Episode Transcript
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Please remain standing and turn to John
Chapter Twenty. It's a little different than
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in your bulletins. John Twenty.
Going to read a few verses here and
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then I'll have you see sit down
and then we will read some more from
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John Chapter Eleven John Chapter Twenty.
This is the word of your Lord.
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Here it with faith. Now,
on the first day of the week,
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Mary Magdalen came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and
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saw that the stone had been taken
away from the tomb. So she ran
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and went to Simon Peter and the
other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved,
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and said to them they have taken
the lord out of the Tomb and
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we do not know where they have
laid him. So Peter went out with
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the other disciple and they were going
toward the tomb. Both of them were
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running together, but the other disciple
out ran peter and reach the tomb first
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and, stooping to look in,
he saw the linen clothes lying there,
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but he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came following him and went
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into the tomb. He saw he
saw the linen clothes lying there and the
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face cloth which with which had been
on Jesus's head, not lying with the
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linen clothes, but folded up in
a place by itself. Then the other
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disciple who had reached the tomb first, also went in and he saw and
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believed, for as yet they did
not understand that scripture that he must rise
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from the dead, and the disciples
went back to their homes. You may
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be seated. Well, let's turn
over to John Chapter Eleven now, and
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we hear are a story in which
Jesus is opening up to us and to
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the people around him the meaning of
this resurrection, as what it means that
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for us that he rose from the
dead. And John Chapter Eleven, I'm
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going to read almost almost the whole
chapter one through fifty three, we hear
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how Jesus raises a man named Lazars
from the dead and what he wants us
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to think about it, about him, about ourselves. And so, with
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that little bit of orientation, let's
give our attention to God's word in John
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Eleven. Now, certain man was
ill Lazarus of Bethany, the village of
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Mary and his and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord
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with ointment and wiped his feet with
her hair. whose brother Lazarus was ill.
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So the sisters sent to him saying, Lord, he whom you love,
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is ill. But when Jesus heard
it, he said this illness does
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not lead to death. It is
for the glory of God, so that
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the son of God may be glorified
through it. Now Jesus loved Martha and
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her sister and Lazarus. So when
he heard that Lazarus was ill, he
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stayed two days longer in the place
where he was. Then, after this,
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he said to the disciples, let
us go to Judea again. The
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disciple said to him, rabbi,
the Jews were just seeking to stone you.
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Are you going there again? Jesus
answered, are there not twelve hours
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in the day? If anyone walks
in the day, he does not stumble
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because he sees the light of this
world, but if anyone walks in the
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night, he stumbles because the light
is not with him. After saying these
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things, he said to them,
our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but
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I go to awaken him. The
disciple said to him, Lord, if
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he's fallen asleep, he will recover. Now Jess had Jesus had spoken of
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his death, but they thought that
he meant he was taking rest and sleep.
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Then Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus
has died, and for your Sake,
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I am glad that I was not
there so that you may believe,
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but let us go to him.
So Thomas, called the twin, said
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to his fellow disciples, let us
also go that we may die with him.
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Now, when Jesus came, he
found Lazarus had already been in the
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tomb four days. Bethany was near
Jerusalem, about out two miles off,
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and many of the Jews had come
to Martha and Mary a console them concerning
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their brother. So when Martha heard
that Jesus was coming, she went and
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met him, but Mary remained seated
in the house. Martha said to Jesus,
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Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
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But even now I know that whatever
you ask from God, God will
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give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha
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said to him, I know that
he will rise again in the resurrection on
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the last day. Jesus said to
her, I am the resurrection and the
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life. Whoever believes in me,
though he died, yet shall he live.
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And everyone who lives and believes in
me shall never die. Do you
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believe this? She said to him. Yes, Lord, I believe that
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you are the Christ, the son
of God, who is coming into the
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world. When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary,
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saying in private, the teacher is
here and is calling for you.
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And when she heard it, and
rose quickly and went or and when she
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heard it, she rose quickly and
went to him. Now Jesus had not
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yet come into the village but was
still in the place where Martha had met
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him. When the Jews who were
with her in the house consoling her,
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saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she
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was going to the tomb to weep
there. Now, when Mary came to
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where Jesus was and saw him,
she fell at his feet, saying to
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him, Lord, if you had
been here, my brother would not have
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died. When Jesus saw her weeping
and the Jews who had come with her
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also weeping, he was deeply moved
in his spirit and greatly troubled, and
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he said where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord,
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come and see Jesus wept. So
the Jews said, see how he loved
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him, but some of them said, could not he who opened the eyes
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of the blind man also also have
kept this man from dying? Then Jesus,
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deeply moved again, came to the
tomb. It was a cave and
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a stone lay against it. Jesus
said, take away the stone. Martha,
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the sister of the dead man,
and said to him, Lord,
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by this time there will be an
odor, for he has been dead four
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days. Jesus said to her,
did I not tell you that if you
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believed, you would see the glory
of God? So they took the way
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the stone, and Jesus lifted up
his eyes and said, father, I
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thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me,
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but I say this on account of
the people standing around, that they
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may believe that you sent me.
When he said these things, he cried
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out with a loud voice Lazarus,
come out. The man who had died
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came out, his hands and feet
bound with the linen strips and his face
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wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said
to them and bind him and let him
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go. Many of the Jews,
therefore, who had come with Mary and
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had seen what he did, believed
in him but some of them went to
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the Pharisees and told them what Jesus
had done. So the chief priests and
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the Pharisees gathered the counsel and saying, what are we to do? For
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this man performs many signs. If
we let him go on like this,
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everyone will believe in him and the
Romans will come and take away both our
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place and our nation. But one
of them, Caiaphas, who was priest
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that year, said to them you
know nothing at all, nor do you
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understand that is better for you that
one man should die for the people,
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not that the whole nation should perish. He said this not of his own
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accord, but being high priest that
year, he prophesied that Jesus would die
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for the nation, and not for
the nation only, but also to gather
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into one the children of God who
are scattered abroad. So from that day
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on they made plans to put him
to death. Sends the Reading of God's
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word. He blessed it to us. This is an amazing story in which
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we have this account of a of
a resurrection from the dead, and one
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that you might recognize even as you
read, or as as I read,
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a John Chapter Twenty twenty with you. The the details about the tomb and
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the stone, the details about the
witnesses that are there, are the linens,
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the face cloth. In this we
see that Jesus was, Jesus was
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buried in the same way that other
people were, at least this way this
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man was. And it's more than
just the linen cloths that we are to
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connect with these two things. It
is about resurrection, it is about Jesus.
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It is something that he wants us
to understand, that we might recognize,
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and the power that he has in
raising people from the dead, in
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his own resurrection, the power of
life. Andrew Lincoln wrote about Chapter Eleven.
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If it can be said that the
Fourth Gospel is the gospel of life,
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then this episode is the Fourth Gospel
in miniature. Now the words,
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all of the Gospel of John is
right here in this chapter, and the
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resurrection included, and the promise of
life is very much what we need in
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this world. Like Lazarus, we
all face illnesses that threatened to and do
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in fact take our lives, and, like Mary and Martha, we must
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also suffer alongside people that we love, often and being unable to do anything
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other than watch and feel their stuff. Ring Matthew Henry absomberly observes this.
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The more friends we have, the
more frequently we are thus afflicted by sympathy,
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and the dear they are, the
more grievous it is. The multiplying
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of our comforts is but the multiplying
of our cares and crosses. You know
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this, don't you to get close
to someone means you will likely be hurt
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by them. It's a hard thing. But in the midst of all of
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the sadnesses of our lives, God
himself is watching and with us and sympathetic.
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And we see that here, and
you need to hear that here,
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as we see Jesus, the very
son of God. He is not aloof
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over the death of this man.
He feels these things deeply. He feels
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the pain of losing Lazarus. He
knows the pain of suffering and loss.
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The Bible says twice that he is
deeply moved by this. We read that
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when Jesus saw Mary weeping and the
Jews weeping, he was moved in his
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spirit and greatly troubled. Perhaps you've
experienced this. You there is a great
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sadness that you know and you hear
about but then when you get among the
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people that are experiencing that, when
you get alongside them and you see that
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tears and their eyes, the redness
and their face, when you see the
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way that their houses and their friends
are, it moves you. Jesus was
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knew this family, loved this family
and was himself deeply, deeply moved.
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The word John uses to describe the
tears of Mary is one that emphasizes the
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sound of crying, the sound produced
by the sobs. Wailing or sobbing might
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be appropriate translations. According to Matthews
testimony, was how Peter Cried when he
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remembered the saying of Jesus before the
Rooster Crows. You will deny me three
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times. It's the same kind of
crying. That the way the ESV translated.
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Some translates it as it says he
wept bitterly. That's a kind of
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crying that Mary is doing here.
That same word is used at Jesus is
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birth, when Herod goes out and
kills, murders all of those baby boys
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hoping to eradicate Jesus among them.
The Bible says, quoting the Old Testament,
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of voice was heard in Rama.
Weeping is the word. They're weeping
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and loud lamentation. Rachel weeping for
her children. She refused to be comforted
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because they are no more. This
is Mary's weeping, and Jesus responds to
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that. He doesn't stand there aloof
and say, well, all things are
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good in God or some other platitude. The Bible tells us weep with those
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who weep. God commands us,
as we live our lives, to live
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them together, and Jesus does no
less, though he himself sheds many tears.
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Jesus wept the word of God says. He knows the darkness, he
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knows the depth. He sympathizes with
our pain. Indeed, as we see
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in the coming chapters, he experiences
it himself. But unlike us, Jesus
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is actually capable of changing dark situations. We oftentimes sit by feeling frustrated,
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wishing there was something we could do, anything we could do to help.
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Jesus actually can help and does help. He can take any situation, even
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the darkest situations, and turn them
for the better, as he does here.
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Lazarus come out, he says to
a man who has been dead for
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four days, lying in a tomb
wrapped in the burial linen's Lazarus come out,
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he says, in a loud voice, so much that allowed, so
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that many can hear his words.
And sure enough, Lazarus comes out of
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the tomb, back from the dead. What are we to make of this
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miracle? Well, we know that
it's a true miracle because it was done
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publicly before many, even the enemies, were concerned. If he keeps doing
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things like this, we're going to
be up a creek without a paddle.
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Lazarus wasn't just really sick who then
got better. Lazarus died, he was
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wrapped in burial clothes, he was
put in a tomb. He'd been there
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for four days and he been dead
so long that Martha was worried that his
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body would be embarrassingly smelly by the
time Jesus arrived. And this is,
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of course true. Sometimes, when
we think of death, because we don't
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have much experience with death, we
imagine Lazarus perhaps lying there calmly. Jesus
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calls him and he rubs his eyes
and he wakes up, and there he
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is, awake. Now Jesus does
compare it to being awakened from sleep because
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of the power which he has he's
saying. This is as if I were
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simply waking with someone for sweep.
He is dead, he tells them.
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Yes, he is dead. Don't
be confused about that point. Being dead,
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though, is not just being asleep. Within minutes of death, the
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body begins a process called autolysis,
or selfdigestion. When the immune system stops
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working, microbes are free to roam
our internal organs. It's like a sheriff
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who leaves the town throws the the
keys to the prisoners, and these little
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guys don't waste any time devouring whatever
they can find, starting in the intestines
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and in the organs, moving on
to the soft tissues. They work from
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the inside out and it doesn't take
long for all of these is trillions of
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bacteria to begin breaking down the body
into more than four hundred volatile organic compounds,
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many of which are gases. By
about the second or third day after
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a body dies, the decomposition of
the body reaches a stage the people call
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bloat. It's called that because these
foul smelling gases can bloat the body,
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sometimes to twice its size. To
get even a little grosser, there's a
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red brown liquid called purge fluid.
That can sometimes be excreted from the mouth
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and the nose when the body can
no longer contain these gases, and it
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smells really bad, except to the
flies, who very quickly come and lay
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hundreds and thousands of eggs all over
the body. This happens within just a
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few days. Scientists who study this
process are continuing to grow in their understanding
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of how it works, exactly how
the what compounds there are, when they're
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produced, how and why. But
the process of decomposition has never changed.
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It's very predictable, which is why
we have forensic specialists and people that can
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identify the time of death. People
die all the time and have been for
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a long time, and so we
know it's basic stages, we know it's
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timing. These things are unforgettable.
When so Martha's not making a big scene
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about nothing when she says, Lord, you know about the smell. She
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is a warrior, no doubt,
but she's also a practical woman. She
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knows full well what they are going
to find inside this tomb, what they
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are going to see, what they
are going to smell. Lazarus is not
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lying there calmly and beautifully when Jesus
calls him out of the Tomb. Jesus
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didn't just raise Lazarus from the dead, he raised Lazarus has bloated, foul
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smelling, maggot filled body out from
the dead. This is where he would
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be at day. For something the
scriptures make a particular point about. Well,
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how is that possible? The answer
is very simple. God, who
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made the human body and all of
creations, set in it certain rules and
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orders, but he reigns supreme over
them and can change them as he sees
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fit. He's God, he can
do what he wants. A man makes
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a watch, he might design its
hands to sweep in a particular way across
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the face. That it may do
that, it that way the whole time.
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But when the clockmaker decides that he
wants to reverse the hands in the
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other direction, he can do so. Why? Because it's within his power.
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It's a capability. He's not a
watch he's a watch maker. The
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watch might say, well, I
don't believe there's a watchmaker. I believe
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that mechanical engineering determines the way my
hands sweep, not God. But this,
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of course, doesn't change anything.
To say that it operates based on
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the laws of nature is to say
nothing about who made those laws or who
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controls them. It's like there's denying. It's like denying there's a king by
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pointing to the Constitution that he's written. It also doesn't change anything, because
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what is is what is. The
clock may believe it's sprung from a flower
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or fell from a cloud or appeared
randomly out of nothing. The watch can
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believe whatever it likes, but it
doesn't change the fact that it's been carefully
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designed and put together by a man. It's like this with God, except
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our dependence on God is even more
than the watch is dependence on the watchmaker.
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A watch confunctions somewhat independently, without
the watchmaker once it's been made.
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Not so for us. Our birthdays, our death days, every day of
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our life is wrapped up in his
will. We are, and always,
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in an every way, dependent,
completely and entirely dependent on the one who
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made us. And that's why Jesus
doesn't say to Martha I have the power
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of the resurrection the Oh, that's
true. He says to her I am
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the resurrection. That's how closely life
is connected to Jesus. Notice that when
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Jesus First Tells Martha your brother will
rise again, she takes him to mean
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something true. Notice that. And
she's right. There is a future resurrection
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coming. He says, your brother
will raise from the dead, and she
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says, yes, I know,
he will, let raise on the last
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day, right, we all know
this. But well, so, there
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is this future resurrection, but it
will be much greater than the and it
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and it will be much greater than
than was one lazarus experiences here. Lazarus
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would live and die again. But
when the Lord Jesus is, Jesus returns,
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he promises, as all explain more
in tonight sermon, that all will
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rise from the dead, but this
time to an eternal state, some to
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eternal death and some to eternal life. That's what Martha is thinking about.
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Martha's thinking about that future resurrection,
but note this, note how little comfort
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she has in it. The resurrection
of the future ought to bring us great
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hope, hope for those who have
put their faith in Jesus. The resurrection
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and wit is the way in which
the Lord Perfect becks our bodies, glorifies
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our bodies, makes them so that
they can never perish again. Jesus,
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in our resurrection and the Final Resurrection, removes every effect of death. He
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seals off its work forever from us. The resurrection from the dead will be
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an amazing triumph of God as he
spreads his angels out all over the world,
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sweeping off to the four corners of
the world to gather up the elect
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separating the sheep from the goats.
He will take the righteous up, he
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will cast the wicked down. Can
you imagine what it will be like to
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be given a glorified body, to
be risen up from the dead, with
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angels visible to you all around you, gathering people from all over the world,
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as the Lord Jesus and his kingly
power descends on riding on the clouds?
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I don't know, sort of imagine
it, but it will certainly be
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like no day I have ever experienced. Nothing can compare you for this,
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this body and soul together being ushered
by the mighty servants of the Lord into
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his presence where, with our new
bodies, we will see him face to
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face with our actual eyes and,
as revelation twenty one four says, he
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will wipe away every tear from their
eyes and death shall be no more.
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Neither shall be there be mourning,
nor crying, nor pain any more.
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The former things have passed away.
Why did that not bring Martha Hope?
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Why does she say, well,
yeah, we all know there's going to
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be your resurrection. There are two
simple reasons for this, I think,
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both which I would never want to
chide her for, because I struggle in
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the same way. The first is
that Martha disconnected the Lord's doctrine from the
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Lord himself. She believed in the
resurrection, and good for her. That
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is a good thing, but she
was in a way believing it in a
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way that it was disconnected from Jesus. Every spiritual blessing, God's word tells
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us comes to US only and always
in Christ, and this is what Jesus
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reminds us, her and us of
when he says I am the resurrection.
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When we disconnect our doctrine from the
Lord who gives it, the wonderful truths
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of God become abstract, impersonal.
They lose their comforting power. Our faith
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is in a way true, but
also in a way misdirected and certainly weak.
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What does Jesus say? I am
the resurrection and the life. Whoever
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believes in me, though he died, yet he shall live, and everyone
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who believes in and believe lives and
lit believes in me shall never die.
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Do you believe this? That's what
he says. If you find yourselves believing
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in truths but not trusting in Jesus, something's wrong and it might well explain
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a lack of hope. The second
reason Martha struggles with her faith is that
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her brother has just died. She
is feeling the loss of that, the
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trials of that, despair and grief. Jesus takes that seriously, and we
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ought to as well. We don't
stand over Martha and her sister wagging at
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our fingers, wagging our fingers at
them for their weakness. We ought to
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respond as the Lord does. He
cries with them, he feels their loss.
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He has an infinitely vast capacity for
compassion. We should ask him for
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grace that we might grow in this
way as well. He brings them hope
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to by telling them to cling to
him by faith. We likewise do well
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with those who mourn for our own
souls. When are we ourselves needed comforting?
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We ought to speak to our souls
and to comfort them with the grace
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of true sympathy and compassion and with
this truth about Jesus. He is the
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resurrection in life. There is,
there is life in him. He can
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make all things new. He can, and he does Lazarus come out well.
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I want to conclude with what will
sound like a big question, but
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I think I can be a deal
with it briefly. We'll give it a
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try. Here's the question. Why
does Jesus wait? Why does he wait
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two days purposefully before coming to this
family that he loves? If he has
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this power to save, if he
has this resurrection power, if he is
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himself life and Resurrection, why doesn't
he go? Or why doesn't he heal
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at a distance the on PA?
There are there people here who say this.
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In the story he healed the blind
man. Why couldn't he keep Lazarus
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from dying? This is not an
unreasonable question. Or think about this.
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Why does he bring Lazarus back from
the dead at all? Sure it was
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an exquisite joy for Mary and Martha, but maybe ourd thing for Lazarus to
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come back into a world of sin
and suffering after finally leaving it. Lazarus
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would have to die again. How's
that fair? What should the Lord do?
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Should he help Lazarus or Martha or
Mary or his disciples who are wanting
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to understand and believe maybe we shouldn't
be so quick to make all of God's
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decisions for him or to make it
more personal. Why does God allow you
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to suffer and wait when he has
the power of the resurrection, when he
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is the resurrection and when he is
life? Well, of course, an
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answering. Asking these questions, I
can't help but notice I sound a little
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bit like impatient Martha and Mary.
There's something about this that both believes and
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disbelieves. Jesus at the same time
trusts and distrusts, believing, on the
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one hand that he's powerful enough to
save and loving enough to do so,
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but on the other hand not fully
believing either and some way feeling that we
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have a right to decide and make
his decisions for him, that he doesn't
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perhaps quite know what's best. There's
a weakness of faith there that I want,
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to be honest about it, even
in myself. Here's the good news.
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The good news is that God is
gracious and can give us even the
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greatest things, like resurrection life,
to even the weakest of faiths. Now,
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I'm not saying that lacking faith or
doubting God is good. What I
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am saying is that God is good
and that's what we are doubting. We
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are not the watchmaker he is.
He knows what's best and though he moves
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in mysterious ways, we ought to
trust him. And what could be more
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mysterious than this? That he would
come in the flesh, into the world
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to die himself for sins that he
did not commit? That's pretty mysterious,
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that's pretty unexpected and surprising, maybe
even confusing, but it's love and it's
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grace and it's good none the less. He entered into suffering and death himself
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so that he could overcome death.
Jesus himself waited and suffered and died in
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order that we could live again.
To give these things freely to us,
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Jesus has a plan. He has
a plan for Lazarus, he has a
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plan for us, and this is
why he waits, he tells them,
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he waits to that the glory of
God might be revealed, so that the
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son might be glorified, so that
we all might stand back and go.
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That is the resurrection in the life. That is my savior. I believe
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in him, so that our doubts
and our wonders and our worries would be
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cast aside and the arms of faith
would wrap a big hug around Jesus's neck
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and hold fast, fast, fast
to him. Jesus tells them why he
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waits, so that we would believe
in him and that by believing in him,
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we would have life in his name. It's for our good, it's
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always for our good that he waits. It's that simple. Jesus died and
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rose from the dead, victorious and
living, so that all who trust in
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him would find this life in him
as well. So I have to end
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even as Jesus ends his his question
to her. He says simply to her,
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do you believe this? Do you
believe this as you stand in that
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crowd watching Lazarus come out of the
tomb, or as you stand with Peter
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and John, the other disciple?
If as you stand with Mary and the
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other women and see Jesus risen from
the dead, as you hear these words
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proclaim to you, do you believe? Please, there's life in his name,
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resurrection life, Eternal Life. Let's
pray
