Title: Awakening What do you do when you have a headache? Pop a panadol or aspirin, and then if it permits you, go to take a nap. After you wake up, the headache is gone. When you are down with flu and fever. What do you do? Do you take a cold shower and hope that it will bring the temperature down? Each time we go to the Doctors'; they will give the same advice. Drink lots of water, take your medicine and sleep. Just how do we know when we get well? When we wake up. But it is true, that rest or sleep is important in allowing the body to be restored. Today's message is entitled "Awakening", - which is the opposite of sleep. The passage is taken from John 11:1-45. The story today begins with a crisis. Who has never met with a crisis before? Different people have different definitions of crisis. Name a few. There was a crisis in this story: a man by the name of Lazarus had fallen sick. He had two sisters who loved him dearly. Day after day Lazarus did not seem to get any better. In fact, he got worse. So the sisters sent word to the Lord Jesus, with a simple message, "Lord the one you love is sick". Jesus' response: Much as Jesus loved Mary, Lazarus and Martha, He stays where he is for 2 days even after hearing of the illness. His immediate response was one that was not unfamiliar to us, for we have heard it last week in John 9. The sickness will not end in death, but it is for God's glory so that God Son may be glorified through it. Ò Sometimes, we appeal to the Lord for help, but it seems that Jesus makes no immediate move. But Jesus times his response and work - for He is one who does just what His Father tells Him to, according to his Father's timing. When Jesus finally decides to go where Lazarus was, he tells the disciples that Lazarus has fallen asleep and He is going there to wake him up. He later explains to them that Lazarus is actually dead, but he's waited a while before going to meet Lazarus, so that they may believe in what they were about to see. When Jesus arrives, Lazarus had already been in the tomb for 4 days. It's an emotional scene. Martha hurries to meet Jesus, and tells Him that if only he had been there, Lazarus would not have died. But she said, "But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." Jesus tries to comfort her with the assurance that her brother will rise again. But Martha understands this as the resurrection that will happen on the last day. Jesus reminds her that He is the resurrection and He is the life. Martha passes the message of Jesus' arrival to Mary, who runs and falls at the feet of Jesus, crying. She said the same thing that Martha said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died". When Jesus saw Mary and others around her crying, He was deeply moved and troubled. Troubled not so much because of Lazarus' death, but at the sight of the grief-stricken sisters whose faith was being challenged by grief at that moment. He was overcome by the futility of the sorrowful scene. God's people possess knowledge of life; they ought to posses a faith that claims victory at the grave. But here they stand, overcome in seeming defeat. What Jesus saw troubled and grieved Him. Jesus asked to be brought to Lazarus' grave and ordered the stone to be rolled away. Martha, who earlier said she believed that Jesus was the resurrection and the life, protested, because it had already been in the grave for 4 days, surely the body would have started to decay. But at the insistence of Jesus, the stone was rolled away. Jesus offered a prayer of thanks to God the Father. This prayer was said with the intention to convince those who were around that Jesus was sent by God. Then Jesus said in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" Imagine the reaction of the crowd when they saw the man who was supposed to have been dead for days shuffling out of the grave, with bandages still tied to his hands and feet? It's not a horror movie, or a sequel to Mummy Returns but the remarkable thing was that as Lazarus came out of the grave, the people could see that the process of decay had been reversed; Lazarus' body was revitalized. He had awakened! Jesus ordered for the grave clothes to be removed from Lazarus. How would you react if you saw this with your own eyes? Believe in Jesus as the Lord of life, or remain skeptical and doubtful? The crowd was divided into those who believed, and those who with ill-intent reported the incident to the Pharisees. This event brings to fulfillment of what Jesus had said previously in John 5:25 "a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live." Lazarus heard the call of Jesus and he awoke! Imagine the joy, the gratitude, relief Mary and Martha had upon seeing their beloved brother come back to life. Mary and Martha at that point were also awakened to the fact that Jesus is really the resurrection and the life. It is often easier to have faith that Jesus can save sinners in general, than to believe that He can come into our own home and save a member of our household. Just like Martha in the way she responded to Jesus. She believed in a way that most of us believe; but when her faith was tried further, she did not appear to have all the faith she professed to have. Can we think of those moments of stress, during which although we have Bible verses stuck in front of our desks, praise songs that speak of the greatness of our Lord playing through our earphones plugged in our ears, we go on lamenting over our plight? Wondering why good things seem to fall on others only, and bad things never fail to leave you. Wishing you could quit this job because of how miserable it has made your life. Saying, "Yes, I know God can help but this is just too hard…" But Jesus did not take Martha at her worst. He did for Martha all she could have asked or believed; and her brother did wake up and he was restored. What Jesus could then, He can do even more now; now that He has already accomplished all that He was sent to do, by His Father. Because Jesus is life, and whoever believes in Him will enjoy the confidence and power over death known by Him. Even when decay has set in. Jesus has Lordship even over the grave. Because Jesus has met death in the eye, descended into the depths of grave and overcame it! This does not mean that we as Jesus' followers will not die a physical death; but rather we will not suffer death in eternity. We have a life now and do not have to wait till the end of human time and history in order to enjoy the benefits of Jesus' power. Are we in the same position as Martha today, concerned about the souls of others, as Martha was of her dead brother? Believe that Jesus can save even now. Ò You, son and daughter, have prayed for your father and mother - but progress is nowhere in sight; Ò you, sister, may think that no one can understand the grief that your brother has caused you, and somehow wished he had never been born; Ò a dear friend whom you've been praying for a long time, but nothing seems to change. His heart remains closed. You've been patient and long-suffering, put holy things around him with the aim of inducing spiritual interest. Yet you've never felt so helpless in your life. There may a bad case now pressing on your mind and your heart is heavy about someone dear, whose condition seems hopeless. Just as decay would have set in a dead body, the case is almost hopeless. Can we bring the same message to Jesus, "Lord, Alvin, whom you love, is sick"? Can you believe that even now, Jesus is able to save? Can you believe that even now, Jesus will be able to awaken that heart that has fallen asleep? Sometimes, when our hopes are so crushed, we come to a point of giving up. Martha was there, she had given her brother up, and buried him; yet she believed in the power of Christ. Perhaps there are many people buried alive today - I can't say that ever happens in a cemetery, but this probably happens in our own homes and our neighborhood, at our workplaces, in our schools. We have buried many people alive, and given up by us before God even gives them up. Can we believe that even now, even now, prayer can be heard, that even now that Holy Spirit can change the nature, and that even now Christ can awaken the slumbering soul? Can you believe that even now, Jesus can raise your brother, your friend, your spouse, your friend, no matter how much he has decayed and stunk? Believe that even now, even for someone who seems totally beyond our reach, Christ can speak to him and awaken him. The Lord's arm is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. Don't give up, but seek God intensely for Jesus to save. I want to speak earnestly to anyone here who is concerned about yourself. Can you expect the Lord, even while you hear these words, to speak to you the word of power, and lead you out from that dungeon you're in? After all this time of wandering in dryness, Jesus is still waiting with open arms of grace to receive you. It's never too late for Jesus. He can make us new, and it is never too late for Him to do it. If you come to him, and trust him, He will receive you even now. The story of Lazarus actually gives us a sneak preview of events leading to Easter, of what Jesus accomplished upon the cross. May I urge us all to fast and pray and commit ourselves and those who are so dear to us, that even now, our Lord is able to awaken those who have fallen asleep. The Holy Spirit is at work, renewing and awakening souls. This is a time of blessing, and it shall be so if you will believe. Jesus has said that too, that if you were to believe, you too, will see the glory of God. Mary, Martha and many others saw that glory. We shall see it too, if we believed.

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