Raising Lazarus | John 11
How many of you are obsessed with death? We are in the Halloween season, and we have a society that is obsessed with death and the afterlife. Last year, Americans spent over $12.2 billion in decorations (not including candy: add $3 billion for that). Horror movies and morbid TV shows have become darker and scarier. I remember going to haunted houses; in Tennessee you can earn $20K if you can survive their haunted house; it requires a 40 page waiver. As a kid, we never celebrated Halloween, it was seen as satanic and pagan; it was the night that kids where kidnapped by devil-worshippers who sacrificed cats and dogs. When it comes to Halloween, stick with your convictions on it, but one way we take what the devil meant for evil is to redeem it by using it as an opportunity to tell people about Jesus. If you trust in Jesus, you do not have to be afraid of death anymore.
John 11 is the last sign in John’s gospel before the resurrection. John 1-11 are 3 years of Jesus’ life; 12-21 are the last 3 weeks. Each sign has pointed us to who Jesus is and what He came to do. The seventh sign is a precursor to what Jesus was going to do. Despite the impossible, Jesus is going to go to the funeral of his friend Lazarus and raise him from the dead. This miracle is where the unexplainable meets the undeniable. In John 11, we see that in the face of death, we can turn to and trust in Jesus because He has forever defeated death for us.