Four Church Members
By Woodrow Kroll
We've found some answers to these tough questions, but today we're going to take a step back. After all, you can't be a caring Christian unless you're spiritually alive, regenerated through salvation, and living that new life in Jesus Christ. That means more than just taking your place at church on a Sunday morning. It's more than being a member of a congregation or growing up in a Christian environment. Our study today uses an unusual event in Christ's ministry to help us understand exactly what kind of church member we need to be in order to fulfill our mission as a caring Christian.
John 11 is a great passage because it tells us of one of the great victories in the life of the Lord Jesus--the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Now the passage that describes this story begins at verse 32, but it's actually verse 44 that I'm interested in. Look at this, John 11:44 says the dead man came out--that's out of the grave--his hand 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."
What I want us to see today is that in the progression of Lazarus coming out of the grave, in many respects, I can see the Church around the world today. Let me tell you what I mean by that. If you notice, in verse 44, it says the dead man came out. If I'm looking at the progression of the Church, the first thing I see is a dead church. You're saying, "Now wait a minute. Are you saying that in Leeds, England, and in Lincoln, Nebraska, and in Sidney, Australia, and in New Delhi in India--are you saying that there are people who are members of a local church, and they are dead?"
Absolutely, that's exactly what I'm saying. Just because you're a member of a church doesn't mean you're alive in Christ. Today, this day around the world, there are people in churches everywhere who are not alive in Jesus Christ. They're dead. They're dead in their trespasses and sins. They're just like Lazarus was when he was in the grave. And all the time people say, "Well, what can I do if I'm dead in my trespasses and sins? How can I please the Lord God?"
The answer, folks, is you can't please the Lord God. You've not been dead, I assume, because you live here--but if you were dead, you could not lift your little finger. If you're dead spiritually, there isn't a great deal you can do that would please God; yet, isn't it interesting, the whole world consistently tries to do things that they think will cause a dead person to live spiritually. For example, there are people who say, "What if I live righteously? Surely God will be impressed if I live righteously?" Well, God isn't impressed because God Himself is righteous. That's what Isaiah 64:6 says. "We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses is like filthy rags..."
Think about that. Some of you are mothers here today. You have sons who have clothes, and they've been out playing football or cricket or something. They came in and they took those clothes off and they were grass-stained, and they did what most boys do at that age. They stuck them under the bed so that you would not find them. You found a pile of old dirty rags at one point, and that's what Bible says your righteousness is like--just a smelly old pile of dirty rages.
So if you're dead today, you're a church member but you're dead, I'm afraid living righteously isn't going to do it for you. The Bible says it won't happen.
Other church members say, "Well, what if I do church work? Surely God will be pleased with me if I'm in church Sunday after Sunday and I'm doing all kinds church work. If I do the work of God, God will obviously be pleased."
But God is not pleased. Matthew 7:22-23: "Many of you will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name done many wonderful works?' Then I will profess to them, 'Depart from Me; I never knew you.'" You see, there's that business of knowing Jesus as your Savior that is the only thing that pleases God.
So when I look at this story of Lazarus today, I see a man who was dead, and when I think of the Church today, the building in which people meet, I see a lot of churches that are filled with people who are still dead in their trespasses and sins. And that's a shame! Because they're looking to their righteousness, they're looking to doing church work.
You remember that young man in Mark 10 who said, "If I live morally, God will surely be pleased with me"? He came to Jesus and he said, "Good Master, what should I do that I would inherit eternal life?" Jesus surprised him when He said, "Why do you call Me good? There is only one good, that is, God." And then Jesus went on to say, "You do these things, and you will please God." The man said, "I've done all these things since I was just a boy."
Have you noticed that the things he said he's done since he was a boy are the second half of the Ten Commandments? None of the things Jesus mentioned in Mark Ten are the first half of the Ten Commandments. The first half all relates to God; the second half all relates to mankind. Do you see what this young man was doing? This young man thought if he did good deeds for mankind, if he did the kinds of things that pleased people around him, if his neighbors thought he's a pretty good fellow--if he did those sorts of things, God would be pleased. And then Jesus said, "One thing you lack, go sell everything you have. Get rid of your money [which was his god] and give it away to the poor and then come and follow Me."
Basically what Jesus was saying is, "Let's test to see whether you'll follow God. You're going to do good works for men--but will you follow, will you honor God?" The Bible says the man went away sorrowful for he was very rich. As far as I can determine, folks, this is the only man who came to Jesus in the New Testament, truly seeking Jesus who went away sorrowful because he just couldn't' get it through his head that doing moral things, or doing church work, or living righteously--none of things makes us alive.
All over England today, there are people who are in church and think they are alive just because they're in church. But being in church doesn't make one alive. Until you've come to the foot of the cross, until you've trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you can do church work and you can live morally and you can be righteousness, but none of those is sufficient to save you.
That's why this story of Lazarus is so intriguing to me--because the first time we encounter Lazarus in this passage, he's dead. And lots of people in church right now are dead, spiritually dead. They're not physically dead. All over my country and all over your country, there are people in church week after week after week who are just as dead as Lazarus was that day in the grave.
So in the progression of Lazarus coming out of the grave, the first place we see him is, we see him as dead; and the first kind of church member I see in the world today is the church member who is dead in trespasses and sins. That's the first picture we see of Lazarus; he's a man who is dead. There are church members today who are spiritually dead. Now, let's go in the verse. Notice Jesus says, "Lazarus, come out." The dead man came out his hand and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Now if the first kind of church member that Lazarus represents to us is the dead church member, you can guess what the second kind is. The second kind is alive. He's like Lazarus when he came out of the tomb. He's alive. Lazarus was dead and now he's alive. But notice that it says that his hands and his feet are wrapped with strips of linen and there's a cloth around his face.
There are lots of people tonight who are members of local churches who are no longer dead because they trusted Jesus Christ as Savior. They're alive, they've come out of the grave, but the problem is they look like a mummy. They're all wrapped up. They're all wrapped up in the grave clothes of sin. Their lives are still eaten up by things they've done in their life that they've not confessed to the Lord Jesus. There's something in their life that keeps them from progressing. There are hidden sins. Sins that they don't want their husband or their wife to know about. Sins they don't want their children to know about. Sins they don't want their neighbors to know about. Those sins are keeping them from moving on and moving out with Jesus Christ.
Lazarus came out of the grave; he was alive. But did you notice he didn't run anywhere? Because you can't run when you're bound hand and foot. And, you know what? There are lots of church members today who are alive but they're so bound by their sin, they haven't gotten victory of sin in their lives, they really can't do anything for the Lord God because they're bound by the grave clothes of sin.
If you want to know what those sins are, turn sometime to Colossians 3. In Colossians 3 there is a list of those things that must be put off, must be starved to death, must be conquered if you and I are going to be victorious in our Christian lives. They're in there, Colossians 3.
Lazarus surely is a picture of the believer today who is bound by sin, and therefore of little value to the Lord. Will this person go to heaven? Yes, they will go to heaven, but there won't be much reward when they get there because sin is keeping them from active service for the Lord.
But listen, friends, 1 John 1:9 still works--1 John 1:9 tells me that if I confess my sin, He is faithful and just to forgive me my sin and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. The only way you get those grave clothes unwrapped around your body is to confess them as sin to the Lord God. Leave them in a pile behind you and move away from the grave because new creatures in Christ Jesus ought to have all things new. Old things ought to pass away.
Ah, but let's go on in the story. Look at this, the end of that verse: Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes." Obviously, He's projecting now that this is the kind of person, this is the kind of church member who is alive, trusted Jesus Christ as Savior, born again, born from above, born by the Spirit of God. This church member is alive, and this church member has confessed known sin and has shed that sin. Those old grave clothes are gone. He says, "Take off the grave clothes."
The third picture of a church member I see here is a church member who is personally free from sin. You know how to deal with sin in your life. You apply the 1 John 1:9 principle. You know that as a believer, you are free from sin. But sin continues to come back into our lives, doesn't it? Even though the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, has cleansed us from all sin, we need the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, to continually cleanse us from all sin.
And that's where this third church member comes in. This is a church member who realizes his freedom in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1-2: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death."
I don't believe it's possible for me to live a sinless life--this side of Glory, that is--because I still live in the body. I still live in the flesh. I am still tempted; I still fall. I still sin, and so do you. It is possible however for us to live a less sinful life than most of us do. Once we're bound by the grave clothes of sin and those grave clothes are removed, then the blood of Jesus Christ is applied to our lives day after day after day and we've got to leave those grave clothes behind us, friends. We've got to leave them off. Take off the grave clothes. Recognize the freedom you have in Christ Jesus. It is not necessary that you and I sin to the extent that we do. I can sin less than I used to because I'm free from sin. Galatians 5:1: "Stand fast in the liberty with which Christ has made as free, and be not entangled against the yoke of bondage." Basically, what that means is this, Galatians 5:1 tells me that I can be free from the power of sin in my life by the power of the Spirit of God in my life.
But you know what? There are lots of church members today who are not dead any longer. They've trusted Jesus as Savior, and they're not bound by the grave clothes of sin any longer. They've found the secret of confessing sin. They're living free lives in the Lord Jesus, and I hope that's where you and I are, living in freedom in Christ Jesus.
But sometimes even living in freedom isn't enough. Some people living in freedom are islands unto themselves. What do I mean by that? Well, they're getting along quite nicely in life, and they're on their way to heaven, and they're fully content to go all by themselves. They're kind of like Dead Sea Christians. You know the Dead Sea--constantly taking in, taking in, taking in, and never giving out? That's not the kind of church member we want to be. But it is the kind of church member that pervades the church today. People are there--every time the church doors are open, they're there. They're good church members all right. They're free from the law of sin. They're alive in Christ Jesus. They're sucking up everything they can get every time the Word of God is opened. They just take it in; they just never give it out.
The sad thing is the church grows as long as you and I are just taking in because Jesus didn't save us to be Dead Sea Christians. He saved us so we can take it in, and when we take it in--internalize it in our lives--and then give it out. That means then, that there ought to be one more kind of church member in this passage.
Look one time more at the passage. "Jesus said to them, 'Take off the grave clothes and let him go'" (John 11:44). Now it's that last little expression that I'm interested in. Because this is the kind of Christian the Lord Jesus died to make me. Not one who is dead--Christians are not dead, they're alive. But church members are dead. Not a church member who is alive but bound by the grave clothes of sin, not a church member who is alive but bound by the grave clothes of sin and living in freedom, but living unto myself in freedom.
Jesus died for you and me so that we would not be dead, we'd be alive. We'd be free from the grave clothes of sin, we'd not be living unto ourselves, and we would be loosed from these things, and let go. That's the key expression in this passage. Jesus died not only just to loose us from the grave clothes of sin, He died to let us go into the world, to propel us to tell others that we once were dead and now we're alive.
I once was dead, my friends, spiritually speaking, and now I'm alive. I once was bound by the grave clothes of my sin but I discovered that Jesus' blood covers those grave clothes. I once was enjoying the freedom that I had in Christ Jesus, taking in everything I could get from God's Word. But I'll tell you what, the joy of my life is the day I discovered the reason Jesus saved me was not just to take it in. He saved me to give it out as well. He saved me to pass it on to others as well. That's what being a real Christian is all about
It wasn't all that far from here, just a couple of hours north and a bit west in Blantyre, Scotland, that David Livingstone was born. David Livingstone, after he went to Africa as a missionary--the mission agency wrote to Livingstone, and they said, "Dr. Livingstone, have you found a good road yet to where you are in Africa? If you found a good road to where you are in Africa, please write and tell us. We'd like to send someone to help you in your missionary work. Livingstone wrote back and said, "If the kind of help you want to send me needs a good road to get here, you can keep them. I want people who will go where there is no road at all."
I want to suggest to you as a believer in Leeds, I want to suggest to you that Jesus is looking for people tonight who will go where there's no road at all. There is no clear road to your neighbor, my friend. There is no clear road to that person who works in the office with you. There is no clear road to that brother-in-law or that daughter-in-law. But the reason Jesus saved us was not just to be personally free from sin, not just to be free from the grave clothes, not just to enjoy our liberty in Christ Jesus, not just to be an island to ourselves; the reason Jesus saved us was to be loosed and let go."
Loosed and let go--what a great way to describe our freedom and calling to a new life in Jesus Christ! It's exciting to know we can go and tell others about what the Lord has done in our lives, to give out what's been put into our hearts. We can experience tremendous enthusiasm and desire to do this, but sometimes those feelings are followed by doubts and fears about our abilities or our failings. What can we do about those things that creep in and sap our spiritual energy? The Book of Colossians counsels us not to feed them, but starve them to death. I think it's amazing how many things that badger us and trouble us would simply fall into extinction if we didn't constantly feed them.
If we're like the second type of church member we've mentioned - alive but still restricted by the bonds of sin - it may be easy to doubt our salvation, to question whether we did enough in coming to Christ, or to wonder if there's something more we should do. How can we deal with those doubts and move onto the freedom from sin's power? For one, the grave clothes of sin have to be shed. If we're going to afford any movement, any freedom in Christ, we have to get rid of those old things that bind us. We do that by recognizing the sin. We do that by confessing them as sin. Forsaking them as sin, and by getting some new clothes. Again, Colossians 3 is a great help here, and I would encourage any of you who are struggling with this issue to go back and read Colossians 3 about letting things die that are in your past.
www.backtothebible.org
Copyright �1996-2001
The Good News Broadcasting Association, Inc.
All rights reserved.