Raising Lazarus from the Dead (A Sign of Life): Modern people really struggle with the reality of death. But when Jesus’ close friend Lazarus died, his response has the power to change our perspective on life and death — and life after death. No longer must we mourn without hope. Why? Because Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Recorded on Dec 17, 2023, on John 11:1-44 by Pastor David Parks.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 31:31 — 72.1MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | RSS
Finding Life in Jesus’ Name is a sermon series on the gospel according to John in the Bible. Have you ever felt unsatisfied with your life? Or, even when things were going well, something was still missing? Many people sense there must be something more. But what?? John, one of the closest friends of Jesus, believed that Jesus came into the world so that we may have life and have it to the full. Jesus turned John’s life upside down, and John claims this new life — marked by God’s power, presence, and purpose — is available for all who believe.
Sermon Transcript
We’re working through the gospel according to John in a series called Finding Life in Jesus’ Name. And today, we’re in John chapter 11, considering the seventh of the seven miraculous signs and the fifth of the seven “I AM” statements of Jesus in John’s gospel. With both a sign and a statement reflecting the divinity of Jesus, John is presenting this story as a culmination of all the evidence he’s presented so far as to the person and work of Jesus. But in this story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, we see both a sign and statement of the power of Jesus over life and death. As modern Western people, we really struggle with the reality of death. Even though we know death is real — and so much of our entertainment is obsessed with death — still, almost everyone seems to functionally live their life as if they’ll live forever. As a result, when some people get a bad diagnosis, or they hear of someone getting sick or dying, it’s not just sad or difficult; it’s like a traumatic shock they never expected in life. So, as followers of Jesus, how might we be more prepared to face the reality of death in our own lives or in the lives of our friends and family members? In our story today, Jesus faces the illness and death of a close friend. And how he responds not only reveals more about who he is, but has the power to change our perspective on life and death and life after death, forever. It really doesn’t get bigger than this. So if you have a Bible/app, please take it and open it to John 11. We have a long passage, but it’s all one story, and we’ll unpack it as we go.
John 11:1–16 (NIV), “1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” 4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” 8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.” 11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” 12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. 14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Ok, let’s pause here. So last week, we saw that Jesus had been teaching in the temple courts during the Festival of Dedication (Hanukkah) and had sparked controversy when he claimed yet again to be one with God the Father. People picked up stones to stone him to death for blasphemy, but Jesus was able to escape to the wilderness to the east of the Jordan River. So it was at this place of peace/safety, a place where John reports that many people believed in Jesus, a place that really welcomed Jesus (unlike Jerusalem), that a messenger finds him with the news that a man named Lazarus was sick. Now, Lazarus must’ve been a dear friend of Jesus because he’s described as “the one you love.” This is similar to how John describes himself as the disciple that Jesus loved. And I think this is just how people who were close to Jesus saw their relationship; they knew that Jesus loved them. It wasn’t even a question. Anyways, through divine insight, Jesus knew Lazarus wasn’t just sick. At some point, probably after the messenger was sent, Lazarus passed away. The response of Jesus to this is very similar to the reaction of Jesus to Jairus, the synagogue leader, whose twelve-year-old little girl had died. In both cases, Jesus says they’ve merely fallen asleep. Now we know that both had really died, and we know that Jesus knew this to be true. But, as we’ll see, if Jesus has authority over life and death, then perhaps death isn’t as big a barrier to him as it is to us. The only problem with all this is that his friend, Lazarus, had lived in Bethany, which was only a few miles from Jerusalem. Jesus would have to go right back to the place where people wanted him dead. We see this in Thomas’ reaction. Thomas gets such a bad rap as Doubting Thomas after the resurrection (as we’ll see in chapter 20). But here, Thomas basically says, “Listen, if the boss wants to go and die in Judea, let’s go, too, so we can die with him.” And that’s the kind of friend I’d want. He’s saying, “Jesus, we’re with you to the bitter end. We’re with you even if it’s costly for us.” But Jesus knows that his time, the hour of his suffering and death, is coming but has not fully arrived, so it’s safe to go to Bethany. So they go, even though Lazarus had already died, because Jesus said, “This sickness will not end [ultimately] in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Jesus definitely had something big in mind.
John 11:17-27 (NIV), “17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. 21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” Let’s pause again. So Martha, one of Lazarus’ sisters and also a close friend of Jesus, a hard-working, faithful woman, went out to him. And here, Martha demonstrates great faith in Jesus. She’s confident that the Father will give him whatever he might ask. Jesus responds, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha thinks he’s referring to the general resurrection that, in Jewish thought, would come at the end of the age, along with the judgment of God and the renewal of the heavens and the earth. This is why she says, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Both then and now, the hope of resurrection, and life after death, was a great comfort in the shadow of death. But it’s in the context of this orthodox statement of faith from Martha that Jesus responds by revealing something the Jewish people didn’t fully understand, yet. Jesus reveals that he himself is the resurrection and the life, saying, “The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” As I said, this is the fifth of the seven “I AM statements in John’s gospel. Now, here, if this statement is true, it means that Jesus is the ultimate source of life, even life after death. Jewish people believed in life after death, but until Jesus, they didn’t know how God would do it. Here, Jesus says that he is the way, and we can receive this life by faith in him (the one who believes in me). “You believe in the resurrection?” he might say, “Good! But do you believe in me?” And listen to this dear sister’s response. “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” So far, Martha has the best confession of the identity of Jesus in John’s gospel! Even in her grief and pain, even through the tears in her eyes, she could still see Jesus for who he was. Even before Jesus had healed or raised her brother, she confessed her faith in him. Martha is a beautiful model of faith. But what would Jesus do?
John 11:28-37 (NIV), “28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there. 32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. 35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Let’s pause one last time. This is such an emotional scene. You have Mary weeping at the feet of Jesus, the other mourners with Mary weeping with her, and then, in the shortest verse of the Bible, we see Jesus himself weeping at the tomb of his friend. A short time later, during the triumphal entry of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem, he would again weep, but this time, Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem and the temple because he knew it would be destroyed. But why was Jesus weeping here? Why does John say, “he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled”? We already know that Jesus knew that Lazarus had died. He wasn’t crying because he was finding out his sick friend had actually died. We even know from v. 11. that Jesus intended to raise him from the dead. So why cry? Where was this emotion coming from? John doesn’t say explicitly. But given what the whole rest of the Bible says about how valuable human life is to God and how deeply grieved God feels about the destruction/devastation that sin causes in this broken world, perhaps the tears of Jesus were simply the right response of a loving God toward the terrible reality of death. Or perhaps it was the hopeless nature of the mourning that Jesus saw that made him so upset. Lazarus was not gone forever, so why mourn as if he were? Now, of course, it’s still sad when a believer falls asleep in death. So it’s certainly appropriate to be sad and to miss being able to talk or laugh or enjoy the companionship of a friend or family member for a season. But for the Christian, it’s never “Goodbye.” In Christ, it’s always “Until we meet again.” So perhaps Jesus wept at Lazarus’ tomb because Mary and Martha had no one reminding them of the hope they had in the shadow of death. I suspect it was a combination of both. But isn’t it profound that even with what he was about to do, Jesus could still weep at the ugly intrusion of death into his good and perfect world and at the hopelessness and fear so many people feel in the face of death? Jesus wept. He could feel the appropriate emotional burden of death without losing his hope. Let’s finish with the seventh miraculous sign in John’s gospel, a sign of life.
John 11:38-44 (NIV), “38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” 40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” This is God’s word. So here, in the raising of Lazarus from the dead, we have the final/greatest of the miraculous signs. Very intentionally, John tells this story to foreshadow the greater resurrection of Jesus. In both stories, there was a cave tomb and a stone that needed to be rolled away. There was a man wrapped in grave clothes who’d been dead for days and, therefore, was way beyond needing to be revived — he needed to be resurrected. Of course, these seven signs point to and are all superseded by the resurrection of Jesus, which broke the power of death not just for his life but for anyone who believes in him. The death and resurrection of Jesus would become the means by which God will offer resurrection life after death for all who believe. But here, Jesus demonstrates that he has the power and authority over even life and death. On the fact that Jesus specified who should rise, saying, “Lazarus, come out!” commentator D.A. Carson writes, “…the authority of Jesus is so great that, had he not specified Lazarus, all the tombs would have given up their dead to resurrection life.” (Carson, PNTC, p. 418). This is the power of Jesus. He commands, and all of creation must obey. This is the one who is the resurrection and the life. He is the Lord of the living and the dead and of the life everlasting.
We always ask, “How might we apply this teaching to our lives today?” Well, today, I’d like to give you something to think about and then close with an invitation. First, something to think about: I really want you to take all this into your heart and meditate on this story. Even in the busyness of the Christmas season, I’d like you to come back to this story again and again. Why? Because we modern Western people do everything we can to not think about death. As a result, we’re shocked in the face of illness and death and we don’t know how to mourn well. But the truth is that death is a terrible reality in this broken world. As Christians, we understand why death is a part of life now, as a consequence of sin in the world. But we also know it was never supposed to be this way. In a sense, death isn’t natural. Creation is all about life; death is like an undoing of creation. So in reflecting on this story, I’d like you to think about something most people avoid. I want you to think about life and death; think about life after death, both for yourself and for those around you. But more importantly, I want you to think about what this beautiful story reveals about who Jesus is and how he responded to the death of his friend. Jesus wasn’t worried about whether or not he could do something for Lazarus. Did you notice the odd little detail back in vv. 5-6, where John says, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.” It was because of his love that he waited to go. It was because of his love for them that he didn’t heal his friend; he had better plans for him. Plans that would result in the glory of God. And plans that reveal an invitation to all, even today. Here’s the invitation: do you want to find the eternal/abundant life that we all long for? This life can be found but is only found by faith in Jesus’ name. For he and he only is the resurrection and the life. “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (Jn 1:4-5). Only Jesus has the power and authority to raise us up from the grave, to free us from the tomb, to replace our grave clothes of shame with a robe of righteousness and a ring of honor. This is the invitation of this whole book. No longer do you need to avoid/fear death. No longer must you mourn without hope. No longer does death have to be a final “goodbye.” Because in Christ it is always only “until we meet again.” Why? Because Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, is the resurrection and the life. Do you believe this? Let us pray.