John 11
David Stockton - October 4, 2020

Good to be with everybody. Thanks for coming. Thanks to all the online folks joining in. We need a “Hoo” and a “ho” for them. I don’t know if they could hear it, but I did. It was cool.

We’re trying to figure out how to go forward as a church. Actually, after September, Living Streams has officially been going for 36 years. That’s something. I started it when I was seven years old. No, obviously I wasn’t there at the start.

Mark Buckley and Kristina Buckley started the church 36 years ago. They did so in their living room up near like 32nd Street and Bell. If anybody’s ever heard of that part of town. That’s where it started and it’s been 36 years and here we are today. Mark, who I still talk with all the time, he’s still a big part of the church here. He was saying he’s never seen church have to go through anything like this in his 36 years, or whatever. But this church was birthed out of a challenging situation, which is going to hopefully help unpack a little bit of where we’re going today with the message.

Mark and Kristina were loving life up in Northern California, Marin County. It’s where Mark had grown up. They had a church going and it was really great. But his son was having some severe asthma. So his son came to visit some friends down in Phoenix and his asthma cleared up. So they had a really, really challenging, disrupting, difficult, hard decision to make. Would they stay where they were, where everything was wonderful (so they thought), or would they completely uproot and change their lives for the sake of their son. And they did. They ent to Phoenix, to the desert, and the Lord was faithful to them. They ended up starting Living Streams and here we are today.

It’s a cool story. But again, it’s out of disruption, out of challenge, out of suffering, out of heartbreak, God was able to change the trajectory a little bit for their life. They would look back now and say it was great. So be aware that some of whatever you’re going through right now could be the Lord just kind of changing the trajectory a little bit, kind of getting us in a better trajectory.

We know that at Living Streams. That’s something we’ve been praying for. We want to follow God. We want to see where he wants to take us. We don’t want to go back to the way things were before this year. We want to go forward into whatever those new wine skins might look like. Because we want to catch every drop of the new wine the Lord wants to pour out. We don’t want to miss a thing.

So that’s what we’re doing. We’re doing a lot of that. And we have this Saturday this thing called an Explore Class. Normally it’s like an eight-week class. But we’re going to do it in one morning. 8:30 to 1:00 pm. We’re going to have all the sessions kind of jammed I not one. But we’d really like to invite you to join in with the church here. We’re trying to make sure we’re not a church where you can just come watch a show and go.

We really do think that the only way we’re going to build something beautiful here is if everyone joins in. That we knit our lives together in some ways. That’s going to take some time together. It’s going to take some learning about each other. It’s going to take everyone caring for another person or two in the church. Because the pastors here, they’re awesome, but they’re not that good you know. They need some help. We all need help caring for each other. Let alone the challenges in the world that we’re dealing with and the people who are going through tough times.

One of the guys in our church, who’s been around a long time, his name’s Marty Caldwell, and he sent me this quote that I thought was pretty good at trying to put words to what we’re trying to do as a church here. It’s from this guy Trueblood, who was not writing in 2020, post-COVID or whatever—we’re not even post yet, we’re still like, I don’t know where we are. Nobody knows where we are.

He was writing about his time, but I think his words ring so true today. He says:

We cannot revive faith by argument, but we might catch the imagination of puzzled men and women by an exhibition of a fellowship so intensely alive that every thoughtful person would be faced to respect it. If there should emerge in our day such a fellowship, wholly without artificiality and free from the dead hand of the past, it would be an exciting event of momentous importance.

This is what we’re praying for. This is what we’re trying to live into. We know it can only happen if everybody joins in. We really have to believe in the priesthood of all believers. Everyone who comes to be a part of this church needs to see themselves as a full-fledged, qualified priest of the Lord, who is supposed to be taking part in building healthy local church or churches, and also creatively expanding God’s kingdom.

The way that we try and flesh that out, kind of our mission statement is we want to put God’s glory on display, both as an organization, as well as individuals within it. We want to build courageous people, both as an organization, as well as individuals within it. And we want to engage in society’s pain. This year we’ve had a lot of opportunities to engage in society’s pain in many different facets. It’s been challenging, but it’s been beautiful, because the opportunities have abounded.

And we also want to make sure that we help everyone understand that they have to take seriously their own spiritual formation. COVID, if it has taught us nothing else, it taught us that a basically we can’t be dependent on one hour a week type church. It’s just not the way it’s supposed to be. Never should have been that way. So you take that away and we’re left to say, “What does our fellowship look like? What does our Christianity look like?” I’m so glad the Lord did that because we get a sneak peek into it, to see what it’s all about.

We have to take seriously our own spiritual formation. It is good that we have other teachers and other people that can help us. But at the end of the day, the responsibility is each one of ours to make sure our lives are taking in and receiving and practicing out what will make us more into the image of Christ. It’s our responsibility.

And, if we know that the scriptures are true and Jesus’ life is our example, we know it’s important for us to take seriously the spiritual formation of those the Lord is giving us. Right now, whether you like it or not, God is giving you at least one, if not two, maybe three people that he’s counting on you to shepherd, to care for, to help them form into the image of Christ. Jesus took on twelve. You’re not Jesus. I’m not Jesus.

It can get so overwhelming, trying to take care of everybody all of the time. That’s not what God is calling us to do. I think the next big thing for the Church is trying to figure out how to do one-on-one discipleship again because that’s the way the kingdom really does it. So we want to get that figured out. We want to do that. We want to join in with that effort.

We need to remember that Church is not what Christians do. What we’re doing right now is not what Christians do. This is just supposed to help Christians do what they’re supposed to do. This is just the little orange slice and Gatorade cup on the marathon. That’s all this is. You stop in, get a little orange slice and Gatorade, you get back out there, keep running. It’s so important that we catch that.

God does not want to make you good at church. These are a couple of our sayings that we keep bringing up. God does not want to make you good at church. For some reason, as Christians, we think this is what we’re supposed to be good at right here. But God doesn’t want to make you good at church, he wants to make you good at life, because life takes up a lot more hours than just being at church. And I’m here all the time. I don’t live here. Some people think I live here. I don’t live here. That house over there that’s super nice—not my house. No way.

But God wants to make us good at life. He cares much more about the other hours, than just what we’re doing when we’re sitting in a pew at church. Not to say this isn’t important and good and great times, but we’ve really got to understand this if we’re going to get to that kind of vision that Trueblood was laying out or the vision that the book of Acts laid out, or the vision that’s in God’s heart for his people.

That being said, sign up for Explore Express on Saturday. I can’t promise you it will be the most exciting time of your life, but it will be rich, it will be good and maybe even help you get through some of that trajectory stuff that we’re talking about.

John Chapter 11. Let’s dig into this. John is basically Jesus’ best friend, would be a good description of him. He is an apostle and he walked with Jesus. Jesus left and he continued to walk with the risen Christ in spirit. Then, at the end of his life, he’s writing this book as an evangelistic effort to try and help people who read it, whoever might read this. Maybe ten people. Maybe twenty people. I don’t know what John had in mind, but he was writing this so that some people would read this and they would believe. Little did he know there’d be quite a few people reading it in quite a few different languages, including us in 2020 Phoenix, Arizona, who are reading this to try and figure out what he’s saying about Jesus.

So, I have five points I want to go through. Basically—I say this sometimes in our church, but it would be a good time to leave right now if you’re not wanting to get too serious about Jesus. We’re login to talk about suffering and God’s view of suffering, which is very different than an American view of suffering. Or fill in the blank view of suffering. So we’re going to look at suffering.

These are the points that we’re going to bring out and unpack. First of all:

Being in love with God, being in the love of God does not keep you from suffering.
Suffering is one of God’s favorite environments to reveal his glory.
a. Jesus is not opposed to allow us to suffer or remain in our suffering on this side of heaven.
b. Jesus is not opposed to lead us into challenging, difficult, and even life-threatening situations.
Suffering reveals and refines the quality of our faith.
Our suffering grieves Jesus. (In more ways than we’ll ever understand.)

So first one, being in the love of God does not keep you from suffering.

1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

And there you have it, right there. Jesus loved Lazarus very much. Jesus was very close to Lazarus, Mary and Martha. Jesus healed a lot of people, but these were Jesus’ people. These were the ones he spent time with day and night. When Jesus would come to the festivals, he would stay at their house, which was not far from Jerusalem. Jesus was very intimate in relationship with these people. He loved them with a natural, kind of humanistic love, not just the God agape love. He was friends with them. He enjoyed their company. They enjoyed being with him.

And there are a couple of kind of friends that are real important to have. It’s real good to have a friend who defends you, who never wants you to ever have to suffer. I have a couple of friends like this. One of my friends, I was on a basketball team with. We were playing this game and things were getting kind of hot. It was getting towards the end. I think it was a pretty close game. We were all down on this end and, I don’t know how, but somehow a guy got a steal. I can’t remember, it was probably I lost the ball and I just don’t remember. I blocked it out. Anyway, he gets the ball and this guy is racing down all by himself. Everyone’s over here and I take off running, I’m trying to stop this guy from getting a layup. He’s coming in and he comes in really hard. And I came in to kind of make sure he wasn’t going to make it. I stood in his way and did one of these. We collided and we both fell on the ground.

I got up and he got up real fast and was coming at me, like he was going to, you know, whatever he was going to do. And I was standing up and was getting ready to brace myself, and all of a sudden, my friend was in between us. Just like, voom, standing there. He’s a big guy and, at one point he was very fast, he’s not as fast anymore, but this was lightning speed. He was not going to let anything happen to me at all. He’s a lot bigger, so this guy who was coming at me was feeling very strong, but then when the big guy came he wasn’t feeling so strong anymore and he just kind of walked on. Because I’m not big and my friend’s big. I felt loved. This guy, this dude’s got my back. The rest of the game, anytime anything would go down he would kind of stand next to me. He was just making sure his presence was felt. It’s good to be loved like that.

But there’s another kind of friend, also, that loves you enough to kind of tell you when maybe you’re doing something wrong and suffering for it, they’re going, “Hey, I think this might be good for you. I think this might be a good wake-up call for you.” They’re able to tell you and kind of help perceive, “Hey this challenge that you’re going through, I think maybe this could end up being a good thing for you. And I’ll just kind of be here with you.”

And what you find out about Jesus is Jesus really is both. He’s both kind of friends. He defends us at every point. But he also loves us enough to every once in a while say, “Hey, I need you to know something. I need you to learn something. I need someone else to learn something or know something. And so I’m going to allow you to go through this thing.”

Just because you’re in the love of God doesn’t mean you’re not going to get sick. When I first started really following Jesus, those next two years were some of the most broken-hearted years of my life. But now, for the first time, I was going through a broken heart with the love of God and it was very different. Very different.

Number two: suffering is one of God’s favorite environments to reveal his glory. So verse 4:

4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

Now this is, again, kind of bringing us back to two weeks ago when we talked about the man born blind. And they said, “Is it this guy’s fault or his parents’?” And Jesus said, “No, you’re totally asking the wrong question. This suffering that this guy has gone through his entire life was all about this moment right now, where he is going to receive his sight, and you’re going to know the power of God, and I’m going to talk with him, and he’s going to learn about the Messiah.”

It was this beautiful, beautiful moment. You’ve got to understand suffering is sometimes the time where God loves to show up and reveal his glory the most. And so suffering and God’s glory go hand in hand. He is the Savior. His light and goodness and truth shine the brightest in a backdrop of darkness, evil and deceit.

And in John 14, Jesus goes on to teach his disciples, just after this, He says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled when you’re going through really hard times.” When you’re going through those 2020’s. I wish it was like John 20:20 because then I could post it and it would go so viral. But it’s like John 14:1. Nobody gets it.

He is basically saying, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” Track with me. Don’t let your hearts be troubled when you’re going through hard times. But he says, “Believe in me and believe in God, and know that in my Father’s house there are many mansions. And I’m going there to prepare a place for you.”

So in this kind of way that John reveals what Jesus is teaching, Jesus is basically saying, “I want you to remember something when you’re going through suffering, when you’re going through hard times. Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Believe. Keep trusting. Keep hoping all the way until the end. And know that not only am I with you in that, and not only am I going to do good in that, but know that somehow in the way that you are faithful in your suffering now, it is resulting in some sort of building happening in the next life. What you’re doing in this life actually does impact what happens in the next life.”

Again, I can’t talk too much about that because I don’t know much about that except for the fact that whatever we experience in that next life is going to make the suffering we experience in this life something that we just laugh at or don’t even remember. Kind of like Jesus is risen from the dead and they’re like, “Hey,Jesus, remember that cross and all the suffering that you went through?” And he’s like, “Eh, kind of. But what I’m remembering more is all of the people that have been saved from the stain of sin and death. What I do remember is watching sin being peeled back, shriveled back. I remember all the undoing of all the injustices that have ever happened. It was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross.

And that’s what we should do too is remember that in suffering, in some ways, and this seems a little strange—but Christians are strange—when suffering happens we should have a part of us that goes, “All right. Get your eyes open. Any minute now we’re going to see something beautiful.”

Now, that doesn’t mean then we say, “Oh and suffering doesn’t exist and you should never hurt.” No. I’m saying a little part of you should have that little bit of hope rise up. And in 2020, we are hurting. Some of you are hurting very seriously. And I’m not saying you shouldn’t feel that. That is reality. That’s okay. But as a believer, there should also be just a little bit of a silver lining. There should just be a little bit of a whisper deep inside your soul that says, “I know God’s about to do something awesome.”

Number three:
a. Jesus is not opposed to allow us to suffer or remain in our suffering on this side of heaven.
b. Jesus is not opposed to lead us into challenging, difficult and even life-threatening situations.

5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was…

He didn’t go help. He didn’t run to their rescue.

…he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Now that sounds like Thomas, wait, he’s getting something right here. It’s not. It’s sarcasm—total sarcasm. Thomas is basically like, “Oh, yeah, this sounds so fun. Let’s go with Jesus so we can all die with him!” He’s not excited about it because he knows that going with Jesus back into Judea is possibly going to get them killed.

So Jesus stayed when Lazarus, who he loved, and Mary and Martha, who he loved, were going through their agony and suffering. He didn’t rescue them. And he describes to the disciples, “And I’m even glad.” Like, “I was talking with the Father and it was hard for me to stay here, but now that I’m hearing where you guys are at, I’m so glad that this suffering has taken place and lasted, because I really am excited about what you’re about to see and who you’re going to become because of this.” And then he says, “Let’s go into this very dangerous place.” And they head in.

I want to share a couple of verses that, again, they’re troubling, but they’re beautiful.

Revelation 12:11 is basically talking about all kinds of apocalyptic stuff going down. It says that the believers overcame the evil one by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much as to shy away from death. There was something about this where they were saying so resolutely that, “Even if this costs me my life I’m going all the way.”

And then Hebrews 11 describes all these great heroes of the faith—like the hall of fame. It says this:

37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them.

Basically, this phrase is just talking about how, in God’s perspective, the world was not worthy of them because these people were so willing to suffer for good.

Lastly, in the New Testament, Acts 5, John, among these other disciples and apostles, says:

41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.

This was John’s response based on watching what Jesus had done. When suffering came his way, there was a part of him that rejoiced because he knew what Jesus was talking about.

Number four: Suffering reveals and refines the quality of our faith, which again, is so precious to God.

17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

What is she saying here? I don’t know. But this is interesting. We’re going to unpack this and we’re going to try to do a little hermeneutics, a little exegesis to find out what is really taking place in this conversation.

She says to him, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died. I’m disappointed, Jesus. I’m hurting. I’m confused. Why didn’t you come? I thought you loved us. I thought you cared. I just knew if I sent word to you you would come and keep him from dying. And yet, now he’s been dead for four days.”

It feels like that, as Christians, sometimes for sure. Maybe you can feel that real strong right now as you’ve gone through this year.

But then she says, “But even now, I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” I don’t know if this is her saying, “Can you do this, too?” I don’t know what she’s saying here. And I don’t know if Jesus did either, because he responds:

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Refining. Revealing the faith that is in her.

27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Not exactly what he was saying. But I love it. He says, “Your brother will rise.” And she’s saying, “Let’s clarify this. You’re saying my brother will rise and I don’t want my heart to hoping that you’re going to resurrect him, because I don’t even know what that looks like or if that’s possible. But I know he’s going to resurrect in the last day. I know he’ll be risen up at the last day. I’ve got a theological framework for that. I’ve got a pat answer for that.”

And then Jesus says, “Martha, you’ve got to understand something. I’m going to teach you something right now that I don’t want you to miss, I don’t want Mary to miss, I don’t want the disciples to miss, I don’t want the Jews to miss, I don’t want the people sitting in a church in 2020 to miss: I am the resurrection and the life. I’ve been trying to teach you about a life that’s very different than the life you have known your entire life. All you have ever known of life is life can be killed. Life gets old. Life gets corrupted. Life has suffering. And what I’m trying to reveal to you, what I’m trying to teach you guys is that there is a resurrection life that death no longer has any say of. There is a resurrection life that cannot be corrupted. It does not grow old or weary. It’s a life that feels like being born again. It’s life that feels like never thirsting again. It’s a life that feels like torrents of living water gushing up and out of you. It’s a life that I’ve been trying to teach you about. And I know it’s so hard for you to understand, but I’m here to give a life that’s very different than the one you’ve known. Do you believe? Do you pistis,” [in the Greek]. “Do you receive this and hold onto this until the day that it shows up? Do you believe?”

And I love her response, because so often I’ve said things like this to the Lord: “I know who you are. And I know you can do stuff.”

That’s basically what she’s saying. “I know you are the Messiah. I know you are the Son of God and that you came into the world. I know who you are, Jesus. And can that be enough? Because I don’t get what you’re saying. But I just know that you’re going to be able to do the right thing in the right way at the right time. And I just want to be where you are.

That’s the perfect response. If you’re here today and you’ve never really given your life to Jesus, and you’re hearing about all these different things, again, it doesn’t have to make perfect sense. As long as you take Jesus’ hand, that’s good. As long as you keep your eyes fixed on him, everything else will work itself out.

That’s Martha. She’s like, “Resurrection life, I don’t know. But I know I want to be with you.” And Jesus takes that.

Then the fifth point: Our suffering grieves Jesus. It makes him mad.

Here we have verse 28:

28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Again, grief, disappointment, frustration, confusion.

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

He wasn’t just sad. He was upset. And we’ll understand that a little bit more.

34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

You’ll notice something different about Jesus’ language. Jesus is resolute. He is all of a sudden focused in and his word seem terse. But I think you’ll understand why.

34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
Why did he weep?
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved,

And the Greek word there has a connotation almost of like a bull getting read to charge, like breathing through the nostrils, angry, frustrated.

came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
Not a very flowery prayer. Straight and to the point.
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out,
Anybody heard that? Yeah. The dead man came out. He calls out to the tomb and a dead man comes walking out of the tomb.
his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

What I see in this is Jesus wept. Jesus was greatly troubled. Jesus was grieved. Jesus was once more deeply moved. And it’s not that he’s sad. He’s sad, obviously, because of the situation, but he also knows what’s about to happen. But he’s very, very upset. He’s grieved. He’s frustrated. He’s angry.

He’s not angry at the people around him. What I think he’s angry about is he’s angry that sin and death have continued to rob humanity of so much. He’s face to face with the full hurt of what sin and death feels like and the agony that has troubled humanity for so long. And he’s very, very frustrated. And he says to the Father, “Let’s do this.”

The book of John has given us seven signs to demonstrate who he is:

The first one is when he turned water into wine.
Then he healed the royal official’s son.
Then he healed the paralytic at Bethesda.
Then he fed the five thousand.
He walked on water.
He healed the man born blind.
Now this is kind of like, that’s it. No more playing around. This is like the last straw. This is the nail in the coffin. This is basically Jesus saying, “All right. If you’re not going to believe because of this, you’re not going to believe. This is my final appeal to all of you to put your trust in me and I will lead you to resurrection life.

There’s this resolute, “I’ve had enough of this. Sin and death, I’m coming for you.” And he does this like many other things. He does something to prove something he’s trying to teach the people.

For instance, when the four guys came and lowered the paralytic through the roof and Jesus is like, “What’s up, man?” And everybody’s looking on. And what did Jesus say? He said, “Your sins are forgiven.” He said, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”

And the guy is like, “Thank you? (I think). I don’t know.”

And the friends are all like, “Man, that’s not what we came for.”

And then it says, “Jesus, knowing what was in the people’s thoughts..”

They were like, “Who is this guy who thinks he can forgive sins? Blasphemous!”

Or maybe they’re thinking, “Who is this guy? He says ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ Anyone can say that at any time. There’s no power.”

And he knows what’s happening and he says, “Because of your thoughts, I want you to see what happens next. So that you can know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins, son, get up and walk.”

And the guy gets up and starts walking. And Jesus is like, “Hey, hold on. Take your mat, too.”

And the guy is like, “Okay,” grabs his mat and walks off.

And everybody in the room was left with this decision: Does he have the power to forgive sins? It sure looks like it.

Here Jesus is saying to Martha and Mary and Lazarus and the disciples and the Jews that were there, and to us today, “To prove to you that I am able to give resurrection life, Lazarus, come out.”

The fact that Lazarus came out, and Jesus says, “Get those death clothes off of him. Get those things that are reminders of sin and death and the power they have had over humanity—get those off of him. I don’t want to see them anymore.”

Jesus was trying to teach people about this life that he had been trying to teach them all along. And he was using this as an example. But we all know that this wasn’t really the last sign. There was another sign far greater when Jesus himself had gone through suffering, crucified on the cross and died, laid in a tomb just like this. And on the third day, he came out.

But Lazarus was not resurrected to resurrection life. Lazarus was resurrected to the same temporal life that he had experienced. Because Lazarus, once again got sick. Lazarus once again died. So Jesus was not raising him to resurrection life, glorified life; he was just raising him back to the kind of life that everyone knew and was familiar with.

But when Jesus rose from the dead, he rose to resurrection life. He was the firstfruits of the resurrection. The fact that he came out and then lived a life—he would walk around and they would not recognize him but then they would recognize him. His body wasn’t in the tomb. It was all glorified up. He could eat and he could walk around with people, but then the next thing, he’d be gone and show up in a different place.

Jesus was the firstfruits of the resurrection. So those who follow Jesus into death will be raised just like Jesus into resurrection life, which is incorruptible. Which is everlasting. Which does not have any suffering. There will be no more tears, no sorrow, no more darkness.

This is the reason that Jesus came: so that you and I could know that kind of life. Without Jesus we can’t. There have been many people who claimed to know the way. Buddha thought he knew a way to escape. But guess what? He’s dead in the grave. Muhammed. He thought he knew a way to escape. Guess what? You can go visit his tomb. He’s still there. And on and on. Jesus is the only one to claim what he claimed and no one can find him. He’s alive.

If you will give your life to him, he will lead you into resurrection life forevermore. Let’s pray:

Jesus, I pray that you would help us to learn about how you see suffering. I pray that, in everything we do, Lord, we would be a church that has a very good blibical perspective, that all of these messages, all of these things being thrown at us, would have to go through the filter of your word before they land in our hearts and our minds. I thank you for this story, Lord, and what you did for Lazarus. Lord, I pray for the people in the room that they’re not following you, or the people online who aren’t walking in your ways. I pray that today they would make that decision and you would lead them to lead them to life, that resurrection life would begin, even now, until that day it begins fully.

If you’re in a place where you do want to make a commitment to Christ, you do want to offer your life to Jesus, you’re tired of doing it in your own strength, your own wisdom, and you’re wanting Jesus to take the wheel, you can just say a real simple prayer. You can repeat these words if you want:

Jesus, I need you. I’m lost without you. I’m sorry for the sins that I’ve done. I ask that you would cleanse me, make me clean, and I pray that you would lead me to life. Amen.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

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