Life Begins
Easter • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 16 viewsNotes
Transcript
WELCOME to the NEW BUILDING…REVIEW of EASTER 2012
WHY EASTER is so important, etc...
Scripture Introduction: In John 11 we are told of the sickness of Lazarus. Lazarus was the brother of Mary and Martha. This is the same Mary who had anointed Jesus with the precious ointment and had dried Jesus’ feet with her hair.
When Lazarus became sick they sent a message to Jesus to let Him know. Notice Jesus’ response in
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.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
Why on earth would Jesus’ love motivate Him to stay where He was? Why didn’t He immediately drop what He was doing and run to Lazarus’ bedside?
It was part of the Father’s plan for Jesus to wait. Although Lazarus would temporarily die, He would rise again. This death and resurrection would bring great glory to the Father.
Colin Kruse noted:
there was something to be gained by waiting two days before setting out. The spirit of the departed was thought to hover around the body for three days in the hope of a resuscitation. The raising of Lazarus after four days, then, would be clearly seen as a manifestation of the glory of God (4), which would strengthen the two sisters’ faith.
Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 4, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries
Jesus’ love for Mary and Martha didn’t mean that He would rush to their side, but rather that He would wait in order to demonstrate His power over death and the strengthening of their faith.
Sometimes Jesus’ love leads us through difficult valleys because He knows greater mountaintops are ahead!
After two days Jesus leads his disciples to go to Judea to resurrect Lazarus. By the time he reaches the destination Lazarus had been dead for FOUR days. It seems all hope had been lost. Mary and Martha were grieving the death of their brother and Jesus shows up “four days late.”
Notice the exchange between Jesus and Martha:
So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 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 from 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 on the last day.”
The Promise of the Resurrection (vv. 23-24)
The Promise of the Resurrection (vv. 23-24)
In this passage of Scripture we find that Martha understands the POWER of Jesus to heal. She simply says:
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
She knows Jesus could have prevented Lazarus’ death. If He would have only been there things would have been different.
We also find that Martha understands the PROMISE of the resurrection. Notice Jesus’ comment and her response...
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
She said, “I KNOW that he will rise again on the last day.” She’s thinking about the future resurrection that Daniel wrote about...
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 that Isaiah wrote about...
Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a dew of light,
and the earth will give birth to the dead.
The Apostle Paul would later write about this coming resurrection in...
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
In a way the resurrection of Lazarus is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ own resurrection. D. A. Carson notes:
Jesus rose ... leaving the graveclothes behind, materializing in closed rooms. Though his resurrected body bore the marks of his five wounds and was capable of eating and of being touched, it was raised with the power of endless life, the firstfruits of the resurrection at the end. Those who hear Jesus’ shout on the last day will participate in his resurrection; the resurrection of Lazarus, occurring before that of Jesus, could only be a pale anticipation of what was yet to come” (Carson, John, 419).
Martha knew the Word of God and she knew of the HOPE of her brother rising again. Her hope was in God and His Son and His promise. Yet she was grieving the fresh passing of her brother. She didn’t understand why Jesus delayed his coming or why He had allowed Lazarus to pass when He could have been there and done something about it.
We have the same thoughts as Martha at times. We don’t understand why God didn’t intervene when He could have. We don’t understand why people we love and cherish, why people God loves and cherishes, seem to pass off the scene way too soon.
But hopefully, we have the faith of Martha. We know Jesus is in control. We understand His power and we have HOPE in the PROMISE of the resurrection.
However, we need to come to understand, as Martha did, that we don’t just have the HOPE of the resurrection, but we also KNOW and have a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with...
Note
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
The Person of the Resurrection (v. 25)
The Person of the Resurrection (v. 25)
It is interesting to think about Jesus saying that he is the resurrection. In other words, He is talking about the resurrection to come, but He is letting her know that He, Himself, IS the resurrection.
He goes on to remind her that anyone who places their faith in Him, even if he dies, will live again. As a matter of fact, anyone who dies in Christ is more alive than they have ever been. They will never perish, they will never be separated from God, they will never experience eternal separation in hell.
Jesus doesn’t just resurrect the dead; He is the resurrection. His resurrection and his sovereignty as God enables our resurrection. He doesn’t just make resurrection possible, but He is resurrection walking around in human flesh. He is life. He is the creator and sustainer of life. He is the giver of life!
As Carson said, “there is neither resurrection nor eternal life outside of him.”
We are reminded of this from the lips of Jesus in
“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
“The whole power to restore, impart, and maintain life, resides in Me.” Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
The important question is this, “do you have a personal relationship with the person of the resurrection?” It’s one thing to know about the resurrection story, it’s one thing to know that there is an empty tomb, but the real question is do you know the person of the resurrection? Do you know Him personally, do you know Him intimately, have you placed your faith and trust in Him and Him alone for life eternal and life abundant?
Martha was about to experience the person in power and the resurrection! Mary and Martha would never be the same.
Notice what Jesus says next...
and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
The Power of the Resurrection (vv. 26-27)
The Power of the Resurrection (vv. 26-27)
Notice what Jesus says...
EVERYONE who lives and believes in me SHALL NEVER DIE!
Dear friend that is the POWER of the resurrection! The ETERNAL and ABUNDANT LIFE that Jesus provides is IMPARTED to everyone who places their saving faith in Him!
Physical death cannot touch, or sever the life we have in Christ! When we leave this world we will be more alive than we’ve ever been! For those who are trusting in Christ, death is not death…it’s just falling asleep, leaving this sinful, broken, painful world and waking up in the presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
The resurrection of Lazarus and most importantly, the resurrection of Jesus gives us HOPE!
It seems as if our world is becoming MORE and MORE hopeless. Our world is becoming more and more sinful and blatantly open toward their disdain for the Word of God.
Our society is giving grammy’s away to women who make a MOCKERY of God’s gift of sexuality, and a rapper recently released the “Satan Shoe” that contains a drop of human blood and they made exactly 666 pair of them.
Depression and discouragement seems to be at an all time high. We are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic and Christian persecution around the word is at an all time high.
But we have HOPE! One website reminds us...
Because God is a God who raises people from the dead, we have hope—not just for our eternal state with God but hope now, in the abundant life God gives. Consider: Are you hopeful? What is the basis for that hope? Do you have a secure hope that is unwavering, no matter your circumstances?
After Jesus’ pronouncement He looked at Martha and asked
“DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?”
Today I ask YOU the same question Jesus asked Martha all those years ago… “Do YOU believe this?” Do you really believe? Not just with your “head” but with YOUR heart?
The Apostle Paul reminds us...
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Believing, truly believing in YOUR heart, in the RISEN LORD is a pre-requisite for receiving the gift of ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD! A dead Savior cannot save! Yes, He died and He died in YOUR place and mine, but He didn’t stay dead!
He walked out of the tomb, was seen by over 300 EYEWITNESSES and many of these eyewitness DIED as a direct result of not being willing to recant their story of the resurrected Lord.
Let’s notice the “rest of the story”:
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.” 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. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 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.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 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.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 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.”
We want YOU to have NEW LIFE today! Jesus is offering to YOU new life today! He wants YOU to walk out of the tomb of DEATH and DESPAIR. He wants to deliver you from the stinking life that sin has delivered to you. He wants YOU to escape the POWER and PENALTY of sin!
Just as He called Lazarus from the dead and gave him new life, He can do the same for YOU! Will YOU respond to His call today?