TAKE AWAY THE STONE
TEXT: John 11:39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone.
INTRO. A wonderful thing about our Lord’s earthly ministry,
was His willingness to associate His disciples with Himself.
Anything that they could do, He allowed them to do.
As a father smiles to see his children imitating him,
and attempting to help him in his work,
so it pleases Jesus to see our feeble efforts on His behalf.
We can not melt sin-hardened hearts or humble proud spirits,
but we are commissioned to proclaim the Gospel message to a lost and dying world.
Before Jesus raised Lazarus there was work for the disciples to do.
Jesus could have removed the stone by just SPEAKING A WORD.
But the Lord was teaching us that He uses men, in the process of raising those who are dead in their sins.
Perhaps there are stones in our lives that we need to move so we can be a help to the Lord and His work.
I/ WE MUST REMOVE THE STONE OF WORLDLINESS:
Matthew 13:22(NKJV) “Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.”
The parable about the Sower is all about fruit bearing.
Jesus is the Sower, we are the ground, and the seed is the Word of God.
Jesus here says the reason that some ground does not bear fruit is because
this type of ground cares more for the world’s pleasures than obeying the Word of God.
MY QUES: WHAT KIND OF DIRT ARE WE ?
Do the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the command of God’s Word to win souls?
Question: Would you do for Gold what you would not do for God ?
The bible asks “what would a man give in exchange for his soul ?
There is no more important thing you can do this week than to share the Gospel with those who are lost.
II/ WE (Christians) MUST REMOVE THE STONE OF INDIFFERENCE
It is said that only 3% of Christians actively witness for the Lord.
There is a story about a convocation of angels who had gathered around the Lord after he had come back from earth.
They were asking him questions, and one angel said, "Lord, how are you going to spread the gospel message throughout the world?"
Well, the Lord Jesus said, "I have called out some disciples to carry out my great commission”.
They will go and share this wonderful message with others.
Those will respond, and they in turn will go and share with others who need to be saved."
The angel said, "Are you saying that you have entrusted the task of getting out the message of eternal life and salvation to those earthlings ?
The Lord Jesus said, "That’s absolutely right."
The angel said, "Well Lord, if they don’t do what you command them to do, what is Plan B?"
To which the Lord replied, "There is no Plan B."
I want to say to you this afternoon, if you want to know how God intends to reach a lost world for Jesus Christ, go home and look in the mirror.
There is no Plan B. If we do not do it in the power of God’s Spirit, it will not be done.
III/ WE MUST REMOVE THE STONE OF FEAR
The single command that occurs more often in scripture than any other, is for us not to be afraid !
Lloyd Ogilvie notes that 366 times in the Bible we are commanded to not be afraid.
The bible tells us in 1 Samuel 17:24 that all the men of Israel were afraid of Goliath. Fear caused them to do nothing.
Likewise for us, fear of failure, fear of what our neighbors will think many times cause us to do nothing.
David said “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?
We who are here, represent the living God in this world, and like David we should be concerned that the world system is teaching men to defy God.
David’s trust in God overcame his fear. His desire to glorify God caused him to go into battle.
We are like that, in the past we have failed to TRUST AND OBEY as Jesus asked, and now it is easier to turn Him down.
Spiritual courage is nothing more than trust in God.
Be strong, be courageous, go with us this week and share Christ with a dying world.
IV/ WE MUST REMOVE THE STONE OF LAZINESS
In Amos 6 it says: “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion”,
That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall;
That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David; That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments:
but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
Joseph you remember was rejected and afflicted by his brethren.
Here, Joseph is a type of Christ, rejected and afflicted by the world.
Those in Zion were at ease and not concerned about there own sins and the sins of their nation.
Likewise, we are often at ease and not grieved for a world that afflicted and then rejected Christ!
We are at ease and are not grieved over the lost in our own city.
Most of us are not at all grieved over the sins of our nation or churches, or the ever-worsening condition of both.
Many of us need to get out of our comfort zone and take some risk's for Jesus.
There are people who are letting life pass them by because they are afraid to take a risk. In the US we also call them Couch Potatoes.
They have abilities and gifts that are never opened, sinful patterns of behavior that are never confronted and changed.
Until weeks become months, and months become years.
One day they realize there are great prayers they never prayed, risks they never took, gifts they never offered, lives they never touched.
There they are sitting in a recliner with a shriveled soul, and forgotten dreams.
Couch potato’s realize the world is in desperate need, that God called them to be part of something big.
They see the person they could have become, but did not. They never followed their calling, they never took any risks for Jesus because they were afraid.
V/ NEXT: WE MUST REMOVE THE STONE OF DOUBT
When Satan questioned Eve in the garden, he caused her to doubt.
Satan is the master liar and he will wreck your mind if you let him.
He will distort your thought patterns and destroy your confidence in God.
In Matt the 14th chapter Peter was walking on the water to come to Jesus when he took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink.
Jesus said to him "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"
In our text in John 11, they said “by this time he stinketh”. They thought it too late for Jesus to do anything. They doubted.
What did Jesus say to them ? “If thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God ?
This week let us believe and see the glory of God working in men’s lives.
Sometimes we think it is too late to save other people.
Why is it that we think God can save us but does not save those we witness to ? Why do we even doubt ?
Romans 10:13 plainly says: For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
and the very next verse says How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
We must understand the difference between real faith and mental assent.
(1) Mental assent agrees that the Bible is true but doesn’t act on it.
2) Real faith is acting on God’s Word.
It seems to me that if those we witness to, pray and ask God to forgive their sin, and call on Him to save them, that is acting on God's Word.
I want every one of you to believe God’s word, to preach the Gospel this week and believe in God’s saving power.
We must leave the saving to Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
But in the text, the bible said “he that was dead come forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes.
VI/ FINALLY, WE MUST CARE FOR THE RESURECTED
We see in this passage there is still work for men to do.
Jesus told them to “Loose him, and let him go.”
Now after a man is saved there is much work for the church to do.
It is a sad picture, to see someone bound in grave clothes.
The truth is that when we are saved, our souls are saved but the old man is still bound in the old nature.
Let’s go back to the parable of the sower. Remember the shallow ground,
The stoney ground, the ground full of weed’s?
Is it possible that we have lead people to Christ and not loosed them from their old grave clothes ?
So that the cares of this life or the desire for pleasure cause them to be poor ground, easy pickings for the devil ?
What would we think of a mother and father who thought their only responsibility would be to birth a child.
After that they would ignore the care of the baby ?
After we leave there is much work to do in caring for these babes in Christ.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO TEACH THEM TO MAKE JESUS "LORD" OF THIER LIFE
Jesus is not just a fire escape from Hell, but the giver of a life of peace and hope and joy.
INVITATION
