Ep 465 | I Am The Resurrection - Frank Brancato 7/10/22

We appreciate so very much those of you that made the effort to

be with us and as always is the case, I do consider it an honor

to speak concerning the word of God.

And that is the case today, my hope and my prayer is, as I've

mentioned in lessons passed on this series of the 7, I am

statements that Jesus made in The Gospel according to John, My

Hope and my prayer is that you will leave this series with a

thought in your mind and a greater appreciation for Jesus.

That maybe that you've had in the past, Jesus said these great

remarkable things so long ago and they're so filled with

meaning and so filled with meat, When we already talked about,

when Jesus says, I am the bread of life, then he said, I am the

light of the world and he said, I am the door or the gate, then

he said, I am the Good Shepherd. And now, the fifth one of those

seven, I am statements. Jesus said, I am the

resurrection and the life. Our text is found in John

John 11 · chapter mention

chapter 11 and beginning there in verse 25.

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me, though. He may die.

He shall live and whoever lives and Believes In Me, shall never

die. And then Jesus says, do you

believe this is a very thrilling chapter?

It's a great story. When Jesus raised Lazarus from

the dead and may I just say this miracle was strategic into

waves. Number one, it was strategic in

the time that Jesus performed it.

And number two, it was strategic.

In the place that he raised Lazarus from the dead amazingly.

This is the last public miracle that Jesus performs.

Now, I said that we would get to these strategic part in here, is

what I mean by that, the miracle happens just before the

Passover, and there were many people that were traveling, for

example, along that rough and rocky road on that Jericho Road

from Jericho to Jerusalem. This miracle happens.

And Jesus raises, this man from the dead.

Dead in a place called Bethany and Bethany was about two miles

east of Jerusalem. So picture it like this, it's

Passover time, and you've got all these pilgrims as a scholar

says, and they're going along to Jerusalem.

The point is this, there's no way to doubt that Jesus actually

raised him from the dead and everybody that passed by would

have known the story inside and out and there was no denying it.

Amazing, strategic time and place.

I think it also strengthened the faith of the disciples.

You remember when Jesus said to his disciples over and over

again, he said I'm going to die and on the third day, I'm going

to rise again. You know, I don't understand why

they didn't understand that, I don't really get that.

There was one occasion. For example, when Jesus says I'm

going to die and on the third day, I'm going to raise again.

And one of them said, ask him what he means by That because

they didn't get it. Just maybe this particular

miracle was designed in the very presence of his disciples to

increase their faith, showing the possibility of such a

resurrection because it was an actual picture of what would

happen with. Jesus Lazarus was dead and four

days later he rose again. Jesus was dead and three days

later he rose again. All right, in addition to all

this, this is certainly a Monumental widespread evidence

of his deity. Jesus says this, he said to her,

I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me,

excuse me, though. He may die.

He shall live and whoever lives and Believes In Me shall never

die. Then he said, this very

important. He said, Do you believe this

Believing that Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life

was aided by this great miracle and I think that's the reason

there's so much detail that's given here.

The focus is to demonstrate that.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

And he's also the Christ that came to save the world.

He is the Son of God, and believing in him, brings

Everlasting joy in heaven. And isn't that the point of the

Gospel of John in John chapter 20, beginning there?

John 20 · chapter mention

30 and truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of

his disciples which are not written in this book.

But these are written that, you may believe that Jesus is the

Christ, the son of God, and that believing, you may have life in

his name. You know, Jesus.

Is our Lord and our savior. Right now.

We long for the second coming of Jesus.

But when Jesus comes back, he won't be the Savior anymore.

He will be the judge number one and guess what?

He'll also be the one to raise the Dead.

Right now, he's the Savior. That's why we have to take

advantage of what the gospel tells us to do in obedience to

it. So we can go to heaven.

That's why we do it in this life.

He's the Savior. Now, one day though, he'll be

the judge and secondly, he will be the one to raise the dead.

And why? Because he is the resurrection

and the life. And, you know, Jesus did not say

I do this. He says, I am this.

Remember when Jesus says, I am in all these instances, he is

saying I am deity. He's saying I am God You know,

there's many things that are attributed to God.

God is love. God is peace.

God is many other things. They are attributes of his

character. They are part of him.

Same with Jesus. Jesus is the resurrection and he

is the life. You know, there were a couple

other occasions where Jesus raise somebody from the dead.

This miracle of Jesus. Raising Lazarus is so much more

significant and amazing, and I don't think anything in the

Bible is an accident. Really don't?

There's no denying the resurrection of Lazarus, but

let's back up. Remember that time when Jesus

raised the daughter of a man by the name of gyrus or Jairus,

however, you want to pronounce that and that man had a daughter

and she died and Jesus appears on the scene shortly after she's

dead. Now Jairus was the official from

the local synagogue and Jesus raises this young girl from the

dead. Now, there's no way back then

they didn't have any way to tell clinically.

If somebody was dead, there was nothing there wasn't an EEG,

there wasn't an EKG, they had no test to determine the heart

function and the brain function. So it's quite possible when

somebody died and was raised from the dead.

By Jesus, somebody might have said, no.

No, he didn't raise him from the dead, it was just some kind of a

swoon. And you know, that means a swoon

is to faint because of extreme stress or emotion and did you

know this? That people actually believe

that people would do that. And many people that were raised

from the dead in the Bible. People would try to explain it

away for that and the greatest one of all when Jesus rose from

the dead over the history of time, there have been seven,

things, 7 theories, that man has come up with to try to Jesus was

not resurrected from the dead. I think it's easiest to read it.

He died on the third day. He rose from the dead, that's

good enough for me. But, you know, one of those

theories, one of those seven theories, it was called the

Swoon Theory and they said this Jesus never was resurrected from

the dead because Jesus wasn't dead at all.

He just was under some kind of swoon.

What else? There was another time.

To remember the Widow, they had the son.

And the funeral procession was moving along and Jesus stops the

procession. And he raises the young man from

the dead. Somebody might say, well you

know what? No, he was just resuscitated

from a temporary condition, he didn't die.

All that being said, that's now behind us.

Let's talk about Lazarus. That is absolutely impossible

when we talk about Lazarus because Lazarus had been dead

for four days in John chapter 1 beginning in verse 1, in the

John 1 · chapter mention

beginning was the word actually. We Skip One Okay, we skip, the

passage John 11:17. So when Jesus came, he found

John 11:17

that he had already been in the Tomb for four days.

I did a little research this week.

Of what happens to an uninvolved body in 72 hours.

I don't mean to be morbid, but this is so important to

understand the setting and understanding what Jesus did in

the magnet and how he agreed. It was in 72 hours.

This is what happens to the body.

I say uninvolved because the Jews did not embalm bodies.

They would actually take the body and they would wrap the

body and they would take those fragrant spices and they would

wrap the body up in those spices.

All that would do, it didn't slow down decomposition.

It just took the smell away a little bit.

This is, by the way, what happens in 72 hours.

So we're going to say 96 hours is when Jesus comes on the

scene. The heart has stopped beating.

The body's cells are then deprived of oxygen and they

begin to die blood drains from throughout the circulatory

system and pools in the lower places.

Muscles began to stiffen. In what is known commonly by the

Latin rigor mortis that sets in after 3 hours by 24 hours, the

body has lost all of its heat. The muscles that lose their

rigor in 36 hours. And by 72 hours rigor mortis has

vanished. All stiffness is gone and the

body is soft as cells. Begin to die.

Bacteria, goes to work, the bacteria in the body of a dead

person. Can do attack breaking the cells

down. The decomposing tissue takes on

a horrific look and smell and emits, green liquids by the

72nd. Our the tissue releases,

hydrogen sulfide and methane, as well as other gases and

obviously, a horrible smell is emitted.

I'm not trying to be gross. I'm just trying to set the tone

of the picture, because guess what?

Meet Lazarus he'd been in the grave for four days.

This is what the condition of his body would have been.

And that's why in verse 39, remember, we're going to get to

this at the end but in verse 39, when Jesus says, take away the

stone when he's going to raise Lazarus from the dead, remember

what Martha said? Oh, she says, but it's been four

days and he, there is a, the new King James says, there is a

stench. The King James says he already

stinketh You know why? Because this process had

happened in his unon bombed body.

Now people lived with death, we talked about funerals today.

I got to thinking about this. What are the funerals like

today? Something like this when

somebody passes away, their body is in bombed and they put on

their Sunday Best and they're the guest of honor.

And we all come together and we mourn their passing, we

celebrate their life, we say things about them, and a funeral

service, perhaps 30 minutes, 45 minutes an hour.

Then we kind of pack on up and we get a caravan and we go to

the cemetery and we stand there and we say a couple of things

and if it's like me, I talk about the resurrection.

This is not the end have a prayer and then we go to usually

somebody's house and we have a little meal and we visit a while

and then everybody goes away. And the family is left.

That's not the way they had funerals back then.

Let me suggest some things to you about that.

Historically. This is what they were like when

somebody died. Everybody that knew them poured

into their life. There were neighbors, there were

family members, there were friends.

Even people, I read that they didn't even know strangers would

pour into their home. They would get the group of

people. And they would walk toward the

place that they would bury that person.

You know, there's so many people that came into their life, maybe

they were a very prominent family here, they came to

console them, that's what they did.

And they came to comfort them. In fact, in John chapter 11 and

John 11 · chapter mention

verse 19. And many of the Jews had joined

the women around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning,

their brother. What they did was this when

somebody died, they buried them immediately.

And there would be a procession from the house that I just told

you everybody pour into their into their life into their

house. They get to the place where they

were buried the person. You know, burial back.

Then was a little bit different. Many times.

They were buried in caves. In fact, I read historically

that many people in the ancient world around the Mediterranean

were buried in caves. There will be an open cave and

inside, there would be like a shelf and they would take that

body that they have wrapped up with those fragrant spices and

place the body on the Shelf, that's what would have happened.

Then the stone was there. So no animal could come in and

do something to the body, and they be protected.

There and then the entire procession would go back to the

house. I read, they never ate a thing

until the body was buried. They didn't want any form of

levity. No joy, no x, no happiness at

all. They didn't want any form of

normalcy at all, while they went through this process.

The funeral process took seven days.

That was the initial part. Finally, they would serve a meal

after they buried the body in the meal would be of bread,

hard-boiled, eggs, and lentils. And this would be things that

they would have and some people would bring food to sustain

them. All those, mourners that would

be there for 7 days and while they mourned, they wailed out

loud. By the way, when I kick off,

don't do this. They wailed loud.

Audible sounds It was I read this.

It was led by the women, and the sounds would be like piercing

screams. They would hire professional

mourners to and the professional mourners would come into their

midst and they would stay for those seven days, they would

lead the people in wailing and mourning.

They did that because they felt like that was comforting to the

family. After seven days, the intense

wailing would subside. But then the funeral went on for

another 30 days, and 30 days of mourning would bring in eulogies

and remembrances and words of comfort.

All that all that happens when somebody died.

But in verses, 20 and 21. Now Martha, as soon as she heard

that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary was

sitting in the house and she says, and says to Jesus, Lord,

if you had been here, my brother had not died.

All right. No doubt that she believed in

the healing power of Jesus. She knew that Jesus healed

strangers. Here's the point though.

Don't you kind of see what she's saying is?

I know that you've healed strangers and if you would have

been here, certainly you If he old Lazarus because you loved

him. So in fact, in verse 3, that's

exactly what they said of Jesus. The one who you love.

So this remark of Martha shows her faith in Jesus and the

feeling of friendship that was based upon it in verse 22.

But even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God

will give it to you. You know nothing shook her

faith, when Lazarus died, But she recognized something very

significant and I think we all need to get this.

Things are together. When it comes to Jesus and God,

they go together. She knew this first.

She said, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

They just as, but I know this if it's God's will He'll give you

anything that you ask. The Joint Wills of Jesus Christ

and God. They go together and Jesus says

this, he said your brother will rise again, you know, this

statement was so indefinite. It didn't satisfy The Sorrowing

sister, but Jesus Took the plan of introducing a very important

subject. Jesus.

Martha says this back to Jesus. Martha said to him, I know that

he will rise again, in the resurrection of the last day.

How did she know that? Before I noticed a passage with

you remember, Luke chapter 10. you remember when Jesus came

Luke 10 · chapter mention

over to Mary and Martha's house Very familiar story.

Martha's doing the serving. You know, some people are really

big servers their acts of service people and they really

demonstrate that. And that's how they feel.

That's how they demonstrate their love and their service is

by waiting on others and doing such things like that, we call

that acts of service. So picture this there in the

house and guess what, very important guest.

His name is Jesus and he got Mary and Martha there.

What's Martha doing? She's working.

Self to death back and forth serving and she looks over there

and there's Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus and she's

disgusted and she says to Jesus, does it mean nothing to you?

Is it okay with you that she's doing nothing to help me serve.

And Jesus says get this Martha Martha.

You know, it's one thing when somebody says your name, it's

another thing. When they say your name twice,

Usually, as a kid, when they say your full name, your usually in

trouble. I remember Mother's Day, Frank

brancato I know I was in trouble.

When they say your whole name, he says, Martha Martha.

You are troubled and worried about so many things.

So many things are troubling. You, but Mary understands.

There's one thing that's important.

It's the good thing she has chosen the good thing listening

to Jesus listening to what Jesus has to say being blessed in that

occasion. And he said and that will not be

taken from her, that's the good thing.

All right, this is Mary and Martha.

They're sisters. So, how would they have known?

Well, as they sat and listened to Jesus, their dear friend.

Jesus said this in John chapter 5, beginning in verse 27, and

John 5 · chapter mention

has given him authority to execute judgment also, because

he is the son of man, do not Marvel at this.

For the hour is coming in the, which all that are in the

graves. Will hear his voice and come

forth those that have done good unto the resurrection of life

and those that have done evil to the resurrection, Resurrection

of damnation or condemnation. our Lord says to Martha, she

says, I know he will rise in the last day and then Jesus says

this, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life,

he who believes in me, though, he may die.

He shall live and whoever lives and Believes In Me, shall never

die. And then he says, do you believe

this? You know, the I am there.

It's also referred to as a tetragrammaton.

You know, the transliteration that comes up with Yahweh and so

forth. It's names for God.

This is also a name for God, is I am a tetragrammaton?

I am, he's saying, I am that's a name for God.

I am the resurrection and I am the life, the fifth of the

seven. I am statements, I am the source

of life. I am the embodiment of life and

Jesus says, I am life. By the way, this one's coming

up. We're going to have two left

after this morning. One of the one of those is this

one when Jesus says I am the way.

I am the truth and he says, I am the life not in the future, but

in the present, I am in John chapter 11 again, in verse 27,

John 11 · chapter mention

she said to him. Yes, Lord, I believe that you

are the Christ, the son of God, who has come into the world.

Now, here's the question. Jesus says, you have to believe.

I have to really make a point about this.

Please get this. I'm going to ask you a question.

Jesus said you had to believe. She says, I believe that you are

the Christ, I believe that but the question is what does it

mean to believe? If I would ask you all this

question, do you believe that Jesus is the Christ?

The son of the Living God that came into the world to save the

sins of man. I would imagine everybody here

would say yes. Do you believe?

Yeah I believe that but what's it mean to believe?

Believing is obeying. Did you see that?

Believing is obey obeying. What obeying the Lord?

How do I obey the Lord by obeying, the gospel and living

and obedient life? We're going to get to this at

the end but let me just say this, there's two words that

people hate today. These are too bad words here,

they are submission and obedience.

Everybody wants to be their own person.

Nobody wants to submit and nobody wants to obey.

But have you ever stopped to consider?

That is the entirety of the Christian Life.

It is all about submission to the Lord.

It's All About obedience to the Lord.

Will talk about that a little later.

All right, in John chapter 11 we go back to our narrative and I'm

John 11 · chapter mention

going to put several verses in one narrative that we're going

to get into some pretty neat stuff in verse 33 but here we

go. In John chapter 11 beginning in

John 11 · chapter mention

verse 28. And when she had said these

things she went her way and secretly called.

Marry her sister saying the teacher has come and is calling

for you. As soon as she heard that she

arose quickly and came to him. Now, Jesus had not yet, come

into town but was in the place where Martha met him.

Then the Jews her with her in the house and comforting her

when they saw that Mary arose up quickly and went out.

Followed her saying, she's going to the tomb to weep there then

when Mary came where Jesus was and saw him she fell down at his

feet saying, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not

have died. In verse 33. therefore when

Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews that are with her weeping,

He groaned in the spirit and was troubled, have you ever stopped

to consider what all that meant? Years ago in glancing at these

passages, you know what I thought.

I thought Jesus was looking over there and seeing Mary and Martha

weeping. And then also seeing the Jews

weeping and he was thinking to himself, this is wonderful.

And he was grown, and he groaned in his spirit and was troubled.

Let's first, look at this word weeping, what does that mean?

He saw the Jews weep in the word weeping means to mourn weep

aloud limit. Its the idea of outward

demonstrations audible demonstrations, the loudness of

the Wailing, he sees it all. And the Bible says, he groaned

in his spirit and was troubled, the word grown means to be angry

to be moved with indignation. Why would Jesus be angry at such

a thing? You've heard me say this, but I

got to add some more. You've heard me say this before?

I think. Number one, it was because of

the hypocrisy of the professional.

Mourners they're going through the motions, they're putting on

this outward show. He groaned in, in himself the

word, needs to be angry to be moved with indignation, but I

think there's more perhaps it's over house in has brought death

in the world. Sin has brought death into the

world. Chris and I have a mutual

business friend, I won't say his name.

But he had cancer in his face. He had been treated for a while.

And decided I'm not going to allow them to treat me anymore

and it's only a matter of time. He'll be dead.

And I was talking to a handyman that works for him the other

day. And he said, you know, I get

really down, I go to talk to him every day and all he says is

when he first sees me, I'm one day closer to the hole.

You know, I got kind of sad at first and then I thought, wait a

minute. That's all of us.

If Jesus doesn't come back today, we are one day closer to

the hole. Do you know why we're one day

closer to the home? Because that whole exists for

one reason because sin was brought into the world.

Maybe Jesus being our sympathetic high priest, maybe

Jesus, overlooking. All that's going on the

hypocrisy of at all. He's groaning in his spirit and

then also how futile it is to have sin in your life and how

sin brought death and people are going to mourn.

And weep and try and be in such pain when their loved ones die.

It's going to happen. All of us.

Maybe this to maybe this too. Maybe he's thinking, I got all

these Witnesses here and I'm going to raise Lazarus from the

dead. And some people are still going

to reject me. Maybe he's thinking about that

too. Have you ever stopped to

consider that maybe Jesus says to himself?

What more could I do? What more can I do?

Every time somebody rejects, Jesus picture Jesus saying what

more could I do. I've died for you.

What more could I do? And yet people reject him.

People rejected him in this occasion to All this is

happening, yet. He restrained from expressing

his feelings. The Bible just says he merely

groaned in his spirit. No, I think this is beautiful.

I really do, you know, we know passages and stuff like this.

When the Bible says, he was in all points tempted, like, as we

are yet without sin, nobody understands what you're going

through more than Jesus, he gets it.

But you know what else is Jesus did.

He did something else. Now we know that he willfully

and willingly went to the Cross, we know that his life was not

taken his life, he freely gave we get all that but notice not

only that our sympathetic high priest, let himself feel

everything. Incidentally, you know, the

Greeks. Bad idolatrous God's right

plural and they don't they don't exist.

They just believe they did. Notice that when I read the

Greeks described their gods by one word, it's the word

epithelia. We transliterate that into the

English word apathetic. You know, why?

Because they believed all those pagan gods, that those Gods had,

no pain had no emotion, and no ability to care what have

terrible. God, that would be But Jesus

allowed himself to feel everything.

John chapter 11 and verse 34. And he said, where have you laid

John 11 · chapter mention

him? And then the shortest verse in

all the Bible. Jesus wept.

You know what's amazing about this word wept.

It's different from the word weeping we noticed before.

It's not audible loud sounds. It actually is this.

It means to weep or shed silent tears.

It means a sudden. Outburst in open tears.

Have you ever cried so hard? You know, we call that ugly

crying. when your face gets distorted, And you can't hold it

in. And the tears come and you're so

heartbroken and maybe you're hugging a family member and

you're both just sobbing with silent tears.

That's this word. Jesus is standing there at the

grave. He said, where have you led him

and Jesus wept. All of a sudden he's overcome,

he's overtaken by emotion and he's pouring it out and he goes

into a sobbing time. Of Silent tears.

This is the Man of Sorrows folks that was acquainted with grief.

As Isaiah said, they're not sentimental tears.

They're not professional tears, they're not prolong mourner

tears. This is literally a shocking

Outburst of our sympathetic high priest.

And you know what the Jews said about that, what they said about

that is they said, oh, how much he loved him?

Oh, they missed the point. Because in verse 3, it says when

word got the Jesus, the one that you love is sick, right?

So, yeah, he did love him and yeah, that is a true statement.

But that's not what all was going on.

They just looked at the Jesus pouring out those tears and

said, oh, how? He loved him, they missed the

point. They didn't know that what led

to the Outburst was far more than his affection for Lazarus.

Truly it was all the reality of sin and death and unbelief and

there he stands at the edge of the Tomb.

Sobbing. And what's next is incredible.

Jesus says, take away the stone. I've tried to picture this in my

mind's eye, I read some Scholars.

That said that the met the crowd must have been massive.

When Jesus, says, take away the stone, no doubt.

They're all looking at the opening of that, grave.

And Jesus begins to pray to his father and he says, father I

thank you that you hear me now, but then he says, I know you

always hear me but I'm saying this for their benefit that they

might believe that you have sent me. when he says, take away the

stone, that's when Martha kicked in and says, oh, But Lord.

He already stinks. It's been four days.

And Jesus says to Martha says, didn't I tell you Martha?

That if you would believe, you would see the glory of God.

When they took away the stone. Jesus cries out with a loud

voice and he says, Lazarus come forth.

That is one name by the way, in one verb, in the original

language, one name, one verb. No Fanfare.

No Angels coming down. He just says those two things.

Lazarus come forth. And Lazarus comes out of the

Grave Bound by Graves cloves, and Jesus says, loose him and

let him go. remember when I said all that happened in 72 hours to

the body, Into things that Jesus said in saying the name of

Lazarus and the verb to come forth, everything was reversed.

He doesn't stink anymore. He came out of that grave like

he never was there. So many things about this story.

I would think that if I was there, I would think that I

would believe in Jesus, and I would follow Jesus.

And I would accept Jesus, and I would do that.

I would think that's what I would do.

It's interesting how They reacted.

When Jesus made all of the seven, I am statements, he was

giving a spiritual reality and then he Illustrated it with a

physic in a physical way. He said I am the resurrection

owned by the way, here's a resurrection to prove it on

another occasion. He said, I am the bread of life,

and then he created a meal to prove it on another occasion.

He said, I am the light of the world and then he healed, blind

eyes to prove it here. He says, I am the resurrection

and the life, and he proves it by his resurrection power that

was on display. In raising Lazarus from the

dead. All right.

Jesus told Martha to have everlasting life, you have to

believe and I said this, I said this, I said to believe is to

obey How does one obey the gospel?

In Romans chapter 10 and verse 17, you have to hear the word of

Romans 10 · chapter mention

God. You've done that today.

We've heard the word of God. So then faith comes by hearing

and hearing by the word of God. That's what produces faith in

us. Is hearing the word of God is

the word of God. Then we must make a choice in

Mark 16:16. Jesus said, he who believes and

Mark 16:16

is baptized, will be saved, but he, who does not believe will be

condemned. And remember belief of the

Bible, always brings with it, the forced to obey.

So if I say I believe it means I will obey with the Lord has told

me to do. I hear the word of God produces

faith? I believe that Jesus Christ is

the Son of God and I'm willing to do, whatever he asked me to

do. And what does he ask me to do?

He said, I got to repent Luke. Tina three.

I tell you no but unless you repent, you will all likewise

perish. What does that mean?

I just got to change my life. I'm going to change my mind.

I'm going to stop traveling in the way that I've been going.

And I'm going to change my life and live for Jesus.

What else? Matthew 10:32, therefore,

Matthew 10:32

whoever confesses me before, men him will I confess before.

My father, who is in heaven and that confession, simply is, I

believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.

After taking these steps, a person is a fit candidate to go

down where the point of Salvation is and that is to be

baptized in First Peter chapter 3 21, the like figure whereunto

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

even baptism. Doth also.

Now, save us, not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but

the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection

of Jesus Christ. If you're not a Christian,

you've never taken these steps. We can assist you in that today,

we would love to assist you in that today. but remember this,

Everybody has to make the choice.

What's amazing to me is when Jesus raised Lazarus, from the

it said, many of those Jews believed.

And some wanted to kill him. Everybody's got to make a

choice. Do you want Jesus in your life?

Do you want to be saved? We have to obey the gospel and

obey, the Lord for our life. That's what the word of God.

Says, if you're not a Christian, please become one today by

following these steps. Maybe you've taken these steps,

maybe you've drifted away, maybe there are things in your life

that aren't as they should be, let's pray together.

Will pray with you and for you and God will forgive their be

one of either Class come forward while we stand. and I was

saying, We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on

by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.

Road in Bakersfield, if you would like any additional

information or you would like to receive a free Bible

correspondence, course by mail. Please email us at info at

search of Christ. Bakersfield.com, our service

times are on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays

at 7:30 p.m. Please make plans to join us.

We would love for you to be our honored guest.