Let's pray. Father, we just thank you as we come into your presence. We're here to receive not mighty God, so much to give. And we ask that, Lord, that from the word today, we will hear your word, not the words of the speaker. And, Lord, we will ask.

We ask also that as we leave this place, we will leave with something we did not arrive with in Jesus Christ's mighty name. Amen. Names have meaning. And I'm about to let you into a little secret about mine, because up until about ten years ago, my surname was not amaze. So those of you who know me as Joe Amaze.

You might be thinking that's the name I was born with. No, it's not the surname I was born with. Rather, my surname at birth had a strong affinity with death. So my previous surname was Anwu Chaqua. It's a long name, but guess what?

I lived with it for more than 40 years. It means, in the nigerian Igbo language, death. Wait. Or sort of protect me from death. So Onwu, that's right, means death.

And ce qua is sort of an abbreviation of chere. Wait, kwa. So, you know, wait now or don't come now. It was a form of entreaty to, you know, a plea with some heathen God by my biological ancestors to sort of ward off death and spare the life of the person bearing the name. My great great, great great grandmother was losing children, infant mortality at child number seven.

They didn't want, you know, that child to die. So, of course, a deal was done and that name was given. And every time they pronounce that name, apparently the child that was sick, Lee, became well. So that was the sort of background to the name. And my father written something about it in a book.

But it was not until the Holy Spirit opened my eyes through scripture that I found the courage to change a name that I lived with for over 40 years. And that scripture was Hebrews chapter two, verse 14 to 15. And, you know, it simply says that, you know, as much as we were in the flesh, Christ came in the flesh and conquered death in the flesh. And I delivered everyone who was in bondage to the fear of death all their lives. So it just connected with me, resonated with me, because it confirmed that death is a spiritual entity and that it has been defeated by our lord and savior, Jesus Christ.

Now, changing your name is a big undertaking, and, you know, it did take me, you know, how to go through lots of hoops. You know, you change your name at work, you change your bank account, change everything. Then your kids also, you've got to explain to them why the surname is changing. You've got to change their surname, and then they've got to get used to their friends knowing that their name has changed. So everyone's world is affected by dad's spiritual awakening.

But I learned that at the root of my old surname was this fear of death. And every time someone called that name, they were appeasing an ancient covenant with the entity called death. So once I understood this, I knew that the name had to change, despite all the inconvenience. The most difficult part is when people come up to you at work and say, but why did you have to change your name? You know, when you get married, you change your name if you want to take your spouse's name, but why do you change your name?

You know, why was the need to do that? And usually what I tell them is, oh, because my family history also had a history with slave trade. Apparently my ancestors were slave traders. So I said, well, I didn't like that connection with slave trade, so I changed my name. You don't go telling them, actually, the Holy Spirit spoke to me because people look at you like there's something wrong, you know, so, Jesus.

So it was easy, because I think everyone can relate to slave trade and think, oh, yes, we can see why you had to change the name. Oh, God forbid. But Jesus has delivered us from bondage, fear of death. And I believe that because I understood that my name needed to change to reflect that miraculous deliverance. And that's why the name had to change.

Today we are looking at, you know, a miracle of Jesus Christ, which has to do with resurrection, which has to do with conquering death. And it's the miraculous resurrection of Lazarus, which we can find in John eleven, verses one to 44. Health warning. There's going to be sort of lots of scripture here. So for those who are not too familiar, maybe go back and watch on YouTube, because not everything's on the slides, but the story very briefly.

So Jesus Christ is with his disciples. He gets a message from Mary and Martha, two of the ladies who followed his ministry, and they're informing him that their brother is seriously ill. Lazarus. Lazarus was also a friend of Jesus. And the Bible says that Jesus loved him, loved them, and then he stays where he is for another two days and then tells his disciples, let's go.

Let's go to Lazarus. They get there and they find that Lazarus has been dead about four days in the tomb. And there's a lot of mourning and crying and weeping. And so the sisters come out to him and, you know, he says, take me to where he is laid to rest. So he's taken to the grave.

The grave is a tomb. It's a cave with a stone or rock or boulder covering it. And he tells them to roll away the stone and he now calls forth Lazarus. Lazarus is dead. Stands up, gets up, bound up in all kinds of, you know, grave clothes.

Comes out, you know, and like a mummy, if you watch those movies, you know, the mummy. And he comes out like that and Christ says, loose him. Get rid of all that stuff from him. That's the story in a nutshell. And whether or not you believe it, it's there in the Bible.

It is one of Christ's greatest miracles. Now Jesus Christ was no stranger to miracles of raising the dead. I mean, he'd done it before with Jairus daughter, if you read the scripture. And also again was a widow whose son had died and the funeral procession was going along, he stopped it and he brought the child back from the dead. So he'd done it before.

But what is it about this miracle of Lazarus that makes it stand out? Why is it so significant? Well, for a start it was different. Because from the moment that Jesus hears about his friend's illness events progress along a very strange and unfamiliar path for his disciples and those who know him. So firstly, in verse four of John eleven, upon hearing about Lazarus illness, Jesus said, this sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God that the son of God may be glorified through it.

But what does that mean? I mean, anyone who has read the account knows that Lazarus died and was buried. So if it's not unto death but he died of this appears to contradict Christ's words of assurance. I mean, how many times have we believed that, you know, God was going to do something but the opposite happens. Couldn't Jesus just speak a word of healing and heal Lazarus like he did for the roman centurion?

There's a story about the roman centurion which you can find in Matthew chapter eight where, you know, Christ speaks a word and a servant of the centurion is healed. So why couldn't he do that here? Secondly, in verse six, after hearing about Lazarus illness, Jesus does a remarkable thing. He remains where he is for two more days. Why does he do that?

Why doesn't he just go to Lazarus? Now look, this is out of character for Christ and for those who know him. If you recall the story of Jairia's daughter, when Christ heard he went immediately with the father to go and heal the little girl. So why didn't he do that here? He doesn't do it.

Clearly, healing Lazarus was not a priority. And it seems that for the glory of God to be revealed through Jesus, Lazarus had to die. This tells us that God's delays are deliberate. There was something behind this delayed. It wasn't God being mean, it wasn't God being cold, it wasn't God being indifferent.

There was something behind the delay. Thirdly, in verses eleven to 15, Jesus says to his disciples, our friend Lazarus sleeps, and so I must go and wake him up. Then his disciples say, Lord, if he's sleeping, he will get well. However, Jesus Christ was speaking about his death, but they thought that he was speaking about taking rest as in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

And I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. In other words, this is not about healing. There's something else about to happen here. The message Bible puts it in more contemporary language. It says, then Jesus became explicit, Lazarus died.

And I'm glad for your sake, that I wasn't there. You're about to be given new grounds for believing. In other words, the rule book is changing what you thought you knew about me. You're about to see a new dimension of me that you've not seen before. When Jesus says that Lazarus is sleeping and he's going to wake him up, clearly the disciples misunderstand what's going on, and Jesus is compelled them to speak explicitly.

With these words, Jesus revealed God's perspective on physical death in the light of eternity. It is merely sleeping, not finality. Let that sink in, because those who sleep wake up, and this is the perspective he wanted them to have. Because for human beings, physical death is finality, for God is temporary. It is not the end.

So effectively, Christ is saying here, don't put a comma, sorry, don't put a full stop where God has put a comma. Do not put a full stop in any situation in your lives where God has put a comma. Amen.

This is confirmed by Apostle Paul in one Thessalonians 413, the amplified. When he says, now, we do not want you to be uninformed believers about those who are asleep in death, so that you will not grieve for them as the others do, who have no hope beyond this present life. There's a hope beyond this life. There's a hope beyond this life. And this is just a precursor of what's about to happen.

On the cross. So when Jesus arrives, he finds that we're back to the story. Now he finds that Lazarus has already been in the tomb four days. And as soon as Martha, one of the sisters, hears his come, she comes out to see him. Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died.

She said, but even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. So one would think, ah, she gets it. That she knows he can heal her brother. And Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. But then we get to realize that Martha is not in the same wavelength, just Lord, I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

That was what should her taught I that was what she believed all her life. So now it's a new dimension she's having to get used to. And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.

Do you believe this? She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the son of goddess, who is to come into the world. But what can we learn from this brief dialogue? Well, we learn that the power of. Sorry.

That death and life are in the power of the tongue. So the words we speak have meaning, have power. Proverbs 1821 confirms this. We therefore need to be extremely careful about what we say about ourselves, about others and about situations. We've heard this before.

Our words reveal what's on the inside of us. And we need to understand that the tongue, your words, your tongue is like the overflow valve of your heart. From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Our words shape our world and the atmosphere in which we live. But in this account, we've got three conversations.

And these three conversations, we're going to do a deep dive into them because they give us some kind of an understanding of what's going on in the story and where all the members of the cast are. It's like watching a play. So the first conversation is between Jesus Christ and Martha, and it reveals a number of things which I'm going to share very quickly. The first is she questioned God's timing in relation to a need. She said, if you showed up when I needed you, this would never have happened.

I mean, how many times are we in a place where we said, God, where are you? And, you know, we don't perceive him. Second thing, she saw finality. When God had not finished what he started, she said her brother was dead, but Jesus had earlier on told his disciples that Lazarus was merely sleeping. She doubted that it was still possible in the natural realm.

She doubted that it was still possible for God. Sorry to meet the need, because it was too late. In other words, if it hasn't happened by now, it's not happening in this lifetime again. Have we ever entertained thoughts like that? Have we ever been in a place where we even spoke those words to ourselves or God in private?

The fourth thing was, she believed that if it's not happened in the natural realm, that it's going to happen in the spiritual realm.

She said, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. In other words, maybe it's not the will of God for me in this life. In response, Jesus speaks words which are overflowing with life because he is the resurrection and the life. And he says several things. First thing, it says, your brother will rise again.

Now, this was a statement of intent. He knew what he was about to do. Second thing, he says, I am the resurrection and the life. This was a declaration of his identity. He knew who he was.

The third thing he says, he who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. This was a word of assurance to all those bold enough to put him to the test. There's a second conversation now between Mary, the other sister, and Jesus. And this conversation again reveals a mindset that afflicted both sisters. When Martha had said these things, she calls her sister.

She then sister comes out, falls at Christ's feet, and says, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. So they had the same mindset. They either been talking to themselves and, you know, maybe Mary was influenced by her more vocal sister. But the fact of the matter is that there was a similar mindset. Like her sister Mary was saying that, you know, if Christ had been there, then we wouldn't be in the situation we're in.

And what was she doing? Number one, she questioned God's timing in relation to her need. Number two, she saw finality in the situation as a result of the facts. And thirdly, she doubted that it was still possible for God to meet that need. They both saw Jesus Christ as a great physician, one who had the power to heal, but not one who had the power to raise or resurrect things that had physically died.

So we go back to the story we're told, that in verse 35, that after Jesus saw Mary and he saw the other jews all mourning with her, he also wept. However, before this, we are told that he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And he asked, where have you laid him? Now, I'm going to be slightly controversial because I've mulled over this in my head and struggle to understand why Jesus wept when he knew exactly what he was about to do. I mean, when Christ asked to be shown to.

To Lazarus Tomb, it wasn't for the purpose of paying his last respects. He had come for one reason only, and that was to rouse Lazarus from his slumber, wake him up. He knew that before he even arrived. So whilst it's possible that he was moved by the emotion, it's equally possible that their doubt and unbelief overwhelmed him. How do we know this when we see him pray?

So he tells them to take away the stone from the tomb. And this is significant because often standing between us and a miracle from God is a stone, something hard and impervious, something impenetrable and unyielding. In an emotional context, it could be a heart of stone. In Ezekiel 36 26, the prophet says, God says, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you that heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

It's not God's desire that we have a heart of stone, but what does a stony heart look like? In Mark, chapter eleven, verse 24 to 25, mark 1124 25, whilst teaching about faith, Jesus told his disciples, therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you received it and you will have it. Yea, but then he says, it's a caveat. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them so that your father in heaven may forgive you your sins. So that might be an impediment, that might be a stone to you.

Receiving unforgiveness, might be a stone, but there are others. I pray that our eyes will be open this morning to see every stone obstructing something in need of resurrection in our lives, so that we can roll it away in the place of prayer. The third conversation is between Jesus and Martha again, and this reveals the spiritual distance between them. Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said, lord, by this time there's a stench, for he had been dead many days. In other words, I can't roll this because it's going to be stinking.

You know, he's just died. And Jesus says to her, did I not say to you that if you believe, you would see the glory of God, then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Again, we see the power of the tongue to speak life or death. For Martha's words, it's clear that she does not believe that Jesus can raise her brother from physical death. Why?

Because the Jews have a belief that, you know, after three days, you know, the spirit, sorry, the soul and the body are separated. So in other words, that connection, the souls left him. You know nothing to come back here. But Jesus prays and he says, father, I thank you for you've heard me and I know you always hear me. Now hear this.

But because of the people who are standing by, I said this, that they may believe that you sent me. In other words, this prayer is not me and you. I want them to hear this prayer because they need to know who I am and why I'm here. Now, when he said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he who died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth.

And Jesus says to them, loose him and let him go. Now, we know from the prayer that Christ is saying, hang on, there are doubters and skeptics and people here who don't believe who I am. And that explains to us why there was a delay, why he didn't rush down to his friend's side when he heard about his illness. He didn't speak a word of healing or rush with some miraculous touch because there was a greater miracle that had to be performed that would signpost us to him as the resurrection and the life. Amen.

We also learned that there are things that Christ has resurrected that are still entangled with grave clothes. So you're saved. You're a Christian. You're now in a relationship. You're on that journey to getting into a deeper place with God.

But there could be patterns of behavior, lifestyle choices that impede our ability to avail ourselves of the freedom of the new life. And God will want to get rid of that stone before he does the miracle in your life. So the raising of Lazarus, I think we can all agree, is one of Christ's most profound miracles. But because it revealed him as the embodiment of resurrection, however, Lazarus eventually died. And we know this because we look around, I don't think there's anyone here named Lazarus.

That was the Lazarus of the Bible. That means he's not here. So in other words, he was brought back to life, but he eventually died again. So it tells us it's not really about bringing dead people back to life. This is not what it's about.

There's something much more. Christ's resurrection from the tomb testifies of who he is to us today, and that's the relevance of this miracle. In other words, if we look at first corinthians chapter 15, verse 13 to 26, 1st corinthians chapter 15, in particular, verses 13 to 14. Now, Apostle Paul highlights the risk to christians who do not believe in Christ as the embodiment of resurrection. He says in 1314, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. But our preaching is not useless and neither is our faith, because as Paul reminds us in verse 22 of the same chapter, which is not here, Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, and he is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. We can also look at the words of CS Lewis in his book miracles, chapter 16. And he says, the New Testament writers speak as if Christ's achievement in rising from the dead was the first event of its kind in the whole history of the universe. He is the firstfruits, the pioneer of life, forced open a door that has been locked since the death of the first man he has met, fought and beaten the king of death.

Everything is different because he has done so. Amen. Christ is the resurrection and the life, and if indeed anything has died physically in him, it lives. This is how we are raised from death to life and become members of his family. Our dead spirits are resurrected, and we live a new life in Christ because he's forced to open a door and beaten death.

Therefore, your situation can never be too dead to be resurrected if you have faith in Jesus Christ. In his book, faith that prevails, Smith Wigglesworth recounts a very personal experience of the miracle of resurrection involving his wife, Polly, who had passed away. So people are gathering in the house and they're waiting and they're weeping. And Smith is not crying along with them. He's laughing in the spirit.

He's speaking in tongues for those who understand what that is. And he's testifying about the life he had with his wife. And the doctor says to him, she is dead and we can do no more for her. In other words, we're closing our file. But Smith says, I went up to her lifeless corpse and commanded death to give her up.

And she came back to me. For a moment she did. And then God said to me, she is mine and her work is done. Smith says, I knew what he meant. In other words, Polly.

For the present had to be given up. He had to let her go. She'd merely fallen asleep in the tomb. Lazarus had begun to decay and the maggots and enzymes had begun to do their work. But resurrection reversed the decay and produced wholeness.

Many things in our life have the appearance of death, such as promises from God, which we have laid to rest because they have not yet come to pass. Well, lord, I waited on God, and it's not come to pass. Maybe it's not going to come to pass. I might as well move on, manage myself. But there's a reason why we can't just stop at the fact that things are not working out, because they've not worked out for so long.

We cannot rely on our five senses. They can easily be deceived. I mean, you watch tv, you go online, AI can now alter figures and you can look at people and think, that's Tom Cruise. But it's not Tom Cruise. It's someone that's been made up to look like Tom Cruise.

You can't trust your eyes. You watch a movie now, you see a person jump over a building and you clap, but actually he's not doing it. CGI. It's a green screen behind, so you can't trust your five senses. In assessing masses of life and death, we need to be quite careful that we don't rely on our five senses because they're unreliable and they will prompt us to hastily bury things that still contain life.

About 20 years ago, 2004, I received news that my sister in law had been involved in a fatal car crash. Road traffic accident. She'd been traveling in Nigeria and Africa. And her car, the car she was in, she was at the back of the car, crashed through the railings, plunged down about a 50 foot drop or so into a river and was partially submerged. She was in the submerged part of the car at the bottom of the water between 09:00 in the morning and 02:00 in the afternoon.

Some local fishermen found the car and then hastily put together a rescue operation and effectively brought out the dead but two survivors. But two were pronounced dead. And my sister in law was one of those by the doctor who attended to the bodies at the time. So she was taken to a mortuary and they wrote her death certificate and they were about to leave the mortuary when she sneezed.

She sneezed. Amen. That's an amen moment there. She sneezed.

They knew she was alive. She was in a coma for several weeks. She was transferred from the mortuary to the hospital, and my mom in law was beside her the whole time. And my mom in law tells the story of when she woke up from that coma, how she gripped her mother and said, please pray with me, mom. And she talked about a spiritual battle for her life that had taken place while she was in that coma.

From this, we learn that we shouldn't hastily bury anything that still has life. From the account of Lazarus resurrection, we learn that it doesn't matter how long the situation has been dead for, because the resurrection and the life can still restore it to life. Today, that lady is alive, has three children, is married. You know, those three children wouldn't have been born, wouldn't even have known this world if not for God's mercy, God's intervention. In Ezekiel 37 114, the prophet Ezekiel is led by God to a valley littered with dry, decalcified bones.

Dry bones means there's nothing, no bone marrow, nothing in them. They're like bleached bones. And he was asked by God whether those bones could live. And the prophet says, Lord. Well, you know.

And God tells him to firstly prophesy to the bones, and instantly the bones become covered with flesh and rise and effectively become living. Well, not living bodies, they become physical bodies, but there was no life in them. And then he's told by God to prophesy to the newly formed bodies, and when he does, that breath comes into them. Now, we know that that's a prophecy about Israel and Israel being reunited and being restored. But in the context of us, in other words, no matter how dry it is, no matter how dead it looks, God can bring it back to life.

So I think the simple message here is that in Christ, dead things come back to life. Amen. In Christ, dead things come back to life. We should therefore pray that anything that has been laid to rest in our lives, because it has the appearance of death, should be roused from its sleep if it carries life in Jesus name, amen. If that's touched you in any way, I would like you just to, for a moment, lower your head, because we're going to pray.

I know at the end of the service, we'll have people to the left and right, and you can go and speak to them. You know, the prayer team, they're here to pray with you. And if you want to really have a focused prayer, then there are people that will be here for you to pray with. But what we're going to do now is you talk to God one to one. Is there something in your life that you have thought is dead?

A situation, a relationship is there something, circumstance that you thought, you know what? I'm at the end of myself. I'm about to quit. I'm about to throw in the towel. Is there something that you've said cannot happen because in the natural, your five senses have told you?

Uh uh. No. Then this is time to pray. In this moment. Don't miss this moment.

Let's pray. Let's ask God now to get involved, to open our eyes. Is there a rock that needs to be rolled away, something you need to stop doing or start doing? Then let God speak to you. It might be now.

He might speak to you on the way home. He might speak to you at home, anywhere, but ask him to speak to you, to reveal to you that which, if any, is standing in the way. But more importantly, bring this need before him because he does care. Father, we thank you. We bless you.

We all have needs. We all have situations. This room. We have things that, Lord, aren't going according to plan. We have things that we have discarded because they look like they were dead.

We've got things going on that, Father, we said, uh uh. This is it. It can't happen. But, Lord, override our five senses, Lord, override every resistance in our mind to believe what our mighty God, our five senses cannot see. Have you not said that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, neither has he entered the heart.

What the Lord prepared for those whom he has loved. But by his spirit, he reveals it unto them. So, by your spirit, reveal to us, o Lord, those things that you mean for us to come back to life in our lives. Those things that are not yet dead, those opportunities, those careers that need to be resurrected, those creative plans, those. Those.

Those desires, those dreams, Lord, that we buried, Lord, that can come back in. And, Lord, have life reveal back to us, oh Lord, that we may do what we need to do to make sure that there's a smooth path to us receiving what you want to give us. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. Amen.

So we come to the end of our service. And as I said, there were people to the left and right who come out. And you can come and come for a specific prayer. But I pray you take something away with you when you leave this place. Go back to those dead events, situations, relationships.

And trust God to bring those things back to life if it's within his will. In the mighty name of Jesus, God bless.