When "If Only" Meets "I Am:" I Am the Resurrection and the Life

 I need to say something to you, uh, very personal. And um, I want you to know that one of my joys in being your pastor is that I conduct a lot a funeral. Not as many as perhaps an older church that hasn't been a church plant like we have for 15 years, and now a church might, but nevertheless, um, many. And there are some things at a funeral that I can't quite say because it's a little too close to death.

The sermon today is the funeral sermon that you need to hear to prepare for that day, that day, because one day. Someone in your life very close to you may unexpectedly die, and it is going to rip your heart out.

And I and Pastor Nathan and Pastor Mark, in the session of this church, we are gonna weep with you. We're gonna grieve with you, and we're gonna remind you of Jesus's presence with you. But there are some beautiful truths in John chapter 11. That you need to hear to prepare for that day. There is a movement in medicine.

If you're in healthcare, you know this movement where if you are 90 and you have a goal to tie your shoes when you're 90 years old, then when you're 50, you need to be able to easily, um, if you're, if you're 90 and you wanna tie your shoes when you're 50, you need to easily be able to bend down and touch your toes and have good ankle mobility.

Be flexible and you say, well, what does touching your toes have to do with tying your shoes? Well, actually, according to those in healthcare, everything, and if we are gonna be a people who know the hope that we have, that we profess even through the grief of death, we have to hold fast to some promises, and they are writ large for us.

In John chapter 11, the point of the sermon is that Jesus brings life out of death. Hallelujah. He's the resurrection in the life. And so as we look at our fifth I Am statement this morning, I would invite you to join with me as we read John chapter 11. Or please stand with me and we'll read John chapter 11 verses 17 down through verse 27.

The context is that Jesus's friend Lazarus has died and Jesus waits an additional couple of days before he goes to see Mary and Martha and all those who are with him. Morning. And he comes to Bethany, and this is what we find now. When Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

Bethany was near Jerusalem about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them 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.

But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. And Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection. On the last day, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection in the life. 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? She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who is coming into the world. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but God's word stands forever. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated please.

Bethany is not far from Jerusalem. In the Greek it's 15 Stadia, which is about 1.85 miles, and it was close enough for Jews, those who were worshiping with Mary and Martha at the synagogue to come out to comfort Mary and Martha when they found out that Lazarus had died. The House of Mary and Martha was full of neighbors, friends who were mourning.

It was full of people who in the corners with hushed tones were asking questions amidst the silence. Why? Why Lazarus? Why now? Why perhaps even so young, four days, four days later, Jesus comes. That's how long and had been gone according, uh, Lazarus had been gone according to John. Long enough for the hope to settle into resignation that his death indeed was final.

Long enough for the Jewish superstition that the soul hovered around the body for three days longing to get back in. As rabbinical Jews in the third century believed and undoubtedly they believed it even as earlier, as early as the first four days, dried tears. And yet that dull lake that remained after the funeral is over the grief, only beginning into the landscape of sorrow.

Jesus comes down the road walking intentionally, coming to Mary and to Martha. And when Martha hears of it, oh, Martha ever the doer. She leaves her friends and she runs out to this suburban road in Bethany and she. John let us in to what is perhaps the most tender moment of scripture with a grieving woman and her savior face to face on that suburban road.

And she says the words that anyone who has a broken heart has whispered in the night, Lord, if only you had been here.

And in her case, she says, my brother would not have died. Grief. Grief wrapped in ache. Ache wrapped in a kind of anger that you can hear beneath the text. She believed that Jesus could have stopped death, and Jesus says to her in verse 23, your brother Martha will rise again. I know she says, respectively, I know that he will rise on the last day that Jesus wants her to see that resurrection life is actually not a thing to be longed for, but it is a person who has come.

Of all the power of heaven and earth, if it could be channeled into one conversation. Here it is a heart that's raw with loss, and the one who spoke light into existence is now speaking life into her grief. He doesn't give her a theological formula. He gives her himself. Jesus brings life out of death.

Hallelujah. There are four things that John wants us to see out of this text. First. Jesus comes to us. Great cost to himself. Jesus comes to us in grief, at great cost to himself. The Book of John is divided into two sections. Chapters one to 11 is the book of signs. There are seven signs where Jesus reveals through miracles that He is indeed.

The divine Son of God. This being the seventh sign, the rising of, uh, raising of Lazarus, which we haven't read here, but if you keep reading, you see that Jesus does come forth. He calls forth Lazarus from the grave, and thank goodness he says, Lazarus come forth, or every soul would've emerged, every body would've emerged from every grave in history.

Chapters five to 10 are just full of confrontation that Jesus has with the Jewish leaders of the day. Jesus has claimed to be the bread of life. He's claimed to be the light of the world. He's claimed to be the door. He's claimed to be the good shepherd. He's claimed to be now the resurrection in the life, and they just want him dead.

And it says earlier in, uh, John, that Jesus retreated to Judea. He went across to Jordan and now he comes back to Jerusalem. When he hears that his friend has died Lazarus, and what you don't know behind the scenes is that Jesus is all too aware. He knows that when he makes that journey back into Jerusalem and his disciples tried to stop him, Jesus knows he's signing his own death sentence.

If you read earlier in John, the disciples argue and say, Jesus, don't you know that if you go back here with the Jews, the Jews want you dead? And Jesus says, I know we must go so that God might get the glory and that you might believe, and Jesus comes to us even in our own moments of grief, at great cost so that he will get the glory and so that you might again believe.

The sign in the book of John in the book of Signs, chapters one to 11 is. The raising of Lazarus. And in that you find the fifth I am statement one commentator says, the sign that brings life to Lazarus also seals Jesus' fate. By awakening one man from death, Jesus sets in motion the events that will lead to his own.

Grave friends, it's important that we recognize that Jesus doesn't just come to Bethany at the risk of his life. He doesn't just come to us in our moments of grief. At the risk of his life, he comes to Bethany at the cost of his life, and he comes to you in your moment of grief because he has already given up his life to comfort you.

Jesus brings life out of death. Charles Wesley saying he left his father's throne above so free, so infinite. His grace emptied himself of all but love and bled for Adam's helpless race. His mercy, all immense and free for, oh my God, has found out me.

All of our faith amidst our grief, it is not wishful thinking. It is not trying to face something by our own strength. It is longing to be with Jesus amidst of the ache and even amidst of the anger. And what John 11 teaches us is that Jesus is there and he is with you, and he comes to you at great cost to himself.

Because he left the glories of heaven to come down and die a death that we deserve to die one day someday. As you heard in Isaiah 25, as we read earlier, he has come that death may die and it cost him his life. First thing you need to know is that Jesus comes to us at great cost to himself. The second thing is a bit more personal, verses 21 and 22.

Jesus wants you to admit your if only. Jesus wants you to admit to admit your if onlys. You know what I mean? When I say that Martha runs to Jesus and she says, if only you had been here, then my brother would not have died. And some of you, even today, you love the Lord Jesus with all of your heart. But there's a big if only that's keeping you from really trusting in him.

Because what You hold tighter if only, if only. If only my son would not have been so reckless, if only my daughter would not have met him. If only I would've taken that job. If only I would've been here during that moment, if only this or that would not have happened. If only, and Jesus says every single minute, second millisecond of your life is divinely orchestrated by his loving, heavenly fatherly care, and he knows exactly what he's doing, even though we don't.

Again, friends, a little too close to death to talk about this at a funeral, but Jesus is the one who brings life out of death. Hallelujah. I don't know what your, if only is before Jesus today, but you've got him. If only this guy would stop preaching and let me go to lunch. I don't know what it is, but when your, if only meet Jesus, who is the I am.

You find that Jesus gives you something far greater. He wants you to want more than you want so that you can want all that he gives, and he is hollowing out our hearts by causing us through worship and confession of sin through this words of my mouth, even now. To let the idols of your heart bubble to the surface so that Jesus can say yes, that if only I want it, what is your, if only even today, if only this, if only my child would do this, if only my husband would recognize that.

What is it and do you bring that if only to Jesus? Because Jesus wants your if onlys. He wants you to admit those. In fact, that is where the tenderness and the depth of your relationship with Jesus. Happens. It's when you can say, Jesus, I know you already know the depth of my heart.

Here it is. I'm gonna trust you with it. If only Herman Riter boss writes that Martha's disappointment was so intense because she believed in Jesus so strongly that she and she expected so much from him. There is a gap that our if onlys reveal and that is the gap you heard me say in the pastoral prayer.

That is the infinite distance from our hard hearts, our hard heads to our hard hearts. And I know that many of you know theology, you're learning more theology, you're excited about good reformed theology, and I'm so thankful that you are. It's beautiful, but the distance it has to travel from your head to your heart sometimes requires Jesus to wait two more days.

Sometimes the delay is designed to make you see. And do you wonder why he hasn't rescued you from that? If only yet, it's because he's trying to help you see that he's enough.

You can sense Martha's disappointment. The Jews who console her certainly would've reminded her about the general resurrection of the dead. That was where her hope was placed as every Jew believed that eventually all would be raised when the Messiah came. But has Jesus come to Bethany just to confirm what she already knows?

No. Jesus wants Martha's if onlys, and when she gives up her if onlys and says them, then Jesus gives her the comfort of his promises. Today, Jesus comes at great cost to himself. Jesus wants you to admit you're, if only's. Thirdly, Jesus comforts us with promises today. Jesus says to her, verse 25, I am the resurrection and the life.

Each of Jesus's I am statements harken back to the Old Testament as the bread of life. He is the true manna, the one who sustains God's people through the exodus toward a new creation as the light of the world. He's the pillar of fire that God that guides God's people through the darkness into the promised land.

Jesus simply says that I am in John chapter eight. He is saying before the Jews that just as Moses stood before the burning bush, and God revealed himself as the great I am. Jesus says that I indeed am he the savior of the world. As the good shepherd, Jesus fulfills the pro, the prophecy that there will come one day a new and greater David who will shepherd his people Israel forever and peace and safety.

And Jesus brings that peace and safety to us in ways we would never have expected through his death and his resurrection. So when Jesus declares, I'm the resurrection in the life he can, he claims to be the embodied fulfillment. Of all of Israel's long promised restoration. And Hosea chapter six, verse two, Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry bones.

These are prophecies of resurrection for Israel and Judah to gather in. Jesus says, I am the embodiment of the true Israel. I am the resurrection, the life I fulfill. Hosea six two, Ezekiel 37 happens. New life comes because of me. Because he has life in himself. Those who believe in him, share in his life.

Faith unites believers to the one whom death cannot hold. And though we may die physically, that death is temporary and we will never suffer the second death. Revelation 20 verse six. Hallelujah. Jesus brings life out of death. When Jesus raises Lazarus, he's embodying that eschatological prophecy of fulfilling everything, making everything new.

He's doing it ahead of time, like an appetizer of the new creation. When he gives the promise, he is fulfilling what the Westminster Confession of Faith says in chapter eight, paragraph five, that Jesus has fully satisfied the justice of his father and his resurrection, confirmed the truth of his claim.

Jesus is the true resurrection of the life, and he comes to us and he comes to us even in the midst of the grief of Martha and the grief that some of you still are going through these moment.

Several years ago in France, you may have heard the story of, uh, Lieutenant Colonel, uh, Arna. Beltram. He was. The lead negotiation, uh, uh, police officer when in, um, in France, an ISIS terrorist took some people hostage in Treb, France. It's a small town in southern France, and the supermarket was held hostage by this man.

And, um, our Nobel Tram was the. Negotiator and he negotiated every single one of those hostages out of that supermarket except for one. And people watched Arna, bill Tram speak on the phone to this terrorist. And at one moment he puts down the phone, takes off his belt, and uh, terrorist wants to see him face to face.

And our Nobel Tran walks into that supermarket. Moments later, the last hostage comes out of that supermarket and the police are just waiting to see our no come out to rush in. And they wait. And they wait and they wait. And when they finally rush in, they find that our Nobel tram, the deal that he made with the terrorist was, I will come and I will exchange my life for.

And earlier this year in France, they put up a, uh, beautiful bronze statue of ar, Nobel Tram in France and Emmanuel Macron when he was there, he says during the ceremony, honoring him to accept to die so that the innocent can live. That is what is in the heart of the soldiers' commit. And Belt tram's willingness to give his life, Macron says, is a greatness that so transfixed the whole of France and France.

If the exchange of one police officer for that last hostage would transfix all of France, think about what the exchange of the perfect son of God would be for a world full of sinners who placed their faith in him. Enliven by the Holy Spirit, transfixed deed, and some of you in this room don't believe it.

And don't you know that your heart aches for it and even that ache for you to long for that to be true, that is proof and evidence enough that it is indeed true. As CS Lewis says, could it be that the ache of our hearts at the deepest level ache as they do, because nothing in this world can satisfy it must mean that we were made for another world.

Jesus came to Bethany knowing full well that it would cost him his own life. And he called Lazarus out of the tomb, and Jesus walked into his own. And like Beltram, Jesus traded places. Lazarus comes forth and Jesus knows that the die is cast. The Jews would soon have him killed. And Jesus says to each of us, I enter into your grief.

With the hope that one day, because I've entered into the grave one day, your loved one will walk out of it. I enter into that grief because one day you know that Jesus brings life out of death. Hallelujah. First thing he wants you to know is that Jesus comes to us in grief, a great cost to himself.

Secondly, he wants you to admit your if only. The third thing is that he comforts us with promises today by his presence. Fourthly is his work for us demands a response. Notice that the whole of the book of the Gospel of John is written so that you may believe this is John chapter 20, verse 30, that you might believe that Jesus is the son of God.

And so he asks Again, John records Jesus asking Martha, do you believe this? In verse 27. And again, Herman Ritter boss writes, this is why Jesus has come to Bethany after two days delay not just to call his friend Lazarus back to life and restore a brother to his sisters, but to make them realize that what unites him with them and he has to give to them, it encompasses so much more than what they in the request for help have expected of him.

Jesus doesn't, she doesn't hesitate when Jesus asks her, do you believe this? She says, yes, Lord. It is in the perfect tense in Greek. Yes Lord. I continue to believe it is though to his I am She spontaneously erupts. Yes you are. And in her grief. She sees the presence of Jesus and she recognizes handing her, handing him her if only.

She recognizes that he indeed is the great I am and the only hope. Through the darkness of that valley,

she stood at the edge of her brother's tomb and she believed before she ever saw that stone rolled away, she believes.

Jesus had far more in store for her than what she intellectually believed. And in the same way, can you imagine the resurrection one day? Like, can you imagine it? It will be far greater than you can ever imagine. Far more beautiful, far more satisfied, and I can't wait. I hope some of us are together when that happens.

It would be amazing.

Jesus brings life out of death and he wants to prepare us. He wants us to exercise our muscles now to prepare for the day. I don't know when it's gonna happen someday. One day some of us it's already happened. It may happen again, but Jesus wants you to know that he holds you fast. You can never get out from the grip of his grace and he loves you so much.

He will hold you and he will sustain you. He is with you. He is the great I am. He is the resurrection and the life. Some of you have, um, woken up on the morning of funerals and you have either received this from me or from other people. And it is, uh, a liturgy that comes from a book called Every Moment Holy by Douglas McKelvy for what to Read the Morning of the Funeral, and I want us to read it.

Some of you who have been through funerals in recent days need to hear other brothers and sisters around you. Say it again. And those of you who one day will get up that morning of the funeral, you will need to hear the voices that say it together with you. Say it together with you. And so I would invite you to say the bold print that you'll see on the fireplace behind me.

How long? Oh Lord. Must we wake? Mornings like this, I will read what is a normal print. You'll see. You'll see what you read. Oh, you're so eager. I love it. You'll see what you'll read. The bold print. This is my part. You'll see it. How long, oh Lord. Must we wake to mornings like this to the fresh shock of such loss and to the deep sorrow of the knowledge that today we will speak a one-sided goodbye and bury another.

We love. How long, oh Christ. Till our love no longer ends in weeping. How long till you have destroyed this shot of death that covers all peoples and breaks all fellowships and brings such grace to your children? How long, oh Lord. How long? Oh Christ. Who reclaims what we have lost even here at the epicenter of our sorrow, Kindle afresh our eternal hope.

Remind us that this song of lament we sing today will not endure forever. At the last, its Discorded strains will be unmade and changed and woven back into the perfect patterns of a greater melody of joy and praise. This story does not end where some would say it ends upon this funeral day make of us, oh God, a people shaped even now.

By these songs of your coming Redemption for today's goodbye is like the pause that stalls a single line of poetry, and we feel for a time the tension of that phrase, suspended, unresolved. But you, oh Christ are the poet king who crafts, creates, and laborers to bring all things right so that even this briefly interrupted line will find its great fulfilling rhyme.

In the time of that glad wedding feast, when you are God and groom, receive your bride, and all the gains that death had ever made will be reclaimed and resurrected life. And so this one we love, whose lifeless shall we bury in this earth today will rise again alive, remade, complete, and whole, and robed in those eternal glories.

So we will all who hold your love more precious than our lives. Now, even as a sailor in the dark of night might chart a true course by the brightest star. So let us navigate the sadness of these hours with hearts fixed upon the light of the hope of that promised and pending resurrection. Amen. I don't know when that morning will come for you, but it may come.

Are you prepared to know that your savior is indeed the resurrection and the life, and he may delay in ways that confuse you, but he comes to you at great cost to himself. He yielded his own life for you, that the resurrection might be yours indeed, and the one who you buried. If they're in Christ, it is theirs as well.

He comes to you and he wants you to admit your if only is because he holds everything that a hair can fall from your head. Without his sovereign command, he knows every one of your days. He comforts you with his promises, not just in the future, but today by his presence in worship together with his people, surrounded by those who remind you of the hope that we profess through the sacraments in just a moment as you come to the Lord's table and he demands from you and me a response, do you believe?

Do you believe?

And so to remind us of those living promises that he is the resurrection and the life we ask ourself once again as we come to the table this morning, surrounded by brothers and sisters who love us through our grief. Yes. Yes, Lord. I believe, and I believe that you are coming again to make everything new.

Hallelujah. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you that your son Jesus gave up his life so that he might bring life out of death. And Lord, I recognize that in these tender moments there are many, many of us who are still grieving the loss of loved ones. I pray that the bomb of your finished work for us, oh Lord, through the sacraments, might minister to.

And remind us that you indeed are the resurrection in the life. We do not always understand your delays, but you give us your very presence. And so, oh Lord, would you draw near to us even now and help us to come to this table with joy and faith, knowing that you bring life out of death and one day every one of us.

Should you, Terry will rise from our graves and we will be made whole and complete to degrees of power and glory that we cannot even now imagine. And oh, father, give us the grit and grace and strength and faith to be able through the shadow of death to say, Lord, I believe because you, Lord Christ, are indeed the resurrection and the life and our only hope.

You pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Sermon transcript is computer generated.