Sermon Central
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I Am The Resurrection And The Life
Contributed by Gordon Weatherby on Apr 7, 2015 (message contributor)
Summary: This sermon looks at Jesus' declaration of being the Resurrection and the Life, and shows the fulfillment of that claim in both the resurrection of Lazarus, and also Himself.
“I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE”
John 11:11-14,17, 25-27,40-44
DORN RIDGE CHURCH OF CHRIST
APRIL 05, 2015
Here is an audio Link where the sermon can be listened to: http://chirb.it/cB45kG
INTRODUCTION:
Today we acknowledge on the calendar and also in our hearts Resurrection Sunday.
It was this day when by His own power as the Eternal God that Jesus broke through the doors of death and the grave.
It was on this day Jesus proved his earlier proclamation: “I am the Resurrection, and the life.”
This morning on Resurrection Sunday, I want us to look at the events and circumstances that caused Jesus to make this declaration. As we do so, we will look back perhaps two weeks before the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.
Jesus had made this powerful proclamation during a time of sorrow and mourning. It was when Jesus had come to the comfort the family of his dear friend Lazarus that Jesus declared: “I am the Resurrection and the Life.”
So let us get into the Word of God and the declaration of Jesus that: I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.
Jesus made a self-proclamation of his own deity.
This was one of a great number of “I Am” statements that Jesus had made in the Gospel of John. Each of these statements were proclamations that He is the true and living God. Jesus made many such statements:
--“I am the living water”
--“I am the Bread of Life”
--“I am the way, the truth, and the life”
--“I am the good shepherd”
--“I am the Light of the World”, as well other as “I Am” statements.
Every time Jesus made one of these statements, he was placing on himself the title by which God had identified himself to Moses at the burning bush when God called Moses into service.
Here in the presence of death, and the hopelessness of the grave, Jesus declared himself
to be God claiming powers that only God could perform -- those of resurrection and the creation of life.
Jesus gives himself the name “Resurrection”.
Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me
will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do
you believe this?’
To understand this passage of Scripture, we need to see that Jesus had come into the very
presence of death. His dear friend Lazarus, had died, and by the time Jesus had gotten there, Lazarus had been in the grave for four days.
If there was ever an occasion when a person would say that death had conquered, and there was no further hope of life it was here in the case of Lazarus.
If someone had been in the grave for four days there is certainly no possibility, or hope that that person would ever be revived to come back to life at least in the present age.
Even Lazarus’s own sister had testified to Jesus, the body would be starting to stink from decomposition.
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 ‘Take away the stone,’ he said. But, Lord,’ said Martha, the sister of the dead man, ‘by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.’
When Jesus gave Himself the title of being the resurrection he did not say those words in the midst of sickness when there was still the opportunity of recovery. Neither did Jesus say those words when Lazarus had just died, and the body was still warm.
Jesus declared himself to be the Resurrection after death had occurred. It was here where death had won the victory and all hope of life was gone that Jesus had made that declaration when the body was cold and had been in the grave decomposing for four days.
Jesus declared Himself to be the resurrection at a time when all hope was gone.
Today we have made many medical advances over what the people of the first century would have known. Just the same even today there is not a doctor on this planet that could give hope to a lifeless body that has been in a grave for four days.
When Jesus said “I am the resurrection, he challenged everyone who heard his words to recognize himself as the Almighty God. There is no other person or power than the power of God that could raise the lifeless body of a four day old corpse from the dead. By the standards of man, the life of Lazarus was gone and would not be restored.
Yet, even here Jesus testified to himself as a Victor over even the greatest enemy of the human race.
