I told you last week a little bit about my grandmother and her legacy of faith.
On Wednesday, it was a privilege of mine to preside over the graveside portion of her funeral service.
And as is my routine in situations like this, as many of you have witnessed me do in the past,
I like to read from this particular passage in John 11
and challenge those who are gathered in that moment to focus briefly on what comes after death.
Burials in particular, they have a way of forcing us to consider our own mortality.
We stood in West Virginia, in Logan County, West Virginia, on Wednesday in the middle of a graveyard
and we looked around, thousands and thousands of graves all around us on this hillside in the mountains.
And you can't stand there in that moment with a hole in the ground in front of you about to bury someone
and not be confronted with the fact that your day is coming.
It may have been my grandmother in that box that was buried this week,
but each of us are going to have our turn.
And we stand there, we look around and we see how death reigns in this life
and we can't help but ask certain questions.
Is this really all there is?
Is this it?
We live, we do the best we can, we try to leave a better world than what we came into,
which never actually happens, but we try.
And then we just die and that's it?
Is this really all that there is?
Is there any part of us that lives on?
And if there is, what is the nature of that existence?
That's what moments like that force us to think about and to ask.
How does any of this affect the way that we should live now?
Is another question that we might ask.
These are all important questions.
I actually believe that the Bible gives us answers to those questions
that are not only intellectually credible,
but are actually existentially satisfying, joyful, and hopeful.
Unfortunately, it often takes the passing of someone that we love or know
for us to think about death and what may come after it.
Even as Christians, we have resurrection and life at the very heart of our belief system,
of our entire worldview, of all that we believe.
At the very heart of it is resurrection and life,
and yet we don't often talk about the hope of resurrection,
at least not as often as you might think we would.
Perhaps even the extent of your thoughts of resurrection and life
are limited to moments like that.
Maybe funerals, maybe the annual Easter service.
But beyond that, we do our best to put it out of our minds, don't we?
I want to challenge you to not do that now.
That just for a few minutes this morning,
that you would consider these things with me.
There are promises in this text that Jesus makes
that can bring unimaginable hope to those who are trying to sort this out,
that are trying to sort out what death is like
and if anything actually comes after.
There's also fresh encouragement here for believers
who are moving ever closer to that day.
There's joy to those who are burdened by life,
suffering in a fallen world in which we live.
So this text, it gives us hope,
it gives us encouragement,
it gives us joy.
And my prayer is that as we work through it together,
that the Spirit of God would bring an abundant supply
of all three of those things, okay?
So that's why we're doing this this morning.
First thing I want you to see is a tragic circumstance.
A tragic circumstance.
Look with me again at verse 17.
Now when Jesus came,
he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
Bethany was near Jerusalem about two miles off
and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary
to console them concerning their brother.
Have you ever heard of auto-resuscitation?
Those of you who are in the medical community
certainly know if you like to watch murder mysteries,
you probably know about this as well.
Auto-resuscitation is a medical term
that refers to a patient who within a few minutes
after being declared dead due to cardiac arrest,
suddenly shows signs of life.
It's a rare phenomenon.
It doesn't happen very often,
but when it does happen, it's unique.
And it would cause you to think
that though this person was dead,
now they have suddenly been brought back to life.
When in reality, they were never truly dead.
They're on the line of death,
but their reviving is not really the result of a death.
But it's just that they haven't died all the way.
And unfortunately, when this happens,
even this auto-resuscitation,
typically the patients that experience this
don't live beyond that moment for very long.
There's another name that this phenomenon is referred to.
It's called the Lazarus effect.
And it's called that based on the story
that we read in John chapter 11.
But what happens to these patients
who experience this phenomenon
and what happened to Lazarus in John chapter 11
are not at all the same.
What we find in John 11
is that by the time Jesus arrived in Bethany
where Lazarus and his sisters lived,
Lazarus had been dead and entombed for four days.
We're not talking about a few minutes after CPR has ended
and now suddenly there's signs of life.
We're talking about dead, wrapped, buried for four days.
His was not a pseudo death.
It was an actual death.
In fact, Jesus is, if you read earlier in the passage,
you'll find that Jesus' delay in coming to Bethany,
even after he knew that Lazarus was sick,
was for this very purpose.
It was to emphasize the fact
that Lazarus was actually dead,
which is further confirmed by the fact
that many of the Jews who had traveled from Jerusalem
to comfort Lazarus' sisters, Martha and Mary.
So you can imagine with me
exactly the way that this works now with our own families.
The Jews, they didn't embalm their dead,
which would be the reason for a very quick burial
or an entombment of Lazarus' body.
But for days following that, friends, family, loved ones,
sometimes maybe even professional mourners,
they make their way to Martha and Mary
and they grieve with them over the death of their brother,
just like you've experienced before.
For days, sometimes weeks,
we experience this process of grief.
Well, that's exactly what they're going through.
And when Jesus arrived,
he found his dear friends, many others,
mourning as every other family does.
They lose a loved one.
That's why we say this was a tragic circumstance,
a grieving circumstance.
The truth is that death is always a tragedy, always.
It's always a tragedy that must be mourned
by those who understand why it happens.
It doesn't matter what the circumstances are
surrounding a person's death.
It's not the circumstances themselves
that dictate the level of tragedy that exists in death.
It is the death itself that is tragic.
Even when it's expected or even painless,
it's still tragic.
And the reason for that is that death
is an aberration of God's good design in creation.
We think of death as a natural part of life.
But according to the scripture,
death is the most unnatural part of life.
And to understand that,
we go all the way back to the beginning.
Adam and Eve were created to live.
They were created to not only live a quantity of life,
they were created to live a quality of life.
They were to enjoy intimate fellowship
with their creator.
They were to bear his image.
They were to rule over his creation.
They were created for life.
But God made it clear to them
that disobedience would result in death.
We find it in Genesis chapter two.
The Lord God took the man
and put him in the garden of Eden
to work it and keep it.
And the Lord God commanded the man saying,
you may surely eat of every tree in the garden,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
you shall not eat.
For in the day that you eat of it,
you shall surely die.
We're introduced to death through disobedience.
It wasn't that the tree in the midst of the garden
had a poisonous fruit.
That is not what it was.
Everything that God created was good.
Very good, he says at the end of creation.
It's not that there was a defect in the creation.
It was a problem simply because God said,
don't eat of this one.
Because when you eat of this one,
you will be in disobedience to me.
And if you disobey,
that is the moment that you will be introduced to death.
That's our introduction to death.
They weren't created for that.
It came as a result of their sin.
And as a result of Adam and Eve's sin,
the Bible tells us that the good world
that God created was plunged into fallenness,
a state in which death instead of life now reigns.
Think about it.
There's wonderful beauty in creation,
but even the cycles of the seasons
are representative of the fact that death reigns.
And it is only of God's grace
that life continues to be reproduced
even through the death
that will come in a few moments
through the fall season and into winter.
God graciously brings life again.
But isn't that just a reminder?
Death reigns here.
Things die.
People die.
And there's nothing we can do to stop it.
Death exists because of sin.
And we all die because we're all sinners.
There's two aspects of this that the Bible talks about.
Two aspects of the reason that sin brings death.
First, death continues in this life and in this world
because of Adam's original sin.
All of humanity is guilty in Adam
so that by our very nature,
we rebel against God.
It's not just our behavior
that needs to be redeemed or modified.
It is our very nature
that has to be redeemed by God for life.
This is what the book of Romans tells us.
Romans chapter five.
Sin came into the world through one man
and death through sin.
So death has spread to all men because all sin.
It goes on to say,
because of one man's trespass,
that being Adam,
death reigned through that one man.
Again, he says,
one trespass led to condemnation for all men.
And again,
by the one man's disobedience,
the many were made sinners.
So there's this one dynamic
where the Bible talks about sin and death,
death continuing to reign
because of Adam's original sin.
But that's not the only way that it talks about it.
Second, death continues because sin continues.
Though we're all guilty in Adam,
each of us bears his or own personal guilt.
Because we are sinners in Adam,
we all continue in sin of our own volition,
of our own choice.
Romans three.
All have sinned.
Every person.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Do you see this?
Death reigns because of Adam.
Death also reigns because of you.
Because of me.
Sin always brings it.
Death is a tragedy because,
that must be mourned
because it is the result of our sin against God.
It's not just a biological process.
It's the ultimate consequence of our sinfulness.
It's also our greatest enemy.
None of us can overcome it.
No matter how clean we eat,
no matter how often we exercise,
no matter how morally we live,
we cannot defeat death.
It's inevitable.
And it's inevitable
because it is God's judgment
against sinful creatures.
So as Jesus comes to Bethany,
as he sees Mary and Martha
and those of the Jews from Jerusalem
who are mourning the loss of Lazarus,
their friend and their brother,
the mourning on one hand
comes from the fact that they lost someone
that they love,
but there is a deeper kind of mourning
that acknowledges that death reigns
and we can't defeat it.
So Jesus comes upon this tragic circumstance
in Bethany,
but it was for this very tragedy
that he came into the world to begin with,
which brings us to our next point.
We see a tragic circumstance,
but then second,
we see a hopeful exchange,
a hopeful exchange.
Look at verse 20.
20.
So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went and met him,
but Mary remained seated in the house.
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 from God,
God will give you.
Jesus said to her,
your brother will rise again.
And Martha said,
I know that he will rise again
in the resurrection on the last day.
This is a hopeful exchange, isn't it?
Lazarus and Martha and Mary,
they were dear friends of the Lord Jesus.
Martha wastes no time getting to Jesus
when she finds that he is nearby.
And what is evident in her exchange with Jesus
is that she was full of faith.
And as a result of her faith,
she was given tremendous hope.
She found amazing hope
in Jesus Christ.
Look just a little closer
at what she said in verse 21.
Martha said to Jesus,
Lord, if you'd been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know
that whatever you ask from God,
God will give you.
You know, living in a text-dominant society
has its pros and its cons.
And one of the cons is
it is so hard sometimes
to discern tone
and mood
and intention
when somebody sends you a text message
or an email
or a letter, right?
Sometimes you may be able
to make certain assumptions
that are generally accurate,
but how many of you
have ever gotten yourself in a mess
because you made certain assumptions
about somebody's motives
or tones in a text message
that weren't true,
but it's just hard to figure that out.
I think that's what has happened
in some places
with this particular text.
We read on the page
what Martha says.
We're not told a lot about her tone
or the motive behind it.
And I think what that has produced
in some places
is some assumptions
that are unhelpful.
Some suppose that
Martha was rebuking the Lord here,
that she believed Jesus
should have been there
to prevent Lazarus' death.
And by not being there,
that there was an injustice in Jesus,
that there was a problem
with his care
and his friendship to them,
and that as she runs to Jesus
when he's nearby,
they take this statement
by Martha as a complaint,
as a rebuke.
Lord, if you had been here,
this would not have happened to me.
We read it with that kind of tone.
I'm not persuaded
that that's actually
what Martha intends
to communicate here.
I don't think that's
what she was doing at all.
I don't think she was
rebuking the Lord.
I think she was finding comfort
in the Lord in this moment.
I think she was expressing her faith
in what Christ would have done
had he been in Bethany
at the time of Lazarus' death.
No doubt she had seen Jesus heal
miraculously many, many times before.
She knew who he was.
She knew what he was capable of.
And I think in this moment
as she runs to him for comfort,
she acknowledges in this moment
that Jesus, I know that if you'd been here,
he wouldn't be dead.
You would have healed him
because you're the Christ.
You're the son of God.
You have the power over sickness.
I know you would have done this.
I think that's probably
what she's saying here.
And I think that's further indicated
in her second statement.
But even though you weren't here then,
you're here now,
and I know that since you're here now,
you're gonna pray
and God's gonna do something good here.
He's gonna bring something good about this
because that's what you do, Jesus.
You bring good things.
This is a sign of faith.
This is comfort.
This is hope.
Though she was hurting,
she knew that Jesus would bring something good
through her trial.
I don't think she had any idea
of what he would do.
I don't think she has resurrection in mind here.
I think that's pretty clear.
But she did believe that he would do something.
And how Jesus responded to her
was so unbelievable
that she completely missed it.
Look at verse 23,
what Jesus says.
Jesus said to her,
your brother will rise again.
And notice how she responds.
She misses it.
Notice how she responds.
By the way,
we probably would have missed it too.
She said,
yeah, Lord,
I know there's a great resurrection
coming on the last day
and he's gonna be raised then.
That's not what Jesus has in mind.
Jesus knew what he was there to do.
He was there to bring Lazarus back to life
in that moment,
in front of those people.
And in this exchange,
as Martha trustingly confessed her hope in Christ,
Jesus gave her a hope that she had not even,
up to that point,
imagined.
A physical resurrection
was not anywhere on Martha's radar here.
But that's what Jesus promised.
It's amazing, isn't it?
Jesus always brings hope to our distress.
And the hope that he brings
is often greater than what we ever expect
or anticipate or imagine
so that when that offer is pronounced,
often we miss it.
What comfort this would have been to Martha
if she had realized in that moment
what Jesus was actually saying.
No, you will be reunited with Lazarus today.
It's amazing, isn't it?
It's hopeful.
In the context of giving us hope
in the face of death,
the fact is that many people just believe
that Jesus' offer is just too good to be true.
We often think that skeptics of Christianity
and of our faith
always have a whole list of reasons
as to why they don't believe.
And honestly, that's just not always the case.
It's not often the case
as much as we might think.
I'm convinced that there are many people
who just have a hard time believing
that something so good could be true.
Why?
We're immersed in a world where death reigns,
where suffering rules,
where life is hard,
where good news is scarce.
And to come across this kind of news,
this kind of hopefulness,
is hard to believe.
Jesus always comes through on his promises, doesn't he?
With him alone, there actually is real hope for you.
There's real hope,
lasting hope for life.
But let's think for just a moment
about how Martha responded to Jesus' promise.
Again, she missed what he meant to say.
She would understand it soon enough.
But she did acknowledge a theological truth
that I think is good for us to remember.
Immediate resurrection was not on her mind,
but she did believe that there would be a future resurrection
in which the souls of believers
that have gone on to be with the Lord
will be reunited with a body
and will be transformed to a glorified body.
This was rabbinic teaching.
This was common beliefs among the Jews at the time.
But it was also what Jesus taught.
Think about this from John chapter 5.
Jesus says,
Now let's pause for just a second.
Jesus is speaking of life and resurrection and death here
in a spiritual sense.
In verse 25, when he says,
An hour is coming and is now here
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God
and will live.
He's speaking about spiritual death,
that in our sins, as Ephesians 1 says,
that we are dead in our trespasses and sin.
We're in bondage to sin.
We're not dying.
We're dead.
Jesus is alluding to that here in this passage
and he says that it's even here now
that as he preaches his gospel,
he is bringing dead people to life,
spiritually speaking.
But then he goes on in the passage
and he moves on to a different kind of resurrection.
He continues,
And he has given him authority to execute judgment
because he's the Son of Man.
Do not marvel at this.
For an hour is coming.
Notice he doesn't say at this point and is now here
because he's speaking of something different now.
He says that an hour is coming
when all who are in the tombs
will hear his voice and come out.
Those who have done good to the resurrection of life,
those who have done evil
to the resurrection of judgment.
This was Jesus' teaching too.
This is what Martha is referring to.
The Bible teaches that one day,
all of us,
believers and non-believers alike,
will be raised from the dead.
Our souls will be reunited with a body
and we will stand before God in judgment.
Those who do not repent and trust Christ
will be cast into eternal hell.
You can read about that
in Revelation chapter 20 verses 13 through 15.
But those whom Jesus has saved will be transformed,
given a body that will never die again,
and they will forever be with the Lord.
You can read about that in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
But think about it as a promise from Jesus in John chapter 6.
And this is the will of him who sent me,
that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me,
but I will raise them up on the last day.
Now I told you at the beginning,
this passage, it contains hope
for those who are trying to sort out the reality of death
and the possibility of life thereafter.
But it also brings encouragement and joy
to those of us who have already received Christ
as Lord and Savior.
Think about what this means.
Jesus promises with an amazing hope in John chapter 6
that he will not lose any of us,
that no amount of sin in your life,
no amount of fallenness in you
will ever cause Jesus to say,
you know what, I think I'm gonna lose that one
because they just haven't met the mark
the way that I want them to meet the mark.
That will never happen.
He will never accidentally leave you behind.
He says, all that the Father has given me,
I won't lose any of them,
but I will, on the last day,
raise them up to an embodied eternity with me.
This is an amazing hope that we cling to
when we acknowledge that death reigns around us.
The Christian worldview looks through the pages
of the scripture and says,
oh, but Jesus has paid the price for my death
and he will raise me up
and he will not leave me behind.
What a glorious hope that is.
For it not to be true
would mean that either Jesus is incapable of doing it,
which we know is not true,
because he himself conquered death
and his own resurrection.
So we know he's capable.
He has power over death.
Or it means that he is unwilling.
But he's the one who came to us.
He's the one who promises
not to leave one believer behind
that belongs to him.
Scripture proves that both of those statements
are untrue.
Jesus is capable.
And he is willing.
And we cling to that in hope, don't we?
It's a hopeful exchange.
A wonderful hope that Martha believed
was true for her brother,
but Jesus had an even greater promise
for her to hear,
which brings us to the final point of the sermon.
A glorious promise.
We've seen a tragic circumstance,
a hopeful exchange,
now a glorious promise.
Verse 25.
Jesus responds to her.
He says,
Martha,
I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me,
though he die,
yet he shall live.
There is life beyond this.
And everyone who lives and believes in me
shall never die.
Do you believe this?
And she said,
yes, Lord.
I believe that you're the Christ,
the Son of God,
who is coming into the world.
Jesus responded that he would not merely
bring about a resurrection,
but that he himself
is resurrection and life.
He is God,
the creator.
His very essence
is resurrection and life.
And any hope of experiencing
either one of those things
can be found only
in him.
The ESV study Bible
has a really helpful note here.
It says,
resurrection from the dead
and genuine eternal life
and fellowship with God
are so closely tied to Jesus
that they are embodied in him
and can be found
only in relationship
to him.
Now,
the primary issue
that we're considering this morning
concerns whether
death is the ultimate end
or if there is something else
that follows.
It's the primary idea
that we're considering
from the beginning.
Is there any real hope
of life after death?
And Jesus answers that here
with a resounding yes.
Yes, there is.
And I want you to think carefully
about the promise that he makes.
Verse 25.
Whoever believes in me,
though he die,
yet shall he live.
And everyone who lives
and believes in me
shall never die.
So after declaring
that he is,
in his very essence,
the power of resurrection
and life,
that he is the giver of it,
that he has power over it,
he promises that
all who believe in him,
even though they will face death
in this life,
will receive the life
that he offers.
Glorious promise.
Is there life after death?
Yes.
How can you receive it?
Jesus says,
by trusting me for it.
But still,
we need to clarify
what this belief is
and what it isn't.
The faith that Jesus speaks of here,
it's not merely
an intellectual acknowledgement
of a set of facts about him.
That's not what he means by belief.
The best word
in our modern English
to use to understand
this kind of belief
is trust.
Trust.
The one who believes in Christ
trusts
that God will accept him,
not based on personal righteousness,
not based on our own goodness,
not based on our own morality,
or of our goodness
outweighing our badness,
or of us crossing
the grading curve
so that those who are
more wicked than us
maybe will suffer,
but since we kind of
passed the mark,
we will be accepted.
Trusting Christ
is to acknowledge
that God will not accept me
because of anything
that may be good in me.
That God accepts me,
justifies me,
based on Christ's
perfect righteousness.
That on the cross,
he takes my sin
in order that by faith,
he may impute his righteousness
into me and onto me.
That we are not justified
by our works,
we are justified by his works
through faith.
Trusting Jesus is to face death.
Trusting entirely
that Jesus has power over life
and that he will indeed
grant you that life
if you have come to him
in repentance and faith.
It is to trust Christ enough
that you turn away from sin
to obedience
and that you abandon
all other influences,
religious or secular,
in order to cling to him alone
by faith.
That's the belief
that he means to indicate here.
It's not just saying,
yes, he lived,
he died,
he rose,
he did the things.
It's not just to acknowledge
a set of facts about him.
It's about trusting him wholly
for this life
and resurrection.
And he promises
that whoever will do that,
whoever trusts him
for eternal life
will receive it.
Will receive it.
But how can we be so sure?
How can we be so sure
as to trust him?
We don't trust the promise
because Jesus raised Lazarus
from the dead.
That's an amazing miracle.
If you just keep reading,
maybe this afternoon
through John chapter 11,
you'll see exactly how that happened
and how it unfolded.
It's amazing.
It's an amazing miracle.
We don't trust this promise
because he raised Lazarus
from the dead.
That's not why.
We trust this promise
because Jesus himself
rose from the dead.
That's the proof of it.
That's the power
of it.
The miracle with Lazarus
was amazing.
But it was a means
to a more excellent end.
Jesus raising Lazarus
was a foretaste
of his own resurrection
and of our future resurrection
through him.
Our hope is not
in what he did
for somebody else,
but it's in the fact
that he proved himself
to be the resurrection
and the life
when he rose from the dead
three days after his crucifixion.
His resurrection
makes all the difference.
How can we trust
that he actually
has power over death?
Because death
could not hold him.
It's Peter's answer
in Acts chapter 2.
It had no claim on him.
Why did it have
no claim on him
when it has a claim
on everybody else?
Because he's the sinless
son of God.
He was not in Adam
as we are in Adam.
That's the significance
of our Christmas celebration.
That in the incarnation,
he is the son of God.
God, a miracle
by the Holy Spirit,
his incarnation
coming into the Virgin Mary.
He is not in Adam
as we are in Adam
and yet he is fully human.
He's sinless.
Death has no claim on him.
So he's not bound by it.
We are bound by it.
Which means if we're dead
in our sins,
we need something
that is alive
or better someone
who is alive
to raise us.
And there's only one
who fits the bill.
And it's not Lazarus.
It's Jesus.
As the song says,
because he lives,
I can face tomorrow.
Because he lives,
all fear is gone.
Because I know
he holds the future
and life's worth the living.
Because I know
that he lives.
But let me show you
from the scripture
how our resurrection
is guaranteed by his.
Paul tells us plainly
in 1 Corinthians 15
and verse 20.
But in fact,
Christ has been raised
from the dead.
The first fruits of those
who have fallen asleep.
For as by one man
came death,
that's Adam,
by a man
has come also
the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam
all die,
so also in Christ
shall all be made alive.
but each in his own order.
Christ the first fruits,
then at his coming
those who belong to Christ,
then comes the end
when he delivers
the kingdom
to God the Father
after destroying
every rule
and every authority
and power.
For he must reign
until he has put
all his enemies
under his feet.
And the last enemy
to be destroyed,
he says,
is death.
And then later
in the chapter
he says,
death is swallowed up
in victory.
Death,
where is your victory?
Death,
where is your sting?
The sting of death
is sin.
The power of sin
is the law.
But thanks be to God,
Paul writes,
who gives us the victory
through
our Lord Jesus Christ.
And on what basis
does he provide
that victory?
His own resurrection
from the dead.
But notice,
finally,
Jesus' last statement
to Martha.
In verse 26
of John 11,
after he makes
this promise,
notice what he says.
Do you believe this?
The faith that brings
salvation
and resurrection
and eternal life
is personal faith.
Personal faith.
That doesn't mean
that we all get
to believe
what we want
to believe
based on our own preferences.
That's not what
that means.
It means that we all
must place
personal,
individual trust
in Jesus'
death and resurrection
to receive
the salvation
that he offers.
You must
do that
or you will not
be saved.
no one
is saved
on account
of someone
else's faith.
No one
is redeemed
because they
were in close
proximity
to a community
of believers.
So that salvation
does not come
through our
membership in a church.
It doesn't come
through our
goodness.
It doesn't come
through belonging
to a heritage
of a family
of Christians.
None of that
does anything
for you
except keeps
the gospel
in front of you
perhaps.
But you're not
saved by it.
Each person
must personally
repent of their
sins
and confess
their faith
in Jesus
as Lord
and Savior.
You must
do that
if you are
to be saved.
If you are
to have this
life.
You must
come to him
for it.
It's a glorious
promise that Jesus
makes in the text
but it must
be actively
and personally
received by faith.
And let me
just show you
how to do that
in case you're
wondering.
Flip over
just quickly
in your Bible
to Romans
chapter 10.
It'll be
just a few
pages over
from where you
are in John 11.
Look at
Romans chapter 10
and verse 9.
The scripture
says if you
confess
with your
mouth
that Jesus
is Lord
and believe
in your heart
that God
raised him
from the dead
you will
be saved.
For with
the heart
one believes
and is
justified
by faith
not works
declared
righteous
because we
believe
genuinely
in the heart
and with
the mouth
one confesses
Christ
and is
saved.
For the
scripture says
everyone who
believes in him
will not be
put to shame.
That's a
view ahead
to a future
judgment.
You will not
be ashamed
in the judgment
if you believe
Christ.
For there's
no distinction
verse 12
between Jew
and Greek
for the same
Lord is Lord
of all
bestowing his
riches on all
who call on him.
In other words
you don't get
there a different
way based on
your culture
or your
background.
That just
because you
belong to a
different demographic
or a different
culture of a
different upbringing
that you can
get to God
a different way.
No he says
no it doesn't
matter if you're
Jew or Greek
or whatever.
He says
there's one
Lord.
It's all
through Christ
and then he
closes it off
in verse 13
and he says
for everyone
who calls
on the name
of the Lord
will be saved.
How can I
actually trust
Christ?
Believe in
your heart.
Repent of
your sin.
Confess him
as Lord
and Savior
and the
promise is
that if you
do that
you will
show that
he has
saved you.
He's redeemed
you and he's
transformed you.
It's a work
of his grace
made evident
in your
real and
personal
faith.
Let's bring
it to a
close.
Death is a
reality that
none of us
can escape.
We've got
that.
But there
is real
hope in
Jesus
Christ.
As we
say often
he lived
the life
that we
were meant
to live
and died
the death
that we
deserve to
die.
And he
did it
out of
love for
sinners
like you
and me.
He's the
resurrection
and the
life.
He's a
sure hope
for those
of you who
remain lost
in your
sin that
you're trying
to sort
all of this
out.
He is your
only hope.
hope.
And it's
a blessed
hope.
But it's
also an
incredible
joy and
encouragement
for those
of you who
have been
saved.
Maybe you're
burdened by
death or
suffering or
whatever's
around you.
Paul says
to the
Thessalonians
that we are
to take
these truths
of resurrection
and we are
to encourage
one another
with such
things.
Take courage
in this
and enjoy
whoever
trusts in
him though
he die
yet shall
he live.
Do you
believe this?
Will you
believe this?
He invites
you to
and he will
forgive you
and give you
that life
today.
take