22 Feb

2/24/19    John 11:1-45       “Lazarus, Come Out!”

In today’s reading we have another of John’s long stories about Jesus.  Actually, this is the 7^th of the 7 signs or miracles that John tells about in his Gospel.  It was John’s style to tell of a sign or miracle like the wedding at Cana or feeding the 5000 and then go on to talk about events that were happening that would be related to that sign.  John’s gospel is more theology than history as he tells the story of Jesus Christ.  Today’s lesson is the story of Lazarus, how he died and how he was raised again.  As we look at this try to see where you have died and where you can be raised again.

Several years ago, Sports Illustrated ran an article telling of the 10 greatest comebacks of all time and I’m sure there’s been some since.  Here are a few of them.  In 1974, seven years after being stripped of his title, Muhammad Ali came back and beat George Forman for the heavy weight boxing title of the world.  In 1994 John Travolta came back from a dead movie career and made a film called Pulp Fiction and jump starts his career, even though it was a terrible film.  In 1995, Michael Jordan quits baseball and makes a successful reentry into the NBA to play basketball again.  In the fifties, both Japan and Germany rose from the ruins they caused in WWII to become industrial powers.  And in 33 AD, Jesus Christ defies the critics and stuns everyone as He rises from the dead.  And He has been specializing in miracles ever since.

Just right off hand I would say that Lazarus made quite a comeback in today’s reading.  And that is just what Jesus is all about.  We are all born into sin and we need to find a way to come back to Him.  This is all made possible by His resurrection.  Today I would like to tell you of what Brian Atwood calls ‘the ways that Jesus can be your best friend.’

The first way is that Jesus came to perfect us and not pamper us.  Remember, I didn’t say that the ways to being a friend are easy but they are His way and His way is always the best way!  Just pretend for a moment that there is a line across you room.  On one side are all the people who don’t know Jesus as their personal Savior and on the other side are all the people who do.  The line represents the point where you go from unbelieving to believing.  It’s when you come to know Christ.  According to John Wesley, after we cross that line we work our way to the far wall or to perfect grace. That is what Jesus wants.  He wants everyone over there at perfection.  Most of us will only see glimpses of this in our lifetime but we will be there in heaven.  But the process is hard.

Jesus could have come today and prevented Lazarus from getting sick.  He could have come and healed him after he had gotten sick.  But that is not the way of Jesus today.  Instead he waits until four days have passed since Lazarus died.  How many times have you said, “Lord, how can you let bad things happen to your faithful servant?”  We have all been there.  I know this to be personally true; it is really hard to remember that it is not about us in emotional situations or any other situations.  It is not about me.  It is about God and God only.  Jesus is showing his audience and us that there is definitely life after death.  He is showing us the resurrection.  This is a preview of what is to come for Jesus.  These types of lessons are hard on us but they also grow us.

Jesus is also showing us that He is laying his life on the line for us.  Jesus had some serious threats from the Jewish leaders.  As we read in verse 8, they want to kill Jesus.  His disciples want him to stay away from Jerusalem.  But Jesus will have none of that.  He goes to the tomb of Lazarus which is just outside of Jerusalem.  He is risking his life to make a point and for what?  A dead man!

Jesus has done the same for you and me.  He not only risked his life for us but He gave up his life for us.  When they hung Him on the cross, He hung there for you.  Your name was on his mind as He died.  He died as He took on all the sin of the world.  Then He rose again because He cannot be beaten.  Jesus has given his all for us.

Jesus also initiates relationships with us.  It would have been very easy for him to just keep on going.  After all, Lazarus has been dead for four days.  There really isn’t much anyone can do for him.  But Jesus goes back.  He will not leave Lazarus behind.

And this is good news for you.  I have mentioned before the prevenient grace that John Wesley talks about.  This is the grace that is all around us.  This is the presence of God everywhere.  In other words, this is the hand of God reaching out to every person, every sinner of the world.  He will not leave us behind without offering His friendship.

So even if you think that you are unworthy or think that your sins are too bad for God, He will not give up on you.  And He won’t give up on that black sheep in your family.  He won’t give up on any of the different types of social outcasts that we have all around us.  He won’t give up.  He will keep trying.  So let us not give up either.  Let’s keep praying for people.  Let’s keep helping people.  Let’s keep modeling the behavior of Jesus Christ so that others may find his love as he continually offers it.

Jesus also promises us help to get through difficult times.  I’m thinking more in terms of Mary and Martha today although Lazarus was surely in a difficult time.  But these women had just lost their brother.  We don’t know a lot about this family but they seemed to be together.  The men in those days owned the property and maybe Lazarus was the head of the household.  They might have lost their livelihood when he died.  We don’t know.  But we do know that they were feeling a tremendous loss.  Martha tells us in verse 25 that she knows that Lazarus will be resurrected, but that really doesn’t help her with her loss right now.  Jesus tells her to believe in Him.

I think that this is one of the hardest things for us to do.  It is hard for us to believe.  Many times we just pay lip service to believing in Jesus Christ and all that He has done for us.  It is not enough for us to just believe that there is a God.  We have to take it to the next step and have a personal relationship with Him.

Billy Graham tells it so well when he said:  “Many people argue, “I do believe in Christ. I believe in the Church, and I believe in the Bible. Isn’t that enough? No! You must RECEIVE Christ. I may go to the airport. I have a reservation. I have a ticket in my pocket. The plane is one the ramp. It is a big, powerful jet. I am certain that it will take me to my destination. They call the flight three times. I neglect to get on board. They close the door. The plane taxis down the runway and takes off. I am not on the plane. Why? I “believed” in the plane, but I neglected to get on board. That’s just it! You believe in God, Christ, the Bible, and the Church – but you have neglected to actually have a personal relationship with Him. Your belief has been an impersonal, speculative thing, and you have not entrusted yourself to Him.”  Don’t forget to get on the plane.

And what do you get for getting on the plane?  You can have eternal life with Jesus.  Once again we see Jesus telling Martha that He is the way.  He is the resurrection and the life.  There is no way you can get this without Jesus.

I really get a good laugh at all the ways we have to stay younger and live longer.  There are all kinds of products out there that guarantee a longer life while you look younger.  They even tell us that scientific research is on the edge of boosting our life expectancy to something like 150 years.  We are living in an age that the human race has never seen before.  These are exciting times as we discover wondrous ways to extend our lives here.

But look what Jesus offers.  He is extending to Mary, Martha, Lazarus and us the chance to live on in eternity with Him.  It doesn’t matter how long we live on earth, we will die.  That is a fact!  And when we finally do die, Jesus is there to live on with us in eternity.  I think that this is even more exciting than trying to live here for 150 years.  Life with Jesus is hundreds of times better than life without Him.  Trust me on this one because I know.

Another thing we get with Jesus is His love.  Jesus met Mary and she takes Him to the tomb of Lazarus.  He sees all the people who are crying and He weeps.  Verse 35, is the shortest verse in the Bible.  Jesus wept.  There are many interpretations of this but I am going to go with the obvious one today.  The Greek word for love used in this section is the kind of brotherly love we have for one another.  This is the love that Jesus has for Lazarus.

Jesus weeps because his friend is dead.  Jesus weeps because everyone is so sad.  Jesus weeps because He has spent all this time here and they still don’t get it.  Jesus weeps for us the same way today.  We have already talked about some of the reasons why He weeps for us.  But the most important reason is that He loves you and He cares for you.  And we are so self-destructive.

I doubt if there is anybody listening today that doesn’t like to hear someone say ‘I love you.”  I love it when Sharon tells me this.  I love it when the girls tell me this.  I love it when friends tell me this.  It is something that we like.  So one of the things I want you to do this week is to tell that someone special that you love them.  It may be a mom, dad, brother, sister, friend, or just someone you respect.  But tell them in a way that reflects the love that Jesus has for you.

Jesus tells of his love for us many places in the Bible.  I really cannot think of a place or story in the Bible that doesn’t tell of the love that God has for his people.  God would like to restore the relationship He had with Adam and Eve in the garden.  And He wants to restore it through you.  He wants a relationship with you because He loves you.

And this brings us to the last point I would like to make.  Jesus is the only one that can set you free.  Notice in the Scripture that they come to the tomb and Jesus asks them to roll away the stone.  Four days have passed in the heat of this area and I think you can imagine what that tomb would have been like.  But they finally do roll away the stone and Jesus commands Lazarus to come out.

No one else could do this.  Other people could put him in the tomb, seal it with a rock, and roll the rock away.  There is only one person who could command Lazarus to come out and that is Jesus.

It is the same way with us today.  Jesus stands at our doors and commands us to come out.  There are so many spiritually dead people in the world that it is hard for us to know where to start.  There are also so many people who have come out of their tombs but they are still bound by their death clothes.  They cannot get anything done because they are still bound up in a world of sin.

Today I would like to ask those of you who don’t have a relationship with Jesus to come out of your tomb.  Ask Jesus to live in your heart so He can start to live in you.  There is no better way.  I would like to also ask those of you who have come out but are still bound by your death clothes of sin in this world to start to cut away these bindings so that you can be truly free.  You start this by confessing your sins to Jesus or maybe re-confessing.  We can work on this together as we all have some sort of bindings left, even me.

Pastor Russell Brownworth tells this story about a children’s time.  He asked the question, “If all the good people in the world were red, and all the bad people in the world were green, what color would you be?”  A little girl answered, “I’d be kind of streaky.”

We are all streaky.  I hope that through this story of Lazarus today that we can all see that Jesus loves you even though you are streaky.  He will not give up on you no matter what you do.  Even though this world in controlled by Satan, Jesus wins in the end.  And He loves you so much that He wants to bring you with Him to eternity.  Join Him as He extends His hand to you.  You will never regret it.  I praise the Lord for the day I came to Him.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.