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July 9, 2009
As I was doing my devotions this morning I read the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. What an amazing story! Just imagine the look on the faces of those who witnessed this miracle. I wonder what I would have thought if I were there? The response of the crowd was mixed. Some hated Jesus and other became believers on the spot.
In the midst of this story is a strange happening that occupied my attention all morning.
“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." …John 11:43-44
Here’s the deal. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he was still bound by his grave clothes. Interesting isn’t it? Jesus raised this man to life and yet asked his friends and family to help set him free.
Too often when we lead someone into a relationship with Jesus, we think that we have completed the task. I hear many churches brag about how many individuals they led to Christ over the last year. My question to them is always, “Great. Now how many of them are still in the church and how many have truly experienced life-transformation?”
Our tendency is to believe that we are called to preach the gospel, lead people to Christ and then let God do the rest. But nothing could be further from the truth. God has birthed this thing called the Church to be a life-transforming organism helping to lose the bonds of sin from the lives of Christ-followers.
The Church’s purpose is to continue the work of Jesus as prophesied in Isaiah 61:1
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…”
The church is to behave as the friends of Lazarus. Once Jesus raises them to new life, we are to rush in and begin to help set them free from those things that “so easily entangle” them in sin. We can help them “confess their sins to one another, in order that they might be healed.”
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