FHBC Sermon Notes

"This illness does not lead to death," Jesus says of Lazarus. To Jesus this is not the physical death of the body, but something greater. It is not the second death. 

How is it that we think of illness and suffering. Yet here Jesus is saying that this illness of his friend is for the glory of God. It is more though than just that God will be praised but that through this God will make some thing known about himself. Ultimately this is a foreshadowing of the death of Jesus, so that his disciples might truly believe, for at this point they do not understand. In fact they are questioning why would Jesus even want to go back to Judea (v.8) where the Jews want to kill him. 

Jesus says that Lazarus has fallen asleep. His disciples do not understand that he means he has physically died. Why does Jesus state it this way? It is because it is only temporary. With the same certainty that his disciples have that if asleep he will wake up, so Jesus knows that having faith in the power of his resurrection, we to can have this certainty of waking from our physical death. 

Jesus in fact is glad of Lazarus' death for through this God's great love will be shown, and shown strongly for what is to come. Four days he was dead, which is significant since Jewish tradition stated that the spirit after four days leaves the body permanently. 

Daniel 12:2 talks of the resurrection on the last day, and in v.24 Martha references it in her statement of faith in Jesus. Jesus doesn't respond in simple concurrence, but instead with the fifth of the "I am" statements in John . He states that the life he gives is a life that never ends, and life that physical death cannot quench. 

 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."