John 11
Please be seated. Turn in your
copy of the scriptures to the book of John. In John’s gospel
chapter 11, we’ll be reading together about the death of Lazarus
and Jesus coming to Mary and Martha’s aid and raising his
good friend Lazarus from the dead. So make your way to John
chapter 11. 57 verses in John 11. It’s going to be a little bit
of a lengthy one, but we’ll persevere. God’s Word never returns void. Before we read, let’s look to
God in prayer. Lord, without eyes to see, we
will not behold the wonderful things on the pages of sacred
scriptures. Without ears to hear, we will
not hear what you are saying to your people. Dull or even
hard hearts, we will not perceive what is being said to us. So
open our eyes, unstop our ears, and soften our hearts. May the
word of God dwell richly among us. May your word convince and
convert sinners unto salvation. And may your holy scriptures
comfort and build up your saints in our most holy faith. These
two errands we ask that you would accomplish. We have faith. that
it will be so and we pray it in the name of Christ our Savior,
amen. Here now God’s word from John
chapter 11. Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus
of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was
Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with
her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent
to him saying, Lord, he whom you love is ill. But when Jesus
heard it, he said, this illness does not lead to death. It is
for the glory of God so that the son of God may be glorified
through it. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus
was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then
after this, he said to the disciples, let us go to Judea again. The disciples said to him, Rabbi,
the Jews were just now seeking to stone you and you are 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 this world. But
if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light
is not in him. After saying these things, he
said to them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to
awaken him. The disciples said to him, Lord,
if he has fallen asleep, he will recover. Now Jesus had spoken
of his death, but they thought he meant taking rest and sleep.
Then Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus has died. And for your
sake, I am glad that I was not there so that you may believe,
but let us go to him. So Thomas called the twins, said
to his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with
him. Now, when Jesus came, he found
that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany
was near Jerusalem, about two miles off. And many of the Jews
had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their
brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went
and met him. But Mary remained seated in the
house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if
you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even
now I know that whatever you ask from 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
and the life. Whoever believes in me, though
he die, yet he shall live. And everyone who lives and believes
in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said
to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the
son of God who is coming into the world. When she had said
this, she went and called her sister, Mary, saying in private,
the teacher is here and is calling for you. And when she heard it,
she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come
into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had
met him. When the Jews who were with her
in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go
out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb
to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus
was and saw him, she fell at his feet saying to him, Lord,
if you had been here, My brother would not have died. When Jesus
saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping,
he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he
said, where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come
and see. So the Jews said, see how he
loved him. I missed the best verse. Jesus wept. Sorry about that.
So the Jews said, see how he loved him. But some of them said,
could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept
this man from dying? And Jesus deeply moved again,
came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay
against it. Jesus said, take away the stone.
Martha, the sister of the dead man said to him, Lord, by this
time there will be an odor for he has been dead four days. Jesus
said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed you would
see the glory of God? So they took away the stone and
Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, father, I thank you that
you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me,
but I said this on account of the people standing around that
they may believe that you sent me. When he had said these things,
he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. The man who
had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips
and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, unbind him
and let him go. Many of the Jews, therefore,
who had come with Mary and seen what he did, believed in him.
But some of them went and told the Pharisees what Jesus had
done. So the chief priest and the Pharisees
gathered the council and said, what are we to do? For this man
performs many signs. If we let him go on like this,
everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and
take away both our place and our nation. But one of them,
Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, you
know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it is better
for you that one man should die for the people, not that the
whole nation should perish. He did not say this of his own
accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that
Jesus would die for the nation and not for the nation only,
but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered
abroad. So from that day on, they made
plans to put him to death. Jesus, therefore, no longer walked
openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near
the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim. And there he stayed
with the disciples. Now the Passover of the Jews
was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem
before the Passover to purify themselves. They were looking
for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple,
what do you think, that he will not come to the feast at all?
Now the chief priest and the Pharisees had given orders that
if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know so that
they might arrest him. Amen, the word of the living
God. As you read this story, perhaps
you notice there is one of the best confessions of faith. One of the sisters proclaims
that Jesus is the Christ, the one coming into the world. As
you read this story, you are probably a bit geographically
confused. Where is Bethany? Where’s Jerusalem?
Where was Jesus hiding out? When did he come? When did he
go? How long did it take him? Why did he? wait a couple days
till his friend was dead. There’s a bit of chronological
confusion as well. The story also hits the brakes
suddenly. Jesus hears his friend is ill
and he decides to stay two more days. It’s kind of weird. The
things Jesus says and does may seem odd in our minds and in
our hearts. And so we would say, maybe from
a literary standpoint, who would write this? what God, the Holy
Spirit did. God, the Holy Spirit, through
the pen of the apostle John, wrote these verses in chapter
11 and 12, serve as a hinge, a hinge from the front end of
the book, chapters 1 through 10, where Jesus appears in the
world, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God and
the word was God. He appears in the world and his
life and his ministry make manifest the coming kingdom of God, the
kingdom of grace and righteousness and peace and healing and help
for our sin sick world. And it hinges also, chapter 13,
the life and the death and the ministry, the Passion Week of
Jesus, where he goes to the cross, he goes to the grave, but he’s
raised from the dead and ascends back into heaven. So this passage,
though it’s a bit weird to us, oddly put together, is an important
one. It tells us of a critical moment
in the life and ministry of Jesus. And it tells us that in Jesus’
life and ministry, he was both accepted and rejected. He was accepted with great joy
and rejected with great hatred. I want us to think about this
today as we look at this passage. And this is a little statement,
a little saying that should go with you in life. Everything
is for God’s glory. and our everlasting good. That’s
a summary of Romans 8, isn’t it? There is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And the whole
rest of the chapter goes on to speak of what happens in life
is for the glory of God and our everlasting good. Now, some of
the things that happen for God’s glory and our everlasting good
are illnesses like Lazarus. their hardships, their losses
and crosses in life. Jesus is going to say the purpose
of Lazarus illness is for the glory of God so that the son
of God may be glorified through it. Why did Lazarus get sick? It’s for the glory of God. Why
did Lazarus get sick? It was so that Christ, the son
of man could be glorified on earth. A lot of things happen
to us for the glory of God and for our everlasting good. Well, in our passage, we first
find Jesus on the run, and you have to go back a chapter to
see what’s taking place. Jesus is on the run. He’s trying
to escape. the stones of the Jews who wished
to put him to death for blasphemy, for claiming in himself to be
God. So Jesus had gone to Jerusalem,
he had kept one of the feasts. Passover was coming and we assume
he would have stayed and had Passover with his disciples.
He would have died the next day, all the rest. But as he’s come
early to Jerusalem, the haters have been hatin’, we might say.
They’ve picked up stones and so Jesus, has had to escape the
city for his life. He had given several I am statements. I am the bread of life. I am
the light of the world. I’m living water, all those statements.
He’s going to say to Mary and Martha, I am the resurrection
and the life. But these I am statements echo
back to Moses at the burning bush. When Moses is at the burning
bush, the bush speaks. The bush is burning but not consumed.
Moses, take off your sandals, you’re on holy ground. God speaks
to Moses, says, I’ve heard the cry of my people. I’m gonna send
you to Pharaoh and tell him to let my people go. And Pharaoh
says, well, who should I tell Pharaoh sent me? And he simply
says, I am. And so when the Hebrew people,
the Jewish people hear Jesus taking, I am, which is a transliteration
of the name Yahweh, the highest name of God almighty, and saying,
I am the light of the world, or I am this, he’s committing
great blasphemy. So he’s upset the apple cart.
The glory of God is on display and the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ is on display, but he’s upset the apple cart
and these are afraid of losing their nation and their place.
They’re afraid under the Roman empire, they’ll be squashed or
snuffed out as a people. They think back a couple hundred
years to the exile when they were in Babylon. They think back
to the Babylonian destruction of Judah and Jerusalem and the
temple. how the kingdom of David and
Solomon was basically no more. They were so paranoid. They told
people, if you see him, you tell us, we want to arrest him and
kill him. Now here’s the issue. All this
is for God’s glory. All this is so Jesus can manifest
God’s glory. All of this is for our good.
And it’s not the right moment. It’s not time yet for Jesus to
die. This is a couple of weeks off, perhaps. Jesus needs to
die under Pontius Pilate. He needs to be crucified on the
day of atonement on Yom Kippur. He needs to be the Passover lamb
that wipes away the need for all other blood of bulls and
beasts and goats and lambs. It is not yet his hour. And so
he is dodging death. But what did the Jewish folks
say to him at the end of chapter 10? They say, how long, Jesus,
will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us
plainly. I mean, I don’t know how much plainer you can get
than the seven I am statements, which he yelled pretty loud in
the city square. Jesus said, I’ve told you and
you don’t believe. I’ve told you and you don’t believe. The
works that I do in my father’s name bear witness about me. That’s
a little hint, isn’t it? Why is he going to let Lazarus
get good and dead? So that when he raises him, perhaps
they will believe. And so he says, the works I do
in my father’s name, bear witness. You don’t believe me. You’re
not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and they
know me. This again is where you can tell
Jesus did not read Dale Carnegie, how to win friends and influence
people. He says, I give them eternal life. They’ll never perish.
No one will snatch them out of my hand. I and my father who
has given them to me, he’s greater than all. No one is able to snatch
them out of the father’s hand. I and the father are one. And
that’s when they commenced to picking up the stones. And he
slipped away. He slipped away across the Jordan
and out in the wilderness. At the end of our passage, he
slips away again. He goes off to Ephraim. But nevertheless,
he’s about a two-day journey away so that the Jewish authorities
won’t put him to death just yet. So Jesus is on the run. Now,
the second thing our passage reveals is a beloved friend is
ill. Verses one through four tell
us about a certain man named Lazarus. Lazarus of Bethany. Lazarus of Bethany, whose sisters
are Mary and Martha. Now understand Jesus’ home base
when he was at the feast and the events of the temple in Jerusalem,
his home base was two miles out in Bethany, up the Mount of Olives.
And he always stayed with Simon the leper or with Mary and Martha
and with Lazarus verse two says, it was Mary who anointed the
Lord with oil. I mentioned that this is chronologically
kind of wacky. You don’t get this until chapter
12, but remember John, who’s an eyewitness is seeing and writing
about all this. So he’s really trying to lay
on thick who is Mary, who is Martha, who is Lazarus, who is
the sick one. These were Jesus’ good friends. They were tight with him. So
the sisters verse three sent to him, wherever he’s off hiding
from the angry Jewish murderers. Lord, he whom you love is ill.
But when Jesus heard it, he said, this illness does not lead to
death. It is for the glory of God so that the son of man may
be glorified through it. Remember, we live life east of
Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned in paradise,
to quote the great poet, John Milton, paradise was lost. Now
Jesus has come so that we can gain paradise again by being
the redemption. But the effects of the fall,
sin and sickness and relational strife are all over the world. It gets worse and worse year
by year. And what is Jesus coming to do? Why this story? Well, we’re ramping
up to the cross. And in Jesus’ life and ministry,
he’s been making down payments on the new creation. He’s been
preaching the good news of the kingdom. He’s been restoring
sight to the blind. Those who are mute can speak.
Those who are lame can walk. Those who are deaf can hear.
Those who have bodily ailments for years and years are all of
a sudden healed. And he has brought several back
from the dead, just as Elijah and Elisha had done. And so these
down payments on the new creation are on display, these signs and
wonders. And some reject it and they do
so with hatred and with a death threat. Others believe and they
follow Jesus. And so Jesus across the Jordan
somewhere, it’s described as where John had baptized people
before. He’s across the Jordan. There’s
a band of followers who believe the signs and wonders. Mary and
Martha’s brothers fallen ill. So they send word to Jesus, Lazarus,
whom you love is ill. And what statement does Jesus
make in front of this band of disciples? It is for the glory
of God that he is sick. It is for the son of man to be
glorified through it, that our friend has fallen ill. And so
Jesus is on the run. His friend has fallen ill. The
third thing in this passage, this is kind of a joke based
on what we’ve seen, but what a friend we have in Jesus. What
a friend we have in Jesus. Can we find a friend so faithful
who will all our sorrows share? We sing. Do your friends despise
and forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer.
So they sent a dispatch to a couple people. Come, come tell Jesus
your friend is sick. They’ve made a two day journey.
The news is alarming. Apparently it’s not just, you
know, cold, you know, take a little Sudafed, whatever. It’s, he’s
sick unto death. And what does Jesus do? He packs
up his bag and he runs right back with him. That’s not what
happens, is it? He stays two more days. What a friend we have
in Jesus here. Fast forward, what’s Mary going
to say? What’s Martha going to say? If you had been here, Jesus,
my brother would not have died. Jesus says a handful of cryptic
things here. This illness does not lead to
death. It’s bad enough to send an envoy on a two day journey
and then for him to sort of ignore it. But he says it is for the
glory of God so that the son of man may be glorified through
Lazarus’ death. It’s all about the timing of
his death. Jesus death, that is. It’s all
about the plan of God, the purposes of God, and the ways of God.
Now, I know that we all have things we desire for God to do. We get on our knees, we say our
prayers. We wish for this to be so and this to come to pass.
And God’s ways are not our ways. His timing is not our timing.
And we forget, do we not, that we live east of Eden. We live
under the present evil age, the curses of sin in this world.
And thanks be to God for the good news, the hope of salvation
in Jesus and the down payments on new life that is to come.
But there are things in our lives that take our breath away. There
are things in our lives that we do not cease praying for and
we don’t understand God’s timing, his pausing. We don’t understand
his unanswered prayers, but whatever he ordains is right. And we can
trust in Jesus. Yes, what a friend we have in
Jesus. He may not do things to suit
us or Mary or Martha, but we do have a friend in Jesus. And
Jesus says something very interesting. This is the fourth thing we’ll
see. He says, I must work while I can work. So he’s on the run. A beloved friend has fallen ill.
We’ve got a friend in Jesus, even if we don’t feel like it
sometimes. But he says in 7-16, those verses, basically, I must
work while I can work. So after this report, verse 7
says, he says to the disciples, let’s go to Judea again. Now
the disciples, knowing what you now know, think, are you crazy?
They haven’t dropped their stones. We just left a day or two or
three or four ago. They still have their stones.
They’re still seething with anger that you’re going to ruin the
Jewish place, the temple, and the Jewish nation, the little
bitty Judah-Jerusalem kingdom that is under the Roman Empire. Rabbi, the Jews were just now
seeking to stone you and you are going there again. What does
Jesus say? There’s 12 hours in the day.
If anyone walks in the day, he doesn’t stumble because he sees
the light of the world. But if anyone walks in the night,
he stumbles because the light is not in him. He says, our friend
Lazarus has died. It’s time to work. No, no worries
about the stones or the swords or the crosses that will come. He says, our friend Lazarus has
fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him. Maybe you’ve been through
a cemetery. Now you go to cemeteries today, people put goofy things
on their headstones. And if I offend you, sorry, but
you know, we put, I don’t know, we put goofy things. You go to
an older cemetery and you might find the phrase asleep in Jesus.
Or you might find a passage about the resurrection, the dead in
Christ will rise. And these firmly held beliefs
help us through our understanding our grief process when loved
ones die or when we ourselves face death. He says, our friend
Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him. What does
Jesus mean? Is he snoozing? No, he’s dead. But what can Jesus
do? He can awaken the dead with his
voice, with his trumpet sound. And the disciples say, Lord,
if he’s falling asleep, he’ll get better. You know, he’s just
got a bad bad run of the flu or the COVID, right? He’s got
something wrong, but he’ll get better. Now, Jesus had spoken
of his death, but they thought he meant taking rest and sleep.
And so he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And for your sake, I’m glad that
I was not there so that you may believe, but let us go to him.
Another wacky statement, isn’t it? First of all, he gets news
and he waits two days. Then he tells the disciples,
I’m glad he died. We might say that if it’s somebody really
wicked, right? Arch enemy. I’m glad they’re
gone. Come on, admit it. But it’s just
strange. Lazarus, his friend, he says,
let us go to him. So Thomas called the twins, said
to his fellow disciples, let us go also that we may go with
him. He realizes that if they go back
to Judea, if they go back to Jerusalem, it may mean the death
of Jesus and it may mean also the death of his disciples. That’s
why in a couple weeks or whatever, when Peter denies Jesus, why
does Peter deny Jesus? He didn’t want to die either.
He’s seen the rough treatment of his master. So Jesus is on
the run. A friend of his, a beloved friend
is ill. We can indeed say and sing what
a friend we have in Jesus. The Lord says I must work while
it is daytime. And now we have Martha’s confession. I mentioned at the outset that
there’s the best confession of faith in the Bible. And that
comes right from Martha’s lips. Martha says, yes, Lord, I believe
that you are the Christ. I believe that you are the son
of God. You are the Messiah who’s come into the world. Mentioned
also this passage is geographically odd. It’s also chronologically
confusing. And all of that comes to clarity
in this section. It’s a two day journey to Jesus
where he’s hiding. News has come. Your friend is
ill. We’re going to hold off two days. And then he decides
to go. Well, what does he find out when
he’s a little ways off? He finds out that Lazarus has
not only died, but he has been in the grave for four days. Must be that Lazarus passed away
about the time the news of his illness came to Jesus. Even the
messenger who had been gone two days did not know this fact. And so he’s back to Judea. He’s going to risk his neck.
He’s going to visit his beloved friends, this illness, this death.
has led to a burial, it has led to mourning, and if you know
anything about the Jewish tradition, they come in droves and they
mourn with you for days and days. This was a City of Bethany event. A lot of people were engaged
and involved in this, and there were crowds there to mourn with
the sisters. But there was also the sinister
side of this crowd. We think back to the garden of
Eden when Adam and Eve sinned. And what did God say to Eve?
You’re going to have a baby and that baby is going to fight the
seed of the serpent. So the seed of you, Eve, the
woman is going to fight with the seed of the serpent. And
that cosmic battle is ramping up outside Jerusalem. And so
the Jews are also paying attention to Jesus’ return and his action. He’s two miles from the city. Well, Martha goes out to meet
Jesus. Lord, If you had been here, my
brother would not have died. But even I now know that whatever
you ask from God, God will give you. Here’s a woman of faith.
You know how this is when we’re in crisis, when we’re in death,
when we’re in sickness, when we’re in mourning. Our emotions
swing this way and that way. We go from confidence and joy
and hope to utter despair and loss and wondering, is God even
real? And you can imagine that Martha
and Mary have been through all of this, but where does she land?
She lands with her eyes on Christ. She lands with confidence that
whatever he asked of the father, the father will give. And Jesus
says to her very plainly, your brother will rise again. Martha says, I know he’s going
to rise again. She’s thinking about the big
resurrection at the last day. And Jesus says to her, no, I
am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, Lazarus
did, though he die, yet he shall live. And everyone who lives
in me and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? And her confession, yes, Lord,
I believe that you are the Christ. I believe you are the son of
God. I believe you are he who has promised to come into the
world. You know, we, we face death often with our loved ones.
One of the traditions we have when we go to the graveside at
the very last, when the service is over and the body will soon
be lowered into the ground, the dirt passed over the, the, the,
the casket, the vault, The things from the funeral service taken
away. You’ll come back in a day or two to visit, put flowers.
There’s the kind of the hump, right? What do we say at the
last when it’s really goodbye? We say what our confession of
faith teaches us, that the souls of believers are at their death
made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory. but their bodies being still
united to Jesus rest in the grave. They’re asleep in Christ until
the resurrection. We have to have the same faith
of Mary and Martha. Mary comes out with the mourners
and she says the same thing to Jesus. You should have been here.
Now, we don’t know if it was an angry, you know, a foot stomp.
You should have been here. And if you had been here, this
would not have happened. No, this is probably more from
both of them as they’ve talked and cried a confession of faith. She comes out to Jesus. And the Jews, the mourners are
consoling her and they follow her out. And all of this overwhelms
Jesus. And we come to everybody’s favorite
passage of scripture to memorize. Jesus wept. It’s the easiest
one. Doesn’t matter what version, right? You can even memorize
it in King James. But Jesus saw her weeping. And the Jews who
had come with her were also weeping and he was deeply moved. Jesus
is both angry and He is in grief. He’s angry at the effects of
sin. I don’t know if you watch the
news at night and see the headlines and you see murders and school
shootings and plane crashes and, I mean, all kinds of things.
Are you angry with the effects of Adam’s sin? Why, Adam, did
you disobey? We would have had paradise. But we know of what is to come
because of the work of Jesus. There will be paradise again
in the new heavens and the new earth. But Jesus wept. We see
the compassion of our Lord and the Jews notice, see how he loved
them. But then there’s the skeptics.
Could he not have also opened the eyes of the blind man and
kept this man from dying? If he could do that, why couldn’t
he do this? Shortest verse in the Bible, Jesus wept. That is
the compassion of our Lord. That is the compassion of our
Savior. We read in Hebrews, we have a high priest who can sympathize
with us. For he has been made like us
in every way except this, when he was tempted, he did not sin. That’s why he could be the spotless
lamb. who goes to the cross. Well, what does Jesus say of
himself that we need to know and hear and believe today? He
says, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in
me, yet he die, he shall live. And everyone who lives and believes
in me shall never die. Now, I’ve done a lot of funerals.
The first church I served 20 some years ago back in Charlotte,
there was a funeral a week. We had a cemetery. And I’ll tell
you this, not once was there a turnaround. Not once was there
a resurrection. I got a hundred percent success
rate. Every funeral I did, that person went in the grave. But
Jesus, when the resurrection and the life shows up to a funeral,
he raises the dead. And that’s what he’s done here
for Lazarus. Jesus says, take away the stone and everyone’s
favorite King James verse comes up here. But Lord, he stinketh. Right. That’s where the King
James is very helpful. By this time, Martha says there
will be an odor. He’s been dead four days. Why
the four days? Well, here’s a little Jewish
myth. The teachers, the rabbis, the authorities, they taught
this, that when a person died, their spirit sort of hovered
around the person for a couple of days. But after day one, you
start losing a little hope. There’s not going to be a resurrection.
Day two, there’s not going to be hope. After day three, it’s
looking bleak. You know, you read the headlines
and you hear about, you know, Aunt Maud went to the funeral
home and she was actually not dead. You hear about those on
the news? Well, at day four, they lost
hope. And so if Jesus is trying to
glorify God and he’s going to glorify God by himself manifesting
a great miracle Lazarus has got to be good and dead. That’s why
the delay. Lazarus has got to be good and
dead so that when he raises him, the Jews cannot say, well, his
spirit was nearby. And this is no miracle. This is just Lazarus and his
spirit reunited. Well, he says, take away the
stone. Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see
the glory of God today? And so he says in prayer to the
father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you
always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing
around. Why is God doing these miracles?
It’s so they will see the signs and wonders from heaven through
Jesus, the everlasting son of God, and they may believe. And
so he cries with a loud voice, come out. When I was in middle
school, I went on a couple trips with my dad to Israel, Jordan,
and Egypt. And both times we went in Lazarus tomb. They’re
pretty sure it’s the right one. And of course we had to do the
thing, you know, go down in there and somebody called down there,
come out. But this is a pretty amazing,
this is an eternally everlasting, amazing thing. It comes out all
mummified. And Jesus says, unbind him and
let him go. Now there are two responses. to a passage of scripture like
this. We saw them in Jesus’ day. There’s utter rejection and there
is pure belief. And I wonder which you share
today. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, the eternal son of God, the savior of sinners, and that
he has the power to raise the dead and give everlasting life? I hope that is so of you. I hope
the Lord is stirring in your mind and in your heart and in
your soul. And I hope that you will not
leave today without speaking to someone about this great and
ultimate question. Jesus says, do you believe? And
I hope with all my heart that you do. Let’s pray together. Lord, we thank you for the wonderful
work of our savior, Jesus. who came in this world to seek
and save the lost. He went to die the death we could
not die. He went to pay the penalty we
owed but could never pay. And we thank you that in the
life and in the ministry and the death and the satisfaction
Jesus made on the cross, that we who look to the cross will
live. So Lord, give us all great faith
now, we pray in Jesus’ mighty name, amen. We want to sing of
God’s goodness, number 273. Let’s stand together and sing.