The Gift of God is Eternal LIfe- John 11.17-44 Cody Harlow

Ch e my set last e who yeah well good morning church can y'all hear me can you hear me can you hear me good morning Merry Christmas hey yeah that hot crowd hot crowd hey it's good to see each and every single one of you here on this beautiful Lord's day and we are getting ready for of course the Christmas day and we're celebrating Advent but before we do that I do have a very special announcement and I want you guys to participate with me in this our wonderful and most handsome worship leader Austin it is his birthday today and so if you guys don't mind we're going to sing Happy Birthday to him in just in the loudest way that you can okay all right doesn't have to sound good but before we get this worship service started we're going to sing Happy Birthday to Austin y'all guys ready ready Happ birthday to you happy birthday to birthday dear happy and you know what you can do that tonight too because we got caroling at 5:00 pm and so that's G to be great we're excited for that so go out have some fun just ministering to the community I know that makes a everyone's Hearts very happy to do that we're going to meet here try to get here at like just a little bit before 5 that way we can get everyone all together and if you need any to answer any questions they come to you right Miss Bo yep and so she's got everything

All squared away and we're GNA we're going to do that also today is our lty moon Christmas offering and after Behold our God that's a song that we're going to be singing we're going to have a time where you come forward to give specific Bally to the L Moon L Moon Christmas offering and what that does is it goes every penny goes outside of our church we don't take a dime of it goes to support International missions literally all around the globe and so that's going to be a time for you if you have a cash or check there should be an envelope around you that has the Lymon Christmas offering on there of course everything goes into there will go to that this is an offering above and beyond your tithe because we still have bills to pay we still have the lights to keep on we still have all these different things that we like to do and Ministry to do and so that's going to be happening in the service today so but before we go any further I do want to introduce to you someone that we know pretty well her name is Hannah Cyprus and she was in town and she said I want to give an update to the church about what God's doing in my Ministry I said awesome since you're in town let's do it so if y'all would welcome Miss Hannah to the [Applause] stage yes I hi I know a lot of you some of you I don't but first of all I want to just thank all of you for welcoming me and many other students that I've been through the last however many years for myself for the last two years years I've been gone since April so I haven't seen you guys a lot but yeah just really appreciative of the young adult group I was been able to be a part of and even this last week just join in them with some different activities again and go with the youth group and engage with them again this past Wednesday so thank

You for that little update of where I'm at in Ministry I've been back in Michigan since April April doing support raising and just engaging with my home church and people around there and my hope is to move down to the home office in Sanford Florida to serve as an administrative assistant and as the food service coordinator down there I like I said I've really enjoyed this time of just engaging with people and spending quality time with them that's just been fulltime and yeah my hope is to move down in February I'm just doing well with that and so yeah just want to give you guys an update of where I'm at and some of you know I've been dealing with some back issues too for the last year and a half and I mean I'm still dealing with them but it's getting better and strengthening so thank you for those prayers and I think that's that's it really so if you haven't been able to keep in touch with Hannah and Her Ministry be sure to connect with her that way you can get on her mailing list so that way you can get all of the information whether it's through Facebook or email she could use that encouragement and those prayers and we're just thankful that the Lord brings some of these students that we typically don't get to see back so praise the Lord for that now I know that there's a lot of you here that are excited for our meet and greet time and I can see it on your face that you're excited to look at your neighbor and shake their hands and say Merry Christmas welcome to First Baptist Church go for it guys e real well good morning church it's good to see you all today good morning it's good to be in the house of the Lord this morning am thank you all for the birthday wishes I

Am however a little bit perplexed as to why Cody turned his mic off in the middle of I don't know but thank you all very much at this point in our service we're we like to just take a moment to Bow our heads and close our eyes and ask the Lord to prepare our hearts and our minds for worship so I'd invite you to do that now to just take a moment between you and our Lord and ask him to prepare you if you're with your families or friends feel free to pray out loud with each other and over each other during this time but just take a moment Lord I pray that this morning you would help us to put off the distractions that we all have Lord help us to put down those the anger that we might be feeling or the hurt that we might be experiencing Lord help us to lay those things at your feet because Lord you have promised that your yoke is easy and your burden is light Lord help us help us then to rely fully on you in those things and Lord this morning I pray that you would help us to direct our minds and our hearts on you help us to focus to seek your face and Lord help us to worship remind us of who you are and what you've done and let us pour that out in Praise this in Jesus name we pray amen I'd invite you to stand and join me as we sing together Joy to the World the Lord Has [Music] Come Joy to the World the Lord is let Earth receive the king let every heart beare him and heaven and nature sing and heaven and Heaven [Music] nature Joy to the Earth theor but their songs while fields and FL Hills Andes repeat the sounding repeat the sounding Joy repeat

[Music] Joy [Music] androws the ground he comes to make His blessings as the curse is found as the Cur is found as the Cur [Music] is he rules the world with truth and praise and makes the Nations the glories of his rightousness and wonders of his love and [Music] and of the Lord is come the Savior Reigns today amen you all can be seated as the bans come forward to do our Advent candle reading today we light the first two candles of the Advent wreath the candle of Hope and the candle of peace now we light the third candle of Advent this is the candle of joy as the coming of Jesus our Savior draws nearer our joy builds with our anticipation of his birth from the book of Isaiah we read the words of Our Lord Isaiah 6518 but be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create for behold I create Jerusalem to be a joy and her people to be a gladness from the New Testament the words of Paul to the people of the church at galatia Galatians 5:22 through2 but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control against such things there is no law and those who belong toist Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires if we live by the spirit let us also keep in step with the spirit let us pray we joyfully praise you oh Lord for fulfilling your promise of a Savior and what that means in our lives we thank you for the gift of Salvation through the birth of your son Jesus create us a new as we wait for his return and help us to see your glor Glory as you fill

Our lives with joy and with your Living spirit amen we ask that you continue to sing with us as we sing Oh Come All Ye [Music] Faithful Oh Come Ye Faithful joyful and trium Oh Come Me Oh Come me to [Music] be and Behold Him born the king of angels oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore in Christ the [Music] Lord sing choirs of Angels sing in EX for sing all he bright [Music] glory to God all glory in the highest oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore him oh come let us adore in Christ the Lord we G on this happy morning Jesus to the all glory give word of the father now in flesh appearing come let us adore him oh come let us adore him oh come let us [Music] Christ oh come let us adore him come let adore him oh come let us [Music] adore Christ you may be seated as our ushers come forward to take up the offering good morning let's pray dear Lord thank you for today thank you for allowing us to be here thank you for this church we are truly one

Family Lord thank you for your love your mercy and your forgiv Lord bless again in the book of Isaiah in chapter 25 we read will swallow up death forever and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the Earth for the Lord has spoken it will be said in that day behold This Is Our God we have waited for him that he might save us this is the Lord we have waited for him let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation this next song we're going to sing is called Behold our God and as we sing it we talk about the God who has held the oceans in his hands The God Who created all things and The God Who provided away for salvation and as we're singing this I want you to be thinking about this is the Christ that we celebrate they AR this is part of the godhead this little baby lying in a Manger is the same one who spake the world into existence and that's who we worship this morning together let's sing [Music] together who has help o in his who has every grain of S Kings and Nations tremble his voice all creation Rises to [Music] me Our God Seated on his throne come let us adore him [Music] behold King nothing can compare come let us [Music] adore

[Music] who has GI counsel to the Lord who can question any of his words who can teach the one who knows all things who can all his [Music] wonderous Behold our God Seated on his throne come let us adore him Behold our King nothing can compare [Music] come has SP the nails upon his head all the guilt of sinful men God Eternal humble to the Grave Jesus Savior risen out to before God on his thr come let us adore him behold King nothing can compare come let us [Music] adore will rain for GL will rain let your glor your [Music] glor will [Music] will glor will your glor will your glor

God Seated on his throne come let us behold King nothing can compare come let [Music] us he is worthy of our adoration amen he came he died on our beh and he is risen again and he's coming back again for us that's what we celebrate this morning that's what we celebrate the whole Christmas season the Risen Christ at this time we're going to have our L Moon Christmas alfing and so we're inviting you to come forward and participate in that if you have forgotten to think about it and pray about it already we also invite you at this time to just pray over this offering if you don't know this every dollar of this offering goes to support Southern Baptist missionaries so that's the whole purpose of this so we invite you now to come or to pray and then we'll close by singing Silent Night [Music] Together [Music] let's sing [Music] together Holy [Music] Night all is C all isg child holy inant so and Heavenly peace sleep in heaven Lord we thank you for that little manger God we thank you for condescending coming down to this earth to save your own creation the we were but

Rebels Lord I pray that you would remind us through this Christmas season through all the symbols through all the traditions of the great work that you have done for the Salvation of humanity Lord let us not be complacent with that but Lord I pray that you would you would make it infest every part of our celebrations this year it's in Jesus name we pray amen well if you if you have your Bible and I hope that you do please turn with me to John chapter 11 am I coming through okay all right there we go now I am we're studying this morning the fourth of the 7 AM sayings of Christ and today we're talking about death and life and before you go and tell me Well Pastor death isn't very christmy let me remind you of Charles Dickens first words in the book Christmas carol which says Marley was dead to begin with and you can't get Much More christmy Than A Christmas Carol but you know there's always been death surrounding the Christmas season I was so one of the things that I used to do as a teenager is I used my stepdad he used to work for a funeral home and so we would oftentimes go and pick up bodies and sometimes I'd go and I'd pick them up with him pretty early in the morning and then he'd have to drop me off at school while I'm hopping out and there's a corpse in the back so I kind of got a little bit of a reputation with that but it always seemed that we would we would go and retrieve bodies maybe a little bit more around the Christmas season than usual and so I decided to do some research on that in a 2010 article in the social science and medicine Journal author David Phillips he writes conclusively medical journal there are more natural deaths on December 25th December 26th and on the New Year's Day than any other day throughout the year so take that for

What it is but you know actually we look at the Christmas story in the Bible and we see death even in the Christmas story you see the wise men being warned warning Joseph to flee to flee from Bethlehem into Egypt because King Herod wanted to kill the Christ child you even see the Japanese defeating the British on Christmas day 1941 to take control of Hong Kong a Christmas day is a day where we don't just look back to the little baby in the manger but also we look forward to our Christ on the cross that's what the Christmas season is all about the innocent hands of that baby boy would remain pure and sinless all the way to the Cross where he would be the propitiation of our sin now propitiation is a Biblical word it's not a the it is a theological word but it's a Biblical word and propitiation means to satisfy the wrath of God that's what the baby means at Christmas but before Christ went to the Cross he had his most famous Miracle to perform and it is the Apex of Christ's Ministry and that's what we're going to talk about today we are talking about how the gift of God is eternal life and so if you would please stand with me in honor of God's word as we read John Chapter 11 verses 17- 44 God's word says this now when Jesus came he found that Lazarus had already been in the Tomb four days Bethany was near Jerusalem about 2 miles off and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother so when Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went and met him but Mary remained seated in the house Martha said to Jesus Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died but even now I know that whatever you ask from God will give you Jesus said to her your brother will rise again Martha said to him I know that he will rise again in the Resurrection on the last

Day Jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live and everyone who lives and Believes In Me shall never die do you believe this she said to Himes Lord I believe that you are the Christ the son of God who is coming into the world when she had said this she went and called her sister Mary saying in private the teacher is here and he is calling for you when she heard it she Rose quickly and went to him now Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him when the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out they followed her supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him she fell at his feet saying to himl if you had been here my brother would not have died' when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled and he said where have you laid him they said to him Lord come and see Jesus wept so the Jews said see how he loved him but some of them said could not he who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying then Jesus deeply moved again came to the tomb it was a cave and a stone stone laid against it Jesus said take away the stone Martha the sister of the dead man said to him Lord by this time there will be an odor for he has been dead four days Jesus said to her did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God so they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said father I thank you that you have heard me I knew that you always hear me but I said this on to the people

Standing around that they may believe that you sent me when he said these things he cried out with a loud voice Lazarus come out the man who had died came out his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth Jesus said to them unbind him and let him go and so God we do thank you that you are the resurrection and the life that the hope that we have right now is not just a temporary hope until we die but is an eternal hope based upon the eternal life that we've received by faith in your son Jesus Christ and I just pray that above everything else that today we would know you the resurrection and the life and that if there's anyone here that doesn't know you Lord that you would work mightily Lord use me in my weakness God use me in spite of all that I have going on May your Holy Spirit move this morning Among Us in Jesus name amen well there's a not so famous cover of Time Magazine it's from June 22nd 2009 there's a photo of a hospital bed and it says how not to end up here it's it's a good issue to read right no one wants to end up there and a lot of people they want to avoid the hospital bed the sick bed the death bed right and you look down here it's it's all about prevention okay it's all about prevention if you don't want to go to the hospital it's all about being healthy now making decisions and adjustments to your health to your diet to your exercise all of that stuff if you don't want to end up there it starts now but let me ask you this how many of us are going to wind up there anyways we're all going to wind up on the sick bed or on the deathbed at some point in time each and every single one of us it doesn't matter how much prevention that we do because it is

Appointed under man to die once every single one of us will go through it's inevitable unless Christ returns and for us as 21st century Americans death can look pretty nice if you think about it folks down at hedge of Scott Funeral Home they can make us look pretty good funeral homes they have professional makeup artists that can make you look just as good if not even better than many of us looked at any point in time than we were but you know what we're still dead people you know they used to be putting these wooden boxes caskets you know real rudimentary and they were they would be carried around in horong carriages and things like that you know but you don't die like that today today you die in style right you know if you've if you've never gotten to lay down on a satin pillow guess what but in your casket there is going to be a and we're talking we're not just talking about like a little casket we're talking about a bronze lined casket and it's going to have his comfy pillow I don't know why the pillow's there no clue whatsoever I'm sure that Tim and joy can tell you all about that but if you've if you've never gotten a chance to ride in a fancy car or limousine guess what you're gonna get that chance when you die but you're still going to be dead back in the day a call often it would be lowered into the ground by ropes but not today right now they got these nickel plated racks that they'll carefully lower you down into there I mean it's every part of your death is carefully orchestrated but guess what you're still dead whether it's a coffin or a casket a limousine or a horse carriage Nickel Plate a machine or a rope you're still dead

A fancy death or funeral does not change that reality but I think that's really important for us to note that this is a universal problem if you're taking notes write that down it's a universal problem every single person is going to die now there are exceptions like Lazarus he got to experience that twice anyone jealous of him I didn't think so it's interesting because Jesus had has a very different view of death than you or I do if we look back at John 11 veres 3 and 4 we didn't read that but we learn that Lazarus is deeply loved by who Jesus deeply loved and he's sick and that illness as Jesus says doesn't lead to death but then we read in verse 14 that Lazarus has what died so how can those things be true it's not simply that the sickness doesn't lead to death because it sure does seem to say sure does seem to us to lead that way right none of us want to go through that I think it's important for us to note this thing is that Jesus's love resulted in delay how long did he delay he stuck around for an extra couple of days look at John 11 verse 5 and six it says this now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus so when he heard that Lazarus was Ill he stayed two days longer in the place where he was now many of us we would look at that and go why if Jesus really had such a deep and Abiding Love for Lazarus why would he delay why wouldn't he drop everything that he's doing and go and visit why wouldn't he go and heal well I think that part of that is that Jesus only did what the father command commanded him to do he said that on multiple occasions we also know that while death was part of the plan that God had for Lazarus it wasn't the end it's not the end of his

Story many times a Believer we may pray for deliverance we may pray for healing but God's plan is not for your will to be done the reason why we pray and we come to the father is maybe so that way our will would align a little bit more with what his will is for our lives and Jesus's plan was to allow Lazarus to die this is why Christ delayed and Jesus's delay resulted in Lazarus's death and we may look at that and think that's disgusting Christ must be some sort of moral monster to allow a friend to die when he was totally able to prevent it but let's remember this it's not like Christ actually had to be there with Lazarus in order to heal him did he I mean we know the story of the Centurion servant who just at the word Christ was able to heal him from a great distance and he was healed surely Christ could have done the same so it's not even the delay it's that it was part of God's good plan for Lazarus it was part of God's good plan based upon what John wrote here for us to understand that Jesus really is the resurrection and the life and God's plan for you it may be through the valley of the shadow of death it may be in the midst of the valley of dry bones but if you're a Believer you can trust in God's good and perfect plan because he has a great love for you it's a great place to say Amen now we know the truth and we have the advantage of God's complete Revelation through his word but for Mary and Martha they don't have this knowledge they don't know about Christ's saving and resurrecting power so they're dismayed they're disappointed they're discouraged totally understandable and that's how Mary and

Martha felt so we're going to see how Jesus goes to this town of Bethany and when word begins to spread that Jesus is on his way we see Mary and Martha they deal with this in two different ways now I don't know about you guys but I oftentimes relate with Martha maybe a bit more than Mary's like who I want to be Martha is who I am right and Martha she just she goes she goes to Jesus and she says Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died but even now I know that whatever you ask from God will give you I want you to note this that there's no despair in what Martha says Martha's meeting wasn't filled with despair but rather a cautious confidence maybe even a not fully realized confidence in her faith in Jesus Christ have you ever been to the funeral of a Believer or an unbeliever there's a big difference there there's a huge difference one is filled with despair one's filled with confusion and sorrow the other is filled with hope and joy and yet tears but also peace but Believers we mourn with hope we grieve with comfort knowing ourselves that death is not the end for those who are in Christ the end for us is not simply life eternal with heaven in heaven with God it's also that we get to be with God forever in truly resurrected bodies in a new Heaven and a new Earth made complete by the Lord in the last day and I remember visiting do you guys remember Eileen buts you guys remember I she was she was a wonderful Saint you know her dad was one of the last circuit riding hor back preachers in Missouri right and you just think that's like that's living history right there it's amazing but we were talking about the resurrection in the last day and stuff

She said pastor you know the doctors have replaced so many parts of me with metal I don't know if there's a lot left to resurrect of course she smiled at me she was a witty woman and I miss her a lot but of course she knew that Christ would fully resurrect her and make her body whole and healed but Mar Jesus Promised Martha in verse 23 your brother will rise again and Martha agrees but she gets the timing wrong and she thinks that Jesus is offering Comfort but Jesus is actually offering the solution this is this is because Jesus's promise was misunderstood Jesus wasn't offering platitudes he's offering peace and I admire Martha a bit here because she's the one that is actually pursuing Christ a bit here like she's sharing her heart with faith and she's received the message wrong like she doesn't understand it but at least she's listening that's better than a lot of Christians that I Know Myself included the second point that I think we should write down is the best Proclamation the best Proclamation Jesus he says to her I am the resurrection and the life here's that phrase again in the in the Greek ego I am once again Jesus is making the claim to be God himself God Almighty and the claim here is that he is the death of death and that he is the life of life it is not enough for Jesus to say that he just simply brings Resurrection although that's true it's not enough for him to say that he brings life it's that he is the that's definite article the resurrection and the life period that is who Jesus is and don't miss that don't skip out on that don't zone out on me because the same Christ that arrived here on Earth the same

Christ that healed people and performed Miracles the same Christ that was perfect and blameless in every way before God the Father the same Christ that laid down his life for the Sheep is the resurrection and the life who died and rose again and he has obtained eternal life on behalf of us he had eternal life but he secured it for every single person that would turn away from their sin and look to the cross and Believe In The Name Of The Lord Jesus Christ and this is why Jesus says whoever believes in me though he die yet shall he live and everyone who lives and Believes In Me shall never die do you believe this you see the simple truth is when we believe in Jesus's death for our sins and his burial and his resurrection then that belief translates in God's economy to eternal life for us Martha said yes I believe and I pray that today that is your confession as well but Christ's work wasn't done Jesus he sent Martha back to Mary where's Mary why didn't she come with you she is waiting Mary's encounter is a bit different she is called by the master to appear before him and she says the exact same thing to Christ verbatim look at it Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died and yet there's not this great big proclamation of Faith it's just weeping and Jesus doesn't scold her he doesn't tell her you just got to have more faith instead he is moved by her sorrow and her grief and in his Spirit he is troubled and if we if we read this word in our own language maybe we think of Jesus just you know just weeping down and breaking down but that word in the Greek is actually a lot different than what we understand it's the Greek

Word Emi EMB I worked on that for a while and it means to tremble but if you look at other Greek texts right in the coin Greek it's often times referred to a horse snorting in battle right and so as we understand this is not about Jesus being troubled in a sorrowful way yes that is part of it because Jesus did weep we do know that but what was the motivation behind it that's what John is communicating here and it's not about sorrow but it's about anger what I mean by this and all the commentators are unanimous on this for example gr Beasley Murray he offers in this translation that Jesus became angry in spirit da Carson says that he was outraged in spirit BB Warfield he comments forcefully what John tells us in point of fact is that Jesus approached the grave of Lazarus in a state not of uncontrollable grief but inexpressible anger now let me qualify this because I know someone's like I'm not getting this Cody Jesus is angry in the same way that Jesus was angry with the money changers in the temple not because he doesn't have the power or the confidence that his beloved friend died and he may or may not be able to raise him up on you know but the fact is that death is The Last Enemy to be destroyed he is the enemy of humanity this death ever since the fall it has been the number one grief that every single human being has had to pass through all of his most beloved Creations have had to go through death and Jesus came to destroy that enemy thank the Lord he came to destroy that enemy and thanks be to God that Christians we have confidence that even though we may still die barring Christ's return it's not the end

But we gain eternal life in Christ the third point that I think that we should write down here is the Lord's pity the pity now pity isn't a very common word that we use it means sympathetic sorrow for someone who is you know really sad distressed and I think that we should note a few points here if we look at verses 28 through 37 and I wish that we had a lot more time to dive in here I really wish that we did but I want you to note three things very quickly firstly Mary she waited on the Lord's calling Martha she went after the Lord Mary waited sometimes if you're like me you're busy doing and going and finding and pursuing but God also calls us to be like Mary here and wait and remain until we are called and God calls us to himself and he does so with Mary and so she gets up Suddenly and it was so sudden that everyone was kind of put off where is Mary going oh she must be going to the tomb to grieve let's follow her there but she heads instead in the opposite direction she's going out of the village and she finds Jesus who is waiting for her and when she sees him she falls down at his feet she bows down and she talks with Jesus honestly and Mary is filled with grief and Jesus he sees Mary and she he sees all the crowds they're weeping they're sorrowful there's tears it's a sad occasion and Jesus he is moved with compassion for his friends where have you laid him come and see and Jesus wept as well and when we come to Jesus with our sorrows with our griefs with our pains he listens to our hearts intently because he cares for us with a Savior's love your sorrow and your grief is not a little thing to Jesus your broken heart your grief is actually a powerful thing to God and he doesn't get angry with our sorrow when he was angry it wasn't about Mary and

Martha he was angry about death and God works in powerful ways in the midst of our sorrow whether it's sorrow over loss he teaches us that he is sufficient if it's sorrow over sin he teaches us that he is our righteousness when it sorrow over a lost relationship he proves that he is closer than a brother it is when we express our grief to the Lord that we see God do some of the most wonderful works and the Lord he has such a deep love for you more than you could ever possibly know or comprehend and if you don't believe me then look to the Cross how much love would it take for you to die on behalf of one Wicked person and yet who Among Us can say that we are not Wicked apart from Christ and Jesus drank the full cup of God's Wrath for Wicked sinners like myself and you what a love but there's always critics some people they looked at Jesus and they said look how much he loved Lazarus and then other people they were asking well if he could heal a man born blind couldn't he have healed Lazarus if he's really who he says he is it's the same attitude of the Pharisees and the fact is that wounding someone in their grief is some of the most unloving it's the most unloving thing that someone can do and so Christ he weeps with those who weep just as we are commanded to do and he goes to the tomb of Lazarus and he stands outside of the Tomb now this tomb it had a stone Laying across it this is the traditional site of Lazarus's Tomb this picture was taken back in about 1900 you can still see it today you can still go you can still visit and there's a street in front of it now which is sad but you can still go there it's a holy site it's a it's a preserved site you can still go and you can see where it was that Jesus said these

Words Jesus he lived perfectly in every way perfectly even by faith only doing what the father commanded and I believe that this leads us to the last point which is the miraculous plan the miraculous plan you see Jesus's plan was for Lazarus to die Jesus's plan included all the sorrow and all of the grief that goes along with death it included all of his own tears and all of his trembling but it also included a step of faith Jesus came to this tomb and he said take away the stone this would be like exhuming a body shortly after a funeral this is a total social FAA and Mary and Martha always the one to speak up and speak out she reminds him Lord by this time there will be an odor for he has been dead for four days and this is this is important and I pray that you would really allow for me to get a little gory here because we do live in the 21st century we have things like you know preservation of bodies that they did not have back in that time and so I read another medical article about the decomposition of a human body I'll skip some of the worst stuff but in 24 to 72 hours the internal organs are decomposed they're gone already eaten up by bacteria in 3 to 5 days the body is bloating and congealed blood leaks from the mouth and nose thankfully we don't have to deal with that in today's world I am thankful for funeral homes but I want you to think that was death throughout the vast majority of human history it progresses it gets worse much worse from there but we're talking about four days here and so that's what they were expecting to find in there and that's exactly what they found they found a

Corpse and that's what Martha wants to avoid she wants to remember her brother for who he was Jesus looks at her and says didn't I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God when he asked her earlier she said yes I believe and now that she's here at the tomb she has to put her faith into practice and that's when she just allows the Lord to take over and that's one of the things that we have to do is you know sometimes we have a called to believe God's word says this and I know what the easy thing to do is but I know what the obedient thing to do is God which direction should I go and it's always the path of obedience this is her stepping aside and letting God be God and lead her this can be scary for believers at times and that's because our faith is not a theoretical faith our faith is intended and designed to be real and living and actual we believe that Jesus and that God is the Almighty the Triune God of the ages and that he can do whatever he pleases and yet when it comes to how this actually plays out practically in our lives we can be filled with fear or anxiety and uncertainty but the path of Christ is a path of faith for you and I sometimes it may be that God calls us to take an uncertain step it could be that there's steps of uneasiness when following the Lord by faith you know over the last couple of years we've had some wonderful friends join us from other states who have moved to our community from States like U Washington Arizona Ohio Wisconsin there are so many people from so many different areas and you just think wow they all landed here at First Baptist Church of Candon and some of those Journeys they were hard steps to take they were and some of those maybe not so

Much but the question that we should ask ourselves in light of Martha's response is am I stepping aside and allowing the Lord to take over the situation or am I standing in the way of what God wants to do of course the Lord he will have his way God he eventually got his people into the promis land he had to destroy an entire generation and it took 40 years but God he is far more patient with us than we deserve and he also knows when to ask the hard questions and to prompt us when to act and so they took away the stone and it smelled Jesus yet without performing a miracle he looked to the father and he prayed aloud a prayer of thanks this was before it was done because for Christ it was done he knew what would happen he had faith that would happen he is teaching the people around him that he is the resurrection and the life and the whole purpose of Lazarus being raised to life is not to raise him back that's not the whole end goal the purpose was so that those who see all of this would believe that Jesus truly is the Son of God that's the whole purpose here that's the theme of the book of John that's why John writes in CH 20:31 these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name that's why John included the wonderful interaction between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3:16 that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life in John 6:40 it says for this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the son and believes in Him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day John 5:4 truly truly I say to you whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life he does not come into judgment but has passed from Death to life amen this is the last note here is that

A dead man is raised Lazarus he says come out and the man who had died came out many atheists they would look at this and scoff and they say see this is just a fairy tale but you've seen the tomb we know based off the witnesses that he came to life many of the people that saw all this were not followers of Christ until they saw this and we know even from church history that Lazarus Mary and Martha they had to get out of Dodge they had to leave Bethany because the Pharisees wanted to kill them they wanted to put Lazarus to death because so many people were coming to know Jesus and he went on to plant a church on the island of Cyprus and Lazarus was there and he served as an elder in that church until 63 ad we know that what a what a wonderful Lord that he invites us to partake in the lifegiving power of Christ he invites you to know him and it's clearly displayed in the case of Lazarus he is the one who is the resurrection and the life for you and I and we will pass into the cold Embrace of death one day but we can also take confidence that as Believers we do not have to be fearful of death but we can look forward into passing into eternal because we know that we will live forever in heaven with God we will be raised up on that last day with perfect Immortal bodies that are not in pain anymore and so what will you do with all this well firstly if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ then trust in Jesus right now don't wait don't delay don't put it off Christ has eternal life and he offers it freely to you must turn from sin you must turn to God and believe in Jesus Christ don't resist him who can believe in Jesus is death burial and

Resurrection and you will be saved and when you do that your eternity is secure your life is changed because now you get to walk by faith you get to stand aside and you allow God to be God and lead you and work you can do that right now so don't do that trust in Jesus as the resurrection and the life today head heart hand head I want you to know that God may not plan to heal you on this side of Eternity that may not be his will we can pray that it is and oftentimes that's my prayer for you is that you would be healed But ultimately we should pray for God's will to be done and if God receives more glory in our death than in our life then praise praise the Lord amen heart I want you to believe that in spite of death we Believers will live forever with Christ by faith that's how we live that's how we walk that's how we have our being what peace and hope this gives us to live in this world with confidence that this is not our home we're going to think back on 2020 through 2023 and all the craziness as though it were just m a second 40,000 years from now when we're worshiping Before the Throne of God yeah that was a crazy second wasn't it hand I want you to take time to study the resurrection of Christ and to remind yourself of the eternal life that is yours in him thank the Lord for his peace and the joy that we have in Jesus amen Lord we just thank you so much for the fact that you are the resurrection and the life and if there's anyone here that maybe they don't know you maybe they've never repented of their sins and trusted in you I pray that today would be that day that today they would they would profess faith in you that they would come forward or during the song or shake my hand say Pastor I'm I'm ready to I'm ready to

Be a part of the family how do I do that we can settle that today but Lord also we pray that you would continually help us as Christians Lord to live like this is true not in a theoretical way to say oh yeah I get to live for eternity but to live our lives like eternity actually counts more than tomorrow help us God to do it with grateful hearts and love knowing that you are the sovereign and supreme God of everything and we can come to you with all of our needs and all of our wants and all of our desires and that you care for us that you condescend to us Lord even in the midst of our grief and our sorrow Lord it's it's that when we share our hearts that moves your moves your hands so powerfully in our lives not just as fix it but also to change our hearts to realize more about who you are and what you've done we ask that you would work powerfully in our minds today in our hearts help us to be United with you in Jesus name amen let's stand and let's worship [Music] together who has hel the otions in his hased every grain of sand kings and Nations tremble at his voice all creation Rises to REO behold God Seated on his throne come let us adore him [Music] behold nothing can compare come let us [Music] adore has G counsel to the Lord who can any of his words who can teach the one who knows all things who can

And all his wonderous Deeds be God Seated on his thr come let us adore him Behold our King nothing can come there come let us [Music] adore has felt the nails upon his head bearing all the guilt of sinful God Eternal humble to the Grave Jesus Savior is to Behold our God Seated on his throne come let us adore him Behold our King nothing can come let us [Music] adore let's sing that chorus one more time Behold our God Seated on hisone let us [Music] adore us [Music] am amen hey thank you so much Church for worshiping with us today I want to take one quick thing is that this young couple up here on the second row they were married in this Sanctuary 50 years ago earlier this week and so if you see C Larry and Kath cath ah Kathy gonna say Kathleen Larry and Kathy be sure to hug their necks and say congratulations I love you [Applause] Church