The Resurrection and the Life - John 11:25-26

There are so many cliches that tell you and me how to live our lives: “Carpe diem.” “Live life to the fullest.” “Make the most of every moment.”

These cliches assume that this life is all we have and therefore we must squeeze every drop out of it. All there is, is the here and now, so you better make the most of it. Seek all the pleasure you can find. Accumulate all the wealth you can.

Not too long ago I heard a comedian tell a joke that made me laugh. He said “People say money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a jetski… have you ever seen someone unhappy on a jetski?”

It’s funny, but we know another cliche that often rings true: “Pleasure is but for a moment and pain lasts a lifetime.”

A jetski doesn’t take away the pain of this world. It numbs it only for a moment.

Our culture encourages you and me to look inward. That we need to give our lives meaning, by taking a look in the mirror and asking ourselves, “What do I want?” “What will make me happy?” The world we live in encourages an unprecedented level of self-centeredness.

But Jesus gives us a very different perspective. He tells us that we must look outside of ourselves for our lives to have hope, peace, and purpose.

We must look to Him for life, because there is no life apart from Him.

Jesus says, [25]“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, [26] and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Our two verses are wedged within the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. The story is pretty familiar but it’s easy to forget some of the details surrounding it.

Jesus is told that Lazarus is ill and near death, but doesn’t rush off to heal him. Rather, John records for us, “When Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.”

As he waits and Lazarus dies, he tells his disciples “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.”

It’s clear that Jesus intended to pull the curtain back a little bit and demonstrate that he has power over death. This was simply a foretaste that points us to Jesus’s own resurrection.

But Jesus doesn’t arrive in Bethany, (where Lazarus was buried) for several days after his death.

By John 11:25-26, Jesus has not yet raised Lazarus from the dead and he’s arriving on the scene. Verses 25 and 26 occur in the midst of Jesus’ conversation with Lazarus’s grieving sister, Martha.

She tells Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

And it’s in response to that statement, Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

These powerful words contain incredible parallelism. First, Jesus states that he is the resurrection and the life. And the following sentence explains what he means by “the resurrection” and “the life.”

“Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” – a statement on “the resurrection.”

“and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” – a statement on “the life.”

They both deal with belief, life, and death.

And what Jesus makes explicitly clear is that, there’s no life after death apart from Jesus and there’s no life prior to death apart from Jesus Christ.

There’s no life after death apart from Christ.

The concept of the resurrection is central to Christianity. Obviously, today, Easter Sunday is traditionally a day spent in reflection upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I’m still not exactly sure how the Easter Bunny worked his way into this conversation.

And to an even lesser extent, I’m not sure what terrible candy has to do with Easter. For the record, peeps are the worst.

But in these verses, Jesus promises life after death. That’s what he’s talking about when he says, “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” This is Christianity 101, right? Christians believe, because of Christ, there is life beyond the grave.

This is what Martha was thinking about when she said to Jesus, “I know that [Lazarus] will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” God’s Word teaches us that all Christians will experience a bodily resurrection as well. Don’t take my word for it, go read 1 Corinthians 15.

Verse 21. “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.”

But Martha is clearly thinking about life after death.

The natural question that follows is how can we experience life after death? The answer is faith in Jesus Christ.

Those are his words, not mine. He says, “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”

People are saved by grace through faith. That’s the gospel, that’s the good news of Jesus Christ.

And yet, how many of us forget this glorious truth and default into believing that we’re saved by something that we do? That God judges us based upon our works? Or that we can never be good enough for God?

I had a conversation once with a guy who told me he had done too many terrible things in his life for God to accept him.

But therein lies the beauty of the gospel. It’s not something you can earn. It’s a gift from Almighty God.

Christians struggle with this thinking as well. Often they think that their works maintain their salvation and that God will revoke salvation the moment he sees your sin.

If Jesus intended to lay down the salvation rule book - what better opportunity?

Jesus had the perfect opportunity to give his to-do list to Martha.

He doesn’t say, “Martha, you’re going to need a pen and paper. You’re going to want to write all of this down. You’re going to need to be at church 75% of the time. You need to pray three times a day. You need to be straight laced.

And yet that is ingrained in so many of us. Jesus says, “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”

The Christian’s good works are performed out of love for what Christ has done.

This is one of the key differences between Christianity and all other world religions. Christianity is the only world religion that says “you can’t save yourself!”

Every other world religion is entirely based upon your works. How well you live your life determines whether or not you experience the afterlife.

But Jesus doesn’t give a list of works that must be performed. He simply says, “believe in me!”

Your faith in the work of Jesus Christ is what saves you. This is precisely what Jesus was trying to communicate to Martha.

When I hear someone talk about what they believe in a confusing, abstract, or cagey way, I get concerned.

The words of Christ are simple, clear, and direct.

It’s no secret that church attendance is on the decline. But what’s interesting is many surveys demonstrate that the level of people that claim to be religious hasn’t really changed.

It seems to me that we’ve changed what it means to be religious. At one time, being religious meant attending religious services, or being an active participant in a religion, but I don’t think that’s the case anymore.

You can claim to believe in an unknown higher power or refer to yourself as a “person of faith” and maintain the religious label. The attitude that says “I don’t subscribe to a religion, but I’m religious.”

Not only are religions of your own creation obscure and confusing, but they offer no assurance because they can’t save you. You’re going to trust your own thoughts and opinions over the words of Jesus?

Life after death rests in Jesus Christ. “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”

There’s no life prior to death apart from Jesus Christ.

There’s a famous English preacher named Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. And everyone referred to him simply as the doctor, because he was the kind of doctor that could actually help you. He was a Medical Doctor.

I recently heard a great story about him. Apparently, he was preaching in a large venue somewhere in England and as he was preaching a man kept yelling “amen!” And this happened a number of times as he was preaching… amen! Amen! Amen!

I can sort of relate. Periodic feedback is sometimes nice, but there’s a fine line between appropriate feedback and becoming a distraction. It’s something that requires a lot of Christian wisdom.

And this man was becoming a distraction. And the Doctor looked at him and said, “Good sir, the gospel isn’t meant to be applauded, it’s meant to be applied.”

You need to know the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ isn’t just facts and information. It’s not something for you to hoard only to flex your religious prowess on someone, or set someone straight. Rather, you want to grow in grace and your understanding of the gospel because you want to change. You want to turn from your sin. You want to become more Christlike. You don’t want to wait till you're dead to experience the resurrection power of the gospel. Rather, you want to experience the reality of the gospel right now. Today.

I’ve heard it called a holy dissatisfaction. You don’t want to wait till you're dead to see if there is something better. Rather, you long for something better right now.

This is what Martha failed to understand. Jesus told her, “Lazarus will rise again.” And then she gives a Sunday School answer full of theological facts. “Yes Lord I know, on the Last Day, there will be a resurrection.”

Martha believed that Christianity dealt exclusively with the future. There is life after death. All true stuff. But she didn’t think her faith in Christ had any impact right now.

That’s why Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He goes on, “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”

Christianity isn’t just fire insurance. It’s not something you just experience after you die. You can experience it now, because a life in Christ is a life that’s fully alive! It’s a life worth living!

Because there’s hope, power, and victory in Christ.

Jesus demonstrated this in a small way when he raised Lazarus from the grave. But he demonstrated it to an even greater extent when He rose from the grave.

The resurrection shows us that there is hope for your soul right now.

In order for my wife and I to get here and help start this church and do what we’re doing, we had to jump through some hoops with our denomination. We went to a church planting seminar and to a weekend church planting assessment. We went through this weekend Assessment in Atlanta, and while we were there we met with people and had a lot of conversations about church planting. And one of the things that they wanted us to do was sit down as a couple with a counselor and gauge our personalities and to make sure we’re on the same page. They wanted to make sure that this was something that we both wanted to do.

And it makes sense because the number one indicator of whether a new church will survive or fail is whether or not a husband and wife are on the same page.

So we sat down with this Christian counselor and she gave some helpful advice, but the one thing that stood out to us the most was as we were discussing our personalities, Lauren is more introverted and I’m more extroverted, probably no surprises there. But Lauren told this counselor that she felt like being married to me has pushed her out of her comfort zone and made her a little more extroverted.

And the counselor totally shut her down and told her that her personality can not change.

Needless to say, we were somewhat surprised. And after we had processed it for some time we thought, “Doesn’t that contradict what we believe as Christians?”

Fundamentally, we believe that, through the power of the Spirit, people can change.

Becoming an extrovert isn’t holier than being an introvert. Lauren wasn’t being sanctified into extroversion. We were just taken aback by the fact that she said that Lauren was locked into the way she was and there was no hope of change.

I share that story with you because I think what was said to us is a microcosm of a greater issue that is being perpetuated among Christians - that our hope lies only in what is to come after death, but there is no hope now in this life.

It’s the same thing that Martha believed.

I heard someone describe this view of Christianity as nothing more than “palliative care.”

I know there are some medical folks here, but for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, “palliative care” is medical care that you receive to make you feel comfortable as you pass away.

But is that really all Christianity is? Is it just something to make you feel good as you inch closer to death? It’s a view of Christianity that strips Christ of His power.

The Lord says in Zechariah, “not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit.”

Just because things are this way right now doesn’t mean that it’ll always be this way.

Just because bodies are in the grave doesn’t mean that bodies will always be in the grave. Just because someone’s body is dead doesn’t mean it’ll stay dead. Just because you struggle doesn’t mean you’ll always struggle.

The grave doesn’t have the final say.

But the resurrection also represents a bodily resurrection, but it represents a spiritual resurrection as well. As long as there is breath in your lungs the Lord can use you!

You too can experience spiritual life and live it to the fullest, but it only comes through Jesus Christ.

Because you’re no longer enslaved to sin and living a life that leads to death. You have the Holy Spirit working in and through you, sanctifying you. You're able to please God through good works. You can truly live because you're walking in God's will.

That doesn’t mean your life will suddenly be perfect. But you’ll see slow and steady progress.

There is no life apart from Christ.

Easter is obviously about Jesus’ resurrection from the grave three days later. And that, in sum, is the great hope of Christianity in this life and the life to come. That’s the beauty of the empty tomb.

Right now, everything outside is budding, you can finally cut your grass, go for a walk outside and occasionally wear a pair of shorts. Every year, nature literally dies before it returns to life. Springtime is a literal reminder of life after death.

Because that’s the reality of what Jesus is teaching us: This life is not the end, rather, it’s the beginning. Eternity is written onto each of our hearts, and a denial of eternity makes for fearful daily living.

How much time do we spend trying to avoid death? It motivates so much of what we do. We eat less, work out, drive safely, in order to preserve our lives for as long as possible.

Death makes you contemplate life.

We’re all thirsty for peace, satisfaction, and purpose. And chasing temporary pleasure and earthly gains only quench your thirst for a moment.

It’s like a thirsty man running to the ocean for a drink. It might be satisfying for a moment, but it will kill you in the end.

We must drink from the waters of Jesus Christ. The great I AM. The one who conquered sin and death and rose from the grave in glorious victory. He is the resurrection and the life.

Jesus asked Martha a very pointed question: “Do you believe this?”

What about you? Do you believe this?