THE DEAD CALLED TO LIFE!

“Lazarus, come out.” — John 11:43

Yet again, another funeral we are to attend. How many has that been? Another person lies lifeless. The shell of their body is empty. The spirit of that person has left and now leaves behind loved ones who sorrow and grieve over the loss.

Now imagine this scene of a grieving family. It has been four days since their loved one died. They are still in that fog of grasping that their loved one has truly died and will no longer be with them. They will not see their face, hear their voice or be in their presence anymore on this planet. Life will be different and yet Jesus tells them to “Take away the stone” (John 11:39). That would be like us being told to “dig up the coffin and open it.” Imagine that… after four days!

This was a real life experience for Mary and Martha and those around them as Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb four days after he had died (John 11:17-44). At the voice of Jesus this four days dead man came out of the tomb… alive! Man says “Impossible!” and it would be except that it was the Son of God who called Lazarus back from the dead. No mere man could do this.

Now, for we who believe in the Lord God Almighty and trust His Word, this is no surprise to us. God can do whatever He desires. He created everything from nothing— spoke all of creation into existence. Let’s see man do that! Yet man says “Impossible!” and yes, for man, it would be, but not for the Lord God Almighty.

So many people have a hard time believing in the Almighty, but they can believe (blindly) in the supposed evolutionary process. When you follow that process back to where it all began… How did it begin? Did everything we see today originally come from nothing? Or, did something exist before that everything came from? If so, where did that come from? To follow the logic (or illogic) of evolution, you eventually have to go back to nothing. But let’s see so-called science show us something coming from nothing. It will not happen and it did not happen through an evolutionary process—-God brought creation into existence!

The same One who caused Lazarus and so many others to come back from the dead is the One who holds the number of our days that we will live on this planet. After that those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus will go to be with Jesus in heaven and those who did not want anything to do with Him will be sent to hell. Why is that? Because justice has been served on our behalf—Jesus took the punishment for our sin and to reject that is to reject relationship with God and the joy of heaven one day. To reject what Jesus has done is to accept the justice of hell upon ourselves.

Thank You, Father in heaven, for sending Jesus to take the penalty of my sin, to serve justice for me so I won’t have to myself. I am grateful you saved me from sin, to a relationship with You and from eternal judgment in hell. Oh, that many others would flee to the Lord Jesus for refuge as well. May it be so.