Graves Into Gardens

What is it… that makes up a grave?

Kind of an eerie start for our message this morning… but it is critical for us to understand this from the get go. When is a grave… a grave?

Immediately we begin to think of the final resting place for an individual. It is a place where the physical body is buried or covered up.

Graves might be in the ground or they might be a tomb form - a cave in the side of a hill, a structure meant to hold a family or a community.

Graves are a place of… death. No one living takes up residency within a grave. If that were the case… the grave would no longer be… the grave.

Death brings us to the grave… nothing else. And death is something we will all face should Jesus tarry.

So the reality is… a grave is in our future. There will come a day when this body will be laid to rest and will function no more. We have no idea when that will be… but unless the Lord comes back first, we will all face… the grave.

It’s a somber reality to take in for sure… until you remember a blessed hope we have in the Lord. Jesus Christ is the only One who can turn graves… into gardens.

As we continue our series, “Greater Love,” We are going to look at a remarkable story in the Book of John that talks about Jesus doing this very thing. But before we get there, we need to establish something very important.

We believe in the resurrecting power of Jesus Christ.

It might sound like something from a fairy tale or from a fictional book… however… we know that Jesus has the ability to bring… dead things back to life!

For those who are in Christ, when these physical bodies break down and are no longer able to sustain life anymore… yes, they will be placed in the grave. BUT… because of what Christ has done for us… GOD DOESN’T LEAVE YOU IN THAT GRAVE!

For those listening… we haven’t hit that old grave yard quite yet. We still have breath in our lungs and we are still able to move and to function… but that does not mean that… we are full of life.

What we are going to see today is… some of us are dead… GRAVEYARD DEAD… and we don’t even know it. Death is most often though of in the physical sense - death is the result of no life left in the body.

But what about the life within our souls? Our bodies may be breathing, our hearts might be beating, but we are DEAD inside for various reasons. Inwardly, we are stuck in a grave… in a place of death.

And we are REALLY GOOD about dressing up the outer shell trying to hide the inward reality we face and feel.

We do this for a physical body that is laid to rest… but some of us are walking dead people who know how to “make up” the outside to hide our death on the inside.

I believe today… GOD WANTS TO SET YOU FREE OF THIS GRAVE! In His greater love, God wants to turn that old grave into a garden!

I want us to look at our main text today that comes from John 11. We know this story. Lazarus, a friend of Jesus, was dead.

He had been sick for a time, the family had sent for Jesus to come and to pray over him, but Jesus does not arrive until after Lazarus had passed away - and all of this was a part of God’s plan. We will look at that in a moment.

As Jesus was telling His disciple where they were going and then he tells them why.

John 11:11 NIV

11 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.”

The disciples don’t fully understand so in verse 14, Jesus makes it very clear to them. “Lazarus is dead.”

I want to go back to verse 11 to the way Jesus communicated the need the first time. Lazarus had fallen asleep. Jesus was going to wake him up.

Jesus was and is the ONLY One who can wake a person from this kind of… sleep. He traveled to see His friend and to “wake” him from his sleep.

Jesus is in this place today to do that same thing… to “wake” us up from our sleep… to bring dead things to life.

For Lazarus, his only hope was in a physical resurrection of his body. For you today, your only hope is a spiritual resurrection of your soul.

Maybe you have been looking and searching for something that will bring you back to life again. Jesus is the only source of life that can bring the fulfillment you are looking for!

Jesus wants to bring you to life! Jesus wants to call you out of that grave! He is here to “wake” you from your sleep… from the dead reality you have been living in.

How is it that Jesus can do this? Well, we find that answer in John 11:25-26

John 11:25–26 NIV

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Jesus is BOTH the resurrection AND the life.

Not only does Jesus want to set you free from whatever is causing death within you… not only does He want to raise you up… He wants to pour into you NEW LIFE!

Main Point: God wants to raise you up… and fill you up… but you must be willing to believe.

THAT is how the grave… is turned into a garden today. That is how we move from a place of death to a new reality of life! It can only happen through the resurrecting power of Jesus Christ!

This morning, as we unpack the story in John 11, God is going to confront our dead reality with His life-giving Word. I believe the Spirit of God is going to wake us up today… I believe God is going to not only call us out of the grave… but also set us free of whatever it was that bound us in death in the first place!

The first thing I want us to see in the story is Lazarus was...

RAISED not Healed.

What I mean by that is simple - Lazarus wasn’t “healed” of the grave… he was RAISED from the grave.

We believe in divine healing do we not? We believe that God can heal our broken souls and our broken bodies.

We know that Jesus was broken… so that we can be made whole again.

But when someone is dead… they don’t need healed… they need resurrected. The day for healing had passed… but the day for resurrection had come!

Martha, Lazarus’ brother… was struggling a bit when Jesus arrived on the scene. She knew that Jesus has the power to heal… but the time for healing had passed. Look at her words when she talked with Jesus.

John 11:21–22 NIV

21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

Martha believed that Jesus could have healed Lazarus. After all, Jesus healed a great number of people throughout His ministry!

She did not question whether or not Jesus could have healed Lazarus, but she was struggling to understand what could be done now that Lazarus was dead. She even stated that she believed God would do anything Jesus asked, but her struggle is again brought to the surface in verse 24. She knew Lazarus would be resurrected at the last day… but what could be done of his situation now? HE WAS DEAD!

You see, what Lazarus needed here and now wasn’t healing… but resurrection. And maybe that is where you are today.

Maybe you’ve been looking for or searching for healing… but what is really needed is resurrection!

Maybe your faith in what God can do has stalled because you’ve been asking for one thing when you really needed something completely different.

It would be like putting new tires on your car when it really needed an oil change. You fixed a problem… but you didn’t address the real need.

It would be like adding salt to the ingredients when the instruction called for sugar. You fixed a need for flavor but… it was the wrong flavor!

We are good about trying to address the symptoms but we often avoid dealing with the real issue. We like to tip toe around the problem because… we have been trying to hide it… cover it up… pretend like it isn’t there - but in reality… it is destroying us and robbing us of life.

Jesus knows this… the world around you knows this… but instead of seeking resurrection… you’ve been trying to conceal that death!

Problem is… DEATH STINKS. Literally. Death has an unmistakable oder that accompanies it. This is true when a physical body is dead… and this is true when our soul is perishing.

When Jesus approaches the tomb where Lazarus had been laid, He asks for something to happen that causes Martha great concern.

John 11:38–40 NIV

38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “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.” 40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

Take away the stone. Think about it… REMOVE THAT WHICH IS COVERING THE GRAVE.

By rolling the stone away the reality of death would be fully revealed. BUT… the resurrection from the grave could not take place until the stone was rolled away.

And when Jesus asked for this to happen, Martha was concerned about what? The stench that would come out!

Lazarus had been dead for four days! This wasn’t going to turn out good! The stench would be awful!

And some of y’all are afraid to let God roll away the stone for fear of what it might smell like but listen to me carefully… the stench of death in your life is something you cannot hide.

It’s like at camp… when the middle school boys opt out of taking showers… and on day 3 or 4, they “cover” their natural musk with 50 ounces of Axe body spray. So now we get a mixture of BO and aerosol cologne! They aren’t covering nothing!

So what kind of “stones” do we use to cover up that stench of death in our lives?

We might hide behind serving at the church. We might hide behind knowing all the right words to say. We might hide behind wearing the right t-shirt, listening to the right music, or subscribing to the right podcast.

But if you’re dead inside… the stench will come out.

It can be heard in attitude. I can be witnessed in behavior. It can be found in your internet search history. It can come out behind closed doors when we think no one is watching. It can be revealed in relationships. It can manifest through complacency, critical comments, and gossip.

Here’s the deal… that stench is creeping its way out. When death is on the inside… it will make its way to the outside. The only way to get rid of it is to deal with what is causing it… the death within.

That is why when Jesus calls… we must answer.

When Jesus calls for the stone to be rolled away… we need to allow the Holy Spirit to remove our “cover up” for Jesus’ work of resurrection to begin.

God cannot raise you until you acknowledge your spiritual death! Lazarus had been dead four days… some of you have been dead for forty years!

Maybe it was bitterness or hurt. Maybe it was sin or wrongdoings. Maybe it was forgiveness. Maybe it was fear or lust or immorality. Whatever it was that placed you in that grave… JESUS IS CALLING YOU OUT THIS MORNING!

Not only does He want to raise you up… He wants to fill you with new life! You must make the choice to come out of the grave AND to be unbound by the graveclothes.

Set Free and UNBOUND

Going back to John 11, we know the story well.

The stone is rolled away, Jesus calls for Lazarus to come out and Lazarus is raised from the dead. The man comes walking out of the tomb!

Now I cannot imagine what people started thinking when the once dead man came walking out of the grave. And even as amazing as this would have been to see… there still existed a problem that Scripture points out:

John 11:44 NIV

44 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.”

Lazarus was all bound up. He had been raised but he was bound by the grave clothes that had been placed on him.

Now… how long do you suppose Lazarus could have lived if he was left in those grave clothes? His hands and feet were bound. His face was covered. There is no way he could have lived like that for long.

Someone had to set him free. Someone had to remove the grave clothes that he was bound by. If they remained in place, Lazarus would not be able to truly live.

Jesus isn’t calling you out of the grave so you can remain bound by that which would destroy you… He wants to set you free of the grave AND He wants to set you free from whatever it was that had you bound!

I find it interesting that Jesus calls for those present to unbind the once dead man. Those who witnessed the miracle were called upon by Jesus to set Lazarus free.

Listen church, Jesus is the source of our Resurrection and life… but He has also established His church to be an extension of His ministry until He returns. He calls upon this body to help lead people to freedom… but too often, we start heaping on the grave clothes instead.

This happens when we drench them with legalism. This happens when we become more focused on behavioral modification instead of spiritual transformation. This happens when ministry becomes transactional instead of transformational.

Listen to me clearly: God did not design His church to place ropes and chains upon those He has set free. Scripture tells us quite the opposite:

John 8:36 NIV

36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

That freedom is NOT to be used to indulge the old sinful nature that put us in the grave in the first place… that freedom is given that we might enjoy the LIFE MORE ABUNDANTLY THAT IS FOUND IN JESUS CHRIST! In Christ, we are CALLED TO BE FREE (Galatians 5:13)! Say that with me now… we are CALLED TO BE FREE!

So the question is today… are you ready to come out of that grave? Are you ready for that new life in Christ? Are you ready for the chains to break… for the grave clothes to be loosed… and for the death within to be replaced with life to the full?

It’s time to BELIEVE

Preacher, we’re here in church, we are listening to your message… isn’t it obvious that we believe?

Listen to me clearly… death can come just as easily as simply going through the motions as it can anything else. But those who will not perish are those who BELIEVE in Him… they are those who place their faith in Jesus Christ!

Do you believe that Jesus can raise up your dead spirit or soul today? Do you believe that Jesus can fill you with new life today? Do you believe… that He can set you free?

The first thing we’ve got to do is be real with ourselves. What is it that placed us in that grave in the first place?

You got to look much deeper than the symptoms… you’ve got to go to the heart. What have you been harboring inside… that is killing your soul?

For Lazarus… his physical death was brought upon by sickness. It was sickness that landed him in the grave that day. His body simply could not hold on anymore.

For us today… we may be harboring something that is destroying us… or has already destroyed us. The good news is… Jesus is calling you out… He is calling you out to freedom, to forgiveness… TO RESURRECTION! He wants to fill you with new life!

We are not talking about covering up or masking the problem… we are talking about LEAVING that problem in the grave and walking away from it by the power of His resurrection!

Jesus wants to raise you up and fill you with life. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT HE CAN DO THIS?

Then we must respond by faith.

If you are here today and you know there is something inside that is bringing you death… it’s time to walk out of that grave.

Our ability to do so ONLY COMES through Jesus. He is calling you… are you ready to be raised to new life?

This means… we have to allow God to roll away the stone. This means… we have to be REAL with our circumstance. This means… we have to face whatever caused this death head on.

We don’t have to overcome it… the power of our risen Savior has already done that! Our victory is found in Him. But we cannot hide and receive this deliverance. If you want your soul, your heart… to be resurrected by the power of Jesus… You must WALK. Get up and walk to these altars. LEAVE death behind you and be raised up by His power.

Secondly, you must be open to receive the new life He wants to pour into you.

He is raising you… now let Him fill you with His life and power.

Third, you’ve got to get rid of those grave clothes. It’s time for the chains to be broken. Church… I am calling on you to come and to pray for those finding freedom in this place. We come into agreement with them as the grave clothes are taken away!

God wants to raise you up! God wants to fill you up! It’s time to believe and to call on the name of Jesus!