Live Like a Champion – Week 14
“The Promise of Resurrection and Life!”
John 11:1-46 (NAS95)
Happy Easter ~ He is Risen!
In this sermon series, we are learning how to live like a champion by learning how to live according to the victory of the promises of God. Our guiding image for this series is being a member of an NFL team who wins the Superbowl. We live like champions so that others will come to know the One who gave us His Victory—Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and coming again!
Easter is the perfect Sunday for a series about living a victorious life because this is the day we celebrate the greatest victory ever—Jesus’s victory over death and His promise to us that, we too, will join with Him in His resurrection.
The play of the week is the “Promise of Resurrection and Life!” The memory verse for this promise is John 11:25-26, when Jesus proclaims,
“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
This is a precious and magnificent promise ~ He is Risen!
1. The Promise of Resurrection and Life is for You
Have you ever felt like you were in a pretty bad situation and could not see nor imagine what God was possibly doing to bring the promise of resurrection and life out of the situation?
Can you imagine how Jesus’ followers must have felt on the Friday of His crucifixion? Their expectations, hopes, and dreams were shattered—life was not working out the way they thought it was supposed to…
Have you ever been there: Expectations crushed under the weight of reality; Hopes shattered like a glass of milk knocked of the dinner table; and Dreams dashed against the rocks of life’s storms?
How could anything good come out of Jesus’ suffering and death?
This the promise of resurrection and life ~ He is Risen!
Jesus responded to Marth and Mary’s discouragement with these words in verse 40, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
They thought Jesus was late in His arrival, but here is the good news: God is never late! I’m not sure if you caught this when Katie read the story, but did you hear what Jesus said in verses 14-15 before He went to see Lazarus, three days after he was informed of Lazarus’ sickness: “Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.”
No matter the circumstance or how pungent the smell of death and decay you may be experiencing in your life, if Jesus says it’s time to go and open up the tomb so that you can come out of that circumstance, then it is time to trust that God may have a better plan in mind than what you can imagine. As Jesus said in verse 40, then “you will see the glory of God!”
Can you imagine this truth in your circumstances and relationships, at work or at home, in our church or community, in our nation and the nations?
This is Jesus’ promise of resurrection and life ~ He is Risen!
Jesus calls Lazarus out and we see the reality of Jesus’ promise of resurrection and life, but by God’s providence the work for the community of God’s people is not done yet!
2. Jesus invites you to participate in the promise of resurrection and life!
Listen to what Jesus says in verse 44 to the community who witnessed His miracle: “The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’”
Did you hear it? Jesus says to you, “Unbind them and let them go!”
When Jesus began His ministry that would lead Him to the Cross of Calvary, He did so by proclaiming that He was the One who would fulfill God’s promises. Listen to Jesus in Luke 4:17-21,
And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to [Jesus]. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
On this Easter Sunday, I am proclaiming to you that Jesus has not only fulfilled the promise of resurrection and life through His atoning sacrifice on the Cross of Calvary and His victorious resurrection from the empty tomb, but that Jesus is now inviting each one of you to carry on His work of bringing resurrection and life to your family and neighborhood, school or workplace, church or civic group or club, community or state, nation, and the nations.
Jesus is inviting you to walk in His fulfillment of that ancient book of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon [YOU], Because He anointed [you] to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent [you] to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
Jesus said from the beginning of this story in John 11:4, just as God has proclaimed from the very beginning of the story of this sin-sick world, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”
How are we to participate in the promise of resurrection and life?
Jesus says that this sin-sick world is not to end in death, but all things will be made new for the glory of God and by this the Son of God will be glorified by it! We, His Church, are to work for this glory by doing what Jesus told the first witnesses of the promise of resurrection and life: “unbind them and let them go!”
We are to believe our own Easter Story!
We are to unbind the captives, set free the oppressed, give sight to the blind, and preach the gospel to the poor in word and deed. We are to let them go!
How are you invited to live out this promise in the personal and public arenas of your life?
As our memory verse proclaims in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
This is the promise of Jesus Christ, who is the Resurrection and the Life ~ He is Risen!
Right now, we are going to respond and this is a sacred moment, an altar call: “Do you believe this?”
That is not my question to you; this is God’s question to you. Jesus is asking you: “Do you believe [that I am the resurrection and the life]?”
“Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done.”
Some believed…
God has brought you to the empty tomb of Jesus Christ on this Easter Sunday: Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, crucified on the Cross of Calvary for the forgiveness of your sin, dead and buried for three days, resurrected from the dead and alive as “the first fruits” (1 Corinthians 15:20) for all who will inherit His eternal life?
This is the promise of the One how has defeated death once and for all ~ He is Risen!
“Do you believe this?”
This is the promise of the First Fruits of the Resurrection and the Life ~ He is Risen!
“Do you believe this?”