I Am The Resurrection And The Life Series

1. Martha and Mary expected Jesus to operate in their time and on their terms.

a. “If you had only been here . . . “

b. How often do we feel as though God has let us down by not doing things as we expected?

2. Martha was looking for the moment of the resurrection.

a. Martha had faith to believe that Lazarus could be raised at the last day during the time of resurrection.

b. Martha didn’t understand that the resurrection and the life was among them at that moment.

c. Martha was in essence giving Jesus two windows of opportunity.

i. He could keep Lazarus from dying all together.

ii. He could raise Lazarus at the last day along with everyone else.

3. Jesus declares Himself to be the resurrection and the life.

a. Resurrection  the cause for people to live again; the ongoing source of life.

b. Life  the absolute fullness of life, both essentially and ethically; life that is eternal with a new perfect body

c. John 1:4 tells us that in Him was life . . . Jesus was the full embodiment of life and was able to bring that at any point.

d. In Luke 7, Jesus approached a casket of a young boy and when we placed His hand on the casket everything stopped. Life and death came to a standstill and nothing happened until Jesus spoke. At the word of Jesus, death had to leave!

e. Read John 5:24-29

4. Martha ran to get Mary but said nothing to her of what Jesus had said.

a. Mary approached Jesus in the same way as Martha and it troubled Jesus.

b. Martha did not have the capacity to believe in life NOW.

5. Jesus proved His words to be true by calling Lazarus forth from the grave.

a. It was not the time of the resurrection as Martha spoke of.

b. It was simply a manifestation of Life commanding death to let go.