Of all of the miracles that we’ve seen through out the Old Testament; the Flood of Noah, the plagues of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea for Moses, The Sun standing still for Joshua… and all of the miracles we’ve seen Jesus perform in the New Testament, none compare to the power to bring someone who has died back to life. In Luke 7:11-17 we see Jesus is walking into a town as a funeral procession is walking out to bury a dead man. Jesus sees the dead man’s mother and He knows that she is a widow and that the dead man is her only son and he has compassion on her. He casually walks up to the dead man as he is being carried in his coffin by the pallbearers and says to him “arise.” And the man comes back to life. Right there in his coffin. There is nothing more precious to us than life, and here Jesus just casually, without pomp or circumstance, simply tells the dead man to arise and he comes back to life… like no big deal. That’s the power of Christ!

Again, in Mark 5:21-24, and 35-43 we see the story of a ruler of the synagogue named Jairus; most likely a Pharisee in high standing like Nicodemus, who comes begging Jesus to heal his little girl. I can tell you with all certainty, if Vera was at the point of death there is nothing I wouldn’t do to see her healed. Even if I was a Pharisee who hated Jesus, I would run to him and beg him to heal her! This is desperation! Unfortunately, Jesus is too late and when he arrives she is already dead. That’s no problem, because to Jesus death is just like sleep. He goes to the little girl and says, “arise.”

Do you get it? Jesus has power so great that he is able to bring those who are dead back to life. He literally has power over life and death. I don’t know if you completely understood what I just said to you. One day we are all going to die. One day our mortal bodies will finally give out. Our hearts will fail, our minds will fail, we will get cancer or some other disease and we will breathe our final breaths. And there are only two things you can do with that information. You can either accept it or you can fight it!

I love the famous poem from Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.” It’s all about the fact that we as humans do not accept death. The opening line says this, “do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” We should rave and rage at death! And most of us do. However, we don’t know how to rave and rage at death very well, because, well, we are still dying. Here’s the most important question you could possibly ever ask, “how can I defeat death?” The answer is clear! Find the one who has power over life and death. Find the one who can call you to arise from death. There is only one. His name is Jesus. The only way to escape death is to obey the voice of Jesus calling you to arise