Loose Him And Let Him Go!

LOOSE HIM AND LET HIM GO!

John 11:1-44

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. I love little children – they see everything with ‘new’ eyes. We, as children of God, should have new eyes, fresh vision.

2. Sarah is a church member who likes to visit the elderly in a Senior Care Home. One day Sarah decided to take her 4-year-old daughter Hannah with her on her Care Home visit.

3. On arriving, Hannah was amazed and intrigued by all the old age appliances she saw everywhere -- wheelchairs, walking sticks, framed photographs, pill boxes, etc.

4. Then in one of the rooms they visit, Hannah stopped and just stared for some time at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass of water.

5. "So why are you staring at the man's teeth, Sarah?" asked Sarah. "You look surprised. What are you thinking of?"

6. "Well Mom," Sarah replies, "I'm thinking that the tooth fairy is never going to believe what I'm seeing!"

B. TEXT

1. 11 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” 4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” 17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. 21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” 28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” 38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 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.” 43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” KJV says, “Loose him, and let him go!”

C. THESIS

1. They lived at Bethany, a village nor far from Jerusalem, where Christ usually lodged when he came up to the feasts. The 2 sisters appear to be housekeepers and Lazarus to be retired.

2. It’s called “the town of Mary and Martha.” Bethsaida is called “the city of Andrew and Peter” (1:44). Your town may be known to God by the Christians who live there! [Think how important you are!]