The resurrection of the dead isn't just an event, it's a person

SCRIPTURE: John 11:25-26  Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.  Do you believe this?"

OBSERVATION: Jesus had heard a few days ago that His friend Lazarus was ill.  Instead of running over to the village of Bethany, he stayed (probably near the Jordan where John the baptist had baptized Him) right where he was.  When He left to go see Lazarus, he had already been dead and buried in a tomb for 4 days.  Martha had faith to believe that he would one day rise again on the resurrection of the last day, but Jesus made known to her that He Himself is the resurrection and the life.

Because Jesus is God, there is hope. Celebrate!

SCRITPURE: John 10:30 I and the Father are one.

OBSERVATION:  During the Feast of Dedication (celebration of the last deliverance of God to the Israelites after Antiochus Epiphanes had desecrated the temple) in Jerusalem Jesus was walking in Solomon's Colonnade (a roofed structure).  The Jews asked Him very plainly and directly to confess that He was the Messiah so that they could bring a charge against Him.  Jesus did more than that!  He declared the works that He did were in the Father's name, that He offered eternal life and was the only way of salvation and that He and the Father are one.

APPLICATION:  Jesus made it clear to us that salvation only comes through Him in the authority given to Him by the Father.  He also states that He is God.  There is no higher authority that God and who but God could grant eternal salvation? 

There is always hope for the wayward soul

SCRIPTURE:  2 Chronicles 33: 12-13  In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.  And when he prayed to him, the LORD was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom.  Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.

OBSERVATION: Manasseh became king of Judah after his father Hezekiah passed on.  Although Hezekiah made a few mistakes, he did what was “right in the eyes of the LORD.”

Manasseh being king at the young age of 12 did what was “evil in the eyes of the LORD.”  He placed carved images in God’s temple, worshiped the stars in the sky, practiced sorcery, led an entire nation into sin..he even sacrificed his own sons by burning them alive in worship to foreign gods!  He provoked the LORD to anger and He brought judgment to Manasseh by allowing him to be captured by the commanders of Assyria and led out of the city with legs bound and a hook through his nose.  However he humbled himself “greatly” before the LORD and He restored him to Judah.

APPLICATION: The mercy and forgiveness of God is unfathomable!  This king had nearly destroyed not only the land, but the people of an entire nation.  He even killed his own sons.  Pretty much anything you could do to go against God, Manasseh was involved in.  But he was stripped bare.  Everything fell apart.  He lost it all in a moment.  At that point in my own mind I might even say to myself surely he deserves to die.  This is judgment by God and he’s going to pay for what he did.  There’s no hope for him.  Every said those words?  Too far gone..