Come Forth

This is not the same Lazarus from Jesus’ parable about the rich man and the poor man at the gate (Lk. 16:22).

Players

Messengers to Christ = prayers of the church

Mary = church members who endeavor to sit at the feet of Jesus and fellowship with Him

Martha = church members who are so busy doing the work of the church that they can’t hear from God

Lazarus = type and shadow of the church = people thought that the spirit was gone/ people thought that Christ had abandoned it, people thought that it had laid down and died, but Christ yet brought life back into the body

Stinketh = unsavory odors, unsavory incense, carnality of the church

Bonds & ties = traditions, old habits and yesterday’s glory

Exposition

1. A messenger is sent (vs. 1-3)
1. Lazarus’s sisters Mary and Martha lived in Bethany, a suburb of Jerusalem about 2 miles outside.
2. Jesus often stayed in Bethany when He visited Jerusalem
3. Jesus at the time, was staying somewhere beyond the Jordan River (about a day’s walk from Bethany – Jn. 10:40)

1. The Petition
1. [read v. 3]
2. Note how the verse was written,

                                                              i.      A petition was laid at the feet of Jesus simply and without vain repetition

                                                            ii.      It stated he whom THOU lovest, which declares by what right Mary and Martha then and us today have to come before the throne of Grace for it is by His love that we were grafted into the kingdom of God

                                                          iii.      It states simply that he is sick, for God knows the severity of every situation even before we ask or think to ask of Him

1. Hint of the Blessing (v. 5-6)
1. Verse 5 speaks of Jesus’ special love for Mary and Martha
2. Verse 6 says, “when He had heard therefore….”
3. This sentence is written to show us that Jesus is about to do something extra ordinary for 3 of His children that He loves. 
2. Why Does Jesus linger for 2 days before going back to Bethany?
1. He knew Lazarus was already dead
2. This is confirmed when Jesus arrives to hear that Lazarus had been dead for 4 days
3. Explain the timeline
1. DAY 1 – MESSENGER ARRIVES WITH NEWS OF HIS SICKNESS
2. DAY 2 -3 – CHRIST LINGERS BEYOND THE JORDAN
3. DAY 4 – JESUS TRAVELS AND ARRIVES IN BETHANY
4. Power of God (v. 11)
1. Jesus displayed His Holy power even before arriving back in Bethany.  The messenger stated Lazarus was sick but Jesus knew he had already died before the messenger had arrived.
5. Laying in the grave 4 days.  Significance?
1. 7 Days of mourning

                                                              i.      On returning from the burial "Shib'ah" commences—the seven days during which the mourner is confined to the house, in which he sits on the floor or on a low bench, devoting his time to reading the Book of Job. He is excused from rising when an elder, or even a nasi, passes. The lamentation while sitting may have been derived from Neh. i. 4

                                                            ii.      Days 1-3 – devoted to intense weeping and mourning.  According to Jewish thought at the time, the soul of the dead would linger for 3 days near the body

                                                          iii.      Days 4-7 – Day of Lamentations – devoted to loud crying out and wailing over the loss of the loved one.  Day 4 began with the decaying of the body.  At this point the soul was suppose to have left the body.

                                                          iv.      The day of mourning has been around since at least the time of Abraham, because when Isaac stole Essau’s birthright, Essau said that he would have his revenge after he honored his father w/ the 7 days of mourning.

1. Glorifying God
1. Jesus was using this occurrence to give glory to Himself as the Son of God.  Remember, He has already raised two others from the grave, Jairus’ daughter and the widow’s son.  But, no one had been in the grave for so long.  Beyond a shadow of a doubt, God had to be in the midst of this situation.
2. Mary vs. Martha coming out to meet Jesus (vs. 20-27)
1. After arriving just outside Bethany, Martha is the first to run out and meet Him.  Upon seeing Him, she said says in an almost accusing tone, ‘if you had been here, he would be alive.’  Jesus says he will live again. Martha uses her intellectual faith and says, ‘yeah I know he will live at the resurrection.’
2. How many of us do that every time we run into some problem or situation?  Too many Christians try to put God into a box and only pull Him out on Sunday mornings.  So when a situation in their lives comes up, they’ll say, ‘yeah, I know I know God is able and all that but I need some real practical help in my situation.’  And just like Martha, God is asking us to today, I know what your situation is, I know that problem in your life but DO YOU BELIEVE?  NOT Just w/ your head, but DO YOU BELIEVE ME in any storm of life?
3. Mary – comes along in a completely different manner.  When she comes, the crowd of mourners comes with her and w/ no shame in her game, she drops down at the feet of Jesus and humbly says, ‘if you had been here he would not have died.’   Her position of humbleness shows us that she still recognized Him as the same Son of God as when she anointed His feet w/ her hair and some oil.  Her faith through the pain still remained strong.  This then is how God desires us all to be.  In order to work things in our lives, this is the type of faith God desires in each of us for He states in Hebrews 11:6 that w/out faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.’  The world teaches that seeing is believing but God’s principal is that believing is seeing.  Only those who believe in God can recognize His hand on a clean X-ray today that had spots yesterday.
4. Jesus feels the pain of His children and the anger for them having to go through was He had never ordained for man to go through

1. The Tomb experience (v. 39-45)
1. V. 39 – Jesus commanded that the stone be rolled away.  He didn’t roll the stone away Himself but ordered that it be rolled away.  That tells us that it is within our power to roll all those stones away that keep us from seeing and hearing our eternal God.   But, there’s a danger in getting into God’s presence.  If your not sold out,  if you haven’t gotten all the leaven out of your hearts you can be just like the priests of the tabernacle who weren’t fully consecrated before entering into the Holy of Holies and were struck dead.  You can play church if you want to but the same fire of the Spirit that quickens unto life can strike you down to the grave.
2. But, when anyone is in the presence of God, He always demands action.  We serve a God of action.  When Moses was in His presence He told him to bring the children out.  When David was in His presence He told him to slay the giant, when the 3 Hebrew boys were in His presence He told them to have faith.  So, God always causes us to act. 
3. So what are you saying preacher?  Where are you taking this?
4. Bare with me a few minutes more:
5. So here is Jesus, the Son of God, before the tomb.  He has ordered the stone to be rolled away.
6. Martha complains, whoa, hold up just a minute there Jesus.  He’s been in there 4 days now.  The average temperature in Jerusalem is between 75 to upwards of a 100 degrees.  He has started to stink.
7. But now, if I could borrow a page from Bishop Noel Jones, this is where God showed up and showed out.  You see in those days, burials were not a clean process.  In that hot arid land when a body died, just like a dead bird lying in the road, the body would become infested.  Flies would land and lay thousands of maggots before the body could be wrapped up.  Rigor mortis would have set in.  By the 4th day in the tomb, the body would have begun to decay.  Beetles and millipedes would have begun to eat away at the skin.  Spiders would have begun to consume the flies that had consumed portions of the body.
8. V. 41-42 – BUT AFTER JESUS PRAYS
2. V. 43 – HE COMMANDS WITH A LOUD VOICE SAYING, ‘LAZARUS COME FORTH!!’
3. Immediately, the upon that command:
1. THE SPIDERS HAD TO SPIT UP THE FLIES WHO HAD TO SPIT UP THE ORGANS THAT WERE CONSUMED
2. THE BEETLES AND THE MILLIPEDES HAD TO SPIT UP THE SKIN THAT THEY HAD TO CONSUME
3. DECAYING, HARDENED AND ROTTING FLESH CAME BACK ON THE BONES
4. ORGANS THAT HAD BEGUN TO LIQUIFY REFORMED AND STARTED FUNCTIONING
5. HARD STIFF RIGOR MORTIS MUSCLES BEGAN TO SOFTEN AND FLEX
6. AND HE WHO WAS DEAD GOT UP OFF THAT TOMB FLOOR AND CAME FORTH!!
7. WHEN GOD IS IN THE MIDST, THE DEAD WILL ARISE
8. LAZARUS, COME FORTH
9. LAZARUS COME FORTH
10. SOLEMN TEMPLE COME FORTH
11. SOLEMN TEMPLE COME FORTH
12. COME OUT OF THAT DEAD SITUATION
13. COME UP OUT OF THAT ADDICTION
14. COME UP OUT OF THAT SECRET SIN
15. COME UP OUT OF THAT SPIRIT OF HOMOSEXUALITY
16. COME UP OUT OF THE SPIRIT OF ALCOHOL, DRUGS, ILLICIT SEX
17. COME FORTH!!!
18. ALL I WANT TO KNOW IS THERE ANYBODY HERE WHO WANTS TO ROLL AWAY THE STONES IN THEIR LIFE AND LET GOD MOVE?
19. IS THERE ANYBODY HERE WHO WANTS GOD TO BRING LIFE IN A DEAD SITUATION?
20. IS THERE ANYBODY HERE WHO BELIEVES THERE IS NO SITUATION TOO DEAD FOR MY GOD TO BRING BACK TO LIFE?
21. GOD SAID, IF I BE LIFTED UP, I WILL DRAW ALL MEN UNTO ME!!