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? So they removed the stone, then Jesus raised his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that that you always hear me, but because of the people standing around, I said it so that they may believe that you sent me.

When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. The man who had died came forth bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. One of the things that jumps out here in this section is without faith, It is impossible to see the glory of God.

The glory of God is going to be manifest in his, in the things that he does. But without faith, we miss it. Psalm 19:1 talks about the glory of God. The heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands.

That's ongoing from the beginning. It's been going on all along. But here's how man has responded to it. Romans chapter one verse 20 for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what he has made, so that they are without excuse.

So his glory has been declared to mankind from the beginning, but without faith, we miss it. Without faith, we can't see it. The glory just comes around us like sunlight and rain. It hits everything.

But we just miss it. Without faith, we can't see it. And Jesus is in a very specific way with Martha, saying with that unless you believe, you can't see the glory of God. what was the issue here?

She didn't want to open the tomb. She didn't know what Jesus' intentions were. She, she, I don't think she, he had yet grasped that he was planning to do something miraculous. He was grieving.

He wasn't giving off any signs that he was about to, to perform a resurrection. She had no idea So what she had to do was an act of faith in giving permission for the stone to be rolled away. She did give that permission. And, and, and so the stone was rolled away.

And that was her act of faith. She, she had, she trusted him with that. but it is an act of faith for us as well to see, in order for us to see the glory of God. Then in his prayer, he says this, so that they may believe that you sent me.

This is the purpose. This is the purpose. He's demonstrating something. One of the things that, that we feel or that we experience in this realm of good and evil is death.

That's, that's our final thing. And the, the pain that goes with that, the pain, for the loved ones and, and so on, that, that loss that's there, that's, that's so final for us. And Jesus is showing that I have come into this world. To show you, and one of the things I'm doing is showing you.

I am intervening. And so I'm not leaving you. I'm making a way out of you, a way out of this realm of good and evil. I am taking you to a realm of good, but you're gonna have to believe me.

You have to believe me. And so, that's what he's demonstrating here. So that they may believe that you sent me. OK.

So let's finish up. Verse 45. Therefore, many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what he had done, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things that Jesus had done.

Therefore, the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and we're saying, what are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, all men will believe in him. And the Romans will come and take away both our place in our nation.

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, said to them, nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it, it is expedient for you. That one man die for the people and that the whole nation not perish. Now, he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesized that Jesus is going to die for the nation. And not for the nation only, but in order that he might also gather together into one, the children of God who are scattered abroad.

So, from that day on, they planned together to kill him. We see here collusion. Two groups of people who are arch enemies with each other. That are brought together because they have a common enemy.

And of course, that's That happens all the time in history. So they are going to have common cause. And one of the things that we can draw from this is that without faith, even miracles won't make us believe. You probably have talked to people, I have, who have made the same, well, if God would show me a miracle, then I would believe.

Probably not. Because without faith, Even miracles won't make us believe. And what we can understand from this also is there's a, there's a blocker, something that's blocking our faith. Something that's getting in the way of us believing.

And that's the status quo. You see, the status quo can hold a higher value. than fixing our greatest need. To me, it makes a whole lot more sense.

For to hear that Lazarus is resurrected and that Jesus had that power over death. To say To, to, to become a believer and to say, this is amazing. He has the greatest power. We don't have to be afraid of anything.

He can bring people back from the dead. We don't have to be afraid of the Romans, we don't have to be afraid of each other. We don't have to be afraid of anything. We just need to believe in this guy.

But see, status quo. I, has the highest value for most people. In fact, most people prefer the status quo. And that status quo is in the realm of good and evil.

But they prefer what they have. They prefer what they know. They don't want to put their faith in something that they don't know and they will not trust, even the Creator of the universe, the one who can fix all of this, the one who can take us out of this realm of good and evil and take us to that realm of good, of great good. But no, they're not willing to go there.

They prefer the status quo. You see, the, the, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they had it made in, in their circle, in their tight little circle, they had it made. They, and they didn't want it to change. And isn't that normally how human beings are?

We have, some of us even maybe struggling with that. But if, if not, we at least have friends, we have people that we know, people we work with that would prefer the status quo. And in fact, What we see often in human history, and we even see it today in our world, people will violently protect their status quo. They will take up arms to protect their status quo, even against Jesus Christ.

There, there is within the heart of us, a violent rebellion against God. And that's where it goes when it's pushed. Jesus is pushing here. And their reaction is a violent rebellion against that.

They're not gonna accept it. They don't believe it. they don't want it. they know it happened.

They know it happened because they also make plans to kill Lazarus too because he's a testimony of this resurrection. So they know what happened. They just don't like it. It doesn't fit their plan.

It's, it doesn't go along with their status quo. That is how we are as human beings. And that's, that's what we have to deal with. And it's only by the grace of God that, that our spirit gets awakened and we get to be taken out of that.

And we get, we begin to question our status quo, we become dissatisfied with our status quo, and we start looking for something else. We start wanting Out of this, because we know that this just goes to destruction and status quo is where it goes to destruction because After the realm of good and evil is over, there's the realm of good. And there's the realm of evil. And only those who go to the realm of good are those who believed in Jesus.

That's it. God doesn't Have any other Pharrell. There's no in between on that. The status quo can't continue.

And to put our faith in that is a big mistake. That's why Jesus said, what would it profit a man if he gains the whole world? And loses his own soul. If you can make, if you can max out your status quo to the, to the farthest degree.

It's no good. Because it's only temporary. It doesn't last. We also see here though.

John talks about the children of God would still be gathered together. With in spite of the resistance, the plan of God is still accomplished. Darkness cannot thwart the light. And that again is referring back to John chapter one.

That the light came into the world, but the darkness can't stop it. Darkness cannot thwart the light. Cannot end it, God still accomplishes his plan, with or without the approval of the, the Jewish leaders. He doesn't need their approval.

He doesn't ask for their approval. He does what he wants to do. he's God. He can do that.

So, how do we apply this? Well, John wanted us, at the end of his, his gospel, or toward the end of it anyway. To see it this way. He says, therefore, many other signs, Jesus, also performed in the presence of the disciples.

You see, he performed these signs for a reason. What was that, which are not written in this book, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. In the believing, you may have what? Life.

In his name, life. That's what he's offering us, life. I like what Paul wrote in his great chapter on resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15. a couple of statements I wanna look at.

the first one is this one, verses 25 and 26, where he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be, will be abolished is death. The next statement It's verses 54 and 55. But when this perishable, will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then we come about the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting? OK, let's pray. Lord, I am so thankful that we get to put our faith in you, God who has power over all of this.

You are the one who intervenes and you have done a great work of intervention with your son coming into this world and you have felt everything that we feel, what we go through and you care deeply about it, but you also made a way out of it. You have had set about a plan of rescue. So I thank you, Lord, for that. And thank you that we get to come to you and that you have made yourself known to us, that you draw us into your presence.

You open your arms wide to us as sinful people, as people who don't deserve it, and yet, You love us. And so Lord, I just want to give you praise for that, thanks for that, and Lord may the knowledge of this make us more, faithful, make us stronger in our belief, and make us more able to be a light in this darkness as you are. In Jesus' name, Amen.