“I AM the Resurrection and the Life
John 11:1-44
“Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’” [John 11:43]
This without a doubt is the most radical deity “I AM” declaration and sign coupling of them all. Previously it was “I am the bread of life” and then He fed the multitude; “I am the light of the world,” and then He healed a man born blind. In our John 11 passage this morning, He will declare, “I am the resurrection and the life” and then raise Lazarus from the dead.
There is no ambiguity in Who Jesus is. Only God can do these signs. Only God can raise the dead. And notice that He raised Lazarus after his body was in the tomb for four days. The body was bound in burial wrappings and already had begun to decay.
“Is there anything too hard for God?” A rhetorical question indeed, because with God nothing is impossible. And this is an underlying theme in this Gospel of John with the record of seven miraculous signs. They span the gamut. They ratify Jesus as God, the great I AM.
But remember the signs are secondary. They ratify the “I AM” declarations that are primary. Physical miracles are temporal in this life of faith, but the “I AM” message is eternal and will be fully realized when we see our Lord face to face. The realness of eternal life comes by believing in the great “I AM” in the person of Jesus Christ.
“And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” [John 20:31-32]
There were many miracles that Jesus performed that were not listed among these seven in John’s Gospel. But the one objective for all the miracles is that you might believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
“Seeing is believing” as the saying goes. In faith, however, it is in the believing that we see. One might see and experience a miracle and never come to Christ. This is probably more often the case than not.
It is in the believing, however, that the greatest miracle is rendered: Eternal life in intimate fellowship with Jesus. This, in the end, dwarfs all other signs and wonders and miracles.
