WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.120 Do you ever get that feeling where God just seems distant? 00:00:06.500 --> 00:00:07.160 Martha did. 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:12.679 Here's what she said to Jesus when she was bereaved. 00:00:13.900 --> 00:00:20.719 She said, Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. 00:00:22.300 --> 00:00:26.199 And I wonder if any of that resonates with your experience. 00:00:26.199 --> 00:00:36.939 I'm guessing you'll know what I'm talking about if you've ever had a bereavement or some other kind of blow, a tragedy, a disappointment. 00:00:37.479 --> 00:00:41.439 Something that caused you deep, deep grief and pain. 00:00:42.299 --> 00:00:46.560 When you were left with that sense of overwhelming bewilderment. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:56.940 Now, not always, but very often in those sort of experiences, God can seem so distant and inaccessible. 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:03.560 This story, and let's remember that it's in John's narrative for a reason. 00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:10.520 This story is there to tell us a fundamental truth that is at the very core of the Christian gospel. 00:01:10.519 --> 00:01:11.259 And it's this. 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:20.280 While our perception might be that God is distant, remote and inaccessible, the reality is quite the opposite. 00:01:22.179 --> 00:01:28.159 Now, John chapter 11 tells us the story of how Jesus goes on to raise Lazarus from the dead. 00:01:29.019 --> 00:01:31.239 Now, I recommend that you read the whole chapter. 00:01:31.239 --> 00:01:39.579 But right now, over these next few minutes, I want to focus in on the moment building up to Lazarus being raised. 00:01:39.739 --> 00:01:43.979 Because it's that part of the story that connects with our experience. 00:01:44.939 --> 00:01:53.840 See, it's in the brokenness of grief, the sense that God is distant and inaccessible, that we need to hear the story and its message. 00:01:53.840 --> 00:02:02.320 In the midst of her grief and pain and brokenness, Martha talks with Jesus about eternal life. 00:02:03.300 --> 00:02:06.120 Now, at the time, not all Jews believed in that. 00:02:06.800 --> 00:02:10.620 It was one of those things that divided the Pharisees from the Sadducees. 00:02:11.659 --> 00:02:14.000 Martha says she does believe in it. 00:02:14.640 --> 00:02:15.659 In fact, she goes further. 00:02:15.860 --> 00:02:21.199 She says she knows her brother will be raised from the dead at the end of time. 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:25.219 But Jesus goes even further than that. 00:02:26.239 --> 00:02:31.039 He doesn't say, I promise you resurrection or I give you resurrection. 00:02:31.339 --> 00:02:34.319 He says, I am the resurrection. 00:02:35.719 --> 00:02:38.639 Eternal life is not just some abstract idea. 00:02:38.819 --> 00:02:40.759 It's not just a piece of doctrine. 00:02:41.099 --> 00:02:42.579 It's so much more than that. 00:02:43.259 --> 00:02:46.780 It's something you discover in relationship with Jesus. 00:02:46.780 --> 00:02:53.060 Just when God seems so distant, remote and inaccessible, Jesus says, I am here. 00:02:53.219 --> 00:02:54.699 I am that resurrection. 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:56.199 I am that life. 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:02.439 There are two important things there that we need to pay close attention to. 00:03:03.159 --> 00:03:09.900 The first is that resurrection in the fullest and most complete sense is in the future. 00:03:09.900 --> 00:03:13.420 That was even the case for Lazarus. 00:03:13.900 --> 00:03:23.759 We don't know what happened to him after Jesus brought him back from the grave, but we can assume that he eventually died along with all the other people Jesus healed during his ministry. 00:03:24.759 --> 00:03:30.800 But this miracle points to the ultimate miracle that we see revealed in the risen Jesus himself. 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:38.099 Namely, that at the end will come a total resurrection from which, like Jesus, we will never die. 00:03:38.099 --> 00:03:42.219 That's our future hope, which puts our lives into perspective. 00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:46.180 It's what throws out life from the other side of death. 00:03:47.939 --> 00:03:56.599 But the second thing we need to pay close attention to is perhaps a more subtle thing. 00:03:57.299 --> 00:04:05.000 And it has to do with the more practical nitty gritty of how we handle life now, given that we have that future hope. 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:19.319 You see, when we talk about future hope, future resurrection, future everlasting life, there's a danger that it all seems so far off out there in the future that it doesn't connect with life right here and right now. 00:04:20.060 --> 00:04:26.699 It's one thing to say we're hopeful about eternity, but what about everything that lies between now and then? 00:04:27.379 --> 00:04:30.660 What about the stuff we're worried about today or next week or whatever? 00:04:30.660 --> 00:04:38.060 And I think that's what Jesus is talking to us about when he says that he is the resurrection and the life. 00:04:38.640 --> 00:04:45.380 He talks about living in him and believing in him, not simply in the future, but actually right now. 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:50.340 Remember, the words I am connect things to the present tense. 00:04:50.339 --> 00:05:00.819 If you're someone who struggles with fear or anxiety, and let's face it, most people do at some point, this gives us a way of dealing with all that. 00:05:01.919 --> 00:05:12.919 Jesus's words offer us a way of living in the present moment instead of obsessing over what we're worried might happen in the future or indeed fretting over the past. 00:05:13.899 --> 00:05:15.159 Here's how it can work. 00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:23.939 Whenever you feel like your worries might be getting out of control, just remember that your anxious thoughts are only thoughts. 00:05:24.100 --> 00:05:24.860 They're not reality. 00:05:25.460 --> 00:05:29.140 If you're worrying over the future, well, it hasn't happened yet. 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:33.180 The chances are the thing you're anxious about won't ever happen. 00:05:34.320 --> 00:05:38.280 If you're worrying about the past, well, it's in the past. 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:41.540 And the only thing that's carrying that is your memory. 00:05:41.540 --> 00:05:42.800 That is your thoughts. 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:48.020 Reality is, in fact, the present in which you live right now. 00:05:48.860 --> 00:05:52.680 And Jesus is with you in that reality right now. 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:59.980 The one who says, I am the resurrection and I am the life in which you are sustained. 00:06:01.139 --> 00:06:06.199 The one who raised Lazarus and the one who has opened up eternity for all of us. 00:06:06.379 --> 00:06:09.280 He's with you in your present right now. 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:15.219 Learning to live in the present and to be in the present takes a bit of effort. 00:06:15.719 --> 00:06:23.279 It's much easier to default to worrying because by worrying, we generally convince ourselves that we're somehow more in control. 00:06:24.559 --> 00:06:30.899 But living in the present is about letting God be in control, depending on him and trusting in him. 00:06:30.899 --> 00:06:35.819 There will never be a single moment in our lives when we have no problems. 00:06:36.519 --> 00:06:37.620 Life's not like that. 00:06:37.719 --> 00:06:38.919 Never has been, never will be. 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:40.719 Not this side of eternity anyway. 00:06:41.819 --> 00:06:47.519 I even heard one person say that life is a series of problem solving exercises. 00:06:48.379 --> 00:06:50.779 Now, perhaps that's a bit extreme, but you get the point. 00:06:51.339 --> 00:06:54.219 We'll never be without problems in this life. 00:06:54.220 --> 00:07:01.000 So it's important that we learn to understand that we're not on our own with those problems, 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:06.440 but that we can know the presence of Jesus's resurrection power in the midst of them. 00:07:07.400 --> 00:07:10.360 We don't have to wait until our own resurrection. 00:07:11.240 --> 00:07:13.840 The risen Jesus is with us right now. 00:07:14.420 --> 00:07:15.720 That's his promise right now. 00:07:15.780 --> 00:07:16.340 That's his word. 00:07:16.700 --> 00:07:19.700 I am the resurrection and the life. 00:07:19.699 --> 00:07:26.519 If only you had been there, said Martha to Jesus. 00:07:27.740 --> 00:07:30.439 Well, he is here. 00:07:32.300 --> 00:07:39.759 It's just one example of a story from the Bible where we see ordinary people like you and me longing to be close to God. 00:07:39.759 --> 00:07:44.819 But, you know, as John Ortberg once wrote, 00:07:45.599 --> 00:07:52.899 the story of the Bible isn't primarily about the desire of people to be close to God. 00:07:54.879 --> 00:07:59.480 It's the desire of God to be with people.