Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for this beautiful day, truly a gift from the Lord. I will be conducting a service of death and resurrection for a man who died at the age of 49. All of us live just a breath away from eternity.
In the Python movie, a comedy of unique tastes, a man comes by yelling, “Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!” One man responds by bringing out a very old man, but he’s not dead yet. The cart owner says it’s against the rules to take a body if it’s still alive. “He’ll be dead soon,” the man replies. Meanwhile, the old man gets up and says, “I’m not dead yet, I feel fine, I feel like dancing!” With some prompting the cart owner hits the old man on the head and moves on. Death is inevitable, the story teaches – it comes to all, ready or not.
Black plague is a note in history books. Today we are the conquerors of bubonic plague, polio, diphtheria, and smallpox. We are getting better at exercise and looking and feeling younger. We have this impression that we are conquering death itself. And yet the death rate remains the same: 100 %. The truth is, we have conquered certain diseases and new ones have sprung up. Our newest plague is HIV. And it’s been joined by Bird Flu and Asian Flu. Need we mention that heart disease is still a factor alongside cancer? Death is inevitable.
We may try to avoid it with pre-planned funerals but the shock of death still gets you every time. Dealing with death is something our culture doesn’t do very well. Death is our greatest enemy.
In the book of John, Jesus performs the seventh sign in raising Lazarus from the dead, as He goes to Jerusalem to give His life as a ransom for many. In the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead we see that Jesus is able to take the sting out of death. The story unfolds in three movements where Jesus interacts with Martha, Mary and then Lazarus. Now we’ll see how Jesus brings out the dead.
Dreams can die quick deaths. Relationships have a way of dying if they are not nurtured. Even faith can find itself dying in the face of overwhelming trials. Jesus got word that his good friend Lazarus was dying. When we hear of a friend who is near death we naturally drop everything and go see them. Not Jesus, not in this case – he waits two more days. When Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been dead for four days. The point is, Jesus made sure Lazarus was as dead as local customs perceived death. Jesus had a purpose for this death. Martha comes out to meet him with the words, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” If only, if only…how many times have we said words like that? Martha knew that Jesus could heal people. She knew that he had given sight to the blind, and made the lame to walk. If only Jesus had been here while Lazarus was sick, he would not have died. If only…these are words of despair. It’s too late now. Are these words of rebuke for Jesus? Probably not. Martha simply resigned the situation to hopelessness.
What about her confession that God would give Jesus whatever he asked? Isn’t this faith? Was there a glimmer of hope that Jesus could raise the dead? Not if you consider v. 39 where Jesus wants the tomb opened and Martha’s concern is only for the stench. There is no clue in her that Jesus would raise her dead brother.
Martha’s faith in Jesus has not matured to the point of boundless possibility. And when faced with death our faith takes a beating, especially a premature death. We wonder why God would take our loved ones when they had so much life to live. Sometimes we go down into despair and come up in faith, growing through the experience. Some stay down, faith in God having died in the heartache.
Jesus says to Martha, “He will rise again.” She replies, “Yeah, at the final resurrection.” Then Jesus makes the most powerful statement in the whole Bible, in the whole world really: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
If you have a fear of death, Jesus addresses your fears in two groups in these words. The first group refers to those who have already died. Those who have believed and are dissolving into dust, our loved ones who have passed away, are not dead. D. L. Moody said, “One day you will hear that D. L. Moody…is dead. Don’t you believe it! In that day I will be more alive than I have ever been before.” Death can seize my body, but I will live.
The second group, “Whoever lives and believes…” This is us. We’re not dead yet. Jesus says, you never will. The Greek says very literally, “He will never, ever die forever.” Yes we will die, our bodies will collapse, but if you believe in Jesus, you will pass immediately into life. Your eyes will close in this world and open in the next. Now death, where is your sting?
“Do you believe this?” Jesus asked Martha. “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” Has her faith been resurrected? Not yet. It sounds like faith, but she is still unsure of what Jesus is talking about. Do we understand the implications of who Jesus is?
Mary is summoned to come and meet Jesus. You remember Mary, she’s the one who was enthralled with Jesus, sitting at his feet and drinking in his teaching. Martha was stoic in her grief, but Mary wears her emotions on her sleeve. She comes to Jesus, falls at his feet, and weeps. This is her Jesus. She needs him now. Her heart is crushed at the death of her brother. What she needs is not a lesson in faith, but someone to share her sorrow.
Yes, she too says, “If only…” But she comes at it differently than Martha and it draws two reactions from Jesus. One is that “…he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.” These words are too cryptic. What they mean is – Jesus was angry. The word in Greek describes a horse snorting with anger. Why is Jesus angry? We’ll come back to that.
The other reaction is that famous short verse of the Bible: “Jesus wept.” It’s been joke for a long time. Easiest to memorize of all verses. It just happens to be the most eloquent verse in the Bible. Jesus broke into tears. Yeah, Jesus knew he could raise Lazarus from the dead. That wasn’t the point. His friends were hurting and he hurt with them. Grief is not logical; it doesn’t have to be. Sharing in our friend’s grief is not a problem to solve; it is love we share through quiet companionship.
Everyone is weeping. Jesus is weeping. The scene is one intense group session. The Jews say, “See how he loved him!” Then of course, there are accusations. If Jesus could give sight to the blind…well! If the doctors had caught the disease in time. If only he had gone to the doctor sooner.
You read John and you will see this word associated with Jesus over and over again: LIFE. Jesus came to bring life to us so that we may have it to the full. He is the bread of life. Whoever believes in him has life. He is life!
“Take away the stone,” Jesus said. This is where Martha objects, “It stinks in there – he’s rotting.” So Jesus didn’t get to see the open casket? He wants one more look?
Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” That old saying, “Seeing is believing” is turned on its head here to “Believing is seeing.” When Jesus turned water into wine we saw a glimpse of his deity. Now we are witnesses to the full glory of God in Jesus in this seventh sign. Believe and you will see the glory of God. If you do not believe, I’m sorry you can’t see what we see.
When Jesus had prayed, he called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”Lazarus knew his shepherd’s voice; he recognized the voice of Jesus.
Lazarus was stone-cold dead in the tomb. When Jesus said “Come out,” in the twinkling of an eye, the color came back to his face, blood pumped through his veins, his eyelids twitched and nerves connected with his brain stem. The heart began to beat again, and the breath of life started carrying oxygen to every part of that decaying, stinking body. When he heard the voice of Jesus, Lazarus CAME OUT! And Jesus said, “Take off those grave clothes, they’re for dead people. Lazarus, my friend, is alive.
Whenever Jesus performed a sign, the interesting thing is his innate need for people to do something, to participate, to be involved. He had the servants fill the water jars when he turned water to wine. He told the official to go home. He told the lame man to get up, pick up his mat and walk. Note here how we can help him resurrect lifeless bodies:
He wants us to take away the stone. There are people we have given up on in the community, in our families, in our relationships. These are people who we feel will never commit to believing in Jesus. We have buried them in their tombs and lost all hope for their salvation. Jesus says to us: “Take away the stone.” We reply, “But it stinks in there. It smells like death.” These people won’t even come to church. Doesn’t matter: take away the stone.
The stone is our attitude. We need to develop an attitude of hope for those who we see as lost, to believe that as long as they have breath they can come to the Lord. We can’t raise them to life, but we can remove their stones of ignorance, fear, doubt, prejudice and despair. We can speak the word to them.
He wants us to pray boldly and verbally. Before Jesus raised Lazarus, he prayed “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me. It is the most uncomfortable thing to pray with and for an unbeliever. But what an impact this could make. They may not know what to do with it afterwards. Chances are though, they have never been prayed for before. Pray to the Father for their benefit, for healing or some kind of achievement – not necessarily for salvation. Just see what God will do in them.
c) Take off the grave clothes and help them walk. When by the grace of God these people are raised to new life, help them unwind the grave clothes of old thinking and discouragement and fears and so on. Help them to walk the new walk of Christ.
Jesus is the master of life. He reverses the effects of sin and death. He is the resurrection and the life. This is what the seventh sign reveals to us about Jesus, and it is glorious. Bring out the dead…remove the stone, and bring out the dead. No one is too far gone that Jesus cannot raise them to life.
Praise the Lord for His miracles. I have included a testimony from Jack Hoppes.
Please pray for Jessica Burrelle, a 17 yr. old teenager who is in Rochester hospital.
Pray for our daughter Sunita who will be flying to Africa the first of March for two weeks.
Pray for Evvie Binder who has pneumonia.
Happy birthday to Nate Young who is 89 yrs. old.
Happy birthday to George Cameron who is 85 yrs. old.
A special Happy birthday to Glenn Wolfe, who will be celebrating his birthday on February 29.
In Christ,
Pastor Brown
IT'S GONE.......PRAISE GOD........IT'S GONE
As you can probably tell, this is a great news update.
Jo and I just left the doctor's office. His opening comment as he entered the room was; "your prayers have been answered." And how right he was. We are just thanking God for his wonderful healing power.
The report concluded with this: (Since the examination of December 27, 2007 there has been a change in that there is no longer significant increased metabolic activity identified in the region of the pancreatic head. There is no evidence of metabolically active neoplastic deisease on the basis of today's study.)
Jo and I want to thank all of you who have joined with us in prayer over this matter. This is proof positive that prayer does work. Please thank all of those that you had also asked to pray for me.
Dr. Kloss recommends that I still go through precautionary treatments because of the type of cancer it WAS which I have agreed to do. I again will have three treatments and a week off, then three more. After that I will have a PET scan in one or two months. I totally believe God has touched me and will thank Him continually.
Thank you all again. You'll never know what this has meant to me.
In Christ,
Jack (Jo too)
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