The Resurrection and the Life

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Toward the end of this week, Charla and I took a brief getaway to celebrate our anniversary a few weeks late, because, you know, you have small children and things happen. We took a brief getaway to Dallas, and one of the, I think it was Friday, we were sitting in a restaurant eating lunch, eating tacos. Some of you who followed us on Facebook, our trip was sponsored by tacos, apparently.

but we were sitting there eating lunch, and on the TV, they took a break from election coverage and did an interview with Connie Chung, not Connie Chung interviewing somebody, but they were interviewing her, and we really couldn’t understand what was being said. It was loud in the restaurant, but we got to talking about her, and Charlotte said, who is she? And it reminded me of back in 1995, the fallout from her interview with somebody from the Oklahoma City Fire Department over the Oklahoma City bombing, when a lot of people felt like she was combative with folks in Oklahoma City and said, do you really think the Oklahoma City Fire Department can handle something like this?

And I remember as a kid, the adults there in Oklahoma City being up in arms about the way they felt the city was put down. Could they handle this? I think they did handle this.

Nobody can be prepared for something like that. Nobody expected that to happen. But I think they handled it, not only the fire department, but the city, the people of the city, the people of the community handled it as well as anybody could have.

And in the aftermath of that, there came to be something called the Oklahoma Standard. And I heard about it more in the years to follow after the tornadoes. And those of you who don’t know me very well, Charla and I are both from Moore, which is Tornado Central. We’ve been through all of them.

Even the one I lived in Arkansas during it, I happened to be back in Moore visiting my parents. So God said, don’t want you to miss it. Make sure you’re here for this.

But there’s a way that we in Oklahoma tend to rise to the occasion. we’ve been through a lot of things my family was here during the dust bowl they stayed there was the oil bus there was the bombing there was all the tornadoes but we in Oklahoma tend to rise to those those difficult occasions and those tend to be the moments where we show what we’re made of and I’m not saying that to the to the detriment of anybody from anywhere else in the country. I just, I love Oklahoma.

But they, people around the country have talked about the Oklahoma standard. That when trials come, when difficulties arise, those become opportunities for us to take care of our neighbors and people we don’t know, take care of strangers, become opportunities for us to show who we are, what we’re made of, and what we can do. And as we were talking about that whole time in history.

It reminded me of the passage that I’m going to present to you this morning in John chapter 11, where Jesus took a dire situation and used it as an opportunity to show everybody who he was, what he was made of, and what he could do. Now, granted, who he is and what he can do is a lot more impressive than anybody in Oklahoma. But it just kind of made me think along those lines.

Over the last few weeks and over the next few weeks, we have been and will be talking about some of the I Am statements of Jesus throughout the book of John. And I’m glad for that because I don’t know about you, but on a week like this where we’re looking at all kinds of insanity and a handful of states got together and broke America somehow, We need some good news. We need some reassurance that it doesn’t matter what happens on the news.

It doesn’t matter what happens in Washington. It matters who He is. And He tells us who He is in all these places where He says, I am.

So if you haven’t already, turn with me to John chapter 11. John chapter 11. And if you would, stand with me as we read together from God’s Word.

This is another one of these that’s a long story. So I’m going to read some portions to you. And then skip over some portions.

I’m going to tell you what happened in the story, but not necessarily read them verse by verse, just for the sake of time. I encourage you to go back and read this whole chapter for yourself. John chapter 11, starting in verse 20.

It says, Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now 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 of 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 at the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?

And she said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who has come into the world. And by the way, I’m going to stop there for just a second. I want to make sure you understand when she says, I believe you are the Christ. When we call him Jesus Christ, that’s not his last name.

And that’s a title. That’s the Greek equivalent. Christos is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah.

So when she says, I believe you are the Christ, it’s not like looking at me and saying, I believe you are the Byrns. She’s saying, I believe that you are the Messiah. You are who you claim to be.

Then we’re going to pick up again in verse 38. It says, Then Jesus again, groaning in himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.

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. 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 said these things, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth, and Jesus said to them, Loose him and let him go. And you may be seated. So in this story, we see that Jesus came to Bethany, this small town just a few miles outside of Jerusalem.

He came to Bethany to show his power. He came to Bethany to take these dire circumstances and show the people around him just exactly who he was and what he could do. In the first portion of the story that we didn’t read just for the sake of time, we find out that Mary and Martha, Lazarus’ sisters, they sent word to Jesus in Jerusalem that their brother was sick, and they asked him to come.

And the Bible says Jesus loved him, and he waited two more days. I think that’s kind of odd. He loved him so much, he says, yeah, no, but stay sick a little longer.

But we’ll see. I think I can explain the reason for that. So he waited two more days.

He told his disciples in verse 4 that this sickness was not going to be the end of the road for Lazarus. It was going to be an opportunity for him to demonstrate the power of God. And then after two days, he departed Jerusalem to head out to Bethany, knowing already, he told his disciples then that Lazarus was dead.

He knew Lazarus was dead before anybody ever came and told him Lazarus was dead. And he went anyway. He went out to Bethany because again, his mission here was to show what God could do and what he could do.

So he arrived four days after Lazarus had died. And that means I sat down and tried to work out the timeline. And that means Lazarus, more than likely, as far as I’ve got it worked out, Lazarus was probably dead before word even got to Jesus that he was sick.

It seems like somebody would have left Bethany after he was sick, and it would have taken him a day to get there to find Jesus. They tell him he waits two more days, then he makes the journey out, and by the time he gets there, it’s been four days. I’m thinking Lazarus died right after somebody left to go get Jesus.

But Jesus went out knowing Lazarus was already dead, and I’m sure knowing Lazarus had been dead the whole time, And he went out anyway to see Mary and Martha. And he discussed the situation with Martha. And Martha said to him, Lord, if you’d been here, my brother would not have died.

And Martha is kind of one of these that has everything worked out and everything goes according to plan. I feel like I know some people like Martha. I won’t name any names because I’m married to her.

But everything is planned out. And if you’d just been here when you were supposed to be here, everything would have been great. So there’s a little bit of an accusation in her voice.

If you’d been here, my brother would not have died. But she was also acknowledging, as much as she was acknowledging that Jesus could have done something about this, she’s expressing confidence also that even now, God will do something amazing through you. She says, whatever you ask, I know God is going to do.

Meaning his father. She had confidence that Jesus was in control because Jesus and the father were in agreement. And so Jesus told her in verse 23, your brother will rise again.

He told her what was about to happen. And she says, I know, I know, I know. She’s thinking theology here.

She says, I know he will rise again. There’s going to be a resurrection at the last days. What we know of from the New Testament is the dead in Christ will rise.

She says, I know that all this is going to happen. There’s going to be this resurrection. She believed there was going to be this end times resurrection.

And her hope was in this promise that one day she’s going to see her brother again someday. That was her hope. Someday.

And while she’s talking about this future resurrection, Jesus says, no, no, no, no. I am the resurrection. And the life. her hope did not depend on a future resurrection her hope was not in someday her hope should have been in jesus christ because he is the resurrection the resurrection that’ll happen to all of us one day is only a resurrection because of what jesus did if it were not for jesus we would just die and stay dead.

There is only a resurrection because He is the resurrection. The resurrection happens because He gives life, and He gives life to those who believe. He’s clear throughout His Word.

He, because He is life, He gives life to those who believe. He gives abundant life to us now. He gives full spiritual life with a connection with our Father.

He gives that to us now. You don’t have to wait for life to happen someday. He gives life to you now.

And he gives us eternal life later on. It’s ours now, but we get to experience it later on. Once we have that life, we will never die again.

And so he asked her, do you believe this? Do you believe what I’m telling you? And that’s when she says, yes, Lord, I believe you are the Christ. I believe you are the Messiah.

I believe you are the one that God has been promising all these years. I believe you are the one that Israel has been looking for. I believe you are the one we’ve been waiting for.

I believe you are the Christ. I believe you are the Son of God. Now that’s important too. We think of those as synonyms. Messiah, Son of God.

But realize, people in that day were waiting for a political Messiah. They were waiting for the right political savior to be swept into power and throw the Romans out and set up a golden kingdom in Israel. They were looking for somebody who was just going to change things here on earth.

They missed the part where the Messiah was God in human flesh who came to deal with their spiritual issues more than their political issues. She recognized he’s both. You’re the Messiah, and not just a human Messiah.

You are the Son of God who has come into the world. So she acknowledged him as everything he claimed to be. And after Jesus met with Mary, that’s that middle part that we didn’t read over.

After he went and met with Mary, he accompanied Martha to the tomb. And that’s where we picked back up again in verse 38. He ordered the stone to be removed over Martha’s objections that Lazarus had been dead for four days.

She said, he’s been in there long enough, he stinks already. It’s too late. And this is where I realize, I think, the importance of the four days.

Why he would have waited two more days before he went. Because evidently, I’ve struggled with this for a long time. God’s word says Jesus loved them, and I believe that.

But he loved them so much that he said, I’m going to let him die first, and we’ll make something good happen out of it later. It’s just hard to square those two ideas. I was reading and discovered that there was a superstition at that time that a lot of people held, that when somebody died, the soul would stick around for about three days, hoping for an opportunity to slip back in.

I don’t know if that’s why wakes were invented or why. Lay them out there and hope the soul finds its way back in. But there was this superstition that, you know, for three days, the soul hangs around and maybe something will happen.

And so for Jesus to show up at the third day, or the fourth day, excuse me, for him to show up at the fourth day, he showed up just after all hope was gone. he showed up just at the point where they’re thinking nothing can happen his soul has moved on if they believed in that superstition and there was no way at this point that anybody who held to that superstition could say oh Jesus really didn’t do anything the soul just went back in he showed up four days later and did what everybody knew was impossible he showed up four days later in a situation where there was no hope as far as anybody was concerned and he provided hope to them he reminded her when she says he’s been dead four days I don’t know what you’re doing opening the tomb don’t you know it’s going to smell keep that closed jesus said wait a minute did I not tell you that I came to show you the power of God?

Did we not just have a conversation about the fact that God was going to do something incredible and you just need to watch? I’m sure Jesus was a little bit more compassionate than that. But God’s going to do something incredible here.

Just wait for it. And so he prayed to the Father for the benefit of those standing by. That way nobody can say, oh, he’s a magician.

Oh, he did it by the power of the devil. The Pharisees like to pull that one out all the time. Jesus fought Satan by the power of Satan.

Jesus told them how ridiculous that was. He prays to the Father and says, thank you for hearing me. And by the way, I know you always hear me, but I’m thanking you for hearing me for the benefit of those who are standing around listening.

And when he was done with that, he turned to Lazarus and he said, Lazarus, come out. get out here and Lazarus did and it’s amazing to me that we don’t see a whole lot of the aftermath in this story we don’t really get Lazarus reaction recorded Bible doesn’t really tell us anything else about Lazarus he came out bound hand and foot and they had to untie him we know that I want to know more I want to know what happened after that but God made sure what was recorded was the important parts. That Jesus stepped into this situation that seemed to be outside of anybody’s control and he took control of it and we see throughout this story that Lazarus’ situation was never outside of Jesus’ control.

You can see that all throughout the story. Jesus knew that Lazarus was dead before anybody ever told him. And it’s not just Jesus saying later on, oh yeah, I knew he was dead the whole time.

He told his disciples, he starts out by saying Lazarus is asleep. They don’t understand his euphemism. Well, that’s good, he’s resting, he’ll get better.

And Jesus, again, I’m sure more compassionately than I would, I’m reading this and thinking, are you that dense? Do you really not get this? He gently explains to them, he’s dead.

And I think the disciples are saying, why are we going? What’s the point of going here? Jesus knew he was dead, but he went anyway.

Jesus knew from the very beginning that this was not going to be the end of the road for Lazarus. Jesus didn’t call Lazarus out of the grave and then look at his hands and say, wow, what did I just do? That’s amazing.

How did I do that? But Jesus knew that that’s what he was going to do. He had told them this was not the end of the road for Lazarus.

And he had told them that he had a plan to work through this circumstance to demonstrate the power of God and the glory of God to show who he is, to show what he could do, and to draw people to faith in him. And we see he said that in verse 11. He talks about that in verse 23, verse 25, verse 40.

He’s talking about this plan that he has to demonstrate the power of God. Jesus was in control of the situation the entire time. At no point in this story did Jesus say, whoops, I didn’t see that coming.

He was in control the entire time. He had power over everything that was going on in Lazarus’ life. He could have, at that moment, when somebody came to Jesus, he could have snapped his fingers and raised Lazarus from the dead right then, if Lazarus indeed was already dead.

If Lazarus wasn’t dead yet, Jesus could have just thought about it and said, okay, he’s healed now. But the story wouldn’t have quite the same impact, would it? Jesus was demonstrating.

He did all of this to demonstrate the power of God and the power that he had as God the Son over life and death. And folks, this tells us that if he can control life and death for Lazarus, he can do the same for us. He has the power over life and death for us.

He has the power to conquer death for us. Because this power he demonstrated that day in Bethany doesn’t apply just to Lazarus’ situation. He never told Martha, this is a one-off that I’m doing just to make a point with Lazarus.

He said to them in verses 25 and 26, He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. When he says he there, he’s not just talking about Lazarus.

That’s a general statement. That’s like when my wife and I, both of us who taught English, Don’t worry about it if you hear me make grammar mistakes in talking. But we’ll discuss things and she’ll look at me and say, are you saying you as in you or you as in one?

Okay, you as in one. When one does this, that’s what he’s saying. When one believes in me, though he may die, he shall live.

This is a general statement. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. It’s applied in an open-ended way.

It applies to all of us. It applies to whoever believes. So what we need to understand this morning is that when Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life, he didn’t mean just that he was the resurrection and the life for Lazarus.

It means he’s the resurrection and the life for me and for you. He is every bit as much the resurrection and life today as he was then. The same power that had a plan for Lazarus, and the same power that raised Lazarus from the dead over all the objections that Martha raised and everybody else, that same power promises to give us life as well.

He promises us abundant life. He said in John 10. 10, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.

He came so that we could experience a spiritual life now. That we don’t have to remain dry and dead and separated from God, but we can have the fellowship with God we were created for. And He came that we would have eternal life.

He said in John 10. 28, and I give them eternal life. We looked at this last week, I believe.

I give them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. He came to give us eternal life with him that no one could ever take away.

And for him to show up four days later again, once everybody said, okay, he’s been dead this time, but now he’s really dead. I don’t understand that, and we kind of chuckle about it when we hear the superstition about three days, The soul may come back. We kind of chuckle about it, but they believe that.

And at the same time, we believe there are situations that are kind of dire, and then there are situations that are absolutely hopeless. You think about it that way. It makes more sense to our situation.

And we think there are some people that are bad and need a Savior. There are other people that are really bad and beyond saving. That’s what we sometimes think.

Jesus doesn’t know a hopeless situation he showed up four days later when everybody said all hope was lost the soul’s gone the body’s beginning to deteriorate what’s the point of even opening the tomb Jesus said wait and see what God can do and I want to make sure you understand that this morning because there may be somebody in here who says no, I’m beyond any hope. And I know that may sound strange to many of you because you think, well, if you’re beyond hope, why would you be sitting in church? But I’ve talked to people that have sat in the pews week after week.

Throughout my whole ministry, I’ve known people that sit in the pews week after week. And they think I’m just beyond God saving. He does not know a hopeless situation.

He does not know anybody who is beyond His power to save. If you will believe, though you may die, you will live again. He is the resurrection and life.

Not just for Lazarus, but for us today. But for that to apply, we have to believe. We have to trust in Him as our source of life.

he emphasizes believing throughout this whole thing he said in verse 25 he who believes in me though he may die he shall live believing is key verse 26 whoever lives and believes in me shall never die he said in verse 40 did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of god Verse 42, I said this, that they may believe that you have sent me. He asked Martha in verse 26, do you believe this? If you’re sitting there thinking this morning that you are beyond hope, or hope seems distant and hope seems foreign because you think you’ve got to get your whole life cleaned up.

You’ve got to come to God after you’re in better shape spiritually. You know, if I could quit drinking, if I could just get off the drugs, if I could clean up my language, if I could stop being so prideful, if I could break off that relationship, whatever it is. You think, oh, I’ve got to come to Him once I’m cleaned up.

That’s why you feel hopeless. because there’s no hope for us in our own goodness. Our own goodness, it will never be enough to save us because there’s not enough of it to undo the sin that we’ve committed.

What does he tell us? He says, believe. It’s about believing.

I’m not saying merely believing that Jesus exists. The Bible makes it clear that Satan believes he exists. That’s not enough.

Talking about the kind of belief that Martha expressed here. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God. Now even as she said that, she didn’t understand what he was about to do.

She didn’t understand he was about to raise her brother. But she understood that her hope lay in the resurrection that he was going to provide someday. Just someday moved up on the calendar for Lazarus.

But she believed that Jesus was God’s Son sent to save them. And this morning, if you recognize that you’ve sinned and need a Savior, and you believe that Jesus, and only Jesus, is the resurrection and the life, that He can save you, He can give you eternal life, He can give you abundant life, He can give you all the life you need, and He can reconcile you to God because He died on the cross to pay for your sins in full, to wipe the slate clean where you couldn’t wipe it clean for yourself. If you’ll cry out to God acknowledging your sin and your trust in Jesus Christ, and you’ll ask God to forgive you because of what Jesus did, you have the promise of His Word this morning, that He’ll hear you, and He’ll forgive you, and He’ll save you.

Not because of anything good you can do, but because Jesus is the resurrection and the life.