God bless you and greetings in the name of Jesus Christ
Yesterday we saw the difficult and perplexing dilemma Jesus worked through, and now we will see the deliverance as Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.
John 11:38-39:
Jesus therefore again groaning in himself [In verse 33 it said, groaning in the spirit; the usage that meant “in himself.”] cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. 39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
We cannot do this, Jesus. He stinks! He is decaying.
John 11:40-41:
Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? 41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said. . . .
We are going to see that he prays here. We will see, also, that he does not pray for God to raise Lazarus. He is praying, but he is not praying to God to get Lazarus up. Look at his prayer. He says:
John 11:41b-43:
. . .And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. [And, he is praying by revelation out loud.] 42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. 43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice. . .
And then he speaks to Lazarus. He speaks to the dead body.
John 11:43b:
. . .Lazarus, come forth.
And Jesus is still calling today. People, come out of your graves of unbelief! Come unto me and have a more abundant life!
John 11:44:
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
Did he walk out of there? No, he did not. How could he walk? He is bound hand and foot. He did not walk out of there. God moved him out of there. Now, Lazarus had to respond; Lazarus had to agree, but he was bound hand and foot; he did not hop out like a mummy. He came out; God brought him out. He was transported just like Jesus was transported; just like Enoch was transported; just like Philip was transported. It was not until he came out that they loosed him.
John 11:44b-45:
. . .Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go. 45 Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.
That is what we are supposed to do; we are supposed to believe on him. He declared his will. He said what he wanted, and it is time. “Get out of your grave.” “Come on, get up.” It is the same cry today for you and I; it’s the same cry today for God’s people. Get out of your graves! Get out of your hideouts! Get out of your caves! Come on out and help! Come on out and get involved. There is more for you to do, Lazarus! Come out of that grave! You cannot die yet; your life is not over. God needs you! God needs you! God needs our help! Come on out of the grave! And he came out. He came forth!
That is the challenge all of us have. . . to get out of our graves, to get out of our hideouts, to get out of our fears, to get out of our weakness, to get out of our shame, to get out of our guilt, to get out of whatever holds us back from moving with God and to move and to do what He has called us to do. To heal ― to love ― to teach ― to minister ― to give ― to serve. That is really what we want. That is what the relationship with God allows us to do. He has touched our lives and our hearts, and He wants us to do the same for God’s people. We are His hands, His feet. He works with us. We are laborers together with Him. What a joy! What a way to live life! What a privilege we have; our God is so good. and so big, and there is so much we can do.
The world binds us up. We may be still breathing, but we are all wrapped up in dead clothes, just waiting for the digger. Only we can change it. God says there is life out there; there are things to do. This is a big body of Christ. There are people all over this world that need to hear this stuff. They need to hear the Word of Godlike we have; they need to hear about the Word of Life! Then they will to be able to walk in victory.
We are thinking about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, but it is so much more than that. People are dead. Christians are dead wrapped up in their grave clothes. All bound up in the world trying to figure out what life’s all about and having all kinds of problems. Cut yourself loose. Yes, we have problems and challenges, but we can face them down. Just spit them out! Spit them out, because you have got the Lord Jesus Christ inside. Boy, when you really believe that, it will be a new day for you. It really will. It will be more than words on a page.
We are all unique, and God has a special program for us, each one of us. We will be doing things we never thought about doing, going places you have never thought about going, and seeing things we never thought were possible to see, only to be read about ― but, all of a sudden ― we are in the middle of it. It is written, and we are part of it. Now, that is living!