Lazarus Lessons: Resurrection – John 11:17-27

30 06 2008

Jesus being “the Resurrection and the Life” tells us the he rules over two things: Life and Death.

Jesus rules over life

1. Because he creates life physically.

  • Jesus was at work in creation.

  • Gen. 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

  • Ps. 139:13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

2. Because he sustains life physically.

  • Col. 1:17 And in him all things hold together.

3. Because he creates life spiritually.

  • 2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

4. Because he sustains life spiritually.

  • Phil 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

  • 1 Thess. 5:23-24 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

 

Jesus rules over death

1. Because death cannot happen without him allowing it.

  • No one has ever died “before their time” from God’s perspective.

  • From the littlest baby to the oldest saint, from the martyr to the war victim. No death ever happens that God says, “whoops, how’d that happen?”

  • He didn’t say to Mary and Martha, “You’re right, if I had only been there he wouldn’t have died.” No, He didn’t say that because it was not true. He could have stopped it had he wanted to do so. He had stopped the death someone before when he was not present with them (John 4:50).  He had greater reasons for not stopping Lazarus’ death that were beyond their understanding.

  • He is as much in control of everyones death as he was in control of his own death.

2. Because he can reverse death at his spoken word.

  • Lazarus Come out!!

3. Because he defeated death himself.

  • When Jesus rose from the grave it was the death of death. The fear of it being the end was obliterated and consumed.

     

Jesus is the Resurrection

1. He is so much in control of resurrection that it is right to call him “The Resurrection.”

2. Because he can raise anyone.

3. Because he is alive himself.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , ,
Categories : Scripture, Sermon

Lazarus Lessons: Sickness – John 11:1-16

28 06 2008

There is truth in this passage that every person needs to know and remember. They need to put it in their heart and mind, because it will be tested.

We should not be surprised at sickness

1. Everyone gets sick – even those who love God get sick.

  • Heb. 9:27 It is appointed unto man to die once and then the judgment.

2. God uses sickness for His glory.

He uses sickness for our good

  • He used Lazarus’ sickness for his own good. 12:10-11

  • Ps. 119:71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

  • Ps. 84:11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

  • George Muller at his wife’s funeral

I said to myself, with regard to the latter part, “no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly”—I am in myself a poor worthless sinner, but I have been saved by the blood of Christ; and I do not live in sin, I walk uprightly before God. Therefore, if it is really good for me, my darling wife will be raised up again; sick as she is. God will restore her again. But if she is not restored again, then it would not be a good thing for me. And so my heart was at rest. I was satisfied with God. And all this springs, as I have often said before, from taking God at his word, believing what he says.

He uses sickness for the good of others.

  • It was good for Mary and Martha

  • It was good for the disciples 14

  • It was good for family and friends 41-42

Two lies we sometimes believe.

These lies have led many to run from God or abandon God altogether.

1. Our sickness and death indicates the weakness of our faith.

  • People with no faith at all are sometimes the healthiest people.
  • People with the strongest faith sometimes go through the worst sicknesses.

2. Our sickness shows God does not love us as much as he does other people.

  • Jesus’ love for you may lead to sickness.
  • Jesus’ love is a perfect love not a pampering love.

When we are sick…

1. It is right to take it to Jesus. 3

2. We find that Jesus has compassion. 35

3. Remember Jesus already knew it was going to happen. 4

4. Remember there is no sickness to great for Jesus.

  • Jesus is not anxious or rushed. He does everything in his perfect timing.

  • If Jesus can conquer the sickness that lead to all other sicknesses, then there is nothing left to fear, even if there is death. 


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , ,
Categories : Scripture, Sermon

The Death of Jesus and Our Joyful Salvation – Eph. 2:11-22

18 03 2008

Jesus Died to bring us near to God. v. 12, 13

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

Jesus didn’t died just to forgive us, He did to bring us to God.

  • “All the words of the gospel lead to [God], or they are not gospel. For example, salvation is not good news if it only saves from hell and not for God. Forgiveness is not good news if it only gives relief from guilt and doesn’t open the way to God. Justification is not good news if it only makes us legally acceptable to God but doesn’t bring fellowship with God. Redemption is not good news if it only liberates us from bondage but doesn’t bring us to God. Adoption is not good news if it only puts us in the Father’s family, but not in his arms.” John Piper (Fifty Reasons why Jesus Came to Die, p 62).

  • You don’t apologize to a friend just because you feel bad. You apologize to restore the friendship.

  • A person who seeks God’s forgiveness just because he doesn’t want to go to hell is like a man who apologizes to his friend saying, “I don’t like that guy, but I’m going to apologize because I need to feel better about myself.”

  • If Jesus’ death doesn’t draw us to God, then we have misunderstood why Jesus died.

  • How do you know if repentance is authentic? Did it draw them to God.

Jesus Died to remove the dividing wall of hostility.

Where did the dividing wall come from? – Our Sin

Sin divides families.

  • It is a devastating thing for families to divide. It has long term consequences. When I a family divides you can blame this or that, but the real cause is sin. Sin is the only cause. If sin were not involved it would not happen. Sin divides. Sin builds a wall.

Sin divides churches.

  • The majority of the time churches divide there is sin involved.

Sin Divides people from God.

  • As terrible as those things are there is something more excruciating and that is the fact that sin divides people from God.

  • Isaiah 59:1-2 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

Jesus Died to destroy the wall.

The Berlin Wall divided families and friend.  When the wall was removed famlies and friends were reunited and there was joy.  If one of those people who was reunited started rebuilding the wall, we would think they were crazy.  If we go one living in sin after Jesus has removed the wall we are crazy, because sin divides us from God and keeps us from him.

Joyful Salvation

It is a choice.

  • You must choose to deny yourself. You must choose to take up your cross. You must choose to follow Jesus. Everyone who has been draw by the Father will choose these things.

It is not a choice between joy and Jesus.

  • Some think that choosing Jesus is like choosing to be miserable. They think it is choosing to live an unhappy life on purpose. They would rather choose to be happy than to choose Jesus.

  • The truth is that surrendering to Jesus is choosing real eternal joy.

Heb. 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

2 Cor. 1:24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.

If we do not delight in the cross then God does not delight in us. Jesus went to the cross with joy, so that we might have joy in him.

How do I return to the joy of my salvation?

1. Think about your sin.

  • How does thinking about my sin help me to return to Joy in my salvation? It doesn’t at first. But if you don’t think about your sin you are sure to never get to Joy.

  • A recent survey by Ellison Research found the 13% of American do not even believe the the concept of sin. If you don’t believe in sin, you don’t need to believe in Jesus’ death on the cross.

2. Think about the death of Jesus.

3. Think about what you have been saved from.


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , ,
Categories : Scripture, Sermon