The Fifth Sunday in Lent
John 11 - The Raising of Lazarus
Fr. Oliver Robinson
John 11 - The Raising of Lazarus
Fr. Oliver Robinson
John 11 – God brings what is Dead back to Life
Q: What in your life have you quietly given up on?
An area where you were once full of hope - but over time, you’ve let go of it…
or quietly resigned yourself to the fact that it won’t change.
A hope.
A desire.
Your marriage. Your family.
Something that once felt full of life…and now part of it just feels empty?
The things you’ve stopped praying about…because you just don’t think it’s going to change?
Ezekiel
Ezekiel writes in a dark time.
The Babylonian Empire has successfully attacked Jerusalem, ransacked the city, and taken off a wave of captives to live in exile. Ezekiel, a Priest in Jerusalem, was among them and taken prisoner.
Ezekiel is living with the Exiles in Babylon and goes down to sit by a canal. There something amazing happens:
He sees a stormy cloud in the distance approaching, as it gets nearer he sees ‘fire flashing forth continuously’ (Ez 1:4) and from the midst of the cloud comes forth these four living creatures, and then the throne of God Himself appears in the sky.
Ezekiel falls on his face in worship, and God speaks to Him.
And the whole book is this wondrous whirlwind of visions, prophecies, prophetic acts, and God speaking to Ezekiel in these wondrous ways about Israel’s idolatry, How God’s presence has left the temple. God pronounces judgment on Israel and how he will use the nations to enact His justice.
He tells him about the exile, that Babylon will destroy the city of Jerusalem, and its temple. The most horrifying news.
But the story turns, and God gives visions of hope.
God tells Ezekiel he will bring Israel a new King, a King in the line of David, a Messiah, who will lead God’s people. He will be the King God’s people have always needed but never had. And when the New Israel comes under this King’s reign, it will be transformed. God will deal with their rebellious hearts by giving them new hearts. He will send His Holy Spirit to give them new, soft hearts that will love and obey their God:
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:26-28)
And then God gives Ezekiel this vision! The vision that we read today. The Valley of Dry Bones.
This huge valley, filled with the bones of dead bodies, so long dead that only the bones remain. And God commands Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. And as he does so:
There is a sound.
And then a rattling as the bones begin to move
Then, piece by piece, the bones connect to move and reconnect with other bones,
Sinews form and start to tie them together, and flesh starts to appear on them.
The wind comes and breathes life into these bodies
Soon, there is a vast army, living and breathing, standing before Ezekiel.
And God tells Ezekiel to prophecy to them again:
Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. (37:12-13)
The Raising of Lazarus
Then, nearly 600 years later, Christ stands before the tomb of one of his beloved friends:
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.
The Son of God, the author of all creation, the man who flung stars into space when He created the universe, weeps. Eyes that watched the beginning of the world, the ages of history pass by, the rise and fall of empires and kingdoms, and all the great wonders of the universe begin to fill with tears over this one fallen human creature, whom He loves.
Those of you who have seen the death of a loved one know the terrible grief that Christ felt in this moment. The ache and pain of the loss. That now the world is different from how it used to be.
He weeps over the death of His beloved friend who has died.
v35 is the shortest verse in the entire Bible. And perhaps the most beautiful.
And you know what comes next. 600 years after Ezekiel had prophesied life to dry bones, Christ stands in front of the tomb and orders the stone to be rolled away.
The people hesitate. They are worried about the smell. But He insists.
Christ lifts up His eyes and prays to the Father.
And with a loud voice He cries: Lazarus! Come Out!
And a man bound with grave-clothes, hands and feet bound, stumbles forward out of the doorway of the tomb.
Our hope in the resurrection to come
So here we have the story of Christ's most dramatic miracle. He does what is absolutely unthinkable, even today modern science has not achieved this. He reverses the power of death and raises a man from the tomb.
Think of what it must have been like to be in that crowd. The wonder and amazement of what has happened.
And we know that the resurrection of Lazarus points forward to:
It points to Christ’s own death and resurrection, which will take place.
And it points to our death and resurrection, that to those who follow Christ, our death here on earth will be just like a sleep, that one day we will awake from, just like Lazarus did, when He comes again in glory.
We say every week in our creed: “We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”
I know that many of you are considering your own earthly deaths, and preparing for the time when your earthly bodies fail you. We will all have to face such a day, but because of what Christ has done we can face it in confidence. And spend our time here on earth well before He calls us home.
But within this story is something very, very, powerful. Yes, it does point to the resurrection at the end of days, but it also shows us something else.
Martha’s response
There is a moment in this story which I would like to read to you:
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Christ tells Martha that her brother will rise again, and she responds, almost despondently:
Yes, I know he will, we all know that everyone will be raised by God on the last day
And she is right. Everyone at this time knows these – even the Pharisees.
It is because of passages in the Old Testament, like the Ezekiel passage we read today, that the Judeans in Jesus’ time have started to conclude that God will raise the dead out of Sheol before the end of the world.
There is only one group that disputes this: the Sadducees, and they are known as being odd for not believing it.
But we, sometimes, can be guilty of the same thing as Martha:
We believe in the “resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come”
But we forget that life is also here, now, with us.
Martha is only thinking about the future resurrection.
Jesus’ response to Martha is this:
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.
Jesus does not say ‘I can provide the resurrection and the life’
He says “I AM the resurrection and the life”
And He proceeds to bring part of that future resurrection into the present.
He raises Lazarus from the dead!
Those who believe in Jesus can enjoy a confidence in the face of our earthly deaths, but He has also come NOW, and to give us this new life NOW, today, here in the Chicago suburbs.
The American Bible scholar, Gary Burge, who taught at Wheaton and is now at Calvin Theological Seminary, writes this:
Jesus is telling us that the reality of the resurrection is not something that simply awaits us in the end of time. As we saw, Judaism held this belief popularly. But Jesus is expressing a truth that is sometimes missed. Resurrection describes an aspect of life that we can experience now. Martha says that Lazarus will be raised in the future. But Jesus says that Lazarus is going to be raised now. This means that there is a real power available in the present experience of Christ that is unknown to the Jewish framework of Martha and Mary. The power of God resident in our lives today is the same power that will enable us to live for eternity.
– Gary M. Burge, NIV Application Commentary: John
Martha believed in all the right doctrine, but she missed the present reality of Jesus in her life.
Christ is not just our future hope; He is our present resurrection and life.
Application:
So what are the areas of your life where you need God to raise you from the dead?
What tombs are you stuck in, that you need Him to call you out of?
What areas of your heart, what relationships, what dreams, visions, and passions, have become for you ‘dry bones’ caked in dust and longing for new life?
Where do you need God to soften your heart, and replace your heart of stone.
Spiritual dryness
A question I often ask people in my counseling office is ‘How close do you feel to God in this season?’
I receive varying responses. It usually quite rare for someone to say ‘ very close’ but it does happen. Most people are experiencing a sense of distance form God.
The follow-up question I often don’t ask them, but I can ask you here is this:
Who was it that moved?
When you feel far away from God, did He move away from you? Or did you move away from Him?
Martha knew all the right things, but she has the Son of God standing in front of her, telling her that He is about to raise her brother from the dead, and she misses it!
She can't see it – she thinks He is offering her a theological comfort, but really He is about to do the most spectacular miracle in front of her – and reverse death itself!
How often are we Martha in that moment!
How often do we resign ourselves to our current circumstances and don’t believe that Christ has come to heal us!
He doesn’t say ‘I will be the resurrection and the life’ He says “I AM the resurrection and the Life.”
Following Christ now in this dark world means that the process of our resurrection has already begun – He has filled us with His Holy Spirit and given us new hearts.
Christ is at work in our lives NOW in ways that bring life out of what feels dead.
How?
Well, there is one example of this I felt called to in my prayers for you to bring today:
Marriages and Child/Parent relationships
Some of you have fallen into patterns in your marriages and family relationships that are unhealthy.
Of course you have, we are broken human beings and, sadly, this is inevitable.
And some of you have been married, or in your family, for a very long time and probably don’t hold out hope that these patterns will ever change.
How often are our prayer: ‘Lord please change this persons heart!’ Instead of ‘Lord please change my heart!’
Well, I have some news for you:
There is absolutely nothing you can do to change the people you are in a relationship with.
Your spouse, your friends, your parents, your children.
You cannot change their feelings, their behavior, or their personality.
That is 100% outside of your control.
The ONLY thing you can change is YOURSELF. This is the only person you really have control over.
And with the power of Christ in your heart NOW, TODAY, you can partner with Him in making changes so big in yourself that the scales of your marriage tip, that the relationships with your family begin to change. That the things you thought were dead start to gasp back into life.
You can ask Him to fulfill his promise of the resurrection and the life TODAY, by softening your heart.
Replacing what was stone into living, beating, flesh.
The best way to fix any human relationship is not to ask Christ to fix the other person, but to ask Him to fix you.
Practical Applications:
Examples:
Gentlemen – we struggle to apologize for things.
It is very hard for us to separate our sense of character from our actions.
When our wives or children bring us something we did wrong, we often feel that what they are sayingis that we are a failure as a husband or a father.
This is not the case. When people bring you criticism of your actions, keep it framed as an action. Apologize quickly for the action, not for failing as a father or husband. We all make mistakes, and it is human and normal for us to mess up.
Apologize regularly, because everyone gets things wrong, and you are not so special that you do not need to apologize to make things right.
Tell your wife how much you love her regularly. Make her feel like the most beloved woman that ever walked the face of the earth.
Use your words and actions to make her feel like the most treasured and beloved wife on the planet.
Understand that when she tells you you did something wrong, she is not making a comment on your character—she is making a comment on your actions, and those are two different things.
Know that when she tells you things, she probably just wants to be heard and listened to, and does not always need you to fix the problem.
She does not see things the way you do, and she does not process her thoughts in the same way.
And if you think these things are too hard to do - Ask Christ to give you a new heart for them. Ask Him to speak words of resurrection in your heart so that you can. He will answer your prayer. This is His promise, which is available to you NOW.
Ladies – it can often be really frightening to let your husband lead you. You see his faults, you see his failings, and you have been let down plenty of times before. But the more you are able to put your trust in him, as the man Christ has led you to in marriage, the better things will go.
Do not become an obstacle to his leading your family. Become the main source of encouragement in his life. Remind yourself regularly that what seems exceedingly obvious to you is often not obvious to him at all, and that he is holding on to things that no one else gets to see.
Do not be annoyed or anxious when he does not share his feelings with you—he does not see things the way you do, and he does not process feelings in the same way.
And if you think these things are too hard to do - Ask Christ to give you a new heart for them. Ask Him to speak words of resurrection in your heart so that you can. He will answer your prayer. This is His promise, which is available to you NOW.
Children of difficult parents – some of you are carrying heavy, heavy wounds. There are things you are grateful for, and things that you should not have had to carry.
Do not let your parents’ failings define you.
And if they are still continuing to hurt you through their failings, learn to set good boundaries with them.
Learn to say NO when you need to.
Learn to recongise the needs you have that they are just nbever going to meet, and let them go.
Lean into Christ and the church community He has provided for you. There are many spiritual mothers and fathers available to you right here in our congregation!
And if you think these things are too hard to do - Ask Christ to give you a new heart for them. Ask Him to speak words of resurrection in your heart so that you can. He will answer your prayer. This is His promise, which is available to you NOW.
Parents of difficult children – particularly those of you who mourn over your children’s lack of faith. Let your children see the difference it makes having Jesus in your life.
Let them look at you in wonder and think, “How did my mom or dad become such a peaceful, joyful, loving, and fulfilled person?”
No matter what they tell you, they are watching you closely, and they will see the changes you make in your life as you become more like Christ. This will be a far better testimony to them than any pressure to come to church or expressions of disappointment in them.
Lift them up to God daily in the quietness of your private prayer.
When they say things about your faith that are hurtful, do not defend Christ (He doesn’t need you to); instead, tell them how much it hurts you when they speak of something so precious to you that way.
Do everything you can to maintain a good and healthy relationship with them, so that if the time comes when they turn to Christ, you have not placed a stumbling block in their way—the fear that you will say, “I told you so.” (For who wants to tell their parents they were right about something?)
And if you think these things are too hard to do - Ask Christ to give you a new heart for them. Ask Him to speak words of resurrection in your heart so that you can. He will answer your prayer. This is His promise, which is available to you NOW.
End
So do not resign yourself to what feels dead.
Do not settle for dry bones.
Do not assume that because something has been this way for a long time, it will always be this way.
Because of what Christ has done on the cross, he paved the way for us all to have access to new hearts, to dry bones come to life, for what was dead in us to be made alive, and to have new life breathed into us.
That same voice and power that called Lazarus out of the tomb is the voice that speaks into our lives today.
So stand up, wrapped in your grave clothes, and hobble out of your tomb!
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
Q: What in your life have you quietly given up on?
An area where you were once full of hope - but over time, you’ve let go of it…
or quietly resigned yourself to the fact that it won’t change.
A hope.
A desire.
Your marriage. Your family.
Something that once felt full of life…and now part of it just feels empty?
The things you’ve stopped praying about…because you just don’t think it’s going to change?
Ezekiel
Ezekiel writes in a dark time.
The Babylonian Empire has successfully attacked Jerusalem, ransacked the city, and taken off a wave of captives to live in exile. Ezekiel, a Priest in Jerusalem, was among them and taken prisoner.
Ezekiel is living with the Exiles in Babylon and goes down to sit by a canal. There something amazing happens:
He sees a stormy cloud in the distance approaching, as it gets nearer he sees ‘fire flashing forth continuously’ (Ez 1:4) and from the midst of the cloud comes forth these four living creatures, and then the throne of God Himself appears in the sky.
Ezekiel falls on his face in worship, and God speaks to Him.
And the whole book is this wondrous whirlwind of visions, prophecies, prophetic acts, and God speaking to Ezekiel in these wondrous ways about Israel’s idolatry, How God’s presence has left the temple. God pronounces judgment on Israel and how he will use the nations to enact His justice.
He tells him about the exile, that Babylon will destroy the city of Jerusalem, and its temple. The most horrifying news.
But the story turns, and God gives visions of hope.
God tells Ezekiel he will bring Israel a new King, a King in the line of David, a Messiah, who will lead God’s people. He will be the King God’s people have always needed but never had. And when the New Israel comes under this King’s reign, it will be transformed. God will deal with their rebellious hearts by giving them new hearts. He will send His Holy Spirit to give them new, soft hearts that will love and obey their God:
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:26-28)
And then God gives Ezekiel this vision! The vision that we read today. The Valley of Dry Bones.
This huge valley, filled with the bones of dead bodies, so long dead that only the bones remain. And God commands Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. And as he does so:
There is a sound.
And then a rattling as the bones begin to move
Then, piece by piece, the bones connect to move and reconnect with other bones,
Sinews form and start to tie them together, and flesh starts to appear on them.
The wind comes and breathes life into these bodies
Soon, there is a vast army, living and breathing, standing before Ezekiel.
And God tells Ezekiel to prophecy to them again:
Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. (37:12-13)
The Raising of Lazarus
Then, nearly 600 years later, Christ stands before the tomb of one of his beloved friends:
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.
The Son of God, the author of all creation, the man who flung stars into space when He created the universe, weeps. Eyes that watched the beginning of the world, the ages of history pass by, the rise and fall of empires and kingdoms, and all the great wonders of the universe begin to fill with tears over this one fallen human creature, whom He loves.
Those of you who have seen the death of a loved one know the terrible grief that Christ felt in this moment. The ache and pain of the loss. That now the world is different from how it used to be.
He weeps over the death of His beloved friend who has died.
v35 is the shortest verse in the entire Bible. And perhaps the most beautiful.
And you know what comes next. 600 years after Ezekiel had prophesied life to dry bones, Christ stands in front of the tomb and orders the stone to be rolled away.
The people hesitate. They are worried about the smell. But He insists.
Christ lifts up His eyes and prays to the Father.
And with a loud voice He cries: Lazarus! Come Out!
And a man bound with grave-clothes, hands and feet bound, stumbles forward out of the doorway of the tomb.
Our hope in the resurrection to come
So here we have the story of Christ's most dramatic miracle. He does what is absolutely unthinkable, even today modern science has not achieved this. He reverses the power of death and raises a man from the tomb.
Think of what it must have been like to be in that crowd. The wonder and amazement of what has happened.
And we know that the resurrection of Lazarus points forward to:
It points to Christ’s own death and resurrection, which will take place.
And it points to our death and resurrection, that to those who follow Christ, our death here on earth will be just like a sleep, that one day we will awake from, just like Lazarus did, when He comes again in glory.
We say every week in our creed: “We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”
I know that many of you are considering your own earthly deaths, and preparing for the time when your earthly bodies fail you. We will all have to face such a day, but because of what Christ has done we can face it in confidence. And spend our time here on earth well before He calls us home.
But within this story is something very, very, powerful. Yes, it does point to the resurrection at the end of days, but it also shows us something else.
Martha’s response
There is a moment in this story which I would like to read to you:
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Christ tells Martha that her brother will rise again, and she responds, almost despondently:
Yes, I know he will, we all know that everyone will be raised by God on the last day
And she is right. Everyone at this time knows these – even the Pharisees.
It is because of passages in the Old Testament, like the Ezekiel passage we read today, that the Judeans in Jesus’ time have started to conclude that God will raise the dead out of Sheol before the end of the world.
There is only one group that disputes this: the Sadducees, and they are known as being odd for not believing it.
But we, sometimes, can be guilty of the same thing as Martha:
We believe in the “resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come”
But we forget that life is also here, now, with us.
Martha is only thinking about the future resurrection.
Jesus’ response to Martha is this:
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.
Jesus does not say ‘I can provide the resurrection and the life’
He says “I AM the resurrection and the life”
And He proceeds to bring part of that future resurrection into the present.
He raises Lazarus from the dead!
Those who believe in Jesus can enjoy a confidence in the face of our earthly deaths, but He has also come NOW, and to give us this new life NOW, today, here in the Chicago suburbs.
The American Bible scholar, Gary Burge, who taught at Wheaton and is now at Calvin Theological Seminary, writes this:
Jesus is telling us that the reality of the resurrection is not something that simply awaits us in the end of time. As we saw, Judaism held this belief popularly. But Jesus is expressing a truth that is sometimes missed. Resurrection describes an aspect of life that we can experience now. Martha says that Lazarus will be raised in the future. But Jesus says that Lazarus is going to be raised now. This means that there is a real power available in the present experience of Christ that is unknown to the Jewish framework of Martha and Mary. The power of God resident in our lives today is the same power that will enable us to live for eternity.
– Gary M. Burge, NIV Application Commentary: John
Martha believed in all the right doctrine, but she missed the present reality of Jesus in her life.
Christ is not just our future hope; He is our present resurrection and life.
Application:
So what are the areas of your life where you need God to raise you from the dead?
What tombs are you stuck in, that you need Him to call you out of?
What areas of your heart, what relationships, what dreams, visions, and passions, have become for you ‘dry bones’ caked in dust and longing for new life?
Where do you need God to soften your heart, and replace your heart of stone.
Spiritual dryness
A question I often ask people in my counseling office is ‘How close do you feel to God in this season?’
I receive varying responses. It usually quite rare for someone to say ‘ very close’ but it does happen. Most people are experiencing a sense of distance form God.
The follow-up question I often don’t ask them, but I can ask you here is this:
Who was it that moved?
When you feel far away from God, did He move away from you? Or did you move away from Him?
Martha knew all the right things, but she has the Son of God standing in front of her, telling her that He is about to raise her brother from the dead, and she misses it!
She can't see it – she thinks He is offering her a theological comfort, but really He is about to do the most spectacular miracle in front of her – and reverse death itself!
How often are we Martha in that moment!
How often do we resign ourselves to our current circumstances and don’t believe that Christ has come to heal us!
He doesn’t say ‘I will be the resurrection and the life’ He says “I AM the resurrection and the Life.”
Following Christ now in this dark world means that the process of our resurrection has already begun – He has filled us with His Holy Spirit and given us new hearts.
Christ is at work in our lives NOW in ways that bring life out of what feels dead.
How?
Well, there is one example of this I felt called to in my prayers for you to bring today:
Marriages and Child/Parent relationships
Some of you have fallen into patterns in your marriages and family relationships that are unhealthy.
Of course you have, we are broken human beings and, sadly, this is inevitable.
And some of you have been married, or in your family, for a very long time and probably don’t hold out hope that these patterns will ever change.
How often are our prayer: ‘Lord please change this persons heart!’ Instead of ‘Lord please change my heart!’
Well, I have some news for you:
There is absolutely nothing you can do to change the people you are in a relationship with.
Your spouse, your friends, your parents, your children.
You cannot change their feelings, their behavior, or their personality.
That is 100% outside of your control.
The ONLY thing you can change is YOURSELF. This is the only person you really have control over.
And with the power of Christ in your heart NOW, TODAY, you can partner with Him in making changes so big in yourself that the scales of your marriage tip, that the relationships with your family begin to change. That the things you thought were dead start to gasp back into life.
You can ask Him to fulfill his promise of the resurrection and the life TODAY, by softening your heart.
Replacing what was stone into living, beating, flesh.
The best way to fix any human relationship is not to ask Christ to fix the other person, but to ask Him to fix you.
Practical Applications:
Examples:
Gentlemen – we struggle to apologize for things.
It is very hard for us to separate our sense of character from our actions.
When our wives or children bring us something we did wrong, we often feel that what they are sayingis that we are a failure as a husband or a father.
This is not the case. When people bring you criticism of your actions, keep it framed as an action. Apologize quickly for the action, not for failing as a father or husband. We all make mistakes, and it is human and normal for us to mess up.
Apologize regularly, because everyone gets things wrong, and you are not so special that you do not need to apologize to make things right.
Tell your wife how much you love her regularly. Make her feel like the most beloved woman that ever walked the face of the earth.
Use your words and actions to make her feel like the most treasured and beloved wife on the planet.
Understand that when she tells you you did something wrong, she is not making a comment on your character—she is making a comment on your actions, and those are two different things.
Know that when she tells you things, she probably just wants to be heard and listened to, and does not always need you to fix the problem.
She does not see things the way you do, and she does not process her thoughts in the same way.
And if you think these things are too hard to do - Ask Christ to give you a new heart for them. Ask Him to speak words of resurrection in your heart so that you can. He will answer your prayer. This is His promise, which is available to you NOW.
Ladies – it can often be really frightening to let your husband lead you. You see his faults, you see his failings, and you have been let down plenty of times before. But the more you are able to put your trust in him, as the man Christ has led you to in marriage, the better things will go.
Do not become an obstacle to his leading your family. Become the main source of encouragement in his life. Remind yourself regularly that what seems exceedingly obvious to you is often not obvious to him at all, and that he is holding on to things that no one else gets to see.
Do not be annoyed or anxious when he does not share his feelings with you—he does not see things the way you do, and he does not process feelings in the same way.
And if you think these things are too hard to do - Ask Christ to give you a new heart for them. Ask Him to speak words of resurrection in your heart so that you can. He will answer your prayer. This is His promise, which is available to you NOW.
Children of difficult parents – some of you are carrying heavy, heavy wounds. There are things you are grateful for, and things that you should not have had to carry.
Do not let your parents’ failings define you.
And if they are still continuing to hurt you through their failings, learn to set good boundaries with them.
Learn to say NO when you need to.
Learn to recongise the needs you have that they are just nbever going to meet, and let them go.
Lean into Christ and the church community He has provided for you. There are many spiritual mothers and fathers available to you right here in our congregation!
And if you think these things are too hard to do - Ask Christ to give you a new heart for them. Ask Him to speak words of resurrection in your heart so that you can. He will answer your prayer. This is His promise, which is available to you NOW.
Parents of difficult children – particularly those of you who mourn over your children’s lack of faith. Let your children see the difference it makes having Jesus in your life.
Let them look at you in wonder and think, “How did my mom or dad become such a peaceful, joyful, loving, and fulfilled person?”
No matter what they tell you, they are watching you closely, and they will see the changes you make in your life as you become more like Christ. This will be a far better testimony to them than any pressure to come to church or expressions of disappointment in them.
Lift them up to God daily in the quietness of your private prayer.
When they say things about your faith that are hurtful, do not defend Christ (He doesn’t need you to); instead, tell them how much it hurts you when they speak of something so precious to you that way.
Do everything you can to maintain a good and healthy relationship with them, so that if the time comes when they turn to Christ, you have not placed a stumbling block in their way—the fear that you will say, “I told you so.” (For who wants to tell their parents they were right about something?)
And if you think these things are too hard to do - Ask Christ to give you a new heart for them. Ask Him to speak words of resurrection in your heart so that you can. He will answer your prayer. This is His promise, which is available to you NOW.
End
So do not resign yourself to what feels dead.
Do not settle for dry bones.
Do not assume that because something has been this way for a long time, it will always be this way.
Because of what Christ has done on the cross, he paved the way for us all to have access to new hearts, to dry bones come to life, for what was dead in us to be made alive, and to have new life breathed into us.
That same voice and power that called Lazarus out of the tomb is the voice that speaks into our lives today.
So stand up, wrapped in your grave clothes, and hobble out of your tomb!
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
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