Apostles Church

John 11:1-44. Jesus According to Jesus series is bringing us face to face with Jesus Christ and all that He claims to be for us. He is bringing us to a place of decision – do we believe Him? Will we embrace him? We will align our lives with His and entrust all of our life for all of our life to him. As we look at him in the Scriptures, we see that he is very divisive and he intends to be. This miracle creates a division as well. Lazarus is dead – four days; stench of death; finality here. Death has spoken loudly; then Jesus speaks and Lazarus is made alive. Jesus vetoes death and gives us a foretaste of what he will ultimately do to death in his own death and resurrection – utterly destroy death. What does Jesus mean by this I AM Statement?

With Christ you never really die.
Death is a problem (deny it, sentimentalize it – euphemism; Meet Joe Black), But, it is an enemy (know this instinctively – cry at death of protagonist in movies and lit and of real people in our lives). Death looms over and threatens all of us. But, Where Sin is Pardoned, Death is Powerless. Explanation: The scripture say that Sin brings death – Romans 5 sin came into the world and brought death with it. When the scriptures speak of this death that sin brought, it means two things: one –destruction, the end of our physical lives; and two, condemnation – being condemned before God. Sin brings about our destruction and our condemnation. Sin gives a voice to death and Death says to us: “I will be the end of you! I will bring about your destruction (I will put you in the dirt of this cosmos and your flesh will be corrupted); and I will seal your condemnation (I will put you before the God of this cosmos and your soul will be condemned). I will doubly be the end of you!” But Christ has come to save us from this. The Scripture says that he has come to save us from the condemnation of our sins. We are guilty before God and deserve condemnation, but The Father has sent Christ to take our sins upon himself and bear our condemnation. Christ has died for us; He who knew no sin, became sin for us and paid our debt. “Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned He stood; Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior!” And Christ rose from the dead, the bands of death could not hold him. God raised him up as his stamp of approval that his death was sufficient to pay our debt. So Death says, I will be the end of you – your destruction and your condemnation. Christ says to Death – I will be the end of you. You cannot bring about their condemnation because in my crucifixion I have borne it. You cannot bring about their destruction because in my resurrection I have destroyed you and just as you could not hold me, you will not hold those who belong to me. When Christ says, they will not die, he is speaking of a future resurrection that belong to all who know him. For those who through him have their sins forgiven, death has no power over them. When they die, they are immediately consciously in the presence of God (no condemnation) and one day, when Christ returns, their bodies will be resurrected and united with their souls, new bodies indestructible (no corruption). This is why the NT writers mocked and taunted death. 1 Corinthians 15:54-57. Paul is mocking death. Illus: George Herbert poem. Death cannot ultimately harm us; it is a defeated foe. And if our greatest enemy has been defeated, then all the lesser enemies are under his feet as well. What is there to fear? What can man do to me? Do thy Worst!

Without Christ you never truly live. 11:26 everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die…There is a new kind of life that starts even now that does not run out even at death. Jesus is speaking of a present resurrection – the imparting of new life today. Christ has not come to improve our lives by giving us instructions. He has come to impart new life by giving us His Spirit. Like Lazarus, we are dead, what the Scriptures call void of God’s Spirit. Christ has come to make us alive, securing forgiveness through His death and making us fit to receive his Spirit. The Spirit gives us new life, a new heart with new loves and a new capacity to be all God envisions us to be as human beings made in his image. We can attempt this. Illus: Man Auctions off his life. He wants a new life, but it is still the old him. Contrast that with Augustine: “I know, but it is not I.” He was a new person. He had a new heart, with new motivations, new capacity, new power, desires. What he once loved he hated and what he once hated he now loved. What he was once dead to, he was now alive to and what he was once alive to, he was now dead to. Christ has died and risen to make a way for us to be new: sins forgiven, death destroyed, and new life in his Spirit experienced even now. All who believe in Christ know this present resurrection, this new life. John 5:25. You know when you have this new kind of life, just like you know that you are physically alive. If I ask you, “are you a Christian?” I am not asking, do you go to church, are you moral, do you consider yourself a religious person? I am asking are you alive to God and the things of God? Do you this new heart?

Conclusion. With Christ you never really die. Without Christ, you never truly live. He is the Resurrection and Life – our only hope in death; our only hope for life. Do you know him? Do you believe in Him? The key to having this resurrection and life is to have Christ, to have a person.