Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] Hi, everybody.
[00:00:08] My name is Evan. I'm one of the senior pastors. It's great to be with you on this. It's a big day because I know many of you got up at 5 to watch USA and Canada and men's hockey.
[00:00:18] I'm trying to make it until after services to not find out who won so I can watch it. There's no chance. There's no chance.
[00:00:27] This is the problem. They need stop it, actually. That's awesome. Can you stand up again? This is spin around for everybody. Let's see.
[00:00:36] Yeah.
[00:00:41] That's incredible.
[00:00:43] We just. We need the Olympics to be in our time zone so we don't have these problems, but this is what happens.
[00:00:50] Yeah, it's good to be together. Today we've been walking through the Gospel of John. I've been loving the richness and the depth of John's account of the life of Jesus. And so we're going to continue talking about that today as we are not quite half. Well, we're halfway through the Book of John, but we're heading towards Easter and the end of our journey through the Book of John. And the way John frames his whole Gospel is through these seven signs. These seven miracles that John would say are the things that he's chosen. Out of all the things he saw Jesus do, these are the ones that he's chosen to point to who he believes Jesus is. And he tells us who he thinks Jesus claimed to be and who he is. In John chapter 20, when he gives us the purpose of the whole account, he says the disciples saw Jesus do many miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him, you will have life by the power of his name.
[00:01:49] By believing in him, you will have life by the power of his name. And it speaks to why we are here today.
[00:01:55] Not to have a nice social club, not for the free cookies. They're great.
[00:02:01] Not because we have, you know, kids ministries or youth ministries. And so we come along. All that is wonderful. I hope you find connection here. I hope you find community here. But the reason that we exist is so that we might believe in him as Messiah, the Son of God. And that by believing in him, we would find life by the power of his name. Amen.
[00:02:21] And so this is what John is, compelling all the readers, both in the first century and today, to not just based on hearsay, put faith in faith, but because of what they saw firsthand to place our faith in Jesus.
[00:02:38] And the seven signs are as follows. Jesus turned water into wine. He healed an official son from a distance. He healed a paralytic at the pool. We talked through these. We preach through these. Feeding 5,000. He walked on water. He healed a blind man in John, chapter nine. And today we get to the seventh sign that John is using to point to the reality of who Jesus is with the resurrection of Lazarus.
[00:03:01] And this story, maybe more than any of the other signs in the book of John, causes me pause, because in the story of Lazarus, we see a Jesus who seems unconcerned and unhurried to help when his friend is in need.
[00:03:18] And it points to a tension I think we all feel. And maybe this tension, more than any other, is why people walk away from their faith in Jesus.
[00:03:26] Is this burning question that if you are thoughtful at all, you've probably had this question, if God is good and real and all powerful and sovereign, when I look out on the world and I see wickedness and evil and brokenness and problems, why doesn't he fix it?
[00:03:47] Why doesn't he step in? If he has all the power and he could wave a wand or snap his fingers and just fix this planet, why doesn't he?
[00:03:58] If you think about that long enough, it will lead you to maybe a more uncomfortable question, and that's that if God is all powerful and good and sovereign, why doesn't he fix the wickedness in me?
[00:04:12] Because as I spend time with Jesus in the Gospels, oftentimes that initial reaction to the wickedness out there turns to a sense of when I look in the mirror, I say, oh, there's wickedness there, too.
[00:04:27] And maybe I want God to banish the evildoers out there, but I oftentimes don't. I don't want him to banish me.
[00:04:34] And this is the truth that, that a good God comes into the picture, not just the picture out there to fix that stuff, but he comes close to us. And so we have to wrestle with if God is good and we want him to banish evil, what does he do with the evil in me?
[00:04:52] And a couple years ago, I suggested this to our team and I showed a picture. But we have this exit sign as we leave the church. You'll see this on the right as you go down the exit ramp. And I thought, you know, because we want to have this sense that, you know, the problems aren't just out there. We've got to Address what's going on in our hearts. I thought we could redo this sign to this.
[00:05:17] You know, Just a subtle reminder as you leave.
[00:05:28] This was before AI. I did this in Photoshop like our ancestors.
[00:05:33] Thank you. Thank you, man. Kids these days.
[00:05:40] What does God do with the problem of sin? What does God do with the problem of brokenness? Not just out there, but in here.
[00:05:49] John 11. We're gonna read this. I would normally have you stand. I'm gonna be reading through the whole passage today in chunks. I'm not gonna have you stand, but listen to this story and realize that this is like the capstone. This is the biggest, big swing that John takes with his signs. This is the final sign before we get to Jesus heading towards the cross. This is what John is saying is maybe the weightiest proof of who Jesus claimed to be. John 11, verse 1. A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters Mary and Martha. And this is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord's feet and wiped them with her hair.
[00:06:28] Her brother Lazarus was sick. And so the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, lord, your dear friend is very sick.
[00:06:35] But when Jesus heard about it, he said, lazarus sickness will not end in death.
[00:06:40] No, it happened for the glory of God. So the Son of God will receive glory from this. And this is where John 11 really starts to make me uncomfortable in my theology.
[00:06:51] Sickness, so that God gets glory, pain and suffering so that Jesus can receive praise. I don't like this.
[00:07:03] And I'm actually not going to resolve it. I'm just going to say, I don't like it.
[00:07:09] I lost my place. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus saying, lord, your dear friend is very sick. But when Jesus heard about it, he said, lazarus sickness will not end in death. Know what happened? For the glory of God. So the Son of God will receive glory from this. So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days.
[00:07:25] Why does John put in there that Jesus actually did love Mary and Martha and Lazarus? Because if he didn't, you would assume that Jesus didn't love them because they have a very pressing need. And Jesus seems unconcerned.
[00:07:40] And so John's like, no, no, no, trust me, he loved them.
[00:07:44] But he stayed where he was.
[00:07:47] Verse 7. Finally he said to his disciples, let's go back to Judea.
[00:07:50] But his disciples objected.
[00:07:53] Rabbi, they said, only a few days ago, the people in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again?
[00:07:58] So every Time that Jesus is hanging out in Galilee. He's popular, he's well loved. This is his home turf. They're relaxed with his disciples. The crowds are following every time he goes to Judea and into Jerusalem, he locks head to head in these conflicts with the religious leaders and the authorities. And it gets more and more tense every time. The disciples, rightfully so, are like, hey, can we not do that?
[00:08:23] And then Jesus replied, there are 12 hours of daylight in 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.
[00:08:34] Salvage like, thank you for the basic physics lesson, Jesus.
[00:08:39] What is he saying? He's saying, the light of the world. Me. I am here with you now. You will never have more clarity or more authority than when I am with you. And so if you don't come with me now, when I am not here with you, you're going to stumble and you're going to fall. And so I want you to stay with me even when it gets hard, even when it gets difficult, even when suffering comes. Stay with me in the light of the world.
[00:09:01] And then he said, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now we will go and wake him up. And the disciples said, lord, if he's sleeping, he. He will get better. They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. And this is where Jesus always just is a little bit too metaphorical for these disciples to catch it, right?
[00:09:21] Like, Jesus, let him let the fever pass.
[00:09:24] We don't even need to go there. He'll be okay. And then Jesus says them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And for your sakes, I'm glad I wasn't there. For now, you will really believe.
[00:09:34] Come, let's go see him.
[00:09:36] The last time I preached on this story in John 11 was back in 2021.
[00:09:44] And it was just a few weeks. And I remember it so clear because just a few weeks after Alyssa, my wife, who's here this morning, we had stood in a doctor's office at St. Charles, and she had gotten really bad news that cancer had come back and metastasized. And it was devastating news at the time, before treatments, which she's responded to so well, and she's doing so well. And we thank you for your prayers. We continue to contend for her healing and lean into the treatments that she is receiving. And I know with all the existential fears around. AI, come on. We're still praying, Lord. Medical breakthroughs from technology. Right, let's go but we are grateful for you standing with us and believing that God is good and he's with us and he's sovereign. But when I last preached on this, it was just a few weeks, maybe four weeks after we had gotten this horrible, terrible news.
[00:10:37] And so when I read this again, it hits close to home, this cry from Martha to Jesus that says, lord, somebody you love is sick. Because I know what it feels like to have somebody I love who's sick and to reach out in prayer to Jesus and say, can you do something?
[00:10:57] Can you make a difference? I think you can.
[00:11:01] Will you?
[00:11:03] And that Easter, I shared a story how one night that the family had gone to bed, and I was hungry, as one is.
[00:11:13] And so I went down into the pantry, and I'm standing there close to midnight, and I reach for the Cheerios, and someone had eaten all the Cheerios and put the box back empty into the pantry, which is one of just a handful of unforgivable sins.
[00:11:32] And I had. Up to that point, it had been weeks. And I had done such a good job of, like, holding it together emotionally with this terrible news that we had received. And I was doing such a good job of, like, staying strong for the kids and the family. And my daughter's here, and she knows this. I will give you a master class in stuffing down emotions. Emotions, okay? No one can repress feelings like I can.
[00:11:56] And I had done this, you know, be strong kind of thing. And in that moment, all alone in the pantries, I reach for the Cheerios and I lift it, and it's empty. I just broke down emotionally. And if anyone had seen me in the pantry, they'd be like, see how much he loves those Cheerios.
[00:12:14] Guy is really into Cheerios.
[00:12:18] But it was the weight.
[00:12:20] It was the weight of all of it.
[00:12:22] So I shared that story on Easter Sunday. And I will always remember the email that I got that week.
[00:12:30] And it was an email that said, listen, we don't come to church for these sob stories.
[00:12:37] And essentially this person who had been a longtime attender of the church said, and honestly, this is just the last straw, you know, that you would have the nerve to share about your wife's cancer. And so we're leaving the church.
[00:12:53] Can I tell you, I did not chase after them.
[00:12:58] And, yes, that is very rude. Oh, that's so rude. Please never send emails that are that unkind. I don't care who it is, but I get it, because I think for so many of us, many times we have this gnawing suspicion that if we are to fully look at the hurt in the world and the pain in our own lives and those things that don't have answers. We are afraid that our faith won't be strong enough to hold up to it.
[00:13:32] And so there is this impulse and yes, in this person that emailed, but I think in all of us at some level where we say, I don't know if I can look.
[00:13:41] I don't know if I can stay eyes open with everything that's going on.
[00:13:45] I don't know if I can do that and have my faith hold up.
[00:13:48] So, Jesus, I want to follow you and I want my faith to stay strong. And so I'm going to close my eyes to it.
[00:13:54] And so we enter into the spaces like this and we're like, we're not trying to be fake. We just don't want to cave into the realities of the world that make us come to the conclusion that this is all for nothing, or to believe that, yeah, God is real, but he hasn't done anything. And that speaks to how little he must love us.
[00:14:18] And so we turn away.
[00:14:21] And if I were to guess why John puts this in his Gospel, why he lists it as his final sign, is because he knows that in this life we will have many troubles.
[00:14:34] And when we have those troubles, we will look. And sometimes it will feel like Jesus has not shown up on time and he's not answering the phone and he just seems a million miles away. And it will cause us to falter in our belief that he is the Son of God, the one who gives us life by the power of his name. And in those moments, I think John would point us back to the story of Lazarus and say, don't mistake his slowness for. For a lack of his compassion and love for you.
[00:15:03] Don't assume that because he hasn't shown up on this day that he is far removed from you. Because the Jesus John knew was one that worked in mysterious ways.
[00:15:14] And as we'll see in this story, even when it felt like he had completely missed in his expression of love, Jesus wasn't done. And I would say that John is saying that for us too.
[00:15:25] That when you look at the trouble and the pain in your story and your life and you assume that Jesus has failed in his love for you, I would tell you what John is about to tell us, that Jesus isn't done.
[00:15:37] He's not done.
[00:15:40] Verse 17.
[00:15:42] When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in the grave for four days and Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem. And many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. And when Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. And Martha said to Jesus, lord, if only you had been there, my brother would not have died.
[00:16:05] And then this spark of hope. But even now, I know that God will give you whatever you ask.
[00:16:10] And Jesus told her, your brother will rise again.
[00:16:13] And then Martha assumes that he's clicking back into, like, rabbi mode.
[00:16:18] And she says, yes, he will rise. And everyone else rises on the last day.
[00:16:24] And then Jesus says something that essentially says, yeah, on that day, sure, but also this day.
[00:16:32] And he says, I am the resurrection and the life.
[00:16:35] Anyone who believes in me will live even after dying. And everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never, ever die. Do you believe this, Martha? Yes, Lord. She told him, I've always believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who's come into the world from God. And then she turned to Mary, returned to Mary, and called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, the teacher is here and wants to see you. So Mary immediately went to him.
[00:16:59] Verse 30. Jesus had stayed outside the village at the place where Martha met him. And when the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus grave to weep.
[00:17:10] So they followed her there. And when Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.
[00:17:19] Clearly, Mary and Martha have been talking about this.
[00:17:22] They have the same line.
[00:17:24] They've had that conversation as they watched their brother slip away. If only Jesus had shown up.
[00:17:34] When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled.
[00:17:42] When we read this in the story, we assume that Jesus is angry, that they're weeping, as if to say, where's your faith? Don't you know I'm here?
[00:17:51] But I don't think that's the case because of what's about to happen. Where have you put him? They asked him. And they told him, lord, come and see. And then in verse 35, in the shortest verse in the English Bible, we get these words, then Jesus wept.
[00:18:07] I don't think Jesus is angry at the mourners for weeping. I don't think Jesus is angry at the feeling of loss that this group is feeling because he joins in with them in the very next verse.
[00:18:19] This anger that Wells up inside of him, I believe, is the anger that God does feel towards a broken world. Not against those who are suffering, not against those who are even guilty of sin themselves. But it is sin and death itself that causes Jesus to well up in anger.
[00:18:38] And here we have the resurrection and the life in the flesh. Walking to a tomb, angry not at the mourners who are grieving the loss of their friend and their brother, but angry that death still has yet to be defeated.
[00:18:53] But watch out, because Jesus is on the scene.
[00:18:56] And so Jesus weeps, and he enters into the suffering. He enters into the pain. And this is a picture of what God has decided to do to save the whole world. This is what we talk about all throughout the year, that Jesus comes as the incarnated God, a God who doesn't stand at a distance to judge and condemn, but a God who enters into the picture and into the suffering and into the pain.
[00:19:20] And Jesus, full of humanity, weeps along with those.
[00:19:25] And for us today, if you are in a place of weeping, he weeps with you.
[00:19:30] And if the resurrection that Jesus is about to perform is an expression of God's power, then what Jesus does in weeping by the tomb is an expression of his closeness to you and to me.
[00:19:43] That God has come close.
[00:19:45] He's not ignored what makes us human.
[00:19:51] And then the people who were standing nearby, verse 36, said, See how much he loved him. But some said, this man healed a blind man. Couldn't he have kept Lazarus from dying? And Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across the entrance. Roll the stone aside, Jesus told them. But Martha, always a practical one, protested, lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.
[00:20:14] My wife and I have this ongoing argument that her favorite style of cauliflower, broccoli and kale is baked cauliflower, broccoli and kale.
[00:20:26] There are much less stinky ways to make these foods, my friends.
[00:20:32] And so now, just yesterday, I walked in the house, and she's got like, these smelly things going, like to counteract the broccoli that's being baked in the oven. Can I tell you, there is no match for the broccoli that's being baked in the oven.
[00:20:52] And I imagine Martha as a very practical host who's hosting all these people for the funeral of her brother, seeing the last thing we need is stink.
[00:21:03] Right? Come on, you've hosted before. I know some of you are very hospitable.
[00:21:07] And the last thing you want to do is open that tomb.
[00:21:11] Cause you know what's gonna happen. And this is such a principle about finding hope and healing and restoration and redemption in your life when you struggle that oftentimes it's the things that you are least proud of, the things that you wanna hide the most and keep contained the most that Jesus comes for. And he says, open that up, We've got business to do.
[00:21:36] And. And like Martha, we say, lord, trust me, nobody wants that.
[00:21:42] Nobody wants to know that.
[00:21:45] And what I love about our community, what I love about all the different groups and ministries, and we are creating spaces where we are unafraid and unashamed to allow people to be vulnerable with their stuff before the Lord so that he can bring resurrection to dead places.
[00:22:05] And I don't want to ever be the place that is so steeped in shame and guilt that we would rather everybody pretend like they're okay in place of exposing ourselves to the mercy and the healing power of Jesus.
[00:22:22] Let's be the church that says, okay, Jesus, it's not going to be pretty, it's not going to smell good, but if that's where you want to bring healing, let's open it up.
[00:22:35] And so they rolled the stone aside. Verse 41. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and he 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. I love how he is narrating his own.
[00:22:48] It's very meta of him, right? Like, I am going to pray out loud, Lord, even as I am now, so that they believe that you sent me. And then Jesus shouted, lazarus, come out.
[00:23:01] And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in grave clothes, his face wrapped in a head cloth. And Jesus told him, unwrap him and let him go.
[00:23:11] The seventh sign.
[00:23:14] And what would have been clear very soon after that moment to those who are present and maybe is lost on us, that if they obey Jesus and they remove the grave clothes and they unwrap this man, they're going to have a naked man in the middle of their house party.
[00:23:31] There's a lot of vulnerability that comes with resurrection.
[00:23:36] And what Jesus doesn't command that they should probably figure out, is somebody needs to go get him a robe. Right? I remember this Mark Twain quote.
[00:23:46] Mark Twain said, clothes make the man naked. People have little to no influence on society.
[00:23:55] It's fair.
[00:23:59] Our job as a community for those stepping out of old ways and deadness into life, is to create covering, to meet vulnerability and the vulnerability of life change. And walking into New life, to meet that with a lot of grace and a lot of righteousness that looks like a robe.
[00:24:24] And for those even this year that are coming to faith, and every week we hear stories about people saying yes to Jesus and stepping out of old ways and getting baptized and the grave clothes that they will wear look like those old habits and old thinking and shame and self doubt. And the new clothes that Jesus calls us as a church to provide our belonging and grace and second chances, forgiveness, freedom from condemnation.
[00:24:59] And I hope that we never get lax on our job of welcoming those on the outside to follow Jesus and to experience new life.
[00:25:13] I think this is what Paul talks about in First Corinthians 12 when he says, the body of Christ has many parts, and they're not. They're not all the same. And some they need extra covering just like anybody.
[00:25:24] And so it's actually the ones that we are maybe least willing to expose that need the most care and the most covering.
[00:25:35] And man, I have such a heart. If you're in this place and you're wrestling with doubt or you've walked away from faith, or you're walking away from faith, or you're stepping out of some really dark days and you want to know if I actually follow Jesus, is this a safe enough place for me to do that? And I can't promise that this community will always do it perfect.
[00:26:08] But I want to ask all of us, will you create spaces of grace for people to step in a new life?
[00:26:18] This is our job as a community.
[00:26:21] I think this is the heart of Jesus for people hurting people, that we are a community steeped in grace.
[00:26:32] And I think when we model this, what we do is we. We begin to answer the question, if God is good and Jesus is real and he loves us, why doesn't he fix the world?
[00:26:42] I think we begin to answer that question, maybe not with a resolution, but with a in the meantime kind of response that I don't know what God is always up to. I don't know why he's doing what he does or doesn't do, what he doesn't do. But I know this, that because of his love, he has stirred all of us to come around with grace and mercy and to hold up those who feel like they're falling. And for those that grieve, that we grieve with you. And for those that are in trouble, we stand in prayer with you. And those who need healing, that we pray big prayers full of faith. And when Jesus seems like he's not showing up, that we hold on to this hope and this trust that one day resurrection will win. And in the meantime, Jesus is coming close to us and he's walking with us as David prayed. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I don't fear any evil because you're with me.
[00:27:41] You're with me.
[00:27:44] And it's this withness that gives me hope and gives me faith.
[00:27:51] And when my faith wants to fail, I come back to this, that he is close.
[00:27:58] And so some of us today, we're standing at the tomb, so to speak, of somebody we love.
[00:28:07] And for those of us in that position this morning, I want to tell you that Jesus weeps with you.
[00:28:15] Some of us are inside the tomb, dead in our sins, wondering how it got to be this way. And to you, Jesus calls your name and he says, come out.
[00:28:29] And some of you have heard Jesus voice, and you are today you're walking into a new life, following after Jesus.
[00:28:36] Come on, we've got a robe for you. We've got some waters at baptism for. For you. And we've got community and belonging.
[00:28:44] Don't be afraid to say yes to Jesus. Amen.
[00:28:49] I want to pray for you. Would you bow your heads?
[00:28:58] Lord Jesus, thank you for these stories that don't always have the obvious, nice bow tie kind of answer.
[00:29:12] Thank you for the ways that you give us hope that when the way is unclear and it feels like you're distant, that we can still put our hope and our faith in you. The resurrection, the life.
[00:29:27] Lord, we pray for healing for those who are facing diagnosis and disease.
[00:29:39] We would ask for your miraculous power.
[00:29:43] We'd ask that you would show up and intervene in the situation. We do pray that with faith, and we will continue to pray for that Jesus.
[00:29:53] And we believe that on the day when you heal, we will rejoice in that healing. And in the days until then, we will trust in your closeness and your love.
[00:30:05] Father, I pray for those who have felt distant, far, disconnected, doubting that today they would hear the voice of Jesus calling out to them. Come, come out. Live a new life, get back to living.
[00:30:20] And they would be able to respond like. Like Lazarus, and walk into new life.
[00:30:29] Lord Jesus, we receive you with your heads bowed, your eyes closed. I didn't do this the last service, but if that's you and you feel like you've been just disconnected from faith, maybe you've never even considered it, but today you're here and you just want to make a statement that, yeah, I think I'm ready. I think I hear Jesus voice calling me, and I want to put my trust in him, put my faith in him as my savior. If you want to do that with everybody's eyes closed, nobody looking around, just me and you and Jesus, would you raise your hand right now so I can pray for you? Yeah, yeah. All over.
[00:31:02] All over. Don't want to miss you. Keep those hands up. Yeah.
[00:31:06] Dozens of people. Thank you, Jesus.
[00:31:08] Yeah.
[00:31:10] Anybody else?
[00:31:14] Thank you. You can put your hands down. Let me pray for you, Jesus. I pray for everyone raising their hands today, saying, I want to put my faith and my trust in Jesus as savior, that you would meet them now, that you would walk with them. Now, this isn't the finish line where now they're good to go, but this is the beginning point of a lifelong walk and journey with Jesus as their guide.
[00:31:39] Thank you, Lord, for your faith, forgiveness at the cross. Thank you for the way that you bring us back to life.
[00:31:45] And if you're praying that prayer today to follow after Jesus and receive him, you can just whisper this right where you're at. Jesus, I receive you. Forgive me of my sins. I want to live for you and put my trust in you. You can just whisper that.
[00:32:00] I believe Jesus meets us in these places with his grace.
[00:32:06] Thank you, Lord.
