The message of Easter is the central theme of Christianity: Jesus Christ has power over death, hell and the grave!
Illustr. – Christian and Muslim sitting together on a plane.
(LAZARUS) John 11:21-26; 38-44 (READ)
Now that is one awesome, true story! One of the events I would like to have seen if given the opportunity to “time travel.” I share that powerful story again with you on this Easter Sunday for this reason: Jesus Christ never doubted that Lazarus was going to come out of that tomb! There were no “ifs” “buts” or “maybes”. He was the one person in the crowd that day who knew with absolute confidence that a man dead four days was about to walk out of the tomb.
People were equally surprised on Easter Sunday morning. Why is it that the only person who wasn’t surprised about the resurrection was the guy who was supposed to be the corpse? Everyone was mourning a dead Jesus, and Jesus was out of the grave walking around! I called this message “The Lazarus Man” because Lazarus was a man who came back from the dead. He died but he lived again. But the message is not about Lazarus, it’s about the one who said, “I AM the resurrection and the life, He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live!” I want to prove to you from Scripture this morning that the resurrection was no accident.
Jesus was not afraid of the cross because he thought he would fail. He feared it only from the standpoint that it would put him through the greatest amount of pain and suffering ever endured by a human being. It was the agony he wanted to avoid. His resurrection was never in question, as you will see. Jesus Christ, “The Lazarus Man” knew, just like he knew that day outside the tomb of his friend Lazarus, that death was no obstacle to the Son of the Living God! There was never any doubt.
(JAIRUS’ DAUGHTER) Mark 5:21-43 – While teaching one day, Jesus was approached by a man named Jairus, a leader in the local synagogue. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet and pleaded, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him, but on the way to the house, the news reached Jesus and this distraught father that the little girl had died. (huge crowd following him, healing of the woman with the issue of blood). You need to hear these next two verses straight from the Word.
Mark 5:35b-36 – “‘Your daughter is dead,’ they said. “Why bother the teacher and more?’”
Ignoring what they said, (“Don’t even pay them any attention.”) Death, to Jesus, is nothing more than a change of status from mortality to immortality. Since he controls the power of death and life, he is able to overrule either of them at any time. Jesus looked Jairus right in the eye and said, and he didn’t even break a sweat when he said these words, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” “Don’t be afraid!?!” He just received news that his little girl is dead!! I have been with a man who watched his little 11 year old daughter die of leukemia, and there were very few words of comfort I could think to give. We just hugged and cried and prayed and loved each other. (I have never seen such sorrow as that Daddy looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, “She’s the joy of my life!”)
Jesus looked at this father who has just learned that his daughter, the “joy of his life” is dead, and he says, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” He said it with such confidence! Here’s what he was saying, “Don’t be afraid of death – you’re with me!” (Hallelujah! “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…”) “It’s OK, you’re with the one man who has authority over death. Don’t sweat it. Just let me handle this.”
So Jesus, left the others behind, took Peter, James and John along with the father, and went straight to Jairus’ house. When they got there, people were wailing and crying and already deep in mourning. Jesus said, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” I want you to see the response of the people.
Mark 5:40a – “But they laughed at him.” Doubt often hindered Jesus miracles – but in this case, once he had made up his mind, the people’s response was irrelevant. Laugh all you want, Jesus has said to me and to all who believe, “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” He closed the door on the scoffers. (There’s another message! “After he put them all out.” They missed out on the resurrection, just like those who scoff at Jesus today will be put out to a place where there is “weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth” instead of inheriting eternal life through C. Jesus). Once he had closed the door on the skeptics, Jesus took the child’s father and mother, Peter, James and John and went into the room where the little girl was.
He’s about to raise this little girl from the dead and he does it as confidently as if she were not even dead at all! He walked in, took her by the hand, and said, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” And immediately the girl stood up and walked around! The Bible says everyone one in the house was “astonished.” Everyone but Jesus, that is. “The Lazarus Man” knew it would be this way.
“Don’t be afraid Jairus; just believe.” “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”
“Martha, your brother will rise again.” “Lazarus, come forth!”
Never any doubt.
(WIDOW OF NAIN’S SON) Luke 7:11-17 – As they walked through the town of Nain, Jesus and his disciples were joined by a large crowd that gathered around them. On their way out of town, they came upon a funeral procession. Let’s read. (Starting at Luke 7:12) “As they approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out – the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. (I love this next line) When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, ‘Don’t cry.’”
In that moment, Jesus knew what he was going to do. (Once he makes up his mind, death is no obstacle.) Understand that he didn’t just going around raising people from the dead. This is one of three recorded instances where Jesus, for whatever reason, intervened and over-ruled the power of death. Again, understand that this boy, this only son of a widow (his Daddy has died, his mother is now all alone) is dead. He’s been dead for a while. It’s the day of the funeral. He’s stiff. Rigamortis has long since set in. The funeral director has done whatever they did back then to prepare the body for burial. This boy is on his way to the cemetery to be buried.
Jesus walks up to this grief-stricken mother, who is now all alone, no source of income, overwhelmed by her circumstances – and he says, “Don’t cry.” He could have said a lot of things, “I’m so sorry.” “God bless you.” “My prayers are with you in your time of loss.” – but instead, he said, “Don’t cry.” You don’t tell a widow woman on the way to the cemetery to bury her only son not to cry! It’s not a very compassionate thing to say and I don’t think he would have said it except he knew something she didn’t know: he was about to raise this boy from the dead! He was saying, “In just a few seconds, there will no longer be a reason for you to cry.”
He walked over to the casket and touched it. The pallbearers all stood still. Jesus said, “‘Young man, I say to you, get up!’ The dead man sat up and began to talk, (I wonder what he said? “Thanks for the ride?!?”) and Jesus gave him back to his mother.” The Bible says, “The people were filled with awe and praised God.” But Jesus, “The Lazarus Man” knew it would be this way.
“Don’t cry,” he said to the widow. ‘Young man, I say to you, get up!’
“Don’t be afraid Jairus; just believe.” “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”
“Martha, your brother will rise again.” “Lazarus, come forth!”
Never any doubt.
(THE RESURRECTION) Luke 24:1-8 (READ)
Once again, the only person who wasn’t surprised about the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the guy who was supposed to be the corpse! Once he had risen, the disciples remembered that Jesus had spoken just as confidently about his own resurrection as he had spoken the day he raised from the dead these three individuals we just read about. “Give us a sign of your authority” the Pharisees demanded in Matthew 12:38. Jesus said, “All right, here’s your sign: ‘As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.’”
Jesus spoke confidently of his death and resurrection over and over again to his disciples in Matthew 16:21; 20:19; 26:32, Mark 9:9; 14:28, John 2:19.
He would say it as plainly and matter-of-factly as I would tell you the weather outside right now. There was no doubt.
Mark 8:31 – “He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this…”
Why was he so confident that he would rise from the dead that Easter morning? Because he gave the orders the day Elijah raised the widow of Zerephath’s son in I Kings 17.
Why was he confident the stone would be rolled away? Because he had breathed life back into the body of the son of the Shunammite woman in answer to Elishah’s prayer in II Kings 4.
Why was Jesus so confident that death was no obstacle to the Son of the Living God? Because he was the one who urged Ezekiel to prophesy to the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 27 and those bones, though dead and dry and scattered began to clatter and rattle and come together. Bone to bone they came. Tendons and flesh and skin covered them. The breathe of the Almighty entered them and they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast army.
Why was Jesus so confident that the tomb would be empty? That death could not hold him? That resurrection would certainly follow crucifixion?
He answered the question standing outside Lazarus tomb, “I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and he that believeth and liveth in me shall never die.”
“Don’t cry,” he said to the widow. ‘Young man, I say to you, get up!’
“Don’t be afraid Jairus; just believe.” “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”
“Martha, your brother will rise again.” “Lazarus, come forth!”
On that Easter morning, with the same authority and confidence that brought back to life the widow of Nain’s son, Jairus’ daughter and Jesus’ good friend Lazarus, God looked down from heaven and said,
“Arise my love! Arise my love! The grave no longer has a hold on you.
No more death’s sting, no more suffering! Arise! Arise! Arise!”
The earth began to shake and the ground began to tremble as the angel of the Lord came down from heaven and rolled back the stone. Light burst forth from the darkness, the guards fell to the ground trembling as dead men, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God walked out of the tomb in all his glory! “The Lazarus Man” had defeated death, hell and the grave. The keys were in his nail-scarred hands. His followers were shocked. “Why seek you the living among the dead? He is risen, just as he said!” For Jesus, there was never any doubt. Once he made up his mind, death was no obstacle.
He’s alive! “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Not only is Jesus alive – not only do we have a living faith – but we also have a faith that goes beyond the grave, for Jesus said, “Because I live, you shall live also.”
What was he referring to? One day, just as confidently as Jesus spoke to the Widow of Nain and told her not to cry. Just as confidently as he said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid.” Just as powerfully and confidently as he stood outside the tomb of his dead friend and cried, “Lazarus, come forth!”
“The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we which are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage each other with these words.” – I Thessalonians 4:16-17.
“The Lazarus Man” has confidently spoken! He has given us his word. Let there be no doubt! Once he makes up his mind, death will no longer be an obstacle. “Because I live…Fred Haven, George Black, Miriam Slusser, Jenni Shrumm, Jim Belles, my Grandma Wilson, my Grandpa Nicholson…shall live also.”
