John 11:24-25

April 1, 2018

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

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The sermon starts at 14:50 in the audio file.

Or, A Doctrine That Is Impossible to Keep Buried

“Death is the most obvious fact we try to hide from our kids.” So writes Ben Sasse, a Senator from Nebraska, in his book, The Vanishing American Adult. Even if we attempt to protect our kids from seeing it as long as possible, we cannot avoid death. Death is always around. All living creatures die at some point though it’s only human beings who anticipate their own death and the death of those whom they love. Even in our advanced medical culture, death is as likely as mediocre hospital food. We cannot avoid it any more than the ocean can avoid getting wet.

It’s been said that there are only two things that are certain: death and taxes. It’s simple, it’s at least a little cynical, and I believe that it is short by one.

What would you answer if you got to add a third thing to the list of certain things in this world? You only get one; no cheating. There are things that certainly exist, but that’s different than death and taxes which are more certain events. What is a third, just as sure, event that everyone can expect will come?

Is it giving away too much to be asking the question on Easter Sunday morning? Are you ready to guess at my answer having read, or reread, the title and subtitle for the sermon? That does reveal my hand, though I’m prepared to make a defense for my hope. As certain as death and taxes is resurrection.

My desire this morning is to feed your soul with eternal comfort that Jesus Christ the Lord is risen from the dead. We confess that He is Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9), and that all who believe in Him will be raised. I want to encourage you that this reality has never been in question. The word of resurrection is an emphatic word, an old word, and a living word.

Resurrection: An Emphatic Word

In John 11 Jesus heard that His friend Lazarus was sick (verse 4) and then waited two days to make sure that Lazarus died before He went to see him (verse 6). When Jesus arrived, Mary and Martha were upset, and both of them believed that had Jesus come earlier, Jesus could have kept Lazarus from dying (verses 21, 32). Similar murmurs came from the crowd (verse 37). Jesus had another way of showing His glory in mind (verses 4, 40).

The conversation between Jesus and Martha turned to the topic of resurrection as Jesus told Martha that Lazarus would rise again (verse 23). I know that a number of things would be different had this event happened after Jesus’ own resurrection, but imagine what Martha might have said had she known what we know now.

Post-Easter resurrection is like living mortar and brick to the house of truth. In the New Testament resurrection is an emphatic theme, a thundering word. The apostles can’t stop preaching about it as the church spreads throughout the book of Acts. When he defended himself before Felix the governor in Caesarea Paul said,

But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. (Acts 24:14-15)

He referenced the resurrection because it is one of the things of “first importance” in the gospel, “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). God has “caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). Jesus was “raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25) and our sanctification (Romans 6:4-5). We expect that “he who raised the Lord Jesus will[...]