Between Two Passovers | Bro. Alex Mason

Do you know it to be true? Constant in season and out of

season. He never changes.

He never fails. There may be times in my

humanity that I may fail him, but I know one thing is for

certain. He is never going to fail me, I

tell you. When I when I hear that song, I

am reminded, I'm reminded that in the times in which I have

fallen short, I never have to wonder whether or not He did

because He is always constant. Amen.

Amen. The Lord is good tonight.

Thank you so much for the faithfulness to the House of the

Lord tonight. Turn your Bibles.

To. John 11 and 35.

Some of your ears are already perking up.

Possibly a familiar passage. For you and.

Thank Pastor and his wife and love and appreciate them and

hope they get home safely, get some rest from the weekend.

And I'm so grateful for Bishop and his wife and and my parents,

brother and sister, Mason and my my lovely wife and daughter.

Love and appreciate all of them so very much.

You'll just have to bear with me tonight.

I have to be honest, as many of you know, I started a new job.

I'm on an information overload right now.

I'm just honestly just wiped. I am wiped, but I'm going to do

my best to. Preach the Word.

And let God take whatever he would have be done tonight, all

right? John, 1130.

Five, as Brother Mason said this morning.

Lengthy reading. Just bear with me, I don't want

you to stand too long. John, 1135.

Is Jesus wept. And that's all I'm going to read

right now, but. We are very familiar with this.

Passage of scripture. Many of us learn it as a memory

verse for fun because it's really easy to remember.

But I hope. Tonight that maybe we can take

a. Look at this.

And understand the the depth and breadth.

Of what's going. On tonight, I'm going to preach.

Tonight for a few. Moments between two passovers.

Between 2:00 Passovers. I wonder if you could sit?

Down your Bibles and lift your hands.

God, I ask you just to move in this place tonight.

You already here. You're already present.

We know, God, you are constant in season and out of season.

I ask you just to touch us tonight.

Lord, you were just to touch your servant, Lord, anointing

God and strength, Lord in my body, Lord, that whatever needs

to be spoken tonight to your people would do so, Lord.

And it would come forth, Lord, in the way that it would more

reach hearts and minds, Lord. It would place Lord in a as a

planting ground, Lord of your word.

It would place it on their hearts and minds.

Lord, if they don't need it tonight, maybe they need it some

other time to be reminded. Lord, I ask you just to move in

this place, touch your people tonight.

Lord, we going to thank you and praise you for it in the lovely

name of Jesus Christ and I pray and everybody say it.

Amen. Amen.

Look at your neighbor and say between 2:00.

Passovers. You may.

You may be seated. Tonight, so obviously to get

where we're going between two Passovers, and we started with

Jesus wept, we probably need a little more context.

So I understand that. And So what we're going to do is

we're going to go back a little bit in John 11 Chapter 11, we

have starting with verse one, we understand it says now a certain

man was sick named Lazarus of. Bethany in the town.

Of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed

the Lord with. Ointment and wiped.

His feet with her hair. Whose brother Lazarus was sick.

Therefore his sister sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he

whom thou lovest the sick. And when Jesus heard that, he

said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God,

that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

And so we have Lazarus, we have Mary and Martha, and these

people are Jesus's friends. You imagine, if you will, I've

taught this to the students a little bit before.

Imagine, if you will, your friend comes to you, You have

the power within yourself to heal the sick.

And you're one of your friends come to you and said, Hey, one

of your one of your friends is, is sick.

It's probably going to die. And you say it's fine, don't

worry about it. Well, there would probably be a

little bit of, I would say authority behind that

considering who is saying that. And for those that were hearing

that message, they're like, all right.

It's it's not into death. The glory of God well, there we

go Jesus said it that's what we're going to do we're going to

keep walking on by Lazarus going to be all right well Jesus

doesn't always mean literally what he says sometimes his

disciples got that some and and maybe an.

Aggravant at. Sometimes because the disciples

are just like. Jesus, what you saying?

Man, please help us, right? And so he's saying this to his

friends, and he's saying it's not unto death.

Glory of God. Well, it was, but not

necessarily what they may have thought.

And so we get to later down the chapter, verse 11, He's talking

to the disciples and he even says to them, he says, I'll tell

you plainly, he said, Jesus said to them plainly, Lazarus is

dead. He's talking to the disciples

now. They're having a little group

huddle up here. And he said, I'm I'm glad for

your sakes, that I was not there to the intent that you may

believe. Nevertheless, let us go unto

him. The previously he was saying,

you know, he's after he had met with Mary and Martha, and he's

talking with them, and he says not unto death.

And then he goes on, and he's telling the disciples, my friend

Lazarus is asleep. And then to make it more plainly

again, because because the disciples were like, well.

What do you mean, Jesus, you know, Come on, get some.

Literal, literal worded verbiage out here.

And he says, he says, let me tell you plainly, it's Lazarus

is dead. And so he said, I'm glad for

your sakes that I wasn't there. What I what we look at that and

we see I would dare say that he's saying I'm glad as a friend

that I was not present there because I would have the urge to

take care of my friend before what needs to happen needs to

happen. He kept himself in check because

he knew if he was there and he saw his friend in this state

that there may have been a temptation of on Jesus's part to

do something that was not going to be for the benefit and the

glorification of the Son of God. But he said that this was going

to happen for the glory of God, that the Son of God.

Might be glorified. And so he continues in it and it

says, when he says Lazarus is dead, I, I am glad for your

sakes that I was not there. We get to verse 21 and it says,

And then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here,

my brother had not died. But I know that even now

whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.

There was there was faith already in Martha's voice.

There was some some faith arising in her.

She knows, she knows whatever you ask, I know that God will

give it to thee. And Jesus continues, he said

unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

And Martha had a little misunderstanding here because

she had no idea what was about to take place.

She said unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the

resurrection at the last day. And Jesus is like, hold up,

you're not ready for what's. About to happen.

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life, that

he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.

And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

Believeth thou this he said, you hold up here for a second,

Martha, I want you to understand I am the resurrection.

He's he's basically telling he's I'm the sheriff around these

parts. All right, we're going to figure

this out. He said you just wait and see

what's going to happen because I'm the resurrection in the

life. And so what's going to happen

here is something you're not even thinking of.

You're thinking he's going to be resurrected in the last day and

that's great and you'll be able to see him on the other side.

But here's another thing that's going to happen because I'm the

resurrection. And so we get to verse 32, two

of our passage here right before verse 35.

And it says, And when Mary, Mary's coming, now Mary was come

where Jesus was, and saw him, She fell down at his feet,

saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had

not died. And when Jesus therefore saw her

weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her, he

groaned in the Spirit and was troubled, and said, Where have

you laid him? And they said unto him, Lord

come see and that's when we get to our verse 35.

It says and Jesus wept. We look at this 2 words for one

verse, one of the shortest verses in the Bible.

But we we have to understand not understand the letting the size

fool us regarding the weight of this verse.

See Jesus God robed in flesh. He stood there, he stood there

at the tomb of his friend and he wept.

Why? What we would look sat in and

say, well, this is Jesus's humanity.

He is weeping and grieving his friend.

He is taking time. He is feeling the sting of loss

and his humanity. He's feeling the heartbreak of

those even around him and says the Jews, Mary and Martha were

weeping, understandably so. He is taking time for grief and

pain and sorrow and the heaviness of death, letting it

sit there for a minute, even though knowing He is about to do

an absolute reverse of it. That is the Jesus that we serve.

We have to understand that He is not a distant God.

He is not an emotionless Savior, but He is the one who weeps with

us. Even he, the writer of Hebrews

talks about in Hebrews 4 and 15, says before, we have not a high

priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our

infirmities. Jesus was fully God, yes, but He

was also fully man. And so understanding in that

moment, He is allowing His humanity to mourn.

And I believe Jesus, Jesus didn't just see a tomb where his

friend was laid for a few days, but he was seeing a timeline, if

you will, in his humanity. He may have been grieving, but I

believe in his divinity. He was seeing something

different. John 11 wasn't just a miracle,

it was a moment. It was a stop, stop moment, a

shift in spiritual atmosphere. And from this point forward, the

countdown to the cross had begun.

Raising Lazarus was the one of the final and most It was the

most public miracle that Jesus had ever done.

And he had open blind eyes. Yes, he had healed lepers.

Yes, He calmed the storms, fed and preached to thousands.

But this miracle, it was different.

It wasn't quiet. It wasn't in a house or on a

remote hillside where he was preaching.

It was loud. It was public and it was

undeniable. There was nothing that he could

deny after this. There was nothing that he could

deny regarding the raising of the dead.

That was something that was going to spread like wildfire.

It didn't matter how many people were there, Just so happened

that there were plenty of people around to witness it though.

And so that miracle raising Lazarus was reserving his spot,

so to speak, on the cross. Those religious leaders had

tolerated him up to that point. They debated him.

They watched him trying to trap him in any way in shape and form

that they could do. But when he lays raised Lazarus,

they said that's it. He is too dangerous to keep

around. And then John 1153, later in

this chapter, it even says from that day forth they took counsel

for to put Him to death. He knew this would happen.

He knew what this miracle would cost him.

And in that moment He may have wept, but He did the miracle

anyway. So when Jesus stood outside that

tomb and wept, it wasn't just about a plane of death.

It was about the pain of what was coming in His humanity.

He felt the weight of what was coming, but in in what was

there. But in His spirit, He was

already surrendered to it because He knew that this was

the reason that He came here in the first place.

Everything Jesus had done up to this point was leading here.

Every message He had preached, every disciple that he and had

mentored, every miracle that He ended up performing, every

moment of his ministry and life was building to this moment

towards the cross. He was always walking towards

Calvary. Always the timing that this is

all taking place was not an accident either.

If we observe the time that Scripture is stating that this

is all that's happening. There is another significance

that comes with that because you see the the raising of Lazarus

from the grave was just a few weeks to at most a month or two

before the Passover season. When Jesus stood at Lazarus's

tomb, he wasn't just looking at death, He was standing between

two Passover's. John 1154 says Jesus therefore

walked no more openly among the Jews.

He went, he went away and says, but went Vince unto the country,

near to the wilderness, unto into a city called Iprim, and

there continued with his disciples and the Jews.

Passover was nigh at hand, and many went out of the countryside

up into Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.

And so Jesus is going quiet publicly after this miracle.

He's going quiet after the events of this.

He is preparing for Passover week.

Other people prepared for Passover week, sure, but this

was a different preparation. Let me remind you that Jesus's

death did not come at any regular week.

Then the Last Supper was more than just a farewell meal.

Jesus was not moving towards any, just any death on any day

on the calendar. He was coming upon Passover.

The same feast that celebrated the deliverance in Egypt was

just about to become the setting for the greatest deliverance of

the world had ever and will ever known.

And so if we can, let's go back to Exodus for a moment and take

a look at what that may mean for us in Egypt.

God sent plague after plague to convince Pharaoh to let his

people go, but Pharaoh's heart was hard, and so God sent one

final plague. And Exodus 11 verse four and

five it says. And Moses said, Thus saith the

Lord, about midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt, and

all the first born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the

first born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even

unto the first born of the maidservant, that is behind the

mill, and all the 1st born of beasts.

It was the death of the first born sons that ended up breaking

the chains and it was the only way for Israel to be spared by

was by taking the blood of a spotless lamb and placing it

over their doors, their doorpost.

And when that Angel, that death Angel saw the blood he passed

over that house, the blood ended up saving him them.

And in that same way, during that exact week of remembrance,

God is offering his only begotten son, the first born on

a cross. It wasn't his.

It was his death that broke the sayings.

It was his blood that spared our judgment that there would be a

Passover on our sins. Just like in Egypt, that death

of the first born brought freedom to the people.

But this was a different freedom.

This was an eternal opportunity of freedom.

And Egypt. A father would take a lamb,

inspected, make sure that it had no blemish, and then that same

lamb would end up dying in place of the first born of it's his

children. At this place, At this first

Passover, that lamb died, so the first born could live.

At this final Passover, if you will, the first born became the

lamb and died so we could live. It wasn't a coincidence that

this happened. It was not.

It was a prophecy that was fulfilled in First Corinthians 5

and seven. Paul even says for even Christ

our Passover is sacrifice for us.

So yes, I would dare say yes, he wept for Lazarus in that moment

and yes he wept for what was coming.

But I I have to think and believe in his divinity that he

is his divine nature. He saw the Old Testament

Passover to the New Testament Passover, and He wept for you

and He wept for me. He saw us.

He saw us in our pain and in our sin.

And He's standing there at the tomb, knowing what He's about to

do from this season of life in between two Passovers, and

knowing that there is about to take place in these moments of

confusion that we have had an addiction and heartbreak and

shame. He saw us in that moment and He

decided I'm going to move forward.

That private pain that no one else would know.

The habits that we hide, The wounds that we carry.

The guilt that we drag behind us.

The nights that we cry alone. The days that we question our

worth. The moments that we feel so far

from God. And He still chose the cross.

He wept, but He did not walk away.

He took a moment because we were worth it.

He understood what needed to happen.

It wasn't done when we were perfect.

It wasn't done when we had it all together.

It was done while we were still yet dead in sin.

He raised us to life, just like He did with Lazarus.

That's right. It was no coincidence that it

happened during Passover week. It was no coincidence that there

was a lamb that was sacrificed. It was just a different lamb

than what we we knew it to be beforehand.

The cross was not a mistake. It was not a Plan B.

It wasn't the result of failure. It was it was the plan from the

beginning, the land slain from the foundation of the earth.

He died, but he didn't stay dead.

On that third day when the stole rolled away, the tears ended up

stopping, maybe some tears of joy, but the tears were stopped

because the tomb was empty. And now death has no sting, the

grave has no victory, because Jesus wept.

He went on with the plan and he died and he rose.

We have to understand that there is such a weight that is carried

when we understand the worth that was placed on our lives, to

understand that God gave His only begotten Son.

God robed Himself in flesh just for you and just for me to come

and do that and give the life that was given, the spotless

life that was given the worth of that life compared to what we

would consider the worth of our lives.

And yet He still deemed us worthy.

He still looked in between those two Passover, the Old Testament

Passover and the New Testament Passover to come.

And he said, I'm doing this because I love you.

I love you. I love.

He looked through the eons of time and he said, I love you.

He's even said on the cross, forgive them for they know not

what you they do. And that wasn't, I don't believe

that was just for that moment. That was for the fact of what we

do, because every single time I take I take sin into account and

I do evil in God's sight. I might as well have been the 1

putting the nails in his hand, in his arms, and in his legs.

I might as well been the one with the catanine tails and

striking him, because that is exactly what we do when we sin,

because He put a place and a currency on our lives that we

could never repay. But we don't have to repay.

The debt has been paid. We don't have to worry about

owing anything. Music could come.

I don't know what grave you have made peace with.

I don't know. I don't know what part of your

life that has been wrapped up in in grave clothes so long that

you've you've decided it could never change.

But I'm telling you that the same voice that called Lazarus

to come forth can call us out of the darkness into his marvelous.

Light. He wept for you, He wept for me,

He wept for everyone. He died and rose for us.

He placed that currency on our life that we could never repay

and he's not asking us to. But he what are we going to do

with the worth that he placed on our life?

What are we going to do with the currency that we have been

bestowed the the credit, if you will, that has been bestowed

upon us, if we will stand. These altars are open tonight.

I ask that you would consider, if you will, the weight of what

he did and consider the fact that he was thinking of me.

I think of the song that we sing times and, and this bridge is

so, so powerful and it's is he took my place.

It should have been me. He took my place.

It should have been me. Oh, it should have been us

there. It should have been us hanging

on a cross and dying a death. But he placed the currency on

your life and he said, no, I'm going to take that place.

I'm going to take that, and I'm going to make it into something

beautiful for an opportunity for death to have no sting and sin

to have no weight. God is looking down and calling

you out, calling you. Come forth.

Lazarus didn't just raise himself.

We have to understand that. Lazarus responded to a voice and

that same voice calls us. So the only question tonight

that we have to consider with ourselves is Jesus can bring you

out. We know that.

But because when he became our Passover, He already did so.

But the question we have to wonder is when?

When he calls us out of the grave, what are we going to do?

What are we going to do? Because he already paid the

price by becoming our eternal Passover.

Oh God, could we raise our hands right now?

Oh Jesus, you are good. You are great and greatly to be

praised. God, I want to take Lord, the

price, Lord, and the credit that you've given on my life that

you've placed the the value that you've placed on my life.

Lord, I don't want to waste it. I don't want it to be something

that I walk away from. Lord, I want to come forth out

of the grave and give of myself because you so freely gave.

You looked at me and my sin. You looked at me when I was

dirty and you said, I choose you through the sickness, through

the shame, through the, through the sin that was all around us.

You still saw us and you still chose to do so.

Oh, by becoming our eternal Passover Lord.

I'm thankful, Lord, for the the value that you placed, Lord, and

I just want to do the due diligence of giving of myself,

giving of myself unto you.