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I AM the Resurrection and the Life

Posted by Children's Ministry on with 1 Comments

I AM the Resurrection and the Life

Have you mourned properly? What kind of question is that? A terrible question and one I was recently asked. Is there actually a proper way to mourn? Doesn’t everyone do this differently?  Death is something we can’t avoid, and when you lose someone you love it hurts on a level that one can only understand if they have lived the experience before.  As I read this week’s I AM statement I keep thinking of the pain that Martha and Mary were experiencing when they knew they were going to lose their brother and if only Jesus would get there soon he could be healed. Knowing something could be done to avoid the pain and yet having to go through it anyway must have been so hard.

I can’t write this without crying because I know how they felt. It’s been 3 years since my grandmother passed away and yet I cannot bring myself to watch the video of her funeral that I refused to attend.  Why couldn’t I go to a funeral for one of the people I cherished most on this earth? It was not because I didn’t care, or that I couldn’t get time off work or any reason other than I did not need to.  I knew that I had done all I could when my Grandma Charlotte was here on earth to have a bond that could never be broken, a bond that death couldn’t sever. I knew at the end that she had a faith in Jesus that could never be shaken. I knew she was going to heaven and that one day because I believe in the power of the resurrection I will see her again.

Jesus tells Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.” (John 11:25-26 NLT)  

Mary and Martha were not aware at the time that there was absolutely no reason to worry. They trusted Jesus to heal Lazarus when he was sick but not enough for him to be brought back to life. What a great lesson to learn. Jesus really is the resurrection and the life. He is truly capable of ANYTHING! Nothing is impossible. We may not be able to see those we have lost right now but as believers we can rest assured that if those dear ones believed in Jesus we will be together again.

Family discussion:
Take some time to talk about loved ones you have lost, let each person share their favorite memory. Discuss how because we believe in Jesus a time will come when we will be with those loved ones again.

Family Game:
Form 2 teams of two people each. On each team pick one person to be Lazarus.

On “go,” have each team use one roll of toilet paper to wrap Lazarus. The first team to finish wrapping up Lazarus with the entire roll wins in round one. Have each Lazarus stand still until all are wrapped up.

Then call out, “Lazarus, come forth!” The first Lazarus to free him- or herself of all the toilet paper is the winner in round two.

Nikki Wheatley
Elementary Ministries Director

 

 

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Comments

gary January 9, 2016 12:21pm

According to the Bible, how many Old Testament prophets raised people from the dead? Answer: Two. Elijah and Elisha.
That's it. And they only did it three times. So the act of raising someone from the dead would have been seen as a very, very big deal. It was not like healing someone of a disease or casting out demons. Lots of people, it seems, could do those miracles. Nope, raising someone from the dead was the big kahuna of all miracles!

In the Gospel of John chapter 11, we are told that Lazarus had been dead for four days. His body was decomposing to the point that he stunk. Lazarus death and burial were very public events. His tomb was a known location. Many Jews had come to mourn with Mary and Martha and some of them were wondering why the great miracle worker, Jesus, had not come and healed his friend Lazarus; essentially blaming Jesus for letting Lazarus die.

Let's step back and look at the facts asserted in this passage: Only two OT prophets had raised people from the dead, and these two prophets were considered probably the two greatest Jewish prophets of all time: Elijah and Elisha. If this story is true, the supernatural powers of Jesus were on par with the supernatural powers of the greatest Jewish prophets of all time! If this event really did occur, it should have shocked the Jewish people to their very core---a new Elijah was among them! This event must have been the most shocking event to have occurred in the lives of every living Jewish man and woman on the planet. The news of this event would have spread to every Jewish community across the globe.

And yet...Paul, a devout and highly educated Jew, says not one word about it. Not one. Not in his epistles; not in the Book of Acts. Think about that. What would be the most powerful sign to the Jews living in Asia Minor and Greece---the very people to whom Paul was preaching and attempting to convert---to support the claim that Jesus of Nazareth himself had been raised from the dead? Answer: The very public, very well documented raising from the dead of Lazarus of Bethany by Jesus!

But nope. No mention of this great miracle by Paul. (A review of Paul's epistles indicates that Paul seems to have known very little if anything about the historical Jesus. Read here.)

And there is one more very, very odd thing about the Raising-of-Lazarus-from-the-Dead Miracle: the author of the Gospel of John, the very last gospel to be written, is the only gospel author to mention this amazing miracle! The authors of Mark, Matthew, and Luke say NOTHING about the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Nothing.

To continue reading:
http://www.lutherwasnotbornagain.com/2016/01/the-story-of-lazarus-is-blatant.html