Sermon Tone Analysis

Raising the Dead

We hear about many kinds of healing miracles in the Bible that we witness today as well.

The one we do not hear often is people raising the dead.

Some people have come out of comas that were death-like, but very few people walked out of their tombs.

How can the dead live again?

A different view of death

Ephesians

Jesus gives a similar response to suffering here as he did to the blind man in .

John 11:3-

John 11:

Death is not an end that stops us.

It is a place we pass through.

Like sleep.

We fear death like children fear falling asleep.

Some of us sleep more soundly than others.

John 11:9-12

Jesus did not lie to them, He merely saw things in a different light.

John 11:13-

The Death of Lazarus

11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”

8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight?

Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world.

10 But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.”

11 After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.”

12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.”

13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep.

14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.

15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.

But let us go to him.”

16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

The Challenge

Jesus the Resurrection and the Life

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother.

20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home.

21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.

Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

Jesus Weeps

28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him.

30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.

31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out.

They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.

34 He said, “Where have you laid him?”

They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep.

36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus Raises Lazarus to Life

38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb.

It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.

39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”

40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone.

And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me.

42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth.

Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Doubt

6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed it cannot, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

John 11:32

39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”

40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

When is it too late?

Where is God unable to work?

Paul writes these words from the perspective of a Christian who is trying to please God - to live according to God’s will.

If we are to take it from the perspective of someone who is not a follower of Jesus, where would they get God’s Spirit?

How much would they have to pay or do in order to get the Spirit of Christ in them?

We really cannot invite God into our life, He is already there.

We can only turn Him away.

But there are always barriers.

Christ may be in our lives, but we may always try to keep something between us so we do not get too close… and God does not always remove those barriers Himself.

Sometimes He calls in help.

John 11:39-

Resurrection!

There’s always something trying to block the glory of God

There’s always someone saying it cannot or should not be done.

But if we want to see God’s glory...

Someone always has to take away the stone.

Calling out Christ among the dead

What does it mean to take the stone away and call out Christ among the dead?

Jesus said He is the life and resurrection Himself

To call out that life among the dead is to call out Christ in the last place we think we would find Him?

Prayer Meeting - Going to the graveyards to preach the gospel.

International students looking for Christ at work in Non-Christians

Where do you need to not only look for, but to call out Christ’s presence and God’s glory around you this week?