Resurrection (John 11)

On this Resurrection Day, we want to meditate on the Christ of the Resurrection; we want to meditate on the fact that you and I can live in that triumph of the Resurrection. And here we see the Lord, beforehand, giving indications of what his Resurrection would mean and the positive implications it would have in the lives of all Christ’s followers.

John XI: Let us read a few verses, and then we will enter more fully into the account. Verse 1 says: Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, saying, “Lord, behold, the one you love is sick.”

When Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. “So when he heard that he was sick, he remained two more days in the place where he was. Then, after this, he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?’” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? Whoever walks during the day does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But whoever walks at night stumbles, because there is no light in him.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I am going to awaken him.” Then his disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will recover!”

But Jesus was speaking of Lazarus’s death, while they thought he was speaking of resting in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Then Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with him.”

May the Lord bless his holy Word.

On this Resurrection Day, it is good to meditate on the Resurrection not as a merely historical event that we celebrate as something that happened two thousand years ago—as though it happened and has no relevance or continuing significance for our lives—but rather to remember the Resurrection as something that happened to Christ and that has happened to us as well, something that also has implications for our own lives. And that is the wonderful thing about the Resurrection, just as it is about the birth of Jesus. These are not things that simply happened in history in some objective and distant way; rather, they happened to humanity.

I very much like what the prophet Isaiah says when he speaks prophetically about the birth of the Messiah: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.”

When Christ was born, it was like the birth of a child into a family; it was a cause for celebration, joy, and delight. That Son was given to humanity. We might say that today a Christ has been raised for us. When Christ rose, he unleashed fire. It was an explosion more powerful than an atomic bomb. The world would never be the same again; the universe and its foundations were shaken. The very fabric of reality was changed because death, humanity’s most terrible enemy, had lost its grip on mankind.

We hear the triumphant words of the apostle Paul when he says, “Where, O death, is your sting? Where, O grave, is your victory? Death is swallowed up in victory.”

When Christ rose, death’s claws were removed and its venom was taken away, and now death is like a toothless tiger: it may roar, but it cannot bite. For in Christ Jesus all things are different, and today, brothers and sisters, in the twenty-first century, we can live in the power of the Resurrection. We can live now in a new and different way because Christ has changed everything. And that is what we read in First Corinthians, chapter 15, when it says:

“But now Christ has risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who slept, for since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man.”

If Christ had not risen, brothers and sisters, today we would be the most pitiable of all. But because Christ has risen, his Resurrection has many implications. And one of them is the fact that we have the expectation of eternal life and of our own resurrection.

The Resurrection also speaks to us of triumph; it speaks to us of victory over adversity, of healing, of power amid struggles, and of counsel when we are in difficulty, because all of that is the result of the Resurrection. The Resurrection was simply a symbol that everything negative, summed up in the image of death, had now been subjected to the benevolent will of the Father. And here we see that in this drama involving Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. We see something of how Christ, who is the resurrection and the life, as he later calls himself, has the power to enter the human realm and, on a human scale, intervene in our own deaths and in our own situations.

The account here in chapter XI begins by declaring that there is a serious problem in a family. Martha and Mary send a message to Jesus. Their beloved brother, whom he knows, lies on his deathbed. He is extremely ill. There is a crisis in the home, and they send a message to the Lord. They tell him, “Lord, Lazarus, our brother, is sick. See whether you can do something, whether you can come, see him, and touch him so that he may be healed.”

And that reminds me how important it is that, amid life’s needs, when things get tight, we turn to the Lord. Thank God that Martha and Mary knew where they had to go. When you have a need in your life, when you have some problem, go to Jesus first. Sometimes we do the opposite: we go to the financial adviser, we go to the doctor, we go to the psychiatrist, we go to the neighbor, we complain to a relative, and then, after we have tried every alternative, we go to Christ. We must go to Christ first; we must go to him in our time of need. We must learn to seek him.

Let us not be like the woman with the issue of blood. She lived with her problem for twelve years, and the only thing she accomplished was losing all her money to bad doctors. Then, at last, she was able to gain access; she heard about someone who healed differently, and so she made a great effort, reached Christ, touched the edge of his garment, and was healed. When Christ does things, he does them as no man can.

May the Lord grant that, if you are here today and do not know how to reach Jesus, today may be the day when you establish a telephone connection with Christ Jesus, when you learn to make him your first resource and your last resource as well.

That does not mean we should not go to the doctor, that we should not go to human resources, or that we should not do our part. It means that our efforts must always be grounded in the person of Jesus. It means that everything we do and undertake must first be sanctified by committing ourselves to it in the name of Christ. That is the first thing a Christian must do.

And that is what Martha and Mary did. Martha and Mary teach us the power of prayer, the power of the intercession they sent so that Christ would heal their brother. As a Christian, as a child of God, you have a great resource at your disposal called intercession. If there is someone in your family, if there is a child with problems, if there is a husband who has grown hard, if there is a situation at work, if you know someone who is lonely or depressed, send Christ a message: Lord, this person needs you; touch, heal, bless. You have that power in your hands, brother; prayer is powerful.

You can pray for yourself as well. You can use prayer. You do not need a theology degree to pray. The only thing you need is communication with God through Jesus Christ.

And if you have not taken that step of faith this morning, I tell you: prepare your heart so that you may turn to the Lord in times of difficulty, because, after all, what is needed is a prior relationship with Christ.

Martha and Mary were able to come and send for help for their brother because Christ had been in their home before. The Bible tells us that from time to time the Lord would go and stay at the home of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. They had spent time with the Lord; they knew this wonderful being, they knew of his healing power, they knew of his divine nature, and they had had him near.

We remember that passage telling us how Martha, in a domestic scene, approaches Jesus, who is there visiting them, and complains to him that Mary has left her alone and that she has to prepare the food and attend to the disciples. And the Lord says to her in a very gentle voice, “Martha, Mary has chosen the better part, and I am not going to take it away from her. What you need to do is lighten your load a little more and seek me, because that is where the solution lies.” Martha was the anxious one, the one who always had to have everything in order and then, if there was time left, go to Jesus. Jesus must be put first.

And that scene in the home reminds us that Martha, Mary, and Lazarus had an intimate relationship with Christ. He felt comfortable giving them a little scolding, and they felt comfortable expressing their needs to the Lord; and he gave them advice and wisdom for their situations, as he was teaching Mary in this scene.

When the time of trial and need came, they knew exactly what they had to do. They felt completely free to send word, saying, “Lord, please attend to us. You know us. That Lazarus whom you love, the one you know, the one with whom you spent time in our home, now needs your touch.”

How good it is, brothers and sisters, when, during the normal, everyday course of life, we set aside moments to be with Jesus and to develop a personal relationship with Christ. Why? Because when the time of trial comes and bullets are whistling over our heads, we instinctively know that we can go to him and that we will receive help in our time of need. But how many people, because they do not have that relationship of prayer, that dialogue and intimacy with Christ, feel when the time of trial comes that they do not have the authority to come before the Lord. We feel like Adam and Eve, wanting to hide from the Lord; we feel that we are far from the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, the time to have intimacy with Christ is when everything is going well, not when things are going badly for you. Because when everything is going well, that is the opportunity to develop a good relationship, so that when times of crisis come, you can go before the Lord.

It is like marriage: if we wait until crises come before trying to talk, get to know one another, and solve problems, that is not the right time. Tempers are too heated, there is too much tension in the air, and we will not be able to talk as we should. That is why couples must make time to get to know each other first, during the times when everything is going well. To spend time together hygienically, to relate to one another. And I say “hygienically” in the sense that it must be done as a continual routine. Build the foundations of good communication; build the foundations of a good relationship, so that when trials, difficulties, and tensions come, there will be a whole reserve of love, friendship, and sincerity, and then that is what can sustain us on the evil day. And the same is true of friendships and everything else. And that is how it must be with God as well.

Do not wait until a time of need to seek Christ. Cultivate a relationship with God every day of your life. Learn to speak with him; develop intimacy with him. Learn to recognize his voice. Because when pressure comes and the ravenous wolf is roaring all around you, you will need a finely tuned ear to distinguish the voice of the Shepherd who wants to guide you onto the right path.

I remember a passage in the book of Ecclesiastes where, at the end of his great account, the writer Solomon says, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, concerning which you say, ‘I have no pleasure in them.’”

Young person, that is what the Word is saying there. Seek the Lord in the time of your greatest strength and your best condition, when you have energy and things are going well for you, when your body is still strong and you have the enthusiasm of life and youth, and you have not yet received the blows that those of us who are a little farther along in life have already received. And in that time, think of the Lord. Because days will come when your stomach will not work so well and your joints will not be so agile, when you will not be able to move so easily or climb the stairs so quickly, when you will not have the spirit and strength you had at twenty or twenty-five, when your vision will already be growing dim, and when you will no longer know how many pills you are taking, or even their names, because there are so many.

This is what the writer of Ecclesiastes says: “before the days come of which you say, ‘I have no pleasure in them.’” And they remind you of those days when you could eat a plate of food at 12 o’clock at night and lie down to sleep soundly without any problem, but now, if you eat at 7 in the evening, you spend the whole night wide awake because it is not the same. “Of which you say, ‘I have no pleasure in them.’” Now, if you have a little clear soup, that is already a major event. And the writer says, “before the days come.” Seek the Lord in times of normality; come to church—and this is not an unpaid advertisement for the Lion of Judah Foundation. Seek the Lord on Wednesdays; seek the Lord on Sundays, when everything is going well. The bills are paid, your wife is happy, the children are behaving well, nothing in the house is falling apart. Then come to the house of God and cultivate your relationship with the Lord. Speak to the Lord and let Him speak to you; when the days of trial come, you will know where to go, like Martha and Mary.

And then you will be able to come with confidence, as the Word says: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace.”

But they had a prior relationship with the Lord, and they said to Him, “Lord, the one You love is sick.” And when Jesus heard it, He said: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Here a very interesting process begins, in which it is as though the Lord is hearing music very different from what the other people involved in this account are hearing. The Lord has a different perspective, and He is interpreting the crisis very differently from the way the disciples, Martha, Mary, and the other people involved in this drama interpret it.

The Lord is seeing things from a divine perspective, while these people are living through a drama and playing it in a minor key, whereas the Lord is playing it in a major key, with great triumph, great joy, and a positive interpretation of what is happening. They are frightened and sad, they are in a hurry, and there is an urgency for the Lord to come and arrive quickly, while the Lord is very calm there, seeing things in a different way.

The first thing He says is, “You know what, boys? This sickness is not unto death; do not worry, but rather for the glory of God.”

The Lord understands, brothers and sisters, that there is something in this sickness and death of Lazarus that goes beyond the merely human and that has to happen so that God may be glorified.

Do you know that many of your problems, the struggles you have in life, neither end nor begin with you? They have a meaning beyond you. Many times, God is allowing many things in your life so that He may glorify Himself through you, so that He may strengthen your life. Sometimes the Lord strikes us with a chisel in order to form His image better within us. Many times, life’s trials are the blows of the divine Sculptor, removing from us something that conceals the image He wants to bring forth from that hard block of stone before Him. And each one of us is like a block of marble that has no shape when we are born. Or, when we are without Christ, it has a shape that is not right; and when you enter the ways of the Lord, He says: I am going to take that block and begin striking it with a chisel to give it the form and image I want to impart to it.

And I imagine, brothers and sisters, that if marble could feel as we feel, it would say, “Ouch!” every time the Lord strikes it with the chisel. Many times, God will use the trials of life, the difficulties of life, to glorify Himself, but also to bless you, to bring something out of you—a spark of greatness.

I can tell you with complete certainty that the crises of my life have always been the prelude to times of blessing and growth. I have already learned not to question too much, because sometimes I do question. But when I find myself questioning something that is happening in my life and questioning the Lord, I restrain myself and walk away. I take two aspirins and say, Lord, give me patience to wait until You show me what You are trying to bring out of me. Because God sees things differently. God is always looking and asking, What can I do to bless My child?

Sometimes, brothers and sisters, the times of greatest trial will be the times of the greatest presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. God will be right there beside you, supporting and encouraging you. After all, the Holy Spirit is called the Comforter, the Paraclete. And as for the translation of the word “Comforter,” I have not liked it very much, although I am not an expert in the Greek language. But I believe that the Holy Spirit should be called the “Encourager,” because that is the idea in the original Greek. The paraclete was a figure who, during rowing-boat races in the Greco-Roman world—the paraclete, a term later applied to the Holy Spirit—was the one who encouraged the rowers. In the marathons of Greece, they were also the ones who encouraged the runners so that they would reach the finish line.

And when you are going through trials, and the Lord is fulfilling His purpose through you and seeking to glorify Himself through you, the Holy Spirit is there saying: “Keep going, keep going, until you reach the finish line! For I am with you, because I will neither leave you nor forsake you. I will be with you until the end.”

The Lord said: “This sickness is for the glory of God.” And the Lord knew that this man, whom He loved, was capable of going through that trial, and He allowed Himself the luxury of using him as an illustration of His resurrection power.

The closer you are to Jesus, the more struggles and trials you will have. And I am not telling you this so that you will say, “Well, then I’m going to stay well outside.” There are many who say that.

Many times, the more purposes God sees in your life, the more He will want to draw you close to Himself, and therefore He will have to remove some of the thorns and imperfections that create distance between you and Him. And in order to attach you to His body and His being, He will have to clean you up a little. And it will hurt when He does that, but that will be the sign of His preference for you.

I often see that when people go through their struggles and trials, they cling to the Lord and later emerge purified. They come out as one does from a sauna, sweating out all the impurities, after which the skin is much brighter because those toxins are gone. That is how it is; it is the joy, it is the Lord’s rough soap for blessing us.

Christ wanted to be blessed through Lazarus. Christ wanted Lazarus to give Him a gift of glory so that people would see that He was the Son of God, that He was above sickness and above death.

And that is why verse 5 says: “Now Jesus loved Mary, her sister, and Lazarus. And therefore,” it continues, “from the moment He learned that Lazarus was sick, He immediately hurried to go and heal Lazarus.”

“So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.” He told the disciples, “Boys, reserve the hotel for a few more days because we are going to stay here a few more days; we are going to extend our vacation because Lazarus is sick.”

Perhaps it makes no sense to us, but that is what the Lord did. And there are many cases like this in Scripture: when a situation is already bad in itself, the Lord makes it even worse before intervening. There is a great lesson there, and it is that before things get better, they have to get worse—and that is not good news for those of us who are going through trials. But sometimes, for the things God wants, in order to set up His entire theatrical scaffolding, He has to wait for the drama to become a little more complex, and then He causes the disadvantages to grow and the possibilities to become more remote so that He may display His glory, show us His power, and bring us out with greater triumph than ever.

Do you remember the story of Gideon? There were tens upon tens of thousands of Old Testament Philistines against Gideon and his people. Gideon had only thirty thousand men, while they had many more men, so it was already a disadvantageous situation in itself. But the Lord said to Gideon: “That is too many people. Even with that disadvantage, it is not what I want. Tell everyone who is afraid, who for whatever reason does not want to go to war, to go home; there is no dishonor in leaving.” He gives them an honorable discharge: let them go. Twenty-seven thousand left immediately, in a single instant; about 90 percent of the people left Gideon.

About three thousand brave men remained and said: “We will go fight.” And Gideon says to the Lord: “Only three thousand remain; You are going to have to perform an immense miracle.” Then the Lord says to him, “There are still too many. Take them to the river, test them, have them drink water, and I will tell you which ones you will keep and which ones you will send back home.”

Of those three thousand men, Gideon was left with three hundred against an army of tens of thousands. And with three hundred brave men, the Lord gave Gideon the victory. Why? Because the problems in our lives may seem great and impossible to us, but to the Lord they are easy things; nothing is difficult for the Lord. For the Lord, nothing is too late or too early. The Lord knows no distinctions of size or seriousness. For the Lord, everything is Yes and Amen. Here on earth, we look at things and become confused and frightened and tremble, but the Lord is there laughing upon His throne, certain that everything will happen in its proper time, everything at its proper moment; He knows what He has to do.

The Lord waited for Lazarus to die; the Lord waited until Lazarus was well and truly dead before then going to Judea to come to his aid. And once the Lord knows that Lazarus is dead, He says: “Let us go to Judea again now,” to which the disciples responded, “Rabbi, a short while ago the Jews were trying to stone You, and are You going there again?” Once again, we see the divine perspective and the human perspective.

The Lord says: “Let us go to Judea; do not worry. Lazarus needs us. Now is the time to intervene on his behalf.” And what are His disciples thinking? They are thinking that a short while ago they wanted to stone Jesus and that if they go now, His life will be in danger.

How many times, when God wants to do things in our lives, do we look at the difficulties and dangers and fail to look at the Christ who is more than powerful enough to resolve any situation, any need?

And the Lord Jesus Christ says to them: “Are there not 12 hours in the day—that is, is there not enough light in the day for us to move about safely?” 11:35

People who walk in darkness are afraid, but those who walk in the light can do whatever they please. This is the idea behind this mysterious expression: “Are there not 12 hours in the day?” For the one who walks by day does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world; but the one who walks by night stumbles, because there is no light in him.

There is a difference in vision and conviction. The Lord is sure of Himself; the disciples are afraid. Many times, the Lord wants to do powerful things in our lives, but our fearful perspective, our pessimistic perspective, prevents God from doing the things He wants to do.

Brothers and sisters, may the Lord God transform our perspective. If you have a negative perspective on life, if you always see the glass as half empty instead of half full, I want to invite you this morning to begin looking at life through the eyes of Jesus. The Lord Jesus is not frightened by anything. For Him, there is no problem that cannot be solved.

Brother, ask the Lord to renew your vision and put courage in your heart. No matter how great the giant before you may be, may you say, like David, “In the name of the Lord, I am going to cut off your head and feed your flesh to the birds of prey, because God is with you.” When you have a great problem in life, when there is something great before you, undertake it in the name of the Lord.

Ask the Lord to change your negative perspective, to change your defeatist perspective, and dare to undertake great things in the name of Jesus Christ. Dare, when life’s problems come, to let your faith grow even more and say that God is more powerful and able to bring you through.

And the Lord said: “No, let us go there. It does not matter that there are people who want to stone us. Let us go because our brother, our friend, needs us.” And then the Lord tells us: “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I am going to awaken him,” to which His disciples responded, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will recover.” But Jesus was speaking about Lazarus’s death, while they thought He was speaking about resting in sleep.

Here again is the difference in perspective. To the Lord, Lazarus’s death is simply a light sleep, and they cannot understand that the Lord sees it that way, so they interpret it literally. They say, how good, because if he is sleeping, he is resting, and that means he will recover. But the Lord was saying this about Lazarus’s death. Another difference in perspective.

To the Lord, death had no significance. To the Christ of the Resurrection, death was simply a sleep, a prelude to something glorious that He had in mind for Lazarus. To the disciples, death was something final, terminal. If Lazarus died, there was no hope. To the Lord, it was simply something slight.

Brothers and sisters, this is how death should be for every one of us who are in Christ Jesus. In Christ there is no death; in Christ there is only life. He says, “I alone am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he be dead, shall live.”

Therefore, if you are afraid of death, you need to fill your gaze and your heart with the courage that Christ inspires. As Christians, we must do everything possible never to fear death. Let us ask the Lord to give us spiritual strength, to anoint us with his Spirit so that we will not fear death.

If you are in Christ, death, in a sense, does not exist for you. Death is merely a threshold through which you pass to enter a new and more perfect life with God. In Christ Jesus, death no longer has any relevance for you; everything is hope. The Christian is not afraid of death. For the Christian, death is a light sleep from which we awaken in an instant in Christ Jesus.

We have to ask the Lord, “Father, help us to see death as you see it.” The apostle Paul, in a dungeon and facing the possibility of dying and never leaving that place again, wrote one of the most glorious letters, the “Letter to the Philippians,” which has been called the Letter of Joy because Paul had been in heaven and had seen the glories of heaven. He says that he was taken up to the seventh heaven and that there he saw and heard things that he was not even permitted to share with the men and women of this world. And when Paul returned to this world in spirit, he remembered those marvelous places he had visited in his ecstasy. That is why Paul writes in Philippians, “If I die, I go to be with Christ. And to be with Christ is far better and is what I truly desire. But if I have to remain here in the world in order to be a blessing so that others may come to know Christ, I will remain; but I would rather be with him, because when I am with him, I am far better off.”

Many times it is different for us: we want to prolong every minute here on earth; even though we are worn out and nearly dead, we want to cling to life as we understand it. But the Christian changes his perspective. For the Christian, life here on earth is something illusory, something fleeting. We know that in Christ we have the hope of a much better life. So we are not afraid of death. For us, death is as Christ sees it: something simple, something fleeting, something that can be resolved.

And when Christ approaches Martha, she says to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” And the Lord says to her, “Do not worry, Martha. If you believe, your brother will live. Am I not the resurrection and the life? Whoever believes in me will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

Once again, Martha’s perspective is limited. She thinks, “If Christ had arrived here before my brother died, then there would have been hope. Now the only thing I can hope for is that my brother will rise on the last day.” But the Lord had plans for Lazarus now, at that very moment. Sometimes, because of our lack of faith, we diminish the magnitude of the miracles the Lord wants to perform in us. The Lord wants us to expect great things that the Lord wants to do.

The Lord says, “If you are in me, I am the resurrection, I am the life.” He is resurrection itself. In the original Greek it says, “Ego eimi,” that is, I myself am the resurrection and the life. If you have Christ, you have resurrection; you have eternal life. Death is swallowed up in victory.

And just as the Lord can raise you from the dead, he can resolve any situation in which you may find yourself. If he conquered death, he can overcome any problem, any obstacle. Nothing is impossible for the Lord. God can resolve your problem here and now, at this very moment. God can do his work in your life. You only need to have a personal relationship with Jesus, to know Jesus as Martha knew him, as Mary knew him.

Do you know Christ in that way? Can you, in your difficult situation, come before the Lord and say to him, “Father, I have a need; answer me. I have a problem; you are my solution”? Do you know him as the resurrection and the life?

Let us bow our heads now. On this Resurrection Sunday, I want you to visualize the risen Christ, to visualize the one who triumphed over death, who triumphed over the cross, who triumphed over the mockery, who triumphed over the lashings, who triumphed over the agony of Gethsemane. The one whom the bonds of death could not hold, the one whose departure not even the stone covering the tomb could prevent. When the disciples arrived frightened because they did not know who would remove the stone, the stone had already been removed, and an angel had sat down on top of it.

There is no problem in your life that Christ cannot resolve. There is no form of death whatsoever—illness, material need, a family problem, depression, anxiety, fear of any kind—there is no situation that Christ cannot resolve. That is the essence of the message.

Christ wants to teach you that life must be seen through his eyes, through his powerful and victorious gaze. Do not look at it through the eyes of reason or through human circumstances. Fill yourself with the Christian’s faith and courage, and no matter how many problems you are going through right now or how great your difficulty may be, say, “In Christ I am more than a conqueror. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Fill yourself with that courage. Live life with confidence, because the Christ who raised Lazarus and heard the plea of Martha and Mary is also here with you, and he is the same one who is willing to intervene in your difficulty and your problem.

Christ wants to intervene in your life, and this afternoon he says to you, “I am with you every day, not only on Resurrection Sunday. I want to be with you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and I want you to be with me, to seek me every day, to know me, to learn to recognize my voice, and to learn to function according to the patterns I have established in my Word, so that when the trial comes, you will know where to go. Do not be afraid, because I am with you. I will neither leave you nor forsake you, even though you walk through valleys of shadow and death. You will fear no evil. I will not forsake you, because I am with you. My rod and my staff will comfort you, and I will prepare a table before you in the presence of those who distress you.”

That is the Christ being proclaimed today. We are not celebrating a Christ who is still hanging on a cross as a sacred memorial. We are celebrating a living Christ who intervenes in our daily experiences. And that is the Christ I want you to know this afternoon, so that before you leave here, you may go having placed your hand in the Lord’s hand. May you be able to say, as that chorus says, “I have my hand in the hand of the Lord.” So this afternoon I want to invite you to take a step of faith, if you have not yet done so.

I want to invite you—the young person visiting us, the adult, the father, the wife who is with us this afternoon—if you have not yet taken that step of faith, if you have not placed that hand in the Lord’s hand, I would like to challenge you to take that step of faith and say to the Lord, “Lord Jesus Christ, I want to know you, and today I want to surrender my life to you. In your name, I dare to take a step of faith and place my hand in your hand.”

If you would like to do that this afternoon, I ask you to raise your hand. Wherever you are, raise your hand and invite Jesus to enter your heart. Is there anyone who will say to the Lord Jesus this afternoon, “Jesus Christ, I invite you to enter my heart”?

I would like to see your hand raised at this moment. I will begin with this little girl. Glory to God, because we cannot underestimate children. Amen. This man is raising his hand over there as well. God bless you, brother. Who else wants to offer their life to the Lord this afternoon? There are hands over here and over there as well. Glory to God. Do not be afraid; invite Christ to enter your heart.

I ask those who raised their hands to come here to the front, accompanied by someone who knows them or who is simply sitting beside them. Come up here, because we want to pray for you this afternoon; we want to place you in the Lord’s hands. We are going to pray for you. Do not be afraid. This is the time, this is the moment. The Lord of the Resurrection wants to enter into a relationship with you, so that when you have needs, you will know where to go. So that when the time of trial comes, you will not have to be afraid, but will know that your Christ is powerful enough to meet your needs. Do not hesitate, because this is the time of the Lord’s visitation in your life. The Lord is calling and knocking. Come up here; come and surrender your life to the Lord. The best time to seek Christ is now; do not put it off until tomorrow. Tomorrow, as the Word says, may be too late.

I want to pray for you, and I want to make sure that you leave today having established a connection with the Kingdom of Heaven through Christ Jesus. Come up here. I want to bless you and pray for you. Hallelujah. The Lord is almighty and able to answer your needs.

I feel that there are people here today who come from families where the gospel has not yet entered, and God wants to use you to open a breach in your family. I would like to see some of those people come up here to the front. People who feel that they are too far away to take that step and still think they have to straighten out many things before they can come here to the altar. This is the time. Do not try to straighten things out. Let the Lord straighten them out for you. If you have hindrances, if you have struggles, if there are sins in your life, that makes you an ideal candidate to come to the feet of Jesus Christ. Do not be afraid! Some say, “If I do it now, I am making a commitment, and what happens if I later fall away?” And they make a mountain of problems for themselves. Leave the problems to the Lord. If you fall away, he is powerful enough to draw you back again.

But that first confrontation must take place; the foundations of your spirit must be shaken, and there must be a powerful confrontation with evil and with your spirit. Let those bonds be broken, and let blessing enter your home; let blessing enter your life. Oh, if only you knew how earnestly the Lord says to you, “Come to me.”

The Lord says to you, “Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He gave Martha rest, he gave Mary rest, he gave Lazarus rest from the weight of death.

The Lord can give you rest from your problems on this day. Come to the altar. Come to Christ. Come to Christ; this is the moment. He wants intimacy with you. I want to pray for you. I want you to leave blessed, to take the Bible with you so that you can read the Word, to take with you the connection to the Father so that you can call him on the telephone as many times as you need and say to him, “Lord, I have an emergency,” because you have established a relationship with him.

I rejoice to see these young couples, these mothers with little children. How wonderful! Because they are beginning their marriage, beginning their family life, with the tools they need for a victorious life. The Lord is going to begin that work of purification along your path. He is going to begin clearing away the difficulties and leveling the road of your life, opening the way so that you can flow and walk freely and without obstruction.

Therefore, come to the altar and let Christ bless you on this day. “Hallelujah.” In the name of the Lord, we remove every bondage from the minds of those whom the Lord wants to save, and we declare freedom so that they may come to God’s altar and receive the blessing God wants to give them.

This is the moment for you to take that step of faith and let God do his work in your life. I know that God is going to do something special in your life this afternoon. God is going to bless you. God is going to free you from the bonds that beset you.

Glory in the name of the Lord. Thank you, Father, thank you. Let all the brothers and sisters have someone praying there with them. Father, we bless your name. Thank you, thank you, Lord Jesus.

I want you to say this prayer with me. It is a prayer of confession. Confessions have great power in the spiritual world. When you verbally confess Christ, the demons tremble, the demons flee, and bonds are broken. Covenants are established through the mouth. And when you confess Jesus with your mouth, the Word says that if we confess with our mouth that he is Lord, that he has risen from among all the dead, we are saved.

I want you to repeat these words with me: “Lord Jesus, I receive you as my Savior. I acknowledge my sins and come before you to receive forgiveness. You died on the cross for me, and today I receive the benefit of that cross. I break every relationship with Satan and his powers, and I join the Kingdom of Heaven; I become a member of the Kingdom of Heaven. Enter my heart, Lord, and establish your throne within me. I declare myself free from every curse and every sin through the blood of Jesus. I will serve you all the days of my life, and with you I will overcome every difficult situation. Thank you, Christ, because in you I receive victory today. Amen. Amen. Glory to the Lord. Hallelujah. Glory to Christ.”

Today Christ truly rises in your life. Today Christ has truly risen. Hallelujah! Glory in the name of the Lord. Praised be the name of Jesus. Keep seeking the Lord; open the door. Glory to the Lord!