The Resurrection and the Life

Introduction

What are some things that you are absolutely certain of?

*If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten.

*Someone said, “Nick Saben is the best football coach in history.”

*Everything tastes better with bacon.

Most adults would point out, “Death and Taxes.”

Problem: Spiritual Death

You are going to learn about taxes soon enough. So I want to talk to you a few minutes about death. I know that all of you are young and right now you think that you are going to live forever. But, I assure you that you are not. How many people do you know that are 150 years old. None. I know this for certain, “If Jesus taries, you are going to die.”

You might be thinking, “Well, I might not think about it much, but of course Bradley. I know that I am going to die.” But here is something that you might not know, “Many of you in here are already dead.”

Listen to what Paul said in Ephesians

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

“What do you meant that I’m dead. I’m not dead. I’m breathing. My heart’s beating. I’m here. I’m not dead.” Sure your body is alive, but the real you, your soul is dead. The Bible says that we are born in sin. That sin kills us before we ever take our first breath.

See you problem is that you don’t understand what life is. Life is knowing God. Life is living in a right relationship with your creator. Life is fulfilling the purpose for which God placed you here. That is to live bring glory to him in Christ as we love and care for people around us.

But you are not born that way. You are born sinful and selfish, separated from God.

*Let me prove it to you. Did anyone ever have to teach you to sin? To lie. To be selfish. Nope. You were born with it.

See here is where most of you have it wrong. The great mistake that most of you are making is that you think that Jesus came to make you good. But that is not true. Your biggest problem is not that you are bad. You are bad because you are dead. Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good. He came to make dead people alive.

Solution: Through faith in Jesus, Christians have true life forever in Christ.

There is an account in Jesus’ life is meant to teach us that truth. It comes from John 11.

Jesus had a buddy. A good friend. That was not one of his apostles that traveled around with him. But, was a great friend. His name was Lazarus. Lazarus had two sisters Mary and Martha. They all loved Jesus very much.

One day Lazarus got real sick. So much so that he was about to die. So, Mary and Martha sent a message to Jesus that Lazarus was about to die and needed his help. They had seen Jesus heal a lot of people. Of course, they thought that Jesus would come and heal his buddy.

But Jesus did something strange.

John 11:3–6 ESV

3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Jesus didn’t go. At least not in time for Jesus to save him before he died. But Jesus pointed out that his illness had a purpose. His illness and death was to glorify God.

+Have you ever wondered why God didn’t show up when you asked him to? Always remember, God has a plan. That plan might be a plan that you can’t see or understand. But rest assured that God plans on using our greatest hurts and trials to glorify him and to be transformed for our good.

After Lazarus had died, Jesus told the disciples that they should go to Judea. The disciples were like, have you forgotten that the last time we were there they tried to stone you? You don’t really want to go back do you.

Here’s Jesus’ answer:

John 11:9–10 ESV

9 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. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

-Back then, people worked as long as there was light because they could see. At night they didn’t work. So the physical sun decides when they work. Now, who does the Bible say the light of the world is? Jesus. So, the Son decides what work is to be done. So he’s telling them, follow me and do the work of God.

Then Jesus tells them, “Look, Lazarus has fallen asleep, and I need to go wake him up.” But, the disciples were like, “If he’s asleep, he’ll wake up. He’ll get better on his own.” Then Jesus I’m sure is getting a little irritated was like, “No. He’s dead! Alright.”

Now if he was dead, why do you think that Jesus originally said that he was just asleep. First, “to sleep with your fathers”then was a euphamism for being dead. We might say something like, “Sleep with the fishes.” But, also we know that when something is dead, they don’t come back. Jesus was going to bring him from death to life.

Then Thomas speaks up, “We’ll if he’s going to Judea to die. Let’s go die with him.” He’s not a doubter there, but a man of faith.

John 11:17 ESV

17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

4 days! Now back then they didn’t have the best medical knowledge. Today we can read heart rhythm or brain waves to tell if someone is dead. Back then it was hard to know if someone was really dead or just looked dead but could come back.

*Dead ringer. Back in middle ages they would put bells outside of a tombstone going inside the coffin. If you heard a bell ringing, you better get a shovel. That’s where the term dead ringer came up. You look just like the guy we buried. I am that guy.

So, the point of Jesus waiting 4 days. The Jews believe that if a person was dead 4 days, they weren’t coming back. They were dead, dead, dead.