Brothers and sisters, it's a joy to be with you this morning. I want to extend a special welcome to our visitors this morning. Welcome to Christchurch. I am Robert Knuth. I work for this ministry called Reform University Fellowship, which is the PCA's official campus ministry. And so one of the great joys I have is being able to preach in churches around our presbytery, obviously Christchurch being the foremost, right, since we're here in Ann Arbor. But I kind of like to think of my job as being a missionary to the college campus. And for those of you who live in and around Ann Arbor, that is at times a struggle at U of M, but most of the time it's a great privilege and it's been encouraging. And so like Jeremy said, I would really ask you to stick around at our congregational meeting afterward. I would love to give an update with you. But without further ado, you didn't come to hear me talk, you came to hear the Word of God. We are going to be in John 11 this morning, picking up in verse 17. This is the holy, inerrant Word of God. Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had been already in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, the teacher is here and calling for you. And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise and quickly go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. So the Jews said, see how he loved him. But some of them said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying? Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days. Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me. When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go." Would you pray with me? Father in heaven, what a text this is. If we've grown up in the church, if we've been around the church, we might be familiar with these words. Lord, I pray that there are people here this morning who have never heard this text. Regardless of who we are and how we might be feeling this week, I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would come upon us, that you would give us eyes to see you, ears to hear you, hearts to behold you. That you might be so much greater than any and all of our sin. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So a few weeks ago, I got an email in my inbox, and what seems to be a theme in the season, it said that our RUF campus minister training had been canceled. Which, just for context, this is just the time of year, every July and December, that I get to get together with RUF campus ministers from around the world. RUF is a campus ministry on 172 campuses around the world. And it's just a great delight to get together with other men and to have fellowship and to worship God and to be encouraged. how to be a better husband, a better dad, a better campus minister. When I got this email, I was obviously devastated, crushed. It ends up turning out that I was able to get together with a few men and more of a regional smaller group. But nonetheless, it really, I think, gave an exclamation point to this season that has been COVID-19. Just like with everything, it just feels like this disease has ruled the day. What has it been for you? Not being around family for the holidays? Cancelled vacation? More obstacles to that person you're just really trying to get to know? Maybe for some of you it's the death of a grandparent or a loved one. If any of you are like me, every time more news breaks just about how COVID-19 seems to take more lives and more joy and more sadness in this season, I get angry. I get angry because I'm not one of those people who's actually good with my emotions. Maybe I'm just a guy. I just tend to react, right? I spend hours watching TV, scrolling through social media, or just blaming everybody. about how messed up COVID-19 is. It could be a politician. It could be a family member. It could be anybody. Do you do any of this? Is this just me being crazy? Do you find yourself reacting in this season by distracting or numbing or just getting angry? School administrators, classmates. In our texts this morning, we see a variety of reactions. to something that has forever ruled the day, not just COVID-19, death itself. And much like you and me, Martha and Mary, they don't waste any time getting angry, do they? Their refrain joins ours in this season. We're no different than Martha and Mary. And I think that's what's just so beautiful about the Bible. It's like we're all crying out, this isn't how it's supposed to be. And so whether or not you can even put into words how you're feeling these days, I'm going to go out on a limb, I'm going to make a hot take and say that all of us, all of you, you're looking for more to life. It's why you're in the pew this morning. Whether you're a Christian or a skeptic, you came to church this morning looking for more to life. You're looking for more to your day in, day out experience in Ann Arbor. You just are. That's especially true in this season. So this morning, I want to talk about one thing. And that one thing is, if Jesus really is who he says he is, if the Bible is actually the word of God, if he really is the resurrection and the life, then what does believing this to be true, what does it actually do to your sadness? What does believing this to be true actually do to your anger? For all of you, what's believing this to be true actually do to your maybe lackluster quarantine life? And maybe you're cooler than I am. I feel like I have a lackluster quarantine life in this season. Spoiler alert, it does something. It certainly did for Martha and Mary, and especially did for Lazarus. But in order to see what this does, let's zero in on verse 25. This seems to be very much the climax to our text this morning, isn't it? Let's zero in on verse 25 and let's meditate a little on what Jesus means by the statement that He is the resurrection and the life. And so those are my two points. Jesus as resurrection and Jesus as life. Jesus as resurrection and Jesus as life. So first, in order to understand what Jesus means by the fact that He is resurrection, we have to assess what's going on in this scene. I realize we're kind of parachuting into the middle of our text this morning. Jeremy's been really faithfully marching us through Matthew. We're kind of pivoting and hitting up John this morning. But kind of where we parachute it in, verse 17, it makes clear that Lazarus, he's been in the tomb four days. It's as if John wants to make clear in the details that this dude is dead. He's like for real dead. He's not, you know, he didn't pass out and people think he's dead and he's going to come back to life. Four days he's been in the tomb. There's no doubt about it. He's dead. But what's also interesting to note, and we didn't read this part, but if you have your Bibles with you, in verses three through six, we see that Mary and Martha, they had actually sent word to Jesus about Lazarus. They had already told Jesus that Lazarus was ill and he could be in danger, his life could be in jeopardy. And so picking up in verse four, This is what Jesus responds to Mary and Martha's message. This is what he says. He says, This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. I'm sorry? Jesus? What? You love this guy and his family, but you're not rushing to the scene to make sure he's okay. You don't do that. I don't do that, right? We hear that grandma has fallen ill in the hospital, and what do you do? You cancel your afternoon appointments and you go to the hospital to see grandma. Because you love grandma. What does Jesus do? He stays two days longer in the place where he was. I feel like this is the equivalent to one of those fake, disingenuous smiles. And apologize, I come from the South. This is maybe a lot more prevalent down there. But it's almost like the whole, you know, bless your heart. Of course that's so sad. I love you so much. But I'm going to go back to what I was doing, right? Because that really didn't mean anything. I read this, and maybe you read this, and I react something like this. No, Jesus, come on, do something. Get up. Take care of your friend. What are you doing? You're supposed to be lovey-dovey. You're supposed to love this guy, right? You're Jesus. So, obviously, that's not what he does. Stays in the same place where he was for another two days. And then when he does decide to kind of like waltz into Bethany to see how his friend is doing, Martha wastes no time coming straight up to Jesus. And it's almost like she's kind of like pre-programmed what she's going to say to Jesus. Maybe you've been in one of those moods with like a spouse or a friend or a parent, right? Somebody's irritated you and they've gone off to go grocery shopping or something. And when they come back, you're going to speak your mind. You're going to tell them what's up. Listen to what Martha says in verses 21 and 22. She says to Jesus, Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. I love this because this is all too familiar to how I interact with Jesus. Maybe how you interact with Jesus. Lord, if you had done something, this wouldn't have happened. Lord, if you had actually cared, I wouldn't be feeling this way. Lord, if you'd listen to me, this sadness could have been avoidable. Again, maybe some of y'all resonate. But what hits home even more for me, though, is how Martha concludes. After displaying this anger that seems very familiar, she follows up with kind of like a sheepish and desperate request. Jesus to do something. It kind of doesn't make sense. She's so angry, but then she gets very desperate. It's like she realizes that she's got no power to change her present circumstances, and immediately changes her tune with Jesus in the hopes that if he can do something, he will do something. So translation, blah blah blah, I'm angry and you're the worst. But Jesus, pray please, because whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Help me. Yeah, this sounds like an emotional rollercoaster. What is she actually feeling toward Jesus? If you could put a word on it. Anger? Hopeful optimism? Sadness? Maybe all the above? I can't help but think there are some of you here this morning who are reacting the same way toward Jesus. You've either grown up and had such a bad experience in the church that even to be here brings up the anger in you. Some of you are coming in here and you're a Christian and you faithfully believe the scriptures and you're just sad. We've had one heck of a week. The stuff that happened in D.C. to just the middle of winter post-holiday depression blues, you're sad. And you're bringing that to Jesus. Maybe some of you are like, wow, why is this guy giving me a therapy lesson? I have no idea what I'm actually feeling. And that's okay too. And then you encounter one of those bubbly Christian types on Sunday morning, right? And they say something like, hey, Jesus is the best! He can save you from your sin. You should believe. You should just pray more. He offers you hope in your sadness. That's your solution. Maybe some of you are like, that's why I don't go to church. I don't want to encounter that. And it's because the whole time you're thinking, Jesus? Bring me hope? The same Jesus who let this happen to me? The same Jesus who's supposed to be in control of the world and who just sat idly by while I suffered? You would have to be a fool to believe in that Jesus. Again, I hope there are some of you here this morning who might be feeling that way. And at Christchurch, we don't want to just be a hodgepodge of naive Christians who are tone deaf to the brokenness of the world, who are tone deaf to your sadness. And can I just say, I don't think Jesus wants us to ignore the serious sadness that many of you carry around all day, every day. It's real. It's there. That's why the scriptures talk about it. But verse 23, it probably doesn't help you in your cynicism. Jesus responds to Martha's plea by saying, your brother will rise again. Martha, probably again anticipating Jesus' pre-programmed God answer, responds with her own theological knowledge in verse 24 by saying, I know that He will rise again in the resurrection on the last day, which is what the Jews, at least the Pharisees, believed during that time, that there was going to be a resurrection, but it was going to be at the last day and everybody was going to get out of their tombs together. Martha's a student of the scriptures. And she tells that to Jesus. It's almost like she could be saying, thanks Captain Obvious, tell me something I don't already know. But then, and here's where we begin to pivot a little bit with Martha. In verses 25 and 26, she gets exactly what she's asking for. Jesus clarifies that this resurrection, the one that she's been taught, that she believes, this resurrection, this hope that the dead will rise again and live eternally, this is Him. He is the resurrection of the dead. Whoever believes in Him, though they die, yet shall they live forever. The resurrection isn't a fancy idea. It's a person. And this person is the Lord Jesus Christ. But again, as is true with much of what Jesus says, it leaves Martha and you and me somewhat confused. Because all He asks after He gives this bomb drop, whoa, what? What is Jesus talking about? All He asks is, do you believe this? Not exactly fireworks. Even though, again, she drops a theological bomb, well first before we get that right, this is how Martha follows up to Jesus. Do you believe this? Martha says, yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who is coming into the world. And so Jesus asks something that seems pretty, I don't know, Cut or dry? Black and white? Yes or no? Do you believe this? And Martha gives the theological, again, the theological balm that she's been taught, that she believes that. Again, any Christian, maybe in the pew this morning, might also echo. Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who's coming into the world. But the fact remains with Martha, Jesus, He hasn't actually done anything with her sadness. with her anger, with her confusion. It's like he's having a Sunday school lesson with her. And so for him to be the resurrection without life, it's for him to be an empty theological textbook that might be an interesting idea, that might be really cool to talk about with your friends and to go back and forth over. But at the end of the day, it holds no water for your life. What Martha wants, what you and me want, is to see that Jesus provides something tangible beyond just the right theological answers. We want to see him not just be the resurrection, but we want to see him provide life. And so this moves me into my second point, which is Jesus's life. Verses 28 through 44 take an interesting turn. So we're going to move on from Martha here for a second and begin to see how Jesus interacts with Mary. Mary enters into the picture and in verses 32, we see that she greets Jesus with the same exact sentence that Martha did. What did she say? Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But this time though, Jesus, he doesn't have answers for her. He doesn't go the Sunday school route with Mary. Verses 33 through 35 are perhaps some of my favorite verses in the entire Bible. This is what they say. When Jesus saw her weeping, the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. He said, where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Jesus wept. I love that. It's the shortest verse in the English Bible, in case you were wondering. It's almost like John, who is telling this narrative, pauses, pauses on this verse, so that you are forced to reflect on it for a second. What does it mean that the Lord of glory, The baby nursing at Mary's chest. The baby we just celebrate who came into the world at Christmas time. What does it mean that the God who spoke creation into being weeps at the death of one of his best friends? Here's something it should mean. It's that He is not a stranger to your sadness. Unlike Allah, or Krishna, or Buddha, or the enlightenment gods of secularism that are worshipped here in Ann Arbor. Unlike those gods who are either too removed from the suffering of this world, or who literally don't have the capacity to enter into it. King Jesus enters into your sadness and he weeps. He weeps. He doesn't just demand you to get it together. He doesn't just ask if you're over it yet. Oh, been two weeks since your mom died. Are you over it? Are you going to come back to work? He doesn't just change the subject because you're just like too much to handle. Because it's too awkward for him. He weeps. I think even more than that though, the original Greek gives so much more of a heightened sense to what is actually going on here. In verse 33, the English when it says that Jesus was deeply moved in his spirit, the Greek word here actually communicates like an inner anguish that is too deep for words. It's a word that's compared with snorting in animals. So I'm going to save you the sound effects. I just want you to imagine what that might sound like. So, given all that, I think a better translation, I don't usually try to do this because your translations are trustworthy, they're true. But if I were to take a stab at this, I think maybe a better translation would be, Jesus bristled in his spirit. It's to communicate something that is beyond sadness, right? But also kind of an inner anger. An anger that something like this could ever occur. I'm sad because my friend has died, but I'm also angry that this could even be a possibility. It's a picture of him simultaneously weeping, but in his inner being having outrage. Jesus, as the only human being to ever live without sin, shows us what it looks like to mourn. Something, if I were to go out on a limb here, something that I think maybe you and me aren't inherently too good at. I don't think 21st century American culture inherently has a category for what it looks like to mourn. COVID-19 forces you to lose your job. We say stuff like, well, it is what it is. Studied all month to get a C minus on that physics midterm. We say stuff like, well, next time I'm just going to study harder. you suffer emotional or physical abuse, we say stuff like, well, that's just how our relationship is, that's just so-and-so. But what if verses 33 through 35 actually give you a window into what life looks like, life abundantly? And what I mean is, what if your sorrow is actually a good place to learn something about Jesus and the life that he offers Martha and you and me in verse 25? Here's the thing though, the only way you'll ever be comfortable sitting in your sadness and actually lamenting like a human being and not just like a pre-programmed robot, is if you have the hope that your sadness isn't forever. That death, that disappointment, none of those things have the last say. And here's a side note, this is why our secular western world doesn't actually know how to be sad. This is why 21st century American culture doesn't have a category for sadness. I don't know if any of you all have seen that Pixar movie, I'm blanking on the name, Inside Out. It's exactly that case in point. There's an absence of sadness in this person's life, and it takes you into the brain of this person, and how this person can't actually be a human being without sadness. But why is that the case? Well, if happiness is your ultimate end, if all you want is just for people to be happy, what else do you have when the world deals you a hand that isn't happy? and has no way of ever getting happy. I have a student who two months ago confessed to me that he is a nihilist. He said flat out, he said, Robert, I am a nihilist between COVID-19, politics, and just the lack of friendships I have in this season. I don't know what is true. I don't know where I can find hope. And you know what I told him? I said, brother, That is God's mercy to you. Do you see how that can be God's mercy to you to actually lead you to your end? For you to see that the world is broken. For you to see that there actually is no hope outside of what Jesus is and what Jesus does and what Jesus brings to your life. Right? Because He saw one of the two options that just are going to occur. You see this everywhere in our culture. You might see this in your own life. Either you become the most cynical person, the most cynical human being known to mankind, and you become a nihilist, and you refuse to accept the reality of the world that it's broken, or you just distract yourself to death. I'm making a lot of hot takes this morning. I think that's so much of why we see widespread addiction to our phones, and me included. It's because I've had a tough day with my kids. What do I want to do when I put them down to bed? I want to just get on my phone and forget about the day because I'm really sad. It's been really hard. Either way, whether you distract yourself to death, or you just become a cynical, nihilistic type person, your humanity has escaped you. By not having answers for your sadness, secularism has left you dry, cold, and dead inside. And that's just not going on out there, that's happening in here, in the church as well, right? We breathe in the air of our culture, unfortunately. So what ways in which a Christian believer has believed in this secular gospel actually left you dry and cold inside? A semblance of a human being. When Jesus came to redeem you, he came to redeem the whole aspect to who you are. Your emotions. Your sadness. What does he offer you? Look at verse 40. Jesus gets back to his conversation with Martha. And finally offers her an explanation as to why Lazarus first fell ill. Why he didn't come. He revisits that potentially tough point with both Martha and Mary, and this is what he says. His reasoning for not coming was the same one he gave in verse 5. Namely, that the death of her brother Lazarus would be an opportunity for the glory of God to be revealed. That the glory of God might be revealed in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And then in verses 43 and 44, the unthinkable happens. Read the text with me again. When he said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. The man who died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. What a moment. What a moment. You know what I love? John doesn't record anything that Lazarus says or does. You think that's weird? A man who's been dead four days in the tomb, his last memory is maybe being surrounded by his loved ones, then passing away. And I don't know what happens, right? But then next thing maybe you find yourself doing is walking out of a tomb in cloths. I want to know what that guy's saying. I want to know what that guy's thinking. Why doesn't John record it? But it's almost like we're not supposed to know. Because surely, he would have had to say something, right? I think what John doesn't want us to miss is that Jesus not only raises the dead, but by doing so, he once and for all declares that life is found in him. Because the story's not about Lazarus. It's about King Jesus. King Jesus and his resurrection, but also that he brings life and life abundantly. John 3.16, that the world might have life, and life abundantly in Him. I know Isaiah 11 is a text that is read often times around Christmas. But it's this picture that Jesus and the life that he is bringing and has brought into the world and has brought into your life if you're a believer. It's a world where the lion lies down with the lamb. A world where the cow and the bear graze together. And a nursing child plays over the hole of a cobra. I know this kind of sounds like ancient and kind of maybe archaic to you, but can you imagine? I wouldn't let my two-year-old kid play over the hole of a cobra. In this world, the Lord God says, this is what Isaiah 11 goes on to say, In other words, this is a complete and physical shalom. A complete and physical wholeness. Fullness, peace, restoration of all things. Restoration of your humanity. But please don't miss that it's physical. Jesus raises a physical dead body and gives life to a man in his physical existence. Tim Keller, he's a pastor in New York, says that the world that Jesus ushers in with his resurrection and life is one where, quote, I want that. I need that. Because there's too much sadness in my life." And maybe you can resonate. But don't take his word for it. Don't take my word for it. Revelation 21-4, the last book of the Bible, talks about the implications of Jesus' resurrection and life. The Apostle John writes here that Jesus will, quote, "...wipe away every tear from their eyes, for there will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have passed away." End quote. It's a physical resurrection in life. But brothers and sisters, it's also a personal one. One commentator says that Jesus had to specifically use Lazarus's name when calling him out of the tomb. Because if he had just said, come out, all of the dead bodies from everywhere would have come out. He says, Lazarus, come out. He says, Robert, come out. He says, Jeremy, come out. He says, Galen, come out. This is the beauty of the Christian Gospel, is that whether you're a Christian or not this morning, the Lord Jesus, by His Spirit this morning, is calling you out of your tombs, so that you might experience life and life abundantly. What power. But here's how it hits home. Are you a churchy person who believes in the resurrection, but you don't know if it's personal power? You show up every Sunday, but have you never heard your name? called out of the tomb. Are you like Martha, who has all the right theological answers for Jesus, but do you fail to see that in your sadness, Jesus hasn't come to give you answers to reason away your sadness? Oh, well, it's because of the sovereignty of God, this, that, and even though that might be true, what has it done to your sadness? The type of life that has the power to call you out of the grave of this broken world and restore you. The type of life that has the power to bring you hope for a new tomorrow. The type of life that actually gives you a space to lament and mourn because you're confident this isn't the final answer. I know I'm speaking this this morning. At Christ Church, we want you to experience this to be true. In community. That's why we're announcing community groups. It's a vital part to the Christian life. Assuming this to be true, assuming you take the Bible's word for it, you take Jesus's word for it, that he's got space for you, he's got space for your sadness, what does this actually do to you? To believe this means that in the midst of your suffering, in the midst of the COVID-19 season, in the midst of all the political sadness and frustration, in the midst of maybe the start of a new semester, your life can sparkle, can sparkle. Why? Because you cling to a Savior who weeps with you in your sadness, and then has promised to make it untrue. In your sorrow, you get more of Jesus. You get more of He who is the resurrection and the life. I can't think of better news for us in such an immensely sad season. So would you pray with me? Father in Heaven, I confess being sat this morning. And I know my brothers and sisters are on a whole range of human emotion. Lord, I pray that for those of us who are sad, for those of us who might be angry or even confused while I'm talking about emotions so much, Lord, would you meet us by your grace? Would you meet us so that we might experience more of what is already true? That we might experience more of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, who is crucified on our behalf, who rose again from the grave to impute His righteousness into our hearts and lives. That we might live, not just in a manner worthy of the gospel, but that we might live in a manner, in a posture that would ask for more of Jesus. for more of him in our sadness, for more of him in our anger, for more of him in a season that is just so confusing and upside down. Lord, help your people. Help your people here at Christ Church, but also around the world who confess this gospel to be true. Help us to live more as light and salt. Help us to live more as human beings who aren't content with distracting ourselves to death, who aren't content with just being cynical people. but who actually have a hope that our sadness isn't the final answer, that you have promised to come and make all things untrue, beginning here now with this meal. I put this all in the powerful name of the resurrection and the life of King Jesus. Amen.