Subject: JESUS: THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.
Scripture: John 11:5-7, 11-27.
Text: John 11:25-26: "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?"
Today most of the cemeteries throughout the area are just about as beautiful as they can be made through human effort. The grass has been freshly mowed. The headstones have been trimmed around. And on many of the graves beautiful flowers have been placed. If the afternoon is warm and sunny, many people will no doubt walk up and down among the rows, reading inscriptions on the monuments, remembering precious experiences with loved ones whose physical bodies now lie beneath the sod, and having their thoughts lifted to that future time when all who love the Lord shall be reunited in a kingdom where there is no more sorrow, no more pain, no more weeping - a kingdom where the former things have passed away and all things have been made new.
Most of us know something of how the cemetery outside looks this morning; and, though many tears have been shed by its graves, there is something about it that inspires the soul and does us good to spend some time within its boundaries.
Suppose, however, that this were eleven-thirty on the resurrection morning! Just how do you think the cemetery would look? Do you think the grass would be still undisturbed as it covers the graves? Do you think the vaults would still be sealed? Do you think the caskets or coffins would still be closed? Or do you think that the cemetery would look like a newly plowed field as every body in every grave burst through the sod to become a part of the general resurrection?
Daniel speaks of those who sleep in the dust of the earth awakening, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
In John 5 Jesus speaks about the hour coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.
In Acts 24 the Apostle Paul refers to the resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.
And in the book of Revelation we read of the time coming when the sea shall give up the dead which were in it; and when death and the grave shall deliver up the dead which were in them and when all shall stand before the great judgment seat of God.
Those who are buried in most cemeteries are buried with their feet toward the east, their heads toward the west. Do you know why? Those of you who are Masons no doubt know why, and the rest of you, if you know the Scriptures, should know why.
According to the vision which God gave to Ezekiel, the glory of the God of Israel comes from the way of the east; and Christians traditionally believe that when Jesus comes in glory with the holy angels, He will come from the east. Thus, Christians across the centuries are normally buried in such a way that when they rise, they will rise facing the east and looking towards Christ as He comes in His glory.
A few years ago Dr. Leon Chambers was preaching at the John Wesley Camp Meeting in High Point. In one of his sermons he told of his father who had been a minister and had served one church for twenty-six years and then, following his retirement, continued living in that area.
Eventually God called him home, and his body was to be buried in a newly-established memorial garden type of cemetery. In this new "Memorial Garden" a statue of Christ had been placed in the middle of the cemetery; and the rule was that everyone buried there was buried facing the statue.
The undertakers, however, refused to bury Dr. Chambers according to that rule. They said to the manager of the memorial garden, "We have been in many, many funerals with Brother Chambers. In every funeral he said, 'Some day Jesus will split the eastern skies, and the dead in Christ will rise to meet Him. I am looking for that day.' Therefore we will only bury him with his face looking toward the Eastern skies."
When Jesus comes again in His glory with the holy angels, or when the great resurrection morning arrives, will the cemeteries throughout the land look like newly-plowed fields with every grave opened as the bodies of the deceased rise to make their way to the great judgment seat of God? And until that time, do those who have gone on before us sleep in the dust of the earth, waiting for the angel Gabriel to blow his horn and proclaim that time shall be no more?
Her brother, Lazarus, had become critically ill. She and her sister, Mary, had sent for Jesus, wanting Him to come and heal him. Jesus did not arrive in time, however, and Lazarus had died. When Jesus did arrive, he had been dead for four days, the funeral was over, and his body was in the tomb.
Martha met Jesus and said unto Him, "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died..."
Jesus replied that Lazarus would rise again.
"I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day," Martha said.
Martha apparently knew nothing of any resurrection other than a general resurrection at the last day. She seemed to think that Lazarus was now in the grave and that there was nothing further to look forward to so far as he was concerned until "the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more; and the morning breaks eternal, bright and fair."
Jesus, however, told her that there is more to the resurrection than a time and a place. He told her that the departure of the spirit from the body does not necessarily mean death. In fact He told her that there was a way whereby a living person might never die.
"I am the resurrection and the life," 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."
What did Jesus mean when He said, "I am the resurrection?" Did He mean that since He has come, we no longer need to wait for the general resurrection to experience the reality of the resurrection, that a person can be brought from death to life anytime and anywhere if Jesus is there? Did He mean that there is a resurrection that can take place before the mighty angel comes down from Heaven, clothed with a cloud, with a rainbow upon his head, and, with one foot upon the sea and the other upon the land, declares that time shall be no longer?
What did Jesus mean when He said, "I am the life?" Did He mean that He by Whom all things were created and Who is the source of all life can impart eternal life to a person in the here and now, in this present world, without a person having to wait until the soul journeys on beyond the bounds of earthly existence to experience the life that knows no ending?
When Jesus said, "He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live," we understand that those who departed the earthly life believing in Christ did not wind up in a dark hole in the ground or at the end of a dead-end street, but shall live on and on beyond the grave. This is what Martha believed about Lazarus: that eventually he would rise again and life for him would continue.
But when Jesus said, "Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die," Jesus was moving on beyond the understanding not only of Martha but also beyond the understanding of many down across the centuries who have named His Name.
He asked Martha if she believed this - that whosoever liveth and believeth in Him would never die.
Martha dodged the question in part at least and said, "Yea, Lord: I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world."
Some of us, too, might have been at a loss of words as to what to answer had Jesus asked us if we believed that whosoever lived and believed in Him should never die. This, I think, is largely because we so often misunderstand what death really is.
Martha and Mary thought that Lazarus had died. Had he really died?
I'm reminded of the doctrine of the denomination called Christian Scientists to the effect that sickness is a state of mind - that people aren't really sick when they run fevers and that sort of thing: they just think they are sick.
The story is told of a little boy from a Christian Scientist's home who came in one day and told his mother that their neighbor was sick.
"Oh, she's not sick; she just thinks she is," was his mother's reply.
Sometime later the little boy came back in and said, "Mother, Mrs. So-And-So thinks she's dead now."
Is death simply a state of mind? What is it anyway?
I think a careful study of the Scriptures will reveal the fact that death is not what a lot of people think it is.
God warned Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the Garden of Eden, and He told them that in the day they ate thereof they would surely die.
The day came, however, when they disobeyed God and did eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
According to the common understanding of what death is, they should have been ready for the undertaker before the sun set that afternoon; the coffin makers, had there been any around, should have had their first customers; and the grave diggers should have opened their first graves.
But the truth of the matter was that no undertaker was needed. No coffins were needed. No graves needed to be dug.
Did Adam and Eve not die as God had said they would do?
Yes, they had died. They were driven out of the Garden of Eden, it is true. They went on to raise a family, it is true. It was many years before they needed graves and coffins, it is true.
But they had died! For death, real death, has to do with the separation of the soul from God. The Scripture says that the soul that sinneth, it shall die. It is the soul that sins, not the body. The body is only an instrument of the soul.
We tend to define death as the time when the body and the soul are separated, as the time when the spirit leaves the body.
Real death, however, is the death of the soul. It has to do with the time when the soul dies, the time when the soul is separated from God. In the day when Adam and Eve disobeyed, their fellowship with God was broken. Their sin separated them from God. Their souls died.
Some of you who are older may remember when it was a custom in many churches, when a church member departed the earthly life, to toll the church bell once for each year the person had lived.
Brother Grady Dulin told me years ago of a little mountain church where the people had this custom, and one night in the wee hours of early morning, the church bell began to toll. People began to make their way to the church to find out who had died. When they got there, they found the preacher tolling the bell. "Who is dead, preacher?" they asked. Back came the reply, "This whole community: dead in trespasses and sins!"
Thus, Jesus could say, "He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." The person who is dead in trespasses and sin who comes to believe in Jesus shall indeed live.
Passing from death unto life is something that is to take place right here in this present world. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life..." says John in chapter 3, verse 36. Writing in his first epistle to the Christians, he says, "We know we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." Not, "We know that we will pass from death unto life at some future time in some future world" but "We know that we have passed (have already passed) from death unto life..."
And Jesus could also say, "He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die" for the person now living who truly believes in Jesus need never know further separation from God.
The body may grow old and wear out and be dropped by the wayside here below. The undertaker may take it and place it in a casket and put it in a grave; but the soul that has come back into fellowship with God through faith in Christ may continue that fellowship with God right on into the world to come.
Jesus said to the repentant thief on the cross, "Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise." That day Jesus' body was placed in a tomb and the tomb sealed; and the body of the thief may have been cast into a potter's field; but Jesus Himself and the thief himself were together in the place that Jesus called paradise.
The Apostle thought of death as the time when he would depart to be with Christ.
If we have the idea that the soul is waiting in the grave for the general resurrection, we would do well to remember Moses and Elijah who appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, or to think about the rich man who had the beggar, Lazarus, lying at his gate and of how they both died as we refer to the separation of the body and spirit. Instead of finding themselves in a grave, however, the rich man found himself very much aware of himself being in hell, tormented in the flames, and Lazarus found himself with Abraham in the place of the redeemed.
The writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us that at death the body returns to dust, to the earth, as it was: and the spirit returns to God Who gave it.
Whatever may be the future destiny of our earthly bodies - and I believe that God will have no problem in calling every cell of them back from the dust to which they may have returned and transforming them into incorruptible bodies if that is His plan - the Scriptures lead me to believe that for those who have been raised from death in trespasses and sin to new life in Christ here in this world, what we tend to call death is simply the dropping away of the earthly body while the soul goes on to be with God.
Dwight L. Moody used to say, "Someday you will hear that Moody is dead. Don't believe a word of it! I will be more alive then than I have ever been!"
John Bunyan in his book PILGRIM'S PROGRESS tries to describe Christian's journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. Finally Christian nears the end of his earthly life and fearfully steps into the River of Death. His faith begins to weaken and he fears that he shall sink in its deep waters and he cries out in fear to his good friend Hopeful who has been making the journey with him. Hopeful encourages him and says, "Brother, I see the gate and men standing by to receive us..." Christian finds the waters not as deep as he had feared, and on coming out on the other side of the river, instead of finding himself in a grave, finds two Shining Ones who have come out from the Celestial City as ministering spirits, to help him up the hill into the City.
"You are going now," said they, "to the Paradise of God, wherein you shall see the tree of life, and eat of the never-fading fruits thereof; and when you come there, you shall have white robes given you, and your walk and talk every day shall be with the King...You are going now to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob and to the prophets...You must there receive the comforts of all your toil, and have joy for all your sorrow; you must reap what you have sown...for the King by the way...There you shall see the Holy One as He is...and serve Him... There you shall enjoy your friends again, that are gone thither before you; and there you shall with joy receive even every one that follows into the holy place after you...."
As Christian and Hopeful drew near the gate of the Celestial City, a company of the heavenly host came out to meet them; a number of trumpeters came to welcome them and made the heavens to echo with the sound of their music; the bells of the city began to ring to welcome them; and with much joy and gladness they entered in through the gate.
It is not death to die -
To leave this weary road,
And midst the brotherhood on high,
To be at home with God!
It is not death to close
The eye long dimmed by tears,
And wake in glorious repose
To spend eternal years.
It is not death to bear
The wrench that sets us free
From dungeon chain to breathe the air
Of boundless liberty.
It is not death to fling
aside this sinful dust,
And rise on strong exulting wing
To live among the just.
Jesus, Thou Prince of Life,
Thy chosen cannot die;
Like Thee they conquer in the strife
To reign with Thee on high.
Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection, and the life, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."
Dr. Joseph Fort Newton tells of how he first heard those words of Jesus when he was a small boy. His father had died, or departed the earthly life, and he was standing by his father's open grave with his hand in his mother's. Clinging to his mother on that cold snowy day, he looked for the first time into an open grave, and it seemed to him that everything was lost - as if the bottom had dropped out of life.
Then the old country preacher began the commital service by reading the words of our text: "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."
"Never," said Dr. Newton, "shall I forget the thrill of those words! It was as if a great, gentle Hand...had been put forth from the Unseen to help and to heal - and from that day to this, I have loved Jesus..!"
Some forty-six years later he again stood at that same spot, when the body of his mother was laid to rest, and again the same words spoke to him out of the very heart of God - and at the close of life's earthly journey, instead of sunset, there was sunrise!
Up to the bountiful Giver of Life -
Up to the dwelling where cometh no strife -
Up to the city where falleth no night -
Up where the Saviour's Own face is the light -
God's children are gathering home.
Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life..." We do not have all the answers as to what the future may hold, but if we know the One Who holds the future in the hollow of His Hand, that is sufficient! Let us pray...