This transcript was generated automatically and may contain minor errors.

Let me thank the good brethren here for the opportunity to preach this evening. As I look out over the audience, I am pleasantly surprised. Reagan said... I think it was yesterday. He said, they've started putting in the bulletin who's going to be preaching.

And I thought, well, at least the attendance will be maybe half, you know, when I get here tonight. But in spite of that fact, you're here tonight. Turn if you would in your Bibles to John 11. We're pretty much gonna stay there. In John 11.

And I'm assuming this is ready to go. Alright. The story is very familiar, and there'll be some occasions where I just simply I won't read the text. I'll just simply say what was happening there for, sake of time. But we know that this event is the event of the raising of Lazarus.

But I want to focus on that phrase when Jesus says, do you believe this? And what is the this? And it's not the resurrection because Martha believed in the resurrection. It was something else about that resurrection that really has to do with the songs that we sang tonight. Did you look at a background of that situation?

The event is right on the heels of Jesus having gone to the feast of dedication there in Jerusalem. And there he gets into it with the leaders of the Jews, and he is talking about his sheep hear his voice, and he talks about he and the father were one. And, of course, they take up stones to stone him, and he starts questioning them about that. Why would you do... I'm doing these works.

These are the works the fathers give me to do. Why would you find it strange that I would say that I'm the son of God? If you don't believe me... Believe me for my work's sake, How can a person do these works and not have God with him? They didn't like that.

They took up stone... You know, they wanted to stone him, and this is probably another occasion like Luke 4, you'd be called when Jesus is at the synagogue and they wanted to take him, he basically works a miracle and passes out of their sight. So this is what he does. And he comes over to an area that is known as Perea. It's called beyond the Jordan because as we know in scripture, a lot of the geography take...

Really takes place from the viewpoint of Jerusalem. So if you're in Jerusalem, beyond the Jordan is gonna be the Eastern side. And so this is often referred to as the Purim ministry. Jesus is over there. And it's interesting.

He's in an area where John the Baptist had been baptized, and the Bible says that many of those Jews believed on him, not the unbelieving ones there in Jerusalem. But on the other side of the river, there were a lot of Jews who believed in what Jesus had to say. Now the event really, though, takes place with Bethany. Bethany is where Mary and Martha and Lazarus were living. They were not only disciples of the Lord, they were very close.

And the Bible even here in this text says that he loved them. We find that it's only gonna be a few months later when Jesus enters into Jerusalem for the last time that last week of his life. And... But he ends up... He doesn't spend the night there.

As you see, you know, he comes in on Sunday. He sees the temple, but it's late. And he's going back to Bethany just shy of a couple of miles from Jerusalem. So which wouldn't be that far of a walk, just a little over a mile. And then he comes back on Monday with his disciples, and then he goes back.

And he comes back on Tuesday and so forth. So he stayed with Mary and Martha and others there in Bethany as well. But these sisters, Jesus is in Perea now because they're seeking to stone him if he goes back to Jerusalem to... Into Judea. And they send messengers to Jesus saying, Lazarus is sick.

And the Bible tells us that Jesus instead of saying, well, let's go back. You know? He'd healed so many people. And, really, the implication of the text, you'll see later on. The reason they sent this message was not just, oh, by the way, Lazarus is sick. They wanted him to come back in healing. There's something about that sickness that wasn't normal. He didn't have a cold or some... Whatever it was, they felt it important to try to get Jesus to come back and heal him.

That's the implication you'll see from the rest of the text. And so it gives some import there when Jesus just hangs around for another couple of days. And he had his reasons, obviously. The Bible tells us that before leaving to go to Bethany, Lazarus dies. And he doesn't just die.

In verse 4, look at verse 4. Jesus, when he hears Lazarus is sick, he says to his disciples, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God that the son of God may be glorified thereby. It's interesting in the original text, the word that gets translated unto death, this sickness is not unto death. It's not the normal, like, be baptized unto the remission of sins. It's a word that means it's not for the purpose of.

So Jesus is saying, he's not just gonna die. It... He's not sick, and you know how it is when you get really bad sick, you die. It's not just dying that's gonna happen here. There's gonna be a glorification.

They don't understand some of these things, of course. And so as we read on down through the text, you see that Jesus... After Lazarus dies, Jesus says, let us go to Judea. I was telling Reagan, I said, I almost thought about preaching this lesson without a PowerPoint. It can actually be done, But there's a there's a great advantage to it.

There's... And so I did. So Jesus says, well, let us go then to Judea. And you recall the disciples go, oh, what? They wanna stone you.

And that's why it's important that you see that context of the previous chapter. That... That's why they said that. They're like, oh, wait a minute. We just got through, you know, getting out of there alive, and you wanna go back into Judea?

And Jesus says, well, are there not twelve hours in a day? You know, some of those phrases you go, what's that got to do with anything? Let's get on to Lazarus. You know? No.

What's his point there? His point is that there are twelve hours in a day. It's much like in John four where he talks about my food, you know, is to do the will of the father who has sent me and to accomplish his work. Get it done. There are twelve hours in a day, and you need to get your service to God done then.

He goes on to say, you know, you walk in the day, you walk in the light, you won't stumble if you have the light of the world. And he's talking about this and the night coming. You know? People stumble in the night. Get your life in a such a situation where you're accomplishing what God wants you to accomplish.

Work for that end and for that purpose. As our brother said, you know, we're we're just here in this tabernacle. But while we are here, we shouldn't be just... I'm just waiting for God to come take me. You know?

And I'm like Paul. You know? I'd much rather be with Jesus than, You know? I'm just... When...

Whenever the Lord wants to, I'm fine with that. I'm not afraid of dying. Well, that's good. But Jesus would look there twelve hours in a day. In other words, I have to do some things.

Remember, Jesus knew when his hour was. And on a couple of occasions, even scripture, it says, he knew it's not his hour yet. What does that mean? Well, it's what the Lord was talking about when he said, no man takes my life. I lay it down, and I take it up again.

You disciples, you gotta understand. I know when my time will be, and it's not right now. And so we're gonna go back. Yes. There's that threat.

That's why we left there. But I know what I'm doing. And really, as Christians, we need to be that way as well in whatever it is in life that we're doing. And when our friends or our coworkers and so... Why are you doing this and why are you doing that?

Give them an answer. Give them the biblical answer. I know who I am. I know why I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm not affected by culture.

I'm affected by God's will. That's what Jesus... The example he is setting for his disciple. They're twelve hours in a day, and it's not up yet. In about three months, it will be, but not now.

And they're not gonna take my life. I'll... When my hours come, I'll lay it down. It's called a sacrifice. That's what he meant by that.

Well, he tells him, our friend Lazarus is asleep, and I go to awaken him. Well, you know what their response? If he's sleeping, he'll probably get better. If it's... You know, whatever the sickness is, sometimes, you know, you get the flu or something of that nature, and you 're in bed for a couple of days, and you spend a lot of that time sleeping, and your body tries to heal.

Same thing happened back then. And so it's like, well, you know, he'll get better. And Jesus, you can almost see him, like, you know, shaking his head like an older preacher I used to hear every now and then things... People would come up with some strange things in the bible class, and he would just say, oh, my brethren. You know?

Like, have you been listening? Listen. Look. It's right there. And so Jesus...

The bible says in verse 14, Jesus therefore said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. But I'm gonna go wake him. Why did the Lord say that he sleeps? Well, we understand from God's viewpoint that our life here upon this earth is going to end in death, and the Lord understood that there would be those who would be alive at his coming. That's not under the context.

Under the context, he's talking about a situation that is normal in life. When the Lord comes again, those saints who are alive, who are faithful, be changed, twinkling of the eye and caught up to be lord near. That will be an ex... An exception in that sense. But until the lord comes, what's gonna happen?

We're all gonna die. What happened to Lazarus, by the way? He was resurrected. He died. So the Lord is focusing beyond death, and so he sees the life of a Christian as something that goes to sleep.

Not just because there's sleep and then there's a waking up, but because when you and I go to sleep, most of us anticipating waking up. That's why you're setting your alarm in the morning so you can get to work on time or school. You're anticipating that. And that's exactly the way we need to be living spiritually. That if anything happens, someone says, well, what would happen if you were in a car wreck and this...

I go to paradise. Angels will carry me there. That that should be the first thought, if not the words that come out of our mouth. Because we ought to be living. What's gonna happen...

We always say, what's gonna happen tomorrow? Blah blah. And we tell them because we're anticipating it. And so it's real. We see tomorrow is real, and you need to see the resurrection is real.

And so Jesus said it's just sleeping. By the way, the word cemetery really comes from the influence of Christianity. It comes from a Greek... Up up until the first century, the Greeks, which was the common language, of course, of the day, the Greeks called that place where you bury people, they called it Necropolis, literally City Of The Dead. Well, that's what it was.

Yeah. Christians began to call it a cemetery. From the Greek word, you can hear it, a sleeping place, because they understood what the Lord is teaching here. When we die, it's just asleep. And sometimes we sing a song, asleep in Jesus, you see.

And we're gonna wake up in the arms of the Lord if we've been living as we ought to be living. So they didn't understand that. So Jesus has to... Well, he's dead. But then he goes on to say, and I'm glad I was not there for your sake.

It's like, what? You wanted Lazarus to die? Yes. Yeah. I didn't kill him.

We're gonna die. Some sooner than others. But you hear folks, you know, who have their one hundredth birthday? I know of just one person, member of the Lord's church. She made it to 104.

Some of you guys may know others, she died almost fifteen years ago. She was faithful to the Lord. And so Thomas makes the statement, well, then let us go die with him. And you might... At at first, why would he say that?

Well, because those disciples are still thinking, if we go back over there, they're gonna stone us. But if Lazarus is dead, we might as well go die with him. You know, Jesus... No. No.

No. No. You still don't get the point. So what happens? He gets over there, and someone tells Martha that Jesus is coming near.

So look at your bible. So we find that there were many Jews who had come to console Mary and Martha there in verse 19. And verse 20, Martha, therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet him, and Mary was still in the house. Martha, therefore, said unto you... So she goes to a place away from the house.

Now in your mind, you got a vision. Three places. There's the house. There's the place where Lazarus had been entombed. The stone is rolled in front of it.

And then there's a third place where Martha has gone to meet Jesus. And then later, you'll see Mary goes to that place. So Martha's gonna say, hey. The Lord wants to talk to you. She goes there.

The people, the mourners at the house thought that when she leaves, they thought she was going to the tomb, so they go over there. And then that way, when Jesus, Mary, and Martha come to the tomb, all of those mourners, there's a lot of people there. Alright. So verse 21. Martha comes to Jesus and she says, Lord, if you had been here, my brother had not died.

And even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. We sometimes drag on Martha. It's sorta like Peter. When you think of the apostle Peter, a lot of times you think, oh, he preached the first sermon on the day of Pentecost, and he went and he was the first one to preach to Cornelius. Ain't that interesting?

You know, these these first in his life. But no one talks about, oh, yeah, Peter. Yeah. That's the apostle who denied the Lord. Peter, denier.

You know? But he did do that. And Martha was covered about by many things earlier on, and she's more worried about serving than she was about spiritual things, whereas Mary was there at the feet of Jesus. But Martha learns from that. And you see Martha here, she she speaks very much as one full of faith.

I know God will give you whatever you ask. And she says in verse 23, Jesus said, your brother will rise again. And Martha said, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. So she believed in the resurrection. And conservative Jews did that.

The Pharisees did that. Alright? They believed in the resurrection. You recall the sadducees didn't. But Jesus then says unto her, I am the resurrection and the life.

He that believeth on me, though he die, yet he shall live. And whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die. Do you believe this? And we'll come back to that verse in a moment. But look at the rest of what happened.

So she says in verse 27, she said to him, yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the son of God, even he that cometh into the world. This is like Peter's confession. Again, Martha has grown. We had a lesson this morning about the prodigal son. How about really all of us, as Reagan said, we're prodigal sons.

We've come back. We... We've learned the problem of living in the world. We felt the pangs of conscience of doing things we shouldn't have done, and we wanted forgiveness to come back and to serve God. And you see people in the Bible changing too.

I just suggest to you, let's not always think of Martha as the one cumbered about by many cares. She was, and she needed to change. And it sounds... She sounds so much different, doesn't she? I believe that thou art the Christ, the son of God.

Look at verse 28. And when she had said this, she went away and called Mary, her sister secretly saying, the teacher is here and call us thee. Jesus said, go get Mary. Verse 29. And she, when she heard it, rose quickly and went with him.

Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met him. The Jews then who were with her in the house and were consoling her. When she saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, supposing she was gonna go to the tomb and weep there. Mary, therefore, when she had come where Jesus was, saw him fell down at his feet saying, Lord, if thou had been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping that had come with her, he groaned in spirit and was troubled.

And he said, where have you laid him? And they said unto him, come and see. So here's here's this group come from the house, and they all go then to the tomb. Come and see. Verse 35, Jesus wept.

The Jews, therefore, said, behold, how he loved him. But some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of him that was blind? That's John 9. So so when you look at your... He heals the blind man.

He has that discussion with what, you know, spiritual blindness and true seeing was all about. Could he not have caused this man also not to die? Jesus, therefore, again, groaning in himself comes to the tomb. Now it was a cave and a stone lay against it. And Jesus said, take away the stone.

And Martha, the sister of him that was dead said to him, Lord, by this time, the body decayeth for he has been dead for four days. And Jesus said to her, said I not unto thee. If thou believeth, thou shouldest see the glory of God. You see the context coming together? He tells his disciples earlier, I'm glad he did...

He died be... Because this is gonna be to the glory of God. And now he says to Martha about seeing the glory of God. Take the stone away. Yes.

He is very, very, very much dead. But you're gonna see the glory of God. You have to believe that. And the application, we're beginning to see it. We have twelve hours in a day.

We need to be spending that doing what God's will is and live like there is a tomorrow. There is a city. And we have to recognize that's when the glory will be. Thank you, by the way, for leading that song. It's probably been a decade since I have been able to sing that.

I always love that song. We're gonna be glorified. We're gonna be changed from glory into glory, but you gotta believe it. None of us have seen it. But didn't I tell you?

If you believe, you will see the glory of God. So they took away the stone, and Jesus lifted up his eyes. And he said, father, I thank thee that thou hearest me. And I knew... Do you see the past tense on that?

I thank it. Jesus prayed, and we acknowledge the fact he understood the will of God. We're to pray according to God's will. But Jesus believed God heard. He'd heard in the past and is gonna continue to hear.

And so he says, I thank you that you have heard me, and I know that you hear me always. But before verse 42, but because of the multitude that stands around, I said it that they may believe that you did send me. He's praying this prayer out loud so that these people will understand. Jesus is not just a man or a prophet who is asking God to do some... He knows what's going to happen.

I'm gonna go there, and I'm gonna wake him from his sleep. Verse 43. And when he had thus spoken, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. He that was dead came forth. He's bound hand and foot in grave clothes as was the custom you see, and his face was bound with that napkin.

And Jesus said, lose him and let him go. It I don't I don't... Can kinda see the humor in this situation. If I was there, you know, I would be the same like the... You know, you stand there, you're amazed.

You know? And Lazarus is like, get this off of me. You know? And Jesus... Well, take it off.

You know? Yes. That's really Lazarus. He's trying to Jesus had, by the way, Jesus had already resurrected someone before. Remember the widow of Nain?

Little boy's dead. He's in a coffin. They... I think the old King James used the term a beer, you know, b I e r. And they're carrying him, you know, to where they're gonna bury this only son.

And Jesus, the Bible said, had compassion on her, and he goes and raises that son from the dead. But Jesus is raising Lazarus, and he's praying these prayers here. He's saying everything that he is saying to try to get us to understand that there's something beyond this life, and it has to be very real to you. This is Lazarus. This get the grave clothes off of him, and you'll see this is Lazarus.

Many, therefore, the Jews who came to Mary and beheld what he did believed on him. Just as a footnote, by the way. Have you ever wondered when Jesus... Because it's gonna be, oh, just a couple months later. Jesus is gonna ride into town on a donkey.

This will be on Sunday, the last week of his life. Prior to that, you've got all these Jews wanting to stone him. But when he comes in, what happens? There's a bunch of people out there, and they have the palm branches and so forth, and they're saying, hosanna, you know, save us, we pray. Hosanna, you know, and they're throwing their coats down and so forth and giving all of this.

Where did those people come from? Well, when you read John's text, you see these were the people who had come down from Jerusalem to console Mary and Martha, and they see this resurrection. Not only that, but they go back and they talk to others who believe them. Those were the people there when Jesus comes riding in. They too...

They understood. They saw what was happening in that respect. Not all of the Jews there were crying, crucify him, crucify him. Those that the Pharisees and the chief priests stirred up later that week cried that, but there were a lot of godly Jews who believed in the Lord. They believed in him.

Good people... And here's our application. Good people sometimes focus on things that are important, but they're not the most important. Did you notice in the text that three times Martha says, Lord, if you've been here, he wouldn't have died. And isn't that what we want?

Mary says, Lord, if you had been here, he wouldn't have died. And even though there may be some skepticism, even the other people there, you recall the mourners go, wow. You know? If he can heal the blind, you know, couldn't he kept this guy from dying? And the answer is yes.

Yes. He could have. And even his own disciples, see, they're gonna look back and they're going, why did he wait two days? He... We could've gone over there and he could've healed them.

You know, they didn't have the faith of the centurion. Remember the centurion said, you don't have to come into my house. I'm not worthy. Just say the word and my servant will be healed. That man had faith.

But the issue, the Lord wanted him to go ahead and take the natural course of thing. There's nothing wrong in not wanting our loved ones to die. Nothing wrong with that. You lose companionship. You lose friendship.

You lose knowledge. You lose skills. There's nothing wrong with that. But that's not what we're here. That's not why we're living.

We're not living not to die. We are living to die that we might live. Go back to that phrase. It's really interesting... Or at least to me.

Look at chapter... Look at verse 25 again. Jesus says to her, I am the resurrection. And, of course, we all know he's talking about the fact that our resurrection will only be through him. I'm the way, the truth, life.

No man cometh in the father but by me. Alright? I am the resurrection and the life. And even in John 1, the word became flesh and dwelt among men, but the word was life. He's talking about eternal life, not this physical life.

God gave us that. And when our body can't sustain it, we die, and God can come and give it back again. And so he's resurrected people before, but they died again because the body is not meant to sustain itself forever. But now notice the rest of it. He that believeth on me, though he die physically, yet he shall live and here eternally.

But look at verse 26. And whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die. What does that mean? He's talking about the fact you and I need to live, not just physically. He's not saying whoever happens to be alive.

No. Because then he says never die would mean physically you never die. He's talking about while we're living here on this earth, we need to believe on him. Not believe that he is the son of God, believe a fact, but to believe on him. You follow and you do everything he...

You think like he thinks. You do what he asks you to do. Your perspective about life was his perspective. That when we die physically, it's just asleep, and we're looking to wake up to eternal life. You gotta think that way.

If you live and believe on me, you'll never die. You won't see your own physical death as dying. What will you see it? It's just a transition. Angels will come like Lazarus, take you to paradise.

It's just transition. That's what Jesus... You'll never die. You just move from this life into the eternal care and hands of the Lord. And isn't that what we believe?

You've had some die recently who were faithful to the Lord, and ain't that what we believe? And this is why. Jesus then seeks them to get a bigger picture. All of us are gonna die, but we need to live in such a way that we never die. The focus is that whether you're young or you're old, you need to have that every day that you live.

I'm gonna go quickly with these. I'm gonna read the verses. We know the passages. But let me give you just a couple of quick examples of living so that we never die. And answer the question, do you believe it?

You'll believe it by your actions. For instance, Jesus said, everyone who hears these words of mine doeth them as likened unto a man who builds his house upon a rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and doeth them not is likened unto a man who builds his house upon the sand and the wind and the waves crash against it and destroy it and greatest the destruction of that. Do you believe that? If you're doing what the Lord says to do, you'll have a house built that can sustain trials and tribulations in life.

And if you don't, it'll tear you down. And so when you hear Christians saying, I know others have had to go through this, but I just can't handle it. I just can't go through it. They don't believe what the Lord said. The Lord said, if you do what I've asked you to do, you hear these words of mine, means all of them, including those he told the apostles, then the storms of life will hit you and they'll hit you hard and you'll stand because it's founded on a rock, not Jesus the rock, the words of Jesus, the message.

You wanna have a good family life? Yeah. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. Some folks are lucky, some folks aren't. No.

Ephesians 2, wives are to be in subjection to their husbands. That's totally against culture today. And husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for it. They're to love their wives as they love their own bodies. And when both are doing that, it works.

Do you believe it? Those who practice it believe it and are blessed by it. And children obey their parents in the Lord. You don't always agree with them, but you do what they ask you to do in the Lord. In other words, no.

You would never do something that the Lord says you shouldn't because your parents told you to. You don't lie because your parents tell you to, but godly parents wouldn't do that. And households who... That observe this have those blessings. What about the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil?

And those who have pursued it have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Notice it doesn't say those who get it. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. They just spend their life in pursuit of it, and it tears them up.

And they wonder why sometimes. Well, what does the scripture say? Do you believe it? If you're not pursuing it, you believe it. If you go, well, that didn't apply to me, then you don't.

And you're not living so as to never die. Or what about those who would see good days, Peter says? Let him refrain his tongue from evil. And he goes on to talk about and not be deceitful. So when people are honest and speak the truth and they're not deceitful and they don't go hedge and hem and haw and so forth, people trust them.

The young folks, Here's what'll happen. Here's what happened to me. I told a lie, and I got out of trouble. Actually, I told a couple. I got out of trouble, and it was never found out.

And then I tell a lie, and I get called. And then I wonder why that person didn't trust me. And I've heard young people say things like, you should trust me. When really the question is, what kind of speech do you have that would cause me to trust you? Trust is something you earn.

And this person, it was my dad, he said, look, son. He said, I don't know that he took a poll of everybody, but he said, everybody lies to their parent. He said, I do. And he says, but you can't be trusted if you're lying. And then he went on to say, but you change your ways, you tell the truth, you can earn that trust again.

You wanna see good days, Peter says. Don't be a liar. Don't be deceitful. What about he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved? I...

I've been told that that that's just a work. It's just something you have to do. Jesus said, this is... These are the words of the Lord. Do you believe it?

There's a whole audience here of people who believe it, but some of you may be visiting tonight. And you haven't been baptized into Christ for remission of sins. Jesus said, if you believe, believe that he is the son of God, you'd that good confession that Jesus is Lord. You'd turn from your sins. You're baptized into his death.

You'll be raised to walk in a newness of life. Your sins will be washed away by his sacrifice, the blood of the lamb. And you can believe it. Martha, Mary, the rest... You can believe that God will resurrect you one day.

If you are living and believing on me, you'll never die. Do you believe that? I do. I trust you do. I know many of you do because you wouldn't be here worshiping the Lord tonight.

You're doing that because you know there's something beyond this life. But if you haven't become a Christian, you can do that tonight. You can obey God's will and begin a journey of living so as to never die. Do you believe it? That's only something you can answer.

But we want to encourage you to believe it and to be obedient to him and maybe do it even as we stand and sing this song.