Open your Bibles, if you would,
please, to John 11, verses 25 and 26. As we read these wonderful verses
of Scripture, I hope we have no doubt about who the man was
who spoke these words, because the Holy Spirit tells us it was
our Lord Jesus Christ. It was Jesus Christ who is the
same yesterday, today, and forever. In John 11, verses 25 and 26,
Jesus is talking to Martha. Martha, who is the brother of
Lazarus. Lazarus has died. Now he's been
buried. He's been in the grave for four
days. And so Jesus says to Martha,
your brother will rise again. And Martha says to Jesus, I know
that you'll rise again. You'll rise again in the resurrection
of the last day. And in verse 25, Jesus said unto
her, I am the resurrection and the life. And he that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whatsoever
liveth and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
Believest thou this? Do you believe this, Martha? It was men who spoke most Scripture,
inspired by God, but God used men to write down His Word. God's prophets spoke it as it
was given to them by the inspiration of God. An angel spoke some Scripture,
but what prophet, what apostle, what angel or what being in the
whole creation of God ever did or ever could say what Jesus
says here with these words? I am the resurrection and the
life. That's what our Lord Jesus said
to Martha. I am the resurrection and the
life. I think those are very deep and
very profound words. Or words that only Jesus Christ
could possibly say. Only the Son of God could say
words like this. I am the resurrection and the
life. I'd like for you to think a little
bit this evening about these words, I am the resurrection and the
life. Ponder on them, think about them. Because if the Lord himself
makes that statement to each of you, speaks these words with
an understanding in your heart, an understanding that gives you
a belief and a faith and a trust in these words that I, well,
I could stop preaching right now and I wouldn't run over.
Because everything that I need to say is in these words. If the redeemed, if the born
again child of God, has been taught the doctrine by God and
has been enabled spiritually to receive this divine truth
that Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life, with full assurance
of faith, then there's really nothing else for me to say. My
purpose, the purpose that I believe God has given me today, is to
preach the gospel of Christ to you, which I pray the Lord will
use to the salvation of souls. I was so blessed today to have
my sister here. We had a conversation, she and
her husband, maybe at times other people were around, and four
or five times she said to me, I'm so glad I came. I don't know
what that means, but I pray I do. I pray for the salvation of souls
in this room tonight, for that miracle that God might give us.
But if you have heard, if you believe, if you have trusted
that Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life, And there's really
nothing left for me to do except to remind you of it, so that
it will bring comfort to your soul. Comfort to your soul as
you look at the truth that Jesus Christ is the resurrection and
the life. To realize in your heart and
in your own conscience that Christ is, in His person, the resurrection
and the life. is to live on those words day
by day, to bring them into constant use, trusting them and relying
on them, bringing comfort to your soul. For anyone to believe
these words of Jesus when He said, I am the resurrection and
the life, it would be a sign to them that God had given them
a knowledge of Christ, a saving knowledge of Christ, which only
God-saved, born-again people can have. To believe these words
of Christ is to be lifted up out of the dunghill of sin and
death by the faith of Christ. To believe these words of Christ
is to see Jesus Christ for who He is and to be lifted up above
all the sin and the sorrow, which is the lot of all men since the
fall of Adam. Believing these words will cause
you to say, as the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2.14, Now,
thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ. So I want tonight to look at
these words closely. And I constantly am praying that
the Holy Spirit will not only give us an understanding of them,
but He'll cause us to believe them, to trust them to the salvation
and comfort of our souls. Because these words of Jesus
are a reference to the Almighty Person of Christ. They're Christ's
description of Himself in His own words. They're the description
of Himself as the way in which His people are in union with
Him. Jesus Christ is Himself every believer's resurrection
in life. So let's look at these words.
First, the Almighty Jesus said, I am. Do you see them there? I am the resurrection and the
life. This great I am, this great I,
is the person whose being and whose existence is the sole cause
of giving life to His people. Because without Him, without
Jesus Christ, the whole body of the Church of God, whether
they are in heaven or on earth, would be just so many lifeless,
meaningless people who have no purpose at all. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ as the covenant head of His church who stands
before His people as the first of many brethren who gives them
purpose and meaning and significance. And I hope you understand that
God has given you a purpose, a meaning, And it is all involved
in these words, I am the resurrection and the life. Without Jesus Christ,
the people of God would be no different than millions of other
people who have lived and died without a Savior. It's Jesus
Christ who makes them to differ from the millions of people of
the world who have lived and died and had their being. Jesus
began with the words, I am. And notice what the Lord is declaring
about Himself. He's saying, I am the Almighty
One. I am the only One which is, and
which was, and which is come. And as He said another time in
Revelations 1.8, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
ending, saith the Lord, which is and which was and which is
to come. I am the Almighty. Jesus Christ
is saying, I am. I am the only One and the only
Almighty God who is able to save you from your sin. I am. I am the great I Am. I am God
who saves His people from their sin. It can't be said about God's
creatures that some were, now are, and may be in the future.
But this can be said about our most glorious Christ. He was. And He is and He will be. He will be the same unchangeable
Savior of His people forever and ever and ever. As the Lord
described Himself to the Jews in John 8, 58, He said, Before
Abraham was, I am. The Lord is showing us His eternal
power. The Lord is showing us His Godhead.
And these two mighty acts, resurrection and life, which reveal to us
His Almighty Person, He is showing them to us as He says, I am the
resurrection and the life. I am, He says. I am the resurrection
and the life. And notice that Jesus Christ
is not only the cause of the resurrection and the life, but
Jesus Christ is both of them. He is both the resurrection and
the life, and He is both of them Himself. All things you see are
in Christ. All things are not only in Christ,
but they are by Christ. And that includes the resurrection
and the life. It isn't enough to say that this
great salvation which He worked out for His people can't be given
to anyone else except His people. But it must also be said that
Jesus Christ is the salvation of His people. He's the salvation
of His people as their substitute. Jesus Christ is Himself the resurrection
and the life. His people were in Him. His people
were represented by Him as their substitute. When He did all that
He did and when He suffered all that He suffered for their salvation
and to give them life. so that His people were crucified
with Him. They were buried with Him. They
were raised up together with Him and made to sit together
with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, as it says in Ephesians
2, verses 5 and 6. But that still isn't all of it.
God somehow blesses with blessing on top of blessing. It isn't
all of it because the Lord Jesus adds that his people shall know
these things and they will spiritually enjoy these things when by the
divine effects which he works in their hearts, they are brought
into spiritual understanding of them in their own minds. Oh,
that we might each one know Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection
and the life. In our text, John 11, 25 and
26, Jesus said, He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall
never die. Here again, as the Lord did at
the beginning of verse 25, His own sovereignty is asserted and
assured. Listen to this very carefully,
I pray. You can't live in Christ unless
you are born again in Christ. You can't live in Christ unless
you're given new life in Christ. And it has to be done by the
Holy Spirit. There's nothing that you can
do for yourself. But living in Him, living in Christ, is the
cause, and hear me carefully, living in Him, living in Christ,
is the cause of believing in Him. One produces the other. Faith, God-given faith, the faith
of Christ, will always come after new birth or after life in Christ. Faith doesn't come first. It
comes after the new birth. And this life and this faith
becomes the fullest demonstration of salvation in Christ according
to the Apostle's statement in 1 Peter 1.23 about being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Dead men don't have
faith. They can't see the kingdom of
God if they're dead. They must be born again. They
have to be born again. And that's what comes first.
Oh, that this great and glorious truth might be understood by
all of us. This truth that you must be born
again. That truth would be fully and
completely incorporated into the soul of the Lord's redeemed
and regenerated family. That's my prayer. So that every
child of God which is brought into an acquaintance with the
plague of his own heart, every child of God who understands
that he's not only a sinner, he can't do any good, he's totally
depraved. Every child of God who understands
correctly his vast privileges, which are only found in Christ.
So many people, and I was one for many years, So many people
who are only religious, who know something about Christ, but who
don't understand that you must be born again in Christ, they
miss the joy. They miss trusting in Christ. There is no joy in trusting in
yourself. There is no joy in trusting in
what you've done. The joy of resurrection from
death to life in Christ is trusting Jesus Christ. That's where the
joy is. There is no joy in death, but
there is great joy in life, and Jesus Christ is the resurrection
and the life. Turn please to 1 John chapter
5 and verses 11 and 12. If those people who are like
I was, who are only religious, who trust in what they have done,
trust in their decision, trust in their good works, trust in
their own righteousness, If they could, by God's grace, understand
that you must be born again by the grace of God, then they would
enter into divine employment of what John calls the record
God has given to His church of eternal life. Because this life
is in the Son. This life is in trusting Jesus
Christ. This life, trusting Christ. as a child of God is where they
find joy and they find peace. And all of their joy and all
of their peace is in Christ, who is the resurrection and the
life. As 1 John 5, 11, 12 says, and this is the record. Record
I'm interpreting as the proof or the sign. This is the record
that God has given to us eternal life. And this life is in the
Son. He that has the Son, he that
trusts Christ, is the way I interpret that. He that has the Son, he
that trusts Christ, has life. And he that has not the Son,
has not the Son of God, has not life. He's dead. And in John
5.25, Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hears
My word and believes on Him, he who trusts Him that sent Me,
has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but
is passed from death to life. And it's in life, life that is
in Christ, where we find our joy and our whole purpose for
living. Is that true of you? Is it in
life, life that is in Christ that gives you purpose to your
life? Oh, I hope it is, because that's where the joy is. How
I pray you can hear God's Word, that He use me to speak it powerfully,
powerfully to your heart. My intention this evening, so
far as the Lord enables me, is to call your attention, to point
you to Jesus Christ, the almighty speaker who proclaims himself
and his divine person according to these divine characteristics.
Jesus Christ says to me, and he says to you, I am the resurrection
and the life. But let me say again to you,
those words of Christ can only be understood spiritually. This
is very important for you to hear and understand, I think.
These things are understood spiritually. They have to be taught us by
the Holy Spirit. By our sin natures, we want to
do something in order to save ourselves, even if what we do
is only to take credit for our own learning. We study God's
Word. We think that we're teaching
ourselves about Christ. But you see, and this has been
a hard lesson for me to learn, learning about Christ only comes
when the Holy Spirit is our teacher. To learn of Christ first, we
must be born again. God in the power of His Holy
Spirit must give us a new nature. We must be made willing in the
day of His power. A new birth or regeneration is
absolutely necessary for our entrance into the kingdom of
God's grace here, as well as into glory hereafter. And this
new birth is completely a gift of God. Because the Gospel says
in John 1.13 that as many as believe on His name, which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but were born of God, these are the sons of God. Just as we had nothing to do
with our natural birth, we have nothing to do with our new birth
either. It is 100% and completely all
the work of God. And just as we are passive in
regeneration in the new birth, so we are also passive in all
of those other things which come to us in the preservation of
that new life in Christ. He who is the resurrection of
that life from sin and death, giving us new life in Christ,
is also the preserver of that new life in Christ Jesus our
Savior. He preserves us, He keeps us,
He sanctifies us, and He glorifies us. All things are in Christ,
and He does them all. Oh, what a glorious God we have.
I cannot sing His praises enough. What a glorious God we have.
That glorious Savior that God has sent to save His people from
their sin is divinely suited for both the saint, but also
for the sinner. Jesus Christ is suited for the
sinner to quicken or to give new life to them, and Christ
is suited for the saint which in time past has already been
made alive, but He's suited to that one with new life to keep
Him and to preserve Him and to keep Him alive in Jesus Christ. Where would we be without Him
keeping? Where would we be? I'll tell
you where we'd be. We would fall. Just as quickly
as Adam fell, we would fall. Turn please to Matthew 4 and
verse 4. Jesus Christ is the resurrection
and the life of both sinners and saints. And it is by His
Holy Word and by His Holy Spirit that the souls of the redeemed
are spiritually fed and they're nourished day by day. As Jesus
said in Matthew 4, verse 4, man shall not live by bread alone,
but he'll live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth
of God. One of the quickest things that
we do. is to get away from our private, regular, daily looking
to God and asking for him to lead us and guide us through
the day. Spending time studying the word, not to preach it, not
to teach it, but to study it for our own growth and understanding
of who Christ is, that he's the resurrection and the life. We feed on that. We feed on God's Word. And that's
what gives us life. God's Word gives us life. That's
what preserves us in Christ. It's God's Word that preserves
us in Christ. Pray with me again, please. Oh, dear Lord. Oh, I beseech
You, Lord, I pray that You might grant, if it be Your will, that
the precious doctrine of the resurrection may this day be
realized in our minds and hearts, that it might become a living
principle in our souls. Oh, dear Father, I pray that
each of the three persons of the Godhead might confirm to
those who you have brought to this place and that what Jesus
said might be fulfilled to our joy and to his glory. Father, your Holy Spirit tells
us that Jesus said, All that the Father giveth me shall come
to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven,
Jesus said, not to do my own will, but the will of him that
sent me. And this is the Father's will
which sent me, that of all which he has given me I should lose
nothing. but should raise it up again
at the last day. Oh, dear Father, may we have
the joy of seeing the resurrection, the salvation of your people
as you resurrect them from death to life in Christ. In Jesus'
name, amen. As I began this evening, I told
you that it was my purpose tonight to point you to Christ, and I'm
trying to do that as the Lord enables me. So I pray that God
does continue to enable me. I'm trying to call your attention
to Jesus and ask you to contemplate his divine person as the resurrection
and the life. If I had more time, I think I'd
probably spend it telling you that all of the three persons
of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Ghost, are each
involved. Each do their part in the salvation
of God. But there's not time. He's going
to get out the hook. So I won't spend time telling
you something that I dearly love to preach, but maybe you'll invite
me back again and we can talk about the Godhead and the Trinity.
But for now, let me only remind you that the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, all three, by covenant agreement, directly involved
in the salvation of God's people, each one has his part in giving
God's people new life in Christ. Each one has his part in keeping
us and preserving us in Christ. Until that day when we're brought
to God in heaven, for we'll be there for all eternity. Our focus
tonight is not on the Trinity of God, it's on Jesus Christ.
We're looking at this Holy One of God, the Lord, our righteousness,
who is the administrator of the entire purpose of God's counsel.
Jesus Christ is acting out and working God's will in his people.
He's working God's good pleasure in his people. In his trinity
of persons, toward his church, he is accomplishing the salvation
of his people for the glory of God. It's the delight of God's
church. It's our delight to know and
it's a source of continual thanksgiving that the Father and the Son and
the Holy Ghost take equal part in the salvation of God's people.
And they're equally included in this gracious administration
of God's grace. What I want to call your attention
to tonight is the personal glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. His
glory is in the fact that He is our resurrection and the life. In this, in the resurrection
and the life, is included the personal dignity of our Lord
and Savior. He was, and He is, one of the
holy three in the Godhead which bear record in heaven. As 1 John
5, 7 tells us, there are three that bear record in heaven, the
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
They are one in God in three persons. Turn please to Isaiah
57 and verse 15. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I
am, and He's expressing His everlasting being, His eternity and the sameness
of His unchanging nature and essence. It's as if the Lord
had said, I am what I am now. I am what I am. what I have always
been, and I am what I always was yesterday before all the
worlds were created. I am what I am today during time,
and I am what I am forever and ever. I am what I was when there
were no worlds. I do not change. The Lord is
saying, I am what I am and I always will be what I am. In Isaiah
57, verse 15, we have a similar statement describing God. It
says, For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabits eternity,
whose name is holy, He says, I dwell in the highly place,
with him also that is contrite in a humble spirit, to revive
the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite
ones. These words describe the infinity
of Jehovah God, and they are equally descriptive of all three
persons of the Godhead, including Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection
and the life. But let's look now in John 11
at the occasion when our Lord told Martha that he was the resurrection
and the life. It was at the death of her brother
Lazarus. Martha, who was in great sorrow over the death of her
brother, saw Jesus and she said to him,
Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. But
I know, she said, that even now, right now, whatsoever you ask
of God, God will do it for you. Whereupon Jesus said to her,
your brother Martha is going to rise again. Yes, Martha said,
I know that he'll rise again in the resurrection of the last
day. You know, it sort of looks to
me like Martha must have had an idea, which I think was common
among the people of her day, about what resurrection was.
But you know, I don't think she had any idea at all about how
resurrection was going to be accomplished. She certainly didn't
understand that the Lord Jesus was the sole cause of resurrection.
And indeed, he himself was that resurrection. Jesus had said,
I am the resurrection and the life, and 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 that,
Martha? But Martha hadn't understood.
Martha didn't understand that in all that Jesus said, and in
all that He did, and in all that He suffered, and in all that
He was as Christ, He was and he is the head and the husband
and the surety of his body, the church of God. She didn't understand
that Jesus was the substitute for his people. Jesus Christ
was and is the fullness that filleth all in all. As Ephesians
1, verses 22 and 23 says about Christ, God has put all things
under His feet. And God gave Him to be the head
over all things to the church, which is His body. The church
is His body. It's the fullness of Him that
filleth all in all. So when Jesus spoke to Martha,
He was speaking to her, not as a private person, but He was
speaking to her as the Lord Jesus Christ, the sovereign head of
His church and the Savior of His people. And when the Lord
laid on Him, laid on our substitute, the iniquity, the sin of us all,
as Isaiah 53, verse 6 says He did. In the same moment, all
of our sins were taken from us and charged to Him. As Jeremiah
50, verse 20 says, in those days and in that time, saith the Lord,
the iniquity, the sin of Israel, the sin of God's people shall
be sought for, and that shall be none. and the sins of Judah,
and they shall not be found, for I will pardon them whom I
reserve." Now remember that Israel and Judah are God's people. They're spiritual pictures of
God's church. And when Christ died for them,
He took their sin away so it could never be found again. So
when Jesus Christ died on the cross, the church, God's people,
They died in Him. They died in Christ. In Galatians
2, verse 20, Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. Yet not 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 He gave Himself for me. When Jesus Christ put away sin
by the sacrifice of Himself, sin was forever put away from
the church, And they were, the church was, sanctified by the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And when
Christ rose from the dead, the church of God rose in Him. The church of God rose in Christ. They were resurrected from death
to life in Jesus Christ as their glorious head. And as the Holy
Spirit said through Paul in 1 Corinthians 15-20, Christ being risen from
the dead has become the firstfruits of them that slept. So you see,
as their substitute, Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life
of all of his people. He himself is the resurrection,
and his resurrection would not be complete without the resurrection
of his church. Where would the body be without
its head? The church is not only one with
Christ in His resurrection, but they are one with Christ in His
ascension. They are one with Christ with
His return to glory. And they are one in His life. As Paul said, every born-again
child of God in Ephesians 2, verses 5 and 6, even we Even when we were dead in sins,
God had quickened us together with Christ. By grace you are
saved and have raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Can you think about that? Can
you get your mind around that? In Christ are all things. And
we're in Christ if you believe and trust Christ. So that right
now, Spiritually, Christ's body, His church, is now sitting in
Christ, represented by Christ at the right hand of God in heaven.
Jesus Christ, therefore, is the sum total and the substance of
all that the church is and all that the church is ever going
to be. The church is fully in Christ. And oh, what a full and
wonderful thing our Lord said when He said, I am the resurrection
and the life. And so I ask you, I ask you tonight,
are you in Christ? I want you to answer in your
own mind. Are you in Christ? Think about it. Are you born
again to a new life, a life which is in Christ? Ask yourself the
question that Jesus asked Martha after He said to 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
on me shall never die." Then Jesus asked her, as I ask you
to ask yourself, Believest thou this? Do you believe it? Do you believe that Christ is
Himself, the resurrection and the life, and that you are in
Him? Turn please to John 16, verses 8-11. I'm asking you. Are you born again in Christ?
Do you have those marks on you of a new spiritual life in Christ
which follows the new birth? Are you convicted of your sin?
Are you convicted of your need for the righteousness of Christ
and not trusting in your own? Are you afraid of being judged
for your own works? Are you born again people you
see trust Christ? They don't trust their own sinful
works. They trust Christ. That's the mark. That's the record
that they have been resurrected to a new life in Christ. They
trust Christ. In John 16, verses 8-11, Jesus
said about the Holy Spirit who gives new birth, and when He
has come, He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness. He'll reprove the world of righteousness. And of judgment, He'll reprove
the world of judgment. Of sin, because they believe
not on Me. Of righteousness, because I go to My Father and
you see Me no more. And of judgment, because the
Prince of this world is judged. Now please turn to Colossians
3, verses 1 to 4. I'm asking you, are you dead
in Christ? Are you risen with Christ by
the resurrection of God's grace in Jesus Christ to a new spiritual
life in Christ? Are you seeking those things
which are in Christ above where Christ sits at the right hand
of God? Oh, how I pray that you can answer in your own mind.
Yes, dear Lord, thank you that I am, that I am in Christ, that
I have died in Christ and been resurrected to a new life in
Christ. The Holy Spirit used the Apostle
Paul to tell us in Colossians 3, verses 1 to 4, that if ye
then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.
Seek those things where Christ sits on the right hand of God.
Set your affection on things above, not on the things of the
earth." Oh, how guilty I am of that. Setting my affection on
the things of this earth. How I pray that the Lord might
enable me to set my mind and my heart and my desire fully
in Christ. Set your affection on the things
above, not on the things of the earth. Verse 3, For you are dead,
you have died yourself into the world, and your life is hid with
Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. And in Romans 6, verses 3 and
4, Paul asks, Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized
into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death. Therefore, we
are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in the newness of life. For if we have
been planted together in the likeness of death, we shall be
also in the likeness of his resurrection." The doctrine of the resurrection
is a practical, experimental, soul-refreshing doctrine. And
when by the power of the Holy Spirit is received in your mind
and understanding is given to you by faith, by the faith of
Jesus Christ, and when you trust it, when you live on it by faith,
it tends to purify the heart and induce a holy life in conversation. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, we shall appear with him in glory. I tell you
these things. I pray that I tell them to you
honestly from my own experience. By God's mercy, he's raised me
from the dead to say these things to you, the living. But if you
don't remember a thing that I've said to you tonight, I pray you
will remember the words of our Lord. I pray that He'll write
them on your hearts, in your souls, that you will keep them
in your memory. This is my prayer for you, and
it's my prayer for myself as well. I pray that in these words
of Christ, I am the resurrection and the life. I pray that you'll
find in them a sure relief from all the sorrows of life. When
you're on trial, as so many of you are, when the doctor tells
you or tells someone that you love that you have cancer, when
you're grieving the death of a loved one or a friend, when
you're thinking about your own death maybe, whatever the trial
is, when everything seems dark and hopeless to you and all your
inward comfort is gone, leaving you nothing but your own pain
and sadness, I pray you'll remember these words of Jesus Christ.
He says to all of his people, I am the resurrection and the
life. And God's people trust that Jesus
Christ is their resurrection and their life. May we all trust
in Jesus Christ, who is our resurrection and our life. Amen.