43: Preaching/Teaching: John 11
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Living for Resurrection
Living for Resurrection
We were made for eternity, we were made to live forever, we were made to live for life and life to the full.
Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
But this has not been our experience. Our lives and our world is filled with the reality of death.
I remember one of the hardest things I ever had to endure.
Cardarian’s death!
Ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and man was kicked out of the garden we have been looking at ways to get back to our original design to live forever to be immortals.
therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.
God said you will surely die. And that reality is what you live with, what I live, what we experience.
But man has tried to find a solution on how to solve this problem of death. We try to do it our way apart from God.
In Genesis they built the tower of Babel. They said instead of doing what God said-Fill the earth and multiply we are going to stay put and build a tower to heaven.
They were super successful until God said yeah, no you are not going to succeed at disobeying me.
My favorite basketball player growing up is trying to get back to that tree of life. Magic Johnson got HIV back when it was a guaranteed death curse. But he had money and lots of it so he was able to postpone it longer than the average person who would have gotten. But not even Magic can live forever apart from God.
Jack LeLane, does anyone know who this is.
Get a picture.
Man has been looking to defeat death ever since man had sinned and were cut out of the tree of life.
Jack LaLane-at the age of 15 he decided to stop eating sweets and committed himself totally to fitness.
1979 (age 65) – Towed 65 boats in Lake Ashinoko, near Tokyo, Japan. He was handcuffed and shackled, and the boats were filled with 6,500 lb (2,950 kg; 460 st) of Louisiana Pacific wood pulp.[39]
This guy lived until he was 96 in great shape but still died.
But guess what we are in need of a greater solution than anything this world has to offer.
As believers in Jesus are Faith is pointless without the resurrection.
Paul says it like this.
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised;
and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.
So far Jesus has made some outrageous claims:
I am the bread of life (6:35)
I am the light of the world (8:12)
I am the gate (10:7, 9)
I am the good shepherd (10:11, 14)
Today he makes another one:
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
When he asks this question he is not asking it in the past tense:
Did you believe this?
He is not asking it in the future:
Are you going to believe this?
He is asking it in the present:
Do you believe this right here and now?
When we believe this statement we are exercising are faith.
Today I want to challenge us to exercise our faith in the resurrection:
I want to ask you a question do you believe this right now?
TODAY I WANT US TO GET IN THE FAITH GYM
If you workout and want to get in shape you have to do the exercise, eat right and rest. It is no different spiritually if we want to shine the light of Jesus we have to exercise our faith.
What happens when you are working out:
You get sore, but it is a good soreness....
Building our faith on the resurrection.
Today I want to give us three reasons we must exercise our faith in the resurrection.
The first reason we must daily exercise our faith in the resurrection:
The first reason we must daily exercise our faith in the resurrection:
1. Because Jesus desires to be our friend (1-16, KV-11).
1. Because Jesus desires to be our friend (1-16, KV-11).
When life got rough these sisters went straight to Jesus
When life got rough these sisters went straight to Jesus
Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”
Just look how they talk to the God man the one who created them: HE WHOM YOU LOVE IS SICK!
Notice Jesus first response is not to fix our problem he reminds us of his perspective.
God is the ultimate redeemer
God is the ultimate redeemer
But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”
The whole book of John was that we would believe in Jesus and that we would have life.
We just saw Jesus give sight to the blind.
Now he was going to raise a man from the dead.
Jesus was going to receive even more glory, because of this and this is directly related to what he would do in the future When he would defeat death and be resurrected.
God’s love is personal
God’s love is personal
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
It does not just say God loved the world, it says God loved Martha and her sister.
Read the Bible: one thing that is a great practice is inserting your own name.
One of the amazing things about christianity is that we did not love God first he loved us even in our mess.
So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.
Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”
The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?”
Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
“But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
Jesus was a hot item, some believed but the leaders were ready to kill him. So the disciples were like be careful, is this a good idea.
Religion over relationship
Religion over relationship
This He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep.”
Are you a friend of God?
Are you an acquaintance?
Jesus called this man a friend.
I talk a lot about sports and growing up Magic was my favorite player, but if Magic walks into this service he is not going to say that is my friend Nate-I know Magic, but he don’t know me.
That is how a lot of us are with God. We know about him but we aint’ his friend.
Do you know what the most important part about exercising our faith is spending time with the master.
I was reading in my devotional this walk psalm 15, and had a list of a Godly person and I was overwhelmed. I thought to myself there is no way I can do these 20 things. But here was what the first verse said:
Psalm 15:1 “O Lord, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill?”
Then I had this thought if I focus on being in God’s tent the other things will come.
How is your time with God right now?
Did you know this is the most important thing you can do in your walk with God Is spend time with him.
The disciples then said to Him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”
Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep.
So Jesus then said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,
and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.”
Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”
The disciples are just on different wave lengths right here.
I love how sometimes Jesus is trying to teach the disciples and they are just not getting it.
The disciples then said to Him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”
Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep.
So Jesus then said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,
and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.”
Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”
The first reason we need to exercise our faith is Jesus wants to be close to us. Not just there but right there.
“No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
He wants to be closer to us than we can ever imagine.
Are you spending time with him.
The next reason we must daily exercise our faith in the resurrection:
The next reason we must daily exercise our faith in the resurrection:
2. is because we were meant to grow as his students. (17-37 KV-21 & 27,).
2. is because we were meant to grow as his students. (17-37 KV-21 & 27,).
We want the Jack Lelayne body without doing the work and without dieting.
Christianity is the same way. We want to be Godly without having to meet with God, without dying to sin, without..FILL IN THE BLANK.
We should want to grow as deep as possible.
But God wants us to seek him with all our hearts and souls
As believers are classroom is in the crucible of life.
Faith Seeking understanding
Faith Seeking understanding
So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days.
Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off;
and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.
Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house.
God can handle our questions!
God can handle our questions!
Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.
Martha really believed in the messiah and she had a real question. She had an acclamation.
What questions do you have for God?
Do you ask him, do you have FAITH SEEKING UNDERSTANDING.
It could be something about you, your family, really it could be anything.
I was not a good student until seminary. Partly because i really did not care. But guess what when I went to seminary I started caring and there were a couple of different reasons I made the honor roll. But one of them was I started asking questions.
One of the reasons Christians do not know what they believe very well is because we just are not good students of Jesus.
We are good students of whatever it is we love. But we are not particularly good students of Jesus.
“Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
Notice Martha believed he would rise, but that would be when things were finished. Lazurus will be raised now.
and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Church do you believe this. Not just that God saved you and not just that God is going to save you (Glorification). But that God has a plan for you right here and right now.
She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”
When we talk to God when we have questions with God we will grow in God.
What kind of disciple are you.
Are you just getting by as a student.
God wants us to be great students of him.
When she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”
And when she heard it, she *got up quickly and was coming to Him.
Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met Him.
Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and consoling her, when they saw that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
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.”
Notice now Mary had this accusation of God.
Notice we grow in our faith by being real with God.
Now their is a way to question God that is not good.
But God can handle our real life struggles and questions.
Recently Heather saw some friends who used to be involved in our college ministry on facebook.
They had a child and since the age of 3 or 4 he has had cancer and it has just been an awful situation. She shared it with our family, we have prayed for them and we have cried. Can you picture being those parents? The questions they have for God, the struggles. And as I read the kids obituary this morning, and how it praised God and pointed to God, how can this be. Because in the real life struggle of life and death they exercised faith and they experienced what we read next.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled,
and said, “Where have you laid him?” They *said to Him, “Lord, come and see.”
Jesus wept.
So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!”
But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”
Do you believe this?
Not did you believe this, do you believe it?
This is the hope of the gospel.
Grace is not a one time offer that we are supposed to experience just one time, it is a offer that we are supposed to experience every day as a believer, we are supposed to receive it and we are supposed to give it.
The last reason we must daily exercise our faith in the resurrection:
The last reason we must daily exercise our faith in the resurrection:
3. Because it is invitational (38-46, KV-45).
3. Because it is invitational (38-46, KV-45).
So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, *came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.
Jesus *said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, *said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.”
Jesus *said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
“I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.”
When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.”
The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus *said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
The same God who raises others from the dead is the God who will defeat death once and for all.
“I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.” Charles Colson
Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.
But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done.
Isn’t this the point of the book. That we would believe in Jesus and have life in him.
Security guard-He was struggling with GRACE
We are going through an article that talks about an article-example
Let’s embrace his grace.
Who is on your top five list right now-Five people far from God that you need to pray for, invite or share with.
Conclusion:
If faith was a body builder would you be more like Jack Leland or me.
Jack juiced, he had a daily workout, and he died at 96, they said he did his full workout the day before. He was sick and refused to see a doctor.
Me on the other hand I want to look like Jack Leland and I am thinking at the end of the year I am going to change my diet.
How are you going to exercise your faith.
Start a quiet time-
Increase your time with God
Be a better student.
Do you really know your Bible.
Can you quote 10 scriptures.
Who do you need to invite to Christ?
Pray, share your story, share the bridge.
2. Our faith will be thought out.
3. Our faith will be invitational.
There is a theme of death in these passages
A man died
Many wanted Jesus dead
Introduction:
Gym-
There are all kinds of different ways to work out.
Some people just don’t do it
some people lift upper body
Some are inconsistent
But to be in good shape there are some key components.
Weight room
Rest
Diet
If you want to be in great shape you have to be working at these three things.
Illustration:
have you gotten into the weight room of FAITH.
As Jesus was preparing for the greatest work his death, he does a work that is connected to what he would do and he does it to strengthen the faith of those who would believe in him.
Whose Faith
Are you living for something that is worth giving your life to?
Or
Is your life
verse 7-8-the disciples did not just jump in with Jesus at this point
What the disciples could not get their mind around is Jesus was putting his life on the line while saving someone else’s life.
V. 8 as long Jesus was in the Fathers’ will = safe
Illustration of the guardian. Jesus was the guardian. That was what the guardian was created to do