Easter Sunday
Title : I Am The Resurrection And The Life
Text : John 11:1-44
Pr Lo Yi Ping
16 April 2017
Introduction
Last Friday, many of us gathered at the church to embrace Christ's suffering. On that morning, the bulletin we received printed, "Friday is the road to Sunday. There is no Easter Sunday without Good Friday. There is no Resurrection without the Cross." Indeed if Jesus had not suffered and died, there will be no resurrection. Or if Jesus died but did not resurrect, we would not be here celebrating Resurrection Sunday either. It would be pointless and hopeless for us to come together Sunday after Sunday. The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:13-14 that "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith." If Christ has not been resurrected, we have believed the gospel in vain and our faith is futile. Christ's resurrection is the foundation of Christianity! To demolish a skyscraper, engineers would strategically place explosives at the point where the support structure of the building is, so that when the explosives are set off, the building would collapse into a heap of rubble in no time. The same goes for the Christian faith. You only have to set the explosives at one point to bring Christianity down. Blow up the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the whole Christianity would come tumbling down. In the movie "Risen", we saw that many people disapproved of Jesus' teaching and tried to disprove His resurrection. Had Jesus not been resurrected, there would be no hope. If Jesus really did not resurrect from death, our faith today is hopeless and we would still be in sin. There would be no salvation for us and no eternal life. However, Jesus did resurrect from death and is now seated on the right hand of our Heavenly Father. And the time wiIl come when Jesus will return for us, to judge the living and the dead. Do you believe? Jesus has resurrected and defeated death. But how are we to understand His claim about being the resurrection and the life?
People like to use or quote from this verse in newspaper obituaries. John 11:25-26 - "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." When and under what circumstances did Jesus make this claim? Let the Word of God in John 11:1-44 minister to us.
John 11:1-44
25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
27 "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
Martha interpreted Jesus' message of "rise again" as in the resurrection of the last day. Both Martha and Mary said the same thing to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Jesus is the master of time and distance. His ability to perform miracles would not be restricted by time and space. Jesus had actually resurrected others before He resurrected Lazarus. In Luke 7, He resurrected a widow's son and was seen as a Prophet. In Luke 8, He resurrected Jairus' daughter and His identity was as a Teacher. The resurrection of Lazarus is Jesus' last miracle on earth, in which He wants to be seen and known not only as a Teacher and Prophet, but also as the Son of God.
1. Jesus' ability and identity
- Lazarus (John 11:1-44) - Son of God
- A widow's son (Luke 7:11-16) - Prophet
- Jairus' daughter (Luke 8:49-56) - Teacher
Risen from death and the crowd addressing Jesus as:-
During Lazarus' case - they called Him Son of God
A widow's son Case - they called Him Prophet
Jairus daughter Case - they called Him Teacher
Father, I thank you that you have heard me, you always hear me,
He said it for the sake of the people around him. For the first time, Jesus made it known that He is the son of God.
2. Three "types" of resurrection
- Physical
- Resurrection of the last day
- Spiritual.
We are spiritually dead and spiritually asleep until the point we are made alive in Christ and accept Him as Lord and Saviour.
1 Corinthians 15:51-58 - "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
3. Die in order to gain life. Have life in order to defeat death.
- Death must come or happen first before resurrection. We do not like to talk about death. Death bounds people. We fear death. In Christian perspective, death is not necessarily a bad thing. Death to certain things in life can set us free and bring resurrection to our spiritual life. Hebrews 12:1. Romans 6:4. We must die to sin that so easily entangles. John 12:24-25. We must die to sin to gain life in Christ. Jesus told them to "take off the grave clothes" from Lazarus. The grave clothes can symbolise sin which so easily entangles. All 3 of them responded to Jesus' call and gained life to defeat the grip of death. We need to break free from death to come back to life. Jesus told them to "give her (Jairus' daughter) something to eat." We all need to eat in order to regain strength and to continue to have life. Spiritually how do we understand that? We need to eat and feed ourselves with the spiritual food from God to be strengthened in our spiritual life. We need to abide and remain in Him and to bear fruit. We need to remain in the Lord and allow the Lord to remain in us.
We need to die to certain things in order to be set free.
Hebrews 12:1
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
We need to break free from death in order to come back to life.
Conclusion:
Jesus is the resurrection and life. He who believes in Jesus will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Jesus will never die. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the Lord. We celebrate the cross and the empty tomb.
Questions:
1. Share an occasion where you prayed for something/someone and expected God to do it your way. What was the outcome?
2. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life"; what do these words mean to you?
3. What are some of the things you need to die to in order to gain life?
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