Northside Church - Sydney
Living Hope- Week 5: Death & Hope
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Is there life after death and how can we be sure, I love to hear that resounding statement from we as Christians of course there's life after death but that was a question that someone asked Stephen Hawking recently if you've read in Sydney Morning Herald and his response was I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last forty-nine years I'm not afraid of death but I'm in no hurry to die I have so much I want to do first he told the newspaper I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail there's no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark for the author of a brief history of time that's Stephen Hawking the scientist maybe that's exactly what it was a brief history of time because he obviously hasn't gone back to the fact in history that a man who lived and breathed and walked and talked died and rose again and lived and breathed and walked and talked and was resurrected you see he forgot the fact that sticks out of history's landscape like the big prawn or the big banana it's the fact of the resurrection the resurrection why is it so important you know that that could be that's the first question we grapple with did it really happen and that itself is a whole nother sermon tonight but if it didn't then Stephen is going to have to come up with all these reasoning with a pretty good reason for the birth of the church or he's got to cover with a reason for the fact that Paul says in in Corinthians that over five hundred people witnessed the resurrected Jesus at one time he's got to come up with the reasoning as to why this concept of a bodily resurrected Jesus was not in the minds of the Greeks it certainly wasn't the way that the Jews talked about it and the way that it was recorded it came from such a simplistic eyewitness views that have to be some pretty good reasoning to say that it didn't happen and so in that sense Stephen the burden of proof lies on you you see if Jesus rose from the dead then you got to accept all he said right if if Jesus rose from the dead then what he said is true and in this passage that we're going to read from tonight then what he says is that there's life after death alright he says I not only that there is a resurrection he says I am the resurrection and the life you know the resurrection of Jesus shows us that there's a difference between this physical life and eternal life the resurrection of Jesus shows us that there's a higher and more powerful form of life and that we're not computers this to be switched off one day but up up to that point humanity history you know different you know it's one thing to it's one thing that for us to go and defend the historical accuracy of the resurrection that's not what I'm going to do tonight you see what I want to speak in tonight is what is a what what does the resurrection do for the link between death and hope is their life after death and the answer is yes in the resurrection we're going to read from John's gospel chapter 11 it's the story I might have heard it well about a good friend of Jesus himself Lazarus we're going to read from verse 17 onwards to bring up to speed Jesus says to his disciples our friend Lazarus he's fallen asleep I'm going down there to wake him up and then it says in verse 17 onwards on on his arrival Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days a Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem and many Jews had come to Martha and married a comfort them in the loss of their brother and when Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went out to meet him but Mary stayed at home Lord Martha said if you had have been here my brother would not have died but I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask Jesus said to her your brother will rise again and Martha answered I know he'll rise again in the resurrection at the last day and Jesus said to her I am the resurrection in the life he who believes in me will live even though he dies and whoever lives and believes in me will never die do you believe this yes Lord she told him I believe that you're the Christ the son of God who was to come into the world and after she'd said this she went back and called a sister Mary aside and the teacher said the teachers here she said and is asking for you when Mary heard this she got up quickly and went to him and now Jesus had not yet entered the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him and when the Jews who had been with Mary in the house comforting her noticed how quickly she got up and went out they went and followed her supposing that she was going to the tomb to mourn there and when Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him she fell at his feet and said Lord if you had been him my brother would not have died and when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping he was deeply moved and in spirit and troubled he said where have you laid him he asked come and see Lord they replied and Jesus wept and then the Jews said see how he loved him but some of them said could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying you going home to die that was something that apparently a lady had heard from a nurse and she was absolutely heartbroken and she was shattered her face went almost pale I'm going home to die until she realized that the lady just had a broad Australian accent and meant you're going home today now in the midst of that the reaction when she's thinking through that devastation totally shattered it's a reaction to maybe we would have felt something we would have had to come to grips with because death is something that we all face that's what they were facing here in the death of Lazarus a good friend a brother before we get into that there were themes running all through this story danger timing life death they're the themes of life that's a way that John sets up this story and when we look at chapter ten we see that Jesus was at Bethany beyond the Jordan there was actually two Bethany's in this story here and Jesus is it the Bethany beyond the Jordan and we find that Lazarus is sick in Bethany and the sister sent a message out to Jesus and to Jesus to the Bethany beyond and he's from the Bethany beyond be called back to the Bethany near Jerusalem and yet they're totally different the Bethany beyond is one of a refuge the Bethany beyond is one of safety the Bethany beyond is one of peace and yet the Bethany near in Jerusalem it's not a haven it's one of hostility you see the word on the street is that the Jews want to kill Jesus and they want to get him they want to arrest him and yet the Bethany beyond the Jordan is a place of belief it says and many people came to him it says though John never performed a miraculous sign all that John said about this man was true Jesus had been performing miracles there was belief out here but the Bethany beyond but the Bethany near there was battering there was bruising awaiting Jesus is that that's why his disciples said we can't be going there and Jesus says come you're going to see God glorified in what's going to happen at the Bethany near the Bethany near where they wanted to kill him they wanted to pick up stones they were going to seize him they leave Bethany the place beyond safety refuge for the Bethany near to the dangerous place Jesus risking his life so a friend can live aren't we already start to see the things of the bigger story and the puzzling bid in all of this is that he waits for two days he waits for two days and Jesus gives us a glimpse of the reasons verse four he says sickness this sickness will not end in death no it's for God's glory and so that God's son may be glorified through it you know what Jesus is doing he's waiting for orders and Jesus goes from the Bethany near to the Bethany beyond to the Bethany near and what we'll see tonight is we'll see three things that happen in this incredible counter between Jesus and a grieving and a morning sister we see the pain of death we're going to see the promise of life and we're going to see the pattern of resurrection and the pain of death is something that Martha was facing Martha was facing a pain that inevitably all of us are going to have to face it was death and in verse 22 we see that on his arrival Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days and when Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went out to meet him and Mary stayed at home and Lord Martha said to Jesus if you had been here if you would be in here my brother wouldn't have died but I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask you see John bothers to tell us that Jesus arrived there four days late four days was really significant because in Jewish times if someone had died there was Jewish superstition and belief that the body would remain in the tomb and that the soul of the body would remain above the body in the tomb for three days but in the fourth day it begins to decompose you see the fourth day the fourth day is where we see the link between death and hope the fourth day is where hope finally dies and it's on the fourth day but Jesus calms down it's the fourth day a day of mourning and the day where mourning and grief reach their pinnacle it's on the fourth day that hope has died because now Lazarus has really gone and we can feel this pain in Martha she runs out to meet him and says Lord if you'd only been here my brother would not have died you know and the funny thing is at once her words are both an affirmation of who Jesus is right Lord Lord but it's also a venting of anger maybe something you can relate to if you've been through grief Lord if if only you have just had saved my brother Lord if you'd only kept my son from falling off the cliff Lord if you'd only healed my husband Lord if you'd only delivered my mother from sickness Lord we know the words well you know the funny thing is that Martha's words affirm Jesus's power but they also reflect the incredible disappointment when we're faced with death the disappointment that Jesus has not chosen to exercise his power on her but her behalf Martha's heard and she's angry right and it's something that we might feel something that we might feel when we're facing that she she knew how long it took she knew how long it took to get to the Bethany beyond took two days she'd sent messages out there she'd given him ample time and she's thinking why Lord Jesus have you not come earlier earlier and so Jesus hears his desperate plea for help he hears this cry for help and it shows us that sometimes sometimes God demonstrates his love for us by delay it's a mystery we're talking about last week in suffering now I look some of you aren't parents yet we've got a few that are going to be parents soon and you're going to discover that when you've got a one-year-old or a two-year-old like I see some of the kids in kids church then they just operate in one dimension now I want to now I want to know I want it now I want it now and you see I just want this lesser blessing now so you know I don't want to I don't want to hold hold off I want it I want it all here just give it to me I can't wait I can't now a lot of people operate spiritually that way a lot of people what we want is for God to do something for us now and and and we look we still struggle with that the issues in this world of decay and death and suffering in all these mysteries of evil that we've been talking about that sometimes God demonstrates his love in strange delays that's what happened in this story and maybe that's why in the face of death there are lots of different conflicting feelings denial it can't be happening depression attempts to bargain Lord if if only look if only and of course anger why why why you know where I get comfort out of this passage is what it's showing us is that it's actually normal to feel that way it's normal to feel that way because death is a horrendous thing it's normal to feel that way because the Bible says death is our enemy and so of course there's going to be anger why shouldn't there be anger you know if we fast forward to verse thirty through this passage a bit more briefly we say that Jesus emotions are no different he goes to the tomb Mary says that the same thing that Martha has said to Jesus she falls at his feet he says Lord if you'd only been here he's trying to console her and she she now uses a John now uses a word to describe the way that she weeps and that she wails she cries out loudly without restraint the sort of way that you see Middle Eastern people grieving and crying out loud lots of hands plenty of action this is a physical thing for them and amongst the wailing we see an incredible contrast we see that Jesus is outraged he's not weeping yet he is outraged why because they tell him the story it says he was deeply disturbed and the funny thing here is that the word that is used here is the word that's used mostly of a horse a horse when it gets trapped a horse when it's up against a fence and it raises it's paws and it snorts in the air he goes and it always conveys his sense of anger he's he was agitated and he was angry at the wailing why was he angry why was he angry it's because death was not part of the Creator's plan and what we see is a death result of human sin in the garden at the beginning when the world was as it was meant to be God you know God how to plan death was not part of it and there was a way that God had warned our first parents that if you want to reject God and live without God and do life without God then it would result immediately in dying Genesis chapter two and three and so here's the here's the amazing thing Jesus is standing in the midst of devastation mourning and grief and wailing and he's not crying yet he's looking at God's good creation and he is angry he's angry at death he's angry at the one who's behind death at him who has the power of death and has come into this world to destroy it and in one of the most moving scenes that you could ever see we see the son of God the Creator God incarnate in the very depths of human emotion and human grief and human wailing and you see him in there and he's not crying he's angry and he's saying this is not meant to be death is a horrible thing which is why we see it's holy and it's right to express and feel anger at death God feels that why because death is an ugly intrusion into his good creation death is an ugly intrusion into his world God intends you and I to have life and life for the full to the full that's the way he meant it to be but day by day Paul said it last week in the verse we're talking about the way that the way that death is always at work in us decay is always at work in us and that is a great problem of life Martha's pain is our pain not just that the presence of a deeply loved one is gone but that we've got no way to get back to how it was supposed to be life and life to the full death I don't know guys death in our lives looks like it's winning right death looks like it's winning that's the pain of death but we also see the promise of life death looks like it's winning but not for long you see in the midst of the real pain Jesus then makes his real great promise he says first of all he says to Mary in verse 23 your brother will rise again now what's really funny about this is he he's gently reminding her of the general hope in the resurrection at the end of time that was something that the Jewish people believed in there was Pharisees and Sadducees and see the Pharisees are believed in life after death in the in in some form of resurrection the Sadducees didn't believe in life after death and that's why they were sad you see that joke number 35 was so there was a long running debate between him about life after death you see here's the thing that here's the problem with it is that Martha's reaction was showing us that that that just hope in the general resurrection just in a hope in just the general concept of life after death never really brought her any comfort in the midst of her immediate pain oh yeah he's going to rise again he's going to rise again and see for some of us Jesus's words could sound as clichéd as ours today I've gone to a better place there there at there at peace now you know isn't it funny that even people in the non-Christian world will say those sorts of words in order to bring some form of comfort to the pain of death and yet Jesus speaks directly into the pain of the present he says in verse 25 Jesus said to her I am the resurrection in the life those that believe in me will live even though they die and whoever lives and believes in me will never die you know what he's saying that not that there is a resurrection after the life but he's saying I am the resurrection and the life there is just not some general hope out there but I mean what does he mean by that sounds a bit cryptic I am the resurrection in the life I've used this before in the 1960s there was a phenomenon that swept the world out of Louisville and Kentucky I've been there outside the building three letters swept the world in restaurants right around from America from Louisville and to the other states and right around the world three letters that are etched into our minds particularly on a Sunday night if we haven't eaten KFC and there was a time in which KFC was so prolific they had a man at the head of it he had these funny glasses and a little beard it was Colonel Sanders and you see he was he was so attached to the concept of KFC and all that embodied the the the chicken sprinkling on the chips that I love the zinger burgers every aspect of the restaurants and what that looked like there was he was so much the face of that that he could encapsulate all of that and would be fair to say that I am the KFC and there's a way in which Colonel Sanders could say I am the case everything that that he embodied a KFC embodied and that's what Jesus is saying in that sense he's not saying I'm KFC he's saying I'm the resurrection and the life and what he's talking about is actually two types of resurrection that happen in our life he says though we're dead past hints and what it means you know is is that that though he died yet in the future he will live you know firstly what Jesus is saying is that when you die you will not stay dead the computer will not switch off you will not stay dead you'll come back to life and you'll get a new body that was what was so radically different about the Jewish notion of of all the the early disciples first notion the resurrection is that you will you will get a body Greeks didn't think that because matter was a bad thing and the best thing you could do was just to float out of here off into the clouds and heaven he's saying you'll get a body so what we see is that there's a resurrection at the end of the age a life after death and therefore he's talking this way he's saying when you die the Bible says you're going to go into the immediate presence of God when you believe in him and unlike pagan and Greek and Eastern philosophies and religions Christians don't envisage a bodyless eternity and that's what we say we've been saying Christians don't believe that we're going to float off onto clouds and play harps and read a magazine if it gets a bit boring. God created the body and the soul and he'll redeem the body and the soul and Jesus is saying the same thing he's got a job to do and that's what he's going to do and so there is a life after this death and on the and so what he's saying there is that I am that life and and and this is what gives meaning to I am the resurrection of life. Jesus says whoever lives and believes in me will never die and now what he's talking about is is a totally different kind of life here not talking about how your body is going to get renewed and resurrected here's he in the second part he's also talking about a different sort of life a different kind of life that once it starts it's never going to go out he's talking about eternal life he's saying that there's a spiritual resurrection that actually it's not going to happen in the future it happens now and he's saying when the Holy Spirit comes into your life and you believe in me the son of the son of God is going to change you from the inside out it's it's a new birth you were changed from one degree of splendor to the to the next until that moment of physical death is going to catapult you into a realization of all that he has meant you to be into a glory that is just going to absolutely blow your mind burning with his joy and his energy and his purity and his perfection there's a spiritual resurrection a kind of life that starts now and what it means is that eternity doesn't start at the grave eternity starts here attorney doesn't start at the grave it starts in the human heart when you believe in the Jesus Christ and so the linking of resurrection in life is what points to the heart of of of Jesus's words in John's first of fourth gospel here in the last day which Martha's referring to God's going to God's going to give a whole new existence like we've talked before in the last days God God is going to renew all the creation well God did to Jesus at Easter what Martha doesn't know is going to happen yet well what God did to Jesus and bought the body out of the tomb and new life is going to do to the entire creation that is that's the Christian hope in the last day there's going to be a radically different quality of life we've talked about this before it's the it's what we call the Greek word zoe you see there's two different types of life the life that we currently live is bios bios has got an end bios is decaying bios is where we get the word biology from bios is where the cells are breaking down bios is what happens when you hit 30 the knees get a bit sore and you just start puffing a bit more when you're going to walk out that's bios but zoe doesn't end it's always a different kind of life a cannot end because it's a kind of of life that God gives and it's a kind of life that God is an eternal life and I love I've I'm I'm sure I've used this one I love the way that C.S. Lewis says the spiritual life which is in God from all eternity which made the whole natural universe is zoe bios has to be sure a certain shadowy or symbolic resemblance to zoe but but only the sort of resemblance that there is between a photo and a place or a statue and a man a person who has changed from having bios to having zoe would have gone through as big a change as a statue which changed from being as carved as stone into being a real person and that is precisely what Christianity is all about the world is a great sculptor shop we are the statues and there is a rumor going around the shop that some of us are someday going to come to life from bios to zoe that's Jesus's promise and his present reality to us that I've come that you might have zoe and zoe to the fore and it's his life that can't be touched by death it's a life that has no impact by death and so this this resurrection is not just a future certainty for us but it's a present reality it's something that we as Christians live out of and here's a funny thing it is it means that Christianity is not an addition to your life Christianity is not something that you just take up Christianity is not an extra set of rules that you do Christianity is not a set of beliefs that you've got to adhere to Christianity is entirely different kind of life all together from bios to zoe let me ask you if you've got that kind of life tonight is that kind of radical power from the outside coming in and transforming you from the inside out is there anything radical going on in your life because a Christian is not only someone that's got a new nature but a Christian is someone that's got a new future eternity eternal life bios to zoe have you got it the life that he lives and finally here we see tonight it's a promise of life that he gives us but we also see the pattern of resurrection we've been talking this through we you know how do you how do you get it you know here we have Jesus staring the tomb in the face with Lazarus amongst the crying and the wailing and the grieving in the morning you know and here's the incredible irony here is that the words that he is about to utter is going to be the final straw the words that he is about to utter are going to begin the downward spiral that will eventually lead to his own death and in that Jesus pauses he resolves and he cries out Lazarus come out and some have said that if he didn't preface that with Lazarus and just said come out that all the tombs would have opened up and all would have come out at that moment but he cries out Lazarus and in amazement out he walks the computer seems to have been switched back on I am the resurrection and the life says Jesus and from that point on two things happened in the hearts of his heroes some believed and some conspired and in a profound word of prophecy his arch enemy the high priest caiaphas it says in verse 49 of John chapter 11 it says then one of them named caiaphas who was the high priest that year spoke up and he said you know nothing at all you do not realize that it is better for you that one man died for the people than the whole nation perish and he alludes to the pathway that Jesus Christ would have been walking down he alludes to the path that he would have been living Jesus says I will be there representative in showing the glory of calling Lazarus out of the tomb he says I will be the one who will be vindicated and show the pattern of resurrection because from that he says when I perish I will perish he knew the pattern of resurrection and that is because for the pattern of resurrection but before there can be this life there must be a death and that's the gospel he came from the Bethany beyond to the Bethany near not the one near Jerusalem the Bethany near here he came from the Bethany beyond in the great cosmos and the universe and the equality with God and he came to the place of danger the place in which people don't want to know about him the place in which people were going to accuse him and arrest him he comes to the place of danger and Jesus risks his life not just so Lazarus can live but so that we can live so all the time the gospel is not what would Jesus do but what has Jesus done you can't just get life after death that'd be like Larry trying to muck around with his grave clothes you see once you're dead you're dead and Paul talks about it that our current life is a spiritual death we have as much power as Lazarus had in the middle of the tomb to resurrect ourselves until someone breaks into your life tonight unless someone breaks into your life at some point in the future and gives you this life beyond death then you haven't got it that's what you know if you think you're just going to get it then that's what turns Christianity Christianity into religion you just keep adding stuff keep trying to try on your grave clothes you need to receive it have you got it have you received Jesus Christ tonight how do you get it verse 26 is he says to Martha do you believe this do you believe that I'm the resurrection and the life do you believe that I am the life after death you get it by believing into Jesus Christ you see because here's the funny thing that the Christianity is the faith is is the faith of personal pronouns as one person said you look if you say that Jesus was born and he died and he was raised and he ascended and he's coming again you know what that doesn't make you a Christian but if you believe that Jesus Jesus was born for me if you believe Jesus died for me if you believe Jesus ascended for me then that is the essence of Christianity otherwise Christianity just becomes some sort of moral project in which we try and just make ourselves better you just try to make yourself better it's religion what we see is tonight from this passage here is that the one statement changed the course of history and an act of God changed the course of history an act of history that Stephen Hawking has forgotten to include in his brief history of time because it's just too brief death is no longer inevitable in Jesus Christ because of this I am statement that we have heard from him in this passage and so in that sense the application is short and sweet for you and I tonight the first one tonight is that you need not if you're in Jesus Christ fear death for the believer the time of death becomes far less daunting when we see it in the in the light of eternity and what Jesus Christ has done in the historical fact of the resurrection you know what if someone came to you and said you're going home to die and they didn't have a broad Australian accent and that was the truth you know what you would be saying the worst thing that could possibly happen to you is the best thing that could possibly happen to you amen that is the hope that we Christians have and in that sense it's short and sweet and simple if you are a believer in Jesus Christ you need not fear death you can walk out of this place and there is no fear the other thing is that it says to us tonight in that sense that death is not something that consumers death doesn't look so ugly anymore because death is just the dark doorway that is leading into the courtroom the dark tunnel that we're heading down the tunnel of the footy stadium in which we're going to walk down there and there are no lights and it's dark and it's crazy but we can see that light at the end of the tunnel for one of a better word and we're going to walk out there and there's going to be a great crowd of witnesses and we're going to be we're going to walk in there with as much cheering and as much bravado as the Queensland state of origin team is going to get in a couple of weeks time when they come down here in Sydney actually that's probably not the best analogy to use they're going to absolutely cop it but um yeah I want to say to you something tonight if you're a believer in Jesus Christ you're not you can't feed death because oh death you've it's it's possibly it's lost its sting the other thing for us tonight if we're believers is we're going to find also what we see tonight is that your literal grave is not the only grave that you need a consider in this world you see there are the graves of bitterness there are the graves of jealousy there are the graves of greed there are the graves of fear there are the graves of addictions and Jesus the resurrection and the life like he did was Lazarus he stands at the doorway to your grave and he calls you out of that too there is healing in Jesus Christ there is the resurrection power in Jesus Christ to call you out of that this evening when you believe in him and he has the capacity to speak you out of those graves too I am the resurrection and the life he spoke it and he lived it and it's an unshakable truth that changed the course of history want to debate the facts we can go on and on and on but we are a result we are the resurrection people let's get that down but when we believe that when we believe that it's a historical fact and we better listen closely to the words that Jesus says and in the midst of that is great news it's great news for you that are mourning tonight it a great news for you that is fearing death it's great news for you that are dealing with the pain of losing someone it's great news because you have hope in the midst of death the resurrection life Jesus had it you can have it in him have you got it if so how are you expressing it we'll look at that next week but in the meantime let's pray here Father I know tonight that there are some who are in the depths of grief at the moment Lord God and I pray that your word tonight has spoken to them in a profound way that there is a hope that they can hold on to for those that are in Christ Jesus our Lord there is still great mystery around it all we are we just can't begin to cover everything tonight but Father I just pray for each and every one of us that that we need not fear death Lord God that Father for us as a church that we might even unlike most of the western world we might even dare to to dwell on the concept of death and in the midst of that fine the great joy that is the hope of the resurrection the hope that you were the one who brought your son out of that tomb the hope that was born by a ragtag band of believers who had no hope at all and lived and breathed and ate and sat and were taught by the resurrected Christ so for us tonight Father as a resurrected people that means that we operate under a new reality and there is still a world out there like Stephen Hawking that thinks that we are heading into a black hole that we're being switched off and in the face of death it's something horrifying it's something terrifying and whilst death is an ugly thing Lord God may we be your people and your agents for hope in a world that needs to hear that there is something greater there is something beyond for those that don't have it tonight Father God I pray your spirit stirs in their heart Father God I pray that they sense who you are and your power in order to bring them out of those graves the graves of the addictions that they face the graves of of greed Father God the graves that are gripping our lives at the moment even has not only the power to speak us out into new life but but into healing as well tonight Lord God and so Father we thank you for your son we thank you for his example and may we continue to live and breathe and rejoice as people of the resurrection we pray this now in his mighty name Amen