This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:02] We're here to learn something pretty straightforward this morning: Jesus doesn't do funerals.

[00:00:07] My friends, Jesus shows up at a funeral. It doesn't stay a funeral for very long after that. And Luke, Chapter seven, there was a time where Jesus was coming into the city of Nain. And this was at the height of Jesus popularity with his authoritative teachings in his miraculous healings. There was a great crowd following Jesus and he was coming into the city of Nain and at the same time out of the city was coming a funeral procession as a young man in the city had died. The only son of his mom who was a widow. And now here the town of Nain is mourning and they're carrying the boy out to be buried. And here comes Jesus with his crowd coming into the city gates right when the funeral procession is coming out of the city gates. And I had the privilege of going to Israel and I was standing on a hill. And in the distance I could see the city of Nain and I imagined, here comes Jesus in his crowd. And here come the mourners and the funeral crowd. It's like life meets death right there at the city gates and Jesus.

[00:01:09] He looks at this woman who has lost her only son, this widow. And it says the Jesus feels compassion for her.

[00:01:17] And he walks up to the platform where they're holding the coffin on their where they're holding the dead young man. And he walks up and he touches the platform and he says, young man, arise. And the guy gets out of the coffin right there in front of the whole town.

[00:01:33] In front of the entire crowd, they see resurrection. That is the end of that funeral. Mark, chapter five. There was another funeral.

[00:01:43] It wasn't it wasn't there yet. It looked like this young girl, 12 year old young girl, daughter of a leader of the synagogue. And it looked like she was about to die. And it looked like it was really bad. Can you imagine what you would do if your child was about to die in Jesus was in the near vicinity? Will this dead? He goes to find Jesus. And he says, you got to come and you got to help my my sweet little girl.

[00:02:05] And so Jesus is on his way to go help this little girl. And they're such a great crowd pressing around him that a woman who has had a bleeding problem for years, she comes up behind Jesus as they're walking through this crowd and she touches him and she's healed of her bleeding problem. And Jesus stops the whole procession and he stops the crowd and he says, hey, who touched me? And they're like, well, all kinds of people touched you. I mean, how could you keep track of it in this crowd? And he says, no, he knew the power. It says in the scripture that he knew power had gone from him and he needs the woman who had touched him by faith. And he says there. Your faith has made you well. Well, meanwhile, the leader of the synagogue is like, hey, this is nice, but we got to go help my sweet little girl, my 12 year old. And at that time, guys come from his house and they say to him, hey, you should just let Jesus go, because actually she's died.

[00:03:00] Your daughter has died.

[00:03:02] And the implication is, if she was alive, well, that would be a need that Jesus could meet because he could healer if she was alive. But now that she's dead, I mean, what can Jesus really do? And so you might as well let Jesus go. And Jesus looks at the man, the dad, the leader of the synagogue, and he says, have faith.

[00:03:21] And he walks with the man to his house. And now a funeral has broken out at the man's house.

[00:03:26] And there's mourners who are weeping over the loss of this girl. And when Jesus mourning and weeping over death doesn't seem to sit well with Jesus. And when he sees these mourners, he says to them, hey, do not weep. She's just asleep. And the mourners turn into mockers and they start laughing at Jesus at this funeral. And he takes with him three of his disciples, Peter, James and John. And the parents of this 12 year old girl. And they go into the room where her dead body is laying there.

[00:03:57] Maybe it's her room and Jesus goes up to this little girl and he says, young girl arise. And immediately she's up and walking around.

[00:04:08] Drove me to John Chapter 11, and we're gonna see another funeral that Jesus is fixing to bust up here in John, Chapter 11, verse 38, it's the funeral of his friend Lazarus. We've been studying it for a while. And now we see that Jesus said that enough. He took some time to weep with those who were weeping. But he is angry. He is deeply moved in his spirit. He's stirred up on the inside. And it says this. If you'll read with me and John eleven verse 38, we'll read all the way down to verse 44.

[00:04:38] It says then Jesus seeing the mourning over his friend Lanzas and his sister Martha is crying and his sister Mary is crying and Jesus seeing this family that he loves here.

[00:04:50] He's deeply moved again. And remember, that idea of deeply moved is righteously indignant like this. This whole thing that Lazarus has died, it rubs Jesus the wrong way. And so in John eleven thirty eight, then Jesus deeply moved again. He came to the two and here it is. It was a cave and a stone lay against it. And this makes us think of maybe the tomb that Jesus is laid in later on.

[00:05:16] We know it was covered by a stone and Jesus said Take away the stone. And Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an order, for he has been dead for days. And Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and he said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that. I knew that you always hear me.

[00:05:49] But I said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me. And when he it said these things. He cried out with a loud voice.

[00:06:00] Lazarus come out and the man who had died came out.

[00:06:06] His hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with the cloth, and Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go, what kind of a man is this that kandell dead people to come out or to arise and they listen to him? Who speaks and the dead? Listen. What kind of a man is this? Well, it's the God man. Jesus Christ, the man who is the resurrection and the life. And by the power of the words that come out of his mouth, Jesus gives life.

[00:06:46] He's never met a funeral that he likes. And he's ready to rise up people from the dead. What an amazing sight that must have been. It's going to smell. It's been four days. Are you sure you really want to do this? And Lazarus comes walking out of the tomb.

[00:07:08] Now, notice some key phrases here that Jesus says when he's setting this up. Look back at verse 40. A couple of key phrases that we want to take personally here. Jesus says this to Martha. But look what he says. Did I not tell you that if you believe you would see the. What does he say you're gonna see there? The glory of God. Only God can bring the dead back to life. This is a way that we're gonna show the glory of God. If you believe you're gonna see it. And then later on, he prays. And it's clear that this prayer here in verse 41 and 42 is not just a prayer from Jesus to the father. The purpose of this prayer, it seems, is that we could hear it. And it says, Father, I thank you. Even before he does anything, he's already thinking, God, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me. But I'm saying this. So the people. Now, I don't think this is really good prayer practice. Let me just say that for us. Okay. I don't think that you should be praying. So the people around you can think you've got this great relationship with God, but that's what Jesus is doing here. And he wants us to see that he knows the father, that they are perfectly united. And he's already thanking God. He had so much confidence that Lazarus is going to rise from the dead. He is already thanking God for it before it even happens.

[00:08:35] And he says that they may the people around who would see it and hear it, that they may believe that you sent me.

[00:08:44] Do you have the faith to believe that Jesus can rise the dead? I'm asking you a question.

[00:08:50] You personally. Do you believe that there is the resurrection power of Jesus Christ?

[00:08:59] To me, to John, Chapter 20. Let's just jump ahead here. It's exciting to see Jesus raise up other people and to hear the stories and read the accounts. But eventually, the climax, the culmination of any gospel account is you get to the resurrection of Jesus Christ himself, just as he said he would. He would suffer on the cross. He would die for our sins and he would rise again. On the what day did he say he was going to rise? No sticks with us because he said it over and over and over again. And you get to the third day here in John, Chapter 20. And let's just read it together now. On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Here's Jesus just bustin up, too. So she ran and went to Simon, Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, which is the way that John like to refer to himself in his gospel here. And Mary Magdalene says to Simon, Peter and to John, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have laid. And we got a missing body here, everybody. So Peter went out with the other disciple and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. That's a humble brag right there, everybody. That that's what that is. That's John saying I'm a little bit faster than Peter. All right. He might be quicker to speak, but I'm quicker of foot. All right. Verse five and stooping to look in. He saw the linen clause lying there, but he did not go in, say, but that's not going to stop.

[00:10:33] Peter, verse six. Then Simon Peter came following him and he went into the tomb and he just goes, right. And that's Peter, stop. He saw the linen clause lying there and the face clock. And they had been on Jesus head, not lying with the linen closet, but folded up in a place by itself. Here's Jesus dealing with these claws.

[00:10:52] After there's resurrection, you've got to get all these claws off and there they are. And then the other disciples had reached the tomb first. Also went in and he saw. And what did he do? He saw and what. That's the whole point. Where's your faith that.

[00:11:06] Do you believe in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ? Well, John saw it, and he wants you to know that when he saw it, he believed for as yet they didn't understand. I mean, here's the disciples. And after all the Old Testament scriptures prophesying about it and of after all of the prophecies of Jesus himself while he was with them, they still didn't understand.

[00:11:28] It says they didn't understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. So the disciples went back to their homes and now Jesus is going to start appearing to people and he appears first to Mary Magdalene and then he appears to the disciples jumped down to verse 19, says, and on the evening of that day, that saint that night, that Sunday night, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews are yours are really awesome disciples here, hiding in a room with the doors locked and Jesus came and stood among them. Pretty impressive rolling into a room or the doors are locked. And he said to them, peace be with you. You probably had to say that because they were freaking out, that all of a sudden Jesus was right there in their midst. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. And the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord I. Petz up. And Jesus said to them, peace be with you, as the father has sent me. Even so, I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they have forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld, commissioning them and powering them.

[00:12:46] But then it says this inversed for 24 four. Now, Thomas, one of the twelve called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. Thomas, why weren't you there? What do we call Thomas? We call him what? Thomas. What Daoud? I everybody knows. Doubting Thomas. Even people who don't read the Bible don't believe in the resurrection power of Jesus. They've heard about doubting Thomas. They'll even throw out that phrase sometimes. Oh, you're a doubting Thomas, right? I've heard people say that never dark in the door of a church, but they know about this guy and his doubts.

[00:13:19] And so the other disciples told him, hey, we have seen the Lord. We saw him. We'll tell you, Thomas. You weren't there. We'll tell you. But he said to them and less. I see his hand in his hands. The mark of the nails. And placed my finger into the mark of the nails. And unless I placed my hand into his side, I will never believe. Well, eight days later, his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked and might want to rethink that strategy, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. And then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve but believe. And Thomas answered him, my Lord and my God and Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. I'm here to ask you this morning, why do you need to see to believe that the resurrection power of Jesus is working among us today? What do you need to see to believe it? Somebody told you that they saw Jesus risen from the dead? Do you believe it by faith or do you need to see it for yourself? Everybody here this morning, you are in the same position as our friend Thomas. You didn't see it? Maybe with your eyes. But you were told by those who did see and did believe that not only did they see Jesus rise, other people from the dead, they saw Jesus himself risen from the dead. And they're telling you and Jesus says, plus, there are those who don't see and yet believe.

[00:15:15] Zackham, most Christians I know look like they're waiting to see something before they really get going.

[00:15:22] How come most Christians I know seem like if God would just do something, then they would respond and get excited. What more can he do than rise from the dead to get us excited? What else are you waiting for to see? Well, I want him to put more money in my bank account. I want him to bless this relationship. Well, that's kind of a weird argument because you're arguing from the greatest side to these lesser sides. Like you're gonna be more impressed when he does something like that than when he rose from the dead himself.

[00:15:53] I got a question for us here at CompassHB HP this morning. Where's our faith that. Is our faith in increasing measure?

[00:16:00] Do we believe when we show up here at church on Sunday that I believe that there's gonna be somebody here this morning that's going to rise from the dead in their soul here today as we sit here and the word is preached?

[00:16:12] Is that how you come to church on a Sunday morning? Like, smells like salvation to me. I love the smell of repentance in the morning. My friend Doug Pappi likes to sit here in the front row. I'm like, Doug, how you doing sometimes?

[00:16:28] One time I remember he's like, smells like revival around here to me. Notice he's sitting in the front row right now.

[00:16:38] You come to church. Where's your faith that you expecting to see the God? You can rise the dead. You expecting him to bust up another funeral here this morning?

[00:16:48] What do we need, guys? What kind of science do we want to see?

[00:16:51] God's blessed us. God's given us a building. God's brought us. A second pastor. God's done a lot of things. We've got people getting baptized. We've got people professing faith. Last Sunday after we were here at church, somebody was sitting here in one of these seats and they were praying our after the service was over, they were still here. Brand asking for new life in Jesus Christ. God is working among us. What more do we need to see to believe it?

[00:17:13] Do you are you live in by faith?

[00:17:16] Can you see the glory of God? Can you already? Could you come to church on a Sunday morning? Already thanking God for souls he's going to save and people he's going to revive.

[00:17:27] And the good work that he's gonna do, because you have the faith that he has the power of the resurrection and that he just speaks things through the power of his word. Dead souls come alive.

[00:17:41] Do you believe that?

[00:17:42] What is the measure of our faith? I know we got to people who believe, I know we got to people who have trusted in Jesus for their salvation. Well, can we trust Jesus to save more souls? Can we trust Jesus to save someone here this morning?

[00:17:57] Are we trusting him in an increasing measure in our life every week? Where are we at?

[00:18:03] Are we doubting Thomas or are we people of great faith? Are we the people, the blessed people that Jesus is describing who even though they have not seen, they believe, who are we here at this church? John, Chapter five. Here's something that Jesus says about the resurrection that we hit a while ago now. And I think it's worth reviewing tour with me to John, Chapter five. And we're gonna start in verse twenty five. And then our text. What Jesus says he's Lazarus. Come out. And when you study this text, one of the famous comments that always comes up when you read about our texts this morning is that it's a good thing that Jesus made it very specific. It's a good thing that he dropped his name and said, Lazarus come out, because if he had just said come out, all of the dead bodies might have come forth, say that's the power we should be thinking about. Like, this is not an exception. This is not some ancient miracle that happened when Jesus was walking on the earth. This is a glimpse of the future reality of what Jesus is going to do, that there is going to come a day when Jesus is going to call for resurrection. And every single dead body is going to arise. Resurrection is not the exception. It's going to happen to everybody. That's what the Bible says. So it's a good thing that he said to the young man or to the young girl or to Lasser's. He always addresses the individual because if he didn't, he might usher in the end time. So I really read this, John, chapter five, verse twenty five. Here's one of our favorite phrases. Truly, truly, I say to you, which means he's about to say something that's a little mind blowing, a little hard to believe. It's going to require some faith, but it's true. And he wants you to hear it. Truly, truly. I say to you. An hour is coming. In fact, where it's already here, we're already in that time that our that age when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will. What? What does it say there? If you're dead and you hear Jesus you live for as the father has life in himself, as God is life. So he is granted also the son to have life and himself, the resurrection and the life out. Jesus refers to himself, and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man. So do not marvel at this. We should stop it. Just wondering and being being overwhelmed and being surprised by resurrection.

[00:20:34] No, we should start expecting it for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. It says here that an hour is coming when Jesus is going to say come out and every dead soul will rise.

[00:21:02] Do you believe that little tough to believe, truly, truly. He says to us. Hard to believe and that's why it requires faith. I'm here to tell you that just as sure as your taxes are due tomorrow, this is going to happen. My friends. Did you know that your taxes are due tomorrow? If you didn't know, this sermon might have taken on a whole new application for you all of a sudden? Right.

[00:21:31] Two things we can be sure of. Death and tax. Not actually just taxes. My friends. Just taxes. Yes. We might die physically if we live long enough. We are going to die. But what we have here is a prophecy that Jesus says, hey, what I did with that young boy named Luke seven and what I did with that young girl. The leader of the synagogue's daughter. And Mark five. And what I did with my friend Lazarus, what he's going to do in our text this morning from John Five's perspective. Hey, that's just a glimpse of the future, because I'm going to call every dead person to resurrection. And when the dead hear my voice, they rise every single time because I have the authority granted to me by the father to give life.

[00:22:23] This is who were trusting in. This is who our faith is in.

[00:22:28] And who knows when this moment is going to happen, this moment in the future? Could it could happen soon. I mean, we're already in the hour, it says.

[00:22:38] Where we see the resurrection of the dead, some to eternal life and some to eternal judgment, and it says based on whether they've done good or evil. And we know it's not based on what you do, whether you go to heaven or not. It's not based on your own works. It's based on your what? Your faith in Jesus Christ. And if you have faith in Jesus Christ, it changes the way you live to where you do good works. And if you don't have faith in Jesus Christ, you pursue your own desires, your evil desires, and you do what you want. It all comes down to do you have faith in the power of Jesus resurrection? Really, it comes down to. Have you heard Jesus calling you to live a new life? Let's get that down for point number one. Point number one is you need to hear Jesus calling for your resurrection.

[00:23:22] He he has said your name and for you to come out, insert your name here instead of Lazarus, come out. Now, obviously, we're here among the land of the living. We have not died yet in a physical sense. But the Bible is very clear in its teaching that all of us are born dead. And our what and our sins. We have fallen short of the glory of God. We have not lived up to his standard. We don't deserve to sojourn into his tent and to dwell on his holy hill. We don't deserve to have that kind of relationship with God. But Jesus has lived a perfect life, has died, and our place has risen again.

[00:24:02] And when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you rise with him to a new life. He calls you by name and you follow him. You come out of the tomb of your deadness in your sins and you start living a new life. We've been talking about the resurrection for a while. Does it feel like we're just beaten the resurrection drum around here? I mean, I've tried to milk this for as many sermons as I possibly can. I'll just lay all my cards out on the table when it comes to talking about death and resurrection. I'm going to try to do it every Sunday. I'm going to try to make it feel like a funeral every single Sunday here at this church.

[00:24:39] So Jesus can bust another funeral up because that's what he does say. And are you live in, my friend, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ here at this church, can I see the resurrection power in your life?

[00:24:54] Can I see that you've heard his voice and you've come out of the tomb and you are now living a quality of life, a kind of life that is no longer described by deadness, insane, but alive in Christ. See, I don't want people who believe that Jesus rose from the dead 2000 years ago or who believe that it's possible that Jesus could rise people from the dead or who believe that, yes, maybe in the future there will be some kind of resurrection. I want people who live by faith in the resurrection power of Jesus. Right now. Here today. Yes. By past resurrection, my future resurrection. I believe in that, but I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ right here, right now.

[00:25:38] And I want to live this new life that he's called me to.

[00:25:43] And I believe that other people here among us, maybe even today after this service, why I'm having some donuts and coffee over there, really what I'm scoping is I'm looking for a conversation where a dead soul is going to arrive, who arrives from the dead because Jesus is calling their name this morning.

[00:25:58] Is that what you think, that the kind of faith that you have? The resurrection is not just in the past and it's not just in the future. It is right here among us that power. Do you have faith in it? I hope you do. I hope this is something that we have here at this church. The kind of faith that can move mountains, the kind of faith that leads to prayer. In Jesus asked a question one time, it's kind of a heartbreaking question, it kind of gives you a glimpse into the reality of being Jesus, right?

[00:26:30] Even the people who believe in you are always doubting what you can do. And he said one time and Luke, 18, he says, when the son of man comes, when the day comes, I've already told you I'm going to do it.

[00:26:40] When I tell all the dead bodies to come out and we have that resurrection at the end. When I return, Jesus says in Luke, 18, he says, Will the son of man find faith on the Earth? Even though he's done all of that, he's done, even though it's been written down for us to read, even though he has proved himself time and time again, he wonders who's really going to be trust in me at the end.

[00:27:08] And I hope that if Jesus was looking down at Compas Bible Church, Huntington Beach, he would find some people and he could say, we have faith that we believe in.

[00:27:21] We believe it every single day, we live by faith in Jesus Christ and his resurrection, power and our lives. Could he say that about you right now? That you're one of the ones trusting in him until he comes.

[00:27:36] Now, I really don't like the way John writes Chapter 11 when you go back to Chapter 11 with me. And I just got to tell you, John might be a speedy guy who can outrun Peter, but I feel like he's kind of a buzzkill here in this chapter, because I want to I want to hear about all of the exciting things.

[00:27:55] I mean, Martha, just a few verses ago. Here's an example of someone who believes yet is still kind of lacking in the full measure of faith. Martha believes that Jesus is going to do the future resurrection. She says that earlier in the chapter, she. He says he says that Lazarus is going to rise. And she says, I know my brother will rise at the resurrection on the last day. Martha is a believer in the future resurrection. But when Jesus says, take away the stone, Martha is like, there's gonna be some smell there. I don't know if I want to enter into a conversation with so-and-so because, yes, I believe that Jesus can call people to life and that the dead can rise. But I'm not sure so-and-so is anywhere near salvation.

[00:28:40] I'm not sure I'm going to talk to them. Maybe I'm not going to really keep praying for them because they don't really seem like they're going to rise from the dead.

[00:28:46] They're pretty dead. I mean, they're stinky, dead. Right.

[00:28:49] And so, Martha, she has a moment here where she she does have faith. She does telling her all the way the stone. But she's questioning. She asks the question and it's a reasonable question. I can make sense. Yeah. There's gonna be a smell. But look what Jesus says to her. Did I not tell you that if you believed you would. What?

[00:29:09] What is it you would see? What what do you see? Glory of God. So I wonder, do we ever limit the glory of God? That could be revealed among us by our doubt when we don't have faith.

[00:29:22] Now I want to see. This is why I'm frustrated with our friend, the apostle John, who has done us a great service in writing this gospel inspired by the Holy Spirit. I'm not it's perfect. But I want to know what Martha does after Lazarus comes out. Anybody else want to know what Martha does? Tell me what Martha is doing right now. I want to see Mary over here. Describe for me how far the jaw has dropped on some of these mourners when Lazarus comes out. Isn't that what you want? Like, tell me how this what kind of a party broke out after the funeral? That's what I want to read about. I celebrate good times. Come on. You know, like, let's start start playing our theme song here, John. And what John does is just this plot twist here where he takes it in such a different direction and he goes like the exact opposite path. Like instead of celebrating with Lazarus and Mary and Martha and all the disciples and what joy there must've been. He takes us to the people who, like, go marching off to tell the Pharisees what just happened. And he takes us into the den of the thieves, of the foxes, of the bad guys here. Look at first 45 says many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did believed in him. Yes. Please tell me more about that. No.

[00:30:42] Verse 46. But some of them went to the Pharisees and they told them what Jesus had done. And so they were probably thinking, wow, that's awesome that he can raise dead people to life. Now they have a different response. Verse 47. So the chief priest in the Pharisees gathered the council and said, what are we to do? This man performs many signs.

[00:31:08] If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. Yeah, that's kind of the point. And the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. But one of them, Chiappe, this, who was high priest that year, said to them, you know, nothing at all.

[00:31:26] Would you like to be on the council of the Ferris's? You know nothing you know nothing at all.

[00:31:33] Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish. Now, he did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one.

[00:31:54] The children of God who are scattered abroad so that from that day on they made plans to put him to death. Here comes the news of the one who has the resurrection power of life, and he can give life to anyone who wants. And what do you decide to do at your council with the one who can give life?

[00:32:14] You decide to put him to death.

[00:32:17] This is what we call here. A classic example of Jokinen irony. All right. That's what that's what they call it. John loves the ironic twists, John. Maybe more than anybody else likes to take us from what Jesus is doing as people are believing in his signs and receiving eternal life. Well, John likes to take us over into the hearts of darkness to see the enemies and what they're thinking and what they're always thinking is the exact opposite of what you're supposed to be thinking. And he likes to point out how, like, grossly they're missing the point. He a Revel's you. You have to understand that John revels in this kind of irony. It is throughout his gospel. And this might be the greatest display of it here, where the moment I mean, the greatest miracle that John gives us besides the actual resurrection of Jesus himself, the resurrection of Lazarus. We don't even enjoy the moment. We just go into the council of these chief priests and Pharisees and they got the Pharisees and the Sassy's together. And the Pharisees and the Sassy's hate each other, but they can all come together on one point. And that is we got to stop Jesus because he's taken away all of our power and all of our fame. And we don't like this Jesus guy. And so they make plans to put him to death. And this is so ironic that the high priest who is supposed to make a prophecy and who makes a prophecy, it says, you know, that year his prophecy was that Jesus would die for the nation. And here's these guys. I mean, this is the height of irony here. It doesn't get any thicker than this. Here is these guys thinking they need to kill Jesus to protect the Jewish people so that the Romans won't come and wipe them out with some, like, rebellion of the Messiah. Doesn't start to mess with the Romans. So they better just just squelch it right now so the Romans won't get involved. So that's their plan of why Jesus needs to die. And ironically, Jesus is dying to save the souls of all mankind, that he's dying to save the nation, but not in the way that they're thinking.

[00:34:25] Only the sovereignty of God could produce something like this. And, John, he's clearly fascinated by this and he wants us to see how even the enemies who are trying to work against God's purpose are actually accomplishing God's purpose.

[00:34:45] And what an amazing thing it is that they want to kill Jesus, and that's exactly what Jesus is going to do. I mean, look at how John describes and in verse 52, hey, he's not even just dying for the nation, only not even just for the Jews in Israel at that time. He is dying to gather into one. The children of God who are scattered abroad, not only I think the Jews spread throughout all the earth, but I think the one is going to be eventually not only the Jewish people, but us in the church as well.

[00:35:12] All one bride of Christ.

[00:35:16] And so here the enemies are accomplishing the purpose that the one who has life and can give it to us is going to die. Point number two, we got to put it down like this. You got to see the irony. See the irony here? It's thick. The living one died. We go straight from the resurrection of Lazarus and we don't even get to the afterparty. We can't even celebrate that for a moment before we go right to the death. And that's really where this is all headed, that the enemies of Jesus are going to kill Jesus. And it is this miracle of raising Lazarus that finally pushes it to the point where they are going to put him to death. And if you come back, you'll see that Jesus even doesn't walk among the Jews anymore, because this threat of death is very serious.

[00:36:04] And this should seem to us not only ironic that they thought they needed he needed to die to save the nation when he was dying to save us from our sins. But just how ironic it is that the one who is the resurrection and the life die. Got a revelation, chapter one with me and look at how Jesus himself talks about it. OK, let's get a vision of Jesus Christ and let's be encouraged in our faith here this morning from the vision of Jesus that we see in Revelation, Chapter one. See for us. Death is normal. The wages of our sin is death. We expect people here, the only kind of life we've known on this planet leads to death. You have to see that for Jesus. Death is the exception. He's had nothing to do with death for all of eternity past. He raises everyone from death when he's here on Earth. And he's going to give us eternal life that we will experience him with him for all of the future. And so Jesus here. Let's actually get a vision of Jesus here this morning and revelation chapter one, verse twelve. This is the one who has resurrection power. This is the one who calls the dead into life, who is going to speak someday. And all of the dead will rise. Revelation one, verse twelve. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And on turning, I saw seven golden lamp stands. Now, those are the seven churches that revelation is written to. But in the midst of the churches, in the midst of the lamp stands right here among us this morning is one like a son of man. He's clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. And the hairs of his head were white, like white, wool like snow.

[00:37:48] And his eyes were like a flame of fire.

[00:37:54] His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace. And his voice was like the roar of many waters in his right hand. He held seven stars from his mouth. Came a sharp two edged sword. And his face was like the sun shining in full strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.

[00:38:21] Is that the picture of Jesus Christ that you and I are seeing by faith? When we think about Jesus Christ, if we were to see his profile picture, if we were to see the picture of Jesus on his driver's license, is this what comes to your mind when you think of a picture of Jesus Christ?

[00:38:40] This one certainly seems like someone who has resurrection power, this seems like someone who really is so powerful to behold, John falls over like a dead man. Remember, John likes to tell us that on the night before Jesus died, the disciple whom Jesus loved, he was laying back up against Jesus. But here, when he sees Jesus in his resurrected glorified state, how does John respond to the vision of Jesus Bolsover like a dead man. He's not leaning up next to Jesus now.

[00:39:13] And can you imagine Jesus at trying to describe what color your eyes Jesus?

[00:39:18] You know, I can't check off any of the typical boxes that you might check up. What color is your hair? Jesus. Well, by his hair is white like wool. His eyes. Well, whatever the fire color is.

[00:39:31] And his mouth is sharp. Coming out, a sword coming out of his mouth. And you can barely even be holding him. You can't even really look at this vision of Jesus because it's like the sun shining in full strength. You ever try to look at the sun and when it's at its.

[00:39:47] Highest moment there in the middle of the day to stare and at the sun can't even behold its glory.

[00:39:55] And who is this who were trusting in is this who we believe is with us when we gather? Is this who we believe when we're praying for so-and-so to get saved? Whom are fighting sin in our life when we're going through the trials and temptations? Is this the Jesus that you believe in?

[00:40:10] And here's what he says. When he laid his right hand on John to comfort him, he said, Fearnot. I am the first and the last. And here's how Jesus described himself. I am the living one. This is a way that God likes to refer to himself as the living God as opposed to all the dead idols, as opposed to all of those vain things that you might be tempted to worship.

[00:40:33] Jesus says I am the living one. And here's what's remarkable. I died. What's amazing is that the living one would lay down his life for the nation so that all the children of God scattered abroad could be brought together as one. That's an amazing thing that the living one would die. Death is the exception for Jesus and behold, he says, I'm alive forever more. Can you see me by faith? In fact, I've got the keys of death. I've got the keys of Haiti's. I now decide where everyone goes when they die. I now decide how long everyone lives. I'm the one who can call you to resurrection life. And someday I'm going to speak. And all of the dead will rise again.

[00:41:17] This is Jesus Christ. This is the one who says, believe me, and you will see the glory of God. Are we seeing it? Can we see it by faith? What is the measure of your faith here this morning?

[00:41:32] Go to Second Corinthians, Chapter five. I know that we we talk about we try to talk about the death of Jesus Christ a lot here at the church. Anybody want to say a man to that? Anybody. Do we talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Not enough, in my opinion. Right. And you're probably thinking we talk about it all the time. Well, that's the point. You see, we're trying to talk about it all the time.

[00:41:55] We are trying every single time that you come here as one of our members of the Body of Christ here at CompassHB HP as one of the brothers and sisters that make up the family. What we are trying to do is we are trying to do what it says here in Second Corinthians, Chapter five, verses 14 and fifteen. Read this with me. Second Corinthians, chapter five versus 14 and 15. It says, For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all.

[00:42:33] Therefore, all have died.

[00:42:37] And he died for all that. Those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him, who, for their sake, died and was raised.

[00:42:49] So it starts here in verse 14 with the love of Christ. If you have the power and the authority of life and you can grant life to whoever you want, you can rise anyone from the dead. You are the living one. Why would you submit yourself to this lame council of Chief Priests and Pharisees and Sadducees? You don't even believe in the resurrection. The sacrifices don't. Why would you let those men put you to death?

[00:43:20] If you're the living one and you can do what ever you want to do in the universe that you created by the words that come out of your mouth, you uphold by the words that come out of your mouth.

[00:43:32] You can do whatever you want. Why would you submit yourself to death? There is only one reason and it only kind of makes sense. It's hard to imagine it was love that Jesus the living one submitted himself to death. Love for you. Love. For me. Love for centers like us. And it says that this love of Christ, this reality that Jesus died so that all the children of God scattered abroad might be drawn together. That truth. There's an interesting word here. It says in our English translation, it controls us. Sometimes it's translated. It compels us say. And the idea, it's kind of a weird word. The idea is like something has pressure. Like something's surrounded. And it's all like contained. And it's about to just burst forth. That's the idea of this word.

[00:44:34] It's this word is used of a besieged city, like a city that is surrounded by an army on every side. And the army is cutting off their food supply and cutting off their their water supply. And so people are dying of hunger and thirst in this city. They're besieged, they're contained. They're feeling the pressure. They're feeling trapped. And they just want to break out of the city. They just want to get out and get past the army and go live. They're just feeling so contained and they want to burst forth. Are you a bursting forth kind of a Christian?

[00:45:11] Can you say here this morning that the love of Christ compels me?

[00:45:18] It controls me. It motivates me.

[00:45:24] Like there's resurrection power inside of my soul, and I can't contain it any longer. It's just going to come out into my life.

[00:45:35] Are you that kind of a person?

[00:45:38] So when we celebrate Easter and we talk about the resurrection, then we come back last week and we look at Jesus weeping and getting angry at death and we talk about Jesus meeting our greatest need. And now here we are once again, preaching that Jesus is raising the dead to life and he has that power and that power could be working in your life. Is that power? Just can you feel it rising up within you? Like it's gonna burst forth.

[00:46:05] Do you have to talk to people about it? Do you need to pray to God about it?

[00:46:11] Can this verse describe you? This is not my idea that we're talking about, this is the real life of the Christian person that the love of Christ. What does it say? It controls you.

[00:46:26] And this is how I want to live. I hope this is how you want to live.

[00:46:30] This is why this is the life that we want to share together, we want to share this life with God. We want to share it with one another. You know, that's what fellowship is. Fellowship is not us eating snacks together. All right. Fellowship is not just us singing songs together. Fellowship is not that. Everybody's necessarily got the same bulletin in looking at the same page of the Bible right now. Fellowship is a sharing of the life of Jesus Christ.

[00:46:57] And I have this life and it's this resurrection power.

[00:47:01] It's a power that honestly this world cannot even contain. Although it might try. They might try to put Jesus to death, but I guarantee you on the third day, he will rise again. And I have never seen it, but I believe it.

[00:47:19] And that power and it needs to burst forth out of me.

[00:47:24] And I just hope that we at this church, after we've we've looked at the resurrection for multiple sermons, but we've never done a fellowship group about it. Well, this week, fellowship groups are back on here at the church. Did you ever go to a fellowship group before who's been to a fellowship group here at our church? Right. I have the privilege of leading one of these groups right now. And because I'm the pastor, I actually get to go to all the different groups eventually. Right. Glassine how they all work. And usually when you start out at a fellowship group, you can you can usually tell how the fellowship groups go in within the first like two two minutes really. It only takes like 20 seconds to find out what's going on at this fellowship group. And you just you just have to throw out a question. Hey, what do you guys think about that sermon or what what's your response to the texts that we we studied on on Sunday?

[00:48:14] And you can tell pretty quick whether people are bursting forth, compelled by the love of Christ or whether there's a cricket plan. Dew's violin in the corner of the room and in an awkward.

[00:48:30] I'm tired of awkward fellowship. I think that's an oxymoron. I don't even think that makes sense.

[00:48:37] You get the life of Jesus ready to burst out of you. I got the life of Jesus ready to burst out to me. And we're just gonna sit here with our lids on just keeping it all inside. I mean, by the time we get to Wednesday night or Thursday night or whenever your group meets, maybe some groups meet tonight or Tuesday night all different times of the week. By the time we get to a group or by the time we even get home from church, we should have something to say about it.

[00:49:05] How the resurrection power of Jesus, the love of Christ. There's so much to consider here. How could I not be compelled to live for Jesus? Let me just ask you, what does he need to shown you that he hasn't already done? What are you waiting for? To get fired up for Jesus Christ, can you say that your faith is increasing? Can you say that you love Jesus more today than you have ever loved him before? And why not? If you can't say that. How do what does he need to do more to prove his love to you than the living one? Hey, I'm the living one. And here's something that's kind of weird that I did. I died, but now I'm back. I'm alive forever more. Why would the living one that this worthless group, who knows nothing at all?

[00:49:57] The Chief Priess and this guy Kaie Office. Why would the living one let those men have a plot to put him to death?

[00:50:06] Because he did want to die for the nation and not for the reason that they felt their plant didn't work. The Romans still came and wiped out Jerusalem in 78 days. They could do nothing to stop the judgment that was coming upon them for rejecting Jesus.

[00:50:21] But Jesus did want to die and he did want to die not just for the nation, but for all the children of God who would come and so join in the tent of the Lord for all of us sinners.

[00:50:33] That he would make clean.

[00:50:36] And so when we come here, here's what we're trying to do when we come to church. What I got here is an ice cold Coca-Cola. Anybody ever seen one of these before? You've seen them on the commercials, right? When they all of a sudden take a drink and it just seems so refreshing. You know what I mean? Now, you ever done one of these before with a Coca-Cola? Anybody ever experienced this before? Right. If I open this right now, what's going to happen?

[00:51:00] Yeah. Explosion. Right. Explosion. See that the contents in here are under a great amount of pressure right now. And they're having a hard time being constrained in this little bottle right now. See? And they're just ready to burst forth. It's about to smell like soda up here in the front row with my friend Doug Pappe. You know what I'm saying? Right. I mean, this thing's really gonna explode, because what we're talking about today is that when Jesus says that somebody comes to life, they come to life. Does that shake you up at all? See anybody start feeling like a like a 16 ounce can of soda? This morning here at church. Right. I mean, that's what we're doing. The reason we come here on a Sunday morning is so that we can get in the word that we can see once again who Jesus is. There's that love of the living one dying for a worthless sinner like me and giving me life and giving me value in my relationship with God and bringing me now this resurrection power in my life. Oh, yeah. Like that. See? And it's a lot of people are wondering if I'm really going to do this or not. Right.

[00:52:13] So what I'm wondering is, what are you going to do based on the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that you claim to believe in in your life? I can't wait to see how it bursts out of you.

[00:52:28] And if you're not Bursten, how come it's not shaken? Yeah.

[00:52:32] Read the verse with me one more time. Now that you got the image of the soda, that's about to burst. It says, For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this. That one is died for all. They have all all have died. And he died for all that. Those who live. That's me and you who are. He gives life to his resurrection. Life. Those who live might no longer live. For who?

[00:52:58] But for him, for Jesus. Who, for their sake, for us. Died and was raised.

[00:53:10] And I pray for our church, I pray that when we hear the gospel, it will never stop shaking us up and that the love of Christ will be bursting forth in our lives, a life that we share with one another, a life that we share with God, a life that we share with people who are still dead. In their sense, when you turn your hand out over here, you'll see we got some application questions. And I really want to encourage you to do these questions, because if we sit here and we talk about the resurrection of Jesus as seen through how he rose Lazarus from the dead Lazarus come out, if we talk about that for weeks at our church and nothing is shaken up. And to me, that just doesn't seem right. We need to see some some lives bursting forth here at our church. So if you have never gone to a fellowship group before, I'm inviting you to just show up at one of our fellowship groups this week. And if you don't know the how the groups work, we have actually a new brand new group starting on Thursday night. So if you're one of the people who say, man, I don't like showing up at a group because they all know each other and I feel like the new person. Well, there there's a group meeting here at the church on Thursday night at six thirty, and everybody's the new person. All right. So you can be one of them. OK. And so I want to encourage you if this is your church. If CompassHB Bible Church, Huntington Beach, somebody asked you on the street, where do you go to church? OK. And you would say this church. OK. What I think that means is you go to one of our fellowship groups. That's how that's what I think. OK. And coming to church on Sunday is not we can't just get shaken. We need to go and open up the lid and wait and share it with others and get each other encouraged in the Lord. We need to have that fellowship, that sharing of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. So if you've never been to a fellowship group, this is your week. And if for some reason you can't make it to a fellowship group, I want to really encourage you to do these questions and to be encouraged in your heart, to be shaken up in your soul and to ask yourself meant what is the resurrection power of Jesus Christ? What is the love of Christ? That the one who is the living one would die for me? What is that compelling and controlling me to do in my life right now? Would people know that I got called out of the tomb by the resurrection power of Jesus Christ? God, we pray that you will shake us up here at this church. God, that when your son does call for the resurrection to life and to judgment, when all the dead rise, when he looks to see if there is any faith still on the earth in those last days when the love of many will grow cold. God, I pray that you will find faith among us here at CompassHB HP Faith in the resurrection, power of Jesus Christ faith and the one whose hair is white like wool, whose eyes are a flame of fire, and whose face is like the sun shining in its strength. That that one, that resurrection resurrected Jesus Christ, the living one that he is here in the midst of this church, and that his love has shaken the people in this place up.

[00:56:29] Now we pray that you will compel us to greater faith. To stronger confidence, to more boldness, to increasing joy and to deeper love in our hearts for you. God, that is our desire that you would shake us out of any complacency.

[00:56:50] Got to pray for my brothers and sisters who have been your people for five, 10, 15, 20 years, people who have faithfully served you for years. God, I pray that they would not grow weary and well doing.

[00:57:04] God, let not their hearts get tired. Let them be stirred up a fresh. Let them be able to say that we love Jesus today because of his love for us, because of his resurrection power, because he called our name and we came out of the deadness of our own sin.

[00:57:23] We love Jesus more today than we ever have in our entire life. And God, I pray that if there's somebody here and they can hear the voice of Jesus calling to them right now, that they need to leave those sins behind so that they can come to know, you got to pray that you will call their name and that they will rise to a new life, that they'll talk to somebody about it here this morning and won't leave this place still in the tomb.

[00:57:49] When Jesus says, take away that stone, take away that heart of stone, and Jesus wants to give us a new heart and the power of the spirit. And he wants to shake us up so much on the inside that it spills out and overflows into our life. And we pray that Jesus will get the glory.

[00:58:05] And his name, Ayman.