Encounter the hope and power of Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life, offering eternal life to those who believe in Him, even beyond death.

Transcript

The other day as I was sermon prepping, I got distracted and found myself on Amazon.

I wanted to get an extra laptop charger for the office, and I had the option to get it delivered to me on the same day and it left me wondering…what’s taking so slow?

Just kidding, but remember when Amazon Prime first came out offering two-day shipping?

It was wild to think that I could receive a package in the mail so fast when it would normally almost a week.

But now, same day deliveries are the norm.

While some are concerned how this can feed into our selfish desires for instant gratification and negatively impact timeless virtues like patience, delayed gratification, and self-control, others, myself included, share the appreciation for the prompt and convenient services that allow us to carry on with life without much or any interruptions, especially when it comes to the important things in life.

As Christians, some of these virtues are core to what we believe and who we are, but what if God did promise us access to immediate benefits that could make us more carry on in life without interruptions?

This morning, we’re going to look at one of those promises.

RECAPPING THE CURRENT SERIES

In the last month, we’ve been looking at Jesus’ “I Am” statements.

There are 7 of them and the purpose of each statement is to reveal to us something about Jesus.

The “I Am” statements help us identify who Jesus is.

To quickly recap, in the first week we learned that the phrase, “I Am”, simply reveals to us that Jesus is God.

So whenever Jesus says “I am” he is claiming to be God.

This was a direct reference to Exodus 3 when God identifies himself as “I Am” to Moses, which basically means God is all-sufficient and completely independent.

In the second week, we looked at “I am the bread of life,” which communicates the idea that Jesus is the sustainer.

Bread of life was a reference to Exodus 16 and the food that God provided to the Israelites to sustain them while they wandered the desert for 40 years.

In the third week, we talked about “I am the light of the world,” and the idea that Jesus is the guide.

Light of the world was a reference to the Exodus 13 when God guided the Israelites in the desert as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

And last week, we looked at the third and fourth “I Am” statement, “I am the gate for the sheep” and “I am the good shepherd”.

Shepherd was an image often referring to a leader in the Old Testament.

When Jesus describes himself as the gate and the good shepherd, it refers to Jesus the leader who selflessly protects his people from harm.

This morning, we’re at the fifth “I Am” statement, “I am the resurrection and the life”.

This statement illustrates the idea that Jesus is the life-giver.

And to better understand what this means, let’s highlight what’s going on when Jesus makes this statement in John 11.

During scripture reading, we heard some parts of John 11 read and I’ll recap some of the things we need to understand to see the significance of what Jesus means when he says, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

John 11

In John 11, we’re told one of Jesus’ closes friends, Lazarus, is sick and he eventually dies.

Now, Jesus knew that Lazarus was going to die, but decided to stay where he was two more days before visiting him.

When Jesus does go visit, we’re told in verse 17 that Lazarus was already in the tomb for 4 days.

During this time, there was a popular belief that the deceased person’s soul remained near the body for three days.

This gave people hope that the person’s soul could re-enter their body causing them to come back to life.

So, John, who wrote this book makes it clear to inform his audience that Lazarus is dead dead.

Lazarus’ 3-day window expired, it was the 4th day, there was zero chance for Lazarus to come back to life.

And this is crucial, because at this point of Jesus’ life and ministry, he performed many miracles including bringing 2 people back from the dead.

During this time, it was typical for burials to occur on the same day a person died.

And in both situations where Jesus brought the dead back to life, it was within the day.

You can read about these two accounts in Luke 7:11-15 and Matthew 9:18-26.

But, with Lazarus, it was different.

There was absolutely no way Lazarus was coming back to life so when he finally arrived to see him, Lazarus’ family was disappointed that Jesus wasn’t there to stop Lazarus from dying.

Notably, Lazarus’ sisters, Martha and Mary, who were also Jesus’ close friends were filled with grief and disappointment.

Martha and Mary

Martha was the first to meet Jesus and immediately when she meets him she says to Jesus,

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Even though she was disappointed in Jesus’ late arrival, she expressed hope in God’s promise of a future bodily resurrection some day in the future.

Even in her grief, she trusted that one day Lazarus would come back to life and Jesus reassured her of the hope by stating the 5th “I Am” statement. Jesus tells her,

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”

Jesus reassured her that he is the life giver and that she doesn’t have to wait until a future date to see her brother, Lazarus, live.

Instead, anyone who believes in Jesus has life, whether it's life in the world or in the afterlife.

Jesus is the life giver so we can be hopeful no matter how sad the situation.

Martha was encouraged and recognizes to the best of her ability that Jesus is the savior who can do this.

Mary on the other hand was disappointed, but her disappointment wasn’t filled with hope.

Our English Bible doesn’t describe it well.

The NIV simply tells us that she is weeping, but in the original language, this type of weeping is characterized as painful and bitter grief.

Mary’s makes the exact statement as Martha,

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,”

but unlike Martha, Mary doesn’t follow up with the hope that Martha has.

For Mary, death is the end and she is filled with hopelessness.

We even see the difference in how Jesus interacts with each.

After Martha shares her disappointment and hope with Jesus, Jesus affirms and reassures her.

After Mary states her disappointment, the Bible describes Jesus as “deeply moved in spirit and troubled”.

We might associate “deeply moved in spirit” with empathy, but it refers to frustration or even anger.

We’re even told in 11:35 that “Jesus wept” and it isn’t clear if he’s weeping for Lazarus or the disbelief, but with more insight we learn that Jesus was frustrated and troubled by their unbelief.

He was upset that their grief caused them to feel hopeless.

They have seen Jesus perform many miracles and they have heard his promises, but here, they lose all hope.

In response, Jesus asks them to take him to Lazarus body and scripture drops hints about the people’s unbelief. When Jesus asks them to open up the tomb, Martha, who shared her disappointment and hope in a resurrection makes a point to reminds Jesus that Lazarus is dead.

She tells Jesus that there is a bad odor from the body decomposing and that he has been in the tomb for 4 days. This is the same Martha who heard Jesus proclaim,

“I am the resurrection and the life”

So Jesus reminds her to have hope and believe that he is indeed the life giver.

Jesus prays and calls out in a loud voice for Lazarus to come out and Lazarus who had been rotting in the tomb for 4 days came back to life.

Many of Jesus’ promises have us wait with anticipation for fulfillment in the future, but in this moment, Jesus revealed to the people that his promises make an immediate impact when we’re faithful in him.

This is the best kind of instant gratification we could ever imagine.

Martha and Mary didn’t have to wait for some day in the future to experience their brother be resurrected, but their faith in Jesus allowed them to experience the truth of Jesus being the life giver.

By raising Lazarus back to life, Jesus reassured them that he was greater than any obstacle that seemed larger than death.

Nothing was going to prevent him from keeping his promises of being the life giver.

Not death, not hopelessness.

And with Jesus being the life-giver, it only further indicated that he was God.

While all “I Am” statements that we’ve looked at so far have a direct Old Testament connection, “I am the resurrection and the life” is unique because it isn’t as direct as the others, but many Bible scholars speculate that when Jesus declares,

“I am the resurrection and the life,”

he references Genesis 1-3 and the creation story.

Jesus is drawing the parallel that he is the life giver like how God is the life giver.

Theologically, we believe God created the world out of nothing out of nothing, that God alone brought all matter, energy, time, space into existence out of nothing.

Similarly, in John 11 Jesus brought life to Lazarus who was nothing.

And more importantly, Jesus was also the life giver who brought spiritual life to those who were spiritually dead and completely hopeless.

There is no obstacle for Jesus when it comes to life.

He overcomes every obstacle so that we can experience life here on earth and when we pass.

Different Views on Life After Death

As a Christian, when we die and cease to exist on this earth, we continue to exist with God.

Death is merely a transition from life on earth to life with God and our soul is separated from bodies.

The Zondervan Bible Commentary says this,

“Death is only the moment when eternal life passes from activity and experience in the material world. The life which Jesus promises is immortal.”

For some, there is an assumption that when we die there might be a waiting period.

We might get this idea from Revelation where we anticipate the final resurrection.

And while we do wait for the final resurretion, it doesn’t mean we cease to exist or we pause to exist.

While we wait for a final bodily resurrection we are alive in spirit with Christ in heaven.

This assumption might come from a Catholic concept called purgatory where a person’s soul exists in an intermediate state before going to heaven.

It might also come from our ethnic heritage and influence from Buddhism and reincarnation.

The belief that life is a cycle of being trapped in reincarnation until we reach a state of enlightenment and break free from the cycle, but the Bible speaks differently to this issue.

In understanding that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, that he is the life giver, we have life here on earth and we have life even in death.

A biblical perspective on life after death

Passages like Luke 23:43, Philippians 1:23, and 2 Corinthians 5:8 describe life with God once we leave earth.

In Luke 23:43, Jesus reassures the criminal who was crucified next to him that he would continue to exist with Jesus in paradise.

In both Philippians and 2 Corinthians, Paul speaks about remaining here on earth or departing to be with Christ. There’s a sense of immediacy, that once life on earth passes, life continues in heaven with God.

Death doesn’t prevent us from being separated from God.

In fact, Romans 8:38-39 says this,

“38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Nothing separates us from Jesus, who declares that he is the life giver.

Life isn’t a product of believing Jesus, it is the very nature of who Jesus is. In John 10:10, Jesus tells us this,

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

Jesus is the life giver.

That is who he is.

He promises a future life and a life right now.

That if you believe in him, you get to experience the fullness of life now and life after death.

APPLICATION

Now, imagine what life could look like if we faithfully grasped the idea that Jesus is the life giver.

I think we would live our life very differently.

I think Martha and Mary give us a glimpse of what our life could look like if we believe in this truth or not.

If we’re like Martha and we are hopeful that Jesus is the life giver, we can be assured even in difficult situations. But if we’re like Mary and our hope is in the life of Lazarus or something else, we’re left hopeless and in ruins when that hope is taken from us.

I think it’s a pause to consider what is life giving that we put our hope in.

Is it Jesus or something else?

So, take a moment and simply pause to see what is life giving that we put our hope in.

There are a lot of things that are life giving that we put our hope in.

It might be:

• our faith

• our hobbies

• our careers

• our relationships

• our finances

• the things that we own

• the aspirations that we have

• our education, etc.

But if we’re honest, what happens when that life giving person or thing is taken away from us, where does it leave us?

Does it leave us hopeful or hopeless?

Does it interrupt our hope in Jesus and the hope that he promises in this life and the next?

It’s not necessarily wrong to experience life and joy from any of those things, but when our hope is solely rooted in those things apart from Jesus, and that hope is taken away from us, it will leave us hopeless.

We will miss the greatest opportunity to experience life from the life giver in this life and the next.

So enjoy the things that Jesus blesses us with, but remember this.

Place your hope in Jesus as the life giver and the promise that he has for you.

That he is the resurrection and the life.

In this life and the next.

Let’s pray.