I AM the Resurrection and the Life
John 11
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
10-18-2020
An Impossible Request
[Slide] On December 12, 2014, Kimmy Blair was in a one car accident coming back from a funeral in Fairbury. Her neck was broken and she died almost instantly. She was 17 and was like a daughter to us. It was the most traumatic thing Maxine and I have ever been though. I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy.
While we were at the ER sitting with her body, her mother, a new Christian, looked at her and then at me, and said, “Jesus raised people from the dead in the Bible, didn’t he Jeff?”
My first thought was, “Don’t look at me. I can’t do that.”
Mt second thought was more a prayer, “She’s right. You did raise people from the dead. How about a miracle for us right now now Lord?”
What would you have said to her? How would you have responded to her?
I’ll tell you what I said to her at the end of this sermon. They were some of the hardest and yet most hopeful words I’ve ever had the privilege to share with someone who is in the midst of deep grief and sorry.
Review
So far, we have studied four of the seven I AM statements of Jesus from the Gospel of John:
[Slide]
1. “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:35, 41, 48, 51) As bread sustains physical life, so Christ offers and sustains spiritual life.
2. “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12) To a world lost in darkness, Christ offers Himself as a guide.
3. “I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10:7,9) Jesus protects His followers as shepherds protect their flocks from predators.
4. “I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11, 14) Jesus is committed to caring and watching over those who are His.
This morning, we will encounter the fifth I AM - “I AM the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25) and learn that, for the Christian, death is not something to fear but merely a transition into the presence of God.
At the end of chapter 10, the Jews are plotting to kill Jesus but He escapes their grasp and goes back across the Jordan. It is here that He get a message from His friends in Bethany.
Turn to John 11.
Commentator J.C. Ryle wrote concerning this chapter, “for grandeur and simplicity, for pathos and solemnity nothing was ever written like it.”
Prayer
[Slide] Mary and Martha’s Plea
[Slide] “Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” (John 11:1-3)
The narrator tells us that there was a man named Lazarus and that he was sick. His Hebrew name was “Eleazar:” which means “whom God helps.”
He was from Bethany, a little village on the east side of the Mount of Olives and about two miles from Jerusalem.
Jesus would often stop in Bethany and enjoy the fellowship of this family. It was like a quiet place of retreat for Him. It was like a base of operations for Him.
Lazarus was the younger brother of two sisters, Mary and Martha.
Dr. Luke tells us about the personalities of these two women:
“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)
Martha, the older sister, is worried, upset, busy. She’s a “get it done” person. Mary was sitting at Jesus feet listening. Martha was frustrated with Mary for not helping her.
Jesus gently rebukes Martha and says Mary has chosen the better option. Jesus will not be with them forever. She was sitting at Jesus listening to Him.
John then tells us in parenthesis that Mary is also the one who poured perfume on Jesus feet and wiped His feet with her hair.
]It’s interesting that John mentions this because it isn’t actually recorded in John until the next chapter.
Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
"Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” (John 12:1-8)
This was an extravagant act of deep love and devotion. Mary, Martha and Lazarus were dear friends who loved Jesus.
The sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” They didn’t ask Him to come. They didn’t ask for help. They simply sent a message. The messenger was from Bethany and Jesus knew exactly who this message was about - his friend Lazarus.
Jesus’s Procrastination
“When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” (John 11:4-7)
When Jesus heard that his friend was sick he told His disciples to saddle up the horses they had to get to Bethany as soon as possible. Nope.
His response to the messenger should remind us of His response when His disciples encountered the man born blind and they asked
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:2-3)
He gives the courier a message for the sisters - “This sickness will not end in death. There’s a purpose in this suffering. Stay calm. Trust me. God will be magnified in this. I will be glorified in this.”
Jonathan Edwards said, “The object of all things is God’s glory; & when God gets His glory - God’s people get their joy!”
When John writes that Lazarus was the one whom Jesus “loved,” he used the word “phileo” - strong friendship.
But here, John says that Jesus “agapes” Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. This is the divine, unconditional love of God.
That makes the next sentence all the more baffling. Once He heard that Lazarus was sick, he didn’t leave immediately. He didn’t saddle the donkeys. He didn’t go anywhere…for two days!!!
Martha and Mary were suffering as they watched their brother struggle to breathe. And Jesus stayed two more days where He was.
I thought He loved them? Does this seem like love to you?
God has a timing and it is often not our timing:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
God’s delays are not denials. Jesus delays coming to Bethany for a reason - to strengthen their faith and trust in Him and to show out the glory of God.
Maybe that’s where you are today. You are waiting on an answered prayer and God seemed to be silent. Remember what we learned throughout the Esther series:
[Slide] “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life and you may be aware of three of them.” - John Piper
He is always working behind the scenes for His glory and our good.
After two days, He looks at His disciples and says, “Let’s go back to Judea.” We will discover that the disciples are not exactly thrilled about the prospect of going back to the area where a whole herd of religious leaders would like to kill them all.
[Slide] The Disciple’s Perplexity
[Slide] “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
[Slide] His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Then Thomas (also known as Didymus said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11:8-16)
I can just see the disciples looking around at each other and saying,
“Going back to Judea? That’s a really bad idea Jesus. The religious leaders want to kill you. And if they kill you they are probably going to kill us. I think staying right here is the best option for us, don’t you think?”
Jesus answered them with this cryptic saying about daylight and stumbling and darkness.
Jesus says something similar in chapter 12:
“Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going.” (John 12:35)
What He is saying is as long as the cross isn’t in sight, He is safe to do the Father’s work. There will be a time, in fact, less than two weeks when the darkness will come. But until that time, they are safe in God’s Sovereignty.
This is something that we should remember as well. God knows our birthdate and He knows the day of our death. And until that day comes, we are safe and have time to do His will.
A man in Boston came running into the shop were he worked and told the boss that he had run into death at the
market and death seemed startled to see him.
He immediately packed his bags and told his boss he was going to go stay with his sister in Philadelphia.
Later that night, the boss ran into death on the street and asked him why he was so startled by his friend.
Death said, “I wasn’t so much startled but surprised to see him in Boston. I have an appointment with him in Philadelphia in the morning.”
Jesus continues by telling them that Lazarus, our friend, has “fallen asleep.” This is a figure of speech that the Bible uses often in describing death. When David died, he is said to have “slept with his fathers.” (I Kings 2:10)
You can almost hear the collective sigh of relief as they realize that they don’t have to go back to Judea. Lazarus will sleep and that does a body good.
“That’s good Jesus. Let him sleep. Then he will get better.”
Again, the disciples were masters at missing the point.
Jesus had to tell them plainly that Lazarus was dead. How did He know that? The same way He knew that Nathaniel was sitting under the fig tree before He ever met him. (See John 1:47-39)
Then Jesus tells them that He is glad that He wasn’t there. Doesn’t this sound harsh? I’m glad that Lazarus died and I was a no-show because I’ve got plans for your faith.
Thomas, good old doubting Thomas, the twin, speaks up.
“Let us also go that we may die with him.”
Was he being courageous? Was he being sarcastic? Was he being fatalistic? I think the answer the these questions are all yes.
Thomas was a lot like us. A contradiction in terms.
“Well, we might as well get this over with. Let’s go guys.”
[Slide] Jesus’ Proximity
[Slide] “On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.” (John 11:17-20)
It most likely that Lazarus died shortly after the messenger left to carry the news to Jesus of his sickness. Jesus stayed two more days in that place and then they made the day journey to Bethany.
When a Jewish person died, they would be wrapped in linen strips with spices and buried the same day.
As long as the body was in the house, no food would be prepared. Once the body left the house, all the furniture would be turned over and people would either sit on the floor or on stools.
A group of mourners would follow the body to the grave. This would usually be a cave outside of the village.
When they returned to the house, they would have a traditional meal of hard boiled eggs, lentils, and round loaves of bread.
For seven days, there would deep mourning and the people would wail, beat their chest, and throw dust in the air.
Then for 30 more days, there would be a period of less intense displays of grief and loss.
One year later the grave would be open and the bones would be placed into a box called an ossuary.
Even poor people would hire flute players and professional mourners to come and be a part of the grief.
Mary and Martha were obviously well known because many people came from all around, including Jerusalem, to comfort them.
Word got to Martha that Jesus was on His way and she hurried out to meet him, leaving Mary sitting at home with the other mourners.
[Slide] Martha’s Pain
[Slide] “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” (John 1121-24)
Martha approaches Jesus weary from grief and sadness. Her tone is one mixed with disappointment and faith.
“If you had been there” - she accuses Jesus of being a no show to their pain. Jesus, you should have been there.
You ever been there? It is not wrong to question God. Jesus could have come and healed her brother. But instead He chose to delay for two days.
But remember that He said that He loved this family dearly. There is clearly something else going on.
But her pain is also tempered by her faith. She understands that Jesus is intimately connected with the Father and and has the power to ask impossible things.
Jesus tells her that her brother will rise again. The one thing that Martha was not expecting was a resurrection that day!
Mary gives a Sunday school answer back to Jesus.
“I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
The Pharisees believed in a resurrection while the Sadducees (sad you see) and Samaritans did not.
She is simply spouting the party line bumper sticker theology.
[Slide] Jesus (and Martha’s) Proclamation
[Slide] “Jesus said to 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. Do you believe this?”
“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” (John 11:25-27)
This brings us to our fifth I AM statement of Jesus in the Gospel of John.
Jesus starts with those little Greek words, “ego eimi” which goes back to God’s covenant name found in Exodus 3:14 - “I am that I am.”
He is clearly and blatantly claiming that He is divine and that He is God. This is the main reason why the religious leaders want to execute Him for blasphemy.
Notice that Jesus doesn’t say that He can do resurrections or that He brings resurrection. He is the resurrection.
That is his identity.
He is the resurrection and the life.
Matt Chandler says that Jesus is “grabbing our future hope and pulling it into the present.”
Jesus said that the one who believes in me, actually it says, “into me,” will live, even though they die.
All of us are eternal beings. We live in this body but this body will wear out and go in the ground. But we will live forever, either in a place the Bible calls heaven or a place the Bible calls hell.
He then reverses the idea and says whoever “lives by believing in me will never die.”
He’s not contradicting Himself. We will never die spiritual if we place our faith and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins.
“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4)
He then asks Martha a question that still resonates today, “Do you believe this?”
I wanted to have a casket at the front of the church this morning but the deacons felt like it would distract from the message and I agree.
But the reason I wanted to have a casket here was to drive home the point that in 100 years, none of us will be here. Unless Jesus comes back, we will all be in a box eventually.
Some of you can’t wait to shuffle off this mortal coil and join the choir invisible.
But others are scared to death of death. Blue Oyster Cult had a song “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” And some of you should be.
In the Victorian Era, they would talk about death with no problem but would never mention sex. Now, our culture is obsessed with sex and pretend like we will never die.
If we do talk about it, it’s as a joke. Death isn’t the bass guitar player for Wyld Stallions with Bill and Ted!
For a Christian, death is merely the door into the presence of God. For a non Christian, death is only the beginning the agony that is to come.
One commentator wrote, “Death is a comfort to the believer’s creed. For the skeptic, it is a discovery immense and too late.”
Martha gives us a beautiful picture of someone who is trusting in Jesus no matter what.
She says, “I have believed that you are the Messiah (the anointed one, the Christ, the long awaited Deliverer, the Son of God, (second Person of the Trinity), who has come into the world
These are there very things that John wanted his readers to take away from his gospel:
“Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31)
[Slide] Mary’s Pain
[Slide] After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
Martha went back and told her that the “teacher is here.” This is an extraordinary thing because rabbis normally didn’t teach women.
The Greek implies that Mary was out the door before Martha finished her sentence.
The other mourners thought she was running to the tomb to weep there so they followed her.
What just happened? Now everyone will see what Jesus is about to do!
[Slide] When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
Mary and Martha grieve differently and that’s okay. Again, we see sadness mixed with faith. She fell at his feet and wept.
Mary and Martha say the same thing to Jesus. They probably had said the same thing to each other as they watched their brother slip away.
[Slide] “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
Jesus wept.
Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
John uses a very interesting Greek word to describe Jesus’ emotional reaction.
“Deeply moved in spirit” can mean “groaned, sighed deeply, was deeply touched, outraged, or indignant.” It is actually a word that is used to describe a horse snorting.
Back to the scene, we find Jesus looking down at His friend Mary who was suffering. He looked around at the others, faces contorted with grief. Then a most incredible thing happened. Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, did something uniquely human. He cried.
The Romans believed that their gods were apathetic - they didn’t care about humans.
But Paul wrote to the church at Rome to “weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12:15)
“Jesus wept,” is how John records it. Not a single tear but a flood of raw emotion. In fact, He wept so loudly many in the crowd called attention to the depth of His love for Lazarus. Jesus’ tears tell us more than that.
Doesn’t it seem strange to you that Jesus would cry? Soon, Lazarus would stumble out of the cave, shake loose the grave clothes, and be reunited with his family and friends.
If Jesus knew how the story would end, then why cry at all? Because He saw first-hand what death does to us and it broke his heart.
Jesus saw, and experienced, the soul-crushing pain that death brings –the sleepless nights, the loss of appetite, the sadness, and the tears, especially the tears.
It broke His heart and strengthened His resolve. This madness must be stopped.
After raising Lazarus, Jesus set a course toward Jerusalem. He had His own appointment with death. With His death on the cross and His resurrection, Jesus Christ defeated death once and for all. He turned death from a black hole of hopelessness to a door of destiny.
We often think that this is the land of the living, and that when we die; we go to land of the dead. This could not be any more wrong. This is the land of the dying. We are all dying.
The crowd was divided. Some read Jesus tears as a sign of his deep affection for Lazarus.
Others were skeptical and asked, “If this miracle man could open the eyes of the blind don’t you think He could have kept Lazarus from dying?”
[Slide] Jesus Prayer
[Slide] Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
Most tombs were caves and had a stone rolled in front of the entrance. This would serve as a family mausoleum that would hold up to up 8 people.
Jesus orders that the stone be taken away.
Remember Martha? The one that said she believed God would give anything that Jesus asked for? The one proclaimed that He was the Christ, the Son of God?
She says, “But Lord, it’s been four days. It’s going to smell awful.” (In the King James - he will stinketh!”)
We need to be very careful with our “but Lords.” As one pastor said, “Her mind was on the corpse and and not the Christ.”
But Martha is a lot like me. She is a mixture of faith and doubt, of courage and fear.
Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
Jesus reminds her, and everyone listening what this whole situation is really about - the glory of God!
[Slide] So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
Jesus has already asked the Father for this miracle. He is not play acting or showboating. His desire is that everyone who is about to witness this miracle would know that He is exactly who He claimed to be - The Messiah, the Son of God, that has come into the world.
[Slide] Jesus’ Power
“When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” (John 11:43-44)
In Jewish belief, the soul of a deceased person would hover around the body for three days looking for a way back in. But after the third day it was too late. There was no hope.
Jesus had raised others from the dead but both of those were children and they had just recently died. Skeptics could say that they weren’t actually dead but maybe in a coma.
But look how Lazarus is described. He’s the “dead man.”
John writes that Jesus yelled in His yelling voice! This was an authoritative roar!
“Lazarus! Here! Outside! Now!”
Why did He say Lazarus? Because if He didn’t, everyone in that tomb would have hopped out!
Lazarus came out, wrapped in linen with the sweat cloth around his face.
Were each leg wrapped individually? Or were they bound together? Did he waddle out of the grave or hop or float? We aren’t told.
Jesus told the crowd to take the grave clothes off of him.
I’m sure many hesitated. To touch a dead body made a person ritually unclean. But, wait, he’s not dead anymore.
I can just imagine while they are discussing this, he is saying let me out!
The funeral had been turned into a party! The pain that Martha and Mary felt is forgotten as they group hug their brother.
The Plot of the Jews
Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
As always, the crowd was divided. There were those were stunned and put their faith in Him.
But others took off running the two miles back to Jerusalem to tell the Pharisees.
“Now He’s raising people from the dead! Something has to be done!!”
The plot to kill Jesus was now in full swing.
Applications
So I had my hand on Kimmy’s arm. Here mother’s sad eyes were looking from me to her daughter that lay motionless in an ER room.
“
Jesus raised people from the dead, didn’t He Jeff?” she asked.
What do you say to that?
I
looked at Kimmy and then back at her mom and said these words:
“
Kimmy wouldn’t come back here if you paid her! She has seen colors that don’t exist on earth. She has joined a billion people for a wedding feast where she can eat all the mashed potatoes she desires. She has already taken a walk with Jesus. She has seen the face of God!
She is whole and healed. She’s not dead. She is more alive than she’s ever been!
Why? Because when she was in 8th grade she placed her faith and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of her sins.
Kimmy was really struggling the way many teenagers do. Her and I took a walk when we were at winter camp and I challenged her. There were two Kimmy’s. There was the church Kimmy and then the “wild child” Kimmy. I challenged her to be one Kimmy, the one God wanted to see shine for Him. Make a decision. Go all in with Jesus. That’s when she committed her life completely to Christ. She became a 2 Cor 5:17 girl – new creation.
It was at moment that God resurrected her! She started her eternal life then and now gets to be where she always wanted to be.
She won’t come back this way. But we will see her again. For us it may seem like a long time but she lives in the eternal now so it will only be a blink of an eye for her.
We buried Kimmy’s body three days later and we grieved. But we didn’t grieve as those without hope. We laughed and cried and celebrated and looked forward to the day when we will see her again.
Here’s very important question - have you been resurrected?
Jesus made it clear that He was a resurrecting Messiah:
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:25)
Paul described it this way:
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:1-5)
We will all die. The death rate is still right at 100%.
The writer of Hebrews states in plain terms;
“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9:27-28)
In the Bible, for the believer, death is described as our “departure” (Luke 9:11), taking down the tent (2 Cor 5:1), taking up the anchor and heading out into the open sea (Heb 6:19), and going home (John 14).
If I did have a casket here, someone you would simply see it as a container for your worn out body while others would be terrified of it.
For the Christian, death is merely the door to the Presence of God. For the non Christian, death is the beginning of an eternity without God and without hope.
Job called death, “…the king of terrors.” But it doesn’t have to be.
Imagine that we are in a car together and there is a bee. I know you are allergic to bee stings and you are very afraid. So I reach out and grab in the bee in my hand and allow him to sting me.
Now, should you be afraid of him? No! He can buzz but he can’t sting!
The Apostle Paul understood this well:
“Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Cor 15:54-57).
The raising of Lazarus was a precursor to what would happen less than two weeks later, when Jesus would be crucified, laid in a tomb, and three days later, break the bonds of death and become the first to rise permanently from the grave!
Lazarus died twice! Jesus is alive forevermore.
Have you been resurrected? Have you been born again?
And the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us today.
