Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We're glad you've joined us for today's program. If you do, you'll also receive Skip's weekly devotional email to inspire you with God's Word each week. So sign up today at connectwithskip.com.
That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. And the 94-year-old sister answered and she said, I don't know. I'll come up and I'll see. So she was going up the stairs. She paused. And she said, now was I going up the stairs or coming down the stairs? She yelled out. And her other sister, the 92-year-old was sitting at the kitchen table downstairs and she shook her head. And she said, man, I hope my mind doesn't go like that when I get older. And she said, and then she went like this, knock on wood, you know, just a reassurance. And then she said, I'll be up to help you gals in a minute. But first, let me see who's at the door.
So these things happen to the best of us. We have been looking at a household in Bethany of two sisters and a brother, Mary and Martha and Lazarus, adult children all sharing the same home. Don't know what their situation was.
Presumably all unmarried, all living in that home, probably a family plot of land passed on to that generation. They were all sharing that home. They were friends of Jesus, not just friends, but close friends. It was Jesus' home away from home when he was in Jerusalem.
Bethany being just on the other side of the Mount of Olives facing the east, they would have had a commanding view of the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley. But Lazarus came down with an illness. And Mary and Martha, knowing that Jesus had a special love for Lazarus, sent him a message, the one that you love is sick, expecting that Jesus would show up and prevent him from getting sick any further, certainly from death.
Didn't happen. He waited until Lazarus was dead, and then he went up to Bethany. Lazarus was a man that Jesus loved, but he was still a man. And being a man, even if Jesus loves you as a man or a woman, men and women that Jesus loves get sick.
And they die. Just because you are loved by God doesn't mean that you won't experience the lot that everyone experiences in this earth. You say, can't God heal? Yes, God can heal. No question.
Never an issue. Will God heal? Sometimes he will. Sometimes he won't.
He will answer all your prayers. Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Last time I checked, that's an answer. So, they were expecting a yes answer.
They got a no answer. But they were about to get something better. But I want to frame it so that you realize once again that we're dealing with humanity and humans get sick. As Eliphaz said in the book of Job chapter 5, Man is born to trouble as surely as the sparks fly upward.
So trouble has entered this home. Lazarus now has died of the disease, whatever it was, we're not sure. Jesus comes as the funeral is taking place. In those days and at that time, because of the warm climate, Mediterranean climate in the region, and because the Jews never embalmed their dead, they buried them immediately. They buried them the same day they died.
That was their practice. So Lazarus by this time has been dead four days. By the time Jesus hits town, he's been in the grave four days. According to Jewish custom, mourning took place for a full month.
I'll never forget a tour guide that I had in Israel when his father died down in South America. He was off the grid for a month because the Jewish mourning is 30 days. The first seven days of those 30 days are intense mourning, intense grieving. And that's typically, if you were to go to a Jewish home, you would see that they look disheveled, they don't shave, they don't wear shoes.
They just sort of let themselves go for seven days. They kind of hover around the house as a sign of mourning and grief. Jesus steps in to this situation.
Oh, something else. A Jewish funeral, unlike an American funeral, you go to an American funeral, it's hello. I'm glad you could come. It's hushed tones and weird music. And I've always thought, I told you last week, I've always been spooked out by funerals.
I just, I would do them a little bit differently, you know, and I try to, but you know, the family wants what the family wants, and so it's usually spooky. But in those days, it was very demonstrative. They thought that if you love someone and they're dead, you should show it. And so they would give full vent to their feelings. Loud mourning, the ripping of clothes, the wearing of sackcloth, the throwing up of dust, and putting ashes on their head.
And I mean, just a demonstration. In fact, in those days, they would hire professional mourners who would, just in case you were in a mood not to really get loud, you were just in a very, very sorrowful, depressing mood, they would keep the atmosphere going by loud mourning and wailing. You know, it was put on. They were hired to do it. But they wanted the neighbors to know, sort of like running the house alarm all day long. You know, it's like, okay, they're still in grief over there. You can hear those professional mourners out there.
They're getting paid a bundle, and they did it for that reason. Now, there were some superstitions about death. And I have discovered that superstitions about death still persist to this day.
And oddly, people who are Christian people, who go to churches and who read Bibles and who you would think would know better, have some of the oddest superstitions. I've been at enough funerals. I've conducted enough funerals to listen to eulogies given. And so I've heard people at funerals say of their beloved, well, now we know there are angels in heaven. That's where they've turned into an angel. I guess God needed another angel.
And I remember when I first heard that, I'd look at them and go, I wonder if they really think that's what happened to their love when they became an angel. But apparently, judging by what he or she is saying, they actually believe that that happens. That does not happen.
Does not happen. I've been at funerals where somebody gets up, a buddy died who loved to play golf, and he'll stand up here and he'll say, you know, George is up in that big, great fairway in the sky right now. Teeing off, shooting it straight down the fairway, as if heaven is a golf course.
Boy, would I be disappointed. And I grew up playing golf, but I'm telling you, if that's heaven, there's going to be a lot of disappointed people. Or, you know, she's up there playing cards right now. She loved to play cards. She's up in heaven playing cards. And some of the goofiest things, or they'll eventually be in heaven, but they have to go to a place called Purgatory and burn off their sins for all of these superstitions about death that are not biblical teachings at all.
But I find them at church funerals, and it's quite disparaging. There were superstitions in that day and age. One of them is that the spirit of the departed, the spirit of the dead, hovered over the grave, hovered over the tomb of the person who died for three days, seeking to re-enter the body. On the fourth day, when composition had begun in full swing, at full measure, the process was now considered irreversible, so the spirit would flee for good. All of that was superstitious.
Now, I'm not saying that Mary and Martha believed that, but I'll bet you there were a bunch of people who did. So I say that because the fourth day was considered irreversible. Jesus shows up on the fourth day. He's been dead four days. Now, he's going to rise that person, raise Lazarus from the dead. It's going to be unmistakable that it's a resurrection, not the fulfillment of some superstition.
So that's just sort of a little bit of a background to this. Let's pick it up in verse 33. Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, Mary, at this point, and the Jews who came with her weeping, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
We commented on that last time. And he said, Where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept.
Then the Jews said, See how he loved him. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, generous friends like you keep this ministry going strong, sharing verse by verse teaching from scripture with people all around the world. And as we prepare to close out another year of ministry, we need your help to meet a $120,000 need by December 31st so that in the new year, more people can connect with the God who loves them and wants to be known by them. Your tax-deductible gift today will have an eternal impact, transforming lives as together we share the unchanging truth of God's word in an ever-changing world. You'll help ensure Connect with Skip Heitzig can continue expanding to reach new audiences through new radio stations in major cities and with the translation of Pastor Skip's messages into Spanish.
To give your year-end gift to help meet the $120,000 need, go to connectwithskip.com slash give or call 800-922-1888 and make an investment that will have eternal returns. Now, let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. Now, notice that it says Mary was weeping and the crowd was weeping. Then it says Jesus wept.
Two different words. When the crowd wept, the Greek word is a wail of grief, an audible wail. Clio is the word, to cry out. When it says Jesus wept, it was a silent weeping. You need to picture here Jesus standing there and tears welling up in his eyes and he's standing there silently as tears flood down his cheeks. Jesus wept.
Does that strike you as odd? Is Jesus weeping because Lazarus is dead? I mean, he knows he's going to raise him in a few minutes, 10 minutes.
It's party time, right? I don't think he's weeping because Lazarus has died necessarily. I don't think it's like I'm missing him right now. I mean, you would think Jesus would come in passing out the Kleenex. He's about to raise Lazarus up and he knows it. So why is he standing there weeping?
It's a touching scene. It's one of the two shortest verses in the Bible. The other one is 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, rejoice always. This is just Jesus wept. First of all, Jesus was entering into the experience of humanity fully.
He was deity but he was also humanity, fully God but fully man. And as our great high priest, what does the writer of Hebrews say? We do not have a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like we are yet without sin. So he fully immersed himself to show himself relatable by weeping like they were weeping. Weep with those that weep, the Bible tells us, rejoice with those that rejoice. Yes, Jesus was about to raise Lazarus from the dead but don't you think it'd be weird if he came in and went, I'm rejoicing because I know what's going to happen.
No, he fully enters into it. I love this. Our great high priest. Well, they interpreted that as Jesus loved him and they said, you see how he loved him and some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying? It's an interesting thing to say. It seems like the crowd at the funeral has picked up the attitude of Martha and Mary.
Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. Both of them said that. It seems like this crowd has picked up this attitude saying, you know, I'm remembering what happened back in chapter nine of this book. And of course, they're not thinking that. But they would be thinking, I know what happened a few months ago at the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, Jesus healed a blind man. That made an impact on the people of Jerusalem. They're still remembering that.
And they're thinking, if he could do that, why couldn't he keep a man from dying? Now, parents, you answer that because you know the answer to that. How many times growing up did your kids misinterpret one of your actions for your lack of love? You don't love me. Well, why would you say that? Because you spanked me. Oh, I did because I love you.
The discipline proves that I love you. It's not because I don't love you. Well, I don't feel it today. Well, it's not what you feel today.
See me in 18 years and let's see how you feel then. Or they'll weep and they'll wail and they'll accuse you of not loving them because you deny them something they want. So they're not being gratified immediately or they're being disciplined immediately and they misinterpret that as a lack of love. Well, couldn't this one, if he loved him, kept him from dying? Yes, but he's about to demonstrate how much he loves him by raising him up from the dead and giving them back to these sisters. Jesus, again, groaning in himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, take away the stone. Now, at first, our Lord simply said, take me to where you've laid him.
Why is that? Because graveyards in those days, typically unmarked, owned by families, were outside of town. You don't have them inside of town because to be in a cemetery defiles a person. Touching a dead person defiles a person. So cemeteries were in caves in those days where they were cut out of rock hills and go to Jerusalem and you'll see they're everywhere.
There's rocks everywhere, there's rock hills everywhere. So Jesus first says, take me to where you've laid him. But what surprises Martha is Jesus says, take the stone away.
Why would that surprise Martha? Funeral's over. He's been dead four days. No embalming fluid. That means one thing, shtank.
Big time shtank. Well, Martha the sister of him who is dead said, Lord, by this time there's a stench. I love the King James I mentioned to you last week. By now he stinketh.
For it has been four days. And Jesus said to her, did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God? I wish I could right now march you into a tomb in the Middle East so you could see it for yourself. But just imagine going up to the side of a rock hill. There is a cave, natural cave that has been further hewn out into a common area where several people could stand. And then you would look around in different places and you would notice that there is a burial place. A little shelf where you could lay a body and then another niche where you could lay a body. Typically a family tomb had about eight of these little ledges where you could put eight human bodies. Then there was a shelf where after the decomposition ran its course, after about a year, you would enter the tomb again.
By that time the flesh has been dissolved and you just have a skeleton. They would collect all the bones of their loved one and put them into this little box called an ossuary. The ossuary met a stone box or a bone box. That's what an ossuary was. You would put the bones, lay it down, the skull on top, close the lid and there's Uncle George.
And there's Aunt Freda. And you would have the family and then now you have made room for more people to die and be buried in their place. And pretty soon you can collect a whole family in there.
Very convenient. Then the tomb was sealed with a stone. It was a large two to three ton stone. Again, I wish I could show you one right by the King David Hotel. If you go out the back door, turn right by the garden and go down to the park, you'll see one of them.
So just remember that next time you're there. And you'll see one of these stones at the mouth of a tomb. They found its 2000 year old tomb. The stone was rolled into like a wheel, rolled into a little ledge that was carved into the stone and it was rolled downward. Why was it rolled downward? To keep grave robbers out and to keep animals out for obvious reasons.
To move a stone out of the way took several people and it took leverage, it took tools to be able to do it. So Jesus says, get the guys out here, take the stone away. Probably Martha was thinking, oh my goodness, he wants to view the body because he loves him so much. By the way, this is why there are open caskets. So I know it seems creepy and gross to some people to actually look at a dead corpse, but the idea is that it's the last point of contact to see your departed one.
And probably Martha is thinking that's what Jesus wants. But at the same time, she's repulsed because she knows it's going to stink. I don't know if you've ever smelt a decaying corpse, but if you have, you'll never forget it. When I was in radiology training in the early days at San Bernardino County Medical Center, we worked with the county coroner who would bring in corpses or parts of corpses, legs, torsos, heads, arms, and have us x-ray them to find the cause of death. Well, if you bring in a corpse or a body part that's been decaying for a couple months, the entire department radiology, emergency room, the whole bottom floor just, it's an unforgettable smell. It's horrible.
Decomposing flesh. Sorry to get into that, but I do want you to get the, you know, we read through this and we have our coffee, and it's not the same. Jesus said to her, did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying, and you know they just held their noses and turned away. Jesus lifted his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me, and I know that you always hear me, but because of the people who are standing by, I said this, that they may believe that you sent me. Now when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
And he who had died came out bound, hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, loose him and let him go. Question, why did Jesus have to pray out loud and say what he said to Lazarus out loud? Did he do it, first of all, so God could hear him? No, he did it so they could hear him. He wanted them to listen to what was going on because he's authenticating the relationship he has with his father.
So he prays aloud, and then he cries out with a loud voice. He didn't have to. He could have whispered it.
He could have fought it in his mind. But he vocalized it loud for a few reasons. Number one, he was about to do a mighty act. And you want to use mighty speech when you're about to do a mighty act. The speech corresponds to the act. Second reason he did it, wizards and mediums whispered and muttered when they gave their incantations and their spells. Jesus, to counteract any thought of that, spoke loudly. And third, he wanted to get their attention. This is what they're about to see is utterly amazing, something that they will not forget ever.
So he calls him out. We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, if you've been blessed by this ministry and want to bless others with the kind of teaching you've heard today, please consider a generous year-end gift to help meet our financial goal by December 31st. Through your support, you'll help encourage and equip more people with solid biblical teaching that takes them verse by verse through Scripture and connects them with Jesus. To give a tax-deductible year-end gift today, call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash give. For more from Skip, be sure to download the Connect with Skip Heidzig app where you can access messages and more content right at your fingertips. Come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heidzig. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast your burdens on His word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heidzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
