I Am The Resurrection

1. I AM the Resurrection

• This is one of the 8 I AM’s recorded in the Bible

a. I am the Bread of Life

b. I am the Light of the World

c. I am the Door

d. I am the Good Shepherd

e. I am the Resurrection and the Truth

f. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

g. I am the Vine

h. I am that I am

• In the I am illustrations Jesus shows everything from providing substance with the Bread of Life to equating himself with God in I am that I am

2. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THIS MIRACLE

• Jesus was in Jerusalem

• Lazarus was the brother of Mary and Martha

• This was the Martha that had anointed Jesus’ feet with oil and wiped them with her hair

• Jesus had just asserted His Deity and the Jews had sought to kill him

• Blasphemy was the charge (10:33)

• Lazarus died due to an unknown sickness

• Jesus used the word sleep metaphorically to say that Lazarus was dead

• The Disciples were confused by this saying

• 11:14

• Lazarus was clinically dead

3. JESUS STALLS

• Why would Jesus stall when someone is facing death?

a. Jewish custom was for days 1-3 being a time of mourning for their lost

b. Days 4-7 were for friends

c. Days 8-30 were for combined mourning

• Jesus said that it was done for the disciples to believe VS 15

• Jesus knew that He had authority over death VS 23 “…Your brother will rise again.”

4. THE RESPONSE OF THOSE INVOLVED

• Thomas “…Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?”

• Thomas knew of the dangers of Jesus showing himself in public, the Jews sought to kill him

• VS 16 “Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”

• Thomas, though he was fearful was willing to be a martyr for Jesus

a. MARY AND MARTHA

• Martha was disappointed in Jesus VS 21

a. “Now Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

• Martha did not fully understand the power of Christ

• She showed a lack of patience

• Psalm 27:14 “Wait on the LORD; Be of courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!”

• Hebrews 9:27-28 “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,” “So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”

• She blamed God

• Like all of us, Martha felt like Jesus had not answered her prayer or was to late to do it

• She made a claim in VS 22 and Jesus told her that her request would be answered VS 23

• Mary too was disappointed, she fell weeping at Jesus’ feet making the same claim that if Jesus had been present then Lazarus wouldn’t have died

5. JESUS WEPT

• This showed His human emotion

• VS 33 his soul groaned and was troubled

• Jesus wept because:

a. He had Natural Love

b. Compassion for Mary

c. Hardness of the Jews who had gathered there (11:33,37)

d. The disciple’s ignorance to His power (11:11,40)

• We have a Division of Labor with God (11:39) Roll away the stone

• When God performs a miracle in our lives He expects us to do our part. Rather by faith, prayer or physical means

6. LAZARUS RAISED FROM THE DEAD

• Martha objected to Jesus going into the tomb:

a. He had an offensive odor

b. She didn’t want to relive the emotions of his death

c. She wanted to respect his body

d. Jesus said that if they saw Him raise the body of Lazarus then they would believe on Him VS 40

e. The world says: Seeing is Believing

f. Faith says: Believing is Seeing

• Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

• Jesus spoke: “Lazarus, come forth!”

• Power in the voice of God

• It is with this voice that the bodies of the saints shall be resurrected I Thessalonians 4:16 “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”

7. THE RESULTS OF THIS MIRACLE

• A dead man received life

• People were saved by this event

• John 11:45 “Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him.”