Year of Lazarus

What is The Year

While in prayer about the coming years. God reviled to me his plan for The Anti- Nicene Church of The Way. Not only the plans for this year but the plans for the next 3 years, but today I choose to only know the plans for this year. He reviled to me that this year for the The Way and for our community is the year of Lazarus. Now where you hear Lazarus you may think our only theme is back from the dead, out from the grave, but that's not it. There are two stories of Lazarus in the bible and we will focus on both and the themes from both. We will model our actions and our steps around both. The less know story of Lazarus is found in Luke 16:19-31

Luke 16:19–31 NASB 2020

“Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, enjoying himself in splendor every day. And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed from the scraps which fell from the rich man’s table; not only that, the dogs also were coming and licking his sores. Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s arms; and the rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades he raised his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his arms. And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set, so that those who want to go over from here to you will not be able, nor will any people cross over from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I request of you, father, that you send him to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not come to this place of torment as well.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

Here we see a poor man named Lazarus, poor in the flesh but not in the spirit that is sitting outside of the house of a rich man, rich in the flesh, but poor in Spirit. Lazarus probably has Leprosy. He spends everyday in pain, he simply wants scraps from the rich mans table and even the dogs come to lick his sores. Now when we hear Dogs and Scraps it should take you to another biblical story the story of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-28

Matthew 15:21–28 NASB 2020

Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon. And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely demon-possessed.” But He did not answer her with even a word. And His disciples came up and urged Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us!” But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” Yet He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” And she said, “Yes, Lord; but please help, for even the dogs feed on the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed at once.

Now most see this story as Christ saying that even though the gentiles are not children of God they will still be given the scraps, but when we place this story in the proper context we see what Christ was really saying and what the story of Lazarus the Beggar was meant to portray. In they passage Christ says he was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but the woman shows her faith in the messiah and says even the Dogs get the crumbs from the children table and Christ responds to the woman your faith is great it shall be done to you as you desire. At this moment the woman became no longer a dog in the family of God, but a child in the family of God because of her faith, as The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 3:28-29

Galatians 3:28–29 NASB 2020

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

If you have faith in Christ then you are the true Israelite, you are the true lost sheep of the house of Israel and Christ came for you.

Now with Lazarus we see his faith and his long suffering, just like this woman. We see Lazarus sitting out side of the rich mans house and the Dogs are being more charitable to Lazarus than the rich man.

Now we see this rich man, he is always dressed the finest clothes, and living the most lavish life everyday, yet he refuse to help Lazarus. He through the biggest parties and only invited his friends never the needy never the oppressed never the poor, and as a Church as a community we wont be the rich man. We won’t come wear the best clothes living the most lavish life style while not helping others. We will help the community around us. We will bless the poor and the needy, we will take care of the fatherless and the widows. We will not throw lavish parties for only our closest friends or biggest donors. We will put on our Agape Feast and Agape Fest and we will do as Christ told us in Luke 14:12-14

Luke 14:12–14 NASB 2020

Now He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “Whenever you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor wealthy neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you to a meal in return, and that will be your repayment. But whenever you give a banquet, invite people who are poor, who have disabilities, who are limping, and people who are blind; and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

So we will invite the community around us that needs help and we will help the.

This year we will set our foundation for the Church, the corner stone being Christ, and also the Gospel and Charity to the poor.

In this year we will be the Church that helps all the different Lazarus that we see around us. We will this year in Augusta, GA launch our on the ground Church and Ministry. We will have Agape Feast, and during our major Feast we will have an Agape Fest where we fellowship with the community around us, we preach the gospel. We feed, we give whatever is needed in the community at that time. We will also have a camp this summer for the fatherless in the community around us.

This passage end wit both Lazarus and The Rich man in the afterlife. Lazarus goes to Abrahams bosom, paradise and the Rich man ends up in torment. The Rich man ask can Lazarus dip his finger in water just to give him a drop of it. Abraham tells him no, he tells him that in his life he was able to live lavish yet Lazarus was the one who had to suffer. So as a Church we will be good stewards, we will give generously. We still store up our treasures in heaven where thieves cannot steal and moths cannot rot. We will use what God has given us to help the poor and the needy. Our Messiah tells us that the greatest among you will be the greatest servant and we will seek the be the greatest servants. We will seek the serve the community around us and be the hands and feet of Jesus.

After this The Rich man ask can he Lazarus go to warn his brothers so they will not come to this place of torment. Abraham tells him that he has Moses and the prophets, The Rich man says that no they won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, Abraham says that if they wont listen to them they wont listen even when someone raises from the dead.

This is our call to the people in the faith, That we must live by our values taught to us by our Messiah who we believe. We cannot forget out Truth or we will be in the situation of the Rich Man in torment begging that we could go back and help our brothers. We should help our brothers now, not later tell them now, get the beams out of our eye so we can help to get the mote out of our brothers eye. We must return our faith to a true faith, and biblical sound faith that live the the morals and standards in this book.

Part 2