“Come Out” – John 11:38-44

September 20^th, 2020

“Come Out”

John 11:38-44

Communion Sunday 8:30

Call to Worship:  Psalm 146

Aux. text: 1 Peter 1:3-9

 

Service Orientation: We need to come out of our unbelief and come into faith.  There is no tragedy that Jesus cannot turn into triumph.  For nothing is impossible with God. “In Christ” everything sad will come untrue.

 

 

Bible Memory Verse for the Week:  For nothing is impossible with God. — Luke 1:37

                                                                               

Background Information:

_·      This miracle is the last and most spectacular of the seven miraculous signs recorded in the gospel of John (for the others, see 2:1-11; 4:46-54; 5:1-17; 6:1-14; 6:15-21; 9:1-41).  It was both a powerful encouragement to the disciples’ faith, and a powerful rebuke to the unbelieving Jews for their hard-hearted rejection of Him.  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John, 470)

_·      (v. 38) Sometimes they were caves in which there was a sloping, downward descent.  This appears to have been the description of grave in which Lazarus was buried.  It says distinctly that “a stone lay upon it.”  (J. C. Ryle, Expository thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 319)

_·      (v. 38) The Lord winces from the vicious stabs and hostile presence of these Jewish “mourners.”  Added to it, may have been a reluctance to return Lazarus to this world of evil hostility and hate.  This is what Lazarus was coming back to.  Usually Jesus went about healing the sick, raising but three from the dead.  It might not be such a kindness to take a man from the freedom of the spirit-world and return him to a new series of trials and encounters.  Enemies such as the Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, would be especially vicious.  Though Lazarus’ death proved to be a harmless experience, he had to face it twice.  Surely this is on the Lord’s mind as well.  (C.S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on John, 197)

_·      (v. 39). [Jesus said, Take ye away the stone.] The expression here conveys the idea of “lifting up” to take away.  It is the same word that is rendered “lifted up” in the 41^st verse.  (J. C. Ryle, Expository thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 319)

_·      (v. 39) The Jews did not embalm, but used aromatic spices to temporarily mask the odor of decay.  After four days, however, the stench coming out of an opened grave and a rotting corpse would have overpowered the aroma of the spices.  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John, 472)

_·      (v. 39) Here, as in other cases, He chose to give man something to do.  Here, as elsewhere, He taught the great lesson that His almighty power was not meant to destroy man’s responsibility.  Even when He was ready and willing to raise the dead, He would not have man stand by altogether idle.  (J. C. Ryle, Expository thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 314)

_·      (v. 39) Lightfoot mentions a very curious tradition of the Jews: “They say after death the spirit hovers about the sepulcher, waiting to see if it may return to the body.  But when it sees the look of the face of the corpse changed, then it hovers no more, but leaves the body to itself.”  He also adds, “They do not certify of the dead, except within three days after decease; for after three days the countenance changes.”  (J. C. Ryle, Expository thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 321)

_·      (v. 39) She gives up his case as helpless and hopeless, there having been no instances, either of late or formerly, of any raised to life after they had begun to see corruption.  When our bones are dried, we are ready to say, Our hope is lost.  Yet this distrustful word of hers served to make the miracle both the more evident and the more illustrious; by this it appeared that he was truly dead, and not in a trance; for, though the posture of a dead body might be counterfeited, the smell could not.  (Matthew Henry’s Commentary: Vol. V, 1057)

_·      (v. 39) There is another lesson for us to learn here.  He might have commanded the stone to roll itself away, or He might have bidden Lazarus to come forth through the impediment of the stone.  Instead, He bade the bystanders remove it.  Christ modestly avoided all pomp and parade and mingled the utmost simplicity with the most amazing displays of power.  What an example He thus set us to avoid all ostentation!  (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 609)

_·      (v. 40) Everything Jesus did was due to the power of God and designed for the glory of God.  How different men are!  So much that we do is attempted in our own power and designed for our own prestige.  It may be that there would be more wonders in our life, too, if we ceased to act by ourselves and for ourselves and set God in the central place.  (William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: John, Vol. 2, 100)

_·      (v. 41) Every one who lent a hand to lift the huge stone and remove it, would remember it, and become a witness.  He would be able to say, “I myself helped to lift up this stone.  I myself am sure there was no imposture.  There was a dead body inside the grave.”  In fact, we cannot doubt that the smell rising from the bottom of the cave would tell any one who helped to lift the stone what there was there.  (J. C. Ryle, Expository thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 319-20)

_·      (v. 41) It was blasphemously suggested by the Pharisees, and their creatures, that he wrought his miracles by compact with the devil; now, to evidence the contrary, he openly made his address to God, using prayers, and not charms, not peeping and muttering as those did that used familiar spirits (Isa 8:19), but, with elevated eyes and voice professing his communication with Heaven, and dependence on Heaven.  (Matthew Henry’s Commentary: Vol. V, 1058)

_·      (v. 42) He means, therefore, that there is so great an agreement between him and the Father, that the Father refuses him nothing; and even that he had no need to pray, because he only executed what he knew that the Father had enjoined; but in order that men may be more fully assured that this is truly a divine work, for this reason he called on the name of the Father.  (Calvin’s Commentary on the Gospel of John, 446)

_·      (v. 43) The Greek word for shout or cry is used only eight times in the whole Bible, and six of these times in John’s Gospel.  Four times the word is used in the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters (Jn 18:40; 19:6; 19:12; 19:15), when the crowd cries out for the crucifixion of Jesus.  Theirs is the cry of death.  His is the shout of life.  (Roger L. Fredrikson, The Communicator’s Commentary: John, 200)

_·      (v. 43) The actual wording of Jesus’ command was succinct, terse, almost abrupt in its simplicity.  The Greek text literally reads, “Lazarus!  Here!  Outside!”  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John, 474)

_·      (v. 43) Why Jesus cried out with a loud voice is not expressly stated.  It may have symbolized the power it took to raise the dead.  Or He may have done it to distance Himself from the whispered mutterings of sorcerers and magicians (cf. Isa 8:19).  In any case, His voice immediately captured the complete attention of everyone present.  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John, 474)

_·      (v. 43) He did not have to shout, but he wanted everyone to comprehend the drama.  (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: John, 287)

_·      (v. 44) [Jesus saith. . . Loose him. . .let him go.] This command was given for two reasons: partly that many around might touch Lazarus, and see for themselves that it was not a ghost, but a real body that was raised; partly that he might be able to walk to his own house before the eyes of the multitude, as a living man.  This, until he was freed from grave-clothes and his eyes were unbandaged, would have been impossible.  (J. C. Ryle, Expository thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 327)

_·      The raising of Lazarus from the dead is the climactic miracle of John’s Gospel–by any standard of measurement.  Its position in the Gospel alone indicates this, for it is the last of seven miracles and is inserted just before the beginning of the final week of Jesus’ earthly ministry.  The length of the narrative (46 verses) and its detail also reveal its importance; it is the longest and most elaborately described of the miracles.  (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 3, 891)

 

The question to be answered is . . . From what are we to come out?

 

Answer: To enjoy the abundant life Jesus offers, we are to come out of our human thinking, our focus on our circumstances and our fear of death.

 

The Phrase for the Day is . . . Come Out!

 

Hope is a settled conviction about the future, a conviction giving meaning and shape to life in the present.  We can see this in many everyday situations.  If, for example, you enter university in the hope of one day becoming a doctor; that hope will shape your life, directing not only your choice of courses but also dictating what time and effort (and money) you will devote to your studies.  Thus, the whole of your life will take on a new look, a new focus, because of your hope for what the future will bring.  (Craig G. Bartholomew & Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture, 206)

 

What good can we hope to find if we come out?:

 

 

I-                 We can hope to find strength if we come out from our human thinking and believe Jesus. (Jn 11:39b-42 see also: Dt 29:29; 1 Sam 16:7;  Psa 25:5; 119:43, 74, 81, 114, 147; 130:5; Prov 3:5-6; Isa 55:8-10; Mt 8:26; 17:20; Mk 5:36; 9:14-29; Rom 12:2; 15:4; 2 Cor 4:6; Col 3:1-8)

                                       

Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.  (Francis Chan, Crazy Love, 115)

 

Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe. – St. Augustine

 

I have learned that faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse. (Phillip Yancey as quoted by John Ragsdale, How Do I Deal with Anxiety and Fear?, 71)

 

God is not only bigger than you thinking, He is bigger than you can think.  And if you’ve never stood before God and be totally confused; then your worshiping an idol.  (Steve Brown; Who Is in Control, “1. A Solid Place to Stand”)

                   

The proud person has a hard time coming to God.  We want God on our terms, in our understanding.  It’s simply impossible.  He wants us, as He tells us in the Bible, on His terms.  He wants our childlike faith.  The Good Shepherd goes out to find those who finally come to understand they are lost without Him.  I experienced precisely this.  (Charles Colson, The Good Life, 381)

 

What then is faith?  Faith really means believing in God, believing all that He tells us about Himself, all that He tells us about what He has done for us, all that He tells us about what He is going to do, and trusting ourselves utterly and absolutely to that.  What is faith?  Faith means reasoning and arguing on the basis of revelation.  Faith means, not that I try to reason myself to God, but that, believing the revelation given by God, I reason from it.  Faith means drawing out the inevitable deductions from what God has said.  (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, 163)

 

What are the grounds for our certainty of the realness of God?  It is clear that we cannot submit religion to scientific logic.  Science is not the only way to truth, and its methods do not represent all of human thinking.  Indeed, they are out of place in that dimension of human existence in which God is a burning issue.

     God is not a scientific problem, and scientific methods are not capable of solving it.  The reason why scientific methods are often thought to be capable of solving it is the success of their application in positive sciences.  The fallacy involved in this analogy is that of treating God as if He were a phenomenon within the order of nature.  The truth, however, is that the problem of God is not only related to phenomena within nature but to nature itself; not only to concepts within thinking but to thinking itself.  It is a problem that refers to what surpasses nature, to what lies beyond all things and all concepts.

     The moment we utter the name of God we leave the level of scientific thinking and enter the realm of the ineffable.  Such a step is one which we cannot take scientifically, since it transcends the boundaries of all that is given.  It is in spite of all warnings that man has never ceased to be stirred by ultimate questions.  Science cannot silence him, because scientific terms are meaningless to the spirit that raises these questions, meaningless to the concern for a truth greater than the world that science is engaged in exploring.

     God is not the only problem which is inaccessible to science.  The problem of the origin of reality remains immune to it.  There are aspects of given reality which are congruous with the categories of scientific logic, while there are aspects of reality which are inaccessible to this logic.  Even some aspects and concepts of our own thinking are impregnable to analysis.  (Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man, 102)

 

As Mark Batterson writes, “Faith is theological.  It does not ignore reality; it just adds God into the equation.  Think of it this way.  Logic questions God.  Faith questions assumptions.  And at the end of the day, faith is trusting God more than you trust your own assumptions.”  (Simon Guillebaud, Choose Life, 365 Readings for Radical Disciples, 6-1)

 

Here is one of the great ironies and great dangers of loving God with your mind.  You have to think and rethink, but you cannot overthink.  And there is a fine line between rethinking and overthinking.  But here is what I know for sure: overanalysis always results in spiritual paralysis.  If you try to logically figure out the will of God, you’ll never take a step of faith.  Why?  Because the will of God is not logical.  It’s theological.  It adds God into the equation, and that’s why it doesn’t always add up on our human calculators. The promptings of the Holy Spirit won’t always make sense to your logical left brain.  In fact, God ideas often seem like bad ideas.  But that is when you need to allow the Holy Spirit to override your intellect.  (Mark Batterson, Primal, A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, pp. 139-40)

 

This, indeed, is the greatness of man: to be able to have faith.  For faith is an act of freedom, of independence of our own limited faculties, whether of reason or sense-perception.  It is an act of spiritual ecstasy, of rising above our own wisdom.

     In this sense, the urge of faith is the reverse of the artistic act in which we try to capture the intangible in the tangible.  In faith, we do not seek to decipher, to articulate in our own terms, but to rise above our own wisdom, to think of the world in the terms of God, to live in accord with what is relevant to God.

     To have faith is not to capitulate but to rise to a higher plane of thinking.  To have faith is not to defy human reason but rather to share divine wisdom. . . . . One must rise to a higher plane of thinking in order to see, in order to sense the allusions, the glory, the presence.  One must rise to a higher plane of living and learn to sense the urgency of the ultimate question, the supreme relevance of eternity.  He who has not arrived at the highest realms, the realm of the mystery; he who has only a sense for the obvious and apparent, will not be able to lift up his eyes, for whatever is apparent is not attached to the highest realm; what is highest is hidden.  Faith, believing in God, is attachment to the highest realm, the realm of the mystery.  This is its essence.  Our faith is capable of reaching the realm of the mystery.  (Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man, 118)

 

Does that mean that He would not raise her brother unless she believed?  No; for He had determined to “awake him out of sleep” before He left Peraea.  But Martha’s faith was the condition of her seeing the glory of God in the miracle.  We may see a thousand emanations of that glory, and see none of it.  We shall see it if we exercise faith.  In the natural world, “seeing is believing;” in the spiritual, believing is seeing.  (Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: John, Chaps. IX to XIV, 96)

 

Since her brother had already been dead four days (the perfect tense of the participle indicates she believed that Lazarus had entered into a permanent state of death), Martha had given up all hope. . . .  Martha’s despair elicited a response from Jesus designed partly to give her hope, and partly as a gentle rebuke.  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John, 472)

 

We’re only as good as our weakest think.  — FM Pastor Darrel Hill

 

Many Spirit-filled authors have exhausted the thesaurus in order to describe God with the glory He deserves.  His perfect holiness, by definition, assures us that our words can’t contain Him.  Isn’t it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate?  (Francis Chan, Crazy Love, 31)

 

The lesson Jesus had for Martha, and therefore for us also, is that in spiritual matters believing is seeing.  He said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”  These words, “seeing” and “believing,” sound natural to us because of the expression “seeing is believing.”  But we can hardly miss the fact that Jesus puts it the other way around.  “Seeing is believing,” we say.  “Believing is seeing,” says the Lord Jesus.

     Both are right so long as we realize that in our expression we are talking about human affairs while Jesus in his expression was talking about a relationship to God.  In human affairs the expression means simply that men and women are untrustworthy.  (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 3, 892)

 

This crowd wrongly assumes that Jesus weeps because He loved Lazarus whose death is so final.  And knowing about His healing of the blind man, they wonder why he could not have kept His friend from dying.  Jesus grieves at the tomb because of the darkness which blinds the people to the Truth.  They cannot see who it is that has come and what God will do through Him.  (Roger L. Fredrikson, The Communicator’s Commentary: John, 199)

 

Lack of faith is not a failure of logic.  It’s a failure of imagination.  Lack of faith is the inability or unwillingness to entertain thoughts of a God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.  Thank God for logic.  Without it, nothing would make sense.  So it’s not that imagination is more important than logic.  It’s just more neglected.  A loss of curiosity has led to a loss of creativity.  (Mark Batterson, Primal, A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity, 112)

 

The problem of religious thinking is not only whether God is dead or alive, but also whether we are dead or alive to His realness.  (Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man, 127)

 

Some think that he groaned in spirit because, to gratify the desire of his friends, he was to bring Lazarus again into this sinful troublesome world, from that rest into which he was newly entered; it would be a kindness to Martha and Mary, but it would be to him like thrusting one out to a stormy sea again who was newly got into a safe and quiet harbor.  (Matthew Henry’s Commentary: Vol. V, 1056)

 

Sometimes we call people great men/women of faith.   What is the great accomplishment in that?  If we truly understood Who God is and His nature, then we would understand that ANYBODY would have great faith in Him once they have a clear vision of His nature.  The issue is not the faith we can muster in God. The issue is seeing God as he truly is and then simply believing in what we know about God.  Our problem is we have a faulty or inadequate vision of God.  (Paraphrase of Superintendent Ramundo’s message @ HFM 11-5-12)

 

We had better remember that.  For to us too at times Christ may appear to act strangely, unaccountably, woundingly.  But it is only seeming, as later, looking back, we ourselves shall see and confess, ashamed that we could ever have doubted him.  But meantime we must make shift, although we do not understand, to hold to our belief in him, or he cannot work out for us all he has in his heart to give us.  (George Arthur Buttrick, The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol 8, 649)

 

Paul did not see his relation to Christ as the key to maximizing his physical comforts and pleasures in this life.  No, Paul’s relation to Christ was a call to choose suffering–a suffering that was beyond what would make atheism “meaningful” or “beautiful” or “heroic.”  It was a suffering that would have been utterly foolish and pitiable to choose if there is no resurrection into the joyful presence of Christ. (John Piper; Desiring God, p. 219)

 

All of us are facing a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations. (Chuck Swindoll.  James “When Troubles Won’t Go Away” tape 2A, James 1:2-12)

 

Being displeased at the unbelief of those who spoke doubtingly of his power, and blamed him for not preventing the death of Lazarus; he was grieved for the hardness of their hearts.  He never groaned so much for his own pains and sufferings as for the sins and follies of men, particularly Jerusalem’s, Mt 23:37.  (Matthew Henry’s Commentary: Vol. V, 1056)

 

The Christian who has ceased to say, “I must see, and then I will believe,” and has learned to say, “I believe, and by and by I shall see,” has reached a high degree in the School of Christ.  (J. C. Ryle, Expository thoughts on John, Vol. 2, 316)

 

The dangerous assumption we unknowingly accept in the American dream is that our greatest asset is our own ability.  The American dream prizes what people can accomplish when they believe in themselves and trust in themselves, and we are drawn toward such thinking.  But the gospel has different priorities.  The gospel beckons us to die to ourselves and to believe in God and to trust in his power.  In the gospel, God confronts us with our utter inability to accomplish anything of value apart from him.  (David Platt, Radical, 46)

                   

All a person thinks and feels enters everything he does, and all he does is involved in everything he thinks and feels.  (Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man, 296)

 

In order to strengthen Martha’s faith Jesus summarized what he had told her before, whether by means of a messenger (11:4) or directly (11:23, 25, 26); note especially the following words:

     11:4: “This illness is not unto death; on the contrary, it is for the glory of God, in order that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it.”

     11:23: “Your brother shall rise again.”

     11:25, 26: “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me, even though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die; do you believe this?”  (William Hendriksen, NT Commentary: John 7-21, 158)

 

An idol is something that we look to for things that only God can give.  Idolatry functions widely inside religious communities when doctrinal truth is elevated to the position of a false god.  This occurs when people rely on the rightness of their doctrine for their standing with God rather than on God himself and his grace.  It is a subtle but deadly mistake.  The sign that you have slipped into this form of self-justification is that you become what the book of Proverbs calls a “scoffer.”

     Scoffers always show contempt and disdain for opponents rather than graciousness.  This is a sign that they do not see themselves as sinners saved by grace.  Instead, their trust in the rightness of their views makes them feel superior.  (Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods, 131)

 

II-               We can hope to find security and peace if we come out from looking at our current tragic circumstances (Jn 11:40, 42 see also: Psa 25:3, 21; 31:24; 62:5; 71:5; 146:5; Lam 3:25; Mt 8:26; Lk 8:25;  Jn 16:33; Acts 14:22-23; Rom 8:18-39; 2 Cor 4:7-5:10; 2 Thess 1:3-4; 2 Tim 1:12-13; Heb 11:35-39; 1 Pt 1:3-9)

 

Men are always in difficulty with their faith because their God is too small.  If they can once see the true God, and get the perspective that sees Him as filling all in all, then the difficulties of life will rapidly diminish to their proper proportions. (Donald Grey Barnhouse, God’s Remedy, 340)

 

Jesus’ words are stern, almost a reprimand for Martha’s failure to believe His word.  He had clearly told her Lazarus’ sickness was not to end in death (vs. 4).  But she is so blinded by circumstances her faith has been overpowered.  She needs this sharp word from the Lord.  It does the job.  Shaking off the stupor of unbelief, she signals the servants to move the stone.  (C.S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on John, 198)

 

If you are hoping and trusting in the Lord, and suddenly your health, wealth or future are taken from you and your hope is gone.  Then, you need to confess that it was not the Lord you were hoping in.  It was what you have just lost.  Hope in the Lord NEVER disappoints.  (Romans 5:4-5)

 

To sense the presence of God in the Bible, one must learn to be present to God in the Bible.  Presence is not a concept, but a situation.  To understand love it is not enough to read tales about it.  One must be involved in the prophets to understand the prophets.  One must be inspired to understand inspiration.  Just as we cannot test thinking without thinking, we cannot sense holiness without being holy.  Presence is not disclosed to those who are unattached and try to judge, to those who have no power to go beyond the values they cherish; to those who sense the story, not the pathos; the idea, not the realness of God.  (Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man, 252)

 

Who can fathom the depth of Jesus’ human emotions at this moment?  He is face to face with death, the stonghold of Satan.  Not only is He confronting the power of darkness, but He is surrounded by unbelieving grief.  (Roger L. Fredrikson, The Communicator’s Commentary: John, 198)

 

“And I knew that thou hearest me always.”  Very, very blessed is this.  Unspeakable comfort does it minister to the heart that rests upon it.  Christ did not cease to pray when He left this earth:  He still prays, prays for us, His people: “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25).  How much we owe to His intercession eternity will reveal–far, far more than we now realize.  Read through John 17 and note the different things He has asked (and possibly, still asks) the Father for us.  He asks that His joy may be fulfilled in us (v. 13), that we may be kept from evil in the world (v. 15), that we may be sanctified through the truth (v. 17), that we may be one (21), that we may be made perfect in one (v. 23), that we may be with Him where He is (v. 24), that we may behold His glory (v. 24).  None of these things are yet ours in their fulness; but how unspeakably blessed it know that the time is coming when all of these things must be made good to us!  (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 613)

 

If God doesn’t have anything to do with your broken heart then you’ve got a bigger problem than your broken heart. . . . If God doesn’t have anything to do with your cancer then you’ve got a bigger problem than your cancer. . . . If God doesn’t have anything to do with the death of your loved one then you’ve got a bigger problem than the death of your love one. . . . If God doesn’t have anything to do with your divorce then you’ve got a bigger problem than your divorce.(Steve Brown; Who Is in Control, “1. A Solid Place to Stand”)

 

The Lord’s healing of the man born blind (9:1-41), the last major miracle He had performed in the vicinity of Jerusalem, had caused such a sensation among the people that it was still fresh in their minds several month later.  The mourners were probably mocking, but confused; they knew by experience that Jesus had the power to heal, as their reference to that previous incident indicates.  But if Jesus truly loved Lazarus as much as He appeared to, why had He delayed?  Why had He not made every effort to reach Bethany while Lazarus was still alive?  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John, 471)

 

III-              We can hope to find courage if we come out from the bondage to death and the apparent hopelessness of this world (Jn 11:43-44 see also: Psa 33:20; 42:5, 11; 43:5; 130:7; Isa 40:31; Jn 5:28-29; 16:33; Rom 8:31-39; 1 Cor 15:54-55; Eph 2:12; 1 Thess 5:8; Tit 3:7; Heb 2:14-15; 1 Pt 1:3-9)

 

There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them. — Clare Boothe Luce.

 

We have here the full result of Satan’s power, and the perfect triumphing of the Lord over that power.  Death is the result of the power of Satan.  By bringing in sin, he brought in death: “the wages of sin”; this is the utmost of Satan’s power.  (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 614)

 

Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all…As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength. (G.K. Chesterton; Signs of the Times, April 1993, 6)

 

But the one special point to which our Lord here referred, was His own glory as the Bringer of life out of death.  It was this which He came to reveal, both in His own person, by dying and rising again, and in the works of His hands–here in the raising of Lazarus.  To remove the wages of death, to undo the work which sin had wrought, to conquer him that had the power of death, to swallow up death in victory–this was indeed a special manifestation of glory.  (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 610)

 

At the sound of that Voice the king of terrors at once yielded up his lawful captive, and the insatiable grave gave up its prey.  Captivity was led captive and Christ stood forth as the Conqueror of sin, death and Satan.  There it was demonstrated that He who was in the form of a Servant, nevertheless, held in His own hand “the keys of death and hades.”  Here was public proof that the Lord Jesus had absolute power over the material world and over the realm of spirits.  (Arthur W. Pink, Exposition of the Gospel of John, 614)

 

Live until you die. — Sharon Frank

 

Jesus was and is the giver of life.  He brings a second birth to those who are dead in sin.  But his gift of forgiveness and the indwelling Spirit do not create instant, perfect Christians.  We enter Christ’s kingdom with many of the old wraps still around us.  Old habits and sinful behaviors, painful memories–all these require gentle, loving removal.  Like graveclothes, we no longer need them.  We need fellow Christians and Christ’s power to unwrap us.  It is Jesus’ command that our healing be complete.  Who can you help “unwrap?  (Bruce B. Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary: John, 237)

 

The glory of God, the revelation of his wonderful attributes (power, love, etc.), was there for all to see.  And it is that point which the evangelist wishes to emphasize, because Jesus himself stressed it (11:4).  Hence, the Lord discouraged all vain curiosity.  He did not want Lazarus to stand there a while, in order to be gaped at or to answer ever so many questions; for example, “Where was your soul?”  “How does it feel to come back to earth?”  To prevent all this and to help Lazarus, who was still handicapped by the grave-bands and the sweat-band, Jesus now issued a brisk command (probably to those standing nearest): Jesus said to them, Untie him and let him go(two aorist imperatives, the last one followed by the present infinitive).  (William Hendriksen, NT Commentary: John 7-21, 159)

 

Worship Point: Worship Jesus Who has demonstrated that if we believe in Him we can triumph over any tragedy . . .  Even death! (1 Cor 15; Heb 2:14-18; 1 Pt 1:3-9)

 

If there is no wonder, no experience of mystery, our efforts to worship will be futile.  There will be no worship without the Spirit.

 

If God can be understood and comprehended by any of our human means, then I cannot worship Him.  One thing is sure.  I will never bend my knees and say “Holy, holy, holy” to that which I have been able to decipher and figure out in my own mind!  That which I can explain will never bring me to the place of awe.  It can never fill me with astonishment or wonder or admiration.  (A. W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, 85)

 

Humanity, having been created in God’s image, and with a sense of deity indelibly written on its heart, is inescapably religious.  However, since the fall, our tendency is to attempt to create God in our own image and thus worship ourselves rather than the one in whose image we were made.  (Philip Graham Ryken, Give Praise to God A Vision for Reforming Worship, 59)

 

Christ does not approach the sepulcher as an idle spectator, but as a champion who prepares for a contest; and therefore we need not wonder that he again groans; for the violent tyranny of death, which he had to conquer, is placed before his eyes.  (Calvin’s Commentary on the Gospel of John, 442)

 

This restoration of Martha’s faith is mightier work of the Spirit than restoring Lazarus, as God views things.  Jesus looks heavenward to dramatize His communion with the Father.  The people see it.  He speaks aloud permitting them to eavesdrop.  These words and the miracle which follows are His credentials that He is from God.  He has just demonstrated His direct communication with God and is ready to back it up with an amazing sign.  (C.S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on John, 199)

 

The purpose of the prayer, in which, of course, the close relation between the Father and the Son appears, was this, that the surrounding multitude might come to believe (ingressive aorist) that Jesus is the Sent One, the true Messiah, divinely commissioned to carry out his mediatorial task.  (William Hendriksen, NT Commentary: John 7-21, 158-9)

 

Jean-Jacques von Allmen defines worship as a fierce protest against the values of the present age:  “Every time the Church assembles to [worship], to ‘proclaim the death of Christ’ (1 Cor 11:26), it proclaims also the end of the world and the failure of the world.  It contradicts the world’s claim to provide men with a valid justification for their existence, it renounces the world:  it affirms. . . that it is only on the other side of death to this world that life can assume its meaning:   on the other side of death to this world, that is, in resurrection with Christ.”  (Jean-Jacques von Allman, Worship: Its Theology and Practice, 63)  (Zac Hicks, Th e Worship Pastor, 82)

 

He did not ask God to raise Lazarus; he thanked him for having already answered.  So great was Jesus’ faith in the Father that he assumed this miracle that was necessary to his mission to be as good as done.  Only raising Lazarus would complete the expectations Jesus had aroused in the disciples and in Mary and Martha.  He said in his prayer that the transaction was already complete, but he asked for the raising of Lazarus as a convincing sign to the assembled people that he had been sent by the Father.  (Frank E. Gæbelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 9, 121)

 

When the outraged Jewish authorities demanded to know what authority He had to cleanse the temple Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn 2:19).  As John notes, “He was speaking of the temple of His body” (v. 21).  The Lord repeatedly told His disciples that He would rise from the dead (Mt 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19; Lk 24:6-7), and–as the greatest evidence of all–His resurrection proved that He was who He claimed to be.  In the words of the apostle Paul, Jesus was “declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom 1:4).  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John, 470)

 

Every time a church family gathers for worship, we come as idolaters or recovering idolaters.  We all fight allegiances to someone or something other than God that make a claim on our lives.  To pretend otherwise is to be naive and unprepared for the serious work of realignment we need.  (Mark Labberton, The Dangerous Act of Worship, 62)

                   

Gospel Application: Jesus demonstrates that He truly is the resurrection and the life and that by believing in Him, even the dead might have life in all of its abundance because Jesus is God and the Lamb of God. (Jn 10:10; Rom 8:18-25; 1 Cor 15:20-22; 2 Cor 4:7-5:10; Col 1:27; 1 Thess 4:13ff; 2 Thess 2:16; 1 Tim 1:1; Heb 2:14-18; 1 Pt 1:3-9)

 

According to Scripture, anyone without Christ is dead spiritually.  He is “dead in trespasses and sins,” as Paul wrote to the Ephesians.  As such he is helpless.  There is nothing he can do to improve his condition.  But Jesus comes.  He calls.  He calls the dead one by name.  And the one who hears his voice responds and rises from his grave to meet him.  (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 3, 895-6)

 

We are “dead in trespasses and sins.”  For separation from God is death in all regions, death for the body in its kind, death for the mind, for the soul, for the spirit in their kinds; and only they who receive Christ into their hearts do live.  Every Christian man is a miracle.  There has been a true coming into the human of the divine, a true supernatural work, the infusion into a dead soul of the God-life which is the Christ-life.  (Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: John, Chaps. IX to XIV, 106-7)

 

Spiritual Challenge: Pray to God that He might give you the faith to trust wholeheartedly in the promises He gives to us through Jesus so you might “come out” to enjoy a life without fear, worry or insignificance. (Jn 5:28-29; 10:10; 20:31; Gal 5:22-23; Eph 1:18; 1 Tim 6:19; Heb 6:18-19; 10:23)

 

If the enemy can get you to lose hope, he can get you to stop living by faith. (Jentezen Franklin, The Spirit of Python, 16)

 

Many seem to think that, first of all, the Bible has to be explained, but that is not true.  It has to be believed and obeyed!  We fail to see the tremendous difference between knowing the Word of God and knowing the God of the Word.  Conferences, rallies, missionary conventions, and church services come and go, and we remain unchanged.  We are often just a group of unbelieving believers, perhaps never so well equipped, but never so poorly endued.(Alan Redpath; The Making of a Man of God Studies in the Life of David, 130)

 

How then can Jesus invert the adage and say, “Believing is seeing”?  There is only one answer: it is because he is not speaking of men but of God.  Men are untrustworthy, but God is not like men in this respect.  “God is not a man, that he should lie,” the Scriptures tell us (Nm 23:19).  God has never made a promise that he has not fulfilled fully.  Consequently, to believe God is to put oneself in the place of blessing, from which one will certainly see all that is promised in due time.  (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Vol. 3, 893)

 

It has often been observed that the Lord’s power is so great that had He not addressed Lazarus by name, all the dead in all the graves would have come forth.  One day in the future, that is precisely what will happen.  Earlier in John’s gospel Jesus said, “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment” (5:28-29).  Jesus’ raising of Lazarus was a preview of the divine power He will display when He raises all the dead on the last day.  (John MacArthur, The MacArthur NT Commentary: John, 474)

 

Though it is not John’s point, it has often been remarked that the authority of Jesus is so great that, had he not specified Lazarus, all the tombs would have given up their dead to resurrection life.  (D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 418)

 

We are apt to forget what Christ has spoken, and need him to put us in mind of it by his Spirit: “Said I not unto thee so and so?  And dost thou think that he will ever unsay it?”  (Matthew Henry’s Commentary: Vol. V, 1057)

 

Spiritual Challenge Questions: