What We Learn From Jesus' Tears (John 11:20-44)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:03.799 I'll remain standing if you're able, and let's turn our attention to the gospel 2 00:00:03.839 --> 00:00:12.669 of John. John, Chapter Eleven, Verses Twenty through forty four. John 3 00:00:12.710 --> 00:00:17.070 Eleven, verse twenty. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she 4 00:00:17.190 --> 00:00:21.980 went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said 5 00:00:21.980 --> 00:00:24.899 to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not 6 00:00:25.019 --> 00:00:28.579 have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, 7 00:00:28.899 --> 00:00:33.500 God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. 8 00:00:34.780 --> 00:00:37.649 Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the 9 00:00:37.729 --> 00:00:42.969 resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection 10 00:00:43.009 --> 00:00:48.450 and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall 11 00:00:48.530 --> 00:00:53.119 he live in every one who lives and believes in me shall never die. 12 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:58.200 Do you believe this? She said to him, yes, Lord, I 13 00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:02.719 believe that you are the Christ, the son of God, who is coming 14 00:01:02.799 --> 00:01:06.790 into the world. When she had said this, she went and called her 15 00:01:06.829 --> 00:01:11.750 sister Mary, saying in private, the teacher is here and he is calling 16 00:01:11.870 --> 00:01:15.670 for you, and when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to 17 00:01:15.709 --> 00:01:19.700 him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still 18 00:01:19.739 --> 00:01:23.180 in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with 19 00:01:23.299 --> 00:01:26.340 her in the house consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, 20 00:01:26.659 --> 00:01:30.659 they follow her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 21 00:01:32.620 --> 00:01:34.689 Now, when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she 22 00:01:34.890 --> 00:01:38.730 fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been 23 00:01:38.769 --> 00:01:42.049 here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and 24 00:01:42.810 --> 00:01:48.319 the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in 25 00:01:48.439 --> 00:01:53.680 his spirit and greatly troubled, and he said, where have you laid him? 26 00:01:53.239 --> 00:01:57.079 They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. 27 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:01.829 So the Jews said, see how he loved him, but some of them 28 00:02:01.989 --> 00:02:07.549 said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have 29 00:02:07.670 --> 00:02:13.069 kept this man from dying? Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to 30 00:02:13.189 --> 00:02:16.900 the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay against it. Jesus 31 00:02:16.979 --> 00:02:21.979 said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, 32 00:02:22.180 --> 00:02:24.340 said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor, 33 00:02:25.300 --> 00:02:30.490 for he has been dead four days. Jesus said to her, did 34 00:02:30.530 --> 00:02:32.810 I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God. 35 00:02:34.889 --> 00:02:38.930 So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, 36 00:02:38.169 --> 00:02:42.449 father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that 37 00:02:42.610 --> 00:02:46.639 you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing 38 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:51.120 around, that they may believe that you sent me. When he said these 39 00:02:51.199 --> 00:02:57.240 things, he cried out with a loud voice Lazarus come out. The man 40 00:02:57.400 --> 00:03:02.229 who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips and 41 00:03:02.389 --> 00:03:07.710 his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them on, bind him 42 00:03:07.710 --> 00:03:12.939 and let him go, and may God bless his word to us. You 43 00:03:13.020 --> 00:03:21.139 maybe see it. You may have noticed that this is a long story. 44 00:03:23.259 --> 00:03:29.610 It is one of many accounts that John gives to us of Jesus's work, 45 00:03:30.330 --> 00:03:34.930 life and ministry, and it's a long one. We've spent quite some time, 46 00:03:34.969 --> 00:03:38.610 I'm working through it and making sure that we understand it and what John 47 00:03:39.210 --> 00:03:45.120 is teaching us. One of the reasons it's long is because here at the 48 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:50.039 center of his book and right before John Begins to talk to us about the 49 00:03:50.159 --> 00:03:54.439 final days, suffering and death of our savior, he gives to us this 50 00:03:54.520 --> 00:04:02.229 this account, to bring into focus a lot of different themes in this Gospel, 51 00:04:02.389 --> 00:04:09.270 things that we learn about Jesus, about his life, about why he 52 00:04:09.389 --> 00:04:13.860 came, about our response toward him, about the world's response toward him. 53 00:04:14.659 --> 00:04:19.860 We have resurrected life, death and resurrection. We have yearning and loss, 54 00:04:20.019 --> 00:04:26.089 we have sorrow, we have discipleship, we have a angelism, we have 55 00:04:27.009 --> 00:04:32.810 many, many different things. Today I want to focus on a theme that 56 00:04:33.089 --> 00:04:41.680 John Emphasizes in these versus, in particular these words that that he mentioned several 57 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:48.199 times in different ways, that Jesus was deeply moved, Jesus was greatly troubled, 58 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:57.069 that Jesus wept. It's a very emotional scene. Emotions, of course, 59 00:04:57.149 --> 00:05:01.870 are these things that we have in us that are often affected by other 60 00:05:02.110 --> 00:05:08.980 things. We feel this way and then we feel that way. We change 61 00:05:09.259 --> 00:05:14.779 in a way, and Jesus, in his humanity here, is changing, 62 00:05:15.180 --> 00:05:19.939 he is feeling, he is he comes to them and he sees, for 63 00:05:20.100 --> 00:05:26.329 example, a Mary weeping in verse thirty three, the Jews also weeping, 64 00:05:26.370 --> 00:05:32.009 and then he is moved, deeply moved, it says, greatly troubled in 65 00:05:32.209 --> 00:05:40.000 his spirit. Why does John Emphasize this so much? Why does he bring 66 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:47.759 out this aspect of Jesus's ministry with them. One reason is that it obviously 67 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:55.310 was a significant thing, a momentous thing, prelude as well to his work 68 00:05:55.670 --> 00:06:01.470 in calling Lazarus out. Another important reason that John Emphasizes these things is to 69 00:06:01.589 --> 00:06:10.540 remind us of Jesus's true humanity. You Remember that the gospel of John is 70 00:06:11.060 --> 00:06:15.339 full of emphasis on the divinity of Christ. In the beginning, was the 71 00:06:15.379 --> 00:06:17.459 word, and the word with with God, and the word was God. 72 00:06:18.329 --> 00:06:24.569 This Jesus that came into the world, that they touched and saw and were 73 00:06:24.649 --> 00:06:31.959 with, this Jesus that tabernacled among them, is God himself, the eternal, 74 00:06:32.040 --> 00:06:40.000 everlasting, unchanging, unmovable God. This has been the great emphasis of 75 00:06:40.079 --> 00:06:43.839 John Throughout the book and he will continue to be. But at the same 76 00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:55.430 time he also emphasizes his emphasizes Jesus's true humanity. One of the important things 77 00:06:56.709 --> 00:07:00.509 that we are learning in the gospel of John is that to know God is 78 00:07:00.670 --> 00:07:04.220 to know is to know the sun. There's no other way. He is 79 00:07:04.379 --> 00:07:08.139 the truth, the way and the life. There is no way to the 80 00:07:08.259 --> 00:07:14.300 father except to him. And to know Jesus is to know this Jesus, 81 00:07:15.019 --> 00:07:19.209 not a Jesus of our imaginations, not a Jesus of our speculations, the 82 00:07:19.370 --> 00:07:25.490 Jesus that is here recorded in the scriptures, that Jesus that the Holy Spirit 83 00:07:25.569 --> 00:07:32.040 himself teaches us of. To Know God is to know this God, this 84 00:07:32.319 --> 00:07:39.680 Jesus, and this Jesus has two natures, which is different than you, 85 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:46.110 different than me. We have one nature, a human nature. Jesus has 86 00:07:46.509 --> 00:07:55.149 two natures, a marvelous mystery that is impossible to fully grasp and nevertheless clearly 87 00:07:55.189 --> 00:08:01.180 attested to and shown again and again in the scriptures. He has two natures, 88 00:08:01.300 --> 00:08:05.660 a divine nature and a human nature, not half and half, but 89 00:08:05.139 --> 00:08:11.699 fully God and fully man, and so all the things that are true of 90 00:08:11.779 --> 00:08:18.050 God are true of Jesus. God cannot die, but all the things that 91 00:08:18.089 --> 00:08:24.170 are true of true of humanity, are also true of Jesus. Man Can 92 00:08:24.370 --> 00:08:31.199 die, God cannot change, but man can change. God does not have 93 00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:37.200 passions and emotions because he is one and perfect. Man, however, can 94 00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:43.309 change and can feel. God is one with no parts or divisions. Man 95 00:08:43.470 --> 00:08:48.429 has lots of parts and divisions, arms and legs, strings of DNA. 96 00:08:48.509 --> 00:08:56.460 The uniting of these two natures, as I said, something very mysterious, 97 00:08:56.580 --> 00:09:03.460 something that we cannot fully know or express. We will never really know what 98 00:09:03.620 --> 00:09:11.009 it was like to be Jesus because we do not have divine natures as he 99 00:09:11.169 --> 00:09:18.210 did. Nevertheless, we can know that he knows what it's like to be 100 00:09:18.250 --> 00:09:24.289 us, because he is fully human, and this is something that God is 101 00:09:24.440 --> 00:09:28.799 emphasizing for us here, and will consider some of the importance of that in 102 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:33.679 a moment, but first I want you to see how this is emphasized. 103 00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:39.389 Very simply, Jesus comes to them. He is walking, he is moving 104 00:09:39.429 --> 00:09:43.669 about, he is using his arms and his legs. He is in this 105 00:09:43.909 --> 00:09:48.710 place and not another place. Martha goes out to meet him. When she 106 00:09:48.870 --> 00:09:54.220 goes and tells sister, her sister Mary, to come to him, she 107 00:09:54.379 --> 00:09:58.899 has to come to him, he is still in the place that he was. 108 00:10:00.220 --> 00:10:03.500 When he comes and he sees her weeping, when he sees the Jews 109 00:10:03.620 --> 00:10:09.250 weeping, he is deeply moved. His emotions change and this reminds us that 110 00:10:09.370 --> 00:10:16.049 Jesus is not only human in his body, but is also human in his 111 00:10:16.610 --> 00:10:24.360 soul. Jesus is human in the immaterial parts of his humanity, his mind, 112 00:10:24.200 --> 00:10:31.039 his emotions. The scriptures tell us that Jesus, and we, I 113 00:10:31.080 --> 00:10:35.990 believe. We read this last week. Jesus grew in wisdom, grew in 114 00:10:35.149 --> 00:10:43.269 understanding when he went from a baby to a boy to a man. Jesus 115 00:10:43.309 --> 00:10:48.190 is understanding in his humanity, grew even in his divinity. He knew all 116 00:10:48.389 --> 00:10:54.659 things. To say something other than that ends up taking apart the God that 117 00:10:54.860 --> 00:10:58.820 we have been given, the God who has revealed himself to us. To 118 00:11:00.340 --> 00:11:03.139 say something other than that is to all of a sudden have a savior who 119 00:11:03.220 --> 00:11:09.450 is not fully human. And that matters because Hebrews tells us that Jesus became 120 00:11:09.649 --> 00:11:15.210 he took on flesh and blood, he became like the children of man so 121 00:11:15.370 --> 00:11:22.919 that he could die for us. It's very, very important. Some heretics 122 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:28.960 have denied this, this part, that Jesus is human in his soul, 123 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:35.629 but the scriptures are very clear about this. Hebrews to fourteen says that he 124 00:11:35.750 --> 00:11:43.350 partook of the same things as our nature. And we remember also that Jesus 125 00:11:43.149 --> 00:11:50.259 suffered not only in his body but also in his soul and his emotions, 126 00:11:50.379 --> 00:11:56.379 in his mind. Our passage teaches this here. is part of Jesus's suffering. 127 00:11:56.419 --> 00:12:00.379 He sees death around him, he sees the death of his friend. 128 00:12:00.419 --> 00:12:05.169 He sees other people mourning and grieving this and he is moved. These things 129 00:12:05.490 --> 00:12:09.850 come into his mind, they affect him, they change him and they move 130 00:12:09.970 --> 00:12:18.279 him, just as they do for you. We also see this later in 131 00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:24.360 the garden of Casemite, when Jesus was so overwhelmed with emotion and grief and 132 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:37.509 sorrow and anguish at his own coming death that he sweats bloody sweat. And 133 00:12:37.629 --> 00:12:43.870 then, of course, on the cross when Jesus died, he says, 134 00:12:43.230 --> 00:12:48.620 quoting Psalm twenty two, and I'll read, I'll read that from Psalm twenty 135 00:12:48.740 --> 00:12:54.740 two. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why 136 00:12:54.779 --> 00:12:58.929 are you so far from saving me from my words of groaning? Verse Two? 137 00:13:00.090 --> 00:13:03.570 Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer 138 00:13:03.730 --> 00:13:11.169 by night, and I find no rest. In what sense did God Desert 139 00:13:11.409 --> 00:13:18.759 Jesus? Well, in I'm senses he did not. So. The Union 140 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.679 of Jesus's divinity and his humanity, for example, did not fall apart on 141 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:28.590 the cross. When Jesus took humanity on himself, when he united human nature 142 00:13:28.629 --> 00:13:35.870 to his divinity, he never stopped being divine. Jesus didn't lose his divinity 143 00:13:35.110 --> 00:13:41.259 on the Cross. He was united fully, always eternally to God. So 144 00:13:41.419 --> 00:13:46.860 it wasn't there and it wasn't certainly in the Lord's protection, for he is 145 00:13:46.980 --> 00:13:54.019 always at the right hand of the righteous. And here we have in John 146 00:13:54.179 --> 00:13:58.889 Eleven itself, Jesus says, Father, I thank you that you have heard 147 00:13:58.970 --> 00:14:03.490 me. I knew that you always hear me, not includes on the cross 148 00:14:03.529 --> 00:14:09.730 as well. So in what sense was God separated from Jesus and what sense 149 00:14:09.809 --> 00:14:13.080 does he say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 150 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:18.759 Most likely it was in his soul, in his emotional part of himself. 151 00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:24.549 He didn't feel that joy and happiness and that closeness with God as he 152 00:14:24.710 --> 00:14:31.509 took on all the sins of the world, that happiness and joy. Instead, 153 00:14:31.669 --> 00:14:39.179 he was experiencing the wrath and the anger of God against sin. He 154 00:14:39.340 --> 00:14:43.620 felt that separation from God. Instead of that closeness that we desire, that 155 00:14:43.899 --> 00:14:48.860 that long that desire to be close to God, he felt separated. And 156 00:14:48.980 --> 00:14:54.570 consider not only verse as one and two, but twelve through fifteen of psalm 157 00:14:54.690 --> 00:15:03.250 twenty two. Listen to the emotional language here that David Rights. Many Bulls 158 00:15:03.289 --> 00:15:07.679 encompass me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They open wide, their 159 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:13.600 mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out by 160 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:18.840 water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, 161 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:24.549 it is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a 162 00:15:24.669 --> 00:15:28.029 pot shirt and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the 163 00:15:28.110 --> 00:15:33.389 dust of death. He's not just feeling it in his body, and he 164 00:15:33.549 --> 00:15:37.860 certainly is. He does, mouth goes dry, his heart feels like a 165 00:15:37.940 --> 00:15:43.259 drops out from underneath him. He's he's losing his physical strength, but it's 166 00:15:43.379 --> 00:15:48.659 very much connected with his emotions. Right, he's scared, he's terrified, 167 00:15:48.779 --> 00:15:52.330 he's looking to the Lord and feeling lost. Of course he knows that God 168 00:15:52.529 --> 00:15:56.889 is there and he, David confesses this in the Psalm and Jesus, of 169 00:15:56.970 --> 00:16:00.250 course knows this as well. But perhaps you've had an experience of that, 170 00:16:00.289 --> 00:16:06.679 a taste of that kind of suffering, of knowing that, of knowing that 171 00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:12.120 perhaps you're doing the right thing and yet feeling far from God, feeling overwhelmed, 172 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:19.029 feeling scared, feeling terrified. My guests I've my guess is very few 173 00:16:19.110 --> 00:16:26.470 of us have actually felt such suffering and anguish as our lord fell to bleed 174 00:16:26.429 --> 00:16:33.500 drops of blood or sweat drops of blood, but perhaps you understand a little 175 00:16:33.500 --> 00:16:40.259 bit of what it means to feel that kind of anguish. Or consider psalms 176 00:16:40.340 --> 00:16:44.259 sixty nine, and one of the most quoted Psalms in the New Testament. 177 00:16:45.019 --> 00:16:48.769 I'm quoted by John as well. Sixty nine, a few verses from here, 178 00:16:48.250 --> 00:16:55.009 versus one through three. Save me, O God, for the waters 179 00:16:55.049 --> 00:16:57.850 have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire where there is 180 00:16:57.970 --> 00:17:03.039 no foothold. I have come into deep waters. The flood sweeps over me. 181 00:17:03.639 --> 00:17:07.839 I am weary with my crying out, my throat is parched. My 182 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:17.069 eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. Verses Sixteen through twenty. Answer 183 00:17:17.190 --> 00:17:19.990 me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good, according to your 184 00:17:21.029 --> 00:17:25.589 abundant mercy. Turned to me, hide not your face from your servant, 185 00:17:25.950 --> 00:17:30.579 for I am in distress. Make Haste and answer me. Draw near to 186 00:17:30.740 --> 00:17:36.299 my soul, redeem me, ransom me. Because of my enemies, you 187 00:17:36.500 --> 00:17:41.099 know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor my foes are all known to 188 00:17:41.180 --> 00:17:45.529 you. Reproaches have broken my heart so that I am in despair. I 189 00:17:45.730 --> 00:17:49.569 looked for pity but there was none, and for comforters, but I found 190 00:17:49.730 --> 00:17:56.049 none. Do you hear these words, this voice of Anguish? Are we 191 00:17:56.210 --> 00:18:02.920 really willing to say that Jesus suffered less than David did? Are we willing 192 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:07.559 to say that Jesus suffered not only in his body and not in his soul, 193 00:18:07.400 --> 00:18:11.519 that he didn't feel the anguish and the sorrow and the separation that he 194 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:22.869 himself confesses that he feels? Jesus knows your suffering. Jesus knows what it 195 00:18:22.029 --> 00:18:27.380 means to feel separated from God, to feel desperate, to have his mouth 196 00:18:27.579 --> 00:18:36.099 grow dry, to have his heart drop out of his chest. Jesus knows 197 00:18:36.220 --> 00:18:41.930 what it's like to see a friend die and to sorrow after death and to 198 00:18:42.009 --> 00:18:52.009 see those grieving around him and to weep. Life is hard and your Lord 199 00:18:52.170 --> 00:18:56.519 knows it, and that's why he went to the cross, to die, 200 00:18:57.119 --> 00:19:03.279 to overcome death. That's what Hebrews says. It says that he took on 201 00:19:03.599 --> 00:19:08.559 these things so that he could overcome death. He be he came like us 202 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:15.589 so that he could overcome death and the fear of death and the devil who 203 00:19:15.630 --> 00:19:22.990 wields that power. The church fathers rightly say often that he didn't assume anything 204 00:19:23.819 --> 00:19:33.180 that he didn't Save, and he saves US completely, body and soul, 205 00:19:34.900 --> 00:19:40.529 and so this is one of the things that we see here in John Eleven. 206 00:19:41.490 --> 00:19:48.730 Our Savior deeply moved. Jesus is no STOIC, taken life on the 207 00:19:48.730 --> 00:19:55.920 chin, being strong in every situation, unmoved in his heart by trials, 208 00:19:56.519 --> 00:20:04.559 by sadness and death. And Jesus is not only divine, but he is 209 00:20:04.640 --> 00:20:11.910 divine and he is human. He is our God who took on our humanity 210 00:20:14.349 --> 00:20:17.589 so that he might lay down his own life for us and raise it up 211 00:20:17.630 --> 00:20:22.700 again. This is anticipated here in these words. Jesus is deeply moved, 212 00:20:22.779 --> 00:20:29.779 Jesus is greatly troubled, Jesus weeps, and it's also anticipated in those great 213 00:20:29.819 --> 00:20:34.180 words that he says to Lazarus. Come Out, come out of the Tomb, 214 00:20:34.220 --> 00:20:42.049 unbind him, let him go to the dead man. In our sorrows 215 00:20:42.130 --> 00:20:47.690 and in our trials, in our deaths, these are the words that Jesus 216 00:20:47.730 --> 00:20:55.279 speaks to us, and so we don't grieve like the rest of the world. 217 00:20:56.880 --> 00:21:00.799 We are moved. We do grieve, we do sorrow, we do 218 00:21:00.039 --> 00:21:06.549 experience suffering and sadness, but not like others, because we have the hope 219 00:21:06.549 --> 00:21:11.109 of Christ, because we have the life of Christ, because we have the 220 00:21:11.430 --> 00:21:18.230 call of Christ, who says to US come out. I'll finish with the 221 00:21:18.470 --> 00:21:23.900 words that began this, that I began reading, with some of the words 222 00:21:23.900 --> 00:21:32.579 that I began reading with. Martha goes to Mary. Martha goes to Mary 223 00:21:32.660 --> 00:21:37.769 and she says to him the teacher is here and he is calling for you. 224 00:21:38.170 --> 00:21:41.809 A commentator I read said that this could be put on every pulpit, 225 00:21:41.930 --> 00:21:48.039 every door, every pew, every place in our lives. The teacher is 226 00:21:48.319 --> 00:21:56.119 calling, he's here. Not Any teacher, this teacher, this Jesus, 227 00:21:56.359 --> 00:22:00.670 this God fully human, fully divine. I'll praise be to God who saves 228 00:22:00.710 --> 00:22:03.710 us. Men. Let's pray