Let's turn together in the Scriptures to John chapter 11. I trust you have brought your copy of the Scriptures with you this morning. If you have forgot it or if you have need, there is a copy of the Scriptures in your pew, which is the one which we will be using this morning. But as always, I encourage you to have your own copy, to grow more familiar with it, and to grow quite a custom to reading it. John chapter 11, as we return now to the passage, which we have been studying together, John chapter 11, picking back up at verse 17 and we will go shock, it's a shocker, I know, all the way through verse 27 today. All in one fail swoop. The reason for that is, anytime you deal in the Scriptures with pieces of narrative, which is different than verses which teach more particularly a doctrine, you do handle more passages at a single time. And so this morning we have a story which is chock full of truth, but nevertheless in a more of a narrative format, this morning, we're able to deal with these verses together, 17 through 27. Let me preface this by setting your mind along this track. We live in constant tension, true, as Christians we live in tension with the world. But we have a tension within us as well. We have a tension because we believe and we confess and with absolute conviction that God can do anything. We know God is able to do anything, but practically in our living, we live as if we truly don't believe that he will. And we know that he can, but we don't really believe that he will. And we often feel guilty because of that, but we seem to not be able to get away from it. We are afraid to step out into God's will very often because even though we know he's faithful, we confess that almost every time we enter this sanctuary together. We draw back, don't we? Because we are afraid that he will not be and that we will fall or that we'll be left on our own. And though he is able, we wonder if he will step forward for us. Sometimes perhaps it's because we feel small or insignificant or maybe we doubt our own motives, but for whatever reason this tension exists within us. Now with that in mind, let's turn to our passage in John chapter 11 verses 17 through 27. Let's listen for God speaks to us. Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem about two miles off and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who is coming into the world. The Lord bless the reading of His Word and the hearing of His people. I can remember when we were living in Irmo, South Carolina, on a road named Whitby Road, I was in the back yard. I'm not sure what I was doing back there. Surely I wasn't cutting the grass or any of the yard work, but it might have been that I was out doing something industrious for that day. And I noticed my neighbor, our homes were very close together. And he was also in the back yard up next to the house, and on the top of the house was a little boy. His little boy. And he was trying to coax him down from the house. He had hoisted him up to retrieve something of Frisbee or something that was up there. And now he wanted to bring him down. The top of the house was roughly three feet, perhaps, beyond the reach of the father. But the father was very confident that if this boy would jump, who was around 11 years old, he probably weighed 95 to 110 pounds somewhere thereabouts. That was in the days when kids at age were a little lighter than so, you know, he weighed around 95 to 110. And as he inched to the edge, I could see his head shaking back and forth saying no, no, I'm not going to jump. And his dad kept saying I could hear him getting louder. I'll catch you, just jump. I'll catch you. And finally the little boy got his toes inched off the edge. And I could tell he was going to do this. It was just going to take a little bit. And he got a little closer and he got a little closer. And his dad got his arms ready to receive him, something about like this. And the little boy jumped and as soon as he jumped from the roof, his dad took about three steps back to make sure that the boy didn't fall on him and then the boy fell straight to the ground. And it was a reflex by the father. He wasn't telling a joke. He meant to catch him but it was simply a reflex. And I wondered in the life of that young man about the degree of trust that was lost there. And in the broader picture how that affects actually, as he remembers how he hurts and smarts on his backside, how his trust of others in the future and their word that they'll be there and they'll catch them will be impacted really for the rest of his life. Now maybe that's the only time he was let down and perhaps he forgot about it though I didn't and I doubt he did either. How many times have we prayed out and called out to God but then been unwilling to take a step because we were not sure that God would be there for us. Lazarus was most likely dead by the time news even arrived to Jesus announcing that he was sick for whatever reason. I don't know if Martha and Mary delayed out of consideration of Christ. I don't know if they delayed thinking that the illness would turn around and get better if they were perhaps assured by someone in the family. Perhaps it was a sickness that came on so suddenly that it only lasted a day or two but we know that Jesus only had to travel a day to get there and that he had already been in the tomb two days by the time Jesus had arrived, four days rather when Jesus had arrived having delayed only two. So you take a day for the messenger to go to Jesus, deliver the message, two days of a delay by Christ, a day to journey and Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days. So he has already been dead four days. Why mention four days? Is it just so that we know how really dead Lazarus is? A little bit of that but beyond that it could be also that we know from the third century writings that the Jews felt or believed or understood that the soul lingered over the body for about three days, hoping to be reunited with the body. And as they teach in this at least third century writing as they would teach, when the soul begins to observe a change in the countenance, in other words when it becomes clear that the body is not going to be restored only then after the third day does that soul go on to heaven. Now we do not hold that to be true, of course. But if that was a common understanding also in the time of Christ and we don't know for sure that it was but oftentimes the traditions or the folklore of the Jews would eventually find itself in rabbinical teaching, we might presume that there was some idea of this as well. But for three days there remains some possibility that the soul might be reunited with the body and that Lazarus might be restored at least in tradition. The cycle of mourning for them went three days of weeping when someone died. Then there would be seven days of lamentation which they were in at that time and then there would be twenty days of sorrow. Jesus as he's returning stops however at the edge of the village. He doesn't come all the way into the village he stops and Martha hearing that Jesus is there leaves from the time of lamentation, he leaves Mary in the home in her lamentation, the seven days of formal lamentation which is proper. But Martha leaves and she goes out to greet Jesus. She goes directly to the Lord so great is her love so great is her attachment to Christ that she forsakes the formal lamentation to go to be with Christ. Now that's a big deal for a couple of reasons let me point out to socially we're told that there were many Jews from Jerusalem there to mourn with this family to comfort them in a time of loss. Jerusalem being only a little less than two miles away. These had come out of the city meaning that the family of Martha and Mary and Lazarus was most likely well known and perhaps even influential and so they came out to mourn with them and to comfort them in a time of loss. Martha in this period of formal mourning not only walks with all these people there out of the time of mourning but she walks completely out to greet the Lord Jesus so she has a breach of etiquette and she does so publicly. Jesus is stopping on the outside of the village. Why? Why would he want to speak with Martha there? Why not come directly into the home in a time of mourning and come to them and their time of anguish and their time of grief? Why would Jesus stop when you have a family that is hurting and have Martha journey all the way out to where he is? Have you ever wondered as you make decisions about your own perspective? Have you ever been immersed in a problem and you needed some objectivity? You needed to be able to step away for a moment to be able to see the issue clearly. You needed some fresh eyes sometimes we call in a consultant and they don't tell us anything we don't know in a business or even in churches sometimes. They don't really tell us anything that we don't know but they tell us something that we fail to recognize because we have lost perspective. There's a story of a pilot I don't believe it's a true story but it does make the point. A story of a pilot who was flying a small aircraft and he's coming in for a landing in a very remote part of the world and his co-pilot is trying to help him guide towards the runway and as they approach the runway his co-pilot tells him I'm going to have to have a lot more flap meaning I'm going to have to cause the descent to be much steeper. In other words you're coming in like this you're going to need to come in at a much greater declination come in sharper and so as he starts to come in much faster or much sharper he tells him again you're going to have to have a lot more flap we're just not going to make it we're going to run off the end of the runway. So they continue to come in fast and hard and as they hit the runway they back off the engine they put on the brakes they come to a screeching halt and sure enough the tires roll just to the edge and almost off of the runway. Breathing a great sigh of relief the co-pilot looks over and he says my goodness that is the shortest runway I've ever seen in my life. And the pilot looks to his left and to his right and he says yes but it's the widest one I've ever seen. I'll give you just a moment if you got that look to the person next to you please explain it to him after the service perspective how you approach it where you're coming from often rules the conclusion you draw doesn't it. That's why it's so important in the church that our perspective is filtered and vetted through the scriptures. If we approach this with our own wisdom in anything we do I don't care if it's the worship or our ministries or our teaching. If we come in here intending to do good and it's not from the perspective of God which is given in the scriptures then we will be immersed in our own perspective and we will be an error. Well intentioned error but nevertheless error Jesus stops on the edge of the town and he doesn't state is to give her perspective. But in the midst of a family mourning and with mourners all around when Jesus walked into the room if it were your home and the pastor comes in a time of mourning it's all about your mourning and it's all about the loss of the one that you love. And it's all about all that is happening in that moment because you're hurting and your heart is broke but when you leave your home you're able to engage other topics and other issues of the day. And I find Martha is able to do so when she leaves her home as well. Jesus is going to speak to her alone and undisturbed by all the events that are going on around her. The first thing Martha says to him is if you had been here if you had been here now some read in that a scolding but it is not it is a simple affirmation of truth and the tenses of the verbs in the language there is nothing here that is a scolding type of comment. We might be reading in based on our own perspective a keen sense of disappointment Jesus delayed two days she's angry Lazarus could have could have lived but that's not the case. She is simply saying what she knew to be true because she had seen Jesus work she knew that he had raised people already from the dead and secured the sec and she simply says if you had been here I know Lazarus wouldn't have died. If you had simply been here I knew I know he wouldn't have died she knew that the message had arrived too late for Jesus and it's simply an expression of grief. She comes to her Lord and she says Lord I know if you had been here that Lazarus would not have died she's affirming Jesus could have healed if he had been there and then she goes further she says I know that whatever you ask whatever you ask. Now we know in verse 22 that the messenger returned to her with a word from Jesus because he was there when Jesus made this comment after if he had told Jesus that Lazarus was sick the one that you love is sick Jesus then said this sickness is not unto death. And so with the messenger they are hearing and he returns we know that word must have made it back to Martha and Mary and so she says I know that whatever you ask God will do. I know that I know whatever you ask for God will hear you and God does all that you ask. So Martha is here expressing a hope, a fragment perhaps but a hope that the word she received from Jesus is that Lazarus's sickness was not unto death and that Jesus is able to pray and that God will do whatever Jesus asks and so without presuming she simply affirms again I know whatever you ask for that God will do. But we get the sense here that all this is open-ended still she's not naming and claiming as we've come to understand modern expressions of faith sometimes she's not claiming anything on behalf of Jesus she's simply affirming what Jesus is able to do. grief and hope are in conflict in Martha grief and hope are in conflict in her person she's afraid to give herself up to the certainty of Lazarus's return she has not said to Jesus I know I will speak to my brother again she is affirming truths about Jesus which are true but she is not stepping forward just yet to say I know what you have said and that I will speak to my brother again come with me. and let's go in grief my brother she doesn't go to that degree and so Jesus then says to her simply he will rise again he will rise again the management of grief the management of her grief is speaking from her and she's expressing it with childlike faith. and when Jesus says to her that he will rise again she affirms that she knows that it will be in the last day a true enough statement but yet she's not hearing what Jesus says is she. in the immediate context of their situation what Jesus is saying we as Christians can do the same thing we can affirm a strong doctrinal truth and we can use the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed which we so often do to affirm great and wonderful truths about our Lord and yet when it comes not to what we believe will happen on judgment day or what happened in a manger so many years ago but the present reality of the work of God in our lives we also express the truths at the far ends of the spectrum but we struggle to receive them right now she was pushing her faith off into a theoretical belief. she did believe that Jesus was who he said he was but she struggled to apply it James Montgomery voice says this for us the glorious promises of God becomes something like a mighty fleet that has been put in mouth balls or like antiques in the attic they have value we suppose but practically we get nothing out of them. I think it gives even a more clear example he was once asked if Christianity is valid why is there so much evil in the world and his answer was with so much soap why are there dirty people in the world he said Christianity is like soap it must be personally applied if it's to make any difference in our lives. we can affirm all we want churches that we consider and know to be apostate affirm the same creeds we do the same doctrinal truths that we do but in the present day they don't affirm the same calling as we do. Trace your finger down and read this great I am statement of Jesus Jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life this is the fifth of the great I am statements there seven and chapter six for thirty five Jesus said I am the bread of life and eight twelve I am the light of the world in ten nine I am the door in chapter ten eleven I am the good shepherd and eleven twenty five. the one we have before us today I am the resurrection and the life and chapter fourteen six one we deal with in the future I am the way the truth in the life and then in fifteen five I am the vine. out of these great I am statements we are having painted as it were for us a portrait a picture of Christ as he is using what is common in our life to help us understand a deep spiritual truth. concerning his own person he is the resurrection and he is the life those two terms are not synonyms he is the resurrection and he is the life resurrection is named first because it opens the door to life there is no life without resurrection now if we have died with Christ we believe that we also live with him we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again death no longer has dominion over him now to our thinking resurrection tends to be an event. for future perhaps near an event that marks the end of time is associated with judgment day and life life is a condition of the present it is something that is continuing and it is moving but resurrection tends to be that one time event where physically those who have died are raised to life is simply life on the other hand is simply a state of being but Jesus is insisting that resurrection and life are in him personally that he himself is the resurrection and he himself is the life they are not simply the results of his power they are not simply the results of his will but they are him that he is the resurrection and he is the life. if Jesus is gone nothing but death remains while Jesus is there there is life think of a single funeral in the scriptures that Jesus attended where the benediction was given and the body was laid to rest Jesus could not go to a funeral without there being life given and every instance in the scripture when Jesus attends to one who has an hour language died and the scriptures language fall asleep as we discuss previously there is life that is imparted Jesus he isn't just life in the last day he is life now second Corinthians 517 if anyone is in Christ he is a new creature the old things have passed away and new things have come in Galatians to 20 polyphyrms it is no longer I who live Christ who lives in me in Ephesians 2.5 even when we were dead in our trespasses he made us alive together with Christ and in Colossians 2.13 you who were dead in your trespasses God made alive together with him notice the language is even past tense it is not future is in waiting for the resurrection of the bodies from the ground or from the grave it is already an activity or an action that has occurred there are two thoughts with this and both are complimentary at the moment of physical death the one who dies physically will live life in glory eternally we know that when the soul departs it is to be with God and so there is a sense in which at the moment of our physical death we know to be certain that our soul lives on in glory eternally but then for us who are believers here still on earth is there anything in this that could bring us any comfort at all is there any lesson to be learned to strengthen our faith now everyone who lives spiritually and believes in me shall never die that is to taste death being separated from the presence of God everyone who lives Jesus said and believes in me shall never die again verse 25 isn't that our passage teaching whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die allow that to sink in for just a moment those who believe in Christ but breathe their last though they die there is the promise held out of the resurrection and they will be raised from the dead though they breathe their last their soul is presently with the Lord but then it goes on you see that practically speaking is as far as we go isn't it practically speaking that's all we really live as a reality the future hope and expectation which is very true that when we die our soul goes to be with the Lord awaiting the resurrection of the dead but Jesus has yet another teaching everyone who lives meaning you and I breathing still and believes in me shall never die well does that mean that when Christ returns if it's a thousand years from now that I will still be living if so then wouldn't that invalidate the Scriptures because show me a thousand or a 2000 year old saint show me one who believed in the time of Christ who remains with us today not one so how are we to understand Jesus is saying everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die living and believing is followed by life Romans 18 but if Christ is in you although the body is dead because of sin the spirit is life because of righteousness second Corinthians 416 so we do not lose heart though our outer nature is wasting away our inner nature is being renewed day by day and Scripture also teaches as an atom all die so in Christ shall all be made alive the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus which we will attend to when we visit chapter 11 again is like all the other miracles that were given in Scripture a sign it is a sign to teach something about Christ and the life which is to come like the feeding of the 5000 taught that just as physical bread sustains the physical body Jesus said I am the bread which is from heaven I am the mana which God has sent for his people that he mean that they would eat his body physically of course not that he mean that they would have to come and receive a loaf from him every day of course not he gave them a loaf of bread so that they would know in the satisfying of the hunger of their physical bread and the bodies that he was the satisfaction of their soul and that as the body would die without bread so the soul without Christ is dead but with Christ just as with the body receiving bread there is life this is the first resurrection what is it if something is dead and it is raised to life except a resurrection of spirit and then we await the resurrection of the body what do we see this anywhere in the Scriptures of course we do in John chapter 3 Jesus is speaking when Nicodemus and he tells Nicodemus you must be born again how are you born again if you are already alive do you die again no you were born physically you must be born spiritually before you are born you are alive in the mind of God but before conception or you alive physically of course not God has known us before the foundations of the earth but yet being born again means that your spirit is brought to life why is it brought to life because in Adam it died in Adam our spirit died and in the state of a demic death there is no hope but being raised in Christ our spirits now have life we are new creatures we are not like the old the physical shell with the dead spirit dwelling within without a future without a hope but now we have been raised to life in Christ Lazarus is a picture of this Lazarus unfortunately for him still had to die he still died and his soul was reunited with the Father and he awaits resurrection just as we will and just as we do so what is he a picture of he's a picture of God of Christ calling out we call this an external call and of working to bring life to that which is dead like he does with our spirits that's why Jesus says everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die do you believe this he's speaking of the spirit because once you had the breath of life breath into your spirit it will never die you will never die the essence of who you are lives on from that moment into eternity never to die and then Jesus asked this question do you believe this isn't that our question as well do you believe this Martha rather might have said Mary it's Martha Martha answers yes Lord I believe and here we have sorry to use verb tenses on you but it's called perfect tense and that means it's a completed action it's not something in progress she's not saying yes Lord I'm trying to understand she's not saying yes Lord I used to believe or yes Lord I think I can get it she's saying yes Lord I believe this right now it's viewed from the present time it means Martha was listening Martha understood and what she was affirming is you are the Christ the Christ is the one anointed by God the Savior you are the Son of God you are divine you are to be worship you are the one coming into the world you are the incarnation of deity this is really our question in the passage do you believe this not did you understand not does this make you feel better in a time of mourning in a time of sorrow but did you do you believe this Thomas Adam said our mind is where our pleasure is our love is where our life is but all of these pleasure treasure life are reposed in Jesus Christ a close examination of our own lives really answers the question louder than our lips do we believe this Jesus wants to know if she was receiving him in faith he didn't ask if she had a general belief or a hope for eternity he wanted to know if she believed specifically in him that he is the resurrection that he is the life faith in faith is faith in nothing that means just saying believe in something is a belief in nothing faith has to have an object to have content in Jesus Christ is that content let me sum it up by exploring just by asking questions her confession as she says in the last passage yes Lord I believe that you are the Christ that you believe Jesus is the Christ that means that do you believe that he is the anointed one come to reconcile a sinful man to holy God the one appointed to announce the salvation of God that there is no other way there is no other path except Jesus Christ that he is God's anointed one for this purpose a gustan said Christ is not valued at all unless he is valued above all do you believe Jesus is the Christ secondly she said do you believe Jesus is the son of God that God created all and his eternal came in flesh and is one with the person of Christ and the earliest sermon we have recorded by second climate the oldest sermon that is at following the time of the apostles he said brethren we ought to so think of Christ as we think of God do you do that with Christ do you believe that he is the son of God both God and man very homo a very day very God and very man and do you believe that Jesus is the promised one as Martha confessed that he is the son of God who is coming in the world the one promise from the Old Testament scriptures that he is the one promise to Adam and Eve in Genesis 315 that he is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham to Moses the chosen one of David the suffering servant of Isaiah do you believe that he is the one prophesied the one described as our shepherd in the Psalms and the one who would be resurrected the pattern in the course of our life just as the pattern of the morning of Martha and of Mary testified to what we believe do not doubt that Mary also didn't love Christ we know from other passages she loved Christ dearly but all she knew was the present reality that Lazarus was dead and though she would welcome the coming of Christ to minister to her Lazarus was dead Martha heard Jesus's words Lazarus will not die and she goes out with questions and Jesus supplies the answer I am the resurrection and I am the wife and Lazarus will be raised just as you and just as I have been raised