It's Time to Get Unwrapped!

It seems that most of this week God has been bringing this message back to me over and again. I have thought about it and prayed about it and I am convinced that the Lord would have me to tell you what He has been telling me.

John 11 – Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

All through this chapter there is a richness of material from which I could draw this morning. Every Word in this Book carries such a powerful message. Every word is alive and glorious and seems to literally jump off the printed page, go through your eyes, through your mind, and right down into your very heart and soul. The more you read it, the more you want to read it. The more you read it and hear it and meditate upon it, the more it comes alive to you. This Bible is not just a book – It’s a living word. It’s not just ink on paper for there is a living power, inspired by eternal God and penned under the anointing of the Holy Ghost. I pray today that God’s Word will perform His work in your heart as you read.

Today I want to direct your focus to the last verse in the eleventh chapter of John’s gospel, verse 44, “And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, loose him, and let him go.”

Lazarus’ story has been the inspiration for innumerable sermons, and I know that you have heard it time and again. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus. His family had no doubt entertained, provided lodging and had extended their hospitality many times to our Lord. I know that Jesus loved them, and I know that their love for Jesus was just as real.

But in chapter 11 of the Apostle John’s gospel we are stricken with the fact that no matter how much Jesus loves this family, and how much they loved Him, there came a time when tragedy struck, and the power of death seemed to prevail.

The story of Lazarus’ death reminds me of the story of another man’s death as well and that’s the death of Adam. I know that Lazarus’ death was a physical death and Adam’s death was a spiritual death but don’t ever forget that it was Adam’s spiritual death that brought about Lazarus’ physical death.

God created man that he loved in His own image and breathed the breath of life into him and man became a living, eternal soul, but Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden, brought death to his eternal soul and by proxy to every man, woman and child that would ever be born into this world. Just as God’s love, mercy, grace and goodness did not keep Adam from tasting death, neither did it stop Lazarus from dying. If death were the final step in this grand scheme of life, then we would all be left with a feeling of absolute hopelessness.

For those who refuse to serve the Lord, who will not allow Jesus to be the Lord of their lives, and won’t fall before Him in repentance, accepting Jesus’ blood that he shed upon the cross for their sin and recognize that Jesus died for them – DEATH IS YOUR FINAL STEP. You will die in your sin, and then you will experience something far worse than physical death. You will experience what the Bible calls, “the second death!"

That second death, eternal death, ever in a state of dying but never really dying at all – forever and ever while you suffer in the Lake of Fire and brimstone. I can think of nothing more horrible than to experience the moment of dying over and over and over, forever, but never finishing the pain and suffering.

But death doesn’t have to be the final step for any of us. If we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and live for Him, then death will only be a steppingstone into a glorious eternal life. Just as He did for Lazarus, Jesus will call you by name and you will come forth from the grave, alive forevermore by the resurrection power of God!

All of us were like Lazarus at one time in our lives! Oh, we weren’t dead physically, at least not yet. But we were all spiritually dead, with one foot in the grave and the other on a slippery step, just one quick slip and it will mean death forever as I have already described. No, we might not have experienced physical death like Lazarus, but we all were dead in trespasses and sin. We were all dead spiritually.

Mary said that Lazarus had been dead for four days and that he was surely beginning to smell terrible. How many of you had a smelly, sticking, nasty attitude when you were spiritually dead? Did you curse the very God who created you? Did you hurt the people in your life that you thought you loved most of all? Did you love the deeds of darkness and shun the things of God like a plague? Did you have stinking thinking and a heart full of sin? WELL, DON’T THINK THAT YOU DIDN’T BECAUSE WE WERE ALL GUILTY OF SIN!

The Bible says that there is none righteous, not even one! We were all dead in sin and we were all corrupted by unrighteousness and bound for hell just as fast as we could get there. It’s only by the grace and mercy of God that we aren’t all there right now!

The good news is that Jesus is still calling people to “come forth” just like He did for Lazarus! If you haven’t heard Jesus call you name, get ready because He is going to call you this morning. If you are still stuck in the grave clothes of your sin, He is calling you right now, but it is up to you to come out when He calls you!

Now let’s look at what happened to Lazarus after he came forth from the grave for a moment. This is where God wanted me to take you this morning. This is where each of us, who have been born again, are living right now. We are living in the new life, after the resurrection.

Don’t forget that when Lazarus came forth, he was already resurrected, he already had a new life, and he was already delivered by the Word and power of God. Death had no hold on him now, but he still had a problem – and it’s the same problem that all of us have too – he was still bound in grave clothes!

There was only one who was resurrected who came forth from the grave and left the grave clothes behind. IT WAS JESUS! But that wasn’t the case with Lazarus and it isn’t for you and me either, mainly because we have a hard time releasing ourselves from the grave clothes. Lazarus was bound hand and feet and could barely move, but he was alive. He could take very small steps and follow the light that came through the napkin that covered his face, but at least he could see some light and he “walked in the light” as he could see it.

Are you beginning to get the picture of what God is trying to say to us this morning? After you have been resurrected to eternal life in Christ, after you have been called by name and you have come forth by the power of God, and after you have had the light of the gospel come alive in your heart – there is still more work to be done! Lazarus couldn’t get his grave clothes off without some outside help! Jesus commanded his family and friends to unwrap him and set him free.

Does that tell you something? It tells me that you can’t be set free sitting at home alone! It tells me that we need each other, iron sharpening iron, brother helping brother, and sister helping sister, under the direction and anointing of the Holy Ghost! That’s why the 5-fold ministry is in the church! That’s why God has ordained that we come together, and don’t forsake coming together, as a Body of Christ, to help one another get unwrapped from our grave clothes.

Can you see it? Do you understand? We are here to help one another get unwrapped, untangled, to remove the things that keep us from seeing clearly, to help us walk better, talk better, and experience real freedom in Christ. Nothing has been clearer to me this week, a week in which work has overwhelmed me and excluded me from fellowship – I need you, and you need me!

I don’t have any power to forgive sins! You don’t have the power to resurrect me from the dead! We don’t have the power to give each other new life, but we all have the power, under the anointing and leading of the Holy Ghost, to unwrap one another from those things that bind us. Jesus does the resurrecting, Jesus does the delivering, and Jesus does the setting free, but we must help each other unwrap the grave clothes!

What do I mean by “unwrap”? It’s simply this – all of us have things in our past, and things in our lives that are holding us back, limiting us in our ability to move and work for the Lord, and limiting us in having a vision for the work that God has called us to do.

We are walking in the light as we see it, but there’s more than what we see! God wants us to have a greater vision! We are walking under the power of the Holy Ghost, but there’s always a greater walk, where we can make bigger strides in serving the Lord. We are working for the Kingdom of God with our hands, but God wants you to have a greater work! A work that requires more freedom for your hands and your arms as you put them to work for His calling upon your life.

All of us need some unwrapping. The grave clothes of our past, when we were dead in sin, are still hanging onto us, binding us up, keeping us from having real freedom in Christ, limiting our walk with the Lord, limiting our vision of Calvary, and limiting our vision for the work ahead.

Some of you are wrapped in grave clothes of unforgiveness to someone else for the way they hurt you or treated you in past. It’s time for you to get unwrapped.

Some of you are wrapped tightly because your heart has been wounded, your spirit has been broken, and your heart is broken from the hurt and pain of past experiences. It’s time for you to get unwrapped.

Some of you have grave clothes of an injured faith because you just can’t seem to get an answer to your prayers and you wonder if God is listening. Oh, precious child, God is listening, Jesus is calling, and it’s time for you to get unwrapped.

Some of you are wrapped up in the grave clothes of your past, the devil keeps reminding you of your failures, and you keep listening. It's time for you to get unwrapped!

I am praying this morning that you walk in a greater awareness of God’s love, and that you begin to experience more freedom this morning. I am praying for your grave clothes to fall off so that you can walk in the light and the power of the Holy Ghost!

If you haven’t been set free from the grave of sin and death, Jesus is calling you by name today to "come forth" in repentance and give your life to Him. Don’t ignore his calling.