From Death to Life

The story of Lazarus reveals profound truths about Jesus's character and how He works in our lives. When Jesus deliberately delayed going to His dying friend, it wasn't from indifference but for a greater purpose. By waiting until Lazarus had been dead four days—past what was considered the point of no return—Jesus demonstrated His ultimate power over death itself. This narrative teaches us that Jesus brings life to dead situations, His timing always has purpose, He genuinely feels our pain, and He offers new life to everyone. The true Gospel isn't about condemnation but about hope and new life for those who feel spiritually dead.

Transcript

Okay, friends, I'm going to invite you this morning, if you have your Bibles, to go ahead and pull those out and open up to the Book of John. It's in the New Testament. Matthew, mark, Luke, John, fourth book. And we're going to start in chapter 11. And we're going to read kind of a lot today.

We're going to read 1 through 45. And if you don't have your Bibles, that's okay, you can follow along on the screen. We'll have all of God's Word here for us today so you can follow along. Hear now the word of the Lord for us this Sunday morning. 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. So the sister sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one you love is sick. 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.

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. And then he said to his disciples, let's go back to Judea. But Rabbi, they said, a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you were going back. 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. After he'd said this, he went on to tell them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I'm going to wake him up. His disciples replied, well, Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better. Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

So he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And for your sake I'm glad that I was not there so that you may believe. But let us go to him. Then Thomas, also known as Didymus, said to the rest of the disciples, let us also go that we may die with him. On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

Now Bethany was less than a two mile trip from Jerusalem. And many Jews had come to Mary and Martha to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him. But Mary stayed at home. Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been there, my Brother would not have died.

But I know that even now. God will give you whatever you ask. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha answered, I know he will rise again in the resurrection. In the last day, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection in 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? Yes, Lord, she replied. I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who is to come into the world.

After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. The teacher is here, she said, and he's asking for you. When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had met him. Wait.

Nope. Sorry. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village where. But was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. Where have you laid him? He asked. Come and see, Lord, they replied.

Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, see how he loved him. But some of them said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying? Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.

Take away the stone, he said. But, Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, by this time there's a bad odor, for he has been there for four days. Then Jesus said, did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, father, I thank you that you have heard me.

I knew that you always hear me. But I said this for the benefit of the people standing here. To that they may believe that you sent me. When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, lazarus, come out. The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, take off the grave clothes and let him go. Therefore, many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

So I know, we talked about it just a couple of minutes ago. But my family recently went to a trip to Canada. Anybody ever spent a significant amount of time in Canada? Where have you been? Ontario.

North Bay, Ontario. So up north. That makes sense. Toronto, Quebec, British Columbia. So you've been around, right?

So when we flew in, we went to Toronto first because Alyssa was at what's essentially kind of like this really intense dance camp in Toronto. And over the entire month of July, Alyssa got to go and to do an intensive training at Canada's National Ballet School in Toronto. And since we had to pick her up in Canada the end of the session anyway, we figured let's make a family trip out of it. So we went to go pick her up in Toronto, Canada. Then we hopped in our sweet, sweet rented Bronco Sport.

It's a thing. Shouldn't be, but they made one. So we hopped in the Bronco Sport and we drove from Toronto to where my family lives at a little town between Rochester and Buffalo in New York. So it's all the way around Lake Ontario. And we came back to see them and we spent some time there.

We also got to travel quite a bit around Canada because then after that we went back. We went from Toronto, then to New York, then to Montreal, and we ended our trip in Quebec. And while we were in Quebec, we got to stay at a nice little air and be Airbnb on a lake, which was awesome. And this house had so many really cool things for us to do. Had kayaks, we went kayaking.

It had a dock for us to fish from. By the way, there are no fish in Canada. None. And then it had a really cool hot tub. It had an Xbox 360, and it had a pool table.

So, like, everybody had their thing that they could go and do. But one of the cooler things that this house had about it was that it had an outdoor fire pit where we could roast some marshmallows. Although because the wood was so wet, we didn't have a very good opportunity to do that. But we could also sit out there around the fireplace and watch the sun go down over the lake. It was a really cool place.

I found it pretty interesting though, that there by the fire pit were two different piles of logs. It was clear that one of those piles was cut pretty recently. Another one was stacked up nicely. It had a tarp over it, drying out, ready for the fire. It looked to have been seasoned pretty well, so that should have lit up pretty easily.

It didn't, but it should have. But the second pile, the one that was more recently cut, it was pretty fresh looking. You ever Seen those cut piles of logs where you can recognize every single line or ring in the log. Like you've seen those all stacked up so neatly and the ends are kind of this white fleshed tree. It was very nice.

I want to show you one of the interesting things about this pile of trees. This is what it looks like. You can see all the rings, you can see how pretty newly fresh they were.

But there's something special about this pile of logs.

You notice it, this pile of logs was growing new life.

It didn't look to me like it was any sort of special pile of logs. It just looked like a chunk of wood thrown together.

But the tree that these had come from, when it was cut down, it was detached from the roots. There was no sustenance for these little chunks of wood. But for some reason, they were growing new trees in a state what should have been decay became new life.

I couldn't stop thinking about how these logs reminds me of the Jesus that we see in the Gospels. As we just read in John, Jesus is the giver of new life, right? We know that Lazarus was dead. He was in the tomb. And Jesus brings a literal new life.

And I know that many of us have heard this story before. If you've not heard this story, it's one that I know is preached forever and you'll hear it again.

But Jesus is delivered word that one of his really good friends is sick and near death. Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that their brother was lying on his deathbed. And they wanted to send word to Jesus because they knew that Jesus could do something about it. They wanted Jesus to come and heal him. But strangely in the story, what does Jesus do?

He waits, right? He stays where he is. How many days? Two days. In John chapter 10.

Just a few verses before we read this story. So it's the chapter before the biblical text is pretty clear that Jesus is staying in a place where John the Baptist had been prophesying. When John the Baptist had first started his ministry, the place was called Bethany beyond the Jordan. Today the place is known as Almagdus. Okay.

And using today's Google Maps, which you can do, that place is about a 15 to 18 hour walk from Jordan, or, sorry, Bethany beyond the Jordan to Jerusalem area. This means that it probably would have taken Jesus anywhere between two and three days to get back to where Bethany is. From where he is at Bethany beyond the Jordan, if he walked eight hours a day, right. This was going to be a pretty long journey. But even after receiving the news that somebody he really deeply cared for was dying, and that there's such a long journey ahead.

Jesus decides to stay where he is until the time is right for a miracle to happen. Then out of nowhere, Jesus says, all right, guys, it's time. Load up the camels, let's go.

And then his disciples said, but Jesus, we just left that area because people were trying to murder you there and you want to go back. And Jesus then responds with a short parable about how people in Jerusalem and all of Judea need the gospel of Jesus, right? There's only a certain amount of time that they have me and I've got to show them the light.

And then Jesus says, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. And then the disciples are like, yeah, that's good. Naps are great. Jesus, let. Let him sleep.

He'll get better. It'll be all good. And Jesus says, hey, dummies. No, he's dead.

So now we've got to go, and we've got to raise him from the dead. And then he says to his disciples, let's go to him, right? It's an invitation. Let's all go. Then there's a strange kind of, like, interjection by Thomas, who says to the rest of the disciples there, we should go with Jesus so that we can die with him.

And like, oftentimes when we break up the story and we read these little pieces without the full context, you don't really know what's happening. And so this is kind of that reference to what the disciples were just talking about. Jesus, if we go back there, they're probably going to try to kill you. They haven't stopped trying to murder you yet this whole time. Like, when I was a little kid in church, hearing the story, I was like, they're going to also die with Lazarus.

I don't get it, right? If we're not connecting the dots, you might misunderstand what's happening. But Thomas is saying, we are so dedicated to you, Jesus, that we're going to follow you, even if it means that we have to die also. Right.

Next, Jesus and the disciples start their journey from Bethany beyond the Jordan. Out, Magdas. To go to Bethany, which is about two miles outside of Jerusalem, where Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha are from. And we know that when they have. When they get to Bethany, that Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days.

You guys probably didn't know this, but. But there are all kinds of debates about the timing of this miracle. For hundreds of years, there have been debates in the Christian church. Well, now If Jesus left here two days out and it was an eight hour a day trip and they walked about six miles an hour and they like, there's just all these debates about timing and about when it all took place and what time of year it was and how that would have hampered travel. And there's just been conversations about it for years and years and years between theologists, theologians and pastors and, you know, just regular people.

And let me just tell you this, nobody cares. Right, Sorry, Dan cares. No, like nobody. This is not the point of the story to debate like how long it took. And well, if he was in the ground for four days, to Jesus, that is irrelevant to the story.

What matters is that there is a man who was once alive and is now dead and four days later decaying in a cave.

And Jesus shows up and he called on Mary and Martha when they showed up, like, hey, where's your brother? Just point me the right direction. And both of them, Mary and Martha, if you notice, say the exact same thing. If you had only been here, we could have avoided this whole situation. Can you imagine the brokenness of losing your brother, knowing that he could have been saved by a doctor or a, you know, a healer or Jesus and you in that moment could confront Jesus and say, where were you in that moment?

Let this be a reminder that even if you don't know where Jesus is in the moment, Jesus is always working behind the scenes for a plan that's already going to be the best.

Doesn't mean that everything works out the way exactly we want it to every time. It means that Jesus is not abandoned you, Jesus has not left you. Jesus has a plan for new life. And that doesn't always look like we want it to look like.

Jesus weeps in this moment. He lost a friend. He's being called on the carpet by two women that he really loves. Where were you? Why weren't you here?

And all of that. Jesus expresses that human piece of himself by weeping. Everybody's like, oh, Jesus is crying. You see how much he loved this guy?

And then Jesus says, point me the way, tell me where they buried him and let's, let's do something.

So they bring him to the tomb and Martha says, jesus, now don't go any doing anything weird because there's probably not a great fragrance at this moment, right? Been in the tomb for four days. He is dead and gone. What are you planning on doing? Jesus said, it is for this moment, right?

I just talked to you about having faith that you will see the glory of God. If you have faith right?

Then Jesus says, open the tomb. Let's do this, Lazarus, come on out. And he does.

And it says, as a result, many of the people who had shown up to mourn with Mary, they believe in Jesus and they begin to follow him too.

I want to remind you, I don't think that anybody who showed up at the tomb that day really expected Jesus to raise a person from the dead. The disciples heard Jesus say this plan. They heard that Jesus was on his way to go wake up their sleeping brother. But I'm sure they would have been in the same kind of feeling that we all are, like, can this really be a thing? Like, does Jesus, can he do this?

Jesus shows up at a tomb that represents death. He sees a man raised up from the dead, from death. Jesus brings new life in a place where there would have never been an expectation of life, right? They're in a tomb, in a graveyard where there's death.

Much like a dead tree that's been cut down, but has been sectioned into logs that are meant for a fire. When we see new life, they're brand new green growth. It's really unexpected and I didn't really know what to do with that.

But the gospel message of Jesus is something that from continuously. The beginning of the works in Matthew all the way through reinforces the theme of Jesus bringing new life out of things that looked like death. From the healing of blind men in Matthew 9, Mark 8, John 9, to the cleansing of lepers in Matthew 8, Mark 1 and Luke 5, to the healing of the unclean spirits in Matthew 8, 10, 12, 17, Luke 4, 10, 11, 13, Mark 1, 9 and 16, and so many more scriptures. To the raising of Jairus, his daughter, from the dead in Mark chapter 5, to the offer of a new and sinless life to a woman who was caught in adultery, sentenced to death in the Book of John chapter 8. To the new life that Jesus promises the criminal condemned to death on the cross just to his right in the last hours of Jesus life.

In Matthew chapter 27 and Luke 23, the story of the gospel is new life where all we see is death.

The Gospel of Jesus is a gospel of hope. The entire Gospel of Jesus is about offering new life and life to all people. It doesn't matter if you're the friend of Jesus or a loved one of Jesus or a criminal condemned to death. Jesus offers us the same new life. We talked about it in Sunday school this morning.

He didn't say, to the criminal on the cross, hey, have you been baptized hey, now, to be clear, was your baptism a sprinkling or were you immersed? He didn't say, do you know the Apostles Creed? He didn't say, do you ascribe to the Methodist tradition or the Baptist tradition? Jesus says, today you will be with me in paradise. And if that's the story of Jesus offering life, why do we put barriers between life and death?

The message of the Bible is not about condemnation for people who mess up, but it is instead a promise of new life and hope for those who are and who feel spiritually dead.

And today, in a world that's broken and lost and hateful and cruel and mean, we need to once again look at the same gospel and speak hope anew into the lives of people who need the real Jesus. Not the American Jesus that's falsely portrayed as giving wealth and health and comfort to the most financially stable. If you give, you receive. That's not the Jesus of the gospel. Jesus gives even when it's not deserved.

Not the version of a Jesus that sends people to an eternal hell based on their committing of finite sins. Not an unjust picture of Jesus that is seen only as a savior to the most faithful. Jesus has blessed them because they've done all the right things. Not just a Jesus who shows up in the moments where people's lives are most broken, but a Jesus who's there in the highs and the lows.

The Gospel of Jesus needs to be what we preach. The Gospel of Jesus needs to be what we live outside these doors. So, friends, this week and always, may you be hope and new life for people in this world who have no hope. May we be the people who know Jesus well enough that we live like Jesus every day that we live.

Let us be for the world a picture of Jesus who wants to bind up the brokenhearted and bring a new vision of what life can look like when we give life.

Friends, let's pray.