36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Opening Comments...
Jesus Wept
34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. 35 Jesus wept.
Simple words on the page in your Bible. The gravitational pull of this phrase has been drawing people back to this passage of Scripture for nearly 2000 years.
These words provide comfort for you; realise that Jesus hurts too. He is not alien to your tears, your pain. He suffers as a human being, fully God, full man.
Jesus wept. He is the resurrection and the life. He is about to perform a miracle. Jesus lives in the moments with you. Jesus is grieving.
I find it reassuring that when I cry, Jesus feels it. I find great comfort in knowing that Jesus, who flung stars into space and by whom all things are held together, weeps and mourns with me at my low times.
Some people will be cynical. Jesus did not engage during His weeping with the cynics. He still died for them. Aren't you eternally grateful that when you were cynical and contemptuous of the Jesus that He still died for you?
In John 11: 38-44 the account of Lazarus' resurrection is recorded. Within this you begin to see that there are things that He tells you to do and things He does that you cannot do for yourself.
If you want to see the dead promises resurrected in your life you must work in cooperation with Jesus.
Roll Away the Stone!
39 “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha…
Let's uncover the real issue here. Let's go deeper than you thought. It's great to have a Saviour who understands our griefs, it's another to realise that He wants to uncover the secret things in our lives.
There are obstacles blocking your promise from God. Things that have gotten in the way. You keep praying for God to remove them but He commands you: Roll away the stone! Deal with the issue that is preventing God moving in your life.
But Lord!
Martha questions Jesus' sanity! "Jesus, you're too late. He will stink by now. Jesus, don't you know that the result of death is decay, and with decay comes a stench. Death has a smell and it's not one to savour. Jesus, it's enough that you have empathised with our grief. Coming and standing by the grave to show your respect is enough. It's made up for your poor time keeping and even the delayed answer to our message to come. You're here now, that's enough."
Friend, Jesus lives in the moment with you to help you see the eternal picture. Your hope in Jesus must not just be that you will be taken up out of this world one day but that He changes the world in which you live.
Remember What He Said
40: “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (40, see v 25-26: 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”)
Remembering what He said takes us to a place of trust. He has told Martha that Lazarus will rise again, but she has interpreted this through her "one day' theology. One day in the future it will happen.
Remembering what Jesus has said means that you have something to pray! You can remind Him of His promises to you.
II do not believe should be some kind of blab it and grab it prayer. This should be a deep and earnest petitioning of Jesus: you promised x, my experience is y, please honour your promise. He is faithful and true (Revelation 19:11)
So you have to roll away your stone. That takes courage.
It takes courage to remember what Jesus has said and believe Him against all the odds.
The first things that have to be done to turn the difficulty in your life around are within your power.
Most people will not take these two steps of obedience - to roll away the stone and remember what Jesus has said - because Martha is right, the air is now filled with the pungency of death's victory.
Mixed with their grief and their faith is the overwhelming reminder of what has been lost. How many things in your life have turned rotten before Jesus intervenes?
Rely on Jesus' Prayers
40-42:Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
Jesus prays at this burial site. He breathes deeply and speaks loudly enough to be heard. When death is breathed in by the Life, death dies.
Jesus could have just commanded the corpse to live immediately. He didn't. He prays. He prays for the benefit of those who are listening. He prays that they would know that Father God has sent Jesus.
The quality and depth of Jesus' prayer life outstrips that of you or I. There are instances when Jesus would take Himself to a place of solitude to pray and commune with Father.
When Jesus is baptised Luke explains that it whilst Jesus was praying that the Spirit descended (Luke 3:21-22). It is Luke who records that Jesus took Peter, James and John to pray on a nameless mountain that we now call Transfiguration (Luke 9: 28-36).
This gives an idea of what happens when Jesus prays: heaven opens! It may well have been that there were several transfiguration moments but that this was the only one that any of the disciples witnessed in Luke 9.
Jesus is still praying for you. As a man, a human intercessor, right now, this moment, this second. The Bible describes Jesus as our mediator (1 Timothy 2:5).
Jesus' prayer continues, "... but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."
Jesus is saying, "They need this! They need this miracle! Right now in the midst of their despair and anguish they need the change to come now!"
For what end? To meet a need? No. To bring glory to the Father.
11:4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
When the Father is glorified, needs are met. When needs are met, the Father is glorified.
It's about Him. When His name is glorified your needs will be met. Do not think your miracle and breakthrough is just for you - it is to bring Glory to God.
Jesus stands uniquely placed to mediate and pray on your behalf. Remember He is praying for you.
Rejoice at His Command
43: “Lazarus, come out!”
At this point we reach the crescendo of the biblical account.
- For a few moments silence hung in the air as Jesus' words echoed in the cave.
- People craning and straining to gain a better view.
- Silence as Lazarus' decaying skin and tissue is recreated.
- Silence that is slowly interrupted as a shuffling sound can be heard as linen clad feet make their way to the entrance of the cave.
In a matter of fact way the John records what happened next:
44:The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Shock! Silence of a new kind envelopes the crowd as their stare in disbelief.
Sometimes the commands of the Lord seem delayed. It is not that the power of Jesus is insufficient.
In the spiritual realm the change happens instantly. In the natural realm change take time to occur.
In Lazarus' case it did not take long, but would have taken some time for tissues to re-grow, even miraculously, and for him to make his inhibited way out of the cave.
When you are desperate for an intervention from heaven even this delay can seem unbearable. But your miracle, your promise, is alive but it is in the back of the tomb!
Perseverance through the appearance of heavenly inactivity is vital. Do not give up.
When I became a Christian I heard a lot of testimonies about God waiting until one minute to midnight before He answered prayers. It's almost as though our theology would allow God to be last minute but never late, just at the end of our patience.
The resurrection of Lazarus shows that God has a different clock to us, it's sometimes a five past midnight, but Jesus is ever present. It's never too late. Some times He turns back the clock.
Rejoice when the command has left the lips of the Lord. The dead promise, the dead relationships, the prodigal child, the promotion you seek, it is coming!
Reveal the Promise
44c: “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Such is the dumbfounded nature of the crowd that Jesus has to tell them to do the obvious: Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
When there is a resurrection of something in your life you cannot leave it bound in the things you put around it to try and preserve it.
There underneath the grave clothes was Lazarus with babylike new skin!
One of the things that Jesus cannot do for you is to live in the promise He has given you. It's up to you to live in the new reality that He has given.
A few moments before the sisters were mourning the loss of their beloved brother. Now they are going home as a family again, all together, laughing, questioning, believing afresh in the wonders of their God.
For some they never reach this point in their faith. It's as though their Lazarus has been raised but they have never taken off the grave clothes and so they have a resurrected promise fettered by stained grave clothes in their lives, hobbling around trying to act normally, but still dressed for a funeral!
What is meant for life for you is still dressed for death.
Take off the grave clothes!
Wrapping it up:
There are things that Jesus will want us to do in our desperate moments: rolling away our stone, believing in our Saviour, unwrapping our promise.
There are things that He will do: intercede for us, commanding the dead thing to live, instructing us to take off the funeral clothes.
He is always present and never late. He lives in our time but with Heaven's clock. He is wonderful.
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