John 11:23 “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. 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.”
“Martha” said unto the Lord, “even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee” (John 11:22); that is, even though “Lazarus” is “now” dead, You can do something about it. Then, “Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.”! “Martha” both knew and believed the Doctrine of the Resurrection; for, she “saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day”. The “last day” that she accurately referred to, is “the last day” of the earth. Peter refers to this “day” as the “day of the Lord” in which “the Lord will come” and after the “resurrection”, “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” and “the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” and no one knows when He is coming (II Peter 2:10-12). Paul tells us that, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (I Corinthians 15:19); that is, if there is no Resurrection, we would be in a devastatingly “miserable” state of mind; for, the miseries and tribulations of this present life would be all that we could look forward to; we would have no hope of anything better. Therefore, the Doctrine of the Resurrection is vital to our spiritual wellbeing. Furthermore, it is this blessed truth that Paul referred to when he wrote, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” (I Thessalonians 4:18). We can speak of a person’s life, telling the good things they did and the great things they accomplished; but the real “comfort” is in knowing that we and our loved ones “shall rise again”. The Lord is about to hone our “faith” based “hope” (Hebrews 11:1) in the Resurrection by vividly demonstrating His power and authority to raise the dead to life again.