Alive, But Still In Danger
A sermon presented by Rev. Tommy L. Davis, Pastor, New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church, Motts, Alabama
Text: John 12:9-11
9Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, 11for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him.
Subject: Alive, But Still in Danger
Introduction
As we shift our focus toward Easter, the most sacred celebration of Christianity, I want us to begin focus on the meaning of Easter in each of our personal lives. I want us to be able to think about why God cared so much about us that He let Jesus die the brutal death of crucifixion on the old rugged and wooden cross. I want us to really understand what Jesus’ death means for us today in the twenty first century. What does it mean to be saved in a society that is corrupt and immoral? What does it mean to be a Christian in a world where atheism, the belief that there is no god, and hedonism, the belief in self-gratification and pleasure seeking, are openly practiced in mainstream America? And I want us to explore and come to some realization that just because Jesus died for us, just because we’ve been saved by grace, it does not mean that we won’t have to face any more trouble in this life. During this Easter season my brothers and sisters, I want us to commit to establishing or reestablishing the relationship with Jesus Christ that the Easter season is really all about.
Danger
When I look around the United States and at our world at large, it is easy for me to see and realize that Christians are in danger. In India, Christians are being hunted down by Hindus and viciously murdered. According to the Farsi Christian Network News, Christians in Iraq are arrested and persecuted for attending home churches, evangelizing, storing Bibles, and even for converting to the Christian faith. In Pakistan, Christians have reportedly been attacked by Muslim mobs and arrested for blasphemy against Islam. In Turkey, a Turkish Bible Society bookstore was vandalized twice in one week by Muslim extremist. In Eritrea, a country in northeast Africa, three Christians were reportedly killed in prison as a result of torture and complications from maltreatment of physical illnesses. In China, age is not a factor. A 79 year old woman was beaten along with her son, Pastor Hua Huiqi, because of their Christian faith. They were then both imprisoned where she was tortured and forced to drink her own urine. This is the kind of persecution that Christians are facing right now in 2009 according to The Voice of the Martyrs, a world-wide publication that tracks and reports on Christian persecution. Christians are in danger.
Persecution of Christians in America is also on the rise. We have almost grown accustomed to random acts of church burnings being executed here in the south. The National Coalition for Burned Churches reported that between 2000 and 2006, more than 600 churches were burned. This statistic hits close to home. Last year, Bethelpore Baptist Church, just down the street and down County Road 179 in Bleecker, was burned to the ground by two men who were charged with arson and burglary. More recently, two African American churches within the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church were burned by unknown arsonists just outside of Opelika in Chambers County. But this attack on the church buildings, the places of worship of Christians is just the tip of the iceberg.
Church shootings are now on the rise. In 2007 there were eight church shootings. 2008, however, logged 18 church shootings, more than double the previous year. This year, a pastor was killed when a gunman walked into the church and opened fire. The gunman then stabbed two members of the congregation and himself in the aftermath as he was subdued and taken into custody. This type of scenario was not only uncommon 20 years ago, but it was nearly unheard of. It was the exception and not the norm. But here we are in 2009, and I stopped by to let you know that Christians are in danger.
This current endangerment of Christians is not a new occurrence. Christians have been persecuted ever since they were recognized as Christians at the establishment of the church. History reveals that Nero, the fifth and final Roman Emperor during the first century, and other leaders throughout history, made it their business to persecute Christians just because of their faith. It was these early Christians who established the kind of mettle that Christians must have if they are to survive in a hostile world.
Death
At the writing of our text, Christianity had not yet been established. It would later be conceived at Antioch after Jesus’ death as recorded in the Book of Acts, Chapter 11 and verse 26. There were, however, people who followed Jesus and accepted Him as the Messiah and the Christ, who Jewish prophets, including Isaiah had proclaimed would come to lead and save God’s chosen people. One such follower was a man by the name of Lazarus, who had two sisters: Mary and Martha.
It is in John Chapter 11 that we discover that Lazarus is sick in Bethany. His sisters send a message to Jesus and another discovery is made that Jesus and Lazarus were apparently friends, for the message to Jesus stated that “he (in reference to Lazarus) whom thou lovest is sick.” Jesus immediately declares that Lazarus’ sickness was not unto death, but for the glorification of God, whereby Jesus, His Son, would also be glorified. The story is told in this chapter of how Jesus delays his travel to Bethany and Lazarus died.
My brothers and sisters, all of us are destined to one day face death head to head. The Bible records in Job 14:1 that “Man that is borne of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.” Therefore, we can all expect to physically die some day. But I stopped by to let you know today, that although none of us has yet experienced physical death, all of us have been dead at one time or another. For the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. All of us, my brothers and sisters, have sinned and come short of the glory of God. If we have sinned, then we have experienced a disconnection from God. When we were disconnected from God, then we were spiritually dead. We were just as dead as Lazarus was in the tomb. But thank GOD for Jesus.
Alive
When Jesus and his disciples arrive in Bethany, Lazarus had already been in the tomb for three long days. Jesus was so moved by the crowd of mourners and by Mary who came and threw herself, weeping at His feet, that He Himself begins to weep. It is after weeping and speaking with Mary and Martha that Jesus goes to the tomb where Lazarus had been laid. He called Lazarus by name to come forth from the grave. And the Bible records that Lazarus came forth from the grave still wrapped in his burial clothes. He that was dead came to life at the beckon call of Jesus.
Lazarus’ experience is much like our own. Many of us heard the voice of Jesus call to us as we sat in somebody’s sanctuary. We heard the gentle whisper of His voice, which was unlike any other, say “come unto me and rest.” Many of us were unsure if we were worthy to accept Him into our lives. Besides, we knew how messed up we were. We knew how we loved to party and hang out on Friday and Saturday nights. We knew how much we loved to drink our liquor, smoke our weed, and get high. We knew how much we loved to make love to that man or that woman that we were not married to. We knew how much of an adulterer we were. We knew how much of a liar and a cheat that we were. We knew that we were everything that we thought Christians should not be. And yet, there we were, being called out in our heart and in our minds, by the voice of Jesus Himself. He called us by name. And just like Lazarus, still wearing our dead clothes, we responded and came to Jesus.
Oh what a feeling it was to turn our lives over to Jesus. How excited we were to know and to feel like we had been delivered from a world of hurt and a world of pain. The weight we had been carrying on our shoulders seemed to have been miraculously lifted off of us. We were in a new place and we were confident in our newfound Christianity. We believed that we were now safe and off-limits from Satan who had held us hostage for so many years. We were finally alive! Just like Lazarus we had been called out of the darkness and into Jesus’ marvelous light. Just like Lazarus, we had been dead, but we had been called back to life by Jesus. Therefore we believed that JESUS was—and for some of us still is—the best thing that had or has ever happened to us. Nevertheless, what we found out, as early as leaving the church the day we gave our life to Christ, was that even though we were no longer dead, even though we were now alive in Christ, there was still trouble we had to face on every hand.
Trouble
In our text, the Bible records that Jesus had arrived in Bethany six days before the Passover feast. It was this occasion that Jesus dined with Lazarus and his disciples. Martha served the supper which had been prepared while Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with expensive spikenard and wiped his feet with her hair to the objection of Judas Iscariot, the disciple who was destined to betray Jesus. Lazarus was alive and enjoying his time with Jesus.
The Bible records that many people came to see Lazarus, having heard that he had been raised from the dead. Just like Lazarus, I’m sure when most of us became alive in Christ, there were some people who heard about our conversion and had to come and see for themselves. Our old drinking buddies, didn’t believe that you had given up the bottle. Our old club partners couldn’t fathom you not shaking your derrière with them after Friday night happy hour. Your pimp, your ho, your pusher, your sugar daddy, your DL connection—nobody could believe that you had changed. So they came to see for themselves, not to congratulate you on your conversion, but to see if there was some way that they could drag you back to where you had escaped from.
The Bible says that the Jews, including the chief priests, had come to see Lazarus. But their motives were foul. They had come to see Lazarus in order to consult with one another to figure out a way to put him also to death. In other words, they were planning to kill Jesus, but Lazarus had to go too. Even though he had been raised from the dead, Lazarus was still in danger. The Jewish priests wanted Lazarus because his resurrection, his life, was a testament to who Jesus was.
And just like Lazarus, my brothers and sisters, there are people who want to kill your spirit because your life is a testament to who Jesus is. They want to kill your spirit so that you can return to the state of deadness that you were called from by Jesus. They want you to fail in everything that you do so you will lose hope in the man who is hope’s supreme provider. Therefore, they are laying traps all around you.
Job understood that enemies will lay traps for you. In Job 30:12, Job says that “they lay snares for my feet, they build their siege ramps against me.” Hosea records that “the prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.” Jeremiah recognized that “they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.” David too knew about the dangers of traps being laid by his enemies. In 2 Samuel 22, David sings a song to God that bears his feelings:
"The waves of death swirled about me;
the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
6 The cords of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me.
But my brothers and sisters, David had a method for dealing with his enemies. He had a tried, true, and tested way to ensure deliverance from all of the traps that your enemies my set. For I can hear David as he continued to sing:
In my distress I called to the LORD;
I called out to my God.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came to his ears.
8 "The earth trembled and quaked,
the foundations of the heavens shook;
they trembled because he was angry.
9 Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it.
10 He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
11 He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.
12 He made darkness his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the sky.
13 Out of the brightness of his presence
bolts of lightning blazed forth.
14 The LORD thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.
15 He shot arrows and scattered the enemies,
bolts of lightning and routed them.
16 The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at the rebuke of the LORD,
at the blast of breath from his nostrils.
17 "He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
18 He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
When danger comes, you have to cry out to the only one who can save you in the name of Jesus. You can’t act like you don’t know how to cry out. You can’t act all high faluting and sadity when you call on Him. But you’ve got to break it down, no matter where you are, no matter who you’re if front of, no matter what the circumstances may be, and call on the Lord.
Is there somebody here today that is facing danger in your life? You have been tried and tested and it seems like everywhere you turn, danger is waiting to swallow you up. Just don’t give up. You have to stand up to your danger and call on the Lord. Call on him when your rent is due. Call on him when your husband or your wife is acting up. Call on him when there’s no food on your table. Call on him when your money is funny But most of all, call on Jesus when you’re having difficulty staying alive. When sin is calling your name, you ought to be calling on the name of Jesus.
Is there anybody here today, that’s willing to call on Jesus?
Jesus – my rock and my salvation
Jesus – my fortress and my strong tower
Jesus – my shelter in the time of a storm
Jesus – my heavy load sharer
Jesus – my alpha and omega
Jesus – my protector and my deliverer
Jesus – my friend and my comforter
Jesus - my shepherd and my king
Jesus – the one who love me so much that on one Friday evening he laid down his life for me. But early one Sunday morning, he picked it back up that you and I might live again.
