The Raising of Lazarus

Okay, we are in Luke 17 tonight. We did not quite finish a train of thought that we had begun last week and our Lord's life and ministry. We are talking about the very end or near the end of his ministry toward the last few weeks of his ministry actually by this time. In fact, if we make it to the end of John 11 tonight, which I'm not staking my life on or anything like that, but if we were to make that tonight, we would find that people are already preparing to go to the Passover, the Passover where Jesus will spend his last week on this earth. And so we're drawing very near to the end of the life of Christ, but there are still a number of events that are recorded in the gospels leading up to that. And then of course in the last week of our Lord's life, there's a lot of material in the gospels as well. We're finding that Jesus is instructing his disciples in the midst of huge and swelling crowds, crowds that will get even bigger after we see an event in John chapter 11. But he is also instructing his disciples in the midst of a great deal of opposition from the Pharisees. And even though he is correcting them from time to time, he is also focusing on his disciples. And we've seen a couple of times where he says where the text says he said to his disciples, focusing on them in the midst of all of the others. In Luke chapter 17, we were looking at several instructions the Lord had given to his disciples. Last time we saw some instructions about influence and how important our influence is on others. Instruction about forgiveness, some difficult words of our Lord in regard to forgiveness and how serious he is about that. And then some words of instruction about fate we ended last week with. We need to begin tonight in verse seven where our Lord gives instructions about servanthood in verses seven through ten. Let's read verses seven through nine where we will find the realities of servanthood. Jesus describing what it really is like to be a servant, the reality of being a servant. Luke 17 verse seven, suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, come along now and sit down to eat? Won't he rather say, prepare my supper? Get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink. After that you may eat and drink. Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? Now stop right there and just for a moment point out the harsh realities of servanthood. Obviously reflecting a culture in the Roman Empire when slavery was rampant and was just an accepted institution in that day. But even before that having household servants was not an unusual thing or a servant that might hire himself out to you, this happened in the Old Testament, to hire himself out to work for you in order to pay off debts. That's the way you paid off debts in Old Testament times. And in biblical times, even into the New Testament, if you had a debt you would hire yourself out to someone to work for them to pay off that debt. So that's the kind of situation we're finding here. But the harsh reality of servanthood is at the end of the day in the fields, the master does not serve as a servant. Even when the servant has put in a hard day in the fields when he comes in, it is still his job to make sure that the master is fed and cared for and the servant waits on him. The master is not obligated. In any sense of the word, this would have been fully understood by those who heard Jesus say this. I think whenever we talk about servanthood and slavery and those kinds of things, we are so kind of colored by our past and in our country that it's difficult to understand it from the culture of the first century. These people would have just understood completely what Jesus is talking about. The master is not obligated to serve the servant or even to thank him because the servant is simply doing what he's supposed to be doing. That's just the harsh realities of servanthood. The servant should not expect anything more than that. And nobody did. That was the expected thing for a servant in that day. Jesus draws a lesson from it in verse 10. He says, so you also, now here he's speaking to his disciples. So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, we are unworthy servants. We have only done our duty. Now the point that Jesus is making basically is this in regard to the disciples. What it means to be a servant of Christ is that God doesn't owe us anything. The word unworthy when he says we should say after we've done everything we're supposed to do, we should just say we're unworthy servants. We have only done our duty. The word unworthy, word unworthy literally means not yielding gain. So the idea is that we do not obligate God to us in any way by serving him. He is our master. And when we have served him, we have not done anything. We have not obligated him to us. He is not obligated to reward us in any way. He's not obligated to do that. And from our perspective, we cannot get the attitude that God owes us something. That God is now in our debt because we have served him so well. What Jesus is saying is the attitude that we should take is that we are his servants and we should serve without any thought of reward or gain from that. We should serve out of love, out of an attitude of this is our responsibility. But from our heart, we serve Christ because we want to not because it obligates God to us in any way. God is not obligated to bless, to reward, to whatever he's not obligated to us. He is not in our debt. We are his servants and in that day, it would be clearly understood what a servant was. We serve him out of delight because we love him. And it should not be just a sense of duty, of course, but because we love him. Now that's the attitude of a servant. Whenever we serve God and then we think, okay, God, it's my turn. You owe me. Then we really demonstrate that we don't have the heart of a servant. We don't really understand what a servant is. A servant serves God without any expectation of anything but the joy and delight of being able to serve him. That's what he's talking about here. Now, let me give a balance to that, however, that the scriptures also teach. And it's this. The balance in servanthood is this. Although God does not owe us anything, he graciously does reward. And he graciously offers to serve us. If you hold your place here and flip back over a couple pages to Luke chapter 12, verse 27. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly, I tell you, he will dress himself to serve and will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. God says, I want to serve you and the Bible teaches that at the marriage supper of the lamb, he will serve us and did not Jesus also do that in the upper room to his disciples. He took the place of a servant and washed their feet. Okay, so there's the balance here is that although God is never obligated to us in any way because of his grace and purely of his grace, not because he owes us anything, purely of his grace and because of his love, he wants to reward us and serve us for faithfully serving him. That's the balance. So you see, on the one side, our perspective is to be that of a servant that does not obligate God to us in any way, but God in his grace says, I want to reward you, I want to serve you. And that is simply an evidence of his grace toward us. Okay, that's the lesson that Jesus teaches his disciples on servanthood. Any comment or question about that before we move on? Yes, Dallas? Yes. I mean, for us, the service of grace and all of us, what do you think of us? Yeah. And that's exactly the way we should see it. I mean, after all, he's given his life for us to save us from an eternity of separation from him and he's graciously offered us forgiveness of our sin, all the blessings that come along with being his child and an eternity in heaven. There's no way we could ever hope to repay him for all he's done for us. And so, yeah, our whole life should be lived for him and not in the sense that we have to pay him back, but in the sense that we, after all he's done for us, how could we do any less? Yeah. And that's really the point of the story. After we've done everything we can do, we still have not obligated God to us. We are servants that are unworthy of gain. Okay, we've not obligated God to us. Okay, John? Yes. I think it trades a lot of light on about works, how to achieve sometimes to get into good graces. Mm-hmm. You can't work for us. Right. Right. If that's the application. I think that is an application of what he's saying is that you cannot work yourself into the good graces of the master. I mean, if you had done everything you could possibly do, you still have not obligated God to save you. Okay, so there is a lesson there, I think. Yeah. Stephen and Walt, real quick. It first blushed, it seems to be a blow to the pride. And say, you know, I've gone on a done this thing. Looking at it, we're not serving first. That's our excuse for serving God. That's what the difference is the obligation. I can't say that we're not going to ever be able to maintain that that we're serving God. Didn't have to come down there. Didn't have to die. We are obligated to do that. Mm-hmm. No matter what we could possibly ever do, it would not be enough. Yeah, it is a blow to pride. It really is. Whatever we could do would not be enough. Yeah, Walt. This entire principle seems to me to be exactly 180 degrees of weight in the fault of time and still. So that was raised from the first one, and it's back and then, it's back and then. Yeah. Yeah. Right. It is. It is opposite of much of what we have been taught. And much of what we as simple human beings just naturally expect. Yeah, it's, you know, it's equity, fairness. You do something for me. I'll do something for you. Okay. That's the way life works. That's not the way grace works. It's not the way salvation works. It's not that we do something for God and then he's obligated to do something back for us. Totally opposite. Okay. Other comments or questions here? All right. Let's move on to John chapter 11. The next event in Jesus life is indeed an amazing example of his power. Jesus power over death. John chapter 11 is such a familiar story. But it is no less amazing because of its familiarity. It is the resurrection of Lazarus, the raising of Lazarus. And this is at least as far as we know in Jesus life and ministry, a very rare occurrence. Only three recorded resurrection, Jesus raising people from the dead in his ministry. Remember what the other two were? The widow's son, the widow's name. Jarrett's daughter. Jarrett's daughter. The other two. So there are only three that we know of. Now there may have been others. We're not sure, but you would think those are pretty noteworthy occurrences. The gospel writers probably would have recorded them. So this is a rare occurrence in our Lord's ministry when you think of all the people that he healed. All the other miracles that he did. This is a pretty rare occurrence. But in a sense it is a mixed blessing, isn't it? It is a wonderful blessing, an amazing miracle. But would you want to die twice? You know, it's kind of a mixed blessing, really. I mean, it's amazing, amazing miracle. But Lazarus has got to die again. He died once, Jesus raised him. But it's not like being resurrected to a glorified body. Lazarus came back in his physical body. He's going to die again. So obviously there are other reasons for this. The ultimate reason is not the resurrection of Lazarus. The ultimate purpose, as we shall see, is to glorify the one who raises him from the dead. And there's a particular reason for it at this juncture in his ministry as well. There are a number of things that the raising of Lazarus shows about Jesus. And there are some things that shows about others as well. Let's begin with what the resurrection or the raising of Lazarus shows about Jesus. Four things at least, and we'll try to move through this chapter fairly quickly. I fully understand this chapter has 57 verses. But it isn't there. If it's a story, we're going to read through it and touch on a few things. But I don't want to stay in this story for three weeks. So I'm going to approach it just a little differently tonight. I'm going to read fairly quickly and just point out a few things as we go along. The first thing that we find that this miracle tells about Jesus is about his wisdom. Let's read the first four verses. Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary whose brother Lazarus now lay sick was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. Now John is making that editorial comment. That event hasn't happened yet. It's not recorded until chapter 12. But John is saying, I'm telling you a story about somebody you're going to hear about later. This is the same person. Verse three. So the sister sent word to Jesus. Lord, the one you love is sick. Now you know the story so don't answer like you know you're supposed to. What's the expected response to that statement? Lord, the one you love is sick. Now what's the expected response? What's wrong with him? Okay. Okay. Yeah, that's what we would ask, right? Give me a diagnosis here. Okay. Don't you think that's what Mary is really saying? She's saying, Lord, you can do something about this. Come. We've healed many people. And this is one of your closest earthly friends. This is Mary and Martha and Lazarus. This is the place where Jesus probably stayed a lot when he was in the Jerusalem area. These are very close friends of his. Lord, the one you love is sick. And that's kind of a veiled invitation. Lord, we know you can raise him up. We've seen you do it many times with other people. And so we're asking you to do this. Verse four. When he heard this, Jesus said, this sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's son may be glorified through it. I want to hold a comment there for just a moment and show you a couple of maps. You know, kind of where we are here. Jesus has been over here. This is a, this is a, some of the maps of Jesus or traveling of Jesus later in his ministry where he has come down to the Jerusalem area. He's been in this area ministering. And then he has gone over to the other side of the Jordan River, Korea. And that's where we've been seeing him minister recently. In this story, he will travel back over to Bethany. Okay, let's take a look at the next slide. I'm going to show you exactly where Bethany is. Can you pick it out? This is a little bit of a difficult picture to read, but it's a wide angle, far away, kind of panoramic view of the city of Jerusalem. And if you can tell the writing here, dome on the rock or dome of the rock, that's right there. I don't know if you can really see it very well. That's the dome of the rock there. This is the, this is the area. Maybe you can tell the wall that walls in the ancient site of the temple. That's where the temple would have been today, where the, the Muslim shrine, the dome of the rock is. And you go outside the dome of the rock and you go down into the valley of Kydren. This is the Kydren valley and up the other side of that valley, this is a mountain right here. It's the Mount of Olives. Okay, if you, if you hang a right at the top of the Mount of Olives, you come about two miles, less than two miles, outside the city of Jerusalem, right here is Bethany. Okay, so we're less than two miles outside of Jerusalem. It's really kind of a suburb of Jerusalem. And here's an older picture of what Bethany looked like a few hundred years ago. So kind of similar to what it might have looked like in the time of Christ. Very small village just outside of Jerusalem. Okay, now Jesus is, is, this is where Mary and Martha and Lazarus live. Very close to Jerusalem. Jesus has been in their home before. He will be in their home again before he dies. But notice what Jesus says when he heard about Lazarus being sick. And notice this, this shows his wisdom, his wisdom about God's purpose. He says this sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it. Please notice the careful choice of words. Jesus does not say this sickness will not result in death because it did result in death. What he says is this sickness will not end in death. That's not the end. That's not the purpose of what's going to happen here. You see, from our perspective, there's a lot about this story that we have trouble grasping and understanding. Particularly when we go through very difficult trials in this life. That may be very similar to what we find here. Why would Jesus say this when we know that Lazarus ends up dying? And it's because it will not end that way. That's not the final chapter of the story. Temporarily it may result in that, but it will not end that way. In the middle of life, it is extremely difficult. I would say, not impossible when we are in the midst of life to be able to see, to even understand, certainly to know what the end is. Now, because we know the Bible, we know the ultimate end. The ultimate end is heaven. And so nothing here is permanent. Whether it's a temporary joy or a temporary grief. It's not the end. Life often results in tragedy and heartache, but for the believer, life does not end in that. It may result in that periodically along the way, but it never ends that way. Thank God for that. It never ends that way. And so Jesus basically is showing wisdom, his wisdom about God's purpose, because God's purpose is not that anything ever end in death. God's purpose is that everything end or have the result, the ultimate purpose, I should say, of God's glory. He says, this is for God's glory, so that God suddenly be glorified through it. And ultimately, we know how it works out in this story. But ultimately, that is the end, that is the purpose toward which God is causing all things to move. There are temporary results in this life, many of which are very painful. But the end will be a God's glory, that will be the end. And we can't always understand or see the end now, but that's what will glorify God eventually. And if I didn't believe that, I'd quit the ministry. Honestly, I would. I would quit the ministry. If I could offer no hope to people that the end is going to solve everything. The end is going to make everything clear. The end is going to result in God being glorified. If I didn't have that hope, I'd quit. If I couldn't offer that to people in times of heartache, I'd quit. But that's the end. That's the end. Temporary results. Eternal end is the glory of God. And I firmly believe with all my soul, I would stake my life on this. That when I get to heaven, I will begin to understand how everything glorified God. Text I'm going to use Sunday morning for from him and to him and for from him and through him and to him are all things to God be the glory forever and ever. Amen. I didn't believe that. I would quit. His wisdom, his wisdom in understanding the purpose of God, God's ultimate purpose. But then notice also his wisdom regarding God's timing. And here's where it becomes difficult to understand. Verse 5. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Don't skip over that verse. I know I said we were going to slide through this pretty quickly, but don't skip over that verse. Sometimes when things happen like what are happening in this chapter, it's easy to doubt God's love. And so John makes it very clear what's going to happen is no reflection on Jesus' love for this family. He loves them. But verse 6. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. And then he said to his disciples, let us go back to Judea. Now it looks like if we didn't know the end of the story, it looks like there's been a terrible mistake made in regard to timing. Jesus stays where he is rather than going to help. He stays. He appears to be inactive, withdrawn, unconcerned, uncaring. That's the way it looks. And that's the way it looks a lot to us, doesn't it? That's the way it looks a lot of times to us. That he's taken his hand off of our lives and he doesn't really care. Verse 7. Then he said to his disciples, let us go back to Judea. But Rabbi, they said, a short while ago, the Jews there tried to stone you. And yet you're going back, remember Jesus had pulled away from Jerusalem, Judea, because of the intensity of the opposition, the disciples' reminding of that. Lord, you've got killed and you're going to go back into that. Are you serious? Notice what Jesus says. And this is an issue of timing and understanding God's timing. Verse 9. Jesus answered, are there not 12 hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble for they see by this world's light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble for they have no light. Again, Jesus is living in a culture where primarily what you have at night is the natural light of the light. The light of the stars and the moon and so forth. You don't have lanterns and lamps and so forth, but not like we have where whole cities are lit up and there's really no darkness. In the light, you can find your way easily. In the darkness, you have a tendency to stumble. And so Jesus' point is, as long as it's light, we can walk safely. We're not going to stumble. So I think his point is, in God's timing, it's still light. It's not dark yet. You're afraid of going to Jerusalem? Like, I'm in danger? No, I'm not in any danger. As long as I'm walking in light. As long as I'm in God's day and in God's timing, God's timetable, Jesus knows it's still day. The dark hasn't come yet. The night hasn't come yet. That will, but not yet. That's his point. Verse 11, after he said this, he went on to tell them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up. His disciples replied, Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better. You know what they're thinking? They're thinking, he probably needs rest. He's sick. He needs rest. Don't wake him up. Let him sleep. Verse 13, Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And for your sake, I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him. Some hard statements, difficult words. The disciples didn't fully understand them. Mary and Martha certainly would not understand why Jesus didn't respond immediately. But now he says it's time to go. Jesus, the point here is Jesus is demonstrating his wisdom about God's timing. He has everything under control about the timing. He knows exactly when to go. He knows how long to wait because he knows the end. He knows the purpose of God's glory and how that will be accomplished. So he's in control of the timing. And even the issue of, is it the right time to go back up to Jerusalem? Will they capture you and kill you? No, no, it's still daylight. I'm still walking in God's daylight. And not in a stumble. It's not dark yet. He's in control of the timing. So verse 16, then Thomas also called Dittimus. Dittimus is a word, the Greek word for twin. Thomas evidently was a twin. Thomas, notice that him, as said to the rest of the disciples, let us also go that we may die with him. Now what is Thomas most often remembered for? Douding. Douding after the resurrection or after the crucifixion, right? And so he gets this name, Douding Thomas, down through history. He's been known as Douding Thomas. Well, I kind of like to remember him this way too. Bold Thomas, courageous Thomas. The one who said, if he's going to go to Jerusalem, I'm going to go with him. If he dies, I die. Now that's a little different side of Thomas. That maybe we need to see a little more of, at least to balance out this man's character. But Jesus is showing complete control, understanding, showing his wisdom about the timing of everything here. Okay, comments or questions to this point that Jesus demonstrating his wisdom. Okay, secondly, Jesus demonstrates his person who he is. Notice in these next few verses, at least three things are said about his person, about who Jesus is. For 17, on his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meeting Mary stayed at home. Now notice these words in verse 21, Lord. Martha said to Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask. Okay, she calls him Lord. That's a term of authority, of power. He is Lord, which means he has the power to heal. And Martha says that, if you had been here, he wouldn't have died. I know you would have healed him. But he also has the power to raise from the dead, and she goes on to say, but even now, I know that God will give you whatever you ask. He is Lord. He has the power to do whatever is in God's purpose and plan to do. Never question his power. Sometimes we don't understand his purpose, but God never lacks power. Okay, so he is Lord. Second thing about his person. Notice it in verse 23, verse 23 to 26. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha answered, I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even though they die. And whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? Jesus' person, not only is he Lord, he is also the resurrection and the life. Okay, the second thing about his person is the resurrection and the life. Great verses, aren't they in verses 25 and 26? Those are verses that I used when I signed my name on a funeral register. Those two verses because what Jesus is saying is the resurrection is not so much an event as it is a person. I am the resurrection. Okay, you can place hope in a resurrection, but the real hope is in me. Jesus is the resurrection. Jesus is the life and the one who believes in him will live even though they die indicating that death is simply the entrance way into the presence of God. You never really die. You continue to live. Death is just stepping through a door into God's presence. You're still living. And whoever lives by believing in me will never die. What do you think that means? Separation. Referring to separation. The second death, eternal death, eternal separation from God that will never touch the believer. That will never touch the believer. Death is simply an entrance way into the presence of God. You believe in me. You live even though you die. And if you believe in me, you will never really die. You will never face eternal separation from God. So two wonderful truths about death for a believer. First of all, you never quit living. You just, as Big Daddy Weave said in one of their songs, I'm changing neighborhoods. I'm just changing neighborhoods. I'm not dying. I'm just changing neighborhoods. Just changing from down here to up there. And the second truth is that you will never die in the ultimate sense of eternal separation from God. Steve? This question, so if you're my guy, and I don't mean that, what is the sticky one? Where do you think lies are so? Directly to the presence of God. And then came back. Yeah. I don't believe there was some container in the center of the earth somewhere, like a lot of folks believe. I don't believe that. I think there are some passages that teach against that. So I think he went into the presence of God and came back. And that's kind of a bummer, too. That would have been major, just point that. Like, okay, you're here great now. But I got a couple of invacations. Yeah. So, yeah, I think he was in the presence of God. I mean, he's been dead for four days. Obviously, he's not his spirit. He's not there. He's got to be somewhere. It's in the presence of God. So he comes back. Yeah. Jesus. Pardon me? I don't think Lazarus did. I think Mary and Martha probably did, but not Lazarus. I think Mary and Mary can see the Bible that says that Jesus believes that the spirit or the soul would cover a place in the body for three days. I think so. That was a common Jewish perception, is that the spirit would hover near the body for three days. And so, Jesus wants to make sure everyone knows, even though obviously we know that's not true, the Jews believe that. And those are his audience. He wants to make sure they know it's beyond that. Okay, this man really was dead. He's been dead for four days. I think that could very well be why he waited as long as he did. Okay, so he's the resurrection in the life. Third thing about his person is the son of God, verse 27. Yes, Lord, she replied, I believe that you are the Messiah, the son of God, who is to come into the world. Son of God reflects his deity. He is second member of the Trinity. He is God and human flesh, God the Son. But he has also come to this earth and for the purpose, obviously, of dying for our sins. So, son of God, who has come to this earth, his person, his deity, and his work on the cross. So, this story reflects not only his wisdom, but his person, who he is. Can't be eight o'clock already. It is, isn't it? Okay, we're going to have to stop. We didn't quite get the verse 57, but we'll pick it up next time. Hopefully, let's see, next week. Yeah, we'll be in this next week. So, we'll only leave Lazarus in the grave another seven days. Okay, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. We thank you, Father, for our master, our Lord, our Savior, the son of God. See, all wise one, we thank you for him. Father, as we see his great power, as we stand in awe of his love, his compassion, maybe we never forget who he is, and maybe we always remember he is the resurrection and the life. Thank you that death for a believer is not really death. It is not ceasing of existence in any sense. Thank you that the second death can never touch us. We will be with you forever. Thank you for the hope of heaven in Jesus' name. Amen.