We Are Dead Without Jesus

PROBLEM

  • There is a dark side to this story.  Jesus disappointed Lazarus. Sometimes he uses the things he allows as much as he uses the things he directs. If God is truly omnipotent—if he can prevent things from happening, as well as he can cause things to happen. And this means that sometimes we don't understand what he's up to. 
  • Everybody has a Lazarus - something that God was supposed to do/ happen but didn’t.

GOD

John 11:17-27

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

 

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

 

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

 

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

 

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

 

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

  • The word Lazarus literally means the “one who God helps”
  • How does God receive love?

APPLICATION

  1. 1- Regardless how they look, if someone doesn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, they are as spiritually dead as Lazarus was dead
  2. 2- When we are in a relationship with Jesus we still need to be unbound.  Resurrection is perfection.

VISION

  • If my goal in life is to seek his glory rather than just my own comfort, if my goal in life is to seek his will rather than simply to avoid suffering, if I realize that every prayer I pray has beneath it the subtext of "Lord, glorify yourself," that's going to change me. What will that do to conquer my self-centered, selfish, sinful disposition? What will that do to make me love him more and love this world less? What will that do to my ability to walk with him even when I cry out to him in desperation, and he does not answer?
  • If Peter had stood there at the tomb and said, “Lazarus, come out,” nothing would have happened. If Mary and Martha had stood there and said, “Lazarus, come out,” nothing would have happened. It took "the Voice of Life." It took Jesus!
  • The bottom line is: if Jesus can raise Lazarus from the dead, He can deal with any problem you and I will ever have.