"Do You Believe This?"

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”    (John 5:24-25 ESV) 

Jesus is having to defend His authority… His identity as the Son of God has been questioned by the keepers of the Law… Healing on the Sabbath was what they considered work, and that was prohibited. Jesus, by healing on the Sabbath was not breaking the Law, but fulfilling it. Those who did not believe in Him were trying to put Him to death because of it. By proclaiming He would raise the dead by the words of His mouth,  He is saying that He indeed was God. Only God can raise the did.. The Pharisees knew this, but refused to believe this man they were talking to was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were blind.. Spiritually dead.  By Jesus making this claim He is giving them (and us) a preview of coming attractions.. The claim He’s making would soon be fulfilled when His friend, Lazarus died. Jesus tells Lazarus’ sister at his tomb:
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
(John 11:25-26 ESV)
Naturally, Martha protests, and says Jesus is too late to heal, because Lazarus is already dead…
Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
                                                           (John 11:40-44 ESV)  
Is the prophecy of John 5 now complete? 
FAR FROM IT! . It was a preview of coming attractions. Lazarus was just one of many that will rise when they hear Jesus’ voice: Jesus is referring to a coming event; one that will transcend all other events and culminate in the bringing about of God’s eternal plan since He spoke the world into existence and breathed life into the first man. The people of God (those who believe in (better translated “INTO” Christ) will hear the sound of His voice, and though our bodies will be dead and in the grave we, like Lazarus, will hear the sound of our Master and obey His voice and come out of our graves: 
I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”   (1 Corinthians 15:50-55 ESV)

Just as Jesus reminded Martha; “I AM the resurrection and the life”. He reminds us as well.  But the MOST VITAL thing is the question He asks her… “Do you believe this?”..   He asks us as well…

DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?