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Authority Over Death
May 3, 2026
38:17
Cross Church Surprise
Summary
What does it mean to truly confront death? Are we like the desperate father who runs to Jesus in hope, or have we become desensitized to the reality of loss? Discover how our responses to death reflect our beliefs about life. Let's dive in together!
When Jesus touches the unclean, Jesus
doesn't become unclean. Instead, the
unclean becomes clean. You following
that? When he touches the dead, all of a
sudden, Jesus doesn't become dead.
Instead, the dead becomes alive. When
Jesus does something, power only passes
one way from Jesus. Our sin, our
grossness, our brokenness, the ways we
have failed, when we come to Jesus, we
cannot give our darkness to him. The
only thing he can do is give his grace,
his love, and his resurrection to us.
But hey, we are so excited that you're
here. As we said, we're continuing on in
our series uh through miracles. And if
you have a Bible, go ahead and grab it
and go to Matthew chapter 9. We're going
to be starting in verse 18. And here's
what I want to encourage you to do as
you flip there is grab your Bible, open
it up to Matthew or you can grab Bible
on your phone, but then also grab the
notes either that you walked in with or
you can scan the QR code in front of you
or behind me. We want you to take notes
and not fall asleep. All right? Not on
my jokes, but on the word of God and
what it's going to call us to do. And
here's what's been so exciting about
this series as we've gone through the
miracles of Christ is we have asked this
question over and over again is what
kind of man is this? They ask it in
Matthew chapter 8 27 is is who is this
Jesus guy? And as we've gone, we've seen
that he is the Jesus who has authority
over nature. How he is the God, the
Jesus who has authority over demons.
Last week, we saw how he has authority
over sin and he could tell a lame man to
get up and walk. He says, "Your sins are
forgiven now. Get up and walk." How
crazy is that? This guy's been paralyzed
his whole life. And Jesus is like,
"Walk." He's like, "That's why I'm here.
I can't walk." He's like, "No, do it."
and he does it. Well, today as Jesus
continues to confront stuff, confront
the storms, to confront the demons and
the dark forces, to confront our sin.
Today, we see something that Jesus
confronts that means something for all
of us is he confronts death itself. You
see, death is one of those obstacles
that no matter who we are, all of us
will have to face death. And here's the
crazy thing about death is death has an
undefeated record when it comes to
humans and regular people. Is every time
we come up against death, death wins and
we lose. And death is one of those
inevitable things that all of us will
face at some point and has already
impacted you in some way. Maybe if you
have been to that funeral of a
grandparent or family member and was
expected and that sickness kept dra
dragging on and and you knew it was
coming, but when that funeral comes, it
doesn't make it any easier. Or maybe
you've been to those funerals of an
unexpected spouse that has passed and
that pain just hits you and you don't
know how to move forward. Maybe you are
still grieving the loss of a child,
something that should never happen but
in this broken world does. Well, today
as we enter this scene in Matthew
chapter 9, we see how Jesus walks into
this scenario where death has already
made its mark, but how Jesus shows us
who he is and how we respond to it. And
here is our miraculous truth that we see
revealed throughout this passage is how
we respond to death reveals what we
believe about life. You see, in this
story, it's going to be filled with
different responses of those who run to
Christ, those who mock Christ, and those
who show up and show what authority is
that is greater in Christ. But for us,
as we dive into this passage, when we
will all face death, the question
becomes, how do we face it? How do we
respond to it? And what does that reveal
about how we view this life and how we
go day by day? As we dive into these
three responses to death, the first
thing that we are going to see
throughout this passage that Matthew
sets up for us, and I love this passage
that we've seen throughout all these
miracles is Matthew doesn't just tell
this story, but Mark and Luke tell it as
well. And they give us some more details
as this unravels. But what we're going
to see first, so the first response to
death in this passage is the response of
the desperate family.
Matthew chapter 9 starting in verse 18.
As we dive into the story, it says this.
As he Jesus was telling him these
things, suddenly one of the leaders came
and knelt down before him, saying, "My
daughter has just died.
Death has made its mark." But he says,
"But come and lay your hand on her and
she will live." You see Matthew as we
get into this story, he simply starts it
and he says this that one of the leaders
came out. Mark and Luke fill in the
details a little bit more and fill in
this picture is this leader's name was
Jarius and he was actually a ruler of
the synagogue in Capernaum. And then
this is important is Capernaum was
Jesus' home base which we already see
him perform a miracle of raising the
paralytic and bringing him up. But here
we also see a little more context to
this is why it was so important is this
leader of the synagogue was a big deal
that as a synagogue ruler is one of the
most respected positions in a Jewish
community. He ran the worship services.
He decided who taught. He sat in the
front row. You probably wish you could
do all that but sitting in the front
row, right? You wish you could come to
church and decide who teaches. You're
like, I don't know if I want that guy
today. Can you put like like, you know,
have a little roulette just throw people
in. He he carried the keys to the
building. I have keys to the church as
you'd probably imagine and thankfully
other people do too because when you
have keys to a church, if you're the
last one with keys that is there, that
means you have to make sure it's all
locked up before you go. Um that's why I
try to leave before the other people
with keys can leave so I don't have to
lock up and see it all. But this was a
big deal for all of him is Jarius had
respect in the community. Jarius was
somebody in the religious world of
Capernaum. He was put on a pedestal. He
had the title. He had the standing. He
had the house. He had the career. By
every external measure, his life was
working. He was successful.
And then his 12-year-old daughter got
sick.
And when she got sick, she ended up
dying. And all of a sudden, this guy who
looked like he had it all together, his
life just unraveled in a moment.
As I was reading this past couple weeks,
past month, and preparing for this
passage, as a dad of four, this one kind
of cut deep because there are times when
your kids are sick and you just feel
absolutely helpless. It's I remember
being when having babies and little
children in the house and when they're
coughing, you have like no idea. They're
like, "Are they going to die? Are they
well? Do I take them to the hospital
now?" Like, you just feel so helpless
cuz you can't do anything. I want to
just like bubble wrap our kids when they
were little, but then the more kids you
have, the more you actually just want to
expose them to danger. I'm like, take
off the bubble wrap. Go hurt yourself,
right? Uh go fall, feel like you need to
learn risk and like don't break your arm
cuz that'll cost me money, but do
everything short of a hospital visit.
So, you learn your lessons. Just
yesterday, my my daughter, we're out
playing outside cuz it's getting hot and
she's on a giant inflatable bounce
house, and she just screams bloody
murder. And this is my my oldest
daughter, my nine-year-old Ari. And I'm
like, we're like go over like what's I
was like, man, one of her brothers
kicked her in the face again. Like,
what's happening? And I go over there
and she's like, I got stung by a bee.
Now, I don't know if there there wasn't
any beasting, so she might have been
kind of But she got stung by something.
And literally, I thought she was going
to die based on her reaction. And the
reaction continued through the whole
night. She all of a sudden she couldn't
eat dinner cuz she just felt too. All of
a sudden, her entire body hurt. I'm
like, what hurts? Everything. I'm like,
how does it hurt? it just all hurts and
is in pain. And she literally in her bed
as I'm wrapping up after I gave her
benadryil, which is an antihistamine in
case she's allergic, but also makes her
go to sleep.
As she's laying in her bed,
she asked me, "Am I going to die?" I'm
like, "Oh, you said
I had to hold it together cuz inside I
did not say, "Ah, all right." But I was
like, "No, honey. You're going to be all
right." She did wake up fine by this way
this morning. All right. So, the be was
okay. But in those moments as a dad, as
a mom, when your kids get hurt, when
your kids get sick, when your kids do
things that are outside of your power,
you feel so helpless.
And we see this story that this leader
of Jarius, and here's what I think we
need to see in here. Nothing in his
title could save her. Nothing in his
position could bring his little
12-year-old daughter back from the edge.
The prayers he had prayed in the
synagogue were not answered how he
wanted them to be. The offerings he had
overseen did not change anything. The
respect that he had earned could not
turn the tide. None of it mattered when
his little girl stopped breathing.
So this man, this ruler, this religious
leader, this pillar of the community, he
ran out of his house and he fell at the
feet of a carpenter from Nazareth.
Now, we get a little unfair advantage
because we know Jesus is kind of this
big deal. But in this time, Jesus just
some wandering carpenter who's probably
a year into his ministry that hear these
rumblings. Some think he's a heretic.
Some think he's a crazy person. The only
thing they know is he's a carpenter by
trade. And what's huge in this and we
can't miss this in the grief of Jarius.
In his desperation, the ruler of the
synagogue knelt before Jesus. Matthew
words uses the word for kneeling of
meaning worship. He was worshiping a
carpenter desperate for help.
You look at what he says when he falls
at the feet of Jesus. He says, "My
daughter just died." But he says, "But
come and lay your hands on her and she
will live." I I love this because this
is theology that is shaped by
desperation. This is faith that is
forged in fire. He didn't come with a
formula. He didn't come with a bargain.
Instead, he came with a corpse in the
other room and a belief that Jesus could
do something about it. And catch these
two words. And if you are a highlighter,
if you're an underliner in your Bible, I
would underline or highlight these
words. And he says, "But come." He says,
"My daughter just died. I can't do
anything about it. I tried to prevent
it. I had the best doctors. I did
everything I could, but she has died."
But he says this, "But come."
That sentence should end at my daughter
has died, but come is the transition
that opens this sentence again. Two of
the most hopeful words in the gospel.
Death had just won. Death had the last
word. But this desperate dad says,
"Jesus, come." Because he believed the
word of Jesus was bigger than the word
of death.
You've walked in this morning and I
don't know what you're carrying. Maybe
you have grief. Maybe you have anxiety.
Maybe you have a weight that is on you
that you just can't feel. As much as you
work, it doesn't seem to go away. As
much as you keep striving, it doesn't
seem like things are better. I love the
thing as an adult, all we keep saying
is, "I'm really busy in this season, but
it's going to get better." And it
doesn't slow down, and it doesn't get
better. or it just keeps being busy. And
maybe you've walked in and there is a
wait on you. But maybe you need to pray
a prayer like this to God today is but
come God. I know all this is going on.
But come, God, I know my finances are a
wreck. But come, God, I know my kids are
making bad decisions. But come, God, I
know my job is unbearable. But come,
God, I know my marriage is in shambles,
but come, God, the world seems to be on
fire and doesn't seem to be getting
better, but God, come.
And he tells this to Jesus, "But come."
And look at how Jesus responds in verse
19. As he says, "But come," it says, "So
Jesus and his disciples,
they got up and they followed him."
We can't rush past this.
The synagogue ruler that came worshiping
Jesus and Jesus followed him home.
That's what happens when you bring your
desperation to Jesus. He moves towards
you. Desperation drives us to Jesus.
Often, if we're not careful, pride
pushes away. But here, this family chose
desperation. As they come to Jesus,
Jesus comes to them. This past week, I
was listening to a story of a actor,
former actor, I think, and he's now more
of a podcaster and YouTuber and guy that
just talks online that everyone thinks
they can do, but you probably can't. But
he he does stuff online. His name is
Russell Brand, and he's like British or
European. There is a little bit of a I
don't know if that was an ah or like uh
um but he he talks and he has a really
heavy accent so I only understand like
every fourth word he actually says. Um
but he lived a crazy life and his acting
and everything else but about 2 years
ago he started reading the Bible and
exploring a faith in Christ. And about a
year and a half ago or so he committed
his life to Christ and says he follows
Jesus. And in this interview he did last
year that I was listening to as he's
talking about his faith, they asked him,
they're like, "When did you come to
Jesus? Tell us about that time you came
to Jesus." And he kind of laughed for a
second. He's like, "I came to Jesus
after I came to everything else first."
He came to everything else in life. He
tried that. He tried this. And how often
is that our story? where we come to all
the things the world promises is we come
to try to see if it will bring us
satisfaction, if it will bring us uh
purpose, if it will fill our hearts. We
come to money and to influence and to
power. We come to sex and to drugs and
addictions and the list can go on and on
and on and on. And we come to those
things often before we come to Jesus.
And in our desperation, we come to him.
But the beauty is when we come to him,
even in our desperation, he comes to us.
And here's what's beautiful in this
story is the story does not end there.
And it's not the only response is we see
this desperate family. But then we get a
little hard turn here. And we see an
improper response to death. And the
second response we see is the
desensitized crowd. If you continue on,
we're going to skip down to verse 23
because in verses 20 through 22, we
actually get an interrupting story. And
we're going to look at that next week as
we continue on. But skip down to verse
23, and I love it. It says here, it
says, "When Jesus came to the leader's
house, he saw the flute players in a
crowd lamenting loudly." Now, let's give
a little context here cuz they're like,
"Why are there flute players and people
yelling and like what's happening here?"
But but let me set the scene for what a
first century household looked like.
this when someone's dying and passing
away. In in Jewish culture, death
required a very public ceremony and
there was an entire industry that was
built around it. There was professional
mourers and there was paid grievers. You
would pay people to help grieve and
you'd hire flute players to set a somber
tone. Uh writings from that time from
rabbis, uh they tell us that even the
poorest family in Israel was expected to
have at minimum two flute players. All
right. Playing a little flute, little
like, you know, going over there. And I
don't think they're made of metal.
They're probably made of bone. But
anyway, uh, so they're like playing the
flute and then get this, and at least
one whailing woman at the funeral. Yeah,
I heard a gasp there. Whailing woman. I
just picture in my mind a woman
screaming while looking very angry. And
maybe some of you know some whailing
women in your life. I don't at all and
none of you for sure. And I was hoping
you would laugh at something, but you're
just staring at me like you're all
angry.
I'll describe whailing women in more
detail on Mother's Day next week if you
want to have some information about it.
But it was literally a job that someone
paid for is they would hire a woman to
come to a funeral to whail and make
everyone around him know that this place
is depressed cuz someone has died here.
And and it gets better because that was
for a poor family. You need at least one
whailing woman and two flute players. If
you were a little bit wealthier, they
hired dozens more. They would have like
a crowd around them in their community.
Their job was to whail loudly, was to
tear their clothes, was to make everyone
in the neighborhood feel the weight of
their grief and be depressed with them.
And Jarius was a pretty big deal. Jarius
was a synagogue ruler and leader. His
house would have been packed with
professionals mourning the death of his
daughter. But the problem is it was a
performance. It was an industry. It was
grief as a service offered to you. Now
in our day, we don't hire flute players.
We don't have to become so desensitized
to death that we instead hire ourselves
out to help people mourn. But we do do
some other things that I think make our
heart a little harder to death. In our
day, we scroll. In our day, we share
posts and say, "Man, I'm so sorry for
that loss. We share posts of celebrities
who have died that we've never met and
have no impact on our lives." And we're
like, "I'm so so sad." Even though we
don't actually care. We turn tragedy
into content. We binge watch true crime
shows and podcasts. We have become
masters at processing death from a safe,
comfortable, and emotionally manageable
distance.
And in that time, they hired these
professionals to make sure the community
knew people are mourning, but I could I
could stay away from a little bit and I
could manage this at a safe distance
where I'm not having to get messy in the
weeds of how this death affects me. But
here's what's awesome. As Jesus walks
into that house, he looks at the crowd
and look at this in verse 24. I love
what he says as he sees this whailing
women, as he sees these flute players,
as he sees all these fakers. And the
first thing he says is, "Leave.
Get out." Jesus is no nonsense. Like he
walks into a room and he commands it. He
walks in. He's like, "You're annoying
me. Leave."
And why does he say that? He says,
"Because the girl is not dead, but
asleep." And listen to what Matthew
gives us commentary on. And they laughed
at him. You catch that? The people who
had been wailing 3 seconds ago are now
laughing 3 seconds later.
I don't know if your kids are like me,
but my kids are professional fake
criers. All right? Uh like when she got
stung by a bee and was screaming like
death was happening. I don't know if
it's serious or it's not serious cuz
every time they cry, I'm like, "Are you
going to be okay?" And here's how I kind
of try to break it is I just ask them
questions to change the subject and see
how they respond. So, as she's on her
deathbed, Arya from her beasting and
everything's so hard. I'm like, "Um I
was like, "So, what did you do during
soccer today? You didn't have a game.
Did you play with your friends?" "Yeah,
I played with all my friends." I was
like, "Oh, who'd you play with?" But
then she starts naming her friends. I'm
like, "Oh, that's so cool." I was like,
"Was it hot outside?" She's like, "I
wasn't that hot." And I'm like, "I
thought you were dying, right?" The
tears switched. They dried up. And it
was like a normal conversation. And I'm
like, "Are you I thought" And I even
said I was like, "Are you still hurt?"
She's like, "Oh, yeah. So bad." I was
like, "All right, here it goes back."
And like Jesus walks in and he says,
"Leave." He says, "She's not dead." And
then they immediately break character.
And all of a sudden, they're start
laughing. And what it shows is how
shallow their grief were that her tears
could be turned off and on like a
faucet. One minute they were sobbing at
a dead girl, the next minute they are
mocking the man who says that he can do
something and he can raise her from the
dead. And I want you to see what this
reveals about them is they had become so
professionalized in the business of
death. They had be so so desensitized to
death itself that they that it didn't
affect them anymore. They could wail on
demand. They could laugh on Q and but
through all this they miss the son of
God who walked in the door to change the
life of everyone there. And here's the
problem. This is what a desensitized
world does. It might show up at every
death, but it does not feel death. And
here's the scariest part for us today is
when we become desensitized to death, we
eventually become desensitized to life.
Because what you believe about one
defines what you believe about the
other. And when death becomes
entertainment, life becomes cheap. When
funerals become performances, weddings
become productions, when mourning is
just a paycheck, joy is just a product.
And you see this happens in our world
today in the culture that we have
created where we are uniquely
desensitized to death like never before.
You see, we have and created this in a
lot of different venues. One of them is
from video games. I grew up playing Call
of Duty and playing games where you were
supposed to kill your other teammate or
kill the people on the other team and
that's what you did is you killed
things, right? Is we play games where
death is just like whatever. It's like
fake. Okay, we put it off. And then we
get things that are a little more
realistic looking but still fake. We
have movies and TV shows. I just watched
Tulsa King yesterday and Sylvester Sloan
is 75 but still killing a lot of people.
And we watch those and we're like, "Eh,
it's fake. It doesn't mean anything."
And then we scroll our phone and we see
AI videos that look real and a guy jumps
off a bridge. You're like, "Is that
real?" And then he hits the ground.
You're like, I really hope that wasn't
real, but it looked really real. But
then it even comes to the point where
now right on our phones, we see death
and wars and in tragedies happen right
in front of our face. They estimate that
teenage the American teenager has
watched thousands of people die on their
screen before them. And you see, we have
become as a culture desensitized to this
thing that all of us face. This thing
that none of us can defeat. this thing
that is coming for us all and this thing
that should shake us to our core.
But it's just like it's just another
Monday. I've seen that before.
And you see the crowd in that house,
they didn't need Jesus to do a miracle
because a miracle would have been
inconvenient for them. A miracle would
have disrupted their business. They were
walking out being like, "Man, I didn't
get paid for this cuz the girl came back
alive. She was supposed to stay dead, so
I got the check." But he said, "No, I'm
not going to pay for it until her next
funeral." Right? He's like they were mad
and inconvenienced because they had
become so desensitized to it that they
couldn't even recognize the God that
defeated that death.
And you see church, I think this is a
warning for every one of us is you can
be in the house of the ruler surrounded
by real tragedy and still miss the
presence of Jesus
because you become too professional at
death to be open to a resurrection.
But thank God there was a third response
in that house. We see the desperate
family. We see the desensitized crowd.
But then we see the dynamic savior. As
the story keeps going and winds down in
verse 25, it says, "After the crowd had
been put outside,
he went in. He took her by the hand and
the girl got up."
Matthew doesn't like build into this.
He's like, "Jesus went inside. He took
her by the hand." And she's like, "Get
up."
like he doesn't build the drama. And we
read that and you're like, whoa. We're
like, she's wait, she's alive. I thought
she was dead. She's but she's alive now.
And it didn't even like Jesus didn't
even do anything drastic or crazy. But I
think there's three things we need to
see from this as Matthew kind of leads
the end of the story. The first is I
don't want you to miss at the beginning
of the verse. It said the crowd had been
put outside. It is Jesus put the crowd
outside. Mark's gospel actually gets a
little more graphic in this is it says
he literally threw them out of the
house. We see righteous angry Jesus
later on in his ministry where he flips
tables in the temple. But this is
another place where we probably get a
little righteous anger of Jesus. He
literally threw them out. He probably I
I wonder how strong he was a carpenter
and he's God. So maybe if he has God
strength, he just brings all like
Superman. I hope he just grabbed one of
them and like threw him outside. He's
like, "Get out of my way, fools. Like
you're laughing. You're mocking me. Get
out." And he literally throws the crowd
outside. And and here's the thing is
sometimes that Jesus he he was going he
did this because he was not going to
perform a resurrection surrounded by
mockers and professional cynics. So he
got them out of there.
>> And and here's what this means for us is
sometimes I think Jesus wants to clear
some things out of our life before he
does the thing that we can't explain
anyone else. Sometimes the voice is
telling you just like the voice is
telling Jarius that she's dead. Nothing
else can be done. It's over. Give up.
those voices have to be put out and we
need to let Jesus in to do his work. So
he he removes the crowd from the room.
But the second thing we see in this
verse is he took her by the hand.
This is a big deal cuz for a first
century Jew touching a dead body meant
immediately he would be ceremonially
unclean. Actually numbers chapter 19
says that anyone who touched a dead body
would have to isolate themselves and
could not come into the temple or the
synagogue for 7 days. They were unclean.
But watch what happens when Jesus walks
in. When Jesus touches the unclean, he
here's what's important is Jesus doesn't
become unclean. Instead, the unclean
becomes clean. You following that?
>> It's amazing in here is when he touches
the dead, all of a sudden Jesus doesn't
become dead. Instead, the dead becomes
alive. When Jesus does something, power
only passes one way from Jesus. that our
sin, our grossness, our brokenness, the
ways we have failed, when we come to
Jesus, we cannot give our darkness to
him. The only thing he can do is give
his grace, his love, and his
resurrection to us. And here when he
touches it, that power flows one way.
What was unclean all of a sudden becomes
clean. And then the third thing we see
is the girl got up.
As we said, Matthew is so restrained
here. He gives one sentence, no drama,
no elaborate description, just he took
her by the hand and she got up.
Mark gives us a little more detail, a
little more drama. He he says the words
that Jesus said in the words, the phrase
that Jesus actually said at this time is
said in the Aramaic, he says tala kum,
which means little girl, I say to you,
get up. And those words in Aramaic, it's
two words, tala kum. And that's all it
took to bring this girl to life. And
here is what's important. This is where
we need to do a little Old Testament
history that makes this scene so much
greater. In the Old Testament, there's a
prophet Elijah. And Elijah once raised a
boy from the dead in First Kings 17. But
in order to raise him from the dead, he
had to stretch himself over the body
three times and pray out loud, "Oh Lord,
my God, let this boy's life come back to
him." Elisha, not Elijah. Elisha also
raised a boy from the dead in 2 Kings 4.
And he thought Elijah had it hard
throwing his body and wailing and
yelling to God to get this. Elisha was
more complicated. He had to walk back
and forth in the room. He had to climb
on the body. He had to put his mouth on
the boy's mouth almost like performing
CPR. He had to stretch over him. He had
to get down. He had to pace again, then
climb back on. If I was Elisha, I'd be
like, "Can you put those details written
out?" I'm like, if I follow a recipe, I
need to follow it line by line. God,
that's pretty complicated. Can you can
you pace this out for me? But when he
did that, all of a sudden, the boy
sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
And here's the thing. Resurrections have
happened in the Bible before in the Old
Testament, but they're crazy. They're
elaborate. There there's all this stuff
to it. Elijah prayed for life. Elisha
begged for life. Jesus, on the other
hand, commanded life.
>> Because here's the deal. Because he is
the life. And what's so important is
this is not just another resurrection
story that's tucked in the middle of
Matthew. This is Jesus writing his own
signature, calling his shot on the
gospel because you fast forward about 2
years from this moment and Jesus will be
on a cross. He will bleed out. His heart
will stop. They will take him down from
the wood. They will wrap him in linen
cloths. They will place him in a
borrowed tomb. And they will roll a
massive stone across the entrance. But 3
days later, there was no prophet that
stood at the tomb. That was an amen.
There was no disciple that was stretched
out over his body. There was nobody that
prayed him back. There was nobody that
chanted him back. Nobody begged him
back. Instead, Jesus simply got up and
walked out of that tomb. Because Jesus
doesn't have authority, doesn't just
have authority over death. He is the
Lord over death that commands death that
defeats death. And that life comes
through him alone.
You see every previous resurrection in
scripture,
the widow's son in first king, the
Schumanites boy in second king, Lazarus,
and even this little 12year-old girl in
Jarius's house,
every one of them eventually would die
again.
Their resurrections were temporary.
But when Jesus walked out of that tomb
on Easter morning,
he didn't walk out to go die again.
Instead, scripture tells us he walked
out as the first fruits of a
resurrection that guarantees us as the
first fruits of a resurrection that
never ends. Because Jesus raised from
the grave, we can have a resurrection
where we raised from the grave for all
of eternity.
And look at verse 26.
as all this story unfolds, as all this,
they're thinking of the Old Testament,
of how he's raised from the grave. But
then this is also thinking forward to
what ultimately will happen,
foreshadowing it in verse 26. I love
this. It says, "The news of this spread
throughout that whole area."
Think about how this verse actually
played out. It's funny when you look in
Mark and Luke. Jesus said, "Don't tell
anyone about this." and they just told
everyone about it. Now we're in the flip
side is we tell everyone go tell
everyone about Jesus and we don't tell
anyone about Jesus. All right, we need a
little course correct there but that's a
different sermon.
But in here this miraculous happens and
all of a sudden the news of this started
to spread.
That story got told. That story got
passed on. And it traveled from
household to household across Galilee
and beyond. And throughout that region
and throughout history 2,000 years ago,
we're still telling it in surprise
Arizona.
But here's what I want you to wrestle
with. As everyone in that house spread a
story that day, too.
The desperate family spread news of joy
and the news of a savior that they'd
been inside the tomb and they had come
out celebrating that their lives their
little girl that what they thought was
hopeless hope had come. The desensitized
crowd spread news of a disruption
of you won't believe what this Jesus guy
did. He ruined our day. He ruined our
paycheck. He ruined our life. We had
this whole gig set up and he screwed it
up for us.
And today you are spreading something
about death too.
Every conversation at a funeral, every
Facebook post when a friend loses a
parent, every text you send to the
family in the hospital, every word you
speak to your own kids about what
happens when we die. We spread news a
story about what we believe about death.
And this is where we need to be honest
with oursel
where we need to reflect
where we need to dig deep and convict
ourselves
is which response to death are you
spreading?
Which response are you spreading that we
see in this story and that we see today?
Because you are spreading something.
Are you spreading desperation
that doesn't lead to Jesus?
Jarius had no hope
and he could have very well ran to every
other way that the people in his day
told him to run, but he chose to run to
Jesus.
But sometimes in our desperation,
we just want to give up.
We just want to say there is no hope.
What is the point of even going on?
Are you spreading
a news that is desensitized in our world
today
that we just shrug our shoulders when
death happens? That we just shrug our
shoulders when hard things happen? Be
like, "That's just the way it is. We
live in a broken, messed up world." Eh,
or are you spreading
the dynamic savior,
the news that says death doesn't get the
final word because Jesus does.
Here's the deal. If you are a believer
in the room this morning or watching
online,
this story should ground you
that in the middle of whatever grief and
hardship that you are going through,
that you are carrying around with you,
that the Jesus
who took a 12year-old by the hand and
raised her from death is the name Jesus
that stands with us today.
>> He's with us at every hospital bed,
every graveside, every funeral home. The
power of that God is with us.
Death does not get the last word in your
family.
Death does not get the last word over
your faith.
Death does not get the final word
because Jesus does.
Maybe he's telling you to get up.
Keep going. Keep pressing. Keep
trusting. I've got this.
And here's the challenge.
Here's where this gets real. Here's how
this impacts us as believers and what
this calls us to do that is so different
than the world. When we read this
passage, you know what it tells me when
we say, "What are we spreading about
death?"
It convicts me and it convicts you to
say what you need to stop spreading.
Church, we need to stop spreading fear.
We need to stop living and posting
online like we are an atheist that has
no hope.
We need to stop yelling about how awful
the economy is or how good the economy
is or how that is what depends our mood
in life.
We need to stop building doomsday
bunkers. If zombies come, we're all dead
anyway. But we get to spend eternity in
heaven.
We need to stop ranting online about how
the liberals or the conservatives or
anyone you disagree with is ruining the
world. We're all ruining cuz we're all
broken.
We need to stop
acting like our world is hopeless
because we know one who has hope. WE
NEED TO STOP ACTING LIKE our lives are a
mess cuz gas is over $4. What are you
going to do? YOU GOING TO WALK
EVERYWHERE? WE'RE IN PHOENIX, PEOPLE.
But we know, WE TRUST, we love, we
follow, WE PURSUE THE JESUS CHRIST WHO
HAS AUTHORITY OVER DEATH AND HE IS OURS.
CHURCH, stop grieving
like those who have no hope.
Stop mourning like the professionals in
this passage that are paid to spread
fear in discourse.
And start spreading the hope of the
dynamic savior, Jesus Christ, who
changes everything.
And maybe you're here today
and you don't trust that Jesus yet.
And I'm already over my time, so I'm not
going to give a long altar call. But I
am going to challenge and convict you
that stop coming to the things of this
world
that will never fill you, that will
never give you hope,
the money, the power, the influence, the
lust, the list can go on and on and on.
We pursue it. We come to it.
But we need to be like Jarius, but we
need to come to Christ.
that even though I'm surrounded by
death, surrounded by hardships,
surrounded by problems that I cannot
conquer,
Jesus has done it.
And he wants you to live in light of
that truth.
He wants to declare
you to declare that he is Lord
and that your death will not be the
final word, but that you will spend
eternity with him.
In just a moment, we're going to witness
that as people declare in an act of
baptism that death does not have the
final word, but Jesus does. And we get
to live spreading that response to the
world around us.
Part of Series
Miracles of Jesus
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Miracles of Jesus
Authority Over Death
May 5, 2026
38 minutes