THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE

Many people fear or wonder about death.  Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).

JESUS DEMONSTRATED HE IS THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE

 Mary and Martha, friends of Jesus, sent for him to come and heal their brother Lazarus, who was sick. When Jesus got there Lazarus had been dead and buried for four days. Jesus wanted to let them know that he was more than a healer. He told them, “I am the resurrection and the Life.” Jesus called with a loud voice, “Lazarus come out.” Lazarus came out of his tomb alive. Many who saw Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead believed in the Lord as the resurrection and the life (John 11:1-45).

THE LORD TOLD EARLY BELIEVERS TO WITNESS ABOUT HIS RESURRECTION

After Jesus was dead for three days and three nights, he rose from the dead. And many of his disciples saw him after his resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:6). He instructed disciples who witnessed his resurrection from the dead to go and tell others (Luke 24:44-48).  And he said, “blessed are those who have not seen [him] and yet believe” (John 20:29). God gives eternal life to whoever repents and believes in Jesus Christ, the resurrection and the life. ( John 3:16; Acts 2:38).

TODAY WE CAN WITNESS ABOUT JESUS THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE

The Holy Spirit can lead us to witness about Jesus by what we do and say, as the apostles did in the Bible-book of Acts. The Lord has given us the same Spirit that he gave his early disciples, and we have the same power of the Spirit to witness about Jesus.

I am one of those who have not seen Jesus; but have been persuaded by the apostles’ reports of Jesus; and by the Christ-like changes his Holy Spirit  has made in my life. I firmly believe Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life (John 14:15-17; Acts 2:38).

God gave me the opportunity to witness to a dying a co-work about his Son being the resurrection and the Life. The wife of the retired co-worker, who had moved to another state, called me saying her husband, “Glen is sick and in bad shape.” She said Glen asked her to call me. I was convinced Glen was dying, and had seen the other world; and the Lord had put it in his mind to call me.

I used to take Glen with me to visit the hospitalized wife of one of our co-workers. Glen saw me pray with them, in the name of Jesus. I told him, “remember Jesus, you’ll need him.”

When Glen first became sick I took him gifts and prayed with him at his home. When he had a stroke and was in a rehabilitation center for a lengthy period of time, I visited him, took him gifts and prayed with him. 

When Glen was at the point of dying and told his wife to call me, I was convinced God put in his mind to call me because God knew I would point him to his Son Jesus. I told her to read John 3:16 to him: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Glen’s wife called me back a minutes later, and said Glen passed away. I asked her if she read John 3:16 to him. She said, yes. I was convinced Glen had met Jesus, the resurrection and the life.

GOD MAY GIVE YOU OPPORTUNITY TO TELL OTHERS JESUS IS THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.

Whoever truly believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who  died and rose from the dead, and can resurrect them will receive eternal (John 3:!6). For believers to be absent from the dead body is “to be present with the Lord”  (2 Corinthians 5:8).

“The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).