CHAPTER 4
Let me share a story with you about a stone and a rock.
One is a stone of concealment, the other a rock of salvation.
John 11:39 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.
40 Jesus said to her, Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?
41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
42 I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.
43 When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
44 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.
Death is one of the most difficult events we face in life.
Death seems so mysterious and final, and death is an experience that all of us will eventually take part in. We have all wondered from time to time about how and when we will die.
As believers, we can pray that God would prolong death. We can pray that God will heal a deadly disease, but can we ask God to put an end to death?
Remember when Jesus told His disciples that Lazarus’s illness was not to end in death, but for the glory of God?
Let go back to a little meeting Martha and Jesus had before He raised Lazarus from the tomb.
John 11:20 Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house.
21 Martha then said to Jesus, Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.
Martha was so upset about the death of her brother that she couldn’t wait for Jesus to come to her, she had to go to Him.
And what did she say?
If you had been here, my brother would not have died…
How many times have we questioned God about His mercy, knowledge and plan for our lives?
How many times have we put the blame on God because something happened to us that we didn’t expect or want?
How many times have we wondered why our lives ended up the way they did?
We all tell God that we want to walk with Him, but when we get to the Valley of the Shadow of death we all check the batteries in our flashlights.
Walking with God can be difficult and sometimes hard to understand.
Especially when we equate walking with God the same as going with friends to church, or shopping, or out for coffee.
Walking with God implies two important things,
1. That we are at the same place that God is,
2. That we are moving at the same pace that God is.
With God is not leading or following.
Being with God is you being you and God being God
friends just hanging out.
With God, is all about the place and pace.
Jesus said in John 14:3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
Think about this for a moment…
Jesus is preparing a place in heaven for you,
are you preparing a place in your heart for Him?
Look at how Luke 1:37 puts the term “with God”
For nothing will be impossible with God.
Nothing is impossible with God?
What about rotting decaying flesh?
On the following page is a description of decaying flesh.
It is printed in italics, you may pass over it if you wish.
I only include it to add to the miracle of what Jesus did.
Although the body shortly after death appears fresh from the outside, the bacteria that before death were feeding on the contents of the intestine begin to digest the intestine itself. They eventually break out of the intestine and start digesting the surrounding internal organs. The body's own digestive enzymes (normally in the intestine) also spread through the body, contributing to its decomposition. On an even smaller scale, enzymes inside individual cells are released when the cell dies. These enzymes break down the cell and its connections with other cells.
From the moment of death flies are attracted to bodies. Without the normal defences of a living animal, blowflies and house flies are able to lay eggs around wounds and natural body openings (mouth, nose, eyes, anus, genitalia). These eggs hatch and move into the body, often within 24 hours. The life cycle of a fly from egg to maggot to fly takes from two to three weeks. It can take considerably longer at low temperatures.
Bacteria break down tissues and cells, releasing fluids into body cavities. They often respire in the absence of oxygen and produce various gases including hydrogen sulphide, methane, cadaverine and putrescine as by-products. People might find these gases foul smelling, but they are very attractive to a variety of insects.
The build up of gas resulting from the intense activity of the multiplying bacteria, creates pressure within the body. This pressure inflates the body and forces fluids out of cells and blood vessels and into the body cavity.
The young maggots move throughout the body, spreading bacteria, secreting digestive enzymes and tearing tissues with their mouth hooks. They move as a maggot mass benefiting from communal heat and shared digestive secretions.
The rate of decay increases, and the smells and body fluids that begin to eminate from the body attract more blowflies, flesh flies, beetles and mites. The later-arriving flies and beetles are predators, feeding on maggots as well as the decaying flesh. They are joined by parasitoid wasps that lay their eggs inside maggots and later, inside pupae.
We need to recognize a miracle for what it is.
God is doing the impossible.
Lazarus was dead for four days. Martha said that he would stink.
His body was decaying. Its gross to think of what his body looked like yet Jesus restored both his soul and body.
It’s interesting to note that the body of Jesus did not suffer decay,
Acts 2:31 he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY.
For me, this passage on the raising of Lazarus from the dead is one of the atom bombs of faith. It’s a life shaking radical event.
The raising of the dead to the living is a wipe it all out then make it all new experience.
Question is, have you been raised from the dead?
Proof?
Has your life been radically changed?
Every born again Christian wants God to do something radical in his or her life, we all want to see God demonstrate His power and authority.
But isn’t Gods greatest miracle a heart that is turned back to Him?
Isn’t Gods greatest miracle a soul taken from the grasp of Satan and brought into the family of God?
We all have a part to play when God moves in our life.
That part is most often our response to God moving in our life.
God moves first and then we respond.
God makes a promise and then we move in His direction.
In the case of raising Lazarus from the dead, what did Jesus tell the people to do?
Remove the stone.
Already, we have one of the great mysteries about Jesus.
If Jesus had the power to raise someone from the dead, then didn’t He obviously have the power to remove a stone?
Why didn’t Jesus impress the crowd by telling the stone to remove itself?
May I suggest that removing the stone is your job?
But Jesus,
The stone is too big.
The stone is too heavy.
You don’t know what I have been through.
You don’t know the pain that I have experienced.
You don’t know the sad memories and betrayals.
You don’t know the deep dark secrets.
You don’t know the horrible things that I have done.
You don’t know all the evil sinful thoughts I have.
You don’t know the greed and envy and lust and deceitfulness that live’s within my heart.
And to you Jesus replies, excellent!
You are closer to resurrection than you know!
A big problem we Christians have is the struggle between wanting to live godly in Christ Jesus and facing the truth about our fallen nature.
Our relationship with Christ starts out with the confessing of our sins and then we spend the rest of our relationship with Christ wrestling with our conscious.
Hopefully, this next verse will reveal what God already knows and it will stop that wrestling match in your heart and mind.
Jeremiah 17:9 and 10.
9 The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
10 I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.
Is this a punishment or a reward?
What does God means by “result of our deeds?”
Are we supposed to be able to predict the future?
Remember something about love and obedience?
Philippians 2:12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;
13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Wait a second here, WHO is doing the work in your heart? God?
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing;
15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling? Why?
For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
This fear and trembling is not what we would think it is.
This fear and trembling is a result of knowing that God is working out His will in us, that God is doing His work in us!
This is wonderful!
This is awesome!
This is overwhelming!
You don’t want to mess this up so you need to really be on your toes! You need to listen carefully, you need to walk purposely, you need to speak anointedly and you need to submit everything within you to achieve God’s good pleasure!
Don’t work for your salvation, work out your salvation.
Be careful about what you take into yourself.
Be careful how you represent Jesus.
Be careful that you don’t go back to your old ways of thinking, acting and living. Lift the weights of faith and trust. Bench press fear, row on the waters of tribulation, jump rope through the doubt, Work out your salvation.
Remember, God is doing a work in you too, and it is for His will and His good pleasure.
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