Throughout John 11, Jesus has challenged both the Jews and us on what Love, Death, Grief and Resurrection look like in the Kingdom of God.
• And as we will see, because His challenges are at odds with the status quo, they demand to be reckoned with.
• In our text today, three areas of contention are brought to bear as the Jews reckon with the Kingdom of God.
o The first is Reason’s relationship to Belief
o The second is Jesus’ Identity
o The third is who is in Control
1) IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD – REASON IS NOT ENOUGH
John 11:45–46 (ESV) — 45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
This text is remarkable in what it implies.
• Some of those who were mourning with Mary and Martha over the death of Lazarus actually “believed in him” because of Lazarus.
• And remember, in John, to believe in Jesus means, among other things, that Jesus is of the Father and works under his authority.
• Remarkably, however, some actually did not believe in Him!
• They were confronted with the most awesome of supernatural miracles and still did not believe.
o Surely they believed Lazarus was now alive.
o Surely they believed Jesus had something to do with it.
o However, their conclusion was Jesus was a potential problem not a Messiah.
o I think the Gospel of John teaches clearly that those that aren’t called, drawn, and given by the Father to Christ, simply didn’t have eyes to see.
o They interpreted the evidence as their hearts saw fit.
• This begs the question, was the raising of Lazarus really the source of belief for those that believed?
o Or was it something else?
o The miracle was perhaps just a means to call the called.
• Jesus Himself has addressed the presence of unbelief by those who witness His power and authority.
o How does He account for it?
Just last week Lewis Wolpert, an atheist biologist at University College London, made the following comments in an episode of Unbelievable? Radio:
• He says God is a “mystical person for which there is zero evidence”.
• And wants to know if God is real why He doesn’t perform a miracle.
• In fact, God certainly hasn’t performed a miracle in the last 2000 years, Wolpert claims.
• He says, “If God is so jolly clever, why doesn’t he give us a more recent example [of a miracle], like tomorrow?”
• This is because, “a miracle would be very helpful in explaining the existence of God”.
What is Wolpert saying?
• Now, does the unbelief that persisted before the very presence of the incarnate Word of God’s raising Lazarus from the dead shed light on the premise of Mr. Wolpert?
• In other words, does belief in God necessarily follow from witnessing a miracle?
Contrasted with Wolpert, G.K. Chesterton has the following to say about miracles:
• "I had always vaguely felt facts to be miracles in the sense that they are wonderful: now I began to think them miracles in the stricter sense that they were willful."
• Hebrews 1:3 (ESV) — 3a He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
• Colossians 1:17 (ESV) — 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
• Psalm 75:3 (ESV) — 3 When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars. Selah
From the perspective and teaching of John’s Gospel, what is the difference between Lewis Wolpert who sees God in nothing and Chesterton who sees a miracle of God in the fact that there are facts that we can know?
2) IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD – WHO IS JESUS?
Within the kingdom that Jesus is inaugurating, the Jews inevitably had to answer two questions.
• We will deal with each separately.
John 11:47–48 (ESV) — 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
Who Is Jesus – Messiah or Threat?
• The unbelievers told the Pharisees, and then the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin.
• Rightly, the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin were greatly concerned with the implications Jesus’ work would have on them.
• Unfortunately, however, their concern was misplaced.
• They were preoccupied with the political implications instead of the spiritual implications of Jesus’ work.
• And worse still, notice that they specifically were concerned that the Romans would take away, “our place” and “our nation”.
• Their fear was a self-serving; “this Jesus is going to screw up our cozy arrangements with the Romans”.
Why did they have this fear?
• There are at least two reasons.
Pax Romana:
• Rome allowed the Jews to remain semi-autonomous.
• They could worship their God.
• They could maintain their temple, etc.
• However, in threat of an uprising by the Jews the Romans would crack down.
• Peace would be maintained but at the loss of liberty.
Jesus’ own words and actions:
• With His words and actions, Jesus was drawing large crowds, many of which were seeking to label Him the Messiah and overthrow Rome.
• These same words and actions were also seen as an affront to God and Judaism.
• And because of this, certain events began to draw the ire of the Jewish establishment.
o Healing on the Sabbath – John 5:15-17
o Claiming Equality with God – John 5:18
o His Self Proclamation – John 7:28-30
o His “I Am” Statement – John 8:58-59
So, having decided Jesus was a threat to their status quo, a solution had to be found.
• This leads us to our second question.
3) IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD – WHO IS IN CONTROL?
John 11:49–54 (ESV) — 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death. 54 Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples.
Who is in control – God or man?
• Here we have a powerful, in your face example of the sovereignty of God.
• Caiaphas, in agreement with the “our place” and “our nation” talk, knew exactly what they had to do to solve their problem.
• Kill Jesus so that everyone else would not go down in flames at the hands of a Roman crackdown.
• We know this because John tells us that after Caiaphas’ words, they, “made plans to put him to death” (vs. 53).
• Beasley-Murray tells us that the language of vs. 53 is so definitive it means that there is no adjudication to take place because the verdict has already been rendered.
o Jesus has already been found guilty.
o “All that remains is to find a way to accomplish their purpose.”
• The logic was that if they killed Jesus, they could prevent a messianic frenzy and thus the loss of the “whole nation”.
o Ironically, Jesus himself feared such an upheaval (John 6:14-15).
o Moreover, the Kingdom of God and its new covenant could not be thwarted.
o 70 A.D. would bring an end to Jewish temple life and their cozy arrangements.
But John makes a startling admission about Caiaphas’ words.
• He says, “He did not say this of his own accord” (vs. 51).
• In fact, Caiaphas’ words were a prophecy that “Jesus would die for the nation” (vs. 51).
• And that Jesus would even die for the “scattered abroad” (v. 52).
o These are the Gentiles in anticipation of the Gentile mission.
So we half to ask, did Caiaphas speak these words because he wanted to say them or because God wanted him to say them?
• Scholars are certain that Caiaphas’ “certainly did not mean [his words] in a Christian sense” – D. A. Carson.
• But as we just pointed out, John says Caiaphas did not speak “of his own accord”, “on his own”, or “own his own initiative”.
So if both Caiaphas and God are speaking, the answer to our question has to be, paradoxically, “yes”.
• D.A. Carson puts it like this, “Caiaphas spoke his considered if calloused opinion. But when Caiaphas spoke, God was also speaking, even if they were not saying the same things” – D.A. Carson.
• In other words, Caiaphas meant what he intended and at the same time God spoke through Caiaphas His intended meaning.
• Joseph puts it like this:
o Genesis 50:20 (ESV) — 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
So, in the Clash of the Kingdoms who is in control?
• Can the answer be both?
• This is one of the most profound mysteries of the Bible, the relationship between God’s sovereignty and man’s actions.
• As we see in our text, and in those that come, Jesus Christ is ground zero for this mystery.
Jesus was killed due to the sinful actions of man.
• Yet, God the Father had chosen to kill Him from the beginning.
o It was God’s will and desire that Jesus should die.
• Did the Father illicit the sinful actions of the Jews and Romans to kill Jesus?
o Placing before the people the exact circumstances in which He knew they would choose to kill Jesus in the way He desired.
• Or was He simply a skillful chess player that saw their move and made his move?
o If so, how many steps ahead of man’s actions does God stay?
• How much control, exactly, does God have?
• How does man’s freewill exist within God’s sovereignty?
o John’s Gospel has already made clear this relationship with respect to salvation.
o But what of the rest of our actions?
o We will save this for another day.
12/12/11
John 11:28-44 – Messiah in the Kingdom of God
Thus far in John 11, we have seen how the Kingdom of God that Jesus was inaugurating revolutionized love, death, grief and resurrection.
• And the events leading up to Lazarus’ resurrection makes this monumentally clear.
• However, there is one thing that is foundational to the working out of the Kingdom of God that John 11 also plays out for us.
• It was first alluded to with Jesus’ words in 11:4.
o John 11:4 (ESV) — 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Here we see that the glory of God the Father is foundational to understanding John 11.
• But more than that, this verse also suggests a distinction, yet a relationship between, Jesus’ glory and God the Father’s glory.
• And the one aspect of this relationship that I want to deal with today is the glorification of God the Father by Jesus the Son through Jesus’ humanity, His authority and His divinity.
We will start with how John 11 brings Jesus’ humanity into view and how it glorifies God the Father.
• As we go, we will occasionally allude back to our 4 previous lessons from John 11.
1) JESUS’ HUMANITY
John 11:28–39 (ESV) — 28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there [related to our grief lesson]. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” 38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.”
First, let’s look at how our text puts Jesus’ humanity in view.
• 1) “Where have you laid him?” (vs. 34)
• 2) "Jesus wept." (vs. 35)
• 3) “Take away the stone.” (vs. 39)
I don’t know if John intends us to notice this or not, but I find these three comments striking.
• We have already seen that Jesus supernaturally knew that “Lazarus has died” from vs. 14.
• And then in vs. 25, He makes the astounding claim that “I am the resurrection and the life”.
• But now, it almost appears that His divinity, certainly at the request of the Father, has been “restrained”.
Why does this appear to be the case?
• (1) Jesus asked where Lazarus was, certainly He had it in is power to know exactly where Lazarus was.
o As we just saw, He knew that Lazarus had died.
• (2) Jesus wept even though He would shortly raise Lazarus from the dead.
o This seems contrived.
• (3) Finally, already in John, Jesus has performed miracles involving physical, inanimate objects – wine, loaves, etc.
o But here He asks others to “take away the stone” (vs. 39).
o Wouldn’t it have been all the more magnificent had He moved the stone away by Himself?
Could there be a reason that Jesus’ humanity is in view?
• In general terms, Paul seems to think so.
• Philippians 2:6–7 (ESV) — 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
I think John is showing us that because Jesus was “born in the likeness of men,” He, in His humanity, was totally dependent on the Father to accomplish His mission.
• He had “emptied himself” for our sake.
• Of this emptying, “Perhaps we could say that he had such knowledge as was necessary for him to accomplish his mission; in other matters he was as ignorant as we are” – Millard Erickson.
• And, “the fact that Jesus found it necessary to pray and depend upon the Father is indication that we must be similarly reliant upon him” – Millard Erickson.
• And Jesus’ “emptying”, His reliance on the Father in His humanity, “is for the glory of God” (vs. 4).
On a theological note, Millard Erickson gives 6 reasons why Jesus being fully human is significant:
• (1) “The atoning death of Jesus can truly avail for us.”
o “He was one of us, and thus could truly offer a sacrifice on our behalf.”
o “everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (vs. 26)
• (2) “Jesus can truly sympathize with and intercede for us.”
o “When we are hungry, weary, lonely, [and grieving] he fully understands, for he has gone through it all himself (Heb. 4:15).”
o “Jesus wept” (vs. 35)
o “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3)
• (3) “Jesus manifests the true nature of humanity.”
o “Jesus has not only told us what perfect humanity is, he has exhibited it.”
o “though he die, yet shall he live” (vs. 25)
• (4) “Jesus can be our example.”
o He shows us what “full dependence upon the grace of God” entails and the power it has.
o “If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble” (vs. 9)
• (5) “Human nature is good.”
o “When we tend toward asceticism, regarding human nature, and particularly physical nature, as somehow inherently evil or at least inferior to the spiritual and immaterial, the fact that Jesus took upon himself our full human nature is a reminder that to be human is not evil, it is good.”
o “deeply moved” and “greatly troubled” (vs. 33)
• (6) “God is not totally transcendent.”
o Deism is not an option.
o God is with us.
o “she went and met him” (vs. 20)
So we have seen why John may have wanted us to notice Jesus’ humanity in John 11.
• Now, let us move on to Jesus’ authority.
2) JESUS’ AUTHORITY
John 11:40–42 (ESV) — 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”
Our text certainly puts Jesus’ authority in view.
• 1) “Father, I thank you that you have heard me…that they may believe that you sent me.”
• With these words Jesus is acknowledging publicly before the crowd that what He is about to do is under the authority and power of God the Father.
Could there be a reason that John brought Jesus’ authority into view?
• Elijah expresses precisely the reason that John, and thus Jesus, would do so.
• In fact, the sentiment expressed by Jesus here, many believe, purposely echoes the words of Elijah in 1 Kings.
• 1 Kings 18:37 (ESV) — 37 Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”
o “Many…believed in Him” (vs. 45)
What this means is that the ensuing miraculous event was not the primary focus in Jesus’ mind.
• But rather, that we would recognize in Christ the power and authority of the Father working through Him and believe in Him.
• That the Father was the source of Jesus’ glory and authority was so primary in His mind that John tells us Jesus “said this on account of the people standing around” (vs. 42).
• And in the “rightness” of this relationship, Jesus could be certain that those who believe in Him “would see the glory of God” (vs. 40) in His actions and words.
• Kostenberger puts it like this, “Jesus’ focus is not on the ensuing miracle but on the revelation of God’s glory (and thus his own messianic calling) in and through it”.
This is the Father’s Jesus that we have talked so much about.
• John 5:19-21 (ESV) — 19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.
All that Jesus said and did was at the direction of and under the authority of God the Father – including giving life.
• And this ensured that whether Jesus’ submission was as “Son of God” to Father or “the last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45) to Father, it was the Father who was glorified.
• So Jesus’ reliance on the Father for His authority “is for the glory of God” (vs. 4).
So, now we have seen how Jesus used both His humanity and His authority “for the glory of God” (vs. 4).
• We now need to see how John 11 reveals Jesus’ divinity.
3) JESUS’ DIVINITY
John 11:43-44 (ESV) — 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Obviously, our 2 verses have Jesus’ divinity in view.
• 1) “Lazarus, come out” (vs. 43)
• 2) “Unbind him, and let him go.” (vs. 44)
Like with Jesus’ humanity and His authority, could there be a reason for John to bring Jesus’ divinity into view?
• Jesus had just told Martha that “I am the resurrection and the life” (vs. 25).
• And now having made sure all knew the authority under which He was operating, the Word of God spoke and even the dead obeyed Him.
• Lazarus, who had been dead for 4 days, and whose body had already begun to decay, walked out of the tomb.
• And at the command and authority of Jesus, was unbound and let go – clearly this was both in a literal and spiritual sense.
• For these reasons, we can see that Jesus’ display of His divinity to raise Lazarus from death “is for the glory of God” (vs. 4).
o As we have said, people believed as a result.
Additionally, on a theological note, Millard Erickson gives 4 reasons why Jesus being fully divine is significant:
• (1) “We can have real knowledge of God.”
o Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
o To, “know what the love of God, the holiness of God, the power of God are like, we need only look at Christ.”
o “you would see the glory of God” (vs. 40)
• (2) “Redemption is available to us.”
o “The death of Christ is sufficient for all sinners who have ever lived, for it was not merely a finite human, but an infinite God who died.”
o “He, the Life, the Giver and Sustainer of life, who did not have to die, died.”
o “I am the resurrection and the life” (vs. 25)
• (3) “God and humanity have been reunited.”
o “It was not an angel or a human who came from God to the human race, but God himself crossed the chasm created by sin.”
o “Where have you laid him?” (vs. 34) and “Lazarus, come out” (vs. 43)
• (4) “Worship of Christ is appropriate.”
o “He is as deserving of our praise, adoration, and obedience as is the Father.”
o “you are the Christ, the Son of God” (vs. 27)
o “she fell at his feet” (vs. 32)
Finally, it seems to me that John was purposely bringing our attention to one of the most profound paradoxes in Scripture.
• Paul put it like this; Colossians 2:9 (ESV) — 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
• John had shown us that Jesus was fully human, and fully divine.
• This paradox, one that skeptics call a contradiction that cannot be reconciled, was one that John did not shy away from highlighting.
• And even though this human/divine nature of Christ is, “one of the most difficult of all theological problems, ranking with the Trinity and the relationship of human free will and divine sovereignty” – Millard Erikson.
• It is to be celebrated and embraced and not ignored.
• And as with the resurrection, the nature of the Messiah in the Kingdom of God was unlike anything the Jews had expected.
• Yet this paradox and how it played out in John 11 was also “for the glory of God” (vs. 4).
So John has shown us that Jesus glorified God in John 11 in the context of His humanity, His authority, and His divinity and in the mystery of the union between humanity and divinity.
• How are we to emulate that?
Lessons for Us:
• We are capable of glorifying God in our humanity.
o As we live dependent on God.
• We are capable of glorifying God by subjugating ourselves to His authority.
o As we serve God.
• We can glorify God by pointing others to His divinity.
o As we evangelize for and worship God.
• And the events leading up to Lazarus’ resurrection makes this monumentally clear.
• However, there is one thing that is foundational to the working out of the Kingdom of God that John 11 also plays out for us.
• It was first alluded to with Jesus’ words in 11:4.
o John 11:4 (ESV) — 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Here we see that the glory of God the Father is foundational to understanding John 11.
• But more than that, this verse also suggests a distinction, yet a relationship between, Jesus’ glory and God the Father’s glory.
• And the one aspect of this relationship that I want to deal with today is the glorification of God the Father by Jesus the Son through Jesus’ humanity, His authority and His divinity.
We will start with how John 11 brings Jesus’ humanity into view and how it glorifies God the Father.
• As we go, we will occasionally allude back to our 4 previous lessons from John 11.
1) JESUS’ HUMANITY
John 11:28–39 (ESV) — 28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there [related to our grief lesson]. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” 38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.”
First, let’s look at how our text puts Jesus’ humanity in view.
• 1) “Where have you laid him?” (vs. 34)
• 2) "Jesus wept." (vs. 35)
• 3) “Take away the stone.” (vs. 39)
I don’t know if John intends us to notice this or not, but I find these three comments striking.
• We have already seen that Jesus supernaturally knew that “Lazarus has died” from vs. 14.
• And then in vs. 25, He makes the astounding claim that “I am the resurrection and the life”.
• But now, it almost appears that His divinity, certainly at the request of the Father, has been “restrained”.
Why does this appear to be the case?
• (1) Jesus asked where Lazarus was, certainly He had it in is power to know exactly where Lazarus was.
o As we just saw, He knew that Lazarus had died.
• (2) Jesus wept even though He would shortly raise Lazarus from the dead.
o This seems contrived.
• (3) Finally, already in John, Jesus has performed miracles involving physical, inanimate objects – wine, loaves, etc.
o But here He asks others to “take away the stone” (vs. 39).
o Wouldn’t it have been all the more magnificent had He moved the stone away by Himself?
Could there be a reason that Jesus’ humanity is in view?
• In general terms, Paul seems to think so.
• Philippians 2:6–7 (ESV) — 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
I think John is showing us that because Jesus was “born in the likeness of men,” He, in His humanity, was totally dependent on the Father to accomplish His mission.
• He had “emptied himself” for our sake.
• Of this emptying, “Perhaps we could say that he had such knowledge as was necessary for him to accomplish his mission; in other matters he was as ignorant as we are” – Millard Erickson.
• And, “the fact that Jesus found it necessary to pray and depend upon the Father is indication that we must be similarly reliant upon him” – Millard Erickson.
• And Jesus’ “emptying”, His reliance on the Father in His humanity, “is for the glory of God” (vs. 4).
On a theological note, Millard Erickson gives 6 reasons why Jesus being fully human is significant:
• (1) “The atoning death of Jesus can truly avail for us.”
o “He was one of us, and thus could truly offer a sacrifice on our behalf.”
o “everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (vs. 26)
• (2) “Jesus can truly sympathize with and intercede for us.”
o “When we are hungry, weary, lonely, [and grieving] he fully understands, for he has gone through it all himself (Heb. 4:15).”
o “Jesus wept” (vs. 35)
o “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3)
• (3) “Jesus manifests the true nature of humanity.”
o “Jesus has not only told us what perfect humanity is, he has exhibited it.”
o “though he die, yet shall he live” (vs. 25)
• (4) “Jesus can be our example.”
o He shows us what “full dependence upon the grace of God” entails and the power it has.
o “If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble” (vs. 9)
• (5) “Human nature is good.”
o “When we tend toward asceticism, regarding human nature, and particularly physical nature, as somehow inherently evil or at least inferior to the spiritual and immaterial, the fact that Jesus took upon himself our full human nature is a reminder that to be human is not evil, it is good.”
o “deeply moved” and “greatly troubled” (vs. 33)
• (6) “God is not totally transcendent.”
o Deism is not an option.
o God is with us.
o “she went and met him” (vs. 20)
So we have seen why John may have wanted us to notice Jesus’ humanity in John 11.
• Now, let us move on to Jesus’ authority.
2) JESUS’ AUTHORITY
John 11:40–42 (ESV) — 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”
Our text certainly puts Jesus’ authority in view.
• 1) “Father, I thank you that you have heard me…that they may believe that you sent me.”
• With these words Jesus is acknowledging publicly before the crowd that what He is about to do is under the authority and power of God the Father.
Could there be a reason that John brought Jesus’ authority into view?
• Elijah expresses precisely the reason that John, and thus Jesus, would do so.
• In fact, the sentiment expressed by Jesus here, many believe, purposely echoes the words of Elijah in 1 Kings.
• 1 Kings 18:37 (ESV) — 37 Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”
o “Many…believed in Him” (vs. 45)
What this means is that the ensuing miraculous event was not the primary focus in Jesus’ mind.
• But rather, that we would recognize in Christ the power and authority of the Father working through Him and believe in Him.
• That the Father was the source of Jesus’ glory and authority was so primary in His mind that John tells us Jesus “said this on account of the people standing around” (vs. 42).
• And in the “rightness” of this relationship, Jesus could be certain that those who believe in Him “would see the glory of God” (vs. 40) in His actions and words.
• Kostenberger puts it like this, “Jesus’ focus is not on the ensuing miracle but on the revelation of God’s glory (and thus his own messianic calling) in and through it”.
This is the Father’s Jesus that we have talked so much about.
• John 5:19-21 (ESV) — 19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.
All that Jesus said and did was at the direction of and under the authority of God the Father – including giving life.
• And this ensured that whether Jesus’ submission was as “Son of God” to Father or “the last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45) to Father, it was the Father who was glorified.
• So Jesus’ reliance on the Father for His authority “is for the glory of God” (vs. 4).
So, now we have seen how Jesus used both His humanity and His authority “for the glory of God” (vs. 4).
• We now need to see how John 11 reveals Jesus’ divinity.
3) JESUS’ DIVINITY
John 11:43-44 (ESV) — 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Obviously, our 2 verses have Jesus’ divinity in view.
• 1) “Lazarus, come out” (vs. 43)
• 2) “Unbind him, and let him go.” (vs. 44)
Like with Jesus’ humanity and His authority, could there be a reason for John to bring Jesus’ divinity into view?
• Jesus had just told Martha that “I am the resurrection and the life” (vs. 25).
• And now having made sure all knew the authority under which He was operating, the Word of God spoke and even the dead obeyed Him.
• Lazarus, who had been dead for 4 days, and whose body had already begun to decay, walked out of the tomb.
• And at the command and authority of Jesus, was unbound and let go – clearly this was both in a literal and spiritual sense.
• For these reasons, we can see that Jesus’ display of His divinity to raise Lazarus from death “is for the glory of God” (vs. 4).
o As we have said, people believed as a result.
Additionally, on a theological note, Millard Erickson gives 4 reasons why Jesus being fully divine is significant:
• (1) “We can have real knowledge of God.”
o Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
o To, “know what the love of God, the holiness of God, the power of God are like, we need only look at Christ.”
o “you would see the glory of God” (vs. 40)
• (2) “Redemption is available to us.”
o “The death of Christ is sufficient for all sinners who have ever lived, for it was not merely a finite human, but an infinite God who died.”
o “He, the Life, the Giver and Sustainer of life, who did not have to die, died.”
o “I am the resurrection and the life” (vs. 25)
• (3) “God and humanity have been reunited.”
o “It was not an angel or a human who came from God to the human race, but God himself crossed the chasm created by sin.”
o “Where have you laid him?” (vs. 34) and “Lazarus, come out” (vs. 43)
• (4) “Worship of Christ is appropriate.”
o “He is as deserving of our praise, adoration, and obedience as is the Father.”
o “you are the Christ, the Son of God” (vs. 27)
o “she fell at his feet” (vs. 32)
Finally, it seems to me that John was purposely bringing our attention to one of the most profound paradoxes in Scripture.
• Paul put it like this; Colossians 2:9 (ESV) — 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
• John had shown us that Jesus was fully human, and fully divine.
• This paradox, one that skeptics call a contradiction that cannot be reconciled, was one that John did not shy away from highlighting.
• And even though this human/divine nature of Christ is, “one of the most difficult of all theological problems, ranking with the Trinity and the relationship of human free will and divine sovereignty” – Millard Erikson.
• It is to be celebrated and embraced and not ignored.
• And as with the resurrection, the nature of the Messiah in the Kingdom of God was unlike anything the Jews had expected.
• Yet this paradox and how it played out in John 11 was also “for the glory of God” (vs. 4).
So John has shown us that Jesus glorified God in John 11 in the context of His humanity, His authority, and His divinity and in the mystery of the union between humanity and divinity.
• How are we to emulate that?
Lessons for Us:
• We are capable of glorifying God in our humanity.
o As we live dependent on God.
• We are capable of glorifying God by subjugating ourselves to His authority.
o As we serve God.
• We can glorify God by pointing others to His divinity.
o As we evangelize for and worship God.
11/28/11
John 11:21-27 – Resurrection in the Kingdom of God
In the past few weeks we have seen how John 11 addresses Love, Death, and Grief in the Kingdom of God.
• Today, we come face to face with Resurrection in the Kingdom of God.
• And it is here that we not only come face to face with how transformative Jesus’ ministry was in this regard.
• But we also encounter a powerful apologetic for the Resurrection of Jesus.
1) KINGDOM RESURRECTION
John 11:21–27 (ESV) — 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
In order to get at what is going on in this exchange between Jesus and Martha, we need to get at the background.
• When Martha says, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day”, what is she referring to?
• We can suggest that whatever else she was saying, she was probably affirming Jesus’ own teaching on the subject thus far (John 6:44; 54).
• And when asked in vs. 26 if she believed Jesus’ words about Himself concerning the resurrection, her response betrays her ignorance of the nature of Kingdom Resurrection.
o She didn’t yet have the foundation to properly understand what she was just told.
o Her Jewish heritage had not prepared her for Jesus’ response.
o So she answered as best as she could with what Kostenberger suggests is a creedal response.
o Yet as correct as her answer was, it was still missing a piece of the puzzle.
• So in answering this question, we will be able to appreciate all the more Jesus’ answer, “I am the resurrection and the life” and how it unexpectedly complements, for the believing Jew, Martha’s vs. 27 response.
• The sources for all of the following background info are N.T. Wright’s lectures found at www.ntwrightpage.com and his book, The Resurrection of the Son of God.
What Does Resurrection Mean?
• First, we need to define resurrection.
• “Resurrection means bodily life after ‘life after death’, or, if you prefer, bodily life after the state of ‘death’” – N.T. Wright.
• What happened to Elijah and Enoch, for example, is not resurrection because they did not die.
• And what happened to Enoch and Elijah was something the Jew did not “expect to happen again” – N.T. Wright.
• Resurrection is what happens only to people who are “at present dead” – N.T. Wright.
Does the OT speak of resurrection?
• “Nobody doubts that the Old Testament speaks of the resurrection of the dead” – N.T. Wright.
• However, it is something that is “deeply asleep, only to be woken by echoes from later times and texts” – N.T. Wright.
• In other words, there just isn’t a lot of OT info on resurrection.
• And where the OT does speak of a bodily resurrection it appears late.
• In fact, most of the sources for what we know about Jewish views of bodily resurrection are from post-biblical literature such as the Mishnah, Talmud, The Wisdom literature and from communities like Qumran – N.T. Wright.
• This is why it is said that the OT itself, “is not particularly concerned with life after death at all, still less with resurrection” – N.T. Wright
What is the foundation of OT bodily resurrection?
• The foundation appears to be the hope for the restoration of Israel from exile.
• In the OT the life of Israel is associated with the land, AND the death of Israel is associated with exile.
• Land is life – Exile is death
So, allusions to a bodily resurrection were expressed in the context of the death of exile and an expectation for:
• Restoration – the restoration of Israel as a nation
• Return – the return of Israel to its land from its exile in Babylon.
• Ezekiel 37:12 (ESV) — 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel.
• This is why in the OT, “The nation and land of the present world were far more important than what happened to an individual beyond the grave” – N.T. Wright.
• And so the hope of Israel was that, though individual would die, “YHWH’s purposes [for Israel], however, would go forwards, and would be fulfilled in their time” – N.T. Wright.
Why is this foundation important – Root of Hope?
• “This explicit link of life with the land and death with exile, coupled with the promise of restoration the other side of exile, is one of the forgotten roots of the fully developed hope of ancient Israel. The dead might be asleep; they might be almost nothing at all; but hope lived on within the covenant and promise of YHWH” – N.T. Wright.
• The “roots of the fully developed hope” easily accommodated a developing view of bodily resurrection.
• And these roots “could well have been read within post-biblical Judaism” as having undertones of a bodily resurrection – N.T. Wright.
Where does the OT speak of a bodily Resurrection?
• As mentioned earlier, Jewish resurrection was fleshed out mainly in the 2nd temple post-biblical texts.
• But there are some OT verses that speak of a bodily resurrection.
• The most obvious are Isaiah 26:19, Hosea 13:14, and Daniel 12:2-3.
• Isaiah 26:19 (ESV) — 19 Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.
• Daniel 12:2–3 (ESV) — 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
• Hosea 13:14 (ESV) — 14 Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from Death? O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
What do these verses say about a bodily resurrection?
• (1) The expectation expressed in the resurrection language was at a minimum that God “will reverse the actions of the wicked pagans, and raise the martyrs, and the teachers who kept Israel on course, to a glorious life” – N.T. Wright.
• (2) God will also, “raise their persecutors to a new existence: instead of remaining in the decent obscurity of Sheol or ‘the dust’, they will face perpetual public obloquy [public disgrace]” – N.T. Wright.
• (3) And specifically for Daniel 12, “the resurrection of God’s people (at least in the persons of the martyrs, seen as representing the nation) is the form that national restoration takes. This is the real end of the deepest exile of all” – N.T. Wright.
• (4) Finally, in these texts the “hope for nation, family and land joins up with the emerging belief in the creator’s faithfulness even beyond the grave” – N.T. Wright.
BTW – “However concrete the reference in any of the passages [to a bodily resurrection], there is no doubt that even in such cases the overarching context is that of the hope of the nation for national restoration and resettlement in the land” – N.T. Wright.
So taking into account these OT verses and the post-biblical literature, what was the resurrection view of Martha when she said “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day”?
• For, as we have said, it is in answering this question that we can fully appreciate what Jesus was doing when He said, “I am the resurrection and the life”.
This is what we know about Martha’s [Jews’] view of resurrection at the time of Jesus:
• (1) Jews “ultimate hope was [not] the resurrection of the body” – N.T. Wright.
• (2) “There were no traditions about a Messiah being raised to life”
o “There was hope for a resurrection”
o “There was hope for a Messiah”
o But the two never intersect
o There weren’t even “traditions about prophets being raised to new bodily life”
• (3) There was no concept of a resurrection split in two.
o For the Jew, “resurrection [was] a single all-embracing moment, not a matter of one person being raised ahead of everybody else” – N.T. Wright.
• (4) Life after death was as a disembodied spirit in “some kind” of intermediate state.
o In the “hand of the creator god”
o “In paradise”
o In “some kind of Sheol”
• (5) Vindication of the Messiah would come through the exaltation and restoration of Israel.
• (6) The Jewish view of resurrection was all over the map.
o Wright’s book spends literally hundreds of pages examining these differences.
o The variety of Christian views on Jesus’ Second Coming are a possible parallel here – Premillenial, Amillenial, Postmillenial, Dispensation Premillenial, Pre-Tribulation, Post-Tribulation, etc.
The book of Acts has two great examples of the Jewish views of resurrection:
(1) Acts 23:6–9 (ESV) — 6 Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Br`others, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” 7 And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. 9 Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party stood up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?”
Sadducees believed in neither (vs. 8):
• (1) Life after ‘life after death’ (resurrection) – “there is no resurrection”
• (2) ‘Life after death’ – “nor angel, nor spirit”
• And this view, by the way, was the conservative view at the time.
• This is because resurrection and ‘life after death’, as we have said, were not to be found in the Torah and the earlier OT books.
• That is to say that most of the influential texts on these subjects were very recent and were outside the OT canon.
Pharisees and most Jews believed in (vs. 8):
• Both (1) and (2) above.
• Specifically, after death, the righteous Jew lived as a disembodied “spirit” or “angel”.
• And then ‘The Resurrection’, “will take place at a future date when all the righteous dead are raised to share God’s new world” – N.T. Wright.
• “They do not suppose for a moment that Paul has actually been a witness of the resurrection itself; that is out of the question as far as they are concerned” – N.T. Wright.
• This is why they suggest that Jesus presented Himself to Paul during the disembodied intermediate state as “a spirit or an angel”.
• Had Jesus been bodily resurrected, all the righteous Jews from Israel’s history would have also been resurrected and Israel’s glory would have been restored.
(2) Acts 12:13–15 (ESV) — 13 And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!”
• The background from our resurrection discussion and Acts 23 also sheds light on the above text.
• Peter had been captured and many were praying for him at Mary's, the mother of John’s house.
• After Peter’s escape, he too went to the house.
• Rhoda recognized Peter at the gate by his voice.
• So she ran and told the others that Peter was “standing at the gate”.
• Understanding her implication that Peter was actually there, “They said to her, ‘You are out of your mind’”.
• Clearly, they assumed Peter was killed by Herod just as James was in Acts 12:2.
• Therefore, just as the Pharisees thought, if anyone was there it was Peter’s disembodied “angel”.
• For as we saw with the Pharisees, it couldn’t be Peter’s resurrected body, or all the righteous of Israel would be resurrected and Israel’s glory restored.
Back to John 11:
So when Martha responded to Jesus’ proposition, “Your brother will rise again” (vs. 23), with the statement, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day” (vs. 24) we can now see what she meant.
• And it was not at all what Jesus meant and what He was about to demonstrate with Lazarus and Himself.
• The resurrection was and would be unlike anything she imagined.
• Let’s see why.
So, when Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life”, what was He saying about Resurrection in the Kingdom of God?
• (1) Resurrection in Jesus Christ is our ultimate hope.
• (2) The Messiah is the Resurrection.
o The hope of the Messiah intersected with the hope of Resurrection.
o And, “Nobody put those two hopes together until the early Christians did so” – N.T. Wright.
• (3) Resurrection is in two phases.
o Kingdom Resurrection held that there were “two phases: first the Messiah, then at his coming all his people” – N.T. Wright.
• (4) Life after death is in heaven in the presence of God (before resurrection – our life after ‘life after death’).
o We are immortal for all eternity – not an angelic or spiritual being having life “by the creative power of YHWH” – N.T. Wright.
• (5) Jesus as Messiah was vindicated through His resurrection.
• (6) Resurrection in the Kingdom of God had a “precise shape and content” – N.T. Wright.
o It is an act of “new creation, accomplished by the Holy Spirit.”
o It involves new, glorified bodies – “not be a simple return to the same sort of body as before”
o It will involve the creation of a new heaven and new earth in which are resurrected selves will live for eternity.
BTW - There will come a day when the Christian view of the Second Coming will also have “a precise shape and content”.
• And that day will be when Jesus actually does return.
• Just as Jesus’ Resurrection accounts for the clarity on resurrection, so His Second Coming will have the effect of bringing clarity to all the “millenials”.
Conclusion:
Resurrection in the Kingdom of God was “a sudden and dramatic mutation from within the Jewish worldview” – N.T. Wright
• It “burst the boundaries” of Jewish views of resurrection – N.T. Wright.
• In fact, Martha and the Jew’s beliefs about life after death, “and resurrection in particular, had not prepared them” for Resurrection in the Kingdom of God – N.T. Wright
• So, given the differences between Martha’s Jewish view and Jesus’ Kingdom view of resurrection, we can see why her answer in John 11:27 seemed a bit disjointed.
Furthermore, Jesus words, “I am the resurrection and the life”, are also radical in the following ways:
• It’s a radical claim against both the orthodoxy of the Sadducees and the enlightenment of the Pharisees and the other Jews of which Martha was a part.
• Resurrection was here and now in Jesus – “I am the resurrection and the life”.
• Resurrection would bring life after ‘life after death’ and Jesus, the Messiah, would be the first and Lazarus was the preview.
• Resurrection, shockingly, would be as much about the individual as it was about Israel’s exaltation.
Apologetical Significance:
The historian has to account for the above 6 differences between OT and Kingdom Resurrection.
• How did they arise?
• What accounts for them?
Additionally, the historian also has to contend with the following:
• Jesus’ Death
• Jesus’ Burial
• Empty Tomb
• Jesus Appearances (1 Cor. 15) to Multiple Witnesses (some hostile – Paul and James)
o Embarrassing Witnesses - women
• Conversion of Enemy – Paul
• Conversion of Skeptic – James
• Context of Jewish Messianic Expectations and Jesus
• Belief of disciples that Jesus was raised from the dead
The historical sciences make deductions based on a principle call the “the inference to the best explanation”:
• Many infer that some of the following ad hoc explanations are the best.
o Jesus didn’t really die.
o He was given something that knocked Him out.
o The women went to the wrong tomb.
o The disciples merely had hallucinations.
o The disciples were in such shock over Jesus’ death, they dealt with it by concocting His resurrection.
o The resurrection accounts were written in later.
However none of these are a best explanation because not one or even two of them account for all that needs to be accounted for.
IT IS THE BODILY RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST THAT IS THE BEST EXPLANATION!
• Today, we come face to face with Resurrection in the Kingdom of God.
• And it is here that we not only come face to face with how transformative Jesus’ ministry was in this regard.
• But we also encounter a powerful apologetic for the Resurrection of Jesus.
1) KINGDOM RESURRECTION
John 11:21–27 (ESV) — 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
In order to get at what is going on in this exchange between Jesus and Martha, we need to get at the background.
• When Martha says, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day”, what is she referring to?
• We can suggest that whatever else she was saying, she was probably affirming Jesus’ own teaching on the subject thus far (John 6:44; 54).
• And when asked in vs. 26 if she believed Jesus’ words about Himself concerning the resurrection, her response betrays her ignorance of the nature of Kingdom Resurrection.
o She didn’t yet have the foundation to properly understand what she was just told.
o Her Jewish heritage had not prepared her for Jesus’ response.
o So she answered as best as she could with what Kostenberger suggests is a creedal response.
o Yet as correct as her answer was, it was still missing a piece of the puzzle.
• So in answering this question, we will be able to appreciate all the more Jesus’ answer, “I am the resurrection and the life” and how it unexpectedly complements, for the believing Jew, Martha’s vs. 27 response.
• The sources for all of the following background info are N.T. Wright’s lectures found at www.ntwrightpage.com and his book, The Resurrection of the Son of God.
What Does Resurrection Mean?
• First, we need to define resurrection.
• “Resurrection means bodily life after ‘life after death’, or, if you prefer, bodily life after the state of ‘death’” – N.T. Wright.
• What happened to Elijah and Enoch, for example, is not resurrection because they did not die.
• And what happened to Enoch and Elijah was something the Jew did not “expect to happen again” – N.T. Wright.
• Resurrection is what happens only to people who are “at present dead” – N.T. Wright.
Does the OT speak of resurrection?
• “Nobody doubts that the Old Testament speaks of the resurrection of the dead” – N.T. Wright.
• However, it is something that is “deeply asleep, only to be woken by echoes from later times and texts” – N.T. Wright.
• In other words, there just isn’t a lot of OT info on resurrection.
• And where the OT does speak of a bodily resurrection it appears late.
• In fact, most of the sources for what we know about Jewish views of bodily resurrection are from post-biblical literature such as the Mishnah, Talmud, The Wisdom literature and from communities like Qumran – N.T. Wright.
• This is why it is said that the OT itself, “is not particularly concerned with life after death at all, still less with resurrection” – N.T. Wright
What is the foundation of OT bodily resurrection?
• The foundation appears to be the hope for the restoration of Israel from exile.
• In the OT the life of Israel is associated with the land, AND the death of Israel is associated with exile.
• Land is life – Exile is death
So, allusions to a bodily resurrection were expressed in the context of the death of exile and an expectation for:
• Restoration – the restoration of Israel as a nation
• Return – the return of Israel to its land from its exile in Babylon.
• Ezekiel 37:12 (ESV) — 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel.
• This is why in the OT, “The nation and land of the present world were far more important than what happened to an individual beyond the grave” – N.T. Wright.
• And so the hope of Israel was that, though individual would die, “YHWH’s purposes [for Israel], however, would go forwards, and would be fulfilled in their time” – N.T. Wright.
Why is this foundation important – Root of Hope?
• “This explicit link of life with the land and death with exile, coupled with the promise of restoration the other side of exile, is one of the forgotten roots of the fully developed hope of ancient Israel. The dead might be asleep; they might be almost nothing at all; but hope lived on within the covenant and promise of YHWH” – N.T. Wright.
• The “roots of the fully developed hope” easily accommodated a developing view of bodily resurrection.
• And these roots “could well have been read within post-biblical Judaism” as having undertones of a bodily resurrection – N.T. Wright.
Where does the OT speak of a bodily Resurrection?
• As mentioned earlier, Jewish resurrection was fleshed out mainly in the 2nd temple post-biblical texts.
• But there are some OT verses that speak of a bodily resurrection.
• The most obvious are Isaiah 26:19, Hosea 13:14, and Daniel 12:2-3.
• Isaiah 26:19 (ESV) — 19 Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.
• Daniel 12:2–3 (ESV) — 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
• Hosea 13:14 (ESV) — 14 Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from Death? O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
What do these verses say about a bodily resurrection?
• (1) The expectation expressed in the resurrection language was at a minimum that God “will reverse the actions of the wicked pagans, and raise the martyrs, and the teachers who kept Israel on course, to a glorious life” – N.T. Wright.
• (2) God will also, “raise their persecutors to a new existence: instead of remaining in the decent obscurity of Sheol or ‘the dust’, they will face perpetual public obloquy [public disgrace]” – N.T. Wright.
• (3) And specifically for Daniel 12, “the resurrection of God’s people (at least in the persons of the martyrs, seen as representing the nation) is the form that national restoration takes. This is the real end of the deepest exile of all” – N.T. Wright.
• (4) Finally, in these texts the “hope for nation, family and land joins up with the emerging belief in the creator’s faithfulness even beyond the grave” – N.T. Wright.
BTW – “However concrete the reference in any of the passages [to a bodily resurrection], there is no doubt that even in such cases the overarching context is that of the hope of the nation for national restoration and resettlement in the land” – N.T. Wright.
So taking into account these OT verses and the post-biblical literature, what was the resurrection view of Martha when she said “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day”?
• For, as we have said, it is in answering this question that we can fully appreciate what Jesus was doing when He said, “I am the resurrection and the life”.
This is what we know about Martha’s [Jews’] view of resurrection at the time of Jesus:
• (1) Jews “ultimate hope was [not] the resurrection of the body” – N.T. Wright.
• (2) “There were no traditions about a Messiah being raised to life”
o “There was hope for a resurrection”
o “There was hope for a Messiah”
o But the two never intersect
o There weren’t even “traditions about prophets being raised to new bodily life”
• (3) There was no concept of a resurrection split in two.
o For the Jew, “resurrection [was] a single all-embracing moment, not a matter of one person being raised ahead of everybody else” – N.T. Wright.
• (4) Life after death was as a disembodied spirit in “some kind” of intermediate state.
o In the “hand of the creator god”
o “In paradise”
o In “some kind of Sheol”
• (5) Vindication of the Messiah would come through the exaltation and restoration of Israel.
• (6) The Jewish view of resurrection was all over the map.
o Wright’s book spends literally hundreds of pages examining these differences.
o The variety of Christian views on Jesus’ Second Coming are a possible parallel here – Premillenial, Amillenial, Postmillenial, Dispensation Premillenial, Pre-Tribulation, Post-Tribulation, etc.
The book of Acts has two great examples of the Jewish views of resurrection:
(1) Acts 23:6–9 (ESV) — 6 Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Br`others, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” 7 And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. 9 Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party stood up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?”
Sadducees believed in neither (vs. 8):
• (1) Life after ‘life after death’ (resurrection) – “there is no resurrection”
• (2) ‘Life after death’ – “nor angel, nor spirit”
• And this view, by the way, was the conservative view at the time.
• This is because resurrection and ‘life after death’, as we have said, were not to be found in the Torah and the earlier OT books.
• That is to say that most of the influential texts on these subjects were very recent and were outside the OT canon.
Pharisees and most Jews believed in (vs. 8):
• Both (1) and (2) above.
• Specifically, after death, the righteous Jew lived as a disembodied “spirit” or “angel”.
• And then ‘The Resurrection’, “will take place at a future date when all the righteous dead are raised to share God’s new world” – N.T. Wright.
• “They do not suppose for a moment that Paul has actually been a witness of the resurrection itself; that is out of the question as far as they are concerned” – N.T. Wright.
• This is why they suggest that Jesus presented Himself to Paul during the disembodied intermediate state as “a spirit or an angel”.
• Had Jesus been bodily resurrected, all the righteous Jews from Israel’s history would have also been resurrected and Israel’s glory would have been restored.
(2) Acts 12:13–15 (ESV) — 13 And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!”
• The background from our resurrection discussion and Acts 23 also sheds light on the above text.
• Peter had been captured and many were praying for him at Mary's, the mother of John’s house.
• After Peter’s escape, he too went to the house.
• Rhoda recognized Peter at the gate by his voice.
• So she ran and told the others that Peter was “standing at the gate”.
• Understanding her implication that Peter was actually there, “They said to her, ‘You are out of your mind’”.
• Clearly, they assumed Peter was killed by Herod just as James was in Acts 12:2.
• Therefore, just as the Pharisees thought, if anyone was there it was Peter’s disembodied “angel”.
• For as we saw with the Pharisees, it couldn’t be Peter’s resurrected body, or all the righteous of Israel would be resurrected and Israel’s glory restored.
Back to John 11:
So when Martha responded to Jesus’ proposition, “Your brother will rise again” (vs. 23), with the statement, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day” (vs. 24) we can now see what she meant.
• And it was not at all what Jesus meant and what He was about to demonstrate with Lazarus and Himself.
• The resurrection was and would be unlike anything she imagined.
• Let’s see why.
So, when Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life”, what was He saying about Resurrection in the Kingdom of God?
• (1) Resurrection in Jesus Christ is our ultimate hope.
• (2) The Messiah is the Resurrection.
o The hope of the Messiah intersected with the hope of Resurrection.
o And, “Nobody put those two hopes together until the early Christians did so” – N.T. Wright.
• (3) Resurrection is in two phases.
o Kingdom Resurrection held that there were “two phases: first the Messiah, then at his coming all his people” – N.T. Wright.
• (4) Life after death is in heaven in the presence of God (before resurrection – our life after ‘life after death’).
o We are immortal for all eternity – not an angelic or spiritual being having life “by the creative power of YHWH” – N.T. Wright.
• (5) Jesus as Messiah was vindicated through His resurrection.
• (6) Resurrection in the Kingdom of God had a “precise shape and content” – N.T. Wright.
o It is an act of “new creation, accomplished by the Holy Spirit.”
o It involves new, glorified bodies – “not be a simple return to the same sort of body as before”
o It will involve the creation of a new heaven and new earth in which are resurrected selves will live for eternity.
BTW - There will come a day when the Christian view of the Second Coming will also have “a precise shape and content”.
• And that day will be when Jesus actually does return.
• Just as Jesus’ Resurrection accounts for the clarity on resurrection, so His Second Coming will have the effect of bringing clarity to all the “millenials”.
Conclusion:
Resurrection in the Kingdom of God was “a sudden and dramatic mutation from within the Jewish worldview” – N.T. Wright
• It “burst the boundaries” of Jewish views of resurrection – N.T. Wright.
• In fact, Martha and the Jew’s beliefs about life after death, “and resurrection in particular, had not prepared them” for Resurrection in the Kingdom of God – N.T. Wright
• So, given the differences between Martha’s Jewish view and Jesus’ Kingdom view of resurrection, we can see why her answer in John 11:27 seemed a bit disjointed.
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| Jewish vs. Christian Resurrection |
Furthermore, Jesus words, “I am the resurrection and the life”, are also radical in the following ways:
• It’s a radical claim against both the orthodoxy of the Sadducees and the enlightenment of the Pharisees and the other Jews of which Martha was a part.
• Resurrection was here and now in Jesus – “I am the resurrection and the life”.
• Resurrection would bring life after ‘life after death’ and Jesus, the Messiah, would be the first and Lazarus was the preview.
• Resurrection, shockingly, would be as much about the individual as it was about Israel’s exaltation.
Apologetical Significance:
The historian has to account for the above 6 differences between OT and Kingdom Resurrection.
• How did they arise?
• What accounts for them?
Additionally, the historian also has to contend with the following:
• Jesus’ Death
• Jesus’ Burial
• Empty Tomb
• Jesus Appearances (1 Cor. 15) to Multiple Witnesses (some hostile – Paul and James)
o Embarrassing Witnesses - women
• Conversion of Enemy – Paul
• Conversion of Skeptic – James
• Context of Jewish Messianic Expectations and Jesus
• Belief of disciples that Jesus was raised from the dead
The historical sciences make deductions based on a principle call the “the inference to the best explanation”:
• Many infer that some of the following ad hoc explanations are the best.
o Jesus didn’t really die.
o He was given something that knocked Him out.
o The women went to the wrong tomb.
o The disciples merely had hallucinations.
o The disciples were in such shock over Jesus’ death, they dealt with it by concocting His resurrection.
o The resurrection accounts were written in later.
However none of these are a best explanation because not one or even two of them account for all that needs to be accounted for.
IT IS THE BODILY RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST THAT IS THE BEST EXPLANATION!
11/21/11
John 11:17-20 - Grief in the Kingdom of God
Over the past two weeks, we have seen how John 11:1-16 provide profound insight into both Love in the Kingdom of God and Death in the Kingdom of God.
• In each case, Jesus challenged the worldly view of love and the Jewish view of death.
• Today, we see one more way that Jesus challenges us.
• This time He is challenging us to trust Him during our grief.
1) MARTHA DOES THE UNEXPECTED
John 11:17–20 (ESV) — 17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.
John tells us that when Jesus finally arrived at Bethany, Lazarus had been dead four days.
• Many suggest that this observation is meant to highlight the fact that Lazarus was dead as dead can be.
• And in light of verse John 11:4, in which Jesus says Lazarus’ death, “is so that the Son of God may be glorified through it”, it also reminds us again just how radical love in the Kingdom is.
• God’s desire to glorify Jesus had put Lazarus’ family through 4 days of mourning.
In verses 18 & 19, we also get a glimpse of why the disciples expressed concern over Jesus’ life.
• Bethany is only 2 miles from Jerusalem, the place where He was almost stoned just a few months prior.
• And “many of the Jews” had come from Jerusalem to mourn with Martha and Mary.
• Jews who no doubt would know who Jesus was.
Finally, John tells us something more significant that its one sentence seems to indicate.
• John 11:20 (ESV) — 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.
How to mourn – Sit Shiva:
We know that Martha and Mary would have been sitting shiva after the burial of Lazarus.
• Sitting shiva is, “a traditional seven-day period of mourning the dead that is observed in Jewish homes” – Merriam-Webster.
• This is part of the Talmud’s prescription for 7 days of deep mourning – Kostenberger.
• In addition to mourning, the point of sitting shiva was to receive the “condolences of their friends” – Kostenberger.
• So given the expectations of sitting shiva, Martha should have stayed in the house with Mary – Kostenberger.
• However, John tells us that “she went and met him”.
Why is this significant?
• Most suggest that Martha’s breaking shiva and leaving the house is simply her personality.
• We know, for example, that Luke 10:38-42 portrays her as a busy body.
• However, we also know something else about her actions due to ANE cultural norms.
• "In the Middle East, village people show honor to an important guest by walking some distance out of town to greet the guest and escort him or her into the village” – Kenneth Bailey.
• In fact, the more important the guest, the farther they will travel to meet him.
To appreciate what Martha was doing here, think of it like this:
• Your loved one falls terribly ill; you know who can heal him; you send for the healer but he delays his coming; your loved one dies; he has been dead 4 days; you are in the middle of mourning; finally, the healer shows up.
• What do you do?
Martha did the unexpected – showing great respect to Jesus, she went out to meet him.
• In the midst of her mourning and grief, Martha didn’t wait for Jesus to meet her sitting shiva.
• She broke shiva, and went out to meet Jesus, thereby honoring the very one who let Lazarus die.
• This is an amazing example for us on how to handle grief.
• Is our trust in Christ such that we can honor Him in the midst of our pain and grief?
• In any view but the Christian worldview this makes little sense.
o Honor the one who could have prevented the whole thing to begin with.
o Love the one whose love for you manifested itself in the death of your brother.
• What possible fruit can come from such a silly looking trust?
In this case, her trust in Christ results in a profound and necessary lesson on the Resurrection in the Kingdom of God.
• We will get into this next week and it is awesome.
• In each case, Jesus challenged the worldly view of love and the Jewish view of death.
• Today, we see one more way that Jesus challenges us.
• This time He is challenging us to trust Him during our grief.
1) MARTHA DOES THE UNEXPECTED
John 11:17–20 (ESV) — 17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.
John tells us that when Jesus finally arrived at Bethany, Lazarus had been dead four days.
• Many suggest that this observation is meant to highlight the fact that Lazarus was dead as dead can be.
• And in light of verse John 11:4, in which Jesus says Lazarus’ death, “is so that the Son of God may be glorified through it”, it also reminds us again just how radical love in the Kingdom is.
• God’s desire to glorify Jesus had put Lazarus’ family through 4 days of mourning.
In verses 18 & 19, we also get a glimpse of why the disciples expressed concern over Jesus’ life.
• Bethany is only 2 miles from Jerusalem, the place where He was almost stoned just a few months prior.
• And “many of the Jews” had come from Jerusalem to mourn with Martha and Mary.
• Jews who no doubt would know who Jesus was.
Finally, John tells us something more significant that its one sentence seems to indicate.
• John 11:20 (ESV) — 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.
How to mourn – Sit Shiva:
We know that Martha and Mary would have been sitting shiva after the burial of Lazarus.
• Sitting shiva is, “a traditional seven-day period of mourning the dead that is observed in Jewish homes” – Merriam-Webster.
• This is part of the Talmud’s prescription for 7 days of deep mourning – Kostenberger.
• In addition to mourning, the point of sitting shiva was to receive the “condolences of their friends” – Kostenberger.
• So given the expectations of sitting shiva, Martha should have stayed in the house with Mary – Kostenberger.
• However, John tells us that “she went and met him”.
Why is this significant?
• Most suggest that Martha’s breaking shiva and leaving the house is simply her personality.
• We know, for example, that Luke 10:38-42 portrays her as a busy body.
• However, we also know something else about her actions due to ANE cultural norms.
• "In the Middle East, village people show honor to an important guest by walking some distance out of town to greet the guest and escort him or her into the village” – Kenneth Bailey.
• In fact, the more important the guest, the farther they will travel to meet him.
To appreciate what Martha was doing here, think of it like this:
• Your loved one falls terribly ill; you know who can heal him; you send for the healer but he delays his coming; your loved one dies; he has been dead 4 days; you are in the middle of mourning; finally, the healer shows up.
• What do you do?
Martha did the unexpected – showing great respect to Jesus, she went out to meet him.
• In the midst of her mourning and grief, Martha didn’t wait for Jesus to meet her sitting shiva.
• She broke shiva, and went out to meet Jesus, thereby honoring the very one who let Lazarus die.
• This is an amazing example for us on how to handle grief.
• Is our trust in Christ such that we can honor Him in the midst of our pain and grief?
• In any view but the Christian worldview this makes little sense.
o Honor the one who could have prevented the whole thing to begin with.
o Love the one whose love for you manifested itself in the death of your brother.
• What possible fruit can come from such a silly looking trust?
In this case, her trust in Christ results in a profound and necessary lesson on the Resurrection in the Kingdom of God.
• We will get into this next week and it is awesome.
11/14/11
John 11:7-16 – Death in the Kingdom of God
Last week we discussed the startling and remarkable way love is expressed in the Kingdom of God.
• Jesus taught us that beholding the glory of God is a priority for the expression of love in the Kingdom.
• Beholding God’s glory takes precedent over our desire to avoid death, pain and grief.
• And this is why he waited 2 days after hearing of Lazarus’ illness.
• Today, Jesus continues His Kingdom education by redefining death.
• We will see that Jesus has at least two comments to make concerning death in the Kingdom of God.
1) DEATH WILL NOT COME IN THE “DAY”
John 11:7–10 (ESV) — 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 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. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
Our text today starts with a concern over death.
• The disciples don’t think Jesus should return to the area around Jerusalem because the Jews are “seeking to stone” Him.
• And it is His answer to their concern that provides us with the first way He addressed death in the Kingdom.
• BTW – I like that in a context where Jesus was laying the groundwork to challenge their very notion of death, they express fear of the very thing He seeks to challenge – good timing.
Death is in God’s Timing:
So the first way Jesus addressed death in the Kingdom of God was to tell the disciples that His death is in God’s timing.
• He did this by saying “If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. (vs. 9)”
• Jesus intent here, all agree, is to convey the same meaning to be found in the following passages of John.
• John 9:4–5 (ESV) — 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
• John 7:6 (ESV) — 6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.
• John 7:8 (ESV) — 8 You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.”
• John 7:30 (ESV) — 30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
Jesus’ appointed time to die on the cross was set by His Father, not by the mobs in Judea.
• Jesus wanted the disciples to know this.
• Death comes only at God’s appointed time – no sooner or no later.
However, we must be clear that He is not telling them that the night will not come.
• He will die and they will die.
• John 12:27 (ESV) — 27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.
• However, this death will be much different than what they conceive.
And this leads us to the second way he addressed death in the Kingdom of God.
2) DEATH IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK
John 11:11–16 (ESV) — 11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Why did Jesus describe death as a sleep from which Lazarus will awaken?
• What was Jesus trying to convey?
• To answer that and to appreciate the second way Jesus addressed death in the Kingdom of God, we need to get at some background on the Hebrew view of death.
• Because it is this view that Jesus was about to profoundly change.
Death in the OT:
Death in the OT can be said to have 3 general meanings (AYBD).
• (1) a “metaphor for those things which detract from life as Yahweh intends it”
• (2) “as a ‘power’ in opposition to the created order”
• (3) “for biological cessation”
• Number (1) is spiritually related; number (2) can be both spiritually and physically related; number (3) is physically related.
With regards to (3), “biological cessation” the following can be said:
• “Belief in a substantial, meaningful existence after death is a relatively late development in the history of Israelite religion. The usual view expressed in the biblical books is that, upon death, one’s shade descends to Sheol, where one remains forever, cut off from God’s presence” – AYBD.
• This slow change from “forever” dead to “meaningful existence” was a somewhat of a sequential process, though the views did coexist.
• N.T. Wright puts this process as follows, “absence of hope beyond death; hope for blissful life after death; hope for new bodily life after ‘life after death’” – N.T. Wright.
• We will briefly describe some of the specific OT views of (3), “biological cessation”.
Death as Sleep:
The phrase “fallen asleep” was a Hebrew way of speaking of physical death, number (3) from above – Beasely-Murray.
• 1 Kings 2:10 (ESV) — 10 Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.
• Psalm 13:3 (ESV) — 3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
• It is for this reason that, as we will see shortly, Jesus’ characterization of death as a sleep would not have been unusual, but describing it as a sleep from which Lazarus would awake would have been.
Death is Permanent:
We also need to know that with respect to physical death (3), no one was immune and it was considered to be a permanent condition – not something that one would awake from as Jesus told us in vs. 11.
• 2 Samuel 14:14a (ESV) — 14 We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again.
• Psalm 6:5 (ESV) — 5 For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?
• Psalm 115:17 (ESV) — 17 The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any who go down into silence.
• Job 14:11–12 (ESV) — 11 As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up, 12 so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.
o Elijah was the exception – 2 Kings 2:11.
o And the boy brought back to life by Elisha was also an exception, but we can assume he ultimately did not escape death – 2 Kings 4:35.
That biological death was considered as something permanent by the Jews is also seen in Mark.
• Mark 5:39–40 (ESV) — 39 And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 40 And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was.
• BTW - though Daniel 12:2 reflects a different meaning, one more in line with the view Jesus was about to reveal, it had not yet “seized the minds of the people” – Beasely-Murray.
Death is Corruption:
And as conveyed by numbers (1) and (2) from above, the disobedience in the Garden of Eden that led to death, “detracted from life as Yahweh intended and it” corrupted the “created order”.
• This corruption manifested itself as both physical death, as we have just seen and spiritual death for all of humanity.
• Athanasius put it this way, “men began to die, and corruption ran riot among them and held sway over them”.
Paul gives us an example of the “corruption ran riot” due to death.
• Romans 1:28–32 (ESV) — 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Death and Corruption did not Glorify God:
Finally, we have to realize the problem corruption and its death caused for the purpose of life and creation – the glorification of God we spoke of last week.
• This purpose is not just a NT theme.
• In fact, “The most significant theme for Israel was the understanding that life provided an opportunity for the individual and community to praise Yahweh. Praise of God was the sign of life” – AYBD.
• Those engulfed by corruption and its death could not praise God, and thus could not participate in this “most significant theme” – AYBD.
• The consequences of death and corruption are one of the reasons that for the Jew, it was a profound blessing to have a long life and many children.
• Thus, it was unthinkable that even the “Holy One”, who we know from Paul to be Jesus, would taste death.
• Psalm 16:10 (ESV) — 10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
So now that we have an idea about the notions of death Jesus was confronting, we can appreciate and get at what He was doing.
Death Redefined in the Kingdom of God:
In telling the disciples that He will awaken Lazarus from death, Jesus is both:
• (1) Departing radically from the typical view of death
• (2) And pointing to Himself as the reason why
It departs radically because Jesus is now saying that death is a sleep, but one “from which they shall be awakened through Jesus” – Beasely-Murray.
• In other words, death is not permanent!
• He makes this claim in verse 11 when He says that He will “awaken him” (Lazarus) from death.
• And by His own resurrection He demonstrates forever that death is dead.
It points to Himself because He is about to claim and then demonstrate that He is “the resurrection and the life” (vs. 25).
• And it is He, in union with the Father (John 11:41-43), that will shortly raise Lazarus from the dead.
• He will do so in public with the spoken word of God so that all can see and hear.
• John 11:41–43 (ESV) — 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”
And this redefining of death in the Kingdom of God is why Jesus tells the disciples in verse 4 that an illness that led to death is in fact an “illness [that] does not lead to death”.
• And why he says in John 8:52, “If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death”.
• Believers will never be deprived of the presence of Jesus Christ.
• We will never taste death, because we will be full and satisfied in the glory and eternity of Jesus Christ.
And importantly, Jesus shows us in verse 15 with His words, “for your sake”, that Kingdom Love and Kingdom Death intersect.
• In teaching, and shortly in demonstrating, that death is not permanent, Jesus is loving the disciples, Martha, Mary and Lazarus with Kingdom Love.
• He is pointing all of them to the glory and power of the Father as manifested in the Son to defeat death!
• What could be a higher expression of love than to show the disciples that through the Father-ordained ministry of the Son, death is defeated.
• What a glorious victory to behold; what a marvelous love to receive!
But there is more!
• Jesus was not only telling them that the corruption and permanency of death was about to be defeated, but that death itself would soon be, in complete opposition to its prior status, an occasion to praise God!
• As we just saw, those engulfed by corruption and death, could not praise and glorify God.
• The very things we were created to do.
• But now, through death, Jesus would demonstrate His victory via the resurrection over it and thereby vindicate His Father-ordained misery.
• He would overturn death’s permanency.
• He would cleanse death’s corruption.
• He would restore the created order and His intent for creation.
• Athanasius put like this, “The renewal of creation [would be] wrought by the self-same Word Who made it in the beginning”.
• This would enable us to praise and glorify God for eternity.
And it is this view of death that Jesus wants the disciples to “believe” when He says, “and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe”.
• Not just because it is truth, but in order that they may also be prepared for Jesus’ coming death.
Paul put the Jesus’ Kingdom view of death this way:
• 1 Corinthians 15:51–55 (ESV) — 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
Lessons for Us:
• Finally, Thomas’ words, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (vs. 16), seem to demonstrate that Jesus’ teaching is taking hold.
• D.A. Carson characterizes Thomas’ words as reflecting “raw devotion and courage”.
• And as such, they are a challenge to us all.
• Mark puts the challenge to us this way:
• Mark 8:34 (ESV) — 34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
• Because as Jesus as just shown, death is defeated and not to be feared.
• Jesus taught us that beholding the glory of God is a priority for the expression of love in the Kingdom.
• Beholding God’s glory takes precedent over our desire to avoid death, pain and grief.
• And this is why he waited 2 days after hearing of Lazarus’ illness.
• Today, Jesus continues His Kingdom education by redefining death.
• We will see that Jesus has at least two comments to make concerning death in the Kingdom of God.
1) DEATH WILL NOT COME IN THE “DAY”
John 11:7–10 (ESV) — 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 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. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
Our text today starts with a concern over death.
• The disciples don’t think Jesus should return to the area around Jerusalem because the Jews are “seeking to stone” Him.
• And it is His answer to their concern that provides us with the first way He addressed death in the Kingdom.
• BTW – I like that in a context where Jesus was laying the groundwork to challenge their very notion of death, they express fear of the very thing He seeks to challenge – good timing.
Death is in God’s Timing:
So the first way Jesus addressed death in the Kingdom of God was to tell the disciples that His death is in God’s timing.
• He did this by saying “If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. (vs. 9)”
• Jesus intent here, all agree, is to convey the same meaning to be found in the following passages of John.
• John 9:4–5 (ESV) — 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
• John 7:6 (ESV) — 6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.
• John 7:8 (ESV) — 8 You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.”
• John 7:30 (ESV) — 30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
Jesus’ appointed time to die on the cross was set by His Father, not by the mobs in Judea.
• Jesus wanted the disciples to know this.
• Death comes only at God’s appointed time – no sooner or no later.
However, we must be clear that He is not telling them that the night will not come.
• He will die and they will die.
• John 12:27 (ESV) — 27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.
• However, this death will be much different than what they conceive.
And this leads us to the second way he addressed death in the Kingdom of God.
2) DEATH IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK
John 11:11–16 (ESV) — 11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Why did Jesus describe death as a sleep from which Lazarus will awaken?
• What was Jesus trying to convey?
• To answer that and to appreciate the second way Jesus addressed death in the Kingdom of God, we need to get at some background on the Hebrew view of death.
• Because it is this view that Jesus was about to profoundly change.
Death in the OT:
Death in the OT can be said to have 3 general meanings (AYBD).
• (1) a “metaphor for those things which detract from life as Yahweh intends it”
• (2) “as a ‘power’ in opposition to the created order”
• (3) “for biological cessation”
• Number (1) is spiritually related; number (2) can be both spiritually and physically related; number (3) is physically related.
With regards to (3), “biological cessation” the following can be said:
• “Belief in a substantial, meaningful existence after death is a relatively late development in the history of Israelite religion. The usual view expressed in the biblical books is that, upon death, one’s shade descends to Sheol, where one remains forever, cut off from God’s presence” – AYBD.
• This slow change from “forever” dead to “meaningful existence” was a somewhat of a sequential process, though the views did coexist.
• N.T. Wright puts this process as follows, “absence of hope beyond death; hope for blissful life after death; hope for new bodily life after ‘life after death’” – N.T. Wright.
• We will briefly describe some of the specific OT views of (3), “biological cessation”.
Death as Sleep:
The phrase “fallen asleep” was a Hebrew way of speaking of physical death, number (3) from above – Beasely-Murray.
• 1 Kings 2:10 (ESV) — 10 Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.
• Psalm 13:3 (ESV) — 3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
• It is for this reason that, as we will see shortly, Jesus’ characterization of death as a sleep would not have been unusual, but describing it as a sleep from which Lazarus would awake would have been.
Death is Permanent:
We also need to know that with respect to physical death (3), no one was immune and it was considered to be a permanent condition – not something that one would awake from as Jesus told us in vs. 11.
• 2 Samuel 14:14a (ESV) — 14 We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again.
• Psalm 6:5 (ESV) — 5 For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?
• Psalm 115:17 (ESV) — 17 The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any who go down into silence.
• Job 14:11–12 (ESV) — 11 As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up, 12 so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.
o Elijah was the exception – 2 Kings 2:11.
o And the boy brought back to life by Elisha was also an exception, but we can assume he ultimately did not escape death – 2 Kings 4:35.
That biological death was considered as something permanent by the Jews is also seen in Mark.
• Mark 5:39–40 (ESV) — 39 And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” 40 And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was.
• BTW - though Daniel 12:2 reflects a different meaning, one more in line with the view Jesus was about to reveal, it had not yet “seized the minds of the people” – Beasely-Murray.
Death is Corruption:
And as conveyed by numbers (1) and (2) from above, the disobedience in the Garden of Eden that led to death, “detracted from life as Yahweh intended and it” corrupted the “created order”.
• This corruption manifested itself as both physical death, as we have just seen and spiritual death for all of humanity.
• Athanasius put it this way, “men began to die, and corruption ran riot among them and held sway over them”.
Paul gives us an example of the “corruption ran riot” due to death.
• Romans 1:28–32 (ESV) — 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Death and Corruption did not Glorify God:
Finally, we have to realize the problem corruption and its death caused for the purpose of life and creation – the glorification of God we spoke of last week.
• This purpose is not just a NT theme.
• In fact, “The most significant theme for Israel was the understanding that life provided an opportunity for the individual and community to praise Yahweh. Praise of God was the sign of life” – AYBD.
• Those engulfed by corruption and its death could not praise God, and thus could not participate in this “most significant theme” – AYBD.
• The consequences of death and corruption are one of the reasons that for the Jew, it was a profound blessing to have a long life and many children.
• Thus, it was unthinkable that even the “Holy One”, who we know from Paul to be Jesus, would taste death.
• Psalm 16:10 (ESV) — 10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
So now that we have an idea about the notions of death Jesus was confronting, we can appreciate and get at what He was doing.
Death Redefined in the Kingdom of God:
In telling the disciples that He will awaken Lazarus from death, Jesus is both:
• (1) Departing radically from the typical view of death
• (2) And pointing to Himself as the reason why
It departs radically because Jesus is now saying that death is a sleep, but one “from which they shall be awakened through Jesus” – Beasely-Murray.
• In other words, death is not permanent!
• He makes this claim in verse 11 when He says that He will “awaken him” (Lazarus) from death.
• And by His own resurrection He demonstrates forever that death is dead.
It points to Himself because He is about to claim and then demonstrate that He is “the resurrection and the life” (vs. 25).
• And it is He, in union with the Father (John 11:41-43), that will shortly raise Lazarus from the dead.
• He will do so in public with the spoken word of God so that all can see and hear.
• John 11:41–43 (ESV) — 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”
And this redefining of death in the Kingdom of God is why Jesus tells the disciples in verse 4 that an illness that led to death is in fact an “illness [that] does not lead to death”.
• And why he says in John 8:52, “If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death”.
• Believers will never be deprived of the presence of Jesus Christ.
• We will never taste death, because we will be full and satisfied in the glory and eternity of Jesus Christ.
And importantly, Jesus shows us in verse 15 with His words, “for your sake”, that Kingdom Love and Kingdom Death intersect.
• In teaching, and shortly in demonstrating, that death is not permanent, Jesus is loving the disciples, Martha, Mary and Lazarus with Kingdom Love.
• He is pointing all of them to the glory and power of the Father as manifested in the Son to defeat death!
• What could be a higher expression of love than to show the disciples that through the Father-ordained ministry of the Son, death is defeated.
• What a glorious victory to behold; what a marvelous love to receive!
But there is more!
• Jesus was not only telling them that the corruption and permanency of death was about to be defeated, but that death itself would soon be, in complete opposition to its prior status, an occasion to praise God!
• As we just saw, those engulfed by corruption and death, could not praise and glorify God.
• The very things we were created to do.
• But now, through death, Jesus would demonstrate His victory via the resurrection over it and thereby vindicate His Father-ordained misery.
• He would overturn death’s permanency.
• He would cleanse death’s corruption.
• He would restore the created order and His intent for creation.
• Athanasius put like this, “The renewal of creation [would be] wrought by the self-same Word Who made it in the beginning”.
• This would enable us to praise and glorify God for eternity.
And it is this view of death that Jesus wants the disciples to “believe” when He says, “and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe”.
• Not just because it is truth, but in order that they may also be prepared for Jesus’ coming death.
Paul put the Jesus’ Kingdom view of death this way:
• 1 Corinthians 15:51–55 (ESV) — 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
Lessons for Us:
• Finally, Thomas’ words, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (vs. 16), seem to demonstrate that Jesus’ teaching is taking hold.
• D.A. Carson characterizes Thomas’ words as reflecting “raw devotion and courage”.
• And as such, they are a challenge to us all.
• Mark puts the challenge to us this way:
• Mark 8:34 (ESV) — 34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
• Because as Jesus as just shown, death is defeated and not to be feared.
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