November 23, 2003

Service Theme – "Our God Is Life"

John 11:17-26

"I Am the Resurrection and the Life"

  1. Introduction
    1. Illustration – Charles Ellis writes, Sometimes we need to understand the work Christ did for us on the cross in a new way. What we need is a VCR mentality. I am a tremendous sports fan. Since many sporting events take place when I am not at home, I video tape them. When it's time to sit in my easy chair and view the tape, unlike most people, I don't rewind to the beginning to view it. Instead I rewind to the climax to discover who won and who lost. If my team lost, I'll put the tape away, but if my team won I'll rewind the game back to the beginning, get out some snacks, and watch the whole game. Some have told me this method can't be much fun. On the contrary, no matter how bad things look for my team, I don't have to worry because I know the end of the story. That's how we ought to think about what Jesus did for us on the cross—we ought to have a VCR mentality: no matter how bad things look, we don't have to worry because we know the end of the story (as cited on PreachingToday.com).
    2. Context – Jesus lived like He know the end of the story, because He did! The passage we’re looking at today will help us understand how we can live like we know the end of the story (which we do) because Jesus is our resurrection and our life.
  1. Scripture Passage
    1. (NEW SLIDE) John 11:17-26 (from the New Living) – When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. 18 Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, 19 and many of the people had come to pay their respects and console Martha and Mary on their loss. 20 When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed at home. (NEW SLIDE) 21 Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask." 23 Jesus told her, "Your brother will rise again." 24 "Yes," Martha said, "when everyone else rises, on resurrection day." (NEW SLIDE) 25 Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again. 26 They are given eternal life for believing in me and will never perish. Do you believe this, Martha?"
  1. Do You Believe This?
    1. There are some very powerful truths and applications for us from this passage. But there is one truth that stands out – (NEW SLIDE) we live like we believe that Jesus is the resurrection and forget that He is the life. Let me explain. Our society teaches us to have a "go for the gusto" mentality, to go out and experience everything we can for the sake of the experience itself. As a result, many people in our world get involved in extreme sports and activities, like base jumping and free climbing (where you climb a rock or mountain using only your hands) and even more dangerous events. So we very quickly have become a society of adrenaline junkies.
    2. Now many of us are probably thinking that we are fairly mellow people here who don’t do that kind of thing, and for the most part that’s true. But we don’t have to do dangerous stuff to become adrenaline junkies. Some of us are addicted to the rush that worry brings. We feel like there’s something wrong if we’re not worried about anything, and there can be definite comfort in that feeling of worry because it is familiar. Others of us are addicted to the rush of very busy schedules. We feel like we’re not really living if our every waking hour isn’t filled with one appointment or another. Still others are addicted to the rush of running errands. We flit about from store to store and from friend to friend because we get a rush from spending the money, or from simply seeing all the stuff available, or from being the consummate social butterfly. There are lots of adrenaline-rush activities that we can be hooked on. But why? Why do we involve ourselves in so much stuff? Why do we work so hard to convince ourselves that all this activity is necessary?
    3. As I said before, we live like we believe that Jesus is the resurrection and forget that He is the life. I like how The Message puts verse 25 – (NEW SLIDE) "You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live." "I am, right now, Resurrection and Life." In other words, Jesus isn’t just our ticket to eternal life; He’s our means to a better life RIGHT NOW. He is the way we can truly live in the here and now. We don’t have to wait until we die and are resurrected in order to really live. Jesus said, in John 10:10, (NEW SLIDE) "The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness." We talked about this verse a couple of weeks ago, but we need to remember who it is that is trying to rob us of our life – Satan. He deludes us into believing that dangerous activities or worry or busy schedules or constantly running errands or any other activity is where we find life. And we buy into that lie hook, line and sinker just about every single day! That’s not living day by day, that’s dying inside day by day! That’s not living life in all its fullness, that’s dying inside from a scarcity of spiritual and emotional food! And when we hit empty, we crash and burn big time! All we have to do is look at a few of my predecessors to find an example of that. And all we have to do is look at our own lives to find even more convicting examples of that.
    4. So what do we do? How do we live life in all the fullness of Jesus Christ? Here are some practical things we can do to begin to allow Jesus to be our life every day and not just our resurrection for when we die.
    5. (NEW SLIDE) First, our most important priority every day has to be our quiet time with Jesus. If we are too busy to spend quality time in prayer and reading the Bible, we are too busy. Our devotional life is food for our spirits, and we cannot live life in all its fullness without it. We cannot live in victory over sin without daily time spent with Jesus. We cannot ever hope to become like Christ without daily time spent with Him. I find that something interesting happens when I commit myself to that time with Jesus – there are things that I have to do that go much more smoothly and quickly than when I don’t spend that time with Him. Sure, there are still plenty of things that go wrong or that take a lot more time than they should, but I still get the stuff that has to get done, done. Our first priority has to be that daily quiet time with Jesus.
    6. (NEW SLIDE) Second, we’ve got to be merciless with our schedules. We allow our schedules to drive us. We add more and more stuff that we believe has to be done until we’re constantly on overload. And I think a part of that has to do with our independent nature – we can take care of ourselves and don’t need help. But is that really living? No! And sure, there are going to be weeks where we absolutely have to be busier than others, but they’ve got to be the exception rather than the rule. Is it any wonder that the divorce rate for Christians is higher than for the general population? Is it any wonder that lots of our kids aren’t taking the faith with them into the rest of their lives when they leave home? Is it any wonder that we’re cranky and depressed and on emotional overload? We have to take the time to set priorities, because when we actually take the time to look at what has to be done, we realize that a lot of it isn’t as important as the few essentials that must happen. My schedule requires that I have some flexibility, so on my weekly to-do list I first do what absolutely has to be done before Sunday in order for the worship service to happen, and then I mentally prioritize the rest after that. And part of that is learning to not feel guilty about church activities that I can’t attend. That’s hard. There’s lots of stuff going on, but that’s because we all have different gifts and interests. We need to take a look at what’s going on, whether it will provide fellowship or training or worship or prayer opportunities we need to be involved with. If it does, then we go. If not, we allow ourselves to say "No" – just like we need to learn to say "No" in the other parts of our lives. I don’t expect everyone to attend everything – and neither does anybody else. I believe everyone should participate actively in Sunday School and worship service and in at least one prayer time. I believe everyone needs to be involved in some kind of a discipleship or accountability group. Beyond that, everything else is negotiable. The same principles apply to the rest of our lives. What is the pecking order, the list of priorities for scheduling? First, God and worshipping Him. Second, spouse and family. Third, work. Fourth, everything else. If we’re going to really live, if we’re going to be enough different from the world that they notice, we’ve got to be merciless with our schedules.
    7. (NEW SLIDE) Third, we’ve got to passionately pursue relationships with other believers. (And no, not of the other sex!) There is a difference between passionate relationships and passionately pursuing relationships. Passionate relationships are only appropriate within the context of marriage. But we can pursue deep friendships with other believers passionately. Why should we? Because we have a deep need to know others fully and to be fully known by them. We have a deep need for others who know us well enough to help us overcome our excesses and our weaknesses, to laugh and to love with, to share the journey of life with us. God intends for us to be a priesthood of believers who invest in each other relationally and who love each other unconditionally. And unless we pursue such relationships passionately with intentionality, they won’t happen. We all know how quickly we let the tyranny of the urgent run our lives. We all know how out of control our schedules are. And we all know how much we struggle to invest daily quiet time with the Lord consistently. So if we don’t intentionally build that kind of friendship with other believers, it won’t happen. We’ll try to make it through life with some kind of positive influence for Christ, but without the power that such relationships can bring. If we’re going to allow Jesus to be our life in the here and now, we’ve got to passionately pursue relationships with other believers.
    8. (NEW SLIDE) Fourth, if we’re going to live life in all the fullness of Christ, we’ve got to have a passionate heart for those who don’t know Jesus. Why? First, Jesus commands it. Second, if we don’t have such a heart for unbelievers that we will do anything legal, moral and ethical to try to win them to Christ, we will become ingrown and inbred Christians. We’ve all heard comments and jokes about Appalachian communities where everyone is a close blood relative with everyone else; where marrying your first cousin or half-sister is okay. Those jokes are probably a bit of a stretch, but the reality is that those communities were isolated for so long that they have become self-contained units. They don’t want anybody else around. They don’t need anybody else around. And if you do have the guts to come around, you’d darn well better act like they do. The same thing happens in any church that does not have a passionate heart for those who don’t know Jesus. Jesus said, in Luke 19:10, referring to Zacchaeus, "And I, the Son of Man, have come to seek and save those like him who are lost." If that’s what Jesus came to do, and the goal of our faith is to be like Him, then that’s what we need to do too. We have to be open to those who don’t act like we do. We have to be open to those who like to do things a little differently. And we have to be willing to grow and mature enough in our faith that we are willing to do anything it takes as long as it’s legal, moral and ethical to bring anybody to Jesus Christ. That’s what having a passionate heart for those who don’t know Jesus is all about.
    9. Illustration – Donald MacLeod writes, Years ago, Harry Emerson Fosdick, then at the height of his influence as minister of the Riverside Church, New York City, was making a tour of Palestine and other countries of the Near and Middle East. He was invited to give an address at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, where the student body comprised citizens of many countries and representatives from sixteen different religions. What could one say that would be relevant or of interest to so mixed and varied a group? This is how Fosdick began: "I do not ask anyone here to change his religion; but I do ask all of you to face up to this question: What is your religion doing to your character?" This was a call to consider one of the great issues of human belief: religion and life, Christianity and character, word and spirit. Emerson once said, (NEW SLIDE) "What you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear a word you say" (as cited on eSermons.com).
    10. What are we? Are we as individuals and as a church people who are willing to begin to live like Jesus is the life? How would we answer Jesus if He asked us the same question He asked Martha, "Do you believe this?" Or, more to the point, do we believe this to the point that we will actually spend daily quiet time with Jesus, be merciless with our schedules, passionately pursue relationships with other believers, and have a passionate heart for those who don’t know Jesus? Is He truly our Resurrection and our Life?
  1. Conclusion
    1. Please bow your heads and close your eyes. I know this is tough stuff, because I struggle with it too. We as a church can make life easier on each other by helping each other with these issues of devotional life, scheduling, relationship, and a heart for the lost. We can encourage each other and keep encouraging each other in our devotional life and in cutting back our schedules. We’re providing opportunities to build relationships and to show a heart for the lost in the next few weeks. The soup supper tonight is a good time to begin building relationships, or maybe to renew friendships you’ve let slip a bit. Next Sunday you’ll have the opportunity once again to write down the names of seven people you are going to invite to the Case for Christmas simulcast, or to the children’s musical, or to the Christmas caroling and chili feed, or to the Christmas Eve service, or even to a Sunday morning service. And we can build relationships some more by gathering to pray for those people during our ten days of prayer. But ultimately the responsibility for how we respond belongs to each one of us. The responsibility for spending daily quiet time with Jesus, for cutting back schedules, for passionately pursuing relationships with other believers, for having a passionate heart for those who don’t know Jesus to the point of being willing to do anything legal, moral and ethical to win them to Him – that responsibility lies with each one of us.
    2. So how are you going to respond? What choice are you going to make? Are you going to choose to live life in all Christ’s fullness? Or are you going to choose the status quo? Tough choice. If you are willing to say to Jesus this morning, "I want to truly live right now - I’m sick of living like the world" and you are willing to do whatever it takes to live life in all Christ’s fullness, please raise your hand. If you are choosing to do these things so that you can begin to experience His life in all its fullness, please raise your hand right now.
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