Alive! Even When Death Comes
“Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise from the dead.”
“Martha said to Him “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.”
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have come to believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, and He who comes into the world.”
(John 11: 23-27 NASB 2020)
Here, we find a statement every believer knows to be true: We are called to be God’s missionaries.
How are we doing with this, our calling?
Embedded within this statement, we find a deeper truth: We are called to be God’s missionaries to the place God sends us & to the people God sends us to serve.
How are we doing with this, our calling?
Do we really wish for ALL people to come to know Jesus as Savior and LORD?
Do we—really?!
- Even our neighbor across the street?
- Even our neighbor across the state?
- Even our neighbor across the country?
- Even our neighbor across the sea?
Yesterday, I read these words: “There is transformational power in travel.”
Jonah believed this. Continually, Jonah cried out to God,
“So now, LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”
(Jonah 4: 3 NASB 2020)
Even back then, with the people of Nineveh, yes, even with the very people who stood against God’s people, God’s purpose for ALL people to come to know Him was evident. God knew Jonah needed to travel, to go the other way, to turn from the place he was running toward and to turn 180 degrees around and, instead, RUN TOWARD GOD’S WILL.
What about us?
Do we really believe the words we say?
Do we really wish for ALL people to come to know God, even if it means that our lives are interrupted?
Do we really wish for ALL people to come to know God, even if it means that we must go (must travel) where we do not wish to go?
Jonah had his reasons. Jonah had a dislike for the people who lived in Ninevah because they were the people who tormented Jonah’s ancestors, and believe it or night, blood runs deep. When “our people” are hurt, we circle the wagons. When “our people” are hurt, we face inward (in both our thoughts and our actions).
Do we really wish for All people to come to know Jesus as Savior and LORD?
Let’s listen to God’s response to Jonah’s feelings about “God’s people.”
“Then the LORD said, “You [Jonah] had compassion on the plant, for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.
Should I not also have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 people, who do not know the difference between their right hand and their left, as well as many animals.”
(Jonah 4: 10-11 NASB 2020)
Nineveh was the capital of the powerful ancient Assyrian empire (modern-day northern Iraq located on the eastern side of the Tigris River). It was the oldest and most populated city in the ancient Assyrian empire.
This is the place God allowed my sailor-husband, my SEABEE to go twice—2005 and 2009.
My husband did not wish for his life to be interrupted for those two years. I am sure staying at home in Kentucky, working his daily job, and being a “present & with us” husband and dad was his plan, but God had another plan for him.
God tells Jonah how he did not make the tree grow that shaded him from the blistering heat of the day, and so, why should Jonah have more compassion for the tree than for the people who did not know God as their LORD.
- God knows our thoughts.
- God knows our heart.
- God fashioned us in our mother’s womb.
- God sent His only Son to earth so we might come to enter a relationship with Him.
- From the beginning of time, God knew we needed Jesus!
Of course, whenever God uses the word All, HE MEANS ALL PEOPLE!
Do we really wish for ALL people to come to know Jesus as Savior and LORD?
Do we—really?!
Are we willing to GO, to TRAVEL, to BE the “people of God”?
Of course, our Savior, our Redeemer—our Jesus knew His disciples’ thoughts and concerns and fears as He prepared to send His disciples into the world.
And of course, our Savior, Redeemer, and LORD—knows our thoughts, concerns, and fears.
Where is God sending us?
- To a new task within our church?
- To a whole new career?
- To a person who works across the room from us who needs to hear about Jesus?
- To a person within our family who needs to hear about Jesus?
- To a new church, a new-to-us body of believers?
- To a new way of thinking?
- To a new position of obedience?
We know this to be true: Wherever God is sending us, He has already prepared the way & He will go with us as we obey and walk into His will.
“Jesus spoke these things; and raising His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, so that the Son may glorify You. . . .
I am no longer going to be in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, so that they may be one just as We are.”
(John 17: 1 & 11 NASB 2020)
May we celebrate this new life God has given to us as we commit our every morning, and our every day and every evening to HIM!
- Let us celebrate this LIFE GOD has given to us!
- Let us celebrate—for even when our death comes, we will remain ALIVE!
- Let us proclaim to ALL people (those we know, those we do not yet know, those who God places within our path today, and those God sends us to)—TODAY IS THE DAY of the LORD!
- Let us pray and seek God’s will.
- Let us STAY and witness where God sends us to witness.
- Let us GO and witness where God sends us to GO & witness as we travel and be Transformed—Sanctified by GOD.
- Let us REALLY BELIEVE—Anyone who believes in Jesus will live, even after dying.
- Let us REALLY BELIEVE—Death is not the final word for those who believe—but LIFE IS!
- Let us live “called” and “ready” to go wherever and to whomever God sends us.
- LET US!
- Let us not get caught up in the details, but instead remembering that where God sends us—GOD WILL TAKE CARE OF THE DETAILS & THE RESULTS.
- Let us remember our task is to OBEY & to GO!
- Let us not be people “of this world,” but Let us LIVE as “the Redeemed.”
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
(John 11: 25-26 NASB 2020)
Let us lead them to respond as Martha responded to Jesus.
“She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have come to believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, and He who comes into the world.”
(John 11: 27 NASB 2020)