I'm going to be studying with you out of a passage in the gospel of John, chapter 11. I dare you, we dare you—I dare you to live since Jesus Christ dared to die in your place. I dare you to take a stand and be raised up for God's glory since Jesus Christ dared to be raised up and placed on a cross in your place. I dare you to follow Jesus Christ in resurrected life because Jesus Christ himself promised you resurrected life. I dare you—I dare you to rid your life of apathy and complacence and mediocrity since Jesus Christ dared to give his very best for you and be the very best sacrifice from God to the earth.

Today we're going to exam a story and a statement. A crazy story about a guy that Jesus raised from the dead named Lazarus, and then a statement that Jesus made that is an outrageous, outlandish statement, unless it were true. It's one of most radical statements ever made in all of history and it came from the lips of Jesus Christ.

But you know what? A lot of people have made outlandish, outrageous statements. For instance, the fighter Muhammad Ali once said that nobody could whoop him, he was unbeatable, but he got whooped. Charlie Sheen the actor has made some pretty outrageous statements. He said that he was not a normal human being. Of course, I would agree with that. He said that he had tiger's blood and Adonis DNA—crazy statements.

Then there's the former leader of North Korea Kim Jong-il who once claimed that he invented the hamburger. Yeah, right. I thought Blake's did. [laughter] He claimed that he could beat Tiger Woods at golf. And then recently a few months ago North Korea even made a statement that they discovered the unicorn.

But you know, Jesus himself made some outrageous claims. He claimed to be the Messiah. He claimed to be the Son of God. He claimed to be the light of the world. He claimed to be the Good Shepherd. But the most amazing statement he ever made, the most amazing claim was this—Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me will never die." That's what he promised. [cheers and applause]

Today we're going to go to a funeral service. One of Jesus' longtime friends named Lazarus gets sick and he dies. But don't worry, the funeral doesn't last very long; dead people never had a chance around Jesus. [laughter]

You gotta know though that Jesus didn't just make amazing statements and outrageous claims, he lived what he preached. For you see, eye witnesses tell us that Jesus himself actually rose up from the grave, rose from the dead; that's why we're here. Now that has enormous implications, because if Jesus Christ rose from the dead, that means he's still alive. And if Jesus is still alive, that means he's pretty powerful. And if Jesus rose from the dead and is still alive and is that powerful, that means he can make good on all of the promises that he has made to you, including the one that promises that you will have everlasting life.

By the way, it also means that Jesus Christ is an expert on the afterlife because he's been to the other side and he has returned. And to all of us who are facing death, Jesus would say to you, "Come on in, the water's fine. It's okay. Wait till you see what I have planned for you on the other side."

Some years ago a Canadian scientist by the name of G. B. Hardy said, "I only have two questions to ask in life, only two very important questions. Number one, has anyone ever defeated death? And number two, if they have, did they make a way for me to defeat death?" Well, to answer his question—yes and yes. And he discovered that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and that scientist placed his faith in the risen Savior.

Now the story we have in John, chapter 11, is a story that opens up in tragedy. Let me read a couple verses to you. "Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to him, saying, 'Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.' When Jesus heard that, he said, 'This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.' Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus."

So in this story a good friend of Jesus by the name of Lazarus eventually gets sick, and eventually, as the story goes on, he dies. Now, they were close friends of Jesus. They were personal friends, and the Bible tells us that Jesus would spend a lot of time with those friends at their home in Bethany; it was like a home away from home.

Of course, the most famous episode is the time that Jesus went over to their house for dinner, which in and of itself is an enormous stress, would not you say? I mean, what do you feed God for dinner? "Hey, honey, God's coming over for dinner tonight, make something really good." What do you make God? I guess angel food cake would be on the menu [laughter], certainly not devil's food cake. But Jesus came over and it was Martha and Mary who were getting things ready, and Martha was the one who was serving and working so hard while Mary was at the feet of Jesus.

So Lazarus is sick, and you need to know something—they made the right move. They didn't just sit there. Something's wrong in their life; there's a problem. What do you? Well, they did what anyone of us should do, and that is, take it to the Lord.

That great song that says, "O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear; all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer." So there's a problem, they made the right move, they took it to the Lord. What's interesting is that they did not make a specific request that Jesus would heal Lazarus. They just thought, "You know what? It's enough to just let the Lord know. He'll know what to do." So they made the right move.

The second thing they did was they went to the right man. They went to Jesus. He's the only one who will do when you have somebody in this kind of a situation. He's the only one who can fix things when they're that broke. They knew that Jesus could open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf, and even raise people from the dead; so they made the right move and they went to the right man.

Sadly, many people turn to other things whenever there's a crisis. They turn to the bottle, or they turn to a pill, or they turn to a guru, or they'll turn to their friends, which is not a bad thing to do, friends help you out. But there's only so much a friend can do for you when you're really, really down and out. So they made the right move; they turned to the right man.

The third thing is they have the right motive. Notice it says here they said to Jesus, "The one whom you love is sick." So they appeal to Jesus on the basis of his love for them, not their love for him. They didn't write a note and say, "Look, Jesus, we've had you over to dinner a few times, you kind of owe us. We've served you and we've loved you." They just simply said, "The one that you love is sick."

And then number four, they had the right mentality. They knew that even though Jesus was busy and had crowds to preach to and disciples to train, that Jesus was never too busy to deal with one individual. He always had time for people. He always had time for individuals.

One time Jesus was teaching a crowd and he got interrupted. A man named Jarius, a ruler of a synagogue interrupted Jesus and said, "My daughter is on her deathbed, come!" And so Jesus followed him, took the time for him. While Jesus was going there he got interrupted again, this time by a woman who had a flow of blood, a disease for twelve years. Jesus took time to minister and heal her.

One time Jesus was in Jericho, and though there were crowds of people following him, he stopped before one tree where a wee little man named Zacchaeus was up in the tree watching the events. He took time for him. Then there was Bartimaeus who cried out, "Son of David, have mercy on me." And Jesus left the crowd and he spoke and he ministered and he healed him.

Our Lord Jesus gave many great sermons, but some of his greatest sermons were to individuals, people like Nicodemus, or the Samaritan woman, or Pontius Pilate—just words for one individual.

Today I'm told there's twenty-some thousand people in this big crowd right now, but I want you to know that Jesus sees you as if you were the only one here. He knows who you are. He knows your name. He cares about you. He's concerned for you. And what you need, he knows and he wants to meet that need.

So the story begins in tragedy, and then as we go on the story unfolds intention. It's worth noting in verse 5 it says, "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." But notice the next verse, "So, when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was." You go, "Now wait a minute, that's not what it should say. It should read something like, 'Jesus loved them so much that he immediately went to their side to fix the problem.' " But it doesn't say that, it says, "Jesus loved them and so he stayed where he was two more days."

There's something else worth noting: When those two sisters sent a note to Jesus and said, "The one whom you love is sick," they used a particular Greek word phileó where we get "brotherly love" from. Philadelphia comes from that word, the City of Brotherly Love. "Jesus, your buddy is sick, your friend, the one that you are a pal with is sick."

But in verse 5 it says, "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." John uses a stronger Greek word for love, it's the word agapé/agapaó. So here's these two sisters saying, "Your buddy, your friend, the one you're fond of is sick," But here it says, "Jesus loved them with a complete, unending, ongoing love, and so he stayed two days."

If any of you have ever experienced delays in God answering your prayers, I want you to listen very carefully. God's delays are always delays of love, and God's delays are not necessarily God's denials. God might just say to you, "Not yet." He's not saying, "No," he's just saying, "Not right now." God's delays are delays of love.

You know, we don't always see the big picture, like these two sisters, they didn't see the big picture, they wanted a healing. What did Jesus want? A resurrection. They want a resuscitation, Jesus wanted a resurrection, so he delayed.

I was watching television not too long ago and I was channel surfing, because that's how I watch television. I never really watch a show more than maybe three minute at a time. I like to watch them all together. So I'm channel surfing and I watch this guy, he's an artist. He's painting something on the screen, and I'm not really all that impressed. He puts a few blotches of paint on the canvas. And as I'm watching him, and then I channel surf, and I went back and I saw his progress. And then I channel surfed, and then I went back. And as I channel surfed through that half an hour, I noticed that he was putting stuff on a canvas.

And honestly, I thought, "I could do that. That is not very good. I don't even know why he's on television." But eventually as I kept going back to that channel and then I saw how he closed off and finished his painting, then I was amazed. You see, all the while I didn't get the big picture until the very end, then I could see what he had in his mind. That is so much like God. He has the big picture; we don't.

So by the time Jesus shows up on the scene, not only has Lazarus been sick, but by the time Jesus gets there Lazarus has been dead for four days. Verse 17 of John 11, "So when Jesus came, he found that he had already been dead in the tomb four days." Verse 21, once Jesus comes, "Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.' "

"Lord, you're late! You're late!" You know what? God is never late, you're early, but God is never late. The Bible says, "God is not slow in keeping his promises, as some people count slowness." Here's the problem: Martha is interpreting the love of Christ through her circumstances—that's a mistake. She should have been interpreting her circumstances through the love of Jesus Christ. That's our mistake. We often look at a circumstance and think, "This must mean God doesn't love me." You need to see your life, your circumstances through the love of Jesus Christ.

And then Jesus makes an amazing claim to this woman. In verse 23, "Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again.' Martha said to him, 'I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.' Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.' "

And then Jesus asked her this very important question, " 'Do you believe this?' " Do you believe this? You know, if Jesus would have recorded an album of his greatest hits, this would certainly be in the top ten. "I'm the resurrection and the life"—that's one of the greatest hits of Jesus Christ. It's an amazing statement.

But the tension isn't over in the story, as we go down a few verses, in verse 33 we read this, "Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping," this is her sister Mary now, "and the Jews who came with her weeping, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And he said, 'Where have you laid him?' They said to him, 'Lord, come and see.' Jesus wept." Shortest verse in the Bible, in the New Testament: "Jesus wept."

And then down in verse 38, "Then Jesus, again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it." There's some odd things going on in this story. Number one, Jesus is in anguish. The Bible says, "Jesus wept." Why would Jesus weep? Jesus knows that in about five or ten minutes he's going to raise Lazarus from the dead; why would Jesus weep?

You would think Jesus is the guy with the Kleenex, passing the Kleenex out to the crowd saying, "Stop your crying, dry it up. Watch what I'm going to do." But instead Jesus entered into their sorrow. "Jesus wept"—you know what that means? That God enters into our sorrow. When you're brokenhearted, he cares. When you're deep down in distress he cares. In Isaiah 63 it says, "In all of their distresses God too was distressed." It's noteworthy, his anguish, his tears.

Another thing is noteworthy in this tension of the story. Jesus is angry. It says, "He groaned in his spirit," that's what it says, "and he was troubled." The wording denotes that he was mad, he was angry, he was outraged. Why? What's Jesus angry at? Listen carefully: Jesus was angry at sin that causes death. He was angry at sin that causes death.

You see, Jesus knew that we were meant to live. That God's original intention is that we go on forever living, and not die. But the wages of sin is death, and it was sin into the world that caused death. All of us know instinctively death isn't right. When we lose somebody, when somebody that we love dies, we immediately say, "No, no, this, this can't be true. This couldn't have happened." The reason we do that is because we instinctively know and feel and believe like Jesus did that death is out of order. This was not God's original intention, but the wages of sin is death. We can't fix it, but Jesus can fix it; that's why he came. He's the life giver.

So this story that begins with a tragedy and unfolds intention is a story that ends with triumph. Back in verse 38, "Jesus, again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it." Down in verse 43, "He cried out with a loud voice," here's the best part of the story, " 'Lazarus, come forth!' And he who died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes." What a creepy scene. "And his face was wrapped with a cloth. And Jesus said to them, 'Loose him, let him go.' And many of the Jews who came to Mary, had seen the things that Jesus did, and believed in him."

Notice Jesus' approach, he walks right up to the grave, he says, "Roll away the stone," then with a loud voice he calls out to a dead guy. Now, I don't know if you've ever yelled at a dead guy before, but it won't do you any good; that is, it won't do you any good because you're not Jesus, of course. Jesus walks up to the tomb—he didn't have to walk up to the tomb. Jesus could have stood a half mile away and in a whisper said, "Okay, Lazarus, it's time. Go for it."

Why does he do this? Why does he walk up to the grave and command in a loud voice? Well, in movie jargon this is called a trailer. This is called a preview of coming attractions. By walking up to the grave of Lazarus and commanding him to come forth, that was a preview of what would happen in about a week or two in his own life; he himself would be raised from the dead. And that would be a preview of another coming attraction when he walks up to your grave, and your grave, and your grave, and my grave, and he says, "Come forth."

You know that one day you're going to get an extreme makeover? I hope you appreciate that. If you're young you might say, "I don't need one." Yeah, just wait. [laughter] I love—this is good news! Talk about good news on Easter: I'm going to get an extreme makeover. When I looked in the mirror this morning, I said, "That's good news." [laughter]

You're going to get a resurrected body. You're going to get an upgrade. And consider, as we close, the claim that Jesus made. In the midst of this story is this strange, wonderful claim, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

Now that is an unconditional statement. There's no time boundary. He said, "Whoever believes"—that includes you. You may be way in the back in the corner of this great stadium, it means you. "Whoever believes." If you place your faith in him, this can happen to you.

Now when Jesus made this statement I'm convinced that Martha misunderstood his meaning: "Yeah, I know, he's going to rise again at the last day in the resurrection." She was thinking of the bodily resurrection at the end of time, which is true, and that's the hope of all believers. But Jesus is saying more than that. Jesus is saying, "Look, the resurrection isn't just an event, the resurrection is a person, and I'm that person. And wherever I show up things change, lives change."

Before there can ever be a resurrection on the outside, there must first be a resurrection on the inside. Real life happens when you come face-to-face with this One, Jesus Christ, and you will never die. And Jesus asked a question that I ask you this morning: Do you believe this? Do you really believe this? Now is the time to ask yourself, everyone here, do you really believe this?

Back to what that scientist said, G. B. Hardy, he said, "I have two questions: Has anyone ever defeated death? And if so, did they make a way for me to defeat death?" Answer: Yes and yes. Yes, Jesus defeated death for others and for himself, and yes, Jesus made a way for us under the sentence of death to live forever, and that includes all of you here.

Four hundred years before Jesus Christ the great philosopher Socrates drank poison, poison hemlock, and he lay down to die. And the friends who were gathered around him said, "Shall we live again?" And you want to know what this great, wise philosopher said? The best he could come up with was: "I don't know, but I hope so." [laughter]

Jesus would say, "You can know. You can know for certain." Because Jesus would say, "I know for certain." And if you trust in this One who made this amazing claim, you can know. Some of you like this story, some of you are experiencing tragedy, you've lost someone, somebody that you love has died. Or you've lost your job, or you've lost something or someone, maybe your own health. You're diminished this year from what you were last year. Your life is in a tragedy.

For others of you, your life is in tension. Life is hard. Relationships are hard. Every single day of your life is just plain hard. Your life is in that tension. God wants you to know that your tragedy or your tension can be transformed into triumph.

You say, "How?" You gotta be like these gals in the story. You need to make the right move. You need to come to the right person—Jesus Christ the God-man. And that's the dare. I dare you. I dare you to believe in him. I dare you to live forever, to not be just content with living now and having a few good times, a few friends, and a few parties, a few laughs, but to have eternal joy, eternal life.

Now you might, you might be saying, "Yeah, but it was so much easier for Mary and Martha. I mean, after all, they knew Jesus. They had a history with him. They could see him. They could see the effect of the miracles that he had performed already. But I don't see him. I don't have that history with him."

Some years ago there was a pilot, she was flying a private plane. And as she was flying she got lost, and she was in a bank of fog; she couldn't see. To make matters worse she had malfunction in her instrument panel in the aircraft. So what did she do? She got on the radio and she wired the control tower.

And there was an air traffic controller on the other end who calmed her down and said, "Don't worry, don't worry. I'll give you instructions. Just follow my instructions, and I'll get you home safely." Now that pilot, that woman, she trusted a man she'd never met. She placed her hands in the life of someone she didn't know, but she followed his instructions and he got her home safely.

Today stop flying blind. And if you haven't trusted your life to Jesus Christ—and I don't mean just going to church, or being religious, or being a good person, or trying to get to heaven by your good deeds. If you haven't trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are flying blind, and only Jesus can wake you up.

And so I dare you to live. I dare you to do it, and I dare you to do it now. In just a moment I'm going to say a prayer and I'm going to invite hundreds of you to get up from out of your seats, and find the nearest aisle, and come down out on this field.

And I'm going to lead you in a prayer to commit your lives to Jesus Christ—a full commitment, holding nothing back, asking him to forgive your sins, wipe your past away, give you everlasting life, the very promise he makes to you today. I'm going to ask you—I'm going to dare you to get up and to receive his life. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this beautiful day in this beautiful place, and so many have gathered, this large crowd, we're thankful for every person. But we know, Lord, that you don't look down and get amazed at a crowd, you care about people individually. You love every single person, and you have a plan for every single individual in this great stadium. You see that person as if they were the only one here.

And I pray, Father, for so many that they would make the right move, turn to the right man—Jesus, and come and be forgiven. That dead men and dead women will live and be resurrected inside, because we have learned the resurrection is a person not just an event. Oh, the event will come, but only if the person has come inside of us, and we have a relationship with him. So, Lord, I pray this opportunity would not be missed. I pray that those who just come from time to time, or come to events like this once a year would come to Jesus Christ and find life, everlasting life. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Now, we're going to sing a final song or two, and as we do I'm going to ask you who are sitting in these seats, this stadium, no matter where you are, if you don't know Jesus Christ personally, if you've never met him—I'm not asking you if you're religious. I've seen many people come to Christ after years of going to church and being religious. This is a personal surrender.

Or if some of you have strayed and wandered away from the Lord, and it's time for you to come back home and get things right, I'm going the ask you as we sing this final song to get up, find the nearest aisle, walk down and find if little portals out here, and stand out here on this field. I'm going to lead you in a prayer to give your life to Christ. Young, middle aged, old, as we sing, we ask you to come. Our counselors will be out front, will show you the way down.

[worship music plays]

Once again, get up and come down, and stand right here on this stage or below the stage on this field. We're going to give you moments to do that. I'm not asking you to get up and leave early to avoid the crowds, though I know that's tempting. I want you to look at it this way, everyone here listen: this is like a maternity room, babies are being born, new life is coming into the world, spiritual life. This is a celebration!

Those of you who aren't coming forward, pray for those who are. Pray that those decisions will be made, that lives will be changed, that dead men will live. We'll wait for you. If you're way up in the top, we'll wait, but come now, come quickly. Come on down.

[worship music plays]

Never thirst again. Never thirst again, that's what Jesus promised. If you're thirsty, Jesus said, "Come to me and drink." You've never had more refreshing water than the water that comes from the life of Christ into you. Now is the time to make that decision. Now is the time to come. You may never have an opportunity like this ever again. Some of you have come to events like this and you've watched, and you let the opportunity pass you by. Don't let this opportunity pass you by. This is your moment, God loves you, God wants a relationship with you. Come on down, there's plenty of room.

[worship music plays]

We have just a few more minutes left. This field is rented out and the equipment is moved here for just this moment, and this is your moment. There's some—your hearts are burdened. There's something that happened in your past. All of us have a past. Just like this wind blowing, let the Lord blow all that past and get it behind you. Make a new start; do it today. Do it now!

If you're way up there on the sides, if you don't know Christ, or if you're way up on top, right in the front. If you don't know Jesus Christ, you come. Come right now. Come to life. God's calling you. Don't hold back any longer; don't say no any longer. Come and get your sins forgiven, step out of darkness, step into the light.

[worship music plays]

Those of you who have come forward, everybody who is gathered here are excited about what's happening right now with you at this very moment. This is what we have prayed for, this is what we live for. We're so excited to welcome you into God's family in just a minute, but in order to do that, this is where we do business with God right now. I'm going to pray out loud and I'm going to ask you to pray out loud after me.

I'm going to ask you to say the words that I say, but say them from your heart and ask Jesus to come in and take control of you. He'll never leave you; he'll never forsake you. But we start by you asking Jesus to come in. So I'm going to pray out loud, you pray out loud after me as you make your commitment to Christ. You guys ready? Let's pray.

Lord, I give you my life. I admit I'm a sinner. I'm sorry for my sin. I believe in Jesus Christ, that he died on the cross, that he shed his blood for me, and that he rose again from the grave. I turn from my sin, I turn my life over to you, be my Savior and be my Master. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, and give me your power to live a life pleasing to you in Jesus' name, amen. [applause and cheers]

Come on! Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah! Hey, welcome to God's family. Welcome to the family of God.