The Resurrection and the Life - Jn 11

Happy Resurrection Day. Please, if you would, turn in your Bible to the book of John 11, the Gospel of John 11. And I'm going to bounce around in John. We're not going to handle it in a linear way, verse by verse, like we typically would if we were preaching expository through the Gospel of John. I'm going to handle the event and make particular emphasis as we go through this passage. So I don't want you classic Baptists to be upset with me if I don't just go verse by verse. It's on purpose.

John's Gospel is not synoptic. If you would like a little bit of technical language, synoptic— the other three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are synoptic. That means that those Gospels are presented as— that word synoptic means to see along with or to be alongside. In other words, the people writing Matthew, Mark, and Luke are telling the story of those who were there alongside the events. They witnessed, opticus on the end of that, they saw together what happened. And although John did experience what happened, John's Gospel is different in the sense that it is theological in nature. John is actually interpreting events. John's Gospel is a little bit more like a sermon rather than a record.

And so if you look at John 20:31, it says this, "But these things are written in the book of John, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name." So the whole point of the Gospel of John is that the reader of the Gospel of John would believe in Jesus Christ. And just a quick side note, if you don't know what that means, it doesn't mean believe that he existed. It doesn't mean believe that he was a good teacher. It means believe that he is the Son of God and that he is the all-sufficient Savior.

And when I say all-sufficient, I mean it is not Jesus plus anything else. It is not Jesus plus your obedience, Jesus plus your religion, Jesus plus your whatever, your baptism, Jesus plus your ritual. It is not Jesus plus anything. It is Jesus alone. And so the goal of the Gospel of John is that people would see what is on display in the Gospel of John. And then once they see it, should God open their eyes to the truth of the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ is the Savior, that when they see it, they would believe in Him. They would put their total confidence in Him. They would say, "Now I understand I can do nothing to contribute to my righteousness. I can do nothing to be right with God. I need Jesus." to do it for me. And so they ask for forgiveness, they put their confidence in the Lord. He gives them perfection in Christ. They give Him sin. That doesn't seem like a very good deal on God's part, but it is because He gets glory from sinners who exalt Him.

So do you believe will be the question at the end of today, but it's the question in the beginning. It is the point of the Gospel of John, even in chapter 11. You're in chapter 11 now. That's where we're at this morning. At the end, toward the end part of chapter 11, look at verse 47. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered in a council and said, what shall we do? 'For this man,' that's Jesus that we'll talk about before this. We're going to talk about what he does before these verses. 'Works many signs. If we let him alone like this, everyone will believe in him.'

If only that were true, right? If everybody would believe in Jesus. 'And the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.' So the Jews at the time under Roman rule in the first century Palestine, the Jews were worried that if Jesus makes too much of a fuss, the Romans are going to come and smash them down and take away the freedoms that they did have at the time. So they're plotting now, how can we stop this guy Jesus?

Because if people believe in him, then we'll be in trouble with the Romans. That's the context we find ourselves in.

Belief, faith, same thing. Belief, faith, trust, all synonyms for our discussion this morning. Right now, you trust the chair to hold you up. You trust that the food you ate downstairs is going to be okay for you. You trust that you're going to get home safely today. Those things, that word trust means you have confidence in. Jesus wants us to believe in him, to trust him, to put our confidence in him and him alone, and that's what John is writing about.

So with that background, we're gonna dig in, and I'm gonna ask you this morning, what is the resurrection? And don't answer that too quickly because there's a lot of people in this text that think they know the answer to that question. And I'm gonna suggest to you, with my 30-plus years as a Christian and my 20-plus years as a pastor, that many people would answer that question the way the people in the text do that get corrected. Many people would give the same answers that we see in the text that Jesus has to correct, that Jesus has to make sure they understand because they don't fully understand.

So my question to you again is, what is the resurrection? Is the resurrection merely Jesus coming out of the tomb on the third day? Is the resurrection the future glory we get in heaven? Is the resurrection heaven? What is the resurrection? Well, Jesus is going to answer for us this morning. We don't need to ask. He's going to tell us. We're going to learn it. And hopefully, we'll leave here with that understanding and properly value the resurrection and honor this day the way it should be honored.

Oddly, this is interestingly enough, strange to preach a resurrection message not talking about the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ out of the tomb. Isn't that strange on Easter Sunday to not use a passage that deals with him coming out of the tomb? It'll make sense to you. Someone's coming out of a tomb today in this text.

Let's pray. Father, now as we open John chapter 11 and look at the event of the raising of Lazarus and seeing the truth of the resurrection, I would ask, Father, that we would leave here anchored firmly in that truth, anchored firmly in the understanding of what it means that our Savior is the resurrection. We'd ask, Father, that because of it, we would think correctly, not just about the future, but about our present and what we're here for on earth. And it might even give us a new excitement and vigor for living for the Lord Jesus who's risen. So help us, Father, I ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, I'm going to bounce around with the verses, so get your John 11 handy in front of you because I will be— literally, I'll be going forward and then backward and forward and then backward because I'm— like I said, I'm in talking about the event, not about the progress of the event. So if you look at verse 1 of chapter 11, we see that Lazarus is sick unto death. By the way, there's two Lazaruses. What's the plural of Lazarus? Lazarai? Is that the plural? There's two Lazaruses. One of them is in the parable in the Gospel of Luke, and this is the real Lazarus, the man who was a relative of Mary and Martha and Bethany.

So look at verse 1 of chapter 11. "And now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany." the town of Mary and her sister Martha. So we're going to see in verse 4, and I'll look at it later in the sermon, that He is— Jesus will say He's not sick unto death, but then we'll find out He died. So we'll clarify that later. And then the crazy thing is, is, you know, if you didn't know, Jesus has the power to heal. That will be a big part of the narrative here today. And so Jesus doesn't choose to go to where His sick friend is. So Jesus knows he's sick. He chooses not to go. And He says He's not sick unto death. And then He waits 2 days instead of rushing to go.

Then you get down to verse 7. Then after this, He said to His disciples, And Jesus said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone you, and you are going there again?" So Jesus had ruffled feathers by preaching against the current system there. And so people were— he was already being threatened at this point in the narrative. He was already being threatened as a threat to Jews. They wanted him dead. And he said, "They sought to stone you." And Jesus answered, "Are there not 12 hours in a day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, but he sees the light of this world."

'But if one walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him.' And what he's saying there is, it's still daytime while I'm here, is essentially what he's saying. I only have the time while I'm here to do the things God has called me to do. So we need to use the time that we have while I'm here, is what he's saying. If I hide from my work, then I'll be like me hiding in the dark. I can't hide in the dark. There's ministry to do during the daytime hours, during the work hours. I still have work to do, so we have to do it.

And then he says, these things he said, verse 11, these things he said, and after that he said to them, 'Our friend Lazarus sleeps.' Put that in your pocket. That Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.' Now they had just told him, 'We've been threatened already. You've been threatened to be killed there, be stoned there.' Then his disciples said to him, 'Lord, if he sleeps, he will get well.' Which is logical. If you hear Jesus say he's asleep, we would all say the same thing they said. Yeah, if he's asleep and there's threat of death there, just, hey, leave things be. He'll wake up again, right, if he's asleep.

However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that he was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead. So there's no question what's happening here. He's with the disciples apart from this place where he was under threat. He says, "We're going to go to Judea again." And they said, "Last time we were there, things didn't go well." And he says, "But my friend's asleep and I wanna wake him up." And they say, "If he's asleep, leave him be. He'll wake up on his own." And he says, "He's dead." Figuratively, when I said he was asleep, He's asleep. Then something interesting happens in verse 16. I'm skipping 15, I'll get to it in a moment. Where Thomas, we all know Thomas, called Doubting Thomas. I say he's Denying Thomas, that's stronger than doubt.

Verse 16, then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us go that we may die with Him." Now, there are two views of this, by the way, and I don't care what you hold. You can hold either of them totally acceptably. One view says that Thomas is being bold, strong. All right then, let's go. Let's do it. He's ready. I'm ready to go and die for the Lord. I happen to not hold to that. I hold to the other view, which is he's essentially disgusted and like, fine then, let's go die. If we're going to die, well, let's go die. That's the attitude. The reason I hold that is because what he does later after Jesus does die and raises from the dead, he doesn't have faith and excitement. He's the doubter, right? So I think that that heart that's the doubter later is still here now. And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he's just ready to be a soldier and die. It's okay, whichever of those you hold.

But I do want you to notice one thing. And this is a theme. I'm going to fail in communicating it adequately, but I'm going to say it now so that you'll at least look for it even if I'm not clearly communicating it. Here's what I want you to see. Every other person in this text that talks or that comments or that interjects something, every one of them thinks they understand life and death. Every one of them. Thomas thinks he understands life and death, doesn't he? What's going to happen if we go there is we are going to what? Die. And what does Thomas think will happen after the death? Well, they'll get buried. That's the end of their lives. That's all that counts. That's the only thing that will happen. So already we have one of the people vocally saying, we're going to die and that's all there is. Something like that. It's the end of the deal. Okay, if our story is going to end, it's going to end. Now put that in your pocket, please. Thomas thinks he knows what death means. And he's not the only one. We'll see more of that as we unpack things. So death is a real problem for sure.

Look at verse 13. Let's look at the understanding of things. Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought he was speaking about the rest in sleep. So I'm going to just ask you plainly there, when Jesus was speaking about death in the figurative language of sleep, did they understand what he meant? The answer is no. Now, why is that important? Because you might say, well, of course they would have trouble understanding. He would— why didn't he just say it plainly? Why didn't Jesus start with he's dead? Why didn't he start with that? Jesus is making a point. Just so you know, the person who's not getting it in this text is not Jesus. He gets it just fine.

So when you hear Jesus say he's asleep, Jesus wants them to think of sleep, not death. Why? Because you wake up from sleep. So Jesus is not making a mistake. He's not being silly. He's not being coy. He's not being tricky. He's not doing a little prank. I said sleep, but really I meant death. Jesus is not doing that. He wants them to see that death is not what they think death is. So He's using sleep figuratively to make a point. You don't wake up from their version of death, but you do wake up from His version of death. Do you got it? Okay, so pay attention to that as we unpack this. In their minds, death is the ultimate end. They think they understand death. If Jesus speaks to them the way they think they understand, they're gonna be under a misunderstanding.

Verse 17, look at it with me. Now, again, I told you we're bouncing around. So when Jesus came, he found that he had already been in the tomb 4 days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about 2 miles away, and many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Pay close attention here. They got it all figured out. These people are anthropologists, they're theologians, they're practically even doctors. These people are so smart, including Martha.

Verse 20, "Now Martha, as soon as she heard Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.'" Parents, do your kids ever tell you how wrong you are? Do your kids ever tell you that you don't understand? Bosses, do your employees tell you you don't understand? Citizens, do your leaders tell you you don't understand? I'm just going to tell you something that you— you probably don't need to be told this, but can I just tell you? Don't tell Jesus what to think. Don't tell God what to think. Don't act like God doesn't know what's going on.

We can do that. You say, "Well, Martha does that. I don't do that." Are you sure? Things aren't going your way and you don't cry to heaven, "Why, God?" You sure you're not doing the same thing? Just don't do what she does. "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. If you had been here, my brother would have more breath and more time and more life on earth and more happiness. And that's what matters, Lord." Your priorities were wrong, Jesus, because if you had been here with the right priorities, my brother would have more life. And my brother having more life is the best. And you missed it, Jesus. Now, I know she wouldn't say that with that tone. In a moment, she's gonna be respectful. But I want you to pay close attention. However innocent it might seem, especially in her grief, I wanna be careful. She's grieving. Her brother is dead.

You find out, I'm not gonna read Mary, but Mary says the same thing that Martha says. She says the exact same thing. If you had been here, our brother would be alive. Is it possible the two of them had a conversation? Is it possible the two of them were complaining about Jesus not being there when He wasn't there yet? Do you think I shouldn't speculate like that? Do you think that's wrong for me to speculate? You're supposed to assume the best about Mary and Martha. Well, hey, they both say, "You should have been here and You weren't." So is it safe for me to assume that when He wasn't there, they were, "Meh, meh, meh, where's Jesus? He should be here. He's not doing what we think. If He was here right now, He would fix this situation." and we would get more time with our brother.

Lots of people think they understand what's most important. Lots of people think they understand the importance of living. In this case, Lazarus, their brother, living more time, having more hours, having more days, having more holidays, having more meals and feasts, and having more family time, and those things that we all count so very important, the kind of things we feel robbed of when someone dies too young. Oh, they're not here for Christmas. That's most important. The value and the priority that we put on number of breaths and the time we have on earth as the most important thing. Their brother Lazarus isn't breathing anymore. And they're saying, "If you had been here, you would have fixed that." And in our minds, that's the ultimate problem. Our assessment of the situation, Jesus, is the most important thing is that our brother wouldn't have died. You're on earth right now and you have the power to heal and you didn't heal our brother.

Now there's a hint in verse 22. There's a hint here. And we're getting in now to the point of what the resurrection is and isn't. Because you might think the resurrection is that future glory when we all get heaven and we see Grandma and play football or whatever we do in heaven. That that's the resurrection. The resurrection is the thing that happens later. So close. You know the old saying, so close, finish it for me. Yet? She's close. Verse 22, she's really close. Look at it. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.

If we only had that verse, we could all just celebrate and say, oh, thank goodness. Whew, that was a close one. Martha gets it now. We're all right. I could send you home. She understands it, that you got it. Jesus, I might have questioned you before, but now I'm not questioning you. I got it now. God will give you— your Father will give you whatever you ask for. Except for what happens next. Look at verse 23. Then Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again. 'in the resurrection at the last day.'"

Hmm. Now, some of you know, if you've been a Christian for any length of time, you know how this narrative unfolds. You know what happens next. You've already read the end of the story. You know what Jesus says. You know what He does here in a moment. I haven't gotten to what He does in a moment. That's amazing. There's probably maybe 1 or 2 new people who have never heard the story or haven't dug into the narrative. So I'm going to ask you something. When she said in verse 22 that, "God will give you whatever you want." Did she have a full understanding if in verse 23 and 24 the way she understands is that the resurrection is off in the future? Does she understand? The answer is no. She has some understanding, but not the correct understanding and not the full understanding. The reason we know that is because of what Jesus doesn't say. In a minute, I'll explain that.

So please pay close attention. The first thing I want you to catch is that Jesus says, 'Your brother will rise again.' Now regardless of the timeline, regardless of whether that means in just a moment when I call him out of the grave, or regardless of that means in the future when we are all raised in future glory, whatever that means, when Jesus said this, Martha is supposed to be comforted. In theory now, in theory, not in practice because Martha's human like us and we question God. In theory, Martha should have said, 'Thank you for telling me that.' Rabbi, thank you. Thank you for the reminder that this isn't all there is. Thank you for the reminder that there is a future for those of us who the Lord loves and who we love. She could have stopped there and said, thank you for the reminder. Now can we go have fellowship and you can bring us comfort? She could have said that, but she doesn't say that. She says, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Now, what's wrong with what she's saying? Well, technically, literally, factually, there's nothing wrong with what she's saying. There's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing incorrect about it. You can say a doctrinal truth and still not be getting the depth and the most important thing in the truth. Because Jesus is saying something to comfort her, and she is saying that, "I know that comfort will be meaningful later." Is Martha saying, "That doesn't do me any good right now, Jesus"? She's not saying that, but she might be saying that. I don't know her heart. I don't know her motives. She could be saying, "Well, what good does that do me? He's dead now." She could be saying that. I don't think she is. I actually think Martha is trying to believe. I think Martha is trying to trust the Lord. I think she's, in her heart, her, He's there now and He is her helper and He is her friend and He does love her family and He's talking to her. And I think He's trying to tell her something and He's about to say something. And by the way, we'll get to go back in time and talk in a moment about what he actually says.

But I do want you to see something. When she says, "I know there's a future resurrection. I know that one day it'll happen." Abraham knew that too, right? That's why he bought the plot of land, so he could be in the right place when the time came of the resurrection. Jacob knew that too. "Don't bury me in Egypt. Take me back to the land of my fathers, because that's where I want to be buried, so that when the resurrection happens, I'm there." This is something that Jews would have understood. Remember the difficulty that Jesus had with the Sadducees? Because they didn't believe in the resurrection? Like, hey, all good Jews understand there will be a resurrection someday. You know, dry bones of Ezekiel and all those things. We all know that there's a resurrection. It's as though Martha is saying, hey, I know, I got all that already. I learned all that in Sunday school that we're going to raise from the dead at some point. They didn't have Sunday school, you know, Saturday school. I learned all that when I was a kid. I understand that.

Are we like that? I'm asking right now. We know, we also in this room all know that there's life after death, right? We all got that, that eventually there's something that's going to happen after we die. Do we all? We all get that. We're all in at least the same boat as Martha in that we know that one day we'll rise again, our family that we love who are in the Lord will rise again. We got all that. The question I have for you is why does Jesus keep going here? If that is the extent to which we are supposed to understand the resurrection, that there is a future for those who will rise again, if that's all there is, if that is the most important thing, a future where we rise again, Why does Jesus continue the lesson?

Why doesn't he stop right here and say, "You got it. You got it. Yep, you know there's heaven for believers. Good. Well done, Martha. You know that God has a wonderful plan for our life. Good job. You know that one day we can sing 'I Can Only Imagine' what it'll be like to be in heaven, right? We know that one day we'll walk the streets of gold." We talk about that when the guys are working in the basement and everything, like when you're dusty and You got fiberglass in your eyeballs and everything else when they're doing something at the church. When they're out there mowing or cutting down trees and stuff, the guys, if you ever come around when those projects are going at church, you'll hear all the guys telling each other— I think Todd started it— where they'll shout across the way, like, cutting down trees out there, streets of gold. And they're saying that because all this hard stuff we're doing right now— like, by the way, all you guys, I did know— I did get a list of names of all of you who did the weeds out here and sprayed and weed-eated. I very much appreciate that. This ex-groundskeeper/janitor noticed it. And I didn't know who did it, so I did get a little bit of a— I know some of you get the points in heaven for doing that. Not even— church doesn't even know who did it. But when you're doing it, don't you think it's streets of gold? Streets of gold. That's the way people think, that one day off in the future there will be a resurrection where we will all have streets of gold.

And if that's all that is the resurrection, then Jesus should stop talking. Lesson is done. But what I want you to see here is what Jesus doesn't say. Jesus does not talk about a place at all. Jesus also does not talk about an event at all. Jesus does also not talk about a time at all. Jesus does not say, "Off in the future is the capital R Resurrection." Jesus does not say, "Off in the future there will be a place where this capital R Resurrection happens." Jesus does not say there will be a moment in the future when the thing called capital R Resurrection happens. The resurrection, definitively, Jesus does not say, he does not spell out, he does not look forward to the place, to the event, to the time. And I'm suggesting to you that when we Christians talk about the resurrection most of the time, those are the things we emphasize. The place, the time, The event, we talk about eschatology and when it happens and those kind of things. Those are the things we talk about.

In fact, I think we talk like Martha. I know one day Lazarus will rise again. I know one day my dad will rise again. I know one day your loved one who's in the Lord will rise again. That's how we think of heaven, or the resurrection as heaven. We'll call it heaven, or even worse, we'll call it a better place. So we think of the resurrection as us in this life getting pretty much what we can out of this life, and then just having a nice improved version of it in the future with no crime or disease or discomfort.

Now, if I ask, what is your answer to what is the resurrection? Is it the same as Martha's? The resurrection is that time off in the future when we get— have a better life than we have now, when we get to see Grandma in heaven. And eat all chocolate or whatever we think heaven is going to be like. You joke about that, but we've actually heard our missionaries in various places, like in Africa, say that when they picture heaven, they picture having two bags of rice instead of one. That's how good we have it in our country, that we can talk about chocolate and what the future might have for us. For them, it's just having enough food to eat, a little extra. That's what people think of as how good heaven could be, two bags of rice. So some people see the future as those kind of blessings, heaven.

What do you say? I don't want to hear what you say yet. Don't answer. Jesus is going to answer for us. Jesus is going to tell us what the resurrection is, the capital R definitive biblical resurrection. Is it to get the most out of life as we can here, to be blessed here, to have family here, to have gatherings here, to have grandchildren here, to have money here, to have work here, to have our passions? Fulfilled here? Is that what life is, is that Jesus is essentially our coach while we're on earth, but eventually in the future, we'll have this resurrection time? But now, we don't think about resurrection now. We think about resurrection then. Resurrection is there. Resurrection is that, right? Do you see me pointing? I mean, if you're listening to the audio, you can't see that I'm pointing and making an idiot of myself up here. The resurrection is right there. That's the way we think. We all do this, by the way. I'm not judging you. We all do it. We all get caught up in thinking that being in Christ and the blessings that come from him raising from the dead, the celebration we have here today on Resurrection Sunday, that being in him, that the main emphasis or impetus of the resurrection for us is later at another place at another time.

And if that were true, Jesus would say that. Jesus would say he will rise again later. When she says, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection," Jesus will say, "Got it. A-plus. Gold star. You got it. Now you get your awana award for getting the verses right." Verse 25, what does Jesus say is the resurrection? You see it. It's so clear. He does not point up. He does not point forward. He points in. Verse 25, Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life." He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this, Martha? Do you believe this, Martha, whose brother is dead in a tomb right now? How can Jesus say this and tell the truth? How can he say you will never die? Anybody that believes in me— Lazarus did believe in him. Then how can he say he would never die? He's dead. Is Jesus lying? Or do we need a better understanding of what life and death are and not be like Martha or be like Thomas or everybody else that thinks they understand life and death?

That life and death is the way we see it. Death is to stop breathing. Life is to have more breaths and more happiness and more peace on earth. That's what life is. Fulfillment. My fulfillment. The way you know this is true is how hurt we are and crushed when our version of life gets interrupted by our version of death, where we get our whole world rocked by the loss of someone. When a young person dies, we say their life was taken from them. They were robbed. When somebody gets a grave illness and they're young and they don't get to experience old age and family and other things, and we say they're robbed. They died too young. And these are— this is our language. That tells you that we think what Martha did, that all there is is however many breaths we can get on this planet and whatever we can do with those breaths while we're here, happiness, contentment, joy, whatever we get, satisfaction on earth. And that's what we think life is.

So when Jesus says he is the resurrection and the life, he's literally saying, whatever you thought life was, if you didn't think it was me, You were wrong. Heaven, future, eternity, all those things are not the resurrection. Jesus is the resurrection. The focal point of the resurrection story is not a place. It is not you having heaven. It is not you going to a better place with Grandma, you getting through this life with as many bruises and bumps as you can avoid and get there and have a better time there. That is not what it is. Heaven is what it is. Because Jesus is there. It's about him. He doesn't raise us from the dead and say, "Go have fun, son or daughter." He doesn't give us eternal life so that we can be separate from him. He gives us eternal life so we can be next to him, honoring him, walking with him, glorifying him, loving him.

So that when right now Martha is saying, "In the future I see resurrection," Jesus is saying, "Hey, no, no, no, no. Turn your eyes this way. You look at me right now. Right now, you are looking at the resurrection. He's standing right in front of you." I'm gonna suggest to you that no future heaven or seeing Grandma again or playing football again or getting chocolate again is better than her looking him right in the eye and him saying, "It's me. I'm the resurrection."

God told Adam, "If you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will die." I want you to notice that when Adam ate of the fruit of that tree, he did not stop breathing. He kept breathing, but he died spiritually, and he was separate from God in that moment. And that is what life and death really mean. Life is being connected to the Almighty. Death is being separate from him. I can ask you point-blank now. We haven't even gotten to the fun part yet. Was Lazarus separate from God? He was separate from breaths, but was he separate from God? No. So was Lazarus really, really dead the way people mean dead, the way people ultimately think death is defined? No. Back to the beginning. What was Lazarus doing in the tomb? He was asleep. He wasn't breathing or snoring, but he was only asleep.

What is life? What is the resurrection? Jesus will say, "This is eternal life." He's praying this to his Father, "That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you've sent." He doesn't say, "This is eternal life to get to go to heaven, a better place after you die." Eternal life is knowing God. I'm gonna suggest to you that this is one reason our faith might be weak at times in our life, or even whole churches full of people that have weak faith, or whole denominations of people that have a weak faith because they were told for the last, I don't know, 100 years in our country that the main point of Christianity was your contentment and happiness, and that you get a final goal and target and blessing and finish line of heaven, that ultimately the best thing about Christianity is me being the center of attention and getting all the goodness of God. If that's what you bought in Christianity, somebody lied to you. Christianity isn't ultimately about you getting happiness, you being content, you getting heaven. Christianity is about God getting glory. God is the main character in the story.

And the proof of that is right now on Resurrection Sunday, we are talking about Jesus. And what does Jesus say about the resurrection? Oh, heaven's gonna be so great, you guys. You won't even understand how great it is. It's so awesome, and we can run and fly and jump, and we won't be sick anymore, and there won't be any more tears. Oh, heaven's gonna be great. No, Jesus is looking at Martha and saying, I'm right here. I'm right here. I know there will— you're right, there will be a future, but the future isn't the point. I'm the point. I'm the resurrection. It's powerful what Jesus says. Powerful. It's powerful in the Greek. I was gonna read it in Greek, but I'm not going to. The powerful thing is he says, "I am the resurrection and the life." Those have definite articles in front of them, and that, in my opinion, makes them somewhat emphatic.

You know the story in Mark 2, you know it really well, where the paralytic, his friends bring him, right? They bring him to Jesus, and they can't get to him because there's a big crowd around Jesus as he's teaching there. And so they bring their friend because they know their friend can be healed, right? And we're talking a little bit like something like that here with these folks that want their brother healed, and now he can't be healed because he's dead. Something like that is going on here. Jesus, if you had been here, he would be healed. So those friends of the paralytic, those good friends, those loyal friends who loved their friend, they might have just been annoyed that they had to take care of him, but I actually think they loved him. So they get there and they literally, in the Greek it says they unroofed the roof, and they take the thatches and the roof tiles off, and then they lower their friend down so that Jesus can see him.

And what is the first thing Jesus says to him? It isn't, get up and take up your bed. What's the first thing Jesus says? Son, your sins are forgiven. Right? And then what happens next? What do the people there and the scribes do? First of all, they grumble among themselves, which is what scribes do. But they're grumbling. And why are they grumbling? They don't care at all that the guy can't walk. They don't care at all that the roof just had to come off so that he could be taken care of. They don't care about any of that. They say, who does this guy think he is that he can forgive sins? Only God can forgive sins. And then what does Jesus do? When the time comes for the healing, Jesus says— he actually says the words, "But that you may know the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins." He says it. He said to the paralytic, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."

So I ask you, what is the biggest miracle in the story? Is it the guy getting up off of his bed, his crabiton? That's what it's called. It's like a stretcher. Is the biggest part of that story that the man got up from his bed? Well, for us, because it's a miracle, we say, wow, that's the biggest part of the story. Story. Is that the biggest part of the story? No. The biggest part of the story was that a man forgave him of his sins, and that man is the Lord Almighty himself in the flesh. The point of that story is the forgiveness of sins. So now when that guy's walking around, it isn't his legs we're looking at, it's— we're looking at a man that's forgiven of his sins. The same thing is happening in this story. The same thing is happening in this story. Jesus is about to raise his friend from the dead, and the point of the story isn't that the man comes out of the tomb. The point of the story is when Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life," and then he raises a man from the dead, everybody in this room says, "He's the resurrection and the life." That's what we're supposed to take from this. We're not supposed to take that he can raise a dead person up. He already did that. He already did that by breathing in dirt and making Adam. We already know that he can make people alive. He made us alive. That's what he— when you were born, you didn't exist, and then you did. We know God can make someone live. The question is, can he make them live after they're dead? That's the real question.

Verse 43, let's look at it. Does he— can he do the same thing? Rise from the bed, now you know your sins are forgiven. Rise from the dead, now you know I'm the resurrection. Can he do it? Look at verse 43. Now when he had said these things, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth! And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. And Jesus said to them, Loose him and let him go.

What's the point of the story? If heaven was the point of the story, Lazarus did not need to come out of the tomb. He was already saved. He already believed. His soul was safe before this event. But why does Jesus raise him from the dead? It isn't so that we can just say, "Wow!" It's so that we can understand our Savior is the resurrection. Back a few verses, what does Martha say when he asks her, "Do you believe this? Do you believe?" She says in verse 27, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who has come into the world." She has some understanding. So here's what I would say to you. Martha and Lazarus have something in common. They believe Jesus is the Christ. They believe in Jesus. In common simple language. They didn't have religion. Nobody was burning candles. Nobody was praying to any saints. They believed in Jesus. You are the Christ. You are the central focus.

So to whatever degree Martha was capable— I'm not beating Martha up because she didn't have a full understanding. I'm not saying she was wrong. How dare she say what she said. She was doing the best she could in understanding the situation as she saw it. But the one thing she did right, and the one thing Lazarus did right, and the one thing Mary did right, and the right people do right, is they believed Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and they put their confidence in him and in nothing else. Now, we could end there. We have 5 minutes. We could have communion time, and we could end there and send you home to eat whatever you're gonna eat. Ham? Are you gonna eat ham today? Turkey? Barbecue? What are you eating? We're eating pizza, by the way. Is that a— Good Easter, Neil. I could send you home, but we're not done. Believe it or not, we haven't even gotten to the point of the sermon yet. The main point has yet to come. The teaching point has come already, that you understand— I hope you understand— that when we say, "What is the resurrection?" I hope you see it. Jesus is the resurrection. He is the life. The reason we can even look forward to a time is 'cause he'll be there. The reason we can look forward to an event is because he will be raised and he will rule on earth and all those things that we love so much. The reason we can look forward to the time is because he's eternal and he's risen from the dead and will never die again. All that is true, but it's all true because of him, right? He's the central figure in all of that. So you have that. If you leave here today with just that, I'll be really, really happy. But I don't want to just be really, really happy. I would like you to skip out of here today. I want you to— I want you to do cartwheels if they don't break your shoulders. I want you to joyfully realize that because Jesus is the resurrection, and because I, like Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, and others believe in him, not only is my future secure, but my present has meaning. That's what I want you to leave with.

Go back to verse 4. Lazarus is sick, right? There's a threat in Bethany. If we go there near Jerusalem— it's a couple miles away from Jerusalem— we're in danger. They tried to stone you and kill you already. If we go there, we'll be in danger. Remember, they had life and death all figured out. But Jesus is saying, no, you don't have it all figured out. I am the life. Life is not ceasing to breathe. I'm life, right? I'm the source of it. So with all that in mind, we go back and we look at the beginning of the story in verse 4. And it says, when Jesus heard that, he said, the sickness— remember, Lazarus is sick, and it says unto death. But now he says something like not— we know it was unto physical death because he died. But now we see, look, like, this sickness is not unto death, at least not the kind of death you think. He's not saying that, I'm putting that in there in parentheses, right? But why, why, why did Lazarus get sick? Why did Lazarus physically die? Why did Jesus let him die and not get to Bethany quicker to keep him healthy and heal him? And his sickness? Why, why, why? The answer is there. It was there all along. But for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it. That is the point of the story. I could have told you that at the beginning, but truthfully, it's funner to tell you at the end.

Why did Jesus do all of this? Why did he say what he said? What is he trying to get across to the sisters of Lazarus? What is he trying to do even in raising Lazarus from the dead? What is the point? The point is, I'm going to show you that I am the resurrection and the life. I'm going to prove it to you by raising someone from the dead. I'm going to prove to you beyond the shadow of a doubt that I, Jesus Christ, have the power to raise people from the dead. But when I do, and I say, I am the resurrection, you need to know, all people who need to know who name the name of Christ, that he's doing it to glorify God and himself. You notice there, it's him. He's the one that gets glorified. You see it? But for the glory of God, that the Son may be glorified through it. So we know the triune God, the God of Father, Son, and Spirit. The Son gets glory too.

So what would make me happy, the pastor of this congregation today, is when you leave here, you leave here glorifying the Son. You leave here magnifying Jesus. And you don't leave here and say, well, one day I'll see him. In fact, this is the fun part when we go into communion. When we go into communion, We are saying we have fellowship with him right now. If you name the name of Christ, if Christ is your Savior, if you right now in this room have believed in Christ, trusted in Christ like Lazarus and Martha did, if he is your King and your Savior, if your sins instead of being on you are on the cross where he nailed those sins and paid your debt, and his righteousness that he gives on the cross is on you, if you've been given the righteousness of Christ, in the gospel. And that is what happens. We are declared righteous, not because of our righteousness, but because of his. He gives us righteousness in the gospel. And if that's true of you, and he is your resurrection, and he is your life, and you currently serve him— he is currently today the resurrection and the life. This isn't a future reality. We're not waiting around on a bus stop waiting to die so that we can have heaven one day. You walk with him now. You live for Him now. You serve Him now. You can do anything for His glory that He calls you to do. Every good work has been prepared beforehand. Go read Ephesians 2:10. Everybody knows 2:8 and 9, but read 2:10. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that He prepared before the foundation of the world. You have work to do, and your work is not just to wait.

We're looking at the news headlines. Oh man, I just— hopefully one day heaven will be better than all this. Oh. Maybe the next president will be a better, more Christian president. Oh, look at the Congress and what they're doing. Oh, look at everything going on in the world. I just close my eyes and hope for one day because I know what Martha knows, that we'll raise again on the last day. Wrong! You're misunderstanding Christianity if that's how you see it. He did not save us only for the future. He does not give us eternal life in the future. When you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you now presently have eternal life. I love what he says to Martha in verse 40. Look, did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? Jesus says, told you so. But he says it real nice. He's not mean when he says it. I told you, I told you. When Lazarus came out of the tomb, you can know for sure without this any shadow of doubt that that God is working through his Son. And if you know the Son, then his Son is working through you. Please be encouraged, Christian. Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and if you walk with him, you have that life right now. How does Paul say it? That we're seated in the heavenlies with him currently, right now. That he's preparing a place for us in glory right now. The place is already there. Peter talks about things being reserved for us in heaven. We've begotten to a living hope right now. These are present realities, not future realities. There are definitely future payoffs. There are definitely future illuminations and, and things made known more fully in the future. But the actual reality that we walk with Christ right now, he's our mediator right now, that we serve him right now, that he's happy right now when we glorify him, that you and I can walk in our daily life and honor and glorify Jesus daily? Now? Hey, Christian, church, Sovereign Grace, get busy! Get busy! Don't wait! Serve Him now! You only have a little bit of time to do it. You got a little bit of time to glorify Him. You got a little bit of time to plant seeds, to share the gospel, to serve the body. You have a little bit of time to Say the reality in your life. I'm walking with a risen Savior right now. I'm going to glorify Him right now. And then yes, I will see Him one day, but I'm not going to wait to serve Him. He loves me. Why would I wait?

Let's pray. Father, thank You for the truth that Jesus is the resurrection. And yes, it is true that Him coming out of the grave Himself is also the resurrection event in the future. Where we rise again as an event. But we look at this moment and we look at the purpose, the person. We'd ask, Father, that we would acknowledge him, that we would praise him, that we would glorify him, and that the bigger picture would go with us when we leave here today, that we walk with a risen Savior and can glorify him right now. Help us, Father. Maybe there are people who are discouraged. Maybe family things, health things, the world we live in, it can just wear us down. Oh Father, instead of us being worn down or apathetic, oh, would you reignite the fire, the love of Jesus, that we would serve him and live for him. We all need reminders, and I trust, Father, your word has reminded us today. Please help us serve the risen Savior. In his name, Amen.