John's Gospel chapter 11, and
we'll read from verse 21. This passage. teaches us, or records, the raising
of Lazarus, one of Jesus' friends, from the dead. The whole of the
chapter has to do with that up until this present time. I'm
not going to read the whole passage, simply the point at where Martha,
following the death of Lazarus, speaks to the Lord Jesus when
he arrives. And in verse 21, We read these
words. Then said Martha unto Jesus,
Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But
I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will
give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, thy brother
shall rise again. Martha said unto him, I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the
resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith
unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the
Son of God, which should come into the world. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. The I Am sayings of the Lord
Jesus Christ in John's Gospel are sometimes linked to particular
miracles performed by the Lord. For example, the Saviour declared,
I am the bread of life, shortly after the feeding of the 5,000. He said, I am the light of the
world, shortly before opening the eyes
of a man born blind. But no miracle is more intimately
connected to an I am saying or more powerfully demonstrates
the meaning of that saying. than our Saviour's raising of
Lazarus from the dead, immediately following his statement, I am
the resurrection and the life. The miracle itself is a great
statement of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. For who
but God, can reunite body and soul of a man dead and buried
for days. Now it is true that several of
the Lord's Old Testament prophets and his New Testament apostles
were blessed to be able to raise individuals from the dead. And
the Savior himself, raised three people from the dead, Jairus'
daughter, the widow of Nain's son, and here, Lazarus. But what we learn from this passage
is that Christ, the God-man, is the divine person to whom
every such miracle Every miracle of resurrection is ascribable. And he, the Lord Jesus Christ,
in his mediatorial office has power over all flesh. He has power of life and death,
natural and spiritual, and he has power to break the bars of
death and to burst open the gates of hell. Recently in our little
studies of the Lord's High Priestly Prayer in John 17, we read in
verse 2 of that chapter that Christ as mediator between God
and man, Christ in that covenant role, had been given power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as the
Father had given him. That is, as many as the Father
had given to him in the everlasting covenant of peace. And it is
our Lord Jesus Christ who giveth to all life and breath and all
things. It is our Lord Jesus Christ that
hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face
of the earth. and hath determined the times
before appointed and the bounds of their habitation." All of
this power, all of this authority, all of this rule was committed
into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ in this mediatorial capacity. And this is the truth that is
set before us here in this passage. in our reading today. When Martha,
sister to Lazarus, said to the Saviour, as a testimony of her
faith, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But
I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will
give it thee. It seemed as though, in saying
this, that she was acknowledging Christ's power. but actually
she was mistaken on two counts. Firstly, Christ's presence was
not required to heal Lazarus. He who is omniscient, omnipotent,
and omnipresent, that is, all-knowing, all-powerful, and ever-present,
is unrestricted and unrestrained by time or place. Such is our
God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The second mistake that Martha
made was that Christ had no need to ask the Father in order to
restore Lazarus's life, which appears to be what Martha was
suggesting here. That is the significance of the
Lord's reply, I am the resurrection and the life. The emphasis in
that statement is upon the I. I am the resurrection and the
life. Martha said, if you ask the father,
he will give you the power. He will give Lazarus's
life to you. Martha asks, or she says, ask
the father for us. And Christ replies, I don't need
to ask the father. I am the resurrection and the
life. What you ask is my gift to give
and it shall be done. Now, we could today, no doubt,
touch on many features of this miracle performed by the Lord
and consider the reactions of the apostles and the sisters
of Lazarus and the Jews And I must admit that when I was doing my
preparation, there's much sweetness and benefit to be had from this
chapter undoubtedly. And perhaps we'll come back another
day and we'll do just that. But I want today to try to address
at least in part the meaning of the Lord's statement more
broadly. For while Christ, the resurrection,
and the life is powerfully exemplified in the raising of Lazarus, that
statement and that truth has wider meaning for us all and
more appropriate for our study of this series of I Am statements. is that perhaps today we can
discover some personal encouragements and applications from this wonderful
statement, I am the resurrection and the life. So what I'm going
to do is take three ways in which that particular statement can
be understood, not directly relating it to the history of the narrative
of Lazarus, but thinking more broadly how we understand this
reference to the resurrection and the life in this great I
Am statement of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the first point I
want to make is this. Christ is our spiritual resurrection
and life. Christ is our spiritual resurrection
and life. We spoke yesterday in the little
introductory note that I sent out of the universal extent of
death. That Lazarus died is not unusual. Hebrews tells us, it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. And these
bodies of ours, as a result of the fall and the effect of sin,
carry in them the seeds of our mortality. This is the testimony
of the whole of scripture, and it is the experience of mankind
from the beginning of the world. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die, says the Old Testament. The wages of sin is death, says
the New. And sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death. Everybody dies. and the death
of which we speak is both physical and spiritual. Now, physical
death is not too difficult for us to understand. It isn't pleasant,
but it is a reality in our world and in our lives. We all learn
about physical death before we are too old, through the death
of neighbours and the passing of loved ones. These bodies of
ours are fearfully and wonderfully made, but they are weak and they
are temporal as well. And sin exploits our bodies. And sooner or later, by sickness,
by violence, or simply weariness, sin brings us down to death. But there's another kind of death
as well as physical death. Spiritual death is also the result
of sin. And that is represented in scripture
in two distinct ways. It is pictured first as the separation
from God, or as separation from God for mankind, and secondly,
as inability to return to God. So it's both separation, that
is spiritual death is our separation from God, and our spiritual death
is our inability to do anything about that, our inability to
return to God. When Adam sinned in the garden,
having disobeyed God, he died physically insofar as death by
sin began to overtake and destroy his body of flesh. He died spiritually
in that his relationship with God was broken and he was separated
from God without any natural ability to recover or any power
to remedy his condition. Furthermore, This condition was
not limited to him alone, but was passed on to all his progeny. What flows from sin is sinful. And Adam's sons and daughters
were born in sin. They were born in the sinful
image of their father. Paul tells us, and while we live
for a time in the flesh, yet death claims each one physically. Equally, we remain guilty for
our sin and dead towards God spiritually. And that condition,
these twofold elements or aspects of spiritual death, that condition
has prevailed from Adam right down to you and me. It is the condition and state
into which we are born in this world. Now had this been the
end of the story, it would have been a hopeless and miserable
tale. But Paul gives us good news in
the second chapter of Ephesians. This is what he writes. Listen
to what he says in the context of what I have just related to
you. And you, he says, hath he quickened
that is made alive, and you hath he quickened who were dead in
trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation,
in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
you're saved, and hath raised us up together with Christ, and
made us sit together with Christ in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches
of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. God's great love wherewith he
loved us had long ago settled on a people to whom he wished
to show mercy. Yes, they were dead in Adam.
They were dead in that same federal headship, that same culpability
that flowed from our father who fell and passed on that sinful
seed to all his children. We were dead in Adam. We were
separated from God and incapable of doing anything to remedy our
situation. But God had a people upon whom
he wished to show mercy. So he formed a plan for redemption
and reconciliation. What we could not do, he accomplished. He appointed a fit substitute
who would bear our sin and carry our sorrow, who would pay our
debts and set us free. God himself would make that people
holy. He would provide a righteousness
suitable for his own presence, and he would freely impute it
to them. Their separation would be ended
and their inability would be circumvented. What we could not do, God would
do for us in the person of His Son. And we who were all our
life subject to death would have new life in Christ, would be
united to Him. and deemed evermore to be under
his care, under his protection, and under his headship. John
tells us, this is how John puts it, he that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. This is the single criterion. There is life in Christ because
he is the resurrection and the life. God has given him all power
to give life to all who believe in him. Jesus said, I am the
resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, Yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that? Christ's work of substitutionary
atonement at Calvary delivered all for whom he died from condemnation
and eternal separation. Christ's work on the cross did
that. He brought in liberty and life
for estranged, captive sinners. As our Saviour hung on the cross,
He satisfied every demand of justice against us, paid every
debt and made us acceptable to God When he died, it was as though
we died with him. And when he rose from the dead,
after three days, we rose with him to new spiritual life in
Christ. That's the first point that I
want to make to you. That was my first theme here. Christ is our spiritual resurrection
and life. The next point I want to draw
to your attention is this. Christ's bodily resurrection,
which we have been speaking about, when Christ rose from the dead,
we rose with him. Christ's bodily resurrection. is the model, it's the prototype. You know, the word that the scriptures
use is firstfruits. Christ is the firstfruits from
the dead. But what that's saying is that
he was first and we follow. His was the prototype and we
follow after him. That's the model, that's the
exemplar, and we have resurrection as he was raised from the dead. Let us think for a moment or
two about what that means. Every elect child of God for
whom the Saviour died is forever viewed in our Redeemer. Every elect child
of God for whom the Saviour died is forever viewed by God in our
Redeemer. Our eternal, unchangeable God
formed from everlasting this covenant of grace and justified
his people, the people of his choice, by the blood of Christ
according to his own goodwill and pleasure. God chose a people
loved before time, and he predestinated them to be made like Christ and
conformed to his likeness. These individuals, like the Gentiles
at Antioch and Pisidia, of whom the Apostle Paul spoke, are Those
individuals are ordained to eternal life and believe on the Son of
God through the preaching of the gospel of grace. That is their lot, that is their
portion, that is their gift from God. Though chosen and ordained
to eternal life, our personal experience of new life comes
during our lifetime under the preaching of Christ. So although
these things are true in the sight of God, that he has a people,
that they are viewed in Christ, that we are blessed in Christ,
our experience of those blessings only comes to us during our lifetime
under the preaching of the gospel. It is through the preaching of
Christ in the gospel, who is the word of life, that our conversion
is accomplished. And that conversion is modeled
after the resurrection of Christ. So this is the point that I'm
making. Our conversion is modelled after the resurrection of Christ. Modelled in that we were dead
because of sin, but we are raised from the dead to new life by
our Saviour. We are begotten again, or we
are born again. to a lively hope being made alive
in him and with him. We are planted together in the
likeness of his death and we are raised in the likeness of
his resurrection. It is Christ's voice we hear
in the gospel as Lazarus heard the voice of Christ, the enabling
voice of Christ from inside his tomb. So it is Christ's voice
we hear in the gospel and under the power of the Holy Spirit,
we hear and we live. As he lives, so we live. And
by his Spirit, we walk in newness of life in conformity to him. Consider the likenesses of our
conversion to Christ's resurrection. Christ rose to live forever,
never more to die. In conversion, so do we. For whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Christ rose in holiness and purity,
having carried away our sin. like the scapegoat into the wilderness. So we rise with him as new men
and women, holy and unblameable before him in love. Christ rose
to ascend to glory. In conversion, we rise with him
and are seated together. What was it Paul said to the
Ephesians? We read it together. Seated together
in heavenly places with him. for whom he justified, them he
also glorified. Christ rose to everlasting life
and glory and in our conversion we rise with him as heirs and
joint heirs with him. Now this is not to say that all
our experiences of God's grace and eternal life in Christ are
spiritual. or without practical effect. The point of conversion is that
we are changed internally and it has an external manifestation. In conversion, we experience
many transformative changes in our everyday life. When we live
in Christ, His Spirit lives in us and we walk in newness of
life. Like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. And we live by faith, not by
sight. we exhibit the fruit of the spirit
of life that dwells in us. With Paul we can say, I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet nor I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. So here we can see that this
Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the model and prototype
of our spiritual resurrection in conversion. And then thirdly,
here is another point that I want to leave with you. Having experienced
the spiritual resurrection of new birth and new life in Christ,
we shall follow the Lord's pattern in the physical general resurrection
of our bodies. Let me say it again. Having experienced
the spiritual resurrection of new birth and new life in Christ
in our conversion, we shall follow the Lord's pattern further in
the physical general resurrection of our bodies. I know that there are some here
who are right now counting the days of their life on earth. We have buried several friends
from this little congregation in recent years, and we shall
part with others soon. But we do not fear the death
of our bodies. any more than we fear going to
sleep after a hard day's work. Such rest is a pleasure to us
until we rise up again in the morning. And that is a perfect
parallel. Laying down these bodies to rest
we shall rise again on the resurrection morning. Now those you leave
behind will be sad to part undoubtedly, but they will be glad for your
future joy in heaven, for you shall be with the Lord. It is
the wisdom of our blessed Saviour that he will raise these very
bodies as he raised his own from the tomb. Paul says Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures, he was buried, he
rose again the third day according to the scriptures and the apostle
goes on Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits
of them that slept. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. And we shall rise
again. Brothers and sisters, we shall
rise again. First Christ, then afterward,
they that are Christ's at his coming. We go to our grave with corruptible
sinful flesh. We rise again in incorruption. We bury dead flesh in weakness
and dishonour. It shall rise again in power
and glory. We lay down a natural body of
flesh and bone it will rise a spiritual body fit for the eternal realm
and the presence of God. Our physical death has to be
first. If you will have heaven, you
must lay down this body of flesh, because flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God, nor corruption inherit incorruption. Die in peace and anticipate glory. As Christ's body rose from the
dead, so will yours who believe. Your glorified spirit will reunite
with your transformed body and together shall be forever with
the Lord. What is heaven going to be like?
Well, perhaps that's a sermon for another day. But let me say
this. We rise to newness of life. abundant life, eternal life,
a crown of life, and a life of glory, joy, and peace in heaven. There is no sadness there, no
sickness, no death. There is no sin, no evil, only
the fullness of joy. We know just enough about heaven
to make us long for the pleasures that await Heaven is not a state
of being. It is a place where we shall
live in our resurrected bodies. It is a place where the grace
and goodness and glory of God will be present and enjoyed by
his people. The Lord Jesus said, there were
many mansions in his father's house. Well, he's been a long
time making them ready. Heaven is the place of everlasting
happiness for the Lord's people. It is where our departed brethren
are presently, and we shall join them soon. It is paradise. It is the kingdom of heaven.
It is the heavenly Jerusalem. It is a better country. It is
an eternal kingdom. It is an eternal inheritance. These are all words, phrases
that are used to describe heaven in the scriptures. But we are going to leave the
final word to the Psalmist, David, who brings to us and leaves us
with perhaps the highest, finest, most glorious anticipation of
heaven that we presently possess. Speaking in Psalm 17 and speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he says in verse 15, I shall behold
thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness. May that be all our testimony. May that be all our joy. Amen.