John 11:5-27,

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

You just heard some of the most amazing words that Jesus of Nazareth ever spoke. And I can pretty much guarantee that between the reality of what he says here and the everyday experience of our lives, it can feel like there’s a Grand Canyon of difference. Between the life we truly have in Christ and the ‘Christian life’ we lead, there’s a gap.

And look, I believe that Jesus, by the power of his Spirit, wants us to close that gap. That’s what we’re here for. 

And the way we close that gap — the way we begin to live the life Jesus means for us to live — is not necessarily by starting some new things, but it’s by stopping a few things. We’re gonna see these in our passage today, and I can’t wait to show you, but first let’s pray again:

Father, by your Spirit and his power, speak to us in your word, we ask. In Jesus’s name, amen.

So, how do we close the gap? How do we live the life Jesus means for us to live? 

We stop three things …

1. Stop underselling Jesus. (vv. 17–24)

We’re gonna focus most of our attention starting in verse 17, but we know from last week that Lazarus has been sick. Lazarus was the brother of Mary and Martha, and Jesus loved all three of these siblings, verse 5 tells us. They were Jesus’s friends.

And they’ve lived in a town called Bethany, just two miles outside of Jerusalem. And after Lazarus dies, Jesus says to his disciples Let’s go there.

Verse 19 says Martha and Mary were both in their house in Bethany, surrounded by “many of the Jews” who were grieving with them. And this is not too different from our culture of funerals today. We’re a lot of miles and years away from this scene, but even today after the death of someone we also make an opportunity for friends and neighbors to offer condolences. That’s what’s going on here. 

So imagine it’s a crowded house, and there’s an array of hot dishes in the kitchen, people everywhere.

And somehow, during this time, Martha found out that Jesus was on the way. So she left the house and all the people, and she went to meet him, verse 21, and the first thing she says to Jesus when she sees him is:

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died…”

Stating the Obvious, Twice

Now, some readers take this as a rebuke, as if she’s saying “You should have been here, Jesus! Now you’re too late!” 

But I’m not so sure about that. Mary says the exact same thing as Martha in verse 32. So are both sisters rebuking Jesus? Or are both sisters grieving and stating the obvious?

I don’t think this is accusation, I think it’s ache.

Their pain is framing reality. Because they both know Jesus has healing power — they’ve seen it firsthand — and so they know he could have healed their brother when he was sick. But now he’s not sick, he’s dead.

And Martha adds in verse 22,

“But even now, [Jesus], I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

She’s saying, basically,You could’ve healed Lazarus when he was sick if you were here (but you weren’t). You’re here now, though, and maybe there’s still hope.

The Pragmatic Optimist

See, Martha is a pragmatic optimist. I like her. She gets that Jesus has a special relationship with God, and that when Jesus asks things, God does it. 

So she’s thinking there might be something here. Verse 22 is not a statement of bold faith, but it’s more like Martha leaving the door open. It’s a shot in the dark.

At this point, up to verse 22, Martha is underselling Jesus. Yes, he can heal; yes, he has special access to God; and maybe he can raise the dead … but she doesn’t realize that he is the very Author of life itself, standing in front of her. 

He is not a healer who prays to God, he is the God who heals. He is the one who has final authority over life and death.

He doesn’t merely pull some strings with Ultimate Reality but he is Ultimate Reality in human flesh, and he’s bigger and better than anything she could imagine. He can do whatever he wants!

And the fact is, if we don’t understand this about Jesus, we think too little of him.

The Two Categories

And that’s a lot of us, a lot of times. If we’re honest, we undersell Jesus. And the surest sign that we’ve been underselling Jesus is when we discover those areas in our lives where we’ve been leaving him out. 

That was Martha. She had a “Jesus Is Able” category and an “I Doubt It” category.

Healing my sick brother was in the “Able” category, but raising my dead brother today was in the “Doubt” category. 

We have those categories, too. 

There are some things in your life you think Jesus is able to handle, and there are some things you think he can’t. And the question for us is: What are those things? …

What did you once put in the “Jesus Is Able” category that now you put in the “I Doubt It” category? … and why?

You know, one of the great things about kids is how literal they take things. Innocently, wonderfully literal. I remember one morning, years ago when my oldest was a toddler and getting grown enough to dress herself, she was in her room and all of a sudden she started yelling, “Jesus, help me! Jesus, help me!” 

So I ran to her door and found her all tangled up in a sweater she was putting on — she had put her head through the arm and was stuck. She needed help. See, I had told her before that Jesus can always help us; she was in a moment when she needed help; she asked Jesus to help. 

Doesn’t that make sense? … Jesus helps; I need help; I ask Jesus for help.

We agree that makes sense, so why don’t we do it? About everything? 

Why have we taken it upon ourselves to relegate Jesus to what he can and cannot do?

That has to stop. In whatever area of your life you might be saying to Jesus, “Yeah, I doubt it” this is where you lay it down.

Whatever it is: if it’s relationships, finances, sickness of any kind, work, sports, family, getting stuck in your sweater, don’t make asking Jesus for help the last resort.

Make it the first thing you do. Make it as natural as breathing — “Jesus, help me! Jesus, help me!”

One day we’re gonna truly learn that everything in existence belongs in the “Jesus Is Able” category, and to think anything less is underselling him. So by the power of the Holy Spirit, let’s stop doing that.

2. Stop settling for a normal life. (vv. 25–26)

Now in verses 21–22, Martha says what she says to Jesus, and Jesus says back to her in verse 23, “Your brother will rise again.”

And to that, Martha says, verse 24,

“I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

And this is standard Jewish teaching. Martha is a devout Jewish woman, and she has a solid Old Testament faith. In the Book of Job, Chapter 19, verse 26, Job says, 

“And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.” 

Job models Old Testament faith in a future bodily resurrection, and Martha believed that. She believed that for Lazarus. 

But then look what Jesus says in verse 25. And this is one we all gotta see. The most important sentence in the story. Everybody if you can, find verse 25. Chapter 11, verse 25.

Verse 25:

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

This Is a Big Deal

And right away, before Jesus says anything else, we gotta think: This sounds like a big deal. 

This is the fifth time Jesus has used an “I AM” statement in this Gospel. And he’s not only claiming to be God here, but he says something about himself that I don’t think we’d expect God to say. It’s that he doesn’t merely cause resurrection or give life, but it’s who he is. Jesus is the resurrection, Jesus is the life — and he explains what he means by each of those in what he says right after. We’re gonna look closer at both …

First, about being the resurrection, Jesus explains:

“Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” 

And again, remember this is standard Jewish teaching. The resurrection means after you die, you will live again, in a new body — Jesus says, “Though he die, yet shall he live.” 

But what makes this so amazing, so different, is that Jesus says this future resurrection is determined by him … and I admit words fail me here. We have to stretch our minds. 

Imagine: the future resurrection — this ancient hope Martha believed — it has its source, its beginning and end, its meaning, in Jesus, this real man who’s talking to her. 

The resurrection is so bound up in Jesus that he can say I am the resurrection.

And he’s the life. About being the life, Jesus explains:

“Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”

And when he says “lives” here he doesn’t mean just being alive, but he’s talking about truly living — this is living with the eternal life Jesus came to give us. This is living by faith in him. They’re one in the same. Truly living is believing in Jesus, and when we live that life, we will never die. That life just keeps going. It’s as secure as Jesus is, because he is the life.

The Christian Superpower

Now notice what Jesus does here: he takes these two concepts of resurrection and life and he intertwines them for maximum relevance today. 

See, the resurrection is something we would typically locate in the future, but in Jesus it has invaded present reality. And the life, which is present reality, in Jesus it stretches into the future. 

So future resurrection steps back into now, and life now steps forward into the future, and it’s all centered on Jesus. 

What that means this morning is that by faith in Jesus, Christian — in Christ, in this moment, you possess eternal life that will never end, but it only gets better with time. 

Can you imagine that? Sitting where you are right now, in Christ that life is in you, of you, true of you.

One of the things we do often in our Community Group, before we start discussion, we do an ice-breaker question. Usually it’s a fun question to warm people up a little. And one question, you’ve probably heard this one before is, If you could have any superpower what would it be?

And we might think of flight or lightening speed or the ability to download a whole book into your brain by just touching it. All pretty cool. 

But how about having a kind of life that is irrevocable and invincible? 

You have a kind of life you cannot lose and that will never end — it just deepens as long as eternity lasts.  

Look, to be a Christian is to have this superpower. It does not mean we’re fully immortal — our present bodies can be injured, our skin’s not bullet-proof, physical life can die here — but we do have life in us that will never die.

And at the very least, at the practical level, this means we need to stop settling for a normal life.

Would your life be normal if you could fly?

Would your life be normal if you could run to Florida in two minutes?

Should your life be normal if you knew you’d never die?

Who Does That?

Christians, where’d our courage go? Why are we so afraid of risk? 

Now I’m not saying we should all go bungee jumping and sky-diving … I’m talking about radical Christian sacrifice — which means doing things now that only make sense if heaven is your home. I’m talking about living in such a way that demands a gospel explanation.

And look, I realize that I’m talking to a mixed room.

Some of you have tons of energy and you’re ready to take the world, some of you can barely take another day. You’re exhausted. You’re tryin’ to raise eight kids under the age of 12 (and if that’s you, I’ve been there). 

And often when we’re under pressure, when we feel overwhelmed, we can slip into a scarcity mindset. We start to hunker down and assume that what we most need is more self-care. We get inward and protective. And look, that’s normal. It’s normal.

But Christian, we’ve got something better than normal. 

And often the best thing we can do when we’re having a hard time is to think about somebody else.

I don’t want to embarrass anybody, but I could tell you three stories right now of people in our church who are going through real suffering and they’ve chosen in their valley to see other people and to step out in love. Their cup feels empty and they’re still choosing to pour.

Who does that kind of thing? 

People who have a superpower. 

People who have Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life. 

Hey, if we wanna live the life Jesus means for us to live, we gotta stop settling for normal. 

3. Stop Disbelieving, But Believe (v. 27)

Notice the end of verse 26. After Jesus says these amazing words, he asks:

“Do you believe this?”

One thing I love about this question is that it shows us that Jesus, in this moment, he isn’t thinking about Lazarus or his disciples who are with him, but he’s thinking about Martha. He’s looking at Martha and he cares about her heart. It’s a singular “you.” He’s saying, Martha, do you believe what I’m telling you?

This is a question that we should hear Jesus asking us. Like today.

This is a crowded room, there’s a lot of people in here, but Jesus would speak to you the same way he speaks to Martha. He cares about your heart. He wants your faith. He would ask, Do you believe?

Exactly the Purpose

Now before we look at how Martha responds, remember that Jesus’s simple question here is important to this entire Gospel. Hold your place here and turn to Chapter 20, verse 30. This is a little parenthetical comment from John where he tells us the purpose of this Gospel. John Chapter 20, verses 30–31. John writes: 

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that [purpose statement] you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

See how John combines again life and believing! We have eternal life by believing in Jesus. But notice especially the content of our belief. What exactly does John want us to believe? He says it here: the purpose is that we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. 

Now turn back to Chapter 11. Look at Martha’s reply to Jesus in verse 27. Jesus asks her in verse 26,

“Do you believe this? 

Verse 27:

She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that [you are the Christ, the Son of God], who is coming into the world.”

Martha’s confession of faith is exactly John’s purpose in writing this Gospel. Martha is a model for the kind of faith that John wants all of us to have. 

Because embedded in the fact that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the Son of God, comes all the other excellencies of who he is. Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, is the shorthand way of saying that Jesus is everything the Bible says he is. 

Notice that Martha adds in verse 27 that Jesus is the one “who is coming into the world.” What is significant about her saying that? 

Calvin says Martha adds that line to “strengthen her faith by the predictions of the prophets.” And I think that’s right. When Martha says this, she is making the connection that Jesus is the One the prophets foretold. He’s the fulfillment of Old Testament hope. 

So look what’s happened in this conversation! Martha has gone from Old Testament faith to born-again Christian. This is a conversion. She has done what Jesus says to Thomas in Chapter 20, verse 27:

“Stop disbelieving, but believe.”

Jesus at Work

Martha has done that, and we should do the same. And I mean this for all of us. If you’re here today and you’re not yet a Christian, I hope the invitation is clear. Jesus is asking you if you believe in who he says he is, and it’s a Yes or No — and either answer takes energy. It takes energy to disbelieve. There’s no neutrality. Either you’re with Jesus or you’re not. 

So if you’re here today and you have a kind of gray, vague faith in Jesus (kinda like an Old Testament faith), this is the moment for you to step into the vivid color of this confession. Believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. 

And for the Christians in the room, Cities Church, remember that disbelief can still lurk in our hearts. It’s part of indwelling sin and life in this world, even in our walk with Jesus there can be areas in our lives that are plagued by disbelief. Back to that “I Doubt It” category. I don’t think Jesus is done with us here. He wants us to close that gap between who he truly is for us and our everyday experience. Christian, would you ask him to do that? Ask him to help you lay down whatever you gotta lay down.

Stop underselling Jesus. 

Stop settling for a normal life. 

Stop disbelieving, but believe. 

That’s what brings us to the Table.

The Table

Jesus Christ, the Son of God — what a Savior! That’s what we remember at this Table. We remember that the life we have in Jesus came through his death for us. 

Bearing shame and scoffing rude
In my place condemned He stood
Sealed my pardon with His blood

Hallelujah, what a Savior

If you trust in Jesus this morning, if he died in your place, if you believe he is the resurrection and the life, we invite you to eat and drink with us and give him thanks.