Take Away The Stone | John 11:28-44

If you have your Bibles with you, please turn in them to John chapter 11. John chapter 11 this morning we're going to be in verses 28 through 44. As we continue in the narrative of that great miracle, that last work of Christ ministry, his earthly ministry, which is his resurrection of Lazarus. This morning we're going to be in verses 28 through 44 of John chapter 11. Listen now as I read. When she had said this, not as Martha, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, "The teacher is here and is calling for you." When she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews 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. 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." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, it was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord come and see." Jesus wept. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him." But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying." Then Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay against it. 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. He has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you? If you believed you would see the glory of God." So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 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." When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus come out." 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." Let's pray. Father, we approach you quite aware that the same voice of Christ that raised Lazarus from the dead, and the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, is at work today. Indeed, even now, you are at work in your people. The Lord Christ speaks us in preaching. We need to respond to that voice today. Help us to hear. Help us to change. Help us to behold our Savior and Lord to worship the true and living God. Bless us now, Lord. Remove distractions from us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. There are two tremendous realities that are in my mind as I've been preaching through John 11. Two just tremendous truths that I always have in the background as I have been opening up these last several verses. The first truth is that John 11 is fundamentally about the gracious, sovereign, unilateral power of God. In particular, the power of God in salvation. If you think this is just a miracle at the Lord's compassion, you're missing the point of the story. This is just Jesus showing some mercy to his friends. You've not understood John 11. And if you think John 11 and this resurrection of Lazarus is merely for Jesus to display his power and prove his Christ, you too have missed the point of John 11. Those things are included. But John 11 teaches us something about salvation. You see, just as Lazarus brought nothing but his own death to his resurrection, you bring nothing but your own spiritual death to your own salvation. Lazarus saved himself. This whole text is about what Jesus does to raise Lazarus by his own power. And Jesus, and John, is showing us that it's that exact same dynamic that is at work in the saving, gracious power of God. Now, salvation is all of the Lord. So John 11, we must realize is teaching us something about salvation. But there's another truth that I have in the back of my mind. That is, friends, Jesus raises Lazarus in order that people would believe in Him. Jesus raises Lazarus in order to form faith. Jesus saves and redeems and resurrects Lazarus so that people would respond to this message. There's two verses after our text. I have not read. And I'll preach on next week. But in those verses, we see that there's two responses to this miracle. Our Jews that were at this funeral that were mourning with Mary and Martha, and they saw Jesus do this and they believed in Him. And they responded to repentance and faith. And there were many Jews that were there where this miracle was not nearly enough for them. And they rejected Him. And they went cowering to the Pharisees to accuse Jesus. How will you react to Jesus this morning? How will you respond to the resurrection this morning? As this, my friends, you have to do something about the resurrection. Just as you have to do something about the resurrection of Jesus Christ Himself, you have to reckon with that fact. You have to reckon with the resurrection of Lazarus because it's teaching us about the Lord Himself and the Lord intends for His people to respond to this glorious miracle. So those are just two truths that are sort of in the back of my mind as I preach John 11. God is completely sovereign and unilaterally in control of salvation. And at the same time, He beckons and pleads with sinners to come to Him. He's constantly pleading with the loss to believe in Him. So with His in mind, I have three points this morning from our text, point number one, the grief of Mary. The grief of Mary. Point number two, the compassion of Christ. Point number three, the action of Christ. We're going to see the grief of Mary, the compassion of Christ, and third, the action of Christ, consider with me point number one, the grief of Mary. Look at verse 28. It says, "When she had said this, she went and called her, Sister Mary, saying in private that he drew this here and is calling for you. And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to Him." Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met Him. And 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. 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." Now we're going to consider Mary's grief in a moment, but in the meantime, I just had to say something about Lazarus' tomb itself, and the topic of Christian burial. I need to say something about the burial of Lazarus itself. We should appreciate that Lazarus is actually buried somewhere. Lazarus in this narrative was buried in a specific place, and Lazarus, I trust today, is buried in a specific place near Jerusalem, near Bethany. And you have to realize that the entire narrative of John 11 is predicated upon the fact that a dead man's body is in a specific place. Jesus had the journey days to get there. The mourners had to walk two miles to comfort Mary and Martha. They had to go there because it was a specific place. I'm driving to a point here. You see, friends, the topic of burial, where your bones go after you die. By which I mean if the physical remains kept in the ground or a tomb is not an incidental or peripheral topic in the Bible. Rather, large swaths of the biblical narratives are taken up with where saints are buried. It matters where you're buried. It matters what you and your loved ones do with your body after you die. If a driving element of the Genesis narrative, look at Genesis. Read Genesis 23. See how much blood it contains. thought and attention Abraham gives to his own burial and Tissera's burial. You see this in the narrative of Jacob's wife and his wife You see this in the narrative of Joseph and his wife the main illustration of Peter's Pentecost sermon was David's tomb Which reflected a specific hope a real hope in the resurrection of the life of the world to come See the Bible actually does care what happens to your body after you die So this is known by no means the main idea of this text, but brothers and sisters I think you need to realize the funeral of saints and their burial places must ought to reflect a robust hope in the resurrection and the life of the world to come This is just a matter of Christian ethics on the pastors or people ask me these things from time to time What do you think about cremation and burial and graves and things like that? It's not it's a very Christian thing to think about The main sort of north star that you should have as you make your own funeral arrangements or if you're called to Help with the with the affairs of a loved one who passes away is especially if they're in the Lord What about this funeral arrangement? What about this burial? Indicates a robust hope in eternity What about this burial reflects a Robust hope and confidence in the resurrection and the life of the world to come different Christians come to different conclusions as far as me in my house This is one reason why I would not recommend Spreading your ashes that lake linear I don't think that reflects the type of resurrection hope that sains for thousands of years had had and have had in the resurrection You can think about you can think about cremation you can think about burial and all these things my point to you is You should have something of the hope that Martha had for her brother Lazarus I know that he will make that he will rise on the last day and I would say Christians in how their buried should not make that Miracle more difficult for the Lord to perform I'm gonna move away from this point We want to look at Mary and Martha's grief particularly Mary's morning. It's fascinating Mary's words to Jesus are exactly the same as Martha's a moment ago. I didn't read the whole narrative So you might not have kept this or caught this what Mary says to Jesus is Exactly what Martha says to Jesus a few verses earlier look at verse 21 Martha said to Jesus Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died Now I noted last week how many interpreters many commentators they interpret Martha's words as a veiled critique of the Lord as if she sings something like Jesus Why didn't you respond to my message sooner? I thought you loved us Jesus? Why were you not there for us in our darkest hour of need? And I argue last week and I still believe it that I don't think that captures Martha's sentiments at all rather Martha's whole encounter with Christ reveals a confidence in the Lord's character and power so also For Mary the reality that Jesus would have healed her brother is a simple fact of her friendship with the Lord I think Mary is conveying something like a Lord I know that if you had been here you would have done something about this because I know who you are And I know what you're like and I know that you love us and you can imagine This is very striking the fact that they say the exact same thing to Jesus to totally different conversations Perhaps this was something that Martha and Mary encourage one another with As for days they saw their brother getting sicker and sicker and approaching death They just comforted each other with just the character of Jesus. We know if Jesus was here. He would do something about this You can think the way if you've ever been in stress in a stressful family Situation and maybe you have a brother or father or mother who's something of a champion in that situation and you might comfort each other even though That situation is still going on if if if dad was here Oh, he would know what to do and that's not just a lament it You're just saying something about this person that you love There's probably something like that for Mary and Martha's they watch their brother get sicker and sicker and sicker and draw closer to death And even after he died Oh, if the Lord was here. Oh, if the Lord was here. Hopefully we'll see the Lord Martha and Mary they say the exact same thing, but what should also catch our attention? Is you do notice they say it in completely different ways So Martha simply says to Jesus my brother would have been alive if he had been here Mary on the other hand She requires more consolation from the mourners It's like all the people who come from Jerusalem to Bethany they know this is going to hit Mary harder than Martha So they are comforting her and then when she sees Jesus she weeps and whales and falls at his feet Rather than there's something we should just learn about people from this text There is not a single soul shaped precisely like another And I see little in this text that indicates anything less appropriate about Mary's motive grief than Martha's So this should help us learn the simple lesson that many redeemed saints will process Suffering and bereavement and loss differently from one another I say all of this to encourage us to allow just for a little more latitude And how different brothers and sisters express grief There are some people that are just not emotive There are stones There's not something necessarily wrong with them though. I just refer to them as stones There's not nothing necessarily wrong with a person who isn't especially a motive And those of us who might be more emotive might think there's something wrong with that person Well, maybe maybe not Perhaps it's just their personality And then for those of us who might be a little bit more stoic and maybe have a little more Common gray self control of our emotions might think that that person who's in tune with their emotions or cries That there's something sort of broken about that person maybe maybe not There's no standard mode of expression of emotions in the kingdom of God. Does that make sense? There are different expressions of grief and things like that There's even different registers of volume when making a point As I affectionately say to my wife often I'm not yelling. I'm Italian It's just how I speak Now, maybe I need to have a little more self control But you know what I mean the Lord gives different personalities to different people And this should have this should affect how we comfort those as they're going through grief Now that said though. I don't think Mary was sinning in her grief We should also be mindful of how and when our godly sorrow turns into sin You should be thinking about this whenever you're going through trial You should be thinking about thinking about this whenever you process suffering How is my process of sorrow? How is my grief Translating or is it translating into something less than godly? There here are three ways. I think that Godly sorrow can turn into sin rather quickly Christian your sorrow has turned into sin if you cannot be comforted by the truth from another Christian Let me say that again your sorrow has turned into sin If you cannot be comforted by the truth of God's word from another Christian There are a lot of Christians that I see struggle with this As some believers not only fail to find comfort in the truth from other believers But they can be stand office to such people There's a crisis of encouragement in the church in the world There are people that don't know how to encourage there are people who who when Somebody is suffering in the life of the church They at worst is avoid that person But sometimes they they will comfort that person and they don't know what to say They don't know how to encourage things and they might only say what they know is true And maybe that's something like God is sovereign and he's good Well friends one of the reasons why so many Christians I'm really failed to encourage and comfort other believers in distress Is because those who need comfort comfort are so deficient in receiving encouragement and it can produce this sort of negative feedback loop That trains people to not come to you and try to comfort you with the truth because you're so stand-offish in your grief Let me suggest my friend if that's you you need to run to God and repent of your sins You need to be a person that's responsive to truth and listen though there are better things than somebody telling you that God is good and he's sovereign There are far worse things they could tell you God is good and he is sovereign and he draws near to his people in grief And he draws near to his people who come to him and he is a refuge and strength and a very present help and trouble And you should just receive that even if you don't feel like it You need to learn to be comforted by the people of God as you process your grief That's one sign that your sorrow might be turning into sin number two your sorrow has turned into sin If you're questioning the character of God or the truth of the word of God Your sorrow has turned into sin if you're questioning the character of God or the truth of God's word The Bible has no problem with Christian sorrow The Bible has no problem with Christian grief 1 Corinthians 15 says we grieve as those or we do not grieve as those without hope The point is not that we don't grieve The point is we absolutely grieve but our grief looks different It's a hopeful grief that looks forward to the resurrection and the life of the world to come If you and your grief are expressing a doubt in the character of God Or his precious promises that are made and kept in Christ Then your grief is translating into sin Number three, your sorrow has turned into sin if you neglect the means of grace. The ordinary means of grace. By that, I'm talking about scripture reading prayer. I'm talking about your gathering with your local church. I'm talking about these ordinary means that God has provided the Christian to employ in the Christian life so that they could advance in Godliness. Sadly, I've seen Christians suffer time and time again. They pull further away from the Lord. And they pull further away from his people, further away from his word when dealing with loss. My friend, this is a sure sign that your grief is not godly. I can say more on this matter, but I think these are things we learn from the grief of Mary. Consider with me point number two, the compassion of Christ. The compassion of Christ. Our text is less about Mary's grief and more about the Lord's own emotions. That's what John is clearly bearing sort of narytival weight upon. He says in verse 33, "When Jesus therefore saw her weeping." And the Jews also weeping who came with her. He was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord come and see." We should appreciate in those verses the grief and rage of Jesus. And I say rage because the text here actually, I think smooth over too much, what the verbs in the Greek teach. The verb there rendered as being outraged and spirit and greatly troubled. Actually, I'm sorry, the verb translated that he was deeply moved is actually that he was outraged in spirit and greatly troubled. So a question worth asking is, what disturbed Jesus so much at this site? He sees Mary weeping, he sees the mourners weeping. What outraged his spirit? Some have argued that Jesus is frustrated that he's being forced to perform a miracle. And as if the Lord as it were is kind of performing a miracle under duress and he just doesn't like that. That interpretation doesn't really make a lot of sense to me or a sense of the text. Others think that Jesus is simply upset at the unbelief of the Jews around him. I think that's possible, but I think that also misses the mark. Though I can't say with certainty, I think the simplest explanation for the troubling of the Lord's spirit was the sheer reality of sin. The sheer reality of sin and its disastrous catastrophic consequences on man and creation and all the rest. And Jesus as the complete man. Jesus as the perfect man was often moved to anger over sin and brothers and sisters, we just learned very quick from this. There's something wrong with us if we are not so moved by sin. If we are not so angered by our sin, if we are not so troubled and enraged in spirit as the Lord was by sin and its consequences. Now Jesus has a completely different relationship to sin than we do. Nevertheless, Jesus raged in his spirit against sin and its effects, and we should have something of that dynamic in our own lives. But he didn't just rage. As we see this same complete Christ was moved with compassion. So much compassion that he wept. Verse 35 says Jesus wept. So the Jews said see how he loved him. But some of them said could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man? Also have kept this man from dying. Many of you know this is the shortest verse in the Bible and it's the shortest verse in the Bible, but it contains an ocean of fullness. One commentator says on this text that the same sin and death, the same unbelief that prompted his outrage, also generated his grief. Those who follow Jesus as his disciples today do well to learn the same tension. That grief and compassion without outrage reduced to mere sentiment. While outrage without grief hardens into self-righteous arrogance and irrecessibility. The idea is that both of those tensions should be in the Christian grief and mourning over sin, and weeping over sin and compassion towards sinners, and also a sort of rageful action that seeks to move away from that sin, that seeks to do something about that sin. We should realize just one simple point from this. Brothers and sisters, we belong to a savior full of compassion. If you just don't know this about Jesus, you need to know this now. We belong to a savior who is full of compassion. Jesus brims with warm blooded affection for his people and a sympathy for their afflictions. In many ways, Jesus is just like his father in his emotions. Psalm 103 says as a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him, for he knows our frame. And he remembers that we are dust. Father knows our frame. He's full of compassion, like father, like son. We sang in Psalm 145, full of kindness and compassion. Slow to anger, vast in love. God is good to all creation. All his works, his goodness, prove. Jesus in his compassion is showing something that's just, that he's showing just his nature, that he's like his father. And they share the same emotions. They share the same divinity. And yet, there is something distinct about Jesus. You see, brothers and sisters, Jesus without any trace of sin has an incarnate affection for people. Jesus, in a way the father does not, sympathizes with our weaknesses. And he does so without any trace of sin. The incarnation endowed the son with the ability to sympathize with our weaknesses. He doesn't excuse them. He doesn't excuse sin, but he understands temptation. One of the reasons Jesus became man was so that he might be a mediator who understands temptation, understands suffering, understands distress, and delivers us from such things. Hebrews 4 is masterful in this point. It says, "Since then, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession." It's saying, "Since we have a Jesus, a Christ, who is man, what is that qualify him to do according to the author of Hebrews?" It says, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses." Stated a different way. We have a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. One who is in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us then with confidence drawn near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Brothers, this is Jesus understood temptation. Jesus understood the sufferings of this life. Jesus suffered, in fact, more than any other person could possibly imagine. As he faced the waves of death at the cross, as he bore the wrath of his Heavenly Father, the Father's face turns away. Jesus experienced excruciating suffering. That man, Jesus, who felt the excruciating consequences of sin and death, came into the world to destroy them. He also felt those consequences so that he could mediate on our behalf with perfect sympathy. So why do we have such a Christ as our Lord and Savior? It's not only so that he should be a fit mediator for us. It's not only so Jesus could perform salvation. Why is Jesus full of compassion? Why is Jesus such a person that it can say he wept? Book Vibhr says it so that we would draw near to him. See, if the heart of Christ is full of compassion, the reason we're clued in to this glorious reality is so that we would respond to it. Jesus is near to us. Jesus understands us. Jesus does these things and he has compassion so that we would commune with him. It is to enrich our fellowship with the Lord. So so often, just feel in our own experience of the Christian life that there is something of a furrowed brow looking down above that I enrobed in all my failure and my remaining corruption that I'm just constantly a displeasure to God. And there's probably a positive version of that. We need to be a holier people and we should have a godly grief of verse in. But what the Bible wants us to understand is one of the reasons Jesus came down from heaven to earth, one of the reasons that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, one of the reasons why Jesus goes to this whole experience of living life and dying and rising again. It's not only to save you as so that you can know that the heart of Christ is near to sinners, is near to sinners. He says all that the Father gives to me, they'll come to me and those who come to me, I never cast them away. He says the Father doesn't lose his grip of them. He says he doesn't lose his grip on them. Now Jesus holds on to every single sinner that applies to him in faith. Every single person that flees their sin and runs the Christ, every single person that looks to Christ alone for salvation, they find freedom at the cross. They find grace in their time of need and not just salvation, they find friendship. Jesus, the first insult they ever gave to him so that he was a friend of sinners, praise God. He draws near to us such that he even weeps over his. people. J.C. Ryle on this point says, "Even the Son of God could weep. It shows us above all that the Savior in whom believers trust is a most tender and feeling Savior." He is one who can be touched with sympathy for our infirmities. When we turn to Him in the hour of trouble and pour out our hearts before Him, He knows what we go through and can pity. And He is one who never changes, though He now sits at God's right hand in heaven. His heart is still the same. We have an advocate with the Father who, when He was upon earth, could weep. Behold the compassion of Christ, considers thirdly and lastly, the action of Christ. 3rd verse 38 "Then Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb. For He has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believe you would see the glory of God, there's many things I want us to see about the action of Christ first, just the sheer initiative of Jesus. The Lord's compassion did not end in sentiment. Just Jesus, understanding our weaknesses, doesn't actually do anything for us. The point is what Jesus actually accomplished on the cross, the point is Jesus saving power that we see at work in this miracle. Jesus showed initiative. His compassion did not breed indifference or action, rather his compassion led him to action. He says, "Take away the stone." Did you notice the first thing Jesus does though? He prays. Look at the prayer of Christ in verse 41. So they took away the stone, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 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." Friends, this prayer speaks of Christ's communion with his father. And evidently, the request to raise Lazarus from the dead has already been made at some point in the narrative, and so unified are the Father and the Son that Jesus can already thank God for his work. I won't dwell upon that glorious truth there in the text. I think it's important, though, that we recognize that Jesus is not only addressing God, but he's clearly praying what we would call pedagogically for the benefit of those around him. That means he's praying with the aim to teach those who are witnessing his prayer something about his relationship with God and his saving initiative and his purpose to save sinners who trust in him. So, brethren, I think this should inform our view of prayer. In particular, this should inform our view of public prayer. We should seek to speak well in prayer, and I want to just correct what I think is a misgiven assumption of a lot of Christian people. They think the biggest metric, and really the only metric that matters in a Christian's prayer life is sincerity. Like as long as that person, I don't know, emotes or expresses some sort of tenderness towards God. It really doesn't matter what a person says. They don't need to think about whether or not they're praying along lines of Scripture. They don't need to pray, theologically, and none of these things actually matter. My friends, I don't think there could be something further from the truth when it comes to Christian prayer. Sincereity is not the only metric for healthy prayer and certainly healthy public prayer. Just because you should not pray in order to be heard or praised by men does not mean your public prayer should not benefit those who hear them, and not be a blessing to those around. We should all endeavor for our prayers to be robust, full of life, full of truth, and indicative of a genuine intimacy with God. I just need to say something about this when it comes to what people often think of as "roteness" in Christian worship. Many of the men who pray on Sunday mornings and the men and women who pray on Sunday nights they'll often write out their prayers, and I often encounter Christian people that find something sort of wrong about that, that they find something uncomfortable about that, and they think, "Hey, shouldn't that kind of rot? It's a lifeless and that's an ungodly way to pray." I don't think that's the only mode of prayer, I think we should be great at impermanence prayer. We should draw on the prayers of the Bible, and we can even draw on the prayers of saints of old. The point is, what I would want to challenge you with, if you're sort of allergic to more formal language and prayer, and more precise theological language and prayer, is just realize that in your own prayer life, it's probably no less "rot" than the person who often relies on written prayers. I mean, I see this in my children as I'm teaching them to pray. I see this in my own life as I often lead prayer, except perenniously. We often as Christian people fall back on the same phrase, or three, or four, or five, and we do so without a single thought, wouldn't it be better if we gave much more thought to what we say when we pray? Wouldn't it be better if we thought about a relationship with God and the Father and Christ and the Spirit when we prayed? Wouldn't it be better? If at times, we wrote out our prayers, and sought to pray them with feeling. And brothers, if you're one of those men who pray in the life of this church, or if you pray in our prayer meetings and you do write out your prayers, let me just encourage and challenge you. Please don't just get up here when you're leading God's people and lifelessly read your prayer. Now, you can read your prayer, but I would encourage you to pray your written prayer rather than read it. People can tell the difference. And you don't do it because people can tell the difference. I think God can tell the difference. No, our prayer should be full of truth. It should be full of life, and they should be indicative of a genuine relationship with God. I'm not moving from this prayer point because I think this is very important. The text is going to be about the life giving power of Christ, but we need to appreciate just an obvious application here. If you're a person that wants to help those who are suffering, and if you're just a Christian or a man or woman and you want to be a person of action, there's a lot of them that case, people wonder, like, how do I serve the church? How do I serve the kingdom? Friends, prayer is perhaps the greatest action you can make on behalf of the people of God. Prayer is perhaps, if not definitely, the greatest action you can make on behalf of the people of God. Right now, in Trinity Church, we have 20 people that are going to be joining our church later at the end of next month. I bless God for them. We believe as elders, they have credible professions of faith. Some of them will be baptized. It's very exciting. You may know, if you're a member of this church, one of the things that we ask people is how do they want to grow as a Christian, we often ask them what something that they love about being a Christian, and we also ask them about ways that they're interested in serving. And actually, that's a question we get more from other people. What are ways I can serve in the life of the church? There are a lot of ways you can serve in the life of the church. I'd be remiss to say, please serve in nursery if you don't serve in nursery. If you're really just, I think, any member, you're qualified, get a background check, you're qualified to be served in nursery at Trinity Church. We need more volunteers in that area. That's the best outward way you can serve. But what we always say is the best way you can serve Trinity Church is entering to our worship and show up to our Sunday evening prayer meetings. Like, you just want to know, we're just being honest. What's one of the best ways you can serve Trinity Church? You can show something of the initiative Jesus shows in this text and be a person that is dressed for action and prayer. That's what Godly people do. That's what people have action to do. There's this sad trope in society. And sometimes it makes it way into the church that like, don't give me your thoughts and prayers. Please give me your thoughts and prayers. Prayer does things. Prayer bends the ear of God. Prayer is God's choice means of accomplishing His will in the world. We should be a man and women of God who are vitally committed to prayer. You see, none of us have the authority to raise people from the dead. None of us can make lame people walk or blind men see. None of us can grant absolution from sin, but we can all pray. I mean, grief, we can all pray as the people of God. Where are those men and women who are mighty in prayer? Where are those people who are fully armed with spirit-filled prayers? Where are those saints of action who are driven to prayer? Charles Spurgeon, he speaks on this point. He says, to pray is to enter the treasure house of God and to gather riches out of an inexhaustible storehouse. He says, the condition of the church, listen to this. He begins to narrow this, not just prayer generally, but prayer meetings in particular. He says, the condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the prayer meeting something as a graceometer, kids. That's a new word for you, a graceometer. It's a thermometer of grace. It measures a spiritual temperature. It measures how much grace is in a specific place or in a specific person. He says, a prayer meeting is something of a graceometer for the life of the church. And from it, we may judge of the amount of divine working among a people. And he says, if God be near a church, it must pray. And if he be not there, one of the first tokens of his absence will be slothfulness in prayer. To brothers and sisters, I say, may we be a church who are a church of action who when gathered are urgent and active in prayer. And when scattered, may we be driven in our closets and the closest communion with God. We're considering the action of Christ. We now arrive to this miracle itself. We arrive to the resurrection. when he hits him. said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus come out. And a man who had died came out his hands and feet bound with linen strips in his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Umbind him and let him go." The story is simple enough. It's not complex at all. And we should remember that this is a true story. I often don't like to use that word story because stories are often fictional. No, this actually happened. A man who is lifeless in her tomb, lungs dead, heart dead, lungs begin to fill with air and his heart begins to beat. This man came back to life. But John 11 is not just a true story. It's not just history. John 11 is also an illustration of a larger pulsating reality. Lazarus came back to life as a breathing portrait of the saving power of Christ. And just as Jesus gave physical life to this man who was four days dead, he breathes life into souls. John 11, this resurrection is about soul life. Soul life that leads to eternal life. Soul life is saving faith in Jesus Christ. This is a faith that hears His voice. This is a faith that comes when He calls. This is a faith that follows Him out of the tomb. This is a faith that confesses with Martha that you are the Christ, the son of God who is coming into the world. John 11 brothers and sisters is all about soul life produced by the life giving voice of Christ. And just as Lazarus was raised by Jesus, Jesus can give you eternal life now. I want you just to appreciate the initiative of Christ in the text. It's about what He does for the sinners, what He does in giving life to the lifeless man. The gift of eternal life brothers and sisters, the gift of salvation is completely a work of God. The same voice, the called and quick and Lazarus forms faith in the heart of believers today. The enlivening voice of Jesus makes dead men do non-dead things. It causes corpses to grow flesh. It brings blazing light out of the deepest darkness. The only thing that can create life giving voice. Life giving faith is the voice of the son of God. This is surely what Jesus has already taught in John 10. He says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My sheep hear my voice because my voice does something to them. It awakens faith in them." Roman 10, 17, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ. How are people going to hear? How are they going to turn to faith in Christ? What's going to form that faith? It's going to be the voice of Christ in the Word of Christ." He speaks to us and creates life in the human soul. Second Corinthians 4 says this better than any other. It says, "For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." When it comes to the origin of salvation, the Bible is just eminently plain. So much so it just runs out of illustrations. What did you have to do with your physical birth? Nothing. That's why Jesus says, "You must be born again. You don't make that happen." What did you have to do with Lazarus had to do with resurrection and coming back to life? We died. That's all he brought to the table. He didn't do anything to raise himself from the dead. What did you have to do when God in the span of six days created the world? Something out of nothing. You had nothing to do with that. Ergo, the Bible says in Second Corinthians 4, "Just like that as he calls light out of darkness, he shines in our heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." That's why Paul could say, "Alsure, you were dead. You were dead. You were like Lazarus in the tomb. You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of the world." But God, who is written mercy, made us alive together in Christ. It's what God has done in our life. No, we don't take credit for our salvation. Brothers and sisters, the difference between the believer and the unbeliever is not the native capacity of the one who hears, but the marvelous work of Jesus Christ. None of us are self-made men. Like, I'm a big believer in sort of like America and the American dream and sort of like a pull yourself up by your bootstrap sort of worldview. I think that's like great stuff. It's nothing to do with Christianity, though. In terms of my relationship with God, we're not self-made men and women of faith. There's nothing we have that we have not received. The Christian hears Christ in faith because he has been born of God. And this is a point John has been making from the very beginning of his gospel. John 1 verses 12 through 13, to all who did receive him, who believed in his name. He gave the right to become children of God. Children who were born, not of blood, nor of the will, nor of the will of man, nor of flesh, but of God. We're going to sing about this truth in just a few moments. It's not 3rd verse of "And can it be?" Long my imprisoned spirit lay. Fast, bound, and sin, and nature's night. When you're fast bound by sin and nature's night, there's nothing you can do. Those things you can do meritoriously or effectively to save yourself, which is why the hymn then says, "Thy night defuse the quickening ray." And I woke, and the dungeon was flamed with light. God did something. He retrieved me. He brought me from the brink. He saved me. And now I'm alive in him because of what he has done in my life. As I draw to a close, I want us to see in the action of Christ his very purpose. Did you catch his purpose? He says in verse 42, "I knew that you always hear me." He's saying this to God, "But I said this are a count of people standing around that they may believe that you sent me." The brothers and sisters, for all I'm saying about the sovereign work of God in salvation, the mechanics of God's initiative have no bearing on your duty to respond to Him. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead so that He could form faith in the hearts of people like us. And He performs His miracle, what He says to His Father, so that people would see and that they would believe. And what we have in the very next two verses are two responses, two ways to live. They're people who received Jesus. They recognize with Martha this is the Christ, this is the Son of God who is coming into the world and they love Him and they follow Him and they're those who just go off and rat to the Pharisees and they seek His death. You only fall in one of those two camps. You're either a person who receives Jesus Christ, you're either a person who rejoices in His appearing, you're either a person who is repented of your sins and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, His death alone, the satisfied wrath of God, His resurrection alone as a first fruits of what is to come in your own life. You're either a person who is bound to Jesus Christ in faith or your person who rejects Him. You have to understand we saw this earlier in John on the last day, every single person actually does rise. If you're a human being, you will live forever and you are going to be resurrected on the last day. But the gospel of John, the book of Revelation and the New Testament is eminently clear that there are two types of resurrection. You are either one of those people that rises between eternal death or you're one of those people that the Lord welcomes into His company, that inhabits the new heavens in the earth forevermore, world without heaven. You're either one of those people that reject Jesus or cling to Him in the fullness of faith. Would you trust in Him now? Would you believe in Him now? Would you repent of Your sins and turn to Christ now? Let's pray. Father, would you awaken some from their slumber now, many from their slumber now, awaken faith, Lord save sinners, cause them to trust in you? Will we pray that we be people who respond to this word that we would show something of the same appropriate initiative and action that Jesus does, as well as compassion? While they make us more like Him, make us to behold Him. Well, it helps us to come to Christ for nothing more than His own person, not merely His benefits. Although we bless you, the eternal life found in Him, we bless you for the forgiveness of sins. Or help us to grow in our union with Him. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.