Take your Bible this morning and turn with me, if you would, to John chapter 11. John chapter 11. We want to read the story of an event that took place in the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we want to consider an incredible claim that Jesus made in this text and in this story. John chapter 11, and if you have your Bible, you can read along in your own version. But I'm going to read the whole story to us. And then I'm going to go back and I want to point out two big ideas and then a conclusion to those two big ideas. So it's a story, so pretend, remember back when we used to love to have stories read? Well that's what we're going to do. John chapter 11. But I want you to understand as we read this that it's more than just a fairy tale. It is more than just a story. It was included in Scripture for a purpose. The Holy Spirit of God, the writer John, under divine inspiration of the Spirit of God, included this event from the life of Jesus because there is a startling and a profound truth that applies to us in 2015. And I think that's gonna, by God's grace, gonna leap out at us this morning as we gather to consider the meaning of Easter, the resurrection. And I want to speak to you this morning on the subject of why I believe in the resurrection. Now, a certain man was sick. Well, that still happens, doesn't it? Two days ago, my wife's uncle passed away after a long battle with cancer. was a certain man who was sick, Lazarus, of Bethany, a town of Mary and her sister Martha. And it was that Mary who had anointed the Lord Jesus with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick. Therefore, the sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick. Jesus heard that, He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that He was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Then, after this, he said to the disciples, let us go again to Judea. So they were in Galilee, which was about a two days walk. And he gets this message, and he waits another two days, and now he says, let's travel back to Judea, let's go down south towards this region, towards the town of Bethany. Verse 8, the disciples said to him, teacher, Lately, the Jews down there sought to stone you. And you're going to go there again?" And Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in a day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of the world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him. These things he said. And after that, he said to them, Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may awake him. The disciples said, Lord, if he sleeps, he'll get well. Verse 13, Jesus, however, spoke of his death, but they thought that he was speaking about taking a rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad, for your sakes, that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go to him." Then Thomas, who is called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him. You see the assumption they're making there? I'm going to go to Lazarus. And they're going, well, Lazarus is dead. So if you're going to go to Lazarus, it must mean we're going to go down there and die. All right, guys, let's go with him. Let's go die with him. I mean, that's what they're thinking as they're marching back towards Jerusalem. Verse 17, So when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. So clearly, shortly after the messenger took off running down those dirt roads of Palestine towards Galilee to deliver the message that his friend was ill. It was a two day run. Jesus remains two more days and then takes the trip back. He gets there and finds that he's already passed on and he's been buried for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away, and many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. 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." And Jesus said to her, do you see this in verse 23? Your brother will rise again. Martha said, I know, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day. And 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?" And she said to him, Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world. Verse 28, And when she had said these things, she went her way, and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, The teacher has come and is calling for you. And as soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to him. Verse 30, Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. And when the Jews who were with her in the house, comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, they followed her, saying, She must be going to the tomb to weep there. Then when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, she groaned in her spirit. Verse 34, And he said, Where have you laid him? And they said to him, Lord, come and see. Come and see where we have laid him. Verse 35, Jesus wept. Then when the Jews said, see how He loved him. And some of them said, could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying? Then Jesus again, groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. And Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him who is dead, said to him, Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days. And Jesus said to her, Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, Father, I thank You that You have heard me, and I know that You always hear me, but because of the people who are standing by, I am saying this, that they may believe that You sent me." Verse 43, And when he had said these things, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth! And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. And Jesus said to them, Lose him and let him go. Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and had seen those things that Jesus did, believed in Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees to report the things that Jesus did. When we drop down a couple of verses, it says, from that time forth, the Jews were determined to put Jesus to death. Death is not natural to life. It's not part of God's created order, and yet every one of us in this room, when we think honestly about who we are and what we are, we don't say things like, if I ever die. None of us talk like that. We always say, when I die, why? Because as foreign as death is to life and as much as many of us fear death and avoid death and will be willing to expend great sums of money and energy to push death off as it were, into our further distant future. As much as all of that is true, the same reality is, it is appointed to every one of us that we will one day, like Lazarus, we will die. We recoil from death. We wish to be far from it. We fight it when we hear its footsteps coming for us. deep in our inner being. Each of us, however, knows that one day we will, as the psalmist said, we will walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And you say, why this morning are you talking about death? Because you can't come to Easter and talk about resurrection without first realizing the horrible consequence and weight of sin. Here is how one writer explained it. Why do people die? Why do humans face pain and death? And there is only one answer. Ultimately, when you strip away all of the surface, and you get down to the core of that question, there is only one answer. Why do humans face pain and death? And the answer is, because of sin. The writer of Romans said it this way, when Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. And Adam's sin brought death. So death spread to everyone, for everyone has sinned. So what is our perspective? Well, we as humans are grounded here in the dust and the soil of planet earth and often our perspective is rooted and grounded in an earthly perspective. And we see things this way. But in our text, Jesus takes us and lifts us from the surface of this earth and He lifts us up for just a moment and He allows us to see the whole picture from heaven's perspective. And suddenly we are seeing things and we are seeing truths about this whole thing of death and life that we don't see from this earthbound perspective. Why I believe in the resurrection. Let me give you number one. I believe in the resurrection because of the supernatural character and nature of God. And I think we see some of that reflected in this story in John chapter 11. Notice just in verse 3, did you catch that? The sisters send a message to Jesus saying, He whom you love. They don't even give him Lazarus' name. There was clearly such a relationship between these two men of friendship. And by the way, the word love here is the word for friendship love. Your friend who you love is very ill. That was the message. You see, we believe in the resurrection because we affirm the supernatural character and the nature of God. Number one, God is love. Jesus loves. They knew that Jesus loved them. In fact, in verse 5, the narrator says, now Jesus, and here he uses a different Greek word, now Jesus loved, agape, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. I believe in the resurrection because of the supernatural character and nature of God. And the first character and nature of God that precipitates, that lays a foundation for the resurrection is this fact. God is love. We find it throughout the narrative of scripture. Again and again God comes into our sinful world and He cries out and says, I understand you people are broken, I understand that you're filled with sin, but I want you to know that I love you. I want you. I want a relationship with you. And we find that in this narrative of Lazarus and his sisters. Consider these scriptures. Here's one that perhaps some of us learned when we were little children in Sunday school. for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. The very reason that the Son of God took flesh and blood and walked amongst humanity was to put on display in live and living color in ways that human beings could comprehend and see and evaluate and touch the fact that God loves us. It's part of His nature. It's part of who He is. If we were speaking in human terms, we would say, this love is part of His DNA. You cannot extract the love of God and set it somewhere else because it makes up the very nature of who God is. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. Consider this also. For when we, you and I, were still without strength. Simply meaning, before you and I were even conceived in the womb. I mean, consider this love. Before you were even considered. Before you were even carried in your mother's womb. Before you had any strength. At the appointed time, Christ died for the good people. For the nice people. That's not what the text says, is it? Because there are no good and nice people. In due time Christ died for the ungodly, those who were without God, those who had never experienced God's character and nature. And Christ comes in human form, and we talk about Good Friday, where Christ was taken and nailed to that cross, and He shed His life's blood because The penalty, the wages of my sin, and your sin, and the sin of the generations of people, past and future. And what held Him to the cross? If indeed He was Sovereign God, what held Jesus to the cross? Don't tell me it's a couple of puny nails. I mean, if this is the guy who spoke creation, who spoke the universe with one breath of His lips, spoke everything into being, if this really is the guy, and Colossians 1 says it is, You're going to tell me that a couple of nails through the hands and feet actually kept Him on the cross? I don't think so. Do you know what held Him to the cross? Do you know why He suffered that scourging and He bore that crown of thorns and He shed His lifeblood and He went through the agony of a Roman crucifixion as we saw last week? Do you know why He did that? Because the very character and nature of God is love. And when Jesus came into the world and hung upon that cross, He was screaming in tones that were eternal, and yet tones that we could understand, I love you. And the only way we can be in a relationship that I desire, is I must pay the penalty, God's penalty, for your sin. I love you this much. And He stretches out His arms and He dies. Look at verse 7 of that text. It says, "...for scarcely for a righteous man will one die." Ah, perhaps for a good man somebody might dare to lay down their life and die. Look at verse 8. But that's not what God did. You see, God did not come and look at Phil Hunt and say, Wow, look at that guy. He is clever. He is gifted. What a nice guy Phil Hunt is. You know what? He deserves my love. I think I'm going to go down and die for him. Because he's just really a super guy. No, no, no. But God demonstrates The supernatural nature of His character. He demonstrates His own love toward us. When did He love us? He didn't love us after we cleaned ourselves up. He didn't love us after we dragged ourselves out of the vomit and the manure of the pigsty of this world, and washed ourselves off, and got ourselves dressed up real nicely, and combed our hair and say, God, how's this? That's not when He loved us. He loved us when we were still sinners. When we were shaking our puny fist at God and saying, leave me alone. I will do what I want to do. God, I don't care about you. And I don't want you telling me how to live my life. Don't tell me how to love my wife. Don't tell me what to do with my kids. Don't tell me where to go on Friday and Saturday night. Don't tell me anything. I'll live my life for me. Thank you very much. And God says, I love you. I love you. And in our fallen state of rebellion and wickedness, God demonstrated love by sending Jesus Christ into this realm of sinful humanity to walk among us. And He came for one purpose, and that was to set His face towards Jerusalem and to go and to die on the cross. Why? Because that was His... His supernatural character and nature. Jesus loves, God loves. But not only does Jesus love, look in our text, Jesus knows. Verse 3, Lord, the one who you love is sick. He didn't need them to tell them that. Because if you drop down to verse number 11, These things he said after he said to them, our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him. Nobody had come those many kilometers to tell Jesus that Lazarus had died. Why? Because the supernatural character and nature of God is predicated upon this reality that God knows everything. And here's what blows my mind. When I think of the resurrection, when I think of the cross, it absolutely blows my mind. Do you realize that God knows every dark corner of Phil Hunt's life from the time I was born? He knows every secret thought of my heart and my mind. He knows everything I have done in the dark shadows that nobody else knows. You don't know, my wife doesn't know, my mom doesn't know, nobody knows, but He knows. Not only does He know what I have done and what I have said and where I have been, He knows what I am going to do. He knows everything. And He loves me. And He loves me. Jesus knows everything about the situation you're in here this morning. We don't know. We don't know what you're struggling with. We don't know the pain that you may be going through. We don't know maybe your sense of loss. We don't know the anguish of your heart. We don't know your frustrations. We don't know your emptiness. We don't know... I don't know. I can't look at... You guys all look really cool to me. I mean... You look like the most together group I've seen in a long time. So I don't know, but I'm telling you there's somebody who does know. His very supernatural character and who He is means that He knows everything about you and your circumstances this morning. He knows everywhere that you've been and He knows every decision of your tomorrow. Jesus knows. There's another thing that stands out. I believe in the resurrection because of the supernatural character and nature of God. Not only does God love and not only does God know, but number three, Jesus cares. He cares. He says in verse number 4, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified. First of all, Jesus cares about the glory of God. Christ's delay in Galilee was to fulfill God's purpose. And ultimately God's purpose in the life of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, God's purpose ultimately was to bring glory and praise and honor to His Father. Because I've got news for all of us. Life isn't about us. It's not about us. You know this story that's being written? It's not about us. None of it's about us. It's His story. It's about Him. It's about His glory. It's about His purposes. It's about the fact that King Jesus, today, because of the resurrection, is ruling and reigning at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. That's where Jesus is. Most people in the world don't know that this is His kingdom, and that He's on the throne, and He's ruling, and He's reigning. Most people in our world don't know that one day the reigning King is going to return, and He's going to return, and He's going to hold us accountable. He's going to come and sit in judgment. But we are told that there is coming a day that every single person will bow their knee and will acknowledge that He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You will either acknowledge and I will either acknowledge that truth in this life by humbling ourselves and responding to His love and His care for us. Or, we will stand as defiant rebels before God, and on that judgment day we will then bow before Him, and we will acknowledge that indeed He is the King. Jesus cares about His Father's glory. You see, when I don't understand my circumstances, I don't understand why at 72 years old my wife's uncle had to pass away two days ago. I don't understand that. I don't understand why people have to get cancer and suffer. I don't understand all that. But you know what's something I do understand? I understand that God loves, God knows, and God cares. And I understand that ultimately all of that, I can rest in the knowledge of His character and of His nature. Though I may not have an explanation for your circumstance this morning, I might not be able to tell you the why of it. I can tell you who. And it is a loving, caring, good God who is orchestrating all things for the purpose of His own glorious will and purpose. Even in death, sorrow, pain, and tragedy, God is with us. God is at work carrying out His plan. In fact, in verse 15, Jesus said, Lazarus is dead. He's talking to His disciples. Lazarus is dead, but I'm glad that I was not there so that you might believe. Later, when He arrived at the funeral home, we read that He was deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled. And this is the mystery of all mystery. Jesus goes to the grave of Lazarus, knowing that He is going to raise Him from the dead. And He looks around at the grief of the mourners, and Jesus cried. You see, we have a High Priest, the Hebrews tells us, who knows We don't have a high priest in Jesus who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. But in fact, He was in all points tempted like we are, yet He remained without sin. So I believe in the resurrection, number one, because of the supernatural character and nature of God. But number two, second reason, I've only got two. Second reason, I believe in the resurrection because Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Notice please if you would in verse 25 and 26. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Jesus comes to Martha and says, your brother will rise again. And she says, I know, I believe in the resurrection in the future. That everyone's gonna rise again and stand before God. I believe that he will rise in that resurrection. And Jesus said, Martha, what you haven't understood yet is this. I am the resurrection and the life. You're looking at the resurrection and the life. You see, Mary and Martha believed in Him, but their understanding of Him was incomplete. And Jesus is calling them to re-evaluate their faith. I believe in the resurrection because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and in this text we see demonstrated the fact that Jesus has the power over death, and He has the power over life. You might be saying to me, but Phil, If Jesus has the power of life and death, and if Jesus had healed so many people during His earthly ministry, why did He allow Lazarus to die? I mean, He healed other people from a distance. I mean, why? And that's what Martha and Mary both said to him when they ran to him. Did you hear what they both said? Lord, if you'd only been here, our brother wouldn't have died. As though, somehow, he was unaware. But Jesus was fully aware of what was taking place. And His delay was part of God's plan. Yes, He could have rushed in and averted the death. But instead, He was working for a greater purpose. We were visiting another country with my family and we went to a fast food restaurant where they had a little play park. These little things where the kids go up and whatever. And there were lots of kids in there. And Corbin was just about 2 or 3 years old. And he was climbing up and sliding down. And there was one of those demon kids there. You know those kind, right? I mean, this kid was like the bully. And here's our little guy, you know, he's barely, and he's just having fun and so excited to go to this little play thing. And there's this other kid, you know, maybe he was four years old, and he was a bully, and he was running, and first he pushed him off the top of the slide. And he went tumbling down, fortunately, tumbling down the slide. And I'm standing over there, and my blood's starting to boil. And then the kid came over and hit him, smacked him. And Corbin comes and he's crying. And of course the sign says, no parents on the equipment. Little kid runs back up in there. I'm thinking, man, if I could fit through that little hole, I'd go up there and jerk that little kid's neck. How does he dare do that to my son? But you know what I did instead? I didn't let my son know I was ticked. I just said, son, this is the way life is. You be a man. You get back in there and play. If he gives you a shove, go ahead and shove him back. I don't know, maybe that's not the Christian thing to do, but that's what I told him, alright? You see, I had the power to jerk that little kid's neck. I had the power to do it. But you know what? For the sake of my son, he needed to learn those lessons, didn't he? But do you think God is that way? I mean, could He spare you the pain that you've gone through? Sure He could. Could He reverse those lives? Of course He could, He's God. And yet, because He knows, because He cares, because He understands, because He has an eternal perspective that's way up here, way back here, He gets the big picture, and we're just this little ant that's kind of like making little lines on the paper somewhere over here, but He sees the big canvas. He's going, son, I love you, but just get back in there. Just get back in. Yeah, I can jerk his neck, but you know what, I'm not going to do that. You need to learn these lessons. And these people needed to learn these lessons that we also need to understand this Easter 2015. Jesus has the power over life and He has the power over death. Number two, spiritual life. Here's the second truth. Spiritual life cannot be extinguished by physical death. Spiritual life cannot be extinguished by physical death. Those who believe in Jesus, this is what He says in verse 25, Those who believe in Jesus, though they may die physically, they will live, because He will raise them up. In fact, Jesus talked about Lazarus' death as sleep. Remember? Why? Because to God that's exactly what it is. They're sleeping. Their body is asleep. But one day, that body will be resurrected. Why? Because Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Since everyone who lives and believes in Him has eternal life, they will never die spiritually. Verse 26. Because spiritual life is not extinguished by physical death. Listen to this scripture. But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment. in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when that trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then, we who are still living, will be transformed so that we will never die. For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die. When this happens, when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die, then at last the Scripture will come true. And here's the truth, death is swallowed up in victory. Now you hear His crescendo. Oh death! If this is true! Oh death, where is your victory? You're the loser! At the end you lose! Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting? Then Jesus turns to Martha. And this is what He says at the end of verse 26. And I think as we draw this to a conclusion this morning, I think that this is also recorded not only for Martha's sake, but for your sake and mine. And here's what God asks us this morning. Do you really believe this? Do you really believe this? I mean, do you personally believe that Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life? This is more than believing that Jesus is merely a historical figure, or that He's a great teacher, or that He was a great moral leader. This goes far beyond that. Do you believe that I am the resurrection and the life? Look at her beautiful statement. And she says, yes Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world. May I say to you this morning, God is not challenging us to believe a fantasy. Jesus proved He was who He claimed to be. When Jesus walked to the grave, do you realize, because of who He was, if He had simply said, in that grave, come forth, if that's what He had said, you understand the problem, right? Every grave would have opened. And every single person who has ever died would have walked out of the tombs. Because He is the resurrection and the life. He has the power over life and death. And so He said, Lazarus, come forth. In those days, they would dress them in a white robe, and then they would take cloth, strips of cloth, and bind their head, and bind their arms, and bind their feet. So, I mean, He just comes out like this. I mean, talk about freaking you out. I mean, behold, He stinks. Lazarus, come forth! And here he comes. What does Jesus say? Untie him, let him go. You see, we're not being challenged to believe a fantasy. Lazarus rose from the dead and Jesus had the power to raise him. Jesus went on to demonstrate His power over death by raising from the dead on the third day. Jesus proved His claim by raising Lazarus, and then Jesus demonstrated this claim that He was the resurrection and the life, by rising Himself from the dead on the third day. And I just want to read those verses for you, and we come to the end of our time together. John chapter 20 and verse 11. Listen to what it says. Mary stood by the tomb weeping, and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Look at verse 15. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you seeking? And she, supposed he was the gardener, said to him, Sir, if you've taken him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him. Look at verse 19. The same day and evening, being the first day of the week when the doys were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst of them and said, Peace be with you. And when he had said this, he showed him his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Verse 24, Now Thomas called the twin. One of the twelve was not with them when Jesus had come. The other disciples said to him, We've seen the Lord. So he said to them, Unless I see the hands, the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. So eight days later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, stood in the midst and said, peace to you. And he said to Thomas, come here Thomas, reach your finger here, look at my hands and reach your hand here and put it in my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said, Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those in 2015, who though they have never seen, yet they believe. Blessed are those people. Romans 6.9 says, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more, death no longer has dominion over Him. Hebrews chapter 2, In so much then, as the children have been partakers of flesh and blood, Jesus Himself likewise shared in the same. He became flesh and blood, that through death He might destroy him who has the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subjected to bondage. Do you believe in the resurrection? Do you believe in Jesus? You are not being challenged to believe a fantasy. The proof that the gospel is true is the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. And the good news of that gospel is that you can be forgiven of your sins and made a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ, in His death and His resurrection. Scripture says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart, here it is, that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. You see, salvation requires belief in two things. Number one, you must believe that Jesus is Lord. That He is the very nature and character of God Himself. He is very God. You must believe that. And if Jesus is God, and Jesus is Lord, then He has the right to tell us what to do. Number two, you must believe. that God raised Him from the dead. And if you believe that He is God, that He died for your sins, and that God raised Him from the dead, if you make that, if you take that, if you receive that personally, you believe that for yourself, you will be saved, you'll be delivered from your sin. Acts 17.30 and 31 says, "...truly the times of ignorance God overlooked." But now, He's not overlooking the ignorance. He now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the man, Jesus, whom He has ordained. And He gave assurance that He would one day judge the world by raising Him from the dead. Here's my conclusion. Three powerful implications of what we've seen today. Number one, the resurrection of Jesus gives authority and credence to everything He claimed. No other religious leader went into the grave and came out. The resurrection is the undeniable, irrefutable, unmistakable clarification that everything that Jesus claimed to be, He is. Number two, the resurrection proves His power over sin, that is the cause of death, and over Satan, who places us in bondage through our sin. It is proof that there is an escape for the bondage of our sin through Jesus Christ. He is powerful enough to deal with our sin and its consequences, and powerful enough to deal with Satan and his temptations. Number three, the resurrection testifies to all mankind from every culture, in every generation, every religious background. It matters not. It is powerful testimony that Jesus is Lord. We find in our text, responses to the resurrection. And I conclude with this thought. When they saw that Lazarus was alive, Some of them believed. They witnessed the resurrection power of Christ, and they put their trust in Him. We see that in verse 45. And then we see there were others who rejected. They could not deny the resurrection. In fact, in the next chapter, they even said, we want to put Lazarus to death and Jesus to death. Because they could not deny that Lazarus was dead and now alive. And yet in their heart they refused to acknowledge who Jesus was. So what about you? Do you believe this? Have you received this Jesus, this God, in all of His resurrection power to crush your sin and your bondage and to set you free? Have you? Do you believe in the resurrection? Let's bow our heads and conclude with a word of prayer. as we thank God for Easter. And with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I invite you to believe in Jesus today. You say, how do I do that? By simply in your heart turning to Him and saying, I believe that You are God. I believe that you died on the cross because you love me and you want me. I believe. And I trust in you to deliver me through your resurrection power. I trust you to forgive me of my sins and to give me life. Eternal life. And if you have known in your mind these stories and have been sensitized to these kinds of ideas, maybe some of us all of our lives, if you were like me, raised in church, and yet it's just always been this distant, surreal, religious thing that had no implication or bearing upon your life, Open your heart and life and receive Jesus today. Please. Please just say to Him, I surrender. I open my heart. Come. Take me. Forgive me. I'm Yours. I respond to Your love. I want to love You back. And you know what? Jesus will save you. He'll come and live in you as He did in me some years ago. And He'll make you a new creation. Old things pass away, everything becomes new because He's inside and He's working through His power. Heavenly Father, thank You. Thank You for Your undeserved love. Thank You for causing Your own Son, God Himself, to descend and take upon flesh and blood so that He could do one thing, and that would be to die for our sins. The sins of the world, that whomever will believe in Him, will never perish, will never face God's judgment, but have everlasting eternal life. We thank You that You are the resurrection and the life. We thank You that whoever believes in You, though our flesh may die, we will live forever. Grant us the gift of faith. that like Martha, we can say, I believe. I believe that You are the Savior. And I believe and trust You to be my Savior. Thank You for Easter. Thank You for the cross, but we thank You that You did not stay in the grave, but three days later, You rose again. And that You live forever. Ruling and reigning and we thank you that those who put their faith in you Will one day rule and reign and live with you for all eternity Thank You Jesus We love you because you first loved us and it's in Jesus name that we pray Amen. Amen. All right. Brother Jamie, I'm going to ask you to come up and just give us again instructions about what we are doing afterwards and just run us through that. We'd like to invite all of you, if you can, spend the afternoon out at the farm, run past the market, grab yourself something. We got the charcoal and let's just have a great time of fun and games. The kids will have fun and games. We'll sit around and talk. and have a good time. I hope you'll be able to join us for that. The other thing would be if some of you guys could help us back there and up here just clear everything out and put everything away, that would also help speed us on our way. Alright, Jamie? I'm actually setting these around. There's two stacks going around. These are the directions to get out to stop this car. And, like I said, there's no set time to come out.