Jesus has the power to do the unexplainable to overcome death...

This week, we have been looking at a section of an account in Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of John. Wednesday we looked on as Jesus said to a woman named Martha “I am the One who brings life from death when one places their trust in Me. I am the One who brings reconciliation with God from separation from God when one places their trust in Me.” Jesus then asked Martha a timeless and powerful question: ‘”Do you believe this?” In other words Jesus asks Martha: “Are you willing to trust Me”?

We discovered that the question is not whether or not we live forever. The question is where are we going to live as we live forever? Are we going to live for all eternity in the relationship with God that we were created for as a result of responding to what God has done for us through Jesus life, death, and resurrection by believing, trusting, and following Jesus? Or are we going to live separated from God for all eternity because we refused to believe, trust and follow Jesus? Today, we will see John reveal for us how Martha answered that question in John 11:27:

 She said to Him, "Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world."

Martha basically says to Jesus “Jesus, You are large and in charge of my life. Jesus, I have placed my confident trust in You as the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a rescuer and a deliverer to bring me back to God. I am trusting that God has sent You to earth to bring us back to God.” But Martha here is not simply making a profession. John reveals for us how Martha demonstrated that she possessed a relationship that trusted in Jesus in verse 28:

 When she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to Him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and consoling her, when they saw that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept.

Mary hits at the core of our response when we find ourselves, as followers of Jesus, in the midst of difficult circumstances; “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died”. Jesus, if you had been here, I would still be married. Jesus, if you had been here, I would still have a job. Jesus, if you had been here, my wife would not have died of cancer. Jesus, if you had been here, my son would not be addicted to drugs”.  Jesus where were you?

You see, so often we have a picture and perspective of difficult circumstances that looks something like this: “God, I just got the news that I have cancer, but that’s o.k. because I know that you gave me cancer so that I could be miraculously healed and through that miraculous healing you will receive glory”.

However, sometimes, the difficult circumstances, from God’s perspective, looks like this: “yes you have cancer, but you are not going to get any better. You are just going to be really, really sick for a really long time and then you are going to die. I am going to receive glory not by you being miraculously healed from cancer; I am going to receive glory by how you live your life with cancer until you die”. Now, for some of you, in your mind this is what is happening “I am not listening, I am not listening; God is not like that, God is not like that”. Yes He is. That is why this story is in the Bible.

But notice what else we see about Jesus response to Mary and Martha’s grief, hurt and pain. Jesus did not avoid and remain distant from their grief and pain. Instead, John tells us that Jesus was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled. Now the phrase, deeply moved, in the language that this letter was originally written in, means to feel strongly about something. You see, Jesus was not apathetically detached from the grief, hurt, and pain that His close friends were experiencing.

In addition, the word troubled here literally means to experience deep inward turmoil. You see, Jesus was unsettled and stirred at the core of His being at the grief, hurt, and pain at the death of His close friend, whom He loved. And as the strong and stirring emotion of what Jesus was experiencing broke over Him like an ocean wave, John tells us that Jesus wept. Jesus wept over the brokenness of Mary and Martha in their grief, hurt, and pain. Jesus wept over the brokenness of Lazarus body. Jesus wept over the brokenness of the world that He had created. And Jesus wept over the brokenness of His own heart over the death of His close friend.

Now I find the fact that Jesus wept incredibly comforting. I find the fact that Jesus wept incredible comforting not simply because Jesus experienced grief and sorrow. I find the fact that Jesus wept incredibly comforting because Jesus desires to enter our lives and journey with us as we live life. Jesus came to earth and became one of us so that He could enter into our lives and journey with us through the uncertainty that life brings.

Regardless of the source or cause of where we are in life, Jesus desires to walk the journey with us. And as Jesus walked the journey with Martha and Mary, we see how others responded to what was happening in verse 36:

 So the Jews were saying, "See how He loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?" So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.

As we have seen throughout this series, Jesus once again causes a division among those around Him. While some applauded His love and concern for those He loved, others were critical of His absence and inaction. There were those who drew the conclusion that a lack of activity on Jesus part was due to the fact that Jesus was absent and unconcerned.

However, just as it was for Mary, and Martha, just because we feel like God is silent, that does not mean that God is not present and full invested in our difficult circumstances. Rick Warren once said “The teacher is always silent when the test is given. When God is silent in your life, you are being tested”. But God’s silence does not mean that God is absent and unconcerned. John then reveals for us what happened next in verse 39:

  Jesus said, "Remove the stone." Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days."

Martha basically says to Jesus, "You know Jesus, it has been four days since we asked you to come. It has been four days since Lazarus has been dead, so you don’t want to remove the stone because; as the Old King James Version says “He stinketh”. Notice Jesus response to Martha in verse 40:

Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"

 In other words, Jesus says to Martha, “Martha, did I not tell you that your trust in Me will result in God receiving glory? Martha are you going to trust Me? Do you trust Me enough to follow Me during the difficult times? Do you trust Me enough to be able to see how God is going to use what I am about to do to make much of Him?” What happens next is another event in history in that is unexplainable. An event in history that John records for us beginning in John 11:41:

 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. "I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me." When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth." The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.

Now, this morning, I want us to take a moment and imagine ourselves in this event from history as Lazarus. I want us to place ourselves in his shoes. Can you imagine what was going through Lazarus mind in the moments before he died? Was he questioning God? Did he doubt God? Or was he thinking “I don’t know how this is going to turn out, but I know God is going to do something through this?” The Bible doesn’t say.

Can you imagine what was running through Mary and Martha’s mind? What they were thinking? How were they feeling? The Bible doesn’t say. Can you imagine what was going through the disciples mind? What were they thinking? How were they feeling? Did the conversations over the previous four days suddenly make sense? The Bible doesn’t say.

What the Bible does tell us is that as a result of Jesus doing the unexplainable by bringing back Lazarus from the dead, many people placed their confident trust in Jesus as being the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a rescuer and deliverer to bring them back to God.

And it is in this event from history that that we see revealed for us a timeless truth when it comes to Jesus. And that timeless truth is that  Jesus has the power to do the unexplainable to overcome death. Just as it was with this unexplainable activity involving bringing back a man whom He had loved and who had died, just as it has been throughout history, Jesus has the power to do the unexplainable to overcome death.

You see Jesus, in doing the unexplainable, was providing a sign that was designed to reveal and point people to something significant about who He is and what He came to earth to do. And that sign was that Jesus has power as God to intervene and act in a way that overcomes death. Jesus has the power as God to provide the eternal and spiritual life that we so desperately need. 

And that is what Easter is all about. Easter is about God responding to the selfishness and rebellion of humanity that separated humanity from God by sending His Son Jesus as God in a bod to humanity in order to live the life that we were created to live and refused to live. Easter is all about Jesus willingly allowing Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life. Easter is all about the reality that Jesus died on the cross, was buried in a tomb dead as a door nail, and was brought back to life as a result of God’s transformational activity.

You see the core message of the gospel, which simply means good news; the essence of Christianity is not about theology. The core message of the gospel and the essence of Christianity revolves around an event that occurred in history. What makes the Bible so compelling and different than other religious literature is that Christianity is rooted in history.

So here is a question to consider: Do you believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life? Do you believe that Jesus has the power to do the unexplainable to overcome death?