Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Hey church, it's Pastor Marc. Pastor Marc is here, and Pastor Marc's here. And we're glad that Pastor Marc's here, but you guys can be praying for Pastor Rod. He took a last minute trip out to California to go to be with his family his extended family, his brother. Philippe and his sister-in-law, Mariah and some of their other family, Philippe, is not doing well. In fact, they're gonna be putting him on palliative care, I believe on Wednesday of this week. And so you guys can be praying for his family. Just a lot of medical complications and it's almost a perfect storm where. It seems as though God is making it clear that he's getting ready to call Philippe home to be with him. And that's gonna be hard as you can imagine. And so please be praying for Pastor Rod. Please be praying for comfort for Philippe and his wife, Mariah. From what we understand, Philippe is a professing believer. His church has been involved and been around there, but this is so incredibly hard and so you can be praying for them. Keep them in your memory. Remind. Thinking about them, praying for them even as Paul says, with every memory I prayed for you. And so, if there's ways that you can think about Pastor Rod, be praying for him, pray for his family this week. 'cause this is just unexpected. In a lot of ways. And so, this is we're glad that he's gonna be able to be out there with his family, but just a hard time. So, all that to say, that's why Pastor Marc is pinch hitting for him on the podcast this week. That's right. That's right. It's a good reminder too that pastors are not immune to the problems that everybody has. These are struggles that we have, I can relate in the sense that there's challenges like that that we face on a regular basis. Yep. And we're not exceptional or excluded from those things by any means. No, for sure. In fact it's apropo. That we're talking about such heavy things like death, because in our reading today, which is in John chapter 11 Jesus is gonna take death on square, on head on. And a lot of times with death, we sit in the presence of death. Or you go to a funeral, you go to a memorial or grave side and sometimes you'll hear a well-intentioned pastor say something like, well, death is just a part of life. And it's. I understand the thought process and the intention there, but it's actually, it's not just a part of life. It's the exact opposite. In fact, it's the ultimate enemy. Jesus says, the last enemy to be conquered is death, and he talks about the fact that that will be conquered in the very end. One Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul talks about that, that. On that day, when he takes all things and puts them into subjection under the father's feet, that's that time that the last enemy to be conquered being death is going to be conquered. And we talk as well about death. Where's your victory? Where's your sting? And that's about the future that that's gonna be at that point. And Paul says that in one Corinthians 15 as well. He says, then we'll come to pass the statement. Death. Where's your victory? Where's your sting right now? From an earthly perspective, death stings and death winds that that person is gone. They're not there anymore. And you feel the sting, and you feel the loss and the s the sadness and the heartache. And yet as Christians, we don't mourn as those without hope. And that's where that phrase comes into being. We are going to be sustained until that day of reunification with our lost loved ones by hope. By the conviction of the things unseen and knowing that we will one day be with them for eternity right now, death hurts. And so for PR and his family as they're encountering the reality of the impending passing of his brother the death of his brother it does sting and it does hurt. And that's why Jesus is going to go head to head with death in John chapter 11. Yeah. And our culture wants to normalize it in the sense that they want to sanitize it they want to do celebrations rather than funerals. Right. And obviously you wanna celebrate people's lives, but Right. We're not made. For death. That wasn't God's original design for us. A former pastor gave a really punchy example once that kind of has sat with me for a long time. And he was talking about how, we go years and years after somebody we love has died and we remember them and it's odd, it's uncomfortable, it's painful when they're not there. Mm-hmm. And maybe it's Christmas, maybe it's just a regular Wednesday and it's really painful and really, really. Really difficult, even years and years later, and to the testament that that's not what we're made for. Mm-hmm. We're not made for death. And he helpfully said, you know what, if that person who had died came back to life you'd be obviously surprised. It'd be shocking. But 10 years from now, you're not gonna be like, oh, it's really weird that they're here with us alive and at Christmas dinner, or whatever. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. Because that's not how we were made to be. Right. We're made to be alive, and so we, we need to be careful. We don't normalize it in that sense. Right. As and as, as much as the culture does. Right. And it's not an escape too. And that's, I think, one of the tragic things, as I consider it too, is. When you look at the lost in the world, who have rejected God, who have rejected the gospel, who have rejected the existence of life after death for them, and this is the unfortunate. Reality of those that take their own lives, it becomes an escape. Mm-hmm. From pain and suffering and sorrow. Mm-hmm. And they just want nothing. They don't wanna feel anything anymore. And the tragic reality is what they wake up to as death is a doorway. As we sing in that Phil Wickham song, death is a doorway for Christians into everlasting life, but for those that reject Christ into everlasting judgment. And so it is sobering. Right of Ecclesiastes, king Solomon says it's better to go to the house in mourning than to the house of life. For this is the end of all men, and the living do well to take it to heart. So we have occasions to think about our brevity of life and that reality, and go, okay, I need to be ready to meet Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. But the Christian has hope, which is what we see here in, in John chapter 11. Right. Absolutely. That there is hope that we have That is, yeah. Incredible. Yeah. Yeah. And I love the way that John 11 sets up because Jesus is told about John's sickness and it says he loved Mary and Martha and John. And so he stayed where he was for another few days. He didn't. And we've seen Jesus do amazing things already in our study of the gospels. He's healed the official's child from a distance and said, you know, the official who said, look, I'm under authority as well. If you just say the word my child would be healed. And Jesus does that. We've seen him raise the other the little girl from the death, from the dead. The widow's son. He raised him from the dead. Jesus. In that moment without even going to, Bethany could have just immediately in his full deity, said Lazarus. Yep, that's right. You're not gonna be, you're not gonna die. And he doesn't, he stays and lets Lazarus die. And there's that interesting interchange with the disciples where he says, okay, let's go. This is a sickness not leading to death. He's only sleeping. And the disciples are like, well, if he's sleeping, he's gonna wake up. And so Jesus says, he's died. He's died. And John 11 brings us. The sobering impact of death multiple times. It's not just there. It's when he shows up and he begins to weep at the tomb, it's the grief that he feels. In verse 33, it says, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled that the words there in the Greek conveyed that he was. Angry over death. And he's not angry at the people that are weeping. He's not angry at Mary and Martha for being sad that Lazarus is dead. He's angry at death because death is the enemy. It's not a part of life, right? And so he weeps. He's angry there. Even when he goes to the tomb, he's deeply moved again. When he comes to this, he's angry at death. He's saying, death, you're not going to win here. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And he gives us the explanation for why he's doing this, which I think is a helpful, comforting thing that even in the present day when we go through things right in verse four, he says, it is for the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. And sometimes we don't get that direct clarity about our particular situations, but we need to remember that. We need to remember that these difficult things and this is specific to this situation, of course. But we need to remember that God is about His glory, even in our simple lives. Yeah. And even in the tragedies that we face that should bring us comfort. Maybe not immediately, but in a holistic sense. It should bring us comfort. Yeah, no, for sure it should. And yeah, all of John 11 is Jesus setting that up. Right. And it's similar to when and this is an even greater scale, when Jesus healed the blind man, we saw this recently, and the disciples came to him and said, Hey Lord, who sinned? Was it the blind man or was it his parents that he was born blind? And Jesus said it was neither, but that the glory of God might be seen. That the work of God might be displayed in him. And it's kind of the same thing here with Lazarus. He's working this so that he can convey what he tells to, Marian Martha there, what he tells to Martha, at least when he says in verse 25, he said, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live. And he says, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? And Martha's response is one of faith, and I think I'm convicted by it because it's one of sterile doctrine, it seems to be because she says, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the son of God who is coming into the world. And it's at one point she says and I know that in the future he's going to live again but not. Right. She's like, yeah, I know the future resurrection is coming but right now we're just grieving because he's dead. And that question, Lord, if you had been here, you could have done something. Why didn't you? Why weren't you here? Why didn't you do something? And so Jesus is trying to get them to see, no, no, no. I the one who I'm here in the power of this. And that truth, that reality. Our hope in overcoming the grave is not ind doctrine and theologies. Mm-hmm. It's Jesus, it's in. Who he is. Mm-hmm. And that's what he's trying to convey to Mary and Martha in this this interaction. Yeah. It's fascinating in this passage, and I don't, it's not a coincidence going into chapter 12 and later, but the responses that you get one from Martha that you just spoke to, but also Thomas A. Little bit up above, right? Oh, yeah. Fascinating that he says, let us go also, that we may die with him. There's confusion. We there, I think we see a little bit of confusion, uncertainty in even what Martha says, although I think that's probably a better answer than what Thomas gives. But by the end of this chapter, you see clear distinctions, right? Yeah. The, there's la the lack of clarity that was there becomes clear, and there's those who believe. And there's those who want to kill Jesus towards the end of this chapter, which obviously is the prologue to what comes next. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he does come to the tomb and he tells the people there, Hey, roll the stone away. And you've got the King James, he stinketh by now. Because it had been four days and there's question as to the significance of their, there was a Jewish. Belief, and it was tradition that the spirit of a person remained in their body or hovering over the body for three days. And so some have said, well, he waited four days so that nobody could argue. Well, the spirit just chose to reenter the body of Lazarus, and that's why all of this happened. We're not exactly sure there, but they obey 'em. They take the stone away and LA before. Calling him out. Jesus prays and he prays for the good of the people around him, that he allows them to e to eavesdrop On his prayer he says in verse 42, I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me. So Jesus is not expressing this prayer, doubting whether or not God's gonna answer it, but rather he's saying this to the Father because he wants the people around to understand who it is. That's really resurrecting Lazarus and the power that this is taking place with. And then he calls Lazarus come out and the man who had died came out his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth. And Jesus says, unbind him and let him go. Everybody's just slack, jot, and he's like. Guys take the C clause off, let him out so that he can live. Just a fascinating story. And we don't know much from here about Lazarus other than he's still involved. He's gonna be around and the Pharisees are now wanting to kill him and Jesus, both because Lazarus is a living billboard of what the power of Jesus can do. And he, they're not happy about this. And so they the heat gets turned up here for sure. We do know he dies again though. He does die again. We do know that. Yeah, we know that, this is not the resurrection that we're gonna see that Lazarus is gonna see again right in, in the days to come, which is why some people refer to this as a resuscitation and not a resurrection. Resurrection as we think about it, is a resurrection unto life and not unto death. Right. And the resurrection that we will all experience as believers is one in which we will never die again. Mm-hmm. First Corinthians 15. Romans chapter six. Talks about this resurrection here. This is a resuscitation. He's back, but he, to your point, is going to die again. Yeah. And that's true of also when Jesus dies on the cross and the tombs are opened up and those that are in the tombs come outta the tombs and walk around. I mean, what a strange situation that one is too. They would all eventually die again. Jesus is the first roots of the ultimate resurrection. The resurrection, never to die again. Yep. And all of us will follow in his footsteps in that, but yeah. Lazarus is one of those people that I'm sure has a long line in heaven of people waiting to talk to him, going, okay, where were you, where were you for those four days? What was it like? What you see? Yeah. Did you get to having to be like, this is sweet, and then have God go Lazarus, I'm gonna have to send you back. That's my question for him. Yeah. What a letdown. Yeah. Like, Hey, Lazarus, you died once. You're gonna die twice. I'm gonna need you to go back. Wait a minute, what? And then all of a sudden he hears Lazarus come out. He's like, no, no. Yeah, who knows, man, I. Other than he must have been as well rested as he had ever been in his entire life. Yeah. That's a good, at that point, that's gotta be the best sleep Yeah. That you could possibly possibly achieve. For sure. Your sleep score is a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. And he's waking up with the rags on trying to figure out what's going on. Yeah. That's what, how fascinating man. Yeah the Bible's full of really cool stories like that. Yeah. It's, and it, not just him, but you've got the widow's son who died. You've got, the little girl that he said Toletha coo and she rose up. You've got all kinds of stories like that in the Bible. So, pretty cools. Well, let's pray and then we'll be done with this episode of the Daily Bible Podcast. God, we when faced with death, our hearts do feel heavy and they grieve, and we do so along with Pastor Rod and his family right now. We pray for him. We pray for comfort for them Lord, and in a way that is unique to what you provide for Christians through your spirit comfort that doesn't come from any other source. And so, Lord, I pray that as they face death even this week, that they would do so. Not as the world does, but confident in your victory over death. And Lord, I pray that even for Pastor Rod's brother Philippe right now, that even as he is in his last moments, if he's conscious Lord and aware, I pray that his thoughts would be saturated with your word and your promises and your truth, and that'd be holding fast to those things. Pray for Mariah, his wife. That she would be comforted during this season as well Lord and for Pastor Rod's whole family. And so we thank you for Pastor Rod. We love him. And we thank you for passages like this one in John chapter 11, that Jesus is the resurrection of the life, and there is confidence and hope that we have in him that this is not all there is, but that there is a life to come. And if we believe in him, that we will have eternal life. And we thank you and praise you for that. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Keep in your Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Bye everyone. Bye.

​Well, thank you for listening to another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast, folks! We're honored to have you join us. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about our Church at compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a review, to rate, or to share this podcast on whatever platform you're listening on, and we hope to see you again tomorrow for another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast. Ya'll come back now, ya hear? Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said