"I AM' SERIES": I am the Resurrection and Life- Erick Mtimkulu

Welcome to Common Ground One book.

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description. Now let's dive into today's

message. My name is, as Laura said, as

Eric and Tim Kulu. Tim Cooley actually means a big

three, I think they say in Africa and horrid bomb, right?

So that's what my surname means. And I'm one of the leaders here.

And so if it's your first time to be with us, so it's such a

joy to have you. And as Laura has said, it would

be great just to connect with you after the meeting.

Man, this morning my feet are sore and my legs are very sore

this morning. So I must highlight.

Maybe this sermon will only be 20 minutes or 15 minutes.

I don't know. And and there are three people

you can blame for that. You can blame Moses, Jews, and

you can blame Greg. In fact, I said to Greg, you may

need to find a preacher for today.

This gentleman, they took a rookie Haika to the elephant's

eye and someone who's never hiked in their entire life.

Imagine so I think you know how I feel this morning my wife said

woke up. I said no, Greg will preach.

I'm not going there, but I made it so I'm here.

Amen. And so if you have your Bibles

with you, please turn with me to John 11 and we will read verses

25 and verse 26. Jesus said to her, I am the

resurrection and life, whoever believes in me, though he die

yet shall live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall

never die. Do you believe this?

She said to him, Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ,

the Son of God who is coming into the world.

Today. We are continuing our series on

the I AM statements of Jesus. And so this morning we will zoom

in and look at I am the resurrection and life.

And as you know, that is we've been looking at this particular

book, We've been looking at the different metaphors that the

Bible uses. And so we the first one we saw

in chapter 6 where Jesus says I am the bread.

In chapters 8 and 9 he is the light, and in chapter 10 we saw

Jesus as the gate or the door, depending on the translation you

read, and also as the Good Shepherd.

And today we're going to see what Jesus said about being the

resurrection and life. And perhaps as a reminder, as we

have been reading this book of John and we've seen the

different signs, particularly the 7th sign.

This is the 7th one in fact, because John does not use the

word miracles. He uses the word sign.

And we've seen this number of signs as we've been going

through this particular begin. All of these signs are meant to

point us to the reality. They're all meant to point us to

Christ, the sign of Jesus telling water into wine.

All of in the other signs are meant to point us and to say

here is the reality. So that those who see the signs,

in fact, John tells us that they may believe.

And of course this is clear in John 2031 where it says, 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. And so John has been giving us

all of these signs, and the reasons he's doing that is

saying so that you may believe that Jesus is in fact the king

of Israel and Jesus is the Messiah.

And all of these signs, they will reveal to us that indeed,

Jesus is the true royal descendant of David, as we have

seen last week, that Jesus is in fact the exalted shepherd.

And so I've been in pastoral ministry at least for 16 years.

And one of the things that you often do as a pastor is to

conduct funerals. I've conducted many funerals in

my life. I've conducted funerals of

people that I know. But equally, I've conducted

funerals of people I did not know where someone will ask me,

Can you please just conduct a funeral and use that as an

opportunity to preach the gospel?

I mentioned that to you this morning because this particular

message is going to speak to us about the reality of death.

I know we don't often want to talk about death.

Perhaps it is a subject that we often want to avoid.

But the biblical text is quite open to this particular subject,

in fact, addresses it openly, as we will see in this text to

which we're going to walk through today.

Because Jesus says I am the resurrection, I am life.

So let me draw your attention then to the context and then we

will walk through our different points.

This particular passage begins by Jesus reminding us that Jesus

says I am the resurrection and life.

And these words of course, very comforting in the context to

which they are written because a close friend of Jesus is sick

and this particular family is very close to Jesus.

Martha, Mary and Lazarus are very close to Jesus.

And in fact the Scripture is quite clearly that speaks quite

clearly that Jesus in fact loved this particular family.

And Jesus gets gets a word that the one whom you love is sick.

Quite interesting the way Lazarus is being described.

Ye the Lord, the one you love is sick.

And we see that in verse 3, verse 5, and verse 11, that

indeed Jesus had deep love for this family.

And so they tell Jesus that the one whom you love is sick.

And despite Jesus receiving this news, he remains where he is for

two more days. If I was Mary or Martha, perhaps

I would have said to Jesus, you need to be here now because the

one you love is sick. I think it's worth for us to

pause there and be reminded that at times God does not act when

we expect him to act something. God at times that he makes us

sometimes to wait in the waiting room, just like David in Psalm

13, as one who cannot see the face of God.

And he says, God, where are you? For how long will you hide your

face from? In other words, David is saying,

Lord, where are you? And Mary and Martha in this

context, they want Jesus to come.

And so at times when we expect Jesus to act, perhaps he may not

act when we want him to act. And at times we may even feel as

though hope is gone. But because Jesus is all wise,

of course, he knows that this particular sickness is going to

lead to glory. This is not going to lead to

death, it's going to lead to glory.

So he says to his disciples, let's go.

And the disciples says, no, no, no, let's not go there because

you know that the Jews are after you.

In fact, if you go, they will stone you.

And Jesus says, let's go to Judea or to Bethany because

Lazarus has fallen asleep. And quite an interesting phrase

that the Bible uses often does not use the word death.

At times he says it's fallen asleep really to mean that he

has died. So this metaphor is also quite

common in the biblical text, as we also would see it in the book

of Thessalonica when the Scripture talks about those who

have fallen asleep. And so Jesus says then to them,

let us go. And Jesus goes there.

And in verse 15, Jesus is telling us then why this is

important. Firstly to the disciples #2 to

others that are listening. Verse 15 says though that you

may believe. And in verse 32, drawing again

the purpose of Jesus says that they may believe that you have

sent me. So Jesus will indeed go, but for

one reason, so that you may believe and believe in the one

who has sent me. And Jesus again goes, and

Lazarus has now been dead for four days.

And there are people that are consoling Martha and Mary, and

they are there. And Martha says to Jesus, Lord,

if you have been here sooner, my brother would not have died.

And again, Martha ought to be reminded that Jesus is never

early, but Jesus is never late, but Jesus is always on time.

We ought to be reminded of that. And then he says in verse 22 and

verse 23, Jesus says to her, your brother will rise again.

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

will give you. Then Jesus declares I am the

resurrection in life, that who believes in me, though dead.

Yet he leaves. And we see something else after

that verse. In verse 35 it says Jesus wept,

and in verse 33 he says he was deeply moved in the Spirit and

greatly troubled. I think it's worth pausing here

again that Jesus weeps. In fact, when the Bible says

Jesus wept, this is the shortest verse in the entire Bible.

There's no verse as short as this one that Jesus wept, that

Jesus is both divine, but also we are reminded that Jesus is

also human because Jesus whips the God in whom we serve is has

compassion for his followers. Since we must be reminded this

morning that God is not distant, that Jesus is here with us.

He is a close Saviour who is close to the broken hearted, who

is close to those who are crushed in spirit.

This indeed is an emotional sin that reveals not just His

divinity but also reveals His humanity.

Jesus sympathizes with us. I am not sure what you may be

going through this morning, but I wanted to remind you this

morning that Jesus sympathizes with us.

He's not just there, but He is here.

And Jesus is moved by this situation and he whips as he's

moved to tears, reminding me of Psalm 42, verse 3, which says my

Psalms 42:3

tears have been food all night while they say to me all day

long, where is your God? As we read the Psalmist as well,

we see a lot of them crying at times that it is not wrong to

cry as we feel emotion and overwhelmed with emotion for

Jesus himself cries, identifying with those whom he loves.

And Jesus goes there and we can see.

And then you know, they say to Jesus, probably by now Lazarus

stinks. Maybe his body has decomposed by

now and says, Jesus, I'm going. And then he says, I had a town 2

Township preachers that I like so much.

They said something that made me think the other day.

They said, you know, when Jesus went to the tomb, he said

Lazarus come out. And these two preachers said if

Jesus would have said just come out, perhaps many people would

have come out of those graves. So he had to be specific Lazarus

come out. I know I may be imposing my

thoughts to the text, but I think maybe they were on to

something. Says Lazarus come out and in

this context Jesus performs the greatest sign and then Jesus

says then I am the resurrection and life.

So #1 the resurrection is not an event but a person.

As you could see here in verse 25, I am the resurrection and

life. And I guess even as we begin

when we talk about life, there's also an implication here that

there are those perhaps who do not have the kind of life that

Jesus offers. Humans by nature are dead

because of the sin of Adam and Eve.

Humanity is dead. The problem with humanity is

simple. It is sin because of man's

disobedience against what God had said they ought not to do so

all of us who are in our in our pre Christian state, we were

dead in our sin. And in Genesis 821, there is a

there's a there's a there's a horrible picture that we see

there where God has made humans and God is like the humans are

so evil in heart. I regretted I made man because

of the sinfulness of man, that men continue to sin continually.

Isaiah gives us another picture in Isaiah 59 verse three.

He says your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with

guilt, your lips have spoken falsely.

Isaiah draws a picture that humanity, every part of our body

is sinful. Our issue is not simply

education, or maybe the lack of education, but our issue is that

we are sinners and those who are not in Christ are dead.

That's the implication. Ephesians 21 says, and you were

dead in your transgressions and sins.

Dead. Dead people can never give

themselves life. Someone outside of the system

must give life to those who are dead.

And so those who are not in Christ, they are dead.

That's what the text is going to show us, because Jesus gives

life. And there are those by

implication who don't have the kind of life that Jesus offers.

Even this morning here at Common Ground, John Calvin puts it this

way because by his spirit he regenerates the children of Adam

who had been alienated from God by sin.

So they began to live a new life.

You must be dead in order to be born again.

In Psalm 51, the picture of David's repentance, it says,

surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother

conceived me from Christ to say I am the resurrection.

And so David says even from my mother's birth I was sinful.

And so Jesus is going to offer something different here because

all of those who are not in Christ are dead and is going to

offer life. So here's the question then, how

is he then the resurrection and life?

It's an important question that answers this question of one

who's not in Christ. How is then he the resurrection

and life? He is resurrection and life

because Jesus alone becomes our substitution.

If you read the picture in Leviticus chapter 16, when Aaron

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

would would go before God and atone for the sins of Israel, he

will take a bull to atone for his own sins and the sins of his

own family. He will then take a goat to

atone for the sin of the whole community of Israel, and each of

them would put their hand on that goat as a way in which they

were transferring their own sin and guilt upon that goat.

And so the sin of Israel is then imputed on the goat and has John

gives us a different picture in the New Testament.

He says, Behold, behold the one who takes away the sin of the

world, that in the New Testament we no longer have the goat, but

we have Christ. He is resurrection in life

because he takes our place. He is the one that drinks the

cup of suffering. He is the one that takes my

worst and gives me his best. He is the one in which my sin is

transferred upon Him, and in Him He gives me His righteousness.

That when the Father sees me not on the basis of my sin, but on

the basis of the righteousness of Christ, not standing simply

because of how good I am, but standing because how good Jesus

is, He is the resurrection in life because He is our

substitute. The great exchange has happened

that I am sinless. In one sense, Luther put it this

way. Simul just as as picato.

In other words, both sinners, but also also righteous, caring,

both in which the presence of sin is around us.

But however the power of sin has been broken, and one day the

presence of sin, Jesus will deal with it forever.

And so he is resurrection and life because he is our

substitute. Then what is the benefit?

In verse 23 he said, Jesus said to her, your brother will rise

again. And Martha answered, I know he

will rise again when the resurrection die.

If you study the Hebrew text, you may often find that this

thing of resurrection in fact is not unique.

The statement Martha makes here is not a unique statement

because the Pharisees believed in the resurrection.

We do know, in fact, that the Sadducees did not believe in the

resurrection. That's why they often clashed.

So this was not something that was new.

They knew this, but Jesus is going to present it differently,

not as something that is there, but in fact, Martha, I am the

resurrection. It's not just that which is to

come, that final resurrection, but Martha, you are looking at

the resurrection. You are gazing at the

resurrection right now. I am the resurrection.

And then Jesus says, yeah, who believes in me will live even

though he dies. And here is the reality of

everyone in this room today. Death.

Is coming for all of us eating healthy and hiking.

Not sure I'm doing that again. And all of these other things.

And those who did not run the marathon this morning, sorry,

Ryan is is coming. It's good to exercise.

It's good to eat healthy. Those things are good.

Please do them, and maybe I'll join you.

But they simply delay the inevitable.

All of us are going to die. Death is an equalizer.

Death is unpleasant and painful, and yet death is inescapable.

But also, death is unavoidable. Death comes for the young, it

counts for the old. It comes for man, it comes for

women. It does not care how rich or

poor you are, or how righteous or wicked you are.

Death is coming. News flash, death is coming.

And at times death is knocking at the door without each of us

realizing it. And we hear that somebody

suddenly died. The reality of this body that

will one day decay. The Bible does not shy away from

that. That death is the very terminus

of life for each and every single person here today.

That each of us will all end up in the grave.

Ecclesiastes puts it this way. No one has power over the day of

his death. Job 8, 9 says for we are but a

yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow.

Death will come, death will come.

And Jesus said, one who believes in me will leave and yet he will

die. In other words, the one who

believes we will attend their funeral, we will be there and

give a speech and, and all of those things and saying, and yet

the Bible says they are not dead though they die and yet they are

not dead because death for the Christian has been defeated.

The Christian who comes to Christ by faith in Christ and

trust in Christ and has a new life in Christ has eternal life

not in the future, but has eternal life in the present.

First John 511 says, and this is the testimony God has given us

eternal life in his Son in in this life in his son.

And if you check that verse, he's not speaking about the

future. He's speaking in the present.

Those who come to Christ now have eternal life.

The moment you come to Christ, you move from death to life at

the moment of conversion, when Christ makes you spiritually

alive. At that moment you will never

die, though they die, and yet they are alive.

Our bodies may die, but the Lord will raise it up again.

And so this picture of Lazarus is a picture that remind us of

what the true resurrection will look like.

And of course, Jesus delayed again.

He is not there when when, when Martha and Mary wants him to be

there. It is as though Jesus is saying,

all of you will see because the sign points to me.

It will show my divinity. It will show that I am the

Messiah. It will show that I am the King

of Israel. Notice if if you believe in me,

you will not die. For all of those who say yes to

Jesus, He gives them life in a spiritual sense.

And for those who reject Jesus will experience death in

eternal. And so here's the question this

morning, which category do you belong in life or death?

We may look the same, but we are not the same because our

spiritual realities are not the same.

And Jesus asked that question. It says if you believe you will

not die. The question this morning is do

you believe? I'm not asking whether you how

long you've been attending common ground Weinberg, whether

you're part of a life group, All that is well and good, but the

question is do you believe? Have you trusted in Christ

finished work? Have you?

Do you sing the songs with conviction of what Christ has

done, or are they simply just nice songs?

Christ is asking you the same question this morning.

Do you believe few applications? We then must ask the question,

How does this connect to our lives?

I want to suggest three things to you.

I think I did better than 15 minutes Ryan.

So please, how does this connect with us this morning?

This is a picture that I want us to ponder on, reflect on, think

about that. Firstly, Jesus remind us that we

will die. Perhaps we are making plans

about our lives. All those things are good.

We should plan. Perhaps some of us are currently

in our midlife as well. And so for many of us in this

place, death may be scary. Excuse me even as we think about

it, but the scripture is clear that we will die.

But the question that is so important here is what will

happen when you die? The question to that answer

depends on how you've answered the question.

Do you believe it's an important question in the text?

So if you answer that question, yes, I believe in Christ, your

reality is different. But if you do not believe also,

your reality is a different one, and so the only way we can face

the threat of death is to believe.

Hence Jesus seems to be pressing this question.

Do you believe Not Do you believe if this is true?

But do you believe this to be true for you?

That's a different question. But for those who believe this

morning, our life is hidden with Christ.

The Christian will die, and yet they shall live.

And so, precious Saints, be reminded this morning that death

is not the final destination for the Christian.

The life of a believer is a life beyond the grave.

Death is no threat to those who are in Christ.

Death will not have the last word for those who are in

Christ. But for those who do not believe

here this morning, I'm encouraging you to come.

My own father, excuse me, my own father was it was an alcoholic,

but also a man that rejected Christ, who wanted absolutely

nothing to do with the gospel, drowned himself to alcohol until

his death. And I often think about the

reality of my own father, that he died without knowing Christ,

because we know what that means. Hence my challenge to you this

morning, if you do not believe, is to say come.

There is an invitation from the text to come and believe in

Christ. Here's the beautiful thing about

this other life is that even the Abraham looked forward to it.

And in Hebrews 11 he says, but as it is, they desired a better

country. That is a heavenly 1.

Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has

prepared for them a city. Thank you, thank you.

Even those in the Old Testament, they looked forward to a better

country, a better city that is prepared by God, not made with

human hands, but made by God himself.

They look forward to that. They were not simply looking

back, but they were looking forward.

That is the hope of the Christian this morning.

I love the words of this wonderful hymn.

No guilt in life, No Fear in death.

This is the power of Christ in me from life.

First cry to find out that Jesus commands my destiny.

No power of hell, no scheme of men can plug me from his hand

till he returns or calls me home.

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.

Wow. And I often remind my reformed

conservative friends and I say to them, do you know that song

is written by Charismatic? I said, we're not doing too bad.

We're writing some good songs as well.

No guilt in life, No Fear in death.

Therefore, if you are a believer in this place, I am not saying

because of death Hideaway, I am saying we ought to live with

fortitude, with strength, and with courage in the Lord, not to

run off and wait in the corner somewhere before Jesus comes.

No, that's not what I'm advocating for.

We are called here and therefore we live to serve because Jesus

has given us another day. Therefore, be busy with the

Master's business. Work out your salvation with

fear and with trembling, awaiting the appearance of the

glory of the Lord. For one day he will come back,

He will return, no longer as a sheep, but as a lion, to take

his church, but also to judge the world.

So when the Lord ask, ask, Do you believe this?

My prayer is this. Weinberg will confess just like

Martha and say, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ,

the Son of the living God. Amen.

Thank you. Thank you for listening to

today's message. We hope you are encouraged and

challenged in your faith. If you're in the Southern

suburbs, would love to welcome you in person at one of

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Until next time, stay please and keep shining your light.