I Am the Resurrection and the Life

Series: What’s In a Name?

John 11:17-27 , Mark 5:39-41, Eph. 2:1-6

Prayer: “Father, help us to fully embrace and live out the truth of our new life in Christ everytoday. We live because he is risen! We are already seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus! We walk in the newness of life because he has conquered death!”

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

Resurrection Sunday is not just a remembrance and celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. It’s also about our resurrection, which faith in Christ has already accomplished!

We’ve been looking at the “I Am” statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John. There are seven of them, and each one tells us a little more about Jesus’ understanding of himself. But perhaps even more important is beginning each one with the phrase, “I Am.” This was the ancient name of God revealed to Moses at the burning bush, “Yahweh,” which is a form of the verb “to be.” So here was Jesus, seven times, identifying himself with God.

Today, we’re going to consider a text that is not about Jesus’ resurrection. Did you know that Jesus was not the first person to be raised back to life after they died? The Gospels record at least three that Jesus himself raised: Jairus’ daughter, the widow’s son, and Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. This is the one we’re going to look at today. Here’s the significance of that: On this day we’re not just remembering and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus; we’re also recognizing and celebrating our own resurrection!

Chapter 11 opens with a messenger coming to them with news that a man named Lazarus was sick. This was the brother of Mary and Martha, and they lived in a town called Bethany, just outside of Jerusalem. These siblings were apparently very close to Jesus, and he stayed with them when he was visiting Jerusalem. But upon hearing the news of Lazarus’ illness, (11:4)  Jesus said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Then Jesus inexplicably chose to stay where he was for two more days.

After two days, he said to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again.(v. 7). His disciples tried to talk him out of it: “A short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”(v. 8) Jesus responded with something similar to what he said back in John 9:4; I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. 

Then this curious exchange: Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.  (v. 11) His disciples replied, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. 

As usual, the disciples missed the deeper meaning of what Jesus was saying. So then he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. (vs. 14)

And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him. (v. 15)

Thomas’ response: “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” It’s not clear whether Thomas was referring to Lazarus’ death, or the fear that Jesus was walking into a trap.

But sometimes in the scriptures, people say things that have meanings far beyond what they intended. Thomas’ gloomy comment was more profound and prophetic than he could possibly know. The disciples needed to experience a death and resurrection, just like Lazarus. And so do we. We have to die to an old life in order to be born into a new one. And the work of the Holy Ghost in us is to wake us up to this new life—what life is meant to be all about.

Two kinds of sleep

- Mark 5:39-41 Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter.

He went in and said to them,Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. 

40  And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying. 

41  And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. 

Jesus used the metaphor of sleep to describe people that were actually dead. For him, the two states were interchangeable. What did he know that we do not? Perhaps what we call death is more like finally waking up from this long, sleep-walk that we call life.

Two kinds of death

- Eph. 2:1-6

1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 

2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 

3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 

4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 

5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 

6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 

- Rev. 3:1-2 Jesus’ words to the church at Sardis: And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. 

2  Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 

These passages describe a kind of living death, or zombie-like state that many of us fall into… It’s terrifying to think about the truth of being alive, breathing, but also being dead.

Two kinds of life

- John 5:21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. 

- John 17:1-3 Jesus’ prayer in the Upper Room: Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: 

2  As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 

3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 

The rest of the story

Martha speaks to Jesus, and she expresses a kind of faith that is familiar to some people today.

“If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus assures her that her brother will rise again, she responds, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Then comes Jesus’ startling response: “I am the resurrection and the life. he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:  And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?  The question is, Do we believe? Apparently, Jesus was speaking again of two kinds of life and two kinds of death.

Next, Jesus speaks to Mary. She expresses the same level of faith as her sister: “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But this time, Jesus is deeply moved by her tears, and asks, “Where have you laid him?”

Finally, Jesus speaks to Lazarus. First, he silences Martha’s objections to removing the stone. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? 

41  Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. 

42  And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. 

43  And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

The meaning of Easter is not primarily about life after physical death—that because Jesus came back to life biologically, therefore we will too. Nowhere in these accounts do we find his early followers saying, “Jesus has risen from the dead! Therefore, we’re going to get up and walk around too!” The resurrection narratives in the gospels—and the stories told by Jesus himself—point beyond just the reanimation of cadavers.

Example: Remember Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son.

Upon realizing he had reached the bottom of the barrel, the young man resolved, “I will arise and go to my father.” At their reunion, the father exclaims, “For this my son was dead and is alive again.” Then, to be sure we don’t miss the power of a spiritual resurrection, the father restates his joy to his other son, “For your brother was dead and is alive again.”

This son hadn’t lost and regained his biological existence. But he had lain down on the deathbed of shame, fear, and broken relationships. He had cultivated an overwhelming sense of separation that bore the bitter fruit of disgrace, anguish, and loneliness. When he took responsibility for his actions and honestly faced up to the consequences, Jesus says that the young man “arose.” Interesting that this is the same word that the New Testament consistently uses to refer to Jesus being “raised” in resurrection.

So, “arising”also has a double meaning. It points to a greater, broader, and deeper resurrection than just biological reanimation. What difference would it make for a dead body to regain its existence if the person remained filled with anger, bitterness, arrogance, hatred, anxiety, resentment, hostility, and blame. Repeating the same patterns in a new outer shell would be like slapping a fresh coat of paint on a broken-down hoopdy. It may look good, but nothing of substance has changed.

No, the glorious message of Resurrection Sunday is what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 

Also in Romans 6:4(NIV) We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 

When Paul writes that we were therefore were buried with Him through baptism into death. Because Christ’s burial shows that He actually died (cf. 1 Cor. 15:3–4). Believers’ “burial” with Christ shows we in fact died with Him to our former sinful ways of living. The purpose of our identification with Christ in His death and burial is that just as Christ was raised from the dead (lit., “out from dead ones”; cf. Rom. 4:24; 8:11) through the glory ( which is a synonym for God’s power; cf. Eph. 1:19; Col. 2:12), we too may live a new life (lit., “so also in newness of life we should walk about”). The Greek word “newness” (kainotēti) speaks of life that has a new or fresh quality. The resurrection of Jesus was not just a resuscitation; it was a new form of life. In the same way the spiritual lives of believers in Jesus have a new, fresh quality. Also, a believer’s identification with Jesus Christ in His resurrection, besides being the start of new spiritual life now, is also the guarantee of physical resurrection. This work of God at salvation in identifying a believer with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection—thus separating us from sin’s power and giving us a new quality of life—is the basis of the Holy Spirit’s continuing work in sanctification.

John A. Witmer, “Romans,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 462.

Conclusion: The story God is telling is the story of the renewal of all things, and it has already begun! We participate in it through death and resurrection, now! It happens when we say yes to God’s invitation to new life and follow Jesus to the cross. Our old life has been nailed to the cross and buried. And God raised us up to a new way of living, a new way giving, a new way of walking and a new way of talking! The cross—once an instrument of torture and death—becomes a symbol of joy and beauty.