I Am: "The Ressurection and the Life"
Notes
Transcript
Greeting:
Greeting:
Good morning everyone
Welcome visitors
Good to be back with everyone
Good to see Jaunita with us…
It feels like such a long time since I have been here
Thank you for the support this last week at the gospel meeting
Lesson Text:
Lesson Text:
John 11:25-27
Opening:
Opening:
This morning we are picking back up where we left off in our series.
We have been looking at a series of lessons on the seven “I Am” statements that are made by Jesus.
Seven statements He makes that gives us a better understanding of who He is and what He means to us...
I hope that from these lessons we can gain a better understanding of what Jesus means to us and who he is..
The world always has and certainly does today need Jesus.
We see all the tragedies in the world today and it may be hard to see the light.
We may wonder is this all there is?
There must be something Brett than this life..
And the good news is there is.
There is a better life..
A life with Jesus.
Its important we know about him, we understand who he is, and we appreaciate what he has done for us...
This monring we are continuing on studying these statements through the book of John.
We are now on our 5th one I believe of the seven this morning.
Today we will be looking at “I am the Resurrection and the Life”
Jesus teachs through, maybe one of the most amazing miracles he performs, a messgae for us that we need to know today...
Lesson:
Lesson:
Some context for us as we pick up there in John 11...
Jesus has found out that Lazarus is sick and is going to die...
Rather than going to Lazarus immediately so he could heal him, Jesus waited and Lazarus died...
Once Lazarus passes away we find Jesus and his disciples traveling back to Judea to a town called Bethany...
They come here to so that Jesus can “awake 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.”
The disciples confused thought he meant he was sleeping and resting to get better…
They didn’t know Jesus knew and was referring to him dying.
So Jesus tells he is dead and in verse 15 even that he’s glad because now they may believe…
We will get to that more later.
But as we read on through the chapter there down beginning around verse 11 we see Jesus arriving at the tomb and meeting Martha and Mary.
Jesus arrives at the tomb when Lazarus has been dead for four days now...
This is significant due to the fact of what was a common Jewish belief that a person was truly dead after three days and that there was no hope...
They believed their soul lingered around for 3 days then left.
Science also tells us what begins to happen around the 4 day mark with a body that has passed...
And we see that there as well with Lazarus’s family.
In verse 39 when Jesus goes to roll away the stone Martha tells him...
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.”
So everyone there knew good and well the condition of Lazarus and how bad it was that he has passed away...
This is going to be significant for the lesson Jesus wanted taught…
People needed to know good and well that Lazarus was dead…
But if we back up to when Jesus arrives we see Martha run out to great Him.
She tells him that if he had been there then Lazarus wouldn't have died...
Martha within this statement acknowledges the power that Jesus has, she shows her faith by knowing what he can do!
Even though her brother has died she still has faith in and believes in Jesus and his ability to do anything..
This morning we see through Martha the faith of a true disciple…
True disciples maintain faith in the face of disappointment, hard times, etc…
Even through grieving during a difficult time Martha didn’t lose faith…
A faith we should have today in our lives…
Instead maybe many times we do the opposite..
When a loved one passes, when bad luck comes our way, when whatever happens in life maybe we give up on our faith…
We question God, instead of solidifying our faith in Him even more!
This is one of our main lessons I believe we can learn from this passage before we ever get to our main point this morning in what Jesus says…
I hope we can all strive to have a faith that endures through difficult times…
But back to our text as we continue on…
We find Jesus offering some words of encouragement and hope to Martha
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha sort of fails to see what he’s meaning here.
She replies in verse 24 and tells him “She knows he’ll rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Martha takes these words Jesus offers as words of generic comfort.
And she references the second coming knowing she has some comfort in the fact he will rise again that day.
This would be much like us today at a funeral offering some words of comfort when a loved one that’s passed is faithful to the Lord.
We know they are in better place, or back home with God.
So I am sure we can imagine Martha trying to smile through the tears knowing her brother has passed but one day he will be resurrected…
However, this isn't what Jesus is meaning with his statement…
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
Jesus then makes this statement, our next I Am statement that we are studying this morning…
I am the resurrection and the life…
What comforting words those are…what amazing words those are..
Words we should all be thankful were spoken and true…
Jesus is life…
He gives life because that is who He is…
So often in the world today we have such a hard time talking about death.
This morning this lesson is sort of built around it, that’s the context in which we find these words spoken…
We have a hard time viewing death as the beginning.
So often us as humans and the world view death as the end…
But Jesus tells us here that’s not the case…
In Him there is eternal life, there is this sense of resurrection and life…
Death isn't the end, its only the beginning for Christians.
Death is what is going to unite us back with Jesus and with God one day…
We know that we must all die in order to be reunited with them…
And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
We all have a time in our life when we will face physical death here on this earth..
But with Jesus we wont have to face a spiritual death.
We can have life…
All we have to do is believe and upon that belief live a faithful life for Christ..
We see this back in our text when Jesus asks Martha this in verse 26…
And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Jesus after establishing this truth that within Him lies life he asks Martha if she believes this…
She responds in verse 27…
She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
Martha still maybe not fully understanding where Jesus is going with this, does confess her belief here
She tells Him she believes He is the Christ, the Son of God…
Now if we look in verses 27-332 give or take we can see…
After this we can see she leaves Jesus who is just on the outskirts of the town of Bethany and goes to find her sister Mary..
She goes and tells Mary that Jesus is asking for her and Mary leaves and comes to Jesus…
Upon arrival we find the same exact words issued by Mary that Martha had said…
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.”
She expresses the same faith in Jesus…
They aren't saying this in a hateful rebuking manner, but just as we said with Martha, a manner in which acknowledges the power of Jesus and their faith in Him…
Now in verse 33 we read something interesting…
Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
There is a lot of discussion around this idea of “groaned in the spirit” and what it means…
The best way to describe it maybe is agitation…
Jesus was deeply moved concerning these events..
And its not due necessarily to Lazarus death, he allowed it to happen.
And he even said in verse 15 he was glad Lazarus died so that the disciples could believe…
So then what was Jesus frustrated at?
Well as you continue to read through the chapter we see Mary and the Jews crying together…
In verse 37 we see the crowds ridiculing Him saying “Could not the man who opened the eyes of the blind keep this man from dying?”
The reason we find Jesus deeply moved or groaning or agitated here is due to the unbelief that surrounds Him…
No one around believes that Lazarus is going to live, no one believes he’s coming back until the final day..
So Jesus even after trying to tell Mary and Martha about who He is sees the unbelief among them…
Even up to the point in verse 38 and 39 were Jesus tells them to roll away the stone, we can see it still doesn’t click with them…
Jesus tells them to roll it away but Martha tells Him basically its too late…theres no use.
Notice Jesus’s response…
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.”
Jesu tells her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”
Jesus demonstrates for them again who He is…
The resurrection and the life…
He goes to God in prayer praying to God so that they people there could believe…
After his prayer he cries out for Lazarus…
He says “Lazarus come forth.”
A man who’s been dead for four days, who’s body was breaking down, sealed in a tomb…
A man who’s body no one believed would ever live again…
This man, walked out of the tomb…
He walked out still bound in the grave cloths they had wrapped him in…
Jesus demonstrated here perfectly exactly who He is…
Jesus is the resurrection and the life…
He can take the dead and make them alive…
He can do the impossible…
He is the great I Am..
This is the same Jesus that dies for us…
Just as he physically brought Lazarus back and he physically resurrected Him and gave him Life again, he will and has done the same thing for us spiritually…
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
We were all once dead to sin, just as Lazarus was dead and without hope of a physical resurrection so were we spiritually..
We were dead in our sins, we had no hope no life spiritually, until Jesus.
Just as He changed everything for Lazarus so he did for us…
Paul tells the Roman’s that Jesus died so that we could live, that through His death came our life…
he said we died so that we might walk in newness of life.
So that we could be resurrected spiritually from that man that was dead in sins, to a man alive inn Christ…
When we were baptized into Christ we were also baptized into His death, that through death can come eternal life…
The same lesson we saw with Lazarus, through death there was life…
And all of these things are only possible with Jesus Christ.
He is the only one capable of this.
We cant do it, mankind cant do it, only Jesus can…
And thankfully for us that’s who were serve.
He is our Lord and Savior.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
This morning as we get ready to wrap up I want us to all hopefully understand the significance of what we have read this morning.
I want us to all see the value in the words Jesus…
Jesus’s whole point of what we read this morning was to establish true faith, true belief in who He is and what he can do…
We saw this when we read through but he asked MArtha if she believed, he prayed to God that the crowds may believe…
Everyone claimed they believed in Him but h wanted to establish a true belief…
Do we have that same faith and belief this morning?
Do we maybe claim we believe in Jesus and who He is but fail to truly believe in the power of Christ?
In the power of His word?
Do we truly have the faith we should have in Him?
A faith that gives us hope, that should change how we view death…
A faith that one day will reunite us with Him…
Thats what Jesus wanted to accomplish and that’s why we have these words today…
I hope that as we study through these “I am” statements that we continue to really focus on and appreciate who Jesus Christ truly is…
I hope we truly appreciate all He has done for us and I hope we have our faith strengthened when we think on these things…
This morning are you a child of God?
Are y a chrisitan this morning?
We have saw this morning a beautiful lesson…
And that is that there is life in Jesus Christ…
Eternal life in Jesus Christ, those who are in Him and a part of Him will never die spiritually.
Paul tells the Colossians in Colossians 2:11-13 exactly how e make sure we re alive in Christ…
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
This morning if there is someone here who’s never been baptized, I hope we see the need to make that decision today.
Life is found in Christ…
Unfortunately, that should tell us what’s found for those outside of Him as well..
Don’t make that mistake.
Out of all these lessons we’ve looked at about who Jesus is why would anyone not want to be a part of Him and the church?
For those of you who are Christians already this morning are we faithful?
Is our faith what it should be?
If so then we should have no fears or worry over death.
We should take comfort in the words of Jesus and know we have eternal life and a resurrection available through Him…
However this morning if we aren't faithful, if we have failed to live a life a Christian should live then lets make things right.
If we know we have sin in our life that’s separated us from Christ let’s come back home.
Let’s make sure that we all this morning know for a fact we have eternal life with Christ waiting for us….
