[Transcript represents full sermon's text]

       John chapter 10, starting in verse 31: “The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands” (ESV).

       Last time, we were left with the famous verse, “I and the Father are one”, which obviously displayed Jesus equality with God the Father. And the Jews understood this—they definitely understood it. Actually, in this passage Jesus is quoting Psalm 86:2, which talks about judges in Israel who were referred to by the psalmist as “gods.” The verse reads, “I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you” (ESV). The argument is being made that if these mere unjust men in the Old Testament were referred to in Scripture as gods, then how could it be that Jesus was at fault for referring of himself as the Son of God when he has demonstrated nothing but righteousness? Their own Old Testament strictness was being used against them. Jesus was saying, “If you believe in the absoluteness of the Old Testament’s words, then even me, myself calling myself God isn’t a problem, because mere sinful Israelites judges were called gods.” The point is even being made by Jesus that if what he is doing before them isn’t righteous, that they shouldn’t believe him. Truth should be the baseline.

       Then we come to famous line, “even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” This is the second option the Israelites had, and really, that anybody has at any time. To believe on account of the works themselves. Sometimes people can’t believe in their logical mind, but they can believe based on what they see God doing. God can do things that cannot be reasonably denied. God can do this or that for a person, or a family, and those around who don’t believe see that good work. It may be that some will believe on account of the works. It’s always best to believe based on what God says, but even if one cannot do that, if one cannot go there, then one can always believe based on some kind of miraculous thing that happens. People always have that option. At this scene with the Israelites, though, Jesus uses this option because surely, and perhaps he knew this already, this would be there last opportunity, their final opportunity to believe as his earthly ministry comes to a close. Indeed—the time was coming when Jesus would no longer be with them.

       Verse 40: “He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” And many believed in him there”. (ESV).

       Thus, as the time hadn’t come yet for Jesus to face what had to come, Jesus goes away to where everything had started. It’s an interesting place to settle. Perhaps it was this place because of all the nostalgia. But this time, John the Baptist is gone, though the Apostle John doesn’t record that event for us. And Jesus is well aware that he’s going to face the same fate that John faced. That had to be hard to even think about, hard to imagine. The encouragement in all of this is that Jesus has people with him who believe. Many are still coming to understand and accept the truth. Even though many Jewish persons had rejected the truth, including the Jewish leaders who had the power, many have come to accept it at the same time. These must have been Jews who had pondered the whole thing for a long time, for they said, “everything that John said about this man was true.” They knew what John the Baptist had said, but they hadn’t believed back then, some three and a half years ago. Now, though, now they had chosen to believe. As long as a person is breathing, there is still opportunity to believe. It’s never too late to believe. It’s best to believe sooner than later but there’s always that opportunity if you are still aware of the truth.

       John chapter 11, verse 1: “Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (ESV).

       We are presented with a friend of the Lord Jesus Christ whose name is Lazarus. We see that he’s from Bethany, and this would be Bethany of Judea, and not the Bethany where John the Baptist had carried out his ministry. John notes that Mary is the one who anointed Jesus’ feet, which, since this hasn’t happened yet in John’s Gospel (not until the next chapter), shows that John knew his readers were familiar with Matthew and Mark’s Gospels. They already knew of the event. Unfortunately, we aren’t given any background to how Jesus and Lazarus were friends, what the backstory was. Anyhow, Jesus and Lazarus appeared to be close friends, so much so that the sisters of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, send a messenger to tell him the news, and so that he would come to visit Lazarus. Thus, the seriousness of his illness is demonstrated. And, as we fix our eyes on the words of the text, it would appear that Mary and Martha were hoping that Jesus would be able to heal his friend, their brother. That appears to be the most important reason as to why the sisters had sent for Jesus—they were hoping for him to perform a miracle that would heal their brother.

       Then we see the delay on Jesus’ part, the unexpected delay. And at first glance, it appears that Jesus is prophesying as pertains to the situation, when he says, “This illness does not lead to death.” Seems like a guarantee that Lazarus isn’t going to die. Some assuring words. Of course, for those of us who know the story, we know what happens. But at that moment, no one knew what was going to happen, save Jesus himself. Notice how he says, “It is for the glory of God.” That should ring familiar to us as that statement is similar to the one he used at the beginning of John chapter 9, remember, when he encouraged the blind man, who had been in fact born blind. Back there we asked if that meant that God had him blind all the way back from birth for the very healing that would take place. Anyway, here we come across the phrase again. “It is for the glory of God,” he says. The question becomes as to when that’s decided. Was it decided a long time ago, or does Jesus make that decision here on the spot? Perhaps the Father had told him that there would be a big miracle that would occur before Jesus’ end, and when Jesus heard here about Lazarus being sick, he knew this was the situation of which that miracle was going to occur. Or perhaps, perhaps, it was due to the hardening of the Jews’ hearts, in that they needed one last miracle to show them the truth—to try to get them to believe.

       Whatever the circumstances behind the situation, we know that this miracle that Jesus is about to perform will be the biggest and grandest of his entire earthly ministry. It’s an incredible thing he is going to do. And the whole purpose of it is, is that God will be glorified. For the glory of God. With this miracle, God will have demonstrated everything he could possibly do to try to get the Jews to believe. Everything he could possibly do. This is how far the miracles go. God is hoping that this, perhaps this, will get the Jews to believe. Perhaps a person rising from the dead will be enough. Maybe it could be just enough for them to change their minds and accept the truth. But we know, if we read elsewhere, that while Jesus is going to do this miracle through God’s power, while it is going to be amazing, there is still concern on the part of the Father and the Son that the Jews aren’t going to believe. How do we know that? Well, Luke tells us that. Remember the story of the rich man who goes to Hell? We read in that story, “And he [the rich man in Hell] said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead’” (Luke 16:30, 31, ESV). There’s the terror of it all, the terror of it all.

       Verse 5: “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer 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, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you 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 anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (ESV).

       Much is going on in this section, and let’s break it down. For starters, John notes that “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” Therefore, all three of these persons were close to Jesus. John may have written this in case anyone was questioning why he delayed in coming, or it could have been John simply wanted to emphasize the affection that Jesus had for his friends. Whatever the case, Jesus and his disciples need to venture back into the region of Judea, which could have been dangerous for them, due to what happened here in the last chapter, when the Jews wanted to stone him to death. Jesus then notes that there is no time to waste—no time to mill around and not get God’s work done. To parallel with what Jesus spoke, John writes in his first epistle, in chapter 2: “Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:10, 11, ESV). That’s what Satan’s power had been doing. When the Jews didn’t believe, it blinded their eyes. They didn’t accept the truth because they hated Jesus, and that led to their continual sin against God. They weren’t converted.

       Anyhow, in Jesus’ delay in going to make the visit, Lazarus ends up dying. And Jesus supernaturally knows this fact. He tries to tell the disciples covertly, but they don’t understand. (And, perhaps Lazarus was already gone when the original messenger arrived to tell Jesus). So, he tells them plainly. No reaction is recorded as to what the disciples thought, for they were probably friends with him too and would have been saddened. Yet, God is going to perform the miracle that is above all miracles up to this point, and Jesus knows it. We can note Jesus’ usage of the terminology “fallen asleep,” which will be carried over into the church age by Luke and even Paul. Then we see the famous verse which shows how Thomas felt about venturing back into Judea, where the disciples perceived the situation to be dangerous. Thomas feels they are going to be killed. This feel isn’t just negative thinking, but actually had a decent probability of actually occurring. After all, we understand that Jesus himself will be arrested soon, and will die. Thus, the danger was real.

       Verse 17: “Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 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 from 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 on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who 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 coming into the world” (ESV).

       Yet, another reason comes for observation to us as pertains to Jesus’ delay in coming to see Lazarus. That was because he wanted to make sure he was no doubt dead. Having been in the tomb for four days assured that. No question could be brought forth by anyone that Lazarus wasn’t dead. If Jesus had arrived, say, an hour after he had died, or even a day after, some people might have claimed that Lazarus was never truly dead. They have tried to claim he was just in a deep coma. But at this point, if Lazarus had still been alive, there probably would have been some hollering heard from behind the stone to let him out, but that obviously never occurs. No ‘buried alive’ going on here. Martha, anyway, in going out to see Jesus, states what we’ve already touched upon, and that is that she believed Jesus could of in fact healed her brother. Even in these negative circumstances, she still seems to believe that Jesus can and will bring the greatest good out of this situation. It might seem, by what she said, that she believed Jesus could in fact raise Lazarus from the dead. However, that doesn’t seem likely, since she says as Jesus asks the stone to be taken away, in verse 39: “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” That doesn’t sound like the statement of one who understood or was anticipating what was about to happen. And Jesus even feeds into her thinking, in focusing on what is going to happen after we all die, that we “shall… live” and “never die.” Of course, Martha agrees with him.

       We come to one of the most startling sections of the whole entirety of Scripture. Verse 28: “When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept” (ESV).

       The mind can find it very easy to assume that this situation we’ve just read can be or will applicable to us all. Therein, however, seems to lie a great temptation. This miracle of Jesus had a specific purpose, a very specific purpose, and that was the reason for the delay. The assumption ought not be made that what happens in this scene is the normal life experience, that God is testing us or waiting to see what our response to a situation will be. God does test us at times, but the purpose of this miracle was so that the Jews might have one last chance in believing. One last chance. This section of Scripture ought not to be used to give individuals false hope, as if something bad happening in our lives right now is happening because God is causing it to happen, and at a certain, specific time he’s going to reverse it. It could be too easy to read our own circumstances into this circumstance. It seems good to relay this point since, in following some teachings, one could obtain an expectation from God with their own situations that simply isn’t likely.

       In the midst of all of this, within the whole thing, the scene of Mary weeping, the Jews weeping, John records that Jesus “was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.” We see the emotional side of Jesus, the human side, and really, truth be told, the God side. Realization starts to come, as this is read, that those Old Testament interpretations of God, say from Genesis chapter 6, where Moses recorded, “And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (6:6, ESV). Or, we could consider Isaiah 63:10, “But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit” (ESV). Where we see those types of passages, we understand that they assuredly mean what they say. They aren’t anthropomorphic, as if they don’t mean what they really mean. Those notions are debunked by John right at this moment. If those are anthropomorphic, then it would be safe to assume that what John had recorded here is the same. But we know it’s not. God cares. Feelings are present for him within the realm of time, contrary to what many, many people believe.

       We read, “Jesus wept.” “Jesus wept.” And thus, we see a problem for theologies like Calvinism right before our eyes. “Jesus wept.” An impossibility that would be, under a predetermined mindset—for under that line of thinking, this would all be an act. All foreknown, all predetermined, and thus all disingenuous. Not real. Just a play. It is hard for us to fathom with our minds what all of this actually entails. Indeed, we know this is the shortest verse in our Bibles, and yet, arguably and ironically, it is the most complex verse. It is the most theologically deep. A different version of God is painted from the one we are often used to, wherein we think God is above all cares and problems, that is, above in the sense that they don’t affect his emotions. Plato’s view of God can reside in our minds—for in all honestly it stems from him—that God lacks emotion, and really, in reality, simply has a grin on his face. Actually, in reading Scripture carefully, we can determine that that’s not the case. God interacts with what is going on in his world, and actually in sequence to what is going on in the world. It’s not as if God is outside of it all, and disconnected from it all. On the contrary, the Apostle Paul noted, even of Christ, “in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17, ESV). That’s very involved, very involved.

       Verse 36: “So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” (ESV).

       It becomes obvious to all the love Jesus had for his friend, and the question asked, the question asked, is a question we so often find ourselves asking. Within this question presented here by some of those standing by is the aged-old question. It’s the one we ask from time to time, whenever something bad happens, right? We say, “Well, if God is in control of everything then couldn’t he have prevented this from happening? Why did this happen to me?” And usually, in fact, almost always, the answer comes back in the form of whatever has happened, has happened for a reason, that it’s for our good, that it’s for God’s glory. Right? That’s the typical answer. Or, one might say, “God has something for us to learn in this, and that’s why he’s allowed the situation to happen?” But, in considering all of this, could it be, rather, that there is evil in the world, there are other beings who are against God, including people, and that there is also a complexity to the world that results in these types of things? Perhaps God wanted and desired something different, but that different thing didn’t happen due to the reasons afore to mentioned. One can either believe that everything that happens is a result of God’s will, or one can simply believe that no matter what happens, even when it’s bad, God works to bring the greatest good out of it. He works for our good.

       Verse 38: “Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

       When Jesus asks for the stone to be taken away, Martha still doesn’t realize what is about to happen. She probably thinks, due to Jesus’ high emotion, that he simply wants to see Lazarus’ body. And due to who he was, they finally relented, and removed the stone, knowing that things probably weren’t going to be pretty. That’s when Jesus turns the table, when he catches them off guard. It’s an incredible thing to think about in what happens here, almost so much so that it seems the commentating about it doesn’t really do it justice. It’s almost as if the things we think in our heads cannot be translated to words—for it so great of a miracle. This has been the problem for the whole human race all along, the problem of death. Everybody everywhere, no matter what country you consider, no matter what people group you consider, is looking to overcome death. To overcome death. The ultimate triumph, the ultimate victory. Here, in in this moment, this man standing before them, in all of human history, finally does it. He defeats death. He has the answer. Incredible.

       Jesus said, ““Unbind him, and let him go.” ““Unbind him, and let him go.” That phrase is such a good one if we stop and consider it. It could easily hang above a pulpit in a church, for truly, in reality, this is what God is doing for each person, one by one. When a person chooses to believe, when a person responds to God’s call, that’s what happens. Unbound from sin they become, and freedom overtakes the person. Really, all of us have experienced what Lazarus experienced, and in the future, we are going to experience it again. The experience will be had for us when we lose our sin affected bodies for new bodies. Then, then, we will truly be unbound and let go. Yet, even now, even now, we can experience that, for we are truly born again, born a second time. It’s too bad John doesn’t record the people’s response to this whole thing, yet, it does seem like that would be hard task to put into words. Jesus gained his friend back, but more importantly he was able to return him to his beloved sisters, so that they could have their brother back, and enjoy his company once again.

- Daniel Litton