We are taking note of the movement from the old Israel to the new Israel: from the earthly, historic Israel to the new, heavenly, spiritual Israel; from the old, earthly house of Israel to the new, heavenly Israel.
The Gospel of John is one of the books in the New Testament especially concerned with this matter. In a particular way, this Gospel presents the transition from the old to the new—from what was in Old Testament times to what is now in New Testament times.
We have indicated that in this Gospel there are sixteen points in that transition, and we have already dealt with thirteen of them. So tonight we come to number fourteen, which is in the eleventh chapter of the Gospel.
It would take too much of our time to read the whole chapter, especially because I have some other scriptures that I want to bring in. Most of you will be familiar with this account of the death and raising of Lazarus. If you are not familiar with it, just look down the chapter as quickly as possible.
I shall be dealing with it in a general way, but I want to bring in, alongside that chapter, some passages from the Old Testament. First, the prophecies of Ezekiel, chapter 37, verse 12.
I hope you do not think I am insulting your intelligence. Ezekiel 37:12 says:
Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves,
and cause you to come up out of your graves, O My people;
and I will bring you into the land of Israel.
And verse 13:
And ye shall know that I am the Lord,
when I have opened your graves,
and caused you to come up out of your graves, O My people.
Now turn to the prophecies of Isaiah, chapter 11, verse 11:
And it shall come to pass in that day,
that the Lord will set His hand again the second time
to recover the remnant of His people, that shall remain,
from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros,
and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar,
and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
Now turn to the New Testament, to Romans 9:27:
And Isaiah crieth concerning Israel,
If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
it is the remnant that shall be saved.
And Romans 9:29:
Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
we had become as Sodom,
and had been made like unto Gomorrah.
You will remember those Scriptures as I refer to them as we go along.
Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany,
of the village of Mary and her sister Martha.—John 11:1
We have been seeing that, in this whole Gospel, there is a Jewish background to everything. As the Lord is building His new Israel, the background is the old Israel. That is, you can see the new, spiritual Israel in the light of God’s dealings with the old, earthly Israel.
At this point, the old Israel was being put aside. God is bringing in His new Israel after the Spirit—His new, heavenly Israel.
Now, to see the Israel that is being rejected, just note some verses here. Once more, you will see how unfortunate it is that the chapters are divided. Of course, they have to be divided as a convenience for public reading, but in your private reading you are never to take too much notice of these chapter divisions.
Look back to John 10. This is speaking about Jesus:
They sought again to take Him:
and He went forth out of their hand.—John 10:39
Again:
The Jews answered Him, For a good work we stone Thee not,
but for blasphemy;
and because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God.—John 10:33
Now, in John 11:
Then after this He saith to the disciples,
Let us go into Judaea again.The disciples say unto Him, Rabbi,
the Jews were but now seeking to stone Thee;
and goest Thou thither again?—John 11:7–8
Now, you see the Jewish background. Repeatedly they attempted to stone Jesus. They wanted to do with Him what later they did with His servant Stephen: leave Him broken in body and dead. Again and again they took up stones against Him.
That is the Jewish background of John 11, and it very clearly shows us why this old Israel had to be set aside, and why God must have another, new Israel. That kind of Israel can never serve the purpose of God. So that Israel is rejected.
Now, if you remove the chapter mark, the death and raising of Lazarus is set right in that background. We must never take some story as an incident in itself. We must always recognize that it relates to something else.
This dying and raising of Lazarus is set right in that Jewish background. This was not just a coincidence, not just a chance thing that happened. Jesus made it perfectly clear that this was in the plan of God. You read the story, and it is quite clear from what Jesus said that this was all planned.
It was arranged by God that Lazarus should die, and Jesus was not going to interfere with that. It had to be, because it stood related to some very great thing that God was doing.
Well, let us look at Lazarus. Our friend Lazarus had a sickness for which there was no cure. I do not know how many doctors there were in Bethany, or even in Jerusalem, just a few miles away. But I am quite sure that, if there were any doctors about during those four days, the sisters would have sent for them.
But whether they sent for the doctors or not, the doctors could have done nothing. Lazarus had just got to die in the plan of God. He had a sickness of which there was no cure, and even Jesus, who had more than once raised the dead, would not interfere with this matter.
When Jesus heard about it, He stayed where He was. Of course, that made a great problem for the sisters, and it gave something to the enemies. They said:
Could not this man, who opened the eyes of him that was blind,
have caused that this man also should not die?—John 11:37
The sisters misunderstood, and the enemies misjudged. But Jesus was not going to be moved by anything. He let Lazarus die. Was it a hopeless situation?
Well, what did Jesus say when He received the message from the sisters of Lazarus?
This sickness is not unto death,
but for the glory of God,
that the Son of God may be glorified thereby.—John 11:4
And yet He let him die. He evidently meant that this sickness was not unto death forever. He said, “Our friend Lazarus is fallen asleep.” This death was not going to be the last word.
Now let us note this as we go along: the spiritual knowledge of Jesus. Although He was a long way away from Bethany, He knew exactly the moment when Lazarus died. No one sent a second message to Him.
Then Jesus therefore said unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead.—John 11:14
Jesus knew in His spirit what had happened. He knew in His spirit that Lazarus had died. In His spirit, He always knew when there was death and when there was life anywhere.
I am tempted to stop there and put in something else. You know, dear friends, that the Lord Jesus is in us by His Spirit. We always know when things are alive or dead. We may go among some people and say, “My word, there is no life here. It is all dead.” Or we may go among other people and say, “There is life here.”
Well, you know in your spirit. No one has to tell you that those people are dead or alive. Now, that is just something by itself.
Now we have the Jewish background, the immediate connection of the incident—that is, its connection with old Israel. That is why I read those Scriptures from Ezekiel and Isaiah.
When Israel was in captivity in Babylon and Assyria, the Lord said they were dead and buried. He said, “When I shall open their graves.” To the Lord, they were in their grave. Then Isaiah said that a remnant should return.
That remnant was the people who came out of the grave of Assyria and Babylon. Did you notice that, in Romans 9, Paul takes that up and brings it over into the New Testament? He takes Isaiah’s word about a remnant.
In Romans, he is saying that, out of the old, dead Israel, there is going to come a remnant that is resurrected by God. That remnant of Israel is going to be incorporated into the new, heavenly Israel.
That is why this story of Lazarus is put right in the Jewish setting. You notice that Jesus deliberately moved into the Jewish area. It was there that they had repeatedly tried to stone Him.
He said to His disciples, “Let us go back.” They said, “Lord, they have only just recently tried to stone You there, and You are going back?” But He would not accept that argument. He went deliberately into the Jewish area, although it was so hostile to Him.
Why did He do it? The story of Lazarus is the answer. This death and raising of Lazarus was set over against that Jewish situation, right in the midst of the rejected, dead, and buried old Israel.
You may have thought that, when the Lord wanted to start His new work, He would have gone to some other country. He might have said, “Well, I can do nothing in Jerusalem. I can do nothing in Palestine. Let Me go to India. Let Me go to Switzerland and start afresh all over again.”
But He deliberately went back into Judaea, and He said, “In the place of death, I am going to have resurrection.”
The day of Pentecost is wonderful for that. If ever there was an impossible situation, it was Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. The old Israel had been rejected by God; it was spiritually dead. And right there, God brought to birth His new Israel.
That is the immediate setting and meaning of this incident. But, as we said, Paul carries this whole thing right over into the New Testament. Because God has set the old Israel aside, God is going to bring out of that very place of death His new Israel. It is going to be saved through union with Jesus Christ in death and resurrection.
And what is the new Israel? Here again, get rid of your chapter divisions. From a certain standpoint, they can be a perfect nuisance. In the letter to the Romans, remove the numbers. What are marked chapters 9, 10, and 11 deal, on the one side, with the death of the old Israel—the rejected nation—and then with the remnant that will be brought through.
But then go straight into Romans 12. It is about the body. There is one body.
What is the body of Christ? It is not Jew and Gentile brought together while retaining their own distinctiveness. It is both giving up their own distinctiveness and becoming one in Christ.
In another place Paul says that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek. We are all one man in Christ.
So that, when the old Israel is removed, a remnant is taken out of it and buried with Christ—taken out and raised together with Christ. It does not come back as a Jewish remnant. It comes back as part of the body of Christ.
Well now, I have said that this is the immediate connection. The New Testament teaches us that the cross of Jesus Christ does not cure the old man. It crucifies him.
Now, that is the trouble with most of us. Let us be perfectly honest about it: we want the Lord to cure our old man, to make the old man a good old man, to remove from him all his faults, all that is wrong with him, all his sinful nature.
The cross of the Lord Jesus does not do that with the old man. The cross of the Lord Jesus says that the old man is dead and buried.
Our old man was crucified with Him.
—Romans 6:6
Jesus never came to any old man to heal him and make him better. And we are waiting all the days of our life for the Lord to make us better. Right to the end of our life, the old man will still be the old man—but with this difference: God looks upon him as dead and in the grave, crucified with Christ.
Jesus would not cure Lazarus of his sickness. God would not cure Israel of its evil nature. God said, “It must die.”
That is only half of the story, but let us be quite clear about this. There will always be an incurable background in our life which is not cured. It is there all the time. It is not cured of its spiritual maladies.
Any day that you like, if you like to go back onto the ground of the old man, you can commit the same old sin. That is what the New Testament teaches on one side.
But the glory will be in that which stands over against the background. The glory will be in what is in the foreground.
We may have a sick body. The Lord does not always heal sick bodies. Sometimes He does, but He does not always do so, even with some of the very best saints that He has had. Some of the best saints that God has ever had have had sick bodies.
We may have a sick human nature, and we all know that is true. We are all the time up against the troubles in one another. “Oh, if only I could forget what that brother or that sister is in himself or herself, I would have a happy time.” But you know, he is such an awkward man. He loves the Lord dearly, but if you come up against him naturally, you do not find him a very easy man to get on with.
And the Lord does not seem to deal with that. I do not expect, dear friends, however long I live, that the day will come when everybody will think I am perfect. Perhaps in my last days before going to the Lord, people will find some difficulties with me.
Paul, right at the end of his life, said, “Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect.” I am not saying that we ought not to lose some of those strong, wrong ways in our lives. Grace can work miracles in our human nature.
But if you are looking for the day, in this life, when you are going to be absolutely free from your bad human nature, you are doomed to disappointment. There is another side to it.
You and I can live in the power of His resurrection with a very sick body and with a very poor human nature. The power of His resurrection can cover so much. The foreground can be the power of His resurrection.
We have to say about some people, “Well, you know, they are so weak physically. They know so much about sickness. And yet look at what the Lord enables them to do. It is a miracle how much work they get through.”
They ought to have been dead a hundred times, but they go on—not in their own strength. There is another strength that is over their weakness.
When I am weak, then am I strong.
—2 Corinthians 12:10
The power of Christ’s resurrection overcomes weakness. The weakness is there, but he is not hindered by that. He said:
I glory in infirmities,
that the power of Christ may rest upon me.—2 Corinthians 12:9
He was speaking of his physical infirmities, and he was speaking of the power of Christ resting upon him. What is true in the physical realm is true in the spiritual realm. If we live in ourselves, we will give up.
Oh, what a lot of infirmities there are in our natures. We are always carrying about a lot of spiritual sicknesses. You understand what I mean? These natural infirmities of ours—what a trouble they are.
And if ever we say, “Well, I cannot,” and then, because we cannot, say, “I give it up,” then, dear friends, we have forfeited the greatest blessing of the Christian life.
Think of all that the Apostle Paul had to do and to suffer. The terrible, terrible life that he had to live from one standpoint. He had a weak and infirm body. He had enemies everywhere he went.
He suffered three shipwrecks. You know, they tell us of only one, but he says there were three. He was in the sea a day and a night. He was in nakedness and in hunger. He had to travel on foot mile after mile, month after month.
We can gather up all the difficulties in that life. If ever a man ought to have said, “I cannot go on. I may as well give it up,” that man was Paul. But what did he say?
I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.
—Philippians 4:13
Not, “I can do all things.” I would have said, “I can do nothing.” But, “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.”
There was a day when he naturally despaired even of life. He said:
We had the sentence of death within ourselves,
that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God who raiseth the dead.—2 Corinthians 1:9
Lazarus was absolutely hopeless and helpless. He could do nothing. That is how we are naturally. But Jesus said, “It is for the glory of God.”
Dear friends, the glory of God is manifested in those who, in themselves, are as good as dead, but whom He enables to go on and to do much for Him.
Jesus may not always heal us in body or in nature. But if He does not heal us, He can give us divine life. And divine life is the great thing.
Some of you have heard of God’s great servant, Dr. A. B. Simpson. Dr. Simpson was a great believer in divine healing, and he wrote a book on divine healing.
But although he was such a great believer in divine healing, he said this, so that no one would misunderstand his position: “I do not say that everybody has got to be healed, but I do say that everybody can know divine life.”
Divine life is something more than natural life. Well, back to Lazarus. The Lord did not heal him, but the Lord gave him resurrection life.
And this is the hope of everyone. The Lord may want to heal you in your body. Whether He does it or whether He does not do it, He does not want us to live on our own life. He wants us to live by resurrection life.
That is what Jesus meant when He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God.” If you look through your New Testament, you will see that God is always glorified in resurrection. That is where the glory of God is.
You may see a very weak Christian physically, and you may glorify God in that Christian because of the wonderful power of divine life. You may see a person who has many faults, lots of things about them that you do not like, and yet there is something more than that. There is the Lord’s life in them.
While you may not glory in what they are naturally, you can glorify God for what they are spiritually. That is the real heart of this incident of Lazarus: life out of death is God’s secret.
It is the thing that, most of all, glorifies God.
Put it into operation tomorrow morning. When you get up in the morning, say to the Lord, “Now, Lord, I am no good in myself, but I am going to live this day by the power of Your resurrection.”
There may be impossible situations in yourself or outside of yourself. You just say to the Lord, “Now, Lord, You get glory today by enabling me to live by resurrection life.”
It is something that we are to take by faith every day.
Timothy was evidently a physically weak young man. There was something wrong with his stomach, and it was constantly troubling him. Paul said, “Timothy, lay hold on eternal life.”
You may have an infirmity. If the Lord means everybody to be physically healed, why did Paul not heal Timothy? Paul knew that there was something better than being physically healed: the power of eternal life in a weak physical body.
Lay hold on eternal life. That is resurrection life. It is something that we have got to do.
May the Lord enable us to do it in all times of conscious weakness.