I Am the Resurrection
JOHN 11:25-26
25 Jesus said unto her (A woman in the bible represents the church), I am the resurrection (we have always thought of the resurrection as an event, but when in fact, it is a person), and the life: he that believeth in me (that means that you are in the word for your day believing it), though he were dead, yet shall he live:
26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
In other words - "Do you believe that I am the person of the resurrection – I AM the RESURRECTION?" That is a question that is relevant to us in this hour also – Believest thou this of the word of this hour also – this same question applies directly to us at this time also just before the great resurrection of this hour.
“I Am the Resurrection”
There was only one person that could make that statement truthfully, and that was Jesus Christ.
A little Easter Message…
We want to review some of the things that we have taught on over the years about this great Easter season.
***Life is the greatest thing that we all possess – everything of this world can be instantly lost to us when life itself is lost.
*Everything is struggling to live – everything is struggling for life, and we have all witnessed how that life can be very fragile and temporal in this fallen world of sin and sorrow. No matter how busy we are, or how important that we feel we are, we actually have no guarantee to our next breath.
*When people get old, if they could only be young again, what a great thing that would be. Or if we would just never age from when we were at our best stage of our maturity of youth, what a great thing that would be also.
*And if people could only get along without wars and murders and violence, if families could always get on together in perfect harmony, what a much better world it would be for all of us to live in – and just to think that all of that was how it was before the fall of man in Eden.
No hospitals, no police force, no military, no old people, no funerals, no sorrow, no pain, no sickness - all was a life of joy and of endless days.
*Death and sorrow and pain and violence were things that were introduced into the world by the disbelief of the word of God.
Death in any form was not even known before the fall of man in Eden – Adam and Eve only knew life – a life that they thought could never end.
*Adam had perfect control over the weather. All the animals were tame – he could call them over to him and pat them and they would all love his attention.
All the trees produced beautiful fruit all year round – there was no death anywhere. They never aged, they never got sick, or felt pain or hunger. They never had a disagreement – there was nothing to disagree about; all was perfection and life forever more – it was Eden where God and man could fellowship as father and son.
*Adam could not have ever imagined in his wildest dreams of what death was really like and what it meant, because he had never seen it before in any form. He could never have comprehended the cost and the penalty of sin and the price that the second Adam (Christ) would have to pay to eradicate death and sorrow from the world of what he had so easily allowed to enter in.
JOHN 11:20-29
20 Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming (This portion of scripture is showing us a mystery for this hour, because for 2000 years all believers in Christ have heard this message over and over that Jesus is coming), went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house (In other words - the message that “Jesus was coming” didn’t cause Mary to rise up out of her condition. These two women (Martha and Mary) are separately showing us two different aspects of the end time bride of this hour).
21 Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. (She had seen Jesus heal the sick in His first and second pull ministry of a healing campaign – but there was another higher level of His ministry that Jesus wanted to open up that mystery to them – the mystery that He was the resurrection)
22 But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.
23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.
24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. (She had heard him teach about the general resurrection at the end of the millennium)
25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
27 She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. (Her revelation of who He was had held firm amidst the test of the disappointment of the death of her brother Lazurus of what seemed like that He had let them down in their greatest time of need)
28 And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee. (Notice how that the message of the hour had changed from “the Master is coming” in verse 20, to “the Master is come” in verse 28 – it is important that we notice that change 8 verses later. Seven church ages of the message that “the Master is coming” – then the 8th day of the bride age the message changes to “The Master IS Come” and calleth for thee)
29 As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him.
When the message changed from “the Master is coming” to “the Master is come”, then we see that a spiritual resurrection took place within Mary’s heart that cause her rise up – this is what the message of the hour has done for us in this day.
And then what immediately follows that event of Mary being raised up by the message of that “Jesus is come”, is the physical raising of the corrupt body of sleeping Lazurus – first the shout of the message of the hour to cause the living saints to be raised up, and then the loud voice that raises up the sleeping saints of their corrupt bodies from the graves.
So we find in these scriptures of Saint John CH11 that we have just read, that Brother Branham said that this was the time that Martha really showed her colours of the faith that was really in her. This is why we cannot always tell of what faith people have in them until they are put under certain conditions. Look at what Jesus was declaring to Martha that He was.
JOHN 11:25-27
25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: (In other words – even if you die, there will be life again for you after that death because of me. And so we notice here by this statement of Jesus that the resurrection is not so much an event as it is a person, and so is the promised resurrection of this hour is also not so much as an event, but a person. We often think of the resurrection as an event of someone being raised up from the dead, but in fact the resurrection is when the person of the resurrection appears on the scene – and if the same sprite of that person has appeared to you in this hour, and dwells in you, then that spirit of Christ will raise up your body also. **It is the spirit of Christ that comes into you by the revelation of the word for your day, because the new birth is the revelation of the word for your day when it is made faith within your heart – this was the faith that Martha had within her for her day – that is what we are being shown here.)
26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
27 She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.
HEBREWS 4:14
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
Notice – a great high priest that is passed into the heavens.
**We know that a prophet represents God to the people, but a high priest represents the people to God. The high priest intercedes for the people while he is in the Holy place, but then there comes a time when that high priest appears again from that place of intercession and shows himself to the waiting people.
ACTS 3:19-21
19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; (The times of refreshing that are spoken of here is the message of this hour that has come to us in these last days in order to restore the faith of the children back to the faith of the fathers according to Malachi 4)
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. (The believers of the revealed word of that day had seen Jesus rejected by the religious world, then crucified, then resurrected, and then after His resurrection He began to appeared to them again in a non-public ministry of a third pull ministry that opened the word to them behind closed doors – the public stage show of all the healing campaigns was over.
And then after that He was taken up in a cloud and received into heaven for the purpose of being our great high priest to make intercession for us for seven church ages of 2000 years of church age history – but then after that (as we remember from the Old Testament laws), there is to be a second appearing of Christ as our great high priest.
HEBREWS 9:28
28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
*So Paul is speaking of this second appearing of Christ at the end of the gentile dispensation after his mediatorial work of 2000 years of seven church ages as our high priest has been completed. Notice - “when he shall appear the second time”.
*We have taught on these things many times before, but this is so important for us to understand, because as believers of this message, we have actually seen this great event of this second appearing of Christ in these last day in the ministry of the son of man and of the revealing of the secrets of the hearts and by the opening of the word.
***The same one that walked with them back there after His resurrection on that first Easter morning 2000 years ago is again walking with us now in every aspect apart from His corporal body.
REVELATION 19:7-9
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. (Notice – at the time of when the invisible union of the invisible marriage of the bride to Christ in this hour is taking place, there is also to be a change of garment. First a spiritual garment of righteousness, but then a change of flesh garment from a mortal body that is subject to death, to a resurrected and glorified body that is eternal and that can never die. So first a spiritual change, and then a physical change. When Mary hears the message of that hour declare that the “Master IS COME”, then she is raised up into a bride age dispensation for the purpose of a physical resurrection to follow)
9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called (remember, that not all will hear the call of His voice in this hour – if you have heard the voice of his call in this day, then that is an invitation that has been given to you personally) unto the marriage supper of the Lamb (Not the “marriage breakfast”, but the marriage supper - evening time meal, evening time food in due season). And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
**Four things take place here - first the marriage is come, then the wife makes herself ready, then the change of garment event takes place, and then there is the great marriage supper.
Shout, Voice, Trump, Supper – this is exactly the order of events that took place at the resurrection of Lazurus.
REVELATION 3:20
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice (His voice for this age is the truth of word of God revealed for this age through the sounding of the seventh angel’s message), and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.