Resurrection for Real Life: Living Hope

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0:00Amen, and good morning, New Creation. It's great to see you all. Great to worship with you all today. It's the middle of the summer. God is good all the time, even when the muggy days outnumber the cool, crisp days in our summer. I'm really glad to be worshiping with you all today, and I want to dovetail off what Heather just said. And, you know, the whole service is worship. Amen, and hallelujah for great music that we can sing together, we can worship with together.

0:34But, you know, the kids are worshiping as they are learning, the teachers are worshiping as they're teaching them, and we're worshiping right now as we hear the Word of God together. Amen. So, it's great that the Lord helps us and leads us to worship in spirit and truth. We're going through John 11 right now, in the middle of the summer right now, and this is week two of a little five-week series on John 11 that I'm calling Resurrection for Real Life.

1:07John 11 is about the story of Jesus raising Lazarus. And the way the story is told, it's drawn out, takes a whole chapter, John takes his time. I think that John is doing this, and God is doing this through John, so that it shows us how the life-giver, Jesus, brings life to ordinary people, right? This is not just an account of a miracle. This is an account of an ongoing life-giving process that he is bringing into people's lives, wherever they are.

1:42Whether they are in a tomb, or whether they're weeping about somebody in a tomb, right? So, this story, let me recap. This is week two. Briefly, it started with some friends of Jesus, some dear friends of his, a family, siblings, two sisters, Mary and Martha. They write and send a message to Jesus, who was far away, that their brother Lazarus was ill. They call him, Lord, the one that you love is ill. They're pleading to him on account of their friendship.

2:14When Jesus heard about this, he stayed where he was two more days. A strange act of love, but he does this because he loves them. He wants to give them better help, is what I was pointing us towards last week. The better help is himself. He intends to reveal himself progressively to these people, to this family, to this community, this town, and to us through the scriptures. He's revealing himself so that they and we will trust him further. This week, that revelation of Jesus begins.

2:55And the first thing he does to reveal himself is through his words. Now, there's something about being in the middle of suffering that makes you hypersensitive to words. Does that sound familiar? Feel familiar?

3:19Words that are meant to comfort, to soothe, can feel like darts. Isn't that weird? Even true words can sting. Just because something's true doesn't mean that they're relevant, that they're helpful.

3:39People can have the best of intentions, but their soothing words can feel like nails on a chalkboard to us when we're suffering. Especially when they talk about themselves. Right?

3:52And yet, we're about to read about Jesus doing exactly that. Meeting a friend in grief and talking about himself. Why does he think this is going to help? Who does he think he is?

4:08Well, let's turn to John 11 and find out. This is the word of God for us. It's living and active. It comes to us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

4:27Seek, knock, people of God. Be expectant as you hear the word. As you read the word. Because it comes with a promise from the Father, from the Lord, that it will change us. That he will manifest himself to us. So that we forsake things that we treasure and go after the real treasure, which is him. So let's come to him right now.

5:03Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off. And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him. But Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.

5:44Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And whoever 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.

6:27Lord Jesus, thank you for this ministry to Martha and this ministry to us right now. We ask you, please, to unclog our ears. Take away the veil from our eyes. Clear up the storms in our heart, Lord, so that we hear you speaking to us. Lord, each person in this room has got something, some kind of burden, some kind of suffering, some kind of place in their life where it feels like death is encroaching. It feels like death is at war with us. And we need to hear, Lord, right now from you, how you, the life giver, are coming in to those places in our lives and bringing life.

7:14We need the life that you have to offer. There is none other. So please, Lord, look down upon us in your tender mercy and bring about life in the dead places in our hearts, in our lives, in our minds. And do it, Lord, by manifesting yourself, beautiful, glorious, mighty to save, so that we run to you and embrace you with deeper faith. Jesus, we love you and we pray this in faith, knowing that your promise is good. Lord, you do not lie, you do not change, you're powerful and you're loving.

8:06So we pray this in your name, Jesus. Living hope, living hope. I said just a moment ago that just because something is true doesn't mean it's relevant.

8:27Well, Jesus' intent here is to make a very important truth very relevant and very personal for Martha and for us. We don't have very many accounts of Mary and Martha in the Gospels, but the few that we have tell us that these sisters are close to each other and different from each other.

8:53They often react very differently to Jesus. Jesus, in his wisdom and his kindness, has different responses for each one of them. Martha seems to be a person who's in her head a lot. But she's a thinker, a processor, an analyzer. And in his love, Jesus meets her on her terms. Let's start with this. Let's start with Martha's distress.

9:26Jesus gets to the town of Bethany and there is a pall over the whole community. Everybody is downcast. Based on the context here, many scholars believe that Mary, Martha and Lazarus were pretty prominent in this town. Probably pretty wealthy. They knew a lot of people. They entertained a lot of people. This was a community distress that Lazarus had died. Lazarus now has been buried for four days. Four days is a long time. And at this point, people had given up hope.

10:01According to scholars, Jewish culture believed that the souls of the dead lingered near the body for three days. That after three days, the soul would depart. Now, I want to say that for context here, but I also want to say this is not taught in Scripture anywhere. And in fact, Scripture contradicts this, right? But don't judge too harshly, right? Christian culture also believes lots of things that are not taught in the Bible. But the point is that the people in this town have no hope for Lazarus.

10:46It's day four. Four days in a tomb. And their perspective would not have changed just because Jesus walked into town. People knew that Jesus had brought people back to life. But that was different, they thought. Those are easier cases. He brought a widow's son back to life, but that young man had not been buried yet. He was in a funeral. His funeral procession was marching out of town when Jesus encountered it and raised him. He was not buried yet.

11:21The daughter of Jairus had only been dead a few hours when Jesus raised her. What could he possibly do for Lazarus? He's too late. Jesus knows this. That's why he's so late.

11:43Jesus had been at least four days travel time from Bethany. We know that because he left as soon as he learned that Lazarus was dead. He got there four days later. Okay? So he actually could not have gotten there before Lazarus had died. His two-day delay set up a situation that people consider to be unsolvable by human standards. Even Jesus can't do anything. It's nice that he's here. He can console Mary and Martha. But that's about it. He's done this intentionally, church, so that his power will be displayed.

12:27It's the same reason why we wait until sundown to set off fireworks. So that we can see them brilliantly in front of us. Jesus is the firework display. And the sundown is the four days that he's waited. Have you ever been impatient waiting for the fireworks to get started on 4th of July? When are they going to start already? It's hot out here. It's got to get dark before you can see them and be amazed. But now let's come back to Martha. She and Mary have been waiting the longest.

13:07When Lazarus got sick enough that they decided to send a message to Jesus, there was no texting. There was no email. There was no snail mail. Their only choice was to give a message to a courier. But Jesus was four days away. So that's four days for the message to get to Jesus. Then another two days that he waited. And then Lazarus dies. And then another four days at least for him to get to Bethany. That's ten days they've been waiting.

13:45Ten days of checking in on their brother. Dabbing his forehead. Checking his breathing. Looking out the window. Praying. Checking on him again. Praying some more. Looking out the window again.

14:09So it's no wonder that Martha goes out to meet Jesus. When she hears that he's coming. She went with words that probably she had turned over in her head for four days. Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

14:32We don't know the tone of her voice. We don't know the look on her face. We don't know her body language. Her demeanor. Certainly she's distraught. Disappointed. Perhaps hurt. Maybe even a bit accusatory.

14:55And you get it, right? I get it. You get it. Many of us have endured hardship and turned to God and said, where are you? Like Martha, we can be focused on what he didn't do. Where we didn't see him.

15:19Martha seems to catch herself after her first sentence and acknowledge who she's talking to. But even now, I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Martha is a real person. Don't you love that scripture is filled with real people? Not caricatures. Not two-dimensional people. Three-dimensional, real people. She is a mixture of lament and expectation. Of doubt and faith. Of complaint and submission. Does that sound familiar? She is relatable.

16:04And she is an example to us. Church, bring God your doubts. Bring God your frustrations. Bring God your Monday morning quarterbacking. He can take it. He wants to hear from you. But just remember who you're talking to.

16:27And be open to what he says back. Here's what Jesus says to Martha. Your brother will rise again. Now what is this? Jesus, is this just some generic truth? Is Jesus trying to say, there, there, Martha?

16:51Martha seems to think so. Because she doesn't seem very comforted. She responds, I know that he will rise again on the resurrection on the last day. This woman knows her Old Testament. She knows that passages like Job 19 that we heard earlier in Ezekiel 37 speak of a resurrection. But this is irrelevant. But this is irrelevant to her. And that's the problem. That's the problem right there. To her, it's just some abstract doctrine. Yes, Jesus, I know.

17:33That's for the future. My brother's in the tomb right now. I'm grieving right now. Can't you give me something better than that? To Martha, the resurrection is just some abstract theological principle. She's focused on the here and now. And Jesus, you weren't here. And Jesus, those words are not for now.

18:02Give me some real hope, Jesus. What else you got? This is the mindset that we're often in. That I'm often in. And that's why we all need to pay attention right now. Pay attention because the hope that Jesus offers is for the here and now. It is for the here and now. The problem is not that Martha is focused on the here and now. What she needs is more of Jesus revealed to her.

18:36And that's exactly what Jesus does. Let's talk about Jesus' comfort to her. What comes next is nothing short of a revelation of the Son of God. He is revealing himself. Something beyond mere words. I am the resurrection and the life. This is one of the seven I am statements in the Gospel of John. Each one is a reality defining truth about who Jesus is. Those first words, I am, are crucial. Jesus isn't saying, I am bringing the resurrection and the life.

19:15He's not saying, I am accomplishing the resurrection and the life. Those would be true, but he's saying something more. That resurrection that you know of, Martha, it's found in me. Look at me. And you're looking at the resurrection and the life. He is directing Martha's hope onto himself. Church, brothers, sisters, our hope is not in a doctrine. Our hope is in a person, Jesus.

19:51Christianity has many doctrines, many truth statements. Like God is real. God is holy. We are sinners in need of forgiveness. You can agree with many or all of the truth statements and doctrines of Christianity and still have no life in you. You can agree with many or all of these truth statements about Christianity and still have no life in you. You can believe in the resurrection and still have no hope unless you are looking to Jesus himself in faith.

20:31This is what Martha needed to learn. This is what Jesus in his mercy, his tender mercy to this woman is bringing to her. She heard about her brother rising again, and to her it was something from a book, some kind of theology taught in the synagogue at the adult ed class on Saturday afternoons. But Jesus says, Martha, I am the resurrection. It happens through me, the person standing right in front of you. She thought it was coming in the last day, way in the future, far beyond the here and now, and she was grieving.

21:09And Jesus says, look, I'm standing here right now. That life that you're looking forward to in the last day, it's here now. In your life, Martha, when you're grieving your brother, when you're suffering and struggling, the life of the age to come, it has arrived in Jesus Christ. And it is speaking to her, comforting her, ministering to her right then in her hour of need, not later.

21:50And this makes all the difference in the world. And that's why he expounds on his I am statement with something that can sound a little confusing. What, whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Whoa, Jesus, slow down. It's like drinking from a fire hose.

22:15Let me try to make it plain. Though he die, yet shall he live. This is addressing Lazarus' situation. Jesus is saying there is no end to the life that he gives. Through him, physical death is not the end. Lazarus' body is in the tomb, but his life goes on. He's alive right then when Martha and Jesus are talking. It has not ended. For the believer, what comes after death is not soul sleep. There is no utter blackness or end of our consciousness. And not only does life go on, but life goes on with God.

22:59But when believers die, their souls are immediately with the Lord. In uninterrupted fellowship. And even though God is a holy and righteous judge, we have no need to fear encountering him and coming close to him and seeing him face to face. Why? Because the resurrection and the life, Jesus Christ, took the punishment for sinners on the cross. Those who belong to him have no condemnation coming when they stand before the judge. Like Paul said, death cannot separate us from the love of God.

23:46Through Christ, physical death has changed completely. It is merely a doorway that we step through into closer fellowship with our God who loves us and accepts us because we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And even our bodies will be resurrected someday. It will not be us with the Lord, just our souls forever. When the resurrection happens, our bodies will be reformed, reconstituted, glorified, reunited with our souls forever.

24:27Just as surely as Jesus walked out of that tomb. But next comes the confusing part. Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Jesus, you just said that we're going to die. Now we're never going to die. This part is addressing Martha. He's saying nothing will defeat, nothing can defeat the life that he gave. No hardship or enemy can overcome the life that he has begun in us. In John 10, Jesus said, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

25:04And he wasn't messing around. He wasn't kidding. That was no exaggeration. That life begins at the first moment of belief. You don't have to wait for it until later. When you are born again through faith, you become a spiritually alive person. Death will attack you from every side. Like Martha, we will sometimes be distraught and bereaved, but we will never be overcome. No enemy, not even death, will overcome the life which is in us. Jesus is always cultivating, nourishing and strengthening the life that he has began in you.

25:52This is for the here and now, people. Through Christ, we have life that is confident to come to God with our needs, not ashamed of them, because he is our father and we know it now.

26:10Jesus is bringing us life that is healthy as the spirit is constantly weeding out and clearing out the self-destructive practices of sin and bringing us into healthy patterns of new life. This is life that is nourished and fed and strengthened by his word, by prayer, where we have a new and living way to approach the Father through Christ. This is life that is secure because you don't have to rest on your performance. You don't have to rest on your resources, on your metal, on your vision, on your stamina.

26:56You just have to rest on his unchanging faithfulness and his love. This is a life that's not alone. It's shared with one another through his spirit. All of this life is for the here and now and it will never end. It will never stop. It continues in every season, in every struggle, in every suffering. It's for Martha when she mourns her brother. It's for the whole community as they mourn their neighbor. It's for you when your marriage is difficult.

27:39It's for you when you enter a new season of parenting and it's hard and confusing. It's for you when you're longing for the next phase of your life and you're wondering when it's going to get here. It's you when you hate your job and you need more income and you're praying and longing for more. It's for you when you are spiritually confused and you wonder does God care about me? I see He cares about other people but I'm not sure about me. Yes, it's for you.

28:17The resurrection and the life is at work in you. It's at work in everyone with one condition. Whoever believes. Whoever believes. And not just any belief because remember our hope is in a person. Jesus says twice whoever believes in me.

28:47And so that leads us to this. That leads us to our challenge. Jesus finishes with a pointed question to Martha. Do you believe this? Do you believe this?

29:08When we read this you might wince a little bit. Martha is still mourning. Her brother has only been in the tomb four days. Are you sure this is the right time, Jesus? Don't you think you should wait a little bit longer for her to heal and process a little bit?

29:34Other people might flinch at the absoluteness of this question. We get uncomfortable with Jesus pushing for a definitive yes or no answer. Jesus got, whoa, whoa, can I just kind of take my time and think about this a little bit longer?

29:53Can I give you a maybe? We're uncomfortable with Jesus pushing us to come down on one side or the other. But Jesus knows what He's doing. He knows this is too big of a matter to leave ambiguous. What He said was huge and it deserves a response. And in His compassion and His love He knows that this is exactly the right time to be asking Martha. He is inviting her into deeper faith and therefore deeper consolation, deeper peace, deeper life.

30:39This same question comes at all of us and it's coming to you right now. Do you believe this? There is no way to receive the resurrection and the life that we all want and need without receiving Christ personally, individually. No one can believe for you, not your parents, not your friends, not your spouse.

31:10Wherever you are spiritually right now, Christ is calling you to Himself. Do you have the living hope that He offers? Maybe you already believe but it's just not connecting right now with whatever you're going through. just like Martha. Maybe you've slipped into a ritual. Reading your Bible, praying at every meal, the rhythms of church life, serving even.

31:49Maybe these rituals have become the dominant theme. Listen, the way that we live matters for us and for God. It does. These are good things that God has called His people to but these practices alone won't give you a living hope.

32:10Maybe you've leaned towards knowledge and study. Maybe theology thrills you as you read and you understand and you see biblical truths explained and connected. Maybe that gets you really excited. And listen, what we know and what we confess as Christians is important. An uninformed disciple will be shallow and vulnerable but knowing doctrine and theology alone won't give you living hope.

32:42Or maybe you've never heard any of this before. Maybe this is all brand new. Maybe you thought Christianity was about morality. About getting on the right track. About keeping the Ten Commandments. That kind of thing. Maybe you think that God grades on a curve and as long as you don't do anything too bad He's going to look past the dirtiness in your heart. This won't give you living hope either. The only hope for sinners and every person on earth is a sinner is Jesus.

33:19Not rituals, not doctrine, not morality. Only by faith, by believing in Jesus, entrusting yourself to Him will you have a living hope of resurrection in life. The analogy I like to make is the difference between looking at a chair and acknowledging that chair could support my weight.

33:48That alone is not rest. To rest you need to actually sit down in that chair. You have to act out your belief that that chair can support your weight. Have you entrusted yourself to Jesus? Or maybe you have but again you've drifted off course and I'm here and now recentering you. I'm calling you to Jesus to behold Him. He is your living hope. He is the resurrection and the life. He is the Christ, the Son of God who is coming into the world. And that's exactly what Martha said.

34:24Martha responded. She wasn't offended by the question. She feels ministered to and helped. It's a remarkable thing for her to say. Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of God. This is a confession far beyond what anyone has said at this point. Martha already had an allegiance to Christ but she has now come further up and further into her faith.

34:57There is even more resurrection and life ahead for her. May it be said for each one of us as well. Jesus, the resurrection and the life is offering us living hope. Living hope not for the future or not only for the future I should say but for the future and for the present for right now. Behold Jesus.

35:25Come to him and receive what he has to give you.