Episode Transcript
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Brothers and sisters. Let's turn to
John, Chapter Eleven, this Central Point
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in the gospel of John. A
whole chapter and a long chapter devoted to
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this. One of Jesus's most amazing
miracles. It's miracle in which he raises
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Lazarus from the dead. I want
to focus this morning on versus seventeen through
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twenty seven, but let's begin at
the beginning of the chapter. So I'll
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read one through twenty seven. So
this is God's word. It will not
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have returned to him empty. Let's
hear it now. Certain man was ill,
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Lazarus of Bethany, the village of
Mary and her sister Martha. It
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was Mary who anointed the Lord with
ointment and wiped his feet with her hair,
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whose brother Lazarus was ill. So
the sisters sent to him saying,
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Lord, he whom you love,
is ill. When Jesus heard it,
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he said this illness does not lead
to death. It is not. It
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is for the glory of God,
so that the son of God may be
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glorified through it. Now, Jesus
loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
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So when he heard that Lazarus us
was ill, he stayed two days longer
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in the place where he was.
Then, after this, he said to
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his disciples, let us go to
Judea again. The disciple said to him,
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rabbi, the Jews were just seeking
to stone you, and are you
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going there again? Jesus answered,
are there not twelve hours in the day?
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If anyone walks in the day,
he does not stumble because he sees
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the light of this world, but
if anyone walks in the night, he
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stumbles because the light is not in
him. After saying these things, he
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said to them, our friend Lazarus
has fallen asleep, but I go to
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awaken him. The disciple said to
him, Lord, if he's fallen asleep,
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he will recover. Now Jesus had
spoken of his death, but they
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thought that he meant taking rest in
sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly,
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Lazarus has died, and for your
Sake, I am glad that I was
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not there so that you may believe, but let us go to him.
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So Thomas, called the twin,
said to his fellow disciples, let us
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also go that we may die with
him. Now, when Jesus came,
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he found that Lazarus had already been
in the tomb four days Bethany was near
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Jerusalem, about two miles off,
and many of the Jews had come to
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Martha and Mary to console them concerning
their brother. So when Martha heard that
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Jesus was coming, she went and
met him, but Mary remained seated in
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the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here,
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my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever
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you ask from God, God will
give you. Jesus said to her,
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your brother will rise again. Martha
said to him, I know that he
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will rise again in the resurrection on
the last day. Jesus said to her,
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I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though
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he died, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in
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me shall never die. Do you
believe this? She said to him.
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Yes, Lord, I believe that
you are the Christ, the son of
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God, who is coming into the
world. Amen. God gives to us
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several reasons for why this miracle occurred
and why Jesus did what he did.
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One of them is found in verse
four. Jesus says it is for the
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glory of God, so that the
son of God may be glorified through it.
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Here we are reminded of Jesus's into
meant, and that's not a close
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enough word, but I'll say up
for now, intimate relationship with God,
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the father. He does this so
that God the glory. So he does
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it for the glory of God,
so that the son of God may be
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glorified through it. Another reason we
are given in this passage for this miracle
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and the way that Jesus does it
is love. We've thought about this in
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a previous sermons, but we read
in verse five 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 for two days and then later
he went. He loved them. This
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is a theme that is emphasized over
and over again throughout this passage. And
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then finally, we are told in
to to the disciples. He says in
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Verse Fifteen I and for Your Sake, I am glad that I was not
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there, so that you may believe. You see, very importantly, Jesus
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is doing all of these things within
the context of a number of relationships.
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His relationship with the father, his
relationship with Lazarus and Mary and Martha,
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his relationships with his disciples, and
all of it is done out of love.
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This is hard to understand when you're
waiting for someone, and for God
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in particular, to come and help. It's hard to trust when you are
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feeling your own body. I'm wasting
away, struggling, dying. It's hard
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to trust God, to trust in
his love, when you know and feel
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the deathly sins that are still in
you, sins that way you down.
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But this passage is all about calling
you, even as he called his disciples,
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even as he called to Martha and
her sister and eventually to Lazarus,
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to believe in him, to trust
in him. So, though this is
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an amazing thing that happened and happened
a long time ago, it is very
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much for us here and now.
Jesus is call is a present reality.
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Even now, as I read to
you the words of scripture, God's Word,
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God's call to believe, is being
spoken, and we pray that God
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makes that call effectual, that,
just as Jesus would call into the tomb
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for Lazarus to come out, that
his word and his spirit would be at
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work even this warning in our hearts, to call us out of our death,
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out of our sin, to become
Christians for the first time, to
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be reborn and regenerated or perhaps,
if you are a Christian, to be
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strengthened in his life, to be
made stronger in his power to walk,
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as Paul said, not in the
old ways that have died, not in
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the flesh, but in the spirit
and in the newness of life. That's
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important that this is happening, that
this chapter is placed where it is.
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John is about to open up to
us, after this chapter, the events
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that lead into Jesus eventual death,
the betrayals, the false trials, the
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suffering that he would endure on across. John is preparing us for that so
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that we would understand and read it
rightly. And what are the things that
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we're supposed to understand? That this
one, this savior, who is about
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to die, is one who has
power over death, and we need not
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fear that. When Jesus goes to
the cross, he goes so with authority
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as a king, as God,
with authority to both laid down his life
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and take it up again. And
it's because of this authority, it's because
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of this power that Martha and Mary
and Lazarus and you and his disciples who
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eventually gave their own lives for Jesus. Live and believe in him. The
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disciples didn't feel this way at first. You remember, in our passage last
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week we noticed how the disciples were
not so keen on going to Bethany.
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Bethany is just a couple miles away, as put John tells us, from
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Jerusalem, and their concern was not
without warrant. As we read in our
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passage, many of the Jews had
come to Mary and Martha. Jesus had
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been in Jerusalem previously. They had
tried to stone him, they had tried
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to murder him, and now he
wants to go back into the same area.
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And two miles is not far,
certainly within walking distance, because they
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did it all the time. And
these Jews had walked, maybe ritten things,
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I don't know, but they had
moved themselves to Mary and Martha's House
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and there they were mourning, all
of these people, people who no doubt
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had connections with the leadership and the
authority. There, there they were at
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the house. Was Jesus walking into
a trap? Was Jesus taking his disciples
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into a place where they would all
face their deaths? No, not yet.
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Anyway, it was not yet time
all of this was happening according to
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Jesus's perfect timing. And so he
comes, he comes into their home and
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we have this interesting Mary and Martha
Dynamic going on here. That's, I
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think, worth noting for a moment. Most of us are familiar with the
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story about Mary and Martha, where
he comes and visits them in their home
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and a Martha is all busy with
hospitality things and serving and helping and Mary
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is just sitting there a listening to
Jesus and a little bit of conflict there,
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and Jesus commends Mary, commends her
for being there and being with him.
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Here we have another important Mary and
Martha Story, one that also deserves
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to be told here. It would
seem as if Mary might be a little
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bit sad, her introverted quiet self
that maybe at one point encouraged her to
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just sit and rest and be with
Jesus, as maybe now brought in a
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little bit of sadness. And Martha, extroverted, Busy Martha. She can't
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even wait for Jesus to arrive.
When she hears them coming, she runs
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out to meet him and is and
has all kinds of things to say in
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these examples I mentioned. These examples
of these sisters, because we see in
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both of them two different people,
perhaps with different strengths, different weakness is,
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different personalities, yet both of them, at different times and different ways,
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coming to the Lord, being honest
before him. We hear that in
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Martha's words, Martha's wonderful, wonderful
words, much like the psalms she says
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in Verse Twenty One, but sounds
to me like something of a lament Lord,
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if you had been here, my
brother would not have died. She's
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telling him how she feels. She's
not putting a strong face on it or
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just trying to cover up her disappointment. She says the truth. This is
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what Christians do. They say the
truth. The psalms are full of these
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kinds of lamentations, wonderings. Where
is the Lord? Where was the Lord?
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But our faith doesn't stop there,
though we are honest about our feelings,
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though we're honest about our disappointments with
God. At the same time it's
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important that we submit our feelings and
submit the way we think to what God
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has said, to who he is. If we simply give free reigin to
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our feelings, if we simply allow
our feelings and our ideas and things that
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we think to rule us will then
we become our own gods. We may
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be being honest, but it's also
idolatry doesn't do us much good. But
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if we go before the Lord and
we say this is who I am in
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my suffering and my struggles and my
disappointments, and yet I know who you
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are and I submit myself before you, and that's what she does here.
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She says, Lord, if you
had been here, my brother would not
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have died. But even now I
know that whatever you ask of God,
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God will give you. Notice that
she doesn't cajole Jesus or manipulate him or
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or I try to force him,
I'm, into doing something that he doesn't
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want to do. She simply says
I whatever you ask of God. I
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also want you to notice that Martha
is understanding, or seems to understand anyway,
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something that Jesus has been emphasizing over
and over and over it again throughout
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this Gospel, and so I emphasize
it here as well, that Jesus is
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the son of God, distinct from
the father and yet receiving all things from
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him in such a way that he
is equal with the father in power and
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glory in life and in wisdom in
such a way that he deserves to be
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worshiped and glorified with everything that we
would glorify and worship the father with.
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She sees Jesus and understands him in
his relationship to his father. And this
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is what he's been talking about chapter
after chapter after chapter. The trinitarian nature
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of our salvation is not an add
on, a plus, some kind of
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take it or leave it thing.
It's the bedrock of her faith. It's
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the bedrock of WHO Jesus is it. That's not the right way to put
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it is who Jesus is and it
should be the foundation of our faith as
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well. He is who he is
and he is this son of God in
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this way, and so she says, it's in this way. We also
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read her words in Verse Twenty Seven. Jesus makes this not just about Lazarus
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or her guests or anything else,
but he looks here in the eye,
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so to speak, and he says, do you believe this? That's a
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very personal question. That's a very, very personal question, and sometimes it's
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not always right to ask very,
very personal questions. But Jesus is always
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right. Jesus always asks and says
the right things at the right time,
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and here it's perfect and here it
is a reminder to us that God doesn't
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just give us a bunch of truths
sort of floating around in the sky for
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us to sort of consider and ponder
and then move on with our lives.
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He asks us, he requires us, to relate to them, to believe
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in them, to believe in him. Jesus says to her these wonderful words.
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I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though
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he died, yet he shall live, and everyone who lives and believes in
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me shall never die. How easy
it is, in our sinfulness, to
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stay in our pride and push these
things off on to other people, to
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say, wow, Jesus, that's
so true, you're so good, that's
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so important. If only my brother
would have heard that in time right,
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or if only my sister Mary would
have come out to meet you, she
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could have heard this too. Jesus
doesn't allow that, any of that kind
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of thinking, and he honestly,
he never allows it. He pushes his
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word upon us again and again,
and he says to her and to us,
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do you believe this? So I
ask you, do you believe,
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yes or no? Do you believe
what Jesus says? Is He the resurrection?
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Is he the life? If you
trust in him, will you never
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die? I hope the answer is
yes, because if you trust in him,
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you will never die, even if
you lose your life like Lazarus for
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a moment, the Lord Jesus,
on the day of Resurrection, that last
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day that Martha talks about, will
call forth to his people and they will
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rise up out of their graves in
a glorious state, even better than Lazarus
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will. Will rise up in a
moment. Here this blessed woman confesses her
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faith and says, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ,
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the son of God, who is
coming into the world, and saying
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that she is hearkening back to those
promises of the Old Testament of this coming
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Christ, Messiah, this anointed one
who was going to come, the one
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that was promised even back. Well, well, if Moses Deuteronomy Eighteen,
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when he said that there would be
a prophet who would come that would be
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greater than him, and under David, when God promised to David that a
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son would sit on the throne of
David as the son of God over an
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eternal kingdom forever. The promises to
Abraham that, hit out of his offspring,
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all the nations of the Earth would
be blessed, a promise that there
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would be another Allie Ajah someday,
a promise that one day there would be
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this, this person, this this, this figure, this savior, this
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Lord, this king, the son
that would come and fulfill all of these
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things. Martha thinks back on all
of these promises, century after century after
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century, of God fulfilling these things
and bringing everything to this moment, and
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she stands in front of that man, that God, and says yes,
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Lord, I believe, praise God, and that means that Martha will receive
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the same blessing and better than her
brother Lazarus will, and she's not even
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dead yet. She has the confidence
that she she she is given reason,
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I should say, to have assurance
and confidence that for her life she can
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take every step knowing that she has
nothing to be afraid of, that she
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has everything to hope for, because
Jesus doesn't only say that he will be
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the resurrection and which our bodies are
lifted up and and renewed, done to
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life, even eternal life, but
he caught. He also says that he
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is the life, and I take
this as a reminder that it's not just
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our bodies but also our souls,
our whole selves, will be glorified by
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God in the Glory of Christ and
this is important to men remember, because
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as much as we make a mistake
and we sin even in in in fearing
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pain and suffering and fearing these things, when God has said there's no reason
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to fear. You have life.
I promise you resurrection, we also make
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a mistake on the other side,
not only on the sort of pain side
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of things, but also on the
pleasure side of things. When we enjoy
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things, we often enjoy them halfheartedly. When we see beautiful things, we
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only noticed maybe we notice them or
we notice them in part. We're often
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not very sensitive to win. You
know, a good thanks muting meal becomes
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too much of a good thing.
Well, warning there right. We enjoy
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things that we take them in and
then we go too far or we fail
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to enjoy them in the first place, or we we make mistakes and we
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sin in all kinds of ways.
So you get the idea. The point
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here is that when Jesus brings us
out of death and into life. He
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doesn't just bring us into sort of
a nondeath state. We're not zombies.
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We he gives to US life,
capital L if I could put it that
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way. Maybe he gives to us
his life. He gives to us the
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life of God, perfection, life, everlasting. And so when you think
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of the descriptions that are given in
revelation and other places of Heaven and we
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notice beauty, community, order,
strength, security, peace, protection,
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life, this is what God originally
made us to be. God designed us
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to be creatures who lived in his
image, who enjoy being in fellowship with
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him, walking as Adam and Eve
did, in the guard and with him.
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Is this so hard for us to
imagine? Because we are always at
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war, to always be at war
with the flesh, to always find being
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struggling against Satan's temptations and our own
fleshly nature? It's hard in some ways
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to imagine what life might be like
if all that was not just absent,
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but in its place was every pleasurable, enjoyable godly thing you could imagine,
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never not not, never exceeding its
bounds, never inappropriately enjoyed, perfect in
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every way. We get little tastes
of this at least in our imagination.
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From time to time, lying on
a warm beach, you know, with
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nothing to worry about per minute,
or waking up in the morning being at
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peace with your spouse and it's quiet
and it's still and you're together, or
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holding a new baby in your arms. These is little moments, at least
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in our minds right, at least
in our imaginations, we experience these things
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when we say, well, that's
lovely, that's wonderful. Can you imagine
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what it would be like if these
these momentary, little tastes of things just
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here on Earth were always that way, if life with a capital l was
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nothing thing but peace, pleasure,
enjoyment of God? What is man's chief
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end? is to glorify God and
enjoy him forever, to be in perfect
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communion and fellowship with God for all
eternity, with nothing out of order,
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no remaining sins nagging at you,
no undone things, no to do list
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that you feel guilty about, just
perfect peace and communion. This is what
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Jesus promises us, this is what
he is giving to us and this is
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what we receive when we say yes, Lord. I believe so. When
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you consider your own bodies, you
consider your souls, when you think about
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your relationships and the weights of this
world and your sin, and when when
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you go in those moments where you
feel trapped, suffering, struggling, not
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knowing what to do, do this, believe on the Lord Jesus, and
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you will be saved. He may
not whip you up out of the earth
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and a moment, but he does
tell us that the things that we suffer
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in this life are light and momentary
afflictions. And we say, how could
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that be? It doesn't feel light
and it certainly doesn't feel momentary. I've
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been suffering with this for two decades, three decades, my whole life.
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He says it's the light and he
calls it momentary, because it can't even
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begin to be compared with the eternal
weight of glory that is given to us
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in Christ Jesus. And so this
is why we put our faith in him.
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We trust in God and what he
says, in what he gives,
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in his timing and not our own. And when we do so, we
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know, and you can know,
that you are safe in this life and
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in the life to come. I'm
in let's pray
