We continue our sermon series. What is in a name,
or what's in a name, where we're looking at the
names, titles, distinctives of Jesus in the book
of John, where there are a lot, and we're only
looking at about 12 of them for this sermon series.
And this one is going to be kind of a part one,
part two. So part one now, part two will be actually
during Holy Week, as we will be talking about
the resurrection and the life, obviously through
Easter, because that is when that is on display.
four, and it's one that you hear a lot about
in church. It's one that's preached a lot, and
that is kind of the resurrection of Lazarus and
the understanding of what actually is happening.
And there are some key cultural things that we
need to understand this morning, which makes
what is already an unbelievable miracle. One
that, I mean, if we were to rank them, you know,
give like the SportsCenter top ten of Jesus'
miracles, my guess is this one's number one always,
outside of himself resurrecting from the dead,
would be someone that was dead being not dead,
being alive, in more simplistic terms. So we're
going to be in John 11 today. So John chapter
11, we're going to start with verse 17, and we
need to kind of understand this moment of despair
that is going on. Now, as we in the United States,
kind of the Western Hemisphere in context of
the United States, death for 90%, a statistic
I just made up right now, we kind of all walk
through death the same way when it comes to making
arrangements. And this is a weird thing to hear,
and I don't hope this for my congregation, but
it's an area that fascinated me in seminary was
this idea of the sacredness of someone's, which
we don't really do last rites, that's more of
a Catholic ideology, but what I call a bedside,
sitting with people, sometimes when they physically
breathe their last, sitting with someone as they
go from death, or from life, I've yet to have
someone go from death to life. That would probably
freak me out. But from life to death, I will
always remember Lillian Kevers. Died two, three
years ago, maybe even closer to four now. I remember
we did three bedsides because I got texts from
Kevin and the family going, we think Pastor Hospice
said this is it. And so if I can, I try to be
there with those of the church. To help shepherd
them into glory, though I'm not doing anything.
I'm just holding their hand or praying or singing
or crying or D all of the above. And we did that
three times because she just, just though they
thought that the body was starting to, all of
a sudden it wouldn't. And there's a journey there
when you get to kind of that palliative care
or that hospice understanding. And bodies go
through some, they go through some, let's just
be honest, they go through some weird stuff.
I still remember that just mere days before my
sister passed, she was up eating. And then when
that cancer hit her brain, it just kind of faded
out, and life just kind of faded. And the thing
I can say is, though it follows similar patterns,
nobody is the same when they go. And I remember
Lillian opening up her eyes and saying, I see,
I see the angels. Again, I'm never going to say
that she didn't see it or that she was crazy
or hallucinating. I truly believe, and I think
it's right too, that she was getting a glimpse
of glory. That the Lord was calling her home.
Her room was ready. The table was prepared for
her. As we look at John in the Psalms. My hope
and my prayer is that we can all peacefully go
into that. That we can enter glory. But here's
the thing. This isn't really hard to understand,
though it is. When that happens. There's no coming
back. And if we're being honest, we don't want
to come back. I've heard people say, like, man,
I really hope heaven's a lot like here. I don't
at all, right? I don't want heaven to be anything
like the earth. Though we are promised a new
heaven and a new earth, we can't wrap our minds
around what that is. As Paul says in Corinthians,
what we see lit dimly in a mirror. One day we'll
see face to face. One day we'll see in 4K. But
right now we don't. We don't get it. We don't
fully understand it. And for us to want heaven
to be what earth is, I think that's foolish.
I think that shows an immaturity. And that shows
that you're probably in love with something here
that you shouldn't be. But that's a whole other
sermon series. So we have the moment of despair
in John 11. And what we have to understand here,
it's purposeful. Jesus arrives. Day four. So
just hold on to that as we jump into verse 17
of John chapter 11. 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, he will give you. So we hear that despair.
And we see the two different approaches to Jesus.
That when death comes, and this probably covers
all of us, you fall in one or two camps. Either
you accept it early on. And you walk through
the arrangements and find closure. That's why
I always encourage family to do something. You
know, we think of the Achterhoffs and the Princes
and bringing closure to Twyla's life, knowing
that was mere months after they did that with
Twyla's husband, Doug's brother, Jeff. But that
you talk to them, and it was a time of family
coming together. When families don't do that,
or they don't want anything, it's kind of like
a comma at the end of the sentence. It's not
a period. There's still feelings that have to
come to closure. And we see one going and meeting
Jesus and saying, we're going to walk through
this. Okay. Jesus is here. Great. Yet we see
one standoffish. We see one that is sitting there
and waiting for Jesus to come comfort them. Both
of them, I submit this morning, are okay positions
to be in. That for some of us, We engage death
in a way that can early on make sense, and later
we fall apart with doubt or anger or we just
miss them. But for some, it takes a while. And
for those of us that have lost people in our
lives that maybe weren't at the end of life,
weren't rounding third on life, where we can,
you know, you're in your 90s. Okay, it kind of
makes sense. I don't know anybody in their 90s
that wishes they lived until 120. Okay? Some
of our 90s club, when I've talked with them,
the most would have won was Archie Buzine. And
he said, Jim, I loved my life. And he died at
98, 97 years old. He goes, but I'm so excited
for what comes next. Now, this is a man that
preached that for years and years and years.
But nobody that I've met then talked with of
faith in their 90s go, Pastor, I wish I could
do it all over again. You don't get that. But
for those of us that have lost people when we
in our kind of fleshly way go, that should not
have happened. I think of my sister. I know for
some of you lost people in their 20s and 30s
when numerically we go, this should not happen.
God, why did you do this? Why in the world would
you call a 36 -year -old home to glory, mom of
three kids, all the things? And we can enter
with just sitting. and waiting for the Lord to
make sense of death for us. And guess what? He
will give us, I think, a glimpse of that. But
for some of us, we engage it. We get to the forefront
and we engage it. The four days is important
today, friends. That is four days after Lazarus
died. And in Jewish tradition, there was an understanding
that after the close of the third day, death
was irreversible. Now, we don't really have that,
right? All of our, you know, whether you were
a fan of ER or whether you were a fan of Grey's
Anatomy, which probably, this is going to be
a hot take, should have been done 10 years ago,
but it's still going on. Understand that when
all of a sudden you hear the err on the, what
is it that does that? Oh, the heart monitor.
That makes sense. Okay, thanks. Is when we know
that that person's dead. I will always remember
Danny Carter. He was part of, he was kind of
our adoptive grandparents in Crown Point, Marianna
Danny Carter. And within three weeks, he went
from getting his toe run over by a car to going
to glory in three weeks for a myriad of reasons
that I'm not going to get into. But I remember
we were all holding hands at community. We were
all singing Great is Thy Faithfulness. And almost
on cue, we were done. And all of a sudden, the
nurse came in and said he was gone. Now I can
say now it was the joke because he wanted us
to stop singing. But understanding. That was
a joke, you can laugh. But understanding that
when that comes, we engage that as death. The
Jewish culture kept hope for three days. Now,
do I believe in my research that they were keeping
on that hope because they thought that this person
would rebound? I don't think so. But I think
there was a hope of the relationship with the
creator because they knew what was written in
the Old Testament. They knew what was written
about hope, about Yahweh doing these miracles.
So they allowed themselves three days of hope
that they would see this individual again. For
those of you in the medical field, I think you
would know that doesn't exist in the hospital.
That almost, it seems like too quick because
they want to... get the room reset. They get
the body out, they do all the things, and they
have to do it all over again. But I found it
fascinating this week that the Jewish culture
wanted to hold on hope of some kind of resurrection
for those three days. Which then when you insert
Jesus on the fourth day, it really props up this
name and this claim, two of them actually, of
Jesus, the resurrection and the life. We see
Martha expressing faith mixed with sorrow. And
friends, that's okay. Lord, if you had been there,
my brother would not have died. What is she banking
on? She's banking on the three miracles prior
of those kind of being dead or being really sick
or close to death to being alive. Or Jesus going,
she's not dead, she's sleeping. They heard about
all of that. Yeah, feeding the 5 ,000 the water
into wine. Sure, I'm sure that made it into the
gossip mill. But things like thought was dead
is now alive. Notice how those were all pretty
much in the moment. This one is not. This one's
four days later. Friends, that is significant,
and that means something. She believes, Martha
believes, that Jesus is power, but struggles
because in... Her mind, he was not on time. Now,
we don't know if she expected this. Well, they're
really good friends, so Jesus should have known
her from across the town. He could have just
done that and saved them. So the timing here
is important. In the ancient world, mourning
was communal. It was a deep communal practice.
Families would weep together for days. In this
culture, there were professional mourners. which
I've always thought, one of the weirdest things
that I learned in seminary was that there were
people who were hired to mourn with families.
I engage that and go, that's the coolest and
dumbest job I have ever heard in my life. That
you're paid to mourn. And it's probably a little
more drama and wailing the better. So we think
about that. I look out at you and go, some of
you would make fantastic mourners. I'm not going
to name any names. Some of you would make terrible
mourners. And that's okay. We don't do that now.
Smith's Funeral Home, Schroeder Lauer, they don't
hire professional mourners. So if your family
is close to doing that, don't worry about it.
They don't do that. But the weight of death was
visible. The weight of death was unavoidable.
That it was an understanding and a principle
in life, you will live and you will die. Many
Jews believed in the future resurrection because
of the prophet Daniel. In Daniel 12, he talks
about it, but did not expect that to be immediate,
hence the three days. So we have this understanding
that Martha assumes Jesus is speaking about the
distant future, not the present moment. Really
what we can take from this is which one do you
sit with? Mary or Martha? Are you engaging Jesus
regularly in life and talking about, you know,
Jesus, I know you have the power to heal. You
can ask all the questions and you take that prayer
time so seriously that you truly believe and
truly put in God's hands these things. Or are
you more standoffish? And your prayer life is
really signified by, Lord, your will be done
in my life. Both of those are okay places to
be with the Father. Okay understandings of how
he encourages us and engages us in our expectations.
But then leave it to Jesus to turn it completely
on its head. So we're going to continue in verse
23. Jesus says 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 shall he live. And everyone who lives and
believes in me shall never die. Let's stop there,
but keep it up, Nikki. You're Mary and Martha,
and what if he just stopped there? How are you
engaging that? Where it says, and everyone who
lives and believes in me shall never die. Here's
the curveball that came to me on Wednesday afternoon,
and I didn't want to preach this sermon. Anyone
guess what that curveball might have been? Again,
if we just stop there, not the do you believe
this part, we'll get that. The sermon has to
start sometime. If she's hearing this, and everyone
who lives and believes in me shall never die,
what would that curveball be? What? Exactly.
I knew someone would get it. That's why I didn't
put lunch on it. But understand, if anyone, Nikki,
you can be louder. My brother believed in you.
My brother was one of your best friends. We saw
you talking. We saw you joking around. We saw
you in community. He was your biggest cheerleader.
Now, that's me reading into the text, but they
were close. I'm sure he talked about all the
miracles. He talked about all the things. I'm
sure even in there, there was a profession. Again,
that's the gospel according to me, but that's
how I would read that. Then what in the world,
Jesus? I know he believed in you. Why did he
die? And for some of us, that's where we are
with death. For some of us, we don't fully understand
why we have to die. Believe it or not, in 20
years, I've had this conversation more than I
can count, even with my shoes off. That people
go, why do we have to go through death? in order
to have the relationship with Jesus. And I say
you have it turned on itself. You have life and
life to the fullest, and then it gets better
when we get with Jesus. It's better when we get
to glory. It's the wine skins all over again.
The best wine was at the end. If you're in love
with your life now, and you hold your life up
so high that you don't think heaven's going to
compare, then I really doubt your relationship
with Jesus. Because you're buying into here.
Take a look at our world today. Turn the news
on for five minutes. This is going to be better
than that? Friend, I think you're sorely mistaken.
The best is yet to come. So he doubles down and
he asks her the question, do you believe this?
Because he makes this claim. I am the resurrection
and the life. He who believes in me, though he
die, yet shall he live. Jesus is not just promising
future resurrection, but declaring his power
over life and death right now on day four. So
he is taking the Jewish ideology, blowing it
up, and saying, I am something better. The Heidelberg
Catechism question answer 45 asks, how does Christ's
resurrection benefit us? First, by his resurrection,
he has overcome death. Second, we are already
raised to new life with him. And third, his resurrection
is a guarantee of our glorious resurrection.
Friends, you know that when you die, you will
be resurrected. It's not going to be like Lazarus.
John Crist is one of my favorite comedians and
he does a whole bit about taking this story from
Lazarus' point of view. And I find it hilarious
that Lazarus is up there hanging out with all
the prophets, hanging out with Moses. He's hanging
out with Aaron and Joshua. And then like someone
comes up to his door. Excuse me, Mr. Lazarus.
You got to go back down. Clearly you don't find
it as funny as I do or as ironic, and that's
okay. But you think about that. If he is with
Jesus, and again, I'm not going to go super deep
theological with John Chris, but understanding
that this is a complete shift. This is a complete
different understanding of how life actually
works with Jesus. That our resurrection is guaranteed.
We have a glorious resurrection. Jesus' resurrection
is not just an event, but it's a foundation of
our life in him. Because I will rise, so you
will rise. That we will rise from the dead. And
then that question, do you believe this? Verse
27. She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that
you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming
into the world. Jesus ends this statement with
a personal challenge, not only to her, but for
us today. Martha's response is a powerful confession
of faith. Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the
Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the
world. So we see her. We see this movement. We
see this closure. We see this, we kind of see
this mental gymnastics or emotional gymnastics
that she's going through with Jesus himself.
She moves beyond abstract theology to a personal
trust in Jesus as her savior. Because friends,
that's why you believe. If you profess that Jesus
is Lord and believe in your heart, That what?
God raised him from the dead. You shall be saved.
Why is it mouth and heart? Why is it not head
or mouth? Or mouth then head? Why is it not actions?
Why in the world would Paul write it that way?
Because there are too many people that just think
about it up here. That just cognitively think
Jesus is the Savior. We can say that. We have
kids right now that can say, yes, Jesus is the
Savior. Jesus rose from the dead. We celebrate
it on Easter. That's different than a profession.
The profession has to come. That true faith from
Lord's Day 7 is the knowledge and conviction
that Jesus is who he says he is. That Jesus in
bodily form rose from the dead. Belgian Confession
Article 22 helps us with this. We believe. That
for us to acquire the true knowledge of this
great mystery that Evan was talking about, the
Holy Spirit kindles in our heart a true faith.
Faith is not just an intellectual asset that
we have. And some of you are very wise when it
comes to theology. You know all the things. You
loved your time in catechism. You learned the
knowledgeable building blocks of faith. Awesome.
Praise the Lord. But it's a work of the Spirit,
regenerating the heart. And from there, the mind
is transformed. Set our mind on things above,
not on earthly things, as Paul says in Colossians.
Why? Because you died, and your life is hidden
with Christ. And when Christ appears, you will
appear with him in glory. So it's a mighty, mighty
teaching. And here's the thing. We haven't even
gotten to the miracle yet. Think about what's
going to happen. She makes this confession. She
makes this profession. Jesus does the teaching.
And guess what? We could have been done with
that account. We could have just moved on. Go
to the next thing. Get closer and closer to the
Last Supper. Good Friday and Easter. But we get
somewhere next week. Where the miracle actually
happens. That he actually is going to do something
huge. So Jesus' question for us before we get
to our application is, do you believe this? Is
our faith in Christ's resurrection power real
and personal for you today? Or is it something
just kind of far off? Something you're like,
I get all the Jesus stuff. death thing, I really
just need a lot more convincing, or I need a
lot more scientific understanding. Friend, at
some point, that falls off. And it takes faith
in Jesus' resurrection power. So as we lead into
the miracle for next week, where do we go from
here? Well, for our head, we need to know the
resurrection. Study the biblical teachings on
the resurrection. Go to 1 John 15, Philippians
3. And then reflect, how does Christ's resurrection
shape your understanding of eternal life? For
our heart, trust the resurrection. Rest in the
assurance that death has been defeated in Christ.
Let this truth bring you to comfort in times
of fear or grief. And then reflect, are you living
with resurrection hope? Or do you live with the
fear of death? or the fear of the unknown. And
then finally, the work to go out this week is
to proclaim the resurrection. We share the hope
of the resurrection with those who do not know
Christ. Funerals are one of the, should be for
pastors and preachers and officiants, should
be one of the greatest places to preach the gospel.
Because you're not preaching the deceased, you're
preaching... Christ, a resurrected Christ. So
share the hope of the resurrection with those
who don't know Jesus. So here's our challenge.
Who in your life needs to hear the message of
the resurrection? How can you share this hope
with him? And so next week, we're going to see
one truth. That Jesus does not merely offer resurrection,
but he is and will be the resurrection and the
life. We find out not just hope for the future,
but his power for today. His victory over death,
his victory of life, that he is our life. That
we can share that life with others. Let's pray.