Well Sophie, Alex's granddaughter
asked me some great questions last week and if there's one
passage of scripture that answers almost all of them, it's John
Chapter 11. I didn't have Sophie in mind
particularly when I was preparing this, I just thought it was a
passage which is just so profound and significant and obviously
One could preach on it for years and years and years and never
even begin to exhaust it. So I thought we might read it
and then we'll just have a look at some of the things in there
that I pray will be a comfort to you as they've been to me
in this last while while I've been looking at this wonderful,
wonderful passage of scripture. So let's just read it. It's just
great to hear God's Word spoken. Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus
of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was
that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped his
feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the
sister sent to him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. When Jesus heard that, He said,
This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that
the Son of God may be glorified through it. Now Jesus loved Martha
and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that He was
sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Then
after this He said to the disciples, Let us go to Judea again. The disciples said to him, Rabbi,
lately the Jews sought to stone you, and you are going there
again. Jesus answered, Are there not
twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he
does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light
is not in him. These things he said. And after
that he said to them, Our friend Lazarus sleeps. But I go that
I may wake him up. Then his disciples said, Lord,
if he sleeps he'll get well. However, Jesus spoke of his death,
but they thought he was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then
Jesus said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your
sakes that I was not there that you may believe. Nevertheless,
let us go to him. Then Thomas, who is called the
twin, said to his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die
with him. So when Jesus came, he found
that he had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was
near Jerusalem, about two miles away, and many of the Jews had
joined the women around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning
their brother. Now Martha, as soon as she heard
that Jesus was coming, went and met him. But Mary was sitting
in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, Lord,
if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even
now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother
will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that
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, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes
in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said
to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the
Son of God, who is to come into the world. And when she said
these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her
sister, saying, The teacher has come and is calling for you.
As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to him.
Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place
where Martha met him. Then the Jews who were with her
in the house and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose
up quickly and went out, they followed her, saying, She is
going to the tomb to weep there. Then when Mary came where Jesus
was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, Lord,
if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Therefore
when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping,
he groaned in spirit and was troubled. And he said, Where
have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come
and see. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said,
See how he loved him. And some of them said, could
not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this
man from dying? Then Jesus, again groaning in
himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay
against it. 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. Jesus said to her, Did I not
say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory
of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the
dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up his eyes
and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me, and I
know that you always hear me. But because of the people who
are standing by, I said this, that they may believe that you
sent me. Now when he had said these things,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. come forth. And when he who had died came
out bound hand and foot with grey clothes, and his face was
wrapped with a cloth, Jesus said to them, Loose him and let him
go. Then many of the Jews who had
come to Mary and had seen the things Jesus did believed in
Him. But some of them went away to
the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. Then the chief
priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, What shall
we do? For this man works many signs.
And if we let him alone like this, everyone will believe in
him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place
and our nation. And one of them, Caiaphas, being
high priest that year, said to them, You know nothing at all,
nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man
should die for the people and not that the whole nation should
perish. Now this he did not say on his
own authority, but being high priest that year, he prophesied
that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation
only, but also that he would gather together in one the children
of God who were scattered abroad. Then from that day on, they plotted
to put him to death. Therefore Jesus no longer walked
openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near
the wilderness, to a city called Ephraim, and there remained with
his disciples. And the Passover of the Jews
was near, and many went from the country up to Jerusalem before
the Passover to purify themselves. Then they sought Jesus, and spoke
among themselves as they stood in the temple. What do you think? That he will not come to the
feast? Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a
command that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it,
that they might seize him. And so the message tonight is
the way the good shepherd gathers his sheep, or how God saves sinners. John's Gospel has both passages
like John chapter 10 where he gives a description of himself
as the Good Shepherd, and then on either side of those passages
surrounding them are these wonderful living examples of what it means
for him to be the Good Shepherd. The sheep hear his voice, he
calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out. And so
Here we have in this passage a wonderful, wonderful scene
of God, our God, who is a man, a man who is God in the midst
of people he loves and how he deals with them. And only God's
ways can possibly explain anything of this. There is no human being
on this planet who would operate in the way the Lord Jesus did
here. It's just a sign of His grace, a sign of His omnipotence. He is a man who is God. He knows what is happening. in each of our lives, even though
for most of our lives we have no recognition of the fact that
He knows. So here in this situation, He's
a day's walk away at least from Mary and Martha and Lazarus.
But because He loves them, verse 11, because He loves them, His
eye is never taken off them. He never ever for one millisecond
of our lives ceases to have us as the object of His love and
His care and His protection in all things. It's wonderful, isn't
it, that only He who is God knows events that are far away seemingly
from Him. Only He who is God controls all
of those events. Only He who is God tells the
future with precision. I go to wake Him up, says the
Lord Jesus. And here we have a God who loves
His own, But in this beginning few verses we see something of
what it is for God's children to come before their Lord in
prayer. They sent someone to Jesus, and
it's fascinating, isn't it? They didn't say, the one we love
is sick. They said, Lord, verse 3, behold,
he whom you love is sick. It's a wonderful exhibition of
faith. The Lord Jesus loved that little
family in Bethany. But he loves them in a way which
is extraordinary, isn't it? And so the situation is of course
this is not long before his death and his resurrection. And this
town of Bethany is just outside of Jerusalem. So this becomes
an incredibly public miracle. But if you think of the timetable
that Lazarus was sick, If it was a day's walk to get to Jesus,
then the man who took the message could well have come back to
Mary and Martha in one more day. And what news came back? He who was just a day away stayed
two more days. What must have gone through the
minds and hearts of Mary and Martha as they waited? They waited for Him who they
knew, loved them, and loved them passionately, waited. Verse 4, Jesus explains why He
waits. This sickness is not unto death,
but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified
through it." The events that come into the lives of God's
children are God's events, that the glory of God and the glory
of God is seen in the face of the Lord Jesus. That glory might
be seen, that glory might be experienced. Also, the Lord Jesus
shows us that as God, His timetable of events is never as we wish
or plan. He stayed two more days. Also it shows us that our God
is courageous, and the enemies that sought to kill him, to stone
him in John chapter 10, they sought to stone him because he,
a mere man. Make yourself God. The one thing that I hope and
pray the Lord would give us the grace to do is to proclaim Jesus
as God. always proclaim Him as God, fully
God, in all that He does. As God, He has determinations
and plans which man, unless touched by the grace of God, will never
understand at all. And here we have the Lord Jesus
coming back after that two days of waiting, extraordinary waiting
for Him and the disciples, extraordinary waiting for Mary and Martha,
going back to a place where there was danger for him. So when he
arrived in verse 17, he found that Lazarus had been in the
tomb four days. One of the significant things
about the four days is that the Jews believed that the spirit
of a dead person hovered around for three days. And so with the
spirit gone for four days, there was absolutely no possibility
of resuscitation or resurrection as they saw it. And so it was
just a clear sign that this is just a stupendous miracle. When the Lord Jesus comes, we
have these wonderful, wonderful conversations with Mary and Martha. And I'm troubled to read that
people, commentators, are critical of these women for their faith. And yet I find in the words that
they say, seemingly rebuking Jesus, but there is in the midst
of amazing pain, amazing faith, a faith that God had given them,
a faith that the Lord Jesus had nurtured in them. And so in verse
20, now Martha, as soon as she heard Jesus was coming, went
to meet him. So typical of Martha, the one that is bold and up front,
But Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, Lord,
if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And she
was right. If Jesus had been there, he could
have very easily stopped Lazarus from dying. If Jesus wasn't there
in her presence, he could have very easily stopped Lazarus from
dying. But listen to verse 22, just
read it with me, what faith she has. But even now, I know that
whatever you ask of God, God will give you. I don't know,
that just in the circumstances is remarkable faith. to me, because
remarkable faith rests in the purposes of a remarkable God. She knows how much the Lord loves
Lazarus, but she trusts God to do what He has promised to do
and what He has purposed to do. Lord Jesus makes a promise, your
brother will rise again And Martha, unlike many of the Jews of her
day, believed in the resurrection. I know He will rise again in
the resurrection at the last day. The Sadducees didn't believe
in the resurrection, the Pharisees did. The Scriptures speak wonderfully
of resurrection. Daniel was told, in the very
last verse of Daniel, Daniel's book. But you go your way till
the end, for you shall rest and will arise to your inheritance
at the end of the days. In that wonderfully well-known
passage in Job, Job in the midst of shocking, shocking things
that had happened to him, He says, for I know, verse 25 of
chapter 19 of Job, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He
shall stand at last on the earth, and after my skin is destroyed,
this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall
see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. And Job's words were Mary and
Martha's words, wasn't it, at the end of verse 27 of Job 19,
of how my heart yearns within me. Your brother will rise again.
This conversation like all of Jesus' conversation, brings the
most remarkable words of comfort from our God. Listen to our Saviour
in verse 25. Jesus said to her, 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." Isn't it remarkable to think
that sitting here in this room are people who will never die? Jen and Graham and I were talking
about the chariot of the Lord coming a little while ago. God's
children don't die. Jesus said they do not die. They leave this tent called the
body, which grows old and groans, but they don't die. We are instantly,
the moment we close our eyes, we are instantly in the presence
of God. God's children don't die. They're not my words, they're
Jesus' words. And Christ's question to people
is, do you believe this? The whole purpose of this exercise
is about faith, Jesus who brings faith. wants to nurture faith. He's gone there, according to
verse 17, that you may believe. Do you believe this? She said
to him, a wonderful Christian confession, isn't it? In the
midst of awful pain and suffering. Yes, Lord, I believe that you
are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.
We have this remarkable juxtaposition, don't we? We have on the one
hand the Pharisees who had their representatives around these
scenes wanting to kill Jesus because He claimed to be the
Son of God. And here we have the Son of God
coming to His own and bringing belief with Him. God's children
believe God. They believe God's Word. They
believe the Lord Jesus, and they believe all of God's Word, even
if it brings pain to them in relationships and other things.
They just believe God's Word. And so Mary, Martha goes away
and gets Mary, and in verse 32, we have Mary meeting the Lord. And this Mary is the Mary in
Luke 7, who anointed the Lord Jesus with her tears, with the
oil and with her tears. She fell down at his feet, where
she'd been earlier, listening to him teaching, saying to him,
Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
See, when God's children, who are loved by Him, fall down at
His feet and look to Him in faith, remarkable things would happen. They would see something of God
that very morning that no one else on this planet ever got
to see. Therefore when Jesus saw her
weeping and the Jews who came with her weeping, he groaned
in spirit and was troubled." Hebrews tells us about the Lord
Jesus, that He's touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He knows what it is, remarkably
as a man, He knows what it is to live in these bodies that
we live in. Therefore in all things he had
to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation
for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered."
Here we read of something of Jesus' suffering. Being tempted
he is able to aid those who are tempted. For every high priest,
Hebrews 5.1, is taken from among men and is appointed for men
in things pertaining to God, that he may offer gifts and sacrifices
for sin. He can have compassion on those
who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject
to weakness. Just listen as the Holy Spirit
gives us something of the emotion of the Lord Jesus. Verse 33, When he saw her weeping,
and the Jews who came with her weeping, he groaned in spirit
and was troubled. It's remarkable, isn't it? He
knew what was going to happen in just a few minutes' time. It's a really good thing to remember,
isn't it? That when we are weeping and
when we are groaning in spirit and when we are troubled, There
in heaven sits our compassionate High Priest, who groans in spirit
and is troubled. Where have you laid him? Come
and see." Verse 35, Jesus wept. I've given you a little excerpt
from Hawker's commentary on Jesus' tears. I pray the Lord would
bless it to you. That's just remarkable, isn't
it? That that is the depth of the emotion of our God who rules
this universe at this very moment. Jesus wept. And the Jews said,
see how he loved him. The love of our God for his bride
is the love of a compassionate and a passionate husband. So often So much of our lives
we are prone to doubt the goodness of God, and prone to doubt the
Word of God. It's the disease, the terminal
chronic disease we got in the garden all that time ago. We are so prone to doubt that
God understands how we feel and He has compassion on us and He
loves us just as He loved these people here. See, when He came to the tomb,
verse 38, Jesus again groaning in Himself. See, it wasn't just
a fleeting emotion in our Lord's heart that drove all of these
events. It was love for these people
that sent Him from heaven to earth. It was love for these
people that seemingly kept Him away. was his pain. We read it in Isaiah
53 just a couple of weeks ago. Surely he took up our infirmities. He was wounded for our transgressions. He's not a distant husband. It was a cave and a stone lay
against it. And Jesus said, take away the
stone. Martha, who's practical, the
sister of him who died, said to him, Lord, by this time there
is a stench for he has been dead four days. Jesus said to her,
this is just a remarkable passage, isn't it, where God again is
growing faith. He wants his children to cling
with faith to who he is and what he does. Jesus said to her, did
I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see
the glory of God? Then they took the stone away
from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted
up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard
me. And I know that you always hear
me. But because of the peoples who
are standing by, I said this, that they may believe that you
sent me. And here we have God calling. In John 10 we read earlier about
the shepherd's voice. He cried with a loud voice. He wanted all around to know
it was by His Word that these things had happened. He cried
in a loud voice. He calls his own sheep by name
and he leads them out. And so it's a personal call.
Someone has rightly said, I believe, that if he just said, come forth,
as he will one day, all who are in their terms will have come
out. But he says, Lazarus, it's a personal call, a particular
call, and it's a powerful call. And what a remarkable moment
in Jesus' ministry. We would not be here now if nothing
had happened, would we? We just wouldn't be here. We
would eat, drink and be merry. But God calls powerfully, and
when God calls powerfully, God's people respond. It's just another
sign that Jesus is Lord over this material world. He sovereignly
rules all material things. Have you ever thought about the
fact that Lazarus was lying in a tomb with grave clothes on
and he was bound hand and foot with a cloth over his face and
Jesus speaks a word and what happens to Lazarus? He came forth. How did he get out of the tomb?
Just think about it. How did he get out of the tomb?
You can't walk when you're bound. You can't walk when your feet
are bound. It doesn't say Lazarus hopped out of the tomb. He just
came out. God is sovereign over this material
world. God is sovereign over this spiritual
world. Lazarus had spent those four
days in heaven. and Lazarus' spirit came back
to that body. And you can ask doctors and scientists
what's involved in regenerating, bringing to life all those billions
and billions of cells, all those millions of nerves. The electrical
complexity of our brain is more intricate than the internet electrical
connections on this earth. And all of it had to be regenerated. Just as God spoke a word and
this world came into being, He speaks a word and this man comes
alive. So often when we feel like our
faith is dead, all it takes is a word from God. And the whole purpose of this
last section in John's account, from 45 down to 57, is to show
us that in the face of evidence,
people say, we want evidence. I'll believe if I have evidence.
These men had more evidence than anyone who had ever walked on
this planet. And it's remarkable how God,
as He did with Balaam, overrules the wicked, evil heart of Caiaphas. And Caiaphas, without having
a clue what he's saying, proclaims something remarkable about the
substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus. He did not say this
on his own authority, verse 51, but being high priest that year,
he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation and not for
that nation only, but also that he would gather together in one
the children of God who were scattered abroad. We just love the doctrine of
the substitution of our Lord Jesus, that He stands in our
place. He takes our pain. He takes our
death. He satisfies the justice of God. And so just look again at faith,
this wonderful chapter of faith. Mary and Martha trust Him. They call Him, He whom you love,
referring to their brother. Verse 22, I know that whatever
you ask of God, God will give it to you. The Lord Jesus prayed
that high priestly prayer, asking that the Father would give Him
and glorify in Him the glory of God is seen in the salvation
of his people. I desire, he prayed, that they
whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory which you have given me, for you love me before
the foundation of the world. They believed in the resurrection.
I know that He will rise again. I believe that you are the Christ,
verse 27, the Son of God. Verse 40, He encourages them,
if you would believe, you would see the glory of God. They saw glory that day. as they held their brother in
their arms and gazed upon the Lord Jesus, they saw a glory,
they saw a glimpse of the glory that's going to be theirs in
the flesh. They saw a glimpse of what's
going to happen at the last day. And those who die in the Lord
will all be gathered together as one. And for the disciples,
And for us, all of these things happen that we may believe, that
we may believe the Gospel. that we may believe He who is
the Gospel." And he's just left. There are just two things that
he asks people to do. It's remarkable, isn't it? He
comes to that tomb where a dead man's been there for four days
and he says to the people, roll away the stone. Surely he could
roll the stone away. It's a picture of preaching the
Gospel, the Gospel of God's free grace, that stony hearts would
be transformed, that light would be shone from God, and what's
really the corpse of man in Adam would be seen in light of the
Gospel, and that we would see God. we would be seen by him
and we would see him. And then he says, lose him and
let him go. Take off those grave clothes. See the grave clothes that the
Pharisees, Caiaphas and the chief priests were holding onto are
in verse 48. Our place and our nation They
who were there to represent God before people now claim that
it was their place, not God's place, and our nation, not God's
nation. The grave clothes that all of
us are in until the Lord brings light. The grave clothes of self-righteousness,
of legalism, of free will and works, the grave clothes of ritualism. We need new clothes. God's children
have new clothes in the Lord Jesus. We wear new clothes now. We wear a robe of righteousness
stitched by he who is both man and God. Holy robes are what
God's children wear. Holy robes are what God's children
are dressed in all the time. Take their gloves off, he says. Preach the gospel to them. Remind
them of who Jesus is and what he has done. And God says to
them, let him go. He's my sheep. I'll care for
him. I can do the big things by raising
them from the dead. I can do the little things by
getting him through the trials and troubles and the pain of
this world. We have a great Savior. Let's
pray.