He Is The Resurrection and the Life

Christian Shields

Introduction

Matthew 28:1–7 NKJV

Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.

But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”

This is the Word of the Lord, Amen?

•     HE IS RISEN! (He is risen indeed!)

•     Today we celebrate the greatest day in History!

•     If it were not for Easter, there would be no hope for mankind.

•     If it were not for Easter, I would still be dead in my sin.

•     If it were not for Easter, as Paul says in First Corinthians, we Christians would be the most pitiful people in the World.

•     But because of that Empty Cross, and because of that Empty Grave… we are not pitiful, instead we are VICTORIOUS. We are FREE. We are Forgiven. We are more than Conquerors. We have hope eternal and life eternal.

•     The resurrection proved two of the most fundamental truths of Christianity… that Christ is God and that Death is not final.

•     THE IMPORTANCE OF EASTER CAN NOT BE OVERSTATED.

•     And yet, church… I hate preaching on Easter… It is my least favorite Sunday of the whole year to preach on…

•     It took me a while to put my finger on why I loath preaching Easter… but it came to me as I pondered the sentence “He is Risen”.

•     Let me read you three verses to give you some context, one of them we just read…

Matthew 28:6 NKJV

He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

Mark 16:6 NKJV

But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.

Luke 24:6 NKJV

He is not here, but [He] is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee,

•     Okay, one more time church. HE IS RISEN!

•     As I was researching this phrase, as the Lord prompted me… He is Risen… I realized my problem with Easter Sunday…

•     I feel like on Easter Sunday we celebrate an event that happened in the past.

•     We remember a thing that took place… like birthdays.

•     On January 23rd every year I celebrate that I was born.

•     On July 7th we celebrate that Amanda was born.

•     On December 25th  we celebrate that Jesus was born.

•     And that is fine, a day to remember a thing that happened.

•     But it doesn’t sit right for me for Easter… because it is not that Jesus WAS risen, it is that Jesus IS Risen. HE IS RISEN!

•     I will talk more about that in a moment, but let me get to the key verse for today’s message… not from the Easter story, but one that frames the Easter story in a way that I think is worthy of getting excited about…

John 11:25 NKJV

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.

Title Slide – He Is The Resurrection and the Life

•     Today I want to talk about the simple fact that Jesus IS the Resurrection and Jesus IS the life. Let’s get into it with point one this morning.

Point One – Jesus is the Resurrection

Matthew 28:6 NKJV

He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

•     Okay, one more time “He is Risen!!!!”

•     This phrase in scripture is such an interesting one… because it is actually a mistranslation.

•     Last week I busted on the KJV for mistranslating the word “divination” but this week I think I am going to give the KJV translators credit for this mistranslation…

•     The phrase written in Greek is actually “He has risen”

•     But the KJV translators made the theological decision to intentionally translate this as “He IS Risen” because they felt like the English word “has” was too dismissive… They rightfully assert here that the resurrection is not something that happened to Jesus, but it is WHO JESUS IS.

•     You see Lazarus… Lazarus WAS resurrected… that was a part of Lazarus’ life… an AMAZING part, for sure… but just a part. He WAS resurrected… But the truth is, there is a grave some where in Israel with Lazarus bones in them.

•     I mean, sucks for his family… they had to plan two funerals for the man!

•     But not Jesus. Jesus is ALIVE… My best friend is ALIVE… He is not dead.

•     My Savior is Alive… not WAS alive but is alive.

•     My God is ALIVE… STILL JUST AS MUCH THE RESURECTION SOME 2000 YEARS LATER AS HE WAS THAT FIRST EASTER MORNING IN FRONT OF A RICH MAN’S EMPTY TOMB.

•     And by the way, let’s talk about “My God is Alive” for a second… When Jesus said this, He was saying something that seemed crazy…

John 11:25 NKJV

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.

•     When moses asked God “What should I tell people if they ask what Your name is” God responded “I AM THAT I AM… thus you shall say “I AM” sent you”.

•     Literally the name of God is “I AM” YHWH… when Jesus said “I AM the resurrection” He used the emphatic form of the Greek words… not the casual form… In Greek you can say “I am a tent maker” or “I am hungry”… but when you say “I am” you use the casual form, the emphatic form, especially for a Jew, was ONLY used when talking about God, and even then you are very careful how you use it because it was a crime to use it wrongly.

•     When Jesus said “I AM the Resurrection and the Life” He was not just claiming to be powerful enough to resurrect Lazarus, He was claiming to be God.

•     And let me just give you some context, because what Jesus was saying to Martha in this moment, He needs to say to some of us this easter morning…

•     So when Jesus said this to Martha they were talking about this man who had died, Lazarus… and Martha asks Jesus to do something about it

John 11:21–22 NKJV

Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”

•     Martha says “I know that if you ask God… because you are such a great prophet, such a great teacher… that if you ask God to resurrect Lazarus, that God will do it for you”.

•     And it is as if Jesus says “Ask God?! ASK GOD? I don’t need to ASK GOD to resurrect Lazarus… I AM THE RESURRECTION… I don’t need to ask God to resurrect anyone… I AM GOD… I AM THE RESSURECTION… I AM THE FOUNTIAN OF LIFE…

•     Now of course Jesus the Son talks to the Father… and God the Father talks to God the Son… but in this moment Jesus want’s to make it very clear… HE IS The Resurrection. HE IS RISEN.

•     Now, when the stone was rolled away from Lazarus tomb and  Lazarus came out… I bet you that I AM statement made a little more sense to those watching… It probably seemed a little less strange… a little less crazy… a little less blasphemous…

•     And when the stone was rolled away from Jesus tomb and Jesus came out… Well now there is no doubt. HE IS GOD. HE IS YHWY. HE IS THE GREAT I AM.… HE IS RISEN!

•     But wait… there is another stone that has been rolled away… because when He rolled the stone away from MY TOMB… AND I CAME OUT OF THAT TOMB A NEW CREATION… NOW THERE IS NO DOUBT IN MY MIND AND THERE WILL NEVER BE A DOUBT!

•     JESUS IS GOD! JESUS RAISED ME FROM THE DEAD. JESUS IS THE RESURECTION…

•     If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus like that I wonder if you have seen Him roll enough stones away.

•     Because maybe you believe that Jesus rolled the stone away from Lazarus tomb… and maybe you believe that the stone was rolled away from Jesus tomb on the third day…

•     BUT HAVE YOU SEEN HIM ROLL THE STONE AWAY FROM YOUR LIFE?! Because that is when you know Him as the Resurrection and the Life… that is when you know Him as God… not just a pathway to God… but He is the I AM!

•     See if you believe that Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead, and you believe Jesus himself rose from the dead… well that is pretty good… and that is enough to get most people to come to church every Christmas and Easter…  but it is not enough to know Him AS THE RESSURECTION… you just know Him as someone who WAS resurrected.

•     BUT WHEN HE RESSURECTS YOU… THEN YOU START TO KNOW HIM AS GOD… YOU STAR TO KNOW HIM AS I AM… THE Great I AM THE RESSURECTION.…

•     No longer is it HE WAS RISEN but it is HE IS RISEN becaus every single day of my life… my NEW life is impacted by the resurection… every bit about who I now am, every moment, every breath is impacted by the great I AM THE RESSURECTION.

•     He is… every day of my life… risen. And that will remain true for eternity.

•     Now that brings me to point two this morning: HE IS THE LIFE.

He Is The Life

John 11:25 NKJV

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.

•     Jesus is THE LIFE… Not just an event, not just a day that is some how calculated based on full moons in spring or something… NO, HE IS MUCH MORE THAN A DAY! HE IS MUCH MORE THAN JUST EASTER SUNDAY. HE IS THE LIFE!

•     And this is another thing that bugs me about Easter Sunday… Because it shows that not all of us believe this…

•     Easter Sunday should not be the most attended Sunday at a church…  because what The Resurrection accomplished was not just provide us one day of freedom… not just one day of victory… not just one day of forgiveness… NO, what was accomplished that Sunday morning some 2000 years ago is not Just the resurrection… but also THE LIFE.

•     You see to be resurrected is to be brought to a new life… you had lost your life, and now you have been resurrected into a new life…

•     AND JESUS IS THE RESURECTION THAT BRINGS YOU TO A NEW LIFE… AND JESUS IS THE NEW LIFE… Come on! You picking up what I am laying down this morning?

•     Jesus is my resurrection… I am born again because of Him… by Him and through Him and to Him I have been resurrected… and what life have I been resurrected into? NOT MY OLD LIFE! That me is dead! No! I have been resurrected into a new life. JESUS IS THAT LIFE! 365.2425 days a year, Jesus is MY LIFE. HE IS THE LIFE… The Great I AM THE LIFE.

Galatians 2:20 NKJV

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Acts 17:28 NKJV

for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’

•     Easter Sunday shouldn’t be the most attended Sunday because EVERY Sunday should be the most Attended Sunday.

•     Because if you have been born again, if you have been redeemed and forgiven… then you are not any more saved today then you were last week or you will be next week.

•     You have eternal life because you have a relationship with THE LIFE.

1 John 5:12 NKJV

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

•     Let me put it this way to make it as plain as possible…

•     When I celebrate my wedding anniversary with Amanda I don’t celebrate that I WAS married… we celebrate that we ARE married…

•     We celebrate a LIFETIME of marriage on our anniversary… not just the events of our wedding day.

•     In fact, sometimes we don’t even watch our wedding video on our anniversary… that might be because we lost it… but that is beside the point!

•     We honestly don’t spend a lot of time thinking about our wedding day on our Anniversary… we talk about it a little… but you know what we do spend time doing every year on our anniversary?

•     We write in a journal all the amazing things that we have done and experienced together that year. Every year we talk about and write down our favorite moments together, our biggest laughs, our hard fought victories,  the trips we went on, the people we saw, that prayers we lifted up and saw answered.

•     We talk about our kids, and the growth they had that year, the funny things they said or did, the accomplishments they made…

•     Pages and pages, every year, of what marriage was like that year.

•     Because on our anniversary we remember that we ARE married not that we were married… and the fact that we ARE married has changed our lives completely.

•     And by the way, WE ARE NOT ANY MORE MARRIED ON OUR ANIVERSARY THAN WE ARE ON ANY OTHER DAY OF THE YEAR.

•     I am not more faithful to my wife on my anniversary. I am not more in love with her on that day than any other… I don’t care for her more that day then any other day… but it is a day of remembering… THIS WOMAN IS MY LIFE.

•     Now listen… listen… this is going to speak to somebody…

•     Easter is not a day to remember A resurrection… but Easter is a day to remember HE IS THE RESSURECTION… AND THE RESSURECTION… THIS MAN… THIS GOD… HE IS MY LIFE!

•     Come on! Let me give you a new easter tradition church… how about today instead of celebrating JUST the Resurrection… you also celebrate the Life?

•     Yes, remember and celebrate the Empty tomb… But also remember THE LIFE…

•     And Jesus, the life, has been just as good to you the past 364 days as He is to you today… so what about if on Easter we do this… what if we spend time talking about all the things Jesus has done for us this year…

•     Because of the Risen Jesus… This prayer has been answered… and that prayer has been answered… and so and so has been saved… and so and so went to glory…

•     Because of my Risen Savior this disease was cured, this injury was healed, this curse was broken.

•     Because of the life that Christ has given me… the Life that Jesus IS FOR me… I got this new job, or this new promotion… or favor here… or favor there…

•     And remember that moment on Wednesday night when Jesus came and did this in our life?

•     Remember that revelation that changed that situation from that sermon series this year?

•     Or remember how I had these questions and God answered them all in Growth track class, or through discipleship, or by showing me that scripture…

•     What if instead of just eggs and bunnies and ham dinners… we remembered the LIFE that Jesus gave us when He got out of that tomb…

•     Man that is an Easter I can get behind… That is an easter I can get excited about!!!!

•     Now, I don’t want to drag this sermon out because I want you guys to go home and celebrate easter with your families like this… share your testimonies… what has the Resurrection and the Life done for you… Write them down in a journal to remember year after year, sing songs to celebrate it… Worship the Resurrection and the Life, amen?

•     So let’s close this sermon down by inviting anyone who doesn;’t know the Resurrection and the Life to know Him today.

Conclusion

John 11:25–26 NKJV

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

•     Do you believe this? Gospel Call