John 11:27

0:00 Good evening, mighty children of God. I'm going to read two verses in advance. You'll see why in just a moment it gives us a running start. This is Jesus talking to Martha after Lazarus has died, before Jesus rose him from the dead. John 11, 27. And I wrote down the page, and now I'm not going to go find it quickly.

0:33 It is 897, 897 in the Pew Bibles. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives in and believes in me shall never die. do you believe this she said to him yes lord I believe you are the Christ the son of God who's coming into the world the main idea seems to me to be that lasting success or utter failure in our lives depends solely on whether we genuinely believe what Jesus says about himself and I'd like to illustrate this with something that happened to me and I hope that

1:34 others can relate to it I became a Christian as a sophomore in college when I went home from my sophomore year I had acquaintances and one friend a Mac who you all know who were Christians but I had never been a Christian so it was new to them that I was a Christian and mostly a shock to them and they took me to a chapel service at the Wendell Foster Center in Owensboro.

2:07 The Wendell Foster Center was a facility for people with cerebral palsy and other very serious disabilities. Cerebral palsy is something where brain damage is a part of your brain that enables you to control your muscles, your movements. is has been damaged it's it's not like paralysis these all these folks can move but they can't control their motions and it's it's a very serious disability and because I think the Wendell Foster Center was in Owensboro where I grew up you would see folks with cerebral palsy around town periodically not not that common it's they they almost always were confined to a wheelchair and a special kind of wheelchair that helps control movement, because you can't even sit in a wheelchair if you can't control your muscles, muscle movements.

3:03 Almost always it was very difficult to understand them when they spoke, because, again, we use our muscles and have to control them in order to speak clearly. They couldn't usually handle the task of daily living, dress themselves, feed themselves, that sort of thing, because, again, we need our muscles and good control of our muscles to do those things. So I'd always kind of pitied them, thought how unfortunate they were, and I expected to kind of have similar emotions, kind of like a service project, of going to this chapel service with my friends.

3:36 I highly suspect Mike was one of those. I don't remember one way or the other. I know Mike Spencer was one. I tell you, I'm bad to cry as you know. The place was full of joy, was full of love. Those were the most joyful single group of people that I had ever seen in my life. We have a very joyful church here.

4:09 You know what it's like sitting in here singing? Now, those folks could mainly just make a joyful noise, but I'm telling you, it was like that and then some. They were a joyful group of people, young men and young women and children. Well, why was that? Well, they believed what Jesus said about himself. They knew that Jesus loved them.

4:45 They trusted him. They knew that he had the power to do what he said he would do, and that he was the resurrection and the life. They knew their sins were forgiven. They knew there was a 100% chance that they would have perfect bodies and perfect brains for eternity. They knew they had perfect love and acceptance by Jesus right now.

5:16 They were a joyful people. And I couldn't help but compare them to myself. You know, I would kind of escape the pit of hell by a couple of months. I was the one to be pitied before Jesus had mercy upon me. I had never known anything like that kind of joy, and I did not have that kind of prospect waiting for me.

5:55 But some Christians took pity on me. They prayed for me. They shared the gospel with me when they got absolutely no positive response, but mocking in return. And, of course, that was God having pity upon me through them. So, we have a few children here tonight. If I could ask your attention just for a moment, if you're a kid here tonight.

6:32 You know, just as these folks I'm speaking about knew that Jesus had all power, that's what Martha was saying when she said, the lady in our story, That you are the son of God. You've got all power. And almost all of that power Jesus had because of who he was. God. But there was one power that he had to earn. He had to live a perfect life. He had to do everything his mom and dad said all the time.

7:08 He had to never be mad at someone else. He could be mad at other things that happened. He could have righteous anger. He had to live a perfect life, which he did. And then he had to die to take on the sins of everybody who would trust him and take the punishment for that. He had to earn that power. He earned it a very hard way. he is offering to use that for you.

7:43 Take him up on that offer. He hears everything we say in our minds. He hears everything we say with our mouths. Ask him. Tell him you trust him and believe in him. If that's true, and if you don't, if you don't know what to think, ask him to show you what to think. Talk to your parents, talk to your Sunday school teachers. Don't let this opportunity pass you by. We've got some teenagers in the room.

8:17 Don't ignore Jesus. It's great if you still want to think that through. You've got questions, hard questions, ask those questions. Believe me, he will withstand scrutiny. Don't let that pass you by. Let me also say to the teenagers that already know the Lord. Those were the people that prayed for me. Oh, help your friends. Ask God for them.

8:50 Share the gospel with them. Don't look for positive reinforcement. Don't think you're not getting anywhere. I was terrified of people like you. I was. I was a tough kid, drug dealer. Spent a lot of time hitchhiking. I was terrified of the Christians. I could tell there was something different about them. And for those of us who've trusted Jesus for a while, I'd like to apply a little lesson we learned from the fact that it was Martha who Jesus was talking to here.

9:28 Now this is a great profession of faith if ever there was one. you know, her brother had just died, she said that, Lord, if you'd only been here, he wouldn't have died. She did not know that Jesus was going to raise him from the dead. And yet at that moment, Jesus is saying, I'm the resurrection and life. Do you believe this? And she did. So it's a great example we pose this question why is it that we don't all the time experience the joy that I saw at the Wendell Foster Center why is that well I think you and I know why you could tell me why you know it's like Martha she had that spiritual peak and sort of the next time I'm I'm not sure if I have my chronology right, but the next chapter we see her in, at least that I can remember,

10:32 is when she's fussing with her sister Mary about who's fixing the food and how come you're sitting out there with Jesus and leaving me with all the work. Well, aren't we like that a lot of times? So that's the story of the whole Bible. You know, there's really, there is only one hero in the Bible, and it's Jesus Christ. Everybody else, you know, Abraham, man, what a witness of faith. He's going to sacrifice his own son, but let, you know, somebody risk his life. He throws his wife under the bus to save his neck.

11:05 I mean, there are just no other heroes in the Bible. So let's don't be shocked at each other when it turns out we don't turn out to be one of those heroes. Ourselves, let's all be shocked at ourselves. I don't know if anybody else has ever felt, I can't possibly be a Christian. of what I just said to my wife or what I just did. That sin I fell into for the 20th time, you know, in the past month and promised I never would do again. Well, that's who we are. Jesus is the hero of this story.

11:35 He's the son of God. We have our moments, but then we have our moments. And let's not be shocked when we see each other. You know, I always admired that person, But then I saw, well, that's just, that's the way we are. Why should we be shocked to see that in somebody else? So I think there's encouragement with the fact that this was Martha, who made this great profession of faith. And we know from the sermon we heard this morning, the more we look at Jesus, and the less that we look at this world, and the less we look into ourselves even, the more of that joy we're going to experience.

12:17 Let's pray. Father, what an unspeakable privilege it is to be in this room. And we are asking that you leave no one out from your salvation that's in this room. We ask you to save our friends, our family members.

12:49 Help us, Lord God, to want them for your son as badly as you do. To love them as much as you do. And Lord God, help us be willing to profess your son to all who will hear it. Give us the joy of doing that and keep our eyes upon him because we know that we will not hold ourselves.

13:22 You will have to hold us fast or we will not be held. And we thank you so much for your promise to hold us fast. In your son's name we pray, amen.