I Am the Resurrection and Life: Jesus and the Promise of Life

Thank you, Father, that all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting

and training in righteousness.

Open our hearts to receive your word, that we may know you better and be thoroughly equipped

for every good work.

Through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Is there life after death?

Lots of people today say, no, there is no life after death.

This life is all we have, so you've got to make the most of it.

Evolutionary theory demands we think like this.

We're just part of an evolutionary cycle, you're born, you live, you die, end of story.

This view is not new.

Epicurus, who lived 300 years before Jesus, said it like this, he says, death does not

concern us because as long as we exist, death is not here, and when it does come, we no

longer exist.

Now not everyone holds that view.

There are some people who are unsure about life after death.

Like Robert Heinlein, a science fiction writer in the last century.

He said, there is no conclusive evidence of life after death, but there is no evidence

of any sort against it.

Soon you will know, so why fret about it?

And then there are all sorts of other views, like the view of reincarnation, or that when

we die, we become part of the universe's energy.

Or there is the Shrek and Donkey version, the scene where Shrek looks at the stars and

points out that the stars are his different relatives.

Or there's the Lion King version, which has the relatives being stars, but also in that

moment of need, the dead speak and give him guidance and wisdom.

Well the Christian view of what happens in life after death is distinctly different from

all of these.

So what makes Christians so sure about life after death?

I'm not going to keep you in suspense, the answer is Jesus, and that's what we're going

to look at today as we open the Gospel of John.

So please follow along, the reading there is in your pew sheet, or you can follow along

in the Bible.

And in the Gospel of John, Jesus has been doing what John calls signs, supernatural

events, like walking on water, feeding 5,000 with a few loaves of bread and a couple of

fish, healing the lame, giving sight to the blind.

These signs point to Jesus and who he is, and they are written in John 20, verse 31,

John 20:31

that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you

may have life in his name.

And so today as we look at Jesus and the encounter with Lazarus, it is there so that we would

believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, and that we would have life.

Now there are two points we're going to look at this morning.

The first point is who Jesus says he is, and then we'll look at the evidence for who Jesus

says he is.

So who does Jesus say that he is?

Well we need to understand the scene in John chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

Jesus is meeting with a mourning family, mourning because Lazarus has died.

It's like Jesus is going to a funeral.

There is sadness, there is tears, there is hugs, there are kind words, there is grief,

lots and lots of grief.

And Jesus himself is included, he's feeling the sadness.

We see in this part of the Bible those words, Jesus wept.

And we need to understand this so that we can really appreciate Jesus' words to Martha.

They are words spoken to give hope in the midst of sadness.

So Jesus meets Martha, his dear friend who is grieving, and the conversation begins in

verse 21.

Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

Now Martha knows Jesus' power, she's read the signs of Jesus correctly.

She knows that Jesus has the power to heal.

And so it's like at this point she's saying to Jesus, where were you?

You, you of all people could have prevented this, but you weren't here.

And it's at this moment Jesus speaks just the right words to bring comfort.

Words of hope.

Verse 23, your brother will rise again.

Now Martha is a Jew, and she believes in the resurrection from the dead.

When on the day of God's judgment, everyone will rise.

And in verse 24, she thinks that that is what Jesus is referring to.

But we know Jesus is referring to a more immediate return.

But Jesus doesn't just say watch and see and then make his way to the tomb and bring Lazarus

back from the dead.

Jesus' words go beyond that.

Jesus says in verse 25, 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 talks about the resurrection that he will bring.

Words that bring comfort because he is saying that there is life after death and that he

is going to bring it.

He's the resurrection and the life.

What is hidden from us in our English translations of the Bible is that Jesus uses words here

to say that he is God.

I am is the way God spoke to Moses in the book of Exodus.

I am who I am.

And here in John, Jesus says, I am, which is his way of saying that he is God.

It's not the first time Jesus says, I am the light of the world.

I am the bread of life.

I am the good shepherd.

I am the resurrection and the life.

And so Jesus is saying to his grieving friend, Martha, I am, and that he is the source of

life, that he is the one who can bring life out of death.

Are there any tea drinkers here in the congregation this morning?

I thought that that would be the case.

Imagine that you go to make your cup of tea, you get your coffee mug, you boil the water,

you put in the milk and your one, two, three, four, five sugars, and you go and sit down

to enjoy your cup of tea.

But actually, if you're listening carefully, you would have noticed I missed a very key

ingredient, the tea.

The tea is the source of the flavor of the tea.

Without it, you do not have tea.

You've got water and milk and a lot of sugar.

But Jesus is saying that he is the source of life, the source of resurrection.

Without him, there is no life after death, there is no resurrection.

It is Jesus on the last day who will raise us from death.

And it's why Jesus is able to say that if you believe in him, you will live.

And if you believe in him, you will never die.

Now Jesus knows that everyone is destined to die.

This is the result of the curse of sin in our world.

Sin is what happens when humanity turns away from God, when we of our own choice ignore

God, when we fail to give God the glory that he is due.

And the judgment for that sin is death.

We all die eventually.

But there's also a second death, where we will face the judgment of God, where if we

do not have our sins forgiven, we will be separated from God forever.

But Jesus says if we believe in him, you will never die.

There will be life after death.

Life where death is beaten, life where sin is forgiven, where eternal life is promised.

And you can believe in Jesus now and have that life.

And so Jesus asks a very key question.

He says, do you believe this?

And that's the question, isn't it?

Life after death is about whether you recognize that Jesus is from God, that he is the source

of life, the one who can overcome death once and for all.

It's about believing in him.

And Martha is all in.

And this is even before Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead.

She says in verse 27, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the son of God who

has come into the world.

She recognizes who Jesus really is.

And the question for us is the same.

Do you believe this?

Do you believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life?

In the Gospel of John, there are two very clear evidences that Jesus has the power over

life and death, two very good reasons for us to believe that Jesus is the resurrection

and the life.

And so we're at our next point now, which is evidence of who Jesus says he is.

And evidence number one is that Jesus raises Lazarus to life.

Jesus told Martha Lazarus was going to be raised, and then we see it happen.

Now one question is why does Jesus weep when he knows that he's about to raise Lazarus

from the dead?

It's because death is unnatural.

It's a result of us turning away from God.

And so Jesus weeps because he shows his love for humanity, his love for Lazarus, the sadness

that death brings, just like we experience when we're confronted with death.

Jesus was not aloof.

He wasn't like my accounting lecturer at uni who would walk into the lecture theater,

not look at anyone, open up his lecture notes, speak at 400 miles an hour, close his lecture

notes and then walk out, not connecting with anyone in the room.

No, that's not Jesus.

Jesus is one of us.

And so he grieves as one of us and he grieves Lazarus.

But then Jesus shows us the glory and the power of God.

Jesus goes to the tomb of Lazarus and we're told in verse 38 that he was deeply moved.

In verse 39, he asks that the stone be rolled away.

Martha is the ever practical person, suggests that might not be such a good idea because

of the smell.

But Jesus is persistent.

He says in verse 40, did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God.

The stone is then moved away.

Jesus prays to his heavenly father and then in a loud voice in verse 43, Jesus says, Lazarus,

come out.

And he does, alive.

In verse 44, it says the dead man came out, but he wasn't dead anymore.

The breath of life had been restored to him.

The cloth and strips of linen he was wrapped in had to be taken off.

The tomb was empty.

Lazarus was alive.

What a sign.

What a miracle.

What evidence of who Jesus is.

Here's the resurrection and the life.

Evidence number two for Jesus being who he says he is.

His own resurrection.

We're turning now to John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

And what we see in John chapter 20 is another tomb, another empty tomb.

John 20 · chapter mention

We see more grave clothes that are not needed and head clothes that are now unnecessary.

And another person who should be dead, but isn't.

It's another scene where people are mourning.

Jesus had been killed by crucifixion and buried in a cave just like Lazarus was.

And it was the third day where Friday is day one, Saturday is day two and Sunday is day

three.

And Mary comes to visit the grave.

The stone has already been removed.

So she runs and she tells the disciples, Peter and the one who loves Jesus, most likely John,

that Jesus is not in the tomb.

Now that's startling news.

So the disciples themselves, they run to the tomb, racing each other.

John stops at the entrance and looks in.

Peter though, he just goes straight in.

He sees the head cloth.

He sees the linen.

He doesn't see Jesus.

Now you'd expect if Jesus' body was taken, the linen and the head cloth would have been

taken too.

It was valuable.

But they were left there folded neatly, but there was no Jesus.

The tomb was empty because Jesus had risen.

Later in John chapter 20, Jesus appears to Mary.

John 20 · chapter mention

He appears to the disciples very much alive.

Now if Jesus is the resurrection and the life, we should not be surprised by this fact that

Jesus came back to life.

But Jesus' resurrection is a little bit different from Lazarus.

Lazarus would die again, but Jesus never will.

When Jesus rose from the dead, he defeated death once and for all.

He made it so that those who believe in him will be able to live, really live, with sins

forgiven and not die again.

Life after death.

What makes Christians so sure about life after death?

I told you the answer already, so you should know.

Jesus.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

Now if you're unsure about this, or if you're here this morning and you're sitting on the

fence, I encourage you to look into Jesus' life.

You'll see the evidence stacks up.

I encourage you to read a gospel of Jesus.

If you'd like some help doing that, or you'd like to read it with someone, come and chat

with me afterwards.

I'd love to chat with you.

Today, Jesus is inviting you to believe in him, the resurrection and the life, and to

know the hope and the life that he brings.

Because when we believe in Jesus, that gives us hope.

It gives us hope of eternal life, life after death, life like we've never experienced.

We will truly live.

It's not the hope of, well, maybe my football team might win this year.

But it's a certain hope.

A life where there will be no pain, there will be no suffering, there will be no evil,

there will be no sin.

It's going to be like nothing else that we could possibly imagine.

It's going to be glorious.

And this hope in Jesus means we also don't need to fear death.

The fear of death holds no sway over those who believe in Jesus.

Because like Lazarus, the Christian knows that we will rise again.

If we believe in Jesus, I can tell you your future.

You're going to come back to life.

Even though we die, we will live, and we will be raised to die no more, saved from

the judgment of God and forgiven our sin forever.

Do you believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life?

I want to finish this morning by giving you two snapshots.

The first snapshot is Lester.

Lester lived his life as an alcoholic, and on his deathbed, he pulled the oxygen mask

away from his face, struggling to breathe.

He looked at the nurse and said with despair, what happened to my life?

And then he passed away.

He passed away with regret, with sadness, without the hope that Jesus brings.

A few years back, a friend of mine named Diana was looking forward to being with Jesus.

Towards the end of her life, she got cancer, and I went and visited her.

And Diana was not looking back, regretting her life.

She spent her life seeking to share the message of Jesus and the hope that can be found in

him.

She loved teaching scripture, or what's in Queensland is called RI.

She held Bible studies at her house, and she served Jesus with such joy.

And when I met with her, knowing it would be my last time that I visited her, she was

looking forward so much to being with Jesus in eternal life.

She had life.

She believed that Jesus was the resurrection and the life.

She is now with Jesus in glory.

Life is short, death will come.

And God, through Jesus, gives us the chance to have life forever, life guaranteed, because

Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

We thank you that he not only has the power over death, but on the cross he defeated death,

so that it no longer has any power over him or us when we believe in him.

And so we ask, Lord, that you will give us hearts and minds that believe Jesus, to trust

him, that we would have life forever with him.

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.