DEATH... Had No Power
Notes
Transcript
Some may look at the title I have for tonight as we just finished remembering Christ Death (communion)… no doubt each of us in this room have been impacted by death… and all of us face death one day.
In Romans 5:12 we read…
When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.
NO POWER??? … it spread to EVERYONE because ALL have sinned!… When we consider mankind… DEATH HAD POWER… from the beginning!
But notice the past tense there. I want us to go back… prior even to the day Christ was crucified… 6-8 weeks Prior.
There we will find Jesus, His disciples, and some very close friends of Jesus… this passage is very important when we consider death and its POWER.
A close friend of Jesus, Lazarus, was sick. Jesus was notified but delayed in going to see him. (the religious leaders in the area wanted to kill Jesus)
John 11:11-16 gives us a insight as to when they left… BTW Jesus is NEVER late… & He was not fearful!
Then he said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.” The disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!” They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. And for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there, for now you will really believe. Come, let’s go see him.” Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.”
Lazarus Is Dead
Lazarus Is Dead
We don’t like to think in terms of death. In fact it is so difficult to deal with sometimes we give it other terms...
Passed away or passed on
Asleep or rest in peace
No longer with us or departed
In a better place or stepped into the next life
Jesus is going to deal with Sin & Death and He calls it what it is…
I love the commitment here of Thomas… “well boys if Jesus is going to go there and die, let’s go with Him!”
Jesus says that what He is about to do will really make you believe… let’s follow Him
It is amazing to follow Jesus… NO MATTER THE COST!!!
You look down through history past and you see the hold, the power, that death has had on humanity.
DEATH is a reality of this life, a reality of sin. As we read John 11:17-32 please notice the care and hope Jesus gives the sisters here in the midst of DEATH…
When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” Then she returned to Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, “The Teacher is here and wants to see you.” So Mary immediately went to him. Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him. When the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there. When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
I AM
I AM
DEATH often brings questions or what if’s… ???
IF you had been here sooner
If He healed the blind could he not heal Lazarus
Why did God heal this one and not that one
Why did God let them die
Why, why , why…
Even with the questions present did you notice Mary state her faith as well… “I believe… you’re the Messiah, the Son of God, sent from God”… DEATH should not shake our FAITH!
I love how Jesus in the midst of so many questions… He deals in absolutes!
“your brother WILL rise again”
Did you notice Martha’s beautiful faith and understanding of the teaching of the resurrection of those who believe in the last days!!! (more of this on Sunday morning)
Jesus makes the BOLD STATEMENT… “I AM the resurrection and the life”
This is the fifth “I AM” statement in this gospel of John
Not I will live… I AM LIFE!
Jesus the embodiment of LIFE,
LIFE is in OPPOSTION with DEATH!!!
Not Lazarus will resurrect or I will resurrect… I AM THE RESURRECTION!
Edwin Blum states: Jesus’ words about life and death are seemingly paradoxical. A believer’s death issues in new life. In fact, the life of a believer is of such a quality that he will never die spiritually. He has eternal life, and the end of physical life is only a sleep for his body until the resurrection unto life. At death the spiritual part of a believer, his soul, goes to be with the Lord.
This is POWERFUL!!!
We do not put our hope in an event… we place our HOPE in the midst of DEATH, in the valley of DEATH… in the person of Jesus Christ!!!
These next words of John 11:33-39 were difficult to read at first… Jesus is at a funeral with all these people grieving and Jesus is ANGRY!
When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.” Then Jesus wept. The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?” Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”
Jesus Is Angry!
Jesus Is Angry!
We see here Jesus angry, we see Jesus wept, we see an emotion we are told not to have at death… ANGER.
WHY IS JESUS ANGRY… WHY DID HE WEEP???
The people grieving… NO!
The questions they are asking… Jesus knows we are finite!
Lack of faith maybe… Jesus knows they have no idea what He will do.
Is Jesus weeping because He misses Lazarus, because Lazarus died… NO, it is far bigger than that.
I believe this passage gives us a glimpse into what drove the passion of Jesus Christ that paved the way to the CROSS!
Jesus looked and He saw the horrible result of SIN and DEATH
Jesus looked at the humanity He created in pain, suffering, grieving because of SIN & DEATH
Jesus as He looked around He was ANGRY WITH… SIN, DEATH, and SATAN
Jesus has come to deal with SIN & DEATH… “ROLL THAT STONE AWAY!” [read the following verses 40-44...]
DEATH could not hold onto Lazarus when the GREAT I AM / THE LIFE calls out to come!
Death that day HAD no Power up against the ONE who embodied LIFE… It is the PASSION of our Savior, Our God for you and me that had Him come, had Him go to the cross…
John 3:16–17 ““For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”
1 Timothy 1:15 “This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.”
Hebrews 2:14–15 “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.”
The Passion
The Passion
Even on His way to the cross and on the cross Jesus never ceased to have the POWER...
His Arrest John 18:4-6
His Trial John 19:6-11
Nailed to the Cross John 19:17-18
His Death Given John 19:28-30
Going to the CROSS… Jesus TOOK ON SO MUCH:
Took the Slander
Took the Spitting
Took the Scourging
Took the Scorn
Took the Crown of Thorns
Took the Cross
His blood… EVERY DROP, paying for my sin, taking my death upon Himself.
Jesus TOOK ON an enemy we had no power over and LIFE took on DEATH!
I started this message looking at Adam’s sin bringing death… Let me close with this truth in the following verses of that passage:
Romans 5:17–18 “For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.”
