In the sermon titled 'Love, Death, Glory' by Scott Brown, the speaker delves into John chapter 11, focusing on the narrative of Lazarus' sickness, death, and resurrection. This event is depicted as the final and most significant miracle in the 'Book of Signs' within the Gospel of John, illustrating the dual nature of Christ as both human and divine. The sermon highlights how Jesus' delay in coming to Lazarus was intentional, serving to glorify God, and teaching that God's love and glory can be revealed through suffering and death. The narrative explores the themes of love, glory, and death, challenging preconceived notions about divine love and timing. Jesus' actions demonstrate that, despite appearances, delays and trials in life are part of a larger divine plan meant to mature believers and bring them closer to understanding and glorifying God. The sermon also addresses the importance of faith and the resurrection, emphasizing that belief in Jesus as the resurrection and the life offers ultimate hope and answers to life's profound questions.

Well, if you would please remain standing as the sermon text is read in our hearing before the preaching of the word John chapter 11 Now a certain man was sick Lazarus of Bethany the town of Mary and her sister Martha. And it was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped his feet with her air, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to him saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick." When Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister in Lazarus. So when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was.

Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this great gospel. We thank you for this great gospel. We thank you for this great Redeemer. And we thank you, Lord, that your Spirit is here today to enlighten our hearts with the Word of God, the living Word of God.

We pray that it would fall on good soil, that it would produce fruit, much fruit over the years. We thank you for this time. We pray your anointing on the speaker in Jesus name, amen. As we enter into this great chapter, John, chapter 11, we are really encountering the final culminating, galvanizing miracle of Jesus Christ. And this miracle Reveals the ultimate purpose of his coming to the earth we're coming to the end of a major section theologians call John 1 through 11 the book of signs and so The signs of Jesus as the son of God as God himself had been declared and this is the final miracle of the miracles in the Gospel of John, the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

Now, the raising of Lazarus at the time was so remarkable, it was so well known, it was so widespread that it it caused the final inflammation of his opposers and and they made swift moves to kill him we're at the end of Jesus life We're only halfway through the words in the Gospel of John, but we're right at the doorstep of the final week of his life as we conclude this marvelous chapter. And it really is the pinnacle of all the miracles of Jesus Christ. He's turned water into wine. He's raised a nobleman son. He's done many remarkable things.

But this one here is beyond imagination as he raises a man who's been dead for four days, and this becomes the final reason to execute Jesus. Now notice that the entire chapter is narrative. It's really a story about what happened in a family and it's a very graphic display of Jesus' humanity and his deity. His humanity and his deity are so beautifully interwoven here. You know, death visits a family.

Death has visited some of your families. Death is going to visit all of our families. And that's exactly what happened here. And you see the love of Jesus for this family, his feelings for them. He's a man, but yet he's God.

He loves them, but he does something that doesn't make sense at all. If he really loved them, why would he not come right away and take care of Lazarus' sickness? Well, didn't and Jesus is moving slowly and I pray that that fact will mature us as a church because Jesus moves slowly and often very differently than the way we've predetermined that he would do. You know, the doctrine of predestination is in all of us That's what we want to do but Jesus is the one who ordains and I Bill I believe that Jesus is maturing his disciples. He's growing them up.

He's saying basically, grow up in a way and recognize the greatest thing that can ever happen to you and that is to be found glorifying God and be found observing the glory of God and Now notice too there's kind of a simplicity to the chapter. There's just two basic sections. There's the sickness and the death and the resurrection of Lazarus. That's verses 1 through 44. You can see it in the outline in front of you and then the second is the reaction of everybody around who saw the miracle and and and we see here in this remarkable thing that Jesus is facing the last enemy to be destroyed and that is death.

And he wept and he sees, he sees the damaging effects of the fall, its destruction, its decay and the heartbreak that it brings and he weeps at that. And he weeps because he's a man. He weeps because he has a friend. He weeps because he used to stay with a family and he loves them. And so you see the humanity of Jesus Christ and you also find the shortest verse in the Bible.

Jesus wept. Bible, Jesus wept. And yet his weeping, his tears streaming down his face Don't contradict at all his absolute vanquishing sovereign omnipotent hand even over death. These things are mixed together. It's such a beautiful chapter.

Now there are There are a couple of things I want you to look for in the narrative. We're going to walk through these verses. There are some clues to help us understand what the author is saying. Now, recognize this is a narrative. There are different genres of scripture.

There is poetry, there is prophetic literature or apocalyptic literature, and there is history, and there is didactic scripture. So the didactic scripture is direct instruction about particular things. It's extremely clear. The epistles are just full of it. And but here we are in a narrative and there are didactic elements, but they're not very many actually.

If you look at it, it's this story and there are remarkable details in the story. But there are always clues in a narrative about what is the central desire of the author to communicate. We need to do that with this narrative. There are 57 verses here. And it's easy to just get lost in the details of the narrative and miss the point that Jesus is making.

I'd like to help you do that before we begin to read through this marvelous narrative. Look at verse 4. When Jesus had heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it. That's a tip about what is the heart of this text. A man's death and his delay is all about the glory of God.

Look at verse 6. So when he heard that he was sick, now that word so, it means therefore. It's properly translated therefore. Therefore, when he heard that he was sick He stayed for two more days Because of his sickness he delayed That's the idea and he delayed For the purpose of verse 4 For his glory he delayed for his glory Now the word love is also prominent in this text as well. And though he loves, or rather while he loves, He delays to do what Martha and Mary want him to do.

He delays in order to glorify himself. So Jesus lets him die. Actually Jesus ordained that he died. Actually Jesus made him die while he delayed and was doing something else. Now, we'll get to this later, I hope in more detail, but this passage is about love and glory and death.

Those three things are critical to understand the entire narrative. Now, don't Let your preconceived notions about love overtake you. Jesus introduces, ordains pain, a death of a brother of two beloved sisters. And Jesus is going to let him die, die and don't miss this because he loves them. So Lazarus dies because of love, not because not because of lack of love.

God ordains losses, deaths, pains, sorrows, delays, sorrows, delays, reversals, troubles, because He loves you. They don't contradict his love. Your troubles don't contradict his love. And I think Jesus is teaching his disciples that. He's teaching, he's maturing them.

He's helping them to have a more mature view of life. It's really important that we're mature about life. And Jesus, I think, makes that very clear here. Well, Jesus desires a greater joy for you and I, then we can experience by getting our own way. He's wiser than we are.

He's more mature than we are. You know, you know, anybody who has children knows this. You know, your three year old doesn't really know that much what's good for them. They don't. They need somebody to take them to what's good for them.

And you know even when you're 20 or 30 or 60 or 90, it's still true. He leads you to his green pastures because he loves you. So three key words in the narrative. The first is love. You find it in verse 3, you find it in verse 5, and you find it in verse 36.

He's a compassionate Savior. Jesus loves an obscure man. We never hear about him again. The second word is glory. Verse four, verse 40.

This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified through it. And the third word is death. Verse 4, verse 13, and verse 53. Well, in verse 53, they plot to kill him. They plot his death.

And guess what that turns out for? The glory of God and the salvation of sinners. So love, glory, and death are the interpretive framework of this passage. This passage. Look at verse 25.

Is this the center of the text? Possibly. Remember Jesus doesn't say much. It's John telling the story But here's what he does say Jesus said to her. I am the resurrection in the life He who believes in me though he may die He shall live and Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.

And then he turns to her and says, do you believe this? Do you believe this? I think I can make an argument that that's the center of the text. You don't get to it until verse 25. Well it might be verse 4, it might be verse 6, but you can see how it all hangs together.

Now no one can control when he dies, where he dies, or how he will die. Or how he will die. God controls that. And that's exactly what happens with Lazarus. And that's exactly what happens with Jesus Christ, the Son of God himself.

He controls it all. And the key of this passage is that whatever deaths, delays, disappointments that happen, there's one thing and that is that Jesus will raise everybody from the dead and everyone in the tombs will hear his voice that's that's that's what is absolutely solid and he says I am the resurrection of the life now I want to point to nine scenes in this narrative and I want to move us from scene to scene and if you want to if you can if you want to follow you know I have them marked out in the outline that's in front of you. Now in scene one, Lazarus is sick for a purpose. Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha." Now we're introduced to Bethany. This is a different Bethany than we encountered in the previous chapter in chapter 10.

They've left that Bethany and they've gone to another Bethany that's just about two miles from Jerusalem. So Jesus is heading toward Jerusalem here and Lazarus lives there. It's a place that Jesus often stayed. He stayed in their home when he was traveling Some scholars have said that you know when Jesus went to the feasts with his family every year They possibly stayed in this home year for years for 30 years, maybe but it was a home where he liked to stay and so the heartbreak was greater. Now Jesus, by the way, will, will, the ascension takes place in Bethany, Interestingly enough Lazarus is raised in Bethany the ascension takes place in Bethany isn't that interesting well verse 2 it was Mary Who anointed it was that Mary now?

He's particularizing Mary Because there's six Mary's mentioned in the in the in the Gospels. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was sick. Now in the the next chapter opens with this scene where Mary does this after the raising of Lazarus. She's was she already loved him, but she is overcome and she puts fragrant oil on his feet in the next chapter. We'll get there soon.

But anyway, there there's the Mary of Bethany, this Lazarus's sister. There's Mary, the mother of Jesus. There's Mary Magdalene of the seven demons in Luke 8 There's a Mary the mother of James and so forth that there there I think are six Marys in the Gospels. The most famous story about Mary is recorded in Luke 10 where Mary and Martha are with Jesus and Martha is serving. She's all wrapped up in her serving and she kind of says to Jesus, how come she's not helping me?

I'm doing all the work because Mary's just sitting at his feet and Jesus says she's done the greater part this will endure. So that you know this happened before and it's recorded in Luke 10. But John goes out of his way to mention that it was that Mary. It was that Mary that sat at his feet. It was that Mary that anointed his feet.

That one. The one who had such a love, you know. You know, many of you are women, you know, what a blessing it is to have a woman with a heart like that who wants to be at Jesus' feet. It's such a beautiful thing. And so Lazarus is, he's not the Lazarus of Luke 16 where you have divies and Lazarus, divies in hell and Lazarus.

It's not that Lazarus, a different Lazarus. Lazarus was also a fairly common name. So anyway, a messenger is sent to inform Jesus, verse three, therefore the sisters sent to him and saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. Now, they brought their heartache to Jesus. That's so significant.

You know, you can take your heartache to anywhere you want right there's a counselor there's a pastor whatever you know the other pastors will talk to you the counselors will talk to if you pay them and You know, there are a lot of people you can talk to well Good she they go to Jesus that that's That was the right place to go. They, interestingly enough, they did not say, Jesus the one we love is sick. They said the one you love is sick. And, you know, Matthew Henry says, our love is not much worth speaking of, but his love can never be stopped speaking about. He loved them.

They understood the love of God. There's a song I bumped into this week while going through this. It's a song, I must tell Jesus all of my troubles and the words oh I wish we could sing it. I must tell Jesus all of my trials I cannot bear these burdens alone in my distress he kindly will help me he ever loves and cares for his own it's a song about the compassion of Jesus I've never I never heard it before but Jesus loved Lazarus and then in verse 4 there's this remarkable statement the true purpose of Lazarus death is stated right here why did he die why does any and I just want to say why does anybody die? When Jesus heard that he said, this sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified through it and so he does everything for his own glory out of all of your sicknesses out of all of your sorrows out of all of your reversals out of death, come your greatest blessings.

What if, what if life wasn't like you always thought it was, that your greatest blessings would come out of your sorrows. Scene two, Jesus responds to Lazarus's sickness. Verses five through verses 5 through 10 verse 5 now Jesus loved Martha and her sister Lazarus verse 6 he delays he loved but he delays so therefore when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place. You would think, what? He does.

I mean, when you hear somebody is sick and you know you you make a beeline you know Lazarus was sick therefore Jesus does nothing that's the force of that verse You would think he would make a beeline, but he does nothing. A strategically planned delay by a sovereign God. Now I want to say something that I want us to really understand. You might want to write it down. All delays are strategic in the mind of God.

Jesus healed lots of sick people, but he didn't want to heal Lazarus when he was sick and This is how God often answers our prayers. This is one of the critical Places to go to understand this matter of what we call unanswered prayer. We call it unanswered prayer. It's not. It's not at all unanswered prayer.

It's God's different plan. So, his So, his action of staying away was proof of his love, of how he loved them, so that they might believe. There was a greater goal in mind that they might believe that they might see his glory that they might understand that there is a resurrection and you know all all suffering serves the purposes of God and Love doesn't always look the way you think it might look your troubles in this life are meant to drive you to God Every loss every delay every tear, every disappointment, every impossibility. And you know, whatever sickness or sorrow or delay we might experience, all of them are designed to wean us from the inadequate, underperforming joys of our own will, and to turn us to the outperforming, everlasting joy of the manifestation of the power of Jesus Christ to resurrect the dead and take them into everlasting happiness. So our trials have a purpose.

And you know all sicknesses are designed to lead to our sanctification. You might be you might be treated unjustly but you'll be justified by God. You might experience poverty, but you'll have treasures in heaven. You might feel lonely, but you have one who will never leave you or forsake you you might die but you will be raised to everlasting joy so God delays because he loves and that's why he stayed two more days in the place where he was he delays So he loves but he often delays so don't let preconceived notions about love overtake you. Jesus is going to ordain that he dies for his own glory.

And then and then Jesus makes kind of a dangerous move look at verses 7 through 10 Jesus says let's go back to Judea again and the disciples said to him rabbi rabbi hello rabbi Lately the Jews sought to stone you and you're going there again? Are you serious? They didn't say are you serious. Jesus answered, are there not 12 hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world.

But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him. So Jesus is going to make a dangerous movie. He's going to take his disciples back to where all the heat was. The last time they were there, men were holding rocks to kill them. And they dropped the rocks at some point.

I think what he's saying here, if anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world. Well, I think he's just very simply saying, all you need to do is walk in the light. Just walk in the light and God will take care of you there's nothing to fear when you're walking in the light you don't need to fear stumbling when you're walking in the light you can walk through anything as long as you're walking in the light you know Jesus or David said a very similar thing in Psalm 23, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they come for me. So that concludes scene two.

Scene three, Jesus explains his delay to his disciples. Verse 11 through 16, these things he said and after that he said to them, our friend Lazarus sleeps but I go that I may wake him up." Then his disciples said, Lord if he sleeps he will get well. However Jesus spoke of his death but they thought that he was speaking about taking rest and sleep then Jesus said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead. Now this referring to sleep is important. The body sleeps until it's raised again.

I think that's the idea. Now in the Old Testament and in the New Testament you find that David slept as referred to in Acts chapter 13, 36. There are others who slept. Stephen, when he was stoned, it says he slept in Acts chapter 7, and he's referring, they're referring to the body. Now when we pass into death our soul departs from our bodies our body goes into the grave but it will be resurrected and this is it's not your soul doesn't sleep your body sleeps your soul either goes to be with Jesus Christ or it goes to suffer in hell.

Somebody said that Christianity is the only religion that teaches that your bodies will exist forever. If you're a Christian your body exists in resurrected form to be in everlasting glory. If you don't believe in Jesus your body will be resurrected on that last day because Jesus made it very clear that all will be resurrected and will be standing before him. That everyone who has ever died will come out of the grave or that's in the ocean We're out of the ashes. He recreates your body If you're an unbeliever he recreates your body and your body will suffer for all eternity so your body exists for all eternity don't think that your body just goes away it might get eaten by worms but God's gonna put it back together he's gonna reassemble it by his power in verse 15 he says I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe.

Nevertheless let us go to him. So Jesus is teaching them. He's saying, I'm glad I wasn't there. I'm glad he died and I wasn't there. And then this remarkable statement by Thomas in verse 16 I love this this is so this is so amazing Thomas you know at the end of this they're headed back to Jerusalem where the rocks the rock throwers are and Thomas says to his fellow disciples let us also go that we may die with him.

You know, he was boldly, courageously ready to follow his master. You know, Thomas kind of gets a bad rap. He gets called doubting Thomas. That's what you remember him for. He's doubting Thomas He said, you know show me well That wasn't all he was.

I mean, you know, sometimes you do something and it defines you kind of like eclesiastes 10 you might be one foolish thing and it's like it's like dead flies that go into the perfume you know you know you should be really careful what you do because you know you might be defined defined by it for the rest of your life and but here Thomas is a courageous friend of Jesus and let's don't forget church history says that Thomas was the first missionary to India. How about that? India! So he wasn't just doubting Thomas, he was courageous Thomas who doubted and wanted to make sure If he doubted he didn't doubt for very long But what here's you know one moment doesn't define you God God is working he moves you along he moves you forward scene for Jesus comforts Lazarus his sisters this is verses 17 through 26 he comforts them by who he is. He comforts them by His nature and his essence and his work and his life and everything that he plans to do So when Jesus came he found that he had already been in the tomb for four days Now Bethany was New Jerusalem about two miles away.

So the dead now the dead body is there, the mortars are there, verse 19, the comforters are showing up, and many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. It seems like it's a well-known family. It might be a huge crowd, many witnesses. They were probably mourning for seven days and then maybe another 30 after that if they followed the customs. And this was very, I mean, there were a lot of people around, but Martha was, Martha's mind went in the wrong direction.

The mourners were gathering and her interpretation of everything got all messed up. Verse 20, through 22, then Martha as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming Went and met him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Then Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. So Martha falls into the trap.

It's the living life in the if only zone If only zone okay anybody living in the if only zone Well here here Martha was in the if only zone of life when you're in that zone you want to get out of that zone well, Jesus is gonna talk to her about that, but You know it's the if only zone of broken dreams. Oh, this didn't happen. You know, discouragement is almost always traced to this zone. You know, it's easy to just pile a thousand regrets under this single heading if only if only if only I had said this If only I had not said that. If only I had not done that.

If only I went east instead of west. If only I had married him instead of whatever. If only. So she had fallen into that hole. It's a hole.

If you're in that hole, let's make today the day of resurrection from that hole because Jesus has something to say. You know Spurgeon said you blame yourself for steps which were not only innocent but wise and right but now you see the consequences of them And you begin to imagine that they were not innocent and not wise and not right and you fret to think That you took such steps In other words you do things it just seemed right to you at the time under God's sovereignty. But then you look back and you say, oh no, that was hard. That was hard. Spurgeon says, it cannot benefit you.

It cannot benefit you to pry into this thing which the Lord has hidden from you. You care fostering self-conceit in calling God's providence to your judgment seat. You are practically sitting upon a throne and making God to be the prisoner of your judgment. Do not talk about what might have been or should have been inferring with the good which God has given you by pining away for what he has denied. How about that?

The if only zone. Jump out of the if only zone if you're there. It's awful easy to get there. My Preaching professor in seminary Kent Hughes wrote this, when a child dies in his mother's arms as she cried for God to help and the ambulance lies stalled two blocks away, We wonder if God cares. When a Christian is falsely accused and pleads with God to bring the evidence to clear him and it is only after his reputation is ruined that the evidence comes, we wonder if God cares.

When we plan some great event for God and the whole thing falls through we wonder if God cares well there are more important things that Jesus was doing than delivering Lazarus from sickness. He's glorifying himself. He's building his disciples' faith. He's building Mary's faith. He's building Martha's faith.

He's building Thomas's faith and all the rest of them and John. And then Jesus speaks to Mary and Martha in verses 23 and 24. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. And Martha said to him, I know that he'll rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus tells her, they're talking about two different things.

She has it right that there's a resurrection at the last day. She, she knows she has got sound doctrine she's got her eschatology right that there'll be a resurrection at the end of the age that's what she's talking about that's not what Jesus is talking about Jesus is talking about probably today probably today. And then Jesus said to her, verse 25, this is the this is the fifth I am statement in the Gospel of John fifth of seven 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 Lee lives and believes in me shall never die do you believe this there you go do you believe that that question is for everybody in the room do you believe this Do you believe that the final resurrection is the thing that answers every question you've ever had? Every disappointment you've ever been run over by? Every delay will be answered and it'll be answered with everlasting joy and then Martha replies and this is an amazing reply look at verse 27 I want you to look very very closely at this this is really interesting she said to him yes Lord I believe that you are the Christ the Son of God who has come into the world.

Martha believes, what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus? It means that you, your heart is toward him and you believe what he said and you follow him and and her faith is very sound her doctrine is is remarkable you know she's she's got a sound Christology see she says yes Lord. She understands his lordship. She says I believe she understands faith she says That you're the Christ in other words the Messiah the anointed one that he's the prophet and the priest and the king that was prophesied. She testifies to the nature of God.

She says, you are the son of God. And then she acknowledges that he was sent from God who has come into the world That he came from heaven that he submitted to his father, you know Sure, she understands Christology all in that statement. And then in scene five, Mary leaves her house to meet Jesus at Lazarus tomb, verse 8, or 28. 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. The teacher has come and is calling for you The teacher has come and is calling for you maybe is that true today for you.

He's calling for you. He's calling your name he's calling for you as soon as she heard she arose quickly and came to him Now Jesus had not yet come into the town but 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 arose up quickly and went out they followed her saying she's 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. This is the second time she's been at his feet, and there'll be another time she'll be at his feet in chapter 12. Only that time she's pouring expensive perfume on his feet.

And then Jesus responds with sorrow. Now we have Mary, she's living in the in the if only zone. So both sisters have fallen into the if only zone. Verse 33, Jesus responds, Therefore when Jesus saw her weeping, the word actually means sobbing, and the Jews who came with her weeping. Look at what Jesus experiences.

He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. This means that every emotion overcomes him. His mind was troubled, his spirit was troubled, he was groaning over death. Why was he groaning? We're not told, but we know that all creation groans and Jesus here is groaning.

We know that the fall unleashed decay and death and sorrow. There was no death before the fall. And Jesus weeps, he groans. Perhaps he was weeping because of the the damage of the fall the heartbreak the decay the trouble from the fall you know he's been healing people because of the fall. Thousands and thousands of people because of the fall.

And he weeps. And yet he weeps without sin. He's pure. You know, when we weep, we never weep without sin. We never groan without sin.

There's always some mixture of sin in all of our weeping and groaning. We might weep by faith, but it's not perfect. And then Jesus says and Jesus said and where have you where have you laid him and they said to him Lord come and see verse 35 Jesus wept the shortest verse in the Bible John 11 35 now John doesn't use the same word before, like sobbing, he uses a different word. And it's a word, you've seen this, you've seen this happen, where tears just begin to flood out of somebody's eyes. It was just compassion and sorrow expressed in just a flood of tears.

Jesus wept three times in his three times in his ministry as it's recorded anyway. He wept over a city, Jerusalem, because He wanted to gather them like chicks, but they would not. And he wept over a friend and the family. And the last time we see him weeping is he's crying out, bearing the weight of sin as a substitute of sin. He weeps over sin.

He weeps over the fall. That's what I think the connection is. Maybe there's something else. But in Hebrews it says that he experienced with strong crying and tears, crying out to his father. Now the crowd thought they knew why Jesus wept.

And you see it in verse 36. There it is. Then the Jews said, see how he loved him. See how he loved him. They thought he was weeping because Jesus loved him and he was dead.

And then there were cynics in verse 37 and some said could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying? You know, this is the pompous condemning finger of the Pharisees. They never get enough. They can never get enough. They've seen him heal the sick and raise the dead and cast out demons and stop storms they they saw him make a man who is blind?

See. But it's never enough. And so there's the introduction to the great event that's here. We'll cover that next time when we get together. Scene six, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

So we always need to remember love and death and glory. That God has ordained that death would glorify him, that in every death you can see the glory of God somehow. God takes his children to be with him for all eternity when they die. And they experience more glory and joy than they ever were able to know. And that death always makes people look to themselves and to ask what state is their soul, what is the condition, and do they believe, Do they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?

Do they believe that He is the resurrection and the life? Because if you believe, then He will raise you up to everlasting life. And I think that's what John wants us to understand. And he wants us to understand. He wants us to be mature.

He wants us to see death in its proper light. He wants us to see the delays in a proper light. He wants us to see our disappointments and our sorrows and all the things that we think might have gone wrong and to recognize that he is bringing many sons to glory through all of these things. Jesus Christ is instructing his disciples to mature them, to help them understand that they must stay out of the if only zone of life, and that they believe in him, that he is the resurrection and the life would you pray with me Lord we We thank you that you have disarmed death through the death of your son, that you have put an end to the last enemy to be destroyed, that you sent your son to raise the dead to everlasting life. We are dead without you.

And so Lord we pray that you would you would give us such increased confidence in what you've ordained even in death of our loved ones. And that your glory is greater than any glory that we could ever conceive of. So Lord, we pray that you would take these things and put them deeply within our hearts, that we would understand love and death and glory the way that you do. Amen.