Tomb Raider - Pastor John S.

Wow wow wow wow WOW!! Church today was 🔥!!! My pastor preached an INCREDIBLE message on John 11:1-11. I'm gonna type out my notes & Pastor John's points...trust me, this won't disappoint.

~here's the passage, John 1:1-11

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (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.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

4 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.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”

9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”

11 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.”

~

Jesus waited 2 days before He went to see Lazarus, His dear friend who was very sick. Why would Jesus wait so long to go see someone He loved so much who was pracitcally on his death bed!? Charles Spurgeon's commentary (from my Bible) quotes,

Notice the connection, "Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick he waiteed 2 more days to go to him. Sometimes true love may think fit to make us wait. It may be the truest love on God's part to let us lie sick and not come immediately to us to make us well. Yes, the truest love may demand that the sickness should turn to death, for out of death he may bring the greater glory. The Lord does not act according to human scales for humans do not see what the Lord sees. He's the end as well as the beginning. If Jesus' love in it's wisdom made him tarry, however, that love in its sincerity at last moved him to seek the house of the grief.

(1) Jesus offers not a "personal improvement", nor simply a distant hope, but a new us right now!

> there are two types of people, those who are dead in sin and those who are made alive in Christ.

> NO ONE is perfect, but when we are made alive in Christ, we are a new creation and made righteous in the sight of God! The best part is, we DON'T have to earn it or prove that we are 'good enough'. It's by the love and grace of God.

~John 11: 35 - Jesus wept.

Jesus is angry at death itself and the pain that sin brings to this world. Jesus literally WEPT at this. His heart broke while He was face to face with death.

(2) In a hurting and broken world, the resurrection of Lazarus is God's declaration: "I have the power to heal and save".

(3) Despite our best efforts, we cannot save ourself: new life must come from God alone.

> we're born under God's wrath and we can't save ourselves. If we're to be saved, we need a Savior. And that Person is Jesus Christ!!

Have a wonderful Sunday! Much love,

Summer Gabrielle