I AM the Resurrection and the Life; John 11:17-27

Introduction

Series Recap

Week 1 - I am the Bread of Life

Week 2 - I am the Light of the World

Week 3 - I am the Good Shepherd

This week - I AM the resurrection and the Life

This is a very reassuring statement, in the middle of a very difficult time

difficult for those that Jesus is ministering to,

This is a story that many know pretty well, raising Lazarus from the dead

Sorry if I ruined it for you, but he does not stay dead

John 11:17–27 (CSB)

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

18 Bethany was near Jerusalem (less than two miles away).

19 Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.

20 As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary remained seated in the house.

21 Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.

22 Yet even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

23 “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.

24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.

26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who comes into the world.”

PRAY!

Believing in the power of Christ over physical and spiritual death, gives us the ability to live a life that glorifies God no matter the trials we may face.

Jesus is Unchanging

We have all experienced relationships that we have felt as if the other party was in it for selfish reasons

they were there as long as they were getting something out of it, it is beneficial to them

for too many people who call themselves Christian, that would be how you might define their relationship with Jesus

I cannot believe I still have heartache, pain, or still sin

But Jesus is who he is regardless of the circumstances you find yourself in

John 11:17–22 (CSB)

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

18 Bethany was near Jerusalem (less than two miles away).

19 Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.

20 As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary remained seated in the house.

21 Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.

22 Yet even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

I love the faith that Martha shows in this passage

if you were here, he would be alive

this was a slight rebuke

she and he sister Mary had sent him a letter or note to him to tell him how sick Lazarus was

if you would have come when we sent the letter…

yet I love it, the honesty that she has with Jesus

it is how we should be, he knows already

be less afraid of offending him by telling him how you feel and more worried about lying to him about how you feel

yet her faith does not waiver

yet I know that whatever you ask from God he will do

she is not asking him to raise from the dead

later in the text, when he says remove the stone she reminds him he has been dead for four days

her faith is beautiful, but we are not aiming to be like Martha

we do not need to come up with a way that we can act like her in the trials of life

instead we need to see the object of her faith, that we might grow to that faith as well

Jesus does not change based on circumstances we face

he cannot love you more and he cannot love you less than he does right now

we confuse the love he has for us to mean that he will give to me all I desire, all that I want, all that I believe I need

there are many things that I have prayed for that God has not given me

There are two main reasons why God does what he does

for his glory and for our good

we often forget his glory and confuse our good

our good is not what we want, desire or think we need

I am often wrong

there have been many times that I have prayed for something to happen, only for God to take care of it another way

show it in this story

Jesus stayed where he was for a couple days after hearing the news about Lazarus

I believe it was because he knew if he left right away, he would have been tempted to heal him

instead, God’s plan was for him to die and be raised to that he would be glorified

did God kill him, no. We live in a fallen, Genesis 3 world where sin and death have ramifications

by letting him die, he will resurrect him in front of the disciples, the family (which he loves) and those that are from Jerusalem

they wanted to kill him already, but when they hear of this, they want this expedited!

how was this for their good though, the heartache they felt and went through could not be good

that is only true if you look at the moment by moment

yes they felt pain, but if you look at the end of the story they were better off

not because their brother was alive again

John 11:45 (CSB)

45 Therefore, many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what he did believed in him.

how many is many, I do not know, it does not matter

would you put up with heartache and pain if it meant many were saved

but what if you never knew that they were

an abundant life does not mean an easy life

Everything will be for his glory and our good

We want to know all things

how is he glorified through my circumstances

how was this for my good

if we do not know we even assume that it is not for either

we feel like we are entitled to these answers

we quickly begin sounding like those who do not know God

if you were loving, how could this happen to me

Because Jesus is unchanging, we have hope in the resurrection

Jesus is the Resurrection

We look or think of the resurrection as an event

Talk about the event

future when the Lord returns

we argue over when it will happen

John 11:23–26 (CSB)

23 “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.

24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.

26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

We are to be ready for his return

how?

live with a hope or an anticipation in the coming messiah

but if we just simply live looking forward to an event, I think that we are missing the point

I AM the resurrection, not I can resurrect

Our hope is in a person, not an event

I am not saying that hoping in the resurrection is a bad thing

we should long for the coming of Christ,

John in Revelation says, come quickly Lord Jesus

we should echo that same thing

we should much more desire to be physically with Jesus than any other thing that this world has to offer

You are resurrected now

the word resurrection means literally to stand or rise up

most often in the NT it is referring to bringing back to life

you, dear Christian have been brought from life to death

you are not looking forward to a physical event only

the resurrection in the last times will be a physical event

but you are alive spiritually right now!

Ephesians 2:1–3 (CSB)

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins

2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.

3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

you were spiritually dead, but you have been brought to life

Ephesians 2:4–6 (CSB)

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,

5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!

6 He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,

The resurrection is not simply an event in the future, but it is life now!

Jesus is Life

What do we want from life?

We can come up with a list and even put something about the Lord on it.

I want to be a godly man, godly husband, father, grandfather. But why?

I want my family to follow and know the Lord.

That is a good reason. But motives matter

if we are not careful, we will have a different reason for doing things than Jesus did; His glory and our good.

John 11:26–27 (CSB)

26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who comes into the world.”

This is a fascinating statement in the middle of the story that we find them

Jesus arrives late after notice that Lazarus is sick, and Lazarus dies

Sisters, who sent the letter and believe that Jesus could heal, still believe!

Jesus says, anyone who lives, and believes in me will never die

this almost sounds like a person who isn’t reading the room

it could easily be misinterpreted that he is saying that Lazarus did not believe, because he is dead

but the most intriguing part is the question, “Do you believe this?”

He does not ask her this after he raises Lazarus

do not misunderstand the timing and believe that her answer determines what Jesus does next

if she would have said no, Jesus was still going to do what he was going to do

this is why he waited at the beginning, he knew that he was going to do

you can see it in the text, “this illness will not end in death.”

John 11:4 (CSB)

4 When Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Jesus not only resurrects us physically and spiritually, he is life

We have not simply resurrected to a new life of the same stuff with a spin on it

we have a new life in him,

he is the object of it

he was the object of Martha’s that we saw in the first point

anything else as the objective leaves us longing for something else

because he is the only one that can truly satisfy

understand this important truth, nothing else is or gives life

he is the sustainer of it

i cannot imagine what it would be like with out the grace of God that says, I have raised you up and now live in you

I mean, I could not do this life without him in the first place. If I get a second chance it would not be any better.

Listen to Paul in Romans 7, and this is as a saved person

Romans 7:15–25 (CSB)

15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.

16 Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me.

18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.

19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.

20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me.

21 So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me.

22 For in my inner self I delight in God’s law,

23 but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.

24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.

Paul is saying he wants to do the things of God, we do not want to do the things of God without the Spirit of God living in us

if a saved one like Paul struggles like this with the spirit inside of him, can you imagine the struggle we would have if Jesus resurrected us to life then said okay, now finish on your own.

Praise be to God, he does not leave us, he is life, even in heartache

his heart aches with them, that is why he weeps, at the pain that is caused by sin and death in this world.

he knows that Lazarus is going to live

this is our Lord, The resurrection and the life. The one who brings us into life, stays with us through this life and ushers us into life everlasting!

Exalting Jesus in John Reflect and Discuss

Reflect and Discuss

1. How does Jesus’s waiting to go to Lazarus display his love for Lazarus and the sisters?

2. What assurance can we find in this passage during our own times of suffering?

3. Why do the disciples not want to go to Lazarus? What is Jesus’s response?

4. Why does Jesus call death “sleep”?

5. Does your response to Jesus’s teachings ever mirror Thomas’s? What hope do you have from this passage?

6. What does it mean that Jesus is the resurrection and the life? Why is this good news for his followers?

7. Why does Jesus weep at Lazarus’s death?

8. Why does Jesus let Lazarus die? Why did he let those he loved experience four days of grief?

9. What is one explanation for how abruptly this story ends?

10. What did Jesus mean by “this sickness will not end in death”?