Easter Sermon 2024 (1)
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LET’S GET RID OF THE GRAVE CLOTHES!
When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.”
The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
I. Our CONVERSION comes after our BLINDNESS is Removed!
As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth.
Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
“While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.”
When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes,
and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing.
Our physical OBEDIENCE is used to remove our SPIRITUAL blindness!
“Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.
Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
He answered, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?”
Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.”
And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped Him.
And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”
II. Our HEALING does not always come after our SICKNESS is reported!
Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”
So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.
Why Did Jesus Stay TWO DAYS longer after He received the report that His friend Lazarus, whom He loved was sick?
This He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep.”
The disciples then said to Him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”
Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep.
What happened after Jesus arrived in Bethany two days later than Mary and Martha sent word to Him that Lazarus was sick?
So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days.
Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.
Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
How did Jesus respond after Martha and Mary expressed their grief and disappointment to Him?
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled,
and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.”
How did Jesus respond when they took Him to the tomb where Lazarus was buried?
Jesus wept.
How did the Jews respond when they saw Jesus weeping?
So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!”
How did some of “THEM” respond when they saw Jesus weeping?
But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”
Does it seem to you like it has been TWO DAYS longer since your sickness was reported to God?
As the old song says, He may not come when you want Him, but He will show up right on time!
III. Our RESURRECTION always comes after our DEATH occurs!
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; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.
Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.”
Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
There is a physical resurrection that everyone will experience, it is called the resurrection of the just and the unjust, the living and the dead.
There is also a spiritual resurrection that anyone can experience and everyone must experience before they die physically!
Lazarus is a picture, or a type of both the spiritual resurrection and the physical resurrection!
Just like the man born blind from his birth, all of us are born spiritually blind and unable to SEE or KNOW Jesus!
Just like Lazarus, we all have a sickness, it is called sin and our sickness caused us to be born dead in our sins and trespasses against God!
There are loved ones who do not want us to remain dead, and they cry out to God asking Him to bring us to LIFE!
And Jesus, moved with compassion, raises His voice and cries out to us by name and says COME FORTH!
When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.”
What happens when the person who is dead in their sins and trespasses against God hears God’s voice calling them out of their spiritual death?
The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
IV. Our POWER comes after our GRAVE-CLOTHES are removed!
The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Even after we have been raised from spiritual death (being born again, or saved), we still have some grave-clothes that limit our walk of freedom, victory and abundant life!
What are some of those old grave-clothes that we need help getting off of us after we have been raised to new life in Christ?
How does water baptism help us remove some of our old grave clothes?
so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
for he who has died is freed from sin.
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
All of these truths can be activated through your obedience in water baptism!
How important is water baptism to your testimony to God, the world, the devil and your flesh?
“He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.
Are you willing to be water baptized into your spirit filled destiny today?