Good day dear friends.
Yesterday we concluded our study of Encounters with Jesus in The Gospel of John with a message entitled, "A Message For The Living." It focused on Jesus' most powerful "I Am" statement he shared with Martha on the road to Bethany four days after her brother Lazarus' death: "I am the resurrection and the life..." His ministry with Martha and Mary was more centered on the living and thus it is with us and our encounters with death and dying. Jesus came to prepare us and to comfort us whenever we come face to face with death.
Here is today's study guide:
Monday: Re-read the passage from Sunday (John 11). Now jump a couple of chapters to John 14. Here Jesus is preparing His disciples for His death. What are the promises the Lord makes to them about death and dying? How do they speak to you. Do you believe these? Or, are you afraid? What more could God do to comfort and strengthen you?
I'll let you read Chapter 11 from your own Bible. In John chapter 14 we find these words (selected verses):
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe F116 in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going." 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" 6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me....18 "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?" 23 Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. 25 "I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
John 11 and 14 are for me standard funeral texts. John 11 with Jesus' powerful declaration about Who He is and what He promises, and John 14 for the preparation He has to make with His disciples. As close as they were to Jesus and as much as they had seen while serving with Him, they were not prepared for the death of Jesus. Verse one of that chapter has Jesus' comforting and powerful words to them: As always, "don't be afraid" but this time in the way He phrased it, "Let not your hearts be troubled." It goes deep into the experience He himself had felt at Lazarus' grave. Verse 33 of that chapter says "When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved." This leads to verse 36 that the old King James versions says, "Jesus wept." Jesus was cautioning his disciples to be ready for His death but in a way that would not paralyze them from doing the work that still lay ahead for them. His words include a glimpse of what lies in Heaven. Look at verse 2 of chapter 14, Jesus mentions the room there is in His "Father's house." And He also mentions the preparation that is going on even now to make room for those who die in the Lord.
The key words are these: How do they speak to you? Can you find the comfort Jesus intended for us in those words? Imagine yourself there by Jesus' side after He has spoken about His own death. Imagine yourself going back just a few days to the graveside "service" Jesus held at Lazarus' tomb and how you witnessed the power of God through Jesus over death! Would not have stayed with you?
It is a natural thing to fear the unknown and that's probably the scariest thing for many people about death. But for us the Christian we should not fear death. It is just a continuation of our journey with the Lord.
PRAYER: Dear God of neverending life, speak to our hearts today. Speak loudly and clearly especially to those who are afraid. Speaking lovingly and gently to those who still mourn the passing of a loved one. May the message of hope brought by Jesus be ours today and always. We pray in our Savior's name. Amen.
Have a great and blessed day!
e.v.
