Talking To The Grieving Believer, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. I am the resurrection and the life is not just talk. He backs it up. He verifies it with his words to Lazarus. Lazarus, come forth. And I don't know about you, but you know what the most exciting thing to me is? He's going to verify it with me.

That's great. I am the resurrection and the life, Bill. Come forth. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt.

Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. The wages of sin is death. By the way, that's not the way we were created. We were created to live. We were created to have an unbroken relationship with God forever. We were created to have an unbroken relationship with each other forever. That's what we were created for.

And sin changed that. And we die. He is troubled and deeply moved. He feels what we feel.

And that's something. He feels what we feel. And he said to them, Where have you laid him? And they said to him, Lord, come and see. And Jesus wept. But not Cleo. Eddie Crusay is the word.

It's completely different. It means the cry profusely but silently. He's not saying anything. And tears are just running down his cheek. When you cry out to the Lord because of the hole in your heart, because someone you love has died. It's as though he grabs you and whispers in your ear. I know.

I know how you feel. It's God incarnate. And he feels what we feel. And he weeps. No wonder the scripture says he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

He understands. He weeps with them and he weeps for them. And so the Jews were saying, see how he loved him.

They get this part right. You see, it's not just a matter of the principle of sin, it's not even a matter of he sees people crying because of death or a matter that he has a relationship with Martha and Mary. But he loves Lazarus. And he's died.

They say what we often say, but some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying? Where are you, God? Why haven't you stepped in? Why didn't you do something? Have you ever thought that through? I'm not sure we have.

Chuck Swindoll writes this. He said, if the Lord were to answer every prayer for healing by restoring health. No one would ever die. But we would be stuck in bodies that feel pain, fall ill, experience injury, grow tired and wear out forever.

We would be forced to ride a perpetual roller coaster of illness and health, injury and repair until we finally wearied of living and then we wished we were dead. Thank God he has a better way. You see, I think we don't think about that.

Oh, if you had just stepped in. Too soon, too young. When are you not too young to die?

You see, when is that? Boy, if you think for just a moment that, well, if somebody I really love dies but they're old, I'll be just fine with it. Still a hole in your heart. That's the way death operates. You see, we weren't created to die. Sin caused us to die.

Here's what amazes me about this and touched me more than anything else studying this passage. He cried. And he knew he was going to raise him from the dead. And he cried. You wouldn't have done that.

Neither would have I. Hey, don't cry. Wait till you see what I'm going to do.

We would do that. You see, it's almost like you can't wait to insert your power. Jesus knows that doesn't change anything. He loves Lazarus.

And guess what? Even after the event, Lazarus is going to die. You see, he gets it. It's heart wrenching.

It shows you his heart. Jesus talks to the grieving believer and says these three things. One, death does not get the final word. I am the resurrection and the life. Two, I have victory over death and you can too.

And whoever believes in me will have that victory as well. And three. I love you.

I feel your pain. Wow. He does something else. He does something that we often don't do.

He backs up his words. That's what begins in verse 38. So Jesus, again, being deeply moved within. He came to the tomb and it was a cave. And there was a stone lying against it.

A very typical scene, especially for someone with money. And I'm pretty well convinced that Lazarus, Mary, and Martha come from a family that's well supported. He has a cave tomb like Jesus was buried in.

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus helped in that. It's a hole, a cave, in solid stone. It's usually about six by nine, five by ten, those kind of dimensions. And normally, on one side, they would put about three shelves. He went out of the rock.

On the other side, three, and usually two at the end. And then they would place each person in the family who died there. That's what Jesus did. And there's a stone there for the security of it all. The stone was lying against it. And Jesus said, Remove the stone. Remove the stone. Maybe you don't think like I do. But that intrigued me. Hey, if you're God, you can move the stone by just saying move that stone.

Right? He could pulverize it. He could make it disappear. He doesn't operate that way.

He operates under this principle. You do what you can do. And let me do what I can do.

That's the great principle of ministry. You do what you can do. You do the small stuff. I'll do the big stuff.

But you do what you can do. And so he says to them, Remove the stone. Now remember, Martha is bewildered.

And Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be a stench for he has been dead for four days. The Jews don't embalm. It's not like an Egyptian pharaoh. All that they do is they wrap the body with about four inch wide strips. And they don't wrap it like a mummy. They wrap it individually. They wrap the legs individually. They wrap the arms individually.

They wrap the torso individually. And they simply put the spices that they have, whatever's available to them, on the layers of the wrapping so that it won't smell too bad too soon. But she says, I know how this is going to smell at four days. Hmm.

It's a stench. See, she's thinking he wants one last look. See, she knows he loves him. He must be going in there to see him one more time.

He wants to see him one more time. She's trying to say, Lord, it's too late. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the resurrection and the life. And Jesus said to her, did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? By the way, that's what he had even said in verse four of chapter 11 to his own disciples were there. He said, this sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified by it. Did I not tell you you will see the glory of God? Why won't you believe what I told you?

I don't know if any of us do this right. What is Jesus saying? He's saying simply this. He's saying to them, faith sees the glory of God.

Martha, you're missing the point. It's not that I want you to see a corpse walk. You see, it's not that I want you to see a corpse walking. I want you to see the glory of God. I want you to see the Son of God glorified. What is the glory of God? The glory of God is the attributes of God on display. As Tony Evans says, the glory of God is God showing off.

That's what he says. I want you to see the ability to take someone who has been dead for four days, make them alive. I want you to see not the corpse walking. I want you to see the glory of God. In Romans 6, the apostle Paul wrote this. Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of God.

Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of God. You see, we miss this. What we end up thinking about is I want to claim my miracle. And I want what I want to have happen so that I'll be happy that what happened can happen. And we miss the glory of God.

John MacArthur, as only he can, writes this. If Martha sets her heart on the corpse, all she's going to see is a living body. If Martha sets her heart on Christ, then the miracle happens.

She's going to see Christ glorified. That's the key. And so Jesus is saying, Martha, if you only stop thinking about a smelly, rotten corpse and rivet your attention on me, then when the miracle happens, you're going to see a true sign of my deity and my glory.

And that's what he really wanted. And, you know, he says we're like that. You know what happens? If you go through life and all you see are the problems, and you know there are some people who are, there are people that just simply see life as problems, problems, problems. That's all they ever see. And they keep their eye on the problems. And they get ulcers. And they get worries.

And they get gray hairs. And they go all through these problems, problems, problems. And you know what happens when God sees, when God answers their problems, you know what they see? They see the answer to a problem. Oh, I see there's a solution.

And it's right there. Oh, dear, I see another problem. And then another solution. He said that's all they see because they've gotten their eyes on their problems. So what do you see when the answer comes? The solution to their problem is all they see.

That's all. But you know what happens to a Christian who keeps their eyes on Jesus Christ? When the solution comes, what does he or she say? He sees the glory of Jesus Christ. And you know every time a problem is answered, the person of faith says, praise the Lord, this is terrific. I have seen the glory of God at work. You see, that's what he is saying.

It's so easy for us to become so central, not on the glory of the Lord. You see, for every miracle that the Lord inserts into our life, especially in the area of health, it's temporal, always. It's temporal.

Yes, the tumor is benign. Yes, your heart is stabilized. You see, yes, you see, you keep getting, yes, but you're going to die. That breaks his heart.

You see, that's his point. If you can see what I can do now, it just builds your faith to know what I'm going to do. I am the resurrection and the life. So they removed the stone and Jesus raised his eyes and he said, and I love this, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. And that word heard means agreed with me. I thank you that you agree with me.

I know that you always agree with me, but because of the people standing around, I said it so that they may believe that you've sent me. That's a prayer, right? Well, how about this? What does he ask the Father for? Nothing. He didn't ask him for anything.

There's no petition here. He says, Father, I thank you. I thank you that you agree with me in everything that I do.

I thank you. And I'm saying that out loud so these people hear it. We can't pray that way, but he can.

Wow. He's putting it right out in the open. And he said to these, after he said these things, you see, after he said these things, imagine the scene, all these people, the stones away. He just thanked God already. Now, I want to tell you something.

If that corpse doesn't come out of that cave, he's through. He put it all on the line. By the way, I'm always amazed that guys would say I can do everything that Jesus did.

Everything he did, I can do. Do this. Just do it.

Bring in CNN, four days dead. Bring it in and put it all on the line, just like Jesus Christ did. It says then, he says with a loud voice. Calgazzo. It's a great word.

Calgazzo. What does that mean? As loud as you can, it always is describing a crowd. It's as much noise as a crowd can make.

It's a close game, fourth quarter, third Don and the Dirty Birds of Atlanta have the ball and you're in the dome. What does that sound like? That's this word.

Lazarus. Come forth. He puts it all out there as loud as he can say it. He don't even have to say anything. He could have just went like this.

He wants in that sense to make sure everybody there feels this. And the insatiable grave gave up its prey. And the man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings. And his face was wrapped around with a cloth. And Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. Notice again he didn't take off the grave clothes.

You can do that. You unbind him and let him go. God does all the big stuff. We roll away stones and take off grave clothes and we call it ministry. I am the resurrection.

The life is not just talk. He backs it up. He verifies it with his words to Lazarus.

Lazarus, come forth. And I don't know about you, but you know what the most exciting thing to me is? He's going to verify it with me. Wow.

That's great. I am the resurrection and the life. Bill, come forth. The man who died came forth. Dead men don't come forth. Dead men don't wake up. Dead hearts don't beat. Dry blood doesn't flow.

Empty lungs do not inhale. Men don't come out of the grave unless they hear the voice of the Lord of life. You see, unless they hear the voice of the Lord of life. Turn with me as I close the first Thessalonians four. First Thessalonians four. Verse 16. This is called the blessed hope of the church for the Lord himself will descend from heaven. With a what?

With a shot. Love that the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shot in the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. And then we who are alive and remain will be caught up raptured together with them in the air to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord.

Therefore, comfort one another with these words. You see, what a scene. That must have been for those people at that gravesite. I'm sure some of the ladies fainted. I'm sure some people screamed.

I'm sure people cheered. You just don't see something like that every day. But there's something else that happens on the scene like that. You learn what to say at funerals. You see, that's what I can say at a funeral. As a grieving believer. Speaking about a dying believer, Jesus says, Look, death does not get the final word. No, I have victory over death and you will, too.

But by the way, I love you and I feel your pain. What does he give us there? You see, what does it happens to us? I love what Paul wrote in First Thessalonians four and look at verse 13. He says, But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep.

So that you will not grieve, as do the rest. Who have no hope. When Jesus talks to us as grieving believers, do you know what he gives you and gives me? Hope.

Wow. I am the resurrection and the life. Let's pray. Father, we can all identify with this passage. We have all had our heart torn. We all understand the sorrow. And for those of us, Father, who haven't experienced much of it, we will. We understand that the physical body will give up its living spirit.

We realize that physical death will separate us in this physical world until the reunion that we have with you. But Father, I thank you for the words of Jesus Christ. I thank you for the hope that those words give me. I thank you for his power. I thank you for his heart. I thank you for his ultimate victory and I thank you for his embrace of our sorrow. Father, how great is your son and our savior. In his name we pray.

Amen. And you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online. Or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.