I'm so thankful to our God that
he has caused us to be in this extraordinary passage of scripture. And I love how the scriptures
are written in such a way that we can imagine ourselves being
there, being in that little house in Bethany and hearing and seeing
the tears and the groanings and to hear and to be a witness as
we are to the fact that our unbelief obscures the glory of God from
us so often, doesn't it? But this little family was torn
asunder by death, which came as an intruder. And yet our Lord
Jesus Christ is the sovereign ruler over all things and he
is life itself. And life is His to give and life
is His to take and life is His to restore in resurrected glory
and He is everlasting life itself. And so I'm thankful to all of
you for all of your prayers over this last Several months now
we've all been on a journey, and yet the scriptures make it
so abundantly clear that God never brings these things to
his people without there being a blessing. a blessing which
is beyond our imagination, a blessing which is the revelation of the
glory of God. Now unto him that is able to
do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according
to the power his resurrection power, Christ in you the hope
of glory, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him
be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world
without end. Amen. And I went to see Rob in hospital. He used to say three things to
me quite regularly. He said, I'm sick. I can't talk,
and Christ is all. Christ is all. It's all about
the Lord Jesus Christ. At the end, as he grew weaker,
Kay would read Bible verses to him, and he would say, Amen. Amen. Lord, truly, truly, you
have promised, truly you will perform truly be it as you have
said my god and if if there is If there is a more encouraging
passage of scripture than John chapter 11 for people who have
grieved with those who grieve and have witnessed the pain that
we have witnessed, John chapter 11 must be it. This is such a
glorious miracle. And it's a wonder to me that
the events prior to it and the events after it are recorded
in the other Gospel accounts, but John is reserved. John is
reserved by God to be the one that brings us this glorious,
glorious picture. So we looked last week at the
weeping of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmity. He's able to succor those that
are crying to him, which means he runs to the cry of his people,
and he has, and he runs with the cry, and he has sympathy.
Don't you love the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ wept? Don't
you love the fact that he wept? Jesus wept. Jesus wept. And I love what the Jews said
in response to the weeping God in their presence. The Lord Jesus
Christ, he says, the Jews in verse 36 said, behold how he
loved him. It means behold how he All that are loved by the Lord
Jesus Christ are loved infinitely, they are loved eternally, they
are loved powerfully. His love is stronger than death,
His love cannot fail. His love is aware of all of what
His children go through in this world. Behold how He constantly
loved Him. And He's speaking of someone
who is dead. When Mary and Martha asked the
same question, they prefaced it with, They called him Lord. When you
come into the presence of God Almighty, you're coming into
the presence of Lord. Lord. They said Lord. These people
just said this man. Verse 38. Jesus therefore Again groaning himself, cometh
to the grave, and it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, take ye away the
stone. Do you think that the Lord Jesus
Christ could have moved the stone? He was about to raise someone
from the dead. Do you think he could have moved the stone? The Lord Jesus gives his people,
in the exercise of his grace and in his sovereign salvation,
he gives his people things to do by his grace. He says to them,
he says to Martha, do you believe this? There are three things
here, aren't there? You believe, you personally believe.
You personally believe and you will see. You take away the stone. And you lose him and let him
go, which is a great picture, isn't it, of salvation? It's
a great picture of gospel preaching. It's a great picture of what
the Church of God in this world is to do. You take away the stone.
You take away all of the impediments between the Lord Jesus Christ
and a dead sinner. You put nothing between. You
take it away. We'll talk about that more later. and you loose him and let him
go, you unbind him, you tell the children of God, freedom. God loves freely. God saves freely. We are to take
the grave clothes off as often as we possibly can, both in our
testimony, in our preaching, and in our witnesses. And you
take that which blinds. He was not only bound hand and
foot, but he was bound around his face. So not only couldn't
he walk, not only couldn't he do anything, he couldn't see.
And God gives us the glory of the gospel of his son, which
creates life, which creates sight. And what did Lazarus see when
he was unbound? Salvation's a herm, brothers
and sisters. Salvation's always a herm. What
a sight those eyes saw when his head was unwrapped. Just like
that blind man, when their eyes were open, and Bartimaeus' eyes
were open, who did he see? What a glorious thing, the first
sight of someone that's raised from the dead, the first sight
of someone who is healed from blindness, is they see Him. They see Him. Salvation is in
a person. The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 39, we can understand Martha.
We've talked about this in the past. We can understand Martha's
concern. It would have been embarrassing for that stone to be removed. It would have seemed like something
that was unseemly, really. Why expose death? Why expose
what Lazarus is? And she cried out as we all would
cry, by this time he stinketh for he has been dead four days.
Verse 40 is glorious, isn't it? Jesus saith unto her, said I
not unto thee, said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe,
thou shouldst see the glory of God. Believe what? You believe a whom? And in believing
a whom, you believe the things that he said. Listen to what
the message... Martha and Mary did what all
of God's children do at the beginning of this chapter. They sent a
message to the Lord Jesus Christ. The one that you love is sick.
What a glorious thing to do, what a glorious God we have that
we can send that to them. And she had this message that
returned with that messenger. This sickness is not unto death,
verse four of John 11, but for the glory of God that the Son
of God might be glorified thereby. That was the word she had from
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then she had another word
from the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 23. She acknowledges who the Lord
Jesus Christ is in the previous verse. But I know, verse 22,
I know that even now, that whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will
give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, thy brother
shall rise again. And Martha said unto him, I know
that he shall rise in the resurrection at the last day. The Lord Jesus
Christ is wanting her to know that the resurrection is a person
much, much more than an event. He said unto her, I am the resurrection
and the life. I am. He says, I am God Almighty. I am God Almighty of the resurrection. I am God Almighty of the life,
the life, the resurrection. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Do you believe? The Lord said to her, said I
not unto you, that if you the glory of God. If you believe you'll see the
glory of God. The glory of God is the resurrected
one. The glory of God is the one who
speaks and whose word stands fast forever. The one whose word
cannot be broken. The one whose promises are always
true. If you believe, you believe.
But she believes, she believes in not just who he is but she
believes in these glorious things about him. Listen to our Lord's prayer when
they took away the stone. Verse 41, then they took away
the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus
lifted up his eyes. Martha had already said that
whatever you ask of God, God is going to give it to you. Jesus
lifted up his eyes. He looked up to the throne of
God in heaven before all of these people. And he said, Father,
I thank Thee. What a great way to come to God.
Father, I thank Thee. Father, I thank You. I thank
You that You are my Father. I thank You that You are a God
who is. I thank Thee that Thou hast heard
me. And I knew that thou hearest
me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said
it. He prays this prayer at the open
tomb of Lazarus for a reason, doesn't he? That they may believe that
thou hast sent me. We have a glorious description
of saving faith in the words of Martha when the Lord Jesus
Christ declared himself to be the resurrection, to be the life,
to be the one in whom his people will never die. She saith unto
him, verse 27, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ. Salvation
and saving faith is not what you believe about yourself. I
believe that thou art the Christ. The Son of God which should come
into the world. The Lord Jesus Christ was the
sent one of God again and again and again in John's Gospel and
the other Gospel accounts. He keeps reminding people that
he was sent from the Father, which means that he was with
the Father before he came. He was with the Father in that
eternal covenant of grace before the foundation of the world.
And the Father sent him with a purpose. He sent his son to
be the redeemer. He sent his son to be the mediator. He sent his son to be the propitiation
for all those sins. And the son came in obedience. He came in obedience and he came
in love to fulfil all that God had promised. I'd like us to
turn to John chapter 17. This is a glorious The glorious high priestly prayer. This is the real Lord's prayer. The other prayer is the disciple's
prayer, the one that's so well known. But this is the prayer
of the Lord and I just want to go through and he says in Psalm
2, ask of me. He says to the Son, you ask of
me and I'll give you. You ask and I'll give. And the
Lord Jesus Christ in John chapter 17 asks, and as I read these
petitions of the Lord Jesus Christ, Every single one of these is
answered, Amen, by our great and glorious God. Verse one. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come, glorify
thy son, that thy son might glorify thee. If you see God glorified, in
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be at peace with God
and His purposes. His glory, His glory is great
in thy salvation. His glory is great. He's saying,
glorify the Son. Was the Son glorified? I'm just
asking you, these are the petitions of the Lord Jesus Christ that
he prayed before he went to the cross of Calvary. Verse 5, he
says, And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self,
with the glory which I had before the world was. There was a glorious,
glorious union in the Trinity of the Godhead before the foundation
of the world. What bonds and bounds of love
passed between them. What glory to behold, the Son
to behold the glory of the Father and the Father to behold the
glory of the Son. They weren't just passive, they
weren't immovable. This is our glorious God. Father, glorify thou me with
thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before
the world was. Down to verse 11. He says, And
now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and
I come to thee, Holy Father, Keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are, as
we are one. He's praying to his father to
keep his bride through the glory of his character. That's what
his name is. His name is who he is. His name
is a description of all of the glory of his character in his
holiness, and in his sovereignty, and his justice, and his truthfulness,
and his faithfulness, and his mercy, and his love. You keep
them through your name. God's children, are they kept?
Are God's children kept? Verse 15, he says, I pray not
that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but thou shouldst
keep them from the evil, from the evil one. God's children
will be kept from the evil one. He says, sanctify them, make
them holy through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Sanctify them. make them as holy
as I am holy. How good do you have to be to
be with God? You have to be as good as God.
That's the glory of the gospel, isn't it? Verse 21, he's praying for us,
isn't he? Verse 20, neither pray for these
alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their
word, through the word of the apostles, that they all may be
one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they
may also be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast
sent me. Then he goes on in his petition
in verse 22, and the glory which thou gavest me I have They may be one, even as we are
one. Why did the Lord Jesus Christ
weep? Because he is one with the pain and the trial and the
weeping of his bride. Verse 24, Father, I will. This
was the desire of the son before he went to the cross of Calvary.
I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory. What is salvation? It's beholding the glory of God,
which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world. Then he says, O righteous Father,
the world has not known me, but I have known thee. These have
known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them
thy name, and will declare it, that the love, this is his petition,
the declaration of the glory of the gospel, the declaration
of the glory of the name of God, that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them and I in them. How close is the union between
the Lord Jesus Christ and his bride? How close is the union
between the Lord Jesus Christ and Mary and Martha in their
weeping and in all their trials? This was his prayer, isn't it?
This is his prayer. He says, I thank you. Go back
to John chapter 11. I thank you that you have heard
me. And I know that thou hearest me always. That's what Mary had
said, isn't it? It's lovely, isn't it, the Lord?
She said, I know that even now whatsoever thou will ask of God,
God will give it thee. God will give it thee. And yet she, like us, has times
of great faith and great declaration of who God is, and at the same
time, and mixed in the same flesh, is unbelief and doubt about who
He is and what He's doing. Believe and see the glory of
God. You believe a whom and you believe
the words of a whom, and you believe the words of a whom even
though everything in your rational being and everything in this
world says it's impossible. It's absolutely impossible, but
it is. Believe thou this. You'll see the glory of God.
Where do we see the glory of God? You see the glory of God
in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see the glory of
God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ in the proclamation of
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. For we preach not ourselves,
2 Corinthians 4, 5, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves,
your servants for Jesus' sake, for God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness. In the beginning God. The first
words of God in the Bible are, Light be and light was. What power in our glorious God. But that light of course is the
light of the Gospel. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's where the glory of God
is, isn't it? All the glory of God is wrapped up in who the
Lord Jesus Christ is, what he did on the cross, why he came,
why he came and what he's doing in this world. If you want to
know what he's doing in this world today, you go back and
have a look in the Gospels. You go and have a look at what
he did in the Old Testament. Our God cannot change. I change not. And so, in a spiritual sense,
he's still doing exactly the same thing. If you behold the
glory of God, I love how John describes it in verse 14, and
the word was made flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
flesh. The word who is God and was with God was made flesh and
dwelt. He tabernacled amongst us. He pitched his tent for that
time among us and we beheld his glory. beheld his glory. The children
of God in salvation behold his glory. We beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father. If you're going
to behold his glory, the only begotten of the Father is full
of grace and full of truth. I love the fact that the glory
of God is revealed in His graciousness. It's revealed in His graciousness
to these people who are weeping. It's revealed in His graciousness
to all of us, that we might just behold His glory, behold the
glory of God. What glorifies God the most comforts
His people the most. Our God is glorious, and this
glory is revealed when He says in verse 43, when He had thus
spoken, He cried with a loud voice. He prayed to his father. He prayed
that the result of all of this, the result of the pain that Mary
and Martha had been through, the result of the distress, no
doubt, that Lazarus had felt, the pain of all of those people
who came that had loved them, the result of all of that is
that God would be glorified. There would be glory to God in
all of this. He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus,
come forth. Literally, he says, Lazarus,
come here. And that's what happens in salvation,
isn't it? That's what happens in that resurrection,
this life from the dead. The Lord Jesus Christ, he says,
you come to me. That is salvation, that is resurrection,
that is the glory of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
just speaks a word. He just speaks a word. What reason, brothers and sisters,
do we have for hope that the Word of God, by the power of
His Spirit, is doing exactly the same thing today? It's bringing
dead sinners forth. And what happened to Lazarus?
He that was dead came forth. He came forth in the most miraculous
way. He was bound hand and foot. He
couldn't walk, and he couldn't do anything, and he couldn't
see. And that's exactly how the Lord
Jesus Christ brings his people to themselves, isn't it? They
have nothing in themselves. They can do nothing. And yet
he comes and he speaks a word of power. He speaks a creative
word of power. Truly, truly, Amen, Amen, says
the Lord Jesus Christ, I say unto you, John 5.25, the hour
is coming and now is, this is the hour we live in, when the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that
How glorious is our Lord Jesus Christ! How God-like is the Lord Jesus
Christ that he will speak a word over this creation They'll hear his voice and shall
come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of
life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of
damnation. There is a time when those who
are raised to newness of life in this world will be raised
to resurrection glory. What's the good that they've
done? What's the good that they've done? all that he has done in
them and for them because he is our life. He is our resurrection. He speaks and creation comes
into existence. He speaks and creation is He
speaks and new creation comes into existence. He alone, He
alone speaks in the darkness and light and life come forth
and He gets all the glory and His people get all the joy and
comfort, the joy and peace of believing. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, Thank you
and praise you for what we see in the Lord Jesus Christ, that
he can weep with those who weep. He can be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. How glorious is our Saviour. How glorious in His humanity. How glorious in His deity. How glorious He is in revealing
you, our Father. How glorious He is in revealing
Himself as our Saviour. Heavenly Father, Cause us, simply
like children, to believe, to believe who He is, to believe
what He says, and to believe His sovereign purposes in all
things, our Father. May His glory be our peace and
our comfort, for we pray in Jesus' name, and for His glory, our
Father. Amen.