Sunday Sermon
sunday morning 6th july 2008
John 11: v25-26
This chapter contains the 7th and final sign / wonder of Christ recorded for us by John.
The resurrection of Lazarus: the most powerful of all the signs.
A sign that led many to believe in Jesus.
The final sign that along with all the others still calls us today to believe in Jesus.
Our text today is specifically a text that calls for belief:
In this text we have a great challenge from Jesus himself:
“Do you believe this?”
The Good News calls for belief.
It is not something that can just sit on the sidelines. It is not something to be speculated about. It is not a piece of information that has no application.
It is information that calls for belief.
And it calls for belief even in the most trying circumstances of life.
Yet surely it is in the most trying of circumstances that we need faith the most.
When life seems bleak and hopeless - we need Good News. We need to believe.
What are we asked to believe here?
1) we are asked to believe in Jesus: “I am the resurrection and the life.”
Context: Martha has lost her brother and knows that Jesus could have saved him. Jesus says that Lazarus will rise again, v23. Martha knows that v24. She believes in the great end of time resurrection. But then to that Jesus says - I am the resurrection.
She had Jesus and he is the resurrection! In other words he is saying to her - you do not need to wait for the final resurrection! The Resurrection is here! I am here!
What Jesus is saying to Martha is; do you believe that because I am here Lazarus will rise from the dead now?
The resurrection is not so much an event to look forward to but a Person: the Lord!
We are asked to believe that Jesus is the Resurrection.
Which means that He is the conqueror of death!
Lazarus is dead but Jesus has conquered death! Destroyed death.
Do you believe that?
Jesus is the resurrection and the life!
The claim is quite amazing. He is not just saying that he has the power to raise the dead, but that he himself is the resurrection! That he is life!
App:
Belief from our point of view is all about what we think of Jesus.
Is he the One? Is he the Resurrection? The Life?
It is belief in Him that then frees us from death, because he is life!
What are the implications of believing in Jesus
2) He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;
The first implication of belief in Jesus is that the life which comes from belief carries on through death.
We will all die. That is a fact. There is no escape.
Our society tries its best to deny the reality of death.
But no-one has been able to escape it, no matter how much money has been spent, or how healthy people have tried to keep themselves. Etc.
Death is a fact of life!
However, the vast majority of people believe that death is not the end.
That there is an afterlife. Our very humanity / nature calls our for something more after death.
Jesus says that if you believe you will live, even through death!
You will live even though you die!
Context: Lazarus.
What happened to him? John 11:43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"
He died yet even though he died he lived!
If you believe in Jesus that is the promise for you! You will die but Jesus will stand over your tomb and say come out!
App:
You need to believe this. Jesus asks you do you believe?
What are the alternatives? There are none. Only hopeless despair.
Resurrection will only come to you if you believe! It is essential.
3) v26 whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
The second implication of belief is that the life Jesus offers is so strong / overpowering that death by comparison is no death! The believer will never die!
Whoever believes “will never die” - these are great words!
Words that most people long for - “will never die”
What does it mean?
This calls the believer to a new perspective.
We are being called here to believe that death is not the end. That death is not final.
In fact that the believer will never die!
Our bodies will, inevitably stop working, even now we are going through the process of dieing! But that is just a physical thing.
The believer looks past the physical.
This is what faith is all about.
We “fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen” 2Cor4v18.
Jesus is talking about a new reality:
These are not just nice words! They actually mean what they say!
The believer is someone who never dies.
- well what was Lazarus doing in the tomb?
Well we know one thing. He was listening to his Master. Because when his master called he came forth!
That means of course he was not dead!
App:
Do you believe this?
Really it is our hope in resurrection and eternal life that makes it all worth while.
If there was no resurrection then Paul says that there would be no point in following! 1 Cor 15v16-19. - we are to be more pitied than all men!
You are called to choose, to decide. Look at the sign, look at the miracle but mainly look at Jesus. Believe in Him.
Be wary of unbelief! Many people still did not believe in Jesus after this sign.
In fact by the end of the chapter they are plotting to take away Christ’s life!
Look to Jesus - believe in Him.
sunday evening 6th July 2008
Abraham: man of faith.
Galatians 3:9 So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
NT Record:
Matthew traces the family line of Jesus starting from Abraham.
Right in the 1st verse of the NT a great place of honour Abraham is mentioned, then again in v2 and v17.
In fact all the Gospels mention him. This man of faith.
In fact he is mentioned time and again throughout the NT record.
Paul in Romans 4 holds him up as the great example of faith. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Gal 3 - Abraham again seen as the great example of faith.
Then in Hebrews again Abraham is held up as a great example of faith. (Heb11v8-19)
With such NT praise you would expect to find in Abraham an exceptional life.
But do we? What do we find? What does a life of faith look like?
OT Background:
Genesis 11:29 Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai,
He was just a normal man, with a whole family history, and now a wife.
Genesis 11:30 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.
They were not unfamiliar with sadness. Barrenness back then was as great a sadness as it is today for those who really want children. More than that it was seen as a curse! Also in v28 we are told that Abram’s brother Haran died “in the land of his birth.”
- Abram seems to have taken on the role of father to Harans son Lot!
There is nothing exceptional here. Just a fairly normal life.
A married man with the usual responsibilities and heritage to uphold.
Nothing outstanding, nothing supernatural - just very normal.
Note here the need to realise that the biblical characters were just normal. Just like us. We are too prone to make the biblical characters larger than life. Thus we find it difficult to apply their lessons to our own stories.
Then into chapter 12.
Thus far we have heard nothing as to Abram’s faith.
We are given no clue as to the sort of state his soul was in.
Genesis 12:1-3 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
2 "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
All of a sudden God speaks.
He gives Abram a command and a promise.
The command, that “single syllable imperative” Go!
That is what he is told. Simply to go.
What it involves is a lot of leaving! Sacrifice. Obedience.
He is not even told exactly where he is to go, just “the land I will show you”.
He has to leave country, leave people, leave family home!
Faith lesson 1:
The life of faith starts with God speaking. And it is no easy message that God brings.
Everyone who wants to live by faith must go! Must follow. Must then leave! Must sacrifice. There are no exceptions, no special treatment.
Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
But the leaving, the sacrificing was not all.
There was a promise that came along with this terrible command!
And what a wonderful promise “…all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
The sacrifice was great, the promise was even greater.
Faith lesson 2:
The life of sacrificial faith is blessed abundantly!
Matthew 19:29 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.
God is no mans debtor, the only reason we need to sacrifice is so that we can enter into the fuller life that God has to offer.
Yet there is still not much for Abraham to go on at this point.
Somehow or other Yahweh has broken into his consciousness and given him a command with a promise. What will he do?
Genesis 12:4 So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.
He obeys! Nothing more dramatic than that.
Faith lesson 3:
Faith is proven by our actions. What we do rather than what we say.
James 2:26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
Obedience is not superhuman. We can all obey - and we must.
We read however that his obedience at this point may not have been as wholehearted as it should have been.
Genesis 12:5 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
He took with him, not just the blood relations - his wife and nephew, no problem with that! But he also took all his possessions and his slaves / servants! He took all his “stuff” - all that he had “accumulated”!
At this stage we are not told if Abram did right here or not.
Faith lesson 4:
The application of faith is not always air tight. Faith allows one man to do one thing and another man to do another!
Romans 14:2 2 One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.
Finally we leave Abram walking in obedience:
Genesis 12:6 6 Abram travelled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
He is in the land, walking around, surveying all that is before him. He is living the life of faith. Just getting on with the business of living.
Faith lesson 5:
Faith gets on with the business of living. It does not hang about waiting for the dramatic. For God to come and tell us every step we should take! Faith travels!
Faith is a journey.
1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
