Gloves Off

0:06Well, I love the storms that we have here in Texas. In my wilderness wanderings in the state of California for a handful of years, I struggled with the fact that there's no, there's no weather there. And everybody's like, well, they have perfect weather there. But, but when perfect weather is just what it is all the time, it gets boring really fast. And for all of you native Californians out there that are ready to throw tomatoes at me or whatever, just, it's true, right?

0:32I mean, God created their storms. He created differences to be enjoyed. And so I love coming back here and experiencing that and seeing that. And one of the things though that I don't so much love about it is the house that we bought, it's now I think about 8 years old. When they built it, they didn't put gutters on one of the sides of the house, which seems like not the best decision when you're building a house, though I wasn't paying for it at the time, so I, whatever.

0:56They didn't put gutters on one of the sides. My house. So that means on that side of the house, the dirt over the years with all the rain has slowly begun to erode and come away from the house such that now, over the last 8 years, it's eroded so much that you can see the foundation of the house and even the footing of the foundation of the house there. And I get it, that's not a good thing, and some of you out there are cringing right now and you're ready to run to Home Depot and buy dirt and just take a shovel and go after it. I'm going to get there, but I saw that, I noticed that about a year ago when we moved in, and I thought to myself, man, I'm going to have to address that at some point.

1:28And then I just started to go, but I really don't want to. I don't want to have to do that. That doesn't sound fun to me. That doesn't sound like something I want to spend money on. And so I just found myself trying to avoid that side of the house as much as I could.

1:42I would, I would walk on the other side. Thankfully we've got 2 gates. So I would just use the other gate to get to the backyard if I needed to. I made my son take the trash out, which is over on that side of the house. So I didn't have to see it, right?

1:53Because out of sight, out of mind. Except for when it rains. And then I think to myself, oh man, it's actively just eating away at the foundation right now. Like the rain is just taking dirt away as we sit here. And then it becomes something that you're forced to deal with.

2:08Well, in many ways that can be us and the brokenness that we encounter in this world. That can be us in sin. That can be us in death. We just don't want to have to deal with it. As long as we can just be where we're at in our comfort zone, Which, let's face it, here in the Bible Belt in North Texas where we live, it's pretty easy to be comfortable.

2:30We're not in a war-torn area. We're not facing an evil despot, contrary to whatever your political opinions might be out there. We're in a pretty comfortable environment right now. I mean, we don't have a lot of persecution as believers, so it's easy for us to kind of get into our bubble and not have to think about or deal with the brokenness in this world all around us. And yet when we come face to face with a passage like the one we're studying in John chapter 11, or when we come face to face with the death of a loved one, we're kind of forced to deal with the reality of the brokenness of the world that we find ourselves in.

3:07We have to. We have to look it square in the eye and say, what are we going to do with it? As Christians, as a church, we have to consider death and sin and think about What should our response to this be? I mean, are we going to sit here and think, well, you know what, I got my spot, so sorry about the rest of the world? Or is there something different that we should do?

3:28Is there a different approach that we should have to the brokenness that we see all around us? I'm going to suggest that there is, and I'm going to suggest that what we're going to find in our text this morning is that the response to the brokenness in the world all around us is this: that Christians, we need to hate sin and hope in Jesus. We need to hate sin and hope in Jesus. And I understand saying the word hope sounds flimsy, but hope in the sense of the biblical hope, the sure hope that we have, the hope that you know is coming. Like the couch later on this afternoon and the TV remote and the Rangers game and a nap.

4:04That's a hope that I have right now. And a win, hopefully. But there's a hope that we need to have, and that hope is in Christ. We need to hate sin and hope in Jesus. And so as we left off last week, we found Jesus and Martha.

4:18Well, remember Lazarus has another sister and that's Mary, and that's where our action picks up this morning. So look at verse 28 of John chapter 11. It says, 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 arose quickly and went to, went to him, went to Jesus. Verse 30, now Jesus had not yet come into the village, into Bethany there, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.

4:43And when the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. I alluded to this last week, but now I want to tackle it a little bit more head-on. Have you ever had somebody tell you, well, you know what, Christian, you don't need to worry about death because death has lost its sting. Death has been swallowed up in victory, so you don't need to worry about death because the sting of death is gone. As well-intentioned as that may be, it's not true.

5:14It's not biblical. You may say, but wait a minute, isn't there a verse that says that? Yes, there is a verse that says that, and here it is. But notice the contingents here, that this is contingent upon something else happening first. It says, when the perishable— that is, our earthly bodies— when the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, Then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

5:40O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? In other words, right now where we sit, death stings. For Mary and Martha, death stung. We're going to see for Jesus, death stung.

5:55And so Mary gets up and she goes out of the house to go meet Jesus. But notice how palpable her grief was at this time. So much so that those that were with her in the house, when she got up to go meet Jesus, they thought, man, she must be going back to weep again at the tomb. Let's go with her. They were distraught.

6:13They were grieved. They were broken by death. Death stings. If you've lost someone, if you've lost a loved one, lost a family member, lost someone close to you, you know that reality. And if you feel the grief and if you've ever felt, man, maybe I shouldn't feel as bad about their loss as I do, because, you know, death is loss.

6:32It's— no. We should feel the sting of death here. In fact, there's a purpose for that. And that's one of the reasons why Jesus didn't save Lazarus from the grave. But Mary is weeping and she's going back to the tomb now to meet Jesus.

6:46And the crowd goes with her and look at verse 32. It says, 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. That's exactly what Martha said to him, isn't it? And this gives us a glimpse into the conversation that took place between Mary and Martha while they were waiting for Jesus while Lazarus was sick. Mary, why isn't he here yet?

7:10I don't know. Martha, don't you think he could just save him from a distance? Surely he knows. Well, Martha, Lazarus looks like he's about to die and Jesus isn't here. What?

7:22Why isn't he here yet? I think the fact that both of the sisters go to Jesus and say the same thing tells us what their mindset was. Lord, where were you? Where were you? Why didn't you spare us from this?

7:35Why didn't you save him? Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Look at verse 33 though, Jesus' response when he sees her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping. He was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. Deeply moved in his spirit.

7:54The New Living Translation captures the translation a little bit better here. It says this, a deep anger welled up in him. That's what the word deeply moved means in the original language. He is incensed at death. He is angry over what he is witnessing.

8:11He is disturbed. The next, he is greatly troubled. It means to be distressed or unsettled. He's agitated. What is it that drew Jesus' ire here, his anger here?

8:24Some commentators, I think, have wrongly said that he was angry at the grief that he was witnessing, like they should have known better than to be upset. I don't think that's it at all. This is Jesus entering into our plight as human beings. This is Jesus entering into our grief, entering into our sorrow. Jesus here is angry at the greatest enemy of mankind.

8:45Jesus here is angry at death and ultimately its root cause, which is sin. And so here you have the Holy One, the Son of God, in, in the presence of the greatest enemy that faces mankind, you and me. And he is angry over it because he loves Mary and he loves Martha and he loves you and he loves me. And so Jesus is agitated and angry as he witnesses the grief in front of him, and he says, where have you laid him? And they said to Him, Lord, come and see.

9:19And the shortest verse in the Bible, verse 35, Jesus wept. Jesus wept. So the Jews said, See how He loved him! But some of them said, Couldn't He have opened— He who opened the eyes of the blind man, couldn't He have also kept this man from dying?

9:39There you see a similar mentality to Mary and Martha. Lord, if You had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. Here the crowds are saying, couldn't this guy have stopped all this? And what's the answer? The answer is yes, he could have, and he chose not to.

9:53Why? Well, you remember last week I suggested that the reason is because he wanted the finality of death to set in. He wanted the weight of death to be felt, because in feeling the weight of death, they would really understand the hope that he's going to communicate, that he already communicated, that we looked at last week where it said that Jesus told Martha, I am the resurrection the resurrection and the life. He wanted the, the weight of death to, to hang, that it to be palpable and tangible so that they would more greatly appreciate the hope of life in Christ. And so that they would greater— more greatly appreciate the, the plight that faces all of us, the desperation that faces all of us, which is death and the weightiness and the finality of it, which is brought about by our sin.

10:38And so he wanted that to set in, and guess what? It had set in. Mary is weeping, Martha is weeping, and notice even Jesus is weeping. Jesus wept. Have you thought of how strange that is considering what he was about to do?

10:55Did Jesus know what he's about to do?

10:58Yep. Did Jesus know Lazarus was going to finish that day alive and laying his head down on his pillow that night? Yep. So why is Jesus weeping? Well, He's weeping because just like Mary was feeling the weight of death and Martha was feeling the weight of death, He was feeling also the weight of death, perhaps even anticipating what was going to take place just about a week from now where He was going to take on His own bout with death, where He was going to go to the cross, where He was going to die a death that would mean the end of all death for you and me.

11:32But here He weeps. He weeps for his friend. He weeps for Mary and Martha. He weeps for humanity, and he weeps over sin and its wages. Like we talked about last week, death is anything but natural.

11:49Death is not just a part of life. And so Jesus, wanting us to feel the weight of death and to understand that, it now moves into that grief himself. And, and yet again we say, but Jesus, why were you so sorrowful if you were about to raise him from the dead? It's because He understood what death represented, that behind death is sin. And sin is the act of rebellion against his Father.

12:12Sin is the act of mutiny against his Father. Sin is what made everything that has gone wrong, wrong. That's what the reason why the world is broken. The reason why death exists is because of sin. And Jesus is realizing that, understanding that, and he's grieving over that.

12:29He's weeping over that. And so, church, as we consider death and its consequences, we consider sin and its effects, we need to realize that, man, if our Savior, who was about to give life to this dead body, if he was grieved by sin, was grieved by death, we should be as well. Point number 1 this morning is this: battle complacency over sin and its effects. Battle complacency over sin and its effects. Complacency meaning that it doesn't really move the needle for you one way or the other.

13:01Yeah, okay, yeah, it's there, but I'm going to heaven, so it doesn't really matter to me. We need to fight against that mentality, fight against this complacency. Have you ever been driving and seen somebody cut somebody else off on the road? My guess is yes. Yeah, you may think to yourself, man, that was, that was kind of a dumb thing to do, or man, that guy, that's not very nice.

13:22I'm glad that wasn't me. But that's, that's the complacency that kicks in. You don't have the same indignation that you do when somebody cuts you off on the road. Somebody cuts you off on the road, it's like, can you believe this? The audacity!

13:35I can't believe that he would do this, man, driving his red Civic with the Compass Bible Church sticker plastered on the back of it. Pastor Rod.

13:46No, you feel personally incensed by it. Why? Because it's invaded your space. But when it's happening to somebody else or out there, it doesn't really move the needle for you. Church, we can't be that way when it comes to sin and its effects that we see in this world.

14:00Jesus was seeing the effects of sin and death, not that he was unaware of these things, but he was seeing it firsthand with the death of his friend, and it moved him to weep and grieve over it. Church, we need to be moved about the sin that we encounter. We need to hate sin. Remember, that's what we're talking about here. We need to To loathe sin and its effects.

14:19And there's some ways that I'd like to suggest that we do that. The first way we need to hate sin is by being aware. Be aware. Be aware of the brokenness of this world. Be aware of the fallenness of this world.

14:32And, and not just categorically that you would think to yourself, yeah, well sure, the world is a broken place. I get that. No, but, but give some thought to it, intentional thought to it. And now this is, I don't mean that you have to spend 24/7 on the news feeds. That's not healthy for anyone.

14:48We have more access to news than, than any other time in world history. And to try to take in all of the brokenness of this world that comes across Twitter or X or Instagram or any of the news feeds that you have out there, that's more than I think that we were designed to be able to process. So that's not what I'm saying. But I'm also not saying that we should just bury our heads in the sand as Christians and think to ourselves, well, let me just ride out this world until Jesus comes back, or I die and I get to go be with him.

15:20We need to wrestle with the brokenness that we see around us. So for example, when you hear that there's a war in Ukraine, it's, it's probably good to give some thought to that. Why is there a war? What's going on? What led to this?

15:34Where do I see the brokenness in this? Or when October 7th takes place, the terrorist attack against the Israelite The Israeli people. It's good to give some thought to that, to think, man, the brokenness of this world. How do I process this? What should I think about this?

15:53What should I feel about this?

15:58Or just the political issues at stake in the next election cycle.

16:06It's good for us to think through these things. Don't just vote one way because you were raised voting one way.

16:12You know, we should vote because we understand that what's at stake is, is trying to push back some of the brokenness in this world, trying to curb some of the darkness that we see all around us. And so it's good for us to, if I can put it this way, to sit in some of the brokenness of this world and to realize, man, it may not be cutting me off on the road, but it's out there and it's, it's a bad thing. And so we need to think about it, we need to wrestle with it, and we need to have a healthy awareness of what's going on. And you know what that's going to do? That's going to help us be a little bit more salty.

16:47Our salt's going to be more salty that way. Our light's going to be more lighty. Our light's going to be more bright that way. We're going to be able to know better how to take the gospel to a lost and perishing world when we understand more of the lost and perishing world. I mentioned earlier Mohler's Briefing podcast.

17:04That's a great resource along these, these lines. He takes the headlines of the day and processes them through a Christian worldview and helps us think through those big-ticket items. So if you don't listen to that, I would commend it to you. It's a great resource for you. That conference is going to be great for you.

17:18That's why I said if you register for that, you've already applied the sermon. Boom. Because that's going to help you be aware of some key issues. So number one, be aware. Second, be in prayer.

17:27Be aware and be in prayer. And if you're doing number one, it's going to take care of number two. Because the more aware we are of the brokenness of the world, the more likely we are to go to prayer. And here's what specifically I'm saying we need to be in prayer about. Jesus, when he told his disciples, this is how you should pray, one of the key components he said is we should be praying, your kingdom come.

17:49Church, we need to be praying for the return of Christ. That is the solution to the brokenness that we see all around us. That's the only solution to the brokenness that we see all around us. We are not— we are not the brand that's emerging right now of Christian nationalism, thinking that the solution to the brokenness of this world is making America Christian again. That doesn't mean that we don't pray for revival.

18:11That doesn't mean that we don't work towards revival, but that's not our hope, y'all. The hope is not that this country returns to its principles of the forefathers. This world is moving towards one end, and that's a date with the return of Christ. That's what's going to fix what's broken in this world. And so as believers, we need to pray that way.

18:30And so as we become aware, we need to be in prayer, praying as Jesus commanded us. Lord, we want you to return. So often when we encounter bad news or something tragic happens in our lives, you'll hear a Christian say Maranatha, which means come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, Lord Jesus. That's what we, we need to be doing, but not just when we encounter the tragic. When you get out of bed— I'm going to turn 40 this month, and so I'm realizing this, I'm living out application.

18:56When you get out of bed and your body hurts the way it never hurt before when you got out of bed, and there's no reason for it, you didn't work out yesterday, man, that frailty, you should be praying, come, Lord Jesus, I want my glorified body. Let's do this. It's time to go.

19:14Or when we experience a friendship. That ends, and that should cause us to say, Lord, come, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Bring unity to our relationships that only you can bring. Or when a dear friend loses a job and you're watching the family wonder, are we going to be okay? Man, that should cause us to pray, come, Lord Jesus.

19:41Come, Lord Jesus, and inaugurate your kingdom where there's going to be abundance and we're never going to have any need. We're never going to experience lack again.

19:49Or when the political ads run with all of their vitriol and their hate and their slander, it should cause us to pray, come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus, to put an end to voting. We will gladly give up democracy for the monarchy of King Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus.

20:08The reason that we pray, church, that way is because that's the only solution to the problem and the brokenness that we find around us. So one of the ways that we are battling complacency is we're praying, Lord, come, Lord Jesus. So we need to be aware, we need to be in prayer, and then third, it's going to rhyme for you. Ready for this? You're welcome.

20:27Be there. Be there. What does that mean? Don't retreat from this broken world. Be present.

20:35Yeah, be aware of it, be in prayer, but, but then we need to stay here. We need to be there. So what does that look like? That means, yeah, go and coach your kids' soccer team. That means, yeah, join the, the moms group that walks in your neighborhood on Saturday mornings.

20:48Yeah, that means have your Hindu neighbors over for dinner and, and, and get to know them. Do all of those things. Don't retreat from this broken world. Lean into it if anything else. We are salt and light.

21:00We are called to be that, but, but be there aware of the brokenness that you're entertaining. Be there aware of the need that's in front of you. Be there aware of the plight of the, the parents on that soccer team. Be there cognizant of the fact that, man, these ladies that are going walking with you are living for the wrong things. They're not living for Christ.

21:21Be there aware of the fact that when you have your Hindu neighbors over for dinner, that they are serving and worshiping a false god that is not going to be able to save them when their date with death shows up. And When you're aware of that and you are there with them, you know what that's going to do? That's going to move you to bring the only hope that they have, which is the Gospel. And so, as you are battling complacency over the brokenness of the world, one of the greatest ways that we can do that and push the darkness back is by bringing the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to bear, by bringing the hope and the message of life in Christ. Look, all of us in this room, should Jesus not come back for the bride of Christ first.

21:58All of us have our own date with, with physical death, but the hope that we have is that that's not the end, that because Christ has died for us, we will live with him. And that's the message that we get to bring, and that's what we need to be there with. And the worst thing that we could do, church, is just to retreat into our holy huddle and pull back from society. That is not what we need to be doing. A city on a hill.

22:25A city on a hill is there to be noticed. You're in your neighborhood to be noticed. You're in your workplace to be noticed. You're at the grocery store that you go and shop at to be noticed. You're at the Chili's for lunch, maybe with some poor decision-making ahead of time, but you're there to be noticed, even in the way you interact with your server there.

22:50To push back the darkness, to be light in the midst of the darkened and broken world. So be aware, be in prayer, be there. All of that to battle complacency over sin and its effects. As one commentator put it, when Jesus was standing there before Mary and Martha and seeing the grief, Jesus bristled at death. I like that.

23:13He bristled at death. Why? Because death is the result of sin. The occasional walk through a graveyard or to drive through the wreckage after a tornado, that's going to give us a helpful perspective of the brokenness of this world. But y'all, we don't have to wait for that.

23:30If we just look around, there's plenty of examples of the brokenness of this world to remind us of our call to be aware, to be in prayer, and to be there as we battle complacency over sin and and its effects. When Jesus comes to the tomb, he knows what he's about to do, but he still weeps. Look at verse 38. Then Jesus, deeply moved again— that's that same word. He's, he's grieved.

23:54He's anger— angry. He's, he's irate. He's agitated at death. Deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay against it.

24:04Why did John include that part? I think because he wanted us to again come face to face with the reality of death. It's a cave and there's a stone rolled against it. The finality that, that stone's put there— why? To keep people out.

24:19Because nobody's going to come out of that grave, nobody needs to go into that grave. And so John says, here's the cave, here's the stone, it's, it's laid against it. This is Jesus' first encounter with a cave and a stone. He's gonna have another one in a little while. But here he is and he's deeply moved against the intense ire, the anger here that he feels.

24:38And Jesus says in verse 39, take away the stone. Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there was going to be an odor, for he has been dead for 4 days. Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? Again, John emphasizes the reality of the situation.

25:00He says, Martha, the sister of the dead man. He could have said Martha, the sister of Lazarus, or since he's already introduced Martha to us, he doesn't really even need to give any sort of modifier to Martha. But he's again reminding us of what's happening right now. Martha, the sister of the dead man. She protests there, which shows us that even back when she said, Lord, I know that you can still do anything, that she wasn't expecting Jesus to do what Jesus is going to do.

25:26Because here she doesn't say— when Jesus says roll away the stone, Martha doesn't sit back and go, great, now it's about to happen. He's going to bring Lazarus back to life. No, she says, if I can borrow from the old King James, he stinketh by now. Why? Because he's been dead for 4 days.

25:44The body's breaking down. The body's decaying. Death has set in. The finality of it all. And Jesus responds, did I not tell you?

25:53That if you believed, you would see the glory of God. We don't know specifically when that conversation took place, but we do know that's what he's been doing this whole time. You remember his first sign that he did, the water to wine? It said after he did that, he displayed his glory, and many of his disciples— what?— believed in him. Or how about John chapter 9, which we just saw a few weeks ago?

26:15The man born blind. Teacher, who sinned, this man or his parents? Well, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the glory of God might be displayed. In him. And even with Lazarus, Jesus has already alluded to this.

26:26I'm glad I wasn't there for your sake, that you might believe. And so we've seen this, that Jesus, when he acts, when he does these things and displays his glory, he does so to deepen faith, to mature faith. And certainly this is going to be one of the greatest examples that we've seen thus far as he defeats death. So they took away the stone, verse 41, 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.

26:58So Jesus has this prayer between him and the Father that he audibly prays out loud, and he does so for the benefit of those around him. Why does he do that? Well, he does this to make sure that everybody understands that this is not just some cheap magic trick, that he's not just doing this of his own power over here on the side, but what he's about to do, he does because of His connection in relationship to the Father. That's going to matter here, but it's going to matter even more so in about a week when he takes on the cross and then walks out of the grave, because that's wherein the, the true defeat of death is going to take place there. But here he wants everybody watching to understand what he's about to do is not just him, but it's because of his relationship with the Father.

27:40And so he's going back to passages like John 5. 19, where it says, so Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. Or John 5:30, I can do nothing on my own; as I hear, I judge. Or John 5:21, for as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. We're about to see Jesus do that and show us a great word picture— or not word picture, but an actual picture of what that looks like.

28:14Look at verse 43. And when he had said these things, so after he had prayed, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out! And the man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound. Read that again. The man who had died came out.

28:30Man, we, we glaze over that, don't we? Because we're so familiar with it. Oh yeah, the resurrection of Lazarus. He stinketh. The stone gets rolled away.

28:38Lazarus, come out. He hobbles out and he's like sitting there and Jesus is like, go untie him. The man who had died came out.

28:47We've never seen that before. You've never seen that before. I've never seen that before.

28:52The man who had died 4 days in a grave, body decaying, came out. How? Because Jesus spoke. Jesus speaks and Lazarus comes out. Jesus speaks and death has to let go.

29:13Jesus speaks and the tomb is open for someone else to use. Jesus speaks and the estate sale has to stop. Jesus speaks and all of a sudden Lazarus' employer takes down the help wanted sign. Jesus speaks And Mary and Martha get their brother back, for now at least, because this is actually not a resurrection. This is a resuscitation.

29:38You know why? Because Lazarus is going to die again. You know what? I think everybody was probably super excited at this moment except for Lazarus. I imagine Lazarus was like, wait, wait a minute, wait a minute.

29:51You want me to do what now? But I'm here. I'm with you. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Yeah, well, Lazarus, we're not quite done with you yet.

30:03Okay, all right, I'll go back. Lazarus was going to die again. This is simply a resuscitation. But there is a day coming when Jesus is going to speak and call you out and call me out, and our earthly bodies are going to be raised to meet our souls, which are going to be in the presence of God as our glorified bodies, never to die again. That day is coming.

30:25That day is secure because of what he's going to do in the context about a week from now at the cross and his own empty tomb. But for now, it helps us think about what we should do as we encounter the brokenness of this world. It's not just that we hate sin, but we hope in Jesus. And it looks like this for point number 2: we eagerly await death's final blow. Eagerly await death's final blow.

30:50Like I mentioned, all of us in this room do have a date with physical death on the calendar at some point in time. God has those days written, every one of them, before even one comes to pass. Psalm 139 tells us that. So we will die and our bodies will be laid to rest here, but our souls will go to be with the Lord. That's what Paul means when he says, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

31:11But then there is a day coming that we read about during our Scripture reading and earlier when the perishable, which is our earthly bodies that are left here to decay, will be risen again, raised again to put on the imperishable, where the mortal will be given immortality. And that's when you and I will receive our glorified bodies, bodies which our souls will reinhabit to never ever again die from that point forward. And we will live forever with Christ on the new earth. That day is coming, and that's the day that we eagerly await when death final blow will ultimately be done. Even the souls that are right now with the Lord long to be clothed again, the Bible says.

31:51And so there's an anticipation even in the presence of the Lord in heaven for that day. Paul even says creation has that. Creation groans for the revelation of the sons and daughters of God. That day when all is made new, when the curse of sin is completely undone, and the greatest curse of sin is death, and that day is coming, and we eagerly await death's final blow.

32:17The world that we live in is trying to hijack death and make it something that it was never meant to be.

32:26The world that we live in is trying to make death something that's desirable even. I was looking up the subject of medical assistance in dying. And I found this story that I thought I'd share with you. It says this: My sister Robin was beautiful, strong, loving, had the best sarcastic humor. Her loyalty to her friends and family was admirable.

32:52Her proudest moment was welcoming her daughter into the world in 2003 on our birthday, an amazing gift. Robin was a fighter and did so fighting painful, chronic, progressive MS, or multiple sclerosis, for most of her adult life. The disease took her functioning body away slowly over the years until she could no longer walk, feed, and dress herself. All this happened by the time she was 43 years old. She described her life as existing, not living.

33:23And then this is the phrase: with pure courage and grace, Robin was able to choose to end this fight.

33:32See how the world is repackaging our greatest enemy?

33:38Another man named Alan, read about his story. June 1st was the day that he set, and late in the afternoon he put on his favorite Rush shirt, and in his office where his wife had put a rented hospital bed, it said she set up his toys and action figures across from him. We put on some Vivaldi. I held his hand and it was very peaceful. It was incredibly hard, but he went out on his terms instead of suffering for 5 more months.

34:06I understand the sentiment.

34:10I even can empathize with the desire to put an end to suffering. But y'all, the enemy has perverted death. This is not what the Bible describes death as. Death is, is not a merciful end to suffering, a departure into nirvana, an eternal rest, a dignified end to a dignified life. That's not what death is.

34:34Death is not just a part of life. Death should never be welcome for us because it is a reminder of the greatest enemy that any of us in this room face.

34:44Biblically speaking, here is death. Genesis 2:16 and 17, specifically look at verse 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it and break God's command and sin, then you shall die. Prior to this there was no death.

35:03Or Romans 5, verse 12, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned.

35:19Or Romans 6:23, for the wages of sin is death.

35:24See, again, I understand the sentiment, but here's the tragedy for Robin and Alan. If they didn't know Jesus, death was not an end to suffering, it was the beginning of eternal suffering.

35:37And the enemy has lied into thinking that it's better for you to die than to keep living.

35:44When the Apostle Paul said, I'm hard-pressed between the two, to keep on living or to go and be with Christ, it's not that he was suicidal. It's not that he was saying, I don't want to keep living anymore. Let me just go and end peacefully and go. It's that he loved Jesus so much and wanted to go be with Jesus. Listen, for the believer, yes, we do have that hope, but that doesn't change what death is.

36:05Death is still the great enemy. Death is still Death is still the great thing that Christ came to undo, and our hope is ultimately in its final defeat, its final blow. And right now you and I eagerly await that day. But what does that waiting look like? Well, it looks like this, if I may.

36:22Let me suggest 3 ways that we can wait the final blow of death. Number 1, we wait patiently.

36:29We wait patiently, and sometimes that means we wait counterintuitively. Like Mary and Martha saying, Lord, we— where were you? If you had been here, our brother wouldn't have died. They were struggling with that. They had to patiently trust the plan of God.

36:44They had to patiently trust in Jesus even though they didn't fully understand what was going on. Church, there's going to be times in this broken world that you and I have to wait patiently, and yes, even counterintuitively, not fully understanding what God is doing right now, but knowing that there's a day coming When the final defeat, the final blow is going to be dealt to death, and that day is, is squarely in view. By the way, that leads to the second way that we wait, which is optimistically. We know where we're going. We know what's there.

37:12We wait optimistically, hopefully, right? Like I'm hoping in that couch and that, that, that nap in that Rangers game. Man, we are hoping in the new heavens and the new earth. We are hoping in our glorified bodies. My son came up to me this morning, and he came up to me, he said, Dad— my son Luke— he said, Dad, he said, when we get our new bodies in heaven, are they going to be babies?

37:32I said, no, I don't think so. I hope not. I did that already. I don't want to go back. No, I think they're going to be whatever God has designed them to be, and they're going to be amazing.

37:43We're going to be able to do things in those glorified bodies that we can't do right now. You're not going to stand up and go, oof, that hurt, when you stand up. That won't happen. In the new heavens and new earth. Man, that day we wait optimistically, just like Jesus reminded Martha, I am the resurrection and the life.

38:00I'm the resurrection and the life. Your hope isn't in some vague thing, it's in Christ, and he's the one who said it's finished. So we wait patiently, we wait optimistically. Apparently I was going to read that verse. I'm not going to, I'm going to skip over it.

38:15We wait actively. Finally, we wait actively. We wait actively, meaning what? Well, that means that we're not just here for the ride until Christ comes back. We're not just here for the ride until we die physically.

38:28There's work to be done. In fact, after the passage where he said that when the perishable puts on the imperishable and mortality puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying, death is swallowed up in victory. Right after that, he says in 1 Corinthians 15:58, Be therefore steadfast, my brothers. Be steadfast, immovable, and here it is, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For you and I, until we get there, we've got work to do here.

38:55He's got work for us to do here. I don't have time to go through all of it, but if you get time this week, let me encourage you, go through 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 11 through 18. 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 11 through 18, to unpack what is actively waiting the return of Christ look like? Living lives of holiness and godliness, hastening the coming day of God, being diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, taking care that we're not carried away with the error of lawless people. That's all what it's talked about there.

39:25But there's work for us to do here. We're to be the salt, to be the light, kind of like that be there point from be aware, be in prayer, be there. Similarly, here we wait actively as we await death's final blow.

39:42That day is coming. The day is sure. The day is fixed. Back in John chapter 5, verses 25 and following, Jesus said this, Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so also He granted the Son to have life in Himself.

40:05And He's given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice. That's you, and that's me. We will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. That day is fixed.

40:27Death's final blow has already been dealt. John Owen wrote a book called The Death of Death and the Death of Christ. That's what we're talking about right now, that there's a day coming when we will hear the voice and we will leave forever, never to enter the grave again. And what a day that will be. In the meantime, Jesus wept.

40:48We should weep. We should hate sin. We should hope in Christ. And Jesus wept, but he did something about it, didn't he? We just read about it.

40:57Roll back the stone. Lazarus, come out. And he does. But you know what? Jesus did this as a foreshadowing of something that he was going to do.

41:04And again, in this timeframe, in about a week, he's going to die on the cross for our sins. And that's where death dies. And he's going to rise again from the grave so that we too might one day rise again from our own grave. And that's what we're going to turn and remember right now, because y'all, that's the key to all of this.

41:27If the only resurrection in the Bible is the resurrection of Lazarus, it doesn't do us any good. The resurrection of Lazarus points to a greater resurrection, and that is the resurrection of Christ.

41:42And the reason that matters is this: if you're here this morning and you don't know that glorious reality, it's this: the sin that all of us in this room have. Demanded a payment that we could not pay, and that payment was paid by Christ on the cross for us. That payment is death, not just physical death but eternal death, suffering under the wrath of God for all of eternity. That's what our sin deserves, and Jesus paid for that on the cross. He died our death on the cross in our place, and in so doing, he gave us Instead, His full righteousness, which is the ticket for us to get into heaven, to be righteous, to be holy, to be perfect.

42:25And Jesus gave us that at the cross. And then 3 days later, He rose from His own grave, never to die again, defeating death once and for all for all of us. And so, if you've never made the decision to do this this morning, I want to encourage you, now is as great a time as any to repent from your sins. Which means to turn from them and to put your trust in Jesus that he did that for you, that his death has paid your penalty, and that his life will be your life.

42:55We're about to take communion together, and as the elements are passed, that's what we're remembering through these elements. There's nothing magical that happens to the, the wafer and the juice. You're going to hold it in your hands and it doesn't become anything in your hands. It's a symbol. It's an opportunity to, to remember what Christ has done for us.

43:14So as the elements are passed, let me encourage you to do just that, to remember, to think back on the death of Christ, to give thanks to him that the death of Christ means the death of death for you, that death's final blow is secure because he gave his life for you. And so the music will play, the elements will pass, and I will come up here in just a moment.