Christ Church

The Resurrection of the Entire Cosmos (Easter 2016)

Ben Zornes on

INTRODUCTION

We know from Scripture that Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day after His crucifixion. Jesus died and Jesus was raised. But what power did the raising? How was this done? We know that Jesus was raised, but who raised Him.

THE TEXT:

“I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command- ment have I received of my Father” ( John 10:14–18).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT:

Jesus identifies Himself as the good shepherd. Shepherding here, which is to say the good shepherding here, is a function of knowledge. Jesus says that He knows His own, and that His own know Him (v. 14). He also says that this knowledge between shepherd and sheep is analogous to the knowledge the Father has of Him, and the knowledge that He has of the Father (v. 15). Right after He says that He and the Father know one another, He adds that He lays down His life for the sheep (v. 15). In addition to the flock in His current fold, Jesus tells us that He has other sheep that are not of “this fold.” This is probably a reference to the inclusion of the Gentiles (v. 16). He will bring them in, and they will heed His voice as well. When that happens, there will be one flock (Christian) and one shepherd (Christ).This is why the Father loves Him—because He lays down His life in order that He might take it up again (v. 17). Jesus then says something astonishing. Do not be deceived by the soldiers, the rigged trial, the accusers, the men with whips, and the men who nailed Him to the cross. Jesus says “no one takes it from me” (v. 18). Jesus says that He surrenders His life of His own accord. He was given authority to lay down His life, and He was given corresponding authority to take it up again (v. 18). This was the charge He received from His Father.

TRIUNE UNITY:

In Scripture, we never find the persons of the Trinity pulling in opposite di- rections. We are not Unitarians, and we are not tri-theistic polytheists. We are Trinitarian monotheists, not to mention monotheistic Trinitarians, which means that the new Israel always needs to hear, just as the old Israel did, that the Lord our God is one Lord (Deut. 6:4). We believe in one God, three per- sons. And we also believe that all of God does everything that God does. The persons of the Trinity are everlastingly distinct, and relate to God’s actions differently, but are not ever at cross-purposes. Take the sheep in our text—the Father elects, the Son redeems, and the Spirit quickens. But they are never trying to save different groups of people.

THE WORK OF THE FATHER:

The same thing is true when we consider the resurrection of Jesus. Who raised Jesusfromthedead?TheBiblesaysthattheFatherdid.“TheGodofourfathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.” (Acts 5:30).

And just as Abraham believed in God, so also we believe in God. Which God do we believe in? We believe in the Father. “But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Rom. 4:24).

THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT:

But God the Father works through agency of His Spirit. When God created the world, the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep. In the same way, when the Father raised Jesus He did so in the power of the Holy Spirit.

“But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Rom. 8:11).

THE WORK OF THE SON:

But the Son Himself was not passive in this glorious event. In addition to our text, we also have statements like this one: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” ( John 2:19).

In our text, Jesus describes His death as an authoritative act on His part. Jesus had been given authority (by the Father) to lay down His life ( John 10:18). Not only that, He had been given authority to take it up again ( John 10:18).

Theologians sometimes speak of the active obedience of Christ and the pas- sive obedience of Christ. All the obedience of Christ is imputed to us, both the obedience of His perfect life and the obedience involved in His perfect death. But we need to be careful not to misunderstand this. The word passive refers to obedience of Jesus suffering (His passion), not to Jesus doing nothing, or being somehow spiritually inert. When Jesus was dying, bleeding, writhing. . . He was conquering, and He was doing so with authority. His body was stone cold dead with authority. And when the appointed time for the resurrection of the entire cosmos to begin, Jesus reached out and took up His life again.

FOR OUR JUSTIFICATION:

Why did He do this? The text says that He laid down His life “for the sheep” (v. 15). Jesus did not die an indiscriminate death. He did not die with nebulous inten- tions. He did not die He died for sheep that He knew. Jesus died for names. And this personalized attention did not cease with that. Jesus was raised for the same people He died for. He died so that you might be forgiven, and He was raised so that you might be justified. “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25).

And so because of what Jesus did, we rejoice in who He is. “And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:4).

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Love, Death, & the Glory of God

Ben Zornes on

Text: John 11:1-46

Introduction:

In our passage in John, three realities drive the story–love, death, and the glory of God. Jesus has a deep ty-knight-love death glory of god-sermonlove for Lazarus and his two sisters, and they love Jesus. But Lazarus dies. Jesus even intends for Lazarus to die. How can the love of Jesus and the death of Lazarus fit together? Love and death both lead to the glory of God. And the only way for them all to hold together is by Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life. Jesus is able to bring glory even out of death so that we may believe. Love, death and glory are central, not only to this story, but to the Gospel, God’s work in the church and our lives.

The Case for Love (John 11:1-6)

In the first six verses, John introduces the characters, Lazarus, Martha, Mary, and Jesus. But there’s a problem. Lazarus is sick so the sisters send for help (John 11:3). Notice how they speak of Lazarus. He is not a stranger, a beggar on the side of the road. The sisters remind Jesus of his affection and commitment to Lazarus. Probably all of us have done the same. We have sent to Jesus. We have cried to him. “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” (John 11:4). Jesus loved Martha and Mary and their dying brother Lazarus, THEREFORE he stayed where he was (John 11:5-6). John wants to stress that Jesus’ action of waiting two extra days was motivated by love. The gut wrenching question is, “How is it love for Jesus to wait so that Lazarus dies?” Our understanding of love may need to be tweaked. Love can’t just be trying to make life easy for someone else. This kind of love would lead them to experience the Glory of God.

Glory: the Father’s Delight in his Son

We need to say a few words about Glory. But I feel like a child standing on the seashore holding a bucket of water about to tell a crowd about the Pacific ocean. How do you begin to explain, let alone experience, the Glory of God? Peter explains when he observed glory on the Mount of Transfiguration in 2 Peter 1:16-18. Glory is the Father’s voice thundering, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”C.S. Lewis in his sermon The Weight of Glory describes his understanding of glory as approval, like that of a young child’s great and undisguised pleasure in being praised. “This heavenly glory is fame with God, approval, or (I might say) ‘appreciation’ by God…nothing can eliminate from the parable the divine accolade, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.'” Glory is the “Watch this” from the child and the “Well done” from his father. Glory is the Father delighting in the Son and the Son pleasing his Father. It’s the perfect relationship of the Triune God, the Godness of God. Glory is delight in the Son AND it is the death of a brother. Glorious is the Crown, and Glorious is the Cross that leads to the Crown. Jesus is the King of Glory, he is the Word that became a Man, to draw near our doubts, tears and despair (John 1:14). Mary and Martha and the world will soon see the Glory of God because Jesus is drawing near.

Truth against Doubt (John 11:17-27)

When Jesus arrives, Lazarus has already been in the tomb four days (John 11:17). Martha comes to meet him and is torn between doubt and hope (John 11:21-22). Jesus gives her the truth, “Your brother will rise again” (John 11:23). Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Today is that day, because Jesus is the Resurrection. and the Life. And this resurrection is not just for this one man, the promise is to everyone who believes in Jesus. Because Jesus will be resurrected, we can be resurrected. Because Jesus lives, we too can live. Do you trust the word of Jesus about death, life and resurrection? “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world” (John 11:27).

Grace against Despair (John 11:28-37)

Now Jesus gives grace to fight the despair of Mary. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:32). Mary did not speak this like Martha, she wept those words. Jesus doesn’t launch into a theological discussion. He meets Mary where she is at–overwhelmed in grief. Mary had listened to Jesus teach while she sat at the Lord’s feet (Lk. 10). And now she weeps at his feet. Jesus is the sympathetic High Priest from Hebrews 4 that we can “draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.” Jesus is described as “deeply moved in his spirt” (John 11:33). The phrase “deeply moved” has the root meaning of “to snort” like a horse. The word picture brings up is war horse snorting before charging into battle. But what is Jesus angry at? The King of Glory is angry at the whole situation of death and sorrow and the cause of it all, sin. This is the battle that is before him.

Battle against Death: Watch This! (John 11:38-46)

Jesus marches to the grave and orders that the stone be rolled away. Martha protests that it will stink. “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:39). Jesus tells her to watch what he is about to do, and she will see the glory of God. Jesus lifts his eyes from all the difficulties and the doubts and fixes them on his Father. All of this, the prayer, the tears, the delay, the death was so that people would believe that God the Father sent his Son as the Christ, the deliverer, the only one to defeat death. “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:43) and the man who had died came out. The love of Jesus calls his friend from death. And many of the Jews see what Jesus had done, and they believed in him. They see and believe and come into come into glory.

Lazarus Death and New Life

The same one who called Lazarus from death, speaks today. We are all sick, like Lazarus. This disease, this cancer of sin, entered us with the disobedience of Adam and Eve. But the God of Glory so loved the world that he gave his son, the one whom He loved, that whoever believes in him, will live. At the cross, death is not the end but the Glory of the Son of God. The love of God sent Jesus to die. And what is this? GLORY! Jesus says, “Watch this, Father.” And the Father says, “Well done, my beloved Son.” Like Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, we may only see sickness, questions, death, grief. But Jesus knows the end–the Glory of God, resurrection, belief. Does the Father love you? Is there any kind of sickness or death in your life? Then you can pray, “Watch this, Father!”

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