“Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
– John 11:25–26
Do you believe this? Oh, I read these verses, and my heart just jumps, like “Yes. I believe this. I praise God for this.” I was preaching a funeral just a couple days ago. Just unexpected tragedy that struck a family and yet both of the people who died in that family had put their faith in Christ. They trusted in Christ as savior and lord of their lives. And so, I’m sitting in that funeral, and John 11:26 is true. “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” Verse 25, “Though they die, yet shall they live.” I praise God for that promise in that funeral. I praise God for that reality.
Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He has conquered sin and death. Will you take Him at His Word?
Thus Verse Provides Closure to the Loss of a Loved One
My dad, who unexpectedly died years ago, and now lives with the Lord, I praise God for the reality. And my wife’s mom, my mother-in-law, who just months before she unexpectedly died, she believed in Jesus. And when she died, she kept living. She’s living now. I praise you, oh God, for this reality, and I praise you for this reality and scores of men and women who have believed in you, who’ve trusted in you and though they died in this world today, they live.
I imagine, as I’m praying, there are all kinds of people praying with me who can think of people who they know are with you right now, alive in abundance because of belief in Jesus. We praise you for life beyond death, for eternal, everlasting life.
John 11:25–26 Provides an Opportunity to Share the Gospel with Others
And as we praise you, oh God, we pray that you would use us to spread this life. God, we pray that you would give us just an urgency that flows from eternity this week, knowing not one person is guaranteed tomorrow, knowing that tragedy could strike in an unexpected way at any moment. God, we pray that you would use us to speak about eternal life. We pray that you would give us opportunities to dialogue about the gospel, talk about your love and share the good news of your grace in Christ, and call people to turn from their sin and trust in you. God, please use our lives today to spread eternal life to others. God, please cause our lives today to count toward that end.
In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
