You've probably have heard the story of Lazarus and the rich which
Jesus told in Luke chapter 16, of how Lazarus died and went to paradise
and that the rich man died and went to hell. At the end of the story i
says that the rich man requested
Lazarus to be raised from the dead so he could warn his brothers
of what awaits them after death. But he was told, "If they
do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced
even if someone rises from the dead."Lk 16:31 The Bible gives us sufficient warning to prepare for the afterlife. But you know, there was a man named Lazarus, a
friend of Jesus, who did in fact die and rise from the dead as recorded in John chapter 11. That's what we'll consider
today.
Now
a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary
and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick,
was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with
her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is
sick." When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in
death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified
through it." Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he
heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.John 11:1-6
After this, Jesus said to his
disciples, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there
to wake him up." His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will
get better." Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples
thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus
is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may
believe. But let us go to him."John
11:11-15
Jesus intentionally delayed coming to heal Lazarus, and Lazarus
died. You would think that Martha and Mary would have resented Jesus
for this, as would anyone who was simply interested in getting Jesus to
do what they wanted him to do. Jesus leaves plenty of room for skeptics
and unbelievers to find something wrong with him. They may point out this
apparent contradiction between Jesus saying that Lazarus would not die,
and yet he did. Jesus intentionally didn't meet their expectations. We
have expectations. Jesus intentionally doesn't always meet our expectations.
When Martha heard that Jesus was
coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. "Lord,"
Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have
died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha answered, "I
know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus
said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me
will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me
will never die. Do you believe this?" "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I
believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into
the world."John 11:20-27 In living the Christian life we need to learn to relinquish much
of our expectations, that is we should not presume what God has no
promised, and even with regards to what he has promised, to allow the Lord to interpre
his own promises.
Likewise there was a time when the Lord commanded Abraham to kill his
son Isaac, and yet the Lord had promised that Isaac would have
children, Abraham tried to resolve this apparent contradiction by
reasoning that God would raise Isaac from the dead. Though he was
mistaken on that matter, for at the last moment the Lord stopped
Abraham from killing his son, yet Abraham was commended for no
rejecting the apparent contradiction between the Lord's promise and the
Lord' s command but trying to reason out a solution. So also here
Martha is to be commnended for not doubting the Lord, but rather trying
to reason out what he meant by his promise.
Jesus viewed death differently than most people. He promised, "whoever lives and believes in me
will never die." And inJohn 5:24 "I tell you the truth, whoever hears
my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be
condemned; he has crossed over from death to life."
Likewise the other sister, Mary, approached Jesus. When
Mary
reached
the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his
feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have
died."When Jesus saw her
weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was
deeply moved in spirit and troubled. "Where have you laid him?" he asked.
"Come and see, Lord," they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, "See how he loved
him!" But some of them
said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this
man from dying?"
Previously we don't see Jesus sorrowful over this matter. In fact he
wasn't sorrowful for Lazarus, but rather he was empathetic of the
sorrow experienced by those who had lost a loved one, who thought they
would never again see him in this life. In fact I wonder if Lazarus was
getting the raw end of the deal in being resurrected in being called
from Paradise to an earthly existence. Though perhaps not, as the bes
situation is to be with the Lord, as Paul said in 2Cor 5:6"We would prefer to be away from the
body and at home with the Lord." But in this case the Lord was
on the earth.
Jesus,
once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone
laid across the entrance.
"Take away the stone," he said. "But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of
the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there
four days." Then Jesus
said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory
of God?" So they took away
the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you
have heard me. I knew tha
you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people
standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, Jesus called in
a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and
feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus
said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."John 11:28-44
There's an analog to those who have spiritually passed from death to
life. For we were dead in our transgessions and sins, but upon putting
our faith in Christ we have been made alive in Christ. Yet we still
have grave clothes, this sinful nature inherent in our flesh. And it says, "You were taught, with regard to your
former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted
by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true
righteousness and holiness." Eph 4:21-24
Col 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever
belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil
desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Now as I said at the beginning you would think Lazarus' resurrection would have been
rather convincing evidence affirming Jesus. And indeed it says, "Therefore many of the Jews who had
come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in
him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus
had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of
the Sanhedrin. "What are we accomplishing?" they asked. "Here is this
man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this,
everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take
away both our place and our nation."John 11:45-48
In fact"the chief priests made plans to kill
Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over
to Jesus and putting their faith in him." John 12:10,11
Just like back then so now given the affadivit of eyewitnesses to the
public miracles of Christ recorded for us in the gospels, there is
sufficient evidence to conclude that Jesus is the Son of God, but jus
like back then so now there are those who are intent on disbelieving,
based upon their prejudices and their concern of the implications of
this truth, how it would impact their life. If people are unwilling to
accept what the Bible says, neither will they be convinced by miracles.
But concerning the death of Christians, Paul writes the Thessalonians saying, "Brothers, we do not want you to be
ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of
men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so
we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep
in" 1Th 4:13,14 While there may be sorrow of the temporary loss of the relationship with a fellow believer who had died, their life is eternal.
And we know that the one who
raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and
present us in his presence. Therefore
we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, ye
inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary
troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them
all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is
unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Conclusion:
To repeat, Jesus said, "I am the
resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though
he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you
believe this?" John 11:25,26 Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED My Redeemer