Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”
“Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”
(The Gospel According to John 11: 39-40 NASB)
Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench,
for he has been dead four days.”
Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
- Maybe a person you know has been lost a long time, been ‘dead’ a number of years.
- Maybe by now there is a ‘stench’ when looking closely at that person’s life. Death has a way of doing that, causing a stench.
Jesus says to every person—“Remove the stone.”
It’s so easy to point our fingers at the ‘Martha-like’ people we know and say they should have faith, but maybe Martha was a realist; her brother Lazarus had been really sick, yes, sick to the point of death. Martha had scurried around tending to Lazarus’ needs, she had prepared him meals, comforted him, cared for him, and still her brother died. I am sure Martha was right there, sitting beside the deathbed of her brother Lazarus when he drew his last breath.
Yes, I am quite sure Martha watched her brother die.
- Then she began to grieve.
- Then she probably helped prepare her brother’s body for burial & attended his funeral.
- Most assuredly, Martha stood nearby and observed as someone placed the ‘dead’ body of her brother Lazarus in the tomb and sealed the opening with a large stone.
- Maybe Martha even stood close enough to reach out and touch the rough edge of the stone.
So, four days later when her friend Jesus showed up at her house, she may have been a little snippy in her words because she knew of the way Jesus had healed others in the past. ‘If only you had been here Jesus, my brother would still be alive,’ may have been her head-talk. When Jesus said, “Remove the stone,” Martha may have thought, ‘Yeah, right, Jesus. You are four days too late; my brother is dead.’
May we never forget that God does not exist for our benefit!
That’s correct.
We exist for God!
May we never forget how our life-plan is determined by what God has planned for us!
Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
(The Gospel According to John 11: 40 NASB)
Hum . . .
- Maybe we need to re-read Jesus’ words!
- We need to save them as the screensaver on our phones & write them on sticky notes and hang them around the house & bind God’s Word in our hearts!
- For sure, we need to BELIEVE GOD HAS THE POWER TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE!
- Without a doubt, as we do, we “will see the glory of God.”
- Quite assuredly, we need to put to memory the words of Jesus—all of them!
Almighty God called a man named Isaiah. This man received a vision of “the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.” (The Book of Isaiah 6: 1b NASB)
And then just a few verses later, we see the Lord declaring forgiveness to Isaiah for the sins he has committed and then commissioning Isaiah to do the Lord’s work.
THE LORD’S WORK!
Truly a ‘high’ calling, one each believer has been given to do, even today! Despite the millennium, century, decade, or year we live—God still calls us!
“He said, “Go, and tell this people: . . .” (The Book of Isaiah 6: 9 NASB)
Like Isaiah, we want details, we want calendar notes, we want a start date and even an end date. We need to make our plans—right!
“Then I said, [Isaiah said to Jehovah God]
“Lord, how long?”
And He answered,
“Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant,
Houses are without people
And the land is utterly desolate,
The LORD has removed men far away,
And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
Yet there will be a tenth portion in it,
And it will again be subject to burning,
Like a terebinth or an oak
Whose stump remains when it is felled.
The holy seed is its stump.”
(The Book of Isaiah 6: 11-13 NASB)
Our Question: How long should we preach the Good News of Jesus?
God’s Answer: Until Judgment Day is at hand! Do not stop until GOD tells us to stop! May we never give up on the ‘HOPE’ found in God saving a person’s soul! May we never give up on the ‘HOPE’ found in God performing His Miracle of Healing—whatever form of healing needs to occur!
God had a plan for Saul’s life when he spoke to him on the road to Damascus & God had a plan for the apostle Paul’s life when he allowed him to suffer for the cause of Christ. While in prison in Rome, Paul preached from his confinement the same words the prophet Isaiah spoke. Paul wrote, “Some were being persuaded by the things spoken, but others would not believe.” (The Acts of the Apostles 28: 24 NASB)
May we—“Remove the stone”
- That makes our hearts hard.
- That causes us to throw up our hands and walk away.
- That fatigues our bodies and causes us to want to give up on a person.
- That makes us tired of ‘singing the same song’ & seeing nothing change.
May we—
Remember: We are human beings and GOD IS GOD! & We were once sinners lost to God and headed to hell.
GOD IS BOTH JUDGE & SAVIOR!
God has a plan to make all things right in the end—for every person’s soul & amazingly, God allows us to partake in His Divine Plan!
- We must remain obedient, even when those we know have been walking ‘dead’ a really long time.
- We must “Remove the stone” in obedience—to whatever hinders our testimony & witness.
- We must stand firmly, knowing that a necessary part of God’s plan is declaring what is not right—within every single person’s life!
- We must proclaim to the lost world—‘THE PROMISE OF GOD HEALS!’
Brothers & Sisters-in-Christ, maybe today’s Scripture does not convict your soul like it does mine, & maybe you do not need this reminder (as I do).
MAY WE NOT GIVE UP ON ANYONE’S SOUL COMING TO KNOW CHRIST JESUS AS SAVIOR!