Today we are looking at part two of a message I have called, Seven Principles of the Seventh Sign. This miracle that Jesus did in raising Lazarus from the dead, is the seventh and final sign or attesting miracle that John records Jesus doing in His public ministry. It is a long text, and as such we don’t have the time this morning to spend exegeting every verse. However, the story as a narrative is pretty self explanatory. But there are some important doctrinal truths which are illustrated by this story which is what I want to make the focus of this message.
As I have said on numerous occasions, every miracle presented in the gospel is a parable meant to teach us spiritual principles. So is the case here in the resurrection of Lazarus. It is more than a cool story, it is given to teach us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him you might have life in His name. So to that end I have prepared this message, and the seven principles taught by this sign are these; 1, the Love of God, 2, the timing of God, 3, the Light of God, 4, the Comfort of God, 5, the Life of God, 6, the Power of God, and 7, the death of God.
Now rather than spend half our time reteaching the first four points we covered last time, I am just going to review them briefly, and encourage you to go to our website (thebeachfellowship.com) and read last’s week message if you missed it. In our last message, we noticed the first point, which is the Love of God. The emphasis of the text being that of Jesus’ love of Lazarus and not vice a versa. This principle is restated in 1John 4:10 which says, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” His love for us is both familial and sacrificial. Familial, like His love for Lazarus, Mary and Martha who were like His family. And sacrificial because He was willing to lay down His life for His friends. Ephesians 5 says that Christ loves the church in a similar way as a husband loves his bride. And the sub point from that was that God’s love for us does not mean that we will not suffer, but that He will be with us in our suffering, even as Jesus’ love for Lazarus did not mean that Lazarus would not suffer, but that his suffering was to further the kingdom of God.
The second principle we pointed out was the timing of God. We saw in vs.6 that after hearing that Lazarus was sick, Jesus did not leave for two more days. And we learned through this principle that in our petitions to God and expectations of God, we must submit to the timing of God. His ways are not our ways. His time is on a different scale sometimes than ours. But ultimately, we need to trust that He is good, and that He is working all things together for good, to those that are called according to His purpose.
The third principle was the light of God. In vs.9, Jesus said “If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.” So if you have the light of God’s truth within you, then you will never be in darkness. Darkness being in this case a simile for death. Jesus said in John 8:12, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” The light of God produces the life of God which can never be extinguished.
And the fourth principle that we spent a lot of time on, was the comfort of God. In vs.11, Jesus said, ““Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep.” We discussed the meaning of the phrase “fallen asleep” and how that relates to the death of believers, whose body sleeps in the grave, but whose spirit is alive in Paradise. And we showed you several scriptures which talk about the comfort that believers have in Christ when they pass from this life to the next. We examined the story given by Jesus about another man named Lazarus, who was a lame man who laid at the gate of a rich man, and Jesus said when he died the angels took him to Paradise, which He referred to as Abraham’s bosom. So we understand the comfort which we have in Christ is that He will take us to be with Him in Paradise, where we will live and be comforted until the day of resurrection, when we shall be raised with an incorruptible, new body and be forever with the Lord. So the comfort is that even in death we will live if we are in Christ.
So up to this point we have seen the love of God, the timing of God, the light of God, and the comfort of God. And that brings us this morning to #5, the life of God. Jesus said in vs.25, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?"
And let me preface this principle of the Life of God by saying this; man was not designed to live independently of God. We were designed to live with God, as one with God and to have spiritual life in God. God said in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that He has planted eternity in our hearts, that is, we are designed to have the eternal life of God in our hearts. And without that life of God in us, there is a void in our hearts that nothing on this earth can fill.
Now we can only know that kind of life through the Spirit of God, who gives life to our spirit. If you will remember, when Adam and Eve sinned, they were separated from the presence of God, and their spirit died immediately. That was the death promised by God that would happen if they ate of the tree in disobedience. Their spiritual connection and communion with God was the source of life. Without Him, their spirit died. The body followed soon afterwards. But from the moment of separation from God they were actually considered dead, because they were dead spiritually. They were separated from the life and light of God which sustains life. As a result of their sin, spiritual death passed on to all men, so that all men are born spiritually dead.
But because God loved mankind, God prepared a way to reconcile man to Him once again. God became flesh and blood like us, in the man Christ Jesus, and as our substitute, He paid the penalty of death for us, so that we who believe in Him might be reconciled to God. That means we were given life once again to our spirit. That’s what Jesus meant in John 3:16 when He said, “You must be born again. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.” That means that once we are born again in the spirit we have fellowship/communion once again with God. We walk with Him spiritually and physically. That means we are one with God, because His Spirit dwells in us, and as such He is our head, our authority, our ruling authority. He is the governing entity of our life. He guides us in every aspect of life.
Not only then is Christ the life which gives life to every man, but as He said, He is the source of life; the resurrection and the life. He resurrects us from spiritual death that we might have spiritual life. That is why He said He who believes in Me will live even if He dies, and everyone who lives (that is spiritually is made alive) will never die. Those who by faith believe in all that Christ is and came to do are resurrected from spiritual death and given new life, which will never be affected by physical death. That is the promise of Christ unto salvation. And that is the picture that we see illustrated in baptism, which we are celebrating this morning.
And that resurrection power is what Jesus is illustrating by this miracle. Jesus did not come to Earth to raise every dead person just to live for a little while longer but then die again eventually. But He did this miracle to show conclusively that He was the source of life; that is the Creator, that He had authority over life and death as God; and that we might have real life in His name. Jesus spoke of His authority over life in John 10:17-18 "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” And in an even more explicit declaration, Jesus said in John 14:6, ”I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
Now there is so much more we could say, but we must hurry, our time is limited. So let’s look at the next principle; #6. The Power of God. The power of God is encapsulated by the words of Jesus is vs.46, “Lazarus, come forth.” Jesus spoke to Lazarus, not in the grave, but in Hades, in Paradise. What power, that speaks from the abode of the living to the abode of the dead, and exercises power over that realm and the spirits there. Who not only has the power to beckon spirits with a word, but the power to reclaim ruined flesh. Lazarus’s body had already started to decompose after four days. And yet he came out of the tomb as normal flesh and blood without deterioration. That is the power of the Creator. The power of life in God.
There are three sub points under this heading that I just want to bring out though briefly. And that is that the power of God finds it’s origin in the compassion of God, it finds it’s expression in the call of God, and it finds it’s manifestation in the glory of God. The compassion of God we see illustrated in vs.33 and 35, when Jesus sees their grief and was deeply troubled in His own Spirit. And then in vs.35, Jesus wept. As the old hymn says, He had no tears for His own grief, but sweat drops of blood for mine. Jesus wept out of compassion for His creation who were held in bondage under the fear of death. So because of that compassion, God sent Jesus to suffer and die for mankind, even while they were yet sinners, Christ died for them.
The second sub point under the power of God is the call of God. Jesus said in chapter 10, My sheep hear my voice, and I call them by name and they follow Me. Lazarus was called by Christ and He came forth from death in answer to that call, just as certainly as those whom Jesus calls today hear His call and come in response to that call. The Bible says that Jesus is the author and finisher of our salvation. His call is what awakens us out of our deadness and darkness, and calls us into light and life as illustrated by His effectual call of Lazarus from the dead.
As Paul says in Romans 8:30 “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” Predestined means that He chose us for salvation before we were even born, and glorified means that He will finish the good work in us that He has begun. That speaks of the power of God over the future.
And that segues into the third sub point of the power of God which is it manifests the glory of God. Jesus said in vs.40, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” The glory of God is the power of God manifested. John, speaking of the transformation with Moses and Elijah, when Jesus was on the mountain and the glory of God came upon Him so that He glowed with a tremendous light, said in John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Jesus revealed His glory when He called Lazarus to come forth from the dead. He revealed His power, the power of God, which is able to raise the dead into life. This power is the hope that we have, that Christ will one day come in the clouds in all of HIs glory, to take up His church, His bride, and then we will be raised in a glorified body to be with Him forever.
The final point we will look at quickly this morning is the death of God. And we don’t need to spend a lot of time on this point because we have mentioned it in almost every principle so far. But at the end of this chapter, we see Christ’s enemies, the Pharisees and chief priests, convene a council to discuss what to do about Jesus. They have already tried to kill Him numerous times. Now they say that His fame after doing this miracle will mean that even more people will believe in Him and they will lose their positions of power among the Romans.
But Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.” Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.”
So though the chief priests and Pharisees meant this for evil, yet God meant it for good. In this principle then we see the plan of God come full circle. It was decided before the world began that God would create a world, and on that world He would make man, that He would love mankind, that mankind would be His companion, be His helpmate, even would be His bride. But God wanted mankind to not respond to Him as the animals who act instinctively, but to choose to love Him and to obey Him. So though Satan would seduce man to fall through sin, yet God had a plan from eternity past to send Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins. The love of God provided a substitute to pay the penalty for our iniquities. Jesus would voluntarily lay down His life for His sheep, that we might be brought into the fold of God.
This sign of the resurrection of Lazarus is an illustration, not of just a dramatic supernatural miracle, but of the entire majestic scope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As I quoted earlier it is the illustration of the verse which says Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. But it is more than just a lot of doctrinal theory. It offers practical hope for the spiritually dead men and women who are living in this world without the light of God, without Christ in their life. It is the hope of spiritual life that is available through faith in Christ as their Lord and Savior. It is the hope of life that will never fade away, that will never die, but will continue to live even if it dies. And this hope can be your hope. You can know the life that is possible in Christ. Romans 10:9 says, “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. And the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” And Jesus said in John 5:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
Today is your opportunity to receive the free gift of life that is possible through Christ. Simply confess Him as your Lord and Savior, and believe in Him for salvation. I pray you do not let this opportunity pass you by.
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