Clough John Lesson 46

Christ, The Sympathetic High Priest – John 11:1-43

This evening we study John 11, the famous chapter of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Therefore we begin a new section because chapters 7-10 dealt primarily with the third trip to Jerusalem and you recall that John the Apostle in his writings emphasizes what went on in the city of Jerusalem whereas the Synoptic writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke, they emphasized what went on in Galilee. The reason for this is that the author of this Gospel is looking back on the events after many, many years, and is analyzing why they happened the way they did from the standpoint of the national leadership. Jerusalem is the place where the national leaders obviously lived and so therefore this Gospel emphasizes Jerusalem.

Chapters 11-12 form the last section of the section we’ve been studying from 1:19 all the way through chapter 12 which is the incarnation of the Word of God in Israel. These two chapters pull it together for a close. They represent a new beginning, they represent the beginning of the end and we put them in the major section of the book because they continue the theme of Jesus Christ revealing Himself to the nation, yet on the other hand they also form an introductory passage, an introduction to why He is going to die on the cross. They represent the two lines, the fact that we have had a progress in history and we have had a falling down in history; two things, we have had one, the course of ever increasing life and the course of ever increasing death. John the Apostle, remember he used the word back in John 3 of krisis, from which we get the word crisis. And for John the appearance of Jesus Christ is the greatest crisis the world has ever seen. It’s a crisis because men doom themselves or bless themselves by their response to the manifestation of the Son of God.

And so we have these two tendencies and now they come to a head. On the one hand the increasing course of death and darkness has increased; Christ, the last time He went to Jerusalem so irritated the people that they were about to kill Him. And so He had to pull back and you remember He left and went across the Jordan River to a place called Perea, where many people believed on Him outside of the metropolitan area of Jerusalem. And then on the other hand in this story we have life; Jesus is going to go back into the atmosphere of death, the atmosphere of terror; when people are afraid, His disciples are extremely afraid for their own arrest and for the Lord’s arrest. They know what’s going to happen; the last time they were there they were almost stoned. And it comes out very forcibly in the text, the background for this entire incident has to be seen; the background for this incident which occurs several places in the course of the story, is the terror. You have to read the raising of Lazarus with the idea in mind that this occurs when everyone is terrified of what is going to happen to Jesus.

One other question we want to answer before we start is: Why if this miracle, which is the highest miracle that Jesus does, obviously, the raising of the dead, why does John say it was this miracle that triggered the murder of Christ? Why is this? Why is it that a life-giving miracle would be death-causing. And the answer goes back to the motive of the non-Christian man. The motive of the non-Christian man, because he is autonomous and hates God and His Word, insists that he must have some area of autonomy, some area to move, independently of the interfering God. Now where is the area that all of us in autonomy seek to control? It’s the area of life. And so therefore the peak miracle, when Jesus Christ shows that He is the Lord of life itself, is the most powerful threat to the autonomous man imaginable. It means that Jesus Christ has the right to take life away and the right to give life and that makes Him the One with whom we have to do. And it very obviously makes Him the One who is the judge of everything that is done in this life. And so any time that Jesus begins to tamper with life itself that immediately calls for this antagonism, this wrath, of the unregenerate, of the people in whom the spirit of this world work. And so the most humane, the most divine miracle that Jesus does is the miracle that is going to spell His death on the cross. For example, turn to the end of this chapter and you’ll notice in verse 47 how the story ends.

“Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What are we going to do? for this man doeth many miracles. [48] If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. [49] And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all,” and he goes on and describes the official proceedings that led to the death of Christ. So it was this miracle, says John, this miracle, the life-giving miracle that was death causing. It was this raising of Lazarus that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was this one that finally antagonized the rulers into a vicious calculated attempt to erase Christ from history and in so doing they do nothing more, of course, than represent the direction of our own autonomy and our sin natures that we hate God’s interference and hate it most when it’s most crucial and that is with regard to life itself.

One other introductory note to watch for as we study this text is to understand the theanthropic person, the Lord Jesus Christ and understand that although He represented true humanity and deity in the days of His incarnation and He died and He rose again from the dead, and He ascended to be at the Father’s right hand, there is a continuity of His person. Jesus today has not changed in His concerns. Jesus Christ today has no different attitude toward you or toward me than He had toward these people that day. Therefore, this chapter and this incident becomes a picture to help us understand Hebrews chapter 4. If you turn to Hebrews 4 this is the great passage on the high priesthood of Jesus Christ. Now the high priest who is pictured in Hebrews 4:14-16 is the same priest and the same person that you are meeting in this incident. Now it was the ability of the early Christians to see this, to see that Jesus Christ was familiar. You know it’s the story if you go into, say some big corporation and you’re a little peon down in the order department some place and the President of the company in whom everyone has awe, if this President of the company happens to walk by the company in fact will say oh, I know him, I know him personally, or if you are a military person and you happen to be serving with a unit and a man walks by with 2 or 3 stars on his shoulder it’s comforting to have that kind of feeling, that cocky feeling, well I know him personally. You see, that’s the attitude on a major scale that the early Christians had. You know the Lord who runs the universe, we know Him personally. And it was this deep personal audacity on the part of the first Christians that gave them their courage in the face of persecution.

So when we read through chapter 11 we ought to combine it with this passage because this passage in Hebrews 4:14 tells us what happened after Christ died and rose again. “Seeing, then, that we have a great high priest, that has passed,” perfect tense, “has passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession,” that means let us in public identify ourselves as Christians and not be afraid of the pressure of the world system. [15] “For we do not have a high priest who cannot be affected with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” In other words, verse 15 is reminding us that Christ can be personally affected by what happens today. Too many Christians have a very pagan Greek god concept of Christ, where Christ is some sort of statue that Michelangelo did and He kind of sits with folded hands in granite, with a very granite expression on His face. You’ve got the power of Christ all right in your minds, but you don’t have His responsiveness to what is going on in history, the personal interest that Christ can take in you. And it’s that that is life-changing. It’s not life-changing to go around and talk about what Christ did in your heart. What Christ is doing in your heart is an infinitesimal amount of the program. Christ is doing a lot better things and a lot more things in heaven than He is in our hearts. And so the emphasis ought to be on what does Christ think about me right now, at the Father’s right hand; there’s the issue, not what kind of a titillating feeling He gives me in my heart. That isn’t the point.

So notice in verse 15, He is a high priest who can be affected. You’re going to see one of the unique passages in the Gospels tonight of how Jesus Christ was affected in a way in which He is never pictured to be affected at any other point in the Scriptures. We’re going to into that passage, the passage on how Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus. Now Jesus did not change in His personality when He went to be at the Father’s right hand. True, the doctrine of kenosis says that Jesus Christ now has full use of His divine attributes whereas before the death of Christ Jesus Christ had only a commanded use of His divine attributes under the chain of command established by the Father. The doctrine of kenosis does say there is a change in His power, there’s a change in His display of deity, but nothing in Christology says that Jesus Christ has changed insofar as His person or personal interests go.

And thus in Hebrews 4:16 the application of this truth, “Let us, therefore,” therefore is the inference, “therefore be coming,” present tense, constantly, “unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Notice this; the application is constant prayer, and Christ’s occupation so that we are looking to Him and are occupied with Him in the midst of adversity and pressure if we become conscious of the fact that He is responding to us we can get over this self-pity business. Nobody on earth likes me; well fine, what’s so likeable about you in the first place. Jesus Christ is the One that’s the issue and that’s the point.

Now turn back to John 11:1, the introduction of the story. “Now a certain man was sick,” imperfect tense, it was a state, a state of sickness, “named Lazarus, of Bethany,” here’s the city of Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives is a ridge line running north-south on the east of the city of Jerusalem, and just around the back side of that ridge line a road runs out to Jericho and right there is the town of Bethany. Bethany is just over the hill from Jerusalem, about two miles if you walk around the hill but basically it’s far less than that if you just go over the hill and this hill is where Christ ascended to heaven, so it’s a very famous spot, it’s considered as part of the city of Jerusalem today, the little town of Bethany. So the was a man sick and he was at Bethany, “the town of Mary and her sister Martha.”

Now this story is going to emphasize this family; it was a family that Jesus liked very much, He spent a lot of time here, He didn’t care for the situation in Jerusalem and so He spent a lot of time, particularly with these two women, the town of Mary and Martha. Now you’ve probably heard the story of Mary and Martha from Luke where the day that Jesus was talking and discussing the Word of God and Martha was out doing the dishes and got hacked at her sister for sitting there listening to the Word of God while she was a dishwasher. And Martha was full of self-pity attitudes that nobody cared for her, that the world was against her, and what right did Mary have to sit in there and take all this time with the Lord and of course she had all the right in the world, who cares, what’s more important, Christ or dishes. And so Jesus let her know that an that’s the story you usually think of when you think of these two sisters. Well, if you just think of the two sisters that way you’d get a very bad view of Martha. This story shows you Martha is just as spiritually competent as Mary. And you’ll see the various things that pass between them but understand from the beginning that it’s a story of Christ’s attitude toward a family in a very highly personal and specific way. Christ has this same attitude toward us today. Notice the personalness with which He deals with these women.

Now notice in John 11:2 how the Holy Spirit deals with them. “(It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)” And the King James rightly indicates this as a parenthesis; a parenthesis inserted by the Apostle John to explain a little bit about this woman Mary. Now the Holy Spirit follows a very interesting principle and we’re going to go back into various passages and watch this principle, and the principle is that the women in history are rewarded consistently by God in a very interesting way. See, in that time in history the woman was looked down upon. In fact, the rabbis refused to teach women; that’s why Mary and Martha, when they go out they’re going to call Jesus by a certain name. It shows you that as women they appreciated the fact that He treated them as people, treated them as people made in God’s image and not just some sort of animal that did the dishes and a few other things. And the result was that these women highly regarded Jesus Christ and they’re going to show their concern and love for Him as the story unfolds. But the point to notice about verse 2 is that the Holy Spirit rewards the women with remembrance.

Now just to show you how consistent that theme is, go back to Proverbs 31 which is a chapter outlining the middle class woman of ancient Israel, her responsibilities and her role in the home, but we’re looking particularly at Proverbs 31:28-31, all women are made this way that they have to understand that their efforts are worthwhile, and the Lord always points this out, though we men don’t always do this. And verses 28-31 is the ideal way a woman should be treated. Verse 28, “Her children rise up, and call her blessed,” notice the children here are giving due remembrance to their mother, and this is not just children, a little kid, the word children here in verse 28 can mean older people referring back to their mother, “Her children rise up and call her blessed,” why? because of her ministry in their life. That’s the woman’s testimony, contrary to all the women’s libbers. The place where the woman earns her reward is precisely in the home and this passage outlines that, her children are her glory. “…her husband also, he praises her. [29] Many daughters have done virtuously, but you excel them all.” And notice verse 31, He “gives her of the fruit of her hands, and lets her own works praise her in the gates.” It shows that therefore this woman is worthwhile, and as a man he allows the results of his wife’s work to be seen and to be rewarded.

So there’s the norm. Now who wrote Proverbs? Solomon and a few other people did but actually the Holy Spirit did and you would therefore expect a consistency in the way the Holy Spirit treats women in Scripture. So the next stop is Matthew 26:13, this is the same woman, Mary, in the same incident. After Matthew records it, and he does not record it in as intimate term as John, for the reason apparently that John knew them a lot better than Matthew, Matthew wasn’t too familiar with this family, John was, and so Matthew is much more distant in his treatment but Matthew picks up something that John didn’t, or just doesn’t bother to mention. In verse 13 what does the Lord Jesus Christ say about Mary? See, Judas has put his little two cents worth of human good into the situation, where Mary anointed Him and Judas came up with this pious deal about well why doesn’t she sell the ointment and give it to charity, a tax deduction and so on. And Jesus understood and He said why are you bothering the woman, verse 10, He comes in and He defends Mary against Judas, “For she has wrought a good work on Me.” And then He has one that must alienate every welfare person who is humanist centered from this point forward in history, Matthew 26:11, “For you have the poor always with you, but you don’t have Me,” so give Me priority over the poor.

Then in Matthew 26:13, “Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also be this, that this woman has done, and it will be told for a memorial of her.” How does the Holy Spirit reward Mary? He rewards her by letting her works praise her in the gates, by letting her reputation shine forth. He rewards Mary in this way.

Turn to Luke 1:48, again a woman by the name of Mary except a different one, this is Jesus’ mother. And notice in her magnificat, in this famous address of Mary, upon learning that she is pregnant, Mary says, [46] “My soul does magnify the Lord, [47] And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” And now what is it important to Mary? What is one of the things she gives thanks to God for? [48] “For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden; for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” Again, the reputation of Mary, the mother of Jesus, shall go down in history; the woman’s works and the works of her hands shall be her praise.

Now we come back to John 11 and we see this is the same thing, same thing as Proverbs 31, same thing as what Matthew described, same thing as Luke with Mary, the mother of Jesus, so Mary here in this town of Bethany, Mary of Bethany, her works shall be reported. So therefore although verse 2 refers to a work of chapter 12, see, it’s going to happen but John anticipates his own chapter 12 by putting this verse in chapter 11 and isolating it and framing this woman for all history. If you want to know what made this woman great? Her life is epitomized as to what she did for Jesus Christ, and therefore, says John, I am going to praise this woman for her great faith and the great work of her faith in my Gospel. That’s the end of the parenthesis and now we return to the story.

John 11:3, “Therefore, his sisters sent unto Him,” now where is Jesus at this time? Jerusalem is here, the north end of the Dead Sea is here, Jesus is over across the other side of Jordan. It takes about a day to walk across here and so Jesus is a day’s journey away. It takes one day for the messenger to go pick up Jesus; Jesus sits there for two days, and it takes Jesus one more day to return. One plus two plus one, four days, it’s going to be timed perfectly and one of the sub themes of John 11 is Jesus perfect use of time. As the hours run out and Christ only has a few hours of His life, it’s interesting that the Holy Spirit starts pulling out these little notices about how Christ used His time and in here you’re going to have the philosophy of the use of time of the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s going to spell it out for us, but that’s jumping ahead. First verse 3, “his sisters sent unto Him, saying, Lord, behold, him whom You love is sick. [4] When Jesus heard that, He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified by it. [5] Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. [6] When He had heard, therefore, that he was sick, He abode two days in the same place where He was.”

Now if you read that, don’t you get a sensation of tension, don’t you see something that kind of inherently clashes there in front of your eyes? Don’t you see a tension between verse 5 and verse 6; on the one hand verse 5 says “Jesus,” imperfect tense, constantly “loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.” He cares for them very much, He always cared for them very much. And yet in verse 6 He didn’t come when they called Him. Now that’s John’s way of forcing us to say wait a minute, what is happening here, why is this, why this strange behavior on the part of Jesus Christ? Well, it’s an attention getting device to show us certain things.

Let’s look at it more carefully, in verse 4 he says, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God,” doesn’t that sound a lot like John 9? You bet; he’s taking advantage of every situation to witness. Now verses 5-6 are written not only to get our attention but to show us Jesus’ freedom. Now John has done this on two other occasions. What is this freedom he speaks of? Jesus was free of the pressure of loved ones. This is very interesting. Turn back to John 2, John was very careful to do this when we first started out with the first miracle. Remember what happened; it was a marriage feast. In verse John 2:3 what happens? Jesus’ own mother, whom He respected very deeply, as seen by His attitude from the cross, as seen by His attitude on other occasions, yet we have this apparently almost crass, callous rebuke to His own mother. It isn’t crass and it isn’t callous but it’s put in here by the Holy Spirit to show you something about Christ, that when Christ said My food is to do the will of the Father who sent Me, He wasn’t affected even by the opinions of His loved ones. So His mother, in verse 3 says well Jesus, they don’t have any wine. And immediately He comes back, [4] “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” Or literally what it says: What have I got to do with you in the sense of two plans fitting together, you’re not dictating My plans, just stay out of My business.

Now this sounds cold to us when you read this kind of a reaction. The reason it sounds cold to you, if it does, if this kind of treatment sounds cold it’s because secretly you still have bastions of humanism in your soul because you insist that man’s happiness is the ultimate goal and not God’s glory. And therefore even in these areas of life that are very, very delicate, they involve loved ones, we don’t like this tampering here, but Jesus even has to tamper there; it is the glory of God and not even the happiness of the Ones He loves the most that is of concern. So here He treats His mother in a strange way, that it’s God’s will and not His mother’s happiness that’s ultimately at issue.

Now let’s look where He does it again in John 7:3, here are His brothers. True, they are unbelievers at this time but Jesus cares for His brothers; after all, two of them are going to trust Him and become writers in the New Testament, Jude and James. But as much as He loves His brothers, John 7:3, His brothers give Him advice, why don’t you go down, “Go into Judea, that Your disciples” may go with you. And you remember that passage, Jesus doesn’t go when they want Him to; He eventually goes but it’s almost a deliberate attempt by Jesus to show I don’t take My brother’s advice, I don’t take My mother’s advice and I don’t take the advice of any of My loved ones. Now is this hostility? Is this rebellion? No. In these occasions, they are occasions when through the instrumentality of loved ones He is faced with human viewpoint options. Now loved ones can do this. As a pastor I can see it, for example, in wedding preparations, I can see it in funerals. People who intend to help out get in the way and often times can be pests. Sometimes we have to stop a wedding rehearsal and just calm everyone down and say it’s going to be done this way; well, my mother wouldn’t like it if it was done this way. Well, it’s not your mother’s wedding, it’s yours. And loved ones, in that sense, can often be the biggest pests in life. And so here we have Jesus treating His brothers this way.

And now in John 11 He’s going to treat His friends this way. So John wants us to understand in verse 5, he tells us, he supplies us with verse 5. Now verse 6 give the facts that we can observe, and if you just look at verse 6 without looking at verse 5 you could come up with the wrong interpretation. See, a person would look at the fact and here’s Mary and Martha back here in Bethany, M & M are back here in Bethany, and they see that Jesus doesn’t come. Now they say, wait a minute, it takes only two days, we sent a messenger out and obviously the messenger came back on day 2, and he said He’s not coming, He’s still there. He didn’t come with you? No, He didn’t come, He’s staying there, He said something about because He loved you He was staying there. And so here is Mary and Martha sitting here, holding the bag back at Bethany, with funeral arrangements to make for their dead brother, and Jesus is taking a vacation over in Perea. So the facts of the case… the facts of the case apart from God’s Word could be interpreted by people with mental attitude sins of envy, jealousy, self-pity, oh poor me, that’s how they could interpret the facts. But what does the Word tell us? The divine viewpoint is that Jesus Christ loves them, and even though they can see here and the look at the facts of history and circumstances and they could sit there if they just looked at the circumstances and say well, Jesus really doesn’t love us after all, does He. Here we are in the biggest crisis ever to hit our family and He says He’s going to stay over there, He’s not going to come back with the messenger. Big friend! Now that’s how they could have interpreted it, if they denied the Word of God.

So here’s a picture of believers in the middle of a situation where circumstances would argue for all the world that the Lord doesn’t love you, the Lord hasn’t taken care of you, the Lord let this happen to you, the Lord let that happen to you, poor Me, nobody loves me, this kind of thing. Of course you have the God-man who daily makes prayer… but nobody loves me, because you have your eyes on circumstances instead of as a creature made in God’s image having your eyes on Him. And that’s your problem and that’s why many of you are so miserable when you face this kind of a situation, you still have not learned to be occupied with Christ.

So John 11:5 is input from the Holy Spirit to say look, no matter what M & M think, no matter how they interpret the data of their experience and circumstances, Christ love them and He goes on loving them and He has a very loving purpose in mind for them. But at this point if Mary and Martha have all the data they’re going to have to go by faith; they’re going to have cruise on their concept of Christ that has been built up from past revelation because the present facts are not supporting the idea that Christ loves them. And so at that point it’s resting, faith rest, rest in Christ’s character and they can’t do anything else. So he sets up a situation is what’s happening, so that’s why in verse 6 we have the word “therefore,” when He heard that He was sick, therefore He stayed two days.

Now why the word “therefore,” is John just being facetious or is there a deeper relationship between verse 5 and verse 6? Now you know John by now as we’ve gone through here, John isn’t the kind of author that minces words, that wastes time in sentence structure and so on. When you see that word “therefore” in verse 6 John means watch it, there’s a connection here. See John had about 40 years to think this thing through before he wrote his Gospel and he’s telling us, you know, because Jesus loved those women, that’s why He stayed there, because He wanted to demonstrate His love to them in a way bigger than they even imagined. So their temporary disappointment would result in a long-term blessing. Looked at from the short term, horrible, the Lord doesn’t love me, the Lord’s let this happen to me, the Lord’s let that happen to me, but interpreted in light of the overall plan of God, God loves us and because He loves us He lets these things happen, in order to teach us something.

So you see, as we work through this, John 11 is not just a report of what Jesus did outside a tomb outside of Jerusalem. It’s that, but it’s a lot more than that. It’s a picture of how Jesus always works in history toward those whom He loves.

So John 11:7, what happens? “Then after that,” after two days, “He said to His disciples, Let us go into Judea again.” Notice He does not say in verse 7 let us go to Bethany again. It’s let us go to Judea again. Now why does He say that? Well, so far as you’ve read the Gospel of John and we’ve studied together, what does the word Judea conjure up to you? It conjures up to you rejection, unbelief, the last time, chapter 7, chapter 8, chapter 9, chapter 10, what was true of all four of those chapters about the atmosphere in Judea? Heavy, oppressive, ominous, threatening, twice Jesus almost got stoned, a very unhealthy place to be to say the least, if you are an identified follower of Jesus. So when Jesus put the word Judea in verse 7… now He’s right, Bethany is in Judea but I’m just pointing out the use of words here, when He went there He was going to challenge His disciples too. You know Jesus is very, very efficient, He’s not just going to show M & M a few things but He’s going to all His disciples a few things. So He’s just kind of dangling the carrot and seeing what they’re going to do with it. We’re going to go back to the place where they stone people, how do you like that? You guys have had a vacation for 2 or 3 weeks here, you’ll be all ready to get stoned now so let’s go. That’s the way this has to be seen, and that explains why in verse 8 they respond. The disciples were saying unto him, now wait a minute, “[His disciples say unto Him,] Master, the Jews of late were seeking,” imperfect tense, “to stone thee; and You’re going there again?” And it’s written with that Jewish question, you’re going there? That’s the way it’s phrased. That’s a great place to go Jesus, right after a vacation, back where they stone you, fine, fine choice.

Now in John 11:9-10 we have that pithy saying of Jesus about the use of time and here is Christ’s own philosophy on the use of time in life. “Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbles not, because he sees the light of this world. [10] But if a man walk in the night, he stumbles, because there is no light in it [him].” Now what does all this mean? Well, like John always does it has a lot of meanings. Let’s take the simplest meaning and work from there. One of the things that impressed me when I went to Israel, we walked around the area, was that every place you walked there was rocks. Now you know, you often hear these stories about well, it’s the latter days and they’re going to build a temple and some Christian’s were circulating a big deal about the Jews made a contract with a quarry in Indiana to cut rocks for the temple. That’s like sending coals to New Castle, they don’t need any rocks in Jerusalem. The whole city is built on rocks. Did you ever wonder why the city of Jerusalem is still standing after all the wars they’ve had. Every five or six years somebody’s shooting somebody in the middle of that city and yet the buildings stay there, century after century after century after century. Do you know why? The walls are about that thick; we stayed in a house, that thick. Solid brick, solid cement, solid stone. And you could get hit pretty hard with a bullet on the outside and it wouldn’t have bothered in the least. Every time the war breaks out they just shut the blinds and go inside, because each house basically is a bomb shelter this way. Everywhere you go the ground is rocky. And in the countryside where the soil erodes this rock is not only always present but it’s quite sharp, it’ll tear out the soles in your shoes in certain places.

And so what He’s saying here is that if any man is walking in the day, the word isn’t “stumble,” the word is cut your foot, he doesn’t cut his foot because he sees. Now that’s the simple meaning, obvious to all. But now John obviously must have a more intense meaning than that. And Jesus certainly told us more than just how to walk. What’s He talking about here? He is talking about the perfect balance in the faith technique between resting and doing. At night you rest, in the day you do. And what Jesus is arguing is that if you will relax and sit back at the plan of God for your life you’ll see that God is going to give you daylight, which is those times when you are to do, those times when you have activities, like Noah, he built the ark in faith, that was his doing, then after he built the ark and finished it and the rains came he rested. Both were acts of faith; one was doing in faith, the other was resting in faith.

So you have a faith doing and a faith resting. And that’s what Christ is getting at. He said there are times in your life when you can do nothing but rest and there are other times when you can do nothing but do. And so His arguments to the disciples who are terrified of this threatening atmosphere around the city of Jerusalem is that, Gentlemen, we have work to do. And while our ministry goes on… see, here’s the time we become a Christians, here’s phase two or sanctification, then phase three when we die and go to be with the Lord, during phase two, during this entire period of time, we have a certain number of hours of daylight. We have X number of hours to do and Y number of hours to rest; that’s our life. Now Jesus says as long as God gives you breath, as long as you live, don’t worry about it, do what He wants you to do and if we’re going to die we’ll die. Now this isn’t fatalism because we’ve seen earlier Jesus did take precautions on His life. However, when the moment to stand up and be counted Jesus stood up and was counted. Remember the thing in the temple? Jesus didn’t go around, hey, want to arrest me everybody? He didn’t walk in like that, He walked in secretly into the temple, He used common sense, He took precautions. But when, after He was inside the temple, and the opportunity arose to teach the Word, then He flew His colors. He was in danger of being arrested then, but at that point He could do so, it was His doing stage, God called Him to do.

And so at this point He says Gentlemen, I know the atmosphere is this way in Jerusalem, of course He knows a lot more about it than they do, He knows what’s going to happen about this whole miracle, but He’s saying while it is day, and you, as a believer, have an opportunity to do something as unto the Lord, just go ahead and do it. Don’t worry about who doesn’t like it, don’t about what the world thinks of it, don’t worry about category 4 suffering. Then He says there’ll come that time when you can’t do anything and you’re just going to have to rest and sit back; that time, He said, is also coming. So the second level of meaning of verses 9-10 is the balance between faith-resting and faith-doing. [Tape turns}

That’s why I showed you John 2 and John 7 before we got to this passage. Did you ever get the idea that hey Jesus, you’d better hurry up and do this. Mother comes up, now look, they ran out of wine, come on, come on, do something. You don’t see Jesus oh, what do you want; you don’t see Him going like that, you see Him just kind of methodically carry on and do everything almost on schedule so it works out perfectly. On the other hand you never see Jesus wasting time either. Every hour is usefully spent. So it’s a tremendous balance that Christ had and of course none of us will ever attain His balance because we are sinful creatures and rebels and the degree to which we rebel against God’s plan in our life is the degree in which we just foul up in our use of time. That’s one of the signs of being out of fellowship, just wasted time, either because we’ve hurried to do something ahead of God’s will or we’ve just been lazy and we fall behind God’s will.

But this has another meaning too, besides just the perfect balance between the faith-resting and the faith-doing, and that is that He is referring to His coming, it’s a very cryptic way of saying Gentlemen, there are only twelve hours in the day and pretty soon the sun is going to set. And it’s a picture of His death, His own death. This chapter is loaded with the spirit of death. And Jesus, when He gets outside of the tomb is going to make another statement, and so He know that there are only so many hours, He only has so many hours to minister to these believers before the light is extinguished in the earth. So that’s a third level of meaning that this passage has.

And then He goes on, John 11:11, “These things said He: and after that He saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep,” perfect tense, “but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” The word “sleep” is the Christian word for death. Do you know why Christians refer to death as sleep? Because sleep is continuous with life and for the Christian the chasm doesn’t occur after death; the chasm occurs when you trust in Christ. You go from the kingdom of light to the kingdom of darkness; that’s viewed as the Grand Canyon of experience. And so Christian death is a continuous thing. As I’ve recommend in the past, a book called Voices From the Edge of Eternity, which is a series of statements by Christians who have died as they are dying and their soul is passing from this life into the next and for just a split second they’re able to perceive both worlds, that is, they’re able to see into the world beyond the grave yet at the other time they’re in full enough command of their mouth so they can speak to those standing around their bed, they give these testimonies of what heaven looks like. And there’s a gentle sweeping continuity between them. And so this is why the word sleep is used.

John 11:12, His disciples, in a usual… John’s very honest because he was one of them, didn’t catch on, said Lord, well if he’s sleeps, he’s doing great. [12, “Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.”] In other words, why threaten ourselves by going back into this place that’s about ready to stone us just because somebody’s asleep. Let the alarm clock wake him up but don’t let us go back there and do it. Verse 13, “However, Jesus spoke of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. [14] Then said Jesus unto them plainly,” What’s the matter with you guys, do I have to say everything out plain. “Lazarus is dead.” That’s just a little human note in verse 13, kind of makes you feel better when we’re so stupid when we come to the Scriptures, we’re not the first in history, we’re not the Lone Rangers, the disciples were the same way, they had to learn. So next time you feel stupid just read and enjoy the comfort of joining the club.

John 11:15, “And I am glad for your sakes,” He says, “that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.” Now verse 15 begins to show how Christ loves to show Himself in history. Now there’s an attitude. Now that’s what I want you to link back with the fact that He loves M & M. He loves…and the way Christ loves is He loves by revealing Himself, and not only does He love by revealing Himself, He loves to reveal Himself. And that’s what it says here, verse 15, notice, this is an unusual word for Christ. How often have you read this in the Gospels that you have read: Christ was happy. Do you remember reading that often in the text? No! Verse 15 is a very unusual section, and Jesus is saying you know, I’m very, very happy for sakes that I wasn’t there. Which shows Jesus’ own attitude where He is now, at the Father’s right hand, He has the same attitude, I’m very happy for you because now I’ve got an opportunity to make Myself known to you. This shows you how much Christ loves us. He constantly wants to reveal Himself to us. So let us go.

John 11:16, “Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples,” notice he did not say this to Jesus, now at first glance it sounds very blunt and of course John’s reporting this in a blunt way, well, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” That’s a real positive approach, particularly after verses 9-10 where He’d just said you know, the daylight is here, the night hasn’t come yet, so let’s just walk in the day. Well, Thomas also is to be congratulated partially for this thing because Thomas is encouraging the disciples. You see, for him it’s a big step; he faces this stoning. They all know what’s in store for them, don’t think the cross…oh, what happened. No-no, they had shocks, preliminary shocks that this earthquake was coming a long time. And they know what’s going to happen when the go down that road around the ridge line to the city of Jerusalem. But Thomas is saying okay gentlemen, I know we face death. For some reason He wants to make a big deal out of this Lazarus character, well, let’s go anyway. And here is a picture of where…elsewhere in the Synoptic Gospels it says “take up your cross and follow Him,” all right, here’s an incident of taking up your cross and following Him. That’s what that means. It doesn’t say I turn into a suit of clothes for Jesus or something and let Him walk. That’s not taking up your cross. Taking up your cross means taking up the threat of death in category four suffering because of your stand for Christ. So Thomas says let’s go.

John 11:17, “Then when Jesus came, and He found that he had lain in the grave four days already.” Now verses 18-19 is to summarize a little bit of the terrain area and I want to show you some of that so we’ll pause for a few moments to do some review of the terrain, get an idea of the circumstances in which this happened. Fortunately Bethany still exists, it’s still called Bethany. It’s still a small village outside the city of Jerusalem. [He shows slides] This is a map of the area. Jesus was over here in Perea across the Jordan. Mary and Martha sent their messenger probably down this road, a nice healthy walk, all the way up to Jericho and then across over to Perea. Jesus waited two days then He went down through this area. Here’s Perea. This is very hot because it’s below sea level. Finally you get near the city of Jerusalem, and there’s a road that comes in right here; the town of Bethany is located right at the peak of that road. Today it’s a bus stop. Then the next town is Bethphage, where Jesus got the donkey, when they came around the ridge line and came up to the temple. This whole area is the Mount of Olives and right here is the place where Jesus Christ ascended into heaven. We said Jesus in the book of Acts ascended to heaven right in the sight of Mary and Martha’s backyard; that’s because Mary and Martha lived right here.

That’s the location, now let’s see what happens. John 11:18, “Now Bethany was near unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off,” that’s about two miles. But I hope you saw on the map that it really isn’t two miles, it’s two miles the way that road went, here’s the ridge line and Jerusalem is over here, it’s two miles this way but it’s not two miles straight across. That shows you that they were using the road at that time. Verse 19, “And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.” Now you’re going to notice something about these “comforters,” and this gives me a platform to say something I’ve long wanted to say about the way funerals are run and the way people act around the death of a loved one. It’s been my considered opinion that what people don’t need when they’ve lost a loved one in death is 50 people dropping in their living room. And yet I know that people mean well when this happens; yet here’s a person under stress because they’ve lost a husband, they’ve lost a wife, a child, they’ve lost somebody, they’re under stress anyway, and it’s a stress situation to have 100 people trooping through your living room anytime, leave alone the time when you’re under stress anyway because of this funeral situation. And they do the same thing here and you’ll see that Jesus did everything they could to get rid of the pests, and to try to get directly to minister to Mary and Martha. Now again, these people mean well, and people often mean well, but my advice to you, if you have someone who is suffering like this, is express your sympathy and get out. Don’t sit around, it’s the most gross thing I have run into. Somebody’s died and I get called, I walk in the living room and here’s everybody sitting around, and I don’t know what they’re doing, they’re not reading the paper, just kind of looking at each other. Now if that’s comforting someone my concept of comforting is completely screwed up. So don’t do what these mourners do.

Now I’ll show you some verses the mourners were doing; from extra-Biblical sources we know exactly what…at least they did one thing that mourners do not do today, they tried to use the Word of God. And in Psalm 112:6 was one of the texts they were using. Now I think it’s interesting they used these particular texts in light of what Jesus is just about to do. As we’ve always noticed in studying the Gospels, it pays to study the context, particularly the Old Testament backgrounds. And in Psalm 112:6 this was one of the verses they would chant in Hebrew to the people, they would dress in their mourning clothes and as they would follow the people around, and they did, you’ll see Mary and Martha can’t even go out the door without forty people traipsing after them, as they would follow them they would begin in a melancholy chant to chant these verses.

Now you watch these verses, I’m going to give you four verses that they used, and you watch how beautifully these verses fit with what Jesus is going to say. In Psalm 112:6, “Surely, he shall never be moved forever; the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.” Do you know what Jesus is going to talk about? “He that believes in Me shall never die.” Exactly saying the same thing, he’s going to live forever, He shall never be moved. And so what Christ says is not disconnected with the funeral service that was going on.

Proverbs 10:7, “The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot.” Again, this fits with Christ’s words. Now the name of the just one is the one who is a believer and it says this memory is blessed, it’s going to continue. See the emphasis on continuity. What’s Christ going to emphasize to Mary and Martha? Continuity.

Let’s look at another verse, Isaiah 11:10, they took these verses, attached them one to another, and repeated them over and over . “And that day there shall be a root of Jesse, who shall stand for an ensign of the people, to it shall the Gentiles seek, and His rest shall be glorious.” Now who’s that talking about? It’s talking about Messiah, it’s talking about resting in Him. And Jesus is going to turn to Martha and going to turn to Mary, do you trust Me, are you going to rest on Me. He almost uses the exact language of this funeral text.

One further reference, Isaiah 57:2, a very startling verse in the light of what happens in John 11, “He shall enter into peace;” this is the dead one, “they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.” It’s referring to the fact that they’re going to walk, and they’re going to walk on the basis of justice, perfect righteousness. All right, that’s what’s been happening and that’s what these comforters are changing over and over and over and over to Mary and Martha.

Now come back and watch what happens. John 11:20, “Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him:” now Martha does appear to be the more active of the two sisters, Martha is the one that was doing the dishes before and that was kind of in a bad light but it was something active. Now here’s in a good light, Mary is the one that sits around and Martha goes gets the Lord, so she’s the active one, and “as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary was sitting in the house.” So Martha moved out by faith and here she’s in her glory. Verse 21, “Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou had been here, my brother had not died. [22] But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.” Now oftentimes people look at verse 21 and they become quite cruel in their interpretation of Martha. But if you’re going to argue that verse 21 is Martha when she’s angry, you’ve got a problem interpreting verse 22 because we know what verse 22 can’t be. So let’s start interpreting verse 22, handle that, then go back to verse 21 and see what this woman said to him.

Verse 21 can be interpreted several ways, you can say well, doesn’t that mean that Martha was made at Him? Lord, if you had been here he wouldn’t have died! Now that’s one way of interpreting the passage. But I say that doesn’t fit with the next verse, because she says, “But I know, even now, whatever you wilt ask of God, God will give it to You.” Now you would think that maybe verse 22, she’s talking about the resurrection; what Martha is saying is well Jesus, I know that if you just pray He’ll rise from the dead. But you know, that isn’t what that woman said. Verse 22 doesn’t refer to the resurrection, it can’t. Why do we know that? Because when Jesus goes to raise Lazarus from the dead Martha doesn’t want Him to do it. So she couldn’t have had… resuscitation is a more accurate word, resuscitation is when Jesus raises a body that will die again, resurrection is when He raises a body that will never die again. So she doesn’t have resuscitation on her mind. Well then how do you interpret verse 22? There’s only one way I now of making sense of tying verse 21 and 22 together to make a coherent conversation on the part of this woman. What is she saying? She’s saying Lord, if you had been here I know you could have healed him. But Lord, because You weren’t here, I don’t hold that against You and I don’t doubt your ability to heal today. So verse 22 is a confession of the woman’s faith. She’s saying Lord, this incident has not hurt me in my attitude toward You. It’s a marvelous expression of faith. This woman is to be congratulated for what she says; she’s just saying that if You were here before when my brother was sick You could have healed him, that’s all she’s saying. But she says I’m not angry and I trust in You.

John 11:23, “Jesus saith unto her,” and now He plays with her a little bit but does it in a loving way to teach her doctrine, “Jesus said unto her, Your brother shall rise again. [24] Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” This woman was fantastic in her doctrine; these two women did something that is very envious. Compared to the disciples these two women were far in advance of the disciples in doctrine. One we can see right here but another one is in the next chapter, it’s going to be Mary that anoints Him. Now all the other disciples hadn’t caught on quite yet, you know, we’re going to get killed in there but they don’t really see the sacrificial nature of the coming death. And here’s one woman and she grasps it; she knows what’s going to happen and that’s why she pulls out her ointment and anoints Him. So both these sisters are very sharp girls on Bible doctrine and verse 24 shows it. She comprehends the doctrine of resurrection, remember the Sadducees didn’t even buy this, the religious woods were full of people who denied the resurrection and Martha is orthodox in her faith at this point.

Then in John 11:25 Jesus lets loose one of His revelations that was calculated to stir her up and stir up everyone else because He doesn’t say I am going to be the one that resurrects. He says “I am the resurrection. In other words, present tense, “I in My being possess the life of resurrection.” Martha, you don’t have to wait until the future, right now I have resurrection power, and woman, in a few minutes I’m going to show it to you. That’s what He’s saying. “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life,” notice the order of the words, “resurrection and life” in verse 25, this is opposite to the passage of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 5 where He said I am the life and the resurrection. Here it’s reversed because He’s emphasizing resurrection, as His death draws near and as Thomas has told the disciples, well boys, let’s all go down to Jerusalem to die. Right in the middle of this melancholy atmosphere of a funeral over a dead man, this Lazarus, and then there’s this horrible oppression on the city, we’re going to die, and all of this death, death, death, death, death, death, death and threat of death, what should be the topic of Christ but life from the dead. You see how John gives us this either/or all the time, light and darkness, truth and falsehood, death and life. Let’s watch what He does with it. [ John 11:25b, “he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”

He goes on and says to her, John 11:26, “And whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” See, that’s carrying on the phrases that those people, the mourners carried on from Proverbs and the passages I’ve just showed you. “Do you believe this?” So He’s extended the woman’s concept of revelation. See, she’s responded to doctrine up until the point of her growth. Here’s Martha’s soul and she’s absorbed the Word of God, so she has a divine viewpoint framework. She has doctrine there. And now Jesus is adding one little thing, precept upon precept, all right, here comes another one Martha. “I am the resurrection and the life,” I am the center of the whole thing. Now, do you believe that like you believe the rest.

And the woman, in John 11:27 confesses, and she is in fellowship at this point and she is very marvelously trusting. “She saith unto him, Yes, Lord: I have believed,” perfect tense, “that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. [28] And when she had so said, she went her way,” now that shows you something about Martha at this point; she knows something very interesting is about to happen and she wants to go get her sister, and so the next scene is that she “called Mary her sister secretly,” do you know why? She’s trying to get her out the back door without the mob following, come one Mary, come on out the back door, and what does she say; it says in the King James, “The Master is come, [and calleth for thee],” but in the Greek is “The teacher,” “The rabbi,” now she doesn’t use “a,” she uses “the.” Why? There’s something back of this. No rabbi, as we learned in John 4, would stoop in those days to teach a woman. Jesus did, and so therefore to these women He is The teacher; no teacher ever stopped to teach the Word of God to a woman before but Jesus did. And so “come,”

John 11:29, “As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto Him. [30] Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but He stayed in the place where Martha met Him.” Now apparently He’s just east of that road that I showed you; it goes into Bethany this way, comes up, goes around the Mount of Olives; Jesus is somewhere off here and Martha’s house is up here. And so Martha has come back and He stopped. Now obviously if the sister walked down this road Jesus could have walked down with her; couldn’t He have been there the same time she got in the house? Of course, but He didn’t. He apparently just sat down by the side of the road, told His disciples sit down a minute, just relax. By this time you can imagine, now wait a minute, you know He waits to days out here in Perea, because He loves them, and now we’re only a half mile away from the house and He tells us to halt and stop again. There’s a reason for that; apparently He was trying to draw these women away from this mob so He could minister to them, but He couldn’t and so they come anyway.

John 11:31, “The Jews then which were with her in the house, comforting her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goes unto the grave to weep there” Well, you know if she’s going to the grave to weep why don’t you let the woman weep alone. [32] “Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him,” exactly what Martha said, “Lord, if thou had been here, my brother had not died.” Now whether this was uttered in un-faith or not we don’t know, I presume it was okay in that sense, that it was grief, bona fide grief but not overwhelming grief.

And in verse 33-35 we have a very poignant passage and it’s that passage I want you to remember and carry away tonight with a picture of Christ who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. The high priest today at the Father’s right hand is not a Michelangelo statue in granite; He is affected, and here shows His affect. [33] “When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and” active voice, “troubled Himself.” Now the word “groan” means to become angry. It doesn’t mean just to groan, it becomes… every time it’s used in the New Testament it has an anger or indignation with it. Now what is Jesus angry at. You know John, John doesn’t waste words. Whenever John gives us a notice like this you can prepare for some pretty big stuff. This isn’t just the friendly little groaning over what happened to dear Lazarus. It’s far, far bitter than that. What Jesus Christ is groaning at is what’s going to happen after this miracle in this house. He is going to raise Lazarus from the dead somewhere nearby here; that word is going to go across the ridge line to the city of Jerusalem and as a result they are going to plot His death. And it brings to mind in His humanity that He must face the result of the fall of man. Here in front of them He sees the result of the fall, death; men weren’t created to die; we did that. When Adam and Eve, our father and our mother chose to rebel against God then sin entered into the world. When it did we have grief and sorrow. And so Jesus at this point is genuinely angry at sin and death, the suffering it causes.

If you can think, in theological categories, verse 33 and verse 35 are mind-blowing because here you have God who is the Creator of the universe weeping. This shows you how deeply man’s acts in history affect God. Yes, God is sovereign; yes, He has planned every detail, but if you have this fatalistic view of God that keeps you from seeing that He responds and is affected by what goes on in history you are not Biblical in your understanding of God. You’ve created something there but it’s not the true Biblical view of God in your mind. And so [35] “Jesus wept.” A picture of God Himself being affected by men’s suffering because of their sin.

John 11:36, John again reports how trivial the mobs are, they see Jesus but they’re so trivial, “Then said the Jews, Behold how He loved him!” It wasn’t that, it was far deeper than that. And then some of them, [37] “And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died? [38] Therefore Jesus became angry in Himself, and He came to the grave [Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave]. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. [39] Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead,” this shows she never perceived what was going to happen, that’s why I interpreted verse 22 the way I did, she “saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinks: for he has been dead four days.” Now that sounds a little humorous, that Martha’s worried about the smell. No, that’s not what Martha is worried about. This is another one of those verses that’s loaded with meaning from John. The word “stink” is the word to corrupt and what Martha is really afraid of or concerned with, she cares for Christ so much that she doesn’t want the Son of God going into the grave of her own dead brother in touch with a dead body. What would happen in the Old Testament? A Levite who touched a dead body would be exempt from service, he would be declared unclean. It was a form of uncleanness. So when Martha’s objecting to the stink she’s not objecting to the stink, she’s objecting to have this almost incongruous picture of the perfect Son of God walking into her brother’s tomb and become corrupt. It’s a fantastic… it’s not unbelief, it’s fantastic love for the Lord. Lord, don’t pollute yourself, even with my own brother’s remains; stay clean. That’s what the woman is saying.

John 11:40, “Jesus saith unto her,” now He comforts here, and He says, “Didn’t I say unto you, that, if thou would believe, you would see the glory of God? [41] Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes,” by the way, it shows you how Jesus prayed; often times He’s pictured in various attitudes of prayer, this is one of those times that He looked into heaven as He prayed, “and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. [42] And I knew that You hear Me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent Me.” Do you see that, again Jesus’ concern is that the people may believe, not that Lazarus stopped suffering or that Mary and Martha stopped suffering, ultimately what Christ is building is trust in Himself, that’s what He wants. That’s far more important than suffering. [43, “And when He thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.”] So He speaks in a loud voice, and by the way, He says three words, none of them is a verb; one is “Lazarus,” the next one is an adverb, “here,” and the next one is “outside.” Do you know why He had to say “Lazarus” name? If he said “Here, outside,” everybody in the graveyard would come out. And so He has to limit things and says okay, now Lazarus, I’m talking to you, I’m not talking to anybody else, you come forth. And it’s neat because He says “Lazarus, here,” the picture… it’s just hard to convey this, but the picture is the Lord is standing outside of this tomb, they’ve rolled the rock away and He actually is talking as though Lazarus is right there and Lazarus is looking around. And Jesus is saying, “Here,” look over here, “outside.” It’s a picture of Him actually speaking to the soul of Lazarus, who is spatially there in front of Him but not looking at Jesus; apparently looking in some other direction because this first adverb is used imperatively as a command to turn around and look at Me, I’m outside.

And then finally in verse 44, a most excellent picture of the work of human responsibility alongside God’s deliverance. Lazarus comes out. Now I imagine he’s quite uncomfortable because he’s all bound up. It’s kind of humorous, here he’s got this napkin on his head and he’s got wraps all around his legs and he’s probably quite stiff because this embalming stuff got hard, it’s kind of like plaster of Paris, he comes out kind of creaking, and Jesus said all right, now someone just get this stuff off. And Jesus doesn’t take the stuff off, He lets the people do that. He does the delivering work and we do the follow up. We do the little stuff; what we can do God has us do it. The other, leave it to Him. [44, “And he that was dead came forth; bound hand and foot with graveclothes; and his face was bound about with a cloth.] “Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”

Let’s sum up; what have we noticed so far in this story; we’ll continue with the rather ominous conclusion later. We’ll leave on a happy note tonight. In an atmosphere of absolute terror the Lord Jesus Christ goes back into the darkness. He goes back and He realizes the threat to His life. What is the call that causes Jesus to come back into the darkness? The call of people who need resurrection. It’s a picture of His great love; He comes back because He loves people, back into the place of His death. He is given an opportunity to show that He is God or the Lord of life, that He has control over these processes. And what He is arguing is people, you watched Me raise Lazarus from the dead; now if I can do that to this man, is it not true that you ought to be able to trust Me in the future to call forth the dead out of the grave for the resurrection. This is evidence, setting people up for the belief in the resurrection. Setting who up for belief in the resurrection? Setting about 12 very discouraged men up for belief in the resurrection because not many days hence they’re going to lose Christ and they’re going to be very despondent, and the irony is apparently it was all lost because in those three days and nights in which Jesus spent in the tomb, not one of the disciples, eleven at that time, not one of those eleven men ever dawned on them, well this is no sweat, He raised Lazarus from the dead, He’ll come out of that tomb. It never dawned on them. Except, these women visited the tomb; maybe it dawned on them.

And then the other thing to understand is here is a sympathetic high priest. He’s the One who responds this way to us. Those were just two sisters in the ancient world; He could say you know, gee, there were hundreds of thousands people there… two sisters, He cared for them in a personal way, an individual way, and He met their need in the most astounding way because He is a personal Lord who treats each one of us personally.

Shall we bow….