April 16, 2025 • 24 mins
On the next Treasured Truth, Pastor Ford will begin a new message series that looks at the resurrection of Lazarus. And he’ll explain that God wanted everyone to understand that if Jesus didn’t raise Lazarus from the dead, it wouldn’t get done—that is exactly why Jesus delayed His departure to return and help Lazarus. So, we must realize that sometimes the reason Jesus hasn’t come to help with our problems is because they may not be bad enough yet. To learn more about Jesus’ resurrection power, make sure to join us for the next Treasured Truth.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:00):
He wants every body to know that if Jesus didn't
do it, it wouldn't get done. And so you and
I must realize that sometimes the reason he hasn't come
to your problem yet is because it's not bad enough yet.
S2 (00:25):
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford,
junior senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago.
I'm Steve Hillard. Glad you're with us. As today we're
beginning a message called Resurrection Power. You can't keep a
good man down. Certainly a fitting theme. Thinking of resurrection
power this week of Easter. But we're not actually going
(00:46):
to be looking only at the resurrection of Jesus. In
today's broadcast, we're also looking at Lazarus. Many of you
know the story of Jesus resurrecting Lazarus from the dead.
You're aware that Jesus did that. It was one of
his biggest miracles. But have you ever thought about why
Jesus waited as long as he did to do so?
(01:07):
I mean, Jesus knew that Lazarus was sick. He knew
that Lazarus was probably going to be dying days before
he ever went to him. But, you know, the Jews
believed that it took a number of days, four days, actually,
for the spirit to leave your body. And so Jesus
wanted to wait so that they knew for sure that
(01:27):
Lazarus was dead, so that when he did raise him,
that full resurrection power would be on display. There would
be no doubt that this was a miracle done by Jesus.
You know, sometimes God allows us to wait in our pain,
to wait in our struggle, to wait until we are
(01:48):
convinced that there is no way this is going to
work itself out in a good way, unless it's done
by Jesus. You know, I hope that as you think
about the story of Lazarus and the way that Jesus
waited to resurrect him gives you a little sense of peace,
knowing that sometimes God's waiting for us to come to
the end of our rope so that we know for
(02:09):
sure that that deliverance or that miracle was through him.
If you can join us in John chapter 11 as
we begin the message resurrection Power, here's Pastor Ford.
S1 (02:21):
It was pitch black. No moon. You could hardly see
your hand before your face. But even though he knew
it wasn't a wise decision, the man got off the
bus and decided he would cut through the cemetery because
he lived on the other side. He cut through the
(02:44):
cemetery even though he knew it was too dark to
be walking through that cemetery at night. As he's walking through,
he gets about halfway and he doesn't see the open
grave and falls in. He's struggling for about two hours
to try to get out. But he's hollering. Nobody's hearing him.
(03:04):
He can't even see anything in front of him, behind
him or over his head. So finally goes in the
corner of the grave and just sits down and says, well,
if I have to wait till daylight when the caretaker
comes in, I'll have to wait till daylight. I knew
I shouldn't have walked through here was pitch black. I
(03:25):
couldn't even see my hands before my face. He's sitting
in the corner for about a half hour, and all
of a sudden he hears another guy falls in and
doesn't know he's in there because he can't see him,
because you can't see your hand before your face is
so dark. He's struggling to get out. He's struggling. Finally,
(03:45):
the guy couldn't keep it any longer. He said, buddy,
you're never going to get out of this grave. But
he did. Oh, yeah. Some of you will get it
on the way home. Yeah, yeah he did. Today we
celebrate the fact that Jesus got up so we could
(04:09):
be fixed up, and after death, be woke up at
the rapture, be taken up. So we came here today
to lift him up. You ought to raise your hands up. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. Now,
that's not great theology, but that's great anthology. Hey, it
took me a little while to hook that one up. Yeah,
(04:29):
I did it in my study. I said we got
Jesus got up so we can be lifted up and
fixed up so we can be woke up and go up.
So we came here to lift him up. Hallelujah. He
is risen. Here's what the Bible says. Romans one four
proved to be the Son of God by the resurrection
(04:52):
from the dead with power. Yeah, yeah. He's saying it
was this power that raised him. Resurrection power. You know
what that means. Ask me. What does that mean? You
can't keep the God man down. No, no, because he's
going to get up. It's resurrection power. If anybody's in
here today and you've experienced Christ's resurrection power, you know
(05:17):
it was resurrection power that took that alcohol and reefer
out of your hand and put a Bible in it. Yeah,
it was resurrection power. It was resurrection power that took
you from the crack house and brought you to the
church house. It was resurrection power. I know you ain't
going to pray with me, but I'm going to preach
it anyway. It was the resurrection power that helped you
to understand that if your outgo exceeds your income, then
(05:41):
your upkeep will be your downfall. I ain't going to
get no help. Yeah. Preach. Pastor Ford, I'm doing the
best that I can. Yeah. You used to spread the gossip.
Gossip so much you told your own business. But resurrection power.
Now you mind your own business. And instead of sharing
the gossip, you're now spreading the gospel. It's resurrection power. Why?
(06:06):
Because you can't keep the God man down. Yes, it's
resurrection power that kept you from dressing like you're a
12 ounce Coke bottle when you know you're really a
two liter. Nah, I don't have anything wrong with the
two liter. I'm a two liter. Uh, no, I'm not
coming against two liters. I'm coming against two leaders who
(06:27):
are in the 12 ounce Coca-Cola stretch pants. Uh, yeah.
You're making them earn their name. Stretch pants? Yeah. And
some of them are begging. Please buy a dress. Yeah, yeah.
And it's resurrection power that you looked in the mirror
(06:48):
and said, nah, I got too much back here to
be talking about wearing some stretch pants. Preach, man. Y'all
don't like me this morning, do you? Yeah. it's resurrection power.
It's resurrection power that made you buy a belt, pull
up your pants and quit showing your drawers to everybody.
(07:11):
It was resurrection power. Yeah, that's what it was. It's
resurrection power. And what does it do? Resurrection power. Come here.
Come up close. Let me whisper. It is more intoxicating
than Henny and Courvoisier. And a credible Hulk. Say, what
do you know about an incredible Hulk? Somebody told me.
(07:34):
For those of you who are incredible Hulk challenged, that's
a drink. Hey, uh, who said I know? Yeah. And
it's because of resurrection power. Because what does it do?
It makes us Elder Estrada. It makes us live, right?
It makes us think right. It makes us walk right.
It makes us act right. It makes us better instead
(07:57):
of bitter. It makes us with a biblical Personality instead
of a toxic personality. Resurrection power helps us to live
like a cat in a bird house. We expect a
delicious outcome. And so here, this resurrection power, we finally.
Now we're getting ready to bring Lazarus out of the tomb, y'all.
(08:20):
And go ahead, tell me. Say, bring him out quick. Uh,
and so, uh, if you don't mind, there's some people
who weren't here last year. So what I'm going to
do is give you an understanding of the whole chapter
in a few minutes, and then we're going to talk
about Lazarus coming out of that tomb. I want you
to see what's going on in John 11. How many
of you are familiar with the story? How many of
(08:41):
you are familiar with the story? Okay, the rest of you,
here it is. Uh, Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick. Uh,
the sisters send and say, go tell Jesus Lazarus sick.
The one that you love is sick. Did you hear that?
The one that he loved is sick. You know what
that means? That means, then, that Jesus can love you
and let you get sick. Jesus can love you and
(09:02):
let you lose your job. Jesus can love you and
let you have problems in your relationship. Jesus can love
you and still things will happen to you. And just
because it happens to you doesn't mean that Jesus doesn't
love you because he loved Lazarus. But he didn't come
when Lazarus needed him. But he did come when Lazarus
(09:23):
needed him. Say, what are you talking about? The old
preacher said, this way he may not come when you
want him. You say, yeah, but he's always right on time. Yeah.
So here's what he's doing. Elder green, first of all,
let me let Vern help me. First of all, he
(09:43):
gives us a sovereign situation. He sets up a sovereign situation.
What's he doing in this sovereign situation? He's creating a
nobody can fix it but me situation. Yeah, because see,
if you can get yourself out of it, then you
may be tempted to give yourself the credit. Well, you know,
my ship just came in. Well, you know, it's all
(10:05):
who you know. Or, you know, I got it like that. No, no, no.
Sometimes he wants everybody to know that if Jesus didn't
do it, it wouldn't get done. And so you and
I must realize that sometimes the reason he hasn't come
to your problem yet is because it's not bad enough yet, right? Amen. Yeah,
(10:30):
a sovereign situation. See, God will allow some things to
die in your life so that the only help is
a resurrection. Ah, you remember the fishes and loaves? I've
taught you this so many times. Somebody ought to come
up here and preach it. The fishes and the loaves.
So he took a boy's happy meal. Lunch. And what
did he do? He fed 5000. Well, here. Remember? Remember,
(10:53):
here's the Greek. He says he took it and he
broke it. Now, anybody remember what tense it was? It
was what? Past tense. It's called aorist past tense. What
does that mean? He only broke it one time. But
then when it says he passed it out. It's a what?
A participle, what's a participle? I know we all went
to public school, but you ought to know what a
(11:14):
participle is. It's words that end in ING. So he
took it and broke it one time, but he kept
on passing it out. Wait a minute. He broke it
one time. Kept on passing. Where did the multiplication take place?
In his hands. See, see, that's the key. I gotta
move on, because I just want to bring everybody up
to where we are. But maybe your finances are dead
(11:36):
because they're in your hands and not in his hands.
Maybe your marriage is dead because it's in your hands
and not in his hands. Maybe the job situation is
tore up from the floor up because it's in your
hands and not in his hands. Maybe your children are
dead because they are in your hands and not. Maybe
the church is dead because it's in your hands. In
(12:01):
my hands. Instead of in his hands.
S2 (12:06):
I don't know how you can listen to that and
not want to just yield everything into his hands. I
know it is so tempting for us in our human nature,
in our fear, to want to hold on to everything
so tightly. But as we learn and begin to trust
more and more that he is sovereign, we can learn
to release those things completely into his hands. You're listening
(12:28):
to Treasure Truth with Pastor Ford. If you want to
listen to this broadcast again, come to our website. It's
Treasure Truth radio.org. But let's continue with the message again.
Here's Pastor Ford.
S1 (12:38):
But then there was purposeful procrastination. The text says that
Jesus waited for days. Uh, now why did he wait
for days? He's dead. He said we ain't going anywhere
yet because he ain't dead enough. What do you mean?
I thought dead is dead. No. The Jews believed that
it took four days for your spirit to leave your body.
And so Jesus wanted to make sure that they knew
(13:03):
he was dead. He was dead. And so purposeful. Procrastination.
Verse 11 says he delayed until he was dead. And
he said he told them. He said, now let's go
to Lazarus. He sleeps. And then they misunderstood him. Okay,
well then he can wake up. And Jesus said, no, no,
he's dead. Wait a minute. Jesus, why would you tell
(13:23):
them he's asleep and they don't understand it? It's a
euphemism for a Christian dying because we don't die. We
go to sleep. And anything, anybody that goes to sleep
has the anticipation of waking up. So Jesus would say
to them, look, look, I don't see situations the way
you see situations you see, you know, he's dead. I
(13:44):
know he's asleep. See, you can't do anything about the
state that he's in. But I am the resurrection and
the life. Yeah. Jesus doesn't look at things the way
we look at things, and sometimes he waits in his
purposeful procrastination. Help me preach this. Look at your neighbor
and say neighbor. Neighbor. How you see the problem is
(14:07):
the problem. Yeah. And so we're saying, why doesn't he
stop this? Why doesn't he step into this situation? Can
I tell you something? Lean up close. Let me whisper
it to you. God doesn't get glory out of what
never happens. Alright. Did you get that? Let me say
it again. God never gets glory out of what never happened. See,
(14:30):
if you never got sick, then you can never be healed.
And he never get the glory. If you never were broke.
You never get blessed. And he wouldn't get the glory
if you never had a problem. See, that's what the
songwriter said. If I never had a problem, I wouldn't
know that God could solve em. I wouldn't know what
faith in God could do. So through it all, through
(14:52):
it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned
to trust in God. I've learned to depend upon His word.
When our pain goes public, his praise does too. When
our pain goes public and we may come out battered
and we may come out beaten, and we may come
out bruised, but we come out better. Yeah. Amen. Mhm. Yeah.
(15:16):
And God gets the glory. We are able to say
no I didn't do it. Jesus did it. And people
begin to look at us and they begin to wonder
about our Jesus. And we say can't nobody do me
like Jesus. Can't nobody do me like the Lord. Pick
me up, turn me around, set my feet on solid ground. Oh, then.
(15:38):
But then there's the limited revelation. Mary and Martha, a
little teed off. Uh, they they a little miffed at Jesus.
You know, if you would have been here, our brother
would not have died. In other words, where was you?
You've been eating at our table. Come in. When you
come to Bethany, you come to our crib eating our chicken.
(16:00):
Drinking our Kool-Aid. Eating our greens and macaroni and cheese.
How come you didn't come? If you would have come,
he could have been healed. Limited revelation. That's right. Wait
a minute. Don't you understand who you're talking to? He said, listen,
your brother shall live again. She said, yeah, I know
(16:21):
the Bible says. He said, wait a minute. Let me
tell you something. I am the Bible. Now here's what
I like about her. Here's what I like about her.
She had great theology, she had great Christology, and she
had great eschatology. But her problem was she was lacking. Duology. Yeah, alright. Yeah, yeah,
a whole lot of us have the Bible, but the
(16:41):
Bible doesn't have us. We mark the Bible, but the
Bible doesn't mark us because we read it, but we
don't heed it, and it's limited revelation. And you only
get from God in proportion to who you know he is.
And so I gotta let your brother die so I
can increase your comprehension of who I am. Yeah. Yeah,
(17:02):
I'm going to I'm going to preach this thing. She says,
the Bible says. And let me quote Tony Evans. Jesus said,
I am the Bible. See, here's what's going on. Jesus
is trying to do it for them, not for you,
but for them. He's trying to turn their thoughts about
him into experiences with him. Yeah. So you don't have
(17:25):
to talk about the person in the pew in front
of you that was healed from cancer. You can you
can testify for yourself. You don't have to talk about
the person that was next to you that got delivered
from something you could tell them. God delivered me. I
had that experience. I know what he's able to do
because this is what he delivered me from. Uh, sister
was dying, and, uh, they sent the chaplain. They said
(17:48):
she's only got a couple hours. And so he came up,
and he just happened to be a Catholic priest. And
he said, I came to give you absolution. And she said,
what is that? He said, that is when I pray
for you before you die and your sins are forgiven.
She said, let me see your hands. He said, what?
She said, let me see your hands. And so he said, okay, well,
go ahead, look at my hands. And she looked at
(18:08):
his hands. She felt them all over and rubbed them
and everything. And then she said, no, thank you. He said,
what do you mean? She said, you can't pray for me.
But why can't I pray for you? Because you can't
forgive my sin. Wait a minute, I can I give absolution,
she said, you can't give me absolution. He said. Why?
She said, because there ain't no nail prints in your hand.
(18:29):
There ain't no nail prints in your hand. Yeah, see,
I know who he is. Yeah. And for all of eternity,
we everybody will recognize him because he's going to be
the only thing in heaven scarred. The only thing in
heaven with nail prints in his wrist and in his feet.
And a spear print in his side. Yeah. Here's the point.
(18:51):
If you're going to know Jesus in a deeper way,
then you have to go through deeper situations. Mm. Yeah.
I saw one of our former members here with us
today live in Detroit. I ain't going to call his
name Jerome Barker. I looked at him. I said, man,
you look good. You look like you looked when you
walked out of here. Except with the mustache. And he was.
(19:14):
He's buff, man. He's buff man. Just embarrassing his pastor.
I guarantee you he didn't get that from lifting £5. No,
but as he began to get buff. Or what are
they calling it now? Somebody. Somebody school me? What are
you calling it now? It used to be hunk. What
(19:36):
is it? Swole. Oh, that's what we used to say. Oh, okay. Yeah,
he had to put some more weight on there. Yeah.
And then after that got easy, he had to put
some more weight on there. But the more weighty, the
more weight he put on, the more swole. You understand
(19:56):
what I'm saying? If you want to grow, you know
what you're asking God to do? Put more weight on me.
Give me more difficult situations. Give me something I got
to wrestle with, struggle through and believe you and see
you manifest yourself in all of your glory. And so
then there was the divine declaration. I'm almost done with
(20:19):
my introduction. I'm almost done with my introduction. Y'all laughing.
This is my introduction. Then there was the divine declaration.
That was last year. We had the Divine Declaration. I
called it the greatest statement ever made. Why was it
the greatest statement? Pastor Ford, I'm glad you asked me.
You asked intelligent question because it was the greatest identification
(20:39):
I am is the greatest declaration, the resurrection and the life.
It was the greatest confirmation, though he were dead. Yet
shall he live? It's the greatest invitation. Believest thou this?
And it was the greatest application, she said, Lord, I believe.
Now let's finish this text up. And the good thing
about it is the body of my message is as
(21:00):
long as my introduction. Amen. I didn't I didn't say anything.
Anything about my conclusion. Uh, so now now we have
resurrection celebration. Let's walk through. Imma drop em, not push em,
as my friend Rommel would say. Resurrection. Celebration. Now we
come to the actual event where the power that Jesus shows.
(21:21):
I don't need to die to have resurrection power. I
am the resurrection and the life.
S2 (21:31):
You know, as you may have figured by now, there
is so much more to come in this message called
resurrection Power. You can't keep a good man down or
we're going to get to that on tomorrow's broadcast as
we continue treasure truth with Pastor Ford. If you know
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(21:53):
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(22:15):
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(22:36):
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(23:17):
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(23:39):
continue this message called Resurrection Power. You can't keep a
good man down. Treasure truth is a production of Moody Radio,
a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
He wants every body to know that if Jesus didn't
do it, it wouldn't get done. And so you and
I must realize that sometimes the reason he hasn't come
to your problem yet is because it's not bad enough yet.
S2 (00:25):
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford,
junior senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago.
I'm Steve Hillard. Glad you're with us. As today we're
beginning a message called Resurrection Power. You can't keep a
good man down. Certainly a fitting theme. Thinking of resurrection
power this week of Easter. But we're not actually going
(00:46):
to be looking only at the resurrection of Jesus. In
today's broadcast, we're also looking at Lazarus. Many of you
know the story of Jesus resurrecting Lazarus from the dead.
You're aware that Jesus did that. It was one of
his biggest miracles. But have you ever thought about why
Jesus waited as long as he did to do so?
(01:07):
I mean, Jesus knew that Lazarus was sick. He knew
that Lazarus was probably going to be dying days before
he ever went to him. But, you know, the Jews
believed that it took a number of days, four days, actually,
for the spirit to leave your body. And so Jesus
wanted to wait so that they knew for sure that
(01:27):
Lazarus was dead, so that when he did raise him,
that full resurrection power would be on display. There would
be no doubt that this was a miracle done by Jesus.
You know, sometimes God allows us to wait in our pain,
to wait in our struggle, to wait until we are
(01:48):
convinced that there is no way this is going to
work itself out in a good way, unless it's done
by Jesus. You know, I hope that as you think
about the story of Lazarus and the way that Jesus
waited to resurrect him gives you a little sense of peace,
knowing that sometimes God's waiting for us to come to
the end of our rope so that we know for
(02:09):
sure that that deliverance or that miracle was through him.
If you can join us in John chapter 11 as
we begin the message resurrection Power, here's Pastor Ford.
S1 (02:21):
It was pitch black. No moon. You could hardly see
your hand before your face. But even though he knew
it wasn't a wise decision, the man got off the
bus and decided he would cut through the cemetery because
he lived on the other side. He cut through the
(02:44):
cemetery even though he knew it was too dark to
be walking through that cemetery at night. As he's walking through,
he gets about halfway and he doesn't see the open
grave and falls in. He's struggling for about two hours
to try to get out. But he's hollering. Nobody's hearing him.
(03:04):
He can't even see anything in front of him, behind
him or over his head. So finally goes in the
corner of the grave and just sits down and says, well,
if I have to wait till daylight when the caretaker
comes in, I'll have to wait till daylight. I knew
I shouldn't have walked through here was pitch black. I
(03:25):
couldn't even see my hands before my face. He's sitting
in the corner for about a half hour, and all
of a sudden he hears another guy falls in and
doesn't know he's in there because he can't see him,
because you can't see your hand before your face is
so dark. He's struggling to get out. He's struggling. Finally,
(03:45):
the guy couldn't keep it any longer. He said, buddy,
you're never going to get out of this grave. But
he did. Oh, yeah. Some of you will get it
on the way home. Yeah, yeah he did. Today we
celebrate the fact that Jesus got up so we could
(04:09):
be fixed up, and after death, be woke up at
the rapture, be taken up. So we came here today
to lift him up. You ought to raise your hands up. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. Now,
that's not great theology, but that's great anthology. Hey, it
took me a little while to hook that one up. Yeah,
(04:29):
I did it in my study. I said we got
Jesus got up so we can be lifted up and
fixed up so we can be woke up and go up.
So we came here to lift him up. Hallelujah. He
is risen. Here's what the Bible says. Romans one four
proved to be the Son of God by the resurrection
(04:52):
from the dead with power. Yeah, yeah. He's saying it
was this power that raised him. Resurrection power. You know
what that means. Ask me. What does that mean? You
can't keep the God man down. No, no, because he's
going to get up. It's resurrection power. If anybody's in
here today and you've experienced Christ's resurrection power, you know
(05:17):
it was resurrection power that took that alcohol and reefer
out of your hand and put a Bible in it. Yeah,
it was resurrection power. It was resurrection power that took
you from the crack house and brought you to the
church house. It was resurrection power. I know you ain't
going to pray with me, but I'm going to preach
it anyway. It was the resurrection power that helped you
to understand that if your outgo exceeds your income, then
(05:41):
your upkeep will be your downfall. I ain't going to
get no help. Yeah. Preach. Pastor Ford, I'm doing the
best that I can. Yeah. You used to spread the gossip.
Gossip so much you told your own business. But resurrection power.
Now you mind your own business. And instead of sharing
the gossip, you're now spreading the gospel. It's resurrection power. Why?
(06:06):
Because you can't keep the God man down. Yes, it's
resurrection power that kept you from dressing like you're a
12 ounce Coke bottle when you know you're really a
two liter. Nah, I don't have anything wrong with the
two liter. I'm a two liter. Uh, no, I'm not
coming against two liters. I'm coming against two leaders who
(06:27):
are in the 12 ounce Coca-Cola stretch pants. Uh, yeah.
You're making them earn their name. Stretch pants? Yeah. And
some of them are begging. Please buy a dress. Yeah, yeah.
And it's resurrection power that you looked in the mirror
(06:48):
and said, nah, I got too much back here to
be talking about wearing some stretch pants. Preach, man. Y'all
don't like me this morning, do you? Yeah. it's resurrection power.
It's resurrection power that made you buy a belt, pull
up your pants and quit showing your drawers to everybody.
(07:11):
It was resurrection power. Yeah, that's what it was. It's
resurrection power. And what does it do? Resurrection power. Come here.
Come up close. Let me whisper. It is more intoxicating
than Henny and Courvoisier. And a credible Hulk. Say, what
do you know about an incredible Hulk? Somebody told me.
(07:34):
For those of you who are incredible Hulk challenged, that's
a drink. Hey, uh, who said I know? Yeah. And
it's because of resurrection power. Because what does it do?
It makes us Elder Estrada. It makes us live, right?
It makes us think right. It makes us walk right.
It makes us act right. It makes us better instead
(07:57):
of bitter. It makes us with a biblical Personality instead
of a toxic personality. Resurrection power helps us to live
like a cat in a bird house. We expect a
delicious outcome. And so here, this resurrection power, we finally.
Now we're getting ready to bring Lazarus out of the tomb, y'all.
(08:20):
And go ahead, tell me. Say, bring him out quick. Uh,
and so, uh, if you don't mind, there's some people
who weren't here last year. So what I'm going to
do is give you an understanding of the whole chapter
in a few minutes, and then we're going to talk
about Lazarus coming out of that tomb. I want you
to see what's going on in John 11. How many
of you are familiar with the story? How many of
(08:41):
you are familiar with the story? Okay, the rest of you,
here it is. Uh, Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick. Uh,
the sisters send and say, go tell Jesus Lazarus sick.
The one that you love is sick. Did you hear that?
The one that he loved is sick. You know what
that means? That means, then, that Jesus can love you
and let you get sick. Jesus can love you and
(09:02):
let you lose your job. Jesus can love you and
let you have problems in your relationship. Jesus can love
you and still things will happen to you. And just
because it happens to you doesn't mean that Jesus doesn't
love you because he loved Lazarus. But he didn't come
when Lazarus needed him. But he did come when Lazarus
(09:23):
needed him. Say, what are you talking about? The old
preacher said, this way he may not come when you
want him. You say, yeah, but he's always right on time. Yeah.
So here's what he's doing. Elder green, first of all,
let me let Vern help me. First of all, he
(09:43):
gives us a sovereign situation. He sets up a sovereign situation.
What's he doing in this sovereign situation? He's creating a
nobody can fix it but me situation. Yeah, because see,
if you can get yourself out of it, then you
may be tempted to give yourself the credit. Well, you know,
my ship just came in. Well, you know, it's all
(10:05):
who you know. Or, you know, I got it like that. No, no, no.
Sometimes he wants everybody to know that if Jesus didn't
do it, it wouldn't get done. And so you and
I must realize that sometimes the reason he hasn't come
to your problem yet is because it's not bad enough yet, right? Amen. Yeah,
(10:30):
a sovereign situation. See, God will allow some things to
die in your life so that the only help is
a resurrection. Ah, you remember the fishes and loaves? I've
taught you this so many times. Somebody ought to come
up here and preach it. The fishes and the loaves.
So he took a boy's happy meal. Lunch. And what
did he do? He fed 5000. Well, here. Remember? Remember,
(10:53):
here's the Greek. He says he took it and he
broke it. Now, anybody remember what tense it was? It
was what? Past tense. It's called aorist past tense. What
does that mean? He only broke it one time. But
then when it says he passed it out. It's a what?
A participle, what's a participle? I know we all went
to public school, but you ought to know what a
(11:14):
participle is. It's words that end in ING. So he
took it and broke it one time, but he kept
on passing it out. Wait a minute. He broke it
one time. Kept on passing. Where did the multiplication take place?
In his hands. See, see, that's the key. I gotta
move on, because I just want to bring everybody up
to where we are. But maybe your finances are dead
(11:36):
because they're in your hands and not in his hands.
Maybe your marriage is dead because it's in your hands
and not in his hands. Maybe the job situation is
tore up from the floor up because it's in your
hands and not in his hands. Maybe your children are
dead because they are in your hands and not. Maybe
the church is dead because it's in your hands. In
(12:01):
my hands. Instead of in his hands.
S2 (12:06):
I don't know how you can listen to that and
not want to just yield everything into his hands. I
know it is so tempting for us in our human nature,
in our fear, to want to hold on to everything
so tightly. But as we learn and begin to trust
more and more that he is sovereign, we can learn
to release those things completely into his hands. You're listening
(12:28):
to Treasure Truth with Pastor Ford. If you want to
listen to this broadcast again, come to our website. It's
Treasure Truth radio.org. But let's continue with the message again.
Here's Pastor Ford.
S1 (12:38):
But then there was purposeful procrastination. The text says that
Jesus waited for days. Uh, now why did he wait
for days? He's dead. He said we ain't going anywhere
yet because he ain't dead enough. What do you mean?
I thought dead is dead. No. The Jews believed that
it took four days for your spirit to leave your body.
And so Jesus wanted to make sure that they knew
(13:03):
he was dead. He was dead. And so purposeful. Procrastination.
Verse 11 says he delayed until he was dead. And
he said he told them. He said, now let's go
to Lazarus. He sleeps. And then they misunderstood him. Okay,
well then he can wake up. And Jesus said, no, no,
he's dead. Wait a minute. Jesus, why would you tell
(13:23):
them he's asleep and they don't understand it? It's a
euphemism for a Christian dying because we don't die. We
go to sleep. And anything, anybody that goes to sleep
has the anticipation of waking up. So Jesus would say
to them, look, look, I don't see situations the way
you see situations you see, you know, he's dead. I
(13:44):
know he's asleep. See, you can't do anything about the
state that he's in. But I am the resurrection and
the life. Yeah. Jesus doesn't look at things the way
we look at things, and sometimes he waits in his
purposeful procrastination. Help me preach this. Look at your neighbor
and say neighbor. Neighbor. How you see the problem is
(14:07):
the problem. Yeah. And so we're saying, why doesn't he
stop this? Why doesn't he step into this situation? Can
I tell you something? Lean up close. Let me whisper
it to you. God doesn't get glory out of what
never happens. Alright. Did you get that? Let me say
it again. God never gets glory out of what never happened. See,
(14:30):
if you never got sick, then you can never be healed.
And he never get the glory. If you never were broke.
You never get blessed. And he wouldn't get the glory
if you never had a problem. See, that's what the
songwriter said. If I never had a problem, I wouldn't
know that God could solve em. I wouldn't know what
faith in God could do. So through it all, through
(14:52):
it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned
to trust in God. I've learned to depend upon His word.
When our pain goes public, his praise does too. When
our pain goes public and we may come out battered
and we may come out beaten, and we may come
out bruised, but we come out better. Yeah. Amen. Mhm. Yeah.
(15:16):
And God gets the glory. We are able to say
no I didn't do it. Jesus did it. And people
begin to look at us and they begin to wonder
about our Jesus. And we say can't nobody do me
like Jesus. Can't nobody do me like the Lord. Pick
me up, turn me around, set my feet on solid ground. Oh, then.
(15:38):
But then there's the limited revelation. Mary and Martha, a
little teed off. Uh, they they a little miffed at Jesus.
You know, if you would have been here, our brother
would not have died. In other words, where was you?
You've been eating at our table. Come in. When you
come to Bethany, you come to our crib eating our chicken.
(16:00):
Drinking our Kool-Aid. Eating our greens and macaroni and cheese.
How come you didn't come? If you would have come,
he could have been healed. Limited revelation. That's right. Wait
a minute. Don't you understand who you're talking to? He said, listen,
your brother shall live again. She said, yeah, I know
(16:21):
the Bible says. He said, wait a minute. Let me
tell you something. I am the Bible. Now here's what
I like about her. Here's what I like about her.
She had great theology, she had great Christology, and she
had great eschatology. But her problem was she was lacking. Duology. Yeah, alright. Yeah, yeah,
a whole lot of us have the Bible, but the
(16:41):
Bible doesn't have us. We mark the Bible, but the
Bible doesn't mark us because we read it, but we
don't heed it, and it's limited revelation. And you only
get from God in proportion to who you know he is.
And so I gotta let your brother die so I
can increase your comprehension of who I am. Yeah. Yeah,
(17:02):
I'm going to I'm going to preach this thing. She says,
the Bible says. And let me quote Tony Evans. Jesus said,
I am the Bible. See, here's what's going on. Jesus
is trying to do it for them, not for you,
but for them. He's trying to turn their thoughts about
him into experiences with him. Yeah. So you don't have
(17:25):
to talk about the person in the pew in front
of you that was healed from cancer. You can you
can testify for yourself. You don't have to talk about
the person that was next to you that got delivered
from something you could tell them. God delivered me. I
had that experience. I know what he's able to do
because this is what he delivered me from. Uh, sister
was dying, and, uh, they sent the chaplain. They said
(17:48):
she's only got a couple hours. And so he came up,
and he just happened to be a Catholic priest. And
he said, I came to give you absolution. And she said,
what is that? He said, that is when I pray
for you before you die and your sins are forgiven.
She said, let me see your hands. He said, what?
She said, let me see your hands. And so he said, okay, well,
go ahead, look at my hands. And she looked at
(18:08):
his hands. She felt them all over and rubbed them
and everything. And then she said, no, thank you. He said,
what do you mean? She said, you can't pray for me.
But why can't I pray for you? Because you can't
forgive my sin. Wait a minute, I can I give absolution,
she said, you can't give me absolution. He said. Why?
She said, because there ain't no nail prints in your hand.
(18:29):
There ain't no nail prints in your hand. Yeah, see,
I know who he is. Yeah. And for all of eternity,
we everybody will recognize him because he's going to be
the only thing in heaven scarred. The only thing in
heaven with nail prints in his wrist and in his feet.
And a spear print in his side. Yeah. Here's the point.
(18:51):
If you're going to know Jesus in a deeper way,
then you have to go through deeper situations. Mm. Yeah.
I saw one of our former members here with us
today live in Detroit. I ain't going to call his
name Jerome Barker. I looked at him. I said, man,
you look good. You look like you looked when you
walked out of here. Except with the mustache. And he was.
(19:14):
He's buff, man. He's buff man. Just embarrassing his pastor.
I guarantee you he didn't get that from lifting £5. No,
but as he began to get buff. Or what are
they calling it now? Somebody. Somebody school me? What are
you calling it now? It used to be hunk. What
(19:36):
is it? Swole. Oh, that's what we used to say. Oh, okay. Yeah,
he had to put some more weight on there. Yeah.
And then after that got easy, he had to put
some more weight on there. But the more weighty, the
more weight he put on, the more swole. You understand
(19:56):
what I'm saying? If you want to grow, you know
what you're asking God to do? Put more weight on me.
Give me more difficult situations. Give me something I got
to wrestle with, struggle through and believe you and see
you manifest yourself in all of your glory. And so
then there was the divine declaration. I'm almost done with
(20:19):
my introduction. I'm almost done with my introduction. Y'all laughing.
This is my introduction. Then there was the divine declaration.
That was last year. We had the Divine Declaration. I
called it the greatest statement ever made. Why was it
the greatest statement? Pastor Ford, I'm glad you asked me.
You asked intelligent question because it was the greatest identification
(20:39):
I am is the greatest declaration, the resurrection and the life.
It was the greatest confirmation, though he were dead. Yet
shall he live? It's the greatest invitation. Believest thou this?
And it was the greatest application, she said, Lord, I believe.
Now let's finish this text up. And the good thing
about it is the body of my message is as
(21:00):
long as my introduction. Amen. I didn't I didn't say anything.
Anything about my conclusion. Uh, so now now we have
resurrection celebration. Let's walk through. Imma drop em, not push em,
as my friend Rommel would say. Resurrection. Celebration. Now we
come to the actual event where the power that Jesus shows.
(21:21):
I don't need to die to have resurrection power. I
am the resurrection and the life.
S2 (21:31):
You know, as you may have figured by now, there
is so much more to come in this message called
resurrection Power. You can't keep a good man down or
we're going to get to that on tomorrow's broadcast as
we continue treasure truth with Pastor Ford. If you know
you can't be listening to your radio, you don't have
to miss out. You can listen to each and every
broadcast online by coming to Treasure Truth radio.org. Or you
(21:53):
can always sign up to begin the podcast. Again, you
can do that at Treasure Truth Radio. Org. Well, I
want to remind you just briefly that this is a
listener supported ministry. You're hearing and being encouraged by Pastor
Ford's teaching because of the generosity of someone else, someone
who had the foresight to give so that treasured truth
could be on the air. Maybe today's the day that
(22:15):
you'll step forward and give your support. Either with a
single gift or by joining our growing family of monthly partners.
Now to give by phone, call us at 888644 7660
or go online to Treasure Truth radio.org. And as a
thanks for your gift of any amount, we're going to
send you a book by John MacArthur called Why Believe
(22:36):
the Bible? You know, God's Word is under attack in
our culture. And many Christians find themselves unequipped to respond.
Why believe? The Bible provides easy to understand answers to
some of the most difficult questions about the Scripture. And
shows you how to get the most from your reading request.
Why believe the Bible when you give a gift of
(22:56):
any amount? Call us at 88, 644 7660 or come
to our website treasure. Truth. Radio.com. You can also write
and send a check in the mail. Our address is
treasure truth. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten
and as I mentioned a few moments ago, you can
(23:17):
also give your gift monthly. Become a monthly partner by
giving a gift of $30 or more through auto gift,
and receive a special 50% discount to Moody Publishers. Learn
more when you come to the website treasure. Org or
call us at 888644 7660. Well, I'm Steve Hiller, our
producer is Amy Rios. Join us again Thursday as we
(23:39):
continue this message called Resurrection Power. You can't keep a
good man down. Treasure truth is a production of Moody Radio,
a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
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