I Am The Resurrection and The Life

Introduction

So we’ve heard a lot about eternal life in John’s gospel!

What’s John 3:16?

What did we see about eternal life in chapter 4 when he met the Samaritan woman? Jesus is the source of the water of life!

And in chapter 6, what did we see about Jesus in the feeding of the 5000? Jesus is the Bread of life!

And in chapter 7, during the feast of tabernacles, Jesus is seen as the source of the Holy Spirit, who gives eternal life! John 7:38 “38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ””

And then in chapter 8, Jesus says that he is…? ‘The light of the world…the light of life’.

So Jesus is the bread of life, the water of life, the light of life, the giver of the Holy Spirit who gives life.

But in today’s chapter, through the miracle of the raising of Lazarus, we see that Jesus is the source of life itself. And it is not just eternal life, but resurrection life.

The Stench of Death

But before we come to the resurrection of Lazarus, what this passage shows, is clearly show the state of death that we are in. This passage is trying to clearly tell us, that we are clearly in a state of death, not of life.

How does it do that? Well the scattered throughout the passage, there are constant reminders of how dead Lazarus is.

Look at John 11:17 “17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.” Remember from last week how we talked about Jesus deliberately delaying his journey to Lazarus, and that resulted in Lazarus being dead for 4 days by the time Jesus got there. Well the mention of 4 days is important, because one of the things that the Jews of this time believed is that, after a person had died, they believed their spirit hovered over the body for the first 3 days trying to get back into the body. But after the 3 days, the spirit leaves permanently, because the body started to decompose. So at this point, death was completely irreversible - that person was well and truly dead.

And this is said again my Martha - read John 11:39 “39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.”” John is really making clear to us, Lazarus is completely dead. He’s showing us the destructive power of death, that destroys and decomposes the body. And as Martha said, by this time, there would be a terrible odour.

I’ve got a friend who is a doctor, and the specialty he wants to do is forensic pathology. And that’s a specialty where you no longer see living patients, but you see dead patients and you work out the cause of death, like the ones you see in crime movies. And one of the things that forensic pathologists need to be really good at, is working out how long the person has been dead. And I was curious so I looked this up, and this is what happens after you die:

24-72hrs after death - the internal organs decompose

3-5 days - the body starts to bloat and blood-containing foam leaks from the mouth and nose

8-10 days - the body turns from green to red as the blood decomposes and the organs in the abdomen accumulate gas

Several weeks after death - nails and teeth fall out

1 month after death - the body starts to liquefy.

So by 4 days, Lazarus’s body would have started to decompose, his internal organs starting to break down, and his body starting to bloat from all the bacteria producing gas inside his body.

So John shows us, the permanent, powerful, destructive, oppressive, nullifying power of death. Whatever death touches, it destroys. And it’s not just your body. Ever since the fall and sin entered the world, anything and everything that we have in life, is under the influence of death. All your hopes and dreams. All your achievements. Anything you thought brought you happiness and joy. Your friends, your pets, your family. Your house. All your possessions. Everything is under the influence of death, and will be destroyed and will rot away. 100%. If there is one certainty in life, it’s death. So what hope is there in life, if everything will rot away like Lazarus’ body?

There’s another book in the Bible that really struggles with this question. Whoever wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, saw how death brings everything to nothing, meaninglessness, and futility, and he almost just gives up on life. Look how he starts his book:

Ecclesiastes 1:2 “2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”

Some translate this verse differently, as ‘Everything is meaningless!’

And look what he says in Ecclesiastes 2:14–17 “14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! 17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.”

He’s saying, what’s the point in living well, being smart, working hard, if everything I do is just going to die anyway?

And look what he says - ‘So i hated life’.

To come to know the true light and true hope of the gospel, you need to know the darkness and hopelessness in the world, because of death. The world will try and offer you a light, and hope, but that cannot be the true light and true hope, because everything in the world is under the influence of death.

One of the turning points in my life to really come to know Christ, was seeing the darkness and hopelessness of this world for what it really is. I was a junior doctor at the time, and I had the privilege of working with this really lovely, smart, and talented senior doctor who was a kidney specialist. And he was young, late 30s, he had just finished all his training so he just become a fully qualified specialist, he had just finished his PhD, he was recently married, and had a 1 month old baby. He had fullness of life that this world offers: a nice marriage, a good job, respect from people around him, children, family, health, wealth. He had it all.

And then I moved on and worked in a different speciality called haematology - a blood specialty. And while I was working there, I saw him come in, and I was so excited to see him and I said hello. But I realised, he didn’t come into our ward as a doctor, but he came in as a patient. And he was diagnosed with an incredibly rare disease, which was fatal with no cure. And over 6 months, I saw him deteriorate, from this well respected physician who had everything in life, and he just crumbled away to a shell of himself. We tried everything, even experimental medications that we desperately got from America. But nothing worked. And in the last few days of his life, the disease had destroyed him so much, that what he looked like, and what he was doing, was no different to someone who was 100 years old or a 1 day old baby, completely dependent on others for everything, no longer the once dignified and powerful and capable human being he once was. Death had stripped him of everything.

This is reality that we live in. We are all in a state of death, and strips us and steals everything from our lives. There is no hope in any of the structures or forms in this world - it is all passing away.

Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life

But for Christians there is a hope. Not a false hope like the world, but a real hope.

Let’s read John 11:38–44 together “38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.””

Isn’t this just a beautiful picture of what Jesus gives us? Death tries to desperately cling to us and hold on to us, and bind us down. There was a giant stone trying to keep Lazarus trapped in his grave. Even the linen that was wrapped around is trying to hold him back. Even the people are doubting that Lazarus could be raised from the dead. But none of these, can stop the amazing work of Jesus. Jesus commands, ‘Take away the stone’, and he commands ‘Lazarus, come out’. Andwalks out of the grave (John 10:3). All the decomposition is reversed, and even bound in the linen, he hops out of the grave - not even the most powerful force of death in this world can oppose Jesus, and Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

Why? Read John 11:25–26 “25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?””

Through this miracle, the 7th sign, Jesus shows us that he is the source of all life. And what is this life he gives?

He promises us a resurrection. Jesus says ‘I am the resurrection’. He also says ‘Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.’ We still live in a body and a world that is dying away. But as Christians, we have a greater hope, because Jesus promises us that even after this body dies, we have a resurrection in the future. And how do we know that Jesus will keep this promise? How can we be confident that we also will be resurrected? Because Jesus himself was resurrected 3 days after he died on the cross (cf. 1 Cor 15:20). And it’s not going to be a resurrection like Lazarus, because Lazarus was resurrected into a body that still ended up dying again. In our final resurrection, Jesus will resurrect us into a glorious heavenly body, that will not die again (cf. 1 Cor 15:35-44).

But He doesn’t just promise us a future resurrection. Jesus says ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’ And then he says ‘everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.’ Jesus is promising us not only a future resurrection, but eternal life. But there’s two important things about this eternal life:

Eternal life is not just about living forever. It’s not just about the duration of life. Eternal life is knowing and being in relationship with our God and saviour, eternal life is being united and joined to Christ in the Holy Spirit, eternal life is having the privilege of being transformed so that we are more and more like Jesus Christ, and eternal life is being able to live our created purpose which is to bring glory to God and not ourselves.

And the second thing about this eternal life, is that it doesn’t begin way in the future after we are resurrected. It begins now. It’s as if the glorious time of the future age to come, of Christ’s second coming, of the new creation, it’s as if all of that has invaded into our present lives. So that means we can enjoy that resurrection eternal life today.

And that changes everything in your life. Everything that was hopeless and dying away in our lives, because it was touched by death, is now completely transformed by the life-giving touch of Christ. When we live by the eternal resurrection life that God gives to us now, everything goes from hopelessness to hope, futility to meaning, impermanence to permanence, because now we work for the eternal glory of God, we now work for God’s eternal kingdom, and we now work and store up our treasures not in things that die away in this world, but in things that last forever in the new creation.

So if before, the greatest thing in our lives were meaningless because of death, now with eternal life in Christ, even in the smallest things in life have the greatest meaning because now it is lived for the eternal glory of God. Death doesn’t mean that we just give up on life and don’t try anymore, saying what’s the point, because we have the ultimate hope of eternal life that we can already enjoy, and that means even the smallest things we do now have eternal meaning. Before everything was hopeless and meaningless; now everything is hopeful, joyful, and because it is done for the eternal glory of God.

Conclusion

In the letter to the Corinthians, Paul talks about the resurrection that Jesus gives us, and he talks about how victorious Christ is over death. He says:

‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’

Are you as confident as Paul, about the victory and eternal resurrection life that Jesus gives us?

Because Jesus asks a very important question to Martha. ‘Do you believe this?’ (John 11:26).

And although she didn’t quite understand everything at the time, she gives a beautiful answer. John 11:27 “27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.””

The eternal resurrection life that Jesus gives, is offered to us by faith. Believing in who Jesus is: the Christ, the Son of God, who’s mision was to come into the world and save his sheep from their sins.

So I hope you believe this today in your hearts, because this is the only way we can have hope in this hopeless world, is to believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God (1 Cor 15:56-57).

Ending song: In Christ Alone