He Is The Resurrection and Life
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Transcript
Introduction
Good Morning Church, how are we doing today...
So I wanted to give you a little heads up, in a directional change for the messages over the next couple of weeks. We will be continuing in our CHRISTOS series this morning, but we are going to put a pin in our “Upside Down Kingdom Parables” that we have been looking at over the last couple of weeks and move forward in timeline of the life and ministry of Jesus.
The reason is that somehow Easter has sneaked up on me this year, and it is now only two weeks away. I typically take a break from whatever series we are in to dive into an Easter Series, but this year because we are already in the Gospels I thought I would just temporarily move us forward a little so that we can land on the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday.
So in preparation for looking at Palm Sunday (next week) the Crucifixion (Good Friday) and Resurrection (Easter Sunday) today we are going to be looking at the part of Jesus’ story shortly before where He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,” John 11:25b
Because this was an answer to a question that was on the mind of so many people in Jesus’ day. What happens to us after we die? And there were two prevailing schools of thought on this topic among the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. One one hand, the Pharisees looked at Old Testament passages like Daniel 12 where it says:
2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
And they concluded that their was life after our death. They hotly debated the “who, whats, whys and hows… but they believed in and taught of a future resurrection from the dead.
The Sadducees, on the other hand, believed differently. They believed that after you died there was…well…nothing. So you better get all you can while you are alive because there is nothing else out there. (Sometimes it amazes me how little our ideas have changed over thousands of years...) Anyway, both these groups were considered “Teaches of the Law” it is just that one taught the law made you worthy of heaven and the other taught the law made you wealthy on earth. And so with the religious leaders divided the people sometimes wondered… “So who do I believe when it comes to life after death?”
Tension
And this question is on the minds of many people in our day as well. Especially this past year, Right? Have you ever thought about the impact on peoples hearts and mind when they keep having daily death tolls pushed at them from news sources and “water-cooler” conversations?
In a typical year we have twice as many people die from heart disease and twice as many die from cancer than died from COVID last year but it rarely made headlines, let alone came to us in a daily report. And those are big numbers that keep being pushed into our little corners of the world. Whatever we might think about the accuracy of these numbers, the very fact that our mortality is being paraded in front of us every day is having an effect on people’s thinking.
We are thinking and talking more about our mortality than we were a year and a half ago. Because of this, there is a lot of fear out there over getting sick and dying, whether it be COVID related or heart disease or cancer or any other of the many ways in which people see their life on earth come to an end…and then what? What is next? People are desperate to know who to trust and who to believe when it comes to questions about life after death. Especially now that death seems less distant and the distractions that we typically use to ignore such questions seems less effective.
Well Jesus has the answer. More accurately Jesus is the answer to questions about life after death.
14 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. 15 Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
Sadly, I get this sense that many in our world are living like this, but living as a “slave to the fear of dying” is not really living at all. .
When Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and life” he wasn’t just speaking about future things, but how those future things work to effect our present lives. So on our way to “Resurrection Sunday” we are going to take some time today to look at how Jesus handled the reality of death when He was still living here on earth. And how the promise of His resurrection can serve to both comfort us when we face death and inspire us to new life.
So open up your Bibles with me to John chapter 11, p 897 in the chair Bibles and we we learn from a time in Jesus’ life and ministry when He had to deal with the death of a loved one. He responds with understanding and compassion, but also clarity over the difference that the Resurrections makes for every day we have on this earth, not just the last one.
As you are turning there, I will pray...
Truth
1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”
So there is a crisis in this home, and Jesus was not there. We see signs throughout this chapter that while Jesus loves everyone, just as we are to love everyone, He had an especially close relationship with this family, just like we have closer relationships with some people than others. Jesus clearly loves this family, so how will He respond to this news that his loved one was 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.
Now I don’t know about you, but his doesn’t line up with how I think I would respond in a situation like this. When I picture a loved one in my life I think it should read something closer to… “I love them so when I heard they were deathly ill I jumped into the car and beat the ambulance to the hospital” Right? That seems more natural for me, so what am I missing?
Well we have to keep reading to find out...
7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 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.”
So…now you know. Ok, this is not exactly the clearest of explanations, but in truth Jesus is giving his disciples a powerful lesson on how we are to live our lives free from fear. I don’t think I could ever say it better than Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, so I will just share with you His words on these verses written back in the early 1900’s. He explained these verse like this...
“Applied to Him, it meant; I certainly am going back to Judea. You need have no fear. There will be no stumbling. There will be no accident. Hostility cannot touch me until my hour has arrived. I am walking in light, and not in darkness. I am making no experiments. Do not be anxious about me.” - Dr. G.Campbell Morgan (1863-1945)
This is such a good word for us today, in our world that seems so prone to fear - even among brothers and sisters in Christ, we seem to have lost track of the glory that is the sovereignty of God. It brings to mind the Psalm of King David that reads:
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Or Jesus’ earlier words when he said:
27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
The big idea is that when we walk with Jesus, who is the light, we have no reason to fear. God has already written our story, we just need to follow Him into it.
And that is what is happening here. Jesus didn’t wait two days because He didn’t really love Lazarus and his sisters, He did. And He didn’t wait two days because He feared the Jews, because he didn’t. He tells us exactly why he waited, why he was not there for the family when we would think He would be...
11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Why did Jesus wait two whole days before setting off to see his friends whom He loved? So that the Disciples may believe in Him. And not just the Disciples, as the story unfolds we will see how Jesus’ delay will grow the faith of many others including both sisters, the funeral guests and the people they told and the people they told and on and on even to reach us today, some 2000 years later.
Only the perfect timing of an eternal, all powerful, all knowing God could orchestrate such a thing out of a two day wait, but that is walking in the light of Jesus can bring. And so the disciples followed Jesus, even encouraged on by the one disciple you would never expect.
16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Who would have thought that Disciple who would become known as the “doubter” would so courageously lead them into an event that caused so many to believe.
This brings us to our first theme for the week...
1. We can trust Jesus to give us hope and truth in times of despair (John 11:17–27).
1. We can trust Jesus to give us hope and truth in times of despair (John 11:17–27).
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.
Surely the news of Jesus’ escape from being nearly stoned to death in Jerusalem reached the home of his friends here in Bethany, so when Martha heard Jesus was close she left her post as the funeral host and went out to meet him further away from the house that was full of guests.
21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”
Martha is such a curious character in this story, and I confess I cannot figure her out. I can’t tell if she is questioning Jesus here on why He didn’t get there sooner or if she is demonstrating great faith in that she knows that his presence can still make a difference somehow.
But maybe that is the picture we are supposed to see. If you’ve ever lost a loved one or attempted to comfort someone who has, they are often a mix of faith and worry, hope and questions. That is just the nature of a crisis like this, and Jesus knew that in this moment Martha needed something strong to hold onto. She needed to be strengthened with the truth.
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Remember this was still the most common view among Jews, as it was the teaching of Pharisee’s but more important that that, it was what Jesus taught on many occasions, but this time He invites her and us to see the resurrection as more than just an “end-of-life” reality, but something that makes a difference in her “here and right now”...
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?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
Jesus statement here is one of the 7 thematic “I Am” statements from the Gospel of John and notice how Jesus didn’t stop at “I am the resurrection”. As wonderful as that truth is, that death is not the end for those who believe in Jesus there is actually more. A believe in the eternal life that Jesus offers us is actually a way of life. It is a way of living out from under the fear of death and in a passionate drive to walk in the “12 hours of light” that Jesus was talking about. It trusting that Jesus has written out our story to bring about a much greater good then if we were given the pen ourselves. To give our life meaning and significance that spills out so much further than anything we could be on our own. A life of hope and truth.
And Jesus knew that Martha needed to hear this in this moment. He knew her heart, temperament and personality and He knew that she would be comforted by these words of truth of hope. But Mary is a soul of a different sort, and Jesus always meets us right where we are.
Our second theme is that...
2. We can trust Jesus to be understanding and compassionate in times of grief (John 11:28-37)
2. We can trust Jesus to be understanding and compassionate in times of grief (John 11:28-37)
So Martha echos the “Good Confession” like Peter…You are the Christ, The Son of God...and..
28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
So while Martha tried to keep this a private affair, the crowd followed the quickened steps of sweet passionate Mary and so it quickly grew into something very public.
32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
That sounds familiar doesn’t it. Probably something that the sisters told to one another, “If only Jesus had been here, then things could have been different...” And maybe things would have been different, but they would not have been better. Still Jesus is not cold and condemning in their time of grief...
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
There it is “Jesus wept” - shortest verse in all of the Bible, but still one of the most impactful. I was surprised to learn this week that this is the only place in Scripture where this Greek word for wept is used. It is the Greek word “da-cree-o” very different from the word “clay-oh” that was used of Mary of the other mourners. It shares the same root word for “tear” but other than that we have not other use of the word. Maybe that is because Jesus cried like no one else ever has.
Truth is, that in the ancient middle east “mourning” was something like an Olympic event. Families would actually hire professional “mourners” to weep and wail at funerals so that the family would feel the freedom to join in at whatever level they desired. Since this was the custom elsewhere, I always thought “wept” was something like that, but maybe not. All we know for sure is that Jesus was “deeply moved” and “greatly troubled” as in this moment He felt the weight of others grief, and this caused Him to express grief himself…even though He knew that Lazarus would rise again.
So whatever it looked like, it gives us the freedom to express our own grief even if we have faith that our loved one will one day rise again.
We can trust Jesus to give us hope and truth in our despair,
We can trust Jesus to give us hope and truth in our despair,
to show empathy and compassion in our grief, and lastly
to show empathy and compassion in our grief, and lastly
3. We can trust Jesus, who has power over death, to give us new and everlasting life (John 11:38–46).
3. We can trust Jesus, who has power over death, to give us new and everlasting life (John 11:38–46).
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?”
Oh the curious complexities of Martha. We can relate to her can’t we? At one moment we are declaring Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God who can do anything and the next moment we are like, “Really Jesus? you sure you want to do that because I know that is going to stink” Right? We are so often like Martha, a mix of faith and questions...and surely many others that day thought similar things so Jesus decided to stop and pray, that they would know “the how” and “the why” of what was about to happen.
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.”
…because they were probably all standing there with their mouths open. Every one of Jesus’ miracles were done to show Him to be the Christ, and John gives us this miracle of resurrection as the final act before the great resurrection that brings new and eternal life to all who believe in Jesus.
Gospel Application
Some time ago we talked about how John never uses the noun “faith” in His Gospel account, but instead he chose to use the more dynamic verb “believe”, and he uses it almost 100 times. And I don’t know if you noticed but the word has come up 7 times in our text for today, including these last few verses that we are going to take a look at.
You see there were two responses to the miracle Jesus did that day. On one side we have a group of people who looked at the power of Jesus and responded in faith, and on the other hand we have a group who looked at their own power and responded in fear.
45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him,
That is the first group...
46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
Our response to questions about life after death will cause us to either deepen our faith in the power of Jesus, or deepen our fear over our lack of power in this world.
Landing
You were never meant to live in like that, and as we walk up to Resurrection Sunday it is my deep desire that everyone of you know what it is like to live free from the fear of dying, and live flourishing in the compassionate love and purpose found only through a right relationship with God in Christ Jesus.
If you are wondering where you stand in this, please come see myself or...