John 11

you've given us your son to bridge that gap where we fall short and entrusting in you that's where the joy is amen good morning church how are we awesome happy spring break it's a little quiet in here most of our people are on spring break and enjoying themselves but let's go ahead and dismiss three to fives and six to sevens uh i almost forgot about that so three and five-year-olds and six and seven-year-olds y'all can head out to your classes for everyone else if you have your bibles go ahead and grab them we're gonna be in the book of john and i'm gonna do hopefully um well i'm going to shoot for covering the most amount of scripture that i've ever done in a single sermon and so we'll we'll just see how this goes all right but we're going going to be covering a lot of scripture today and the reason for it is because there's a small event that's kind of around the corner coming up that you may have heard of before called easter and so easter is is a big time right whether you did not have a church background like me you might think of easter in terms of uh eggs and and baskets of candy and you know rabbits or bunnies that break into your house to leave those things there like that's that's kind of your mindset around easter but maybe for those who who grew up in the church who were raised in the church or or have a lot of experience with church you think more of easter and what we celebrate the resurrection of jesus christ and and the big celebration of that the big party of that and and everyone dressing up you know on that day where your easter outfit and take photos as a family and whatnot and so a lot is kind of hinging around this this single greatest event in all of human history and so what i wanted to do today as we are kind of ramping up towards easter is is kind of lay out really just the reason for it and a lot of people preach this type of sermon actually on easter uh but rather what what i hope for us is as we lead up to easter that easter really is actually the kind of aha moment like it's it's more of the oh this this is what we have heard and is now experiencing on the day of actual easter and and really what we're seeing here and this is why i'm going to look to so much scripture throughout the book of john is really what we just proclaimed in that last song that we sang like make my heart believe just this idea of of believing jesus is who he says he is that he did what he said he did and that he is actually the son of god sent from the father to earth to perform miracles to do all kinds of amazing things leading up to the ultimate miracle of him dying on the cross and then resurrecting three days later all of that was so that we might believe in him it wasn't just for uh jesus to come down and do some amazing miracles and and have people kind of for a while believe he's some type of like david blaine or uh some type of just magical you know magician who's able to do some some crazy things like no there were purpose behind all of the things that he was doing that would ultimately lead to them believing in him because that was a big big ordeal and it is a big ordeal for us today because belief at the end of it determines how you ultimately live your life like there's implications for it in your life and so we're going to talk about that today next week we're going to talk about um the triumphal entry of jesus and how everyone is celebrating the the messiah who is here the one who has come the one who has been foretold for so long like they're they're celebrating his entry and then literally within a few days we'll be crucifying him at the same time and then again we will celebrate that on easter after his death on good friday and why is it good friday so we'll have a good friday service at 6 30 on that friday here talking about his death but then ultimately what does it mean that he actually rose and we'll talk about that on easter like what does that actually mean and why is that so important why does all of christianity literally hinge on whether or not jesus actually rose so today we're going to be looking at this idea of belief and and so again what i want to do for us with this is is kind of if you've seen christmas carol the movie or any of the plays or whatnot it you know scrooge gets visited by you know ghost of christmas past and christmas present christmas future and they're essentially just walking him through the story of his life and how he missed certain things and whatnot and that's kind of what i want to do is be the ghost of christmas past where i just walk you through this is where jesus was here this is what he did here this is what he did here and this is ultimately what he was wanting everyone to see so that they could see it and believe it and that there's going to be some who believed it and some who didn't and what happens to the ones who believed and the ones who didn't so i want you to be able to see that so that again this isn't just something that we're looking back on in reading but we're actually entering ourselves into the story and are saying okay they were eyewitnesses of this and not only were they eyewitnesses and recorded this but they're recording it so that we would also read it with eyes and ears to be able to see and hear what happened so that we then have the same opportunity to answer the same question what do you think about jesus what do you think about jesus do you believe or do you not and so i want you to see this because again seeing these events that unfold and seeing what jesus is doing is what allowed for the people to see truly who he was and that's what i hope for us today as john 3 16 as you're in john i'm going to actually have you go to john uh 9 10 somewhere around there all right you just hang out around john 9 or 10 i'll get there uh eventually but john 3 16-18 this is what it says for god so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life all right if you've been around christianity for any time you know this is one of the biggest verses as far as evangelism goes that everyone hinges everything on i mean everyone always goes to john 3 16.

especially in the sports world if it's going to like if i'm going to plaster a verse in order to share the gospel to anybody and everybody i'm going here i'm going john 3 16. i'm gonna like write john 3 16 on my football helmet or i'm going to put it you know i'm going to i'm going to put it on a little bag if i own a business and i'm going to send it out so that people look it up to know kind of what is god's entire purpose like of of the bible and what he's done with his son jesus you're going to go to john 3 16. it shows so much in this one verse first and foremost for god so loved the world all right that's showing the heart of god that's showing the volume of his heart that's not just for god love the world it's he so loved the world i mean there's amplified love that he has for the world and because he so loves the world seeing the world in its state of sin and evil and corruption god does something about it so he sends his son jesus that whoever believes in his son jesus will not perish but have eternal life so those are the two destinations if you will of everyone that is in the world and the stake of their lives so jesus you've got to do something with jesus according to god you've got to do something with jesus if you believe in jesus you receive eternal life if you don't believe in jesus you perish i mean that's god right out of the gate in john and if you were to walk through the book of john and just literally highlight the theme of the book it all hinges on belief like everything that jesus unpacks in his life and everything that he does is so that they would come to a place where they understand and believe that he is who he says he is so he says that in john 3 16-18 one of the most profound questions jesus continues to ask the people is just really a simple one do you believe john 6 6 63-64 puts it this way it is the spirit who gives life the flesh is no help at all so right there he's just saying god gives life your flesh your body your life all that doesn't matter it it does not offer any help to whether or not you perish or uh or have eternal life the flesh is of no no help the words that i have spoken to you are spirit and life what would jesus say the words that i give that embody me who i am they give spirit and life but there are some of you who do not believe all right this is jesus there are some of you who are hearing what i'm saying who are seeing me and still don't believe for jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who it was who would betray him he goes on down to john 9 35 and he says this jesus heard that they had cast him out and having found him he said do you believe in the son of man so jesus is continuing to just ask these questions what do you believe who do you believe in because at the end of the day that again is going to be a determining factor of whether or not we receive eternal life or we perish we perish and because jesus is so good and so gracious he's going to continue to reveal himself not only through the words that he's preaching and that he's teaching but also through the miracles and the signs and the wonders that he is performing so that the people have no excuse other than to say you are the son of god and we either disbelieved and rejected it we suppress that truth as romans 1 says or we saw that you are the son of god and the messiah and the christ the sent one and we believed it and we trust you for who you are and we we give our lives to you we we live for you we may not have all the answers but we but we see you and we see you in what you're doing what you're executing in your life and we give our lives to you and that's important because in giving our lives to him we actually then receive life and life abundant better than anything that we could imagine in and of ourselves i mean you see this in john 10 as you come down to verses 7 through 18.

so jesus again said to them truly truly i say to you i am the door of the sheep all who came before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not listen to them i am the door if anyone enters by me he will he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy i came that they may have life and have it abundantly all right so jesus right here is just saying that there there are people who have come before him who are maybe professing to be the prophet professing to be the messiah professing to to lead them in understanding what life is and life abundant who are giving them rules and and really who he's getting out here are the pharisees and the sadducees and the scribes they're the religious leaders of the day they are the jews who are considering themselves to be disciples of of moses and abraham and isaac and jacob and again the people of israel but what they've done is they've taken all of the truths that god provided to a people and they've taken those truths and they've literally twisted them in order to execute for themselves power and authority and sovereignty over the people so that they could establish for themselves a comfortable lifestyle in which they live well and no one else does and they then lord it over people to keep them in uh in suppression or in oppression in order for them again to just be seen as the righteous ones that they are even though they truly aren't and you'll see that here in a minute as we continue to unpack this but jesus is saying what they're doing is they're actually robbing you of life because they're not leading you to the one who actually gives life the one who is actually the door the one who is actually the gate in which you enter into in order to then actually find pasture and to be able to graze and be able to enjoy life under the good shepherd as he says in verse 11 i am the good shepherd the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep he who is a hired hand and not a shepherd who does not own the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them he flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep i am the good shepherd i know my own and my own know me just as the father knows me and i know the father and i lay my i lay down my life for the sheep and i have other sheep that are not of this fold i love that because again that's jesus again through parable here through illustration here is already teaching the jews hey it's not just for the jews all right i've got other sheep that are of another fold that i'm going to bring into our fold okay so it's not just the the bloodline here of abraham and isaac and jacob this is also others that i am their shepherd so there will be one flock and one shepherd for this reason the father loves me because i lay down my life that i may take it up again i mean we're going to be talking about that again over the next three weeks because that is everything that is going on around easter and around passover is jesus laying down his life and then taking it up again no one has that authority if you are not god all right like if you're not god you don't get to die and then come back to life on your own like you don't get to just declare that that i'm going to die i'm going to lay my life down and then i'm going to take my life back up again i'm going to get that heartbeat going again you don't get to do that if you're not god so what jesus is actually doing here amongst his peers is he is declaring to them i'm not just a man i'm actually god which is why they kill him we'll see that in the coming weeks for this reason the father loves me because i lay down my life that i may take it up again no one takes it from me but i lay it down on my own accord i have authority to lay it down and i have authority to take it up again hold on to that idea of just authority there because that's always going to be attached to anyone who considers themselves lord is whether or not you have authority whether or not you have power whether or not you have influence that's going to come into play here in a question that i'm going to ask at the end no one takes it from me but i lay it down i have authority to lay it down and i have authority to take it up again this charge i have received from my father he goes on down into john 10 22-30 listen to it again i'm just walking you through this story at the time the feast of dedication took place at jerusalem it was winter and jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of solomon so the jews gathered around him and said to him how long will you keep us in suspense if you are the christ tell us plainly all right so so jesus has been performing some miracles he's just healed a blind man back in john chapter nine and so the news of this blind man being healed is spreading and these jews are wondering all right stop keeping us in suspense if you're the messiah if you are christ not just jesus if you're a christ like christ is not his last name it's a title all right it is jesus the chosen one jesus the messiah jesus the anointed one jesus the god man like that's what they're looking for here for here are you the christ if you are tell us plainly please tell us plainly and jesus answered them i told you i i've already told you and again you do not believe you do not believe the works that i do in my father's name bear witness about me but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep my sheep hear my voice and i know them and they follow me i give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand i and the father are one no one has declared this up until this point in in recorded human history no one has other than maybe an unrecorded person who was crazy who comes in is like i'm the messiah the chosen one everyone's been looking for they didn't prove to be jesus is stepping up here and in this moment literally saying i'm about to tell you something that you might not be able to understand borrowing i give you eternal life to understand i and the father are one i and the father are one what he's just relayed before that is i have all authority where does it come from it comes from my father it comes from my father because we are one because we are united and this is where again you're not going to see trinity the word in the bible but you're going to see implications of a trinitarian god that we serve when it comes to a father a holy spirit and a son in which they are god so the father is not the holy spirit the holy spirit is not the son the son is not the father they are distinct they are separate however they are equal and they are one they are god they are united and that's exactly what jesus is declaring here is he saying i'm not just someone who is performing some some miraculous things on behalf of someone else i actually am god who is performing this miracle the reason why the blind man is no longer blind is because i'm god and i have authority over his blindness i have authority over illnesses and i'm allowed to be able to tell those illnesses they can no longer ill somebody that's what jesus is saying here will you tell us plainly and he's saying i'm not only telling you with my words i'm showing you with my actions it goes on down into john 10 36 do you say of him whom the father consecrated and sent into the world you are blaspheming because i said i am the son of god if i am not doing the works of my father then don't believe me like he's just he's almost playing the role of a lawyer here jesus defending his case he's saying if i'm not god then don't believe me but believe on account of the works that i do that i am actually from the father that i actually am god like don't just take my word for it but take my actions for it as well and so he's just laying this out for them constantly if i'm not doing the works of my father then do not believe me but if i do them even though you do not believe me believe the works that you may know and understand that the father is in me and i am in the father and that's one thing that that i love here that jesus allows us to wrestle with and work through is the first time that we've ever heard about jesus and if it didn't land on us and it didn't help us in that moment just go yeah that all makes sense absolutely if it doesn't land there at first he gives us space to be able to explore the work that he's done and not only the work that he's done but the eyewitness testimonies that's what the scriptures are okay they're eyewitness testimonies of these apostles these disciples who were with jesus for three years and they're just writing down everything that they've experienced with him they're saying this is not only what he taught but this is what he's done and that's actually one again one of the reasons that right after easter we're going to begin walking through the book of luke is because if you look at the first couple of lines of the book of luke luke's whole purpose for writing the book is so that there's certainty and assurance of faith that as i lay out for you just literally an articulated timeline of jesus's birth his lineage all the way to his death and his resurrection and looking at all the works in his life everything that he accomplished it's so that you would have certainty and assurance of faith that he is who he says he is and that he did what he said he did and that we can go to sleep at night knowing that when we believe in him we receive eternal life and we will never perish that's what jesus is allowing us to do here understand that the father is in me and i am in the father and then he works up to his greatest miracle that he's accomplished up to this point all right he goes from kind of doing some things that you can watch on like true tv if you've ever seen like um the carbonaro effect or if you've seen david blaine or any of those things where they're like they'll turn things into other things and they're kind of like distracting you over here and all of a sudden there's something over here like his first miracle at a wedding he turns water into wine all right he turns water into wine and and again there's there's a ton i don't have enough time to dive into the illustration of that and the symbolism of that but it's a miracle okay it's a miracle that jesus accomplishes and they start asking questions how can this guy turn water into wine and he's like it's not time yet all right i'm working up to it and there would be multiple times where he would do miraculous things and the disciples are like we want to go gossip this we want to go tell everyone about this thing that you're doing and he's saying don't do that yet like don't tell them i'm the messiah because i'm working myself up so that you have the full picture of my power and authority so that as you reason and as you wrestle with the truths of jesus and what he's done and what he's executed you can get the full picture of his authority to be lord to be lord which means he has all authority he has all power and he has all influence to do as he pleases which is always good for those who believe in him and so he's working himself up to his greatest miracle to this point because again i believe his greatest miracle is dying and then resurrecting himself that's his greatest miracle and then that miracle continues to literally play out every single time a non-believer becomes a believer it's a miracle of god that he puts you to death and raises you to a new life that is the greatest miracle you will personally ever experience yourself that god does in your life but we see this worked out in the death of lazarus so john 11 looking at verse 1.

now a certain man was ill lazarus of bethany the village of mary and her sister martha it was mary who anointed the lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother lazarus was ill so the sister sent him saying lord he whom you love is ill but when jesus heard it he said the illness does not lead to death which is interesting because we know that lazarus dies all right the illness does lead to his death but instead jesus said it is for the glory of god so that the son of god may be glorified through it how is the son of god going to be glorified through the death of lazarus well the only way that he can be glorified through the death of lazarus is if he conquers the death of lazarus if he he turns the death into life the water and the wine he changes something here for the state of a man who is dead he brings him back to life it's for the glory of god so that the son of god may be glorified through it so that people will see the son of god jesus christ as the chosen one as the messiah so jesus essentially lets lazarus die and you're going to see that here verse 5 now jesus loved martha and her sister anne lazarus so when he heard that lazarus was ill he stayed two days longer in the place where he was then after this he said to his disciples let us go to judea again the disciples said to him rabbi the jews were just now seeking to stone you and are you going there again the reason why they wanted to stone him was because when he healed that blind man in chapter 9 he then basically proclaims that he is god and they think that's blasphemy all right which actually is true all right if you claim to be god and you're not that's blasphemy and that's what jesus is being accused of so they tried to stone him there in that moment then after he said that said this to his disciples let's go to judea again the disciples said to him rabbi the jews were just now seeking to stone you are you and are you going there again and jesus answered are there not 12 hours in the day if anyone walks in the day he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world but if anyone walks in the night he stumbles because the light is not in him after saying these things to after saying these things he said to them our friend lazarus has fallen asleep but i go to awaken him the disciples said to him lord if he has fallen asleep he will recover now jesus had spoken of his death but they thought that he meant taking rest and sleep then jesus told them plainly again i just love that i just love that jesus knows we're sheep all right sheep tend to be dumb and he's just like i just i need to speak plainly do you hear for a minute so he speaks to them plainly lazarus has died and again here why does he stay two days later why does he allow lazarus whom he loves to die and for your sake i am glad that i was not there so that you may believe what he's after here and about to perform this incredible miracle with lazarus is for the belief of his friends of his family of the jews that are surrounding it's for their belief so let us go to him so thomas called the twins said to his fellow disciples let us also go that we may die with him which is also just so funny because the disciples just sometimes say things and have no idea what they're saying but that's what thomas the twin is saying here down in verse 17.

now when jesus came he found that lazarus had already been in the tomb for days four days all right this is him making sure that lazarus is dead dead okay like it's he doesn't want them to have any opportunity to say well he was just like incapacitated for a little while or like maybe he was just sick and maybe he was just like sleeping it off for you know a couple of days like no he's like i'm going to make sure that he's dead dead all right four days bethany was near jerusalem about two miles off and many of the jews had come to martha and mary to console them and 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 my brother would not have died now this is not her casting blame on jesus for not being there on time all right this is actually revealing of her faith and her trust in jesus power and authority as she says in the next verse 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 which i love that this is in there because this is showing that martha that she's been paying attention in class all right she she's been listening to the teachings of jesus and taking them to heart her faith is more informed than honestly a lot of the pharisees and sadducees who say there's no resurrection all right she understands and believes that there is a resurrection and that one day all who die that believe in jesus will be resurrected with him now they haven't seen that up to this point they haven't seen that yet and so they're they're understanding now that there's a faith in something to come that's going to be great for them that's good news for them and that's what martha's putting her her faith in and her trust in i know that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day but jesus said to her i am the resurrection in the life and again here whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die do you believe this again this is jesus here with the gospel proclamation jesus is saying that there's that there is life for both those who have physically died and for those who are still alive there is a resurrection of the dead but there is also a resurrection of those who are spiritually dead and i am that resurrection and life if you believe in me you are resurrected to life both now and in the future and she said to him lord i believe that you are the christ that you are the son of god who is coming into the world and when she had said this she went and called her sister mary saying in private the teacher is here and is calling for you now remember again this is mary who will eventually anoint jesus feet with expensive ointment and and wipe his feet with her hair when she heard it she rose quickly and went to him now jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where martha had met him and when the jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw mary rise quickly and go out they followed her supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there now when mary came to where jesus was and saw him she fell at his feet saying to him lord if you had been here my brother would not have died again this is revealing of her faith not blame her faith when jesus saw her weeping and the jews who had come with her also weeping he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled and he said where have you laid him they said to him lord come and see and then the shortest verse in all of scripture jesus wept so the jews said see how he loved him but some of them said could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying now one thing to mention here and oftentimes when preaching on this passage i i preach on as this as the main point especially at funerals at this point like doesn't jesus know what he's going to do like he knows that he's about to resurrect lazarus right like he he knows that he's about to turn this funeral into an actual celebration of life ceremony like he's actually about to bring lazarus so it's going to go from mourning and grieving and funeral to uh like a party and celebration and he who was dead is now alive like it's going to be a ceremony and a reception rather than a funeral and grieving and mourning so why then does jesus weep when he knows what he's about to do like why doesn't he just run to each person in that moment and say stop crying stop weeping stop mourning because what i think jesus does here and this is good for us to hear especially based on what josh taught last week when you're thrown in the furnace of trials and tribulations and and and uh just terrible circumstances in your life when you're suffering when you're dealing with things that are very difficult for you to deal with like we all know truth that in the end jesus wins like we know in the end he resurrects everything to life we know that he makes all things new and that he restores all things but what he also does is he enters into your current state of suffering and he mourns with you he weeps with you he ministers to you in that moment even though he knows he's going to resurrect it one day he's going to make it all new he never tells you in the moment of your suffering that you're stupid for suffering he doesn't do that but instead what he does is he steps into our moments of suffering and he holds us like that's something that we get to experience in our world and in our lives that angels don't get to know that they don't get to experience that's something that only the redeemed get is to experience this side of christ that enters into our suffering and that comforts us in that place that holds us that cherishes us in that moment not only does this reveal jesus care for us and our grieving and pain but it also reveals jesus hatred towards death and the cause of their grief and i think that's what he's going to get into and i think that i think there's even a moment here this is totally conjecture i'm not saying that this is straight from the scriptures but i think there's even a moment here of jesus weeping in the foreshadowing of what he knows that he's about to go and experience himself in order to take this away from us like this is the beginning of his weeping and his anxiety of what he's about about to enter into like i know that we deal with anxiety but i don't think we've dealt with anxiety to the level of jesus sweating blood and he's about to enter into that in order to literally on both sides of the pendulum he who represents ultimate life and life abundant is also going to enter into the deepest level of pain and grief and mourning and anxiety in order to take that from us as well like jesus fulfills for us all things so that when we do call on him in our times of suffering he's able to come in and say i know i know i know and i'm here for you i'm here for you i'm ministering to you as you go through this then jesus deeply moved again came to the tomb it was a cave and a stone lay against it jesus said take away the stone sound familiar like to any other stories that might be coming up in a couple of weeks martha the sister of the dead man said to him lord by this time there will be an odor for he has been dead four days jesus said to her did i not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of god all right there's a great point to be made here again martha nailed it on the there will be a resurrection like she'd been paying attention in class and then there's also moments where our theology meets the road and we're walking into a situation and we're like i don't know if i believe help my unbelief like i i don't know what you're doing here like i know that there will be a day of judgment we will all be resurrected and that's going to be great but what are you doing he's dead like we're in a funeral right now like you don't just bring dead people back to life and jesus is like no that's exactly that's exactly what i do i bring dead people back to life and she's not really following along here with jesus and is nervous that it's going to stink here in a minute so they took away the stone in verse 41 and jesus lifted up his eyes and he said father i thank you that you have heard me i knew that you always hear me but i said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me okay jesus is taking every opportunity to put himself on display so that those around him might believe and when he had said these things he cried out with a loud voice lazarus come out the man who had died came out his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth and jesus said to them unbind him and let him go now why did jesus yell like the dead can't hear they're dead right jesus wants those present to see that god's voice has the power and authority to raise the dead r.

c sproul puts it this way the divine call that gives life to the dead vividly illustrates god's call to the spiritually dead that raises them to spiritual life enabling them both to hear the shepherd's voice and to follow him this event was wasn't just for lazarus to come back from the dead physically but also for all those who were present to come back from the dead spiritually like that's what's going on in this moment he says as i said this on account of the people standing around that they might believe so jesus raising a man from the dead is his ultimate climax and his signs and wonders in his ministry again from turning water into wine jesus amplified his miracles and wonders he controlled the weather he read minds he healed those who were sick he gave sight to a blind man he multiplied food all of these miracles were to display the fact that jesus is not just a good prophet he's not just a good man he's not just a good teacher like most of our religions that are out there agree on those things he's a good prophet he's a good man he's a good teacher he was a good family member he was a good carpenter but he said these things and revealed these things to show that he is a good god that he is god himself in the person of jesus christ this is jesus revealing to us i'm sovereign and not like in control of a region or a state but i am the sovereign i am the lord of lords i am the king of kings that nobody is beyond his jurisdiction jesus is lord and remember jesus is after their belief in him and so we see in john 11 45-48 many of the jews therefore who had come with mary and had seen what he did believed in him like that's just a moment to praise god like that's that that's part of the purpose of our church is to put on display all that jesus has done so that some might believe and in here they have the chance of many believing in jesus that he is who he says he is and that he did what he said he did but some of them went to the pharisees and told them what jesus had done so the chief priests and the pharisees gathered the council and said what are we to do for this man performs many signs and if we let him go on like this everyone will believe in him and the romans will come and take away both our place and our nation so they're at a crisis here all right why would the romans be upset because their belief and their system is caesar as lord all right literal train like that's what they say caesar is lord so for christians to come onto the scene and begin declaring no no no caesar is not lord jesus is lord well that's going against the roman law like that's going against roman philosophy that's going against roman establishment and government like that's going against everything that that rome stands for and at this time bethany in jerusalem and israel is under roman rule and so to go against caesar as lord is to then have rome step in and they're not only going to step in but they're going to remove anyone who's in power who has let this thing go awry and so you've got these jewish leaders these pharisees and sadducees who are essentially saying our livelihoods are at stake here if jesus keeps doing what he's doing if people keep believing in jesus they're going to be turning from from giving to us and helping us and doing what we need they're going to move towards jesus team and that's not good for us our lives are at stake rome's going to come and kill us if this is continuing to happen here and so they're at a crossroad where they have a decision to make do we continue on trying to save our lives and forfeit our soul or do we forfeit our lives in order to save our souls do we disbelieve and distrust jesus and go anti-him in order to continue with caesar as lord and we get to keep our temporal pleasures and our lives that we've built for us but we perish for eternity or do we jump over here and we go jesus is lord and we're going to probably be put to death because that's how it's been going for anybody or that's how it's about to go for anybody who declares jesus is lord they're at a crossroad and it's not as messy for us in our current culture like us declaring jesus as lord does not have our government stepping on and dragging us out of our homes and crucifying us and putting us on stakes and then putting us at the entrance to the city because that's what they did with the early christians they said if you're going to come into this roman ruled city and you're proclaiming jesus lord we're going to make an example out of you so that those who do come in and establish lives here they're going to declare caesar as lord you've got a crossroad here that you've got to make and unfortunately these pharisees did not make the correct choice and jesus had some words for them in matthew 23 27-28 he says this woe to you scribes and pharisees you hypocrites for you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness so you also outwardly appear righteous to others but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness you see i think that's that idea of whitewashed tombs in our culture just just remove whitewashed tombs and enter in the american dream the pursuit of the american dream where we look on the outside like we have it all together you know as our stats give us you know you you're you're upper middle class you've got a family with two and a half kids i don't know how you have the half but that's the average out there you've got the dog you get the picket fence you've got the 401k you got you got all those external things that that in some way provide you a level of comfort like it was providing for these pharisees and sadducees these jews who do not believe and at the end of the day jesus says it's it's a whitewashed tomb on the outside you look alive on the inside you're dead and what he's showing us here is that there's hope for those who are spiritually dead on the inside there's hope because he's come in and he's just put on display i have authority over death not only physically but i have it spiritually i have all authority to be able to come in and make someone who is dead alive he says this in romans 8 10 through 11 but if christ is in you although the body is dead because of sin the spirit is life because of righteousness and if the spirit of him who raised jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised christ jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you this is this is a beautiful win-win that we get as believers like those who believe in jesus is not just that you're the the opposite all right if you're looking at people who don't believe as physically alive but spiritually dead most of the time people then look at believers as physically dead like you're like our bodies are breaking down you're getting older you're getting more wrinkles you're dying all right i don't know if you know that like when you're born you start dying okay like that's that's life all right physically dead but because we believe in jesus and he's given us the spirit of christ in us we're spiritually alive but what he's also telling us here is that not only yes you're physically dead but i'm going to eventually make you physically alive i'm going to give you a resurrected body as well so those over here who are physically alive and spiritually dead are actually eventually going to become physically dead and spiritually dead so the question you've got in front of you is do i want to end up physically dead and spiritually dead or do i want to end up physically alive and spiritually alive and the way you get to one or the other is simply asking the question what do you think about jesus is he the son of god is he as john 3 16 shared with us sent by god as the son of god to lay his life down and then take it up again in order to remove your sins and grant you new life in him where do we land with that god is not in the business of just making bad people good he's making dead people alive and i think that that really has implications for us because if we view christianity as just an idea for bad people to become good or bad people just get better like that that's just that's just morality i mean if you were to live life that way everybody's living life that way everyone picks a political party because they believe it's going to make them better and make their culture and their society better everyone picks a career because they think it's going to make their home life better make their 401k better make their retirement better everyone does it kind of for those reasons it makes my existence better and at the end of the day jesus is not concerned with our temporal existence and whether or not it gets better what he's ultimately after is our eternal existence and not whether it gets better but whether or not it's alive john 10 that i might have life and life abundantly like that's what jesus is after he's not just after you for 40 50 years to just have ease and comfort and good things happen and blessings and extra at the end of the month and whatever it might look like he's he's after you having life and life abundantly and the only way that that happens is by yes while we are physically dead right now in the process of dying we are spiritually alive in christ and that that spiritual aliveness that we have in christ is impacting everything that we possibly do how we relate to our spouses how we relate to our kids how we relate to our co-workers how we relate to our church members it's all driven by the spirit of christ that dwells in us that breathes life out so it's not breathing out death it's not literally giving death to other people it's not belittling them it's not sinning against them it's not tearing them down it's not destroying them it's not robbing from them it's not doing all the things that that bring about pain and hurt but rather is about addifying and encouraging and it only comes from christ in us who makes us as romans 8 says spiritually alive do you believe this that's jesus question who do you say that i am he asked his disciples that multiple times the way he phrases it to peter after peter and this is a post-resurrection sermon we all know peter messes it up at the cross all right peter denies jesus three times which is comforting for us because we we deny jesus all right whether you're like no i don't it's like no you with your actions just like jesus pulls this into not only just your words but your actions your words you might say lord lord but your actions speak otherwise that's a denial of jesus but even in our denial of jesus jesus as he resurrects he then comes back to peter and he says peter three times do you love me peter says yes i love you jesus asked him again do you do you love me yes jesus i love you do you love me yes i love you like he's allowing peter the opportunity in that moment to right the wrong of his denials by confessing his love and what we have the opportunity to do every single day is the same thing those moments that's the reason why we have confession in here is because it's not just so that on a sunday you can come and feel like this is a weird kind of catholic thing that they do no no it's not a catholic thing that was just adopted by them confession is a biblical thing that on a daily basis we're coming to the lord and we're saying i i really i disbelieved you here and he says do you believe me yes i believe you i'm your sheep i hear your voice i believe you i know you i know who you are he says okay okay i already saved you i already forgave you i'm going to continue working this out with you so that the next time that this happens again you have an opportunity to believe me again you have an opportunity to walk with me again to walk in step with my spirit so keep confessing where you disbelieve like martha we can't roll this stone back why are you disbelieving martha you just believe me over here why can't you believe me right now jesus is coming to heal darius's daughter well lord if you can will you what do you mean if i can absolutely i can heal her i can calm storms i can tell like tornadoes to stop i can i can do anything i want i have all authority i'm lord well okay if you can well i can okay will help my unbelief then every day we have the opportunity to believe jesus is who he says he is and we also have the opportunity in that moment to ask for help with our disbelief that's how good and gracious god is to us that's how good and gracious jesus is to us that he says back in i don't remember i read so much it's either 9 or chapter 10 he said no one can snatch me out of my hand so i believe i believe jesus there's days where i don't no one can snatch me out of his hand he's holding me he's holding me and that allows me to come back again and say you know i do believe i do believe and our belief in him is not based on the quality of our belief in him it's based on the quality of our savior and he's helping us with that belief constantly he's helping us with that belief and it's changing us and it's transforming us every single day so a good thing to do is every day asking yourself the question do i believe in jesus well then i'm going to believe him with my life today with my finances today with my anxiety today with my illness today i'm gonna believe him with how i relate with my kids today in frustration and in celebration like i'm gonna believe him with my friends that i'm walking through with a tough situation right now that i don't know how to give them wisdom or advice but i'm going to believe jesus and i'm going to believe that he's going to help me with the words that i share or with the words that i speak i'm going to believe him because he is my shepherd and i am his sheep and i know his voice and i want to follow him and i want to trust him do you believe as we ramp up to easter that's the question that we're going to keep asking do you believe let's pray father we thank you that you have revealed to us through your written word the beauty of your son jesus and that this is a word that comes from eyewitnesses who are around jesus who are followers of him who saw the miracles that he performed who saw him raise lazarus from the dead who saw jesus himself raised from the dead we're reading their eyewitness account and just as they are witnessing it with their own eyes and their ears and they're having to wrestle with this question like is is jesus legit is he who he says he is father you are entering into that question and you are providing for us faith to stand and believe just as jesus stood at the tomb lazarus had no ability in and of himself to get up and walk out but jesus yelled at him lazarus get up and walk and he's doing the same thing for us who are spiritually dead to stand up walk and believe in him so father we ask that for each person in this room that you grant us that faith and that belief to be able to say i believe i believe and then to take up our cross and follow you it's in your name we pray amen as we come to this time of communion mark 8 34 says this in calling the crowd to him with his disciples he said to them if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me jesus says this to them before he's actually gone and took his own cross and so they kind of really didn't understand yet like what that means now they understand the term crucifixion because that was again the romans capital punishment for death was crucifixion and it's the most horrific death you could possibly ever experience because you're typically hanging on a cross for a couple of weeks and you die by a fixation rather than the wounds that you take on it it's it's gruesome and so here they're kind of thinking like that doesn't sound that great to take up our cross daily and follow you but what jesus is really getting at here is the greatest thing you could possibly do is lay down your life and that means all that comes with it he threw out some some crazy terminology throughout his ministry where he's like it's better for you to hate your father and your mother than to hate me essentially it's better for you to remove yourself from those situations in order to come and follow me like what he's saying is this is don't actually hate your father and mother like that goes against the ten commandments what he is actually saying is i should be your greatest treasure so that it almost appears like you hate your father and mother take up your cross daily and follow me are you willing to forfeit your life and the the irony of the scriptures is when you actually forfeit your life and you get christ you then actually get the greatest life you could have ever imagined like that's the irony of it we think we're losing something when in fact we're gaining everything and it's only on the back side that you actually realize everything that you thought you lost as paul says becomes rubbish which love is my great my favorite greek term it's dung that's what he considers it so when you're like walking around and you see some hor or horse poop at the tennessee all right when you see some dog poop out on the sidewalk somewhere just remember like that's my former life that's that's everything i gave up in order to receive jesus i consider it like this rubbish no benefit whatsoever that i may gain christ in the power of his resurrection and my share and his sufferings i may know him intimately like that's what we're getting when we take up our cross daily and follow him and is foreshadowing him taking up his cross in order to get us there in order to get us there that he lays down his life and that's what believers celebrate at communion that's why it is not for non-believers it is a celebration of what you believe what you ultimately understand in jesus what he has accomplished for you like there's nothing there's nothing we order it off amazon there's nothing like miraculous happening in those little cups back there what's miraculously happening is what it symbolizes and illustrates of jesus breaking his body and shedding his blood laying his life down that's on his authority so that he can then take upon his own authority to raise his life again so that in all of that he with his authority is taking all of your sin and all of your mess and he's placing it on himself and allowing the wrath of god to be poured out to remove all of it once and for all to remove all of it everything that made you spiritually dead everything that is making you physically dead all those things that are bringing about death he kills it through death which is why death loses its sting because if death can actually be resurrected then death has no sting anymore has no fear anymore there can actually be life afterwards so jesus calls us to do this to follow in him as he has illustrated for us and as he has gone before us to do and so i'm going to have you go ahead and stand if you don't have the elements you can go ahead and go back and grab them and i know we usually read first corinthians 11 but this time i'm just going to read this again from romans actually i'm going to read two passages i'm going to read the mark 8 again and then the romans it's all right we're already late so mark 8 34 calling the crowd to him with his disciples he said to them if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake in the gospels will save it for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul for what can a man give in return for his soul but if christ is in you although the body is dead because of sin the spirit is life because of righteousness and the spirit of him who raised jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised christ jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you jesus took this cross upon himself to actually lose his life and and all that he left heaven to come like he gave it up in order to come and die and represent us as sinners so that we might then receive heaven and righteousness and eternal life with him he did it through the breaking of his body and the shedding of his blood taking up his cross he will not ask you to do anything that he has not already done and that's what we celebrate that's the kind of lord that we serve when we say jesus lord it's not some distant caesar on a throne everyone's serving him it's the one who got down in the muck and the mire himself and took upon himself all of our pain all of our grief all of our guilt all of our shame all of our anxiety all of those things in order to put it to death and then put it to death so that we would have life and life abundant that's what we celebrate in communion so let's partake now and we'll continue on in worship [Music]