The Resurrection
From the Series—Creed
April 13, 2004This evotional continues the Creed series. We’ve explored the Bible, the Creation, and the Cross. This week’s evotional focuses on the Resurrection.
The Resurrection
In John 11, a friend of Jesus named Lazarus gets sick and dies. By the time Jesus returns to Bethany, Lazarus has been dead four days. Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die.” Then Jesus walks out to the tomb and says, “Lazarus, come forth!” And Lazarus is raised from the dead.
We believe Jesus is who he said he was—“the resurrection and the life.” Our faith isn’t grounded in philosophy or theology. Our faith isn’t grounded in a bunch of religious rules and regulations. Our faith isn’t even grounded in doctrines and creeds. Our faith is grounded in a factual and historical event called the resurrection. 2,000 years ago the Son of God was crucified and buried and raised to life on the third day. And what I want you to see via this evotional is that the resurrection isn’t something we celebrate once a year. The resurrection is something that ought to totally revolutionize your outlook on life day in and day out.
God’s Grammar
Mary and Martha send a message to Jesus letting him know that Lazarus is sick. I think it’s safe to assume that they want Jesus to come and heal their brother. We pick up the story in John 11:4. “When he heard this, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.’ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus; and yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.” You would think that he would drop everything and go help his friend, but he doesn’t. Then he says in verse 14, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Jesus says, “This sickness will not end in death.” But the truth is: Lazarus dies. To be perfectly honest this used to bother me because it seems like Jesus was wrong. Then I happened to hear a sermon titled God’s Grammar and I’ll never forget one statement: never put a comma where God puts a period and never put a period where God puts a comma.
I was putting a period where Jesus puts a comma. Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death.” The key word is “end.” It doesn’t end in death does it? Lazarus is raised from the dead. Oswald Chambers said, “Sometimes it looks like God is missing the mark because we’re too short-sighted to see what He’s aiming for.”
But that still begs the question: why wait? Why doesn’t Jesus drop everything, return to Bethany, and keep Lazarus from dying by healing him?
Impossible Odds
There is a pattern that I see repeated throughout Scripture: sometimes God won’t intervene until something is humanly impossible. Read that again.
I think it reveals part of God’s personality. I think God loves impossible odds. And I can relate to that.
I think one of the most exhilarating things in the world is doing something that no one thinks you can do. As a kid I turned everything into a competition. I loved a challenge. We’d be driving in the car and I’d say something like, “Do you think I can hold my breath for one mile?” Or we’d be taking a walk and I’d say, “Do you think I can jump three sidewalk squares?” Or we’d be eating dinner and I’d say, “Do you think I can eat this Ice Cream Sundae in thirty seconds?”
If someone said, “Yes,” I wouldn’t even bother trying. What’s the point of doing something that someone thinks you can do? So I’d usually up the ante or raise the stakes. “Do you think I can hold my breath for two miles?”
I’d raise the stakes and finally when no one thought it was possible I would attempt the impossible. One of the greatest highs in the world is doing what no one thinks you can do.
I think God loves impossible odds. He loves doing what is humanly impossible. I think Erwin McManus is right when he says that God may actually “leverage all odds against you, just so that you know that is wasn’t your gifts but His power through your gifts that fulfilled His purpose in your life.”
The story of Gideon is a great example.
1,000,000:1
Gideon has an army of 32,000 men and they are vastly outnumbered by the Midianites. Judges 6:5 says it was “impossible to count” them. So that odds are already at least 100:1. Then the Lord says, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands.” If I’m Gideon I’m thinking God misspoke. “You said ‘too many’ but what you really meant to say was ‘too few’.”
The Lord says, “You heard me right. You’ve got too many men.” And He tells Gideon to get rid of anyone who is afraid. Gideon loses 2/3rds of his army—22,000 out of 32,000 go home! He’s left with ten thousand. And the odds are up to 10,000:1.
Then the Lord says in verse 4, “There are still too many men.” So God devises a test. Gideon’s army goes to get a drink of water and God tells him to get rid of the men who drink like a dog and another 9,700 are eliminated. Gideon is left with an “army” of 300 men. And the odds go up to 1,000,000:1.
And it gets better! God tells them to attack the Midianites with trumpets and jars! You gotta be kidding me! What kind of battle plan is that? Here’s the funny thing: Israel wins!
Why does God do it that way? Judges 7:2 tells us why. God defeats the Midianites with 300 Israelites instead of 32,000 Israelites so that “ Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her.”
If Gideon had attacked with 32,000 and won I’m pretty sure the Israelites would have thanked God for “lending them a hand.” God would have gotten partial credit. But that’s not what God wants or deserves. God wants and deserves full credit. And when 300 men defeat an army that is impossible to count with trumpets and jars, you get all the glory!
Here is my theory.
Jesus could have run to the rescue. He could have healed Lazarus. But Jesus had been there and done that. I think Jesus wanted to reveal more of his glory. And sometimes for God to reveal more of His glory, things have to go from bad to worse. A situation has to become humanly impossible. And that is exactly what happens. Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days! And Jesus says in verse 14, “Lazarus is dead, and for you sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.”
I think Jesus could have healed Lazarus and the level of faith would have bumped up a notch or two. But when you raise someone who has been dead four days the level of faith is exponentially increased—you’re never the same!
I don’t think any of us like being in situations that are humanly impossible, but that is how God reveals his glory. Impossible situations are divine opportunities! You can’t have a resurrection without a crucifixion.
Preventative Faith
John 11:17 says, “On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.” So Jesus walks back into a situation where Mary and Martha have been mourning for four days and no doubt wondering why Jesus wasn’t there!
Let me juxtapose Mary and Martha and notice their different responses. Verse 32 records Mary’s reaction. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Now here is Martha’s response in verse 21. She says exactly what Mary says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But she takes it one step further. She says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
I think this passage reveals two different kinds of faith. I think Mary had what I would call preventative faith. There was no doubt in her mind that Jesus could have come and kept Lazarus from dying.
Let me define preventative faith. Preventative faith is faith in God’s ability to prevent something from happening.
Preventative faith is great. I pray a “hedge of protection” around my kids all the time. I think a lot of us pray for traveling mercies. I prayed that it wouldn’t rain on our Easter Eggstravaganza this past weekend. There is even a line in the Lord’s Prayer that says, “Lead us not into temptation.” It is a preventative prayer. I think that kind of faith is great. But I think there is another level of faith beyond preventative faith. I call it die hard faith.
Die Hard Faith
Martha says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” So she has preventative faith just like Martha. But then she says something that is absolutely astounding to me. She says, “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Die hard faith is faith that God can reverse the irreversible! And I think that is whole different ballgame when it comes to faith. Let me give you an example.
One of my favorite phrases in Scripture is found in Romans 4:18. It says, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations.” It says, “Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.”
I love that phrase, “Against all hope.” Sarah had stopped ovulating. The natural window of opportunity had closed. You don’t reverse the effects of aging. But that is exactly what God does. Abraham and Sarah have a child because they have die hard faith.
Die hard faith is faith in God’s ability to reverse the irreversible. In the case of Abraham and Sarah it is faith that God would give them a child despite the physical realities.
In the case of Martha, her brother has been dead for four days but she is still holding out hope. That is die hard faith in the most literal sense!
Eternal Optimists
Let me hit the pause button and share two personal convictions. Jesus said in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.” That one verse is so full of realism and so full of optimism.
Here are my two convictions. I think, as followers of Christ, we ought to be the most realistic people on the planet. Jesus is saying, “Just because you follow me doesn’t mean that you are exempt or immune to problems.” I don’t think faith means that we are “out of touch with reality.” Romans 4:18 says that Abraham, “Faced the fact that is body was as good as dead.”
We ought to be the most realistic people on the planet. But we also ought to be the most optimistic people on the planet, by virtue of the resurrection! If Jesus can raise the dead then all bets are off. The resurrection totally redefines what is and what is not possible!
The word “overcome” in John 16:33 is the same word that is used in Romans 8:37 where it says we are “more than conquerors.” I love the way Oswald Chambers describes the implications. “No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of God in a human spirit, it is an inner unconquerableness.”
We ought to be eternal optimists! And that optimism isn’t some life insurance policy that we invoke on our deathbed. It is something that infuses every day and every situation with optimism.
The Fork
Several years ago I heard a story about a woman named Martha. She was one of the oldest and most faithful members of her church. She went to see the doctor and was diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live. The first person she told was her pastor because she wanted to make arrangements for her funeral.
For several hours, Martha and her pastor planned every detail of her funeral and just before leaving, Martha made one final request. She said, “Pastor, when they bury me, I want my old Bible in one hand and a fork in the other.”
It seemed like a strange request, but Martha explained.
“Pastor I have been to hundred of church dinners and banquets over the years and almost without exception, after the meal, a host or hostess would come by to collect our dirty dishes and I always waited for the words, ‘you can keep your fork’ because I knew that the best was yet to come. Dessert was about to be served. When people come to my funeral, they will undoubtedly ask why I have a fork in one hand. And pastor, that is when I want you to tell them I kept my fork because the best is yet to come!”
For a follower of Christ that is always true: the best is yet to come!
Hebrews 10:35 says, “So do not throw away your confidence. It will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.”
Irreversible
When I was a sophomore in college, I blew out my knee in the last game of our basketball season. I went to the doctor for a diagnosis and he said I tore my anterior cruciate ligament. I asked him how long it’d take to heal. He said, “Never.” I’ll never forget the feeling of finality—the damage was done and there was nothing I could do to change it. I learned a lesson the hard way that day: some things in life are irreversible. You can’t untear a ligament.
For what it’s worth, I’ve also learned from personal experience that you can’t undelete documents, unbake cookies, uncut hair or unrun red lights. Some things in life are irreversible. But the good news is that something happened 2,000 years ago that changes everything. On a Sunday morning, three days after Jesus was crucified, God reversed the irreversible.
The Question
Let me finish where we started.
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live even though he dies.” Then Jesus asks the question: “Do you believe this?”
Your answer to that question will determine your eternal destiny.
Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you shall be saved.”