Hallelujah!! Praise God!! Amen!!

Jesus had close personal friends.

Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha were three of them.

We discover that Lazarus became very sick and died.

He was buried. Mary and Martha loved him very much.

They sent for Jesus. Jesus hesitated. Perhaps it was because the Jews had recently tried to stone him. Perhaps there was another reason.  In situations like this, we can be pretty sure there was.

Martha was direct with Jesus. “If you had been here he wouldn’t have died.” Do you hear some anger in her voice?

Just as quickly, she affirmed her faith that Jesus could still make a difference.

Then the conversation turned to matters of personal and eternal matters.

He tells Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me, will never die.

Jesus asks her, “Do you believe this?”

She answers, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

Here is the primary profession of faith we make today.

Lazarus was raised, yes.

Then, Martha proclaimed Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.

These words have become ours today.

We open our souls and these words come forth when we first believe.

We commit to a discipleship which costs something in time, talent and treasure.

We become vessels of his love to the world.

We are forgiven of our sins.

We receive the Holy Spirit.

The death in us is made life.

Hallelujah!! Praise God!! Amen!!

Moving to the deeper places,
Jeff