The Resurrection and the Life
John 11:17-27
Victor Hugo has written one of the greatest stories of redemption in his classic work Les Misérables. Les Mis is a story of Jean Valjean and his redemption from hatred to hope. Hugo writes in his classic work, that there is a “word which the finger of God has inscribed upon the brow of every man – hope.” Hugo shows Valjean’s inner struggle with darkness, pain and misery to find hope. Hugo, like many writers before and since, highlighted one of the greatest and most confusing traits given to humanity… hope. What we need in the midst of pain and loss and suffering and sorrow is that which as Hugo writes, has been written on the brow of every man by the finger of God; hope.
We all need hope. Hope can often be used to mean a mere wish or desire. We hope that good things will happen. Words have meaning and we have often used this word in a drastically different way than the way that God has intended it. God wants to give you hope. God wants to enter your pain and your agony. He wants to enter your suffering and your sorrow. God wants to give you hope in the midst of the worst that this world can give. He wants to give you hope in the face of death. The King of Glory, the Only Sovereign, the Almighty Father, doesn’t want to give you just mere wishful thinking or an aspiring dream, but a rock-solid assurance, a strong and confident word, and a guaranteed promise as you face death in the eternal living hope that comes in the resurrection from the dead. This is not weak, wishful thinking, but a sure and steady anchor in the storm. God wants you to have hope and I want you to have hope.
In conversations with family and friends over the last month, the one thing that seems certain is uncertainty. “When will this quarantine end? When will things get back to normal? When will we be able to gather again? When will I be able to see my friends and loved ones?” And the answer is usually the same, “I don’t know.” This virus has created a very real uncertainty about the future. This uncertainty will show itself in mild ways like when will sports return or in profound ways like how am I going to afford to eat? Over the next few minutes, I want to invite you to a hope that is certain in this period of uncertainty. It is the only hope that is guaranteed. But before we get to find hope, we have to start with losing it. The first point in today’s message is Losing Hope.
Losing Hope (John 11:17-24)
Our church has been in a study of John’s Gospel. John was written so that we may be persuaded to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God and that by believing may have life in his name. John organizes his gospel around 7 signs or miracles of Jesus and 7 “I Am” statements where Jesus teaches about his identity. The “I Am” statements are very clear and specific ways that Jesus is declaring himself to be God as God has given himself the name “I AM” in the Old Testament. Jesus does not merely give us words to believe but actions to see. Jesus said in the previous chapter if you don’t believe my words then see my works. Jesus did not give mere words or platitudes in his ministry but displayed the power of God in what he did. This story is no different. Let us walk through this scene beginning in John 11:1.
[1] Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. [2] It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. [3] So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” [4] But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” [5] Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. [6] So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus. They were dear, dear friends to Jesus. And it was testified by the sisters themselves who said, “he whom you love is ill.” The sisters knew and saw the special affection that Jesus had for Lazarus. And even John writes in verse 5, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” This is crucial to understand this story and to understand your story.
Mary and Martha see their brother ill. They watch their strong and vibrant brother get sick to the point of death. How many Mary and Martha’s are there across the world right now? How many are watching their once strong fathers and wives and children face intense and sudden sickness? I have heard stories within this congregation and friends outside of it who are in the same situation as Mary and Martha. They are watching their loved ones be overcome by sickness. This virus seems like it is not a big deal until it hits close to home. And this illness hit very close to home with Jesus, because he loved Lazarus. He loved him. Do not miss this. Friends, Jesus loves you. He is emotionally moved when you face illness and when you watch those you love face illness. He is near to the broken hearted and the contrite in spirit. Know that Jesus loves you and allow that to govern how you view your suffering. God does not want anyone to suffer, but he has a purpose in that suffering as we will see in this story.
It is odd because after Jesus hears that he whom he loves is ill, Jesus waits two days longer before he goes to them. Jesus is allowing Mary and Martha to get to the point of losing hope. We can believe that things will get better for a season, but as that season drags on our hope dwindles and fades whether that be facing cancer or a troubled marriage. And even in our pain, God has a purpose. John 11:7,
[7] Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” [8] The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” [9] Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. [10] But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” [11] After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” [12] The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” [13] Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. [14] Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, [15] and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” [16] So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Lazarus has died. And it was good for the disciples, and for us, that he did for we are about to get a reason to believe.
As Jesus arrives into the town, remember that he loves Lazarus. You will see Jesus gripped with deep affection for his family and for his friend that died. John 11:17–24,
[17] Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. [18] Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, [19] and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. [20] So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. [21] Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. [22] But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” [23] Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” [24] Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus arrives and Martha says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” She was both confessing her trust in Jesus’ power as well as his limitations.
Martha believes that Jesus could have healed Lazarus had he been there, but Martha also believes that Jesus cannot do anything now. It is too late. If you don’t know the story, it could easily sound like a funeral today. It could sound like nice platitudes. “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes, I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Thank you.” Mary has hope in Jesus, but an immediate resurrection is not in the realm of possibilities. She was a realist. If you came before he died, you may have saved him, but now…it’s too late. In verse 39 Jesus asks the stone to be removed and Martha questions Jesus, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Martha believed and yet didn’t believe.
How many of us are like Martha? We kind of believe in Jesus and kind of believe we can trust him, but only to point. There are certain things beyond his ability. I am sure that there are many people listening to this message who have lost hope. You have believed for a time, but it didn’t seem to work. You may be feeling, “What’s the point? Why do I bother continuing?” I have heard these questions from many people suffering. They have lost hope. If you have lost hope today, let me invite you back to hope. I do not want to invite you back to a general hope for the future. I want to invite you to a person. I want to invite you to Jesus who is hope.
Living Hope (John 11:25-26)
In the midst of a hopeless and a desperate situation, Jesus invites Martha and by extension us, to himself. John 11:25–26,
[25] Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, [26] and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
As one scholar notes,
Jesus’ concern is to divert Martha’s focus from an abstract belief in what takes place on the last day, to a personalized belief in him who alone can provide it. Just as he not only gives the bread from heaven (6:27) but is himself the bread of life (6:35), so also he not only raises the dead on the last day (5:21, 25ff.) but is himself the resurrection and the life. There is neither resurrection nor eternal life outside of him[1]
Jesus wants to move Martha from an abstract belief of the future to a personalized belief on who alone can provide it. Jesus is the living hope. Jesus is not an abstract set of beliefs, but he is person. We must believe IN him.
There are so many people who are confused about Christianity. They believe that Christianity is primarily about do’s and don’ts, and rules to follow and things to avoid. Christianity has rules and has do’s and don’ts, but Christianity is not defined by those things. Christianity is about a person. It is about a person who has come in love to give us life. Jesus offers you himself. Easter is about Jesus making a way for you and for me to live forever with God. Jesus does not only give us hope, but Jesus is our hope.
If you are listening and do not regularly go to church or know a lot about Jesus, maybe curious but not a follower of Christ, let explain briefly what Christians believe and why we love and follow Jesus. The Bible says that God created the world good. Everything that he made was good and the climax of creation was when God made man and woman in his own image. He gave them life and he walked with them in the garden. Adam and Eve, the first humans, did not want to follow the Lord exclusively, but wanted to become like gods knowing good and evil. They sinned by rejecting what God said or another way of saying it, they rejected Him. Their sin brought death into the world. Human beings were not meant to die, but now death is an inescapable reality. Regardless of how healthy we are now or how well we eat or how much we exercise; our bodies will one day give out. Everyone will eventually die. Like Lazarus, and every one of the 7 billion people on our planet today, will eventually perish. Christians believe that the ultimate reason for death is sin, but we believe that sin not only causes physical death. We believe it causes spiritual death, meaning a separation from God. Christians believe that if we are in our sins we are without hope. We are imperfect and by our imperfection, we are excluded from heaven and God’s presence. All who have sin have no hope. Ephesians 2:12 says that all people in their sins are strangers to the covenants of promise, “having no hope and without God in the world.”
Losing hope in everything in this life is not a bad thing, but rather it is the only thing that will eventually lead you to the only true and lasting hope. It is only when your hope runs out in everything else when we can see what remains. All Christians have come to the realization their only hope is not abstract ideas but the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus came from God the Father to rescue us from our sin so that we could experience life after death. The only way we can escape eternal death is if we are no longer in our sins. Sin separates us from God. Here is the beauty and majesty of Easter Sunday. Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Jesus was perfect. He committed no sins. He never did anything wrong. He perfectly obeyed the Father as a man. Although he was perfect, he was punished as a sinner between two criminals. In his death, he took the death of all who would repent of their sins and trust in him. After his death, he was dead and buried, but God raised him from the dead. He came back to life. He overcame the grave. Only Jesus has the power over life and death. His public, bodily resurrection from the grave has now given hope to all who believe. Jesus is the only hope for your sin and your separation from God not as an abstract idea, but as a real person who really died and really rose from the dead. Hear Jesus’ words again, “[25] Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, [26] and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
Friend, I want you to have a lasting hope. If anything, I pray this virus has awakened you to how brief and fragile our lives truly are. I pray that in losing hope in all else you would truly know the full and glorious meaning of the word written by the finger of God on the brow of every man—hope. Peter writes, 1 Peter 1:3–4,
[3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, [4] to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.”
Friends, the hope in Jesus is a living hope that has caused us to be born again to move from death to life, from no hope to eternal and lasting hope through or as a result of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
This is what he was telling Martha, a grieving sister, who had lost hope for her brother. And he looks at her and says, “Do you believe?” Which is how we will conclude,
Loving Hope (John 11:27)
Martha looked at Jesus probably through tears and testified to her faith in the living hope, by saying, “Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” Martha believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. Martha loved Jesus as a friend and teacher, but more importantly as the Lord. “Yes, Lord. I believe,” she said. And Jesus shows how that is a wise choice. John 11:28–36,
[28] When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” [29] And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. [30] Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. [31] When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. [32] Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” [33] When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. [34] And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” [35] Jesus wept. [36] So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
Jesus did love Martha. He did love Mary. He did love Lazarus. And he does love you. Never forget that. Ever. Never Ever. But there will always be people who doubt Him. John 11:37–41,
[37] But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying? [38] Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. [39] Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” [40] Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” [41] So they took away the stone.
Take away the stone. Jesus is giving a visible picture, a foreshadowing of what is to come, when in only a few days, he will have the stone taken away, but he will have already been called out by the Father and raised to new life as the firstfruit of the resurrection. And right before he performs his last sign for the people, he prays and tells us why, John 11:41–42,
[41] And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. [42] I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”
That they may believe. That we may believe that Jesus was sent from the Father. Do you believe?
In the face of death and the stench of four days of decay…In the face of lost hope and pain…In the face of agony and sorrow…In the face of sin and sorrow…Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” John 11:44, “The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
The Bible speaks of sin as holding us captive or binding us. When Jesus calls us, he tells Satan and the grave, “Unbind him, and let him go.” When Jesus calls us, we come forth. We are no longer under captivity, but we are set free. Friends, Jesus is calling you now. He is calling you by name to rise, come forth and follow him. As John Wesley’s great hymn of his own conversion to Christ, says
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
I ask, “Are you bound in sin? Are you one with no hope? Do you live in the fear of death? Are you spiritually dead? Jesus pleads with you to believe. He is calling out to you to come forth and follow him. Let your chains fall off. Set your heart free. Believe in the Resurrection and Life. Believe in Christ and be saved to an eternal, everlasting hope.
Jesus gave the crowds a reason to believe in the raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus then gives the world a reason to believe by being raised from the dead himself. Friend, do not live without hope, but love Jesus who gives true and lasting hope. God has written hope on every human heart. Jesus is calling you to himself. He is the resurrection and the life. He is the living hope from the dead. Jesus has conquered the grave. And Jesus asks all those who are hopeless, “Will you believe?” Or more specifically, “Will you believe in Me?” Believe in Jesus and be born again to a living hope through his resurrection from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for all who belong to Christ.
[1] Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (p. 412). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.
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