In the sermon titled 'Fully God, Fully Man,' Jason Dohm explores the dual nature of Jesus Christ through the story of Lazarus in John 11:1-44. The narrative begins with Jesus receiving word that Lazarus is sick, but He intentionally delays His visit, which results in Lazarus' death. This delay serves a greater purpose: to glorify God and demonstrate Jesus' divine authority over life and death. The sermon highlights Jesus' humanity, seen in His compassion and weeping with Mary and Martha, and His deity, seen in His ability to raise Lazarus from the dead. The delay and subsequent miracle emphasize the importance of faith, as Jesus seeks to strengthen the belief of His disciples and those present. The sermon argues that Jesus' greatest act of love is revealing His glory to His friends, encouraging believers to trust in Jesus' ultimate plan and timing. It also points to the future hope of resurrection and eternal life promised to believers, urging them to look forward to a time when there will be no more sorrow or death.

The sermon text for today will be John chapter 11 verses 20 through 44, but for context we will be starting at the beginning of chapter and verse 1. Don't lock your knees. Starting verse 1. Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha It was that Mary who anointed the Lord were their fragrant oil and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was sick Therefore the sister 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.

Then after this he said to the disciples, let us go to Judea again. The disciples said to him, Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone you and you are going there again 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 one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him. 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, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go to him. Then Thomas, who was called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him.

So when Jesus came, he found that he had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away, and many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now 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.

Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. 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 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 rose up quickly and went out, followed her saying she was 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 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, but because of the people who are standing by, I said this, that they may believe that you sent me. Now 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 grab with grave clothes and his face was wrapped with a cloth she just said to them loosen and let him go let's pray gracious heavenly father we do thank you that you are the resurrection, the life, that you've given life to many who are in this room today. We thank you for this account of this miracle. We pray for Mr.

Dome as he expounds this passage. I pray Lord that you would give him the words to speak, that you would open our ears, that those of us who are children of God in this room would apply these verses carefully to our own lives and those no matter who no matter their age those that do not know you pray that they would come into the fold today they would repent of their sins and believe in you we thank you Lord God for this Lord's Day to turn away from the weak to turn to you to worship you and to study your word together pray you would bless this time. You're something we pray. Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is, fully God, fully man.

You might be able to find text in the gospels that has these two things side by side more than this text, but I doubt it. I sort of challenge you to do it. You have the deity, the godhood of Jesus, right here side by side with the humanity, the manhood of Jesus both in this text. One man weeps is the same man who calls forth a corpse out of a cave. And so the depth and the breadth of the majesty of the God-man Jesus Christ is on display in our text.

We are in week number three in John chapter 11. The first week was spent in verses 1-16 where these two sisters from Bethany, Martha and Mary, sent word to Jesus that their brother was deathly ill. He actually planned a delay. He got word that his friend, who he loved, was deathly ill. What you would expect is that he would leave immediately for Bethany to go and be there, but that's not what happens.

He plans a delay of two days and he ends up showing up four days after Lazarus has died. He explained in that first range why he was doing that. It was for the glory of God. It was for his own exaltation in being able to raise a dead man. Then last week we were in verses 17 through 27 where Jesus came to the edge of Bethany, this village right outside of Jerusalem.

Martha hears that He is there and she is out the door like a shot, wanting to be with Jesus and to speak with Jesus. And Jesus says to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. So we are right in gospel territory here. That belief in Jesus Christ, though you might die, you will live forever.

Eternal life is the present possession of the Christian. What a sweet truth. So as we come to our text this week, the third installment in John chapter 11, let's ask the Lord to help us. Jesus, You are God. The Gospels teach us that You are God.

The text before us shows us certainly that You are God. You are able to call forth corpses from the grave. No one is like you. Who is like unto you? No one.

No one is like you. We bow down in our hearts to worship you. It's our great pleasure and privilege to do it. Receive the worship of our hearts. We consider your word and we pray that your word would be a mighty tool in the hand of your spirit now to press truth upon us and also to nudge us forward, to push us forward, making progress in the faith, believing more, trusting more, obeying more, because we have heard you speak through your word.

We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. As usual, I'll be subdividing the text. I want to begin by looking at verses 28-32. I'm going to read that again. Please follow along as I read John chapter 11 verses 28 through 32.

And when she, Martha, 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 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 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." In these verses, Mary falls at the feet of Jesus.

In last week's text, Martha had spoken with Jesus. Martha hears what he says and then she returns and calls her sister Mary aside and privately tells her. That's the sense of her secretly saying this. It's not that it's a secret, it's that she wants to speak with her sister privately. She says to Mary, the teacher has come and is calling for you.

There are two observations I'd like to make here. The first is this. Martha was eager to be with and speak with Jesus. We saw that in last week's text. As soon as she heard that Jesus was approaching Bethany.

She was out the door like a shot because she wanted to be with and speak with Jesus. So she had an eagerness in her heart to be with Jesus and that is reflected in what we saw in the text. But what we see this week is that Jesus was also eager. Jesus was also eager to be with these sisters and speak with these sisters. He calls for Mary.

Martha sought him out, but he here is seeking Mary out. So we see sort of bi-directional eagerness. They are eager to be with and speak with Jesus, but he has this heart towards them as well. He is eager to be with them. He is eager to speak with these sisters also.

The second observation I would make is that yes, Jesus loves this family. Verse 5 says that explicitly. John the Gospel writer wants us to know that Jesus loved Lazarus and Martha and her sister Mary. So we know that right from the text. Yes, Jesus loved this family.

Still, they know Jesus as the teacher. I think that's significant. The King James renders it the master. So if you read it in the King James, Martha comes to her sister and says to her privately, the Master has come and is calling you. Both are fine translations.

It very literally means the Teacher, but it does have overtones. The Greek word has overtones of the Master, so both are good translations. The point here is this. This is typical of how the people who know Jesus and relate to Jesus talk about Jesus and speak to Jesus and address Jesus. When you look at how the disciples speak to Jesus, they almost without exception across all four gospels call Him Lord.

Jesus is the friend of His disciples, but they call Him Lord. Jesus does love His disciples and is loved by His disciples. Jesus does love Lazarus, Martha, and Mary and is loved by Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, but they call him the teacher. These are not a peer relationship of equals. This is helpful for us.

Jesus as the friend of sinners is a precious truth, but there is this other truth that sits alongside it. I am not his peer. Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He is Lord. He is the friend of sinners, but he is not the buddy as if we were peers of Jason Dome.

Lazarus and Martha and Mary knew him as the teacher or the master. His disciples called him Lord or Rabbi. This should inform us that they were closer to Jesus than we are. They were closer, not further, closer. This should inform us about our relationship with Jesus.

It is a love relationship and it is a friendship and yet we are not peers. He is Lord. Mary's response is instantaneous. Immediately she rises. The text says, as soon as she heard that Jesus was calling for her, that she arose.

And she goes quickly to him. What we have here in the phrase, as soon as, and she arose quickly and went to Jesus is John the Gospel writer communicating urgency. Mary feels an urgent compulsion to obey. She has been summoned by the teacher or the master and she immediately goes to him. All the Jews who were there comforting these sisters assumed that this speedy exit means that Mary is going to the tomb to weep for her brother and so they follow her.

They're going to continue in their efforts to comfort these sisters. They follow them out assuming that Mary is going to the tomb to weep. Mary comes to where Jesus is. He is still in the same place where he related to Martha on the outskirts of this village of Bethany. As soon as Mary sees him, the dam bursts.

There is a tremendous emotional release. She falls to his feet and she weeps. We learned that in the first verse of the next section. I didn't read that in this subsection, but we find that out in verse 33. She falls at his feet and immediately she is weeping.

The emotional dam has burst and overflows in her prostrating herself before the Lord Jesus and weeping at his feet. This is exactly where we find her in the only other place in the Gospels that we encounter Mary and Martha is Luke chapter 10. And it is Mary Where? At the feet of Jesus. So this really seems to be a reflection of Mary's disposition towards Jesus.

She wants to be at His feet. That's where we find her in Luke 10. That's where we find her in John chapter 11. That's where she is here in our text. But this is a bittersweet moment.

How so? Well, it's sweet. Jesus is finally here. They sent for Jesus. They longed for Jesus to come.

We know that Mary relishes being with Jesus to sit at His feet. That is what we learn in Luke chapter 10. But it is bitter because she knows that Jesus could have healed Lazarus. Lazarus has been dead for four days now. They were waiting for him.

They were anticipating coming, but he didn't come. And Lazarus died. Even after that, days go by when they are grieving and Jesus isn't there. They know that if He had been there, Jesus could have healed. I'm assuming that they assume that if He had been there, he would have healed Lazarus.

She says word for word exactly what her sister Martha had said in last week's text, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. No variation in the words at all. There's no doubt in my mind that Martha and Mary had talked about what if Jesus had come when they first sent for him. What if he had arrived when Lazarus was almost ready to die but not dead yet. What would have happened then?

But does that even need to be true? They said the same words. I'm sure they had had this conversation in the intervening days. But is that even necessary? I would submit to you that it is totally unnecessary.

Anybody who knew Jesus, anyone who had heard about the things He was doing, or had heard His preaching, had seen or heard about His miracles, would have been thinking this same thought. In fact, later in our text, for today, the Jews are going to say something similar. Anyone who knew Jesus and who knew what he had been doing would have thought this. If you'd only been here, he would not have died. Continuing, now I'm going to be reading the next subsection, verses 33-37.

John chapter 11, 33-37. Follow along. 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. And 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? Here in these verses, everyone weeps. If you're taking notes on the handout, filling in the blanks, weeps, fills in the blank.

Everyone weeps. Mary weeps. The Jews who were there to comfort her and who have followed her out, thinking that she was going to the grave to weep, they weep. In Verse 35, Jesus weeps. Everyone in the text is weeping.

Jesus sees Mary weeping at His feet and The Jews with her weeping and something happens within him also. The text says, he groaned in the Spirit and was troubled. There's a lot of debate about How best to translate groaned. He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. Based on what you think it means because the Greek word being translated has a range of meanings.

So the translators were really forced to make a decision about how they would translate this. Strongs says this about this Greek word, to have indignation on, to be mad at, To blame. To sigh with chagrin. So Strong's is representing the range of meaning for this Greek word that the New King James translators have rendered groaned. To have indignation on, in other words, I'm mad at you.

Or to blame, blaming someone. Or to sigh with chagrin. Chagrin would be a mode of distress. You're sighing out of your distress. Obviously, our translators, The New King James translators have homed in on that last phrase and said that's the range of meaning that is actually the appropriate meaning here to sigh with chagrin, to have deep emotion.

Have to have deep emotion. All of the translations that I check, every week I'm looking verse by verse, phrase by phrase, New King James, King James, NASB, ESV, and NIV. The first four of those being word for word translations and then the NIV, which is a thought for thought, which I don't really like as a translation, but sometimes you get insight from that anyway. Each of those, all five of those render it either groaned, as New King James does, groaned in the spirit or deeply moved in the spirit. In other words, they've all made the same translational choice.

None of them have gone with mad at, indignation on someone or blaming someone. Now some of the older translations actually take that route and then you have commentators who say yes that's the right meaning who say that the people are improperly grieving and he's sort of mad at the mourners. That is totally contrary, I think, to the context. So I don't really like that translation. I'm glad our modern translators have homed in on this part of the range of meaning.

I think it fits very well with the context. Having done the studying I've done, it would have been wrong to come and not even mention that there's a lot of debate over that. So that's the debate. I think our translators got it right. And that groaned in the Spirit, not groaned out loud, this is something happening within Jesus, or that he was deeply moved in the Spirit is right on translationally.

The point is this, That's a long way to say this. Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. I'm pulling that right out of the Messianic prophecy, The prophecy about the Messiah from Isaiah 53 verse 3. This Messiah would be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Jesus is that.

Jesus understands grief, participated in grief, entered into the grief of his friends and this family here in John chapter 11. Turn to Hebrews 4. I would like to read again Hebrews 4 verses 14-16. I say again because Robert read this during our prayer time. I'm really glad you did.

It's a wonderful preview and to have it repeated here is particularly appropriate. Hebrews chapter 4 verses 14 through 16 is about the sympathetic nature of our High Priest. In other words, He is not an aloof, distant High Priest. He is a High Priest who is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. You can come to Him knowing that He knows something about your hardships and your sorrows and He can enter into them and sympathize with you in them.

He is not so other that He doesn't know what it is like to grieve or to hope. He is God but He took on flesh and He really did enter into flesh and all that that means and yet without sin. Hebrews chapter 4 verses 14-16. Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. So here We have the Son of God, He passed through the heavens.

He is the Son of God. We have Jesus as God. Let us hold fast our confession. Verse 15. 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." This is Jesus' fully man.

He passed through the heavens. He is the Son of God. He is God. He is a co-equal member of the triune Godhead, fully God. And yet, here in Hebrews 4, He is not just that.

Just like in John 11, he is touched with our infirmities because he took on flesh and he dwelt among us. He is also a sympathetic high priest who understands the weaknesses of what it means to have lived in the flesh and being tempted in all points just as we are, but he never sinned. That's the big difference. The God-man never sinned. Here's the conclusion in verse 16.

Here's what we should take from the doctrine that Jesus is fully God and at the same time fully man. Here's the outcome of that for me. Verse 16, let us therefore come boldly before the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. You can go to the throne with confidence because there is a sympathetic high priest there, and it is a throne of grace. It is a throne of grace.

It is a throne of undeserved favor for the sinner because of who Jesus is as a sympathetic high priest and what he has done as the accepted sacrifice from God. His sacrifice was sufficient and it was accepted by the Father. How do you know? Jesus was raised from the dead. That's how you know God accepted that sacrifice.

It is finished. When Jesus uttered that, He was telling the truth. It's done. The sins of truly believing sinners have been utterly dealt with. If you flipped over in Hebrews, in the next chapter I think, or the next chapter or two, you would find that Jesus is able to save to the utmost those who come to Him by faith.

To the utmost, meaning leaving nothing undone. Not like saving most of the way and leaving a little bit for you. Oh heaven help us if that is the high priest that we have. One who leaves a little bit for us. Oh, Oh, in all of our weakness, no!

Lord, don't leave anything for us. Hebrews 4 should be some of the most comforting words of the Bible to you. The throne is not a throne of judgment for those who are in Christ, for those who have saving faith. The throne is not a throne of judgment, it is a throne of grace, and you can come boldly, boldly, because he knows about your griefs. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

He is able to enter into our griefs. How sweet. How sweet. Here's what J.C. Ryle says of Jesus.

He was one who could hunger, thirst, sleep, eat, drink, speak, walk, groan, be wearied, wonder, feel indignant, rejoice, like any of ourselves and yet without sin and above all he could weep. Jesus dwelt among us. He took on flesh. This is John chapter 1 verse 14. He took on flesh and dwelt among us.

He is fully man. We see Him weeping, entering into Mary's griefs, Martha's griefs, the Jews who were there to comfort them, their griefs, and they weep and he weeps. Here's the truth you should pluck out of this text. Knowing that God is sovereign shouldn't make us dispassionate robots. Knowing that God is king, He has ordained everything before the foundation of the world shouldn't make us dispassionate robots.

As if Christians, it's right, as if it were right for Christians to be fatalistic. Oh well, God is king, God is sovereign, why should I get worked up about it? Why should I even shed a tear when my friend dies? The sovereign God decided it, so my conclusion from that is I should be a dispassionate robot. No!

A thousand times no from our text! Jesus is not a dispassionate robot. Jesus is weeping with the ones who are weeping in our text. How do we know that Christians shouldn't be dispassionate robots? Because no one understands how sovereign God really is better than Jesus.

And yet, no one is more moved by the effects of sin in the world than Jesus. Do you think you are more moved by the effects of sin in the world than Jesus? Do you think you are more moved by the effects of sin in the world than Jesus who left heaven to wage war against those effects and to Conquer them? The arrogance. The arrogance to think for one second that you are more moved by the effects of sin in the world than the one who left heaven to wage war and to conquer the effects of sin?

That's why He came. Jesus was moved by the sorrow of His friends and the effects of sin. Even If you took the other translational route and said, it really should be indignation on, mad at, what's he mad at? He's mad at the effects of sin in the world. Jesus is raging against the effects of sin in the world.

That's death. Death is in the world only because of sin. Adam and Eve would have never physically died. Death would not have entered into the world except that sin entered into the world. So if Jesus is indignant, he is indignant against the effects of sin in the world.

Listen to Paul's admonition to the Christians in Rome. Romans 12 verse 15. Romans 12 verse 15, Paul says, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. If we set that verse side by side with verse 35, Jesus wept, what we would have would be that weeping with those who weep is Christ-likeness. It's being like Christ.

Jesus is doing that in our text. He is weeping with those who weep. Who is weeping in the text? Everyone. And Jesus is right alongside them weeping.

He is entering into their griefs. In the earlier part of the chapter it had been evident to Martha and Mary that Jesus loved Lazarus. Meaning, he had related with them in time past in such a way that the words that he said and the way he acted towards Lazarus left them with the impression that he loved Lazarus. Remember verse 3, Therefore the sisters sent to him saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. Not Lazarus is sick, he whom you love is sick.

Jesus left them in what He said and how He had acted with the distinct impression that He loved Lazarus. Praise the Lord for that. And they were right. It's confirmed two verses later that he loved the whole family. Now the Jews seeing Jesus weep say the same.

See how he loved him. They are seeing The tears roll down Jesus' cheeks. By the way, there are different words used. We are English speakers, so we don't get the distinction. The word weep or wept has been used three times up until verse 35, which says that Jesus wept.

The usages before verse 35 are one Greek word that really are focused on the emotional lamentation. It would be like a weeping and wailing would be the right, a more full way to render that. There's nothing wrong with the way they've translated it. It's just that sometimes the Greek words have more depth to them than a single English word that they picked can represent. There's more texture here.

It would be more like weeping and wailing, this deep emotional lamentation that wells up in weeping. There's a different word used, Greek word used, in verse 35. So When Mary was weeping and the Jews were weeping, it was one Greek word that was the weeping and wailing emotional lamentation that comes out in weeping. The word in verse 35, Jesus wept, would be more literally shed tears. Does that mean he didn't have the same emotions as Messiah wasn't capable of that?

No, no, no. That same word that was used for the other mourners is used with Jesus in Luke 19 when he is weeping over Jerusalem at the triumphal entry. So Jesus in another gospel, that Greek word applies to him as he weeps over Jerusalem. So it's not that they couldn't have used the word here. I think the focus is the tears, meaning Jesus wept.

They could see there was something visible for them to show them that Jesus had entered into their griefs. It was the tears. He shed tears. And they saw the tears and so they said, see how he loved him, See how he loved Lazarus. But there is a second reaction.

Look again at verse 37. This is the second reaction. And some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man, have kept Lazarus from dying? I'm going to give you a personal opinion here. I can't prove it from the text.

My personal opinion is that I did not read either Martha's or Mary's statement, Lord if you had only been here our brother wouldn't have died. I didn't read either of those as unbelief or resistance to Jesus. I read it as purely the regret of a mourning sibling. So into Martha's statement or into Mary's identical statement, I don't read unbelief or resistance into their statement at all, but I do read it into verse 37 and these other Jews. Just to try to support that textually, if you look down in verse 45 and verse 46, it's not part of our text this week, but it will be next week.

In verse 45 it says, Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in him. In other words, they saw the resurrection of Lazarus and it caused belief in them. And then verse 46 says this, But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. It seems like there is a contrast and a separation. They all have the same disposition towards Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

They have come to comfort, but they don't all have the same disposition towards Jesus. There seems to be a break between some of the Jews and others. So I do read unbelief and resistance to Jesus in what they are saying in verse 37. However you understand what they said, it is the fundamental problem isn't it? They do have a point don't they?

They have heard of the events of chapter 9. There was a man in Jerusalem who was born blind and Jesus was able to make him see. He lived into adulthood having never seen a sight one time in his life and Jesus is able to make him see, they either heard that or they are from Jerusalem and maybe even saw that, but they are aware that Jesus gave sight to the blind. So it has to make you think, like they say, if Jesus loved Lazarus, and Jesus loved Martha, and Jesus loved Mary so much, where was He when they needed Him? Where was He?

They sent for Him. He delayed. And so they say there are only two explanations. Either Jesus is able, but not willing, And in that case, what kind of love is that? He could have kept him alive, but he wasn't willing to do.

Who needs a friend like that? Or, he was willing, but not able. He wanted to. He was a good friend in his sentiments towards them. But he either didn't know or didn't know in time or couldn't do it.

And what kind of a savior is that? This is the man who's been going around and making these astounding claims. A week doesn't go by where we're studying a text where Jesus says something about himself that blows your mind. How can that even be true if he couldn't? The final section brings us to the solution to that quandary.

The quandary being either Jesus is willing but not able, in which case he can't be our Savior, or he is able and not willing, in which case he didn't really love that family very deeply. That is the problem and Jesus solves it in this last portion. Which is, here is a preview on the solution to the problem, he's able, but he's not willing because he has bigger and better things in mind. He's able, but he wasn't willing to keep Lazarus from dying because he has something else in mind. And it's something that's better for everyone, including me, because I get to read the account of this now.

Alright, the last section. Verses 44. Follow along. John chapter 11, 38 through 44. 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. I know that you always hear me, but 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 out 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. Jesus said to them, Loose him and let him go.

In these verses, Jesus raises dead Lazarus. So if you're Taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks. It's dead. Jesus raises dead Lazarus. They show Jesus to the tomb.

Jesus says, take away the stone. That body's been in there four days. We talked about this, it was either last week or the week before. Jews don't embalm. So corruption starts rapidly and immediately when you don't embalm.

All they do is wrap the body with spices to cover up the smell. So embalming creates delay. Wrapping in spices is designed to cover up the smell. It's been four days, you're in a warm region without embalming. So Martha says the obvious.

After four days a dead body will be stinking. Jesus says this in verse 40, Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God? When did Jesus say this? I think there are three options. Option number one is in verse four.

If you just flip back to verse four, verse three they said, they sent to him saying, Lord behold he whom you love is sick. So they sent him that message. Verse 4, 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. It's very possible, you can't understand for sure from the text, but it's very possible, probably even likely, that the person who brought the message was there, heard Jesus say that, this sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God. And that they took that back.

Of course what Jesus meant was this is not going to end in death. There is a dead body in the meantime, but it does not end in death. And it is for the glory of God and the messenger brought that back. That's one option. Option two, when Martha spoke to him earlier in the chapter, that Jesus had said this, but it's just not recorded.

He undoubtedly, when they had their interchange, said more than John the Gospel Writer records. That is almost always true in the Gospels. That you get what you're given by the Gospel Writer and that keeps the book this size and not filling the whole room. Or the third option is it could have been at a previous time and he's just referring back to a teaching that happened maybe even long before this. My guess is it's the first one.

From what he said in verse 4, the messenger who brought him the message took that message back to Mary and Martha. I would like to ask you to consider two verses. The first is from Mark chapter 9. In Mark chapter 9, Jesus comes down from being transfigured And waiting for him is the father of a demon possessed son. And in his absence the disciples have not been able to cast the demons out of this son.

So the desperate father approaches Jesus for Jesus to do it. And the man says, if you can do it, do it. The Father says, if you can do it, do it. Here's Jesus' response in Mark 9.23. If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.

In other words, Jesus is saying so directly, I am not the problem. I can do anything. If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. Now consider the second verse. This one from Matthew 13 verse 58.

The context in Matthew 13 is Jesus is teaching in the synagogue in Nazareth, his home country, his hometown. This is when they say, isn't this a carpenter's son? We know your brothers and sisters. Who is this hotshot? You're from around here.

They despise Jesus because they know Jesus and they know His family. Here is what the Gospel of Matthew says in Matthew 13 verse 58. Now He, Jesus, did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. He didn't do many mighty works. He didn't do some mighty works, he just didn't do a lot of them.

Most of us will live and die without seeing one of these things that are as spectacular as what are in the gospels. The point from these two verses, really from the positive and the negative side, is this. God typically works where there is belief. Not exclusively, God is never limited. God does whatever He wants to do.

So, He is not even constrained by my unbelief. If He wants to, even if I am not believing, Even in Nazareth where there was unbelief, he still did mighty works, he just didn't do a lot of them. He typically works where there is belief. He delights to work where people are looking to him in hope. This is the point.

God delights to do these mighty works where people are looking to Him in hope. So we should look to Him in hope because He delights to work them. In Mark chapter 9, this father whose son is demon possessed, he says, if you can do it, do it. And Jesus says, if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. In the very next verse, this father says, Lord, I believe, Help my unbelief.

I think this is really what we see in our text with Martha. Oh, are you sure you want us to remove that stone? It's been four days. Is that unbelief? Well, first of all, from what Jesus says to her earlier in the chapter, I wouldn't have come away from what he said knowing for sure that he planned to raise Lazarus physically from the dead.

I'm not sure she should have been confident that's what he was saying there. But she has this wonderful confession, Lord I believe that you are Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world. She believes but she needs help with her unbelief. She is a mixture. We talked about this last week.

Christians are mixtures of belief and unbelief, of righteous conduct and unrighteous conduct. And that will be true of you until you die, even if you are a Christian. The most mature Christian, the most sanctified Christian, the most holy Christian is a mixture until they die. And then you are perfected. Never this side of heaven, always that side of death.

Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. I think this is what we see of Martha in our text. They take away the stone and Jesus prays. Listen again to Jesus' prayer.

Father, I thank you that you have heard me and I know that you always hear me. But because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that you sent me." Jesus prays out loud so that those present could hear and be confident that what he is doing is what his father sent him to do. So, could he have, without all that, just said, Lazarus come forth. Of course he could have and Lazarus would have come forth It's so clear from what Jesus says in his prayer that the prayer was was not for Getting something he needed to call Lazarus forth from the grave It was so that that the hearers would know that Jesus was only doing the works that his Father had sent him to do. As he said many times so far in the Gospel of John, he always keeps his works joined, explicitly joined, meaning he says it with his Father's will.

He is doing what he was sent to do. That includes even this greatest of his miracles. He prayed out loud so that those present could hear and be certain that he was doing what his father sent him to do. After praying, Jesus cries out, Lazarus come forth, and out shuffles Lazarus. He has to shuffle because he's bound hand and foot.

He's wrapped up in linen and spices. Even his head is wrapped with the face cloth, the head cloth. And Jesus says, loose him and let him go. It's almost impossible to even put yourself into this moment. The best you can do is just think of a funeral that you've been to, and think about, especially if you could actually see the body, what it would be like for that corpse to come to life and rise up.

That's what happened. What must Martha have felt and thought when her brother, she thinks it must be her brother, we buried my brother here and out shuffles a corpse, what must Mary have thought, what must the Jews have thought, what amazement, what joy, what awe, What gratitude, what thankfulness of heart would be welling up, especially in Mary's heart and in Martha's heart. Such holy power on display. Holy means other. Set apart.

Jesus is other in His Godhood, meaning He is not like you. He is not a superman. He is the God-man. That is not the same thing. He is not just a faster, smarter kind of man.

He is God and man. He is other. There is other power on display. By other power I mean a power unlike anything else. There is nothing to compare it to.

That is what God says in His Word. Who is like me? Who will you compare me to? What will you compare power that calls forth dead bodies from the cave? There is nothing to compare it to.

That is a display of holy power, other power. Jesus is fully God. Yes, He is fully man. He entered into the griefs of these funeral attenders. But He is fully God.

He is able to do what no one else can do, which is to call dead bodies out of the cave. He exercises full authority over the material world. You could touch that corpse. That's material. And he says to that material, dead thing, come forth, and that dead body acknowledges the authority of God and comes out of the grave.

He exercises full authority over the spiritual world. That spirit of Lazarus, that soul of Lazarus, came back into that material body at Jesus' command, at God's command. One thing is for sure, you and I have never lived through a moment as dramatic as this moment. It's worth just meditating on that moment and just thinking, what would it be like to have a corpse come out of the grave and to be there? Especially if you were his sister.

Applications. I will give you five. That's a large number, but I'm prepared to go fast. Five applications. Number one, Jesus does love his friends.

He does love his friends. The text that John the Gospel writer, by the way, who identifies himself as the one whom Jesus loved. John was sensitive to this. John The Gospel writer told us explicitly in verse 5, Jesus loved Lazarus and Martha and Mary. Jesus loves his friends.

And the most loving thing he can do is to show Himself to us. It's more loving to His friends for Jesus to show up late and display his glory by calling forth the corpse from the cave that it is to show up early and heal. You get to see more of him. The most loving thing is to give you himself. That's how he loves his friends in the richest way.

Is to put his own glory on display so that you know him. And the power of his resurrection. This is very literal. That's Philippians 3. Sometimes his friends make the mistake of making their judgments in the middle of the story.

Have you ever done that? So you think, Jesus doesn't love me. I'm supposed to be his friend, but he let this happen. Okay, You just judged in the middle of the story. Wrong, wrong.

Martha, wrong. Mary, wrong. You judged in the middle of the story. Who wasn't filled with joy at the end of the story. They were filled with grief in the middle.

Do you think any of them regretted that Lazarus died at the end of the story? They got to see Jesus on full display, like few or none really did during his lifetime. Sometimes his friends make the mistake of making their judgments in the middle of the story. Just to be aware of that will help you. Hey, Sometimes Jesus' friends do this.

I'm a friend of Jesus. I better be careful. And on the lookout of saying, Jesus, it doesn't feel like you're my friend because you're letting this into my...you have to understand, I'm midstream. I can't make my judgments about this now. Jesus will prove himself to be your friend in the end.

He may be doing something That brings you into radical grief in order to display himself to you. He's being your best friend He's being your best friend And you'll agree with that assessment at the end of the story. Number two, because Jesus loves his friends, there is no better place for weeping than at His feet. It is true that Jesus loves His friends. That's number one.

Number two is, because that's true, there's no better place for your weeping than at His feet. Mary should be symbolic of us when we weep. There is a weeping far away from Jesus that is wrong and that is not befitting of Christians. It's right to weep at His feet. It's right to bring our hardships and griefs and sins and failures and to weep at His feet over all of these things.

We can come with boldness. It is a throne of grace. That's where the help is. Just like Hebrews 4 says, that's where the help is. You come with boldness.

You can weep at his feet. He as a sympathetic high priest enters into your sorrows. Number 3. This proves that. What is this and that?

This is Lazarus being physically raised from the dead. That is our need to be spiritually raised from the dead. This demonstration of power proves that Jesus can keep all of His promises to raise the spiritually dead to life. You need any reason to believe that Jesus can keep his promises to save to the uttermost those who come to him by faith, look here. Flip back to John chapter 5.

You cannot read this portion of John chapter 11 without going back to John chapter 5 and reading verses 28 and 29 where Jesus says, Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. This is a little microcosm. Microcosm literally means little world. It is a little representative of what is going to happen in the future.

And all of the graves are going to empty out. The wicked to eternal condemnation and the righteous because of faith, not my righteousness Christ's righteousness by faith the righteous to eternal life. Listen to Ephesians 2 verses 1 and 5. Ephesians 2 verse 1. And he and you, he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins.

So he's talking to alive people, but he's talking to people who were dead in trespasses and sins. Physically dead? No, spiritually dead. You, He made alive, you repenters, you believers, He made alive we were dead in trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved.

When you were dead in trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ. Our spiritual resurrection and physical resurrection are rooted in Jesus' resurrection. He is the resurrection and the life. Number four. If you would believe you would see the glory of God.

If you would believe you would see the glory of God. Is it possible that if we grew in faith, if we had more confidence in our Savior, that He would be pleased to do more among us? The Gospel indications are yes, he delights to work in stunning ways among those who are looking to him in hope. He likes that. He likes to show himself faithful to people who are looking to him in hope.

If you would believe, you would see the glory of God. I think the gauntlet is laid down in this text to us. More faith, more trust, more confidence, more hope in Christ to see Him do more. Amen. We want that.

Number five. Finally, Revelation 21 verse 4. Our scene in John 11 is Mary weeping. Martha weeping. The Jews weeping.

Jesus weeping. Now fast forward to Revelation 21 verse 4, And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, no more sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. A time is coming when all that is past.

The former things pass away and there's no more weepers. No more crying. Every tear wiped away. The former things have passed away. That's coming.

That is the hope of Christians. Jesus calls forth corpses from the grave. He can deliver on all of his promises. Grab hold of this promise. God, thank you for the beauty and power, richness of your Word.

We rejoice in it. Pray that you would press these truths on our hearts in Jesus name, Amen.