Reviving The Dead Series

OPEN: In 1571, a young farmer named Matthew Wall was about to be married, but he didn’t make it to the altar. The evening before his wedding day he became gravely ill… and “died.” His funeral took place on October 2nd, the preacher preached the eulogy, the bride-to-be wept over his body, and at the appointed hour they closed the casket and carried the body of the young man away to be buried. But as they made their way down the lane to the cemetery, one of the pallbearers slipped on some wet leaves and the coffin crashed to the ground. The person who dropped the casket must have been horrified by what he’d done, but his initial horror was nothing compared to what happened next. It seems that when the casket hit the ground, they heard knocking and yelling from within it. The crash had revived Matthew Wall and he began pounding on the inside of the coffin demanding to be let out.

HE HAD BEEN DEAD… BUT THEN HE CAME BACK TO LIFE

Ephesians 2:1 says that, before you became Christians, “you were dead in your trespasses and sins” (HCSB), and so was I. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, and we were bound for an eternity in hell. But THEN… someone shook our casket. Somebody convinced us that LIFE was better than DEATH, and we pounded on the inside of our coffin. Because we wanted to live! We didn’t want to die and go to hell!

WE HAD BEEN DEAD… BUT THEN WE CAME TO LIFE.

Because someone told us about Jesus! Romans 10:13-15 says “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’”

Somebody had to BUMP our casket. Someone had to “preach” to us. Someone had to share the good news of Jesus Christ so that we’d no longer be dead in our trespasses and our sins.

Who was that somebody? Who invited you? Was it your preacher/ Your parents/ Your friends or a neighbor?

ILLUS: There was an extensive survey conducted in 2002 by the Lilly Foundation. They interviewed 300,000 worshippers in 2,200 churches, representing 8 denominations and found that that 3/4s of churchgoers went to church for the 1st time because someone invited them.

So, who invited you?

The New Testament is filled with stories about people who invited other people to see Jesus. John 1:40-41 tells us that “One of the two who heard John (the Baptist) speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon (Peter) and said to him, "We have found the Messiah”

Then in John 1:44-46 we read that “Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote - Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."

Neither of these men were trained preachers. Andrew was a fisherman, but we haven’t got a clue what Philip did for a living. But these WEREN’T Bible College trained men. They were just like the rest of the original 12 disciples. They were just common, ordinary men that Jesus called to follow Him. And one of the very first things… we learn about these 2 guys was that they asked someone they knew to come and meet Jesus. And because they did that!!! God praised them by telling us their story… right here in the gospel of John.

Even John the Baptist didn’t do much more than that. In John 1:35 we’re told “The next day again John (the Baptist) was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" And … that’s all he said to them. All John the Baptist did was point to Jesus and say – He’s the one you want to follow! He can do more for you than I can! And when the 2 disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. And that changed their lives forever.

Now, granted… Jesus DID approach various other people and talk with them, but for the most part, the people

who JESUS taught and healed - most of those were brought to Him by others.

There’s a famous evangelist (J. Wilbur Chapman) who said that “The New Testament tells of 40 people who were healed by Jesus of the same disease. Of this number, 34 were either brought to Jesus by friends, or He was taken to them. In only 6 cases out of forty did the sufferers find the way to Jesus without assistance.”