Sermon by Pastor Brent Kompelien
April 9, 2023
INTRO
Good morning! He is risen! I’m pastor Brent. If you’re new, welcome! It’s so good to be with you this Resurrection Sunday.
Well friends, let me ask you: What can we be sure of in this world? What things can we count on? What is a safe bet in this life?
Benjamin Franklin had an answer. In November 1789 at age 83, Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in France to an update him about recent event in the United States: the Constitution’s ratification a year before and the start of a new government.
This is what Franklin wrote, (SLIDE 2) “Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.”
Here was a man in the waning years of his life, a man who struggled with chronic illness, who was facing the certainty of death. This statement wasn’t mere wit, it was reality.
He concluded this very same letter by reflecting on his own mortality, “My health continues much as it has been for some time, except that I grow thinner and weaker so that I cannot expect to hold out much longer.”
Franklin died 6 months later. His maxim proved true. Death is the undefeated champion. (SLIDE 3, title slide)
We are all faced with this same certainty. ASK: What emotions does that conjure up in you? What reaction do you have when you are faced with certainty of death?
Some of us feel afraid.
Some want to ignore it, to imagine that it’s still far off in the future.
Many of us have felt the grief, loss, and pain that death causes.
In the face of death, we may wonder, “Does God know, is he good, does he care, will he do something?”
In this world, death is the undefeated champion…or is it?
Open with me to John 11:1-44
We have come to the defining moment in the gospel of John. We’ve been doing our series called “Full of Grace and Truth” since last fall, and we are now coming to the pinnacle moment where Jesus proves that in the face of the most terrible reality, death itself, Jesus has not met his match! He shows through the raising of Lazarus that he is not merely in a battle against the religious leaders in Jerusalem, he is in a battle against death itself!
You see, the painful reality of death causes some people in this passage to question “does God know, is he good, does he care, will he do something?” We are going to see that Jesus answers all these questions, and we are going to see that this account is a preview of the coming attraction: That Jesus himself will rise from the dead, and that our own resurrection is secure by the new reigning champion over sin and death, Jesus Christ!
Let’s read our text. If you’re new, we love reading God’s Word here at our church. We’re not afraid to read whole events or longer passages because we want to catch the whole picture of what God is communicating to us through these incredible accounts. READ John 11:1-44.
Background
Remember that this is the defining moment of John’s gospel, and from here everything turns toward the cross.
This is the 7th miracle of Jesus recorded in the gospel of John, it is also the 5th “I am” statement. This event becomes the controversy that drives the Jewish leaders to want to kill Jesus. The Apostle John wants us to see that the raising of Lazarus is a watershed moment, that when we are faced with the ultimate result of sin, death itself, we may wonder “does God know, is he good, does he care, will he do something?”
ORG SENT — I want to walk through this passage to show you how Jesus answers each of these questions, revealing his mission to defeat sin and death though his own death and resurrection, and ultimately pointing ahead to our resurrection at the Last Day.
MAIN 1 — Does He Know? (vv. 1-16). (SLIDE 4a)
Go back to verse 1. This account begins with a desperate plea for help. The sisters Mary and Martha send word to Jesus, the miracle-worker, “Help, the one you love is sick!”
Jesus’ friend is deathly ill. His sisters are in terrible fear for his life! And what does Jesus do? READ vv. 4-6.
Two important observations:
FIRST — (SLIDE 4b) The first words out of Jesus’ mouth are a promise: “This sickness will not end in death.” But wait: Lazarus ended up dying! Is Jesus mistaken? Surely not! So, what does he mean?
Jesus is saying that Lazarus’ sickness and suffering will not ultimately end in death. Death is not the end of the story. Jesus will ensure that death does not win the day!
You see, this points to something greater. Listen dear friends: The sickness of sin will not win the day, even if we sometimes wonder whether God sees our suffering and struggle! As evil as the curse of sin is, as terrible as our pain and illnesses are, as ugly as the destruction of evil is across history, it has a purpose.
Jesus says it plainly: It is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified!
This is not so that God may receive glory, but that his glory would be displayed.
That is why Lazarus is so sick! So that God’s glory would be displayed through the suffering, through the grief, and ultimately through the raising of Lazarus from the dead!
APPLY — The same goes for us. God’s glory can be displayed through your suffering namely because in Christ we have an eternal resurrection hope that far surpasses the struggles of today! Without this hope the struggles and griefs of this life would be unbearable. But through Christ, God gets the glory!
SECOND — (SLIDE 4c) Verses 5 and 6 show a peculiar expression of love. The text says that “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. SO (strong conjunction) when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.”
What? His friend is sick, and he waits two more days to leave?
Don’t miss this: Jesus expresses his love by delay! Just look at what Jesus says to his disciples when they question whether Jesus knows what he’s talking about. READ vv. 11-15.
There is a purpose to his delay: (SLIDE 4d) It is to foster faith and to clarify who he is as the Savior. It is not malicious, it is for the good of everyone involved: Mary, Martha, the disciples, even Lazarus himself! This is what we will see in the rest of the story.
APPLY — The same goes for us! Our timing is often not God’s timing. Yet, we will sometimes ask: Does God know? How is my struggle an opportunity for God’s glory or his delay an expression of his love?
Dear friends, here is the promise from Jesus: Your sickness, your grief, your failure, the struggles of your flesh, your inability to save yourself…these are opportunities for God’s glory to be displayed through his comfort, his forgiveness, his strength, his redemption, and his promise to raise you to eternal life in the new heavens and new earth. Like Abraham, like Joseph, like Ruth, like Esther, like Jeremiah, and like Job…your suffering is the very monument to God’s kindness, his mercy, and his grace…if you have the eyes of faith to see that God’s delay does not mean he does not know about your pain!
MAIN 2 — Is He Good? (vv. 17-27). (SLIDE 5a)
Let’s go back to the story. As Jesus nears the town of Bethany, which is less than two miles from Jerusalem, Martha, ever busy, heads out to find Jesus along the road.
I really like Martha. I bet she was the older sister. Anyone here an oldest sister? I have an older sister, and I picture Martha like my sister who will take charge and make sure everything gets taken care of, sometimes frustrated at all the rest of us who don’t help!
Well, Martha finds Jesus and says in verse 21, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
We need to be careful not to read this as a rude complaint or accusation. It is more a lament. (SLIDE 5b) She recognizes that Jesus could have done something, but she probably wonders why he didn’t do something.
Ultimately, this is a question of Jesus’ goodness. We often think: If God has the power to prevent illness, if he has the power to stop suffering, if he has the authority to end my pain, why doesn’t he do it? If he has the power, but he doesn’t help me, is he really good?
But Jesus widens the perspective here, not with a superficial platitude, but with a declaration that our momentary pain will be swallowed up in the ultimate purposes of Jesus’ redemptive work to bring about the renewal of all things!
You see, Jesus’ goodness is not seen in alleviating temporal difficulties on-demand, as though he were a cosmic vending machine that dispenses divine pain medication. No, his work is grander, more complete, going to the root of the problem: (SLIDE 5c) He is defeating death itself!
Look at specifically what Jesus says to Martha: READ vv. 25-26. There are two parts, each with its corresponding commentary:
(SLIDE 5d) I am the resurrection — the one who believes in me will live, even though they die. In other words, our natural death is not the end of the story when you put your faith in Jesus!
(SLIDE 5e) I am the life — whoever lives by believing in me will never die. This means that our resurrection life with Christ will go on forevermore! No more death!
And Jesus’ call to Martha is so profound: “Do you believe this?”
Don’t miss this: The promise of the resurrection to be received by faith. The only way to forgiveness and resurrection life is to trust in Jesus by faith. (SLIDE 5f)
Martha’s response is the most clear articulation of Jesus’ identity yet in the gospel of John: “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who is come into the world.”
It was the circumstance of Lazarus’ death that engendered this bold response of faith! Without the pain, without the difficulty, without the sorrow, and without the desire for Jesus to show his goodness in the face of death, Martha would not have come to believe. So yes, Jesus is good!
MAIN 3 — Does He Care? (vv. 28-37). (SLIDE 6a)
Now the story moves along. Jesus comes to the town of Bethany, and now Mary comes out to meet him. She says the same thing as her sister. And now we see the very heart of Jesus.
You see, one of the greatest challenges in the face of sin and suffering and loss is the question, “Does Jesus care?”
When Jesus arrives, everyone else is weeping. ILLUST — Outward mourning was part of the culture of 1st century Jewish life. It was required that even a poor family was to hire at least two flute players and a professional wailing woman to make sure the dead were honored by public displays of mourning.
Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were NOT poor. In fact, they were fairly wealthy and well-connected in Jerusalem. So they would have had a whole orchestra, kind of like our own horn section this morning!
IMPORTANT — When Jesus saw them weeping, the text says in verse 33 that he was “deeply moved in spirit and troubled.” (SLIDE 6b) What does the word “deeply moved” mean?
ILLUST — In the secular Greek world, this word referred to the snorting of horses when they are agitated.
As applied to human beings, it suggested anger, outrage, or indignation. (SLIDE 6c) For Jesus to be “deeply moved in spirit”, he was feeling an intense emotion of outrage or indignation; not merely loss, grief, or sympathy.
KEY — Imagine what is happening at this moment. They take Jesus to the tomb, and the text simply says, “Jesus wept.” Jesus looks upon the grave and tears come rolling down his cheeks. Friends, he is not merely crying at the loss of Lazarus, for he knows that he will be raising Lazarus from the dead in just a few moments! Rather, these are tears of lament and sorrow and outrage at existence of death itself, and Jesus is deeply moved by the pain it causes the people he loves.
ILLUST — B.B. Warfield, the early early 20th century theologian, wrote an essay called “On the Emotional Life of Our Lord.” In this essay, Warfield describes what is going on here in John 11. He says, “It would be impossible, therefore, for [Jesus] to stand in the presence of perceived wrong indifferent or unmoved.”
Warfield says about this moment when Jesus encounters the tomb of Lazarus that (SLIDE 6d) “compassion and indignation rise together in his soul.”
In other words, it would be a contradiction for Jesus to merely feel sad at the reality of death, and not also feel outraged at the ugliness of death at the same moment! As the very Son of God and the Author of Life, he not only feels compassion for the bereaved and grief at the loss of his friend…he is indignant at the hideous effects of the curse of sin!
APPLY — He knows what grief feels like. Maybe you’ve felt the same emotions: deep grief and sorrow, mixed with a sense of indignation at the ugliness of death. That this isn’t the way its supposed to be! We should weep because death is wrong! It is a tragedy! It is ugly! It is the fruit of sin! It is a loss that shouldn’t be! It is troubling and against all that God intended for us.
Dear friends, Jesus knows what your pain and he cares about you. He cares so much that he will do something about it!
MAIN 4 — Will He Do Something? (vv. 38-44). (SLIDE 7a)
Pick it up in verse 38. The text says again that Jesus was “deeply moved” as he came to the tomb. He simply says, “Take away the stone.”
From Martha’s response, it is clear she still didn’t understand that Jesus was going to raise Lazarus right now. But why would she! That would be extraordinary! And so she protests. Lazarus has been dead for four days!
ILLUST — Some commentators point out the significance of “four days” here. It was a commonly held belief in 1st century Judaism that the soul would hover for three days above a dead body, and once it saw that the body began decomposing, it would depart. So by day four, the person was “really” dead! (SLIDE 7b)
Now, Jesus is not necessarily agreeing with this belief, but it is no accident that John mentioned the four days because even the most skeptical reader of this Gospel would not be able to argue that Jesus didn’t really raise Lazarus, that maybe his body wasn’t really dead.
No! As the King James Version so aptly puts Martha’s response, “He stinketh!”
Jesus reminds Martha of his ultimate purpose in verse 40, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
This is the theme of Jesus’ prayer as they roll away the stone: (SLIDE 7c) That the glory of God displayed through our suffering and pain will bring about a genuine response of faith in Jesus Christ as our only Savior and Lord.
Here’s the moment of truth! They roll away the stone.
ILLUST — Tombs in the 1st century, especially for wealthy families like Lazarus’, were often carved out of rock and had multiple slots for bodies. (SLIDE 8). I took this picture in a tomb in the hills of southern Israel near Jerusalem.
Jesus here calls out in a loud voice for a specific person, namely Lazarus. Some commentators have said that perhaps if he didn’t call Lazarus by name, every dead person in that tomb would have come out!
But even more importantly, this is an enacted parable of what is to come: If you trust in Jesus today, he will call you by name at the resurrection at the Last Day! He will awaken HIS sleepers, the ones who belong to him, the ones he loves!
APPLY — If you’ve ever wondered, “Will Jesus do something about the pain and evil and sin in this world?” He has promised to return to remove the curse of sin and death forevermore in the new heavens and new earth!
Friends, the very One who shed tears of outrage at the curse of sin and death has triumphed in his own death and resurrection, and we await the glory of that day when the promise that is pictured in Revelation 21:3-4 becomes a reality: (SLIDE 10) “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
In the meantime, trust in the goodness of Jesus. He knows, he is good, he cares, and he has achieved the ultimate destruction of death itself.