Returning in the Old Testament Scriptures to Psalm 16, these words of David rejoicing in the hope of the resurrection and even the hope and the confidence, not merely of David, but of our Lord Jesus Christ in his own resurrection. Psalm 16, we'll read the last four verses of the psalm and then over to John chapter 11. Psalm 16, verse 8. I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life, and your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. now to John's Gospel chapter 11. We'll pick up the reading at verse 17 in the midst of this great miracle of our Lord Jesus Christ raising Lazarus from the tomb. So when Jesus came, beginning with verse 17, so when Jesus came he found that he, speaking of Lazarus, had already been in the tomb four days and Now Bethany was near Jerusalem about two miles away, and many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection of the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world. And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary, her sister, saying, The teacher is coming is calling for you. And as soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to him. Now, Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house and comforting her when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out following followed her, saying she is going to the tomb to weep there. Then when Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her weeping, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And he said, Where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, see how he loved him. And some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind and also have kept this man from dying? Then Jesus, again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days. Jesus said to her, Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. And I know that you always hear me, but because of the people who are standing by, I said this, that they may believe that you sent me. Now, when he had said these things, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grape clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, loose him and let him go. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. We'll turn to John's Gospel, chapter 11, for the preaching of the Word today. A gripping I Am statement, returning to our series and occasional preaching on these I Am statements of John's Gospel. There are seven of them, as you will remember. where our Savior and King Jesus Christ proclaims, I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the door of the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I am, even here as we read in John 11, I am the resurrection and the life. Over in John 14, I am the way, the truth, and the life. and I am the true vine." These statements that punctuate the gospel, John's gospel here, and that particularly set before us the glory and the beauty and the all-sufficiency of Jesus, the Word made flesh. And it's here in John 11 that we particularly see the power of our Lord Jesus Christ over the grave, over death. Nothing quite so grips our hearts and our minds like thinking about death. Not a very happy thing at all to think about, is it? Sobering and deeply unsettling. Even those of us who know and love our Lord Jesus Christ find it deeply unsettling to really consider death. The reality that, apart from the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you and I, one day, will come to die. To pass from this scene, this life that we have enjoyed, this mortal life, and to pass into the next world. You might drown out the reality of death by never thinking about it. By giving yourself to entertainment, using drugs or alcohol to somehow numb the unsettling and even the painful reality of thinking about death. You might stoically embrace death as simply a natural part of our existence, the fact that we know in some way that we can't live forever, but you simply stoically embrace it and try to steel yourself against its shock and its pain, but yet you know that it is unnatural, that there's something deeply unsettling, unearthly, even about the day of our death. In the Scriptures, Job 18 graphically describes the day of our death as the day when a man is uprooted from his tent and paraded before the king of terrors. We know from Psalm 90 that the days of our lives are 70 years, and if by reason of strength they're 80 years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow. and we're soon cut off and we fly away. Job again confessed, naked came I from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return. Paul echoes the same truth in the New Testament. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we will carry nothing out. And Jesus spoke of a rich fool in Luke 12. to whom God said, fool, this very night your life will be required of you. The reality of death, its suddenness, its unsettling nature placed before us. Yes, this reality of death is gripping, it is unsettling, but yet, child of God, you and I must consider must think about and must prepare for the day of our own death. And this really gets us into the text and into this statement, this glorious statement in verse 25 of the gospel. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. the glorious statement and truth of our Lord Jesus Christ, not merely one who gives us the promise of resurrection, but the one who is himself the resurrection and the life. I want us to consider this glorious statement of our Savior and the miracle surrounding it, this seventh and, as it were, greatest sign performed by our Savior in raising His friend Lazarus from the tomb. I want us to consider this statement. I want us to dig a little bit deeper. and to this backdrop of death, considering the reality that it indeed is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment. And then I want to set before you the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ as the one who is the resurrection and the life, the one who, as the Heidelberg Catechism tells us, is our only hope in life and in death. And then lastly, I want to call you to believe in Him, to know Him as the resurrection and the life, the way in which you would participate in His resurrection life, the sort of hope, the sort of comfort that the gospel provides, and the clear call to you to believe. So, the backdrop of death, the glory of Christ, and then the call to believe in Him. The backdrop. Again, I've already underscored that it's something deeply unsettling to all of us. We don't like to think about it. We numb the pain, or otherwise we might stoically embrace it. Even for the child of God, deeply unsettling. But it is yet the reality that our text unquestionably sets before us. Here in the narrative, these dear friends of our Savior Jesus have called to Him. These friends, Martha and Mary. Lord, our brother is sick. And there's even something here of the closeness, the friendship between these women and the Lord Jesus Christ and the way in which He, in His humanity as our Redeemer, true God of true God and also fully man, the way in which even this text shows before us the sympathy and compassion of our Lord Jesus for His suffering friends. But a plea too. The Lord Jesus, come, our brother, Him whom you love, He whom you love is sick. Verse 3. But as we work our way through the narrative, we know that, and if you're familiar with it at all, in the verses we didn't read, the first 16 verses of the chapter, you know that our Savior delayed for two days, seemingly inexplicably, that He delayed in coming to the aid of these dear friends. And Lazarus dies. As we open up in verse 17, we read that as Jesus came, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Already passed away. Already gone. And what the text then poignantly presents before us is all of the sadness and all of the grief of a funeral service. Friends who have come from just a couple miles away in Jerusalem to mourn with Mary and Martha over the loss of their brother. Those who will indeed be witnesses to this miracle of our Lord Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. but all the poignancy and painful grief associated with a funeral service. And certainly this brings to all of our minds memories of those whom we have lost, the reality of death that is unescapable even with all of our celebration of life services today, yet we're reminded there's a steady drumbeat that it again is appointed unto a man once to die and after that the judgment, the steady drumbeat that We soon fly away and we remember, do we not, the memory of those who have gone before us and we have lost. I remember as a seven-year-old little boy sitting at my grandfather's funeral service. And to this day, the weight of death and even the bitterness and the loss of that event still resonates to this day. We're confronted with the reality, even here, of a man who's passed away and whose body lies in the tomb, even beginning, as Martha will indicate, even beginning that process of decay. And as we're confronted with physical death in the text, you and I need to ask a deeper question. Why death? Why do we die? Why the gripping nature of death, it's unsettling the way it unsettles us? Why is it, humanly speaking, that so many seem to die before their time? Hermann Bavink said, asking this poignant question, what is the reason that death carries off almost all people before their time? often even in the prime of life, or in the bloom of youth, or even in the first few hours of their existence, humanly speaking, those who seem to die suddenly, tragically, before their time. And we're confronted with these realities, even in the text before us. Why is it? Well, the Word of God has not left us in the dark, has it? We know that death unquestionably entered the world because of sin. because of our first father's sin. In Adam, we all sinned. And so as Romans 5 tells us, death passed on all men because we've all sinned. That as we read in Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death. That we die, our soul, body separated because of our sinfulness. This is the misery. that our sin has brought us to, as it always produces misery in our lives. You can't divorce misery, the miserable effects of sin, from that rebellion against God. We read even in those opening chapters of the book of Genesis, at the very beginning of the Scriptures, that on the day that our first father Adam would eat of the forbidden fruit, that he would surely die, the sure threat to his disobedience. And we read of his spiritual death, separated from God, he and Eve together cast out of the garden, and an angel bearing the fiery sword standing at the gate of the garden, forbidding the close communion and fellowship that Adam and Eve once enjoyed with God. So there's spiritual death. There's soon to come physical death, as we read later in that text in Genesis 3, that from dust you came, and to dust you will return. that you will inevitably die. And then, most sobering of all we face, apart from Jesus Christ, the one who is the resurrection and the life, we face eternal death, eternal separation from God. If you, this morning, do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who is the resurrection and the life, I urge you and call upon you to run to Him, to know Him as the only resurrection and life, the only one who could both bring you into fellowship with God once again, restoring you spiritually, raising you from spiritual death, and then giving you these promises of the life everlasting and the resurrection of the body. So the deep and sobering and unsettling reality of death set before us. But yet against that backdrop, and against the groaning and sadness and tears that death inevitably brings, our Lord Jesus sets before us His glory. The glory of Himself as the resurrection and the life. This is the point writ large over the whole narrative, over this whole sign that our Savior does. Look back at verse 4. When Jesus receives the report of His friend who's sick, verse 4, when Jesus heard that, He said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it. And later, in verse 40, as Jesus again speaks with Martha, did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? And here in... this wondrous miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead, our Lord Jesus sets on display His glory, the glory of the Word made flesh, the glory of our Savior as the resurrection and the life, the glory of who He is as the I am that I am, and the glory of His work. the glory that He came to bring us life. He came to bring life to deadened and hardened sinners. He came to bring forgiveness of sins. He came to pour upon us the Spirit to bring us resurrection and life for the glory of God. Our Lord Jesus does all that he does. As it were, here in this miracle, a foretaste of what he would do in his own life, death, and resurrection, raised from the grave by the glory of the Father. He proclaims, and as he makes his way to Martha and Mary, he makes his way to this sad scene of those gathered and tears and sadness mourning the loss of Lazarus, he comes and proclaims to Martha that he is indeed the resurrection and the life. I am the resurrection and the life. Words that ought to be very familiar to us, where our Savior proclaims, I am. Don't miss it. Once again, it proclaims, unquestionably, the glory of Jesus Christ has the only begotten of the Father. Sets before you that Jesus is not merely the highest of all created beings, that He's more than an angel, He's not merely a good teacher, but He is the Word of God made flesh, the eternal Son of the eternal Father. I am the resurrection and the life. And in this miracle, in the statement in the miracle, Jesus will explicate all that He's already told His disciples, all that He's already revealed back in John 5. Most assuredly, I say to you, verse 24 of John 5, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him, who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life." in himself. It's as if our Savior here in the miracle and this proclamation to Martha and in the miracle, he's saying, this is really what I came to do, that the dead would hear my voice, that I would bring them everlasting life. And here, as our Lord Jesus raises Lazarus from the grave, there's a foretaste of all that He does spiritually in us, bringing us from the deadness of sin, the deadness of being lost in trespasses and sins, made alive by His Spirit, quickening us, and then all that He'll do on the last day in raising all those united to Him to life everlasting. Our Lord Jesus is saying, I am the resurrection and the life. I'm not merely one who promises to raise you from the dead, but I am in me the resurrection and the life. Our redemption is not just a list of benefits that we receive. but we receive a person as our Savior and as the life of God manifest in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Himself. Just as He not only gave the bread of life from heaven, but is Himself the bread, so also He not only raises the dead on the last day, but He is Himself the resurrection and the life. Perhaps you're wondering, as our Savior proclaims, I am the resurrection and the life, are these just redundant terms saying I am the resurrection or I am the life? They're not redundant, closely related. But what our Savior is saying is this. I bring you to myself. I bring you to life. I raise you from the dead. and I am the one who sustains you in that life everlasting. I am the resurrection and I am the life. The one who both raises the dead and then is himself the life of God, bringing us spiritual life and life eternal. We can't help but see in these verses the glorious compassion of our Savior, the one who is the resurrection and the life, the tenderness with which he addresses Martha and Mary. The way that as Martha comes and it's really the same objection at different times from both sisters, but the way in which our Savior is the resurrection and the life, the life of God in our flesh, he tenderly deals with both women. Verse 21, Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. The sadness, the grief and the unsettled nature of this sudden loss takes hold of her heart. Well, how does Jesus respond? Verse 22, her confession of faith in him. But even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. clear promise of life everlasting. But she's still confused, even as the Savior tenderly deals with her. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection of the last day. She's affirming a general belief in the resurrection of the dead at the last day, something that the Jews all held to, most of the Jews would have held to in those days. But our Savior is doing something more specific, isn't he, in his tenderness and dealing with Martha. You hope in the resurrection at the last day, good. But you're looking at the one who is himself, the resurrection and the life. Look to me, Jesus says. I am the resurrection and the life. It's not merely something that your brother Lazarus and that you will receive at the last day, but it's in me now, today. You want life? You come to me. You believe in me. You hold fast to me. And then as the narrative continues, as our Savior shows us his glory and his deep compassion for those in loss and in mourning, he deals with Mary. Mary, who has really the same objection. In verse 32, Mary came where Jesus was and saw him. She fell down at his feet saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Some of the Most tender words in all the scriptures. Jesus sees her weeping and the Jews who came with her, how does our Savior respond? He weeps. Jesus wept. And these are not merely the tears of a fellow sympathizer, even though our Lord is showing his sympathy. But as Calvin said, Christ does not approach the sepulcher as an idle spectator, but as a champion who prepares for a contest. the resurrection of the life, the Word made flesh, the life of God in our frail humanity, showing compassion and gentleness to those in loss, but yet preparing as a champion for the battle, one equipped by the Spirit to bring the dead to life." And so he goes to the sepulcher, he goes to the grave, groaning in himself, Again, not merely the tears of one who sympathizes but can't do anything, but as it were, the preparations of a champion for battle, the one who will crush death, the one who will destroy that last great enemy that so unsettles all of us, that last enemy that keeps you in fear, the Lord Jesus prepares to do battle with, goes to the tomb, and simply cries out, Lazarus, come forth. And the miracle, a dead man raised, still in his grave clothes with his head bound with a napkin, brought forth to physical life as a symbol of all that our Lord Jesus will do, and raising us from the deadness of our sin to life in Him and the future resurrection of our bodies and our hope in Him. A detail that you ought not to miss is that this is, as I said a moment ago, this is a foretaste of all that our Savior accomplishes in His own life, in His own death, and in his resurrection. Did you pick up on the detail in the text that Lazarus comes out with still bound in grave clothes? This is a resurrection to be sure. A man raised to life, displaying the glory of God for the disciples and for Martha and Mary, love and compassion to them, and then setting before the Jews the unquestionable proof of all that he is and of all that he came to do. But in his own life, death and resurrection, he'll accomplish so much more. Lazarus would die once again. that this is just a foretaste of what our Savior will do. How does our Savior, how did our Savior come out of the tomb? We read later in John's Gospel that as the disciples witnessed that resurrection, they witnessed grave clothes that were folded, even the napkin, the handkerchief that had been on the Savior's head, neatly folded. It's as if our Savior, it's a way in which He has put death to death, triumphed over it, finally crushing the last great enemy. And Lazarus here is just a foretaste of what our Savior will do in his own victory over death. What glorious hope. Jesus proclaims, I am the resurrection and the life. And to you, to all of us, in the misery and the unsettledness of the brevity of life, the way that death torments us, which many of you fear, fear coming death. How can you know? How can you receive? How can you participate in this resurrection life? Well, see, the very plain promises, the very plain words of our Lord Jesus Christ back in verses 25 and 26, These simple promises to Martha. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Two very simple, closely related promises. The first is that of resurrection. That the one who believes in me, though he may die, yet he will live. He'll be raised. I am the resurrection and the life. Of all that the Father has given me, I will lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. And the promise of unlosable life. Life everlasting. The point of John's Gospel, that Christ came, that we might have life, and life more abundantly, that these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life, in his name, the promise of unlosable life. Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die." Our Savior's promises to all who lay hold of him in faith, believe in the gospel. And then the pointed question to Martha, do you believe this? And so I ask you today, as a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, this simple, simple, yet profound question, do you Do you believe this? Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the one who is the resurrection and the life? Do you rest on Him alone, taking hold of Him and saving faith? Have you confessed your sin to Him? And do you today trust Him and Him alone? He is the resurrection and the life. Sleepless nights when you're tormented by the fear of death, when you're tormented by regrets over the way in which your life seems to speed along without pause, and you think about the time that you've wasted, when you even are tempted to do yourself harm, even to take your own life. Think of this. Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die yet, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this? Take hold of the promises of Christ in the Gospel. For those of you who weep even now over loved ones who have passed away and who are already with the Lord, even those who have lost children Loved ones, lay hold on these promises. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. And in our veil of weeping and tears, we cling to Him. The One who is the fullness of God in our flesh. The One who came to deliver us from that last great enemy. The One who proclaims in the book of Revelation, I am the One who lives, who is dead, and who is alive forevermore. I am the first and the last. And I have the keys of death and hell. You run to Him. You lay hold on Him. And you trust Him by the grace of the Spirit. so that you can cry with the Apostle Paul, O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is your sting? Thanks be to God who has delivered us from our sin, from the grave. To those of you who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, who are yet outside of Him, who are still tormented by the fear of death and the eternal separation from God, You need that sort of resurrection that Paul will speak of in Ephesians 2. And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. As we read in verse 4, but God who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. For any of you who are yet dead in your trespasses and sins, you need the work of God triumphant, the work of the Father by His Son in His Spirit to bring you from death to life, to make you alive spiritually, to open your eyes to your sin. Not merely the misery of death, as serious and unsettling as that is, but to have your eyes open to your sinfulness, your neediness, and then to be made alive together with Christ, that there is a savior, there is one who is the resurrection and the life, and he calls you this day to believe in him. He indeed is our hope, our only hope in life and in death. May he comfort us. in the midst of our uncertain and unsettled lives. May we look to Him in living vital faith by His Spirit. And may we be those who believe in Him. Though we die, yet we shall live. Because He lives, we will live also. Let's pray together. Gracious God and Eternal Heavenly Father, we praise You for the resurrection and the life in Your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, we worship You as the One who lives, who died for our sins, and who was raised by the power of the Father. We praise You that You were raised a spiritual body, and that You are alive never to die again. That in You we have life, and life more abundantly. And Lord, grant us renewed faith for all who trust You and love You. Deliver us from the fear of death. Deliver us from the bondage of of fear and the hopelessness of facing death. We praise you for the victory that you've given us in the gospel. And Lord, we particularly pray that for those who are outside of Christ who yet face death on their own, that you would work in their hearts, giving them your Holy Spirit to quicken them and make them alive together with Christ. Oh God, lift our eyes to heaven and enable us to lay hold on Jesus Christ, the resurrection and the life. In his name we pray, amen. But now receive the blessing of our triune God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.