Some of these people were there
when he actually passed away. They had joined with others in
trying to comfort Mary and Martha. The death of Lazarus was very
real to them, very fresh in their memories. In addition, they saw,
they beheld The meekness of Jesus of Nazareth? They saw Him wept,
that He wept. They watched as tears ran down
the face of this one that they didn't believe. They weren't
hypocritical tears. They were genuine tears because
the Scripture says He's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And they saw this. They saw His
great compassion. They saw His love. In fact, they
may have been the ones who actually spoke and said in verse 36, Behold
how He loved him. Look how He loves this man. He
weeps. He weeps. They knew He was not a hard-hearted.
unkind man, they knew he wasn't calloused. They observed him, they watched
him. They walked with him, no doubt,
as he made his way to the tomb of Lazarus. They heard his words,
take ye away the stone. He didn't say roll the stone
away, he said take ye. Take away the stone. When our
Lord Jesus died and was buried and rose again, it says the stone
was rolled away, but not this time. The Lord Jesus says in
verse, if you would back up, our Lord Jesus said, look at
verse 39, Jesus said, take ye away the stone, which means lift
it up. which would indicate this, where
Lazarus was buried, was down kind of in a hole, and the stone
wasn't rolled in front of the opening, but it was laid in front
of the opening. And it would have been a big
stone, because it's got to keep the animals out, it's got to
keep the stench of death out, and so no doubt it took many
men, it took several men, gathered around this big boulder. And
they had to lift it and move it aside. And maybe some of these
very people who were making way to the Pharisees, maybe some
of these men actually assisted in moving the stone. And they would have seen Lazarus
dead and smelled that smell. And then they stood back and
they heard Jesus of Nazareth cry out with a loud voice, Lazarus
come forth. And they watched as this man
Lazarus down there in that hole, he sat up and then he stood up. And they are eyewitnesses of
all of this. They see everything unfolding. They leave this very happy scene
now and go to the enemy. Oh, how vile and wretched these
men were that they could witness the actual resurrection of this
man and yet not believe that the one who raised him is God
in the flesh. Now you're talking about an evidence
of man's depravity, an evidence of man's sinfulness, right here
it is. And it isn't that they said,
well, we just don't believe this way. No, they've got to go to
the enemy. They've got to go to those who
also despise Jesus of Nazareth and tell on Him. You're not going
to believe what he's done now. Well, what else has he done?
He's done a bunch of miracles. What else has he done? You're
not going to believe this. He has actually raised the dead. You know Lazarus died? You remember
Lazarus died? Yeah, didn't he die four or five
days ago? Yeah, four days ago he died. Well, let me tell you
something. You're not going to believe it,
but he's not dead anymore. That man raised him. And it filled
them all with anger. What kind of viciousness is this? I'll tell you what it is. Man's
depravity. That's what it is. This shows
that they're spiritually dead. That they cannot rejoice. That a man lives by the power
of Jesus of Nazareth. Remember, these are Jewish people. They go to speak to the Sanhedrin. That's the largest religious
court in the land of Israel. 71 men plus a president and a
vice president. And these are Jewish people.
They know what's going on in just a few days. It's close to
Passover time. And that means the world to them.
You remember back even on the night of the Passover? The Lord had Moses tell the people,
this is what you're going to do. And He says, and later on
when any of your children asked you, what does this mean? What
does this mean? Why are you killing a lamb? Why
did you put it up four days ago? Why did you inspect it? Why did
it have to be an innocent lamb, a perfect lamb, a male of the
first year without any blemish or spot? When they asked you
that, why did we kill that lamb? Why do we eat that lamb? Why
do we feast on unleavened bread? Why does this go on for seven
days? Moses said, when they asked you
why these things go on year after year after year after year, you
tell them, it's the Lord's Passover. It's the Lord's Passover. And
listen, we're just a very few days from the next Passover in
John chapter 11. They're getting ready for it.
Everybody's thinking about it. Jews who live far away, they're
beginning to pack up their things. It's time to go to Jerusalem
for the Feast of Passover and unleavened bread. And they are
going to get to Jerusalem and they are going to go to the money
changers' tables and exchange some money, foreign currency,
to get the Jewish money, the money that they would have used
according to the Roman law. And then they would have bought
their offerings. And every offering, every animal
that they would buy pointed to the Lamb of God who would lay
down His life as a ransom for sinners. They all know what's
coming up. They know about the Passover.
They know about the promises of God, about Messiah. And yet they have no interest
in this man who is obviously, he's obviously doing these miracles. That in the Old Testament, the
Old Testament Scriptures declared He would do these things. The
lame would walk, the blind would see, the deaf would hear, the
dead would live. And Lazarus is just another illustration. He's just another proof. Jesus
of Nazareth is the Son of God. But they couldn't see this. They
couldn't perceive who He is and they hated Him. I say this is
more evidence of the depravity of the natural man. Here's a
supernatural event has happened. And these people were eyewitnesses
of it all. They still didn't believe. But there were some who did. They believed He was the Son
of God. And as I said already in verse
45, many of the Jews believed. Many of the Jews believed. Every once in a while, I'll read
the Amplified, and the Amplified says, and it's not always trustworthy,
so you have to be careful with that. So I don't want to indicate
that I'm fully behind the Amplified version, but sometimes it can
be a benefit. The Amplified Bible reads on
verse 45, upon seeing what Jesus had done, many of the Jews who
had come with Mary believed in Him, they trusted in Him, they
adhered to Him, and they relied on Him. Many of them did. I said I entitled this message,
Resurrection Time. I entitled it that way. Because
in this scripture, there's more than one resurrection. Oh yeah, there are many resurrections
here. But you know, the only one you
ever hear about is the resurrection of Lazarus. But many more were
resurrected, not physically, but spiritually. Spiritually. Because you see, every person
who believed on Him, many of the Jews which came to Mary and
had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on Him. Everybody
who believed on Him did so because of a resurrection that had happened
in their hearts. In their hearts. resurrection
time. For Lazarus, of course, he was
raised from physical death. That was a wonderful work of
Christ Jesus. You know, verse 44, it says,
sort of matter-of-factly, and he that was dead came forth. And as we shall see, I think
next week, This was kind of the final straw that broke the camel's
back and led the Sanhedrin to finally get organized and make
their plans to get rid of Jesus of Nazareth. But after the physical
resurrection of Lazarus, there came the spiritual resurrections
And I know there are many spiritual resurrections here because nobody
can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ apart from the gift of
spiritual life. And this fact is hidden from
the minds and from the hearts of so many people. Because the
man of the day, the average person of the day, all people today
by nature, We believe that we're under the impression that a person
can believe on Jesus Christ anytime he wants to. But that isn't the case. Because
the Lord Jesus said, you will not come to me that you might
have life. And he said in John 6, no man
can come to me except The Father who has sent me, draw him, and
I'll raise him up again at the last day. What is it to be drawn? What does that involve, this
effectual call of grace? Well, it's a call of life. It's
a resurrection. That's what it is. It's a resurrection. You can't believe on Christ Jesus
anytime you want to. You'll only believe on Christ
Jesus when the Spirit of God gives you life and the result
of regeneration, the result of a spiritual resurrection is belief
in the Son of God. You remember what the Lord said
to Mary or to Martha? Go back to verse 26. He says,
John 11, 26, and whosoever liveth and believeth. It doesn't say
whosoever believeth and liveth, but whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Many of
the Jews were raised from spiritual death and given life in Christ.
This is a far greater miracle. A far greater miracle. Of course, we wouldn't take anything
away from the miraculous raising of Lazarus. He was raised physically, but
he was raised to die again. Right? He was raised to die again. But those who were raised spiritually
would never die. Never die spiritually. because
the Lord gave him spiritual life. He gave him everlasting life.
Turn over to John chapter 5. Look at John chapter 5 and verse
24. John 5 and verse 24. And once again, as our Lord used
verily, verily so often in John 3, and we read just a little
bit ago, so He uses it here. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
John 5, 24. He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, one who commissioned me, who
sent me, he hath, he's already got life. See, the reason he
hears, with understanding and perception and discernment, and
the reason he believes is because he's already got everlasting
life. You really cannot divide everlasting
life from spiritual life because they're so intertwined there
can be no separation. Because when God gives spiritual
life, that spiritual life is everlasting. It's a life that
never dies. And therefore he says, and shall
not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. These people in John 11 who believe,
many of the Jews who believed them, what happened to them? They passed from death unto life. And it was due to the power of
the word of Christ Jesus himself. Because, you see, the same voice
that raised Lazarus spoke in authority and silently, not to
these ears, but to the heart of everybody that he would have
to believe on him that day. And as he said with a loud voice,
Lazarus, come forth! He also spoke to those who were
His lost sheep and He said unto them, and He knows His own sheep
by name and He calls His own sheep by name, He called them
and they lived and they believed on Him. They've been called by
the voice of the Lord Jesus, called by His irresistible, effectual,
omnipotent, life-giving voice. You see, faith in the Son of
God is the evidence of life. It's not the reason for life.
It's not the way we receive life. We're born again by the Spirit
of Christ Jesus. We're born again by the power
of the Lord who uses His Word. We say, well, is His Word, did
He use His Word here in John 11? Who is it who says, Lazarus,
come forth? That's the Word of God. And the
same One who spoke to Lazarus in his death, and he came back
from the dead to life, spoke to all of those who were his
lost sheep. And by His voice, He woke them
up. He gave them life. You see, we were in John 5. Go back to John 5. Let me show
you this. Look at verses 25 through 27. 25 through 27. Another verily, verily I say
unto you, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. Lazarus heard the voice of the
Son of God and he heard and he lived. He can't hear though, he's dead. Yeah, but he heard the voice
that woke up the dead. And he heard the voice and he
came forth. And when the gospel comes to
us, it finds us dead in trespasses and sins. But then the Lord,
mysteriously and miraculously, he causes us to be alive. And we hear. We believe. Look at verse 26. For as the
Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son of
God to have life in Himself. Did He not say, I am the way,
the truth and the life? He has life in Himself and He
has given Him authority, the Father has given Him authority
to exercise judgment also because He is the Son of Man. And the
Son of Man has the authority to give life. The Lord Jesus is the Son of
Man. He's the origin of life. How do we know Lazarus was made
alive? Because when the Lord said, Lazarus
come forth, he that was bound hand and foot came forth. How
do we know that these people, how do we know that they were
made alive? Because they believed on Him.
They believed on Him. But they had to be made alive.
See, there's one thing Lazarus needed. Nobody in the universe
could give it to him except the Son of God. One thing he needed. Oh, when they lifted the stone
away, they could have gone up and gone in, held their noses
maybe, kind of propped him up and could have, you know, splashed
more spices and perfumes on him. They could have made him look
better and smell better, but they couldn't give Lazarus what
Lazarus had to have, life. And these many Jews who were
witnesses to this, I tell you what nobody could give them but
the Son of God. Oh, they could give them religion.
Of course, they already had that. I expect they already had morality. But here's what they didn't have.
They didn't have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the reason
they didn't have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ was because
they were spiritually dead. So what did they need? They needed
life. And he who is life gave them
life. The result was that they believed. What is death? Let's just talk
about death for a couple of minutes. Well, we know death always involves,
it involves separation. That's what death is. Physical
death is the separation of what? The soul from the body. That's what physical death is. There's the body of Lazarus laying
in the tomb for four days. The soul has departed. When the
soul departed, it left that body insensible. It's like that, I
tell you what the soul was to Lazarus, it's the same thing
what your soul is to your body. It's the salt that preserves
it. Sure, that's what your soul is.
It's the salt that preserves your body. And I tell you, when
the salt is gone, when the soul is gone, well you know what happens. The body is not preserved anymore.
It becomes putrid and stinking. When Lazarus died, the preservative
was gone. The soul was gone. The body began
to decay. It began to return to the dust.
It began to stink. Lazarus in his state of death
had no abilities. He had no senses. He couldn't
hear. He couldn't see. He couldn't
feel. He couldn't taste. He couldn't smell. That's the way it is with everybody
who is spiritually dead. We can't hear the gospel with
any kind of comprehension because the things of Christ Jesus have
to be spiritually discerned. We can't see. We can't see the
glories of Christ Jesus. We can't see how precious His
blood is. We can't see the necessity of
His death. We can't see His glories. His
beauties, His perfections. We can't feel. We can't feel
our need of Christ Jesus. We can't feel the warmth of the
love of God. We can't taste. We can't taste the sweetness
of the gospel. The sweetness of the message
of grace. We can't smell the fragrance
of his sacrifice, which is a sweet savor to God. There's no sweeter aroma than
the substitutionary death of Christ Jesus. But a man who's
dead in trespasses and sins, he has no spiritual senses. He's
dead. Well, we talked about death.
What is death? It's separation. Separation of the soul from the
body. Well, what is spiritual death?
It also involves separation. But here's what spiritual death
is. It's the separation of us from
God. What happened when Adam ate in
the garden of the forbidden fruit? Well, what did God say would
happen? In the day ye eat thereof, you'll surely die. What happened
when he ate? He died. You know what that was? A separation
from God. That's what it was. It was a
separation from God. What is eternal death? Everlasting
separation from God. What did our Lord Jesus experience
when He died on the cross? Separation from God. My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It was a separation there.
Never had been a separation before, but it happened one time on the
cross. Death. Spiritual death. Separation
from God. What is spiritual life? It's when God comes back to the
soul. It's called being born again.
It's called being quickened. It's called being regenerated. You see, the Lord of glory, He
comes comes to us who are dead in trespasses and sins, He is
life. And when He comes to us, that's
when we live. And not before. That's why we
say there is no life outside of Christ Jesus. This is a miraculous
thing. Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is that new man who takes
His resonance up within us. The life, the life of the soul
is Christ Jesus Himself. And you who were dead are quickened. And I'll tell you this, the scripture
says the issues of life and death belong to Him. And gathered before him there
at Lazarus' tomb were a bunch of people who were spiritually
dead. Did he give life to everybody?
Nope. No. But he gave life to many
of them. And those who remained dead, they went their way. Because
they weren't comfortable to be around the living. People who are alive to God,
you know who we're most comfortable being around? Other alive people. Isn't that right? James and I
were talking about it, and Ronnie Gregg talking about it riding
back yesterday. Maybe it was going over, we were talking about
how much we enjoyed being together. That's because, and James said
this, it's Christ Jesus who brings us together. He's the one who
knits our hearts together. We have a common cause. We have
a life. A life that's in Christ Jesus
and therefore we like to be around those who are also alive. I'm not so comfortable with being
around dead people. I'm talking about spiritually
dead people, especially spiritual dead people who are religious. Would you have been comfortable
around the Pharisees? They wore the garb of religion,
they had the language of religion, they had the temple, they had
their synagogues, they had their special dress of religion, but
they're dead! They wore grape clothes, as it
were. I wouldn't have been comfortable
around that bunch, and you wouldn't have either. Because the people of God love
to be around people who are also alive. Also alive. We don't find any great joy being
around spiritually dead people. Now, that doesn't mean that we
avoid their company because we need to talk with them, we need
to tell them about Christ Jesus. Some of them are our family members
and we have to have dealings with spiritually dead people.
But I'm talking about the people we most love being around are
other live people. This is resurrection time. That's
what it is. And I'll give you this reference,
one more reference, and I'll quit. Look at Revelation chapter
20. Revelation chapter 20. Look at verse 6. Revelation chapter
20 verse 6. Blessed and holy, blessed, highly
favored, by God and holy separated is he that had part in the first
resurrection. You know what the first resurrection
is? It's what those people in John
11 experienced. It's that new birth. That's the
first resurrection. The second resurrection, see
this body is going to die. It's got to be raised. But the
first resurrection is a spiritual resurrection. And blessed and
holy is the person who has part in the first resurrection. On
such, watch this, the second death has no power. But they shall be priests of
God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years." And
that's just another term to the Jews of a long, long, long time. Have you had a part in the first
resurrection? The only evidence Listen, the
only evidence that you're the elect of God, the only evidence
that you're the redeemed of God, the only evidence that you've
been regenerated, quickened, resurrected by Him who is life
is that you believe Him. That's the only evidence there
is. And these many believed on Him. And so I know it was for
them resurrection time. That's what it was. Resurrection
time. Well, let's sing. Closing.