Sermon Idea: Jesus Christ is our only hope in life and death because he is the resurrection and the life.
Introduction: As we opened the service, our call to worship was taken from Question One of the Heidelberg Catechism.
What is your only comfort in life and death?
A. That I am not my own but belong with body and soul,
both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
What I want to show this morning is that Jesus is our only hope in life and death becasue he is the resurrection and the life. The word “only” is doing some critical work in that sentence, just as it is in the catechism. It is not that Jesus is a comfort in life and death, but that he is the only comfort in both life and death.
We can certainly seek as much comfort as possible in this life, but we know there are limits to those attempts. Power can be lost, resources can be depleted, goods can depreciate, money can change in value, health can decline, and relationships can fracture. And even if we could find total comfort in life through any of these things, they offer no hope for the life to come. As John Piper has rightly noted, “There are not U-Hauls behind hearses.”
It is Christ and only Christ who is comfort, who is hope, in life and in death.
In our text this morning, two sisters, Martha and Mary, are grieving the death of their brother Lazarus.
When Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had already been placed in a tomb, and a crowd had gathered to comfort Martha and Mary. When Martha learns that Jesus has arrived, she demonstrates both grief and belief. Listen to what he says beginning in verse 21.
21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” (Jn 11:21–24)
She is confident that if Jesus had been present, her brother would not have died, and she believes thateven now God would give Jesus whatever He asks. She believes in Jesus, even if she doesn’t fully understand the implications and significance of that belief. She expects that God will raise Lazarus on the last day, but she doesn’t yet understand that all of God’s promises about resurrection are found in her friend Jesus.
The Bible does not shy away from the very real pain death brings. Jesus, who is the very resurrection and the life, weeps over Lazarus ‘ grave.
34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept (Jn 11:34–35)
Just yesterday, many of the members of Waldo gathered to celebrate the life, but also grieve the loss of our beloved sister Debbie Loven. We were able to do so with hope, not because we minimize the reality of grief and pain in the face of death, but because we believe Jesus was raised from the dead and all who are in Christ will be raised as he was raised.
If you’re not a Christian this morning, and you think that this faith is about minimizing, denying, or overlooking the harsh reality of suffering and death in this world, you are quite mistaken. Jesus wept at the grave of his friend, and so do we.
It is in the midst of this pain and grief that we see more of Jesus. Jesus is going to teach something important about himself at a funeral.
What Jesus teaches us is found in verses 25-26.
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (Jn 11:25–26)
Before diving deeper into Jesus’ answer, it is important for us to note that these things are true of Jesus even if he had not raised Lazarus from the grave. Jesus is the only comfort in life and death becasue He is the I AM, the resurrection, and the life.
Whether you believe what Jesus says about himself here will make all the difference in whether you will know comfort in this life and the next. So the question I have for you is the same one Jesus asks Martha: “Do you believe this?” (John 11:26)
This is, after all, the purpose of John’s Gospel. It was written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Jn 20:31
For the remainder of our time, I just want to reflect more deeply on Jesus’ answer to Martha. Jesus is our only hope in life and death, becasue he is the I AM, the resurrection, and the life.
I.) Jesus is the I AM
Upon a first read, we may think very little of Jesus’ first two words: “I am.” Jesus seems to just be stating something about himself—that he is the resurrection and the life. Jesus makes similar statements six other times throughout the Gospel of John. These statements are simply known as the seven “I Am” statements.
- I am the bread of life (6:35, 48, 51)
- I am the light of the world (8:12; 9:6)
- I am the door of the sheep (10:7, 9)
- I am the good shepherd (10:11, 14)
- I am the resurrection and the life (11:25)
- I am the way, the truth, and the life (14:6)
- I am the true vine (15:1)
When Jesus speaks this way, he is doing more than merely illustrating who he is. He is revealing who he is. You might remember when God spoke to Moses and called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses asks God what name to give the people of Israel if they ask for a name.
13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you. (Ex 3:13–14)
When Jesus speaks in this way as he does throughout John’s Gospel, he is doing more than illustrating truths about himself; he is invoking the divine name. Jesus is repeatedly revealing that he is the one true and living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in human flesh. He is I AM.
Even if modern readers are not sure about this connection, the Pharisees certainly understood it. In John 8, Jesus is in a tense dialogue with the Pharisees, and this is what we read in John 8:56-59.
56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple (Jn 8:56–59).
Why did the Pharisees pick up stones to throw at Jesus? Becasue they believed that he had committed blasphemy. They knew very well that Jesus was saying that he shares the same name as the God of Israel.
Jesus is I AM, he is the eternal Son of God of the same divine essence as the Father and the Spirit, equal in glory, majesty, and honor. Jesus is God.
If that is true, and it is. Then the words of Jesus recorded in this book come with the divine authority of God. They are words of eternal consequence.
If you are here this morning, and you are not a Christian, what do you think about that claim? That the words of Jesus are divine words with authority and eternal consequence. Can that be something you can ignore or leave unsettled? What do you believe about Jesus?
You might, as many have, think highly of some of Jesus’ teachings, but have not taken his claim to be Lord and God seriously. Passages like this implore everyone to stake their claim on who Jesus is.
As C.S. Lewis famously taught us in Mere Christianity, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something else. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Jesus is our only comfort in life and death becasue Jesus is I AM, the one in whom all the fullness of God is pleased to dwell.
Do you believe this?
II.) Jesus is the Resurrection
Now we can consider the claims that Jesus makes. The first is that he is the resurrection. What Jesus refers to here is his own resurrection after the crucifixion and the final resurrection from the dead on the last day. That’s what verse 26 teaches us, “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall live…”
Do you see that connection? Why is it that those who believe in Jesus will live? Because Jesus is the resurrection, he will be raised from the dead before any saints in Christ are raised, but since they believe in him, they will be raised just as he was raised.
This is why Colossians and Revelation speak of Jesus as the firstborn from the dead.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. (Col 1:18)
5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. (Re 1:5)
Beloved, I know how tired some of you are. I know the weight you are carrying and the pain you have suffered. Many of us are weaker, more frail, and feel less useful than we did years ago.
Jesus’ resurrection means that sin will not have the final word over your mind, body, and soul.
For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. (1 Co 15:52–53)
20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. (Php 3:20–21)
Our loved ones who we have committed to the grave will not remain there forever. They will hear the voice of Christ call them out of the grave.
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. (1 Th 4:16)
Earlier in John, Jesus spoke of a day when the dead will hear his voice and respond to him just as Lazarus did, but notice that not all will be raised to life.
28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. (Jn 5:28–29)
The danger of not listening to Jesus, of not believing that he is the resurrection and the life, is that what awaits you is resurrection to judgment.
Friend, if you are a guest this morning, let me tell you that there is not one member of this church who believes they’ve done the good to be raised to life. We know we’ve done evil, and so we’ve placed our faith in the one who is good, who is resurrection, and is life. The one who lived a perfect life for us and then died in our place, bore our sins and endured the just punishment for them.
Jesus is the resurrection.
Do you believe this?
III.) Jesus is the Life
Jesus Christ is our only hope in life and death because he is the resurrection and the life.
If Jesus means future resurrection when he says I am the resurrection, what he then means by life is the eternal life given to us in salvation through our union with Jesus Christ.
Many of us first learned about this life referred to here in VBS and Sunday School, as we memorized John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (Jn 3:16)
Jesus defines eternal life clearly in John 17:3, And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (Jn 17:3)
Here is the key thing to remember about the life we are gifted in salvation. Eternal life is not primarily about duration. The main point is not that we’ve been given really, really long life, but that we’ve been given a particular kind of life—the very life of God. In the words of Jesus, eternal life is to know God and his Son, Jesus Christ. This makes sense, becasue God is life and has life in himself.
Jesus tells us in John 5:26, For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. (Jn 5:26)
Friends, eternal life is not a product that God gives to us. There is no eternal life outside of God, who has life in himself. To receive eternal life in salvation is to share in the very life of the triune God.
Theologian Donal Fairbane says it well, “Eternal life is a deeply personal knowledge of the one who has shared from all eternity in the glory of the Father. Somehow, the eternally glorious relationship between the Father and the Son is shared with us as we follow Christ.”
Dear beloved saints of Waldo, in salvation, God has given himself to you in such a way that you share in the very life of God—you share in it now—and one day it’ll be the only life you know.
Jesus Christ is our only hope in life and death because he is the resurrection and the life.
Do you believe this?
Nathaniel R. Martin 