I AM: I AM Resurrection with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

Things were getting worse, like much, much worse.

It had been days since he'd gotten out of bed, and the sisters knew like he was getting older, but but not that old, you know.

Still had a long life ahead of him, like should have been the best years ahead of him.

And yet for days, things had gone from bad to worse.

It was just an illness, but 2,000 years ago, a very simple illness could take your life.

And the sisters were reacting about as differently as their personalities were.

And if you knew them, it was like night and day there was Mary, and Mary was the dreamer.

Mary was like a hippie before there were hippies, you know.

She just liked to take in the sunset, and she knew that she had tasks to accomplish, but they always took the backseat to whatever caught her fantasy that day.

And then there was Martha.

Martha was not just type A personality.

She was like type A plus, you know.

She held the house together and she held the family together and she held herself together, and everything would work.

As long as Martha was in charge, she was OCD before anyone knew what that was.

It's like, it's not that the rug goes in front of the door, it's that the rug goes two and seven-eighths of an inch in front of the door, and don't look at the Marthas in the room, right?

That's a bad way to start.

And their brother Lazarus, who they deeply loved, was realistically on his deathbed, and there really was no hope because there were no ICUs to take him to, and there was no hospice to come in and help, and there were doctors, they were hard to find, and they basically knew nothing about medicine and nothing about science.

The writing was on the wall.

When people got to that level, they knew it was the countdown.

The countdown to death.

And this meant a lot because not only did Mary and Martha love their brother dearly, a guy who was respected by everybody in the society.

It was like he had climbed the ladder, he was successful, he was pretty wealthy, he knew the people at the very top of society, and at the same time, the people who were left behind and forgotten were always welcome in his house.

Not only were they losing a great man and a great brother, but this was a long time ago.

And 2,000 years ago, in that culture, at that place, at that time, to be a woman, you had no way of bringing in any income.

You had no rights to own any property.

You weren't just gonna lose your brother, you were going to lose everything.

And so there were really no answers for most people.

But Lazarus had hope.

Lazarus had a close friend, someone who was often on the road, someone who would come and crash at his house.

They would stay up late into the evenings swapping stories with one another, and because he knew this one guy, there was maybe, just maybe a chance.

Lazarus knew Jesus.

Mary and Martha knew that if there was any hope, they would have to find Jesus.

They would have to get him back to the house at Bethany, they would have to have him come in before Lazarus died, touch him, heal him, speak his words.

They had seen the power of Jesus.

Mary and Martha, they loved him.

This great prophet, this miracle worker.

They had heard the stories and probably seen some of the miracles with their own eyes.

It's like we just have to get to Jesus.

And so Mary and Martha, they hired a messenger and they sent him to go find him.

They describe him, make sure, like this is where you're gonna find him.

He's gonna be surrounded by people everywhere he goes.

It'll be hard to get to him, but you have to let him know.

You have to let him know your friend Lazarus is dying.

So the messenger went, found Jesus, and returned.

And the only thing left to do for Mary and Martha was wait.

Mary, of course, was the optimist, you know.

She probably just knew Jesus would come, like right in the nick of time, right when all hope was lost, Jesus would walk in and do his Jesus thing, you know.

And Martha was the realist, probably a pessimist.

She knew every step that Jesus took, someone stopped him.

There was something urgent in front of him, someone was dying, someone was sick.

Small chance that he would actually get there on time.

So they waited, and it wasn't like every day things were getting worse now, it was like every hour, and pretty soon it was like every minute.

Waiting, waiting, hoping, praying that maybe, maybe Jesus would show up, maybe he'd save their brother.

Waiting and waiting.

And Jesus didn't come.

And Lazarus, he died, and it's not the story that we expect from the Sunday school lessons of Jesus always showing up, but for every person he healed, there were countless others who were sick and suffering and dying, and Mary and Martha were left with just that death and suffering and big unanswered questions.

Easter is when from time to time people build up the courage to step foot in church again, maybe for the first time in years, and maybe for the first time in decades, and most of those people walked away from the church at some point or another because when they needed Jesus to show up, he didn't come.

And you're left wondering, like Mary, like Martha, where was he when you needed him?

And I felt that way many, many times myself.

Stuck with the suffering, the evil, and the death, searching desperately, wondering, is there anyone who can actually do something about this?

Confided into I tried and tried and tried some more, told secrets still.

My voice was sore, tired of empty conversations, cause no one hears me anymore.

A hundred million stories and a hundred million songs.

I feel stupid when I sing, cause nobody's listening to me.

Nobody's listening.

I try to shoot stars, but they always get it warm.

I feel stupid when I pray, so I am not praying anyway.

Nobody's listening.

I used to crave the world's attention.

I think I cried too many times.

I just need some more affection.

Anything to get me by A hundred million stories and a hundred million songs.

I feel stupid when I sing, cause nobody's listening to me.

Nobody's listening.

I talk to shooting stars, but they always give I feel stupid when I pray.

So I pray anyway.

Please send me anyone.

Oh anyway.

I need someone.

I need someone.

I need someone.

A hundred million stories and a hundred million stories.

I feel stupid when I sing.

Nobody's listening to me.

Now we all have like a billion problems.

Like we have a thousand problems every day, and some of them are major and some of them are minor.

But there are two problems that we all share.

Mary and Martha came face to face with these problems in John chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

The problems are suffering and death.

We're born in somewhat of a state of innocence.

And for some of us, that's broken very, very quickly because we're born into difficult circumstances, and others you get maybe five years, maybe ten years, where your needs are met and everything's good and things are taken care of, and death isn't something that really registers for you.

You don't really have any insecurities as a young kid.

Everything's good.

You dream big dreams and you believe in yourself, and eventually life gets in the way, and something happens.

Evil enters your life.

And for some people, it's things that are unimaginable.

And for some people, it's just someone using their position over you to tell you that you're not good enough, or it might be a peer who speaks a word that shoots directly to your heart and colors the way you see yourself even today.

For some people, it's the divorce of their parents or abuse or neglect.

Everyone comes to a moment where we fully have the knowledge of both good and the realization that there is, in fact, evil in the world.

And from that moment on, we require hope for our suffering.

And hope is something that, although the world offers it in many different forms and fashions, hope is in incredibly short supply.

When we look enough places and we go down enough of the world's paths, and it doesn't ultimately fulfill us, and it doesn't ultimately protect us, and it doesn't ultimately instill potential and purpose and promise in us when we realize there's not many places to put our hope.

Our option when we cannot hope is to simply try and cope.

And so we create coping mechanisms.

And for some people, you deal with your suffering in these coping mechanisms that look a lot like success.

The world sees them as positives, right?

Because you lean on your success and you lean on your ability to make money or have lots of relationships to be popular, or you climb the ladder at work, and and man, you really are seen as something very special.

And if only people knew the insecurity inside of you that is motivating you every moment of the day, if if only people knew that your success is, it's so that maybe, just maybe, for one time in your life, you'd be good enough for your dad, or good enough for your mom, or good enough for your peers, or good enough for the spouse that left you, and and you just lean on these things and they're rewarded.

And you're great at making money, or you have a giant social media following, and you know how to make your life look picture filtered perfect.

We all have to cope, and some people's coping mechanisms are seen as success, they're rewarded, and some are obviously seen as weaknesses.

And for some people, the only way they know how to cope is to try to ignore it or forget it or suppress it, and so they go to things like addictions and and psychological states where they're just tearing themselves apart and their lives are imploding, and it's obvious.

Those are the obvious coping mechanisms.

But the reality is that we all need hope, and if you can't find hope, you will settle for the cheap alternative of just coping, just trying to make it through, but your problems aren't over.

Because even if you have a coping mechanism that works for you, it can't get you out of our second problem.

And the second problem is death.

Death might be the realest reality in one sense, because it is the one thing that every single person shares in common.

Death is the second reason that we require hope.

The moment that you begin existing, you start dying.

Some of you are looking at the people who brought you to church today, like, what is this depressing nonsense?

Like it's true, and if we're not addressing truth, it's like we're wasting our time.

People aren't interested in showing up for a tradition anymore.

Is there anyone who can help you with your suffering and the reality that at the end of all of this you will die?

We're all headed there.

And death informs way more of your life than you realize.

Take any fear that you have, and if you are willing to trace it down all the way to its core, somewhere along the way, there is death.

We know it's a reality, and we keep it out of our conscious mind so that we can function on a day-to-day basis.

But sometimes the suffering and death around us, like moments like when you go to a funeral, there's another tragedy online.

It's like maybe there was an Easter where you could come and you could argue with me that we don't all suffer and that death doesn't run and ruin our lives, but not this year, not after what we've been through in the past 12, 15 months.

We've seen it everywhere, and the weight of it is crushing us.

And so the world offers paths, it's coping mechanisms, and they disguise it as hope.

And if you can just make enough money, and if you can just have enough influence, and if you can build your status and build your brand, and if you just have enough followers, and if you just hook up with enough people, and if you just Demi Lovato wrote this song that Celeste sang, four days before an overdose that almost took her life.

It was a cry for help from someone who had had all the fame, all the money, all the status, anything and everything they wanted since they were a preteen.

You don't have to look hard to see that there are people who go all the way down all of the paths that are supposed to fix this deep, significant longing inside of us.

And they get there.

And they are only further removed from their purpose, more miserable than they were when they started.

We all have two very big problems suffering and death.

And if we don't have a way to think about it, and if we don't have a framework for how to live this life, then right under the surface of your actions and decisions and relationships and careers and parenting, suffering and death will have the steering wheel.

And we believe that your life matters too much to not learn how to fully live it.

We're gonna pick up the story of Jesus and Lazarus, Mary and Martha.

We've been in a series where we're looking at these I am statements.

These are the moments in scripture where Jesus tells us exactly who he is.

In John chapter 11, verse 17, Jesus finally shows up.

John 11:17

And when Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

Now Lazarus would have been tightly bound head to foot, he would have been entombed.

They probably had a family grave because he was known to be a wealthy man and it would have been sealed shut in some form or fashion.

In verse 20, as soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary remained seated in the house.

And Martha, you met her earlier.

It might not be a surprise, she is going to give Jesus a piece of her mind.

In verse 21, Martha said to Jesus, Lord, you just would have been here.

If you'd have been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

And there's an interesting dynamic to that statement because, on one hand, it's like a giant compliment.

She's addressing the power that she believes Jesus has.

She has faith that if Jesus would have gotten there, he had the power of God inside of him to heal him, but at the same time, it is a great rebuke.

To this great friend of Lazarus, if you just would have been here.

Martha has seen incredible miracles.

She's heard the stories from credible sources of the miracles that she wasn't at.

She's heard the words of power from Jesus, like nothing she'd ever experienced in her life.

There's something different about this guy.

She really had faith.

And in the very next verse, to Martha's credit, she said, Yet even now, yet even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you three words that crack the door open to some hope.

Yet even now, four days in the tomb, yet even now, I think there's a chance.

I think that you might just be good enough, powerful enough, yet even now, whatever you ask from God, God will give you.

Throughout the series we've been in, these uh I am statements have come in the form of metaphors and analogies.

You really have to unpack them to kind of understand them.

It's like, I am the bread of life, and I am the light of the world, I am the gate for the sheep, I am the shepherd for the flock.

It's like, what exactly is Jesus saying there?

But but in this moment, this critical moment with Lazarus in the tomb, Jesus is going to be much more direct.

In verse 23, he says, Your brother will rise again.

And Martha said to him, I know he'll rise in the resurrection at the last day.

And if you're not really familiar with the Christian scriptures, Jesus was born in Israel as a Jewish man and he operated in a Jewish context.

And Martha, as a good Jewish woman, believed what the Jewish scriptures taught, which is that at the end of all of this, at the end of wherever this world is headed, that God would resurrect, would raise back to life all of the good Jewish people who had followed the law and loved God with all of their heart, all of their soul, and all of their strength.

Now, it's worth noticing that Jesus didn't say your brother will be resurrected.

He said, Your brother will rise again.

And what's happening is Martha and Jesus are having two very different conversations.

Martha is talking in future tense about something that is coming, and Jesus is speaking in the presence, your brother will rise again.

It is out of this confusion that we get our next I am statement.

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

And today is like a two for one.

I am the resurrection and the life.

This is before Jesus had ever died.

This is before Jesus rolled away his own stone.

This is on his way to the cross.

Just days before Jesus says resurrection is not a place.

It is not an event.

It is not a time.

Resurrection is a person.

And he is standing right in front of you, Martha.

I am the resurrection and the life.

Now every one of us has two major problems.

We all suffer and we all die.

And for most of our lives, suffering has been in the driver's seat.

And if you were willing to take a moment of time and to really dive in to the way that you make decisions and the motivations of your life, it would shock you how much your suffering is in control.

We all suffer and we all die, and you may not see it yet, but in this one I am statement, Jesus gives us the answer to both.

First, he says, I am the resurrection.

The very thing that we celebrate on Easter is Jesus rising again.

And maybe you find it weird that you came into an Easter service and we're not sharing the Easter story, but 2020 has put a great burden on me that the suffering and the reality of our impending death that is in front of us must be addressed.

Jesus went to a cross that was made for you and me.

He went and paid the price of the sins that you and I have committed, all the wrongs we've ever done, to the big things that really hurt lots of people, to the smallest thoughts that have gone against God's will.

Jesus died to pay for all of them.

In doing so, he defeated the power of that sin in our lives.

He was buried, and three days later he rose again, defeating the power of death itself, and he promised one day.

After Jesus' time on earth, the apostle Paul wrote about it this way.

He said, This has been made evident.

Like this is obvious now through the appearing of Christ Jesus.

And what has Christ Jesus done?

He has abolished death.

What we didn't read in the Lazarus story is that the disciples said, Jesus, we need to hurry.

We got to get to Lazarus.

That's your boy.

We gotta get there.

He's dying.

You know, Martha, she would not sin this if it was not serious.

We've got to show up.

And Jesus said, Lazarus has fallen asleep.

Lazarus is not sleeping.

He's dead.

He's been dead for four days.

Jesus says, Lazarus is sleeping.

After Easter, after Jesus defeated death itself, something very interesting happens.

For the rest of the Christian scriptures, anytime a believer in Jesus dies, the scriptures say they fell asleep.

On Easter, Jesus defeated death.

And in your life, he made sure that death no longer has the last word.

I want you to see how this works.

Jesus said, I am the resurrection.

And because I am the resurrection, anyone who believes in me, even if they die, they will live.

And maybe you've heard this and you've heard it in a religious setting and you're used to thinking of it in a very spiritual term.

And if you know anything about Christianity, you know that at the core of our belief is that if we put our faith in Jesus, that we will live eternally.

And that can be thought about in a spiritual way, and that's true.

But most of what we know about heaven, we've learned from cartoons as kids, right?

And so we think we'll be in the clouds, we'll be like little naked babies playing harps all day and just hanging out, floating around, little bitty wings on us.

Dude, if that's it, no, thank you.

I'm not interested in that.

Scripture says the day is coming when Jesus will return with the shout of the angel and the blast of the trumpet and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and that Jesus will come and he will call all of his out of their graves.

It's a spiritual reality, but it is a physical reality too.

Anyone who believes in me, even if they die, they will live in death.

The coming of our death.

We all know it's there.

We don't know if it's today, we don't know if it's 50 years from now, but we all know it's coming.

In the fear of our death keeps us from fully living our life.

And Jesus brought an answer.

He said, I am the resurrection.

But that's not all he said, he also said, I am the life.

And everyone who lives and believes in me, not only will they live again, but they will never, never, never die.

Jesus is the resurrection.

This is the answer to death.

And if you don't have to fear even death itself, for the first time ever, you can begin to truly, truly live.

This is about quantity of your life.

And Jesus says, I am the life, the eternal life, the everlasting life, the quality of a life that is being lived, how it was created to be lived.

And your everlasting life, your eternal life does not start when this body dies.

Your eternal life starts the moment that you believe in Jesus.

The reason when we put our faith in Jesus, he doesn't just take us out and bring us home is because we still have work to do right here and right now.

I am the resurrection, and I am the life.

The promise of resurrection frees us from living as slaves to our impending death.

And the promise of life gives us a framework for dealing with all of the pain that we experience.

That pain is either going to be regretful suffering, or we will have a high enough cause to make it redemptive significance in our story.

A great philosopher once said, he who has a why to live, a purpose, a promise, a potential, he who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

Whatever hows come, whatever trials, whatever suffering, whatever pain, whatever heartache, whatever pandemics, whatever comes, if you have a great enough why, you can stand up under it.

We know this, right?

It's like you cannot rocky road your way to abs, right?

You've got to suffer a little bit.

You gotta hit a treadmill and do some crunches.

You cannot sleep in your way to a promotion.

You've got to grind, you gotta sacrifice, it takes pain.

You're not gonna have a great marriage just because you said I do.

You have to work, you gotta put someone else's needs in front of yours.

Suffering is always the path to significance if there is a big enough why, if there is a cause that is great enough to live for, and the same great philosopher who said, He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

Frederick Nietzsche, the father of atheism, is the same philosopher who declared, God is dead.

And many people think that Nietzsche celebrated that.

He thought, Mark I the atheist, put that in the dove column, like God is dead, no.

He declared it with hero.

He knew that if God was dead, the ultimate why had been removed from our world.

If you haven't really suffered yet in life, just give it time.

And you will learn at some point and at some level that to bear under the suffering in this world, you will have to have hope in something that is bigger than this world.

And so I don't know where you're at on your faith journey, but the world is going to give you a lot of coping mechanisms and call them hope.

And you're gonna go down them, and maybe you'll even be successful, and maybe you'll get all the money and all the fame and all the status, maybe you'll have all the relationships and all the hookups, you'll have everything you've ever dreamed of.

But when you get to the end of them and you're still empty inside, and you're still suffering, and you're still lonely, and you're still broken, please, God, please remember the one who is resurrection and life, who can deal with your death and your suffering once and for all.

And Martha, you've met Martha.

She like had all the faith, yet even now, if you wanted, Jesus is like, let's move the stone, and she's like, Like, all the Febreze in Israel is not gonna get rid of what's gonna happen if you roll this stone away.

Jesus said, roll the stone, and she said, There's already a stench.

They they couldn't embalm back then, right?

The moment you died, you start decaying.

And Jesus said to her, Didn't I tell you?

If you believed, you would see the glory of God.

And so they removed the stone, and Jesus raised his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you heard me.

And I know you always hear me, but because of the crowd standing here, I said this, so they may believe that you sent me.

And after say saying this, Jesus shouted with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.

And maybe you're skeptical, you know.

You're here because you're just curious, or you know, you you kind of got like drugged here by a boyfriend or girlfriend, or or whatever it is, whatever your story is, or maybe you're from a different faith background.

Maybe religion just really kicked you in the teeth at some point, so you're just you're not interested in anything to do with faith or or spirituality.

But I'm telling you that there are times, and maybe even right now, where God grips your heart, and you can white knuckle your chair and and you can try to shake it off, but you cannot deny it.

And I want to suggest it might be Jesus calling you out.

Lazarus, come out, and the dead man came out, bound hand in foot, with linen strips, with his face wrapped in a cloth, and Jesus said, Unwrap him and let him go.

I am the resurrection.

The dead man came out a fraction of a fraction of a glimpse at the resurrection power that is Jesus, but there's still life to live now and forever.

Unwrap him.

Let him go.

Let him live.

If you've never put your faith in Jesus, if you don't have something bigger than this world, then you have two very big problems.

The suffering will not go away.

Death is always just ahead of you.

You will spend the majority of your life trying to cope with and solve these two very, very serious problems.

However, at the end of that road, you will realize that there's nothing in this world that can hold the weight of your suffering, that can hold the weight of the evil around you, that can hold the weight of your impending death.

There's nothing in this world that can hold the weight of your hope.

Maybe you don't know what to believe, but if today you could just acknowledge you're not gonna find it here, there's gotta be something bigger, you're taking one step down the right path.

Easter teaches us something that we're not just dying physically, but we are dead.

Scripture says God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love that he has for us, made us alive with Christ, even though we were dead.

We are separated from God because of our sin, the very source of our life.

We are dead.

And Easter is when Jesus defeated death itself.

Easter is when Jesus called all of us out of our spiritual graves and into the resurrected life.

Jesus is calling you out.

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

The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes, they will never die.

And then Jesus asked Martha the most critical question that every one of us has to deal with during our time on earth.

Do you believe this?

Would you close your eyes right where you're at?

Just bow your head and close your eyes.

There's nothing magical about it.

It's just creating space for yourself and creating space for the people who are around you.

We need help.

There is no doubt.

And whether you are a teenager and you feel like your suffering is kind of trivial, or whether you have lived a lot of life and you are well-versed with the pain that this world presents.

We all need help.

We all need hope.

And maybe, maybe you have wondered if there is something out there, something bigger than your pain, something bigger than this world, whether there is a cause and a purpose that is big enough for your suffering to not destroy you, but to define you and refine you and push you closer to the purpose you were created for.

Easter is not just when we celebrate Jesus coming out of his grave.

It's when we celebrate the availability of that resurrection power to us all.

Would you pray with me, Father?

We love you.

And God, if there's anyone in here who's wrestling and thinking through this and doesn't know the right way forward, God, speak to them.

Call them out like Lazarus today.

God, people who believe in you but are still so wrapped up in fear, I pray that they would take their place, their rightful place as people who have resurrection power inside of them, God, if there's anyone who doesn't know you.

I pray that maybe even today would be the day that they decide to believe that you are who you say that you are, a God who is not distance, a God who loves us enough, who answers the question can anyone do something about this?

Jesus, you answered that when you entered our world, hung on our cross, rolled away the stone of your grave, and made us a promise that you will return for us.

We love you, and we thank you, and we celebrate you this Easter in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Help me.

Sometimes I feel like giving up, but I just can't.

It isn't in my blank.

It isn't in my life.

I wonder if I'm being real.

Do I speak my truth or do I filter how I feel?

I wonder.

Wouldn't it be nice to live inside a world that isn't black and white?

So help me.

It's like the walls are caving in.

Sometimes I feel like giving up, but I just care And right before I close my eyes.

The only thing that's on my mind that you feel it should I wonder what it's like to be loved by you want to lie I'm so afraid of saying something wrong.

I never said I was a snake.

I want to cry through my hands.

I can just feel like it makes me less of a man to help me It's like the walls I feel like given I just can't because I want to say you're helping the world.

Uh I see so many faces that I haven't seen for a long time.

I see so many new faces, and we want you to know that MetaCurch is a place where everyone belongs.

We are ordinary, jacked-up people, but we are pursuing extraordinary purpose as a part of the movement of Jesus.

We would love for you to join us in that consistently.

Next week is baptisms, and so if you have put your faith in Jesus, but you haven't declared that publicly, maybe even you made that decision today.

We'd love to know that, and we'd love to celebrate with you.

And so you can sign up for baptisms at either of our venues, all five of our services that we have.

Sign up online at metachurch.tv slash baptisms.

You can sign up in the connect area.

You can also scan the QR code right on the back of your seats.

We're so, so glad that you guys joined us.

If you need prayer or to talk with someone, our prayer team is right out here in the cafe area.

We love you guys so much, and we hope to see you here next week.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

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Man, I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.