
Listen to the audio above while following along in the transcript below which is also available for download from www.biblestudyministriesinc.com
As we come again to look in the word of the Lord, there’s that indispensable principle, total reliance on God’s Holy Spirit. I want to share a verse, Ezekiel 36:27, “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes; you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” It’s just another illustration that everything is by the grace of the Lord. He doesn’t just give us an invitation, a mere proposal, “I would like you to do My will,” or a command, “You must do My will.” With it He gives the enablement. The Spirit is within us, so that it can happen, and He can cause us to do His will. We also have the ability, and we thank the Lord. Let’s commit our session unto Him…
Heavenly Father, we thank You that the Holy Spirit indwells us, and it’s His pleasure and ministry and desire to turn our eyes to the Lord Jesus. We pray this morning that You would meet us where we are and take us where You would have us, and for each of us dawn Christ upon us, and then enable us to walk in the light as He is in the light. We commit our meditations unto You, and thank You that You are going to guide us, because Jesus deserves it and we claim it in His name. Amen.
Just a little bit of review; we are midway in our meditation of the Lord Jesus in the gospel of John. I remind you, again, of what I remind you very often, we’re not studying John to know the gospel of John. We’re studying the gospel of John, that we might know the Lord. Everything in the Bible is designed to unveil Him, so that we can know Him.
God didn’t leave us in suspense as to why He gave us this gospel. The Holy Spirit inspired John to write and he mentioned the reason, and it’s in John 20:31, “These have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you might have life in His name.” So, we took that verse apart and there’s three principles; God gave us this gospel that we might know the Lord; God gave us this gospel that we might trust the Lord; God gave us this gospel that we might enjoy the Lord. Everything in the gospel helps us to know Him, to trust Him and to enjoy Him and the abundant life that He has promised to give.
In our last session, we only began to introduce John 11; we hadn’t begun expounding on it. It’s such a beautiful chapter, but we were just giving observations to get us into the chapter. We tried to get an overview of the chapter. The backdrop of this entire chapter is, in my understanding, that chapter 11 follows chapter 10, and in chapter 10:10 we read these words, “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy; I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” That expression “the abundant life”, life and life more abundantly, I think is climactically illustrated in the raising of Lazarus from the grave.
I pointed out last time that this is such a perfect picture of abundant life. You are coming out of a grave and out of corruption, and what follows is just a picture of the abundant life. You remember that death, as an illustration, is man’s most unsolvable problem, and death is the last enemy to be destroyed. In this chapter, we see our Lord Jesus overcoming man’s most impossible problem and overcoming and conquering the last enemy that can ever be destroyed. I’m suggesting that’s abundant life, because if He can overcome man’s most unsolvable problem, He can overcome every lesser problem. If He can conquer the last enemy that will every be destroyed, you will never face an enemy that He can’t overcome. So, it’s just a wonderful picture.
At this time, I’m going to begin to develop the story, the situation. We know the main thing; it was a very sad experience I think that we all had or we all will face one day, and I’m talking about the sorrow, the grief in the heart that comes when the Lord calls a loved one, when somebody dies like a friend or a family or somebody we know. In this case the two sisters were in the situation where they watched their brother sort of fade away, and got sicker and sicker until he finally died. It was a real test of faith for them, and we started to look at that. For Mary and Martha it was more painful, perhaps that if we go through it. One reason is that they had no idea when they were going through this, that God was writing a Bible, and they had no idea that they were part of the Bible story, and for centuries their story would be told. It was written in the scriptures. When I grieve, and I do, and when I sorrow, and I do, and when I’m confused, and often I am, and when I question, and often I do, I want to close the door and I don’t want you in on that. That’s between me and the Lord. I don’t want that public, but here when they misunderstood the Lord and were confused and even in some sense held His love in suspicion, the details of this family’s trials made the pages of scripture. Don’t just read this la, la, la. God is allowing us to gaze at broken hearts, not after the fact, but as they’re going through it. It’s a very private and precious scene that God gives us, and we don’t want to undermine what they were doing. This was a poignant sorrow; they were really entering into it.
As I said, their faith was tested. In John 11:6 says, “When, therefore, He heard he was sick, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was.” Their faith was tested by His deliberate delay. He didn’t show up when they expected Him to show up. In fact, in verse 17, when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. “The One that loved them, and they loved Him and He loved them,” He’s called a friend, and He doesn’t show up for the funeral. He not only delayed, but He doesn’t even go to the funeral. That’s very, very confusing. Then, He contradicted or went against their expectation of what He would do. In verse 21, Martha stated her expectation, “Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.’” She expected Him to come, and to prevent the death, and Mary the same way, verse 32, “When Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell on His feet saying, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.’”
We don’t know, God didn’t record the reasoning in their mind. They might have reasoned that He’s had compassion on complete strangers, and He’s healed others, and He even did it at a distance, and we know He loves us, He visited us, He calls us friends, and surely their expectation was that He was He’s going to come and He’s going to prevent Lazarus from dying. I don’t know if they had Psalm 91:14 in their mind, “Because He has loved me, therefore, I will deliver Him,” and so they might have had the idea that because of His love, we can expect Him to respond in this way. I think as you go through, you’ll see in a few cases that they were leaning on their own understanding, rather than on the Lord; love is as strong as death, and they’re trusting His love in Song 8:1.
Remember that they sent messengers to Jesus, not to ask for healing, but just to proclaim, “He whom You loved is sick.” They just laid it before Him, and then had their expectations. He gave a word in verse 4, “When Jesus heard this, He said, ‘This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so the Son of God might be glorified by it.’” That expression, “This is not to end in death,” we know the record and we know that was a true statement, and it didn’t end in death, but we don’t know for sure, commentaries are divided, whether by the time the messengers got back to them he was already dead, or if they saw him fade away, thinking that you’re not going to die because Jesus said it wasn’t unto death. They were expecting, and I’ wrapping up the review, that Jesus would show up, and they knew Him as One who could prevent; He can heal, He can heal sickness, He can heal disease and He can prevent death. He had healed strangers; He can heal and there’s no question about it. But, as I said, since He’s writing a Bible, He wants to enlarge their vision of Jesus, as He always wants to enlarge our vision of Jesus. We don’t ever finally see Jesus; we are always seeing the Lord Jesus. Their vision of the Lord up until this time is, “I know Him as the One who can prevent,” but He’s about to enlarge their faith and present Himself, not only as the One who prevents, but as the One who overcomes. We are now looking at this illustration of abundant life, and if I’m going to know abundant life, I need the Holy Spirit’s revelation of Jesus as the One who prevents and as the One who overcomes; we need to see Him that way.
That’s where we left off, with that view that He wants to present Himself as an overcomer. I told you last time that they limited the Lord in two ways; they limited Him in place, “If you had been here,” and they limited Him in time, “If You had come on time, but You didn’t.” They loved the Lord and they wanted to trust the Lord, but in their mind, “Lord we want to trust You, but in another place and another time.” The place and the time is the problem, “But here and now, with this situation, we’re struggling; it’s hard to trust You here and now,” but in another place and another time they wouldn’t have had a problem. So, they were limiting the Lord in that way. This record shows that it’s here and now. Remember Martha’s invitation to Mary, verse 28, “And when she had said this, she went away and called Mary to her sister, saying secretly, ‘The teacher is here and is calling for you.’” I’d like to take that expression and just apply it to the whole chapter, and apply it to everybody here, and my own heart, and maybe someday if somebody listens online, apply it to you, too, “The teacher is here, and is calling for you.” What is the teacher calling you to? Number one, it’s to Himself, “The teacher is here,” and He’s calling you to Himself. What else is He calling you to? The answer is, in the context of John 11, to the truth of the risen life; He’s calling you to Himself and to all the reality of the resurrection life.
I want to get into what I think is the Holy Spirit’s prevailing revelation of Jesus in John 11. There are several revelations, and we’ll look at them as we go along, but there’s one big one, and I want to look at what I think is the big one, but actually I have two more observations by way of introduction, and I just want to clear these out, and then we’ll move on.
Before diving into this story, look at verse 7, “After this, He said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea, again,’ and the disciples said to Him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?’ Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of the world, but if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.’” There is a lot of discussion about why He said, “Twelve hours in a day.” We’re not going there because that’s not the point. In verse 11, “After that He said to them, ‘Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, and I go to waken him out of his sleep.’” I’d like to make a comment about twelve hours in the day, but not focused on that, and that Lazarus is asleep, and that will finish the introduction in this chapter, and then we’ll get into the chapter.
Why did Jesus remind His disciples that there are twelve hours in the day and that if anyone walks in the light he doesn’t stumble; if he walks in darkness, he stumbles? The comment is in response to verses 7&8 where He said, “Are you going back there again? Last time you went there they tried to stone you to death. You’re trying to go back to a very dangerous place. You’re vulnerable; they don’t like you; they want to kill you. Are you going to go back there?” This illustration of light and darkness and day and night, I believe is an illustration of the will of God. He could have said something like this, “Don’t be afraid of returning there; My Father is watching over us, and He’s going to take care of us. Trust Me. You can just trust Me.” But rather than that, He gave them a principle to apply, and the principle is quite clear, “If you walk in the light, if you walk in the day, you don’t stumble. If walk at night, then you can stumble.” Even literally that’s true; if you’re walking in the light, and you are walking down the street and there’s something in the street, like a log or a stone or if it’s road kill, you can go around it, and you can step over it. But if it’s night and there are obstacles in the road, you are not going to be able to see them, and you might trip or get hurt. I believe Jesus is just saying this, “There is safety in the will of God. If you walk in the light, if you are following the Lord, then you can trust Him to watch over you. The safest place on this planet, brothers and sisters in Christ, is the will of God, and if we’re walking in the will of God….
I have a friend whose ministry is in the Middle East. He’s actually shared the gospel with Hamas and has seen fruit from that. It’s amazing. When I was chatting with him, I said, “You are in this Muslim country and it’s dangerous; why are you there?” His answer was so simple, “It’s the will of God for me. He’s called me here.” My friend is safer in that Muslim country in the will of God than anybody in a Bible school or seminary who is not in the will of God. If we walk in the day, if we walk in the light, if we walk in the will of God, but I’m not suggesting that you chase the will of God; that’s dangerous. It’s the God whose will it is, and if you are rightly related to the Lord, walk in the light as He is in the light, then God will watch over you, and everything is redemptive; even if He takes you home, that’s alright, too.
I’m not suggesting that you are exempt from anything, but I’m just saying that you’re in the will of God. Deuteronomy 33 in the blessing I think it was for Asher, he said, “As Thy day, so shall thy strength be,” in other words, God has a plan paved for you and you aren’t going to run out of strength. I have an idea that if you add to the God’s planned day, you might run out of strength, “As your day, so shall your strength be.” The New American translates it, “As the day, so shall your leisurely walk be.” I think if you are walking and following the Lord in the light, you are going to have rest, even if you are going to have to go to a dangerous place, a place that your flesh would naturally shrink from, that you wouldn’t choose if the choice were up to you, maybe because of the distance or maybe because of the danger or maybe because of the unhealthy climate, maybe inconvenience, or what it would cost you. But if you’re walking in the light, you are going to go wherever He goes, “Where I am, My servant will be.”
Anyway, we see that after that wonderful discourse, Jesus gives that principle, but they didn’t get it. Thomas illustrates that, “And Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.’” So, it just went over their heads what He was saying, and he said, “Alright, we’ll go and die with Him.”
Set that aside. The second thing is in verse 11, “Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep.” I want to comment on this because recently someone that shocked me as a believer came to me and expressed that he believed in what’s called “soul sleep”. I just want to address about “he’s sleeping”. Jesus clearly referred to the death of Lazarus as sleep, and it’s not the first time He did it. In Matthew 9:24, when He was with Jairus’ daughter, He said, “The girl is asleep,” and she was dead. And when Stephen was stoned, just after he died, Acts 7:60, “Falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against me.’ Having said this, he fell asleep.” So, it’s not once or twice, but it’s several times that He compares death to sleep. I took 1 Corinthians 15:18 and I put it on my mother’s tombstone, and it just says, “Asleep in Christ.” There are other passages, 1 Thessalonians 4:13, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep.” So, He uses sleep to describe death.
There is no question that figure is used, but does that apply to the body or to the spirit? Those who believe in soul sleep, believe that it’s the spirit, it’s the soul and the body; they’re both asleep. Those who believe in soul sleep, basically think that when a person dies, he’s just unconscious; he doesn’t know it, because to him it’s a second; he’s going to wake up in the end, at the resurrection. But he’s just unconscious of everything and the dead know nothing about time, so for them it’s just a moment. They teach that the spiritual part is inert, that it’s unconscious. Many believes this. I think the Second Day Advents hold that it’s soul sleep, and I think the Jehovah Witnesses hold that soul sleep, but does the bible teach that?
One of the chief texts that the soul sleepers use is Ecclesiastes 9:5, “For the living know they will die, but the dead don’t know anything, nor do they any longer a reward; their memory is forgotten.” They take that and say, “That’s proof.” However, the same book in Ecclesiastes 12:7, “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.” In Acts, just before Stephen fell asleep, we read in verse 59, “They went on stoning Stephen, as he called on the Lord and said, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’” So, the spirit goes immediately to be with the Lord. James 2:26 describes death as, “The body apart from the spirit is dead.” When your spirit leaves, you die. There’s not anything about your heart or your brain wave. When your spirit leaves your body, then you are dead. Where does it go? The spirit is conscious and it never goes unconscious.
In Revelation we read in chapter 6 about those who have been beheaded. You understand, that if you’ve been beheaded, you are quite dead, and those in Revelations 6 are dead, and yet we read, “Underneath the altar I saw the soul of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, oh Lord, holy and true, will you restrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwelt on the earth?’” They are beheaded, but they’re very much alive. They are certainly not sleeping; they’re not unconscious. And when Jesus died, “Unto Thy hands I commit My Spirit.” His body went into the grave for three days, and I’m not going to get into the spirits in prison, but I hope you don’t believe what the commentators say about that. 2 Corinthians 5:8, “We are of good course, absent in the body and at home with the Lord.” As soon as a Christian dies, they’re present with the Lord, immediately, consciously, and it’s very far better to be with the Lord than to be unconscious until He comes back again. Even for a moment, the spirit does not go unconscious. In fact, you’re more conscious after you die than you are now, because now you’re limited; you are seeing through a glass darkly. I’m thinking that with my eyes as they are, I don’t drive, but right now I’m seeing through my eyes.
I have a deaf son and he’s profoundly deaf, born deaf, and his only hope for hearing is his broken ears, so he can’t hear, but his spirit hears beautifully, but he can’t hear. In fact, he started a little ministry called “Hearing Heart Ministry” and he’s ministering to the deaf. I’ve got this problem, too. Can you think? Yes, but I’ve got to think through this brain, and that has some limitations. But when I die, am I going to see, am I going to hear, am I’m going think and I’m not going to be limited by these organs. So, you are more conscious the minute you die, and in fact, you are in the presence of the Lord.
I’m not going to develop this part but the same person who believes in soul sleep, which I don’t think is scriptural, also believe that the resurrection was a creation, that God is going to create a new body for me, some day. He is not; He’s going to raise the body you have. When the Bible talks about resurrection, Jesus was the first fruit of the resurrection, and He came back in the same body, and He had nail prints and His scars are glory scars; you are not going to carry your scars. The point is that resurrection is you, your body, and I don’t care if it is cremated or lost at sea, and I don’t care if you’ve been blown to smithereens, God is going to raise your body again. Now, technically, has He kept track of all? I don’t know; I’m sure He has. I don’t have a problem; He’s going to raise your body and I just wanted to mention that.
That’s enough doctrine but let me make a suggestion why He would use sleep as an illustration of death. It might be because sleep is temporary. I think that’s a weak reason. I think the answer is in verse 11, “After that He said to them, ‘Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep; I go, that I may awaken him out of his sleep.” I think everybody in this room knows what it means to wake up. I think everybody in this room has probably tried to wake somebody else up. Some people are harder to wake up. I’ll tell you the hardest to wake up are those who are faking that they’re sleeping; it’s real hard to wake them up. Jesus said, “Lazarus is dead,” and He’s going to wake him up. I just love that expression, because it is as easy for Jesus to wake the dead, a dead body, as it is for us to wake up somebody who is asleep. Even if you have to throw water in their face, sometimes it hard to wake somebody. Lillian gets awake if I turn the light on. I did that one night. We had two switches, the light and next to it a fan. I really intended to turn the fan on because it was hot, but I turned the light on, and I shut it off immediately because it was the wrong switch. Lillian woke up and she said, “What did you do? Why did you wake me?” I made a mistake and I corrected it at the speed of light, and she still… anyway, we won’t go there.
Jesus, being able to wake the dead, just shows the mighty power of our Lord Jesus; it’s as easy for Him to…. And it’s not just one person, like he did Jairus’ daughter or that little boy of Naam, or now Lazarus. Listen to John 5:25, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” That’s not just one or two. He’s going to raise all of the dead. Verse 28, “Do not marvel at this; an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come to Me.” The mighty power of God! If He can solve man’s unsolvable problem, if He can deal with the last enemy ever to be destroyed, certainly if He can awaken the dead, you can trust. I love in this connection 2 Thessalonians 2:8 and it describes Anti-Christ, probably the most powerful man, the dragon and the demon and all of this, and in chapter 2:8 it says, “He shall consume Him with the breath of His mouth.” I want you to think of the most powerful man empowered by Satan that ever walked on earth, and Jesus goes “Whew”, and by the breath of His mouth, it’s done. I just want you to see Jesus; He’s the One that wakes the dead. It’s not about soul sleep; it’s about the power of our Lord Jesus, and He’s in control, and it just excites me to see how wonderfully in charge He is at all times.
Now, before we look at the details, I want to start the exposition of chapter 11, and I want to begin with what is my understanding of the Holy Spirit’s chief revelation of Jesus in chapter 11. I think there are several revelations of Christ, and they’re all exciting, and hopefully we’ll get to all of them, but this one, I think, is the prevailing revelation of Christ, and it’s the words He spoke to Martha. John 11:25-26, “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’” That title, “I am the resurrection and the life,” I want to give a general overview of that title. So, the rest of my message is, “Jesus, the resurrection and the life,” but we’re not going to do a deep dive into that; we’ll do that, Lord willing, if He brings us back, in the New Year when we come back again. For now, in the overview, what does that mean that He’s the resurrection and the life?
As the resurrection and the life, I think this is going to be the complete description of John 10:10, “I’ve come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” If I don’t know Him as the resurrection and the life, I will fall short of what He calls “the abundant life”. If you don’t know Him as the resurrection and the life, you will not fully enter in to what He means as the abundant life, and that’s not contradicting the fact abundant life is a Person; it’s the Lord Jesus. But it’s entering in to the fullness of His life.
The first suggestion I’m going to make is that the expression “resurrection and life” are two revelations; they’re not the same. He’s not saying the same thing, using two different words, “He’s the resurrection and He’s the life,” and that’s the same thing. I don’t think that’s what is going on here. It’s sort of like John 14:6, “I’m the way, the truth and the life.” That’s not the same thing; He’s not saying that same revelation using the same words. It’s the same Person but it’s a different aspect. I think the same thing is true when He’s the bread of life, and He’s the water of life; I think there is difference between Jesus as the bread of life and as the water of life. He’s the last Adam, and He’s the second man; there’s a difference. Sometimes, like Revelation 22:13, when He said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end,” I think those expressions might all be enlarging on the one revelation, but in John 11:25, I think He saying that you need to know Him as the resurrection and, also, you must come to know Him as the life.
Let me show you what I think about Jesus as the resurrection. Martha struggled with that concept, so let’s look at it from her struggle; let me present it in the context, beginning in verse 23, “Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to Him, ‘I know he’ll rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’” Martha heard the words, “I am the resurrection,” and she was a little confused, as the text said, because when Jesus said in verse 23, “Your brother will rise again,” her response showed that she needed to see Jesus as the revelation; she believed it, verse 24, “Martha said, ‘I know that he’ll rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Martha saw resurrection, not as a person, but as a doctrine. She saw the doctrine of the resurrection, and she said, “I believe in that doctrine. I know he’s going to rise again at the last. That’s part of my creed.” She drew a measure of comfort from that. She said, “That doctrine gives me comfort; I know some day at the end, by and by, in the future, some day he’s going to rise again.” Was she right? Yes, it’s a true doctrine; it’s an orthodox doctrine; it’s a wonderful, wonderful doctrine, “Some day down the road in the future the dead will rise again.” She had no doubt of that and I have no doubt, and I hope you have no doubt of that, but her error is very common, and that is that Christians sometimes tend to look to doctrine instead of to the Person of the Lord Jesus.
I know people who rest in a doctrine called “eternal security”, and I see their life and I think they should be trembling. They’re not going to get any security from that doctrine. That doctrine of eternal security never secured a flea; it cannot. We’re secure, but not because of something called a doctrine. Some others have a doctrine of election, and others are looking to other doctrine, like end times. They look to events, the tribulation and the marriage feast and second coming of Christ, the millennium and all that kind of thing. They look to pictures, they look to ordination, or they look to the Lord’s Table, or they look to baptism as a picture in an unhealthy way.
For a long time in my life, it’s so painful, but it’s a fact, I fell in love with the love of God; I fell in love with the attributes of God, and I missed Him; it’s not His love; it’s Him who loved; it’s the Person. It’s not the Bible; it’s the God whose Bible it is, and the church, the people; we are the people of God. We need to see the Lord. Anyway, it’s a tragedy to hope that some doctrine can do what only the Lord can do. I love Isaiah 42:8 in this regard, “My glory I will not give to another,” and I promise you that He will never give His glory to a doctrine or to a creed. He has His glory, and that is for Himself, and only Christ can do it.
Jesus mercifully turned Mary’s heart, spirit and eyes away from the doctrine. John 11:25, “Jesus said, ‘I AM the resurrection and the life.’” Martha was right about the coming resurrection, but why was she right. The answer is because in the future, down the road, at the end, at the last day, Jesus would be there to raise the dead. That’s why she was right. Jesus said, “Mary, the reason you’re correct is because I’ll be there at the end to do it. I’m here now; I’m here right now as the resurrection, so you don’t have to wait until the end because I’m here right now. John 5:25, “Truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” So, the very One who is going to show up in the future and do the work, is now right here, so, “I AM the resurrection.” “I’m not only the teacher of resurrected life; I am the source of resurrection life; I am personally, whether it’s physical or spiritual, the resurrection.
I want to look at the second part for a moment, “I’m not only the resurrection, but I’m the life,” and I think it would be helpful to look at that title/expression how the Holy Spirit has revealed it, and illustrated it in the record of raising Lazarus from the dead. Both titles, “I’m the resurrection,” and, “I’m the life,” are graphically illustrated in the event. John 11:43, “And when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth.’” And he did. We’ll get into that a little deeper, but from death, from corruption, he came forth; he heard the voice of the Son of God, and came out of that grave. Jesus presented Himself when He said, “Lazarus, come forth.” That’s the resurrection, but in this illustration when he came out of the grave, he was still wrapped in grave clothes. So, you’ve got a living person all wrapped up in grave clothes.
Spiritually speaking, you were as dead as Lazarus was dead. Ephesians 2:1, “You were dead in your trespasses, and sin.” Colossians 3:1, “Therefore, you’ve been raised up with Christ; keep seeking the things above where Christ is.” In 1958, you’ve heard my testimony, I didn’t hear a word, but my heart responded when Jesus said, “Come forth.” That’s when I got saved; that’s when I received the Lord or He received me, I don’t care how you put it, but that’s when I became aware of all that the Lord had done for me. I was alive in Christ, 1958, cut those who knew me, they could testify that I was still in my grave clothes, very much wrapped in my grave clothes. Knowing Jesus as resurrection gets me out of this tomb. The second title, “He’s the life,” I think is illustrated in verse 44, “The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrapping, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth, and Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’” There is resurrection, and then there is liberty, and there is being set free, “Unbind him.”
I think knowing Christ as the resurrection is when, not only one time and it’s done, but every time He calls you from death and corruption; He’s the resurrection. Every time He sets you free, I think that’s His life. In the Old Testament, Israel was delivered out of Egypt, and they went through the wilderness, and it wasn’t until they got into the land in Joshua 5:9 that we read these words, “I’ve rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off of you, and the place was named Gilgal to this day.” Gilgal/rolled away. They were delivered from Egypt forty years earlier, but the reproach of Egypt was still on them until they entered into all that is pictured by land. So, it’s possible to be delivered from Egypt and not the reproach of Egypt, to be delivered from death, and not death clothes.
In the record, in the illustration, it happened pretty fast; he came out of the grave, and loosened, and that happened. In my case, it was seven years. I came to the Lord in 1958, and it wasn’t until 1965 that I even heard that Christ wanted to be my life and my substitute. The problem was that after I got saved, I was so thankful, that I wanted everyone in the world to be saved. I drove a lot of people away, a lot of people in my family. It didn’t go over all that great, and was crazy. For seven years I hopped around in my grave clothes with a stink that smelled of corruption still on me. I wasn’t delivered from sin; I was still in bondage to sin, and I was living sort of a hypocrisy, and I’m inviting people, “Come to Christ and you can be like me,” how many do you think would respond to that, because they saw me? I was in bondage; I was bound hand and foot and was all tied up; I didn’t know Him as my life; I was a mess. My head was wrapped up, so I didn’t think right and I couldn’t see and I couldn’t hear the word of the Lord, and my hands were tied up, so I couldn’t do the will of God, my feet were tied up, so I didn’t know anything about walking in His ways, walking in His path. I was still bound up and I didn’t know Him as the Life. Inviting others to Christ with my testimony wasn’t very attractive. There’s a proverb that says, “Like the legs that hang down from a lame man, so is the proverb in the mouth of a fool.” I crippled the word of God by the way I was living. I was inviting them to Christ, but I wasn’t free myself; I needed to be emancipated.
In this story, it’s so glorious, because Lazarus’ life is over, and now Jesus is calling him to a life not his own; he had to live by a new life, a power not his own. The Lazarus life is done and the Lord, now, is going to set him free by a Life that is not his own. I think he’s God’s illustration of the risen life, the abundant life; this is the life He wants to give. I think thousands of Christians have met Jesus as the resurrection, and they’re absolute strangers to the message of Jesus as the Life; they haven’t been set free and they don’t know what that means, as yet. What a joy when God begins to take off your grave clothes and what a glorious thing that is!
This is one reason I think this is a climactic miracle. Let me wrap up this message by sharing a picture. Several weeks ago, is when it dawned on my heart. I was in the process of studying this glorious chapter, and at the same time I was in the process of preparing my heart for our regular worship on Sunday. I go to Family Ministries, and at Family Ministries they have a conviction that they will break bread every week and remember the Lord’s death in the bread breaking. I have a problem in my heart because when I do things routinely sometimes it becomes just a habit of just going through the motions, and I don’t want that, especially in the bread breaking. So, I don’t know what others do, but every time before bread breaking I prepare my heart and seek the Lord, and by the Holy Spirit’s light I try to examine myself. I just want Him to be real and not fake; I don’t want to play the game; I want it to be real. Because I’ve been studying this, I shared this at Family Ministries actually, the chapter 11 &12 and the transition became so very real, because in chapter 11 Lazarus is nothing but a rotting, stinking corpse. In chapter 12 it opens up and he’s sitting at the table with Jesus. Now, there’s a big step between being a rotten corpse, a stinking rotten corpse, and being seated at the table with the Lord Jesus. The thing that made the difference was the revelation of Christ as the resurrection and the life. I recall, as I went to break bread that day, I remembered before Christ, and I was just a rotten, stinking corpse, and now I’m at the table with the Lord Jesus, because he’s revealed Himself as the resurrection and as the life.
Chapter 12 goes on, and it shows the attraction, and now it says that he was at the table, and many people came to see Lazarus and to see Jesus, the One who had raised him from the dead. As far as the Bible record goes, it’s over. We have no words from Lazarus. I wish he had said what it was like when he was dead. We have nothing, and he never said a word, and it said that many came and believed in Christ. This is so glorious because this is the full picture, brothers and sisters, of abundant life. What is abundant life? Abundant life is when the resurrection calls you out of death and corruption, and by the grace of God, you respond. What is life? Life is when God begins to unbind, so you can see and so you can hear and so that you can understand, and so you can do and you can walk in His ways, and so you can sit at the table and fellowship with the Lord Jesus. And then that becomes attractive.
As far as history goes, they say that Lazarus lived another thirty years. I don’t know if that’s true or not. The point is that there is no recorded words. I forgot, some saint, where it said, “If you must use words, use death, otherwise, it’s just who you are.” If God really calls you out of the grave, you don’t have to give much of an argument. They are going to see what a miracle that is.
We’ll close here, but I just want to give a sense of my understanding of the resurrection and the life; the resurrection is when He calls you forth, and the life is when He sets you free. So, we’ll close there, and pray together…
Father, thank You again for all You’ve inspired chapter 11 to mean, not what I might think it means, but what You’ve inspired it to mean. I’m asking You, Lord, to make very real in our hearts everything You’ve inspired that chapter to mean. Now, Lord, we commit our fellowship unto You, and we thank You for the provision of the food, and we pray that You give us a wonderful fellowship, and help us to edify one another as we share together. We want to touch the Christ in each one of us. Thank You for all the food, nourish our bodies and receive our gratitude. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.