Sermon on John 11:1-45

10th April 2011. John 11:1-45
The Gospel of John includes seven miracles,
They are called “signs”.
Most of the “signs” are involved with healing someone.
They all show us who Jesus really is,
And they challenge us.
I hope that you ARE being challenged by God’s Word.
If you are not – if you are not being challenged and transformed by God’sWord,
Then be afraid ……….be very afraid….
You might have a hard, calloused heart.
Does that describe your heart?…then you need to be praying (urgently) that God might soften your heart.

The account that we read today,
the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead,
is the last of the seven signs
–– the last and the greatest sign.
Just like Jesus’ resurrection is the last great “sign”.

There is another “Lazarus” in the gospels,
Apart from this one we heard about today,
It is in the parable of the rich man,
and a beggar called Lazarus,
Both the rich man and Lazarus die,
– the rich man goes to hell – separated from God
Lazarus, the poor man goes to heaven.
The rich man begs Abraham to free him from that place,
When that request is not acceded to,
The rich man pleads with Abraham to send Lazarus and warn his brothers,
so that his brothers don’t end up where he is.
Abraham says that his brothers have had the prophets,
the Word of God,
The rich says that if someone goes to his brothers from the dead (Lazarus)
Then his brothers would repent
But Abraham says
that the brothers would not believe
EVEN IF SOMEONE WERE TO RISE FROM THE DEAD.
We know that to be true.
Jesus has risen from death to life,
And still people will not believe.

And that is the key to this passage
And the key to life – is that someone has risen from the dead,
but most of humanity doesn’t care less!

This passage today - the raising of Lazarus
takes place in Bethany, near Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is where Jesus will die,
and the resurrection of Lazarus triggers the plot that will result in Jesus' death.
The resurrection of Lazarus is the straw that breaks the camels back!
Jesus shows through this “sign” that he has power over death,
That He (Jesus) can raise the dead,
And that - just like He raised Lazarus,
He can raise you and me from death to life.

There is absolutely no reason why anyone here needs to experience eternal death,
And not be raised from death to life.
We will all have to face physical death,
We are in a perishable body,
Jesus came so that the imperishable (eternal life),
Would be available to us.
Jesus came to offer each one of us, eternal life.

These miracles are called signs, because they point to something.
That is what “signs” do.
These signs point to Jesus.
They confirm that Jesus is working with God's power.
When people saw Jesus' miracles, they believed that He was from God.
They knew that he must have been using God's power.

Ironically, that's why the chief priests and Pharisees decided to kill Jesus.
In their eyes, Jesus was a young upstart ––
a dangerous young man ––
one who failed to show proper respect for them and their traditions.
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, they said,
"This man is performing many signs.
If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him" (11:48).
So they decided to kill him.

But that's getting ahead of the story.
The whole thing begins when Lazarus, a friend of Jesus, falls ill.
His sisters, Mary and Martha, send for Jesus ––
obviously hoping that Jesus will come quickly and heal their brother.

But Jesus surprises us.
He doesn't immediately set out for Bethany,
he delays his departure for two days, saying:
"This illness does not lead to death;
rather it is for God's glory,
so that the Son of God may be glorified through it" (v. 4).

There are two things in that for us to note.
Jesus said that Lazarus' illness was "for God's glory."
He also said that there was a purpose ––
a Godly purpose ––
behind Lazarus' illness.
The purpose was "that the Son of God may be glorified through it."
"GLORY" and "GLORIFIED."
Not words that we use often.
If we see a beautiful sunset, we might say, "Glorious!" ––
but not very often.

However, the word "glory" appears frequently in the Bible,
and our calling a beautiful sunset "glorious" gives us a clue as to what it means.
Just think for a moment.
If you were to say that a sunset was glorious, what would you mean?
You would mean that the sunset was beautiful –– and more than beautiful,
magnificent –– spectacular –– awe-inspiring - stunning!
A "glorious," sunset would make an amazing impression on you.

The Bible uses the word "GLORY" to speak of God.
When applied to God, the word "glory" means all those things ––
magnificent, spectacular, awe-inspiring –– and more.

Jesus said that Lazarus' illness was "for God's glory, so that the Son of God might be glorified through it."
Jesus meant that, through Lazarus,
God was going to let the people of Bethany see something of God's glory,
and that glory would be reflected onto Jesus, the Son of God.

That happens, you know.
God's glory can be revealed even through the suffering of a Godly person.
I have known people like that ––
people who, in their illness reflect the glory of God.
Their lives shine with Godly love and Godly glory.


When Jesus finally arrived in Bethany, he was too late.
Lazarus was dead.
Lazarus had been dead four days and had been buried
–– buried in a tomb much like the tomb that would soon hold Jesus' body.

The fact that Lazarus had been dead four days was significant.
"four days" is shorthand for hopeless.
The situation was hopeless.
Jesus had come too late.
Lazarus was dead and gone.
There was nothing to be done.
“If you had been here, our brother would have lived” – Mary said.

But Jesus went to Lazarus' tomb and said, "Take away the stone."
Martha protested, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days" (v. 39).
What she was really saying was, "Lord, don't do this to us!
We have been through enough!
Don't open our brother's tomb and expose us to the smell of his decaying body.
Don't make this situation worse than it already is."

But Jesus replied, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" (v. 40).
There's that word again –– that word "glory."

Then Jesus began to pray.
He didn't pray for Lazarus' life to be restored.
Instead, he thanked God for hearing his prayer,
And He prayed that the people might believe that God had sent him.
We need to be sure to hear that.
The purpose behind Lazarus' illness was that the people might believe that God had sent Jesus
–– that Jesus truly came from God.

So they rolled back the stone, and Jesus said, "Lazarus, come out!"
Then Lazarus, who had been dead four days, came stumbling out of the tomb
 his body still wrapped with strips of cloth that the women had used to prepare his body for burial.
It must have looked like one of those bad 1950s horror movies.

But this wasn't a horror, this was a wonder!
Lazarus was not some sort of hideous apparition,
but was instead an undeniable sign of the grace of God.
Lazarus was a SIGN pointing to Jesus
 showing the people who Jesus really was
 that Jesus had truly come from God and was working by the power of God.

This story concludes with these words:

"Many of the Jews therefore,
who had come with Mary
and had seen what Jesus did,
believed in him" (v. 45).

That was the idea ––
that people might see this miracle ––
this sign ––
and believe in Jesus ––
believe that he had come from God ––
believe that he was working by the power of God.

We would love to see a sign like that, wouldn't we ––
a miracle ––
a dead man emerging from his grave ––
something to buttress our belief!

But we have all that we need for belief,
We have the Scriptures –
And these Scriptures point us to Jesus the Messiah of God,
We have the historical account of Him rising from death to life.
And as Abraham said in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus,
“If they don’t believe the prophets and the Scriptures,
neither will they believe if someone should rise from the dead”

The challenge for us today, right now,
Is the challenge to believe God
And submit to Jesus as LORD and SAVIOUR.
That will change your life
As radically as any resurrection. AMEN.