The Grave Defeated - [John 11:28-45]

Would invite you to open your Bibles this morning to John chapter 11 John chapter 11

And I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but we live

In a very ungodly world in an ungodly time But ours is not the first and it won't be the last

I collected a few quotes here of atheists and their thoughts close to death why because We're gonna talk about death this morning

These are brilliant men absolutely Brilliant, and these are their dying thoughts

David Hume an atheist philosopher Famous for his philosophy of empiricism and skepticism of religion

He cried aloud on his deathbed. I am in flames It is said his desperation was a horrible scene

Caesar Borgia Said while I lived I prepared for everything but death

Now I must die and I'm unprepared to die Thomas Paine author of common -sense

Leading atheistic writer and the American colonies said this To those in the room with him stay with me.

I cannot bear to be left alone. Oh Lord help me. Oh God, what have

I done to suffer so much? What will become of me hereafter? I would give worlds if I had them that the age of reason had never been published

That was his book. Oh Lord help me Help me

No, don't leave stay with me send even a child to stay with me for I am on the edge of hell here alone

If ever the devil had an agent I have been that one Another atheist

Robert Ingersoll said Oh God if there be a God Save my soul if I have a soul

Sir, Thomas Scott who was Chancellor of England said until this moment. I thought there was neither a

God nor a hell Now I know and feel there are both and I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the

Almighty Charles the ninth was a king of France And at his mother's urging he had the

Huguenots Slaughtered fifteen thousand of them for no other reason other than they loved the

Lord Jesus Christ The guilty king suffered miserably for years after that.

He finally died died bathed in blood Bursting from his veins to his physicians.

He said in his last hours Asleep or awake. I see the mangled forms of the

Huguenots passing before me They drop with blood They point at their open wounds.

Oh that I had spared at least the little infants What blood?

How will this all end what shall I do? I am lost forever. I know it the hopelessness the helplessness of atheism of passing into eternity godless

Christless Godless Let's look at our text this morning John chapter 11 verses 28 to 45

John 11 verses 28 to 45

And if you recall we ended with Martha's Profession So this will be

Mary That's the she when she had said this she went and called her sister

Mary saying in private The teacher is here and is calling for you And when she heard it

She rose quickly and went to him Now Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him

When the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out they followed her

Supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him

She fell at his feet saying to him Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died

When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her also weeping

He was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled and he said

Where have you laid him they said to him Lord come and see

Jesus wept so the Jews said See how he loved him

But some of them said Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying

Then Jesus deeply moved again Came to the tomb

It was a cave and a stone lay against it Jesus said take away the stone

Martha the sister of the dead man said to him Lord by this time there will be an odor for he has been dead four days

Jesus said to her did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said father

I Thank you that you have heard me. I Said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me

When he had said these things he cried out with a loud voice Lazarus come out

The man who had died came out his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth

Jesus said to them Unbind him and let him go Many of the

Jews therefore who had come with Mary and had bit had seen what he did believed in him now

For those of you who've not been here for a few weeks a week a little bit of review if you recall

John 10 ended with Jesus Proclaiming his equality with the father and the

Jews the Jewish leaders who were there were not pleased with this In fact, they said you being a man make yourself out to be

God and so they went to stone him but he mitigated their anger by appealing to the

Old Testament the Psalms and Psalm 82 and When they considered what he said

Instead of stoning him. They just wanted to arrest him which ultimately would have led to his death anyway They wanted to arrest him, but they didn't somehow he escaped.

It's not given to us in our text exactly how he did that but when he did so he left

Jerusalem and he went across the Jordan River probably to Bethany a little village out in a fairly remote region but it was where John the

Baptist had done ministry and Many during this period of time came to believe in Jesus because they remembered the ministry of John the

Baptist Now John 11 Out there in Bethany across the

Jordan our Lord receives word from Mary and Martha that his friend his beloved friend and Their brother

Lazarus was sick. He wouldn't set a note if he just had the sniffles. He was very sick

They were concerned that he was going to die. So they sent this messenger to Jesus hoping of course that he would respond wanting to Let them know but or let him know but he they didn't even say please come

Their relationship was such that that was enough just let Jesus know and he would come

But he waited two more days before setting out for Bethany Bethany is the other

Bethany the Bethany that were Mary Martha and Lazarus lived a little village on the backside of the

Mount of Olives Just two miles from Jerusalem You just go out Jerusalem up the

Mount of Olives down the Mount of Olives and there you are in Bethany Took a few days to get there

But as they neared This group when I say they it's Jesus and the disciples and as they near the home of Lazarus's family

Martha apparently receives word that Jesus is coming and so she goes out to meet him She's of course excited that he's there and he tells

Martha That he is the resurrection and the life

Meaning that he has power over resurrection and life and that he is the source of Resurrection he will raise his own from the dead and give them eternal life

Then when Jesus challenges Martha's depth of faith She responds Brilliantly she says that he is the

Christ the Son of God the one who is coming into the world she in a very short few words

Summarizes who Jesus is everything that she could have known about Jesus. She states right there and That's where we left off last week, and we pick up right there and this morning.

We're going to look at what is unquestionably The greatest miracle of Jesus earthly ministry the greatest thing he did

We're going to see four actions Four actions that Jesus is

Involved in I can't say he performs because the first one he doesn't actually perform but they're really ultimately display his

Divinity that he is God in the flesh That he is literally

Lord over Death and the grave that he's conquered it or that he will conquer it our first action is that Jesus is

Worshipped Jesus is worshipped and that's the one he didn't do he was worship

So actually number one Jesus is worshipped and the first thing we see is a private message to Mary verse 28

When she Martha had said this She went and called her sister Mary saying in private the teacher is here and is calling for you

Mary as we saw last week had remained in the house She was probably greeting mourners says she was seated in the house and being seated was a way that you would greet

The mourners who would come at that time Today, we probably wouldn't do that unless we couldn't stand up But they were this is how they would greet the mourners

Now we can picture Martha kind of picking her way through the house and then getting over to Mary.

I mean everybody's getting out of her way She's the person in distress And she gets over to Mary and she just sort of whispers in her ear

The teacher is here And he is calling for you Jesus wants to talk to you the teacher

Then we see punctual movement. She doesn't waste much time verse 29 and when she heard it she rose quickly and went to him

Now Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him

When the Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary rise quickly and go out they followed her

Supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there All the language here just emphasizes how quickly she responded

Martha comes in whispers in her ear and she's out She goes right outside And if you if you kind of piece things together as you walk through this text here

What you really see is that the Jews even though it says that they followed her I think they followed her out of the house, but they didn't see where she went because she was gone that quickly

They went to the tomb. They suppose that she went to the tomb to we Weep there and they missed it and you say well, how else would you know that?

Well, you'd know it and what's coming up here in a minute. Let's just say a word here now

I want to kind of clear this up about how morning m -o -u -r -n -i -n -g

Not m -o -r -n -i -n -g. It's hard to spell when you're in front. Is this spelling me?

No How morning in this culture was different than what we do?

Morning in ancient Israel was extremely different. It had more of an Eastern or Asian Mindsets it's different than I mean, we're almost like stoic when somebody dies

It's okay. If somebody's really close to you if you break down and you cry but if it was somebody, you know an extended family or somebody that you're not that familiar with and you were sobbing that would be kind of Probably a little odd.

Maybe Might just show that you're really soft -hearted But when

I was in patrol way back when I once got a call of a dead body I responded to this call and when the door was opened

There was a noise like I'd never heard I mean, I I went in probably a little faster than I should have because it sounded like somebody was dying.

That's how loud it was inside and When I saw the person that I'd been called it was this little

Asian man probably in his late 80s or so obviously dead

But also just like it was clear that he'd been there. I mean he was like Dying for quite some time and he couldn't have weighed if he weighed 80 pounds.

I would be surprised I mean he was completely withered away. There was not much left of him, but his family

I mean understandably crying But they were carrying on and screaming like he was in his 20s

This is cultural. This is kind of Consistent with that view of how you mourn how you show your respect for the dead

And in ancient Israel, that's exactly what they would do a lot of what we see here when we see crying is there were weeping and wailing and screaming and So a funeral was anything but a somber

Kind of morose affair. It was loud and In fact, it wasn't unusual to even hire if you were concerned that the funeral wasn't gonna be loud enough

You could hire mourners to go and just you know, like really Amp up the sound the goal

I guess would be, you know, instead of saying Oh, the the sermon was really nice at the funeral or whatever.

That was really a noisy funeral. That was really a noisy wake I mean, it's just kind of not the same way we think about things

But look at what Mary does verse 32 now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him

She fell at his feet She worshiped him she wasn't this wasn't out of exhaustion or out of just abject sorrow

But this was a heart of worship Saying to him continuing on in verse 32

Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died Almost verbatim what

Mary had sir what Martha had said this wasn't a Complaint again.

This is just saying what they believed That if Jesus had been there knowing how much he loved

Lazarus He would not have let Lazarus die He would have healed him that he could have he had the power to prevent the death of Lazarus She knows that Jesus has the power to do this.

She's seen him Perform miracles. She's heard about the miracles She knows that he can heal the seemingly unhealable the man born blind

The man lame for most of his life She is simply making a statement of fact one that she believes

So Jesus has worshipped action number two Jesus wept Every child's favorite

Bible verse I get a dollar per verse Jesus wept there's a buck, but we're gonna see really humanity and deity meet death

And how they deal with it Verse 33 when Jesus saw her weeping and the

Jews who had come with her also weeping. He was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled

Why is it that the Apostle Paul wrote? You know rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep

It's not this isn't you know, the Apostle Paul's rules of etiquette This is not just because it's appropriate.

It's because we are to empathize Empathy is the ability to have compassion for those who are suffering physically or emotionally

And it's a good thing and it's an attribute of God, which is communicable. That is we can reflect that we can exhibit that Now just think if God had no empathy if he had no ability to Empathize to feel what we feel to sense what we feel and to feel sorrow over it

What do we call people who don't have? the capacity for empathy Call them sociopaths because they don't feel what anybody else does

Thankfully that is not the case. Look it says he was deeply moved Deeply moved that verb was originally used to describe the snort of a horse and it came to mean angry

More than irritated but really moved to anger We could put it this way that Jesus is indignant and you say well, that's odd he sees

Mary crying He sees these other Jews who'd come to mourn. He sees them crying and his response is

Anger, is he mad at them? Certainly not Now, let's just step away from that a moment and we'll come back to it.

I Sometimes say I hate cancer Why would I say that because I hate cancer

I Hate what it does to people. I hate what it did to my dad. Hey, what is doing to my mom? I hate what it does to a lot of different people.

I am indignant Angry at cancer why?

Because I hate the disease and I hate what it represents It represents sin without sin

Cancer doesn't exist No disease exists No sin, no sickness, no suffering no death how much more

Does God and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ hate the impact of sin than I do?

Well a lot more and as he watches the suffering of Mary the suffering of these other mourners

He knows the root cause of it and he hates it, but we

Er or er depending on where he went to school If we believe that God Cannot exercise more than one attribute at a time.

He's not just angry He's not just indignant He also has compassion he also has empathy

Also verse 33 is greatly troubled And it really gives a picture of being shaken like So upset that he is shaking

So it's one thing to be filled with righteous anger over the effects of sin It's another to view the victims of these effects to see what they're going through To feel compassion to have empathy for them

If you recall, I mean if I were to ask for a show of hands on this I bet that everybody above the age of 10 would raise their hand

Just a couple months ago that horrible incident down at Disney World Where the little boy was taken right out of the hands of his father.

You could not Listen to that story on the news And not have empathy for those parents

And not just Feel so sorry about what they went through It's crushing

Death loss Suffering these are crushing crushing things. We put ourselves in the place of people that we don't even know

It happens even when we watch movies Even disney movies

We are by nature empathetic we have that well how much more Is jesus empathetic he is our high priest and he is well acquainted with grief

And he sympathizes with us he identifies with us in our weaknesses And in our sorrows he's there with us

And he was there with mary martha with these other mourners So he goes to the tomb look at verse 34 and he said where have you laid him

And I said to him lord come and see now sometimes, you know when we see these Pronouns the they's the he's the she's or whatever we can lose track of what we're talking about And even as I read it,

I just thought Well, who's the they? Is he just talking to the crowd?

No, he's talking to probably mary and martha They would be the focus of his attention is their brother who's dead

When he says where's the body? However, he said it he didn't say it matter of factly

He said it matter of factly There might have been a little choking in it There might have been a little passion in it, but somehow or another he communicated

The pain of their loss in it He's asking them where their brother's body is

And notice they don't give him directions, but they lead him to the tomb And now we come to the that famous verse the shortest english verse jesus wept

And john uses a different verb for jesus than he did for mary and for the others

Because there is no Wailing there is no shouting There are no histrionics with this verb

But it does mean that he cried noticeably that people could look at him and see that he was upset

You know when you're really upset the color of your Face changes It's pretty hard to hide the tears streaming down your face

But nobody who was there doubted his sorrow in fact look at verse 36 so the jews said

See how he loved him They know it They see it

But all they get is they just connect the tears of jesus with the fact that lazarus is dead

They go. Oh, he had compassion on lazarus. Isn't it wonderful how he loved lazarus? But that's not it that's not the limit of it he's also sad because he knows the impact of Sin on the people that he loves then look at verse 37

But some of them said Could he who opened the eyes of the blind man or could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man they recall this

Also have kept this man from dying I said last week that there seemed to be some or maybe it was a week before but some in this

Company called the jews that might have been Friendly to the pharisees, but not in this crowd

No one here that we can readily see nobody who's speaking here Because they recall the miracle that the lord

Performed and they don't question it. They don't question his motivation. They don't question the timing of it. Remember that was a big deal

How could he do that on the sabbath? these folks are

Genuinely thinking that he he might have been able to do this. He could have stopped lazarus from dying

They certainly weren't antagonistic toward jesus So now we've seen jesus is worshiped jesus wept

He's empathetic Third action jesus walked He goes to the tomb

And there he meets resistance in a most unexpected person verse 38 then jesus deeply moved again

Came to the tomb It was a cave and a stone lay against it And he said take away the stone now that seems to be a prelude to something great

But look martha who's just made this great profession a few moments before The sister of the dead man said to him lord by this time there will be an odor

It's like she's standing in front of him going wait By this time there will be an odor for he has been dead for Or he's been dead four days

She wasn't the one who was going to move that stone But she did in her seat in the king james the famous words there lord by this time he stinketh

Have you ever been around a body that's been dead for a few days? It's not it's not pleasant.

I mean I watch these uh autopsies that are done on tv, you know, all the police officers surrounding the autopsy table and the

What's the person who does that the pathologist? You know standing there and he's talking about this that and the other thing and you know

I found the particular hemorrhage and blah blah blah blah all the stuff that they talk about And I think it's so amazing because everybody's just kind of looking around like, you know

They're looking in a pile of donuts I I went

I don't know why donuts In the academy you have to go to an autopsy And you know right before we go into the room.

There's somebody like in the back just handing around. Uh, this jar of Vicks vapo rub

And i'm like, you know somebody hands it to me and I pass it on to the next person that person handed it back to me

Thankfully they go you're gonna want that and so i'm like, okay fine It's bad.

It's really bad And martha's saying it's gonna be bad it's gonna be really bad

But you have to just ask yourself for a moment. Why why was it that she did that? Why did she stand there and you know, maybe she's just thinking that he just wants to get closer, you know

To just kind of feel closer. I don't know what she's thinking But she knows one thing look he's beyond hope

There's nothing that can be done for lazarus All that's going to happen is we're all going to be assaulted by the horrible odor that's going to come out of this cave

Nothing good is going to happen here and by the way, we don't have any vicks vapo rub But jesus asserts his authority look at verse 40

Jesus said to her Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of god?

Now that's not exactly what he said, but we'll get to that in a moment. That's not a quote But he'd certainly led up to that Let me ask you this have you ever prayed for a miracle?

And if not, why not? Seriously, why not? I can think of plenty of cases where i've actually prayed

That god would heal somebody of cancer That he would remove it I pray for my brother

That his vascular tumor would be removed. Why? Because I know god can do it

He created the universe with a word He sustains it like it's nothing

He can do whatever he wants But I also know this

That miracles are very rare Why?

Because they're miracles And i'm willing to settle for the amazing providences of god

Surgeons who perform surgery that would have been Impossible a few years ago

The medical advances that make treatment of cancer possible And one day i'm sure if the lord tarry's which honestly

I pray he doesn't Someday there'll be a cure for it But now imagine you're martha

The whole time lazarus is heading downhill. He's getting sicker and sicker and sicker and there's nothing you can do

All you can do is pray Hope that jesus comes And I don't even know what they did in those days.

I don't even know if they were up to bloodletting yet I don't know what their medical treatments were But you're just trying to keep lazarus comfort.

You're comfortable. You're doing whatever you can for him But jesus didn't show up God didn't answer my prayer

Lazarus is dead But jesus has been

Um all throughout this chapter here giving us some hints Martha wasn't around for this but in john 11 4 he said this illness does not lead to death

It is for the glory of god so that the son of god may be glorified through it

She didn't hear that but the disciples did they were there that too

But how would there be glory if lazarus died and remained dead

There wouldn't be But even in verses 21 to 26 We read this martha said to jesus

Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died what mary said later But even now

I know that whatever you ask from god god will give you

Having no idea that her brother was going to come back from the dead So Jesus said to her your brother will rise again.

Well, that's a pretty good indication But as I said last week She hears this and she thought well, this is just like i'm sorry for your loss.

This is just a common jewish customary way of comforting somebody Martha said to him.

I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day in other words prior to heaven

Jesus said to her I am the resurrection of the life Whoever believes in me though he die

Yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

Do you believe this? This is a demonstration. This miracle is not just a miracle.

It is a demonstration Of his power over life and death He didn't just want to comfort her

That's probable that I mean she put all this together after the fact she pieced all these things together This is often true of The people that we pray for we know that everybody's going to die one day

And martha in the midst of this illness with her Brother Mary as well.

They knew that everybody died one day and when he died, they just thought Was the will of god

But he's not done yet First action. Jesus is worshipped second.

Jesus wept third Jesus walked and fourth. Jesus won w -o -n.

I'm doing a lot of spelling today Notice here jesus praying in verse 41

So they took away the stone and jesus lifted up his eyes and said father. I thank you that you have heard me

I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around That they may believe you sent me

Now jesus uses the past tense. I thank you that you have heard me

It's already done But look again father not our father not even my father just father like First name father.

I mean this is this is indicates the closeness of the relationship And look again why he offers thanks during his prayer not because Of the great thing that's about to happen

But on account of the people standing around Because he wants them to believe that you sent me that he's the son of god

That he is the christ that he is the messiah everything that john wrote this book to prove

He wants them to believe

Now look Jesus they want to talk about jesus calling. This is jesus calling right here in verse 43

When he had said these things He cried out with a loud voice Lazarus come out.

I'm not shouting because I don't want to blow the sound system Lazarus come out now.

It's been well said what I mean you guys could a lot of you could probably repeat it It's a good thing. He named lazarus otherwise

All the tombs would have emptied out right just come out Like a general command to all the dead bodies

As far as his voice would go all those people would come out But there was a specific target for this call

And this call would have its desired effect. In fact, we could call it the effectual call He called lazarus out and lazarus responded look at verse 44

The man who had died came out His hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth

Jesus said to them unbind him and let him go What is a miracle?

What is a miracle? God intervening in the space time continuum

To reverse the natural order of things in a way that only god can do right? When we think about the parting of the red sea

Wasn't moses was the power of god that part of the red sea And so the natural course of things is for the red sea to be united The miracle was all of a sudden there's a highway of dry land right through the middle

That's a miracle jesus first sign His first miracle turning water into wine

That's only can be done by the power of god. The natural state of water is to remain water

Turning into wine represents a miracle Walking on the sea of galilee was a miracle defying gravity

Now calling a decomposing Stinking body out of the grave and having it respond reversing death

That's a miracle That's an act of god A dead body

Of its own what does nothing but rot and decompose? Doesn't come out of the grave

Now, let me just say this isn't any kind of a sorry zombie resurrection

Because if it's some mindless lazarus that comes out that has no personality no memory no nothing

That's not a miracle That is not a miracle a miracle demands that lazarus come out and be recognizable

That he loved the same things he loved when he went in there the same people that he loved That everything be the same except for he's been dead for four days now these

Linens, I mean we you know when we see these dopey mummy movies, you know, they're wrapped up and everything

But they can just keep walking. Well, the idea here is that they're actually bound together, too I mean, this is a big mess and he's all wrapped up in these things and you know part of the miracle would be this that he actually was able to get to the

The edge of the cave because it's very likely I mean the way it's described

I would say that he probably had to like hop or You know balance himself on something. It was very difficult to move

But look at the response many jews responded with faith Verse 45 many of the jews therefore who had come with mary had seen what he jesus did and believed in him

They'd come expecting to just kind of mourn and show their respects for the family and weep and wail and carry on Instead they saw something that they never had seen before and would never see again the man that they came to mourn

Came out of the grave and was alive And the verb there the way it's translated at the end of 45 really kind of underplays it

Says they had seen what he did. I mean it makes it look like they just saw they just saw they were especially impressed they were

They were blown away This wasn't just something that they momentarily saw and then it passed from their thought they've focused on this for a long time

They would never forget this many of the jews therefore believed

Some did not and we'll see that next week But let's just have a few observations here as we close contra these

So -called preachers on tv these word -faith people You know, you have to have enough faith for a miracle mary martha

They didn't have any faith that lazarus was coming forth from the dead lazarus

No faith right That whole idea is rubbish

Miracles are entirely dependent upon the power and the desire of god Further to just kind of go after these false teachers on tv

There was no gift required by mary or martha You know, I often read about these people and here's what they say

To get something you have to give something. That's a universal law What was given nothing

The god of the universe doesn't need any gifts He acts as he wishes

Amazingly, here's another observation amazingly that as with the parting of the red sea if you recall what happened after that A lot of people started worshiping a calf

And after this Some of the people aren't convinced either Do you see somebody raised from the dead after four days?

That's not evidence enough It just goes to show that you could give all the evidence you want to unbelievers

What is needed is? a work by the holy spirit Only he can cause you to be born again.

No miracle can do that No sign evidence can do that another observation

Really kind of a question If you recall the purpose, what did he say back in the wilderness?

What did jesus say said he was delaying things? For the good of mary martha and lazarus

He even told the disciples that it was for them that he was Doing this

Do you think their strength there are the faith of mary martha and lazarus was strengthened? I think so.

What about the disciples and you want to say yes, absolutely Positively, and then you just think well, wait a minute

That would have included Judas iscariot who betrayed him And then

Who upon seeing the resurrected christ has to do what? Examine the wounds stick his hands into his side

This miracle wasn't enough for him the final observation is when we go to funerals to wakes

We have really A Crowd of people that are focused on death focused on things that matter

It's a good time for the gospel It's an excellent time for the gospel And that's why we do what we do

Now I open with some dying quotes by famous atheists why because they like to Atheists like to suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

They like to deny the obvious that god exists, but as they approach death It gets harder and harder to do so And so what happens they devolve into panic everything that they believed everything that they say they believe they realize is absolutely meaningless when they are about to Have to answer eternal questions

When we think about the purpose of this gospel that john wrote his gospel to demonstrate the deity of christ

Nothing more fully demonstrates it than this that he raised lazarus from the dead I am the resurrection and the life he said and then he proceeded to demonstrate that Fully human fully divine lord over life death and the grave

Friends in jesus alone is their sure hope of victory over death and jesus alone is their forgiveness of sins

And jesus alone is there the granting of the righteousness we need to see heaven

All who believe on the lord. Jesus christ will spend eternity with him

And if you're not yet a believer, I pray that even today as you just contemplate Jesus standing in front of the tomb and saying lazarus come forth

I pray that today would be the day that you would believe in the deity of christ That you would believe in his

Sacrificial death his perfect life And be saved let's pray father in heaven

There is no greater testament To the fact that jesus christ is god than what you

Had him do that day Calling forth lazarus from the dead Death is the enemy we

Spend so much time in this culture either Ignoring death pretending it doesn't exist or some people glorifying in it

But the truth is every single person will die And it's only in christ by being in him by trusting him fully

That we can go to our death Not screaming in terror But trusting the one who died and rose again

You have put all things In subjection to the lord. Jesus christ all things

Including death Hell and the grave Father we praise you and thank you

And pray for each and every person here that does not know you That you would convict them by your spirits

That you would call them to yourself That you would grant them eternal life even today in jesus name.