WEEKEND Edition 27/28 March 2021 “Walking Dead”

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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends around the world,

There are words in every language which stir up deep soul pain. In English some of those words are “funeral”, “casket”, “corpse”, “morgue”, “terminal”, “death”. No matter the age, no matter the circumstances, everything related to ‘death’ is something we human beings will do almost anything to avoid, right? Yet, it is the ONE thing we will each experience, and in most cases we don’t know when, where or how it will happen to us. Death is inescapable. It may be delayed, maybe even a long time, but it is inevitable, for all of us, each of us, every living human being, right?

I’m so glad when God was here, in the person of Jesus, He didn’t ignore ‘death’ or ‘funerals’. In fact we have three accounts where Jesus stepped right into the pain and brought hope and help! Dr. Luke records for us, in his 7th chapter, that a funeral was taking place in the town of Nain when Jesus was passing through one day, and rather than ignore it, Jesus actually walked right into the procession. A deeply grieving mother was surrounded by distraught friends on their way to the cemetery to bury her only son. That horrible reality would leave her totally destitute, with no one to care or provide for her. Her pain, her grief must have been almost indescribable. Luke writes: “When Jesus saw her, His heart went out to her and He said to her ‘don’t cry’. Then Jesus went up and touched the coffin and those carrying it stood still. Jesus said, ‘young man, I say to you get up!’ The dead man sat up and began to talk and Jesus gave the young man back to his mother.” (Luke 7:11-17)

Now let’s stand there in that crowd for a moment. What have you just witnessed? How do you explain it? In the customs of that era, burial was attempted by the next day after death, so there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that this young man was dead. Yet now, in full view of everyone in the funeral procession, he is alive, talking, and now climbs out of the coffin, and is standing alongside his widowed mother with his arm around her! There is no explanation, is there? At least not anything logical, reasonable, common sense about this experience. Only God can restore life to a dead body… there is no other explanation. Somehow God has reached into this funeral and brought life back into a deadman!

Dr. Luke also gives us the account of a man named Jairus whose daughter, age 12, was dying when he found Jesus and begged Jesus for His help. We looked at that story the other day, found in Luke 8, remember? In this case by the time Jesus arrived at Jairus’ home, the girl had died, perhaps a few hours earlier. The women were wailing, the men confirmed her death in their statement to Jairus, but once again Jesus stepped into the death room, and by His command, somehow life returned into her dead body. She awakened, got up from her deathbed, and was restored to her family. (Luke 8:49-56) Once again no logical explanation, no easily understandable words can explain what happened in full view of parents and 3 disciples when Jesus simply spoke the words “She is not dead but asleep… my child, get up.” But she was dead, and everyone knew it, and now she was as alive as she’d ever been!

Some months later it happened again, this time near the town of Bethany a few miles from Jerusalem. Word came to Jesus that His good friend Lazarus was very sick, and of course all the disciples assumed Jesus would drop everything and rush to Bethany. But instead Jesus did a very strange thing, He delayed, almost as though He was ignoring the terminal news. Jesus said to His disciples “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.“ And Jesus stayed where He was for two more days before finally He said “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there now to wake him up.” (John 11:1-11)

Words in every language are important aren’t they my friends? There are some words which you simply don’t play with. “Death” is one of those words. It’s so painful, so final, so unchangeable, that it seems disrespectful, ignorant, extremely insensitive to play with the words ‘death’ or ‘dead’. We understand there is a dramatic difference between the words “sleep” and “death”. We all sleep every few hours! We need sleep and while we sleep God has designed our bodies to do amazing things… refresh, restore energy, revitalize. Sleep is so important one of the most dangerous things we can experience is ‘sleep deprivation’! We celebrate sleep, we welcome sleep, we protect sleep and we anticipate we’ll feel so much better after some sleep. “Yea” for Sleep!

But ‘death’ is entirely different. Death begins the process of decay, rigor mortis. At death, very rapidly our body begins an ugly, irreversible process with many symptoms. Breathing ceases, heartbeat stops, warmth turns cold, stiffness and then decay. There is no confusion between ‘sleep’ and ‘death’ is there? So why would Jesus use the word ‘sleep’ both with Jairus’ daughter and with Lazarus, when in both cases they were clearly ‘dead’?

There’s another word Jesus used which explains this dilemma. It’s the word “perish“. Jesus used it when He said to Nicodemus the scholarly Pharisee “For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not PERISH but will have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) “Perish” is neither ‘sleep’ nor ‘death’. “Perish” is something far worse. “Perish” is the ultimate, terminal lostness, for “perish” means eternal, irreconcilable SEPARATION from God! “Perish” is the ultimate hopelessness. There are no words which adequately describe the terror of eternal separation from God and therefore eternal existence in only wickedness, only evil, only pain, only fear, the ultimate despair!

Sleep we understand and welcome. “Death” is when our body ceases to function and begins to decay but our soul and spirit continue to live. We hate death, we fear death, we can’t escape death. But “PERISH” is the living state of eternal separation from God…nothing could be worse than ‘perish‘! As Jesus arrived at Bethany He “…found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four (4) days, and many people had come to comfort Martha and Mary in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him…’Lord’, Martha said to Jesus, ‘if you had been here my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give You whatever You ask.” (John 11:17-22) Martha, Mary and Lazarus were good friends of Jesus. He had stopped by their home many times in His travels. Martha’s confident statement tells us she had heard of both Jesus’ raising of Jairus’ daughter and the widow’s son to life after they had died. Of course Martha had heard of many, many other miracles, and maybe even seen some. In her deep grief of nearly a week, I have no doubt Martha had imagined in her mind many times, what miraculous thing Jesus might do when He finally would arrive into their death pain.

Have you noticed people sometimes say really dumb things at funerals? It’s because they want to be helpful, comforting, but they really don’t know what to say and so too often people say the dumbest things when facing death. Those who overheard Jesus talking with Martha, may have thought that when they heard Him say “Your brother will rise again…I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.” (John 11:25,26) All good Jews believed in life for the soul and spirit, after death to the body. In fact they believed, as Martha said to Jesus, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

But Jesus was talking about something different here. Jesus was talking about WHY He, God the Son, had come to earth. Jesus had already proved He could restore life and breath to a dead body, He’d done that at least twice, and He was about to do it again with Lazarus. But listen again to Jesus’ radical statement: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in ME will live, even though he dies…” Jesus was reminding Martha and us that ‘death’ is NOT final, it is NOT the end of life, but it is a transition. “Death” is separating our decaying body from our very much alive soul and spirit which will continue to live on eternally!

Thus Jesus was stating very clearly, as He had many times, for the person who believes in Him, at the moment of their death, their soul & spirit will continue to live in heaven with Jesus! The Apostle Paul uses a much better word for the death experience. He calls it “departure”. Remember Paul wrote to his dear friends in Philippi “I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ which is better by far, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body…” (Phil. 1:23) And then at the end of his life Paul wrote to Timothy “The time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the LORD, the righteous judge Himself, will award to me on that day – and not only to me but to all who long for His appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:7,8) Paul and Jesus both make it clear… for the Christian, the person who has trusted in Jesus, ‘death’ is transition for our soul & spirit from living in our body, to living in the presence of Jesus in heaven!

But then Jesus said one more thing to Martha… “…and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die (perish).” The better translation of Jesus’ words into English would be using the word “perish” rather than ‘die’ when Jesus said “…and whoever lives and believes in Me will never perish.” Jesus was here making a bold proclamation that would become reality only a few days later in His Easter experience. His death on the cross included ‘perish’, for when God the Father placed on Jesus the sins of the world, and Jesus became our ‘propitiation’ our ‘atoning sacrifice’. (1 John 2:2) In that moment Jesus experienced “perish” as He was separated from God because of our sin!

In His death, He paid our full sin condemnation price. In His resurrection, Jesus both experienced victory over “death” as His life returned to His dead body, but Jesus also experienced victory over “PERISH” as He was restored in His resurrection into relationship with Holy God the Father, our sin condemnation atonement price having been paid by His death!

Now, as we follow Jesus through this final week toward His Easter weekend next weekend, we’ll look more closely at these remarkable, fundamental, doctrinal truths which are the very essence of why Jesus came to earth, why Jesus died on the cross, why Jesus rose from the dead in resurrection, and why Jesus returned to heaven where He reigns today, saving thousands of people from “perish” everyday, as they fully trust in HIM for their eternal salvation from their sin!

For today, let’s stand outside that tomb in Bethany, and watch as Lazarus, a man dead and buried 4 days, comes walking out! Jesus defeated death for Lazarus, by His Almighty God power. A few days later, as Jesus came walking out of His tomb, Jesus’ resurrection defeated “Perish” for Lazarus, and you and me and any person who will entrust their life to Jesus! That’s why Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in Me will live even though they die, and whoever lives and believes in Me will never perish.” Amen, Hallelujah!! Can you celebrate that this truth is your living, death defeating, “perish” defeating truth?

Here’s a new song to help you celebrate!

Today’s Scripture is John 11:1-44.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

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