Welcome to week 6 of our I am series. We have been learning who Jesus says that He is, and I believe this is one of the most powerful truths this week, because this is the statement that changes everything, this is the statement that brings victory in defeat, that breaks the chains, that brings freedom, that breaks the curse that is on this world. Turn with me this morning to John 11
Read John 11:1-44
I am the Resurrection and the Life!...In this story, Jesus foreshadows what He will do for all who believe in Him, but this was done on the physical level. So often many of these I am statements were referring to the spiritual things around us. Eat my flesh…referring to joining Him in is death…I am the light…he heals our spiritual blindness…but this week starts off with an object lesson, and oddly enough Martha thinking in the Spiritual as Jesus is talking about the physical.
It starts off with Jesus receiving word that Lazarus was sick. Martha expected Jesus to drop everything to come and heal their brother. They believed in Jesus, they knew he had the power to heal the sick. Often times we end up in the same situation, we expected God to act in what We feel is right…we expected God to move one way and He does the unexpected…We put God in a box and God will never be pinned in.
I love the words written by CS Lewis in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, describing Aslan…Lewis’s representation of Jesus: “He’ll be coming and going,” he had said. “One day you’ll see him and another you won’t. He doesn’t like being tied down—and of course he has other countries to attend to. It’s quite all right. He’ll often drop in. Only you mustn’t press him. He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.”
Too often we want a tamed lion, one who is willing to jump through the ring of fire when we crack the whip, but we forget that we serve God, not the other way around…He is the Lion of the Tribe of Judea, and he is not a tame lion…“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
How often have we been upset with God when things do not go the way that we expected them to go? How often do we moan and complain that he didn’t answer our request right when we wanted it. Jesus’ plans were not to leave Lazarus without giving Him healing, but Mary and Martha did not know this, nor did they fully trust Jesus to come through for them. Look at verse 21 Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even in her unbelief, there is almost hope in the next verse: But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” She almost believes…she is like the good Christian praying but not believing. She knows all the right things to say, but there is not real belief behind them. Jesus even tells her, your brother will rise, and she is stuck in the spiritual…but Jesus was talking about the physical.
Martha believed the battle was over and while her brother would rise one day in the end, right now there was nothing more for her to do. How often do we do the same thing? The world has come and beat us up, there were walls that came up that stopped us…the enemy has thrown all that he has at us and we give up….We forget who we are walking with…He is not a tame Lion, He has a plan, all we have to do is trust in Him!
Some of us are like the preacher who was on a diet and prayed as he drove to work- "Now, Lord if it is your Will for me not to have any donuts this morning You make sure there are no parking places in front of the donut shop." And he later said, "I ate the donuts because there were two places right up front on only my 8th trip around the block." We need to make sure we don’t play the game of making God’s guidance fit what we want rather than seeing if what we want actually fits His plans. Martha wanted Jesus to stop everything and come and heal her Brother, but he allowed Lazarus to die, to teach a greater lesson, to prove a bigger issue than just being Lord over illness!
Then there was Mary…she is in the house, surrounded by mourners over the loss of her brother. Martha quietly tells here that Jesus has arrived and she falls at his feet. Look at what she says to Jesus. Verse 32: Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Wait wasn’t that the same thing that Martha just said…why is there a different response. With Martha, Jesus kept talking calmly, but with Mary Jesus is deeply moved in his Spirit. Despite the testimony of the Bible, despite the signs of Jesus all around them, which they all bore witness to the life of the divine sovereignty that has come into the world through him, and despite the word that he proclaimed, with its emphasis on the promise of life now and hereafter, they mourned like everyone else. They didn’t get it, they were still lost in a sinful world. Here He is the Resurrection and the Life standing in their midst, the Good Shepherd, the Son of Man who came to seek and save the lost, and even after all that he has taught and done, they are still lost they still do not understand his purpose…
The Greek here is more than just groaned or deeply moved in the Spirit, is says that he was Angry in his Spirit and agitated. He is angry not at Mary, who loves him, but at the Enemy whom has left the world blind, who has done such splendid work that even with Him standing in their midst they are still lost and do not understand what it means to Have the Resurrection and the life in their midst… Lazarus was dead and all seemed hopeless! And because he saw them as truly lost…Jesus wept…
George Washington after suffering major defeats at Brandy wine Creek and Germantown finds himself facing one of the worst winters in history. He has 12,000 troops Left to fight the entire British army and winter’s howling breath is breathing down his neck. He goes into a desolate barren valley at Valley Forge Pa. To spend the winter and try to recuperate from the stinging defeats that the enemy has given him. There is no shelter for his men at Valley Forge, His army is naked and starving to death as “old man Discouragement “comes to sow his seeds of defeat. It looks Like total defeat and it appears that the new nation the United States of America will annihilated by the Bitter winter and the British army. YOU TALK ABOUT DISCOURAGEMENT!! But there is a man in the camp; his Name is Baron Von Steuben. He trains and shapes the army into a fighting force. He encourages them to get up and go on. They win major victory at Saratoga then on to Yorktown.
AFTER EVERY DISCOURAGEMENT THERE IS ALWAYS A VICTORY IF YOU ONLY BELIEVE.
They didn’t believe, but Jesus was going to show them. He goes to the tomb…admits protests he has stone rolled away. Look at what he says in verse 40:
Read verse 40
Jesus sees that they still don’t believe, they still don’t get it, Understand this the glory of God is revealed to those who believe. 2 Kings 6:14 14 Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. 15 And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”
16 So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Mary and Martha’s eyes were closed to who Jesus really was…did they understand that He was the Christ…Yes, the Son of God…Yes…the Resurrection and the Life…NO! In the same way, our eyes are often closed to what is going on all around us. At FCF last weekend on Friday night after taking communion we spent the whole night talking about different missionary stories. I don’t remember which African country, or missionary, but they were entering into this country to bring in money to build the new church building. They were traveling through the African jungle just the two of them. They made it through the jungle without any trouble. A little while in their ministry, a man walked up to them and asked them how they managed to amass such a large army to protect them as they slept. The Missionary said there was not army with us, it was just the two of us. But the man insisted, oh no, you had a large army and they seemed to glow in light, we did not dare attack you.
Too often we look on our situation with human eyes, and do not bother to pray, or do not bother to believe that Glory of God is about to be revealed in the midst of our dark hour, Lord…Open our eyes that we may see that army of heaven protecting us as we go. Ephesians 6:12-13 says: “12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” We must look with spiritual eyes, we must fight against the forces of the enemy, because even though he may think that he can kill this church, when we believe that in the Glory of God for Tok Assembly of God, our eyes may be opened and the Glory of God may be revealed. verse 41:
Read verse 41-44
Jesus is the resurrection and the life, he did not come so that we can be overcome by the powers of this world, by the enemy, he came that we may overcome all that the enemy has in store for us…that we may have victory…through Jesus we have "Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival."
Donald Ballar, Reader's Digest, shared this story of an instructor of student truck drivers. The instructor gave this scenario to his class. "You are in an 18-wheeler with a heavy load, barreling down a mountainous two-lane highway. Ed, your co-driver, is asleep. There are six trucks behind you, and as you come over the top of a hill, one of the trucks behind you pulls out into the left lane to pass. As he comes along side you, you see several trucks coming from the opposite direction moving towards you. One of the trucks coming at you is in your lane because it is passing an on coming truck. There are five trucks behind and one beside you. There are several trucks in front of you and the two out front have both lanes blocked. The question is, 'What will you do?'
'The answer is simple' a student called out. 'I would wake up Ed.' 'Why would you do that?' asked the instructor. The student replied with, 'Because, Ed ain't never seen a truck wreck like this before!'"
There are those in this world that would love to see the church fall…they would love to see the destruction rage all around them…they would love to see the church destroy itself, but those that are rooting for you to fail, for the church to fall, for people to stay in misery, those that breed seeds of dissention, do not know the Life that is offered by Jesus, they do not know the power of the resurrection, the one that brings new life. What Jesus did with Lazarus was nothing, it was done to show that he had power over death…that he has victory, but he did not conquer death at that moment, he still had to go to the cross, he still had to die and be buried himself so that he could defeat the curse of sin and death on this world, so that he could bring victory when all seems lost.
John Stott is his book The Cross of Christ, wrote, "It is impossible to read the New Testament with being impressed by the atmosphere of joyful confidence which pervades it, and which stands out in relief against the rather jejune (superficial) religion that often passes for Christianity today. There was no defeatism about the early Christians; they spoke rather of victory...For if they spoke of victory, they knew they owed it to the victorious Jesus...It is he who 'overcame,' 'has triumphed,' and moreover did it 'by the cross'"
For too long this church has been stuck…it has been a church on life support practically in effective for reaching the community around it because it has not claimed the victory that Jesus has given us over the world. When we stand in this place and claim the victory, it doesn’t matter how small we are, or what trials will come tomorrow, all that matters is that move forward knowing that God goes before and after us, He’s got us covered and we can march forward in confidence in him!
Hebrews 2:14-15 14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
We are not to live in fear…we are not to live as slaves of fear or of this world, we are to live as true children of the Most high God…we are to live a life as overcomers…a life to fullest…a life of victory, knowing that he has more things to come!
Hard times are going to come, we may lose a battle here or there, but we will not win the war…that outcome is secure forevermore!
Let’s close declaring victory in Jesus, for He fights and wins that battles for us! Stand with me as we close this morning
Sing Song
Thank you for joining us this morning as you leave walk in the victory that Jesus has given you. .
Next week we will look at Jesus as way the truth and the life. Have a great week.
