John 11:1-45 5th Sunday in Lent April 2, 2017

“Glorify God.” It’s a phrase we may toss around without really being sure what it means.

If you ask most Christians, they’ll say that’s what worship is all about. They’ll say something like, “We go to Church to glorify God.”

In a way they are right. When we go to Church, God is glorified, but it’s not in what we are doing. It’s not so much in our music, or our prayers, or our offering.

It’s when God acts. When He forgives you; when He draws you closer to Himself; when He comforts you; when He assures you your salvation is nothing you do, but what He has done; when He calls you His child and promises you the gifts of being an heir in His kingdom; when He assures you one day your body, after it has been laid in the ground, will rise again and join your soul to live with Him in eternity. This is what brings Him glory. It’s when you see the Son on the cross and recognize you are seeing at one and the same time the Father.

And that is what Jesus is doing in our Gospel account. He speaks of the glory of God, and the Son of God being glorified through it. He does it as He draws His followers into truth, testing their faith and making it stronger. He does it as He shows them He has power over death, even as we get a taste of what will come in just two weeks, when He rises from the dead.

Yes, His followers were to see this, and to be assured He is almighty just like His Father. He, like His Father, is the master over death.

With this same event, the resurrection of Lazarus, He wants to strengthen your faith. Why? Because the stronger your faith is, the more you are able to enjoy the benefits of faith.

Let’s look quickly at the people He is seeking to reach in the story. We heard Thomas say, “Let us go die with him.” Whether Thomas is talking about dying with Jesus or joining Lazarus in death, it’s a gloomy, pessimistic statement. Jesus wants Thomas to say possibly the same words, but to say them with more conviction and greater confidence in God’s care.

Jesus wants to see that with the other eleven disciples. Numerous times He said, “Oh, you of little faith.” They wouldn’t have been as afraid as they were, if they would have seen how much the Almighty God, their heavenly Father cared about them, that no matter what happens their lives are in His hands. Jesus wants them to see when they see His own care and concern for them, they see their Father’s care and concern for them.

He wanted to see that in Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha. I’m impressed with the faith they showed. They clearly left all things in God’s hands. Even their message sent to Jesus did not tell Him what He should do. They simply informed Him that their brother was ill. They were saying, “We know you will do what is best.”

And yet, Jesus sees the need to take them further. They express great confidence in Jesus, and yet they show signs they are still not sure who He is. They still don’t realize when they see Jesus, they are looking at the Almighty Father as well.

He wants this for the Jews who came out of Jerusalem to console Mary and Martha in their loss, because many of them haven’t even begun to formulate who Jesus is.

Again, why does He want to lift them, strengthen their faith, and have them place their faith and confession squarely and firmly in Him? Why does He want for them to take their eyes off themselves and off of anything they think they can do? So they can enjoy the benefits of faith.

Jesus wants the same for all of us. He wants you to enjoy the benefits of faith. He wants to see you freely serving your neighbor, without feeling forced. He wants to see you looking to Him when you face trials. He wants to see you recognize that all you enjoy is a gift from Him to be enjoyed. He wants you to see your Heavenly Father is just as loving as He is, and He has the same power as His Father.

So, as your pastor, I want you to enjoy those benefits. I want you to see that your whole life is wrapped up in His undeserved love.

I just heard about an Irish Rock musician, named Darren Mulligan that now considers himself a Christian artist—but not just a Christian artist. In an interview he goes on, "I am a Christian daddy, a Christian husband, a Christian racquetball player. I'm a Christian voter, I am a Christian gardener. Whatever I do, I do it in His name.  Everything I do is imbued with His goodness. The fact that I can breathe today -- I'm a Christian breather. I don't deserve to have breath in my bones but He said you can breathe today Darren. And He said, you can go and hold your wife's hand today. And so I'm a Christian hand-holder and that's a stupid thing to say, but it's the truth."

But, as your pastor, I’m here to say, you can’t enjoy these gifts, if you don’t have the fundamentals, and that starts with knowing the fact that eternal life is yours. Because of Jesus’ work and because you have been claimed by Him in your baptism, eternal life is yours—this is your assurance.

Put simply: He died for you, so that you can live; He claimed you as His own, so you can know for sure. You don’t deserve His sonship, to be an heir, but you are one because of His grace;

Now, if you are a person who is inclined to say “I hope I’m saved. I hope God cares about me. I hope God even likes me,” then you are stuck in a place where you think you have to deserve His grace.

You don’t! I don’t! None of us do! We could never deserve anything He gives. If it’s a matter of deserving, we have no reason to hope.

We can have confidence though. We can be confident that we are going to hell. We confess that this is what we deserve just about every single week in one way or another.

Please understand, I’m trying to straighten out this horrible misunderstanding which is so common, a misunderstanding that will always keep you from enjoying the benefits of faith. Faith has been placed in you. It’s a gift, but if your understanding is off, you can’t enjoy the benefits from it, and your faith can’t grow.

By God’s grace, your faith is there. It’s doing what it is supposed to do. It’s grasping and holding to the righteousness of Christ. It’s like a hand that takes a hold of it, but your mind—that’s the problem—your mind holds it back. The smallest faith has Christ. It has eternal life, but there’s a gap between your head and your heart.

It’s funny. I’ve heard talk about people missing heaven by about 18 inches. Have you ever heard it? They say a person misses heaven only by a mere 18 inches, because they would say the person had the Gospel in their head, but not in their heart.

I’m saying the exact opposite. You have it in your heart. It’s there, by God’s grace. He put it there. If you are a Christian, you have faith. The Holy Spirit put it there, but it may not be there in your head. I want you to see the truths that Jesus demonstrates, so you can enjoy the benefits of faith.

Now, I’m not saying, we don’t all struggle. All of us struggle with the way of thinking that says we have to earn God’s favor, but some of us resist the clear words I am speaking here. Resist them. I’m not saying, “Don’t understand.” I mean resist. Some of us are saying to ourselves, “What you are saying can’t be true. I can’t have that assurance. It’s not humanly possible. I can’t be good enough. It’s pompous and arrogant to act like I could be sure.”

Again, if it’s a matter of your goodness, or how hard you try, you bet it’s pompous and arrogant. It’s not just pompous and arrogance, to claim you could be good enough based on how hard you try, it’s sheer idiocy. It flies in the face of truth. God can have nothing less than absolute perfection—not relative perfection—like compared to so and so, I’m just about perfect.

No, absolute perfection. Never, ever sinned. If you’re not reaching that, then it doesn’t matter how hard you try. You’re lost.

But that is not at all what your Father wants for you. He wants all to be saved and that is by giving you the perfection you need, by giving you the credit for what Jesus did. That’s why He sent His Son on this mission to earth. To live a perfect life for you. Then to die and rise again for you. He wants you to know that He cares about you in Christ, He loves you and even likes you in Christ. You see Jesus doing so many loving things. He is regarded as such a great man by so many people. Jesus is showing you what your Father is like. They are to be seen as one.

And the resurrection of Lazarus proves this. Jesus and His Father are One. We need this reminder as we get closer and closer to the event when we see Jesus hanging on the cross. We’re not just seeing Jesus’ love. We are seeing the Father’s love, the love of the Almighty God.

It’s true. The Father and Son are not the same person, but they are as one as one can be. When you see Jesus, you are seeing the Father. Jesus makes that point all over, especially in the Gospel of John. I and my Father are one.

One of the twelve, Philip, was having problems with this statement. He said, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

The people following Jesus in His day believed in the Father. They believed the Father could do anything, but they weren’t making the connection with Jesus. They would see the Father as Almighty, omniscient, eternal, unchanging, and all the attributes. But they didn’t see that about Jesus, the Son.

They were missing the crucial connection. Jesus connects it for them. He shows them that He and His Father were not to be disconnected. He and His Father are one.

You see, Jesus doesn’t just heal Lazarus. He raises him from the dead. He shows that He has mastery over death, just as they believed the Father had. As the Creator, who had formed Lazarus in the first place, He could also give him life again. Who is the Creator? Who is the one with mastery over life and death? The Father or the Son? Both. That is what this resurrection makes clear. These followers were to see Jesus was to be regarded as the Father they knew from the Old Testament.

Neither are we are not to see them separated. This goes concerning the attempt to distinguish Jesus from the God of the Old Testament. When you see Jesus on the cross, you are seeing the

heart of your heavenly Father, the heart of the God of the Old Testament. When you have the flesh and blood of Jesus here, you have the flesh and blood of the Almighty God.

When you see Jesus running all over the countryside preaching and healing, you are seeing the mission planned before the beginning of time in the counsels of the Trinity. When you see the Lord’s anger in the Old Testament, you are still seeing Jesus’ character, because they are not to be separated.

When you get this connection, when you stop separating the Father and the Son, then you can look at the cross and see what the Father thinks. You can see the one who is your judge, and not be afraid because He has died for you. You see the Son risen from the dead Himself, living forevermore.

Therefore, if you confess, “I see the heart of my heavenly Father when I see the Son dying on the cross; I see the Father’s sure and certain love when I see the Son dying on the cross; I see His mission to rescue me from death and hell when I see the Son dying on the cross; then you will see it’s the cross that brings glory to God. Your faith will be strengthened because your eyes will be on the cross, and not on yourself. You will enjoy the benefits of faith, and God will be glorified.

The cross--that’s the key and that’s the center of our focus at worship. Everything God does. This is how God is glorified. This is His glory. AMEN.

Bidden by our Lord, let us go boldly into His presence with prayers for the whole Church and for all people according to their needs.

Blessed Lord, Your heart has known the pain of grief and the sorrow of death even as we know it. You entered our world of death to take on the power of death and release those who live in its shadow. Receive our thanks for raising Lazarus from the dead, and direct our eyes to see in this miracle Your own resurrection to everlasting life prefigured. Comfort us in our sorrows, and help us to grieve not as a people without hope but as those who anticipate the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

Gracious Lord, You honored the love and care within Lazarus’ family, and You know the ties that bind as family, friends and community. Fill the homes of Your people with Your Spirit and with faith. Bless husbands and wives, and lead them to live in faithfulness to their marriage. Bless parents and the children You have placed in their care. Help us to live in love toward You, toward our family and with our neighbor. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

Mighty Lord, You hold all things in Your hand, and You know the limitations of our power. Give us good and honest leaders in this and every land. Bless them with wisdom to heed Your commands, honor the path of virtue and punish the wrongdoer. Protect those who protect and defend us, especially the men and women in our armed forces. Guide us so that we may honor the sacred gift of life from conception until the end of this earthly pilgrimage. Lord, in Your

Holy Lord, You have called and gathered to You a people through the voice of Your Word and by the power of Your Spirit. Give to all Your people a strong faith in the face of temptation and doubt and wisdom to discern the truth from error. Provide good and faithful pastors and church workers to serve Your people in Your name. Bless the churches throughout the world that make common confession with us and serve together in the witness of Your Word and truth, and in particular, bless not only our congregation, but Bethlehem, especially as we engage in the process of forming a dual parish. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

Gracious Lord, You know the suffering of Your people, and You are present with us in our weakness. Give courage to the sick and those who suffer any need, that they may not waver from the truth. Give to our dry bones Your healing grace and Spirit, that we may be sustained in the day of trouble and delivered according to Your merciful will. Hear us especially [for ____________ and] for all those we name in our hearts before You. [Brief silence.] Lord, in

Living Lord, You have promised to open the graves and raise Your people to everlasting life. As we recall those who have gone before us, we cling to Your promise and await the great and blessed day when You shall come in Your glory to reunite heaven and earth and to finish Your new creation. Until that day, keep us in our baptismal grace and faith so that we may be found blameless and ready when You come in Your glory. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

All these things, Lord, grant us according to Your gracious will, keeping from us all things harmful and giving to us only those things which are good and profitable to us and our salvation until that day when we shall see You face to face and rejoice with Lazarus, Mary, Martha, Ezekiel and all the saints in Your presence forevermore; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Questions from the Sermon1. When and how is God glorified?

2. Who said, “Let us go die with him?”

3. Why does Jesus want to strengthen the faith of His followers?

4. Faith can be in a person’s heart, placed by the Holy Spirit, but missing where?

5. You can see what the Father thinks about you, by looking where?

Questions from the Sermon1. When and how is God glorified?

2. Who said, “Let us go die with him?”

3. Why does Jesus want to strengthen the faith of His followers?

4. Faith can be in a person’s heart, placed by the Holy Spirit, but missing where?

5. You can see what the Father thinks about you, by looking where?

Questions from the Sermon1. When and how is God glorified?

2. Who said, “Let us go die with him?”

3. Why does Jesus want to strengthen the faith of His followers?

4. Faith can be in a person’s heart, placed by the Holy Spirit, but missing where?

5. You can see what the Father thinks about you, by looking where?

Answers to questions from the Sermon1. …when God acts, and I enjoy the benefits of the faith

2. Thomas

3. …that they might enjoy the benefits of faith

4. …missing in their head

5. …by looking at the cross

Answers to questions from the Sermon1. …when God acts, and I enjoy the benefits of the faith

2. Thomas

3. …that they might enjoy the benefits of faith

4. …missing in their head

5. …by looking at the cross

Answers to questions from the Sermon1. …when God acts, and I enjoy the benefits of the faith

2. Thomas

3. …that they might enjoy the benefits of faith

4. …missing in their head

5. …by looking at the cross

Today’s event carries us from this Sunday through the week, right to the next Sunday and especially to the Friday of that week, Good Friday. It also prepares us for what is to come in two weeks. If Jesus has mastery over death for Lazarus, He will have it in His own case. In fact, when He is on the cross, He will defeat death, when He defeats sin, when He destroys your enemies.

Funny thing is, you can be pretty sure it’s not what the Pharisees meant last week when they were interrogating the man who had been born blind. They said, “Give glory to God,” and then wanted the man to knowingly lie. I’m pretty sure, lying is not going to give any kind of glory to God.

But what does? This resurrection of Lazarus did, and the account of his resurrection carries us from this Sunday through the week, right to next Sunday. Even more, it carries us to the Friday of that week, known as Good Friday and then eventually to the Sunday after that as we celebrate our Lord’s Resurrection.

Yeah, we’re that close to Easter. This is the 5th week and next week is Palm/Passion Sunday. It’s coming fast. not Usually, then they’ll think about the music. A band, a praise band up front, cranking out some loud tunes, as the people sing praise songs.

But Lutherans don’t sing those kinds of songs, or at least Lutherans that want to stay in the Lutheran tradition, which is actually a continuation of the Church the apostles of Jesus had begun. Because, yes, that’s what we are. The teachings of the Lutheran Church come down to us from the Bible, of course, but as the apostles taught the Bible to the next set of Christians, and as they taught the next set.

Their music of worship never would have mimicked the music of the world, which is what these kind of praise songs would be doing.

And even if we don’t have a praise band, we’re surely not going to sing those songs that have been called 7-11 songs—songs with seven words, sung 11 times, but that is what most Christians think about when we talk about glorifying God.

That’s clearly not what Jesus was talking about when He talks about the glory of God or glorifying God. In fact, what a lot of people think is glorifying God, is nothing even close to what Jesus means.

So, do we as Lutherans glorify God when we come to worship? And if we do, how does it happen? And to get us started,

How is He glorified? I would say in two ways based on today’s text. According to today’s text, it’s very simple. When we cling to Him in faith saying, “You are my only hope,” while seeing that hope is clearly in Christ. Seeing that this hope is in Jesus alone. We can break that into two parts. And when we confess Him to be, not only our Savior, but one with His Father. The resurrection of Lazarus demonstrates that second part.

Just as Jesus was lifting Mary and Martha, and intended to do it for their sake, for Thomas’ sake, for the sake of the Jews that were watching, I am Showing who He isThe Father is the same One; You see the Son; you see the FatherThe character of God in the O.T. is the same character we see in the NTEveryone loves JesusTo Philip: If you have seen me, you have seen the FatherI and my Father are one

Again, if it’s a matter of your goodness, or how hard you try, you bet it’s pompous and arrogant. It’s not just pompous and arrogance, to claim you could be good enough based on how hard you try, it’s sheer idiocy. It flies in the face of truth. God can have nothing less than absolute perfection. If you’re not reaching that, then it doesn’t matter how hard you try. You’re lost.

I’m not talking about it relative perfection, like “compared to this person or that person, I’m pretty close to perfection (which already sounds really bad).” No, I’m saying, absolute perfection, never, ever sinned. Not even born with sin. You need to have that kind of perfection. And you bet it would be pompous and arrogant to say you could be sure, based on what you do.

It’s actually pompous and arrogant to even say you hope you are saved, because then you are saying, “Well, I’m trying as hard as I can to reach absolute perfection, and I must be doing pretty well, because I’m not ready to say, that I’m not making it.

You should realize, to say otherwise, to say, “I guess I’m not making it,” is to say “Well, it looks like I’m going to hell.”

Very often when a congregation has not been accustomed to liturgical chant (at least in the pastor's parts of the dialogue) some will have an emotional reaction to it and declare it "Roman Catholic". This is, of course, not completely accurate and represents an uninformed opinion. Liturgical chant has a long history from the time of the founding of the Missouri Synod and other synods in North America, to the time of Luther in Germany and Scandinavia, on back to the early church and indeed into the worship of the Old Testament believers in the Messiah. It is nothing new and it is not uniquely Roman Catholic at all. Among Christians one not only finds chant among Roman Catholics but also Anglicans (Episcopalians), Eastern Orthodox, more liturgical Presbyterians, and many Lutherans. Historically speaking, it is representative of the majority of worshiping Christians throughout the centuries. As is clear from Martin Luther, his liturgical reforms sought only to revise what was in error and leave intact and cleansed what good gifts were passed on in the churchs tradition that were unproblematic (i.e., if it isn't broke, dont fix it!). Both of the Divine Service orders produced by Martin Luther featured chant prominently (Formula Missae and the Deutsche Messe). It is also historically known within The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, as this quote from C.F.W. Walther, first Missouri Synod president, testifies: 

Whenever the divine service once again follows the old Evangelical-Lutheran agendas (or church books), it seems that many raise a great cry that it is "Roman Catholic": "Roman Catholic" when the pastor chants "The Lord be with you" and the congregation responds by chanting "and with thy spirit"; "Roman Catholic" when the pastor chants the collect and the blessing and the people respond with a chanted "Amen." Even the simplest Christian can respond to this outcry: "Prove to me that this chanting is contrary to the Word of God, then I too will call it `Roman Catholic' and have nothing more to do with it. However, you cannot prove this to me." If you insist upon calling every element in the divine service "Romish" that has been used by the Roman Catholic Church, it must follow that the reading of the Epistle and Gospel is also "Romish." Indeed, it is mischief to sing or preach in church, for the Roman Church has done this also . . .Those who cry out should remember that the Roman Catholic Church possesses every beautiful song of the old orthodox church. The chants and antiphons and responses were brought into the church long before the false teachings of Rome crept in. This Christian Church since the beginning, even in the Old Testament, has derived great joy from chanting... For more than 1700 years orthodox Christians have participated joyfully in the divine service. Should we, today, carry on by saying that such joyful participation is "Roman Catholic"? God forbid! Therefore, as we continue to hold and to restore our wonderful divine services in places where they have been forgotten, [italics mine] let us boldly confess that our worship forms do not tie us with the modern sects or with the church of Rome; rather, they join us to the one, holy Christian Church that is as old as the world and is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. [Der Lutheraner, July 19, 1853, issue, volume 9, number 24, page 163]

Jn 17:11 Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

Jn 10:30 I and the Father are one.”

John 14:8-9 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?