DEALING WITH DEATH?

NOVEMBER 24, 2013 

·        John records seven miracles of Christ which in particular ways reveal the character, nature, person, work, and glory of our Lord.

1. Water into wine.

2. Healing the nobleman's son.

3. Healing the impotent man.

4. Turning the loaves and fishes into food for 5000.

5. Walking on the sea.

6. Giving sight to the blind man.

7. Raising Lazarus.

·        Restoring life to the dead is a suitable climax to these miracles, for death is the great equalizer. 

THE SAVIOR'S PROMISE (JOHN 11:21-27)

21 Martha therefore said to Jesus, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 "Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You." 23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother shall rise again."  24 Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." 25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this? "  27 She said to Him, "Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world."     NASB 

VERSE 21:

·        Perhaps it was a statement of faith, i.e., if you had been here, I know that you have the power that would kept Lazarus alive.

·        Even if it was a statement of faith, like many Christians today, it also contained elements of unbelief.

1. It limited Christ's power since she felt that He had to be there physically for Him to have helped Lazarus.

2. It denied that Christ could do anything for Lazarus now that he had died.

·        Does this not teach us how we need to pray: "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief."

·        It has been suggested that since scripture does not say that anyone died in the physical presence of Jesus because, since He was life itself they could not die (that death could not exist in His presence); and so it was necessary for Jesus not to be present in order for Lazarus to die, but this is not necessarily so because Jesus said that Lazarus had already died when the message was received.

VERSE 22:

·        This was a statement of both faith and unbelief.

1. Faith - in expressing confidence that if Christ asked anything of God, it would be granted.

2. Unbelief - in not acknowledging His deity, i.e., that He was the Son of God; in not believing in His deity, it was tantamount to reducing Christ to the level of the prophets.

VERSE 23:

·        Why didn't the Lord simply tell Martha that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead instead of making this general statement?

·        It is the Lord's way to draw out by degrees His grace in the hearts of His own.

·        Faith has to be disciplined and knowledge imparted only as the heart is able to receive it.

·        Is this not the way we grow in our knowledge of Jesus; by degrees, one small step at a time? 

1 Corinthians 3:1-2

1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able,     NASB 

·        Knowledge is imparted only as the heart is able to receive it.

·        May it please the Lord to bless this class that we will require less milk and more meat.

VERSE 24:

·        Martha professes a faith in a general resurrection, but it appears that she feels that this is not enough to comfort her at this time, seeing that the general resurrection may be far off, and perhaps not even in her lifetime, i.e., she would "not be there to enjoy it"!

·        There is much in Martha’s answer that is applicable to us today.

·        She knew that there would be a resurrection, but she didn't believe that Jesus could help her then and there!

·        It’s easier for us to believe that the Lord is coming and the dead will be raised someday than it is to believe that we can live for God now.

·        When we are mourning over the loss of a loved one, it is easier to say, "Well, I'll see them again someday," than it is to say, "I have just lost my loved one but I am comforted with the assurance that God is now with me and that He is now doing all things well."

VERSE 25:

·        Martha did not seem to profess a belief that Christ would play a part in the general resurrection!

·        Therefore Christ declares plainly that, ""I am the resurrection and the life;" to show that He had absolute power over life and death, whether bodily or spiritual.

·        In this declaration, He again declared that He was God, One with the Father; for only God could have such power.

·        He has the power to raise whom He wills, and to give life to whom He wills.

·        This is the basis of the doctrine of election, for no one can of their own merit and earn such a right.

·        Jesus is the "resurrection" through His giving life to dead sinners, and He is the life in preserving that spiritual life which He and He alone confers to all that the Father has given Him.

·        Regardless of what Martha believed about the resurrection, it was necessary that she believed that all its benefits came through and because of Christ.

VERSE 26:

·        This teaches that if we are true believers; when our body dies our spirit will immediately be present with Jesus and therefore our spirit will never die. 

2 Corinthians 5:6-8

6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord —  7 for we walk by faith, not by sight —  8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.     NASB 

VERSE 27: 

John 11:39-40

 39 Jesus said, "Remove the stone." Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days." 40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you, if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"      NASB 

·        Martha made her confession, but she still did not understand what Jesus was telling her.

·        This is a good picture of how we grow in our understanding.

o   First, we think we understand and then we find that we did not understand and then replace our thoughts with a deeper understanding as we experience more of life while walking with Jesus. 

THE SAVIOR’S PERSONAL CONCERN (JOHN 11:33-37)

33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her, also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit, and was troubled, 34 and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." 35 Jesus wept. 36 And so the Jews were saying, "Behold how He loved him!" 37 But some of them said, "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have kept this man also from dying?"     NASB 

VERSE 33:

·        He felt the sorrow of Martha and Mary.

·        Just as He felt their sorrow He feels ours; He is just as intimate with those who belong to Him.

·        The word rendered "groaning" can also mean "indignation."

·        This could describe His feeling about our unbelief, lack of trust, and sometimes at our lack of understanding something the He has clearly explained to us.

VERSE 34:

·        It is His practice to comfort His people, first by promises, and then by acts.

·        He asked this question, not because He did not know, but that there would be no subsequent suspicion of illusion.

VERSE 35:

·        What this verse portrays on the surface is crystal clear, yet the depths of it spiritual meaning may not ever be completely found out by man this side of heaven.

·        Perhaps He wept because He knew that Lazarus was so much better off where he was and He had to call him back in order to glorify the Father and Himself; or, perhaps he wept because of how far man has fallen as to understand so little. 

Mark 9:24

"I do believe; help my unbelief."     NASB 

VERSE 36:

·        Even Christians are prone to forget that the cause or reason for Christ's love for them is not to be found in themselves, but in Christ Himself.

·        He loved us before we loved Him, and we love Him only because He loved us.

·        Among these Jews were unbelievers!

·        This proves that those who get a sight of Christ's love will believe His love no matter whether they are given the gift of faith unto salvation or not.

·        In this God is glorified!

·        Christ's love will follow His own even to the grave, and that love will be with them to the resurrection and for all eternity.

VERSE 37:

·        While they notice the compassion and love that the Lord Jesus had for Lazarus, they question His wisdom and actions in delaying His arrival, and this from unbelievers!

·        Christ's love is misunderstood, and even interpret His actions as that of an enemy (i.e., one who could have saved Lazarus from death, had He only made the effort)!

·        Men of corrupt dispositions, will not believe Christ's love unless it appears in a way that they desire. 

THE SAVIOR’S POWER (JOHN 11:38-44)

38 Jesus therefore again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, "Remove the stone." Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days." 40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you, if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"  41 And so they removed the stone. And Jesus raised His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me. 42 "And I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the people standing around I said it, that they may believe that Thou didst send Me."  43 And when He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth."  44 He who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings; and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."     NASB 

VERSE 38:

·        Perhaps He groaned or was indignant at the continued unbelief.

VERSE 39:

·        Now Christ could have commanded the stone to roll away, but it is not God's general way do for man what man is capable of and responsible for doing, besides He wanted people to remember that Lazarus rose from the grave, not that a stone was moved.

·        This was a work which men could do, whereas men could not raise Lazarus from the dead, that was the task of Christ.

·        Remember if a farmer does not plant the seed, then a crop will not grow.

VERSE 40:

·        First is "believe" and then "see".

·        The grand mission of the Lord Jesus Christ was to reveal God the Father and the promise of eternal life to all who would believe in the Son.

·        The glory of God was to be made manifest through the Son in the resurrection of Lazarus.

·        This would break the power of death.

VERSE 41:

·        It seems that they had not immediately obeyed Jesus when He commanded that the stone be rolled away.

·        Apparently, there was paused to listen to Martha's objection and His reply to her.

·        Does this not exhibit how slowly man is to obey the Word of God; that we will pause to listen to humans even when we have clear-cut directions from Jesus.

·        Jesus prays audibly to let the people know that He is going to do the will of the Father so that the Father will get the glory.

VERSE 42: 

John 8:29

29 "And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him."     NASB 

Psalms 66:18

18 If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear;     NASB 

1 John 3:21-22

21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.     NASB 

·        Jesus was confident of the Father's answering His prayer because He was obedient to the Father in all that He did or thought - thus was He a constant delight to the Father.

VERSE 43:

·        Lazarus was representative of the people who are "in Christ".

·        It is here that we should recognize the greatest privilege given to the elect of God.

·        It is Christ's word alone that can bring life out of death.

·        But He give to us the honor to take the words to dead sinners that are able to quicken them in a newness of life.

·        This is an honor not given even to angels!

VERSE 44:

·        There we have it, the awesome power of God displayed!

·        His power is such that He has only to speak, “come forth”, and the dead will rise at his command!

·        It is that power in which we have our confidence of resurrection, when he comes again with a shout!

·        When Christ is made the life of our soul through faith, there is the certainty of a resurrection to life eternal in Christ's life; for when His life is communicated to us, we have that within us over which the power of Satan is unable to prevail.