Michael Youssef - I Am The Resurrection and The Life

There was a man, and a true story, or let’s call him Bill. That was not his name. Bill spent most of his life avoiding the subject of death. He refused to go to a doctor out of fear that he might receive a terminal diagnosis. He would not make a will because he thought that would be a bad omen. He refused to buy life insurance or burial plots, and he would not admit to his mortality. After his 70th birthday, a friend of his led him to the Lord. From that day on, everything in Bill’s life changed. Everything was turned upside down. The fear of death gave way to comfort and assurance of eternal life in heaven with Jesus, and he literally learned how to live joyfully in this life.

A few years later, he was attending a funeral for one of his friends. He was sitting in the church pew during the funeral next to the man who had led him to the Lord several years earlier. As they were leaving the church, he leaned over to his friend with great joy in his voice and said, «The next one of these parties they throw, I will be the guest of honor.» And he was. Those of us who know and love Jesus should never be afraid of death, for we know that we can face death with confidence, joy, and great anticipation. We come to this last, and possibly—I say possibly because I don’t want to make a value judgment here—the last, and possibly the most important declaration of the exclusivity of Jesus.

When you hear our Savior declare, «I am,» say that with me, «I am.» I am the resurrection and the life. Here is the incredible irony about this declaration: Jesus makes this declaration in the middle of a funeral, like all of the other claims of the Lord Jesus Christ, all the claims of His exclusivity. We need to put that in context as well. In John 11, you find the entire atmosphere in this little town. It’s really not a very big town—just a couple of miles outside of Jerusalem, Bethany. It was filled with death, decay, and distress.

A friend of Jesus by the name of Lazarus dies and was buried for four days. His family and friends were in a state of shock and sorrow. Obviously, he was a young man because when the Bible mentions a person first, that is the eldest, Martha, and he must have been the youngest in the family—Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. But what happened before that day is of utmost importance. Don’t miss it. Several days before Lazarus died, Jesus was ministering in another town. We don’t know how far away it was, but it was a different town. He got word that Lazarus was sick and dying. Soon after that came the word that said, «Your friend Lazarus has died.» Jesus says to the disciples—this is another one you don’t want to miss—He says to the disciples, «Lazarus has fallen asleep.» Think about this. Why is this so significant? The word «sleep» is of utmost importance.

So you say, «You mean all of these things?» Yep. Because that is a new teaching. It does not exist in the Old Testament. It is not something that these Jewish disciples ever comprehended. They never understood this. In fact, they did not even understand what the term «sleep» meant until after the resurrection of Jesus.

You say, «What’s the big deal about that?» I’m glad you asked. Lots of people fall asleep, right? But the reason why the disciples were really puzzled is that they did not understand how He could refer to Lazarus’s death as sleep. As I said, only after the resurrection did they begin to comprehend it. For the Bible tells us that when a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ dies, it is just going to sleep. But when Jesus died, He died. He did not fall asleep; He died and was buried. For the believer, death is a temporary separation. For the believer, death is not permanent. Just like when we go to sleep at night, we are just temporarily separated. We say good night. Then in the morning, we say good morning. We’ve just rested, and now we’re up.

Watch this. Please watch this. When Jesus said Lazarus had fallen asleep and that we were going to Bethany—I love Thomas; I told you that a couple of weeks ago. Don’t ever call him Doubting Thomas; he really is not. In my estimation, he’s Honest Thomas, and I thank God for him; I really do. He heard the term «Bethany,» and he got the tremors. «Bethany, Bethany, Bethany, we’re going to Beth!» It’s a suburb of Jerusalem, right? Bethany is a couple of miles away, and Jerusalem is where all the bad guys are who want to kill Jesus and who want to kill us. So what does he do? He said, «It’s all over.»

What does Jesus say? He decided to stay where He was for four days. Four more days after He got word that Lazarus had died. Four more days. Why? Why four days? Why did He deliberately and specifically wait for four days? Because there was an erroneous teaching among some of the Jewish rabbis; it’s really what we would call superstition today. It was erroneous teaching that said that when a person dies, the spirit hovers around for three days, and then it leaves. So Jesus deliberately decided to wait for four days so there would be no doubt in anyone’s mind—even those superstitious people—that this was a resurrection.

As I said, in the Old Testament, there is nothing that remotely teaches this stuff, that superstitious stuff. But our Lord, in His infinite wisdom and patience, waited until everyone knew that Lazarus really, really, really died. On His way to Bethany, when He came into town—remember, these are very small villages—He comes in on the main road, and the word goes to Mary and Martha, saying, «Hey, Jesus is here! Jesus is coming to see you.» So Martha runs into the streets to meet Jesus as He is coming in and says to Him, here’s a—Yousef paraphrasing—"Lord, I wish you were here; you would have healed my brother.» What is she saying? She believed that Jesus could heal the sick but not raise the dead. That’s what she was saying.

You say, «Michael, how did you get this?» Well, look at verse 23. Jesus said to her, «Your brother will rise again.» What was her reaction? Look at verse 24. «I know that he will rise in the last day; I know he will rise on the resurrection day.» Like a good Pharisee, she believed in the resurrection; the Sadducees didn’t. Lazarus rising from the dead was the last thing on Martha’s mind. She did not comprehend that. And that is why my prayer life is now really transformed because of the experiences I’ve had with the Lord, and I’m very careful how I pray. That is why He tried to change her focus. He tried to change, and I believe He wants to change the focus of everyone at the sound of my voice. Change it away from the fixation on the long-range program—namely, in the future when Christ, when the day of resurrection—and from the past. He came to the person of Jesus. He was trying to shift her focus to who He is. He was trying to shift her focus on the exclusivity of Jesus Himself.

The exclusivity of Jesus is what was most on His mind, to get Martha to shift her thoughts from that to Him, to focus on the mighty power of Jesus now. Her level of faith was that Jesus could have healed in the past or could have, well, He will raise the dead in the future. But she thought, «I’m not really sure about the now.» I am no stranger to this, but I know that so many people often focus on their current pain, their current suffering, their current grief, their current sorrow, their current fear, their current hopelessness, their current confusion, their current uncertainty, and their current doubt. Have you ever been there? I have. And that is why our precious Lord Jesus ever so gently—ever so gently—shifts her focus from the trap of finding herself caught between the past and the future.

And Jesus gives her the greatest of the greatest of the greatest of the greatest of the greatest of «I ams.» When Jesus shifted Martha’s focus from her need to focus on Jesus—from focus on who He is to focus on who the Bible said He is—oh beloved, that’s when the miracle began to happen. When your focus is Jesus, the miracle begins to happen. Can I get an amen? I am the resurrection and the life, and he who believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?

I’ll just do it again. It was Jesus asking Martha, but I can do it again with you. Do you believe this? Praise God! Focus on who Jesus is. Focus on His amazing love. Focus on His incredible grace. Focus on His inexhaustible mercy. Why am I saying this? Because twice in this passage, twice in this passage—I’m not giving you my opinion or my ideas; I’m telling you what the scripture said—twice, «He who believes in me.» «He who believes in me.» It’s all about me, Jesus is saying—to whom we run when we want something and then ignore Him for the rest of the time.

When Jesus is the focus, when Jesus is the object of prayer, when Jesus is the center, when Jesus is first and foremost, then you will discover that everything—everything—that He does for you is, what we say in the colloquial language, the icing on the cake. Are you with me? I know in this modern day this is a hard word to accept. But let me tell you, until the Lord takes me home or ceases to stand in this pulpit, I will preach the word. I will only preach the word. And once Martha’s focus shifted, she was able to make this magnificent declaration. Let’s look at it. Verse 27. Underline it in your Bible: «Yes, Lord.» Can you say «Yes, Lord»? «Yes, Lord.» She told Him, «I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.» Praise God! She’s got it! She’s got it! Look at her confession just a little closely, okay? It’s a three-fold confession of shifting.

Now that we know the focus has shifted: «Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Son of God who is to come into the world.» «Yes, Lord, you are the Christ, the promised Messiah.» «Yes, Lord, you are the divine Son of God.» «Yes, Lord, you are the one that all the prophets for a thousand years have prophesied about coming.» What is she saying? She’s saying, «Yes, Lord! Now my focus is on the one who is the great 'I AM.'» «Yes, Lord! Now my full trust is in the one who is the great 'I AM.'» «Yes, Lord! Now I am the 'I AM.'» This one, the 'I AM' is the object of my faith and my worship. «Yes, Lord! Now the 'I AM' is the center of my universe.» «Yes, Lord! The 'I AM' is whom I live and die for.» Give Him glory!

Three things I want you to think with me very quickly. First, Christ is the only creator of this physical life of our bodies. He’s the one who created us physically. Secondly, only Christ is the recreator of our spirits, our spiritual life. And thirdly, only Christ can guarantee our eternal life in heaven. Let’s look at this very quickly. Christ is the creator of our physical life. God is the one who makes babies in the mother’s womb. Acts 17:25 says He gives all mankind life and breath and everything else. Secondly, He’s the only one who can recreate our dead spirits. All of us were born with dead spirits on the inside of us; He’s the only one who can cause us to be born again. In John 10:10, Jesus said, «I came that they might have life and have it to the full.» The full life can only be experienced when you are spiritually reborn.

Listen to me. When we’re physically born, we’re born alive but spiritually dead. And God had to breathe into the nostrils of every repentant sinner a new life in the spirit. We’re all born spiritually stinking worse than Lazarus’s grave. And Jesus breathed His Holy Spirit into our spiritual nostrils, and He raised us from our spiritual death. Christ is the only one who can give us physical life. Christ is the only one who can give us rebirth and spiritual life. And thirdly, Christ is the only one who guarantees our eternal life in heaven.

Listen to me. When Jesus said, «I am the resurrection,» that word literally means, «I am the one, and the only one, who can cause you to stand, cause you to stand up.» How does this happen? We are spiritually horizontal, flat on our backs, but He causes us to be vertical, to spiritually rise and stand up. You see, God said to Adam, «The moment you disobey me, you’ll be dead spiritually.» And Adam did. And Eve spiritually died. They physically were alive; they physically were still kicking, but they spiritually died. And you and I and every person in the world inherited their DNA, inherited their genes, inherited their death—their spiritual death. And that is why David could say in Psalm 51:5, «I was sinful by birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.»

And that is why Jesus said to Martha, «Whoever believes in me shall not die, shall not die, shall not die.» To be sure, physically we may fall asleep, but spiritually we live forever. We live forever. Please, when you go home, take time and read 1 Corinthians 15. It’s 58 verses long, but take time. Read it slowly. Read it carefully about what happens to believers when they fall asleep. Oh beloved, that’s how Christless humanity—that’s why Christless neighbors, friends, and co-workers think. But because Jesus said, «I am the resurrection and the life,» and He raised Lazarus from the dead, and then a few days later, He Himself rose from the dead never to die again, we can be absolutely certain that when we leave these shores, we’ll be more alive than we ever were before.