In John chapter 11 we read the
account of Lazarus who was sick and died. He was laid in a grave
and of how Jesus comes to him and raises him from the dead.
In the midst of the chapter when Jesus came unto Lazarus' sisters,
Mary and Martha. We read from verse 32, Then when
Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at
his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother
had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her
weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned
in the spirit and was troubled, and said, Where have ye laid
him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, behold how
he loved him. When Jesus therefore saw her
weeping and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned
in the spirit and was troubled and said, where have ye laid
him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, behold how
he loved him. In this chapter, not only do
we see the great love that Christ has for his people, and the way he has moved with
compassion for them, so much so that the man Jesus wept in
sorrow for Lazarus and the sorrow of his people. Not only do we see his love and
his compassion, but in the account of Lazarus's death and Christ
raising him from the dead, We see the impact, the effect of
Christ, the light of God, shining in the darkness of this world. The darkness of this world knows
nothing but death, sin and destruction. Yet when Christ, the light of
God, enters into the darkness, When he who is the light works
in the day, there is life and life everlasting. Christ says
earlier in the chapter on hearing of Lazarus' sickness, he says
to his disciples, let us go into Judea again. And his disciples
say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee,
and goest thou thither again? Jesus answered, Are there not
twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he
stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But
if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no
light in him. These things said he. And after
that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but
I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples,
Lord, if he sleep he shall do well. Albeit Jesus spake of his
death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest
in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead. That's his Christ in the day. come into those in the darkness
in whom there is no light who lay in the grave dead in
trespasses and sins he comes into the darkness and he speaks
and when he speaks Lazarus who was dead is brought forth alive. In this we see an illustration
of the theme of John's gospel. John opens his gospel with these
words, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shineth
in darkness. and the darkness comprehended
it not. Hear, Christ, the word of God,
the light of God, he in whom there is life, the light of men,
came into the darkness of this world, came to the tomb of Lazarus,
where a man lay dead in the grave and he spake. In the beginning was the word. The word, the life, the light
of God spake and he who was dead lived. We see the absolute contrast
here between light and darkness Righteousness and sin. Life and
death. Are there not twelve hours in
the day? If any man walk in the day, he
stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But
if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no
light in him. Where Christ is There is light. He is the day. To walk in the
day is to walk in Christ. To be in the light is to be in
Christ. To have life is to have Christ. But if a man walk in the night,
he's dumb if because there is no light in him. Outside of Christ
there's just darkness and death. Why was Lazarus dead in the grave? Because Christ was not there.
It took Christ to come unto him and to speak for the dead man
to live. In this, Lazarus is a picture
of us all. He's a picture of us all. We're
all dead in the grave without Christ. And in being raised again
from the dead, Lazarus is a picture of every one of Christ's sheep
under whom he comes and speaks through the gospel that they
who were dead might live. He says unto his disciples that
our friend Lazarus sleeps. They thought he meant he slept
for rest but Christ spake of his death and he tells them plainly
Lazarus is dead. He wasn't just asleep he was
dead just like us we are dead in trespasses and sins we're
not just sleeping in our sin We're not just mistaken in our
sins. Faulty. Not quite where we should
be. Not as good as we should be.
We are dead. Totally dead. We're in the darkness. We're blind. We cannot see our
way. We cannot comprehend the truth. We cannot come unto Christ. We
cannot seek life. because there is no light in
us. For man walk in the night, he
stumbleth because there is no light in him. And by nature there
is no light in us, none at all. There's no light in our wisdom. There's no light in our knowledge.
There's no light in us whatsoever. There's no light in the world
around us. We live in a world of darkness. There's no light in the wisdom
of this world, in the knowledge of this world, in the understanding
of this world. There's no light in the religion
of this world. Whatever name it goes under,
Whatever means you use to seek after God and eternal life, if
it's the wisdom of this world, if it's the religion of this
world, if it depends upon your knowledge, your works, your will,
your strength, there's no light in it. None at all. The Jews in Judea sought to stone
Christ. they had their religion and their
reaction to the truth to the life of God to the light of God
when it came unto them was to put him to death and here in Judea Lazarus lay
in the grave And Christ seeks to come back to Lazarus, to come
to where Lazarus was in Judea. And the disciples warned Christ
that the last time he was there, the Jews, the religious custodians
at the time, sought to put him to death. Where was their light? Where was their wisdom that the
one who could save, the one who was light, the one who could
bring to life, they sought to stone to death? Is that your religion? Is that
where your knowledge and wisdom has got you, that you want to
silence Christ? That you shut your ears to his
gospel? that you'd rather not hear that
you'd rather he was stoned and buried and out of sight for all
your profession of being righteous for all your profession of being
good for all your upstanding for all your knowledge for all
your religion ultimately when the truth comes is your reaction
that's not the Christ I know That's not a Jesus I will follow. That's not a religion I can accept. And you stone him. And you trample
the blood of Christ underfoot. If it is, then you remain in
Judea, in the darkness, by the gravesite, in a grave, dead,
like Lazarus. By nature, that's where we all
are. dead in the darkness, lost. Consider Lazarus here in the
grave. Four days since he passed away from his
sickness. Four days his body was stinking
and rotting. Four days he laid in the grave in a tomb. sealed with a stone,
wrapped in burial clothes, with a napkin over his face. All pointers to Christ himself
and the death and the burial which he would endure in order
to set his people free. Christ too was laid in a tomb,
a cave. Christ too had a stone over the
entrance to the tomb. Christ too was wrapped in grave
clothes with a napkin over his face. Christ too died because
of sin, unbelief, the rebellion of his people. It's sin that laid Lazarus in
the grave. It's the bearing of his people's
sins that would lay Christ in the grave. When Christ comes
unto Mary Amartha, Mary says, Lord, if thou hadst
been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw
her weeping and the Jews also weeping which came with her,
he groaned in the Spirit and was troubled and said, Where
have ye laid him? Where have ye laid him? Where
is he? Where is he? This phrase will be reminded
later again of Jesus in the tomb. But when Mary came to find Jesus
at the tomb, she found that the stone of his tomb was rolled
away. And she found the grave clothes
and the napkin laid, and the body of Jesus not there. And
she said, where have they laid him? Where is my Lord? Where have they taken him? Where
have they laid him? Lazarus laid helpless in the
grave, unable to deliver himself, condemned by sin, weak, dead. The tomb could not hold Christ. The tomb could not hold Christ. who is the life and the light
of man. Yes Christ came to Judea here
where the Jews had once sought to stone him at risk of being
stoned again he comes back as the light into the midst of the
darkness he comes to where Lazarus laid he comes to the grave He
comes to where we are. In entering this world, the light
of God came into the darkness unto a people who would stone
him, unto a people who would slay him, unto a people who in
the end, every one of us, crucified him. He came into the darkness
to where we are. And though we should slay him,
he came to set his people free. He came to bring life to those
who were dead. He came to set them free. And he came because he loved
them. O believer, why did he come into
the darkness for you? Because he loved you and gave
himself for you. He came to set us free. He said, where have ye laid him?
They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how
he loved him. Jesus wept. He was moved with compassion. He was stirred in himself. He wept with great sorrow. He
empathized with Mary and Martha and those he loved. He felt their
sorrow. He shared their sorrow. He loved
Lazarus too. He wept over what sin had done
unto Lazarus, the death that sin had brought in, the condemnation,
the misery, the sorrow. He was moved with compassion.
Even the Jews could see. Behold how he loved him. Oh, how dead in our sins we are. How helpless, how lost, how weak,
how unable to do anything for ourselves. We're just dead in
the grave. And oh, the sorrow at what sin
has wrought. Oh, the sorrow of Mary and Martha. Oh the sorrow of each and every
one of us when a loved one passes from this world. It's not natural
in a sense. It's not how things should be. It's the consequence of sin. Death is not part of a natural
order. It exists in this world because
of sin. It's the consequence of the sorrow,
the tragedy, the misery it brings. There's none of us who pass through
life that are not touched by it. Sooner or later there are
loved ones who we say bye to, who we see pass on, we see the
effect of sin, we see the death it brings. But if we know the Christ who
came to Lazarus, we will know the life. that delivers
from death. Yes, Christ wept. He wept for
Martha. He wept for Mary. He wept for
Lazarus. He wept because of the sin and
the consequence of sin, death. He wept because of the misery
and the effects it has on his people. And he wept also because
of our unbelief. How lacking in faith we are to
believe what Christ can do. He came unto Mary and Martha. And Martha knew who Christ was. She knew that her brother would
be raised up in the end. And yet she's still sorrowed.
And Christ reminds her that where He is, there is life. I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Where I am, there is life. And if I come unto you now, there
is life. Yet when trouble comes our way
though we may know Christ though we may believe his gospel when
trouble comes our way all we see is the trouble there and
then all we see is the despair it brings upon us we look at
it now and we see the trouble it's brought and we look at the
future and worried of what may come And we don't believe that
Christ will provide. That he who is life will raise
us up. That he who is life can do all
things. How weak our faith is. How much
of our time is spent in unbelief. How much of our sorrow stems
from unbelief. How much of our misery and despair
is simply because we look on the outward circumstance and
we don't look to Christ. Here is Lazarus' hope, here is
eternal life, stood in the midst of this people and they weep
as though they're on their own. And yet here's the one who can
bring life. Here's the answer. Look unto
me. all the ends of the earth and
live. Yes, Jesus looks on their sorrow,
on the sorrow of death, on unbelief, and weeps. Oh, the hardness of
our hearts by nature. Oh, the deadness of religion.
Our blindness, our self-righteousness, We look to ourselves and our
own strength and our own ability to bring about answers, rather
than looking unto Christ alone. We seek life, we seek solutions,
we seek strength in our own ability or our own means, our own works,
our own will, rather than confessing that we are but death and Christ
is our all. All our religion, all our works,
all our will lead us to one place, the grave. When Christ wasn't there, Lazarus
had nothing. When Christ came unto him, Lazarus
lived. Outside of Christ, in the darkness,
we have nothing. In the light, we have the riches
of God in Jesus Christ. So Jesus came to those that sorrowed,
and with those that sorrowed, he wept. Behold how he loved
him. How he loved him. Again we're reminded later in
John in chapter 20 of how Mary came to the grave, came to Jesus's
grave and wept. Wept for her master. Wept in
sorrow at what sin had wrought, his death. Wept that he was no longer with
her. Oh how that weeping was replaced
with joy when the risen Christ came unto her in the garden and
called unto her Mary. Mary. Behold how he loved him. How he loved him. How Christ
weeping for his own, for his children. shows his love. Oh, his reaction to what is seen
here. His love for Lazarus. His love
for Martha and Mary. His love for his own. Lazarus is mentioned earlier
in the chapter as being he who loved the Lord. He who loved him. Lazarus loved
Christ and Christ loved him. Lazarus loved Christ because
Christ loved him. Lovest thou me? Christ asked
Peter. Lord, thou knowest that I love
thee. Do you love this Lord or do you
love the darkness? Having wept, Christ says unto those nearby,
take ye away the stone. He looks upon the grave. He comes
unto the grave, a cave with a stone laying upon it. and says, take
ye away the stone. But Martha, the sister of him
that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh,
for he hath been dead four days. And Jesus saith unto her, said
I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst
see the glory of God. Lazarus had laid in this grave
four days he was utterly dead decomposing beyond hope just as we are every one of us
by nature man fell in the garden in Adam at the beginning of time
sin entered this world and death by sin and death has passed with
sin from generation to generation to generation and by the time
the light of God Jesus Christ came into this world in the fullness
of time how dead mankind was by the time Christ entered this
world and came into the darkness, came to where we are, came to
the grave in which we all laid, how we stank! How far past hope
we all were by this time! He stinketh! How can one possibly be raised
from the dead after so long a time? It's too late. Four days. Four days. As we know elsewhere in the scriptures,
one day is as a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand
years is as one day. When Christ entered the world
two thousand years ago, mankind had laid in the grave of his
sin. for at least 4,000 years. Mankind
in Adam was at least 4,000 years old. 4,000 years dead in trespasses and
sins. Dead for four days in the eyes
of the Lord. Utterly past hope. Stinking in
the grave of iniquity. And Christ came unto us, lying
in the grave of our sin. As he came unto Lazarus after
four days, he came as the light in the darkness and said, take
away the stone. As Lazarus hears a picture of
us all, All in Adam, dead in trespasses and sins. All in Adam,
dead in trespasses and sins. Totally, utterly depraved, beyond
hope. And yet Christ comes and says,
take away the stone. Consider this tomb in which Lazarus
laid. A tomb, a cave sealed with a
stone. A stone on that tomb that speaks
of being condemned. Condemned under the law. Condemned
under every charge of God's law. We are all guilty. We have never
kept the commands of the law. on either of the two tablets
of stone on which the Ten Commandments were written. We've not loved
God with all our heart, soul and mind. We've not loved our
neighbor as ourselves. We've failed utterly each and
every day of our lives. We're guilty of its every charge. And there's a stone that seals
the tomb in which we're buried. A stone. even with our religion,
even with our best deeds, even with our most righteous in our
eyes works, even with our best deeds and our best will to serve
God and to live rightly and to treat our neighbor well, even
though we should give our lifetime in religious devotion, we fail
utterly. the stone seals us in the grave
and keeps us there and we cannot move it and the stone seals us
and silences us in the darkness of our grave such that even should
Christ come and stand outside and call us forth we cannot hear
him Not only are we in the darkness
but we're blind so we cannot see. Not only are we in the darkness
but we're deaf so we cannot hear. And we lay in a grave that is
sealed with a stone so that nothing can enter in. Our hearts are
sealed. Our hearts are sealed with a
stone. We have stony hearts into which
no light can enter. We do not hear. Though a preacher
comes with the gospel and declares unto us Christ plainly, though
he should shine forth the light, we see nothing. Because there's
a stone of our self-righteousness, our works, our will, our religion
that seals it. There's a stone of the condemnation
of the law that seals the tomb in which we lay. We cannot escape. There is nothing we can do. All
that we have done has sealed us in the tomb. Every effort
we have made to attain unto heaven and eternal life by our own strength
has just laid us further in the grave. We need Christ to come
and to roll the stone away, to have the stone removed. We need
him to come and to call us out and to give us life. To call
us out of the tomb. out of our death, out of our
sin, out of the darkness, out of our religion, out of our wisdom,
out of our knowledge, out of our pride and our arrogance. We need him to call us forth
out of this world. of its religion, to call us forth
from our works, our will, the wisdom of man, the pride and
the arrogance of man. All of these things have slain
us, they kill us, they keep us in the grave. We're sealed in
the tomb with our pride, our arrogance, our self-importance,
our self-righteousness. You are. I am. This stone upon our tomb condemns
us utterly. Our sins condemn us, but none
so much as our sins of self-righteousness, our sins of religion, our sins
of pride, our sins of thinking that there's something good in
us. which God should look upon with pleasure. It's a stone which
seals the entrance to our tomb. It stands in the way of us ever
escaping. That religion, that law, that
stone must first be rolled away. So Christ comes unto Lazarus
and says, take ye away the stone. If you and I are ever to believe
or ever to know Christ and his light, his life, his love, then
the stone must be taken away. That had to happen first before
the word could breathe life into Lazarus's dead soul. before the
Word could breathe life. In the beginning was the Word,
Christ himself, the Word of God, came unto Lazarus in the tomb. But first he rolled the stone
away. Take ye away the stone, he commanded. The law, its curse, its condemnation
needs to be set aside. And this is why Christ came.
Before ever his people could hear his voice in the gospel,
he himself had to come and deliver them from that stone. He himself had to come and take
all that was against them away. Christ himself had to come into
the darkness of this world and take the condemnation away. All that kept them in the grave
had to be taken away. He had to take away their sin. He had to take away the condemnation. He had to take away the guilt.
He had to take away the law. He had to deliver them. And so
he came. And in Lazarus' place, he was
hung upon a cross. And God laid upon him Lazarus'
sins, Lazarus' unbelief, Lazarus' self-righteousness. God laid
upon his own son all that kept Lazarus in the grave. And God
poured down the fury of his wrath, the law's condemnation upon his
own son. who was made to bear the guilt
of Lazarus, the sin of Lazarus, the death of Lazarus. God poured
out his fury upon his son for all that Lazarus was and all
that everyone like Lazarus, everyone chosen of God as Lazarus was,
everyone who was brought to love Christ, all his people. God laid
upon Christ all their sins of all the elect and slew his own
son. and condemned him for what Lazarus
had done in order that the stone that kept Lazarus in the grave
might be rolled away. God condemned his son believer
with your sins and your guilt and your wretched unbelief in
order that the stone that kept you in the grave should be rolled
away. And God laid his son in a tomb,
just like the one Lazarus was laid in, just like the one you're
in by nature outside of Christ, just like the one sinner that
you lay in now. God laid his own son in such
a tomb with a stone that sealed it as a testament to what he
had done. But God rolled that stone away. Because Christ had taken away
the sin. He'd taken away the guilt. He'd
taken away the condemnation. He took away the darkness. He
swallowed it all up and the light shone forth. And the tomb could
no longer hold him. And Mary came to that tomb and
found the stone rolled away and found her Lord not there and
said, I know not where they have laid him. And Christ, risen from
the grave victorious, came unto Mary and said, Mary, Mary. She heard the word of God. She saw the light. She knew the
life. This is what Christ came to do
in order that he could command, take ye away the stone. in order that he could come in
the gospel in the times to come to each and every one of those
for whom he died that he might come unto us today in the gospel
and through the preaching of his gospel he can come unto us
and say come forth from the grave because I have rolled away the
stone that keeps you there take ye away the stone Then they took
away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And
Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, 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, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he
had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus, come forth. And he that
was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and
his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them,
Loose him and let him go. Lazarus come forth. What did it take to give life
unto Lazarus? The word of the Lord, he came
unto him, the stone being rolled away, Christ having died and
risen again for Lazarus, he comes unto him where he lays and says,
Lazarus come forth, he spake. And that's just what we need
to hear. If we, in the darkness, in the
death of our sin, lay in the grave, we need Christ to come
unto us, rolling the stone away, and call us by name, come forth. We need to hear the gospel from
Christ's own lips. By the power of His Spirit, He
needs to speak, He needs to cry life into our souls. And though
we may have laid in that grave for four days, though we in Adam
may have lain in sin for four thousand, six thousand years,
though we may be rotten in our sin, nothing, nothing will stand
in the way of this speech, these words, this voice, this Gospel,
this Saviour. This Christ, Lazarus, come forth. Has he come unto you? Has he
spoken? Has he called out your name?
And has he said, loose him and let him go? If Christ comes unto
us and calls out, come forth, we will live. We will live, there's
nothing that can stand in the way. There's no objections of
man that can prevent it. There's no unbelief of our heart
that can set it back. No matter how dead we are, no
matter how unbelieving we are, no matter how rebellious we are,
no matter how far off we have strayed, we're all in the same
place, dead in the grave. And if Christ should come and
roll the stone away and call forth our name, we will live. We will live. And wherever Christ
goes with his gospel throughout this earth, wherever he enters
by his spirit, however far off someone may be, should he come
in power by his gospel and preach life unto their souls and call
a sinner to come forth, they will live, you and I included. Lazarus. come forth. And Christ called for the grave
clothes to be removed. He said loose him and let him
go. He calls for those that he calls
out of the grave to be loosed and set free, to be delivered
from all that kept them in the grave. to be delivered from the
law, delivered from the coverings of their dead works, delivered
from their self-righteous deeds, take it all away, take all of
those works, all of that will, all of that false religion away,
set them at liberty, set them free, loose him and let him go. Lazarus was set free. As Paul said, for I through the
law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. He'd been delivered. The law had laid him in the grave,
but he came forth robed in a new robe. All those dead clothing,
all those dead grave clothes that he had from these legal
works were stripped from him and he was arrayed in Christ.
He was arrayed in the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. He was
clothed anew. Because if the sun shall make
you free, ye shall be free indeed. The truth shall set you free. Loose him and let him go. Where is the light in the darkness
of this world? that will set you and I free
from the death and condemnation of our sin. Where is this light? Where is it to be found? Where
is it to be seen? Where is it to be heard? In the
beginning was the word. In the beginning. The light is
in Christ, his word, his gospel. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of man. And the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. We cannot
see, though it shines. We cannot hear, though it speaks.
But when Christ comes to the grave, and rolls away the stone,
and calls forth our name, we cannot but hear. Lazarus, come
forth, loose him, and let him go. O may God come in Christ
to us this day, to where we lay, and call our name, and give us
life, and give us light in Jesus Christ alone. May he be our resurrection. May he be our life. May he be
our all. For Jesus wept for those whom
he loves. And the Jews looking on said
of him, behold how he loved him. Behold how he loves them. Amen.