This is a familiar story that we all know, Jesus raising His friend Lazerus from the dead. Some of us have learned our first Bible verse from this text; Jesus Wept.
As Jesus reaches Bethany his friend Lazarus has been in the tomb four days now. People are still mourning and as Jesus is arriving Martha meets Him and says “Lord if only you had been here my brother wouldn’t have died” But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” Martha was a believer in the power of Jesus, she believed that things would be alright.
Jesus sent for Mary and she went to Jesus weeping at his feet mourning the loss of her brother lets join this scene in our text today. (Read text) John 11: 32-44.
The first thing we see that Jesus encountered at the tomb was unbelief, negativity and accusations. The people were saying if you loved him so much, if you cared at all why didn’t you come? We know that you have performed miracles and raised the dead why didn’t you stop this tragedy from happening if Lazarus was such a good friend of yours?
Well they may have thought Jesus had been dragging his feet and maybe He procrastinated a little too long, they may have thought that Jesus showed up late. But let me tell you Jesus was right on time! He showed up and showed out at just the right time. Let me tell you we serve an on time God.
Jesus had them remove the stone and then talked with the Father a moment and said I know you have already heard me in my grief and sorrow for my friend and that all this was done to glorify you but I must say these words for the unbelievers, for the naysayers and the negative folks so they will know that your right on time, Lazarus, Come Forth!!! Lazarus came out and Jesus said unbind him and let him go.
I know that we find ourselves sometimes wondering if Jesus even cares what is going on in our lives. I want you to know today that Jesus has emotion, He loves you, he cares for you and yes he probably even weeps not only for you but with you. We make think that we are abandoned but we aren’t, Jesus always shows up and he’s always on time.
Let’s think about something today, we were all just like Lazarus, we were dead spiritually speaking, some of us are dead now and we need to be resurrected we need new life. In the text Jesus gave a few commands and I think those same commands can apply to us and help us become resurrected spiritually.
If you want to be revived first you have to roll the stone away. What’s keeping you locked in the tomb? Anger, un-forgiveness, disbelief, depression, addiction, pride, and envy the list may go on but Jesus says roll the stone out of the way!
There are going to be naysayers and people that tell you that you can’t do it, you may even believe them and look at me and say Brother Mike you don’t know how big my stone is no one can roll a stone this big out of the way.
I would say to you ,yes your right, I don’t know how big your stone is, I don’t know how big a boulder is standing between you and the path that God has for you, but I do know this; I know how big our God is !! Jesus said in Matthew 17:20 if we have faith as small as a mustard seed we can say Move Mountain and it will move, he tells us that with faith nothing will be impossible for you. It doesn’t matter how big a boulder is holding you back the fact is our God is bigger than any stone or boulder that has ever been.
After the stone is rolled aside Jesus commands Come Out!!! Now the people standing around Lazarus’ tomb were probably saying that Jesus was asking the impossible telling a dead man to get up and just walk out of a tomb.
Jesus is calling us to come out; come out of our pity party, come out of that pool of muck and mire, come out of our affliction, come out of our depression and sin. He is commanding us to come out and enter into a relationship with Him so that he can give us joy and happiness.
You may be like the folks around the tomb and say it’s impossible for me to break these chains, it’s impossible to get out of this mountain of debt, impossible to get clean and sober but I tell you thus says the Lord “With man this is impossible but with God all things are possible. (Matt. 19:26)
And as Lazarus walked out still bound by the grave cloths Jesus said untie Him, and let him go!!
When we come out of that tomb of bondage we are called to be released, when we are bound in spiritual bondage and death we can’t be the hands and feet of Christ, when we are bound we can’t do the work that God would have us do. We can’t see the direction we are headed, we can’t speak the words that God would have us say and we can’t move our hands and feet to take action for Christ.
Jesus orders us released and when we are released we can get busy building our relationship with Christ and doing kingdom work by building relationships with others and becoming the person that Jesus has meant for us to be. Once we are released we are no longer prisoners to that which had bound us up. We are no longer slaves to our sins and addictions we are free!!!
To be revived and resurrected all we need to do is roll the stone away, come out of the dark , shake off the chains and step toward the Son and you’ll be set free, (John 8:36) and “ If the Son sets you free , you are free indeed”
