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John 11:1-4  THE DEATH OF LAZARUS TO GODS GLORY

Introduction:
	
	This text begins John's account of the death and
resurrection of Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary.
The entire passage goes down through verse 46. Our text
shows that the death of Lazarus was designed to bring
special glory and honor to God and to our Lord Jesus Christ.

I.  The sickness, death and resurrection of Lazarus

	V. 1, "Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of
Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha."  There are
two men mentioned in Scripture by the name of Lazarus.  One
of the men, mentioned in Luke chapter 16, was a poor beggar
who laid at the gate of a certain rich man and begged crumbs
from the rich men's table.  When this Lazarus died he was
carried by angels to Abraham's bosom, whereas, when the rich
man died, he was carried into the fires of hell.
	The Lazarus of our text is not that beggar.  There is no
reason to think that this Lazarus ever begged at anybody's
gate.  He lived with his sister's, Martha and Mary, and was,
no doubt, well fed.
	This Lazarus lived in the village of Bethany.  The
village of Bethany was located about 2 miles northeast of
Jerusalem.  We know that during our Lord's final visit to
Jerusalem He and His disciples stayed at the home of Martha,
Mary and Lazarus in Bethany.  There is reason to believe
that they stayed there on previous occasions.
	V. 2, "(It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with
ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother
Lazarus was sick.)  This verse was put in for the purpose of
explaining that this particular Mary, who was a sister to is
Lazarus,  the same Mary who would anoint the body of Jesus
for burial just prior to His crucifixion.  That event had
not yet taken place at the time of this text, but is
mentioned here in the past tense because it had already
taken place at the time of this writing.  The actual event
is recorded in chapter twelve and we will get to that later.
	V. 3, "Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying,
Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick."  Martha and Mary
knew about where Jesus was at this time and they sent a
messenger to give them some very sad news.  They informed
Him that their brother Lazarus was gravely ill.  They knew
the close tie which Jesus had with Lazarus and they knew
that Jesus would want to be informed about his illness.
They felt that Jesus would drop whatever He was doing and
rush over to Bethany and to their home.  If He could just
get there in time they were sure that Jesus would heal their
brother and he would not die.  But if Jesus did not get
there in time they felt certain that he would die.
	To those two sisters this was a matter of life and
death.  It was a matter of life and death for a very dear
loved one.  It was a matter of life and death for their
brother Lazarus.  If they could get this message to Jesus in
time their brother Lazarus would live.  If they should fail
to get this message to Jesus in time, their brother would
die.
	As you already know, they did not get the message to
Jesus in time.  It was a hard day's journey from Bethany to
Perea where Jesus was at the time.  We will see evidence
later that Lazarus must have died almost immediately after
the messenger left Bethany to go and tell Jesus.  I will not
take the time to go through the details right now because we
will come to that later anyway.  I just wanted to call it to
your attention even now.
	At any rate, the messenger who brought the news to Jesus
was unaware that Lazarus had died shortly after he left
Bethany and so what he told Jesus was that Lazarus was sick.
He knew nothing about the death of Lazarus and so he said
nothing about it.
	The messenger would naturally expect Jesus to leave for
Bethany as soon as possible, but that was not to be the
case.  Instead Jesus gave him a message to carry back to
Martha and Mary.  V. 4, "When Jesus heard that, he said,
This sickness is not unto death..."  That is, at least, the
end result would not be death.  He knew that Lazarus was
already dead but He also knew that He would raise Lazarus
from the dead.  Therefore, the end result would not be
death.  He gave the messenger that much information to carry
back to Martha and Mary and He was right in what He said.
He just did not fill in the details.

II.  The glory and honor that would come to God and to Jesus
	as a result of the sickness, the death and the
	resurrection of Lazarus.

	Then Jesus informed them two reasons why Lazarus had
gotten sick in the first place.  The first reason was that
God might be glorified.  (V. 4), "...but for the glory of
God..."  Jesus was talking, of course, about God the Father
in heaven being glorified.  Lazarus had gotten sick and was
already dead by the time the messenger arrived and Jesus
knew that.  But He also knew that He would raise Lazarus
from the grave and that would bring glory to God.  If
Lazarus had lived a little longer and Jesus had gone to Him
before Lazarus died it is almost certain that He would have
healed Lazarus and Lazarus would not have died --- at least
not at that time.  Even in that miracle God would have been
glorified in some measure.  But since Jesus did not arrive
to make him well, Lazarus had died and Jesus would raise him
from the grave.  This would bring far greater glory to God
than preventing his death would have done.  The resurrection
of Lazarus from the dead would virtually electrify the whole
village of Bethany and all the region around Bethany
including Jerusalem which was only two miles away.
	Furthermore, it would bring greater glory to God's Son.
(V. 4), "...that the Son of God might be glorified thereby."
The death and resurrection of Lazarus would result, not only
in praise and glory to God the Father in heaven, but it
would also result in great praise and glory going to the Son
of God who at that time was on earth.  The people would not
only know that power of God in heaven had been at work in
this miracle, but all the people of this whole area would
know that the power of God had been at work through Jesus of
Nazareth.  The news of this miracle would be on every
tongue.  They would all acknowledge that it was Jesus who
had performed this miracle and brought Lazarus back to life.
Jesus would be greatly praised by virtually all the people
of this area.
	This one miracle would do more to bring about the
Triumphal Entry of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem than
anything else.  Jesus would ride into the city of Jerusalem
with a great multitude of people proclaiming Him to be the
promised Christ.  That whole multitude of people would shout
praises saying, "Hosanna to the Highest."  They would break
off palm branches and lay them on the ground before Him.
They would even take off their cloaks and lay on the ground
before Him for the donkey on which He rode to walk on.  They
would give Jesus the royal carpet treatment.  Jesus knew
that it would chiefly be the death and the resurrection of
Lazarus which would bring this glory to God and to Himself
as the Christ.
	Jesus knew the sadness and heartache which Martha and
Mary would endure as a result of the death of Lazarus.  I am
sure that He must have had some remorse at the thought of
what they would have to go through in order for such glory
to be brought to God the Father and to Himself.  But He knew
that it was the will of God for Lazarus to get sick and die
because He knew that God would get the greater glory from
the resurrection of Lazarus.

III.  A preview of the glory that God would get from the
	crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus

	The death and resurrection of Lazarus was, in a sense, a
preview of His own death and resurrection which would soon
follow.  In a very short period of time Jesus would attend a
feast in Bethany in the home of Simon the leper, and this
same Mary, the brother of Lazarus would come and anoint His
head with oil.  Jesus would explain to His disciples that
she was anointing Him for His burial.  This anointing would
take place just six days before the Passover, the day on
which He would be crucified.
	Let me tell you that the whatever pain and suffering
Lazarus had felt in his sickness and death was nothing
compared to the great anguish that Jesus would endure in His
trial and crucifixion.  Furthermore, the anguish that Martha
and Mary felt at the death of their brother Lazarus, was
nothing compared to the great distress that all of the
Lord's disciples would feel when He would be crucified.
	But just as the sickness and suffering and death of
Lazarus was designed for the honor and glory of God the
Father and for the honor and glory of God the Son, even so
the crucifixion and death of Jesus would result in glory to
God.  It would bring great glory to God the Father and great
glory to God the Son.  It still brings glory to God because
He loved lost sinners enough to send His Son Jesus Christ to
suffer on the cross so that they could be saved.  It still
brings glory to the Lord Jesus Christ because He was willing
to lay down His life that lost sinners might be saved.  It
will continue to bring them glory throughout all eternity.
We will never tired of praising Him for loving us and dying
for us.
	But God will not only get glory for the death of Jesus
-- He will get glory for the resurrection of Jesus.  As
amazing as it was that Jesus would go to the cross and die
for us, it is even more amazing that He would come forth
from the grave.  As amazing as it was for Jesus to call
Lazarus from the grave, it was even more amazing for Himself
to come forth from the grave.  It is one thing to raise
somebody else from the grave, but is something else entirely
for Him to come forth out of the grave Himself.  So the
death and resurrection of Lazarus gave a preview, a picture
of the coming death and resurrection of Jesus and the glory
that this would bring to God.

IV.  A preview of the glory to God that will come from the
	death and resurrection of the saved

	Yet there was more.  It also pictured the death and
resurrection of all who are saved.  There was a lot of
suffering which took place in the sickness and death of
Lazarus.  There was a lot of suffering which took place in
the crucifixion and death of Jesus.  Even so there is a lot
of pain and suffering which takes place in the deaths of the
many many saved people who die.  There is a mighty lot of
sickness and suffering which saved people all over the world
and in every generation endures.  They suffer from disease.
They suffer from accidents.  They suffer from old age.  They
suffer in war and they suffer when they are murdered.  The
saved and their families suffer in countless numbers of
ways.  Their families endure great heartache.  There is no
way in the world for us to measure the great amount of
suffering that saved sinners and their families endure.
	But let me tell you one thing.  It is all to the glory
of God.  Just as Jesus called Lazarus from that tomb, just
as Jesus Christ Himself came forth from the tomb, even so
that same Jesus will call every redeemed person who has ever
died to come out of his grave to life again.  Only it will
be better.  Lazarus was raised back to the same life that he
had before he died.  He died again.  If he had not died he
would still be living today and the whole world would know
about it.  So Lazarus died again.  But when Jesus raised the
redeemed from the grave in the end-time they will never get
sick again.  They will never suffer again.  They will never
die again.
	Even now, before the resurrection ever takes place, we
give God the glory for sending Jesus Christ His Son to the
cross to die for us.  Even now we praise Jesus for coming
forth from the grave.  But when we, ourselves, have been
brought forth from the grave, the shouts of praise will
start and we will never never never get through praising
God.  We will praise God for loving us and sending Jesus to
the cross to die for us.  We will praise Jesus for giving
His life for us.  We will praise Him for saving us when we
called upon Him and asked Him to have mercy on our souls.
We will praise Him for coming again and for calling out
bodies from the grave and glorifying them.  We will praise
Him for allowing us to avoid the torments of hell.  We will
praise Him for allowing us the privilege of living with Him
in glory forever.

Conclusion:
	
	There may be somebody here who has never been saved.  I
am going to ask you to come this morning and call upon Jesus
and ask Him to be your Savior.  I am going to ask you to
believe the promises that He has made to you in the Bible.
I am going to ask you to trust Him to be your Savior.
	Furthermore, I am going to ask you to come forward and
profess Jesus before men and give His some of that gory
right now in this service for saving your soul.
	I am also going to ask every saved person under the
sound of my voice to live your life to give honor and glory
to God by living for Jesus.