SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: I made up a story.
SPEAKER_01: It's not true.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm about to say never happened.
SPEAKER_01: But I think it's a good introduction anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Stuff like this happens all the time, even though this one is not real.
SPEAKER_01: But I trust either way you'll find it relatable.
SPEAKER_01: And it'll set us up well for our text this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Once there was a man, let's call him Harry, whose business often took him across the country.
SPEAKER_01: Harry would travel frequently for work, and as a result, few people knew Harry well.
SPEAKER_01: And faced with a trip that would keep him away for several days, Harry asked one of his colleagues, let's call him Reggie, to watch out for his house while he was gone, just for a few days, check in once or twice, make sure everything was okay.
SPEAKER_01: Harry barely knew Reggie.
SPEAKER_01: They left him a note with some instructions.
SPEAKER_01: Just the normal things you'd expect, right?
SPEAKER_01: Garage code is 1231.
SPEAKER_01: 123123.
SPEAKER_01: That worked out.
SPEAKER_01: If that doesn't work, try one one two two two.
SPEAKER_01: He keeps the thermostat at 68 degrees when he's away.
SPEAKER_01: Let him know he'd text him.
SPEAKER_01: He got notified that a package was delivered.
SPEAKER_01: They're usually on the front step by 3 p.m.
SPEAKER_01: This kind of stuff, normal things.
SPEAKER_01: Water the ficus on Tuesday.
SPEAKER_01: You get it, right?
SPEAKER_01: And oh, by the way, one last thing.
SPEAKER_01: Title of the sermon, right?
SPEAKER_01: I have a pet python named Sir Slithers a lot.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't have a terrarium.
SPEAKER_01: But I usually just let three mice loose a day, and that keeps him fed and busy.
SPEAKER_01: The mice are in the garage.
SPEAKER_01: If you just make sure to let one loose upstairs and two downstairs, that'd be great.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for doing this, Reg.
SPEAKER_01: You really came through in a pinch, coffee, and anything, Harry.
SPEAKER_01: Stuff like that happens all the time, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's a funny thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's a funny thing, but I think it is a really effective thing to load the most important bit of information at the end.
SPEAKER_01: One last thing.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what I think John has done in our text this morning.
SPEAKER_01: He's placed the most important information divided into mostly two parts.
SPEAKER_01: Something like the book of signs and the book of glory.
SPEAKER_01: In the book of signs, Jesus does miracles, makes claims, and teaches so that the people will believe.
SPEAKER_01: And the book of glory begins in chapter 13 with the Last Supper, the Uprim Discourse, Judas' betrayal of Jesus in the garden, crucifixion, death, and Easter Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: But here, in chapter 11, with the raising of Lazarus, spoiler alert, he's not going to stay dead forever.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus does his last public miracle or sign in the book of John.
SPEAKER_01: It's the last thing he does.
SPEAKER_01: And John presents it as that one last thing you need to know before reading about Jesus on his way to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And so in that way, I think John 11 is a perfect text to prepare us for all the reminders of this coming month.
SPEAKER_01: Good Friday on March 29th, 6 p.m.
SPEAKER_01: Easter Sunday, March 31st, 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: That's on info.faithfree.com for you.
SPEAKER_01: But let's turn to John chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: And while you turn, while you turn, I have a quote for you from JC Ryle, just to set us up.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 11, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: The chapter we have now begun, Ryle writes, is one of the most remarkable in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: For grandeur and simplicity, for pathos and solemnity, nothing was ever written like it.
SPEAKER_01: It describes a miracle which is not recorded in the other gospels.
SPEAKER_01: The raising of Lazarus from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And now John writes this like a story.
SPEAKER_01: Because it is a story.
SPEAKER_01: It's a beautiful story.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've broken it down into Acts, like a story might be.
SPEAKER_01: So let's begin in John 11, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Act one.
SPEAKER_01: Follow along with me as I read.
SPEAKER_01: Now, a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary, and her sister Martha.
SPEAKER_01: It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair.
SPEAKER_01: Her brother Lazarus was ill.
SPEAKER_01: And so the sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, he whom you love is ill.
SPEAKER_01: But when Jesus heard it, he said, This illness does not lead to death.
SPEAKER_01: It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.
SPEAKER_01: We'll stop there.
SPEAKER_01: John is simply setting up a well-known story, reminding his readers of the woman who poured ointment on Jesus' feet.
SPEAKER_01: If they didn't already know, that was Mary of Bethany.
SPEAKER_01: They'd know that now, and we'll see why that's important later on, because it is.
SPEAKER_01: It's important.
SPEAKER_01: Every little word here is important.
SPEAKER_01: Mary and Martha, his two sisters who know Jesus, send him a polite and touching message.
SPEAKER_01: They say, Lord, he whom you love is ill.
SPEAKER_01: They warmly, gently, kindly ask Jesus to come and see Lazarus without asking it outright, and because they're confident that the Lord loves him.
SPEAKER_01: It might appear passive-aggressive to us, but it's not.
SPEAKER_01: And we know it's not because Jesus didn't take it that way.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus saw right away that this illness would not end with Lazarus' death, but with his own glory.
SPEAKER_01: Glory, as I've already told you, is a big theme in John's book, right?
SPEAKER_01: We're coming up upon the book of glory, and it's been a big theme since chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_01: And after Jesus turned water into wine in chapter two, John says, this, the first of his signs, or this one we're in in chapter 11, is the last of his signs.
SPEAKER_01: The first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory.
SPEAKER_01: And his disciples believed in him.
SPEAKER_01: And so when Jesus hears the news of Lazarus' illness, he already knows the whole outcome.
SPEAKER_01: He already knows, if we peek ahead to verse 40, that Martha would see the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: So put a pin in that.
SPEAKER_01: Because the glory of God will come just rolling back to us at the end of the story in waves.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
SPEAKER_01: So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
SPEAKER_01: Stop there.
SPEAKER_01: That just tell us that Jesus let Lazarus die?
SPEAKER_01: Is that what it said?
SPEAKER_01: Try to rebuild the timeline with me quickly.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus waits two days, and then he says, time to go.
SPEAKER_01: By the time he gets to Bethany in verse 17, our friend Lazarus has already been dead for four days.
SPEAKER_01: Now, scholars debate the geography.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was either one day's journey away.
SPEAKER_01: Can you see that tiny font?
SPEAKER_01: Close enough.
SPEAKER_01: He was either one day away, so it took the news a day to get there, two days to wait and one day to get there, or he was four days away.
SPEAKER_01: Took four days for the news to get there, two days to wait, and four days to travel.
SPEAKER_01: Those are the options.
SPEAKER_01: So if you reconstruct the math, Lazarus either dies before the message, or like right when the guy leaves town to go get Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Or Lazarus dies right when Jesus says, time to go.
SPEAKER_01: I'm convinced it was a four-day trip for two reasons.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is the geography just makes more sense to me, but I ancient geography is kind of dizzy.
SPEAKER_01: There's an easier answer just right in the text.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus gets the news that Lazarus is sick in verse 3, he doesn't say in verse 4, nope, dead already.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't correct it, right?
SPEAKER_01: He says, This illness, and this illness does not lead to death, and so he stays put.
SPEAKER_01: And the disciples, imagine them, they hear Jesus say, This illness doesn't lead to death, and he waits, they go, Oh, cool.
SPEAKER_01: Lazie's okay.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said as much.
SPEAKER_01: Lazarus wasn't dead when the news got to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So the question's really easy to answer, even if we don't like it.
SPEAKER_01: Did Lazarus did Jesus let Lazarus die?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he did.
SPEAKER_01: We can't avoid this.
SPEAKER_01: We really can't.
SPEAKER_01: Even if we play with the timelines, we can't avoid it.
SPEAKER_01: And we shouldn't avoid it.
SPEAKER_01: We shouldn't avoid that truth any more than we avoid the truth of the whole book of Job.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus let Job's kids die.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus let King David die.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus let your loved ones die.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus let Lazarus die.
SPEAKER_01: And friends, Jesus will let you die.
SPEAKER_01: So maybe a better question isn't, did Jesus let Lazarus die, as if he's on trial before us?
SPEAKER_01: But maybe we should ask, why did Jesus let Lazarus die?
SPEAKER_01: Or better yet, how should we respond when Jesus let somebody die?
SPEAKER_01: D.A.
SPEAKER_01: Carson in his commentary says, when Jesus has said, what Jesus has just said could be interpreted as callousness toward the Bethany family.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: John will have none of it.
SPEAKER_01: Nuh-uh.
SPEAKER_01: He insists that Jesus loved Martha and her sister in Lazarus.
SPEAKER_01: John's point is that the glorification described in the previous verse is not harsh and thoughtlessly devoid of affection for others, but entirely in keeping with Jesus' love for this family.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus let him die because he loved him.
SPEAKER_01: Lazarus' death and the resurrection that follows are not only to glorify the Father and the Son, but are for the good of Lazarus and his sisters.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, friends, just take God at His word.
SPEAKER_01: Just take God at His Word.
SPEAKER_01: He loves Lazarus, even though Lazarus died.
SPEAKER_01: And if, like Lazarus, you're his friend, he loves you too.
SPEAKER_01: No matter what happens.
SPEAKER_01: It really can be.
SPEAKER_01: Ought to be.
SPEAKER_01: Just that simple.
SPEAKER_01: When we face death.
SPEAKER_01: But these comforting truths get even better when we can get our heads inside what Jesus says next and this walking in the day stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Look what he says in verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: Then after he said, after this, he said to the disciples, Let us go to Judea again.
SPEAKER_01: And the disciples said to him, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you.
SPEAKER_01: And are you going there again?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day?
SPEAKER_01: If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world.
SPEAKER_01: But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him.
SPEAKER_01: And after saying these things, he said to them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.
SPEAKER_01: And the disciples said to him, Lord, if he's fallen asleep, he'll get better.
SPEAKER_01: Almost like an apple do him good.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: But now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought he meant taking rest and sleep.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus has died.
SPEAKER_01: And for your sake I'm glad I was not there.
SPEAKER_01: So that you may believe.
SPEAKER_01: Let us go to him.
SPEAKER_01: And so Thomas called the twins, said to his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that Thomas is ready to die.
SPEAKER_01: Tough guy.
SPEAKER_01: And he's not the only one thinking that way, right?
SPEAKER_01: The rest of the disciples are tweaking out too.
SPEAKER_01: Rabbi, the Jews just tried to stone you in verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: And it's true, they did.
SPEAKER_01: Scroll up in your Bible just a bit to the end of chapter 10 and verse 30.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, I and the Father are one.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 10, verse 30.
SPEAKER_01: And then, I think this is verse 31.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Jews picked up stones again to stone him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus answered, I've shown you many good works from the Father, for which of them are you going to stone me?
SPEAKER_01: And the Jews answered him, It's not for a good work that we're going to stone you, but for blasphemy.
SPEAKER_01: Because you, being a man, make yourself God.
SPEAKER_01: And in verse 39, he slips through their fingers and escapes across the Jordan.
SPEAKER_01: And so now he's headed back into Judea, to Bethany, a little suburb of Jerusalem, where they just tried to arrest and kill him.
SPEAKER_01: And when the disciples point that out to Jesus, like he forgot.
SPEAKER_01: When the disciples point that out to Jesus, he says, and then if anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world.
SPEAKER_01: I think Jesus and John both want us to connect this with Jesus himself.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 8, Jesus said, I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
SPEAKER_01: And then a little later in chapter 9, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_01: So we put those two things together.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is telling the disciples, If you're with me, guys, you're good.
SPEAKER_01: If you walk with me, it's alright.
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_01: You won't stumble if you walk with the light of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Besides all that, Lazarus has fallen asleep, and I'm gonna go wake him up.
SPEAKER_01: And when they didn't get that, some people think it's like Jesus was messing with them.
SPEAKER_01: Like he's just got this wink and he likes to be honre.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But I think it's more likely that Jesus is hinting already for them and for you that as far as he's concerned, death is just a nap.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a big deal.
SPEAKER_01: He's not that worried about it.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in all of that, in that whole first act, I got three things we should take from it.
SPEAKER_01: Three things to pull out of those f of those first scenes beyond the Jordan.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is that Jesus loves his people.
SPEAKER_01: He loves Mary, he loves Martha, he loves Lazarus, and he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: He's not that worried about death.
SPEAKER_01: And he knew exactly.
SPEAKER_01: He knew exactly what he was doing.
SPEAKER_01: Act two.
SPEAKER_01: A visitation and a funeral.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
SPEAKER_01: Bethany was near Jerusalem about two miles off, or 15 stadia.
SPEAKER_01: And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother.
SPEAKER_01: So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him.
SPEAKER_01: But Mary remained seated in the house.
SPEAKER_01: Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
SPEAKER_01: But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again.
SPEAKER_01: And Martha said to him, I know, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe this?
SPEAKER_01: And she said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.
SPEAKER_01: It's a familiar text.
SPEAKER_01: We've read it before.
SPEAKER_01: But it's a really weird visitation.
SPEAKER_01: It's really weird.
SPEAKER_01: It's a really weird visitation.
SPEAKER_01: The one thing that isn't that weird is that a crowd of Jews had come two miles out from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: That's like from here to the hospital.
SPEAKER_01: It's not far.
SPEAKER_01: Not a big trip.
SPEAKER_01: But guys, it is weird.
SPEAKER_01: This is weird.
SPEAKER_01: Try to picture it.
SPEAKER_01: If you and I go to a funeral, we say something like, I'm sorry for your loss.
SPEAKER_01: Or I really loved your brother.
SPEAKER_01: He was a good man.
SPEAKER_01: Or if somebody comes to a funeral for my family, we would say something like, Thanks for coming.
SPEAKER_01: Or, Oh, it's good to see you.
SPEAKER_01: My brother really loved you.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That's what you say at a visitation.
SPEAKER_01: Not Martha.
SPEAKER_01: Nope.
SPEAKER_01: No nonsense with this woman.
SPEAKER_01: Straight to the chase.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died.
SPEAKER_01: And then almost apologetically, like she realizes something about that sentence is a little off.
SPEAKER_01: She says, But even now, I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think Martha is asking Jesus to raise Lazarus from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: I think Martha is simply reaffirming her faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: If you'd been here, you could have healed him.
SPEAKER_01: And then she hastily adds, but I still believe in you, though.
SPEAKER_01: I know you could have done it, but I know you weren't here, but I still believe in you.
SPEAKER_01: Just to make clear that she doesn't mean to accuse him or rebuke him.
SPEAKER_01: She's just trying to express her grief and her sorrow.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus gives what I what I have to imagine is like a Jewish version of the kind of thing we say all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, your brother will rise again.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's hard for us to read there the same kind of sentiment we express at funerals all the time.
SPEAKER_01: We say, your brother's with the Lord now.
SPEAKER_01: Or he's in a better place.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Or some other kind of theological comfort about heaven's realities.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus offers a Jewish version of that, I think.
SPEAKER_01: Your brother will rise again.
SPEAKER_01: It's a commonly held belief.
SPEAKER_01: And Martha, well-taught biblical Jewish woman that she is, affirms the right eschatology.
SPEAKER_01: She said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.
SPEAKER_01: It's like call and response.
SPEAKER_01: They've got it worked out.
SPEAKER_01: And she says this because the Old Testament proclaims time and time again that God will not leave his people in the grave.
SPEAKER_01: Just a few to remind ourselves of this.
SPEAKER_01: Job famously proclaims, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.
SPEAKER_01: There's this hope of a resurrection to a physical life of some sort after death, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold.
SPEAKER_01: Job says that, and probably the sharpest is from the pen of David in Psalm 16.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices, my flesh also dwells secure.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
SPEAKER_01: This hope of a resurrection for the Jews is like the Jewish version of 1 Thessalonians for us.
SPEAKER_01: We say, and so we will always be with the Lord, encouraging one another with these words.
SPEAKER_01: And so do you feel the sharpness, the strangeness, the full weight of Jesus' answer?
SPEAKER_01: Here's Jesus hiding out far from Judea for the fear of the Jews stoning him, proclaiming to be God.
SPEAKER_01: Then he walks into a Jewish funeral, and when Martha very politely says, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection the last day, like a good Jew should, Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_01: This is the sixth time Jesus has said that, has said, I am in the Gospel of John, to identify himself with the Yahweh of the Old Testament, the God of Moses who said, My name is I am.
SPEAKER_01: I am who I am.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus here, he triples down.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Not only are I and the Father one, I'm Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: And not only that, you all believe that God will not leave his people in the grave, and you're right.
SPEAKER_01: I won't.
SPEAKER_01: Do you hear it?
SPEAKER_01: I won't.
SPEAKER_01: It is me, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: I'm right here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the one.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the one who gives the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the answer to death sting you've all been waiting for.
SPEAKER_01: He's claiming to be the God of the Old Testament in the loudest and clearest possible terms.
SPEAKER_01: And throughout John's gospel, he's proved it over and over and over again with several signs, the first of which is changing water into wine.
SPEAKER_01: Then he heals an official son in chapter 4 without going near the boy.
SPEAKER_01: He says, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.
SPEAKER_01: But the man believed, Jesus just his words, and his son recovered.
SPEAKER_01: Only God can do that kind of thing, right?
SPEAKER_01: He healed the man at the pool of Bethesda.
SPEAKER_01: On the Sabbath, just to get the Jews' attention in chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this, guys.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, I'm him, I'm here.
SPEAKER_01: He fed 5,000 people in John chapter 6 and said, I am Yahweh, the bread of life.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: And I will raise him up on the last day.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't even the first time Jesus claimed to be the one who does the resurrecting.
SPEAKER_01: He claimed to be the light of the world in chapter 8, said that he was Yahweh before Abraham existed, and then healed a man born blind in chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: What more do they need?
SPEAKER_01: What more do you need?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus all but begs them at the end of chapter 10.
SPEAKER_01: You can look there, it's chapter 10, verse 37.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm not doing the works of my Father, then don't believe me.
SPEAKER_01: But if I do them, even though you don't believe me, just believe the works that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.
SPEAKER_01: At this point, guys, the Jews have every reason, every reason to believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Martha does, right?
SPEAKER_01: God bless her.
SPEAKER_01: She really does.
SPEAKER_01: What a glorious thing she says.
SPEAKER_01: She says, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.
SPEAKER_01: Peter didn't even say it that good.
SPEAKER_01: I shouldn't say that.
SPEAKER_01: But man, what a confession of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Martha believes.
SPEAKER_01: The Jews should have believed, and so should you.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is about to prove it to them.
SPEAKER_01: One last time, one last sign.
SPEAKER_01: One last thing.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, the teacher's here is calling for you.
SPEAKER_01: And when Mary heard it, she rose quickly and went to him.
SPEAKER_01: And now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.
SPEAKER_01: And when the Jews who were with her, that is Mary, in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
SPEAKER_01: Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
SPEAKER_01: She's weeping.
SPEAKER_01: And when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled, and he said, Where have you laid him?
SPEAKER_01: And they said to him, Lord, come and see.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_01: And so the Jews said, See how he loved him.
SPEAKER_01: John presents Mary to you and to his readers as an equally faithful, yet still kind of unbelieving a little bit, compliment, pair, match to her sister Martha.
SPEAKER_01: Martha comes with her mind racing to process her grief, and Mary comes to fall at Jesus' feet in grief-stricken worship.
SPEAKER_01: Her falling at his feet anticipates in chapter 12 the tears that would anoint him for burial in the next chapter.
SPEAKER_01: He's already told you it's coming in verse 2, it matters to John.
SPEAKER_01: So this is this is worship.
SPEAKER_01: Just as much as Martha's confessions of great truth.
SPEAKER_01: And neither woman, neither woman should be condemned by us for lacking in truth or lacking in emotion.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus receives them both.
SPEAKER_01: He receives them both.
SPEAKER_01: To Martha's confessions, Jesus responds correctively, with good theology.
SPEAKER_01: And to Mary's tears, Jesus responds just as correctively, you'll see, but with his own heart.
SPEAKER_01: With his own heart.
SPEAKER_01: The word for deeply moved is very rare.
SPEAKER_01: It only happens five times in your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: The people of the ancient world used it sparingly, only once in your Old Testament translation into Greek in Daniel 11, 30.
SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, this is how the disciples, especially Judas, respond to Mary pouring out that expensive ointment on Jesus' feet.
SPEAKER_01: Back in Mark's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Mark writes, they scolded her.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 14, verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: Because guys, this is not a word of deep sorrow.
SPEAKER_01: It's just not.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a word of compassion.
SPEAKER_01: It's not.
SPEAKER_01: This is a word of profound indignation.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not sad.
SPEAKER_01: He's mad.
SPEAKER_01: D.A.
SPEAKER_01: Carson again sets the bar for us when he writes it is inexcusable, it is inexcusable to reduce this emotional upset to the effects of empathy, grief, pain, or the like.
SPEAKER_01: He's angry.
SPEAKER_01: B.B.
SPEAKER_01: Warfield says it better than I could.
SPEAKER_01: What John tells us in point of fact is that Jesus approached the grave of Lazarus in a state not of uncontrollable grief, but of irrepressible anger.
SPEAKER_01: The emotion that tore at his breast and clamored for utterance was just rage.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't know about you, but I immediately want to know what he's mad at.
SPEAKER_01: What's he mad at?
SPEAKER_01: What is he so angry at?
SPEAKER_01: But don't miss, don't move on too fast, don't miss that John says in his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus displayed self-control.
SPEAKER_01: He's spitting mad.
SPEAKER_01: But he keeps his composure.
SPEAKER_01: Warfield writes later, John gives us to understand that the external expression of our Lord's fury was markedly restrained.
SPEAKER_01: And its manifestation fell far short of its real intensity.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's a very American thing for us to think that all these emotions just have to get out.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to get them out.
SPEAKER_01: As if we're not being true to ourselves if we keep those things bottled up.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes that's wise.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus flipped tables on purpose one time, right?
SPEAKER_01: Get the emotions out.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes be true, be honest.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus also left you an example right here to follow.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the right thing to do, exercise a little self-control.
SPEAKER_01: Keep you cool.
SPEAKER_01: And keep that rage in your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus is not only furious.
SPEAKER_01: He's not only deeply moved.
SPEAKER_01: He's bothered.
SPEAKER_01: He's troubled.
SPEAKER_01: In less than a chapter, Jesus will say concerning his death, Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say?
SPEAKER_01: Father, save me from this hour?
SPEAKER_01: He's troubled.
SPEAKER_01: This is the same word John uses in chapter 13 to describe Jesus' spirit before he broke the news to the disciples that one of them would betray him.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13, 21.
SPEAKER_01: And so for John, the beloved apostle, who was there with him, when Jesus got like this, when Jesus is troubled like this, it's when he is reminded of the sort of death he was to die.
SPEAKER_01: And so we have a Jesus who is angry at the weeping of Mary and the Jews, angry maybe at sin and death and sorrow and grief, furious probably at the unbelief of the Jews that cannot see their Lord standing right before them, raging in his spirit that their unbelief has made Mary's grief worse and not better.
SPEAKER_01: And I think because he's angry and then he's troubled over the kind of death he was to die, I think Jesus can see in their eyes the unbelief that will kill him.
SPEAKER_01: And the whole thing makes them burst into tears.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_01: His weeping in verse 35 is a different word in the Greek than Mary's weeping.
SPEAKER_01: Mary is wailing.
SPEAKER_01: The Jews are wailing, but Jesus is crying.
SPEAKER_01: It's a quieter word, actually.
SPEAKER_01: He's crying because the world is a mess.
SPEAKER_01: The people he loves don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to have to die to fix it.
SPEAKER_01: He's so angry.
SPEAKER_01: He's so concerned.
SPEAKER_01: He's so troubled.
SPEAKER_01: The one commentator suggests we could translate it.
SPEAKER_01: He burst into tears.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 34, he asks them where they've laid him.
SPEAKER_01: They say, This way, sir.
SPEAKER_01: That's really about it.
SPEAKER_01: This way, sir.
SPEAKER_01: Don't read too much into them calling him Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This way.
SPEAKER_01: And they start walking.
SPEAKER_01: They lay aside their squabble, so they think, for a funeral.
SPEAKER_01: And they walk to the graveside.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus wept.
SPEAKER_01: Can you hear the sound of a grown man's emotions opening up into a single sob?
SPEAKER_01: That's what John wants you to hear.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you to hear it from the man who died for you.
SPEAKER_01: So listen closely.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss it like the Jews did.
SPEAKER_01: The Jews said, look how much he loved Lazarus, and that's true.
SPEAKER_01: But they only got half of the story, like always.
SPEAKER_01: Couldn't the one who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, of course he could.
SPEAKER_01: But if they'd been paying attention, they'd know that he could do so much more.
SPEAKER_01: This text, much like the Garden of Gethsemane does, paints for you a very lonely picture of your Lord, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Nobody understands him.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the end of Act 2.
SPEAKER_01: And the same three things stick out, don't they?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus loves his people.
SPEAKER_01: He's not that worried about death.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is fully aware that he'll raise Lazarus.
SPEAKER_01: He's totally cognizant that even after his own death, he will rise.
SPEAKER_01: He himself is the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_01: He told us as much.
SPEAKER_01: He's not worried about death.
SPEAKER_01: He's worried about the kind of death he will die for the unbelief of the people.
SPEAKER_01: He's troubled about the wrath of God, but he's not worried about death.
SPEAKER_01: And not long from this moment, Jesus will ride a donkey into Jerusalem, flint-faced, fully aware of the unbelief he saw, ready to die for their sins.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knew exactly what he was doing.
SPEAKER_01: That's what John wants you to know.
SPEAKER_01: Before you go read the stories of the crucifixion, he knew what he was doing.
SPEAKER_01: Act three.
SPEAKER_01: Graveside with God.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 38.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus, raging, again, came to the tomb.
SPEAKER_01: It was a cave, and a stone lay against it, and Jesus said, Take away the stone.
SPEAKER_01: And Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he's been dead four days.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?
SPEAKER_01: Lazarus is really dead.
SPEAKER_01: All the way dead.
SPEAKER_01: Four days dead.
SPEAKER_01: Stinking dead.
SPEAKER_01: So what's really interesting is how Jesus responds to her warning.
SPEAKER_01: Did I not tell you, Martha, that if you believed you would see the glory of God?
SPEAKER_01: When did he say that?
SPEAKER_01: I missed it.
SPEAKER_01: Did you catch it?
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_01: He never said that to her.
SPEAKER_01: So what's he getting at?
SPEAKER_01: It seems that on the one hand, he's summarizing everything he did say to Martha, right?
SPEAKER_01: Interpreting his own speech about the resurrection of the life.
SPEAKER_01: All that I said back in verse 25, all of that, Martha, I told you about the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: So prepare to see the resurrection glory of the I am.
SPEAKER_01: That's on the one hand.
SPEAKER_01: But on the other hand, almost in addition to all of that, it's like John, as he writes the story, is reminding us, his readers, of what John said back in verse, Jesus said back in verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: This illness does not lead to death.
SPEAKER_01: It is for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus has, in a way, metaphorically, turned his face to look at John's readers, to look at you, and say that if you believe, you will see God's glory.
SPEAKER_01: Look closely then at the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 41.
SPEAKER_01: So they took away the stone.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus lifted up his eyes.
SPEAKER_01: That's an ill image for praying, lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
SPEAKER_01: I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't ask God to raise Lazarus.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, Jesus, we only had one prayer request today.
SPEAKER_01: No, he thanks God for hearing his prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Not that he's surprised.
SPEAKER_01: He just wants everybody there to know that what's about to happen, what they're about to see, all of it's happening, because Jesus and the Father are one.
SPEAKER_01: He even seems to imply for us that he's already prayed for Lazarus.
SPEAKER_01: It's a done deal.
SPEAKER_01: No biggie.
SPEAKER_01: He's already prayed for Lazarus' resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Remember chapter 10?
SPEAKER_01: Why do the Jews want to stone Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: For claiming that he and the Father are one.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus prays like this, not because that's what raised Lazarus.
SPEAKER_01: He prays like this to make the point there in front of the same Jews who tried to stone him, that he has access to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: He's not doing it smugly, he's not condescending, he's compassionate because Jesus knows that believing in him is the only way to the eternal life, that he himself is.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants them to believe.
SPEAKER_01: And so he prays that they may believe that you sent me.
SPEAKER_01: He's not showing off, he's lovingly revealing the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 43.
SPEAKER_01: And when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.
SPEAKER_01: And the man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, his face wrapped with a cloth.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to them, Unbind him, and leave him alone.
SPEAKER_01: Let him go, permit him to leave.
SPEAKER_01: Mary Harris translates this, Jesus commanded, uh, translates the command as Lazarus, come here.
SPEAKER_01: Come here, outside.
SPEAKER_01: And he writes, This was no muttered incantation, I love this, but a reverberating shout of command by the conqueror of death.
SPEAKER_01: Just like the wind was quieted and stilled at his command, just like the heavens were formed by the power of his word, Lazarus did exactly as he was told.
SPEAKER_01: He came out.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus commanded the Jews to let him go on his way.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where the story ends.
SPEAKER_01: That's the end of Act 3.
SPEAKER_01: Our three things are still very clear, aren't they?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus loves his people.
SPEAKER_01: He wants them to believe.
SPEAKER_01: He even knows that the whole thing is so that the disciples might believe more.
SPEAKER_01: He knows that Martha is going to see the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: He's still not that worried about death.
SPEAKER_01: It's three words, that's all it took.
SPEAKER_01: It's child's play for the God of life to raise dead men from their tombs.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was angry at unbelief and its consequences, and he was troubled about the wrath of God he would bear.
SPEAKER_01: But death is no real threat to life.
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget that.
SPEAKER_01: This month.
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget that.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus knew exactly what he was doing.
SPEAKER_01: He knew that these people tried to stone him not very long ago for claiming to be one with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And he could have just said, Lazarus come out and done the miracle and gone home.
SPEAKER_01: He stopped, he prayed, and he reminded them that he and the Father are one, and God's doing this miracle because Jesus is God and it's happening so that you might believe.
SPEAKER_01: Because you don't believe.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He knew exactly what he was doing.
SPEAKER_01: He saw the unbelief in their eyes that in just a matter of days, those same eyes would cry out for his crucifixion, just like it's the same word that he cried out for Lazarus' resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: He knew all that.
SPEAKER_01: But he walked back into town anyway, for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: But I don't think that simply raising Lazarus, I don't think that's the glory of God he's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at the epilogue.
SPEAKER_01: The fallout from this last great sign.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is the last sign.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus does no more signs in John's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This is it.
SPEAKER_01: The crowds praise him in fulfillment of prophecies.
SPEAKER_01: Gentiles seek him in the temple.
SPEAKER_01: The Father speaks from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus is done now.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: He will do no more miracles to convince them that he and the Father are one.
SPEAKER_01: If they will not believe when somebody returns to them from the dead, what more can he do?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 45.
SPEAKER_01: We see that some Jews believed in him because of this miracle, but others didn't.
SPEAKER_01: Others didn't.
SPEAKER_01: They ran to the chief priests and the Pharisees who said, What are we going to do?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 48.
SPEAKER_01: This man performs so many signs.
SPEAKER_01: If we let him keep on going like this, everyone will believe in him.
SPEAKER_01: And the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.
SPEAKER_01: And then Caiaphas utters that powerfully ironic prophecy that Jesus would die for the whole nation.
SPEAKER_01: But in verse 53, because of Lazarus' resurrection, a little village outside of Jerusalem, that was so persuasive that so many believed because of that, from that day on, they made plans to put him to death.
SPEAKER_01: Because of this last miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Because of this last sign, they're going to kill him.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus leaves town.
SPEAKER_01: The whole city's still on edge, wondering if he's going to come back for the Passover, and that's how the chapter ends.
SPEAKER_01: But if we skim briefly a few more important moments in chapter 12, right before the Passover, Jesus comes back to the area.
SPEAKER_01: Just, you know, less than two miles outside of town, closer to the temple than we are to the Ralph Engelstead Arena right now.
SPEAKER_01: He goes back to Mary, Martha, and Lazarus' house.
SPEAKER_01: He's reclining at the table with them.
SPEAKER_01: Lazarus sitting there.
SPEAKER_01: Mary wastes a whole year's wages of oil on Jesus' feet.
SPEAKER_01: Stirs up Judas' greed.
SPEAKER_01: That's chapter 12, verses 3 to 7.
SPEAKER_01: Judas, it seems, just can't take it.
SPEAKER_01: John wants you to know that Judas betrayed Jesus over that.
SPEAKER_01: But in verse 9, a large crowd comes out from the city because Jesus and Lazarus are both there.
SPEAKER_01: And they want to see and believe if they hadn't yet already.
SPEAKER_01: And the crowd was so large that in verse 10, the chief priest made plans to put Lazarus to death as well.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know how long passes between verse 11, chapter 11 and chapter 12, but John sure gives us a sense that it's only been a week.
SPEAKER_01: It's only been a chapter, and they're going to kill him again.
SPEAKER_01: Because the sign was so powerful that so many believed.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to kill him again.
SPEAKER_01: Many of the people in that same crowd formed the Hosanna Palm Branches welcome party as Jesus enters the city as a king.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 17 and 18.
SPEAKER_01: The same crowd continued to bear witness that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: That's the whole reason things get so wound up.
SPEAKER_01: All because they'd heard about this great sign.
SPEAKER_01: Look at all the glory coming to Jesus for this last miracle, the pressure building, the envy rising in the chief priests and Pharisees.
SPEAKER_01: All because Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think he knew what he was doing?
SPEAKER_01: I think so.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: After all these things, some Greeks come and seek Jesus, and Jesus says to them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Just like the beginning of our chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone.
SPEAKER_01: But if it dies, it will bear much fruit.
SPEAKER_01: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say?
SPEAKER_01: Father, save me from this hour.
SPEAKER_01: For this purpose I have come to this hour.
SPEAKER_01: Father, glorify your name.
SPEAKER_01: And a voice comes from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.
SPEAKER_01: And the crowd that stood there heard it and said that it thundered.
SPEAKER_01: Huh.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, This voice has come for your sake, not mine.
SPEAKER_01: I know.
SPEAKER_01: Now is the judgment of this world.
SPEAKER_01: Now will the rule of this world be cast out.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 32, and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.
SPEAKER_01: John doesn't let you wonder what that means.
SPEAKER_01: He says that Jesus said that to show by what kind of death he was going to die.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knew he was to be lifted up, crucified, and his lifting up is the hour in which he is glorified.
SPEAKER_01: For John, the glorification of the Son is his death on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: So then John opens up his Bible to show you this was how it was always going to be in the book of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 41.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.
SPEAKER_01: Nevertheless, many, even of the authorities, believed in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.
SPEAKER_01: For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
SPEAKER_01: The glory that comes from God is nothing and no one other than Jesus of Nazareth, the word made flesh, the resurrection, and the life.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus knew that.
SPEAKER_01: All the way back at chapter 11, verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: He knew that going to Judea to raise Lazarus from the dead, he knew that would be the final sign.
SPEAKER_01: He knew it would be the last straw that would bring about his death.
SPEAKER_01: This illness leads to my glory.
SPEAKER_01: He did it on purpose.
SPEAKER_01: The life giver himself brought a dead Lazarus back to life to bring about his own death in Lazarus' place so that Lazarus, Mary, Martha, Thomas, and you might have eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: He saved Lazarus from the grave, knowing it would kill him.
SPEAKER_01: It would be the death of him so that you might live.
SPEAKER_01: Beautiful story.
SPEAKER_01: Loved them to the very end.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't that worried about death.
SPEAKER_01: And he knew, I am that slide.
SPEAKER_01: Nope.
SPEAKER_01: He knew exactly what he was doing.
SPEAKER_01: But the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_01: But the Pharisees are the warning.
SPEAKER_01: John wrote this to Jews evangelistically.
SPEAKER_01: You've got Martha as a good example, and the Pharisees is a bad example.
SPEAKER_01: The Pharisees, however, loved the glory that comes from men so much they couldn't recognize the glory that comes from God.
SPEAKER_01: Even some who believed among them.
SPEAKER_01: Even though they had every reason to believe, they beheld the same miracles that I now testify to you really did happen 2,000 years ago in a village called Bethany.
SPEAKER_01: They should have believed just like Martha did.
SPEAKER_01: Will you?
SPEAKER_01: Will you love the glory that comes from God?
SPEAKER_01: The glory, chapter 13, verse 1, that having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the very end.
SPEAKER_01: That glory that comes from God loves you.
SPEAKER_01: Will you love him in return?
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
SPEAKER_01: One last thing.
SPEAKER_01: You, my friends, you have even more reason to believe than they did.
SPEAKER_01: And as a result, your unbelief is far more inexcusable.
SPEAKER_01: Stirs up more wrath in his heart.
SPEAKER_01: For as you will hear this month, there is still one more sign to come, isn't there?
SPEAKER_01: There's still one more miracle.
SPEAKER_01: This same Jesus will die in the place of the very sinners who refuse to believe in him, bearing the wrath of God that burned in his chest against their unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: He will die for them, and he will die for you.
SPEAKER_01: And then on Easter Sunday, the resurrection and the life will rise victorious from the grave, so that any who believe in Jesus may receive the resurrection he's received from the Father and might have eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: It will be, March 31st, mark your calendars.
SPEAKER_01: It will be a glorious sign of God's everlasting glory.
SPEAKER_01: So will you believe it?
SPEAKER_01: Will you love the glory that comes from God more than you love the glories of gold, pleasure, public opinion, comfort, leisure, success, or whatever else steals your attention?
SPEAKER_01: We have to.
SPEAKER_01: That's what believing means.
SPEAKER_01: You have to forsake those things.
SPEAKER_01: Tear your eyes away from their imitation glory.
SPEAKER_01: Fix your eyes on Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Jesus, we fall at your feet like Martha.
SPEAKER_01: We're humbled and brought low.
SPEAKER_01: Fall at your feet like Mary.
SPEAKER_01: Excuse me, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Humbled.
SPEAKER_01: Brought low by your power, your love, your wisdom, your insight.
SPEAKER_01: And we ask that you help our unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: We believe.
SPEAKER_01: Please help our unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: We were dead in our trespasses and sins, as dead as Lazarus in the tomb.
SPEAKER_01: And by your power you gave him life through the working of your word.
SPEAKER_01: And it was easy.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, how we pray you would do the same for us.
SPEAKER_01: Call us back to life.
SPEAKER_01: Fill our hearts with songs of praise.
SPEAKER_01: Put rich confessions of faith on our lips.
SPEAKER_01: Cause us to pour out all of our treasure at your feet, entrusting it to your purpose is not our own.
SPEAKER_01: For you and you alone are God.
SPEAKER_01: You are the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_01: Death will come for us, and our only hope is in you.
SPEAKER_01: And what good news to know that you love us.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to love you in return.
SPEAKER_01: And please, unite our hearts to sing your praise.
SPEAKER_01: For it's in your name we pray.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.