[0:00] Good evening. We're going to be looking tonight at John chapter 11, the last of our series of looking at the story of Lazarus, focusing on verses 48, sorry, 38 through 48.
[0:16] I'm going to read the whole chapter again in context, but before we do that, let's pray. Lord, I thank you that you've preserved your word and these stories and these events in your word for us, that your word is powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword.
[0:37] And Lord, I pray that you'd use it tonight, that you would encourage us with your word, that you would draw us close to you, remind us of truths that are in your word. May this cause us to be closer to you and look forward to your coming. In Jesus' name, amen.
[0:55] So let's read John chapter 11, starting in verse 1 through verse 48. Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary, and her sister Martha.
[1:09] It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, he whom you love is ill.
[1:20] But when Jesus heard it, he said, This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
[1:33] So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer 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, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and you were going there again?
[1:48] Jesus answered, Are there not twelve 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.
[2:01] After saying these things, he said to them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him. The disciples said to him, Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover. Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought he meant taking rest and sleep.
[2:15] Then Jesus told them plainly, Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe, but let us go to him. So Thomas called the twins, said to his fellow disciples, Let us go, too, that we may die with him.
[2:29] Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off. Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother.
[2:43] So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
[2:54] But even now I know that whatever you ask from 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 on the last day.
[3:06] Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. Everyone who 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 coming into the world.
[3:23] When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, The teacher is here and is calling for you. And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.
[3:37] When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly to go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
[3:53] 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. And he said, Where have you laid him? And they said to him, Lord, come and see.
[4:06] Jesus wept. So the Jews said, See how he loved him. But some of them said, Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying? Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb.
[4:21] It was a cave and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.
[4:33] Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? So he took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.
[4:51] When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. The man who had died came out, his hands and his feet bound within his strips and his face wrapped with a cloth.
[5:03] Jesus said to them, Unbind him and let him go. Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
[5:15] So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. The Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.
[5:31] So we've had a couple of sermons so far on John chapter 11. The first sermon, verses 1 through 16, We talked about the fact that Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus.
[5:42] So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed longer. He waited until Lazarus had died before he went to see him. He allowed the family to suffer pain and sorrow in order to show them something greater.
[5:55] Then the next sermon, we looked at verses 17 to 27. Christ's statement of, I am the resurrection and the life. We saw that any resurrection that would occur, whether it be Lazarus or our resurrection, is bound up fully in Christ, in his death and his resurrection.
[6:12] Lastly, we looked at verses 28 to 37, focusing on the emotion that Christ showed. We talked about the fact that Christ came as the man of sorrows, bearing our sins and sorrows upon ourselves.
[6:25] Tonight we're looking at verses 38 through 48, the actual raising of Lazarus. And even in this passage, there are some themes that stick out. Three times the phrase glory or glorify is mentioned.
[6:38] But even more than that, the word belief. Nine times in this passage alone, these few verses, the word belief is mentioned. And in the book of John, over 100 times, the word believe or belief is mentioned.
[6:53] In fact, John tells us that's why he wrote this book. In John 20, he says, Now Jesus did many other things in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.
[7:05] But these are written, these stories are written, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, may have life in his name. Here we are at chapter 11, verses 38 through 48.
[7:20] We're outside the city. Martha and Mary had talked to Jesus outside the city. He hadn't actually came into Bethany. Because the Jews bury their people, their dead, outside the city. And Christ was probably waiting outside in the area where people generally bury the dead.
[7:35] He'd asked in verse 34, Where have you laid him? And they replied to him, Come and see. So they've taken him to the place, the specific grave, the specific cave where Lazarus is buried.
[7:46] We've got Mary and Martha and many of the Jews that followed her in verse 31. So Christ has arrived at the tomb. Our passage says, Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb.
[8:04] Deeply moved. We looked at verse 35 last time. We looked at the fact that Christ showed emotion multiple times. He was troubled in his spirit. He wept. This emotion that he's experienced is probably multifaceted.
[8:17] It's not just sadness at a friend dying. It's anger at sin. In some sense, as we saw last time, it's him bearing our sorrows. But I think it means more than that.
[8:30] I think it's a frustration at those standing around him. It's a snorting, an indignation of people muttering around him. Look back at verse 37.
[8:41] The people say to each other, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying? And then immediately we see Jesus is deeply moved.
[8:55] The people are questioning both Christ's ability and his motives. If he was here, he could have kept this man from dying. He didn't. Why not? They're muttering against themselves, against Christ.
[9:06] Well, Christ deeply moved at the cave and he gives a command to people who are around. He says, take away the stone.
[9:19] Pick up. Remove the stone from the covering of this grave. It's interesting here that we'll see a story of a man being resurrected, but Christ asks the people around to move the stone.
[9:33] It's a natural work. It's a work of man. It's work that man can do. Christ didn't see the need to include removal of a stone in this miracle. And often Christ gives us commands, work for us to do, and then he equips us and empowers us to do that through his spirit.
[9:50] God uses means to accomplish the things that he's doing in this world. This is not you do your part and God does his part. No, God provides the grace and the spirit for us to use.
[10:03] James 3 reminds us that our faith without works is dead. Just because we believe something, many people here believed, doesn't mean that we are done. Our faith uses and shows itself by our works.
[10:19] In Romans 8.13, Paul is talking to the church in Rome and he says, if you, by the spirit, put to death the deeds of the flesh, by the spirit, not you in your might, if you, working with the spirit, the power of the spirit, the conviction of the spirit, the power of God's word, in your heart, enlightened by the spirit, put to death the deeds of the body.
[10:44] As we've seen in our Sunday school this week and next week as well, our work, our obedience to Christ contributes nothing to our justification. Nothing in our salvation or justification is secured or purchased by our response or obedience.
[11:03] Our obedience and our good works we do are in love to Christ for the good he's given us and because they're good, good commands that Christ has given us in his word.
[11:15] So he tells them, pick up this stone, move it out of the way. Well, Martha, who's the busy, pragmatic follower of Christ, objects to the stone being removed.
[11:27] She says, he's been dead for four days and it's going to stink in there. And she's not wrong. The Jews didn't embalm their bodies. Today, when we have a body, we drain the blood out of it, we clean it up.
[11:39] The Jews would just wrap the body in cloth, pack it with spices to make the time around the body tolerable. But four days in, this body in the tomb isn't so pretty.
[11:53] By four days in, your internal organs have decomposed. The process of putrefaction starts where your blood is drained. All the microbes in your body are dissolving your muscles.
[12:06] There's bloat and discoloration and a terrible smell. But the current state of Lazarus or his smell doesn't stop Christ from doing what he fully intends to do in this miracle.
[12:19] So Christ answers this protest from Martha with patience. He says to her, didn't I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?
[12:33] We don't see Christ telling her that specifically. Maybe it happened when he was talking about him being the resurrection and the life. Or it could have been the message when he sent back to them in verse four when he says this sickness will not end in death, it is for the glory of God.
[12:48] Regardless, this serves as an assurance to Martha. As we saw in the first 16 verses, often the way that God answers our request isn't the way we might have liked.
[13:01] Mary and Martha probably heard this sickness wouldn't end in death, that it was to glorify God and they expected to see Lazarus recover. But Christ reassures her here, he's in full control.
[13:13] Even if God getting glory is accomplished in a different way than they expect, he's getting glory. So this assurance from Christ produced obedience because he says next verse 41, so they moved the stone.
[13:26] Even here, Christ uses man to do their work, but he's encouraged and reoriented them in order to do it. He asked them to move the stone, they protested, and he reassured them to allow them to continue doing what he had asked.
[13:42] And then once the stone's removed, Christ prays. Listen to the prayer in verse 41, he says, so they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
[13:56] I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around me. They may believe that you sent me. I thought it was interesting. He prays with his eyes lifted up.
[14:07] Often we pray with our heads bowed, our eyes closed. But Christ is praying to the Father, not a prayer of petition, but a prayer of thanksgiving. As a son talks of his father.
[14:21] Not of one groveling, but one of respect and love. We would expect this prayer to be one that is a request. Lord, please raise Lazarus.
[14:33] Father, please give me power to raise Lazarus. But he's not. He says, Father, I thank you that you've heard me. We're not told if Christ had been praying beforehand, but I'm inclined to think he had.
[14:46] I think he'd been praying because he mentions often that the Father would be glorified and the Son would be glorified through this. However, his prayers have not been like our prayers.
[14:57] The prayers of Christ are not like ours. Ours are short-sighted, focused on what we see or what we deal with in an immediate attention span and what we see on a day-to-day basis.
[15:11] Christ sought to do the will of God. He always did the will of the Father. He and the Father are one. His prayers would have been exactly what the Father wanted.
[15:23] In John 5, Jesus reminds us how closely he's connected to the Father. In John 5, 19-21, he's talking about the authority he has.
[15:36] Jesus says in 19-21, Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord. Only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.
[15:48] For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these he will show him so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Father gives life, so also the Son gives life to those whom he will.
[16:05] So this prayer is a one of thanksgiving, of thanking the Father that he has heard Christ. But it's also a prayer of explanation. He's talking as he's praying to the Father.
[16:17] He's saying what he's saying to the Jews who are listening around. He says, I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me.
[16:30] People had often accused Jesus of doing miracles and signs with the power of Satan instead of the power of the Father. And Christ praying, thanking the Father, lifting his eyes up to heaven as if he was connected to the Father is a one-two punch to demonstrate that Christ does the work of the Father with the power of the Father to the glory of the Father.
[16:52] He's not doing this on himself, his own power. He's not doing this for glory, prideful glory. He's doing this as one with the Father. So we praise, and then we come to the climax of this story.
[17:09] 800 words so far in this chapter. Dialogue and explanation to get to this point. To one command, Lazarus, come out.
[17:22] Take note of how it's said. He says in verse 30, sorry, 43, when he said these things, he cried out, with a loud voice.
[17:37] Lazarus, come out. It's literally a war cry, a cry of victory, a cry of command of one who has power over death.
[17:52] He could have just touched Lazarus. He could have walked inside the grave and touched Lazarus like he did the widow's son. He could have sent everybody away and did this in private like he did in Mark 6 with Jairus' daughter.
[18:05] But instead, he gives a prayer of thankfulness and acknowledgement in front of everybody and then he yells. He commands with authority.
[18:17] There was no uncertainty. His prayer shows he had full confidence that God would work through him. He doesn't even ask Lazarus or plead with him. Lazarus has no choice in this instance but to fully obey.
[18:28] Christ is very specific. Lazarus, come out. Some have joked that if Christ was not qualifying who would come out, we would have had the final resurrection at that very moment because all the dead would have come out.
[18:43] But he says, Lazarus, come out. Verse 44 says, he fully restored a man.
[19:26] The command of Christ to bring back a dead man gives him full life. This man comes out even though he's bound. So either he hopped out of the grave or the power of God pulled him out.
[19:39] But either way, he wasn't coming out until the voice of Christ commanded it. Keep this in mind though. This event was to show the glory of God, the glory of the Son.
[19:53] But even when this resurrection happened, it wasn't a permanent resurrection. Poor Lazarus died a second time and probably got put in the exact same grave. This resurrection was amazing and accomplished what Christ intended but there's still a better resurrection coming.
[20:10] Jesus commands the bystanders then to unbind him and let him go. Again, asking the people around to do the things that they can do. And that's it. No description of Lazarus.
[20:23] No dialogue. No words from this man who's been raised to death, from death to life. Just moving on to the events that happens after.
[20:33] verses 45 through 48 tell us what the response was. Many of the Jews therefore who had come with Mary and had seen what he did believed in him.
[20:48] But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, what are we to do? This man performs many signs. If they let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him and Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.
[21:07] So there's two responses to this story. Two responses to this event that we've seen throughout this chapter and throughout the book of John. Some believed. Some saw this event and believed and followed Christ.
[21:20] But some rejected. They went and told the Pharisees. They tattled on Christ. And what's the Pharisee response? It's the exact same thing.
[21:31] They rejected. They knew. There's no debate about the validity of this miracle. In fact, we're told in chapter 12 they sought to kill Lazarus because people were believing in Christ after seeing him.
[21:45] The chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees wanted Christ and Lazarus dead. They didn't care that God had sent him. Their concern was power and position.
[21:56] So what's the main point? What does this story mean for us? Well, the main point that I think I want us to walk away with is the voice of Christ gives life to the dead.
[22:12] The voice of Christ gives life to the dead. We see that in two ways. We see it in regeneration of our souls and also in the final resurrection. This story is an example of how Christ works in a sinner's heart.
[22:28] We in our natural state are dead in our sins. Ephesians 2, 1 through 3 gives a good example of what we were like before we came to Christ, before Christ worked in our hearts.
[22:42] Ephesians 2, 1 through 3 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course in this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature a church in your wrath like the rest of mankind.
[23:13] So we were dead. We were enemies of God. Colossians 2, 13 says, You who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all of our trespasses.
[23:30] In fact, that's what the last bit of Ephesians 2, verse 4 says, But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love of which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
[23:43] By grace, you have been saved. The call of Christ on our hearts, the work of the Spirit brings, brings dead people to life, sinners and enemies of God as sons.
[24:04] The call that Christ has on our hearts works much the same way that we see it applied here in Lazarus. Romans 8, 28 through 30 gives us a glimpse of what happens when Christ or God calls a dead man.
[24:32] Romans 8, 28 through 30 often referred to as a golden chain of redemption where it says, we know that for those who love God, all things were together for good.
[24:43] For those who were called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be of the firstborn among many brothers. Those whom he predestined, he also called.
[24:56] And those whom he called, he also justified. Those he justified, he also glorified. God's love and his mercy took us from dead in our sins to alive in Christ.
[25:08] God has called his saints out of darkness and he was marvelous light. Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 2. Again, in John 5, Christ says, the hour is coming and the hour is here when the dead will hear his voice and live.
[25:27] This is true for all believers. You were given life. You were given faith. You were dead in your sins, but Christ has made you alive in him.
[25:42] The second effect, again, that this story is a picture of is the final resurrection. Christ promises in John 5, 28-29 that one day all will hear his voice and those in the tombs will come out, will hear him and come out.
[26:02] Paul develops this concept of the call of Christ and the resurrection in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, 16-18.
[26:15] 1 Thessalonians 4, 16-18. The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first.
[26:31] Then we who are alive who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet them, Lord, in the air. So we will be with the Lord always. Therefore, encourage one another with these words.
[26:45] This resurrection is real. And it became real to me as I carried my brother's casket to his grave years ago. It was an abstract thought to me then.
[26:56] I would have affirmed that there was a resurrection. I would have said, yes, we look forward to Christ's return. But suddenly, it became real to me. We didn't grieve as those without hope, though.
[27:10] In a cemetery in upstate New York, the reality that one day many people buried there would have their bodies restored and glorified hit me. It wasn't just an abstract thought.
[27:21] It wasn't just a concept. One day, the Lord himself would ascend from heaven with a shout, with another victory cry. The dead in Christ will rise.
[27:33] Then those who are alive will meet him, meeting Christ in the air. And we will forever be with the Lord. The voice that commanded Lazarus, come out, will call our bodies from the grave.
[27:46] If the Lord tarries. The same victory cry that called Lazarus will call us. Christ has defeated death. He cried victoriously on the cross, it is finished.
[27:59] And he died. And three days later, he was resurrected, victorious, powerful king. John, who wrote, obviously, the Gospel of John, records a vision of Christ he sees in Revelation chapter 1.
[28:13] Christ tells him, fear not. I am the first and the last, the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore. I have, I have the keys of death in Hades.
[28:29] If I can get one thing across tonight, one point that I would want you to take home, it would be a solid, hopeful anticipation of the resurrection, a real, a real, a real, a real, a real, a real, a real, a real, a real voice, a real recreation of our bodies, a real taking up, a real eternity with the one who died and rose for us in a new heaven, in a new earth, where Christ in his glorified body dwells with us forever.
[29:03] But some people seeing this story, seeing this, these facts played out before them, reject it. Even seeing a raised man from the dead won't change some people's minds.
[29:18] Verse 46, we're told that these people, these Jews, who heard and saw what had just happened, went and told the Pharisees. Even in light of a supernatural miracle, they reject the Son.
[29:32] In response, the Pharisees show their true motives. They're afraid that this continues, people will continue believing in him and they'll lose their place and their nation.
[29:45] If you recall also this parable that Jesus told of the rich man and Lazarus, which I find has some really interesting parallels here. In this parable, Lazarus lived outside the gate of a rich man.
[30:00] Lazarus was poor, the rich man had wealth and was eating fine food and both died. The rich man went to torment and Lazarus went to Abraham's bosom.
[30:14] In the parable, the rich man asked Abraham, please send Lazarus to my brothers to warn them about the judgment and the torment that I'm suffering. Abraham replies, even if a man comes back from the dead, in this case, a man named Lazarus, if a man came back from the dead, they wouldn't believe.
[30:31] People ask for signs. People want proof. Paul said, the Jews seek a sign and the Greeks seek wisdom. But I just read 48 verses of proof.
[30:43] And there are 65 other books in this book that show us proof. But some people, it's never enough. It's exactly what Paul described in Romans 1.21.
[30:54] He says, although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. They became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.
[31:10] So some personal application to us. Many of us, like Martha, we stay focused on the natural. We see the things that are in front of us and we question even things that God has promised.
[31:26] She said, on a command from Christ to open the tomb, she said, Lord, we can't open the tomb. It's going to stink. We too get focused on the things that we see, the things that we can touch and fail to see how God could work out this or that situation.
[31:45] We need to look to God. Remind ourselves of stories like this that are there for our encouragement. One of the dangers in this postmodern world that we live in is it's so easy to frequently dismiss supernatural.
[31:58] supernatural. The way we counter that is by being in the word of God, hearing it, reading it, discussing it amongst ourselves. If John wrote this gospel so we would believe, and if Paul says that all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, rebuking, correction, and turning to righteousness, then God's word should be our first defense against losing sight of the heavenly things described there.
[32:27] Many of us, like Mary and Martha, feel like we're standing outside the tomb staring at the hardest thing we've ever had to encounter, whether it be sickness or loss, depression, anxiety.
[32:41] We stare there staring, wondering how God could ever use this. What could God ever do with this situation? Again, we need to remind ourselves of the promises of God and seek His glory through it.
[32:55] We need again to be familiar and in His word. This story is more than just a Sunday school story of a bunch of people talking and a man coming back to life. This event is pivotal because it triggers the anger and then the eventual death of Christ, the anger of the Jews and the death of Christ on the cross.
[33:16] This story also, though, shows us Christ's interaction with His people, a loving Father who knows what's best even when it hurts. If we neglect stories and Scripture, then we do ourselves harm in knowing who is the God we're serving.
[33:34] Those of us who have lost a loved one, which is probably all of us, are waiting between verses 43 and 42. 42, where Christ comes in 43 where He calls out, Lazarus, come out.
[33:58] Christ has already accomplished and secured the resurrection, but we await its final consummation. We do well to remind ourselves the dialogue between Martha and Jesus. If our loved one was in Christ, we can assure ourselves as Martha did that one day He will rise again on that last day.
[34:17] But our hope and the hope of the saints who've gone before us is not just a resurrection, it's on the resurrection. It's on Christ. Christ, who is a resurrection and the life, is our hope.
[34:32] We don't just look forward to it because it's great that I'll get to come back to life. We will spend eternity with Christ forever in glorified bodies, in perfect fellowship and communion with each other and with Him.
[34:48] John tells us, too, that this story pivots on belief. We've seen these two groups of people, people who believed in Christ and people who outright rejected Him even though they saw the things He was doing. What do we do with this Christ that was presented to us?
[35:03] If I go to the mall today and I ask somebody randomly, what does the resurrection of Lazarus mean to you? What does it show or provide you? What hope does it give you? They might say, who's Lazarus?
[35:15] Or, I don't know, maybe that God loves us and He's good. But what does it mean for you? What does this story provide you? We see the glory of Christ and the affirmation of His power in this story.
[35:31] We see our resurrection figured in Lazarus like it's a trailer, like a preview for what we will experience when Christ returns. We see why we don't need to grieve as others do who have no hope.
[35:48] We see Christ's resurrection prefigured here, which secures and purchases ours. What does it mean, though, for unbelievers?
[36:01] Remember, in John 5, He says that all will be raised. The passage in His context in John 5 says, Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
[36:17] For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself. And it has given Him authority to execute judgment because He is a Son of Man. Do not marvel at this.
[36:28] For an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil is the resurrection of judgment.
[36:42] So I say to you, don't be like the Pharisees or the Jews. Don't reject the Christ you have presented here before you. Those who rejected Christ had no immediate consequences in this passage.
[36:53] We don't see them getting punished or fire coming out from heaven when they rejected Christ. But in that final resurrection, where will they go? Their eternal destination will be determined based on their faith in Christ.
[37:09] So seek the Lord while He may be found. Call on Him. Tread reminded us this morning in our morning service about the parable of the pearl of great price.
[37:20] And people in this story saw that pearl. They saw the beauty of Christ, the power of Christ, and some believed it was worth it. I will follow Christ. And some ignored it.
[37:33] Some rejected it. You've heard this story. You've seen this Christ. You've seen what He's done. What will you do with Him? What will be your approach to this Christ presented here?
[37:47] John tells us that he writes these things so that we may believe and by believing have life in His name. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank You that You preserved stories, not just pretty, fun stories, but stories that encourage us and strengthen our faith.
[38:09] Lord, help us to be mindful of the resurrection to come, to be rejoicing and looking forward to the day when You will return and with the same voice that called Lazarus, call us out of our graves to return to You with You.
[38:25] Be with us now as we take the Lord's Supper. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.