YOUR BROTHER WILL RISE AGAIN

 LAZARUS SICKNESS AND DEATH

  John 11:17-17:27
Why was Lazarus sick? Why did Jesus wait two days after hearing Lazarus was sick? Why did Lazarus have to die? The questions are endless.

And so are the questions we often have as we go through our own type of difficulty and dillema. The "whys" of life can drive you crazy.

Before us today is a look at "Personal Crisis." By that I mean personal trouble. We watch the news, and we’re troubled. We read the newspaper, and we’re troubled. But when the trouble comes to our own house, we are not only troubled, but often we’re terrified!

This is a Personal Crisis. But we’re also looking at "Personal Christianity." It’s about your personal commitment to and trust in Christ. What we are in Christ will be revealed in the midst of a personal crisis. A PERSONAL CRISIS WILL TEST YOUR PERSONAL CHRISTIANITY.

Understand that Jesus loved Lazarus. The Bible is very clear on that. Jesus loved him, but Lazarus was sick! You can be a saint and still be sick! That’s pretty clear in the scriptures. The love of God does not exempt one from sickness, nor sorrow.

Sickness, in the context we’ll use it, could be a number of things. Physical, emotional, mental, family problems, and so on. Sickness can be termed as "that which causes any area to be infected with imperfection." (The human nature is infected with sin. We are SIN-SICK.)

Yet knowing that God loves us, should serve as a sustaining force that gives us hope! Yet, hope is hard to have when "your brother is dead." When Jesus showed up, Lazarus had been dead and in the grave for 4 days. There may be an area in your life, which you were hoping would recover, that has "died." It seems hopeless.

The word of the Lord to you today is: YOUR BROTHER WILL RISE AGAIN! You have not seen the last of your brother. Sometimes God will wait and bring deliverance on the far side of disappointment. Sometimes, you have to have faith after the funeral. After you’ve written it off. After you inwardly feel that it will not get better. you have to have an "after-the-funeral-faith."

And the hope for your situation does not depend on the "Jews" who are standing around your situation. It is dependent upon Jesus Christ alone! And there are sevral things that I want to share that can serve to give you hope in Christ.

1. THE CONTROL OF CHRIST - V. 4 says that Christ knew what was going to happen, and He knew why. The same is true in your life: Jesus is in CONTROL.

2. THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST - V. 27 says that you must believe in Who Christ is. A personal crisis requires a personal faith, and that faith is founded on the character of Christ.

3. THE CONCERN OF CHRIST - V. 33-34 - Jesus sees every tear, and He doesn’t turn a deaf ear to your cry. He is concerned about you and your situation. Christ will, however, take you back to the place where you gave up hope - "Show me where you laid him down."

4. THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST - V. 35-36 - Some people may be uncomfortable with a God who cries, but it serves to draw you closer to Him, knowing that He is "touched with the feeling of your infirmity." The picture is of "THE CRYING CHRIST." He weeps. He weeps for you, and for the situation you’ve had to lay in the ground.

(Just a note on v. 37 - Disregard those who want to criticize Christ.)

5. THE COMMAND OF CHRIST - V. 39 - Many times we try to distance ourselves from the problem, refusing to deal with it, and deny its reality. We can become hard, stone-cold, and callused to the problem. We can get bitter toward the situation, toward life, and even toward God. Jesus says, "Take away the stone." He really says, "Let me into the situation, and let me handle it the way I want to." (And don’t let the "stink" stop you!)

6. THE CALL OF CHRIST - V. 43-44 - When they opened up the situation to Christ, the deliverance they had hoped for began to flow. When the cry came forth, it was Christ speaking DIRECTLY to Lazarus. God is about to speak DIRECTLY to some things that have had His people bound in grief!

You have to believe that YOUR BROTHER WILL RISE AGAIN!

And when God raises those dead areas back up, look what it does, or what it should do.....

7. THE COMMUNION WITH CHRIST - In John 12:1-2, we see Jesus having restored fellowship with Lazarus and his family. When God brings deliverance, it’s for the purpose of renewing our communion with Him. Our communion with Christ should deepen after He brings deliverance.

Draw close to Him even now. Believe Him. Trust Him. And I believe His words will prove to be true.

YOUR BROTHER WILL RISE AGAIN!

HOPE AND WAITING FOR GOD TO ACT

HOPE


John 11:1- 45

"Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." But when Jesus heard it he said, "This illness is not unto death; it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it." Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go into Judea again." The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?" Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any one walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if any one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." Thus he spoke, and then he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him out of sleep." The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary sat in the house. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, 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 at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world." When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying quietly, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to 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. Then Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw him, fell at his feet, saying to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and 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 man have kept this man from dying?" Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave, and a stone lay upon 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 would believe you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. I knew that thou hearest me always, but I have said this on account of the people standing by, that they may believe that thou didst send me." When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him;" John 11:1-45.