ABSOLUTELY SURE!John 14:19

Because I live, you also will live!

Because I live, you also will live! This, my dear Christian friends, is the essence of our Easter celebra-tion! These words are the heartbeat, the very soul, of the joy that is ours this morning! This unbreakable promise by our Lord Jesus Christ invites a peace within us that far transcends any other peace that will ever be ours!

Because I live, you also will live! With these words, our Lord assures us that because he died and rose again to the glories of heaven, we, too, will rise from the dead to the eternal glories of everlasting life, even though we will someday die! His resurrection from the dead is the Lord’s guarantee that you will not die to face the agonies of hell!

Because I live, you also will live! That makes this day of Easter the most important day of your life! It means that the biggest problem in your life has been eliminated! It means that you can face all the other smaller problems in your life with the confidence that the God who wants you with him in eternity is the God of your life now!

Because I live, you also will live! Can we ever tire of hearing these words from our Savior’s lips? Do we ever want to put a damper on the peace and the comfort and the joy this sweet sentence gives? Certainly not! In fact, it is a peace and a comfort and a joy that we want to grow within us until all fear of death is squeezed out of us, until the full meaning of these words takes over our lives!

We can move ourselves in that direction quite easily! All that needs to be done is for us to examine Jesus’ words in great detail to assure ourselves that his promise can be true, absolutely true! And so, as part of our Easter celebration, let’s do exactly that! Because I live, you also will live! Let’s run through the points made by Jesus in that promise until we are absolutely sure that it is true!

Can we be absolutely sure that Jesus died? After all, a promise to give life to the dead means nothing if the One making the promise has no power over his own death! Furthermore, if we are to have any hope of life, ourselves, then Christ Jesus must die! If he didn’t, all hope and any certainty of us living after we die is gone. 1 Peter 3:18 makes that point clear: Christ died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that he might bring us to God.

The whole foundation for our hope of eternal life is the fact that Jesus suffered and died in our place. It must be that he took our sins upon himself and suffered the penalties they bring with them. The penalty for sin is always death. Jesus had to die for us or that penalty still awaits us.

It is absolutely necessary for us to be absolutely sure that Jesus died! Did Jesus die? Of course he did – everybody knows that, you may say. But, before you brush it off as a frivolous question, understand that not everyone believes Jesus died. Satan has led some to believe that a traumatized, but living Jesus was placed into Joseph’s sepulcher! They believe that after a long nap in a cool grave, he revived, gained enough strength to leave his grave, and presented himself as risen!

So, did Jesus die? His enemies were absolutely sure of that, weren’t they? Trained Roman executioners were sent to verify his death before releasing his body for burial. Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin were con-vinced he was dead. They badgered Pilate for an armed guard for Jesus’ tomb, lest his disciples steal his dead body and claim that he had risen. Jesus’ enemies were sure that he was dead!

More importantly, Jesus’ friends were certain he was dead, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, in par-ticular. They are the ones who requested Jesus’ body for burial. They took him down from the cross. They prepared him for burial and laid him in the sepulcher. Don’t you think they looked for signs of life in Je-sus’ body that whole time? Do you think they would have buried him if they weren’t positive he was dead?

We can be absolutely sure – Jesus died! The payment for our sins was made once and for all by his inno-cent suffering and death! So, can we be sure, absolutely sure, that Jesus lives? Is it certain that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day? That, too, is vital if we are to have hope for life after death!

The Apostle Paul makes that very point in 1 Corinthians 15:14, when he writes If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. He further explains that point in Romans 4:25. Je-sus was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised up because of our justification. The fact that Jesus was raised from the dead by God the Father, is required proof that the price for sin is completely paid and we now stand justified before God!

So, it is of utmost importance for us to be absolutely sure that Jesus lives! Again, we can begin with Je-sus’ enemies. They were absolutely sure! The Roman guards at Jesus’ tomb were literally knocked sense-less by the angel sent to open Jesus’ grave, revealing he had risen. This placed the guards in peril. They had failed to carry out their orders. They had allowed Pilate’s seal to be violated.

Severe discipline, even execution, faced them if they made such a report. So, they first went to the Jews, realizing that it was not in the Sanhedrin’s best interest for the guards to make a report of an angel an-nouncing Jesus’ resurrection! They were right! Contrary to their every instinct, the Jews protected the guards, bribed the guards, and gave the guards a false story to take the place of the truth. They were that sure that Jesus had risen from the dead.

How about Jesus’ friends? Women who followed him and disciples close to him both claimed to have seen the resurrected Jesus. Over 40 days, he appeared to them many times in many different places. Paul tells us that he appeared to more than 500 of the brethren at one time. He had the unique experience of en-countering the risen Lord on the Damascus Road some years later. They all believed Jesus had risen!

Beyond that, we see men changed in a way that would not be founded on a lie or a clever story. Because they believed Jesus lived, they forsook their homes and occupations to share this Good News in every cor-ner of the world. They willingly risked the worst kind of persecution to confess a risen Savior to one and all. They were absolutely sure Jesus lives!

Why does that create such joy in us? Why does the fact that Jesus died and Jesus lives bring us a peace beyond measure? Remember the essence of Easter! Because I live, you also will live! If there is anything we can be sure of in this life, it is that we will one day die – we are absolutely sure of that!

No matter how well we take care of ourselves, eat right, or exercise, we will die! It may be a long time in coming, but we know it’s on its way – we can feel it approaching! Our death will be no surprise, for The wages of sin is death!, and there is no question that we are sinners! We were sinners from the moment our mothers conceived us. The inclination of our hearts is only evil all the time. We are sinners!

We may take pride in ourselves that we are not as sinful as the next guy – but we are sinners, all the same. And sinners should die! Sinners do die – every one of them! And physical death for a sinner is the pas-sageway into a far more terrifying death – the death of any relationship with God, an end of any blessing from him, which is the death of hell!

This death of hell is the unavoidable and inescapable and never ending future of all sinners. So, how can Jesus say Because I live, you also will live!? How can you be absolutely sure that you will live? Remem-ber that Jesus was raised by God the Father for our justification! Justification means that we were de-clared Not Guilty! of our sins before the Lord!

Jesus’ suffering and death paid the price for our sin. Sin, and its penalties, no longer count against us in God’s eyes! Through faith in Jesus Christ, which does not reject what he has done for us, the Lord no longer views us as sinners worthy of death and hell! We are declared righteous before him! There is no reason to exclude us from heaven! In fact, it is the Lord’s deepest desire that we live with him throughout all eternity!

We will most certainly die! But dying in the Lord is a good thing! Again, writing in 1 Corinthians 15:50, Paul informs us that Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable in-herit imperishable. The flesh and blood bodies we have now are perishable, they are so damaged by sin that they cannot exist in the holiness of heaven!

Our bodies must be transformed, they must be changed – and they will be! The perishable will put on the imperishable and the mortal will put on immortality. With this glorified body, this sinless, holy body, we will live forever with the Lord! Death will be swallowed up in victory! We can be absolutely sure that we will live!

It is true, absolutely true – Because I live, you also will live! This is your joy, your peace, your comfort on this Easter day! More than that, it is your joy, your peace, and your comfort every day from now on to the moment you die and the Lord immediately awakens you from the sleep of death to the glory of life – life to the full! Because Jesus lives, you can be absolutely sure that you will live! Amen.