The sermon focuses on the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, highlighting the theological significance of the resurrection. Jesus demonstrates his compassion and empathy by weeping with the family and entering into their sorrows. The reactions to the resurrection range from belief to scoffing and paranoia. The sermon emphasizes the importance of the resurrection in the Christian faith and the need for personal conversion and revival.

The sermon text for today is John chapter 11 verses 25 through 57. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me though he may die he shall live and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world. And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, The teacher has come and is calling for you.

As soon as she heard that, she rose quickly and came to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the town and was in the place where Martha met him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house and comforting her when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her saying, she is going to the tomb to weep there. Then when Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her weeping, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled.

And he said, Where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, See how he loved him. And some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying then Jesus again groaning in himself came to the tomb it was a cave and a stone lay against it Jesus said take away the stone Martha the sister of him who was dead said to him, Lord by this time there is a stench for he has been dead four days.

Jesus said to her, did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. And I know that you always hear me, and because of the people who are standing by, I said this, that they may believe that you sent me. Now when he had said these things, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. And Jesus said to them, loose him and let him go. Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary and had seen the things Jesus did believed in him, but some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a counsel and said, what shall we do? For this man works many signs.

If we let him alone like this everyone who believes in him everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation. And one of them Caiaphas being high priest that year said to them, you know nothing at all nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and not that the whole nation should perish." Now this he did not say on the his own authority, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that he would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad. Then from that day on they plotted to put him to death. Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near the wilderness to a city called Ephraim, and there remained with his disciples. And the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went from the country into Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.

Then they sought Jesus and spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple. What do you think that he will not come to the feast? Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it that they might seize him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father God, we thank you so much, dear Lord, that the truth of scripture speaks to our hearts, dear God.

Lord, you allowed this to happen, dear God, in your plan, dear Lord. But the wonderful miracle that Lazarus was raised from the dead, dear God, hardened the hearts of those who were opposed to your son and actually led to his crucifixion, dear God. We thank you for your plans. We thank you for your power. You're in control of all circumstances, Lord.

Just speak to us today, dear God. We ask for your mercy and grace, dear God, to us today that we will be more like Jesus for in Christ's name. We pray. Amen As we find ourselves here in John chapter 11, we're encountering what is the final and galvanizing sign that Jesus Christ is God. And He is revealing the ultimate purpose that he came to earth to accomplish and that is to to be raised from the dead and there's really one single message in this whole chapter the entire chapter is dedicated to the raising of Lazarus and the story surrounding it, but the the message is really simple.

Jesus raises from the dead and he raises those who are dead to everlasting life and he defeats the last enemy to be destroyed which is death and this is also the final miracle in the Gospel of John there seven of them seven signs all of the miracles the turning of water into wine the healing of the nobleman's son the healing of the blind man all of these miracles that John records in his gospel are signs They're meant to tell us something about him something in the future something that he does and They all point to something greater and this sign here points to many things that are greater than just the raising of a dead man by the name of Lazarus. And so this is the pinnacle of the miracles. It's really the most dramatic. This guy's been dead for four days, and Jesus raises him from the dead. You know, when Jesus ordered that the stone be rolled away from that grave, just before Jesus cries out, Lazarus, come forth, Martha tells Jesus not to do it.

Don't roll away that stone. And I love the way the King James version speaks of it. She said, he stinketh, because he'd been in that grave for four days, or he'd been dead for four days and all of this really points to What Jesus does he resurrects your life? He recreates you he he raises you from the dead and you stinketh You come out of your tomb when you're converted, And you're all wrapped up in your grave clothes and you stink and you smell so bad that they had to put spices all over you so that the smell of your rotting body would be somehow overcome by these spices, and then they wrap you in these grave clothes so they don't stink so bad, because they didn't embalm in those days. And you have this perfume, and I think this is just a it's a picture of mankind you know all mankind has a stink about him it's the stink of sin and all the perfume in the world is not going to overcome it all the all the clothes you might wrap around yourself to try to distract people from how much you stink isn't going to work but there's really only one way to deal with the odor of original sin and that is by the resurrection resurrecting power of Jesus Christ because all all mankind Has a stink that nothing can cover up that you might try to use to cover it up You know I was I was debating what to title this sermon.

You know, either Lazarus Come Forth, or the title that I have, or You Stinketh. And I asked Deborah, you know, what she thought about titling the sermon You Stinketh. And she said, don't call it that. Don't title it that, because every child, that's the only thing that they'll remember. Well, as it turns out, if that is the only thing you remember, that we are bound in sin, and we have odor, and we stinketh, and your only hope is Jesus Christ, then maybe it would be good for you to remember that.

But Jesus here is facing the last enemy to be destroyed, and He weeps. I want to argue that there are probably three places that really bring out the primary meaning of this chapter. And the first really is in verse 4, that this man is sick and he dies because of the glory of God. And then the second is found in verse 25 and 26. This is probably the center of the entire text.

If you want to understand John chapter 11, Verse 25 brings it together. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?

So that really is the heart of it? Believing in Jesus Christ is the way that you deal with the with the unstoppable odor of your life It's the way that original sin is dealt with here. And so when you read the story of Lazarus, I want to recommend that you think on three levels at the same time. You need to think of these three meanings of the resurrection of Lazarus, and the first is new life in Christ. The meaning of Lazarus being raised from the dead is that there's a new life in Jesus Christ.

Romans 8 speaks of this. Romans 8 verse 10. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." So we should think of this miracle as pointing to the life that Jesus Christ gives upon regeneration. You have been given life, you were dead, and you have been given life.

Then the second way is to understand it in terms of the resurrection of the body in the final judgment Jesus has already spoken about this resurrection in John chapter 6, but this resurrection of Lazarus points to the final resurrection of the body at the last judgment where everyone who's ever lived will come before God, either come out of the grave or come out of the world, and stand before God, and God will separate the sheep from the goats. There's a final resurrection, And that resurrection is either to life or to death and then the third the third way To understand this is the power of the resurrection that occurs for the life of every believer as Jesus Christ is sitting at his Father's right hand and he's interceding. And the Bible says that he intercedes for us all the time unceasingly, that the resurrected Lord is always praying for his saints. You're never left alone, you're never left without prayer coverage, there's nothing you ever do, There's nowhere you ever go that you're not covered by the power of the resurrected Lord in his intercessions for you. He's constantly crying out to God for you as He is at His Father's right hand.

And you know, the Apostle Paul speaks of the resurrection over and over again. In Philippians chapter 3, he cries out that, he says, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death. He said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God unto salvation. That's the power of the resurrection. So this entire chapter, this this this singular narrative is really about one thing and that is the power of the resurrection, but it's also the story of a family.

There's this very graphic display of the humanity of Jesus Christ and his love for this family, and it's woven all throughout this narrative. You have this remarkable power of the resurrection but it's all in the context of the brokenness of a family and in the love that Jesus had for a family and and by this is this story only appears in the Gospel of John and none of the other gospel writers are recorded and by the way this this final act this final miracle of Jesus becomes the pinnacle of the hatred of the Jews, and it becomes the final reason that the Jews finally determine that they're going to execute him. So there are many things flying around in this long narrative. The humanity of Jesus Christ, his absolute sovereign deity, and his love for a family. So there it is.

Now, we've covered about half of this narrative before, and I wanna finish it up, but I wanna bring us up to speed. You know, the story really opens with Lazarus is sick, and he's sick for a purpose. And by the way, everyone who's ever sick is sick for a purpose everyone Whoever dies is dies for a purpose, but Jesus says it very Clearly here that the sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified through it. And then Jesus learns of this sickness, and he responds. But he responds in the strangest way.

Instead of rushing to see this sick man, whom he loves, he delays. He delays two days. He does what you don't think he's going to do and God in his love He plans and He ordains pain and loss and delays. That's what we get from this. And God wants to teach His people of His greater glory, So he delays.

We often think, well, if Jesus really loved me and wanted to glorify himself, he'd come to me right this second. But that's not how he works. He desires a greater joy than possibly could have been experienced. And so he delays. And then Jesus tells...

He turns to his disciples and He tells his disciples that he's glad that he died He said I'm glad that he died for your sake well. He's talking about the fact that he's going to raise him from the dead and then Jesus turns any comforts Lazarus sisters when they finally come to him this is in verses 17 to 27 and they and Jesus comforts them with who he is and that is he's the resurrection the life the one of the great I am statements I am the resurrection and the life he comforts them with Who he is and that really ought to be the greatest comfort that we have and And then Martha gets all caught up in that trap that we often get caught up in. It's the if only trap. She says to him, Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. You know, and this happens to us.

We get caught in this if only whole if only you had done this well it really is a trap but Jesus is fully God and fully man, and so He weeps. He weeps with His family, But he delays because he knows he will raise Lazarus. And then Jesus continues to speak with Mary and Martha and declares His glory. And then in the story, Martha comes back and gets Mary and Mary leaves her house and they join Jesus. Now I want you to find verses 28 through 32, because we learn something about this family.

And it's very important that we don't miss it. Verse 28, and when she said these things, she went her way and Secretly called Mary her sister saying the teacher has come and His calling for you now. There's there there are a couple things. I want us to not miss here First of all verse 28 she calls him teacher. She calls him master and she It's revealed to us what her heart attitude was toward Jesus.

She regarded him as her teacher. I think that's really significant. You know the people who know the Lord speak about the Lord in a particular way and This is how a true Christian speaks of the Lord. He's my teacher He's my master. He's the one I'm following and Then if you notice Mary's sorrow before Jesus she She's with him and she weeps in verse 31.

She weeps. What we find here in this whole narrative is that she weeps and the Jews we've also in another place the Jews weep, the ones who believe, and also Jesus weeps. Everybody at some point is weeping in this passage of scripture. And it's appropriate. All of the weeping is appropriate For the dead and for the sorrow the loss in Christianity you don't just stuff it you face it and you deal with it in a real way and that's exactly what we find here and Then there's also Mary's confidence in Jesus in verse 32 She says if you had been here My brother would not have died now you I think there are two parts to this you know you That can be a great trap to fall into but also She believed Jesus could do whatever he wanted to do She really believed that he was the son of God He And the question is do you believe that are you like her do you do you believe that he?

Can do anything and everything? That ought to be done Well they're these beautiful things here, but then Jesus responds to her sorrow look at verses 33 through 37 verse 33 Jesus saw her weeping and the the language that John uses that she's sobbing and And and the Jews came with her weeping too in the same way and then it says and he Jesus groaned in the spirit and was troubled and so Jesus is is groaning now and it looks it looks to me like what what's happening with Jesus is his his whole mind and spirit is troubled and he's feeling the trouble of this whole family and every emotion overcomes him and he's He's groaning. I believe with it with deep with a greater depth than just human sorrow He's he's triangulating all the different effects of the fall all of the tragic manifestations of sin in the world, in all of its different expressions. And there's just so many, just pick up the newspaper. You can read about a thousand of them everybody knows that this is a broken world and Jesus is groaning and We should understand That when we're walking through times of groaning That just like the way that Jesus groaned along with this family He groans along with all of us who find ourselves groaning.

He walks with us through our losses. You know, all creation groans, the Bible says, as a result of this decay. This is a tremendous theological truth that the whole creation is groaning. Our bodies are wearing out, we are aging, we die. We build our whole lives around improving everything, but no one ever was able to improve themselves to the point of overcoming the progress of aging and finally death no one can do that and the whole creation is groaning as a result.

And He's groaning. Jesus is groaning. He's pure in all of His groanings. Jesus never sinned when He groaned. We often sin when we're groaning, but He doesn't sin when He groans.

I think that's significant because in His suffering He atones for all your sinful groaning. All the times your mind is gone astray when you were in the middle of something very, very difficult. But Jesus Christ always groaned in perfect purity. And then after Jesus groans, Jesus says, or where have you laid him to the sisters and they said, Lord, come and see? And then you find the shortest verse in the Bible.

Everybody knows what it is. It's Jesus wept. That's the shortest verse in the Bible and now whether this is a different kind of crying than the family was experiencing their sobbing there's a different word use and it's only used here in the Gospels, and it seems to indicate a different kind of crying. It's that kind of crying where tears just start flooding down. It seems to be different than sobbing, but it...

I'm not confident it absolutely is, but the word seems to indicate that it's a different kind of crying. Jesus cries three times in the Bible he cries here He weeps at the triumphal entry and he also weeps as he is the substitute for sin the book of Hebrews says that he that he that he cried out with tears when he was suffering for sin so you have these various times where Jesus is crying but most likely he's just overcome with emotion and that any flooding with tears here. And you might ask, why would Jesus do that? In just a few minutes, he's gonna raise this man from the dead and everybody is gonna stop crying and everyone is gonna be smiling like they probably haven't ever smiled in their life. So why is Jesus weeping here but in just a few moments he's gonna say Lazarus, come forth and Lazarus is gonna come out of the grave and everybody's disposition is gonna change You know was Jesus like these televangelists who can just fake a tear just throw a tear you know whatever they want No Jesus was weeping Crying with those who cry He was weeping with those who weep.

That's what Jesus does. And that's why the Church does the same thing. We weep with those who weep. And we rejoice with those who rejoice we do that after the pattern of Jesus Christ I mean Jesus knows that he's destroying death and Yet he and yet he he cries He's the man of sorrows and he's acquainted with grief. You know, go to Hebrews chapter 4.

I'd like you to find verse 14 in Hebrews 4. You'll see the backdrop of this, of who He is. Jesus Christ is the man of sorrows. He's acquainted with grief. And here we find in verse 14 in Hebrews chapter 4 that we have a high priest.

And then we read, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Jesus Christ sympathizes with our weaknesses and that's why he's weeping with Mary and Martha and that family. Even though he knows he's going to raise Lazarus from the dead He's a compassionate high priest in the moment of your sorrow and your suffering he He weeps with you. He weeps with those who weep that's what he does and He And it goes on here in Hebrews that not only does He sympathize with our weaknesses, He was tempted like we are. And then, the writer of Hebrews says, then let's come boldly before the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need.

Well that's because Jesus is not a distant high priest. He's a compassionate high priest. He's a sympathetic high priest. He weeps with you when you weep he's entering into the sorrows of his people and you can you can you can guarantee yourself that he enters into your sorrows even your sinful sorrows and he understands that we sorrow often sinfully but he'd never sorrowed sinfully he always sorrowed with impurity and so he carries all of our sorrows even the sorrows that led us to even sin or to become angry with someone or bitter. You know, he does call us to repent of our bitterness But the truth is he enters into the sorrows of his people and you find this dramatic experience of that And in this family that Jesus fully enters into their sorrows and then just a few minutes later he he raises Lazarus from the dead he wasn't faking his tears when he was weeping with them and so The and the Jews respond look at verse 36 They said see how he loved him They saw the love that Jesus had for Lazarus but then there were cynics verse 37 and Some of them said could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also kept this man from dying?

You know, they were questioning his ability. You know, could he do it? Well, yes, he could do it. He was able, but he was not willing because he had greater purposes in mind. You can't miss how Jesus loves these people.

And he weeps with them. He delays and he enters into the sorrow of the delay and so So don't judge When it seems that Jesus is late, don't judge His devotion by His delay, because He weeps with you in the middle of the delay, and He's with you in all of your waiting. And I want us to see in this whole narrative that he makes you wait But he always waits with you He makes you wait But he always waits with you Well then Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead verse 38 and Jesus once more deeply moved came to the tomb And this deeply moved I I believe also is just his groaning over the over the devastating effects of sin and he came to the tomb and there was the stone and he commands them to take away the stone and Martha objects and she says hey don't do it. It smells. He's been dead for four days and you know the You have this warm climate these people were not embalmed You know The other deaths in the Bible you read about, they're burying these people right away.

Ananias and Sapphira, they were buried right away. The very same thing happens in many places because the decomposition of the body begins right away. In modern funerals we are very disconnected from all this. We doll up the body like the body is getting ready to go to a party. But when someone died in Israel, they didn't do that.

They put all kinds of perfume on that body and they wrapped it up so the stench wouldn't be so offensive. And they buried those people as quickly as they could and and That's why the King James Says that Martha says he stinketh don't open up that grave well there was this stench there and and then Jesus answers Martha in verse 40. Jesus says to her, did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? Again, Jesus made them delay, and all these things happened for the glory of God. He was glorifying himself to declare the power of the resurrection and Then Jesus prays this is really interesting Verse 41 to 42 there's this strange moment where Jesus talks to his father it's just it seems out of place in a way to me, but he They take the stone away, and then Jesus lifted up his eyes to the father and he says I thank you that you have heard me and I know that you always hear me be but because of the people who are standing I say this that they may believe that you sent Me Now what we find here is that Jesus?

Prays for the benefit of the people now I Think that this is a lot like What it's like when we pray corporately when we pray here on Sunday morning Corporately before the serve as a first service is starting when we have our prayer meeting on Wednesday night This this feels to me a little bit like that like in in our corporate prayer meetings we pray out loud and the Bible tells us to say, amen. In other words, to affirm the prayer. We're actually, we are praying to God, but in our prayer meetings, we're also praying for one another. We're actually lifting one another up to the Father. So we're praying to God, but We're also praying for one another.

We're actually lifting one another up to the father So we're praying to God, but we're also praying for one another we're praying things that glorify God we're praising God and when one person praises God for one thing it helps the other person praise God for that Thing too when one person sorrows over one thing it helps us all to sorrow When we pray for Somebody who's in trouble we all pray in other words we pray to for the benefit of one another to wrap us all up together to unify us together and Prayers like that so Jesus. He says he says it right here I'm praying because of everybody else and I it seems like that's the same thing that he's doing. And then Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb after he prays, verses 43 and 44. Now when he had said these things he cried with a loud voice Lazarus come forth and He who had died now look at the language here He came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes. Can you imagine, this is like a mummy walking out of a cave.

And his face is wrapped with the cloth. By the way, remember when Jesus is resurrected, the cloth was laid neatly, folded neatly in the tomb. But Lazarus is still wrapped up with this cloth around his face. And then Jesus, So he comes out of the grave, who knows how he was walking, you can probably imagine how he was walking all bound up, all tied up. And then Jesus says, loose him.

In other words, unwrap him, oh my. And they unwrapped him Jesus recreates this man He stinketh He's like all of mankind born in sin. We stinketh. We have an odor of sin about us. And the only hope of dealing with that sin is the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, and to be unwrapped by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, and to begin to walk in newness of life.

That's the picture that's here. So here's some lessons. The first really is a hard reality that I think arises out of this first part. By the way, There are really basically two parts to John 11. There's the story of what happened, and then there's the so what happened.

The so what comes in a minute. In other words, what was the result? But I want us to just linger for a moment on what this is all about. And the first is really a hard reality, and that is you have to face the fact that before Jesus raises you from the dead, you are dead. And you're not just sick, you don't need a reformation, you need a resurrection.

And we are dead in trespasses and sins. The Bible says that death reigned from Adam to Moses. Paul says to the Romans I know that in me that is in my flesh nothing good dwells for to will is present within me but how to perform what is good I I do not find and then he says who will deliver me from this body of death? And it's the resurrecting power of Jesus Christ. It's the only means of being delivered from that noxious aroma of sin of your life in my life everybody's life is like that everyone has a noxious element at work in their souls and only the resurrection of Jesus can take care of it.

No one believes because of their own merit, because they're dead. In God's mercy alone, He raises the dead. Dead people don't just get up, they have to be raised from the dead. And that's the whole, this is the whole doctrine of salvation. This is the doctrine of election, that God chooses to raise some from the dead.

Pray that God has chosen you to be raised from the dead. And he'll give life to your mortal bodies. That's why Paul said, if the spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also give life to your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwells in you." Well, This is just an explanation of what the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 2. By grace you are saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.

He is the one who makes alive. Because our problem is that we are dead and that we smell. And He causes us to be born again and He reconstructs our lives by degrees with what theologians call progressive sanctification. And He raises you from the dead and You come out of your tomb and you're staggering and you're bound by your grave clothes and you have all this perfume on you that you've tried to use to make people think you don't smell so bad. But there's only one way, and that is with Jesus Christ.

There's a song that I was reminded of this morning that Jeff Pollard wrote. And the chorus of the song goes, Christ loved and chose and ransomed me from sin and Satan set me free and washed me in his blood. He clothed me well from top to toe, adorned me with his glory, and brought me home to God. Well, that's this story of Lazarus and the resurrection. Okay, so that's what.

Now, so what? So what about it? Well, what happened as a result of this? There was a reaction, and that really begins in verse 45 the impact of the raising of Lazarus from the dead and there are three responses there were those who believed there were scoffers and then there were paranoid murderers those three kinds Those are the reactions that people had. Verse 45, many believed, many of the Jews who had come believed in Him.

Now these people, They left Bethany and they went into Jerusalem, and they spread the news everywhere so much That the scribes and Pharisees and we'll learn this in the next chapter in chapter 12. They wanted to kill Lazarus now Okay So the news had spread he And this really was the final proof That John brings of the fact that He is God. And then there were scoffers in verse 46. Some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things that Jesus did. They're kind of indifferent.

They're kind of like publicity wonks. They just want to spread the stories around. They're just kind of navigating the moment, you know and And by the way, you know miracles don't The facts of miracles don't save people and by the way if anybody here thinks that how wonderful you are is going to save someone, perish the thought. Okay? Jesus' miracles didn't convince everyone, and your sweet life won't either, so forget it.

And Then you have the paranoid murderers That's verse 47 then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said what shall we do? For this man works many signs interest isn't that interesting this man works many signs The ones They're acknowledging that he's doing these miracles. But their conclusion is we need to get rid of him. And then they verbalize their fear. Verse 48, if we let him alone, everyone will believe him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.

In other words, they wanted to kill Jesus because they were trying to protect themselves, and they wanted to keep their thing going. And Caiaphas then prophesies, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, he actually... God puts words in his mouth, even though Caiaphas is the one who's mounting this plot to kill him and will finally say, kill him. Caiaphas, the high priest, says, you guys don't know anything at all. Verse 50, Nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and not that the whole nation should perish.

Now this he did not say on his own authority, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that he would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad. So when Caiaphas said this he was really speaking about this that one person would die for all and the and the message would spread all over the world and God would make children out of those who would believe Caiaphas was just a pragmatist. He just wanted to benefit himself and Interesting you know Lee enough he prophesied you know that Jesus was dying for the nation. But he really, by saying what he did, he signed his own death warrant because they would lose the nation. In 70 AD, the Romans would come in and destroy them and kill a million Jews in 70 AD and then they plot to take his life verse 53 and then look at verse 54 what does Jesus do well Jesus withdraws he no longer walked openly among the Jews but went from there into the country near the wilderness to a city called Ephraim and there he remained with his disciples." So Jesus leaves Bethany and He goes off somewhere we don't know, and He's just with His disciples.

He's only a few days away from the triumphal entry and His crucifixion. But then you see the Pharisees keep looking for Jesus, verses 55 through 57, and The Passover of the Jews was near and many went up went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves Then they sought Jesus and spoke among themselves as they stood in the temple, What do you think? That he will not come to the feast? Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command that anyone knew where he was he should report it that they might seize him so thousands of people were coming for the Passover and the scribes and the Pharisees were there in the temple looking for Jesus and they're telling everyone if you see him tell us we're going to seize him that was the result of the raising of Lazarus so here are just some final thoughts and applications. We cannot miss the theological significance and the centrality of the resurrection.

The resurrection is mentioned over a hundred times. It's the central message of the Apostles. The resurrection is the final proof of Jesus' claims that he is God, and the Bible says that without the resurrection your faith is empty. If he wasn't raised from the dead, you need to go believe something else. You're believing in a lie unless Jesus was resurrected.

And if he wasn't resurrected, there's no forgiveness, there's no presence of Jesus in His delays and in our sorrows. So The resurrection is of enormous significance, and it really is the center point of the Bible. I think also in looking back through this narrative, I don't want us to forget how Jesus demonstrates himself as the man of sorrows who carries your sorrows who waits with you and he weeps with you and he also knows what he's going to do with you and he's going to raise you up on the last day. He genuinely enters into your sorrows even knowing of the glory that awaits. And we don't want to miss the glory of the delays that God brings.

The other thing I think we should register here has to do with how we think about other people who don't know the Lord, who don't believe. When you're sharing your faith you have to recognize that you're sharing with people who are dead. They're dead. Your arguments are not going to get them. Your little persuasions are not going to be the final thing.

Yet you should persuade and you should bring arguments with all your heart. But don't think too highly of yourself pray that the Lord of the harvest would resurrect a dead person that he would move only he can move and you you know you can't convince people against their will only God can move their will and you you know when you're becoming a Christian when God begins to move your will and your heart begins to change that's how you know but it isn't a person who's going to convince you it's the power of the Holy Spirit you know if you haven't believed yet cry out and you want to believe cry out to God that He would move on your soul, and that He would give you life, and that He would take off your grave clothes of all the different ways that you're trying to make yourself smell good. Because it isn't really working. Our only hope for being raised from the dead is the loving, electing power of Jesus Christ. And then finally, you know, we live in a very broken world.

We live in a world where there's a lot of bad odor out there. And the answer to every problem, every social problem, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That there would be people who would believe and receive New life and we live in times when the jaws of death are absolutely everywhere and mankind stinketh you know we live in a day when Millions and millions of children are being murdered in their mother's wombs We live in a time where where many people believe that Infanticide that kid the killing of a baby a live baby is somehow compassionate to a mother We live in a time of massive rebellion against God. People call it environmental justice. And they say that God doesn't control the weather, but you can.

And they want to tax you for it. This is a world that's gone mad. You have the breakdown of the family, you have an educational system where children are being taught to decide whether they are male or female today. You have madness, you have insanity that's running all over, You have massive destruction of a generation through pornography, through fatherlessness. It's the greatest problem in the world.

I read a book about 20 years ago by David Blankenhorn called Fatherless America, and he makes the case, and it's a compelling case, every social problem you can trace to fatherlessness or divorce. And you can cure them all by restoring the two. By restoring the two. But what happens to the soul when there's new life? Well there's a revival just like with Lazarus and you stagger out of that cave and God begins to take the grave clothes off of you, and he cleans you and he washes you and then he begins to purify you all your life long and he deals with that stink that everyone can see and everyone knows And it comes from the power of the resurrection, when the power of sin is broken.

And every time you have a revival, and I pray for revival, Every time you have a revival, there are several things that take place. First of all, you have personal conversion that takes place. And then you have the church being reformed, and the church being refreshed by the gospel of Jesus. And then you have families being restored and then you have social change and change of laws and then you have The change of everything and you know I Feel like we're living in such dark times, but I I'm seeing things that I've never seen before in my life And you're seeing them right before your eyes. You're seeing actual laws change because people were converted We saw a whole state of the union Make abortion illegal in that state and criminalizes everybody who participates in it and About half the states in the United States are either in the process or in midstream of changing their laws on abortion and It's because of the church of Jesus Christ.

It's the only reason You know I mean we're connected to you know these family integrated churches around the country. One of the strangest things about these family integrated churches is all over the country Those churches are at abortion clinics and almost no one else is except the Roman Catholics in almost every city. The church of Jesus Christ is crying out for the power of the resurrection. The changing of these laws doesn't fix everything for sure but a person who turns to Jesus Christ and believes That changes everything and that's what this whole chapter is about Would you pray with me? Lord we thank you that you heal the sick you raise the dead you cast out demons You take off our grave clothes You were you replace this phony perfume with what's true and what's real, and you give everlasting life, and you bring us into your presence where there's fullness of joy at your right hand.

Lord, we're so thankful that you reach out to sinners like us. Amen. Thank you.