¹ Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.² It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. ³ So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” ⁴ But when Jesus heard it 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.” ⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. ⁷ Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” ⁸ The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” ⁹ Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” ¹¹ After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” ¹² The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” ¹³ Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. ¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, ¹⁵ and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” ¹⁶ So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” ¹⁷ Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. ²⁰ So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” ²³Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” ²⁸When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹ And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ 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. ³² 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.” 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. ³⁴ And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶ So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” ³⁸Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. ³⁹ 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.” ⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³ When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 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.” ⁴⁵ Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, ⁴⁶ but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷ So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. ⁴⁸ If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” ⁴⁹ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. ⁵⁰ Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” ⁵¹ He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, ⁵² and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. ⁵³ So from that day on they made plans to put him to death. ⁵⁴ Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples. ⁵⁵ Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. ⁵⁶ They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?” ⁵⁷ Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

I once heard somebody say that the question “Why?” is the bullet we put in our gun when we want to shoot at God. The man who said this was suggesting that there is a kind of doubt that does not want answers. What it really wants is the death of God Himself. This is true of some people. Many people do in fact take the question “Why?” and put it in their guns and shoot it at God.

But “Why?” is not always a bullet. Sometimes it is simply a cry. When offered from a sincere heart burdened under the weight of some calamity, “Why?” is a natural question that God welcomes from the hearts of His children. The Lord has never hated the honesty of His children. The Lord has never scolded His children for their sincere struggles of heart and mind and soul.

This is what Jesus encountered when He received news that His friend, Lazarus, was sick. Lazarus’ sisters had sent word to Jesus that their brother was very ill. Jesus, amazingly (from our perspective), declined to run to them immediately. Instead, Jesus waited. Jesus waited and Lazarus died.

This led to Jesus being asked “Why?” by many who were surrounding Him. What we discover from Jesus is that there was, in fact, an answer to the “Why?” Jesus was not acting carelessly or thoughtlessly. Jesus waited because He wished to teach everybody involved with and surrounding this controversy a number of things about God and about Himself.

In other words, Jesus used the occasion of this tragedy as an opportunity for revelation. He reveals, here, a number of important truths and realities in the death and raising of Lazarus. As you consider what He reveals, I want to encourage you to let these revelations of Himself help you understand why the Lord might be allowing certain things to happen in your life as well. Let these revelations of Christ’s own person redeem your own questions of “Why?”

More than that, though, let us allow this story to draw us further into the person of Christ. Let us allow this story to draw us into more fervent worship.

Let us begin with the bare facts of the story. We will start at the beginning:

¹ Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. ³ So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”

First, we see a family. The family consists of two sisters and a brother: Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Lazarus is sick. He is sick enough that the sisters send word to Jesus to come. As many commentators point out, they never said, “Come at once!” The truth of the matter is that they did not have to. It is enough to let Jesus know that His friend is ill. Friends don’t have to tell friends to come. It is assumed in the news itself. But Jesus does something unexpected when He hears the news.

⁴ But when Jesus heard it 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.” ⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Jesus waits. He does not go at once. There is no earthly reason why He cannot go at once. But that is one of the points. Jesus is trying to reveal something above and beyond earthly reasoning.

This is hard for us to get, isn’t it? Some of you have experienced the waiting of Jesus. Some of you know what it is to call for Him now only to receive His word, “I will come when I come.” It is a painful, soul-searching kind of experience. We do not understand when God does not work on our timetable. But oftentimes He does not. When He does not, as we will see, there is always a reason.

So He waits. Then, after His waiting, He prepares to go to His friend.

⁷ Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” ⁸ The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” ⁹ Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

The “Why?” begins immediately. “Why do you want to go back to Judea? They want to kill you there!” Jesus responds by speaking of time. The Jews viewed a day as having 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. On the one hand, He is saying something important here about time and God’s orderly plan. Jesus reveals that there is an order to things, and order than cannot be manipulated or changed by human caprice or care. Jesus knew that He would die, but He also knew that He would not die now at the home of Lazarus. It was not His time.

Of course, Jesus had already revealed Himself to be the light of the world, and He is drawing on that image as well. He is the light and the world is in darkness. He is light and truth. It is better to walk with Jesus in the light, even if that light reveals danger, than to have your mind and heart and affections darkened by worldly thinking.

They ask “Why?” and Jesus says, “Trust me. Trust me and come.” Then Jesus reveals the reason for their journey.

¹¹ After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” ¹² The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” ¹³ Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. ¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, ¹⁵ and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” ¹⁶ So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

It is a humorous scene, almost. “Lazarus is asleep,” Jesus says. “Let us go wake him.” “If he’s asleep, he will wake up,” they demur. I imagine Jesus pausing here. “He’s dead,” Jesus reveals. Then the collective acknowledgement from the disciples: “Aaaaaaaaaah.” All of this is punctuated with Thomas’ unknowing but noble declaration: “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

I imagine Jesus shaking His head in bemused, benign frustration at this. So they set off.

¹⁷ Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. ²⁰ So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.

Lazarus has died. Mary sits in mourning. Martha runs to meet Jesus. If you look at the story of Mary and Martha at the end of Luke 10, you will find that this is consistent with their demeanors: Martha, ever busy, and Mary, still and reflective.

Martha runs to Jesus when she hears He has come. She runs in faith but she runs with a “Why?” on her lips.

²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

There is faith here, but also a kind of indictment. Martha believes that the Lord can do whatever He wants to do, but she questions as well. Not only does she question, she offers a mild rebuke: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Many of us have felt this way before. Many of us have experienced the twin realities of belief and questioning. “I still believe you can do it, God,” we say. Then we continue, “But I don’t understand why You let this happen.” We are like the father in Mark 9:24 who cries out, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

Jesus responds:

²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

In speaking to the disciples at the beginning of their journey and in speaking to Martha here, Jesus reveals the reasons for His allowance of this tragedy. There are three stated reasons why He lets this happen. They are:

·        So that the Father and the Son could receive greater glory. (v.4, “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.”)

·        So that the disciples could believe in Him on a deeper level. (v.14b-15a, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.”)

·        So that Martha might be brought to a point of decision about Jesus. (v.25-26, “I am the resurrection and 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?”)

These three reasons (the greater glory of God, the deeper belief of God’s children, and the creation of a point of decision) do not answer all of our questions. They do not provide a definitive response to the “Why?” of our limited understanding. Indeed, nowhere in scripture does God promise such a response to His children. Nowhere in scripture is it suggested that we could grasp such a response even  if it was given.

But these three reasons are indeed reasons, and important ones. The Lord allowed this tragedy to befall Lazarus and his family for the same reason He allows certain tragedies to befall us: so that God might get greater glory as He works in and through it and us, so that God’s children might come to know Him on a deeper level, and so that a point of decision can be created at which we decide whether or not we really do trust in and believe in this great God.

We see here the first of Jesus’ great revelations in this situation: the revelation of His reasons for allowing it to happen in the first place.

It is a good series of questions to ask ourselves when we are going through great trials:

·        How can God get further glory in this tragedy?

·        How can I believe more deeply in the Lord through this tragedy?

·        What point of decision is the Lord bringing me to in this tragedy?

These are the reasons Jesus reveals for His allowance of this tragedy, and these are the markers that help us through our own tragedies.

In the midst of this great drama, Jesus also reveals His heart:

²⁸ When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹ And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. ³¹When 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. ³² 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.”

This is a heart-breaking, pitiful scene. Mary bursts forth in emotion before her Lord. There seems to be an even sharper edge here than there was with Martha’s approach to Jesus. Martha, ever-expressive, was probably better at letting things out as they came. Mary had been sitting, ruminating on these events, reflecting on the death of her brother and the delay of Jesus. She cries out in frustration, then is overwhelmed by tears and the mourning crowd.

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. ³⁴ And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶ So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

This is a passage of great feeling, of great emotional depth. Jesus is touched by Mary’s great grief as well as by the mourning of the ladies in the funeral procession. Middle Eastern funerals were scenes of great, expressive anguish in this day. In many ways, they seem to be that way today as well.

William Barclay reveals that, in Jewish burial custom, “women mourners walked first, for it was held that it was woman who by her first sin brought death into the world, and therefore she ought to lead the mourners to the tomb.”[1] John tells us that Jesus was “deeply moved in his spirit” at the sight and sound of this mourning. This phrase is connected to the verb embrimasthai which is connected to the idea of a horse snorting. In other words, Jesus groaned from deep in His being at this pitiful sight.

To be sure, there is genuine mourning here on the part of Jesus. But what led Him to this great grief? Why does Jesus grieve?

He grieves, first, at the death of a friend. Jesus was fully God and fully man. He was not untouched by the death of a beloved friend. He loved Lazarus and Lazarus was dead. The fact that Jesus knew how this would play out did not undo the pain of that moment.

He grieves, also, at the pain of the surrounding family. He loves Mary and Martha. They, too, are his dear friends. Their hurt and even their frustration at Him weigh heavy on His heart. He does not weep because He made a mistake in delaying. On the contrary, He did not make a mistake. His timing was and is perfect.  He does not regret the decision.  But He wept because of the pain of the ordeal they were going through.

The Lord God is not stoic in the face of human suffering. He is not unmoved by human tears. He is immutable, unchanging, and perfect, yes. But He is the God who weeps over suffering humanity. He is compassionate and tender in His mercies. He weeps at and with the weeping of the Jews.

But there is more that is happening here, and I think we miss something important if we miss this. Let us remember that one of the reasons Jesus delayed and allowed this to happen was so that people might know Him more deeply, might believe in Him as the Christ. He wanted God to get the glory and knew that He would be glorified in this as well.

In other words, He wanted His followers, once again, to view the world and all that happens in it through the eyes of redeemed men and women who have been let in on the great and glorious marvel of the grace of God. He wanted them (as He wants us) not to cease to be human, but to be human with minds that had been touched by holy fire and that now could see things from the vantage point of the Kingdom of God.

In this sense, Jesus’ grief is not only sorrow. There is pain and frustration in it as well.

Some suggest that Jesus’ tears are misunderstood by the crowd here (and by many of us) as being part of the mourning process, but that, in fact, that is not why Jesus cries. Francis Moloney, for instance, suggests that:

“The careful use of another verb for the weeping of Jesus (dakryo is used for Jesus’ weeping, whileklaio is used for both Mary and ‘the Jews’ in vv. 31,33) indicates that Jesus’ tears cannot be associated with the surrounding mourning process. He weeps because of the danger that his unconditional gift of himself in love as the Good Shepherd…the resurrection and the life who offers life here and hereafter to all who would believe in him…will never be understood or accepted. While Mary moved towards Jesus…there was hope that one of the characters had come to faith. Once she joined ‘the Jews’ in their sorrow and tears Jesus’ promises seem to have been forgotten, and Jesus weeps in his frustration.”[2]

There is some merit in this view. After all, in Luke 19 this is precisely why Jesus weeps:

⁴¹ And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴² saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.⁴³For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side ⁴⁴ and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Jesus knows what it is to weep over the disbelief people. He did so over Jerusalem and there can be no doubt that this is happening here as well.

I want quickly to add, however, that I do not believe this is an either/or: either Jesus wept in pure grief at the death of a friend or Jesus was weeping in heart-broken frustration at the failure of those witnessing this scene to grasp who He is. Grief does not come in neat categories. There is a lot happening here, and no doubt there is a lot happening in the heart of the Lord Jesus as well.

I want to suggest that we see both of these elements in the tears of Jesus: grief and heart-broken frustration. He grieves with their tears and He grieves at what He knows their tears mean. He grieves because a friend is dead and friends are hurt and mourning. He grieves also that those surrounding Him, including His friends, cannot seem to bridge the gap between their verbalized belief in Him and what they actually believe in their hearts.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, pain and tragedy is ground zero in the battle for belief. It reveals who we really are. The Lord does not begrudge tears. The Lord does not condemn concern. The Lord does not wish us to be unmoved and apathetic in the midst of tragic loss. We do not believe less because we cry. We do not believe less because we grieve. We do not believe less because we wonder why.

But is it not true that the arena of pain is that arena in which the truth of our hearts are revealed? We may weep in the midst of tragedy, but we dare not weep as an atheist or non-believer might weep! Yes, let us mourn, but let us never mourn as people who have no hope! Let us struggle to understand, but let us never believe that there is no answer!

What do our tears say? Do we really believe? Do we really trust? Do we really know that God is with us, that He will never leave us or forsake us?

The Lord Jesus reveals a heart of compassion here. He reveals a heart that gives us hope in the deepest pain.

Above all else, though, Jesus reveals His divine authority. I love this! Watch:

³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” ³⁸Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. ³⁹ 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.”

The conflict between Jesus’ true grasp of reality and the crowd’s earthly vantage point is seen here once again. Martha, ever-practical, is concerned about the smell since her brother has been dead four days. William Barclay offers a fascinating explanation of the significance of Lazarus being dead four days:

“It was the Jewish belief that the spirits of the departed hovered around the tombs for four days, seeking an entrance again into the body of the dead. But after four days the spirits finally left for the face of the body was so decayed that they could no longer recognize it.”[3]

Ah, so in their minds Lazarus is really, really dead! Jesus breaks forth more light:

⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”

See here the reasons, again, for Jesus allowing all of this to happen: belief and glory! The drama reaches a crescendo as Jesus comes to the tomb:

⁴¹ So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³ When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”

Imagine the scandal of this! Just imagine it: yelling at a dead man in a tomb! Dead men don’t hear us when we call to them.

I grew up attending Thomas Sumter Academy, a small school in Dalzell, SC, named after the Revolutionary War General Thomas Sumter. In my hometown you can visit the tomb of General Thomas Sumter. As a boy I had somebody tell me that if you went to General Sumter’s tomb and marched around it three times saying, “General Thomas Sumter, watcha doin’ in there?” at each pass, that after the third time if you stopped and listened General Thomas Sumter would say…“Nothing.” (Ponder that for a while and you’ll get it!)

Dead men don’t respond when we call to them! Shouting at graves is the epitome of futility for us.

Yes, but Jesus is no mere man. Jesus is the Lord of Heaven and Earth and He has authority over sin, death, and hell. So Jesus shouts, “Lazarus, come out!” What happened next was jaw-dropping:

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.”

Jesus, the Lord. Jesus, God with us. Jesus, the God-man. Jesus, He who has divine authority over death. Jesus, the King!

Oh, friends, did you hear what He said? “Unbind him, and let him go!” Jesus, the One who sets the captives free. Jesus, the One who unwraps our burial wraps and shouts, “Live!” over the previously dead.

Now we see, don’t we? Now we see that the Lord Jesus was not only wanting to reveal certain important truths. We see that Jesus was also wanting to reveal what He does for all who will come to Him. Jesus is in the business of removing the shackles of our lives. Jesus is in the business of calling the dead out of their tombs even today.

Marjorie Maddox has spoken of herself before she accepted Jesus as being like Lazarus:

A lazarus, dead and still dying,
I stink with the rotting
of sin wrapped tight about limbs
limp with what man is and isn’t.

by my fault,
my own fault,
my own most grievous fault…[4]

Yes, now the whole amazing truth begins to settle in on us: I am Lazarus. I am dead in my sins and trespasses.   “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23). I am undone in the disease of my own rebellion.   “For the wages of sin is death…” I am already decomposing, stinking in my own decay. “For the wages of sin is death…”

But then I hear a voice, “Wyman, come out of there! Come out, Wyman! Come out of there and live!” “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.”

Can it be? Can it be that the Lord Jesus is calling to me, here, in this place of death? Can it be that He, Jesus, has called to me in my sins to come? And you? Can it be that the Lord Jesus is calling to you, here, now?

It can be, and it is! He gets the glory and I get the life! I live! I live because He lives and because He offers me grace! I live because He has the authority to grant it and to heal me. He has the authority to free me from my sins because He took my sins into Himself on the cross and paid the price for them. As for the grave, Jesus has the authority to call me out of it because He Himself walked out of a grave once. Jesus can call you out of the grave because He defeated the grave when He walked out of His tomb on the third day.

Jesus is the victor over the grave, over death, over sin, over hell. He and He alone can call me out of this death. He and He alone can reach to me with nail-pierced hands and bring me home.

Dear friends, how many of you are bound in the burial cloths, buried in the tomb of death? How many of you still dwell in the tomb of your own sins? How many of you have not come to Jesus because you will not come?

Do you hear Him? Do you hear Him calling? “Come out! Come out! Come out! Come out! Come out and be free! Come out and live! Come out and kneel before the Son who sets you free!”

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