Lazarus Rising: When Death Meets Life

Death has a finality few things can match—until it encounters Jesus. This Palm Sunday message takes us not to the streets of Jerusalem, but to a tomb in Bethany where a man named Lazarus had been dead for four days.

The timing of Jesus' arrival wasn't accidental but intentional. He deliberately waited until Lazarus was undeniably dead—so dead that Martha warned, "Lord, by this time he stinketh." Through this incredible story, we discover profound truth about divine delays. When Martha and Mary both confronted Jesus with the same painful words—"if you had been here, my brother would not have died"—they voiced what many of us feel when God seems late to our crisis. Yet Jesus wasn't late; He was right on time for a greater miracle than healing.

The sealed tombstone becomes a powerful metaphor in this message. Designed to confine death and decay within while keeping everything else out, it represented the ultimate barrier between life and death. But Jesus demanded entrance. His declaration "I am the resurrection and the life" wasn't just comforting theology; it was His identity statement days before He'd demonstrate it through His own resurrection. When He commanded "Lazarus, come forth," He wasn't merely performing a miracle—He was revealing His true nature and foreshadowing Easter morning.

What "dead situation" in your life needs resurrection power today? As we journey through Holy Week, remember that Jesus specializes not in improving what's struggling, but in bringing life to what has died. Join us next Sunday as we celebrate that the same voice that called Lazarus from the grave conquered death forever on Easter morning.

Chapters

• 0:26 Welcome to Cavewood Church Service
• 1:33 Palm Sunday Reflections
• 4:41 Reading of John 11:14
• 7:47 Jesus Delayed for a Purpose
• 12:05 The Stone's Significance
• 16:27 "I Am the Resurrection and Life"

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:26

Welcome, welcome. You're listening to the cavewood church of god sunday service here on the 421 show. The service is pre-recorded live, edited to fit the platform. Hey, go check out our website for more content and information. At hor421showbuzzsproutcom, you can stream the show and much more on Apple, spotify, whatever platform of your choosing. If you'd like to support the show, you can support it through PayPal, slash hor421, or you go through our website at hor421showbuzzsproutcom Record and edit it at the 421 studio. For contact information, you can email at hor421ministries at gmailcom. Phone number is 239-849-1502.

Speaker 1: 1:33

I always tell you I get really nervous when it's the home crowd, and part of the reason I think Pastor John didn't tell me he was going to be here is because he knew that I would be nervous when the overseer is in the house too. No, I do appreciate him sharing his desk with me and I don't take these assignments lightly, and I really do believe that the Lord has given me a message for this house today. I'm thankful for it. Today being Palm Sunday, we all know what that means. You know, 2,025 years ago, jesus went riding into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey and you know I watched pastors live there before church and they were crying out Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna. But at some point in time during their worship somebody tried to come along and shut them up, told them to be quiet. Rebuke the disciples and tell them to be quiet. Rebuke the disciples and tell them to be quiet. And Jesus said that if these people are quiet, the rocks will cry out. Now I don't know about you all, but I don't want any rocks in Caywood, kentucky, taking my place this morning. So I think we owe it to him one more time just to lift up your best praise that you can give him this morning. I want to challenge you to stand up to your feet, raise your hands toward heaven. You say, brother Jason, this ain't supposed to be part of the service. We're supposed to get into the preaching, but I come to silence every devil in hell. Today we're not celebrating an empty tomb, we're celebrating a risen Savior. Did you hear what I said this morning? There is an empty tomb Somewhere in Jerusalem or in Israel. There is an empty tomb. Somewhere in Jerusalem or in Israel there is an empty tomb. But can I tell you there is a risen Savior sitting at the right hand of the Father this morning. So why don't you go ahead and lift your hands toward heaven and give him a praise, honor and glory that he deserves? Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. That ain't even the message. But while you're standing, if you've got your Bibles and you want to turn to John, chapter 11, I'll read one verse of Scripture We'll bless the Word and we'll sit down. John, chapter 11, verse 14.

Speaker 1: 4:41

This is a very familiar story in the Bible, one that sets the tone for Calvary, so to speak. John, chapter 11, verse 14, simply says Then Jesus said unto them plainly Sometimes you've got to talk plain to people. Sometimes he's gotta be blunt with Jason because Jason don't always get it sometimes. Like pastor said, I'm from Leslie County. You gotta break it down for me, sometimes very plain and simple. And Jesus spoke these words, three words. He says Lazarus is man. I feel that sounds like a dead church to me. He spoke very clearly when he said Lazarus is dead.

Speaker 1: 5:45

Can we pray right there? Heavenly Father, we come to your house this morning humbly asking for your anointing one more time to rest upon us, lord, and I pray that your anointing will go forth with demonstration and with power. Lord, I pray that you will put receptive hearts in your people today, who were recept your word, and let them find it encouraging. We thank you for all that you do and all that you're gonna do. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen and amen. Now I didn't want you to stand very long, so I'm gonna share these next few verses with you.

Speaker 1: 6:27

You can follow along in your Bible. It picks up in verse 33. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled and said when have ye laid him? Then said unto him Lord, come and see Verse 35, two words. The most shortest verse in the Bible says that Jesus wept. Then said the Jews Be behold how he loved him. And some of them said could not this man which opened the eyes of the blind and caused that even this man should not have died? Jesus therefore again groaning in himself.

Speaker 1: 7:19

Coming to the grave, it was a cave and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days. And Jesus said unto her said I, not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said now I want you to catch this part, father. I thank thee that thou hast heard me, and I knew that thou heardest me always. Can I stop right there just for a minute? I've got to reiterate this point Don't stop praying, even when you think it's hitting brass ceilings and when you think that it's falling on deaf ears. Can I tell you this morning that he hears you always, but because of the people which stand by, I said it that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with the grave clothes, and his face was bound about him with a napkin. And Jesus said unto them Loose him and let him go.

Speaker 1: 8:58

Now I want to take just a minute and set this scene for you, if I can. You see, it was just a few days earlier that Jesus was in this town of Judea and they tried to stone him and they run him out of the land. And he told his disciples he said you know what I heard? That my buddy is sick, my friend Lazarus. He's laying sick and I need to go see him. And the disciples even tried to discourage him. Then they said don't you remember what happened the last time you was in Judea? That they almost stoned you, that they wanted to kill you while you were there? But none of that mattered to Jesus because he knew that he had somebody that needed to have a relationship, so to speak, or a relation with him at the time. So he didn't let the fact scare him or the threat that was made deter him from going back to meet Lazarus.

Speaker 1: 10:05

As a matter of fact, his disciples was trying to talk him out of it and then, when they seen they couldn't change his mind, I think one of them said Thomas, it was, I believe said you know what, let's just go with him and we'll die with him in Judea. If that's where it is, we'll die with him, but they couldn't even be found at the cross. If that's where it is, we'll die with him, but they couldn't even be found at the cross. So Jesus had made his mind up to go to this place and his selflessness was on full display here, just as it is now, because the Bible says he is the same yesterday, today and forever. But I want to tell you this morning, it wasn't until Lazarus was dead that Jesus began his journey, now life.

Speaker 1: 10:52

In the New Testament it was customary for them to bury the dead on the same day that they died, because they didn't have all the gadgets that we have today to preserve the body so that they can come in and mourn it days after a passing. They had to get them in their resting place pretty quick because the body was going to start decomposing and breaking down, and we all know what that entails. So they had to bury him on the same day. So Lazarus is placed in a tomb in a graveyard and Jesus is on his way back to Judea because he knows he needs to pay this family a visit.

Speaker 1: 11:37

Now the Bible also talks about Lazarus' two sisters who were left grieving during this time. Brother Steve, as a matter of fact, the Bible says that they were weeping and they were crying, and they had even called their distant family to come in from the other area, the local area, to participate in the grieving process. You see, back then it was custom for the family to gather and have a seven day grieving process, so to speak, when they would all come together, their families would collect and they would all spend seven days mourning and weeping the death of their loved one. Well, it just so happened, to speak, they were over halfway through the grieving process when Jesus decides to bust upon the sea. There's a reason that he was delayed in his visit. You see, in this time, bodies was not, they were dead, but they were not considered fully dead, so to speak, until three days later, so that there couldn't be any confusion along the lines considered fully dead, so to speak, until three days later, so that there couldn't be any confusion along the lines and there couldn't be anything that they could say that Jesus went and resuscitated Lazarus. Jesus actually delayed his arrival into the city where he was, and the sisters met him on the road.

Speaker 1: 13:01

I think it was Martha that met him first and she said you know what, if you would have been here, come on, if you would have been here, my brother would not have died. Don't sit there today like that. You haven't never blamed God for showing up on time when you thought he should have been on time and he wasn't there on time on your watch. So that's where Martha was at this time. She was saying you know what? I've seen the miracles that he's done before. I've heard how he's opened blind eyes and how he's opened deaf ears and how he's healed people. And if he would have been here, he would have healed my brother and he would not have died. And you know what? She was probably right, because Jesus didn't like to see anybody sick. He didn't like any funerals going on around him, because he would either heal the sick person or raise the dead. So if he would have been there Lazarus the Bible says that he was sick unto death, and you know what? It's very coincidental and I pin this on the way up here because, like I said, sometimes I have a hard time accepting things and you gotta break it down to me plainly too. When Jesus says something, it's so right.

Speaker 1: 14:25

In verse 14, he is very plain when he says Lazarus is dead. Do you know what that means? That means there isn't a doctor available to resuscitate him. There isn't a live being in that body anymore, so to speak. This guy is beyond help. There is nothing else that anybody can do for this person, this man named Lazarus. He has already succumbed to his illness, he had already died and there was nothing else anybody could do for him.

Speaker 1: 15:05

You know what the family did? They gathered him up and they took him away to the tomb. They laid him out in the tomb, they wrapped his body and they covered his face with this napkin and they laid him to rest and they rolled a stone in front of the grave. And I want to emphasize the point of the stone. You see, the point of the stone was to confide the body. It was to confine the body to the grave and it was also to keep everything out that tried to get in. They went so far as to seal the stone to the tomb with wax and rope so that it would not leak and water couldn't get in and animals could not get in and eat on the body, and it also would contain the odors from the decomposing of the body. So the stone was placed in front of this tomb and sealed. It was ultimately so that it would keep what was in in and what was out out.

Speaker 1: 16:17

Oh, but there was one problem Jesus wanted in. You see, the Bible says, when he shows up, that he was met by the sister Martha and she said if you would have been here, my brother would not have died. He talks to her just for a minute and she goes and gets her other sister and it's almost like they had talked about it, pastor, because she comes and rehearsed the same thing to him again. She says if you would have been here, my brother wouldn't have died. So you got two sisters telling the same story. So obviously they've messaged one another on Facebook or shared a story on Instagram or something right. They've communicated, they've had the same story. If you would have been here, my brother would not have died.

Speaker 1: 17:12

But Jesus simply asked Martha a very specific question Do you believe, do you believe? And she said oh, yeah, I believe. And he says your brother will rise again. And she goes on to say oh, I know he's going to rise in the last day, when everybody else is going to rise, and he's gonna rise again and we sung about it earlier he's gonna rise again. Jesus said no, you don't understand. He said I am the resurrection. My God, I need you to get a hold of that this morning. He said I am the resurrection and I am the life. You know what he was speaking about. He didn't say I am the death, because they had enough death in the situation. They needed some life in the situation, so to speak, and Jesus was the only thing that could provide life to something dead. I want to tell you this morning, in circumstances that you think it's dead, maybe you need to invite some life into it.

Speaker 2: 18:23

I'm trying not to get ahead of myself with this.

Speaker 1: 18:26

I'm trying. I promise I'm going somewhere. I'm trying.