Resurrection for Real Life: Perfect Compassion

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0:00Praise the Lord for the gift of being together in worship and the gift of Him drawing near to us, calling us to Himself, helping us to worship Him in spirit and truth. So many gifts. Church, I hope that you're glad today. No matter what's going on, I hope that you're glad that we have a God that's close, that's near, that loves us, that beckons you to Him. We're going through John chapter 11 in worship this July-ish. We're doing a five-week series on John 11 called Resurrection for Real Life. I had wanted to preach this chapter earlier, but I didn't have five weeks to do it, and I really felt like it kind of deserved five weeks. So this chapter is about the raising of Lazarus, and the way the story unfolds carefully, John is trying to convey to us how Jesus' life-giving power meets us where we are in life. It gives us the help and the hope that we need. When I was in middle and high school, I went to a small to medium-sized church, and on Sunday evenings I went to youth group. I should say, at first I was taken to youth group because my mom dropped me off and said, you're going to youth group, get in the car, you know, kicked me out of the car. I was the new kid in town. I didn't know the other kids. I didn't go to school with them.

1:40And I didn't want to go. But soon enough, I did want to go, and eventually I drove myself to youth group. And it was a simple youth group, led by volunteers from the church. There was no youth pastor. It was led by volunteers, but it had an impact. I grew in my faith. When I look back, I don't remember any particular Bible lesson that we did. I don't remember any particular conversation that I had with a leader. What I remember is that the leaders cared for me.

2:21That's all I remember, is that they cared for me. Teddy Roosevelt said, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And that is so true, right? A person can have all the answers, all the insight, can have resources. But it's hard to receive any of that if they don't have compassion for you, especially when you're going through grief and suffering. And on the other hand, somebody who has that compassion, who you can feel their compassion towards you, it doesn't even matter so much what other things that they bring to the table. That alone makes them such an asset, such a gift for you, especially in times of distress. So church, I'm here to remind you of something.

3:35Listen to me. God cares for you. God cares for you. Right now and whatever you're going through, if that's all that you take away from the sermon, I'm okay with that. God cares for you. And here's how much he wants you to know that there are all kinds of Old Testament passages that where God speaks of his compassion, his kindness, his steadfast love, right? But then he gives us this passage of Jesus walking the earth and demonstrating that he cares for people in their suffering, in their grief.

4:38This passage is a gift to remind us of the heart of God for us. So let's turn to John 11. Let's see the Savior who cares for us. This is the word of God for us. It comes to you with his power. Folks, my power is so small. It's meager. It's nothing. But God's power is great. Do you believe that?

5:14He's purposed that power for you right now to come and bless you and encourage you and strengthen you. And it's going to come at you through his word that comes to you in the power of the spirit to change, to encourage, to convict, to show you Christ. So let's, let's eagerly come before scripture here and see and believe with great faith, receive the word that God has for us. This is John 11, starting in verse 28. When she, that's Martha, 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 rose quickly and went to him. Now, Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 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. 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. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, where have you laid him?

6:52They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. So the Jews said, see how he loved him. But some of them said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?

7:20Pray with me. Lord Jesus, we come to you with hearts full of emotions and lives full of experiences. Lord, some of them hard, painful, traumatic, or this confusion in our mind. We want you to clear that up. And there is doubt in our heart and we want you to draw close. Please speak to it with your word, with yourself. Show us more of who you are, Lord. We come to you, Lord, very needy. And you have it all. You have everything that we need. And it's all found in you. Lord, come to each person here. Give them the help, the comfort, the truth that they need. Draw their eyes, Lord, to you, Jesus, so that we will together see you and worship you. Take refuge in you and find life in you. Life right now. On July 26, 2026, Lord, come and give us the life that we need. Jesus, we know that you can and you have promised to do it. And we stand on that promise.

8:51We look to you in faith and we pray this in your name. Amen. Resurrection for real life comes in the form of perfect compassion. Once Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn for they should be comforted. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Now, that's a strange thing to say, isn't it? It probably hung in the air as people puzzled over it. Did I hear him right? How is it good to mourn? And here in John 11, we begin to see what he meant. Let's talk about Mary first. Let's talk about Mary's grief, suffering, hardship. People react to it in different ways.

10:01Grief takes on a lot of different forms. Some people go into overdrive. There's a coping mechanism of being busy, fixing things, cleaning, cooking, busy, busy, busy, busy, either as a form of therapy or a form of avoidance or something, just an overdrive. Other people, they go numb. It's just shut down. The walls go up, they retreat. They can be in the same room with you and feel 10,000 miles away. Other people just get exhausted, physically ill, suddenly without warning they have the flu or the worst allergy attack they've ever had before or a really bad cold. It's like their immune system is just checked out, gone on vacation and everything just assaults them and they're laid up in bed for weeks. And then there's people like Mary, the deep feelers. Emotions come on sudden and strong like a like a summer storm. Sunshine one minute and then all of a sudden it's a downpour. No matter what form outwardly it takes, I think inwardly there's a few things that's in common. It's both a storm and it's a fog at the same time. It's just raging inside and it is just hazy. You can't really tell up from down.

11:45There's a disorientation to grief. What we need that we can't provide for ourselves in those moments is an anchor point, a fixed object to focus on, a tether. And that's what Jesus does here. He knows that Mary is different from Martha. These two sisters are alike in some ways and different in some ways. Those of you with siblings know this. Martha's mind wouldn't stop, but neither would Mary's tears. Maybe that's why she hadn't gone out with her sister to meet Jesus. We can sympathize with that, right? Have you ever been so sad that you didn't want to leave the house? You didn't want to get out of bed. There is a stuckness that can come along with grief. I don't want to move from this spot, even though I know Jesus is right out there. And that seems to be why I think John makes a point to emphasize in verse 30 that Jesus doesn't go to her. That may strike you as odd, maybe even a little frustrating. Maybe you get frustrated at Jesus sometimes when you read the gospels and you see what he does. If she's stuck, Jesus, go to her. What are you doing? Standing on the road. And here we need to have a little trust, okay, that Jesus knows Mary inside and out better than we know Mary, better than Martha knows Mary, better than Mary knows Mary. And he knows her and he loves her. He knows what she needs and she needs him calling her to come out, to come to him with her grief. He sends a message through Martha. The teacher is here and calling for you. I'm going to be waiting. Tell her to come to me.

14:19He's offering her the fixed point that she needs and he's rousing her to take hold of him. Jesus can and does come all the way to us, church. That is certainly true. But sometimes Jesus invites and waits for us to come to him. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. This blessedness and comfort cannot be had apart from him. We need to learn to bring our sorrows to him, just like a child needs to learn how to walk. And how does a child learn how to walk? Distance, right? Her parents step away, hold out their hands, come to me. And Mary does. She does it. This is the first little breakthrough here for Mary. She steps out of the house. She goes to Jesus on the road.

15:37Her neighbors think that she's going to the tomb, but no, she's going to her Lord. She has answered his call. This is an act of faith for her, right? It's an act of faith for her. How about you? What griefs, what griefs are you carrying on your own? A little distant from Jesus? Listen, the teacher is here and calling for you. Maybe you're near someone who's in grief and they're the ones keeping their distance. Maybe God is calling you to be a Martha and to say, Jesus is calling you to him. Bring your griefs to him. Let him attend to your needs. Don't keep your distance. Take a step of faith. Maybe you need a little bit more convincing first before you take that step. Let's keep going. Let's watch how Jesus responds to this deeply feeling, deeply hurting woman there at his feet. This is the second, this is, I've only got two sections today. This is the second one, the longer one, the compassion of Jesus. This passage takes us someplace very important. Jesus's emotional life. Did you know that Jesus had an emotional life? In the last passage, Martha had true doctrine in her head that wasn't giving her any comfort. I know there's a resurrection on the last day, but that's irrelevant right now, Jesus. And Jesus says, no, no. It's relevant right now because the resurrection is standing in front of you. It has already entered your life. Take hold of this truth, Martha, and live. He gave Martha new insight about himself. Jesus served Martha with words, but look at how he serves Mary.

18:09He serves Mary with his feelings and his emotional response is a form of self-revelation. He is revealing himself to her and to us. Jesus is showing us who he is. He's the one with true empathy, with perfect compassion. Here's the first thing. He doesn't turn away from our grief. He doesn't turn away. Weeping is mentioned in this passage four times. There's grieving all around Jesus and Jesus is in the middle of it. There's a crying woman at his feet. Neighbors and friends all around wailing, and he doesn't excuse himself. He doesn't say, I left something on the stove. I'll come back later. This doesn't feel like a good time. You ever heard that? Maybe it is a good time, and I'm just feeling it really strongly. Don't go anywhere. He doesn't try to get out of the situation. He doesn't leave. He doesn't tell them to stop crying. Pull yourself together. He doesn't change the subject. And listen, it was really loud in the ancient Near East. Funerals and times of mourning were really loud.

19:47God, the culture was more expressive, and it was considered honoring to the family to show how upset you were, to grieve loudly. It's like, you know, we bring flowers or something to someone who's bereaved. They brought their tears, their wails. You can think of it like that. It's polite to show up and be undone with your grief. The family of the deceased was expected to hire professional mourners. That's a real historical fact. I'm not making that up. In our culture, the family of the deceased would be responsible for bringing some food to the viewing, right? Serving the people. In the ancient Near East, you would hire professional mourners, a flute player, wailers. Their goal was to make a scene to honor the one who died, for it to be loud, and to us, probably very uncomfortable, because you know how it is. Our funerals are much more subdued. Some polite crying up front, and we still find it hard to endure other people's pain. I remember visiting one of my grandmothers weeks after my grandfather had died, and she was still so sad, so sad, crying, weeping loudly. It was shocking to all of us, because we had never, ever, ever seen her cry before. A family member came to me and was like, well, I don't know what to do. And I was like, I know. I've never seen her like this before. Let's be honest, dude. Grief makes uncomfortable. This is the time when we say stupid things or do something insensitive. If we can get out of the situation, we probably would. But Jesus is undeterred, steadfast, immovable. He does not leave.

22:22He does not diffuse the suffering. Hey, everyone, don't cry. Look, I'm about to raise him. Draw those tears. He sits in it with them. In fact, later, he even asks to go to Lazarus's tomb. He wants to go nearer to the grief, not further away. This is Jesus's compassion, part one. He doesn't turn away. He stays in it with us. Friends, whatever you're going through, he is staying in it with you. He will not turn away from your grief. Your ugly crying does not embarrass him. Isn't that a sweet comfort? He's not embarrassed.

23:10He's not awkward. And as time goes on and you're still feeling it, he doesn't say, are you still sad about that? He doesn't get tired of it. He doesn't get tired of you. Compassion begins with facing the suffering. Pressing through the discomfort of grief into love, into presence. The second one is more complicated. He sees the whole situation. So he's facing the moment. He's sitting in it. He's not running. And something stirs within him, in his spirit. Jesus is not a stoic. He is not Dr. Spock.

24:06He is a feeler too. John says he was deeply moved in his spirit. And this is really significant, but not for the reason that you might think. The Greek word that's translated deeply moved is found in other places. Okay. But it doesn't, in all of those other places, it does not convey sadness or sorrow. It conveys indignation, outrage, even anger. It might be expressed as on the inside. This is just absolutely heinous. And for emphasis, John adds that he was greatly troubled in turmoil, in distress. So another translation of this phrase, he was livid and agitated within himself. And I hope that that gets you closer to what the Greek is saying here. Deeply moved, we immediately go to grief and sorrow. He is livid and he's agitated within himself. What, what, what, what has caused this, this distress, this distress, this anger? And friends, it isn't his dead friend, Lazarus, that triggers this. The text tells us that he's responding to the weeping, the anguish of the people around him. He, when he, when he sees the weeping, it says, he was deeply moved. He was livid. He was indignant.

25:50He is outraged at the emotional damage that death is wreaking on his people. It's like if a man were to come home and find his house broken into, all of his possessions ransacked, his table turned over, things broken and stolen, and his wife and children hiding in a closet, holding a bat, trembling, panicked and afraid. The property damage is one thing, but the loss of security and the turmoil is a whole nother thing. Now I ask you in that hypothetical situation, how does a good man respond? How does a good man respond? Does he just only call the insurance company, mend the windows, turn the couches and the chairs upright, right? And then turn to his family and say, get over it. It's safe again.

27:03No, right? This man knows that his, his home has been violated and he puts things right. And then he moves towards the ones that are scared, the ones that are trembling, the ones that are in turmoil and distress. And he attends to them carefully, patiently with compassion to restore their sense of security. Right? Jesus is outraged over this scene. Death has come through like an enemy ravaging this community. These people know that God promised resurrection, but at this moment, death seems stronger than the promises of God. Just like if your home was broken into, you might feel like the threats that are out there are stronger than whatever protections you have, stronger than your God. They are grieving possibly without very much hope. Mary, Martha, their neighbors. You see it all over this passage. They're grieving as people with no hope. He sees this and he's upset by it. Look at what death has done to my precious people. Look at how it has harmed them. Look at how it has distressed them. Look at how it has driven them into fear, driven them into unbelief. And Jesus sees the whole thing and he is determined to do something about it. The same thing happens to us, right? Suffering, hardship, death, all of those things can feel more powerful than the promises of God. We sometimes live and grieve as if we have no hope, as if death has the final word. And my friends, Jesus sees that. He sees it and he cares. He sees when we're discouraged, when we're mourning. He sees it when we've been victimized by this fallen world. He sees it when we have

29:24committed some self-inflicted wounds. He sees it when we take comfort in him and he sees it when we take some other comfort because we're scared. He sees us when we're holding on to his truth and he sees us when we are believing lies. He sees all of this and he cares. And in his compassion, he is provoked to a righteous indignation. I will not let this stand. I will set this right. Death is an enemy victimizing people, victimizing you and me. And he is deeply moved in his spirit, greatly troubled. And he will deliver us from the sting of death and from the fear of death because he intends better things for us to be cowering in fear. He wants to give us a future and a hope right now, a comfort that's for today's sorrows. Compassion sees the grief, what has caused it and what must be done. It seems the whole situation. That's Jesus's compassion. Here's the other part. He enters our suffering. We know that Jesus is not indignant about the crying itself, about the mourning itself, because of what comes next.

31:05One of the most well-known passages of scripture, if only because it's so easy to memorize. When Jesus saw the tomb, the stone ceiling, the burial place behind which is his friend, Lazarus, Jesus wept. He broke down and cried. He is fully human. And friends, without sin does not mean without emotions. Yet in Jesus, these emotions are all in their proper place. They never mislead him and he never dismisses them. He is never controlled by them, but he still experiences them. Jesus knew that death came to humanity as a punishment for sin, for rejecting God. But he still, when he saw the tomb of his friend, he broke down and he cried. Not crocodile tears. This is not a professional mourner's tears. He wasn't hired to do this. He's crying because he feels it. He is sad, just like we're sad. He is sad with Mary and her neighbors, with the town of Bethany. The prophet Isaiah said that the Messiah would be a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. And he doesn't get acquainted from book.

32:44He's acquainted from experience, the experience of joining us in our grief. Part of his ministry is solidarity. Feeling what people felt, weeping with those who wept. Isn't it wonderful to know that you are never alone in your suffering? It wouldn't be very much comfort, would it, to know that Jesus is close, but he's staring at us? Why are you crying? Unmoved, unconnected. He enters in to our grief, cries it with us. He weeps like you over the same sorrows. Whatever it is that you're going through.

33:35And he does this here, even though he's, he's moments away from bringing Lazarus back to life. But he takes the time to enter into these emotions. And friends, this shows us that death is not something we ought to make peace with. We shouldn't fear it, but we should not like it. Jesus shows us that the right response to death is to grieve. Grieve with hope, yes, but also grieve. At that moment, Lazarus's spirit is with and is in the presence of his Lord.

34:18Right. But it was still appropriate to grieve death, to weep that it had happened, to weep that this man had died, that his friends had to bury him, that his sisters didn't have him with them to be apart from each other. This is all lamentable. And why? Well, Jesus knows death was not originally part of his creation. When the triune God on the sixth day looked at all that he created and called it very good, death was nowhere to be found. Death is here now, but it wasn't supposed to be this way. So Jesus joins us and he leads us with his tears. He reminds us there are some things that deserve to be mourned. Blessed are those who mourn, even though resurrection is coming.

35:24So some people see Jesus cry and they're moved with him. They say, see how we love them. They're comforted to see Jesus's love. To see his tears. But others are skeptical. Is that how he's responding? Surely this Jesus could do more than just cry. And you know what? They're right. Jesus's compassion is just beginning. The action that he's taking because he is outraged is only begun. Soon he will do more than just face our grief. He's going to endure his own grief.

36:12He's going to be arrested and abandoned, flogged, whipped, forced to carry his cross. He's going to show greater solidarity than just crying with us, right? He is going to take our place under God's judgment and curse for sin. Dying on the cross. He doesn't do this with us, but instead of us. That's greater than solidarity. That's intercession. That's substitution. That's where the compassion of Christ is going to take him. To take our place so that we could be forgiven. And he is going to do more than just be outraged over death. He will defeat death when he rises from the grave, victorious over our great enemy as a conquering savior.

37:16Brothers, sisters, this is the Jesus that we worship. This is the one calling to us saying, come to me with your griefs. I have a heart of compassion more full than you even know. I've got a resurrection power that you have only begun to taste and see. He brings salvation to all who call on him in faith. And he continues to show us that compassion at the right hand of the father, interceding for us, sympathizing with our weakness. Because he has walked through this world of tears and he has overcome. Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may find grace and mercy to help in our time of need.