The Resurrection and the Life

Announcements

Easter Egg Hunt next week, if you still want to bring candy, please donate by this evening.

Spring Cleaning day is to be 4/26/2025

Ice cream social on 5/18

Bible reading plan is Genesis 31-35.

Recap

Going back over what we have learned about over the last few weeks, there are many things that we have learned about the purpose of Jesus’s ministry and even His character in these seven “I Am” statements that we find in the book of John.

First is the understanding of Jesus being the bread of life, which, when looked at in the context of the full story shows us that normal human behavior is to desire worldly, physical things.

These things never fully satisfy us, that while we may find happiness in the short term when we gain new things and new titles, the only true and lasting satisfaction comes from Jesus.

The Jews found this out the hard way, because they showed their desire to find satisfaction in food, in the miraculous bread that was given out by Jesus just the day before, but when Jesus basically told them no, and that He Himself was the bread of life, meaning that when we look to him to fill the void in our spirit, that only then will we ever fill satisfied.

The next thing that we found was Jesus being the Light to the World.

In that particular situation, Jesus found Himself confronted by the Jewish leadership with a woman that was found in sin. Caught in the very act as the men said.

These Jewish men, men who knew Jewish law, questioned Jesus on His interpretation of the law and what they should do. The did this in order to trap Jesus, corner Him even, because if he showed compassion, then He wouldn’t be able to claim to be the Messiah, but if he chose condemnation and had here executed, then the appearance of compassion would have left Him.

Instead, Jesus chose to confront the men, asking them that whoever is without sin, they were to be the one to throw the first stone.

This did two things, it required them to look into themselves and think about the sins they committed, revealing their own hearts and desires to themselves, but also, still expressing that all sin has a punishment.

When these men left, the woman was alone, and Jesus looked at her and told her to go and sin no more.

Jesus as the light will reveal to us our sinful nature, but not to condemn us, but rather expose it so that we can cut it out of our hearts. So that we could become holy, like He is holy, the act of sanctification.

The next two deal with Jesus as the door and the shepherd.

Now, both of these stem from the same conflict, when Jesus healed a blind man. The conflict didn’t start at the healing however, but after the Jewish leadership cast the man out of their society.

Jesus, at this point, refers Himself to being the door to the fold, that access to God, access to the flock can only come through Him, just like the sheep entering through the door to the fold, we enter through Jesus.

But not only that, Jesus also confronts the leadership by claiming to be the Good Shepherd.

We went over in detail what the leadership looked like, what their failures were and how through Ezekiel, God revealed to us that these Jewish leaders were really irresponsible, but we also saw the promise of the good shepherd, which Jesus claimed to be.

I am the Resurrection and the Life

All of this leads us to the fifth “I Am” statement given to us in the book of John. Now, to me, I have found this one to be truly interesting in the context that surrounds it, and it is found in John 11: 1-16

John 11:1–16 NKJV

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days 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, lately the Jews sought 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 one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” Then His disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.” However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.” Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”

To start with, while it isn’t the main part of this story, I believe that the context of this story tells us that Jesus had quite the relationship with this family, a deep enough relationship with this family that they sent messengers to Jesus to tell Him of the imminent death of this man named Lazarus.

Now, thankfully, I haven’t been around death all that much in my life, and being quite honest with you, it is an uncomfortable thing to encounter.

But it is natural to want to be around our loved ones when they get close to their heavenly home.

I remember a time when a man that was married to my cousin was passing away from cancer. I was a very young man at this time, and while family members were visiting him, going in and out of his room, I had refused to go in.

I didn’t want to see him in that way. I wanted to remember the life he had, the love that he had for his family.

Looking back, I regret the time that I didn’t spend with this man. Even my Grandmother and my Great Aunt, people who I loved, after they passed away, I found myself living in regret over the time that I didn’t spend with them.

People naturally want more time then we are ever given to spend with these people that we love so deeply.

Now, You would think that having such love for this man that is expressed in this story, that Jesus would have left right away out of His desire to see him one more time, but scripture tells us that he waited. He waited two full days to be exact.

Why do you think Jesus waited? This is the question that I continued to ask myself in the preparation of this lesson, which is why.

Because, as we read on in the story, we understand that Jesus already knew Lazarus was either already dead, or died just shortly after the news of his sickness, but as we already know, Jesus had the power to heal, that time and place are not factors in the power of Jesus.

So why did Jesus allow Lazarus’s death? Especially when we know that Jesus would later raise him back to life?

The answer to this might surprise us all, but it is something given to us at the very beginning of the story, found in John 11: 4

John 11:4 NKJV

When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

This happened so that the glory of God could be seen and believed.

People ask all the time that if God is good, why would he let bad things happen? While the simple answer to this question is that bad things happen because sin is living in the world, there are other reasons we see so much evil and bad in life.

Sometimes bad things are allowed to happen so that we can find the glory of God through it.

This is hard to imagine, but God will use the bad things that we experience to grow His kingdom. For example, Christ on the cross. Looking at it on the surface, that was a hard day. There was probably no joy found there in the middle of it, but had it not been for the cross we wouldn’t be able to be saved from our sins.

We do not know and could never be able to explain the plans of God. God was going to use this terrible situation, but how?

I would like us to look at the end of this story before we dive into what Jesus was telling us, look at John 11: 32-44

John 11:32–44 NKJV

Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!” And some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”

There are a couple of things here that we need to point out and understand, the first is found in verse 33, when Jesus sees Mary for the first time after Lazarus’s death.

Scripture tells us that Mary came to Jesus weeping.

This word doesn’t really paint the right picture of what is going on here.

For one, the word translated into weeping speaks of wailing, or lamenting loudly.

This is understandable due to the sad nature of the reason Jesus was there, but it was loud and obnoxious. Some commentators even said that the other Jews who were also there weeping were professional mourners. Could you imagine being paid to wail and scream out of loss and concern? That wouldn’t be a good job for me.

Because of all this loud mourning, Scripture tells us Jesus groaned in His Spirit, that He was troubled.

One might look at this and say that the emotions of all that was going on was causing Jesus to be sad. This was my first conclusion.

The problem with this thought is found in the original language, because both groaning in the spirit and troubled speak to anger and agitation.

Jesus as agitated not at what was going on, because Jesus shows us that he was saddened by the death of a friend when he cried over Lazarus, but the aggravation was directed to their unbelief.

Several times throughout this story we are shown that Lazarus’s death was to show those around Jesus the Glory and power of God to cause them to truly believe in Jesus as the Christ.

We are shown all of their disbelief in how they reacted to the situation.

Mary for one, when she saw Jesus said, if you were only here, then it wouldn’t have happened.

Even Martha, when she took Jesus to the tomb and he asked them to move the stone, she protested, saying that surely the smell of death would penetrate the air around them.

They had no faith or belief in the power of God in this moment, but at the call of Jesus, Lazarus, in his death clothes, came alive at the power of Christ.

All of this leads us to the point of the story, which is found right in the middle, in John 11: 20-26;

John 11:20–26 NKJV

Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But 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 at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Jesus here tells us that He is the resurrection and the life.

Closing

As we close today’s study, I want us to focus on this statement made by Christ, because being the resurrection and the life means so much more to us then we could ever realize.

But the meaning is really found right after he says this when he starts to explain.

He says that whoever believes in Him, even if he dies, will live. And whoever lives and believes will never die. Jesus has the power of life.

You might be saying that we have prayed over the sick and dying, but we don’t see healing. Because of this, you may not believe that Jesus has the power over life, but we forget the cost of our sins.

The cost of our sins is death, and Jesus is telling us that even though we may physically die here on this earth, through our belief in Him, we will find life in Heaven.