Miracles, Part 4: Raising Lazarus from the Dead

(John 14:12)  "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." (John 11:1-4)  Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.  This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.  So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." 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." The Death Trap   ü We don't understand how God works. (John 11:6)  "Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days." (John 11:11-13)  After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up."  His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better."  Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.   ü We get caught up in doubt. (John 11:16)  Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."   ü We give up on God. (John 11:20)  "When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home."   Question:  What in my life is dead or dying? (John 11:25-26)  Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"   1.  Settle in your heart who Jesus is. (John 11:27)  (Martha said) "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world." (John 11:21-22)  "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."  2. Stop analyzing everything. (John 11:38-39)  Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb.  It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.  "Take away the stone," he said.  "But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days." (Romans 4:19-21)  "Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb was also dead.  Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised."   3.  Start living again. (John 10:10)  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 11:43-44)  Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"  The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.  Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." For more information on the vision of Freedom Church, please visit our website at www.freedom-church.org.