Life 1986

I'd like to begin by reading from the 9th chapter of Luke, beginning at the 59th verse. To another Jesus said, follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.

But he said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. What is Jesus saying here? Is he saying that we shouldn't even bury our dead? That we should ignore the fact of death? Definitely not.

He's not asking us to ignore the fact of death. We have to see the fact of death. Our loved ones died.

Many people in this gathering right here have lost child, wife, husband, parents, family through death. We're aware of the fact that our stay in this realm of flesh and blood is very brief. If the Lord doesn't come back pretty soon, we're all going to be dead.

And Jesus isn't asking us to ignore that fact. In fact, he wants us to take a very good, hard look at that. And so we hear him say in Luke chapter 12, verse 13, one of the multitudes said to him, Teacher, did my brother divide the inheritance with me? But Jesus said to him, man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? And he said to him, take heed and beware of all covetousness.

For a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told him a parable saying, a land of a rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops.

And he said, I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grain and all my goods.

And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you.

And the things you prepare, whose will they be? So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. And Jesus was addressing a man who had lost his father through death. But this man, instead of looking at his father's death and thinking of what that means and considering the purpose of his own life, is busy fighting with his brother over the money.

So Jesus says to him, take another look at your father's death. What good is his money doing him now? What good is it going to be doing you pretty soon? You better concentrate on being rich toward God for the day when your money isn't going to do you any good. So Jesus says to a man, follow me.

And the man says, I'll follow you, Lord, but let me first go and bury my father. Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but as for you, go and preach, proclaim the kingdom of God. Jesus is not telling that man or us to ignore the fact of death or to be negligent about fulfilling our duties to those of our loved ones or friends who have died.

What he is saying to this man and to us is that we have been living in an atmosphere of death. We are eating, sleeping, drinking, worrying, fussing, stewing, getting angry, arguing, fighting over things that belong to the realm of death. You know, we're dead even while we do all these things because instead of being rich toward God, we're fighting over the inheritance.

We're dead because instead of with a whole heart answering the call of God upon our lives, we're fighting over the inheritance. We're anxious and worried about a million other things. And so Jesus says, leave the dead to bury their own dead, but as for you, go and preach the kingdom of God.

Wake up! Luke chapter 24, verse 1. And on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking spices which they had prepared. And they found a stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find a body. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.

And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is risen. He is not here. Same message.

Why do you seek the living among the dead? He's alive. He's not here. You're never going to find Jesus in the tomb, and you're never going to get the job done as long as you walk around with this funeral mindset, this funeral attitude.

Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you life. One more passage to throw in at this point from 1 Kings chapter 17, verse 17. After this, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill.

And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. In other words, he died. And she said to Elijah, What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son.

And he said to her, Give me your son. And he took him from her bosom and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, laid him on his own bed, and he cried to the Lord, O Lord my God, hast thou brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, O Lord my God, let this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Elijah.

And the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, See, your son lives.

And the woman said to Elijah, Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true. When this widow brought her dead son to Elijah, he could have said, What am I supposed to do, woman? This child is dead. Am I God? He could have said, Lord, I'll answer your call, but let me first bury this boy.

But the call on this man's life was not to bury this child, but to raise this child. This man, Elijah, was alive with a life of God because he was answering God's call on his life. Clear cut, single minded.

And so he takes the corpse of this boy from the mother, goes out the door, up the outside steps to this little chamber up on the roof where he was allowed, where he was living. And lays the corpse down on the bed. And starts crying out with strong intercessions to God for this woman's broken heart.

And then he stretches his own warm body over the cold body of this boy three times. And absorbs his death, this child's death, into his life. And cries out to God, Oh God, let this child's soul return to him again.

And the boy comes to life. What we see in all this is that if we are answering the call of God, and we look into the face of death, as we really have to look into the face of death all the time. We're looking in the face of death when we're looking at TV, watching the news, walking down the street, or even looking in the mirror.

And counting how many more gray hairs in our eyebrows, or how many more lines in our faces, or how many more teeth have fallen out, or whatever the problem is. Or even just looking at reality. When we look into the face of death and are answering the call of God in our life, in some way, in a mystery, we absorb and swallow up that death with life.

In some way, it's always different, never the same way. For instance, when Stephen was stoned and was killed as the first Christian martyr, they didn't gather around this man and raise him from the dead. They buried him.

But out of that man's death came a tremendous resurrection. The church experienced revival like it had never known before. Out of that death came life.

And so this boy that Elijah raised is, in fact, the church. And the life that stirs in the body when Stephen is stoned to death is the church coming to life. And this body that comes up out of the grave with Jesus when he rises from the dead is the church.

And Jesus is saying to the church and to this church, Wake up! Rise from the dead! You're not going to find me in a tomb. Don't be hanging around the tomb. Why do you seek the living among the dead? Answer the call on your life, and you will rise from the dead, and you will raise the dead.

If there's any word that the Spirit of God has been giving to this body in recent months, it's this twofold counsel. Number one, don't be wasting time at the tomb. Pursue the risen Christ by answering his call on your life.

There is a call on your life. Answer it. Two, don't be wasting time arguing, listening, reasoning, or just hanging around people who insist on remaining dead.

Shake the dust off your feet and get on with answering God's call for you to proclaim the kingdom of God, Jesus crucified and risen, to those who will listen and who will come to life. Number one, don't be wasting time at the tomb. Pursue the risen Christ by answering his call on your life.

Not one believer ever found Jesus in the tomb. When those women came, they didn't find him at the tomb. See, but when they turned around and started going away from the tomb, they found themselves looking into the face of the risen Jesus, and that raised them from the dead.

Or they found him in the breaking of bread. He broke the bread and their eyes opened and they knew who it was. Or they found him on a mountain in Galilee, where he told them to wait for him and meet him, but never at the tomb.

And we have to get away from the tomb of dead works, dead attitudes, dead memories, dead regrets, dead ambitions, and answer the call of Jesus on our own lives. Move with it. Do something about it.

He'll give you all the life you need. Rise from the dead, he'll give you life. Notice that whenever they did meet Jesus alive from the dead, it was in some way always a reminder of Calvary.

They meet him in the breaking of bread, and as they see this stranger, and they're not sure who it is, as he breaks the bread, they can almost hear him say, this is my body broken for you, don't you remember? Or he says, look at my hands, look at my side, it's me. I am the lamb that was slain, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Or he invites them to breakfast on the shore of Galilee.

Come and dine, he says, and they're not quite sure what's going on here. And he breaks the bread, gives them the fish, and in the breaking of the bread, once again, they're seeing his broken body. And their eyes open, they know who this is.

And when Jesus says to you and to me, follow me, he's saying, follow me to Calvary, where I will purge, with my own blood, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Where I will raise you from the depth of self-centeredness and self-righteousness and self-preoccupation and self-pity, and teach you how daily to lay down your life. And as you do, you come alive with me every day.

Rise from the dead every day. You get more light all the time as you die to yourself and live in me. Follow me.

Awake, O sleeper. That means, come on, get out of it. Rise from the dead, answer your call, and Christ shall give you life.

Point number two, only two points. Point number two. Don't be wasting time reasoning, arguing, listening, hanging around with people who insist on remaining dead.

Shake the dust off your feet and get on with the business of proclaiming Jesus Christ crucified and risen to those who will listen and who will rise from the dead. Boy, that sounds hard. That doesn't sound like Christianity to me.

Listen to Jesus. Chapter 10 of Luke, verse 10. For whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you.

Nevertheless, know this, the kingdom of God has come near. I tell you, it shall be more tolerable on that day for Sodom than for that town. Or, Acts chapter 13.

Saul and Barnabas were sent out, excuse me, sent out to proclaim the gospel. They go from town to town. They start out each time in a synagogue.

In the passage that Linda read earlier, they received a tremendous response to this in the synagogue. But after a while, some opposition arises. Pretty quick.

By the next Sabbath day, they're in trouble. The next Sabbath, verse 44 of Acts 13. The next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered together to hear the word of God.

But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy. And you can substitute church people for Jews here. You know, it's not anti-Semitic.

I mean, talking about the organized Christians, the people who are so sure they're right. They were filled with jealousy and contradicted what was spoken by Paul and reviled him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly saying, It was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to you.

Since you thrust it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. We're going out into the streets and lanes of the city. We're going out into the highways and hedges.

For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

And the word of God spread throughout all the region. Applying this to us, every single one of us, in our daily life, wherever we happen to be, on our jobs, in our homes, in our neighborhoods, among our relatives, and among our friends. Every day, we find ourselves in the presence of and surrounded by people who are hungry for a word from God.

We're bumping in all the time to lost sheep who are just longing for somebody to come along and say, Come on, and bring them home. But we, all too often, are still all caught up, kind of banging our heads against the wall, trying to minister to people who insist on remaining dead. Who will not listen, and who will not change.

And we make it a personal project, and we just have to do it. And Jesus says, leave the dead, bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God to those who will listen.

You never see Jesus banging away at people who, by their indifference, or their scorn, or their deceit, or their arrogance, have said no. Jesus simply moved on. And we need to learn to do that too.

Somebody's saying, well, what about judge not that you be not judged? Put them all together. We're not making a judgment, but if they say no, no, no, don't force it. Move on.

What about that widow who's coming to you with her dead son? What about those lost sheep over there who are just waiting for somebody to bring them home? What about that man or that woman who lives within 500 feet of the house where you live or the apartment where you live? Who will just come to life if you just speak one word of hope. Perform one act of mercy. One honest act of concern.

The work of the Spirit of God among us at this time is, as far as I'm concerned, I've been here almost 28 years and I've never seen what I'm seeing now. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who's seeing this. And what I see the Spirit doing, I see the Spirit calling for two specific changes in all our lives.

Every one of us. One, follow me. In other words, rise from the dead yourself.

Wake up. Don't be hanging around the tomb. Don't be beating your head against the wall.

Get out of it and answer my call upon your life. Follow me to Calvary. Learn how to lay down your life and I will raise you from the dead.

And I will fill you with life like you've never known. Two, leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

Stop wasting time trying to play amateur providence over people who have already made very clear that they don't want to. And move on, proclaiming Jesus crucified and risen to those who will welcome what you have to say with your words and with your life. And you will bear fruit.

And the word of God will increase and multiply. And as many who are ordained to salvation will be saved and it will spread to all that region. Southwest Detroit, north of the suburbs, and who knows where.

To another he said, follow me. But he said, Lord, first let me go and bury my father. But he said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead.

But as for you, as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Let's just think about that in silence for a minute. Amen.