BY GREG CRUM
“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” John 11:25-26
A revelation of Jesus about himself, about an essential component of his nature, about a defining characteristic of his very being—that he is the resurrection and the life. Notice that he didn’t say here that he resurrected and brought life, like it was just some action that he did, but that he was the resurrection and the life, like they were concepts that originated from him that were indeed original to him and not available from an alternate source.
Friends, the Jesus we serve as Lord is much more than an icon on a cross. He is God made flesh, then made the firstborn from the dead, and now alive forevermore to be the King of kings throughout the infinity of Ages!
The last couple of weeks we have thought about the importance of Jesus according to Scripture. Colossians 1:18 states that “in all things he might have the preeminence.” In other words, above everything and everyone, Jesus should be first! Sadly, in our day, this is not the case. In fact it is quite the opposite, even among the majority of American Christians.
In many groups the Gospel has been watered down so much that Jesus only shows up in their conversations at Christmas and Easter, if that. Churches have dethroned Christ, but that’s no surprise when Jesus isn’t on the throne of the hearts of many believers! A big reason our nation has walked away from the morality of the Lord is because Christians have allowed other things to rest on the seat only Jesus should occupy.
With that said, is there a remedy for this ailment? Absolutely! Jesus can again take the throne of the Church in America, and a standard of morality that is fitting for a righteous nation can once again be the norm if we will purposely give Jesus back the place in our hearts and lives that is rightly his. This can happen if we quit asking him to scoot over a bit for our kids, our jobs, our sports and our social media presence. If we wake up and realize once and for all that the first seat is his seat alone!
We left off last week noting the importance of getting reacquainted with the King of all kings and the Savior of our souls and how we need to personally and deeply understand who he is. Why? Because the natural outflow of that will cause us to want him to be first place in our lives. It’s so important that we each know who he is for ourselves, a personal knowing that is not based off what the preacher says or what papaw said, but what we say.
How do we get to that personal knowing? I think the quickest path is to begin to examine who Jesus himself said he was. There is great light and understanding of God in the self-revelation of Jesus as relayed in the Bible.
That’s what we see in John 11. There Jesus revealed that he was the resurrection and the life. Okay, well, what does that mean exactly? What’s the significance to us? Let’s start with what the concept of resurrection is referring to. Most common definitions of resurrection relay the idea of “the act of restoring a dead person” or of “standing up or raising up.” Oh, how this is personified in Jesus! He is the “raising up,” the reviving, the restoration of dead things!
As you review the Scriptures over and over again, you see that he is the resurrection of dead hopes, dreams, relationships, resources, and, yes, even bodies. In I Corinthians 15 we read that because of Jesus’ resurrection we can share in this power that he is, to the point that even if these physical bodies see decay, we will rise again! What hope! What solace!
Brothers and sisters, many of this world’s people fear the day of their death. It’s the end of their hopes for good things. Our last day in this life is the beginning of our best life because we know THE resurrection, and when he does who he is, things are always better than they were before.
Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.