Sermon: The Supreme Question of Easter (John 11:25-26): Pastor Tito Dizon

Easter             The Supreme Question of Easter – John 11:25-26

March 13,2013  Sacramento Bee Article pp.1 &20: $5 Million Study looks at the chances of eternal life.

During  Easter season, major news magazines have run cover stories on religious themes.

Time magazine did one entitled “Does Heaven Exist?”

 U.S. News and World Report. Titled “Life After Death,” the article reported on the scientific debate about near-death experiences. Listen to the first paragraph:

Ex. After being struck by lightning, a man meets a “Being of Light” who grants forgiveness for a lifetimes of violence. In full cardiac arrest on the operating table, a gradeschool teacher travels down a long tunnel to “a place filled up with love, and a beautiful white light.” And Elvis Presley takes her by the hand. (U.S. News and World Report, March 31, 1997, p. 59)

The article goes on to say that perhaps as many as 15 million Americans have had near-death experiences. Many of them were changed forever by the things they experienced. They had touched eternity, or so they believed, and life on this earth could never be the same again.

We all wonder about life after death, don’t we?  It’s natural to think about it because sooner or later we’re going to die. That much is certain.

“Have you smelled the first shovel of dirt from your grave yet?”

I. Death: The Last Enemy

Death is truly the last enemy of the people of God. That’s not my word.  It’s what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:26. We can beat many other enemies- temptations, trials; but death always wins in the end.  We cannot put it off, delay it, or deny it. “It is appointed unto man once to die,” says the Bible, and no one will escape that appointment.

II. Jesus and Death

By  the time Jesus got to Lazarus, had been in the tomb for four days.

17 When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. 18 Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem,

19 and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss.

20 When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.

22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”

When Martha saw him, she said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (11:21). There is a strange combination of sorrow and enormous faith in those words.

Lazarus has been dead so long that any thought of an immediate resurrection is out of the question.

But that doesn’t seem to be on Martha’s mind. She thought that Jesus could heal Lazarus and she also believed he would be raised on the last day. It apparently never occurred to her that Jesus could raise Lazarus right then and there.

It is against this backdrop that Jesus said to Martha those famous words that have been quoted at a million gravesides ever since:

“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. Do you believe this?” (11:25-26 NIV)

These words have been a light and a hope to the people of God for 2000 years. We quote them because they express our deepest faith in Jesus Christ. I’ve always thought these verses were a bit mysterious because Jesus seems to contradict himself.  In one place he says a man will live even if he dies.

Then he immediately says that if a man believes in him he will never die.  How is it that you can die and not die at the same time?

Let us consider each phrase carefully in order to understand what Jesus is saying to us on Easter Sunday.

1. He is the master of death in all its forms.

“I am the resurrection and the life.”

He doesn’t say, “I bring resurrection and life” but rather “I am the resurrection and the life.” In the presence of Jesus death is no longer death.

How can that be?  Our Lord often used the word “sleep” to describe death. Death for the believer is like lying down to a good long nap. The body may sleep a long time—for many years in fact—but in the end it will wake up. When Jesus raised Lazarus, it was just a specimen, a sample of what he will do for his people when he returns to the earth.

The answer to death is not a resurrection.  It’s Jesus himself. “I am the resurrection and the life.”

No one can ever hope to escape death unless he is related to Jesus through personal faith.

That’s why this article in U.S. News and World Report is so telling. Men and women desperately want to peer beyond the veil. They want to know what lies on the other side of death. The answer is quite simple. If you know Jesus, what lies on the other side is resurrection and life. If you don’t know him, you have no hope at all.

You might call the Psychic Hotline or talk to the woman who thinks she met Elvis. When the time of death comes, you’d better know Jesus or you’re going to be all alone. In march 1997) most of us were shocked and saddened by the mass suicide of 39 men and women who were part of the “Heaven’s Gate” cult in California. Evidently they mixed a few Bible verses with some bizarre science fiction and threw in some New Age mysticism to create a heady brew that led them to believe that a UFO was approaching the earth. They thought that by taking their own lives they would be transported to new existence aboard the UFO. Why would people do something like this?

I submit that their belief in life after death was entirely proper. However, when people cut themselves off from the Word of God, they have nothing left but vain speculations and idle dreams. What they did was extreme, but it illustrates the folly of trying to find answers apart from God’s revelation.

2. He is the answer to death for all of us.

“He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.” Think about those words for a moment.

You can live even though you die. This is the fondest and deepest wish inside the human heart.

To know that death is not the end.

How sad it must be to come to the end of life and to believe that after death this is nothing at all.

Just a vanishing into the cosmos, a passing into the dark night, marching off the stage into eternal nothingness.

But without Jesus Christ, what other hope do we have? You & I have been funerals for all kinds of people. Most of them have been older, but occasionally  a funeral for a younger person, and sometimes  a child or an infant. The circumstances vary , but this much is certain. At the moment of death the truth about individuals comes out.

You can fake your religion most days, but you can’t fake it when you stare death cold in the face.

In that moment Jesus makes all the difference in the world. In the saddest moments I have seen the light of God on the faces of those who have lost their loved ones. Through their tears they smile because they know Jesus and he has made all the difference.

3. He is the victor over death for all time.

“And whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

This is the most amazing statement Jesus ever made because he is clearly saying that death for the believer ceases to be death at all.  It is merely the continuation of life in the presence of God.

That’s what Paul meant when he said that to die “is gain.” It’s also what David meant when he declared “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”  Jesus had this in mind when he promised the dying thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

Can you imagine what it was like for Jesus to raise Lazarus from the dead? First he told them to roll away the stone.

38 Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance.

Martha objected, pointing out that his body would stink because it had been dead for four days.

39 “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested,

“Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.” 40 Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?” 

41 So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me.

Then Jesus prayed to his Father.

42 You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” Then he cried out, “Lazarus, come forth!” Why did he call his name? Because if he hadn’t said, “Lazarus,” all the dead in all the graves of the world would have been suddenly emptied.

43 Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!”

The Bible says that Lazarus came forth from the grave, still bound in his graveclothes. Jesus ordered that the wrappings be removed and he be set free.

44 And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”

Here’s something you may not have considered.  Lazarus was raised from the dead only to die again later. Why did Jesus raise him? So that we would know that he could do it. After all, anyone could say “I am the resurrection and the life,” but only the Son of God could do what Jesus did.

III. The Question You Must Answer

It’s Easter Sunday morning, 2013. What does this day mean?  It means that through Jesus Christ you may be released from the fear of death. But there’s a question you must answer. It’s the question found at the end of verse 26. We generally overlook the question, but it’s the key to what Jesus said.

Here’s the question. “Do you believe this?” That’s the supreme question of Easter. In the end truth must always become personal.

Let me wrap up this message by asking you six all-important questions:

1. Do you believe with all your heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came from heaven to live on this earth 2000 years ago?
2. Do you believe that when he died on the Cross, he died in your place, bearing your punishment, and paying for your sins?
3. Do you believe than on Easter Sunday morning, he literally, physically, bodily rose from the dead never to die again?
4. Do you believe that Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God the Father?
5. Do you believe that Jesus is truly the resurrection and the life and that he is able to remove the terror of death for those who trust him?
6. Are you willing to stake your life on your answers to the first five questions?

I began the message by quoting from the magazine article that asks the question “Is there life after death?”. In some ways, you can’t blame the people of the world for looking to Near-Death Experiences to answer that question.  If you don’t know Jesus, you’ll grasp at any straw. But if you know him, you don’t need to worry about those things.

We don’t need the word of people who nearly died when we have the word of someone who died on Friday and then came back to life on Sunday morning. His Word can be trusted and he said, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

Do you know him? I pray you will open the door and let him in. You will never regret that decision and when death finally comes, it won’t be death at all, but an entrance into life everlasting.

Acknowledgment :Text Source- adaptations from  Rev. Ray Pritchard