...from the desk of Rande Wayne Smith D.Min., Th.M., M.Div.

I AM - 7

I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE

John 11:27-44

“Yes, Lord!” she answered. “I do believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

After Martha said this, she went back and called her sister Mary privately. “The Teacher is here,” she told her, “and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up and hurried out to meet him.

(Jesus had not yet arrived in the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.) The people who were in the house with Mary comforting her followed her when they saw her get up and hurry out. They thought that she was going to the grave to weep there.

Mary arrived where Jesus was, and as soon as she saw him, she fell at his feet. “Lord,” she said, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died!”

Jesus saw her weeping, and he saw how the people with her were weeping also; his heart was touched, and he was deeply moved. “Where have you buried him?” he asked them.

“Come and see, Lord,” they answered.

Jesus wept. “See how much he loved him!” the people said.

But some of them said, “He gave sight to the blind man, didn’t he? Could he not have kept Lazarus from dying?”

Deeply moved once more, Jesus went to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone placed at the entrance. “Take the stone away!” Jesus ordered.

Martha, the dead man’s sister, answered, “There will be a bad smell, Lord. He has been buried 4 days!”

Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believed?” They took the stone away. Jesus looked up and said, “I thank you, Father, that you listen to me.

“I know that you always listen to me, but I say this for the sake of the people here, so that they will believe that you sent me.” After he had said this, he called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” He came out, his hands and feet wrapped in grave cloths, and with a cloth around his face. “Untie him,” Jesus told them, “and let him go.” 

May the Lord grant that we may engage in contemplating the mysteries of His Heavenly wisdom with really increasing devotion to His glory and our edification.  Amen.

On November 27, 1969 … Thanksgiving night, as I was saying good-bye to my Dad, he hugged me and cried. (6:00 the next morning I was inducted into the Army.)

Two things have ingrained that scene into my mind. First, my Dad never hugged me; my Mom was the physically affectionate one. And second, I had never seen my Dad cry before.

I then drove the 50 miles to Pittsburgh where I spent the night at my cousin’s, who took me to the Federal Building early Friday morning. But by the time I arrived at my cousin’s my Dad had already called, apologizing for crying. He said, “grown men are not supposed to cry … at least not in front of other people.”

Nobody ever accused Jesus of being a crybaby, even though He wept in front of a crowd, as the Scripture we’re going to look at today indicates. I’m specifically talking about John 11:35 … the shortest verse in the Bible.

I remember when I was in Sunday School, especially 4th, 5th, and 6th grades. We had to memorize a Bible verse every week. The girls would always come with these great verses that probably had lots of theological significance … but we boys … we spent lots and lots of time searching the Scriptures for brevity.

So our favorite verses to memorize became: 1 Thessalonians 5:16, “Be joyful always.” Or, Luke 17:32, “Remember Lot’s wife!” And the most popular of all, John 11:35, “Jesus wept.”

Well, there are a couple of reasons why Jesus was not embarrassed for crying in front of a crowd. For one thing, crying was expected by men in Jesus’ day under certain conditions. The Jews had elevated mourning and grieving to an art form.

The rabbis wrote a “religious rule book” called The Talmud. It said that men were required to mourn for 30 days. The first 3 days they were to weep uncontrollably. For the rest of the week they were to lament out loud, and then, for the remainder of the 30 days, the men were to go without shaving and bathing … (which brought tears to everybody’s eyes).

So, it wasn’t an unusual thing in Jesus’ day for men to cry.

A second reason why the crowd certainly wouldn’t make fun of Jesus at this moment was that Lazarus was one of His best friends … and now he had passed.

In fact the words “Jesus wept” are followed with, “See how much he loved him!” the people said.

And that’s the great irony … because Jesus was not crying over the loss of Lazarus. He knew from the moment that He got word about Lazarus’ sickness that He was going to raise him from the dead.

He even “teased” His disciples about this. He said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I will go and wake him up.” (It was a veiled reference about His intention to raise Lazarus from the dead.)

So, knowing that His friend was going to be alive and well within hours, we can assume that Jesus was not crying over His friend’s passing. So, why was He weeping?

Let’s look at the passage. “Jesus saw (Mary) weeping, and he saw how the people with her were weeping also; his heart was touched, and he was deeply moved.”

Now John is going to use that expression again a few verses later. “Deeply moved once more, Jesus went to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone placed at the entrance.”

Actually, “deeply moved,” is a very interesting phrase. It means “intensely angry”! It means “outrage”! In Greek literature it’s the expression used of a snorting horse that’s pawing the ground.

What was Jesus so angry about as He approached the grave of Lazarus?

John tells us at the beginning of his Gospel that Jesus is the author of life. “Through him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without him. (Jesus) was the source of life, and this life brought light to people.”

Jesus is the life giver. Jesus hates death. Jesus knows that death is not the way it’s supposed to be.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “Sin came into the world through one man, and his sin brought death with it. As a result, death has spread to the whole human race because everyone has sinned.”

So as Jesus stood at the graveside of Lazarus, He wasn’t grieving over the loss of His friend, He was trembling with rage because He realized; this isn’t the way I intended it to be. This life I created was not supposed to be destroyed this way.

It’s here, that Jesus raises His friend Lazarus from the dead. This is the final miracle of Jesus’ earthly ministry … and it’s the biggest.

This miracle, more than any other, demonstrates Jesus’ omnipotence, His unlimited power. And this morning I want us to see 5 aspects of that power.

The first one, it’s invited power. “Deeply moved once more, Jesus went to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone placed at the entrance. ‘Take the stone away!’ Jesus ordered.”

Why did Jesus order the stone to be removed? Certainly, the Son of God who was about to raise a man from the dead could have supernaturally eliminated that stone as well. He could have called for a thunderbolt from Heaven and demolished it into a million pieces … which would have been a great prelude to the raising of Lazarus. “Now that I’ve got your attention … here’s the miracle!”

Instead, Jesus requests human participation before He demonstrates His awesome power. Isn’t that interesting?

Do you remember the one time in the Gospels where Jesus was unable to do any miracles? It was Nazareth, it was His hometown. “Because they did not have faith, (Jesus) did not perform many miracles there.”

Jesus typically reserves the greatest displays of His power for those who demonstrate an expectation that big things are about to happen.

Now Martha and Mary, Lazarus’ sisters, had already expressed a little of this kind of faith. When Lazarus became deathly ill the first thing the sisters did was send for Jesus … “Jesus please come.” They recognized that they needed some supernatural help … and they knew where to get it.

It was a step of faith on their part … call for the Savior.

And then when Jesus arrives, Martha (verse 21) and Mary (verse 32) both say the same thing. “If you had been here, Lord, my brother would not have died!”

These 2 brokenhearted women are still expressing their faith. They’d seen Jesus heal people. And they’re saying, “Lord, we know that if you had been here, you would have healed Lazarus.”

The first miracle that Jesus performed was turning water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana.

What did He do just prior to that miracle? He told the servants to fill 6 stone jars with water, (each held 20-30 gallons). Do you think Jesus was capable of filling those empty jars with wine without any water in them? Of course … so why fill the jars?

The same thing was going on in the first miracle as is going on in His final miracle. Jesus is looking for some evidence of faith. “Fill these jars with water.” “Take the stone away!”

It’s not that Jesus needs our help … Jesus just wants to know we want His help. Jesus waits to see if we’re willing to move the stone in anticipation of what we expect Him to do.

second, this is invincible power.

“Martha, the dead man’s sister, answered, ‘There will be a bad smell, Lord. He has been buried 4 days!’”

“Jesus said to her, ‘Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believed?’”

Some of you are thinking … Martha’s words don’t sound like she’s expecting a miracle. Jesus says, “Take the stone away!” And it appears that Martha responds, “You’ve got to be kidding.”

But to Martha’s defense, the story isn’t over yet. All we’re seeing at this point is Martha’s immediate reaction. But it isn’t long before they’re taking away the stone. So, let me say that faith sometimes needs a long runway before it takes off.

The second thing, in Martha’s defense, she had the faith that if Jesus had arrived in time He would have healed her brother. It’s just that power to heal is one thing … power to resurrect is another.

No one expected that. “Some of (the people) said, ‘He gave sight to the blind man, didn’t he? Could he not have kept Lazarus from dying?’”

Everyone was willing to concede … Jesus restored sight to the blind, performed all sorts of miracles, and could have kept Lazarus from dying … if He had arrived on time. But a resurrection made nobodies list of possibilities.

Now you, who do your Bible readings, are thinking, “Hey, didn’t Jesus already raise 2 other people from the dead?”

Yes, but they weren’t as dead as Lazarus!

In the first instance, the Synagogue ruler Jairus comes to Jesus, “My little daughter is very sick. Please come and place your hands on her, so that she will get well and live!” So Jesus goes with him. And on the way someone comes and tells Jairus, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the Teacher any longer?” Jesus looks at him and says, “Don’t be afraid, only believe.”

Jesus arrives at Jairus’ home … takes his daughter’s hand, which is probably still warm, and tells her to get up. He raises her from the dead … barely dead.

The second instance, Jesus is out and about and a funeral is going by.

They’re carrying a young man to the graveyard. Now in that culture people were buried almost immediately after they died. There was no way to preserve a body, and in that climate, it would begin to decompose right away.

So Jesus goes up and raises this young man, who was the only son of a bereaved widow … barely dead.

The situation with Lazarus was entirely different. Lazarus was dead dead. Martha tells us that in a couple of ways. first of all she says that “he has been buried 4 days.”

There was a superstition in Jesus’ day that the spirit of a person would hang around the dead body for 3 days in the hope that the body might be resuscitated. But after 3 days it left. Lazarus has been buried 4 days.

The second thing that underscores his deadness is “a bad smell.” The body, in other words, has begun to decompose. (The King James Version says, “Lord, he stinketh.”) Lazarus was dead dead.

And while there were many in this crowd who were willing to grant the fact that Jesus could pull off the occasional miracle, and might even be able to possibly to raise a recently dead body to life … dead dead people were an entirely different matter. That would require invincible power. That would require power so awesome that it could only be described as Jesus does … “God’s glory.” Jesus says to Martha, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory.”

Friends, I wonder if we don’t carry around in our minds a list of what Jesus can and cannot do?

We believe in Jesus’ power … up to a certain point, but anything beyond that … it just isn’t going to happen. Don’t even bother to pray about it.

I’m not suggesting that the Lord is going to say “yes” to every one of our prayer requests, but I know this, He is not going to say “yes” to prayers that are never prayed because of unbelief.

Do you believe that His power is invincible? Or are there some things that you pray for, but not other things because they’re beyond what God can do?

Third, this is identifiable power.

“They took the stone away. Jesus looked up and said, ‘I thank you, Father, that you listen to me. I know that you always listen to me, but I say this for the sake of the people here, so that they will believe that you sent me.’”

What I want you to get from these verses, is the inseparable link between Jesus and His Father. first, “Jesus looked up.” Jesus could have prayed with His head bowed and His eyes closed. I believe that looking up was a dramatic gesture on Jesus’ part to intentionally let those people know that He and God were working together on this.

Then He says, “I thank you, Father, that you listen to me.” “You listen to me.” Jesus knows for a fact that God listens to Him. So, what is it that God has heard? What God has been listening to is the nonstop communication Jesus has been having with Him all along.

You see, up to this point the volume has been kept low, but now Jesus turns the sound up so that everyone else can hear who He is talking to. But this has been a nonstop communication that has already been in progress.

“I know that you always listen to me, but I say this for the sake of the people here, so that they will believe that you sent me.”

Jesus is telling His listeners, “I’m on a mission. I’ve come from a place other than planet earth. I’ve been sent. The Father sent me. I’m working on His agenda. The Father and I are doing this together.”

This is a God thing. Jesus is setting up the crowd for the miracle. He just wants them to understand that when He calls Lazarus from the dead … that God is the one who has done this.

When I was a boy I used to love to watch Zorro. The thing I loved about Zorro was the moment he rescued somebody … he would always do what? … He would leave his signature behind. He would take out his sword and go …. And there would be this huge “Z” there for everyone to see, so no one would be in the dark as to who had done this.

Jesus has taken out His “sword” as it were and swiped a large “G” in everybody’s mind. God! What you’re about to see is a God thing! The Father and I are working together in concert with each other.

Fourth, this is internalized power. “After he had said this, he called out in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ He came out, his hands and feet wrapped in grave cloths.”

Just a couple of amusing side notes. first of all, Jesus “called out in a loud voice.” In Jesus’ day there were a lot of magicians and wizards who would mumble their “hocus-pocus” when casting a spell. Jesus wants to distinguish Himself from those charlatans.

There is no secret chant going on here. No magical words are being said. This is straight forward God power. He speaks loud enough for everyone to hear.

The other thing that I find amusing is that He uses Lazarus’ name.

“Lazarus, come out!” Some Bible scholars have suggested that if He hadn’t used Lazarus’ name, the whole graveyard would have come alive. If He had just said, “Come out!” … how many dead bodies would have responded? Let your imagination go with that one.

Now what made this resurrection so amazing, (besides a dead man coming back to life), was Jesus’ Jewish audience didn’t have much of an understanding about the concept of resurrection. Believe it or not, there is very little in the O.T., which would have been their Scripture, about it.

The Psalmist alludes to it a few times saying that the Lord’s blessing would be extended beyond this life. Job says, “I know there is someone in heaven … (and someday) I will see him with my own eyes.” Daniel says, “Many of those who have already died will live again: some will enjoy eternal life, and some will suffer eternal disgrace.” Isaiah, “Those of our people who have died will live again!” But that’s about it.

And once we get beyond those Scriptures there’s nothing else in O.T. that describes resurrection. In fact, there were 2 major religious parties in Jesus’ day … Pharisees and Sadducees, and the Sadducees (religious leaders now) didn’t even believe in resurrection.

Now because this miracle was done “less than 2 miles from Jerusalem” and because Martha, Mary and Lazarus were a very prominent family, and many Judeans had come to comfort them … there were a lot of people in attendance.

I suspect there must have been some Sadducees there. Wouldn’t you have loved to see the look on their faces when Lazarus came out of the tomb? Kind of wrecks their whole theology doesn’t it?

Resurrection! This is a doctrine that is personified by Jesus Himself.

“Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, Lord, my brother would not have died! But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask him for.’”

“‘Your brother will rise to life,’ Jesus told her.”

“‘I know,’ she replied, ‘that he will rise to life on the last day.’” (Martha has pieced together those O.T. passages and believes there will be a resurrection.)

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will live, even though they die; and those who live and believe in me will never die. Do you believe this?’”

“‘Yes, Lord!’ she answered. ‘I do believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.’”

What Jesus is asking is not, “Do you believe this doctrine?” He is asking, “Do you believe in this person standing in front of you?” Martha, says “Yes, Lord! I believe that you are who you claim to be, the Messiah, the Son of God.”

Please note … Jesus is not a person who does resurrection … Jesus is the resurrection. Jesus is not just a person who makes people alive … Jesus is the life.

This is not a Sunday School lesson about the doctrine of resurrection, this is about a personal relationship with the one who is resurrection, and who is life. Do you believe in Him? Martha says, “yes I do.”

“In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins.” Spiritually speaking, we are dead, lifeless. We can’t do anything to merit our own salvation. We’re hopeless. We’re helpless. It takes Jesus to resurrect us to new life for us to come alive.

And one day we believe that this is going to happen physically. We’re going to be resurrected in an eternal sense. We’re looking forward to that day. Man, I can’t wait! What will Heaven be like? I can only imagine.

(Leslie sings)

Jesus told them, “Untie him, and let him go.” This is inaugurating power. We know about inaugurations; we have them every 4 years. It is the beginning of something new, something fresh, something that creates expectation.

Lazarus has just been raised from the dead … but somebody has got to set him loose from the grave clothes.

Getting raised from the dead is only the first step. Try to picture this. Here’s this guy raised from the dead, and He’s struggling to get out of the tomb. And everybody is just standing there with their mouths open … nobody is doing anything about it. It takes Jesus to do that.

The power that Jesus gives is not just the power to start you out in the Christian life; it is the power to transform your life. Some of us need to get free of “grave clothes” this morning. Jesus wants to set you free.

Don’t just put your trust in Him to set you free from eternal damnation … put your trust in Him to set you free from the dirty old habits of the past. From the sins that dog you everywhere you go. From the failures you experience every 24 hours.

Say to Him, “If you can raise me from the dead, spiritually speaking, certainly you can give me the strength to overcome this.” Put your hope in the one who is the resurrection and the life.

MARANA THA