The reading of God's Word comes to us out of the Gospel according to John. Chapter 11, verses 17 through 27 will be our sermon text. But in order to gain a little bit of context, we're going to start our reading in chapter 11, verse 1. And if you're looking for that, I believe that's page 1141 in your pew Bibles. So the reading of God's Word comes tonight, comes from John chapter 11. we will start reading in verse 1. Brothers and sisters, I do remind you that this is God's holy word. Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 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, the one whom you love is ill. 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 might be glorified through it. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 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 are you going there again? 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. 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 that he meant taking rest in sleep. 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 twin, said to his fellow disciples, let us go also, that we may die with him. And now our text this evening. Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 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. 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. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And 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. Thus ends the reading of God's word so far. May the Lord bless its hearing. There are none of us who have gathered here this evening who have not in some way or another been touched by death. Death is a solemn and an emotional topic. And I think that's because it's so very real and so very present with all of us. Whether you're sitting here and you can identify with Mary because you too have lost a loved one, a friend, or a family member, or perhaps you yourself have faced your own mortality in sickness or illness, Whatever it may be, it seems as if death is an inescapable topic. That's not really for want of trying, is it? You see, we are taught in our culture that the best way to counter the reality of death is just to try and deny it. And so whether maybe we inoculate ourselves to this anxiety over death with a variety of entertainment media, television, internet, sports, however you may fill in that blank, it seems as if we have been taught from a young age that the best way to deal with death is just to close our eyes to it and ignore it. Or maybe for you, that pendulum swings hard and fast the other way. And instead of trying to deny death, Instead, you try and desensitize yourself to it, by which I mean you expose yourself to it so much that eventually you're numb to it. If you want evidence of this, go out and buy a ticket to the most recent Hollywood blockbuster, or just turn on the evening news. In our culture, we are surrounded with violence. Violence itself sells. So wherever you find yourself on that spectrum, whichever way that pendulum may swing for you, whether you're trying to deny death by drowning yourself in a sea of distractions or by numbing yourself to it, what we find is that this anxiety over the reality of death has been one of the most driving and fundamental concerns of the human race almost as far back as history goes. friends death is like our shadow run from it as fast as you may want you will still find it at your feet and when we finally do face up to this reality of death in whatever way it may manifest itself often it will crush us and it will bring about in us a weight of deep grief or maybe worse we might even come to this point where we question the purpose of our own existence. This moment of anxiety, fear, and despair, it's one that is well captured by the author of the book of Ecclesiastes. In chapter 9, verse 4, he writes this, For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Their love and their hate, their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun. You see, the point that I'm trying to make is this. If all of human history can kind of be looked at as a story, then the great antagonist or the great enemy is death. And despite our best efforts this is an enemy that we have proven ourselves time and again unable to defeat but the message of our passage this evening is that god has sent his champion to do battle with death on your behalf it is because jesus christ has come that the tyranny of death has ended and now all those who believe in him are granted the promise of eternal life that is kind of the center the centerpiece of our passage in the centerpiece of our sermon so i'm going to repeat it for you because jesus christ has come the tyranny of death has ended and now all those who believe in him are granted the promise of eternal life we're going to see this play out in our passage this evening in two ways first we're going to look at Martha. And we're going to look at this expression of grief with which she cries out to Jesus when she meets him on the road. And then we're going to look at Christ's response to Martha and the comfort and the hope that he offers her, which is far greater than she could have ever even dared imagine. So the first movement of our text this evening we will title Martha's Mourning. And the second point, if you will, will be titled, Christ's Comfort. So let's turn now to our first point this evening, Martha's Mourning. Read with me again, if you will, verse 17. Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. Right away, we see that the scene of our passage this morning, the stage is set by a group of Jews who have come down from Jerusalem to comfort Martha and Mary. Now it's worth our time to pause and take a brief aside and to think of these Jews who have come down from Jerusalem. You see, typically within John's gospel, whenever he refers to the Jews, he's referring to a group of people who are hostile to Jesus and to his ministry. If you can recall, one chapter before our passage in chapter 10, it was the Jews who surrounded Jesus in the temple precincts and lifted up large rocks with which to stone him and to kill him that is why when jesus in chapter 11 says let us go to judea again his disciples respond with a lot of surprise but we shouldn't necessarily import that into our text this evening you see it was a common part of first century jewish piety to interrupt your schedule and to go and to mourn with those who were mourning when they had lost someone. So likely, when we read about these Jews in our passage, we should just think of them as those who have come down from Jerusalem to observe that practice. But what do we see? We see that the earthly comfort offered by the Jews in their presence, it wasn't enough for Martha. Martha was seeking a greater comfort than they could offer, Undoubtedly, she was expecting Jesus. She had been expecting him ever since Lazarus had first started to show signs of becoming deathly ill. She and her sister, Mary, had sent to Jesus immediately. But Jesus had not followed Martha's timeline. They sent for him, hoping that he would come and heal Lazarus and snatch him back from the jowls of death. But he was slow in coming. and Lazarus died. But still, Martha waited. So great was her eager expectation for the arrival of Jesus that as soon as she hears of his coming, she springs up and she goes and she meets him along the road. She doesn't even allow him to come into Bethany. And what do we see as soon as she intercepts him on the road? When she does, the grief that she's been carrying kind of wells up. And in expression of the grief and the weight of grief of losing her brother, she says to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Now Martha's family is obviously very close to Jesus. We've learned from our reading of chapter 11 that Jesus loved Martha, and he loved Mary, and he loved Lazarus. It is not a very far stretch of the imagination for us to think that Martha had not just heard of Jesus' miracles, but perhaps she had seen them. She hadn't just heard someone else teach her the words of Jesus, but it is very likely that she had heard his teaching from his own mouth. The point is that she knew who Jesus was. She knew that he was the one whose very presence could have stayed death's hand. So where was he? Why had he not come sooner? Why had he allowed Lazarus to die? This is the weight of grief that Martha is carrying when she expresses her words to Jesus. And brothers and sisters, I think that this is a weight of grief with which we are all painfully so familiar. Perhaps you've lost a loved one. Perhaps, like our text, a family member who's been very dear to you has passed. Maybe you yourself have become sick. Someone else you know or loved has, in whatever way you could fill in that blank, you too have experienced some sort of trauma, some sort of pain in this life that has caused you to feel that weight of grief when you confront death. And perhaps you too in that moment have wanted to cry out to the Lord and say, oh God, if you had only been here, this would not have happened. But you were slow in coming, and so it did. Or maybe you even take it a step further. And when you experience the heat of trauma, or whatever it may be in life that caused you to come face to face with death, you try and pinpoint a particular sin in your own life that led to it. This is illustrated for us in John chapter 9. There Jesus was walking with his disciples, and as he was doing so, they saw a man who was born blind from birth. And Jesus' disciple said to him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? You see, the point is that in the midst of our tragedy, if we are not quick to cry out and say to God, where were you? We may be quick to cry out, what could I have possibly done to deserve this? But in either way, we are tempted in those moments to accuse God either of weakness or injustice. But recall how Jesus replied to his disciple. He said to him, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the work of God might be displayed in him. This is very similar to how Jesus reacts when he hears of Lazarus' death. in our passage. He says, this illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God might be glorified through it. Friends, what we are being reminded of is that God is sovereign over even the worst events of our life, even when life tastes most bitter. We are assured from God's word that all of these things come to us because he has ordained them, and he has even ordained them to accomplish good purposes in you whom he has called, and ultimately for his own glory. This holds true even if in the heat of the moment, you cannot perceive it. Even if in the heat of your suffering, it's hard to remember that truth. You see, in chapter 9, the man was not born blind because of the sin of himself or of his parents. And certainly, in our passage, Lazarus had not died because Jesus was just whimsical in his slowness of coming. No. All of this was done, what did we read, so that the glory of God might be made manifest and that it might be done in such a way that those who see these things believe in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Look with me, if you will, at verse 22 and we'll continue to see what Martha says. Even though Martha has just spoken out of the depth of her grief. Her faith is still firmly in Jesus. She acknowledges that he is the one who has such a unique relationship with God that whatever he may ask God, God will give him. Now we should pause and ask ourselves, was this kind of Martha's subtle way of asking Jesus to raise Lazarus? Was that what she was expecting? I don't think so. You see, later in our chapter, when Jesus does come to Lazarus' tomb, and he says, roll away the stone, Martha is the first person to protest. She says to him, no, Lord, he's been in the tomb for four days, so he is going to smell bad. The point is that Martha did not expect resurrection. Rather, Martha is confessing that even though her brother has died, even this has not shaken her faith in Jesus. Even now she is expecting him to be the one to provide her with comfort in the midst of her grief. So to all of this, how does Jesus respond to her? He says, your brother will rise again. can you almost sense maybe a flatness to that response or perhaps maybe just a tinge of disappointment on Martha's behalf when he says this you see recall those Jews who had come down from Jerusalem to comfort Mary and Martha undoubtedly they had done so from their common faith so it is very likely that at this point four days after her brother has died she has heard the words, your brother will rise again many times. We too kind of have those stock phrases that we say in the wake of death, which as true and as well-meaning as they may be, have become almost overused to the point where they provide very little comfort to us. I mean, how many times have we heard some variation of, he's in a better place now? But you see, what we as readers of john's gospel we understand more of what jesus meant when he said your brother will rise again than martha did you see we understand that when jesus said those words your brother will rise again he was looking beyond her and had had in his view the tombs of bethany in the distance and when he was saying this he meant immediately but martha did not understand jesus to mean this that is why she confesses her faith in response in the general resurrection of the dead someday martha knows the terror and death the terror of death and disorder will be undone someday she will see her brother again some future and unknown day all of the grief of this life will be undone but today her brother is still in the tomb and her grief is still raw so far in our passage what we've seen is the weight of Martha's grief and expectation we've seen her cry out to the Lord oh Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died but we've also heard her say even now she expects him to be the source of her comfort and what's more what we've also seen is that in Martha's grief we've been able to see our own we too are the ones who suffer with this tremendous weight of grief when we confront death when we confront grief and the trials and the reality of death in this life but now Jesus has come and he is not about to comfort Martha only with the truth of some far off day of resurrection but he turns her hope towards himself as the resurrection and the life so with this in mind let's turn now to our second point christ's comfort read with me if you will verse 25 i am the resurrection and the life whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? So far in John's gospel, we've come across many I am statements from Jesus. He has said, I am the light of the world. He has said, I am the true bread of heaven which has come down. And once he has even just said, I am. but this is the last and the climactic I am statement that Jesus makes in the gospel of John. He doesn't say it again after this, and the emphasis really is on the I. You see, that day which was yet to come in Martha's mind, Jesus was saying, was now present in himself. Jesus was not just trying to comfort Martha only with the knowledge of the future day, of the resurrection. But he was pointing her hope towards himself as the one who brings and begins that resurrection. To kind of make a little bit clearer what Jesus says when he calls himself the resurrection, let's briefly take a look at the way Jesus uses the word resurrection throughout John's gospel. You see, there's only one other place in the gospel of John where Jesus uses the same word for resurrection that he attributes to himself in our passage. You don't have to turn there, but that is in John chapter 5, verses 25 and following. You see, in that scene, Jesus had just healed a man who was paralyzed. And the Pharisees, in observing this miracle, confront Jesus and accuse him of blasphemy in making himself equal with God. And in response to the Pharisees, Jesus says to them 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 for as the father has life in himself so he has granted the son also to have life in himself and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, 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 to the resurrection of judgment. Right away, this should strike you as familiar. Jesus responds to the Pharisees by warning them that an hour is both coming but yet also has come when those who are in the tomb will hear the voice of the son of man and they will come out what is about to happen in our chapter just a few verses later lazarus in the tomb is about to hear the voice of the son of man and come out this is typical of Jesus in John's gospel. He will not only make these dramatic claims about himself, but then he will also back it up with a miraculous act. Jesus doesn't just say, I am the light of the world. He says it, and then he opens up the eyes of a man born blind. He doesn't just say, as the Father has life in himself, so I have life in myself. He says that, And then he raises Lazarus from the dead by the word of his power, saying, Lazarus, come out. You see, the point here is that our passage and chapter 11 is kind of a dramatization and a partial fulfillment of what Jesus says in chapter 5. But that fulfillment is still only partial. You see, that final resurrection of the dead, which we confessed not moments ago in our own Apostles' Creed, that day is still yet to come, when the righteous will be raised to the resurrection of life and the wicked unto the resurrection of judgment. So when Jesus calls himself the resurrection and the life, he is telling us that he alone is the only means by which we may escape the resurrection unto judgment see that is what we mean when we call the resurrection general it is happening to all of us sinners and saints but it is only for those who are in christ for whom that day of resurrection will not be a day of horror you see this day it may be yet to come but what jesus is telling martha is just as the morning sun rises over the mountains and shines its light into the waning night, so also spiritually Jesus has begun the resurrection in himself. We can almost paraphrase Jesus's words here as if to say, I am the resurrection of the last day and the life by which you are delivered from judgment. My friends, this is the comfort which all of us who have placed our faith in Christ are called to. Yes, we still long for that day when death will be just a memory and tears will be no more. But for you who have placed your faith in Christ and in Christ alone, there's a spiritual benefit to that resurrection which you enjoy now. You see, we know from God's word that physical death, it is just a mere symptom of a greater disease. And that is spiritual death, which is the result of your sin, the result of my sin. This is what Paul is getting at in Ephesians chapter 2, when he says that you were once dead in your sins and in your trespasses. My friends, apart from Christ, our spiritual condition is far worse than any physical ailment that we may encounter in this world. Any grief, worldly grief, that we may suffer while we are on this pilgrim way. Apart from Christ, spiritually, we are not sick. We are not dying. We are dead. We are like Lazarus, four days in the tomb, stinking. and rotting before god but friends god has not abandoned us in our sin and in our misery in our hopelessness god has provided a far greater hope than we like martha could have ever dared or imagined in jesus christ god has provided the final solution to the problem of death which has cursed us since genesis 3 remember genesis 3 what did god say to adam he said in the day which you eat of that fruit you shall surely die brothers and sisters we have been living in that day of adam ever since and it is a day which is qualified by darkness spiritual darkness and by sin but for all of us who have placed our faith in christ the day of adam has ended and in christ a new day has begun the last day in which death is consumed by life my friends christ has come and if you have placed your faith in him then all of your sins past, present, and future, they have been forgiven. That root, that cause of your spiritual death, it has been dealt with. Jesus Christ has stood outside of the tombs of your hearts, just as he stood outside of the tomb of Lazarus, and he has called you to life. That is the resurrection that we enjoy now, spiritual resurrection, the regeneration of our souls that comes with faith. But that does not mean that just because we place our faith in Christ, our life from here on out now is going to be easy. For a while, Christians and non-Christians alike will both lose loved ones to death. We're still going to get sick. We're still going to get hurt. We're still going to struggle with the reality of physical death on this earth. But my friends, whatever weight of grief this world can throw at us pales in comparison to the weight of glory which is laid up for all of those who have placed their faith in Christ. All of the struggles of this world, even death itself, cannot separate you now from the love of God that is in Christ, because your spirit has been raised to a life that is incorruptible. Yes, your body may die, but not your spirit. It will go to be with the Lord immediately. And all of us have this promise, this certain joy that we can hold fast to, that even our bodies will be raised one day, And we will live a life everlasting in the presence of God. Truly the worst aspect of death, its greatest sting, it has been removed because of Christ who is our resurrection and our life. What's more, we know that whatever we endure on this earth, it's not meaningless. No grief or trial comes to you as simply the empty affliction of meaningless chaos. Whatever comes your way, it has been ordained by your loving and heavenly Father, and it is given to you from his hand, and it must serve your salvation. This is the comfort of Christ. So in closing, all of us here this evening have, in one way or another, been touched by death. Not only because of the pain of losing a friend, a family member, or a loved one, but because all of us have tasted of spiritual death because of our sin. Friends, if you hear nothing else, if you walk away this evening with nothing else, walk away with this. If you have not yet placed your faith in Christ and in him alone for your salvation, you are still dead in your sins and in your trespasses. you are still in that day of adam sealed tightly in the tomb but if you do place your faith in christ and in christ alone then you have nothing to fear from that last enemy called death jesus christ is the one who died for you and suffered on the cross all of the hell that you deserve and has now raised your spirit to a new and incorruptible life. We have this sure and certain promise that as certainly as Christ lives at the right hand of the Father, so we too spiritually have been raised from our death in sin and one day we'll join him there. You are reconciled to God forever by Christ who is your resurrection from spiritual death. And the life by which you are delivered from judgment. Because Jesus Christ has come, the tyranny of death has ended. And now all those who believe in him are granted the promise of eternal life. Amen. Let's pray. Father, once more, we thank you for your word. And we do thank you for the testimony that it bears concerning Christ Jesus, our Lord and our Savior. The one who has made perfect satisfaction for our sin, who has resurrected us from spiritual death and now makes us partakers of his life. Father, we pray that you would comfort us this evening with your word. And as we go about into another week, and as we go out into the world again, Lord, it is certain that we will there face trials, temptation, sickness, illness, and death itself. And when we are met with that weight of grief, Lord, I pray that you would remind us that it is your will that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and that you will raise him up on the last day. In Jesus' name we pray all these things together. Amen.