The Resurrection and the Life

All right. Well, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to John 11. How many of you guys love the book of John? John 11. We’re going to be continuing in the Names of God series that we’ve been in all year, and we’ve been spending the last several weeks talking about Jesus’ “I am” statements. I’m sorry — John 11. Did I say John 11? Okay, I went to John 6. John 11. All right.

I wanted to start with just a statement this morning, and it’s a statement that I didn’t write. It’s a statement that was made about 2,000 years ago by two grieving sisters. But I think most of us have had this heart cry at some point or another, and it is this: “Lord, if You had only been there.” Lord, if You were there.

This is the cry that you make when you just don’t understand why things are the way they are, or why things are going the way that they’re going. It’s the one that you pray at the funeral after you begged for God to prevent it. It’s the one that you pray after the plan and the calling that God had on your life didn’t seem to pan out the way that you thought. And this is the prayer that asks the very real, the very human question: God, where were You? Where were You in my pain? Where were You when I thought You said to do this? Where were You? I thought You would come through for me. You could have done something. You had the ability. You are God. I believe that You’re real, but You didn’t seemingly come through.

So the question isn’t if you believe God is real. Most of us have settled that in our hearts. The question is, when I ask of Him, why does He seem to show up late? This morning we’re going to go into John 11, and we’re going to look at how Jesus was late, but He was late on purpose. The questioning that Jesus received was, “Jesus, You could have done something, but You didn’t.” And it was at the funeral of one of His best friends. We’re going to hear both of his sisters say the exact same sentence to His face. But then we’re going to hear the fifth “I am,” which was spoken at the tomb to a woman with tears on her face.

So we’re going to go into John 11, and we’re going to look at verse 3. But let me just pray. Can we just take our Bibles, and let’s break that bread this morning, and let’s just thank the Lord.

Lord Jesus, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You, Lord, that it is food to our souls, that we do not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from Your mouth. And so, Lord, we ask that You would open our hearts, Lord Jesus. Lord, we lay all things down — every distraction, every doubt, every concern. Lord, we give You this time, and we ask that You would come and speak like You always do, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

He loved them, so He stayed

So we come to John 11, and it opens at Bethany, the town of Bethany, which was the home of Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus. And this was Jesus’ safe place. Jesus would go and minister during the day in the lion’s den of Jerusalem, with everybody that was accusing Him, lying about Him, and then He would escape in the evening and find His refuge, His safe place, where He was welcomed — in the town of Bethany, in the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

Some of His favorite people lived here. Some of His favorite people that welcomed Him. How many of you know Jesus goes where He is welcome? Amen. May we always have hearts that welcome Him and don’t ignore Him. He was welcome there. He would rest there. Some of His favorite people were there.

But Lazarus gets sick. And so when Lazarus is sick, the sisters send Jesus a message. We see in verse 3, it says right here, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” Notice the sisters don’t even say, “Jesus, would You come?” Because it’s kind of implied, right? When you love someone and there is a need, the response to that love is, “I’m going to drop everything and I’m going to come to you.” So they don’t even say, “Lord, would You come? Lazarus is sick.” They just say, “Lord, the one that You love is sick.”

But look at verse 5. It says, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister Mary and Lazarus.” Did Jesus love them? Yes, He did. “So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.” Notice it doesn’t say that He loved them, but He stayed. It doesn’t say He loved them, but He was delayed. It says He loved them, so He stayed. You see, His waiting wasn’t a failure of His love. He was waiting because of His love.

In other words, Jesus loved them so much in this moment. There was something that God had for them that was so beyond what they were even asking for. Because “I love you so much, there’s something so much greater that the Lord’s going to do, and we’re going to wait.”

I want you just to sit in how uncomfortable that can be. How many of you have ever prayed a prayer and you just kind of wait, and you wait, and you wait? Because many of us often find ourselves living in this verse right here, where you’re in the waiting. You’re in the delay. You’re in the two days. You sent up the prayer. It was received in heaven, but nothing seems to be moving.

And this is where the enemy brings the doubt, saying, “He doesn’t actually really care.” It’s in the waiting. Isn’t that when the voice of doubt, the voice of confusion, the voice of fear seems to get its loudest? It’s in the delay. It’s in the waiting. Because we know, “God, if You really wanted to do this, You could just do it.” But Jesus was going to do something even greater.

So John writes it this way on purpose, because here the delay was loaded with love. In verse 4, Jesus even tells His disciples why. He says, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God.” There was something greater that God wanted to do than just bring instant healing. Let me ask you: could Jesus heal Lazarus in a moment? Yes, He could. But there was something greater that God wanted to do.

The bigger gift requires the wait

In verse 14, Jesus goes even further, and He says, “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad.” Hold up. I thought You loved Lazarus. Did you guys get some beef going when I wasn’t paying attention, right? No. “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe.” Listen: a Jesus who’s never late can heal your sickness. But only a Jesus who’s too late can prove He’s stronger than the thing that you fear the most.

By the time Jesus walks into Bethany — I was just looking this over this morning as I was going through these things — Bethany is about two miles east of Jerusalem. It’s actually where Jesus ascended into heaven. And I think that there’s just such a key there that we’re not going to spend too much time on. But He walks into Bethany after hearing word that Lazarus is sick, and Lazarus at this point has been in the tomb, dead, for four days.

Now, tradition held that after three days, all hope was gone. They were officially dead. Four days meant it was over. So why does Jesus wait? Jesus waited because His love wanted to give them something bigger than they had asked for, and the bigger gift requires the wait.

I’m going to say that again, because we don’t like that. We don’t like to sit in the uncomfortable. We want Jesus when we call. We want Jesus to answer. But there was something bigger that Jesus wanted to do, and the bigger gift requires the wait. Everybody say, “The bigger gift requires the wait.”

So here come the sisters. Jesus is walking into Bethany, Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days, and the sisters come to Him separately, but they say the exact same thing. They had clearly talked to one another. “Where is Jesus? Doesn’t He know? Doesn’t He care?” Martha comes to Him, verse 21, and says, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” In verse 32, Mary — the one who poured incense at His feet and worshiped Him in preparation for His burial, before He died and gave His life — Mary said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” If You had only been here.

It is the same theology. It is the same wound. It is the same hurt. But I want you to notice what Jesus does, because He doesn’t answer them the same way. Don’t you love that Jesus knows you so well? He knows how to speak right to you. He can speak to you better than your best friend. He definitely speaks to you better than you speak to yourself.

I am the resurrection

Jesus loved them. And Martha was the processor. Martha was the one that needed to know the truth to hold on to. She was the practical one. In verse 24, Martha shows Jesus her theology. She says, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” How many of you know that is true? There is a resurrection for the believer. Just as Jesus ascended into heaven, how many of you know we will be raised up and ascend into heaven in our new bodies? Amen.

So here she is, sharing this correct theology, correct doctrine. But I want you to notice where her hope is. It’s somewhere in the future. It’s some distant event. “My grief is right now, but I know that things will work out someday.” You see, many believers grieve just like Martha did. We put our hope in a future tense. We know that God is real. We know that God is ultimately faithful. “And yes, He’ll do something in my life eventually — maybe when I just go see Him in heaven one day.” Many believers do this.

But notice what Jesus does in verse 25. This is everything, and I pray that our hearts understand this. Holy Spirit, reveal this truth to us. Jesus puts the resurrection right in front of her, right then. He doesn’t correct her. She’s not wrong. There is a future hope. Somebody say amen. But Jesus said to her in verse 25, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Jesus is saying, “Resurrection isn’t some future event. I am resurrection, and I’m right here with you.”

He says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” And then Jesus asks, “Do you believe this?” This is the fifth “I am.” This is it. Not “I will perform the resurrection.” Jesus didn’t say, “I’m going to be there on resurrection day.” Jesus said, “I am the resurrection.”

Listen, He is literally everything you need. I can say that, and you can say yes in your mind, but I pray that we get it in our spirit. Whatever you have need of, He is the answer — not in a future tense, right now. If you need healing, He is healer. If you need saving, He is salvation. If you need restoration, He’s the restorer. If you need wisdom, He is wisdom. He’s the very definition. Whatever you have need of — if you are weak, He is our strength. He says, “I am the resurrection.” He was saying, “Look at Me. I’m exactly what you need right now.”

Resurrection is not an event on God’s calendar. It’s not just for the end days or the last day. Resurrection is a person, which changes the question of our grief entirely. The question was never when. The question is always who.

Martha had her theology filed under, “I know God will come through for me someday.” And we do that too. When will this be made right? We ask the questions. When will He make this right? When will God show up? When does the waiting end? But Jesus doesn’t give Martha a date. What does He do? He gives her Himself. “I am the resurrection.” Resurrection was standing right in front of her. Somebody say amen.

Now I want you to consider what that does to Martha’s disappointment, because her whole sentence was, “If You had been here.” Everybody say “here.” So what was Martha doing? She was measuring the distance between where He was and where she needed Him. And why does this matter? The reason is this: “when” will always keep you waiting. If you’re asking God “when,” you’re waiting. But “who” will let you rest right now. You see, if your hope is in a date, you’re stuck in suspense until it arrives. But if your hope is a person, you can have Him today. Amen.

So rather than asking, “When will You fix this, God? When are You going to finally come through? God, when are You going to finally do what You said You would do?” — I believe the better question that we can all ask is, “Jesus, where are You right now?” Because He’s not far off, and He’s not late to you. In fact, He’s right there with us. Amen. And the very thing that you are groaning about, the very thing that you are grieving about — you need to know He’s grieving too. It breaks His heart too.

And notice the question Jesus asked. Not “Do you understand?” He says, “Do you believe this?” And I think that’s the question that the Lord is bringing to each one of us today, but all the time. Do you believe in Me? Do you believe that I’m enough? Do you believe that I am who I say I am? And Martha gives one of the greatest confessions in scripture. Verse 27, she says, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God.”

Jesus wept

That’s Jesus’ response to Martha. Now notice Jesus’ response to Mary. This is the one who worshiped at His feet. This is the one who was too broken for doctrine. He gives her no lecture at all. Verse 33 says, “Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping… He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.” And then verse 35 says, “Jesus wept.” That is the shortest verse in scripture, and yet it’s one of the deepest scriptures.

I want you to think about what Jesus knew in that moment. Jesus knew what was about to happen. He knew the ending. He knew that Lazarus was about to be raised from the dead, because in the waiting — how many of you know Jesus was still working? He was interceding, and He was with the Father, and the Father knew exactly what had to happen, that the Son of Man would be glorified, that others would believe. Jesus knew, in this moment when He was weeping, what was about to happen.

For me, I’m really bad at keeping surprises, right? The only way that I can keep a surprise is if I literally block it in my brain. So if you tell me a secret, I literally will forget it. And I’m really good at forgetting. So I will forget it so that I don’t accidentally say it out loud. Does that make sense? And I can do it. I don’t know why. It’s a gift. I can just literally forget, and then all of a sudden it’ll come, and I’m surprised too when it happens. I’m like, “Whoa, that’s right.” I would have had a hard time. I would have had a smile on my face like, “Oh, just you wait.”

But what did Jesus do? He saw her weeping. He groans in His spirit, and He begins to weep. Don’t think for a second that Jesus is not compassionate toward what you feel right now. Jesus absolutely cares about your grief, about your pain, about what you’re feeling.

And when it says that He groaned, the word “groan” in the Greek is actually closer to snorting with indignation. Many scholars note it as akin to anger. So Jesus stands at His friend’s tomb, and it says that He groaned. It’s actually more akin to “Jesus got angry” — not at the sisters, not at the crowd. What was Jesus angry at? At death itself. The robber. The intruder.

You may think, “Well, death is just a natural part of life.” Listen, death was actually never intended for His creation. Death is a consequence of sin, of sin entering the world. Death is something that we welcomed by rejecting Him. And when death entered the world, what did God do? “I’m going to come, and I’m going to rescue you, that any who believe in Me can come back and be one with Me.” So Jesus is actually just as angry about death as you are. That means if you ever find yourself at a funeral and you are angry, you need to know Jesus is angry too, because death was never His intention.

Take away the stone

So here it is. Jesus stands at His friend’s tomb. He’s angry with death. And I want to look at verse 38, where Jesus now comes to the tomb. It says, “Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself” — there it is again — “came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.” If you’re not familiar, people would be buried in these caves, and then they would roll a stone in front. So it was a tomb similar to what Jesus was buried in.

Notice what Jesus does. Still angry, still groaning — what does He do? He walks right up to it. Most of us manage our grief by avoiding, by staying away, by ignoring the things that are dead in our life. But Jesus walks straight to it. How many of you know Jesus is not afraid of the dead things in your life? He’s not afraid of your graveyard. He’s not afraid of your failures. He’s not afraid of your doubts or your fears or the things that didn’t work out. He’s not afraid of any of it. He meets us in it.

And look at verse 39. “Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, ‘Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.’” Notice: Jesus says, “Take away the stone,” and practical Martha, who confessed Him as the Christ, the Son of God, just a few minutes ago, is now saying, “Lord, Lord, Lord, You don’t want to do that. He smells.”

I don’t want you to miss how human that actually is, how real that moment is. Because you can believe that He’s the Son of God and not want Him opening your graves. You can believe — and the things in your life that have been dead for so long are now decomposing, and you’re like, “God, You have full access. You have my whole life. Oh, but don’t go over there. Don’t look at that. It stinks. You don’t want anything to do with that. We’ll just kind of ignore those things.”

Whatever the things are that have hurt you, that you are looking away from, the things that you are ignoring — the dead dream, the dead relationships — we’d rather keep the stone in front of the grave, because stones keep the smell inside.

Verse 40: “Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’” How many of you know the stone has to be moved before the glory shows? Wow. Believing looks like letting Him open the things that you have shut off. Giving Him access doesn’t mean you understand. It doesn’t mean you don’t have questions. I think Martha was a little bit confused at this point. Anybody else? “You don’t want to do that. What are You doing? Are You good?” But believing looks like letting Him open those closed-off spaces in our lives.

Verse 41 says, “Then they took away the stone… And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.’” Notice what Jesus had already done. He had already done the work. How many of you know Jesus is at the right hand of the Father interceding for you? He’s already done the work. How many of you know when Jesus died on the cross and gave His life, what did He say? “It is finished.” It’s already done.

Jesus gives thanks to the Father before anything has even happened. “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.” And Jesus says, “I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” The tomb is still full. Lazarus is still dead. And Jesus is already grateful, because He and the Father had already settled this in the delay. Did you guys get that? The two days weren’t silence. They were setup. Jesus had been working all along.

Lazarus, come forth

Verse 43: “Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’” A loud voice. This is the only time Jesus shouted at a miracle. He shouted, “Lazarus, come forth!” Biblical scholars have written that they believe He had to use his name. Jesus had to use his name, because if He had merely said, “Come forth,” all the graves in the region would have opened. So they wrote He had to say the name Lazarus, so it was pinpointed just to him: “Lazarus, come forth!”

The voice that said, “Let there be light.” The voice that holds all things together, that has created all things — every atom and molecule is held together by what? By the word that He has already spoken — pointed at Lazarus and said, “Lazarus, come forth!”

Verse 44: “And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes… Jesus said to them” — everybody say “them” — “‘Loose him, and let him go.’” This is a picture of the church. You see, the dead man walks out. He’s alive, but how many of you know he’s still wrapped? And notice, Jesus is the one who does the raising, but He hands the unwrapping to the people nearby. That’s the church’s job. We can’t resurrect people. Amen. Only Jesus does that. But we can absolutely help those who are newly raised get the graveclothes off.

And too often — just as we were worshiping, I just felt the Lord drop this — too often when we receive new life in Jesus, we go back to our old graveclothes. Maybe they got taken off. You gave your life to Jesus, and you’ve been coming to church, and He’s been showing you things and revealing things in you, and yet there’s still this little tinge: “Well, what if I have Jesus, and what if I go back to some of those old tendencies, those old behaviors?” How many of you know we reject the world and we turn to Jesus? Amen. Yes. Don’t go back to the graveclothes that you came out of the grave with. Praise God. He’s made us new. Amen.

Now here’s the cost. This is what I want us to notice, and then we’re going to close. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, and the news of the miracle goes all around. Of course — they’re only two miles from Jerusalem. When the news reaches Jerusalem, the council meets, and it says in verse 53, “Then, from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death.” In other words, raising Lazarus is the miracle that signed Jesus’ death warrant. Wow. And He knew it would. The resurrection and the life bought a dead man’s life with His own. Lazarus walked out of a tomb because Jesus was willing to go into a tomb. Wow. And He did the exact same thing for you. Amen. Amen.

Do you believe this?

So we’re going to close, and I’m going to invite us to stand, and we’re just going to bring some things to the Lord this morning. Come on, let’s just come to the Lord. Let’s stand and lift our hands to the Lord and just begin to thank Him. Begin to thank the resurrection and the life. Begin to thank Him for the life that He’s given you, the things that He’s doing in you, that He’s taking off the graveclothes — the guilt and the shame and the fears and the anxieties, those things we don’t need to go back to. He doesn’t clothe us with graveclothes. He clothes us with His righteousness. Just begin to thank Him. Come on, church, begin to thank the Lord. Come on, let’s lift our voice.

Jesus, we thank You. Thank You for Your life. Thank You for what You’ve done, Lord, that You are my resurrection, Lord, that You are the one who lifts me up, that You are the one who strengthens me, who saves me. We praise You, Lord.

And I believe the Lord is here today, and He’s asking the same question that He asked Martha. He says, “Do you believe? Do you believe in Me?” He didn’t ask this after the miracle, when believing is easy. He asked while Lazarus was still in the ground, while her disappointment was still on her face. And so if you’re here and you are in disappointment, you are in your hurt, I believe the Lord is saying, “Do you believe? Do you believe this, that I am the resurrection? Do you believe that I’m the one who breathes new life into you? Do you believe that I’m the one that will breathe new life into those dreams that I gave you so long ago? Do you realize that I’m the one, the author and the finisher?”

When the disappointment was still on her face, Jesus looked at her — the one that He had let down, seemingly — and before anything changed, He says, “Do you believe that I am?” And I believe that’s the question that the Lord is bringing to those who are in the hurt, to those who are in the disappointment. Do you believe?

You see, some of us have been living in the “if You had only been here” for far too long. Maybe you haven’t shut Him out. Maybe you still come to church. Maybe you still worship Him. But there’s some hurt from the past where you said, “God, if You had only… You could have stopped it. You could have healed it. You could have saved it. You could have turned it around. But You didn’t.” And maybe you never even said it out loud, because that’s not what church people are supposed to do. But you carried it a different way — a quiet grieving, guarded in your worship. You stopped asking. You stopped praying, so that you wouldn’t feel like He’d let you down again.

And I need you to hear this. This is your freedom this morning: your disappointment that is carried to Jesus becomes intimacy with Him. You don’t need to hold the hurt anymore. You don’t need to hold the pain anymore. You don’t need to hold the disappointment. Bring it to Jesus. And when you bring it to Jesus, there is this oneness, this intimacy, this love that is only found there. The sisters brought their hurt and pain to Jesus, and He answered it with truth, and He answered it with tears. When we hold our disappointment, it curdles into bitterness.

So I want us just to do what Mary and Martha did. Let us just get quiet and say, “Lord, if You had only been there when…” and just begin to take that to the Lord right now. “Lord, if You had only come through…” Whatever hurt you’re holding, whatever you’ve kept from Him, the grave that you sealed — we’re just going to put that away. Bring it to the Lord, because He is the resurrection, because He is the life. He’s the restorer, the healer. And the question isn’t when. The question is, where are You? And He is here in this place. He never left you. He’ll never leave you.

And right now, with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I just want us to continue. Stay here and ask the Holy Spirit the question that only He can answer: “Lord, would You show me where You were standing? When I had that hurt, when I got that news, where were You?” And I believe the Lord is going to show you that not only was He there, but He was there weeping with you. The delay was never an absence of love. He loved you all along, with an everlasting love.

Lord Jesus, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You, Lord, for Your love. It blows us away. You’re not a God who can’t sympathize with us, but You became one of us, Lord. You went through the highs and the lows. You felt every pain, every betrayal, every hurt, every wound, every disappointment. Lord, You came for all of it because of Your love for us. And, Lord Jesus, I pray that You would continue to open our eyes, that we would know that You are our present help — that You aren’t just a future help. We thank You for that, but, Lord, You are our present help. You are available right now. Wherever we go, You go before us and You are behind us. Lord, I pray that You would give each one of us eyes to see, in Jesus’ name.

Lord, we come against the plan of the adversary to deceive with lies — that You don’t care, that You don’t love us, that You’re not really all that interested, that You’re on to better things. No, Lord. You have called us by name. You have chosen us, and You have good plans for us. The God of the universe knows us by name — every hair on our head, every thought, every dream, every desire, every disappointment. Lord, we thank You that You are not scared of our disappointment. We bring those things to You in faith, knowing that You don’t get frustrated, but You meet us right there and You give us Yourself. What greater gift?

Yes, Lord, I believe

And if you’re here today and you’ve never settled the question, “Do you believe this?” — I’m not talking about your church attendance. This is the question your eternity swings on, and you can answer it this morning. The one who shouted a dead man out of the tomb and paid for it with His own grave — He’s asking you by name, “Do you believe in Me?” And I believe every one of us needs to answer that and say, “Yes, Lord, I believe. Oh Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”

So I’m going to ask that we all pray this in faith and say yes to Him, and that we pray this out loud, in a voice loud enough for the person next to us to hear. But let us pray believing. How do we believe? We give Him access to the things that we have shut off. So let’s pray this with our hearts to the Lord, because He’s here and because He hears us. Say this with me:

“Lord Jesus, I’ve sinned against You. Forgive me and cleanse me. You are the Lord, the Son of the living God. You died on the cross for my sin, and You rose from the grave, and now You’re alive. Today I give my life to You. I reject the world. I reject my old ways. I reject those graveclothes. And I declare my heart belongs to Jesus, and I am born again, a follower of Jesus, forever and ever. Amen.”

Amen. Thank You, Lord. Come on, let’s thank Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Well, the Lord is good, isn’t He? Aren’t you thankful for the love of Jesus? Amen. If you are here and you need prayer, we don’t want you to leave without somebody praying for you. You can have someone around you pray, or if you need, you can also come up front, and we would love to pray with you. And if you made a decision to give your life to Jesus, we’d love to hear about that too. Amen.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.