The Gospel of John 11:1-27

We are in the Gospel of John, Chapter 11, verses 1 through 27, and we're going to take this kind of in parts because there's a lot to cover and touch on here. John 11 and 1 through 27 is a change of time because Chapter 10, John 10, 22 and 23, puts the passage there at the time of the Festival of Lights, commonly known as Hanukkah in our era, typically falls in the month of what we call December. John chapter 11 opens several months later, so what you have is John chapter 10 that we're looking at is a Hanukkah time event, and what we'll be looking at this morning is happening about a little over a week before Passover. And so we'll be, or at least it starts a little more than a week before Passover, so we'll be looking at that. And so several months have passed since the events of John chapter 10, now advancing into the last time.

This sets up the event known as the resurrection of Lazarus. And it offers major practical insights into how God works in our lives. I think that's something we'll want to be looking for, because it provides us insights into difficulties, trials, suffering, disappointments, things of that sort. And we'll also see not only that Jesus will resurrect Lazarus to this life, and Jesus will be resurrected to a new kind of life, but his identity is the resurrection and the life.

So, John 11, 1-3 reads like this, Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. So the sister sent word to him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.

So this Bethany, you have a map here, a village east of Jerusalem, just a couple of miles there, along the road from Jericho, at the north end of the Dead Sea to Jerusalem. So what isn't marked there is, Jericho is not marked, but the Dead Sea and Jordan River, right where it comes in to the north part of the Dead Sea, that's the location of Jericho. make a steep climb up from Jericho into Jerusalem and pass through this little village of Bethany. Bethany was frequently where Jesus stayed when he went to Jerusalem. Now, it talks about Mary, and one of the things to point out is studies have shown that about one in five women in Israel in those days was named Mary. So, it's associating Mary with the other names and the place of Bethany that clarifies it, because otherwise, any crowd of women you yell out, you know, Mary, you're likely to get quite a bit of response, right?

So, then this one. The account of Martha anointing Jesus' feet with ointment, which is referenced here, is actually not until John chapter 12. So he's kind of giving early notice about her role. So that's going to come up in chapter 12, so it will be a couple of weeks out.

So as we'll soon see, the sisters Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus in the hope that Jesus would arrive in Bethany in time to heal Lazarus and prevent Lazarus' death. So, John 11, 4-7, but when Jesus heard this, he said, The sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was sick, he then stayed, what?

Two days longer in the place where he was. Does that seem like an appropriate response? Oh, okay, he's sick, probably going to die, you know. Yeah, I think I'll stay here. Then after this, he said to the disciples, let's go to Judea again. Now let's look at a few things here. The bullets at the bottom of page one here. Jesus' response is surprising in several respects.

Knowing that Lazarus would die, Jesus said that this sickness is not to end in death. Did Lazarus die? Yes. So why would he say it's not the end of death? Yeah, it's interesting, when you look at it, did he die? Yeah, I mean, the guy was dead four days before Jesus got there, right? So, in knowing that Lazarus would die, Jesus deliberately stayed where he was.

If you were Mary and Martha and Lazarus, would you want Jesus to stay there longer? Would that be your choice? Would you say, you know, I sure hope Jesus stays away for a few days. Would that be what you're thinking? No, you wouldn't be thinking, as a matter of fact, might you be mad at Jesus or mad at God if you found out that he knew and then deliberately stayed away? Next one, verses 3 and 5 both say that Jesus loved Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, which is not easily reconciled with the above two points. So two verses that say he loved them, and apparently they knew it. He whom you love is sick.

So, and it's apparently a serious illness. because they sent notice to Jesus before he came. So you've got these points. Now, let's think about this. Why do you think that they sent notice to Jesus? They believed he could heal. And why would you think that that would be expected? that they believed. They'd seen it done numerous times before.

He'd done healings in the area of Galilee. He'd done healings in the area of Jerusalem. Right? So, I mean, it's like everywhere he's gone for the last few years, this is apparent. Yeah. And most of those people, I would assume, were just strangers, but it was a much more close relationship with Mary and Martha and Lazarus would think that they would want him to know that he was sick, and they would want him to take some action. Yeah.

Probably, you could probably fairly safely say that in the area of Jerusalem, this is where he typically would stay, and he would frequently see them during these Jewish feasts and festivals. And he was, of anybody in the area of Jerusalem, he was probably closest to these people. And they had come to expect, well, Jesus, of course, does numerous miracles and is quite able to heal.

Let's ask one more question, not referenced in here. Did Jesus, based on what we've studied in the Gospel of John, did Jesus heal people from a distance? He in fact did. In fact, we've seen it in our study of the Gospel of John. We have seen it when we were going through Matthew some time back.

Jesus on multiple instances would heal people from a distance, not even having to be present. Could he have done that with Lazarus? And that may have been known to Mary and Martha and Lazarus as well, that Jesus didn't always do so, but could even heal when he was some distance away. Didn't have to be present. So Jesus could have gotten there quickly. Jesus could have healed from a distance before even arriving.

Instead, he does neither one. Ever come into a situation where you think, well, God could have prevented this. Ever have that happen? Ever been in that situation? Yes, God could have prevented this. But in this instance, I think we have a real clear situation where Jesus not only doesn't come, but even remarks to the disciples about his not coming. And he's not done. Let's take a look at page 2 here.

So like the man born blind, this is in John 9.3, God had a specific spiritual purpose for the death of Lazarus.

The man born blind, was he born blind because of his parents' sin or his own? Neither one. And why was this man born blind? So that the works of God may be shown. And this man went through decades of blindness. never having seen, being born blind, never having seen his entire life. Why? So that the works of God may be shown. Similar thing here. Here's Lazarus.

Could God have, through Christ, prevented this and just made a healing and made this whole thing go away? Yep. He could have, but he chose not to. I think this is a pivotal and critical insight for us as believers to realize that it isn't because God's hands are tied, he can't really pull it off, or he doesn't care, or he just somehow doesn't get it done. If there is something that happens, you look at it and you say, now that was bad. God has a purpose in it. Yes.

This is probably not the only case where Jesus didn't heal, because there was lots of people following him, and he would heal a few. So there was probably lots of people who wished that he would have been able to heal them, and he didn't. So the reasoning behind his miraculous acts, etc., were obviously, it couldn't have been understood. I mean, you can go through the Gospels and you can't find any consistent example of how he heals and why he heals and how he heals.

Yeah, and I think that's a very good point. Jesus did not have some cookie cutter, here's how I heal. One man who was blind, Jesus heals in two stages. He heals him part way and then completely. We have no other record that he did that again. Here is this man born blind and he healed sometimes blind people two at a time.

So there are numerous different examples. In some cases, he brings up the issue of faith. In other cases, he doesn't even ask the person if they have faith. He just heals them right off when the person is There's no evidence that he's believing. So here, Jesus does different things at different times for different purposes, and doesn't just do a cookie-cutter healing. This is the way I always heal. And he doesn't always ask or even bring up the subject of faith.

Yes? But not only that, Bernard, not everybody was healed. I mean, there was hundreds of people, maybe more. weren't healed and they were following him, and I'm sure they were disgruntled and said, why didn't I get to see him? Here's Mary and Martha who are saying that they should have a special connection here with Jesus because he's our friend, right? Why isn't he helping us? He stays with us every time he comes to Jerusalem, he's a friend, we know he loves us, and yet he stays away.

I think this is a critical thing for Christians to get their mind around. Did Jesus heal everybody? The answer is no. If Jesus' job was to heal everybody in Israel during the time of his ministry, he did a lousy job. He did a lousy job, if that's his job. If Jesus' job is to prevent everybody that he loves from going through bad times, then this is one example of he just didn't pull it off. So, yeah. Verse 3 says they sent word. Yeah. Do we know what that means, that they sent friends?

A friend or relative, someone, first of all, who would have message, and obviously whoever this person was. that knew both Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and would recognize Jesus, right? Because there's a whole bunch of people coming from Galilee, and they're all coming up the Jordan River Valley there, and so sending word would be by somebody who knew, you know, of the situation there in Bethany, and those people, as well as recognizing Jesus out of probably thousands of people coming down for the first feast of the Mosaic calendar year. So we don't have any record of the communication between the messenger and Jesus?

No. But it was apparently enough for Jesus to know, okay, here's Lazarus, he's sick. This is knocking him to death. So we've got feedback as to what Jesus heard and understood. We also have the remarks, as we'll see a little later, from Mary, or rather Martha, as to if you were here, you could have healed him. So we have those indications that tell us at least something about what the message was and what the intent was. The intent was, get the message to this guy, Lazarus is sick, and here Jesus is knocking him to death, and yet he died, so how could he say that? But I think it's critical for us as Christians to get around the idea that God can heal, But when he doesn't, or he delays, or he doesn't do it according to some pattern, he's got a purpose in it. Here's a for instance.

Twenty years ago, I came down with Lyme disease. Twenty-one years ago. And it took months to get a diagnosis. And so I got a diagnosis of Lyme disease. And so Nancy and I talked because she had been having, for five years, Whole body, constant itching. Just constant itching. And so I said, Nancy, we can ask the Lord to heal this. For both of our situations, which are getting pretty severe and intense and chronic. And so we knelt by the bed and we started to pray. And before we said amen, Nancy's itching went away. And my Lyme disease remained. And I've only gotten some degree of relief from that in the last year and a half.

But, you know, it's amazing. Can the Lord heal? Yep. Right here, right in the middle of the prayer, Nancy is healed. It burns. I'm the one that came up with the idea, you know. If it's a matter of faith, I mean, I should have been healed, right? No, but instead, you know, Nancy gets healed, and I get to keep it, right?

So I think this is a key thing when we come across difficulties of various kinds, just to realize that God's got a purpose in the things that he's going through, and he can heal, but if he does not prevent the difficulty, problem, situation, then he still has a purpose in it. He still has a purpose in it. And the purpose is spiritual. It's not God's job to prevent all of our problems, it's not God's job to relieve us of every pain and ill in the Scripture.

Okay. John 11, 8-16. The disciple said to him, Rabbi, teacher, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again? It was only in chapter 10 where you're claiming to be God and we're picking up rocks, right? And so the disciples, wait a minute, you got out of that one, but you're going back there again? So they're questioning him.

So Jesus comes back, verse 9, Jesus answered, are there not twelve hours in the day? It's a typical day, and of course the farther away you are from the equator, the more that varies. But if anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles. He stumbles because the light is not in him.

This he said, and after that he said to them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go so that I may waken him out of sleep. The disciples then said to him, Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover. He's just fallen asleep, right? Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought he was speaking of literal sleep. So Jesus said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

Don't you guys get it? This is not the end of death, but he's dead. Right? And I am glad. Put this together. Lazarus is dead and I'm glad. Right? Lazarus is dead. I've waited deliberately for him to die. And I'm glad. Stunning. That'll make you blink.

Now, Jesus had spoken of his death. They thought that he was speaking of literal sleep, so Jesus then said to him, Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe, but let us go to him. Now, let's ask something. I'm glad for your sakes that I wasn't there. Lazarus goes through a death. Mary and Martha go through the death of their brother. Who was going to benefit from Lazarus' death?

The disciples. What we're going through in life that's tough and difficult and uncomfortable and painful may not be for our benefit directly. but for the benefit of others. Isn't that something? This is another key thing to wrap our minds around. The Lord may be doing something in your life, you look at it and say, this is downright painful, uncomfortable, unsettling, whatever it is, but the Lord may have a purpose in someone else's life, and maybe even like this, plural other people, in what you're going through. Yes? Is that in addition, well obviously that's in addition to God being glorified. Yeah, yeah.

Here God is glorified, and in fact the Son as well, and what we see also is Lazarus and Mary and Martha are going through this terrible, painful experience with Lazarus even being dead for several days, And the benefit is to God, being glorified, and to these disciples. And what is it hoped that the disciples will do as a result of this? What's the word you see as a theme in the Gospel of John? Yes, belief.

That's interesting because it's actually a process, so it's mature faith. Because if you just say, believe, it's usually perfect tense. So that's a point-in-time action. And we're going to see exactly that, believe in the perfect tense. This is almost a present tense because it's a mature faith where they need this constant reinforcement so that they can believe stronger and Do they need to believe to be saved at this point? No. So, this is a believing that isn't, I need to believe to be saved, this is a believing that has to do with growth. So, God may have difficulties come along and someone's life may be yours, in order that somebody else might grow. In order that somebody else might know.

So, let's see how well they get this. Let us go to him. Now that he's dead, now the timing is perfect. Now that he's dead, the timing is perfect, let's go to him now, now that we've delayed here deliberately. Therefore, Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, Let us also go, so that we may die with him."

How much truth is there in that? There's a lot of truth. Pardon? Who is the him? Yeah, Christ dying. Did they understand what was about to happen? Were they going to die? Thomas said he was willing to, and at one point in time Peter even said, I'd be willing to, right? So at least a couple of the disciples have expressed that.

In the Galatians 2.20 sense. Yes. Now, in terms of identification, they actually were, but they weren't going to die physically. Yes. They stayed in the physical, but they didn't understand the spiritual. Yes. So the truth is, all the disciples except for Judas, all the disciples except for Judas, who would betray him in about a week, all these disciples would in fact die with him. A death of identification. So they would, but they didn't die physically. They didn't die physically, and why not? God had a purpose for them. God had a purpose for them surviving, and the reality is they didn't understand that either.

Right? They didn't understand that either. The disciples had the same problem that the Jews and the Samaritan women had. They understood things in an earthly sense rather than a spiritual sense. Boy, it's a strong pattern in the Gospel of John so far here.

They didn't understand it was Jesus' purpose when His time had come, which is, by the way, the next chapter. It's going to say His time had come. Chapter 12, Chapter 13, His time and His hour had come. It is spoken of, and then for a few chapters not, and then starting in Chapter 12 and again in Chapter 13, His time had come. So the disciples at the top of that passage in verse 8, Rabbi, the Jews are just now seeking to stone you, and you're going there again?

Yes. Why? To die. Not by stoning, by the way, but to die. Because it's time to come. Oh, but on the way, we're going to raise Lazarus. We're going to raise Lazarus. Now, the timing of things is... Jesus is going to arrive on the Saturday before he himself would be in the grave. Yes, sir. Don't you think that God timed this because after Jesus' death and they were in the upper room?

I can't remember any biblical passage that says this, but I think this was a hope, wasn't it? That Lazarus, you know, they could look back and say, Lazarus resurrected from the dead. So now Christ, who's on the cross, said that he was going to be resurrected from the dead. It's easier for them to believe that, right? After the cross. Yeah, you would think.

And here's the thing, the disciples, they've been spending a lot of time with Jesus, and Jesus has told them, look, I'm going to go to Jerusalem, I'm going to be killed, you know, and I'm going to be buried and rise again. He's been telling them this. And at this point in time, it's clear they don't get it. They don't understand it. So, hey, let's go die with them. That's not going to happen either. So, yeah, they have a lot of catching up to do, and they're going to have, essentially, they're going to have for decades a bunch of aha moments. Oh! Oh! Oh! And there's Thomas here. is going to have an incredible aha moment.

I'm not going to believe unless I see, you know, and then, okay, take a look, Jesus says. So this is the guy. Alright, John 11, 17 through 27. So when Jesus came, he found that he, Lazarus, had already been in the tomb four days. Giving a date to this, this puts Jesus having said this about Lazarus has died back in the middle of the week or on Wednesday. So Jesus hangs out down in the Jordan River Valley for about half a week.

Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Mary and Martha to console them concerning their brother. Martha, therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet him, but Mary stayed at the house." Why do you think there was that one went and the other stayed at the house? Any thoughts on that?

Yeah, I've looked at this a lot. I always get the sense from this that Mary may have been maybe the more emotional person. And from this, the sense that I get is maybe she was a little upset, a little mad at Jesus for not coming. Yeah, and we don't know exactly what the emotional state was, but you may be correct on that. We do see as we get into chapter 12 that Mary and Martha seem to have a little different responses. So they're sisters, But their responsiveness to Jesus and willingness to interact with him does seem to differ significantly. Yes? I see Martha as a typical class A personality. And what do you mean class A? Very hands on, I gotta do it. It's not going to get done unless I do it. Give them the message and let's interact about it. Hey, we've got some working out to do here.

You didn't come when you were supposed to. So Martha, therefore, when she heard Jesus was coming, went to meet him, but Mary stayed at the house. Martha then said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.

So what you might think, well, maybe she's thinking that he can still be resurrected, but there's some clues here that indicate that that's That wasn't what she was thinking. We'll see that in the period. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Next verse, verse 24. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. So is she thinking that Jesus is going to raise the last day? No. She has a belief in the resurrection. And yeah, that's when he's going to rise again. But he's done for now. I mean, he's been dead for several days. He didn't come. This is an extreme disappointment. And we've got to work this out.

Jesus said to her, I am, and I put the capitalization in there on purpose, I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. How much of this do you think she understood?

Wasn't there a tradition that if somebody had died over four days or something like that, in Jewish tradition, that I heard that there were healings and things like that, but the four days was the deadline. Four days is actually one day past the deadline. Three days is like, boy, you are really dead, and there's no fixing this.

You see, Jesus had actually raised people to life before. A few different instances that shows up. The apostles, later on, would raise people to life. So, there's, for example, a 12-year-old girl, but she had just died. But this one was like, look, the Jewish definition, three days, and by the part of the day counts, three days in the tomb, and you're really dead. And this was one day past the deadline. Four. This isn't just hopeless, this is really hopeless. This is really hopeless.

Now, how much of this did she understand? I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me. How much did she understand right there? As a matter of fact, the Jewish tradition among the Jews who believe in the Messiah now, is that the Messiah will come and his feet will touch on the Mount of Olives, and that's why you see a whole bunch of tombs and whatnot right there at the Mount of Olives, because you want a front row seat when the Messiah comes, right? So that was the thought. So, yeah, they believe in the resurrection, but the idea that, okay, you know, yeah, I believe you're the Messiah, all those things, but the idea that Lazarus is going to come back to life, I mean, that's one day past the deadline, you know, he is really, really dead. We're also going to see something else.

I'll bring it up in a minute. Verse 27, she said to him, Yes, Lord, I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of the God, even He who comes into the world. And this is the New American Standard, except for I Am, the Am is capitalized, because it's the Ego Ami that we've been pointing out. And then the Son of the God, the definite article in front of God. One more thing, let's look at the top of page 3. It's interesting here, that particular statement that appears so many times in so many different books, it says whatever you ask of God, God will give you.

I mean, that's in 1 John, that's in almost all the Gospels, and Jesus doesn't even explain any of that. He just passes over that and says that Lazarus is going to be resurrected. But He doesn't address that. Even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Well, that doesn't always happen. Otherwise, the prayer that we pray would be answered. I don't know about your prayers, but statistically, you know. But he doesn't even address that.

He has the opportunity here. So in Christ's perspective, the timing of his arrival was known, intentional, deliberate, and was set for a righteous and godly purpose. Only Christ had that perspective at this point in time. He was the only one that day who had that perspective.

Reporting on Jewish tradition, the Talmud says, three days for weeping, and seven for lamenting, and thirty to refrain from cutting the hair and wearing pressed clothes. That was the Jewish tradition. Three days, seven days, and thirty. So there were stages of grief, and the first one was the loudest. You would actually even hire people, if you could afford it, to weep and wail and make lots of noise. That was the tradition. Lots of weeping and wailing.

Though many were coming, many Jews were coming to see Martha and Mary and Bethany that day, the approaching arrival of Jesus was significant. Martha made that point evident when she said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. As Martha said that, she expressed both faith and a limitation to her faith. If you had been here, you could have healed him, right?

So that's faith. But the limitation to her faith was what? He died and now there's nothing to be done until he resurrects on the last day. But for the near term, this is over. Q I find it interesting, though, that even despite the limitations, she still professes to Christ, to His face, that He is the Son of God.

It's perfect worship. There's a pattern, and you see it with the woman who approached the Gentile who wanted the scraps from Jesus' table. There's always a little bit of dialogue. Sometimes Christ even seems a bit callous, but it always raises to the point of Him being glorified and recognizing Him as the Son of God. Yeah.

This is amazing what she believes and then also what she doesn't believe. This is astounding. Let's take a look here, a little further. As Mary said that, she expressed both faith and the limitation of her faith. Martha believed that Lazarus will be resurrected along with the other Old Testament saints on that future day, but she did not apparently believe that Jesus could raise Lazarus back to this life that very day.

In John 11.39, she will object to removing the stone over Lazarus' tooth. Oh, don't do that! It's going to stink! So, while she believes, there's also quite a bit of limitation to her belief.

Jesus made the claim that he was, I am, the resurrection and the life, implying deity and also saying that anyone who believes in him will never die. He then asked Martha if she believes this. Martha's response, and this is expanded and explained, is to bring out, Yes, Lord, I specifically have believed as a completed past action, with ongoing results only unto the future, that You are the long-promised Messiah. So she used the perfect tense, I have already believed, and that's having ongoing consequences and results, and it implies permanence. that you are the long-promised Messiah, the Son of God, even He who is coming into the world as prophesied in the Old Testament. You are the one, I have already believed it, and that's never changed.

But I still don't believe you can raise my brother. I still don't believe you can raise my brother. I already believe who you are, and everything that's spelled out in the Old Testament, and I believe all that. But my brother's dead, and he's going to stay that way. Yes?

I don't know how to say this, but tradition has stood in her way, and what other people have stood in her way. So if we look at ourselves today, Faith is a very personal thing, and it doesn't come from other people, but it can be actually destroyed by other people, because we have to get it from God, not from other people. And she's listening to other people, and tradition. And we do the same thing. That's what affects us in our spiritual life, because we end up living our physical life. Does that make sense? Yes.

If I remember right, I read or maybe I've just assumed that at the time of the crucifixion that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were in a crowd at the time of Jesus' crucifixion, I wonder if Lazarus could offer any insight or consolation to what he had experienced as to what possibly the Lord was going to do for Christ. They said that he was going to do on the third day, in the last resort, the fourth day, if he had any What's interesting is we don't have a whole lot of record. We know that Lazarus was around, but we don't have a lot of record of him saying anything in particular or providing any insights. I'm sure everybody was, in great part, just rather stunned.

Because as you can tell from this, it's not like the hate, you know. He's going to rise up again, and we're going to see him again. That wasn't their expectation at all. And there was no particular, he didn't really have a purpose. I mean, there wasn't, you know, this is what you did before, now you're supposed to do this. It was just, he's never mentioned again, you see? The only mention of him after this is the fact that the Jewish leaders wanted to kill him. That's the only mention of him.

But let's take this through. Here's Lazarus. Did Lazarus die for a purpose? Yep. Lazarus is going to die for a purpose about a week later. Jesus is going to die for a purpose. Which purpose is greater? Jesus' death is a death of greater purpose. And one other thing about the death, when Lazarus was raised, he was raised back to this life. He was raised back to an old creation life. Jesus was raised to a new creation. Jesus is the firstborn of the new creation. When we say new creation, what do we mean? A new kind of being, we have this world and this material realm, we're in it, right? We have this world and this material realm.

Is this world going to last forever? No. And it may end as soon as 1,007 years from now. So this world isn't going to last forever. This world will have an end. There is going to be a new creation, unlike this one, that won't have a fall. that won't be cursed. The earth won't be cursed. There's going to be a new creation in which there will be no more death, or mourning, or sorrow, or crime, or pain. Jesus, when He rises again, just eight days after this resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus, when He rises again, is the firstborn of that new creation.

And guess what? If you're a believer, You are also a new creation Christian. Why would I say that? Why would I say that you're a new creation Christian? There is something about you that is new creation, not of this present world. What is it? Christ within us? You have Christ within you, and you are in Christ. And is that temporary or permanent? It's permanent. So what that means is Christ, who is of the new creation, is in you and you're in Him. You also, and it's not these bodies, but you also, then because of that, are part of the new creation, spiritually speaking. Yes.

So that, does that go back to Genesis where it talks about, when they talk about each and every one of the species? that they were created according to their kind. So this is a higher kind, right? This is an entirely different kind. So this is the highest kind that they could possibly even infer as Genesis. Everything is created to its own kind. So when you have your glorified body, you are of a new kind. Right. And here's one more thing.

We've just been studying in Hebrews, right? And one of the things we've found is that Christ calls us brethren. So, we're siblings. We're siblings of the same Father. Siblings of the same Father. And 1 John, when we see Him, we will be like Him. When we see Him, we will be like Him.

And what God has begun will be completed. You will have a new body. You will be completely conformed to the image of Christ. The transformation and transformation processes that are going on now will be brought to completion. You will have a new body like His. You will be completely of the new creation. Completely of the new creation.

Let's look at one more thing here. That little table there of the seven I Am statements. Jesus actually makes other I Am statements, but these are the seven that have a metaphor involved. In this one, I'm the resurrection and the life. The next two are going to be in John 14 and John 15, which we'll get to in a few chapters here. And John 14 and John 15 are Last Supper discourses. So he's going to make these final two statements, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and I am the True Vine. Those last two I am statements, with a metaphor, are ones that he's going to make as he's talking to the disciples the day before he's crucified.

And so we're going to see that. And what's fascinating as you look at this is it's pretty apparent that the disciples don't understand the significance of all these statements until after Jesus is resurrected and even ascended. They're going, oh, that's what he meant, right? I'm the resurrection and the life. Did they understand he'd be resurrected?

No. The guy's on the road to a mass. He's sitting there telling them, oh how slow and foolish you guys are. You don't get it. You don't get it. And stunned at the news that he's resurrected. They're not understanding this until after he's resurrected. And they're still asking the wrong questions on the very day he ascends.

So they're having a-ha moments for days and weeks and months and years to come. Oh, that's what he meant! Ah, a-ha! See? They're making discoveries. So, fascinating, these are all recorded. They're there. Got them down. But in terms of them giving it, it's not until later. They're not going to give it until after. Other thoughts, comments? Yeah.

Maybe it's just me, but isn't there the same inclination for people today? I mean, probably the more mature your faith, the less the aha moment's going to be. But every time an angel, as you've talked in Hebrews, arrives, The first thing they say is, do not fear, because we all live in this present world because we have a finite mind, and this is where we live, and so this is what we see and believe. Anything beyond this dimension It's fearful and a shock. So really, I think it's kind of expected for these people to feel that way. I mean, even though they heard that he was raised from the dead, until they see it, and that's why he came back, right? For 40 days? He wanted to come back. Yes.

And they wouldn't get it. Imagine, I mean, this isn't some, you know, hey, let's come up with this concocted idea that Jesus was resurrected and, you know, we'll get that. No. All these guys are skeptical. They don't understand. You've got one guy, Thomas, that even after the others are all testifying consistently, we saw him, he's alive, no. So these guys are very skeptical. They're not anticipating Jesus' resurrection, and they have to be convinced, essentially against their will almost, they have to be convinced with very strong evidence before they believe it. These guys are not gullible, they're skeptical.

Amazing, and then to think, okay, these These guys going from skepticism to not even anticipating that it might possibly be that he would resurrect. Going from that to turning around and proclaiming his resurrection, even at the expense of their life.

This is amazing stuff to ponder. This is astounding. Other thoughts? Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this passage, the truth that is in it. It's the setup for the actual resurrection of Lazarus. And we do thank you for the insights here, and particularly, Lord, as we look at it, the insights into the character of belief, the character of the difficulties that are in our lives on purpose. and realizing the intent that you have and the design that you have for using those difficulties for your glory and for our benefit. Lord, we do pray that these truths would sink deep and we would learn the depths of them. We pray in Jesus' name.