A Dead Man is Alive (John 11:41-54)

You would please remain standing for the reading of God's Word

from John Chapter 11, Helen Hickman and Henry Hours, two of

John 11 · chapter mention

our seniors, Henry Hours, are going to share from this

passage. It's the middle of where we've

been in our study in the Gospel of John.

It's the continuation of the story of Lazarus being raised

from the dead. Thank you both for reading the

Word of God. So they took away the stone, and

Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that

you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me,

but I said this on account of the people standing around, that

they made believe that you sent me.

When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice.

Lazarus, come out. The man who had died came out,

his hands and his feet bound with linen strips, and his face

wrapped in the cloth. Jesus said to them, Unbind him,

and let him go. Many of the Jews, therefore, who

had come with Mary, and had seen what he had did, and what he

did, believed in him. But some of them went to the

Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council

and said, What are we to do? For this man performs many

signs. 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.

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year,

said to them, You know nothing at all, nor do you people

understand that it is better for you that one man should die for

the people, not that the whole nation should perish.

He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest

that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation,

and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the

children of God who are scattered abroad.

So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.

Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went

from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called

Ephraim. And there he said with the

disciples, This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God, please be seated.

Helen Henry, thank you both so much, so grateful.

Father in Heaven, as we open your word, I pray that you would

illuminate Holy Spirit, our hearts and minds that we would

believe the truth of the gospel. We would receive it and not

reject it. Overwhelm us with this good

news. For the sake of your glory and

our good, we pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.

It is a sweet day for us as a church to remember the

generations. I couldn't help but notice when

we were recognizing the seniors that there was a child in the

back, maybe one of my own grandchildren, making noise.

And I want you to know that's sweet noise.

Some of you might get, you know, frustrated about that at times.

But it's it's the generations. It's the generations.

And it's sweet the same time. We have a dear sister, Carolyn

Hunt, who celebrated her 96th birthday last Sunday here.

Praise the Lord. And tomorrow, Bill Nichol turns

100, and he is right here with us this morning as well.

That's a remarkable thing, to be a part of a church that really

does expand the generations. And that's one of the most

incredible gifts that we have with such wisdom and such hope,

with such encouragement and such incredible devotion.

It really is quite beautiful this morning as we come to this

passage. This is where the Gospel of John

really begins to swing on a hinge.

Everything is now moving towards Jesus going to the cross.

And one of the things that John is doing is he's going to show

that there really are two responses to Jesus.

You either receive him and rest in him alone for salvation, or

you reject Him. It's simple.

You either receive him or you reject him.

And in our passage, you see that and you're going to see it

continue as the Gospel unfolds. Next week, we'll be looking at

Mary, who was anointing Jesus with the expensive perfume.

She was overwhelmed by his love and His Holiness.

That's all she knew to do. And at that same place, you're

going to see Judas, who is now beginning to reject the reality

of who Jesus is and will soon turn him in for money.

Today we see that Lazarus truly walked from the grave.

There are those who received him as Lord and those who rejected

him. That's what we're going to

unpack. First, we need to admit this.

If you're new to our church, we don't believe that this is a

nice story or a metaphor. We really believe in the Holy

Word of God. We believe that it's God

breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting,

and training in righteousness. So what that means is we believe

that there was a man put in a grave who was truly dead.

He wasn't mostly dead. He wasn't sick, gravely ill.

He was dead. There was no heartbeat.

His life, physical life, had ceased to exist.

Lazarus was in the grave. The tomb had been closed.

Then Jesus, as our two friends read to us, cries out with a

loud voice after praying to the Father.

And he says in verse 43, Lazarus come out.

And he did. Because we know the end of the

story and most of us are familiar with it, I think we'd

lose the profound reality of what happened.

They were mourning a brother. They were mourning a friend.

They were mourning for friends who had lost a brother.

Lazarus was dead. But when Jesus said Lazarus come

out, the stone had been taken away, it had been moved.

Lazarus rose, he was resurrected.

This man who was dead is now walking out of the tomb with the

grave clothes wrapped around him, the linen wrapped around

him. And Jesus says, remove the

linen, the strips from his face, unbind him and let him go.

And it really happened. Now, there were people who were

there just like us. We've been to memorial services.

We've been to graveside service. It would have been just as

shocking as if we were to graveside service.

And me or another minister said, with power, come out and the

deceased truly rose. That's what happened.

You might think if I was there, I would never need anything else

to believe, but that wasn't the case.

In the Gospel, verse 45, John tells us many of the Jews,

therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what He did,

believed in Him. Many of them did.

And here's what happens. There's more than one

resurrection that took place for the Jews that were present, who

had simply come to mourn with Mary and Martha, those who had

not believed in Jesus before. Suddenly they see Lazarus

walking out, this man who's resurrected.

Those who believed had their own resurrection.

This was a resurrection, the same kind of resurrection that

takes the place in any person who places faith in Jesus, Any

one of us who would say, I'm a Christian, I've rested in Jesus

alone for salvation. It is because there was a

resurrection in your life. At whatever age the Lord called

you to Himself, it was because He caused your heart that was

dead. Not just sick, not a little bit

of moral, but dead to begin to beat for Him.

Here's what that means. If you're a person here today

worshipping the Lord, and you know you have been saved, you

must remember constantly with great humility, I didn't deserve

it. I did nothing to earn it.

It was simply His grace and His favor.

How do I know? In the book of Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

2, here's what Paul says. And you were dead.

This is to all people, and you were dead in your trespasses and

sins in which you once walked, following the course of the of

the air. The power that is now at work

among the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived,

carrying out the passions of our flesh and the desires of the

body and mind. And we were by nature children

of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Now here's the hinge. But God, but God.

Bill Lambert's favorite 2 words in the Bible.

But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with

which He loved us, made us alive in Christ.

By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him, and

seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ.

Jesus raised us who are in Christ up with Him and set us

with Him in the heavenly places. If you have received Jesus just

as the Jews that day dead, it's because there was a resurrection

that happened in your life. You and me dead in our hearts,

spiritually unable to believe Jesus.

Suddenly the work happened just as Jesus said to Lazarus,

Lazarus, come out. The Holy Spirit spoke to us.

We didn't hear those words, but through irresistible grace we

say, I need a Savior. I've got a problem, I've got a

disease that is terminal called sin.

We all do. The only way, the only hope is

to receive Jesus. That's a resurrection and all

who are in Christ had that resurrection today.

If you're here and that has not been your story, it might be

because today is the day you will hear His voice through his

word and Spirit say come, come out, come alive.

I alone can save you. But there were those who were

there who saw the same thing, who saw the stone that covered

the tomb where the body had been for four days rolled away.

They heard Jesus pray the prayer that he prayed to the Father.

And then they heard Jesus in a loud voice say Lazarus come out,

every eye fixed on that tomb, and suddenly that man that they

knew was dead came walking out. It really happened.

Some, verse 45 tells us, believed they had their own

resurrection, but some did not. They saw the same thing.

They heard the same thing, but they didn't receive Him.

They didn't believe verse 46, but some of them went to the

Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

You either receive Christ for who He is as Lord and Savior, or

you reject Him. Many rejected Him.

Many continue to reject Him. Those who saw a dead man walk at

the command of a man named Jesus still rejected who He was.

So they go to the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a very

religious group. The Pharisees were the ones that

actually added to the word of God many rules and believed that

they could obey it. Sometimes when we talk about

legalism, we call it Phariseeism because there's this, there's

this belief that I can be good enough if I obey all these rules

to enter the Kingdom. There was another group called

the Sadducees. The Sadducees were far more

political than the Pharisees. In fact, these two groups

actually hated each other, but they're about to come together

because of a common hate that's born out of a common threat.

And together they will form the Sanhedrin.

And as they come together, they are going to make the decision

to kill this man who was the very one who was innocent.

Never send who said Lazarus come out.

Why? There is always a why underneath

the reason why people reject who Christ is.

So let's see there. Just look with me at verse 47.

The Jews that didn't believe and receive Jesus move to the

Pharisees. They tell them what has

happened. And verse 47 continues.

So the chief priest and the Pharisees gathered the counsel

and said what are we to do now? That basically means they're

saying we've been trying to stop this man.

His miracles are becoming more and more known, raising a dead

man to life. If this continues to happen,

everyone is going to begin to follow him.

What are we to do? What are we to do?

For this man performs many signs.

Verse 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.

There's the why do you see it? If Jesus, the man who's done all

these miracles, this is really important.

They didn't deny that he did the miracles.

They didn't deny that Lazarus was alive.

In fact, they knew what had happened.

What's underneath all of it? What's underneath two groups

that really despise one another coming together against this

common threat? It's that there is something

they're afraid of losing, and that which they are afraid of

losing is their primary identity and their primary security.

And John tells us what it is. If this man continues, there is

going to be an uprest. There is going to be so many

people following him that the Romans are going to respond.

And if the Romans respond, they are going to take away, by the

way, the exact same word use it use when John tells us Jesus

said take away the stone, they're going to take away.

What does it say? Our place and our nation, their

place, the temple, but also their position in that place

with power. The Romans are going to come and

they're going to take away our place and they're going to take

away our nation. The man that they want to kill

just raised someone from the dead with just his words.

What should have been going on in that conversation with

religious people present, people who knew the Old Testament

should have been We don't need to fear anyone if we would trust

who He told us He is. And now, because we've seen what

he's done, we don't need to fear the Romans.

We don't need to fear any nation.

We don't need to fear anything or anyone because He is the one

we've been waiting for. He has the power.

He's who he said he is. He is the Son of God.

But that's not what they said, because that man who did that

was a threat to what was more important to them, their place

and their nation. It can happen to us.

It does happen to us. What happens is that anytime we

take a secondary or lower identity and say in order to

keep this place, this position, this nation, we must do this.

And suddenly the willingness to compromise, to turn away from

what's truth, to embrace something that's not true is

evil. And it's exactly what was

happening there. They couldn't imagine a life

without the place that they were used to, the positions that they

had. They couldn't have imagined

losing their nation when what Jesus is saying to the Jews that

had believed and to any Gentile who had believed is that I am

your place, I am your nation. There is no nation on earth that

is more powerful or eternal like my nation.

There is no identity in any citizenship in any nation that's

greater than the fact that you belong to me, your King.

But through the people of God, it's always been we want a king,

we want someone like them. The temptation is to put our

security and insecure things. And that's what they had done.

Their security was in a place that brought them peace and

prosperity. This man was threatening to undo

all that. And in doing that, they saw that

there was only one way. And that came through the voice

of their leader, Caiaphas. Look with me at verse 49.

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year,

by the way, Caiaphas who was the high priest for a long time,

this was a, a term that was not just one year, John simply

saying it was this year that Caiaphas was the high priest.

Caiaphas who was high priest that year said to them, you know

nothing at all, essentially saying everything I've heard so

far, you're foolish. You know nothing at all, he

says. 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.

He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest

that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation.

He prophesied this unwittingly. He has no idea ultimately what

he's saying, because what he's saying is true.

This man, Jesus, is going to die.

This one man is going to die for his nation, for his people, for

his church, and for all who receive that.

They now have their permanent identity this side of heaven and

their permanent identity in heaven.

It's primary and it's permanent. There's no other identity like

that but this side of heaven. You and I are constantly tempted

to put our security in places and nations in citizenship and

belonging. I told the high school students

who are here at 9:30, seniors, you're about to enter into a new

place, whether you're in the work field or you're going to

college, and they're going to be people that you meet who have

received Jesus, and they're going to be people you meet who

have rejected Jesus. Deep down.

The ultimate reason why is that they are seeking to put their

identity in a place and a nation.

It might be a fraternity or a sorority that says you must do

this in order to belong. And if you're willing to do that

in order to belong, what you were saying is there is a

greater identity in my life right now belonging to this

place, belonging to this group, belonging to this nation is

greater than being in Christ. And that continues.

Think about this. Throughout history there have

been churches, we're from the pulpit.

The word of God has been proclaimed in many places all

over the world where that once was happening.

They would never have said what I said at the beginning about

this book. Lazarus would be a metaphor,

Jonah being swallowed by the well, that didn't really happen.

It's just a story. We don't believe that.

But if history continues and we're not careful, one day when

this place is threatened because someone like me says what I just

said, somebody's going to say you can't say that we'll lose

our place, we'll lose our nation.

It could also come in the reverse way where it's a little

bit sneakier when suddenly we have put a nation, a

citizenship, A belonging somewhere this side of heaven

above Christ, and all of a sudden His word is not ultimate.

His word is not foundational. His word is not giving us peace

and hope because we're so afraid of what's happening.

Jesus is the head of his church. He rose Lazarus from the dead.

He himself rose from the dead. We absolutely have nothing to

fear. But if we live in fear, we are

going to look to protect a place and to protect the nation.

When we don't belong eternally to this, we belong to Him who is

our place, who is our nation, now and forever.

How do I know? Paul says.

Don't you yourselves know people who are in Christ?

Don't you yourselves know that you are God's temple and that

his Spirit lives in you? The same God, the same Spirit

who showed the resurrection power when Lazarus came out,

lives in us. We have our place.

We have our nation. It will last forever for those

who are in Christ. If you're in Christ, and this is

good news to you, and it should be, it's because of His grace.

He brought you in, you received Him.

Give Him praise. If today that's not your story,

that means you have rejected Him.

And some people, I especially said this to, the students, have

this idea that one day I'll get it together, one day I'll deal

with Jesus and that stuff. But right now I wanted to find

my life the way I want to. What they're saying is I want my

place and I want my nation to be what I want it to be.

And the thought is one day I'll deal with that.

But here's the truth. You don't know, as they were

unwrapping the linen off of the dead man Lazarus, who's now

alive. It's as if those who didn't

receive him but went to the Pharisees who met with the

Sadducees and formed the Sanhedrin, were having linen

wrapped thicker and thicker around their eyes.

It's as if they were becoming more blind, more death, harder.

So much so that the high priest, Caiaphas would say, you fools,

there's only one way this man must die.

And that's what they set their intentions for.

Unwittingly. Caiaphas didn't know that the

prophecy he was giving would come true.

Jesus would die. He would die for his people, for

Jews who would trust him, for Gentiles who would trust him.

This passage, it's teaching atonement from the lips of the

man who said there's only one way, kill him.

The temple would be lost. It would be destroyed about 20

years before John writes this, so the people hearing this

gospel would have known what he was talking about.

But Christ rose, and for all who have trusted in Jesus, He is

your place now and forever. He is your nation now and

forever. Your identity in Him is secure,

It's permanent and it's primary. But this side of heaven, our

enemy is going to constantly put secondary and lower identities

in our life to say this is really your place, this is

really your nation. It doesn't just happen when

we're in college. It follows us through life.

If I make this decision, my child's not going to make a

team. So we've got to rearrange what

we do on Sundays so that he can be on the team.

That's his place, that's his nation.

And suddenly the priority of worship is gone.

It happens slowly. We don't even think about it

anymore. It continues.

I'd like to join your church, but because the stance you have

on the Bible, I can't be known as a member.

I'll worship from a distance, but I can't belong because you

guys actually believe what this says.

If that's known, I won't be promoted or I might lose my job.

If you're in Christ, you already have your place.

You already have your nation. Stand in him.

Stand in him, your job and your title.

This site of heaven will not be eternal.

It's not primary now and it isn't permanent.

I am not going to be a pastor in heaven.

I'm not going to be referred to as one of the pastors of PCPC in

heaven. My identity with that title is

not primary and it's not permanent.

I'm a beloved son of the living God, saved when he said come

out, when he opened my eyes and took off the deathcloth that I

might see. Maybe today is the day He's

brought you to this place that you could see yourself and you

could say I have rejected him. I'm glad you've heard what I say

and I hope you heard in love. Do not continue to reject Him,

friend. Deal with what you have heard.

We would love to walk with you in that.

Maybe today you're already ready.

You've heard that voice through His Spirit and Word, and you say

I want to receive Christ. Then right now, pray, simply

pray Jesus. I was dead, I'm a Sinner,

forgive me my sins. I receive you and you alone for

salvation and you will have Him forever.

Maybe today you're so encouraged because you know you've received

Him. Well then my friend, never

forget its grace. Never forget you didn't deserve

it. Never forget that you didn't

cause your heart to beat for Him.

Be overwhelmed by His grace, that you were one of the ones

who said upon hearing His word in spirit, I believe.

Praise Him for that. Father Jesus lifted his voice to

you that others might hear and believe.

He then said, Lazarus come out. And Lazarus did that same voice

not long from that moment would say from the cross, it is

finished. He would commit himself to you

and then He himself would die. Man of Sorrows taking on what we

all deserved. Father, if there any today here

ready to come out of the tomb to be a follower of Christ, hear

them as they pray now for salvation In your name, Lord,

for those who are just still wondering and struggling, have

mercy. Speak to them and show them who

you are. A friend, come and ask

questions. We would love that.

For those Lord today who know they're in Christ, would you

protect us from taking any, any place, position, citizenship,

nation, anything, and putting it ahead of what is already ours,

secure in Christ, You are our place, You are our nation.

I ask this, we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

Please stand.