The Resurrection & The Life

John 11:17-27 | Because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, we must believe in Him.

1. Jesus meets us in our grief and disappointment
2. Jesus reveals himself as our only hope
3. Jesus calls us to believe in Him

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning. Hi, I'm Carly Baird. I get the privilege of reading our scripture today. You will find it in John 11, 17 through 27. So if you take a moment, turn there. I serve in children as well as serving in a small group in our home. So John 11, 17 through 27. Now, when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him. But Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here for my brother, wait, sorry, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that whatever you ask from 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 on the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall live again. And everyone who lives and believes 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 coming into the world. Thanks be to God. Oh, sorry. This is the word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Thanks be to God. Hey, you can keep saying thanks be to God over and over. I don't think he's like you said thanks be to God too much. Amen. Thanks, Carly. All right. Hey, good morning, church. My name is Ryan, and I have the privilege of serving as one of our pastors here. It's my joy to be with you on Easter Sunday. This is our first Easter as a church. What a fun day. Amen. Come on. And if I'm like extra gripping this pulpit today, guys, this is a brand new pulpit. All right. So we just want to say thank you. We we care about a culture of honor here, of one of relational beauty. We had a young man who's like a trim carpenter. Jacob, where are you? You don't gotta stand up. Wherever you are, he's probably serving somewhere. Hey man, thank you. This is a beautiful gift. This is craftsmanship. And Jesus was a carpenter, man, so like you're doing well and trying to be like him. Good job, dude. Seriously. Hey, if you are a guest, Trevor already said it, but sincerely welcome. Uh, but I really don't like calling you a guest uh because guests actually leave. And if you don't have a healthy home church, I would just, man, I would beg you, I would urge you, I would long for you just to belong here. Uh I really believe that every person, every Christian needs a healthy church. And so, man, uh, we're glad you're here, but we want you to get more meaningfully connected. As Trevor said, we're walking through the I am statements of Jesus. And today we're in the I am statement. I am the resurrection and the life. Uh, this is beautiful. This is uh full. And before we actually even get there, I just realized that I just need Jesus today. I need his spirit to speak on my behalf, and so I want to ask that you would even just uh pray with me. Again, you can't pray too much, you can't say amen or thanks enough. Uh, but also my my voice just feels a little weak. So we're just gonna pray. Father, how good it is to be in your house with your people on your day. We thank you for Resurrection Sunday. It reminds us that there's new hope, there's new joy, there's new power in your spirit. Father, we ask that uh each soul in the room would get here. I mean to be here. Help us to be present, help us to be ready for your word and what you're gonna do through us. And uh I pray for me, Father. I pray that you would just let me get out of my own way and let your spirit work and carry your word. And uh we pray that we'd give all the glory to you this morning. Amen. All right, well, I want to start this morning with a question. When's the last time you said the phrase if only? Like if only Nebraska would have beat Iowa last week. Uh if only you would have invested in Tesla a few years ago. Some of you did, right? I saw the parking lot. Amen. Hey. Maybe a little bit more serious though. When's God gonna cure our infertility? When's God gonna heal my brother-in-law's mental illness? Can somebody tell me when God is gonna heal that guy at my work? See, we all have these. If God would have shown up, if only he would have answered that prayer, if only he would have stepped in sooner. Because if you've lived long enough, you felt that. Like it's your loss, your diagnosis, your family. And that's exactly where John 11 is going to take us this morning. It's not to a celebration, it's to a funeral. Like we're stepping into a scene where this man named Lazarus has just died. This isn't just any man. We're actually told earlier in the text that Jesus loved this dude and he loved his whole family. And Jesus gets word, we're told, that he's sick. Mary and Martha send word that he's sick, and then we're told he waited two days. Like, Lazarus is sick sick. Like, not a stuff, snuffles. He's like about to die. And Jesus waits, which means this isn't accidental, this is intentional. So this is kind of disorienting at first read, right? Like we know three facts. Like, Jesus loves this guy, but then he lets him get sick. And then he doesn't rush there right away. What is Jesus doing? We're gonna see. By the time Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been dead four days. This is an old Jewish belief and custom. Essentially, this is in there for a reason that there's probably a spirit of the body that actually uh arrived or was around the body for at least three days, and so it tells us he's four days because he's dead, dead. All right, Lazarus is dead. And death, the ultimate enemy, has come. And grief is at its peak, and disappointment is actually settled in. And right into that moment, Jesus steps in. And that's what we're about to see. Well, we're not about to see Jesus actually just step into their grief. He's actually gonna start to reveal who he is in the middle of it. So here's where we're going today. Here's our big idea. Because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, we must believe in him. Because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, we must believe in him. And to see that clearly, we're just gonna walk through the text in three ways. The first is Jesus meets us in our grief and disappointment. The second is Jesus reveals himself as our only hope. And third, Jesus calls us to believe in him. Now let's step into the scene. Jesus meets us in our grief and disappointment. Verse 17. Now, when Jesus shows up, just a reminder, this is not a hopeful scene. This is a funeral. Verse 17. Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. This is heavy. Grief heavy, disappointment heavy. Keep reading, verse 19. It says, Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. The sting of death is actually setting in, and others are actually mourning with them and for them. Man, many of you know this feeling, right? Like when you actually see a loved one that you know actually going through a grief of their loved one, you hurt because they hurt. You grieve because they grieve. And it really sets in and actually deepens your own pain of that own person when you see others that love them hurt too. Keep reading, verse 20. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him. But Mary remains seated in the house. Man, Mary runs out to meet Jesus, and then Mary, we're told, actually stays behind in the house. Martha's the doer. She's the type A, the uh gotta fix it. She's the outward bone. She's active, she's moving, she's asking questions, she's moving towards, she's trying to make sense of things actively. And then you got Mary over here sitting in the background, like just sitting, like feeling all the feels, right? Like every emotion on the emotion wheel. And she's more reflective, she's passive, she's kind of the more inward one. I hope you see that. Like, even here, this shows that like people just grieve differently. Neither's wrong. Uh, but Martha gets to Jesus first and listen to what Jesus says. Verse 21. It says, Lord, if you had been here, listen to what uh Martha says, sorry. Lord, if you had been here, my brother would have not died. Can you hear it? Like, that's not polished, perfect faith. That's honest faith. There's trust in it, but there's also disappointment. She's saying, like, I know you could have done something. Why didn't you? Like, Jesus didn't arrive late by accident. He arrived late on purpose. See, again, earlier in the chapter, we're told that Lazarus was sick, but he stayed two more days. He could have healed him immediately. He's done it throughout the Gospel of John. Why didn't he? He waited. This is what makes this so hard. Because some of you know exactly what she feels like. You know what it's like to pray and wait. To ask and hear nothing, to believe God can, but wonder why he won't. If only God had shown up, this wouldn't have happened. Why can't Atlanta job? Why can't we get pregnant? Why won't you heal my brother? That's where Martha is. And if we're honest, that's where many of us have been as well. See, Jesus' delay is not indifference, it's intentional. And here's why. Because Jesus knows it's in grief and disappointment that we're most open to him and in most need of him. Jesus meets her in the grief and disappointment. See, Martha actually comes to him, and Jesus doesn't actually shut her down. He doesn't rebuke her, he doesn't stop her, he doesn't send her back, he actually meets her. Right there in the grief, the confusion, and it all in the mess, the tension. And see that Martha's faith is real. But it's like, it's complicated, it's mixed, it's messy. Because look at what she says going on, verse 22. It says, But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. She believes, but she's she's hurting. And that matters because it shows us something really important. Jesus does not wait for you to have perfect faith before he draws near to you. He meets people in real grief where faith is often like just tangled up with questions. It's kind of like when somebody you know is hurting really badly. Uh, you don't walk into that moment and say, like, hey man, can you stop crying for a second? Hey, can you get your theology straight? Can you clear the air and clear the facts? Hey, before I comfort you, can you just clean up all those emotions for a bit? No, if you love them, what do you do? You actually move towards them, you sit with them in the mess, in the emotion, in the confusion. You sit with them, you're present. And that's what Jesus is doing right here. His presence is part of his ministry. Before he says anything, he's just present. He isn't waiting for Martha to say it perfectly. He meets her right in the middle of her grief and of her disappointment. That's not just Martha's story. That's where a lot of us live, right? Like where faith and grief just kind of like overlap, where disappointment and truth kind of like coexist, where you still believe, but man, you've got questions. Where you have deep and painful lament, but also longing. Where you have an illness and you just long for healing, where your marriage is alive, but you long for it to thrive again, where your kids are wayward and you just long for them to return. Where your struggle in the morning, where you struggle every single morning just to push back that anxious thought or those dark depressive moods, but you long for peace. See, longing and lament, they can and they should coexist. And the Bible actually gives us language for that. I mean, the Psalms, they're soaked with honest complaints, cries, and doubts before the Lord. See, grief is not the absence of hope, and hope is not the absence of grief. They can coexist at the same time. And right there, that's where Jesus wants to meet you. So, what does that mean for us? It means you don't have to clean yourself up before you come to Jesus. It means you don't have to actually have perfectly resolved faith before you reach out. You don't need all the answers. You can come to him in your grief, your questions, your confusions, your lament. And some of you, that's exactly where you are. You're carrying something heavy. And if you're honest, part of you is just saying, Jesus, man, if you had shown up, things would have been different. And maybe you felt like, maybe you even feel like that that disqualifies you. Like you shouldn't say that out loud. Maybe the church you were brought up in or the home just like didn't allow you that category. Like real Christians don't struggle like that. But this passage, people, this shows us something very different, the opposite. Jesus welcomes honest faith, even when it's mixed with confusion. So do not run from him in your grief. Bring it to him. Not polished, not cleaned up, not filtered, just real, because that is exactly where he meets people. Now, guys, let's be honest. Our culture does not know what to do with death, do they? No, we either ignore it, we deny it, we distract it ourselves from it, or honestly, sometimes we even just sanitize it with these religious platitudes or cliches, like he's in a better place. It was their time, or uh man, it's just part of life. That doesn't actually deal with death, though. Like no one says these, hear me, like no one says these in malice. They're usually just because they don't know what to say. They're not always wrong, but they're not helpful. And let's be honest, they're they're kind of hurtful sometimes. We need honest presence with one another. We need, like Jesus, to enter into the grief, not discount it, not dismiss it, not minimize it, not theologize it. We need to share in it. Because that's what Jesus does. He comforts Mary or Martha, he's gonna do both, by sharing in her grief. And later in the chapter, when he's with both Martha and Mary, it actually says he wept with them. Harbor, sometimes we actually just need to be present, maybe even just quiet. You gotta be secure in yourself to be quiet with somebody. We gotta be willing just to weep with people in that moment. Or worse, sometimes maybe our culture even just says death is like natural, even good, part of life. That sounds good, doesn't it? That is not what the Bible teaches, though. Like the Bible teaches that death is not natural at all. In fact, the Bible teaches that death is like the most unnatural thing in all the world. You see, God created actually you and I to live with him forever in perfection and beauty. And in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned, they actually brought sin into the world, and sin came. Hence death came. That's why the scriptures call death the enemy. And that matters because if you misunderstand death, you're gonna misunderstand what Jesus came to do. He didn't just come to manage death, he came to defeat it. And that's why what he says next changes everything. Jesus doesn't just meet us in our grief, he's actually gonna reveal himself as the only hope. Look with me at verse 23. We're gonna look at Jesus revealing himself as our only hope. Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. See, Martha's not wrong here, but she's not really picking up what Jesus is laying down. Like she knows the grave is not the end. Martha has good theology. She's a good Jew. Like she believes what most Jews back then probably believed, that there would actually be this future and final resurrection. Like what many of us actually even just believe that there's life after death. And this wasn't just rooted out of the air. This was rooted in Old Testament theology from like Daniel and Isaiah about new heavens and new earth and a bodily resurrection, and like all the good and the beauty and the order of this world would be in full restoration. We'd have new bodies to enjoy and live in the presence of God with him, to enjoy life forever with him. See, like heaven is not just like a disembodied presence floating on the clouds, it's life with him forever. And Martha believes that. But here's the thing: that truth is not comforting her right now. Because it's still distant. It's still one day, it's still an idea. Like she had a category of a resurrection, but she actually hadn't had a personal encounter of resurrection. Like she's standing in front of the tomb and she's not prepared for what Jesus is gonna say next. Verse 25. Says Jesus said to her, I'm the resurrection and the life. I want you to notice what he doesn't say here. He doesn't say, I can resurrect people. He doesn't say, I will bring resurrection one day. He says, I am the resurrection and the life. That's a completely different claim. See, he's saying that resurrection isn't just something he does, it's who he is. Life is not found in something he gives, life is found in him. And what Jesus is doing here is inviting Martha to shift from trusting an idea to trusting in a person, from an abstract belief into a living relationship, from something out there to something in here. Because the hope of a Christian is not a future event, like a future resurrection. The hope of a Christian is a present reality in the person of Christ. And this really hits home for us. Like, because we live in a culture that has a very materialistic view of death and a very shallow view of heaven. Like your science teachers, my science teachers told us that death is just a biological fact rather than something outside of God's design. And even worse, we've actually just been shaped by this, like what you might call hallmark sentimentality, like greeting cards, movies, books, stories, where heaven is mostly described as the absence of pain or reunion with your loved ones, or your best drink and the best meal, or the fulfillment of your best dreams. And those things aren't wrong. Don't hear me say those things. But they're not complete. They're not ultimate. Because the primary way the Bible actually talks about heaven is not a place, but a person. A presence with God. That's where real life is found. That's where joy is complete. That's where everything we've been longing for is actually fully satisfied. See, heaven is heaven because Jesus is there. So the hope of this passage, the hope for Martha, is not mainly a place or just this temporal life. It's the hope of a person. See, resurrection has a name, and that name is Jesus. And Jesus is shifting her focus from, man, I'm going to see my brother one day again. Yes. To do you see who is standing before you today? See, Jesus is trying to help Martha see that there's so much more than this just material existence. That's why he's actually just drawing Martha's attention away from the temporal and to the actual eternal. See, it's not found. Your hope is not found in the physical. It's in the spiritual. It's found in a person, Jesus Christ. So our hope isn't ultimately found in prolonging life now. It's found in Jesus, the one who actually gives us life beyond the grave. And he actually gives us a fullness of this life beyond the grave. Most people long for a material. Place. But Jesus offers himself. And he's better than anything you could have dared to ask or imagine. Which means, let's just be honest, this starts to confront us a little bit. Like, because if the idea of being with Jesus in heaven one day doesn't do something for you, like doesn't excite you or warm your heart, like it should cause you to pause. Like, do I actually understand the gospel? Do I actually know what it means to be a Christian? Have I actually understood who Jesus truly is? Because, guys, if you don't enjoy the presence of Jesus now, you are not going to enjoy the presence of Jesus then. Jesus is confronting our limited view of life and an eternity. And then he goes on. He's not done. Verse 25, verse 26, read with me. It says, Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. What does that mean? Everybody like amens that stuff, and you know, like when they read that or hear that, or you see that on a church. Amen. What does that mean? It means your quantity of life goes beyond death. Like this life is temporary. The Bible talks about your life being like a vapor, a mist. It's there and then it's gone. But for those who believe in Jesus, death is not the end, Jesus says. Yes, we will physically die. We all will. But those who trust in Jesus, they will live. There is a future hope. And I want you to notice something very important here. Like, Jesus is not denying Martha's faith here in a future resurrection of the dead coming to eternal life. But here's what he's doing: He's relocating it, he's expanding on it. He's saying, Yes, Martha, there will be a future resurrection, but that resurrection is actually found in me. I will raise believers up on that last day. I will give eternal life. And when I do, believers will live again. But those who do not believe will not live. See, friends, like I really wouldn't be a good or an even a pastor, a good pastor or a real pastor if I didn't tell you what Jesus tells you. Whatever church you're a part of, you're new with us. Like, I just hope your pastor does that in a really honorable and good way. But at the last day when Jesus returns, he's gonna raise the bodies of both the righteous and the unrighteous. The righteous, those who have actually just believed in him, will be raised to everlasting life. While the unrighteous, those who have rejected him, will be raised to everlasting death. Apart from the presence of God forever. Don't miss that. Like the world says YOLO, you live once. The Bible says yo-do, no? Like you only die once. Don't quote that, right? It's not my notes, all right. You only die once, everyone lives forever. The question is, where? So Jesus is saying that he gives eternal life, both spiritually and physically. Our bodies will be raised and made new with no more sickness, no more decay, no more death. But spiritual life actually comes first before death, and the physical actually comes later. That's future life for all those who believe. But see, Jesus isn't just talking about life after death. He's talking about right now, the present, because he says in verse 26, look with me, he says, Everyone who believes or who lives and believes in me shall never die. Which means if you believe in him, you're given new life. Not just later, now. Like most people know John 3.16, right? So God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall have what? Everlasting life, eternal life, shouldn't perish. And most people think that that eternal life is like then. Or it just means the quantity of life. Never ever ending, everlasting, versus the quality of life. See, it's both quantity and quality of life. See, when you trust in Jesus, the scripture uses the language of being born again. You are a new creation, you have life inside of you. God actually applies by his spirit the work of Christ on the cross and the resurrection to your dead and cold and sinless or sinful heart, Ephesians 2 says. And you know what he says after that? That you were dead. What's the opposite of being dead? You're made alive. You have a new life, you have a spiritual life, you have a resurrection life. I love what Dallas Willard says about this resurrection life. This is what he says. He says the message of Jesus himself and of the early disciples was not one just of forgiveness of sins, but that one of newness of life. Don't miss this. Like Jesus is not promising life after death nearly here. He actually offers life right now. Like Jesus didn't just come to get you out of hell and give you forgiveness of sins. He came to actually give you fullness of life. Not just newness of life, but a whole new way of living. And that's what it means when he says, like, I am the life. He's not just preparing you for eternity, he's preparing you to live right now, today. And by faith in him, you're actually transformed by him. You're united to him, and you share in that life. See, hope is not something you wait for, it's someone you trust. See, Jesus just wanted to lift Martha's eyes, and he actually wants to lift you and I's eyes as well. To see that he actually isn't just pointing to a future resurrection. He actually is the resurrection and the life. Which means our hope. It's not an idea, it's not just in a place like heaven, not just in things getting better, but presence, life with him. With him one day and then with him today, with him then and then with him now. See, the physical comes later when Jesus actually raised raises the bodies of believers. But the spiritual starts now, the moment you and I believe. See, Jesus doesn't just explain this, he actually does something incredibly important here. He makes it very personal. Because never Jesus never brings revelation without actually bringing invitation. So look with me at verse 26. Jesus calls us to believe. This is verse 26. He looks at Martha and asks, Do you believe this? Do you believe this? Like, don't miss this. Like Jesus is using this moment, this miracle, this convert, this conversation to put a question in front of Martha. In front of us. Do you believe this? Like there's something subtle but massive happening here. Martha starts with good theology. Like she knows, like he will raise one day on the last day. That's true, that's orthodox, that's solid. But Jesus doesn't come to just give her better information. He actually comes to give her himself. I am the resurrection and the life. Not I'll give resurrection, not I'll explain resurrection. I am it. Now watch this shift that's gonna happen in Martha, verse 27. She says, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world. She moves from believing in a future event to believing in Jesus, the person, right then. From I believe in resurrection one day to I believe have I have resurrection with you. She says, I believe in the resurrection one day. And then she goes on to say, look at the text. The specific words here are very important. It says, I believe that you are the Christ. Jesus asked her, Do you believe this? She says, I believe you. Not belief in outcomes, not belief in improved circumstances, not belief that things will all just get better or work out, but belief in Jesus Himself, even amidst the life's ups and downs. Let's get vulnerable. Life is often disorienting, isn't it? If you live long enough, you're going to be hit with questions like this. Why hasn't God intervened? Why did God take that person, not this person? Why did God heal that family, not mine? Why is my son or daughter still wayward? Why'd my spouse cheat? Why'd my marriage end? God, I don't understand your timing. And here's the hard truth. Y'all, God does not always reveal why he allows suffering. Jesus says, actually, rewind the clock a little bit. In verse 15, he says, I am glad I was not there so that you may believe. It's kind of unsettling at first read. This means like what feels like delay to you may actually mean that God is doing something deeper than you can actually see in the moment. See, God reveals his heart to us. God might not reveal why he's allowing you to suffer, but he does reveal his heart. Later in the story, we're actually told that Jesus is with Mary, and he's actually just seeing them weep over Lazarus' death. And this is what he says. Jesus wept. That's the shortest verse in the Bible. If you're trying to memorize scripture, start there, okay? Easy win for you, all right? Jesus wept. Jesus hurts when you hurt. He is not just powerful, he's personal. He's not just distant, he's not just cold, he's not cold, he's not indifferent, but he's also doing something in the delay, in the disappointment, in the disaster. Because again, early in the chapter, in verse 15, Jesus says something shocking and kind of sobering. He says, Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there. Kind of seems rude at first. Why does he say that? So that you may believe. Which means, whatever circumstance God has allowed in your life, he's not wasting it. Which means you shouldn't waste it. He's beckoning you to actually deepen your belief in him, or maybe to start your belief in him. And not just believe in the outcome, not just believe in the resolution, but in him. He's inviting you to deepen your belief in him. Because here's the fun part. What's happening here is bigger than what's happening here in the story. It's bigger than Lazarus. All the way back into verse 4 of this chapter, Jesus says, This sickness will not end in death. And that's true, because, like, right, like we know the end of the story. Jesus walks or walks Lazarus out of the grave. He calls Lazarus by name, and Lazarus comes out of the grave. But it's because this whole moment is a sign. It's a sign pointing to something greater, to salvation, to the belief, to life in him. See, spoiler alert, like Lazarus gets out of the grave, and then Jesus gets out of the grave. And here's the whole twist of the story: the miracle that actually raises Lazarus from the grave. It's the very miracle, the last thing that actually gets Jesus killed. It's the hinge of John's gospel. It's the seventh and final sign and miracle that actually now the religious rulers are like, we got to put him to death. We have to stop him. So listen, Jesus doesn't just interrupt death for Lazarus, He walks straight into death for us. Lazarus walks out of the grave. Jesus walks into the grave. Why? Because Jesus didn't come to delay death. He came to defeat death from the inside out. Because when Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life, he's not just making a claim. He's making a promise. A promise that he's personally going to pay for with his own life. In John 19, just a few chapters after, Jesus is going to be wrapped in grave clothes. His body is going to be laid in a tomb, and he's actually dead. Why? So that everyone who believes in him, even though they die, yet they shall live. So that when he actually asks Martha, he says, Do you believe this? He's not asking, do you understand this? Do you agree intellectually with this? Do you like this idea? He steps aside and he looks at Martha in the eye and he says, Do you trust me? Not my ideas, do you trust me? Some of you. You're right where Martha was. Right at the beginning. You believe in God, maybe you believe in a resurrection, maybe you believe in heaven. Maybe you even just believe in Christianity as the right like religious or moral system. But you've never actually said, Jesus, I believe in you. Like, not in the idea, not in the outcome, not in the future, like, but in the person of Jesus to actually know him and for him to know you, to surrender your life to him, to be in a relationship with him. Because here's the reality. What if Jesus doesn't fix the situation you want? Like, what if the disappointment stays? What if the grief continues to linger? Here's the invitation of Christianity. Your hope was never meant to rest in the circumstances, the situation being resurrected, the timeline being fixed, your outcome being ideal. Your hope is in a person. And if Jesus is alive, then nothing in your life is truly dead. And this is why Easter matters, guys, because Jesus didn't just say, like, I am the resurrection and the life. He didn't just say that. He proved it. Like the tomb is empty. Like, like death doesn't get the final word. Sin doesn't get the final word. Your story does not end in the grave. So the question isn't like, do you believe in the resurrection? This is the question. Do you believe in the one who walked out of the grave and now stands before you, offering you life? Right now. Not someday. Not later, not when the kids grow up. Do you believe this? And for some of you, you do believe. Like you've trusted Jesus. You've been made new. But if you're honest, you're still walking around in grave clothes. That's not just a cute metaphor I'm using. This is from later on in the chapter. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, and John tells us, verse 44, this is what he says. He says, The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. In other words, he's alive, but he's still dressed like he's dead. Actually, the King James Version here, like before, says that Martha actually says, he stinketh, like he reeks. And Jesus says in verse 44, after he says, unbind him, let him go. That's the picture. I was reminded this week of a really good friend of mine, Cole, a man's life who has been genuinely changed by the power and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like his life has been totally rebuilt. Addictions have lessened, his marriage once was in shambles, he was divorced and now is remarried to the same woman. His story has literally been changed by the grace of the gospel. But even after all of that, I remember this moment, like he still for a while was like still carrying around this posture of like shame. Like he was his worst sin or his truest identity was his last sin. Like he still talked, even sometimes like a condemned man, still lived like shame had the final word. And this one particular time, uh, one of his good friends and a pastor at the time, actually just Paul, was asking him actually just to take lead in the church in just a small group or something. And Cole, just struggling with shame again, just looked him in the eye and said, Man, like, like, you don't, you don't know the kind of man I am. I can't do that. Like he's thinking of his past. And finally, Paul grabbed him and looked him in his eyes and said, Cole, you are no longer that man. You are a new man. Essentially telling him, take off your grave clothes, stop acting like you're dead, walk into this newness of life. What you're saying stinks. You are a new man. Walk free. And that's what some of us need to hear this morning. Like, you are not your past. You're not your worst moment. You are not your addiction. You are not your abortion. You are not your divorce. You are not your job failure. You are not your bad parenting. You are not your worst moment. You are a new man or woman in Christ Jesus. And Jesus didn't just call you out of the grave. He called you into a new life. So, church, Jesus is the resurrection and life. Let us believe in him and let us take off our grave clothes and walk in newness of life. Pray with me. Father, I thank you for this moment. I thank you for this day. I thank you for Resurrection Sunday. It's a beautiful day. The weather, it's a full house. We're in our Sunday best. But Father, we just recognize the danger of this day. The caution of this day. Just check a box. To just go with a friend to appease someone. To cover our deepest shame or our guilt. Maybe we're wallowing in just grief and despair and disappointment. Father, I'm just thankful that you are good. You're loving. You're kind. You actually say in your word, you're near to the brokenhearted and the crushed in spirit. You are attracted to our loss. But I'm so thankful that you don't love to leave us there. You actually paid for our loss. You lost your life so that we could actually win resurrection life. And so, Father, I just pray that for for many of the folks that are in the room, I just know there's several here that, man, they've heard the claims of Christianity. They've come to church services, they've maybe been in church. They believe in a future resurrection. But they've not personally trusted your son. Holy Spirit, you have to do that work. You have to soften their heart, and then you have to prompt them. But Father, would you allow them to act on that prompting today, in this moment, that they wouldn't leave here. But rather, they would, in faith, trust you, not having it all figured out, not knowing how it all works out. But just somehow miraculously, the God of the universe who set the stars in place, also put them in this place for a reason. To save them. And to call them to no longer walk in their grave clothes. Father, help us. Thank you that you're always with us. Thank you for this moment. Thank you for this day. In Jesus' name. Amen.