The Gospel of John I AM the Resurrection Part 4 (God in the Graveyard) John 11

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1 MP3 itunes XML Metro Calvary Roseville CA Richard Cimino September 12, 2010 The Gospel of John I AM the Resurrection Part 4 (God in the Graveyard) John Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? This is the FIFTH of the amazing I AM declarations that Jesus made. REMEMBER Whenever Jesus uses the term I AM He is declaring Himself to be the God of Exodus 3 Exodus 3: Then Moses said to God, If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, What is his name? what shall I say to them? 14 God said to Moses, I am who I am.. Say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you.. This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. I AM the resurrection and the life With this 5 th I AM declaration Jesus takes her eyes off her brother s grave and off her grief; and directs her attention to who He is so that in Jesus she would find an anchor for her soul that HOLDS even in the face of the most feared storm known to man death! With this 5 th I AM declaration Jesus took the subject of resurrection out of the realm of abstract theology and placed it into the personal. With one statement 1

2 Jesus took the subject of resurrection out of a book and put it into a person Himself. With this 5 th I AM declaration Jesus declares that He does not merely give life and raise the dead He declares that there is no life or victory over death apart from Him! AGAIN Christianity isn t an optional set of moral values that can benefit you or society it is participating in the very person and life of Jesus. ONCE AGAIN It really is ALL ABOUT JESUS! INESCAPABLE TRUTH: FAITH IN JESUS who IS the Resurrection and IS the Life is the ONLY way by which you and I will experience victory over the grave and life that is eternal. INESCAPABLE CONCLUSION: To be outside of Jesus Christ, to not be exercising faith in Him, is to be infected with death. Sin is terminal! It separates you from God, who is life. If you don t believe in Jesus on this side of eternity, when you die you will enter an existence of eternal death separation from God in eternal torment. INESCAPABLE QUESTION: Do you believe this? The nature of the statement demands a response. The response demanded is more than intellectual agreement. As we will see at the end of the chapter it is the kind of faith that moves us to action. 27 She said to him, Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. When in the dark retreat to what you know. She essentially says I don t know everything but I know one thing you re the Lord; the Messiah; you re God I believe that. She clings to that fact. The story now transitions from Martha to Mary and to the tomb of Lazarus; 28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, The Teacher is here and is calling for you. 2

3 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Privately Martha pulls her aside and tells her sister that Jesus is coming and wants to see you. Mary gets up, runs out to meet Jesus. Everybody thinks she must be going to the tomb to mourn so they all follow her. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, This is classic Mary! This is the posture that was the trademark of Mary s life! Mary is found three times in the Gospel record, and each time she is at the feet of Jesus. She sat at His feet and listened to His word (Luke 10:39); here she falls at His feet and poured out her sorrow; and in the next chapter of John she came to His feet to worship Him and pour out upon Him praise and adoration (John 12:3). Mary s only recorded words in the Gospels are given here in John 11:32 and they echo what Martha had already said (John 11:21). saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. Deeply moved is a weak rendering Strong s Greek Dictionary #1690 embrim omai; contracted embrim mai, fut. Embrim somai, from en (1722), in or on account of, and brim omai (n.f.), to roar, storm with anger. In the mid., used as a deponent verb, to be enraged, indignant, to express indignation against someone. 3

4 It occurs in the LXX (Dan. 11:30) for violent displeasure. 1 QUOTE: Kenneth Wuest; The New Testament : An expanded translation was moved with indignation in His spirit, and deeply troubled himself 2 QUOTE: William Barclay "He gave way to such distress of spirit as made his body tremble." With this we are getting nearer the real meaning. In ordinary classical Greek the usual usage of embrimasthai (<G1690>) is of a horse snorting. Here it must mean that such deep emotion seized Jesus that an involuntary groan was wrung from his heart. I don t believe Jesus was indignant, enraged, or violently displeased, with Mary and Martha. I don t believe Jesus was indignant, enraged, or violently displeased, with the mourners. I believe Jesus was indignant, enraged, and violently displeased by death. In Genesis 2:16-17 God clearly declared to Adam and Eve that if they sinned they would die. That is because God is life and when we walk away from God, we walk away from life. Paul tells us in the Book of Romans the wages of sin is death. He says we have earned death. But then Paul says the gift of God is eternal life. Death is earned Life is given. We have all earned death because of sin. Had there not been sin there would not be death. Here is the God of Genesis 2 become man. He is walking in a graveyard surrounded by silence there are no sounds of life there! He had created man to live. Man sinned. Death came by sin. He sees Mary broken, he sees Martha broken. He sees tears flowing down the cheeks of loved ones. His dear friend is dead and in the grave. Jesus was indignant, enraged, and violently displeased because the pathos of that scene is the consequence of sin. Jesus was indignant, enraged, and violently displeased at the reality of how sin had so wrecked His crowning workmanship 1 Robertson, A. (1997). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Jn 11:33). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems. Wuest, K. S. (1997). The New Testament : An expanded translation (Jn 11:30 37). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. 4

5 QUOTE: John Ross Macduff, Memories of Bethany converting the fairest province of His creation into one vast Necropolis, one dismal "city of the dead! There in those tombs lay the decaying remains of what He had so fearfully and wonderfully made! That which He had originally stamped with the words "very good, is now ruined and rotting and in the process of being reduced to dust! QUOTE: John Ross Macduff If the Architect mourns over the destruction of some favorite structure which the storm has swept down, or the fire has reduced to ashes if the Sculptor mourns to see his breathing marble hurled to the ground, and its fragments scattered at his feet what must have been the sensations of the mighty Architect of the human frame, at whose completion the morning stars and the sons of God chanted a loud anthem what must have been His sensations as He thought of them, now a devastated wreck, dissolving in decay, and death holding high holiday over a world in held death s grip! I also believe that His indignation His rage His violent displeasure was not only His response to the pathos of this scene in Bethany I believe He was enraged because at that moment Jesus saw beyond Bethany to every churchyard and every grave! 34 And he said, Where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, See how he loved him! VERSE 35 is the shortest verse in the Bible! TWO words. It is the WHO and the WHAT of the sentence that make it s content so huge! 1.) REMEMBER John was writing his account of the life of Jesus for the Greeks! This would have been utterly mind-blowing to the Greek reader. The Greek held that the primary characteristic of God was the total inability to feel any emotion whatsoever they called it apatheia. Barclay lays out there reasoning for their position. If we can feel sorrow or joy, gladness or grief, it means that someone can have an effect upon us. Now, if a person has an effect upon us, it means that for the moment that person has power over us. No one can have any power over God; and this must mean that God is essentially incapable of feeling any emotion whatsoever. The Greeks 5

6 believed in an isolated, passionless and compassionless God. (William Barclay) Again John s reader is tethered to the Prologue John 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father s side, he has made him known. John 1:18 NLT No one has ever seen God. But the one and only Son is himself God and is near to the Father s heart. He has revealed God to us. What a radically different picture Jesus gave. Jesus brought the very heart of God into plain view for the world to see and we don t find God to be indifferent, or without passion or compassion. In the tears of Jesus we see that God s heart is wrecked with anguish for a fallen world! He cries over the reality of sin, He cries over the reality of death, He cries for what sin and death did to His friend Lazarus. In Jesus we see that there really is a God, and He really does care! The Gospels record for us the moment in which Jesus looked over Jerusalem and there He wept for the nation (Luke 19:41-44). And here on the way to a friend's grave, He weeps with those who grieve. What an incredible Savior. Weeping not just for us in our sin, but with us in our suffering. 2.) We are not alone in our tears! John will not let us escape the prologue and the word became flesh and dwelled pitched His tent among us. In the person of Jesus we see the heart of God wrapped in a tent of humanity! When He saw the grief of Martha and Mary when He approached the tomb of His dear friend He couldn t hold back the tidal wave of His own human emotions. JESUS WEPT! Mary and Martha didn t have a monopoly on the tears of Jesus or His sympathy! I believe that as Jesus looked at Mary and Martha He saw in them and through them countless men and women; moms and dads; husbands and wives; daughters and sons; in centuries yet to come who He knew would be standing at the grave of loved ones And when He thought of this, "Jesus wept!" Think of how many breaking hearts there are around the world at this very moment. Try to imagine how loud it would be if we could combine the sound of their weeping and hear it all at once. I totally agree with Macduff s 6

7 sentiments here I believe that as Jesus stood there He not only heard the volume of the weeping at THAT very moment; He heard the collective sound of men and women; moms and dads, husbands and wives; daughters and sons, weeping throughout the history of mankind and for them JESUS WEPT. Jesus heard the weeping of those now without a spouse; those now childless and fatherless, motherless, and friendless! Think of the Marys and Marthas who are at this very moment going to some grave to weep there. Guys WE ARE NOT ALONE IN OUR TEARS. What an AWESOME picture of Jesus! GOD WITH US! The tenderness of His Humanity is revealed in those tear drops falling from a human eye on a human grave. The majesty of His Deity is manifested in His ability to take in with one grasp the pathos and suffering of fallen world. This was so radical as we watched our friend Karen Stewart die slowly of cancer. All of OUR agonizing moments during her illness the agonizing revelation of "no hope" OUR BROKEN HEARTS were included in those Bethany tears! There in the village of Bethany, in the 1 st century AD, Jesus had all OUR sorrows before Him. He has all of YOUR sorrows before Him. And as He beheld it, "Jesus wept! QUOTE: John Ross Macduff "Jesus wept! These tears are over, But His heart is still the same; Kinsman, Friend, and Elder Brother, Is His everlasting name. Saviour, who can love like Thee, Gracious One of Bethany! "When the pangs of trial seize us, When the waves of sorrow roll, I will lay my head on Jesus, Pillow of the troubled soul. Surely none can feel like Thee, Weeping One of Bethany! "Jesus wept! And still in glory, He can mark each mourner's tear; Loving to retrace the story Of the hearts he solaced here. Lord! when I am call'd to die, Let me think of Bethany! "Jesus wept! That tear of sorrow Is a legacy of love; Yesterday, to-day, to-morrow, He the same doth ever prove. 7

8 Thou art all in all to me, Living One of Bethany!" 37 But some of them said, Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying? Nothing has changed in nearly 2,000 years. People still love to point the finger at God! Isn t it amazing how when someone dies the world is indignant and outraged and enraged with God when it should be indignant and outraged and enraged at sin! For a lost world sin is never the problem God is always the problem. 38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. Once again Jesus is outraged, indignant, enraged, and violently displeased. We have to see that Jesus is not just another spectator or mourner. Jesus is the passionate enemy of death! He is there to overcome the tyranny of death and He knows that in a matter of days He will pay the wage for our sin and triumph over the grave. I cannot even begin to think of being without Jesus! You do not have to be alone in this dead and dying world. Jesus IS the resurrection and the life. Jesus died to save you from the wages of sin. God so loved the world that He GAVE His Son and through Him the GIFT of eternal life. METRO Jesus said, As the Father sent Me, so I send you (John 20:21). We ought to be enraged and passionate about what sin is doing to the world. We ought to be passionate enemies of death! We ought to be passionate about seeing Jesus free people from the tyranny of sin and death! I pray that we NEVER become a group of men and women who are content to play church. I pray we will be a community of believers who with all their hearts want to be a part of the work of Jesus conquering sin and death 8