SPEAKER_00: Thank you guys.
SPEAKER_00: Great to be here.
SPEAKER_00: Who would have known that Matt was such a profit?
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's great to be back with you guys.
SPEAKER_00: Um, my name is Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: We have a Matt, and um just celebrated 31 years of marriage last week, so I'm excited about that.
SPEAKER_00: Since the last time I've been with you guys, my wife and I have entered into a new era called the grandparents' era.
SPEAKER_00: This is our uh little grandson's Ezekiel James.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we call him Zeke.
SPEAKER_00: You might think I cut myself shaving, but Zeke got me yesterday morning before I flew out uh to Colorado.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but we are obsessed with him.
SPEAKER_00: We're having a great time uh just being grandparents and actually uh, you know, giving him back to my son and his wife uh when we're done.
SPEAKER_00: So it's just been amazing.
SPEAKER_00: So well, hey, one thing you need to know about me before as we get started is I'm a fanboy.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I I I love famous people, love being around famous people, love putting myself in proximity to famous people.
SPEAKER_00: My family knows this about me, and I embarrass them a lot as I try to get close to famous people.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a problem if you live in Nashville, Tennessee, like we did for six years.
SPEAKER_00: Because longtime residents of Nashville will tell you when you move to their city how to react when you see someone famous in the wild.
SPEAKER_00: Do not react.
SPEAKER_00: Do not ask for an autograph, do not make a spectacle, do not scream like a middle schooler, do not embarrass yourself, do not ask for a selfie, do not ask for an autograph, leave them alone.
SPEAKER_00: That is the modus operandi of what you do when you see someone famous.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm we moved to Nashville in 2009.
SPEAKER_00: I was going on staff at a church called Cross Point Church.
SPEAKER_00: And at that time, it was a uh we had three campuses.
SPEAKER_00: I was going on as a campus pastor and teaching pastor, and we would eventually launch uh three additional campuses, and our main campus was in the heart of the city.
SPEAKER_00: It was a really influential church in Nashville, and guys, within my first couple of weeks being on staff there, I started seeing people that I'd only seen on TV coming to our church or heard on the radio.
SPEAKER_00: It was unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as a pastor, you have to restrain yourself, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You can't go up to somebody, you know, in the lobby and say, Can I take a selfie?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You just gotta play it cool.
SPEAKER_00: And so a few years after uh we moved to Nashville, um, our auditorium was packed, it was the middle service, much like this one.
SPEAKER_00: And so the lights were off, and uh many of our staff were standing in the back of the doors trying to help people find seats.
SPEAKER_00: It was the auditorium was dark, we had these little flashlights, and people were standing, so it was hard to find seats.
SPEAKER_00: And so I go up to these four people and I say, Hey, as soon as this worship song is over, I can help you find your seat.
SPEAKER_00: And I move my flashlight up to be able to see the person's face, and I realized within two seconds I'm talking to Taylor Swift.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, woo! I didn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean that's what I was feeling, right?
SPEAKER_00: And uh, but that by that time I was a Nashville.
SPEAKER_00: I just played it cool, all right?
SPEAKER_00: And so the worship song ends, and I usher Taylor and her three friends to a seat.
SPEAKER_00: And uh at the end of the service, we had baptisms that were scheduled.
SPEAKER_00: And so there were several people that were scheduled to be baptized, and our worship pastor comes out before the last worship song starts at the end of the message.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Hey, it's gonna be an exciting time here today.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna stand, we're gonna sing, we have people that are, you know, plan to be baptized today, but here we're gonna open up to spontaneous baptisms.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to be baptized today, you you know, we have shirts, we have t-shirts, we have hairdryers, we have everything that you need to be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: I want to invite you to just come forward to be baptized.
SPEAKER_00: So we stand, we start singing, and you guys, we thought it was a revival.
SPEAKER_00: People start flooding the front, not to be baptized, to get Taylor Swift's autograph.
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything more sacrilegious than that?
SPEAKER_00: And so we realize it very quickly.
SPEAKER_00: So we usher Taylor and her friends out through the side door into the staff offices, they hang out there until the the um you know the service ends and everybody goes home.
SPEAKER_00: We apologize, obviously, for looking like idiots, uh allowing people to come and ask for autographs during baptism.
SPEAKER_00: Well, a few weeks later, I'm scheduled to speak and I get a text message that morning from our executive pastor letting me know that Taylor and some friends are coming back, but they have a plan in place.
SPEAKER_00: Taylor's gonna come in a side door, she's gonna sit in the staff offices until the service starts, she's gonna sneak in to the side section.
SPEAKER_00: As soon as I close in prayer, she's going to walk her way back into the staff offices and hang out there until the crowd leaves.
SPEAKER_00: So we get through the service, I close in prayer, she's in the staff offices, everybody's left, and I walk back and I'm gonna walk her.
SPEAKER_00: Her friends have already left, so I'm gonna walk her to uh her car.
SPEAKER_00: And I said to her, I said, Hey, thanks so much for being patient with us, thanks so much for you know going with this plan.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry it's so difficult for you to go to church.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I only have one of my sons here today, my 12-year-old son Elijah's here.
SPEAKER_00: Would you care if I introduce you to him?
SPEAKER_00: Because I can't take a picture of you with me, but I can take a picture of you with Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say that, but that's what I was thinking.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, No, no problem.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Elijah, come over here and meet Taylor Swift.
SPEAKER_00: So Elijah comes running up.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Hi Taylor, I'm Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Hi Elijah, I'm Taylor.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I don't listen to your music.
SPEAKER_00: And then I said, He was joking.
SPEAKER_00: He was joking, we listen to your music every morning on the way to school.
SPEAKER_00: Like what every day we listen to your music.
SPEAKER_00: He was just joking.
SPEAKER_00: He's adopted.
SPEAKER_00: No, it isn't.
SPEAKER_00: Coincidentally, that's the last time I talked to Taylor Swift.
SPEAKER_00: Was not invited to the wedding a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand why.
SPEAKER_00: Over the last few weeks, we've been in this series called Red Letter.
SPEAKER_00: We can look at these seven statements that Jesus makes in the book of John.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that we realize as we look at these statements is Jesus is not joking.
SPEAKER_00: Every single word that Jesus says, He means.
SPEAKER_00: Every single statement that Jesus makes about himself carries weight, not just for eternity, but in our lives today.
SPEAKER_00: And so we've been walking through these seven statements that Jesus makes about himself in the book of John, and we move to John chapter 11, verse 25 today, where Jesus makes this statement.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_00: You see, every single I am statement that Jesus makes, it's grounded, it's it gets its origin in a human need.
SPEAKER_00: For people who are in darkness, Jesus says, I'm the light of the world.
SPEAKER_00: For people who need guidance, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: For people who feel disconnected, Jesus says, I am the vine.
SPEAKER_00: For people who feel like they need protection, Jesus says, I am the gate.
SPEAKER_00: And here we come to John chapter 11, verse 25, and Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's this human need that we all face death.
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus is talking about here is not just a physical death and not just a spiritual death, but maybe today you're here, maybe you're watching online, and there is a part of you that has died.
SPEAKER_00: There's a dream in your life that's died.
SPEAKER_00: You feel like your marriage has died, there's a relationship that's beyond repair.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe for some of you, trust has died.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe for some of you, hope has died.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have this belief that you are too far gone, that it's too late for you.
SPEAKER_00: It's too late for you to have a new beginning.
SPEAKER_00: It's too late for you to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: It's too late for you to be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: It's too late for you to start over.
SPEAKER_00: It's too late to have hope.
SPEAKER_00: And into our hearts and into our story, Jesus speaks this truth.
SPEAKER_00: I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what death you may be facing, eventually, you know, the death rate is 100%.
SPEAKER_00: One out of one people die.
SPEAKER_00: But beyond our physical death, Jesus wants to bring life not just to your eternity, but to your life today.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to bring resurrection, not just to your eternity at the second coming, but to your life today.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants to resurrect some things that may have died.
SPEAKER_00: So what I want to do today is I want to go back to the beginning of John chapter 11 and work our way to verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: Because the context of what Jesus is talking about in John chapter 11 is as important as the statement he makes, because as we see the context, we understand why he says, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's start in John chapter 11, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Now, a man named Lazarus was sick.
SPEAKER_00: He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: So the sisters sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one you love is sick.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to stop there because John wants to give us context for who this family is.
SPEAKER_00: This is the first time in John's Gospel that the name Lazarus appears.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus has this very close relationship with Lazarus, but John assumes that his readers are not going to know who Lazarus is.
SPEAKER_00: And so he connects Lazarus to Mary and her sister Martha because the readers, John assumes, are going to know exactly who Mary and Martha are.
SPEAKER_00: We see Mary and Martha pop up all over the public ministry of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of scholars believe that Lazarus probably had some type of job, some type of thing that kept him from traveling with Jesus, but it did not keep Mary and Martha from traveling with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see him in different environments, in different teachings, at different miracles, at different people's houses.
SPEAKER_00: Mary and Martha are all throughout the Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: They're a part of the traveling ministry of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so John says, hey, if you don't know who Lazarus is, he's the brother of Mary and Martha.
SPEAKER_00: And so the readers would have known exactly who Lazarus is, and that Jesus, this was not a random guy, this was not an acquaintance, this was not just a high bye friend.
SPEAKER_00: This was not just somebody that, you know, they were friends on social media.
SPEAKER_00: This was somebody that Jesus did life with.
SPEAKER_00: He loved Lazarus.
SPEAKER_00: There was a high affection there.
SPEAKER_00: And so Lazarus gets sick, and Mary and Martha, they send word to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: See, death reminds us that we need Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: When we're facing death, it reminds us that Jesus is our only hope.
SPEAKER_00: And for Lazarus, the medicine wasn't working.
SPEAKER_00: The doctors had done all that they could do.
SPEAKER_00: Lazarus appears to not be getting better, only to be getting worse, and Mary and Martha begin to freak out.
SPEAKER_00: And they've gone through all the physical remedies they possibly can, they've uh consulted all the doctors they possibly can, they've given Lazarus all of the chances they possibly can.
SPEAKER_00: And so they pray a prayer of desperation.
SPEAKER_00: They send word to Jesus that they need he needs to come back and heal Lazarus.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever prayed a prayer of desperation?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, my marriage is ending.
SPEAKER_00: I need a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: God, I'm being downsized.
SPEAKER_00: We're financially strapped.
SPEAKER_00: I need a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: God, the cancer is back.
SPEAKER_00: We're out of options.
SPEAKER_00: I need a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Mary and Martha get to this place where they realize that Jesus is all they have.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed how quickly we we pray when everything falls apart?
SPEAKER_00: When our marriage is good and the kids are good and the bank account's full and the job is going well, the prayer's optional.
SPEAKER_00: When the doctor comes and says, I'm sorry, I have some bad news for you.
SPEAKER_00: When the boss comes and says, hey, we're downsizing.
SPEAKER_00: When your spouse comes and says, hey, I'm filing for a divorce.
SPEAKER_00: When your girlfriend comes and says, hey, it's not you, it's me.
SPEAKER_00: Our first response out of desperation is prayer.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need another podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need another social media influencer.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need a self-help book.
SPEAKER_00: We know we need Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So we don't know how long Lazarus is sick.
SPEAKER_00: John doesn't tell us.
SPEAKER_00: But at some point they realize that the only hope that Lazarus has is a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: And the only person they know that can perform a miracle is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so they send word to Jesus and they don't say, Lord, Lazarus is sick.
SPEAKER_00: They say, Lord, the one you love is sick.
SPEAKER_00: See, if they couldn't control the illness, they wanted to control Jesus' emotions to inspire him or manipulate him to come and heal Lazarus.
SPEAKER_00: And I think for many of us, we equate God's love with God's blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Just like Mary and Martha.
SPEAKER_00: If we tell Jesus, lead Jesus the one you love is sick, he's going to drop everything and he's going to answer our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to fulfill our need.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to come and heal his friend because his love equates to his blessing.
SPEAKER_00: And so we pray prayers like, God, if you really loved me, she wouldn't have broke up with me.
SPEAKER_00: God, if you really love me, he wouldn't have left.
SPEAKER_00: God, if you really loved me, I wouldn't have been abused.
SPEAKER_00: God, if you really love me, I wouldn't have lost my job.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's this calculus that we do in our mind, and we say, Man, if God really loves me, he would be blessing me more.
SPEAKER_00: If God really loves me, he would be answering the prayers that I'm praying quicker than he's answering.
SPEAKER_00: He would give me what I want when I want it.
SPEAKER_00: Because we equate God's love with his blessing in Mary and Martha.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted Jesus to know, hey, the one you love is sick.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, when he heard this, Jesus said, This sickness will not end in death.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's for God's glory so that the Son may be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have time to jump into it, but if you want to do just an amazing journey this week, go and read John 11 and look at how many times the word glory, glory or glorified works its way into John 11.
SPEAKER_00: There's a bigger narrative going on here.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
SPEAKER_00: So John acknowledges there is a relationship there.
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't just a one-sided relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Mary and Martha just didn't perceive that Lazarus was important to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: John acknowledges there is a deep affection there.
SPEAKER_00: Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
SPEAKER_00: That three-letter word at the beginning of verse six is one of the biggest words in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Yet.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loved Lazarus, he loved Mary, he loved her sister Martha.
SPEAKER_00: Yet, when he heard Lazarus was sick, he didn't drop everything.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't come at once.
SPEAKER_00: He stayed where he was two more days.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had a yet moment with God?
SPEAKER_00: You prayed for God to heal a loved one, yet they passed away anyway.
SPEAKER_00: You prayed for God to heal your marriage, yet it still ended.
SPEAKER_00: You started to give back to God and honor God with your finances, yet you still struggle financially.
SPEAKER_00: You've prayed to find a spouse, yet you remain single.
SPEAKER_00: You prayed to God that he would save your pregnancy, yet you still had a miscarriage.
SPEAKER_00: So often we have these yet moments with God, and we think that the yet moment with God is an indication of his love.
SPEAKER_00: But God is more concerned with his glory than he is our calendar.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's this bigger narrative going on in our life and in Mary and Martha's life that has less to do with their circumstances and less to do with your circumstances and more to do with God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: That word yet is more about God's glory than it is his love for us.
SPEAKER_00: And just because God doesn't show up when we think he should does not mean he's distant, does not mean he's uninterested, and it does not mean he's unloving.
SPEAKER_00: The trials and the wounds that you've experienced or that you're going through right now, they're not a reflection of God's love for you.
SPEAKER_00: But they can reflect God's glory through you.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: After he said this, he went on to tell them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna go there and wake him up.
SPEAKER_00: His disciples replied, Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
SPEAKER_00: So he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
SPEAKER_00: This gives me hope as a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like they're in the presence of Jesus, they travel with him every day, they don't understand what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: So he tells them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
SPEAKER_00: But then look at this.
SPEAKER_00: And for your sake, I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.
SPEAKER_00: But let us go to him.
SPEAKER_00: There's this huge presence of God's glory and our belief all throughout this passage.
SPEAKER_00: God's glory, our belief.
SPEAKER_00: That's why everything is taking place.
SPEAKER_00: And what we see here is that maybe Jesus has delayed his arrival to deepen your dependence on him.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Jesus isn't answering your prayer, not because he's punishing you, but because he's preparing you.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Jesus isn't coming through when you think he should because he's trying to strip away the hope that you've placed on a relationship, the hope that you've placed on your bank account, the hope that you've placed on your spouse, the hope that you've placed on a boss, the hope that you've placed on your circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to strip that hope away from those things that don't bring you life or resurrection and reattach it to him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus and the disciples, they they make the two-day journey back to Bethany.
SPEAKER_00: And it was a Jewish custom at that time to have 30 days of mourning.
SPEAKER_00: For us, we have the visitation, then we, you know, have the funeral, and then we typically, you know, sometimes have like a lunch or a dinner afterwards to celebrate the person's life.
SPEAKER_00: For the Jewish people, this was a 30-day process.
SPEAKER_00: And so there would have been people in mourning at Mary and Martha's house for days.
SPEAKER_00: It's been four days since Lazarus has passed away, and so the assumption is there's a lot of people around Mary and Martha.
SPEAKER_00: They're comforting them in their mourning.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus begins to make his way back to Bethany.
SPEAKER_00: Now we all respond to trauma differently, we all respond to grief differently.
SPEAKER_00: And so word gets out that Jesus is on his way back, and that takes us to verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, Martha said to Jesus, If you'd have been here, my brother would not have died.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how does Martha respond to Jesus coming back to Bethany four days after her brother passed away?
SPEAKER_00: She runs to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Is she hurt?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: Is she sad?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: Is she in mourning?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: Is she disappointed?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: She verbalizes her disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: But she runs to him.
SPEAKER_00: But you see how Mary responds?
SPEAKER_00: Mary stayed at home.
SPEAKER_00: She wasn't ready to run to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: She had more questions than answers.
SPEAKER_00: She had more doubt than faith.
SPEAKER_00: She had more sadness than joy.
SPEAKER_00: She wasn't ready to run into the presence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Mary stayed at home.
SPEAKER_00: She needed space.
SPEAKER_00: She was hurt and frustrated and disappointed.
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't that she didn't believe that Jesus could heal her brother.
SPEAKER_00: She did believe that Jesus could heal her brother.
SPEAKER_00: She knew that he could heal her, heal him, and yet he chose not to, and that was her hurt.
SPEAKER_00: I think we see an important truth in our relationship with Jesus in this passage, and that's be where you are, not where you think you should be.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus really is the resurrection in the life, he has the power to take on your frustration.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't dismiss your doubts.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't put them off.
SPEAKER_00: Pray what you feel, not what you think you should pray.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to pretend or posture or make believe in your relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you as you are.
SPEAKER_00: Why is this important?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 33.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus saw her weeping, talking about Mary now, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
SPEAKER_00: Where have you laid him?
SPEAKER_00: He asked.
SPEAKER_00: Come and see, Lord, they replied.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 35, many of you know is the shortest verse in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's not written like this in Greek.
SPEAKER_00: We add the verse numbers, but the people who translated the Bible initially and started adding verse numbers to organize the New Testament, must have felt like this verse carried enough weight to have two words carried on its own.
SPEAKER_00: And the two words are Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_00: And then the people said, Look how much he loved him.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me ask you this.
SPEAKER_00: Why would Jesus, knowing what's getting ready to happen, he knows the end of the story?
SPEAKER_00: He knows he's getting ready to resurrect Lazarus.
SPEAKER_00: Why would he cry?
SPEAKER_00: Why would he be sad?
SPEAKER_00: Why wouldn't he go, hey guys, just chill?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm getting ready to do my best work.
SPEAKER_00: Like, why wouldn't he just like, why wouldn't he basically not affirm their grief?
SPEAKER_00: Why would he say, you guys are crying about nothing?
SPEAKER_00: He's just asleep.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus doesn't just see our pain, he enters it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't always heal your pain or prevent your pain, but he will always enter it with you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't always prevent your wounds, but he will always enter them with you.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Hebrews says we don't have a high priest, Jesus, who sits on a throne that's disconnected from us.
SPEAKER_00: We have a high priest that has felt everything that we felt and yet didn't sin.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus weeps here because he is not a God who is distant or set apart from us, but he is With us.
SPEAKER_00: He empathizes with us.
SPEAKER_00: So as we close today, I want to give you four points of application as it relates to this passage.
SPEAKER_00: And the first is this resurrection changes us before it changes our circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Resurrection, if Jesus is the resurrection, he's going to change us before our circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to go back all the way to the beginning of the passage.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: John is referencing something that comes up in John chapter 12, where Mary pours out an expensive bottle of perfume at Jesus' feet and begins to take down her hair and wipe Jesus' feet with her hair.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 10 talks about Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to him teach.
SPEAKER_00: Another instance in another gospel, Martha is running around the house trying to get everything set up for the party they're getting ready to host, and Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So she has proximity at Jesus' feet.
SPEAKER_00: She has consistently sat at the feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: She has been in close proximity to him.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, in this moment, when her brother died, something inside of her died.
SPEAKER_00: She did not want to be in Jesus' presence, much less at his feet.
SPEAKER_00: And so she stays at home.
SPEAKER_00: She needed distance.
SPEAKER_00: But then something amazing happens.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 32.
SPEAKER_00: When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, Lord, if you would have been here, my brother would not have died.
SPEAKER_00: This verse is incredible.
SPEAKER_00: One, because she's honest with him, but two, look where she goes to his feet.
SPEAKER_00: In that moment, despite her sadness, despite her grief, despite her disappointment, despite Jesus not coming through how she thought he should, despite her blaming Jesus for her brother's death, she falls at his feet.
SPEAKER_00: She's back in close proximity to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to see.
SPEAKER_00: Lazarus is not alive yet.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection of Lazarus hasn't happened yet.
SPEAKER_00: Her circumstances haven't changed yet.
SPEAKER_00: God was not resurrecting her brother yet, but something inside of Mary's heart was resurrecting to the point where she falls at Jesus' feet.
SPEAKER_00: And God may want to resurrect something in you before he resurrects your circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: God may want to resurrect something in you before he resurrects your career.
SPEAKER_00: God may want to resurrect something in you before he resurrects your dating life.
SPEAKER_00: God may want to resurrect something in you before he resurrects your marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Like if we look at our circumstances and God says, Hey, I want to bring you back to life.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to be a new person.
SPEAKER_00: The next thing we see here is resurrection always requires a response.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: This is Martha talking now, but I know even now God will give you whatever you ask.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again.
SPEAKER_00: Martha answered, I know he will rise again at the resurrection at the last day.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_00: The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.
SPEAKER_00: And whoever lives by believing in me will never die.
SPEAKER_00: And then he ends with this question: Do you believe this?
SPEAKER_00: What's he requiring?
SPEAKER_00: A response.
SPEAKER_00: You either believe it or you don't.
SPEAKER_00: There's no halfway.
SPEAKER_00: Resurrection always requires a response.
SPEAKER_00: And Martha believed in the resurrection someday, and Jesus says, Hey, resurrection is coming now, not just to Lazarus, but to you.
SPEAKER_00: Martha believed that the resurrection was an event, and Jesus says, No, the resurrection is a person that you get to have a relationship with and you get to have new life every single day.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was the fulfillment of my mercies are new every morning.
SPEAKER_00: God brings resurrection to our life every single day, new life to our hearts every single day.
SPEAKER_00: But do you believe it?
SPEAKER_00: Because no response is a response.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 38.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus once more, deeply moved, came to the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
SPEAKER_00: Take away the stone, he said.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, Martha said, the sister of the dead man, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus said, Didn't I tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God, there is glory again, and belief?
SPEAKER_00: So they took away the stone.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me, for I knew that you I know that you always hear me.
SPEAKER_00: But I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe.
SPEAKER_00: There's the word believe that you sent me.
SPEAKER_00: When he said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.
SPEAKER_00: The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth around his face.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them, Take off the grave clothes.
SPEAKER_00: Why would Jesus tell them to take off the grave clothes?
SPEAKER_00: Because living people don't wear grave clothes.
SPEAKER_00: And for some of us here today, we've come into a relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We say that we follow Jesus, we we call ourselves Christians, and we come to church and we pray the prayers and we sing the songs and we serve in the kids' ministry because that's extra credit in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Like we do all of the religious things, and we wear church clothes on Sunday and grave clothes on Monday.
SPEAKER_00: We've been saved and brought back to life from all of these things, and yet we put them back on all the time.
SPEAKER_00: So, what are the grave clothes that God is asking you to take off as you come out of the tomb?
SPEAKER_00: Bitterness, resentment, gossip, insecurity, fear, shame, pornography, addiction, envy, sexual brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: What are the things that you have an opportunity to live a new life and you keep putting back on?
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus doesn't only give us life after death, he gives life wherever death has taken hold.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he does.
SPEAKER_00: Mother's Day of 2025, my wife was asked to speak at a church in Indianapolis called Trader's Point.
SPEAKER_00: You may have heard of it.
SPEAKER_00: Matt used to be on staff there.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of her message, she was closing with a story about her father passing away in January of 2025.
SPEAKER_00: And for much of her adult life, my wife and her father had a broken relationship because of alcoholism.
SPEAKER_00: Alcoholism robbed him of being the dad that he should have been.
SPEAKER_00: And it robbed him of a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: And my wife kept her heart soft and kept her spirit willing to come back to life to her dad if he would recognize the hurt and damage that he caused.
SPEAKER_00: And a few years before he passed away, she and her father had a reconciliation in their relationship.
SPEAKER_00: And so she's telling this story.
SPEAKER_00: And a few hours before her dad died, he pulled my wife close and he said to her, I'm sorry for being such a bad dad.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Dad, we're good.
SPEAKER_00: You've forgiven me, I've forgiven you, we're good.
SPEAKER_00: She shares that story, and obviously it was a really emotional moment in the message.
SPEAKER_00: And the next day I get an email from a guy who was at that service, and he had just gone through a divorce after 30 years of marriage.
SPEAKER_00: The divorce was finalized in March, and he shows up to Trader's Point, Mother's Day weekend, by himself because his kids had gone to church with his ex-wife.
SPEAKER_00: And something in his heart broke.
SPEAKER_00: Because for the last few years, his wife had continued to tell him, Hey, I think alcohol's a problem.
SPEAKER_00: I think alcohol's a problem.
SPEAKER_00: And she said it until she wasn't willing to say it anymore and she filed for divorce.
SPEAKER_00: And he emails me and says, Hey, my marriage is dead.
SPEAKER_00: I need something different.
SPEAKER_00: I need to be different.
SPEAKER_00: And so I started meeting with him a few weeks after that.
SPEAKER_00: And in August of 2025, he went to a breakfast, and his son and the grandkids and his wife, his ex-wife was there, and this is the first time they'd seen each other since their divorce was finalized in March.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of that breakfast, she texted him and she said, I don't know who that was at breakfast, but if that's who you are, I want to get to know that person.
SPEAKER_00: So a few weeks later, she started a meeting with my wife, and a few weeks after that, we started a meeting with them.
SPEAKER_00: And God began to bring things back to life.
SPEAKER_00: But only after they died.
SPEAKER_00: First week of June, my wife and I met this couple at a park on the north side of Indianapolis and remarried them.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I share that story with you, not to say every divorce is going to end in remarriage.
SPEAKER_00: That's not true, and it's probably not always healthy.
SPEAKER_00: But restoration is bigger than your marital status.
SPEAKER_00: Redemption is bigger than your employment status.
SPEAKER_00: New life that God promises you is bigger than your relational status.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to bring you back to life.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to give you resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: He'll deal with your circumstances after you become new.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, do you believe it?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you so much that you don't see us as we are, you see us as we can be.
SPEAKER_00: You don't see our past, you don't see the mistakes that we've made, you don't see the shame that we carry, you see your son who came to be the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_00: And so for the person that's sitting here that feels like they're too far gone, they're unforgivable.
SPEAKER_00: They can never be different, they can never be remarried, they can never be in a healthy dating relationship.
SPEAKER_00: They can never have anything beyond what they have now.
SPEAKER_00: Would you just whisper to them that you see them?
SPEAKER_00: That just because you're silent right now does not mean you're absent.
SPEAKER_00: That you're not punishing them, you're preparing them.
SPEAKER_00: God, we trust that you're going to bring resurrection in life because that is who you are.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.