Back from Beyond │ Msg 8/14

2:42 He stayed where He was for the next two days. Finally, He said to His disciples, Let's go back to Judea. But His disciples objected. Rabbi, they said, Only a few days ago the people in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again? Jesus replied, There are twelve hours of daylight every day. During the day people can walk safely. They can see because they have the light of this world. But at night, there is danger of stumbling because they have no light. Then he said, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up. The disciples said, Lord, if he's sleeping, he will soon get better. They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping.

3:39 But Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And for your sakes, I'm glad I wasn't there. For now you will really believe. Come, let's go see him. Now, as this account continues, Jesus travels to the tomb of Lazarus and he meets Martha and Mary on the way. When he arrives, he issues this command, and we find it in verse 39.

4:15 Roll the stone aside, Jesus told him. But Martha, the dead man's sister, protested, Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible. Jesus responded, Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believe? So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me. But I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here so that they will believe you sent me. Then Jesus shouted, Lazarus, come out. And the dead man came out. His hands and feet bound in grave clothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told him, unwrap him and let him go.

5:18 Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen. John chapter 11 is a chapter on death. The grim fact of that reality faces us at most every turn until we get toward the end of the chapter. Her life is given back to a man who was once dead. Death is a real fact. In California last year, there were 175,000 caskets purchased, embodied, and buried. That's in one 12-month period. It's doubtful that in a congregation of this size, most of us missed any facet of death last year. That's doubtful. Probably, the fact is, most of us were touched in some measure by the reality of death.

6:16 Death comes usually without warning, and death comes like a grim reaper when you view death from a human viewpoint. No respecter of persons, death will visit a child as readily as an older adult or a teenager just in the prime of his life. or a young businessman having just gone into his own work, the zenith of his career. Death does not care about reputation or person or age, color, race, country, or background. When death invades, we submit. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross has written a book from the viewpoint of a medical doctor, which she is. She's entitled the book on death and dying. You should get that, at least in paperback form.

7:17 She does not declare herself a Christian, but she does a masterful job at facing a monumental taboo in America today, and that is the dying process. If you do much ministry in your life, rather quickly you will come across those that are dying. Her book is the result of interviewing some 200 terminally ill patients. She talks to them directly and forthrightly about life as they view it, from the viewpoint of the hearse yet ahead of them.

7:59 Dr. Kubler-Ross has presented in her book five steps or stages that people pass through after knowing that they are to die, and finally, death itself. Quickly, these are the five. First, there is denial. Well, the average individual, upon hearing that his life will be terminated earlier than he expected, denies it. His question is, not me, Lord. Is it true? The person who hears that he will die imminently denies it. There is the record of a 16-year-old girl driving a car full of teenagers home from a football game and that car smashed head-on into a concrete culvert.

9:00 The 16-year-old girl was the driver and she was the lone survivor. She testifies in the grim record that the common words that she heard from those dying around her were all the same. Oh God, no, not me. Our initial response is, not me. But when that no longer will hold water, the second response of man is anger. Why me? Dr. Kubler-Ross describes the anger in various tones. It comes across sometimes in harsh bitterness, in other times in total isolation, where a person will slide away from reality and out of anger, simply isolate himself and pass up food for several days, even to the fact of harming their own health.

10:03 This turns, thirdly, to bargaining. A person often says, as a result of facing his anger and then accepting the fact that Death is coming. Look, God, since I'm going to die, could you give me until such and such a date that I might see my grandchild or that I might experience this trip or that I might come to realize the joy of a few months of retirement and on and on. If I will face death realistically, will you do this for me? And the bargaining process gets underway. This leads fourthly to depression, where a person slumps into a time of deep darkness emotionally. This not only is experienced by those who are in the process of dying, but those who sit alongside loved ones that are dying. I found it an interesting fact that 70% of the couples who have a leukemia child

11:16 divorce before the child dies, or at least by the time of death, it's on its way. Something of an isolation or of a bargaining process. And then finally, the deep depression sets in, which leads to who knows what, sometime even suicide. And finally, fifth, there is acceptance.

11:44 Acceptance. Psychologists tell us that it is virtually impossible for anyone attending a funeral to ever envision themselves in that coffin. Pascal, the French philosopher, has said, Man spends his time trying to put death out of his mind. Now, I think many of us spend our time in more ways than that, but that is a flashing thought at times. What will I do when death occurs?

12:14 Now, this morning in John chapter 11, we come to a very heavy scene of mourning, death, a funeral service, the reality of grief, the heartache, the tears, the dilemma between trusting God and facing the facts of life or death. And so I want to go into the passage from a realistic point of view, not from the predictable point of view that perhaps we have entertained all our lives. To begin with, there is a setting given us in the first verse of chapter 11 where we are told that Lazarus of Bethany was sick. With him were his two sisters, Mary and Martha.

13:10 Bethany is a little hamlet some mile and a half outside Jerusalem proper. It is the place where Jesus often found rest and refreshment when surrounded by the press of responsibilities. We all need places like that. He unwound in Bethany. It was the place where he could be himself. He was not faced with a constant barrage of questions or requests or the push for another miracle. simply was able to be with them and they grew in their love relationship. Now Lazarus was not one of the twelve disciples, but he was just as loved by the Lord as one of the twelve. And so when he fell ill and apparently he was sick enough for it to warrant a message to Jesus, perhaps they realized death was impending.

14:10 And so the two sisters sent a message to their Lord, the friend of Lazarus. And they said, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. Conspicuous by its absence is the lack of invitation. Please come. It's like the nurse at an elementary school calling a mother, telling the mother that the child is sick at school. The nurse doesn't ask, will you please come? She just assumes the mother will come and asks, what time will you be here? It's with that same tone that they sent the message. It wasn't an unrealistic or demanding presumption. It was as you would expect. Lord, Lazarus is sick, nigh unto death. The one whom you love.

15:04 Jesus did not go immediately. As a matter of fact, he purposely delayed going. Verse 4. When he heard it, he said, This sickness is not unto death. Now, he did not mean by that that the man will not die. He meant death is not the ultimate in this sickness. The ultimate plan is not death. There is more. This sickness will not ultimately end with just death, but for the glory of God. The ultimate end of this sickness is the glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified by it. it may very well be that some of you are facing a time of severe sickness. Maybe your child, maybe your parent or close friend.

16:07 I'll tell you a verse that will help you greatly in accepting the truth of that fact is verse 4. The sickness is not just for death, But the sickness is for the glory of God that in some measure God's Son might be glorified by it. Perhaps you're facing impending blindness or deafness or some crippling, hurting disease or that of your child. You have the option of becoming bitter, resentful, and harsh or saying, Lord, I realize that this has not happened outside your plan. Help me with it.

16:59 Help me know how to house it, to live in the residence where it will bite me and strike me regularly. help me know how to live for your glory. Help me to accept it in that light. Now, some would say because Jesus didn't go immediately, he didn't love Lazarus as we think he should. Well, verse 5 removes that question. It says Jesus loved this family. Others would say, well, he didn't really know how sick Lazarus was Or he would have gone and not let death or take him Verse 14 takes away that question It says he knew the very moment Lazarus died He was removed by miles You see, Jesus was up in Perea, north of Judea He was two days removed But he knew even though he was away from Lazarus when Lazarus died He is the omniscient Son of God.

18:06 Things weren't out of hand. They were in his hand. So he did not go not because he didn't care or because he wasn't aware. He did not go because he had a better purpose in his delay. Verse 6 tells us that Jesus, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, stayed two days longer in the place where he was. I want to say two things about this verse. Both of them are implied in the verse. One has to do with time. The other has to do with perspective. First of all, as far as the Christian is concerned, you must learn early in the Christian life that the Lord is never late, though he often delays. There's a difference.

19:06 When you are late, it means you should have been somewhere earlier. But when you delay, it means you purposely planned to come later. Got it? When the Lord God said no to the request, he was not late in arriving as they thought he was. He purposely delayed the timing for a better reason. Now, It's helpful for the child of God to keep in mind that the Lord of the heavens, our loving Heavenly Father, does not work his will according to man's timepiece. We often feel that he should. We regularly find reason in our heart to ask of God by a certain deadline to come through, to come across.

20:11 When he doesn't come across, then sets in either disillusionment or rank bitterness. God doesn't hear. God doesn't respond. No, the answer is God's timing is not in keeping with man's timing. Mary and Martha had that to learn. That's a hard lesson. Now the second goes in keeping with the first. It has to do with perspective. There are two different perspectives that you can maintain throughout every conscious moment of your life. Human or Divine. Human perspective says this when your brother falls ill. Lord, I have a brother who is sick. I want him to live. He's too young to die. I know that you can heal him, and I know that you ought to heal him.

21:09 So please come now and put him back on his feet. That's human perspective. That's dictating to God what he should do. Now here's divine perspective. Lord, I'm facing a crisis with my brother. I can trust you, Lord, and I want to trust you.

21:36 I want to leave with you what is best for my brother. It's my desire that he live and that we enjoy continued relationship on earth together. But Lord, I submit, I resign myself to your plan. And with great delight, I wait upon your answer.

22:04 Now that's the better of the two, but that's so much harder. It's one thing to sit in this nice, comfortable place and to say to ourselves, now, that's the way I'm going to handle it next time it comes. Let me say to you, that would be marvelous if you would. That is the real goal of maturity, is being able to handle things in the lurch from the divine perspective, and you can do it. but it takes an incredible amount of faith. It takes that absolute certainty that with God there are no accidents and He is never late.

22:48 Though His plan may include death and delay and a change, alteration of my plans, Lord, I am willing to live with that and to defend it to the end. Now then, the disciples, of course, were short-sighted. Verse 7 tells us that Jesus responded, Let us go to Judea again. And so these disciples responded, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you. And you were going there again? They couldn't believe it. Why, they will take your life if you go. Jesus' response is one of calm assurance. And then he said in verse 11, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep But I go that I may awaken him out of sleep Now they thought he meant literal sleep And they thought he was saying I need to go two days journey down to Bethany to wake him up And so they responded Lord if he has fallen asleep He'll recover He'll wake up We don't have to go down to Judea To do that And then Jesus told them plainly, verse 14, Lazarus is dead.

24:08 But then he says, I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Now let us go to him. Why does God delay in answering? why does he put off what seems to be the better plan as we view it and even with a submissive heart we want his plan? Why does he seem to take delight in being so slow?

24:44 I find a couple of reasons why God is viewed to be slow at times, why God delays. The first reason is in verse 4, that the Son of God may be glorified. The second reason is in verse 15, that our faith might be strengthened. You notice he says, I am glad so that you might believe. I think that is a very significant point. Who would ever grow in a stronger faith if every time you ask something, you've got it. What kind of a stretching experience would that be? For you to lay in need before the Father and almost the time you're brushing off your knees, getting up from prayer, it's at your front door. That could very easily lead to a laziness and a presumption, but the waiting time is a strengthening time, or it should be. Now, Thomas did not view it from a divine perspective. That's why he says with sort of a fatalistic twist, verse 16, Thomas, who is called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, Let us go that we may die with him.

26:08 You get the feeling as you read Thomas' words, he says, Well, man, just dress in black. They're going to stone him and with him 12 others. We'll never make it through this experience. And so Thomas is depressed. He's discouraged. He is disillusioned. Let me say to you before I go any further that the test of our stability comes at a time of crisis. Proverbs 24.10 says, if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. A time of crisis is a time for stability. But let me add, a time in preparing for crisis does not come at a time of crisis. It has to come before. If you're lingering and lumbering along thinking that, oh, you can handle it, and you're not preparing yourself for what could come in heart and soul, time before God, cleansing the soul, preparing oneself with the spiritual muscle of time in the word of God, time of trusting, time of communion.

27:24 And I can virtually guarantee that when the rug is pulled out from under your plan, you'll go under. You can't cope. You see, the time to prepare for crisis is not at the time of crisis. It's got to come before. There's no way we can adequately get it all together because we do not know the exact type of crisis that might occur. But what is essential is that the heart is kept warm, prepared, open, responsive before the Lord, ready for whatever he may bring. Mary and Martha were not ready for this crisis. I don't want to be too harsh with either one of them.

28:23 I think what they experienced and what we read in this passage is the stage of anger, quite frankly, as Dr. Kubler-Ross described for us. I think they are frankly expressing tones and words of disillusionment, of anger.

28:46 And I think that it is very significant and even I'm impressed with it that Jesus never rebukes either one of them. He hears them out and gives them a calm assurance. Oh, we can learn from this. Now look at their response. Jesus comes to Bethany, verses 17 and 18. Martha and Mary are surrounded by their friends, verse 19, who are mourning with them, probably giving no assurance, no comfort. They're just there grieving with them. They were there to console them, we're told, but they hadn't received much consolation. And so Martha, verse 20, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet him. So she left the house and went down the path to meet Jesus en route to Bethany. And then she stood before Jesus, verse 21, and she said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

29:48 That's quite a statement, isn't it? Is it really true that Jesus had to be there for Lazarus to live? No. The last nine verses of John chapter 4 assure us of that. He healed an official's son when he was miles removed from him. He was in Cana, the son was in Capernaum, and Jesus said to the official, Go home, your son is alive and well. He doesn't have to be there to do it. That's human perspective.

30:23 Lord, where were you when we needed you? Jesus could have answered, I was right there. with my heart on your needs. But I delayed for a purpose. And then she responded with sort of a bromide. Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. It's as if she's saying, look, he'll give it to you, but he didn't give it to us. My brother's in the tomb, Lord. He's been there four days. Where in the world were you? Now, Jesus answered and said, Your brother shall rise again. I am terribly moved over Jesus' loving response, not a rebuke, just a promise. I think if it isn't too much imagination, Jesus could very well have taken her head in his hands and held it closely.

31:23 For he could have held her closely and embraced her. And said to Martha, whom he did love, Martha, almost with words under his breath, I am the resurrection and the life, Martha. He that believes in me, even though he may die, he'll live, Martha. Whoever lives and believes in me will never really die. You believe that, Martha? I think there's a tenderness here that the hurried student of the word does not picture. I think the Lord Jesus. understood her feelings. Dare I apply this before a Christian congregation? You know there are feelings that you and I have that the Lord wants to hear.

32:24 even though those feelings may not be right. I think there are some tears that have not yet been shared that ought to have been shed. But for fear of losing something, we don't let them fall. There is this inner volcanic explosion that occurs at times, and somehow in our tunneled concept of New Testament Christianity, we have put the lid on them, these feelings, that it is no longer kosher for the Christian to cry and to express deep inner feelings at a time of sorrow. If it is of any help to you, I want you to know that some of my life is filled with deep feelings of sorrow when I actually wail in sorrow.

33:36 Usually those expressions are done in my car when I'm alone. or they are out on a hillside where there is no one to echo those words back for them to be misunderstood. but I have disillusioning times where I just lift my hands and I orally express to my father my deepest haunting feelings. I've never yet had him rebuke me or judge me for that. Listen, listen to me. Death is not always beautiful. Some deaths are not always a sweet, lingering, forgotten tomorrow. Songs and bells don't always surround death.

34:34 Joe Bailey tells us in one of his writings that when his five-year-old son died with leukemia the last vision he had was of the boy hemorrhaging crying out for a bedpan and then he died and he had no little boy Bailey said you know how can you say what you feel here he is a Christian godly man a writer when he lost his 18 year old boy he wrote this what waste Lord. This ointment precious here outpoured is treasure great beyond my mind to think. For years until this midnight it was safe, contained, awaiting careful use, now broken, wasted.

35:36 The world is poor, so poor it needs each drop of such a store. treasure spent might feed a multitude for all their days and then yield more. This world is poor. It's poor now my treasure lost. I cried when my mother died. I preached her funeral. I shook hands and wept on the shoulder of every one of the pallbearers, my close friends whom I loved deeply. And I got into my car and I cried like a baby.

36:31 Thought I'd never quit. I asked questions of God that day in cold February of Dallas that I suppose I'll ask again if such a scene comes across my life. but I've never asked his forgiveness because I don't think that's needed. He's touched with the feelings of my weakness. Mary came and said the very same thing. It's as if they had rehearsed it in their home. I'm sure they had.

37:09 Mary said to the Lord, verse 32, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Admittedly, that's human perspective. But that's the sister in her asking that. C.S. Lewis is right. As he exposes and analyzes grief, he says, there are two parts of us. For the mother that loses that little baby, there's that motherhood part of her that will never be satisfied with a long list of verses to claim.

37:44 And there and there is that believing part of her, that eternal sense for that Christian mother releases, lets it go, but not without the anguish. The mother who loses that child and admits, I never really needed that child, that's God's child, is not being completely honest. Part of her left, and that's the part that makes us whole. we have a very strange twisted concept of grief the apostle never rebukes the child of God for weeping he says don't weep as though you have no hope one woman writes I remember my father telling me about his own father's death He told me about it a few months after my mother had died and I wished I had known it earlier.

38:43 Perhaps I could have understood a good many things relating to denial. My father was about eight years of age at school when his teacher told him his aunt had come to take him home that day. Without a word, his aunt met him in the hallway and hurriedly hustled him outside. On the way home, he asked, why did I have to leave school, Auntie?

39:10 With no show of any emotion, either facial or verbal, she abruptly stated, your father is dead. No explanation, no kind words, no sympathy, no empathy followed. They rode home in stony silence. As the weight of his aunt's words began to crush him, my daddy's tears started pouring down his face. His aunt, seeing his tears, instantly slapped his face and yelled, Stop that crying right now. Don't you dare cry. Those moments so long past were the moments when daddy had shut off his feelings and emotions, and they would live with him the rest of his life.

40:07 My friends, there is a place in the beloved family of God for tears. God has made us a mind, and with that mind we are to reach the ultimate fulfillment. God has given us that inner volition, and with it there is to be that response of obedience. He has given us emotion, and it is to be used. Jesus was surrounded by all those that were weeping and crying. Verse 33, and it says, he was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled. The words in the original suggest a groaning.

41:10 That kind of feeling, the kind that words cannot describe. And that he was brought to the tomb, and he stood before the tomb, and he wept. I'm sick to death of hearing that verse 35 is the shortest verse of the Bible. So what? It's the deepest verse, if you ask me, in the Gospel of John thus far. as the omnipotent God in the flesh. He saw those around him and he saw perhaps the centuries of grief and sorrow and death and he wept. Absolutely human. and not the least absolutely divine. My, what emotion huh? Jesus therefore, verse 38, being deeply moved, verse 39, said remove the stone.

42:23 Martha, the sister of the deceased, said, Lord, by this time there will be a stench. He's been dead four days. Jesus said, didn't I say to you if you believe you'll see the glory of God? Now, question, wait, wait a minute. Why take the stone away if he's going to resurrect the body? A resurrected body doesn't need to have a stone removed. They moved the stone for Jesus to let the people in, not to let Jesus out. The molecular structure of a resurrected body is totally different could pass through every one of the walls in this building from one destination to another. Well, this isn't resurrection, this is resuscitation. There's a difference. Resuscitation is putting back life into an old body so that it can live on.

43:20 The stone, if it had not been removed, the body could not have gotten out. So Jesus pushed the stone back and now look at what he did. He prayed for the benefit of those around him. And then verse 43, he cried out with a loud voice. You could have probably heard his echo through half of Jerusalem. He called the name Lazarus. The Greek says, come out. That's all he said.

43:57 Now, he identified who was to come out because had he not, the entire gravestones would have been moved and people would have come out by the hundreds, perhaps, at that day. But he specified which one he wanted. And out he came. Now, wait. Here's Lazarus in this cold, dark hole, the cave. and suddenly his cold body begins to get warm. And there was a rustling of movement and you can hear it because it's so quiet.

44:29 And then after a little bit of time, there appeared this incredible figure that looked like a mummy because they wrapped bodies in those days. They didn't embalm them as we do today. They wrapped them. and wrappings and all, he walked out of that dark tomb, stumbled into the daylight, and Jesus said, unwrap him and let him go.

45:00 I've wondered throughout my days how that must have been and who unwrapped him. What an experience. You know what they saw? They saw an epical miracle. In front of their eyes stood a man that had been back from beyond, and the stories he must have been able to tell blows our minds. You said if I had been there, I would have believed. You know what? Verse 45 tells us other people did too. Many therefore of the Jews who had come to Mary and beheld what he had done believed in him.

45:53 But some of them went of the way to the Pharisees and there was unbelief at the same time. I find two major truths in chapter 11, the Gospel of John. Two truths. They work hand in hand like pieces of a rag rug woven together. The first is this. When delays occur, God has a better time and a better way. When the Lord says no to your timing, he has a better time and he has a better way of doing it. This was brought home to me when my friend Ted wanted to catch a commercial plane back to his home. He was flying ultimately from Florida, had a hop in New Orleans and then on into Dallas, and did not make connections in this hop in New Orleans.

46:50 And he was actually on the plane, but a fellow who had had a reserved seat from months past, that was his seat. And so Ted had to get off. He took the next flight, which made him much later. In fact, as I recall, it was the next morning, early. His wife was frantic because the plane that he originally would have left in had a midair collision and God had a better time and a better way for Ted to make that flight home. They're not all that sensational and they're not all that significant, but I want to assure you that God never delays to make us squirm. Never. He's not a God like that. Second, when death occurs, God has a better plan and a better purpose.

47:40 That includes the two children that are not in my home today, whom Cynthia lost during pregnancy. It's a better plan. That includes your loss. When God says no, he has every right and a better purpose for saying. know. I think it was Paul Tillich who said, is a man really ready to live if he's not ready to die?

48:18 The answer is no. You know something? Now listen, there will come a time in which Jesus will split the heavens with his presence. And in the clouds, with the archangel as the escort and the trumpet as the entourage, he will call names. The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Frank, Bill, Mark, Chuck, Betty, Ruth, Cynthia, Mary, come forth! And you know what? They'll come instantly in the twinkling of an eye. And with those alive on this earth, believers will have that marvelous family reunion and will be caught up together forever with him in the sky.

49:22 Think of it. You know what? Some names won't be called. Because your resurrection is at a later date unto damnation. Let's bow together. Now, friend, this morning, he is Lord. He has established the plan, and he has simply asked certain spokesmen to declare it. It's not my plan. I didn't arrange it. My job is to declare it. If you cannot claim at this moment that Jesus Christ is your personal Savior and death comes, while you're in that state, you are lost forever. But you needn't be. Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.

50:28 I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, die will live and will live forever. Will you quietly bow your head? Very quietly now, I want to offer you an opportunity to be absolutely certain that upon death you have life. Look back for just a moment in your life. try to find the date, just find the time when you said, yes, Lord God, I claim Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, admitting that I'm a sinner lost. Today I thank you for his coming in and his forgiveness. I receive him now.

51:32 You've never done that, my friend. You're lost. You could not be more lost. you're going to die. The 175,000 of last year will be more this year.

51:53 Don't delay now. In this quiet moment as we close our time together, I realize that God may be inviting you to come to him. Listen to his voice. Receive his son, Jesus, as your own Savior right now. Let me pray for you as we bow together. Our gracious Father, thank you that your son, Jesus, conquered death for us through his own death and resurrection. Thank you for the free gift of eternal life that we receive when we put our faith in him. And now, Lord, I pray for the person to whom you are speaking right this moment. Help that person take the next step of faith and put his or her complete trust in Jesus, your son.

52:56 draw this person into your arms of grace welcome him or her with your love thank you father for hearing our prayer and now guide us