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Martin Memorial Seventh-day Adventist Church

Norman McNulty

The Resurrection and the Life

Before we begin this message, I'm going to ask the Lord to be with us as we consider some words from scripture.

Father in heaven, we thank you for the Sabbath day.

We thank you for the beautiful message and song that we just heard and I pray that you would speak through me now that we would each receive the blessing and the message that we all need for this time and so I just pray that you would speak through me now.

Our scripture reading as it was read, I'm going to read again where Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life.

He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.

And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

Believest thou this?" You know, I think we all here in some way or another have been touched by death.

All of us can identify somebody that we have loved at some point in our life who is resting in the grave until Jesus comes.

And we have this promise that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and those who believe in him have the promise of being resurrected as well, and so we have that promise.

This sermon isn't really, though, a sermon about the resurrection in that sense.

Yes, we believe in the 2 resurrections, the first resurrection, actually there's 3 resurrections if you want to be technical.

There's the special resurrection for all those who have died in the faith of the third angel's message, and then shortly after that is what the Bible calls the first resurrection in Revelation chapter 20.

And then at the end of the thousand years is a resurrection that none of us want to be part of, the second resurrection.

Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live.

And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." None of us ever have to die the second death.

You know, it's interesting, the context of this passage is Jesus meeting Martha after Lazarus has died.

And Martha believes that Jesus is the Messiah.

And Martha and Mary believed that Jesus would come and heal Lazarus before he died, and now that Lazarus is dead, Mary and Martha have accepted the reality that Lazarus is going to sleep in the grave until the resurrection at the last day.

In fact, Jesus has just said to her, your brother shall rise again.

I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

And Jesus says, well, let me take it a little bit deeper for you because I just said he's gonna rise again.

I am the resurrection and the life, and if you believe in me, though he were dead yet shall he live.

Do you believe this?" And notice her response.

And her response is where I'm going to develop some thoughts about how many of us respond to the promises of God in Scripture.

She says to him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

Jesus is telling her what he's going to do.

If someone is dead, if he believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.

Do you believe this?" And she says, yes, Lord, I believe that you're the Messiah.

She's known Jesus throughout His ministry.

She's been 1 of His most ardent followers and supporters, and Jesus is coming right out and saying, I'm going to raise your brother again from the dead.

And she's saying, yeah, I know, He'll raise again at the end of the world.

And then Jesus says, but I'm the resurrection and the life, and she's like, I know, you're the Son of God.

And I look at this passage, And I look at us as Christians, I look at us as Seventh-day Adventists, and I look at the promises that God gives us in Scripture, where Romans 6, for example, says that we can be raised to walk up in newness of life, and our response is, I believe that someday God will change my life.

I believe that someday I will gain victory over my evil temper.

I know that Jesus is the Savior of the world.

That's what the Bible says, and I even believe that the Bible says that I can be delivered from these problems, and I know that someday it will happen." And Jesus is speaking to us today as he did to Martha 2, 000 years ago and he's saying, I will raise you up to walk in newness of life.

And we're like, yes Lord, I believe you'll do that someday.

Heaven's gonna be such a wonderful place.

And Jesus is saying, but I'm the resurrection and the life.

He that believes in me though he were dead, yet shall he live." Now in a spiritual sense, I think all of us can identify with the feeling at times in our life where we feel dead spiritually.

There are moments in life that come where we wonder if we will ever gain victory over certain besetting sins.

Sometimes there are moments in life where sins that we thought that by God's grace we had gained the victory over, they come back and remind us that they still can show up again at times that we often least expect them to show up.

And the devil wants us to believe that because these things happen that they're just going to keep happening and we're going to remain dead spiritually and we'll be dead in trespasses and sins and yes there are promises in Scripture that promise deliverance and victory but the reality is if you look at everybody around us, everybody slips, everybody falls, everybody messes up, and so this is just the law of humanity.

And yet Jesus is saying to us today, I am the resurrection and the life.

He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.

And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die, believest thou this?" The question is, do you really believe?

Or are we like Martha where we hear the promises and our response is, yeah, those promises are so amazing, I'm looking forward to heaven when there will be no more death, sin, or sorrow.

And yet Jesus is saying, I'm talking about right now, not when we all get to heaven.

Jesus is saying to Martha, I'm talking about right now, not at the first resurrection.

Where is our faith in the promises of God?

Let's go to Romans 6 and look at this passage that talks about this spiritual resurrection.

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

You know, and he says this in response to what he said in Romans 5 verse 20, which says, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

And Paul actually specifically targets people in Romans 3, for example, where people say, let us do evil that good may come.

And he says it again here because he's making a point that people misinterpret when he says where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

And so people say, hey, I receive God's grace to cover my sins.

And so the more I sin, the more grace I receive, so what's the big deal?

I'm sinning and I'm receiving grace, so where sin abounds, grace does much more abound." What does it matter?

And Paul says, no, that's not what I mean.

What I mean is, yes, sin is malignant, sin is evil, but God's grace is greater than the sin of our past.

Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

There is no sin in your life right now that God's grace cannot take care of.

And then he goes on to say, what shall we say then?

Shall we sin more and more so we can receive even further grace?

How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

Do you know how many Christians really believe that promise?

Verse 3, know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." And people will see that verse and say, oh that's great, Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father and I can be raised to walk in newness of life, but my newness of life is still going to be a life of sin.

That's what much of the Christian world believes.

The Bible says, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

The newness of the Christian life means that we are dead to sin.

But if you don't believe that you can be dead to sin, guess what, you're not going to be dead to sin.

And he goes on to say, for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." We need a resurrection, and we walk around as a laity in church, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, and we think that wretchedness is average Christianity because we look around everybody else and we compare ourselves among ourselves and we say, well, that's the way everybody else is, so I guess that's the Christian experience.

And yet scripture says that we should be planted together in the likeness of his death, and when we are, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.

Jesus is saying, I am the resurrection and the life.

You may have been dead, but when you were made alive again, you will be raised to walk in newness of life in the likeness of the resurrection of Christ." And he goes on to say then in verse 6, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed.

You know, this clearly connects to Galatians 2.20 which says, I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Now Paul goes on then to talk about what it means for this old man to be crucified further in Romans 7, and I'll just summarize it for the sake of time, but basically it goes like this.

Christ does not commit adultery, but he wants to be married to us.

But as long as that old man is still alive in our lives, that's our carnal nature.

But As long as the old man is not crucified, Christ will not commit adultery, he will respect our decision to be married to the old man of sin will be destroyed in my life someday.

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The Resurrection and the Life

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