Jesus Raises Lazarus, Part 2

[0:00] We are continuing our consideration of the miracles of our Lord and we are in John's Gospel chapter 11. We will be pursuing this for probably the next, well we may finish it today, but if we don't we'll finish it next week for sure.

[0:18] And I want to remind you that what is transpiring here in John chapter 11 is just a very few days away from the crucifixion.

[0:30] Jesus is very near the end of his earthly ministry at this point in John's Gospel. And if you will recall, the way John's Gospel is laid out, we will see how that, here we are in chapter 11, and we will see how that beginning in chapter 13, and then 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, all transpire in a matter of a few hours.

[1:00] So that's how John is going to compact all of this together. And this is one of the things that makes his Gospel different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in that he is covering things in a different time frame, and in much more detail, particularly in connection with the Last Supper in the upper room and things like that.

[1:20] So now we are leading into, or we've already entered actually the raising of Lazarus, and from a human standpoint, insofar as the Pharisees and the scribes, who I've referred to as the Jewish establishment, the deep state at that time, the raising of Lazarus is for them going to be the final straw.

[1:45] It is that event that is going to put a certain kind of fear and concern into the Roman establishment, or the establishment that is subject to Rome, and they are going to utilize the powers of Rome to get rid of Jesus.

[2:05] Now, I want you to look over, if you will, before we even get there. And in the same chapter, in connection with verse 47, here's where the conspiracy is hatched.

[2:21] The chief priests, Pharisees, convened a council saying, what are we doing? This man is performing many signs, many miracles. And you would think, you would think that someone would say, yes, he is.

[2:39] What does all this mean? Let's pursue this. Let's find out about this. How does he do this? No. Look, there is nothing so blind and no one so blind as those who will not see.

[2:52] These individuals had already made up their mind. There is a power struggle going on between Jesus and his popularity and them and their authority.

[3:03] And they are not about to give up their authority. So I want you to look ahead and keep in mind where this is going as we go back to, in just a few moments, the actual raising of Lazarus.

[3:17] This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, all men will believe in him. And the upshot of that is that would be terrible. And the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.

[3:34] And here is the point. It all has to do with the identity of this person. If all believe in him, what is it that they're going to believe?

[3:48] They're going to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. They're going to believe that Jesus is the King of the Jews. And when that word King gets bandied about, uh-oh, everything changes.

[4:05] Because the issue is no longer just religious and the religion of the Jews. But when you're talking about King, you just entered the area of politics.

[4:21] And that raises a specter that they are not willing to identify with. The Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.

[4:33] And the implication is, if all men believe in him, they're talking about all the Jews. If they believe in him, what does that mean? That means they are going to have to challenge Rome because Rome is the power.

[4:47] Rome is the political power that is entrenched there in Israel as invaders. And the Jewish people are under their authority.

[4:59] And Rome is not about to surrender that. So if these people believe Jesus is the Messiah, they come to that conclusion. They start making those noises. That's going to pose a threat to Rome.

[5:10] And do you think Rome is going to stand for that? Not for one moment. And that's what he means when he says the Romans will come and take away our place. That is, our position, our authority as priests, etc.

[5:23] And certain of them, Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, said, You guys, you aren't thinking this thing through.

[5:35] Don't you see what's taking place here? You know nothing at all. Nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people.

[5:46] He's not talking about the substitutionary death of Christ for the sins of the world. No! He's talking about offering up Jesus as a sacrificial lamb to take the heat off from the Romans.

[5:58] That's what he's talking about. It isn't giving himself a ransom for all. He didn't believe that for a moment. He's talking about the pure politics of the whole thing.

[6:09] And that the whole nation should not perish. And he's talking again about Rome coming down with their heavy hand like they always do when they confront an insurrection. And they are determined to stamp it out.

[6:22] And you get Rome riled up and they can be very, very brutal. And they all knew that. Now, this he did not say on his own initiative.

[6:34] But being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation. And he didn't even know it. So don't assign an intelligence to this man that he does not deserve.

[6:50] He's thinking strictly in practical terms. He's not thinking at all of the sacrificial death of Christ on behalf of sinners. That's not the way he's thinking. He's looking at this purely politically.

[7:01] And not for the whole nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. And that's not something that he said.

[7:12] That's something that John said. So from that day on, they planned together to kill him. They had just put this big bullseye on the back of Jesus and had concluded that he's got to go.

[7:25] And it is the raising of Lazarus that is really going to bring them to that crisis conclusion. And here the plot will begin. And it won't be long.

[7:38] It'll be just a very few days from this event that Judas will go to these same people, these same priests, and make the proposition, what will you give me if I deliver it to you, and so on.

[7:53] So let's get back now to chapter 11. And we've already seen how Jesus has received word that Lazarus is sick. He deliberately waits before he goes to Bethany, actually waits for him to die.

[8:09] And by the time Jesus gets there with the apostles, Lazarus has been dead four days and is buried. Jewish people ordinarily bury on the same day of a person's death.

[8:22] If one dies in the morning, they are buried that afternoon. If they die in the evening, they are buried first thing in the morning.

[8:33] There is no embalming. There's no delay. There's no viewing. There's no et cetera like we do here in the Western world. This is an entirely different kind of situation. So Lazarus has been dead four days.

[8:45] And we wonder, and this is just speculation, and I want you to think about it, but I don't have a chapter and verse for it. But there is a very obvious reason why Jesus deliberately delayed until he was dead for four days.

[9:03] And I just have a hankering suspicion that I cannot verify, but I'll just throw it out there and you can think of it. Earlier, Jesus raised Jairus' daughter.

[9:17] And he was the little girl to whom Jesus came into the house. The only ones in there with him were Peter, James, and John and the parents. He put everybody else out. And Jesus, remember, he said, well, she's not dead, but she sleeps.

[9:29] And they laughed and they thought, you know. But she really was dead. And Jesus took her by the hand and said, Talitha, arise. And she sat up.

[9:41] And she was alive again. And they were amazed. But because the death had been of such a short time, there may well have been a hint of suspicion.

[9:56] Maybe she wasn't really dead. Maybe she just revived. And then, the son of the widow of Nain, earlier in John's Gospel, when Jesus touched the bier, and he, too, had been dead a very short period of time, because, as I mentioned, the Jews had you buried within hours, if they can, of death.

[10:21] And he touched the bier and said, young man, arise. And he rose. And he gave him back to his mother and so on. So, I don't have any doubt that the scriptures were right when they said both of them were dead.

[10:35] But, it may very well have caused some suspicion to linger in the minds of those who witnessed it, that maybe they weren't really dead.

[10:47] They were just kind of resuscitated. What, Joe? Go ahead. Go ahead. I'm just going to say, it's obvious why Jesus delayed and did this and rose him from the dead.

[10:58] It seems obvious. It was his time. He knew it was his time. And so, he was setting it up so that these people would react the way you said they did before, so they would make plans to kill him, to put him on the cross.

[11:14] It was obvious why he did it. All right. Thank you, Joe. You were listening well, and I appreciate it. And the four days that he allowed to expire before he got there were very deliberate, and it could remove all possible doubt about the one that he brought back really being dead.

[11:39] And this could remove any doubt at all about the others, because once you're dead and you're wrapped in grave clothes and placed in the grave, as they say down south, you're plum dead.

[11:58] And there's no two ways about that. No question about that at all. And that, I think, and this, again, is just a Wiseman opinion, why he deliberately waited that length of time so there could be no possible doubt.

[12:14] And in my estimation, this is his second greatest miracle. His greatest miracle of all will be his own when he comes back from the grave, and we'll be looking at that a little later.

[12:29] So, now the situation is Jesus is with the twelve, and they are on the way to Bethany. And before they arrive there, before they get to town, Mary and Martha hear that Jesus has been summoned and that he's coming.

[12:44] And we are told in verse 20, Martha, therefore, when she heard Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him.

[12:55] Mary is still in the house. And when Martha confronts Jesus on the road before they had actually gotten to Bethany, she said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

[13:09] Even now I know whatsoever you ask of God, God will give you. Jesus said unto her, Your brother shall rise again.

[13:20] Martha said to him, Oh, I know, I understand that, that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.

[13:33] And there's a very curious usage here in the Greek that doesn't come out in the English. But in the Greek language, it is ego, I, ego, I, ego, I, ego, I'm sorry.

[13:49] Ego, I, me. Ego, I, myself. And it literally means I, from the word in the Greek, ego, from which we get the word ego and egotistic. I, myself.

[14:01] He just didn't say I am the resurrection and the life. He said I, myself, am the resurrection and the life. Even though that doesn't come out in the English, it is there in the Greek.

[14:11] And it is a specific way that the Greek uses of emphasizing the person who is speaking as being the very one. I, myself, and no other.

[14:23] That's the kind of expression that is given here. And the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me shall live even if he dies.

[14:35] And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Now, do you believe this? She said unto him, yes, Lord, I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, even he who comes into the world.

[14:52] But that's not what he asked her. She, here is a sister dearly loving her brother who is deceased. And the grief and the shock and the everything just kind of affects one's emotions.

[15:10] And she answers the question with an answer that is really not material to the question that he asked. And yet, I think this is the kind of thing that grief can do to a person.

[15:23] And she is obviously in mourning. And she said, yes, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, even he who comes into the world. Well, that was then and it is now the central issue regarding Jesus of Nazareth.

[15:44] That is his identity. Once that is settled, everything else falls into place. If he is who he claimed to be, then nothing in the whole world matters more than you being rightly related to him.

[16:07] If he is not who he claims to be, then dismiss him. He's not worthy of your belief, your trust, or anything else. Nor is he even a good example.

[16:20] Because if he isn't who he claimed to be, then he's either a liar or a lunatic, as Josh McDowell has pointed out with the trilemma. So everything.

[16:30] And by the way, this was the case 2,000 years ago, and it is still the same case. Still the same issue, 2,000 years later. Everything rises or falls on the identity of this person.

[16:45] Either he is or he is not. And if you want a study that is enriching and enlightening, and I've encouraged you to do this before. Maybe you've already done it, but if you haven't, please do.

[16:57] In quiet and solitude, take the Gospel of John and start with chapter 1. And every time you come to the phrase, he who sent me, or he from whom I came, or why I was sent, underline it.

[17:17] Note it. And see how many times that occurs just in John's Gospel. You will find it over 30 times in 21 chapters.

[17:33] It will be a good exercise for you. I've done it a couple of times, and each time I've found another one that I overlooked. So give it some thought. It's a marvelous, marvelous study. When he says, I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me shall live, even if he dies.

[17:50] Now we've got a play on words here that has to be understood against the backdrop of one thing that is very, very important. And that is Jesus often utilizes the figurative and the literal together.

[18:05] And he does so repeatedly, and the context always reveals that. In other words, there's two kinds of life. There's physical life and there's spiritual life.

[18:16] There's two kinds of light. There's physical light and there's spiritual light. There's two kinds of water. Physical water, spiritual water.

[18:28] And there's two kinds of death. Spiritual death and physical death. Two kinds of life. Physical life, spiritual life, and so on. Those are contrast.

[18:38] And all of that is to simply say, we are more than a body. We have another dimension to our being that is immaterial in addition to the material, which is physical.

[18:51] And that is coming into play here. And when he says, he who believes in me shall live even if he dies, he's talking about the physical.

[19:05] And then he says, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. And here he's talking about the spiritual.

[19:16] And if you have spiritual life, you will never die spiritually. Because when you die physically, your spirit is separated from your body.

[19:29] And that is how Jesus can say that he who believes in me now will never die. Our body dies, but our spirit lives on.

[19:40] And this is in connection with what I mentioned last week when I said there are no dead people. There are dead bodies, but not dead people.

[19:54] When I use the word people, I'm talking about personhood. Not just your physical body, but the totality of your being. And part of you may be dead and the other part very much alive.

[20:09] And that is the spiritual part of our being. And that's what's coming into play here. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. You can say everyone who lives spiritually and believes in him shall never die spiritually.

[20:22] Anyone who lives and dies physically will never die spiritually or completely. So that is the issue that he's addressing there. And she said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, even he who comes into.

[20:38] And she just admitted that she didn't understand at all what he was saying. Yet she felt compelled to say something that would be contributing to the whole situation.

[20:50] And then when she had said this, she went away and called Mary, her sister, saying secretly, the teacher is here and he is calling for you.

[21:01] And when she heard it, she arose quickly and was coming to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village. He's on the outskirts of the town, this little village.

[21:14] But was still in the place where Martha met him. The Jews then, who were with her in the house and consoling her, this is the mourning party, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

[21:40] But that's not where she was going at all. Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw him and fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

[21:58] She's saying, I know you would have prevented that had you been here. When Jesus, therefore, saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled.

[22:19] He's internally very upset. And scholars have written volumes over what was it that caused Jesus to be so upset.

[22:29] And the theories range all the way from Lazarus was a good personal friend and Jesus was stricken by his death.

[22:43] Frankly, that's a little difficult for me to get my brain around simply because he knew exactly what he was going to do when he got there.

[22:54] He knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. So it's kind of difficult, at least for me, to presume that he is weeping and mourning over the death of a good friend when he knew full well he wasn't going to stay dead.

[23:12] He was going to bring him back to life. I wouldn't think that he would feel that way. You try to put yourself in this position of at the same time you realize you're not the Lord. So you can't do that as fully as you'd like.

[23:24] So there are other motives involved. One might be that he was just, as a human, because Jesus was every bit human, as he was divine, he was smitten by the reality of death and what death had done to impair the whole of humanity beginning with Genesis.

[23:49] And he was, in his humanity, overcome with that, which is a distinct possibility. I cannot say for sure. But I do know this.

[24:03] I do know that any time you assign a group of verses for young people in Sunday school to memorize, I know all of the boys will zero in on John 1135, Jesus wept.

[24:19] Two shortest, shortest verse in the whole Bible. Everybody can remember that. John 1135, Jesus wept. You can commit that to memory and it'll be there forever.

[24:30] So, but apart from that, the pathos, the grief, the atmosphere of mourning, and the fact that Jesus knew full well that the majority of the people there, if not all of them, really didn't know who he actually was.

[24:55] And when he makes a statement, I am the resurrection and the life, I myself am the resurrection and the life, they still didn't grasp it.

[25:09] You know something? Most people don't today. Think about that. This is a 2,000 year old account.

[25:21] And most people today still don't really grasp this. The resurrection and the life. Deeply moved in spirit was troubled.

[25:34] And he said, where have you laid him? Now that's an interesting question. Here is somebody who is supposed to know everything. Doesn't he know where he's buried? Doesn't he know where he's laid? Why is he asking them as if he doesn't have a clue?

[25:47] And the only thing I can suggest is that it is nothing more than Jesus making the kind of conversation that takes place when he asks a question about anything that he already knows the answer to.

[26:00] And he is simply engaging in the conversation of the day. And that's part of it. That's also involved with his weeping.

[26:11] And they said, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. The Jews were saying, behold how he loved him.

[26:23] And when the text says that Jesus wept, it's kind of like his weeping over Jerusalem as he approaches the town. He weeps over Jerusalem. If thou hadst only known the time of your visitation, but now it is hidden from you, and so on, so on.

[26:40] And in both of these cases, it doesn't mean that Jesus shed tears. You know, you've seen pictures where little tear trickles down the cheek.

[26:53] But the text indicates in the Greek that Jesus broke up. He wept profusely. He sobbed.

[27:05] He didn't just shed a tear. He really cried in a way that one would who is undergoing deep and severe mourning.

[27:18] And my thinking is, and this is just a Wiseman opinion, but I think that Jesus is captivated here by the reality and the sadness of death itself.

[27:35] That is that which was imposed on humanity beginning with Adam and Eve, and it has wreaked devastation and destruction on the entire human race, and it is referred to in 1 Corinthians, I think 15, in that resurrection chapter, where Paul says, death is the last enemy that shall be destroyed.

[28:04] It is the death of death. But fellas, seriously, can you think of anything sadder that invades the human being or invades the family?

[28:16] Can you think of anything sadder or more disturbing than death? Those of you like myself who have experienced the death of a dearly loved one, you know you have never experienced anything like that in your life before.

[28:42] It is simply indescribable. It has an exquisite painful nature to it that you cannot put into words. Jesus recognizes the brokenness, the sadness, the devastation, everything negative that comes with death, the separation, the division, there is nothing like it in the world.

[29:12] No wonder it is called the last enemy. It is an enemy. And Jesus Christ came into this world to conquer death.

[29:25] And he has done that in the cross and that is our guarantee that if a man dies shall he live again? You better believe it because death is not the final thing.

[29:38] And it is I think that it was just the whole specter of death itself and the devastation that it brings. My opinion is that's what caused Jesus to break up and weep.

[29:52] He's weeping for the whole human race for whom he's going to die. and it is a striking striking thing. Some of them said in verse 37 could not this man who opened the eyes of him who was blind have kept this man also from dying?

[30:18] Now I've wondered why they didn't use like the son of the widow of Nain as an example or Jairus' daughter as an example because they were both dead but why would they say open the eyes of the blind?

[30:34] Actually opening the eyes of the blind is no comparison to bringing somebody back from the dead. If you're going to take a position as to which is the greater miracle there cannot be a greater miracle than the impartation of life into that which is dead and that supersedes anybody being blind or deaf or anything else.

[30:57] This is this death is the big one. It's the big one. And yet they're talking about open the eyes of the blind and it could be that they were not aware of Jairus' daughter or because this is far removed from that you've got to remember the son of the widow of Nain and Jairus' daughter were both way up north well over a hundred miles from where this event with Lazarus is taking place and the vast majority of the miracles that Jesus did he did in Galilee he did some in Judea but most of them in Galilee so we read in verse 38 Jesus therefore again being deeply moved within came to the tomb now it was a cave and a stone was lying against it and you need to understand these caves because it really adds to the appreciation of the whole picture there is a huge amount of stone in Israel and I think it was

[32:12] I think it was Golda Meir when she was prime minister years and years ago quip that God gave God gave the Arabs all the oil and he gave the Jews all the rocks all the stones and there is a huge amount of stone in Israel the vast majority of it is limestone and the characteristic of limestone is that it is very workable it's not like marble and it's not like granite both of which are very very hard very difficult to penetrate but limestone you can work with you can chisel and this is what they made the huge huge blocks out of that surrounded the temple area the wall and it's still standing by the way the western wall these huge things they're all limestone and it was not unusual at all for people to go down to the limestone and there's bedrock all around and they could cut into that and hollow it out and make it literally a crypt like it wasn't underground it was above ground but it was like in the side of a hill and there's a lot of hills you wouldn't call them mountains because they're not high enough to be mountains but there are a lot of hills all around and they could cut into that get through the top soil into the stone and hollow that out and there are many many of those all throughout

[33:52] Israel and that's the kind of tomb that Joseph of Arimathea had it was above ground and you would have to stoop down to get in because the opening was not high enough to walk in straight up and then they would roll this stone down in a trough that was outside of it that would close the mouth of the thing and then in order to get into the tomb you would have to roll the stone away up the incline which of course would be very difficult because most of these stones were anywhere from 8 to 12 inches thick and they could be as much as 4 feet in diameter solid limestone very heavy cut out and rolled around and they would roll it up the trough to open the tomb and then they would put a stick or something in it to hold it there so it wouldn't come back down and then when it came time to close the tomb they just removed the obstacle and let it come back down out of the trough close the mouth of the thing and remember when the women were going to the tomb of Jesus they on their way there said how are we going to get the stone rolled away these two women they wouldn't be able to do that and of course we know the angel is going to do it and he'll be sitting on it when they get there but that's the kind of burial situation that they have and then inside it would be carved out cut out of all that limestone as much as the accommodations of the area would allow and there could be room for several bodies to be placed in there and they would place them on a ledge and they have ledges all the way around maybe even a couple of tiers and it's a very elaborate kind of tomb that's what

[35:39] Joseph of Arimathea who was a wealthy man had his cut out that way and when the body was placed in there then after a year or so the body would decompose and it would be nothing but skeletal remains and they would gather up the bones and put them in an ossuary and this ossuary was nothing more than a chest it was about about two feet long and maybe a foot wide and a foot thick or foot high with a limestone lid to cover it and they would just lay the bones take the bones from the skeleton and lay them in the box and then the room that the skeleton occupied would be available for a fresh body and they would put another body there and this bone box was called an ossuary and it gave real meaning to the phrase that is used in the Old

[36:44] Testament sometimes about someone dying and being gathered unto their fathers gathered unto their fathers yeah the bones having all of the flesh decayed from them the bones would be taken added to the bone box that was already there that already had the bones of the previous generation in it and they would just keep adding those new bones to the box and you've got bones added to bones from different generations as a time went on and that's the expression gathered to their fathers and it is a common thing in Israel and this is the way it was done back then so our tradition regarding burial and all that is of course radically different from that so you've got to understand how they did it in order to appreciate the text so when Jesus says remove the stone

[37:45] I've always been struck I don't remember who it was but somebody in my days of college made the point here one of the chapel speakers that what God expects us to do is what we can is what he has enabled us to do but when something is required to be done and we've done all we can then it's time for him to take over and do what we can't do and when Jesus said remove the stone roll away the stone he was simply requiring of the people there to do what they were able to do they were able to roll away the stone but that's all they could do they couldn't go any further and when they had done what they were able to do then Jesus takes over and does what he's able to do and personally we need to keep that in mind each and every one of us we are assigned opportunities and responsibilities and we are charged with not only the responsibility but the privilege of doing what we can fully recognizing that we have our limitations that's okay you just do what you can and then leave the rest that you can't do to God but don't expect him to do what you can do he wants you to do that and that also by the way becomes the basis for accountability and reward and so on so it's a wonderful principle here he could have just he's he is going to make

[39:42] Lazarus float out of that tomb he's not going to walk out because he's bound hand and foot Jesus could have floated the stone away but he told them you've removed the stone and they did and then his sister said and here is a woman who is being nothing more than practical and she is aware of what a dead body smells like there is perhaps no odor the equivalent of decaying flesh whether it's an animal or whether it's a human it is an indication of corruption and disintegration and it emits decaying flesh emits a gas a certain gas that is odiferous to the nth degree you know when you see when you when you when you look up and you see buzzards vultures circling around they're just circling around you know you know why they're circling they're just waiting for whatever it is that's down there usually a dead cow or something like that to die and then they descend and they begin eating the flesh and these creatures these vultures have unbelievable sense of smell that far surpasses our ability to smell and they can actually detect the odor coming from that decaying body that is ascending and those buzzards are way up there circling around and they are drawn to that maybe from miles away because they smell that and they will not come down until they know that the thing has died and then they descend it's just revelation talks about when Christ comes in

[42:13] Ezekiel 37 38 talks about the fowl of the air feeding on the carcasses and there are going to be thousands and thousands of them in that great conflict that's going to take place so the sister is rightly concerned because she probably prepared the body and that's one of the reasons that they use the ingredients that they do you know when Jesus was visited as a baby by the magi they brought gold and frankincense and myrrh well we can understand the gold but what what gives with the frankincense and myrrh those were salves they were ointments and they are used primarily primarily for slathering over the body of one who is being prepared for burial and one wonders if the frankincense and myrrh were not simply prophetic and anticipatory of not only gold for royalty but the frankincense and myrrh for his grave clothes and

[43:34] Lazarus is has his body covered with these with these ointments and they are designed to overpower or reduce the odor of decaying flesh so the body is just covered all over smeared all over with this and then wrapped in bandages almost like almost like a mummy and wound tightly like that and when when when Lazarus comes forth we'll see this when he comes forth he is bound hand and foot and he just I can't imagine how he gets out there he would almost have to float he can't he can't hop and he's not walking and the first thing Jesus tells the people standing there is loose him untie let him go and the most remarkable thing that you could ever imagine

[44:37] I just it's just mind boggling so let's get back to the text Lord by this time there will be a stench for he has been dead four days hydrogen sulfide pardon me hydrogen sulfide is the odor hydrogen sulfide there's also methane but methane is odorless okay well hydrogen sulfide okay okay we got that from our local chemist here thank you Joe and this stench is going to be terrible and you've seen people at accident scenes or places like that where the building has collapsed or something and the rescuers go in to try to recover bodies try to find if there's anybody there that's still alive and maybe it's been days after like an earthquake or something like that and so many of them if not all of them are wearing masks and the reason they are is because it is designed to reduce the odor because the odor from all of the decaying corpses there is just overpowering and if you've ever been in a situation like that you know that that and you know something in a way in a way that is a kind of a literal expression of describing now this isn't pleasant but I think it's accurate it is kind of a literal way of describing the foulness and the corruption of a human being it is a kind of picture of what we actually are and the time is coming when that will be done away with and replaced with a glorified body and

[46:31] I don't know this for sure but my suspicion is that with a glorified body you will not even need deodorant but you do with this one and you know it's all part and parcel of the if the body if the physical body is capable of putrefaction like that disgusting nauseating odor think of what our sin must be like in the nostrils of the holy god well can you imagine that even while we were dead in sin as rotten and putrid as you could imagine god still loved us that is amazing that is absolutely amazing he still loved us and cared for us and was willing to do what he did for us oh boy oh boy jesus said to her did i not say to you if you believe you will see the glory of god and so they removed the stone jesus raised his eyes and said father i thank thee that thou heardest me and he didn't say uh you did hear me didn't you no he knew he heard him i thank you that you heard me and i knew that thou hearest me always but because of the people standing around i said it that they may believe and here's one of those phrases that i was telling you about that thou didst send me and then he cried out with a loud voice and we'll save that for next week so thank you all for your kind attention