A lot of people believe in Jesus for their salvation but continue crawling around as if He’s still lying behind His tomb stone with no power. “Get out of the Grave” was preached by Pastor Pamela on Sunday 5th November 2023.
Sermon Transcript
On September 26, 2021, 15-year-old Torianto “Junior” Brinson was involved in a car accident in Missouri City, Texas, and was ejected out of the car window. When emergency responders arrived on the scene, Brinson wasn’t breathing or moving and was unresponsive. Brinson was taken to hospital but was later pronounced dead. However, Brinson’s mother, 39-year-old La’Kisha Wells, refused to accept the tragic news of her son’s death. She asked her family to pray, and she bent over her son’s body (in the hospital) and prayed as hard as she could. As she held his hand praying, she saw him move, and that bit of activity was enough to allow him to be taken into surgery. Brinson suffered severe brain damage as a result of the accident and underwent a total of four brain surgeries, spent 21 days in a coma, and several months in a semicoma before being transferred to a rehabilitation facility. There, he had to learn to do the most basic tasks all over again, such as how to brush his teeth, take a bath, and even eat. Less than one year later, the teenager who was once deemed “dead” was recovering well, excelling in school, and even playing on his high school basketball team.
Could we have that first picture please?
After three years of trying to conceive, Kate Ogg of Sydney, Australia, became pregnant with twins. However, in March of 2010, Kate gave birth to twins, Emily and Jamie, prematurely at 27 weeks. Emily survived the premature birth, but Jamie had stopped breathing, and his heartbeat was nearly gone. Doctors fought for 20 minutes to save Jamie’s life, trying to get him to breathe, but when they were unsuccessful, Jamie was pronounced dead. Kate placed Jamie on her chest, and as she and her husband David began to say their goodbyes, Jamie started making short, startled movements that only became more pronounced. The doctor, however, insisted that Jamie’s movements were nothing more than reflexes, standing behind his initial declaration of death. However, after two hours, Jamie opened his eyes, and it was at that moment that the couple began to question the doctor. From there, Jamie grabbed at their fingers and even later accepted a dab of breastmilk that Kate had put on her fingertip. Even amid these signs of life, both the medical staff and the doctor refused to accept the possibility of Jamie being alive. In a final plea to get someone to listen, they decided to “fib” and told the doctor that they had finally accepted their son’s death, knowing the doctor would return to their hospital room with this news. When the doctor finally returned to the room, he got a stethoscope and listened to Jamie’s chest, astounded to hear signs of life. The hospital staff leaped into action, and after 80 days in the neonatal unit, both Jamie and Emily were able to go home. Miraculously, Jamie suffered no medical issues. The Oggs credit the practice of “kangaroo care,” holding your baby skin-to-skin and generating warmth, for saving Jamie’s life.
Could we have that second picture please?
Aren’t these stories wonderful!? Two humans who were pronounced dead came back to life – both were saved by love!
In Colossians 2:13 it says,
“…you were dead in your sin… but God made you alive with Christ.”
I guess we’ve all had a similar experience to those in the stories I’ve just read.
Well, I hope you have.
Let us pray Heavenly Father, I thank you that You are the source of all life on earth. You created us and You have breathed the breath of life into each one of us. Holy Spirit continue to breathe over this congregation and sustain our new life as we read and study Your Word this day. Amen
Let us read from John 11
Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and Martha his sisters. The sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one You love is sick.”
When Jesus heard this, He 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.
But 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… Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake Him up.”
His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but His disciples thought He meant natural sleep.
So, then He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
On His arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.
Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet Him, but Mary stayed at home.
“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give You whatever You ask.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that You are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him.
Now Jesus had not yet entered the village but was still at the place where Martha had met Him.
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.”
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” He asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
Jesus wept.
Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”
Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
“Take away the stone,” He said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
So, they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard me. I know 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.”
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 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.”
“Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
“Take off the grave clothes…”
Let’s do just one more graveyard account.
Mark 5:1-20 The Passion Translation
They arrived at the other side of the lake, at the region of the Gerasenes. As Jesus stepped ashore, a demon-possessed madman came out of the graveyard and confronted Him. The man had been living there among the tombs, and no one was able to restrain him, not even with chains. For every time they attempted to chain his hands and feet with shackles, he would snap the chains and break the shackles in pieces. He was so strong that no one had the power to subdue him. Day and night he could be found lurking in the cemetery or in the vicinity, shrieking and cutting himself with stones! When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran to Him and threw himself down before Him. Jesus responded by charging the demon to come out of the man. The man shouted at the top of his lungs, “Leave me alone, Jesus, Son of the Most High God! Swear in God’s name that You won’t torture me!”
Jesus said to the demon, “What is your name?” “Mob,” he answered. “They call me Mob because there are thousands of us in his body!” He begged Jesus repeatedly not to expel them out of the region. Nearby there was a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside. The demons begged Him, “Send us into the pigs. Let us enter them!” So Jesus gave them permission, and the demon horde immediately came out of the man and went into the pigs! This caused the herd to rush madly down the steep slope and fall into the lake, drowning about two thousand pigs! At this, the herdsmen ran to the nearby villages, telling everyone along the way what had happened, and the people came out to see for themselves. When they found Jesus, they saw the demonized man sitting there, properly clothed and in his right mind.
The demonized man was sitting there, properly clothed and in his right mind.
properly clothed and in his right mind.
Properly clothed…
Going back to the first account, what’s the first instruction that Jesus gives when Lazarus came out of the tomb?
“Take off the grave clothes.”
So, we have the once crazy demonized man, who was as good as dead literally living amongst the dead, wearing broken chains and goodness knows what else, now properly clothed; and we have Lazarus who needed to take off the dead man’s clothes and wear appropriate clothes for the living.
The once dead men needed to clothe themselves appropriately.
Why? Because they’re now alive! Living people don’t wear dead people’s clothes – they’re way too smelly and restrictive!
How ridiculous would it be if, three or four weeks after Jesus brought Lazarus back to life, he was still walking around with his old, stinky, pussy, spiced, and embalmed grave clothes? Would that make sense to anyone? You’d be like, “Hey Lazarus, what are you doing? You don’t need to wear those rags any longer. You’re not the sick Lazarus anymore. He’s dead and gone. The new you is alive. Besides, those clothes stink, take them off!”
When Jesus sets people free from sin, there is a radical change that takes place within a person.
Colossians 2:13 says,
“…you were dead in your sin… but God made you alive with Christ.”
There’s a big difference between DEAD and ALIVE!! An extreme difference.
Here we have DEAD
Here we have ALIVE
Huge difference.
Which are you?
A lot of people believe in Jesus for their salvation but continue crawling around as if Jesus Himself is still lying behind His tomb stone with ZERO life changing power.
Jesus is not dead; He is alive and he’s out.
He’s out of that tomb.
Furthermore, He now lives in us with all the benefits that come along with His awesome miraculous presence.
It is no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me.
Listen to me, when Christians return to the habits and addictions and the old pathways of the old self, they’re like a living man who puts on stinky, smelly, rotting dead man’s clothes.
These clothes bind them and restrict them from enjoying life to the fullest so all they can do is just feebly crawl along.
We have been set free from the tomb of death and we can run, walk, jump, skip, sing, dance, laugh and praise our Heavenly Father.
Why would anyone choose to return to the place of death when freedom lies before them?
There is nothing in the tomb but dead men’s bones. It is a dusty, dry, barren, dark, smelly place. It’s empty, there isn’t any sustenance there. There’s nothing to do. Tombs aren’t made to support life. They are there purely for the dead, so get out of the tomb.
If Jesus walked out of the tomb, why are you still crouched in the corner? Chained to the wall? Why are you making your bed of rocks in there? If the prison doors have been flung wide, ripped off the hinges, and the stone has been rolled away, then why have you made the tomb your home? If you’ve been crucified with Christ and it is no longer you who live but He who lives in you, and the life you now live you live by faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you, then why are you still wearing grave clothes?
The grave clothes of depression, the grave clothes of fear, the grave clothes of lust, the grave clothes of addiction, the grave clothes of jealousy, the grave clothes of gluttony, the grave clothes of laziness, the grave clothes of unforgiveness, the grave clothes of selfishness.
The apostle Paul says in Philippians,
To live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Joby Martin translation reads like this: Rip off the grave clothes, burn them, and let Jesus wrap you in His robe of righteousness. Then run out of the tomb and into the arms of the Father. Why? Because it is finished, and when Jesus
said it is finished, He wasn’t kidding.
Jesus left behind sin and death and condemnation and the penalty of sin. All of it. Why? For the joy set before Him.
Who is that joy? You are. I am. We are the joy of Christ. So, tell me, why on earth would we ever do anything to allow ourselves to be identified with the grave? The grave’s not joyful!
The grave has no power. It couldn’t hold Jesus and because we are in Him, it can’t hold us.
If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. Including me walking out of the grave because He did. Including me walking in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because He lives in Me.
And . . . if He walked out of the grave, I’m walking too. Actually, as the song says, I’m running out of that grave.
I ain’t staying in there! …
In truth, getting out of that grave and dressing appropriately changes everything. It changes the way we go to work. It changes what we do with our money. It changes the way we love our spouses. It changes the way we parent our children.
We don’t have to do it the way the world tells us to do it. Everything the world worships is temporary, but the One that we worship walked out of the grave and ascended to the right hand of God the Father—who is eternal. Jesus is seated at His right hand, tapping His toe, waiting to step foot back down on earth and make all things new.
The empty tomb changes everything for everyone who would believe.
Do you feel like you’ve been meandering around the tomb of late, wearing those old smelly tomb clothes?
They don’t suit you! They don’t look good.
Jesus is saying to you “Take off the grave clothes.” “Be properly clothed.” And get away from that grave!
Why don’t we make a fresh start today and determine to live as Christ intended for us to live. In freedom and power.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
So, walk in it.