The Resurrection and the Life

Well, thanks, Kate and David, and to Graham and Diego and all the guys who helped move the baptism tank.

! It is a lot trickier than it looks. Believe me, I've done this for enough years.

Folks, what a special passage we have. You need to get the Word of God, that passage open in front of you in John chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

Whoever you are here this morning, whatever you think about the God of the Bible, come and meet Jesus.

So John chapter 11 on your phone, you can grab one of the Q Bibles round about you.

John 11 · chapter mention

So here is something to chew on this morning.

See, to get us going, let me tell you about an observation that my friend once made about how we live our lives as human beings.

Try this one on for size, see if you agree.

They said, isn't it funny how people in our world spend their youth trying to get riches?

And when they're older, they spend those riches trying to get youth.

Not looking at anyone in particular. I wonder what you make of that saying.

The fact that £2.8 billion were spent on anti-aging products in the UK in 2024.

A figure expected to rise to over £5.5 billion by the year 2033 would suggest that there's something in it.

If you're looking for an investment this morning, Clarence.

Here's another observation for you, one of my own.

This thing is always interesting.

Isn't it funny how just a few generations ago, before our current one,

a generation who were emerging from war,

who had a sobering appreciation of the fragility and the uncertainty of life,

death was a topic that people were up for talking about,

and yet sex was the great taboo.

Isn't it interesting, just a few generations later,

how that has totally flipped?

How everyone wants to talk about sex,

you cannot escape it in our highly sexualised culture,

and yet no one wants to talk about death.

Again, what do you make of that?

Our world offers us little by way of a grid through which to make sense of death.

For example, here's John Harris writing in The Guardian a few years ago.

During the COVID pandemic, himself, a self-confessed atheist

who ticks that no religion box in the recent census,

he said this during COVID.

He said, like millions of other faithless people,

I have not even the flimsiest of narratives to project onto what has happened,

nor any real vocabulary with which to talk about the profundities of life and death.

Again, what do you make of what he's saying?

The fact that our lives, they have an expiry date,

is the elephant in the room.

And as someone pointed out to me recently,

how do you avoid an elephant in the room?

You cover it in 10,000 post-it notes.

Yeah, what is a post-it note?

Something I need to do.

Right?

How do we avoid thinking about this stuff?

We get busy in our lives.

Isn't that amazing?

I find it incredible how you could watch yesterday,

and I did watch a little bit of it,

the analysis of that Scotland game yesterday.

And we're talking about it for hours and hours and hours,

and statistics and variables and selections.

A podcast for hours and hours and hours.

Analysis coming out your ears.

And yet isn't it interesting that people in our world today

could not give you three sentences on what life is all about?

Really interesting time in which we live.

Well, into our coffin-shaped conundrum

steps Jesus in this passage.

And at a funeral of all places,

Jesus flips the entire way of life as we know it.

He flips it on its head.

Spoiler alert,

a man comes back from the dead.

Which means, C.S. Lewis was right,

that Christianity, if false, is of no importance.

And if true, it's of infinite importance.

The only thing that it cannot be

is moderately important.

So if you've got the text there in front of you,

come and learn, whoever you are here today,

come and learn three things about Jesus in this passage.

Here's the first one.

It's that we can trust fully in his perfect timing.

Now, this is a thrilling bit of narrative,

so come with me and see it.

We pick it up at verse one.

We're going to go quickly here.

Do you see how we learn that one of Jesus' friends,

a man called Lazarus,

is sick?

Love that Jesus had friends.

Here's one of them sick.

Lazarus lives in a town called Bethany.

Lazarus has two sisters.

Their names are Mary and Martha.

Again, all these details show the validity

of this episode, right?

Verse five, John wants us to know that Jesus,

what, how did he feel towards them?

He loved them.

You see that?

And by giving us that little detail right up top,

John is telling us that everything

that's about to unfold here

flows from Jesus' deep love for these three.

Lazarus is sick.

Prognosis, critical.

Do you see it?

And in desperation,

the sisters send word to Jesus.

Do you see that verse three?

Come.

We need you.

You've got to get here.

Now question,

how would you respond to something like that?

Remember when my uncle,

he died a few Christmas times ago,

Christmas time 2023.

He died on the,

he had a heart attack on the 22nd of December,

never came around.

Died on the 23rd.

We were,

yeah,

we were opening presents from him on Christmas day.

Really weird.

Really weird.

Thing is,

as soon as I heard that we weren't talking days,

we were talking hours and we were talking,

not hours,

we were talking minutes.

I got in the car here and I went.

It's what we do,

isn't it?

When you hear something like that,

you drop everything and you go.

Jesus hears that news,

verse six,

that someone that he loves is dying.

And get your head around the fact that he says,

I'm staying here two more days.

And his reason,

verse four,

doesn't leave them in the dark.

His reason,

verse four,

is that so his glory would be displayed.

So that the disciples in this moment would learn something about him.

That they would learn no other way.

So this God,

this is how he works.

This is Isaiah 55.

If you know the Bible story,

this God,

his ways are so much higher than our ways.

His thoughts,

his intentions are so much greater than our thoughts and intentions.

And when things don't make sense to us,

we can fall back on his steadfast and wonderfully good love towards us.

Because Jesus loves us,

just like he loves Lazarus,

Mary and Martha,

he will use the darkest moment in their lives

to teach them some of the deepest truths about him.

And from this,

it gets me every time I read this.

Because I underestimate just how committed Jesus is to me.

And to you.

And when it doesn't make sense to us,

we can trust that he loves us.

Some of you will have grown up.

You remember that hymn writer,

William Cowper?

He had that wonderful chorus.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

but trust him for his grace.

Behind a frowning providence,

he hides a smiling face.

This Jesus,

we can trust fully in his perfect timing.

And then secondly,

this Jesus,

we can lean fully into his gentle heart.

So do you see how back in the story here,

another 48 hours pass.

Which means by the time Jesus and his disciples,

they get to Bethany.

Lazarus has been in this condition.

Four days.

Now if you've been in one of these moments,

you will know how slowly time goes.

Four days.

Four days.

And when Jesus and his disciples get there,

do you see how they encounter just the scene of deep grief?

People are here weeping.

People are mourning.

People are pouring out their souls.

People are consoling each other.

And slap bang in the middle of the scene are Mary and Martha.

Do you see?

Who are utterly shell shocked.

What has just happened.

The painful reality that's just played out in front of them.

And when they eventually see Jesus,

and you need to see this,

isn't it interesting that they both make

exactly the same point to Jesus?

It's not a point that's meant to invite deep discussion.

It's a point that's meant to convey deep pain.

Do you see Martha makes it at verse 21,

and then Mary makes it at verse 32.

Just maybe put your finger on both of those ones.

21 verse 21 and verse 32.

Do you hear it in their voices?

The emotion, the pain, the questions.

Where were you, Jesus?

In our darkest moment, you were a no-show.

I thought that you loved us.

Maybe you were just making the whole thing up.

Where were you if you had been here?

You ever been there?

If you had been here.

Well, isn't it intriguing that Jesus responds

to their exact same question

in profoundly different ways?

Have you ever noticed this before?

No.

Same question.

Jesus doesn't do a cut, copy-cut, paste response.

Could it be that Jesus perceives

that Martha's biggest need in this moment

is to know that he's in control?

Whereas Jesus perceives that Mary's biggest need

in this moment is to know that he cares.

I wonder which one are you this morning?

Martha, who has some understanding, verse 24,

of a resurrection that's going to happen

in the last day.

So she's got some concept of that.

She'll have got that, I imagine,

from the book of Job,

which you'll find in the Old Testament,

a book all about suffering.

What does Job cling to?

He clings to the fact that my Redeemer lives.

So Job is clinging to some idea

of a resurrection life after this life

in the end.

So Martha's probably picked up

on the thread of that,

and she says that.

She says,

I know he will rise again on the last day.

Do you see it?

Jesus says to her, though,

I am,

and we don't have time to do this today,

but he's using the divine title of God

for himself.

Put that in your back pocket if you want it.

I am the resurrection and the life.

So he takes the knowledge that she has

about an event that's going to happen

at the end,

and if you like,

just imagine taking a plug out the socket.

He just takes it out of that,

and he plugs it into him.

All the aspirations,

all the hopes,

all the longings about God

one day coming to make all things new,

he takes it and he plugs it into him.

Martha,

I've got him.

That's what he's saying.

I've got him.

But do you see,

verse 20,

Mary,

here's where we get Mary,

and here's what I find fascinating about Mary,

how when Martha hears that Jesus is near,

she runs to him.

Do you see it?

She runs to him.

Jesus in the vicinity,

going.

Mary,

on the other hand,

she stays at home.

Isn't that intriguing?

Can I read between the lines a little bit?

That could it be that Mary is so disillusioned with Jesus,

that she cannot bring herself to go to him?

Verse 28,

Martha returns,

and she says to Mary,

the teacher,

again,

it just tells you how highly they regard to Jesus.

The teacher is here.

He's calling for you.

Jesus knows.

Do you see in this moment?

He knows exactly what's going on in Mary's heart,

and he's calling her to come to him.

Isn't that a wonderful thing?

Jesus calls us to come to him with our pain,

and our questions,

and our prayers.

He's big enough to take it.

He knows what's going on in Mary's heart.

Mary,

come.

And in a flash,

she's up and she's running.

Do you notice how other people notice it?

See how quickly she got up and ran?

And she falls at the feet of Jesus,

and the floodgates open,

and it all comes bursting out of her.

And for the eggheads out there,

what follows is the shortest verse in the Bible.

Slip that in your back pocket for next time you're at a pub quiz, okay?

Shortest verse in the Bible,

but make no mistake,

it's one of the most profound.

Do you see those two words?

Jesus wept.

Now, is that not incredible?

To Mary, he didn't say,

come on, I've just told Martha that I'm the resurrection and life.

Come on.

Jesus wept.

It doesn't say anything.

Jesus wept.

So as Jesus sees this scene,

as he sees death yield its teeth,

the death that's in our world,

according to the Bible story,

because of our sin,

our rebellion against our creator,

and the fracturing of that.

Death is in our world

because of our rebellion against our creator.

Jesus sees this, though,

and he is incensed.

So his tears here are not crocodile tears.

His tears here are a love of,

are a mixture of love,

determination,

and outrage.

Jesus wept.

You're not so grateful for a Jesus like that.

I mean, can you imagine if he was stone cold at this point?

Like some kind of James Bond from above,

sent on a mission with instructions from M,

not to get too emotionally involved,

attached to people,

keep your distance.

Because if your heart goes out to somebody,

it might hinder your ability to make decisions and calls.

Are you not so glad that Jesus is not like that?

We do not have an arm's length, Jesus.

His tears are proof of the truth

that this is not the way it was supposed to be.

And I wonder whether our problem as human beings

is that we've got so good at pretending that it is.

And personally, I blame Elton John.

I blame that song,

The Circle of Life That Moves Us All,

because the thing is,

I tell you what,

see, when I was here at my uncle's bedside,

the song,

The Circle of Life That Moves Us All,

that was no comfort for me whatsoever.

We kind of make our peace with this idea of death

is just this natural thing that happens.

And the Bible would say,

not at all.

Jesus gives us permission here to know what we instinctively know to be true

deep down at every funeral we attend,

as we watch every friend who's going through horrendous suffering,

as we've tried to process every tragedy that we ourselves has lived through,

that this isn't right.

And we need to allow,

often,

the Bible's language to wash off on us.

Death, according to the Bible,

is an unwelcome intruder in God's good creation.

Paul would call it the last enemy.

Do you see,

our world doesn't know how to properly mourn.

And yet here is Jesus giving us a model

of how to process our grief.

He gives us permission to join him in his tears

and know that this is not right.

We can, can't we?

We can so often just skip over that mourning process

that happens when something like this goes on in our lives.

And Jesus here invites us to stop

and enter the depths of grief.

Join him in his tears

and know that this is not the way

that it was supposed to be.

And then here's the third thing

about Jesus.

We can rely fully on his powerful words.

So you've got to see this.

Verse 43.

Jesus, in the spirit of defiance,

he calls for the stone in front of Lazarus' tomb

to be rolled away.

Have you got a KJV Bible there?

I love how the Old English puts this.

She says,

Lord, by this time surely he stinketh.

It's great, isn't it?

But get your head around

what's going on in this moment.

Verse 43.

Do you see it?

Jesus speaks into a tomb.

He says,

Lazarus, come out,

which is,

has to be

the strangest thing ever

to have witnessed that.

Here's that scene in Frozen.

Is it Frozen 1?

where Christoph introduces Anna

to his troll friends

who in that moment

are just little stones

and you get,

is it Olaf says,

he's crazy.

That's this moment,

isn't it?

It's utterly bizarre

that Jesus would speak

into a tomb.

But I tell you what,

it's more than bizarre.

It is potentially

hugely insensitive.

Talk about things

that you don't say

at a funeral.

And yet Jesus

seems to be

deadly serious.

Can I suggest

none of us

would want a God

who didn't care?

Can I equally suggest

that none of us

would want a God

who couldn't do

anything about it?

And here's what we need

to understand

what's going on

in the bigger Bible story,

very much in keeping

with how it started

at the beginning.

With God

breathing life

into Adam.

And Adam

becomes

a living being.

Jesus speaks.

Where does he speak?

Into the darkness.

Into the chaos.

Into the black pit

of despair.

He speaks

and he breathes

life into Lazarus.

Do you see it?

And the man

who was verifiably

dead,

which is presumably

why Jesus

waited four days,

in case you're

wondering that,

to help everyone

in this moment

see that Lazarus

didn't need

resuscitation.

Lazarus

needed resurrection.

Lazarus

in this moment,

his hands and feet

still bound

with cloths.

And I love John

kind of just

throwing adjectives

at this one

to help us understand

what's going on

in this moment

because it's bizarre.

Lazarus

hobbles

out.

You see it?

Lazarus

hobbles

out.

There's your

adjective.

That's the verb,

isn't it?

Hobbles.

And Jesus

says,

unbind him

and let him

go.

And so here's

your top story

on the Bethany

News at 6.

Lazarus

lives.

Lazarus

lives.

See,

as wonderful

as this

moment is

though,

Lazarus

one day

will die

again.

It's not

like he

obtains

immortality

at this

point,

from this

point on.

But boy,

would life

have been

different

after this.

Yeah?

For Lazarus,

for Mary,

for Martha,

for those

onlookers,

boy,

would life

have been

different.

You know,

people,

I've had

people ask

me,

and I'll

put it

to you,

if there

was one

world event

that you

would have

loved to

have been

at in

your

lifetime,

what would

it have

been?

It's a

great question,

isn't it?

Collapse of

the Berlin Wall,

would love to

have been at

that one.

Signing of

the Declaration

of Independence,

would love to

have been at

that one.

Airdrie winning

the Scottish

Cup in

1924,

you're all

thinking it,

we'll say

it.

But here's

mine,

Lazarus'

second

funeral.

Lazarus'

second

funeral,

because I

don't imagine

the sense

of grief

felt by

all those

who would

have

attended

would be

any

less.

but boy,

I imagine

the atmosphere

of hope

would have

been fever

pitch.

And here's

why we

can have

so much

more confidence

even than

that.

That level

of confidence

can be ours

today.

Because what

was wonderfully

foreshadowed here

with Lazarus

was a day

that was coming

not so long

after this

one.

When another

stone would

be rolled

away from

another tomb

and another

man who

was verifiably

dead would

walk out.

As Jesus

leaves that

tomb having

verifiably

been dead,

dead on

the cross,

dying there

for the sins

of all those

who would

trust in

him.

Jesus

dies.

On the

third day

Jesus

rises.

But unlike

Lazarus,

Jesus rises

and he's

now ascended

to the right

hand of God

the Father.

Unlike

Lazarus,

Jesus will

never die

again.

And do you

know what

that means?

That means

if your hope

is in him

today,

that your

life,

and this

is what

we've

witnessed

today is

Tamsin's

life as

she's gone

down and

as she's

risen.

The old

her has

gone,

the new

her has

come.

What is

it about

the new

her?

The new

her is

totally

united to

Jesus.

Totally

united to

Jesus in

his death

and in

his

resurrection.

The only

way that

Tamsin

can die

again as

it were

spiritually

is if

Jesus dies

again.

And that's

not going

to happen.

Jesus

holds

her,

Jesus

holds

us,

and he

calls us

to live

in the

confidence

of his

resurrection

victory.

And so

the same

question that

Jesus asked

Martha right

there is

the one

that he

asks us

today.

Do you

believe?

You know,

just as we

close, we

started with an

observation about

life.

Can I make

one more?

And I'll

leave you with

this thought as

we leave this

passage.

it's about

people in our

world right

now, stuff

that's been

playing out

this week.

And it

got me

thinking.

You know

our world

is full of

right now.

It's full of

people with

lots of

power.

And no

love for

people.

Because you've

got lots of

power and no

love for

people, what

are you

tempted to

do with

that power?

Not to

serve

others, but

to serve

yourself.

people in

our world

just now

with all

sorts of

power.

I mean,

that's what

is right at

the heart of

the Epstein

files.

People with

all sorts of

power, but

abusing that

power, not

to love

people, but

to serve

themselves.

Our world

is full of

people like

that.

But the

flip side is

also true.

You've got

people in

our world

now with

all sorts of

love for

people, great

intentions, but

they've got no

power to do

anything about

those great

intentions and

love for

people.

Do you

know what

the wonderful

thing about

John 11 is,

is it shows

us here.

When it

comes to

perfect power

and perfect

love,

Jesus is

both.

And he

invites us to

know today that

if our faith is

in him,

see in our

weakest moments,

when we're

facing death

right squarely

looking at it

in the face,

we can know

with confidence

that we're

held by the

strongest and

most loving of

saviors.

You know,

so grateful for

Jesus.

He is the

resurrection and

the life.

Let me pray.

Oh,

our Father,

thank you so

much for your

word.

God,

and I pray

that you

would fill

our hearts

with that

sense of

awe

as we

take in

Jesus.

Father,

help rid

us of the

self-confidence

that so

naturally comes

to us

and fill

us with a

renewed love

for and

confidence in

Jesus.

Father,

I pray that

whatever is

going on in

our lives

today,

that by your

spirit you

would remind

those of us

who are

struggling perhaps

to know that

the Lord Jesus

is in control.

Fill us with

that sense,

that knowledge

that he is.

And perhaps

others of us

struggling with

the thought

that he cares.

Again,

would you be

bringing that

perfect knowledge

of his perfect

love and

commitment to

us?

So,

Father,

we thank you

for this

morning.

We thank you

for Tamsin.

Thank you

for hearing

her story

about how

she has

come to

know Jesus

for herself,

to find her

all in all

in him.

And Lord,

I pray that

this would

have been

such an

encouragement,

not just

for her,

and her

family and

her friends,

but for us

as a church

family.

Would you

renew in

us that

utter

confidence

that there's

none like

him?

And we pray

these things

in his

perfect and

in his

strong name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.