I Am the Resurrection and the Life

Today on Summit Life with JD Greer. Welcome back to another week of Christ-centered biblically based practical teaching here on Summit Life with pastor, author, and apologist JD Greer.

As always, I'm your host Molly Vitovich. If we're honest, most of us have probably experienced disappointment with God at some point in our lives. We question why God didn't cure our friend's cancer or why he didn't provide for us financially when we really needed it. Today, in a message originally preached on Easter Sunday, pastor JD shows us how Jesus responds to the death of Lazarus and to the pain of those close to him. We'll find a savior who not only weeps with us, but meets us in our moments of disappointment and doubt. We are in our new teaching series titled, I Am, and we learned today about Jesus's claim to be the resurrection and the life.

Here's pastor JD. Today signifies something that is absolutely outrageous that Christians actually believe, and that is that an actual flesh and blood man was placed in an actual grave for three actual days, and then walked out of that grave and actual other people saw him, touched him and ate with him, and then he ascended in front of their actual eyes with his actual resurrection body into heaven, and that he's actually coming back one day because he's the Lord of heaven and earth. That is a crazy bold claim.

I realized that. It was crazy back then when they first said it. It is crazy now, but there are actual good reasons to believe it. Y'all, if it's true, it changes everything. We throw around the word miraculous pretty loosely today, but a dead man whom everybody saw die walking out of a grave after three days, and then after 40 days ascending before their eyes into heaven, that's about as miraculous as it gets. It is an outrageous claim, but y'all, if it's true, it changes everything. You see, if Jesus's resurrection actually happened, it means that your sins can be forgiven.

It means that disastrous decisions that you have made that have derailed your life do not have to define your life anymore, and it means that death is not the end. If the tomb is empty, then anything is possible. I heard a story about an elderly couple who went to the Holy Land together, and they were one of those older couples that just constantly fought and bickered with seemingly no self-awareness at all. The man especially was just really rude to his wife, and he would talk about her and complain about his wife to anybody who was around. Well, sadly, while they were in the Holy Land, the man died. So the wife went to a local undertaker there in Jerusalem and asked if he could help her ship his body, her husband's body, back to the United States. And he said, well, sure, ma'am, but that's gonna cost you around $7,000. But the undertaker said, I could bury him right here in the Holy Land for only $250.

She thought for a minute, she said, nah, it's okay. I'll ship him back. The undertaker said, but ma'am, I don't understand.

A lot of people love this option. I mean, you could bury him right here in the Holy Land, the land of Jesus and the apostles and the prophets and save over $6,000. And she said, yeah, but 2,000 years ago, a man was buried here, but he didn't stay dead, and I just don't think I want to take that chance, to be honest with you.

No, just kidding. That is not a true story, but it does raise the question, how was an empty grave in an obscure place in the Middle East 2,000 years ago, how is that relevant to us today? John chapter 11, if you have your Bibles this morning, for the last several weeks here at the Summit Church, we've been looking at the seven times in the Gospel of John that Jesus takes the loftiest name of God in the Old Testament, I am, or Jehovah is how we would say that if you're using, speaking in the Latin derivation of it. He takes the name I am, and he claims it for himself. What makes these claims so significant to us is not just that Jesus is claiming to be God, it's that each time Jesus takes the name of God, he applies that name to one of our most acute places of felt need. For example, to those who are hungry, Jesus says, I am the bread of life. To those who feel like they're in darkness, Jesus says, I am the light.

To those who feel afraid, like they're in need of some kind of protection, Jesus says, I am the door into God's pasture lands of safety. Every single I am claim that Jesus makes in the Gospel of John starts with a human problem. And today we come to what is undoubtedly the ultimate human problem, and that is death, to which Jesus says in John 11 25, I am the resurrection and the life. Death or fear of death would have to be among our most acute felt needs. Death is one of those ever present realities for us that we can sometimes manage to ignore it until we can't.

But as the death rate in our country, even with all of our technological advances and all of our civilization, the death rate is holding steady at 100%. It's something eventually we face. Eventually death takes from us everyone and everything that we hold dear. In fact, maybe some of you have felt that this year.

Maybe it's in you. Maybe there's a health diagnosis you just received, or maybe somebody very close to you has died this year where you think that they might die. Jesus's claim addresses that need, and we will get to that. But first I want to highlight another felt need that this claim addresses, because this is one that almost all of us have felt at some point. And sometimes it goes along with death, and that is disappointment with God. And what I mean by that is a deep, unsettling question about why God did or did not do something that you thought he should have done.

I mean, it just doesn't make any sense to you. You prayed. You believed. You trusted in him. You did all the things that you were supposed to do, but God didn't seem to do his part. The person still died. The marriage still disintegrated.

Your kid never got better. You didn't get the job. Maybe you're not even sure anymore how to think about all this. You're like, if God is loving, like you've always been taught, then why didn't he help you in your moment of crisis? Where was he for you? And yeah, you're here this morning, but honestly, you're not even sure how much of this stuff you believe anymore. Maybe you're not even hearing your own volition.

You're coming because you're doing a favor for somebody else. When Ted Turner, the media mogul and multi-billionaire, the man who founded CNN and TBS. When Ted Turner was in high school, he was on fire for Jesus.

Most people don't know that about him, but he was. In fact, when Ted Turner was a teenager, he felt called to be a missionary. When Ted Turner was 15 years old though, his younger sister Mary Jane was her name. She was age 12 at the time. She contracted lupus, which is a degenerative tissue disease. And for the next several years, Ted watched as she basically just wasted away in front of his eyes.

Ted said he regularly came home from school. He would sit by her bedside. He would hold her hand and he would try to comfort her.

He prayed many times for her recovery, but after several years of misery, she died. Ted's dad, Ed Turner, the family's spiritual anchor said, well, if that's the type of God that he is, then I want nothing more to do with him. And Ted said that when he saw his dad's faith crumble, Ted eventually lost his own faith. He said in an interview years later, which I saw, I was taught that God was love. I was taught that from a child and that God was powerful. And I couldn't understand if those things were true, how someone so innocent and precious as Mary Jane should be allowed to suffer and die like that.

Honestly, all that's hard for me to read, but my guess is that there's a number of you in here with questions of your own like that. This story in John 11 starts with a question that almost all of us have asked at some point in our lives. Jesus, if you really love me like I've always been taught that you do, why didn't you show up when? Or where were you when?

Or how can I trust you after? And you fill in the blank. Here's how the story goes. Lazarus, Jesus' friend, got sick. Now, Jesus loved everybody, of course, but he was especially close to Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. He had a deep personal connection with them. Scholars say it's likely they had grown up together as childhood friends and they believed in Jesus and they supported his ministry. Well, it quickly became obvious to Mary and Martha that this was no ordinary sickness that Lazarus and Martha were going through.

This was serious. So Martha sins for Jesus. See, by this point, Jesus had a reputation for being a miracle worker. He'd healed blind men.

He'd made the lame walk. He'd been raised a little girl back from the dead once. But it was also true that Jesus didn't heal every sick person in Israel. In fact, Jesus seemed to be rather selective in who he healed, almost as if his agenda was not to end every disease, at least not yet. His agenda seemed to be something that he wanted to teach about himself through the miracles. And yet, and yet, surely, they thought, surely, if Jesus would heal anybody, it would be his longtime friend, Lazarus.

So Martha sins for Jesus. Jesus, you gotta hurry. It's urgent. It's urgent. Our brother doesn't have long.

You've got to come immediately. And they waited. And they waited.

And they waited. But Jesus never showed up. And Lazarus died. Maybe most confusingly, we find out that Jesus' delay was intentional.

Look at verse five there in your Bible. It says, Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Did those two sentences even make any sense together? You'd expect it to say, Now Jesus loved Mary and Martha. So when he heard Lazarus was ill, he immediately rushed there to be a miracle worker. There to be with them and to make it all better. You might even understand it if it says, So Jesus loved Mary and Martha. In spite of that, he stayed in the place where he was.

But that's not what it says. What it says is he loved them, so he stayed. In fact, when his disciples saw that he delayed his going, they couldn't understand it either. And when they found out that Lazarus was dead, they were like, Jesus, what in the world? Jesus said to them, verse 15, For your sake, I'm glad I wasn't there so that you may believe.

Here's the central question of this whole story. Believe what? What is it about Jesus that he wants them to believe?

Get your mind around this. There is something so important that Jesus wants them to believe about himself that he's going to let one of his best friends die and let the hearts of that guy's sisters be temporarily broken so that the disciples could understand and believe some things about Jesus. a trusted source of spiritual encouragement for you? Do you have a story of how God has used this program in your walk with him? Can I boldly ask you to share it with us? You can call us at 866-335-5220 and follow the prompts to leave us a voice message or visit jdgrier.com to record a message right from your phone or computer.

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Thanks for your support and your story. Now let's return to our teaching. Once again here's Pastor JD. Who is the you that Jesus is thinking about in that sentence? It's not just you the disciples that are standing there in front of them.

It's also you. He's going to let the events in this story go down a certain way for those of you who have ever had a moment where you said, where are you God? Why haven't you come for me? He's doing it for you struggling believer who are trying to hold on to your faith even though you're pretty disappointed in God right now and to be honest with you you're quite angry with him. He's doing it for those of you who have lost your faith who used to believe in God until the bitterness of life just crushed it out of you. Jesus let this story play out a certain way so that you might believe. Here's how it goes down. By the time Jesus finally gets there Lazarus has been dead for four days. He's long since been put into the grave. Martha hears that Jesus is finally on his way and so she runs out to meet him and when she sees him she verbalizes that thought that so many of us have had when we were disappointed with God. Verse 21, Martha said to Jesus, Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died. You hear the protest?

Hear the protest in that? Why didn't you show up Jesus? You could have shown up and we did what we were supposed to do. We sent for you. When other people departed from you Jesus we've stayed faithful to you.

Why didn't you show up for us? Have you ever asked that? I know you have. Listen Jesus does not condemn her for feeling that way. He doesn't condemn you for feeling that way.

He says I know you feel that way. How this story goes down is his answer to you. Tim Keller who pastored for years in New York City, he preached on this passage the Sunday after terrorists flew planes into the twin towers on September 11, 2001 killing almost 3,000 people in Manhattan. Dr. Keller said that Jesus in this story shows us four things about himself that he wants us to believe. Four things he wants us to hold on to in the midst of any tragedy. They are tears, anger, truth, and grace.

Number one, tears. When Jesus saw the grief of Mary and Martha he wept. Verse 35 is the shortest verse in the entire Bible.

It says simply Jesus wept. Where I went to student camp when I was growing up we always had a contest. You could get points for your cabin if you would memorize verses.

You got to pick them. This was everybody's number one verse always. Shortest verse in the Bible. You all know that the little number divisions in your Bible is between chapters and verses.

You know they weren't originally in there, right? When the Apostle John first wrote this down it was all one flowing manuscript. It's interesting to me that whoever determined the verse numbers later thought that those two words belonged in their own verse. What happened there was so significant that these words needed to stand alone.

I completely agree with that. The son of God who placed the stars into the sky wept with two brokenhearted sisters. To be honest Jesus' tears are almost a little bit confusing to me. We see Jesus knew that in 10 minutes Lazarus was going to be out of the grave and everyone would be reunited and rejoicing.

Verse four tells us that Jesus knew that was the outcome before he ever left to go to Lazarus' house. I mean if you and I were together and you were brokenhearted about something but I knew, I knew that in just a matter of seconds whatever you were upset about was going to be fixed, I would say you don't need to cry. You don't need to weep.

It all turns out okay. I've been totally into March Madness this year but so many of the games that I'm interested in have taken place when I had some prior obligation. It's like my kid's school is not even aware there is a March Madness.

So I've had to set my TV to record the games that I was going to miss and I tried to get home from the event without finding out who won but I don't know what it is. I must just have a face that says please give me your unsolicited opinion about the game but I just cannot seem to make it home without somebody saying something, getting a text or seeing a big old smile on somebody's face and knowing exactly what it's about. I've told people I'm like don't look at me, don't smile, don't frown.

In fact just avoid eye contact altogether but somehow I always find out. But here's the thing, the one benefit of knowing that the team I want to win has won is when I'm watching the playback later and the other team goes on a scoring run I'm like it don't matter. It don't matter.

DJ Horn is going to make some ridiculous four-point play here in a minute I'm sure or at some point DJ Burns is going to get the ball and just going to start doing that that ridiculous thing he does where he just backs somebody up under the rim. You know back it up back he's just going to do that it's going to be fine. So why does Jesus weep with Mary if he knows that in 10 minutes the whole issue is going to be resolved so that you may believe? It's because Jesus wants you to understand how he feels about you and your pain. Even when Jesus knows the pain is temporary he knows what it feels like for you and he weeps with you.

Let's be honest a thousand years is not that much different to Jesus than 10 minutes which means Jesus can already see the beautiful resolution to your story. He can see and he can feel already that beautiful moment when you are reunited to lost loved ones and all the sad things in your life become untrue and he wipes every tear away from your eye. He can already see that he can already feel it he can he can feel all that but in the moment when you're weeping the son of God still weeps with you. See that's because he has knit his heart to yours. He feels deeply what I feel much like I feel deeply what my kids feel even when I know their pain is temporary. I can tell you from experience that sometimes this is a great consolation to know that I have a savior who has entered into my pain that the tears in my eyes are matched with tears and his that there is no broken heart I've ever felt where he did not feel one on my behalf. What a friend we have in Jesus all our sins and griefs to bear what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer tears. Here's the second word anger anger verse 33 says when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled that were deeply moved in Greek is embryo me we translate it into English is deeply moved but scholars say that's not a great translation the problem is there is no great English translation it means he got indignant some scholars say the best translation that would convey what's actually happening here is snorted like an animal snorting in anger right before it charges Jesus snorts and he moves toward the grave and in verse 43 Jesus shouts at death with a loud voice John Calvin said that this is Jesus entering the ring like a wrestler preparing for a contest with a hated foe the violent tyranny of death which he came to overcome now stands before his eyes if you were writing the soundtrack for this story this is where you'd stop playing the instrumental what a friend we have in Jesus and you would start playing the Rocky theme or Avengers a symbol for you millennials Jesus the friend Jesus the friend has just become Jesus the mighty warrior because see when it comes to death I didn't just need a weeping friend I also needed a conquering hero and by the way could I just add right here it's okay it's okay for you to be angry at death too to feel hatred at suffering and cancer Jesus felt those things this world is not supposed to be like this God did not create the world to go through that kind of death and you're not supposed to ever get used to it don't whitewash it with those hallmark channel realities as oh well this is a necessary rhythm of life or well we all got to say goodbye sometime stoics always want to say that about life but when you're standing beside the grave of a child or a wife who's been cut down in the prime of her life there's something that rises up in you and says this is not right that emotion is valid it's exactly what you're supposed to feel anger in the face of suffering is right Jesus is about to go into battle with the most hated most dreadful enemy ever known by mankind and in so doing he's going to offer something that no other religious leader or political leader or scientist has ever been able to offer us it's become accepted wisdom now to say that you know all religions are basically the same they all generally lead to the same place they may teach different names for God they may encourage different rituals but the core of them is basically the same but Jesus promised something that no other religious or political leader in the world has ever been able to promise much less been able to make good on the promise and that is to erase death itself I remember a few years ago hearing the tragic story of a grandmother who was home babysitting her two year old grandson when apparently she looked out the window and and saw that her two-year-old grandson had gotten out of the house and he was toddling there toward the deep end of the pool she panicked and she jumped up to run after him so that she could rescue him tragically two hours later this article said they pulled the bodies of both the grandmother and the grandson out of the pool because you see as compassionate as she was the grandmother wasn't able to swim either swim either we deeply admire the grandmother's desire to save her grandson but the truth is that those who would do the rescuing cannot have the same problem as those who need to be rescued so if Jesus really is the resurrection and the life this changes how we face everything you're listening to Summit Life with JD Greer one of the I am statements from Jesus that we will cover not only here on the program but in our latest Bible study resource is I am the true vine Pastor JD help us understand this statement Molly this one really hits home for me because Jesus isn't just saying I'm a source of life he's like I'm the source of life right he follows that up by saying apart from me you can't really do anything yes you know now I know lots of Christians or lots of people who aren't Christians who do lots of things but what Jesus is saying is you can't do anything of eternal or spiritual significance until Jesus is the one doing it through you and the word abide what it means is remain you got to stay connected because the moment you cut yourself off from the power source of Jesus well that's the moment you begin to fade there's a resource I would love to get to you that take you deeper into these I am statements not just this one about Jesus being the vine but the other six too there are things that take you into the heart of God and capture the essence of what it means to really know and walk with Jesus I would invite you to take a look at this study go to jdgrier.com right now we will send you the print or digital version as a thank you for your financial support of this ministry that God has given us here at Summit Life we are enjoying the flexibility of having both digital and print resources this year on Summit Life printed materials help us tangibly make time to study God's word and give us a visual reminder to do that each day while digital resources are more easily produced and shared allowing more of your donation to go straight to the core mission of Summit Life donate by calling 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or you can always request it when you give online at jdgrier.com I'm Molly Vitovich reminding you to join us again tomorrow as we continue exploring the great I am we'll see you again Tuesday for Summit Life with J.D. Greer today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries