What's Your Stench?

• Any Star Wars fans here today?

For me, one of the most iconic lines in the original Star Wars movie, A New Hope is when Princess Leia is brought on board a huge space ship and sees The Empires’ Governor Tarkin and says, “ I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board.”

Today's message is titled "what's your stench?

This word came to me during Pastor Jeffs message on March 6th of this year.

• Have any of you noticed that several of my messages stem from a word from Pastor Jeff?

I’m either super tuned in, or drifting... I’d like to think it’s the former. I’m sure he would too!

• As I began preparing for this word a couple of weeks ago, I thought about the great flood.

We know:

• What Noah did to prepare

• How long it rained

• How long it took the water to recede

• How Noah checked the condition of the earth

• What Noah did when he disembarked the Ark

• But I couldn’t find anything about the stench (go back to this in the closing)

• There must have been an overwhelming stench of death!

-We’ll come back to that-

Todays’ word is taken from the 11th chapter of John.

• It’s the story of Lazarus

• A few notable mentions:

It was the last of seven “signs” revealed in John

It was the last time Jesus showed His glory in public

This story is told only in John

• We’ll pick the story up starting in verse 38:

• Let’s honor God by standing while we read His Word

Read 38-43 (v.44 …shed the dead threads-read that later)

You may be seated.

Let’s go back to verse 38:

“Then Jesus again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it”.

• A couple of thoughts on this verse:

• Jesus Himself would be in a tomb such as this in only a matter of days.

• The Greek translation for groaning in Himself, is a phrase used to express anger. There were some things that happened in the previous verses that lead up to this emotion welling up in Jesus.

• So today I ask you (and when I say you, I mean me) “What’s your stench?” Is it anger?

Let’s look at verse 39:

Jesus said “Take away the stone”. Martha, the sister of him who was dead said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days”.

• Here are some things to consider in this verse:

• Although this is not found in scripture, I did some research on Jewish tradition, and Jewish belief was that a body was not to be considered fully dead until after 4 days. After I read about this tradition, I thought about another movie line found in The Princess Bride. After one of the main characters had been tortured and presumed dead, he is brought back to life and when this happens, one of the other character says “you’ve been mostly dead all day!”.

• Next, Jesus tells them to roll away the stone. If He can raise the dead, surely He can roll a stone away. Why does He need them to do this? This shows us that Jesus never performs unnecessary miracles. By that I mean, if man can do it; Jesus doesn’t need to perform a miracle.

• Next we see that, understandably, Martha is fearful of the stench.

I can’t help but wonder: Is she fearful that she is about to see her brothers decaying body?

Maybe it’s because we sometimes think if we don’t uncover things, we can deny they exist.

But beyond that, in only a few verses earlier in verse 27 Martha says “Yes Lord I believe that You are the Christ, the son of God, who is come into the world”.

So when she says to Jesus, “oh Lord, but the stench”, she is not believing that Jesus will raise Lazarus from the dead. Martha has a confused faith! Fear and faith cannot co-exist.

So, what’s your stench?

Is it a stench of denial? Thinking that if you don’t uncover it or reveal it that it doesn’t exist? James 5:16 tells us “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much”

Is your stench a stench of unbelief?

Or maybe your stench is a stench of confused faith?

Let’s jump to verse 41:

Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said

“Father, I thank You that You have heard me.