Rev. David Holwick ZE Encountering Jesus in John
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
September 27, 2015
John 11:20-27
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I. Does death creep you out?
A. The cab ride.
A guy was riding in a cab.
He was new to the city and was looking for a good place to eat,
so he leaned forward, tapped the cabby on the shoulder and
said, "Hey, Buddy...."
The driver let out a blood-curdling scream and lost control of
the cab.
He nearly hit a bus, jumped the curb and stopped just inches
from going through a huge plate-glass window and into a
crowded restaurant.
For a few minutes, there was dead silence in the cab.
All you could hear was two hearts beating like bass drums
pounding out a quick march.
The driver finally turned around and said, "Man, you scared
the living daylights out of me!"
The passenger was as white as a sheet and his eyes were as big
as dinner plates.
When he caught his breath he said, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize
tapping you on the shoulder would scare you so badly."
The cabby said, "Well, it's not your fault.
This is my first day driving a cab.
But for the last 25 years, I drove a hearse."
#64939
B. It makes sense to think about it.
1) Charles Selness enrolled in a graduate program on counseling.
a) One assignment was to fill out a 20-page "Personal
Death Awareness" form.
b) Here are some of the questions:
1> How old do you think you will be when you die?
2> What do you expect to die from?
3> If you had your choice, what would you die of?
4> Which frightens you more: death, or dying?
5> Have you ever thought about committing suicide?
2) It got him to thinking - what is the appropriate perspective
for a Christian to have about death?
a) Is it a good thing, or a bad thing?
II. The death of Jesus' friend.
A. This episode is unique to the Gospel of John.
1) None of the other gospels mention it.
a) They do mention Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus.
b) We are told Lazarus was a close friend of Jesus.
2) There is no dialog from him, just one action - he dies.
B. Jesus uses it as a teachable moment.
1) He almost seems callous.
a) He is informed of his friend's sickness, and dallies. v6
b) He knows Lazarus is dead but refers to him as being
asleep. 11:11
2) His plan is shown in verse 15 - "so that you may believe."
C. Lazarus is really dead.
1) There was a concern about odor. 11:39
a) Even today, Jews try to do funerals within 24 hours.
1> Lazarus has been dead 4 days in a hot climate.
b) He is in the tomb and the funeral traditions are in
full swing.
2) None of it had to happen.
a) When Jesus arrives, Mary greets him by saying, "If you
had been here, my brother would not have died." 11:21
1> It shows her belief in Jesus' ability to heal.
2> It also conveys some frustration and disappointment.
b) Yet, she still believes something miraculous can happen.
1> But it doesn't seem to include raising the dead.
2> When Jesus alludes to resurrection, she falls back
on the traditional Jewish belief. 11:24
A> It will happen - someday in the distant future.
B> But probably not now.
III. Jesus is the key.
A. Resurrection is not distant, but standing in front of her.
1) He identifies himself with resurrection and life.
a) Most Christians like the resurrection part.
1> If I believe, I will go to heaven when I die.
b) The "life" part is equally important.
1> If we believe, we should be truly alive.
2> I got an email yesterday from a pastor in Australia.
He uses the illustration database I make available on
the internet, and told me a little about himself.
Dave Poulton has a Ph.D in social work and runs a church
in the worst part of Brisbane.
Most of the youth in his church are ex-drug addicts or
petty criminals.
The community is in the middle of a severe drug epidemic
and the violence is very high.
Dave likes to think it is the kind of environment Jesus
would gravitate to.
In the last three weeks among these street kids they have
had 19 conversions to Christ.
Each one is being discipled and loved into freedom from
bondages.
These kids are not interested in going to heaven someday.
They want to live, REALLY LIVE, right now.
That is what Jesus promises them, and that is why Dave
Poulton considers it a great joy to minister there.
B. You have to believe.
1) Jesus challenges Martha directly. 11:26
2) She acknowledges her faith in him.
a) She did it in front of the crowd around Jesus.
b) Have you ever publicly announced your faith?
1> That is why Baptists have "altar calls."
2> If you believe in Jesus, you should be upfront
about it.
IV. How Jesus viewed death.
A. Death is our enemy. 11:33,35,38
1) Jesus is troubled, and weeps.
a) "Deeply moved" should be "seething with anger."
b) Not at their lack of faith, not because they have lost
control of emotions.
c) Jesus is angry because he is confronting the enemy.
2) Death is bad, an evil. #1355
a) When God created the world, everything created was good.
1> Death was not part of creation. Gen 3:19
b) Only after mankind's sin did death become "natural."
1> Death is a consequence of evil, a punishment of evil.
2> Death is never a good thing.
c) It is appropriate to hate death, fear it, be angry at it.
1> Jesus wept at Lazarus' tomb. John 11:35
2> He wept at his own death. Matt 26:36-39 [cf Heb 5:7]
3> This tells us something.
B. There are two kinds of death.
1) The death of unbelievers.
a) Jesus is not encouraging.
1> He warns people about dying this way.
2> Without faith in Jesus, he says we enter hell.
3> Don't fear death, but hell. Matt 10:28
b) Death means separation from God, and this means darkness.
1> Death is the deprivation of God's good gifts.
2) The death of believers.
a) Jesus is very encouraging here.
b) They enter into Abraham's bosom, or Paradise. Lk 16:22
1> "Many mansions" is a popular image, from John 14:2.
c) He calls death "sleep" and is happy Lazarus died. 11:11
V. Lazarus, come out! 11:43
A. Jesus' prayer is in form of thanksgiving rather than petition.
1) He prays out loud so onlookers won't think he is acting
on his own.
2) Each of Jesus' miracles is really an answered prayer.
B. Resurrection vs. resuscitation.
1) Lazarus was raised, but not resurrected.
a) Note almost comical detail of body standing there
wrapped in burial cloths like a mummy.
b) His physical existence alone was renewed.
c) He had a similar life and would die in the future.
2) Jesus was resurrected, not resuscitated.
a) Jesus, in contrast to Lazarus, left no body.
b) He became physical and spiritual, and eternal.
c) His resurrection puts the emphasis on a tangible
future existence on a real earth but with
supernatural qualities.
C. Do you believe this? 11:26
1) Many of the onlookers were convinced and believed in Jesus.
a) Not everyone does, and Jesus taught that there will
only be a few who really believe.
2) Plenty of modern people have doubts.
Yesterday I was in my car listening to NPR on the way
back from a hospital visit.
It was from their "This American Life" which features
true stories.
This particular one was by Dan Savage and was about his
very Catholic mother.
Dan himself is a lapsed Catholic.
He imagines going to confession and saying, "Forgive me,
father, for I have sinned.
It's been 29 years since my last confession.
Hope you packed a lunch."
Yet lately he has been going back to church.
Sometimes in the middle of the week he slips in and sits
in a pew.
It began when his mother became very ill, and then died.
He loved his mom very much.
Dan Savage has issues with Christianity.
He has doubts about its truth.
He is a homosexual.
But his church upbringing has had an impact on him.
He wants to believe there is a heaven.
When you are brought up in a faith built about a guy who
jumps out of his tomb, it is hard to accept the
permanence of death.
Yet he thinks the afterlife is cruel, even criminal.
Telling children that the people they love don't die.
That there's some other life, some better place, a place
without pulmonary fibrosis like his mom had.
He wants to believe it, but it seems like a lie to him.
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3) How does it seem to you?
a) If it is true, it makes a huge difference, the ultimate
difference.
b) If it is true, everything in your life depends on it.
D. The power of death.
A playwright's understanding of Lazarus:
Pastor Jeff Strite heard a great story about Lazarus.
It told of a time in Lazarus' life when he'd grown old.
All through his life Lazarus had told and retold the story
of his resurrection.
The Roman Emperor at that time was the cruel and evil Caligula
who ruled with an iron fist.
He relied on executions to keep him in power.
"They do not have to love me," Caligula said, "as long as they
fear me."
But there was a new faith in Rome, a faith that Caligula grew
to hate.
These Christians had a faith in a God that caused them to not
be afraid of death.
And one of the most powerful preachers of this faith was
Lazarus.
Soon, Lazarus' story reached Caligula's throne and he decided
to make an example of him.
He brought Lazarus before him in chains and demanded:
"Renounce your faith in this Christ!"
But Lazarus refused.
In anger, Caligula shouted, "If you don't renounce your faith,
I'll have you put to death."
For a moment Lazarus said nothing ... then he began to laugh.
Caligula became even more angry and shouted,
"Don't you realize I have the power of life and death!
I have the power to put you to death!"
But Lazarus only laughed longer and louder.
Then finally he looked at the emperor and said,
"You cannot hold me in fear, Caligula - death is dead!"
That's a great story! (PAUSE)
Unfortunately, it's not true.
It's a fictional account of Lazarus life found in a play by
Eugene O'Neill called, "Lazarus Laughed."
Pastor Strite was bummed out when he found it was fiction.
But then he realized that the truth about this story of
Lazarus was even more powerful than he had realized at first.
Eugene O'Neill, one of the leading playwrights of the 20th
century, was an unbeliever.
He was a humanist who refused to accept the resurrection of
Christ from the dead.
But even this atheist was struck by the power of the Biblical
story of Lazarus.
He said of his play, "Certainly it contains the highest writing
I have done.
I know of no one who can play [the lead of] 'Lazarus' at all.
Who can we get to laugh as one would laugh who had completely
lost, even from the depths of the unconscious, all traces
of the Fear of Death?"
Think about it.
Even in this atheist, there was an understanding of the power
of Lazarus being raised from dead.
Even though he rejected Christ, O'Neill understood the central
message of this story.
Death had been defeated.
Christ has offered us the promise of life and the hope of
resurrection.
It was an atheist who wrote Lazarus' defiant cry:
"You cannot hold me in fear - death is dead!"
The sad thing is, even as powerful a statement as that didn't
sway O'Neill from his atheism.
He was "almost persuaded" of the promises of Christ.
But almost wasn't enough.
Eugene O'Neill went to his grave without ever laying hold of
the promise that Jesus offered, the promise of life from
the dead.
"Almost" persuaded is not enough.
As the old invitation hymns says:
'Almost' cannot avail;
'Almost' is but to fail!
Sad, sad, that bitter wail -
'Almost,' but lost!
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#64001 “Lazarus Laughed,” Rev. Jeff Strite, Kerux sermon #63587,
May 1, 2012. O’Neill’s quote about the play comes from
<http://www.eoneill.com/library/contour/triumvirate2/lazarus.htm>.
#64939 “Creeped Out By Death,” Rev. Billy D. Strayhorn, Kerux sermon
#26033, February 25, 2006.
#64940 “Lurking in a Catholic Church,” David Holwick, adapted from the
NPR program “Our Man of Perpetual Sorrow” by Ira Glass,
May 1, 2009; <http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/379/transcript>
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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*Original title was "The Victory We All Want"
___________
Stephen Travis, “I Believe In The Second Coming Of Jesus,” page 170:
"The Christian longs for the life of heaven not chiefly as compensation for
what he lacks now, but as fulfillment of what he already possesses."
(Kerux #299)
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