How Jesus Handled Death

Well, good morning, everyone. I want to add my welcome to Mike. Thank you for choosing to worship with us, this morning. We know you have a lot of choices and options, but that you would choose to worship God together with us means a lot to us and our prayers that you'll be blessed by your time.

with us this morning. We are rejoicing today as we do every Sunday, in the resurrection of Christ because Christ was raised from the dead. What that means is all of Christ's loving intentions for us and dying on the cross, have come to pass and will come to pass, and the receipt that validates that is the fact that he was raised from the dead. So, This is a phenomenal reality.

Paul says, if Christ has not been raised, we are of all people most miserable. But if indeed he has been raised, then we, of all people have greatest cause for rejoicing and thank you for choosing to rejoice with us. Let me have you turn in your Bibles this morning to John chapter 11. John chapter 11.

This is where we're going to be spending our time. this morning. Normally on Easter Sunday, we'll pick a portion of the resurrection narrative that we find in the gospel accounts, or we'll focus entirely on the resurrection of Christ and what it means. Today will be a little bit of a departure.

we'll be looking at John 11, something I've never preached on before, ever, and then especially on an Easter Sunday, but It is in this passage where we get to learn some very important things about how Jesus, who calls himself in this chapter, the resurrection and the life, how he handles death. And so if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be how Jesus handles death. all of us, we may not think about it this way, but all of us virtually every day go through the day asking a series of questions and then answering those questions from the beginning to the end of the day when our alarm goes off in the morning, we're asking the question, Should I get out of bed or not?

And we decide, I think I'll press the snooze button and then 9 minutes later, we're faced with that same question again.

Should I get out of bed or not? Some of you in the morning are asking, should I take a shower today or not? Should I just skip today? what should I wear?

Some of you this morning were just plagued with the question, what should I wear? Today for our Easter service or maybe you were asking that question over this past week. on and on, the questions may go, some of them important and some of them not so important, but we're always asking questions, essentially and answering those questions. But I think all of us in this room, whether you're a Christian or a non-Christian, I think all of us would agree that There are some questions that we would rank as the most important questions of all, and some of those questions that would rank at the top of the list as the most important questions of all are questions like where did we come from?

What has gone wrong with us and with the world? I think anyone that's looking around with their eyes halfway open sees that there is something very wrong with the world in which we live, the natural world, and also in society. Something is radically broken. And also, if we're honest about ourselves, we would recognize and admit that there's something broken about me.

There's something wrong with me also. And the next question is, how can what is wrong be made right? How can what is broken and wrong with me, and in this world be made right? And the last question, which is the most important question of all, is who in the world can possibly make everything right?

Who in the world could possibly take what is broken and me and make it right, and take what is broken in the natural order of things and in society and make all things right? Who is there, who could possibly do this? If there is someone, we want to know that, right? And I would suggest that whoever It is.

That can make everything right. Whoever that is, he must be someone. Who has enormous power. Power over evil, power over the elements, over the wind and the waves, someone who has power over all of the spiritual forces of evil and injustice in the world.

And we would need somebody who has power over death, as well, right? In fact, anyone that might step forward and say, I am he. I am the one who can take everything that is broken in the universe and make it right, one of my key questions would be, are you stronger than death? If you're not stronger than death, then you're not qualified, not interested.

We all know that death is enormously Powerful. There are different ways that some people deal with death. Some try to dress it up and speak of it in positive terms, and others rage at death. Doesn't matter whether you acquiesce or rage at death, death wins.

Some may try diet and exercise in order to postpone death by a few years, but in the end death triumphs. Some through the miracle of plastic surgery and Botox injections and cosmetics may try to conceal the effects of aging, which is simply a tactful way of speaking of the dying process that we're already undergoing. But even though that may conceal the effects of aging or death at work in our bodies, ultimately death wins. Someone may be dirt poor or someone may be a multibillionaire with all the resources of the world at their disposal, and yet we all know death wins.

They, rich and poor, succumb to death. We all know how powerful death is. Death's power to disassemble and separate us from our vitality, from our youth, from our abilities separating us from those that we love and those who love us. We recognize death's power.

It's just a given. You take the average wedding ceremony, and there's always an uninvited guest at every wedding ceremony, and that is death. where the bride and the groom look at one another, and they pledge their lives to one another and say, I love you, and I'm going to spend my life loving you as your husband or as your wife until death parts us. What the bride and the groom are doing in that ceremony is acknowledging the reality of death.

And they're saying to one another, my love for you is powerful. And with whatever powers I have, I'm going to love you for the rest of my life. But I am not more powerful than death. Death will come and bring an end to this marital union.

There are leaders that arise throughout history that experience some success in fighting against evils, but ultimately they succumb to death. Death is powerful. We all know this. In fact, the Bible itself teaches us that.

That in the cosmic battle between good and evil, it's interesting that, that good is going to triumph in the end. But after all, in the realm of evil and sin, after all of that has been defeated and abolished, there will be one enemy left standing that will need to be taken out, and that final stubborn enemy that will stand is death. And in 1 Corinthians 15:26, we learned that the last enemy standing that will be abolished is death. So death is powerful.

And it cuts through the human race and through human history, like a knife, and nobody survives its fatal cut. And so whoever it is that we're going to look to and say, this is the one who can make everything wrong with me right. And this is the one who can take everything that's wrong with the earth and with the world and make it right. Whoever that is, must be stronger than death, and stronger than evil, stronger than the elements.

And the apostle John would say to us this morning, if you're asking that question, who is this one? he would say, I have written the Gospel of John in order to communicate to you that I think I have found him. In fact, I know that I have found him, and he writes the Gospel of John in order to make his case that Jesus Christ is this one who can make everything wrong with us and wrong with the world right, and he's very open about his agenda. He says in John 20:31, these things have been written.

that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. I have found him. And John then begins to tell us things that Jesus said and did in his public ministry, that demonstrate his absolute power over the elements, and over evil. And ultimately over death and that brings us to John chapter 11 this morning.

We're not going to go through every verse of this chapter, but we are going to witness parts of the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and as we do so, we're going to Just with eyes wide open and an earnest gaze, we will observe Jesus in action with regard to death, and we're going to make 6 observations about how Jesus deals with death in John 11. And some of what we will learn, you may be expecting and some of what we will observe may surprise you. John will say, I witnessed this with my own eyes.

And so this is eyewitness testimony as to how Jesus deals with this powerful enemy that we call death.

The first observation we make regarding how Jesus deals with death is this, and that is that Jesus is not afraid to let someone he loves experience death. Jesus is not afraid to let somebody that he loves deeply experience death. Let's begin in verse one. It says 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 sisters sent word to Jesus saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. Jesus is at least a day away, maybe even further away than that. So they send a messenger to Him.

They 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, which is where Bethany was, which was just 2 miles outside of Jerusalem. And in telling the disciples that they're going now to Bethany, Jesus speaks to the disciples plainly in verse 14, Jesus said to them, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there so that you may believe, but let us go. To him.

So Jesus is some distance away from Bethany. Lazarus is sick, and Mary and Martha are concerned enough about his life to where they send a messenger to Jesus to inform him of this. They don't tell him to come, but that's implied. Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick, and they're communicating the way that women generally do.

My wife will say, Honey, the trash can is full. And I duly note that trash can is full. Thank you for letting me know. But implied in that piece of information is a question or a request.

And Mary and Martha are doing something very similar. Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick, and implied in that statement is, please come and bring healing to him. But it seems from what we have just read, though, that Jesus does not feel like he needs to rush to Bethany. Jesus does not mind at all allowing Lazarus to experience death.

He's not concerned about that putting Lazarus beyond his Jesus's reach. Jesus is not thinking, Man, I better hurry up and And get to Bethany because if he's dying, then I've got to heal him. I've got some miraculous powers of healing. And so I better get to him while he's alive and heal him because if he dies before I get there, then he's out of my reach.

I'm not going to be able to reach beyond death and do anything for his benefit. Well, Jesus doesn't think that way. He's not afraid to allow Lazarus to die because Jesus knows that even if he dies, it does not put him beyond the power and beyond the reach of Jesus. Not something that happens in verses 5 and 6.

The grammar of this is fascinating to me. it says in verse 5, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, or literally, therefore, because he loved them, when he heard that he was sick, he stayed 2 days longer. Does that seem odd?

To you, It seems from the grammar here that it was Jesus' love for Mary and Martha and Lazarus that motivated him to delay. Apparently, Jesus felt that delaying by a couple of days was the more loving thing to do than to head right away to Bethany. What is going on there? How does that make sense?

I think what we can say is this Mary and Martha at this point are hoping for a miracle of healing, when in fact Jesus is intending to do something even greater. They want a healing. Jesus intends to perform a resurrection from the dead. And Mary and Martha had an idea of what they were wanting from Jesus, but little did they know.

They were just wanting a healing. Jesus has done many acts of healing, and they thought, Well, if he could come and do another act of healing, that would be great. Little did they know that they were in a few days going to be the recipients of what commentators say without a doubt, is the most monumental miracle that Jesus performed. In his public ministry, this is the greatest of all of his miracles that he performed, second only to his own death and resurrection from the tomb.

Setting that aside, this is his most staggering monumental miracle. And that greater miracle was something that they were now going to be blessed with in a few days, because Jesus delayed. And just a quick lesson for us. To take note of, guys, when God delays.

To answer your prayers. It's not because he doesn't love you. Many times we have an idea of what God is supposed to do and when he is supposed to show up. like today, this minute, and we've already got it figured out what God is supposed to do, and yet God does not show up and he does not do what we are thinking that he ought to do.

And The reason he delays is because he is intending to do something different and better than we were imagining, something deeper and fuller and richer. And Mary and Martha. are calling essentially for Jesus, and he delays, and in the context of that delay is going to come a stunning miracle. Look at what Jesus says in verse 4.

It says, when Jesus heard this, that Lazarus was sick, he said, the sickness is not to end in death. Now he's not saying by that that there will be no death. What he's saying is this sickness will not end in death. This story is not going to end.

And being a story of death, it will end in God being wonderfully glorified. And it's, it's striking to me when you look at verse 15 at the emotion of Jesus, you see the emotions of Jesus coming out in this story. And this is the first of those emotions. Jesus said to his disciples, Lazarus is dead, and I'm glad, I'm rejoicing for your sakes, he says to the disciples, that I was not there in order to keep him from dying, so that you may believe.

In other words, I'm glad I'm rejoicing for your sakes. That I was not there to keep him from death because something's going to happen in the coming days that will really bolster your faith. And so we see Jesus just having a spirit of calm and confidence, and he's not afraid to let Lazarus die because he knows that even if Lazarus dies, it does not put him beyond the reach of his power and love. There's a second observation that we make regarding how Jesus deals with death in John 11, and that is he weeps.

With those whom he loves when they are touched by death., we're expecting Jesus now to begin to head toward Bethany, and we're going to see this raw demonstration of sovereign power over death. And that demonstration is there. but we're surprised a little bit in the narrative to find an amazingly vulnerable sovereign. standing in the face of death before a weeping crowd.

It says, therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, and let me just say, he went to Bethany, as he was approaching the town of Bethany, Martha runs out to him and says, Lord, if you were here, my brother would not have died. And so Jesus has an exchange with her. And then she leaves Jesus and tells Mary that Jesus is, is here. And so Mary gets up and runs to Jesus.

And this is where verse 32 picks up. Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw him and fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. She says exactly the same thing that her sister Martha had said. Verse 33, when Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, this literally means they were sobbing, they were mourning, they were bawling.

So deep was their grief when he saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping. He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled and said, Where have you laid him? And they said to him, Lord, come and see. Verse 35 Jesus wept.

This is the shortest verse in the Bible. If you've never memorized a verse in the Bible before, work on this one during the service, and you can go out and say, I know a verse in the Bible, Jesus wept. However, he wept, he wept in a way wherein the Jews watching him said, See how he loved him. They saw love in his tears.

This word translated wept in verse 35 is basically the Greek noun for tear. turned into a verb. He teared, he shed tears. It was visible, the grief of Jesus.

He was visibly joining with Mary and the others who were there, grieving with them over the death of Lazarus. I find this really amazing. Jesus knows that in about 10 minutes, He's going to perform. An amazing miracle that's going to leave Mary and Martha and all those assembled, it's going to leave all of them out of their minds with mind-numbing joy.

He knows that their tears right now in about 10 minutes or so is going to be a distant memory. And he could have responded by smirking inside and remaining detached from the emotions all around him and just inwardly rubbing his hands together, just thinking, man, wait till they get a hold of what I'm about to do. and I'm not going to join them in their grief, because I'm about to do a great miracle. And yet amazingly, Jesus, though in moments, their, their sorrow will be gone, he opens his heart and allows himself to be rendered vulnerable to their sorrow and to their grief, and he literally joins them in weeping.

And grieving and in the process, he gave them two very precious gifts. He's going to give them the gift of raising Lazarus from the dead, but right now he's giving them the precious gift of the experience of the Savior crying with them. and I'm sure Mary and Martha and the others never forgot that experience when the Son of God, the Godman, wept with them in their sorrow. I'm sure they never wept again for the rest of their life without being mindful of the fact that there is a sovereign at the right hand of God who feels deeply with them and their griefs and in Their sorrows.

We learn in Hebrews 4:15 that we have a high priest who is touched by our weaknesses, and he literally feels with us. What we feel here in the way of grief and sorrow resonates with him, even at the right hand of God, he is still vulnerable to what we feel, and he feels together with us of our griefs and our sorrows. And I just want to encourage you with that. Jesus is not just this raw, unfeeling power, this raw, unfeeling sovereign.

Yes, he is sovereign. Yes, he has enormous power, but he in love has rendered Himself vulnerable emotionally to you and to I. And there are some in this church who just this past year and some in recent days who have lost. A loved one to death.

Some in our church, they have loved ones that are in the process of dying and passing away, and they grieve and they shed many tears, and it's passages like this that can minister perspective to them and knowing that I have a savior who has enormous power. Death is no threat to Him. Nonetheless, he weeps beside me. He feels together with me.

Timothy Keller in his book, The Grieving Sisters says we would never imagine that such a divine person would get sucked into Mary's agony and just stand there weeping. Why would he be so strong one minute and so vulnerable the next? But that is. Our Savior.

He has power over death, but he also weeps with us in the brokenness that we experience in this world. There's a third observation we can make about how Jesus handles death in John 11, and let's say it this way, he groans with indignation against death. He groans with indignation. Against death.

There's a word that is used twice in this narrative, once in verse 33 and once in verse 38. Let me point it out to you. It says, when Jesus saw her, Mary weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit, and was troubled, quite literally, he shook himself. Verse 38, so Jesus said, when he began to approach the tomb, it says, so Jesus again, and here's that word again, being deeply moved within, came to the tomb.

What is that word deeply moved Mean, well, by all accounts this word embodies the idea of anger and indignation. DA Carson says that this word, if it's used to describe something a horse is doing, he says it refers to the snorting of horses. But when applied to human beings, this word invariably suggests anger, outrage. Or emotional indignation.

There is anger here in the heart. Of Jesus. And the question is, what is he angry at? What is he raging against?

And what we would infer is that he's angry and raging against death. Death is not OK with him. One writer says it is death that is the object of his wrath, and behind death, him who has the power of death, and whom he has come into the world to destroy. Tears of sympathy may fill Jesus' eyes, but this is incidental.

Jesus' soul is held by rage as he approaches the tomb. This word has the idea of not only feeling rage, but to such a degree that, that you have to audibleize that something comes out of your mouth, whether it's a groan or a sigh or a roar, or a growl. you ever experienced anything like that? Just so angry that just something has to come out of your mouth.

That's happened to me on the freeway. And in other settings, but think about that. Have you ever been so angry that you just, you couldn't hold it in? Something had to come out of your mouth.

I remember a number of years ago I spent a day counseling in a situation where a member of our church had given himself over to sexual immorality. And just a heap of consequences was just being unleashed upon him one after another, and my heart was just breaking for this member of our church. And as the day wore on, I just began to feel this sense of anger, not against this person, because my heart bled for this person in our church, but just anger against sin, anger against sexual immorality.

And I was driving home that day and just seething with indignation against sin, seeing what it unleashes in the life of a person.

And I got home that day and I was still seething when I came in the door and my son Brendan, who was probably about 16, 17 at the time, he was laying on the couch reading a book and he said, Hey Dad, and I said, Hey. And, and I just, he, he was surprised at that response and knew something was wrong. but I walked over to him and I don't normally talk to my children this way, don't. I don't get that impression, but I walked over to him.

And I grabbed his shirt right here. And grabbed a fistful of his shirt and I pulled him close to me and with my face two inches away from his face and with my lips quivering and seething with rage against sin, I said, Son, do not ever Give your sexual purity away to anyone. And there was a pregnant moment of silence between the two of us. because that was the last thing he was expecting.

But after that moment of silence, he said to me, Dad, and I said, What? He said, You're ruining my shirt. And I looked and sure enough I was twisting his shirt. And so I let go and left the room.

It was an awkward moment at that point, but We laugh about that moment now, but But that's, I think that was a legitimate rage against sin and, and it's that rage that Jesus is feeling. He loves us so deeply that he's not OK with death. he's not OK with what death does to us who have been created by Him and for His glory. He is seething with rage against death and against sin that leads to death, and against Satan, who has been a murderer from the beginning.

And let us learn something here. there are people nowadays who try to, they talk about death in, in beautiful or exalted terms. It's just their way of making peace with death. Steve Jobs back in 2005, speaking to the graduating class at Stanford University, said to the graduating class these words.

He says, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life's change agent.

It clears out the old to make way for the new. He's groping there. What else do you say about death? It, it clears out the old.

Well, there's a deeper question. Why is there old? That needs to be cleared out to make way for the new. Jesus would never, he's not looking at the tomb saying, wow, death is likely.

Life's greatest invention. No, he hates death. Death is an enemy to his loving purposes for mankind. Death is not natural to the human condition.

It is an intruder into the human condition. Jesus will have none of this talk of making peace with death. He is at war with death, and he is seething with rage against it. Going back to Tim Keller, listen to what he says, describing Jesus at this moment.

Jesus is absolutely furious. He's bellowing with rage. He is roaring. Jesus is raging against death.

He doesn't say, look, just get used to it. Everybody dies. That's the way of the world, resign yourself. No, he doesn't do that.

Jesus is looking squarely at our greatest nightmare, the loss of life, the loss of loved ones, and of love, and he is incensed. He is mad at evil. And suffering I'm sure you don't want a God who feels no anger. At injustice and sin and suffering and evil, a God who feels nothing of this rage against the things that destroy us, would not even be a God worthy of worship.

I hope you can look at this rage of Jesus against death and against sin and against Satan and feel something of how passionately he must love us, that he's not OK. With this And so Jesus with this seething rage approaches the tomb, and I love what John Calvin says. He, Jesus, advances to the tomb as a champion prepares for conflict. I am sure that death, which would have been there at the tomb, took one look at Jesus' countenance and knew, I'm in trouble.

This is not going to be pretty. if looks could kill, the look that Jesus has on his face at this point is a deadly look that promises deep trouble for death. Death is going to lose this battle. There's a 4th way that Jesus handles death in John 11 that we can observe, and that is he raises his friend to life even though his friend had been dead for 4 days.

This is significant. Because Jesus has raised others from the dead up to this point of his ministry, but in all the cases that are actually recorded, it's always been someone who died that day or just hours before. And so a person wrongly could misdiagnose and say, well, it probably wasn't even really dead. Anyway, but you can't do that here.

Imagine that Lazarus died this past Wednesday and was buried Wednesday night, and then today, Sunday, someone shows up at his grave site and has the coffin opened, and today on Sunday says, come forth. And this person who has been in the coffin for 4 days gets up and he's totally well, alive and walking around. That's the magnitude of what Jesus does here. It says, so Jesus again, being deeply moved within, came to the tomb.

Now it was a cave and a stone was lying against it. And 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. Let's stop right there.

Martha, what she's actually doing here? She's actually Saying to Jesus, are you sure you really want to do this? Are you sure you can handle this? He's been dead 4 days, Jesus, and by this time, his body stinks.

Are you sure you really want the stone removed? Are you prepared for what might issue forth from the tomb, if this stone is removed. Underlying her words is a concern that Jesus may be in over his head. Which by the way, resonates with me.

Because there are times where I see the stink in my own life and the mess in my own life. And it's easy for me to stand up here and believe in Jesus' power to save and transform all of you and to forgive all of you. That's so easy for me to believe. But there are moments where I see the stink in my own heart and the mess that is in me and the sin that is in me, and I wonder if Jesus got himself in over his head in choosing to save and transform me.

Imagine that Jesus had said to Martha, she said, Lord, by this time there's a stench. She's been dead 4 days. Imagine. That Jesus said, Oh, I didn't think about that.

So there's a bad smell at this point, and he's been dead, how long? 4 days? Oh, OK, yeah, I am out of my league here. Just keep the stone there.

I imagine that that's how it ended, that he was persuaded that this is just something more than he could handle. Well, he gently chides her, but I just want to encourage you guys. Your mess and your stench is no match for the grace of Jesus. It's no match for the power of Jesus.

Do not look upon him coming towards you to save and love you and think, you got the wrong person here, you can't change me. Jesus would kindly say, don't flatter yourself. Your mess and your stench is no match for me. Whatever stink you came into this room with today, whatever mess, whatever sin, whatever history, Whatever bondages, and addictions and sins that are in your life, whatever guilt you're carrying around, and you're like, this is, I can't, I can't manage this.

Talk to someone after the first service. It's like, I just, I want to end my life. And the apostle John would say, I have found the one who can help you. He's more powerful than death.

He's more powerful than sin. He's more powerful than evil, and he's not turned away by stink. And he's not in over his head. Let him, let him be your savior and the lover of your soul.

Let him be the one who brings you back to life. Jesus said to Martha, says Jesus said to her, Did I not say to you that if you believe you will see the glory of God? Verse 41, so they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me.

I knew that you always hear me, but because of the people standing around, I said it so that they may believe that you sent me. And when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. I love what one writer said that it's a good thing Jesus. mention the name Lazarus.

if he just said, come forth, everyone from every grave would have come forth from the tomb. So with all of this amazing power he's being very specific, Lazarus. Come forth Verse 44, and the man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. So that would have been awkward him coming out of the tomb and hobbling out, taking small steps and stumbling around, not able to see very well, but he makes his way out of the tomb.

And there he stands for everyone to see this man who was dead for 4 days now stands alive, having walked out on his own from the tomb, but he's dressed in grave attire. And Jesus looks at him and says, he's, he's not dressed properly for a living person. So he said to them, unbind him and let him go. Help him out of his grave clothes.

And release him. From this grave attire. Death was no match for Jesus, this great enemy, so powerful. was no match for Jesus.

He speaks the words, and the dead are raised. And this incident is merely one of the early rays of a coming dawn. That will break upon the world on the day of resurrection when Jesus does speak the words come forth to all of his people, and we will all come forth physically, bodily raised. There's a 5th observation that we can make regarding how Jesus handles death in John 11, and that is he raises his friend from the dead, knowing it will bring about his own death for us all.

He raises his friend from the dead, knowing that it will bring about his own death for us all. We don't have time to fully unpack this, but let me just say that when Jesus tells his disciples, let's go to Bethany, where Lazarus is, the disciples initial response is, why would you want to go there? The last time we were in that area, the Jews were seeking to stone you. You're walking into a hornet's nest and returning there.

But Jesus says, no, we're going to go, so come with me. And in John 11:16, Thomas, one of the disciples said to his fellow disciples, let us also go so that we may die with him. This just sounds bad to them. And Jesus, they're thinking may get killed.

This is a dangerous situation, but let's go with him and maybe we're going to die with him also. And guys, when Jesus performed this miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead after being dead for 4 days in this in the little town of Bethany, Two miles outside of Jerusalem, and there were a lot of people from the city of Jerusalem that were out there mourning the death of Lazarus. A lot of people knew the family. For Jesus to raise Lazarus from the dead at this point in time of his ministry this close to the city of Jerusalem.

renders him intolerably dangerous to the religious leaders, and Jesus knew that it would. In fact, they convene a council after people reported back to them what Jesus had done in raising Lazarus from the dead, and among the things they say to one another is, if we let him go on like this, all men will believe in Him. So from that day on, they planned together to kill him. From the apostle John's perspective, it was Christ raising Lazarus from the dead.

That from a human standpoint was the primary catalyst that caused the die to be cast, and a chain of events to be set in motion that would lead to Jesus' own death upon the cross. Does that make sense? In fact, when Jesus first heard that Lazarus was sick, he told the disciples, as we saw, this is not going to end in death, but it's going to happen so that God is glorified and so that the Son of God may be glorified by it. And you might read that and go, Yeah, he's going to raise Him from the dead and he's going to get glory for Himself.

Jesus would say, No, something bigger than that. In fact, in chapter 12, under the shadow of the cross, Jesus says the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Jesus would say, the ultimate moment of glory for me is on the cross. When I demonstrate my love for mankind, that is my moment of glory at the cross and then being raised from the dead.

And so Jesus, when he says to them, I'm going to get glory from this, I'm going to be glorified by this, what he means is that yeah, you will see my power in the moment, but this will also set in motion a chain of events that will lead to my ultimate moment of glory, dying on the cross, and being raised from the dead. One writer says when Jesus said that the cure of Lazarus would glorify Him, He was showing that he knew perfectly well that to go to Bethany and to cure Lazarus was to take a step which would end in the cross, as indeed it did.

With open eyes, Jesus accepted the cross to help his friend. He knew the cost of helping and was well prepared.

To pay it. What a What a savior. What a friend. Timothy Keller says Jesus knew that if he raised Lazarus from the dead, the religious establishment would try to kill him.

And so Jesus knew the only way to bring Lazarus out of the grave was to put himself in the grave. He knew the only way to interrupt Lazarus's funeral was to summon his own. If Jesus wanted to hold on to his life because he was afraid of dying, he would have left Lazarus in the tomb. He would have never raised him from the dead.

But knowing as he stood there that this basically is going to result In my own death, Jesus said to Himself, this is worth it. And he's done that for all of us, being willing to lay down his life on the cross. In order that through his death and his shed blood we can have forgiveness for all of our sins if we believe in Him, He was willing to lose his life in order that we might be raised to a life of power and freedom and day by day transformation. It is a wonderful, beautiful irony that Jesus' quest to bring his friend back to life, precipitated his own execution.

But this loving Savior was willing to do that, and that leads to a final observation that we can make about how Jesus handles death in John 11, and that is, we could say it this way, after dying, Jesus Himself is raised from the dead by his own initiative. This is, now he's going to do a greater miracle than just reaching beyond death and bringing Lazarus back. In Jesus' own death that is recorded later in the Gospel of John, Jesus himself walks beyond death and gives himself over in death.

And then he chooses to take his life back up again and comes back from the dead.

In John 10, Jesus said to everyone, he says, I lay down my life in order that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. So what he ultimately did is he, by his own initiative allowed himself to die and allowed death to throw everything at him.

At the cross, you don't just see Jesus killed, you see him overkilled. The full fury of hell was unleashed upon him. He took everything that the devil and the forces of evil had to offer. He, he took all of it, and he died.

And 3 days later, he came out of that tomb in resurrection power, physically, literally, bodily from the dead. Appearing to his disciples, saying, Touch me and see me and feel into my side and see that I have flesh and bone. I am not merely a spirit. Later in John's Gospel, after he's raised from the dead, he fixes breakfast for his disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

In Luke's Gospel, after he was raised, he sat down and said, You guys have anything to eat? And they gave him some broiled fish, and he sat down and ate it in front of them. In order to show them That I am here literally in the flesh, and what an amazing scene that must have been for all of them to stand there or sit there and watch him chew that broiled fish. They're amazed.

They couldn't believe it, and yet he persuaded them by many convincing proofs. Jesus told his disciples that he would die, and he did. He told his disciples that he would be buried, and he was. He told his disciples that on the 3rd day he would be raised from the dead.

And he did exactly that. That's how Christianity. was birthed. During the days of the French Revolution, there was a group of people who were trying to develop this secularized religion that featured good moral codes, but without the trappings of worship and stuff associated with Christianity.

And they were developing this in their I idealism, but they just couldn't come up with something that was compelling enough to gather a large following. And one of the guys involved in this effort was speaking to Bishop Talleyrand, who himself was an apostate. And just complaining to him like, man, we've got a good moral code here, but we just can't really develop a religion that people want to follow in large numbers. And Bishop Talleyrand said, Well, certainly this can't be so difficult as you suppose.

The guy said, Well, what do you mean? He says, it's easy. You want to start a religion and gather a following, it's easy. All you have to do is go around telling people that you're going to get killed.

And that on the 3rd day you're going to rise from the dead. And then go get yourself killed. And on the 3rd day rise again. And you'll have no trouble gathering a following.

And that's essentially what Jesus did. He did more than die. And be raised. He told everyone ahead of time, Here's how it's going to go down.

I'm going to die. I'm going to lay down my life of my own initiative, and I will take my life up again of my own initiative, because I am more powerful than death. And John says, I'm telling you this story because I want you to know about Jesus. During the midst of this story, Jesus is speaking to Martha, and he said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.

I'm not just going to be raised, I am the resurrection. I, I'm not just someone who has life. I am the source of all life. There is no resurrection apart from me.

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? He said to her, And she said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the anointed One, the Christ, the Son of God, even he who comes into the world. We have a great savior, and if you're here today, And you have never, you have never Turn to Jesus.

And believe that He is the one who can take all that is broken in you, all that is wrong in you, all that is wrong in the natural world and in our society, and ultimately make all things right again, including what is wrong and broken in you. The apostle John is saying, I have found him. I have found him. Put your trust in Him.

He is the resurrection and the life. And if you have never been converted to Christ, converted away from your sin and whatever it is that you put your trust in, And turned to him and said, I'm going to put my trust in you, and I want my life fully oriented around you, Jesus, because you're the only one with this power. You're the only savior with this love, with this passion, and I'm going to put my trust in you. If you've never done that, there is nothing to prevent you right now where you're seated from crying out to Him.

crying out to him and asking him to be your savior, confessing all other things you have put your trust in, repenting of those things, repenting of your sins, and falling into the arms of Jesus, saying, you are the savior for me. I want to encourage you guys as we close to pull out your information slip from your bulletin, and there should be baskets underneath you guys on the, outside row, I believe that at least there were in the first service, but there's pencils and some additional information slips.

You can pass those down to make sure everyone who wants one gets one. But if you're visiting with us today, just fill out this information to the degree that you feel comfortable doing so.

we don't want to hassle you, but we would just love to, to welcome you, and thank you for coming. And on the, there's some things to check at the bottom, but also on the back, if there's anything we can pray for, please write those down. This is not just for visitors, but for those of you that are members and regular attenders, communicate with us through this means. Like what can we be praying for?

Some of you are hurting, some of you are grieving the loss of loved ones. Some of you are battling with, with sin, with hopelessness, with despair. just indicate that so we know how that we can We can pray for you. If you want to know more about how you can believe in Jesus and have your sins forgiven, just let us know that.

Or if even today, you are putting your trust in Christ and crying out to Him for salvation, you can let us know that, as, as well. And in just a few moments, the offering bag will go around and we would encourage you to put that in the offering bag. As it comes by. Also, there's a table outside, I think with green tablecloth that has some resources for those of you visiting with us.

we have a book that we would like to give you, and if you've just got any questions, we'd love to talk to you and, and answer whatever questions that you have, please. You're here by divine design, by divine appointment. We're blessed to have you. If there's any way we can serve you, that's what we're here for.

so let us do that. But why don't we go to the Lord in prayer and just ask his Blessing upon us and that he would seal these things to our hearts. Father, I just pray a special prayer for any who are here that have not Yet put their trust in you. I pray that right now where they're seated, that you, you would just touch them with your love.

That they would have an awakening of hope and know that all of the sin mess that they brought with them into this room, that that can be forgiven. can be forgiven instantly through You, Jesus. And those that are in this room that are hopeless and thinking I can never change that they would know that no, if Jesus can take on death and win so decisively, he can, he can handle my mess. And he can transform me.

Help all of us to believe in You more richly and more fully, Lord. You're a great savior. And we say to you this morning that we, we love you. We thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you.

Lord, receive these funds and do much with them for the glory of Jesus. We ask all of these things in His name and for His glory, and all God's people said, Amen.