Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Mary had come out to meet Jesus; when she arrived she fell at His feet and weeped.

Others had gone out with her, thinking she had gone to weep at the tomb.

So the scene was chaos.

It was the custom of the day to express grief in a noisy, unrestrained manner so Mary, along with the friends and professional mourners with her were making quite a scene.

Deeply Moved — The english translations of the verb “Deeply moved” or “deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled” fail miserably at conveying what the Greek word means here.

The verb denotes a loud, inarticulate noise and often appears for the snorting of horses.

When used of people it denotes anger.

Jesus looked around at the sight of the grieving people and was angry about death and all that it meant for the human race.

We look at death and are tempted to be filled with anxiety, doubts and fear.

Jesus looks at death and is angry at the consequence of sin in the lives of those whom He created.

Sin break God’s heart.

The consequences of sin break God’s heart.

The pain of sin and the suffering which comes with it break God’s heart.

And it angers Him

Sin, suffering, death and broken relationship with God were never meant to be a part of the human experience…it was not part of God’s perfect will for us.

Jesus was also angry at the unbelief around Him. Someone had died, people were grieving but rather than coming to Him for their hope and consolation they were caught up in hopelessness and despondency.

Jesus was indignant toward such denial and rejection of His identity and mission.

God can love us, be broken for our sorrow and angry with our unbelief all at the same time.

He always wants the best for us…His life…His plans and what He can do for us.

May we always been faithful, even in our most difficult moments, to choose faith!

A small boy from a non-Christian home had been brought into the Sunday school.

His mother was not only unsaved, but she had a morbid fear of death.

After her little boy became interested in the Sunday school he begged her to come to church with him, but she persistently refused his plea because she was afraid that the preacher might say something about death or dying.

On Easter Sunday the teacher noticed the intensity of the boy's attention while she told the beautiful story of the risen Christ.

The child hurried home with a shining face, and exclaimed, "Oh, Mother, you needn't be afraid of dying any more, for Jesus went through the grave and left a light behind Him!" Gradually the fear in her heart melted under the influence of her son's words about "the light behind Him."

Early one evening she had put him to bed and heard him pray as he did nightly that God would make her a Christian, "and do it right quick!" he added.

Later that evening a neighbor persuaded the mother to go to church.

The Heaven-sent message brought conviction, and that night her little boy's prayer was answered!

God is pained over sin and its consequences…His heart is broken for the unbelief of those who have yet to come to Him for their salvation from both sin and its consequences…

Thank God Jesus went through the grace for us and left a light so we might see His salvation…the light of His glory and grace!

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

Oh how Jesus wanted Mary, Martha and all the crowd to turn their eyes upon Him…oh how great His heartbreak at their refusal to do so.

Roll Away the Stone

Where have you laid him?

— The sisters and Jews with them believed that Jesus intended to pay His respects and grieve with the family at the tomb so they led Him to its location.

Jesus Wept — “In this, the shortest verse in the Bible, the noteworthy thing is that a different word is used for weeping than that used of Mary and the Jews.

The word used of them means a loud, demonstrative form of mourning, a wailing.

That used here (and here only in the New Testament) signifies rather a quiet weeping.

Jesus did not wail loudly, but he was deeply grieved.

As in verse 33 this was not be because of the death of his friend, for he was about to raise him.

It was because of the misconceptions of those around him.

We are reminded of that other occasion when Jesus wept over Jerusalem ().

There as here it was the wrong attitude of the Jews that aroused his deep emotion.”

In this, the shortest verse in the Bible, the noteworthy thing is that a different word is used for weeping than that used of Mary and the Jews.

The word used of them means a loud, demonstrative form of mourning, a wailing.

That used here (and here only in the New Testament) signifies rather a quiet weeping.

Jesus did not wail loudly, but he was deeply grieved.

As in verse 33 this will not be because of the death of his friend, for he was about to raise him.

It will be because of the misconceptions of those around him.

We are reminded of that other occasion when Jesus wept over Jerusalem ().

There as here it was the wrong attitude of the Jews that aroused his deep emotion.

God’s heart is quickly broken by our unbelief and lack of faith in Him.

Morris, L. (1995).

The Gospel according to John (p.

495).

Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

See How He loved Him — The Jews thought it was simply over the loss of His friend Lazarus.

But this was not the case…Jesus knew He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead.

He was not weeping over the loss of a friend.

He was weeping over their unwillingness to come to Him in their grief and brokenness.

Could He not have kept Him from dying? — If he loved Lazarus so much why didn’t He heal him?

Could He not have done so?

Again this brings to our mind that Jesus is always capable but does not always choose to heal…it is not always the Father’s will to do so.

The Father intended for Lazarus to die so that he might be raised from the dead thereby bringing much greater glory to God than any mere healing would ever do.

We often miss God’s bigger plans when we are looking with the eyes of the natural man…lacking God’s perspective.

This is an unpublished incident in the life of Hudson Taylor.

He came to the city of Hangchow.

The next day, with a bag of books over his shoulder, he started an evangelistic tour of the city.

Great crowds followed him about.

At night, weary, he sat down to rest at a tea house in the suburbs on the way to his boat in the river.

As he sat at the table he saw peering at him though the gathering gloom an elderly Chinese.

The man was evidently seeking someone.

"Are you a foreigner?"

"Yes, I am an Englishman."

"Are there books in that bag on the table?"

"Yes, there are." "Are you a teacher of a foreign religion?"

"Yes, of the Jesus religion."

"Are you a foreigner?"

"Yes, I am an Englishman."

"Are there books in that bag on the table?"

"Yes, there are."

The Chinese then told Taylor that he had been an earnest seeker after truth for many years, but could find no religion which could take the burden of guilt from his soul.

A few nights before, he had had a vision: a man in white had told him to go to Hangchow, that he would find there a foreigner sitting in an inn, with a bag of books on the table before him.

He had visited the inn but had found no such person.

Finally, hearing of this inn in the suburbs, he had as a last hope come thither.

He asked Taylor to tell him the truth, whereupon he preached the gospel and gave him a New Testament.

Two days later Taylor visited his house and found he had destroyed all his idols and was rejoicing in Jesus Christ.

Taylor left the man adoring God not only for his power to save, but also for his marvelous and miraculous ways of leading souls to the messenger and the message of the gospel.