I Am The Resurrection and The Life - John 11
Introduction
A. Hebrews 11:17-19, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”
B. The Resurrection of Lazarus in John 11 begins the last section of the Gospel of John with the theme that Jesus is the resurrection and the life. From this point onwards, this is the main theme and is always very close to everything that happens.
1. Jesus said to Martha (v40), "If you believe, you will see the glory of God." When Jesus called Lazarus to come forth from the tomb, He prayed to the heavenly Father to hear, "because of the multitude around him, that they may believe that you have sent me."
2. The salvation of every man depends on him hearing the voice of Jesus whom the Father sent from heaven with the message that gives life. It gives life because the man who learns from Jesus how to live according to the will of God, will have life.
3. The man who believes in Jesus is the man who repents and is baptized for the forgiveness of his sins (Mark 1:4; John 3:22-36) and walks in the new way of life. (John 3:3-5; Romans 6:3-5, 16-18; 1 Peter 1:13-25)
C. Jesus repeats the theme of "light." It is one of these figures such as "life" and "death," "believe" and "hear," "darkness" or "night," "sleep" and "die," "resurrection and life." When the disciples could not understand the figure: "Our friend Lazarus sleeps; but I go to wake him up, "Jesus told them "plainly”: “Our friend Lazarus has died." The meaning of all those figures can be understood if we read carefully, with our eyes and ears open.
1. John 11:8-10, “The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 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 this world. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
-- To walk in the day means to walk in the light, as in 1 John 1:7, according to the teachings of Jesus. It means to obey the message that Jesus brought from heaven that gives us life, eternal life.
2. Jesus continued to use the figure of light in this way in the next chapter. John 12:35-36, “So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
3. John 12:46, “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”
I. Lazarus became ill, not for death, but for the glory of God.
A. The glory of God was to be manifested when the Son of God was glorified by resurrecting the beloved Lazarus from death.
1. The glory that he mentions is the heavenly power over earthly death.
2. The glory of conquering death physically reflects the greatness of the glory which conquers the death of sin.
-- Remember John 5:24-28. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice.”
-- To hear the words of Jesus is to hear the voice of Jesus and put into practice his teachings.
-- To believe in Him who sent Jesus is to put into practice the message that the Father who has life in Himself, who also sent that life with Jesus. The life that the Father and the Son have is the way of living that is called “righteousness” and “holiness.” To live in that manner is to have life truly, the true life, the eternal life.
B. (11:8-10) "He who walks by day does not stumble, for he sees the light of this world; but he who walks at night stumbles, for there is no light in him." That life was the light of the world.
1. 1 John 1:6-7, “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
2. To walk in the life means to live according to the teachings of Jesus: the truth and the purposes of God, the will of God. That is, to “obey” all that God commands us.
3. At this moment, what did God want Jesus to do? God wanted Jesus to go to Bethany first and then to Jerusalem to die on the cross for our sins.
4. Jesus always did the Will of the Father. John 8:28-29; 7:28; 7:16-18; 5:17, 19, 36. (8:28, “So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.”
C. (John 11:11-14) Jesus used metaphors to gently express the most dramatic truths.
1. In this way Jesus spoke of “light,” “life,” “hear,” and “believe.”
2. Here Jesus spoke of Lazarus, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep but I go to awaken him.” But when the disciples did not understand, Jesus spoke “plainly,” “Lazarus has died.”
3. (v15) “and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.” Believe what? They already believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, and the Son of God, Matthew 16>16/18. In the gospel of John, we see that Jesus used the Word “believe” of the obedience to his teachings, and faithfulness to what the Father commands from heaven. The orders that Jesus was preparing His disciples to receive would be very difficult. They would have to risk their lives and suffer much persecution. To obey the orders of Jesus, they would have to be very strong and firm in their commitment to obey their Master.
II. John 11:21-44. The Resurrection of Lazarus
A. Martha, v. 21-27. I believed in Jesus that he could have healed Lazarus and that perhaps He could resurrect him, because she said, “But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” When Jesus declared his power over death, he asked her, "Do you believe this?" Martha confessed, "Yes, Lord; I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, that you have come into the world." What power did Jesus declare at first?
1. “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.[d] Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
2. John 5:19-29 We return to the theme of the power of Christ to give life by means of hearing His words. The life that God teaches, that He sent from heaven.
3. “and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
-- “lives” signifies living according to the Will of God. This life sustains us unto eternal life.
-- “believes” signifies to believe in the teachings of the Father who raises the dead, and therefore to be faithful to Jesus and His teachings because He is the Son of God.
4. How can it be that one might “never die”? Here in John 11:26 it says, “everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
-- Jesus came to give life to the dead, killed by committing sin and walking in the path of sin, that is, spending their lives doing what God judges as "sin." Sin kills. To walk in sin is to walk in darkness, without knowing God. Jesus came to raise the dead and give them life, eternal life. John 5:19-27. It is the way of life that sustains the disciple of Jesus and gives him the strength never to die. He will never die because he walks in the light, the teachings of Jesus that the Father gave him in heaven to bring to earth. 1 John 1:6-7. As one lives in this way and remains faithful, "believing" in Jesus by being faithful to his words of life, he will never die. He will live forever.
-- "Living and believing" are metaphors that encompass the concepts Jesus taught. They are figures similar to the "dream" figure he used to talk about Lazarus' death. The same figures are found in all the writings of John and also in those of the Apostle Paul.
-- Romans 6:16; 6:20-23: v16, “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” … v21, “For the end of those things is death.” … v22, “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
-- Romans 8:1-6, “us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”
B. Mary, John 11:28-37. She confessed to the same faith that her sister declared.
1. Here we see the feelings of Jesus. When he saw Mary crying, “He was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.” (v33)
2. Witnesses among the Jews said, "Look how I loved him." This love was not "love of neighbour" (agapao) but love, brotherly affection (fileo). It made him cry with his beloved. (11:35)
3. The signs Jesus had performed over the last 3 years of healing all the sick led the Jews to ask, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” Yes of course. Yet the power of Jesus is much more than healing the sick. It is the power to give life to the dead: those dead in sin and those physically dead. It is the same power, the power of the Son of God, sent from heaven.
C. John 11:39 Jesus said, "Take away the stone."
1. Marta said. “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Marta wanted to say that it was too late to attend to Lazarus because the body was already turning to dust, it had already experienced corruption.
2. Jesus thought not of the impossible but of the power of God who commanded him to go to Bethany and show his glory, the power over all corruption, the power over death. He anticipated the great sign of Jesus' own resurrection after dying on the cross for our sins to deliver us from the guilt and practice of sin. He had said in 11:4, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now, he says to Martha, (v40) “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” (the theme of glory: John 8:50; 12:28; 13:32; 16:14; 17:1, 5, 24))
3. Then they removed the stone and Jesus began to thank the Father for hearing him, but he adds, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 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.” (v42) Again, Jesus declares the faith it takes to give us life: believe that the Father sent Jesus from heaven with words of life to correct the sins of the world and teach them how to live. His death on the cross would not succeed if the forgiven returned to live in sin without the knowledge of the light of his words. We do not know Christ if we remain in sin. There is no life, there is no eternal life if one does not put into practice the teachings of Jesus.
D. Two schools of witnesses of the resurrection.
1. John 11:45 “Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him.” And why not? What a marvelous miracle to raise a man from the dead after four days! They were eye-witnesses of the glory of God and of His Son Christ Jesus.
2. John 11:46, “but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.” And why did they not believe? They saw the same wonder that the others saw, but seeking the glory of men, they hurried to the Pharisees to give them the report as if it were some evil that Jesus had done.
-- From this evidence, we see God's good judgment in not giving the privilege of witnessing the glory of Jesus' resurrection to the rebels. They would not care about the truth. Only the glory of men mattered to them.
III. The Wickedness of the Priests when hearing of the Resurrection of Lazarus
A. John 11:47-53 They convened a council (Sanhedrin)
1. The drama in this chapter reminds us of the talk in John 8:12-59. The Jews sought to kill Jesus (8:37) because the word that Jesus brought from heaven "finds no place in you." They did not love God (8:42). They did not understand the language of Jesus, for they could not bear his word (8:43). They did not believe the truth of Jesus, for they were of their father the devil who was a liar and a murderer (8:44). He who is of God hears the words of God (8:47). They did not know God (8:55) and did not know Abraham (8:39-41).
2. The Council of the Pharisees and the chief priests said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” (John 11:47-48)
-- If God had performed many signs through Jesus, surely God himself could overcome the Romans as He overcame Egypt in the days of Moses whom they supposedly trusted. They lacked faith in God.
-- Or it may be that they did not think of defeat at the hands of the Romans, but of losing their power and influence to Jesus. They sought the glory of men.
-- Less than forty years later, the Romans arrived with their legions and did precisely that. They destroyed their holy place, the temple in Jerusalem and the Jewish nation. When Pilate was asked to put Jesus to death, Pilate washed his hands before the people saying, “I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves.” 25 And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matthew 27:24-25)
3. Caiaphas, high priest that year, said, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” (John 11:49-50)
-- It served as a prophecy "that Jesus should die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather in one the children of God who were scattered." (v51-52) "The children of God who were scattered" refers to those who were to be saved from the nations when Christ's disciples brought the gospel to all nations. "Gathering in one" teaches us that the effect of Jesus' words would be the reconciliation of men of all nations in love, loving one another no matter the race, language, or culture. This concept was already found in John 10:16 and later in Paul's epistles: Galatians 2, Ephesians 2, and the stories of evangelism found in the Acts of the Apostles.
Conclusion
A. John 11 ends the drama boiling in silence, while Jesus privately prepares his disciples for the difficult times of the last Passover when Jesus would offer himself up for the sins of the world.
B. All Israel quietly leaves her cities and ascends to the holy mountain. When they arrive in Jerusalem, everyone is anxiously asking the question, “What will Jesus do?”