Sermons, Outlines, Illustrations and Pastor Resources

Sermon

Following is an excerpt of "A Makeover For Lazarus (22 of 36)" by Jerry Vines added on 02/15/2001.
This content is part of a series.
A Makeover For Lazarus (22 of 36)
Ephesians
Jerry Vines
Ephesians 4:25-32
7/26/2000

I want us to visit a man who is well-known in the
Bible. He's one of the popular characters of the
Bible and his name is Lazarus. Lazarus is the man who
was dead and the Lord Jesus Christ came and stood
before the tomb and with a loud voice He said,
"Lazarus, come forth." Lazarus came forth out of the
grave. When he came out the Lord Jesus saw those
grave clothes around him and He said, "Loose him and
let him go."

I want us to visit at the beginning of the message
tonight. The first thing we are going to have to do
is with the speed of thought, we are going to have to
go from here all the way over to the land of Israel to
the little village of Bethany. Once there, we want to
go back in time.

Did you read the other day that we have some
scientists who have been able to send some pulses
through a tunnel faster than the speed of light which
means theoretically it is possible for that pulse to
get out of the tunnel before it gets in to the tunnel.
Theoretically that would mean that it would be
possible to go back in time.

In theory, in imagination, let's go back in time. We
are over in the little village of Bethany in Israel,
right outside the city of Jerusalem. We are going
back in time to the days of the Lord Jesus Christ 2000
years ago. We are going to pay a visit to Lazarus.
We inquire around and we ask, "Could you tell us, sir,
we'd like to go visit Lazarus." They say, "I'll tell
you what do, go over there to the tomb and you'll find
Lazarus." You scratch your head and say, "I thought
Lazarus was raised from the dead. Maybe he's over
there visiting and rejoicing in what Jesus did for him
that day when He raised him from the dead." We go to
the tomb from which Jesus raised Lazarus and we don't
see him anywhere. We see the tomb and the entrance to
the tomb, but we don't see Lazarus anywhere. We call
him. "Lazarus, Lazarus, are you anywhere around?"
From deep inside the tomb we hear a voice. "I'm in
here." "Lazarus, what are you doing in that tomb?"
"I was just in here so long, I just got accustomed to
it." "Come out a minute, Lazarus, we want to talk
with you." We hear a rustle and hear some motion and
some shuffling along.

In a moment, coming out of the entrance of the tomb,
is a man who has grave clothes wrapped all around him.
You look at him and you say, "Now, wait a minute. Are
you Lazarus?" "Yep, I'm Lazarus." "Are you the one
that Jesus raised from the dead?" "Yep, I'm the one."
"You're the one they said to take the grave clothes
off of?" "Yep, that's me." "Lazarus, what in the
world are you doing still in that tomb and walking
around here with these old rotten grave clothes on?
Don't you know that you have new life in the Lord
Jesus Christ? You have been raised from the dead and
the Lord said to l ...

There are 24739 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 3000 character sample of the full content.

Add the entire series to my cart