Easter Sunday: He Called My Name

Intro: Why do we celebrate this day?

Do you remember the day that your world changed forever?

There are certain days for me that stand out more than others…Days that I tell my kids about…

Days that end up in sermon examples… but just these days that are like huge in my life

You all have them. They are days that your world changed

For example I remember the birth of my first daughter…It was like Joy & fear were put into a blender and there was this unexpected weight like WOW…ANOTHER HUMAN! What am I going to do!?

And then when Emma turned 6 months old….I vividly remember my world changing again…My wife was up and out of the house early like 6am and she came home and woke me up…And she was mad at me…And she said “WELL, I’m Pregnant!”

We had a 6 month old…I don’t think we talked to each other for 2 days after that

You know so many other moments are a blur but I remember that because my world changed that day

My Son Jacob, we Adopted him from LA Country and we literally went through years of bureaucratic hell to finalize that adoption…We were basically the only family that Jacob had ever known and I remember that one day his social worker called us just matter of factly said he will be removed from your care and go to a biological family member…So in foster care the more you can re-unite to biological family the better, but in this particular case, not only would that have been traumatic for Jacob but We knew that family member that the social worker was talking about and oh that would have been a bad thing….

So we prayed…It’s all we could do

And I just remember at his adoption hearing, I couldn’t stop crying because of the faithfullness of God…

My whole world changed that day

There are days when your world just changes

For Mary Magdalene…She had a number of days when her world changed! But nothing greater than after passover…When she went to go anoint the body of her Rabbi Jesus

John 20:1–11 NIV

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb

This was the first Easter morning When Jesus rose from the dead…When he defeated death

And they didn’t understand it quite yet

His body just wasn’t there

Mary was crying outside of the tomb thinking that the body of Jesus had been stolen when Jesus just showed up to her

He said

John 20:15–17 NIV

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

this was a paradigm shattering moment!

Jesus died a brutal death and everyone saw it!

She saw him breathe his last breath and shout out, “it is finished”

I mean she saw it with her own eyes…Jesus is now there in the flesh! She is holding on to him, he is physically there again!

On that day…Mary’s world changed because on that day, the whole world changed

In order to really understand this day, I want to go back a couple of years of Jesus’ ministry…

Because this moment would actually get a trial run. And Jesus would make all of these statements that seemed out of place but when you took into account the resurrection story they make perfect sense!

And I want to look at that today…

There is another family that are side characters in the gospels…

It is Mary (Not Magdaline) and Martha and their brother Lazarus…

And what we know from the gospels is that Lazarus and Jesus are actually friends

John 11:1–8 NIV

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”

Now let’s get this right because it can get confusing here

Jesus is friends with Lazarus…He is really sick…Word was sent to Jesus because they knew that Jesus could heal Lazarus

Jesus says he wont die but then lets zero in on verses 5-6

And Jesus’ friends remind him…Are you sure you want to go back there? They tried to kill you there!

I want to zero in on John 11:5-6

John 11:5–6 NIV

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days,

Because Jesus loved this family, he waited and didn’t come immediately to their rescue

He loved so he waited

The scripture tells us 2 times in 2 verses that Jesus loved Lazarus and now it is because he loved them all he waited

He stayed where he was for 2 more days.

Why? Why on Earth would Jesus do this? John says that Jesus was waiting so his glory is revealed He wanted his glory to be revealed

It is in the waiting on God’s timing that His glory is revealed..

Don’t misinterpret waiting for God as him not loving you…

if you’re here and you are waiting on God to act and maybe you have been waiting for years…

It’s not because he doesn’t love you…He loves you enough to not let you get the Glory for what he will do

Jesus won’t allow there to be any question, there will be no explanation for what he will do other than as if to say it wasn’t some Medical fluke that Lazarus rose from the dead

Jesus knew if he was going to do this then It had to be a clear work of God

John 11:11–14 NIV

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.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,

By the way something that is key to this story is that Jesus is so powerful he knows when Lazarus has died and he isn’t even in the same region as Lazarus

So Jesus knows this without seeing him and there are a bunch of other stories where Jesus actually heals people over a distance

So why doesn’t Jesus just do the same thing hear and heal Lazarus? I mean Jesus somehow knows that Lazarus has died over a great distance…

I think it is because he wants to reveal who he really is and what is he about

John 11:17–20 NIV

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

Many Jews…

We know that Jesus can heal over distances…He did this for other people…

We know that at first Jesus wanted Anonymity

But do you realize that if Jesus just would have healed Lazarus then

1. Only a few people would have know about it

2. It could have been explained away…Oh well he was getting better on his own…ext

But at this point in his ministry Jesus own death and resurrection was coming near

He actually wanted an audience…So that people can see who he really was…

Because God cares for the one…The one person who might be standing around mourning over Lazarus

He wanted a little bit of an audience to reveal the glory of the Lord the Glory of his father to be on full display because make no mistake about it, Jesus’ mission was to seek and save the lost…Jesus was going to wait on a crowd because his time was coming near

John 11:21–26 NIV

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Martha had sat at the feet of Jesus. She already had an idea of who Jesus was here but in her humanity she probably couldn’t fathom who he really was

She knew he was a great teacher

She knew he was a healer

She knew he was from God but what she probably couldn’t fathom was that he was God with flesh on.

That standing before her was the alpha the omega the author of all life

So when she stands before God what I love about Martha is that she has a voice

and she uses it…She is sad

If you would have been here, my brother would not have died…

Martha says this because of the paradigm that she is living in.

No-one is stronger than death!

We have to understand that in the first century when Jesus lived, death wasn’t just a concept it was a god..

the god Mot was the god of death and in the ancient worldview there was no God who could defeat Mot…Mot just kept winning…

Why? Because when people died, they stayed that way! So the mindset was once death is upon you, that old god Mot won

And Then Jesus says your brother will rise again and Mary is like yeah I know at the end of all time…In the resurrection at the last day, which is a Jewish belief

What Mary is expressing is this abstract reality that yeah one day in a day that I can not quite fathom yet sure…I’ll see him again

But what Jesus says back to Mary is one of the most amazing self-disclosures

John 11:25–26 NIV

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

And we need to camp out on this phrase for a couple of minutes

When Jesus says, ‘I am the resurrection and the life, what is he saying?

Resurrection is overcoming death. Resurrection is dying and coming back to life again

So what Jesus is saying is that I am the defeater of death. You can have victory over death and that is all through me…

And there is something even bigger that jesus is saying here that is huge!

In the very first story Adam and Eve sin and as a result, what comes into the world? The curse of sin!

What Jesus is saying is that look all of humanity, you ate from the wrong tree and as a result the curse of death is upon you

But I am the tree of life, I am the reversal of the curse…In and through placing your confidence in me you will experience a way of life that gives you victory over death!

So this point is key!

Jesus is moving Martha from an abstract belief in “the resurrection at the last day” to a personal belief in Jesus alone as the provider of eternal life

Listen this is a huge point because we have all been there

Big man in the sky

When things go well we say things like I guess God loves me

When things are going bad you might ask why does hate me…

All of this Abstracts God…

Listen as a pastor for 20 years now I just know this is a huge problem in the church….

We have abstract beliefs about God…

God is love…God is our hope…If you believe in God you can go to heaven….

I just don’t believe you came here by mistake today…I believe you are here at the personal prompting of a God who loves you

Jesus wants you to know he is not some abstract figure that he is the resurrection and the Life,

God wants us to move from abstract ideas about him to a personal trust in Him.

God is not just some generalization!

Jesus is the one who raises the dead on the last day and he is the actually personification of the resurrection…

In relationship with Jesus there is life and what Jesus wants Martha to know is that the life that Jesus gives is for right now

He says I am the resurrection and the life…The one who believes in me, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die!

He wants you to know that he will give you victory over death right now…

You can live in the resurrection and life

When Jesus says whoever believes in him will live…The word for believe is trust or confidence

Move away from the abstract…We have these abstract generalizations about God and he wants us to move into true reality that Jesus is actually closer than the

…Where is your confidence?

Is it in your money?

Is it in the markets?

Is it in a political leader?

Is it some influencer?

Is it the American dream that maybe one day my hard work will eventually pay off?

Is your confidence rooted in science?

Jesus is laying out in this one statement a path to eternal life

It is about trusting in him….It is in having relationship with him…

How do we overcome death? How do we have victory over darkness?

How do we get past our hangups and addictions in life? it is about relationship with Him.

So there is a lot more conversation that happens in this story but for the sake of the story today we are going to jump down to verse 38 for a minute

John 11:38 NIV

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.

Pause here for a moment….

I want you to think about the amazing setting of this right now…

Jesus is standing outside of a grave…knowing full well that just in a short amount of time…He would be inside a tomb just like this one

He knew full well what his father’s plans and mission was for him, he talked about it all the time…

Jesus was facing this grave and he knew as he was looking at this that a battle was coming

By his own self disclosure Jesus is the resurrection and the life! He is the source of all life…Looking at the grave He knows that the only way to actually defeat the forces of death is to enter into it!

and in an incredible prelude to that first easter morning he says:

John 11:39–44 NIV

“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.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 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.”

I want to focus on three commands that Jesus makes

Three Commands of Jesus:

“Take away the stone” (Remove the barrier between death and life)

No barriers between Jesus and death

Because he is the resurrection and the life!

We have to remember that in the garden of Eden when Man sinned, Death came upon humanity like a plague and now Jesus is saying Remove the barrier

Roll the stone away

This is what Jesus does and it won’t be fully seen until he personally overcomes death

“Lazarus Come out” (Walk away from the things that bring you death)

Here is the idea…We all have to walk away from things that bring us death

Maybe you’re here today and you have some secret sin going on in your life and it just brings you death!

Maybe you’re here today and the anger the hate the resentment is just so built up over the years that it has become your security blanket

Maybe you’re here today and you are just suffering the death of loneliness and you think that no one even notices you!

Jesus is calling you today…By name…Walk out of death!

We as a people keep doing these insane things…We keep walking back into the things that bring us death!

If Jesus were speaking to you…He’d call you by name…What would he tell you to walk away from

“Take off the grave clothes and let him go” (Embrace the new identity of a child of God)

I love this phrase because Jesus isn’t just talking to Lazarus

Take off the grave clothes is to Lazarus but then he commands death to release its grip on Lazarus

In these three commands of Jesus

Take away the stone…We see the barrier between God and humanity being removed

Lazarus come out…The willful action of us to step out of our places of death

Look I am telling you that some of you are here today and you are existing in a death spiral and you know it….come out of the grave Jesus is commanding you

Some of you who are here today are experiencing situations that are just bringing hurt and pain and they are not bringing life! Come out of it…Take the first step!

Place your confidence in jesus

Then Jesus says Take off the grave clothes and let him go

This is one of the most profound points in the story this morning

There is always a deeper meaning baked into the scriptures

The first clothing in the Bible is when God made clothes out of the skins of an animal to cover Adam and Eve…He literally clothed them

Jesus on the cross had his clothes ripped from him and the soldiers gambled for his clothes

Jesus again clothed sinful humans

Paul picks up on this Metaphor when he says

Romans 13:14 NIV

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

And here Jesus says Take off your grave clothes

Stop being defined by your past

Stop allowing the old you to define the new you

Those grave clothes don’t get a say in your life any more!

Stop being defined by your old life of death

Take off the grave clothes off

Response

The power that brought Lazarus out of the dead is the same power that is available to you today

Maybe today is the day when everything changes

Maybe this day is a day that your whole world will change

Baptism

Maybe today you need to step out of that grave and begin to put your confidence and trust in Jesus

Its time to stop holding on to death…Let go

Its time to stop finding your identity in death…Come out of the grave