ES017 Alive!

20 Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. 21 Now 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 of God, God will give You.” 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 at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever 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 to come into the world.” 28 And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, “The Teacher has come and is calling for you.” 29 As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. 31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.” 32 Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. 34 And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!” 37 And some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?” 38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, 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 him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” 41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” 43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” 44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”

Ephesians 5:14 NKJV

14 Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”

When I first came across the Ephesians verse it was like this is what God is saying to the Church. I wanted, though, to make it tangible and struggled for a while about how to do this not just in noticing the metaphors here but how do we understand and apply it.

In the first passage in John’s gospel, Lazarus was physically dead. There is no metaphor to understand here. He was dead; Jesus called His name; Lazarus lived! A very notable miracle if ever there was one – and mirrored very much with Jesus’ own resurrection. Now in calling Lazarus’ name it is no stretch of the imagination to know that God is also calling each one of us by name.

Isaiah 43:1 NKJV

1 But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.

And each person who has heard his voice and responded has come alive. When we have come to Him we become His. The fact that He knows us all by name is a great encouragement for we are not one among many but individually we are known to him.

As for the second passage, the one in Ephesians, this must necessarily be a metaphor and generally it has to be understood as addressed to non-Christians. Jesus is calling out each person’s name and waiting for the response. Your name is being called – are you listening? In the Psalm for last week, it said:

Psalm 95:7–8 NKJV

7 For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice: 8 “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness,

Have we all responded to our names being called? If not we are still dead in the eyes of God. We are in our sins. We are still in rebellion despite the fact that Jesus has paid the price, paid the penalty for our sins on the cross. Yes, we deserve to die; we deserve to be punished; our own consciences condemn us – we know that we are answerable to God and that one day we will all have to give an account to Him.

Yet, the way of freedom, the way to being made alive is so easy. Sleeping is not an option – if we sleep we might miss the last opportunity given to us to be saved from hell. By sleeping I mean waiting and waiting because we don’t want to face up to our responsibility now but hope that when we are at death’s door we will have time to repent. The problem is, of course, that who knows when we will be at death’s door and whether we will be conscious to make a decision for Jesus.

If we hear Jesus calling now saying: ‘Follow me’ then we had better say “yes”. Who knows whether we will hear him when we are older? Who knows whether we would even want to have Jesus then? We might be much more hard hearted just like we read of Pharaoh in the Bible – his heart got harder and harder as time went on and in the end he lost everything because he kept on saying no. If we have still not made that decision to follow Jesus who has done so much for us then we need to do that now. The Bible says

2 Corinthians 6:2 NKJV

2 For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

What is your choice? Will you make Him your Lord, Saviour and friend? Please see me afterwards if that is what you want to do or if you want to know and understand more.

Now, then, let us turn to these Scriptures for us here in Mount Calvary Baptist, as Christians...

A command is given: (Eph 5.14) Arise! Get up! Stop sleeping! Rise from the dead!

This is the same command as when Jesus called Lazarus from the grave. When Jesus speaks he gives out power. It is unavoidable! When Jesus said to the man with the withered hand ‘stretch it out’ it was healed. When Jesus said to Lazarus ‘come out’ he revived and hopped out of the tomb. It is Jesus who is speaking and He is saying to us: Wake up! It is impossible to stay asleep. It’s a new day!

You are not dead but you are alive! It’s time to get those grave clothes off you, you cannot stay dressed that way because you are not for the grave. It’s time to put on new clothes – to put on Christ. We cannot put dirty clothing in the cupboard with clean for it will contaminate the clean (men, take note!). It would not do for us to have new life in Christ but are not transformed in the way we live; for we cannot put new wine into old wineskins. But somehow we want to sometimes.

The verse in Ephesians is likely to be a baptismal saying said to those who have just been baptised. Yes, you were dead in trespasses and sins but now you are alive in Christ.

Romans 6:3–4 NKJV

3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Colossians 2:12 NKJV

12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

We are not dead but alive – now we need to wake up!

Romans 13:11–13 NKJV

11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.

1 Thessalonians 5:1–10 NKJV

1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

We can’t stay in darkness or stay dead or asleep – we are now Christians whose lives have been changed and the challenge is for us to avoid works of darkness for we are made alive in Christ.

Galatians 5:24 NKJV

24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Galatians 2:20 NKJV

20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

We are not called to lethargy and carelessness but to be awake, to action, to be alive, to live life to the full. If we live as natural man, that is, in a way that is fleshly, in our own way without reference to God then we will be sleepwalking our Christian lives.

It is said that “Christians are imperfect, they offend in many things.” This is true; but they should not pursue sin; they should not make themselves servants to it; they should not obey its lusts. Christians, though, when through temptation they are led astray, they think on their ways, and turn their feet to God’s Word. A conviction of their transgressions brings them on their knees before God, and their righteous sorrow works in them carefulness. Is this our character? There is then ground for hope and comfort. But, if on the contrary, we make reserves in favour of this or that sin, if we deliberately repeat it often without remorse, and run into temptations without caution; if when we have done evil we seek excuses to pacify our conscience, if the mercy of God, which should lead us to repentance, emboldens us to continue in sin, what will we say? Just how alive are we? What is the evidence we are alive or that we are Christians at all? On twitter there was a tweet by Richard Hardy of Albany Rd Baptist, Cardiff who asked: “where is conviction, confession and repentance in the church today?” If we are alive in Christ then we need to live lives that reflect that reality.

And what does that reality look like once repentance is done? I’m sure I’ve used this illustration before. This man lived in the 1800s:

1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching Keeping Alive

At the age of sixty-five, Oglesby retired from the staff of a prominent university in California. Being a specialist in agronomy, he pursued some personal ideas of orcharding and made one-hundred thousand dollars. At age seventy-seven he retired again—this time to Southern California—and offered himself in full-time Christian service to his church. Eventually he was licensed as a local preacher in the Methodist communion. Each year he would go to the superintendent and ask for the hardest job in the district. It was usually a small, struggling church; and he would go from door to door trying to generate interest in the Lord’s work. At the end of a year, Brother Oglesby would ask his superintendent for a new assignment, and the process was repeated.

For a period of twelve consecutive years, single-handedly, he started a new Methodist church each year. He was once asked how many calls he made during a year in the interest of his work. From thirty-five hundred to fifty-five hundred was the answer, and with a twinkle in his eye, he said: “It is one way to prove you are alive.”

This guy was in his 90’s at this point. To put it in day-to-day figures he was knocking on between 11 and 18 doors every day excluding Sundays.

It is one thing to talk about praying bigger prayers and dreaming bigger dreams. Maybe the time for dreaming is over. The time for action is here. Of course we still need to think big and pray bigger. With the AGM coming up we need to pray for our direction.

We are light in this world and it leads to the conviction of others coming under the feeling of judgement. We are in a world of darkness and because Christ has shone upon us: as a result we are now light. Christ shines upon us so that he can shine through us.

Our lives cannot be lived as men and women who look for the darkness to do those things that we would be ashamed to do in public. Rather, we are to reflect Jesus’ injunction:

Matthew 5:16 NKJV

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Jesus is the light of the world – He is the light that lights men. When Jesus shines upon us then we start to be reflectors – very much like Moses when he came down the mountain after meeting with God - his face shone and there was no hiding it. Now, we, who have been made alive in Christ, are light – there is no hiding the light that is within us for Christ is in us.

John 12:46 NKJV

46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.

Matthew 5:14 NKJV

14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

If we do not yet know Jesus, then this is your opportunity, do not leave without talking to me about this. If we know Jesus but still live as if we are asleep, carrying on with works of darkness, now is the time to repent. We cannot live as both dead and alive. It’s time to get our lives in order. If we are lethargic about getting on with the Christian life we need to repent too and become like that old man who went knocking on doors and start to be light in this world, to make a difference – to prove we are alive! Where there is light darkness disappears. We are the Church. Jesus said He will build His church. Let us work together with Him to make it happen.

Communion

Jesus came into the world as light of the world. As we heard this morning, Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Today, if we are to partake in communion then we need to be those who in gratitude to Jesus are turning our backs on the world and putting the cross of Jesus in front of us. His was the supreme sacrifice, the greatest love story ever told, coming from Heaven to become like us and dying a criminal death despite being our very creator. He wants to lift us up out of the mire of this world and elevate us to be seated with Christ above. The price has been paid in full, are we going to follow Jesus or not? If so, you are welcome to join us in remembering the pivotal moment of history, of Jesus giving Himself for us.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NKJV

23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.

What followed this supper was Gethsemane and then the cross and then the resurrection. He is alive and we are alive in Him. And He is coming back again. Let us therefore look forward to this time and get ourselves ready for eternal life.

Benediction

Hebrews 13:20–21 NKJV

20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Bibliography

Lloyd-Jones, D. M. (1987). Revival. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.

Related Media

Related Sermons