I AM: The Resurrection and Life

Well, I get to follow that, grab your Bibles and want you to

turn to John chapter eleven. I just got back from a trip with Compassion

International. Dian and I were Compassion International is one of the great partners that

we have adventure. We were in the Dominican Republic. I told you online

if you follow me on social media, that I was going to talk about

it today. I lied, I'm going to talk about it next week.

So come back next week. I'll share a couple stories from the trip.

On your way out today, we're going to give you touch cards that you

get to utilize for Easter. So the ushers will hand you a bunch of

them and make sure those top five people that you have been praying and believing

for that you use those cards and invite them to Easter. You're staying in

John eleven, but I'm going to read to you the end of the story

first. On twelve, verse nine, it says, meanwhile, a large

crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came. So this is

the absolute peak of Jesus' popularity. Like everyone knew who he was, they

were coming from all over to see him. And now the hearts of the

religious leaders had turned against him and they were already plotting against him. So

Jesus is there, this huge crowd comes and finds him, but it says

not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom Jesus had

raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as

well. As we head towards Easter, you're gonna hear about the religious community

turning against Jesus and eventually leading to ges death on the cross, and now

they want to kill poor Lazarus too, For on account of Lazarus, many

of the Jews were coming over to Jesus and believing in him. Lazarus raising

from the dead was this undeniable, unexplainable miracle that even people that wanted to

try to logically explain away the various miracles that Jesus had done could not explain

away Lazarus rising from the grave. This was undeniable. There was no medical

explanation, there was no trickery. Lazarus was dead and now he's alive and

people are wondering how, and they're coming to Jesus. I want to ask

everyone to buy your heads, close your eyes. I want you to repeat

this prayer after me. Everyone say, Dear Jesus, speak to my heart,

change my life in Jesus' name, Amen. Lazarus was the greatest miracle

that Jesus had performed. It had aroused the most attention from friends, and

it aroused the most attention from enemies. It was a miracle that couldn't be

avoided or explained by the religious leaders or the Jewish leaders. If your new

to venture, you've joined us smack dab in the middle of a series where

we are talking about these I am statements of Jesus. So we live in

the Seattle area. Most of you have already seen the infamous Seattle Times article

know what I'm talking about, the one that boldly announced that we are the

least religious region in all of America. And by the way, when they

talk about the Seattle area, they're just not talking about the city limits.

If you read the article, it is as stretching as far north as Marysville

and as far south as Tacoma to the east side. They consider this the

greater Seattle Area and their conclusion was that only thirty six percent of people in

the Seattle region attended at least one religious service in the last year, and

that is including everything Mormon, Jehovah, Witness, Satanic, you name it,

it was included in there. And they the best guestimates are that if

you cut that thirty six percent that it attended a service in half, you

get an idea the amount of people in our region that believe what we believe

about eighteen percent, which means most of your neighbors haven't gone to church,

aren't gonna go to church, haven't attended a service in the last year.

But here's the wild thing. If you actually ask them a question, you

say, I know you don't go to church, you know you don't believe

in Christianity or anything like that. But what do you think about Jesus?

What are they gonna say? They're cool with Jesus, like, they like

Jesus, they've seen the Chosen, they're good with all of that. But

the problem is you cannot separate the person of Jesus from what Jesus claimed about

himself. And that is what we've been looking at for the last several weeks.

We already talked about Jesus announced that he is the bread of life.

Jesus said, I am the Light of the world. Jesus said, I

am the door, the gate. And then last week Pastor Morgan taught you

that Jesus said, I am the good Shepherd. So we're going to look

at today the fifth I am statement that Jesus said about himself. And the

crazy thing with this one is that it begins in John eleven and it's all

attached to this resurrection of Lazarus. The resurrection of Lazarus was so significant because

Jesus proved here that he had authority over death. Now we know we're going

to celebrate it on Easter that Jesus does the greatest miracle. He literally rises

himself from the grave, conquering death, Hell and the grave. But it

was believed by the use that death was the last enemy. And Jesus is

showing by this miracle of Lazarus that he'd conquered the last enemy Death. And

John E. Levin tells us the story. You're gonna notice as I read

it that the word believe is said over and over and over again. That

word in Greek is used over and over and over again. It's important that

you have belief in Jesus. It's important that you believe that Jesus is the

healer. It's important that you believe Jesus is who he says he is.

Just about every time that I speak, I give an opportunity for people to

invite Jesus into their life. And I lead you through a prayer. And

some of you probably wondered, why do you say the same prayer over and

over again. Well, it comes from this idea of belief. You see.

Romans ten, verse nine says this. It says if you declare with

your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God

raised him from the dead, you will be saved. You see, belief

is more than I can logically conclude something in my head. There is an

element where your heart believes it. But how many times do you know something

in your head and you actually feel it in your heart, but you're still

unwilling to say it. It's like when it comes out of your mouth,

it gets real. That's why I love baptisms when we do them, because

it's people. That's when it gets real. When you stand up in front

of all your friends and family and you say, Jesus has changed my life,

and then you get baptized. There isn't any going back from that.

I always joke that I know there's a bunch of closet raider fans in here.

You just not. You believe it in your heart, you think it

in your head, but you're not willing to say it. But once you

say it, it gets real. Paul goes on and he says, for

it is with your heart that you believe in or justify, and it is

with your mouth that you profess faith and are saved. So Jesus here is

diving in deep with Now it's time for you to stop like waiting in Now,

it's time for you to dump jump in. Now, it's time for

you to believe. So here's the story of Lazarus. He's still with me,

all right? Are you with me? Okay? I know it's foggy

in here, uh John eleven. Now a man Lazarus was sick. He

was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary,

whose brother Lazarus now lays 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. Okay,

So here's what's going on. Mary and Martha and Lazarus brothers and sisters.

They are super close to Jesus. They live in the city of Bethany,

which is within a couple miles of Jerusalem. So we know that oftentimes when

Jesus would go to Jerusalem, he would stay at his buddy's house. He

would stay with Mary, Martha and Lazarus. So these go beyond like his

outer circle of peers, the outer circle of friends, this is his inner

circle. These are the best of his friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

Lazarus is sick. Now that's such a lame way to put it.

Lazarus was on his deathbed. It wasn't a matter did Lazarus have days to

live, hours to live. Lazarus had minutes to live. He was that

sick. So Mary and Martha think Jesus, Jesus can solve this, so

they send a messenger to Jesus. Well, Jesus was in a different region

at this point. He was in the region of Bethabara, which was about

fifteen to twenty miles away, so it was about a one day's journey away.

Think in terms, it was like where Mill Creek is to downtown Seattle,

away from where they were in Bethany. So they sent a messenger when

Lazarus was sick to Jesus. He walks the day journey to Jesus to say,

Jesus, one of your best friends is on his deathbed and is going

to die if you don't come now. And then it says this verse four.

When Jesus heard this, he said, this sickness will not end in

death. No, it's for God's glory, so that God's son may be

glorified through it. Now, then the Bible dives deep into letting us know

how Jesus felt about Mary and Martha and Lazarus. It says, now,

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. I love this. So that's

verse five. So you find out that this person that you deeply love is

going to die. He is a day away. Minimum we are told in

verse five how much Jesus loved him. And then verse six SSS. So

when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for two

more days. Come on, what would you do? Do you know how

many times people misappointment or we book a guest speaker and they have to cancel

because they got news and it demanded they immediately be a part of it.

I mean, if you heard that someone you cared about, you loved,

was on their deathbed, you are gonna skip work, You were gonna change

all of your plans. You were hopping on the nearest plane to get there

as quickly as you can, because that's what we do with people we love.

We don't want to possibly miss out on the opportunity to have one last

conversation with them. So while we are in the Dominican Republic, there's a

family in our church that is dealing with someone in their family about to pass

away. And they got a hold of us in the dr and said,

will you pray for us now that he can wake up one more time so

that we can say goodbye. That's how important these moments are. But what

does Jesus do? Messenger comes Jesus. I ran here as fast as I

could. Lazarus, your best friend, he's gonna die, And Jesus is

like, cool, I'll get to that in a little bit, and he

hangs out for two more days. The Bible leaves out what he did for

those two days. Don't you wonder what he was doing? Like? What

are the disciples that were with Jesus think? I mean, I bet it

was really hard for them to pay attention to everything else because they're like,

shouldn't we be where Lazarus is? So then finally, after a couple days,

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

let's head to Lazarus. So I want you to follow these days. So

Lazarus deathly ill send word to Jesus. Day one, Lazarus is sick.

By the way, when the messenger was going to Jesus, Lazarus had passed

away. So the messenger a day later gets to Jesus tells Jesus about it.

The messenger heads that day back. Lazarus has now been dead two days.

Mary and Martha see the messenger and they're like, did you tell Jesus?

Yes, and they're probably immediately thinking where is Jesus? Have you ever

said that? One? And not only was Jesus not there right then,

he didn't show up for another two days. So when Jesus finally comes day

four, we read about it in verse seventeen. On his arrival, Jesus

found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now,

quickly, I want to explain you why these four days were significant. By

the way, you also understand why Jesus waited. Jesus wanted to make sure

that there was no one that would question that Lazarus was dead, and that

Lazarus being alive is a miracle you cannot explain away, and you understand that

by Jewish burial practices. So here's what would happen. When someone dies.

The body is immediately washed and wrapped in linen. They wrap your arms together,

they wrap your feet together, they wrap around your head and around your

mouth, and then they take a linen shroud and they wrap your entire body

twice. They sprinkle perfumes and oils on that because this is a hot place

and dead bodies decompose in heat very quickly and they smell terrible. And then

they would take that body and they would place it in a tomb, but

not a tomb like you and I think. So these the cave that Jesus

was in, and we know the stone was rolled away and Jesus came out.

That was a tomb. Those were family tombs, So they would take

a cave and they would put in a body, and they would rest the

body on a carved into the side of the cave niche, and they would

lay the body there and the body would stay there for three consecutive days,

and they would come back and they would check on the body. And they

would do this because sometimes people fall into a coma and come out of a

coma, and they want to make sure that the person is really dead.

So imagine this entire process has gone on. But it was believed that after

the third day, death was irrevocable. In Rabbinic Jewish thought. If somebody

had died and was buried for three days, death was irrevocable. Now four

days has passed, and by the way, what would happen is they would

leave the body on this niche for one year till the body completely decomposed.

Then they would come into the tomb again. They would unwrap the body,

which is now just bones left, and they would take the bones and they

would place the bones in a clay jar, which is called an osuary.

And in these family tombs there would be all of these osuaries in the corner,

and that was the family burial tombs, so that was a normal process.

But at this point four days they have entered into the memorial funeral process,

which lasted forty days. You see, there were three days where they

would mourn, and there were seven days where they would lament and lamenting as

these loud, expressive emotional signs of grief and sorrow, and then they would

transition to thirty days of refraining, and for thirty days as part of the

morning process, they wouldn't wash their clothes, they wouldn't cut their hair,

do their hair, they would be sad. In fact, in this culture,

to help with the mourning, you would hire whaling women who would come

and they're literally paid to cry, paid to be sad at funerals, and

so all of this is going on. By the time Jesus shows up,

they are deep in the midst of the morning process. But also remember this

that Bethany was close to Jerusalem, so it was close to the big city,

so you could imagine that many people from the city had come to support

Mary and Martha with the tragic death of their brother. This is the scene

that is taking place when Jesus shows up, and we immediately see the response

of Mary and Martha. The two sisters. I'm gonna bet you can relate

to this. First off, Mary and Martha were very different from each other,

even though they were sisters. Martha was the one that was the worker.

She's the busy body. She's the active organized like. Martha copes by

keeping busy and planning and organizing, and I think some of you relate to

that type of person. But Mary is the one that feels all the feels

like. Mary's the deeply emotional one. She is contemplative. We're told the

story about Mary and Martha and Luke ten where Martha's working like crazy and setting

up everything for Jesus being there for a visit, and Mary's just sitting at

his feet, just listening to everything that he says. That is the difference

between these two people. They're as different as you could be. But their

response immediately to Jesus was exactly the same. When they both saw Jesus for

the first time after their brother had died. Here's what they said, Jesus,

if you'd have been here, our brother wouldn't have died. Both of

them said that, I'm gonna bet you've said that one before. How many

times have someone you know, been really sick, and you've wondered where the

heck is Jesus. In all of this are some of you that you're financially

on the verge of bankruptcy and you are sitting here at church today wondering where's

Jesus. Or some of you your marriage is struggling, your relationships are struggling,

your kids are struggling, and you are thinking, this is a simple

fix. If Jesus would just show up, Jesus, if you'd have been

here, our brother wouldn't have died. Let's look at Martha's interaction with Jesus.

It's pretty good. Jesus responds to the if you'd have been here,

our brother wouldn't have died by saying this, your brother will rise again.

Martha, though, because she's a busy body, does what a busy body

does and immediately shifts into like her intellectual thinking. So she's like her feelings

got the best of her. She said something she wished she wouldn't have said,

and then she starts, you know, thinking again, and she responds

to Jesus by saying, I know my brother will rise again in the resurrection

on the last day. This is her saying I know the law, the

Book of the Law. I've studied it since I was a child. I

know the hope that there is an eternal life, that there's life after death,

and that someday I'm gonna see my brother again. That's the way Martha

goes, and Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no,

no no, I'm not talking about the after life, and he drops

the im statement and he says, no, Martha, I am the resurrection

and the life. The one who believes in me will live even though he

dies, and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. So he

makes this statement to her. So what is what is he basically saying.

He's saying, Martha, by the miracles that you've seen me perform, by

the things that I've taught you, you know death is real. You know

there's life after death. You know that one day the body will be raised

by the power of God. But I want you to know something undeniable,

that I am transforming the doctrine, this doctrine by taking it out of the

book that you've studied your whole life, and I am putting it on myself.

And all that studying of the law and the Torah that was important,

but that I'm taking it out of that and I am putting it on me.

I want to just say this, I love that our church loves the

Bible. I do. I love it that you love the Bible. I

tell you all the time that the Gospel transforms life, that you are transformed

by studying God's word and reading God's Word, that it transforms you from the

inside out. But you shouldn't love your Bible more than you love Jesus.

If you catch what I'm thinking, like, I want you to come and

when I preach, I want you to be engaged, and I want you

to your mind's engaged and your heart's engaged, and I want you to want

to learn the Bible. But at the same time, I want you to

go crazy during worship because that is your opportunity to express your deep passionate love

for Jesus is through worship, and you respond to the word when it's taught.

Also, you need both. You need your mind and your heart connected.

And Jesus is saying, I am taking all the words from this book

and I'm putting it on me. I am the Resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me will not die, and I love what he says

to Martha. Afterwards. He says, Martha, do you believe this?

I mean, that's the key thing. You can get all the head knowledge

you want, you know it all, but there has to come a point

where you believe it. I describe it this way that people when they want

to hear about my Christian faith, they ask me questions and I'll share the

answers that I have to the questions, and there's always that person that the

questions are not good enough, that your answers are not good enough, Like,

Okay, I understand what you're saying logically, and I know you've had

some experiences and you've seen some things, but what is it really And after

a while you just say I don't know. Something clicked. I just started

believing. I call it. Every person has to have that aha encounter with

God, that aha moment where you were like, I really believe, like

to the heart, deep in my bones, I believe Jesus is God.

I believe he rose from the grave. I believe he transformed my life forgave

my sins, and promised me heaven. I believe that deep inside. I

know sometimes I can't explain it. I don't know how to tell you how

I believe so definitively, I just believe. I've confessed with my mouth,

believed in my heart that he is Lord. There comes that point, Martha,

do you believe? And she says, I have believed, and Jesus,

I'll continue to believe. Then Martha takes him to marry the one with

all the feel So, if you're here and you're thinking, well, I

am busy and intellectual. Does Jesus understand me? You just got that he

does with Martha. And then you're thinking, well, pasor Brandon, I'm

all about the feels, I feel everything. Does he understand me? So

Jesus is brought to Mary, and what is the first thing? Mary says?

I bet Mary said it a bit more passionately than Martha. If you'd

have been here, he wouldn't have died. And then Jesus says, take

me to where he is when he first saw Mary. The Bible says this.

It says, when Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him

him, she fell at his feet. Lord, if you'd have been here,

my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and the

Jews who'd come along with her, also weeping, says he was deeply moved

in the spirit and troubled. I just it's such an awesome verse because Jesus

knew what he was going to do, like when he was a day's journey

away and he waited those two days. He knew he was going to rise

Lazarus from the grave. And he's seeing all this morning and he's seeing this

person that he deeply loves, completely crushed and devastated because her brother died.

And then he's seeing all of her friends and family gathered around her trying to

comfort her, moved emotionally with her. Jesus knows their tears are going to

be shouts of joy in a moment. But it says he's deeply moved and

troubled. And the phrase deeply moved is actually not like a really great translation

of that. It meant that he was devastated. He was crushed. Why,

because he loves you. He loves me. When I hurt, it

hurts him. When when you are crushed, it crushes him because he loves

you. So Jesus knew what he was going to do, but he still

felt so terrible for all of these people. And then he said, where

have you laid him? And they said, come and see Lord, and

they took him over to the tomb. And then this one shortest verse in

the Bible, it says, Jesus wept. Jesus knew what he was going

to do? Why did he cry? I love that it is the shortest

verse in the Bible because we always get to tell you it's the shortest verse

in the Bible. I think it's so cool that the shortest verse in the

Bible is Jesus wept, because that is a reminder that when God sees what

you are going through, his heart is broken for you. That he is

not absent, he is not disconnected. He feels all the feels too.

You get this picture of Jesus walking up to this tomb, seeing a stone

in front of it, knowing that his dear friend Lazarus is dead in that

tomb, and he's seeing Mary and Martha, who he loves, crushed,

and he's seeing all the community gather around them to support them, and says,

Jesus wept in that moment. And by the way, it's not a

really great translation from Greek because what it actually means is he burst out into

tears. Have you ever seen anybody that they cry so much? It's like

they flatter tears on you. That's what like. That is how Jesus cried.

The tears were shooting out of his eyes, and the whole time he

knew what he was going to do. It says Jesus once more deeply moved

came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the

entrance, and the first thing he says is take away the stone. There

are so many of you. You're here right now and you feel like you

were in a hopeless situation. You went to the doctor, you got a

report that is hopeless. You're looking at your finances hopeless. You're looking at

this relationship hopeless, the way you're feeling about your kids hopeless. You've got

so many hopeless things that you're wrestling through and you're wondering, can God do

a miracle in my situation? That is what this story reminds us. That

something can be dead and buried and Jesus can still bring it back to life.

Your finances can seem like they are over and he can resurrect them.

Your marriage over, he can resurrect it health over. He can resurrect it.

God can do this. But I want you to see these steps that

led to this miracle. The first thing he said is take away the stone.

Now that was literally a stone that was removed, but I think metaphorically

for you and I, that stone represents that thing that is in front of

us that's keeping us from Jesus. There is that thing that you need removed

so that you can get your miracle. You need the stone moved away so

you can get in touch with Jesus. For some of you, it might

be a relationship. For some of you, it might be something that you're

struggling with. You need to move it out of the way so it's just

you and Jesus. So before they move the stone, Martha said, well,

that body's been decomposing for four days, Jesus, it's gonna stink.

And Jesus says, you just watch, that's what I'm about to do.

So they finally move away the stone and then Jesus steps forward, and this

is the second thing he does is he prays. Now he doesn't pray because

he had to pray. He prayed as an object lesson to all of those

that are watching this. In fact, have you ever prayed a prayer that,

in the middle of your prayer you were hoping somebody that was in the

room learned from what you were praying. This is literally what Jesus does.

Listen to this prayer. Father, I thank you that you've heard me.

I know that you always hear me. But I said this for the benefit

of these people standing here, that they might believe that you sent me.

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus come

out. Then the craziest thing happened. I don't know what it was like.

You got those people, they're sobbing, they're devastated. They can't figure

out what is Jesus doing here. And all of a sudden, coming out

of a tomb is a mummified body like and I don't know. His feet

were tied, his hands were tied, his mouth was tied. You couldn't

ask for help. So he's like hopping out of the tomb. And then

the third thing that Jesus says, this is important. He says, take

off his grave clothes, like, unwrap him, take it off. And

what is that? I think sometimes what happens to us is God does a

miracle in our marriage, but we still have to bring up all the hurt

for years. It's like we can't just be free. We can't just be

healed. We can't just be better, like we gotta like hold on to

all that stuff from the past. Sometimes he who the Son sets free is

free. Indeed you weren't done. It is for freedom that Christ has set

you free. What does it mean by taking off the grave clothes? It

means just be free. Forgive your stinking husband, stop bringing it up over

and over again, like forgive your parents. Like if Jesus has healed you

from past hurts, let it go. Be free, live free. Like

it's the person that God supernaturally delivers from cancer, but they're constantly worried cancer

is gonna come back. Be free, take off the grave clothes and let

him go. I believe today God wants to do a miracle in your life.

I want everybody to stand up, close your eyes. If you're here

today and you would say, Brandon, I need a Lazarus type miracle.

I need a Lazarus come forth miracle in my life. That is you,

no one looking around, raise your hand, hands up everywhere, all right,

put them down. Just those of you that raise your hands look at

me. This is gonna be your stone moving moment. Because it's really easy

to raise your hand and then walk away. But we want you to move

that stone out of the way. And I want you to move that stone

by overcoming fear, overcoming the awkwardness, leaving your seat and coming stand right

down here. So if you're ready to move the stone, you want to

see a miracle in your life, leave your seat, come forward right now,

spread out all the way across. Can I get some of my pra

workers in the middle to just keep pushing forward for the rest of you.

Here's how I'm going to close the service. I'm going to pray for these

people. This is gonna be my Lazarus Come Forth prayer. Then my staff

is going to pray for them, and that is going to be their unwrapping

of the grave clothes prayer. But while I pray for them, I want

you to pray with me for them. These are your friends, this is

your family, These are your people that are saying I need a Lazarus miracle

in my life. So I want you to agree with me as we pray.

When I say Amen, service. You are dismissed, you can head

out, make sure and grab those invite cards for Easter. Want you to

do that. I do want to say, if you're one of our prayer

workers. We need deacons, zelders, whoever you like, have a you

like to pray, Please help us pray for all these people so this doesn't

totally bleed into my next service too much. So I want to invite you

to come and help us pray for these people. But would you stretch out

your hands towards them. Jesus, you know what each person is dealing with,

You know what they're facing, You know the miracle that they need.

What I ask right now that you would meet them in this moment, meet

them in this place, right now, and begin to do a miracle.

Lord, I pray things that they have given up on you would call out

of the graves, things that seem dead and buried. Lord, I pray

that you would ride those things up in Jesus' name. But Lord, I

pray that you would begin to heal people, that you'd begin to restore people's

relationships, that you would begin to give people hope for their finances. That

you would open up the floodgates of God. I pray that you would give

people hope for their loved one who doesn't know you. All of these things,

Lord, just begin this miracle right now. I pray God begin to

move in our midst in Jesus' name, Amen,