IT’S NOT AN EVENT—IT’S A RELATIONSHIP (JN 11:1-27)

SERIES: ONE SOLITARY LIFE, PART 81

GCEFC: JANUARY 25, 2009

INTRODUCTION

1. This passage in JN 11 is familiar to most. It’s very clear and almost preaches itself.

2. But in preparation for communion this morning, I’d like to make a few comments, then focus on one aspect of the event that’s easily overlooked.

A. THE OCCASION

1. Jesus is not only the Savior of the world who loves all people because they’re created in the image of God.

2. But Jesus also had friends. Friends like you and me. People he liked to spend time with, talk to, enjoy meals with, walk with, share experiences with.

3. Such were a trio in Bethany named Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Mary and Martha were sisters and Lazarus was their brother.

4. Jesus really liked these people and he numbered them among his closest earthly friends.

5. Well the brother, Lazarus got sick. Apparently very sick. And because Jesus was a friend, a most extraordinary friend, Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was ill.

6. They didn’t ask him to come to Bethany. They didn’t ask him to come and heal Lazarus. They simply informed him that their brother was sick—they knew he’d come if he could.

7. Jesus’ response is interesting. He says in V4: This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.

8. Then V5 reiterates Jesus’ love for these people—Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

9. But why make this point? Because in V6 we see that when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick—he stayed where he was 2 more days. No one should think that Jesus stayed longer because indifferent to the need.

B. THE CHAT WITH HIS DISCIPLES

1. Then after 2 days had passed, Jesus announces to his disciples that they’re going back to Judea.

2. Which greatly concerns Jesus’ disciples because it was not long before when they were in Judea that the people there tried to stone Jesus to death.

3. And we’re going BACK THERE? We don’t recommend it.

4. Jesus then makes a remark about daylight and nighttime. The probable explanation is that there is not unlimited time nor unlimited opportunity to do God’s will. We must do what we can while we can and when it’s most effective to do it.

5. Then in V11 Jesus says that their friend Lazarus has fallen asleep and that he must go and wake him up.

6. Which the disciples misunderstood. They figured that if Lazarus was resting and sleeping that he would eventually get better on his own.

7. So Jesus clarifies that he has only used the term sleep in a metaphorical kind of way. He then says plainly that Lazarus has died.

8. So they all head across the Jordan for Bethany, probably about a 2 day journey on foot.

C. MARTHA MEETS JESUS

1. When they arrive, they learn that Lazarus had been in the tomb 4 days. Which probably means that Lazarus died about the same time Jesus got the news that he was sick.

2. He heard the news, stayed 2 days, and it was a 2 day journey—4 days total. Bethany was only about 2 miles from Jerusalem so a lot of people had come out to mourn the death of Lazarus and offer comfort to his sisters.

3. Martha heard that Jesus had arrived (V20), so she goes out to meet him. V21: ‘Lord,’ Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died.’

4. This sounds a lot like a rebuke, but I don’t think it is. It’s probably only a painful personal expression of remorse and regret and disappointment.

5. She was confident that if Jesus had only been present when Lazarus was sick, that he could have healed him so he would not have died. But he wasn’t there to prevent it.

6. Martha expresses in V22 her confidence that God will give Jesus whatever he asks. But it’s unlikely that she thought this meant that Jesus would bring Lazarus back to life. This is clear enough later in the passage.

7. It was probably more like a platitude. Like platitudes people tend to utter at funerals.

8. Jesus then tells Martha that her brother will rise again. She agrees and says she knows that—he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

9. But Jesus says to her in V25: I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

D. IT’S NOT AN EVENT

1. Martha thinks that the life that salvation brings is an event. Something that happens in the future to true believers at some point in time.

2. You know: Pie in the sky, by and by, when we die, for you and I.

3. Now it’s true that in a sense salvation IS an event. Resurrection day IS an event. It’s an event that occurs at a certain point in time—the last day.

4. But what Martha failed to grasp is that salvation and forgiveness of sins and resurrection and new life are not really so much about an event as much as they are about a PERSON.

5. Jesus said: I AM the resurrection and the life. The event is not the answer—I am the answer.

6. He who believes in me will live—even though he dies.

a. That is, death is not the end for the believer. Death is just an end to physical life as we know it on earth.

b. And even though death looks very final and very conclusive—he says that for those who believe in him—it’s neither.

7. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. I’ve often wondered what an unbeliever thinks when they hear these words typically spoken at a funeral.

8. They must sound like words of blatant contradiction. He who believes in me will never die. Yet there he is, there she is—quite dead.

9. But Jesus is not talking about physical life—he’s talking about spiritual life. Any fool can see that the person is dead. Any fool knows that eventually everybody dies.

10. For Jesus to be saying that believers in him escape physical death would be absurd. Physical death is part of the curse of sin—nobody escapes it.

11. He’s saying that believers will not experience spiritual death. They will not experience separation from God who is the author of life.

12. Not because they happen to be in the right place at the right time for the right event. But because they know the one who has power over life and death.

13. A true believer will never die spiritually. As the saying goes: Those who are born once must die twice—physically and spiritually.

14. But those who are born twice—physically and spiritually—they will only have to die once—just physically.

15. As disciples, it’s good to remember not only that eternal life begins at the moment of belief. But so does discipleship.

16. Both salvation and discipleship begin at moments in time when we commit ourselves to Christ. But it’s less an event that looks back as much as it’s a life that moves forward.

17. Like what Winston Churchill said about graduation: It’s not the end and it’s not the beginning. It’s the end of the beginning.

18. Our trust in Jesus as Savior and our commitment to follow him as disciples. This is not the end and it’s not the beginning. It’s really the end of the beginning.

19. At the communion table we focus on both. The moment of belief in Christ that birthed us into God’s family. And the ongoing journey as his disciples.