SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the North Iron Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to take the gospel from the upper peninsula to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message will inspire and encourage you in your faith journey.
SPEAKER_02: Good morning, everyone.
SPEAKER_02: So glad you're here.
SPEAKER_02: Happy Easter.
SPEAKER_02: We're so excited today, as every week, but we're excited that you're here with us.
SPEAKER_02: And maybe you are a part of this church.
SPEAKER_02: Of course, we have campuses all over uh the UP and Lant, Antonand, and Marquette.
SPEAKER_02: Would you just welcome all those people who are watching us online?
SPEAKER_02: There's so many people across the United States that are part of Northiron.
SPEAKER_02: We have a movement going on, a Jesus movement, if you will.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is not only our savior, redeemer, but he's also our Lord and King.
SPEAKER_02: And we want everyone to experience that.
SPEAKER_02: And that's why we're here every week coming together as we believe that the Lord is leading us uh into his into his kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: Very, very glad that you're here with us this uh morning.
SPEAKER_02: My name's Pastor Mark.
SPEAKER_02: I'm the lead pastor along with my wife Jennifer.
SPEAKER_02: If you grab your Bibles, we're gonna be in John chapter 11 this morning.
SPEAKER_02: John chapter 11.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't have a Bible, just raise your hand.
SPEAKER_02: We have a great free version for you.
SPEAKER_02: Easy to read.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you're you're new to God's word, maybe you just forgot your Bible.
SPEAKER_02: We we we feel like everyone should have a physical Bible in your hand.
SPEAKER_02: It's God's word to you.
SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna be in John chapter 11 this morning in just a minute.
SPEAKER_02: We've been in a series called the I Am using God's name that he used in the Old Testament, uh, connected to the needs of the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_02: We find that in the book of John, that Jesus also connects this name to our greatest needs.
SPEAKER_02: He does that seven times for the last uh month, month and a half.
SPEAKER_02: We've been walking through each one of those, not only those needs or issues or problems we have in our life, and Jesus' uh uh answer to those things, but you need to understand that today is a significant day.
SPEAKER_02: And the reason that it's significant is it's when our world celebrates an incredible event called Easter with the resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It's an incredible event in that here we have a 30-year-old man who finds himself on the cross because of the way that he lived his life and the ministry that he did in uh a portion of his life.
SPEAKER_02: And he dies upon the cross.
SPEAKER_02: They take him off the cross on Friday, they put it very quickly put him into the grave, and then Sunday morning, Jesus' resurrection happens.
SPEAKER_02: It's an incredible miracle.
SPEAKER_02: I know we use the word miracle a lot.
SPEAKER_02: I know it's kind of muddied down, but it's crazy, everyone.
SPEAKER_02: Just the idea that the resurrection, the physical resurrection of Jesus happened.
SPEAKER_02: It was crazy back then, it's crazy today, everyone.
SPEAKER_02: And it changes.
SPEAKER_02: If it's really true, it changes everything.
SPEAKER_02: It changes everything.
SPEAKER_02: It's so significant in those who call themselves, maybe the word Christian, maybe that's something you use.
SPEAKER_02: Some people say I'm a follower of Jesus, some say I'm a I'm a believer in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That that claim, if it's true, is so crazy over the top that for believers or followers of Jesus or Christians, it's so significant that every day is resurrection day.
SPEAKER_02: I need you to know that.
SPEAKER_02: Now, one of the things as the leader of this group of followers of Jesus, you hear me say this all the time, every day is resurrection day.
SPEAKER_02: Like a special day, one day out of the week is not enough.
SPEAKER_02: We celebrate every single Sunday that Jesus rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: It is the greatest significant event in human history.
SPEAKER_02: And listen, if it's true, if it's true, it changes everything in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Not only does it change the the present, it also changes your your past and definitely changes your future.
SPEAKER_02: If Jesus' resurrection is real, your sins can be forgiven, your mistakes, your missteps, your misgivings, your misunderstandings, your mishaps, miss mess ups have no binding authority in your past, present, and future.
SPEAKER_02: I heard a um a story about an elderly couple that went to Jerusalem on a tour, if you will.
SPEAKER_02: And and as the this husband and wife uh were on this tour tour, they were constantly fighting and bickering.
SPEAKER_02: You kind of, I think you understand those kind of couples that that's how they're just constantly fighting and jabbing at each other.
SPEAKER_02: And really the husband was kind of the source of this.
SPEAKER_02: He was just a grumpy old goat that was never happy.
SPEAKER_02: You know, those I'm kind of reaching into that season myself.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, it takes years to build up that kind of anger, everyone.
SPEAKER_02: So they're always they're they're always they're always fighting on this tour.
SPEAKER_02: Everyone can kind of recognize that this husband's kind of overbearing and the wife is just, you know, all smiles, but she she she argues back and forth.
SPEAKER_02: And unfortunately, this husband has a heart attack and dies on the tour in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: And so that just changes everything.
SPEAKER_02: The tour's off.
SPEAKER_02: And so uh the government gets involved.
SPEAKER_02: He's a foreigner, and so they hook the wife up with a funeral director, and so she has a meeting with the funeral director and says, uh, man, I need to get my husband back to the United States so I can bury him.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, ma'am, this is this is a very, very expensive.
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna cost$7,000 to ship your husband all the way home so you can bury him uh in the States.
SPEAKER_02: He says, I have a better option that people love to do, and that's I can bury your husband in Jerusalem, the land of the Messiah, the land of the apostles, the land of the prophets for$200.
SPEAKER_02: And she's she looked at the the funeral director and said, No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_02: I want to make sure that I bury my husband in uh the United States.
SPEAKER_02: And the funeral director is like, man, this is an incredible opportunity.
SPEAKER_02: Not not everyone can say that my husband or or my family uh was buried in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: And she says, No, no, no, I get it, but you need to understand 2,000 years ago they put a man in a grave and he was resurrected.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to make that kind of mistake.
SPEAKER_02: I want to make sure that my husband is dead dead.
SPEAKER_02: Was that an appropriate Easter joke?
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: But I told it to make a point.
SPEAKER_02: It's a it leads up to uh a question.
SPEAKER_02: Why is the empty empty tomb so important for us?
SPEAKER_02: Why is that?
SPEAKER_02: Why does everyone get so jazzed about that?
SPEAKER_02: Why do why do people uproot their lives and turn their culture and their belief system once they come to the realization of this incredible event happening?
SPEAKER_02: Why why does it affect a majority of the world even today?
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you're even here and you're like, I'm not a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: This is my first time in church.
SPEAKER_02: I got invited over to someone's house to eat a buttload of ham later, and they said this was a pre-reci replicate.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: I have helpers down front.
SPEAKER_02: I need it.
SPEAKER_02: Why is that?
SPEAKER_02: Why is it so important?
SPEAKER_02: Why has it changed so many lives?
SPEAKER_02: And it really comes down to something super important, and and you need to understand that the reason, and we'll dive right into this really, really importantly in just a moment, but there is a great need in our lives, probably the biggest, the biggest need.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus in John, uh, throughout John, is making the claim to be God.
SPEAKER_02: You'll see in just a moment that that throughout John, he is using the name of God.
SPEAKER_02: The name of God in the Old Testament as God Himself names him.
SPEAKER_02: The Israelites aren't naming him.
SPEAKER_02: God names himself.
SPEAKER_02: When asked, what should we call you?
SPEAKER_02: He calls himself the I Am.
SPEAKER_02: And that sounds weird to us.
SPEAKER_02: It sounded weird to the Hebrews who heard it first, because it's always, it was always connected to a great need that Israel had.
SPEAKER_02: When Israel was hungry or needed some kind of provision in their life, he would come in and say, I am the God Jehovah Jirah, meaning I am your provider.
SPEAKER_02: And likewise, Jesus does this in John, claiming not to be a prophet or a good teacher.
SPEAKER_02: He's claiming to be God.
SPEAKER_02: We find this throughout the Gospels that he's claiming to be God.
SPEAKER_02: We've looked at that over the last few weeks, as I told you, to those in John chapter 6, to those who are spiritually hungry.
SPEAKER_02: He said, I am the bread of life, to those who are in spiritual darkness.
SPEAKER_02: He says, I am the light in John 8, to those in John 10, to those who feel spiritually lost, he says, I am the door, to those who feel unloved, he says, I am the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_02: And when he made those claims, he he always backed them up with a miracle.
SPEAKER_02: It's one of the things you should recognize that Jesus is constantly walking into different situations with the purpose of healing people and redeeming people, supernatural power, but it's with a purpose.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus isn't just randomly trying to find people to heal, he's just taking opportunities to teach you something about him and the new kingdom that he's bringing in to establish here on earth and for eternity.
SPEAKER_02: And likewise, this is what's going on.
SPEAKER_02: And the issue that Jesus is tying this to is an issue we all deal with, and that's death.
SPEAKER_02: Death, though we may ignore it when we're younger, is something something we all deal with on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_02: Eventually we're gonna we're gonna show up in the same place that everyone shows up.
SPEAKER_02: It's as sociologists say, one of the greatest needs or one of the greatest fears that we have is death.
SPEAKER_02: That eventually we're all going to arrive there.
SPEAKER_02: The going rate for Americans is 100% death.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you've heard that before.
SPEAKER_02: We all die.
SPEAKER_02: We all come to a place where we look death in the face.
SPEAKER_02: And so John says in at the first part of chapter 11, John, John repeats what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus himself is saying this in a very, very sad situation that we're gonna walk into.
SPEAKER_02: A funeral that Jesus goes and and is and is a part of.
SPEAKER_02: He says, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_02: I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_02: That's significant again.
SPEAKER_02: That Jesus is saying, I am the God that can take care of the death problem in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Not only can I resurrect your life, I am the life.
SPEAKER_02: A crazy, auditious claim that he would make because we all have the fear of death, and maybe that's where you're at.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you've experienced, maybe you're not even older, but someone really close to you has died, and it's left a void in your life.
SPEAKER_02: It's a pain you've never thought you would ever experience.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it was your wife, maybe it was your child or schoolmate that you grew up with.
SPEAKER_02: We all are faced with it.
SPEAKER_01: And I think there's even a maybe a secondary need that is displayed here, and that's the disappointment of God.
SPEAKER_01: Where you're faced with the circumstances of sin and this world and destruction and disease.
SPEAKER_02: And you prayed because you believed in God.
SPEAKER_02: You prayed, you believed, and you trusted in him in nothing.
SPEAKER_02: So you lost the job.
SPEAKER_02: You lost your husband.
SPEAKER_02: You're losing your marriage.
SPEAKER_02: You've lost your child.
SPEAKER_02: And you're saying, where were you, God?
SPEAKER_02: When?
SPEAKER_02: It reminds me of a an interview that I saw with a very famo famous media mogul, Ted Turner.
SPEAKER_02: If if you're young here, you don't know who who he is, but he created uh TBS and CNN uh in the 80s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.
SPEAKER_02: He was kind of like the Elon Musk of the 80s, can I say it that way?
SPEAKER_02: Multi-billionaire, very powerful individual at the time when TV was at its heights uh in the 80s and 90s.
SPEAKER_02: What most people don't know is that Ted was a very devoted Christian when he was a young man in high school.
SPEAKER_02: His family went to church.
SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, Ted felt like he was called to be a missionary.
SPEAKER_02: But when Ted was 15 years old, his younger sister Mary, her name, um, oh I'm sorry, her age was 12, and she came down with a terrible, terrible disease called lupus.
SPEAKER_02: And Ted said that I would come home from school immediately, and I would sit with her in her bed and hold her hand and try to comfort her in some way.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, I I watched my 12-year-old sister, whom I love, go through pain and suffering for like two years, and eventually she she passed away.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, as a young man, I distinctly remembered my father who stood up and said, If this is the kind of God that I serve, I no longer want to serve him.
SPEAKER_02: And Ted told that story, and then he said this in the interview.
SPEAKER_02: I was taught that God was love and God was powerful, and I couldn't understand if that was true how someone so innocent should be allowed to suffer like that.
SPEAKER_02: I think we've all experienced pain on some level.
SPEAKER_02: And though we even looked to God, and we even maybe sang this song, Jesus Take the Wheels, but all we heard was crickets.
SPEAKER_02: God, why didn't you show up?
SPEAKER_02: Where were you when?
SPEAKER_02: How can I trust you after?
SPEAKER_02: And maybe these are the kind of questions you're asking.
SPEAKER_02: But I think you need to understand that Jesus is about to answer them in John chapter 11, and that's the good news today.
SPEAKER_02: That's the good news today.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if you turn with me in John chapter 11, the first part, you're gonna see that something horrific is going on with some very dear friends of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is with his disciples.
SPEAKER_02: He has friends Mary and Martha and Lazarus.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus loved everyone, but he did have kind of a really close circle with individuals.
SPEAKER_02: We don't know why Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus, but he considered Lazarus an incredibly close friend.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, some scholars would say they all kind of grew up together.
SPEAKER_02: They supported his ministry, they followed Jesus, they were uh a part of his inner circle.
SPEAKER_02: And we find that Lazarus is sick, like really sick, so sick that it's to the point where uh his sister Martha gives word, go find Jesus, because at this time Jesus is already doing miracles.
SPEAKER_02: The blind man can see uh people are being raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: He raises a little girl, multiple, multiple, multiple uh miracles.
SPEAKER_02: And so the word is out.
SPEAKER_02: Martha is a part of this, Martha and Mary are part of this inner circle.
SPEAKER_02: They know Jesus and who he is, and so they send word to Jesus, he's quite a ways distance away.
SPEAKER_02: And so the the the the the the the the herald um the the person with the message arrives and they tell Jesus, listen, Jesus, Lazarus is sick.
SPEAKER_02: I need you to come in here and do what you do.
SPEAKER_02: Come in and take care of my brother, the one that you love.
SPEAKER_02: And we find in verse 5 again that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
SPEAKER_02: And so when he heard that Lazarus, Lazarus was sick, he stayed two days longer in the place that he was.
SPEAKER_02: Now, those two things don't make a lot of sense, do though, do they?
SPEAKER_02: He loves these people, they're part of his family, if you will.
SPEAKER_02: And yet when he hears this incredible need, he hangs out for two more days.
SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, and you can imagine Martha and Mary waiting.
SPEAKER_02: Where's Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: I heard he walked on water.
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure he can triple speed his walking.
SPEAKER_02: Like, what's going on?
SPEAKER_02: And their brother dies.
SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, word comes that the brother dies.
SPEAKER_02: And it's interesting because the disciples are like, dude, what's up?
SPEAKER_02: Why are we hanging out here?
SPEAKER_02: We we we could have made that.
SPEAKER_02: Like, what in the world, Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: You could easily, I just I saw you do a miracle where you fe fed like 10,000 people in a prayer, and you just let this happen.
SPEAKER_02: And it's interesting because Jesus responds this way.
SPEAKER_02: He says, for your sake, I'm glad that I was not there.
SPEAKER_01: So that you may believe.
SPEAKER_01: Believe what?
SPEAKER_02: And again, Jesus is setting something up here, obviously.
SPEAKER_02: So that you.
SPEAKER_02: And he's not just talking about the disciples, he's talking about you here.
SPEAKER_02: That you would believe.
SPEAKER_02: So Jesus finally arrives at the household of the two sisters, and you can imagine.
SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, I believe scripture says that Martha went out to meet him.
SPEAKER_02: What that means is she's mad and she's double timing.
SPEAKER_02: Down the road.
SPEAKER_02: She's gonna have it out.
SPEAKER_02: She, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: I would like, if I'm gonna yell at Jesus, I'm gonna yell it down the road a ways, not wherever my family is.
SPEAKER_02: Not only Martha, but Mary also.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus gets it double.
SPEAKER_02: And Martha runs up to Jesus and asks the question that I think we're all asking in this world of confusion and pain and destruction.
SPEAKER_02: Martha says to Jesus, Lord, if you Jesus, if you had been here.
SPEAKER_02: My brother would not have died.
SPEAKER_02: If you, Jesus, who claim to be the resurrection and the life, if you were here, my heart wouldn't be broken.
SPEAKER_02: My brother wouldn't be dead in the ground.
SPEAKER_02: Scholars say that there's really four things that are going on here that I think we need that really tell us about what Jesus, the message Jesus is trying to give you, me, and the people that are at this funeral.
SPEAKER_02: The first thing is just simply the word tears.
SPEAKER_02: Can I say it that way?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus doesn't score or scold Martha and Mary.
SPEAKER_02: He even doesn't really reveal what he's about to do.
SPEAKER_02: We just find when Jesus arrives and everyone is mourning, and the sisters are weeping over their beloved brother.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus takes a moment in all of this and he weeps with them.
SPEAKER_02: What's significant in John chapter 11, verse 35, that we find that there's a portion of scripture.
SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, it's the the shortest portion of scripture.
SPEAKER_02: I had to memorize five scripture verses uh for vacation Bible school when I was 10.
SPEAKER_02: This was one of them.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you are guilty like me of this.
SPEAKER_02: But but it's a significant that so that you will believe, so that you may believe that's how important this is.
SPEAKER_02: That he weeps and feels your pain.
SPEAKER_02: It's conf the tears of Jesus are confusing because ten minutes later, by the way, if you don't know this story, he's about to raise Lazarus from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna give you the plot here.
SPEAKER_02: And yet he doesn't say, Hey Martha, relax.
SPEAKER_02: Girl, I got it.
SPEAKER_02: I'm all powerful.
SPEAKER_02: I spit the stars into existence, I created Lazarus, I could end Lazarus, and in just a moment, I'm gonna take all this pain away.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't even do that, he sits and weeps with Martha and Mary.
SPEAKER_02: The reason that is, is you just need to understand.
SPEAKER_02: David says in Psalms that he created us, knew us before we were even born, knitted us together.
SPEAKER_02: And let me just say that his heart is knitted with yours.
SPEAKER_02: So that pain you're feeling, even though he knows, there's probably not a big difference between a thousand years and ten minutes with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He created time, he can even see the resolution for your life.
SPEAKER_02: Scripture says that he'll take the ashes of your life that either you created or someone else created or the environment of the world created, and he can fashion, make, gather them up, inject joy into them and create a beautiful crown to place on your head.
SPEAKER_02: And yet in the moment of that pain, he's there with understanding.
SPEAKER_02: It's important that the God of the universe weeps with you.
SPEAKER_02: You need to have that understanding that the emotions you are feeling are not wrong.
SPEAKER_02: It's painful to live in this kind of world.
SPEAKER_02: It's not right.
SPEAKER_02: It's what destruction and sin has created in our life.
SPEAKER_02: And yet we are part of a God who understands and weeps with us, even though he knows the resolution to your issue.
SPEAKER_01: It's also not wrong to be angry.
SPEAKER_02: We find as Jesus spends a moment weeping with the sisters, he walks to the tomb where his friend and her their brother lies, and the atmosphere changes.
SPEAKER_02: We find this in scripture.
SPEAKER_02: When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping at the middle of a funeral, everyone, he was deeply moved in spirit and greatly troubled.
SPEAKER_02: Now you need to understand something here, that this is not a great translation.
SPEAKER_02: What people think here with deeply moved, meaning that Jesus had a heartfelt moment with the with that's that's that's not what's going on here.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to say this is a bad translation.
SPEAKER_02: We just don't have an English translation of this.
SPEAKER_02: It means Jesus becomes angered, he becomes furious as he stands in front of the tomb.
SPEAKER_02: Like an atmosphere has shifted.
SPEAKER_02: And so Jesus boldly walks to the tomb deeply furious.
SPEAKER_02: Scholars would say, like the closest to a translation would be the snorting like an animal, like a bull ready to charge.
SPEAKER_02: You ever see these muscle men who these big monsters of individuals, they do these big deadlifts with 5,000 pounds.
SPEAKER_02: I don't even know how big they are.
SPEAKER_02: And they'll psych themselves up and the veins stop, they start screaming, and the the paint, the veins are like bulging in their foreheads, and they they they psych themselves up and they grab hold of that weight and they lift that thing up.
SPEAKER_02: So what's going on here?
SPEAKER_02: Scholars say that John Kelvin says that Jesus is walking into the ring.
SPEAKER_02: It's one thing to have a weeping friend with me who understands.
SPEAKER_02: But I'm here to tell you right now, more importantly, I need a conquering hero.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus and death have a standoff.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus walks to the tomb and becomes angry, greatly troubled, as a warrior about to take on, walking into the ring to fight with this demonic presence called death.
SPEAKER_02: The great stealer and thief and robber that is introduced by sin into this world that we all experience.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus walks into the ring.
SPEAKER_02: You can imagine music going on.
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't the instrumental, what a friend we have in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't that.
SPEAKER_02: It was like Rocky.
SPEAKER_02: You understand what I'm saying here?
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus is mad.
SPEAKER_02: He's angered.
SPEAKER_02: And he takes on death.
SPEAKER_02: Hey everyone, I want to give you a heads up.
SPEAKER_02: Some uh a lie that the world will tell you that death is natural.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing natural about it.
SPEAKER_02: You should not be ever okay with death.
SPEAKER_02: You should always be angered in the face of injustice and suffering.
SPEAKER_02: That is a right idea.
SPEAKER_02: We were not created to experience death.
SPEAKER_02: It is a a consequence of sin.
SPEAKER_02: It should be something you're angry with.
SPEAKER_02: You were not created to experience it.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing that I'm so tired of the world kind of whitewashing this idea like a hallmark where we all have to die something.
SPEAKER_02: It's not the way that Jesus created us at the beginning, it's the consequences of death in our life.
SPEAKER_02: And we should have those kind of feelings when we leave our or when someone leaves our life that we love.
SPEAKER_02: And it's okay to be angry, it's a circle of life.
SPEAKER_02: And then I think we move on.
SPEAKER_02: Disney demonic ideas.
SPEAKER_02: And so Jesus comes in to conquer death.
SPEAKER_02: He came down to beat down and erase the power of death.
SPEAKER_02: And you need to understand something significant is going on that other leaders or prophets or even false messiahs would be, because the world is full of different people.
SPEAKER_02: A couple weeks ago, I told you there are not many paths to God.
SPEAKER_02: And all the great politicians, all the great uh religious leaders never had this capability.
SPEAKER_02: Not Moses, not Abraham, not Buddha, not Muhammad, not Joseph Smith, not George Washington, not Abraham Lincoln, though.
SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of us would like that our Abraham Lincoln didn't die.
SPEAKER_02: But they all died.
SPEAKER_02: And about half of them you can visit where they're at.
SPEAKER_02: It's okay to be angry at death.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is.
SPEAKER_02: But it brings up also a truth that Jesus reveals to the sisters.
SPEAKER_02: He says in verse 25, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_02: And whoever believes in me, though he die, he dies, yet shall he live.
SPEAKER_02: And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
SPEAKER_02: And you need to understand what Jesus is saying here is not that Christians aren't going to die.
SPEAKER_02: What he's saying is that death is not final.
SPEAKER_02: The effects of death are not final.
SPEAKER_02: In this case, in the physical and also in the spiritual and the eternal.
SPEAKER_02: Poor Lazarus, he's been dead for four days.
SPEAKER_02: He's hanging out with God in paradise.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever thought about that?
SPEAKER_02: Four days in, he's probably setting up furniture, getting it all set in his mansion.
SPEAKER_02: He's playing basketball with King David, who has an incredible hoop shot or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: I don't even know what that is.
SPEAKER_02: Jump shot.
SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, he hears this ring on the door, and he opens the door, and there's this sheepish kind of angel.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, uh Lazarus, man, I'm really sorry about this.
SPEAKER_02: We got it kind of messed up.
SPEAKER_02: Uh the big guy downstairs needs you to come back.
SPEAKER_02: I need you to come with me.
SPEAKER_02: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_02: It's almost like probably for Lazarus.
SPEAKER_02: C.S.
SPEAKER_02: Lewis points to this that it's like a bad dream that you wake up from.
SPEAKER_02: This world we live in.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever had a dream and you're like, this feels so real, so real, so real.
SPEAKER_02: And then you wake up and your wife is not a camel.
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, stop looking at your wives, man.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you're gonna ruin your Easter meal.
SPEAKER_02: Gentlemen, look straight ahead.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_02: You're like, whoo, thank goodness.
SPEAKER_02: And you had that feeling, oh, it was just a dream.
SPEAKER_02: Just a dream.
SPEAKER_02: That's what C.S.
SPEAKER_02: Lewis says.
SPEAKER_02: When we uh finally arrive where Jesus turns everything right, we'll look back on our life and say, that was like a bad night in a hotel.
SPEAKER_02: You ever have that?
SPEAKER_02: You get up, you take a shower, I just gotta get all this hotel stuff off of me.
SPEAKER_02: I'm never staying there again.
SPEAKER_02: It's like a bad dream.
SPEAKER_02: You kind of, as the day goes on, you start to forget about all those things.
SPEAKER_02: And the reason is because that's what that's what Jesus is saying in the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna set everything right.
SPEAKER_02: In the resurrection, God is actually undoing the damage that our sin caused, and it all becomes untrue.
SPEAKER_02: And so greatly troubled, nice words.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus stands furiously in front of the tomb of his friend, battling death, and he prays a prayer, and he doesn't need to, but he prays a prayer verbally so that they can hear him.
SPEAKER_02: And he prays this prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Do this, Father, so they will believe that you sent me.
SPEAKER_02: I think it's in verse 38.
SPEAKER_02: He speaks those words of power, battling and destroying death, and he says, Lazarus, come out.
SPEAKER_02: And resurrection power brings Lazarus back to life.
SPEAKER_02: And he walks out to the joy of his sisters, and all who experience that.
SPEAKER_02: What a powerful moment.
SPEAKER_02: What a powerful visionary.
SPEAKER_02: Unfortunately, this is not the end of the story in a way.
SPEAKER_02: We find that at the end of chapter 11, because the religious elite, the Pharisees, Sadducees, the religious elite of the Jewish people find out about this miracle.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, there's a whole string of them.
SPEAKER_02: But this is a big one.
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of people that witness this miracle.
SPEAKER_02: We find in Scripture that they begin to plan out the death of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: They actually say this in verse 53.
SPEAKER_02: They made plans to put him to death.
SPEAKER_02: They got to the point of dealing with Jesus, but they were thinking to themselves, this guy's not going to stop.
SPEAKER_02: We have to kill him.
SPEAKER_02: Scholars say that by disrupting this funeral, he actually is starting his own.
SPEAKER_02: In chapter 12, and as we move in, we find that Jesus moves into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: We typically call that celebration Palm Sunday, but eventually he's going to the to the Passover or the Last Supper.
SPEAKER_02: And then on that Friday, he's going to go to the cross and pay for our sins.
SPEAKER_02: By conducting this miracle to show us who he is, it actually starts the road to the cross.
SPEAKER_02: Now you need to understand that the fourth thing that is very important in this story is just simply grace.
SPEAKER_02: That because he went to the cross, it was in place of us.
SPEAKER_02: Now you need to understand that every single Sunday we preach the gospel in one form or another here at Northiron.
SPEAKER_02: It's the most important understanding.
SPEAKER_02: I oftentimes will say to people every decision you make in life is a gospel decision, though you know it or not.
SPEAKER_02: And understanding who Jesus is and the way he created you and the redemption he's applied in your life that we're celebrating today.
SPEAKER_02: The victory over death that Jesus shows us as they place him in the grave, and three days later, he's alive, spends 40 days with his disciples, teaching them.
SPEAKER_02: Scripture says over 500 people saw him, and then he's ascended publicly into heaven.
SPEAKER_02: It should radically change your thinking.
SPEAKER_02: The consequences of sin, we know, is death.
SPEAKER_02: I'll say it this way: whenever you sin against God and rebel against God, death always follows in one form or another.
SPEAKER_02: You sin in your marriage, death will come into your marriage.
SPEAKER_02: We call that divorce.
SPEAKER_02: You sin at your job, death will come, and you'll be fired.
SPEAKER_02: Death always follows sin.
SPEAKER_02: And that curse is upon you.
SPEAKER_02: That curse is upon you.
SPEAKER_02: It's much like I tried to figure out how I could represent my sin, so I got the biggest book I have.
SPEAKER_02: This is gonna be a short, because this thing's gotta be 50 pounds.
SPEAKER_02: This is me down here, this is God up here.
SPEAKER_02: And even though I'm a follower of Jesus, Lord, I can't even hold this.
SPEAKER_02: Even though I'm following Jesus, my sin, my curse of sin, which is death, is always between me and God.
SPEAKER_02: And no matter if I feel like I'm doing well or I'm not doing well, that curse is always there.
SPEAKER_02: What God did is he allowed his son to come and be the sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02: The Lamb, the shedding of his blood, it allows God to take my punishment, my curse of sin, and to be placed on Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's important for you to understand that you can have freedom and right relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: Because scripture says that he took all of our sin, our disobedience, our misunderstandings, our missteps, I like to call it the junk and funk of our lives.
SPEAKER_02: And he placed it on Jesus to carry it, not you.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah, who was a prophet before Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Hundreds and hundreds of years for the people of Israel said this about Jesus on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah 53, 5.
SPEAKER_02: The punishment that brought us peace would be put upon him.
SPEAKER_02: So by his stripes we could be healed.
SPEAKER_02: That's a promise to you that you can step freely into.
SPEAKER_02: Thought about Barabbas.
SPEAKER_02: Most of you know the story.
SPEAKER_02: Where the Jewish people were able to choose Barabbas, a murderer, or choose Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: They chose Barabbas and they crucified Jesus in front of Pontius Pilate.
SPEAKER_02: I never really understood kind of that scene until I understood that I'm Barabbas.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus took my place and gave me freedom.
SPEAKER_02: And yet it always seems like we're in the second day of waiting.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know what I mean by that?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus goes to the cross on Friday.
SPEAKER_02: The disciples thought it's over.
SPEAKER_02: They're hiding.
SPEAKER_02: They're scared.
SPEAKER_02: They're disillusioned.
SPEAKER_02: Saturday must have been a really rough day.
SPEAKER_02: And why didn't Jesus just resurrect the next day and take away all that pain for the disciples?
SPEAKER_02: But he doesn't.
SPEAKER_02: And I can't fully understand that other than to show you what's going on in chapter 11.
SPEAKER_02: And it might even feel like you're in the second day of waiting, like it's Saturday for you.
SPEAKER_02: But I need you to understand that he loves you and he weeps with you.
SPEAKER_02: Sunday mornings coming, everyone.
SPEAKER_02: Now, maybe you're at that place where you're saying, Where are you God?
SPEAKER_02: Where are you God?
SPEAKER_02: But in that, maybe that doubt or that question, I need you to know that there's a there's a promise attached.
SPEAKER_02: Do you believe this?
SPEAKER_02: In John chapter 11, again, Jesus says, everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
SPEAKER_02: John, in the first chapter of the book that you're reading, there, he says, This in chapter 1, verse 12, very important.
SPEAKER_02: Very important for you and me.
SPEAKER_02: But as many as receive him, meaning Jesus, to them he gave the power to become children of God to those who believe in his name.
SPEAKER_02: So this is what I want to ask you this morning.
SPEAKER_02: Now close.
SPEAKER_02: Across all of our campuses.
SPEAKER_02: What does it mean to receive him?
SPEAKER_02: Receiving him is like a receiving a gift.
SPEAKER_02: You didn't pay for it.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing that you can do to receive it other than to recognize humbly that you're not deserving of this gift.
SPEAKER_02: There's a humbleness that has to come with receiving this in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Just like you receive a gift.
SPEAKER_02: Just like on your wedding day, when a bride and groom stand there, and the groom says, I want to go with you to the bride.
SPEAKER_02: Or the bride, sorry, says to the groom, I want to go with you.
SPEAKER_02: Let's do this together.
SPEAKER_02: And they make vows to each other, a commitment to each other, and they begin to walk together.
SPEAKER_02: That's what it's like with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing you can do religiously.
SPEAKER_02: You don't receive something because your grandma received something, or your parents received something, or you went through some confirmation class, or you're baptized as an infant.
SPEAKER_02: You receive something like a gift.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I know how messed up I am.
SPEAKER_02: And the only thing that can rectify this, Lord, is I received the gift of life from you because of what you did on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: So I need you, I understand my sin.
SPEAKER_02: I see it, I know it.
SPEAKER_02: So Lord, I'm gonna give you this in exchange for life.
SPEAKER_02: Exchange for you forgiving me my sins, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: I want to walk with you.
SPEAKER_02: That's the message of Easter.
SPEAKER_02: That's the message of chapter 11.
SPEAKER_02: He overcame death so that you could have life.
SPEAKER_02: And sin has no authority in your life anymore.
SPEAKER_02: Death has no authority in your life anymore.
SPEAKER_02: You have freedom and have the power to become the children of God because of what Jesus did on the cross and in the grave.
SPEAKER_02: And so we celebrate that.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to celebrate that.
SPEAKER_02: And if you don't know who he is, Scripture says it's easy.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you haven't made that decision.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you don't recognize your own sin.
SPEAKER_02: It says everyone has sinned.
SPEAKER_02: I've sinned, you have sinned.
SPEAKER_02: And the only way you're gonna find reconciliation with God the Father, and by the way, this is why your heart, this is who your heart longs for.
SPEAKER_02: You filled it with so many different things that again and again and again, we like to say it here, the new car smell goes away, everyone.
SPEAKER_02: The only thing that completely can satisfy you in this world is Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He knitted you together, his heart and your heart and spirit are intertwined, and you'll never find satisfaction unless you receive this into your life, and simply you begin to walk with him.
SPEAKER_02: Scripture says if you believe, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and that you ask for forgiveness, he sees that and a transformation happens in your life.
SPEAKER_02: He gives you a new spirit.
SPEAKER_02: You won't look the same way.
SPEAKER_02: Well, some of you will, but you won't see things the same way.
SPEAKER_02: You won't believe your eyes and ears, your spirit will be open to the truth of who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_02: And he begins a transformation work in your mind, your spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And sin has no authority anymore in your life.
SPEAKER_02: So I want you to bow your heads with me.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna close this way.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna pray over you.
SPEAKER_02: Not gonna ask you to do anything, but I want you to think about do you believe?
SPEAKER_02: And if you do believe, then I want you to confess Jesus' Lord in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Ask him to forgive you of your sins.
SPEAKER_02: When that great exchange, as they say it, happens, he creates something new in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Father, right now, Lord, I know you're here.
SPEAKER_02: Your spirit is here.
SPEAKER_02: You promised us your spirit would be here.
SPEAKER_02: He's doing his work right now.
SPEAKER_02: Your word has been spoken, Father.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, right now, people are at your feet receiving, Lord, confessing your Lordship in their life.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, asking them, you to be savior, asking, asking for the forgiveness of their sins, confessing those sins to you, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: It says that your just, Father, your justice will come in and take our sin and place it upon you, Father.
SPEAKER_02: And you'll carry that, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: You'll forgive it.
SPEAKER_02: It says that you cast it from the farthest reaches of our imagination.
SPEAKER_02: And God creates us as his children, gives us a new spirit, a new understanding, a new belief.
SPEAKER_02: And so, Lord, we surrender that to you, Father, right now.
SPEAKER_02: We give our lives to you, Lord, and we receive yours.
SPEAKER_02: We love you.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you that you are the resurrection, the life, the way, the truth, Father.
SPEAKER_02: We believe, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: So, Lord, we ask all of this on this Easter morning in your mighty, powerful, redemptive resurrection name.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus, a master is the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_02: And Father, we ask all these things in your mighty name.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for this message.
SPEAKER_00: For past sermons and giving week and more.
SPEAKER_00: Check out the footnotes below or visit our website at northiron.church.
SPEAKER_00: We hope to see you soon.