Rise Up: With Christ, 4/28/2019

Pastor Pete Hartwig

Sermon Notes

Rise Up – Growing Up

 

50 days from Easter to Pentecost

 

SLIDE: RISE UP

 

The intersection

 

  1. Resurrection “Rise up”
  2. Health now moving to action

 

Growing up, Stepping up, Facing up, Building up, Moving up, listening up, Opening up, Reaching up

 

Here is our overarching thought for this sermon series.

 

SLIDE: Very rarely in life will you or I “Rise Up” without a person or an event calling us to do so.

 

We will stay just where we are at.

 

SLIDE: Rise Up – “Growing Up” 

 

neglectful, or immature, To RISE Up means some Growing Up.

 

Younger / Older

 

7 signs / miracles  a higher purpose Needs – suffering.

 

John 20:30-31 There are many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

 

Opening sign = A Wedding  (water into wine)

A later sign = A funeral  (the raising of Lazarus)

 

SLIDE: A “Growing Up” faith understands… Jesus can be known in BOTH the joys and the sorrows of this life.

 

SLIDE: The Death of Lazarus John 11:1-7 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days,and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

 

A Growing up event.

 

Bethany – 2 miles east = ‘the house of the poor’.    

 

“There is some evidence that it was just that: a place where poor, needy and sick people could be cared for, a kind of hospice a little way outside the city of Jerusalem.”  NT Wright

 

John 11:3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

John 11:5  Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

 

SLIDE: A “Growing Up” faith is completely reliant upon Jesus’s love for us. 

 

CAUTION: Nicodemus, A roman soldier. A Pharisee.

Social Capital – Large Church – UVA – Certain neighborhood.

Common experience. Your looks. Education

 

Bethany: House of the Poor. 

relationship is of highest value

 

SLIDE: A “Growing Up” faith joins with others in prayer to Jesus.

John 11:3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

 

HUGE STEP!   – prayer team at the end.

Bearing under the burden alone.

 

John 11:17-27  Jesus Comforts the Sisters of Lazarus

17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

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

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

 

A Powerful profession and confession

 

 

SLIDE: “Growing Up” faith resists the temptation to have “If / Then” beliefs about Jesus.

 

READ: John 11:21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

 

John 11:32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

 

SLIDE: “Growing Up” faith resists the temptation to have “If / Then” beliefs about Jesus.

 

Jesus waits 2 days  (TIMING)

 

READ John 11:6-7 So when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

 

Martha and Mary… IF / THEN

 

Relationships are by their very nature not If/Then.

 

Health, provision, parenting, and direction

 

IF Jesus loves me… then… you  assured of…

his presence is with me always.

If Jesus loves me… my sins can truly be forgiven.

If Jesus loves me… there will be a resurrection of the living and the dead.

 

IF / THEN beliefs – eventually move us away from Jesus.

 

  1. He has not heard
  2. That he does not love us.

 

What is the even the point!  I quit.  It doesn’t work. Back off.

 

Jesus does love them.  Jesus has heard.

 

TIMING!  Jesus waited 2 days!

 

SLIDE: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  Romans 8:28   – The Apostle Paul

 

What is “The Good” of Martha?

 

 

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

 

Jesus’s answer:

I AM the resurrection and the life” – John 11:25

 

7 signs + 7 “I Am” statements

 

I am Bread of Life, Light of the world, the gate, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life, way the truth and the life, the true vine.

 

“I Am” God with Moses

 

Exodus 3:6-10

 

The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt.  I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.  So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

 

Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘”I am” has sent me to you.’”

 

THE CONCLUSION OF OUR STORY

SLIDE: Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead

38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

 

SLIDE: Rise Up – “Growing Up” 

 

“the raising of Lazarus” = miracle / “sign” 

 

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

The person of Jesus is the answer.

 

A growing up faith discovers this at ever greater levels.