Dead Man Walking
Pastor Glenn Newton 4-9-00
Text: John 11:17-27
JN 11:17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the
tomb for four days. 18 Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many
Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed
at home.
JN 11:21 "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."
JN 11:23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
JN 11:24 Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last
day."
JN 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me
will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?"
JN 11:27 "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of
God, who was to come into the world."
This morning before you leave this building, I want you to know three things from the
Word of God that we will find in our passage this morning, 1) Jesus has power over
death. 2) Jesus is Life. 3) Those that believe in Christ will never die.
Those are three truths that you can hang your hat on this morning and know are
true and trustworthy.
We know that Jesus’ public ministry lasted around 3 years. That means from the
time he started calling his disciples and when he performed his first miracle at a wedding
until his Death on the Cross, everything in between, all the teachings, all the miracles, all
the travel, the boat trips, the healing of the sick, the healing of the demon possessed, all
these things took place within a three year time frame, and now, in our passage today, and
with what we will discuss for the coming month, we will be focusing on the last few weeks
of his life and ministry on Earth.
You must understand that these Three years of ministry are now coming to a
crescendo, the crowds are getting bigger by the day, the people are flocking to Jesus with
their sick and diseased loved ones, it’s almost the time for the Passover which is the
biggest of the Jewish Holidays, so everybody is coming out of the woodwork for this
week long Celebration. The energy in the air is rising, there’s an expectancy that
something great is going to happen, something divine even.
Have you ever been in a situation where you feel that nervous energy, maybe right
before you had to give a speech in school. I still have cold chills thinking about giving a
speech in school, I was extremely shy in school.
Remember when you knew you wanted to ask your first girlfriend out on a date, or
you knew that guy was finally going to ask you out after waiting for ever, what would you
say? Were you nervous, do you remember the feeling?
How about sharing your faith? It doesn’t get any more nervous than that, does it?
This anticipation was in the air, the people were thronging to him, being drawn to him,
God’s Word does say that “He will draw all men unto himself”.
That’s kind of the background of what’s going on around this story of Jesus and Lazarus.
Jesus was close friends with this family, this man Lazarus and his two sisters Mary and
Martha. When Mary sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was sick, she said it this way,
“Lord, the one you love is sick.” So we get a sense that there was a close friendship
between Christ and this family.
As we read, Lazarus dies before Jesus arrives, in fact, by the time Jesus gets to the home,
He has been dead for Four days. You see Jesus knew this sickness and death would not
end with a funeral, but with a party.
I want you to know something this morning Jesus has Power over Death. Listen
to his words in 11:4-6 JN 11:4 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
Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 Yet when he heard that Lazarus was
sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
Now let me tell you that Jesus wasn’t trying to be cruel to this family that he
loved, he just knew what the outcome would be, and this was a miracle that He would
perform to bring glory and honor to the Father, and it would also Point to what was to
happen in the coming week when Christ would die for you and me, but on the third day,
He would be raised from the Dead, not by any power but his own.
Friends, Christians, don’t let this month go by without allowing God to speak to
your heart about Palm Sunday, and Good Friday, and Easter, The Resurrection of our
Lord, Read this story everyday this month for your devotions, Let the Holy Spirit teach
you anew what Christ has done for you on the Cross.
I know this would be asking allot, but I believe it’s worth it. Is there something
that you could give up for this month that would give you and extra half-hour every day to
spend reading and praying to God?
I want to experience what God wants for me this Easter season, I don’t want to
just read the passages and preach the message, I want it to be alive in my heart, I want the
passion of Christ, I want that same passion that He had as He walked into Jerusalem
knowing the Cross was waiting for Him. I want that Spirit, I want that Same Love that
He had for those that Crucified Him, I want to experience in my own life the Resurrection
Power that He promises to His people, a power over death and sin, I want to know him
better than I ever have before.
What am I willing to give up? I willing to give up anything God asks me to give
up. My wife and I have decided this week after I came back from St. Louis that we are
giving up TV, we simply have too much to do for the Kingdom and we don’t want to
watch our children grow up and wonder where did all the time go. Were going to spend it
together, raising them, not just living with them. I also put up my PlayStation. The game
stole my sleep and I have too many important things to get done, and I want to be at my
best. Obviously, I’m not asking you to do these things. But I would ask you to pray and
seek God’s face and find out what you could do to find more time for Him.
There’s times in life were we have to stop talking about what we want to do, and we just
need to make the decision and get on with life, living it for God.
I am expecting life changing results, because I know God wants to do great things in this
church, and in our community through New Hope Church of the Nazarene. Do you
believe that?
Back to our passage, Jesus has just arrived, Martha says, if you would have just been here
earlier, my brother wouldn’t have died.’ You see, they believed Jesus had the power to
heal for sure, but it’s been four days, he’s starting to decay, he hasn’t brushed his teeth for
Four days!
Martha is heartbroken. Listen to his response to her, Listen to what He is saying
to us this morning as we prepare our hearts for the Passion of Christ in the coming days,
What is he saying, look at verse 25-26 with me.
JN 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in
me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?"
The second thing I want you to know this morning is that Jesus is Life!
My friends when you have Jesus in your life, when He is Lord of your life, You
have His Life in you, and that is Life to the fullest. Until you know Jesus a person can’t
really understand Life, because Christ is Life, he is the life-giver, Jesus is the one who
gives us purpose for Life.
Can I ask you a Question?
Is your purpose in Life to Make Money all your Life so that you can give it to the IRS?
Is that why God created you? (I know it feels like that on April 15th)
Is your soul purpose in life to procreate and raise a family so they can do the same thing
and so on?
Is your Soul purpose to make money for your employer?
I mean I could go on and on, people who are lost are looking for purpose in all kinds of
places, people use drugs because they don’t like where there at and they want to escape to
a better place, well it’s temporary and your worse off than when you started. God offers a
high that lasts for eternity!
People are looking at affairs and sexual relationships that are contrary to what God
wants for us. People are hoping to find something that will give purpose and real
happiness. Happiness and fulfillment can’t be found in a mate, no matter how attractive
and appealing, it’s a mirage, it’s only a trap set by Satan. The Cry of the human heart can
only be answered by God. If your marriage / your relationships are falling apart, don’t
think it can get better somewhere else, the problem is on the inside, not in the other
person. God can change your perspective and your heart and restore what He intended if
you will give Him a chance.
Jesus is Life. Until you know that in your heart of hearts your going to have unrest and
life will get confusing. What does Christ say?
He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;
I’ve thought allot about this story, what it would have been like to see Lazarus walking
out of the tomb with all his burial clothes on. He was a Dead Man Walking.
Jesus gives the instruction in v. 39 to ‘Take away the Stone”.
Martha worried about the stink, she has lost her focus, she doesn’t realize that
Jesus is about to perform a miracle.
I ask you, are you more worried about the “stink” than you are about what God is
about to do in our Church? My friends don’t get caught up with what you see, don’t lose
your focus because everything doesn’t look the way, or sound the way, or go the way you
think it should, don’t allow the distractions to rob you of the miracle.
Are we on the same page this morning?
Don’t act like Martha, Jesus is about the perform the biggest miracle of his ministry and
she is complaining about the stink. No wonder it says he was troubled in his spirit. I
wonder if Jesus thought, You know it’s hard to soar like and Eagle when I’m stuck with a
bunch of Turkeys?
Jesus is allot more loving than we are, He didn’t think that.
ILL. Sometimes that Stink we get caught up with is Fear, Fear of the unknown, Fear of
the Future, Fear of change.......... The fact is when you fear that the worst will happen,
your own thoughts may help to bring it about. Someone once wrote, “Fear is the wrong
use of imagination. It is anticipating the worst, not the best that can happen.” It
reminds me of the salesman, driving along on a lonely country road one dark and rainy
night, he had a flat. He opened the trunk -- no lug wrench. The light from a farmhouse
could be seen dimly up the road. He set out on foot through the driving rain. Surely the
farmer would have a lug wrench he could borrow, he thought. Of course, it was late at
night -- the farmer would be asleep in his warm, dry bed. Maybe he wouldn’t answer the
door. And even if he did, he’d be angry at being awakened in the middle of the night.
The salesman, picking his way blindly in the dark, stumbled on. By now his shoes and
clothing were soaked. Even if the farmer did answer his knock, he would probably shout
something like, “What’s the big idea waking me up at this hour?” This thought made the
salesman angry. What right did that farmer have to refuse him the loan of a lug wrench?
After all, here he was stranded in the middle of nowhere, soaked to the skin. The farmer
was a selfish clod -- no doubt about that! The salesman finally reached the house and
banged loudly on the door. A light went on inside, and a window opened above. A voice
called out, “Who is it?” His face white with anger, the salesman called out, “You know
darn well who it is. It’s me! And you can keep your blasted lug wrench. I wouldn’t
borrow it now if you had the last on on earth!”
How many times have we talked or wondered ourself right into trouble?
What he did was ignore it and said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you
would see the glory of God?”
It says that they removed the stone and first Jesus thanks the Father and then
Speaks Words of Life, “Lazarus, come out!” I just think he yelled it. I don’t think
Lazarus was deaf, but I just believe that He let loose and Spoke Life back into his friends
life. In verse 44 we have quite a statement. “The Dead man came out, his hands and
feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.”
Jesus spoke life into his friend. This morning I want you to know that He wants to speak
life into you. Do you feel like a dead man walking, working, paying bills, doing all the
things your supposed to do, but you don’t know why? You don’t really have a purpose?
Jesus is the answer, He is Life, he is the Resurrection, he can resurrect your life,
your marriage, your emotions, your health, he is the life giver.
Have you put your Faith in the Life Giver, Jesus Christ?
Are you focused on Christ or the stink of life? Don’t miss the miracle. Will you respond
this morning?
If God has spoken to your heart about anything this morning, Come and pray, we
need to have an openness about coming forward to pray, it’s not going to hurt, your not
admitting any heinous crime. Your just saying I want to Respond to the Holy Spirit who
has spoke to me this morning. You can pray by yourself, or someone will pray with you,
it’s up to you.
I believe this message was for all of us, let’s spend some time responding to Him,
Nola is coming to play.
